The Coming of the Son Mt, 24:29-35

Let's go ahead and move into our passage this morning. We're as Josiah read for us in Matthew 24, verses 29 through 35. And as we turn to that passage, I think it's helpful for us to just kind of keep oriented here. What's happening is our Lord had been at the temple site, had made some comments to the disciples and others who were around as he was leaving the temple site.

There was at that time a bridge that went across the Kidron Valley, which is that little valley just on the east side of Jerusalem as you head over to the Mount of Olives. And as they went across the bridge and then up to the Mount of Olives, the disciples and Jesus sat over on the Mount of Olives. And just to give us an orientation, here's what is the Temple Mount area, now where the Dome of the Rock is located. Temple Mount area is here. Here's the Mount of Olives here.

And so they had kind of walked up this little pathway, and were perhaps sitting off to the side from this path. And here's sort of at the end of the day, and you can imagine this picturesque moment. In fact, let's go ahead and get it up on the screen. Here's this picturesque scene of, not the Dome of the Rock, but the Temple. This is the modern view.

And the wall of Jerusalem, the gate was open at the time. And they're looking at the scene in front of them here with the city and talking about what's going to take place. And so Christ is sitting with his disciples there on the Mount of Olives. They're looking at this scene out over Jerusalem.

And he He is responding, remember, because they ask some questions initially. And as they ask this set of questions, simple but profound, as they ask these questions, he begins to explain to them what's going to take place. What's going to happen, okay? Obviously, they were a bit puzzled still, in spite of all the things that they'd read and heard. So they're looking for explanation. So he goes through what we call verse 1 through 28 and then he proceeds on to verse 29. Let's look at that together here.

But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Now you have on your handout, something that looks similar to this. One thing I should make note of, just to bring it to mind or if you're newer here, what we do is we put a little number with the highlighting in there so you know it's on the handout and which side it's on. Anyway, this should be something similar to it anyway on page one of the handout.

So what's happening is the Lord has described all these things that are happening during this tribulation time. During the very end of this tribulation time, right just before or perhaps even concurrent with the time that the Lord is coming, He explains here the sun's going to be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall. Basically, taking all the light emitters out of the sky. So let's take a look at this time frame here. On the left hand we have the rapture, the church is taken up. Let me move this so it's a little easier to read. The rapture, where the church is taken up.

Then you have this period of the tribulation that he has described in greater detail in the first roughly 28 verses here. And now he gets to this point and starts the explanation. Then what we find is he's coming at the end of this time, now the various light bodies in the heavens have been lights out, right? And then he explains the next step, and that's in verse 30. Let's take a look at it. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

I think it's important for us to keep in mind what the disciples' questions were. Remember that? A couple weeks back we took a look at it. The disciples were asking some specific questions. And they were saying back then, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? One of the things to keep in mind, it's clear from the structure of the Greek, this sign of your coming and of the end of the age, they looked at those as being two things that were one. There would be a sign of his coming and that would be the end of the age. So they're really putting those together.

Three questions, but rather two because of that. Now, one thing to keep in mind is what is a sign? In our culture, we're sometimes inclined to think of a sign as some kind of a symbol, aside from the stop signs and, you know, turn left here and this is your exit and those kinds of things. We're inclined to think of them as some kind of a symbol.

Well, it must be, you know, something like this or this that, you know, I see in the sky. I even came across one website this last week. It was fascinating. Somebody had gathered together all kinds of amazing astronomical photos of nebulae and galaxies and in the guy would look for little obscure crosses in them and and Pictures of Jesus and angels and things like that.

I don't think that's what he had in mind Okay, the Jews when they think of a sign, they're not thinking of some obscure little symbol as a matter of fact a lot of people in the early church after the time of the New Testament actually thought that this sign of his coming would be a huge cross in the sky.

But to the Jews, a sign is some powerful demonstration. That's what they're looking for. A powerful demonstration. A miraculous demonstration that validates, this is it. So that's important to fix in our minds. It's not something symbolic. Not something obscure.

It's something straight out in the open, powerful. The Lord frequently refers to signs in the Old Testament, and it's something like parting of the Red Sea. You can't miss it. You can't miss it. It's right there. It's right out in the open. You're going to see it. So our Lord is actually responding. He says, what will be the sign of your coming? Now He's telling them, right? This is it, guys. You ready?

So that's why he talks about, which is essentially quoting out of Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. And Daniel is writing here and he talks about the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of Man coming. Okay? That's explicitly Jesus is saying, that sign there out of Daniel, that Daniel talked about, that's what you're going to see. And let's take another look here. John doesn't get very far in the book of Revelation. First chapter, seventh verse, and what does he say? He talks about, behold, he is coming with the clouds. Same reference here. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.

Let's make one more biblical comparison here. Here's Acts 1, 9-11. This is the time Christ had been resurrected. He had spent some time, basically about 500 believers had seen him resurrected. And now, he was preparing to ascend into heaven. And here's what we read. And after he, that is Jesus, had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, And a cloud received him out of their sight. So here's this cloud coming in the picture again, okay? Verse 10. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside him. Excuse me, beside them. They also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. See that? Did you see him go into heaven in a cloud? That's the way he'll come back. The picture from Acts chapter 1, from Revelation chapter 1, from Daniel chapter 7 is the same. When Christ comes again, he's coming in the clouds. That's the picture. Now, verse 12 even adds one more important detail in Acts chapter 1.

It says that in the same way you've seen him come, It says he left from the Mount of Olives. And guess where he was explaining right now where we're in Matthew 24? They're on the Mount of Olives. So this very same location or a similar area on the Mount of Olives. Furthermore, let's take a look at one more point.

The other thing that shows up there in that Matthew 24 passage, this is out of Zechariah 12.10 where it talks about They are so that they will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him." This looking upon him at his second coming and mourning for him is another aspect of what Jesus describes here, and it comes out of Zechariah and is quoted again in Revelation 1-7. So when Christ comes, what do we see the picture as?

Here is Christ. He's coming. He's coming on the clouds. He's coming down to earth. And people on earth will be responding by this mourning and weeping. We'll take a look at that more in a bit. Now, a lot of times when we think of the Lord coming again, we might think of something like this, right?

See some nice scene and here's the sun shining out from behind the clouds. And it's attractive, it's nice. But let's kind of step our way through what's been described here. Okay, this is a nice sunshiny day and you know, we all love to take pictures of it. I know I enjoy, you know, we're on the fifth floor apartment and like I said before, I've never lived on the fifth floor of anything. We didn't have a five-story barn, you know. And so now here we are, you know, looking at this scene and there's a tendency to kind of think, oh, it's kind of like a really nice day with clouds and sun coming through. But look at what he's described.

On that day when he comes, first the sun will be darkened, no sun. Second, the moon will be darkened as well, no moon. The stars taken from the sky, not even any starlight. That kind of an event, that kind of day, now, given that sort of a backdrop, now the sun is coming.

You see the difference? Now Christ is coming, and the only thing you see in the sky is his coming. Not, gee, there's a whole bunch of clouds there, and I wonder if that's... No. Everything else is cleared away, and the only thing that you see is this bright cloud coming.

It will be an unmistakable coming. People won't be guessing. Boy, I wonder if that's it. It's kind of an extraordinary cloud. It's moving down a little bit. This is going to be something people are going to see and they're going to recognize. Why? All the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will know that this is not any sort of ordinary happening. This isn't just a nice, bright, cloudy day. This isn't an extraordinary sunset. This is an extraordinary once-in-a-universe kind of an event. That's what he's describing here.

Now think about the response. The response of a great many people when they see this awesome sight will be to weep. Now it's true, some on earth may see the sight and they'll weep for joy. But that's not the impression you get when you read this verse. The impression you get is that a great many will be mourning. A great many, when it grips them what's taking place, will be so grabbed at heart, so moved, that they will be mourning with tears.

They will recognize their spiritual condition. They will recognize their wretchedness and their resistance. They'll recognize His glorious approaching and impending presence. The sun and the moon and the stars will be gone, but there won't be any lack of light. The light of His glory will see to that.

Now, add something else to the picture we're describing here. We know from Colossians 3, 4, 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, We who believe will be with Him. We will be with Him. So here's this event. All the other lights, the natural lights are taken out of the sky and what you see is the coming of the Son of Man. With believers. With those who have believed during the church age. We will have spent at that time seven years worshipping Him. Falling at His feet. laying our crowns repeatedly before Him.

Also, we know from Matthew 16, 27, Revelation 19, 14 and 19, the angels will come as well. So here is this cloud, and many wonder, is this cloud some gathering of moisture, or is this really a cloud, a massive army? a massive heavenly army, is that forming the cloud? Tough to say for sure, maybe both. But the Lord isn't coming with just a couple of companions. He's coming back with both those of the church and these angels who will come with him.

It'll be quite apparent to those who see this that this world's powers and glories and honors will have nothing to compare to it. Let's look at verse 31. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Now one thing to remember is some people will try to connect up Oh, there's this trumpet and that one and they'll try to connect them up and they sometimes draw wrong conclusions. And here's why. Trumpets are used in scripture for lots of different things all the way from the Old Testament to the very last book here of the New Testament in Revelation. Trumpets are used in numerous places. So we can't just say, oh, that trumpet is this one and connect it up and say, that's it. Okay. Here's some specific examples.

The rapture has a trumpet associated with it. A couple of passages, 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians. So there's one trumpet. Twice in Revelation we hear John describing a voice like a trumpet. There's also the seven trumpet judgments. Revelation 8, 9, and 11. That's in the middle of the tribulation period. And then the great trumpet at his second coming. You see those?

And that's just those that are within or associated with this tribulation period. So trumpets occur at numerous different places in scripture. So we need to be careful we don't just grab something and try to connect it up. Some folks, for example, have concluded that there's a post-tribulation rapture instead of pre-tribulation by making that connection mistakenly, not realizing you've got different trumpets at different places. Now, so let's look at the sequence.

Here's a rapture trumpet that gathers the church. That's associated with the gathering of the church. That gathers the church to be with the Lord in heavenly places. This second trumpet at the end gathers Israel, and the church is with him, so that Israel might not be taken up to heaven, but might be instead taken into the Millennial Kingdom on earth. A trumpet, yes, but a different direction and purpose and a different body of people.

See that? And in the midst of that we have the seven trumpet judgments. So this tribulation period itself from start to finish and in the middle has trumpets associated with it. Something else, this is a time, this tribulation time is a time that's very explicitly tied to Israel and Israel's future, isn't it? So that's something to keep in mind. Israel has a very trumpeted past.

Let me explain what that comes from, why I say that. In Numbers chapter 10, the first 10 verses, the Lord gives the Jews various events for which they are supposed to blow these trumpets. Blow it for this, blow it for that, different purposes, different times. But what comes out here is, and we won't go into all these different purposes, we just want to focus on some specific ones here that fits into that Matthew 24, 31 verse we just looked at. Then as we see verses 2 and 3 here, we notice that the trumpets are used, and notice that it's two, which is called a great trumpet, because there's two, The two trumpets, the great trumpet sound, is to call and gather together the congregation of Israel. And that's straight out of the Old Testament. In verse 9 of Numbers chapter 10, the trumpet is used to basically declare that there's a war on.

So why? So that the Lord can come in and defend. So it's called for gathering Israel, and it's called for defending. And guess what will be going on at this last time? It will be a gathering of Israel, as Jesus describes here, and secondarily, it will be a time when Israel will be defended by the Lord, as we studied before.

So this trumpet is not just, hey, it's a nice place to make some noise. It's got a specific purpose, and it's something that the Lord has woven into the fabric of Judaism for all these years. Case in point. Here's what's sometimes called the Wailing Wall, more recently being referred to as the Western Wall. What have they got? They've pulled together these trumpets, built as described in the Old Testament, and they're sounding them here right along this Western Wall. It's on the western side of the Temple Mount, and it's the one place where the Jews can gather together that's the closest thing to anything left of the Old Temple.

Now, Let's look at some other key phrases in that verse, aside from the trumpet issues there. Gathering together. This gathering together here focuses on Israel. Passages from Jeremiah and from Isaiah here, several of them, speak of Israel being gathered together. Furthermore, the other phrase, his elect, and we talked before about his elect as a reference tied to God choosing Israel. Specifically, that is used in 1 Chronicles, Psalms, and Isaiah. The passages, as you see, are numerous passages to refer to Israel as His elect.

And that makes sense. Notice all these are Old Testament passages, and as we know, the Old Testament refers to Israel, but does not refer in any explicit way to the Church. This is specific to Israel. Another reason pre-tribulation rapture makes sense, right? Okay. Let's take a look at verse 32. Now learn the parable from the fig tree.

When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Now in the top photo here, this is the Mediterranean area Fig tree and this is more during this barren season or it's during the winter like a lot of deciduous trees that drops its leaves and it just looks practically dead because it's lack of leaves during that period of time. But a fig tree is one tree that once it does start, you know, shooting out buds, the leaves are large and substantial and the tree becomes very, very green. You see lots of leafage. as it starts to bud out during the spring. Even on this one, where the leaves are pretty young, you can start to see the figs beginning to grow.

And that's the picture Jesus is using here. He says, on the fig tree, you know it's bare, and all of a sudden, right at that time where those leaves start to come out and the figs start to come out on the tree, then you know, from that period of time, that It won't be long, and it'll be summer, it'll be harvest time, and all the rest is going to happen. So he's giving them this picture, because they've got this right in front of them, perhaps even right near where they are sitting there where Jesus is talking.

They've got that example right in front of them, and he's laying it out there, and he's saying, look, when this thing starts to bud, you can look at it, and you know what's around the corner. You know what's happening next. So he gives that as a sign. He says, when you've seen all these things, start to take place, then you know exactly what's going to happen next. I'm laying it out for you. I'm making it clear. I'm explaining it to you. So, let's take a look at verse 33.

So you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Now, it's interesting, when we say right at the door, okay, that sounds good. One of the things we need to recognize, this is sort of a Hebrew expression. We wouldn't necessarily say right at the door, but that's an expression that they use. Let me give you an example first. Okay, this right at the door means ready or imminent or close, okay? A similar modern expression might be, it's right around the corner. You heard people say that or use that yourself, okay?

We say something's going to happen pretty quick. We'll say, hey, it's right around the corner. It's about to happen. It's going to happen soon. That's the same way they would use, only they wouldn't say right around the corner. I'm not sure how many corners they had.

So instead they would say, it's at the door. And you notice that's an expression that comes out of everything from Genesis all the way to Revelation and 2 Samuel, Acts and James in between. So here's these Here's these biblical examples. So this expression, at the door, is not something that Jesus just came up with. It's kind of strange. It's something that had been used for centuries and was continued on during his time, and John even used that in writing the book of Revelation. This phrase, at the door, means it's, to use our modern vernacular, it's right around the corner. When you see these things, it's close. When you see these things, the time is near. That's what he's conveying to them. Notice, too, what he puts in here.

He doesn't just use this expression, at the door, but he uses another one, all these things. You see that in verse 33? All these things. Now, he's used that phrase, all these things, a few times already in this chapter, and he's going to use it again in the next verse. So, all these things is a little phrase we probably should pay some attention to as well. It's referring to everything that he has described to that point. All these things. All these events. All these things that I have described to you.

All these things. When you see those, you know that it's at the door, right around the corner. It's the next thing that's going to happen. That's what he's laying out to them. Verse 34. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Now, this word pair, this generation, has been understood in a bunch of different ways.

And we better take a look at them. Don't you think? Think that's a good idea? I thought so. So, we're going to. Now, I'm going to put some different ideas that people have suggested. And I'm glad you're sitting down. Okay. Because some of the suggestions, well, you'll need to be sitting down. Anyway. Here's one suggestion. Someone looked at this, all these, you know, this generation, someone said, Well, he must be mistaken, because it didn't happen. No, no, okay. They're saying because it didn't happen right away. Just like he said, he must be mistaken. We're going to set that aside. That doesn't have a really good understanding of the Lord's authority and the Lord's knowledge and of his character. So we're going to ignore that and consider it not worthy of our time. Okay? Now, next one. Some would propose that this generation meant that his generation would see these things. The people that are here right now will see these things. Now, we've talked about that before.

That's called preterism, okay, is the term for it. Preterists believe that the second coming, now I'm using fingers like this as quotes, the second coming was Christ coming in judgment when the Roman army came against Jerusalem in 70 AD, finally defeating the Jews. And that's a very common belief among a number of Christians these days, particularly those who take scripture allegorically, Some of the names, R.C. Sproul, the Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, be another one. So at any rate, that's that belief.

Some of the problems with that is that instead of taking Christ coming back to earth as a literal event, it spiritualizes it. It takes it allegorically. The angel said he'll come back in the same way that he left, What does it say? He doesn't come back in the same way he left, right? So there's a problem. Anyway, we could go into that more, but we'll not belabor it. The next one, some would propose that Jesus meant this generation referred to the continuity of the Jewish people.

And the reason for that is that the word used for generation can sometimes be translated race. But in this context, and remember, What are our rules for interpretation? Just like in real estate, the three most important things is location, location, location. In interpretation, the three most important things are context, context, context. In the context, this doesn't quite seem to make sense. All of a sudden you're going to throw that in. There's one other reason why it doesn't make sense.

The Jews already assumed that they would continue as a race. Their whole Old Testament tells them that. So for Jesus to try to add that on as a piece of news would be rather strange. Alright, one other proposal there. Jesus meant that all these things would start in his generation and then continue on. Folks who like to think that the various things are prophesied just kind of get spread out over the centuries will take this view, okay? Finally, and I think this is what Jesus really intended, and I want to cover the others because you may have already come across them if you won't continue to do so.

Jesus meant that the phrase, this generation, referred to the generation at the time of the tribulation. All those at the time of the tribulation, this specific generation, would go through these things. The ones who were there at the start would experience within that same generation all these different things.

That's the reference. So, as a consequence, let's go ahead and present it here with some strikeouts. The first ones we're going to set aside. I believe this is the biblical teaching here. Now, there's something else to look at in this generation. This generation is genea aute in the Greek. Though it is used of Christ's own generation, matter of fact in chapter 23 he uses this generation, those same words, and he does refer to his own generation, it is also elsewhere used of people who are outside of the current generation.

Example, Hebrews 3.10. It uses this generation, but it means the generation that lived during the time of Moses.

So the phrase doesn't doesn't mean this generation currently living automatically, you have to look at the context to determine what it means, okay? It doesn't automatically mean the current one. And this is one case that proves the point. So, what this really boils down to, to constrain the events that take place all within the time frame of the Tribulation. Not stretched out over multiple generations. That's Jesus' intent. This is all going to take place at one time.

Now, let's take a look at one more verse here, verse 35. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Now the words of the Lord Jesus regarding what he had just told the disciples are very similar to a couple of Old Testament passages. We have them quoted here on the overhead. One is Psalm 119, 89. It says, Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Forever. Or Isaiah 40, verse 8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

So Christ has told him something very similar, hasn't he? Very similar statement. So I think it's important as we look at this, Jesus made a brief statement here. What he said was real simple, not complex at all. As a matter of fact, it's hard to miss what he's saying. But there are several key things that kind of fall out from that simple statement. So let's take a look at them. Jesus is claiming four things. The first thing that he's claiming, The words our Lord just told them, as with all the others, are eternally and objectively true.

One of the issues today, and in fact it's almost a past issue, one of the issues today is, is there absolute truth? Is there absolute truth? Now, what has most of the world concluded? No, there isn't any. The world would generally conclude There isn't any such thing as absolute truth. But guess what?

Jesus is saying, here is truth that lasts beyond all these generations. This entire world, heaven and earth, the whole thing, will come and go, but my words will remain. So it's a statement of absolute truth. Not that, well it's true for you, but it's not for me. None of that. The other thing he's saying in here, these words are certainly going to come to pass. If I've told you, it's going to happen.

They're a certainty. They can be counted on. One of the hymns we sing is, Great is thy faithfulness. Because God is of a character that he is faithful. If God said it is going to take place, it will certainly take place. Christ makes that same statement.

He says, if I said it's going to happen, it will happen, and it will remain when heaven and earth are gone. Okay? On beyond that. And that's the next thing that he says. He says, I am deity. If the Lord can say statements like this, or here he has in Psalm 119, Forever O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Or the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Christ makes this statement, heaven and earth will pass away, but mine will not. That's a claim to deity, isn't it? He is making statements there that he is speaking the word of the Lord. It's a claim to deity. And the fourth thing is that he will preserve words for future generations.

One of the things that happened during the Roman Empire is as Christianity fell increasingly out of favor, it became illegal to have copies of the New Testament. And so what did Christians do? In great numbers, they went and copied the New Testament. And even though the Romans did everything they could to stamp it out, and harshly penalized people who had copies of the New Testament, believers still continued to carry it about, and to copy it, and to make sure that others heard it and had it. Furthermore, even going into the Middle Ages, in the 13th century, it became illegal to have a copy of the Bible in English. Illegal. It's against the law. You cannot have that.

When William Tyndale published his various editions of the New Testament, one edition that came out, 18,000 copies were printed. We have one of them. One remains out of 18,000. They were so thorough at eradicating them. And yet, what do we have? We have thousands of English Bibles, millions of English Bibles. It is still, the Bible is still the number one bestseller. Many, many Bibles in spite of great efforts for people to eradicate it.

So this is the last point the Lord is making. People are going to try to wipe this out. They're going to try to stamp it out. They're going to make it illegal. They're going to go and burn every book they can. The bottom line is, when I say something, it will stand forever. It will be preserved. The Lord will sovereignly make sure that His Word is preserved and remains. Now think about this. Given the absolute, and certain and enduring character of God's Word, and as we see in this verse, the deity of the One who spoke them and inspired it, doesn't it make perfect sense for us to believe it? It makes perfect sense for us to place our faith in the facts that are revealed there.

Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus says, So when His fully preserved Word says that for the joy set before Him, Christ endured the cross, doesn't it make sense to believe Him? Heaven and Earth will pass away, everything we see here, and even things we don't. Heaven and Earth will pass away, so when God's absolutely true Word says that we have been bought with a price, doesn't that make sense to believe it? Heaven and Earth will pass away. So when the Holy Spirit-inspired Word says that we've been seeded with Christ, doesn't it make sense to believe Him? Heaven and Earth will pass away, so when God who made it all tells us to trust Him in the midst of many and varied trials, doesn't it make sense to believe Him? When we believe God's Word, We believe Him with whom we will have a relationship when heaven and earth is all passed away.

All because of His marvelous grace. Heaven and earth will pass away. This is all going, folks. It's all going to be gone. What's going to count? The only thing left When all this is gone, are things that you and I cannot see right now, and cannot touch, and cannot feel, and cannot taste, cannot smell. When all this is gone, everything that we could sense will be gone from the scene. It is only the things that have been revealed, facts revealed to us, on which we believe, that will be left.

That's the character of this word. We are called to believe not because it's some hopeful, tenuous thing, but because it's the only thing that's going to last. The only thing that's going to last. That's what faith is about. It's not just hoping something is there, having this ethereal, wispy, gosh I wish it so, but it's having confidence in revealed facts from a God who will have a relationship with us forever, and laid His life on the line to prove it. Let's pray.

Lord, we give You thanks as we look at this, that You've laid out what Your coming again will be like, and You've laid out what it will be like, not just for these Jews, but also because we will be with You at that time. And when that happens, we'll say, yes, of course, it was meant to be this way. Yes, of course, this is the way it's supposed to be. It's consistent with your character. It's consistent with what you've done.

And Lord, we just pray as we walk out of here today that our faith and trust and confidence will be in the facts that you have laid out before us and not in the things that we can touch and taste and feel and see and smell. And we just look to you for that confidence now. In Jesus' name, Amen.