From the Top of the Mount of Olives

Steve Schwetz: Have you ever climbed to the top of a tall mountain? And from that vantage point, you can see for miles in every direction? Well, in Matthew Chapters 24 and 25, Jesus climbed the Mount of Olives with His disciples. And from there, He gave them and us an extraordinary view of future events, all to prepare us for the end of this age. Welcome to the Sunday sermon on Thru the Bible. I'm your host, Steve Schwetz, and you're in for a treat as we share Dr. J. Vernon McGee's message titled "From the Top of the Mount of Olives." Before we get started, though, let's hear from a couple of fellow passengers riding along with us on the Bible Bus. First, we hear from David, who wrote: "I was raised in the church, but I never knew Jesus. I walked away from the church when I was 16. I became a cross-country truck driver, and while trying to find a station on an AM radio, I stumbled across this Southern-speaking pastor who spoke in a way that reminded me of my grandfather. In those days, while driving, you would lose the radio station before you could hear the whole program. As the miles and years rolled by, I spent more time searching for Thru the Bible and other ministries that spoke to my heart." "In 1988 on a Saturday, I was parked at the TA truck stop in Ontario, California. I had just finished listening to Dr. McGee. I lay in the truck's bunk and reread the scripture that he had just taught. With tears flowing and a heart broken, I asked Jesus into my life. I heard Him knocking on the door, and I knew I had to open the door to Him. Because I spent so much time on the road and the chance to go to church was few and far between in those days, I quickly fell away. But I still would listen to Thru the Bible when I could tune it in." "God is so good and has blessed me in so many ways I can't even begin to count. One of those blessings happened in 1997 when God took me back to the same TA truck stop on a Saturday. As I parked the truck, I listened closely to Dr. McGee. I lay down and reread those scriptures. Once again, the tears flowed and the heart was broken, and I opened the door for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This time, I knew I had to stay grounded and keep my house swept clean. There has been no turning back." "I now have the app on my phone, and I listen every morning as I start my day. If you had asked me in 1988 where I would be today, I would have told you I would still be pushing those old trucks across the country. But God had other plans. I am an ordained pastor and am grateful to Dr. McGee for being faithful to always teaching the truth." Well, thanks, David, for sharing your story. I often drive by that spot on the 10 freeway in Ontario, and now I have a new reason to praise the Lord as I do that. It's such a great story. It really does illustrate perfectly how God's arms are always open wide. I'm glad to have you aboard on the Bible Bus, brother. And then here's a note. This is from Glenna in Texas: "I'm about to wrap my first complete five-year journey. I loved Jesus before, but I am really crazy about Him now. With each lesson, He allows me to see Him more clearly than the day before. He's so wonderful, lovely, and right about all things. His word has brought deep satisfaction to the hunger and thirst I had before I got on the Bible Bus. I still thirst and hunger, but I know feast time is coming every day with the next lesson. Thank you for your dedication and consistency with Dr. McGee's teaching. I'm thankful to be a contributor to this program by prayer and financial support. Keep up the good work. See you in heaven." Well, it's great to hear from you too, Glenna. Thanks for your support, and we're grateful for you and for all of those who help keep the Bible Bus rolling in more than 250 languages around the world. Now, if you'd like to join us in taking God's whole word to His whole world, whether through prayer or by helping provide maybe a tank of gas for the Bible Bus, you can visit TTB.org. Click "donate" in our app, call 1-800-65BIBLE, or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word that reveals Your plans and purposes for the world and for our lives. Would You give us understanding as we listen together and prepare our hearts to make them ready to trust You? In Jesus' name, amen.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Judging from the pictures that have been released of the astronauts' flight to the moon, there are spectacular views of the earth from outer space. We are blue-looking, different, frankly, from any other star in the universe. And when I listened to them describe the topography of the moon, so I went out and in the break in a rift in the clouds, we could see that pale moon. And as I looked there, I thought of those men going around the moon. What a thought. And they had not only a spectacular view of the earth, but a spectacular view of the moon also. And from their vantage point, they probably thought they could see forever. 23rd chapter where our Lord denounced the Pharisees in the harshest language that's found in the word of God, and He concluded it with one great emotional upheaval. You and I tonight do not properly appreciate how much He loved Jerusalem, and how much He loved that land, and how much He loved that people, His own people. You and I tonight cannot comprehend that, nor can we understand that. And so He concluded it by giving out this great emotional cry, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets and stoneth them that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Now, that picture is one of the loveliest pictures, and those of us that were raised in the country can remember that the old mother hen always went about clucking, keeping all of her little chickens right close to her. And if anything happened or if it began to rain, why, she'd always get them up in under her wings. A wonderful example of mother love. Our Lord used that illustration. He said, "That is my feeling toward Jerusalem, and down through the centuries, I would have gathered Jerusalem, her children, these people, the nation Israel, under my wing." And you remember the prophet David had a great deal to say about God's wings. And underneath those wings, there was protection, there was comfort, there was salvation, and there was hope and security. Well, that's the picture our Lord used. And then He gave them an almost terrifying sort of thing. He says, "But now your house is left unto you desolate, and you'll not see me henceforth until ye say, 'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.'" And that startled not only His hearers, but it startled His disciples. And as they were walking out through the city of Jerusalem, they went by the temple and His disciples called His attention to the temple. They said, "Look at these buildings here." He talked about your house is left unto you desolate and not one stone would be left upon another. And they say, "Look, but how beautiful this is, how permanent this is, and certainly you didn't mean that." And He said something even more startling to them than that as they passed out to the Mount of Olives, that that city would be destroyed and not one stone would be left upon another. And as He went out to the Mount of Olives, His disciples, they began to question among themselves. This was startling indeed. He's the King, Jerusalem is the city of the Great King. He's now talking about going away, the house is desolate, not one stone left upon another. So they want to know something concerning the future. And as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, "Tell us when shall these things be, what shall be the sign of Thy coming and the end of the world?" Now, will you notice that verse very carefully. First of all, He said unto His disciples—He's speaking to His disciples, for they have come to Him privately. And they're not talking about anything that we want to read in after 1,900 years. Our Lord in the Olivet Discourse is answering their questions. There are three questions. Will you notice them? "Tell us when shall these things be?" What things? When shall one stone not be left upon another? Second, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end"—not of the world? That's always an unfortunate translation. The Bible nowhere teaches the end of the world. The Bible teaches the end of the age, and that's what they're asking. The word is *aiōn* and has to do with the end of the age. Three questions now. The first question, Dr. Luke, for his purpose in writing a gospel, answers that first question. That is, he takes out of the discourse what our Lord said concerning the city of Jerusalem. He said, "There, when ye see Jerusalem compassed with an army, you'll know that this is come." And may I say to you that that was literally fulfilled in 70 AD when Titus the Roman destroyed the city of Jerusalem, and from that day down to the present, they've never had a temple, never had a place of sacrifice. They've been scattered throughout the world, and our Lord said at that time, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Now, Matthew will answer the other two questions. Our Lord will take them up *seriatim*. He'll take them up chronologically, and He'll answer the last one first. "What is the sign of the end of the age and what is the sign of His coming?" He'll answer both of those questions, and that's all He's answering. Now, don't bring the United States in here because it's not in the Olivet Discourse at all. Our Lord sat over this city that He loved. He's talking about this city and its people. He's not talking about the church in Los Angeles, and I trust you will not attempt to read the church in that at all. As He trudged His way to the top here of the Mount of Olives, He's talking to them about two things now in Matthew: the end of the age and the sign of His coming. And as He looked over it, He's talking about Jerusalem and the people, the nation Israel, in the Olivet Discourse. I repeat it, and I think we can demonstrate it: He's not talking about the church here at all. After all, these men knew very little at this time about the church. He'd only mentioned it to them once. They did not know anything about it. They did know about the kingdom and that He was to establish a kingdom on this earth. They wanted to know now, "What is the sign of the end of the age and the sign of Your coming when You'll set up that kingdom upon the earth?" He'll talk to these two questions, and He won't talk to anything else. And it has to do with the promise that He had made in the Old Testament, the promise concerning these people. And you will recall the writer to the Hebrews says, "Therefore sprang there even as one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." All of the Old Testament saints and every one of the Old Testament prophets looked into the future, saw a kingdom to be established on the earth, saw the Messiah coming to establish that kingdom here upon this earth. That became that which was of utmost importance to them. It was that that He's talking about now as He deals with these men. As we've said, in 70 AD, Titus the Roman destroyed this city just as Nebuchadnezzar had done in 587 BC. The city was destroyed, though, by Titus, and it has from that day down to the present, it has never been fully rebuilt, and the temple was never rebuilt again. And that city, as our Lord said, would be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now, Matthew is talking to the first question, or actually the first chronological question: What is the sign of the end of the age? Now, you will find that some of the expositors take the position that all of the Gospel of Matthew has to do with the Great Tribulation and none of it has to do with the present hour. May I say that I believe here at the very beginning, our Lord, as it were, brought everything into focus. And what He did was to take a long perspective and outline the entire age. And here is what He said: "Ye shall hear of wars, rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." What's the sign of the end of the age? Not wars or rumors of war. And I would emphasize that to you, friends, that there've been many wars. And after every war that we've had, why, always a whole series of books comes out from some of the cults and isms and sensational teachers. They try to show you that Japan is in the prophecy, and they show you that this war was in prophecy. I've had several books sent me showing that World War I and World War II are in prophecy. They're not in prophecy except our Lord says there'll be wars and rumors of wars, but these are not the sign of the end of the age at all. Now, after World War II, there came out all of these books, especially after the atom and the prospect of atomic warfare. There came out many books saying, "This is the sign, it's the end." I made the statement, I said, "Now that World War II is over, we know that there'll be many books come out saying that this war was a sign with the end of the age." And I made a prediction: there'd be a wheelbarrow load of books. But I was wrong, there were two wheelbarrow loads of books that came out at that time showing that that—but may I say, none of them are a sign. Our Lord says, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, this is not a sign that we're at the end of the age." Even the atom does not mean that and the awful, frightful prospect that is before us. And believe me, friends, this is a frightful and awful prospect. Now we know that there is a missile that can carry an atomic warhead, and it can carry it to any part of this globe. The prospects are frightful indeed. But may I say to you, that in and of itself is not a sign that we're at the end of the age. Many of us believe we are drawing close to the end of the age. There are other signs, I'm confident, that are more marked than that. Now we come to what our Lord gives to these people, not to you and me, but gives to the nation Israel after the church is removed from this earth. For the hope of the church tonight is not that it's going to convert the world or change this world, but we're calling out a people, and as soon as that number is completed, He'll take His church out of this world to be with Himself. Then He begins to move. God's not through with the world when He removes the church, and He begins then with these people here, and He tells them, "When ye therefore see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let him that readeth understand." Now, will you notice several things there? The abomination of desolation, what is it? It was spoken of through Daniel the prophet. The critic today has questioned whether Daniel was a prophet. The Lord Jesus said he was. Daniel a prophet, and standing in the holy place. And I would like to ask you tonight, where is the holy place? This is not given to you and me. I just dare you tonight to find the holy place anywhere right now on topside of this earth. Now, Daniel was the prophet. Daniel, the one that the writer to the Hebrews says stopped the mouths of lions. He is the prophet. We always associate him with the lions' den. He only spent one night down there, friends. He spent 70 years in the court, Gentile court, and that's the important part of his life, and that was the most dangerous part. He was in danger constantly in the court of these Gentiles. But he was perfectly safe the night he was in the lions' den. In fact, that was the safest place in Babylon that night. In fact, the king next morning, when he looked down, he wished he'd spent the night with Daniel so he could have had a good night's sleep. That was the only safe place even for a king or for a prophet. But the important thing is Daniel had spoken of the abomination of desolation. Now let's go back and see one of the statements Daniel made. He made three separate references to the abomination of desolation. One of them had to do with the idol of Jupiter that Titus Epiphanes, the Syrian, put in the holy place when he captured Jerusalem. And that gives us the key to what the abomination of desolation of the future will be. For we are told that when Antichrist comes, he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week, that is for the Great Tribulation period. He makes a covenant with Israel, but in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. That is, he breaks his covenant, and upon the wing of abomination shall come one that maketh desolate, and even unto the full end, and that determined shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate. Now, it will appear in the holy place, we're told. And beyond that is the Holy of Holies. So either here or in the Holy of Holies, the abomination of desolation will be placed. What will it be? Well, according to the 13th chapter of Revelation, it's evidently an image of Antichrist which the entire world is forced to worship in that day and to bow down before. Now, this is the holy place. Don't you see, friends, He's not speaking to the church. The church has no holy place. We use the term figuratively, but there is a holy place and our Lord is referring to that definitely. And that will be in the temple that yonder in Jerusalem, if you please, that is to be rebuilt. It is a holy place. The church was never given a holy place. We approach now His throne of grace in the heaven where He sits at God's right hand, where He ever lives to make intercession for us. And again, Paul referred to this one, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that's called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. That's the abomination of desolation when Antichrist puts his image in the temple and having the world worship him. That is the abomination of desolation. Now, our Lord says when you see that, you'll know that you're at the end of the age. You see, that has no reference to us tonight at all. Now let's follow Him because He gives certain definite instructions: "Then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountain." I don't think He's talking to me here. To begin with, He's talking to some people that are in Judea. "Let those that are in Judea"—it has nothing to do with Los Angeles. And for goodness' sake, friends, let's keep our geography straight. These are people that are going to be in Judea. Now, where will they flee? Some think to the rock-hewn city of Petra. I do not agree with that. This is called the doorway to the place that Moses went, first as a shepherd, and then he brought the children of Israel yonder, and on top of the mount, he received the law. I have a notion that this is the area where the children of Israel will go again. May I say to you that He says those that are in Judea flee to the mountain. It's going to be the most ominous, horrendous, serious time in their history. He keeps on talking: "Let him that's on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house." You see, in that land in that day, the top of the house was the patio or your front porch. They didn't have porches then, and they didn't have patios, but they did have the roof where the family gathered. And the Mosaic Law even had a law concerning putting a railing around that roof, and you had to do it according to the Mosaic Law or you were guilty. May I say to you that what He's saying is that again, and they're building houses over there like that again where you go to the rooftop in the evening and you sit up there. Now He says if word comes to you that the abomination of desolation has appeared, then don't come down the stairwell on the outside and go back in the house, come down the stairwell and keep going. Just leave the family silver alone and leave those private papers alone; they won't do you a bit of good in that day. It'll be too late then. Then He says, "And let him that's in the field not return back to take his clothes." Man went out early in the morning; it was cool. He started working in the field. Got a little warmer, so he left his coat down at the end of the row, and he worked down to the other end of the row. And our Lord says when you hear it, if your coat's at the other end of the row, don't go get it; you won't have time. You're at the end of the age, you see. That is to be the sign to them. Now He says, "But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days." Have you ever noticed how God always takes account of the little ones and of women? It's marvelous; you go through the entire word of God. We're going to see it that when they came to Kadesh Barnea, the children of Israel, they didn't want to go in. They said it's because of our little ones. And our Lord was thinking of the little ones. He said, "Your little ones are going to go in the land, but you and not." Always thinking of them. And our Lord here says that it's a serious time. May I say to you that God did say to Jeremiah—God told Jeremiah not to marry. He said the times are too serious in which you live. I personally believe that it's a pretty serious business today to bring children into the world as it is right now. I think Christians ought to do a whole lot of thinking in these days in which we're living. What kind of world are you bringing your children in today? It's pretty serious, and it's something that every Christian ought to give a great deal of thought to. Our Lord warns them in that day. He says woe unto you if you're with child in that day, if you've got a little one that you're holding to your breast, because it probably will mean that in your escape you will be probably slain, for multitudes will be slain. And He says, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath." And you see, the Sabbath is Saturday. We don't observe the Sabbath; we observe Sunday, that's the day our Lord came back from the dead. He's talking to people who've gone back under the law. He's not even talking here to Seventh-day Adventists. He's talking to those that are back in Palestine who've gone back under the Mosaic Law. Now, will you notice why all of this? "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be." Now, the Lord Jesus gave it the name of the Great Tribulation. He marked it off as being something that looms up with nothing to precede it, nothing to follow it, so that you couldn't miss it at all. Now, this friend that was telling me today about being in London when those fire bombs fell, he told me about how right across the street from where he worked, that when the German Luftwaffe came over, any German bombers came down, he said they just plowed those tremendous shells, and he says they got every building in the block that was across the street from him, not a building escaped. And may I say that there're several, even several preachers that went through that period and as one of them said to me, "I thought we were in the Great Tribulation period." And I'm confident if I'd been in London at that time, I would have thought we're in the Great Tribulation. But by now, I think I would have discovered we were not in the Great Tribulation period. Because that period has been duplicated and probably will be duplicated again. May I say the Great Tribulation has no parallel in the history of the world. It'll be unparalleled in its suffering, if you please. Now, God will preserve His people, this nation; it's the time of Jacob's trouble. And we are told definitely 144,000 of these people are to be preserved in this period. The example is down yonder in the court of Nebuchadnezzar: the three Hebrew children were preserved in the fiery furnace. And friends, the Great Tribulation, the whole world will become a fiery furnace. You talk about atomic bombs all you want to. God will have to supernaturally preserve His people, and that's exactly what He says. Our Lord says it, and John in Revelation says it, that God will have to supernaturally preserve His people during that period. And notice what our Lord had to say concerning it: "That except those days were shortened, no flesh would survive." So those days have to be shortened because of the intensity of them. May I say to you, the world will become again an oven, especially that land for these people. They'll be persecuted as they've never been persecuted before, not even under Hitler. "Then if any man shall say unto you, 'Lo, here is the Christ,' or 'there' or 'here,' believe it not." He's not coming next time like that, like He came before. But there shall arise false Christs, false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect. Do you notice what He says? "They shall show great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect." They won't be able to destroy the elect, that elect Israel in that day, as I do not think you can ever deceive God's children permanently. I think you can deceive some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time. God's people will not be permanently deceived. You can't do that. But false prophets will deceive them. If there is a man today performing miracles, I don't want to go see him. And I tell you why: he's not from heaven. But I give him credit that he's not performing miracles, that he's just fooling a whole lot of people, and I think that's the best way to look at it. May I say to you, we're not looking for miracle workers today, and that's not the mark of the man of God. The mark of the man of God today is whether he's preaching the word of God. That is the important thing today above everything else. "For as the lightning cometh forth from the east and is seen even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man." The next time the Lord Jesus comes, it will not be as He came before: born in Bethlehem with only a few that knew it, brought up in Nazareth with very few knowing, and beginning His ministry by going over a hill to Cana of Galilee at a wedding of a very poor people. He won't begin that way next time. He's not coming that way. And He says very specifically, if they say He's in the secret chambers, don't go there; if they say He's in the desert, don't go there. Why? Because He'll come like the lightning, and that's out of the heavens. And there's one thing about lightning: it's sure not private. Anytime lightning takes place, everybody knows about it. And if you've ever been in the storm in the Midwest, you know that this is true. Believe me, friends, He's coming in great power and great glory when He comes. And He comes as David even anticipated the one coming in his line. And as John in Revelation says, "Behold, He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see Him." Our Lord says it's like the lightning, and it will be so public that the world will know when He comes to this earth again. Here is the most difficult verse in the Olivet Discourse: "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." I find it difficult to know what our Lord meant when He used this immediately after announcing His coming in glory and coming publicly and candidly. I think He's now talking about the battle or the conclusion of the battle of Armageddon, when you find in the 19th of Revelation an invitation is sent out to the carrion to come and get choice Double A, Triple A beef to eat. You'll eat the flesh of captains and the flesh of kings, and the eagles are invited to this dinner. And believe me, this is prime meat they're going to have: the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of the great men of the earth. Because His coming means the putting down of all unrighteousness on this earth. Now, that I find is becoming the most unsatisfactory statement you can make to unsaved people today. They don't want Jesus butting into the business of this world today. But friends, He intends to butt right in. He's coming in, as He says in this discourse, just as the thief. "But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heaven shall be shaken." The Great Tribulation has a parenthesis on it. There will be a great movement in the heavens at the beginning and also at the end. The one at the end is a signal that He is coming to this earth. Before, just a star was the signal. And when He died, there was the great earthquake. There'll be a combination of a turmoil in nature when He returns to this earth. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth be glad—no, they'll mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. What is the sign of the Son of Man? I'm not sure that I know, but the sign that He did not have before when He came was His glory; He left that behind. When He prayed His great high priestly prayer before He returned to heaven, He said to the Father, "Glorify Thou me with the glory that I had with Thee before the foundation of the world." He did leave something behind when He came to this earth. Not His deity, but He did leave His prerogatives of deity. He left behind His glory. Now when He comes again, that glory will be manifested. Now, that glory was seen in the Tabernacle. Now, that's the reason that He's speaking thus to the nation Israel. The church has no glory at all; we have none like that. May I say that the nation Israel had the visible glory manifestation, if you please, of God. When the Lord Jesus comes, they'll know Him because the Shekinah Glory will attend His coming to this earth. Now will you notice? "He shall send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Now, that is not for the church. When He takes the church out of the earth, the dead in Christ will arise; those that are alive will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Angels are not present there; they're not having part in that. But when He comes to establish His kingdom, as He came before angels ministered to Him, they will come to do His bidding when He returns to this earth. And they're to be the ones that are to make the great division in this earth. They're the ones that'll put in the sickle; they're the ones that are going to reap, if you please. Alright, now we want to go and look at these people. Our Lord said at that time, and at this particular juncture, He says, "When you see the fig tree putting forth its bud, you'll know summer's near." That fig tree's Israel. And Ezekiel used another picture of it: dead bones. Now, Ezekiel saw them come together and flesh come upon them, but Ezekiel made a distinction: he said they had no life. We have seen in our day the nation Israel return to the land, but there's no life. All you have in Palestine today is a corpse. They are dead spiritually; they're not right now looking for their Messiah. Now our Lord continued and said, "And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man." But what were they doing in the days of Noah? They were eating and drinking, and there's nothing wrong with that. They were marrying and giving in marriage; there's nothing wrong with that. But what was wrong? Until the day that Noah entered into the ark, they were doing two things that are awfully wrong even today: they were living as if God did not exist. The second thing is they did not believe God. And both of those things are terrible. The crowd that came out and looked at the boat he was putting up, they were having a big time. What a great sport it was to go out and ridicule him and ask him where his oars were or when did he think the water would get up that far. But it did come, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall be the coming of the Son of Man. Now will you notice who's taken away? They knew not until the flood comes and took them all away. Now notice this: it was the flood that took this generation absolutely away; the entire civilized world of that day was destroyed in the flood. Now let's look at this because there're those, and I've had several say, "Well, we got you now; then shall two men be in the field, one is taken, one is left. That's sure the rapture." That's not the rapture. It says as it was in the days of Noah, who was taken away? They knew not until the flood came and took them away. Who'll be taken away here? Shall be taken away in judgment. Those that are left are left for the kingdom. This has nothing to do with rapture; it does have everything to do with this earth, if you please. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, one's taken—taken where, in rapture? No, taken away in judgment. And one is left, left just like brother Noah was left. He had it pretty much to himself. He had no problem on the freeway after he got out of the ark. There was nobody bothering him there, and he had no difficulty as far as a population explosion was concerned. There weren't too many people about him in that day. May I say to you, they had been taken away. Now our Lord says it'll be that way when He comes; they'll be taken away in judgment. Now I come to the last verse we'll look at tonight. He says, "Watch therefore, for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh." Now, I want to make a distinction tonight because I even believe that watching is not the word for us today. Watching has a note of anxiety about it. Well, let me use this illustration. Here is a man that goes deer hunting the first day of the season, and he gets a good spot. He walks up to a ridge and he sits there. And what's he doing? He's watching. He's got his rifle in hand, and anytime anything moves, including another hunter, he's apt to shoot because he's watching, watching for a deer. Now, my friend, a week later he's back in Los Angeles; he's waiting now, not watching. He's waiting for Dear—the Dear's his wife. And he's been waiting there 15 minutes. He's not watching; he's waiting. And there's all the difference in the world. We are told today that we are to wait for His Son from heaven. There is a distinction that needs to be made. Now, they're told watch therefore, for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. May I say there're those that are looking for Him in great anticipation. There's the businessman, more interested in the stock report than he is in the coming of Christ. There are those that are interested in pleasure. But there are those today concerned about His coming for His own. But my friend, you could not possibly be interested in Him coming for His own or coming to establish His kingdom unless you have a relationship to Him because He came 1,900 years ago and died on a cross for our sins. May I say our business today is not to try to establish a kingdom, and I say it very definitely, our business is not to try to make this world a better place. We today are trying to get men and women to turn to Christ.
Steve Schwetz: Well, we've got more from Dr. McGee in the New Testament book of Matthew this week on the daily program of Thru the Bible. So why don't you join us? You can listen on our app at TTB.org or, if you want, you can call 1-800-65BIBLE if we can help you find a station near you that carries Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, and as we go, I want to leave you with this prayer from our Lord in Matthew 24, that you would watch, be ready, and remain faithful as you wait for His return. And may His peace steady your heart as you trust Him in every season. Amen.