Please be seated. Exodus 15, verse 17. You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever. This morning, as we prepare to fellowship with the Lord, remember that he has will establish us on his mountain, the place where he reigns. Just as we have sung, fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the foe, but the King's own army, none can overthrow. This morning as we fellowship with the Lord, remember we are God's people and need to listen to his word. Amen. Let's go now to a time of fellowship around God's Word. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 4, and we'll be looking at 7 through 11 today in the coming weeks. This is an incredible passage, as all the passages are, and I'm looking forward to fellowshipping with you around this text. So 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 7 through 11. Brothers and sisters, this is the Word of Almighty God. And he is our triumphant king. It's appropriate for us to stand, as they did in the ancient days, when there were real kings, and those kings spoke. Everyone stood. And likewise, it's appropriate for us to stand as God speaks, as we read his word this morning at this moment. So please stand together with me as we read God's word. And now the word of our king. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without a complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak as it were the utterances of God. Whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, what a delight it is now to come and fellowship with You around Your Word. God, we recognize that these will just be words, and even words that we don't understand, save for Your grace. So, Lord, we pray that You would send forth Your Spirit now, condescend, Holy Spirit, and enable us to behold Your Word, to behold You, and to fellowship with You through the foolishness of preaching. God bless this time, we pray. Open our eyes, that we might behold wonderful things from your law. And give me grace as your preacher, as the preacher here, to preach your word with fidelity and with unction, and grant us the grace to receive it with unction. Lord, we entrust this time to you now, in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Speaking of the second coming of Christ, speaking of the end of the world, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24, but of that day and hour no one knows. Now in spite of that truth, that no one knows the day or the hour except the Father, when Jesus Christ will come back, when the world will come to an end, in spite of that truth, history records 190 predictions of people speculating as to when the end of the world would come. In fact, they go all the way back to the time of the Apostolic Age. I've got a little comic there from the Simpsons. He's reading a book and it says the 50th anniversary of the end is near. But we could say it's the 2000th anniversary since the first predictions were made. Now some of those people making those predictions were believers. They knew Matthew chapter 24, and Christ saying, no one knows the day or the hour. So why would they make the predictions? Well, the answer is, on some of them, would be because they're simply doing what Peter did. Peter, in our text this morning, says, the end of the world is near. The end is near. Does that mean that Peter, perhaps erroneously, did exactly what he shouldn't have done? I mean, he heard Jesus say, he heard Christ say, speak the word, we didn't just read it, he heard it. No one knows the day or the hour except the Father. And yet here you got Peter in our text this morning saying, the end of the world is near. The end of all things is near. What did he mean by that? Liberals take this and they say that the apostles were in error. Right after Christ left, they all believed he was coming back in a couple months, maybe a couple years. But as time wore on, they realized that he wasn't coming back. And so they believe on the pages of Scripture you can see disappointment and sadness and disillusionment because Christ hadn't returned yet. Of course, that's wrong. But that's what they say. Why? Because the passages are like this. Peter said, the end is near. He believed Christ was going to come back soon. Is that what Peter believed? Is that what he means by this text? This morning, I want to look with you at this expression. I want to introduce to you, in essence, this section of Scripture. And by doing so, I want to look with you at what this text is saying, and likewise, I want to look with you at biblical teaching relevant to what Peter is saying here. So, in essence, what I want to do with you is give you a primer on the end of the world. Okay? I want to give you just a brief overview looking at passages and scriptures that relate to Peter's contention that the end of all things is at hand. So, let's begin, first of all, looking at that phrase, dissecting it. Notice with me 7a. He says, the end of all things is at hand. This is a phrase that is quite straightforward. Unlike what he says above, you know, that the gospel has been preached to those who are dead, or even in chapter 3, you know, being baptized for the dead, and on and on and on. What in the world does he mean by that? Well, it's straightforward. The only thing that could be controversial, or at least some scholars try to make controversial, is the very last phrase, at hand. and Gidzo in the Greek. And Gidzo simply means approaching, near, close, about to happen, at hand. So Peter's saying the end of all things, is about to happen, is close, is approaching, is near. In fact, because of this statement, even in Peter's day, there were some who believed that the disciples were teaching that Christ was gonna come back in a couple years. And when he didn't, they began slandering and criticizing and criticizing God. And so Peter in 2 Peter 3 had to address this where we read, Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it has been from the beginning. Peter says, there's going to come people in his own generation and in ours who are going to say, yeah, where is it? You said it's near. Where is it? So what did Peter mean by this expression? The end of all things is near. The end of all things is about to happen, or close at hand, approaching. What did he mean by that? In essence, what he's talking about here is that Jesus Christ and the end of the world is very, very soon. And we call that, I referenced it last week, the imminency of Christ's return, okay? Imminency, it's close at hand. Well, what does the Bible mean by that? I'm gonna review a little bit about what we talked about last time and then we're gonna add to it. First of all, what does that mean? Well, notice there are passages, many, I'm gonna give you just a couple. Philippians 4, you've got them there in your, Paul wrote, Rejoice, O Lord, always. Again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your foreboding spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Paul taught that Christ is near. John, Revelation 22, Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. John taught that Christ is near. Peter, in our text, the end of the world, is at hand, at near, close, approaching. So what did the apostolic witness mean when they said this? Well, we talked about this last week. They weren't thinking chronologically. They were not thinking of a calendar. When you talk about nearness on a calendar, right, this time is near. You might be thinking next week. You might be thinking next month. And so we, who are calendar-based, we read this and go, oh, near means next week, next month, next year, versus 50 years. Well, these guys were not thinking the imminency of Christ's return. These passages are not thinking of a calendar. They're thinking of God's redemptive program. And on the context of God's redemptive program, in essence what they're saying is the next event in God's redemptive program is the second coming of Jesus Christ, and hence the end of the world. Now, that's what we talked about last time, let me add to that. Based upon this, we conclude that in the New Testament, God's people had a radical shift with how they measured time. Okay, this is not original to me, this is from commentators. New Testament, God's people began thinking of time differently. See, you gotta go back into the ancient world. They didn't have calendars like we do. I've got probably four or five calendars in our house. One in my office, one in the refrigerator, one up there, one down there. All my kids have calendars in their room. You probably have the same thing. We all have watches. We're all looking at the time, because we get to work at eight o'clock, and we've got, you know, and it's next week is my birthday, so we're looking at that calendar, right? Brothers and sisters, the ancient world did not have calendars. Now, people in official capacities did, so they would herald celebrations and festivals, but the general populace did not have calendars on their wall. They did, they woke up when the sun rose. Not when their alarm clock went off. They went to bed when the sun set. Not when their alarm, not when their clock said it's bedtime. They were not calendar-based. In fact, in the ancient world, we know that they governed time based upon when a king came into his regency. Isaiah 6, in the year a king, Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord. Isaiah doesn't say, in 740 BC, which is approximately when he saw the Lord, I saw the Lord. They didn't have a calendar in that way. They governed time based upon kings or natural disasters. Five years following the flood, this is what happened. God's people, by the time of the New Testament, they governed time based upon religious festivals. For them, their entire year revolved around the festivals that they lived with every single year. So while the leaders, the priests knew, we're now in the month of Nisan, and they let people know that, were the third day of Nisan, fourth day of Nisan, name it. The typical people were knowing that, well, we know that the Sabbath's coming, and so they governed their life based upon celebrations, the Sabbath celebration, and then the big ones. We have four more Sabbaths until Passover. We have 20 more Sabbaths until Pentecost, name it. That's how they governed time. And so when we come to the New Testament, there's a radical shift with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that radical shift was, now it became God's redeeming grace. His redemptive acts are the things that began governing how God's people began to think. So they, in time, stopped doing the religious festivals of the Old Testament. Rather, for them, they were thinking in terms of God's redeeming grace. Now, I talked about this last time, and if we could go back in our time machine, right before God creates this world, and ask the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, you've already planned redeeming grace, Ephesians 1, we know that. What are the high points? What are the main movements of your redeeming grace? And you know what you would find if you produced a piece of paper? It'd be twelve primary movements. Twelve. Creation. The Fall. The Promise of the Redeemer. The Flood. The promise to Abraham. I'm gonna look at my notes now. The calling of Abraham. The exodus. The theocracy. The fall of the theocracy, including the exiles and the returns. The coming of Christ, including his birth, life, death, resurrection. The ascension of Christ, that's number 10. 11, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There's one more, and that's it. And that's the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now on that list that I just gave you, if you were back in time and you saw that list, if you were born at the time of Abraham, you would know there's a lot of redemptive events that still needed to take place before the end came. But if you were born in Christ's day, or actually after his ascension, after the outpouring of the Spirit, you would know redemptively what's left. What's left, guys? Second coming. There's no intermediate redemptive element to God's plan between now and the second coming, but the second coming. Nothing left but the second coming. So from the perspective of God's people now being driven by God's redeeming acts, by God's redemption, not the calendar of the religious calendar, but Christ's redeeming acts, from their perspective, the most important event in which they were to live in light of, their whole life was to revolve around, was the second coming of Jesus Christ. And that is why, for example, in the book of Hebrews 9, we read that the coming of Christ marked the consummation of the ages. That's what God's Word says. Christ's coming was the consummation of the ages, and they knew that, and they lived in light of that. So when they thought of Jesus Christ, or better yet, when we come to our text, or whether Paul or wherever, the many passages ours is, when they thought of the future, the thing that drove them was not, get this, what day of the week it was. Their bank account. The next holiday. The next time they got to relax, the weekend. What drove them as redeemed people was the knowledge that the next event is Christ coming back, which could happen at any second. So get this, when they say that the end of the world is at hand, they weren't saying, they were not expecting that Christ would come back in their lifetime. He could have, he could come back in ours, but we cannot conclude from any of these statements that they believe Christ was coming back in their lifetime or in, a couple years. All that they were saying was the next event on the calendar or on the calendar of our lives is not spring, not fall, not winter, not Christmas, not Easter, but the consummation of the ages, the second coming of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, if you adopt that way of thinking, it will radically change the way you live. And that's what Peter's getting at in this whole text. This whole text is living light of the end. He wanted God's people who were suffering under persecution and difficulty to gauge their lives, not by the next religious event, but by the coming of Jesus Christ. That's our hope. That's our joy. That's our gladness. That's the imminency of Christ's return. But what do we do about those passages which say He's coming quickly? Let me give you a couple of them. For example, 1 Corinthians 15. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be cleansed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. He's talking about the second coming. So it makes it sound like it's going to happen soon. But that's not what the text means. You know what the twinkling of an eye was? It's a Hebraism. It's a colloquialism. Do you know what that means? It's the time in that day. It's the measurement of time. It would take for light to penetrate from the outside of your eye to the back of your eye. That's the twinkling of an eye. And what that means is, get this, when Jesus Christ comes back, it's not going to be a 100-year war. It's not gonna be a seven-year war. There will be no siege warfare. When God, and only God the Father knows, when God, and we know God the Son and God knows, but man doesn't, when God looks to Jesus Christ and says, go, it's over that fast. That's the idea. It's sudden. When we read the word quick, it means it's sudden. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 5. You yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While they're saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly. That's the idea. So when Jesus Christ comes back, the end of the world, it's not going to take years or months or weeks or even days. It's going to be that fast. Satan's kingdom will be destroyed. That fast, all of Satan and his demons will be gathered and brought before God and judged. That fast, mankind will be judged. That's how sudden it's gonna be. All right, so that helps us to understand what Peter's getting at here. But there's more. Let me talk with you now about, so we've got a good start, let's look at a couple more expressions. One, we'll look, secondly, at the end of the world and the day of the Lord, the last days, the last day, and that day. Notice with me the day of the Lord. Isaiah 13, wail for the day of the Lord is near. It's a very common expression in scripture. Zephaniah 1, near is the great day of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, suddenly. Okay, it's used 26 times in Scripture, and its derivations even more. What's the day of the Lord? Well, some of you have studied it with me in years past. What's the day of the Lord? Well, brothers and sisters, Satan has had his day. He's having his day. Bad and evil men have their days. Right? They are victorious and the righteous are running with her, you know, screaming and yelling. They're victorious. They're having their day. Well, brothers and sisters, the days are going to come when God has his day. Okay? And look at your notes. By definition, the day of the Lord, refers to a future period of catastrophic judgment when God vindicates His name by unveiling His character, which necessarily will terrify His enemies, and if you've got your notes, write this in, and bless His people. I left that out, okay? It's that day when God will terrify His enemies and bless His people. When we consider the biblical teaching on this day, we note two very important points. Number one, the day of the Lord can be used in scripture to refer to temporal difficulties. Okay, so you've got your list in your notes. Seismic disturbances are identified as the day of the Lord. Violent weather, Ezekiel 13. Clouds and thick darkness. Cosmic upheaval. Wars. Rumors of wars. Hardship. Trial. Oppression. Matthew 24. All of these are the day of the Lord. They picture the day of the Lord. It's interesting, brothers and sisters, but we call today The Lord's day. It's the day. It's a mini day of the Lord. Did you realize for God's people today a blessing? But for the wicked it's a day of cursing now having said that in Scripture the day of the Lord is akin to the labor pains of a woman having a baby Okay? Understand that. If you wanna know what these, what's the day of the Lord? Well, from God's perspective, they're labor pains. Now, in theology, we don't call them labor pains. We call them portents. You got those in your notes? P-O-R-T-E-N-T-S. They're portents. And based upon the teaching of God's word, these portents characterize this world because of its fallen nature. They are throughout the ages are these portents. Turn with me to Romans 8 in your Bibles. Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 verse 19. Listen to how this passage describes the world in which we live. Romans 8 verse 19. Paul wrote, For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." So Paul's speaking anthropomorphically of the world. He's making it sound like the world is a person. And the world, therefore, is longing for the revelation of the sons of God. Well, what's that? The second coming. Okay, so this world is pictured as longing for the Second Coming. Well, how does the world long for the Second Coming? How do you know this world's longing for it? Because of seismic disturbances, wars, rumors of wars, tribulation, Famine, sickness, disease. Look what the text says. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in the hope that creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption. That's seismic disturbances. That's earthquakes. That's hurricanes. That's disease. That's famine. That's war. So creation now is subjected to all of this horribleness. God didn't create the world to be like this. But because of our sin, we destroyed this world, and now this world has these. And Paul's saying, every single time you see these things, you've got to understand, that's labor pains of our world longing for the birth, the rebirth of a new world. He goes on. in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." Okay. Brothers and sisters, our world has labor pains. In theology, we call them portents. And those portents are all the signs of the time. As I just said, wars, rumors of war, da-da-da-da-da-da, as well as the redeeming grace of God. When God comes, breaks in this world and saves people, that's another sign of the time. Okay, so now biblically speaking, we therefore expect these portents to characterize all of this world in which we live. So just because there's earthquakes, you don't say, whoa, I think Jesus Christ is coming back in my lifetime. No, what we do say is Christ is coming. They're labor pains of something big. And what is that big? The revelation of the sons of God, the second coming, the destruction of this world. So they are pictures that something is coming. And what is it that's going to come? Jesus Christ. And that then brings, but note this, scripture is very clear, before Christ comes back, right before he comes back, those portents are going to intensify. Matthew 24. They're going to intensify and be more frequent. So that's, those are the signs of the time. with regards to the Day of the Lord. Now, based upon what we've seen, the Day of the Lord, one, therefore, refers to temporal difficulties, struggles, disease, famines, and salvation of God's people. But secondly, and this is what really the Day of the Lord is, the focus. Notice in your notes, the Day of the Lord ultimately references the climactic day of judgment surrounding the advent of Christ, which in the Bible involves two separate distinct comings. So the day of the Lord always has in his mind the coming of Christ. That's what it is. That's what seismic disruptions are. That's what famine is. That's what disease is. Those are all labor pains proclaiming Christ is coming. Now, in the Bible, he has two different Advents. His first advent, many of the labor pains of this world were proclaiming Jesus Christ is coming, his first advent. They also proclaim he's coming again, that this world has something bigger at its end than just you and me. It's Jesus Christ. Now in that context then, and I'm sorry if this is complicated, in that context, we have what is known as telescoping. Okay, now follow with me. This is beautiful if you'll listen. Follow along. Telescoping. You know what a telescope is, right? A telescope has two lenses, a near one and a far one. Each lens, if you take them by themselves and look through them, what do you see? It's blurry. Okay? So if I take a near lens and look at it, it's blurry. The near lens is famine, sickness, disease, my cancer. A near lens is a car crash. If I just look at that lens and try to figure out what's going on in my life, it's blurry. I don't understand. And that's why you and I just looking at that lens at times look at God and say, God, what are you doing? But there's a far lens, and that far lens is either the first advent of Christ or the second advent of Christ. For us, because He's already come, it's the second advent, okay, when He comes back. Now, how does a telescope work? If I take that far lens and look at it, it's blurry as well, right? That's why we talk about people who are obsessed with the end time stuff, they become worthless to this world, right? worthless in this world, right? Because they're focusing upon the second lens. But it's only when you and I look through our current life at the image on the second lens, which is the second coming of Jesus Christ, if we interpret this world in light of the second coming, guess what? Now we see. Okay, that's called telescoping. Isaiah 7 is a good example of that. Where there's a virgin going to have a baby, you don't understand that birth until you look at the first coming of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth. Telescoping, the ceremonial sacrificial system, you don't understand that system unless you look through it at the cross of Jesus Christ. Okay, the virgin birth, same thing. The Sabbath, you and I cannot understand the Sabbath until we look through it at Hebrews 4, the remains of Sabbath rest for the people of God, the eternal state. You can't understand what the Sabbath is about until you look through it, the near lens, at what it's pointing at, the second coming. Okay? And when you and I do that then, we understand that life is all about that, the second coming. So when Peter comes in our text and says, the end of the world is at hand. See, he's taking the near lens of the current struggle. Remember, God's people are being persecuted and about to be persecuted. In essence, what he's saying is, brothers and sisters, don't live in line to the fact that soon you'll be arrested, soon you'll be taken, soon you might be killed. Live in light of the second coming of Jesus Christ. That's what he's calling us to. Jesus Christ lived that way. That's how redeemed people live, brothers and sisters. Listen to Luke chapter 13. This is how Christ lived. Now, on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to Jesus about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Horrible tragedy. God's people were worshiping, and Pilate sent his soldiers, and because it was the Sabbath, God's people never defended themselves. So the Pilate soldiers came in, and they hacked them up while they were worshiping. Blood everywhere, they spilled, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifice. And Christ answered and said to them, and I saw people like, those are God's people, Jesus. You stand for God's people. Why would God do this? And Jesus said, brothers and sisters, you'll never understand so long as you look at that event. It'll always be blurry. You've got to look through the event at the last time. Notice what Jesus says, and he answered and said to them, do not suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate. I tell you now that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. You see, Jesus Christ is thinking of the last judgment. He's thinking of the eternal state. And he realizes there is a tribulation coming to this world. It's called judgment. And it's going to make that Galilean tragedy seem like a cakewalk. But until you look at that tragedy in light of this tragedy, it makes no sense. You've got to look through this tragedy at the second coming of Jesus Christ and the last judgment, and now it makes perfect sense. That's how Jesus thought. Notice it goes on. Or do you suppose that these 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, 18 Jews, tower just fell on them one day, accidentally, indiscriminately, 18 people dead. What a tragedy. Don't suppose that they were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem. I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Do you understand Jesus Christ thought of time in light of the last judgment? He gauged this world, everything in this world in light of the last judgment. So when Peter comes here and says, the end of all things is at hand, we understand he was gauging life in light of the last judgment. This great and glorious and sober day is coming. All right, let's add to that a couple more things real quickly. The last days, the last day, and that day. All of this revolves around what Peter's talking about here. Real quickly, the last days. Listen to it, Hebrews 1. God, after He spoke to the fathers and the prophets in many portions, in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to His Son. When did the last days begin? Based upon Hebrews. I just read it. In these last days has spoken to us in his son. When did the last days begin? With the first advent of Jesus Christ. Acts 2, at Pentecost. But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. It shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind. We're at Pentecost. And Peter says, this is what Joel said, in the last days I'll do this. When were the last days? In the lifetime of the apostles. 2 Timothy 3, Paul described that which would characterize the entire inter-adventual period. Inter-adventual between the two advents. Okay? But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come, men will be lovers of self, etc., etc. Brothers and sisters, understand, when you're reading Scripture in the last days, you're reading about the era from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ. From that perspective, biblically, we are in the last days. And every passage you read about the last—when you read that phrase, it makes it sound like, oh, you mean right before Christ comes back. No! The last days are the entire era between the first advent and the second. Well, then what's the last day? The last day, brothers and sisters, is the last day that this world will ever be in existence. It's the last day of this creation. John 6, 40, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son of Man and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. So in scripture, there's a lot of references to the last day. Martha came up and told Christ about Lazarus. I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. So last days are what we're living in, but the last days culminate in the last day. And on that day is when Jesus Christ comes back. Okay, when he comes back on that last day, The entire universe will be burnt up, says Peter in 2 Peter 3, and then renewed and recreated into a paradise. That's the last day. Now, in Scripture we also talk about that day, which is a phrase used a lot. And that day is referencing as well the last day. The last day is that day. Luke 21, 34, Be on guard that your hearts may not be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and worries of life. and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. That day is the second coming. All right, so brothers and sisters, with all this hurt hearing this, understand that the mind of God's people, the worldview, was governed by how Christ viewed life. His life did not revolve around the sacrificial calendar or the ceremonial calendar. His life didn't revolve around our calendar, where man, the weekend, Right? His life revolved around two things. The day of the Lord, which is every Lord's Day. Every week we have a day of the Lord. During the week, we see different days of the Lord. Many days of the Lord. Trial, difficulty, hardship, suffering. But for God's people, the day of the Lord is a glorious day. It's the Lord's Day. It's the Sabbath, the day of the Lord. And there we get a mini taste of what it's gonna be like at the end. Christ's mind was governed by that. So when you get the apostles, whose minds also were governed by that writing, the end of all things is at hand. Do you understand what Peter's saying here? He's saying that the hourglass of this world has one more speck of dust to fall. Think about that. The hourglass has one more speck of sand that is left to fall. He's saying, secondly, that the countdown to the destruction of this world is on its last second. You got a countdown, right? 1,555. 1,554. It's all the way down to one second. He's saying that God's redemptive time clock currently reads 11,59,59. God's redemptive time clock right now. It's 11, or 23, 59, 59. That's how close we are to eternity. He's saying that before us is the final event in God's redemptive plan, the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, how do you respond to this? Brothers and sisters, I study this, and I'll tell you, I hope you feel the same way as I do. There's a sense of sobriety. You feel sober. I feel the sense of heaviness. Wow. That's where we are. We're on the edge of eternity. Do you realize that? The edge of what God fully intends for us in Christ. We're that close. All it takes is God turning to His Son saying, go. And it's over. And that's next. When? We don't know when. But that's what's next. That's how close we are to eternity. Incredible. How do you respond? Well, with the time that we've got left, I want you to turn to Matthew 25. Matthew chapter 25 gives us— there are many passages that tell us how we should respond when you think of the end of this world. And Matthew chapter 25 is one such passage. Christ here is telling a parable. After telling, after the Mount of Olives discourse, where he tells about the second coming of Christ, his second coming, and the destruction that will come right before that, on and on and on, he then tells this parable. So based upon what we just studied, this parable is quite appropriate. Listen to it. Matthew 25, verse 1. Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. We're talking about a wedding. In the Jewish culture, they had three phases to a wedding. You had the betrothal, the interval, and the wedding feast. The betrothal typically occurred when the kids were small. They could be betrothed for 10, 15, 20 years, depending on ages. And during that time, they were legally married, except they didn't live together and they didn't sleep together. But they were married. That's what Mary and Joseph were when Joseph found her to be with child, so he could have had her executed That's why it says he was a righteous man and put away privately wanted to put away probably That's the betrothal interval was the time between the betrothal and the wedding feast Which is when you prepared for your marriage, and then the wedding feast was a time when it was not scheduled It was a day that we're gonna have we know it's gonna be start on this day, but we don't know what what time we have times in our our wedding invitations, but back then there was no time. The bride and her bridesmaids gathered around her, and they prepared themselves, waiting for the bridegroom, waiting for the groom. He and his wedding party, at some point, we don't know when, he would just come, show up at her house and say, it's time, and then they would march through the little village in which they lived, banging whatever they banged, saying, the wedding feast is about to begin, and that's when everybody knew, it's time to go to the wedding. When they got to the wedding feast, the first thing we do is the rabbis, they would do a ceremony and they would exchange whatever they did and they would become married. And then once they were married, they'd have a wedding feast that could last three, four or five, six days, depending upon how wealthy the families were. Our parable is at the wedding feast. The vows have already been exchanged, and now they're celebrating the wedding. Actually, we're not there yet. We're at the point right before that. The bridesmaids are waiting for the bridegroom. We'll pick it up in verse 2. And five of them were foolish, of the bridesmaids, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the prudent took oil and flasks along with their lamp." Brothers and sisters, this is describing the two kinds of people that exist on this earth right now. There are people who live in light of what's coming. the coming of the bridegroom, the second coming of Jesus Christ. And there are those people who don't even think about tomorrow. They're living for today. So two kinds of people, those living for what's coming, those who don't even worry about what's coming, we're gonna worry about what's before us. Verse five, now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. Do you realize every one of us are in a state of slumber? Every one of us. C.S. Lewis, for God's people, pictured God's people in the magician's nephew. Do you remember that? The magician's nephew, there's the land between the two worlds. That's where all God's people are living right now. We were once in the world of men. We were born as sinners, but God redeemed us and brought us out of the world of men. And now we're awaiting the final world, okay? The second coming of Jesus Christ. But right now we're in that world between worlds. And what was the inclination of Jill and whoever the other guy is, right? Edmund? Not Edmund. Eustace. What was their, when they were there, what did they want to do? fall asleep. Brothers and sisters, that's where we are. That's why Paul says, the hour has already come, or we're closer now to the end. The time is at hand. Therefore, awaken from the sleep, O church of God. Romans 11. So this is them. They all got drowsy. They began sleeping. Believer, non-believer, those living for tomorrow, those not. They began sleeping. Hopefully this sermon has roused us a little bit and we're a little bit more nudged and waking up a little bit. Okay? Unfortunately, I think it's put some people to sleep. But having said that, hopefully it's roused us spiritually. Okay? Then we get to 6 through 12. But at midnight there was a shout, behold the bridegroom, come out and meet him. Then all the virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the prudent, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out. But the prudent answered, saying, No, there will not be enough for us, and you too. Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves. And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him to the wedding feast. The door was shut. And later the other virgins also came, saying, Lord, Lord, open up to us. We've got our oil. But he answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I do not know you." This is a graphic, horrible picture of what's going to happen at the end time. The Last Judgment. There will be those who, by the mediation of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, whose picture in Scripture is oil, by the way, by the mediation of the Holy Spirit, there are those people who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. The Holy Spirit renewed us. Titus 3.5, right? We've been renewed, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That's some. But there will be those who have not been regenerated, and those people will be cast into the lake of fire. So this is describing that horrible time when there will be those who have been regenerated and those who will be cast away. Okay? Now, that's the reality. Now, what difference does the knowledge of this have in your life? Christ says, 13, this is the climax, be on the alert then, for you do not know the day or the hour. You know what the word alert means? It means to be spiritually vigilant. It's the same word when Christ told his disciples, watch and pray. Don't slumber, what did Christ's disciples do during this time? They did what we are tempted to do in the, you know, I'm in between two worlds, the world between the two worlds. They fell asleep. And that's what you and I are tempted to do. But Christ said, no, be spiritually vigilant. Don't sleep. Wake up. Open your eyes and see that you are at the end of the world right now. What's next on God's timetable is the second coming. Now get this, Peter is going to explain what it means to wake up. Okay? In our text, next week, he gives four exhortations as to what you should do because of the end of the world's at hand. He's here to tell us. I don't want to even begin that now, but I do want to close with just a quick description of what it means just generically, what this word, wake up, Gregorizo, that's where you get the word Greg from. Gregorizzo, be watchful, be spiritually vigilant, be people who sit on the edge of your seat longing for the second coming of Jesus Christ, knowing that the next event is that coming. What does it mean to be watchful? You've got it in your notes. I'm going to read it. You can read along. One, it means to be watching over our hearts with all diligence, lest the seeds of idolatry are allowed to grow unchallenged in our lives. Appreciated Nelson's prayer during the prayer time. He talked about all of our sins, all of our sins are nothing more than idolatry. Watch over your heart with all diligence, brothers and sisters. Guard your heart from idols. Our hearts are idol factories, says Calvin. Brothers and sisters, guard your hearts. What's it mean to be vigilant? Look at your life. Are there idols? Clean out the old. Get rid of the idols. Secondly, cultivate our walks with Christ by which we endeavor to keep a healthy balance between Bible study, prayer, and walking with Christ. We're just not about fun facts. We're just not learning about scripture. We want to learn fun facts and apply those fun facts. We want to walk with Christ. We want to be prayerful. So be in God's word daily. Pray daily. Walk with Christ daily. And know that the focus of it all is fellowshipping with Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be watchful. Thirdly, endeavoring to live in light of the gospel. Let me ask you something. When I was a kid, anytime we drove by a cemetery, my dad would always say, Hey kids, yeah, how many dead, I'm sorry, how many dead people are in that cemetery? And we'd start calculating, well, let's see, about 2,000? My dad would then laugh and say, all of them! So they're all dead, okay? Likewise here, let me ask you something, brothers and sisters. When you became a Christian, or when you as a baby, God regenerated you, how many sins did God forgive? All of them live in light of that truth. Being alert is to live in light of the truth, to stop relating to God, rebuilding what was once destroyed, acting as if, oh boy, I've been saved, but what about these sins? All of your sins are forgiven. Being alert is living, basking in the light of the grace and the mercy of Christ, day in and day out. fighting against the flesh that's in you that wants to rebuild what was once destroyed. And so make you a slave again to your conduct. No, be gloriously freed from the guilt of that conduct and live and bask in light of the glory of Jesus Christ. And being alert, lastly, is striving to build up and so encourage the body of Jesus Christ. It's the one and other passages in scripture. And I say this because of where Peter's gonna go in our text in the coming weeks. striving to build up and so encourage the body of Christ, the one and other passages in scripture, which involves not only evangelism, but also biblical fellowship and edification. Brothers and sisters, I need you to sharpen me. You need each other to sharpen you. You need me to sharpen you. That is part of being alert. So what does it mean to be alert? Well, guess what? Next week we're going to start looking at what that means to be alert from Peter's perspective. And his is a unique one because he was facing persecution. And so as one facing persecution, His death, by which He would die, He then calls us next week, we'll start looking at, to four different exhortations with regards to what it means to live on the edge of your seat in light of eternity. Let's pray. Father, what a delight it is to fellowship around Your Word, and God, to be reminded, or perhaps instructed for the first time, that life is gauged and governed not by the wristwatch, or the calendar on the wall, nothing chronological in this world. But Lord, our life is gauged and governed by what you're about to do. God, I pray you'd give us the grace as your people to be so driven, so mindful, so watchful that, Lord, we would not slumber as do many others, but that, Lord, we, knowing it's already the hour for us to awaken from the sleep, for now salvation is near to us, that when we believed, God, give us the grace to wake up and to live as a people who have a hope, the second coming, and when people ask of that hope, give us the grace, O Lord, to be ready to share it. Thank you, O Lord, for your grace, your abundant grace. We praise you and glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen.