About this sermon
The disciples admire the temple’s great stones, and Jesus tells them that not one stone will be left on another. Their questions about when this will happen open the Olivet Discourse. God rules history, and much of the discourse concerns Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70. Wars, earthquakes, and famines are only the beginning of birth pains, so Christians should reject sensational prophecy teaching and ‘newspaper exegesis’ and stay grounded in the Scriptures.
Sermon transcript
And please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. Today we begin our study and exploration of a very difficult and challenging portion of Mark’s gospel. We’re gonna be spending a number of weeks in Mark chapter 13 today. My sermon text is Mark 13, verses one through eight. So let us hear God’s holy word, Mark chapter 13, verses one through eight. As he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Teacher, behold, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings! And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down. As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning him privately. Tell us, when will these things be?
And what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled? And Jesus began to say to them, see to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in my name saying, I am he and will mislead many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened. Those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you for the scriptures, for they are breathed out by you and they are given for our instruction and edification that we might be equipped for every good work.
We ask that by your Holy Spirit you would illuminate us, open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. We ask that you would make us open and receptive to what you are teaching us in this portion of Holy Scripture and we ask that you would set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word and edifying to your people. We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. title of my sermon this morning is, When Will These Things Be? And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there are quite a number of words you can choose to listen for. If you find that helpful in following along, may I suggest that you count the number of times that I say the words prophecy, temple, signs, Jerusalem, and faith.
Well, dear ones, we all have a sense of curiosity about what the future holds, don’t we? We wonder to ourselves, what will tomorrow bring? Or perhaps we think to ourselves, what will my life look like in five years, or 10 years from now, or perhaps even 20 years from now? Perhaps this curiosity about the future is one of the reasons why things like horoscopes and fortune tellers and palm readers and so forth and other occultic practices that promise to predict the future are so popular among so many even though such practices are obviously condemned in the word of God. While it is certainly understandable for us to be curious about the future, the word of God makes it clear that we who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ do not need to be anxious about the future.
And why is this the case? Why is it the case that we do not need to be anxious about the future? Well, friends, because the scriptures assure us that God holds our future in his almighty sovereign hands. In fact, while many things about the future are uncertain, at least from a human vantage point, from a human point of view, Scripture assures us that there are some events that are certain to take place in the future. And they are certain to take place because God Almighty has sovereignly decreed and planned for those events to occur. These events would include such things as the future glorious second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the end of this present age, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, the eternal state, and the ushering in of the ultimate new heavens and new earth wherein righteousness dwells.
All of those things are sure and certain because God has decreed for those things to be, and we can look forward to those glorious events of redemptive history yet to come. How do we know this to be the case? Well, because Bible prophecy reveals these future events. Dear ones, as you’ve probably heard me say before, and as I’m fond of saying because it is so important, history is what? His story. Bible prophecy underscores this truth. It underscores the truth that God is sovereign over history. But when it comes to Bible prophecy, there are many differences of opinion among Bible-believing Christians. So speaking about Bible prophecy, there is a great deal of confusion today about how to understand and interpret certain prophetic sections of Holy Scripture. Regrettably, in the Christian world today there is a lot of error and false teaching and quite frankly a lot of sloppy and careless exegesis when it comes to interpreting Bible prophecy.
Sadly, friends, there are many preachers and Bible teachers whose teachings on Bible prophecy are sensationalistic in the extreme. There are many who misunderstand, misinterpret, manhandle and twist certain prophetic passages of Scripture or who end up treating the Bible prophecies of Scripture sort of like a crystal ball to peer into the future. Well friends, One of those passages that is often interpreted in a sensationalistic way is the very passage that we are considering this Lord’s Day morning from the Gospel of Mark, from Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13 is a very important and significant portion of our Lord’s teachings on prophecy, biblical prophecy. And it is sometimes called the little apocalypse, or more often it is called the Olivet Discourse. The reason it’s called the Olivet Discourse is because our Lord Jesus gave this teaching on the Mount of Olives.
Our Lord’s teaching here in Mark 13 is also found in Matthew chapter 24. In fact, it is found in a more extensive and detailed account in Matthew chapter 24 as Matthew gives us a more detailed record of our Lord’s teaching on the Olivet Discourse, but it is also found as well in Luke’s gospel in Luke chapter 21. So the fact that this Olivet Discourse of our Lord is found in multiple gospel sources underscores its importance for the life of the church. As we begin our study of this challenging section of Mark’s gospel, first of all, what I want to do, beloved, is I want to seek to provide us with a proper orientation towards our passage by setting before us some important questions that we need to ask, which can serve as guidelines for properly interpreting our Lord’s teaching here.
And then I want to have us consider the historical setting and context of this passage, and that’s vitally important for us to understand those things, if we’re going to correctly interpret this passage. And then finally, I want to have us consider our Lord’s warning not to be led astray by false messiahs and by misreading the signs of the times. So friends, let’s first of all consider some important questions that we need to ask about this passage. I wanna sort of, first of all, orient us correctly towards this passage in a helpful way, hopefully, to help us understand and interpret this passage. One very important principle of proper Bible interpretation is that it’s the principle of learning how to ask good questions. And this is true if you’re approaching any passage of scripture, but it’s especially the case when we’re dealing with difficult passages of holy scripture.
Asking good questions like, okay, who wrote this? To whom was this passage written? What is the original historical context? What were the issues at play when this was written? And what is it that precedes this passage and follows this passage that can throw light upon the passage and so forth? Now, as an important aside before we consider some of these important questions that are necessary to explore in approaching this passage, I do wanna say, friends, as I’ve mentioned, there is no shortage of wild and wacky and way out interpretations out there of the Olivet Discourse, but at the same time, Let us admit that it is true that this is indeed a very challenging passage of God’s word to interpret. And even very sound Orthodox believing Bible scholars have often interpreted the details of this passage differently from one another.
There are good, godly, sound Bible scholars out there who approach and interpret the details of this passage and come to different conclusions. And I say this because knowing who I’m preaching to, knowing that quite a number of you are well-versed in the scriptures, I will be offering today and in the weeks ahead, I realize that you may not end up agreeing with every detail of interpretation which I’ll be offering in the weeks ahead as I preach through Mark’s account of the Olivet Discourse recorded for us here in Mark chapter 13. However, while the details of interpretation may differ, I would assert to you brothers and sisters that every sound Orthodox Bible scholar and pastor and theologian affirms that at least some parts of our Lord’s teachings here affirm his future glorious second advent at the end of this present age and also affirm that this passage urges us believers to be watchful and ready for our Lord’s return, since as we will see, as Jesus says in verse 32, no one knows the day or the hour.
Jesus’ concern here in this passage is not so much to satisfy our curiosity about the future as to exhort and instruct us to live faithful, watchful lives in the present. So with all of this in mind, what are some helpful or important questions that we can ask ourselves as we approach our text for today? Well, first of all, we need to ask ourselves what prompted our Lord to give this teaching. In other words, what question or questions were our Lord’s disciples asking of Him? What’s the actual subject of discussion that our Lord Jesus is here seeking to address? Understanding how to answer those questions will be very helpful in guiding us as we seek to interpret this passage. Another important question that we need to ask, and which I’ll be addressing in future sermons, is how are we to understand the prophetic and apocalyptic language that our Lord uses in this passage?
Jesus, for example, quoting from the Old Testament, refers to a time when the sun will be darkened and the moon will cease giving its light and the stars will fall to earth from the sky and so forth. How are we to understand that language? How is that language, which is very common in the Old Testament, to be interpreted in terms of how our Lord is using that language here in the Olivet Discourse. The scholars sometimes refer to this as prophetic idioms. So understanding prophetic and apocalyptic language is another important subject to consider. Another important thing to consider in approaching this passage is what precursory signs and time indicators does Jesus use here to answer his disciples’ question or questions? And also another question in closing this consideration of the questions to ask of our passage, are there some details of this passage that are intended to have a double fulfillment?
And if so, how much double fulfillment is taking place? In other words, it would seem, for example, that Jesus is asked about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which took place in 70 AD, and yet Jesus also seems to address the issue of his return at the end of this age. So is there double fulfillment going on here in this passage? So these are just some of the questions we need to ask of this text as we approach it. But with this in mind, let’s dive in. And I want us next to consider the historical context and setting of this passage. And this is my second main point in your outline. Let’s consider the historical context and setting of this passage. And let’s first of all focus on the first four verses. Look at verse one.
As he was going out of the temple, Let me just pause there. Remember, Jesus had been in the temple. This is taking place during Passion Week, during the week leading up to our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection. And Jesus has been in the temple. He’s been disputing with the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the scribes. He’s been having confrontations with them in the temple. And now that time of confrontation is over and Jesus is leaving the temple. And as he’s leaving the temple, what happens? It says, as he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, teacher behold, teacher, rabbi, pay attention. Look, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings. Now the disciples of Jesus here are basically tourists in Jerusalem. And it’s probably likely that some of them at least had been to Jerusalem previously, but here they stand in awe at this glorious structure of the temple.
And indeed, my friends, history teaches that the Jerusalem temple was indeed a magnificent structure. One Bible commentator says this of the temple that existed in the days of the Lord Jesus. It says, Herod the Great began rebuilding the temple in 19 BC using marble and gold as decorative materials. The outer court measured 500 by 300 yards. It was bordered by walls of massive white stones, some of which were 16 feet long. and three to four feet high. On top of these were magnificent covered cloisters or walkways with richly carved wooden ceilings. It was a sight to behold. Indeed, the temple at Jerusalem in the first century was one of the ancient wonders of the world. I think, I forget the exact figures, but I think it took up something like one-sixth of the city of Jerusalem at that time, was taken up by the temple courts and the… of the temple itself and so forth.
Now, it’s also important to consider the spiritual significance of the temple in Jerusalem to the Jewish people. In the Old Testament scriptures, the temple was God’s house. It is often referred to and described in the scriptures as God’s house, meaning God’s palace, the place of his residence. And so it represented God’s gracious reign over his people, as well as his abiding presence with them. The presence of the temple represented to the people of God the stability of God’s covenant promises and his abiding faithfulness to keep those promises. And so to the first century Jewish mind, The destruction of the temple would mean God’s curse, God’s abandonment of his people, and the end of the present world order. Indeed, it would mean the end of the present age. See, to the first century Jewish mind, the destruction of the temple would mean the end of this present cosmos.
It was viewed as, it would be viewed as an event not just of national or local significance, but an event of cosmic significance. But this is precisely what our Lord Jesus predicts in verse two. As the disciples are awestruck by the magnificent structure of the temple and the temple courts and so forth, and the wonderful stones and the wonderful buildings in that temple complex, what does Jesus say? Jesus speaking In his role as the great prophet of God’s people, he is our prophet, priest, and king. And here he speaks a prophecy. Verse 2, Jesus said to him, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down. Now, it’s easy for us, living as we do in the 21st century, being familiar as we are with the course of biblical history and having the full canon of scripture, it’s easy for us to gloss over this and say, oh yeah, yeah, of course, the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, big deal.
We don’t realize how shocking these words must have been. to his disciples. Jesus said, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another until all is destroyed. And then it goes on to say, verse three, as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, they’ve left the temple area and he sits on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple. You can get a good view of the temple from the Mount of Olives. And four of his disciples, Peter and James and John and Andrew, were questioning him privately. And what did they ask him? Look at verse four. Tell us, when will these things be? What things are they referring to? The things having to do with the destruction of the temple. When will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?
Now, let’s consider some contextual clues for properly interpreting this difficult section of teaching here in Mark chapter 13. From what we’ve considered so far, what is the subject under discussion? Well, the subject under discussion is clearly our Lord’s prophecy of the temple’s destruction, which was fulfilled about 40 years after Jesus gave this prophecy in 70 AD Jerusalem and its temple were utterly destroyed by the Romans under the Roman general Titus, and Titus later became the emperor in Rome. And so that is the subject under discussion. And what question or questions are posed to our Lord by these disciples in response to our Lord’s prophetic prediction of the destruction of the temple? Well again, look at verse three. It says, as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning him privately.
And then Mark gives us a summary of what they asked him. Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things, all these things that Jesus was predicting are going to be fulfilled? And so it might seem, at least from Mark’s account, like their focus is primarily on the destruction of the temple. However, keep your finger there in Mark chapter 13. Let’s go to Matthew’s account in Matthew 24, verse three. Matthew, as I said, gives us a fuller account of our Lord’s teachings on the Olivet Discourse. And in Matthew 24, verse three, we read the following. As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen, these things having to do with the destruction of the temple, and what will be the sign of what?
Of your coming and of the end of the age. You see how in the disciples’ minds, the end of the temple, the destruction of the temple, is associated with the end of the present age, the end of the present cosmos even? And so again, there’s two questions on the disciples’ minds. And Jesus addresses in this Olivet Discourse, he addresses both matters. But where does he address both matters, and how does he address it? Well, this leads to another contextual clue for properly understanding and reading this Olivet Discourse is the timeframe saying in verse 30. Look at verse 30, and we’re not gonna focus on this too much today, and I’ll be preaching more on this in future weeks, but in verse 30, Jesus says, truly I say to you, Jesus says, truly, amen, meaning this is important, don’t miss this.
I say to you, Jesus speaking with his divine authority as the Son of God incarnate, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Jesus seems to be saying, in this passage that everything that he predicts, at least up to that point in his discourse, will be fulfilled within his generation, or at least the bulk of it will be fulfilled within this generation. There’s different views about what this generation means, I think the plainest meaning is the obvious meaning. Jesus is speaking about that first century generation. God certainly knows how to tell time. And we’ll be getting more into that in future sermons. But I think another very important contextual clue is the distinction that Jesus makes between those days of tribulation which he refers to, for example, in verses 19 and 24.
And later on, that day, meaning the day of our Lord’s second advent at the end of this present age. In verse 19, Jesus says, for those days, the Greek is hi, hei, merai, ekeinai, those days will be a time of tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation, which God created until now and never will. But then, verse 32, if you skip down to verse 32, but of that day, teis hemeros akenes, of that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. Now, what this seems to be suggesting, beloved, is that in verses 5 through 31, Jesus is primarily focusing on answering the disciples’ question about the destruction of the temple. Whereas in verses 32 through 37, Jesus is predicting the end of the present age, which our Lord will usher in on that day, meaning the day of his glorious future second advent.
So again, think about it. In the disciples’ minds, the destruction of the temple and the end of this age with the return of the Messiah Those things were all intertwined one with another, but Jesus separates those two events of redemptive history. He says, yes, the temple will be destroyed, but the Son of Man will also return. And what does Jesus say about the timing of his return? Verse 32, but of that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. And so, friends, the destruction of Jerusalem was to be marked by precursory signs. But no one can know the day or the hour of our Lord’s second advent. And the suggestion seems to be that the reason that no one knows the day or the hour is precisely because, contrary to popular modern Bible prophecy teaching, there will be no precursory signs of that event.
That’s why, brothers and sisters, we believe that our Lord’s return is imminent, meaning it could happen at any time. Jesus Christ could return in two seconds, or in two years, or in 200 years, or 2,000 years, 200,000 years, we just don’t know. The point is that we are to live in watchfulness and readiness for his return. Couple of lessons or applications I think we can glean from this difficult passage. From difficult passages like this one, beloved, first of all, we learn the importance of seeking to understand God’s Word within its own context and setting and on its own terms. It’s easy for us to read in our own interpretive grid into the Scriptures, and we’re all guilty of the tendency to do that. But the key is to be aware of that tendency. Instead, we need to draw out from scripture.
We need to have our theology informed by the scriptures. We need to exegete the scriptures, not eisegete it by reading into it our own thoughts and ideas. And we need to compare scripture with scripture. Another important lesson we can glean from this passage, beloved, is that God is not impressed by the things that impress fallen sinners. Things like large, impressive buildings. What do the disciples say to Jesus? They say, The temple complex was filled with wonderful stones, wonderful buildings, it was a magnificent structure, but God was not impressed by the structure, and sadly, the Jews in the first century had turned the temple into, pretty much into an idol. They assumed that because the temple was still standing, all was good with God, they were good with God. As long as the temple was there, everything was fine.
But Jesus comes along and tells them that they must repent and that they must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Friends, what do the scriptures indicate that God is most, quote, impressed by? God is impressed, if you will, by those with a humble and contrite spirit, those who fear him and tremble at his word. Your listener, do you fear the Lord? Do you tremble at His Word? And do you recognize your sinfulness? Do you recognize that the Lord, as the sovereign over history, will one day bring you before His holy throne on the Judgment Day, and that all of your thoughts, words, and actions will be exposed before King Jesus on that day? Are you ready for that day? Only if you are united to Christ, only if you are in Christ by faith will you be ready for that final day of reckoning.
Oh, turn from your sin to Jesus Christ. Trust in him and him alone for salvation from sin and you will be saved. God will clothe you in Christ’s righteousness and you will be able to stand on that great judgment day. Another lesson I think we can learn from this passage is that under the new covenant in Christ, we no longer need to worry about an edifice of stone. Certainly it’s a blessing to have our own church building, isn’t it? What a blessing it is. But nevertheless, the church, as you know, the church is not the building. The church is the people of God gathered around the word of God, gathered around the gospel word and sacraments, united to Christ by grace through faith. Christ himself is the fulfillment of the temple. Christ indeed is revealed in scripture as the living temple of God.
He fulfills the imagery and the symbolism of the old covenant temple. And so the disciples are all stressed out and concerned about Jesus’ prophecy about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. But they have the greater temple in their midst. They have Jesus Christ, the living temple, in their midst. That’s the temple they need to be concerned about. And though Christ was to be crucified, he will be raised from the dead on the third day, and he will reign at the Father’s right hand. And the scriptures teach that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit in union with Jesus Christ, as many passages in the New Testament, such as 1 Peter 2, 4 through 12, make clear. But friends, as we wrap up our time in this passage today, and I know that this has sort of been more or less an introduction to issues that we’re going to be getting into in this chapter in the weeks ahead, but there’s some very important warnings and lessons that we read of in verses five through eight, and that brings me to my final point.
Beloved, take to heart our Lord’s warning not to be led astray. So here is Jesus. He makes this prophecy. He gives this prophecy about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which implies that God’s covenant curses are coming upon a faithless apostate Israel who has refused to receive its Messiah. But then, and the disciples are like, when are these things gonna happen? When’s the temple gonna be destroyed? What are the signs of all these things being fulfilled? What’s the first thing Jesus says to them? Does he say to them, well, let me tell you what to be looking for. Number one, number two, number three. Now the first thing he says is this, look at verse five. Jesus began to say to them, see to it that no one misleads you. We are so prone to being misled, aren’t we?
That is why it’s so important for us to be good Bereans, to be students of the scriptures, to be in the word. See to it that no one misleads you. God’s word calls us as his people to exercise discernment. See to it that no one misleads you. misleads you. Why does he say this? Well, he explains in verse six, many will come in my name saying, I am he and will mislead many. And then verse seven, when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, which they would, and which we do today, do not be frightened. Those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” As our Lord Jesus begins to answer the questions posed to him by his disciples, it becomes clear that his main concern is not so much to give them a prophetic forecast for the future in order to fulfill their curiosity, but instead to exhort and to instruct and to warn them so that they might be stable and unwavering in their faith and their loyalty to him, and so that they might be prepared to endure in their faith even in the midst of hostility. and persecution.
We learn from verses 5 and 6, for example, that we are to be warned against being led astray by false Christs. And just as there are many false prophets and false teachers and even some false Christs today, so there were many in that generation who falsely claimed to be the Christ. If you study the history of the first century, of first century Judaism, there were many messianic pretenders that arose in those days, just as there are messianic pretenders and false teachers and false prophets today. And the word of God exhorts us to be on the alert, not to be led astray. And how do you keep from being led astray? Keep yourself in the Word. Test everything by the Word. Test what you’re hearing from me today by the Word of God. Also, I think we can learn from verses seven and eight that we are to be warned against mistakenly interpreting worldwide upheavals as signs of the times.
You know, I sometimes hear fellow believers say things like, well, you know, in reacting to what’s on the news, the latest news cycle, oh, I wonder if this is a sign that we’re in the end times. Aside from the fact that the Bible, the New Testament, teaches that we’ve been in the last days, in the end times, since Jesus died and rose from the dead and poured out the spirit upon the church. These are the last days, and it has been the last days since the first century. But aside from that fact, the assumption is that these national and international upheavals are a sign that the coming of Christ could be just around the corner. Maybe it is, but what does Jesus say here in verses 7 and 8? He says, when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened.
Don’t be frightened. Don’t live anxious lives. God is sovereign. Jesus is essentially saying, I’m still Lord. I’m in control. No need to be frightened. What does he say? Those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. That’s not the end of the cosmos. That’s not the end of the age. Just because there are international upheavals does not mean that the end is yet, that the consummation has come. Kind of sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it? Aren’t there wars and rumors of wars today? Of course, this is one of the points that I think our Lord Jesus is making is that this inter-advent age, this time between our Lord’s first advent and his future glorious second advent will be characterized by these kinds of things, by wars. and rumors of wars. It certainly was the case in that first generation of the Christian church, and it’s the case today.
And then verse eight, for nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Is that happening today? Of course. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will also be famines. Are there earthquakes and famines today? Of course. He says, these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. And that kind of clues us in, the beginning of birth pangs. When birth pangs begin, that means that they’re going to continue and even intensify as until the birth of the child. Friends. As Jesus teaches us here, such things are to be expected in this present evil age prior to our Lord’s return in glory. And such events are not to be viewed as signs that the end of the age is near, but rather, as Jesus says in verse eight, these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
All of this I bring up to drive home the fact that we need to be warned against sensationalism when it comes to Bible prophecy. You know, if I wanted to make a whole boatload of money, what I could do is I could come up with some novel prophetic scheme, some novel scheme of interpreting the Bible, and I could write a book and become a Bible prophecy expert and sell tons of books about predicting when Jesus is gonna return and so forth. There seems to be quite an appetite for that. And a lot of that is fueled by what some have described as newspaper exegesis, reading current events into the scriptures as if, oh, well, this is definitely, this event over here is definitely fulfillment of this passage and so forth. We need to be warned against such newspaper exegesis.
Jesus tells us that in this present evil age, there will be wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation. There will be earthquakes. There will be famines. This is not out of the ordinary. This is the way things will be until our Lord returns in glory. So let us be warned against newspaper exegesis and being led astray by sensationalistic Bible prophecy teachers. And how do we do that? We do that by, again, being in the Word. Let us strive to know sound doctrine and to avoid false teachers and sensationalism. Let us be rooted and grounded in the truth of the Holy Scriptures. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven. We praise you and thank you, God, that Jesus is victorious over sin and death and hell, that he reigns, O Father, at your right hand, and that he will come again for us at the end of this age to usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells.
Give us grace and give us patience to endure through times of tribulation, and we ask, Lord, that you would make us bold soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray and all of God’s people said amen. Let’s rise as we close our time in the Word today. Let’s rise and we’ll sing number 374. All hail the power of Jesus’ name. 374.
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