compared to some that we have been looking at recently. But I think the two parables or the two stories that the Lord relates here do go together well to exhort us to be ready and waiting for the Lord's return. We will begin reading from verse 36. Our Savior says, But of that day and hour knoweth no man. No, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. But, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord belayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour of teeth. Now let us pray. Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we have read together this evening. We pray that that was to open the eyes of our understanding to receive these words to understand them and to have them applied unto our hearts by the power of Thy Holy Spirit. Undertake for the preaching of Thy Word. Bless our souls, Lord, until we pray that we may hunger and thirst after righteousness and receive of Thee the living bread and the living water, for the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. how much can the Lord tell us about the things we don't know the details of and yet he is very, expands at some length, explains at some length this idea that not only is he coming again, he's certainly coming again, but we must be hour, verse 36, but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. So he specifically tells us no man knows the hour. And again, we ought to be alarmed and we ought to be upset at people who set dates and who decide that the Lord is going to come even in a span of five years. How many people said 15 years ago that the Lord is coming within 5 years? How many people said that? These men are evil. They want your money. They want your attention. They want fame. I don't know what they want. But I know that they don't want the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus said, no man knows the day or the hour. Even to say that we're going to come within five years. There comes a time when you don't think He's going to come. When people generally are not ready He's going to come. It's going to be a very sudden time. In verse 32, he records these words of the Lord Jesus. Mark 13, 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, neither the Son, but the Father. Jesus didn't know when he was coming back. He was content not to know. He did gather his disciples and said, you know, I think we can figure this out, O son of God, I think we can figure this out. And he was content not to know. And he taught his disciples to be ready. And that is the key, to be ready and waiting. Now let me just mention Christ to a merely human level. How could Jesus not know something? But he was content in his humanity. Remember, the Lord had two natures. And he had a human nature that was limited. And he agreed that while he was in his state of humanity, that there was something sins were revealed to him when he ascended to the Lord. So is there a lot to learn from the Lord Jesus about not knowing everything, even in our limited capacity? So we know that something wonderful is going to happen. We know that our blessed Savior, what a joyful thought to think as we did this morning, the God could be shed so that we would have the day of our salvation, so that we wouldn't have to repeat the day of atonement year after year, that all of that is finished and complete. So that blessed Savior who loved us, and isn't it wonderful to be loved when you're not worthy of love? Isn't it wonderful to think that I'm in the sight of God, nothing but a vile sinner, I'm only and to place the love of Christ upon me, to deliver me from my sins, and to love me. I mean, I'm amazed often that my wife loves me, but I'm much more amazed that God loves me, that God, who sees me and knows me, knows me better than I do, and still He loves me, and abides in His love, and how it is so precious to read things like Psalm 106, and just grieve at the fool something wonderful is going to happen, and that's the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, whom we pierced with our sins. We're going to behold Him, and we're going to receive Him. We just don't know when. And because of our frailty, because of our weakness, we do get tired of waiting. Let's be honest, we do get tired of waiting. And we just wonder, is it going to happen? It hasn't happened for so long. And, you know, you can only wake up so often with a great expectation of the return of the Lord, and it doesn't happen. Maybe that Noah was working on the ark, I don't know if it took him that long. But many years, he didn't have all the modern technology that we have today. But that doesn't mean he was any, he was certainly smarter than any of the engineers of today, but he was also diligent to do what God commanded him to do. So he just labored, just labored. And it would be a strange thing, middle of the dry land, building not just a boat, but a huge boat, an immense boat. And we can only imagine the mockery that Noah was subject to. Come on, Noah, what were you building? You're building an ark. Well, why? Because God told me to. Well, why did he tell you to? Because so much water is going to come upon the earth. that it's going to flood the entire world. And you're all going to be drowned if you don't come into this ark. This is the only place of refuge. This is the only place where you're going to be secure. and larger and larger and he's building rooms inside of this ark. Every nail that he pounded into that ark was a sermon, wasn't it? It was a sermon calling people to repentance. I'm building this ark because the day is coming. And so there was the work of Noah, but what does Jesus say about this in the first place? He said, think about the people that were all around. Everyone is going to live just like they've always been living. There's nothing wrong with those activities. But they're just going on with their normal routine as if the flood is not going to happen. And one day goes by, two days, three weeks, six months, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years, 100 years, and nothing happens. Well, we're just going to keep on our regular routine, eating and drinking, marrying, giving and marrying. to multiply the evil and the iniquity against the whole. And don't you think they should have been a little bit concerned when all the animals came up two by two? The unclean and the clean animals, all marching up. They should have said, well, maybe there's something to this, but nobody thought that. Nobody thought that until the day that Noah entered the ark. What happened then? God closed that door and nobody else could come in anymore. That was the final judgment. The rain comes up and starts filling the lakes and starts filling the rivers and they overflow. After a little while, I have no idea how long all that rain took to rise up. Eventually, their homes are flooded. Eventually, it comes up to their waist. It comes up to their shoulder. They're climbing up on the roof of their houses. They're climbing up on the mountain tops. They're trying to get away from the rain that's coming down. He said, we believe you now. But no God had closed the door of that ark. And it was too late. And they couldn't get in. They didn't believe. When Noah, the faithful servant of the Lord, warned against this coming judgment, they wouldn't believe. And not only did they not believe, they would have locked him. And it was too late. There was no way that they could even cling to the sides of the ark if they could get to the top. There is no provision for that. And they all would have drowned in that. That's exactly what God says happened. Jesus says, and makes a parallel here then to, doesn't mean to the gospel ministry, not specifically, by water in the judgment of the Lord. That will never happen again. We have a rainbow to remind us of that. And how wickedly that rainbow has been perverted by the ungodly to apparently show what they call the gay movement. It's not gay at all, but they take away this covenant sign, they take away a word. You can always tell when you've written, when you're reading a book that's a hundred or more years old, will never again cover the world with water by a flood. It's never going to happen. But it's also a warning that there will be a judgment coming, a judgment of fire, a judgment of condemnation, a judgment that will separate the sheep from the goats and the good from the evil. In faithful gospel, when ministers mourn of Christ's coming, There will be no saying, you should have listened. You made a big mistake. Will you give us another 10 minutes? And Jesus will say, no, you had the warnings. The warnings were there. You should have listened to them. So the world says, why not live a good life? Why don't you enjoy things? Just kick back a little bit. Why are you so strict in your lifestyle? Why are you so interested in holiness? avoiding sinfulness and temptations. And isn't your response that Jesus is coming to judge sin and to judge sinners? And Christ is coming in judgment. And Christians say one day it's going to be too late to respond. And it's going to be sudden in the sense that that door to the ark was closed, it was shut, and never to be opened again. That was very sudden. The water rising was not so very sudden, but the end was very sudden. No one entered, no one left the ark when that door was closed. And Jesus says it's going to be a great separation. They, verse 39, they knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then, verse 40, then shall be two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding in the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. There's gonna be a separation. and the other one's going to be left. There's going to be that great separation. It's going to be very, very vivid. And they're going to realize that they should have heard the words of warning. So there is the Lord's exhortation. And be ready, because my coming is going to be sudden. I've given you the warning signs, and the signs in the church, a true Christian, that Christ is coming, and the coming could be very soon. Two thousand years, and we're still waiting, but we ought to still be waiting. So he says, be ready, be ready, the same way that the people surrounding Noah should have been ready, and the second part, be waiting, verses 42 to 51. Be ready and be waiting. Watch therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ says in verse 42, watch therefore, for he know not what hour your Lord doth come. So the reason to be watchful is because you do not know. And then he proceeds to give us the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. So the word literally here when you're not going, or when you aren't going to be sleeping. And so that's the time that he kind of figures out what is going to be the opportune time. So the faithful householder watches at all times. And if your home was vulnerable, he'd try to shore up those vulnerabilities. So the faithful householder is always watchful. It could happen at any time. So we're to be ready in the same way. So this is not to compare our Savior to a thief, but it is to compare his coming with more when he cometh shall find so believe." So he's going to come in a time when he is least expected. And this is speaking more probably to the people who are professors of faith, not genuine Christians. They just kind of have lost hope. They've given up waiting. They've given up that sense of readiness. He'll come in such an hour as he did not. And then he talks about the evil servant who thinks he has time because nothing has happened. My Lord delays his coming. I've been ready and waiting. He should be coming any time. He hasn't come. He hasn't come for a week. He hasn't come for a month. about his coming. And soon he begins to live a dissolute life. So I want to just turn for a moment to 2 Peter chapter 3, with you 2 Peter chapter 3, and this is something that we often think of, I trust that you do, I know that I do, when we think you've seen visions, you've gathered on hilltops, you've had date-setters, and nothing's ever happened. Where is the promise that is coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. So everything goes on, we're eating and drinking, we're marrying and giving in marriage, so what's that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. And this is a very good verse for those who don't think, some Christians who don't think that the entire world was covered by water. This says it was a global flood. It says whereby the world that then ungodly men. So Peter says, he makes the same connection that the Lord Jesus does in Matthew 24, doesn't he? He says, think about the flood. See the connection with the flood. So they would have mocked Noah and his sons as they were building that ark. Peter makes that same connection. So beloved, the Lord is telling us to beware of thinking like the world. And there are three errors that he years, another 2,000 is a loss of time. And didn't we read that in Psalm 106, that the children of Israel, their behavior, I think we could safely say that they were more wicked in their behavior than many Canadians are today. the Babylonians or the Assyrians, and the evil that they did, the violence that they committed. So we could fool ourselves and say it's still a long ways away. So while my Lord Deliath is coming, so be careful, beloved, that you're not careless regarding the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the second thing that happens is cruelty. I can just start, you know, abusing, calling people names, hitting people, whatever I want to do, it doesn't matter. I'm judging the wicked, why should he judge me? But the Lord says, be careful with your holiness, be diligent with your holiness, be ready, be waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus. We're here to eat and drink with the drunken. Nothing wrong with eating and drinking, but now he's keeping this fellowship and keeping company with those who eat and drink to excess. They eat and drink to excess. They have no self-control. least the professing Christian who begins to identify more with But be careful of these things, beloved. And remember, I'm just going to say a word here about the evil of drunkenness, the great evil. The place of alcoholism has no place in the language of the church. that you may fall into the sin of drunkenness, that's forgivable. It's a problem, but it's a problem to be repented of. And I'm not saying it's a difficult problem. It's an easy problem to overcome. It's very difficult to overcome these addictions. But it requires the help of the Holy Spirit. Because what is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Temperance. Temperance. You know what temperance means? Self-control. Self-control. That means you can stop at one drink. You don't have to go all the way. You don't have to be a drunk. The Holy Spirit gives you that power. aware of what's happening. the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's beautiful. It's worth celebrating. So Christians ought to be celebratory. They ought to be happy. They ought to have occasions in which they're rejoicing in God's goodness. Many of us tomorrow are going to have Thanksgiving dinners. It's just a testimony to God's goodness. It ought to be a time of remembering that God is They're not going to be waiting for the coming again of the new generation. as if you believe that the Lord Jesus is going to return. It's got to reflect in your life. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What a picture that is, just of excruciating pain and a frenzy. And there's so many bad things that I didn't do. They're going to be very angry with the Lord elsewhere. The Lord speaks about the gnawing of the tongue, just being in such anger and pain. Are you ready and waiting for the Lord's return? Remember that he's most certainly coming. We've already looked at that in Matthew 24. The certainty of his coming is there. He is surely coming. Without question, he's coming. That, by faith, we do that. When people say, where is the promise of his coming? Right here in Acts chapter one, there's the promise of his coming. And I cling to that promise. I'm not letting you mock it off or laugh it off, because I can't. And it ought to be a model to keep from sin. to us with a lot of our own idle time. So there's a motive there to avoid sin. What if I engage in a sin and Jesus should come? Isn't that a testimony of your belief that God could come at any time? Like, I can't afford to be caught. Not caught, but be involved in this activity. I want to find it elsewhere. Jesus says, occupy until I've got it. Be busy in the work of the Lord. And be busy for the sake of the gospel. If you're busy cultivating your own holiness, share with the gospel. I'm just not taken with the coming of the Lord the way I once was. I need the Lord's help. I need your prayers. I need your support. I need you to remind me of the glories of heaven and of the certainty of Christ's return. So these are all good things, and those are reflections, then, that you believe that Christ is coming and that he can come at any moment. May the Lord make us to be ready at every moment. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, wilt thou be pleased to deliver us from thinking the ways of the ungodly? Establish thou the thoughts of our hearts and light manner as His disciples saw Him depart. We ask for that we may certainly be ready. Granted to us that we may not be carried away with the desires and the entertainments of the world, that we may be diligent in Thy service, diligent deliver us from attempting to persevere in our own strength, or to a way to the Lord by our own wisdom. Lord, we pray that we may wait upon Thee, and that we may know Thy strength to make us ready for the wonderful appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In these things we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.