There we go. Now, just for a precursor, this is more like a class in this section than we normally do. It's more of a in-depth study into what we call Olivet Discourse. This is number five, and we're only in verse 14. So you can see how slow we're going through this. Because of the controversies that surround it and the need, I think, for it. So I hope this isn't super long, like I think it might be. If it is, sorry. If you have better things to do, just get up and go do them then. I want to give some kind of explanation maybe reveal something to you about my job. My job that has been commissioned to me by God. Here I stand as a pastor of this church. Never thought I'd be in this situation, but nevertheless I am. So I can't complain about it. Can't whine about it too much because God commissioned me in this situation. But my job is this. This comes from 2nd Timothy chapter 2. Paul is writing to Timothy who is a young pastor, some might say. He's definitely an evangelist. In verse 14 it says this, "...remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers." Be diligent to present yourself approved of God. That's first thing. I'm before God speaking these things. Every week, every time somebody stands at this pulpit, this stand, we're before God first. Every pastor should fear this job because you're directly accountable to God for this. And I don't take that lightly. That's why I'm careful in studying this and maybe overly careful to my shame, I guess. Maybe too critical. The second part is, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, and this is it, accurately handling the Word of Truth. Accurately handling it. I fear God. I want to handle the Word of Truth accurately. I cannot believe that there are men that get up in a pulpit and don't care that they're accurately handling the Word of Truth. So as we come to Mark 13, this is highly controversial and it's gonna get worse the next time I speak. It's actually a harder topic. We're talking about tribulation today, which is already hard enough and it's just gonna get harder, harder for us to swallow maybe. This text is completely, it's really difficult given the culture that we live in. Please know that I'm trying, I really want you to know the Word of God and because the Spirit uses the Word of God to make you into the image of Christ. So that's where I'm coming from. With that being said, I'm going to read something I normally don't do again. I mean, I thought I'd just do it all in one day. I would never suggest you using this Bible exclusively. This is the contemporary version, Bible translation. I'm reading off of Elizabeth's phone, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of messages coming through. It may be hard for you to follow in your Bibles. I always preach out of the New American Standard, but I'm going to read this out of here because I think it's going to help us. Let's get a greater context of what's going on. I'm going to read the whole chapter. It's going to take a bit. Just get settled. Here we go. Verse 1, As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Teacher, look at these beautiful stones and wonderful buildings. Jesus replied, Do you see these huge buildings? They will certainly be torn down. Not one stone will be left in place. Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to Him in private. They asked, when will these things happen? What will be the sign that they are about to take place? Verse 5, Jesus answered, watch out and don't let anybody fool you. Many will come and claim to be me. They will use my name and fool many people. When you hear about wars and threats of wars, don't be afraid. These things will have to happen first. But that isn't the end. Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. There will be earthquakes in many places and people will starve to death. But this is just the beginning of troubles. Be on your guard. You will be taken to courts and beaten with whips in their synagogues. And because of me, you will have to stand before rulers and kings to tell about your faith. But before the end comes, the good news must be preached to all the nations. Verse 11, when you are arrested, don't worry about what you will say. You will be given the right words when the time comes, but you will not really be the one speaking. Your words will come from the Holy Spirit. Verse 12, brothers and sisters will betray each other. and have each other put to death. Parents will betray their own children and children will turn against their parents and have them killed. Everyone will hate you because of me. But if you keep on being faithful right to the end, you will be saved. Verse 14, someday you will see that horrible thing where it should not be. Everyone who reads this must try to understand. If you are living in Judea at that time, run to the mountains. If you're on the roof of your house, don't go inside to get anything. If you're out in the field, don't go back for your coat. It will be an awful time for women who are expecting babies or nursing young children. Pray that it won't happen in winter. This will be the worst time of suffering since God created the world and nothing this terrible will ever happen again. If the Lord doesn't make the time shorter, no one will be left alive. But because of His chosen and special ones, He will make the time shorter. If someone should say, here is the Messiah, or there He is, don't believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will come and work miracles and signs. They will even try to fool God's chosen ones. But be on your guard. That's why I'm telling you these things now. In those days, right after this time of suffering, the sun will become dark and the moon will no longer shine. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers in the sky will be shaken. Verse 26, Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth. Learn a lesson from a fig tree. When its branches sprout and start putting out leaves, you know summer is near. So when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time has almost come. You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens. The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will. No one knows the day or time. The angels in heaven don't know, and the son himself doesn't know. Only the father knows. So watch out and be ready. You do not know when the time will come. It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert. So be alert. You don't know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning. But if he comes suddenly, don't let him find you asleep. I tell you, everyone, just what I've told you, be alert. All right, amen. Let's pray and then we'll go through this chapter. Father, once again, we bow before you, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, which is found alone in your Son, Jesus. Father, we come to this difficult passage with much controversy and people divide over these things. Father, may you grant to each one of us, noble Bereans, to rightly divide this passage. Father, may your saints be given grace and mercy into understanding that you are the sovereign God, the God that will judge this world in righteousness when that day comes, the final day. Lord, when 10,000s of the angels along with Jesus come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that do not know God and that those who do not obey the gospel, Father, may we work diligently to proclaim the gospel so men would believe and obey. Father, may your Spirit give us grace through our words of authority of the Bible. May we not trick men. May we not deceive men into false belief systems. But may we come before you in fear as we open our mouths today. And Father, please bless me as I try to go through what I think you're trying to say here in this passage. Father, with great humility of hearts, may the reader understand as it says. Thank you, Lord, for your Bible, which you preserved through the times. Father, that it wasn't destroyed through all these wars and destructions of cities, but you kept it. and You persevered for our sakes in this time right now. Father, we are ashamed of how many Bibles we have in our house and we still don't know Your Word very well. Father, may today we grow in that knowledge and may You put off all the things of this world that distract us in our mind just for a moment in time, Father, that we may concentrate on You. May Your name be praised through Your saints in church today. Amen. All right. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. For you, if you weren't here, and most of you weren't here, we had about four people here last time I talked. So you can go back and look at sermon audio. There's going to be things you're going to be questioning me on today that you're not going to understand because you didn't hear the last one. Okay. So just keep that in mind. Give me grace in that and I'll try to explain them. No problem answering your questions or rebukes or disputes. I don't really mind. I'm okay. Because sometimes it's hard to remember what you're going to ask. So I'm okay with you butting in and it doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me at all. So feel free. Just do your thing, Abram. Why is that too harsh of a word? Is buddying in too harsh? What's a synonym for buddying in? Interrupt. That's still harsh, isn't it? I don't mind if you have a question. Maybe I'll try to pause. Maybe I'll try that. See how it goes. It's a day of trying things. All right. What was I saying? Oh, so last time we went over verse 14, which is the abomination of desolation, okay? And so that's highly controversial. Many people dispute it or debate it for fun. That's okay. We can talk about it over lunch too. So I want to kind of draw us back into the context of this just real quickly. because it's going to be fairly long, I think, today. So in Luke 19, this is a triumphal entry when Jesus comes to Jerusalem. We call it the triumphal entry, you know, they're doing the palm branches and stuff like that, hailing Him publicly as King. In Luke's gospel, he writes this, This is Luke 19 verse 41. When he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it. That word wept literally means wailing. He's wailing over the city Jerusalem, saying, if you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, Jerusalem, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on every side. And they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation. They did not recognize the time of the Messiah. They rejected Him and judgments pronounced upon them. That was a triumphal entry. And then we have all them chapters in between that. That would have been Mark 11. We're now in 13. That would have been Matthew 21. We're now in 24. That's Luke 19. We're now in 21. So you have all that stuff in between that pronouncement on the triumphal entry of judgment upon Jerusalem. And now we're answering, Jesus is answering the two questions given to Him. We're expositionally going through Mark, but we're going to pull the question from Matthew. And I wrote them on the board, answering the two questions. One question, when will these things be? I'm going to say that's from verse 1 through 30. And then question number 2, what will be the sign of your coming? That's taken from Matthew's gospel in 24. I believe he's answering that from verse 31 through 37. And if you're in Matthew's gospel, it would be from 24-35 all the way through chapter 25. He's answering that second question. Mark just makes it shorter, okay? Matthew adds a lot more details. In response to these two questions, Jesus is giving us this passage before us. Last time we looked at, if you weren't here, it's gonna be hard again, this generation, we looked at verse 30 so that we could get the proper context. It's actually basic hermeneutics. If you just basically read the text, that's why I read it out of the contemporary English version, because it just is like a story, right? If you read it in that way, you'll come up with exactly what it says, a basic understanding of the passage. We're not cramming our presuppositions into this. It doesn't say anything about an Antichrist or anything like that. If we cram all that information into here, we're going to come up with a different interpretation. Not that I have the perfect interpretation. I'm trying to have a basic understanding of the passage here. Okay, so... When we see things like this, verse 7, when you hear of wars, that you word that is constantly throughout this chapter is talking about this generation, the generation alive at the time of Jesus. This generation, and we looked at that last time in depth. Okay, so every time the word is used, we're expanding that word, you, and thinking Jesus is talking to the apostles, but it means the generation alive at Jesus's time. Okay, now we have in our text, in response to the first question, which is, when will these things be? We've been going through slowly, And we've now come to the 6th sign that He gives. When will be the signs when these things will take place? We saw 6 of them. The first one, verse 6, many will come in My name, false prophets. The second one, you'll hear wars and rumors of wars, nation will rise up against nation. Third one, earthquakes in various places and famines. The fourth one is found in Luke's gospel, if you remember, the terrors in the heavens. That's the fourth one. The fifth one is the persecution of the apostles. And the sixth one is the abomination of desolation, which Luke clearly identifies as the Roman army besieging the city in Luke 21. Okay, he clearly says that. And we had two options for that. I saw 2 options, the abomination of desolation. In Luke it says, when you see the army surrounding, the desolation is near. The 2 options are, it's the Roman army, Titus literally came in, they burned the temple, he set up his idol and he sacrificed the pig right there. That was a copying of Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 when he did the same exact thing in the temple and fulfilled Daniel's prophecy. Then you have the second option, which was the Jews themselves are the abomination of desolation. Remember, I read that in-depth thing about the four factions of the Jewish rebel... different Jewish people. Three of them were rebels. One of them was just the Jewish governing authorities to keep the peace in the town, which the high priest and all that would have been part of. So the three zealot parties end up killing the Jewish government governor forces. And then they have this infighting within the city and shed blood and all sorts of things that happened in the temple. I read all that last time. Okay, so The two options of the abomination of desolation were the Roman army or the Jews themselves. And I tend to the second one, Jews themselves. Now, another thing that you need to know in order to have a right interpretation, Jesus is not pulling this abomination of desolation word out of the air. He plagiarized it from somewhere. Anybody remember where? Daniel, if you didn't, I have it right here. Could have just cheated. He's quoting, he's gonna have three quotes from the book of Daniel. The abomination of desolation is the first one. We found that in 9, 11, and 12. Okay, and that's, it's important to understand this as you're trying to interpret this passage, because if you go back there, all those times the abomination of desolation like language is used, it's talking about the people of Israel, the Holy City, or the Holy Temple. every single time and we looked at that last time as well. Okay, so that was the first quote. Now we're on the second quote, which we will get to in verse 19, the time of tribulation. There's going to be a third one, which we're not going to get to today. That's coming from verse 26. That'll be next time, the Son of Man coming in the clouds. When Matthew adds, let the reader understand, the reader should understand that these quotations are coming from the book of Daniel. And maybe we can have some clues into our interpretation of this text since Jesus keeps quoting from Daniel. That's a good way to interpret your Bible. All right. Any questions? See, I did it. Okay. Now, notice, At the end of 14, it says, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. This is a very local prophecy, right? And that's a good thing to remember. I just saw that. This is a prophecy by Jesus to the future of when He's living right now. Let's just say it's AD 33. He's prophesying stuff that's going to happen, whether it's in 40 years or 4 million years. He's predicting something. I would say it's in 40 years. And if you say that this stuff did not happen, and if it didn't happen, what do we conclude about Jesus? He's a false prophet and don't believe him because it's not coming true. But if it did come true, which it did, he's a true prophet. So his prophet title is at stake here if these things do not come to pass. And they do come to pass. This is a local thing. This is a local prophecy. Those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. And we looked last time, I read you that whole thing about Uspias, the church historian. When they saw this, early Christians saw it, where'd they go? Perea. They literally went to Perea. We can read it in history. They left because they believed the words of Jesus. This isn't something for us now to, oh, we see the Antichrist in the Great Tribulation. Let's get on airplanes and go to the mountains of Judea. No, this is for them. It's for this generation. Maybe I should give a little clause here that I'm not saying that this does not apply practically to us. Some of this stuff can overlap just like the prophecy of Antiochus Epiphanes in 163 or 67. It also happened again. So some of these things can happen again prophetically, but it literally happened in 70 AD. So we have to be careful that we just don't we don't go either way Then he says this so I'm not gonna go into super depth in 15 through 18 but let's just read it real quick and then I'll just make a couple comments and The one who is on the housetop must not go down or get in to get anything out of his house. And the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days. But pray that it may not happen in the winter." Matthew adds, pray that it doesn't happen in the winter or on the Sabbath. Okay? All he's saying, this is what we call hyperbole. We're gonna have to come to grasp with it. Hyperbole, this is an exaggeration. exaggerated statement of simply, it's going to be bad. That's it. That's all we should read from this text is that, look it, when you see the abomination of desolation, the armies go to the mountains and it's going to be so bad that don't even go down into your house to get your coat. Don't grab anything. Just go. That's what Jesus is saying. It's going to be bad. Flee the city or you're going to be dead. That's all He's saying. It's hyperbole. It's going to be bad. Verse 19, for those days, and we should pay attention to those words as we interpret this passage, for those days, which days? Which days? Well, it's the days when you see the abomination of desolation, then you flee to the mountains. In those same days, this generation, when you see this, and pay attention to the little words, In those days, there'll be a time of tribulation. Now, this is where we're going to spend most of our time. I need water. This is where we're going to spend most of our time today. The tribulation. Now, many people draw from this and use this as their patent verse for the great tribulation that'll come. seven years, Antichrist, you know, all this sort of stuff. Is that what he's saying here? A plain reading of the text? You don't come up with that. You'd have to insert things into this. For those days will be a time of tribulation. Now, the word here in Mark's Gospel, you have tribulation, time of tribulation. In Matthew's Gospel, you have the phrase, the great tribulation. Well, sorry, I can't even do it. I'll show you in a second. There'll be a time of great tribulation. Don't we add the word the to that all the time? I just did it. The great tribulation, right? We put a definite article in front of it, the. It's not there. Matthew says the time of great tribulation. Luke has the time of distress. You know where he got that from? This is a second quote from Daniel. If you turn back and look at Daniel 12, I'll just read it because it's going to take too long. It says this, Now at that time, this is Daniel 12, 1, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise and there will be a time of distress. There it is. That exact phrase. The time of distress. Who's he talking about? The sons of your people, Daniel. Who's that? That's Israel. There'll be time of distress, such as never occurred since the nation, and that's going to be important. He's going to quote that again. Jesus is going to quote that same thing from Daniel, since there was a nation until that time. And at that time, your people, Daniel, the Israelites, everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued. That's another quote from there. So we have a constant quote from Daniel chapter 12, verse 1, time of distress. Mark uses it. Luke uses it. Matthew has. Great Tribulation. What do we make of this? I want to show you how we're conditioned, Saints. I just gave you an example because I let it fly out of my own mouth. Here's an example that you'll find probably funny. I thought I laughed. I'm going to pick on my wife a bit. Yep. Sure. Daniel's time? Yeah, he's prophesying into the future. In Revelation chapter 2, verse 22. So we have our family Bible time, we call it family Bible time. Caleb is really wanting to read the book of Revelation. And by the way, it's the book of the revelation, not the revelations, right? We're conditioned in that way. We call it the book of revelations. No, no, no. It's the unveiling of Jesus, the book of revelation. You're already conditioned in this end times ideology by calling it the book of revelations. Okay, so anyway, that was a rabbit. We're reading. Elizabeth always reads for us. We listen. I make comments. In Revelation chapter 2, she read this. Listen to this. This is how it reads. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. Did you hear that? I will throw her with her into great tribulation. When she read this, I giggled because she read it this way, "...and those who commit adultery with her into the Great Tribulation." She added the word, the, in front of it. I just laughed and said, you can't even read your Bible without inserting the word, the, there because of all the hype around this word, Tribulation. And we have to be careful that we don't do the same thing. We have to read our Bible slowly. Look, she's literally looking at the page and can't even read what's on the page because of what's already been put into her brain. And I'm not saying just her, it's me too, as I just gave you an example of that. So let's be careful as we read our Bibles not to insert things because we're not supposed to do that. Now, the New Testament in this word, Philipsis, it literally means pressure or like a narrowing of confinement. It's like you're being pressed. You ever been in a small cave and you're just kind of stuck there or an MRI machine, right? You're compressed. You're being squeezed. In John 16, 21, Jesus is talking about a woman that has a baby. And she doesn't remember the anguish, the anguish she endured after she's holding the baby. She forgot all about it. She forgot all about the tribulation that she went into, the same word. That's one of the ways the New Testament uses this word. 45 times the word tribulation is used. How many times it's translated great tribulation? Maybe four. In Acts 7, talking about Israel and Egypt, Great Tribulation. Revelation 2.22, I just read it for you, the one Elizabeth couldn't read. Matthew 24 and Revelation 7. These are the ones that came under the Great Tribulation. Okay, we'll get there. Just give me a second. We'll go to Revelation 7. We've seen this word before in our own gospel that we've been going through. It's the rocky ground hearer. They sprout up, they have no roots and when they suffer affliction, same word, telepsis. It's used in 1st Corinthians 7, 28 is trouble. Acts 11, 19 is persecution. Romans 2, 9 talking about the judgment on the evil men. on the soul that does evil, the tribulation that you're going to receive from God the final day. The Christian in this world, in the same passage that Jesus talked about the woman giving birth and the tribulation and affliction, she doesn't remember the tribulation she endured. The same exact chapter, He uses it again. He says, in me you will have peace, but in this world you will have He's saying, He's telling us, you'll find peace, not in this world, not in this money and status and whatever else. You'll find it in Me, Jesus alone. If you want peace in your life, you find it in Jesus alone. If you want this world, you're going to have tribulation. at some point in your existence, whether you get rich and are all famous and then you meet God. You're going to have great tribulation, I would say. Think of this, in Acts 14, 22, this is when Paul's in Galatia. You know what happens to Paul in Galatia? The Jews are following him around from city to city, contradicting what he says. They end up stoning him to the point that they thought he was dead. They left him thinking they completed the job. He stands up as the disciples are standing around him. We're going over Galatians on Thursday. So all the kids heard this story one time. They're standing around him, Paul gets up and this is what it says. He strengthened the souls of the disciples and said through many tribulations, you must enter the kingdom of God. Bloodied and battered Paul with rock bruises all over his body says, strengthening us through many tribulations." You think those guys were bold in the gospel after they saw the Apostle Paul get stoned to death, get up and go the next day into the town, the next city? You bet they were. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul tells of his troubles. I'm going to turn there real quick because I can't remember all the stuff. Sorry, chapter 4, I'll just give you a couple of things. We were afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always caring about the body, the dying of Jesus. We were constantly being delivered over for death for Jesus' sake. So death works in us, but life in you. Then he says this, after all that, he gives a lot more than I just read you. He says, for momentary light tribulation. Momentary, why? Paul's not living for this world like we are. Paul's got a one track mind, the gospel, the gospel. And if you beat me and if you kill me, I don't care. It's just momentary light tribulation. But it's producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comprehension. That's how Paul uses it. In 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they receive the Word of God with much tribulation, with much tribulation. And in Revelation 2.9, it says to the church of Smyrna, I know your tribulation. Jesus knows it. The tribulation, a life of tribulation goes hand in hand with salvation. If you're a Christian, you have tribulation in this world. No, that might not mean much to you because we're in Mark 13. You might think I'm off in some weird rabbit trail. I want to look. I want to know what this word means and you should too. This tribulation because is it what they say it means or is it what the Bible uses it? I'm telling you 45 times, 4 times the word great tribulation is there. And most times it's talking about something else, like the children of Israel and Egypt. Listen to this. This is from the Apostle John, who outlived all the other apostles, who's an old man at the island of Patmos right now. He says this, I, John, your brother. Oh, isn't that cool? The Apostle John is our brother, the same as us. He's just our brother. And now if you want a definite article in front of the tribulation word, this is the one. This is the text you would go to and give me your doctrine. Your fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance. which are in Jesus. Is John looking ahead for this future time of these 7 years of tribulation? Will it get bad? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it will. I know that the Apostle Paul tells Timothy it will go from bad to worse. But you know what? Every generation says it can't get much worse than this. And I even say it. Will it get bad in the end times? Maybe. Is that what is on John's mind right here? Brothers, I'm just your fellow partaker in the lifetime as a Christian of tribulation. That's what he's saying. Consider Hebrews 10. says this, but remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. Why? Because they didn't care about this world. Take it. They didn't even fight back. In fact, they accepted it joyfully. Why? Because they know that God is going to give you something better. Knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Now when we talk about this use of the word tribulation in Mark, as quoted from Daniel chapter 12, consider this. Luke chapter 21 says this, I'm sorry, I'll back up. Those who are in Judea must flee. We had just heard that one. Those who are in the midst of the city must leave. Which city? Jerusalem. Where Judea, I know that's redundant, but amazingly people can't grasp this. And those who are in the country must not enter the city because these are the days of vengeance so that these things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days. Listen to this, for there will be great distress upon the land. Which land? The land of Judea, the land of the city of Jerusalem and wrath to this people, this people in whom is talking about who are in the city at the time of the abomination of desolation, there'll be wrath upon this people, not the people in 3,000 years later. Come on, you guys, just read the Bible plainly. Yes, sir. I don't see how you can relate what you're saying to the Daniel prophecies, because it's also prophesied that it matches up exactly the 42 months of 1,209 days. So, from the time this is in Daniel, Daniel 12 is talking about, it's completely in line with Revelation for the days. You know that doesn't equal three years and six months If you How many months is that? I googled it. I know, you googled it, but do the math. Just do the math. Take 1290 days divided by 365 days. How many days is 42 months? No, take 1290 days, written in Daniel, divided by 300... It still lands you in 42 months. Just do the math. What's the math say? 1290 days divided by 365 days a year gives you It gives you three point five three four It gives you five three point three four years if you divide 1,335 by 165 you have 3.6575 years. It's not literally three years and six months to the minute. We already have a figurative number there that we have to deal with. I don't know, I'm coming up with different math here. What are you coming up with, Gabe? That's right. That's right. So now you gotta, you gotta, you gotta manipulate everything to get it all to work. That's what I'm saying. 42 months. Hold on. If you have 42 months, you have the 20 days into there because it's 1,277 days. 42 months to the beginning of that month. If you add in the extra 13 days, it could be, it will still land you in 42 months. I don't know how the math is wrong on that. 42 months, that's exactly what's the point here. We're talking about the Book of Revelation, we're talking about Mark Chapter 13. but we're trying to show where the abomination of desolation is also. AMIR TSARFATIH No, hold on, hold on. So that's what I mean. I just spent all last week, last time I talked, nobody was here. You can go listen to it on Sermon Audio. It's available for the public. Go ahead and then I'm not talking about the abomination of desolation today. I can't, we cannot make progress in the Scriptures and keep going back to what I already just said. That's why I was trying to just lay it out there quickly. I knew it was going to bring up some controversy because I can't go back and explain everything. You can go back and listen to it. We're talking about Mark 13. I'm trying to explain the tribulation word. That's all I'm trying to do. and explain how it's being used in the passage we're talking about. Will there be another temple? Will there be 42 months? Will there be 3 1�2 years and the Antichrist and the Millennial reign and all this sort of stuff? I don't know. I already said that 60 times and I don't really care at this moment because I don't have time to go into all that. What does Mark 13 say? Are we getting from Mark 13 that There's an Antichrist. Is that in there somewhere that I'm not seeing? Yes, sir. It doesn't have anything to do with what he's teaching right now. He's teaching what Jesus was trying to tell the disciples at that time. When they ask the question he doesn't say oh and go into your Bible and look at Revelation and see the 42 months and all this He's not there yet Daniel wasn't written yet Revelation He's talking about the Yeah, I'm not I'm not trying to play a guilt trip on you that you weren't here I'm saying I'm trying to explain to everybody I don't you might not even been here when I said it this morning and I spoke on that in great detail and I cannot go back and go over that again. You're going to have to just suck it up for today. We can go listen to the thing, then come talk to me on Monday and we'll discuss what 1200 and whatever days means. Okay, so I'm sorry. I just got to keep going here. I'm sorry. Yes, sir. That's right. That's right. Especially on this topic. Especially here. Amen. Amen. I think that it's important to look at all sides and to say, oh, it has to be the way I understand it. I think we don't really understand much. We're just going to have to trust God to provide for us. And again, I'm not saying that there's not there there may be a time that's worse than right now It's possible. I'm not saying that And it's all possible. Go ahead. It's not here. It's just not here in this text. What is this text saying? I'm trying to show that this is what you said, Randy, thank you, that you go tell China, somebody in China about the tribulation and they'll say, yeah, I know what that means. I know what that means. The real Christians do. Okay, I'm going to try to get through this. I'm sorry. That's okay. I'm sorry about that. That's right. That's right. I told Elizabeth, I said, grab some bananas because you're going to need a snack. I want to show you the last passage that I had on this, where the term great tribulation is used. This may be another can of worms. You know, you get so nervous even opening up Revelation in public because of this. You know, everybody's so passionate about this that it's a shame because there's a lot of good stuff there like this. Revelation chapter 7. It says this in verse 9, after these things, I looked and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation, every tribe and peoples and tongues. Who could that be? That's everyone. Every kind of ethnic group, not just Israel, everybody, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands. What's the white robes? The righteousness of Jesus. The palm branches like the triumphant tree for the King. We're hailing God as King. And they cry out with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Verse 11, and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell, who we saw, you'd see that in chapter four. They fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, These who are clothed in white robes, the righteousness of Christ, who are they? Well, we know that they are from verse 9, people from every nation, tribe, peoples in tongues that couldn't be counted, a great multitude, right? Who are they? And where have they come from? And Jesus said to them, My Lord, you know. And he said to me, These are the ones, verse 14, who come out of the great tribulation. What? The ones that endured to the end. The ones that suffered for Jesus' sake from all of time. They're before the throne. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. I don't know if you've ever tried to wash a white robe in blood. It's figurative, meaning you have the righteousness of Christ. For this reason they are before the throne of God and they serve Him day and night in His temple. What, in Jerusalem? No, they're in heaven, remember. and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them." Wow, you have this picture of a temple, the tabernacle, all the people of God clothed in the white robes that came out of the Great Tribulation. Is this just a seven-year period? I don't think so. I don't think so. They will hunger no more, nor thirst any more, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat, for the lamb in the center of the throne, thought God was on the throne, the Lamb is on the throne, will be their shepherd and will guide them to the springs of water of life and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Well, there's where the fourth time the Great Tribulation word is used. You might have a different idea of what that is. I see that as just simply those who live their lives and suffered for the Word of God, like Jesus said. So I just wanted to give you what the Bible said. I want to be fair, show you all the places where that was used. I don't want to manipulate the text. I don't want to be deceitful in this. Jesus uses this phrase from Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 and verse 19 of Mark chapter 13. For in those days, the days of the generation, there's going to be time of trouble. Matthew will say there's going to be great trouble. He's going to emphasize the trouble and call it Megas. It's going to be Megas Philipsis. To you generation, alive at the time, while I'm answering your question that you just asked me in verse 4, will be times of tribulation, a great time. Okay, now why? I'm just going to try to get through this one verse. Now, look at the end of it. Here's the objection to the verse, okay? Verse 19. I'm just going to read the whole verse. I just quoted it again, but I'm going to read the whole verse so you get the whole grasp of it. For those days will be a time of tribulation. Such has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. Oh, so we go, wow. So it's going to be really, really bad. The likes that the world has never seen and never will see again. So this time, whatever Jesus is talking about is going to be really bad. You see how people have to make this be a different tribulation time than here? And we're going to find out in a second why, why they do this. But this is the end of this verse is the reason why people can't handle it being just in Jerusalem. Okay, and we're gonna, I'm gonna explain, so just give me a little bit of time here, of how this could be. I see two options again with this. What could this be? Why does Jesus say, such has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now and never will again. Well, he's, remember he's quoting from Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, and Daniel had already said that same thing, if you remember. There will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time." He's just borrowing from Daniel's language, I believe. What do we make of this? Consider this, Exodus chapter 11 verse 6 says this, "'Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt.'" Listen, Such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. That's not familiar? What are we talking about here? First option, hyperbole. Hyperbole. He's saying it's going to be really bad. This one in Exodus is talking about the first one being dead and the cries will be so great. There'll never be a time like that again. That's what the author is saying. He's just exaggerating how bad it's going to be in Egypt. I mean, maybe it's literally true. Maybe it was literally the Egyptians losing their firstborn was the most atrocity thing that happened on the earth ever. That's what the author just said. If you have a literal reading of the text, that's what you're going to have to say. No, the author is just saying it's going to be really bad. going to be really bad. Exodus 10, here's another one, verse 14 says this, the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt. They were very numerous. Now listen to this, there had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. Yet we have in Joel 2 and Revelation chapter 9, way more locusts than we had in Egypt. In those couple of chapters, it says they're not even countable. What is the author trying to say? He's just saying there's going to be a lot of locusts. That's it. There's going to be a lot of locusts. He's using hyperbole to describe the amount of locusts that are coming on the land of Egypt. And if you just carefully read Revelation 9 and Joel 2, you'll find out that there was more locusts, most likely. But if that didn't sell you, I wanted to read this, maybe I still will, sorry. Ezekiel 5, it says this. I'm going to read this lengthy passage. This is Ezekiel 5, verse 8 through 14. Because it has similar language, remember Ezekiel is right in the time that this temple's been destroyed, they've been taken to Babylon, they're about to come out, right, come back and rebuild. Listen to what he says. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, am against you, talking to Jerusalem. If you go back, that's the context. He's talking to Jerusalem. I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations, listen to this phrase, I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again. That's hyperbole. Therefore fathers will eat their sons among you and the sons will eat their fathers. For I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. So as I live, declares the Lord God, surely because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw and my eye will have no pity and I will not spare. One-third of you will die by plague and be consumed by famine among you. One-third will fall by the sword around you. And one-third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. Thus my anger will be spent, and I will satisfy my wrath on them, and I will be appeased. Then I will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my zeal when I have spent my wrath upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which surround you in the sight of all who pass by. This is a prophecy given by Ezekiel against the desolation of Jerusalem, which is sitting currently desolate. Literally in history, at the time Ezekiel is speaking, this is something to be in the future. Is it fulfilled in 70 AD? I don't know. It sure sounds like it to me. I think you can make a good argument for it. But he uses that phrase, I will do among you what I have not done and the like which I will never do again. Maybe it's not hyperbole, maybe it will be worse. Okay, here's another last example of this first option that it's hyperbole. Second Kings 18.5. says this, Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. Listen, there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. Is that a true statement? Is Hezekiah the greatest king Israel has ever known? Because before and after, remember that's the phrase here. Who's the greatest king of Israel? David? Is this author trying to say, no, Hezekiah has actually got David? No, it's hyperbole. And just a couple chapters later, what do you have? Josiah, his son, before him there was no king, this is 23-25, there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart. We already have the example of David. And with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. Well, the other one of Hezekiah said the same exact phrase. Does the Bible contradict itself? Because it was said of Hezekiah that there will be none like him after him. No, it's hyperbole, it's language. We have to be okay with it, you guys, as we read our Bible. Sometimes the Bible is going to emphasize things. I think that's what's happening in our text in Mark, the same exact thing. Okay, second option. My second option, it's just plain true. It was the worst time. Maybe it was the worst time in 70 AD. You ever think about that? Well, I know the objection. I know the objection. What's your basis for the worst ever? What do you think? I think of the flood. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. All those innocent people. Innocent babies, you know, think of that. What's generally our marker for the worst atrocities ever? God's wrath. Well, that would be a biblical way to look at it. I agree, that's the right view. Well, that's what they would say, the Holocaust. So our typical, I thought, maybe I'm wrong because none of you said it, our typical basis for what's the worst ever is the death toll normally, right? How many people died? Well, therefore that was the worst. And then the objection is the Holocaust was the worst. Okay, so if that's true, I'm not saying the Holocaust wasn't bad. I'm not saying 70, 80 was necessarily worse than that in the sense of death. But just consider this, 1933 to 1945, 6 million Jews, right? That's the number they always throw at you, 6 million. It's what we hear all the time. In the span of 12 years, that's 500,000 Jews per year. That's how that worked. In 70 AD, 1.1 million. I mean, they didn't have statisticians. What are they called? Statisticians. Yeah, yeah, that one. Statisticians. They didn't have that then. So you have Josephus, it looked like 1.1 million bodies stacked up, right? So 1.1, let's just go with 1.1, 97,000 taken as slaves. We'll just round up to 1.2 if you're okay with that. I know that's not an exact number. 1.2 million in the span of three years leaves you with 400,000 Jews dead. per year boy that number is not that far off if we're just basing our our basis of atrocities on death toll but is death the marker of oh you died therefore it's bad well it's bad if you go to hell when you die but do you know that how old are you nine you know many nine-year-olds die every day A lot, right? I'm 41. Do you know how many 41-year-olds die every day? A lot. Death has no respecter of persons and we're all can be banged. You guys could be driving down the road and gone just like that. Death shouldn't be our marker for the basis of bad because it's just, well Paul said, momentary. Momentary. I agree with Brother Abram, the wrath of God should be our basis. What did they have in 70 AD that was not in Germany in 1945? What was there? The temple was still standing, wasn't it? just got finished too, just completed. Oh, the temple, the picture of God's presence. Oh, the picture of God's way to atone for the sins of men to the world. Was it blessed by God at one time? Sure. Jesus said, your house, my house should be called a house of prayer. Jesus says, your house will be left to you desolate. They had the public display of God's presence before them. Jesus is there. He atones for death. The veil is rent in two. The temple system is done. Done. And yet they still sit there and offer sacrifices, right? blasphemous. The thing, the object of public view is still standing, which prefigured Jesus the Messiah in all His work, His atonement, His intercession, all of that stuff, His priestly role is still standing there. That is an abomination to have a physical temple here with Jesus here. He's the fulfillment of this. And there it is, standing there in all its glory, with the Roman army surrounding it. You know what else happened before 70? You might make the argument every single apostle was gone, except John. With the exception of Thaddeus, which I don't know, my hunch is he was gone by then. Either way, he was, I think, in India. They fulfilled what was spoken already. I'll find it. The gospel must first be preached to all nations first. They did it. It's still standing, 70 AD, Roman army. That's the difference. That's the atrocity of 70 AD. Why 70? I don't know. Why is it that number? It's God's sovereign number for some reason that year. He gave time for the gospel to go into all the world. This book is written. The gospels are written except for Revelation. We have the Word of God, we have the doctrine of the apostles and the symbol still stands. God is going to wipe that symbol out because we have the substance in Jesus. Just in case you didn't think that it was bad there, I'm going to read you a short, well, kind of long, hold on saints, I'm almost done. Josephus wrote, the huge white marble temple complex, which gleamed with such a luster that it might be compared to a mountain covered in snow. And the city choking with civilians and insurgent and Romans, all swirled and culminated a butchered, bloody, and smoky end on September 8th, 70. The land of Judea was plunged into chaos and turmoil. Bands of zealots, and other Jewish rebel groups roved the countryside, attacking Roman garrisons and even their own Jewish brethren. They accused of sympathizing or appeasing the Romans. The Romans reacted with brutality, showing no mercy as they indiscriminately killed men, women, and children. Scores of Jews throughout the land fleeing. The Romans made their way to Jerusalem. After the Jewish rebels slaughtered a Roman army of 5,500 men, Rome was on the war path to Israel. By the time Vespasian gets there four years later, the Jews have been pushed back into the city of Jerusalem. Inside the city it's seethed with turmoil. The Romans were willing to watch the factions under various warlords fight among themselves. There were three major factions, Simon with 15,000 troops, John with 6,000, Eleazar with 2,400. The city was divided into three parts, 100 acre upper and lower cities in the south, 150 acre new city in the north, and 150 acre Temple Mount area in the east. Severe infighting occurred between the two factions. The Zealots at this time kill over 12,000 Jewish people in their rise for control. Titus, Vespasian's son, now general and now camped outside the city, cut off all communication with the inside. He cleverly allowed pilgrims going to Passover to enter the city. Why? With no intention to let him come out. Why? He knew that swelling the city's population would strain the food supply and resources. Severe famine occurs, of course, and not only from the outside, Titus actually sends Josephus multiple times in to try to get him to surrender. Lost my spot. Try to get the Jews to surrender peaceful multiple times. When they refuse, Titus patiently waits. And this is my paraphrase. Let's just wait. Let's just wait out here. They'll kill themselves. That's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. They started eating from sewers, cow and pigeon dung, leather and hay. One account tells of a prominent woman who had resulted in cannibalism, eating her own baby. The accounts after the war said that the Romans searched for people. They would go into the upper rooms and just find corpses, died of starvation, while Titus' army kept creeping closer and closer, the sex of them taking the Temple Mount as their possession. But one of the leaders of their factions had poisoned the water supply and other faction burned grain supplies. Meanwhile, outside the Romans began building siege ramps and fighting. Titus commanded everyone outside the city to be crucified. One source said they crucified 500 Jews per day. 500 Jews per day. You know why there's no olive trees on the Mount of Olives to this day? Because they were building crucifixes. They deforested Israel. They ran out of places to crucify them and wood to do so. A few deserters who were allowed out told stories of corpses everywhere stacked up and left unburied. After several days of fighting, the city walls were breached and the last stand against the Romans was at the temple on August 9th. The Jews retreated to the inner court and eventually a flaming torch was thrown over the wall directly into the sanctuary and it burst in flames. One account says soldiers were slipping in their spiked boots on the marble floor inside the temple due to the amount of blood on the floor. One observed a Roman soldier fighting in the temple covered from blood from head to toe. Even the horses were covered to their bridles. Josephus wrote, there was no pity for age, no regard for rank. Little children, old men, laymen and priests alike were butchered. Many who were wasted away with hunger and beyond speech found strength to moan and wail when they saw the sanctuary in flames. Titus no longer had sympathy or respect for the temple. or the Jews, and he ordered victorious sacrifices near the eastern gate of the temple, and one of the animals burned there was a pig. For several months, the Romans were still clearing Jewish fighters. The captured men were sent to a lifetime labor camps and taken to gladiatorial games, and their women and children dispersed and sold as slaves." Josephus estimated 1.1 million. If our basis for the worst I actually think Jesus' words are true. I don't think it's hyperbole. I think it was because the temple was there and it happened so quick. The amount of death so quick. It was like nothing the world had ever seen. I would disagree with that because in Revelation 9, a third of the earth is killed. A third, that's 2.8 billion people killed Begging God kill me, kill me, and He will not kill them. As it says here, how miserable those days for the pregnant nurse and mother, pray for them. I like the Matthew 24 passage, pray for your flight will not occur in the winter of Sabbath, for at the time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. And that's the point that God unleashes his wrath upon earth. And there are no more saints. No one is left. Just as it says here, but the sake of the elect, I am the elect. Those days will be cut short. My days will be cut short. I am not there no more. I don't know how I can relate Matthew. I don't know how I can relate this happening in 70 AD to me as an elect. I mean, I guess you could say, I'm guessing you would say that it would be the apostles or something. That sounded like a sermon to me. You should be up here because we're asking questions, Abram. I just spent all that time answering that question and you weren't even listening to what I was saying. I was about to say almost the same exact thing to you with the exception of the wrath of God coming. No, I did not. I did not ask a question. Did I ask a question? Did I ask that as a question? Or did I say, I believe that this was true and nothing the world has ever known before ever will be again. This is it. It wasn't a question. I did not ask a question. And I just got done explaining how that relates. And you just rejected it in front of everybody. You can have a different opinion, but have some class to it. Keep your opinions to yourself. You disagree with the guy up here, keep it to yourself for a second. You just did. You're not listening. I'm going to finish this up. I just got done explaining out of Mark 13 how Jesus is saying the time, I just read through the whole thing, about how bad it was in 70 AD. Is it hyperbole? Possible. Is it true? I think so. Because of the temple was there and the quick death that happened and the atrocities of that. That was my point. Could I be wrong? I could absolutely be wrong. I could absolutely be wrong. One thing I know, I was going to end with this. He kind of did. When Jesus returns to this earth, the day is coming. The day is coming when these clouds will be rolled back and everyone will see the Son of Man coming to this earth. And the wrath of God will be poured out upon this earth. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. And everyone that is not found in the Book of Life, which I'll get to next time I speak maybe. I wanted to finish this passage and move to the next. Whoever's not found in that Book of Life will be cast alive into the lake of fire. That is a true event coming to fruition. Kids, you need to repent and trust Jesus while you have breath in your lungs. You guys are young girls. You are young. I know both of you are Christians. If you're not a Christian, the day's coming. Jesus is going to return. Listen to how it ends. Listen to how it ends. Sorry, gotta find it. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul writes to the Thessalonians. We ought to always give thanks to God for you, brethren, as if only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of you toward one another grows even greater. I hope so. Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of your persecutions and afflictions, there's that word again, which you endure. This is the plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted." Why? The gospel, the Word of God, the Word that you hold to, the gospel that you hold to, guys, You're going to suffer affliction because you hold to the truth of the Word of God. But God is going to give you relief. Listen, when the Lord Jesus, this is when it's going to come, the relief is going to come, either when you die and stand before God face to face, And this world is over. No more arguments of dispensational thought and end times theology and man's free will or God's sovereignty. We're all going to know what the answers are. No more. Brother Abram is right. In Revelation 9, he's coming. People are going to hide in caves and wish the rocks are going to fall on them, but they won't come. Death won't come anymore. We've entered into an eternal state. Eternal death. Eternal torment. The lake of fire. When the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God. Do you know God? Do you know God? Come up here and tell me what you know about God. Do you know God? and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, whoever is ashamed of me and my words. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and be marveled at among all who have believed. For our testimony to you was believed. There's a time in this life of tribulation. There was a time in the lives of that generation, at the time of Jesus speaking in Mark chapter 13, that endured great distress, great tribulation. But we're going to find out that God has mercy on His elect. He shortened the days. What's that mean? He shortened the days of the Roman destroying Jerusalem Otherwise, they would have wiped everybody out. There might have been some in there that came to faith later. They're called the elect of God. We'll find out what that means next time. All right, let's pray. Father, fearfully we come before you, knowing that you are the sovereign Lord who sits on the circle of the earth and you do whatever you please. Although the kings and the nations make their stand against you and your anointed, you scoff at them. Nations are just a drop in a bucket. What is man but a nose full of breath? Father, we have so much pride in us. Father, we want to be like your son. who truly loved his neighbor as himself and loved you with all heart, mind, soul, and strength. We long for the day. We long for the day in which we will marvel at you. May the day be today in which the clouds be rolled back and Jesus returns. We fear for our countrymen who do not know you. We fear for those that we see regularly that do not know you. Father, may you have grace upon this. May we long for the day in which we will be with you, with all those peoples, tongues, tribes, and nations, the multitude which nobody could count, that sing praises to you before your throne, day and night, and to the Lamb. Please rescue us from this perverse and wicked generation. May your name be praised. May you guide us in the path of righteousness for your great name's sake. Amen. All right, thank you for being patient. Sorry it was so long.