Turn back to Matthew chapter
24. This is not an easy chapter to
deal with, because he's speaking to them of what's going to happen
at that time, and then he intermingles with that, what's going to happen
through time and at the end of time. So all that is intermingled
in there. And it is not an easy chapter
to really deal with. But the one thing that stood
out to me is that verse, Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words from Genesis to Revelations,
not just those that Somebody thought it was brilliant and
put it in red. I wish they didn't do that because
the whole Bible is the Word of God. The whole Bible is His words. And He says, My words shall not
pass away. Our Lord never spoke, never spoke
an idle word, not one time. Never. Every word was full of
meaning. Every part of God's Word is for
our learning. We cannot look at any part of
the Word of God and say, well, that was for that time or for
that particular people. We can always learn something
from it. You know, a lot of this chapter
here has to do with that period of time, the destruction of Jerusalem,
the temple. But we can learn from that. We
can learn from it. Look over in Romans chapter 15.
Romans chapter 15, here in verse 4. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning." This whole book was
written for our learning from Genesis to Revelation. That we
through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, comfort of
the Scriptures, might have hope. So these things are written for
our learning. And the Lord reveals these things to His disciples
at that time And to us, that we be not deceived. Not for curiosity. He did not reveal these things
to the disciples when they asked him, when shall these things
be? He did not do that to satisfy their curiosity. They really
wanted to know, when shall these things be? Because he's talking
about destroying the temple. God gave them that temple. God
gave them all the measurements of it. God gave it to them and
He says it's going to be destroyed. And they said, when shall these
things be? Well, the reason He revealed these things is that
they and us be not deceived. We have His Word. We get into
His Word and study His Word and we will be not deceived. Because
He says in one place here, He says, Let me find it. In verse
25, Behold, I have told you before. I have told you before these
things come to pass, before these things happen, and the reason
I have told you, revealed these things to you, that you be not
deceived. That way when these things come
to pass, these wars and famines, because He said these things
will come to pass, If you be not deceived, but also, listen,
look in verse 6, you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See
that you be not troubled. He revealed these things that
we be not deceived and that we be not troubled. Anxious. The world events that are going
on right now, do they have you anxious? The things that are
going on in the economy, Do they have you anxious? He said, I
have told you these things that you be not troubled, be not deceived,
be not anxious, worried, scared, frightened. Our Lord has this
under His control. You know, everything, and this
is so, everything that's going on right now is the fulfilling
of what God has decreed in eternity past. I mean, nothing's going
on that He hasn't decreed. And everybody's in place. Everybody's
in place making these things happen. God's bringing it to
pass. These things are under His control. What can we learn
from this chapter? If there's anything I want you
to go away with this morning, from this, is this, that what
He has said What our Lord has said will surely come to pass. It will surely come to pass.
The thought that struck me when I read, he said, heaven and earth
shall pass away. It's not maybe or might, you
know, a meteor may get out of control and slam into the earth
and it might destroy it. No, he said heaven and earth
shall pass away. But my words shall not pass away. My words shall not pass away.
You can count on it. And the thought that struck me
was our Lord gave them this prophecy and in about 70 A.D. it happened. It happened. Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was destroyed. Titus
came in there and just took that place over and just leveled that
place. And here's a thought that struck
me as I read this. Shall not the rest of what he
said come to pass? Shall not the rest of it? What
he has said will surely come to pass. We do not look to history
to prove the Bible. We don't do that. We never do
that. But I tell you what, it's interesting.
It's interesting. Josephus was not a believer. He was a Jewish historian. But
if you read the account of the destruction of Jerusalem and
the destruction of the temple by Josephus, you'll see how it
fits exactly what our Lord said to His disciples many years before
it happened. History proves it out. All things have an end. Everything
has a season. And everything has an end in
this life. Everything touching this earth, touching this natural
life has an end. It has an end. He said heaven
and earth shall pass away. Shall pass away. Now why did
God destroy Jerusalem and this temple? Why did He do this? Well,
first of all, look over in Matthew 27. Why did He do this? He said it was going to happen.
And it did. But why? There is a purpose for everything
under heaven. In Matthew 27, in verse 25, let
me see if I've got the right one down. Then answered all the people
and said, His blood be on us. And on our children. They said that. And God answered
it. God answered it. Be careful what
you ask for. You just might get it. And they
got it. They said let His blood, let
the guilt of it, let the guilt of it, the punishment of it,
the charge of it, Be on us and our posterity. And it was. And then here's the second reason.
The temple was destroyed because the old covenant, the old covenant
was done away with. God was through with that. God
was through with that. Christ fulfilled all the types,
all the ceremonies. He fulfilled the priesthood when
He was on the cross and He cried, It is finished! He means it is finished. Everything
that represented Him has now been fulfilled. It has come to
an end. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. It is finished. God the Father
was not going to allow these things to go on. He was not going
to allow these things to continue because they're finished. Look
over in Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, He says in verse 9, Then said
He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God, He taketh away the first,
the first covenant, that first priesthood, all those things
that spoke of Him. He took away the first that He
may establish the second. You see, these things are done
with. So God dismantled them, so to speak. He dismantled them. He did away with them. You know,
when you are building a building and you use a scaffold, You have
a scaffold that you're using to build a building. When you
finish building the building, you take the scaffolding down
and put it away. This is just like scaffolding.
Christ is now the temple. A body has now prepared me. A
body to sacrifice, but a body for God to dwell in. God was
in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Christ is that temple. We have no earthly temple. Several years ago, I flew to
Utah with a company that I worked for, I managed, and they were
Mormons. So they had to take me over to
see where the Mormon tabernacle choir sang. But there was a temple,
big, nice, beautiful temple there. You're not allowed to go in there.
I could go in where they would sing, but nobody's allowed in
there. That was sacred to them. Sacred. We don't have that kind of temple.
God does not know such a temple. God does not dwell in temples,
He said, made with hands. Jesus Christ is our temple. He is our temple. Christ is our
altar. We do not have an altar down
here in front. We do not have an altar we offer
sacrifices on. We do not have an altar that
we come up to ourselves and bow down and carry on. Christ is
our altar. He's our altar. Christ is our mercy seat. Now
if Christ is our temple, If Christ is our mercy seat, if He is our
high priest, then we don't need these things.
These things are done away. You see why God destroyed it?
Because they were not going to let go of it. It was just a dead
carcass. You know over here it says, for
where soever the carcass is, in verse 28, there will the eagles
be gathered together. I do not know all the meaning
of that verse. But I know this, Judaism at that
time, the priesthood and all that was nothing but a dead carcass.
And it's interesting that the insignia, the symbol of the Roman
army was an eagle. That's interesting. And he said,
and that's all it was. There was no light. It's dead.
Just like this meeting here this morning. If Christ is not present,
If he's not the one we worship, if he's not the altar, if he's
not the high priest, if he's not the temple, this is a dead
service. This is nothing but a carcass
going on here. It's nothing but a carcass, a
dead carcass. And that's all it was. When Christ
said it's finished, it was finished. And these things are done away
with. But they held on to that. They held on to that and wouldn't
let go. They were going to do the sacrifices and keep the Passover. They were going to continue that
thing right on until God came in and wiped it out and leveled
it. Because Christ is the one we worship. He's the one who
has the preeminence. He's the temple. He's the sacrifice.
He's the altar. He's all these things. He's all
these things. We are free from the law. That's
why God dismantled this thing. We don't need it anymore. You
know, if you have the real person, you don't stand around looking
at a picture, do you? You look at a picture when the person's
absent. You know, if the person is not around, you know, you
look at family photos and stuff like that. But, boy, if the person
is standing in front of you, talking to you, you don't pull
out a picture and stand there and look at the picture while
they're talking. No, you do away with the picture.
You put it up. You do away with it. Because
you have the person. And we have the person. We have
the person in Christ. And that temple will not be rebuilt. I heard this on the television
the other day. They were talking about the temple
going to be rebuilt where there's an Islamic mosque sitting on
that place where the temple was. That temple is not going to be
rebuilt. See, that's what false Christ
and false apostles that the Lord speaks of here that you be not
deceived. Don't be deceived. You know,
before I heard the gospel and came and sat under Henry, I thought
that temple was going to be rebuilt. I was looking for the rapture
of the church. I saw a movie the other day.
Not a movie. It was one of those religious programs. And they
showed this room full of people. And they said this is what's
going to happen when the rapture comes. And people started disappearing
all over the place except for a couple people. It's not going to happen like
that. You can be sure. I heard Henry say this one time
and it's always stuck with me. You can be sure of this. When
the whole of religion is going this way, God's going this way. He's going the opposite direction.
I'll show you something here in a minute concerning that.
But that temple is not going to be rebuilt. Don't expect it
to be rebuilt. Don't expect the sacrifices to
be offered again. That would be a slap in the face.
Don't expect that priesthood to be resurrected. None of that
is going to start all over again. I read that to you in Hebrews
10. It's done away. God has done away with it. But
false preachers, as our Lord said, here will come. They have
made people, along with the Jews, a lot of the Jews, to believe
that someday that temple is going to be resurrected. It ain't going
to happen. It ain't going to happen. If God is pleased to save them,
He's going to save them just like He saved us. Faith in Christ. And they're not going to build
a monument. They're not going to build a temple. They're not
going to resurrect that old priesthood. Christ is going to be the priest.
And they're going to recognize Him. They're going to recognize
Him as the altar. They're going to recognize Him
as a sacrifice. They're going to recognize Him
as the temple. if God is pleased to save them. He's not going to allow this
resurrection of all that old stuff that he did away with to
come back again. That's not going to happen. And as I said, these false preachers
have people looking for the rapture of the church, cars crashing, airplanes crashing. You've seen,
you've seen the way they depict it. That's not the way it was
in the days of Noah. He said as it was in the days
of Noah, only eight people went in the ark. Now, I don't believe
at all it's going to happen like that, but if it did, you'd never
know it from any other day. How many went out of Sodom? How many righteous souls did
God find in Sodom? One. How many found grace in
the eyes of the Lord in the days of Noah? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now, there was eight souls saved, but it says Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It's not going to happen
like that. Our Lord says this, don't you
look in verse 27. Now, he says, well, let me go back up here
to verse 26. Wherefore, if they shall say
unto you, behold, he's in the desert, go not forth, don't believe
them, don't go out to a place, He's not in a place. Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it or not. Now listen,
this is how it's going to happen. When? Nobody knows. He said not even the angels of
God know. But here's how it's going to happen in verse 27.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even
into the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man
be. That's how it's going to be. There's not going to be a
secret coming. It's going to be global and it's
going to be seen, it's going to be known. That's how it's
going to happen. His second coming is going to
be evident throughout the whole world. And the reason he's given this
prophecy here is to prepare the disciples, first of all, as I
said, be not deceived, but I tell you this, he also gave it to
them to prepare them for the trials that were ahead. These difficult times they were
going to face. The disciples there were martyred. And He gives it to them to prepare
them for trials that would be not deceived. And He shows His
tender care over His elect. Do you notice
how many times that word was used? You know, during that day,
they called themselves the elect. You know, we call ourselves believers.
Those who believe the gospel are believers. But they called themselves
the elect. I read two or three commentators
who said the common name back then was the elect. They weren't
ashamed of it. They knew what that meant. They
knew what that meant. And here he shows his care over
them by revealing these things to them. And he warns them about
these false prophets that's going to come. Warns them about these
trials, prepares them for these trials, and these false prophets
that's going to come. Now, we know that false prophets,
for the most part, bring a different message. There's something wrong
in the message. But I was reading the scripture.
I want you to turn over to Numbers because it's not so easily detected.
There are some that are easily detected, no doubt. There are
some who soar far out in left field. You know that's not so. But over in Numbers chapter 23. I want you to notice this. And
this is why he said that if it were possible, the very elect
would be deceived if God allowed it. Their message is so close
that if God allowed it, they would be deceived. In verse 19,
God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that
he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? That's powerful, isn't it? Powerful. Or hath he spoken,
and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he is blessed. I cannot reverse it. He hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shadow of a
king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt.
He hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is
no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination
against Israel. According to this time, it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath God wrought? Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? You know who said that? Balaam. Go read Balaam's messages. You
go read his messages. Go over in there. He wanted to
curse Israel. We know the story. See, we know
the story. But when he spoke to Israel,
when he spoke of Israel, it was nothing but blessing. And you
go read it, you have a hard time finding anything wrong with that
message. You go read Balaam's messages and see. You know what
the Scripture says about Balaam? He was greedy of gain. Here's
the hard part. You and I cannot see the motive. We can't see the heart. You can
teach a paw parrot to repeat words. Anybody, any man can stand
and repeat doctrine. They can do that. But I tell
you what, you can't see the motive. God sees the heart. If he was
to walk in here, if Balaam walked in here and he gave some of the
things that he gave over in numbers, you'd think, wow, my, that's
so, that's great. He's not a man that he should
lie. Hath he said and shall he not
do it? Well, it's sure. That's exactly right. But that
man was greedy of gain. Greedy of gain. And our Lord
warns against them. But here's the good news. Here's
the good news. They shall not be deceived. He
said it is not possible. If it were possible, they would
be, but it's not possible. God's Spirit in them will not
allow it. God's grace in them will not
allow it. And that's why he says in verse
25, Behold, I've told you. I've told you. I've told you.
Now listen. I'll wind this up. I've told you. I told you that
Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. I told you that the temple was
going to be brought down. And these things happened. Shall
not the rest of it happen? Shall not heaven and earth pass
away as He said? It shall. It shall. God is good for His Word. He
says over in Isaiah 55, My word shall not return unto me void. It would do us well and give
us comfort. It would give us great comfort
to get into his word and find out what he has to say. And if he speaks woe, like he
has in this chapter, He said, you're going to hear of wars
and rumors of wars, but don't be troubled. You don't have anything
to be afraid of. You're under my protection. You
are under my care. Listen, you know one of the thoughts
that gives me great comfort is this, I am his responsibility. That gives me so much comfort.
I'm His responsibility to bring home. Spotless. Spotless. Alright.