I just want to read you that story in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. In a passage that is often associated more with questions than comfort. But know that all of God's word is profitable to the saints. We are to know it even if we do not fully understand it and we trust that with the help of the Lord this evening that we will derive some good and positive benefit for our souls. Matthew chapter 24, we're going to look at verses 15 departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed, that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver Ewok to be afflicted, and shall kill be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place, whoso readeth Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. and shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. revelation of thyself unto us, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the times to come. And we ask, Lord, that thou give us wisdom and discernment as we approach with fear and reverence this subject over which there is often so much disagreement. We pray that we may be united in our understanding that thy word would go forth in the power of thy spirit to speak to our souls, to give us joy and comfort, even in the midst of a procession. glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen. Lord Jesus speaks of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. That narrows it down quite a bit, doesn't it? We're going to be quoting Daniel then to see what he's talking about. And generally there is an agreement that when Daniel spoke of that abomination that makes him desolate, the Jewish religion and the Jewish people and sought to do away with them. He slaughtered many thousands of Jews during his reign. He blasphemed the temple of God. He set up an altar to Jupiter and an image of Jupiter within God's temple to be an affront to the Jews. He went to the altar of the temple and sacrificed in which the temple of God would be blasphemed, would be destroyed. His disciples who have come to Him privately to ask Him when these things shall be. So here our Lord Himself is opening up the idea that there is 3 When the disciples say, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? When shall which things be? 2 See ye not all these things, the buildings of the temple? Verily I say unto you, And in 70 A.D., J.C. Weil has an interesting quote, I won't read it, but it's in your bulletins, where he says, some Christians wonder, why are we spending so much time often talking about what happened in 70 A.D.? This is a long time ago. Why are we getting all caught up about that? Why should we be interested? And the answer to that question really has been taking place in our Wednesday night Bible studies. still standing. When that earthly worship, that temple worship is still being practiced by the faithful Jews, they're faithful in the sense of following the traditions of Abraham, following Moses, we're doing God's word, we're doing God's will, we're worshiping the way that he said that we should worship him. And some of the Jews have been converted to Christianity and have been followers of Christ. Or do we have it wrong? Maybe we should go back. Some of them were being brought back. Some of them were wondering why maybe we did get it wrong. So Hebrews was written to address that problem. No, that temple worship is set aside. So we generally say the book of Hebrews was dated somewhere All of those things were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about not the moral law, but the ceremonial law, what we call the cultus, the worship of the Lord's people. And all of that has been fulfilled. It's not necessary anymore. Don't go back to types and shadows when you have the reality. decimated that worship was. these things taking place. You're going to at the very least hear of them if you're not physically present in Jerusalem. And so these, beware, and then watch, and these are the instructions that I'm giving you. Now a number of commentators suggest then also that if there was a fulfillment of Daniel 12 in Antiochus Epiphany, We believe this to be the case. I believe this to be the case. That we're not just looking at history, we're looking forward. And let me just suggest to you that these are, this is a view that I found not only in J.C.Royle or in Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on Matthew, commentators as well. There is this multiple fulfillment of Bethlehem for about 10 years, or about 25 years, and they didn't have that kind of an idea of setting dates. But when Jesus appeared as a little baby, this is the term Messiah, it's a little baby, but he's going to be your deliverer. And people who are watching lately recognize that Jesus was their Savior, even as a baby. That's the admonition that's given to us. We're to watch and pray. We're to be aware of what could happen so that we know when these events unfold, right? And they're going to crisis, not so much here, exactly what it's going to look like, so much as what to do when it happens. So there are some admonitions here, beloved, for you and I. There's going to be a desecration of holy things in the last days, in the end times. And Jesus gives us, and his disciples, and also to us, I believe, some admonitions that will help us in those days. He says in verse 16, then let them which the mountains. So we learn here that there is a time in the Christian life when it may be alright to flee from persecution. Jesus says that. Let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. When you see the abomination of desolation, when you see these things taking place, When you see, 2 Thessalonians 2, the man of sin establishing himself as God and commanding the worship that belongs to God alone, for instance, then let him flee to the mountains. It is all right, there are times when you're to flee. Remember, for example, the situation of Sodom and Gomorrah were wrought, and his family were told to flee out of Sodom in order to escape the judgment of God. They were actually commanded to flee. And we can think also of Exodus. The Exodus, where those, Exodus 9, those who feared the Lord, who believed God's warning that the firstborn would be killed, were to take their servants and their cattle and flee with them indoors. And for the protection of that angel of death that was going to come across. So there are these examples of flight. We can think also of, in history, We can think of the example of John Knox. John Knox, who was encouraged, even by his followers, to flee from the persecution of the evil Queen Mary, who was persecuting and burning Protestants at the stake during the Marian persecution, and was to be a persecutor, to be burned at the stake. So he fled to Geneva for a time. He didn't feel conflicted about that often, but he did flee to the good of the church. So there are times we ought to be courageous, we ought to be bold, but we also ought to be wise. And if the Lord tells us to flee in those days, then we ought to do that as well. The Lord then expresses also compassion for his people in those times. Oh, here, verse 17, about fleeing. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, and neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. So very, very, like when your house is on fire, you don't go back for your stuff, you just go. and sounds as though you're on the rooftop, you can go from rooftop to rooftop, just get out of the city, just flee, do whatever you can, because there's nothing more important than getting out of there. So then he says, with compassion, he says there's compassion for the women. Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. So it's going to be a terrible time, and you want to pray, maybe in conjunction with the next verse, pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. So there is a prayer to be made that you'll escape that aspect of the tribulation. That when things become intense, the opposition, that you will pray that if we do need to flee, that it's not going to be in winter, and we're going to be trudging in the snow. It's not going to be on the Sabbath day. That's a curious consideration. The Sabbath day, there's works of mercy that were permitted. There could be other things where perhaps those strict Sabbatarians, those strict Jews, would have closed the gates of the city so that they couldn't escape. Perhaps that's what Jesus has in mind. But anyway, he says, pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath. that it not be in the winter, that you not be pregnant, or have a sucking child in those days. And isn't that an interesting perspective on prayer then? The Lord says, pray that these things would be at that appropriate time. Well, doesn't Jesus know when those things are going to be? Or is he just admonishing you to be in prayer for those things? He doesn't say it doesn't matter. I'm just, it'll come when it comes. Just leave it in my hands. He says, pray, pray, be concerned. And you're going to have a sense of the urgency of what's happening here, that we're not going to have to have our flight troubled by circumstances or by weather. And then he gives the reason the great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be. Great tribulation. And we have the record that's often referred to, the historical record of Josephus, who writes about those days of 70 AD, terrible things were happening. And so it shall be then in the last days as well. And I think that this applies, it can also apply in the days to come in the sense that that tribulation will be worldwide. It will be, it will have great breadth as far as where it all takes place. So these are trials that are coming. And the Lord says that he doesn't pull back. He doesn't say that these things are not important or significant, but worry about it because you're all going to be delivered. You're all going to be raptured out. He doesn't give any of that kind of hope. He says there is going to be great tribulation. It's going to trouble even the Lord's people. And the Lord's people have suffered. We talked about the Marian persecution in the history of England. Christians suffered, they suffered horribly. They were singled out for persecution. a whole building where all the Christians were corralled, and then the building set on fire. We hear of that in modern-day terrorism sometimes. But in the Marian Persecution, they were single. It was just one person who was made an example, it seems, of what happened multiple times throughout England. So those things may default the Church. So there is not this false hope, and it is a false hope. that somehow we're going to be delivered from those things. Once again, I come back to that verse in Isaiah, that the righteous are taken away and no man layeth it to heart, considering that they are escaping the things to come. And there are, as Christians go to be with the Lord, we consider that. It seems as though we're heading rapidly towards the end times. And it's something of a delight then to think that there's another Christian who's gone to meet with the Lord. They're escaping that tribulation. And they were praying as they saw it approaching. They're obviously not going to have to go through it. Are we going to have to go through it? We don't know. We don't know. We may be delivered in other ways, but we may not be delivered at all. But the Lord says, in case you are Here are some warnings. Here are some things to understand. You may need to flee. The Lord has compassion on you. Pray. Pray that your flight would not be difficult or unnecessarily perilous. And then he focuses on God's election. Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. Again, that's kind of a curious verse in many ways, but could be longer, but it's going to be shorter, Jesus says, because of my compassion for my elect. So that it's not going to be prolonged unnecessarily. And my focus, he says, is on my elect. We're coming to our own federal election. I often think about that. Charles Spurgeon, somebody came to him and said, there's an election coming up, we'd like you to preach about the general election. He said, I don't know too much about the general election, but I know a lot about particular election. I'm going to preach a sermon on that. So he, so are we. Jesus says, I have concern for my elect, for my church, for those who are appointed to salvation. And I could draw because I love mine and elect, only because I love my church, and my church is going to be preserved. So what's involved in that exactly, we may not be able to tell, but it's interesting, isn't it? It's for your benefit, beloved, that the Lord says that he's concerned for the elect in the end times. These are words, beloved, So when the church is being attacked or being persecuted, Christ is not unaware. Christ is not over there somewhere taking care of something that's going on in Africa or the Middle East or in Russia. No, he's concerned with all of his people everywhere, but particularly all of this night for you. I'm not an unfeeling Christ. I'm not an unfeeling Savior. I have compassion for women who may be barren children. I have compassion for those who may have to take flight on the Sabbath. Pray that that doesn't happen. And then for the sake of the elect, those days shall be shortened. Isn't it difficult to consider that upon us in our own lifetime. I don't look forward to that, but it may well be. And you and I, beloved, must be prepared to see that as being in God's eternal plan and according to God's decree whenever that should happen. And so, again, I think of the words have the grace of a martyr?" And he said, no, I do not. But God hasn't called me to martyr him yet. And if he should call me to be martyred, I expect he'll give me the grace of a martyr. Is that wise? I think that's a wonderful response to these things. If God calls me to be alive in those days when the blood of Christians is being shed plan even though my life is at stake. That is a tremendous act of faith, to have your eyes on the Lord in times of persecution and tribulation. It's powerful, but those Christians believe that our God is Not only an almighty God, but a God who loves his people. Lord, we pray that Thou wouldst fill us with the fear of the Lord, that we may know that Thou art not only our God, but our Savior. Thou didst send Thine only begotten Son to deliver us from our sin. be moved by the thought of wars and rumors of wars, but that they may rest settled upon thy eternal truth, upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon thine eternal plans, upon thine eternal love, covenantally faithful to those things which