Matthew chapter 24. I'm taking the title for the
message from the words found there in verse 3 The disciples
came and asked the Lord when Shall these things be let's look
at verse 3 again Matthew 24 verse 3 and as he that is the Lord
Jesus Christ set upon the Mount of Olives and The disciples came
unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of
thy coming? And of the end, the end, there
is an end to this world. So the title I'm going to use
is, When Shall These Things Be? Now
there has probably been and still is more speculation and different
opinions on the interpretation of this chapter, probably more
than any other chapter in the Bible. People are always curious
about the Lord's second coming and when that shall be. When shall be the sign of the
end of the world, the disciples asked there in verse 3. Well, if you look at this same
chapter, chapter 24, turn over to verse 36. Now, I know people are curious about
these things, but Matthew 24, verse 36, but of the day and
hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my
father, my father only. Verse 44, therefore be also ready
for in such a hour as you think not, the hour you think not,
the son of man is coming. And then in verse 14, we'll look
at verse one down through verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for witness unto all nations,
and then shall the end come." There is an end to this world,
be sure of that. Now the real and most important
issue for the believer is not when, but who. Who is coming back? Who is coming
back? Well, we read a moment ago from
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, don't turn, let me just read it to
you again. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, with the trump of God and the
dead in Christ, the dead in Christ. So the Lord himself shall descend. The Lord himself shall come back. Now look at verse one, Matthew
24, verse one. And Jesus went out and departed
from the temple And his disciples came to him for to show him the
buildings of the temple. The Lord had preached his last
sermon in the temple, and he pronounced severe judgment on
the religion and ceremony of the law, and the works of the
law, and those who were seeking salvation by the works of the
law. If you look up just a page there,
Matthew 23 verse 38, Our Lord said, behold, your house
is left unto you desolate, desolate. The Lord departed. Jesus went
out and departed from that temple. He went out from the temple never
to return. Keep in mind, just in a day or
two, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to lay down his life for
our sins. This is his last sermon. Matthew
23 was the last sermon he preached in the temple. And chapter 24,
excuse me, 25, the last sermon he preached there among his people. He went out from the temple never
to return. He left those self-righteous
Jews to die in their sins. Remember, he said, if you believe
not that I am, you'll die in your sins. If you believe not
that I am, you'll die in your sin. The only thing the Lord
has to do for a sinner to die in his sins is just to leave
him to himself. If the Lord leaves us alone,
we're doomed. We're doomed. If the Lord leaves
us alone and leaves us in our ignorance and darkness and self-righteousness,
We have no hope. My pastor always used to say
this. He said, your sin will never keep you from Christ, but
your righteousness will. Our Lord pronounced severe judgment
upon those who went about to justify themselves. We know the
wages of sin is death. It's only the gift of God that
is eternal life. Our Lord said this in John 3,
this is condemnation, that light is coming to the world and men
love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
Pray God does not leave us alone, leave us to our own ignorance,
our own thoughts, that he would invade our heart, our mind, and
make us new creatures in Christ, quicken us together with him.
The temple in that day was a place It was to be a place of prayer
and worship around the sacrifice of the lamb on the altar of God
and the blood on the mercy seat on the day of atonement. Remember
the words when the Lord came to his temple? Turn back over
here to Matthew 21. Matthew 21, when the Lord finally
came to Jerusalem that last week before the Passover, In Matthew
21 verse 12, Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out
all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew
the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold
doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be
called the house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves. It became mere formality. and people misusing things that
were meant to worship God and to approach God. And the disciples
here, they came to Him to show Him the buildings of a temple.
Now, did the Lord need that for them to describe how impressed
they were? These disciples were in some
measure very impressed with all the buildings of the temple.
the grounds of a temple, all the ornaments of a temple, and
these things that appeal to our flesh are things outwardly, outwardly,
and that's what they were looking at. They were looking at the
grandeur of the temple. This was not the temple that
Solomon built. That temple was destroyed when
the Babylonians came and carried the Israelites away into 70 years
of captivity. This was the second temple that
was built. It was nothing like that of Solomon,
but still they were impressed how big, how many, how beautiful.
how ornate were the ceremonies. And these things appeal to our
flesh. They do, they appeal to our flesh.
You wonder why you look around the world and you see these big
cathedrals and temples and all, why do they build such a big
ornate place? Well, to impress men. That's
the only reason they do it. They don't do it to worship God. But look what our Lord says here
in verse two. The Lord said unto them, see
ye not all these things? Don't look at these things and
be impressed. Don't look at these things and
have some kind of a hope. Verily I say unto you, there
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down. And he's talking about complete
destruction of this temple that they took so much religious pride
in. The Lord dashes their opinions
of the temple. He dashes their opinions into
pieces, saying the temple shall be destroyed. Not one stone of
that structure shall stand. And to this day, it has not been
rebuilt. They tell me to this day, they
don't even know exactly where the temple was built. It was
so completely destroyed. To this day, it has not been
rebuilt and never will be. Forty years after the Lord laid
down his life for the sheep, they say in 70 AD, the Roman
army came to Jerusalem, invaded it totally, destroyed the temple
and destroyed the city. And the prophet Micah prophesied
about that hundreds of years before that. And he said that
temple and city will look like a plowed field. And that's exactly
what happened. And we read this from Micah 3
verse 12. Therefore shall Zion for your
sake be as a plowed field and Jerusalem shall become heaps
and the mountain of the house of the high places, a forest,
a wilderness. Now if you read the historians
of that day, Josephus, he mentions a man's name who came and actually
plowed that ground and it was nothing but a plowed field, completely
leveled and destroyed. And my friend, it never will
be built back, never be built back. Some people say that that's
going to happen, but it won't be. It won't be. Now look at
verse 3. As he sat upon the Mount of Olives,
the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when is this
going to happen? When shall these things be? And
what shall be the sign of that coming? They knew the end of
the world. was coming. When shall these
things be? What shall be the sign of thy
coming in the end of the world? Now, it's a question that's relating
to three things specifically in this chapter. Three things
we see. The judgment of God upon Israel,
the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you read this
whole chapter, and then the end of the world. Some parts of this chapter refer
to one, the judgment upon Jerusalem. Some to the second and some to
the third. Some apply to all three. I don't
think the Lord intended for us to fully know all these things
until they come to pass. As Paul said, for we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know even also as I am known. Remember in the
book of Acts when Peter was preaching and the spirit of God came upon
those men and they started to speak with tongues in a special
way. speaking known languages that
they had not learned, and they referred back to the Prophet
Joel, where he prophesied about that, and he said, this is that.
This is that that was prophesied. So when things come to pass,
we can say, well, this was that. This was that. Now, I don't pretend
to have all the answers to all the questions that are raised
here in this chapter. I would be a fool to say that
I did. But I hope as we go through this chapter, and we'll have
at least five or six different messages from this chapter, the
Lord will be pleased to be our teacher, our guide, and not lead
us to ungodly speculation, but to show us the gospel of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that forever shines in the face
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where do you want to be found
when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back? I want to be found in Him. That's the important thing. As
Paul said, I'll count everything else lost, dung, and ruined that
I may win Christ and be found in him. Now I have, I think,
if I remember right, I have six different things I want to point
out in these first 14 verses. The first thing the Lord Jesus
says in verse four and five Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name
saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. So beware of false
prophets. The first thing the Lord does
is to warn them and the dangers of false prophets. No one who
is a false prophet will tell you that he is. Because they're
so deceived, they think they're right. Look at verse 11. And many false prophets shall
rise and shall deceive many. In the same chapter, Matthew
24, look at verse 24, there shall arise false prophets and shall
show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible,
they deceived the very elect. But we know the elect of God
cannot be deceived. Back on the Lord's Sermon on
the Mount, you remember, in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Lord there on
that sermon said, beware of false prophets, Matthew 7, 15, which
come unto you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening
wolves. And then the Apostle Paul makes
this statement in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, for as much as false
prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the angel of light. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their deeds. What is the minister of righteousness,
the angel of light, that is really Satan's gospel? It's self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. So, beware. This is a warning for us today.
It's relative for us in our day because we have so much religion
and so little truth being preached. Our Lord said, you shall know
the truth and the truth will set you free. How can we be kept
from being deceived? Now, the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. How can we be kept from being
deceived? How do you know that I'm not
deceiving you? I've been here 30 years. How do you know I've
not came here to deceive you? by confirming everything you
believe and we believe according to the word of God. We preach
thus, saith the Lord. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for instruction in
righteousness. Our Lord said this, whosoever
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. I tell you to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ for he is everything in salvation. Faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of truth. Don't take what I say
just on the fact that I said it. Go to the book of God and
study it for yourself and ask the Lord to show these things
to you. That's what the noble Bereans did. When they heard
Paul preach the Gospel, they went home and searched the Scriptures
whether these things be so. I don't mind you taking the Word
and studying it for yourself and asking the Lord to reveal
these things to you. That wouldn't offend me at all.
That's why we all have the Bible. That's why we all go through
these books verse by verse, word by word. We don't pick a verse
here and pick a verse there and try to build a doctrine on one
verse. It's the whole word of God we use, the whole word of
God. The foundation of our faith is
based upon the word of God alone, not feelings. You remember the
old song of Martin Luther, feelings come, feelings go, Feelings are
deceiving. My warrant is a word of God. Nothing else is worth believing. So be careful. Don't trust your
feelings or an experience or traditions. Believe what you
believe because that's what you read in the Book of God. Believe
what you believe because that's what the Lord has revealed to
you from the Word of God. Any hope of salvation is based
upon what you have done, or the work you have performed, or decision
you have made, is a false hope. It's a false refuge. Salvation
is not conditioned upon you, it's conditioned upon Christ
alone. Salvation is of the Lord. The
only hope we have is a good hope through grace. Grace alone, not
grace plus, not Christ plus. Christ alone is all of salvation. Anything that you trust other
than the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing but a refuge of lies.
Be done with it. Christ alone is all our hope.
Christ alone is all of our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
our acceptance before God. all of our righteousness before
God. Isaiah 28, we studied this in our Bible study this morning. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
of stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. He that believeth
on that foundation shall never be forced out. Christ is our
only foundation of salvation. And someone that says that it's
Christ plus something you do or something you bring or something
you give, that's contrary to the Word of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. And
then he said this, No man comes to the Father but by and through
me. So that's the first thing I want
to point out. The second thing in verse 6,
7, 8, and 9, don't expect to live in this ungodly world as
a true believer and a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ and not
experience much trouble, heartache, and sorrow. Look at verse 6,
and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars We've heard that for how many
years? See that you be not troubled, for all these things, watch it
now, must come to pass. The battles and wars we see going
on right now, the battles and wars we've seen going on in Korea,
Vietnam, World War II, World War I, all the way back to all,
you know, you study the history of man, you know what you study?
All the wars, all the battles, all the conflicts. But don't
let your heart be troubled. God's on the throne. These things
must come to pass. Don't be troubled. Our Lord was
called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Lord God Almighty
had only one son without sin, none without sorrow. Our Lord
said, these words have I spoken unto you that in me you might
have peace. In this world you shall have Tribulation. Ah, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome. I have overcome. These things
must come to pass, and they have and they will by the Lord's sovereign
purpose. God ordains these things unto
his glorious end. Of him and through him and to
him are all things to whom be glory both now and forever."
And then the apostle says, amen. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. But the end is not yet, he says
in the last part of verse six. Wars and rumors of wars, and
then he goes on to say, nations shall rise against nation, kingdom
against kingdom. And there shall be famines, pestilence,
earthquakes, in all kind of different places. How many wars countries have
been fighting for centuries? And it will be that way until
the Prince of Peace comes and ends this world as we know it,
and make a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.
Let's see if we can find that over here in 2 Peter. Turn over
there to 2 Peter. People all the time worry about
global warming, climate change. I don't believe in global warming.
I believe in global burning. He's going to burn this place
up and make a new heaven and a new earth. We read about it
in 2 Peter chapter 3. The Lord is, verse nine, the
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness. He's long-suffering to us, for
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The day of the Lord will come, as the thief in the night, in
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth also,
and the works therein shall be burned up. Seeing these things,
all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons you ought
to be, In all holy conversation, godliness, looking for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with
a fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise,
look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. This place is not our home. We're
just passing through. We're just passing through for
a short, short time. There shall be famines, there
shall be pestilence, there shall be earthquakes, has been and
will be until the end of time, all according to the Lord's eternal
purpose. He said, I've spoken it, I bring
it to pass, I've purposed it, I will do it. And the Lord said
to his disciples, his apostles privately in verse nine, then
shall they deliver you up to be afflicted. and they shall kill you, and
you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." Did that
come to pass? Absolutely it did. The Lord says
to his disciples, you shall be afflicted and killed and hated. The Lord said again to them people,
those disciples, he said, if they hated me, they will hate
you. If they persecuted me, They will
persecute you. If they kill me, they will do
the same to you. How many dear saints down through
the centuries have been murdered and put to death over the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ? All the apostles were, and how
many down through the first centuries of a church were persecuted? Verse 10, 11, 12, and 13, here
we have a warning about apostasy. Then shall many be offended,
and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And
many false prophets shall rise and deceive many, because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Verse 13, but
he that shall endure unto the end The same shall be saved. Here's a warning about apostasy.
And that means abandoning a previous loyalty has to be about deserters,
those who defect from the truth and leave the truth. As John
said, they went out from us because they were not of us. If they
would have been of us, they would have continued with us. Many
will be offended. It says there in verse 10, the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is offensive to the natural man.
We must not try to remove the offense to please man. I don't
try to preach the gospel in such a way as to take the offense
off. Paul said, if I preach to please
man, I'm not the servant of Christ. And again, he says in Galatians
5, if I preach work salvation, then the offense of the cross
is ceased. Galatians 5 verse 11. The natural man will not receive
the things of God naturally because they're offensive to him. I'll
give you three reasons why. Why is the gospel offensive to
the natural man? Because the gospel offends man's
pride. We call a man a sinner That offends
his pride. Well, my friend, salvation's
for sinners. He came to save, not the righteous,
but called sinners unto repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
the ungodly. Does that offend you? I know
it is offensive to the natural man, but we are guilty, vile
sinners by nature before God. The gospel secondly offends man's
so-called wisdom. When you tell them the gospel
comes by sovereign revelation, Sovereign revelation, not by
your education. He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
it seemed good in your sight. He told Peter, when Peter made
the confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of God. And the
Lord said, flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my
Father, which is in heaven. Thirdly, the gospel offends man's
righteousness, doesn't it? that he's trying to establish.
Because the gospel declares, the gospel of Christ declares,
that there's none righteous, no, not one. And those who are
going about to establish a righteousness, when you tell them that a righteousness
is nothing but filthy rags, well, that's offensive to the flesh,
is it not? But my friend, in the gospel, Christ is all our
righteousness before God. Blessed is that man whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works. Romans 4, 6. And then
it says there in verse 10, they shall betray one another and
hate one another. Now, who's listening to these
words? Peter, John, Judas. Judas was the betrayer, right?
So was Peter. Peter said, I don't know the
man. Are you sure? I'm sure. I don't know the man.
So Judas and Peter heard these words, they both betrayed the
Lord. How sad is our human sinful depravity
that we all have within us because we're born in sin. What was the
difference between Judas and Peter? Judas betrayed the Lord
and went out and hanged himself. Peter also betrayed the Lord
and went out and wept bitterly and repented. And God revealed
again the gospel to him. You see, Judas didn't have a
surety and a savior. Judas was a reprobate. Peter
was one of God's elect chosen unto salvation. From the beginning
of the world, Peter had a surety and a savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who makes you to differ from
another? What do you have that you didn't receive? It's the
grace of God that's made us the difference. The only difference
between Peter and Judas was God's sovereign grace and mercy. And then he says, you shall hate
one another. And this is the fruit of the flesh. The carnal
mind is full of hatred toward God and toward his people. Here's the fourth thing, verse
11 and 12. False prophets who deceive many because of that
The fruit of that is the iniquity shall abound, always going about
to establish a righteousness of their own. And many false
prophets shall rise and deceive many. And because iniquity shall
abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endureth
to the end, the same shall be saved." There's nothing more
offensive to the Lord Jesus Christ than self-righteousness. He said
to these same Jews, you or they would justify yourself before
men, but God knows your heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Paul said to
these same people, these Jews in the temple, they were going
about to establish their own righteousness and had not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel
of Christ. Believers do persevere because
we're kept by the power of God. Believers do live by faith and
they do die in faith. Jeremiah 32 tells us about it. I will make an everlasting covenant
with them. I will not turn away from them
to do them good, but I'll put my fear in their hearts and they
shall not depart from me. He that endureth to the end shall
be saved. And his people do endure to the
end. They do endure to the end. As
it says in verse 24, there shall rise false Christ, false prophets,
and show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible,
they deceived the very elect, but the elect of God cannot be
deceived. because they've been taught of
God. The righteous shall hold on His way. He says, I give my sheep eternal
life and they shall never perish. In closing, look at verse 14. The gospel of the kingdom. We're talking about this gospel. Talking about the gospel of God
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, His person and His work. Our
Lord said this gospel shall be preached. It shall be preached
in all the world for a witness, a witness to the truth unto all
nations, unto all people. Then the end shall come. The gospel must and shall be
preached and then the end shall come. The gospel of God We know
it's concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, will be preached because
that's the ordained means the Lord has chosen to call out his
elect. He said, go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. When the Lord's last elect sinner
hears the gospel, believes the gospel, has made a new creature
in Christ Jesus, the Lord's coming back. Whenever that is. Whenever God's last chosen child
hears the Word of God, believes it, and is made a new creature
in Christ, the Lord's coming back. The Lord's coming back
to receive us unto Himself. It's pleased the Lord through
preaching to call out His people. That's why Paul said, I charge
thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, preach the Word.
Preach the word, and that word is Christ. He's the living word.
That word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. This gospel of the kingdom, the
kingdom has a king, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, shall
be preached, shall be preached, declared in all the world for
witness. We are his witnesses. We declare
what he has done and who he is unto all nations and then the
end shall come. What is this ministry about here
at Zebulun? It's about preaching the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw sinners to myself. And we're not ashamed to declare
the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God and the salvation.
And the Lord has given us so many good means to go into all
the world and preach the gospel. We've been on the radio here
locally for 28, 29 years. We're broadcasting Brother Henry
Mahan's TV sermons on WPGR, I believe it's called. We've been putting
sermons up on the internet on sermon audio for the last 19
years. We've been printing bulletins
and sending out bulletins full of the gospel good news posted
on sermon audio, mailed out each week to 200 different people,
most of them pastors. We preach pulpit sermons each
week that are posted each week on the internet. And we've been
doing that for the last, posting sermons on the internet for the
last 19 years. And there have been 1,646,920
sermons downloaded as of yesterday. You see, we use the means that
God has given us. And He's given us such good means
to go out and preach the gospel. I wrote myself a note here. I'll
give this to you. Sermon audio would always, at
the end of the month, put out a monthly report. I'd always
write Pastor Mahan a letter and send a monthly report to him,
how many downloads that month, how many foreign countries which
received downloads, usually 60 foreign countries, all 50 states,
and usually about 4,000 sermons a month. And when he would write me back,
he would always write me back and quote that verse. Verse 14. And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for witness unto all nations. And then the end is here. And we often say to me, Brother
Tom, he said the end is near. The end is near. And it's true,
isn't it? But what do we do? We keep on preaching, looking,
looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to return. Be you ready for in
such an hour you think not? Be ready. That's the main thing.
Be ready for in such an hour you think not, the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming back. So be you steadfast, Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians 15. Be you steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you
know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. We labor in the
Lord because our labor is not in vain. Well, I pray the Lord
will bless that word. And that'll be the first lesson