Amen. Amen. People of God, let us turn to our text. Mark, chapter 13, verses 14 through 23, page 1,081 in most of the Pew Bibles. Two different page numbers are out there. Most of them, it's page 1081. And Mark chapter 13, beginning with verse 14. Let us hear God's holy word. But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down nor enter his house to take anything out. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that it might not happen in winter. For those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, look, there is the Christ, or look, there He is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard. I have told you all things beforehand." Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, what did the Old Testament prophets know? Often times the Old Testament prophets were speaking directly, we might call that forth-telling, but they also often foretold things that were to be in the future. When they foretold things about the future, what did they know? Well, they didn't know everything. They didn't know exactly what the Lord was revealing through them. The Apostle Peter tells us this. First Peter chapter one, Verse 10, 11, and 12, we read this. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully. Inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Do you see what's the same? Old Testament prophets in the New Testament, apostles and authors of scripture are both inspired by the Holy Spirit. They're both divinely inspired. But there were things which the Old Testament prophets inquired of, that they searched deeply into, that they did not know the answer to. They did not know the exact answer to the beginning of verse 11, the exact person or time. Now they did know They did know some things, even very specifically, right? Micah 5, that he would be born in Bethlehem. So we might say this, they knew he would be of Bethlehem, of the region of Nazareth, but did they know that his name would be Jesus? And it might not have surprised them, but they did not know that. The name Jesus was not revealed until when? When the angel announces it to Mary, that that's what his name will be. You see, and we can go through this. There are many things they knew. There were some things they did not know. Certainly, they did not know the time. They did not know that Jesus would come in 0 AD. Of course, they didn't count by the Gregorian calendar either, but they didn't know it would be this many years after them or that kind of detail. There's much that they knew. The Holy Spirit certainly knew all, but there were things which they did not know. Now, concerning Jesus Christ and his first coming, those things have now been announced. Now we know, we no longer see through a glass dimly. details when Jesus came, what he did, what his name was, that he died on a cross for sinners. Those things have all been clearly defined, even as that he would die for sinners was already clear from Isaiah 53. But once again, there's things that were known. There were details which were not known. This brings us to this reality that there are times when It would be anarchy to pretend that we can't know what the text is saying. This is a distinction Christopher Ashe and other theologians have used. What do I mean by anarchy? Textual anarchy is going to a text such as a command. I think Matthew 5, you have heard it said, you shall not commit adultery and I say to you. So he's not only taking a command which was already clear, but he's also further defining it. clarity, plain, speaking a plain command. To go to a text such as this and pretend that we cannot know what it is saying, to pretend that it is only something which can be interpreted by each person, you know, maybe I define adultery this way, and maybe I define adultery this way, and my interpretation is correct, your interpretation is correct, anarchy, anarchy, falsehood, lies. However, There's also something called textual tyranny. What is textual tyranny? Textual tyranny is saying Yeah, the prophets did know exactly what time everything was going to happen. And see, we have many passages which still speak about the future, because Christ has come once, but he's still coming again. And we have Revelation, and Mark 13, and Matthew 24, and Luke 21. They all speak about the future. And so we know exactly what it's talking about. No, we don't. No, we don't. Now Mark 13 does have an additional difficulty. Because some of what Mark 13 is talking about is very clearly the very end of things, and even explicitly says, you do not know. We're gonna come to verse 32, Lord willing, in two weeks. But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows. But Mark 13 is difficult. Because it speaks very clearly sometimes about the second coming of Christ, those things which are future, those things which we ought not to pretend we know everything about. It also speaks about some things tied to the physical destruction of the stones of the temple, which happened in 70 AD with Titus and his legions. And so that we can know about and speak about. So how do we read Mark 13? It is not easy to read Mark 13. A general outline for this Sunday and going forward is that verses 14 to 23 and verses 28 to 31 are mostly about 70 AD. Verses 24 to 27 and 32 to the end are mostly about the second coming. But for some verses, such as 20 and 21, even perhaps verse 30, since the word generation can mean some different things. Some of these verses you will find conservative, Bible-believing teachers who hold to the authority of God's word, who give different answers on that. That's okay. This is a passage which talks about the future. It also talks about something that happened in 70 AD. Some verses it's easy to see which is which, some verses it's not. We proceed then with caution. We proceed trying to escape from that error of tyranny. We still proceed, certainly This text is teaching us many things. In the midst of those difficulties, there are 19 command verbs. Now, you know, fitting in where those command verbs go, and again, not easy. But, the Holy Spirit knows. And just as the Old Testament prophets did not know every single detail, but the Holy Spirit did, so we can say the same thing now. So, let us proceed. For in the midst of this, we have verses 14 to 23 before us this morning, and they speak mostly about 70 AD. And this especially is plain, that the great shepherd Jesus warns his sheep to flee from destruction. The Great Shepherd Jesus warns his sheep to flee from destruction. So we'll see that there's a command to run without delay, to run with endurance, and to run with open eyes. run without delay. There is an abomination of desolation coming. Daniel 9, Daniel 11, Daniel 12, they speak about this abomination of desolation. It is something which ought not to be done in the temple. It is something which is breaking the rules of the temple. It is something which is idolatrous happening in the temple itself. Matthew Matthew in the parallel passage in Matthew chapter 24 actually makes this even more clear than Mark 13. We read in Matthew 24 verse 15, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place. So it's clear in Daniel itself and clear in Matthew that we're talking about something that happens in the temple where he ought not to be. There is going to be something sacrilegious. Now Luke also helps us. Luke, the parallel passage, says when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Verse 14 is speaking about Titus and his legions. It is speaking about 70 AD. That is clear. And as we know from the context of Daniel, this is something which ought not to be. This is something which is a result of the sin of the people of Israel. That's why the abomination of desolation comes in Daniel. Read Daniel 9, read Daniel 11, read the context. See that it is because the people of God have sinned against God and so this destruction is coming. There's a partial fulfillment by Antiochus Epiphanes in about 200 years before Christ. And there is a more final fulfillment in 70 AD with the stones being thrown down. There is one which comes and judges the people who were of the covenant of God and brings destruction. This is not surprising considering what we have considered already in Mark. For example, does not Mark chapter 12 verse 9 say this? People of God, turn back one page or maybe just look over to the other side of the page. What will the owner of the vineyard do? This is the last verse of that parable. He will come and destroy the tenants. and give the vineyard to others. Why? Because they killed the beloved son who came. They killed Jesus Christ. Certainly, that is the sin of the people of God which leads to the abomination of desolation. Destruction with sacrilegious activity. Destruction with sins in the temple. The dominant command then is this. Run. Run. Run to the mountains. Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains. Leave the home that you hold dear. Do not even go down to the lower level. That makes sense when we understand the architecture of ancient homes. There would be a staircase leading directly up along the outside. And so what it's saying is you're on the roof. Don't go down to the lower level. Don't go into the lower level. Just leave directly. Don't even go in and pull out your most treasured possession, which is in the basement. It's like when a fire comes, right? And someone is in, let's put it in architectural 21st century terms. It's when a fire comes and someone is in the upstairs, and they have treasured possessions in the downstairs, but there's a fire, so they escape through the fire escape. They don't even go down to the lower level. That's what this passage is saying. Run, run to the mountains. Don't even go down and grab your most treasured possessions. Go. Leave. Flee from this. Leave the field you hold dear. So if you're not standing on the top of your house, which is where they spent a lot of their time, if you're in the field working, people hold fields dear? Yes they do. Sometimes passed down from one generation to another. Fields can be very dear. Just like treasured possessions in the bottom level of the house can be very dear. Leave it. Leave it. Run. Flee. Save your life. It is ancient error to seek out martyrdom. The early church was persecuted heavily depending on which Roman emperor was ruling, and other circumstances. But sometimes they took this heavy persecution. And Revelation speaks about martyrs having a special place. And so then they would seek out that martyrdom. And they'd say, hey, look, you Romans are persecuting us. Here I am. You better do something to me. There are accounts of this which are quite astonishing in ancient history. Now, that wasn't every Christian. A second century text, I believe the author has been lost, but the title of it was The Martyrdom of Polycarp, and there's an argument in this ancient Christian historical and basically the argument is this. Look, Polycarp was martyred and he stood for the faith, and this was a good example of faithfulness, but you know that Phrygian, Quintus, he went and sought it out. Don't do that. It's an ancient Christian argument saying, look, no, no, no. If you are caught, stand faithful, even as Polycarp did. If you have a chance to run, run. Don't seek it out as Quintus did. Run. Run. This has a first application certainly to 70 AD itself, to the soldiers standing there as Luke 21 says. But it has application to this day. It has application throughout the centuries. Are Christians still persecuted? Christianity is without doubt, even the BBC will write articles on this, without doubt the most persecuted religion in the world. I just saw one number from one year in the year 2015 alone, two million Christians. One year, one country fled from Islamic persecution in Nigeria. One year, one nation, two million Christians. And those kinds of numbers, not always that large, but those kinds of numbers can be repeated for other countries and other years. Islamic persecution, perhaps standing at the fore of that, something which has existed since the 7th century onward. Of course, there were sad wars amongst different factions of Christians in Europe in the 16th and 17th century, a sad history where Protestants also persecuted Catholics and it went vice versa. But this is the application, run. Like the Huguenots running from France, many of them to the Netherlands, who then two centuries later had to flee the Netherlands, some of them coming to the United States or to Canada. Like the Christians who have fled from Muslim countries for the last 1,300 years, still ongoing today. Flee, flee. This text has a very direct application to millions of Christians in this world. You say, once again, we live in the United States. We are not persecuted in that way. How does it apply to me? We don't know what the future holds. You don't know where you might be called to go. You don't know what might be called down upon you. And certainly, if it applies in this greater sphere of fleeing for your life, it applies to lesser things as well. Maybe you're having a conversation with an atheist who is more well-educated than you. That happens. Don't let your faith be shaken. This is anticipated in tonight's text as well. And don't feel like you have to answer every single objection he is bringing up. You know that God can answer all the objections. Flee. Flee. There's nothing wrong with that. If you have the ability to answer, Yes, stand up and give a reason for the hope that is within you and seek to even answer specific objections. Yes, but my point is this. Fleeing can have even more general applications as well. You do not have to stand up to the foolishness of this world and just take it. Answer it if you can. If you can't, flee. Certainly if your life is on the line, flee. run with endurance. Even those who are pregnant must go and they must endure through the journey. It's not going to be easy for a pregnant woman or those with nursing infants to make this journey, verse 17. So for this reason, pray that it may not happen in winter. Now this text was written, Mark was written just as all the Gospels were before 70 A.D. And so this was explicit instructions to the people of God. But even here, at that time, they did not yet know that 66 A.D. would be the year that the soldiers came, that 68 A.D. would be the year that the siege began, that 70 A.D. would be the time of the, they didn't know that, right? That's something which we only know now looking back as those who live after the fact. So, it happened in winter. Pray that it would not happen in winter. Hasn't God decreed when everything will happen? What role does prayer have? Prayer certainly has a role. Prayer certainly has a role. We are called to depend upon God, to trust upon God, but that doesn't mean that we sit idly by and let everything happen. We run, we pray, we prepare, You're called to do all these things. We have examples of this. The Apostle Paul flees Damascus in Acts 9. The Apostle Paul flees a sinking ship in Acts 27. We also have an example. We don't read of prayers here, although Hezekiah was a man of prayer. We read in 2 Chronicles chapter 32, 2 Chronicles chapter 32, Hezekiah knows that Sennacherib is coming, he is invading Judah, and the faithful king, what does he do? The first verses are all about his planning and his preparation. Verse three, he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. Springs which you can still visit to this day. A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs in the brook which flowed through the land, saying, why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? And he set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers up and outside of it, built another wall and he strengthened the millow in the city of David. And he also made weapons and shields in abundance. Sets out his commanders. And then he says this in verse 7, Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him. For there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God. Hezekiah was a man of prayer. Hezekiah was a man who knew that the strength of the army of the chosen nation of Israel with an anointed king of David upon the throne rested upon the strength of God, not the strength of the army, but he prepared He prepared, he wasn't idle, and this is consistently what scripture tells us. God is in control, God tells us when things are happening, but do not be idle. Run, pray, prepare. It applies to 70 AD, it applies to the trials and tribulations of your life. Once again, you do not have a Roman legion standing at your doorstep, This is the kind of thing which applies to the difficulties which come into your life. Run. Pray. Prepare. Notice also, people of God, this difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament regarding Jerusalem. Two important things here. Two important things. First of all, Christ is speaking to the New Testament people of God. And what does he say in verse 20? If the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he shortened the days. Who is the elect? Who is chosen? So often the Old Testament, time and time again, speaking about the elect nation, Not because of your own righteousness did I choose you, not because you were more mighty than all the peoples, but I chose you. This is not talking about Jews. This is not talking about the ethnic nation of Israel or those who would join themselves, such as Ruth, to the nation of Israel. This is talking about the church. Jesus says the church is now who we call the elect. Jesus Christ brings a change. And that's also clear in this. Time and time again, in the Old Testament, Jerusalem is a picture of refuge. It's where God dwells. It's where His temple is. It's the place you flee to. What do we read now in the New Testament? Worship God in spirit and truth. My dwelling place is no longer specifically tied in a specific way to Jerusalem and to the Holy of Holies. No. The veil of the temple will be torn. That's the climax of Mark. That's what we're getting closer to. The veil of the temple will be torn at the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's the most important moment. He will be on the cross. He will be there for sinners sakes. He will die for sins and the veil of the temple will be torn. This is just a minor note in history after that. It just brings a a dramatic final note, but it's not the climaxing note. The climaxing note is that the veil of the temple is torn. This temple is at that point no longer the place of refuge, no longer a place to give sacrifices because the once for all sacrifice, Jesus Christ himself, has been laid down. We worship God in spirit and truth. We no longer run to Jerusalem, we now run away from it. Again, there's something specific to 70 AD there. I'm not saying it's impossible for a Christian to live in Jerusalem in 2020, but it's the principle. The religious significance of Jerusalem itself is now over. The veil of the temple is torn, the stones, 37 years later, are thrown down and cracked. The New Testament people of God are now those who are elect. That's who God wants to protect. See how it comes back to that? Flee. Why? God wants His church to be saved. He does not want His people to be destroyed. And the way of doing that is no longer to flee to Jerusalem, but to flee from Jerusalem. Run with opened eyes. Now these are the more difficult verses of this passage. The Lord did not cut short the days, but he did so for the sake of the elect. In a difficult chapter, probably two of the three or four most difficult verses. I think there's still some application here to 70 AD, but perhaps we're now in something like speaking about the beginning of the birth pangs in verse eight, where it's speaking beyond that as well. What is plain, what is plain, is that the very existence of the elect people of God, which is now the New Testament Church of God, is a blessing to those who are around them. God's judgment upon the world is lessened because of the presence of His elect. There would be more famines, there would be more diseases, there would be more earthquakes, there would be more floods if it was not for the presence of God's elect. The Lord had not cut short the days. No human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, he shortened the days. The presence of God's people is to be a light on the hill And even if there are those who reject the gospel, and there are always those who reject the gospel, the presence of God's people in a place is a blessing to that place. But do not believe false teachers. This is something we covered last week. It's repeating the warning from verses 1 to 13. Be on guard against them, because if possible they would even lead astray the elect. Now what is a plain passage which tells us that that is not possible? First John 2 verse 25, and this is the promise that he made to us, eternal life. So we know that is not possible. But still the language is stated that way so that we would be on guard. And there comes another command in these verses. Be on guard, I have told you all things beforehand. People of God, the Lord wants his people to be safe. He wants his people to be on guard. He wants his people to run. For the sake of his elect, Destruction is cut short. And the people of God did flee. They did flee. We know that Titus and his armies came. We know also that the Christians fled. Actually, the earliest recording of this is not by a Christian, but by a Jewish historian. One commentator summarized it this way, quote, Josephus, the Jewish historian, who gives us the clearest firsthand account of Jerusalem's fall, reports, that the Jewish Christians, those who are ethnically Jewish but professing Christians, those whom Josephus disagreed with, was in opposition to, but he reports that Jewish Christians in Judea heeded Jesus' warning. That's not the language he uses, but that's how the commentator summarizes it. When the city and temple fell, more than one million Jews died, but Jewish Christians, by and large, were not among them, for they had already fled the city and they saw the Romans coming. Later, not too much later, the first great church historian, Eusebius, recorded not only that they fled, but that they fled to a city named Pella in the Transjordan, which makes sense. Jesus told them to flee to the mountains. Pella is on the foothills of the nearest Transjordan mountain range. They fled. They fled to Pella. They were safe. And again, Christians throughout the centuries have fled from one country to another. There's even an account of Christians fleeing from types of religious persecution in Europe to Pella, Iowa. And that's why they named it Pella, Iowa. God desires that his people would be safe physically from physical harm and spiritually from death itself, spiritually, which sin brings upon the soul. God desires His people to be saved in every way. God speaks in such a way that we would flee from that which would harm us physically. And we know, we know He also gives salvation of our very souls. Again, we've said that the elect Verse 20, are now the people of God. That the Old Testament pattern of running to Jerusalem is now reversed, run away from Jerusalem. This is not the climax. The climax, the most essential truth, is in not the stones, the reality that the stones will crumble, but that tearing of the veil. Life, not only physically, but spiritually, eternal life. And some Christians do lose their physical life upon this earth. But it is impossible that the elect would be deceived. The elect do have eternal life in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray.