This is called in the Scriptures
the Olivet Discourse because he's on the Mount of Olives looking
across at that magnificent city, having left that temple and never
to return, and with his disciples there. And in this chapter of
the Scriptures we have the Lord Jesus warning His disciples,
promising His disciples about what's going to happen, warning
His disciples about the things that will happen to them. And
then eight times in Mark Chapter 13, He calls on them and He calls
on all of us to watch. Watch out, verse 9, take heed
that no one deceives you, verse 15, Take heed, verse 23. See, I have told you beforehand. Now learn this, 28. Know, verse 29, take heed, watch
and pray. In the parable in 34, the doorkeepers
commanded to watch. Watch therefore. And I say to
you all, to you, I say to all, us here today, watch." So here
in the midst of the Lord making these remarkable prophecies and
promises about what's going to happen to the natural world,
there'll be earthquakes and famines, to the political world there'll
be wars and rumors of wars, to the personal world where brother
will betray brother, fathers their children, and in the world
that is just very, very rapidly coming to an end, he actually
asks us again and again to watch, to take heed, take heed for yourselves,
watch out for yourselves. And obviously the question that
we have to ask is why, and the answer is obvious, isn't it really? We normally don't need much encouragement
to look out after our own interests. In fact we do it without any
problem at all. But I think there are some reasons
why the Holy Spirit has preserved these repeated warnings of the
Lord Jesus for us. And obviously the first one is
that your salvation matters more than anything else that this
world can offer. There is nothing more important
to you than the salvation of your soul. And we cannot care
for the spiritual needs of others unless we are safely in God's
hands. The blind lead the blind and
they both fall into the pit. And there are multitudes who
desire and esteem the place of prominence among men. And especially
in matters to do with people's souls, at the very place where
people are most vulnerable, people want to take a position of pre-eminence
and esteem, like deatrophies. You always want to have the pre-eminence.
We've seen that with the scribes and Pharisees. And we are sheep. It's not meant to compliment
us when the Lord calls us sheep. under the care of a shepherd.
It's a wonderful thing. But sheep are defenseless, helpless
things. In Australia we have millions
of wild goats, millions of wild camels, millions of wild pigs. Have you seen a wild sheep anywhere? Yet we have more sheep than the
rest of them put together in Australia. We are just, we by
nature, we follow others and we seek comfort from others and
we seek comfort in groups of people. And there are ways that
seem right, that proverb that we quote. This verse is mentioned
twice in the scriptures because God wants us to get it. There
is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way
of death. Proverbs 16 and it's repeated
in Proverbs 14. So we are prone to be led. We
are sheep. And it's often the zeal of believers
that is the inlet for deception. We want to look positively on
everyone who seems zealous for God, as it seems in our eyes. And in the case of the Galatians,
the very attribute of their zeal, their enthusiasm for the Lord
Jesus, was the very means by which the false teachers used
to deceive these young churches and multitudes in them. So as
Paul says in Romans, zeal is good, but zeal without knowledge
is damning. And we do have an enemy of our
souls, don't we? Satan never sleeps. Satan has
the most extraordinary knowledge of human nature, he has the most
remarkable knowledge of the scriptures, and he's like a roaring lion
prowls around seeking those he may deceive. The other reason
we need to watch out is that almost everything we see in this
world will lead us to doubt God's Word and doubt the goodness of
His sovereignty. We will see glimpses of things
that cause us to see those things. and trust them, but we have so
much around us. This place just seems so stable,
so secure. I know there are political unrest,
but this world, as it says in 2 Peter 2, it seems like it just
goes on and on forever, doesn't it? The sun rises, the sun sets,
everything's going on. If you picture the world as a
soccer ball, do you know how thick the bit we're standing
on is? It's like a postage stamp on a soccer ball. Everything
seems like it's going on, but underneath it all we have a universe
that can be and will be shaken by God. And we need to watch
out, because our Adam nature causes us continually to look
at things through the eyes of our flesh, through legalistic
eyes. We spend so much of our time
examining other people's actions and motives, trying to figure
out what they're doing, trying to look into their hearts to
see and understand their actions. One of the most helpful verses
in all of the scriptures for me, Mr. God, is Jeremiah 7 and
9. We think we can understand people's
actions. The heart of man is deceitfully
wicked and beyond cure. Who can understand it? We think
that we can understand what's going on, but we need to be guided again
and again by what God says in His Word rather than what we
see through our natural eyes. We need to watch out because
the pain of being misled can be immense. We've experienced
it ourselves. We've seen it happen to others.
One of my good friends in India was a great Indian Christian
guy who worked at school. They thought he had TB and he
ended up being diagnosed with cancer and it was too late. for
them to do anything. But at school we had some of
these remarkable people. There hadn't been many around
as prominent as these, but there they were in a school where they
were caring for kids. But these three women were prophets. And
so they all got together and they went round to Ravi's house
and said to Ravi, we've had a word from God. You're going to be
cured, Ravi. Obviously with two little kids,
he had two very little kids at the time and a wife. He wanted
to cling and he did cling to that. Within two months he was
dead and he said before he died that He was just so, so sad that
he'd listened to these women and he'd actually clung to their
words. Instead of clinging to the Lord
Jesus, he clung to their words. And fortunately through the end
of it, he saw that they were just deceitful. So false teachers
lead to great pain. We need to watch ourselves. And
the hurts that we feel are so intense, are such that hearts can be broken,
our spirits can be wounded and we can be crushed under the weight
of the pain, if it wasn't for the fact that these are things
that are promised by our Lord. They were things that were experienced
by Him, they were experienced by His apostles and they've been
experienced throughout history. and they are experienced today.
And God's people in this world are people who shed tears. As Job said, my friends scorn
me. My eyes pour out tears to God. The psalmist said, I am weary
of my grounding all night. I make my bed swim. I drench
my couch with tears. that one that we know well, my
tears have been my food day and night, while they continually
say to me, where is your God? And so we do, as God's children
in this world, go through a whole lot of pain and heartache. And it's always the nature of
our flesh and it's the nature of the religious world around
us to say, surely there's an easier way. Surely it's an easier
thing, isn't it, to join? We can join with all of them.
We can all be brothers and sisters together. There are dozens of
churches around supposedly preaching the Gospel. Why don't you go
and join with them? Why go through all of what you're
going through? You don't have to go through
all this difficulty to get to heaven. You can go another way,
an easy way. Peter said the same to the Lord
Jesus in Mark chapter 8, didn't he? He said, you don't have to
go to the cross, Jesus. We can do this without you going
to the cross. He turned to him and said, get behind me, Satan,
for you are not mindful of the things of God, of men, but the
things of me. And so we need to watch out,
because we're inclined to think that we are stronger than we
really are. We know what Paul says in 2 Corinthians,
but we so often look to our own achievements and our own actions
for the basis of comfort. Surely if this church is successful,
we'd have dozens and dozens of people along. Surely if we were
preaching the real Gospel, hundreds of people would be flocking to
hear what we say. It's just not the case. So we do need to take care. There
are lots of reasons, and you could probably think of more.
But we need to take heed. We just live in this body of
flesh. We are buffeted by Satan. We have in our flesh this enmity
against God, and there is a warfare going on, and we cannot do what
we want to do. We are just caused to be people
who cling to the Lord Jesus in faith, waiting for Him to do
what we cannot do ourselves. And so by watching and taking
heed of ourselves, we'll be better able to care for our brothers
and sisters. The best friend that we have
in this world is the friend who brings us the Gospel, always
brings us the Gospel. Everyone else, no matter how
nice and friendly they are, how warm we might feel their fellowship,
unless they bring us the Gospel, they aren't really friends of
our souls. And we need to care for our brothers
and sisters. We don't know what pains they're going through.
We don't know what trials are happening in their lives. We
don't know what tears are on their pillows each night. By watching ourselves, we can
care for our brothers and sisters. And also, by watching ourselves
and looking to the Lord, it will cause us to be more wise about
how we judge others. We are so good at judging others
on the basis of things that we're good at. Givers, those who are
generous, will be looking around at others and thinking, well,
if they were as generous as I was, Evangelists, those who love debate
and question, will be questioning others who struggle with those
things, questioning them about their zeal. Those who have lots
of knowledge of the Scriptures will be saying to others, why
haven't you been as studious as I have been, or your memory
is not as good. So the trials the Lord Jesus
speaks about in these verses covers all aspects of life. and
they're the trials that our brothers and sisters are going through
right now. And these trials may cause our
brothers and sisters to be seen to be very weak in our eyes,
cause them to be seen to be lacking many things, cause them to be
seen as people whose faith wavers and is weak. causes us to see
them as people who are unable to do the things they wish to
do, because of the weight of the pain that they feel is so
immense. And so the Lord has some serious
things to say in this chapter of Scripture, but they are things
that are good for us, because it's the way God grows our faith. in these dark times. So let's
just look briefly at these things that are going to happen. And
please note, the I wills of God are His promises. Watch out for
yourselves. for they will deliver you up
to councils." In Acts 5, the apostles were set before the
council and the high priest came to them, asked them saying, did
we not strictly command you not to teach in his name? Look, you
have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. We've got to remember
that in Acts 12, this same council had James, the brother of John,
put to death by Herod. And he was so excited about the
happy response of the crowd that he arrested Peter to have him
executed as well. You will be beaten in the synagogues.
Paul received this beating five times, he says. We don't know
how many others received that beating. But this is promised
by God. You'll be brought before rulers
and kings for my sake. Paul was brought before King
Agrippa. The apostles were brought before others. Paul even went
before Nero. And the thing that's remarkable
is that you'll be brought before rules and kings for my sake,
for the sake of the gospel, this is going to happen. In fact,
it says, for a testimony, the word is martyrium. You'll be there as a witness
to them. We have some remarkable There's
a beautiful passage in Acts chapter 4 when they were taken before
the Sanhedrin and they actually went there as Jesus appointed
messengers to those people. In Acts they have this remarkable
declaration, 4.13, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained
men. They marveled. And then they
realized that they had been with Jesus. God's people who have
been with Jesus will be seen by these people to be remarkable. and seeing the man who had been
healed, they could say nothing against it. So there are two
things that happen when God causes His people to be brought before
leaders. One is that they will hear the
Gospel. Then Agrippa, King Agrippa, Paul
met with him before he went off to Rome. He said, you almost
persuade me to become a Christian. So the one thing is that the
Gospel will be declared as Peter and the other apostles declared,
as Paul declared. They'll be brought there to declare
the Gospel. The other thing that will happen
is that just as Peter and John were witnessed to in Acts earlier. Later on, the testimony about
Paul is, this man is doing nothing deserving death or chains. So two things are going to happen.
One is the Gospel is going to be proclaimed and God's children
will be seen to be innocent. God's children live in this world
of trouble. A man is born to trouble as sparks
fly upward, says Job. It's the common lot of all people
in this world to suffer troubles. But there are special troubles
that God's children are going to suffer. Religious persecution,
persecution from the world. And here we are in Australia
and we live in this part of the world where it just seems so
nice. It's so nice, too nice, to openly
indulge in physical violence. No one's going to take us before
a synagogue and belt us up here. No one's going to take us before
political leaders here. But there is an emotional abuse
which causes as much pain as physical. In fact it causes more
pain than physical pain. You can take a Panadol to get
rid of serious pain that you have. But emotional pain is deep
and wounding. We've had sermons preached against
us here. It hurts. We've lost close friends
over the Gospel. It hurts. It hurts. God's children won't receive
any thanks from the religious world, no matter how it's defined,
whether it's pagan, idolatrous, liberal, Pentecostal, reformed,
traditional, popular. God's children are a remnant
and to be on the outside is always a place where emotionally we'll
be challenged about the pain that we suffer because There
are so many, and it's so big, and it's so popular, and it's
so much fun. This big church up at North Marra
has an advertisement in the phone book, and it says, a place of
unceasing enjoyment, or something. Isn't that lovely? Isn't that
lovely? And you can go and play games
along the place, and you can see light shows, dancing for
Jesus anyway. But here in verse 12 of Mark
13 we actually have another promise from God that is just extraordinarily
painful. Now brother will betray brother
to death. and a father his child, and children
will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. The standard by which we measure
emotional pain is love. Being rejected by someone who
has little to do with our lives causes a bit of pain, But the
people that walk by us in the street and ignore us or treat
us badly, it becomes a bit sort of sad, a bit water off a duck's
back. Here he's talking about something
which is really, really intensely painful. It's more intense than
the pain of rejection. Just look at what the Lord promises.
A father will betray his child to death. Children will rise
up against parents and cause them to be put to death. from our own family, from people
that we have loved and nurtured and cared for, all of our lives
will turn against us for the sake of what we proclaim about
the Lord Jesus. A summary of all of this is in
verse 13, isn't it? And you will be hated by all
men for my sake. God's children walk in this world
as witnesses to Him who is love itself. And therefore it's obvious
that we are to love our enemies. We are to pray for those who
physically and emotionally abuse us. We will be hated. We are not to be the haters.
We are to do nothing that causes the hatred of others. We are
to be mocked, but not to be the mockers. We are to be persecuted,
but not to be the persecutors. Because our fight is not against
flesh and blood. That's all they have when they
fight against the Gospel, is flesh and blood. Our battle is
a spiritual battle. So all these things are reasons
for us to watch out for ourselves. No wonder God's children are
encouraged to love one another, to cover over the sins of our
brothers and sisters, to bear each other's burdens. That's
why God has put his family together in this world in churches under
the sound of the gospel, because the gospel is the one sound,
the one voice, the voice of He who is our Shepherd,
the voice of He who promises in His death and resurrection
sovereign love to His children, electing love, redeeming love,
never changing love. The Gospel promises that He who
sits in heaven never leaves us nor forsakes us. the Gospel promises
that He will take us through this world with pain and suffering
and struggles inside and struggles on the outside, because this
is the Good Shepherd's good way of taking His people to Heaven. This is the Good Shepherd's good
way of witnessing to Himself. Believe it or not, this is the
Good Shepherd's good way of doing good for us, because He'll have
us in the midst of all of what goes on, He'll have us be aware
of who He is. He will come to His people as
He's promised and dwell with them, and He will be a sanctuary
And one moment in the company of the Lord Jesus is worth all
this world can ever offer. There is no pleasure like the
pleasure of His promise. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. And in this verse, in this little
passage, as always when the Lord brings serious warnings, He brings
serious wonderful promises. The Gospel, verse 10, must first
be preached to all nations. It's must. God has a chosen people
who have never ever been separated from His love. Chosen, they were
redeemed by the blood of the Lamb before the foundation of
the world. They cannot be lost. No one can pluck them out of
His hand. They must be saved and they will
be saved. and God's appointed means of
saving them is through the preaching of the Gospel. How can they hear
without a preacher? How can they believe in Him of
whom they have not heard? How can they call on Him whom
they have not believed? They must hear. The gospel must
be preached because God will send his people. It pleased God,
1 Corinthians 1.21, it pleased God through the foolishness of
the message preached to save those who believe. And God's children are born again,
not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which
lives and abides forever. and He brings us to life through
the Word of Truth. So the Gospel must be preached
to all nations, a promise from God. It's going to happen. It's happening right now. It
will happen. And His way of doing it is to
take His people through painful, painful experiences. And secondly,
in verse 11, we have a promise again, a promise that in the
midst of persecution, At special times, there is a special provision
assured. When they arrest you and deliver
you up, do not worry beforehand or premeditate what you will
speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that,
for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." See, our
cause is a cause that's glorious. We don't have to plan what we're
going to say. We don't have to manipulate events
to get God's activities to come to fruition. What a remarkable
thing. So many people that I know of
actually have borne that testimony under intense intense opposition,
they haven't had to work out what they say, all of a sudden
these remarkable things are said, and God causes people who seem
weak in the eyes of the world to say the most remarkable, convicting
thing. and they just finish the conversation
and walk away from the scene and they are just absolutely
gobsmacked. Where did that come from? I don't know where those
words came from. Talk to John Newell about some
of the conversations he's had and verses that he almost hardly
knew in the scriptures had just come to his mind and he was witnessing
to the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus at the same time was witnessing
to him to see how it works. And finally, there is this wonderful
reward in verse 13, the reward of perseverance. Jesus promises
that the world's going to hate us, because it hated him before
it hated you. He's the first one to suffer
the hatred. And if you're of the world, if
you belong to this world, if you belong to its religion, you
belong to its power, it would love its own. Yet because you
are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you." God's children are called upon
to persevere. These men would see in two days'
time one from their midst who they thought, in his preaching
of the Gospel, in his casting out of demons, in his position
of leadership amongst the apostles, this must be the one. This must
be one of the leading lights, and he was one of the leading
lights. And Judas went his way. And when he went his way, and
went his way to hell, he will own the fact that it was Judas
who did the things that Judas did. He will not be, and he has
not been for 2000 years in hell, blaming God's sovereignty, blaming
God's predestination. He will own personal responsibility
for what he did. and all people will. But there
is a reward, isn't there? He who endures to the end shall
be saved. God's people are made to endure,
not by their activities, but by God. Faith clings to the Lord
and it looks to Him God's children know that their names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. They are predestined to eternal
salvation. They are given the Holy Spirit
as a guarantor, a down payment, promising what God has given
them will come to fruition. And they are kept by the power
of God's grace in Christ. And they shall never, ever perish. They will be gathered at the
end of this chapter. He will send his angels and he
will do the gathering of his elect from the four winds, from
the furthest part of the earth to the furthest part of heaven.
God will win. He has won. He sits on a throne,
untroubled by these things. And as painful as it is for us,
to be rejected by people who have appeared to be our closest
friends. to be rejected and have our Gospel
rejected by members of our family, to be the object of mocking. All of these things in the work,
in the life of God's people just drive us back to the Lord Jesus. It's too big an issue getting
people to heaven for men to be involved in it. And we must go
home by the way of the cross. Because we see these promises
fulfilled in our midst again and again and again, we are driven
to see our Lord. He keeps His word. When He has
written, it's done. He keeps His word of promise
of pain. He keeps His word of promise
of comfort. The battle is the Lord's. He
knows how it is to be fought. He knows the enemy. He knows
the end. And He knows us. He knows what
we need every moment of our lives. May He cause us to just cling
to Him in the midst of pain which is immeasurable. Let's pray.