Okay, if you turn in your Bibles
to Mark chapter 13. And just to put you into the picture
of what's happening here, Jesus went out from the temple at the
beginning of Mark 13, he finished his discussions with the Pharisees
and the scribes. He'd finished it being harangued
by them. They had no more questions to
ask him. Their means of entrapping God
had just given him an opportunity to expose them and to preach
the Gospel. And during this last week we
are now just two days away from his betrayal and the horrible
scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary. And the Lord Jesus, as I've often
said to you each night, Jerusalem was no longer a place for God. no longer a place for the glory
of God to dwell. And each night the Lord Jesus
would take His own and He would go out over the Mount of Olives
and He spent His time with His people at Bethany and He came
back into Jerusalem in a sense for judgment. And here we have
in this part of Mark 13, we have the Lord Jesus gathered with
His disciples on the Mount of Olives looking back at the temple. And what thoughts must have gone
through his mind as he, with that all-seeing eye of God alone,
looked at what had happened in that temple, what was going to
happen there in the next few days, what was going to happen
in that place after his resurrection, what was going to happen there
after Pentecost, tragically was going to happen there in 40 years
time when Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. And so in the
passage before us, let's just read Mark 13 from verse 14 down
to 23. And we have three, maybe four
big things to look at. One is a great destruction. One,
secondly, there's a great warning and there's a great promise. And of course, in all of the
scriptures, there is a great prophet and a great saviour revealed. Mark 13, 14. So when you see
the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
standing where it ought not, let the reader understand. Then
let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let him who
is on the housetop not go down into the house nor enter to take
anything out of his house and let him who is in the field not
go back to get his clothes but woe to those who are pregnant
and to those who are nursing babies in those days and pray
that your flight may not be in winter for in those days there
will be tribulation such as not being seen since the beginning
of creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall
be. And unless the Lord had shortened
those days, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake,
whom He chose, He shortened the days. Then if anyone says to
you, look, here is the Christ, or look, He is there, do not
believe it, for false Christs and false prophets will rise
and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the
elect. But take heed, see, I have told
you all things beforehand." And so here we have the Lord Jesus
as he so often showed himself to be, both prophet, priest and
king. In verse 14 he talks about this
abomination of desolation. When you see the abomination
of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing where it
ought. The abomination of desolation
is mentioned three times in the book of Daniel. And ultimately
it comes from two Hebrew words. One is anything disgusting or
revolting, meaning idolatry. And the second, the desolation,
is the desolating and devastating acts of war. And so it's a picture
of what's going to come upon Jerusalem. And as you know from
the history, from your biblical history, we have throughout the
scriptures, we have markers of God's holy wrath against the
sin of men. In Noah's flood, the thoughts
of their hearts were only evil all of the time, and God was
grieved, and he destroyed that world. a world with millions
of people and saved just eight. We have another picture of destruction
in Sodom and Gomorrah when God sends two angels to take four
people out, one in each hand, to take them out of that city
before he destroys it. And of course we remember Lot's
wife who looked back, longingly looked back, and she was turned
into a pillar of salt. But the destruction that the
Lord Jesus is referring to here is the destruction that the people
of Israel had experienced 486 years before his birth, a time where the people of Israel, by
their sin, by their open, wicked, hard-hearted, rebellious sin
against God, religiously deceived people. they had caused the wrath
of God to come upon that city. And the promises of God in Deuteronomy,
those shocking promises about women eating their children,
fathers eating their children, the shocking, shocking judgment
of God came upon those people. And it came upon them because
they were led astray into idolatry. I was showing Simon and Jen this
morning. It's just remarkable how much
of the Old Testament is taken up with this whole idolatry. When you think of those books
of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and then on
into what are called the Minor Prophets, it's a big chunk of
the Old Testament is taken up with the destruction of Jerusalem
and why it is a righteous destruction. God had sent these prophets again
and again to Jerusalem. Imagine having Isaiah speak to
you and ignore him. To have Jeremiah weeping over
you and pleading with you and you ignore him. Prophet after
prophet, and the Lord Jesus had said earlier, they just killed
the prophets. They treated them with contempt. And as God in judgment, He does
several things. His glory departs from the temple. And in Ezekiel chapter 11, the
glory of God departed and stood on the Mount of Olives, on the
mountain east of Jerusalem. And at the same time God, in
His judgment, puts a mark on his people so that they will
not participate in the destruction that's coming. And so the destruction
that happened in 486 BC was a signal marker in the history of Israel,
a hugely significant event in Israel's history, a hugely significant
event in our history. And it looked back to God's destruction
in the days of Noah, and it looked back to the destruction of Sodom
and God's judgment, looks back to God's judgment of Exodus,
and it looks forward. to the destruction of Jerusalem
that was going to happen in 70 AD, and it looks forward to the
destruction that is coming upon this world now. And if we do not see this world
as a world which is under the judgment of God and the wrath
of God right now, then we do not understand what this book
is saying. And if we do not see the religious
world as a religious world which is under the judgment of God
and under the wrath of God and the cause of the deception of
millions, then we do not understand what's going on in this world. We just do not know what God
is doing. As Romans 1 says, the wrath of
God is now being revealed. It's now being revealed. if we do not see the God's withholding
of the Gospel, if we do not see the ignoring of God's prophets
and the ignoring of God's Word, if we do not see the blasphemy
to the glory of God and the turning away of millions
away from the true and living Lord Jesus, as He is plainly
revealed in this scripture. If we do not see that as God's
judgment, which is happening right around us right now, then
we just don't understand what this book is saying, and we do
not understand the times we live in. We see and we grieve over the
wickedness and the decadence of our society, where people
live to themselves and God's name is blasphemed. openly blasphemed
again and again. In this last couple of weeks
I've had to go out and collect some building materials for some
things at home, and it's just shocking to hear how normal it
is in conversation for working people these days to blaspheme
the Lord Jesus. Again and again He is blasphemed.
But the Scriptures will have us understand that He is blasphemed
in our land, not because of the wickedness of the Hindus and
the Muslims and the others. God's name is blasphemed in our
land because of religious people, just as it was in Jerusalem when
they had that ministry of the Lord Jesus before them for three
years. God's name, according to Romans,
2.24. Simon spoke about the law. Just read Romans 2.23. Because
these people who were about to do and had been doing these despicable
things, these people were men who made their boast in the law. You who make your boast in the
law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For the name
of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, self-righteous
legalists, people who parade themselves as Christians and
parade their self-righteousness and lead others to do the same,
are the reason for the Lord Jesus being blasphemed on our televisions
and in our workplaces today. The abomination of desolation
that Daniel speaks of is God's righteous, holy response to people
who claim to speak in His name, claim to be His prophets, claim
to be the ones who lead His people and yet they dishonour Him by
the things they say about Him and by their lies. It's good
exercise for you and I encourage you to go home and sit and just
read some of those chapters of Jeremiah and those first 20 chapters
of Ezekiel, read Lamentations, read what God says, read about
the judgment that what did fall and in this period of time was
going to fall and is falling on this world. Your prophets,
says Jeremiah in Lamentations 2.14, your prophets have seen
for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your
iniquity to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false
prophecies and delusions. Because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in her midst the blood
of the just, That is why when God sends judgment, when God
sends horrible judgment, it is always just, it is always right,
and it will be seen in the last day as absolutely perfectly right
and just. Which is why God's word to His
people is again and again to leave. Just read it there at
the end of verse 14. The Word of God everywhere. everywhere says whenever the
name of the Lord Jesus is blasphemed, wherever His glory, His deity,
the wonders of His finished work are diminished in the eyes of
men and men are left with something that they have to do towards
their salvation or their sanctification. God only has one word in all
of the scriptures. One word to all of us, all of
the time, he says, flee. And we still know many people
who have a whole bunch of excuses for staying in there, don't they?
They say, I'm there for my family. I want to see my family on Sundays,
my grandchildren or something. God says, flee. All my friends are there. God
says, flee. This has been my traditional
church. God says, flee. He has no other
word. He doesn't say just walk idly
away. He says, flee. And if we look in the next verses,
we will see that here you are to flee to the mountains. you
to go from a place, Jerusalem was the most magnificent city
with the most magnificent buildings and it seemed like the safest
place on earth. God says flee to the mountains.
In the mountains there are lions, in the mountains there are bears,
in the mountains there aren't the comforts of the city. There
aren't the companions. It might be cold. You might be
hungry. You might be in a barren place.
God says flee to those places. Get out of there as quickly as
you possibly can. And do it in such a way that
you hurry. Let him who is on the housetop
not go down into his house, nor enter to take anything out of
his house. Let him who is in the field not go back to get
his clothes, but woe to those who are pregnant, to those who
are nursing babies in those days. You've got to go quickly and
pray that your flight may not be in winter. Pray that God would give you
easy passage out of that place, to flee from it. If your family holds you back
there, you flee. If your friends hold you there,
you flee. And you pray to God that you
make it as quick and as easy a passage as you possibly can. For in those days there will
be tribulation. Such has not been seen since
the beginning of creation which God created until this time,
nor shall there ever be. This is a word from Daniel chapter
9, as is the word about the abomination of desolations. You haven't before you, Daniel
9, and it's good to see that again and again Daniel 9 is referring,
is referred to by our Lord. He's saying to his people who
have ears to hear, remember what happened 500 years ago. It is about to happen right now. He wants his people to remember
what it is to be a Daniel at that time. And if you remember
from the history, before Jerusalem was destroyed, God took the Daniels
and the Shadrachs and the Meshachs and the Bendigoes. God took the
Ezekiels. God took his people out of Jerusalem
before he destroyed it. And he saved his elect who happened
to be there still. But God's people were in Babylon
of all places, hundreds of miles away, where he says, I, there
I will be a sanctuary for them. and God came to Daniel again
and again. One thing that we do need to
bear in mind is that for God's people the response to these
horrific things which have happened and will happen again and again
is not one of triumphalism. Never do we read of that in the
scriptures. In fact, in Daniel 10, we read
of Daniel's response personally to what was happening around
him. In Daniel 10, 11, when he's told
that he's a man who's greatly beloved, and said, Understand
the words I speak to you and stand upright, for I have now
been sent to you. While he was speaking this word
to me, while the word of God came to him, Daniel stood trembling. And Daniel, having been given
these visions, says, My Lord, because of the visions My sorrows
have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength. For how can this servant of my
Lord talk with you, my Lord? For as for me, no strength remains
in me now, nor is any breath left in me." You might well know
what Romod Paul says as he writes, that difficult chapter for him
to write in Romans chapter 9 and 10 and 11, when he comes to that
difficult passage of scripture, he says, I tell the truth in
Christ, I'm not lying, my conscience also bearing witness with me
in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief
in my heart. for I wish that I myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the
flesh." The response of God's people is one of brokenness. But God's justice demands that
sin be punished, as Simon said earlier. It will be punished
in one of two places. It will be punished in people
who will die in their sins, and it will be punished forever,
because those sins will never ever be put away, and nor will
God ever be satisfied with their punishment. For there will be
the punishment of them in the Lord Jesus. So let's go down
to Daniel chapter 9 and just read something of what Daniel
saw and something of the Lord Jesus that Daniel experienced. In verse 24 it says, 70 weeks
are determined. We know that those weeks were
weeks that were finished in that time of the Lord's coming and
the destruction of Jerusalem. The 70 weeks are determined.
It's determined by God. This is not something that happens
by accident. Determined for your people and
your holy city to finish transgression. to make an end of sins, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of
the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince,
there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, The street shall
be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times." Just
ask Nehemiah. And after the 62 weeks, Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the
prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The
end of it shall be with a flood. until the end of the war, desolations
are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant
with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall
bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of
abominations shall be one who makes desolate." even until the
consummation which is determined. So this passage is in Jesus'
mind and He wants it to be in our minds as we, with those disciples,
look upon Jerusalem. Look upon what God does in the
saving of His people. Look at what God does in the
judging of those who stand opposed to His Messiah. So these days
are determined. In verse 20 of Mark 13, unless
the Lord shortened those days, no flesh shall be saved. But for the elect's sake whom
he chose, he shortened those days. These days are determined
days. Daniel was led to see by the
books from Jeremiah's prophecy that the time had now come and
he'd given himself to prayer. And just look at what Messiah
does for his elect. Two great things Messiah does.
In verse 26, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And just remember the context.
The Lord Jesus had just left the people who were plotting
to kill Him. Judas is about to go and betray Him. He's about
to be cut off in two days, but not for Himself. In verse 27, he shall confirm
a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of that
week he will bring an end to sacrifice and offerings." So in the cutting off of Messiah,
it wasn't for himself. It was for another people called
his elect here, Just read about what he does
for the elect. There's six wonderful things he does for his elect
by being cut off. He's going to finish transgression. He's going to make an end of
sins. It was as if he says he'll seal
up sins that they'll never be found again. He'll make reconciliation
for iniquity. He'll satisfy the justice of
God. He'll bring in everlasting righteousness. Wonderful, isn't it? Everlasting
righteousness. He'll seal up vision and prophecy. When the Lord Jesus has come
and God has spoken by His Son, there is no need for another
word from God. And those who are seeking other
words from God, words of prophecy and words of wisdom, are promised
by God that they will be deceived. And He will anoint the most holy. Peter 9.12 reminds us that the
Lord Jesus went into the real Holy of Holies. in Hebrews, that Christ came
as a high priest of the good things to come, with the greater
and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not
of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but
with His own blood, He entered the most holy place, once for
all, having obtained eternal redemption. See, the Lord Jesus has all this
in mind. when he says that he has an elect
people he's chosen. And because of his elect people,
he determines the days and he's shortened those days. And then
if anyone says to you, verse 21, Look, here is the Christ,
or look, He is there. Do not believe it, for false
Christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders
to deceive, if possible. Thank God it's not possible to
deceive, if possible, even the elite. And historically we read
that at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, before and after
the destruction of Jerusalem, there were false prophets and
people who claimed to be Messiah. You can read about two of them
earlier on in Acts chapter 5. Thudius the Galilean and others. And so there were many because
people knew. They knew from the timetable
that Daniel had given them that this was the time of Messiah. And so people had wonderful,
strong messianic expectations. They were looking around. But to look anywhere other than the
one real Jesus is to be deceived. You see, Daniel describes the
real Jesus to us. If you compare Daniel 9 to the
Jesus that's proclaimed in this world today, you'll find that
it's a different Jesus, because he does different things. Just
read it again. What does he do? In the confirmation
of a covenant, the scriptures talk about this covenant that
is the covenant in his blood. It's a covenant made with many.
It's not a covenant made with all. It's a new covenant. And by bringing in a new covenant,
he's made the first covenant obsolete. When do we hear that
the law is finished and fulfilled in Jesus and that we're no longer
under it? This is the covenant that he's
talking about at this appointed time. Do we hear that he's finished
transgression? He's made an end of sins. Or
are we told that there's something that we must do, some activity
of ours, that will add to our sanctification, something that
we can do which will make His work effective for us, or something
that we can do, that we must do, to make reconciliation possible. How often do we hear of everlasting
righteousness, perfect, complete righteousness? sits in heaven
now for all of God's children, all of God's covenant children.
We often refer people to Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31. It is just
beautiful to consider the promises in that covenant, the promises
that God will do, because the new covenant, the eternal covenant,
is not a covenant between God and man. It's a covenant between
God and God. It's a covenant in which all
of God's children are the recipients of all of what the Lord Jesus
has done. It's finished. He's now entered into the Holy
of Holies and all of his people go into the Holy of Holies in
heaven right now, all the time. perfectly acceptable in God,
perfectly righteous, perfectly holy, sins perfectly put away. That's the real Jesus. That's
the Jesus that this Jesus is saying to his apostles is the
same Jesus that in his redemption for those who turn away from
His redemption, to turn away from His deliverance, to turn
away from His mercy. Those who claim to speak in His
name, rather than bringing redemption, will bring wrath, the wrath of
God upon them. Rather than bringing deliverance,
they will bring the damnation of God upon them. Rather than
receiving mercy, they will receive the justice of God. See, the destruction of Jerusalem
is a picture of the end, isn't it? It's a picture of what God
must do. We must keep remembering that
this is not just a picture of what God will do with the pagan
nations. This is talking about Jerusalem,
the most religious place in the world, the place that had and
claimed to be the place where you learn about God and where
you worship God, the place that for the religious
world seemed like the safest place on all of this planet became
the most dangerous place. The place where they were speaking
peace, peace to everyone, God loves everyone, peace, everything's
all right. Destruction comes upon them suddenly. They have for their refuge, a
refuge of lies. When I went home from church
a couple of weeks ago, in my office was a pigeon and a great
big broken window. And since that time we've had
half a dozen of these great big pigeons crash into our windows
and crack another one. And God puts things in nature
so that we will see spiritual things. There are many people,
there were millions in Jerusalem, there are countless millions
around this world that look ahead and like that pigeon, they think
that there is a place of safety ahead of me. They are ground
eating birds and when they're frightened they fly into the
trees. And these pigeons thought, They
were flying into a tree. They thought that they were flying
to a place of safety. And suddenly, destruction came
upon them. That's exactly what's happened
in Jerusalem. They thought it was a place of
safety. for the next 40 years, they ignored
God, treated His prophets with contempt, treated His Messiah
with contempt. And while they were in that city
saying, peace, peace to everyone, destruction came upon them suddenly. They thought the safest place
in all the world was to be in a place that was the most religious. They who had sent their people
to Galatia to harass the Christians, sent them over land and sea to
harass God's people by putting them back under the law, did
live out Galatians 5.15. If people go back under the law
and don't live under the grace of God, God says they'll bite
and devour each other. What happened in Jerusalem, what
is promised here in Jerusalem, was just horrific. There were
so many people crucified they had to stop crucifying them because
they ran out of wood. The various factions that had
joined together to kill Messiah were biting and devouring each
other literally. There was absolute chaos within
that city. Just read Josephus. It is disgusting
and horrible what happened to them. God is holy. Daniel prayed to a holy God. Daniel prayed to God on the basis
that God was going to be merciful, not because of Daniel's activities,
but because of his great mercy and his great love for his people. He says to us in verse 23, He
says, Take heed. I have told you these things.
I have told you all things beforehand. See, the Lord Jesus has told
us in this book what is happening in this world right now. He's told us again and again.
We just have to open the pages of this book and ask God to shine
a light on what's happening around us and we will see that He has
promised what's happening now. We see so much false religion
around us. We see it battering and deceiving
people that we love very much. but also we see that God has
promised. In 2 Timothy 4, He says, The
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
according to their own desires. Because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers. But evil men and imposters
will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Again, there
is one test. There is just one test in your flight, and that is,
is the Jesus that I'm following the Jesus of this book? Is it
the Jesus that's finished the covenant and made that covenant
and confirmed that covenant for His people? The door is wide
open. I'm telling you now, if this
Jesus is not proclaimed here, flee for your lives. Don't wander
away idly. God says to flee. flee for your
lives and flee into the arms of the Saviour. He's told us
beforehand. He's told us again and again.
We are to flee to Him. We have no strength in ourselves. We have no resources. We just
must trust the Saviour. We have nothing of our hands'
work to bring to Him. We have no righteousness. We
have nothing. Everyone who thirsts, says the
Lord, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come
buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. We come to a Saviour. Keep coming
to a Saviour. We want Him to speak. We want
His voice to be the voice that you hear. We want people, we
plead with people, in God's name, you have an eternal soul. It
is worth more than every little tiny thing you can possibly imagine
to have in all of this universe. It is worth more than your esteem. It is worth more than all of
your friendships. It's worth more than all of your
relationships. And God says in Isaiah, incline
your ear, come to me, hear and your soul shall live. Amen.