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This morning is from Joel chapter
3. Do you know that in our study
of Matthew 24 we've been reading through Joel as it very much
corresponds to Matthew 24? And this is our third week in
the study of Matthew 24. So we are in chapter 3 of the
book of Joel. Listen now as I read to you from
God's holy and inspired Word. For behold, in those days, and
at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations and bring them down to the valley
of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment
with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel,
whom they scattered among the nations. They have also divided
up My land. They have cast lots for My people,
have given a boy as payment for a harlot, and sold a girl for
wine that they may drink. Indeed, what have you to do with
me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? Will
you retaliate against me? But if you retaliate against
me, swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon
your own head, because you have taken my silver and my gold,
and have carried into your temples my prized possessions. Also,
the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem you have sold to
the Greeks. that you may remove them far from their borders.
Behold, I will raise them out of the place to which you have
sold them, and will return your retaliation upon your own head.
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the
people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabians, to
a people far off, for the Lord has spoken. Proclaim this among
the nations. Prepare for war. Wake up the
mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near.
Let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning
hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around.
Cause your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. Let the nations
be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there
I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for
the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the wine press
is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon will grow
dark and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also
will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. The
heavens and earth will shake. But the Lord will be a shelter
for His people and the strength of the children of Israel. So
you shall know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion,
my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy
and no alien shall ever pass through her again. And it will
come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with
new wine, the hills shall flow with milk and all the brooks
of Judah shall be flooded with water. A fountain shall flow
from the house of the Lord and water the valley of a case is
Egypt shall be a desolation in Edom, a desolate wilderness because
of violence against the people of Judah, where they have shed
innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall abide forever
in Jerusalem from generation to generation, for I will acquit
them of the guilt of bloodshed whom I had not acquitted. For
the Lord dwells in Zion. May God bless to us the hearing
of His Holy Word. Now let's turn over to our New
Testament reading from Matthew 24. Matthew 24, and I'll begin in
the middle of the chapter at verse 36, where we left off last
Lord's Day. Matthew 24, beginning in verse
36 to the end of the chapter. Here is the Word of God. But
of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven,
but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were,
so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the
days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the
ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all
away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two
men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other
left. Two women will be grinding at
the mill. One will be taken, and the other left. Watch, therefore,
for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know
this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the
thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house
to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready
for the son of man is coming in an hour you do not expect.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant who is whom his master
made ruler over his household to give them food in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will
find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that
he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant
says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming, begins
to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not
looking for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and cut
him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. May God bless to us
the hearing of his holy word. Now, let's join together in the
singing of Psalm 94, the psalm that we have been singing in
connection with Matthew 24, Psalm 94. And we will sing A and B. We usually remain seated for
this song, but why don't we stand at this time? This is a song
that seems more suitable to stand. in a parable this morning to
start us off with Junior. He was in a parable a couple
of weeks ago. Supper was just about over. The family was enjoying
the delicious cookies that Mother had baked that day. Can I please
have one more cookie, Mom? Junior begged. No, Junior. You have had enough. Come upstairs
with me and I'll brush your teeth. And then when we're finished,
you go back down and clear off the table, and then I'll come
and wash the dishes. After Junior's teeth were brushed,
he headed back to the kitchen as his mother had told him and
began to clear off the dishes. But as he did, he kept thinking
about those delicious cookies that he had eaten at supper.
Perhaps he could have just one more. His mother was taking a
long time to come and wash the dishes. Maybe he could just have
one before she returned. He did. It was very good. She still didn't come back. There
was no sign of her. Maybe he could have just one
more. So he climbed on the stool and
gently removed the lid without making any noise, carefully reached
in, grabbed another cookie and suddenly he heard his mother's
voice. Junior, she exclaims. Junior looks up with terror to
see his mother glaring at him. Come with me, she demands. It's
too late. Nothing can be done. Junior is
caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Junior will be lovingly
corrected by his mother, and hopefully he will learn a lesson.
But his story illustrates to us a danger that is far more
serious. The danger that any of you would
be among those who are caught, so to speak, with your hand in
the cookie jar when our Lord returns. That is, that you would
be found unprepared to meet Him when He appears in glory with
His angels to judge the earth. There are three things that I
want you to consider this morning. from our Lord's instruction in
Matthew 24, 36-51. First, that the Lord is coming
back, and we don't know when that will be. Secondly, that
when He does come back, it will be too late to prepare yourself
at that time. And thirdly, that you are admonished,
therefore, to prepare yourself for His coming now. You don't
want to be caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Well, let's
look at each of these points in order. First of all, the Lord
is coming back, and we don't know when. Jesus shows us that
the event is certain, but the timing of the event is unknown. It's not for us to know. We have
seen in Matthew 24 that Jesus' disciples were quite ready quite
desirous for the end of the age to come and for Jesus to return
in His glory, they yearned to see Him glorified, which was
a good thing. They yearned to sit on the twelve thrones that
Jesus had told them that they would sit on, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel, to have the whole world in subjection to
them. They were ready for Him to bring
the kingdom of glory right away. And so, when Jesus had told them
that we saw back in verse 2, that the temple would be utterly
destroyed so that not one stone would be left upon another. They
had automatically assumed that when that happened, it would
be the end of the age and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 24.3, they ask Him,
when will these things be and what will be the sign of your
coming and the end of the age? You see that they run all of
those things together. They expect the destruction of
the temple to occur at the same time, contemporaneous with his
personal return. The word that they use in verse
three is quite important. When they say your coming, as
it's translated in our Bible, it's the word parousia, which
refers to a special kind of coming. I've talked to you about that
already. First of all, this word is only
used four times in the Gospels, and all four times it's in Matthew
24. It's used a lot in the epistles,
but always to refer to this event, the personal coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His bodily coming, His physical
presence. It was used, this word in general,
to refer to when an important person like a king was coming
personally, not sending someone else in His name, but He Himself
is coming. So, they say, when will be the
time of your parousia, your coming? The disciples, as I say, had
hoped that this would be very, very soon. Maybe in the next
few weeks. But Jesus tells them that although
the destruction of Jerusalem will take place in the present
generation, His parousia will come at what time the Father
has appointed. An unknown time. He warns them
repeatedly against supposing that the events of this world
are a sign that He has come or that He's coming very soon. He
tells them over and over that it's not a sign of the end. He
says wars and rumors of wars are not a sign of the end. Famines
and earthquakes are not a sign of the end. The coming and going
of false prophets and false Christs are not a sign of the end. He
says these things are going to go on all through that period
before His coming. The parousia will come without
any particular special warnings. The destruction of Jerusalem,
however, which they also had inquired about when the temple
was destroyed, would be given with a very clear sign. It would
be preceded, I should say, by a very clear sign. As soon as
they see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
he says in verse 15, then flee. Flee to the mountains. Now, the
abomination of desolation refers to foreign armies that would
surround the holy city to destroy it and to destroy the temple. Daniel had spoken of two such
events in his prophecies. One of them had already occurred
in 168 BC when Antiochus Epiphanes, leading the Greeks, had come
in and desecrated the temple so that it was unusable for several
years by the Jews while he occupied the city. The other abomination
of desolation would occur in the future of Jesus' disciples,
the time of Jesus' disciples. Both were in the future of Daniel.
But in 70 A.D., when the Romans would come in the same way that
the Greeks had come and surround the city, only instead of this
time it being only for a short period of time that the temple
would be desolate, they would make it desolate forever. It
would be final. Now, we know that this is so
because in Luke, We read the parallel account, and it's made
clear here by Luke that it's talking about the armies surrounding
Jerusalem. Luke says, instead of saying,
when you see the abomination of desolation, he has the words
of Jesus to be, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,
So apparently when Jesus was speaking, of course, he said
a lot more than what is quoted here. And he would have explained
what he was saying using different words, as a good speaker will
do to explain the thing. So he said, when you see the
abomination of desolation and then he would have said, when
you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee to the mountains.
So this sign of Jerusalem's destruction would be so clear. that Jesus
is able to actually tell His disciples when they are to flee. That when you see this, flee
and you will avoid the judgment that falls upon Jerusalem. You
will know ahead of time that it's coming and you will be able
to avoid it. As soon as they saw the city
surrounded, they were to flee. And we learn from history that
this is exactly what the disciples of Jesus did in 70 AD. That when
the Roman armies came and surrounded the city, that there was an opportunity
for them to escape, and they fled to the mountains. And others
were not aware of what was happening, that this was going to be a terrible
destruction of the city. And the Christians, knowing what
Jesus had said, fled at His word, and they were spared. And it's
even said sometimes that not one of them perished. And you
can imagine that that may be true, because if they believed
Jesus' instructions, flee when you see this happen, and they
did, then none of them perished. So the destruction of Jerusalem
would come with signs preceding it. But you can see that the
parousia would come without any warning signs. All we're told,
as far as the timing of it, is that it will occur subsequent
to two other events. In verse 14, Jesus says that
the parousia will not occur until the gospel of the kingdom is
preached in all the world as a witness to all nations. And
in verse 34 and 35, he says it will not occur until all the
things that he had spoken about regarding the destruction of
Jerusalem had taken place. The things that were going to
come upon that generation. Verse 34 and 35, he says, Assuredly,
I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till
all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will by no means pass away. So the words that
Jesus had spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem had to happen before
heaven and earth passed away. Neither one of these antecedents
to the parousia gives us much to go on as far as trying to
pinpoint the time of the parousia. The Apostle Paul could say in
his day, even in Colossians, he says that the gospel has been
preached in all the world. So to what extent does it have
to be preached in all the world? We don't know. Jesus doesn't
give us a sign, you see. And the destruction of Jerusalem,
of course, occurred nearly 2000 years ago. And it's definitely
already been accomplished. And so conceivably, the Lord
could come back at any time after that event. Jesus does not deny
that there will be an end. He says that heaven and earth
will pass away. He speaks very certainly of His
return, of His coming, His parousia. But, He speaks just as certainly
that the time will be a complete surprise to us. Look at verse
36. He says, but of that day. Well,
of what day? Not the destruction of Jerusalem.
that will take place in that generation. But he says, but
that day, the other day, that day that heaven and earth pass
away, that day of his parousia that the disciples had inquired
about. And so he says to finish the verse, but of that day and
hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my
father only. In Mark and in some manuscripts
of Matthew, he even adds that even he himself does not know,
that the Son of Man does not know the day or the hour of His
return. The angels do not know, and even he in his human nature
does not know. Now, it is altogether astonishing
to see how many there are in the history of the church that
have tried to predict Jesus' return. Completely contrary to
these words. We are told of persons, even
in Paul's epistles, who tried to say that the Parousia had
already occurred. And there are those at 1000 AD
who gathered on the mountains to meet Jesus, supposing that
that would be the end of the millennial kingdom, that they
had a track on when the time would be. And of course, on October
22nd, 1844, the followers of Captain Bill, William Miller, gathered in a similar way. And
when the Lord did not come, then they said, well, he was a year
off. It'll be October 22nd, 1845. And they gathered again. And
in our day, there are those such as Jack Van Impey or Harold Camping
who continue to set dates and to claim that they know. Now,
it's too bad that the church did not listen to one of her
early father's origin. One of the church fathers who
said of this verse, These words seem to convict those who profess
that they have knowledge of the end and the destruction of the
world and make announcements as though the day of the Lord
were at hand. Calvin, likewise, pointed out
that it was a proof of excessive pride and wicked covetousness
to desire that we who creep on the earth should know more than
is permitted to the angels in heaven. Now let me advise you
that if you ever run into someone that tells you that they know
when the Lord is coming, you can dismiss them at once based
on the clear teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not listen
to that person. Reject what he's saying. He does
not know when the Lord is coming back. Jesus makes it clear that
it is not only a time that would be unknown to those in His generation
who lived in His day that was unknown to them, but that it
is a time that will remain unknown in future generations as well,
until it occurs that the inhabitants of the earth will not know the
day or the hour. In verse 37-39, He says that
the circumstances surrounding His coming, the parousia of the
Son of Man as He calls it, will be like those in the time of
Noah." And he tells us specifically how they will be like the times
of Noah. Specifically, that life will
be going on as usual. They will be eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage until the day arrives. Just doing
the things that human beings do in order to survive. There were no special signs,
no special warnings of any kind, nothing unusual. Jesus will come
when business is going on in the world as usual. Now, we know that Noah's day
was also a very wicked day. But Jesus doesn't tell us necessarily
that the day of His return will be a particularly wicked day.
That's not the point of comparison that He makes. He deliberately
speaks here of those circumstances common to man that are not necessarily
evil. Marrying, giving in marriage,
just people living and doing what we do as humans, eating
and drinking. No one will have any indication
to alert them in advance that the day has come. In verses 40
and 41, he shows that believers will not be doing anything different
than unbelievers on the day of his return. Not that we won't
that believers won't be holy or they won't be living a sanctified
life. But as far as the course of ordinary life, they will be
out in the field working or in the millstone, the women would
work in pairs where they would turn these heavy millstones to
grind their grain, one on each side opposing each other. They
would be there just doing the normal, ordinary course of events. His disciples will somehow have
an inside track, and they'll be up on the mountain when everybody
else is doing their ordinary work, or they'll just be there
among them. He says one will be taken, these
two men in the field, and the other will be left. And of these
women grinding, one will be taken and the other will be left. The
believer will have no more knowledge of the event, of the timing of
the event than the unbeliever. Of course, I don't mean that
it will be a surprise to the believer in the same way that
it will to the unbeliever. The believer will expect, is
constantly expecting the Lord to return. But the point is,
is that common to both. There will be no idea of the
timing. So you see, then, first of all, from this passage, that
the Lord is coming back, and we do not know when that will
be, as they knew the coming judgment upon Jerusalem. Now, I want you
to see, secondly, that when He does come, it will be too late
to prepare yourself for Him. Your destiny will be fixed. Wherever you are on that day,
is what you will be as with Noah. The day comes when the day comes.
You will either be ready or you won't be ready. Noah had spent
a good part of his life preparing the ark for the day of judgment.
He was prepared when God's judgment came with the preparation that
God had commanded him to make. But it was too late for those
who had not prepared an ark on the day that the flood came.
So it was in Egypt on the night of the Passover. If you had not
bothered to heed the Lord's instruction and put the blood on the doorpost
when the death angel came around, it was too late to scurry about
and try to gather your lamb at that point. You were either prepared
or you were not prepared. Jesus is warning you not to be
deceived. And suppose that you're going
to have some sort of advance warning so that you can scamper
about and get ready for His coming at the last minute. As soon as
you realize that He's come, it will be too late. There will
be an immediate, complete, and permanent separation between
the prepared and the unprepared in that day. Just as there was
a complete, immediate, and permanent separation in the day of Noah. Again, I point you to verse 40
and 41. Two men working in the field. suddenly separated into two entirely
different destinies. Two women working at the millstone
suddenly separated into two entirely different destinies. The language
is very interesting here. Verse 39 speaks of the unprepared
being taken away. Arrow is the word that's used
here. It's a word that's even used
for forgiveness when our sins are taken away, dismissed, put
off the account. He says that they're taken away
by the flood. They're taken away into judgment. But in verse 40
and 41, he uses a different word that's translated taken. It's
the word paralambano. which means received or taken
to oneself. You receive something. You take
it to yourself. Many received Him, John says
of the Lord Jesus, of those that received Him. And so in this
case, it seems to refer not to those who are taken away by judgment,
but to those who are received by the Lord. The one that's taken
in the field, the one that's taken at the millstone is the
one that's taken to be with the Lord. As Paul says in Thessalonians,
taken to be with the Lord, caught up to be with the Lord. I might
mention here, as an aside, that Paul uses a very specific word
in Thessalonians when he says that. It speaks of going out
to meet an important person. and escort him into the city
or wherever it is that he's coming. It was the kind of thing that
was done when an embassy went out to greet a king that was
coming to the city, and they went out and had a grand procession
coming in with him. Well, in this case, we would
be caught up in the air to meet the Lord of Glory when He returns
to judge the earth. We who believe will be given
the privilege to join that great company of angels and of saints
that have been resurrected from the grave, and we will be joined
together with them to escort our Lord as He comes to the earth. We will be taken away in order
to join in that wonderful embassy. Our Lord shows us how very different,
then, the destinies of the two men in the field will be and
how different the destinies of those two women, one taken and
one left, who are grinding at the millstone. They seem very
much alike in the world. I mean, there they are doing
the same thing, doing it side by side, suddenly separated into
two radically different conditions at our Lord's return. Who can
comprehend the misery of the one and the joy of the other? See how our Lord describes the
difference as he goes on. He illustrates the difference
in verse 45 through 51 with a master who returns from a journey having
left his faithful servant in charge. altogether different
would be that Master's response to that servant at his return,
if that servant is found doing his Master's will, versus if
that servant is found beating his fellow servants and eating
and drinking with the drunkards. Of the one found doing his Master's
will, the Lord says in v. 46-47, blessed is that servant whom His Master,
when He comes, will find so doing." Oh, that we would be found so
doing when He comes. He says, "...assuredly I say
to you that He will make Him ruler over all of His goods."
What a marvelous thing for the Lord to say to you on that blessed
day. To be pronounced blessed by Him is to be one that He is
saying brings cheer to Him. It brings gladness to Him when
He sees you submissive and doing His will with gladness. He congratulates
and approves those who are found in Him at His return. If you
are pronounced blessed when He returns, It means that you are
blessed. Jesus doesn't pronounce things
falsely. You will be given an eternal inheritance, as he says
here, made ruler over all of his goods. Nothing that can make
for your true and lasting happiness will be withheld from you in
that day. You will be brought into the
eternal fellowship of God. of His household to live in the
delight of the love that has been exchanged for all eternity
between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You will be brought into
that household as your inheritance to live in the communion of that
love forever and ever and ever according to your capacity as
a creature. You will be given a happiness
that defies comparison with even the greatest happiness that you
may have ever known in this world. But alas, if you are found unprepared
for His coming, if you are found to be living your life without
reference to your Master and to His coming, living as if He
has no particular authority over you, no right to command you,
Doing your own will, Jesus says in verse 50, the master of that
servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and
in an hour that he is not aware of. He will catch him mistreating
his fellow servants that have been put under his care. He will
catch him totally diverted and consumed with this world, with
his drunkenness. He will catch him with his hand
in the cookie jar, Verse 51, "...and will cut him in two and
appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth." Now, that gnashing of teeth is
a very graphic way of referring to the anguish that will belong
to those who are found rejecting their Lord on that day. Jesus says that He will have
His portion with the hypocrites. Why hypocrites? A hypocrite,
as you may know, was a play actor. He prefers someone wearing a
mask, pretending a part, playing a part. Well, no doubt, he calls
him a hypocrite because he pretended that this world doesn't belong
to the Lord. He was playing games all his
life. He tried to pretend that he did
not have to answer to the Lord. That he would never be called
to give an account of himself to the Lord. His whole life was
a sham, a play-act, a pretense that this is not really the world
that God made, the earth that belongs to the Lord. That what
is very, very clear, that this is the Lord's world, is not clear,
but it's fuzzy and it can't be understood and it's confusing
and we don't quite know who the Lord is or just quite what He
wants. It's a thing that's uncertain and a thing that we really can't
know. If you have disregarded the Lord like that, then this
misery that is spoken of in this passage will be your misery.
It will come upon you quite suddenly if you happen to be here when
the Lord returns. And even if you don't happen
to be here, it will still come upon you on that day. You will
be drawn out of the grave to stand before the Lord on that
judgment day. You can pretend, but you cannot
escape this judgment. Once our Lord returns, it will
be too late to make any changes. Your destiny will be sealed one
way or the other forever and ever and ever. And so, thirdly
this morning, see what our Lord does. He admonishes you in this
whole passage to prepare yourself for His coming. That's why He's
telling us all these things. See, verse 42, He urges you to
watch He says, watch therefore. It's
the present tense. Keep watching. Be watching. For
you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. The idea here
is that you would be always looking for Him. Watching for Him. The
way a man at a military post is always looking out, watching
for the enemy. You are to live every moment
of your life under the expectation that He may come at that moment. In other words, don't be caught.
with your hand in the cookie jar, supposing that He's delaying
His coming. Now, of course, the point is
not that everything depends on that particular moment that He
returns, and that if you happened to have fallen into a temptation
as a generally faithful Christian believer, and He happened to
return at that moment, that everything would be lost for you. That's
not the point. What matters is that you are living your life
all together as one who expects to meet Him at any time, and
living as one who expects to give an account to Him. That
rather than conducting your affairs as if that great day will never
come, that you are constantly watching, expecting, and preparing
for that day. that your whole life is shaped
by the reality of His coming. So that when you do fall into
sin, that you do not remain in sin, but you repent, and you
ask forgiveness, and you seek restoration. He uses the illustration
of one who knows that a robber is coming. If he knows that a
robber is going to come, then he's going to keep a lookout.
He's going to remain in a state of preparedness. If a restaurant
owner knows that the health inspector is going to come one day, then
He is wise if He keeps things in order, so that He doesn't
violate the laws, lest His business be closed down for lack of compliance. He will be always ready, you
see, knowing that He could come at any moment. That's what Jesus
is telling you to do, because He says, you don't know when
I'm going to come. It's not something you can get
ready for at the last minute. Notice how he personalizes it
with his disciples. Verse 44, therefore, you also
be ready, he says, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when
you do not expect. Jesus' disciples often thought
that certain things perhaps didn't apply to them. I mean, they were
Jesus' disciples. They were insiders. But Jesus
says, you also be ready. Because you don't know either.
It applies to you, too, he's saying. And then he gives this
illustration of the master that went away on a journey, left
his servant to run things while he was gone. We already looked
at that for the consequences. But I want you to notice now
how it especially is tailored to the disciples of Jesus. You
see, they were soon to be specifically entrusted with the care of His
house, of the house of the Lord Jesus. Jesus was going to go
to heaven, and His disciples, apostles, would be left to minister
until He returned. They would be made rulers over
His household. to give to all their food in
due season, so to speak, as a steward was responsible for distributing
the food to all the members of the household. So the minister
of the word of God is to distribute God's word and to bring that
word to the people according to the master's will. He is warning
them that in his long absence, they must not take matters into
their own hands, begin to do things their own way as if he
were as if it were their house instead of his house. You know,
we're going to make up some ceremonies for the church. We're going to
make up this and that. We're going we're going to do
our own thing. We're going to make up some doctrines. And we
don't like some of these doctrines. So we're going to kind of avoid
those. They are to remember he is the master and that one day
he will return. They are to be ready always for
that return. They are to be sure that they
are found doing things according to His will when He comes. And they haven't drifted into
living independently of Him as if there is no Lord. Well, you
see that this is the great danger. That they would say in their
hearts is verse 48. My master is delaying his coming
and then begin to beat their fellow servants and to eat and
drink with the drunkards that the master should return and
not find them doing what they were called to do. In this case,
administering the word of God that he had appointed for them
to minister. Jesus says you. You who have been given, who
will be given this special responsibility to take care of my house, you
also, you in particular, be ready, because you don't know when I'm
coming either. But now I say that if you are
wise, you will see how Jesus applies this to His disciples.
And you will say, I need to apply that to myself. You. You also. I also, in particular,
need to be ready for His coming. That's what you need to say.
Some of you would say, appropriately, I am a father and a husband. God forbid that the Lord Jesus
should come and find me neglecting to provide for the needs of my
family in a selfish way. God forbid that I should be considered
worse than an infidel because I don't care for my family. How
many fathers abandon their children? God forbid again that He should
come and find me neglecting my calling as the head of my household
to bring the Word of God to my family, to discipline my children,
to see that my family is faithful in the worship of God and in
service to Him. Others of you could appropriately
say, I also. I in particular should be ready.
I am an elder in a church. And how terrible it would be
that He should return and find me doing my own will instead
of caring for His people. God forbid that I should be trusting
in my position rather than serving my Lord in my position. That
the blood of His saints should be on my hands. That I should
be found taking disciples to myself rather than making disciples
of the Lord. Or another should say, I in particular
should be ready. I am only a child. And I have
not had so much time to prepare for the Lord's coming as others
have. God forbid that He should come and find me in my youth
unconcerned, indifferent about my soul when I am called to seek
Him in the days of my youth. God forbid that He should find
me unprepared, because I suppose that I could wait until later
to prepare for His coming. And another should say, I in
particular should be ready, for I have been a believer for a
long time. And I realize that I have not made nearly as much
progress as I should after these 5 years or these 20 years or
these 40 years. I have not made nearly as much
progress. I have not prepared myself the way I should. I need
to be therefore all the more diligent that I am ready When
He comes, I can put it off no longer. My Lord may come at this
very moment. You get the idea. Just as Jesus
applied this specifically to His disciples and their particular
circumstances with the illustration that He used, so you need to
find ways to apply it to yourself, whoever you are and whatever
your circumstances. It is God's message to each one
of you. You also. Be prepared, because
you do not know when the Lord will come. The danger is that
you too will say in your heart, my Lord delays His coming. Looks
like He's not going to come for a while. Let me tell you what
happens when you say that. Why it is such a dangerous thing
to say. There's a kind of a downward progression that results. You
do something that you know that your Lord would not be pleased
with. You look around, you take the first cookie out of the cookie
jar. Oh, nothing happened. Maybe you
were neglecting your Bible reading, neglecting regular worship of
the church at the stated worship times that the elders have appointed.
Maybe you're a little slack and caring for your family, but nothing
adverse seems to happen of it. You're not called to account
for your actions. Or maybe you found yourself using harsh and
unkind language a little more frequently, giving a covetous
glance at your neighbor's wife or at your neighbor's bank account,
surfing the net when you're supposed to be at work, engaging in a
little bit of gossip. You get the idea you're neglecting
something or you're doing something that isn't quite right, you know,
in your conscience, but Nothing adverse seems to result. Nobody
seems to notice. Now, let me just make a little
digression here. Nobody seems to notice. You know, let me just
mention that on the side here, that this is one of the reasons
that we need to encourage one another. We have to wake each
other up, brothers and sisters, because our consciences go to
sleep. That's why parents discipline their children. to wake them
up and say, hey, that's not acceptable. No, there are consequences. There
are consequences when you do wrong. We need to do that with
each other. You see, we've lost that in the modern church. We're
too polite with each other. We see our brother in sin. And there's no consequences and
we don't give him any consequences. Elders, they're appointed to
give oversight. No consequences. We don't want to bother with
disciplining. We won't say anything. You see
what I mean? We need to help one another.
That's just on the side. But now back to the point. You've
done these little things and nobody has called you to account.
No trouble has come of it. It seems to be going OK. So you
begin to grow comfortable in what you're doing. In effect,
you're saying, I haven't had to give an account for my slackness.
Oh, I guess it's OK. Maybe I won't have to give an
account at all. My Lord delays His coming. You see, He's not
visiting me about this. I can go on with this and it's
not going to make any difference. Very soon, you're very comfortable
with that sin, that little sin, that little omission or that
little commission of sin. And once you're comfortable with
those little sins, then you take on a few new ones. Because those
new sins, you see, your conscience is now partially hardened and
it still is bothered. It's not bothered by those ones
that you're accustomed to, but there's a new one now. And your
conscience is bothered a little bit, but you commit it. You take
the cookie out Nothing happens. So, you go on. This is why the
Bible tells us that those that the Lord loves, He chastens.
We sang it in Psalm 94 a while ago. Blessed are those that you
chastise, Lord. Because you see, He won't let
you go to sleep when you are His elect, when you belong to
Him. But if this is your condition and you are hardening like this,
well, before you know it, you'll be doing the things that Jesus
is talking about. Beating your fellow servants. It doesn't happen
all at once. A person doesn't go from a clear
and undefiled conscience to beating his servants. He grows into it
and saying, oh, you know, it seems nothing seemed to happen
when I did that. And he progresses downwardly, worse and worse,
assuming that he'll never have to answer for it. Well, this
is exactly what your Lord is warning you about in this passage.
You see, he is coming. And you will have to give an
account to Him. This is not your world. It is
His world. And He is the Lord of it. If
you're not living in the reality of that, it may be that you're
less ready for His coming than you think you are. You may think
that you have trusted in the Lord for your salvation, but
it may in fact be the case that you are not born again. You see,
if you're born again, you've come to believe and admit that
you're subject to God's judgment. And that you will give an account,
that everyone will give an account to Him. And you have realized
that you are a sinner who is worthy of condemnation. And you
have understood that the only remedy for that condemnation
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood for your sin.
And that it's found in trusting in Him. And so you have fled
to Him for salvation in order to prepare for that coming judgment.
But let me tell you, if you're someone who's done that, then
you'll not be able to live as if there is no coming judgment. Because your whole salvation
and all that you have done is based upon that reality. If you
don't believe it, then you never really came to Jesus. See, you
were gripped by the reality of judgment if you came to Him.
If you've been gripped by the reality of His coming judgment,
it won't be possible for you to be dismissive about it. is
if it's something that won't happen. It will be real to you. You will not live as those live
who do not expect to ever give an account. But you see, if you
do trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are truly born again,
then you will live as one who is eagerly expecting Him to come. You will conduct your affairs
as one who wants to please Him in heart and behavior. and living
a life of love to Him and for Him. You will be like a bride
preparing to meet her husband. Not indifferent about what your
husband thinks of you, but living to please. Brothers and sisters,
don't you see that we are going to meet Him? He is coming for
us. He is working in us now. to prepare
us as a bride without spot and blemish for that day. Won't it
be wonderful to be called forth to escort the King of Glory when
He comes? To know that the last hour has
finally come and that the day that we will be brought into
His house to live with Him forever and ever has come. Do you believe
that that is really going to happen? Surely then, your chief
concern in life is to prepare yourself for that great day. Surely, your whole life is about
nothing else but getting yourself ready to meet your Lord. Does anything else really matter
when you understand what this is about? Surely, if this is
your hope, you can say with Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, Therefore,
we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing
to him. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things
done in the body according to what he has done, whether good
or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Please stand. Gracious Heavenly Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ, we praise You that You are the King of
Glory, the Lord of Heaven, the Owner of all things, the Maker
of us and of all things visible and invisible. We praise You,
O Lord God, that You are the Judge of all of the earth and
that you will come, and that you will administer justice in
the earth, and that all of those who are found in Jesus Christ,
serving Him as Lord and Savior, trusting in Him for the forgiveness
of our sins, will be eternally blessed and given that inheritance
in your household, an everlasting possession in the very house
of God, receiving and enjoying the communion with Father, Son
and Holy Spirit forever and ever. Father, we cannot possibly conceive
the glory that will be given in that hour. Help us, Lord,
also to realize the terror that will come upon those, the anguish
that will come upon those who are found outside of Christ in
that day. What a dreadful, destructive
day it will be. And Father, we pray that you
would help us to be gripped with the reality of these things.
We might live our lives accordingly. That we might, as the Apostle
said, persuade men who are living indifferently regarding your
coming, disregarding the fact that you will return. Father,
we pray that You would help us not to be waylaid by those excuses
and those justifications that are so often made by others and
by ourselves. That these things will not come
or that we cannot know if they will come or all of the different
ways that these things are avoided. Pray, Lord, that You would awaken
us to the reality of these things and that we would be used to
awaken others. We pray for those we love, Lord, those that we
may be even seeing over this time of the holidays, that you
would give us wisdom and grace that we might live, first of
all, is those who are waiting for our Lord's return. And that
we might also be able to tell them of the hope that we have
and to show them the glory that is promised and to warn them
of the terror that is also certain. Father, we pray that you would
work in our world. We look at our nation. We are
a nation that is not ready for our Lord to come. We pray, O
Lord, that you would grant us repentance. We look at the church
in Canada and we see that the church in Canada is not prepared
for you to come, that many will be caught with their hand in
the cookie jar. We pray, O Lord, that you would
raise up strong gospel preaching. that your word would go forth
and that it would penetrate throughout our land, that the word would
increase, that it would have victory, that it would bring
men to their knees before you. Father, that we would cry out
to you as a people and that you would have mercy upon us and
pity us. We remember the wicked city of Nineveh and how Jonah
preached to them and how they repented and how you heard and
spared them from judgment. Father, how we pray that we would
see that kind of repentance upon our land, even greater repentance,
a lasting repentance. Father, we look to you that Jesus
Christ would be known in our land. Make us faithful witnesses,
we pray. Father, we pray now that you
would bless us as we continue on this Lord's Day, that we would
remember to encourage and admonish one another. We would not be
slack to allow our brothers and sisters to become hardened before
our very eyes. Most of all, we would not allow
ourselves to become hardened as we only know our own hearts
and the things that go on there. We pray, Lord, that we would
not allow transgressions because they seem to go unnoticed and
seem to be undisciplined. We pray, Lord, that you would
make your word to be very penetrating to us. That it would convict
us, that it would prick us, that it would sharply goad us, Lord,
and cause us to be miserably uncomfortable until we have dealt
with what is amiss in our lives. May we not fall into the deceitfulness
of sin and that downward progression of hardening. For, Lord, we are
a people that are vulnerable to these things apart from your
grace. Bless us and feed us now as we come to the Lord's table.
Strengthen us that we may go forth with vigor to serve you
with the confidence that is befitting to the servants of the Lord who
have such a great Savior. For our hope is not in our own
works or what we have done, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
one who shed his blood for us and whoever lives to make intercession
for us and who keeps us in his way. It is in his name that we
pray. Amen. You may be seated. Let us now prepare to receive
the Lord's Supper. I'll ask the elders to come and assist. In our New Testament worship,
the Lord's Supper replaces the Passover of the Old Testament.
Our Lord illustrated the or our Lord instituted the Lord's Supper
at the time of the Passover to show that he himself was that
Passover lamb that had come into the world to take away the sins
of the world and the Apostle Paul. refers to Him as our Passover
that was sacrificed for us in 1 Corinthians 5. When you trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ and you enter into covenant with
Him, you are actually, by that action, preparing yourself for
the coming day of the Lord, for the day of judgment when He returns
to judge the earth. This morning we read in Matthew
24 where Jesus said that on that day, two men will be in the field
One will be taken in the other left. Two women will be grinding
at the millstone. One will be taken in the other
left. What is Jesus talking about but
the great Passover at the end of the world? You see, in that
day, the Lord will judge the world in righteousness. And His
condemnation will fall on all because of sin. But He will pass
over all those who are trusting in the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ,
whose blood was shed for the remission of sins. His judgment
will not fall on those who are trusting in Him, but will pass
over them, because there is no condemnation for those that are
in Christ Jesus. Jesus has already shed His blood
for our sins. And God will not require sin
to be paid for twice. As in the first Passover, He
tells us, when I see the blood, I will pass over you." Now, let
this be your great comfort when you come to the Lord's table.
When you take the bread that represents His body broken for
you, and when you take the cup that represents His blood that
was shed for the remission of your sins, let it be your comfort
that the Lord sees. He sees you as you come to this
table looking to the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ for the
remission of your sins. He sees you marked by the reception
of the blood that He has given us in this sign. And He acknowledges
that and therefore will pass over you if you come sincerely
receiving Him. I do not say that anyone who
goes through the motions of drinking this cup and eating this bread
will be passed over. Because He will be examining
hearts in that day. But I say that if you are trusting
in Him as you are professing to do when you come to this table,
then the Lord will pass over you and His judgment will not
reach you. Let that be your comfort as you come to this table. Let
me warn you that You must not come to this table if you're
not trusting in the Lord Jesus and trusting in Him alone for
your salvation. Because that would be a hypocritical
thing to do. That would be to mock God. To
say, to do this symbol of trusting, and yet not be trusting at all. So be sure that you are looking
to Him when you come. However weak you are, however
many failures you may have had, That when you come now to this
table, that you're looking to the Lord Jesus and saying, Lord
Jesus, You are my salvation. You are my life. You are my hope.
Your blood is what I trust in to cleanse me from my sin, because
You died on the cross for me. This is how you come properly
to the Lord's table. Otherwise, you shouldn't come.
If you have not been baptized, and you're not walking in communion
with His church, then you should not come either. Well, let's
all who are trusting him now let us give thanks to him for
the bread and the wine and ask him to bless it. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the bread and the wine which is on this table
that represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for
us, whose body was broken for us in order that our sins might
be washed away. We pray, O Lord, that as we come
that you would comfort us in the knowledge of what our Lord
Jesus has done. Father, that we would know that
even as you passed over the Israelites when you visited them with judgment,
when you visited Egypt with judgment, that so at the end of the world,
You will pass over all of those who are found trusting in Jesus
Christ, who are marked out by the blood of the Lamb. And Father,
we thank you that you've given us a visible symbol that we are
marked out in order to encourage us and to strengthen our faith.
And even as Israel, when they trusted in you, that they put
the blood on their doorposts, so we come now and receive the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, being marked out from the world
as your people. And while There are many hypocrites
that come to the table. We are not concerned for them,
Lord. We are concerned that you do receive all who come in honesty
and sincerity, looking to the Lord Jesus and that this is a
true mark. that we are your people, that we have been washed, that
we have been cleansed. And it is a way in which you
even communicate to us the blessing and give us the strength and
new faith as we come. So we pray, O Lord, that that
we might receive the refreshing of the Lord as we as we partake
today, that you would encourage us in the Lord Jesus, in whose
name we pray. Amen. You may eat and drink as
soon as the tray is passed to you. And then I'll ask Dave Alexander
to lead us in a prayer of thanksgiving. According to the holy institution,
command and example of our blessed savior, Jesus Christ, I take
this bread and having given thanks for it, break it and give it
to you. Take eat. This is the body of Christ which
is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of him. Now may the God of peace himself
sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul
and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen.
Tribulation for the Unprepared at the End
Series Matthew
| Sermon ID | 419202129345171 |
| Duration | 1:05:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 24:36-51 |
| Language | English |
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