The following sermon was delivered November 3rd, 2024 at Free Grace Baptist Church in Paulsbo, Washington. The speaker is Roy Lindbury. The title is The Abomination of Desolation. Daniel chapter 9, as we read for our morning reading. Daniel chapter 9. Let us worship God together through the hearing of his word. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenants and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned. committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord, but to us open shame as it is to this day to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which you have driven them because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against you. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him, nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants, the prophets. Indeed, all Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, not obeying your voice. So the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against him. He has confirmed His words, which He has spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity, for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us. For the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself as it is this day, we have sinned, we have been wicked, O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. For because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications. And for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. Oh my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes. See our desolations in the city which is called by your name. For we are not presenting our supplications before you on account of any merits of our own, but on account of your great compassion. Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, listen and take action. For your own sake, oh my God, do not delay. your city and your temple are called by your name. Now, while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed, so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. Seventy weeks. have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. It will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood, even to the end that there will be war. Desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. Amen. Truly we serve an amazing God, one who is worthy of our worship. As we continue in our time of worship, I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 24 as we continue our study in the Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Survey. This has been our attempt over the course of quite a while now to work through Matthew, Mark and Luke together as a whole and to make sure that we're looking at these not simply as biographies of Jesus but rather to be looking at these theologically. We ought to every time we walk away from our study of the Gospels asking ourselves those questions of what does it teach us about God? What does it teach us about Christ? What does it teach us about the gospel? What does it teach us about who I was before being justified? What does it teach us about who I am? It ought to be teaching us theology. If all we see in the gospels is biography, then we're missing it. So we've been looking to go through Matthew, Mark, and Luke together. Here we are in Matthew chapter You'll see the parallel passages also printed in your bulletin from Mark 13 and Luke 21. But focusing on Matthew 24 because we get the contextual flow far more clearly through the book of Matthew. So let's read starting in verse 15 and I'll read through verse 28 this morning. Matthew chapter 24, hear the word of God. Therefore, When you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. But pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. And then if anyone says to you, Behold, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, behold, he is out in the wilderness, do not go out or behold, he's in the inner rooms. Do not believe them for just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west. So will the coming of the son of man be wherever the corpse is there. The vultures will gather. Amen. Well, I pray that the Lord would add His blessing to the reading of His Word and our study of it. For those of you who have been following over the last several weeks, understanding the flow of thought and the contextual trajectory of this particular passage, which is the judgment on Jerusalem, the judgment on the covenant breakers. And the reason why I keep hammering this point home is because right now there are, if you went out and Googled the abomination of desolation, for instance, if you went out and Googled the great tribulation, you would be bombarded with all kinds of things that are telling you to look out and to watch over your shoulder. It's coming in any minute now. You'd be hearing about wars and rumors of wars. You'd be hearing about all of these signs that we spoke about last week. But all of that is based on a complete misunderstanding of this passage. This passage is not speaking, it's not casting our view to something 2,000 years after Christ or even further, something to which we need to look forward. Rather, this is the answer to the disciples' questions as they were pointing out the buildings of the temple grounds. Look how beautiful these are. And Jesus says, I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left upon another that will not be cast down. And then they walked out to the Mount of Olives and the disciples asked Jesus these questions. When's it going to happen and how are we going to know? That's my paraphrase. When's it going to happen and how are we going to know? When will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus begins to answer that. And for some reason, many theologians, and this has become very popular, particularly in the last couple hundred years, and it's kind of become the majority report even in seminaries, and so this is very much the way that people are looking at this, has been to look at this as something future. To look at this as something that we need to be on the lookout for these things happening. But that's not what Jesus says. Remember the flow of thought, and we don't have time to review all of this, but remember all the way through the book of Matthew, beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, the son of David, the one who rules and reigns, the one who has a right to the throne, all the way through John the Baptist, the axe is already laid to the root of the tree, that his winnowing fan is in his hand, You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And on and on and on. We did a review sort of of the whole book and the trajectory of Matthew. But as he rides in then to Jerusalem on the colt, the foal of a donkey, declaring himself to be king, and they yell, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They wave palm branches. They throw their cloaks down in front of him. And they hail him as the king. And within a week they're going to turn around and call for his execution. He comes in and he drives people out of the temple. We've already seen the image of the priest looking at the diseased house. He comes in once, and then he comes back in, and if it's still there, then everybody is taken out, and then if it continues, then the house gets torn down brick by brick by brick by the priest. This is what Jesus is talking about. And then he gave those parables. He gave the parables about the tenants. If you remember, the tenants who would kill those who were sent to them to try to get what was due to the master. And Jesus asked them, what will that master do when he returns? And they testified against themselves. He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and he will rent it out to others. And Jesus says, yeah. Like, give this to people that are producing the fruits of it. And then he gave the parable of the wedding feast, much the same thing. Hey, look, the party is ready, the feast is ready. Go out and get my people. And they go out and they say no. So he says, go. go do it again, and they're mistreating the messengers, and they're killing them, and they're stoning them. And Jesus says that He will come and set their city on fire. These pictures are not accidental. They're leading up to something, which brought us to Matthew 23, that denunciation of the Pharisees. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, sevenfold condemnation of them, the sevenfold indictment. that he then ends with their testimony against themselves and that all of the blood of all of the prophets from righteous Abel to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, who they slew between the temple and the altar. And he says, all that blood will fall upon them. And then he says, behold, your house is being left to you desolate. And that's when the disciples, that's when the conversation happens where the disciples start pointing out all these cool temple buildings and how beautiful they are. And where Jesus says, it's all gonna get torn down. It's all gonna get torn down. And then they say, when's it gonna happen? How are we gonna know? And that's Matthew 24. When's it gonna happen? How are we gonna know? And we looked at all of these signs. Now we've already looked and seen how the Jews were conflating the end of the age with the consummation of all things. They were conflating the end of the age with what we refer to as the second coming of Christ, the final judgment, the final resurrection, the consummation of all things. But the end of the age was the end of the old covenant age, the old covenant era, the old covenant economy, and the bringing in of the new. We looked at the uses of that, this age and the age to come in the scriptures. Jesus speaks here to them about the end of the age. Later he will expand on the kingdom of God and how it grows leading up to that final consummation. We will see that here. Understand, and this is maybe a time to give you some terminology and define it. The viewpoint that looks at these things as having already happened is what's known as preterist theology or preterism. Now we want to be careful with that terminology because there is a branch of that theology, what we might call full or hyper-preterism, that says everything prophesied in the scriptures has already happened. Means that all the way through the book, the very end of the book of Revelation, the final judgment, the resurrection, and all of that. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a historic preterism, what people might call a partial preterism. Jesus is, there's a distinction here between what he's talking about of the end of the age, that which will come upon the Jews, and the consummation of all things, the final judgment. We'll see much of that in chapter 25. But we saw last week a number of signs that the disciples were going to see, and it was giving testimony that the time was drawing near. And I want you to remember, we looked at a bunch of different contextual elements, but recognize particularly verse 34. Truly I say to you, he says, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Jesus is very clear that the people that he's talking to, That generation is not going to pass away until this stuff comes to pass. And it's really incredible sometimes when you start actually picking apart the viewpoint that tries to throw this stuff 2,000 years into the future. Some of the interesting mental and intellectual gymnastics that have to happen in order to get that there. Far better to simply read the scriptures as it speaks to us. We looked at the signs, the seven signs last week, the sign of false Christs, and we saw the scriptural and the historical testimony that false messiahs were rampant in the first century, particularly because there was a messianic fervor in the first century, based on the passage in Daniel that we just read this morning. There was this messianic fervor. And when Jesus didn't appear to have fulfilled the role, not in the way that they were expecting, there were many people willing to step up and to take that title for themselves. And history records a number of those. There was wars and rumors of wars. That was the second sign. Recognizing that that has to be unusual for it to be a sign. And of course, in the context of the Roman Empire, with the Roman peace that had been established by the mighty Roman army, what was known historically as the Pax Romana, that the idea of uprising starting was a strange thing. That was a sign because there was, you know, 20, 30 years of absolutely no wars, no conflicts, no uprisings here in the empire. The third sign was famines and earthquakes. Again, we looked at some scriptural testimony to that, and we looked at the historical testimony in the first century. The fourth sign, persecution, apostasy, betrayal. Again, same thing, textual, scriptural testimony and historical testimony. False prophets was number five. Lawlessness was number six. And then the final one, the proliferation of the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached. throughout the world, and then the end will come. Preach throughout the world as a testimony to the nations, Jesus says, and then the end will come. And we looked at how even the New Testament tells us in the first century that that had happened. We can't use our modern 21st century kind of Western eyes of globalism and things like that to to dictate how the New Testament uses this type of language. Paul says that the faith of the Christians was being proclaimed in all the world. We saw in the book of Acts that there were Jews there from every nation under heaven hearing the gospel preached. We saw Paul again in Romans speaking about how their voice has gone out into all the world. So the New Testament records for us that these things had taken place. It's important for us to remember the context here of the nation of Israel with all of these things. They existed within the realm of the Roman Empire. These were things that those in Jerusalem were going to experience. And it's things that they would be able to recognize. It's who Jesus is talking to. This is not a global thing. All of them were fulfilled in the first century leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. And they've been, as I said, testified by historians of the time period as well as the scriptures. So we have all of these signs leading up that Jesus is telling them, when you see these things, know that it's drawing near. You see these things, start paying attention. And now we come in our passage this morning to what I would call the definitive sign. The abomination of desolation. And I don't have bullet points for you guys this morning. We're just going to walk through this. So if you're taking notes, don't be listening for specific bullet points. The definitive sign. All of the preceding signs, everything that we've seen up to this point, were, as Jesus says, the beginnings of birth pangs. They're telling you that stuff's starting to happen. They're telling you, okay, you're seeing these things happen, be on the ready, now be on the lookout. And verse 15 now brings about for us this, what I'm calling the definitive sign. It's a sign that brings about the time for action. Let's read verses 15 through 20 again. Therefore, he says, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days, but pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. Now, I'm just gonna throw this out there again because, and I'm sorry if I'm sounding like a broken record, but again, there is so much like end times hysteria around us that I think it bears repeating many of these things to make sure that we get this really ingrained in our understanding. This is not global. This is something that people could flee from. Jesus is talking about something that's coming on Jerusalem and Judea. He says, when you see this, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. This is localized. It's speaking specifically of something that's going to happen in the region of Judea, specifically Jerusalem. But we have this sign when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. Such apocalyptic language, it probably puts pictures and images in your mind. And in fact, most people will talk about Antiochus Epiphanes, who apparently slaughtered a pig on the altar in the temple, the previous temple. And certainly that was an abomination. But that kind of language to our minds can be very confusing. Who knows what the abomination of desolation is? Well, I want you to first understand this. Matthew intends for this to be something his readers can understand. Notice how he says this. He's quoting Jesus, and then we have this parentheses that's talking to the reader. So this means Matthew is putting this in there for his readers. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, let the reader understand. He expects that his readers will know what he's talking about. Mark actually does something very, very similar. Matthew, though, is being written specifically to a Jewish audience. This is something that they would grasp. And he says, he tells us where this imagery is coming from. He says it was spoken of by the prophet Daniel. So for us to understand that, we jump back to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 9, which we read at the beginning of our service, at the very end of this, verses 24 through 27, we read this. The 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make an atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place, so you are to know and discern that from the issuing of the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, and it will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate. even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. Now I want you to think even in the context of Daniel here. Read the whole chapter this morning. How did it start out? Daniel was praying. And he was praying in a very particular manner. He was confessing He was confessing his own sins, he says, and the sins of his people. Again, this is about Israel. This is about the Jews. He was confessing the sins of his people. And even when Gabriel comes and gives this prophecy of the 70 weeks, he says, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. This is during the Babylonian captivity in Jerusalem that had been trodden down by the Gentiles. People longed to return back and rebuild and restore Jerusalem so that they might engage in true worship, God-honoring worship. But as Daniel says, they may have longed to do that, but they weren't turning from their sin. They hadn't repented of their sin. And therefore Daniel was confessing sin on behalf of the people, recognizing that they hadn't done that. Recognizing that God is a God of compassion and a God of love and that he will act for the glory of his name. And yet confessing the sins of the people of Israel. And then Gabriel shows up and gives him this answer. And as we've talked about before, these verses here, verses 24 through 27, give us a timeline. They give a timeline to God's people so that they might understand what's coming. There will be 490 years. I'm just going to sort of give a broad overview of this. There will be 490 years for the Holy City to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. This is messianic language that's happening here. Sin's going to get dealt with. Now the anointing of the Most Holy, there are some interpretational things on whether or not that's the Most Holy One, or if that's the Most Holy Place, or that sort of a thing. But we see the messianic language here, the bringing in of everlasting righteousness. The Jews will be finishing the transgression and then there will be made an end to sin and atonement for iniquity. And Gabriel says there will be 490 years. That's the 70 weeks, the 77s. The first 483 years of that takes us from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem that happens all the way until the Messiah who Gabriel here calls the Prince. So you were to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. And that language is important. Messiah the Prince. So the 483 years takes us right there. And it's, if you can forgive the phrase, like clockwork. It is a calendar, it's a clock. And it takes us right to the time of Christ. Then we read that after that time, after that 483 years, The Messiah will be cut off. That's his death, his crucifixion. He will be cut off. And then his instruments, the instruments of the Messiah, Gabriel says, the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Now here's why that's important. Because people who are taking this and trying to apply it to something future, and they will apply this, this destruction that's happening The people of the prince who is to come, they'll apply the prince to the Antichrist. Where just, I don't know, 10 words earlier, the prince is identified as the Messiah. And there's nothing in here for us to try to change contexts. This is the instruments of the Messiah who will come and who will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And then there's a final seven years that are marked by a covenant made with many, and in the middle of it, he will put an end to sacrificing grain offering. Again, those who would kick this out 2,000 years and are looking at this as an Antichrist, you've probably heard this, the whole Left Behind series was based on this idea that there is this Antichrist and he's gonna make a covenant with the Jews to keep them safe, and then at some point, halfway through the middle, he's gonna break that covenant. That all comes out of here. But it doesn't flow with the context. The Prince has been defined for us. Messiah the Prince. He'll make a firm covenant with the many for one week, for seven years. This is Jesus coming to minister now to the Jews, to His people, to the many for one week. And in the middle of the week, in the three and a half years, in the middle of it, He will put an end to sacrifice and grain offering. What happens in three and a half years into His ministry? He is executed. And what happens when He's executed? The veil in the temple is torn from top to bottom. These sacrifices are no longer acceptable. We're not given here in the text a definitive end to what event ends that final week. So apparently it's not terribly important for us to discern. But I would suggest this, that if this covenant is being made with the people of Israel based on the prayer that Daniel was praying and the answer that Gabriel has given, that this is what we read about in Acts when Paul and Silas turned to the Gentiles. If you remember, he said, since you, talking to the Jews, since you have now judged yourselves unworthy, then behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. And now the gospel is going out to the Gentiles. We have to understand these things in the context of what's coming upon Israel and the ending of the Old Covenant era. So the final seven years are marked by the covenant made with many. In the middle of it, he'll put an end to sacrifice and grain offering. And then finally, we read on the wing of abominations. The abominations, if you listen to the prayer of Daniel, we see that the abominations are what the Jews are doing. And on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate until there is complete destruction. This is where the minds of the Jews would be taken when Jesus spoke of the abomination of desolation. Now they might also think of Daniel chapter 12. I'm just going to read verse 1 for the sake of time and verses 10 and 11. Now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise and there will be a time of distress such as has never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And at that time, your people, everyone who was found written in the book will be rescued. Verse 10, many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly and none of the wicked will understand. But those who have insight will understand. from the time of the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Now, that 1,290 days is three and a half years. That happens to be the length of the Jewish war, the length of the Jewish war in the first century. It also happens to be the length of Nero's persecution of the Christians. And interpreters are often divided on which one that 1,290 days is pointing to. It's not critical to our understanding of Matthew 24, however, but Daniel's speaking of something that perverts or prevents true worship and something that brings destruction. So that gives us a little bit better understanding of what Jesus is talking about when he says, when you see the abomination of desolation, something that's bringing destruction, something that is destroying or perverting or preventing true worship. But here's the thing. We don't even have to look very far to get a better understanding of exactly what is meant here. Luke, in his parallel account, chapter 21, verses 20, I think that's 20 and 21. I wrote verse 20 to 20, so I'm not sure where my mistype was. 20 and 21, I believe. You've got to remember, Luke is writing really to a Gentile audience, and so he uses terminology that Gentiles would be more likely to understand, whereas Matthew is casting people's minds back to Daniel because he's writing to Jews. Luke uses terms that Gentiles are more likely to understand, and he states it very clearly. He says, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize her desolation is near, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city." Again, you see that this is localized. When Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, you recognize her desolation is near, and then we have the very same quote. Those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those who are in the city need to leave. And not only that, Luke adds, those who are not in the city better not go in. What Matthew and Mark expect their readers to understand, Luke explains clearly. The abomination of desolation is the surrounding of Jerusalem by armies. This is the key for the first century Christians to flee to the mountains. This is the call to action. When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And in fact, this is the Great Tribulation. Look at verses 21 and 22 of our text. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Now, I want you to recognize the use here of hyperbolic language, right, when he speaks of this great tribulation that's happening that has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will. Certainly, the flood was worldwide and it killed all but a single family. This is not the literal, there's never been something more catastrophic or anything like that. However, we could look at this and say that there's never been anything more catastrophic from the standpoint of who this was happening to. This was happening to God's covenant people. In Jerusalem, it's estimated by Josephus that 1.1 million people died in the siege of Jerusalem. And language shouldn't surprise us. The Bible uses this kind of language in other places. In Exodus 11, speaking of the plague coming on Egypt, moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. And we have a similar phrase used actually of a previous destruction, a previous capture of Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity in Ezekiel chapter five, verse nine. And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again. Jesus' point here is that this will be a time of tremendous trouble, tremendous suffering, and it will consist of unbearable miseries. Indeed, as we read, Jesus says that nobody would be spared if not for God cutting the time short. But this passage is where we get our phrase and our term, the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is not something that we should be looking forward and being afraid of or being concerned about. That's not to say that the Church will not face tribulation and face persecution in her life. But this idea of the Great Tribulation that Matthew speaks of is very specific to the destruction of Jerusalem and the miseries and the Holocaust that happened there. And then we see that Jesus warns. Jesus warns of people deceiving the Christians by declaring that they will take them to Jesus. Verses 23 through 27. Then if anyone says to you, behold, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect, even the people of God. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, behold, he's in the wilderness, do not go out. Behold, he's in the inner rooms, do not believe them. For just as lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Jesus is telling them that the desire for deliverance in such a time would be so strong that it would be tempting even for the elect, it would be tempting for people to follow them who claim to know where Jesus is, looking for his protection and looking for his deliverance. But it's enough to know that Jesus isn't speaking here of a physical return. He's speaking about His coming in judgment, and He represents it by lightning. As lightning flashes from the east to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. He will not be in an inner room. That's what He's telling them. He won't be in an inner room. He's not going to be over in that building or this building. He's not going to be down in the basement. He won't be out in the wilderness, but he'll be coming upon Jerusalem as the lightning flashes from the east to the west, as a flood comes upon in the instruments of his hand, the Roman armies coming upon Jerusalem. And because of that, they are not to be fooled and lured out of their hiding. Those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, they are not to be lured back out by somebody saying, hey, Christ is over here, come follow me. And then he pictures this desolation as a field of carrion being descended on by birds of prey. The picture of the eagles here, where the Corpse is the vultures will gather or the eagles will gather. Vultures, some people will translate the word as vultures or some translations speaking actually very specifically because eagles are not necessarily known as carrion birds. But the word is very specifically eagles. But the idea is birds of prey descending on, on a field of corpses. But the picture of eagles might also be a direct reference to the invading armies of Rome. The eagle was the symbol of Rome, carried upon their standards. And if that's the case, then it may be an additional picture of the armies that are descending upon and enjoying victory over Jerusalem. Now, as we've worked our way through the text, I want to take a moment to walk through the historical record, just so this doesn't maybe seem completely esoteric. The first Jewish war began with an insurrection in 66 AD. Jewish rebellion, Jewish insurrection. In fact, the Jews seized control of Jerusalem and most of Judea. They kicked Rome out. That's how fiercely they fought. The emperor Nero at the time was of course unhinged at such an idea that this group of rebels would push his armies out and take back this territory. So what did he do? He sent his general, General Vespasian, with 60,000 soldiers to crush the Jewish revolt. The Spacian was slowly retaking areas around Israel, such as Galilee, and he was descending on Jerusalem in 69 A.D. with all of his armies. And then an interesting thing happened in history. Nero committed suicide. Nero committed suicide which caused Vespasian to withdraw and return to Rome in order that he would assume the throne. So he was descending on Jerusalem and then in the providence of God through the suicide of Nero, the armies drew back for a brief period of time. Guess what? When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. This was their chance. And the Christians who knew and understood the words of Jesus fled. They took that opportunity because they recognized the sign. The Christians fled to the city of Pella. They had a refuge there during the remainder of the siege. The Christians made it out safely because they understood the words of Jesus here in Matthew 24. And then Vespasian's son Titus, you're probably familiar with General Titus of the Roman Empire. He was charged to complete the conquest of the Jews. This happened in 70 AD, around the time of the Passover no less. So the city was overflowing with people. Titus did an interesting thing as well. He would let people into the city, but he just wouldn't let them out. He did that as a strategy so that he could further deplete the resources within the city, water and food and those types of things. It helped his seeds to allow people to go in. Of course, we read what Luke said, not only are those who are in should they flee, but those who are out should not go in. The Jews fought hard, but they were not able, even close, to withstand the Roman siege. There was starvation and cannibalism happening within the walls of Jerusalem. Stories of parents having to eat the flesh of their own children. And eventually, Rome captured the city, sacked the temple, taking its treasures back to Rome. Now some people hold, and this is speculation historically, some people hold that Titus decided that the temple had to be destroyed in order to put a final end to that Jewish religion completely as a way of just completely stamping out this rebellion. Now whether that was in his mind or not, nobody knows, but the city was set on fire and the fires in the temple caused a lot of the gold to melt and to run in between the cracks of the stones. So guess what happened? The Romans picked the bricks apart to get the gold that was in between the stones. Almost like Jesus had said, I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be thrown down. In order to retrieve the gold, the Romans picked those bricks apart, pried them apart, and as I said, Josephus estimates that 1.1 million Jews were killed. It's also estimated that 97,000 were captured and enslaved. That's the historical record of the siege of Jerusalem. I encourage you, go do some study on it. It's fascinating and it's heartbreaking all at the same time. But in the historical account, we see the very prophecy of Jesus here in Matthew 24 being played out in exacting detail. Jerusalem was surrounded by armies. That was the sign for the Christians to flee. They made it to safety while the Jews endured the judgment of God through the ferocity of the Roman legions, the people of the prince who was to come, instruments in his hands. And by the end of it, not one stone was left upon another, just as Jesus had said. The priest had indeed torn down the diseased house brick by brick. though God had been patient, abundantly patient with a rebellious people. His patience had finally come to an end. It was a culmination of, as we already talked about, so much of the teaching of Jesus. Matthew 21, I already referenced this. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers? They said to him, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end and he will rent out the vineyard Matthew 22, 4 and 7. Again, I already referenced this. This is the parable of the wedding feast. prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything's ready, come to the wedding feast, but they paid no attention, went their own way, one to his farm and another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. And the king was enraged and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire." And again, From Matthew 23, fill up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore behold, I'm sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." That's what he tells them. All of these things are coming upon that very generation. Now, I've already And it kind of alluded to the fact that there's some practical things here for us. And I mean, one is certainly that we ought not to be scared and worried about this Great Tribulation that is supposedly coming. This Great Tribulation is something that came upon the covenant-breaking Jews. And not only that, all of these signs were given. Why? So that when it did happen, God's elect the Christians would be spared. They would know what to look for, and that they would be spared, and they were. But this ought not to consume us. We ought not be trying to look around for this sign and that sign. Rather, we ought to be able to speak peace to those who are worried. We ought to be able to speak peace to people who are getting scared and thinking all of this stuff is about ready to happen to us because there are teachers who are propagating this stuff. We have to be able to step back and say, let's look at this in context. But as we see these things being fulfilled in the first century, it should cause us to think of a few things. These are gospel thoughts for us. But the first one is that God's word is true and faithful. Jesus said, this is going to happen. And it did. He said it very, very clearly. And he said it was going to come upon that generation. Twice within like 40 verses, he said that. And it did. His word is true and faithful. We can trust it. When God speaks, we can take it to the bank. Secondly, we see that God hates sin and that all sin will eventually come to judgment. This was His wrath being poured out on the sin of the old covenant people, the Jews, those who were not in covenant by faith but were in covenant outwardly only. His wrath was being poured out. Again, go back to the prayer of Daniel and see all of the sins that he is confessing. And we can read through the Old Testament and we see that cycle happening. Oh, they repent and they're experiencing God's blessing. And then they fall away and they follow after the gods of those that are around them. And it continues over and over and over again. And yet God even as we see pictured the prophet Hosea continues to take them back, continues to take them back, continues to take them back. And then Jesus comes and he changes everything forever. The end of the old covenant era, even as the kingdom of God has come upon the world. But God hates sin and all sin will eventually come to judgment. Number three, that God shows mercy to those who are his and he brings them out of judgment. God shows mercy to those who are His and brings them out of judgment. We see that also here. They're gospel truths and these should help us understand how deep the love of God is in Christ. Why do I say that? Well, we talk a lot about what our sin deserves and we think about it, but understand this. And I haven't even described in even partial real detail of the horrors that befell the people of Israel in the first century. But what our sin deserves is no less than what the Jews experienced, the Jews that broke covenant with God. That great tribulation, such as has never been nor ever will be, that is what our sin deserved. That is the wrath of God being poured out on those breaking covenants. And yet, we ought also to remember that that's the punishment Christ took upon himself, so that we would be shown mercy. The cross is the meeting place of wrath and grace. Both of those pictured for us clearly in the work of Christ on the cross. It's pictured for us here in the destruction, the judgment on Jerusalem, right alongside the preservation of the Christians. That God is wrathful against sin, and yet He is merciful to those who are His, those who are humble, those who come to Him in faith and repentance. So I pray this morning that you have bowed the knee to Christ and that you have trusted in Him for your salvation from your sins. Let's pray. Our God and our Heavenly Father, again, we thank You for this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the time that we get to spend opening it up and to spend hearing You speak in it. Father, I pray that You would calm our hearts and our fears from all of those things that would seek to distract our attention away from You and to point us to things that people think we ought to be fearful of. But rather, may we stand confident that You are a perfect Savior and that regardless of what comes, we know that we are in Your hand. Regardless of what comes, we know that it comes at Your sovereign will. And Father, I pray that we would take comfort in the recognition, not only that you are a God who shows wrath against sin, not only are you God who will punish all sin and all disobedience, but that we would take comfort knowing that our sin and our disobedience has been punished in another. That you took it out upon your Son, Jesus Christ, in the place of your people. so that we might be saved and not experience your wrath. Father, I thank you for this time. I thank you for this church. I pray that you would bless us, that you would cause us to grow deeper in our understanding, that we would grow spiritually. We pray, Father, that you would continue to bless us with visitors and that there would be those coming who would seek to join with the work that we're doing here as a church. And Father, we pray that you would use even this small church to do mighty things for your kingdom. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.