The Great Tribulation & the Elect

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Good turn in your

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Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew. And let's actually start today to get some context.

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Matthew chapter 23. Let's just start at 37, the very end of the chapter. I'm going to read through from there to the verse we're at today to get context.

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As you guys get there, we have been doing a study through the gospel according to Matthew, verse by verse, sometimes word for word, for about 20 years now.

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And we have been in the Olivet Discourse for a little bit, and we've been trying to express the importance, especially in light of the fact that this text is so often used to abuse people, the importance of actually reading the text in its historical context, not importing our ideas or our context into the text, but letting the

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Lord Jesus speak through the narrative that Matthew has pulled together.

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And I want to highlight this again, and I've been saying it over and over and over, and I hope before God that it's something that's been caught by now, is that what's happening here in the

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Olivet Discourse, the description of the destruction of Jerusalem, the promise of what is about to befall those first century covenant breakers, listen, is not a novelty.

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This is not some interesting, out of the blue thing that drops into the story of God in the first century.

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If you have been tracking with the Tanakh and the Torah for the hundreds of years before Lord Jesus even comes into his ministry, and you've been pulling together these texts, now, admittedly, it's going to be hard for a

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Jew who has, in synagogue, they're reading Torah and the Tanakh and knows these prophecies, admittedly, it's going to be hard without the incarnation and the revelation of God that comes through Jesus to make sense of all of these verses from the

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Old Testament, all these messianic prophecies that speak to so many different aspects of Jesus' work, his ministry, his life, his death, his resurrection, the salvation, the judgment that's going to fall.

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Of course, we want to give them grace and say, this is an amazing, powerful, sovereign

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God who's speaking about events that are about to occur in history, and it is incomprehensible, in a sense, without the divine revelation that comes through Jesus.

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But here we are. If we know the word of God from the Old Testament, Matthew 24,

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Luke 21, Mark 13, those synoptic gospel parallel accounts of the

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Olivet Discourse makes perfect sense. It has to be there. God promised the covenant people in the

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Old Testament, hundreds of years before Jesus comes, that the coming of the Messiah was going to be for salvation.

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Yes, the kingdom of God, all the nations coming to God, atonement, all of that is there.

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He would justify the many as he'd bear their iniquities. He'd be pierced through for our transgressions. They surround him like dogs,

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Psalm 22. They pierced his hands and feet, his heart like wax melted within him. My God, my

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God, why have you forsaken me long before Jesus comes? But that's not all. We also have, of course, the promise of judgment upon the covenant breakers when the

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Messiah brings his kingdom. Isaiah 65, my servants will eat, but you're going to be hungry.

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My servants will drink, but you're going to be thirsty. I will give my people a new name.

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Isaiah 65, long before Jesus comes, about 700 years before he comes, the promise upon the covenant breakers of a covenant lawsuit and sanctions.

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Malachi chapter three and four, we hear about John the Baptist, the forerunner, and then the

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Messiah, Yahweh, whom you seek will come to his temple. Yahweh is coming to his own temple.

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Malachi three says, and then we have purification for sins and then covenant sanctions, judgment upon the covenant breakers, enter

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Jesus. And it all comes together. God in the flesh repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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He's going to Jerusalem to be crucified. Why? To give eternal life to God's people, to gather together

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God's elect together. But you have, of course, what has to be part of the story, the covenant sanctions upon the covenant breakers that God promises context.

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Matthew 23, 37. Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

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How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing see your house is left to you desolate for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the

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Lord. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple, but he answered them.

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You see all these things. Do you not truly? I say to you, there will not be left here.

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One stone upon another that will not be thrown down. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be?

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And we'll be the sign of your coming. And at the end of the age and Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray for many will come in my name saying

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I am the Messiah and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

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See that you are not alarmed for this must take place, but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

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And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are, but the beginning of the birth pains, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

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And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

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And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.

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And the gospel and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

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And then the end will come. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet

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Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

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Let the one who was on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house and let the one who's in the field not turn back to take his cloak.

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And alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a

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Sabbath for then there'll be great tribulation, such as not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

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And if those days had not been cut short, no human being will be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

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As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together. Father, I pray that you bless today as we open and study this incredible section of scripture.

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Help us, Lord, to fall in love with the power of this section of scripture. Help us to understand your word.

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Teach us by your spirit. Guard you, guard us, your people from error. Guard my mouth and my mind from error as I teach your people.

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Lord, I pray that you would cause me to decrease, Christ to increase in Jesus' name. Amen. So this is the story of God's covenant people.

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Now notice I have constantly has been going through this study. I've been talking about the fact that this is local judgment, clearly local.

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When you see the abomination that causes desolation, Luke 21 uses a different actual way of expressing that.

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Luke in this section actually says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, when you see

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Jerusalem surrounded by armies, what's the call of Jesus in verse 16 is let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains.

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This is not a global judgment. This is not about the end of the cosmos, the physical world.

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As a in the text, the word there for sign of your coming and the end of the age is from ionos, ion, it's age.

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It has nothing to do with cosmos, physical world. This is not about the end of the physical cosmos.

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This is about the end of the age. Which age? Well, the disciples, the early Jews weren't thinking like Gentiles when they're talking to Jesus here.

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Jesus says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. The Jews here are thinking about covenant context, covenant people of God and of the age, which age they knew that history was marked off by two sections in the old

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Testament. What was it? The age of the old covenant and the age of the Messiah, the messianic age or the age of the new covenant.

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And notice when Jesus departs from just indicting the religious leadership in Jerusalem and says, your house will be left to you.

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Desolate. He departs from Jerusalem and goes to the Mount of Olives, which we've already described is exactly the course that Yahweh took in the old

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Testament in Ezekiel. When God was going to destroy the first temple for their covenant unfaithfulness, his glory,

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Ezekiel says, departs from the temple to the Mount of Olives and rests on the

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Mount of Olives. Jesus has just declared the same thing upon the second temple.

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Your house is left to you desolate. He departs now and he's on the Mount of Olives. That's why it's called the

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Olivet discourse. Now Yahweh is physically present as a man giving the description of the destruction of Jerusalem upon the covenant breakers notes that they heard him say,

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Jerusalem, Jerusalem, your house is left to you. Desolate. He departs. They realize the judgment that that means he promised it's going to be upon that generation.

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And they now say, look at all this, look at the temple and the buildings.

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I mean, this is an amazing edifice. This thing is glorious. Jesus says, do you see all these things?

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There should not be left one stone upon another. And that occurred brothers and sisters, literally and destruction of Jerusalem, the three and a half year war of the

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Romans versus the Jews in history. It's a matter of historic record. It's one of the bloodiest sieges in the history of humanity.

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One of the worst things that ever happened in history in terms of bloodshed and warfare.

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What happened is the Roman armies went into the temple. They desecrated things, they set fire to it, and they literally took the temple apart stone off of stone in direct filament of Jesus prophecy.

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But note they hear Jerusalem's going to be judged house, desolate temple destroyed.

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And they say, end of the age, temple gone, no more old covenant, no more sacrifices, no more priesthood, no more temples end of the age.

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What's the sign of your coming? When will these things be end of the age? And Jesus begins now to talk to the covenant people, the early

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Jews about what's going to befall them in that generation. Now note this, I want you to go to the text of me because it's so important.

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You see it with your own eyes after Jesus discourse here about all the things.

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Now, let me say that again, very important. All the things, wars, pestilence, famine, persecution, abomination of desolation.

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Don't go back to get your cloak, vultures, signs, heavens, blood moon, stars falling after all of that discourse.

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I want you to land on this. Look at your text in Matthew chapter 24. Jesus says, after all of it in verse 34, truly,

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I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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Which things? Well, some of them. No. Text says all these things. And the word generation there does not mean race, cannot mean race of people.

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If you look throughout the gospels themselves, particularly Matthew's gospel, when you see the word

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Ginea, the word generation use, it's using the common way we would understand generation.

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All the people there living at that time. Jesus says, after this discourse, he says, all these things will be upon this generation.

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Those are the words of the Lord Jesus. And I want to argue he meant it. I want to argue actually alongside early church fathers and pastors that he meant it.

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Isn't it amazing that today we have books being written talking about the Olivet discourse, Matthew 24,

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Luke 21, Mark 13 as our present reality. This is for us.

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It's about us books being written, talking about blood moons and all the rest, people literally selling buckets that you can eat out of and poop in the

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Jim Baker show, right? Because at any moment, what's going to fall the great tribulation on who on us, because Jesus is talking to us in this passage, brothers and sisters, he's not, this is covenantal.

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Jesus comes and brings a covenantal lawsuit against the covenant breakers.

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And now it's time for the sanctions. Again, if you followed our studies and you can go back and look at them online to catch up with us, not going to do it all.

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Now, Jesus from actually chapter 20 begins the process of going to Jerusalem, telling them he's going to be killed, crucified, and resurrected, and then beginning to indict the covenant breakers and promise judgment upon that generation.

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Just read chapter 20 through 24 and pay attention to audience, pay attention to context, and then think about that in tota scriptura, all of scripture.

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You notice today I've used some language, right? I've said covenant lawsuits and I've said sanctions.

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People are like, I want a happy, encouraging message, Pastor Jeff. I want to hear about how

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I can live my best life now, and I can be told about how wonderful I am and how to be happy, healthy, wealthy, and to have a nice car and a beautiful wife or handsome husband and great kids.

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What's all this covenant sanctions and lawsuit stuff? Well, brothers and sisters, I want to argue that if you interpret the word of God properly, you will live your best life now.

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You'll live the most biblical life now because you'll understand God as he is. You'll understand the world in the context that scripture gives it to us, and if you understand that God is the covenant

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God, the covenantally faithful God, you'll know the God that you worship truly.

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And watch, here's the big banner over today's message. Are you ready? You're going to get to it in a minute about the elect of God, chosen by God, the elect of God.

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We are recipients of mercy and grace, and we don't receive, praise God, the covenant sanctions that they did.

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Now, I can't do a big study on covenant theology today and, of course, the covenant that God made with the people of God, but I will point you to the passage that actually connects to Matthew 24.

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I want you to know where it's at in your Bible so you can go and read it later. To do that, go to Deuteronomy, first couple books of your

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Bible, Deuteronomy chapter 28. So, Old Testament, it's in the law, first five books of Moses.

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Deuteronomy comes from two words, deutero and then namos, namos meaning law.

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It is the second giving of the law, so it's sort of like a recapitulation in many ways of the law itself and an explanation of what took place.

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So, Deuteronomy chapter 28. I can't do it all today, but I want you to see some of the things that are mentioned here.

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This, of course, is the amazing moment where now we have, like, the wilderness wanderings, the 40 years, they've come out of Egypt, ransomed, out of slavery, bondage,

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God rescues them, we've got blood over doorposts, we've got lambs with no spot or blemish, bones aren't broken, that whole story of Israel going out there worshiping false gods at the foot of Sinai, you've got

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Moses coming down, 10 commandments, this is all behind us now, and now the people of God are going into the promised land, but not before.

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God establishes this covenant relationship, it's again restated, but God promises, watch, so important you get this, and you will understand so much of the context of what's happening in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, and the story of Jesus and covenants, all of this.

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God promises his people blessings and curses. Now, this is important, listen, there are different kinds of covenants made in scripture.

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One of the covenants that God makes with Abraham is not a covenant like this, it's not actually quite like the

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Mosaic covenant, it's not with the blessings and curses. I'll give you an example so you can see the difference, because it's important you know this in terms of what

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God does in history, and guess what, you're in this, this is your story too, you're in this blessing, you're in this covenant.

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Remember Abraham, father of our faith, Abraham, I'm going to give you a seed, and through your seed, you're going to bless the whole world.

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Abraham, you're going to have descendants as numerous as the stars, stars, stars, you, me, in Jesus, recipients of this covenant blessing made to Abraham, and so he says what,

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Genesis 15, 6, it says Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.

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What did Abraham do, what did he do? Believed. What did he do in terms of works, and righteousness, and obedience, to receive righteousness as a gift from God?

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Not a thing. What did he do? He believed, he trusted in God, and if you trust in Jesus, you have a faith like Abraham, you have that Abrahamic faith, the faith that comes to God as the

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God of mercy, and grace, and trust in him, and you receive gift from God, not a covenant of blessings, and curses, but gift from God.

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Now this is important, when Abraham believes God, and it's credited to him for righteousness in Genesis 15, 6, he hadn't done anything, there isn't, there are no works, there wasn't circumcision, he did not offer

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Isaac on the altar until like 20 years later, so it's just faith, but God does something, he actually stoops down to a human level, and he actually cuts a covenant with Abraham, but it's different.

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In this era of Abraham, when you wanted to cut a covenant, there weren't a lot of ways to do what we do today, in terms of having the documentation, paperwork, notary, you know, signing things, and evidence, and email, put it away in a zip file, or whatever the case may be, you did things very symbolically with witnesses at times, to make sure nobody forgot the deal, and you had covenants you would make with people, where you would actually take animals, you would slice them in half, very graphic, and you would pull their body parts apart, there's blood everywhere, and you would walk through the parted animals with the person you came into a covenant arrangement with, to actually swear by this covenant, if I don't keep my side, let what happened to me, happens to me, what happened to these animals, let it be done to me like them, that's how, you're walking through these bloody carcasses, in a very symbolic action, to essentially say,

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I'm going to keep my word here, I understand how serious this covenant is, but with Abraham, in the

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Abrahamic covenants, God does something incredible, what's he do? The animals get parted, and then

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God causes a deep sleep to fall on Abraham, what part is

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Abraham taking in this covenant with him and God, what? He's asleep, he is ready, here's the word, passive, he's totally recipient, he's out, he's doing nothing, he is just the recipient of love and mercy and grace, and then

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God himself, because he can swear by nobody greater than himself, God himself goes through the parted animals, swearing on himself,

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I am going to accomplish this, so there's that covenant that you and I are in, God said,

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I'm going to give you descendants, I'm going to do this, how's it going to be accomplished? You believe I'm doing everything, you trust in me,

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I will be covenantally faithful to you and to your descendants, if you trust in Christ, that is where you're at, but yet God brings a people, a chosen people,

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Israel, you only have I chose through all the nations of the earth, God, yes, has an elect people, the nation of Israel, he calls together and he brings them to actually accomplish his redemptive story of Messiah through the people of Israel, but now he's redeemed them, they've wandered around a bunch, they cannot figure this thing out, why?

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Because they don't have what you have, they don't have the blessings of the new covenant and the law written within them, the spirits indwelling, the accomplishment of the atonement, they're just wandering, just sinning, face planning, face planning, but God makes a covenant with national

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Israel, blessings, this one's different, curses, this one's different, it's not just blessings, it's curses, it's a covenant where God actually says,

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I'll do this to you if you obey, I'll bless you, but if you disobey,

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I'm going to curse you, here are the sanctions, so this is a different sort of covenant arrangement than God made with Abraham, now watch,

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Paul says all these covenants come together in a unified way, organically in a sense, but the covenant here is different and it comes with sanctions and yes, this is connected to the

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Olivet discourse, now I want you to see it, so Deuteronomy 28 verse 1, God says this,

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I'm not reading the whole thing, just bits, so you can get a sampling, okay, and if you faithfully obey the voice of the

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Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, Yahweh your

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God will set you high above all the nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the

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Lord your God, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field, blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl, blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out, the

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Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you, do you ever, I can't do it all today and I still want to, but you ever read that one story in the old testament where you have the issue of the

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Israelites have to fight a war and they call all the men of war to go fight the battle and then

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God's like, um, actually your army's too big, cut it down, because God wanted to display his glory, like your army is too big, it's too many people, like make it less so everybody knows that I did it, right, isn't that awesome, but that's one of the blessings of the covenant,

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God says this, I'm going to destroy your enemies in front of you, like they're going to rise against you, you obey me and I'll defeat your enemies for you,

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God says that and he says verse 8, the Lord will command the blessing on you and your barns and in all you that you undertake, he'll be blessed you in the land that the

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Lord your God is giving you, the Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself as he has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your

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God and walk in his ways, so there's blessings, blessings, blessings, obey blessings, but God promises the nation of Israel this, verse 15, but if you will not obey the voice of the

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Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you, cursed shall you be in the city, cursed shall you be in the field, cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl, cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of the ground of the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out, the

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Lord will send on you curses, confusion, frustration in all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me, look at verse 25, the

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Lord Yahweh will cause you to be defeated before your enemies, now jump to 52, look at this, it's very relevant, covenant sanction 52, they shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land, they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which you, which the

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Lord your God has given you and you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters and you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the

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Lord your God has given you in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you,

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God promises them plague, he promises them famine, he promises them sanctions and curses in this covenant he makes with his people, very important to understand that history and now go back to Matthew chapter 24, so that is

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Deuteronomy 28, the covenant God makes with his people, the promise of curse, curses and blessings upon his people, now back to Matthew chapter 24, now where were we, we just did the abomination of desolation, so we're back in 15, go to 15, we just did a message in the abomination of desolation, we went back to Daniel 9 to show you, listen, very important if you missed the sermon, this is all we really need to talk about today,

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Daniel 9, hundreds of years before Jesus, there is no temple, they are in exile to Babylon and Gabriel comes to Daniel and promises this 490 year time period from the decree to restore

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Jerusalem till Messiah the Prince, you have this covenant made where God's actually promising his people, he's going to actually bring an end to sin, he's going to bring atonement for iniquity, he's going to finish the transgression, the transgression of the

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Jews is going to come to its climax, the anointing of the holy, all of that is there, you also have the promise that Messiah, Mashiach is coming and he's going to be cut off and have nothing and then the second temple is going to be destroyed, so what is

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Daniel 9 promise, when there is no temple, there's going to be a second temple, Messiah is coming before it, he'll be cut off and have nothing and then the temple will be destroyed, isn't it interesting that when

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Jesus describes in Matthew 24 the destruction of the Jewish temple, he mentions the abomination of desolation that's in Daniel 9, the promise of the destruction of that second temple, so here's the

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Messiah who's about to be cut off and have nothing, promising that that house is going to be left to them desolate, that temple is going to be destroyed, it's all coming together in this story,

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God's story, but what's interesting is the rescue of God's people that's promised, this is what

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I wanted to talk about just for a moment, remember I read to you guys Eusebius, Eusebius is a bishop, he's a pastor in the early church and he, we have his records, we have his history and he wrote down a record of what took place in the destruction of Jerusalem and this is what he says in book 3 chapter 5,

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I'll just read a small section here, some of you guys heard it before but here's what he says, he says, but the people of the church, this is him writing a fourth century pastor, in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men before the war to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called

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Pella and when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then as if the royal city of the

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Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles and totally destroyed, listen, that generation.

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So here's an early church father referring to this text, Matthew 24, as a past tense reality and he's using it as an apologetic, saying that the people of God were actually spared and rescued from the destruction of Jerusalem because of the prophecy of the

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Lord Jesus and when they escaped to Pella, then God overtook and destroyed who?

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The people who had killed Jesus. The covenant sanctions fell, Eusebius says, upon that generation.

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It's a powerful section from an early church father, I love that section from Eusebius, encourage you guys all to read that, book three, chapter five and on describes these events but in Matthew 24,

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Jesus told his people, don't go back, don't go grab your things, immediately get out. I couldn't help but remember this.

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Did you catch it? Here you have Yahweh as a man walking with his people, promising destruction on a city.

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There's a harlot city that has gone astray, that's doing wickedness and abominations and are you sort of hearing the hints in it?

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You know of any other times in history where Yahweh, the angel of the

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Lord, the pre -incarnate Christ, came and he warned people to depart from an abominable city and he told them not to essentially go back, not to return, but just to flee?

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Any other stories like that in scripture? What? Sodom and Gomorrah. Now you have

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Jesus, Yahweh, saying abomination of desolation, destruction of the city and he says what?

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Don't go back, right? You turn away and you run, you get out of the city because the judgment of God is about to fall.

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Yahweh in the Old Testament, it says it says Yahweh rained down fire from Yahweh in heaven.

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You see the trinity there in the Old Testament even? It's amazing, right? But you have this example of Jesus promising his people, get out of the city, get out.

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Eusebius says they were spared. Who was spared? The Christians were spared.

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I mentioned, I'm going to throw it out quickly so that you at least have it, that in the book of Acts there's a moment where you see that the early

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Christians were doing something kind of peculiar. What was it? They were selling their property in Jerusalem.

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They're selling their land and property that they have that's there and they're distributing the money to take care of the needs of the saints.

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And I mentioned in history there's been all kinds of weird, kooky, unbiblical

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Christian socialist movements that have actually looked at Acts and said look the early Christians living kumbaya together in one community.

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Nobody owns their own stuff and they're just sort of like giving up their stuff and selling it. Hey, they were selling their stuff in Jerusalem because they knew

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Jesus said what? This is all about to be destroyed. They knew that it wasn't land to hold on to.

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They knew that this was about to be destroyed and one of the actual things said about the early

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Christians was that they were saying, read the book of Acts first six chapters, they were saying that this

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Jesus was going to return and destroy the customs that have been delivered to them.

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What customs? Temple, sacrifice, ritual, they knew it was coming. The message of the early church was you better repent in a hurry because Jesus is coming to bring sanctions upon the city.

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It's coming. So we have in Matthew 24, 21 through 22, this saying from Jesus.

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So many books called great tribulation, the tribulation. People say, when is the rapture going to happen?

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Is it pre -trib, mid -trib, post -trib? I say none of it. The trib already happened.

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So technically it's post -trib, but thousands of years post -trib, right? There is no secret rapture in scripture.

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There's a putting death under the feet of Jesus, a final resurrection and judgment, but none of these secret rapture things, people left behind, the people who are left behind in scripture in Noah's day were the righteous ones.

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They're left behind. Wicked aren't left behind. It's the righteous, the meek who inherit the earth.

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But what's interesting is that there's the word. It comes right now. Now you're reading it, the great tribulation.

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It says in verse 21, for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no and will never be.

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And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

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Here's what I want to talk about. Jesus says elsewhere, not an exhaustive talk today, just something to think about.

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He says in Luke 21, 22, same passage for Luke, the

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Olivet discourse, it's Luke's account of this discourse. He says there, these, listen, are the days of vengeance in order that all that has been written might be fulfilled.

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Jesus says that in Luke 21, in the Olivet discourse, these are the days of vengeance in order that all that has been written will be fulfilled.

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Jesus on his way to the cross. I mentioned to you guys that I was always confused by that section where Jesus is on his way to the cross and he speaks to the women of Jerusalem in Luke 23, 28.

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It was always confusing. It says this. I'll start in 27 and there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who are mourning and lamenting for him.

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But turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me.

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Weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breast that never nursed.

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Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

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I always found that so strange. So few things the

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Lord Jesus says really from his trial to the cross. It's limited.

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He says barely anything, but weird on the way to the cross. Literally Jesus' back is ripped open.

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He is covered in blood. He has been beaten beyond recognition.

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His beard pulled from his face, a crown of thorns on his head. He's carrying the cross on the dusty road.

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Crowds are just throngs of people mocking him on the sides of the road. You got women weeping and Jesus takes a moment on the way to the crucifixion to speak to the women of Jerusalem who are weeping for him and he says to them, don't weep for me, weep for you.

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You. The days are coming when people are going to beg God. Oh, they're going to say things like,

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I wish I'd never even had a child. I wish

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I never had to endure these things. You are blessed if you're a woman and you never had a baby that had to endure this.

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You never had to watch your children die in this siege. You see, Jesus tells them you're about to be judged.

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You see, they think that they are conquering the Messianic King, these covenant lawbreakers, and Jesus is in control the whole time.

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He even says, if I wanted, I can call a host of angels right now to rescue me.

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He lays his life down on his own accord. Nobody takes his life from him, but he says you're about to be judged.

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Isn't it amazing that in this terrifying, terrible, marvelous moment, you have

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Jesus bringing about the salvation of Jew and Gentile, all his people throughout history, and you have the moment that seals the fate of the covenant breakers.

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You're going to be judged. Pilate says, I find no fault in him on record in history.

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He's innocent. Don't blame me for this. He is not guilty. And they say, what?

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They say, look, if you let him go, you're no friend of Caesar, right? He says, I'll release somebody. They're like, give us

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Barabbas. And he says, shall I crucify your king? And then what do they say? They seal their fate.

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They say, we have no king, but Caesar. Don't weep for me.

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Weep for yourselves. These are the days of vengeance. All these things upon this generation.

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Of course, you have examples in Micah 312, Jeremiah 26, 4 through 6,

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God promises to destroy the covenant breakers. Isaiah 65, Malachi 3 and 4, go read.

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But I want to read to you these examples of the destruction of Jerusalem from Eusebius, that early church father.

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Listen, but the number of calamities, whichever fell upon the nation at that time, the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, listen, the thousands of men, as well as women and children that perished by the sword, by famine and by other forms of death, innumerable.

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All these things, as well as the many great sieges, which were carried on against the cities of Judea and the excessive sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself as to a city of perfect safety.

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And finally, the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail and how at last the abomination of desolation proclaimed by the prophets,

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Daniel stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of all the temple, which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire.

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All these things, anyone that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.

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This is Eusebius' account. He's an early pastor in the church recording what happened in the destruction of Jerusalem, and he refers everybody to Josephus.

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Josephus was a Jew. He was in the Jewish army in the revolt against the

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Romans. He was a Pharisee. He survived the war against the Romans and the

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Jews. He was actually hiding himself under a bunch of dead bodies. He was discovered, and they took an affection to him, and he was actually allowed to live, and he was actually allowed to record a history of what happened in the destruction of Jerusalem.

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So check it out. I love this fact. We have an eyewitness account of what took place in the destruction of Jerusalem in the war of the

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Jews. Check it out. From a Pharisee, a general in the

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I'm not saying it's scripture. I'm saying isn't it amazing that God gave us a witness of what took place from a

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Pharisee who was a general in the Jewish army and tells us what actually took place in the city. He was there.

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He saw what happened, and here's what here's some of the things that were said. It says, for it was right that in the very days in which they had inflicted suffering upon the

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Savior and the benefactor of all, the Christ of God, that in those days shut up as a prison, they should meet with destruction at the hands of divine justice.

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That's Eusebius. Now this is a description of the famine that overtook them. Now I want to just say

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I'm going to do I did my best to cut out parts because I know we have a family integrated church.

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We have a lot of children here. I'm going to do my best to cut out a lot of the violent and graphic things.

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There honestly would be no way for me to accurately describe the destruction of Jerusalem without us having buckets next to us.

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It was horrific. It was evil. It was awful, the things that took place, but I do want to give you a sampling because Jesus says, great tribulation such as has never occurred before and never will again.

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That's the words that he uses. We're going to talk about that, but I'm going to give you a sampling of what did it look like.

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Nowhere was food to be seen, but bursting into the houses, men searched them thoroughly.

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And whenever they found anything to eat, they tormented the owners on the ground that they had denied that they had had anything.

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But if they found nothing, they tortured them on the ground that they may had more carefully concealed it.

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The proof of their having or not having food was found in the bodies of the poor wrenches.

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Those of them who were still in good condition, they assumed were well supplied with food. While those who were already wasted away, they passed by.

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For it seemed absurd to slay those who were on the point of perishing for want. So the Roman soldiers come in, and as they're slaughtering people and blood is flowing through the streets, they're watching the people.

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They're saying, this person looks relatively healthy. They've got food. They would cut their bodies open.

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When they found somebody that was clearly dying from famine who had no food, they would leave them to die and to suffer.

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People were eating dung to survive. They were eating hay to survive.

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They were doing anything they could, and riots were breaking out in the street. When they would find somebody of their own people that had food, they would go and start fights with them.

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They would hurt one another and even kill one another for the smallest morsel of food.

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The city was entirely cut off from any help, and they were dying of famine. Such an awful famine that people were recorded to have been eating their own children and one another to survive the destruction of Jerusalem.

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Old men who clung to their food were beaten, and if the women concealed it in their hands, their hair was torn from their heads for so doing.

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There was pity neither for gray hairs nor for infants. But taking up the babes, they clung to their morsels of food.

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They dashed them to the ground. If they found children with food, babies, they would kill the children to get the food.

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But to those that anticipated their entrance and swallowed what they were about to seize, they were still more cruel, just as if they had been wronged by them.

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Children and youths, swollen with famine, wandered about the marketplaces like shadows and fell down wherever the death of agony overtook them.

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The sick were not strong enough to bury even their own relatives, and those who had the strength hesitated because of the multitude of the dead and the uncertainty as to their own fate.

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Many indeed died while they were burying others, and many betook themselves to their graves before death came upon them.

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Did you catch that? People just lied down in their own graves to die. And as Titus, he was in charge of the

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Roman side of the war, went around. Listen, I found this so compelling.

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As Titus went around and saw the trenches filled with the dead bodies and the thick blood oozing out of the putrid bodies, he groaned aloud, and raising his hands, called

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God to witness that this wasn't his doing. Did you catch that?

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The person in charge of Rome's fight against the Jews, Josephus, witnesses that it was so awful, that the destruction was so miserable and so horrible, that the one in charge of the destruction of Jerusalem was witnessed calling out to God saying,

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I've got nothing to do with this. This is your doing. I've got nothing to do with this.

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I found that amazing. Now there's an account of a woman and her boy, her child.

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I'm going to read you the last part of the account. And when she had said this, she slew her son.

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And having roasted him, she ate one half herself. And covering up the remainder, she kept it.

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Very soon the rioters appeared on the scene and smelling the nefarious odor, they threatened to slay her immediately unless she showed them what she had prepared to eat.

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She replied that she had saved an excellent portion for them. And with that, she uncovered the remains of her child.

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What did God promise as part of his covenant sanctions? What did he say? When he takes his hand off of his people, he will unleash and allow sinful people to do what is in their hearts to do.

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And the destruction that will overtake his people will be so bad that people will even eat their own children.

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Deuteronomy chapter 28. I'm going to leave it at that.

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So there's just a small sampling of the destruction of Jerusalem. I will tell you this.

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Go online and just look this up. There are plenty of documentaries on it. My son, Sage, sent me a documentary literally five minutes before I walked in here.

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He's like, dad, you need to see this on the destruction of Jerusalem. Just go look up destruction of Jerusalem history,

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YouTube, plenty of documentaries. You'll hear and read all about it. Here's what you need to know. And one particular interesting thing is the blood was so, so there was so much of it.

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It was flowing through the streets like rivers. And you had so many crucifixes surrounding the city that people said that it looked like a forest of crucifixes, a forest of dead bodies around Jerusalem.

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Now, I wanted to tell you some interesting things. Now, this is so fun.

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This part, I think, is incredible. Tacitus records this,

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Josephus records this. Have you heard about the signs and the wonders, the things that happened around the destruction of Jerusalem, not just the war, but the miraculous events that were witnessed by multiple people and recorded?

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I'm going to read to you the historical record of the signs and wonders that occurred. This is from Josephus.

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Mind you, please remember, Josephus was a general in the Jewish army who witnessed all of this.

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He records what occurred during the destruction of Jerusalem. He records some pretty incredible events

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I want you to hear about. Jesus mentions great tribulation. Jesus mentioned signs and signs and wonders in the heavens in Luke 21.

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Josephus records this. Now, there was then a great number of false prophets. This is

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Wars Book 6, Chapter 5, Sections 2 and 3. Suborned by the tyrants to impose upon the people who denounced this to them that they should wait for deliverance from God, and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and cared for by such hopes.

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Josephus goes on. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, false prophets, false messiahs, and such as belied

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God himself, while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident and did so plainly foretell their future desolation, but like men infatuated, without eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them.

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Do you catch that? Josephus said God was giving us signs and wonders so clear, but there were false prophets who were coming in and keeping people attached like, no, we're fine, everything's fine.

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And Josephus says they didn't even pay attention to the clear signs from God that we're about to be destroyed.

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And this is crazy. Thus, there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city and a comet that continued a whole year.

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So at night in Jerusalem, a comet made its pass and it hung over the city for a year, and it looked like a sword was hanging over the city.

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Josephus goes on. Thus also, before the Jews' rebellion and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread on the eighth day of the month, and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright daytime, which light lasted for half an hour.

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Mind you, Josephus is not a Christian. He is not recording this for the benefit of you and I, in terms of Christian apologetics.

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Josephus is just telling you the witness. These amazing signs, a comet hung over the city like a sword, light at night shining around the altar, bright as daytime.

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This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it.

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So these publicly declared that this signal foreshadowed the desolation that was coming upon them.

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Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the 21st day of the month, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared.

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Here's what, watch this, listen to what Josephus says here. I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it.

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In other words, he's saying this, watch, I know this sounds crazy. I know this sounds crazy, and I'm sure people would think that, except that it was witnessed by so many, it happens.

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And that, and were not the events that followed it so considerable in nature as to deserve such signals, for before sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds and surrounding of cities.

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Moreover, at that feast, which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom was to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, the ministers in the temple, they said in the first place, they felt an earthquake and heard a great noise.

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And after that, they heard a sound as of a great multitude saying, let us remove hence.

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So in these histories recorded, the record is, is that the temple doors blew open.

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There was a massive earthquake and a loud voice came out of the temple that said, let us remove hence, let us leave.

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I find that compelling because here you have an early Jew recording what the witnesses saw of these signs and these wonders occurring surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem.

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And I do think it's interesting that what's recorded is God speaking out of the temple, let us leave.

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Genesis chapter one, how does God speak? Let us create man in our own image. Let us go down.

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I think it's amazing that Josephus records these events, comment over the city, earthquake signs happening in the temple, temple doors blowing open voices coming out of the temple.

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Let us remove. Hence you have chariots running around in the clouds above the city.

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Josephus says, we should have known we were about to be destroyed. The signs were obvious to everybody.

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It's like everybody was deluded. God was showing them not only with Jesus prophecies with the proclamation of his kingdom, but all of these signs and wonders were apparently occurring around Jerusalem at that time.

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It really is a powerful history to study, but let's get to this last point here and we'll finish with this for today and next week, go into the detailed explanation of the elect of God.

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I want you to hear the answer because isn't it amazing? Listen, when you pull this together, is this awesome or what?

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It's incredible. Jesus kept his word. Covenant sanctions happened, happened on time, happened as planned.

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And you follow all the words, this generation will not pass away. This generation, all these things upon this generation, you, when you see, when you see this is going to happen to you, they'll deliver you up the tribulation.

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It's his people right in front of them, that generation. And then we see this. Yes. However, the text says verse 21, then there will be great tribulation.

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Such as not been from the beginning of the world until now. No, and never will be. Gotcha. Can't be true.

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It couldn't have already happened. Pastor Jeff, because Jesus says such as never been before and never will be again.

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So how can that be first century? I mean, did you hear about world war two? Did you hear about world war one?

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Did you hear about the Holocaust of the Jews? I mean, how can you say that this is first century?

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Well, I'm going to give to you guys, Gary DeMar, one of my teachers, my mentors, call him uncle

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Gary, read his books. They're good for you. His explanation in wars and rumors of wars.

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It's a short explanation. I think it's precise. It's clear. It's biblical. Here's the explanation.

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One, the tribulation associated with the destruction of the temple in 586

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BC is described in a similar way using a common rhetorical superlative that Jesus uses in Luke seven 28.

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When he says the following about John the Baptist, listen closely. Quote, I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John.

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Yet he who was least in the kingdom of God is greater than he question.

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Jesus was born of a woman. Isn't he greater than John? It's a rhetorical device used in scripture, common, a rhetorical superlative, like with John the

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Baptist of those born of a woman, there is no one greater than John. Well, Jesus is born after John and brothers and sisters.

01:00:08

Is he greater than John? Yes, it's a rhetorical superlative. There's another example, two of this being used before in scripture, this kind of device.

01:00:20

Here's how the destruction of the first temple is described. Jesus is talking about the second temple, great tribulation, never done before, not like it again.

01:00:29

But this is what's talked about in the first temple's destruction. Quote, and because of all your abominations,

01:00:36

I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again.

01:00:43

Ezekiel five nine. So watch Yahweh on the first temple use the same device, not done before, never done again.

01:00:55

The temple was destroyed, but yet there was a promise of the destruction of the second temple. Jesus is

01:01:01

Yahweh in the flesh using the same kind of language that God uses commonplace in the

01:01:07

Bible to describe the destruction of the Jewish temple. Third points, this is my point

01:01:13

I want to add. This is what I'm adding to Uncle Gary's explanation here, biblical explanation in terms of never done before, never done again.

01:01:22

I want to argue as I have this whole time today that the context of Matthew 24 here is covenantal.

01:01:29

It's concerning the covenant people of God. This language being employed by Jesus here is concerning the covenant people of God.

01:01:39

The context is first century Jerusalem. The context is the Jewish temple. It's not the context of the globe.

01:01:46

It's not the context of the cosmos. The context is the Jewish people. So his focus is great tribulation upon whom?

01:01:54

This city, Jerusalem, the temple, your house left you desolate. The whole context here is covenantal about covenant sanction.

01:02:03

So his focus about great tribulation is upon the covenant people of God. And I want to argue there is a very real sense in which

01:02:12

Jesus statement here about great tribulation such as has never been done before and never will be again is actually accurate because the covenant people here were given their sanctions and fully destroyed.

01:02:24

It was the destruction of world history upon the covenant people of God.

01:02:29

The one promised in Deuteronomy chapter 28, it's covenantal. So Jesus says something here and we're going to study what elect of God is next week.

01:02:39

But he says that his elect will be saved. His elect will be preserved.

01:02:47

God has chosen people. Israel, you only have

01:02:53

I known of all the nations in the world. Really? God didn't know about the other nations.

01:02:59

He was just unfamiliar with their presence. No, you only have I known.

01:03:05

You only have I chosen to enter into intimate relationship with, with you. Here's the context of all of world history.

01:03:13

We're a bunch of miserable, wretches, broken, angry, God -hating enemies of God.

01:03:19

We are fallen. We are sick spiritually, dead spiritually, rebels against God.

01:03:25

That's the context of all of human history. And so somebody says this, I don't like that God has elect.

01:03:32

I don't like it. Somebody the other day posted on something we did and they said, predestination is a wicked lie from hell.

01:03:43

And my answer is tell that to Jesus. Tell that to Paul in Romans eight,

01:03:51

Romans nine, Ephesians one, Jesus in John six, Jesus in John 10.

01:03:57

What do you mean election and predestination is a lie from the pit of hell? This is what

01:04:03

God does. What does God owe all of humanity? What's he owe us? Justice.

01:04:08

Somebody says, I don't like that God has an elect that he spares, that he chooses people to spare and he lets the other ones go.

01:04:17

I don't think that's fair. And my answer is no, it's not fair. Stop asking for fair from God because you do not want

01:04:25

God's fair. You don't want God to be just concerning his law and you.

01:04:31

What you don't want God to do is to stand as a judge over you to see how you've done.

01:04:37

You don't want God to be just in that way with you. What you want from God is mercy.

01:04:45

So when someone says, it's not fair that God chooses one and not another. My answer is no, it's not fair.

01:04:52

It's called grace because what both should get is punishments.

01:04:58

What both should get is justice. What does God owe humanity?

01:05:03

Judgment. The fact that God chooses to save any of us ought to be the thing that causes all not as justice.

01:05:15

What makes sense is for God to hate Esau. It makes sense for God to say,

01:05:23

I'm going to judge you. What doesn't make any sense is the Jacob I have loved. That doesn't make any human sense.

01:05:30

It's incomprehensible. The fact that God is predestined before the world began an elect people that he's chosen by grace, that he pours his love out on is something that ought to cause all in all of us.

01:05:43

It really is a spectacular thing because listen, Israel loved their sin. God didn't make them love their sin.

01:05:50

God allows them to love their sin. They love their sin. They hate Jesus. They love their sin.

01:05:55

As a matter of fact, watch this. This is amazing. Did you ever think about this? They tried to kill Jesus numerous times during his ministry, but we're not allowed by who

01:06:04

God. They wanted him dead long before the crucifixion and God stopped their rebellious hearts.

01:06:11

He halted their sin and held them back. We never thank God for that enough.

01:06:17

We're always angry with God when he releases his hand and he lets people do what they want. We never thank

01:06:23

God daily about all the times that he protects us from our own evil or the evil of others.

01:06:29

It makes sense in a fallen world that God has justice. The glory of the gospel is his incomprehensible grace, his elect people that he says,

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I'll preserve you. I'll give you mercy. And somebody says, well, what they do deserve that answer. Nothing.

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It's the same kind of gracious relationship God had with Abraham. I'll do this.

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You sleep. I'll do this. I swear. I will.

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You believe you trust me. You come to me with an empty hands. And Jesus says about this great tribulation, it's going to be this awful destruction just as he promised.

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And he says, for the sake of the elect, for the sake of the elect, I'll hold it back for the sake of God's people has chosen.

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And I think that's the glory of this passage is his love for his people. He spared him.

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He spared his people out of Jerusalem. He has them flee to Pella. He spares his people every day.

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He gives us his grace. He gives us his mercy. Listen, we're not promised in this fallen world a total preservation from evil befalling us or suffering.

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As a matter of fact, what does the Bible say about our suffering? Philippians 1 29. It has been gifted to you.

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It's been gifted to you. It is a gift presented right in your lap. It's beautiful.

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It smells like Christmas. It's wrapped in a bow to not only believe in Jesus. We love that part.

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It's a gift to trust in Jesus. God grants me repentance. He chooses me. He opens my eyes.

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He gives me the ability to trust in Jesus. It has been gifted to you, not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his sake.

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Two things from God. I'm giving you this amazing gift to trust in Jesus. And I'm giving you this amazing gift to suffer.

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To suffer for Jesus. We always say, I'll take the first, you keep the second, right?

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But in God's perspective, in his perfect, holy, immeasurable perspective, he says, these are both my gift to you.

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Belief and suffering for my glory. And what does it say? Final word.

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Can't do better than this. About the elect of God. Don't have this week finish without memorizing this.

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We know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him, who are the call according to his purpose.

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Who's that promise for? Is it for the unbeliever? You got to come to grips with it.

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God is sovereign. He is holy. We're not. He is not giving that promise to unbelievers.

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Who does he give the promise to? His elect. His chosen. If you trust in Christ, you're the elect.

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You're the chosen. And he says, all things work together for good, for those who love

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God and are the called according to his purpose. Jesus has that mind in the destruction of Jerusalem, and it hasn't changed.

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He sits in the heavens. He laughs at those who try to thwart his plans. He declares the end from the beginning, and he's chosen a remnant by his grace.

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My prayer is that you come and follow the feet of Jesus and you trust in him and in his promises, because he is the unchanging

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God who cannot lie. He's the same Jesus in Matthew 24 as he is right now to you and I.

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He preserves his elect. Let's pray. Father, please bless the words that went out for the glory of Jesus.

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I pray that, Lord, you would take this message, bury it deeply into our heart, our minds, and our affections, so that we would love

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Jesus more deeply and love the world like he does. In Jesus' name.