What a wonderful prayer to pray before we worship. Open my eyes, my ears, my heart, illumine me. I pray that's the case. Turn with me to Matthew 24. We just had an overview of Matthew 24. For our Bible study, we looked at every verse, and we saw that the disciples asked our Lord two questions, and the Lord answered those two separate questions. The first question was, when will the destruction of Jerusalem, and namely the temple, that our Lord had been preaching in. When will that be? When will that be destroyed? And the second question was, what will be the sign of your second coming and the end of this world? And we already read the Lord's answers to those questions. So we're not going to focus on that again. For this message, I want us to focus on some of the things that he said. And one thing in particular, while the Lord was giving his answer to those questions, a lot was said in his answer. I don't know if you noticed as we read down through that, how many amazing statements he made. He spoke words and lines that are worthy to be pondered, and I don't know if we'll be in this chapter for today or for the next month. I won't leave Daniel, but our Lord said a lot. He said a lot in this. And as I read down through these verses, I made a little note of subject matters to look at. Things just caught my attention and caught my eye and I started writing them all down. Like today's subject matter, the end of verse four, he said, take heed that no man deceive you. Now my goal and desire come the end of this message is that every person here understands that word and warning from the Lord. Take heed that no man deceives you. Take heed. That's a word. That's a word from God. That's a message. That is today's message. There are subjects like that in verse after verse after verse, and we'll see what the Lord leads us to look at. But for this message, I want us to see what our Lord had to say about this great warning and issue and condemnation of being deceived, being deceived. I want us to look at the issue of salvation in this. I want us to see this in light of spiritual matters, eternal matters. We're going to put our spiritual glasses on as we read this and to do that, to see the spiritual application of this. I want us to understand a physical event that took place to get into the spiritual issue. I want us to understand a physical event that took place. Now the disciples asked our Lord two questions and he gave them two answers. One has already come true, as he said it would. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD. That is the proof that the other one will come true, as he said it will. He told them, you are going to see, he said, this generation at that time is going to see the abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of, that was prophesied to Daniel. Daniel wrote about it. Look at verse 15, Matthew 24, verse 15. He said, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, Spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Whoso readeth, let him understand. May God give us an understanding of this today that we might not be deceived. A true understanding. Verse 15, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken up by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Who so readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Now let's look at that in the book of Daniel and see if the Lord will reveal something to us today. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel 9. It's going to be on page 1120 in the Old Testament in my Bible. Here in the book of Daniel, he along with Israel, they are in captivity to Babylon and the Spirit of the Lord starts revealing some things through the word to Daniel. And not only is the physical deliverance of Israel from Babylon revealed to him, the Lord revealed to him that I'm going to deliver you from this captivity and you're going to go back to Jerusalem and start rebuilding what was destroyed back then. But not only is the physical deliverance of Israel revealed to him, but the spiritual deliverance. of God's people from the captivity of their own sin and their own condemnation. That was revealed to Daniel too. That is the spiritual application that I'm talking about. This deliverance from sin. The Lord sent an angel and an angel means messenger. That's what an angel is, a messenger. So the Lord sent a messenger to Daniel who said, this is a word, this is a revelation directly from God to you. And here it is. Look at verse 24, Daniel nine, verse 24. He said, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. And I'm not going to take the time to go into that. We'll look at it when we get here in Daniel. But here's the point. Each one of those days was one year. One week was seven years. 70 weeks was 490 years. The only reason we know that is because looking back on it, that's how long it was. You say, that's how long what was? Look at verse 24. 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression. and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. He said in 490 years, Christ will come into this world and will give his life a ransom for his people to deliver them from their sins. He is going to put an end to the sin of his people. Daniel had the gospel preached to him. He is going to put an end to the sin of His people. He is going to make reconciliation for all of their iniquity. And that's what we need. I'm telling you, that's what we need. We need reconciliation for all of our iniquity. You are sinners against God. And so am I. And people don't know that. And the most critical thing in life that we could ever learn is not what we learned in kindergarten. It's this, I'm a sinner against God and God is holy. I'm a sinner against God and God is holy. And the gospel says Jesus Christ came into this world to do something for a bunch of sinners and he did it. He made reconciliation to God for all of their iniquity. The angel told Daniel he is going to bring in everlasting righteousness for them. Righteousness is the exact opposite of sin. Whatever sin is, righteousness is the exact opposite. He's going to put away all of their sin. And he is going to establish perfect, everlasting, non-ending righteousness for all of his people. And he said he is going to bring glory to God. He's going to bring glory to himself in the process. Look at verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up, to finish 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 unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks, 69 weeks, 483 years. The street shall be built again, and the wall, and it was, even in troubleless times, and it was troubleless times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. Isaiah 53 says he was cut off from the land of the living. For my people was he stricken, smitten of God, afflicted, After three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince that shall come, listen to this, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. That's what our Lord is telling them about in Matthew 24. And the end thereof shall be with a flood. This war, this battle is going to come in like a flood. And unto 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. And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation, till he consumes it all. It's going to be an abomination that's desolate until the consummation. And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Look at Daniel 11 verse 30. Daniel 11 verse 30. For the ships of Chittim, That's a general term for the Romans, the Greeks, the Romans. The ships of the Romans shall come against him, Israel. Therefore, he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do. He shall even return and have Intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant and arms armies shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. They're going to take away the daily sacrifices of God's people and they're going to put in place the abomination that maketh desolate. Look at Daniel 12 verse 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be 1,290 days, lest as he that waiteth and cometh to the 1,305 and 30 days, but go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. Now, our Lord marked this event of Rome besieging Jerusalem in the year 70, 70 AD, and destroying the temple and eliminating all of, you know, the Jews sacrificed. They always sacrificed. And that's the moment when all those sacrifices that God commanded the Jews to carry out since the days of Moses, they were eliminated. In that moment that that took place, a people who were not God's people, who were worshiping a God that was not God, God allowed them, and that's the one thing that I really want us to take note of, our sovereign God. Our sovereign, almighty, all powerful God allowed them and their lies and their abominable desolations to stand in the place where only his truth is worthy to stand. But God allowed them, he allowed strong delusions and that's what you read in our scripture reading. Because they received not a love of the truth, God allowed strong delusions to come in. And he allowed the false witness of false religion to stand in the place where men and women of this world would believe it to be the truth of God, even though it's not. People believe that the lie of man, the lie of false religion is the truth of God, but it's not. And from the time that that happened till now, nothing has changed. Still to this very day, the abomination of desolation stands in the place where it ought not stand. Now I'm about to make sense of this, okay? Turn over to Mark 13. Mark 13. Verse 14, Mark 13, verse 14, it 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 you flee to Christ. Let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains. Flee to Jesus Christ the rock. The word abomination means something worthy of being hated. If something is abominable, it is worthy of being hated. It means something to be despised, something despicable. It's something despicable. And the word desolation means emptiness, dissolving, something dissolved. That's what desolation is, something dissolved. He said, you will see despicable emptiness. Stand in the place where the name of God only is worthy to stand. And that is the very thing that we still see to this day. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. There were times in this world when God allowed men like Moses and Samuel and David and Solomon to rule his people, to lead his people to the true and living God, whole nations of people. That time is over. That time is over. All that stands in mainstream religion right now is despicable emptiness. And we'll say that 12 more times. All that stands in mainstream religion right now is despicable emptiness. All that stands in open leadership religion, famous popular leadership religion, All that stands there now is despicable emptiness. That's all that's there. Despicable emptiness. And the warning of our Lord is, don't fall for it. Don't be deceived by it. You be in that small remnant that flees to the mountain. In the midst of all this damnable heresy, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, don't let anything hinder you from that. Don't turn around to go back and get anything. You run to Christ. Don't let anything cause you to think, well, maybe I shouldn't go. You run to Christ. Run to Jesus Christ. You get to Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, it is critical that we get on Christ and stay on Christ. Whatever we're talking about, whatever we're explaining that our Lord has given us to preach, it needs to get to Christ and we better stay on Christ. And we need to talk about Christ. It needs to be Christ. Anything other than Christ is despicable emptiness. Anything other than Christ is despicable emptiness. Go with me back to Matthew 24. Verse 11, it says, And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. When our Lord says many, He means many. I mean He means many. Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. This whole world of religion is so full of deceivers. It's so full of deceivers. It is so completely taken by Despicable emptiness. Man's lies on God, this world is so overtaken by it, it's so overtaken by it, it's almost impossible to find the truth. It is almost impossible to find the truth. It is almost impossible to find the honorable fullness of God's truth. What makes the difference? How can we know which one we have? How do we know whether we're being deceived or not? Here's how we can know. Here's the difference. It all comes down to this, God or man. God or man. I want to say to every person here, if there ever comes a time that you're not, well, let's start with this. Anytime you're sitting in this pew, whether it's me or anybody in this pulpit, you assess in your mind and heart, is he talking about God or man? Is the subject matter God or man? If we will be aware of this, we'll start to realize how much man is out there. You go sit in any other pew in any other building and listen to anybody else. You assess, is the guy talking about God or man? Is it Christ or man? that will determine grace or works. God is truth, man is lie. Well Gabe, you're a man. Amen. It all comes down to God or man, grace or works, what man must do or what Christ has done. You're going to sit in pews and you're going to listen to people talk about men and women and what they ought to be doing and need to be doing and had better start doing. You know what that's called? Despicable emptiness. That's an abomination of desolation. This flesh is despicable emptiness. That's what it is. And it's not about what man must do or has done, it's all about Christ. It's all about Jesus Christ, who he is, what he did, who he did it for, why he did it. The message to Daniel, that prophecy that the angel brought to Daniel, do you notice it was all about Jesus Christ? This is who he is, he's coming, this is what he's gonna do. The abomination of desolation, the despicable emptiness that stands right now in the name of religion, in the name of God. It's standing in the name of God. If you hear a message about man and what man needs to be doing, it's despicable emptiness. That's what we're listening to. It's despicable emptiness. Our Lord said, don't be deceived by it. Don't be deceived by it. The message of man is a damnable message, but the message of God, the message of the grace and the glory of God. If God gets all the glory, if come the end God has all the glory, if you hear a message that gives all the glory to Jesus Christ and Him crucified, If He gets all the glory, not only for His finished work in redeeming His people from their sin by His own blood, not only in that work, but also in His finished work of righteousness for His people. He accomplished righteousness for His people. Perfection for His people. He did a finished work for them, making them to be everything they need to be to stand before God. If Christ gets all the glory, If it's Christ start to finish, then you're listening to honorable fullness, not despicable emptiness, but honorable fullness, the truth of God. Believe it. Cling to it. Cling to Him. Flee to Christ. Flee to Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2 calls God's people lively stones, living stones, and it says they are built up into a spiritual house set on Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. Now, outside of Christ, spiritually speaking, in the deception of this desolate abomination, our Lord said, and we didn't read it, but our Lord said in this chapter, there's not going to be one stone left standing on another. Spiritually speaking, talking about men and women outside of Christ, There's not going to be one stone left standing on another. In Christ, all of God's lively stones are standing on the rock, the solid rock. Once we veer from Christ, there's no hope. I don't care how good a man is. I don't care how good a man becomes. Salvation is in Jesus Christ alone. True worship is in Jesus Christ alone. Honorable fullness with God is only found in Jesus Christ alone. If we're going to worship Jesus Christ, then we're going to declare Him. We're going to declare His work start to finish. If we're going to preach and believe the saving truth of Christ, then it's going to be Christ who starts it all, performs it all, finishes it all. Once we insert man into any of it, we have a desolate abomination on our hands. Once we insert man into any component of it, we're no longer worshiping Christ. Once a little flesh, a little sin ruins a whole thing. That's a desolate abomination to God and it's certain condemnation for man and this world is full of it. Don't be deceived. Now, I wish I had 30 more minutes for this message. So I'm going to take it. I'm kidding. Um, I do wish I had 30 more minutes because my intention was to go to another verse and I knew studying that I wouldn't have time to do it. But, um, I just want to clearly set forth the truth of Christ, the importance of the truth of Christ and how detrimental it is to not believe the truth of Jesus Christ alone. The only thing that we can say about man is he is completely, totally ruined in sin. That's it. Everything that man does brings condemnation to him. If man tries to do good, it brings condemnation to him. The scripture says the Lord even hates the plowing of the wicked. A man out in his field just plowing dirt. There's no hope. All of our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Now listen, I want everybody to abide by the law. I want to live in a law-abiding town. And I like it when people are kind to their neighbors and all of those things. But there is no salvation. I don't care how good we believe ourselves to be. Man at his best state is altogether vanity. That means emptiness, abominable desolation. But Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, the Word of Christ, the Work of Christ, the Glory of Christ, He is completely, totally, glorified in holiness. Man is ruined in sin. He is glorified in holiness. Everything he has done has brought salvation to his people. Everything man has done has brought utter destruction and ruin to himself. Everything Christ has done has brought salvation and redemption to his people. We were chosen in Him, redeemed by Him, called to Him. He's our life, our hope, our rock, our all. He's everything. He's everything. Don't be deceived by looking to or listening to a man who's gonna turn your eyes to man. If the message causes us to look to man, It is despicable emptiness. It's an abomination of desolation. Look, to Jesus Christ alone, and I'm gonna, let me leave you with this. I'll stop with this, because it's just so critical. I may not ever be able to preach to you again. This may be it. This may be the last time on my account or your account. So just listen to this. Many years ago, someone attended here for a short while. And this person struggled with the truth of God's word, what it had to say about God and what it had to say about man and what it had to say about salvation. All the glory going to Christ for everything. And this person really struggled with it because this person had been told despicable emptiness all of this person's life. And this person came into my office to say, I'm leaving. Just want to let you know, I'm leaving here over this particular issue. And I took about 10 minutes and showed this person probably 30 verses of scripture that declared and declared and declared the truth of God alone, Christ alone, and this particular issue that this person was struggling with. And it was just, here it is, here it is, here it is, here it is. And then I handed my Bible like this and I said, here you go. Can you show me one verse that supports what you've been told all your life? And this person said, no, no, I can't. But this person said, I have been told that all my life and I can't help it. I just believe it. That is a willingness to be deceived. That is a willingness to be deceived. For some, it's easier to accept lies than to renounce a lifetime of false religion. For some people, it's easier to just keep going with it than to realize, I've been lied to all my life and I'm lost because I don't know what this is saying. For some people, the Lord said, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't let any man deceive you, starting with this man. Don't let this man deceive you. It's not worth it. Your soul is on the line. Don't let this man or any other man deceive you. And this is what I told this person. I said, here's your problem. You're listening to man and you're throwing out what God says. And you need to stop listening to me. I told this person, you need to stop listening to me. And you need to stop listening to that other man. And you need to start listening to God. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. Listen to God alone. The word of Christ alone. The work of Christ alone. Believe on Christ alone. Let it be Christ alone. Salvation is in no other. Flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. May the Lord cause us to flee to Christ. Amen.