On Mark 13 we have the Lord Jesus
beginning by leaving the temple. For the last time he left the
temple, never to return to the temple. The temple had become
as much as it was the centre of what seemed to be the worship
of God in this world, the place of great Bible colleges, the
place of great festivals and sacrifices, it had become because
of the wickedness of men, a place where God in human flesh could
no longer dwell. And in the scene before us in
Mark 13, we have the Lord Jesus portraying something which is
remarkable and and a constant theme throughout the Scriptures,
that the Lord knows his people and he knows how to rescue his
people out from under the holy, just wrath of God which is to
come. And so as we've seen in this
last week, the disciples look out on that extraordinarily magnificent
temple beautiful buildings that had been built at that stage
for 40 odd years. And Herod was no mean builder
at one stage. During 8 years he had 10,000
people working on it full time. And they probably didn't have
long service leaves and public holidays, and they worked hard. And yet, during that time of
the Lord's last visit to Jerusalem, over the hill behind them in
the town of Bethany was where the Lord went each evening to
meet with His people. The real Church of God, the real
meeting place of God with His people was with them in Bethany. And as He looks down on that
city, He talks to His disciples about what's going to come to
pass in that generation, not one stone would be left upon
another. God is going to destroy Jerusalem
yet again, as he had done in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. And
so the Lord Jesus looks across that scene and asks us to look
across that scene. to remember what God had done
in the past, to know that His Word is sure, His promises will
always be perfectly and absolutely fulfilled, and for us to look
forward to the future when He will come again. So let's just
read the last verses there from verse 31 down to the end of the
chapter. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will by no means pass away. But of that day and
hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the
sun, but only the Father. Take heed, watch, and pray, for
you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to
a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants,
and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch,
therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house
is coming, in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the
rooster, or in the morning, lest, coming suddenly, he should find
you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say
to all. Watch. Eight times in this passage of
Scripture, the Lord Jesus warns His people, and in this last
verse here, He warns us to watch, to be alert and to be on guard,
because the most serious things lie before us. As he says in verse 31, Simon
spoke on a while ago, heaven and earth will pass away. Heaven and earth are but a stage
for the display of God's glory in Christ Jesus, but for a time. What seems to us to be most stable
has a sign of destruction upon it from God, and it is passing
away. We live in a world that is here
just for a season. It seems as if eternity of this
creation has gone on forever and ever. evolutionists would
tell us that it's been going for 15 billion years, and we
have billions of more years to go. God says it has been here
for just a short time, a number of days, and it has maybe just
seconds left to go. As we saw in Revelation 1-7,
the Lord Jesus is told to have to be coming now. So all of what's happened in
all of history for this last 2,000 years and what has happened
in your life in this last week, in these last months, are all
part of the Lord Jesus' return. He's gone to prepare a place
for his people. He's on his way back. He is coming
back now. This heaven and this earth is
passing away and we are going out of a place that is in a sense
ruled by time to a place where everything is eternal. Everything is permanent. The bliss of heaven goes on forever. The horrors of hell go on forever. And our state in that real and
eternal world depends entirely upon our relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ now. If we are holy, spotless and
blameless in the Lord Jesus now, we will be holy, spotless and
blameless forever. If we are robed in His righteousness
now, we will be robed in His righteousness forever. If we
trust the Lord Jesus as our Saviour now, He will be our Saviour forever. If we are one with Him now, we
will be one with Him forever. If we love Him now, and we are
loved by Him now, as Simon showed us from Jeremiah, we will be
loved forever. The love of God in heaven and
the love of God in the new creation is exactly the same as the love
of God that He has for us right at this very moment. Whether
we see it or we don't see it, that's just what God says. And if people meet the Lord Jesus
in judgment, as an unbeliever, they will be unbelievers forever. If they are unclean when they
leave this world, they will be unclean forever. One of the most stark judgments
of the Lord Jesus upon the Pharisees was that He said that you will
die in your sins. God's children had their sins
taken away by the Lord Jesus. There are people dying, multitudes
dying in this world right now who die in their sins and eternity
will be just a continual reminder of what they are. If they are
rebels when they leave here, they will remain rebellious forever. People go out of this world to
an eternity that should give us, should cause us to take to
heart the warnings the Lord Jesus repeats again and again in these
scriptures. Watch, he says. Be on your guard,
be alert. And the only hope for sinners
is that the Word of God that we have before us, which describes
the Living Word so wonderfully, this Word of God describes a
salvation which is free. a salvation which is worked by
a sovereign God, a salvation which comes to sinners purely
by the grace of God and nothing from them, all because of who
the Lord Jesus is. The substitute of sinners is
the only hope that we have in a dying and damned world. Kappa wrote it so beautifully,
isn't it? There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from
Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose
all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Ere since by faith I saw the
stream Price flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. We have an eternal, infinite
word from God which cannot be changed. It need never be changed. His words will never pass away. Isn't it remarkable that we have
something in our hands and we have something as God's children
in our hearts in the Word of God which is more lasting, more
meaningful than all of what you can gather up in all of this
universe and have. We have a word from eternal God
before us. May You give us the grace to
trust it and trust it and keep going back and finding our life
in that Word, under that Word, not debating with God about His
Word, but delighting in what His Word says. So there is an hour coming. There
is a day coming, verse 32, and an hour no one knows, not even
the angels in heaven. So as soon as someone says to
you or says to anyone in this world that they know anything
about the timing of Christ's return, you know from the Word
of God They do not have a clue what they're talking about, and
you are just advised to ignore them. There was a huge stir going
on in America last year with a fellow called Harold Campion,
who predicted to think that the Lord was coming back on the 12th
of October or some ridiculous thing like that. God is just
so plain, isn't it? The angels don't know. No one
knows. Whenever they say it, they're
lying. They've been saying it for thousands of years. They'll
keep on saying it. They'll just get worse. But we
are presented here with a remarkable statement. No one knows, not
even the angels in heaven, nor the sun. Like so many of the things that
come to us in the scriptures as a problem. They have embedded in them a
beautiful, beautiful answer. How could it possibly be that
Jesus doesn't know when he's coming back? Surely the scriptures
declare him to be God Almighty. Unto us a child is born, and
he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God. The Lord has directed His people
to Daniel in this passage in Mark 13. Again and again we're
directed to Daniel. In Daniel 7 we have this remarkable
picture of our Lord Jesus. I was watching in the night vision,
and behold, one like a son of man, one like a man, coming with
the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days, and they
brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages
shall serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom is one which
shall not be destroyed." How could it be that the king of
the kingdom professes not to know? The answer is beautiful. The answer is so much of what
Simon has just spoken to us about. The Scriptures portray our Lord
Jesus as 100% divine, 100% God, and the Scriptures portray our
Lord Jesus as 100% human. absolutely human exactly as we
are but without sin. He had to be 100% human because
his bride is 100% human. He cannot represent us before
God unless he is like us. 1 John 4.17 says, As He is, so
are we in this world. He had to be fully man, suffer
as a man, thirst as a man, be tired as a man. On Thursday night
we looked at John 11, and John 11 is a remarkable picture of
both the humanity and the deity of the Lord Jesus. There he was,
days, a day's walk away from Mary and Martha and Lazarus,
and he knew exactly what had happened, exactly what had happened. And then he turns up at the tomb,
turns up at that scene of people who are grieving. And he says
to the people, where have you laid him? He knew that he died. He knew exactly what was happening.
As God, he knew absolutely everything. He arrives at that tomb, arrives
at that scene where those people, that dear family that he loved,
are weeping. And Jesus weeps. That family were groaning in
the pain of the loss, and Jesus groaned. That family were troubled,
and Jesus was troubled. He carried our infirmities. He had to be a man, 100% man. And as 100% man, He wants His
people to trust His Father. He came to glorify His Father. He came that people would see
His Father as He saw Him, would live with His Father as He lived
with Him. He came to build faith, to give
faith, to grow faith, to show evidence again and again that
faith is based on God's sure and certain Word. And so as a
man, as our mediator, the Lord Jesus displayed human qualities. And as God, He is infinite. As God, He does know exactly
when He's coming back. As God, He knows exactly when
you will leave this world and meet Him in judgment. He knows
exactly how you will leave this world and meet God in judgment. He knows everything. Simon talked
about the wonderful infinite knowledge and wisdom of God.
Psalm 147 verse 5 says, His knowledge is infinite. But as a man, He
lived as we live in this world, suffered as we suffered. And
all of it is because He and His Bride in this world are united. He is the head. We are the body. He is the husband. We are the
bride. As Eve was taken out of Adam,
as his side was split open and Eve was taken from him, his church
is taken out of his side, flesh of his flesh. bone of his bones. Simon read from us in John 17,
Ephesians 5 talks about marriage, the things that we see in this
world are but pictures of what the Lord Jesus is for his bride. He says he's going to present
his church as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless
without blemish. So husbands ought to love their
own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
No one ever hated his own church but nourishes and cherishes it
just as the Lord does the church. because we are members of his
body. For this reason a man shall leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two
shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. If he wasn't 100%
man, he couldn't represent us before God. And if He wasn't 100% God, He
could not intercede for us. He could not have borne sins
which are infinite unless He was infinite Himself. So we were
joined to Him in a way which will astound us throughout eternity. It's too big It's like Simon
talking about eternity. It's too big. The Gospel is too
big. It's such amazing good news that
we who believe in the Lord Jesus are united in a way which cannot
be dissolved by the things of this world. And He delights over
His bride. just delights over his bride. And the scriptures speak of that
great wedding feast which is to come. So we do not know. We do not
know. But we do have a warning from
God. He says in verse 33, take heed,
watch and pray. Take heed, see Look at this world
through the lens of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Look at this
world and everything in it through who He is and what He is doing. Wake up. Be wakeful. Be restless. Sit on the edge
of eternity. Look at the horizon. He's coming
back. He might be here this morning.
There's nothing restraining him from coming back. Things are
ready. He may not come for a thousand
years, but we look over the edge of the horizon of time expecting
that he might be coming back. Hastening the day, says Peter,
looking forward to it. And we do not know the time when
the Lord will take us out of this world. It can be in an instant. was sleeping, fell asleep in
front of the television on a couch about 15 years ago and his son
came home at some ridiculous hour in the morning and woke
him up and said to his dad, oh you'd better go to bed. So his
father woke up, went into a bed and there's a windstorm blowing
and a huge spotted gum tree crushed down straight through the roof
onto his bed 15 minutes after he went to bed. God has an infinite
number of ways of people leaving this earth suddenly without warning. The Anglicans used to pray what
I think is a wise prayer. They used to say, pray, Lord
please save us from sudden death. But we will not know when that
hour is. You have no promise from God
that you'll get home from here today. We live as if this is
going on and on and on and we can plan and make all these plans.
As James says, if the Lord wills, these things will happen. Watch,
he says, take heed and pray. It's like a man going to a far
country who left his house and gave authority to his servants,
each to his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. He seems as if he's gone to a
far country. It seems as if he's gone a long
way away. It seems as if he's been away
for a long time. Two thousand years is a long
time. It is just but two days. Martin Luther said that we ought
to live our lives as if Jesus Christ was crucified yesterday
afternoon, was raised again this morning, and is coming back this
afternoon. So we live our lives on the edge
of eternity. But while this time and space
continues, the Lord Jesus has been promised and promises us
that the place where he gets glory for himself on this earth
is in the church. You can read about it in Ephesians.
The church is characterized here as a house. This is the household
of God. Just read what God the Holy Spirit
says about this dwelling place now. He talks about the whole
Church of God in Ephesians 2.20. It's being built on the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus himself, Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, the
whole family of God being fitted together grows into a holy temple
in the Lord. In whom, now he's talking about
the local church, in whom you are also being built together
What's happening today in God's churches? You are being built
together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. It's just a remarkable word from
God. We tend so often to think that
church is a means to something else. Church is not a means to
the end. Church is the end. Church is
the ultimate, whether it's a small gathering that meets at God's gathering. It's His temple. It's His dwelling place. Jesus couldn't dwell in a man-made
temple of man-made religion in Jerusalem. He dwelt in Bethany,
a place of His love, and He dwells amongst His people, and He builds
his people together through the preaching of the Gospel. And
he has left his church in the care of his servants. and every
one of his servants, every member of God's church, wherever they
are in this world, have gifts that God has given them, which
every one of the rest of us need. Often I speak here, and Simon
speaks, but every single person that I look at has gifts from
God that I desperately need, because they're God's good gifts
for us. It's God's house. You see what
he says? It's his house. He left his house
and he gives authority to his servants, each to his work. He gives the gifts that we need
for each other, always. We need the gifts. I need the
gifts that you bring from God for me. We all need each other. It's a living building. It's
a living body. It can't survive independently
and be happy and healthy. We have to be as branches attached
to the vine. And the Lord again says that
he's on his way back. He commanded the doorkeeper to
watch. Now the word watch becomes stronger. It says, be strictly awake. He
says, watch again, be alert, verse 35, for you do not know
when the master of the house is coming in the evening at midnight
at the crowing of the rooster or in the morning. We don't know
when he's coming. We don't know when he's coming
to take us. We don't know when he's coming
to wrap up this world. Lest, coming suddenly, He finds
you sleeping. And here is a word from the Lord
Jesus to every person here and every person on this planet.
And what I say to you, I say to all, watch. And now the word watch is a much
stronger word than the word in verse 35. It's be like a guard. Be alert. Be aware of what's
happening in this world. Pick up this book and see this
world and see your place in it through the lens of what God
says. An unchanging Word determines
how we view a changing and fading world that we live in. Many will come to Him on that
day. He promises again and again.
When He comes and they meet Him in judgment, they will come in
a sense like foolish virgins who looked as if they had all
that was necessary to meet with the bridegroom. They had a lamp. They were clothed. but they had
no oil in their lamps. They had what the Lord Jesus
exposed in Jerusalem. They had a form of godliness,
but they denied the power thereof. They had followed false teachers
and followed them to their destruction. We've got to keep remembering
that the fall of Jerusalem in 486 B.C. and the fall of Jerusalem
in 70 A.D. are God's judgment upon religious
people who claimed to be worshipping God. When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed
Jerusalem, there was open idolatry. They were bowing down to Tamils,
the Babylonian goddess. The elders had their backs to
the temple and they worshipped the sun. They had painted inside
the temple creeping and crawling things. You can read about it
in the first 15 or 20 chapters of Exodus. They who were called
by God as his bride, a spouse to him, played the harlot with
Babylon and her religion, and God destroyed Jerusalem. In 70 AD we have a destruction
of Jerusalem where the people, if you'd asked all of those people,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, were they worshipping
Yahweh? Were they the children of Abraham? They fought to the death because
they believed that they were children of Abraham. They won
the concessions they had from Rome because of their zeal, their
apparent zeal for Yahweh. and yet God destroyed them. They who were remarkably zealous
and remarkably moral. Read about them in Matthew 23
as the Lord pronounces woes upon them. The idolatry in Jerusalem
at the time of the Lord Jesus was such that He could not dwell
there and His judgment was just. When He comes again, judgment
begins with the household of God, for He will purify and judge
the places that claim to worship Him first. People in Isaiah say, had built
for themselves what Isaiah 28 calls a refuge of lies. They had built for themselves
a comfort, a place where they could sleep and rest. And Isaiah 28 says that they
will find in that day that the bed is too short for them to
rest on and the covers too narrow for them. They cannot, if they
are not covered in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, on the day
when He comes and takes people to judgment, if it's anything
to do with what they have done, if they are relying on their
activities, then God will send them to hell. Read about it. Matthew 7 is an extraordinary
passage, isn't it? You can turn there in your Bibles.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven. They call him Lord. In fact,
they're emphatic about it. They call him Lord, Lord. But
he who does the will of my Father in heaven, John 6.29 says, that
the will of my Father in Heaven is that you believe His Son. Then he says, many will say to
me on that day, the day the Lord's talking about here, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your
name and done many wonders in your name?" And the Lord Jesus
does not deny the fact that they have prophesied and the prophecies
have come true. He does not deny the casting
out of demons. He does not deny the wonders. It's a shocking word from God. Then I will declare to them I
never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice
lawlessness." The people who killed the Lord Jesus thought
that they were honouring God by removing a blasphemer from
their midst. They thought that they were honouring
God when they killed the apostles. They preached sermons when they
burnt our forefathers at the stake for standing for the Gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus and standing
opposed to the idolatry that was all around them. The Jesus of this Word, this
Word that doesn't change, is the Jesus that you are hiding
in and have your faith in. And the false Jesuses that this
Jesus promises will lead their people to everlasting destruction. The Lord took his people to Daniel
in this passage and he describes himself in Daniel
9. The Lord describes his work,
Simon spoke about it a while ago, to finish transgression,
to make an end to sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up prophecy and vision,
to anoint the most holy. Messiah will be cut off, verse
26, but not for himself. and He shall confirm a covenant. The Lord Jesus that we proclaim
is God. He has loved His people from
eternity. They are one with Him in all
things. He died for them. He loves them. He loves them as God with an
unchanging, immutable love. He has written His word of promise
to His people. His promise in this scripture
is just amazing. He loves us with an everlasting
love. He's coming back to gather His
elect from the four corners of this world. He has never ceased
to be delighted in them and who they are. as the bride of His
darling son. He rejoices over them. One of
the verses that I love is in Zephaniah. The Lord your God
is in your midst, the Mighty One will save. He will rejoice
over you with gladness. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with
singing. We have a mighty God and we have
a mighty word from our mighty God. He calls on us to be on
our guard, to watch, to be alert, to use His gospel. The proclamation of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified as the means by which we see this world. We use His Gospel to determine
truth. We use His Word to determine
truth. And it's not determined by the
philosophy of men or the politics of this world. Our God reigns. He's coming back soon to gather
His people. Are we looking forward to that
day? Are we anxiously looking forward
to that day when He'll come? And this creation will be wrapped
up, and a new one will unfold before us, and we will say, glory
to God, glory to our Saviour. Let's pray.