Every Last Word

Guest (Male): In a world that is often afraid of what the future holds, how should we as Christians look toward the end times? Are we to treat the unknown of the future as the world does, or is there a better way? As we prepare to listen to Dr. Ryken's sermon on this topic, let's open our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Every Last Word, a radio and internet program with Dr. Philip Ryken, teaching the whole Bible to change your whole life. Today we're discussing the end prophecies that Jesus gave to us in a warning to be ready. So keep listening as we continue our studies in the Gospel of Luke.

Guest (Male): Phil, almost everyone believes that the world will come to an end midway in its some time. As Christians, how are we to prepare for the end of the world?

Philip Ryken: You know, Mark, that's really the focus of most of the teaching that Jesus gives about the end of the world, and that is to be ready. The end is near, as the title of the message says today, and really the end is always near. How do we prepare for that by watching, by waiting, by believing the promises of God, by praying for the coming of Christ, and by sharing the Gospel with as many people as we can.

Guest (Male): Does Jesus ever tell us or even just give us some clues as to when the end of the world will be?

Philip Ryken: Well, we wish that he did, don't we, Mark? And yet, Jesus denied that we could know the precise time of the end of the world. He did give us a lot of signs of the approach of the end. Really, Mark, we're already living in the end times from a biblical point of view. All of the things that Jesus talked about, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, various kinds of troubles, these things are characteristic of the whole time between the resurrection of Christ and the second coming of Christ. The next big thing that will happen in the plan of salvation is the coming of Christ. It could even happen today, Mark, but whenever it does happen, we shouldn't be surprised because we should be ready for it and praying for it at any time.

Guest (Male): All right, thank you, Phil. Let's turn now in our Bibles to Luke chapter 21, verses 29 through 36 and listen to Dr. Ryken.

Philip Ryken: It was the spring of 1953, the season of the year when mountain climbers ascend the peaks in pursuit of glory. That year there were three expeditions that set out to conquer the three highest peaks in the Himalayas. The British had set out to conquer Mount Everest, the French were making an assault on Annapurna, and a team of Germans and Austrians were making an attack on Nanga Parbat.

The British were successful, as you may know, and also the French, but the third team failed to reach the summit and was forced to turn back. Except for Hermann Buhl, that is. For when the team made its decision to turn back, he went on alone, doing the unthinkable, and conquered the summit before staggering back to his companions 41 hours later at the advanced camp.

Buhl's conquest of Nanga Parbat remains one of the greatest individual accomplishments in the history of human adventure, a triumph of the mind and the will over the sufferings of the body. What was it that enabled the man to ascend such great heights? The translator of the climber's autobiography explained it like this: Buhl had long decided to be ready when the call came. The whole of his climbing life was in fact dedicated to that end. He was ready for the call and able to meet it when it sounded.

Ready when the call came. It describes one of the main objectives of the Christian life, that as followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be ready when the call comes. Not just the call that God has for us to serve him right now, but also the final call that he will give on the last of all days. Let me ask you, in the presence of God, will you be ready when the call comes?

Jesus gave us teaching that would help us to be ready, and you can see it if you will look with me at Luke chapter 21, where we consider verses 29 to 36. Words of preparation for the end of the world. If Jesus had one overarching purpose for his famous discourse on the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the world, it was to make sure that his disciples would be ready when the call came. The end is near. Whenever we witness any sign of the coming judgment, we should stand tall in the hope of our redemption. That's what Jesus said in verse 28: raise your heads, your redemption is drawing near.

Jesus also ended this chapter by exhorting us to be ready for that final call. He did it by teaching a parable about how near the end is, by making a promise about how certain his words are to come true, and by giving practical advice about the difference between being ready and not being ready for the end to come. We have here a parable, a promise, and some practical advice.

This parable, which introduces the exhortation, was one of the last and shortest of the parables that Jesus told. He said, "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near."

What a simple analogy it is. As everyone knows, one of the first harbingers of the approaching summer is the budding of the trees in springtime. Once you see the leaves beginning to come out, there is no way to stop the change of seasons. The appearance of the early fig is a sure sign that summer is near.

According to Jesus, this is a little parable about the coming of the kingdom of God. Whenever we see signs of the coming judgment, that divine judgment promised in the Bible, that judgment that Jesus in so many ways has been speaking about in this chapter of Scripture, when we see these signs, we know that the end is near.

Jesus speaks here about "these things taking place." That refers to the things he immediately said about the coming of the Son of Man, and really in a general way to everything he has been saying in this chapter. These are all signs of coming judgment, first for Jerusalem and then for the entire world. Even to this day, when we see disasters in our world, we know that the kingdom is near, just as surely as we know that summer is near when we see those first tree blossoms in the springtime.

That's a very simple parable that makes one basically simple point. But you know, what Jesus said next is one of the more difficult verses to interpret anywhere in the Gospels. This is what he goes on to say on the basis of his parable: "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place."

What makes it difficult is this question: what exactly did Jesus mean by "this generation"? And how does what he says here about that generation not passing away fit in with everything he is saying about how near we are to the end of the world? At first, most people assume that when Jesus said "this generation," he was talking about people who were alive when he spoke these words and who would die in the coming decades. That's usually the way we would use the word "generation" today, all of the people born within a decade or two of one another who generally live and die at the same time in human history.

But if that's what Jesus meant, it's hard to make sense of the rest of the verse because most of the people of his generation were dead by the end of the first century. Was Jesus really saying here that his second coming would happen before his disciples died? If he said that, he was obviously mistaken.

We are forced to conclude either that Jesus was mistaken or that here he was only talking about the fall of Jerusalem. Certainly he was speaking about that earlier in this chapter. It's a judgment that many of the people listening that day would have witnessed themselves. We know that Jesus cannot err, so I think we can dismiss the idea that he was mistaken for reasons that we would consider elsewhere in Scripture. But I also think it's clear from this passage as a whole that he's not talking just about the fall of Jerusalem. He's looking beyond that time of judgment to the last judgment of all.

So what does Jesus mean by generation? Well, there are several other ways we can interpret the verse. Sometimes the Greek word for generation refers to race. It is a group defined by its ethnicity, rather than by the year it was born. If that's the way the term is used here, then Jesus was speaking specifically about the Jews. They, you see, are the people who will not pass from this earth until everything in God's plan has taken place. Certainly, you could demonstrate that from history, that to this day, God is working his purposes out for the Jewish people, including many coming to faith in Jesus Christ as the Scriptures promise.

You could also take "generation" to refer to a group of people who are characterized by having the same spiritual condition. You could use the word not temporally or ethnically, but spiritually. In that case, the emphasis falls not on when people live, but on how they live.

The psalmist was speaking in a similar way when he prayed that God would guard us from this generation forever. You can't really pray for God to guard you from a generation forever if you're just talking about the people alive at a particular time. It's really a way of characterizing the evil of those people and the way that evil continues in the world. That's the context of Psalm 12.

So maybe when Jesus talked about a generation not passing away until everything had taken place, he was talking about people who had rejected the Christ, that kind of generation, a perverse generation, as the Apostle Peter was later to say. He was talking not just about people who rejected the Christ in that day, but the fact that people will continue to reject Christ until the end of time.

Or maybe Jesus was speaking much more positively about the generation. That's an alternative. He may have been speaking here about the chosen people of God, the generation of those disciples who believe the promises of the coming redemption. For God will always have such people in the world, and he has promised that they will persevere until everything that he ever promised has taken place. God, as the Scripture says, is with the generation of the righteous, and that's a promise true for all times.

As we consider these various possibilities, I think it's hard to know for certain exactly what Jesus meant by generation here. But I do think it's clear what the verse means. The point of the verse is not so that we can figure out exactly when the end will take place. Jesus isn't trying to give us a kind of clue so that we can set up a timetable. What he's mainly emphasizing is that these things will certainly come to pass. This generation, whatever generation it is, will not pass away until everything has taken place. That's the important thing, that it will all take place.

As surely as summer follows springtime, the words of Jesus will all come true, from the fall of Jerusalem to the end of the world when the Son of Man will come with power and with everlasting glory. The meaning of this parable, the parable of the fig tree, I think is confirmed by the promise that Jesus makes. We've considered the parable, now look at the promise in verse 33: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

And here, I think Jesus is taking the main point of verse 32 and taking it farther. He is extending it. It's not just that everything Jesus said about the end of the world will come true, it is everything that he said about everything. Even when this tired old world has passed away and everything in it, the words of Jesus will still abide.

What a remarkable claim this verse is to the deity and to the authority of Jesus Christ. I hear in this verse an echo from one of the great verses of the Old Testament. It's a verse that many of the children of this church know because they've memorized it: Isaiah 40, verse 8. Do you know how it goes? It's a promise that the Old Testament makes about its own authority: "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever."

Jesus here is claiming that same enduring authority for the words that were coming out of his mouth. It's his Gospel that will also stand forever. Not just the Old Testament, but also the New Testament. Not just the words of the prophets, but the words of Jesus himself. And if Jesus is making that kind of claim, it can only mean that he believes that he himself is God, with all of the authority in the universe and with the almighty power to make sure that anything he said would come to pass.

Whatever else may happen in earth or in the sky, even to the very end of the world, whatever Jesus said must come true. Charles Spurgeon said it like this: "Whatever alteration may come before the last great change," in other words, whatever may happen in the world, whatever changes we may see in our times, whatever they are, "Christ's words shall still stand. And when the greatest alteration of all shall take place, and this present world shall come to an end and all material things shall be consumed with fire and destroyed, yet even then there shall remain above the ashes of the world the imperishable revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ."

That's what Jesus was saying, that the heavens and the earth will pass away, but not the things that he said. Not the things that he said in the Gospels. Think of all the things that Jesus has said to us as we've read the Scriptures. All of his prophecies, his predictions for everything from the fall of Jerusalem to the end of the world. Some of those predictions have already come true, some of them will come true, but they will all come true in the end.

This also applies to his commands. These too will stand until the end of the world. Think of his two greatest commandments: to love the Lord your God with everything you have, and to love your neighbor as yourself. These commands will endure to the end of time, and then after that for all eternity.

The same is true of the warnings of Jesus Christ, like his warning that whoever does not believe in him will fall under the wrath of God. All of these words will come true. But praise God, it's not just the predictions and the commands and the warnings that will come true, it's also the promises that will come true. They too will stand forever. They will never pass away.

And so we can do something more than just heed his warnings and obey his commands, we can also trust his promises. Let me remind you of just a couple of them: Jesus's promise to take all our sins away, to offer forgiveness through the cross where he died for our sins. He has promised to provide for all of our needs, whatever we truly need for daily life.

He has promised that anyone who comes to him will never be turned away. He has promised to be with us to the very end. He's promised to heal all the diseases of our bodies, to cure all of the wounds of our souls. He's promised to be with us in all of our troubles, giving us the presence and the peace of the Holy Spirit.

He has promised to prepare a place for us in his Father's house. He's promised that by the power of his own resurrection, he will raise his children up from the grave when he comes again to take us to that eternal home. These are just a few of the promises of Jesus Christ. He made hundreds of them in the Gospels, and you see they will all be true until the end of the world and true even after that.

Here is the security of our salvation, that it is based on the bedrock truth of the living and abiding words of Jesus Christ. The Bible says all of the promises of God are yes in Jesus. And therefore we can build our entire lives on his promises. Here's the way that Charles Spurgeon applied this principle to his own congregation, if I may quote from Spurgeon again. He was thinking about some of the needs in his church and he was applying this truth that the words of Christ will stand to their situation.

He said, "Are you very sick and weak?" Well, it's true of some of us. Some of our own congregation are sick and weak. "Or," he said, "are you getting very poor?" It's true of some of us as well. "Well," Spurgeon said, "your health and your property too will pass away, but Christ's words will never pass away." And then he said, "Are you dying? Well, Christ's words will never die or pass away. Die with those words in your heart." And Spurgeon said that because if you die with those words in your heart, you will live with Jesus forever. You see, this is how we hold on to the promises that Jesus has made in all of the difficult circumstances of life.

How tragic it is that we live in a time when people are taking the living and abiding words of Jesus and opposing them. They're rejecting the very Gospel. Whether it's false gospels like the so-called Gospel of Judas or religious hoaxes like the one perpetrated in The Da Vinci Code, someone always seems to be trying to cast doubt on the words of Jesus.

But his words will never pass away. And that means that eventually anyone who tries to discredit Jesus will be discredited himself. My favorite example of that, and I can't resist mentioning it, comes from Voltaire, the famous French philosopher. Not everyone remembers Voltaire these days, which would be ironic because he predicted that within 50 years, no one would remember the name of Jesus, let alone the words that Jesus spoke.

That was a fairly bold prediction, because the very year that Voltaire said that, the British Museum paid half a million dollars for a copy of an ancient biblical manuscript from Russia, while at the very same time, one of Voltaire's works was selling for only eight cents in the Paris book stalls. That's ironic.

If you want to see a greater irony, move forward 50 years, because after Voltaire died, his home was purchased by, of all things, the Geneva Bible Society. And 50 years to the very day after Voltaire made his rash prophecy, presses in his own home were printing thousands of Bibles every day. And every copy included, I'm sure, the words of Luke 21:33 written in French: *Le ciel et la terre passeront, mais mes paroles ne passeront point.* Which means, as any Frenchman can tell you, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." And that's why you can build your life on them for this life and for all eternity.

If everything Jesus said will come true, that must include everything he said about the end of the world. One of the main things that Jesus said on this subject is that the end is near. Yesterday I was speaking to a neighbor out in the street in front of our home and he asked me if it was really true that the end was near. He has a way of noticing what's on the notice board and this seemed somewhat out of character, I think, that I would be making such predictions about the end of the world. And I said, "Well, you know, it is what Jesus said. The end is near."

The world has already witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, which Jesus had predicted in this passage of Scripture. Many of these other signs we have seen as well, including in our own day: nation rising against nation, earthquakes, tsunamis, people fainting with fear, filled with foreboding about the future, all things that Jesus prophesied. And like the first fig leaves in springtime, they are warning signs that the end is near.

When the end finally comes, it will come upon all of us, every last person who has ever lived. So Jesus says here in verse 35. It's the basis for the practical application he makes at the end of his exhortation. It will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Obviously here he's not just talking about the fall of Jerusalem, he's talking about God judging the entire world and everyone in it.

As the Scripture says, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, every single man and woman and child who has ever lived will appear one day before God for judgment. And for believers, that day will be a day of vindication, it will be a day of victory. On the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ who offered his perfect blood for our sins, we will be declared righteous in the sight of God.

I think our own Westminster Shorter Catechism has a wonderful way of saying it: "At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity."

And yet we should also say that for unbelievers, that last of all days will be a day of doom when God will banish his enemies from the joy of his presence and he will condemn them to suffer the penalty of their sins forever. Do you see, this is why we cannot simply drift through life without thinking seriously about the end of the world? Jesus himself is pressing these things upon us. He is saying the end is near and you must consider the implications of that.

The decision we make about Jesus Christ now, or even if we decide we're not even going to make a decision about him and simply ignore him altogether, that decision is still a decision and it determines where we will end up for all eternity. It is a matter of spiritual life and death. And so whenever we find Jesus talking about the end of the world, as he did with some frequency, we always find him giving this same practical advice and telling us to get ready for it now before the time comes.

All of these signs of the coming judgment are not given so that we can chart the future, but in order to make this exhortation: what one commentator called "an exhortation to perpetual preparedness." This is what Jesus is pressing upon us: are you ready for the end of the world? Are you prepared for his coming?

Frankly, some people are not ready at all. And that's why Jesus says what he says in verse 34. He's beginning to build this contrast between people who aren't ready and people who are ready. In verse 34 is the people who aren't ready, it's a warning not to be like them: "Watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap."

This is a verse that calls us to serious self-examination. We need to watch ourselves. We need to watch out particularly for two of the main things that prevent people from being prepared for the coming judgment. You could summarize like this: these two things that prevent people are dissipation and distraction.

The Bible uses the word dissipation here. What it means is basically what today we would call a hangover. It's the unpleasant physical effects that inevitably follow the heavy consumption of alcohol. And so dissipation and drunkenness here, it's not two different things, but really two ways of describing the same thing. Some people deal with their fears about the future or with the troubles of daily life by getting intoxicated. Rather than finding their comfort in Christ and turning themselves over to him in prayer, they find some other way of making themselves feel better or maybe feeling nothing at all by drinking alcohol or using other drugs.

Now let me say a few words about this. I think it's perhaps important to say. The Bible does not forbid the moderate use of wine, for example. In fact, the Holy Spirit himself tells us that God is the one who causes wine to gladden the heart of man. And if the wedding at Cana is any indication, Jesus knew the difference between ordinary table wine and a more select vintage.

And yet it also needs to be said that the Bible sternly forbids any form of drunkenness. The biblical command on this could hardly be clearer. There are many verses I could turn to, but let me just mention Ephesians chapter 5: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery."

And so let me just say by practical application, if you've been getting drunk, or if people you love are concerned about how much you're drinking, really you should stop using alcohol immediately. That would be the better thing. And if you find you can't stop, well, then doesn't that prove that you have the very problem that is the concern?

It may be that some medical attention will be needed to deal with the physical effects, particularly in the case of drug abuse. This will be the case, if there's some strong chemical dependency that is developed, there are physical effects that will need to be dealt with in a medical way. But at its heart, the abuse of alcohol itself is a spiritual issue, calling for the repentance of sin. It's a sin, not just because of what it does to a person, although that's bad enough, or because of all the things that it leads to, which in many cases are even worse, but also simply because of what it keeps a person from doing, namely serving God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's the concern that Jesus has here. That's why he mentions it here in the context of being ready for the coming of the Son of Man. Because according to Jesus, one of the things that prevents people from getting ready for the day of death or for the end of the world, whichever may come first, is a life of senseless debauchery. Obviously someone who is getting wasted on Saturday night or drowning his sorrows at home is not ready for the second coming of the Son of Man. That's no way to be prepared for the coming of Christ.

That's the point that Jesus is making. But it's a warning, I think, not just limited to drugs and alcohol. I think drunkenness and dissipation are really examples of a broader temptation, which is to fill our lives with so many intoxicating pleasures that we have little time left for God. Really any entertainment or interest or activity that we use as a way of escape from the serious issues of life and death will cause the same problem. It will keep us from being ready and at the ready when the time comes.

And then there is another temptation or danger, something else that prevents many people from being ready for Christ, and that is distraction. It's not just dissipation, but also distraction. Jesus speaks here of the cares of life. And they can hinder our spiritual preparedness as much as getting drunk can.

What Jesus means by the cares of life, I think, is not just the anxieties of life, the things that are keeping you up at night, but simply the ordinary duties of daily existence: our homes, our jobs, our schoolwork, our families. Our earthly affairs may be good in themselves. Certainly it's true that God calls us to do our daily duty. But these things can also drag us down spiritually. If we're consumed with them, they can weigh down our hearts, Jesus said. They have a wearying effect on the soul. They weigh you down the way a heavy textbook will break a child's back on the long walk to school. It hinders everything else in your spiritual life.

And really, whether you're tempted to dissipation or to distraction, either way it's a sin of excess: either excessive drinking or excessive concern with worldly business. And you see, these are both dangers. Some of us, frankly, are tempted to both of them. But both of them are temptations that will lead us away from being ready for Christ.

There are some people who like to break all the rules. They're like the younger son in the story of the prodigal son, the one who ran away to spend everything he had on riotous living. Other people like to keep all the rules. They're like the older son in that same parable, working hard in the fields every day. And yet their hearts are just as far from God. It's not so much the bad things that tempt them, but too many of the good things. They're so caught up in doing what they are doing that they are not looking for their Father's joy.

And let me just ask you to consider which of these two is the stronger temptation for you? Or maybe, as I say again, for most of us, it's really both temptations. Are you trying to find your comfort in the drunken pleasures of a fallen world, whatever those pleasures may be? Well, if so, you're only hurting yourself and the people you love. Or are you driving yourself to distraction with all the things that you're doing, including perhaps all of the things that you think you're doing for God?

Well, Jesus says here: be careful or else you will miss him on the last day and come under judgment. Watch yourself. Don't get caught unawares. The day of judgment, Jesus says here, will come suddenly. It'll come almost completely unexpectedly. It will snap the world shut like a trap. And even before they realize what has happened, or have any time to do anything about it, many people will get caught by the justice of God. Let me ask you again, are you ready for the final call?

Many people are not ready. But some people are. And Jesus tells us here what it takes for us to be ready if we would like to be ready, as surely we must. It takes faith in him, of course, for the forgiveness of our sins. That's really the main thing, holding on to the cross. And don't wait until the last minute for that. Come to Christ while you still have time. Don't wait until it's too late to get right with God. If you believe in him right now, you'll be ready for the end of the world.

And then once you've come to Christ in that way, keep waiting for him and watching for him. Keep praying for him to make his soon return. This is the way to stay ready. Jesus speaks in verse 36 about the prepared life. And he describes it as a life of waiting and praying. He says, "Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

And with these words, Jesus is calling every believer to perpetual preparedness, to be constantly at the ready, looking for our Savior's return, waiting for it, watching for it, longing for it, and praying that the day will come. I think about this kind of constant preparedness, I immediately think of the job that my brother-in-law used to do as a bomber pilot for the Strategic Air Command in the United States Air Force.

As you may know, from the late 1940s until the early 1990s, the Strategic Air Command flew essentially constant missions designed to deter the Russians from making any nuclear attack. And when my brother-in-law was on flight duty, he always had to stay within 100 yards of his aircraft so that he could be airborne with nuclear weapons within moments of any military alert. He and his crew had to be awake at all times.

And you see as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to be similarly prepared for his coming, always staying alert, always looking for his second coming, expecting it at any moment. If you ask me, is the end near? Yes, the end is near, and that is the perspective we are always to take, looking for the soon coming of our Lord Jesus.

And as we wait, we are to make the petitions that Jesus himself told us to make. We are not only to wait but also to pray, praying for the God-given strength that we need to pass through all of our earthly trials and then enter unscathed into the glory that comes afterwards, escaping from the wrath of God. And we are to pray that when the Son of Man comes, we will still be standing.

"To stand before the Son of Man," as is said here at the end of verse 36, is an expression that comes from the courtroom. It indicates a favorable verdict. Here it reminds us of the great truth that when we appear before God at the final judgment, our standing, our qualification to stand in the holy presence of God, will be the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is what it takes to stand before God at the final judgment. Let me ask you again, are you ready for that final call? Have you prepared yourself through faith in Jesus Christ? Are you waiting and praying for his soon return?

One man who I think was always ready, always prepared, was one of the best men I know, James Montgomery Boice, who many of you will know as your former pastor, so long the minister of this church. And he, as he was coming to his own final days, wrote about this kind of perpetual preparedness in a hymn that he was writing at the time of his death, still working on it, getting ready for the last of all days as he contemplated the words of this hymn. Let me read it for you now and receive it as an exhortation to be ready for the coming of Christ.

"We do not know if Christ will come when life is rough or steady; we only know that Jesus said, 'Keep watching and be ready.' Keep watching, for Christ will appear at night or some bright morning, like lightning flashing through the sky without a moment's warning. Be ready when the Lord descends to render final judgment, when men shall rise to heaven's joy or suffer dreadful torment. So watch with care, in grace abound, get ready soon to greet him; that when you hear the trumpet sound, you'll be prepared to meet him."

Our Father, we pray for this kind of preparedness, this kind of readiness. We confess, Lord, we can go a long time without really considering the coming of Christ, a long time without considering how desperately urgent it is that people close to us, people we love, we know are not ready for his coming. And so, Father, we pray for ourselves for the work of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and through us reaching the lives of others through the ministry of this church, so that people would be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Every Last Word with Bible teacher Dr. Philip Ryken, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance exists to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of reformed theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide Christian teaching that will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place. Alliance broadcasting includes The Bible Study Hour with Dr. James Boice, Every Last Word with Bible teacher Dr. Philip Ryken, God's Living Word with Pastor the Reverend Richard Phillips, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible featuring Donald Barnhouse. For more information on the Alliance including a free introductory package for first-time callers or to make a contribution, please call toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. You can also write the Alliance at Box 2000, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or you can visit us online at Alliancenet.org. Ask for your free resource catalog featuring books, audio, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians. Thank you again for your continued support of this ministry.