I go back to Luke 21. At the end of this chapter 20,
the Lord warned the people of scribes and Pharisees. And there
were many then and there are many now. That's religious people
who he called hypocrites, that play a part. Our Lord one time
said, well, did Isaiah prophesy of this people, they draw near
to me with their lips, and their heart is far from them. And he
warned of them, and let us be anything but hypocrites, playing
a part. Let us eat the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. Though we do things sometimes
hypocritically, let us not be hypocrites, actors, playing a
part. Now, all through this, he said, when you see these things,
these things, these things, they ask him about the sign. And he
mentioned many things, these things, over and over again.
When you see these things, look up to his people. Looked up,
looked up. It all seemed all through here, distress and
fear and terror and death and so forth, but he said to his
disciples, look up. It's a sign that your redemption
is near. So I hope at the end of this
we'll have cause to have great hope and rejoice. Now, these
things are clearly seen. That's what Romans 1 said then.
The things that are made are clearly seen. His eternal power
and God are clearly seen, but not by the world. Egypt could not see the things
that were happening to them as the judgments of God, but Israel
did. Very plain to Israel. God's doing this because of sin
and unbelief. And so it is with the world today. Israel, When they got into the
land and began to build their houses and forgot God and all
that, then God began to deal with them in judgments, didn't
He? Famines and all this sort of
thing. And they didn't see it as the hands of God. And then the Jews were going
to see the days of vengeance God took upon His people, the
Jews. And the Gentiles, now we Gentiles
see it clearly. We see it clearly as the hands
of God upon the Jews that rejected He came His own, His own received
Him none. The Gentiles see it clearly.
Well, it's happening again, isn't it? But there's a remnant that
sees clearly these things. He's given us eyes to see. He
said in verse 33 of chapter 21, Heaven and earth shall pass away.
Remember He said in Exodus 12, I will pass through Egypt and
smite the land. He kept saying that, didn't he?
I will pass through Egypt and will smite the land. And he did.
And our Lord said, Heaven and earth shall pass away. You don't
hear that talk anymore, do you? Not in religion. You do not hear
religion talking about the destruction of this world and our Lord's
coming. You just don't. You don't hear it. Their theology doesn't
match up with that. God loving everybody and Jesus
dying for everybody. It doesn't match up with God
destroying a world full of people. He said, my word shall not pass
away. All right, let's look at this. He warned of these hypocrites,
and then in chapter 21, he looked up and saw all these rich men
casting their gifts into the treasury, and this one poor widow
casting in two mites. This was nothing. It was just
maybe a dollar. for her then or two. And our
Lord said, now she has given more than all of them put together. They of their abundance cast
in, but she in her poverty couldn't afford that, those two might,
but she gave it anyway. So what does this say about this
widow? That the kingdom of God meant
more to her than her daily bread. She proved the sincerity of her
lovingness. She was no hypocrite. We like
to say, put your money where your mouth is. She forsook her
need. This was sacrifice for the worship
of the Lord and gratitude and thanksgiving for what God had
done for her. And she proved the sincerity
of her lovingness. She gave all she could unto the
Lord and did without. You think she did without? Where
do you think she is right now? The Lord acknowledged her. Like
that woman with the alabaster box. She was saving that maybe
for her daughters or granddaughters. She broke it off the Lord's hand. That's a real believer. Someone
who truly cares more for the things of God than the things
of this world. More for the worship of God than her own comfort,
physical comfort. And let me just say this and
warn him. Everyone who leaves the gospel
leaves for the world. Every time. Every time. He's the people of the world,
the things of this world. Everyone that leaves Christ,
forsakes the living God, does it for the world. But oh, blessed
are they that forsake the world for the kingdom of God. Alright, look at verse 5. Now,
he tells us about all these things that men are so taken with and
glory in the things of man. And he says, all are going to
be thrown down. He used those words. Verses 5
and following, they spake of the temple. And I told you, Matthew
and Mark both said they were, the disciples really didn't understand
who he was yet. They had a glimpse. They knew
more than most. And they were taking him on a
tour of the temple. I said, look at that. Look at
those. Lord, look at those stones. He laid the foundation of the
earth. He left heaven. Gates are made, the streets are
gold. He left all that. And I said, look at these stones.
Is there anything in this world or anyone in this world that
we are greatly admiring in awe of? Anything? There should not
be. What do we have we have not received? Don't let a wise man glory in
his wisdom. Don't let the strong man glory in his strength, the
beautiful. Let no man glory in anything that he that glorieth
let him glory in the Lord. It's glory in the Lord who gave
men the ability to do these things. Glory in men, or these things.
Glory in the Lord. Now they said, look at these
goodly stones, these gifts. He said, As for these things
which ye behold, the days will come in which there shall not
be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Go with me to Isaiah 2. And as
I said, he used that term, thrown down. cast down. That's a strong term. And I we thought before how that,
you know, the temple was built first on a chief cornerstone. Right. And isn't it ironic that
the Lord just said that the stone that the builders rejected, he's
come head of the corner. And when it's all over, there's
going to be one stone standing. Him. Everything man has ever
done. thrown down. Look at Isaiah 2. It says in
verse 10, Enter into the rock, hide thee in the dust, for fear
of the Lord, for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks
of man shall be humbled. The haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down. The Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. The day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, upon everyone
that is lifted up, He shall be brought low." Now that's people.
Now he's going to talk about things, every high thing. The
cedars of Lebanon are high and lifted up, upon the oaks of Bayshore,
upon all the high mountains, upon the hills that are lifted
up, every high tower, every fenced wall, all the ships, all the
pleasant pictures thrown down. All the ships and the loftiness
of man shall be bowed down, the haughtiness of man shall be made
low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and the
idols he shall utterly abolish, and the people shall go into
the holes of the rocks, into the caves of the earth, with
fear of the Lord, for the glory of his majesty, when he arises
to shake terribly the earth. In that day, a man shall cast
his idols of silver and gold to the bats in disgust. What? This does me no good. This gold, this silver, it's
no good to me at all. Thrown down in disgust. That's powerful, isn't it? Judas He's out for money. And they
gave him a hefty sum, 30 pieces of silver, a lot of money. You
know what he did with it? He cast it down and hung himself. Like, why did I do this? Why did I give my life for this? Thrown down. Everything. Thrown
down. Get away from me. You've ruined
my soul. Then he talks about worldwide
commotions. Look at verses 7 through 11.
They asked him, saying, Master, when shall these things be? What's
the sign? Verse 8, Take heed, ye be not
deceived. Many shall come in my name, in
the name of Jesus. That's the name that he's talking
about. His name, Jesus. Saying, I'm Christ. They're going
to say he's Christ. Jesus is the Christ. This is
not men saying that they're the Christ. This is men saying that
he's the Christ. Okay? Jesus is the Christ. Doesn't everybody say that in
religion today? Yes. Yes, they do in Christianity.
But the time doth not near, go not after them. And when you
shall hear, verse 9, of wars and commotions, be not terrified. Commotion means instability. Commotion means disorder. It
means tumult. It means confusion. Commotions. Don't you see it? Now this was
then, he's talking about in the beginning, and it says it's only
going to get worse as time goes by. Evil men, seducers, Paul
says, shall watch worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,
in the name of Jesus. So, he said, there's going to
be commotions, and don't you see it in our world today? Don't
you hear it? Don't you feel the tumult, the
confusion? Like in Egypt, right before the
Lord took the people out of Egypt, He says there was darkness over
the land that you could feel it. He said there was darkness,
but the children of Israel had light in their dwelling. Alright, here's persecution of
the saints. And verse 12, now look at verse 11. And these things have gone on
from the beginning. Great earthquakes shall be in
diverse places. Not at the same time, but over
a period of time. It would be too obvious. You know, the plagues of Egypt
didn't all take place one day after another. No, no. It took over a period
of time. The Lord doesn't say how long those lasted, but over
a period of time. Because after the flies left,
everybody thought, well, glad that's over. And life went on
like it did. And after some plague came along,
well, that's over. And there may have been some
people giving some thought to God, but not for long. When the
trouble was over, their thoughts toward God were over. Right?
Does that sound familiar? This is gone on from the beginning.
Read on. Verse 11. Famines. The Lord has always, always judged
an unbelieving sinful world by famine. How? How do you have
a famine? No water. Drought. What are we in the midst of right
now? Not us. Aren't we blessed in this little
area? Why does this little place, little
two-bit place over in southwest Virginia have all the water we
can drink? Because the gospel's here. That's
right. We live in the land of Goshen.
But the world is literally, I mean, at least this nation, the whole
world, really. There's a drought everywhere.
Has anybody called on God? They didn't back then either.
Droughts, famines, pestilences, fearful sights, rape signs. Now
persecution, verse 12, they will lay hands on you and persecute
you and deliver you up to the synagogue and to prisons brought
before kings and rulers for my namesake. But this is for a testimony. God did this. The Lord said this
would happen. He's the one doing it. And all
the persecution of the church was for a testimony. There have
been ten great persecutions since the Lord was here. Ten great
persecutions. Not to mention all the persecution
of God's people in the Old Testament. I'm not going into that in depth
right now. Our Lord said that, said it would
happen, all these persecutions, and there have been many, there
have been literally millions and millions of believers that
have been killed for the truth's sake, for Christ's sake. He's
talking to his disciples primarily, and all of them but John was
killed, brutally. And it was for a testimony. Peter
was so happy. Remember one time they beat him
up. They whipped him unmercifully. He and one of the other apostles.
It says he went rejoicing that he was counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. Why? Because he denied the Lord. And he was ashamed of himself.
So finally he got to suffer. They said, don't you preach in
that name again. He said, go ahead and whip me. I'll not deny him again. It's
for a testimony. That God did it. His grace is
sufficient. Settle it. Now, there have been
little country preachers use these verses as an excuse not
to study. So they can, you know, just rant
and rave. Oh, you're not supposed to meditate
on what you're going to say. Well, it's obvious you didn't. He's
talking to his disciples. They're not going to have a Bible
in their hand. Right? They're going to stand before
me and he's going to say, I've put my word in your heart. And
they're not going to be able to resist it. Like Stephen. Stephen paraphrased the whole
Old Testament. He's a deacon. He's a deacon. Oh, what a message, Stephen.
It says, They could not resist the spirit and the wisdom by
which he spoke. Describe this, Pharisee. How did this man get
such wisdom? The Lord gave it to him. You
don't get that in a seminary. I'll give you mouth and wisdom.
You'll be betrayed. Oh, wouldn't this, isn't this
awful? Betrayed by parents. Did Simon Peter's parents love
the Lord? It doesn't say that. Did Thomas'
parents love the Lord? Doesn't say. Doesn't mention
any of it. Did some of them betray them?
Did some of them say, son, we don't believe what you're preaching.
Did they? Yes, they did. Did some of your
parents? Yep. Sad, isn't it? Why? Because salvation is of
the Lord. He saves whom He will. And it's
just great mercy that He saved us. It could have been the other
way around. Brethren, that is, suppose
it, brethren, Kinsfolk, brands, put you to death. You'll be hated
of all men for my name's sake. But He said, they're not a hair
of your head, you'll perish. You say, I don't understand.
They're going to be killed though. The Lord is going to put every
bone back together, every piece of flesh on every skeleton. He's
going to bring it all together. Some of them were sawn asunder
and all of that scripture said beheaded. He's going to put it
all back together. Every hair that came out of your
head. You're going to be complete.
That's a picture of His body, isn't it? It's all going to be
perfect. You're going to be a brand new
creature. I think that's what that means.
Every hair is numbered, isn't it? And now look at verse 19. I love this. In your patience,
patiently waiting on the Lord, patiently submitting to whatever
comes, waiting on the Lord, waiting on His Word to be fulfilled,
waiting on Him to reveal to you, possess yourself. Don't you love
that? No matter what happens, we say,
get a hold of yourself. Come on now. Who's talking here? He's telling us the end from
the beginning. He's declaring things that are not yet done,
saying, my counsels will stand. I'll do all my good pleasure.
And whatever happens to you, I'm the one doing it. So get
a hold of yourself. Don't let anything terrify you.
Don't let anybody or anything, all these things, famines and
pestilences and drought and hatred and wars and commotion while
the world's full of commotion and dread. Don't do that. Don't be overcome by that. Get a hold of yourself. Lay hold
on the promises. Lay hold on the Word. Lay hold
on me. I'm seated on the throne. You
go to sleep. He that keepeth Israel shall
not slumber. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. And whatever comes your way is
not evil. No evil shall befall you. It's
all good. Wouldn't you say that? And when you shall see Jerusalem
compassed. Again, he's talking to his disciples.
He's talking about the very beginning of these tribulations. When you
see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know the desolation
of Jerusalem is now. He's not saying that's going
to happen in the end. But then, and it happened 40 years after
he left this earth. They surrounded Jerusalem and
leveled it. And Isaiah, well, it's been prophesied
from the beginning. Every time Jerusalem was destroyed,
it was prophesied because of the unbelief of the people. All
right? And he says here, and people
use these verses as a secret rapture and so forth. No, no,
no. He's talking about when Jerusalem was destroyed. Let him that's
in Judea flee to the mountains, let not them that are in the
middle of it, let them depart, let not others go into the town.
Verse 22, these are the days of vengeance. upon whom? Israel. This is why our Lord came to
Jerusalem and said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, what's coming upon you? Why? Because he came to his own and
his own received him not. The Jews, everybody killed it,
okay? The Romans, the Gentiles, but
the Jews were the primary haters of Christ. And they said, here's
what they said with a clarion cry, let His blood be on us and
our children. Let the blood of God's Son, let
us be responsible for killing God's Son, us and our posterity
from now on. And it is. It is. And we see clearly. Don't we
see clearly what the Lord has done to the Jews down through
the years? Why don't the Jews see it? The Lord has blinded them. Didn't
He say that in Isaiah? Blind their mind. Our Lord said,
Have eyes, see. They don't hear, they don't see.
Why? The Lord has blinded them. Give them the spirit of slumber.
Oh, but we pray the Lord might open some eyes, don't we? He
can. He opened our eyes. Romans 11
speaks about that. Don't let us boast the branches
against the vine, okay? Let's hope and pray the Lord
opens some eyes of some Jews. So he said, these are the days
of vengeance. Things written may be fulfilled. Woe unto them
that are with child, them that give suck in those days. Great
distress. He said, there's distress and
persecution that's never been before. He said, if those days
hadn't been shortened for the elect's sake, no flesh would
have been saved. And it happened. It was awful. They say the dust
of the Roman Colosseum is the bones of the martyrs and so forth. They'll fall by the edge of the
sword, verse 24, be led away captive into all nations, dispersed. Jerusalem shall be trodden down
with the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Now this was of the Lord, wasn't it? Here's the Lord's great wisdom
and mercy and grace that the Jews rejected Him. Now remember,
Paul went first to the Jews and they beat him up, and they beat
him up. And everywhere he went, they
whipped him and beat him just like they did his Lord. And finally
he said, OK, I'm going to the Gentile. Didn't he? OK, I'm going to the Gentile. And he did. So he traveled all
over the world. All right, when the early church,
shortly after our Lord left and the disciples were free, the
early church, they started being killed, persecuted. It started
with James, remember, and then on and on. Well, Jerusalem, it
was besieged and the church scattered. But that was the Lord doing it. All that persecution, though
it was terrible, it was awful, and the Jews brought it upon
themselves, the Lord in His great wisdom and purpose and mercy
and grace had all that happen in Jerusalem so that men would
go out, remember there were 70 preachers, not just 12 apostles,
70 others and even more that just went out into the world. I've often likened it to a milkweed
pot. Don't do this on your property.
But if you go and get a milkweed pot, you know, and just break
it open Where is it going to go? No telling
where the wind is going to take one of those seeds. One of those
seeds? And that's what happened to the
gospel. because of the persecution of the church. The Lord broke
it open. A wind, the Spirit of God moved
it. And you can watch a path. You
look at the map and you see a path go all the way up through Turkey
and over into Europe and, you know, Germany and Martin Luther
and over into Spain and England and then across the Atlantic
Ocean and land over there. Isn't that wonderful? And then
down to Mexico, Africa, Lord did that. Persecution started
that. Persecution. Vengeance. Great mercy. In the midst of
vengeance, in the midst of wrath, we see mercy. So he says in verse
25, there will be signs in the sun, the moon, the stars, upon
earth, distress of nations with perplexity. Distress and perplexity. Don't you love this? 2 Corinthians
4, don't you love this where Paul says, we're troubled on
every side, but we're not distressed. There's trouble all around us.
In this world you shall have tribulation. Man, this morning
was a few days full of trouble, but we're not in distress. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God. Tribulation, distress, no, no,
no, no. But the nation is distressed and perplexed. Perplexed. What's happening? It's global
warming. You ain't seen global warming
yet. The sea and the waves roar in men's
hearts, failing them for fear. Why does the Lord keep telling
us, fear not, fear not, let not your heart be troubled, fear
not. But men, the world, is their
hearts failing them? You know what the chief cause
of, medically speaking, medically speaking, the chief cause of
heart disease is what? Stress. Huh. Distress. Man's heart's failing
them for fear. Distress. Not a medical condition,
it's a spiritual condition. When are we going to believe God?
You want to avoid heart disease? Fear not. Let not your heart be troubled.
Men's hearts for looking on these things that are coming on the
earth. The powers of heaven shall be shaken. Principalities in
power. Who rules over these things?
Our Lord. He's head over doves. Then shall they see the Son of
Man coming in a cloud with power. Brothers and sisters, every time
you look up in the sky and you see clouds, I want you to think
it's the dust of His feet. Okay? I want you to. Every time
you see the clouds, you think, He's stirring. He's getting up
off His throne. You hear that thunder rolling?
That's Him saying, I've glorified it and I'll glorify it again.
You see those clouds think, He's coming. He's coming. Great glory. And when these things
begin to come to pass, look up. Things are looking up. They say
it looks bleak. No, we're looking up. For God's
people, things look bad on earth, boy. We're looking up in glory.
Look unto me. Be saved. In the midst of all
this distress, be saved from it. In the midst of all this
fear, be saved from it. In the midst of all this corruption,
be saved from it. For the promises of God has given
us exceeding precious promises that we might escape the corruption
that is in this world. And he's going to destroy it.
You're redemption, Jonathan. There's so many places I wanted
to turn. Nahum, chapter 1, Isaiah 62, Isaiah 63, Isaiah 61. Read
it for yourself. It talks about vengeance and
redemption. Vengeance and redemption. Days
of vengeance on some, but redemption for his people. And he spake to them a parable.
Behold the fig tree. And all trees. You see the leaves
shoot forth, you say that the summer is near. So likewise,
when you see these things come to pass, you know the kingdom
of God is nigh at hand. Now, remember when he was going
to the cross, he said, when they do these things in a green tree,
what shall we do in the dry? If it's that bad in a green tree,
when it began, how bad is it going to be in the end? And don't
we clearly see that we think, how could, it's never been this
bad, we think. It's been the same, but it never
been as broad in its scope, except in the flood, when the whole
world had corrupted His way. And that's what our Lord said,
as in those days. The whole earth corrupted My
way. And He said, This generation shall not pass away till all
be fulfilled. Two thousand year generation.
Abraham, Abraham to our Lord, and our Lord to His next coming. We're in that generation He's
speaking of. Why did He use a fig tree? You ever wonder why He used a
fig tree? The Lord cursed one thing when
He was on the earth. One thing. What was it? A fig
tree. Why? It all started there. Adam and Eve didn't need an apple,
they ate a fig. And they tried to cover what
they'd done with what? It's no coincidence that people
talk about turning over a new leaf. All the coverings of man, all
the works of man, all the glory of man is going to be thrown
down. All the coverings of man are going to be exposed. Everything
that man hides behind, everything that man glories in, all his
righteousness, everything. I'm going to be cursed. It all
started with Adam and Eve. They thought, well, this tree
is able to make one wise. Hmm. Let's not eat of the world's
dainies. Let's not cover with fig leaves.
We know one thing covers them all. Our Lord's righteousness. So that's why, maybe, many reasons
why I use fig trees, some unknown. He said, now let's quit with
this, take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts
be overcharged with serpentine. That means gluttony. That means
being overfilled with all the world's dainties and pleasures
and drunkenness. And it's easy. Why do people
get drunk? Why do people take drugs? Why do they do that? Got a guilty
conscience. Trying to quiet it. Trying to
escape reality. Trying to get out of all the
troubles they're in. They don't have any peace. There's
no peace for the wicked. God's people don't need those
things. But there's no peace for the wicked, so they try to
drown themselves and drown their troubles and sorrows and drink
and drugs and so forth. Drunkenness, they don't need
that. He said be filled with the Spirit. Take heed. The cares of this
life. So that day come upon you unaware
as a snare, a trap. The whole world is ensnared in
trap. There's a worldwide web that
men are in. A net. Isn't it something how
men come up with terms that their own mouths give them away? A snare, it's coming on the whole
earth. Watch therefore. What's the answer? How do we
keep from getting ensnared? How do we keep out of this trap?
Watch. I wear it as a lamp under my
feet, a light under my pants. Watch. Have you ever been with
somebody on a path in the woods and it'd be dark and they had
the flashlight? Do you like that? No. Give me
that light. I can't see. You got your own
light. Don't you? Use it. Watch. Pray. Always. Why? Because without Him we can do
nothing. Call on the Lord. That you may be counted worthy
to escape. Who's worthy to escape? Nobody
is worthy. Christ is worthy. But what makes
us worthy of mercy is guilt. What makes us worthy of grace
is poverty. What makes Christ all to us is
we have nothing at all. So he told the disciples, go
and find a house that's worthy. Who's that? A bunch of guilty
sinners that need Christ. Oh, they need Christ. So you
go in there and your peace be upon that house. You just stay
there. You dwell there. Oh man, don't ever lose sight
of the fact that you're just an old sinner saved by grace. You'll never be anything more
than that, you know that? On this earth, nothing, never.
So that way the gospel is always precious to you. And this gathering
here, you'll not miss it. You'll not miss it or the world. And you'll escape. and stand before the Son of Man,
stand dressed in robes of righteousness that He made. And in that day,
He was teaching in a temple. I like this. It seems like just
a little information. He's teaching in a temple. Yes,
that's where He teaches it. That's who He teaches. That's
who He talks to. That's who hears Him, His disciples. And at night, He went out and
abode in a mount that's called the Mount of Olives. He is that olive tree. And all
the people came early in the morning. Who came? Those who
wanted to hear Him. Those that needed Him. To the
temple. That's where He was. That's where
He'd find Him. Why'd they come? To hear Him. All those that needed Him. They
heard where he was. We've got to go. And they dropped
everybody and everything to hear him. How about you? All right, stand with me.