Chapter 13. Our study this morning will be
on the first eight verses of Mark chapter 13. And I titled
the study, The Beginning of Sorrows. That's how the eighth verse ends. Let's read all eight verses and
then I'll make some comments. Mark chapter 8, verse 1. And
as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto
him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings
are here. And Jesus answering said unto
him, seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone
upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat
upon the Mount of Olives over against the temple, that is opposite
from it and high enough to look over into the courtyard of it, Peter and James and John and
Andrew asked him privately, tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign when
all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answering them began
to say, take heed lest any man deceive you. For many shall come in my name
saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. And when you shall
hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled, for such things
must needs be. But the end shall not be yet,
for nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,
and there shall be earthquakes in divers, that is, in different
places, and there shall be famines and troubles, These are the beginning
of sorrow. Now throughout this 13th chapter
of Mark, our Lord speaks of things which are but a prelude of eternal
judgment. You see, the second coming of
Christ, religion makes the second coming of Christ out to be a
glorious thing for the whole world. It's not going to be a
glorious thing for the whole world. The world, in general,
gonna cry out for the rocks and mountains to hide them from the
face of God. He's not coming as the lowly
Jesus. He's not coming the way he first
appeared in this world, in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
humble, humble person. No, he's coming in clouds with
all the glory of his Father's house, and not one eye on this
earth is going to escape seeing him. His appearance is going to appear
to this world as far as the east is from the west. They're going
to see him. And it's going to happen in an
instant. In an instant. And he's going
to call out his elect. And he's going to set this world
before his throne in judgment. And throughout this 13th chapter,
Mark, he speaks of those things which are but a prelude of that
judgment. These are visible evidences of
the wrath to come. And the immediate context of
these verses has to do with the destruction of the temple in
Jerusalem. And the destruction of the Jewish
church state and of the Jewish nation, which is kind of one
and the same thing. And all of which would take place
just 40 some years after the Lord dies. It happened in 70
AD. He was 33 years old when they
nailed him to the cross. And all of this is a fulfillment
of that messianic prophecy given in Genesis 49. He said, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. That's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I wanna give you three things
this morning out of these verses that I just read to you, three
things to think about. First of all, I want you to see
what he's talking about. They were enamored by these,
obviously for good reason. These buildings were one of a
kind. One of a kind. They imported
the cedar by which that thing was built. You can go back and
read about it, where it was built under Solomon's reign, and the
things that went into that temple were phenomenal, just phenomenal. This stone was quarried way away
from there and shipped to here, and each piece cut and sculpted
to fit perfectly when it got there. These weren't just buildings. These were phenomenal buildings. And anybody who looked at them
just, the Queen of Sheba, when she came over and saw Solomon
and saw all the kingdom of Solomon and all the glory, which the
center of all that glory was that temple, and when she saw
that, she said, the half is not yet been told. You didn't go
into these places and not come away just in wonder. Wow. Wow. And that's kind of the effect
I got. I went up to visit my son in Washington, D.C., and
they insisted that I go out and see the National Cathedral, a
big old Catholic cathedral. And you had to back up a block
and a half just to get it in a photograph. It was huge. And everybody that was going
in and out of that place was just in awe, just in awe. But our Lord said when they showed
those things to him, he said not one stone gonna be left on
the other. All these things gonna be thrown
down. So I want you to see what he's
talking about here in the destruction of the temple. And when he, all these words, the
Holy Spirit don't waste words. When he writes in the scriptures,
we do well to slow down and consider how he's saying these things
and with what words he's saying these things and give it some
study, give it some thought. Dwell on these things because
the Holy Spirit, he don't waste words. He has a meaning for these
words, whether we see it or whether we don't. And it said, as he
left the temple. I'm gonna tell you something,
when the Lord leaves a place, a great woe is on that place. He said, woe unto thee, Bethsaida,
didn't he? Woe unto thee. Why? Because he
was there and they rejected him, rejected his message, and rejected
the God that he stood there to represent. Now, woe, woe unto you. Your punishment will be greater
than those in Sodom and Gomorrah. Woe unto thee, Chorazin, Bethsaida,
and Capernaum! He said, And thou, Capernaum,
which art exalted into heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. And this temple had served its
purpose. A lot of times the old writers,
when they're writing about these Old Testament types and symbols,
they will refer to these things, these buildings and things, and
their pictures, and they called that temple worship. Temple worship,
because God demanded of the people to worship him to come to that
temple, to come to that tabernacle, because that tabernacle and that
temple stood there as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
gonna worship God, you're gonna worship him through Christ, or
you're not gonna worship him at all. That's just so. And he told them, he said, on
this altar, he said, within this veil, on this altar, through
this high priest, I'm gonna meet with you. Period. Oh, I saw the Lord out on the
lake. I don't know what you saw, but it wasn't the Lord. It wasn't
the Lord. This is where I'm going to meet.
Has it changed? No. We're the spiritual temple,
the church. You're going to worship God,
you're going to worship in his temple. You're going to worship
him, you're going to worship him through Christ. We have an
altar, Paul said. It's not of that old temple,
it's not of that old But it's Christ. He's our altar. The temple had served its purpose,
and now it had become a den of thieves. That place where God's
priest and God's king and God's prophets once worshipped the
living God had come to an end. Hebrews eight, he said, now that
which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. And
he goes on in chapter nine to explain to you what he's talking
about. Talking about that old temple, that old temple worship,
priesthood type of government, that old nation, that old, all
that typical stuff is about to come to an end because Christ
fulfilled it. There's no reason for it again. But here's what I want you to
see in this. Everything in and about a religion without Christ
is an abomination to God. It's an abomination to God. And while it may enthrall the
hearts and emotions and imaginations of people, it's putrid in the
sight of God. I tell you, if you today were
to go to a Jewish synagogue and watch the process and watch the
dress and watch all the things that they do, you'd be enamored
by it. And it does. It's geared that way. They gotta
get some Hollywood evangelists in there. They gotta get some
professional musicians in there. They have to get all this stuff
in there in order to excite the emotions and imaginations of
the people that's gathered in there because neither them nor
that preacher knows God. Now, it's just so, ain't it? It's just so. Listen to this,
over in Isaiah chapter one, he said, bring no more vain oblations. What in the world is an oblation?
That's anything that you offer to God. Don't you bring your
vain offerings to me, he said. Incense is an abomination to
me. My father-in-law was Catholic,
and I don't remember what had happened, but we went to a funeral,
and it was a Catholic funeral, and I felt obligated at the time.
I had no interest in God whatsoever, but I went to this thing, and
they would come out, these young boys would come out about 12
or 13, 14 years old, and they had these little incense boxes,
and they'd be blowing that little smoke all out around in the room,
And then they spoke in Latin. Of course, none of us understood
what they were saying. He said, you're incense. You come in here with that incense,
and you're pouring it out on the altar. But you don't know
why you're pouring it out. You don't know what you're pouring
out. You don't know what it represents. You're just going through the
motions. And he said, your incense is
an abomination unto me and the new boons and Sabbaths. Oh, the
Sabbatarians in our day, keeping the Sabbath. We're gonna keep
the Sabbath. Listen to this. He said, your
new moons and your Sabbaths and the calling of your assemblies,
I cannot away with it. That's what God said. Away with it. It's iniquity,
even your solemn meetings. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts, my soul hateth. There are trouble unto me, and
I'm weary to bear. It's not religion or religious
ceremonies or gaudy cathedrals that please God. Without faith,
it is impossible, the scripture said, to please God. And faith
in and of itself doesn't please God, but it's the object of that
faith, which is Christ. That's what pleases God. And
the faith of God's elect looks only to Christ. And thereby, it pleases God. Pleases God. Only faith, and
that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Just the faith of God's elect.
And I don't care how much you've sacrificed and how many hours
you've walked or how much tithing you've paid or how many prayers
you've prayed. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And if I understand Romans 3,
24 and 25, those Old Testament sacrifices all pointed to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They all pointed to him. They
all spoke of him. And Old Testament believers believe
the same thing that we believe except they look to the Christ
who was coming and we look to the Christ who's already come.
That's the only difference. The only difference. The religion of the Jews of which
this temple was the centerpiece of, it was rich in appearance. It was rich in respectability. It was rich in history and rich
with activity. But they had forsaken God. They had forsaken God. Oh, my soul. The scripture said
they had a name that they lived. That's what they told everybody. We're alive, and you're dead. They had a name that they lived,
but, he said, they were dead. They were dead. And our Lord
said this, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
unto God. And the power of godliness is
the gospel of Christ, and all those who deny this are an abomination
to God. Somebody said, well, we're just
too much like little children. We're impressed with things without
seeing the danger of them. That's exactly right. Things
that appeal to our senses attract us more than things that contribute
to the salvation of our soul. That which is essential to worship
is not physical. It's spiritual. It's spiritual. And the gospel of Christ, the
spirit of Christ, the revelation of Christ, the preaching of Christ,
these are the things by which we're enabled to worship. And
where these things are lacking, our religion is nothing but a
vain shelter. That's all it is. And I've been
through it. I was raised in it. I know exactly
what I'm talking about. Their whole religion is geared
to glorify man. That's what it's all about. The
emphasis is put on men. Your decision, your will, your
intellect, your reasoning. No emphasis put on the glory
of God at all. In this world, though, it's filled
with religion. It's not filled with men and
women that know God. And both the world in general
and the religious world are both declared to be beasts in Revelation
chapter 13, if you recall our study over there. And they belong
to the devil. They belong to him, both serving
Satan and the one recommended by the other. You know that there's
churches in this land that our government will defend. And there's
churches in this land that they wouldn't defend at all. And we're
one of them. Take heed, that's what our Lord
told these men, that no man deceive you. Because they already were
deceived. They already saw something marvelous
in this temple. And the Son of God's standing
right beside them. And they saw more glory in the
building than they saw in Him. Think about it. And our Lord's warning here is
not about those who claim to be Christ and the fools that
follow Him, but of a deception called strong delusion in 2 Thessalonians
2, by which whole nations fall under their influence. Walter Gruver, our missionary
down in Mexico, down in Yucatan, he was preaching to a group of
people one day, and it was out next to one of those old cathedrals
that the conquistadors built when they came through, and it
was in ruins, but they were out there beside this thing, and
a pretty good-sized crowd had gathered up there, a little more
than 100 people had gathered there to hear him, and Walter
started to preach. And a Catholic priest came up and he just got
out of his little Jeep and put his foot up against that stone
wall and just reared back and didn't say a word. He just started
looking around at that congregation. And one by one, they started
to leave. And they left and there wasn't
a handful there. He got back in his Jeep and drove
off, never said a word. Religious intimidation. Strong
delusion. Catholics down in Mexico and
Italy, Baptists and Methodists and other religions right here
in the United States deceiving our nation into believing that
they are of God. We have some kind of a national
event, an election, whatever it is. They always got somebody
out of one of these religions to stand up and offer thanks
and prayer and things like that. all these things that are going
on. They want folks to believe that they know God, and that's
why they do it. His disciples were being deceived, or they would have put more emphasis
on him than they did on the temple. And the Lord said to the priests
and elders about that temple. They showed it to him too. And
he said, tear this temple down, in three days I'll raise it back.
And they had no clue that he was talking about his resurrection. And him as the chief cornerstone
of his spiritual temple. Salvation is promised to none
but those who believe on Christ, and that's the Christ of Holy
Scripture as God declares him, the true Christ. False preachers
who declare false gospel are to be considered by faithful
men as accursed of God. You can read it for yourself
in Galatians chapter one. And then in, I think it's second
John, he writes to the elect lady and he tells her, if any
come unto you and bring not the doctrine of Christ, don't you
bid him God's faith. Don't you say, well, the Lord
bless you. Don't you say that. And don't you invite him into
your home lest you be partakers of his evil deeds. You don't
do it. If he brings not the doctrines
of Christ, he's antichrist. And Paul, he was so strict on
this that he wrote to the Galatians and he said, I would that they
were even cut off who trouble you. God just take them out. And then thirdly, I want you
to see some of the things which God sends upon this earth to
give warning of this wrath to come. And brethren, God has and will
continue to give evidence of his coming judgment. This is
not judgment. It's not to even be compared
with judgment. It's just the prelude. It's the
beginning of sorrows, wars, All my, so I've been, they give me
a free, I guess a month of Smithsonian, and I was watching some of the
documentaries on World War I and World War II, and the death and
the catastrophe and the ugliness of that war was just, especially
World War I, with all that trench warfare and stuff, it was amazing
how many people were just slaughtered. And he talks about wars, and
the rising and falling of nations, and disease, and pestilence,
and famines, and every kind of trouble. He just uses the word
trouble in there, talking about these events. And the news anymore. It's so
depressing, I don't even watch it. Half of it's not even true, but
the part that is true is so depressing you don't want to watch it. Fathers
raping their daughters and children being molested and so-called
saints and leaders and trusted organizations guilty of these
things. Drugs and murders and pornography
and drunkenness and extremists of every sort. Not to mention
the earthquakes and floods and natural disasters and hurricanes
and all of these things. Not even safe to go to school
or attend a local church anymore. Somebody raise up with a gun
and kill eight or 10 or 12 people before they can get a hold of
you. Are things out of control? Is
Satan taking over? What's going on? Why are such
things permitted by God to come to pass? They're just tokens. God's given us tokens of the
wrath to come. We live in one of the best countries
in this world, if not the best. We enjoy privileges that many
nations don't enjoy at all. Freedoms in this country to do
this and do that and go here and go there that you can't do
in other countries. Visible evidences, that's what
God gives us. We've lived in comfort, we've
lived in plenty so long. And he gives us tokens. He'll
send a hurricane like he did here the other day. These are all declarations of
the ruin and depravity of every man's nature and they're gonna
show his need of mercy and grace. And oh, what ruin, what ruin. What misery, what trouble, what
woe our sins have heaped upon us. And yet some continue on
turning a deaf ear to the providence of God and to the gospel of God.
Actually, those scriptures that I was quoting to you a while
ago out of Isaiah 1, if you read it, he said, why should you be
smitten anymore? You'll just revolt. More and
more. It has no effect on you. But our Lord said to his disciples,
these are the beginning of sorrows. Catastrophes like floods and
wind and tornadoes and mudslides and all these things. Avalanches, earthquakes, tsunamis. These things are nothing compared
to eternal judgment. And I tell you, it just makes
me nauseous when I go to a funeral, and sometimes I have to. But
I go to a funeral and people start talking about somebody
because they'd suffered a little bit, saying, well, all his suffering's
over. Not if he didn't know God, they're
not. They're just beginning. They're just beginning. My mother died. and my brothers
and my sisters, and a nephew just here recently, none of which
had any saving knowledge of God, none whatsoever. And because
of their suffering in this world, it was said after their death,
well, they've gone to a better place. Do you believe that? You're a
fool if you believe that. That's just not so. That's just
not so. That's something funeral homes
promote so they can make the heirs of that person, the children
of that person, they can make them feel a little bit better.
That's all that kind of nonsense is. Well, they're not suffering
anymore. Oh, they'll suffer for eternity
now. And I don't know if there's a
literal fire in hell, but he wouldn't use the picture of fire
if that torment wasn't equally as bad. So whatever it is, it's
a flame that never stops burning. It's eternal. I go to these places and I just
wanna throw up. Let me read you something from
Revelation chapter 20, verse 11. John was carried out in the
spirit and he said, I saw a great white throne and him that sat
on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. Are you
listening? And there was found no place
for them. No place. They've gone to a better place.
No, they don't have a place. No place found for them. They
expected one. They told they had one. And even as they were discovering
the truth, their loved ones were still talking about it. But he said, I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God, and the books were open,
books of man's evil works, books of the law, which declared the
strict justice of God. And the dead were judged out
of the books according to what was written. And the sea gave
up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to the works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Now
I want you to listen to this. This is the third book that was
used at judgment, the book of life. And he said, and whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. Oh, may the Lord spare us from
that awful, awful judgment. And I tell you, just the fact
that we know what it is, even percentage wise, even just a
tad, just a little bit understanding what it is. Oh, how we ought
to be praying for our neighbors and our friends and our relatives
and our fathers and mothers and anybody who don't know Christ.
And we ought to be at their house knocking on their door saying,
hey, you need to come here. You need to come here. Time's
short. Time's short. Today is the day
of salvation, not tomorrow. Not tomorrow. He could come today. He could come before I preach
this next message. But he's allowed me to preach
this one. So take it to heart. May the Lord show these things
to us. Thank you.