Mark chapter 13 and verse 14. But when ye shall see the abomination
of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it
ought not, let him that readeth understand, then let them that
be in Judea flee to the mountains. And let him that is on the housetop
not go down into the house, neither enter therein to take anything
out of his house. And let him that is in the field
not turn back again for to take up his garment. But woe to them
that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. And pray ye that your flight
be not in the winter, For in those days shall be affliction
such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created
unto this time, neither shall be. And except that the Lord
had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved. But for
the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the
days. And then, if any man shall say
to you, Lo, here is Christ, or, Lo, he is there, believe him
not. For false Christs and false prophets
shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it
were possible, even the elect. But take heed. Behold, I have
foretold you all things. But in those days, after that
tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and
glory. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word also. There is a people known to God. not only because God is omniscient
and knows all things, but because this people are everlastingly
loved by God. He knows them, he has foreknown
them, and he has bound this people up eternally with the Lord Jesus
Christ in his covenant of grace and peace. He has chosen these
people in Christ. From scripture tells us the foundation
of the world. And so particularly, so personally
and individually are these people known to God that their very
names were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life from the
foundation of the world. They have a special place in
God's purpose of grace. These people of whom we speak
in Scripture are given many different names. They are called God's chosen
people. They are called Christ's sheep. They are called God's inheritance. His jewels. They're called the
body of Christ. They go by the name Israel, not
the national people that live in that country that takes that
name, but spiritual Israel. They are sometimes called Judah. Sometimes they are called Jerusalem
or Zion. Sometimes they are called the
Mountain of God or the Great Congregation. Actually, there
are many, many different names that they take in scripture.
Let me just give you a couple of examples here from Isaiah
chapter 62 and verse 11 and 12. Listen to these verses. Here
it says, Behold, The Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the
world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion. That's them. Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. And they shall call them the
holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. and thou shalt be called
sought out, a city not forsaken. Now a quick calculation, I think
that there are perhaps five or more different names of the same
people embedded within these couple of verses. So we can see
that throughout scripture, these people that the Lord knows, are
called by many different names. And here in our passage today,
the Lord uses the title elect to describe these people. So whether we call them Zion,
whether we call them the daughter of Zion, whether we call them
a city not forsaken, or the sought out people, whether we call them
his sheep or his body. These are the elect of God. And that name, that title, the
elect, is an Old Testament and a New Testament name for the
people of God. Again in Isaiah, chapter 65,
in verse 22, the Lord says there, my people and mine image. elect. So here again is two different
names, my people and my elect. Elect simply means chosen. These are the chosen people of
God and this elect are a large group of individuals chosen by
God from amongst the ranks of mankind. to be saved and blessed
with forgiveness of sins and with eternal life and with everlasting
glory. They are chosen and given to
Christ. And that becomes another name. They are called the Bride of
Christ. Salvation is not of man's will,
but of God's sovereign will and purpose. And Paul tells us in
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, he hath chosen us in him, that
is in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. and without blame before him
in love. And so here is the testimony
of scripture that there is a chosen people, a people known of God,
a people that he calls his elect and a people that were placed
in Christ, given to Christ in order that they might be holy
and without blame. in the presence of God because
of the work that would be accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on their
behalf. And as the Lord sat on the Mount
of Olives this evening, and as he sat with his disciples and
looked out over the city of Jerusalem, It's just a few days before he
is going to go to the cross. It's probably still the Tuesday
evening of that week when the Lord, we think, was crucified
on the Friday. But here he is sitting with his
disciples, and his disciples, knowing what the Lord has said
about the destruction of the temple and the casting down of
these great stones that form the walls of the temple, and
indeed the destruction of Jerusalem itself, they ask him about the
timing, and they ask him when these things will occur. What
are the signs for the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem
and of the Jewish nation which the Lord had prophesied? And not only does the Lord give
them specific information regarding the timing, but he also gives
them particular advice as to what to do. when they begin to
see these signs coming to pass. Now sometimes people take these
verses and they knock them away into the future and say, oh,
this is what's going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ comes
again at the end of time. But that's not what this passage
is about at all. This passage is telling us what
was going to happen before the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romans in around AD 70. And the Lord is telling his disciples... What is going to happen at that
time? So remember, we measure our dates
from the birth of Christ. That's our BC and our AD. And the Lord was at this time
33 years of age before he was crucified. So we're already at
AD 33. So it's some 40 years before probably a little less than 40
years before this destruction of Jerusalem. So the Lord is
telling his disciples about what is going to happen in the next
40 years. Now some of these disciples will
not be alive at this time. Some of them, maybe. but they
are going to have this information in order to pass on to those
whom they teach. And so the Lord is giving them
this vital information and advising them about what is to happen
to his elect people during this period. And let me just take
you once again to verse 19 in the little passage that we read
together, because we should understand the context here on the basis
of what the Lord is telling his disciples. Here they are, sitting
on the Mount of Olives, looking at the city of Jerusalem, and
here's what the Lord says to them. In those days, that is
in those days coming up to the destruction of Jerusalem, shall
be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation
which God created unto this time, neither shall be. Never, never had there be fallen
one particular nation. The trouble and the tribulation
that was going to come upon the Jews at that time even to the
end of the world. I had a think about that as I
was preparing my thoughts for this service and I'm pretty sure
that since the destruction of Jerusalem, there have been one
or two occasions when the inhumanity of man against man and the ethnic
cleansing that we have histories of in the world have at least
come to compete with that which was imposed upon the Jewish nation
by the Romans at this time. But this is what the Lord says,
such was the depth and trauma of the violence perpetrated against
the Jewish people at this time, that it was not going to be from
creation until the end of the world any worse than it was for
Jerusalem and the Jewish people at this time. Now as the Lord speaks to his
disciples about this period and we should grasp the gravity of
what the Lord is saying here and perhaps to grasp also that
this was so contrary to what the aspirations of the disciples
were, who still harboured this thought that in some way Jesus
was going to establish a kingdom on earth that was going to replicate
or indeed exceed the glory of the kingdom of David. And what
a clash, what a contrast there was in the minds of these disciples
at this time. But as they wrestled with what
the Lord was saying, the Lord on three occasions speaks about
His elect. Okay, that's what we spent our
introduction thinking about, this people known of God, this
chosen people, this people set apart He speaks about the elect. Now,
in the little introduction that I sent you yesterday, we listed
those three occasions that the Lord speaks about the elect. First of all, he speaks about
the elect for the coming days of terror and destruction. And he says that those days will
be shortened or lessened for the sake of the elect. And that's in verse 20. And then
he goes on to speak about very plausible and believable, but
nevertheless false teachers who would come with an ability to deceive everyone
except the Lord's elect. And that's in verse 22. And finally,
the Lord says that he is going to use this coming destruction
and desolation of Israel, or of the Jewish people, He is going
to use that destruction as an impetus for the worldwide gathering
in of his elect people from amongst the Gentile nations. And we read
about that in verse 27. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. So that, again, was relating
to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and that period
from the destruction of Jerusalem until today, right now, today,
Sunday the 10th of July 2022 is the period during which the
Lord Jesus Christ has sent his angels, or we might call them
his messengers, or we might call them his preachers, to gather
together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part
of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. So this is the
period of the preaching of the gospel, for the calling in and
the gathering in of the Lord's people, the people that he knew,
the people whom he loved. Now there's much that we could
say about this elect people and we could enlarge upon them but
I've taken just one point from each of these three references
to the elect of God and that's what I want to just draw your
minds to and your attention to today and leave them with you.
So here's the first one. So this is the elect and with
reference to the days being shortened for the sake of the elect. The Lord says, the first time
he mentions the elect here, this chosen people, this people known
to God, this people of the covenant, this people that were given to
Christ, the first time he mentions them in this little passage,
it is to talk about the shortening or lessening of these terrible
days of destruction. And so he says in verse 20, that
they will be lessened or shortened for the sake of the elect. Now, far from this being an isolated
or an unusual ordering of providence, I want you to realise and to
understand that everything in this world is ordered and arranged
and managed for the sake of the elect. So that's what the Lord
says here. And except that the Lord had
shortened those days, no flesh should be saved, but for the
elect's sake, for the elect's sake. And not only was were the
days shortened on this occasion for the elect's sake, but everything
in this world unfolds according to the will and purpose of God
for the elect's sake. That is something that it does
us well to remember. Nothing happens in the world
outside of God's control and everything that does happen happens
purposefully for the good and for the sake of God's elect people. Just let that settle in for a
moment. Everything that happens in this world does so purposefully
for the good and for the sake of God's elect people. And we
know that, we know that from Paul's writings where he very
memorably and comfortingly and quotably tells us in Romans 8,
28 We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose. There's another name for that
people that he knew, that he knows, the called. The called
according to his purpose. And there the Apostle is telling
us that everything in this world, all the providences, all the
circumstances, all the vagaries of life happen and occur according
to the purpose and will of God for the sake of the elect. But I want to look, just to give
you a little example and perhaps intrigue you a little bit, I
want to look at that specific example that the Lord gives.
Maybe it'll open up some delightful thoughts to us. He tells us that
the days of terror at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem
will be cut short. the number of days of destruction
will be reduced and the full and complete annihilation of
the Jewish people would not be permitted to take place. Why? For the sake of the elect. For the sake of the elect. What
the Lord is telling his disciples here and what the Lord is telling
us is that despite the plans of the Roman generals to completely destroy the nation
of the Jews, those days would be cut short and a certain number
who would otherwise have been slain would be left, would be
kept alive. Now, how was that to be done?
Well, I don't know how it was done. Maybe one of the Roman
generals died before he could do what he planned to do. Maybe
it rained and all their horses got stuck in the mud. It doesn't
matter how those days were shortened. What the Lord tells us is that
the days would be shortened for the sake of the elect. Now here's an intriguing question.
Were these elect living at that time? Well, perhaps they were. The Lord gives us some examples
about the people praying and praying that it would not be
in winter or praying that those who gave suck to their babies
or those that were in need. Perhaps it was a believer that
was so heavily pregnant that she could not move quickly enough
to outrun her pursuers. that prayed to the Lord and her
prayers were answered. Or perhaps it was a young Christian
mother with her babies that was unable to flee the advancing
soldiers. Or maybe it wasn't the mother
at all. Maybe it was the child that was
elect. whose life had to be preserved. Or maybe it was the child of
the child. Do you see what I'm saying here?
God's chosen people are in the world in every generation. And the lives and the circumstances,
even of the non-elect, are managed and even preserved for the sake
of God's elect. Fifty years or a hundred years
or a thousand years later, one of the Lord's elect would be
born from that line that was preserved during those days that
were shortened for the sake of the elect. Now I'm saying that
and I'm emphasising it, I'm dwelling upon it just to, if possible,
enlarge our views of God's sovereignty. If you are one of the Lord's
elect, if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole
of your family tree, your genealogy, your lineage in this world, the
lineage of your family down through the generations was preserved
by God for your sake. For the sake of God's elect. The rise and fall of nations. The size and success of military
campaigns. The duration of a famine. The
severity of a drought. The virulence of a plague. The
prosperity of the land. For the sake of God's elect.
who meets whom, when and where, who falls in love, who is born,
who dies, is ordered and controlled for the sake of God's elect. The moment of conception, the
exact second of a person's death, all decreed for the sake of God's
elect. There are no accidents. There
are no miscalculations. There is simply the goodness
of a wise and loving God who does all things for the sake
of the elect. Here's the second time that the
Lord uses this little phrase about his elect. He uses it to speak about the
rise of false Christs and false prophets. Here we're going to note another
occasion when the Lord speaks of his elect being preserved. He speaks about these very plausible
and eminently believable but nevertheless false teachers and
their ability to deceive everyone except the Lord's elect. And we read about them in verse
22. For false Christs and false prophets
shall rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it
were possible, even the elect. Now the scriptures tell us that
all men and women are by nature blind to spiritual truth. Paul writes to the Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, and he says this, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. So natural men and women don't
know anything about spiritual truth and yet the reality is
that the world is full of religion and men and women in every nation
of every age often speak about spiritual things. Or at least
they think they do. They think they do. They use
the language of spiritual things. A few years ago I attended a
funeral where a free will preacher preached a free will sermon. He had the casket with the deceased
behind him and he had eternity looming before him. And he had
all that he needed in the circumstances of that little gathering in order
to tug at the heart strings and play on the emotions of all of
those present. And he told us what we needed
to do in order to be saved. And it all seemed very simple. It was why he had been invited
to preach and he did his job very well. But he was a false prophet preaching
a false Christ and he seduced everyone that was present except
the Lord's elect. You see free will and a free
will gospel is easy to preach. And works righteousness and a
works righteousness gospel is easy to preach. And it is seductive. It is so seductive. Men and women, the men and women
of this world, natural men and women who don't understand spiritual
things and yet nevertheless have their religion and have their
spiritual conversations or so they think, love to hear about
what they need to do for God. They love to hear what they need
to do to gain eternal life. And they say, as it were, don't
weary me with all this doctrine, just tell me what I need to do. And the false Christs, and the
false prophets, and the false free will and works righteousness
preachers, they say, certainly we'll tell you what you need
to do. and they seduce the whole world with their work's righteousness
and their free will religion. And very often, the stricter
the code of things that we need to do, the more we relish trying
to live up to it. Because the more it feeds our
pride, And we know that we won't be perfect, but we'll make a
pretty good show of doing what we can, and then we will trust
the Lord to make up the difference. And that is the seductive gospel
of every man-made religion. And that is the signs and the
wonders of the false prophets. the signs of the works righteousness
preachers and the wonders of the free will preachers and it
has seduced the whole world. Just like the Lord said it would. Because it plays to man's pride
It feeds natural feelings. It allows men and women to glory
in the presence of God. And it readily gains a large
and dedicated following. Doing something for God is big
business. and it permeates every religion
in the world. I'm not simply talking about
Christianity. All of the religions, all of
the religions of the world are based upon men and women doing
something in order to please God. It's works righteousness. Choosing to be obedient upon
the basis of their free will. It even caters for atheists and
those with no religion at all because it teaches that they
have the power and the freedom to make their own decisions. Free will works righteousness
is the great deceit in this world. It is the bewitching and the
beguiling lie that seduces natural men and women into believing
that they have peace with God because of what they have done. Because of what they have done,
them, not because of what God has done, not because of what
Christ has done, but they have peace with God. They have everlasting
life because of what they have done. And free will, works righteousness,
denies the grace of God in Christ. it inherently denies that God
freely saves sinners. That word that we use in there
when we talk about God freely saving or God freely providing
That word freely means unconditionally. It means the sovereign work of
God to unconditionally do what he chooses to do. And God freely
saves sinners. And God freely provides divine
righteousness. Divine righteousness. The only
righteousness that is worthy of his presence. to his elect people, his chosen
people. By whatever name they go by,
this is God's free work on their behalf. And free will and works righteousness
are the signs and wonders of false Christs and false prophets. It is they that seduce mankind even to the extent that if it
were possible, they would entrap the elect of God in their deceit. So seductive, so attractive is
free will and works righteousness, that if it were possible, it
would deceive even the elect. Satan is the father of lies. It was pride that brought Satan
down in the beginning. And it is human pride that he
plays upon to confirm men and women in their lost state. And he doesn't mind if it is
personal sin or personal righteousness that takes you to hell. but the elect are not seduced,
because to them it is given to know the truth, and the truth
shall set them free. The elect see God upon his throne. The elect see Christ on his cross. The elect see their lost state,
and they learn by grace something of their own inability. and reliance
upon divine mercy. And thus we have learned Christ.
We have learned that he is able He is an able saviour who willingly
gave his life for his sheep. We have learned that he is an
atoning saviour whose shoulder carried the iniquity of the daughter
of Zion. We have learned that the Lord
Jesus Christ, with his own blood, paid for the sin of his elect
people. We have learned that He is a
successful Saviour who redeemed all for whom He died. We have
learned that He is a victorious Saviour who, having purged our
sins, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is seated in
glory at the right hand of the Majesty of High. We have learned that salvation
is a gift and that grace is free, and that righteousness must needs
be imputed, must needs be given, because any other righteousness
is unworthy of our God and offensive in His sight. We have learned the love of God
the Father. We have learned the mercy of
the Lord Jesus Christ. we have learned the power of
God the Holy Spirit in quickening grace and we will not be seduced
by the lie of man's free will works righteousness nor man's role and involvement
in his own salvation. The third time the Lord uses
the word elect in this passage, is with respect to the destruction
of Jerusalem and his use of that destruction as an impetus for
the worldwide gathering in of the elect from amongst the Gentile
nations. And he speaks about this in verse
27. Now we've seen, as we went through
some of these verses, how all things work together for good,
for the sake of God's elect. And we have seen how the Lord's
elect will not be deceived by the prevailing wisdom of this
world. We have seen that we will be
informed by the truth that sets us free. That truth is the gospel. And now the Saviour, here sitting
on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, here the Saviour tells
his disciples how the destruction of Jerusalem will be the trigger
for sending forth the Gospel. In the church age, and for the
gathering in of the elect through the preaching of truth in the
power of the Holy Spirit, what Paul calls the hearing of him
and being taught by him the truth as it is in Jesus. The reference that we have here
at the end of our reading today to the Son of Man coming in power
is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ comes in power in the
preaching of the Gospel to the saving of sinners. his elect
people, spread and scattered throughout the nations of the
world. The coming of the Son of Man in power and the great
glory in which he comes is the means by which the elect of God,
scattered throughout the world, are brought to the knowledge
of the truth. He sends his angels, that is,
his preachers, bearing the good tidings of great joy, carrying
his gospel to the ends of the earth, for the calling and salvation
of his precious possession, his jewels, the desire of his heart,
his beloved people. And let's notice, just as we
bring these thoughts to an end, let us notice in this 27th verse,
and let us delight in the Lord's words to his disciples there
on that occasion. He says, then shall he send his
angels, his ministers, his preachers, and shall gather together his
elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth
to the uttermost part of heaven. Did you see what the Lord says
there? He shall send his angels. He shall gather his elect. There's nothing doubtful or dubious
about this matter. There is purpose and there is
success. The angels, they're not heavenly
messengers, but earthly preachers. And we could pause on that fact
too, and we could say that Christ could have used heavenly angels
to gather his elect, but he didn't. He realises his purpose by graciously
employing human means. to accomplish his divine will.
Christ gathers his church using frail, fallen preachers. So all
the glory accrues to him and to the power of his gospel. Paul
knew his own weakness as a preacher, but he knew the gospel's power,
the power of God unto salvation. and the four winds from the utmost
part of the earth to the utmost part of heaven and the use of
those is the fulfilling of the great commission to go out into
all the world and preach the gospel. Today, the internet has given
us an ability to reach the whole world, bearing a message for
the saving of souls. at the click of a button. And
the omnipotent God sends his preachers. And he must, Paul says, how shall
they preach except they be sent? This isn't the false Christs
and the false prophets with their free will religion and their
works righteousness religion. This is the sent preachers with
a powerful gospel. being directed according to the
will of Christ. Isaiah says, how beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. To whom is
it said? Zion. There it is again, the
Lord's elect identified as the city of the great king and the
omnipotent God gathers his people. There's no doubt about it, there's
no perhaps and no maybe, no doubt and uncertainty. Not one of his
elect will be missed from the uttermost part of the earth to
the uttermost part of heaven and not one extra will be gathered
up by mistake. These elect are known by name. Their names are written down
in heaven and the gospel shall bear them home to glory. Election is the delightful theme
for the Lord's elect. It thrills us to hear of God's
great plan of salvation. The gospel that shall not fail
but carries his people to glory upon the four winds of gospel
truth. Our God has done all things for
the elect's sake and he gives us truth. and he will not have
his elect deceived by the lies of the devil and the snares of
false prophets. He will bring every last one
of his elect home to glory, bestowing upon them all the blessings of
Christ's great salvation. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today.