5/12/02

FAITH BIBLE CHURCH - www.faithbiblechurch.net

RAY RUSS - PASTOR-TEACHER

MATTHEW:  THE KING HAS COME, WEEK 160 

TITLE: BIRTH PAINS, PART I 

TEXT:  MATTHEW 24: 4-18

INTRODUCTION: (1) JOHN MACARTHUR, IN HIS BOOK, “THE SECOND COMING,” COMMUNICATES THAT “THE CENTRAL MESSAGE OF CHRIST’S OLIVET DISCOURSE IS A TWOFOLD ADMONITION.

*  FIRST, OUR LORD IS WARNING THAT BEFORE HE RETURNS, THE WORLD WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE HOSTILE TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

** AND SECOND, HE IS URGING PEOPLE TO BE PREPARED FOR HIS COMING AND THE JUDGMENTS THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH IT.”

***  JOHN WENT ON TO SAY, “THOSE THEMES DOMINATE THE WHOLE DISCOURSE, INCLUDING THE PARABLES AT THE END.”

****  SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF CHRIST’S PROPHECIES MAY BE DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND FULLY, BUT THE BASIC THRUST IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS! 

(2)  THE WORLD’S HOSTILITY TO CHRIST WILL NOT DIMINISH BUT WILL INCREASE DRAMATICALLY (MATT. 24:4-20).

*  THE FINAL RESULT WILL BE A TIME OF TRIBULATION LIKE     NONE    THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN (VV. 21-29)

**  AND WHEN CHRIST FINALLY RETURNS AT THE END OF THOSE DAYS OF TRIBULATION, NO ONE WILL MISS HIS COMING AND NO ENEMY WILL ESCAPE HIS RETRIBUTION (VV. 30-51).”

***  NOW WITH JOHN’S QUOTE IN MIND, NEEDLESS TO SAY WE BELIEVE THAT THE EVENTS OF MATTHEW 24 ARE FUTURE   WE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THEY HAVE ALREADY TAKEN PLACE, AS THE PRETERIST VIEW COMMUNICATES. 

****  LET ME GIVE YOU 6 REASONS WHY WE BELIEVE THAT THE THINGS IN MATTHEW 24 ARE FUTURE.  (AND THIS WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF OUR MESSAGE TODAY).

(3)   NO. 1.      BIRTH PAINS.  THE TITLE OF OUR MESSAGE.  V.8  SAYS “BUT ALL THESE THINGS ARE MERELY THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PANGS.”

*  AND THE FIGURE OF BIRTH PAINS WAS COMMONLY USED BY ANCIENT JEWISH WRITERS, ESPECIALLY IN REGARD TO THE END TIMES. 

**  JEWISH SCHOLAR ALFRED EDERSHEIM WROTE “JEWISH WRITINGS SPEAK VERY FREQUENTLY OF THE LABOR PAINS OF THE MESSIAH.” 

***  AND BELOVED LABOR PAINS DO NOT OCCUR AT CONCEPTION OR THROUGHOUT PREGNANCY BUT JUST BEFORE BIRTH.

****  THEREFORE, THE FIGURE OR PICTURE OF BIRTH PAINS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN APPROPRIATE TO REPRESENT  EITHER   THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, WHICH OCCURRED VERY NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH AGE, OR THE CHURCH AGE AS A WHOLE. 

(4)  AND PAUL REMINDED THE THESSALONIANS THAT  THE RETURN OF CHRIST WOULD COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT. 

*   MEANING UNEXPECTEDLY, QUIETLY AND SUDDENLY.      

**   NOW GET THIS, USING THAT SAME PICTURE, PAUL SAID IN I THES 5:1-3, “WHILE THEY ARE SAYING, PEACE AND SAFETY!  THEN DESTRUCTION WILL COME UPON THEM SUDDENLY LIKE BIRTH PANGS UPON A WOMAN WITH CHILD; AND THEY SHALL NOT ESCAPE.”

***  NOW HERE PAUL USED THE SAME FIGURE THAT JESUS USED IN MATT. 24:8, BIRTH PAINS. 

****  AND BIRTH PAINS OR LABOR PAINS DO NOT BEGIN UNTIL SHORTLY BEFORE DELIVERY TIME, AND THEY OCCUR WITH  INCREASING FREQUENCY UNTIL THE BABY IS BORN. 

(5)  WELL, IN THE SAME WAY, THE EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE LORD’S RETURN WILL NOT BEGIN UNTIL JUST BEFORE HIS RETURN, AND THEY WILL OCCUR WITH INCREASING RAPIDITY, BUILDING UP TO ALL EXPLOSION OF CATASTROPHIC EVENTS.

*  AND THAT IS THE FIRST REASON I BELIEVE THAT THE EVENTS OF MATT. 24 ARE FUTURE.

**  NO.2.  THE SECOND REASON OR INDICATOR IS FOUND IN MATTHEW 24:14 IN WHICH THERE IS A WORLD WIDE PROCLAMATION OF THIS GOSPEL. 

***  MATT. 24:14 SAYS:  “AND THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE PREACHED IN THE WHOLE WORLD FOR A WITNESS TO ALL THE NATIONS, AND THEN THE END SHALL COME.”

****  NOW THAT EVENT RULES OUT ANY THING DURING THE APOSTOLIC AGE, WHEN EVEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE WAS ONLY PARTIALLY EVANGELIZED.

(6)  BEYOND THAT IT COULD NOT APPLY TO MODERN THINGS WHEN, DESPITE THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL THROUGH MODERN MASS MEDIA TO MOST PARTS OF THE WORLD, THERE ARE STILL MULTITUDES WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL. 

*  SO THE WORLD WAS NOT EVANGELIZED BY 70 AD AND THE FALL JERUSALEM AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE, NOR HAS IT BEEN EVANGELIZED IN OUR DAY.

**  SO THIS IS FUTURE WITH A DIFFERENT MESSAGE.

***  NOW MOVING ON, A THIRD INDICATOR IN MATT. 24 THAT THE EVENTS ARE FUTURE IS “THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION WHICH WAS SPOKEN OF THROUGH DANIEL THE PROPHET,”  MATTHEW 24:15.

****  AND IN DANIEL 9:27, DANIEL PREDICTED THAT JUST BEFORE THE MESSIAH SETS UP HIS KINGDOM AND JUDGES  THE WORLD, THE ANTICHRIST “WILL PUT A STOP TO SACRIFICES AND GRAIN OFFERING; AND ON THE WING OF ABOMINATIONS WILL COME ONE WHO MAKES DESOLATE, EVEN UNTIL A COMPLETE DESTRUCTION, ONE THAT IS  DECREED IS POURED OUT ON THE ONE WHO MAKES DESOLATE.”

(7)  NOW THE ANTICHRIST HAS NOT YET APPEARED, AND THE EVENT IN MATTHEW 24;15 HAS NOT TAKEN PLACE YET. 

*  NO. 4  A FOURTH INDICATOR THAT JESUS IS SPEAKING OF A FUTURE TIME IN THE “GREAT TRIBULATION, SUCH AS  HAS NOT OCCURRED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD UNTIL NOW, NOR EVER SHALL,”  MATTHEW 24:21.

**  NOW THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IN 70 AD WAS NOT THE WORST THING SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD, THIS IS YET FUTURE.

***  AND THE TERRIBLE EVENTS JESUS DESCRIBES IN THE MESSAGE WILL BE THE WORST OF ALL HUMAN HISTORY AND WILL OCCUR AT THE VERY END OF THE PRESENT AGE, WHICH GOD’S FULL AND FINAL JUDGMENT IS POURED ON UNGODLY PEOPLE. 

****  AND I BELIEVE JESUS IS REFERRING TO THE TIME PREDICTED BY DANIEL IN DANIEL 12:1 &2  WHEN     “THERE WILL BE A TIME OF DISTRESS SUCH AS NEVER OCCURRED SINCE THERE WAS A NATION UNTIL THAT TIME.”  AND WHICH WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS TO EVERLASTING LIFE AND OF THE WICKED TO EVERLASTING CONDEMNATION.

(8)  AND BELOVED, IT WILL BE SO BAD AT THAT TIME THAT IT SAYS IN REV. 9:6 IN THE MIDST OF ALL THE JUDGMENTS THAT WILL BE POURED OUT, IT SAYS THE REVELATION 9:6 (READ IT)

*  AND IT APPEARS AT TIMES THAT WICKED PEOPLE WHO SHAKE THEIR FIST AT GOD ARE GETTING AWAY WITH THEIR SIN, BUT ONE DAY GOD WILL POUR OUT HIS WRATH ON THE EARTH AS NEVER BEFORE AND THEN ETERNAL HELL WILL FOLLOW.

**  SOMEDAY PAYDAY.  (READ GALATIANS 6:7) 

***  NOW WITH THAT IN MIND A FIFTH INDICATOR AND IT IS FOUND IN MATTHEW 24: 29 & 30 WHICH IT SAYS:

“IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE NOON WILL NOT GIVE IT’S LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL FROM THE SKY, AND THE POWERS OF THE HEAVEN WILL BE SHAKEN, AND THAT THE SON OF MAN WILL APPEAR IN THE SKY.”

****  NOW OBVIOUSLY, THOSE SUPERNATURAL EVENTS HAVE NOT YET TRANSPIRED. 

(9)  AND THEN NO. 6 AND A LAST INDICATOR THAT JESUS WAS SPEAKING OF THE DISTANT FUTURE IN THE FIGURE OF THE FIG TREE, GIVEN IN MATTHEW 24:32-35. 

*  AND JUST AS THE BUDDING LEAVES OF A FIG TREE SIGNAL THAT SUMMER IS NEAR, SO THE OCCURRING OF THE EVENTS JESUS MENTIONS HERE WILL SIGNAL HIS IMMINENT RETURN. 

**  AND “THIS GENERATION” THAT IS, THE GENERATION LIVING DURING THIS TIME OF THOSE END-TIME EVENTS” WILL NOT PASS AWAY UNTIL ALL THESE THINGS TAKE PLACE, MATTHEW 24:34.

***  AND THE SIGNS OF MATTHEW 24:25 WILL ALL BE FULLY EXPERIENCED WITHIN OUR GENERATION, A GENERATION THAT COULD BE NOT OTHER THAN THE GENERATION LIVING WHEN CHRIST RETURNS. 

****  NOT THE GENERATION THAT HE WAS SPEAKING TO AT THAT TIME. 

(10)  AND UNDERSTANDING THIS IT IS NOT THAT MOST OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES  AND CONDITIONS MENTIONED HAVE NOT BEEN EXPERIENCED TO SOME DEGREE BEFORE. 

*  THERE HAVE BEEN WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS VIRTUALLY SINCE THE FALL, AND THERE HAVE BEEN FAMINES  AND EARTHQUAKES SINCE THE BEGINNING OF RECORDED HISTORY. 

**  BUT THE EVENTS OF MATTHEW 24:25 WILL BE UNIQUE TO THE END TIMES IN DETAIL, IN SEQUENCE, IN SCALE AND IN EXTENT. 

***  AND SOME OF THE EVENTS, SUCH AS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE IN MATTHEW 24:29, WILL BE COMPLETELY UNIQUE. 

****  AND THE FACT THAT JESUS SPOKE IN THE SECOND PERSON, ESPECIALLY IN CHAPTER 24, DOES NOT PROVE HE WAS SPEAKING TO THE DISCIPLES ABOUT THEIR OWN GENERATION. 

  FOR EVEN THE O.T. PROPHETS FREQUENTLY ADDRESSED MESSAGES TO PEOPLE YET UNBORN, SOME OF WHOM WOULD LIVE HUNDREDS OF YEARS IN THE FUTURE.

*  GOD PICKED UP THE PROPHET, AS IT WERE, AND TRANSPORTED HIM TO THE TIME OF WHICH HE WAS TO PROPHESY, AND HE SPOKE AS IF HE WERE STANDING DIRECTLY BEFORE THOSE FUTURE GENERATIONS, PASSAGES LIKE ISAIAH 33:17-24, ISAIAH 66:10-14, AND ZECHARIAH 9:9.

**  SO IN ESSENCE IN MATTHEW 24, JESUS WAS SAYING,  “YOU WHO ARE ALIVE AT THAT TIME”

***  NOW WITH ALL OF THAT BACKGROUND IN MIND WE MOVE TO OUR TEXT TODAY FOR BEGINNING IN MATTHEW 24:4, JESUS ANSWERS THE DISCIPLES’ QUESTIONS, “WHEN WILL THESE THINGS BE, AND WHAT WILL BE THE SIGN OF YOUR COMING AND OF THE END OF THE AGE?”  MATTHEW 24:3 

****  AND JESUS RESPONDS TO THE TWO PARTS OF THE QUESTION IN REVERSE ORDER.

(12)  HE DOES NOT DEAR WITH THE “WHEN” UNTIL 24:36 WHICH SAYS:  (READ IT).

*  BUT IMMEDIATELY IN 24:4-14 JESUS BEGINS TO ANSWER THE SECOND PART OF THE QUESTION BY DESCRIBING THE INITIAL GROUND OF BIRTH PAINS THAT WILL OCCUR JUST BEFORE HIS COMING, AND WE WILL LOOK AT 3 OF THOSE BIRTH PAINS T0DAY, WHICH WILL BE OUR OUTLINE TO FOLLOW.

**  AND BIRTH PAIN NO. 1 IS FOUND IN VV. 4&5. SO LOOK AT MATTHEW 24:4 PLEASE, WHERE  WE WILL START.

I.  BIRTH PAIN #1  (READ v 4) 

A.  NOW JESUS HERE  IN   v. 4 BEGINS WITH A WARNING, DON’T LET ANYONE DECEIVE YOU, DON’T LET ANYONE MISLEAD YOU, DON’T LET ANYONE LEAD YOU ASTRAY. 

*  AND THIS WARNING BEGINS WITH THE GREEK VERB BLAP-O  WHICH IS ON THE SCREEN.  TRANSLATED “SEE TO IT” IN  THE N.A.S. AND “WATCH OUT” IN THE N.I.V. AND “TAKE HEED” IN THE K.J.V. AND N.K.J.V.

**  AND THIS VERB LITERALLY MEANS SIMPLY “TO SEE”, BUT WAS OFTEN USED, AS HERE, IN THE JESUS OF” KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN,” OR “BEWARE” AS IT IS USED IN COLOSSIANS 2:8  WHICH IS SAYS AS A WARNING, (READ IT).

***  SO THIS WARNING STRESSES WATCHFULNESS AND VIGILANCE. 

****  AND SPECIFICALLY THE WARNING IS TO NOT LET ANYONE MISLEAD YOU, AND THE GREEK WORD TRANSLATED DECEIVE OR MISLEAD IS THE GREEK WORD

PLAH-AH-O WHICH YOU CAN SEE ON THE SCREEN. 

1.  AND FROM THIS WORD WE GET OUR ENGLISH WORD PLANET, AND A PLANET HAS AN ORBIT, A PATH TO FOLLOW AROUND IT’ SUN AND DOES NOT DEPART FROM THAT PATH. 

*  WELL, THE WARNING HERE DO NOT BE LED ASTRAY, FROM THE RIGHT PATH, THE ORBIT WE FOLLOW WHICH IS CHRIST. 

**  DO NOT BE LEAD AWAY FROM THE TRUTH.  DO NOT WANDER OR ROAM FROM THE PROPER PATH.  DON’T BE DECEIVED.!!

***  AND OF COURSE NONE OF THE TRUE APOSTLES WOULD BE AFTER JESUS LEFT. 

****  FOR IN ESSENCE THE WARNING SPECIFICALLY WILL APPLY TO THE TRIBULATION AND THE ELECT THAT WILL BE SAVED AT THAT TIME. 

2.  AND ACCORDING TO REVELATION 7:9, THERE ARE GOING TO BE A MULTITUDES OF PEOPLE SAVED DURING THE TRIBULATION!

*  BUT WITHOUT GOD’S DIVINE INTERVENTION DURING THAT TIME, DECEPTION WILL BE SO GREAT, THAT IF IT WERE POSSIBLE, EVEN THE ELECT GOD’S CHOSEN ONES FOR SALVATION WOULD BE DECEIVED, MATTHEW 24:24, WHILE THE SAME GREEK VERB PLAN-AH-0 IS USED.

**  AND FOLKS, SUCH DECEPTION DURING THE TRIBULATION WILL REACH EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS. 

***  FOR WHEN THE CHURCH IS TAKEN OUT OF THE WORLD, DECEIVERS WILL BE ABLE TO WORK MORE FREELY AND MORE PERSUASIVELY THAN EVER. 

****  AND THE EFFECT THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL BE TAKEN  OUT OF THE WAY, NOT OUT OF THE WORLD AND HIS RESTRAINING   POWER WILL BE REMOVED, AND CHAOS WILL COME FORTH, II THESSALONIANS 2:6-8, (READ THAT)

3.  AND WHEN THOSE THINGS HAPPEN THERE WILL BE CHAOS WHEN IT COMES TO TRUTH. 

*  AND CERTAINLY IN OUR DAY WE SEE A LOT OF FALSE DOCTRINES THAT WE NEED TO GUARD AGAINST AND BE DISCERNING BUT WHEN THIS SPECIFICALLY TAKES PLACE, DOCTRINAL CONFUSION WILL BE AT ITS APEX. 

**  NOW LOOK AT v. 5 PLEASE.

B.  READ v 5. NOW SPECIFICALLY WHEN ALL THIS TAKES PLACE, THERE WILL BE MANY WHO COME AND SAY “I AM THE MESSIAH,” “I AM THE CHRIST, THE ANOINTED ONE OF GOD.”

*  AND NO DOUBT THERE WERE FALSE CHRISTS, OR MESSIAHS, BEFORE JESUS TIME, AND THERE HAVE BEEN OTHERS AT VARIOUS TIMES SINCE.

**  I MEAN EVEN   IN OUR DAY WE HAVE HAD PROPER CLAIM THAT THEY WERE THE MESSIAH, MEN LIKE     CHARLES MANSON, DAVID KORESH, JIM JONES, SUN MYUNG MOON AND MARSHALL APPPLEGATE OF THE HEAVEN’S GATE  CULT. 

***  SO THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN DECEIVERS AND FALSE MESSIAHS BUT IN THE TRIBULATION THE LAST THING BEFORE THE END OF THE AGE AND JESUS RETURNS THEIR NUMBER AND INFLUENCE WILL VASTLY INCREASE.

****  LEADING UP TO THE ULTIMATE DECEIVER THE ANTI-CHRIST, READ II THESSALONIANS 2:3 &4

1.  SO I REMIND YOU THAT DURING THE TRIBULATION DECEPTION WILL BE AT ITS APEX LEADING TO THE ULTIMATE DECEIVER.

*  AND ACCORDING TO THE LAST PART OF v. 5, MANY WILL BE MISLEAD OR DECEIVED AND THIS IS  BIRTH PAIN NO. 1.

**  NOW BIRTH PAIN NO. 2 IS FOUND IN v. 6 AND v 7 A.  LOOK AT v.6 PLEASE TO START. 

II.  BIRTH PAIN #2 (READ v. 6)

A.  NOW THE SECOND BIRTH PAIN WILL INVOLVE INTENSIFIED AND UNPARALLED DISPUTES AND WARFARE AMONG THE NATIONS AND KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

*  AND IN THE BEGINNING OF v 6., THE PHRASE YOU WILL BE HEARING, OR YOU WILL  HEAR, OR YE SHALL HEAR, DEPENDING ON WHICH TRANSLATION YOU HAVE, TRANSLATES A FORM OF THE FUTURE TENSE OF THE VERB MEL – LO THAT CARRIES THIS IDEA OF CONTINUAL HEARING. 

**  IN OTHER WORDS THERE WILL BE CONSTANT TALK OF ACTUAL WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS, TO A DEGREE THE WORLD HAS NEVER KNOWN BEFORE. 

***  AND NO DOUBT THERE WILL BE BOTH HOT WARS OF PHYSICAL COMBAT AND COLD WARS OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONFLICT. 

****  AND CERTAINLY WE SAW THAT FOR THE 20^TH CENTURY.

1.  BUT AGAIN THE ANALOGY OF LABOR PAINS SUGGESTS THAT THE TALK OF WAR WILL STEADILY INCREASE IN FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY AS THE RETURN OF CHRIST APPROACHES.

*  AND THEY WILL EXPLODE    A GRAND HOLOCAUST OF BLOODSHED AND CARNAGE LEADING   TO THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON IN REVELATION 19 AS CHRIST RETURNS.

**  BUT JESUS COMMUNICATES AT THE END OF v. 6, THAT DURING THAT TIME, HIS ELECT, SHOULD NOT BE FRIGHTENED.

***  WHY?  BECAUSE THOSE THINGS ARE CERTAIN EVIDENCES THAT GOD’S PLAN IS UNFOLDING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, THE LORD STILL REIGNS!

****  AND THOSE EVENTS, TERRIBLE  AND DESTRUCTIVE AS THEY WILL BE, “MUST TAKE PLACE,”

2.  FOR THEY AE FORERUNNERS , PRECURSORS OF THE END, BUT THEY ARE “NOT YET THE END.”

*  THEY ARE A NECESSARY STEP LEADING TO THE RETURN OF CHRIST.  NOW LOOK AT v. 7 A. PLEASE.

B.  READ v. 7 A. 

NOW THERE SEEMS TO BE NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN NATION AND KINGDOM, UNLESS THE WORD NATION REPRESENTS  COUNTRIES WITH A FORM OF DEMOCRACY AND THE WORD KINGDOM A FORM OF DICTATORSHIP, LIKE MONARCHS WHO WERE OVER A KINGDOM IN THAT DAY. 

*  BUT THE POINT IS THAT NO GROUP OF PEOPLE WILL BE EXEMPT FROM WAR OR THREAT OF WAR. 

** AND THE CONFLICTS WILL UNDOUBTEDLY INCLUDE RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND CULTURAL AS WELL AS NATIONAL CONFRONTATIONS, MUCH AS WE SEE IN THIS WORLD TODAY, EXCEPT ON A VASTER  AND MORE INTENSE SCALE. 

***  CONFRONTATIONS OF EVERY SORT WILL ACCELERATE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, AND THAT IS BIRTH  PAIN #2, WHICH LEADS US TO OUR THIRD AND LAST ONE TODAY, BIRTH  PAIN #3.  LOOK BACK AT v. 7 PLEASE. 

III.  BIRTH PAIN #3, (READ v. 7 B.)

A.  NOW THE PARALLEL TO VERSE 7 B IS LUKE 21:11 WHERE LUKE ADDS A COUPLE OF ADDITIONAL DETAILS. 

*  AND LUKE 21:11 SAYS:  …”AND THERE WILL BE GREAT EARTHQUAKES AND IN VARIOUS PLACES PLAGUES AND FAMINES; AND THEE WILL BE TERRORS AND GREAT SIGNS FROM HEAVEN.”

**  NOW AS WE PUT THIS VERSE TOGETHER WITH MATTHEW 24:7 WE SEE THAT DISASTERS OF STAGGERING PROPORTIONS WILL COME AS THE CURSED EARTH BEGINS TO DISINTEGRATE. 

***  AND  YES THE WORLD HAS WITNESSED MANY EARTHQUAKES, FAMINES AND PLAGUES, BUT THOSE      WILL BE NOTHING COMPARED TO THE CALAMITIES IN THE TRIBULATION. 

**** AND NOTE THEY WILL OCCUR IN VARIOUS PLACES AND APPARENTLY SIMULTANEOUSLY. 

1.  FOR AS SOME PARTS OF THE EARTH STARVE        FROM FAMINES, OTHERS WILL BE SHATTERED BY EARTHQUAKES, OTHERS DELINEATED BY PLAGUES,  OTHERS PARALYZED BY UNSPECIFIED TERRORS, AND STILL OTHERS UNNERVED BY CHANGES IN THE HEAVENS. 

*  AND OF COURSE A CONSEQUENCE OF WAR THE 2^ND BIRTH PAIN, IS SOMETIMES FAMINES AND EARTHQUAKES CALL BEING ABOUT FAMINE. 

**  SO THEY ARE RELATED.

***  AND IT’S INTERESTING THAT IF YOU GO TO REVELATION 6 AND STUDY THE SEAL JUDGEMENTS THAT ARE TALKED ABOUT, THEY CORRESPOND AND RELATE TO THE VERY BIRTH PAINS WE ARE TALKING ABOUT IN OUR TEXT. 

****  WHICH SUGGESTS THEY ARE RELATED.  AND REVELATIONS 6 TAKES PLACE  DURING THE TRIBULATION .  (LOOK IT UP SOMETIME ON YOUR OWN)

2.  BUT AS WE GO BACK TO THE 3^RD BIRTH PAIN IN MATTHEW 24:7, WE SEE THE GLOBAL INCREASE IN DISEASE, HUNGER  AND NATURAL DISASTERS THAT WILL TORMENT HUMANITY. 

*  NOW LOOK AT v. 8 AND THEN I’LL QUICKLY START MY WRAP UP TODAY. 

B.  READ v. 8  NOW IN v. 8, MATTHEW REMINDS US THAT THESE THINGS THAT HE HAS DESCRIBED AS BIRTH PAINS OR THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS, WHICH SORROWS LIT. MEANS BIRTH PAINS.  IF YOU HAVE A KJV OR NKJV, THAT THESE THINGS ARE JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIBULATION.

*  THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME, THINGS ARE GOING TO GET WORSE. 

** GREAT TRIBULATION IS YET TO COME.  AND THE STATE OF FEAR AND FOREBODING THAT WILL GRIP AN UNBELIEVERS WORLD IN THOSE INDESCRIBABLE DAYS WILL BE TERRIFYING INDEED.

     AND AS I QUICKLY WRAP UP THINGS, LET ME REMIND YOU THE THINGS WE STUDIED TODAY ARE JUST THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PAINS.

*  AND THINGS ARE GOING TO GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER.

**  GOD WILL SET HIS HOLY VENGEANCE IN FULL MOTION. 

***  AND THE TERRIFYING THOUGHT TO ME WILL BE THAT FOR THOSE WITHOUT CHRIST WHO LIVES THROUGH THIS TIME.  THIS WILL BE ONLY THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS.

****  FOR WHEN THEY DIE, EVEN GREATER TORMENT AWAITS THEM FOR ETERNAL HELL WILL BE THERE END. 

(2)  JUDGMENT FOR THIS IS COMING AND UNLESS A PERSON TURNS FROM SIN  TO THE SAVIOR, THERE WILL NOT ONLY BE TRIBULATION AHEAD  IF THEY  LIVE TO THAT TIME,     BUT AFTER THAT ETERNAL DAMNATION AWAITS THEM. 

*  SO I WOULD PLEAD WITH ANYONE HERE TODAY WITHOUT CHRIST TO SEE THE MAGNITUDE OF YOUR SIN AGAINST A HOLY GOD. 

**  AND EITHER   CHRIST HAS PAID FOR YOUR SINS AND YOU WILL COME TO REPENTANCE OR YOU WILL PAY FOR SINS  BY REJECTING CHRIST AND BE DAMNED FOREVER. 

***  TURN TO II THES. 2:3-16, READ IT AND CLOSE IN PRAYER.