Verse 13, Heaven shall fall,
and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. Then shall they
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great glory. And then shall He send His angels,
and shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When a branch is yet tender
and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So ye in like manner, when you
shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh even
at the doors. Verily I say unto you that this
generation shall not pass till all these things be done. Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. I've got four things that I'd
like to point out in these verses to you this morning that everyone
here today needs to think about or at the very least be reminded First of all, the days before. In Mark 13 verse 24 he says,
but in those days after that tribulation. There was a day
of tribulation. Tribulation simply means trouble.
Doesn't mean a time or a dispensation. It just
means trouble. That's what the word means. And
last week, We were told about the abomination of desolation,
standing in a place where it ought not. This is that tribulation
or trouble of which our text is speaking. We're living in
a wicked time. A wicked time. Evil days. The things of God are just commonly
spoken of. They're just used in common everyday
language. Just as common as talking about
the weather. Or talking about, heard you went
fishing this week, how many did you get? That's why they talk
about God and the things of God. Just as common as politics or
what's for supper. When I say common, that's what
I'm talking about. Just common, no thought, no fear,
no reverence, no contemplation that these words, these things
are coming from God. And all sense of reverence or
fear of God is absent from our society as a whole. Very little
gospel being preached in our day, very little. When you talk
about the spiritual death of man and the necessity of regeneration,
the necessity of hearing the gospel, The person and work of
Christ are the torments of eternal hell. You talk to men and women
about that and all they do is go shrug their shoulders or nod. We're talking about eternity.
We're talking about your soul. has no effect on men and women
at all. And actually preachers today
are like the two dead messengers that God speaks of in Revelation
11 and Zechariah 4. They lay in the earth as dead
men and people just walk around them. Here's a guy laying dead
in the street. It's how he's describing his
ministry. And people are walking down the road and they just walk
around. No effect. There's no gospel
being preached. This man has been silenced by
the providence of God. And men think nothing of it.
Nothing of it. Now, the Apostle Paul, some 2,000
years ago, he wrote these words to the churches. This is in 2
Thessalonians 2. He said, let no man deceive you
by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a
falling away first. That's what our Lord's talking
about. There's gonna be a falling away. This is gonna happen first,
and then that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that's called God, or that is
worship, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing
himself that he is God. Now this is not talking about
Damien of Hollywood concept. This is not talking about an
incarnation of Satan. This is talking about an attitude,
a principle, a spirit. It's talking about a teaching,
talking about a concept. And it can be in a man. That's why you may hear some
grace preacher talk about the Pope and call him Antichrist.
He is Antichrist. He is Antichrist. He's contrary
to Christ. That's what Antichrist is. That's
what the spirit is. And also the congregations who
support such men, who listen to such stuff, who go home rejoicing
in their lives. That's Antichrist. Now the Lord
said in this day of falling away, this is what's gonna constitute
that falling away. It's gonna be a time when Antichrist
is everywhere. It's as common as toads, mosquitoes, birds,
they're everywhere. Well, how is he sitting in the
temple of God? Well, a man stands up here and
he starts talking about your free will. Nobody has a free
will but God. Is that right? He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay his hand or question what he does. But we can question
what you do. And God can put a stop to what
you will to do. You can't even will a common
cold away, let alone the counsel of God. And he opposeth and exalteth
himself. He stands up and talks about
his decisions making God's work acceptable. His decisions making
God's work effectual. This is a spiritual influence
in men, and it's in both individuals and congregations. And that's
what I see all around us today. This is him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, or who are perishing, because they receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. These are days of moral
degradation. That word means the process of
being degraded. It means a transition from a higher
standard to a lower level. Maybe even a compromise. Maybe
even some imagined place where wickedness and holiness can be
friends. But those days, he said, shall
be shortened for the elect's sake. These are the days before. When he says after those days,
that's the days he's talking about. And then secondly, I want
us to think about the days after. And those days after this day
of trouble, this tribulation, after those days of apostasy
and spiritual wickedness in high places. Thank God he's determined
an end to it. He said, except those days be
shortened, no flesh would be saved. Nobody would be saved.
That's how deceitful Satan is. That's how powerful anti-Christ
religion is. Earlier on in 2 Thessalonians,
he said, only he that now letteth will let until he be taken out
of the way. were not for their standing hand
of God and some gospel preaching in this world, I'd hate to think
what would happen. Thank God he's determined an
end to those days. It's not here yet, but it's coming. It's coming, and this is what
our Lord's telling his disciples early, even before he died on
the cross, he's telling them. It's coming. And under the burden
of the gospel and the glory of our God in Christ, we struggle
to live in this society. If we dare take a stand for the
truth, we make ourselves social outcasts. You try preaching what
I'm preaching to you, you try witnessing that to anybody. Go into a store, go into a crab,
go into the mall, Go among your friends. You can just about say
anything you want to say, and they won't say a word. But you
say this, you're going to be a social outcast. They'll spread
that all over Texarkana. We dare take a stand on the sovereign
grace of God and salvation, society will quarantine us. Dare to death,
somebody else is going to catch whatever it is we have. And our unbelieving children
and family members, they'll go as far as they can to avoid us. And they'll use any interaction
that they have with us to try to convince us that we followed
some kind of a cult. I'm telling you the truth. But it's almost over. Now our
Lord could have said, He said that 2,000 years before today. And He's telling them, it's almost
over. There's a sweet promise here
of these days coming to the close. After that tribulation, after
that troubled time, after those days, our Lord said, such as
was not from the beginning of creation, Unparalleled days. Days like no other days. Let
me say this. These are days of great grace.
Great grace. Oh my soul. The grace of God. Even in these times where Antichrist
religion is so powerful and gospel preaching is so The influence
of it is so small, so few men in our day preaching the grace
of God, and yet God saved sinners. That's great grace. He tells us, as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. In the book of Revelations, John
sees a vision. And the elders cried out and
they said, what are these? What are these gathered around
our Lord in these white garments? What are these? Revelation 7. What are these
arrayed in white robes and which came they? And he said unto me,
these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
So as Paul recognized of Israel, so we recognize in these days
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then it's no more works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. So after these days, after these
days, he says, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. Now, I don't know
if it's been quite a few years since our Genesis study, but
the sun is a picture of Christ. You know, and Peter, he said,
he said, You just keep on reading the word of God. You keep right
on listening to that minister preach Christ to you until the
day star arrives. He's talking about the sun. But
in that particular verse, he's talking about the son of God.
But he likens him up to the sun coming up till the day star,
till light dawns in your heart. It's a picture of Christ. David
said in the Psalms, I think it's Psalm 19, but he said, day unto
day utter a speech and night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor knowledge where their voice is not heard.
In all the universe, he hath set a tabernacle, all the universe,
he used that as a tabernacle for the sun. which is as a bridegroom coming
out of his chambers, his going forth is from the end of heaven
and his circuit unto the ends of it. So the sun shall be darkened. No more merciful, gracious Christ
in those days. The sun shall be darkened. No
more light of grace and mercy in him. No more warmth or peace
or comfort. The sun should be darkened and
then the moon. This is the church. The moon
has no light of its own. It revolves around the sun. And it gets its light from the
sun. And it shines that light on us. And it shines it where? In the darkness. In the darkness. This is a picture of the church.
And then he said, the stars from heaven shall fall. And Revelation
1.20 tells us that these stars are a picture of his pastors,
the pastors of his churches. They're set there to give light
in the darkness and to give direction and be a guide to men. When Christ
was born in Bethlehem's manger, what led those shepherds to Bethlehem? A star. Isn't that right? They're
set to give direction, to guide men to Christ. So what's he saying
here? He's saying after those days,
no more gospel. The hearing of the gospel's over. The Lord said, I stretched out
my arms to you, but you didn't regard me. You didn't regard
me at all. How did he stretch forth his
arms? Through the gospel. through the gospel. But after
those days, there's no more gospel, no more churches, no more pastor-teachers
to watch for your soul, no more day star rising in the hearts
of men, no more calling by his gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the days after. All
right, thirdly, He says in verses 26 and 27, he begins both verses
the same way, and then, and then, and then what? And then shall
they see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and
glory. He's not coming as their substitute. He's not coming as their representative. He's not coming as their mediator,
he's coming as the Lord of glory and he's coming in judgment.
Every eye is going to see him. Great power and the glory of
his holiness and justice. Then in another place it said,
shall you look on him whom you have pierced? Then shall they cry, he said,
for the rocks and the mountains to hide them from the face of
him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the what? The
Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
has come and who shall be able to stand? Verse 27, Mark 13. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds and
from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of
heaven. I want you to think about something. Not a drop of rain
fell on the antediluvian world. It had never rained, ever. And
not one drop of rain after 120 years of preaching, not one drop
of rain fell on the antediluvian world until Noah and his house
was sealed in that ark. When that happened, the rain
came. Not an ember fell on Sodom until
Lot and his daughters were safely tucked away underground. and
not a spark is gonna be kindled until all God's elect have been
gathered to the Savior. That's what he's telling them.
The first thing gonna happen. There's seven events that must
take place after those days of tribulation. This is something
Don wrote in an article years ago. The first thing, and I'm
like him, I wouldn't argue with you over the order of this, I'm
just telling you these seven things are happening And if you
study the Scriptures, it seems like this is the order. He'll
appear in the clouds with great power and glory. Then he's gonna
raise up all the bodies of his sleeping saints. The dead in Christ, he said,
should rise first. Then those who are living believers
at his coming should be caught up to meet him in the air. We
which are alive and remain should be caught up together to meet
him in the air. And then fourthly, he's going
to destroy this present creation and he's going to wipe away all
the serpent slime. He's going to disintegrate this
place. So don't put too much stock in
it. He's going to wipe it out. It ain't even going to exist.
The elements, Peter said, are gonna melt with the fervent heat. Then we're gonna come with him
and he's gonna make all things new. New heavens and a new earth. And we're gonna come with him.
See, when he first comes, he's not just gonna come down and
start walking on the earth. He ain't gonna put his feet on
this polluted ball one more time until he makes all things new.
And when he makes all things new, we're gonna come with him
and we're gonna stand on this new earth. On this new earth. And we're gonna sit with him
as he judges this world, this unbelieving world. That's what
Paul said, don't you not? You should judge the world. You
can't even make a decision in the house of God over some simple
little thing. You can't even, don't you know
you gonna judge angels? We're gonna sit with him when
he judges those unbelieving angels. And then lastly, at the end of
these things, We shall truly be partakers of eternal life
with Christ forever. All right, here's the fourth
and final thing. He said heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. You know, I struggle
up here from week to week to show you, I could very easily
just get a book of doctrine and sit down and give you an outline
and just throw it at you and let you figure it out. What preachers
are up here to do is to show you that this is the message
of God's book. I don't have an eternal counsel,
only God has one. I don't have an agenda. I'm up
here to serve him. And to serve him, I have to teach
you according to this book. If what I'm saying's not in this
book, if you can't see it in this book, you come and talk
to me. And at the end of time when I've talked to you, if you
still can't see it in this book, don't you believe it. This is
the word of God. This is what God teaches. And
if I can't show you that, I'm just up here spinning my wheels.
It's important to me as your pastor that you see what I'm
saying and that it's in the word of God. Let God be true, Paul
said, and every man lie. God's without question to be
believed. He's light, John said, in him
and no darkness at all. And his character absolutely
forbids him to lie. Christ said, I am. Now, if you
go back in the book of Exodus, I showed you this when I was
back there. Moses said, when I go down there and face Pharaoh,
who am I gonna tell him sent me? He said, you tell him I am
sent you. I am? Yeah, I am that I am. And then he goes on in the scriptures
and he uses that word I am. And in the book of John, where
John's trying to show us that Christ was the son of God, how
many times did he say I am? I am the manna that God sent
down from heaven, the true manna. I am the way, the truth, the
life, huh? And he tells us I am the truth. Did you know that another name
for the Son of God is the Word? The very first words in the book
of John, when he wrote his gospel, in the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And all things
were made by Him. He's the Word. There is no word
from God except Christ. We can trust what he tells us.
What he says should be an end to all argument, all strife.
But here he's talking about the end of all things and the destruction
of the universe and the eternal destiny of our souls. And he
says to us, all of these things that I've told you about are
gonna pass away. But my word, not gonna pass away. What I'm showing you here this
morning, not gonna change. It's not gonna disappear. It's
not gonna melt away. It's not gonna be taken from
you. He said, my word will not pass away. You can build your
hopes on the word of God, because judgment's coming. And more fierce
than that, the Lord's coming. The Lord's coming. All right,
thank you.