The Abomination of Desolation

Even though Israel is laid waste, and even though the nation is desolate because of the rejection of Messiah.

There will come a day when indeed they will recognize their Messiah and say Blessed is he that comes in. Yes, the house of Israel is desolate but yes there is a future time when they were recognizing welcome to grace to you with your host. It's been said, have no fear of perfection. You'll never reach it will if there's one area of Bible knowledge you've never mastered it may be figuring out the order of end times events. Really though, keeping the events straight is within your reach.

The chronology is right there in the book of Matthew and you can get a handle on it. John MacArthur is showing you that in his current study here on grace to you titled Jesus is coming, and now with a look at what life will be like right before Christ's return. Here's John MacArthur. Let's open our Bibles together to the 24th chapter of Matthew, Matthew chapter 24 this great chapter is our Lord's own sermon on his second coming in details for us. The events surrounding the return of the Lord Jesus Christ from his own mouth.

What a tremendous privilege to study this great text. No people in our world are always wishing for a better day, always hoping for a better time. Always wanting to see the alleviation of the distresses and the problems that plague human society but the message of Scripture is that before there is ever a better time. There is going to be an infinitely worse time.

In fact, human society has to look forward to a time that is going to be more severe than any time they've ever known. That time is described rather briefly for us in just one verse in this particular chapter and I want to draw your attention to its verse 21 for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time know nor ever shall be in that very brief statement.

The Lord says that the world is to look for a time that will be worse than any other time.

It is ever known in the Lord even gives it a name great tribulation.

Now this is an anything new because there have been other prophets than our Lord Jesus Christ to also have spoken of this same time is a time of tremendous trouble which encompasses the world but centers on the nation of Israel to see how the prophets of Israel spoke of it.

Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 10 and is Isaiah looks forward to that day that day of the Lord that day of great judgment that day of establishing the kingdom of Messiah that day of salvation for Israel that great climactic day when man's work on earth as it were done by his own hand and design is done and God takes over. He says this in verse 20 it shall come to pass in that day, that great day. The end of man's day the beginning of God's day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again lean upon him who smoke them, but shall lean upon the Lord, the holy one of Israel and truth that tells us that there is coming a time of great stress for Israel, a time when they will be killed, and there will be a remnant to escape and will learn the lesson.

The never lean again on anyone other than the Lord. The indication is that in that great day that in day the people of Israel are going to lean on someone who turns out to be not their friend, but their enemy who offers himself for support and then destroys the in their learning that day to lean only on the Lord, the remnant shall return. Verse 21 says even the remnant of Jacob under the mighty God.

For though, thy people Israel be like the sand of the sea at a remnant of them shall return the full and decreed shall overflow with righteousness, for the Lord God of hope shall make a full end. In other words, at the time of the full land at the time of the very end. At that day of judgment. That time of establishing the time of righteousness, the kingdom of Messiah Israel is going to go through a massive betrayal by one they trusted, who turns out to slaughter them.

They're going to go through a time of great trouble from which they will try to escape. Now let's look at it in the words of Jeremiah the prophet chapter 30 and see what other dimensions he adds to his insights as he looks at this time. Jeremiah chapter 30 verse five for thus saith the Lord. We have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace, Jeremiah looks far ahead of the CPC sees trembling in fear. Ask now and see whether a man doth travail with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in child pain birth paid in all faces turn in the paleness the most excruciating human pain, that of giving birth to a child without any anesthetic without any care is typically women did in that time sort of symbolizes the pain of society in the future when Jeremiah looks ahead he sees as it were in the imagery of prophetic vision men with hands down on their knees, as it were in agonizing pain over what is about to take place the world in pain. Israel and pain. Alas, verse seven says for that day is great so that none is like it, just as it was in Matthew 24.

21. This is a day like no other day none is like it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it for to come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will break his yoke from off thy neck and burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more and slave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David, that is Messiah, their king, whom I will raise up under them. So it is going to be a day of great judgment to get day of great distress. The time of Jacob's trouble and out of it is going to come salvation, and out of it is going to come the raising up of Messiah and his kingdom. So both Isaiah and Jeremiah. Look forward to it. Time of severe trouble at time of severe pain at time of death.

The time from which Israel will run to escape, followed by the Messiah's kingdom. Now notice please Zachariah chapter 13 verse eight and it shall come to pass in the land actually throughout the land, says the Lord to parts in it shall be cut off in death and the third shall be left in other words, there is coming a time in the land of Israel won two out of three will die, and he will bring the third part through the fire and refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They shall call on my name, I will hear them. I will say he is my people, and they shall say the Lord is my God. In other words, at time of purging, a time of judgment at time of death to two out of three.

1/3 are preserved and they are brought to the awareness that the Lord is God in this verse 14 says is the day of the Lord is the day of the Lord. It is a day, says verse two. When the nations are gathered against Jerusalem to battle, and the city is taken and the houses are rifle and the women are ravished and half of the city goes forth to captivity and the residue of the people, shall not be cut off from the city to stop at that point Nelly put together very simply, Jesus said there is coming in the future a time unlike any other time at time of incredible indescribable horror to the world, but particularly focusing on the nation Israel is a time of which Isaiah spoke of which Jeremiah spoke of which Daniel spoke, and of which Zachariah spoke.

So it really isn't anything new that our Lord is saying he is reiterating what was said to hold a time like no other time and it will not only impact Israel but it will impact the world and things are not going to get better. They're going to get worse. In fact, they're going to get worse today never been the worst of all, yes.

Just prior to the worst time of all, there will be a brief time.

Peace. So as we look ahead in future analyzing the events of man's day. We could expect to have a time of false peace, followed immediately by a Holocaust without description and precedent followed immediately by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the prophets of said that's what Jesus says because in verse 29 of Matthew 24 he says immediately after the tribulation. What happens the sun is dark and the moon doesn't give us like the stars fall powers of heaven are shaken and then appears a sign of the Son of Man heaven all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So this is the time right preceding the coming of Christ, it's impossible not to see this prophetic picture. This chronology is simply as it stated here by our Lord by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Zechariah a time of great distress. Great trouble for the world centering in the nation Israel, followed by the purging salvation of Israel. The coming of Messiah to establish his glorious and eternal King. So Jesus here is preaching a sermon related to his second coming is a sermon not only about his second coming, which appears in verse 29 but also about the time before that which he himself calls in verse 21. The great tribulation know what brought about the sermon.

Why is he preaching the sermon and to whom is he preaching it in chapter 24. Let me tell you why Jesus has entered of the last week of his earthly life. Friday he will die so he doesn't have much time left.

He spent all day in the temple.

He cleansed it on Tuesday throughout the moneychangers the buyers and sellers and purged it outwardly and once he had cleansed it on Tuesday that he could go back to it and not be defiled by so we did that, he took his disciples any pot all day.

The teaching was public to begin with, as he taught the multitude that teamed into the place because of the week of the Passover, but after some of his teaching the leaders of Israel were upset so they stopped him in his tracks and they started to ask him questions. The first of which was by what authority do do the same. Who gave you permission to teach the way your teaching and to do what you're doing and that engaged him in a dialogue that went on for the rest of the day with these false Jewish leaders. The result of that dialogue basically was an opportunity for him to articulate the fact that God was now setting Israel aside for centuries the nation Israel had been the custodian of God's word, the custodian of God's truth. But all that was going to change because God was going to take the kingdom away from them and give it to a people who were more worthy than they in fact he said that in chapter 21 verse 43 as explicitly as it could be said the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits of it. A people bringing forth the fruits of it.

He was saying to the Jewish religious leaders.

You are no more to be called God's people in the national sense you are no more to be custodians of God's true now as we learn in Romans 11. This was only a temporary setting aside but nonetheless a real setting aside, he says to them, the kingdom will be given to a people who bring forth the proper fruit.

Some of it comes at the end of chapter 23 in verse 37 in Jesus last public sermon. His last message to the populace of Israel. His final word to the religious leaders, old Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kills the prophets and stones them who are sent under the how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not behold, your house is left unto you ruined desolate empty waste that is the final statement of judgment on Israel for the rejection of the Messiah.

That is, it is indicted them indicted their leaders and by indicting the leaders indicted all the people to follow the leaders now says their house is left desolate Ichabod. The glory is departing. God is moving away to another people from Israel, but I'm so glad the sermon didn't end with verse 38 in verse 39 he said, for I say and you shall not see me henceforth, until you shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. That's a messianic epithet when Jesus rode into the city and they cried hosanna to the son of David, they said, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

That is a messianic affirmation and he says to them, you will not see me again until you recognize me as your Messiah. That's very hopeful as because that tells us that even though Israel is laid waste, and even though the nation is desolate because of the rejection of Messiah. There will come a day when indeed they will recognize their Messiah and say Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. It's what Zechariah saw. When he said they will look on him whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. So yes, the house of Israel is desolate but yes there is a future time when they will recognize their Messiah. Now you have to imagine the disciples at this point.

Is there listening to all of this should they hear the sermon, which devastates the system of religion in Israel they see Jesus cleansed the temple and they know he's bringing to an end that evil hypocritical system. They hear them talking about destruction. In chapter 24 verse two now that the temple is going to be raised RAZ ED to the ground and there will be one stone left upon another. But the whole thing will be thrown down. That's exactly what happened to the very letter and so they see him come sweeping in with all the statements about devastation and destruction.

Does this bother them, not really, because as we pointed out in our previous study. Remember that if any disciple was a student of Scripture, he would know that in the great kingdom of Messiah. There was going to be a new temple. The temple of Ezekiel 40 to 48, that glorious temple not this temple built by a non-Jew into me and King by the name of Herod, but a temple that had the qualities of that glorious temple seen in Ezekiel 40 to 48. So when they hear Jesus say this temple is coming down and you're not going to see me again until you say Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Their idea is that he's going to knock that temple down very soon be back in full messianic presence to set up his kingdom because you see they see no gap between the first and second coming.

The Old Testament prophets didn't delineate a first coming a long time and the second coming.

They just bunched it all in the one thing that's why the time in between is known as the mystery unrevealed in the Old Testament, they didn't see that there was a first coming going back to heaven thousands of years, then a second coming know they sought all at once.

Their eschatology said Messiah comes Messiah judges his enemies in the ungodly Messiah cleanses Israel he purges the temple.

He gathers the elect, he sets up his kingdom and so they could see all this happening in days or weeks, so in excitement and anticipation. Verse three. They have now left the temple ground.

Only Jesus with the disciples privately. It says they've gone to the top of the Mount of olives on their way back to Bethany, where they were staying with Lazarus and his family and he stopped at the top of the mount sits down and they said to him, when shall these things be, and you can just sense the fever pitch. The tremendous anticipation that this is gonna blow right soon because of what they've already seen that week. It's all coming together.

They saw the forerunner John the Baptist. Then came the Messiah.

He did the miracles he taught. He preached and now he's come into the hallelujahs in hosannas and now is cleanse the temple and now he talks about ripping down. This is due me in building and it must mean the great exalted building of Ezekiel is going to go up and he's going to establish his kingdom, and the people are going to say Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord and so they say when and even later on the next one they say is it is at the time. Now that you can bring the kingdom they they believed it was momentary and not only to the ask when but in verse three.

What shall be the sign of thy coming word coming through the means presence isn't to say they thought he was going when coming back is to say that they thought he would come in full presence. What is the sign of thy presence and the end of man's age.

What we look for is there an angel coming out heaven with the trumpet. What is it is is it a cataclysmic reconstruction of the temple supernaturally. Is it the knocking down of the temple. What is it what is the event that signals your coming in full presence and without question. The Lord then preaches the message concerning his coming and he gives them the things to look for the signs to look for a not to them because their long dead, but to all delivery description and starting in verse four we have signs of the second coming signs of the second coming.

I want to add is a footnote here so you're not confused the rapture of the church is not discussed in any place in Matthew 24 or 25 that is not here. We wait later for a fuller understanding of that. This is a message given to the context of those Jews about the second coming of Christ, he is giving them a description of the time of the second coming and the signs that lead up to it. Now he starts in verse four, giving them a series of general signs that the people alive at the future time should look forward to doesn't tell him how far future. It is he doesn't tell because every believer has always lived with a sense of immanence is that Christ could come at any .3 doesn't tell. Many times he just says signs notice please. The first sign is deception verse for many will come and deceive verse five to the same thing.

Second sign is dissension, war, rumors of wars so forth for seven nation rise against nation kingdom against kingdom. Third, devastation, famines and earthquakes.

The fourth is a desecration.

Verse nine.

They will deliver up the saints for defection. Many of them will be offended and betray one another and hate one another so forth, and the final is declaration verse 14 the worldwide preaching of the gospel of the kingdom sources look for deception, dissension, devastation, desecration, defection and declaration those of the site and we went through those in detail and I showed you how they parallel Revelation 6 to 19.

None of these happen in the church age. None of these happen that the destruction of Jerusalem from verse four on there is no discussion of the destruction of Jerusalem.

It is actually foreign to this text. This is the future. Prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem was a judgment for its own time. For its own sake to the people at that age is not the end of the age is not the sign of the coming of Messiah that is future. So all these six things mark the end time and I showed you the key to that verse eight would you notice it. All these surrounding verse eight are the beginning of birth pains. Please.

The word sorrow doesn't help us to interpret this text if that's what it says in your addition of Scripture is birth pains. That is the Greek term and when the birth pains start coming you know birth is near Jesus purposely chooses that as birth pains. Just like the prophet of old saw the man, as it were in travail. Going through the agonies that would issue in the birth of the kingdom. All of these events stack up at the very moment of the coming of the kingdom and they are parallel to the seals and the trumpets and the bulls of Revelation. Remember the seals happen sort of elongated and the trumpets are faster and the bulls are rapidfire, as there is an increasing frequency and intensity of those final pains as there is in the birth of a child, so it's a graphic picture so all of these things have nothing to do with the rapture the church they have nothing to do. The destruction of Jerusalem. They have to do with the time of the tribulation and the speeding up of events, painful events that bring about the establishing of the size, kingdom, so he gives them this big picture of general things, but he knows that's not really what they're asking because their question was what is the sign what's the one event that says we know this is it because we might see wars that we might see deceptions and deceivers and we might see defectors and we would see the gospel being preached, that could we could see that even now, today, there could be a lot of things we see, how do we know that this is really it choices are. I want to give you one sign that kicks the whole thing up in verse 15 he says when you therefore shall see. Stop there from when you see this the end of verse 15 you better understand so he's given them some general signs.

The birth pains. At the very end of man's day that result in the birth of the kingdom, but he gives them here. The trigger that sets the whole thing off.

This is absolutely fabulous verse is a key verse in understanding this transition from what you said through 14, to what is going to say from 15 to 31. Very very key. Now when you are alive in that day and uses the prophetic use reported out our last study.

When you are alive and that day see this you know you're in the tribulation. Here is the trigger that sets the birth pains.

In verses 4 to 14 loose on the earth. This is the key event say what is that event look at when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whosoever reads, let them understand when you see that you can understand that is the sign you're listening to John MacArthur as he continues his compelling look at the return of Christ. Today's lesson is part of John's current study on grace to you title Jesus is coming now. If you're a believer where comfort is to know that God has not appointed us to wrath. We won't be on earth during tribulation and John a question a lot of people have is this. If were not going to be around for these events than in practical terms how much do we really need to know about this. What's the benefit of studying the tribulation.

Well let me pose this question Phil what's the benefit of studying creation.

We were in around right, what's the benefit of studying creation. The benefit of studying creation is to know God and the power of God and the the purposes of God, and the benefit of knowing all about the end, the consummation is also to know God Outlook. I don't I don't need to be there to experience that. To be grateful that God will control all of it. The bottom line is you need to know the overarching reality that God is absolutely sovereign, that he brought the universe into existence, and he tells us exactly how we do that in Genesis and he will bring it to its consummation and its end and he gives us all the details with regard to that, but it's also true that as you look at those future details. They have the power to start back up into our lives and show us where of this world is going. That should have evangelistic impact on us because we would be calling on people all over the world to realize what is coming also was as well. We should be encouraging believers with regard to the rapture. He's going to take us out. We won't be a part of that but that is what is coming in the world.

I think people are fascinated by the end but they get caught up in fantasy and confusion.

So here's the best way for you to understand exactly how this universe will end you can get the two-volume commentary that I've written on revelations part of the 34 volume MacArthur New Testament commentary series covers all 22 chapters of Revelation. Great for you to just read a chapter a day get some depth read through the commentaries on Revelation 1 US orders with the order one volume or the whole 34 will ship them to you free but start why don't you with two volumes from Revelation, you will be so thrilled to know what God has planned for those that love him and for the universe as well.

That's right. Revelation is probably the Bible's most misunderstood book, but it doesn't have to be.

These commentaries clear up confusing passages explain the main themes of the book of Revelation, and much more to pick up John's two-volume commentary on Revelation, contact us today. Each Revelation commentary costs $19 and shipping is free. You can also buy John's entire New Testament commentary series all at once, and you'll pay a lower price per volume and shipping is still free to get John's commentaries on Revelation or the complete 34 volume New Testament commentary, call 855 grace or you can order from our website@dety.org phone number one more time 855 and our website TTY.if you'd like to download all nine lesson from John's current study, Jesus is coming there there free of charge. It TTY.org and affect all of John's sermons 3500 of them told are available to download for free. That includes any message you hear on the radio. Plenty of verse by verse teaching that we just don't have time to air, so to listen to or download or even read the transcripts of any of John's go to TTY.now for John MacArthur on Phil Johnson reminding you to watch grace to utilities this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378 or check your local listings for channel and times and then join us Monday when John continues his current series from Matthew 24 titled Jesus is coming be here for another half hour unleashing God's true one verse at a time wasting