Our Lord is speaking to His disciples
and us if we are. When you therefore shall see
the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea
flee into the mountains. which is on the housetop, not
come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him
which is in the field return back to take his clothe. And
woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in
those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,
neither on the Sabbath day. But then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time. No,
nor ever shall be. and except those days should
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto
you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not, for there shall
arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great
signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.
Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the
desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers.
Believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out
of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass
is, the body, there will the eagles be gathered. The disciples
asked the Lord when His coming would be, the signs of His coming.
And the Lord gave, through this chapter, a brief summary of 2,000
years of time. So, as you should know, He does
not go into great detail at all about anything. He certainly
does not give any dates or exact time. That's not for us to know. No man knows. The thing for us
to know and be concerned with and give diligence to find out
is if we know Him who is coming. If we know Him who is coming,
it doesn't matter when He is coming. And it doesn't matter
what comes our way. Whatever tribulation He sends
our way, it doesn't matter. We have nothing to fear. If we
fear Him, if we know Him, We have nothing and no one else
to fear, right? Listen to Romans 8. So, who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or
distress or persecution or famine? And this is what our Lord is
talking about. Nakedness, peril or sword, as
it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long,
ready to die, and you are dead. I reckon it to be so. They were
counted as sheep for the slaughter. Verse 15, he said, when you see
the abomination of desolation, this is where it began. Now,
we've already seen this before, didn't we? We looked at this
abomination of desolation. And it's twofold. Number one,
Jerusalem was literally destroyed. 40, less than 40 years after
our Lord went back to glory. Jerusalem was attacked and our
Lord in Luke 21, just let me read it to you. He added this
that's not in Matthew 24. Well, turn there. I want you
to see this because there's a verse that we all need to memorize. Luke 21. We do well to memorize
every verse. But this one, I'll never forget
when I first saw it, it just really struck me. The Lord is talking about these
times here, nations rise against nations. Verse 16, you'll be
betrayed by parents, brethren, kinsfolk, and friends. For the
gospel's sake, for Christ's sake, verse 17, you'll be hated of
all for my name's sake. Now, that's never changed. It's
always been so, and it's so today. But, verse 18, there shall not a hair
of your head perish. Not a hair. Verse 19, so in your
patience, the trial of your faith worketh patience. And patience, experience, experience
hope. In your patience, wait on the
Lord. Patient, believe Him. Calmly
submit to whatever He sends your way. Possess your souls. Or as
we would say, get a hold of yourself. You lay hold of Christ and it
ought to make you grounded and settled, established. Get a hold
of yourself. Read on. Verse 20, when you shall
see Jerusalem compassed with armies, the desolation thereof
is nigh. Then let them flee into the mountains."
So, he added that there. When you see Jerusalem compassed
with armies, and it happened. It happened. And Jerusalem was
destroyed in 70 A.D. The temple, right before that,
he said, when you see the abomination in the temple, and he's talking
to his disciples 2,000 years ago. When you see this, and they
saw it, The temple, desecrated and destroyed, leveled. Remember
the Lord said, there won't be one stone left standing on another. And they saw it. He said, I told
you. I told you. But we saw also,
didn't we, the spiritual significance of this. Whoever reads this,
understand. When you see the temple, the
so-called church of God, desecrated, abominations full of it, know
this, it's about to be destroyed, the whole thing. But he has an
elect. And if he didn't, he'd have destroyed
them all, but for the elect's sake. This world's a mess, isn't
it? I mean, every society on the
face of the earth, just like as in the days of Noah, isn't
it? That's what Our Lord said in
this same chapter, as in the days of Noah, the days of Lot. And it came on them suddenly.
It's not going to be with observation. Remember that? Except to God's
people, we're going to see clearly. But He said to the early church,
flee to the mountains, didn't He? Flee to the mountains. When
you see this, flee to the mountains. Surely this has something for
us, doesn't it? When you see this, flee to the mountains.
What mountain? Mount Zion. You know, there's
still cities of refuge everywhere. You're in one. Bless God, you're
in one. For the guilty. For the guilty
to find rest and peace and the law won't convict you. In verse 16 now, he's speaking
literally to those in Judea. Those in Judea flee to the mountains.
And he went on to say, there will be great tribulation. And
he said, don't come down from your housetop when you see it.
Don't run to get your stuff. Woe to them that are with child.
Great tribulation, verse 21, such has not been seen from the
beginning of the world, nor ever will be. Ancient historians,
Josephus was the one at this time. And I have that book of
history and everyone acknowledges his account was true. He writes
of the horrors that came upon Jerusalem at that time and the
Jews, such as never had been seen before. Much persecution
and tribulation were upon the Jews, you know, back to Moses
when they were in Egypt, but never like it was in the first
century. Never was there yet. Never the
persecution and destruction of them. And even modern historians
will tell of the great persecutions against early Christians for
250 years. There were 10 rulers. This is
just a brief summary for you. There were 10 rulers, Roman rulers,
beginning with Nero. You know the story of Nero fiddling?
It all burned and he laughed. And you know something of the
stories of how the Christians were thrown to the lions in the
lion's dens and the dust of the Roman Colosseum was made of the
bones of believers. You know something of those accounts.
They're true. It's true. Modern historians
will admit it, though they don't say much about it anymore. Ten
rulers massacred the Jews for 250 years. Why? We know why. For their rejection of and their
murder and mutilation of the Son of God. Never before since had man committed
the sin that they did against God's Son. The wickedness of
man had never been seen before. And the Jews... Oh, I know everyone,
all people were gathered together. The whole world were gathered
together and did what God determined before to be done. But you know
all the prophets, all the woe they pronounced upon Israel because
of their rejection of the true God. And then when He came, and
all this was prophesied, and Christ must suffer Yes, at the
hands mostly of the Jews. He must, yes. But God, they got what they deserved. And the Jews were the principal
ones. And He came to them. He came to His own. He was a
Jew. He came to His own. And his own
received him not. They rejected him. And can anyone
be so blind as not to see what happened to the Jews in our lifetime
back in World War II? And yet people are trying to
turn some kind of blind eye toward that, aren't they? There was an uproar about a movie
a man made about Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, and they
argued about who killed Him. And it was plain, it's plain
from Scriptures, that the Jews were the principal. They're the
ones, the religious ones were the ones that said, let His blood
be on us and our children. Didn't it? They said, Kelly,
we have no king but Caesar. The king of the Jews came, the
Son of God, the God of Israel. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
came. God was manifest in the flesh.
The Son of the Most High God came to the Jews. He was made
of the seed of David and He came. And they killed Him. They said, we have no king but
Caesar. Okay. God said, okay. And so the persecution or the The rejection of the Jews against
Christ, God carried it out upon them. The rejection of the Christ.
And nothing has changed, folks. Nothing has changed. The whole
world, David wrote in Psalm 2, why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine? or tumultuously assemble. Imagine a vain thing. Kings of
the earth set themselves. Rulers take counsel together
against the Lord. God, who is God, Jehovah, God
of Abraham, God of Israel, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, against
His anointed, say, let's break their bands asunder, cast them
away. He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. He set His King
upon His, where? is hill of Zion. It has a people,
but it's never been the majority. It's always been minority. It's always been relatively few. Many are called, what? To kiss
the sun lest he be angry. Many are called to bow, every
knee will. Everyone are told, bow, kiss
the sun. But few are chosen. That's why
blessed is the man. Blessed is the woman, young person,
whomever God reveals Christ in, gives a love for Christ, a need
for Christ, sees His glory, see their need of Him, see their
awful sinfulness against this holy God, and see how that Christ
was made sin for them, that Christ bore their sin in His body on
the tree. was made their sacrifice, their
sin sacrifice. And they call unto God for mercy
in Christ's name. And they call unto God to be
merciful to them for Christ's sake. To let them be found in
Christ, not having their own righteousness, but be found in
Christ in that great day. And spare them for Christ's sake.
God has an elect. And He brings them to the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are persecuted for the
truth's sake. And you know, in every generation,
those who have gone through persecution have thought Christ is coming
soon. This is why Paul wrote to the
Thessalonians, don't let anyone tell you that His coming is soon.
Remember reading that with me? So many times. 2 Thessalonians
2, I believe. He says, let no man... we beseech
you that you be not shaken to the early church, that Christ
is coming soon. No, so much has to happen. But
they thought it was. They were seeing all this happen.
They were seeing all this persecution. They thought, well, Christ is
coming. No. He's a long way off. Two thousand years away. Much
has to happen. Our Lord tells us that. Many
false Christs shall arrive, many false prophets, wars and rumors
of war, and so on and so forth. All right, look at verse 23.
And verse 22, he says, verse 22, those days, those early days,
unless they were shortened, none of the elect, no flesh would
be saved, none of the Jews, none of his elect people would be
saved. But he saved his elect, you see. It was all shortened for the
elect's sake. All for the Alexa. And verse 24 and following, he
said, there will rise false Christs and show signs and wondering.
Verse 26, if they say he's in the desert, don't go there. He's
in a secret chamber. Don't believe them. What we have
today, people teaching today, have you ever seen these They
teach about a secret rapture. Rapture meaning the bringing
out of the people out of the world, the church. And you've seen these bumper
stickers, silly. They prove their utter ignorance
when they say things like this. If in case of rapture, there'd
be no driver of this car. You've seen it. Silly, foolish,
frivolity pretended believers. No secret rapture. No secret
removal of the church. No, no. Our Lord plainly said,
look at verse 36, verse 37, as in the days of Noah,
so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. In the days before
the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in
marriage. They were totally unsuspecting
until that day. until you enter the ark. And
he knew not till the flood came and took them away. In the days
of Lot, he said, another plague. The fire fell. There was no secret
rapture. They saw Noah getting that boat,
didn't they? And they saw that door shut.
And every eye is going to see when Christ comes. Read Spurgeon's
article in the bulletin today. Secret? Oh, no. Like the lightning.
Isn't that what our Lord said? Be like the lightning that goes
from the east to the west. Here in our text, verse 27. That's the coming of the Son
of Man will come. Like lightning. The flood came. It will be immediate and it will
be universal and it will be clearly seen. And Paul said in a moment,
There's a twinkling of an eye. It will happen that quick. The
dead in Christ shall rise. Secret rapture. The graves open. Lightning. What is more powerful
than lightning? Nothing. All energy comes from
this. That's a picture of our Lord.
Declared to be the Son of God with power. Fearful. Fearful. Dangerous. Nothing to
be played with. And seen clearly from miles in
it. Lightning. Strong enough. You
can see from miles. Every eye shall see Him. There
is no secret rapture. But I tell you, what is a secret
right now? There is something secret going on right now. There
is a secret gathering of His elect. There is a secret kingdom
that people can't see. It's the secret kingdom that
people can't see. There's a secret person gathering
them. The Spirit of God cannot be seen. He's gathering them
to this mystery, this gospel that's a secret. He's making up His kingdom as
I speak, in the way that I speak, exactly what I'm speaking. This
is what He uses. It's a secret to me, but not
unto us. If this is no secret to you,
you see, He makes His elect know the secret. The secret of the
Lord is with them to fear Him. He'll show them His covenant.
He'll show them the secret thing, the hidden thing. He'll reveal
unto them things hidden from the wise and the prudent. He'll
show them Christ. They'll see Him. I just read
of Stephen's sermon in Acts 7. Stephen was about to be slain. He said, I see. the Son of God
standing at the right hand of God. Right before He was to die,
He saw His glory. And the people gnashed on Him.
They hated Him and they beat His brains out. But it wasn't bad. He didn't
feel a thing. And the next moment, He's with
Christ, seated. Christ stood In his honor, he
saw him standing before him like that rock, not one stone left
standing, but one. And then when Stephen went to
be with Christ, they both sat down. Well done, thou good and
faithful servant. I told you. He's gathering his
elect into a secret kingdom. It's the secret place of the
Most High God. Oh, he that dwelleth in that
place, he'll abide forever. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. The mystery of the gospel. And this is abominable
to the religious world. And they're looking for signs
and wonders. But the Lord keeps showing His people one sign. Do you remember? Do you remember
our Lord said this? He said, An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, but no sign will be given. God
sends strong delusions to those that won't receive the love of
the truth. What's the truth? Christ is the truth. Those that
don't receive the love of the truth, He sends strong delusions
to. That is signs. They're seeing
things, but they're sent by God to damn them, not save them.
But God shows His people one sign, keeps showing them one
sign. Do you remember the sign our
Lord said? One sign will be given. Only one sign. The sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three nights in
the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart
of you. And Jonah came out, and so did the Son of Man. That's
Christ and Him crucified. The Lord keeps showing His people
Christ. If I be lifted up, He said, I'll
draw all men to Me." All His men, His people, His elect will
be drawn to Him. I just quoted, "...that he that
seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, hath everlasting life."
He said, I'll raise him up at the last day. And those that
see their need of Christ, God keeps showing them Christ. Keeps
showing them Christ. And so they're not worried. They're
not worried. They see the Son of Man standing
at their right hand. They see all things in His hand.
They're not worried. Come what may. Christ and Him crucified. Look
at verse 28. This is a message by itself,
and I may devote it to one eventually. Verse 28, our Lord said, Wheresoever
the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. The carcass, that's a dead body
in it. Carcass. dead body of Jews, dead
religion. You remember all that the Lord
said was dead, dead works. You remember how the temple,
which was the Lord's temple, at this time it was referred
to as the Jews' temple. The Passover was supposed to
be the Lord's Passover, but it now is called the Jews' Passover,
dead works, dead law. Dead people, dead religion, dead
body, and the eagles came and devoured them. Devoured them. It's no coincidence, people.
Listen to me. No coincidence. You know what
Rome's ensign was? The ensign of Rome? You know what they used? Eagle. Nazi Germany? What's in the middle
of that swastika? Eagle. America. They have rejected the gospel.
What's our incident? Land of the free. Eagle. In bondage. They're in bondage. Rejecting the Christ. Nothing new. Nothing new. And
we have a Nero in power. He's trying to persecute the
truth. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns. The King's heart is in the hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all His purpose. And it's
for the condemnation of those that reject Him. But it's for
the salvation. All this trouble we're seeing
in the world today makes us want to leave it, doesn't it? We're like Lot in Sodom, aren't
we? Lot was vexed every day with the conversation of the wicked.
And Lot was at the gate of Sodom when the Lord came. He was standing in the gate.
What was he doing in the gate? Wanting out. He couldn't get
out. His family and all that there.
He prayed, Lord, come get me out. Noah was sitting in the
boat. The door was open. When are you
coming?" He said, you would. They are scoffing at me. They
are laughing at me. He came. He came. And as for these tribulation
days, turn to Revelation 7. And I close with this, Revelation
7. All believers, our Lord said, for my name's sake, All those
who truly meet together in His name. You know how few that...
You know, people come in His name. Our Lord said they draw
near where they live. He said they preach in My name,
didn't they? But it's just a cover in His name for Jesus' sake.
You know, you see it. It's clear, isn't it? Given eyes
to see, you can see through hypocrisy. You can see through all this
talk of God's glory when it's really man's glory. You see it
clearly. It's clear when you have eyes to see. Those who truly meet together
for Christ's glory are few. They always have been few. It's
always been the case. Have you ever thought about this?
The Lord is the truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. Everything
He said was the truth. Everything He said was mercy.
Everything He said was grace. Everything he said was salvation.
Everything he said was absolute truth. You could trust him, you
could believe him. You ought to hang your soul upon
his every word. But you know, after he spoke
one time, it says, many left and walked no more with him.
They said, we don't want this anymore. This is too hard, all
this talk of your sovereignty. and our inability, and how we
can't come to you if we don't want to, and man doesn't have
a free will, that only your will, all that. We don't like that.
And it says, many left, and it was down to a few. The Lord,
the Lord was preaching. This gives me comfort. The Lord was preaching, and many
left Him, and He turned to His few disciples, and He said, will
you also go away? He knew they wouldn't. They would
have if they could have. They would have if He hadn't
stopped them. See, this is our strength. This is our hope. This
is our comfort, isn't it? We're prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it. All we like sheep have gone astray,
but if you're one of His sheep, bless the Lord, if you're His
sheep, You may leave, but He's coming
to get you. You're not going to go away. Why? Because you'll
say with Simon Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? A brother who was here and had
to leave and move away, he said to me, he said, you told me that
the Gospel wasn't everywhere to be found. He said, I didn't
believe you at the time. He said, I've been looking everywhere.
He was right. He said, I didn't know what I
had until I lived. He said, I've looked everywhere.
He said, some of it sounds like gospel, and it's not. It's law. It's works. It has to have a
name and talk about grace and talk about mercy and talk about
Christ. But no, it's all man. It's just a cover-up. And he
said, I've been looking, I can't find it. She said, so I have
to listen to you and other men on the sermon. Tribulation days, all believers
are persecuted and go through tribulation because of Christ,
for His name's sake. His name is His glory. His name
is His work, isn't it? His name is the truth. Tribulation
means to press down. Tribulation means to suppress
or put down. That is to weigh down, put down. And from Abel to Zechariah, our
Lord said, from the first century until the end of time, His people
have gone through and will go through tribulation. False religion
is looking for some days in the end that will be tribulation
such as never before. We clearly saw that was the first
century, didn't we? We clearly saw that. God's people
have been going through tribulation from the beginning. Abel went
through tribulation, didn't he? Did Enoch go through tribulation?
He thought, I'm the only one. Abraham, Jacob, Revelation 7
says this in verse 9, After this I beheld, lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people. Now this is after it's all over. This is after thousands of years,
trillions upon trillions, thousands upon tens of thousands upon tens
of thousands, and thousands of people have been born and died,
okay? But at any given time, God's
people are a minority. are just a few in relation to
the present population, a tenth, a remnant. But when it's all
over and gathered with all the babies they've killed, when it's all over, there'll
be a number that no man can number, like the sands of the sea and
the stars of the sky, which shows forth His great power. and His great mercy. Great is
His mercy. Oh, He didn't save just a few.
It would have been mercy, wouldn't it? He just saved Abel and said,
that's it. But verse 9 says, a people that
no man can number. He has them numbered. Of every
tribe, kindred. That's every family. That's amazing. and tongue, stood before the
throne, before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in
their hand." That robe, what is that robe? You know what that
is. That's the righteousness of Christ. And they cried with
a loud voice. What are they all saying? What
are they all singing? Salvation to our God. Salvation
of the Lord. Every one of them believed salvation
of the Lord. Not a free willer among the bunch.
Not one. He said, doctrine. It's who gets
glory. This is showing us who the Lord
really saved. Because the redeemed of the Lord,
they say something. Out of the abundance of their
heart, the first thing out of their mouth is, the Lord saved
me. To God be the glory. Not I did
it. Not I will. Not I accepted Him. He accepted me. He's not picking, splitting hairs
here. Isn't this what it says? The
first thing out of the mouth of every two redeemed child of
God is, and everybody in glory, salvation to the Lord. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Psalm 3 says, and the blessing of the Lord is upon His people. And read on. And they say in
verse 10, "...which sitteth upon the throne of the sovereign,
and unto the Lamb equal." All the angels stood around. Verse
12, they're all saying this, Amen. They all agree, don't they? Blessing, all blessing. Glory,
wisdom, thanksgiving only belongs to Him. No one else. Honor. Power,
ability, might unto our God forever and ever. Amen. They all said,
Amen. One of the elders answered, saying
unto me, Who are these? He's telling John, Do you know
who these are? Who are these people? What are
these arrayed in white robes? Where did they come from? Verse
14, I said, Sir, you know. He said to me, these are they
which came out of great tribulation. Tribulation for what? Christ's
name, for the truth's sake. And they've washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb and they are before
the throne of God. And we could keep reading, couldn't
we? Oh my, they'll hunger no more,
they won't thirst anymore. The Lamb is on the throne. He's going to wipe away all tears. Yes, all of God's people go through
tribulation. And the principle of tribulation
is suffering, or suppression, or persecution, or let's put
them down. Let's do away with them. Let's
get rid of these people. Let's get rid of these people.
Let's put them down. Let's literally put them away. Christ said, I'll raise them
up. I'm going to raise them up. And the rest of the world, I'm
going to put down under my feet where my people are raised up
with me in glory, that have suffered for my name's sake. Everyone,
alright. Thank you.