Matthew 24, and as you know, it's going
to take quite a while to get through
Matthew 24 because there's a lot to talk
about.
We're talking about what does this apply to,
and it's going to take probably a few
weeks, if not maybe a few months to
get through everything.
And I just, the foundation I want to
start with tonight that's going to be the
foundation for the whole series is, do you
take the Bible literally?
So the message is, you don't take the
Bible literally, do you?
Because people say that, you don't take the
Bible literally, Shane, do you?
Yes, I do.
When you're supposed to.
And we're going to cover what that looks
like.
So the title of the message is, you
don't take the Bible literally, do you?
I should have probably just titled it, do
you take the Bible literally?
It would have been much easier.
And it's funny, you'll see this a lot,
like, have you ever watched Bill O'Reilly?
I haven't probably in a few years.
But a lot of those guys on TV,
they'll say, when it comes up the Bible,
it's like, well, you don't take that literally.
You know, you don't have to take that
literally.
And usually the reason people don't want you
to take the Bible literally is because they
don't like the application.
As soon as they like the application, then
you can take it literal.
In other words, I was just in a
memorial service this afternoon, and everybody's talking about
heaven.
Even people who aren't Christians, oh, heaven's this
great, heaven, heaven, hell, we'll see you in
heaven.
And I remember when that one movie star,
Fast and Furious, guy crashed in Santa Clarita
and died.
And a lot of people, you know, we'll
see you in heaven.
But when it comes to hell, no, no,
no, that's all figurative.
Sheol, Gehenna, that was all Old Testament.
Jesus was talking about a garbage dump on
fire, and it truly doesn't apply to us
today.
Well, you can't take heaven literally and then
not take the other side of that literally.
So a lot of people don't want to
take the Bible literally when it comes to
applying it.
When the application challenges their lifestyle, they say,
well, you can't really take that literally.
I just had a couple weeks ago down
in, it was I think about an hour
from here.
I don't remember the exact, maybe Sun Valley,
Panorama City in there.
And I ran into a couple guys, and
they were talking, I overheard them.
Of course, you know me, I kind of
chimed in a little bit.
But with the whole area with homosexuality and
gay marriage, and taking them through Jude and
Genesis and Paul's words in Corinthians, and the
whole Jesus' discourse on fornication, pornea, and what
that looks like, just everything goes, well, those
things you can't really take literally.
You can't, I mean, Shane, he said, you
know, shellfish is an abomination.
And he says homosexuality is an abomination.
Shane, that stuff's not for today, it's not
literal.
But then he would use other passages with
literal application in order to show that those
weren't literal.
So we have to have consistency.
You take the Bible literally, yes, I do.
But there are areas where God will use
metaphors, similes, allegories.
And I hope everybody knows what that is,
because I didn't know what some of those
were until I looked them up.
I mean, I've heard the word metaphor.
You use something to get a point across.
A simile, you show something similar to.
And then allegory, you use a story.
And God uses that through His Word.
But for those of us who study the
Bible, it's not real confusing.
You can tell when it's a literal sentence.
You can tell when it's not.
But then it does get tricky in Revelation
and different things.
So that's what I'm hoping to uncover.
And it's an exhausting study.
Because there's just so much.
And a lot of it hinges on, you
hear the word fundamentalist.
Taking things literal.
Have you ever heard that?
Have you been called a fundamentalist?
No, just me?
Fundamentalist means you take, you're not bending on
these things.
You are a fundamentalist.
You take the Bible literally.
These are non-negotiables.
And the fundamentalist, there's some books written, 1904,
1905, I've talked about before, by R.A.
Torrey.
They had different theologians come in and talk
about the fundamentals.
Christ is the only way.
The cross.
The inerrancy of Scripture.
The virgin birth.
The resurrection.
These things are not negotiable.
You can't negotiate these things.
So in that sense, we are fundamentalists.
But we're not fundamentalists in blowing up abortion
clinics.
And picketing funerals of servicemen.
Saying that they're going to go to hell
because they were in the army.
And we all get lumped into the fundamentalist
camp.
And I don't like that.
But we do adhere to what the Bible
clearly outlines as truth.
And truth is literal.
All of God's truth is literal.
There's literal application.
Everything that God says in his word is
literal in regard to application.
So you don't take the Bible literally.
Yes, I do.
Here's why.
God uses metaphors often.
John 10, 9.
If you have your Bibles in the future,
you can look at these.
I believe that's where Jesus is referring to.
I probably should have wrote down the exact
passage here.
But where he's referring to himself being the
gate for the sheep.
I am the gate for the sheep.
Is Jesus really a gate?
No.
He's showing the entrance.
I am the only way walking through the
gate.
Or a simile in Job 41, 24.
Where he talks about, I believe it was
one of the large creatures there having a
heart like flint.
Or heart like stone.
Well, obviously his heart isn't stone.
But it's showing, it's comparing to show the
magnitude of what they're trying to express.
Or allegories.
Like in Isaiah 5, 1 where God was
talking about his vineyard.
He planted a vineyard.
A beautiful vineyard.
He tilled the soil.
He watered it.
This beautiful vineyard.
But then it becomes a vineyard that is
repulsive.
That is just, weeds have grown up.
And he shows how that is the nation
of Israel.
That God planted them.
And the people destroyed that vineyard.
So he'll use stories to convey truth.
There's nothing wrong with that.
So here's a good explanation of what we
should take literal.
Because you're probably wondering, well Shane, how do
we know what's true and what's not?
Well, a couple things.
Let's read the words of Dr. David Cooper.
He's the founder of the Bible Research Society.
When the plain sense of scripture makes common
sense, seek no other sense.
Therefore take every word at its primary, ordinary,
usual, literal meaning, unless the facts of the
immediate context studied in light of relative passages
and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.
Some people have said, if the plain sense
makes good sense, seek no other sense, lest
it result in nonsense.
And that's what you can do with the
Bible.
And a lot of the groups that knock
on your door, take some of it and
twist it around to fit their theology.
That's why a couple things are important in
this study on Matthew 24.
The Old Testament is vital in understanding eschatology.
Eschatology is the study of end times.
The end is coming, Jesus is coming, judgment
is coming, the end times.
That whole study is called eschatology.
And to properly understand it, you need to
understand the Old Testament.
The imagery, the moons darkening the sun, losing
its light.
There's Old Testament imagery that all the writers
of the Bible would use throughout, and even
into the New Testament.
Also there's something called the Law of First
Mention.
So how something is used first in the
Bible, you would use that application or that
definition throughout the course of Scripture, unless the
passage clearly indicates otherwise.
So something is first mentioned, lampstands would be
a good example in Exodus, and then we
see lampstands again in Revelation, and what that
lampstand means.
So hopefully this will help.
Take the Bible literal, just like what this
gentleman said, but I'm going to break it
down first.
Take the Bible literal, take a passage literal,
unless the literal interpretation contradicts self-evident and
fundamental truths.
He said axiomatic, but who knows what that
means, so I had to look it up
too.
It means self-evident, self-evident.
So you take the Bible literally, unless the
literal interpretation contradicts self-evident and fundamental truths.
You want an example of that?
Here's a good example.
The Bible often talks about the right hand
of God.
Are we going to take that literally?
Does God have a right hand?
No, because there are other truths that are
self-evident.
Jesus said God is not a person, He's
a spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and truth.
God doesn't have a right hand and a
left eye and a foot.
So you don't take that literal because that's
why you need to know your Bible.
Because some people say, oh yeah, God's right
hand.
Actually, I believe it's the Mormons who teach
that God was once like us, and that
we will be like God someday.
I'm scared to say that, let alone teach
it.
God was once like me?
Oh, help us.
I mean, but He would have a physical
body.
So the theology can get twisted, but we
learn throughout, especially in the Old Testament, God's
spirit, you'll see Him manifest Himself through Jesus
Christ or different things, but God doesn't have
a right hand.
So you wouldn't take that literally.
Take the Bible literally unless the context shows
that it cannot be taken literally.
Here's a good example.
If anyone hears my voice, Jesus says, and
opens the door, I will come into him
and dine with him.
Well, is He talking about me opening a
door and Jesus is going to come into
me and have dinner?
Somehow He's in my heart eating, who's going
to pass the bread?
No, you don't take that literal.
Why?
Because the context shows it can't be taken
literally.
Jesus is talking to a church, by the
way, rebuking the church, and saying, open the
door.
If anybody knocks, if anybody opens that door
as I'm knocking, I'm knocking on your door,
open your heart.
Many times I've heard Greg Laurie, Billy Graham,
other people use it.
I used to use it many times too.
But really, that's not a call to the
sinner in the context of that verse.
The context of that verse is calling the
church who is backslidden to come back.
Jesus is saying, I'm knocking at your door.
I'm knocking, I'm wanting you to return to
your first love.
Open the door.
Now if somebody uses that as an overreaching
application to reach somebody who's lost, that truth
can still be validated.
Why?
Because God is convicting, God is drawing.
Theoretically there's a knocking, there's a convicting, and
the person needs to open their heart to
receive.
So take the Bible literally also, unless the
literal sense does not make sense in light
of relative passages.
So you take the Bible literal unless it
doesn't make sense when you combine it with
all the other passages.
Here's another, here's a good example.
Jesus said, remember therefore from where you have
fallen.
Did they fall?
No.
Did their heart fall?
Yes.
Repent and do the first works or else
I will come to you quickly and I
will remove your lampstand from its place unless
you repent.
So is there a big lampstand about seven
foot tall and Jesus is going to come
and grab that lampstand and take it away
and now we're going to cry because he
took our lampstand.
No, so you don't take that literally in
light of the passage.
The passage is he's warning churches.
He says that the churches are the lampstand
and if you don't return to your first
works, if you don't return to your first
love, if you don't rebuke that prophetess among
you that's leading the people astray, if you
don't, lukewarm church, if you don't return to
me, I'm going to remove that lampstand.
You look at Exodus to see when it
was first used, in Exodus 20 I believe
it was, talking about the tabernacle.
It was right before the Holy of Holies,
the lampstand was in the holy place.
It was made of pure gold and it
was a reflection, it was actually a foreshadowing
of Christ if we had time.
So removing that lampstand, what is the church's
purpose?
Not to sit here, to be the light
up on a hill, to shine that we
come in here, we get energized, we get
charged up and we go out, we're filled
with the spirit of God.
When Jesus removes influence from a church it
will die or it will turn into a
social gathering and look just like the world.
The music looks like the world.
I can preach a very good worldly message.
God wants to bless you.
As you're leaving, if you drop $100 in
that box, no, no, this is serious stuff.
God's going to bless you a hundredfold.
God just wants you to be wealthy and
if you're not, we could just really, when
God's influence leaves, the church will either die
or resemble the world.
There's no more holiness, there's no more conviction.
You can go out and do good things,
we can feed the homeless, we can paint
the neighborhoods, we can do good things, but
the conviction is gone.
I like what A.W. Tozer said, if
the Holy Spirit was removed in the early
church, 90% of the work would have
ceased.
If the Holy Spirit was removed from our
church today, 90% of the work would
continue.
It shows that a lot of the church
is driven.
That's why we don't want to start a
ministry just to start a ministry.
There's not a week that goes by, somebody
says, you should start this.
And I say, you want to?
No, no, no, the church should do it.
No, no, no, you should do it if
God's truly called you to do that.
Because when God starts a ministry, yeah, there'll
be challenging, it will flourish, there will be
fruit.
So we want investing into the kids or
investing into the children's ministry or this other
campus we prayed about for seven months.
Lord, are you in it?
Are you in it?
That's a big question.
Are you in it?
Oh, Shane, it's going to be difficult.
We never saw you in Leona Valley.
It's going to be challenging.
A lot of people from the country up
there, it's not going to work.
God, are you in it?
I laugh every time.
Shane, that's country folk.
I love Hank Williams, Jr. Country boy can't
survive.
I can sing you all those lines.
I can run a trout line.
I can skin a buck.
I've got a 12-gauge.
Okay.
I was born that way, too.
I used to dove hunt in Rancho Vista
before there was Rancho Vista Boulevard.
But people, if God's in it, you just
hold on for the ride.
So back to this literal sense.
A good reminder.
You know what?
While I'm talking about this removing your lampstand,
this is a good reminder.
Jesus spoke to seven churches in Revelation 2,
Revelation 3.
These are actually not churches in Jerusalem.
They're up higher in Asia Minor.
Churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia,
Laodicea.
And Jesus, see these were literal churches, but
they had spiritual significance when he was talking
about the lampstand and different things.
Ephesus.
Jesus said, you have forsaken your first love,
and you need to return.
And I felt strongly about bringing these seven
points up because it hits every one of
us in this room.
These seven churches are what we deal with
often.
Leaving our first love.
Forsaking our first love.
A good example to ask is, is the
Word of God in your belly like a
fire anymore?
Is your prayer time, is your devotional, are
you in love with the Lord?
That sounds weird to say.
No, it doesn't.
We're in love with everything else.
Everything else we're in love with.
But are we truly in love with the
Lord?
Is there a passionate relationship or have we
drifted?
So Jesus says, always says, come back before
I remove your lampstand.
Come back before I remove your influence.
Come back to me.
You've lost your first love.
That was Ephesus.
And then Smyrna was suffering persecution.
And Jesus encouraged them.
Pergamum has been infected by the world.
It happened in, look at this.
This happened 2,000 years ago.
It's still happening today.
So once the world infects us and we
have no call to holiness, no call to
purity, we look just like the world.
That's why I often say, look at your
Facebook posts.
Does it resemble the world or the Word
of God?
Well, Shane, I'm not sure.
Well, sipping a margarita on the beaches of
Cancun with a 12-pack of Corona next
to you and having a selfie is not,
that's what I'm talking about.
I can get real on application here.
So we know when we're affected by the
world, do our lusts and our passions line
up with the world or the Word of
God?
Everybody's going, oh, that sounds good.
Oh, see?
The flesh is dominating many times.
Thyatira.
It's a church where they let a false
prophetess into the church and they deceived the
people.
It reminds me today of those who just
dreams and visions and what the prophets say
and they're getting it all worked up in
these things.
Now, do I believe that God is the
same yesterday, today, forevermore?
I've seen him warn people in dreams.
I've seen him confirm things in dreams.
I've seen people speak boldly into the lives
of people through prophetic type or words of
wisdom.
I have nothing against that.
But we've got to be careful because that
should not be the full focus of the
church.
Hearing about dreams and visions every week.
I had a dream and this and a
dream and this and a dream.
Well, be careful because Abraham went 10 years
on one dream.
We don't need to go every week and
get this.
I had a dream of this and a
dream of that.
And sometimes he might do that.
But I'm saying be careful because I've noticed.
Please don't get offended.
I don't know of anybody in this room.
But I've noticed that those who get into
that hyper-spirituality with tons of dreams, tons
of visions, tons of this, get off into
never-never land.
Come back.
Let's see what God told me.
No, let's get into the Word.
What does that say?
God will confirm it through His Word.
And the reason I promote that a lot
is because that's the foundation.
That's for grounding.
I mean, I remember a guy, I've said
this before.
It was a pastor locally.
I went to hear the speaker on an
invitation.
And it was before we went to war
with Iraq.
And he said, if we go to war
with Iraq, God has showed me in a
vision that America will not have enough body
bags.
So about a year later, or six months
later, I asked that pastor.
I said, well, I hate to burst your
bubble, but I don't know what the casualty
was.
Even one death is sad.
But it was, I don't remember.
Some of you might tell me after the
service, 2,000 or something.
And you compare it to 40 million in
World War I.
And I told the pastor, and he goes,
well, not all prophecy is accurate.
It's just, he's like, well, we can't have
it both ways.
You can't say the Lord told me this,
and this is what's going to happen, and
that doesn't happen.
Well, I missed that one.
Well, you missed the other one.
You missed this one.
But then they live in that culture of
what are the prophets saying?
What are the dreams saying?
What are this?
And they go off of those things, and
there's not enough grounding.
There's not enough foundation there.
So he's warning the church, don't be seduced
away from the word of God.
And I've seen people in God's word praying
and fasting that God will give them a
dream of something.
He'll put a dream in their heart.
And they'll say, that's what he's calling me
to the ministry for.
That's what he wants me to do.
It confirms what's already going on in their
heart.
But they don't live off that dream.
And then they have another dream of cockroaches
in their basement, and then they think, oh,
God's trying to clean my soul out of
this.
And then they see a vision of this
and an airplane crashing, and, oh, God, somebody's
about ready to wreck their life.
And then they just walk around each week
on these visions and dreams, and that's not
healthy.
That's not healthy.
It's called hyper-Pentecostalism, hyper-charismaticism.
And I'm not making fun because if you
look at the word charismatic, bestowing spiritual gifts,
I would fall in that camp.
You're either charismatic and thinking that the spiritual
gifts are for today, or you're not.
And I want to embrace all that God
has, but it's grounded.
It has to be grounded in his word.
And sometimes those who are the most chasing
after, you could call them fake signs or
wonders or fake, they're all into all this
stuff, are not grounded in the word at
all.
So we have to be careful in that
area as well.
Sardis had fallen asleep, if you can believe
it.
Jesus says, I see your good works.
I see you're doing this and this and
this and this.
But guess what?
You're asleep.
You're dead.
Stop all this working, working, working, and return
to your first love.
And this is, as we get older, I'm
seeing this in my own life, but especially
those who are even older.
The older we get, the easier we can
fall into this camp.
Because we have theology.
We know what to do.
We can point out the false teachers.
We can do this.
But we lose that first love.
And Jesus is telling us to return.
Philadelphia, they had patient endurance.
And then Laodicea, many of you know Laodicea.
That's a famous church where Jesus said, Hey,
please be either cold or hot.
But you're lukewarm, and I'm going to vomit
you out of my mouth.
Take that literally.
No.
Right?
What's the context showing that this lukewarm church
is displeasing to God?
And I often remind people, we think we
can live lukewarm and still please God.
We can't.
We're either all into God's camp, or if
we're trying to hold a fence, we're in
this camp.
And, again, nobody can live perfectly, but we
can have a heart that says, Lord, I
don't want anything to do with lukewarm living.
I don't want anything to do with the
worldly influence.
There are so many areas I need your
help in.
God, remove these things.
And then we start to make lifestyle decisions
and changes to promote this lifestyle, this being
set apart for God.
And that's what the whole lukewarm church is.
A lukewarm church, basically, is there's just no
power, no spiritual power, no conviction.
I remember I saw a YouTube posting of
one big church.
I don't even know where it's at.
But, like, for worship, they did a Michael
Jackson video thing, and the guys danced and
did a Michael Jackson song.
And I remember another guy, another big church,
on Easter, they had the worship team doing
ACDC, I'm on the Highway to Hell.
You know that song?
I'm on the Highway to Hell.
But his thing, well, I'm just showing the
people, you know, it's about Easter and what
hell looks like.
Well, you don't have to do it that
way.
I mean, come on.
Who would even think of that?
Hey, Brant, before you break out into Old
Rugged Cross, I want to hear Ozzy Osbourne
and just show that, you know, I mean,
it just.
But then there's also no conviction.
The sermon's not convicting.
It's popular.
It's what everybody wants to hear.
No, that just felt great.
And it's pleasing the masses in the church.
There's no heartfelt ministry taking place.
It's all superficial.
That's what the lukewarm church is.
And it's so funny when I read this.
We can all agree that Jesus loved us
very much and loves us, doesn't he?
So why does he rebuke us?
Because he loves us.
See, we should take rebuke sometimes from the
Word of God as a loving father.
A rebuke is never for our harm.
It's always for our good.
So when Jesus says, I love you and
those I love, I rebuke and I chase
and come back.
Come back.
So you'll see often from preaching, a preaching
should help to draw the people back to
God and convict them.
So again, back to the literal sense.
When the plain sense of Scripture makes common
sense, seek no other sense.
Therefore, we have to take every word as
primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts
indicate otherwise.
So that's the foundation for Matthew 24.
I'll read Matthew 24.
This is one of the most, you know
what, let me just read what D.A.
Carson said.
If you don't know D.A. Carson, he's
a New Testament scholar.
Very well versed in a lot of different
areas.
He said about Matthew 24, what we're about
ready to read.
Few chapters of the Bible have called forth
more disagreement among interpreters than Matthew 24 and
its parallels in Mark 13 and Luke 21
than any other passage of the Bible.
The history of interpretation of this chapter is
immensely complex.
And in a nutshell, here's why.
One group says a lot of what we're
about ready to read.
One group says it already took place.
The other group says it's coming.
It's coming.
Earthquakes.
False signs.
Antichrist.
The abomination of desolation standing where he ought
not.
Read or beware, the Bible says.
The Antichrist.
The Great Tribulation.
It's all coming.
A large segment of Christian people say it's
already happened.
So now you see the confusion.
And if you're not saying, I didn't know
people believed that, well, I'll tell you why.
Because you probably either went to a vineyard,
a Calvary Chapel, or what they call dispensationalism,
where they believe in the rapture and different
things because you grew up in that.
And I grew up in that.
And that's what we grew up in.
So when we hear this other stuff, like,
oh, they're heretical.
No, they're not heretical.
They're actually closer to historical biblical Christianity in
regard to what the early church fathers believed.
But now we do have more information with
the nation of Israel becoming a nation in
the mid-1900s.
And we see all these things happening.
So both sides have a good argument.
And I'm just going to tell you up
front, I don't take one side or the
other dogmatically.
I see some tremendous confirmation on this side
that all these things are coming.
But this side has a lot of good
points as well.
And this side would say we have to
take the Bible literally, not figuratively.
And then this side would say the same
thing, but then they take some things figuratively,
which the other side takes literally.
So I'm going to try to hopefully unpack
that in the weeks to come.
But let's read Matthew 24.
See if we can at least get through
the first two verses and all be on
the same page.
Then Jesus went out and departed from the
temple.
So he was in the temple.
He went out, and his disciples came up
to show him the buildings of the temple,
this wondrous temple.
And Jesus said to them, Do you not
see all these things?
So they're looking at the temple.
Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone
shall be left here upon another that shall
not be thrown down.
So it's probably like I haven't been there
in 15 years, but if you go to
Vegas and you see whatever the newest glamorous
hotel, and you're like, look at this.
Oh, they're trying to show off Jesus.
Jesus, look at this temple.
Unbelievable.
And he says, I'm telling you the truth.
There's coming a time where not one stone
will be left upon another.
So both groups agree that this happened in
A.D. 70.
What happened?
It was so traumatic that a lot of
people think that the book of Revelation, when
it talks about the judgments, actually happened in
A.D. 70.
This is when Jerusalem was sieged.
And actually it happened, I believe, five or
six years earlier.
There was warfare going on.
And finally the city of Jerusalem was taken.
The outer wall, the inner wall, the middle
wall was taken.
They slaughtered the Jewish people all over.
There's blood was rolling down the temple stairs.
And it was horrific.
This is the time I told you about
that the mother cooked her own child and
ate that child.
And Josephus writes about that.
He said the whole city soon rang with
this abomination.
When people heard of it, they shuddered as
though they had done it themselves.
And you can read Josephus.
He was a historian at this time.
Let me read what he wrote.
No respect was paid even to the dying.
The anti-Roman zealots searched them in case
they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes
or just pretending to be dead.
Gapping, gaping with hunger like mad dogs.
Lawless gangs went staggering and reeling throughout the
streets, battering upon doors like drunkards so bewildered
that they broke into the same house two
or three times an hour.
Need drove the starving and they'd chew to
anything.
Scraps, which even animals would reject, were collected
and turned into food.
In the end, they were eating belts and
shoes and the leather strips off their own
shields.
Why?
Because Rome had...
When you siege a city, it's a lot
different here.
Well, you can actually do it here.
Terrorists will probably eventually want to go after
your water supply and over your grids.
We've got three power grids, I think, mainly
overseeing the power throughout the United States.
Just three power grids.
You see a nice little nuclear bomb right
up one of those power grids?
You just don't have electricity for many months.
I mean, it's that...
So they besieged the city.
They surrounded the city.
No food, no water.
The people were dying.
And then they took that city.
And that's why Jesus wept 30 years, 40
years earlier.
He said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you would
just have known the time of your visitation,
you would be spared this destruction.
So that's what he's talking about here in
Matthew 24.
I don't know of anybody that disagrees with
that.
Not one stone shall be left here upon
another that shall not be thrown down.
And that happened in A.D. 70.
So, then we skip to...
Then we go to verse 3, right?
Follows verse 2.
Here's where the controversy starts.
Your Bible might say above it the signs
of the times and the end of the
age.
Others believe that this is, again, paralleling with
what Jesus is talking about happening in A
.D. 70.
Verse 3, now as he sat on the
Mount of Olives...
And now you can picture this scene.
There's not a lot of room.
But now they're sitting up on the Mount.
It's called the Olivet Discourse.
They're sitting up on the Mount of Olives.
And they're looking down and they're seeing the
temple below them.
They can see it.
So, as he's sitting there, the disciples came
to him privately saying, Tell us, when will
these things be?
Well, what will those things be?
Not one stone will be left upon another.
Tell us when those things will be.
Now, if they would just stop there, that
would end a lot of controversy.
But they kept on going.
And, while you're at it, Jesus, what will
be the sign of your coming?
Oh, there's another question.
And, while you're at it, and what is
the end of the age?
So, when will these things be?
Where the temple, where these stones will be
completely broken down.
And, what will be the sign of your
coming?
And, what will be the sign of the
age?
So, this group says it's all one question.
They look at it as one event.
When is this going to happen?
When is this happening?
When is the sign of your coming and
the end of the age?
When is that happening?
One event.
This group would say, no, there's different events.
The first event already occurred 80-70.
But now, we're still waiting for the sign
of your coming and the end of the
age.
Basically, the end of the world, when everything
comes to an end.
Those questions have not been answered yet.
And, the reason some of this is so
difficult, I think, when it comes to prophecy
is this.
I like what David Gusick said.
One reason why prophecy may seem vague or
imprecise is because God wants every age to
have reason to be ready for Jesus' return.
We should not think of Jesus' return as
an event far off on a timetable, but
something that has been running parallel since the
beginning of the church.
And, that's the interesting thing with prophecy.
Think about when Isaiah prophesied that somebody would
come out among them from their people, a
Messiah, and the Spirit of God would be
upon them.
And, it actually happened.
And, then there's other prophecies where it happened,
and it's going to happen again.
And, it's God's prophetic word guiding people throughout
history.
But, that's why He wants the church throughout
the whole last 2,000 years to always
be ready for His return.
It's called the immediate return of Christ.
We live knowing that He could come at
any time.
Number two, others suggest that God's intention was
to keep the future somewhat vague and clouded
to confound the devil.
Even as the resurrection of the Messiah was
vague in the Old Testament.
So, if it's not real clear, I guess
that confounds the devil, is one of the
thoughts there.
My view on that, maybe.
I mean, Paul talks about, had they known,
had hell known that it was destroying itself,
they would have never led Christ to the
cross.
So, in other words, I don't think the
enemy saw, the enemy thought He was defeated.
I mean, the enemy thought Jesus was defeated
on the cross.
And, hell was celebrating until hell, death, and
the grave were conquered.
So, they were laughing, they were enjoying that.
And, Jesus, right before His crucifixion, said something
interesting.
I think the NIV translates it, and it
says, that this is your hour when darkness
reigns.
This is your hour, darkness, while you're reigning,
while you're in control.
But, so had they known they were crucifying
the Messiah, the Savior, to do a part
of God's plan, they might not have went
through with it.
So, that's what he's thinking here.
And then, number three, though some prophetic interpretations
are different, we are sure of this, He
is coming again and we must be ready.
So, here's the key question we're going to
talk about in the weeks to come.
You like cliffhangers?
Are the abomination that causes desolation, which is
the Antichrist, the great tribulation, the coming of
the Son of Man, are those all past
events, or are they future events?
And, it really changes everything.
If it's one event, if Jesus was answering
one question, talking about AD 70, as one
event, that will change how you view a
lot of things.
Because, this side would not believe in an
Antichrist, or a one world government, all these
things.
And, that's when you go, well, things are
sure looking that way.
You might want to rethink your position.
I mean, I asked a guy a couple
of weeks ago, I think it was.
Now, if you see a one world government,
an Antichrist, armies surrounding Jerusalem, would you change
your position?
Well, no, not yet.
Because, there's always been a one world governing.
Well, what about if you saw the tribulation
aspect, and you saw more of that happening?
And, so they're really caught on this side
of all this already happened in AD 70.
And, I'm going to explain that in a
little bit.
Not tonight, because there wouldn't be enough time.
But, here's why I do agree with some
of what they believe.
Because, the disciples believe that the time of
the end was near.
That the Messiah would be announced soon.
They probably viewed this as one event.
That the end of Jerusalem would usher in
the time of the end.
So, I agree.
I don't think, personally, that the disciples are
going, When's this going to happen to Jerusalem?
And, thousands of years from now, when is
the age?
I think they're saying, When are all these
stones going to fall upon each other?
When is the end coming?
And, when are you coming back?
They saw this as all one event.
Why?
Look at throughout the chapter preceding Matthew.
He's preparing the disciples for his departure.
So, they're expecting for all this to happen
soon.
They live thinking it was happening pretty soon.
So, I don't think they're asking, That's going
to be thousands of years from now.
They want to know, When is all this
going to happen?
And, another interesting thing.
I don't know if you've ever thought about
this.
But, when Jesus said, many verses later, we'll
get into it.
That, I tell you the truth.
Don't be deceived.
Earthquakes.
All these things.
This generation will not pass away until they
see these things.
Now, D.A. Carson rightly notes, That this
then would be the only time in all
of the Gospels, That this is an audience
shift now to 2,000 years.
See, anytime Jesus said, this generation, this, you
will see.
You will see.
It always meant right then.
But, now in Matthew 24, when he says,
This generation shall not pass away until you
see all these things.
Now, he's shifting his audience focus, not from
the disciples, But, to us 2,000 years
ago.
And, he makes a good point.
It's the only time that there's an audience
shift.
If you believe that this now pertains to
us, and not back then.
Now, if you look up the word generation,
Of course, it can mean a group of
people.
And, I've heard, you know, people say, Well,
that could mean the generation, you know, not
living, But, that generation of people, meaning the
Jewish race.
And, okay.
But, again, you have to look throughout the
whole Gospel.
So, I hope that makes sense.
Jesus, at the end of all this, is
going to say, That this generation will not
pass away until you see the abomination.
Until you see the earthquakes.
Until you see these signs.
Talking to his people.
So, if he's not talking to those people,
Then, he's shifting to a future audience.
And, that's not clear.
It's not like Jesus saying, Hey, guys.
Here's what's going to happen in about 40
years.
Jerusalem.
Now, many, many generations from now.
We're talking 2,000 years from now.
Here's what's going to start to happen 2
,000 years from now.
He didn't say that.
It was just, here's what's going to happen.
Boom, boom, boom.
Here's the signs to look for.
But, you can also look at the parallels.
Earthquakes in various places.
Well, Anybody know what just happened?
Was it Ecuador?
No, Japan.
But, was it Ecuador?
Ecuador today.
A seven something.
And, I tell this campus, Oh, yeah.
There's always been earthquakes.
Yeah, not that many.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom.
I mean, you set up the one world
government.
You see, Personally, I see that there's a
set up for a one world government.
We're close to that.
The number of the beast.
666 will be something on a hand, on
a forehead.
Will be a thought.
There's a lot of different views.
But, you can see how everything's lining up.
To where earthquakes, wars, famine, all these things,
they're lining up as well.
That's why it's difficult.
That's why I don't jump on this side
and say, All these other people are wrong.
They're heretics.
You're just stupid.
Because, they've got some good points.
And, that's why I'm not on this side
going, Oh, all this, you know.
You're dispensational.
You're rapture.
You listen to Chuck Smith too much.
Or, Jack Hayford.
Or, John MacArthur.
All those good teachers.
Man, there's good teachers.
So, I'm right here.
Like, that's some good points.
But, that's some good points.
You know, the tribulation already passed.
I like that side.
The rapture's coming.
We'll be out of here.
I like this side.
Let's get out of here.
But, see, I have a concern too.
I don't want to tell my kids, Hey,
don't worry about any of this ISIS stuff.
Don't worry.
You're going to be out of here pretty
soon.
Just get back.
You have to prepare your kids for death.
It's a hard statement.
But, you have to prepare your kids for
martyrdom.
This isn't the popular service tonight.
But, it's the truth.
I'm shooting you straight.
I want to prepare my kids.
Say, Hey, here's what could happen.
He could be here.
But, here's what might happen.
And, you prepare them.
That's one bad thing about the raptures.
Persecution to them is not getting a parking
spot.
We're going to be lifted out.
Can I take you to China for a
while?
Or, North Korea?
Or, Pakistan?
Or, God forbid, Iran?
I mean, they're living in literal hell.
Scared of their lives.
ISIS coming in and threatening and beheading and
watching their own kids murdered before their eyes.
It doesn't get worse than that.
So, they're living in hell.
They're living in that tribulation.
But, we're here saying, Oh, the God's going
to take us out here before it gets
really bad.
Well, you should just thank God that it's
not really bad.
Is there any difference in the Christian here
and the Christian there?
Does God love them less?
So, that's why you have to be careful.
That's one thing I did not like about
constantly preaching the raptures.
We're going to be out of here as
soon as it gets a little tough.
You just kick back.
And then, you prepare some wimpy Christians.
They're like, we're supposed to be out of
here.
The ACLU and all these groups come to
take Christ out of Christmas.
You've got to take Christians out of school.
And, they're so wimpy.
We should be able to hold the line
and say, Nope, not on our watch.
My Lord and Savior said do business until
he returns.
Until he returns.
I'm going to say grown men should not
share bathrooms with girls.
I don't care if you're North Carolina or
South Carolina or Alaska.
That's wrong.
So, the church should be that voice of
reasoning.
We need to stop murdering millions of babies.
We need to stop ordaining gay clergy.
This is wrong.
Stand up church.
Stand up.
But, we've come back in that wimpy mindset.
The rapture's coming.
God's coming.
Just sit back and drink Kool-Aid.
I don't want to fight these battles.
Well, you better fight them because they're coming.
How do you fight them?
By prayer.
If I could get this whole church to
go on a 30-day fast, how about
a five-day fast?
And, I'll make it easy.
Just juice.
No, that's real hard.
Well, you're getting nutrients.
I know some people can't.
But, see, that's where the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal.
I'm not going to stand in Washington, D
.C. with John 3.16 and probably make
as big a difference as I am on
my knees fasting, reading John 3.16 and
asking God to intervene.
God's got to intervene, folks.
This is not good.
This is not a good direction.
When Bruce Springsteen and these other guys have
the audacity to say, well, I'm not going
to North Carolina because they're not pushing, they're
protecting children.
Let's pass all kinds of, men can go
over where they want, women can go over
where they want.
That's perversion.
There's a word for that.
It's called pervert.
That's what it is.
You're perverting.
Perverting is you take something that's straight and
the truth and you realign it.
You pervert the natural course that God.
That's perversion.
It's not discrimination.
It's perversion.
And the church needs to stand up.
The church needs to be a voice, a
beacon of light pointing people back to the
truth.
If I could get more pulpits saying the
same thing, you might upset some senators and
say, you know, we better listen to the
church.
They're right about this.
No, just be quiet.
Separation of church and state.
Be quiet.
Church shouldn't say anything.
No, just be quiet.
Go back to sleep.
Remember, that's the big thing right now, separation
of church and state.
And you saw God's Not Dead Part II.
They were right on the money.
It's not in the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson was writing a private letter to
the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut.
And he said, don't worry, Baptist.
There's not going to be just a Baptist
denomination.
There will be a wall of separation between
the church and the state.
So there won't just be one denomination ruling
and reigning.
They wanted worship everywhere.
So they take that little thing, and then
of course Congress shall make no law respecting
the establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free
exercise thereof.
The exercise clause, the establishment clause, all these
things, it's garbage.
It's a smoke screen.
All those things were written so that the
government would not get involved.
Not get involved.
They would stay out of it and let
the church be the conscience of the nation.
They shall make no law respecting the establishment
of religion nor the free exercise thereof.
What are they doing?
They are preventing the free exercise thereof.
So the very thing that was designed to
protect the church is now destroying her.
Why?
Because the pulpit is silent.
That's why.
I don't know.
That's just enough to...
We need to be praying and fasting more
and worshiping.
Those are serious issues.
By the sheer grace of God, a nuclear
bomb has not been detonated in L.A.
or New York.
But it's sheer grace.
Verse 4, Jesus answered and said to them,
Take heed that no one deceives you.
No one deceives you.
How does a person deceive you?
You get away from this.
If you know this, you will not be
deceived.
Let me add to this.
If you obey this, you will not be
deceived.
You want to talk about irony.
Remember the young mom I've been talking about
for the past six years who left her
husband and two small kids and says, I
know what the Bible says, but God just
wants me to be happy.
Well, guess who we got an email from
two days ago.
Now is life's falling apart if I would
have just obeyed God's law, if I would
have just stayed in that shelter, if I
would have just stayed in those boundaries, if
I would have just obeyed it, I would
not be living in this misery.
That's deception.
Why was she deceived?
Because she got away.
For any time you get away from this,
you live in deception.
So Jesus says, do not be deceived.
Don't let anybody deceive you.
For many will come in my name and
saying, I am the Christ.
These people crack me up.
You can Google people who think they're the
Christ and they've got followers.
He wears white.
I think he lives in Florida.
He's got all these followers.
I'm like, when Jesus comes, you're not going
to be able to conduct business as usual.
Life is over.
The master is here.
The Lord ruling and reigning.
Every knee will bow and every tongue confess.
Don't go running here and running there.
When he comes, it's like lightning coming across
the sky.
It's crystal clear.
But people are deceived because they're not into
the word of God.
They're just gullible.
For many will come in my name saying,
I am the Christ and will deceive many.
How are these people usually deceiving them?
This guy is living in a nice mansion
in Florida and that's what their gain is.
Listen, if anybody has to say, I'll do
ministry, but I charge a certain fee.
Be careful.
I'll cast out your demon for $1,000.
What?
Or I'll, come follow me.
It costs about $10,000 a month.
And you pray on those things because that's
why people deceive.
There's always an ulterior motive.
Nobody deceives without an ulterior motive.
That's why you can look at the Christian
faith and say, that's pure, that's noble, that's
right, because the deception is nothing.
It's come to know Christ.
What's in it for you, Shane?
Not a thing.
But you'd have eternal life.
You'd have a relationship with God.
You don't get anything from this?
No.
I don't care.
I mean, I do care, but there's not
an ulterior motive.
Even those people knocking at your door, do
you know they're asked by others, how many
people did you convert this week?
There's stats.
Mormon, Jehovah Witness, because some of you are
like, what?
They have to report back to their bishops.
How many did you talk to?
How many did you convert?
How many said the prayer?
There's even denominations, and I would encourage them
to get away from that, where they send
in their tallies each month.
How many conversions?
How many baptisms?
Because what happens is, that doesn't look too
good.
Let's say we had 20.
We baptized five.
We don't want to say zero.
I mean, so you're altering numbers, and that's
what would happen.
These false Christs would deceive people, because of
ulterior motives, and you can just gauge somebody,
gauge something by their motives.
What are their motives?
And you will hear of wars, and rumors
of wars.
See that you are not troubled, for all
these things must come to pass, but the
end is not yet.
I think that's a good note for us
as well.
You're going to hear of wars, and rumors
of wars.
Think about how much they heard about it.
You would hear somebody come running in, I
just came back from Damascus, and it's an
uproar, and people get worried.
They didn't have Fox News, CNN, Drudge Report,
Buffington Post, all these things inundating us all
the time.
That's why I talk about it.
You don't need to know what's going on
in 14 different areas, and 42 different wars,
and the sky is falling.
We weren't created to receive all that negative
energy, negative news, I'm talking like New Age
now.
You weren't created to have all that negative
news, because you don't even have a spirit
of fear, but we foster that.
So Jesus said, when you hear of these
things, don't be troubled.
Don't be troubled, it will come to pass.
And it's a mindset, it's a war in
our mind, we have to think, because sometimes,
sometimes I feel like I could just, I
don't, ISIS, okay, what do I feel?
I don't feel anything, I'm immediately with Jesus.
How's that a bad thing?
But there's other days where you're scared, you're
scared like, oh, for my family, and you
live in this fear, and then you make
those thoughts captive, and you bring it back,
and there's this war going on.
Jesus says that don't be scared.
Don't be fearful of these things, it must
happen.
It must happen.
One example that I came across was a
prophetic expectation in 1846 with William Miller in
the United States.
Because of his calculations and publications, there were
hundreds of thousands in the United States who
were convinced that Jesus would return in 1846.
When he did not, there was a great
disappointment with some falling away and some cultic
groups that had spawned up from this prophetic
wrong outlook on life.
So we have to be careful.
The great deception, and let's end on that
point, the great deception.
There's two points just this week to concentrate
on.
Not taking the Bible literally.
Not taking this literally and living as if
it's truth, because it is.
And people, you will not be deceived if
you're in this, if you're in the Word
and the Word is in you and you're
obeying the Word, you won't be deceived.
It's when we get away from this that
deception comes in.
And the last area of deception is many
people are not ready for His return.
Many people are not ready.
He's coming back.
I'm as sure as I am of that
sun coming up tomorrow morning, that He is
coming back.
People are just not prepared.
They're not ready.
He said, as in the days of Noah,
so will be when the Son of Man
comes.
You'll be eating, you'll be drinking, you'll be
marrying, and that day will come upon you
unexpectedly.
So I don't know where you're at with
God, but don't let it come upon you
unexpectedly.
All you have to say is, Lord, I'm
not ready.
I'm not ready and I need to be
ready.
I'm confessing with my mouth that Christ is
Lord.
I'm believing in my heart that You saved
me.
He rose from the dead and I'm surrendering
my life to You.
I'm ready for Your return.
Now also though, Jesus says, don't let your
life be weighed down with drunkenness, carousing, and
the cares of this life.
And that day will come upon you unexpectedly.
And I sometimes have a concern for Christians
who are not living for Christ.
He's a back burner.
He's not even on the stove.
He says, oh yeah, I go to church
on Sunday.
But He says, please don't let that day
come upon you unexpectedly.
People say, well, would they lose their salvation?
Would this happen?
All I know is when Jesus says, don't
let that day come upon you unexpectedly, it
means you need to be prepared.
Get your life in such a way.
Shane, I can't overcome this addiction.
Shane, I don't have a love for God
and His Word.
Shane, what's wrong with me?
What's wrong with you is the flesh has
taken residence in your home, in your heart.
And you need to repent to that.
You say, God, give me the desire.
Give me the willingness.
Give me the love for Your Word and
for truth so I can follow You all
the days of my life.