May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn to the Gospel of Luke
chapter 21 and we'll read verse 28. So the words of Jesus in the
21st chapter of the Gospel of Luke and verse 28. And when these things begin,
to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your
redemption draweth nigh. We have many words of the Saviour
recorded, thankfully, in the New Testament. And there are
a number of occasions where the Lord specifically speaks about
those things which will come to pass in this world. To realise that this world is
only a place which exists for just a very short space of time
in that vast situation of eternity. And God in his great providence
saw fit to grant and bring the world into being those many years
ago and to exist for a time determined by his father. And we know, therefore, that
there was a beginning when this world was created. And we should
realize, therefore, there will be an end. when this world, as
we know it today, will be destroyed and when there will then be a
new heaven and a new earth. The Word of God tells us that
would come to pass really all through scripture. And there
are those clear signs described to us so that we might have an
understanding of the time when this will occur. Now, we don't
know the day, as I mentioned in prayer, when that will occur,
only known to our Father in heaven. But nonetheless, there are those
signs which will occur. And we might say those signs
which are occurring. As you look around the world
today, If we have eyes to see, we shall recognise that the world,
spiritually, is in a very, very sad place. We might think, well,
of course, in one sense it always has been. Well, in one sense,
that's true. But we live in a day when the
Word of God is set at naught by so many. And when we think
that the Word of God has been distributed far and wide in this
world, and many people have discarded it and have set it annoyed, and
yet in some places, countries have received translations of
the Word of God and yet have ignored it and turned away from
it. And yet still in our nation,
we have the word of God and still we're able to read it. And still
there is, there are a few who still appreciate the word of
God and desire to follow it. But it does describe to us then
those scenes which would occur, those times which are upon us
even now. We see it's interesting that we read together in that 25th
verse, and there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and in
the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity,
the sea and the waves roaring. Well, we've seen only recently,
haven't we? Hurricanes in a number of areas
in the world. The sea and the waves roaring.
We've seen the rain. We've seen floods. And we realize that man cannot
stop these things. Man is very puny, very small
when God sees fit to bring these things about. And how true it
is, men's hearts are failing them for fear. What it is, a
fulfillment. of those things which God has
spoken of that will come to pass. And you see, as the word says,
men's hearts fail them for fear and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven shall
be shaken. Well, we don't know when the
time will come But these signs which are evident are there as
a warning. And what a mercy it is, therefore,
if we can understand in some measure what we are told here
in this 28th verse. And when these things begin to
come to pass, when they begin to come to pass, when we see
these things occurring, What are we to do? What are we to
do? Are we just to bury our head
in the sand and think, well, this is going to pass by? The
tendency is to think, well, these things will just pass and we'll
have calmer days and easier days. Well, things appear, do they
not, to be getting worse and not getting better. And we see,
as we're promised, wars and rumours of wars. which do exist and continue. We see difficulties arising in
large continents and countries. We see the situation developing
in China, which perhaps we never anticipated. Vast floods there
and also vast unemployment in that land. Again, something perhaps
we never really anticipated. We might have thought they are
a very commercial organisation and working hard, but there is
vast unemployment in that nation. We know not what will occur,
how the Lord will bring his judgments to pass. And it is quite clear
that there, as just an example, is a nation who has indeed turned
their back upon God. They have the Word of God. They
have had the Word of God for many, many years. And yet, you
see, they are doing all they can to take away the things of
God from their nation. Well, we might think sometimes
that God is ignorant of these things. Well, God is not ignorant
of these things. And God had his ways. And God
has his purposes in fulfilling his design and fulfilling his
will. And it's not only, of course,
China, there's many other nations of the earth in similar situations. There is great unrest and there
is great anger, really, to the Church of God. If we realize
and consider and ponder these things, we shall see they are
following the pattern of the Word of God. And therefore, the
Lord Jesus tells us, you think over 2,000 years ago, he gave
this message to the people. And he said, and when these things
begin to come to pass, then look up, look up. Again, as we look
back perhaps in our history, As we look back to the times
I mentioned last Tuesday when I read that account by Spurgeon
with regards to our nation, how years ago, way back in perhaps
the early centuries of the previous millennium, and we see how many
people and how many so-called ministers knew by heart, the
Psalms. And ministers weren't ordained
unless they did know, off by heart, all the Psalms. Well, what a tragic down situation
has been since then, hasn't it? Our country has not improved. I know there were those dark
ages. And then there was the wonderful time of the Reformation,
a turning to God. God was very gracious. And then
back in the 19th century, we see there was so much blessing
and so many churches and chapels were full and crowded with people. And now, for the most part, they're
empty. Most of them closed, just a mere
handful. of people gathering together
to worship. And so what's happening is that
God's Word is being fulfilled. God's Word is being fulfilled. And there is still, and we're
thankful for that, a remnant. And what a blessing it is if
you and I form part of that remnant. a remnant who too desires still
to worship the ever-living and true God. Well, the Lord said,
when these things begin to come to pass, then look up. The tendency is to look down. The tendency is to perhaps try
and bury our head, as it were, and ignore the signs of the times
and think, well, These have come and while we look forward to
better days, days once again of peace and quiet, well, the
Word of God tells us then to look up and to lift up our heads. Look up. What does that mean? It means to look up to the Lord. It means look up to the things
of God. And there is therefore that great
and glorious prospect before the Church of God. We are to
look up, to lift up our heads, and the reason is given us very
simply, very wonderfully, very gloriously. For your redemption
draweth nigh. Our redemption. The redemption
of our soul. What is redemption? Redemption
means that salvation comes. Redemption means there is deliverance. And the day of redemption to
the Church of God will come. It will come when the end of
time comes, when the whole Church of God will be gathered together
in glory. And what a blessing that should
be. Now that is the truth of God, and that is that which is
set before us. And that should be an encouragement
to us. To many people, that's a very
sad scene. Many people today, their hearts
are in the earth. Their hearts are on the things
of earth. And they concentrate only on
the things of earth. And they do not want to think
upon the things of eternity. They do not want to think about
the end of their life. Indeed, I remember years ago
meeting somebody that said that she hated birthdays. She hated
birthdays. And why did she hate birthdays?
She hated birthdays because she realized that every birthday
was bringing her nearer to the time when birthdays would be
no longer. And she would not be in time. She would be in eternity. She wanted to have her life on
this earth. And that's where She was content
with, and that's what she wanted. She wanted nothing else. Well,
what a blessing it is if you and I are blessed with a right
understanding of such a great truth as this. So when the signs
come, which are coming, of the end of all things, we are to
look up and to lift up our heads because the day of our redemption
draweth nigh. And it should not be therefore
a morbid meditation. It should be a happy and it should
be a glorious meditation to believe that by God's grace one day we
shall be forever with the Lord. And in that situation of wonderful
peace and eternal happiness and glory, to realize there will
be in that place no more sorrow, no more sin, no more sadness,
no more pain, no more illness, no more sickness, nothing to
make us sad, but all will be joy and happiness and rejoicing
and that is the wonderful blessing for the true believer the wonderful
blessing who is spoken to in these words to look up look up
to the eternal glory which is before us and we should not be
sad at the prospect. And we should not be unhappy
at the prospect. We should indeed be looking forward
and lifting up our heads and looking up to the Saviour, the
great and glorious day when that shall come to pass. And we know
that it will come to pass. The Word of God is for our instruction. It is for our blessing. And it is that you and I may
read it and understand it. And if perhaps we don't understand
it, to pray that the Lord will give us a right understanding. You see, he tells us in this
world, he says, in this word rather, he gives us some very
clear a testimony of what those things are which are coming upon
us. He said then, said he unto them,
nations shall rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom
and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, that means
in many places, and famines and pestilences and fearful sights
and great signs shall there be from heaven. Well, we've seen
some of those, haven't we? We've seen great earthquakes.
And we've seen great famines. And we've even seen great pestilences
in our own nation with that COVID position that came upon us, our
country. Surely it was a pestilence which
God saw fit to bring about. And it's good if we recognize
this as a sign of the times, a sign that God has brought upon
us. And so the Lord says, and they
asked him, Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign
will there be when these things shall come to pass? Well, that's
why the Lord comes and tells us this. He says, take heed that
you be not deceived. You may say, why was that necessary?
It's necessary because Satan is the deceiver. And Satan does
not want us to ponder these things. He does not want us to think
about these things. He doesn't want them to occupy
meditation. He wants us to just cast them
away and pass them by and not think that they have any relevance
to us today. Well remember these things were
spoken over 2,000 years ago and therefore the time of their fulfillment
must of necessity be much nearer. And the great important thing
is for us to be ready for that time, if it should come while
we are upon the earth. There are those indications in
the word of God that right before the end of time, there will be
a time of peace, but that might be exceedingly short. And it may be a time of peace
comes upon the world and people therefore relax I think everything
is now going to be peaceful and therefore what happens men get
worse and worse in their sinful propensities and my friends it's
tragic at the moment isn't it how downhill the world has gone
in so many countries turning against the Word of God and fulfilling
so many violent evil desires following those wrong inclinations
the devil brings into being. A clear view the Lord is bringing
to pass those signs. So we should not think, well
the world's not going to end just yet. It may end quicker
than you and I perhaps think. And so the importance for us
today is to realise the grand truth we have for our redemption
draweth nigh and the redemption of our soul and we we read in
the Psalms for the redemption of our soul is precious and so
it is to know that you and I are redeemed and you and I cannot
redeem ourself and yet we must be redeemed because all of us
have sinned. All of us have disobeyed God,
disobeyed God from the womb, as it were. And we have an evil heart, an
evil heart of unbelief, and therefore we've sinned. And as I've said
very often, sinners cannot enter into heaven. We can only enter into heaven
without sin. And we can only enter there without
sin if we have been redeemed. And you and I cannot redeem ourselves. It's a very clear position, isn't
it? We have sinned, and therefore
we must be redeemed. And we cannot redeem ourselves. So what does that mean? That
means that we need someone to redeem us. Someone who can deliver
us from our sin. Someone who can take away our
sin. Our sin must be removed. The price must be paid. to take away our sin. We cannot
remove it ourselves. We cannot, as it were, turn over
a new leaf and say, well, now I'm going to change. Often, perhaps,
there are resolutions made, another year begins, and people say,
well, I have made New Year's resolutions. And it may be a
good resolution to try and not sin and nothing wrong with that.
But you and I cannot cease from sin because we are fallen creatures,
we are sinful creatures and we are sinners and we need to be
cleansed from our sin. We need to have all our sin removed
and you and I will not get to heaven if we have sin. We need sin to be removed and
therefore to realise that that day of our redemption draws near
when by the grace of God we shall enter in to that holy place,
the heavenly Jerusalem. But it won't be if we still possess
sin. And so we may ask ourselves the
question, well, how are we redeemed? What the Word of God tells us,
and it tells us very clearly, and let's understand it, we're
redeemed in one way and one way only. Redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ. That means that you and I need
to be under the blood. We have the wonderful symbol
picture given us in the Old Testament of that place of redemption and
the place of deliverance. And that was set forth very wonderfully
when the Passover was instituted on that day of deliverance from
Egyptian bondage. when God in his great and glorious
mercy delivered the Israelites from that place of bondage in
Egypt. And there was a very clear sign
set before them. There was only safety as they
were found in the houses wherein there was the blood on the doorposts
and the lintels and they passed under that to get into the house
and that blood was from a lamb. A lamb which was taken and slain,
a lamb which had to be as perfect as possible. And that typified
for us today, it typified for Israel then, the Lord Jesus Christ
as the Lamb of God. That's why so often in the Word
of God we read about the Lamb slain. The Lord Jesus was slain
as the Lamb of God. And therefore it's very wonderful
for us to be able to read in the first chapter of John's Gospel
where John the Baptist was ordained to be able to write and say,
behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The true believer in those days
was to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. The true believer today
is still to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing
for us today if you and I look to the Lord Jesus Christ, realising
that in and of ourselves dwelleth no good thing. It's not a very
happy thing, is it, to consider. And yet, you know, when the Holy
Spirit shows to us how we stand, how we are before a holy God,
as God looks upon us, What does he say? A sinner. What does he say? A sinner in
need of redemption. And what a mercy if we are that
sinner who the Lord Jesus came into this world to save. He came into this world to redeem. and to realise the great God,
the glorious Saviour, therefore, came for that specific reason,
to redeem His church, so that that church, as they travelled
through their life on this earth, could look up and could look
forward to the glorious day of their redemption, when they would
be with Christ and that day would either come when they were taken
from this earth by death or when that great and glorious day came
when time should be no more, when the Lord would come and
every eye should see him in the clouds with all his holy angels
and no one would be able to hide Poor, sinful man. Poor, sinful
man, unredeemed, will call on the rocks to cover them. Without
any success, they have to face the judge of all the earth. And yet, you see, for the Church
of God, what a blessed time it will be. That's why we are to
look up and to lift up our heads in anticipation of that day of
eternal bliss, eternal freedom, eternal happiness when the Lord
will come and return. What a mercy therefore it is
to have before us here such words of warning and yet also such
words of encouragement therefore believe that there will be a
time of redemption and to have that evidence in our own heart
that it applies to us because the Lord has come into this world
to redeem us, to save our soul. Now what a blessing it is if
God therefore causes us to come to that place where we have to
cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Without mercy,
without God's grace, without God's favor, we are forever lost. We shall forever spend eternity
in that place of hell, which the Lord describes in his word. Yes, a place of outer darkness,
a place of gnashing of teeth, a place where the worm dies not. The people are always nagged
with that realization. There's no deliverance. What a mercy, therefore, to have
the favor of God and to realize that there is to the Church of
God this greater and glorious redemption. And so therefore
we have before us this situation this morning. And then shall
they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory. Every person is again in a situation
which is naturally for us almost impossible to comprehend. to
think that every eye shall see Almighty God coming. But yet
that's what the Word tells us. And we believe it to be true
with power and great glory. And what a mercy if you and I
have submitted by the grace of God to the power of God in convicting
us of our sin before our Holy God and bringing us to that place
of true repentance, godly repentance. The Word of God has a description.
It's a repentance not to be repented of. That means it's not a false
repentance. It's not a repentance of just
mere words. It's a repentance which emanates
from our heart. It's a true repentance before
Almighty God, that we do desire that God will have mercy upon
us, that we do desire that all our sins will be forever washed
away in the precious blood of the Saviour, that we do desire
to have therefore the wonderful evidence that we are redeemed. And we have the evidence then
that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You
see, every true believer, their name is written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Every unbeliever, their name
is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And we're told
at the end of time, the Book of Life will be opened. And there
will be written therein the names of all the church of God. What a mercy. What a blessing to know that
our name is written there. You may say, well, how am I going
to know that my name is written there? My friends, you and I
will know that our name is written there if we have the wonderful
evidence in our hearts, the evidence which is brought by God to know
His love toward us, to realise He hasn't dealt with us as our
sins deserve, He hasn't cast us off, but He's had mercy upon us. and
He's drawn us to Himself that we've seen in the Saviour the
only way of salvation. There's neither name given among
men under heaven whereby we must be saved. The name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. It's the only
name, my friends. whereby we must be saved, or
may we have it imprinted in our hearts in that same way as we
read, as written with an iron pen in rock, something which
is impregnable, can never be erased, the evidence of God's
love and God's mercy toward us. When God does that for us, There
is that evidence within that we are born again of the Spirit
of God. It's God's work. What a mercy
it is to possess that wonderful evidence. It isn't something
that you and I can produce ourselves. No, it's not of the flesh. It's
of the Spirit. The Spirit of God. What a mercy
then, what a blessing it is to have that. And God works it in
each of the hearts and souls of his children. It creates a
living desire to know that we possess that gift of God of eternal
life. That desire to know that our
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That great desire
to know that Christ has died and he has shed his blood. He
stood in our place. He conquered for us sin, death,
hell and the grave. You and I couldn't do it. We
couldn't do it. What a mercy if Christ has done
it. Done it. He did it at Calvary. when you utter those glorious
words, it is finished. On your behalf and my behalf,
the great plan of salvation, well, maybe not, have reason then to praise and
to honour and to glorify our great and glorious God, to thank
him that there is therefore a realization that we have this wonderful evidence
recorded in the word of God for our encouragement and to believe
that the word of God is true. And as I've said to you so often,
the word of God is true. Every word that you and I are
privileged to read. and to have before us recorded
in the Word of God, it speaks to us so clearly about our condition
that we were born in, the condition that we existed in until that
great time, that great blessing of grace when Christ came to
redeem our souls. It doesn't mean to say we won't
sin still. We will, right down to the end
of time. You may say, well, why is that?
It's because the old devil never gives up. But the good news is,
he's a vanquished foe. We may fall, we may sin, we may
disobey God, but what a mercy it is. His mercy endureth forever. That's the kind and gracious
God we have. We're not dealt with as our sins
deserve. We're dealt with with glorious
forgiveness because he's loved us. And how very humbling it
is to think that God has loved an ungrateful wretch. an ungrateful
sinner of the earth, and he hasn't cast us out as a cumbra of the
ground. Well, the position is quite clear. There is, and there will be,
men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those
things which are coming on the earth. The power of heaven shall
be shaken, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in
a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin
to come to pass, then look up, look up. Look to Jesus, then
look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh,
the promise of God. What a blessing it is that we
have such a glorious word to meditate upon and to rejoice
in. Amen.