Turn to Matthew 24. I'm only going to try to deal
with the first two verses, maybe verse three a little bit, but
not much. But all I want to do is say a few things about those
first two verses. I titled the message, Seeing
Things as they really are, seeing things as they really
are. You remember that man in the
Gospels where the Lord touched his eyes and he said, what do
you see? He said, I see men as trees walking. And then the Lord touched his
eyes again. He said, what do you see? I see men as men. I see men as men. I see them
for what they really are. His first sight of men, was they're just giants, they
were just, and then the Lord touched his eyes again, he realized
they're just men, just like me, just like me. Man has a sinful,
distorted view of things. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ,
apart from a new birth, apart from the Holy Spirit teaching
us, we have a distorted view of all things. We really do. Man is impressed with the things
of his own making. He's impressed with things like
buildings. We're gonna see this. So impressed
with buildings. You know how much money built
more takes in? So impressive, just so impressive. We want to see those things. He's impressed with buildings.
He's impressed with monuments. We make a big ado over monuments.
God doesn't. God doesn't. There's not one
monument on this earth that God makes anything over. Only one time God spoke from
heaven. He said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Man, he's impressed with the
buildings, he's impressed with monuments. What's one of the
first things that happened after Adam fell and the human race
began to be scattered over the earth? What's one of the first
things that happened? He built the Tower of Babel.
That's what happened. They built this tower. They said,
reach it unto heaven. They were going to reach God
by their works. They were going to reach God
by impressing Him with the work of their hands. You know, the
scripture says that the Lord takes no pleasure in the legs
of a man. He takes no pleasure in our running
to and fro, and you and I get tore up over basketball games,
football games. Those are not impressive to him
in any way, shape, or form. I had someone ask me one time
about praying at a football game. I said, I'd rather not, because
I'd rather we win. I said, I'm not going to say
anything. What am I going to do? I would say, Lord, let us
win. Well, you think I'm going to say, let the best team win?
I'm just being honest. Really, I'm being honest. So
I said, I'd rather not. Man's impressed with his buildings,
his monuments, yet he's unimpressed with God. unimpressed with the Creator.
He's unimpressed with Jesus Christ. He really is. For most religion, Christ is
nothing more than a fire escape from hell. That's all He is. He is set forth as an insurance
policy. Not the God of heaven and earth
in whom we worship and adore and admire. I want to be impressed with God.
Lord, impress upon my heart, impress upon the heart of the
people here who you are. Let us leave this place rejoicing in God our Savior. And let us leave this place,
setting our hearts and our minds on things above and not on the
things of this earth. Now, in the previous chapter,
the Lord Jesus Christ pronounced eight woes on the Pharisees and
the scribes and the hypocrites. And at the close of chapter 23
and verse 38, our Lord says this, Behold, and that word behold
means give me your attention. Give me your utmost attention.
Your house is left unto you desolate. Desolate. And I'm sure that was ringing
in the disciples' ears when they left that place. Because they
knew that when He said something, He meant it, and it was going
to happen. They knew that. So, when they left that place,
it says, as Christ departed from the temple, as He went out, and
I'm not a Greek scholar, obviously, But they say the verbs used in
this part of the Scripture when Jesus went out and departed from
the temple, that it has much more weight to it than at other
times. This time He went out to return no more. He went out
on purpose. When He said, your house is left
desolate to you, when He walked out that door, when He headed
out, that house was left desolate because God just departed. He
just left the temple. God, the one they claim to worship,
He just left the place. He left the temple. As Christ
departed from the temple, His disciples came to Him. And there's
no doubt they came to Him to show Him the building, how impressive
it was. And this is going to be left
desolate? all the effort, all the work, all the expense, and
all the years that went into building this temple. And so
what they do, they try to show or impress upon Him the beauty,
the grandeur of its buildings. From all that I've read, it was
just an unbelievable sight to see. Let me give you some implications
of this first verse. Christ departs, never to return
to it anymore. He departs to fulfill the Scripture
that He just spoke of, to fulfill His Word there in verse 38, "...your
house is left unto you desolate." The Scripture says He came unto
His own and His own received Him not. They turned thumbs down
on Him. They rejected Him. He's despised
and rejected of men, all men, Gentiles and Jews. He was rejected,
except for a few that He called and that He saved, just like
the few here. He's called you and saved you. But for the most part, everyone
turned thumbs down on Him. All the rulers did, the chief
priests and the Pharisees, they all turned thumbs down on Him.
They wanted nothing to do with Him. So he departs, never to
return to it anymore. It was over. Ichabod, written
over that door, the glory has departed. It's departed. When the Lord Jesus Christ leaves
a place, that place is left desolate. Now that doesn't mean that religious
services are not going to go on there anymore. They will go
on. But the gospel's not there, and
if the gospel's not there, Jesus Christ is not there. I tell you,
where you find the gospel of the grace of God preached, that's
where you find Christ. He's not out there just in religion. I made a man upset one time. He got angry with me, a guy I
was working for, a man I was working for. I said, just because
a man's religious doesn't mean he's saved. And that upset him. He wanted to take me to task
over it. He said, you mean to tell me
that if a person is not very serious in their religion and
what they do, that they're lost? I said, exactly. You get it. Being religious does not make
a person saved. I can show you this over in Romans
10. Look here, over in Romans 10. Paul says in Romans 10, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. They believed they were. They
said, we are the children of Abraham. Abraham's our father. We are the seed. And he said,
I prayed that it might be safe. I bear them record. They have
a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. It's not according
to the scriptures. It's a religious zeal. Being
zealous, I tell you, you can be zealous in something. You
may think it's good, but it can be wrong. It can be wrong. For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And because of
this," listen, "'for they being ignorant of God's righteousness.'"
They are ignorant of the strict righteousness of God. They are
ignorant of the righteousness that God provided in Jesus Christ. They, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
That's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They saw no need for that man.
They saw no need for his righteousness. God demands righteousness. He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. And they didn't see any need
of it. They were lost. They were religious. I don't want to be
religious and lost. I don't, I don't want to be,
and I don't misunderstand this, but I'd rather be a drunkard
than lost than religious and lost. I really would. That religious and lost is that
one that's made twofold the child of hell. You give somebody a
false hope and you can't talk to them. You cannot talk to them. You don't need to talk to me,
I've already got it. I'm all fixed up, go somewhere else. Christ leaves that place and
that place is left desolate. You know, Paul said in one place
that bodily exercise profits little. And he's saying this,
the bodily exercise of religion, he's not talking about physical,
bodily exercise of religion profits little. There's no saving benefit
in it whatsoever. Now, let me also note this. Our
Lord, He said, this house, your house, is gonna be left desolate. Your house. Hmm. Your house. His house is never
left desolate. He never leaves His house desolate.
Your house. You know, what used to be the
Lord's Passover in Exodus 12 became known as the what? Jewish
Passover. It went from being the Lord's
Passover to their Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. It's
His house. And listen, you are His house. You are His house. The church
is His house. And He will never leave it desolate. But if it's
your house, if it's something you built, it's going to be desolate.
It's coming down sooner or later. It's coming down. But let me
note this. Jesus Christ is never the one
to leave first. You can mark that down. He's
never the one to leave first. It's always the preacher and
the people who leave first. They leave the gospel first.
Look over in Revelations chapter 2. Here's how it starts too.
I'll show you how it starts. In Revelation 2, verse 1, unto
the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he
that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works,
and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them
which are evil. and thou hast tried them which
say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars,
and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored,
and hast not fainted." That's a good recommendation from God. This is the Lord speaking. He
said, I have recognized these things, but listen here, nevertheless,
I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love. It's one thing to be busy of doing things that
are necessary in the church. And there is a way to stand here
and preach doctrine and be dead as can be. Be dry and just dead. But here he tells this church,
He tells them all that they've done, and he commends all that
they've done. He said, but here's the problem,
here's the problem. Your heart's not with me. Your
heart's not in this. And this seems to be the way
it goes. The gospel's preached, and then the heart, the passion,
the love leaves, and then sooner or later, the doctrine, it all
leaves. The next thing you know, it's
just religion. It's just a religious show going
on. That's all. He said, you left your first
love. Sin brings all things down. You know what brought that temple
down? Sin. Our Lord said, you have
made my father's house a den of thieves. Remember when he
turned over the money changers? They were just in there doing
big business. It had become big business. And our Lord went in
there and threw the money changers' tables over and let those birds
out and those doves and just, he said, don't make my father's
house a den of thieves. You've made it that way. That's what brought the temple
down, sin. And then Christ left the temple
because it had served its purpose and was needed no more. It wasn't
needed anymore. Where is it we worship God? Remember that woman at the well?
She said, we know that you Jews, you say that the place where
God is to be worshiped is in Jerusalem. We worship in the
mountains. You say it's in Jerusalem. Well, he's not worshiped there
either. That's why he tore that temple down. Listen here. We worship God in Jesus Christ. Not in a building made with hands. Jesus Christ is the temple in
which we worship God. He said to those Pharisees, destroy
this temple, and they thought he was talking about the one
that was destroyed, but he was talking about his body. He was
talking about himself. He said, destroy this temple, and in three
days I'll raise it up again. And he was talking about himself.
We worship God in Christ. We do not worship God in things
made by men's hands. We worship God in spirit and
in truth. over in Acts 7.48. Let me read
this to you. Paul says, how be it, I think it might have been Peter
saying this, how be it the Most High dwelleth not in temples
made with hands, as says the prophet. Remember David was gonna
build him a house? David wanted to build the Lord a house. He
said, you're not gonna, you gonna build a house? Heaven's not even
big enough to contain me. But I tell you what, there is
one person big enough to contain God, Jesus Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Every ounce of God is in Christ. And we worship God in Jesus Christ. That's why we make so much of
Christ in the preaching here. He that honors the Son honors
the Father. We don't make much of a building.
This building here, this is a nice building. Keeps us, it's air
conditioned, makes it nice in here when it's hot and keeps
the rain off our head, but God is worshiped in Christ. This
is where we meet so we know where we're all gonna be at the same
time. When Christ also, now listen
here, when Christ left the temple, his disciples left it also. His disciples went with him.
Our Lord said this, where I am, there will my servant be also. Years ago when I heard the gospel
from Henry, I'd heard him on television, I've told you the
story, and I thought the people where I was going would be thrilled
to death to hear it. I thought they'd be thrilled to death when
I heard it. I was, I was thrilled to death. I was thrilled to death. And it ended up being a problem.
It ended up being a problem. I sat down and talked to Henry
about it. Henry said, well, you'll probably have to leave that place.
And I did. I had to. It became so unbearable. I had to leave it. And the servants, when our Lord
went out, the disciples went with him. They are where our
Lord, his servants are where he is. The Lord Jesus Christ
can only be worshiped Listen, he can only be worshipped in
spirit and in truth. He cannot be worshipped where
a lie is. It's not going to happen. God will not honor that. He will
not honor that. Now, the disciples, as I said,
tried to impress him with the buildings. And the first question
that came to my mind was this. Can the great architect Can the great creator of the
universe be impressed with the works of men's hands? Really, really, you gonna impress
me with that? That's what I would, that's my
personality, that's what I'd say, if I was standing there,
I'd say, really? Look at the heavens, look at
the universe, I made this. I made this. And all these stones
that you hewed out and pulled up, you know, all these stones
that you made it with, I made those stones. I made those stones. That place was made out of marble
and precious stones. When they said you could stand
on the Mount of Olive and look at it, and when the sun was shining
on it, it looked like snow was on it from those beautiful stones
that it was made of. No expense was spared. I mean,
it was just, I can't put into words how beautiful it looked
to the eyes. But our Lord was totally unimpressed
with it. I tell you what, God's more impressed
with the work of His hands, you. in the new birth, in a new creation
than he is with any buildings that we could ever come up with.
I saw a program on TV last night. I don't remember what it was.
I just got part of it. And the man was standing, I think
he was in Rome. And he was standing there and looking up at these
buildings. He's arched way back. And he said, look, look at these
magnificent buildings. Yeah, take a good look because
they're coming down. They're coming down. The true glory of the temple
of God is Jesus Christ Himself. It is written in the Old Testament.
I didn't write it down. But it speaks of the glory of
the second temple would have more glory than even that of
Solomon's. But there was a whole lot of things missing in this
temple that the Lord's speaking of here, that we're looking at,
that was in Solomon's temple, you know, the ark, the Urim and
Thummim, the mercy seat, the Shekinah
glory, none of that was in this temple. But you know why this
temple at this time was said to have more glory? Because God
incarnate walked into it. One day, one day, God incarnate
walks right into the door of that temple. And because of that,
the prophet said that its glory was far greater than that of
Solomon's. Because God walked into it. And then one day, God
walked out of it. This to me is just mind-boggling,
that the Creator of heaven and earth came into this world, took
upon Him flesh, walked right into that temple that all that
was supposed to represent Him, He walks right in there, takes
His Word, reads it to the people, gives them the message, and then
one day He walks right out of it, and He says, this place is
going to be desolate, and it's going to be brought down to nothing.
Nothing. It is written in Colossians 2,
9, for in Him, in Jesus Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. We worship the Lord God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We worship Him in spirit and
truth. We worship God in Christ. There was a Roman Stoic philosopher
named Seneca. He said this, to a great mind,
nothing is great. To a great mind, nothing is great. How you gonna impress him? I
told Vicki, I said, I gotta quit using the word amazing. I said,
I'm always saying, boy, that's amazing. I said, now Wednesday,
I'm gonna see something amazing and it's not gonna mean anything. They tried to impress upon him
the greatness of this, and it's like, you haven't seen nothing
yet. Admittedly, the temple was impressive,
but it was like the Pharisees, empty and full of corruption.
That's all it had become, and it degenerated into that. Now,
verse 2, and I'll wind this down. This is where I took the And
Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Remember
that. Go ahead and enjoy something.
Go ahead and enjoy the sight of something. Enjoy the craftsmanship
of something. But remember this phrase, See
ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down. Whatever it is you see, you lay your eyes on, on
this earth, Whatever man has made, you lay your eyes on it,
it's coming down. It's coming down. See not all
these things. Take a real good look at all
these things. Take a real hard look at it.
These things that you are so, so impressed with, take a real
good look at it, because you ain't gonna see it in a little
while. Not one stone will be left on another. The ruin will
be complete. It'll be complete. There's only
one stone that's gonna last. That's the chief cornerstone,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you build on that. You set
your affections on that stone. You set your heart on that stone. You build your whole life on
that stone, and you will not be disappointed. you will not
be disappointed. He's a chief cornerstone. He's
a tried stone. He's a sure stone. All other
stones are going to be thrown down. Now, see you not all these things. This being so, this ought to
teach us to set our heart, our affection on things above. As my mother said when I was
talking to her here not too long ago, they were talking about
their will and dividing things up. She said, it's just stuff. It's just stuff. That's all it is. We need to
learn to put real value where it is. Set your heart on things
above. Seek those things which are above. Never let anything or anyone
have your heart. Solomon said, My son, give me
your heart. Listen to me. Take my instructions. Take my instructions. The disciples desire, they wanted
Christ to be impressed with this building. Our Lord wants them
to be impressed with Him. They wanted him to see the beauty
of it. He wants them to see the deadness of it. It's dead. It's full of dead men's bones,
like the ones that built it. Don't ever associate holiness,
worship, and God's presence with a building. You know, there's some impressive
places out there. People go in, they just, you
know, some, you see some of these big cathedrals and stuff, but
people walk in, they just, they're just so impressed. They just,
they just feel like it's holy. They don't even know what holy
is. Holy is a nature. It's God's nature. But it just
feels, you know, it just gives them this chills up their back. Don't be impressed with that.
Don't be so shallow. That's what I say to myself.
Don't be so shallow, John. Look up into the heavens. Be
impressed with that. Be impressed with the One who
created all this. Be impressed with Him. Now this got their attention.
I'm just going to say a few things on verse 3, and I'm going to
pick up from there next week or whenever the Lord is pleased
to do so. But this got their attention.
Now they're curious. They're curious about when all
this is going to take place. And as He sat upon the Mount
of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. See, He's sitting
on the Mount of Olives, and from that view they could see that
temple, that beautiful temple. They could see it. And the disciples
came to him privately, and they said, Tell us, when shall these
things be? What shall be the sign of that coming, and of the
end of the world? Curiosity got the best of them. It got their attention, and now
they're curious about all this, when it's going to take place.
Everyone wants to know when the end of the world's coming, don't
they? If I announced, if I was gonna just announce publicly
I'm gonna preach Christ crucified, you would be here. If I announced
that I know when the end of the world's gonna come and I wanna
talk about it today, there'd be a whole lot more here. We're more interested in prophecy
and the end of the world and when all this is gonna happen.
Everyone wants to know about the end of time. Men have built
their ministry on people's curiosity. I mean, when you see a program
on television about Bigfoot, I mean, I'm thinking, good night. Are we that shallow? Literally, are we that shallow
that we think there's a Bigfoot out there and we sit and watch
TV to see if they find him? Men have built their ministry
on the same premises. They've built their ministry
on the same premises. Curiosity. It gets everybody
in here. I don't know how all this is
going to play out. I know the Lord gives us some
mysterious things here. Now, don't expect me to come
here and just shine a light on all this. I don't know. Nobody
else has either. I do know the one that is going
to end it all. That's what's important. It's
not important that I know how it's going to end or when it's
going to end, but that I know the one who's going to end it.
He says in Revelation, He's going to plant one foot upon the sea
and one upon the shore and declare that time shall be no more. I want to know Him. I'm not overly
concerned. I used to be when I was young,
before I really heard the gospel. I was interested in these things.
Now I'm interested in Him. Who's going to put an end to
it? Man, He should be the object of our attention and our desire.
This is the One who made it, and this is the One who's going
to end it. We do not preach to satisfy men's
curiosity. I'm not going to make a message
up to entertain anybody. We preach to glorify Jesus Christ,
and if Jesus Christ is glorified, sinners are going to be saved.
And the sheep are going to be fed. The sheep are going to be fed. Well, Lord willing, we'll pick
it up from there next week. But remember this. See you not these
things, you see these things, put them in their proper place.
Give them their proper value, but never set any of it above
Jesus Christ. None of it.