Mark chapter 12, and we looked
at those serious warnings that the Lord gave. Beware of the
scribes who desire to go around in long robes. loved the greetings
in the marketplace, the best seats in the synagogue. The Lord
Jesus spoke with clarity and boldness, and we read that awesome
chapter of Scripture which is full of woes on the scribes and
Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. And at the end of Matthew
23, He says to them, your house is left unto you desolate. In Mark chapter 13, we have the
Lord Jesus going out of the temple. He went out of the temple. He went out of this temple never
to return to this temple. In fact, earlier in Mark's Gospel,
he'd call this my house, my father's house. Now he describes the temple
as your house, and he left it. And so here we have before us
our Lord Jesus Christ acting in judgment. He leaves, as we've seen each
night in this last week of his earthly ministry, each night
the Lord Jesus leaves Jerusalem. He goes over the Mount of Olives
and he goes down to the little towns of Bethany and Bethage. And in those little towns are
the place where God meets with His people. In those little towns
is the dwelling place of God with His own. In those little
towns amongst that little community, hidden from Jerusalem, is God's
true church. And He says to Jerusalem, Woe
to them, in Hosea 9.12, when I depart from them. Jeremiah
6, Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you,
lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited. And as the disciples were being
taken by their Lord again, away from a place of judgment, a place
of imminent destruction, to a place of safety with Him, the apostles
turned to Him and said to Him, Teacher, see what manner of stones
and what buildings are here. It's natural, isn't it? Always
natural for us to look at things, look at the things that man does
and man can do and be impressed. We've talked before about how
extraordinarily magnificent the temple complex was. It was 25
acres, 12 hectares of the most extraordinary building, some
of the most extraordinary building in all of the ancient world. It was huge. It stretched from
here down to Nauruphere. I can't think of any public building
or buildings in all of Australia that even come close to the magnificence
of the temple. It had been at this stage 42
years under construction. And Josephus tells us that for
one 8-year period 10,000 men worked on this temple and
this temple complex. It was huge. The figures vary
so much about the stones that it's hard for me to tell you
how big the stones were, but there were plenty of stones in
that temple, according to the records we have now, which would
hardly fit in this room. They were absolutely monstrous. Imagine a stone as tall as this
building and from here to the wall wide and going from here
into the kitchen. They are the stones that were
there. And the whole thing was made
out of the most beautiful polished white stone, decorated with gold. Absolutely amazing. It's natural, isn't it, for us
to look at things and to find things impressive. But the Lord
Jesus looked at this building which impressed the eyes of men
and he saw it as nothing but a den of thieves. No fit place
for God to be any longer. And Jesus answers and says to
them, in verse 2, Do you see these great buildings? Not one
stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. The Lord Jesus sees these things
that impress men and He pronounces judgment on them. The prophet
Micah said that this temple, this city, would be ploughed
as a field. But the Lord Jesus here makes
the first of His promises to His people. He says, it shall
be. the most magnificent building
complex in all of Israel's history, was going to be destroyed. One
of the things that Satan does incessantly is bring prophecy
into disrepute. The ways of men to get around
the clear word of God are innumerable. And the most obvious one is,
of course, that they say that all of these words of prophecy,
Isaiah's prophecy, Daniel's prophecy, these prophecies, they were written
after the event, long after the event. And clever, clever men
sat down and worked out what had happened and then wrote the
scriptures. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Satan hates the prophecies and
the promises of God, because in them is the promise of the
destruction of Satan and his kingdom. He hates them. And one of the lessons we need
to learn is that God's Word is true. Titus 1.2 says that God
cannot lie. And when God has spoken, it will
happen. It will happen. So these people
in Jerusalem, in a few days' time, are going to kill the Lord
Jesus. And for the next 40 years, They enjoyed these magnificent
buildings and thought how wonderful they were, and thought how secure
they were, and thought how they were a place of refuge for people. As I said to you earlier, in
the scriptures we have descriptions of the judgment of God upon this
world because of its sin and its wickedness. In the days of
Noah, God brought judgment upon a population which may well have
numbered in the billions, and out of that population He saved
just eight people. The people of Israel came into
the Promised Land numbering about two million people. And within
a few hundred years, such was the idolatry and the blasphemy
in the temple in Jerusalem that God destroyed Jerusalem. It was razed to the ground. And
again, God, just as He did with Noah, God took a remnant group
of people and he took them to Babylon and he says in Isaiah
that in Babylon he will be a sanctuary for those people. God knows how
to bring just and right judgment and at the same time rescue his
people. These are just the plain promises
of God. The destruction that came upon
Jerusalem in 70 AD was so similar and so graphic and so horrifying
that it's just like, and it is just like the destruction that
came upon Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And
the most horrific judgments of God upon the wickedness of humanity,
the ones where fathers Soft-natured men will eat their babies and
not share them with their wives. Soft-natured women, gentle women,
picture someone like Bethany eating her babies and not sharing
them with her other children. This is the destruction that
came upon Jerusalem in Ezekiel's day and Jeremiah's day. This
is what happened in Jerusalem in these days, in just 40 years
time. While people thought that they
had peace and safety, in this city. They thought it was a place
of refuge. In Jeremiah's day, God said again
and again and again, the place of safety is with Babylon. Go
out, surrender to the Babylonians, the place of safety is outside
of Jerusalem. The religious leaders of Israel
said the safest place is to be inside of Jerusalem. And when
The destruction came upon Jerusalem in 70 AD. Precisely the same
thing happened. The Jews rose up against the
Romans, and the Romans attacked, and the Jews thought The priests
and the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees thought, because
of what they saw in God's Word, they thought the safest place
in all of the world to be at that time was inside Jerusalem. And the Romans came and besieged
Jerusalem and the same horrifying things happened. They say upwards
of a million people died in Jerusalem. Just horrifying. And all of these
pictures of God's judgment in the past are pictures of God's
judgment into the future. and judgment begins at the household
of God. I think one of the things that's
so hard, isn't it, for us to come to grips with, and so hard
for me as someone who stands here and speaks on God's behalf
to people who are bound for eternity, is to feel the weight of the
seriousness of what is lying before us in these scriptures.
I struggle with it. I can't believe that my flesh
doesn't moan and groan. I can't get over the fact that
you can go to these scriptures and preach on these things and
be cold-hearted about it and indifferent about it. I know
that's not the case all the time, but it should grieve us. This
should grieve us. because this destruction that's
happening in Jerusalem under the judgment of God is the destruction
and the judgment that God is bringing upon this world right
now. It is part of the wrath that
God is pouring out on people that we love and care for right
now. And so there's a lesson for us,
isn't it? We must never judge God's blessing upon His people,
all God's works, by anything we see external. The temple had
become a place where Satan's children were in power, and the
enemies of God had established a place where, in the name of
worshipping God, they had founded a system where they were esteemed
above God. where they esteemed their wisdom
and their tradition above his word, above his people. They loved parading. They loved
the greetings. They loved being called Rabbi,
Rabbi. They loved the best places at
the feasts. And here in Jerusalem, they ran
their famous Bible colleges. Here around this temple they
trained their missionaries. They commissioned them and sent
them out across the known world. They spent their lives in study
and prayer. They were looking for Messiah
to come. They were looking for the promises
of His deliverance to come. They were looking for freedom
from their bondage to come. They were looking for the establishment
of an eternal kingdom. And yet, these people had God
come. For three years, God came and
He stood before them. He told them He was God. He fulfilled every one of the
prophecies that they know about. He did miracles that no one else
had ever done. He again and again healed blind
people. Only Messiah heals blind people. Everything that was predicted
of Him and promised of Him, He did. And yet, these people who claimed
to worship God had Him there in their midst, claiming to be
God, and they didn't know who He was. In fact, they saw Him
as someone possessed by the devil. They saw His miracles as the
work of a demon-possessed man. And they plotted and schemed
for three years to kill him, to dishonor him. They stood as
his enemies in all of their religious garb. As I was finished writing
those words, I was struck by how accurately the description
of Jerusalem in 30 AD is of so much of the religion of our day. How much can be achieved by man
in the name of God? Just look at the temples, magnificent
buildings. Look at this amazing history.
and it was no place for God to dwell except to be there in judgment. Man can build huge religions. Think of Catholicism. A billion
people in this world follow that old man in Rome to hell. Hundreds of millions of people
follow all sorts of other perverted forms of Christianity, denying
the Gospel. Ultimately, at the heart of it
all, they really worship man. They have been infected with
what Satan was infected with. In Isaiah 14 we have a great
description of Satan. O Lucifer, son of the morning,
how you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. For
you have said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the
mount of the congregation on the furthest side of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the Most High. Such is the religion of men. God says, I will sweep with the
broom of destruction, said the Lord of hosts. If we do not see this world and
the religion of this world as being under the judgment of God,
then we do not understand a single thing about what this book is
teaching. God in wrath. has given the people
of this world over to religion that claims to honour God, but
in their very activities, like these Pharisees, they deny Him. They deny His deity. They deny that He really is God. And God's judgement is always
in accord he will put an end to all the
idolatry. In verse 3, he now moves out
of Jerusalem, across that valley, the valley, the Kidron Valley,
where Gethsemane was, and he goes and sits on the Mount of
Olives, opposite the temple. It's an amazing picture. In Zechariah
14 he talks about the fact of this mountain being split in
two. Just think about what's going to happen to Jerusalem. On one side you look down across
this magnificent gleaming white city, these huge buildings, this
amazing number of people involved in religion, maybe a million
people there at this feast time. And God is there in judgment
of them. And on the other side, behind
them, just over the hill, out of sight of all that magnificence,
is this little town of Bethany, and this little town of Bethage,
where God dwells with his people, their children. Someone else. sat on the Mount
of Olives, this same man again. In Ezekiel's day, just before
Jerusalem was destroyed, he sat He stood actually on the mountain
which is on the east side of the city. The glory of the God
of Israel went up out of that city, out of that temple, and
stood on the mountain which is on the east side. The city was
under wrath and imminent destruction. On the other side was safety. And God in Ezekiel describes
himself so beautifully. He says, although I have scattered
them, scattered his people among the gentler countries, yet I
shall be a little sanctuary for them. just a little sanctuary. But if it's God's sanctuary,
it's a place of safety in a world that's just being destroyed.
And these are signs for all ages, aren't they? That God is going
to destroy both the house and the people in the house of false
religion. It's a picture of God in judgment,
justly judging the wicked, and God also honoring His holy name. The time for false religion is
always short, and the sword of divine wrath hangs over it all
the time. The Lord is the one who brings
division. The Lord in the Gospel brings
division. As much as we hate division and
being divisive, there is a real Gospel about a real Jesus, and
there is in this world a false Gospel about another Jesus. And as I said earlier, the God
of glory has come to this earth in the person of his dear son.
And any religion, no matter what you call it, any religion that
does not attribute absolute deity to the Lord Jesus is not Christian,
no matter what it calls itself. Any religion that denies the
fact that the Lord Jesus came as God and achieved as God exactly
what he came here to achieve is not Christian no matter what
it calls itself. Any religion that says that Jesus
came here to create possibilities and to create a potential for
salvation is not talking about the Jesus of this book. He will
not fail, God says. Any religion, no matter what
it calls itself, that says that there is something that man must
do to add to the work of the Lord Jesus, in his justification,
in his sanctification, in any part of Christian life, is not
talking about the Jesus of this book. He will see the suffering
of his soul and he will be satisfied. The real Jesus sits in heaven
as a successful, satisfied, sovereign God. And he looks upon his people
with nothing other than amazing delight. The amazing delight
of a bridegroom looking upon his bride. And yet this world is full of
a God proclaimed all the time, isn't it? A God who loves everyone,
but His love is not enough to keep them out of hell. Imagine
going to this religious group that were in Jerusalem about
to be under the most appalling judgment and wrath of God. Go
to them in hell now and say, God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. The words of modern religion
won't exist in hell, let alone in heaven. Go to those people
and say, Jesus is dying for you. because He loves you so much
and God is trying to save you. The real Jesus is wonderfully
successful. External religion can build big,
can look impressive, can have huge numbers of people, can have
the power of men, the approval of men and be zealous, but God
has left it. When God in 2 Thessalonians says
that he sends a powerful delusion, for those who will not, just
turn there because it's such an important verse, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. He's talking about what happens
at the end, but also what happens before our eyes. The coming of
the Lawless One in verse 9 is in accordance with the working
of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all
unrighteous deception among those who perish. Because they did
not receive the love of the truth, the truth of course being the
Lord Jesus and His Gospel. And for this reason God will
send them a powerful delusion that they should believe the
lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. I presume that when God sends
a powerful delusion, people get deluded. That's just logical, isn't it?
These men in Jerusalem were deluded men. The truth came to them,
and they'd rather have their man-made religion and their man-honouring
religion. and have God's truth. And he
sent them a powerful delusion. And the disciples in verse 4
ask a question. Here are these magnificent buildings.
You say they're going to be torn down. What will be the sign when
these things will be fulfilled? It's a very natural and reasonable
question for the apostles to ask. and Mark 3. And then Jesus answered them
and began to say. See when we ask those questions,
the Lord Jesus is always wonderfully practical about things. We are inclined because of our
intellects to think we need to fathom these things. We need
to be able to work it all out. We need to have a timetable.
But the Lord Jesus tells us again and again and again in the scriptures,
when people come with issues about what happened to those
people at the Tower of Siloam, what happened to those people
that were killed by Pilate, He keeps saying, Don't worry about
them. What about you? And so it seems
to some people that the Lord Jesus is not answering the question.
I think the Lord Jesus answers the question in the most profoundly
significant way. Take heed that no one deceives
you. Take heed to your own soul. It's the most important warning
and message in the scriptures. Take heed to your own soul. Let no man deceive you. Satan is a master of deception. If he could deceive Adam and
Eve in the garden, not that he deceived Adam, he deceived Eve.
If he could deceive Eve in the garden, who had no sin, who lived
in holiness before God, how much easier do you think it is for
Satan to deceive fallen human beings? we must first look to our own
hearts. When you travel on aeroplanes,
you have a warning that comes up and they show you a little
movie or a demonstration, and they say if the plane loses its
oxygen, something goes wrong. The first thing you must do,
if you have children beside you, the first thing you do is you
put the oxygen mask over your own mouth. And you make sure
that you are okay, and then you can look after your children.
Because in the time you're fiddling around trying to get oxygen masks
on the mouths of your children, both you and your children might
die. Take heed to your own souls. Take heed that we are not deceived
by false Christs, verse 5. There were false Christs in Jesus'
day, some prior to him. You can read about them in Acts
chapter 5. And there were many who came after Jesus' time. Many of them throughout history
have claimed to be God. There's a guy that lives up the
road from us. Wrote a book. He claims to be God. I think the Lord Jesus is warning
us about something much, much more serious, much, much more
subtle than people who claim to be God.
Most of them who claim to be God are openly deluded, no matter
how many people follow them. But there are multitudes, as
there were in Jerusalem, there are multitudes who follow another
Jesus in our world, the one I spoke to you about before, the one
who saves people on the basis of their good works and their
worth, their merits, a free will decision that they have made. As I said, the Christ of the
Scriptures is God the Son. He always was God. The Christ
of the Scriptures is One who made an eternal covenant before
the foundation of the world. And at that time, before the
world began, He took 100% of the responsibility of taking
all of His Bride into Heaven. At that point, They were perfectly
secure. As Matthew 1.21 says of the real
Jesus, He came to save His people from their sins. And He's accomplished
all that He came to do. He said it's finished. He says
He satisfies. A Christ who tries to save but
fails is not the Christ of this book. One who tries to redeem,
but doesn't. The one who seeks the sheep,
but doesn't find them. The one who calls, but people
don't answer. He's not the Christ. He's the antichrist. The real
Christ is described in Isaiah 40 verse 11. He carries his little
ones close to his heart. He is their covenant. He is their
sanctuary. And as we have on our bulletin
each week, the real Jesus has become for us wisdom from God. The real Jesus is all of our
righteousness, all of it. The real Jesus is all of our
sanctification, all of it. And the real Jesus is all of
our redemption, all of it. Every little tiny bit was His
to perform, and He performed it perfectly. And the end result
of it is, in verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. for many will come in my name
say I am he and will deceive many. There are many who come
and there are many who are deceived. that we cherish spends more time
talking about the dangers of false prophets and wolves in
sheep's clothing than it does talking about anything else.
There is hardly a page of these scriptures that doesn't describe
the wolf, doesn't describe the lamb, and doesn't describe the
saviour of the lambs. And yet we live in a world where
the one thing that dominates all of our conversation is tolerance,
isn't it? We must be tolerant. We must
accept that these people, with all of their sincerity, can't
be wrong. With all of their zeal, can't
be wrong. With all of their tradition,
can't be wrong. With all of their numbers, can't
be wrong. With all of their wonders and
miracles, they can't be wrong. With all of their missionary
zeal, they can't be wrong. The people of Jerusalem had all
of those things, and the judgment of God fell upon them. Matthew 7 is such a challenging,
challenging passage, isn't it? Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, verse 22, have we not prophesied in your name,
cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your
name? And the Lord Jesus doesn't deny the prophecies and He doesn't
deny the casting out of demons and He doesn't deny the wonders,
real wonders. Real prophecy, real exorcisms. And then in verse 23, And then
I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
who practice lawlessness. We are not to be deceived by
them and we are not to be deceived despite all of what they claim
and all of what they have. And also we are not to be deceived
by what we see happening in the world around us. Verse 7, When
you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled, for
such things must happen, but the end is not yet. We mustn't
be deceived by the trials of life. We mustn't be disturbed
by the upheavals in this world. When wars and famines and persecutions
come, many people are shaken in their faith. But God's people
see those things and those things are used by God as a means to
cause them to look to one who is unshakable, one who does rule. For nation will rise against
nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be earthquakes
in various places and there will be famines and troubles. These
are the beginning of the sorrows. just the beginnings of the sorrows.
All of these things came to pass before Jerusalem's destruction.
All of these things have come to pass in this last 2,000 years. All of these things will come
to pass before the end. And it is God's just and right
judgment. But in all of these things, He
will be a sanctuary for His people. And those who would not have
the gospel of peace shall suffer the miseries of war. Those that
loathe the heavenly manner, says John Trapp, shall be starved.
Those that despise the only medicine for their souls shall be visited
with pestilence. Those that would not suffer heart-quake
shall suffer earthquake. Those that trembled not in hearing
shall be crushed to pieces in feeling. As they heap up sins,
so they treasure up wrath. So with all of the things they
treasured up against God, their miseries are multiplied. And
these are the beginnings of sorrows. The troubles that the enemies
of God have in this world are just the beginnings of sorrows. There is no end of their sorrows. God's children in this world
will have trouble. They will be persecuted. They
will be cast off. They will find the religious
world stands against them again and again and again. But their
sorrows are going to finish very, very soon, and they'll have the
comfort of the Lord with them. They are the beginning of the
sorrows for the enemies of God. There is no end of them. We have an unshakable kingdom,
an unmovable throne, an unchanging God. He rules and he's not ruled
by any. He's the one that makes the division. He's the one that brings the
judgment. So the disciples ask for signs,
just like many people in our day ask for signs. But the Lord,
in response to a question of signs, gives promises. Just go back through these few
verses that we've looked at this morning. And we see promise after
promise after promise. Not one stone shall be left upon
another. They shall all be thrown down.
For many will come in my name. They will deceive many. Such
things must happen. Nation will rise against nation. There will be earthquakes. There
will be famines and troubles. These are the beginning of sorrows. Do you see the Lord Jesus' answer?
His answer to what's going on around us is, look to the Lord
Jesus, look to your own souls, take heed. Trust His word of
promise. Trust the fact that He is the
only one who will divide and He's the only one who will protect
His people. He'll take His people out of
that city. He'll take them through Gethsemane. He'll take them to the Mount
of Olives. and they will see the destruction of the world
around them and they will find their peace in their home with
God and with His people forever and ever." He left the temple. What a precious thought to all
of God's children. It doesn't matter what we see
around us. He says He will never leave them
nor will He ever forsake them. He'll never leave His people.
He'll never go out from His people. He'll always be a sanctuary for
us. May God give us wisdom in this fallen and dark world. Let's
pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank
You and praise You that the Lord Jesus has won this great victory. We thank You, Heavenly Father,
that the things that happen are nothing ever happens by accident
in this world that our Sovereign Lord rules. The false religion,
the false faith of this world is but His judgment on people
who would not love the truth. Heavenly Father, cause us to
have hearts that fear You in a right and proper way. Heavenly
Father, help us to see this world and the religion of this world
through the lens of what you say is happening in your book
according to your divine sovereign purposes. And help us, Heavenly
Father, to have great hope that one day very soon all of our
sorrows will be over and our trials will be finished and that
we will be presented by our husband before the courts of heaven and
before this world, holy, spotless, blameless, free from accusation,
our Father. Now there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. We praise you for the work of
your dear Son, our Father. Help us to be found in Him. We
pray in Jesus' name. Amen.