It's the thirteenth chapter then of the gospel
of Mark. As we come to this section before us, we are
with our Lord Jesus and the disciples sitting on the Mount of Olives. It is the end of the day on Wednesday of Passion
Week. On Friday He will die on the cross. On Sunday He will rise. On Thursday He will prepare for the Passover
and celebrate the Passover meal Thursday evening with His disciples. And that's where the betrayal will occur,
that night, and it will all come to fruition on Friday, He will be tried, He will be executed
on the cross, as I said, to rise on Sunday. So in a very real sense, this is a very, very
important moment for our Lord. His final day of public teaching has been
concluded, spent the whole day in the temple. He arrived in Jerusalem on Monday. On Tuesday He went in to attack and assault
the temple and threw out the buyers and sellers that were there and prepared that temple for
His entrance on Wednesday. Went in and used that full day to teach the
truth in that place, first time in hundreds of years the truth had dominated the temple. But for a day He taught His final lessons,
His final messages. Then He pronounced judgment on the temple,
judgment on Israel as well. He left the temple and His disciples followed
Him. They went out the Eastern Gate, down the little
bank, across the Kidron Valley, a little stream that runs there, up the slope to the Mount
of Olives and He sat with His disciples on the Mount of Olives in the dusk of Wednesday. And they looked and they saw the temple fading
in the glow of evening. This prompted a question on the part of the
disciples, as you remember. They asked Him privately in verse 4 of chapter
13, "When will these things be?" That is, the destruction of the temple, "And
what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?" They wanted to know about the end of the age. Matthew's account of this, he says, they asked
about the end of the age and His coming. Jesus had told them, "I'm going to die and
rise again." Maybe they had come to some understanding
of that, although they resisted it. But more importantly to them, whatever that
meant, they wanted to see the establishment of the Kingdom and Jesus has just said to
them, "This thing is coming down, not one stone will be left on another. This system will be destroyed, this temple
will be destroyed and with it the city and the nation. When is this all going to happen? When is the Kingdom coming? When are You going to establish Your rule
and Your glory. That prompts a question for which our Lord
gives the longest answer to any question asked Him in the gospels. He answers the question about what's going
to happen before He comes back to establish His Kingdom? It's all is precipitated on the fact that
there's a future Kingdom, a future return of Christ to establish His Kingdom on the
earth to fulfill all messianic prophecy. And the Old Testament promised the Messiah
would come, the Messiah would bring salvation. He would fulfill all the promises given to
Abraham, all the promises given to David, all the extended promises related to the New
Covenant, spoken to Ezekiel and to Jeremiah. In other words, everything that the Old Testament
promised in the Millennial Kingdom to come. The prophet Isaiah, even in chapter 11 of
Isaiah and following, speaks of the glories of the Kingdom. So they want to know when are You going to
establish the Kingdom? You are the King, You are the Messiah, we
know that. You are David's Son, but You are David's Lord. You are the Son of the living God. You are the Christ, the Messiah. When is the Kingdom coming? That was on their minds. In answer to that, our Lord gives them a picture
of the history between that evening and His Kingdom. What that means is our Lord tells them what
the future is going to be. They didn't know how long that would be because
He even says to them, "No one knows the day nor the hour, not even the Son of Man, but
only the Father who is in heaven." He didn't tell them when, but He told them
what to expect. And He told us what to expect and future generations
what to expect. Jesus gives a view of history here. This is very, very important because if He
is who He says He is, God, and if He possesses what He says He possesses, all knowledge and
all wisdom, and if He knows the future as only God knows the future, then what He predicts
will be exactly accurate. It will be exactly and precisely accurate. And you will have to give testimony, along
with every other human being on the planet who has any knowledge of what is going on
that what He said is exactly what happens. This is the future. As a point of entry into our discussion today,
which will be of verses 14 to 23, we've already looked at the opening thirteen verses last
time, but in looking at verses 14 to 23, just some general comments to kind of get us where
we need to be. It ought to be obvious to all of you now,
I think it will be when I say this, that there is no hope for a better world. Are you pretty well settled in on that? Yeah, the world is not getting better, is
it? More scary, more threatening, more dangerous,
more deadly, more hopeless. Humanity is not headed toward a humanly engineered
utopia. Folks, there is no age of Aquarius. There is no coming time of world peace. This is a cursed planet and it exists under
the effects of sin and divine cursing. Not only does all creation groan because it
is cursed, but sinners live in this creation are also cursed and so it is a compounded
curse that makes life so difficult. The environment feels the effects of sin. The population feels the effects of sin. And collectively, mankind with all of his
ingenious abilities and all of his mental powers, and all of his determination cannot
restrain the deadly influences that are in the very DNA of this creation. The earth and its environment and its inhabitants
makes survival difficult. We live on a dangerous planet and it is becoming
more dangerous as it nears its final end. The second law of entropy, the law that tells
us all things are breaking down tending toward disorder is at work at every level. Human history itself has been a long ordeal
of survival against the deadly and dominating effects of sin and corruption. And even as society advances scientifically,
as it advances educationally, as it advances technologically, it does not advance morally. It does not advance spiritually. And it does not advance socially. Man is simply a more comfortable beast. Advancement materially from the discovery
and the application of the powers and rich resources that are in this planet has in some
way only made it more dangerous and increased the threats of death and killing force. Educators, religious leaders, politicians,
social scientists, philosophers have relentlessly pursued the solution. Hitler thought he had the final solution,
the problem is the Jews will exterminate him. That was not the final solution, or even any
solution, but only a manifestation of how desperately we can't find a solution. There's no advance. There's no advance in mankind socially. There's no advance spiritually. And there's no advance morally. Man is a beast, he is corrupt. His environment is corrupt and corrupting. He corrupts everything around him. And he doesn't get any better. Is this what life is supposed to be? Is this what it should be? Didn't Jesus come to change that? Didn't He come as the Son of God to fix that? Isn't something wrong here? No. This is exactly life as Jesus predicted it
would be because, as I said last Sunday night, the Bible always corresponds to reality. Whatever the Bible says is so is the way it
really is because the author is God. Let's go back and hear what Jesus said. They asked Him in verse 4 of Mark 13, to tell
them when these things would be fulfilled. This is also, this message, recorded in Matthew
24, Matthew 25, Luke 21. You have to compare all those if you want
the full picture. But they asked Him, "When will be the fulfillment
of these things? The things of the end. What will be the sign of Your coming? they
asked Him, Your presence, Your arrival, what do we look for? How do we know when the Kingdom will be established?" Jesus began to say to them in verse 5, "See
to it that no one misleads you." First of all, realize that there are going
to be a lot of folks out there trying to deceive you about spiritual reality and about these
things that have to do with eschatology, or the end. "Many...for example...will come in My name...verse
6 says...and mislead many." There will be many false Christs, false Messiah,
false prophets, false teachers, they will abound all over the place to lead people astray
about reality. "You will also hear of wars and rumors of
wars. Don't be frightened. Those things must take place, that's not yet
the end. So there are going to be wars and rumors of
wars and that doesn't even signal the end. Nation will rise up against nation, Kingdom
against Kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth
pangs. Be on your guard, they will deliver you to
the courts, you'll be flogged in the synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings
for My sake as a testimony to them. The gospel must first be preached to all the
nations. When they arrest you and hand you over, do
not worry beforehand about what you are to say but say whatever is given you in that
hour for it is not you who speak but it is the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death and the
father his child, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name
but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." In those verses, our Lord tells us what life
will be like from that moment until His return, until the end of time. It will be characterized by deception, religious
deception. It will be characterized by disaster, the
disaster of war and cataclysmic natural disasters, like earthquakes and famines, and our Lord
also said there would be pestilence, which means plagues. There will be signs in the sky which will
have to do with hurricanes and rain floods and tornados and whatever other disasters
come along. All of these things happening all the time
in various places. These things are to be expected. And there will be the persecution of believers. They will be killed by the Jews who will take
them in to the synagogues, hold a trial against them, find them guilty and flog them in the
synagogues. They will then be taken before the Gentiles
and believers experience that. The Gentiles, governors and kings, he refers
there in verse 9, will hold court for them and persecute them and martyr them. They will actually be persecuted and even
killed by family members. And so through all of history, you're going
to have religious deception, you're going to have disasters of military proportions
and natural proportions. And you're going to have persecution of believers. That is just the beginning. That is just the beginning. That's why at the end of verse 7 He says,
"That's not yet the end." At the end of verse 8 He says, "This is merely
the beginning of birth pangs." And He uses the analogy of labor pains, how
when a woman is going to deliver a baby, she has pain, mild at first and somewhat separated
by time...intervals are separated. As you get closer to the birth event, the
intervals get closer and closer together, the pain gets more and more and more intense. That's the way to understand human history. It's going to be painful. At first the pain will be separated and moderated. But eventually as you get closer to the event
of the Second Coming of Christ, the cataclysms will come rapid fire and the pain will be
severe. So our Lord is simply giving us the beginning
in verses 5 through 13. Then you come to verse 14 and in verse 14
through 23 we find a specific event being referred to, very important specific event. In fact, this event is identified in verse
19, it is called there a time of Tribulation. It is a time of Tribulation, please notice,
such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now
and never will. That means it is worse than anything that
has ever happened, and that would even have to encompass the Noahic Flood. This is a series of cataclysmic events that
have no parallel. So if you're waiting for Utopia, it's not
coming. It's painful to live in the world. The pain will increase and the intervals between
the pain will shorten. This dangerous period in which we live continues
until the Second Coming of Christ. But just before the Second Coming will be
this time of Tribulation that will be more painful than any time before...like increasing
labor pains faster and more severe and extreme will come the time of Tribulation. Never anything like it since creation. This will be an escalation of terrifying destructive
judgments of massive proportions never experienced before. Jesus said, in this present time expect false
teachers, false prophets, deceivers, false religion, false Christs, wars, rumors of wars...that
would be hot wars, cold wars...earthquakes, terrors in the earth, terrors in the sky,
famine, plagues, pestilence, persecution of believers, martyring believers, but in the
future, all of that is going to escalate to a level never ever heard of and never ever
imagined. All of that will be in a period identified
in verse 19 as a time of Tribulation...a time of Tribulation. That is a seven-year period, according to
the prophet Daniel in Daniel chapter 9. It's called the seventieth week of Daniel. It's a seven-year period called the Tribulation. It is a time of deadly destruction. Satan is let loose, demons are let loose. Satan and demons do terrible damage to people,
terrible destructive damage and death is brought upon people. The Antichrist shows up, the false prophet
shows up, the Antichrist takes over and dominates the world with his power. He is aided and abetted by demons and by men
who form his armies. All of this, however, though it is the activity
of Satan and those associated with him, is the judgment of God. Behind it is God's judgment. That period of seven years is clearly defined
in Scripture...clearly. There are 69 weeks of Daniel's history from
the Decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, to the coming of Messiah. You can track those 69 times seven years and
you'll end up with Jesus came in to Jerusalem on this week. They're actual seven-year periods. That seventieth week, therefore, must be also
a seven-year period. In fact, half way through that period comes
the Great Tribulation and the last three and a half is the worst of all. The Bible refers to it as the three-and-a-half
period, Daniel called it time, times and half a time...time is one, times is two, and half
is one half, so it's three and a half, if you add it up. He said it's a period of twelve hundred and
ninety days, or twelve hundred and sixty days in Revelation. That again speaks to that three-and-a-half
period. So it's clearly the second half of that seven
years when it is most severe. To put you in touch with what these things
are going to be like, because we don't have that description from our Lord here, turn
to Revelation chapter 6 because in Revelation 6 through 19, that period is described. Revelation 6 through 19 describes that period
and the events of that period. We put in the Grace Today a little image of
the two commentaries on Revelation, the condensed look of Revelation, Because the Time is Near,
and the book on The Second Coming so you can dig a little more deeply than we'll be able
to this morning. But I want you to get that character of that
time which is to come, that time of Tribulation like the world has never, ever seen, Jesus
said. Here's characteristics of it. The best way to understand the characteristics
of that period is to follow three sequences in the book of Revelation. Stay with me, now. There are seven seals, not animals, seals
of a scroll, scrolls being sealed; there are seven trumpets and there are seven bowls. Those constitute judgments. And they unfold sequentially, almost telescopically. You have the seven seals and out of the seventh
seal come the seven trumpets, out of the seventh trumpet come the seven bowls. The seven seals stretch over the whole period. The seven trumpets cover the middle point
and beyond. And the seven bowls are all the rapid fire
at the end. So these are the disastrous judgments that
come, condensed in these images. If you start in chapter 6, you see that the
seven-sealed scroll is opened by the Lamb because it's a Title Deed to the earth, it's
the Title Deed to the Kingdom. And the Lamb has the right to take the scroll
and to open the scroll because He has the right to rule and reign. And so He unrolls the scroll, which is like
the will and testament of God. In ancient times they would take a will and
testament and they would roll it and seal it and roll it and seal it, and roll it and
seal it so it couldn't be broken until the person was dead...and then it would be unsealed
and his will would be revealed. So the Lamb who is the heir to the throne
of the world takes the seals and breaks them. And as they break, you get a sequence of what's
going to happen in that seven years. First comes a rider on a white horse, he has
a bow and a crown and this is the Antichrist. At the beginning of the seven years, the Antichrist
establishes his power. You notice he has a bow and no arrows. He comes with peace. He comes with power, but with peace. And he establishes a peaceful covenant with
Israel. He reaches the ascendency and ruling in the
world because he supposedly offers himself as the solution to the chaos. Doesn't take long for him to reveal who he
really is, however, because following that first horse in the image and vision of John
is a red horse in verse 4 and peace is taken from the earth and men begin to slaughter
each other and a great sword is in the hand of this rider. Then a third seal is broken and famine follows. The conditions of verse 6 are famine conditions. And then the fourth seal is broken and death
and Hades come forth and a fourth of the earth are killed with the sword and famine and pestilence
and the animal kingdom is turned loose on the world. A fourth of humanity will die in the early
time of that seven years. The fifth seal is broken and we hear from
the martyrs who are beginning to be martyred, slaughtered for the Kingdom. The persecution that our Lord talked about
will take place in great force. The sixth seal is broken in verse 12 and there
is an earthquake. An earthquake, a great earthquake and the
sun becomes as black as sackcloth made of hair. The whole moon becomes like blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth as
a fig tree casts its unripped figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when
it is rolled up. And every mountain and island were moved out
of their places. The kings of the earth, the great men, the
commanders, the rich, strong, every slave and freeman hid themselves in the caves and
among the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us
and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,
for the great day of the wrath is come and who is able to stand?" You can see the escalating horror by the time
you get to that collapse of the sky and the earth in the sixth seal. There is a seventh seal as well. And the seventh seal is in chapter 8 verse
1 and it is silence. While out of that seventh seal, seven trumpets
come. And now the disasters come even more rapidly. Trumpet number 1 in verse 7 brings hail and
fire, mixed with blood, thrown to the earth. A third of the earth is burned up. A third of the trees burned up. All the green grass burned up. The second angel sounds and a great mountain
burning with fire, some kind of an asteroid or meteor or whatever it is, thrown into the
sea. A third of the sea became blood. A third of the creatures in the sea had life,
died. A third of the ships are destroyed. A third angel sounds and another flaming torch
comes out of heaven and falls on the fresh water and the springs of water called wormwood,
a third of the waters become bitter. A fourth angel sounds, a third of the sun
, a third of the moon changes everything, day, night, tides, seasons. A third of the stars are struck. A third of them darkened and the day wouldn't
shine for a third of it and the night in the same way. Chapter 9, the fifth angel sounds and hell
opens up and belches out demons who are in the picture of locusts here and they come
out with demon power. They have been bound but they're fully released
in the time of the Tribulation. It's going to be so bad, demon infestation
that verse 6 says, men will seek death and not find it, a long to die and death will
flee from them. Verse 13, the sixth angel sounds and verse
15 says a third of mankind will be killed. And there will be an army coming from the
east numbering two hundred million and their path will be made ready. Go over to chapter 11 verse 15, the seventh
angel sounds and the message is given, the Kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom
of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and ever. When the seventh angel sounds, that's right
at the very end and that seventh trumpet blast ushers in the six rapid-fire bowl judgments
that are listed in chapter 16. Verse 2, the first one is poured out on the
earth and unloads some malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who
worshiped his image...the Antichrist. The second angel poured into the sea, not
just a third but every living thing in the sea died. A third angel pours out his bowl and all the
rivers and springs of water, all the fresh water becomes like blood. The fourth angel in verse 8 causes the sun
to scorch men with fire and they blaspheme the name of God. The fifth angel pours out his bowl on the
throne of the beast, the king, and becomes dark. They nod their tongues because of pain and
they blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores and didn't repent
of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the
great river Euphrates, water was dried up and the way would be prepared for the kings
coming from the east, probably the army of two hundred million to come to Armageddon
because Armageddon starts in the next verse. Down in verse 17, the seventh angel's bowl
is poured out. And then in verse 18, flashes of lightning
and sounds and peals of thunder and a great earthquake such as there hadn't been since
man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it and so mighty. Now you can go back to Mark 13. That is a glimpse of the time of Tribulation
and its escalating terrors and horrors. You say, "Will we be there?" I have good news for you. I think the New Testament teaches the church
will be raptured before that time. That we'll be kept from that wrath, that we'll
be taken out. But once we're out and that breaks loose,
at the same time the gospel will be preached. It will be preached by 144 thousand Jews,
twelve thousand from every tribe, according to Revelation 7. It will be preached by two powerful witnesses
according to Revelation 11. It will be preached by an angel flying in
the sky with the everlasting gospel. So powerful will the gospel be that there
will be people saved out of every tongue, tribe, people and nation who will come out
of that period. Israel will be saved. Two thirds of the Jews will be judged for
unbelief, one third will be saved. There will be the greatest revival in any
short period of time in human history. But that is what is coming on the world. Now, in thinking about that, let's look back
at the text. Now we'll finally look at the text here. Three things to see...the event, the event
that marks this time of Tribulation. How do we know when it comes? If all of history is going to be full of deception,
false prophets, false teachers and deceivers, all of history full of disasters, wars, famines,
earthquakes, all of history is going to be filled with persecution of believers, how
do we know when this is on? How do we know that? "When you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
standing where it should not be, let the reader understand." When you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
standing where it should not be, that's the event, a major event that will let everyone
know you are in the time of Tribulation. When that happens, you will know you are in
the time of Tribulation. Please notice, this is not for the disciples. This was for readers. See it? "Let the reader understand." That is not added by some editor, that is
what Mark wrote. This isn't going to happen until this is written
down in Scripture and read. Therefore this is for a future generation
of readers, not for those who are listening on the Mount of Olives, but for future readers
of the New Testament. And what would they look for? The ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION. You say, "What is that?" Well, if you go to Matthew's text on this,
he says, "Which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel," Spoken of by the prophet Daniel. Daniel spoke about it three times. We're not going to go to Daniel, that would
be a whole tangent, I promise you. Daniel three times refers to the ABOMINATION
OF DESOLATION. But first let's talk about the word. Abomination means something blasphemous, something
detestable, something abhorrent to God, something sacrilegious, something irrelevant. It's used to refer to immorality, idolatry,
pagan religion. It's used in the Old Testament and it's used
even in the book of Revelation at least three times. Anything that abominates God. Anything that blasphemes God. And at the same time, desolates, or destroys,
or devastates. It's frequently used in Scripture to refer
to something that was absolutely devastating. There will come along, an act of blasphemy
that will devastate, or desecrate. What is that? What is the blasphemous act that defiles and
desecrates and is therefore hated by God? Well, he says here it occurs where it shouldn't
be. Something is standing where it shouldn't be. We know what Daniel is talking about because
he mentions it, first of all, in Daniel 9:27. He says, "When the Antichrist comes, the prince
who is to come, he will destroy the city and the sanctuary. He will attack Jerusalem and the restored
temple." There will be a restored temple in the time
of Tribulation. In fact, Daniel says he'll make a covenant
with the Jews for seven years. He will be the guy who supposedly will bring
the final Middle Eastern peace treaty. He will make a covenant but, Daniel says,
in the middle, three and a half years. In the middle, he will break his covenant. He will attack Israel. He will begin to massacre the Jews. And he will set up his throne, the Antichrist,
in the temple...in the time, and declare himself God. By the way, you might want to know that in
Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi, the Islamic Antichrist, who comes, it says, in their eschatological
literature, their authoritative literature, when he comes he will set up his throne and
establish world Islamic rule in Jerusalem on the temple mount. That's their eschatology. And by the way, he will be aided and abetted
by a prophet and the prophet will be Jesus. That's what they say. Jesus, who will come back and say, "You were
all wrong about me all the time, I didn't die, I didn't rise, I didn't pay for sin,
I am a radical Muslim." And he will correct all the misunderstandings
about him and he will report the whole world to the Mahdi. And anybody who doesn't worship the Mahdi
will be massacred. That's Islamic eschatology. Very consistent with Scripture. Their Messiah is the Bible's Antichrist. By the way, they have an Antichrist, too. Their Antichrist is a man who will come and
say He's Jesus, the Son of God. Complete reversal. So when the Antichrist comes, he's going to
establish his rule in Jerusalem, in the temple, and he's going to place himself where he ought
not to stand...in the temple devoted to God. Chapter 12 of Daniel repeats this in detail,
that he will come, two thirds of the Jews will be judged by God for unbelief, one third
will believe. And the midpoint, time, times, and half a
time, the Antichrist will come. He will desecrate the temple for a period
of three and a half years, or as Revelation 11:2 says, 42 months. So those are two times Daniel refers to it. The first two, and one other time, and that's
in chapter 11 verse 31, it's really important because in chapter 11 verse 31, Daniel has
a very interesting mention of the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATIONS. In 11:31 he mentions the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
in reference to what Antiochus Epiphanes did. Antiochus Epiphanes was a Selucid king who
on December 15, 167 came in to Israel and brought an army of a quarter of a million
men, Selucid army. Slaughtered Jews, massacred Jews, 167 B.C.,
sacrificed pigs on the altar, splattered pig broth everywhere. Set up an idol to Zeus, banned sacrifice,
stopped all temple worship, that according to 1 Maccabees. Wanted to establish the worship of Zeus in
the temple. That is also an ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
and the reason Daniel gives that in the middle of the other two, is to give us a historic
model of what this abomination will be. It will be a ruler who goes into the temple
wanting to blaspheme and desecrate that which is associated with the true and living God
and establish the worship of himself there. You have a model of it in Antiochus. That too is an abomination when he put an
idol standing where it shouldn't stand. That's exactly what's going to happen in the
middle of the week. This guy will appear to be a peacemaker. He will break the peace. He will start the slaughter of the Jews. He will establish a throne from which he will
rule. That's Antichrist. You read more about him in the thirteenth
chapter of Revelation and elsewhere. Well that's enough for now. So how do you know when you're in the time
of Tribulation? You know because of that event. Let that generation of readers know. That's the event. All of human history is labor pains. The first three and a half years of the Tribulation
is increased frequency and increased intensity. However, from that event on, the frequency
is rapid fire and the intensity is extreme as things come to a final end. You say, "What's the final end?" The final end, we're going to talk about tonight. Go down to verse 24, "In those days after
that Tribulation...then what?...then the sun goes out, the moon goes out, the stars all
fall and then...verse 26 says...the Son of Man comes." So this goes right up to the coming of Christ. So you look at human history and you say,
"Wow, Jesus right, is it the way He said it would be?" It absolutely is. "Is it getting worse?" Yeah, evil men grow worse and worse and worse." An accumulated power of corruption. Yes. Is it conceivable or possible that there might
be some powerful force, some massive force of people who are armed and dangerous and
who hate the Jews and who hate the God of Israel who might come to Jerusalem and establish
their rule there and their leader there. Does that sound like a foreign concept? It sounds pretty normal from the world that
we live in now. The Antichrist will make war with the saints,
according to Revelation 13:7. He will also kill the Jews, according to Revelation
12:1 and 13, and 17. So there will be a massacre of great proportions. Again this is part of the judgment of God
on unbelieving Israel. But even the believers that die will enter
into the presence of the Lord, won't they? God will allow some of them to die. God won't allow all Israel to die. He saves a third. Why? He protects them. According to Revelation 12, what's going to
happen is when the Antichrist unleashes his fury on the Jews, the immediate act of God
is to take them and He'll fly them, it says, on great wings of an eagle. He'll fly them on the wings of an eagle to
a place of refuge to protect them...to protect them. Why have to protect them? You have to protect them, why? Well if they kill all of them, then there's
nobody to go into the Kingdom. This is an earthly Kingdom, so you have to
protect some people who will inherit the Kingdom. "Come, beloved of My father, inherit the Kingdom
prepared for you." That was our Lord's word in Matthew 25 in
the same message. So God is not going to allow an Antichrist
to kill all the Jews. A third of them are going to be redeemed and
many of them will be protected and they will be put in a place of refuge where the Antichrist
can't get to them, so they can be protected to go into the Kingdom. The Antichrist will slaughter many believers. We see them crying under the altar, don't
we, in chapter 6. "How long, O Lord, how long are You going
to let this go on? But ,many of them will live and survive and
go into the Kingdom." So the Kingdom will be populated by people
living on earth. You say, "What about the raptured church?" We come back with Christ when He comes back
with ten thousand of His saints. He returns, we are here in our glorified form,
they're here in their human form, we interact like angels did with Old Testament people. I hope I'm whetting your appetite to get the
commentaries on Revelation and start reading, a lot to cover. So that's the event. That's the event. What's the reaction to the event? What's the reaction? It's pretty simple. Verse 14 again, "When you see that event,
then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains." Get out. "And the one who is in the housetop must not
go down and get anything in the house, and the one who is in the field must not turn
back to get his coat." In other words, it's just a tremendous urgency. And if you happen to be living in Israel at
the time, and you know what I believe, I believe Israel will become a focal point even for
the gospel and a focal point for Christian missions cause you're going to have 144 thousand
Jews there, twelve thousand from every tribe, preaching the gospel. And the two witnesses in Jerusalem preaching
in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is going to be converted, it says
in chapter 11 of Revelation. That will be a world focal point for Christianity. So there will not only be Jews there who have
come to Christ, there will be Gentiles there who come to Christ. And if you happen to be there and this abomination
takes place, and the temple is overtaken and this is established there, the persecution
begins, you get out. This is a dramatic change in strategy. This is a dramatic change. How else can I say it but maybe like this. This is when the Great Commission is no longer
in place. Normally our Lord would say, "When that hour
comes, don't worry about what's going to happen to you." We just read that, right? Don't worry about what you're going to say,
the Holy Spirit will give you words. Be bold, preach the gospel, proclaim the cross. But He doesn't say that anymore, not now,
not here. Get out. Run for your life because by your fleeing,
I'm going to preserve you for My Kingdom. This is when we no longer have an evangelistic
obligation to the world. The gospel will then be preached by a flying
angel, perhaps. Who knows what other means, plenty of available
literatures, downloads, etc., etc. But as far as you're concerned, get out. No more take your cross, be bold, stand up,
give witness, whatever. Just run. This will be, Luke says in Luke 21, a time
of Great Tribulation. And as we read here, not like anything the
world's ever seen. Get out. And the urgency is also indicated by the statement
in verse 18, "Pray that it's not in the winter, that you're not inhibited in your movement
by the weather. And also, sad..verse 27...for those who are
pregnant and nursing babies, cause they can't move fast." And also, our Lord said, "Pray that it's not
on the Sabbath cause there may be restrictions on Sabbath law." In other words, the reaction is get out because
what's triggered by this is the final seals, the rapid-fire trumpets and bold judgments. And in the middle of all of that, the slaughter
by Antichrist and his forces as they react to the judgment of God and God wants to protect
His own for His Kingdom. And that's the third point...the protection. The event, the reaction, and the protection. Verse 19 says, "Those days will be a time
of Tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created
until now and never will." I don't know how you can say it more clearly
than that. Please, dear friend, this is not a description
of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., as the Preterists say. If you don't know what that is, be thankful,
be grateful, rejoice. And if you do know what it is, and you're
confused, get the book, The Second Coming and read the first part of it. There are people who actually think all of
this came to pass in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. All of it. There are people who actually think that was
the Second Coming. Look, that was a disaster. But what the Romans did there could not be
described as something that occurred that was worse than anything that occurred since
the beginning of the creation. This can't describe some past event in one
country by one army at one moment, and certainly doesn't do anything to explain the book of
Revelation. If you take that view, let me tell you what
happens when you get to Revelation. You are lost. You are hopelessly lost because you can't
explain any of that. This is going to be an unparalleled time. It's so horrible that the Lord shortens it. Verse 20, "Unless the Lord had shortened those
days, no life would have been saved for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened
the days." Why? Because He has to keep them alive. If it was prolonged, Antichrist would find
them and go after them. Look, we live in a world where they can find
anybody, right? You can be found anywhere you are, some GPS
is on your head right now. If the Lord didn't shorten this, there wouldn't
be anybody left for the Kingdom. So God has to do this very, very precise work
of judging the ungodly, destroying all the ungodly, allowing some believers to die, but
at the same time protecting Jews and Gentiles to enter in to His earthly Kingdom, to then
have families and populate the Kingdom, the Kingdom which He rules for a thousand years
as indicated in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. So for the elect's sake, He shortens the days. And during those shortened days, if anyone
says to you, "Behold, here is Christ. Behold He's there." Don't believe them. That's exactly what Muslim eschatology says. They've got two Jesus' bounding around at
the end. Don't believe that. False Christs will be everywhere. False prophets everywhere. Why? Because it's a perfect time for false prophets
to arise because people are going to be so desperate for an understanding of this, for
an explanation. Why is this happening? Where do we do, where do we go? And all the lying, satanic deceivers will
drive them in the directly of Satan's deceptions, away from the truth. And it will be fairly convincing because it
says they will show signs and wonders in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. Is it possible? Is it possible to lead the elect astray? No. That's the whole point of the sentence. It's really important that it says the elect
in verse 20, and the elect in verse 22 because that puts the burden on God's choice, rather
than on our faith. You know, if it said, "For the sake of the
believers, He shortened it." Or if it said, "In order to lead astray, if
possible, the believers." You might say, "Well somebody could stop believing. But if you look at it from God's standpoint
and you are the chosen, that settles the issue. He's going to protect His own. He's going to protect His own. So you have a word on election and you have
a word on perseverance here. Run, flee, don't believe the wrong thing. That's the perseverance aspect of it. The doctrine of perseverance mans that you
obey and you act and you respond. You flee false teachers. You flee deceivers. You don't believe them. That's our side, that's the perseverance of
the saints, the back side of that or the front side of that is that you're the elect and
He holds you and He keeps you and He protects you. And the false Christ, as I said, will be very,
very powerful. They will have all the forces of Satan behind
them to be able to do signs and wonders. We don't know what the nature of those things
are, but they will apparently be very convincing but not to the elect. Why? John 10 verse 5, listen to this, speaking
of the elect, "They will, by no means, follow a stranger. But will flee from him because they do not
know the voice of strangers," John 10:5. Jesus put it on the positive side, "My sheep
hear My voice and they know Me." You don't have to be fearful of false teachers. You know your Shepherd's voice, you know the
truth. False Messiah is apparently going to actually
infiltrate the ranks of those who flee. They're going to be saying, "Look, here's
Christ," according to Matthew 24:26, "Here's Christ," "There's Christ," "Christ is in the
desert." "Christ is in the inner room." They'll all be lies, don't believe, don't
come out, don't expose yourself to death. So how are we going to know when the truth
Christ comes? Oh, you'll know. You'll know. Because in verse 24 the sun is going to go
black, the moon is going to go black. The stars are going to go black. The whole powers of the heaven are going to
be shaken and then you will see the sign of the Son of Man coming in clouds with great
power and glory. And by the way, Revelation 1:7 says, "Every
eye will see Him." So don't worry. You know, it's just so strange for people
to say, "Well actually Christ came in 70 A.D." Really. The whole world see Him? Who saw Him? They saw Titus, the Roman general. Now you have some guy who is now predicting
Christ is coming, what is it? May something? May 21 st , he's done it before and all these
people who followed him got their pajamas on and sat on the roof and had to go down
and get dressed because he didn't come. And they're actually cults that say He actually
came but it was a private coming. No. Not going to be a private coming. Revelation 1:70, "He comes with clouds and
every eye will see Him." Matthew 24:27, "As the lightning comes from
the east and flashes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be." It's not going to be any secret, it's going
to be blast across the entire sky. Plus, He's coming with ten thousand of His
saints, Jude 14 says. And, in addition to that, didn't we read that
the whole collapse of the universe us is going to cause people to hide their faces from His
coming? Revelation 6. Well tonight we're going to talk about His
coming at the end of the time of Tribulation. Luke says this, Luke 21:28, "When these things
begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws near." For that generation alive in the Tribulation,
all we have to do is open the Bible to the Olivet Sermon of Jesus and the book of Revelation,
they'll know exactly where they are. Without knowing the exact moment, the exact
hour, precisely, they can certainly know the time they are in. and we know, dear friends,
that we're not in that time. We're not in that time. There hasn't been an ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION. These things haven't unfolded. And as I said, the good news for us is I believe
the Rapture of the church takes place first and we are protected from that hour when all
these things take place on the earth. Well that's an introductory course, that's
like Eschatology 101. I remember when I...I'll close with this...I
was in Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan is a long way from here and we were having a great week
and I was trying to teach them everything about the church. And there were, there were, I think if I remember,
sixteen hundred pastors from Central Asia who had never had a Pastors' Conference in
their lives. This is right after the breakup of the Soviet
Union. And the leadership came to me and they said,
"Look, we're talking about the church, you're talking about the doctrines of the church,
the life of the church, all things that are important, could you tell us the good part,
please?" And I said, "Yeah, I think it's all good,
what do you mean the good part?" They said, "We want to know the future. We want to know the future for the church. What can we expect in the future." So I said, "Wow, I have no idea what you believe,
but eschatology is a pretty...a pretty diverse subject and..." And so I said, "Okay, I'm going to take Friday
of that week and I'm going to teach you everything the Bible says about the future. I'm going to talk all day." And I think it was like eight hours on the
future, eschatology. And I just had a couple of pages of kind of
springboard notes to go everywhere and I got finished with it, about eight hours of eschatology
to a bunch of people that I never had met before and didn't know anything about what
they believe. And when it was all over, the leaders came
and sat down with me and they said, "You believe exactly the way we do." I said, "Are you kidding? You mean you really...that's the way you believe?" "Yeah, that's the way we believe." And I realized that we've been reading the
Bible, that's the reason we believe the same thing. You know, to believe something else, you've
got to read something else. But if you're reading the same book I'm reading,
there it is. There it is. It was very gratifying, very encouraging. Also it's nice to get out of there with your
hide intact. So...but anyway...God's people through the
ages, and God's people around the world today who look at the Scripture, see what the Scripture
says. And that's all I pointed you to today. He is coming. He is coming. And before all this unleashes itself on the
world, I believe the Lord's going to collect His church. And if it looks like it could happen any time,
these kinds of things, as the world shapes up into what looks like a revelation kind
of staging, that means the Rapture of the church is all that closer. Be ready. And the last verse our Lord says is, "I told
you all these things in advance. You are without excuse. Go preach the message, right?" Father, we thank You for the truth. We thank You for its powerful impact. We live in a world when people are fascinated
with fantasy. How foolish. How foolish to speculate about the future. How foolish to speculate about fantasy, to
live in a world of fantasy rather than a world of reality. Even Christian fiction about the future is
pointless. Help us to live in the reality of Your Word
and to understand what Your Word reveals. And knowing the terror of the Lord to persuade
men while we still have an opportunity before we're gone and before these things are unleashed
on the world, help us to be faithful in the proclamation of the gospel, and calling people
to salvation so they can escape the wrath to come. We thank You, Lord, for Your great, great
goodness in setting our hearts at rest that the way things are going in the world doesn't
surprise You, it's exactly the way You said it would be. And this affirms our trust and our confidence
in Your Word. Lord, we thank You that You love us and that
You sent Your Son to provide salvation for us and rescued us completely from the wrath
to come. And may all of us who hear this message believe
the gospel. May there be no one walking out of this place
who is resisting the glorious salvation that You offer, but may each of us put our trust
in Christ and then go forth to proclaim this truth. We pray in His name. Amen.
