Matthew 24:25  Behold, I have told you before.
26  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He knows the future. He was answering the questions that the disciples had asked Him in verse 3. In verse 25 He reminds them that He has told them before the events would come to pass. Jesus reminded them and He is also reminding us that His Word is sure. It is the fool who disregards what God says and thinks that it is not important. There is nothing more important than to know the true God and to be forewarned of what is ahead.
If we pay attention to what the Word of God says, we will not be deceived by false teachers. We have seen how easily people are deceived over the past two years. There was a group of evil people who knew about this virus before it was released to the public. This whole event has been in the plans for more than 20 years. There is good information available that shows the planning that has gone into this whole matter.
Most people had no idea of what was going on when this whole thing was first announced. I know I did not know what was going on. We want to believe our “officials” and so I listened and I also observed. There were instructions given that just did not make sense. Through careful research, it became clearer and clearer that this was not a normal virus. There was something else going on. Those who take God at His Word as He warns in verse 25 could begin to see that something very evil was taking place. The government used a very sinister tool to get the majority of people to comply. That sinister tool is fear and panic.
We can go back to the days of Jim Jones and see how people can be manipulated through fear and panic. A large number of people perished because they did not know how to think through what they were being told. There were some very well trained people in the group that died. There are some very well trained people who have taken the “cool-aide” over the past 2 years as well. It is difficult to know just how many people were involved in rolling this whole event out. We do know it was an evil plan.
When people reject God’s Word, they can easily be deceived. In verse 26 Jesus again reminds us that we need to think through what we are told. God told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to a new land. He needed to trust God. What he was told to do was unusual, but God showed him that it was necessary. False teachers say things that are unusual, but they cannot back it up with facts. Matthew chapter 24 has been twisted and corrupted by many and they have taken certain verses here and there to try to defend their false teaching. They have been able to convince many people to believe their false teaching because most people are ignorant of the truth. Most people to not see the importance of “context”. If people would read their newspaper the way they read their Bibles, they would come up with all kinds of stories. God repeats His truths many times in the Bible. We can use cross-references to help to understand what He is saying. However, those cross-references must always pay attention to context.
In verse 26 the disciples were told not to believe everything they heard. That was important in their day. The Pharisees were deceivers. Jesus exposed them for their deception. They were powerful in the eyes of man. They made themselves “friends” of the Roman government. The Roman government respected them with regard to their religion. They had greater respect for the Pharisees’ false religion than they had for the truth that Jesus was and taught.
However, the true child of God does not determine truth by numbers. It is not how many people say something that makes it true. It is also often not who says things that makes it true. Most of the media today is lying to us. There are certain people in the media who have had their job for many years. Some people find it hard to believe that they could be lying to them.
Of much greater importance is those that are trusted as spiritual leaders. Jack Van Impe was a well respected man by many. He could quote Bible verses, one after another. He talked of events taking place in the world and he could quote verses that he said applied to those events. However, Jack Van Impe was a deceiver.
Billy Graham was a man who drew big crowds. Thousands of people came to his crusades. There were a few that got saved during his crusades, but there were many who were deceived by him. He worked together with many other false teachers like the Catholics. Many people might take great offence to even talking this way about this “great” man. We should never elevate any man to sainthood. There are many others that could be mentioned, but the point is that we need to examine what we are told by the careful and honest study of God’s Word.
Jesus was warning the disciples and the reader of a time that was very dangerous. The Tribulation time will be worse than anything the world has ever known. Jesus says so. The surveillance of people will be greater than it ever has been. People will be looking for some way to get away from the clutches of the antichrist. False teachers will be counselling people to flee here and to flee there.
In the book of Nehemiah, we know that false teachers tried to convince Nehemiah to do things that he knew were wrong. Nehemiah was given discernment by God to know what was true and what was not. He did not buy the lies. Nehemiah was a faithful servant of God and had been so for a number of years and that is why he could tell when he was being lied to and when he was being told the truth. The same is true for any true child of God. The safeguard against being deceived is to know the God of truth and to walk humbly with Him.
In verse 27 Jesus reminded the disciples of how the Son of man would come. Jesus warned that His coming at the end of the Tribulation would be as the lightning comes in the sky. There are warnings in the sky. The sky can become dark and the wind might pick up and there might be some rain. However, the lightning still comes suddenly. It cannot be predicted exactly where we will see the lightning. However, when we see it, we know it is lightning.
Jesus’ return to the earth at the end of the Tribulation will be sudden and it will be with great power. There will be no mistaking that this is Jesus. The Bible gives a fair amount of detail with regard to His second coming. Those who will be seeking to deceive people will not be able to fulfil those details.
In verse 28, Jesus differentiated His coming back at the end of the Tribulation with His coming prior to the Tribulation. Prior to the Tribulation, Jesus will remove all the Christians from this earth. All New Testament saints will be removed in a moment of time. There will be no carcasses left lying around. The saints will be removed. At the end of the Tribulation, when Jesus Christ comes and sets His feet on the earth, there will be a great slaughter. The Bible talks of it as the battle of Armageddon. Jesus Christ will destroy all the wicked at that time, and the saints that are alive at that time will enter into the Millennium. The birds will have a feast at that time as they come to clean up the many dead bodies that will be lying around. Those bodies will not be contaminated so that the birds cannot eat them. The birds will be busy for a time, cleaning up the carnage left behind at that battle. Jesus Christ will fight and win that battle by Himself.
The news is reporting of the damage being caused by the war in Ukraine right now. They also talk of those who are being killed. War is devastating. However, there will not have been a war like the battle of Armageddon prior to that time. We do not need to be deceived today with regard to the Lord’s return. Those who will be alive and saved during the Tribulation do not need to be deceived then either. What they need to do is believe what God says and if they are saved, He will help them to discern between the lies and the truth.
It is important to pay attention to what God says. It is important to understand that deceivers exist. There may be those who think I am wrong in what I am saying here. Examine what is being said by the Word of God. Be careful to pay attention to the context. God does not lie. There are no contradictions in the King James Bible.
We see again why it is so important to be saved first of all and then be a member of a true local church. You cannot just snap your fingers and claim to know it all.

Acts 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Those that want to jump around from this teacher to that teacher will be deceived. Nobody can claim to be so informed of God’s truth that they can tell when any teacher is lying to them. We mentioned a couple of men earlier in our study that were deceivers. Most people reject that fact. Yet those same people have never taken the time to know the true God first of all nor to study His Word carefully and faithfully as He commands. They have just blindly trusted in those who cannot be trusted.
Deception is a common problem for man. Eve was deceived in the Garden of Eden. She was the first of many who have been deceived. My only hope for not being deceived is to know the true God and to trust Him to be true and study His Word carefully and faithfully. The same is true for every person. Don’t believe me just because I say it. Study God’s Word. Then you will know who to believe and who to avoid.

II Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Pastor Bartel