My text today, I have several,
and as has become my custom, I'll read the primary text, some
text that will follow that we may or may not touch on. The
primary text today is from Matthew 24, verses 21 and 22. There the
Scripture tells us, for then there will be great tribulation, Such has not been from the beginning
of the world until now, no and never will be. And if those days
had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for
the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short." The
second passage is from Romans 8. This may seem unrelated at
the first reading here, Hold these things in the back
of your mind, in your heart, and see if we don't tie them
all together, this sermon. Romans 8, 28, verses, through
verse 30, and we know that for those who love God, all things
work together for good, for those who are called according to His
purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He
also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order
that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those
whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called,
He also justified. And those whom He justified,
He also glorified. Follow then with Ephesians chapter
1, Verses 3-10. And this is kind of a long reading
in this passage, but there's no place that really seems right
to cut off this passage, so bear with me. Ephesians 1-10. Verses 3-10. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, He predestined
us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the
purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which
He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the
riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom
and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according
to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness
of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things
on earth. Follow that with 1 John 3, verses
1 and 2. See what kind of love the Father
has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. And so we are. The reason why
the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved,
we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet
appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like
Him because we shall see Him as He is. The last passage I'll
read this time is Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 through 20. And Jesus came to them and said,
All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I
am with you always to the end of the age." My focus for the
sermon today is from the first passage that I read, that being
Matthew 24, verses 21 through 22. And it is the phrase that Jesus
spoke, but for the sake of the elect. As I read this passage, as I
studied through the scripture this week, this phrase jumped
out at me. It lodged itself in my mind,
in my heart, and I could not put it away. The more I thought
about these words, the more peace and comfort came to my heart.
These are indeed powerful words spoken by Jesus. They are loaded
with meaning and importance for the children of God, for the
elect. To get a sense of what Jesus
was saying with this phrase, this phrase amidst many other
phrases, we have to look at it in its context, uh, historically
and the time and the place. And then also within the teaching
that Jesus was, uh, presenting at the moment. So let's go back
and put it in a time and a place. And I think this will help us
to see the import of this phrase, but for the sake of the elect,
Jesus has been preaching and teaching throughout what we now
call the Holy land for a while. His popularity has been growing. The crowds have been growing.
Those following Him for any number of reasons have been growing.
His name is now pretty much a household word throughout Israel. He is known by all in the Jewish
world from kings to priests to peasants. All know the name of
Jesus at this point. Now, at this particular point
in time, Jesus heads to Jerusalem. He is going to go to Jerusalem,
the center of the Jewish world. As he begins to turn he and his
entourage to Jerusalem, he starts to teach them, the disciples,
of what is ahead. He tells them there's going to
be confrontations in Jerusalem. He's not going to be welcomed
in Jerusalem. He then tells them He is going
to be captured and killed in Jerusalem. The response of the
disciples is somewhat muted. They either didn't hear Jesus'
words or they didn't understand His words, or they chose not
to believe His words. But at this point in His ministry,
the flowery language is gone. He's presenting things to the
disciples in very plain language. He tells them that He will be
captured and killed in Jerusalem. They are not grasping what He
is saying. For whatever reason, they're
not hearing it in its full import. Jesus and the disciples do enter
into Jerusalem. There are confrontations in Jerusalem
with the authorities. All the while, Jesus continues
to preach openly and boldly, seemingly without any regard
for the possible consequences. The confrontations with the Jewish
authorities are becoming more and more heated. Jesus continues
to preach. again, seemingly without any
regard for the possible consequences. It is at this point, then, that
the disciples and Jesus draw near to the temple in Jerusalem. They are overwhelmed, the disciples
are, by the magnificence of the temple. Here is this wonderful,
wonderful structure, beautiful, The accounts of history would
tell us that it's truly one of the wonders of the world in its
day. A magnificently beautiful temple. They are standing there looking
at it. These are country boys from the
provinces. Here's the temple. They are just
enamored. They're completely taken by this.
What a structure. What a structure. And they mention this to Jesus. This is a very special moment
for the disciples. They are in Jerusalem, the city
of God. Jerusalem, God, Jehovah, God
is our peace, is what the name means. They are in the city of
God. They are standing in front of
the house of God with the Messiah of God. This was an incredible
moment for the disciples. And they mention this to Jesus.
Look at this temple. Jesus at this point tells them
something completely different than they expected to hear. Something that is the very opposite
of their expectations. Jesus tells them that this magnificent
temple, this house of God, will be completely destroyed. Gone. Not one stone left upon
another. The disciples were taken aback
by this. This shocked them. We know it
shocked them. Because after they had time even
to mull it over, they came to Jesus privately later, without
the large crowd, and they asked for clarification. They needed
some understanding. This is the Messiah, the chosen
one of God, standing in front of the house of God, and He told
them, it's going to be destroyed. This didn't make sense. So they
needed some clarification. Did they mishear Jesus? After
all, there's a large and loud crowd around Him. Maybe they
just didn't hear Him correctly because of all the commotion.
Did they somehow misunderstand His words? Maybe they misunderstood. Maybe He said this temple will
not be destroyed and they just didn't hear it right. Maybe they
misunderstood Him. They needed some clarification.
As I said, this was not the answer they expected to hear from Jesus
when they pointed out the magnificence of the temple. So they asked
Him. The answer that Jesus gave to them in a more controlled
environment, without the crowds, without the noise, without the
distractions, the answer that Jesus gave to them offered them
little comfort. Again, the answer was contrary
to their expectations. Jesus told them, you should expect
false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against
nation, kingdom rising against kingdoms, famine, earthquakes. And then more immediate to the
disciples themselves, he said, you should expect persecutions.
in your midst. You should expect apostasy, betrayals,
lovelessness, and false prophets even within your small group.
And you will see a great abomination within the temple. A great abomination
within the very house of God. And this, this time of tribulation,
all that Jesus was telling them about, said this is going to
be the greatest period of tribulation the world has ever known. And
indeed we'll ever know. This was the answer that Jesus
gave them to their questions. They sought clarification and
they got it. But again, this was the exact
opposite of what they expected to hear. They expected Jesus
to clear the matter up by telling them that He is the victorious
Messiah, that any day now, any second now, in the immediate
days to follow, He will occupy the throne of Israel, take His
rightful place in the house of God, and the nation of Israel
will be restored to be the pure kingdom of God on earth. That's what they expected to
hear. Instead, Jesus told them that the very world they knew
was going to be destroyed. All of their expectations would
be dashed and that nothing from this point forward would ever
be the same. Imagine the devastation that
the disciples felt. This had to be confusing. But
in the midst of all this dismal prophecy, and I hate to use the
word dismal prophecy when I'm speaking of something that Jesus
Himself spoke, but on a human level, this is a dismal prophecy. This is nothing but death and
destruction. In the midst of all of this,
Jesus says, but for the sake of the elect, but for the sake of the elect. And what that told the disciples
as they heard those words, and they didn't understand those
words, I must say, what it told them that even with all of these
horrible events taking place, and even with the collapse of
everything that the disciples held dear, that God would not
forget His people, but for the sake of the elect. To the disciples, these things
that Jesus had mentioned, had given, had spoken, didn't seem
like much of a plan to the benefit of His people. There was no mention of a throne.
There was no mention of honored citizens sitting at the right
hand of the person on the throne. There was no mention of peace
and plenty. There was death and destruction. But then Jesus said, but for
the sake of the elect. For the sake of the elect. The
immediate answer given, the immediate comfort that Jesus offered was
that the destruction, the coming destruction would not last forever
and it would not be complete. The tribulation would end and
that would be for the sake of the elect. God would protect
and preserve His people. That's important to remember.
It was important that they remember it. It's important that we would
remember it. To understand why these words
would offer comfort to the disciples, even amidst all that dismal prophecy,
we have to understand a little bit of the culture that the disciples
came from. Because without understanding
some key concepts here that the disciples knew and held dear,
we miss the meaning altogether and there really is no power
in that phrase. The disciples were all Jews.
The Jews at the time, and even today as a people, believe in elections. They believe that God has a chosen
people. Election or the concept of a
chosen people was ingrained into the disciples. It was part of
their everyday thought. They did not need to have that
reinforced all the time. It was just in them. They knew
it. It was part of their religion. It was part of their culture.
They were God's chosen people. Jesus, by referencing the elect,
said a bunch of things without saying
many words. It was a key word. The disciples
heard this said, but for the sake of the elect and their ears
perked up. They knew and understood election. They knew that God had a chosen
people. And they knew from their history,
from their Scriptures, that God always protected and preserved
His people. They could go back through their
Scripture all the way to the very beginning and see that God
had indeed saved a people, preserved a people, brought a people forward
through even the worst of times. They could remember back to the
days of Egypt. God brought a people out of Egypt. They could remember that. Those
examples were throughout their history, throughout their religion,
throughout their daily thought. When Jesus spoke these words,
when He said, but for the sake of the elect, those words were
loaded with meaning, their ears perked up, and they began to
have an understanding. Without saying much, Jesus said
a lot. And what He said is that God
will protect and preserve His people. There are horrible days
coming ahead. But God will protect and preserve
His people. This was the comfort He offered. Now we know that the disciples
did not gain full assurance from this. They heard it. I think they had a better understanding
of it. They didn't grasp it fully. And
when the days ahead happened, when Jesus was indeed captured,
and Jesus was brought to trial, and then ultimately when Jesus
was crucified, we know they quaked in fear. They hid out. They fell
away. But later, When Jesus was resurrected and they saw Him, they were with
Him, and they heard Him again, these words came back to them,
I'm sure, and they remembered all that Jesus had told them,
and suddenly there was powerful meaning in these words. Powerful
meaning in these words. But for the sake of the elect.
The elect. Those people chosen by God, those
people known by God, known by God from before the foundation
of the world. Before there was a world, God
had a people. And then, in this world, God
has adopted us, brought us, and I say us, and I number us among
the elect. He has brought His people into
the family as sons, not as servants, not as people on the periphery,
but as full sons in the family of God. This is all in election. We are brought in as children
of God. The Scripture says, beloved children
of God. Beloved children of God. This
is all built into election. When we hear the word elect,
our minds should turn, the wheels should turn, and we should start
thinking, and our hearts might even race a little faster as
it comes to us, that we are children of God,
beloved of God, and made so by God before the foundation of
the world, before there was ever an us, There was an elect. The Scripture says that God lavished
His love on the elect. Lavished is an old, old word. We don't much use it anymore.
It shows up in our King James Bibles and some other translations,
but you don't hear people saying it much. But what does it mean?
It means to give to somebody in great excess or superabundance. What it tells us in the Scripture
is that in Jesus Christ, God gave the elect in superabundance. More than
we could ever imagine. More than we could ever think.
get our minds and our hearts around God gave us more and more
yet all in Jesus Christ. Scripture says that He gave us
all things in Jesus Christ. He gave us the spiritual blessings
to His people, the elect. These are the things that are
built into election. These are the things that are
built into being the people of God. When Jesus said, but for
the sake of the elect, He said a lot. The disciples, as they heard
this, again, in the midst of this dismal prophecy, as they
heard this, they could take comfort in this. Jesus had made known to them
that He Himself had an elect. They had experienced amongst
themselves the choosing of Jesus Christ. They didn't come to Him. He came to them. At a point,
He told them, you didn't choose Me. I chose you. They were His
elect. This was personal to them. This
was personal to them. They were close to Him because
He was close to them. This was reassuring when Jesus
said, but for the sake of the elect. He was telling them for
your sake. For your sake, these days will
be cut short. Later, He told them as He was
about to ascend, I am with you always. I'm with you always. Reinforcing
what he told them earlier, but for the sake of the elect. The world as the disciples knew
it and understood it would end. Jesus said that with assurity.
It was over with for the temple and all that went with the temple.
His days were numbered. It was going to end. But for
the sake of the elect, the end of the temple was not the end
of the world. Jesus told the disciples that
they would do greater works than he did. And out of the ruin of the temple
grew the true temple. That is the body of Jesus Christ. And from a group of 12 men grew
a multitude of believers. First in what we now call the
Holy Land and then spreading out into the point now where
there are believers from the North Pole to the South Pole,
from East to West. A multitude so great that no
man may number it. but for the sake of the elect.
They could not look at the events without this hope and see any
benefit in it. But they were told by Jesus there
was benefit in it. After his resurrection, they
could begin to understand. When the Holy Spirit came and
indwelled them, they could begin to understand His words, but
for the sake of the elect. And they could see the benefits
that were coming even amidst the horrible, horrible times
that they were surrounded by. The truth of our God in Christ
is as pertinent to the elect of today as it was then. Now the Scripture says that the
tribulations of the day then were greater than the world had
ever faced or would ever face again. That's a discussion to
be had later. That's several sermons in itself,
but that's what the Scripture tells us. We'll take it right
now at that. And I will say that those truths,
but for the sake of the elect, are as pertinent today as they
were then. Our devastations, our tribulations may not be the
same, but they are just as devastating
to us today. And the disciples needed to hear,
they needed to understand, but for the sake of the elect, they
needed to know that, they needed to understand it, or the world
around them could not in any way, shape, or form make sense. We need to hear that today too.
Whether our Tribulations, our troubles, our hard times are
personal, are on a broader scale in our community, maybe even
in our nation. We need to understand, but for
the sake of the elect. God does indeed protect and preserve
His people. We will face dark days on a personal
level, and sometimes far beyond that, community, nation beyond. Every one of us in this room
pretty much I think can speak of personal dark days. Life oftentimes
goes in directions and takes turns that we in no way would
have expected, would have planned for, or would have welcomed in
and of ourselves. We have been caught flat-footed. We have been knocked down. We
have been devastated. Every one of us. Every one of us. But for the sake of the elect. But for the sake of the elect.
Whether we knew it or not. Whether it appeared to us as
we looked around or not. God was working in our lives. God was doing things that needed
to be done in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds to make
us into the image of our Savior Jesus Christ. But for the sake
of the elect, never once would I ever say that
I can understand the process that God has for us. I don't think the disciples could
say they understood it either. We are small and finite. We are weak and dying people. We have small minds. God is all-knowing. all seeing, all present, all
powerful. The plans and purpose of God
are greater than we can understand. But as the disciples were given
the words of comfort in the midst of dismal prophecy, but for the
sake of the elect, Let us hear those words too and
realize that as we face the issues of our lives, as the things come
up and knock us down from time to time, when things are not
the way they should be, not the way we plan, not the way we want
to go, let's take comfort. Let us hear those words that
Christ spoke. to the disciples. Let us hear,
but for the sake of the elect. And let us hold to a few truths
in that. Number one, God has a people. And as God has saved us in Jesus
Christ, we are that people. Praise God we can number ourselves
among the elect. Let our hearts take comfort first
and foremost in that always. Secondly, let us take comfort
in the fact that God is always working on behalf of His people. Again, we may not see it. We
may not feel it. It may appear to us in every
way that we can understand that this cannot be God working for
us. But my understanding is not the
end all. God's understanding is. Scripture
tells us that all things work together for good to those who
love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. It
doesn't say all things are good. Not as good as we perceive them.
But let us take comfort that God is always working on behalf
of His people. We may be down. We may be very
depressed. We may be in a mental fog. Let us hold to the fact. Let
us hold to the fact that God is working on our behalf whether
we know it or not. And let us always encourage one
another as we talk to one another with
that fact. Because sooner or later, everybody
has a dark day. Everybody faces their death or
the death of their loved one. Everybody faces disappointments
and downturns in life. And as the church, we encourage
each other in those times. We uphold each other. Let us always remember ourselves
and remind our brothers and sisters, but for the sake of the election,
that God is indeed working on behalf of His people. Let us remember as well that
Jesus Christ said, I am with you always. Let us hold to that. But for the sake of the elect,