Well, welcome to Supremacy of Christ Studios. I am your host Peter Bolan, and today we're going to talk about Julian the Apostate and the Third Temple. And as you all know, there's a lot of talk these days about the Third Temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem. 

And of course, for those who practice Judaism, this is because they rejected Jesus as the Christ, the fulfillment of the scriptures, so they are still awaiting what they believe to be the Jewish Messiah. And this isn't the only time in history that this has happened. This has actually happened in the fourth century with Julian the Apostate. 

And so I thought it would be very instructive to look at what has happened in church history so that we might have a present application and encouragement even for our own day. And of course, when you're talking about the Third Temple, you're talking about false messiahs, and all of this, it always brings up the question of Antichrist. Who is that Antichrist? And so I want to frame this in that light so that would be maximally helpful to everyone. 

And so that term Antichrist comes from John's epistles, 1st and 2nd John, and 218 in particular is very helpful for us. And there we read where John writes, And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. You'll note there a distinction in the text. 

He at least seems to be pointing toward some sort of a final Antichrist figure, a last boss, if you will. This would quite possibly be the same thing that Paul is referring to in 2nd Thessalonians when he talks about that man of perdition. And yet, like in our day, that becomes so sensationalized. 

You know, who is the Antichrist? Is it Barack Obama? Is it, you know, Donald Trump? Who's the Antichrist? And it becomes so sensationalized, really does become a form of newspaper exegesis, and then so people come to dismiss it altogether. But what we need to note here is he says, then even now are there many Antichrists, plural. And the fact that Antichrists, plural, have always existed all throughout church history ought to de-sensationalize it for us. 

In other words, we ought not to be on the lookout for a particular figure trying to figure out who he is, as if it matters. Antichrists have to do with those who deny Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, and particularly church leaders. And so wherever these people exist, at whatever point in history they exist, that is, according to John, the spirit of Antichrist. 

And as Christians, we are always to oppose that. And so whether or not you believe there's going to be like a final boss, you know, the final Antichrist, is really in some measure irrelevant. I do believe there is. 

I believe this coincides with the end of the millennium in Revelation chapter 20, where John says that Satan's gonna be released from the abyss to once again deceive the nations for a very short season. I think that parallels with 2 Thessalonians and the great apostasy. But I think actually the greater emphasis in Scripture that we need to be aware of is not identifying the Antichrist, but with that idea of apostasy. 

That there are going to be false prophets, false teachers, false Christ. There's going to be Antichrist. There's going to be deceivers who are seeking to lead people astray. 

And this has always been the case throughout all of church history. And so what we need to do is do what Paul told Timothy and to watch our own life, watch our own doctrine. And we are to expose the lies of the evil one and preserve the truth of the gospel. 

And that is always going to be our duty. And so while we are dealing with these things, yes, there may be a final Antichrist, but that spirit of Antichrist has always been at work. Or as Paul said, the spirit of lawlessness has always been at work. 

And the church has faced this in times past. This is nothing new. As I said, they have dealt with it in the 4th century, which we'll look at today. 

And concerning who is perhaps that final boss Antichrist, if there is going to be such a figure, there have historically been different interpretations of who that's going to be or what form. You know, we're talking today about the Third Temple and the Jewish false messiah. The Reformers obviously had a different view. 

And Louis Berkhoff, in his systematic theology, he points out that both have historically existed. He says historically there have been different opinions respecting Antichrist. In the ancient church many maintain that Antichrist would be a Jew pretending to be the Messiah and ruling at Jerusalem. 

Since the time of the Reformation, many, among whom also Reform scholars, looked upon papal Rome as Antichrist. So there have been those who thought that, yes, there's going to be a final boss Antichrist, and he's going to be a Jewish Messiah ruling from Jerusalem. There are others, such as the Reformers, who believed it was either a particular Pope or the whole papal system that the office of the papacy was Antichrist. 

And people still debate this today. And again, what I'm trying to do is demythologize that to say one of those things could be true, or maybe both. How do we know we're not gonna have a Jewish Pope or something? I mean, who knows? That's not the important thing. 

Wherever the gospel is denied, wherever there's a call for ecumenical religion, wherever there's a call to deny Jesus as the exclusive Lord and Savior, the only mediator between God and man, there the spirit of Antichrist is at work. There we are to oppose it. And concerning whether or not we are currently in our day with the, you know, attempt at rebuilding the third temple, whether or not this is the final boss, again, totally irrelevant. 

I would lean and point you heavily towards Acts 1-7, where Jesus, speaking to his apostles, said, "...it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power." It's not for us to know the times and the seasons, as Deuteronomy 29-29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. It's the things revealed that belong to us. And so for us, you know, we're not always to be peering in the future to try to figure out exactly what's going to happen.

That actually can be a form of divination, which is an abomination to God. For us, our duty is to obey. That is what we are to do, and leave the results and the consequences to God. 

So we don't need to overly speculate on the seasons. And all of that to say, we can look at the world today and go, we are dealing with real evil. We are dealing with the spirit of lawlessness.

We are dealing with the spirit of Antichrist. We are wrestling with real demonic forces and principalities and powers. Those things are real, and we should not neglect or ignore what we are dealing with.

Just like when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples were like, why couldn't we drive out this demon? And he diagnoses it properly, says, this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. So we have to begin with a proper diagnosis of what kind of dark spiritual enemy we are facing. And yet, as we shall see from church history, God is on our side. 

And if God is for us, who can be against us? And this kind of enemy has existed before. The church has been plagued with it before, and God has put them to shame. And so, as we are doing our duty, we have every reason to have hope and faith and confidence and not to despair. 

And so the only question really, at the end of the day, is if we are going to believe God's promises, obey his commands, and repent where necessary. And so with that said, let's get into the subject at hand. We have, again, this idea of the Third Temple being rebuilt. 

This is not something done off in a corner. This isn't like a conspiracy or anything. No, they're openly telling us. 

We've all seen the pictures of the IDF soldiers in Jerusalem with the patch of the Third Temple on their uniforms, along with the patch for the Greater Israel Project, where they're going to take over more land, they believe. These things are not secret. This is all done out in the open. 

But we also have rabbis telling us that they are trying. They want to build the Third Temple, that the Messiah must come. And even, I'm going to play a string of video clips for you here, where we have a rabbi saying that Donald Trump is the Gentile Messiah. 

They believe that there's going to be some sort of a Gentile Messiah who's going to prepare the way for the Jewish Messiah. This rabbi is saying and arguing that Donald Trump is that Gentile Messiah. And then we're going to see how Donald Trump's staff, like Pete Hegseth, in charge of our military, the Secretary of the Department of War, is actually, he believes in the rebuilding of the Third Temple. 

He thinks that would be a miracle, calls other political acts a miracle. So his definition of miracle is wrong. And yet another Jewish rabbi who says that a missile hitting the mosque that now sits where the Third Temple would sit would be a miracle. 

Which again, it's not a miracle. That's a planned military act. But nevertheless, this stuff is all out in the open. 

And it is directly connected with our government, which means this directly affects us, not only as Christians, but also those of us who are citizens in America. And so, with that said, here is this string of video clips which shows that, yes, they are planning to rebuild the Third Temple, and the very political powers who exist now, who are sitting in office and in charge of our military, are actually supporting that. And they believe this is a fulfillment of their promises according to the Talmud.

Moshiach is coming, and all the Jews are about to be brought back to the land of Israel. And the Third Temple is about to be rebuilt. The current non-Jewish Messiah was chosen to be of service to the Jewish people and the Jewish Messiah. 

President Trump's right ear was grazed in a symbolic gesture of Exodus 21.6, where the Torah states that a servant who wants to remain with his master needs to have his right ear pierced. Trump was designated as God's servant and anointed one, just like Cyrus the Great almost 2400 years ago. We have clarified in several videos that the absolute deadline for the redemption is by the end of the Jewish year 5,787, which corresponds to October 2nd, 2027, 1,167 days from today. 

Thus, the redemption will surely occur during Donald Trump's tenure. And I have good reason to believe Donald Trump was chosen to be the one to redeem the sins of Aesop through offering his assistance in rebuilding the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount and establishing the Jewish kingdom over all of mankind in Jerusalem. Somebody had to do it. 

I am the chosen one. Somebody had to do it. And there's no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.

I don't know how it would happen. Missus will hit the mosque and clear the place for the third Veda Mikdash. That could also be a miracle.

So there you go. Everything is right out in the open that this is part of the belief of Talmudic Judaism. They believe Donald Trump is involved.

Pete Hegseth seems to think he is involved. The rabbis think that warfare could be related. And so this has everything to do with all of the madness and the chaos that we are currently experiencing today.

And I do have to also point out in there that you'll notice the way that the rabbis talk. They say all the Jews are going to come back to Israel and the Jewish Messiah. You know, when we when we say the Jews, oftentimes people will go, well, that's anti-Semitism. 

You know, we should want the Jewish people to be saved. And yes, indeed, we should want the Jewish people, along with all people, to be saved. The reason why that language ends up getting so confusing is because they themselves, their religion is an ethnic religion.

They believe that this is a distinctly Jewish Messiah. And so it is very ethnic based for them. And so when we use the same language that they use, they can say, oh, the Jews are going to come back and that's part of their religion.

And then when we say the Jews, they go, that's anti-Semitism. We're just using the same language that they use. And that just needs to be pointed out that when we are talking about the Jews, we are talking about Talmudic Judaism just as they are.

And we're also using the same language that they are using. Well, that just needs to be said as an aside, because that's one of those things that causes confusion. It's one of those things that brings unnecessary controversy or slander where people are maligned as being anti-Semitic.

It's like, no, I would, as the Apostle Paul, that all men be saved. I I have no hatred in my heart for anyone. The Apostle Paul himself was a Pharisee of Pharisees whom the Lord converted and used mightily, and he is able to do the same thing today, but we must oppose every false religion, every knowledge and opinion that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we must destroy them.

The weapons of our warfare, no, they're not carnal, they're spiritual. And so we use the sword of truth and we use prayer to battle against the evil one. And this stuff is evil.

They are here telling you that they think even within the next couple of years, the Jewish Messiah, false Messiah is going to come and they need to basically hurry up and get that third temple rebuilt. And that means this is an urgent situation and all of our lives are being affected by this false counterfeit religion, which is directly opposed to Christianity. Now, that said, this brings us to church history and Julian the Apostate and the third temple, because in the fourth century after Constantine, we had the nephew of Constantine raised up as the emperor known as Julian the Apostate, and he hated Christianity and he opposed it and he sought to rebuild the third temple or lead the way in rebuilding the third temple as well as a way of directly opposing Christianity.

And as we look at this historical account, it's actually really amazing. It's really encouraging because it's not just the third temple as if there was that one thing. There is so much about it that we can look at and go, oh, wow, that's like actually just like today, all this nightmarish stuff that we are dealing with within corrupt politics, corrupt school systems, corrupt economics, heavy taxation, the rebuilding of the third temple, like all these different categories that we would look at and go, boy, this all seems to be putting the squeeze on Christians in particular.

Yeah, it's by design and there's nothing new under the sun. They're actually following the same playbook as what we see here with Julian the Apostate and all of this today that I am going to be sharing with you. This comes from Philip Chaff's History of the Christian Church, that eight volume set right there that's sitting behind me.

This all comes from there on the section labeled Julian the Apostate and their reaction of paganism AD 361 through 363. Now, Julian himself, Philip Chaff writes and tells us, Julian, surnamed the Apostate, a nephew of Constantine the Great and cousin of Constantius, was born in the year 331 and was therefore only six years old when his uncle died. That gives us the historical context in which Julian the Apostate lives.

And so, of course, Constantine is a little bit controversial because there was some good, some bad associated with it. But generally with Constantine, you have the start of what we might call crescendum. And then here comes Julian, later surnamed the Apostate, who did not walk in those same ways.

He was educated in all the ways of heathenism, paganism. He loved the, quote, Roman gods, and he hated Christianity. And so he sought to make war on Christianity and bring it to utter destruction.

He wanted to completely destroy Christianity. And Philip Chaff here is going to tell us of three different strategies that he used to try to overthrow and completely destroy Christianity. And so first, Philip Chaff writes, to look first at the positive side of his plan, the restoration and reformation of heathenism.

The first part of his plan, which Philip Chaff writes about, is a positive side. He wanted to restore and reform heathenism. That is that old Roman, you know, system of the gods.

That's what he wanted to reinstitute. And so he had a plan to positively advance that. And on that note, Philip Chaff writes, he reinstated in its ancient splendor, the worship of the gods at the public expense.

He removed the cross and the monogram of Christ from the coins and standards and replaced the former pagan symbols. So Julian the Apostate removed all the public images of the cross and Christianity, which would have been established by Constantine, and he replaced them with the old Roman pagan symbols because he, again, loved heathenism, hated Christianity. And this is the same thing we have before us in 10,000 ways in our own day, where symbols of Christianity, public symbols of Christianity or monuments to Christian heroes or Christian leaders are being taken down.

We have statues and symbols of heathenism, paganism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, all these strange gods being erected to signify this pluralistic culture in which we're supposed to live, where every religion and every people has a right to speak, accept Christianity. So we have the exact same kind of war happening in our own day in 10,000 different ways as they had then. So we're in very similar territory here.

But then next, Philip Chaff points out the negative strategy, which Julian the Apostate, the negative strategy, which Julian the Apostate, in which he waged war against Christianity. And here he says the negative side of Julian's plan was the suppression and final extinction of Christianity. When he says the final extinction of Christianity, that means this is all out war.

He didn't just want them quiet. He didn't just want them suppressed. He didn't just want them to be in the minority.

He wanted them dead and gone. He wanted Christianity itself to be completely eradicated. So this is all out war.

The stakes could not be higher in the things that they are facing or were facing then. And so here is how Philip Chaff outlines the negative side of Julian the Apostate's plans. And these are several quotes I put together, shortened a little bit for the sake of time, showing the negative side of the plan.

And once again, you're going to see that this parallels with so many of the things that we are experiencing in our own day. And so Philip Chaff writes, Finally, he doubtless perceived that the Christians were too numerous to be assailed by a general persecution without danger of a bloody civil war. Hence, he opposed the church gently under the show of equity and universal toleration.

He persecuted not so much the Christians as Christianity by endeavoring to draw off its confessors. He thought to gain the result of persecution without incurring the personal reproach and the public danger of persecution itself. He first, therefore, employed against the Christians of all parties and sects the policy of toleration and hope of their destroying each other by internal controversies.

He permitted the Orthodox bishops and all other clergy who had been banished under Constantius to return to their doces and left Arians, Apollinarians, Novatians, Macedonians, Donatists, and so on to themselves. His toleration, therefore, was neither that of genuine humanity nor that of religious indifferentism, but a hypocritical mask for a fanatical love of heathenism and a bitter hatred of Christianity. This appears in his open partiality and injustice against the Christians.

His liberal patronage of heathenism, which in itself was an injury to Christianity, while he called heathens to all the higher offices, the Christians came to be everywhere disregarded and their complaints dismissed. Christians were removed from the military and civil office, deprived of all their former privileges, oppressed with taxes, and compelled to restore without indemnity the temple property with all their own improvements on it and to contribute to the support of the public idolatry. Equally unjust and tyrannical was the law, which placed all the state schools under the direction of heathens and prohibited the Christians teaching the sciences and the arts.

Julian would thus deny Christian youth the advantages of education and compel them either to sink in ignorance and barbarism or to imbibe with the study of the classics in the heathen schools, the principles of idolatry. Does that not read like the history of the last 50 years in our country? I mean, it's like they just took this out of history and said, Hey, that's a good idea. We should do that again.

Literally all of the exact same things. So know first that because Christians early on, they, they tried to kill them. They tried to exterminate them.

You, you fed them to the lions. You burned them as a Roman torches, Roman candles. None of that worked.

Instead, the blood of the martyrs was the seat of the church and the church flourished in the face of that violent persecution. And so now after three short centuries, they recognize that, Hey, if you're going to oppose Christianity, we need to have a little bit more wisdom in the way that we do it. And so you have economic, social pressure, educational pressure, all these various forms of basically making a proxy war against the Christian faith.

And that's exactly what he did and doing so in the name of so-called tolerance. Imagine that. And part of the reason for this is because he said the Christians are too many.

And if we do this, it could result in a bloody civil war. We'll just note briefly that that means the Christians of that day clearly were not pacifist, who thought there was never a time to defend themselves while they were all ready to be martyred. They were all ready to die a bloody martyr's death.

Neither do they have a pacifist mentality that meant there was never a situation in which it would be appropriate for them to fight back or else Julian, the apostate wouldn't have been concerned about it starting a bloody civil war. And so his persecution and opposition to the church was a more gentle approach, gentle in scare quotes there, a show of equity and universal toleration. And, uh, and this to impart, make him look good.

It was to feed his vain glory while opposing and seeking to exterminate Christianity. And so as he puts in places policy of toleration, one of the things he does is he basically allows all the heretical groups. That's where you have, uh, the, the Aryans, the Apollinarians, the Novatians, the Macedonians, the Donatists, all these groups, uh, let them all flourish.

Let them all thrive. Let all the heretical apostate groups say what they will. And then Christianity will begin to eat itself from the inside.

They will, they will have so many internal conflicts that they might even destroy themselves. And again, we go, well, isn't that exactly like what we're facing today? You have so many different groups. And of course, no, let's just pause.

The answer is not Rome. Oh, one whole holy Roman Catholic church. Absolutely not.

And Rome isn't even that United. The papacy is their only unity. They have no theological unity and the papacy itself is wrong.

So no, no, no. Uh, cause I know someone will be thinking that, but still, um, within Protestant orthodoxy, you have, uh, or outside of Protestant orthodoxy. Really? We have every heretical group.

We have every false religion being allowed to flourish. And sadly, even the true church, that is those who do hold to Protestant orthodoxy, they're allowing it all to go. You're not in our day, the only heresy that is left is orthodoxy.

And therefore you're not allowed to call anything heresy except for orthodoxy. And so people don't want to name names. People don't want to call out this false teaching.

And so everything is allowed to flourish. And then Christians are internally divided on literally every issue. And this is the exact same thing that Julian, the apostate was trying to accomplish in his own day by allowing all these groups to exist and to be very public and give them protection.

And that's the exact same thing that is happening in our own day. So we have the internal controversies dividing the church. And then you'll note, it says the partiality and justice against the Christians, his liberal patronage of heathenism, where all the heathens were called to higher offices.

And the Christians came to be everywhere disregarded and their complaints dismissed. And this includes removing military and civil, removing Christians from civil and military office, depriving them of all their former privileges, oppressing them with heavy taxes, compelling them to restore, uh, what do we call that today? Reparations, all of this exact same stuff in support of public idolatry. It's, it's truly just, uh, remarkable.

Um, placed, uh, so.

Like, when you look around today, what do you see? Do you see actual Protestants, real, genuine, born-again Protestants in charge of anything? No, you can look around at every big tech corporation. You can look around at all the highest offices. Look at the wife of the vice president of the United States of America.

You have, in all the highest offices, you have Judaism, you have Islam, you have Roman Catholicism, you have these various forms of paganism. You have it at the local level of governments, you have it at the state level of government, you have it at the federal level of government, you have it in all three branches of government, whether it be the legislative, the judicial, or the executive branch. In all the highest places of both government and business, you have people who are basically heathen, they're pagan, they are opposed to the sound doctrine and teaching of Jesus Christ being put in all the highest places, and no, that's not an accident.

Meanwhile, Christians are dismissed, disregarded. If a Christian cake baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay wedding, then all of a sudden he is dismissed and all the rights go to the sodomites to use biblical language. So, and those examples, wedding photographers, those kinds of examples can be easily multiplied where our legal system is set against Christianity.

This is the proxy war that was being waged way back then in the fourth century, and that includes even the state schools, where the state schools were placed under the direction of the heathens and prohibited the Christians from teaching the sciences and the arts. You're not gonna teach a Christian worldview on certain things, nope. You're gonna have to be indoctrinated with a heathen education.

So they put these people in place, imagine that, to indoctrinate the children through the public school system. And thus, the Christians, if the Christians said, well, we want out of this system, and especially in that day where you might not be able to order on Amazon or some other place a Christian education, means, okay, the Christians are then either gonna sink into ignorance or barbarism, or they're gonna have to send their children to this public school system where they're gonna actually be indoctrinated into this heathen system. See how familiar all that is? It's the exact same thing that we are facing in our own day, like every jot and every tittle.

This is the exact same proxy war that we are dealing with in every day. And so there is nothing new under the sun. The church is facing the same thing today that they were facing back then all those years ago.

And so this ought to encourage us, because we recognize we are not fighting a new fight, that this is a very old fight. And of course, we could get into all the things about what to do with education, this, that, and the other. But that aside, let's see how God himself dealt with this issue, because that is ultimately what matters.

It is God acting in human history. And that brings us to our third and final point where Julian the Apostate waged war against Christianity. And here, Philip Chaff writes, to the same hostile design against Christianity is to be referred the favor of Julian to its old hereditary enemy, Judaism.

Because of his opposition to Christianity, Julian the Apostate is here going to basically try to resurrect Judaism. Imagine that. And we're gonna see here that actually he doesn't, he's not even a believer in Judaism.

He doesn't like Judaism. He actually disregards it. It's for him, it's purely a way, Judaism as a way to oppose the Christianity, which he hates and he wants to exterminate.

And so here the church in the fourth century is once again confronted with Judaism as a direct hostile opponent of Christianity. And this brings us to the point of the building of the third temple. Yes, there was an attempt to rebuild the third temple in that day because they wanted to have Judaism again resurrected to oppose Christianity and basically the third temple was a way of spitting in the face of Christians.

And so here, Philip Chaff writes, the emperor in an official document affected reverence for that ancient popular religion and sympathy with its adherents, praised their firmness under misfortune and condemned their oppressors. He exempted the Jews from burdensome taxation and encouraged them even to return to the Holy Land and to rebuild the temple on Moriah in its original splendor. He appropriated considerable sums to this object from the public treasury, entrusted his accomplished minister Olypius with the supervision of the building and promised if he should return victorious from the Persian war to honor with his own presence the solemnities of reconsecration and the restoration of the Mosaic sacrificial worship.

His real purpose in this undertaking was certainly not to advance the Jewish religion. For in his work against the Christians, he speaks with great contempt of the Old Testament and ranks Moses and Solomon far below the pagan lawgivers and philosophers. His object in the rebuilding of the temple was rather in the first place to enhance the splendor of his reign and thus gratify his personal vanity.

And then most probably to put to shame the prophecy of Jesus respecting the destruction of the temple, which however was actually fulfilled 300 years before once for all to deprive the Christians of their most popular argument against the Jews and to break the power of the new religion in Jerusalem. The Jews now poured from East and West into the holy city of their fathers, which from the time of Hadrian they had been forbidden to visit and entered with fanatical zeal upon the great national religious work in hope of the speedy eruption of the messianic reign and the fulfillment of all the prophecies. Women we are told brought their costly ornaments, turned them into silver shovels and spades and carried even the earth and stones of the holy spot in their silken aprons.

But the united power of heathen emperor and Jewish nation was insufficient to restore a work which had been overthrown by the judgment of God. Repeated attempts at the building were utterly frustrated as even a contemporary heathen historian of conceded credibility relates by fiery eruptions from subterranean vaults and perhaps as Christian writers add, by a violent whirlwind, lightning, earthquake and miraculous signs, especially a luminous cross in the heavens so that the workmen either perished in the flames or fled from the devoted spot in terror and despair. Thus, instead of depriving the Christians of a support of their faith, Julian only furnished them a new argument in the ruins of his fruitless labor.

Well, imagine that. So you have a corrupt, wicked government partnering together with the Jews in a joint effort to exterminate Christianity. And what they meant for evil, God meant it, that same evil for good so that though they together oppose Christianity seeking to exterminate it, it actually exterminated that Roman form of paganism.

The efforts to rebuild the third temple were thwarted and the Christians were provided with another apologetic argument in defense for the Christian faith and thus the church flourished in the face of persecution, praise the Lord. And so, and there are so many parallels with the stuff that we are dealing with today in the midst of that, as we are learning that lesson and we see how God himself intervened on behalf of his church. Likewise, we are faced with heavy taxation.

You see, they were, you had Jews who were exempted from that burdensome taxation. And then the taxes that the Christians were paying were actually being used, taken from the public treasury to fund the rebuilding of the third temple, just like we are paying taxes for all kinds of things, including wars waged in the Middle East that would ultimately, and the building in Gaza, all of this, our taxes are being used for the same purposes today. So there is truly nothing new under the sun.

People talking about a return to the Holy Land. They were talking about that way back then. It's all the exact same thing.

They want to bring about immediately the messianic reign and fulfillment of all the prophecies, just as Talmudic Jews are talking about in our own day, as you have just seen, because again, they rejected Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the one who truly did come and fulfill all that was written in the law and the prophets. And so they're still awaiting their false savior, just as they always were. And God brings these plans to a bitter and frustrated end.

And it's amazing because there's this supernatural element to it, where you see, it wasn't the cleverness or the wisdom of the church. It wasn't the cleverness, the wisdom, the works of the people of God. It was God himself acting on behalf of the church.

And this was done in such a notable fashion that even Philip Shaffrice, a contemporary historian, a heathen, that is an unbelieving historian of conceded credibility. In other words, a well-known, reputable, unbelieving historian notes the supernatural with the fiery eruptions from subterranean vaults. So that this was clearly seen to be a work of God so that all glory went to God alone for overthrowing this project in attempting to rebuild the third temple.

And it provided a further apologetic because this was one of the ways that the early Christian church, as an apologetic, showed that no, Jesus really is the Christ because he came in judgment, just as he said he would in Matthew chapter 24, where he talked about the destruction of the temple. He came, just as he said he would, in judgment upon the temple, upon Jerusalem. Not one stone was left upon another.

And that was one of the things they take. See, Jesus was a Christ. They could not only point to the scriptures and make their argument from the scriptures, but they could also point to the historic reality of what God had done.

Thus, it has always been one of the ways that the Jews have sought to rebel against God and his design and reject Jesus Christ and oppose Christianity is by rebuilding the third temple to go, aha, aha, see, we're back. And some things never change, right? And so what are the lessons then? We see God himself acting in a supernatural way. And so what are the lessons we can learn from this? What are the applications that we can make? Well, first of all, we should note that we are to never despair.

As I said in the beginning, however you feel about that antichrist and people have disagreed over the years, whether it be a Jewish false messiah, whether it be a particular Pope or the office of the papacy, it really doesn't matter. John tells us that many antichrists appear. Jesus told us that many false prophets will appear.

Peter told us that many false teachers will appear. We have these warnings all over scripture. We are to always be on guard against these things.

And as serious as the warfare we're waging is today and how we are confronted literally on every side, you can see the church was facing this same pressure then. It was political, it was economic, it was dealing with education. It was in the public square.

It was a proxy war against Christianity in every respect seeking to exterminate it. And as we are facing those pressures in our day, it's no different. And so we ought not to despair because just as God opposed the spirit of antichrist himself in that day and preserved his church, kept them alive and caused them to flourish in the state of persecution, so God also may cause us to flourish in the face of persecution.

And he can overthrow everything that's happening in a single moment, in a single hour by his own hand. There is nothing too difficult for the Lord as Psalm 115 verse three says, our God is in the heavens and he does all that he pleases. None can thwart his purposes and plans and therefore we have hope.

And what we are facing today is not a new situation. It is actually a very old situation. However, so while we ought not to despair, the second thing is we ought not to presume upon the grace of God.

John there in that verse I mentioned earlier does seem to indicate that there could perhaps be some kind of a final boss antichrist. Paul would seem to indicate this as well in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, a man of lawlessness or a son of perdition. Revelation chapter 20 seems to indicate this when it talks about Satan being let loose from the abyss for a short season to go out and deceive the nations.

And so while we ought not to have some kind of fanatical view of who is that antichrist or something like that, nor are we to presume upon the grace of God. While we can see God clearly defeating these kind of enemies in the past, we're not to presume upon the grace of God. You know, it's interesting.

Jonathan Edwards, he has a sermon, I believe it's in volume two of his works on the preciousness of time, that text in Ephesians where Paul says to be redeeming the time. And he speaks of it as a post-millennialist very literally like we are as a church, as soul, as light, our life here is actually to be preserving, having a redemptive function in time. Time will go on in some measure by the sovereignty of God, of course, but through the work of the church, as we are faithful and obedient to the promises and commands of God.

And therefore we are to always be redeeming the time. And so we are not to be presumptuous or careless and just assume that the world is gonna go on. The Bible does talk about an end.

And no, it's not for us to know the times and the seasons. We're not supposed to be practicing divination to figure out who is this guy or that guy, but it is for us again, to be obedient, to be faithful. And so in closing, I wanna talk about one of those main ways in which we need to be faithful and obedient, because as I said, here in the case of Julian the Apostate in the third temple, what do you see? You see God himself acting.

Well, we live in a very materialistic world. You know, you push a button, you make it happen. And we think a lot in terms of our own works, our own words and our own actions.

And indeed we do have a responsibility, but there is a equal but opposite danger in thinking about our own duty and our own responsibility and thinking that we actually have the power to accomplish something. They're in that same context where Jesus told the disciples, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons, he says, but remain in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high. Says that at the end of Luke as well.

We as Christians are wholly dependent upon God. We can do nothing in ourselves. Paul as an apostle says, not that we are sufficient in ourselves.

We are to live our entire lives in complete dependency on God. And as a modern people with endless technology at our fingertips, it's very easy for us to not see these things, to not think about how truly dependent upon God we really are. And so one of the things we need to do is to humble ourselves and to recognize that because this enemy, if we're again, we're not despairing, but we're being realistic with the enemy that we're facing, this enemy is too great for us to defeat.

We cannot defeat it by our own human intervention. Cannot happen. The AI surveillance is way too great.

The weapons of warfare they have are way too great. They have control of the water supply, the food supply. The air we breathe is poisoned.

The medicine, the whole medical system is corrupt. We are hard pressed on all sides just as they were, and I would argue even worse. We are in a worse way because of the systems that have been brought up all around us.

And we are also dependent on things like the grocery store, truckers. It wouldn't take much to just completely shut things down as we all recently experienced just a couple of short years ago during COVID where all of a sudden it's like, oh, you took toilet paper for granite, and now it's gone, right? I mean, so we are in a dangerous place, and there's nothing we can do to by military might, by the power of the flesh or any other means, there's literally nothing we can do. And that's why some people are tempted to despair.

When we look at what happened in church history though, this is what we're missing. We're missing faith upon God and asking and depending and relying upon God to act. And one of the main ways that we are not doing that is in prayer.

There is a certain sin of prayerlessness. And as I say this, like I'm preaching to the choir because if there was an area in my life that I felt like needed to be better, it is the area of prayer. So I'm not saying this like to you people, I'm talking to all of us, myself included, that there is a certain arrogance there where we feel like either by arguing on a podcast, by legal legislation, and again, not that any of these things are bad, but ultimately without God's help, we're lost.

We are done for, there is no victory. And we are not to presume upon God doing something, we are to plead with God. We are to intercede, make prayer, supplication that God himself would see, hear, and act.

And in Daniel's, in the book of Daniel, where they are in exile, we actually get a beautiful picture of this from Daniel's prayer. And in the middle of the prayer, note what he says in verses 13 and 14, as it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. Therefore has the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works, which he does, for we obeyed not his voice.

It's one thing to look at all the troubles that you're surrounded by, all the problems that we're dealing with, and to blame the devil, to blame the Jews, to blame the government, to blame Islam, blame whoever you want. It's a whole nother thing when you look at scripture and you read something like, therefore the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. That means that ultimately it is God who is opposing us.

The reason we have these enemies confronting us on every side is because we have not obeyed the voice of God and God has handed us over in his judicial punishment so that we are confronted with these enemies on every side, just as they were then during the exile. And note what Daniel says. He says, all this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God.

As they were facing this judgment, he notes a state of prayerlessness. All this stuff's happening, you would think that would put the people of God on their knees like, Lord, have mercy. Oh, we've sinned against you.

We have gone astray from your truth. We've obeyed not your voice. Lord, have mercy.

Lord, forgive. Lord, deliver us from our enemies. And they weren't.

Amazingly, they were in a state of prayerlessness. And that is the same kind of thing that we are facing in our own day. It's not like a surprise that we are going through all that we are now.

These things have been a long time coming. And I've been a Christian for about 25 years now. And just reading the stuff in the Bible where you read about the things that bring about national judgment, it's like one of two things is gonna have to happen.

Either we are gonna come under severe national judgment, or there's going to be a genuine great awakening where we are brought to national repentance, especially within the church itself. One of those two things is gonna have to happen. And I've been speaking and praying along those lines for a long time.

And here's the thing I've noticed, and yet we made not our prayer before the Lord our God. As I have been in prayer meetings for the last roughly two decades, anytime I have prayed, and I mean this as best as I can remember without exception, anytime I have been in a prayer meeting and I have prayed and petitioned the Lord on this front and pointed out the idolatry, the sin of various kinds in our nation, the judgment that we richly deserve and prayed and interceded and asked that God would restore us and grant us national repentance. And as I pray against the evil in the government or various sins that are taking place, widespread, prominent throughout society, the false teaching which is so prominent in so many so-called churches, what has almost invariably happened, if not every time, is that some form of subtle rebuke will begin to happen in the prayer meeting itself where all of a sudden everyone will begin to pray, Lord, we thank you for our country and leaders.

Lord, God bless America. Lord, thank you for our military. Lord, God bless our troops.

And then there will just come this front of patriotism as if that could never happen here. How dare this man imply that our nation is wicked, inherently corrupt, sinful, and full of idolatry and that we actually need to repent. Who does this guy think he is? And so no, we don't make our prayer to the Lord.

Just like they didn't there, we are a very self-satisfied, complacent people, full of ourselves, full of our own goodness, and thinking that we can somehow accomplish something while so much sin prevails in the land. And so just as the people then needed to be humbled before the Lord until they were utterly dependent upon God through prayer, so it is in our own day. And so let's read.

I'm gonna read a couple of segments from Daniel's prayer here. Because again, this is instructive. We are in the same position.

We're in the same position as they were in exile. We are in the same position as the church was during the fourth century with Julian the Apostate in the third temple building. And here we are again.

So how is the church to pray? How are we as individuals to pray in a time like this? And note what Daniel says. Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from your precepts and from your judgments. Oh Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against you. Oh my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by your name. For we do not present our supplications before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies.

Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hearken and do.

Defer not for your own sake, oh my God, for your city and your people are called by your name. And then note what Daniel says about as he is praying, then we read, and while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, he informed me and talk with me and said, at the beginning of your supplications, the commandment came forth and I am come to show you for you are greatly beloved. There are several things that we need to see in this text.

First of all, note the view he has of God. When he comes into the presence of God, he is coming into the presence of majesty. He is coming before a thrice holy God.

He is not coming presumptuously. He is coming with earnestness and with reverence and with fear and trembling. Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God.

And he remembers both the covenant faithfulness of God, but also the just judgment of God. And therefore he is not presuming upon the grace of God. And note that when he is talking about sin, he does not soften the blow.

There is this repetitious language. We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. He puts out every possible category to confess that in every conceivable way, no, we aren't just guilty of accidental sins.

No, we've sinned willfully. We've transgressed. We've done rebelliously.

We've departed from your commandments, from your precepts, from your judgments. And so he strengthens and heightens the sense of guilt, which they should face. He doesn't lessen it and go, oh, all governments have always been corrupt.

Oh, the world's always been this way. Sin's always been in the world. It's really no big deal.

God's people have always persevered when these things could happen. You're taking it too seriously. Don't be alarmed.

That's not how he prays. If that's how you're praying, you're not actually praying, right? You're just uttering words and nonsense and putting the name God before it and Jesus after it. This is a real prayer.

Real prayer begins with worship. Real prayer begins with a sense of majesty of who God is and coming into his presence with fear and trembling. And therefore it's not making light of sin.

It is embracing the full reality of our guilt and what we deserve, even as the covenant people of God, knowing that even if our souls are secure, God is right in bringing these temporal judgments upon us. And therefore we need to own it and repent. And know also that he doesn't limit this to personal piety.

This is a comprehensive prayer. He says, O Lord, to us, plural, belongs confusion of faith. Faith. 

Isn't it amazing? Confusion. Because we live in a day full of confusion, full of division. Isn't it amazing that confusion is one of the marks of God's judicial hardening and judgment being brought upon a people? Why do we have no agreement among believers? Why is there so much confusion? In part, that is a symptom of the fundamental problem that God's judgment has come upon us because of our sins. 

O Lord, to us belongs confusion of faith, to our kings, to our princes and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. So on the one hand, there's no blame shifting here. He's not going, oh, it's those politicians. 

Oh, it's that religious group over there. Nope. He's pointing at himself. 

We have sinned against you, but it's also collectively as a people. Yeah, it's the politicians, it's the kings, it's the princes, it's the leaders of the people. This would include the leaders in the church, to our fathers. 

There's a sense in which this is a multi-generational sin that these people are guilty of. And so no one in society is exempt. It is not the time when you are in a nation under judgment to point the finger at someone else and go, these people are the problem. 

Oh, it's those liberals, or, oh, it's those conservatives, or, oh, it's those Jews, or, oh, it's those politicians. Yeah, those people might have done wickedly, but so have you, and so have I. It's just like Luke 18 with the Pharisee and the tax collector. It's not the time to stand there and go, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other people, that I pay my tithes twice a week and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

No, it's a time for us to be, and it's always a time for us to be just like the tax collector who wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the disposition of Daniel in his prayer. And he notes the guilt, the collective guilt of everyone when a whole nation under judgment for the guilt or sin of an individual. 

He does so because of the collective guilt that generally there has been an apostasy, a departing from the faith and a failure to believe God's promises and obey his commands. And therefore he brings these judicial punishments upon us and notice how he, as Jesus said, ask, seek, knock. There is to be this persistence in prayer that we're to have. 

Oh Lord here. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord hearken and do defer not for your own sake. 

And so there is an earnestness. There is a pressing in again, not a presumption he knows because they are guilty. God owes them nothing. 

They can't just sit there and say, God, you owe us. No, we own our guilt. This belongs to us to God belong mercies and forgiveness.

But to us belongs confusion of face because we've sinned against you. And therefore you're pleading with God to actually have mercy, incline your ear here, open your eyes. Behold our desolations. 

We need to recognize our, and therein is the problem. Have we even come to the first place? Have we even come to that stage yet where we recognize our desolations, where we recognize that this kind of demon can be driven out by nothing except prayer and fasting? Have we even come to the first fruits to recognize what our problem is and how deep it goes to where we would even cry out to God in trembling and fear with majesty and reverence for who he is, recognizing that he owes us nothing as a people, that we are utterly desolate because God's judgment has come upon us and that we are surrounded by our enemies and they continue to prevail. And God has not supernaturally intervened yet because of our guilt. 

And so have we cried out to God in the same way incline here and note what he says for your own sake, can't be for our sake because we've sinned. We're guilty. No, for your sake and for the sake of your covenant promises, Lord, that's the only reason. 

And yet there's no presumption here. That's why he pleads a Lord here. Oh, Lord, forgive. 

Oh, Lord, hearken in here. Do not defer because there are those times in God's providence where he hides his face from his people, where he withdraws his covenant presence from him. Just as the glory departed Ichabod from the temple during that first exile, because the idolatry there, there are times in which God will withdraw and hide his glory, hide his face from his people as it were because of the sin and the guilt that has come upon them. 

And therefore we are to plead with God earnestly and with reverence, but then note what happens. He says, while he was still speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, it's both personal. You own your own guilt, which we all have. 

And it's collective, the sin of the people presenting his supplication before the Lord. While he was speaking, the answer came. In other words, God is quick. 

God is always ready. When we do cry aloud to him, when we do pray, when we do humble ourselves and say, Lord, look at our desolations, we can do nothing. There's no human intervention that we can have here. 

We are not able to fix this. The enemy is too great for us. This kind of demon cannot be driven out by our own works. 

This kind comes out by nothing but prayer and fasting. And indeed, Lord, this situation has come upon us because of our own sin and evil. And Lord, we acknowledge this all before you. 

We confess it and we humble ourselves on bended knee before you. When we do that, God is ready to hear. God is ready to act because he does love his covenant people, though he disciplines them. 

He disciplines them because he loves them. But because he loves them when we pray and we actually pray biblically, he will hear. And no, this is not just an Old Testament thing. 

Jesus says this exact same thing in the New Testament. In Luke 18, we read, And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought to always pray and not to lose heart, saying, There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 

And he would not for a while. But afterwards, he said within himself, Though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge says, And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? Will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, shall he find faith on earth. We are told this parable that we would always prayer that is that we would have a continual pressing in an earnestness in prayer, that we would not grow weary in prayer, and that we would have an eager expectation in our prayer that God will hear and will answer our prayer, just as he did for Daniel and Daniel chapter nine. And so he tells this parable of this unjust judge, who Nope, he didn't fear God, he didn't regard man. 

And here comes this widow who would have had no right, no legal right, no prominence before him, nothing that would make him change his mind in regard her and yet by her continual coming by her persistence, he ends up giving her what she wants. And the point being that if an unjust judge will give into such a persistent coming, how much more God, a good, loving, faithful God who has given us these promises and invited us to come into his presence and told us to ask, seek, knock and pray, how much more will God give justice or avenge his people? It says who cry out to him day and night. In other words, they're not just offering up a casual prayer here and there, but ultimately by their prayerlessness, stating their own self sufficiency, their own self dependency, their own self satisfaction. 

No, they're actually crying out day and night because they are really and truly dependent upon God. They are truly desperate for God. They are truly hungry for God. 

He says, will he delay? Jesus says, will God delay long over them? Will he not give justice to his elect speedily? Just as Daniel prayed. And as soon as he began to really pray, the angel comes in answer to his prayer because he is greatly beloved. Jesus says the exact same thing to us today. 

Yeah, God will not delay long over you. And so we are to pray with earnestness, but is to be real prayer. Again, it comes back to the thing of have we even come to the first fruits where we recognize our desolate condition? Or are we actually like those Laodicean Christians in Revelation chapter three, who are lukewarm and don't realize the pity of all poor, blind and naked state that they are in. 

They are self satisfied. And so they aren't coming to Jesus as they ought to for the riches that he offers to be bestowed on them. And so we need to be emptied of ourselves that we would come to that desolate place that we would truly cry out in utter dependence upon God. 

And I tell you, it's hard for Americans to do because you push a button and you make it happen. You flip a switch and the lights go on. You go to work, you think you earn your own paycheck and everything is so utilitarian.

It's so materialistic that it's hard for us to conceive even as Christians of the supernatural operations that are always at work behind the scenes and of how truly dependent upon God we are for everything. And that ought to concern us because of the last verse, the last phrase that Jesus said, because Jesus says, yes, that God will avenge them speedily, his elect who cry out to him day and night. But then he says, nevertheless, when the son of man come, shall he find faith on earth? This goes back to the possibility of a final boss, a final antichrist, a final apostasy when Satan is let loose from the abyss for a short season to deceive the nations. 

This text would seem to agree with that. Yes, the church is going to persevere through all manner of trials and persecution. There is going to be a general gospel triumph throughout the millennium. 

But no, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons and exactly how long that is exist. We are not to despair as long as we are here, but nor can we presume because if we are found faithless and we are not praying as Daniel did and as Jesus commanded us to, that is a sign of our faithlessness. Prayerlessness is faithlessness. 

Prayerlessness is sin. And one of the marks Jesus has for when that end shall come and when the church is no longer going to experience God preserving and protecting as they did in the fourth century with Julian, the apostate and the building of the third temple is that there is not going to be faith and that lack of faith is going to be marked by a general state of prayerlessness. And that is partially why there must come some final apostasy, some final letting loose of Satan, because it is the world being prepared for judgment. 

But as long as we are here, we are to be redeeming the time. We are salt and light. And so if we are found faithful, God will hear. 

God will answer. There is no foe too mighty. It doesn't matter what AI surveillance, what weapons of warfare does not matter how powerful the enemy they are. 

It says nothing to God, literally nothing less than nothing. In Isaiah 40, Isaiah records that all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing. They are as grasshoppers before him. 

They are accounted as less than dust in the scales. God is sovereign. He is almighty. 

He spoke this world into existence out of nothing. Nothing therefore is too difficult for the Lord, our God. So we should not be despairing. 

We should be trusting in the Lord and his sovereignty. But if we are, we also are realistic and we humble ourselves before God, recognize the real warfare we are facing, our desolate and desperate condition. And we cry out to him day and night, indicating that we actually mean it. 

And that means that actual churches start holding actual prayer meetings and not that your health issues don't matter, but not primarily about everyone's health issues and their economic woes. Yes, we all have that, but our problems are much greater. Our problems are much deeper. 

And we need to actually start confessing sin again, again, personally, but also collectively. We all have a share of guilt in this and our complete dependence on God to act. And if we would do so, there's no telling what the Lord might be pleased to do in our day to supernaturally intervene and bring this whole empire of lies, this whole satanic system to complete and utter ruins. 

He's done it before. We've already seen that the church then in the fourth century was facing exactly pretty much what we are facing today. There's just more technology involved today, which arguably does make it more difficult from a human perspective, but not from God's perspective. 

That's what almighty means. There's no limit to his power. It's not like one thing is harder for God than another. 

It's all equally easy. It requires literally no effort or strain on his part. The difficulty in the, the, of the problem we face is to discipline us, to humble us, to bring us to that point of recognizing like, no, we can't do this. 

We can't fight a revolutionary war. We can't overthrow this power. There's literally nothing we can do, but that's so that just as the apostle Paul said, second Corinthians, he said that they were brought to the point of death, but this was so that they might not rely on themselves, but upon God who gives life to the dead. 

It's the exact same thing. We are brought to the place where you can't do this. You're brought beyond every means that you would have so that we might rely upon God. 

It's a really simple lesson. It's a lesson that the church has had to learn again and again throughout the old and the new Testament. And so I don't know the future and neither do you. 

I don't despair, but neither do I presume upon the grace of God. What I do know and what you do know, and now at least clearly know having listened to this is what is your present duty? What is our present duty? It is to be a people who are marked by prayer, not silly little quick half-hearted prayers, but by blood earnest prayer, recognizing the desperate situation we are in. And ultimately we are to pray for the sake of the glory of God. 

Why do people want to rebuild a third temple? Because ultimately they hate Christianity because they hate Jesus Christ and they want to dishonor his name. Just as men go to that Western wall in Jerusalem today to try to blaspheme God and pretend that, Oh look, every stone wasn't turned upon another. So they want to rebuild a third temple to spit in the face of God. 

No, to us belongs shame. Lord, for your name's sake, vindicate the glory and the honor of the name of Jesus Christ before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess. And when our generation has passed, may we be found faithful. 

May we be found to be those who recognize what kind of demon we are facing. And may we give ourselves to prayer and fasting, having hope and confidence in the Lord our God, because Jesus Christ has made atonement for all of our transgressions, all of our iniquities, and all of our sins. So while we don't presume upon that grace and we are to press in through prayer, we have every reason to hope because Jesus has paid it all. 

And all the promises of God are yes and amen in him. And even if the rest of the church, the visible church doesn't join you in prayer, doesn't join you in confession, maybe he will come back in our generation. We don't know.

Maybe Jesus comes back and there is a general state of faithlessness on earth and prayerlessness doesn't mean it has to be true of you, doesn't mean it has to be true of me. We each have to take personal responsibility here. May we be found faithful in our own generation.

We are each personally responsible before God. So may the Lord our God give us grace. May he give us courage. 

May he pardon our iniquities, humble us before his majesty, before his holiness, and pour out upon us a spirit of prayer and supplication once again, as we look to Jesus Christ, having no confidence or no hope in our flesh, but trusting in Jesus Christ alone, who is able to save to the uttermost. So that's all for today's episode. I hope that that has been convicting and encouraging to you all. 

And until next time, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.