Well, good morning, everyone. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter 13. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord. Thank him and praise his name
and seek his blessing. Our father, how grateful we are
that in your providence and goodness to your people, you've given
us one more opportunity to meet together and to worship the precious
name of your son. And father, I beg of you that
you'd send your spirit upon us today, that you'd give us a spirit
of true worship, that she would deliver us from going through
the motions of religion. And father, that she would enable
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be exalted. Let us be put
in the dust where we belong and let Christ be put on the throne
high and lifted up where he belongs. And father, cause us to worship
him, to at his feet admit our helplessness and our need before
him and to worship him, Father. Don't let us meet here in vain,
but Father, speak to us through your word that we might learn
more of our Lord Jesus Christ, that our faith may be increased,
and that we might be enabled to worship him. What we pray
for ourselves, we pray especially for our children's class this
morning that, Father, you'd bless this time, that you would use
this to to plant the seeds of faith in our heart that that
one day they may be as young Timothy was when when Paul wrote
to him that from a child they've known the holy scriptures which
are able to make them wise unto salvation that father you might
be pleased in your time to show mercy to their souls we pray
for their safety in this world we pray for their education as
they begin new school years coming up quickly. We pray that you
would be with them and lead them and guide them as they go through
this world. But father, above all, we beg mercy for their souls.
We hold them up to the one thing we know is they've received the
sinful nature of their parents and they need the just like we
do. We hold them up to the Father,
everywhere where your word is preached today, I pray that you
would bless it for your glory, that in this dark, dark day,
Father, you might be pleased to show us your glory. And Father,
how we thank you. Despite our sins and our failures
and our weak faith, you've been pleased to bless. And Father,
we know it's only for Christ's sake. It can't be because of
anything that we've done or anything about us. It's only for Christ's
sake. And Father, we thank you. We
thank you and praise your matchless name for being so merciful and
gracious to sinful men and women such as we are. And Father, again,
I beg of you that you give us an hour of true worship this
morning. For it's in Christ's name, for his sake and his glory,
we pray. Amen. Now, I have a very serious subject
for our lesson this morning. I've titled the lesson, When
the Gospel is Gone. These verses in our text this
morning are gonna give us some instruction about what we're
to do, how we're to handle the situation when the gospel's gone
from the pulpit. So let's read our text, beginning
in verse 14, and then I'm gonna come back and make some comments
on this. Mark 13 verse 14. But when you shall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it
ought not, let him that readeth understand. Then let them that
be in Judea flee to the mountains. And let him that is on the housetop
not go down into the house, neither enter therein to take anything
out of his house. And let him that is in the field
not turn back again for to take up his garment. But woe to them
that are with child and to them that give suck in those days.
And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. For in
those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning
of the creation, which God created unto this time, neither shall
be. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no
flesh should be saved. But for the elect's sake, whom
he hath chosen, he has shortened the days. And then if any man
shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or lo, he is there,
believe him not. For false Christs and false prophets
shall rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it
were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed, behold, I have
foretold you all things. Now there's no question that
there is some reference here to the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 AD. Historian Josephus tells us that
in 70 AD, the Roman army came, led by a general named Titus,
and they sacked Jerusalem. They killed over one million
people during this siege and this conquering of Jerusalem. And they killed them brutally.
I mean, this was an absolute bloodbath. I mean, these soldiers
were just worked up. They were so bloodthirsty. They
enjoyed what they were doing, just slaughtering and killing
all these people. They killed over a million people
and then took 100,000 of them prisoner, took them away from
Jerusalem as slaves, and not one of them ever returned. They
all died in slavery. And once they killed all the
people, they burned the city to the ground. They destroyed
almost all the houses. The walls of Jerusalem were almost
completely destroyed. I mean, this was complete and
utter destruction, and there really hasn't been a time of
greater tribulation on the earth, especially in Jerusalem, or in
a confined area, than there was at that time. And way back there,
Daniel, and we'll get to this more in a minute, but Daniel
prophesied that this would happen. He said it's gonna happen after
the Messiah is cut off. After the Messiah is crucified,
this is what's gonna happen. And the Lord is warning his disciples,
now this destruction is coming, and when it comes, use your common
sense. If you see it coming, use your
common sense and flee to the mountain. Flee away from this
trouble that you know is coming. And don't delay for any reason.
If you're stopping trying to gather up some belongings or
go back and get some things, you're very likely to be caught
up in this destruction and be killed. So don't delay for any
reason. And the Lord says, woe to those
people who have difficulty fleeing. If they've got infants, or they're
pregnant, or it's wintertime and it stops your being able
to flee from all this difficulty, you're very likely to get caught
up in it. But if you see it coming, just use your common sense and
flee from it, because it's coming. Daniel told you about it, now
I'm telling you what Daniel was meaning by this prophecy. Now
there is no question there is some reference there to that
destruction of Jerusalem. But the destruction of Jerusalem
2,000 years ago doesn't really apply to you and me today. It's
already been destroyed. There's nothing for us to flee
from that. But there are some good lessons
that we can apply to ourselves and hopefully learn something
from this. First, just use the common sense that God gave you
to avoid unnecessary trouble. Fleeing persecution is not being
a coward, that's just being wise. If you can flee from it, you
can take yourself out of that situation, do it. Now, don't
ever deny Christ in the face of persecution, to get out of
persecution or trouble, don't deny him. And don't compromise
the gospel. Don't compromise the truth, you
know, so that you can get out of trouble. But if you can avoid
trouble, do it. Do it. I was reading yesterday
how after all the the trouble that Martin Luther had over his
99 theses, and he's saying, here I stand, I can do no other. There
were areas he couldn't travel to, because the Pope was in charge
of those areas, and if he got caught in those areas, the Pope
would kill him. So he just used the common sense that God gave
him and stayed out of those areas. That's not being a coward. That's
just being wise. Don't go looking for a fight.
or you're gonna find one. Don't be thinking, oh, well,
I'm gonna be a martyr and be burned at the stake and I'm gonna
go looking for this trouble. If you do, you're gonna find
it and find yourself burned at the stake. If you can avoid those
things, just do them. And if you can't avoid this trouble,
you can't avoid persecution, it catches up to you and you're
in the face of persecution, you cannot avoid it. Tell you what
to do. flee to Christ our refuge. David
said he's a very present help in time of trouble. Flee to him
so that if you can't escape it, flee to him to give you and beg
him to give you the grace to endure it. But if you can avoid
it, by all means, do that. That's just common sense. But
now there's a spiritual application to this, and that's what is most
important. And that is primarily what the
Lord is teaching here. The key to understanding the
whole passage in verse 14, when the Lord says, you shall see
the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel,
standing where it ought not. Now somebody reads this, Lord
said, now you read and understand. This is the key to the passage.
And if you'll turn back in Daniel chapter nine, let's look first
at this prophecy of Daniel. Daniel's right after the book
of Ezekiel. And let's look at this prophecy
of Daniel and see what it is that the Lord's talking about
here. Now, this is a prophecy of the destruction of Israel,
of the crucifixion of the Savior, but it's also the gospel of Christ. So let's begin looking Daniel
9, verse 19. Daniel is here praying and he
says, O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken
and do. Defer not for thine own sake,
oh my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
And whilst I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin
and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication
before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God. Now
let's stop right there for a minute. Here's the first thing we see
in this prophecy of Daniel as he's praying. What he's doing
is confessing his sin. You and I are sinners and what
we need more than anything is a savior to come and to save
us from our sin. Daniel's confessing not only,
not just what he's done, but who he is and who his people,
he's praying for Israel the same way Paul many years later was
praying for Israel, his brethren after the flesh. He's confessing
who I am, that I am a sinner And I need forgiveness. I need
you to send somebody to forgive my sin. Now, if you read through
the scriptures, the Lord, very wisely, shows us in many of the
patriarchs and even the apostles, where they have some great fall.
They commit some great sin. They do some bonehead thing,
you know. But you know, you remember how
he showed us that in Noah. and in Abraham and in Isaac and
in Jacob, in David, in Paul and Peter. But you know, there's
two men I can think of that he does not do that. It's Joseph
and Daniel. Now, I know Daniel is a sinner. He probably made some bonehead
move sometime, but it's not recorded in scripture. But if Daniel is
a sinner, If Daniel needs forgiveness of sin, I promise you, I do.
I've done many bonehead things. I've done such a great sinner.
You and I are sinners who need a savior. So while Daniel's praying
for the forgiveness of his sins and the sin of his people, verse
21 says, and whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel,
whom I'd seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to
fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation,
and he informed me and talked with me. And he said, O Daniel,
I am now come forth to give thee skill in understanding." Whenever
God's gonna forgive the sin of his people, you know what he
does? He sends them a messenger. And this is Gabriel the angel,
this is a real angel, but God's not gonna send you and me an
angel. but he's gonna send us a messenger. That's what an angel
is, he's a messenger. Gabriel here is a picture of
God's preachers. If God's gonna forgive our sin,
he's gonna send us a preacher with a message that tells us
how does God forgive the sin of his people. And that's what
Gabriel is getting ready to show Daniel here. He's come with a
message from God. And his message is the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he's coming And what is it he's gonna do when
he gets here? You've been praying for the forgiveness
of your sins. Here's how God's gonna forgive
your sin. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ who's coming. Now, in
verse 23, he says, at the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment
came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly
beloved, therefore understand the matter and the vision. Now,
verse 24 starts talking about these 70 weeks. 70 weeks are determined upon
my people and upon my holy city. Now, let me deal with these 70
weeks quickly. Then we'll move on. This is a
famous thing. Everybody talks about the 70
weeks. Well, I know what these 70 weeks mean. If you read other
scripture, compare scripture with scripture, these 70 weeks
means weeks of years. It doesn't mean 77 day periods. It means that one week equals
seven years. So these 70 weeks are 490 years. And if you read through this,
you know, you'll see this, that from, from the time of Daniel,
this is going to tell us roughly when the Jews will be delivered
from bondage in Babylon. They'll come back and rebuild
Jerusalem. It tells us that from, from Daniel roughly now, I mean,
it's not to the day, but roughly. the time when the number of years
from Daniel to the time that Christ is crucified. And then
the number of years from Daniel to the time that Jerusalem is
destroyed. That's kind of, that's what this
is telling us. Now, nobody knew what those 70
weeks meant until after Christ came. until after he was crucified
and after Jerusalem was destroyed. Then they said, oh, I understand
what those 70 weeks meant now. And they could go write in their
commentary and tell us what it meant. So, you know, we can tell
each other, this is what these 70 weeks are. And that's more
time that I want to spend on those 70 weeks, but that's, that's
what it means. And I don't want to spend a whole
lot of time on those 70 weeks because when is not important.
And that same thing applies today to trying to determine when it
is that Christ will return. Now, Christ is going to return. We have no idea when that will
be. Now, I'm sure there's some things
in scripture that tell us roughly when Christ is going to return.
But you and I will never figure them out. It's not given to us
to know. After the Lord returns, we'll
say, oh, I see. Just like they, after Christ
was crucified and after Jerusalem was destroyed, they said, oh,
now I know what those 70 weeks, maybe we will. But you know what? It won't matter. It won't matter. Because when is not important. What's important is who, who,
who is coming and what he's going to do when he comes back. Many years ago, I was a substitute
teaching for a Sunday school class, 5th through 8th graders.
And it was on the return of Christ. And so the Sunday school class
lasted 35, 40 minutes, whatever. And so I started the class just
like we normally do. And I told the kids, if y'all
do something crazy, whatever it was, I'm going to give you
a full-size Hershey bar. And every one of them did this
crazy thing. And I said, like, you know, I was counting them
all up to find out how many Hershey bars they needed. So OK, now
I'm coming back to give you those Hershey bars. Went out and closed
the door. Holly was in the class at this
time. And I waited outside the door. There was about three minutes
left in the class. And the kids are all in there,
like, wondering what's going on. They're asking, Holly, where'd
your dad go? What's going on? And suddenly, I burst through
the door. And came in with everybody's Hershey bar. And I said, what
you all were waiting on. When I came back, really wasn't
the problem, was it? It was who's coming and what's
he got with him. And I used that as a try to teach
them something about this is what we're doing, waiting on
the Lord to come. It's not when, it's who's coming. And what is it that he's bringing
with him when he comes for his people? The same thing applies
to him coming the first time. This is a prophecy of when Christ
is gonna come the first time in the flesh, and what is it
that he's gonna do when he gets here? And the first thing in
Gabriel's message, he said that Christ is gonna do, he's gonna
finish the transgression. Verse 24 says, these 70 weeks
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish
the transgression. Christ is coming to finish. the transgression of his people.
He's coming to make it not exist anymore. The word he uses there
means to seal it up. He's gonna seal it up so nobody
can see it ever again. So those transgressions can't
come after you and cause you to be condemned. He's gonna finish
them, make an end of them. Then he says, and he's going
to make an end of sins. Christ is going to come and he's
gonna make the sin of his people to end, to not exist. Now, if your sins do not exist,
your sins can't condemn you, can they? If your sins do not
exist, you do not have to fear facing the righteous judge because
you cannot be condemned, not justly, and God's always just. A just God cannot condemn you
if your sins do not exist. Christ coming to make, this is,
oh, if we get this through our head, that this is not just some
point of doctrine that we're talking about, but how wonderful
this is, what good news this is to sinners. Christ is coming
to make an end of the sins of his people. Then he's coming,
he says, and to make reconciliation for iniquity. Christ is coming
to make an atonement for the iniquity of his people. He's
coming to pay the price for the iniquity of His people. Our iniquity
demands justice. There's a price to be paid that
you and I can't pay. Christ is coming to pay it. He's
coming to make a reconciliation for it, to make an atonement. He's going to cover it up. Now,
He's going to cover it up. He's going to cover up the iniquity
of His people so even God can't see it. Now God sees everything,
and this cannot mean he's gonna cover up the sin of his people
with some sort of veneer, but the sin's still there. If that
was true, God would still see it, wouldn't he? When Christ
makes an atonement for the sin of his people, he covers it so
that it's gone. That's the only way God can't
see it. His blood washed away the sin of his people so that
it's gone, and God's justice cannot charge you. God's justice
doesn't even want to charge you if Christ made reconciliation
for your iniquity. Then fourthly, Gabriel says he's
going to bring in everlasting righteousness. He's going to
make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness. Christ is going to come and he's
as a man made under the law, he's going to earn a perfect
righteousness. Now he's going to do that not
for himself because he's already righteous, he's already holy.
He's coming as a man, as the second man, the second representative
man to earn a righteousness for his people by obeying the law
perfectly. All of his people are in him
just like the whole human race was in Adam, our representative.
And God's elect, they all did everything that the Lord Jesus
did as a man made under the law. When he obeyed the law, you did
too. Now you think of that. That's
how you have everlasting righteousness. You know, Adam, the first Adam,
he didn't really have a righteousness really. I mean, because if you're
righteous, you can't sin. Adam had an innocence and he
lost it by his disobedience. Christ earned a righteousness
for his people that's everlasting. A righteousness that can never
be lost. God didn't leave us in the place
of Adam where God made us righteous and now he leaves it up to us
to keep ourselves righteous. Well, if he did that, we'd all
perish, wouldn't we? We'd ruin it in a heartbeat. This righteousness
is everlasting because it always depends upon the righteousness
of Christ, the obedience of Christ, the perfection of Christ, and
it never depends on us. Now, that's not an excuse to
sin. If you think, well, that's an
excuse to sin, then I'm afraid that means you don't know Christ.
Because if you know him, if he's made an end of your sins, he's
made reconciliation, atonement for your iniquity. The last thing
you ever want to do is sin against him. It's not an excuse to sin. It's just that he's brought in
a righteousness for his people that can never be lost. That
can never be sullied. That will always eternally be
accepted by the father. Now that's what he's coming to
do. Now, how's he going to do it? How is he going to accomplish
all these things? Is he just going to, you know,
issue an executive order and call his people righteous and
innocent, even though they're not? No. He's coming to pay the
price for his people. Here's how he's going to finish
the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation
for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness. It's what he says
in verse 26. And after three score and two
weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. Christ is
going to be cut off from his father. The one who is eternally
one with his father. They have such perfect unity
that they're one. I and my father are one, he said.
Yet when Christ was made sin for his people, the father cut
him off. In his holiness, he had to. He had to. He had to cut him
off. Now it wasn't for his sin, it
was for the sin of his people. that were made his. When Christ
was made sin, he suffered everything that sin deserved. Everything. He was cut off from the father.
The father couldn't look on him and smile. He couldn't look on
him in love and the way that he'd always looked at his son
from eternity because his son had been made sin. The only thing
the father could do is pour out his wrath upon his son. kept pouring that wrath out until
that sin was gone. Christ was made sin for his people
and he suffered and died till that sin was gone, till that
sin was paid for so that he could make his people the righteousness
of God in him. Everyone for whom Christ died,
everyone that the father gave Christ to save in divine election,
they're made the righteousness of God because the sacrifice
of Christ put their sin away. He died so that his people will
live. He was cut off from the father
so that his people can come boldly. Now get a hold of this. He was
cut off so that sinners like you and me can come boldly before
the throne of grace, accepted in the beloved because he was
cut off for us. That's how he accomplished everything
that he's going to accomplish for his people. The fifth thing
he's gonna do in verse 24, Gabriel says, is seal up the vision and
the prophecy. Now earlier I told you that word
finish the transgression means seal up so that you can't see
it. This is not the same kind of seal up. It's not sealed so
that it's hidden, it's sealed so it can't be changed. Like
the king would stamp his ring or his seal somehow into the
hot wax, you know, on a document. That's the king's seal so that
it cannot be changed. The salvation of God's elect
cannot be changed. Cannot be changed because of
who it is that died. It can't fail. It can't change. Satan can't come and rob you
from the hand of Christ and you can't jump out of the hand of
Christ. You can't not be looking and fall out. It cannot be changed. The blood of Christ sealed the
salvation of his people. It can't be changed. And then
he's coming to anoint the most holy. And that word anoint the
most holy means to reveal the holy one. Christ is coming to
reveal. When we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
we see his perfect life. We see his substitutionary death
when he was cut off for the sin of his people. We see how he
suffered and died and he put the sin of his people away. We
know he did because he was raised three days later from the grave.
This is the Holy One. If he's raised from the dead
three days later, that means all the sin that's laid on him
is gone. He's the Holy One. He is the only holiness that
there is. He's the only way that a sinner
can be made holy. He's come to anoint or to reveal
the Holy One, to make it so obvious to you and me, that the only
way we can be made holy is by trusting him. It's in him and
what he's done for his people. It's the only hope that we have.
And Gabriel tells Daniel, now anyone that believes on this
Messiah, they shall be saved. They're gonna be made righteous.
They're gonna be made holy. They shall be saved. And anyone
who doesn't believe him will be damned. And it's just exactly
what they deserve, isn't it? Because they would not believe
on him. Jerusalem will be destroyed, and however weeks of years that
that is, from the time Daniel prophesied here, you know why
they're gonna be destroyed? Because they rejected the Messiah. They rejected the only Savior.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And God
destroyed Jerusalem for it. He destroyed that whole economy
of the Old Testament law and worshiping God through the law
and the ceremonies. He destroyed it all because they
rejected Christ showing us that the message of salvation, the
message that came directly from God himself, Gabriel came from
the throne of God to preach this message to Daniel. Years later,
God's son came in the flesh to preach this message to you and
me. To have his life recorded, to have everything that he did
recorded so that we would see salvation is in Christ and Christ
alone. Christ is all. He's all in salvation. He's all in election. He's all
in our calling. He's all in our keeping. He's
all in our message. He is all to the believer. It's all Christ. It's all him. I wish I could stress that strong
enough. It's all Christ. All right, back
to our text, Mark 13. That was the prophecy of Daniel.
Now, he said, the Lord says, when you shall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it
ought not, Now the abomination of desolations, if you look up
those words, what it means is the ruin of idolatry. The message
of Christ, that's the only message. That's the only message that
we preach. If you hear a message from any
pulpit that's not Christ alone, that's something standing where
it ought not be. If righteousness is something that you contribute
to, that's something standing where it ought not be. because
Christ is our righteousness. If salvation is something that
you contribute to that's not all Christ alone, something's
standing where it ought not be. Christ stands as the savior of
his people. He stands as all the salvation
of his people. If your holiness, yeah, if you
say, okay, Christ made me righteous, but now I gotta keep my holiness
and earn my holiness so I can get progressively more holy by
what I do or what I don't do, that's something standing where
it ought not. Because Christ is our holiness. Christ is our
sanctification. If a message from any place,
including this one, is not ever Christ alone, his sacrifice alone,
his obedience alone, his life alone, his kingship alone, if
it's ever not Christ alone, something standing where it ought not is
standing in the place of Christ. And if something stands in the
place of Christ, what is it? It's idolatry, isn't it? It's
idolatry. And destruction is sure to follow
idolatry every single time. So if you hear a message from
someplace that's not Christ alone, the Lord says, run for your life. Don't walk, run away from it. Don't pass go, don't collect
$200, don't go back and try to get something. You flee for your
life. You get away from it as fast
as you can, Because many will be destroyed by this idolatry.
Many will be deceived by it. Many will, and they will be destroyed. And that's a frightening thought,
isn't it? I mean, that's a gullible. I mean, I can be deceived so
easily. How do I know I will not be deceived
by these false prophets, by the idolatry of these false prophets?
Because they're not gonna use something gross things that the flesh things
are gross and disgusting and an abomination to the flesh.
They're not going to use those things to deceive you. They're
going to use things to try to deceive people that sound holy,
that sound righteous, that sound religious. It's something you
can do in the flesh to make God happy with you. Well, you can't
speak about not committing adultery. You can't speak against not lying
and not stealing and all these. You can't speak against those
things. Those things are good. And you do those things and God
will be more happy with you. You'll be more likely to be saved.
You'll be more blessed than other people because it's something
that you've done. That's a message that's not Christ alone and it
will deceive the flesh, won't it? Because the flesh loves that.
Why won't God's elect be deceived by it? Because God won't let
them. God won't let them be deceived.
They've been washed clean in the blood of Christ. They've
been made righteous. They've been given a righteous
nature in the new birth. They can't believe in anything
but Christ. And the love of God for his people
guarantees they won't fall away from him. It's because of who
Christ is and what Christ has done. You see that? Now, you
know, the Lord talks about a time of trouble. Time of persecution. And when you see that coming,
the Lord says, flee to the mountains. That's just good common sense.
But I can't close without saying this. Don't wait for a time of
trouble to flee to Christ. Flee to him right now. Don't
wait till there's a time of trouble in your life And you just spend
years living your life and just going about the things of this
flesh. And you really don't spend much
time thinking about the things of Christ and thinking about
the gospel. And you come to the service, hit or miss, you come
when you can. But if you're doing something else, it's no big deal.
And then the Lord sends you a trial. And oh my goodness, you're calling
people and saying, pray for me. You never miss a service. and
then the trial passes and you go back to what you were before.
Don't wait until the Lord breaks your knees and puts you on your
knees before him to seek Christ. Seek him now. And don't wait
till the end of your life and you see my health is failing
and the end has to be near. I've lived my life in total disregard
for the Lord, disregard for his word, disregard for his gospel,
and I just wanted to live after the flesh. You know, it could
be sowing your wild oats. It could be seeking whatever
things that the flesh wants to seek. But now that the end's
near, boy, I better get right with God and seek Christ. I know that sounds appealing
to the flesh, but that's a waste of a life. That life that is
not lived, seeking Christ and worshiping him and not spent
at his feet is a wasted life. Seek him now. Seeking now, right
now. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing and help to you.