Welcome to Studies with Stearman.

Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.

Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.

And now, here's Gary.

We are going to continue our study in the Olivet discourse and some of the questions that

arise concerning Bible prophecy.

Turn to Matthew 24.

There are in the New Testament two major discourses given by Christ.

The first is when he appeared publicly and delivered the beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and declared that he was king. He brought nine blessings

to Israel, and from that day to this, people have hung on those words.

The other discourse, his closing discourse in Matthew 24, is the discourse to a world gone

south, basically, a world gone bad.

And Matthew 24 speaks of judgment.

It speaks of what Jesus called the Great Tribulation, which would be so violent that it would

be more violent than anything that's ever been fallen Earth in the past.

Last time, in our continuing study on the events that lead up to this period of judgment, we sort of left off in First Thessalonians chapter five.

So we're going to be flipping back and forth between Matthew 24 and First Thessalonians chapter five to begin with today.

The point that we rested on last week is the point that we are not of darkness.

And we saw how that really fits with the Olivet discourse and the story of the bride,

the parable of the ten virgins, who arose at midnight when the

bridegroom came. It was a dark time. And we noted that when the apostles comment on this,

they always point out that we are not of that period. First Thessalonians 5 says this, verse 4, but ye brethren are not

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