Secrets Unsealed

What Jesus Said

Stephen Bohr

1. The Word of God

2. The Unconditional Love of God

3. How Jesus Understood His Self Identity

4. Good and Evil

5. Moses and Jesus

6. Overcoming Life’s Mistakes

7. How to Pray

8. Family Values

9. Relief From Stress

10. History’s Greatest Hoax

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

12. Life and Death

13. Peace in the Middle East

14. The Rapture of the Saints

15. The Final Judgment

16. The End of Evil

17. The Secrets of Health and Wealth

18. The Return of Elijah

19. Religion and Politics

20. The Abomination of Desolation

21. The Unpardonable Sin

22. Prophets and Psychics

Now tonight we have a very important lecture, the abomination of desolation.

And before we get into our study, I'd like to just say something.

How many of you know that little song, Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so?

Is that the type of song that we sing in the worship service?

You would expect that adults are a little more developed and they can sing something more sophisticated.

It requires dedication, time, digging, searching.

It's not enough just to come to church and have a good time and you know have our emotions satisfied.

As Christians, God expects us to be giants in the Word.

That's what we've been trying to do here.

You know, I could come and have a story hour here, but there are people who can tell stories a lot better than I can.

And so we want to come and we want to open God's book, and we want our intellect to be challenged, not only our heart to be touched, but we want our intellect to be challenged as well.

This series is on the Gospels and the Book of Acts And so as you look at your list of texts, you're probably wondering why there are so many texts from Ezekiel at the beginning and why we have so many texts from Revelation at the end, if we're dealing with the Gospels in the book of Acts.

Well, The fact is that the very heart of our presentation has to do with the Gospels, but we have to understand a sequence of events in the Old Testament in order to understand that heart of our message, and We also need to go to the book of Revelation to understand the final fulfillment of that heart that we're going to study in our presentation tonight.

So we must go back, first of all, to the Old Testament, which is the foundation of the New Testament.

Go with me to the book of Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 30 and also verse 35.

Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 30 and also verse 35.

Here God is speaking to Israel, his chosen people, interestingly enough.

No less than 23 times in this chapter, God calls Israel a harlot.

Notice what it says in chapter 16 and verse 30.

I'm only going to read a couple of representative texts.

God says, how degenerate is your heart, says the Lord God, seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Notice also verse 35, now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord.

How could God address Israel, his chosen people, more than 23 times in Ezekiel 16, and that's not counting Jeremiah and also Ezekiel 23 where it's used several more times, how could God address his people with a name such as this, calling his people a harlot?

Well, if you read Ezekiel 16, you're going to discover that the reason why God calls Israel a harlot is because they have mixed with the kings of the nations and they have assimilated the practices and the teachings of the nations that surrounded them.

And so Israel is mixing with the kings of the nations and she has assimilated the false teachings and practices of the surrounding nations.

That's the reason why God calls them a harlot of all things.

Now I want you to notice that this harlot is described as being garbed in a very special way.

Go with me to Ezekiel 16 and verses 16 and 17.

I don't want you to get distracted even for a minute because in Revelation we're going to come back to all of this and in Matthew we're also going to come back to it.

Verse 16 says, You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself and played the harlot on them.

You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from my gold and my silver which I had given you and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them." Notice they've taken the jewelry, the gold, and the silver.

Actually, in Ezekiel 23, the garb or the dress of this harlot is described in vivid detail.

Now, I want you to notice that Israel had adopted and assimilated, as I mentioned, all kinds of abominable doctrines and practices from the surrounding nations.

I'd like to go to Ezekiel chapter 8, and I want to read 1 particular verse which describes the worst abomination of all of the abominations that Israel had adopted from the surrounding pagan nations.

Now Ezekiel chapter 8 is known as the abominations chapter, And the reason is that God shows Ezekiel an abomination which is being committed among God's people and Ezekiel thinks to himself, oh, this is terrible.

But God says, you haven't seen anything yet.

I'm going to show you an abomination that is worse than that." And so then God shows him a worse abomination.

He says, this is terrible, God says, you haven't seen anything yet.

I'm going to show you an abomination which is worse even than this 1.

And the list of abominations culminates with the greatest abomination of all.

It's found in Ezekiel chapter 8 and verse 16.

So he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house.

And there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they were worshiping the Sun toward the east.

The greatest abomination in this chapter is that God's professed people, those who profess to serve the true and the living God, according to this, are worshiping what?

And I want you to notice that God promises, as a result, to come in judgment against Israel.

Let's read chapter 7 and verses 1 and 2 and discover where that judgment is going to come from because they're practicing these abominations, these doctrines and practices that have come from the nations, the worst of which is worshiping the Son.

Where is the punishment going to come from?

Notice Ezekiel chapter 7 and verse 1, Moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying, and you son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, an end, the end has come upon what?

Upon the 4 corners of the land because of the abominations that they are committing.

And I want you to notice that there's not going to be any mercy.

Notice once again chapter 8 and verse 17.

Then he said to me, have you seen this O son of man?

Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here?

For they have filled the land with violence, then they have returned to provoke me to anger.

Indeed they put the branch to their nose.

My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity.

And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." Now in Ezekiel chapter 23, this is described, this wrath of God is described in a very interesting fashion.

God is going to give Israel something to drink, which is really an indication of his wrath.

Notice Ezekiel chapter 23 and verses 33 and 34.

God's wrath is given to Israel from a cup, the cup of the fierceness of God's wrath.

It says in verse 33, you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria.

You shall break its shards and tear at your own breasts, for I have spoken, says the Lord God." In other words, God says, You are going to drink the cup of my wrath and my fury because of the abominations that you are committing in Israel.

Now it's interesting to notice as you read the book of Ezekiel that because of these abominations God actually comes to Jerusalem to perform a work of judgment before the city is destroyed.

Do you remember that in 1 of our lectures, when we talked about Jesus' concept of the judgment, that we said that the judgment takes place before Jesus comes, and the purpose is to separate the righteous from the wicked so that Jesus can take his righteous people home and give them the reward when he comes.

Here we find another biblical example that judgment and separation takes place before destruction.

In fact, in Ezekiel chapter 1, we have that very exotic scene where the Bible tells us that God comes in this cosmic chariot-like vehicle.

It has wheels, like wheels within a wheel, and the wheels are full of eyes, and there's lightning bolts coming out of it, and there's a throne, and there's 1 seated on the throne, and above the throne, There's a beautiful rainbow.

And some people say, man, this must be some kind of UFO or something.

Well, it's speaking in symbolic language, folks.

This is symbolic of the fact that God is descending from heaven, if you read carefully, and he's coming down to the Jerusalem Temple.

And what is he going to do in the Jerusalem Temple?

Destruction is coming from the 4 corners because of their abominations.

But The question is, is everybody in the city committing the abominations of the nations?

Is everybody in the city practicing what the nations have given to Israel in the form of apostasy?

Must those individuals be separated from the wicked before the wicked are destroyed?

And that's why God comes in Ezekiel chapter 1 to perform a work of separation.

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Series

What Jesus Said

20. The Abomination of Desolation

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

God is Love?

09-God’s Signature

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Apologetics

Defending the Sabbath

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What Jesus Said

10. History’s Greatest Hoax

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Prophecies of Hope

8. The Topic that Satan Hates

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Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

10 The Repairers of the Breach

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There is Hope

A Second Look at The First Day

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War of Thrones

Finding Rest in Today’s Society

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Prophecy Made Simple

14. The Mystery of Babylon the Great

1h 17m

The Hidden Truth: Sunday Worship vs. The Biblical Sabbath

1h 15m

Revelation Today Crusade

12. Antichrist’s Greatest Deception

53m

Sound Doctrine