So good morning. If you care
to turn your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 24, we're going
to continue our study of Matthew chapter 24 this morning. Before
we begin, let's bow before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow in your awesome,
thrice holy presence this morning. We come carefully that we come
reverently before your throne of grace. Thankful that we can
come before a throne of grace in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, how we thank you for him. How we thank you
for a savior who puts away the sin of his people. It doesn't
just make us acceptable, but makes us accepted in thy sight
that we can come before you crying Abba Father. And Lord, We come
before you thanking you, praising your matchless name. Father,
we pray that this morning that you would give us a spirit of
worship, that you would enable us to look into your word and
that you would by your spirit reveal Christ our Savior to each
heart, that you'd give faith to see him and believe him, run
to him, trust him, rest in him, find in him everything we need,
everything His required of sinners is found in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, how we thank you for your mercy and your grace that
would provide such a savior for such great sinners as we are.
Father, bless us, I beg, as we look into your word. Father,
for those that are traveling and away from us, we pray that
you'd be with them. We pray you give our brother Eric a special
portion of your spirit this morning as he preaches. Crossful that
you bring him and have me back home safe to us For your people
that you brought in the time of trouble and trial father.
We pray for them How thankful we are that in these difficult
times We can cling to the promise of our Savior that you not leave
to forsake your people That you not give your people more that
they they can bear but you'll provide a way out and that you'll
give grace efficient Father, we beg your word back to you,
that you keep that precious promise, comfort the hearts of your people
with your presence. All these things we ask, and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior, amen. All right, now this chapter 24
of Matthew is a chapter, as I've told you before, as we began
looking into it a few weeks ago, is a chapter that's full of prophecy. Some of this prophecy has already
come to pass. Some of it will still yet come
to pass in the future. Some of these things, the things
that have already come to pass are prophecies concerning the
judgment of Israel, the destruction of Israel, the destruction of
that Jewish religious economy. Those things have already come
to pass. Some prophecies concern the second coming of our Savior,
the end of the world. Those things obviously have not
come to pass yet. And we may find at the end of time, Many
of these prophecies, many if not all of them, refer to both
at the same time. The destruction of Israel, the
coming of our Savior. But these things concerning specifically
the last days and Christ's return, some of those things sound very
frightening to folks. And it's because of the way those
events have been twisted, the way false prophets have used
those things to to scare folks into trying to do something.
They're still using the law. They're using the promise of
Christ's return to scare folks into doing things. They use them
to frighten people. And the Lord's coming should
not be frightening at all to anyone, to anyone who believes
Christ. And the Lord gives us some lessons on these last days
that I believe will be comforting to your heart. And the first
thing is this. Our Lord has made a utter, and
complete end of legalistic ceremonial religion. Verse 15 Matthew chapter
24 when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation
spoken up by Daniel, the prophet stand in the holy place who so
read it, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea
flee into the mountains. Let him 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 clothes and
woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in
those days. But pray that your flight be
not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day for then should
be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time. No, nor ever shall be. Now these
verses are speaking specifically of the destruction, of Jerusalem,
the destruction of the Jewish religion. They may have some
reference to the, to the second coming of Christ. I don't know,
but I do know they're specifically talking about the destruction
of Jerusalem. The Lord is giving us a promise
that this whole Jewish religion that's based on the laws and
the ceremonies that God gave to Moses is going to be utterly
destroyed. And that happened roughly 35
years after our Lord died in 70 AD. The Romans came in and
they utterly destroyed Jerusalem. And they didn't do it from afar.
In our warfare today, we do it with missiles and rockets that
have been launched from miles away. The bombs dropped from
35,000 feet. Drones, we often don't even put
pilots at risk anymore. Somewhere in Arizona, somebody's
controlling a drone over there in the Middle East. That's not
the way they did it. The Roman army came in and destroyed
Jerusalem and destroyed her citizens face to face by hand. The historian Josephus tells
us that the Roman army killed over a million Jews, men, women,
children, babies, killed brutally. It was a slaughter. They took
their time to torture folks. The Roman soldiers were so bloodthirsty,
they took their time doing this because they were enjoying it.
I mean, this was awful. And when they finally were done,
they took over 100,000 Jews, marched them away as slaves who
died in slavery. They burned the temple to the
ground. They destroyed the walls of the city. They destroyed most
of the houses of the city. I mean, it was complete and utter
destruction. Up to that time in history, our
Lord says, Won't ever be again as great as that, but you know,
there had never been a time as great a tribulation, as great
as suffering on the earth as was in Jerusalem in 70 AD. And
you know, the prophet Daniel prophesied, he prophesied that
this is going to happen. He said, when the Messiah is
cut off, Jerusalem will be destroyed. This whole, it's not just Jerusalem. It's not just the Jews. It's
this whole way of religion. This legalistic ceremonial religion
is going to be destroyed. And I think the Lord points this
out. The prophecy of Daniel here to show us this suffering didn't
happen by accident. This was the eternal will and
purpose of God for this to happen. At this time, Jerusalem must
be destroyed this way, of religion must be destroyed. That's what
happened 2,000 years ago. But this applies to you and me
today. It's something we need never forget. Everything that
happens, I mean everything, happens by the express will of God Almighty. It's easy to see when things
happen that we enjoy and blessings. God gives us. That's from the
hand of God. That's the purpose of God. But
painful events in our lives and things that hurt down to the
core are not accidents either. They come from the hand of God.
Our brother Job said, my friends, the hand of God touched me. We
say that when God blesses us and everything's going well,
you got everything on the sunny side on a downhill pole. The
hand of God has touched me when we say that. When we're suffering, the hand
of God has touched us too. All these things, they're not
accidents now. They happen by God's will and purpose. And you
and I won't see it in many of our trials, many things that
we suffer, we will not see it and we will not understand it.
But God's gonna bring good out of this thing. It has to happen
just exactly the way that it's happening. As painful as it is,
as much as I don't like it, it has to happen exactly this way
for God's purpose of the redemption and glorification of his people
to happen. It has to happen this way or else God wouldn't do it. He's not just being arbitrarily
mean to people. It has to happen this way or
God wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. He's too wise
to do wrong. He's too good to do something
that is arbitrarily painful to his people. The people who suffered
this tribulation in Jerusalem, I mean, their suffering is unthinkable. But you know, that destruction
ended up bringing good news to sinners. It brings good news
to people today who are seeking to worship God in spirit and
truth. This suffering brings good news to God's people. And
here's the good news. The law has been destroyed. This
worship of way of religion, worship through the law and through the
ceremonies has been destroyed. You don't have to come to God
through the law. I mean, you can't come to God
through the law. The good news is you don't have to try. You
don't have to try to please God by keeping the laws and following
all the ceremonies, because you can't keep it anyway. You can't
do it anyway. The law is an awful burden to put on people. Remember
what Peter said after the Lord had died and was raised and gone
back to glory? Peter said, a minute brethren. He said, we're not
mixing grace and works here. It's either by grace or it's
by works. It's either by grace or by the
law. Peter said, don't put the people under the burden of the
law. He said, neither we nor our fathers could bear it. Don't
put that on people. Here's the good news. Christ
has made his people free from the burden of the law. He's made
his people free from the burden of all of those ceremonies. We
worship God in Christ. We worship God. We come to God
in Christ, not by our merit, by his merit. Not by anything
that we've done, but by his precious blood. That's the way we come
to God. And God couldn't have made it
more obvious in the way that he destroyed this legalistic
works religion. He'd burn it to the ground. You
don't come to God that way. You're free. What good news?
You're free to come to God in Christ. He's already done everything
it takes to please the Father. You don't have to keep the law.
He's done it for you. You're free to come to God in grace. You can't keep the law? You're
free to come to God seeking mercy. Mercy. Not merit. Mercy in Christ. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Quit looking to the law. I mean,
could God make any more obvious? He'd burn it to the ground. Quit
looking to the Lord. Christ is our righteousness.
We trust Christ our righteousness. And all this ceremony and this
form and these things you can touch are not religion. That's
not the way to come to God. We don't have an earthly temple. We've got a building here just
because, you know, it's nice to meet out of the elements.
We've got a building. We don't have an earthly temple. Christ
is our temple. Believers, you who believe, you're
the temple of God. The spirit of God dwells in you.
You're the temple. We don't have an altar where
we offer sacrifices. We don't have to prepare and
bring knives and things and slaughter animals. We don't have to do
that. Christ is our altar. Christ is
our sacrifice. We don't have to have an animal
sacrifice. Christ has been one sacrifice forever to put away
the sin of his people. We have a sacrifice. We have
an altar. It's Christ. We don't have a
high priest dressed up in a funny garment. Yeah, I wear a suit. I wear a tie. There's nothing
holy. There's nothing special about
it. It's not a religious costume. It just shows there's some solemnity
to this thing. I just don't like somebody preaching
in short sleeves and no coat. Maybe I'm reckoning it's fine.
I just don't like it. I want to show some respect here
from what's in the heart. But we don't have to have a high
priest dressed up in that costume now. We have a high priest. We have one. He's seated on the
right hand of the throne. Christ is the high priest who
offers the sacrifice. He's the sacrifice and he's the
altar on which we have him. We don't need anything else.
We don't have an ark. We don't have a mercy seat. We
don't have somebody dipping their finger and sprinkling blood on
a slab of gold. Christ is our mercy seat. Christ
is our propitiation. He's the one that's covered the
sin of his people. We don't have a Sabbath day. Sabbath day's
Saturday. I bet everybody got out working
yesterday, didn't you? You had yard work to do. You had things
to do. You didn't have to... We don't have a Sabbath day. Christ is our Sabbath rest. We
rest in Christ. Do you know why we rest in him?
He's already done all the work. We rest in him. We rest from
the law. We rest from fear. in Christ. He's who we worship. He is all of our worship. It's
all in Christ. And that's the good news of the
gospel. The rest that the gospel gives in Christ that the law
can never give. I'm glad God made it obvious.
You know, for me to see things, God's just got to make it obvious.
He made it obvious this way of legalistic ceremonial religion
is done. We worship God, we come to God
in Christ, in Christ alone. That's good news. God made it
into this thing. All right, number two. I found
this particularly comforting this week, that the Lord instructs
his people to be prudent in the trials and difficulties of this
life. Look again at verse 16. Then let them which be in Judea
flee into the mountains. and let him 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 clothes. Now
in times of great suffering, trial, and this suffering that's
not been seen since the world began, the Lord tells his people,
be prudent. Be prudent. God gave you a mind.
Use some wisdom about this thing. Fleeing persecution is not being
a coward. It's being wise. Now that does
not mean that we're ever to deny Christ in the face of persecution. It means this. If you can flee
it and get away from it, do it, do it. If you can flee persecution,
you can, you can flee those that the persecutor without compromising
the glory of God. And I'm not saying, you know,
you know, they catch you and they ask you, do you believe
Christ or not? We're going to kill you if you say you believe
Christ. I'm not saying deny Christ, but I'm saying if you can, this
is what the Lord's saying. If you can flee, flee, don't
go looking for a fight or you're going to find one. If you could
avoid being burned at the stake by going to another town, Go. Go. You know, don't go looking
to make yourself a martyr or you're going to be one. Now,
I don't know if this kind of persecution and suffering will
ever be here, you know, in the Western world again or not. I
don't know. Maybe. Maybe before Christ comes, it
will. I mean, you know, human nature sure would like to do
it. I know that. But here's what I do know. Here's
what I know for sure. We're going to have trials and
we're going to have troubles and we're going to have suffering
and we're going to have hurting until Christ returns. We live
in a world of sin and we're going to suffer the effects of it. We live in a body of sin and
we're going to suffer the effects of it. We're going to suffer
the sorrow of it. We're going to suffer the pain of it. We're
going to suffer the thorns and thistles of it. As long as the
Lord allows this world to exist and believer, I got something good for you
here. When you have troubles like that, when you suffer like
that, flee. Now, you can't flee and get away
from the pain. You can't flee and get away from
the suffering that's in your flesh because you're carrying
around with you. Flee to Christ our refuge. Oh, flee to Christ our refuge.
He's a very present help in a time of trouble. Now you flee to him. Here's comfort. You're going
to suffer. But in all your troubles, in
all your suffering, you flee to Christ. He's a high priest
who's touched with the feeling of our infirmity. You flee to
him. He'll comfort you. All right,
number three. Even in times of great tribulation,
Even in times of great suffering, the Lord is exercising great
love and tender care for his people. Verse 21. For then shall
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time 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. Now, the days of
this great tribulation and this destruction of Israel, I mean,
like I said, they were awful. I mean, face to face, just killing
people with swords, cutting them up with knives, just, I mean,
the suffering, it was just, it was just more awful than we can
imagine. But you know, those days were
shortened for the elect's sake. The Romans didn't completely
wipe out the entire Jewish race. Not all of them, they didn't.
Some of them were believers who were spared so they'd be scattered. They followed the Lord's instruction
here and they'd be scattered to the mountains. They'd be scattered
to all parts of the earth so that the gospel would be spread
to the Gentile world for your benefit and mine. You think of
that. Those days were shortened for
the elect's sake. The people who were suffering
and dying They said, I don't see the Lord's
will here. I don't see God's goodness to
his people here. But it was there, wasn't it?
It was there. They said, I don't feel the Lord
exercising great care for his people right here. But he was.
He was. He used them to spread the gospel
to the whole world. And we need to remember this.
God cares for his people. He cares. I think it's an article
I put in the bulletin this week. Read it when you've got time,
it's on the back of the bulletin by Brother Fortner. He careth
for you. God cares for his people. He's
destroyed nations to deliver his people. He's built up nations
for the sake of his people. He's built up the United States
of America, I think I can say this without fear of contradiction,
the greatest nation that's ever been on the face of this earth,
for his people. The freedoms and the things that
we enjoy. He's done that for his people. Like I said a minute ago, he's
our high priest. Christ is our great high priest. He's sitting on the throne of
heaven. And he's not up there in an ivory tower not caring
what goes on down here with his people. He feels the infirmity
of his people. When his people suffer, he feels
it. Saul, Saul, why persecute the
people that I care about? That's not what he said. Why
persecutest thou me? He feels the pain and suffering
of his people and he knows our pain. He knows it. He experienced
it as a man in the flesh. And since he's experienced it,
he's able to comfort all those who are in any sort of trouble
and trial and heartache. He feels it, and he's able to
comfort. He's able, he cares, and he acts
from the throne of heaven to comfort his people. He's gonna
shorten those days. They're gonna be suffering. Please
don't misunderstand me. They're going, in this world,
you shall have tribulation. But those days shall be shortened.
He'll send comfort for the elect same. All right, number four. In these last days, when things
are so difficult, there's so much false religion. God's elect
will not be deceived. Verse 23. Then if any man shall
say unto you, lo, here is Christ or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christ
and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders
in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Behold, I've told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say
unto you, behold, he's in the desert, go not forth. For behold,
he's in the secret chambers. Believe it not. Now, these false
Christs that our Lord speaks of here are Antichrist. And the
Antichrist is not an individual person. The Antichrist is a way. It's a way of religion. It's
a spirit. It's an attitude of false religion. I hate to give these fellas even
any any ink, but we need to be taught about this matter of the
Antichrist. Here's how you can identify the
Antichrist. Any religion that does not preach Christ and Christ
alone is Antichrist. It's anti-Christ. That way of
religion is opposed to the glory of Christ. It's opposed to salvation
in Christ alone. Oh, they may use his name. And
this is the way that they're the most deceptive. Oh, they
use his name, the name of Christ, the name of Jesus. They talk
about grace and mercy and all these things, you know. But it's
not Christ alone, it's Christ plus something else. And anyone
who teaches that Christ died for all sons of Adam, yet some
perish in hell anyway, is anti-Christ. They're saying he's a failure.
That's anti-Christ, it's anti the success of Christ, anti the
glory of the person of Christ, they're anti-Christ. Any person,
I don't care who they are, who preaches that salvation is dependent
upon man's will or man's decision to accept Jesus as their personal
savior is anti-Christ, anti-Christ. Anyone who preaches that salvation
depends in any way, I mean in any way, at any time, upon the
sinner acting good enough is anti-Christ. See, God destroyed
that way, that way of legalistic ceremonial religion. When he
destroyed Jerusalem, that way's destroyed. And anybody who tries
to put you back under it is anti-Christ. Those systems of religion, they've
come under many different headings. They may be very successful as
far as the way men count success, very popular, a lot of numbers,
you know. They might look real good. They might look religious,
they might look righteous, you know, they might look holy to
men. And because of that, they'll deceive many. I mean to see many believers still have that old
nature of the flash that's drawn to that religion like a moth
to a flame. And if you've got any sense about
you at all, that scares you to death. Knowing I will be deceived
if I can. Here's the good news while our
savior tells us. They'll never deceive one of God's elect. Never. Oh, they'll deceive the flesh,
but they'll never deceive one of God's elect because God won't
allow it. God will never allow anything
to deceive his people into leaving Christ and believing something
else that'll send him to hell. If anybody is pro Christ, it's
the father. He won't let any of his people
be deceived. He won't let his son lose one. And if somebody goes off into
some of these other religions that there's Christ plus something
else or leaves Christ completely out of it, as sad as it makes
me, I mean, I find no joy in saying this, but I'm telling
you they went because they're not one of God's elect. If they
were one of God's people, he would not let them go. And the
worst trials that come, will not drive God's elect away
from Christ. They won't do it. And the most
deceptive false prophet won't be able to do it either, because
the great shepherd of the sheep is going to keep his sheep close
to his breast. All right, number five, Christ's
return will not be a hidden, mysterious event. Verse 27, for
as a lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even into
the west, So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now false
teachers tell us that Christ is gonna come and he'll secretly
pull his people out of the world and nobody's gonna know that
it happened and unbelievers are gonna be left here for a while
and they're gonna terrorize one another. I heard of a poor woman
once. She was, I don't know what she
was doing, but she went over to her mom and dad's house. She
couldn't find them. She called on the phone. Never got an answer. She called her husband. He was
at his office working. He wasn't there. She couldn't
get a hold of him. She called her sister. She called her brother.
She called her brother-in-law. She called her sister-in-law.
Couldn't find him. And she thought, the rapture's
happened. And they've taken all my family.
They're all believers. And God's left me because I've
got false faith. And I'm an unbeliever. That's
such fear like that. So sad. What our Savior here
is saying puts an end to that kind of fear. There's no reason
for any believer to fear the Lord's return. This thing's not
going to be done in secret. The Savior didn't die in secret.
God didn't do that in a corner. He's sure not going to allow
his son to come back in a corner and be secret, is he? The Lord's
return is going to be a swift, it's going to be a sudden and
shocking to the whole world at once, like a bolt of lightning
going across the sky and lighten up the whole sky, jump. Christ's
return is going to be like that. In Revelations 1, we read that
the whole world is going to see him at once. Well, you think
the earth's a ball, how is that possible? I don't know, but they
will, because God said they will. That's how, that's how God's
gonna make it so, that's how. And I know that's a terror to
the unbeliever, but that is untold joy to the believer. And it just
keeps us just waiting for his return, waiting for him to come.
Jan and I were with our girls the other day, and I told Jan,
I got to go, I've got to finish up some stuff at home, I've got
to go. And she was standing there, I was going, And she said, look
at your daddy. Just couldn't be still. That's
the believer. Just. I can't wait for him to get here.
All right, here's the last thing, I think this will be a blessing
to you, too. Until Christ's return. His people will keep gathering
to him. Verse 28. For wheresoever the
carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. I read
that verse and I thought birds of a feather are gonna keep flocking
together until the end of time. The first meaning of this verse
applies to what the Lord's been talking about here in regard
to this anti-Christ religion of men. God's put an end to it. He's put an end to this legalistic
ceremony of religion. He made that obvious when he
destroyed Jerusalem. The law and the ceremonies were
only useful for a time. They're only useful as pictures
to point people to Christ, to tell him he's coming, so you
look for him and recognize him when he gets here. But now that
Christ has come, God destroyed the pictures. He destroyed the
ceremonies. We're done with them because
we have the person. We have the person. And the Jews'
religion, and this applies to all legalistic, free will, ceremonial
religion, it's exactly the same thing, just under a different
heading, is a dead carcass. that God is killed. It's a dead
carcass. And the eagles of false religion
are going to keep flying around and coming down trying to feed
on that dead carcass. And they're going to try to keep
feeding on death until Christ returns unless he has mercy on
them first. Now the second interpretation
replies to God's elect. In Isaiah 40 verse 31, don't
turn there, you can read it later, but believers are described as
eagles. They'll mount up with strength as wings of an eagle.
God's people don't need the pictures anymore. We don't need that because
Christ has died as our sacrifice. He raised again, proving his,
his sacrifice put away the sin of his people. And until Christ
returns, his people are going to gather together around him.
Not a carcass, a living savior feed. We're going to gather together
to feed on Christ. to be given life from Him, to
have our life sustained by feeding on Him, by hearing Him preached.
Until Christ returns, this message of Christ crucified, we lift
up the Savior and the preaching of the gospel, Christ crucified,
that's gonna continue to draw all God's people to Him. That's
what draws them, it's Christ crucified. And they're not gonna
go back to that dead carcass of legalistic ceremonial religion
because God's been merciful to them. And they can't feed on
anything but Christ alone. They're just not going to have
it. God's people are going to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
God's going to salt them. He's going to make them hunger
and thirst after righteousness. And they're going to keep being
drawn to Christ. Believers thirst for the presence of Christ. So
they keep coming where he's preached. They need to hear of Christ's
preach. Just like this afternoon, you're
gonna need to eat because you're hungry. Believers need to hear
Christ's preach. They need to worship him. They
need to gather together and praise him. So they gather where Christ
preached. It's still true today, just like
the day David wrote it, as the heart panteth after the water
breaks. That's the way my heart pants after God. And God's people
are gonna keep gathering to him. They're gonna gather to Christ
because they've got nowhere else to go. And that's not gonna change till
time is no more. And when time is no more, guess
what? God's people are all gonna be
gathered together to Christ and not worshiping like we do now
by faith, but face to face. I go back to this. I can't wait, can you? Can't
wait. No reason to fear it. Every reason
to look forward to it. great anticipation. All right,
Lord bless you.