Mark chapter 13. Today we're gonna pick up where we left off last week, here in this text in Mark chapter 14, or 13, I'm sorry. And we're gonna begin this morning with verse number 14. And we'll go down to verse 23. Mark 13, beginning verse 14. But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand. Then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein to take anything out of his house. And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. But woe to them that are with child, and to them they give suck in those days, and praying that your flight be not in winter. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation, which God created until this time, neither shall be. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved. But for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. And then, if any man shall say to you, lo, here is Christ, or lo, he is there, believe him not. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise. shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed, behold, I have foretold you all things." Let's again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for this opportunity that we have to come before you in prayer. We're thankful for the time that we have to worship you. Lord, we're thankful for this assembly this morning. Thank you for your word, the truthfulness of it. Lord, I pray, and even as it's preached here today, it may be proclaimed in truth and received as such, not only in this message, but in the one to follow. Lord, that you'll bless our time together, that truly, in the name of our Savior, be high and lifted up, that your people be strengthened and edified, even encouraged today, And if there's any here today who know you not, that today may be the day that they come to know you as their savior. Lord, I pray that you'll be with those who cannot be here. Lord, you know the need of each and every one. And I pray that you'll place your healing hand upon those who are sick. You'll bless those who need comforted. Lord, I pray that you'll stir those who need stirring even at this very day. And Lord, I pray you'll be pleased to send revival across our land and even start here with us. Be with the other churches meeting this morning as well. I saw them in some areas where they're still cleaning up from hurricanes and floods. Lord, I pray that you'll bless those folks as well in a special way. Be with the missionaries on the foreign fields, give fruit for their labor. Lord, I ask that you'll forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings, our many faults and our failures. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. As I mentioned last week, this is a passage of eschatology, a passage dealing with things to come. And there is a number of disagreements about interpretation when it comes to a passage like this. Today, I'm taking this, beginning of verse 14 and going down to 23, and I'm taking this as something that is future. I'm taking this as something that is not yet fulfilled, and I'm taking it as literal. In this, we find there is a transition. And if I were to put a title on this, by the way, I'm gonna take it straight from the text there in verse 14. And I've entitled this, The Abomination of Desolation. The Abomination of Desolation. This is where we begin in this sermon. However, I'll say off the top of my, off the top, this should not be where we begin with our eschatology. This should not be where we start with prophecy. If our focus is on the rebuilding of the temple, if the focus is on the Antichrist, then we've got the wrong focus. The focus has to be, regardless of what you believe about the second coming of Christ, The focus has got to be on Christ. And if the focus is anywhere else, you've got to readjust your focus. However, we also need to look at some of these things, even as Jesus did here in this text. And in this text, in verse 14, there's a transitional statement here, that word, but. And remember, all of this discourse came about when the disciple made that observation back there in verse one, when one of the disciples, this unnamed disciple said, Master, see what men are stones and what buildings are here. Jesus had told his disciples that he would die and rise again. He told them that these things were coming. But as the as they had been students of the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, they were looking for and expecting the Messiah. They believed that he had come and rightfully so, Jesus is the Messiah, but they were expecting the kingdom to be established immediately. And in fact, this mindset stayed with them all the way through. Look there at Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one and verses six through eight. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? So that's the question. Are you at this time going to restore again the kingdom to Israel? Very straightforward question. No question in our mind as to what they were thinking. they expected a literal fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. And Jesus answered there in verse seven, and he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after that the only ghost is come upon you. You shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And so with their thinking and in their reading of the Old Testament, their understanding of the Old Testament prophecies of the kingdom in Israel, nowhere do we find that Jesus ever corrected them or told them that they were wrong. And surely, if there was an opportune moment to do that, he would have done that here. But instead, he said, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons. And so back to our text here in Mark chapter 13, as Jesus is addressing them, and remember this went from an observation about the stones and the in the buildings of the temple to Peter, James, and John, and Andrew, privately asking Jesus in verse four, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? And so, beginning in verse five and going all the way down, this is his answer. And we looked at, all the way up to verse 13 last week. Verse 14 is a transitionary statement. As he begins to talk about events that take place, I believe in the middle of the tribulation period. In fact, here in verse 14, He's pulling from the Old Testament. He says, but when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand, then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains. This, he's taking them back to Daniel chapter nine. So if you want to go back there with me for just a few moments, Daniel chapter nine, Verses 24 through 27. This is what it says. Daniel 9 verse 24, 70 winks. are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem under the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks. The street shall be built again, the wall, even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but, praise God, not for himself, And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood. And to the end of the war, desolations are determined, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. For the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation. And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. And so this is the prophecy that's known as Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy. Now, 70 weeks, as John Gill put it, is not to be known or understood as weeks of days, which is too short of a time for the fulfillment of so many events that are mentioned here. These are rather weeks of years. And so if you calculate this out, there's about 490 years of prophecy in this passage here. But when we look at this, as the angel determines, and I'm not gonna preach this text today. I did one time, it took me a few weeks, but the angel informs Daniel that 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. God is sovereign over all things, including time and events and everything that takes place, including when they take place. Over in Daniel chapter 11 in verse 36, it says, and the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. There are certain things that are determined, certain things that have been set. God has a directive will, God has a permissive will. Nothing beloved in any of history thanked God by surprise. And so the student of Bible prophecy must understand that it is God who determines and in that includes the things that are written in the Old Testament, the things that are written in the New Testament, and indeed, the things that are happening even now in our lifetime. Right now, everybody's all Seems like the news media's all been out of shape and wondering about what's gonna happen next in the Middle East and what's gonna happen with Russia and Ukraine and what's gonna happen with the American elections. I have news for you today that God already knows what's gonna happen with all those things and he's not worried at all. There's not some council going on in heaven where God is sitting there with plan A and then plan B and then plan C. No, no. All of this is the way has been determined. Now, as near as I can tell, every Every conservative, Orthodox, Bible scholar, commentator, preacher, will agree that the first part of this prophecy was fulfilled in a literal manner, just the way that it was given by Daniel, or given to Daniel, written here in the book. the disagreement comes over what is to take place. As I said, I take this literally, that there is a literal seven-year tribulation period, which is coming, time known as Jacob's Trouble, a time when there will be this abomination of desolation. that Jesus is speaking of that he pulled from Daniel. In fact, in this one passage in Daniel, isn't the only time that it's spoken of. It's also spoken of in Daniel chapter 11. We go over there, Daniel 11 and verse 31. and arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, they shall place the abomination, and maketh desolate. And so, so what's that mean? Well, that means that there's coming a time when the Antichrist will set an image of himself in the temple during the Great Tribulation period. Now, looking at Jerusalem now, there is no temple. But I believe there will be. All that being said, let me just say this. And this is where some of my Christian brothers who may be on the same page as where I'm coming from with eschatology, they have gotten a little bit too excited, maybe. They've gotten a bit, a bit too excited about the thought of the temple being rebuilt. They've gotten excited about the Antichrist. They've gotten excited. And I mean, I think it started out with an excitement about the idea that Jesus is coming back. But again, they've gotten off target. What am I saying? There is no Christian anywhere who should be encouraging the Jews to be rebuilding the temple. That's what I'm saying. Read the New Testament, especially Galatians and Hebrews. Understand what Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross for the Jew and the Gentile. And the old covenant way of worship has been done away with. And so the Jewish people, they don't need to be rebuilding the temple. They need Christ. And there are Christian groups out there who have gotten, selfishly, in my opinion, that they go over to Israel and they send money over there to try to encourage the Jews to build the temple, as if this is somehow going to speed things up for the coming of Christ. That's not how this works. Indeed, our commission for Jew and Gentile is to preach the gospel. not to be building temples or helping build temples for the Jews. There's a reason why that the veil of the temple was written in two from top to bottom. There's a reason why I believe that the temple was destroyed in AD 70. And so, even taking this literally, Let our excitement be about the coming of Christ and let us not get caught up in some of those movements that happen that are misguided and certainly off target. Furthermore, we are not looking for the Antichrist. Um, I've said that already once or twice, but you know, the fact that there is a one, uh, who's coming in the, uh, tribulation period, uh, that's not the focus, uh, in second Thessalonians. Well, let's look there as we kind of get back on track here. Second Thessalonians chapter two. We go to verse one. As Paul wrote to the church of Thessalonica, he said, now we beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is a hand. Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. The man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God that is worship so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. And so it's good to know that there will be an Antichrist who's sitting in the temple and all of that sort of thing. But I believe where we get messed up is when we take our eyes off of Christ. I don't know. I don't know the identity of Antichrist. I'm going to give you some theory here. This is just my theory, but you can take it or leave it. I believe that God knows everything. He's got the times and the seasons in his own hands. You and I, we don't know the times or the seasons. We don't know when Jesus is coming back. So let us not make that mistake of trying to set dates and all that sort of thing. But guess who else doesn't know when Jesus is coming back? The devil, he doesn't know. He doesn't know when all this is gonna take place. I believe that, and the Bible speaks of this, that there is a spirit of Antichrist in the world. I believe that in every generation, there is a potential of somebody within that generation being the Antichrist. But, but that's because, that's because the devil is hard at work. Always, always ready. But if you're asking me who's the Antichrist, I don't know. If you ask me when's Jesus coming back, I don't know. Because the Bible doesn't reveal those things. What does, what does Jesus tell? his disciples here about this coming time as they ask this question. I believe that the saints will be raptured up out of here before all this takes place, But as we look at this, we see he gives them an answer about what's going to happen to those who are here. When you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand, then let them be in Judea, flee to the mountains. and let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment." Tells him to flee to the mountains. I'm told that the Greek word here is related to the English word fugitive as in someone who is on the run to escape danger. The mountains referred to here could be in the Dead Sea area where there were caves and other natural areas for hiding. He says, if you're on the rooftop, don't go down into the house to get anything. If you're in the field, don't go back to the house to get your coat. Jesus is painting a picture of the urgency that the Jewish people will need to have to flee when this happens, as prophesied by Daniel. Verses 17 and 18, but woe to them that are with child and to them they give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in winter. Jesus had great compassion on the women, especially the pregnant women and the nursing babies. They would be hindered from leaving quickly because they carry children. That's one way to look at this. But there's another way to consider it too. Here we stand today in 2024. We're not yet to that prophesied time of this abomination of desolation. But right now in 2024, here in America, one of the most dangerous places for a child to be, is in the womb. And even though Roe v. Wade was reversed, it is becoming more and more apparent that as society crumbles and drifts further and further away from God, there is danger for some children even outside of the womb. is abortion, which is murder. Becoming legalized or enshrined in constitutions of states or even bills being written advocating for it. inside and even outside of the womb. There is a great holocaust that's going on in our country and in our state and in the world even right now and it will continue as society spirals further and further away from the things of God. Even this year there were an estimated somewhere around over 862,000 babies and that number may be grown since I got that statistic, but they've been murdered via abortion in the United States alone. He says, he says there were to them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days. Over in the Old Testament, Hosea chapter 13 verse 16 says, Samaria shall become desolate for she hath rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infant shall be dashed in pieces. The women with child shall be ripped down. Terrible. Terrible. Things are not going to get better. And Jesus says, woe to them for a child and to them that give suck in those days. However way he meant that, It can be taken both ways. There are good mothers out there who will be trying to flee. And they can't flee as fast as they might have could have, but they're trying to rescue their children. But then on the flip side of it, there are some evils that are going on in our world and evils that will be going on at that time. We need to consider that and consider our own ways and consider our own world. Do what we can to try to stop abortion in our own state and in our own country. Verse 18, it says, and pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, Wintertime in Israel, I'm told, is the rainy season, making travel difficult. Verse 19, and in those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation, which God created unto the time, neither shall be. That word affliction is the same as tribulation. We know that there will be times of tribulation, times of affliction. But he says, there will be time. This time will be worse than there ever was. Not from the beginning of creation, which God created until this time, neither shall be. It's a mistake to think that God's people won't go through tribulation, to think that God's people won't go through affliction. We do, we will. But understand, understand, he's talking about great tribulation. And even as we think about and consider As we rejoice and look forward and long for the Lord to come back, we think about the rapture and the timing of all this. Let us recall and remember. that there will be people who are saved during the tribulation period. There will be folks, God's people, who will be in all of this mess. And the reality is all this isn't gonna happen overnight. Indeed, if I understand prophecy correctly, This old world, the things that happen, they don't, things don't change immediately. And so for one man to step out on the scene and become a world leader, there's some things that have to happen. And I believe we're seeing the lead up to that, even in our times. There's been a lead up to this for many, many years. Marxism and communism, Islam, even Catholicism, all of these things. Yes, there will be troubles and trials and tribulation, but there won't be anything like what he's talking about here until all of this happens, this abomination of desolation. This is the sign of when all this gets triggered, if you will. In verse 20, in fact, he says this. He says, and except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. This time period that he's speaking of is limited. Again, this is another reason why I believe that we take Daniel's prophecy, take it literally, understand that it is a limited amount of time. It's not going to go on for a long, long time. He's got a limit. From the time of the appearance of the Antichrist midway through the 70th week, that's about three and a half years. The elect referred to here could refer to Israel, his chosen ones. Isaiah chapter 45, Isaiah 45 in verse four. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name, I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. And so he could be talking about Israel as a people, or he may be talking about those who are saved during the tribulation period, which is not just the Jews, but others too in Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17 and verse 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. They that are with Him are called chosen and faithful. And so, ultimately, what will happen is the persecution of unbelievers, or rather the persecution of Antichrist against believers and the plagues unleashed by Almighty God against unbelievers during that time, it would result in the depopulating of the entire world if it continued indefinitely. Read through Revelation and see that book, the Revelation that was given to John by Jesus Christ. But God has determined that it will only last for a while, for seven years, the worst of it being the last three and a half years. And that's the focus of what Jesus is talking about here. And so in Mark chapter 13, in Mark chapter 13, in verses 21 and 22, then, If any man shall say to you, lo, here is Christ, or lo, he is there, believe him not. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. There will be false Christs, false messiahs, false prophets, And we know this isn't far-fetched because there's already that sort of thing going on in this world. There's many cults, many false prophets, false messiahs out there already. It's gonna get so bad that they'll be able to deceive even the elect if it were possible. He says, don't believe them. In fact, he says, take ye heed. In other words, be on guard. He warned them and us. We have his word. We can understand these things. This is a good thing to consider as we think about, as we look around at the world around us. We've got to remain grounded in the word of God, because if we don't, if we don't, then we'll be tossed to and fro by the 24-hour news cycle, by the by the prophets and false prophets who are out there saying things that just aren't real. Jesus has told us we can rest easy no matter what happens. We've got work to do, and Lord willing, in the next hour, because I've already gone over my time, but in the next hour, we will consider the coming of Christ. And that's where we need to focus our attention at. Jesus is coming. And no matter if we agree or disagree on the timeline that I've laid out, the reality is that all of God's people can look forward to a time when Jesus is coming. And I believe that were one day closer today than what we were yesterday. I look forward to that. And I'm glad that that unnamed disciple looked at those stones. And I'm also glad Peter, James, and John, and Andrew asked him privately about the timing of all this. And I'm glad that Jesus answered it, but I'm really glad that Mark was inspired of God to write it down for us to consider, to study, and to look at even 2,000 years after the fact, as we look forward to some of the same things that they were looking forward to. May God add the blessing to his word.