In his sermon titled 'Flee for Your Life,' Scott Brown delves into Matthew 24:15-28, focusing on the 'abomination of desolation' and the great tribulation Jesus warns about. Brown emphasizes the necessity of taking Jesus' words literally and respecting every commandment. He outlines Jesus' specific instructions to His disciples to flee to the mountains in Judea during the impending siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, highlighting the importance of immediate obedience and the risks of lingering disobedience. The sermon draws parallels between these historical events and the spiritual lessons for contemporary believers, stressing the significance of community support and the church's role during times of crisis. Brown also examines the prophetic language of judgment, likening it to lightning and vultures, and underscores the miraculous protection promised for the elect. The sermon concludes with a call to recognize the mercies of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice, and the ongoing need for repentance and adherence to God's commandments.

Today's scripture text is Matthew chapter 24 verses 15 through 28. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, Whoever reads, let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.

But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that Your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world, until this time no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, Look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible even the elect.

See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, Look, he is in the desert, do not go out. Or look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Oh Father, we praise Your name for Your Word that You've given us. We know that it's all true. Please help Mr. Brown preach Your Scriptures. Please help our minds understand.

Open our ears and our hearts, Lord. Amen. Well, I'm here this morning to proclaim that every word of the Lord Jesus Christ is true. I'm here to praise God in the presence of His Son, and His angels, and all of His saints, and all of those who might even hate Him, that every word of God is pure, that every word of God heals, that every word of God saves, that every word of God is pure, that every word of God heals, that every word of God saves, that every word of God is designed to illuminate us in very specific ways to help us to see the details for how he would have us to understand really everything. And that's the context that we find ourselves in in Matthew 24, where our Lord Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples, eyeball to eyeball there on the Mount of Olives looking over the city of Jerusalem and he's warning them of a time to come.

He's giving them very specific directions. Every single word will mean life or death for them. Every single word. If they don't care, if they take it lightly, if they remove some of it and take part of it, it will mean disaster for them. And the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking in order to save his sons and his daughters.

And he is warning them of a time to come. He is explaining to them a time of the worst pressure that mankind has ever known. It's there in this passage of Scripture. And the question that I want us to really be considering this morning is this. How carefully do you consider his words?

Do you take his warnings literally? Do you respect every word that He has said. You know, we're here on the Sabbath day where we are called by God to come for a day of delight. And what are we to delight in? His words and His ways.

Not our words, not to relish, delight in, move in our words, but His. Why would that be? Why would God establish a day so that we would take delight in His words, not our own words? His ways, not our own ways. Well, He's the Savior of the world.

He saves those who turn their hearts toward Him, and he desires even to have a day where the specific detailed meditations are upon his words. Because every word of God is true, every word of God is pure. And the whole Bible speaks that same message. And here what we find is the Lord Jesus Christ is with His disciples. He has very specific words before them that will mean life and death.

These words that Jesus is speaking about, a historical moment that will come upon the world, are no different than every other word in the Bible. Every single warning matters. Every single word of every warning is right and true and needs to be heeded. This is why in Deuteronomy 5.29, the Lord says, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they might fear me, and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever." Now, if you go through the scriptures and look at the phrase, all my commandments, or that principle of all, What you'll find is that God really does desire to you to pay attention to every single word that he said, because every single word is true, every single word is pure, Every single word will come to pass exactly as He has spoken with it. Not one word of His will fall to the ground.

Not one word of His will ultimately be contradicted. Which is why the Apostle said, let God be true, and every man be a liar. Because every word of God is true, every word of God is pure, every single prophecy takes place, every warning will find its end exactly in the way that Jesus Christ has said. There are 1, 050 commands in the New Testament alone. Every single one of them.

Every single word of every single one of them. Every jot, every tittle of every single one of them matters. And so that's why the church is called the people of the book. We are the people of the Word. We have a Word-based religion in the sense that we have words that guide our lives.

We take them into our hearts and they change our hearts. We open our mouths wide and He fills our mouths with His Word. Because He desires to have a people who will care about every word. And In this case that's before us here, if the disciples did not care about every single word, think of how different it would have been for them. So the question is, do you take His warnings literally?

Now In the context here in Matthew 24, there are three divisions of this chapter that we're engaging in. The first division is identified in verses 1 through 3 where the disciples ask Jesus a question. It's a two-fold question. When will the destruction of Jerusalem come and when will the second coming be? That's the way we understand it.

And Mark seems to just have one question, perhaps, in his story. But here, the disciples ask a question. It's a double question. The second division carries us from verse 4 all the way to verse 35 and Jesus is answering the first part of that question, when will the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem be? And then the third division begins in verse 36 and goes all the way to the end of chapter 25 and Jesus is answering the second part of the question about the second coming and the final judgment.

So that's how we have ordered these things. But the whole point of Matthew 24 and 5 is actually very, very simple when you boil it down. And that is, the Lord Jesus Christ is telling His disciples about the future and He's saying, you be ready, because it's going to happen exactly the way that I have said. Verse 35 makes that very clear. And so what we have here are, what we have in this passage is a lesson from the past to teach us about how we ought to engage the Word of God today.

And so we have a situation in the past that tells us of the way that God is dealing with his people and how God will deal with those people who are just pretending, who have a religion, maybe a very active one, maybe a very outwardly successful religion, with gigantic buildings and machinery and administration and elaborate practices and responsibilities and all kinds of things like that, but there's no life in it at all. So the Lord Jesus Christ is giving very practical advice. It's sort of a type. It's a paradigm, really, for all of life. And He is giving this prophecy here to his disciples.

Here's another thing that it really shows. It shows how God honors the person with the tender heart, with a mind that accepts his word, with a mind that says, Lord, I love your words, and I'm going to do everything that I can about it the best I know. Because from what all we can tell, this is what the true Christians did. They listened to the voice of Jesus Christ. And when the armies of Rome were outside Jerusalem, they did exactly what Jesus told them to do.

They believed in His Word. So on the one hand you have this one situation, which really brings us to a dramatic contrast. You have the saving of the Jerusalem Christians as they obeyed Jesus' words, and then the utter torment and destruction of the unbelievers, who were their neighbors, who were their countrymen. And it gives you the massive divide between the people of God and the people of the world. The terrible judgments that fall upon those that reject the Word of God, that don't take the details of the Word of God seriously, who want to actually live their own way.

And then there is the blessing and the salvation of those who do follow him. And there are so many things in this passage. The significance of the temple, the significance of worship, the exposure of false worship, and the terrible results in people's lives who maintain this false worship. Which really is a rejection of this great physician who has come with healing in his wings to come and take care of his people, and yet they would not have it. The Lord Jesus Christ is standing there, how I've longed for you, Jerusalem, how I've desired to gather you in my arms, like a mother would gather his young.

And at the same time, you have these unequal, dire straits that will come upon Jerusalem because they rejected Him. So, okay, This is a really long introduction, I recognize that. But Jesus is telling his people to flee to safety. And this would happen in 70 AD. And some of them would still be alive.

Paul would probably, The Apostle Paul would die for perhaps a year before this. And there was a terrible, terrible destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. So are you ready? And do you take His warnings literally? Do you respect His Word?

You see a situation here where Jesus gives very, very distinct directions. And I just want to say to us, this is what God has done with us. He's given us very, very distinct instructions. And the question is, do you take them literally? Do you take them literally?

Because there was a time when some did and some didn't, and you'll see the results of both of those responses. So that's sort of the wrap up of this passage. Maybe we should just say amen and go home at this point, but I think we probably ought to work our way through the tax first. So pick up in verse 15, you'll see this outline. I really want to walk through the major events really verse by verse in this passage here, but first of all we see that the time to flee is identified in verse 15.

The time to flee is the appearance of what he calls, and the prophets call it, the abomination of desolation. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand." This is a desolation of the worship of God. It literally means the abomination which makes desolate its uncleanness, its profaneness, it's the absence of the presence of God. It's the opposite of the fullness of the presence of God. And this is, of course, spoken of by the prophet Daniel.

Jeremiah speaks of it and other prophets also speak of this. We dealt with this last week. But what had happened in the temple is that the people had not been experiencing the true presence of God. And this is so contrary to the whole heart of God toward His people. And the temple was made as a place to see the glory of God, to have a revelation of God, to worship God, to be near Him.

God created the temple to be near His people, but His people, they preferred to have a religion but not a nearness to God. And so this abomination of desolations, I believe is the starting of the 70 weeks of Daniel. It's the beginning of desolation. And in 70 AD, the desolation is really consummated. It's complete.

And all the things that are happening during this period, the interscene warfare taking place among the Jews, they're killing one another, the idol worshipers coming into the temple as the Roman army comes in, as they're sacrificing the Caesar. There are these abominations of desolation that are taking place through this period. The armies coming in are, as Daniel says, the wing of it. In other words, there's a season of it that's taking place as the abomination of desolation is finally consummated, when the armies of Rome are outside the city. So it's about a time frame that is taking place here.

And so the time is identified. Jesus tells his disciples the time, the exact time. And it just begs that question again. Do you take his warnings literally? Do you respect every word of God that is true?

Every word of God that is pure? Every word of God that is like a two-edged sword that it pierces and it heals at the same time. Do you believe those words? And then secondly we see the place to flee is revealed. In verse 16, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

So he's saying go to the mountains. And so when you see the army's flee it's an imperative, in other words, it's a command. And of course the focus is the mountains of Judea. So This is a very geographically centered command. And the historian Eusebius tells us the church fled to Pella, the mountains that are there.

And so they have very specific instructions. Those who say that this happens at the end of the age and the whole church is being gathered together have to grapple with the fact that he says, flee, flee, you who are in Judea, flee to the mountains. Now how do you do that when you live in the Kalahari Desert? How do you do that when you live in Alaska? How do you do that when you live in the Kalahari Desert?

How do you do that when you live in Alaska? How do you do that when you live in Tierra del Fuego? He's being very specific. So this is why we interpret that he's telling his disciples to flee to the mountains there. They're in Judea and they should go.

And the question again is, you know, as you look at this paradigm, this type, Do you take the words of God literally? Do you respect every word? Do you believe that every word of God is pure? Every word of God is true. That every word of God is like a sword that pierces and it heals at the same time on the way out.

And then thirdly, the way to flee is shown in verses 17 and 18. So you have the time to flee, the place to flee, and then you have the way to flee, the manner in which your flight ought to be conducted. And in summary form, flee quickly, get out of town, go. Go to the mountains, let him who is on the house stop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go down to get his clothes." And here is this rapid flight that is required of the people of God.

Again, we do believe this is 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem because they're on the housetops. Again, it's a culture, it's really a culturally centric kind of command. They're on the housetops. You know, we don't have housetops here. People don't sit around in the housetops like they did, you know, in that time.

And so I don't know how you would do that here. People just don't do that very much because houses aren't built that way. But they were built that way there. And so they are to go down from the housetop and not take anything with them. And you know, They will foresee the danger that is coming.

You know, Proverbs 22.3 says, a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple man, the simple pass on and are punished by humility and fear of the Lord, our riches and honor and life. This is the command to do something very specifically when something happens. And they are to flee instantaneously. They weren't to linger at all. And it's interesting that they're not to linger at all.

And remember the great story of one who did linger? What comes to your mind first? Lot. Lot lingered. And his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

And it's bad to linger on matters of obedience. And the question really is, when the Lord Jesus Christ gives a command or a principle, do you linger? Are you lingering? Are you lingering at things that He's explicitly revealed to you? Are you just delaying them?

Are you doing what your children do when they say no to you and they're delaying their obedience? When you start counting 1, 2, 3, if I count to 3, I'm going to spank you. 1, 2, 3, is that the lingering kind of disobedience that exists in your life? If it exists in your life, you'll most likely let it exist in your house and among your children. You kind of like it that way.

And here there's this command not to linger at all, but to not even go down into the house. Luke chapter 17 speaks of this, Luke 17, 31. In that day, he who is on the housetop and his goods are in the house. Let him not come down to take them away. And likewise, the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.

Remember Lot's wife. This is connected to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and what happened there with Lot's wife, and the lingering that took place there. Jesus is talking about a people who would linger at his word rather than to jump at it, rather than to take his warnings literally, rather than to respect His word, rather than to realize that every word of God is true, every word of God is pure, every word of God is like a sword that pierces and it comes back and it heals at the same time. Every single word of God is true and right. Oh that they had such a heart in them that they might fear me and always keep all my commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

So there's this lingering disobedience that takes place. It's really startling to think about what's happening here. Now, what did this mean for the people of God? It meant that obedience would result in them losing everything. They were going to leave their houses.

They were going to leave their extra clothing. They were going to leave their extra clothing. They were going to leave their food. They were not going to take anything with them at all. And they would become instantaneously bankrupt.

They would have no house because they were going to flee to the mountains. And they would be completely subject to the length of time that the Roman armies would be in there terrorizing and also the Jews fighting against one another. They would be completely at the mercy of those political events that were taking place. But think about that for a minute. They would have nothing left in the obedience to the command of God.

And they would just take their children and go. Imagine that. Have you ever had to do that? I don't think anybody's ever really had to do that here. You're always taking some junk with you.

We have cars, we can fill them full of stuff, you know, and all this. You know, nobody ever moves like this. But this was some kind of a move. Boy, wouldn't it be nice to move like this? You wouldn't have to box everything up and carry 5, 000 books.

It would just be a delight to move like that. Except there would be a certain cost, right? You would be left with nothing. Here, Jesus Christ is actually asking His disciples to leave absolutely everything behind. Would you do that?

If He asked you to do that? If He issued a command that meant that you didn't have a house, that you didn't have a second change of clothes, that you didn't have any food in your pocket, Would you do that? This is what Jesus was asking his disciples to do. He was asking them to leave everything. And he relates it, he relates it to Lot's wife.

And in verse 33 of Luke 17, I stopped reading at verse 32 where it says, remember Lot's wife, but Jesus continues on and he says, whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed, and one will be taken and the other left. And then it continues on. And then he goes on and quotes other elements of this passage of scripture but the question is do you take the commands of Jesus literally? Do you take them that literally?

Or would you say you know I've got a couple more hours left, you know, I'm sure I could go down and gather a few things. Jesus said to leave, the armies are outside, I can get out of town, I can do that, I can make this work. And you take that extra two hours to gather a few things together, package up a little bit of food for the journey, you know, a few valuable things, take some of your favorite pictures, you know, make sure you get your computer because that's, you know, where everything that you're doing exists. And It doesn't take that long for you to get the really important things. And then you go and the gates are shut in the outside of the city and you can't get out.

Because you didn't distinctively, carefully obey all his commandments, which he commanded you. And as a result, it didn't go well with you and with your children because you lingered because you delayed so this this is this is a very dramatic scene where Jesus is giving such distinctive commands to his disciples. And if they miss one single word, they're dead. That's what's happening here. And so it just does beg the question for us.

Jesus has said a lot of things. And how do we think about them? Do we hang on every word? Or do we hang the words we don't like? And the Lord Jesus Christ here is speaking so carefully to his disciples.

So not only is, do we find the time to flee being identified, the place to flee being revealed, the way to flee is shown, we also find that the problems in the fleeing are described. And it's a matter of prayer. And so there is this... But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days. So there are problems in the fleeing.

And there should be a prayerful anticipation of the coming problems of the flight. A prayerful anticipation of the issues that might emerge when one obeys the commands of Jesus. And he identifies a number of things. First of all, he says, woe, woe to those. It's not a condemning woe.

It's a compassionate woe. It's a crying out of the heart of the difficulty and the pains of experiencing this kind of a flight. And he identifies a number of things, three things in particular, pregnancy and nursing. This is one of the problems. Pregnancy and nursing could be one of the great difficulties in the flight.

And pregnancy brings a season of vulnerability. This vulnerability is explained in a number of places in scripture. One of the ways that it's explained is that there were times in history where pregnant women were treated despicably. Where, like, you know, for example, in 2 Kings 15 verse 17, where women were attacked and those who were with child were ripped open. In Amos chapter 1 verse 13, the Lord says, For three transgressions of the people of Ammon and of four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead that they might enlarge their territory.

There are particular vulnerabilities of women, and There have been great sins against pregnant women in the past. And these tragic possibilities are being considered. The Lord is telling His disciples about how to anticipate this kind of issue. They will likely have some wives who will be pregnant, and they must recognize that they must prayerfully consider the matter and not ignore what might happen if they have a wife who is pregnant and how to protect her. And not to think that all of their comforts will be preserved and there will be necessary prayer for how to proceed in a time like that.

And then there's harsh weather that's mentioned secondly. And pray that your flight may not be in winter. So there are these life-altering experiences could happen in time of winter where it's very difficult to move around. We don't really understand how difficult it might have been to move around in a society like that because we have asphalt and we can move around really really easily in our society. Not so in a place like that.

And traveling in winter would add so many components of complexity and difficulty. And harsh weather. And then thirdly, spiritual reservations, or on the Sabbath. One may be scrupulous and not be able to make the decision to move quickly. One may have hesitations and difficulties and consternations in considering what it might mean to move on the Sabbath.

It may mean, it may possibly have meant that they would have received resistance, you know, for traveling more than what the rabbis called one Sabbath day journey, which is not even three-fourths of a mile. And so here you have these challenges that are upon them that they'll have to grapple with and pray about. The issue of pregnancy and nursing, the weather, the spiritual reservations. But what's going to happen here is that the church will be left without any material supports. They will have left everything and followed Jesus Christ in His command here.

And the Lord is giving them directions. You know, you might think about what it would have been like for them to leave absolutely everything. Well what they lost is one thing to consider. But think of what they had when they left. First of all, they had the very presence of Jesus Christ because they loved Him.

They loved His commandments, and they desired to follow His commandments. So they had Christ in their hearts. When you have Christ in your heart, You can endure anything. You can endure everything with Christ. Because as someone said, there's no pit too deep for the Lord Jesus Christ and His presence.

And people who have suffered greatly will tell you that. And they'll write about it. Go look at the martyrs. Go read the quotes of the martyrs as they spoke when they were being burned in the flames. Go read what they said.

They are strong, they are praising God, they are solid. Many of them are happy because they have Christ in their hearts. And then they had the Word of God on their lips, these who fled. They had the Word of God to remember. They had his orders to review and to have confidence in.

These men had seen the Lord Jesus Christ heal the sick and raise the dead, cast out demons, stop the wind, and control every physical and spiritual part of the world. They had seen Him do all these things, And now he's telling them, don't even go down into your house, flee to the mountains. And they have his word in their hearts and a desire to obey. There's nothing more valuable in a man or a woman or a boy or a girl's heart than have a desire to obey. There's nothing more important, there's nothing more life-giving, there's nothing more blessed, there's nothing more happy-fying, there's nothing more helpful than that.

Because every word of God is true. Every word of God is pure. And it pierces on the end and it heals coming out. God is giving His Word to His people. But Even though they have nothing left, they have the Word of God on their lips.

What else do they have? They have the community of God. They have the people of God. They have the Church of God. They are like living stones built together into a holy temple.

And they have brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers and aunts and uncles spiritually to lean on to consult with to be chaired for to be guided to be helped they have the people of God they have the community of faith and they're going to go out into the mountains, and they're going to be with their brothers and sisters, where they have help and support. They've been breaking bread together from house to house for 40 years. They've been persecuted. They've been gathering together. And they knew one another.

They were a true church. I always feel sorry for people who go through calamity and they don't have a church. They don't have a body of people. They don't have a hundred people who can come and help them. In our church, you have a hundred people who can come and help you.

That makes trials and tribulations different. If you lose everything, there will be people there to help you in some way. If you have to move all of your stuff, you'll most likely get some help. But these people who fled to the mountains, they not only had Christ in their hearts, they not only had the Word of God on their lips, they also had the people of God in their life. And it's so important that you make sure that you're bound together in love with your brothers and sisters, that you don't become impatient with them, that you don't become harsh with them and begin to hate them because of their flaws.

Because God has designed that His church would be a family of love, and that means it's a family of forgiveness. That means it's a family of patience and endurance to run one another. That means that you forgive your brother seven times seventy, even if he sins against you, seven times a day you forgive him. That's the kind of bond of love that God has designed for His church. And when those people went out into the mountains, they only had the threads on their backs.

But they did have an army, a family, a building, a body, a temple. They had something when they left. So church, church, love one another, be patient with one another, stick together, don't hate one another. Who knows what might be necessary in this world? But when times of trouble come, it's always best to have lived life deeply and dearly and connected with the local church.

God has created a church for that purpose and He calls them to come together regularly. This is why he said do not forsake the gathering of the saints. Don't forsake that. Be together. See one another's face.

Converse with one another. Pray for one another. Be compassionate toward one another. Love one another. All the one another's are designed to bind us together in love.

So when times of trouble come, It is so critical that we are connected together. This is all about really respecting the Word of God, respecting the words of Jesus Christ, recognizing that every word of God is true. In Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 8, I'd like you to open your Bibles to there, you see a dramatic explanation of how critical this is, particularly in times of loss. Hebrews 10-8, anyone who has rejected Moses' Law dies without mercy on the testimony of two witnesses. So this is about the rejection of God.

Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the grace of God, the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Verse 32, But recall the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became the companions of those who were so treated, for you had compassion on me and my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward." This is a picture of two kinds of people. One kind rejects the law of Moses and is destroyed. The other kind, when the devil tries to destroy them and plunders their goods, they're happy, they're strong. They have something. They have Christ in their hearts, they have the Word of God on their lips, and they have the people of God in their lives, and they are the companions of those who are so treated.

And so the question is, do you take his warnings literally? Do you respect his Word? And then fifth, the unparalleled pressure or? Tribulation is foretold in verse 21 For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor shall ever be." So this is such a dramatic statement. It's so remarkable that he would say that something was going to happen in their lifetime, in that generation, that would be like nothing that the world has seen from the beginning of time.

And There were terrible, terrible things happening in Jerusalem itself. And what the Lord is saying is that the tribulation, the word that he uses is philepsis or pressure. This pressure is like no other pressure that has been experienced in a period of time like this. And as we said earlier, you might be able to say, well, only a million Jews were killed during that siege. On the other hand, six million were killed in the Holocaust.

Isn't that worse? No? This is a time of a particular kind of pressurized hardship that was like nothing else. And What was happening during that time is that there were three factions among the Jews fighting in Jerusalem. If you read Josephus, if you read Usher on the matter, you'll get a very clear picture of what was happening.

But first of all, there was a man by the name of Simon who was leading a group of citizens in Jerusalem. And they held the higher portion of the city and a section of the tower. This man was vicious, he was exceedingly vicious. He killed the high priest, all of his sons, and many of his own men were so appalled by his brutality that they fled. They were part of him, but they were so completely incensed by his horrible brutality.

And then secondly, there were the zealots under the leadership of John Gushala, who hated the Jews. And he controlled the temple and the inner courts. I'm sorry, he controlled the outer courts. And then this second group of zealots actually split into two, making three groups that were fighting against one another. So this third division of enemies among the Jews had a leader by the name of Eliezer.

Now Eliezer used to be the commander of the Zealots, but John of Gershala took over. And he began to act like he was the only leader in the room and he did whatever he wanted to do and Eliezer was not happy with that so he raised up opposition. So now you had three groups of Jews fighting one another And Eliezer and Simon were fighting against one another and they foolishly burned all the food in the city. They burned the grain. Which if they hadn't done that, the Jews could have survived the siege probably much longer.

But there they were fighting against one another, destroying the food, creating a famine that was absolutely intolerable. So much so that the people became just raving maniacs, mothers boiling their children and eating them and offering them to people, hiding them though. Just horrible, just things that are unthinkable were going on there in that city. And so when Titus came toward the city, he stopped about a mile away with his four legions and he had a number of auxiliaries with other kings with him. He showed up at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which meant that people had flocked into the city.

There were about three million people in this really small city and hardly room to walk. There's a reason why there was no room in the inn during the great feast times. It was absolutely packed with those who had come to sacrifice. And this large, large crowd transformed into raving maniacs as well. And at one point, Eliezer opened up the temple so people could come in and sacrifice, and his opponent came in, and disguising themselves and having swords in their cloaks, came in and slaughtered everyone there, thousands of them.

And then the Romans just stood on the outside of the city building up a siege wall around the city, biding their time while the Jews killed one another. And then they engaged in this five-month-long siege, and finally they broke into the city. And they went into the temple and made sacrifices and ordered the whole city to be leveled. Every part of the city was leveled except the western wall. And there were three towers that were so beautiful and mighty that he left those.

And you can see them today. And so this terrible abomination of desolation was consummated. After the fall of Jerusalem, Titus, the Roman who was there ordering the armies, he went back to Caesarea to celebrate the birthday of his brother Domitian, the great persecutor of the church. And he had a party for his brother, and he took 2, 500 Jews with him, and he forced them to fight with wild animals. He burned some of them alive in front of the party goers.

Others he forced to fight with one another. They killed one another in the fighting and all 2, 500 were dead. This is the kind of brutality and horrific experience that was taking place during this time. It was a time like no other time. It was a time of pressure, flipsis, tribulation that no one will ever experience in this room.

And no one ever has, except for that time. If you go to Rome today, right next to the Colosseum in Rome is the Arch of Titus. And There you see the reliefs of the Romans taking back the treasures of the temple and marching into Rome with all the things that they brought back as a result of their time there. So it was a time of pressure. Not by the body count, but by the pressure.

Josephus says that no foreigner could recognize it. I think it's a picture of Deuteronomy 28. They shall besiege you at all your gates, until your high and fortified walls, which you trust, come down throughout all your land. They shall besiege you at all your gates, throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you, you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege, and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

The tender and delicate woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears For she will eat them secretly For lack of everything in the siege and the desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates, if you do not carefully observe all the words of this law, which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God." All of this comes because of taking lightly the Word of God. And the question that we've been asking all along here this morning, do you take the warnings of God literally? Do you respect every word of God? Because the Word of God is true, and every word of God is pure. And then, a miraculous protection is promised in verse 22.

And unless the days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. So this is, and a couple interesting things about this verse. The very first use of the word elect in the Bible appears right here in verse 22. And that something, this terrible pressure tribulation is going to be shortened.

God is going to rise up and He's going to shorten it for the sake of his people. The word that Jesus uses is kalabu, it means like an instant stop. You know, you're going along and bam, it stops. He's going to orchestrate events so that there will be an instantaneous end. And then the time of tribulation will end, thankfully.

And he does it for the sake of his elect. He's preserving a remnant. He desires his people to survive. And so they fled to the hills, And he's going to stop this. If the Roman army had stayed around for an extended period of time, they would not have survived.

So Jerusalem falls and the army leaves. If it had not stopped, then everyone would have been killed, but it was shortened. There was an external force. It was shortened. God did something to step in, to stop the horrible insanity that was going on.

Peter talks about being kept by the power of God. Isaiah chapter 10 verse 22 says, For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return. The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness, for the Lord of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of the land." There's a determined end of everything in God's economy. He starts and He ends. He heals and He kills.

God is the one who is orchestrating all of these things. He is restraining the destruction for the sake of His people. And The shortening of calamities is a kindness that God has upon His elect. And this miraculous protection is promised here. And it just again, it brings back that question.

Do you take His warnings literally? Every word of them. And then number seven, the temptation is identified in verses 23 through 26. If anyone says to you, Look, here is the Christ, or there. Do not believe it.

So there's a temptation to follow people who have a story, who have a miracle, because miracles are being done. They're showing great signs and wonders in verses 24. Don't over-exalt signs and wonders, because almost anyone can do them. And here, Jesus is saying that the wicked can do signs and wonders. It's like Deuteronomy chapter 13, 1 through 3.

Don't follow the man who's doing signs and wonders. Even if it comes to pass, his word is not true. And so there are a number of times in Matthew 24 where Jesus is mentioning false Christ, and here is another one of them. We can speak about this quality of the enemies of God doing wonders. For example, you could go to Deuteronomy 13, 1-3.

You could go to John 4, 48, 1 John 2, 18, Acts 21, 38, Acts 8, 9, 2 Peter 3, 17, 2 Thessalonians 2, 9-11, Revelation 13, 13-14, Revelation 16, 14, Revelation 19, 20. All this is just to say that Jesus is warning against those who would present an alternative with signs and wonders. And then number eight, the signs of judgment are revealed in verses 27 and 28. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together." Now notice there are three important things.

Lightning flashing, second the coming of the Son of Man, and third, the carcasses and the vultures. Those are the three things that Jesus is mentioning. And how I understand this is that this is not a literal bodily coming, but it's a coming in judgment. And there will be two elements of this judgment of Christ. It'll be like lightning, and it'll be like vultures that are gathered where there's a carcass.

And lightning is part of prophetic language of judgment in the Bible. You know, we've been talking about, you have to always consider the context of any phrase or passage of Scripture. And the wider context of Scripture is what Scripture says about lightning. How does God use the presence of lightning in His Word? And I just want to submit to you that the prophetic use of lightning in Scripture, throughout Scripture, is for judgment.

That's what lightning is used for. And it's reflective of judgment. And there are a number of things. It's breadth, how it's surprised, how it just happens you can't time it, and how the speed of it as well. And the people are saying, look, here's the Christ.

And Jesus says, don't look for that. Don't look for a physical thing. It's going to be like lightning. It's not going to be like a person standing out there. And you have to ask the question, does this refer to the second coming?

You know, many have said it does refer to the second coming. I believe that it does refer to the second coming in this sense. That it's like the second coming. That it is one of the many things that God puts in His Word to teach us about things to come. Like for example, when Cain was killed his brother and He became a vagabond, he was banished.

That's a parable of everyone who rejects God. Then you have the flood, which is a parable of final judgment. And God is giving Thousands of years of warning that a final judgment is coming. And then you have the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 by Nebuchadnezzar. And then you have another one in 70 AD, where the Roman armies come in and destroy.

God gives these judgments as figures of the final judgment. He's giving us warnings. He's telling us in many different ways, in many different eras of history, the same thing, that God will come and judge. And so this is the broader context. And I'll just give you some passages where this broader context of lightning and judgment being connected with one another exists in 2 Samuel 22, verses 7 through 15.

David uses this language of lightning to show how God destroyed his enemies. He says, The Lord thundered from heaven the most high uttered his voice. He sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning bolts, and he vanquished them. In Isaiah chapter 13 verses 9 through 19, God sending the armies to destroy Babylon include this language of lightning. And then in Zechariah chapter 9, judgment on the Philistines, perhaps even Israel, this same language of lightning is used.

And then if you go to the parallel passage in Zechariah chapter 14, beginning in verse 1, He's prophesying, as I was instructed here by Dan earlier, after Darius. He's speaking of a future event, and It matches 70 AD perfectly. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. I will gather the nations to battle against Jerusalem. Skip to verse 3.

Then the Lord will Go forth and fight against those nations. It's the same kind of language as the coming of the Son of Man. And he says in verse 5, and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, the king of Judah. There was an earthquake then, and there's an earthquake also that will take place at this same time. Revelation 16, 18, thunders and lightnings in a great earthquake.

Here's all I'm trying to say. Lightning is used as a symbol of judgment in prophetic language. And it is swift, it is spreading, it is from heaven, it's visible, it's conspicuous, and it'll spread far and wide. And you know, there was a big lightning storm last night here. And somebody came to me this morning and said, the lightning woke me up.

It was such a mighty lightning storm last night. But this lightning is something you can't time it, and it's very startling, and it's very, you know, sweeping in its scope. And then the coming of the Son of Man. So there's lightning and then there's the coming of the Son of Man. For so will be, also will be the coming of the Son of Man.

And the question you have to ask is, is this the second coming, or is this a coming of judgment of Christ on his church, where he is coming to destroy the temple? Which coming is it? Is it a bodily coming, or is it a coming in judgment? And the way that we're interpreting this passage is that it's not the second coming, it's the coming of Christ to come and destroy His enemies who have created a false religion. Now You may have a different interpretation of that, but whether you do or don't, you have to still recognize the fact that Jesus Christ, His words matter, and His disciples must listen to them.

I do think that it's a paradigm, a parable of the second coming. It's a precursor to it. That there are two comings of the Son of Man. One is not physical, the other one is physical. And in this one, Jesus is coming to destroy Jerusalem.

And the other one is physical. There's so many complex arguments to try to unpack with this and here's my counsel. Study this as deeply and thoroughly as you possibly can. Seek it out. Come to your conclusion that you're comfortable with, and keep studying it for the rest of your life.

Because I think you're going to probably need to do that. Because there's so much to take into account. There's so much historical matter in terms of the prophets to connect with. There's so much language to grapple with. It's not something that you take a course in and fix the problem in your mind.

I don't believe. At least it hasn't been that way with me. But recognize the time indicators. Jesus is saying that these things will take place within this generation. And Jesus always uses that term, meaning the people who are alive at that time.

You have to grapple with that time marker in verse 34. And then third, the carcasses and the vultures. Here you find the Roman armies are coming in like vultures. And there's a carcass there and the people of God had become like a carcass. They were dead.

And there's much we can say. We could go to Hosea chapter 8, verse 1. We could go to Habakkuk 1 verse 8. We could go to Jeremiah 19, 7 through 8, and you'll find this language of the carcasses and the birds of prey. They were like rotting corpses.

By the way, the streets were filled with corpses. It was the worst problem they had to deal with. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of dead bodies, If you can imagine that, in a very, very small city. Only about 200 acres. Very small.

If you drew a circle from here and around Southeastern Seminary and back, That's about how big it was. Very small. Okay, so, do you take the warnings seriously? Jesus' warning is disciples. Every word is important.

Every word is pure. Every word is true. Every word of it is like a sword. And so I just want to ask us this morning, how do you think about the warnings of Jesus? And do you take them literally?

And do you take them particularly? Do you take them word by word in desire to understand and believe and love and do them? And it's like the guy who heard Jesus say, don't even go down into your house and get anything. You're in the field just head straight for the hills and He says, you know, it wouldn't hurt for me to just get a couple of things. It wouldn't hurt, would it?

It would only take a couple of seconds. But what would be so wrong to sort of pass through your house on the way out? Like, go really fast. What would be so bad about that? But yet that's the kind of sort of environment that we live in, in the world, and even in our own hearts, where we take lightly the Word of God.

And we say, what's the matter of just, if I just, while I'm passing through, I'll just do a little bit. I'll just vary a little bit. Like the Lord said, to set nothing impure before your eyes. I mean, how seriously do you take that? Like when he said, if you don't forgive your brother when he sins against you seven times in a day, and you don't forgive him, he won't forgive you.

How seriously do you take your unforgiveness? How seriously are you taking His commands regarding purity? How seriously are you taking His commands for love of the Brethren. How seriously are we taking the commands to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to make disciples of all the nations, and teaching them to obey all things that I commanded. The question is, how serious is He about His commands, And how seriously do we take them?

I think we've seen the dramatic effect of taking one word of God lightly in this passage here. And I pray that God would give us hearts within us like Moses, like God proclaimed, that we would always keep all His commandments, that it might be well with us and with our children forever. He's given us His commandments because they are pure, because they are true, because they are the most edifying, hapifying, blessed, wonderful commands that ever were given. They're the best words that have ever been written. And they're right here.

They're right here for our blessing. The Bible says that it will make you wiser than your teachers. It will deliver you from your fears, and it will save your soul. Well when you consider matters like this, I think it's always important to recognize the greatness of the mercies of Jesus Christ, His keeping of all the commandments for His people, His washing us clean in the midst of our inability to keep all of His commandments, to recognize His sacrifice, His blood that covers all of our sins, and to just to be so grateful that on the one hand he gives us commands to lead us to bless us and on the other hand he extends his hand of mercy toward those who would love him toward those who would repent toward those who would seek Him with all their hearts, and provide His Son the bread of life, the sacrifice for all of our sins. What a blessing it is that God would extend both of these for us.

Okay, over to you who would like to help us continue to consider these matters. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank you for your words, carefully delivered, every word pure, every word true. Oh Lord, we thank you that you would be so kind to us, to give us such help in such a time of need where our minds need such good instruction. Amen.