In the sermon 'The Shepherd Warns His Flock,' speaker Scott Brown delves into a passage from the Bible where Jesus warns his disciples about future tribulations, including wars, natural calamities, and persecution. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding these warnings within the context of Jesus' care for his disciples and his desire to save them from impending destruction, specifically the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Brown highlights Jesus' role in confronting false worship and the transition from the old to the new covenant, stressing that true worship is central to Christian life. The sermon also explores the dual nature of prophetic scripture, addressing both historical events and spiritual truths, and encourages believers to remain diligent in studying prophecy. Additionally, it urges listeners to heed the warnings of scripture seriously and to continually strive for true worship in their lives, aligning their hearts with God's will and remaining faithful amidst trials.

Today's sermon begins in verse 4. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because the lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations. And then the end will come. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. I pray that you would put your spirit on Mr. Brown as he preaches it to us today and let our hearts be prepared to receive it.

In Jesus' name, Amen. There's no greater privilege in the world than to have the opportunity to read the words of Jesus Christ, to listen to Him, to hearken unto His voice. Here in this passage, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks. He speaks very personally and very tenderly and very pointedly to His disciples. This is one of those wonderful moments where a counselor is with his councilees, a shepherd is with his flock, and he is there to instruct them, to give them a view for what is and also for what is to come.

And I pray that no matter what your persuasion is on this passage of Scripture, at least we would have this agreement. These are beautiful words. These are perfect words. These are instructive words. These words are meant to equip us.

That we can all agree on, I trust. And while we ought to struggle to understand these words, we have to recognize the lion of the tribe of Judah has spoken here in these words to his disciples. And as they always do, they have implications for we as His disciples in the age that we live in. So the whole context of what we're dealing with here this morning is that the Lord Jesus Christ has been in the temple. He has finished his final instruction there.

And he went into the temple and he surveyed the temple. And then he cleared the temple and then he preached in the temple for quite some time. And he had a lot of things to say. And then now the disciples have moved to the Mount of Olives. They've traveled about 100 or 200 yards down into a valley and then have ascended the Mount of Olives.

And now they're overlooking the Temple of Jerusalem. And the disciples have asked him a question which we find in verse 3, where they say, tell us when will these things be and when will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. And there are a couple of things that I want us to understand that are here in this whole context of Scripture. And the first thing is this, and that is that Jesus Christ is performing the greatest act of kindness that he can perform for his disciples. He's warning them.

He's telling them of things that are going to happen soon. And it will actually end up saving their lives when the temple is finally destroyed. What will have happened as the disciples who listened to the words of Jesus Christ fled to the mountains, everyone else fled to Jerusalem and died. And they were saved because they listened to this counsel. And it's a remarkable passage of Scripture.

The Lord Jesus Christ, let's get this, is showing his disciples how they would save their lives in a terrible calamity that's coming up. And isn't this so characteristic of Jesus? He came to heal and save. He came to seek and save the lost. And he is concerned here for the temporal preservation of their lives.

But what we see the Lord Jesus Christ constantly concerned with is the preservation of your life. He would give you honey from the honeycomb to make your eyes brighten. He would give you living bread. He'd give you living water. He would give you life under godliness.

He would give you life, eternal life. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is just doing what Jesus always does. He's saving people's lives. And here, He's speaking very directly to the disciples to save them from a terrible calamity that's coming up. Have you ever had anyone give you critical information about the future that would save your life?

Well, that's what Jesus did with His disciples here. And then the second thing that I want us to recognize here is that the Lord Jesus Christ is confronting false worship. He has surveyed the temple. If you look back in the Old Testament, there are many occasions where the temple was surveyed, where it was actually measured. And at some point, perhaps, we can walk through some of these things and this whole principle of the surveying of the temple, of the analysis of the temple, to discern what is happening in that temple.

That's what Jesus Christ has done and it is found wanting. And He is going to destroy that false worship that's taking place in the temple. The temple was designed to be a house of prayer. The temple was designed to be a place of healing for all the nations. Even the Gentiles had a place there so that they would be exposed to the goodness of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The temple was a place for the presence of God, for the help from Heaven that's there, that you would actually meet with God and He would heal your wounds and He would call you to a different kind of life. He would bless you. He would keep you. He would make His face to shine upon you. The temple was designed for the worship of God and that had been lost in the day that Jesus is speaking of here.

And while it was so busy, it was broken, while it was active, it was apostate. It was rich with lucre, but it was poor with love. Instead of a place of healing ointment, it was just a den of thieves. And it had lost all genuine life. It was gigantic.

It was rich. It was beautiful. It was active. It was organized. It had everything you could possibly imagine that man would want in a religious institution.

It had all the blessings on the outside. But what was on the inside? Robbery, extortion. There was no heart there for God. There was no love there.

There was no healing there at all. So what's happening here is Jesus Christ is rising up to destroy false worship. That's what He's doing. Now this is what Jesus Christ is always trying to do in our lives. Now he's putting an end to the old covenant, and he's establishing a new covenant.

He's establishing new and better promises. He's bringing about a new way through the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, the Lord Jesus is doing what He always has been doing, and that is, He's destroying false worship to open up to true worship. Here's what we need to recognize here. This is not only true of this temple, it's also true of your life and my life.

The Lord Jesus Christ is always desiring to destroy the false worship so that something real, something good, something genuine, something truly wonderful and life-giving would be replaced by it. And here is the love of Jesus Christ. He is going to destroy false worship, so that true worship can come in. That's what happened to you when you were first saved. You worshiped yourself, you worshiped your idols, and He destroyed that temple of idolatry.

And He turned your eyes toward His holy temple, toward His own body. And you yourself became a temple. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so this is what God is always doing. When he saves someone, he destroys false worship, but it doesn't stop there.

He's continually working to destroy false worship. I'm confident that there's a lot of false worship going on in this room today. Is anyone worshiping perfectly here today, really? I mean, is your mind so completely absorbed in the goodness and the love of God? Are you so before God that you really have got it?

You're there. You've got it handled. Or is it true that there still is false worship that needs to be destroyed in your life? Well, there is in mine, as a people being sanctified by God. We have to recognize that not only does he desire to destroy our idols, he desires to continually to work with us, to take us into his holy temple, that we might have worship that is true, that we might do as the Lord Jesus Christ said to the woman at the well, that there would be a day when the worshipers would worship in spirit and in truth.

So this passage of Scripture on the surface seems like it's about these historical events and, you know, these kings and kingdoms working. But in reality, it is at the heart of the matter of all human existence. It is about worship. Worship is absolutely the central issue of life. What the heart worships is what the life becomes.

And here the Lord Jesus Christ is dealing with this matter of worship. And I pray that He's dealing with that with us as well. That we don't just only get caught up in historical details, the hermeneutical principles, the climactic events, the time markers in the text. We should understand those things, but let's not forget what's happening here. The Lord Jesus Christ is calling His people to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

This is the heart of the context. And then this great question that's being asked in verse 3, tell us when these things shall be, and what will be the sign of your coming and at the end of the age. Now, if you go to the Gospel of Mark, Mark makes it sound like one question. Here Matthew seems to expand it. And the question that the disciples are asking, the Lord Jesus answers in a different way.

Because it seems like the disciples think that these things are gonna happen at one time. That the destruction of the temple and His coming kingdom are gonna happen at the exact same time. It seems like that's what they're thinking. But the Lord Jesus Christ says, no, there's actually a different picture here than your question has required. And then I also, again, want to make mention of the basic outline of this passage of Scripture.

And of course, if you've studied this passage, you know that people outline it in different ways. And this is perhaps one of the great humbling aspects of this passage of Scripture. So many times in the Gospel of Matthew, there's just broad agreement everywhere. It's so clear, not so in chapter 24. There are, there's language, there's terminology, there are events that are more difficult to understand, particularly if you grew up in the latter half of the 20th century, when there were a lot of books that came out and they redefined a lot of these terms.

And so you have to try to grapple with the definitions and those kinds of things that are in the text. And so on the one hand, we want to recognize that this text has been outlined differently, and we really ought to be OK with that. We ought to be continual students of the Word of God. We ought to study ourselves to show ourselves approved. And here's, again, I want to state what I said last week.

I'm not as concerned with your precise view of every section of this text as I am that you've worked with all of your heart to understand the words, to read the prophets and the connections that are there, that you would recognize the meanings, the categories that are in this passage of Scripture and that you work hard at it because if you do, here's what will happen to you. It will humble you. And it will also give you a greater grasp of the Scriptures. And so it's, you know, there are these critical phrases here that need to be, you know, unpacked. And the list of critical phrases is growing.

I'm going to give you seven here. I gave you four last week. The end of the age, verse 3. Verse 6, but the end is not yet. Verse 14, the whole world.

Verse 14, and then the end shall come. Verse 30, is it earth or land? Verse 34, this generation. And then the coming of the Son of Man in 30, 37, 42, 44, and 48. These are critical phrases that need to be interpreted.

And my challenge to you is, if you desire to understand this passage, take the time. Don't just act like you're an eschatological cowboy and just figure out that you know everything because you don't. And I've read enough commentators to know that guess what? There are a lot of different thoughts about this passage of Scripture. And it really ought to humble us.

And it also ought to make a smile break across our face, that the Lord Jesus Christ is so wise that he would give us a passage of scripture that would make us work, that would make us seek, that you will not understand these things unless you desire to understand what the Scripture says. And you're not going to understand everything about this passage by listening to our sermons about it because it's very broad and very deep. So there are these critical phrases. And you have to grapple with the fact that a change does occur in this passage of scripture that is absolutely speaking of the final judgment. We know the Lord Jesus is speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem and we know He's speaking about His second coming, the perusia, the time when He comes to gather His church together.

He is speaking of those two things and they don't happen at one time. They happen at different times and that's where the difficulty is. I also want to hear this morning give you a number of time markers in the text. Now this will help you understand the flow and structure of the text. So if you have your Bible open, I would like for you to look at it because I'm going to have you look at over a dozen verses quickly, just to see sort of the shape of the text, the way that it flows in terms of the time markers that are in there.

Verse 6, it is not yet the end. That's a time marker. Verse 8, this is only the beginning of labor pain. The term this connects it with the previous. And then verse 14, then, that means it's connected with what's previous.

Then the end shall come. Verse 15, but when you see, verse 16, then, again that's another connector, verse 19, in those days, Verse 21, then, again, which connects it to the previous. Verse 22, those days, specifically. Verse 23, then, again. Verse 29, immediately after the distress of those days.

Verse 30, and then, and it says it repeats it again. Verse 32, when you see. And verse 34, all these things will happen. And then finally, which is not really a time marker, but it's just a note of authority in verse 35, everything I said is true. Heaven and earth will pass away, what I said is absolutely true.

So those are some of the time markers. Now, the critical matter that I want us to really somehow get a hold of this morning is really What I believe is the central issue, or at least one of the critical central issues of this text before us in verses 4 through 14. And what is that central issue? That central issue is captured by these words, take heed. The Lord Jesus is warning His disciples.

That's what's happening. And He's counseling His disciples. He's preparing them for what is to come. And He's giving them events, categories, even feelings to help them process how they should respond in the face of the things that are associated with the destruction of Jerusalem. And notice there are many areas that he brings up in the warning.

It's a very granular, very detailed explanation of things that are going to happen here. And it's in the form of a warning. I see this passage as really hanging on two things. Take heed, let not your heart be troubled, those two things. And isn't that, again, so much like the Lord Jesus Christ?

Take heed, let not your heart be troubled. Those two things. And isn't that again so much like the Lord Jesus Christ? Take heed, let not your heart be troubled. He says that in his word so many times.

Remember, every word of Scripture is a word of Jesus Christ. How many times in Scripture do you read, fear not, fear not. But take heed, see that you are not troubled. Those two statements are critical for your understanding of this passage. And whether, whatever your interpretive grid of this passage might be, these two things stand and Tehkid see that you are not troubled.

Now, he's speaking of much trouble, like, for example, in verse 6, there's the fear of war. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is dealing with his disciples to help them understand how to grapple with the fear that they're going to feel that's going to come upon them in the future when they see literally all hell breaking loose upon their nation. And He's instructing them about the fear of war in verse 6. In verse 7, He's instructing them about the fear of poverty, their fear of sickness, their fear of damage to their property because of pestilence and earthquakes in various places. In verses 8 and 9, He's instructing them for how to deal with their fear of pressure and the tribulation that will come upon them in verse 9, because they will be delivered up to tribulation.

Now this term tribulation is the term that flips this. It has to do with pressure. When you hear the word tribulation, your mind just short circuits to a tribulation at the end of the age. This is different than that. This is a time of extreme pressure.

And there's the fear of physical harm. There's a fear of being rejected in verse 9. And then in verse 10, there's a fear of offending others. And there's a fear of betrayal in that same verse. And also in that same verse there's just a fear of being hated.

These are all kinds of things that are becoming on the disciples. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as such a good shepherd, He's helping his disciples understand how to deal with the waves of fear that are going to come upon them as a result of the things that are on the way. And then in verses 11 through 13, there's this lack of love that they will experience and the fears of lack of love. The disciples are facing fearful times and the Lord Jesus Christ is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry is what he's doing. He's going to help them how to endure the difficulties that come.

Now, what he says here, for what will happen at the destruction of Jerusalem, let me also say, you can take these words and you can apply them to any era, because the Lord Jesus Christ is called, is to fear not, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in me. In my father's house are many dwelling places. Let not your heart be troubled. This is the Lord Jesus Christ message to his church.

Let not your heart be troubled. And so then, The Lord Jesus answers this question that the disciples have asked when they said, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age. And he gives them eight signs, or at least I'm numbering eight signs that are here in this passage. And we're just going to walk through these eight signs that they will be looking for to understand what they ought to do. And later we'll learn in the next section that He's going to give them a critical warning so that they will know what the moment is where they must flee to the mountains.

I mean the very hour, the very moment. There's a point coming where they will not, they should not take enough time to even go down and get their clothes and their belongings, but they should, if they're on the top of the house, they should immediately flee and not go to Jerusalem. And he's building up to that time. These eight here are leading up to this final, very critical warning where Jesus says, when you see this one thing happening, that's when you flee. But up Until then, let not your heart be troubled." So here are these eight signs that they will observe before the destruction of Jerusalem.

And the first is found in verses four and five. Deceivers will arise. Number one, and Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many." Now he begins this with this word of warning, take heed. It means to see. It means you better open up your eyes and look at what's going on around you.

Do not have your head in the sand. You ought to know what's going on in this world and what is happening to you. And There will be actually people who are claiming to be Christ's. They'll be claiming that they are Jesus Christ raised from the dead. The Lord Jesus is hung on the cross.

He went into a grave. And now there are all these charlatans running around saying, I am the Christ. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? That people would do that. That they would say, I am the one that was promised.

I am He who was here before. And I'm back. And these are coming from outside the church. Now, what we know about the disciples and the Jewish nation is that they were longing to be delivered from the Romans and they were hoping for a ruler that would lead them out of their bondage. So a number of these false Christs were militaristic in nature.

And they were violent Christs in many ways. The book of Acts talks about an Egyptian who led 4, 000 men into the wilderness to be murdered in Acts chapter 21. And Josephus, I think, probably speaks of this person who led 30, 000 men to follow him to the Mount of Olives, promising that they would be able to go, you know, have free passage into the city. Unfortunately, you know, many of them died and some of them were taken prisoner. You have these violent imposters like John Gishala, who in late 67 AD, he rose to power.

He was a brutal ruler. He led tens of thousands of people to their death. Josephus says 8, 500 he murdered in the temple area. And he went in and was murdering people in the Holy of Holies. It was just a debauchery of horrible death and immorality of every imaginable kind.

But these kinds of things were happening, you know, up until that time. And There were many false Christs that emerged during that time. Now, there have always been false Christs. There were a number of false Christs in the 20th century. I was alive when Jim Jones claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus.

He was the Father Divine, and he ended up actually killing 909 of his followers in a little country in South America out in the jungle. David Koresh was another one of those who claimed to be God. Sung Young Moon claimed to be God as well. There's a guy down in Miami, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, he's claiming that he's God right now. False Christs arise in every era of time, but the Lord Jesus is warning his disciples that there will be people who will be claiming to be the risen Lord, and they will see these men arise.

And the Lord Jesus is saying, don't be deceived by them. So the first thing he says is that deceivers will arise. Secondly, there will be political conflicts. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." So here the Lord is really issuing commands to his disciples about how to respond to the geopolitical activity that's going on before their eyes and there are many political tumults that are going on. I mean, for example, in 60 AD, it was the year of four emperors of Rome, a time of tremendous political upheaval. And we could go on and talk about the critical elements of political upheaval that went on in that time. And there really are many. But he's promising that there will be wars and rumors of wars.

There were wars about the overthrow of the Romans. There were wars among the Jewish people against the Romans as well. And this is what the Zealots were all about, who controlled the inner courts of the temple. They were they were designed to overthrow Rome. If you were favorable to Rome, then they would kill you.

That's as simple as it was. And so you had these forces fighting within the temple, within Jerusalem itself. Some Jews were favorable to the Romans. Some hated the Romans. And they were killing each other up until the time when the Romans finally absolutely destroyed everything.

The Jews were fighting each other. They were starving one another and murdering one another. You know, in Jerusalem itself, they were fighting sort of against the Romans, but really against themselves. And they brought their whole house down. They brought about such a famine that the thousands died.

The streets were just littered with bodies. It was a horrific situation. But these wars and rumors of wars were taking place there. And again, how do we incorporate our understanding of history with all of this? Well, you know, history is a critical consideration, but what Jesus says is the critical consideration.

We ought to look for historical events that support these things, but we don't rest our testimony on the historical events. Well, in this case, the history really upholds everything that's written here. And Jesus here is counseling his disciples on how to interpret these matters when they see wars and rumors of wars. And he says the end is not yet. And you have to ask what does it mean the end?

Is it the end of the world? Is it the end of the new covenant? What is he talking about? Now he's answering his disciples about the end of the temple, that it will be destroyed. That's the very closest context.

I mean, I would just like to suggest the context makes it clear that Jesus is talking about the destruction of the temple, the end of the temple. And then, so not only do you have the sievers arising, not only do you have political conflicts, there are also natural calamities in verses 7 and 8. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginnings of sorrows. And so there will be these difficulties that will take place.

And Again, we can look back in history and read Tacitus and others, and we can recognize that these things were happening during that time. In 62 AD, 200 grain ships were destroyed by a storm nearby, 100 more destroyed by fire while navigating the Tiber River bringing grain to Rome their pestilences one in 62 AD You know just just decimated Rome and cut down about 30, 000 people in Rome. There were hurricanes, and there were all kinds of things going on. Well, these kinds of things do go on in the world, but the disciples were going to see these things firsthand. And Jesus is saying, when you see these things, recognize here's how you ought to respond.

And then not only are there natural calamities, but there's also persecution against the church in verse 9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Now notice in verse 9, the very first word in verse 9 is then. So it makes an organic historical connection with what came before. Then, they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you." And so there are these terrible assaults against the Church.

This is the persecution of the Church. If you read the book of Acts, it's clear how terribly the church was persecuted. The stonings, the murders, the plots of the Jews were spoken of all over the book of Acts. And they are delivered up, they are killed, they are hated. There are all these things that are going on and why?

Why? What's the reason for all this? For my name's sake. That's what he says. The reason is because of the name of Jesus.

It's the name of Jesus that will get you the hatred of the world. If you believe that Jesus Christ is who He said He was, and if you follow Him, if you obey His words, you'll have the hatred of the world. You know, you know, most of us spent, you know, the first part of our lives wanting to gain the favor of the world. And it's hard to break that pattern. But here the Lord Jesus says that His disciples will be hated for one main reason.

They will be hated for His name's sake. What is the name? His name is really everything that He represents. It's not one thing. It's everything.

It's all things that He's commanded. The Lord Jesus said that His disciples should go into all the world and teach them all things which He commanded. When you teach one another all the things that Jesus Christ has commanded, you really are operating under His name. And so to be hated for the name of Jesus is to be hated for the things that He's commanded that you would do. I was speaking to a missions leader just yesterday, and he was telling me that he's having terrible trouble with some of his missionaries around the world.

In one location, one of his missionaries is fleeing from one city to the next to save his family because the government has said he can't school his children at home. Another one, that was in a South American country, in a European country, there's a man whose children are being threatened to be taken away, and he's fleeing as well, because his child was in a classroom, and the teacher was asking the class what he thinks was a trick question. He said, what should happen to a child if he smarts off to his parents. And the answers were going around the room. And this missionary's son said that child should be spanked, and they took the child away.

And now he's fleeing for his life to try to preserve the rest of his family. What this missionary leader told me, he said, he said, he said, Scott, the church, the church is not going to be persecuted for the gospel message. The church is going to be persecuted for everything that Jesus commanded his children to do. So you'll be persecuted for his name. And what is His name?

It's everything that He's commanded. It's not just Jesus Christ came and died and rose again for sinners and repent and believe in the gospel. That's not what the name of Jesus is. It does include that. But the name of Jesus includes everything that bears witness to his character.

That's why, when the Bible says, when you pray in Jesus' name, you're praying representing who he is, not who you are. Not your will be done, but his will be done in heaven and on earth. It's His whole will being done. And this is what will cause the great hatred of the nations. Now here the word is nations, ethne, the nations.

It's the peoples of the earth, the various people groups, the various kinds of populations that exist. Some of those are defined by language groups, some are national, but they are sort of like They are ethnic groups, people groups. And you will be hated by different groups of people. If you obey the Lord Jesus Christ and you desire to fulfill His will and teach all things that He's commanded and obey them yourself, If that's your heart's desire, you'll find yourself crosswise with all the nations, just like these disciples here. The persecution of this time is no different than the persecution of any other time, including our own times today.

And so there's this persecution of the Church that's taking place here. So not only will deceivers arise, number one, not only will there be political conflicts, not only will there be natural calamities, not only will there be persecution of the church, there will also be betrayal and hatred. Verse 10, and then many will be offended, will betray one another, and we'll hate one another. Again, look at the time marker, and then, and then. And this is speaking of the time of terrible offenses and betrayals and hatreds that will characterize the time before the temple is destroyed.

And if you read Josephus, if you get a chance to read him, you will absolutely be terrified at the horrible things that had happened during this period of time. And then there are false prophets in verse 11. Then many false prophets will rise and deceive many. Remember at the beginning he talked about false Christs. Now he's talking about false prophets.

These are people from within who have a message. The false Christ came without and said, I am He. Here the false prophets are speaking false doctrine from within the church. These are the same kinds of people that the Apostle Paul spoke of in Acts chapter 20. He said, from among yourselves wolves will arise.

He's speaking to the elders in the Ephesian church there on the beach of Miletus, and he's saying that, he's saying, brothers, from among you wolves will arise and they will seek to take many to follow themselves. And they will have particular doctrines that they will lure people around with. And this is why the Apostle John said, Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Now the Apostle John is writing this, and he's speaking of the fact that many false prophets have gone out into the world. Now the Apostle John is writing this and he's speaking of the fact that many false prophets have gone out into the world during his life.

He's documenting something that's happening in his lifetime. So this is the characteristic of the times after the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again and sat on his Father's right hand and put all of his enemies under his feet. That these false prophets would be about in the world. Now the Lord Jesus has already spoken about this in the Gospel of Matthew. Remember when we were back in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, Verse 15, where he says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, that inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. And then he follows this up by saying, not everyone who says to me in that day, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." And so the Lord Jesus has already spoken about these false prophets that we will be able to recognize for all of time. Here the Lord Jesus is speaking very specifically to help us disciples understand this.

And of course, I do believe it has application beyond the time of the disciples because we will have more false prophets, believe me. Just, you know, our brother from Malawi can bear witness to the many prophets that are speaking, you know, in Malawi today. The country is overrun by prophets like this, who speak false doctrine. These come from within the church. And then love grows cold in verse 12.

This is such a heartbreaking phrase here. And it's very telling. And you learn something about love, and you also learn something about antinomianism, lawlessness. The Lord uses this word as he has before, because lawlessness will abound. No law, because people reject the law, the love of many will grow cold.

And you can always expect lovelessness to follow the rejection of the law, always. Just mark that. For the rest of your life, if your child begins to reject the law of God, guess what? Lovelessness is right around the corner. If your friend rejects the law of God, look out.

Right around the corner, the marks of lovelessness will crop up. That's exactly what's happening here, yet at an extreme level. Here, love had so been killed among the Jews. They had a reputation for law keeping, but they did not regard the law in their hearts. They did not love it in their hearts.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And Jesus says, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so here the Lord is saying that there's this extreme scene that is coming to them where there will be an unusual outpouring of lawlessness and the lack of love that follows it. And it will mean that love will grow cold. And he's using this imagery of a fire that was once burning and it has grown cold.

It is just nothing but frigid ashes. And there's no heart, there's no compassion, there's no tenderness. The lovelessness that existed, particularly during the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, is legendary. Jesus says there's been nothing like it, nothing like it, the loss of love. You might say, well, more people were killed, you know, in the Holocaust than were in Jerusalem.

Well, what Jesus is saying is that the pressure that created this lovelessness and the lawlessness that accompanied it was like nothing that was ever seen before. Here's how I would say it. If you were there and saw the Holocaust and If you were there and saw the Holocaust, and if you were there and saw what happened in the temple in Jerusalem, you would say, nothing like this has ever happened before. Well, that's what Jesus said. Believe Jesus on that matter.

And then he says, verse 13, And but he who endures to the end shall be saved. And you have to ask yourself the question, what does the end mean? What end is that? Is it the end of the temple? Is it the end of the new covenant?

Is it the end of the temple? Is it the end of the New Covenant? Is it the end of the age? Is it the end of Rome? What is it the end of?

You have to, you have to, if you're going to interpret this fast, you've got to answer that question. And people have answered it in different ways. My answer is that because of the context, He's talking about the end of the temple. Because He's been talking about the temple, and if you go ahead to verse 34, he says, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. And Jesus always uses this phrase, this generation, in exactly the same way.

He's always talking about the people who are alive. It's not a figurative generation, ever, out of the mouth of Jesus. So if this is a figurative generation, this is the first and only time Jesus ever uses the term in that context. So You have to sort of grapple with the whole matter of the context and the language that's used. You have to explain verse 34 where he says, this generation will not pass away.

That's why I'm suggesting that the end that is coming is the end of the temple, because the disciples said, when shall this thing be? In other words, when will the stones be thrown down? And the end of the temple happens at that time. And then the gospel is preached in all the world, verse 14. Here's another critical interpretive text that has to be carefully inspected.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations. And then the end will come. So there are a number of things that have to be addressed here. First is the gospel of the kingdom preached in all the world. What is that supposed to mean?

Now most of us have read this and said, well it must be the global evangelistic effort that continues on until Jesus Christ comes back. That's the dispensational understanding of this passage. And what you have in America is probably in excess of 90 percent of the American church is dispensational in their understanding of Scripture. And So the definition of the gospel preached in all the world has been controlled by that basic understanding. You have to ask, what does it mean in all the world?

Was it really preached in the whole world? And how far did the gospel get before 70 AD if that's really the interpretive grid that you're trying to work with and so we do know that the gospel did spread broadly throughout the ancient world but but But did it spread to South America before 70 AD? I don't know. I kind of doubt it. We don't really have any evidence of that.

But We have to ask, how is this phraseology used in the rest of the New Testament? And that's a critical question. So I want to show you how this kind of terminology is used all over the New Testament and even in the Old Testament. I'm going to give you 11 places that will show you that this terminology, the world, does not necessarily mean the entire globe. Okay?

Are you ready? Number one, Acts 17, 6. The townspeople had dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, and they are shouting, These men who have turned the world upside down are here also. They've turned the world upside down. Well, I mean, was it South America?

Was it Eastern Europe? Was it Alaska? Was that the world that they turned upside down? Well he uses this term as a general term that there's a very broad reach here. But it doesn't necessarily mean the entire globe.

Here's a second text, Luke 2 verse 1. It says that there is a census taken of the whole world. Well, was it really of the whole world? Were they, you know, in other geographies taking censuses? No, it was the Roman world.

This terminology is used not to include the entire globe, but the Roman world as it was known at that time, which was a broad footprint. Number three, Agabus in Acts 11, verse 28. Then one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. So did That famine that happened in the days of Claudius Caesar also happened among the Indians in Southern California, did it? You have to somehow say that it did, because he says that it happened throughout the whole world.

So you have to ask, how is this term, the whole world, used? By Jesus, by the apostles? Number four, Acts 19, 27. Here in that great riot that happened in Ephesus, where 20, 000 people are in this big arena, and they're crying out, you know, great is the goddess Diana of the Ephesians. Well here it says that the whole world worships the goddess Diana.

Well, really, did the whole, like the entire globe was worshipping the goddess Diana? No, that's not how the apostle, that's not how Luke was using that term. If you go to Luke, or Acts chapter 24 verse 5, Paul has stirred up all the Jews throughout the world. In number 7, Luke 21 makes it clear that the use of world is local. And then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Those who are in the midst of her depart. Let not those who are in the country enter her. So here, there's a very local situation here. It's local terminology. You are in Judea.

You don't flee from the Tierra del Fuego. You're fleeing from Judea. It's not the entire globe. Number 8, Acts 24-5. Paul was accused of stirring up riots.

And we read, For we have found that this man is a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." Number 9, Romans 16, 25-26, where we read that, "'Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed through the prophetic writings, has been known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about obedience of faith. Number 10, Colossians 1, 5 and 6. Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this you have heard in the word of the truth the gospel which has come to you as indeed in the whole world and then finally Colossians 1 23 If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven. Every creature under heaven of which I, Paul, became the minister. Now, the world, the way that the Apostles use it, and the way the Lord Jesus Christ used it can mean the civilized world.

You just have to open the door to that idea because this terminology is used for something narrower than the entire globe. It's kind of figurative language in that sense, and it does not demand a global preaching of the gospel. And it most likely means those who are living in the area that's covered by the Roman Empire. That's most likely what he's talking about here, because the other context seemed to indicate that there was a limitation to it. And it's prophetic hyperbole.

You have to recognize the question here, is this prophetic hyperbole or is it absolutely literal? And I would just like to suggest, if you read the other passage of Scripture where this phrase and this idea exists, it's not always a global kind of situation. In fact, it's almost never a global situation. They say, hey, it's just an interpretive point that you've got to weigh in. And maybe you say, no, it doesn't mean that.

Well, I'm fine with that. But just make sure you've studied it. Go look at the use of the terminology and try to make it fit as best you can. I realize it's a difficult thing. Most of us have read this the whole world.

We just thought it was the end of the age, and the gospel would have to go to every single nation and then the end would come. And I don't think that's what Jesus is saying here because of what the apostles and Jesus say about that terminology. That doesn't mean that we should stop preaching the gospel to every nation. That doesn't mean that we should say, oh, it doesn't matter, those unreached people groups don't matter. It doesn't mean that at all.

We've already been commanded to preach the gospel throughout, to go to every tongue and tribe nation, and every tongue and tribe nation will be before the throne of God. But I think the point is that before the destruction of the temple, there will be a rapid spread of the gospel. And that was absolutely true. And it was the gospel of the kingdom. And here the Lord Jesus is speaking of what kind of gospel is this.

And it is gospel. It is good news. And it is the gospel of a kingdom. The first task of any message is, is it consistent with the gospel of the kingdom? And therefore, is it truly good news?

And the gospel is the very best, very best news. And, you know, what does the gospel require of man? It requires man to enter into a new kingdom, to serve a new king, to repent of his sins, to turn around, to recognize the righteousness of God, to recognize that man is sinful, falls short of the glory of God, And that sin and that shortfalling requires punishment from heaven. The good news is that God is good. And it's even better news that God has sent His Son as a sacrifice for sinners so that they would be made holy.

And here what you find in the gospel of the kingdom is the whole matter of kingship, the whole matter of the wrath of God against sinners, the whole matter that Jesus Christ became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God, that when a person recognizes in their heart their bankruptcy, their hopelessness, that they realize that not one shred of their own righteousness or their good works can save them, when they realize that they are thoroughly infused with sin and they have no hope unless the blood of Jesus Christ washes them, unless they eat the bread of life, unless they drink the waters of life, unless they turn to Jesus Christ, they cannot be saved. They cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven exists now and it exists later. Jesus Christ said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, meaning that a person can turn to Him and receive the Kingdom. And then there's another time when you receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

And so this gospel of the kingdom, it requires repentance. It requires a recognition of hopelessness in sin and its entrapments, and that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus Christ, and that in order to be saved, you must repent and believe in the Gospel. And what's the effect? It means that you love His ways. It means that you desire holiness.

It means that you desire to believe. And that's how you know it's real. And then you begin to grow. And yes, you can fall back. Yes, you can engage in false worship and turn to Him and have Him break into your falseness again.

But it's real. It's a real kingdom. And there's real rulership. And there's real change. And there's the real presence of Jesus Christ.

Now, here we come across what is really the central activity of the Christian, and that is the spread of the gospel, of the kingdom in all eras of history. And at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he speaks of it, and now here he's speaking of it again, that He has come to establish His kingdom. And His kingdom is something that He is providing for man. It starts with God, and He provides it for man. You know, unfortunately we've so hurt ourselves by building our own kingdoms in our own ways and Jesus Christ reaches down and He says, Let me give you a better kingdom.

Let me give you a sweet kingdom. Let me give you a kingdom of happiness. Let me give you a kingdom where there's mercy towards sinners. And so this is that gospel of the kingdom. And how's it done?

Well, it's preached. You see that? It's preached. How do you spread this gospel? You preach it.

God has laid upon His children the mantle of responsibility to preach the gospel. And people say, well, I just live the gospel. No, you don't just live the gospel. You don't live a message. You preach a message.

You deliver a message. That's what the gospel is. The gospel creates a lifestyle, but the lifestyle isn't the gospel. It just bears witness to the gospel. And so this gospel is preached, And then that phrase, and then the end shall come, at the very end of verse 14.

And again, you have to ask, what end is that? Well, I think we've already answered that. Now, I'd like to move us to a few applications of this text. We've been in a prophetic and didactic passage of Scripture. It's both.

It's both prophetic and it's didactic. In other words, it has specific instructions, their commands, their principles, their timelines. It includes historical matters. But we're studying prophecy. Here's my question.

Are you in your heart desiring to just ignore prophecy? I just can't understand that. Is that kind of what you're thinking? Well, it is, I believe it's a lifelong operation to study the Scriptures, particularly in these areas of prophecy for which there's so much disagreement. But it's important that we study prophecy.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's important and it has an effect. So We shouldn't set it aside. We don't want to be slow to believe the prophets, as Jesus said in Luke 24, 25. He says, Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.

We should not be slow of heart to believe. We should know and we should believe. There's a special blessing given in the book of Revelation for those who understand the prophecy. So It's not right for us to say, that's too complex for me. I'm just not going to engage it.

Here's a better way. This is difficult. I don't understand all of it. Let me take this one step at a time. You know the old Proverb, how do you eat an elephant?

You eat it one bite at a time. And that's how I would just encourage us to engage this. Don't think that by the end of this sermon you have reached the end of all your thinking and concluding about this matter. Please don't do that. Continue to study.

Form an opinion that you think is the right one. And be free to speak of it and defend it. And do that for the rest of your life. But recognize one thing. You might not be all that smart.

You might not. I mean, like, how smart are you, really? How smart do you think you are? I mean, like, how comprehensive is your understanding of Scripture? Not enough.

So my admonition is go after it. Go get it. Go study it. Learn it. And understand what Jesus Christ has said.

But what that means is that doesn't mean that you're going to listen to a tape and conclude. You're going to have to go study all the prophets. You're also going to have to study the law because some of this stuff is alluded to in the law and in some of the historical passages in the Old Testament. So, have you ignored prophecy? Let's not be the people who've been slow of heart to believe the prophets.

You know, sometimes the slow of heart is just laziness. We're just lazy. A lot of us don't know this because we've just been lazy. We've not sought it out. And I will have to say, there's much to seek out.

Have you ignored prophecy? That's one application. Number two. Now this might come off as a little bit oblique from this text, but I hope you'll see that it's not. Have you missed the point of all eschatology?

Have you missed the point of all eschatology? Have you missed the point of all eschatology? You know what the point of all eschatology is? Do you know what the point of eschatology is? Do you know?

Can anyone give me the answer? I'm going to tell you what the point of all eschatology is. And you can find it in the term, the Day of Christ, in the book of Philippians. And if you go to Philippians chapter 1, you'll see what I mean. Where the apostle says, being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ.

Now when is the day of Christ? When is that? Well, there is unity on when that is, and that is the day of your final resurrection. So the point of eschatology is that you would work on the work that He began in you. As you look into that day out there, that he who began a work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

And then in verse 9, in the same chapter, and this I pray that your love may abound still more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, and that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ." Again there's that phrase, the day of Christ. "...being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." So here again we have this, we have the day of Christ hung out there. The whole purpose of this eschatological engagement is that our love may abound still more in knowledge and discernment. That's what your studies of eschatology should do for you. They should grow your love and your knowledge and your discernment.

All those three things, Love, knowledge, discernment. These are the things that are meant to grow until that day of Christ, until that great eschatological moment. And that you would be filled, in verse 11, with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. So the first application, have you ignored prophecy? Second, have you missed the point of eschatology?

And thirdly, have you taken the warnings of Scripture seriously? Now, we've just gone through a passage that's full of every single verse as a warning. There's so many warnings in Scripture. And I was thinking about the warnings of Scripture, because here's a specific set, but the Scriptures are full of warnings. And my question to you is, have you really considered the warnings of Scripture carefully and seriously.

Think of how serious these warnings were to the disciples. Think of how important. If they didn't believe it and if they didn't take it to heart, they would probably die a most despicable death in the city of Jerusalem. But they listened to the warning and they were saved. And this is the point of warnings.

It's to save you from trouble. And in Galatians chapter 5, Paul says, I warned you beforehand, I warned you beforehand that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. And then he speaks of the works of the flesh that are evident, which are adultery and fornication and uncleanness and lewdness and idolatry and sorcery and hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in the past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Paul in Galatians begins this whole text with these words, I warned you before, I warned you. Be warned where all those things I've just listed go. Be warned.

All of you have computers, you have television screens. Just be warned that those are a trail for you to certain things. Be warned. Have you taken the warnings of Scripture carefully? Paul speaks of a warning in Colossians chapter 2.

He says, beware, beware lest anyone spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of this world and not after Christ. This is the whole matter of being spoiled by worldliness. By drinking in the world through your eyes and through your ears, drinking it in and being spoiled by it. Be warned. Are you taking the warnings of Scripture carefully enough with what you watch, what you hear, what you see.

2 Peter 3.17 is a warning about falling. Deuteronomy 8, 11-14 is a warning about forgetting. In Deuteronomy 15, 9 is a warning about evil in the heart. In Luke 12, 15, there's a warning against covetousness. And so have you heeded the warnings that God has?

Paul said to warn the unruly. Are you unruly? Then be warned. Have you taken seriously the warnings that are in Scripture? Here Jesus is warning His disciples, and His words are true.

They all come to pass. No one can break His law without being broken. No one. John Bunyan issues these warnings. John Bunyan issues these warnings.

Take heed that you do not choke those convictions that are breaking you. He says, be warned, shun vain company. He says, be warned of idle talk. Be warned of the least motion towards sin. He says this, take heed of evil examples among the Godly.

Take heed of evil examples among the godly. This is very critical. He says, learn of no man to do that which the word of God forbids. In other words, don't let another Christian teach you to do something that the Word of God forbids. That's going to happen to you.

He says, sometimes Satan makes use of a good man's bad ways to spoil and harden the heart of them that come after. Peter's false doing was going to spoil Barnabas. Yes, several others more. Take heed of good men's ways and measure theirs and your own, but only be ruled by the Word of God. Are you taking the warnings of Jesus seriously?

That's the question. And here's why you should. There's always happiness on the other end. That's it. His ways are pleasant ways and all his paths are peace.

Enough said on that. And then the final application is really about worship. Your heart toward God. Is it true or is it false worship? The house of God is designed to be a house of prayer for all the nations.

It's a place where the healing leaves of the trees of life are there. It's where the Spirit of God comes and He comforts and He corrects and He leads. It's the place where a soft heart comes before God. That's the heart of worship that longs for the words. In just a few minutes, we're going to be taking the Lord's Supper.

We'll be reading the Word of God. And then we'll finally be singing. Just cry out to God that He would give you such a heart within you. That your worship would be true. Pray that God would give you true worship.

And we ought to measure our worship in the same way that Jesus surveyed and measured the worship in the temple. And also, think about what a blessing it is when Jesus comes and he destroys false worship. Maybe you've had false worship, maybe even up to this very moment. But think of the blessing to flow when He destroys that false worship and your heart melts before Him and you come to Him like you're with your face beholding the face of Jesus being transformed from glory to glory. Think of the difference in that.

You came in cold, but you left hot. Let it be that way. Let it be that way. It can be that way. I'm really here to appeal to you on this whole matter, that Jesus wants to destroy the false worship.

He surveyed the temple, and you can survey your own heart here today so that you would leave here with a heart burning with love for Jesus Christ and love for your brothers. A heart that's free in the forgiveness and the mercy of Jesus Christ. A heart that's happy. A heart that can look into the eye of your brother and love him and not just figure out how you can be somebody. Jesus wants to destroy the false worship.

That's among us. And then are you troubled about what might happen in the future? Well, see the kindness of the Lord. He's always warning his disciples. He's such a good shepherd, And he tells them how they ought to conduct themselves, and he says, When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not trouble.

See that you are not trouble. Would you pray with me? Lord, thank you for your Son Jesus, for His great wisdom, for His astonishing words that heal and save. Oh Lord, come and restore right worship in our hearts to increase it, to make it more beautiful, more true. Oh Lord, we thank you that you control all of this.

We pray that you would help us to understand your words, that you would, in this life, you would correct us of our wrong understandings of things. We stand before You, Lord, desiring to know Your truth and Your will. I pray, Lord, that You would give this Church hearts of diligence, that they would seek these matters out, that they would be noble like the Bereans who care enough not just to have an opinion but to search it out with a humble heart. Amen.