Good morning, everybody. I was gone to the conference,
and it was a great conference. Some of our people are still
there. And I pray the Lord will bless those men. Brother Donnie
Bell and Brother Greg Elmquist are preaching this morning. I
pray the Lord will really, really bless them. Rachel and Cody have placed wedding
invitations on that table in the foyer, so if you want to
grab one of those. And also, Winna Groover sent
us a letter, and I put it on the bulletin board if you want
to read that. All right, let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we
thank you for this day. Thank you, Lord, for this time
we can be together. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for opening our eyes to see it, opening our ears to hear
it, our hearts to believe it. Lord, we give you all honor and
glory in all things, especially in the work and calling of our
salvation. And Lord, we are here this morning
to hear from you and we pray that you might speak to us and
give us a true sense of the urgency of what we're doing. If it be
thy will, Lord, would you allow us to truly enter in with the
heart? to the worship of our Lord. Would you please bless
us here in this hour and the next hour? Would you bless our
children as they're starting to hear about you, Lord? If it
be thy will, would you plant a seed in their heart, cause
them to bear the yoke in their youth? Lord, we do pray for the
conference, the men who are speaking, and we pray for every man who
will stand up. Lord, we pray for our families
and our loved ones and all that you might be pleased to call
out. Lord, we ask that if you would be willing, you'd show
great mercy. Help us and bless us and forgive us for Christ's
sake. Amen. Turn with me, if you would, to
Mark 13. Mark chapter 13. This Bible study
is going to be a little bit different from our normal Bible study,
I felt led to look at Mark 13. You know, we go through Mark
on Sunday morning message. And I felt led to look at this
entire chapter all at once. It all goes together. I believe
it's the easiest way to understand what our Lord is saying here.
He's saying a lot. And I believe the best way to
get a hold of it is to not break it down into individual messages
but to see the whole thing at once. And my problem was it was
too much. It was just too much. I started
studying this and gathering facts and information and I had to
cut half of that out and it was still too much. So I want to
break this into two parts. We're going to have a part one
and a part two in this. This morning for this Bible study,
we are going to have a true Sunday school. We're going to have a
history lesson. And I want that to be really,
really clear. In just a minute, we are going
to see the message in this. We don't ever want to stand up
and not preach the message of Christ, the message of his salvation,
the message of his redeeming blood. But this morning for this
Bible study, I feel that it's important for us to really understand
the message in a minute. I believe that it will be a big
help if we see some background, some history of some things that
happened 2,000 years ago, and hopefully that will let us enter
into the message that applies today. All right? Now, the way
that my Bible is laid out, and many of you have the same copy
now, I have two different headings on two different pages for this
chapter. One of mine says at the very
top, the doom of the temple. And then the other one says calamities
and signs preceding Christ's second coming. All right, the
doom of the temple and calamities and signs just before Christ's
second coming. Most men and women on this earth
are interested in Christ's second coming. Most people are interested
in it. If a man or a woman is not interested
in Christ's second coming, he or she ought to be. We all ought to be. In the message, we're going to
see why. All right. But our sovereign Lord, the one
that every single thing he says will happen, happens. Our Lord
has said He's coming back. That's what He said. And I tell
you what I have really, I believe, seen in this, what's really been
impressed on me is the reality of that. I believe we all know
He's coming back. But I think what this has done
for me is it's really opened up the reality. of the fact that he's coming
back. He is coming back. Our Lord proved that to us by
prophesying of two different things in this chapter. There
are two different things he prophesied of. One that would immediately
happen, the doom of the temple. the destruction of the temple
in Jerusalem. And then one that would happen, we now know, to
be thousands of years later or more. Who knows His return? Look with me at Mark 13 verse
1. It says, And as He went out of
the temple, one of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, see what
manner of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus answering
said unto him, seest thou these great buildings? There shall
not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now I have always pictured the
temple as being a large gray stoned building. That's what
I've always had in my mind. Something like you'd see in England.
You've got these old churches, Westminster Abbey and places
like that. These beautiful old stone buildings. In studying this, I realized
that my imagination is a little off. Just a little bit. What I had in my mind is not
what it really was. Some of the dimensions, they
told our Lord, look at these stones. see what manner of stones. Some of the dimensions were recorded
by a historian. One measurement is when you walked
up to the wall, one stone was nine feet deep. Okay, now our
pews are nine feet wide. Okay, so nine feet deep, seven
and a half feet high, and 67 and a half feet long, one stone. Another dimension was 18 feet
deep, This would have been one of the lower stones, I'm sure.
12 feet high and 37 and a half feet long. Huge stones. What manner of stones? I mean,
it's not like they went and, this was not field stone. They
didn't go get Jerusalem field stone. The stones were solid
green and white marble. That was a solid chunk of green
and white marble. It was beautiful. Absolutely
slabs, blocks of marble. Look at what manner of stones.
The temple itself and a courtyard that was attached to it, I thought
it was big, but it sat, and I read, if any of these numbers are wrong,
forgive me, they don't matter anyway. But I read that it sat
on, it took up 25 acres. Huge. I mean huge. The front porch
had pillars that were made out of solid marble, and the way
I read it, it sounds to me like they're saying it took three
men with their arms stretched out touching for the width of
one pillar. I believe they probably mean
three men grabbing hands this way to go around a pillar, but
either way, They were 27 feet tall and there was 162 of them
on the front porch. Huge! I mean huge! Now the reason we know this is
because there's a Jewish historian named Josephus. When I started
preaching and I started reading John Gill's commentaries, he's
always referring to Josephus. And I wondered, who is Josephus?
He's not a... I don't have any idea if he was
a believer or not. He's not a religious writer. He was just a historian
who recorded what he saw. He was born around 37 A.D., just
a few years after our Lord ascended, and he died in 101 A.D. He was here during the time of
the apostles. He was here while the New Testament
was being written, and he physically saw this temple, okay? And that's
why we know this. Now, he recorded And it is widely,
widely known in history. This is a huge event in history.
He recorded that in 70 AD, the Romans came into Jerusalem
and they besieged it. They literally slaughtered Jerusalem. They leveled Jerusalem. They leveled this temple. Okay? There was, when they came
through after they finished, there was actually not one stone
left standing on another. Our Lord said this around 30
AD. And 40 years later, that's when it happened. And you know,
40 is a very significant number in the scriptures, and I don't
know what it means, and it's okay. I don't need to know what
it means. But 40 happens a lot in the scriptures. 40 years later, it came to pass. One of the Roman generals in
the army, his name was Ternus Rufus. He hated the God of Israel. And when they came into Jerusalem
and when he saw that temple, he said, I want every single
stone taken down. They went all the way to the
footers. It was not good enough to take
it to the ground. They wanted to dig the dirt up, go all the
way, every stone taken out. And then when it was only dirt
left, he had them bring in a plow and plow the 25 acres. He wanted no remembrance left
that the temple stood here. Now they started building this
temple around 16 BC-ish. At times they had 10,000 workers
working on this temple and it took them 82 years to complete
it. All right, so they started it
just before our Lord came. These big stones were being laid
while our Lord was here. Okay, it took 82 years to complete
it. At this point, you know, 30 AD,
it would have been almost 50 years in the building, two-thirds
of the way done, something like that. And four years after it
was completed, it was wiped off the face of the earth. Is that
not amazing? And does that not sound like
man? Just to apply something spiritual
here for one second. Three score and 10, 70 years. If by reason of God-given strength,
four score, 80 years. Look at what he's attained. Look
at what he's become. The empire he's built and then
gone. Wiped off the face of the earth.
This made such an impact on me. My next door neighbor, When we
moved into our house, he was, I think, 93. And when he turned
94, they had put him in a nursing home. And he was there for about
six months. And within him being in the nursing
home for a few months, they realized he wasn't going to go back to
his house. And his children put his house up for auction. A sign
sat in that front yard for two months. This house was going
up for auction on this Saturday at 10 o'clock in the morning.
Hannah and I were curious who was going to be our neighbor,
so we went to the auction at that Saturday 10 o'clock in the
morning. When we got there, my neighbor from across the street
told me that he died two hours before that auction in the nursing
home. All right? So on that day, he left this
earth. His house was sold. Every possession
he owned was auctioned off. It was done. I mean, it was just
over. And that's man. The reality is
the Lord said all flesh is grass and the grass is going to get
cut down. That's just the reality of man. Everything he had built,
the foundation that he laid for God, not one stone was left standing
on another and they plowed over every bit of it. Now hold your
place and go with me to Jeremiah 26. Jeremiah 26, and look with me
at verse 18. Jeremiah 26, 18 says, Micah the
Morestite, that's the prophet Micah, there's a book by him
at the end of the Old Testament. What he says here, he said in
that book also, Micah the Morestite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah,
king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Now Micah prophesied something
on behalf of God. He told Judah, Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field. Zion is
going to be plowed like a field. And Jerusalem shall become heaps
and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."
The sovereign God said that that's what was going to happen, and
that's exactly what happened. That is literally what happened. It was plowed like a field. Now,
our Lord proved that to us. He said it and proved it to prove
something else to us. Go with me back to our text,
Mark 13. Mark 13 verse 1, and as he went
out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master,
see what manner of stones and what buildings are here. And
Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone
upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon
the Mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and
John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things
be? And what shall be the sign when
all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answering them began
to say, Take heed, lest any man deceive you. For many shall come
in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." We're
not going to, but we could turn to the book of Acts and see three
or four men that fit that description. They had a following. People
were following them, just like the Lord. Alright verse 7, when
you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars be not ye troubled for
such things must needs be but the end shall not be yet for
nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and
there shall be earthquakes in diverse places there were there
was no earthquake like the one that took place the day that
our Lord died on the cross. The earth quaked, the rocks rent. The Sanhedrin, they were the
religious leaders, they recorded rocks that rent the day Christ
died on the cross. I mean, it's just fact. Verse
8, nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom,
there shall be earthquakes in diverse places, there shall be
famines and troubles. A man named Agabus in Acts prophesied
of a famine that would come and it came, a great famine. These
are the beginnings of sorrows. But take heed to yourselves,
for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues
you shall be beaten, you shall be brought before rulers and
kings for my sake, for a testimony against them." How many instances
do we have where that physically happened to the apostles? They
were taken before rulers, beaten, and they went away rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake.
It literally happened to the apostles. Verse 10, and the gospel
must first be published among all nations. He said this message
of peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, the gospel.
is not going to be given only to the Jews, it's going to go
to all the Gentiles. And it was. It was preached to
all the Gentiles. Peter preached it. Paul and Barnabas
preached it. Verse 11, But when they shall
lead you and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what
you shall speak, neither do you premeditate, but whatsoever shall
be given you in that hour, that speak ye, for it is not ye that
speak, but the Holy Ghost. Men have wrongly used that verse
of scripture as an excuse to not study before they preach. He said, when they'll lead you
and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak.
It'll be given to you in that hour. Men read that and they
say, well, you know, we don't need to, we really don't need
to study before we get up there. It'll be given to us in that
hour. The Lord was talking to his apostles. They said, when's
the doom of the temple going to happen? There sat the temple
in all of its glory. They said, when is one stone
not going to be left on another? He said, these things are going
to happen to you. He's telling them particular events that would
happen to them. And he told them that, and he's
telling us that so we can know that as those things happened,
Those men were not speaking their own word, they were speaking
the word of God himself. We have their messages recorded. They were literally brought before
rulers, brought before kings. Paul said, King Agrippa, I have
something to say to you. And now we know, based on the
Word of Christ Himself, they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were speaking God's Word,
and we read it and hold it today as the Word of God Himself, because
it is. So, verse 12, Now the brother
shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son, and children
shall rise up against their parents and shall cause them to be put
to death. You shall be hated of all men for my name's sake,
but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. But when you 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. Now, Lord willing, I'm going
to finish this. I'm running out of time. I'm
going to try to be quick, but turn with me to Daniel 11, okay? Daniel 11. It's after Ezekiel. In Daniel 9, the Lord began to
tell about the fact that Messiah would come and he would make
an end of sin. He would make reconciliation
for the iniquity of his people. He'd bring righteousness in.
That's Christ. That's what Christ did on the
cross. He put an end to the sin of his people. He made reconciliation. And then he started telling what
would happen after Messiah came and did that. And in Daniel chapter
11 verse 31 says, and arms, that means armies. And just a little side note,
I got a heading at the top of the page, the invasion and impious
tyranny of the Romans when Rome came to Jerusalem in 70 AD. Okay. Verse 31, arms or army shall
stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. They're going to come into God's
temple. and shall take away the daily sacrifice." The Jews sacrificed
daily, didn't they? They had turtle doves, and rams,
and sheep, and whatever it was. And they did that even after
the Lord died on the cross and rose. They still went to these
feasts. They still had these sacrifices.
The Apostle Paul said, I need to be in Jerusalem for this feast.
that all ended in 70 AD when they tore the temple down. There
was nowhere to go and that's why they're not still doing that,
okay? They put an end of the daily sacrifice, verse 31, they
shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. They're just
going to destroy everything. In verse 33, the middle of it
says they're going to, the people are going to fall by the sword
and by flame and captivity and spoil and it's going to happen
for many days. And that's what happened. Now
just listen to this. Our Lord said in the same account
in Luke, he said in Luke 19, and this is when our Lord was
riding into Jerusalem. on that cult and they were throwing
branches in the way. He's coming into Jerusalem and
it says in Luke 19 verse 41 when he was come near he beheld the
city and wept over it. He cried for it saying if thou
hast known even thou at least in this thy day the things which
belong unto thy peace if you knew what was coming to you.
But now they are hid from thine eyes, for they shall come upon
thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, shall
lay thee even with the ground, and thy children with thee. They
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation." And then he said in Luke 21 verse
20, when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know
that the desolation thereof is nigh, then let them which are
in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the
midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries
enter therein too, for these be the days of vengeance, that
all things which are written may be fulfilled, but woe unto
them that are with child, and to those that give suck in those
days, for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath
upon this people. Now why is our Lord, isn't it,
we see what he's saying, right? This is coming, this is coming,
this is coming. He is in great detail telling
exactly what's gonna come. This is what's going to happen
to Jerusalem. You're going to see the armies
come in. They're going to this. They're going to that. He said,
as soon as you see these armies start coming in, you need to
know that all of these prophecies are on you. And at that moment,
it's time to run to the mountains. Why is he going into such detail
on that? He's doing it to prove His Word. He's doing it to prove His Word. He warns us in the same way that
this first prophecy came to pass. Every word of it. This second
prophecy that I'm about to give is going to come to pass. Every
word of it. Every single word of it. Now
quickly, we'll finish this up. Go to Mark 13, verse 14 says, But when you 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. Let him that is on the housetop
not go down into the house, neither enter therein to take anything
out of his house. He's telling them get out. But
I have to tell us spiritually. Don't go get anything and try
to bring it before God. He said, you don't go down into
your house and grab anything to take it with you. You just
run. And then he said in verse 16,
let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take
up his garment. Don't go back and grab your old
own self-righteousness, that old filthy garment of your own
covering, you know, that man tries to make with his own works.
Don't run to God. You just run. You just run. Christ will provide you a garment. Just run. He'll provide us with
every single thing we need. This warning goes out. Flee the
wrath. Flee the wrath. Run to Christ. He'll supply everything we need.
Don't grab anything. Verse 17, woe to them that are
with child and to them that give suck in those days. He said,
you and your children are going to be destroyed. You're going
to see your children just laid desolate. Verse 18, pray ye that
your flight be not in winter. Pray that there would be nothing
that would slow you down, nothing that would numb the senses. Let
me bring that to us right now, today. Let's all pray that there
would be nothing that would numb our senses, nothing that would
cool the fire. I mean the cry is going out,
run to Christ, run to Christ. Verse 19 says, 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. In the days when that destruction
is going to come to Jerusalem, it's going to be like nothing
you've ever seen. Verse 20, and except that the Lord had shortened
those days, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect's sake,
God has an elect. 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 Christ and false prophets
shall rise, shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it
were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed, behold, I have
foretold you all things." So you see what he says? I have
literally foretold you every single thing that is about to
happen. Every single thing. All of that
destruction came to pass, and our Lord is warning us in the
same way that that came to pass, what I'm about to say is going
to come to pass also. And if He's willing, if He tarries
for 10 more minutes, we'll look at it here in this next message,
okay? All right, you're dismissed.