May it please Almighty God to
bless us together as we consider his word this morning. Let us
turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, and we'll read verse
44. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter
24, and reading verse 44. Therefore be also ready, for
in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus and The previous two verses speak to us again from words
of the Savior, and they tell us this. 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 in what watch the thief
would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his
house to be broken up. So it's a very good illustration
and direction for all of us to realise that we are to watch
and that we are to be ready for that time when the Lord will
come. And that, of course, can be in
two ways. That can be to us personally,
by death, when the Lord will come and take us from this earth,
or in the other case, it could be when time shall be no more
and the Lord will return in all his wonderful glory. And how necessary it is to realise
that both of those scenes will come and none of us, none of
us can escape that position. I'm sure you know, of course,
as I mentioned in prayer and I expect some of you are familiar
with, Norman Rowe, who died on Friday, who'd been perfectly
healthy a couple of weeks ago and preached the gospel and then
was taken ill with COVID and went downhill and the hospital
weren't able to do anything more for him. and therefore he passed
away. Well, thankfully, he was a man
that was ready to stand before his God. He was a faithful witness. He was a faithful servant of
God. He preached the gospel for many
years, and therefore he was ready to leave this earth. He was ready
to go and to meet Almighty God, his maker. And therefore we could
say, in his case, he was blessed indeed. But we have to always
come back to ourselves, our own lives, as to whether, if that
had occurred to us, whether we would have been ready to have
met God, whether we would have passed out of time, never to
have returned. And whether, therefore, this
word would have been true of us? For in such an hour as you
think not, the Son of Man cometh. See, none of us know. None of
us know when God will come and call us from this earth. We're
told the old must die. We know that. But we're also
told the young may. Perhaps in the day and age in
which we live, thankfully, there aren't so many young deaths.
But we go back a couple of hundred years in the history of our nation. Many, many little children died.
Some died very young. Some died as teenagers. Many children died. Often families
were larger in those days, and often only half of the family
actually lived. The other half had died before
they reached to be an adult. Thankfully today, through medication
and knowledge, children tend to live longer. But nonetheless,
none of us can guarantee our life. None of us can say, I'm
going to live for a long time. None of us know. You children don't know. Young
people don't know. And it's good, therefore, for
us to consider and therefore to ponder the day of our death. The Bible tells us, very interestingly,
it's better to go to the house of mourning than it is to go
to the house of vanity, or the house of frivolity, or the house
of just the things of time. And we're told because that is
the position of all mankind. All of us, therefore, must come
to the day of our death. And so to go to the house of
mourning is not a bad thing. And you may say, well, why is
it not a bad thing? It's not a bad thing because it reminds
us that perhaps we might be the next person that is to die. And you may think, as I remember
once hearing someone spoke to a minister, he said, you better
cheer up. We don't want to hear about all these doleful things.
Please cheer up. Well, the minister was able to
say, well, he felt that the things that he'd been preaching were,
of course, necessary. And I would say the same things
today. You see, such things may be difficult,
and we may not particularly want to hear when we're young, when
we think we've got our life before us. But if we've not got our
life before us, and only God knows whether we have, It's a
good thing to be reminded of the shortness of our life and
to hear such powerful words as this, therefore be ye also ready. Well, Norman Rowe was ready. But if I was to ask you all this
morning, please put your hand up if you're ready to die. Well, how many of you would be
able to do that? I hope some of us would. Some
of you might quake in your shoes. You might say, well, I'm not
ready. I'm not ready to die. I'm not ready to pass out of
time. I'm not ready to stand before
God. And why is that? That is because
you don't know whether you are really saved. You don't really
know whether your soul is safe. You don't really know whether
the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed died for you and taken away all
your sins. You may not even know that you
are a sinner in the sight of a holy God. And therefore, if
you are in that place, and all of us have been there, all of
us have been there, and what a blessing today if we can say,
by the grace of God, we have passed from death to life. That means spiritual death to
spiritual life. It's a good and it is really
a very important consideration, these things. And, you know,
the Apostle Paul knew the value and the importance of them. And he tells us in the second
epistle to the Corinthians, in the last chapter, the 13th chapter,
he tells us these words, verse 5. Examine yourselves, whether
ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you? Accept ye be reprobates, and
reprobates, of course, are unbelievers, those who are not saved. Well, he goes on and says, but
I trust that ye shall know that ye are not reprobates. It's a good thing and it's a
necessary thing to carefully examine ourselves before God. It's not a question that other
people have to examine you. Because if other people were
to examine you, they wouldn't know that the answers you were
giving were true. They wouldn't know whether you
were just pretending, whether you were just trying to impress
them, that you were a believer. But if you and I stand before
God, And God's the examiner, as it were, as we examine ourselves,
and to look in our hearts and look in our lives to see whether
we are a true believer or not. It's a very important thing. The problem is that the devil
will say to you, well, you needn't worry about that, you're a young
person. And in actual fact, however old we are, the devil can still
say, well, you've got time yet, don't worry about those things.
Well, the Bible tells us, today, if you will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts. So if before God, you're not
sure, come before him. and examine
yourself and ask the Lord to show you whether you are a believer
or not. Because it is a very, very important
thing. It's probably the most important
thing in your life. You know, when we're young, we're
all very keen, aren't we? That we progress in life, that we
do well in our exams, and we get a good job, and we're able
to get married and go and have a house. All these things are
good. But there is one thing which
is very important, and that is to know the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified as our Savior, as your Savior, as my Savior. That's the very important thing. And it's not something that you
and I should put off and say, well, I'll think about that tomorrow. As I've just said, the Bible
tells us today, today, not tomorrow, because tomorrow may not come.
you may never see tomorrow you may never see tomorrow's the
morning of tomorrow see therefore how necessary it is that these
words penetrate into our hearts therefore be ye also ready you
don't have to look at the person next door You don't have to look
at the person sitting next to you. You don't have to consider
this or that person. It is directed to us, to you
and to me. Therefore be ye, be you, also
ready. Are we ready? Are we ready? If God should come and call us
from this life, and as I said in prayer, The Bible describes
our life just like a vapour which vanishes away. I'm sure you young
people know what a vapour is like. I'm sure you've all seen
a kettle boil or a saucepan perhaps boiling. And you see the vapor,
the steam come up, don't you? And where does it go? Well, it's
gone, isn't it? It's gone in a second, it's just
disappeared. The same sometimes if you and
I are out, and perhaps in a cold day, and we breathe, and our
breath goes out, and you see our breath in the cold atmosphere,
but it's gone, disappears. And God gives us that as a very
easy illustration to demonstrate what our life is like. It's just
like that vapor. And yet you see, we tend to live,
we tend to live our life as though we shall never die. We tend to
live our life as though we're gonna continue living in this
world. Well, we're not. None of us are. The day of our death will come
or the day when the Lord returns will come. No doubt about it. But one thing definite in all
of our lives is the day of our death or the day when the Lord
returns. That is the one definite thing. Nothing else is. things may change. But that is a certain thing,
the day of our death, and the day when the Lord, or the day
when the Lord will return. And if it should be, when the
Lord returns, it's really very similar for us individually.
And as we read together, for as the lightning cometh, well,
in the last week, I guess we've all seen lightning. There was
a night, wasn't it? Was it Wednesday night? It was
a rough night and there was a lot of lightning and thunder. You
know, you can be looking out and suddenly lightning comes,
woof, doesn't it? Just like that, an instant flash. You don't know where it's come
from. God has ordained that lightning. And so the Lord uses that as
a very clear illustration. For as the lightning cometh out
of the east and shineth even unto the west, so should also
the coming of the Son of Man be. It'll be in an instant. An instant. The trumpet shall
sound and time shall be no more. All our plans for life will disappear. All that we thought we would
do tomorrow will not come to pass because time shall be no
more. And so how relevant and how important
it is, these words, that the Lord speaks to us, therefore
be also ready. And he tells us, but know this,
that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief
would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his
house to be broken up. Well, we can all understand that,
can't we? If you knew that you were going to have a burglar
tonight, you'd make sure that everything was locked up as much
as you could and you'd barricade everywhere so that the burglar
couldn't get in. It's quite obvious, isn't it?
I'm sure all of us would understand that. And so he says, you wouldn't
want the house to be broken in. Well, that's natural, isn't it?
And yet, you see, we don't take the same care and the same concern
about our souls. No, it'd be a good thing for
all of us that today, that we don't actually go to sleep tonight
until we are humbly confident that God has called us, and God
has spoken to us, and to know that it is well with our soul,
and that if God should come tonight, that we are ready to die, or
that we're ready to receive the Lord when he returns in all his
glory. Well, says the Lord then, therefore,
he speaks so clearly. Having given this illustration,
he then says, therefore, be ye also ready. You won't be able
to forget these words, will you? You won't be able to say, well,
the preacher never warned me. The preacher never told me. Because
we read today such very clear and such very important words. And so therefore, may we each
be very careful and very concerned before our God that as he's wonderfully
given us these words. You know, many people, never
hear these words read, or they're never able to read such words. Ours is a great blessing, but
also ours is a great responsibility, because none of us will be able
to stand before God and say, well, I was never told. You have been told. You won't
be able to make an excuse before God. We like making excuses sometimes,
don't we? Because of this we haven't done
and that we haven't done. And we make excuses why we haven't
done them and why we haven't considered them. You'll never
be able to make an excuse before God. You'll never be able to say,
well, I didn't have time. We all have time. We don't know
how long the time will be for us. But we do have time. And that's why I quoted those
words. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your heart. You see, naturally, hearts are
hard, naturally we don't want to think about the things of
God. We want to occupy ourselves with
the things of time, the things of the world. We don't want to
think that our plans will disappear. We don't want to think that we
should never live another day. We don't want to think that we
shan't live perhaps another year or perhaps, we don't want to
think that we never grow up to be an adult. We don't want to
think perhaps we never grow up to be an old person. And yet
you see, however old we are, however young we are, Such a
word as this is very appropriate and very applicable. And it doesn't only, these accounts
do not only occur here. The Lord a number of times records
such accounts for our instruction and for our blessing. And the
Gospel of Luke tells us, again, very similar words. And it's instructive, though,
rather to read such things because it gives us a wider appreciation. This is what it says in the twelfth
chapter of Luke. And from verse 34 it tells us,
in the twelfth chapter, For where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also. And that really gives us the
double aspect of either our treasure in the things that you and I
have on this earth, or whether our treasure is in heaven. That means the things that God
has spoken to us, the things in heaven. and then he goes on
and tells us this let your loins be girded about and your lights
burning that may sound a strange phrase what it means is this
loins girded about in the old days of course they used not
to wear trousers and skirts in the same way that we have but
they used to have a cloth round them and they used to gird it
round their loins, round their waist, so that they were able
to run if they had to, quickly. And that's why it's told here,
let your loins be girded about, and your lights be burning. That
means so that they could see where they were going. And you
yourselves, like unto men, that wait for their Lord, waiting
for God to come. that wait for their Lord, when
he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh,
they may open unto him immediately. Again, you may remember perhaps
there's a parable that Jesus spoke in the 25th chapter of
Matthew about ten virgins, ten women who were all very similar. And that tells us that five were
wise and five were foolish. And what happened, they were
waiting for the Lord to come. And they all slumbered and slept.
When the Lord came and a cry was made, behold, the bridegroom
cometh, go ye out to meet him, And all those virgins arose and
trimmed their lamps. They all had lamps, oil lamps.
And the food is said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for
our lamps are gone out. But the wise answer saying, Not
so, lest there be not enough for us and you. But go ye rather
to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went
to buy, the bridegroom came. And they that were ready, those
that had oil in their lamps, those that possessed the grace
of God in their hearts, they went in with him to the marriage,
and the door was shut. And afterward came also other
virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said,
verily, I say unto you, I know you not. The time of grace, the
time of blessing had passed. There was no hope for them. The
door was shut. They were shut out of heaven.
And so the Lord says here, again, very similar words. Watch therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son
of Man cometh. And just going back to the 12th
chapter of Luke, 36th verse, and you yourselves,
like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from
the wedding, and when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Very I say unto
you, that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to
meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if ye shall come
in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find
them so blessed are those servants. And ye know, and this know, that
if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief
would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house
to be broken through. And there he gives very similar
words now. Be ye therefore ready also, For the Son of Man cometh
at an hour when you think not." That means you shouldn't think,
well, I'm a very healthy person. I'm not going to die. I'm going
to live a long time yet. You see, you're thinking that
you're all right. You're thinking you needn't worry.
You're thinking you needn't be concerned about the day of your
death. And that's why the Lord gives
us these words of warning, these words of instruction. Therefore
be also ready. Well, my friends, none of us
can make ourselves ready. But God can. And God does. What a blessing, therefore, if
you and I are able to willingly pray to God that we may be made ready for
that day that will recall us from this world when, in our
case, time will be no more. That will occur in all of our
lives, every one of us. that time will come when time
will be no more, when we shall no longer live on this earth,
when we shall no longer be able to pray unto God. No, the day
of grace, the day of God's mercy will for us have ever passed
away. and we shall be in that state
of eternity. The hymn writer says, eternity,
tremendous sound. Well, I wonder, I hope you sometimes
have just sat down and tried to think how long eternity is. Well, you won't be able to work
it out. Because eternity has no end. And to our minds, we cannot understand
something that never has an end. Eternity never has an end. And so wherever we go when we
die, That condition will never change. It will never change. Just realise that. It won't change,
because God doesn't change his mind. He tells us, I am the Lord,
I change not. God doesn't change his mind.
He doesn't think, I reconsider that. No, God doesn't change. And therefore, eternity doesn't
change. And all of us will be in eternity. And all of us will either be
in heaven with Jesus and all the Church of God forever in
eternal, eternal happiness and joy, or either we'll be in that
terrible place of hell, in agony, in weeping and crying and gnashing
of teeth, in darkness. No escape. No escape. No change. It's a terrible thought,
isn't it? But the Bible explains these
things to us. And we should be very thankful,
therefore, that God has given you and me today the Bible to
read. which tells us these things.
And don't forget, the Bible is true. Lord Jesus himself said when
he prayed to his father, thy word is truth. Every word of the Bible is true. Let us not think therefore that,
well, I think that might change. No, it won't. Every word of God
is true. And what God has said is true. And so, therefore, God today
has spoken these things to us. Therefore, be also ready. Now,
we shall only be ready if the Lord has made us ready. And we
should only be ready if we have the evidence in our hearts that
the Lord Jesus Christ has taken away all our sins, that he's
died for us upon that cross at Calvary, that he is the one who
stood in our place. We deserved endless hell because
of our sin. What a blessing if Jesus has
died in our place and taken away our sins. so important, so necessary. And that's why, as I read earlier,
those gracious words of the Apostle Paul, to examine ourselves, whether
we are in the faith or not, whether we do have the wonderful evidence
that Jesus Christ died upon Calvary to save our souls. It's a great and glorious truth. But my friends, you and I need
to know, it was done for us. It was done for you. And it was
done for me. Real religion. is truly personal. You and I
have to die. You and I have to pass into eternity.
Do we have then that gracious and glorious knowledge that Lord
Jesus Christ therefore has loved us with an everlasting love? And then we know that we've been
drawn by that great power of God to Himself. And that we viewed Him therefore,
and we do view Him, as our great and glorious Saviour. And because
He has loved us, we love Him in return. Well my friends, these
are great things. These are important things. These
are vital things. As I said before, we tend to
think many things are needful and many things are important.
But the word is this. One thing is needful. One thing. And what is that? To know my
Jesus, crucified by fire. exceeds all things beside. The word is true. By far exceeds
all things besides. Well, may we ponder these words
and may we therefore truly have the evidence that we are one
of God's children and it's well with our soul. Therefore, be
also ready for in such an hour as you think not Son of a...