Well, good evening and welcome to another live broadcast for the Bible Believers podcast. I'm David Macrith, your host, and this is a Christian podcast. We're delighted to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ, to speak about the salvation that comes from God through faith in him, and we pray and hope that what we do will be for his glory. Items of news, well the whole broadcast this evening is about items of news, but I just wanted to mention that I had been out preaching in the open air here in Kidderminster yesterday, and I was thankful for the Lord to be able to do that. There was a little bit of opposition. I put up a photograph which shows that the place I normally stand has been sealed off with large metal sheets. This isn't of course a deliberate attempt by the council to stop me from preaching. I think it would be foolish to think that it was, but in fact what it is is them refurbishing the town hall. But even so, the enemy is obviously trying to move me off that spot. But there are other places in the same town that one can lift up one's voice and speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Good evening, Kim. Good evening, Sonia. Good evening, Micaiah. Good evening, Proverbs 29.2. And good evening, Margaret. Welcome to this Bible Believers podcast. Now the reason for the topic this evening is because in the last 24 hours the US and the United Kingdom have bombed Yemen, the country of Yemen, on the on the Arabian Gulf there. And this is a very significant development in the current destabilized international situation. And I think that from a Christian point of view, it's right to talk about these things. Marcus, welcome. It's good to see you, brother. The Lord be with you, Marcus. Gavin, welcome. And thank you for joining us for this live podcast. So I want to consider the situation globally and with respect to Bible prophecy, and just to encourage us once more to ensure that we're walking with the Lord Jesus, that we're following the Lord Jesus Christ, in these days. I think I've cut the top of my head off there, and I'm going to just reduce this so you can see that the top of my head is almost there. There we go. Apologies, should have got that sorted out before. So let's read the Bible, which is the Word of God. I'm looking in Matthew's Gospel chapter 24. I could have read the parallel passages in Mark or in Luke, but in Matthew's Gospel chapter 24, and we'll read from verse 4 to verse 14. Let us hear the Word of God And Jasna, welcome from Slovenia. And Lan, welcome from the United States, welcome. Matthew 24, verse four. And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. and then the end shall come. Father, we ask and pray that you would bless this Bible reading to us, that you would help us to understand in the days in which we live where we are, to lift up our eyes to heaven and to wait in expectation for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ on the clouds of heaven, We ask, Father, that you would help us not to be among those whose hearts grow cold, but to those who persevere, those who remain faithful to the end, those who continue to walk with the Lord Jesus. And Father, in order to do that, we need your grace, we need your mercy, we need your help in everything. Without you, without your grace, we are powerless, Lord. but by your grace we can stand. And we ask, Lord Jesus, that we'll be among those who stand and remain faithful to the end. Oh Lord, give us this grace. Keep us by that grace. Thank you that when we came to know Jesus at the first, our sins were forgiven. We found peace with God. We found mercy. We found salvation. And Father, if we have that salvation, we pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would remain our first love in all things at all times. We ask and pray, Lord Jesus, that you'd forgive us for our sins and cleanse us in your own precious blood. So we ask and pray that you'd be with us tonight as well, and keep us by your grace, and help us, Lord, as we study your word, help us to understand it, Lord, and to again give us wisdom in the days in which we live. Father, I want to pray for those who are sick among us, and those who are distressed among us, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you would particularly bless those who aren't well, Lord, those who may be facing hospital treatment, Lord. I pray that you would be mightily with them, and that you would keep them by your grace, and that they would make a full and excellent progress in the recovery of their health. and be with each one of us, Lord, and meet us according to our needs and have mercy upon us now, as we commend ourselves to you in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. Amen. Again, Leon, welcome, and Jasna in Slovenia, welcome. Again, it's really great to have you along with us at Jasna. As far as I know, you're the only one that's joining us from Slovenia, so we count you very precious for that reason, and thank God for you. Of course, if God wants to send us many more people to the podcast from Slovenia, we'd be very happy to welcome them all as well, and from any country. Yes, so we are living, these are tumultuous times, these are times when we cannot ignore the world stage, where we cannot look away from what's going on and even what's happened in the last 24 hours could end up affecting us all. The RAF and the American military have bombed Yemen, they bombed Houthi rebels who are supported by Iran, and we hope or we believe from the news reports that they have inflicted considerable damage on the Houthi military mechanism. And the reason for this was because the Houthis were firing missiles into the Gulf of Aden and they were putting international shipping at risk so that much of the world's commerce has been stopped or affected as a result of this. Ships have even been seized. And so what we find is this, that a situation is fast spiraling out of control. This began of course with the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi rebels under Iranian support had been firing missiles towards Israel and the Americans had been shooting them down. And also I think the British had shot some down as well with their warships. And this is a very significant development, even to the point where somebody today was saying, I don't know whether anybody follows Scott Ritter, he's a military expert who does many, many interviews on YouTube about the military situation. I don't always agree with him, but I'm certainly not a military expert, but I think you'll find that others will balance his views. But on this, he did an interview and this interview was entitled, Turkey and Iran go to war. on behalf of the Houthis, I think. It was something like that. And this was a very significant headline. Now, as it turned out, I listened to the whole broadcast and there really wasn't anything about Turkey and Iran formally joining any wars. So it was clickbait. But the thing is, if you ever hear that Turkey and Iran are military combining to march south, then really you must prick up your ears because it may be that this is the beginnings or the actual fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Because when scripture tells us about Gog of Magog, it tells us about the prince from the far north who is going to come and invade Israel and be defeated on the mountains of Israel. The armies of Turkey and the army of Persia or Iran, modern day Iran, will be with them and they also will be defeated. We have this extraordinary situation where the war in the Ukraine isn't going well for the West. The Russians appear to be winning this and there's much talk in the West about what happens next. And so we have the Russians already at war, and we have this situation with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, supported by Iran, and all of this speculation that's going on. But more and more, the world's military resources are being focused on this. In addition, you can talk about what's going on elsewhere. You can talk about the ratcheted up nuclear threat and non-nuclear military threat between North and South Korea. The tension there seems to be very strong, and the ever-present tension of the Chinese threatening to invade Taiwan. But one way or another, A year ago I was probably saying something about the rider on the red horse in Revelation having power to take peace from the earth and saying we should see what's going on. Well, peace hasn't been established since then. There's been no ratcheting down, but ratcheting up. Yes, it's taken time, and it's taken time to get to the point where we are, but nevertheless the situation is destabilizing all the time. The Houthi rebels from Yemen, having been bombed last night by the RAF and by the American military, the Houthi rebels have now said they will attack London. Now, this is an extraordinary thing, but how could that be? Well, in Western nations, we know very well how that could be. Peter Charney, welcome, brother, you're welcome. We know very well how that could be because our countries are full of people from all over the world, from different backgrounds, from different conflicts. Some of them come to their countries and agree with the countries they come to, and some of them hate the countries they come to. But in these situations, and having seen the marches on our own streets, for example, in Toronto, there's a lot about Toronto in the press and about the pro-Hamas demonstrations in Toronto and also in London and in New York, that these protests show us that our nations have factions within them that are potentially opposed to anything that our governments do, militarily, for example. I'm choosing my words carefully because I have to. So if the Houthis wanted to launch an attack in London, as they've now said they will in revenge, then they must have people in London who can do that. Now, again, I'm not a police officer, I'm not a military person, but I'm simply saying that as Christians, there is this ratcheting up, there's this taking a piece from the earth, there is this involvement of nations which are biblically spoken of as nations that will have a role in fulfilling prophecy at the very end of the age. This, of course, is what we're reading about in Matthew 24. I mentioned Toronto, by the way, but I saw in a redacted article yesterday that taxes have just gone up by 10% in Toronto because of the problem of illegal immigration. And these are the similar problems to the ones we're having in the UK. But imagine if I was living in Toronto, I'd be very concerned about that. And imagine the people in Toronto, if that's true, the people in Toronto are not at all happy about that at the moment. Sally, welcome to you from Guildford. And your grandchildren, bless them. And Catherine, welcome. All of these things show a situation, an unstable global situation, which is getting out of hand. And then also in the news this week, because it seems as though things are winding down in Russia, in the Ukraine, Russia seems to be winning and Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, not president of Russia, president of Ukraine, is desperately begging the West for more arms and more weapons. And for the last two years, the West has been pouring weapons into the Ukraine. I think the idea was that we should defeat Russia there, use Ukraine as our battleground, and pouring weapons in. And there are those who on the one hand are saying that the West has run out of weapons, and on the other hand, that Russia is manufacturing weapons at a faster rate than ever before. And I say that because this week, Sweden announced that there was a significant risk of invasion of Sweden, in the Baltics by Russia. I think the Swedish Minister for Defense announced that the risk was so great that young people should sign up to organizations which were set for the defense of Sweden against Russia if there was ever an invasion. Russia herself has been talking about invading the Baltic states and Estonia, and now there seems to be a bilateral discussion about the possibility that Russia could invade Poland. Poland, on her eastern border, has an enormous army there to stop the Russians from invading. They invaded in World War II and defeated Poland very easily. The Poles, I'm sure, would never easily allow that to happen again. But having said that, The talk is now of Russia sweeping into Poland, into the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and so on, and Finland and Sweden. And this is extraordinary. If Ukraine falls, if the West has used up its weapons or is otherwise occupied in the Middle East, then Russia could expand. Now, I don't know if that's going to happen, but the fact is these are governments that are talking about this. We are in an unstable situation. The enemy is in our own midst. is peace being taken from the world? Are we looking at the red horse of Revelation chapter 6 who has the power to take peace from the earth? I was saying this a year ago, I was saying this two years ago, but as Christians the reason for saying it is that we must be aware of the times in which we live, we must be concerned for the times in which we live, we must live according to the times. If as Christians we just say the Bible has nothing to say to us about this or we don't see any signs prophecies being fulfilled or people like David or others are just interpreting the Bible from what they read in the newspapers or online because we don't seem to have paper papers anymore, the fact of the matter is we're missing the point that there are definite clear prophecies in scripture which are to be fulfilled. If we go to Matthew 24, some people will say, and they're my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I'm sure they say this in good conscience, this only refers to the sacking of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. I believe that Matthew 24 very much does refer to the sacking of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. But it goes beyond that. There is a dual fulfillment of this prophecy. There is a dual fulfillment whereby not only does it refer to the sacking of Jerusalem, but it refers to the far greater, far more tumultuous events which take place at the end before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those are the days in which we're living. When the Lord Jesus in Matthew here talks about, and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, and he says, see that you be not troubled, I believe he's talking about the whole time between his first coming and his second coming. There have always been wars. There have always been rumors of wars. Of course, there are more rumors of wars now because we have the internet, we have satellite communications, and we can hear about things much more easily. But these things have always been there, and it might have been throughout history that whenever there was a war, there was a major conflict, the people looked up and they thought, this must be a sign that Jesus is returning. And for every single one of those wars to date, the Lord Jesus hasn't returned. unless you're an extreme praetorist saying that Jesus returned in A.D. 70, which quite frankly is a ridiculous notion. The Lord Jesus has not returned bodily to this earth yet. He will return on the clouds of heaven and every eye shall see him. I think that would have been reported even in A.D. 70 if it had happened. That's complete praetorism. But the Lord Jesus Christ I believe, said these things to show us that we shouldn't soon be moved, that we shouldn't soon be challenged, we shouldn't soon think that the Lord Jesus is going to return today or tomorrow. I mean, even in my own Christian life, there have been times when events have occurred where I've thought, well, that's it, the end must be very near indeed, very, very near indeed, and it wasn't. And I can explain two of those, and I will mention two of those shortly. that for me I've had to learn that the time scale has been longer than I thought it would be and many of us have had to learn that those of us who thought that the Lord was going to return in the 1970s because there was a big movement saying that and then then in the 1980s and so on the Lord has delayed about 50 years hasn't he and not returned but even so all of the signs are ratcheting up in the world we have global We have the removal of peace globally. We have Russia with mighty armies. We have Israel restored as a nation in 1948. And I do believe that was a sign from God. But if you go back to Spurgeon's time during the Crimean War, they thought this was a sign that the Lord might return very soon because there was a possibility from the Crimean conflict of the Jews returning to Israel then. They had the Balfour Declaration in 1926 regarding the land of Palestine being given to the Jews. and at that time I think it was that they could move there, relocate there. And then of course there was 1970 when Jerusalem was taken. And then in 1990 there was the first Gulf War and as a younger man, as a younger Christian, many of us were taken away by this. Now I was with a lot of people who don't believe that God has any further plan for Israel, so they said we can't see any signs that any Bible prophecy is being fulfilled. To me it was leaping off the page and in 1990 when Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, invaded Kuwait and the United Kingdom, and I think we called Great Britain then, and the U.S. invaded Kuwait and restored the country to its rightful rulers, many of us thought that this was the beginnings of a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and we thought then that might lead to a domino effect which led to the conflicts which were in the scriptures, and that the end could be very near. But it wasn't the case. I think every single one of these conflicts has been significant in moving us a bit closer to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. There was the Gulf War. Well, first of all, then there was the 9-11 attacks. Now, it's hard to say. I can't find in Scripture anything that tells me that the 9-11 attacks were in Scripture. I don't think they are in Scripture. But having said that, I don't think there's any real doubt that 9-11 in 2001 When the Twin Towers, some will say were demolished, when the Twin Towers came down, that extraordinary event changed the whole direction of the world and changed the tempo and the pace of things that were going. Of course, what followed that was the Second Gulf War. We could make the same mistake of thinking that the Second Gulf War was going to lead to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. a Middle East conflict, and so we can be wrong. We can be wrong about these things, and I was wrong. Of course, those who say God has no further plan for Israel, of course, very quick to point out our errors. I wasn't making prophecies. I was saying maybe this could happen. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus says you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you're not in trouble, see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass." I think there's something of a restraint there. Don't be overzealous to interpret world events as fulfillments of Bible prophecy. Expect these things and don't be soon shaken by them, because being human as we are, it's very, very easy for us to do that. So what's different about the present time? What makes us think that this time is different from those? Well, first of all, we have the restoration of the nation of Israel. Secondly, we have the rising of globalization and one thing that you're going to see and we're seeing again and again and again in the things that are taking place in the Middle East and in the Ukraine is every single time something happens, everybody goes off to the United Nations to seek the approval of the United Nations for whatever military action they want to take. This is massively, it seems, improving or increasing or elevating the strength of the United Nations, all part of globalization, which I think is something that we find is a very clear thing regarding the end times and the days just before the Lord Jesus returns. And then we have this taking a piece from the earth and again looking at where we are now with the Ukraine and the threat to Poland and the threat to Sweden and the threat to Finland and the threat to Lebanon, Israel's talking about invading Lebanon, and the threat to Iran and Turkey, who are far from neutral in this situation, even though they haven't formally announced they're joining any kind of war, they're far from neutral in this situation. And all of the military resources that are being drawn into the Middle East, and all those ships in the Gulf and so on, and the Gulf of Aden. What we find here is this, that things are ratcheting up. Again, if this isn't the beginnings of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, we might expect that maybe there'll be a big war, and it'll just end, and then we'll wonder, when will this prophecy be fulfilled? We haven't seen this picture before. I grew up during the Cold War, when we were told about the 10-minute warning, or some would call it the four-minute warning. But we were told that any time we could be nuked and vaporized by the USSR, the Soviet Russia, because of the standoff between the East and the West. And when we were young as children, as boys, teenagers, we used to have a lot of fun dressing up in military uniforms and being in either army or air cadets. I was both. and a great adventure for us as teenagers. But, of course, behind that, they were trying to recruit us into the armed forces because there was such a great military threat of Russia coming across the border into West Germany and taking over Europe. Well, Europe is about to be taken over by Russia now in a completely different scenario, but it seems that this is a more dangerous time militarily for the world than even during the cold war and maybe we've even got beyond or maybe we're going to get beyond the uh the crisis which john f kennedy was involved in the cuban missile crisis in the 1960s i think it was 1960s but These times and these days we are living in look as though they are the end times. They look as though the Bible prophecy is about to be fulfilled. They look as though we are in the end days. Because of that, we as Christians need to be savvy. We need to be switched on. And the Lord Jesus is giving us advice in this chapter about how we should behave. Here he says, see that you be not troubled. But I am troubled by these things, but Jesus tells me not to be troubled. So I need to take that to the Lord in prayer. And nations shall rise against nation. We know that there shall be famines. Revelation chapter six tells us of a global famine. We could talk about that. We could talk about the farmers protests in Germany, protesting under the banner, no farmers, no food. because the governments are stopping farmers from growing food. And very soon, and of course, if ships can't get through the Gulf and through the Suez Canal and the goods aren't freely traveling between the nations very soon, you might see a breakdown of the supply chains and a breakdown of agriculture and a breakdown of everything leading to global famine. Now we are living in these days and these are perplexing times and we can't turn our backs on this. Those who say peace, peace, when there is no peace. One of the possible scenarios is this, that what could happen is that at this moment in time, the situation gets ratcheted up. Russia and Turkey and Iran and other nations get involved, and America and the United Kingdom and France and other nations get involved, and China wants to invade Taiwan, and there's a war just about to break out, and the Antichrist arises. This is one possible scenario. It's one we've covered before, The Antichrist arises and he becomes a man of peace and the world worships him. He saves the world from nuclear war. He saves the world from complete meltdown. That's one possible scenario. I think that would be possible within the remit of Scripture. Again, we have to see how these things work out. And he'll be saying, peace, peace, but there is no real peace. This gives me a chance to warn again, never take the mark of the beast. Those of us who were discussing earlier in the week about John MacArthur's position on the mark of the beast, I want a little more time to look into that, and I hope next week I'll be able to talk about that. I'm a long, long way from walking away from John MacArthur, because his teaching has been such a blessing to me. So some of you will want to raise that now, but I'm hoping to look at that next week. I thank God for John MacArthur and his ministry, but I do want to accurately define what he's teaching. But there is a coming mark, there is a coming antichrist, there is a coming mark, there is a coming image that we should not bow down and worship Maybe we'll see in this day, as things spiral out of control, as the Houthis do whatever they claim they're going to do in London, and as more and more missiles get fired, and as the war spreads from Israel, and as these wars coalesce from Russia and from Israel itself outwards, Even this week in the press, there's talk about Israel attacking Iran without any support from the Americans, for example. This is what's going on. This is what people are talking about in the press. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm not a military analyst, but these things are being spoken about. Good morning, Sandra, from Sydney. Welcome. And good evening from England, Sandra. We have the situation, and I think that most of you, not all of you, but most of you will agree that this is a unique situation. And whatever we've thought about Gulf Wars and Six Day Wars and Yom Kippur Wars and 1948 and all that, we're now living in a situation that looks far, far more advanced than things have been previously. So we don't know what's going to happen, but how would you defuse this situation? How would you stop these wars from spreading? How would you stop the escalation? These are things that man can't stop. But at the same time, not only do evil men have their agenda to start these wars, but Satan is behind these wars, isn't he? He wants to destroy the people of God. He wants to destroy the gospel. Satan wants to destroy the Jews, and he wants to stop the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Antichrist arises, that will be Satan's priority. He'll be seeking to change times and seasons, according to Daniel. But above all that, these are God's purposes. So if we're alarmed, if we're distressed, if we're concerned about what's going on, we need to see the hand of God in this. We need to see that everything that's going on in the Middle East, or in the Ukraine, and in Europe, or in the Far East, everything that's going on is going on, or in Toronto, or New York, or in Texas, or wherever it is. that whatever's going on, God's hand is above it and behind it, and that everything is under his sovereign command and control, and that these things must happen, and that they're going to happen before the Lord Jesus Christ returns. And so what about us? What about you and me? What about us when these things are going on? Well, there are several things that we should consider. First of all, To be absolutely sure of our salvation. Sorry, just going to check the comments. Conan Labish, yes, welcome and thank you for your comment, Conan. So first of all, let us check or let us be sure, absolutely sure of our salvation. Let's not be found wanting. The amazing thing is this, it doesn't matter what Bible prophecies are fulfilled and how much you speak to people and say, well, this looks like the mark of the beast or this looks like Gog of Magog. The people of the world will not understand what's going on. And even if you speak to them about the Bible, very few of them will understand. Their hearts have been darkened, their minds have been darkened. They'll say, oh, what a strange coincidence, if that's in the Bible, but they will never understand the significance that this is the word of God, and this is because of God's sovereign power over the nations. So we need to be sure of our salvation. We need to be sure that we belong to Jesus Christ, that we are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are trusting Jesus Christ alone, for our salvation, for our forgiveness, for everlasting life. The only possible way that we can face the days in which we live is by being Christians. You see, all of this, if peace is taken from the world, it's going to affect every one of us. this problem, this breakup of the global supply chain by the Middle East conflict, is going to affect every one of us. It's going to put up the price of fuel even more. It's going to put up the price of food and goods even more. For us, that's just the beginning of sorrows. What about if there's a breakdown in the international financial situation? What about if there's a breakdown in law and order in our own town or our own country? Are you in Jesus Christ? Now again, we become Christians because we are seeking everlasting life. We're thinking of the world to come, as well as this world, and our main focus isn't on the things of this world, it's on heaven, and it's on the things to come. Are we Christians Are we looking to Jesus Christ seated on the throne of heaven? Are we trusting in him? Have we confessed our sins to God? Have we repented of our sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for the saving of our souls? The first thing and the absolutely vital thing is in days like these, which are going to get worse and worse, are we trusting in Jesus Christ to get alone. I said they're going to get worse and worse in Scotland. If parents have a boy and he wants to wear dresses and they say no, then those parents can now be sent to prison for up to seven years, according to the news. That's the way Scotland is going and that's very, very tragic. It's the way that England and other countries will go as well, because of the madness of our sin, because of the days in which we live. I just want to really comment here, Jasna. Jasna, you're absolutely right, never take the mark of the beast. I'm still looking into this, but never take the mark of the beast, but John MacArthur by and large is sound and his teaching has been a real blessing to me, but if he teaches that, and essentially I found some evidence that 44 years ago he'd said that, but I don't know what he said more up to date and I think there must be a statement somewhere or perhaps one can write to him and ask, but But yes, never take the mark of the beast. The Bible is absolutely clear. I think I'll deal with this next Wednesday morning in a live broadcast, God willing, but never take the mark of the beast. But you can die before the mark of the beast, or you can die without the mark of the beast and still go to hell if you don't know Jesus Christ. If you take the mark of the beast, you'll be damned forever because the Bible says so, because God says so. But if you don't take the mark of the beast and yet don't find Jesus Christ, your lot is no better. You're still under the wrath of God. You're still in your sins. Be sure that you know the Lord Jesus. Be sure that you're trusting in his death and his blood shed upon the cross of Calvary. So with that goes, be sure of our salvation. Be sure of our walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. Day by day, am I seeking to serve the Lord Jesus Christ? Ahead, I see trouble. I see trouble on every hand. I see the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I see trouble with diseases and famines and wars and the Antichrist arising. And am I ready for that? Well, walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Walk a straight path with the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't turn aside to the left or to the right, but walk a straight path with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a challenge for you and it's a challenge for me, but that is our reasonable service as Christians, presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. And then we need to be sure of our peace. I've said already that Jesus said, be not troubled. But actually, when I heard about the bombings in Yemen this morning, I was very troubled. I thought, suddenly my world is out of control, is spinning out of control. Suddenly I'm not living in a stable world. None of us were when the lockdowns came, which I have grown up in, which I've lived in all my life, where everything was comfortable and easy, and now suddenly the world is out of control. So I didn't feel untroubled, and I didn't feel peaceful about this when I heard it. So the question is, how can we have peace in a world that has no peace? The world says, peace where there is no peace. I've got three verses written down. 1 Thessalonians 5. They'll be saying peace and safety and then sudden destruction comes upon them. That's the world thinking that it's solved the problem of war, thinking that it has a world ruler who some will think of as the Jewish messiah and even the second coming of Christ, but he will be the antichrist, not the real thing. and he will say, peace, peace, and the world will breathe a huge sigh of relief and say, peace, peace, but there is no peace. That's 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 3. Oh no, sorry, yes, verse 3 and 4. When they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. I've written down 1 Peter 5, 7. So looking for peace in this world, you won't find it. Looking for peace in Jesus Christ, you will find it. That's the peace. That's the only peace that's worth having. The peace with God. Peace that passeth all understanding. The peace that Jesus gives us. 1 Peter 5 verse 7. We're told to cast all our care upon him, for he careth for you. God cares for us. He cares for you. He cares for every one of us. He cares for those of us who are ill and going to hospital. He cares for those of us who are poor and need his help and support. Whoever we are, God gives us all good things. and we're to return our thanks to him. But God cares for us and we can cast all our care upon him because he cares for us. God cares for me, he cares for you because you belong to Jesus and he sees you and he knows you and you can cast all of your care on God. That's a recipe for peace, casting all our care. Lord, I was troubled this morning by the bombing of Yemen and I lost my peace. Lord, please carry that trouble for me and give me your peace. and help me to walk in this troubled world as a man of peace, when all around me are losing their heads, when all around me are falling apart, help me to show that the Lord Jesus Christ, who I love and whom I serve, has given me his peace." Romans 15, 33. We read, Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. God is the God of peace, and he is with us. Paul is reminding the Romans of that. He is our God. He is our peace. So if we know Jesus and we are walking with Jesus, then we are kept by his peace. That's the only way. We need his peace. It's a supernatural peace. It's a peace that comes from God, but it's a peace that says that I know whatever my situation, I know whatever happens, I know that whatever's going on in the world, I know that I'm in Jesus Christ, that my God cares for me. I think Psalm 33 says that he's able to feed us in times of famine. He feeds his people in times of famine. For example, that God is the God who is in control, in charge, is sovereign over me, my ways, my paths, the things that lie ahead for me also. So we need to be sure of our peace. And the more peace we have, which comes from God, the more our light shines in a world that lacks peace. And if like me, you're prone to worry about stuff, then this is something that you can pursue in prayer with the Lord. How great, how wonderful that we can speak to the Lord, that we can cast our care on him, that we have a listening ear in heaven, and that he is not just somebody who listens and is impotent, but that he is the God who hears and answers our prayers before we cry to him. What a God is this, the God that we have, the God who has received us to himself, adopted us into his own family because of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And then finally to be warning others, and again I keep saying this, but I would much rather say that the day is very near, that Lord Jesus Christ's return is at hand, that this is clear in the Scriptures, that we're seeing things which are very possibly going to turn out to be the massive fulfilment of biblical prophecy, and then find that I was wrong. than to say there's nothing to worry about, carry on as you are, it's okay, and then prove to be wrong and prove that by my actions and by my silence that others had passed on and perished. We need to warn Christians, we need to warn the churches, we need to warn the world that God is sovereign, that this age is coming to an end, and that Jesus Christ will very soon return. And again, for us as Christians, that is the most glorious, most wonderful thing. We could imagine that the Lord Jesus would return, there'd be no more suffering, there'd be no more pain, and that there would be the kingdom of God, the new heavens and the new earth. but of course it's a terrible time, a terrible day for the ungodly who will find themselves cast into the lake of fire. So we also need to be speaking and warning and studying and lifting up our voices and saying, look, if America and the UK were bombing Yemen, it's high time that people had peace with God, that they were reconciled to him, that they were prepared for whatever comes next. We're of course talking about, we're talking about you know, conventional war, but what if nuclear war broke out tonight? What if all those nuclear missiles were launched tonight and everything in the world was destroyed? And we weren't ready because we said, well, I've got a little time, you know, we'll wait and see if Russia invades Sweden, we'll wait and see. But also Russia is talking about using nuclear weapons because Ukraine is talking about sending missiles against Russia's missile silos. And Putin has responded and said quite plainly, he will use nuclear weapons if they attack his nuclear arsenal. What if that were to happen this evening? Are we ready? Are we prepared for anything? This world is passing away. The things we've taken for granted, the stable things, the things which seem to have been around for generations, are passing away. Our societies no longer have the boundaries of law and order in the way that they had. And again, we have globalization and all of these other things. So are we ready for the days in which we live? As Christians we can encourage one another, pray for one another, but let's keep our walk with the Lord Jesus close, because that will keep us in these days. Let's not be those whose hearts grow cold, who fall away, but let's be those who persevere to the end. So in verse 19 there, I was looking at Romans, but I was thinking again in Matthew 24. And just coming back to this, but it says, And because of iniquity shall abound, and iniquity is certainly abounding in our days, there's no question about that. The love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Then the only possible happy outcome is that we endure to the end, and we can endure to the end, and we will, Gavin, yes, endure to the end and be saved if we cast ourselves on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where I trust and hope I am this evening, and I hope that every one of us is. if you're not, turn to Jesus Christ, seek him, call on his name, confess your sins to God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll find that salvation that comes from God. Father, we ask and pray in these days that you'd help us to be Christians who are aware of what's going on in the world, Christians who are students of Bible prophecy, and Christians who are cast upon you for our peace, trusting you for our salvation alone, through the blood of Jesus Christ alone, delighting and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus, looking for his coming, Father. We pray, Maranatha, O Lord, send your Son, Father, send your Son back to us. Oh Lord, end this age. We are weary as we see the wickedness all around us. We see and we hear of things which are unimaginably wicked and we grieve and mourn because of the blasphemies around us and the godlessness and the idols and the covetousness and all the other things going on. And we mourn also, Father, because of our own sins and our own weakness, Lord. We too, Father, are tempted to fall away because it's so easy, Lord. But this is unthinkable to us if we belong to Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you'd revive us, that you pour your Spirit out upon us, that you deliver us from cold hearts, Lord. Deliver us from the hearts that become cold overnight, or the hearts that very, very slowly cool down until We are cold and we cannot warm ourselves up again because we've lost the fire. Father, keep us close to the Lord Jesus, because of our sins we are so prone to wander, we're so prone to walk away, and we are so charmed at times by this world and its attractions and its distractions and its temptations. Father, we need grace. We need much grace, and you promise us much grace. We are casting our care upon you, Father, saying that we are not strong enough to persevere to the end. Yet we must, and we want to, Father, but we are weak, and yet you are strong. Father, we ask that the Lord Jesus Christ would be our first love, and we ask that you keep us by your grace at all times. O Lord, we continue to pray for Hatun Tash, that you'd have mercy upon her, and those also who work at the Speaker's Corner in London, and that many more Muslims would find the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would find him to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Father, we continue to pray for Christians in Gaza and in Yemen, Lord, that you'd have mercy upon them, and in Israel, Lord, that you'd have mercy upon them, and that the gospel would spread in these places, even under conditions of war. And we ask and pray, Heavenly Father, again, that you watch over us and have mercy upon us, our households, our families, Lord, especially our loved ones that don't know you, Lord, that they would find you, that they would turn to you, that they would believe on you for the salvation of their souls. We ask that you be with each one of us now, in Jesus' precious and lovely name. Amen. Amen. Sometimes I think, yes, I'm going to persevere to the end. I feel I could do that. And then sometimes I think, I'm so weak, and it would be so easy for me to fall, but for the grace of God. And we're all dependent upon the grace of God, absolutely dependent upon the grace of God. Thank you, Lan, for your encouraging comment. God bless you, Lan. And I'm praying for that thing you asked me to pray for, very much so, yes. So what do people think? I mean if you don't agree, there are many lovely Christian brothers and sisters in Christ who wouldn't agree with this interpretation of prophecy. It seems very clear to me, but they're no less my brothers and sisters in Christ. We're not saved by our views on prophecy, we're saved by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christians do disagree on these things, but it seems to me that what's going on in the world today can't be ignored, it can't be overlooked. The Gog and Magog wars, where have they ever occurred in history? This is yet to happen. This is not a small thing that's described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. So we'll see what happens. Thank you, Sally, for that. I think some of you might have detected I was a little nervous when I started. My mind was being a bit distracted, but thank you for praying for me, and I'm very glad for that. Some of you will have seen that I've got a second channel, and I've put links to that in the community section of this channel. And the reason for that is there's not enough space on one channel to put up lots of readings of Christian books and Spurgeon's sermons and other works. And so I've set up a second channel to basically do that because, as I say, I want to share the reading that I do for my own edification with others. It just seems to me it takes the same amount of time to read it out loud as it does to read it silently. And it's very often a blessing to others as well. And I've taken on what I hope to do here is to, this is Spurgeon's devotional Bible. This isn't the same as Spurgeon's morning and evening. That's very good. And I've got a copy of that as well, which a Christian lady in Hull gave me. But this is Spurgeon's devotional Bible. I'm hoping to go through the whole of this, and that is over 700 five-minute sections, because there's such a great body of teaching there, and it's sheer delight just to read it, but to record it and put it up on YouTube is a great blessing too. So I just want to, plugging them, I'm saying please go to the other channel. And also in the pipeline, I'm not going to say much about this, but also in the pipeline, we're hoping to set up some podcasts. And the objective there is to spread the ministry, is to reach unbelievers and to grow the work. And my prayer is that this work would grow. I'm very keen that if I've said anything that's honoring to the Lord, that will be heard by many other people as well. Of course, if I've said things which are purely from my own flesh or errors, or mistakes then that's my own failing and I expect that I'm not a perfect preacher by any means but that I prefer wouldn't spread but nevertheless may God use this ministry for his glory and thank you for every one of you that's with us this evening and a blessing to have each one of us here and We have Canada, we have the United States, we've got Australia, we've got Slovenia, and we've got England. Guildford, I used to live near Guildford. I spent my childhood years near Guildford in Surrey, in the south there of England, southeast of England. So just thank the Lord. for bringing us together here, and by God's grace I value your prayers, I need your prayers. The next live broadcast, God willing, will be on Monday evening at 9pm UK time, and I value your prayers for that. There's a spiritual war going on. Several things have happened to me this week which which tell me that I'm under attack. And I still have this problem with, this is a bit embarrassing to talk about, but I still have this problem crossing roads in Kidderminster. And I ended up hit by a car. I wasn't hurt, but this wasn't even crossing a road. I was walking on the pavement and the car reversed out of a drive into me. A very embarrassed and very apologetic woman got out and said, oh, I'm terribly sorry I hit you. And I said, I don't think it's anything to worry about. I shall go on my way and forget about this, but don't worry about it. But yeah, the work is under attack. There's a spiritual war going on and we must be prayerful and we must be mindful of that in these days. So please I value your prayers and anyone who prays for this ministry is very much a part of it and we are wrestling, we're fighting, we are and we're hoping that God will use this. Again, with this ministry, the live broadcast, we're often talking to Christians, but if we were to start to hear people saying in the comments, I've just found Jesus Christ, or I understand now, or praise God, I've found salvation or something like that, that God would use these broadcasts as well as an evangelistic tool and that the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God would work and draw people to Jesus and save people through this channel. That would be so, so thrilling. And that's very much my prayer and desire that it would be used in that capacity as well as in the capacity of bringing us all together to enjoy fellowship together. Although I'm the one that does all the talking, and the Bible does say we should be slow to speak and quick to listen, and here I am doing all the talking, but the technology makes that necessary. So, Kim, we all enjoy. Thank you very much, Kim, for your comment. Please continue. Thank you, Kim. I will do that by popular request. I will continue, and I find that daunting. It is daunting, but what I'll try and do is I'll try and say what I think I know. I'll try and build up and encourage people, and I'll try and strengthen people by God's grace. Of course, it's not me. It's God, his word, and his spirit, but with God's help, my prayer is that what I can say on Revelation will be an encouragement and a strength to us all. The idea that I could understand it all is too much, but I think I can. We went through revelation. We went through that in our family worship over several years, so a number of times we read through revelation. We did a chapter every day in our family worship, and every single time we were blessed, and we had lots to talk about, and we had lots to encourage us, even if we didn't talk about how exactly we believed prophecy should be fulfilled. We found that the Revelation is a book that glorifies Jesus Christ, and if we spoke about that and focused on that, then we were blessed. Yes, Sally, again, might we do Zoom? And I've been promising for about a year now we do Zoom and we're getting closer to that. Yeah, just keep on at me, and it would be lovely to see everybody and to let others talk and to discuss things. Obviously the purpose of the Zoom would be to pray together, so the content of the prayer would be important. We could pray for our countries, we could pray for our towns, and pray for the work of the Lord in these days. And again, because this is this ministry, I value your prayers for Kidderminster. If the gospel breaks through in one place, it doesn't have to be my ministry, somebody's ministry, but if the gospel breaks through in Australia or if it breaks through in Canada, if it breaks through here in England or any other country, Slovenia or the US, but if it breaks through anywhere, our prayer is simply that it would break through and that it would spread like fire in revival, true revival, conviction of sin, repentance for sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Can I ask, Margaret, why the comments about my eyes? Have you noticed something that I need to... No, this is what it is. Okay, I'm sitting in front of a camera, and I'm looking into the camera, and that's at the focal range of my glasses. I do get eye checks, thank you, Margaret. But what I'm doing is I've got a screen behind the camera, and because of the focal range of the glasses, which is about there, in order to see the comments on the screen, I have to bend over and look at the comments in order to read them. Because I haven't got a single pair of glasses that enables me to do that. So it's not because there's something wrong with my eyes. It's just the way I've got things set up. And that's probably how it's going to stay. I could get varifocals, but I don't like varifocal glasses. But there we are. Gavin Pate. Thank you very much Gavin, and Gavin I pray that you'd be richly blessed, encouraged, and strengthened in the Lord Jesus, that you would, as all of us, that you would grow in grace, and that the Lord would guide you and direct you in all the paths of your life, and that he bless you and yours. Sorry, Margaret, it sounds very dramatic, but essentially it hit me at about two miles an hour and stopped. And so I wasn't hurt, but it did tell me, it did remind me, Margaret, that this car that hit me did remind me that I'm in a spiritual war. And one of the ways that the enemy seems to attack my open air preaching is by trying to knock me down on my way to or back from those situations. And it just keeps happening. Now, I put down some of that to my getting older and grumpier, and I'm not paying attention as I should, and more impatient, so that I'm less patient to cross the road. And so I take more risks, but I'm not as fast as I used to be. So a lot of that is just human, and it's something that I need to sit down and think about. But the fact is that the enemy is trying to stop this work, I believe, and it does worry me that there seems to be repeated incidents of me nearly getting knocked down. Anyway, Proverbs 29.2. Peace, blessings and love to all in Christ Jesus. Time differences sometimes interferes for the live feeds for you. Proverbs 29.2. Thank you for being with us in Yasnir. Also the Lord bless you. So has anybody got questions, criticisms? We've all been encouraging each other and that's great. And again, encouraging you to pray for one another. I know you do. Marcus, I haven't seen your comment, but if you're still there, pray for your brother and thank God for you and for the fellowship and encouragement. And pray for you, Marcus, that God would be with you. The Lord bless you, brother. Marcus is also in England, and thank the Lord for a brother in England. There are others as well, but I thank the Lord for that fellowship. Very well, so I'm going to do what I do. I'm going to switch the camera off. I thank the Lord for this time. Thank you for your encouragement and your prayers. The Lord bless you, Marcus. I thought you were there. It's great to see you brother and it's really good to have you here with us and thank you again. Thank you for your encouragement Marcus that you've given me over the last few months and thank you for that. So I'm going to switch the camera off another minute or so I'll leave it running and people can greet each other. But good night and the Lord be with us all. Amen.