"But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. The one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go 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 to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that it may not happen in the winter. For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance."
Good Morning my beloved,
This a very important passage as we return to the thirteenth chapter of Mark. The theme of our Lord's somber message is brought about by the disciples question when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled. That prompts His response of what to expect in the days leading up to His Second Coming, a period of time known as the Great Tribulation.
The greatest issue that confront our nation is not the economy, it's not global warming, it's not even the results of the next election, the greatest threat this nation faces is the government that is operating under the influence of Satan. It's almost as though they're trying to fix the world environmentally, economically, socially, morally by trying reinvent the wheel, hoping to make the world a better place by reaping a harvest different from the seed that is being sown. That's not how it works, you reap what you sow. If you sow sin you'll reap a harvest of corruption.
When the government functions according to it's God-ordained purpose, it works to restrain evil. When the government is under the influence of evil forces, it forms an alliance with the one who has not provided a clear understanding of the situation since the beginning of humanity in the Garden of Eden, the results is it ceases to function by God’s design. It becomes the source of lies and deception, no longer seeking to restrain evil, to and punish evil, but promotes it, becoming the persecutor of those who seek to do good, so they will fear the consequences, that's why they're putting pastors in jail for hate speech while opening the boarders to violent criminals and drug cartel. According to the National Center For Drug Abuse Statistics, the number of drug overdose deaths in America increased 29.6% in 2020, with the most drug overdose deaths reported from March 2020 to March 2021.
When a corrupt government seeks a power it doesn't possess must instill fear in order to control society. The more people are consumed by fear, the more they will comply. A fearful society will ultimately become dependent on government, making them susceptible to believing anything that the government says. We need to remember what Paul says in Ephesians 6, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." What we’re dealing with are the invisible evil forces operating behind the people we visibly see, Satan is the ultimate enemy with whom we must reckon. It's important to understand that Satan’s primary objective is to prevent people from coming to Christ by trying to systematically controlling everything and everyone that he can. As the whole world moves closer toward a one world government all of humanity is going to be under the influence of Satan. People are already positioned to worship narcissistic political leaders and celebrity televangelists who want to be admired, setting the stage for the coming Antichrist and the false prophet.
The Bible never underestimates the wiles of the enemy, and neither should we. In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter warns us to "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Satan wants nothing more than to distract, destroy, and devour God's people, taking as many with him to Hell as he can. If you will recall, he even tried to distract Jesus from His mission, Luke 4:5-6, "And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish."
Sin and corruption has consequences, Isaiah 5:20, says "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" All these people thinking they are getting by, escaping judgment will soon discover, whatever you sow, you will reap! While many Christians are concerned with what God's Word says, it is deeply disturbing how very few of them there seems to be that are concerned with living it in their own lives. They are quick to preach against sin, and point out in the sin in others lives, yet do absolutely nothing about the sin in their own lives. I believe that somewhere along the way, that knowing and proclaiming God's Word has become separated from actually living it. There is a tremendous lack of integrity and character being demonstrated in both the pulpit and the pews. That's the ultimate hypocrisy.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word, may Your Truth confront us in any area where things are not as they should be because we haven't been passionately living with the kind of zeal for purity and holiness that demands a reaction to the sin in our lives. May Your Word convict us without excuse and have a profound impact on our lives that will make us pure, love what You love and hate what You hate. May it start with us. Lord, touch the hearts of those who are lost, who are self-deceived while there is still time, confront them with their sin, call them to repentance and in Your grace and mercy provide them with true saving faith that leads to purification, and rescue them from the wrath that is to come. Father, I pray that no one would hear this message and go away without coming to Christ in repentance leading to genuine faith, experiencing the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We ask and pray this in Jesus' Name
Amen
Today's Message: Good News For Bad Times
Open your Bibles with me, if you will to Mark chapter 13:14-23. I trust you will be following along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, it's a lot to digest, but I believe it will be very beneficial to assist in our understanding of what things are going to be like. So, with that in mind, let's open our hearts and minds to hear what the Spirit of God has to say to us today. Mark 13:14-23.
"But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. The one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go 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 to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that it may not happen in the winter. For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; for
false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and
wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance."
As we discussed earlier that the world is not going to get any better as some people imagine, in fact, it's actually going to get worse, much much worse, and this is the very important key event that really kicks off the final cataclysmic phase that will unfold in rapid-fire succession, escalating to a level the world has never seen. If you think things are bad now, you haven't seen anything yet, it's inevitable, no human effort can change it. This is the last 3 1/2 years of the 7 year period called the seventieth week of Daniel, known as the Great Tribulation, associated with God’s judgment. Each week is actually a seven-year period. Presently, we are living in the undetermined gap of time between the 69th and the 70th weeks. It's so fascinating, that if you go back and track each of those 69 weeks of Daniel’s history, 69 times seven years, it corresponds exactly with the precise week that Jesus came in to Jerusalem.
In our last message, Jesus gave us some general signs leading up to His return, characterized by deception, disaster, destruction and distress that He accurately describes as merely the beginning of birth pangs, using the analogy of the increasing severity of labor pains. Before we get into the text, let's go back and look at Daniel chapter 9:24-27, where Daniel gives us a preview of what the end time abomination is going to be like.
"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 seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two 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."
We're not going to deal with these verses in Daniel in detail, though we may go back and forth, but I just want to set the background of what Jesus is talking about here in Mark, spoken of by the prophet Daniel.
Let's look at verse 14, "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains." I want to mention as a footnote, the phase "let the reader understand" was not added by some scribe; it is actually what Mark wrote. The word abomination, is the Greek word "bdélygma," which means detestable, a disgusting, abhorrent thing, sacrilegious, anything that blasphemes God. The word "bdélygma," comes from the root word "bdēō," which means to reek with a foul odor or stench. Daniel refers to the word abomination three times, and it is also used three times in the book of Revelation, and it appears more than one hundred times in the Bible. The abomination of desolation refers to the blasphemous act by the Antichrist, that will desecrate the restored temple in Jerusalem, breaking his seven year peace covenant with the Jews at the half way point. The Antichrist will then attack Israel, destroying the city, he will begin to massacre the Jews, and he will set up his throne in the temple devoted to God, declaring himself to be God, demanding that the world worship him, and anybody who doesn’t worship him must be put to death. After the Antichrist abominates the temple, the Jews will refuse to go near it, making the temple permanently desolate.
In Islamic eschatology, it is the Mahdi who comes and sets up his throne in Jerusalem on the temple mount to establish world Islamic rule, and anybody who doesn’t worship him will be massacred. By the way, the prophet Jesus will return to correct all the Christians, who have misunderstood what Scriptures about Him being the Son of God. The Quran is a blasphemous reversal of everything that the Bible teaches. I mention this to point out that we cannot hold hands with any false religion just because they claim to believe in a Jesus. I believe understanding Islamic eschatology helps to explain why Muslims hate the Jews, Satan has been trying to destroy God's chosen people since the beginning. By the way, mark this down, God is not going to allow the Antichrist Mahdi to do as he pleases and completely annihilate all the Jews; we know that God will protect them a third of them because Scripture says they are going to be redeemed, any believing Jew that are killed, will go immediately into the presence of the Lord. But many believers who are converted during the Tribulation, Jew or Gentile, will survive so the earthly kingdom will be populated. So, this part of God's judgment is all connected to an unbelieving, rebellious Israel, preceding the coming of Christ.
Verses 15-16, "The one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go in to get anything out of his house; and the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat." Jesus is saying if you happen to be around when the abomination of the temple takes place, know that you’re in the Tribulation, get out before the persecution begins and all Hell is going to break loose.
I've have occasionally been asked if He's talking about the church here. No, there is no evidence that the church is going to be here, notice, there is a tremendous sense of urgency here, a change in strategy, there's no more talk of evangelism, nothing about the gospel must be preached, just get down from the housetop, even if you have jump, then run as fast as you can! In those days because the housetops had a patio, there was an outside staircase to access it. If you delay, wasting time to go back to get your things, it will mean death. He's talking about Israel at this point, that will be the focal point of the Antichrist. All throughout history, Satan has wanted to eliminate Israel,
to exterminate the Jewish people, so he can thwart the whole God's plan of
salvation and the coming kingdom. Today, God restraining sin for the preservation of His people, however,
after the Rapture of the church, He will remove that restraint, that's
when everything will really begin to disintegrate rapidly. God is going to protect His own, He will always have a remnant that belongs to Him.
Verse 17, "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!" While this may sound strange at first, it's important to understand it will be extremely difficult for those who are not able to flee quickly, those who are pregnant will face the very real possibility of being ripped open, and their unborn child destroyed. I cannot even begin to fathom all the horrendous things are going to happen when the Holy Spirit is removed and Satan is in complete control. I promise you, it will be unimaginable! It is beyond disturbing that any pastor with a conscience would avoid teaching on sin, repentance and the coming judgment, because they don't want offend anyone, unless they just don't care about those they teach. Much of today's so-called preaching is raised up against the knowledge of God, and has absolutely nothing to do with a persons eternal soul, it has more to do with man's happiness than God's holiness.
Verse 18, "But pray that it may not happen in the winter." Inclement weather will inhibit your ability to move about quickly, the need to flee quickly will leave many people unprepared for surviving in adverse weather conditions.
Verse 19, "For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will." The indescribable horror will be more deadly, more disastrous, more destructive than any other time in human history, this final three-and-a-half-year period under the leadership of the final Antichrist, triggered by the abomination of desolation, is described in detail by Daniel and by John in the book of Revelation 6 to 19, if you want to know the details of it. Daniel 12:1 describes it as time of great distress such as never occurred. I am compelled to mention here, Scripture is very clear, those who die without Christ, now and in the future, will perish forever in Hell. Those who are alive during horrible time are going to know the coming of Christ is near, even still many will not believe, they will instead curse God. God in His grace has made it possible through the proclamation His Word, that we know exactly what the end will involve before this all begins, so that people will not get caught up in it, yet they turn a deaf ear to the Truth. How sad.
Verse 20, "Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days." Jesus is telling us, that if God didn’t put a stop to the unparalleled horror of these wicked days, because of His love for His own, who Jesus refers to as "the elect," no one would survive. This is really very important, I want you see there’s grace here, even in the midst of God's judgment. No one knows how long it will be before all of this happens, it could happen at any moment, your only hope is to be found in Christ. If you look around, deception is running rampant, even in the church, false teachers are preaching a version of Christ that's not the One in the Bible, leading people further away from the Truth, and in the direction of Satan. That’s exactly what Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses and many other false religions are doing today!
Verses 21-22, "And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect." I have been frequently asked, "Can God's elect be deceived by Satan's lies?" No, that’s the purpose of Jesus' statement here, "if possible," indicating how good these false teachers are going to be, most won't be able to tell what's true and what's not, it will be very convincing. The deception in the world today is catapulting undiscerning people toward destruction, Jesus is warning us not to believe them. I personally cannot think of a better reason to teach and preach the whole Word of God than that! I also believe it's important to compare the gospel you're hearing to what God's Word says, that's why I always encourage you to follow along with me, to look at the Scripture for yourselves, I don't ever want you to be mislead.
I don’t believe that people even understand how close we are to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a tremendous relief to know that maintaining our salvation is not up to us, if it were we would surely lose it. I'm so very thankful to know that no matter what Satan throws at us, God is able to hold onto His own, protecting them from believing the wrong thing! The Antichrist is going to use any means possible, even performing counterfeit miracles, but a true Christian cannot be deceived. If you belong to Christ, you don’t have to be fearful of false teachers, because His sheep know His voice, don't they. We’ve seen this playing out for years, from Y2K to the end of the Mayan calendar. If ever there was a year where things have gotten bad enough for us to think that Jesus might be coming back, I believe it would be 2020, yet, we still don’t know exactly when it will happen. But I can promise you this, it's closer than it's ever been!
That brings us to verse 23, "But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance." Jesus is saying there's absolutely no reason to be fooled, by knowing and believing God's Word, we’ll know exactly where we are in His prophetic timeline. You know, I've heard so many people claim we are now in the Tribulation, we know that's not true, because these things haven’t unfolded yet, have they? People have always been drawn to false teachers, it's going to become much worse in the days ahead. Paul warns in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." In order for people to hear and believe, we have to expose deception and have the courage to speak the truth, calling them out of the darkness! This corrupt world no longer holds an attraction for true Christians, that's why we long for His appearing, we long for the eternal Kingdom. That's the Good News, He's coming!
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2024 All Rights Reserved
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2024 All Rights Reserved