Matthew 24

CHAPTER 24THEME: The disciples ask Jesus three questions; He answers two about the sign of the end of the age and the sign of His comingMatthew 24 and 25, known as the Olivet Discourse, constitute the last of three major discourses in this Gospel. They are called major discourses because of the extent, content, and intent of them.

Matthew 24:1

JESUS PREDICTS THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEMOur Lord has now denounced the religious rulers. He has turned His back on Jerusalem and has told them that their house (temple) is left desolate. The Lord Jesus has told them that His Kingdom would be postponed and that the temple would be left desolate. (The temple was made up of many buildings. This was the temple that Herod was having built, and the construction was still in progress. It was made of white marble, and at this time it was very large and very beautiful.) The disciples are disturbed at the statement of Jesus that it is to be left desolate. So the disciples come to Him, wanting to show Him around the buildings.

Matthew 24:2

“See ye not all these things?” The disciples thought they saw it, and they ask Him to take a look. So He says to them, “Do you really see it?” In our contemporary society this is a good question for us to consider. Do we really see the world around us? When my wife and I first came to Southern California, we spent every Monday, which was my day off, riding around looking at this fantastic place. (And it was fantastic in those days before everybody in the world tried to settle here!) After we had marveled at one beautiful spot after another, I would say to my wife, “But we really don’t see it as it is. All of this is under God’s judgment. It all will pass away.” My friend, all these cultural centers, these great schools, these skyscrapers, these great cities which we see are going to pass away someday. It doesn’t seem possible, and that is how the disciples felt. Jesus continued by saying, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” If His first statement put them in shock, this must have traumatized them. When I was at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem several years ago, the tour director tried to call my attention to the way the stones had been worn away by the people who had come there over the years to weep. That was certainly worth noting, but the thing that impressed me was that the wall was constructed of many kinds of stones. History tells us that the Wailing Wall was made up of stones which came from different buildings in different periods. At the pinnacle of the temple, which evidently was the corner of the temple area, recent excavations reveal the same thingthere are all kinds of stones from different periods. What does that mean? My friend, that means that not one stone was left upon anotherthe builders had to go and pick up stones from different places because in A.D. 70 Titus the Roman really destroyed that city! Although this is ancient history to us, it was a shocking revelation to the disciples. They talked it over, I am sure, then came to Him with three questions.

Matthew 24:3

(1) “When shall these things be?“when one stone would not be left upon another; (2) “What shall be the sign of thy coming?“The answer to this question is found in verses Mat_24:23-51; and (3) “What shall be the sign …of the end of the world [completion of the age]?” The answer to this question is found in verses Mat_24:9-22. The Lord Jesus is going to answer these three questions, and we call His answers the Olivet Discourse because it took place on the Mount of Olives.

Matthew 24:4

JESUS ANSWERS THE DISCIPLES’ QUESTIONSThe first question, “When shall these things be?“when one stone shall not be left upon anotheris not answered in the Gospel of Matthew. We find it in the Gospel of Luke, and we find segments of it in the Gospel of Mark. Why is it not included in Matthew’s Gospel? Because Matthew is the Gospel of the Kingdom; it presents the King. The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 has something to do with this age in which we live, but it has nothing to do with the distant future when the King is coming. Therefore, Matthew does not carry that part of the Olivet Discourse. Let’s look at our Lord’s answer to the first question, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luk_21:20-24). Undoubtedly, many of those who heard the Lord Jesus say these things were present in A.D. 70 when the Roman armies surrounded the city, laid siege to it, cut it off from the rest of the world, then finally breached the wall and got in. What the Romans did was terrible. They demolished the city. It was the worst destruction in its history, more devastating than that conducted by Nebuchadnezzar over six centuries earlier. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the first part of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled. The next two questions asked by the disciples were these: “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world [age]?” The Lord is going to answer the disciples’ questions in their chronological and logical order. He will answer their last question first and their second question last. The first thing the Lord deals with is the sign of the end of the world, or more accurately, the end of the age. The world will never come to an end. The old world will pass away and a new earth will be brought on the scene. It will be similar to trading in your old car for a new one.

You don’t say “This is the end of the car-age for me. I don’t have a car anymore.” You do have a car because you traded your old one in and got a new one. And the Lord is going to trade the old world in for a new one. The world will never come to an end. But it will be the end of an age, and that is the word the disciples are using in their question to the Lord Jesus. In this Olivet Discourse, when Christ speaks of His coming, He is referring to His return to the earth to establish His Kingdom. The church is not in the picture at all. In fact, by the end of the age, the church will have been removed, and it will be the last days of the nation Israel. He is speaking about the Great Tribulation period and so labels it in this discourse. JESUS TRACES THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS AGEThe phrase “Take heed that no man deceive you” is characteristic of this entire age. The Lord gives this word of caution because there will be much deception, especially during the Tribulation period when the Antichrist will appear. Peter warns us in 2Pe_2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” We don’t have to worry about false prophets, because if anybody starts prophesying in our day, we Christians can pooh-pooh him right off the scene because prophets are not for this period. However, we are to beware of false teachers, and there are a great many of those around. We must test them by Scripture. In this morning’s mail a letter has come to me which illustrates this fact.

It has come from a woman who apparently has an important position in an insurance company. She tells of a well-meaning friend who introduced her to a cult. After going to her friend’s church for one year, she heard our Bible-teaching radio program, and the Scripture alerted her to the error of the cult. Then she tells of how she and her entire family went to a good church in her area. My friend, we need to beware of false teaching. There is a lot of it around in our day.

Our Lord warns, “Take heed that no man deceive you.”

Matthew 24:5

Near the end of the age many people will claim to be Christ. We have such people present with us now. One man established a “holy city” in Northern California and expected any minute to be called to Washington, D.C., to solve the problems of the world. There are no “holy cities” on the face of the earth, but someday the Lord will come from the Holy of Holies in heaven to earth and solve the problems. It should be remembered that even now there are many antichrists, but at the end of the age there will come one Antichrist who will oppose Christ and set himself up as the only authority. I believe that our Lord, up there on the Mount of Olives, looked down to the end of the age and to the Great Tribulation period, but that at the beginning of His discourse, He bridged the gap by giving us a picture of the present age of the church. I recognize that there are many good Bible teachers, much better than I am, who take the position that in verses Mat_24:5-8 He is speaking of the Tribulation period, also; so if you want to disagree with me, you will be in very good company. However, it is my view that our Lord is not referring to the Great Tribulation until we reach verse Mat_24:9 of this chapter.

Matthew 24:6

Wars and rumors of wars are not the sign that we are at the end of the age, by any means. The Lord is bridging the gap from where the disciples are to the end of the age. It is easy to think of major wars as indicative of the fact that we are at the end of the age. They are not! There have been many major wars in the past few thousand years and only about two hundred years of peace. When I was a little boy at the end of World War I, I remember hearing my dad and others talking about the books being printed declaring it was the end of the world.

World War I caused this type of thinking. But after the war, we had a worldwide depression, World War II, and the atom bomb. By this time, I was a pastor in Pasadena, and I told my congregation that a wheelbarrow load of books would come out saying that we were at the end of the world because of World War II. You know something? I was wrong! Two wheelbarrow loads of books were printed, and they were sensational. We have come a long way from World War II, and the end of the age still has not come. We should listen to the Lord and stop listening to false teachers. We will hear about wars and rumors of wars, but we should not be troubled because all these things will come to pass, and still it will not be the end of the age. Friend, we should also keep in mind that man will never solve the problem of war. The League of Nations could not solve this problem, and the United Nations will not be able to solve it either. There will be no peace until the Prince of Peace comes.

Matthew 24:7

These are characteristics of the entire age and are therefore not signs of the end of the age, “but the end is not yet” (v. Mat_24:6). False christs, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes characterize the entire church age, but they will apparently be intensified as we draw near to the end of the age. Right now the population explosion has the world frightened and rightly so. People are starving to death by the thousands and the millions. And this situation is going to increase. The old black horse of famine (see Rev_6:5-6) hasn’t appeared yet, but at the end of the age the black horse and its rider will come forth. What we see today is just the beginning of sorrows. The next verse begins with our first time word:

Matthew 24:9

THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIBULATION WITH ITS SIGNSNow the Lord begins to speak of the time of tribulation. You and I are living in the “age of the church” or the “age of the Holy Spirit,” as some people like to speak of it. The Bible divides the world today into three groups of people: the Jews, the Gentiles, and the church of God (see 1Co_10:32). In this age God is calling out a people to His name from both Jews and Gentiles to compose the third group, the church. It is this third group which will be taken out of the world at the time of the Rapture. Then the Great Tribulation will begin, and I believe that verse Mat_24:9 speaks of this beginning “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted"who is the you? Obviously, He is not addressing the church but the nation Israel. The affliction He is talking about is anti-Semitism on a worldwide scale. At this point let me inject an important fact for Christians in our day. As long as the true church is in the world, there could not be worldwide anti-Semitism because the church would resist it. No genuine believer in the Lord Jesus could hate the Jews; it is an impossibility. It is my feeling that the liberal wing of the church is presenting a false front to the Jews and that in the final analysis it will turn against them. But as long as the true church is in the world, there won’t be worldwide anti-Semitism; it will break out after the church has been removed at the Rapture.

Matthew 24:10

As we saw earlier, the church is warned against false teachers while Israel is warned against false prophets. So here, after the church has been removed, again the warning is against false prophets.

Matthew 24:12

This is a principle, and there are many principles in this Olivet Discourse which we can apply to our own day. Not long ago I met a preacher who had been a schoolmate of mine. He has become liberal in his theology; he drinks his cocktails, smokes his cigarettes, and lives just like the rest of the world lives. He told me, “McGee, you don’t fight city hall; you join it!” He told me about how sinful practices had gotten into his church and how he is not planning to fight them. When iniquity abounds, the love of many grows cold, and this will be even more true at the end of the age. This next verse is very startling to some folk

Matthew 24:13

The question is: Who endures to the end? Well, when I study the Book of Revelation, I find that God will stop all the forces of nature and of evil and even the forces of good while He seals a certain number of folk. So who is going to endure to the end? Those whom He seals at the beginning, of course. The Good Shepherdin all ageswill bring His sheep through to the end. When He starts with a hundred sheep, He comes through with a hundred sheep. When someone says to me, “So-and-so was very active in the church and has gone into sin. Is he saved?” I can only reply that I do not know. We will have to wait to see what happens. I tell people that the pigs will eventually end up in the pigpen, and the prodigal sons will all find their way back to the Father’s house. It is confusing to find a son in a pigpen and a pig in the Father’s house. Peter says, " …the sow that was washed [has returned] to her wallowing in the mire” (2Pe_2:22).

Let’s say that one of the little pigs went with the prodigal son to the father’s house, that he was scrubbed clean, his teeth brushed with Pepsodent, and that a pink ribbon was tied around his neck. But he wouldn’t stay in the father’s house. Sooner or later he would go back to the pigpen where he belonged. “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” You’ll just have to wait and see. Sometimes a son, a Christian, will get into a pigpen, but since he is a son, he will get out someday. Why? Because he has a wonderful Shepherd. “The same shall be saved.”

Matthew 24:14

The gospel of the Kingdom is what John the Baptist preached"Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat_3:2). And the Lord Jesus began His ministry with that message"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat_4:17). Also, He sent His apostles out with that message (see Matt. 10). But in Mat_11:28, we saw that our Lord’s message changed to “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And in Mat_20:28 He said that He had come to give His life a ransom for many. But during the Tribulation period the gospel of the Kingdom will again be preached. It is not for our day, because we are to preach the gospel of the grace of God.

Is the gospel of the Kingdom another gospel? No, my friend, it is not. It is the same gospel with a different emphasis. We have no right to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand because we don’t know. But when the Great Tribulation period begins, the people will know that they are close to the end, although they will not know the day nor the hour. Therefore, the message will be, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now let me answer our critics who say that we who hold the dispensational view of Scripture teach that there are two or more ways of being saved. No, God has never had more than one basis on which He saves men, and that basis is the Cross of Christ. Every offering before Christ came looked forward to the Cross of Christ, and every commemoration since He has come looks back to the cross of Christ. To illustrate this, let’s go back to Genesis 4 and look at the offering which Abel brought to God. He brought a little lamb. If you had been there, you could have asked Abel, “Why are you bringing this little lamb? Do you think that a little lamb will take away your sins?” He would have said, “Of course not! I’m bringing this little lamb because God told me to do so. I am bringing it by faith.” Then you could have asked him, “Well, if it won’t take away your sins, why would He ask you to bring it?” Abel’s answer would have been something like this: “This little lamb is pointing to One who is coming later, the seed of the woman, my mother.

That One will take away our sins. I bring this little lamb by faith, recognizing that I am a sinner and need a substitute.” You see, Abel was looking forward to the One who was coming. John the Baptist not only said, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat_3:2), but he also said, " …Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh_1:29). John identified Him. Before the coming of Christ everyone who had come to God on His terms was saved on credit. And they were forgiven on the basis of the death of Christ. In the Old Testament God never saved anyone by Law. At the heart of the Mosaic system was the sacrificial system.

They brought a lamb to God because the Law revealed that they were lawbreakers, that they were not obeying God, and that they did need to have a substitute to pay the penalty of their sins. The Law was given " …that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom_3:19). My friend, you and I are lawbreakers, we are sinners needing a Savior. The thing to do is to receive Christ as your Savior before He comes as the Sovereign of this universe when He will be your Judge. Now, going back to the verse we have been considering, “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” This does not mean that while the church is here in the world the end can’t come until the gospel of the grace of God is preached worldwide. I know there are those who use this verse to promote their Bible-teaching programs. While it is laudable to want to get the gospel to the ends of the earth, this is not the verse to use to promote it. You see, my friend, it is important to interpret Scripture in its context. Remember that our Lord is answering the question, “What is the sign of the end of the age?” (see v. Mat_24:3). He is speaking of that end time.

Matthew 24:15

THE GREAT TRIBULATION WITH ITS TROUBLE AND SORROWSNow Jesus gives the sign that will identify this period of time. What is the abomination of desolation? Well, Daniel tells us about two of them. One of them was Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian, who came down and destroyed Jerusalem. In Dan_11:31 we read: “And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” History bears out the fact that Antiochus Epiphanes came against Jerusalem in 170 B.C., at which time over one hundred thousand Jews were slain. He took away the daily sacrifice from the temple, offered the blood and broth of a swine upon the altar, and set up an image of Jupiter to be worshiped in the holy place. However, our Lord is undoubtedly referring to the second abomination of desolation to which Daniel alludes (see Dan_12:11), and I believe that it will be an image of Antichrist which will be set up in the temple. During the Tribulation the temple will be rebuilt and the nation of Israel will be back in Palestine. Obviously, our Lord is speaking of the temple rather than the church, because the church has no holy place. However, we cannot be certain that this is the abomination of desolation to which our Lord refers in the passage before us; this is just our surmising. I am not looking for the abomination of desolationI wouldn’t know it if I met it on the streetbut the people in the last days will be looking for it because it will be the sign to prove that they are in the Great Tribulation period. Instead of our looking for Antichrist and his abominations, we are told to be “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit_2:13). Our Lord says, “(whoso readeth, let him understand:),” which means the people who are living at that time will understand. Since you and I won’t be there, He hasn’t given us many details. Now we are given another time word. When the abomination of desolation appears, “Then”

Matthew 24:16

You and I are not expecting to flee to the mountains of Judea. I live very near the San Gabriel Mountains, and my neighbor tells me that if an atom bomb is dropped in Southern California, he is going to head for a certain canyon up there (and I may follow him!), but that will not fulfill this prophecy. In fact, it has nothing whatever to do with it. Rather, it has to do with people who are in Judea. Our Lord is giving that prophecy to those people, not to us.

Matthew 24:17

The housetop in Palestine corresponds to our front porch or our patio. Again let me emphasize the fact that our Lord is speaking to the folk in Palestine, not to you and me. This warning is not applicable to us; we don’t spend our time on our housetops!

Matthew 24:18

This refers to people engaged in agriculture. If a worker in the fields leaves his cloak at the end of the row in the early morning when it is cool, and the word comes that the abomination of desolation has appeared, he is not to go back and get his cloak, but he is to start running.

Matthew 24:19

This reveals His great care and concern for mothers and little children. It will be a time when one should not have children. It is believed that there will be a great population explosion at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The fact that this earth is becoming overweighted with people in our day may be another evidence that we are approaching the end of the age.

Matthew 24:20

Again, these are people who are observing the Sabbath day, which is Saturday. This is another proof that Christ is speaking directly to the Jewish people. I don’t go to church on the Sabbath but on Sunday because my Lord rose from the dead on that day.

Matthew 24:21

“For then shall be great tribulation"in Rev_7:14 the literal translation is “the tribulation the great one,” placing the article before both the noun and the adjective for emphasis. In other words, this tribulation is unique; there has been nothing like it in the history of the world, and there will never again be anything like it. And notice that our Lord is the One who labels the end of the age as the Great Tribulation. (If you want to find fault with it, talk to Him, not to me.) “Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Since that is true, believe me, people will know it when it gets here! I hear people today talking about the church going through the Tribulation, and they don’t seem to realize how severe it will be. In fact, some folk say that we are in the Great Tribulation at the present time! Well, things are bad in our day, I’ll grant that, but this period can be matched with many other periods in history. When the Great Tribulation gets here, there will be nothing to match it in the past or in the future.

Matthew 24:22

We read in the Book of Revelation that during the Tribulation one third of the population of the earth will be destroyed. On another occasion one-fourth of the population will be destroyed. It is absolutely unique. Using the simile given to us in Revelation 6, the red horse of war, the black horse of famine, and then the pale horse of death will ride during that period, and the population of the earth will be decimated. There was a time when this seemed to be an exaggeration. Even some good commentators considered it hyperbole. However, now that several nations of the world have atom bombs, which could destroy the population of the world, it no longer appears to be exaggerated. However, there is comfort in this verse"but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” God will not let mankind commit suicide. That is the reason this will be such a brief period.

Matthew 24:23

JESUS ASSURES THEM CONCERNING HIS COMING AGAINNow we come to what will be the sign of His coming. Don’t miss what He is saying here. The ability to work miracles in our day should be looked upon with suspicion because the next great miracle worker will not be Christ; he will be Antichrist with his false prophets. “If it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.” Who are the elect? In the Scriptures there are two elect groups: the elect of the nation Israel and the elect of the church. We have to use common sense to determine which group is meant. Who has our Lord been talking about up to this point? Israel. All right, Israel is the elect in this verse, also.

Jesus is not talking about the church. You can fool some of the people some of the time. You can fool all of the people some of the time. But you cannot fool God’s children all of the time. It just can’t be done. I have read many letters which testify of this.

A recent letter is from a woman who has come out of a religious cult. She listened to our Bible-teaching radio program for months before she could see the error of the cult’s teaching. It isn’t possible to fool God’s children all the time. They will come out of a cult eventually.

Matthew 24:26

When He comes, there will not be any John the Baptist to announce Him. But when He comes, the whole world will know and it will be as public as lightning. Those of you that live in the Middle West know that a lightning storm is a public affair. When it comes, everybody knows about it, and sometimes it is a frightful experience. The Lord’s second coming to the earth will be like that. No one will need to announce it. When our Lord comes the second time to establish His Kingdom on earth, everyone will know He is coming. (Remember that His second coming to earth does not refer to the Rapture.)

Matthew 24:28

This is the most difficult verse to understand in the entire Olivet Discourse. After speaking of His coming in glory like lightning out of heaven, then to speak of carrion-eating birds seems strange indeed. But I believe it refers to Christ’s coming in judgment, because Revelation 19 tells us about an invitation that went out to the birds to come together for a great banquet, “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army” (Rev_19:17-19). The birds that feed on carrion seem to be agents of divine judgment. When the Lord comes again, He will come in judgment.

Matthew 24:29

Notice that this is to be “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.” It is my understanding that all of these things will take place at Christ’s second coming to the earth.

Matthew 24:30

“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” What is that sign? Again I will have to speculate. Back in the Old Testament, you remember, the nation Israel was given the glory, the Shekinah presence of God. No other nation or people has ever had that, nor does the church have it. The Shekinah glory rested over the tabernacle and later the temple at Jerusalem. But because of Israel’s sin, the Shekinah glory left the nation.

When Christ came the first time, He laid aside, not His deity, but His prerogative of deity, His gloryalthough John says, " …we beheld his glory …” (Joh_1:14), because there were times when it broke through. However, at His second coming, I believe that the Shekinah glory will hover over the earth before He breaks through, and that will be the “sign of the Son of man in heaven.” “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” This is His return to earth to set up His kingdom.

Matthew 24:31

The elect spoken of in this verse is still the nation Israel. The prophets in the Old Testament foretold of a miracle that would bring the Jews back into their land. (This is not the church which is going to be caught up out of this world to meet the Lord in the air. Angels are not connected with the Rapture.) The Lord will come in person to receive the church with the sound of a trumpet, and His voice will be like that of an archangel. He will not need any help to gather His church together. He died for the church, and He will bring it together. When He says that the “angels …shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” we can be sure that He is talking about the nation Israelministering angels have always been connected with Israel.

Matthew 24:32

THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE AS A SIGNI don’t see how the fig tree could represent anything other than the nation Israel (e.g., see Jer. 24; Hos_9:10). There are certainly fig trees growing in abundance in Israel even in our day after all that has happened to that land. I was impressed with the fig orchards north of Jerusalem and the vineyards south of Jerusalemthe area south of Bethlehem is filled with vineyards. Fig trees and grapevines identify the land, and I believe that our Lord is using the fig tree as a symbol of that land.

Matthew 24:34

“This generation"the Greek word can mean race and refer to the nation Israel. Or it could refer to the generation that will be living at the time these predictions come to pass. A generation is reckoned to be about twenty years, and certainly the predicted events of this section will take place in a much briefer time than twenty years. My feeling is that it could refer to either one, but I much prefer the interpretation that it refers to the preservation of the Jewish race. Haman was not able to destroy them, neither was Pharaoh, nor did Hitler succeed in his attempts. And no dictator in our day will be able to exterminate these peopleGod will see to that.

Matthew 24:35

He says, “You can just underscore what I’ve said, because heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not.” Heaven and earth will pass away; there will be a new heaven and a new earth (see Rev_21:1), but He will not change His Word; it will stand throughout the eternal ages.

Matthew 24:36

Although they will know that this period is drawing near, they will not know the day nor the hour. Since there have been so many folk in our day who have tried to pinpoint the time of Christ’s return, I’m of the opinion that in that future day there will be some folk who will try to figure it down to the very hour. But no one will know either the day or the hour. And He will use the illustration of Noah

Matthew 24:37

Christ will come in a day which will be like the days of Noah.

Matthew 24:38

Now, the days of Noah were characterized by gross immoralityevery thought and imagination of man’s heart was only evil continually (see Gen_6:5). But our Lord says that His coming will be in days like the days of Noah, and He mentions only that they were eating and drinking. Is there anything wrong with eating and drinking? No, we are told that whatever we dowhether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God (see 1Co_10:31). However, the people in Noah’s day were not eating and drinking to the glory of God. In fact, they were living as though God did not exist. A little boy was invited out to dinner for the first time in his life. He was just going next door, but to him it was a big event. So when the time came to go, he made a beeline for the house next door. When they sat down to the table to eat, the boy automatically bowed his head to offer thanks for the food because he came from a Christian home. Suddenly he realized he was the only one with a bowed head and the rest of the folk were passing food back and forth. He opened his eyes and, not having any inhibitions, said, “Don’t you thank God for your food?” There was embarrassing silence for a moment, and then the lady of the house said, “No, we don’t.” The little fellow thought for a moment and then said, “You’re like my dogsthey just start right in!” In our day there are multitudes of people who receive a meal that comes from the hand of God three times a day while millions of people are starving to death, and they never think of thanking God. And in that future day, they will be right on the verge of the coming of Christ, and they will be living as though it will never take place. Also, the people of Noah’s day were “marrying and giving in marriage.” Certainly our Lord is not saying that marriage is wrong. His point is that they rejected so completely God’s warning through Noah that they went ahead and had their weddingsmaybe even “church” weddingsright up to the day that Noah entered into the ark. They lived as though God did not exist. They did not believe that He would judge them and scorned the warning that a flood was imminent. “And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

Matthew 24:40

I can hear someone saying to me, “Well, preacher, you have finally painted yourself into a corner. You said the church and the Rapture are not in the Olivet Discourse, but here they are. Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” Well, my friend, He still is not talking about the Rapture. After all, what is our Lord talking about here? “As the days of Noe were.” Who was taken away in the days of Noah? “They knew not until the flood came, and took them all away.” They perished in the Flood. This is not referring to the Rapture when the church will be taken out of the world. Rather, this pictures the removing from the earth by judgment those who are not going to enter the millennial Kingdom.

Matthew 24:42

Watch is the important word, and it has a little different meaning from the watching that the child of God does now in waiting for the Rapture. Today we have a comforting hope. In that future day it will be watching with fear and anxiety. In the night they will say, “Would to God it were morning,” and in the morning they will say, “Would to God it were evening.” Today we are to wait and long for His coming. In that future day they will watch with anxiety for His return. You may think that I am splitting hairs, but I’m not. I looked up the Greek word for watch and found that it had about eight different meanings. Although in English we have only the one word, it has several different meanings, also. Let me illustrate this by a man who goes deer hunting. Every year this man goes into the woods to about the same spot. He puts up camp, and early in the morning he goes over the hogback on the hill and sits down by the trunk of an old tree and waits. After a while he hears a noise in the brush and thinks it might be a deer. He lifts his rifle and waits. He is watching for a deer. Two weeks later you meet this same man down on the main street corner of town, and you see that he is looking intently down the street. You know that he is waiting for someone. You walk up to him and say, “Who are you watching for?” He replies, “I’m waiting for my wife; she is forty-five minutes late.” He is watching for a dear again, but it is a different deer and he is watching in a little different way. Before, on the hill, he had his deer gun with him, and he sort of wishes he had it with him again, but it is against the law for him to shoot her! But he is watching, and watching in a different way, you see. A month or two later you go to the hospital and you pass a room and see this man and his wife sitting by the bedside of a little child. The child has a burning fever, and the doctor has told them that the crisis will come about midnight. They are watching. My friend, that is a different type of watching than watching for a deer or waiting for a wife on the corner. This is watching with anxiety. And I think it will be somewhat with the same feeling that they will watch for our Lord’s second coming.

Matthew 24:43

What our Lord is doing in the remainder of the Olivet Discourse is giving parables to illustrate the attitude of folk to His coming and what will happen when He does come.

Matthew 24:46

This parable reflects the attitude of some folk in that future day. They shall say, “Well, the Lord delays His comingso I’ll just go on living carelessly.” When Christ returns, He will judge that man. This is a great principle which is applicable to every age. You and I ought to live our lives in the light of the fact that we are to stand in the presence of Christ. Note that I didn’t say in the light of the coming of Christ but in the light of the presence of Christ. Regardless of whether Christ comes a hundred years from today or a thousand years, you and I will stand in His presence. Whether you are saved or lost, you will stand in His presence. If you are saved, you will have to give Him an account of your life to see if you receive a reward.

If you are lost, you will stand there to be judged. Therefore, every person should live his life in light of the fact that he is to stand in the presence of the Lord. This is the great emphasis in the Olivet Discourse. Therefore, it has applications to us, although the interpretation is specifically to folk living at the time of Christ’s return as King.