Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, we come into your
courts this morning with hearts that are full of thanksgiving.
How we thank you for your many, many blessings. that you've given
freely to your people in our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank
you that you gave your own son to shed his blood so that our
sins could be put away and forgiven. How we thank you for his obedience,
his perfect obedience that makes us righteous in thy sight. Father, how we thank you. How
we thank you for your electing love. How we thank you for your
calling, keeping, saving power. And Father, I pray that this
morning that you would enable us to lift up and exalt the name
of Christ our Savior, and that you would give each of us here
a hearing ear and a heart that would believe and lay hold upon
our Lord Jesus Christ and be like Jacob of old and say, I
will not let you go except you bless me. Father, how we pray
that we would be found in thy son. Father, we pray for those that
you brought in the time of trouble and trial, that you would be
with them, that you'd comfort their hearts, that you'd heal.
Father, that you'd be with them in a mighty and special way. All these things that we ask,
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior, amen. Now the chapter here that we
are studying is in Matthew chapter 24, it's full of prophecy. that
concerns both the destruction of Israel and the second coming
of our Lord. And the verses we'll look at
this morning have mostly to do with the second coming of Christ.
And I have a sobering title. It's ready for the Lord's return.
Now, you know, you hear that ready for the Lord's return.
And unfortunately, I think because of the prevalence of false religion,
we all get a, an image in our head that the preacher is going
to try to scare us to death and scare us into doing something.
And, uh, that is not my intent at all. And I hope you'll see
that as we go through here, how to be ready for the Lord's return.
Now our text begins in verse 36, the savior says, but if that
day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but
my father only, Now there's no way that anybody can know the
day, the hour, the month, the date, the year of the Savior's
return. The Father's just not gonna allow
anybody to know that. That's the Father's business,
not ours, when Christ will return. But you know, you and I can't
know when the Lord will return, but we do know he will return.
And we can be ready for when he does come. And I'll tell you
how we're ready for the Lord's return. on the Lord Jesus Christ,
trusting him to be our salvation. That's being ready for the Lord's
return. Now, I told you this last week, and let me remind
you this, particularly when we think about when the Savior will
return. We need to remember, we study
scripture. We think on spiritual things. We need to be very careful
not to get off topic. The topic, the issue, is always
Christ. It's always His blood. The issue
is always His sacrifice and His righteousness. The issue is always
His power and His grace to save His people. Christ is always
the issue. And you and I are never the issue.
Never. The issue here, what the Savior
is talking about, His return, is not when Christ is coming,
but who is coming. The issue is trusting Christ
now. Now I want us to come to Christ
and come right now. I want us to believe on Christ
and believe on him right now. Let's not waste our time looking
at signs of the future and trying to figure out what's going to
happen in the future or, you know, worse yet, try to figure
out when the Lord's going to return when he told us himself,
we can't know that. Let's not, let's not get off
on a tangent here. The way we're ready for the Lord's
return is by believing on him. You know, we're told in scripture
to examine ourselves. For what? If you be in the faith,
examine yourself, do you believe Christ? We're not to examine
the events of providence and earthly events and earthly goings
on, trying to look for a sign of Christ's second coming. We're
not to examine others, trying to figure out if they're in the
faith. You know, somebody asked me, you think so and so say,
well, that's none of my business. I mean, I don't know. We're not
to examine others, whether they believe Christ or not. We're
to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith, we're to
make our calling and election sure. How can I make my election
sure? I can't look in the lambs book
of life and see God's written my name there. How can I know
that God's elected me? How can I know that God's called
me one way faith in Christ? That's why the apostle said,
examine yourself, whether you'd be in the faith. That's the evidence
that God's elected us. Faith in Christ is the evidence
that Christ died for us. Faith in Christ is the evidence
that God's given us life and called us to Christ. So if I
believe on Christ, I'm ready for his return. And I want to
give you three things from our text this morning I think will
be helpful concerning our Lord's return. Number one, we're ready
for the Lord's return by living upon the word of God. Verse 37,
but as the days of Noah were, So shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. Now you know, we looked at this
recently on a Wednesday night, that the flood of Noah. Before
the flood, people were living on the earth like nothing was
ever gonna change. Everybody but Noah. Everybody
but Noah. Noah was preparing an ark for
the time when God sent the flood. Now why was Noah building the
ark? He was building an ark, he was building this gigantic
ship with no water in sight, no body of water in sight. Why
was Noah building that ark? Because he believed the word
of God. He believed what God said. God told Noah, Noah, I'm
going to send a flood and destroy every living thing on the earth. And Noah believed God. And God
said, Noah, you found grace in my sight. Noah, build an ark
to the saving of your house. This is how you know you found
grace in my sight. I'm providing a refuge for you
in the art. And Noah obeyed and he got busy
building and he got busy building that art because he believed
God. He believed that for him it was the spoken word of God.
For us it's the written word of God, but it's the same word.
And it took Noah 120 years to build that art. And in those
120 years were told in scripture that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
Noah preached righteousness. Now I'm sure Noah did that. with
words. I mean, here he is building this
big ark, and people ask him, why are you doing that? And he
told them. He told them. When he told them,
God said he's going to send a flood. Believe God. Get in the ark. That's preaching righteousness.
Preaching righteousness is just this. Tell people to believe
God. This is how we're made righteous, by believing and trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Noah said, now get in Him.
Rest in Him. And here's the other thing I'm
sure of. Noah preached righteousness by building that ark. His act
of building that ark showed he believed God. It showed he was
righteous. His actions declared he believed
God and righteousness comes by faith, not by works, by faith. So, so his actions through his
actions, Noah preached righteousness. Now the savior says his second
coming is going to be just like the flood that came in Noah's
day. Nobody's going to be expected. A scripture tells us Christ is
going to return, but nobody's expected it. Just like Noah said,
God's going to send a flood and nobody was expecting it. Nobody's
expecting it except those who believe God's word. No one is
going to be ready for the savior's return except those who believe
God's word and obey it. Now, what is it to obey the word
of God? This is the commandment of the
word of God. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on him without
any of your works being added to it. That's the commandment
of God's word. And whoever believes on Christ
has everlasting life. They have it. So if you would
be ready for Christ's return, live on the word of God, live
on it, live, reading it, live, live, studying, live so that
your life is arranged so that as much as it is humanly possible,
you can be here when the word is preached. This is how God
speaks to his work, to his people. This is how God gives faith to
his people. It's through the preaching of
the word. It's pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. This is how God gives
faith. It comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. If you would be ready for the
Lord's return, live searching the scriptures, define Christ,
define Christ. Don't, don't read the scriptures
trying to figure out how to live. Now you already know how to live.
Read the scriptures to find Christ. And ask God to show you Christ,
to reveal Him to you. When you listen to preaching,
listen to that preaching to find Christ. Don't listen to hear
if the preacher's saying everything just right, or if he's right
or he's wrong about this. Listen to preaching to find Christ. This is the all-important thing,
that you know Him and you believe on Him. The only way you're gonna
know Christ, the only way you're gonna believe Christ, is by hearing
Him preached. That's the way we're ready for
the Lord's return is by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as he's
revealed in this word. All right. Number two, if you
would be ready for the Lord's return, act on what you know
and act on what you believe. Verse 38 for as in the days that
were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into
the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all
away. So shall also the coming of the son of man be. Now, if
you live on the word of God, you live hearing the word of
God preach, you live praying that the Lord will reveal Christ
to you, that he'd apply your word, his word to your heart.
Then you're going to believe Christ and you're going to know
he's coming again. It's all through the scripture.
He's coming again. Even Job talked about the second
coming of Christ. I mean, this is, you know, this
all through the scripture, Now that's knowledge that comes from
the word of God. Christ is coming again. He told his disciples,
I'm coming, I'll come for you. The angels said, what are you
standing here staring up in the clouds for? This one you've seen,
he's gonna come back again in like manner. He's coming, it's
all through the word of God. This knowledge is just from reading
the words on paper, Christ is coming again. Now wisdom is acting
on that knowledge. We know Christ is coming again.
Wisdom seeks Christ now. Wisdom begs God for mercy now. Not praying for the rocks and
hills to fall on you after Christ returns because you're afraid
of judgment. Wisdom seeks salvation for Christ's sake now based on
his work and his person, not my work or my person. And that
wisdom, that wisdom that makes you seek Christ now, that makes
you beg God for mercy now, that wisdom will guide how you live
your life and the things that you do here below. I want to say this right. I have in my notes here, it may
not be right. I don't think it is right to say live like the
Lord is returning today. If we knew that the Lord was
returning today, we wouldn't make any plans for tomorrow,
would we? If I knew that the Lord's coming this afternoon,
I would make no plans for tomorrow, for later on this week. If you
knew that the Lord was returning today, you wouldn't bother with
your jobs, you wouldn't bother taking care of your house or
cutting the grass, you know, you wouldn't worry if the grass
got a little too high, because it doesn't matter, Christ is
coming today. You wouldn't do the things that are necessary
to provide for your children, would you? Or your future. And that just wouldn't be good
if the Lord doesn't return. Now the Lord's not saying here,
just ignore everything in this life. He's not saying don't get
married. He's not saying don't have a
celebration when somebody gets married. He's not saying don't
enjoy time with your family and have a good meal and stuff. He's
not saying that's bad. We certainly should get married.
I mean, the word of God talks about marriage. Marriage is good
for us. It's good for society that we
have homes and families and those kinds of things. So Lord's not
saying getting married's bad and enjoying each other's company's
bad. This is what he's saying. Do those things. Absolutely,
the things of this life that are given to people to have pleasure
and enjoyment, they're there for God's people. God's people
ought to enjoy them more than anybody. Do those things. Take care of your earthly responsibilities.
God's given you a family, now take care of them. God's given
you a home, take care of it. God's given you a job, take care
of it. Enjoy those things when you can enjoy them. Sometimes
you're not going to be able to, are you? Enjoy those things while
you can. But don't let seeking those earthly
pleasures guide and control your life. Use them, but don't let
them use and control you. Do all those things. Enjoy what
God's given you. Take care of the responsibilities
that God's given you all while you look for the Lord's return.
Do those things while you just expect the Lord could come at
any second, at any moment. And doing that, doing what God's
given you to do, enjoying what God's given you to enjoy, doing
those things will keep all those earthly things and spiritual
things in their proper place. If I live expecting Christ to
return at any moment, Spiritual things will come first. I'll
seek first the kingdom of God, His righteousness on. And all
these other things, they will be added to me. It's just it
puts the priority, you know, that my spiritual needs and feeding
my spiritual man, those kind of that comes first. So when
you go to work. Do as good a job as you can do,
and that was scripture teaches us believers ought to be the
best employee on the place. That's just the right thing to
do if the Lord doesn't return. you got a paycheck. You got a
paycheck you can use to support your family. You got a paycheck
that you can use to give to support the gospel. If the Lord doesn't
return, you've gone to work, you've done a good job. Why?
You've got money to go out and eat, enjoy a meal with your family
and friends, have fellowship together. If you got to, like me and Janet
were years ago, had two young daughters at home, go to work.
get a paycheck and save up to pay for them two weddings. The
Lord says, you know, people are gonna get married, they're gonna
have marriage feasts. If you go to work, you got the money
to do those things if the Lord doesn't return. And if the Lord
does return, why, you've served him faithfully to the end. And
that's what every believer wants. And that's what the Lord is describing
here beginning in verse 40. Then shall two be in the field,
and one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be
grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other
left. Now here's two, I assume, men working in the field. One
of them's a believer, one of them's an unbeliever. They're
working in the field to support their family and feed their family.
One of them's a believer. He's working his job right up
to the end. He's working to provide for his family right up to the
end, and the Lord comes and takes him home. There's two women. They're down there grinding grain
at the mill. They're doing that to make food
for their families. In Mexico, I saw this, the women
just coming in droves to the, there's a central place where
they would grind the corn. They'd take that ground corn
and make it into tortillas and stuff for their families. I mean,
some of them were walking, some of them were riding bikes, some
of them were on the back of a motorcycle, you know, and they got this big
old thing of corn, they're coming to grind it. to feed their family.
That's what these women are doing. They're down there grinding this
grain so they got food to feed their families. One of them's
a believer, one of them's an unbeliever. They're both taking
care of their families, aren't they? But the believer, she's
working right up to the end to support her family, to feed her
family. And the Lord comes and takes
her, takes her home. So this is what the Lord's telling
us to do. Do what God's given you to do. Do it to the best
of your ability. Take it seriously. Do it until
the Lord returns. See, enjoy things of this life
while you can. And the Lord mentions marriage
in particular here. And it's, you know, I think that's,
it's not just a random choice he made to talk about marriage. Marriage is given to us as a
picture of Christ, the union between Christ and his bride.
And the Lord mentions marriage. Now, enjoy that. Enjoy that. You know, few things are as exciting
as a young couple getting married and starting out their lives
together. It's always exciting. And to the unmarried, I tell
you, look for the right spouse. Ask God to send you the right
spouse, somebody to worship God together with you, that you can
put your shoulder to the grindstone together with, you know, and
build a family, build a life together. If you want a nice
wedding, plan that and enjoy it. I got a lot to say about that,
but I won't say much other than this. I won't say anything about
it. Don't go overboard. Don't go
overboard. Stay right in the middle. That's what we're talking
about, Earl, in everything. Stay right in the middle. Plan. Plan
how to have a nice life together. Plan how you're going to build
your life together, you know? But this young married couple
gets married. Oh, it's so exciting. You got nothing. Me and Janet,
we got married. We had nothing. But it was great. It was just great. I just loved
it. But you need stuff. Don't make getting the things
of this life be what controls your life. The God's going to
provide for you. He'll provide for those things.
Oh, if every young married couple would do this. Seek Christ together. Seek Christ together. He's the
king of the home. Bow before him together. Just
a young couple, they're just two kids, wet behind the ears,
don't know nothing, but now you know you can sit down together
and have a meal and give thanks and pray before you eat. Seek
Christ together. Come to the services together.
Talk about the messages together. Talk about the word together.
Seek Christ together. Make that first. God'll add all
these other things to you. He will. Seek him together. And
before the flood came, This is what people were doing. They
were just completely taken up with getting things of this life. Same way we do today. People
were concerned about gaining fame and fortune just as much
as people are today. They were seeking money and silver
and gold. They were seeking recognition. They want to get them nice new
clothes, you know, to show off. The exact same things people
do today. Because listen, Nothing has changed
because human nature hadn't changed. Human nature hadn't changed one
bit. And here they were just completely
taken up with that, had no thought of God, no thought of eternity,
no thought of worshiping God, no thought of worshiping and
recognizing the Creator, the one that's given them life and
health and all these things, you know. And suddenly, the Lord
sent a flood and wiped out everything in an instant. Everything they
were seeking was gone. And they were too. They were
too. And the only one who survived
was the one who believed God. He was prepared because he believed
God. All right, the Lord says his second coming will be the
same way as the flood was. One reason I don't think that
the Lord's coming right now is everybody's expecting him to.
I mean, it just seems like everybody thinks the Lord's coming. And
the Lord says he's gonna come in a moment when you think, The
Lord's going to come again in the very same way he sent the
flood. It's going to be unexpected, but now he's coming. We don't
know when, but we do know he's coming. So enjoy the things of
this life. Take care of your responsibilities.
Take care of them like you're going to work that job till you're
70 years old, but don't let them control you. Don't, don't make
the goal of your life seeking to get as much things of this
life as you can get. Seek Christ. first. Seek his
mercy first. Seek his grace first. Seek to
be found in Christ first. Because all these other things,
no matter how many of them you get, God's going to burn them
up in an instant. See, last time he sent a flood
to destroy everything. This time it's going to come
with fire. He's going to burn it all up. It's all going to
be ash soon. It's all going to be ash. So
don't seek, I mean, you know, you need a house to live in.
Just recognize this. It's going to be ash soon. You need a car
to get around and do things. But recognize this, it's going
to be ash soon. Seek Christ first. His righteousness
will last forever. His mercy, His grace will last
forever. Don't set your heart on the things
of this life. Because if you do, you're going
to be sorely disappointed. Because God's going to take them
away. Believer, unbeliever alike. He's going to take those things
away. If you set your heart on Christ first, You'll never be
disappointed, never. All right, here's the third thing.
The Lord tells us, be watchful. Verse 42. Watch therefore, for
you know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that
if the good man of the house had known at what watch the thief
would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his
house to be broken up. Therefore be also ready for in
such an hour as you think not, the son of man cometh. Now it's
interesting that whenever the Lord talks about his second coming,
almost always he says, be watchful, watchful. Now the Lord is going
to come. He's going to come suddenly and
he's going to come and pluck his people from the earth. You
know this, when, People have this in their mind and they got
it all wrong. We'll talk about two being in
the field and one taken and one left and two women at the mill,
one taken and one left. It's going to be like this person
disappeared. You don't know where, where they're
at, you know, but you just go on living your life and like
nothing's changed. Now that's not what he's talking about at
all. This is talking when the Lord comes, he's going to suddenly
gather his people together from the earth. He's going to suddenly
take them to be with you. He's going to separate the sheep
and the goats. The goats be cast into outer darkness. The sheep
taken to be with Christ. And we'll spend eternity as the
Lord finds us when he comes suddenly. If we're righteous, we'll be
righteous still. If we're unrighteous, we'll be unrighteous still. Spend
eternity that way. So the Lord says, be watchful.
Be watchful. Be watchful for the Lord's return
like a night watchman is on the watch. The night watchman is
guarding the house. He's making sure nobody breaks
in and steals something, you know? Now be watchful. Be on guard that nobody steals
your hope. Be watchful that nobody steals
your hope by getting your eye off of Christ alone. And keep
a watch on yourself. I think this is the main thing
about being watchful. Be watchful on yourself. That
we don't let our imagination and our lust for things of this
life Take our trust off Christ alone. We start seeking something
else. So live your life doing what
the Lord's put to your hand to do today and do it to the best
of your ability. And while you do that, keep one
eye on the sky because the Lord's returning. He's returning. And
if we do that, that keeps everything in perspective. That keeps spiritual
matters in perspective and it keeps earthly matters in perspective. You know, the Lord, is going
to return. He's going to return and burn
up this earth, create new heavens and a new earth wherein dwell
the righteousness. He's going to return. There'll
be that great day of judgment. Those things are going to happen.
And I don't know when he's going to return. I'll tell you just in the time
that I've been the pastor here, the Lord's returned for a lot
of his people. I couldn't tell you how many funerals I preached,
quite a number. The Lord's returning for his
people every day. Every day he's returning for
his people. See, the Lord could return to this earth and we could
be one of those ones that Paul said are left and in a moment
a twinkling of an eye will be changed, taken to glory, meet
him in the air. It could be the Lord comes for
us through the death of this body. When we die, the Lord's
come, when this body dies, the Lord's come for me. The Lord's
come for me. And I tell you what, it's gonna
be quickly. It's gonna be quickly. 35 years ago, you and I got married. Didn't like that, eh? The next
35 years, you're gonna go faster than that. The Lord's coming
quickly. Well, maybe the Lord will be
pleased to give us grace to seek him, know him and believe him
that we might be ready. All right. Hope the Lord will
bless that too.