Matthew 24, we'll start in verse 42. All right, Matthew 24, we'll start in verse 42. We'll read just till verse 44, and then we'll open up in prayer. Matthew 24 verse 42 says, 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. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for just the time we have to come spend together in worship and We're lifting up some praises to you, Father. I pray that you'd be with us at this time of study, Lord. Give me the right words to say, Father. Give me wisdom and clarity of thought. I ask that you'd open up our hearts to understand it and teach us something from your word here this morning, God. We love you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, so we've been talking about watching, we've been talking about some of the work that's got to be done from these Jewish tribulational saints, the people that are going to be going through that. So that's, you know, that's the setting here. Last week we talked a lot about the Days of Noah and what that means, and kind of some of the things that likely will be taking place during this time frame. So but if you look just at 42 to 44 this passage here again as so many other passages We've talked about get so often confused by churches and taught as if it's the rapture I can't tell you how many times for years of my life that that's that's what this passage was Because there was no proper study done. There was no proper Understanding or rightly dividing or no understanding of any of that. It was just we dr. Ruckman put it this way in his commentary that I'm gonna paraphrase it, but basically how We just assume, we today in the church age, in the year 2024, we like to assume that the entire Bible from Genesis 1, that was written back in 14, almost 1500 BC, all the way up till now, everything has been written for the church age, between crucifixion until 2000 AD. That's the only application that can be made, right? And so we try to force, force, force the church and your doctrines into every page of this book. And we know that you can't do that. Doctrinally, you cannot do that. You cannot apply that to your life doctrinally. Spiritually, absolutely. Find spiritual application. Find a way to draw that stuff. But when you see things that we'll look at at the end of the chapter, you'll see a man who's a servant who's in the Lord's household, and he ends up on his way to hell. So that's obviously not you and I. So the doctrinal teaching cannot be for you and I. Or we ourselves have a wrong understanding of our own doctrinal teaching. There's a breakdown somewhere. It is either all for us and you and I can't lose our salvation, or it's not all for us and you and I can't lose our salvation. And so many people, so many churches out there, just good churches, well-intentioned churches. This isn't just a bash session. It's these churches, these pastors and preachers and teachers, I believe they truly want to do the right thing, the majority of them. I believe they truly want to teach the right things, but they just have a false understanding of how to understand this book. And what do you do with the passages that don't line up with what you truly believe are your actual true doctrines? Because those churches that teach this is for the rapture, they will not teach that you can lose your salvation from this passage. It talks about a man who's in the household and he loses his salvation. So what do you do? So now this is where in the Catholic churches and churches like that are very heavy on this where you require the presence of a priest. You require the presence of some quote-unquote man of God to expound the scriptures to you because it's too complex for you to understand. You don't know what to do with this passage so you need a pastor to teach you. I don't know, folks. You don't need a pastor. You just need to read it. Read it and understand it and believe it. That's it. That's where it lines up and that's where it falls. So verses 42 through 44 is additionally, as with the rest of this chapter, is pointing to the second advent. Again, looking at 42 and 43 specifically, watch therefore. So we've talked about watching. For you know not what hour your Lord doth come. We've seen hours and days, talked about multiple times and every single time. We've run so many references to say this is tribulation, this is second advent. It's not for today, it's not for you and I. It's not the rapture for sure. Look over at Revelation chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16. Jesus Christ mentions this so many times throughout this chapter, there must be something important to it. There must be a reason he continues to highlight this stuff. And so we need to make sure that we properly understand it and know where to apply it and how it applies. Revelation chapter 16, look at verse 15. It says, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. He's keeping his own garments. Someone has got a personal responsibility and requirement to keep their own garments. You and I, when we get up to the judgment seat of Christ, we're going to be given new garments. And it's going to be based on the work that you do after salvation for Jesus Christ. for the cause of Christ, that your garments are going to be reflective of that. We'll look at passages again, but when the bride hath made herself ready, she's been given new garments. Those garments were given to her, they were cleansed for her by the blood of the Lamb. These folks here are keeping His garments, they're keeping their own garments. They've got a personal responsibility to their own righteousness there. But it says, blessed is he that watches. And then it says, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Look at the next verse for your placement of this. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. It's not the rapture, folks. So you're watching, you're looking for a thief. Christ is coming as a thief. You've got personal responsibility for your own righteousness. All those kinds of things. None of that lines up with you and I in the church age. None of it. But it all does line up with Jesus' teaching in Matthew 24. Alright, turn also to 1 Thessalonians 5. We've run to this passage so many times, but this passage here bridges the gap between the rapture and the tribulation. So 1 Thessalonians 5, we'll just look at it again. We'll probably reference it another couple times here this morning. 1 Thessalonians 5, we'll just start in verse 2. It says, For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye brethren, Christians, ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. If that thief overtaking is not for you, brethren, Okay, it's not for you, but it's going to happen, so be aware of it, but it's not for you to worry about. And then what's it say in verse five? Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. We're going to get to it probably next week, but that darkness is tied. You'll see the connection there at the beginning of Matthew 25 with those virgins, the wise and the foolish virgins there. The ones that were watching, the ones that had oil in their lamp, and they were waiting for him to come back, for the Lord to come back. And then you got the foolish ones that were like, ah, he's not coming back. And then they realize, oh, he's coming. He's calling for us to join him at the wedding feast. He's calling for us to join up with him. We don't have any oil for our lamps, how do we? They weren't ready, they weren't watching, they were foolish. We are not of the darkness as they are. There's a connection there. It's how those foolish virgins without oil in their lamps. Look over at Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, verse 35. You're gonna see similar wording here is what we've been looking at in Matthew 24. So Luke 12, 35, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them." So this is pointing at that split rapture basically that's going to take place towards the end of the tribulation. Don't know exactly when at the end of the tribulation it's going to happen, but some of the saints are going to be raptured out, the ones that are watching. But there are going to be some that are left behind. Not from you and I's rapture. This is a different event that takes place. So the quick timing of this sequence is you and I, the Church, the Bride of Christ, gets raptured out. We get raptured out, we go immediately to the Judgment Seat of Christ. There's the wedding that takes place, the marriage that actually takes place up in heaven. Then there's a wedding feast. There's a wedding party, if you will. There's a whole series of events that take place, right? A portion of these Jewish saints are going to be allowed access into that. Go ahead and just turn to Matthew 25. I don't think I wrote it in my notes because we're definitely going to hit it soon. But just look at the first few verses of Matthew 25. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answer saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut." Now, I believe that there's a direct relation here to not just the Jews that are properly watching and waiting and working for the Lord, and the ones that aren't, but also the ones that likely will be taking the mark of the beast. Because how do they go out during this tribulation time? How do they go out to buy oil? How do you buy, sell, and trade? You've got to have that mark. So it's also, I think there's double application here. I don't think every single Jewish saint that's believing in Jesus is going to be raptured out and then brought back at the Battle of Armageddon. But at the same time, which basically means that not everyone who stays is going to be just the foolish and the wicked that are going to get stomped out. I think there's double application. There's going to be those that are trusting in the Lord and relying on him, but not really watching and waiting like they should be. But at the same time, this also directly applies to those that are, specifically those Jews, because that's who he's talking about here, those Jews who have taken the mark of the beast. They have fallen away. They have known the good thing. We'll look at that here in Hebrews momentarily. They've known, they've seen the good things, but then they've turned their back on it and they've fallen away. And those ones will end up going straight to hell. And you'll see that connection at the end of Matthew 24. But the Lord there, you see there in Luke 12, he's returning from a wedding. So we talked about it. You've got a rapture of the church, you've got a wedding that takes place, you've got some semblance of the wedding feast, the party that takes place up there. Then the bride as an army and the Jewish tribulational saints that have been raptured out and killed and beheaded and all that stuff, they come back as as an army as well. You've got Ezekiel 37 with the dry bones rising up as an army. So you've got armies, the Bible talks about in the Old Testament, that come back. So you've got the bride as an army, you've got the Jewish saints that are an army, Jesus Christ's bride, God's bride. So you've got armies that come back with Jesus Christ. And then the actual wedding feast, the wedding supper rather, the supper of the Lord there, takes place at the feast, the gathering where the eagles are gathered and all that. So that's the Battle of Armageddon, there's the Great Supper of our Lord, that takes place there. But there's a first rapture, a first calling out of those tribulational saints that go up into heaven and partake in kind of like the first portion of that feast celebration, if you will. All right, but they are not the bride. All right, they are not the bride. They are servants. You'll see that here. They are servants. They are called up. They are not the bride. They are friends of the bridegroom, but they are not the bride. All right, stay in loop, but look at chapter 21. What are they being told, excuse me, why are they being told to watch? Luke chapter 21, look at verse 34. Says, and take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life. And so that day come upon you unawares, almost like a thief. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man." So there's a portion at the tail end of that tribulation that's going to be worse than the rest of the tribulation period, which is also going to be terrible. But it's going to be awful terrible, it's going to just ramp up until the very end when Jesus Christ says, alright, gather them all together, let's go back, let's stomp them out. But he says, "...watch therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things." So that's why they're being told to watch. The Lord's mercy is going to be poured out on those that are properly watching, that are properly laboring for the Lord there. And they're going to be allowed to escape out. Look at Hebrews 9. There's going to be a split rapture at the end of the tribulation. Hebrews, right, so to the Jews, to the Hebrews there. A lot of tribulational doctrine, there's a lot of church age doctrine type stuff that you can find in Hebrews as well. That's because the church age has already been established and there's a lot of church age similarities that happen in the tribulation as well. It's not 100% gonna be identical to the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament because Jesus Christ has come. So we know that they have to keep the testimonies of Jesus Christ, keep the faith of Jesus Christ, and his commandments. So it's almost going to be like a combined economy, if you will, for their salvation. So there are a lot of Church Age doctrines that line up with Paul, but there are so many others that don't line up with Paul. So Hebrews 9, look at verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him, them that watch, okay, them that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. So there's a specific salvation that's different for those that watch for him during that time, as opposed to those that don't watch for him. Maybe it makes a little more sense now why there's going to be mourning for those that are still there when Jesus Christ physically returns. We saw that in verse 30 of Matthew 24. We ran those references, that's talking about the Jews there, God's people, the Israelites, the tribes of the earth, they shall mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Why are they mourning? Maybe because they missed out on something. Maybe because they missed out on that escaping of those terrible things to come. Maybe because they didn't watch and labor as their fellow laborers did, the ones that got raptured out. So they got left behind. They had to endure some additional heartache, some additional tribulation there. And so they finally see him like, we messed up twice. We rejected our Messiah. And then when we knew it was him, we didn't labor like we should have. And so they're mourning for him when they see him. They finally just break down. Not the same application, but I've always wondered, before I spent time in the military, you could see a lot of videos and things like that of military folks returning. And you look at old movies from World War II and all that kind of stuff. Soldiers coming back home from war. Why do families, why do they weep when they see their soldier? Why do they weep when they see their service member coming back? Again, this is not a direct application. There is a semblance of excitement and joy and happiness that just brings about mourning and weeping as well. When I came back from my deployment to Afghanistan, came back to see my family, my wife and three kids at the time, there were tears there. We missed each other, we missed. There's going to be tears of joy that take place as well because they know they missed out on something. They missed their Lord. They know what they missed because they didn't acknowledge Him. Most of these Tribulational Saints would have been alive during the Church Age. Most of them would have. They would have likely heard, at least today with YouTube and all that kind of stuff, they would have heard preacher after preacher, missionary after missionary, in Israel even, talking about Jesus Christ is your Messiah. No, no, no he's not. No he's not. He's a bastard. He's a terrible whatever. There's gonna be mourning when they finally realize that we were right, that the scriptures were right, and not just the Old Testament, not just their Talmud and all the traditions of men that have been established for centuries, not all that stuff, but the actual New Testament scriptures as well. There's gonna be some mourning that takes place because they've missed something. Something huge. But the marriage of the lamb takes place after the rapture, yet before the second advent, with the marriage supper kind of as that culmination point that occurs on the earth after the battle of Armageddon. Look at 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 2. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 2. Paul says, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So the typology, obviously you guys know this, but the typology is so crystal clear. I don't know what that really, really means. I know what it means to be married to one woman. I know what that means. I know all the life requirements and expectations and all that kind of stuff. I don't know what that truly, truly means. It's still a mystery, at least to me, of what that's going to be like when we get to heaven. I don't even want to conjecture. It's odd. It blows my mind. But there's so many points to it, you can't deny it, that the type is there that we, as a collective body of Christians, are the bride of Christ. Yet we're also the body of Christ. I don't know. And yet we're all individuals. We all have an individual requirement. I don't know. Don't ask me those kinds of questions. I just know what the book says and that it's going to happen this way. But Paul says, I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin. He's talking about the sanctification of a Christian there. Talking about the process of the judgment seat of Christ, getting that final bit of cleansing there, getting cleaned up and prepped and ready for the wedding that takes place. But that's only for Christians. You don't see that teaching in the Old Testament. You don't see that teaching with the Jews and the Levitical priesthood and any of that. It's nowhere to be found. It's unique to our time period and unique to our doctrines. And then look at Revelation chapter 19. Revelation 19, verse 6, this is right before Christ comes back and steps foot on the earth. Revelation 19, 6 says, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. His wife? The wife has already become the wife. The marriage of the Lamb has come. They're getting ready. Jesus Christ is ready to come right back and step foot on the ground. So by this point, that marriage, the wedding, the joining of man and wife here has already taken place. Let us be glad, excuse me, verse 8, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, Right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And immediately you have the feet fell, you know, Jesus Christ comes back, steps foot, and stomps out on his white horse and all that. So you've got the wedding has already taken place, she's already his wife, and yet he's calling people to a wedding supper. So he's calling people out, and then they're coming down, and then they're gonna be joined up with the others here at the kingdom for the actual feast, the wedding feast, the supper that takes place there, the great supper of our God. All right, Matthew 24, back in, let's close up with verse 44 here. Verse 44 says, therefore be ye also ready. Again, who is he talking to? His Jewish disciples, okay? Jewish disciples. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think, not the Son of Man cometh. When you least expect it, expect it, right? That's what he's teaching them. When you don't think it's gonna happen, that's when I'm coming back. In the military, there's a concept called, some of you guys may have heard of this, but it's called stand two or stand two arms. You could look it up, there's so many origin stories of the concept of stand two. When I was in basic training, they taught that it was during the time of like when the early United States and the Indians and they would attack. The Indians always attacked at dawn and they attacked at dusk. And so there's a lot of times that's when the armies would stand too. They would all, 100%, everyone was on the firing line, everyone was ready and watching and listening for the enemy to attack. There's other times where, or other stories you can say, where it really took off in World War I with the trench warfare. The United States, the allied armies there would be 100% on the firing line, 100% in those trenches there, they were expecting the Germans to come cross over, they were expecting them to attack. Two times a day, the stand two took place. Right at dusk, or excuse me, right at dawn, early in the morning, before the sunlight comes up real bright, and then at dusk, after the sunlight has gone down, kind of like that twilight period. The idea, the science, if you will, behind it is that's when you and I's eyesight is the worst, is that kind of twilight period, that transition between night vision and day vision, okay? So your eyes adjust. Even when you're driving, the worst time to drive your car is those transition periods, when the sun has gone down and the sky is starting to transition into darkness. You have your headlights on, but they're not really doing anything. yet the outside light really isn't bright enough. So that's when you're most vulnerable, because that's when your vision is most impaired naturally. So those two times a day. So in basic training and any sort of training like that, you have two stand two periods. And everyone hates it, because it's always too early. And it's always at dinnertime, when you want to be calming down, getting ready to bed down and rest. So let's do it right then. 100%, all right, stand two. Everyone's running down the line, squad leaders running down the line, waking everybody up. Hey, get up, get up, stand tuned. Groggy, and you turn over. you're falling asleep on your rifle, you know, and then you get, get, you know, butt stroke to the helmet there just to, to wake up a bit. But, um, the, uh, the idea there is that you are 100% on the firing line, 100% queued in, clued in, waiting to hear and listen and watch for the enemy. So for you and I, there's, there's spiritual battles that we've been talking about. The pastor has been going over the understanding who our enemy is. Uh, you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. It's a spiritual warfare that takes place. So we as Christians would be terrible soldiers for God if we don't identify when, key times, that the enemy is going to attack. Okay, so pastor goes out of town. You likely will experience some form of spiritual attack, whether it be as obvious and blatant as we saw last week, or it could be a little bit more subtle, yet you know when there's some sort of a spiritual void, Be ready for an attack, because the enemy knows when the spiritual head or just the spiritual status of a church is kind of weakened. He understands that. That's when he's going to attack. So as Christians, we need to identify times when we need to stand too, when we need to change our defensive posture. We can't just, the church has died ever since, of course, I was born in 87, but from what I've heard, the church really started dying off spiritually in the 70s, 80s, and 90s primarily. and it just has never really recovered. That's when that latency in church age really started setting in. We as a collective got super comfortable. We don't want to acknowledge spiritual activity because it's weird and we don't know what to do about it. We don't want to acknowledge satanic involvement in things because it's icky. We don't like it. So we're just going to pretend like it's not there. We stopped standing too when the enemy showed up. We stopped acknowledging our vulnerabilities and, hey, we need everybody on the firing line right now. And it's not a permanent thing. You'd exhaust the troops. You would run out. Your morale would decrease. It would deplete. You wouldn't have the rest you need. You wouldn't have the nourishment that you need because you couldn't get food. You couldn't get sleep because you're always on the firing line. Stand two, the idea there is it's a temporary surge of defensive power. and wait for the enemy. Hopefully they never attack, but you have to change your posture because the second that you don't, when you least expect it, expect it. That's when he's gonna show up. So we have to be aware of these things in our lives, even as Christians, right? And I know I'm deviating from the doctrinal teaching here, but as Christians, we have to be aware of when we are vulnerable as a collective here, as a church, as a whole, as a spiritual bride of Christ across the world, but also as individuals and as individual families. When you start seeing and sensing, ah, there's something weird going on in our lives right now. I can't put my finger on it, but something is off. I'm not saying it is, but maybe there's a spiritual aspect to it. Maybe. How did Satan affect Job? Well, he affected his health. Okay, so maybe there's some health things involved. Yeah, we live in a sin-cursed world, so not everything is the devil. I got it. But maybe. He also affected all of his income, if you will, all of his possessions, took it away, killed his livestock, killed his cattle, killed all this stuff, took it all away. He was left with nothing. So maybe some of the things you're experiencing in your workplace, perhaps, in your day-to-day life. Maybe it's spiritual. I don't know. Maybe we need to stand, too, at these things and just increase the spiritual strength of our defense. And obviously we have to rely entirely on the Lord. So increase your time in prayer. If these things are happening in your lives and you're not changing how you pray or how you read your Bible or just the emphasis you put on spiritual things, You're being lazy. You're being a terrible soldier for the Lord. He's saying, the enemy's coming. The enemy's at your door. I'm giving you some discernment here to see it. You see something's happening, but we don't want to acknowledge that it's spiritual. We don't want to, that's icky. We don't like that. we need to stand too, folks. We need to surge our defensive posture. And when you have brothers and sisters in the church that are hurting on things, maybe there's a spiritual involvement there. Surge your defenses, stand too on their behalf, on their behalf. Maybe they're the ones that are pulled back and they're in the medic's tent because they already took injuries. You stand too to protect them that have been pulled off the firing line. You can't just leave their spot void and vacant, all right? All right, verse 45. Point there, when you, he's teaching these guys here, when you least expect it, expect it. That's when the Son of Man is coming, all right? Verse 45, it says, who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler of his household to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods, but and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth 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 that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." There's your man who's in the household. There's your man who lost it all. He had it all, lost it all, and now he's on his way to hell. Again, not you and I's salvation. It's not, because it goes 100% contrary to doctrine that we know is clear for you and I. So it's for someone else. But Hebrews 9.28, we already looked at it, but it talks about looking and laboring for him until he returns. That's your faithful. That's your wise servant that Jesus is talking about here. But the Jews are gonna be looking for him, especially after three and a half years of all this heartache, the ones that get left behind and they're not Christians and all that stuff, they realize, the ones that start realizing that, oh, Jesus is the one. He is actually the Messiah. They're gonna be looking for him after those three and a half years of all this kind of mess. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Excuse me. Hebrews chapter 11, verse six. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. There's something special about those that are diligently seeking him. And yeah, I've heard this preached to you and I many, many times. And it's right, and it's accurate, and it's true. There's a lot of doctrinal things that you can apply to yourself here. But understand the context of Hebrews as well. Doctrinally put that in the tribulation. and then reread it. Understand what that context is there. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him in that tribulation time period. They're going to be looking for him. They're going to be waiting and yearning for him, so much so that the ones that see him come back that weren't raptured out, they're going to be weeping and mourning and crying over him. If they aren't looking for him after all this tribulation, there's a good chance that they're probably living comfortably, which is likely a good indication that they likely took the mark. Look at Jeremiah chapter 29. Jeremiah 29. Verse 13, a couple quick verses here. Jeremiah 29.13 says, And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. That's diligently seeking for him. With all your heart. He says, you're going to look for me and you'll find me. Just keep looking for me. Look at Psalm 145. The whole idea of enduring to the end. It doesn't matter if you endure, endure, endure, and then collapse at the end. Like, ah, nope, it's not worth it. I don't think he's gonna come. They're gonna quickly turn into that foolish servant that says, nah, he's tarrying. He's not really coming back when he says he is. And they're not gonna be watching. Psalm 145 verse 18 says, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. It sounds eerily similar to you and I salvation. So there are similarities, there are likenesses between how we are saved and how they are saved, but it's not entirely perfectly lined up. There are similarities and then there are differences. They have multiple things that have to be focused on here, but they have to be watching for him. They have to be calling after him and diligently seeking him. But notice the evil servant in verse 48 to 51 is in the household. Back in Matthew 24 verse 45 talks about the servant that the Lord hath made ruler over his household. So they're part of the Lord's household here. But they're also their servants. They're not family. They're not sons. You see that distinction there. John 15, 15, I think it is, talks about there's a difference between a servant and a friend. The servant doesn't know everything that the master is doing. The servant doesn't, just turn there, this is a really neat verse. John chapter 15. I'm gonna make sure I get all of it there. John 15, verse 15. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." And these disciples had a different, there was something different about these disciples than the rest of the tribulation saints or the rest of the Jews around them. They were treated differently because they acknowledged and accepted Him. differently than everyone else. There's a reason they're going to be able to rule over the 12 tribes of Israel. They're going to have crowns and kingdoms and that kind of stuff in the Millennial Kingdom there. But anyways, those... Where's it going? The servants there. The servants don't know what the master does. They don't have all the information. They do what they're told. So the point is there, they're in the household already. But yet he loses his status. The foolish servant shows up in verse 48. You read that all the way down to verse 51. We did it earlier, and you saw those there. That foolish servant, the Lord comes back when he's not watching. And he comes back because he's not watching. And he comes back, and what happens? He cuts him off. cuts him off and sends him right down where weeping and gnashing of teeth is, and we know what that's associated to. But it's all because he didn't endure until the end. He didn't last until the end when the Master actually came back, when the Lord came back. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to read a few verses here, but we're going to start in verse 25. Again, Hebrews, just put your tribulational Jewish hat on here. Look at these verses through that lens. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Who's gonna forsake the assembling? Well, if the servants are there in the same household, and one's watching, the other's not, when it's their turn to watch, the enemy comes, or excuse me, the thief in this context here, when Jesus comes back, they're not watching, they've forsaken that assembling. So yeah, we absolutely apply it to church and get to church, you shouldn't miss church, sure, sure. But put your tribulational Jewish lens on and look at it there. As a matter of some is, but exhorting one another, come on brother, stay strong, you can do it, endure, exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. That's not you and I. If you and I receive the knowledge of the truth, and then we sin, and we quote-unquote backslide and fall away from it, yeah, there's absolutely still sacrifice for that sin. You haven't lost your salvation, but someone is. There remains no more sacrifice for sin. It's over. You've accepted it, and then you rejected it. Nope, no more sacrifice for sins. Verse 27, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy to have trodden underfoot the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing. and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Man, what a verse! But call to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great flight of afflictions. Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience. That after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. That evil servant there in Matthew 24, he draws away, he stops watching, he falls away from what the Master has told him to do, and he starts treating his fellow servants even evilly, wickedly, and he ends up in hell because he couldn't endure to the end. All right, so verse 46, back in our text, verse 46, it mentions the phrase, so doing. Blesses that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. There's something that he has to be doing. We see it. There's a difference. There's something that's not you and I. You and I don't have to doing anything. You just have to doing the one thing of accepting Jesus Christ, and that's it. Then you can go live like the devil if you really so feel like it. Don't be surprised if chastisement shows up, because the Lord chastises whom he loves. But you and I don't have to sow doing anything. They must work and labor to get the rest during the Millennial Sabbath. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Verse 24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that He might preserve us alive as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as He hath commanded us." They have to do some things. And then look at Hebrews again, Hebrews chapter 4. Notice all these passages that are cross-referenced from Matthew. It's Hebrews, it's the law, it's revelation, tribulation. You don't see Paul cross-referenced in a lot of these here, unless it's directly in a spiritual application. But even then, you almost have to stretch it a lot of times. But we're just going back and forth to these tribulational, doctrinal, law-type passages. I want to say Hebrews 4, verse 8. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Now spiritually, you and I can rest in the Lord, we can trust in the Lord, but we don't have rest right now. So he's not talking about getting in Christ. He's not talking about getting saved and you'll have rest. We can have rest for our soul, but we don't have rest for our bodies right now. We don't have rest for our daily lives yet. That will come later. And for these folks here in this time, that will come. That millennial rest is going to be the rest that they will be allowed into. Stay in Hebrews, look at chapter 6. Hebrews 6.10, He's not going to forget about it. He would be unrighteous if he did forget about those things. Why? Because it's all about their works. They have to do some things for Him. Our righteousnesses, we have Christ's righteousness imputed onto us. It's nothing that we do. Every benefit is Christ in us. His righteousness on our behalf. That's the righteousness that we have, not the righteousness that we do. And then let's look at Revelation 16. We're almost done here this morning. Revelation 16. I think we looked at this earlier as well, but Revelation 16, verse 15. Behold, I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. So there's some watching, there's some things that they have to do. We ran that reference already. But it's all tied to the work and labor that those servants here in this story, this parable, if you will, that Christ is telling them. It's all tied to what they're doing, they're watching or not. All right, verse 47. We're going to run through these last verses. I want to close this chapter out. Verse 47 says, Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. Talking about the wise servant there. They that suffer in labor and watch, they're going to reign. Luke 22. Luke 22 and verse 29. says, And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So these twelve disciples here, these ones that Christ is talking to here, they're going to be given kingdoms. So you suffer, you labor for Christ, you're going to be able to reign with Him. There's passages that even apply to you and I, that if you suffer for Him, you'll rule and reign with Him. I don't know what that looks like. Maybe they'll just be over the tribes of Israel and we'll be over all the Gentile tribes. I don't know. Maybe someone will be given a kingdom in Woodland Park and divide. I don't know. Maybe one of you will be over that and ruling in the place and representing Jesus Christ for the Gentile world. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I know that you and I as the bride, we also will be given crowns. Who gets a crown? A ruler gets a crown. A king gets a crown. a king and his queen. So it's not just going to be the kingdom of heaven there and the Jews in that kingdom. His kingdom is going to include a lot of the Gentile representatives that will basically come and answer to him as well. All right, verse 48 says, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken, and we'll stop there. Let's see here, it says that they're basically saying he's not coming back, we've got time. That's what these foolish servants are saying. He's tearing, he's taking his time, he's not coming back. Any of you that have been parents over children or any of you that have been children with parents, pretty much applies to everybody, ever been left at home or left your kids at home and, hey, I want you to be able to do this, this, this, this. When I come back, it better be done. Those dishes better be cleaned and put away. The floor better be vacuumed, whatever. When I come back, that stuff better be done. And don't you know it, you've got a servant in the house that's just watching. All right, hey, watch out the window. Look for when mom and dad come home. And then, oh, there's the car coming down the road. It's heading towards the road. All right, hurry up. Let's put everything away real quick. And maybe that's just me. That was definitely me and my older brother. We wanted to play. We wanted to do all the things first instead of doing the work, instead of doing the labor that my parents expected. So when they showed up, it was rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. And most of the times, you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Like, oh. No, I'm not trying to take a cookie. It was clean the whole time. My hands aren't dripping from all the kitchen water. There's not water everywhere because we sloshed it all over the place because we washed everything right now. But that's what they're going to be doing. They're going to see and hear him coming and it's going to be too late. It's going to be too late because they weren't watching and laboring. But also don't be the evil servant getting drunk in the night and mistreating your fellow servants. That's another thing that he's trying to teach them. Ephesians 6, 9. Just a couple more passages and then we will close, I promise. Ephesians 6-9. Says, and ye masters, do the same things unto them, talking about servants there, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. So don't mistreat your fellow servants, don't mistreat your fellow laborers, your fellow brethren, simply because you think you're in a better or more higher status or higher position than them, or maybe you think you're more spiritually mature than them. If you think that's the case, there's a good chance you probably aren't actually more spiritually mature than them. But don't mistreat them because guess what? You got someone up above that's looking and watching and he doesn't mistreat you in the same way that you're mistreating your brethren and your fellow servants there. There's a similar passage in Colossians 4.1. We won't turn there, but Colossians 4.1, for the sake of time, very similar to Ephesians 6.9. But sleep and drunkenness happen in the night. It's all in the night. It's not done during the day. I mean, if you're a slosh drunk during the day, you've gotten a little far. You've had one too many times at night. But drunkenness and sleep, lack of watching, takes place at nighttime. All right, last two verses. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's like when, like I said before, when parents leave the house and kids do the, will the kids do the right thing or will they only clean up at the end? Look at Hebrews chapter six. Hebrews chapter six. Verse 4, look at the wording here, for it is impossible, not unlikely, it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." Shorten up that sentence there, for it is impossible, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. There's something that they're not going to be able to recover from. Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. It's gonna be a sad, sad day. They're gonna walk in there and as those foolish virgins are gonna walk in and say, Lord, Lord, I'm here, open the door to us. He says, no, no, no, I never knew you. You were not invited. I invited and they came. You were not invited. You didn't come when I called. Weeping and gnashing of teeth, we're not gonna run those references, but you can look Matthew 8, 12, 22, 13, 25, 30. Those are all passages where it talks about weeping and gnashing of teeth. It all talks about outer darkness. It's all associated with hell. and that eternal judgment there. The last verse that I'll read is Hebrews chapter 10. I think we read this one, but this is the last verse of Hebrews chapter 10, just to close out this thought here. Hebrews 10.39 says, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. There's going to be folks in that time that are going to endure, endure, endure, and then he's going to tarry. They're going to lose focus, they're going to lose their enduring, and they're going to turn, they're going to turn right to the Antichrist, they're going to take that mark of the beast, they're going to collapse and fall into that thing. It says here that there's something's gonna happen something can happen to them where they can it is impossible to restore them Folks are thankful. That's not you and I I mean we don't deserve it We don't deserve that kind of grace and mercy and and special blessing But it's done to provoke them to jealousy the ones that are blinded in part. All right. Let's close in prayer this morning