From His Heart

Jeff Schreve: So the good news is all the horrible things that we're reading about from the lips of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24, you can miss all of them if you're genuine and true, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone.

But listen, if you're a pretender, if you're a make-believer—you know, there are believers and there are make-believers. There are those who say, "Oh, yeah, I kind of believe that. I think I'm good. Are you a Christian? I think I am." If you have that kind of a hope-so, maybe-so, guess-so salvation, you're going to miss the rapture.

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today for the second message in Pastor Jeff's new nine-lesson series, When the Son of Man Comes: A Study of Matthew chapter 24 and 25, as Jesus explains end-time prophecy.

Now, in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us about something that sets the tone for what we know as the tribulation period. It's also known as the abomination of desolation, and that is the title of today's lesson on From His Heart. This nine-message series is our special thanks gift for your support this month. You can find out more when you go to fromhisheart.org and make that gift of any amount. Right now, open your copy of the Word of God to Matthew chapter 24 and Pastor Jeff with part two of the lesson, The Abomination of Desolation.

Jeff Schreve: In Matthew 24 verse 15, Jesus tells us about something that is so significant and really sets the tone for what we know as the tribulation period. He says this in verse 15: "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)." So today, we want to talk about what that is and why that is so significant.

There are three insights to help us understand the abomination of desolation and its significance. Insight number one: the tribulation period is a period of seven years. Where does that come from? It comes from the book of Daniel. In Daniel chapter nine, Daniel was given a vision of the future. In Daniel 9:24, this is what was told to him: "70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city." This is for the Jews and Jerusalem. "To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place."

All that's going to take place in 70 weeks. Now, when we think of a week, we think of a week of days, but that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about 70 sevens, and he's not talking about a week of days; he's talking about a week of years. So 70 sevens, and those are years. 490 years have been decreed for your people and your holy city. You have 70 weeks that are decreed for God's people. 69 weeks have passed, 483 years.

There's one last week. It seems like this would all be consecutive, but it's not. There's a break from 483 prophetic years about Israel, then there's a break. Many theologians look at that break and say that's the age of the church. That's the age we're in now. When that age ends, then will come the 70th week. This period will experience the reign of the Antichrist. This period will experience terrible, horrible, awful things. Jesus said if those days had not been cut short, everyone would die.

Eight billion people in the world—can you imagine in a period of seven years that everyone would die? Really, the concentrated deaths would be in the last half, that great tribulation period. It's going to be awful beyond anything you could possibly imagine, beyond anything Hollywood could ever produce in a movie. The Bible calls this the time of Jacob's trouble. It's a time when God pours out His wrath on a disbelieving, Christ-rejecting, God-hating world.

There are seven seals of wrath, seven trumpets of wrath, seven bowls of wrath. The wrath that's coming from God and the wrath that's going to come against believers from the beast—it's hell on earth. It is worse than anything we could possibly imagine.

So the tribulation period is a period of seven years. Second insight: the great tribulation is a period of three and a half years. It's the last half of that seven-year period. Jesus called it the great tribulation. He said that after this thing called the abomination of desolation, verse 21, "for there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will."

What is the great tribulation? Well, the Antichrist is going to make a covenant with Israel for a week, for seven years. A seven-year treaty, and Israel is going to be secure in the land because the Antichrist is going to be supporting them. He's going to be taking care of them. They're going to be saying peace and safety, all is well, because the Antichrist—they're going to think he is their Messiah.

But in the middle of the week, Daniel says this: in the middle of the week, what does he do? He breaks the covenant. It says in Daniel 9:27, "And he will make a firm covenant with the many (speaking of the Jews) for one week. But in the middle of the week, at the three and a half year part, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."

The abomination of desolation—that speaks of the Antichrist. He's going to set up an image of himself, and the false prophet does this, sets up an image to the beast in the temple and says everybody has to worship the image. Kind of like what Nebuchadnezzar did in Daniel chapter three. If you don't worship the image, then you die. So the Antichrist will have a false resurrection and he will defile the temple and claim to be God.

That's what the abomination of desolation is. He'll demand to be worshipped, and he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. He provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

The Antichrist, once he sets himself up and once he breaks that covenant, that's called the great tribulation. That is widespread. That is when everything really comes down hard. That is what Jesus said; if those days, those three and a half years had not been cut short, everybody would die. If you figure eight billion people in the world, at the end of it all because the Lord does cut those days short for the sake of the elect, you probably have after everything is said and done less than two billion people left on planet Earth. In those seven years, and most of them in the last three and a half, six billion people die. It's awful. It's beyond anything that you can imagine.

But he sets up this image, and the false prophet is saying, "Hey, worship the beast," and everybody's saying, "Who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him?" I mean, he was dead and now he's come back to life. But there will be Christians. Not us, we're going to get raptured out of here, but there are those who get saved during the tribulation period. They're not going to worship the beast. They're going to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. "Hey, Nebuchadnezzar, we're not going to bow before your image."

Well, what did Nebuchadnezzar say? "You don't bow before my image, I'm going to throw you in a furnace of blazing fire, and what god is there who's able to deliver you from my hand?" Well, God does not appear to be delivering anybody during the time of the tribulation. So if the Antichrist comes after you, you're going to die. That's why Jesus said, "When you see this, when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place," he sets up the image there. What do you do? You get out of there as fast as you can. You flee from Judea. Don't go back to your house to get your belongings. You just run because if you don't, you will die.

He says woe to those who have little babies in that time period because it's going to make it very, very difficult for you, and pray that it not be on a Sabbath. Because on a Sabbath, they could only go so far on a Sabbath day's journey. This is very Jewish. He's talking to Jews, future Jews; he's talking about Jews, Jerusalem, and Judea. It's going to be awful. If you don't get the mark of the beast on your right hand or on your forehead, then you can't buy or sell.

Larry Nobles: You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today and the message, The Abomination of Desolation. He'll return in just a moment with the conclusion to this eye-opening lesson from the series When the Son of Man Comes: A Study of Matthew chapter 24 and 25.

Here's the question of all questions for us all: are you preparing for the return of Christ with urgency and truth? In Pastor Jeff's new nine-lesson series we're airing this month called When the Son of Man Comes, he unpacks Matthew chapter 24 and 25 and Jesus's most detailed teaching about the end times.

The truth is, as we step into 2026, this message could not be more timely or relevant for the generations that are alive and breathing on this planet now. Through your support, From His Heart proclaims the uncompromising truth of God's Word to a world that is desperate for answers.

To say thank you for your gift of support this month, we'd like to send you this new dynamic series called When the Son of Man Comes: A Study of Matthew 24 and 25. You can get it on CDs, USB flash drive, DVDs, or digital download, and you can request it when you make that gift of any amount by calling 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go online to fromhisheart.org.

Thank you so very much for your generosity as we begin a new year with new hope to share our core message, proclaiming biblical truth in a world of deception and helping others hear God's truth before it's too late. Now let's conclude today's lesson, The Abomination of Desolation.

Jeff Schreve: People think this weird thought that if I miss the rapture, then for sure I'll get saved, I'll just get saved during the tribulation. Be careful about thinking like that. It will cost you your very life to be saved during the tribulation because the Antichrist is coming after you if you don't worship him and if you don't get his mark.

That is people's definitive decision at that point. If they get the mark of the beast—some say, "Well, I'll get the mark, you know, I'm just kind of trying to go along to get along and so it's not going to be that bad of a deal." If you get the mark of the beast, you will go to hell. I'm not making that up. That's what the Bible says, Revelation chapter 14 verse 9: "Then another angel, a third one followed them saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.'"

It's pretty clear. You get the mark, you lose your soul forever and ever and ever. You're going to spend forever in eternity in hell. You don't get the mark, you're going to live like a wild animal. You can't buy, you can't sell. The Antichrist and his forces are going to be hunting you down. You're going to have to be scrounging out of the garbage cans. So many will be killed. There will be very few that will be saved. Jesus said for the sake of the elect, He's going to cut that short, literally to chop off a limb like you would on a tree. You just cut that off so it wouldn't keep going; otherwise, everybody would be dead.

That's the tribulation period, seven years. The great tribulation period, three and a half years. That's what the Bible really focuses in on, and in Revelation chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13, we read about three and a half years. 1,260 days. It mentions it three different times. That's the time period, and the Lord lets the devil act in his vicious, beast-like ways for three and a half years.

Now, you also have, in addition to what the beast is doing, you have God who's pouring out His wrath. As I told you, when He breaks the sixth seal, there's an earthquake, and the sky rolls up like a scroll, and the people are hiding in the caves and the mountains, and they're saying, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand?" So you have things above you coming down on your head; you have the beast coming at you this way. It's beyond awful.

Well, let me give you insight number three: there's the great tribulation, but there's the great news that you can miss all of this. We can read about it, we can know that it's coming, and we don't have to experience a skinny minute of it because God hasn't destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (First Thessalonians chapter five verse nine). He doesn't want us to go through any of this.

So you have what the Bible calls the snatching away of the saints. First Thessalonians chapter four is the classic rapture passage talking about the snatching away. We get the word rapture from the snatching away. It's talked about in John 14, it's talked about in First Corinthians chapter 15: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (the last trump for the church), for the dead in Christ will rise and we who are alive on the earth will be caught up together with them in the air, and so we'll meet the Lord in the air and so shall we always be with the Lord."

True believers will be raptured before the tribulation. So what are we waiting on? We're waiting on the rapture of the church. We're waiting on the Lord to come back. It's a sign-less event, the rapture of the church. It could happen today. So we're waiting for that. We're looking. Our citizenship, Philippians three says, "for our citizenship is in heaven from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory through the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself."

As Paul says in First Corinthians 15, this mortal must put on immortality and this perishable must put on the imperishable. We have to be changed so we are fit for heaven, and we are waiting for the rapture of the church. True believers will be taken to the Father's house.

Remember, that's what Jesus said was going to happen. He told the disciples on the night He was betrayed, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places, many apartments." This idea that you have a mansion down the street, you don't. We're all part—we're all going to be in the Lord's house. "In My Father's house are many dwelling places, if it were not so I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also."

Now, if you don't have a rapture in your end-times theology, in your eschatology (eschatology means end times), well, then when do we go to the Father's house? If Jesus just comes back and we're just waiting for the Lord to come back—He comes back at the end of the tribulation—and people say, "Well, then you're raptured then and, you know, he's coming down and we go up, we meet him in the clouds, and then he comes down," and it's just like, "I was already here. I could have—you could have come to me, but I came to you so we could go together."

People think that, and then we're put into our glorified bodies. Here's the big problem with that if you're a post-rapture person. There's pre-millennial, pre-tribulation rapture, mid-tribulation rapture—people say Jesus comes back at the midpoint, He comes back right before the great tribulation. No. And then others say He comes back post-tribulation; that's at the end of it all.

Here's the problem with that: if everybody who was a believer was raptured at the end of the tribulation where Jesus comes back to fight the devil at the battle of Armageddon, then we'd all be glorified, and there would be no people to populate the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year reign of Jesus. We know people are born during the millennial kingdom. Once you're glorified, you're not having kids. We become like the angels in heaven, Jesus said. You don't have children.

So it doesn't work. The midpoint doesn't seem to work in my mind because once it starts, that's God pouring out His wrath. The first seal, second seal, third seal and on till you get to the trumpets and bowls of judgment. That's God pouring out His wrath.

So it makes more sense to understand that the Lord takes us out of this before it ever begins. So the good news is all the horrible things that we're reading about from the lips of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24, you can miss all of them if you're genuine and true, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone.

But listen, if you're a pretender, if you're a make-believer—you know, there are believers and there are make-believers. There are those who say, "Oh, yeah, I kind of believe that. I think I'm good. Are you a Christian? I think I am." If you have that kind of a hope-so, maybe-so, guess-so salvation, you're going to miss the rapture.

It's for true believers. It's for those who know that they've given their heart and life to Jesus. Do you know you've done that? If you haven't done that, this is your future. You're going to experience all those things and you're probably going to die during the tribulation.

Let me tell you, if you won't get saved now when it's easy, relatively easy to get saved because you come forward in this service, people will cheer you. In that day, you say, "Well, I'll wait and then if I see all these things take place, then I'll know it's true and then I'll become a Christian." You'll become a Christian, sure; you're going to get killed for being a Christian. It'll be so hard to be a Christian during the tribulation period.

So the Lord says, "Come, come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light." You can come to Jesus and you can come today and you can miss all of the abomination of desolation.

Larry Nobles: That's not a truth you should gloss over. If you've never come to know Christ personally—meaning that you've never put your faith and trust in Christ alone, surrendered your heart and soul to Him—then today is the day for you to say, "Jesus, have mercy on me, forgive my sin and save me. I want to live for You from this day forward. I'm trusting You with my life forever and ever. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."

If that is the essence of your heartfelt response, you're now a child of God and nothing can take you from His hand. We'd like to invite you to go to fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link for guidance in your new walk with the Lord. If you can, let us know this decision so we can rejoice with you. God bless you as you begin your new journey with Christ.

Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, reminding you that we are a listener-supported broadcast ministry for Dr. Jeff Schreve with a driving ambition to speak the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Be with us next time as Pastor Jeff shares the third message in this new nine-message series, When the Son of Man Comes. Make sure you're with us then as Pastor Jeff opens God's Word and shares real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.