I'm just going to go through
these verses, try to go through them one at a time, but I've
entitled this message, Watch, Pray, Be Ready. Because those
three things are emphasized here, and then at the latter part of
the chapter, there's a fourth thing that's mentioned, which
I couldn't fit in the title of the sermon, so I'll just tell
you now, which is the Lord telling His servants to feed His people,
to take care of them, and not to be given over to drunkenness
and these kinds of things, and to beat His servants. So that's
at the end of the chapter. But I want you to look at this
in verse 29. It says, "...immediately after the tribulation of those
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her
light, and the star shall fall from heaven, and the powers of
the heaven shall be shaken." Now, the tribulation in the immediate
context is the historical destruction of Jerusalem. The historical
destruction of Jerusalem. That's the immediate context.
Because Jesus, in chapter 23, if you recall, as He's riding
into Jerusalem, He says, remember He said that He looked upon Jerusalem
and wept over it, and He said, if you had just known in this
day That it was the day of your visitation, but now your house
is left to you desolate. And this is the desolation the
Lord has been describing in Matthew 24. The desolation of the nation
of the Jews. Especially that city in Jerusalem
and the temple where they worshipped. And so, but there is, as I indicated,
we're going to see in the next couple of verses, there's an
interweaving of the things that happened at that time in history
when the Romans invaded and destroyed Jerusalem, and the things that
are going to happen at the end of the world. So here we have
what is called this tribulation that would come, it says, immediately
after the tribulation of those days. So there's a tribulation,
then it says, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the
powers of the heaven shall be shaken. Now there are places
in scripture that talk about this, that we can interpret it
in a spiritual sense where the light is taken away from the
nation of Israel. But I think it's easier for me
to see how that in a future sense this applies to the end of the
world. And so in the nation of Israel there was a tribulation
just before God destroyed that city, Jerusalem. Why did He destroy
Jerusalem? Well, as we read in Psalm 106,
the nation of Israel, as a nation, as a people, that entire nation
had been disobedient against God their entire history. This is accounted in the Old
Testament. If you read the Old Testament,
one thing you'll see over and over and over ad nauseum is this
turning away of the people of Israel from the Lord God. That's
one of the things. And the Lord bringing them back
through prophets and through... men who interceded for them,
like Moses and so on. And there's a long history of
that. If you just remember Psalm 106, it recounts the continual
turning away and then God saving. Even though as a nation they
turned, God had a people within that larger nation. So that even
though the nation as a whole perished. For example, 40 years
in the wilderness they wandered and their bodies fell. Why? Because
of unbelief. There was a remnant, God's people,
out of that nation. And this parallels what God does
across the entire population of humanity throughout time.
Within the world today and throughout history, there's always been
a people that the Lord would save. Those are called His people. They're called His elect. They're
called His friends. John 15, 13. What greater love
does any man have than to lay down his life for his friends?
In Hebrews 2, verses 10 through 17, they're called his brethren. They're called the church. Acts
20, 28. He purchased the church with
his own blood. In Ephesians 5, 25, he died for
the church. All these things speak of a people
who are called the children of promise, the elect people of
God out of the whole world. Now I'm not going to take you
to all those verses to prove that, but if you just remember
those labels that God gives to His people. It's called in 1
Peter 2 verse 9, a holy nation. A chosen generation. As opposed
to an unholy nation and a non-chosen generation. Which was the nation
of Israel as a whole. They thought they were the chosen
people. And they presumed on God's grace to them. They thought
they had God's favor. So they didn't know God. They
didn't know God. They served idols. And that was,
in the Old Testament, they were physical things. Idols of silver
and gold. But we see more generally that
idols refer to the work of men's hands. And this is what Paul
battled in the book of Romans and Galatians and Hebrews and
throughout the New Testament. It's the big war between those
who hold tenaciously to their own righteousness and will not
submit themselves to the righteousness of God which is in Jesus Christ.
Reading Romans chapter 9 and 10 you see that. But here now
we have this coming to a peak at this point in history. And
the Lord Jesus is talking to them about this. These people
failed, they failed to recognize the coming judgment. Most importantly,
the nation of Israel as a whole failed to receive Christ as sinners. Now that is the key point here. They failed to receive Christ
as sinners. That's the message that Jesus
brought throughout the New Testament. Remember in Matthew 9 and several
other places He says, I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance. Go understand what this means.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. And so the Lord emphasizes the
need for us as sinners to hear the gospel. If we don't hear
the gospel as sinners, we'll never trust Christ. We'll always
be indifferent to it. Or we'll think, well I can get
saved anytime I want to. I can make a decision. I can
exercise my will. I can do something. And then
God will respond to what I do in order to make God to save
me. That is not at all the truth of the gospel. That's far, far
from it. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is God's doing and
is done in Christ. And God gives His Spirit. It
says in John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus, "...the wind blows where it listeth."
Where He pleases, the Spirit of God gives birth, new birth,
to those that God would have saved. And this is the message
of Scripture. But proud men raise themselves
against God's sovereignty in salvation, and they try to exert
their goodness, their reasons that God should save them. They
display their works. Remember Matthew 7? The men appearing
before the Lord Jesus Christ, they said, Lord, Lord, haven't
we done many wonderful works in your name? And Jesus said,
I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. And so that's a summary of the
nation of Israel, but just not them, a summary of all of those
who in unbelief reject the gospel because they don't hear it as
sinners. God has to give us that, doesn't He? Acts 16.14, it says
about Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened. Remember that? Whose heart the Lord opened.
Unless God opens our heart, we can't hear the gospel. We won't
see our sin. We won't come like the publican
and say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Look upon Christ,
receive me for Christ's sake. We'll never ask that. So these
people failed to receive the gospel, receive Christ as sinners. And they failed to bring sinners
to Christ. Why would they? They had no need
for Him themselves. They wanted to put themselves
over men. To make men look at them and
think well of them because of their spiritual goodness. This
is what we all do by nature. We hear what God requires us
to do, we set about doing it, and then when we think we've
done some of it, we begin to think well of ourselves, and
we look down on others. This describes self-righteousness. This is what we are by nature.
Only God can overcome that. And the message here in this
chapter is that these people epitomized the self-righteous,
Christ-rejecting people throughout time and history. Though they
had externally the name of God's people, yet they inwardly had
no faith. And that's what it's saying throughout
scripture about these people. But, here's the mercy. God never
judges the righteous with the wicked. He never judges the righteous. Remember Abraham's prayer to
the Lord? When the Lord said he's going
to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he said, you will not destroy
the righteous with the wicked. Far be it from you, shall not
the judge of all the earth do right, that you would destroy
the righteous with the wicked?" And then he began to pray. Remember,
he started at 50, then 45, or 40, and all the way down to 10. If there be 10 righteous, will
you save the city, spare the city for 10's sake? And the Lord
said, yes, for 10's sake, I would spare the whole city. But there
weren't 10. There was only one. It was Lot. But the Lord didn't destroy Lot
with the city. He brought Lot out. The angel
said to him, I cannot destroy the city until you are brought
out. That's the grace of God. God
will save His people. He will not fail to save His
people. That's the mercy here that the
Lord says. Remember Noah? He found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And how did God save him? He
spoke to him. He told Noah, there's going to
be a flood. I'm going to destroy the whole
earth. Build an ark. And it says in Hebrews 11 that
Noah moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
So here we have a man preparing himself and his household to
enter into the ark. in order to escape the judgment
that God promised was coming on the world. What did Noah do?
By faith, he prepared an ark. The ark pictures Christ. In the ark, he was born up above
the water. The rains fell, the waters came
against the ark, the pitch, the atonement on the ark, representing
Christ's atonement, and God spared Noah and his family in the ark.
This is the message here. It's the message throughout scripture.
God doesn't destroy the righteous with the wicked. He saves the
righteous out of the destruction before he destroys them. And
so Noah was saved in his family. Lot was saved in his family.
Remember the children of Israel in the land of Egypt? God said,
I'm going to come through the land and destroy all the first
born. Here's what you're to do. Take
blood. Sprinkle it on the door post of the house. Get into the
house. Get into the house, and when
you're in the house, when I see the blood, I will pass over you."
When I see the blood, God wasn't looking for anything from them. He looked for the blood. And
if He found the blood on the household, All in the household
were spared. When I see the blood, that's
the message of the gospel. When God sees Christ for His
people, for His sake, He saves them from their sin, from their
enemies, and redeems them out of all iniquity, this world and
Satan and everything in it. And we could go on. The Red Sea.
The children of Israel who were spared out of the wilderness.
When they came to Jericho, remember what happened? The spies were
sent in. And Rahab hid the spies. Let the spies go down over the
wall with a scarlet cord. And then they told her. Now,
we will spare anyone in the house where the scarlet thread is hanging
from the window. In all of these cases we see
that God's judgment was promised. God's people heard that promise,
they believed God's word, and they got into the ark. Into the
house where the blood is. Into the house where the scarlet
thread was. They were delivered because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the message here. And so these people, they spurned
the message of Christ. They spurned Christ Himself.
They finally rejected Him. And so the Lord brought judgment
on them. They rejected the apostles. They rejected the message the
apostles brought. And the Lord destroyed that city.
The destruction of Jerusalem. So now in verse 29 we see that
after the tribulation, after this terrible, horrible trouble
that came on Jerusalem. He says, immediately after that,
the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven
shall be shaken. Again, we could interpret this as the taking
away from the nation of Israel. The message of the gospel. Their eyes were hidden. But I
think it more evidently applies to the end of time. Because verse
30 is the big transition here. He says, listen. And then shall
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This verse is very... I don't
see how to take this verse and apply it to AD 70. There's no way I can see how
that could apply here. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is said to be coming in the clouds. All the tribes of the earth would
mourn because of Him. They'll see the Son of Man coming
in the clouds. Not secretly. Not just to a local
area, but with power and great glory. When did that ever happen
in history? Never! Until the end of time,
it hasn't happened. He, in Acts chapter 1, verse
7 and 8, around 7 and 8, he says that when Jesus was ascending
back up into heaven, the disciples are sitting there looking. And
he's received by a cloud. And they continue looking. The
angel said, men of Israel, Why do you stand here looking into
heaven? This same Jesus, whom you saw ascend up, shall come
again in the cloud." And He hadn't come yet. Here He's going to
come in power and great glory. Look at 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1. I want you to see this parallel
passage, just one of many. We could read several like this,
but I'm just going to take you to this one. He says, In verse 6 he says, "...it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you." In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ watches
over His people. When Cain killed Abel, it was
a righteous thing for God to bring tribulation on Cain. It is a righteous thing for God
to bring retribution on those who trouble His people. If you
do this to me, if you do this to my people, you've done it
unto me, the Lord Jesus says. And verse 7, and to you who are
troubled. Rest with us when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How do we obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ? By faith. By looking to Jesus
only. As sinners, coming to Him, confessing
what we are, what we've done. Lord, I've sinned. There's nothing
good in me. I have no merit. You'll never
find anything in me worth saving. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the message of the Gospel. He has done it all. They obeyed
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These who did that shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of His power. When He shall come
to be glorified in His saints and to be admired, In all them
that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that
day." You see the difference here? There's two things that
are going to happen. Two reactions. On the one hand, there are those
who see and mourn. Because they realize the greatest
possible judgment. that they were told about and
warned about is coming and there's no escape. There's no way at
this point in time to avoid certain eternal doom. What kind of mourning
could that be? What kind of sorrow and grief
could that be? Who can tell what that is to
face certain judgment? This is going to happen. The
Lord Jesus Christ will come again. He will take judgment on the
wicked. And He will bring His people
to glory. That's the message of 2 Thessalonians
where we just read. But the other reaction The other
reaction is that when the Lord Jesus comes, He's going to be
admired by all those who have received the testimony that He
sent by His Apostles, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll
be admired. Now, I don't know about you,
but when I think about the coming of the Lord, there's a little
bit of trepidation. There's a little bit... Maybe
a lot of concern, uncertainty. Will I, how could I, a sinner,
be prepared to face the Lord Jesus Christ coming in judgment
on this world? How could I be ready for that
day? That's really the big question,
isn't it? How could I be ready? How could I stand before the
Son of Man? But here we see the marvelous
grace of God. Because He says all. He'll be
admired by all of them in verse 10. When He shall come to be
glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe. What is this saying? It's saying
that God Himself will give us grace by His Spirit in order
to rejoice. Everything that we see in ourselves,
that gives us cause for doubt, will be swept away because we'll
see the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll give us that grace. Don't
ever think that when the Lord describes what you ought to do,
that you can generate it. You can't produce what is required. The Lord Himself has to give
it. So when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, And we know He's coming,
and we think about ourselves being ready. We have to come
to Him, who is our Judge, and also our Savior, and ask Him
to save us for His namesake. That's the message here. The
words of Christ, to watch and be ready and pray, are all words
to us, exhorting us to come to Christ and seek from Him the
very grace we need to believe Him as He's commanded us to do.
And so we go back to Matthew 24. Again, looking at these verses,
it's difficult for me to see how it could be applied to the
immediate context in history of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Verse 31, "...he shall send his angels with the great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Now, here, the
angels are the Lord's servants, and they're gathering together
His saints with the sound of a great trumpet. Is this the
sound of the gospel going out by preachers into all the world
to gather His elect? Well, sure, you could apply it
to that in a spiritual sense, but at the end of time, it has
to do with the fact that when the last trump, when the Lord
Jesus Christ descends from heaven, at the last trump, the people
of God, the believers in Christ, will be changed in a moment,
in a twinkling of the eye, at the last trump. 1 Corinthians
15. Isn't that what it says? At the last trump. Every eye
shall see Him, Revelation 1-7, when He comes to bring judgment
on this world, bringing vengeance on those who despised Him and
persecuted His people, and saving His people for His great name's
sake. And so he's describing this. He's describing future
history. This is what's going to happen.
Verse 32. Now, learn a parable of the fig
tree. When his branch is yet tender
and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. So
likewise, when you shall see all these things, know that it
is near, even at the doors. What things? Well he just described
what things. Remember verse 14? The first
thing he said. All these things that people
see visually. Wars and rumors of wars. The
signs in the heavens. Earthquakes and pestilence and
famines on the earth. All the things that trouble people
naturally. Those are not the signs of the
end. But what is the sign, the first sign he gives of the end
is found in verse 14. This gospel must be preached
in all the world and then the end will come. That's the first
sign. The preaching of the gospel throughout
the world. When will the Lord Jesus come?
Not until He has saved all of His people out of the world.
And He will do that through the means of preaching the Gospel. The Gospel is going out today,
isn't it? All over the world. People can hear it on the internet,
on radio, shortwave radio. missionaries going throughout
the world. When will the gospel finally be fully preached throughout
the world? Only the Lord knows. But that's
the first sign that He gives. The second sign He gave was,
remember, the abomination of desolation. In the time when
God destroyed Jerusalem, the abomination of desolation was
when the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem. Luke 21 verse 20 says
that. When you see the armies surrounding
Jerusalem, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. That
was the abomination of desolation. The abomination of it was that
these were Gentile, idolatrous Gentile men who came in to the
city that was called Jerusalem, externally identified with God's
people and His worship, and they surrounded it to destroy it.
It was an abomination. They were the abomination. The
desolation was God's purpose to destroy that city. In a parallel
way, in the end of the world, there's going to be a time when
Not the physical armies, the Gentiles as Romans surrounded
Jerusalem, but the spiritual enemies are going to infiltrate
the church, the visible church, the places that call themselves
churches, with false gospels and false doctrines. And they're
going to establish the false gospels and those who preach
them as if it were the true gospel in those places that are called
churches. And that is the abomination of
desolation. The temple of God is the people
of God. But externally, it's the people
who call themselves by the name of Christ, and meet in buildings,
and call, and they use the name of Jesus Christ, but they mix.
They mix the truth with error. They mix error with the truth.
They add to it. They take away from it. All these
things are indications of the abomination of desolation. That's
the second sign. And then there's the third sign,
which was when you see the powers of the heavens shaken. So when
you see all these things, just like when you see trees leaving,
you know summer is near. We saw that in Luke 21, verse
29. He says, when you see the fig
tree and all the trees leaving, you know summer is near. So when
you see these signs the Lord has described, the gospel being
preached, the infiltration of false gospels in the churches,
so that the gospel is hardly even known. Men don't understand
the gospel today, even though they go to church and they talk
about things from scripture. But they don't know God, just
like the Israelites of old. What is the gospel? What is the
gospel? Well, it's how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. How that He was buried
and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
But it's not just about the fact of it, it's about the accomplishment
of it. Men today deny the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished redemption for His
people. He saved His people. He obtained
eternal redemption for them. Hebrews 9.12. He made reconciliation. between them and God. First,
He propitiated God. Second, He reconciled them to
God by justifying them before God. He made them perfect by
His one offering. He did all these things. He obtained
their eternal inheritance. He put away all their sins. He sanctified them by His own
blood. He did all these things according
to the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ absolutely
saved His people from their sins. Well then how do I know if He
did that for me? Isn't that the big question?
How do I know that what Christ did was for me? And then we're
just asking the same question that the Lord is telling us here,
to watch, to be ready. How am I going to stand before
the Son of Man? The message of the Gospel is
that when the Lord tells us about His Son, that the Spirit of God,
as He described in so many places, for example in John 3, He takes
the things of Christ and He shows them to us. He comes, the Spirit
of God comes to dwell in us. He opens our eyes and gives us
a persuasion of faith to look to Christ and find that God receives
us for His sake alone. Not for anything I've done. Salvation
is what God thinks of His Son. It's not what God thinks of me. It's what God has done in His
Son. It's not what I've done. It's
not a decision I make. It's not a transaction between
me and God. It's a transaction between God
the Father and God the Son on the behalf of His people. And
the corresponding outpouring of His Spirit in us to give us
faith in Christ. Life that produces that faith
in Christ. And so, the evidence of this
grace is the Spirit of God giving us eyes to look upon Christ as
those bitten by the serpent in the wilderness looked on the
ones hanging on the pole, cursed for them because of their sin. And seeing Him, they were healed. They were given life. And so
we're given life when God the Spirit gives us faith in Christ. And so we look to Him. That's
the evidence. That's the way we know that what
Christ did is for us. We cling to Him without any basis
found in ourselves, but only what God has said in His Word
concerning His Son. We have no other ground, no other
warrant to look. What warrant do we have to look
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't it His own word? He says
in Matthew 11.28, "...Come unto me, all you that labor, and are
heavy laden..." With what? With your sin. With your sin
and with your complete spiritual weakness to do one thing of all
that God requires. Come to me! That's what he says. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, come. And he that is athirst say, come. Let everyone, whosoever
will, come. Come. How? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Isaiah 45, 22. Jesus said, look
unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. That's
our warrant to come. And so we see that when we see
these things coming to pass, We wonder, what shall I do? How shall I be made ready? And
the answer comes from Scripture. The only way we can be ready
is with God's grace giving us faith in Christ to see that by
His own work on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ has perfected
His people and we flee to Him in faith, hiding in Him, coming
to God by His blood, trusting in His righteousness alone. Now
in verse 34, he says, "...verily I say unto you, this generation
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." In the
immediate context, those who heard him, there were some living
then who would see the destruction of Jerusalem. But in the longer
context, the nation of the Jews would persist, they would exist
throughout throughout history. And God had a remnant in that
nation. This is discussed in Romans chapter 11 when Paul said
that even though the nation as a whole turned from him in unbelief,
the Lord had a remnant and He would save them. And there would
be the Jews throughout history. There would be Jews. Now unlike
other nations, some nations completely wiped out in time. But this nation would persist,
and that generation. We, the church of God, are called
the chosen generation. But there's another generation,
and it has to do with these people throughout time. And so he says,
heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. The Lord Jesus brought this creation
into existence by his word. He's going to fold it up, but
his word endures forever. Verse 36, "...but of that day
and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but
my Father only." Now, a lot of people stumble at this. They
say, well, how could the Lord Jesus Christ not know? Because
it says in Mark 13, I think it is, that He says, "...not the
Son." How could the Lord Jesus Christ not know the time of either
Jerusalem or the end of the world? How could that be? Well because,
remember what it says in Luke chapter 2? He grew in stature
and wisdom and in favor with God and man. The Lord Jesus Christ
was a real man. He was limited as a man. He actually
had to depend on the Spirit of God for everything as a man. Remember what he told Satan when
the devil tempted him? As it is written, man... shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." He lived
upon the Word of God. He's the one who fulfilled the
perfect requirements of God as a man, depending on God's Spirit. So as a man, He hadn't been given the revelation
of the timing of that. But that's fine. I don't have
a problem with that. Because in glory, He certainly knows
that now. As God, He certainly knows that.
But He's making the point here. He's not trying to divide here
between what He knows and what He doesn't know. As man and God,
what He's trying to say is that no one knows the time. The point
is, don't go trying to figure out the time of the Lord's return
in the end of the world. That's futility. That's not the
point. The point is, you won't know
if someone says, the Lord's going to come at such and such a date
and at such and such a time. You can be sure of this. That's
the one date and the one time He will not come. And it happens
all the time. It's happened throughout history.
People have always said this. And when it doesn't happen, sometimes
they'll change the dates. Or eventually they die and people
will rise up after them. And they'll do the same stupid
blunders. But that's because they've missed
the point. Why would the Lord say it like
this? Because it wasn't until the Ark was completed and the
Lord... told Noah, get into the ark,
that the flood came. It wasn't until God brought Lot
out that God poured out fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.
It wasn't until all these things in history, God's, the judgment
comes at God's timing. And the point is that we're not
to look for the time, but we're to look for the One who is coming. That we may be found worthy,
as it says in Luke 21, to stand before the Son of Man. And so,
don't look for a time. Look for the One who's coming.
Be ready. Watch and pray that you may be
found worthy. Then He gives the example here.
He says, and He ties these things together. But as the days of
Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
In what way? In this way. 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 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. The people who
do not watch, who don't look at the signs, they have no clue.
They're not interested. Or maybe they've got it all upside
down in terms of what the scripture means. And so they get tangled
around other things and they miss the whole point. But here
the Lord says, the thing is, people are going to be going
about doing their everyday things. And the Lord's going to come.
And it's going to take them by surprise. So you better be ready. He says in verse 40, "...then
shall two be in the field. The one shall be taken, that
one is a believer, and the other left, that one is left to judgment,
to condemnation, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on those who
know not God and believe not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, as we read in 2 Corinthians 1. Two women shall be grinding
at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left." In
other words, Believers associate with non-believers, don't we?
We're in the world, shoulder to shoulder, working with people,
living in families with people, both believers and unbelievers.
That's what he said earlier. He says, Father is going to betray
Son. Children are going to betray
parents. You're going to be killed for my namesake. There's always
this division between those who are God's people and those who
are not. Verse 42, this is the underscore
point. But know this, that if the good
man of the house had known in what hour, I'm sorry, in what
watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would
not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be he
also ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of
Man cometh. at such an hour when you think
not, the Son of Man cometh." So you see here, the whole emphasis
is on watching and on being ready. So what does it mean to watch?
What does it mean to be ready? I know that our first reaction
is, I've got to clean up my life. I've got to get things in order.
I've got to put myself in a position where when the Lord comes, I'm
doing the right things. I hope he finds me telling someone
about Jesus or praying or doing something good because I want
to be ready. We begin to think about what
we're doing. But watching here means being on your guard on
the one hand. And it means being in anticipation
on the other. Those who watch on the wall of
a city for the enemy, they know the enemy is coming. What do
they do? They prepare. They look for the
enemy. They're on their guard. They
know he's lurking in the bushes, in the trees, just beyond their
vision. And they watch for him. And as
soon as they see him, they sound the alarm. And so Ephesians chapter
6 verse 10 gives us the recipe. What are we to do? We're to put
on the whole armor of God. What is the armor of God? Well,
it has to do with the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet
of salvation, our loins girt about with truth, our feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel, the shield of faith, the sword
of the spirit, which is the word of God. In other words, we put
on the Lord Jesus Christ. As He reveals Himself in the
Word. Isn't that what God exhorts us to do over and over again?
He says, look in Ephesians chapter 3, look at this. He says, Paul
prays for this. It seems mysterious because of
the way that he uses his language. He uses metaphors like putting
things on. But it's just another way of
describing what God does when He gives us faith in Christ.
He says in verse... Ephesians 3 verse 17, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith. Well, do we get the Lord Jesus
Christ to come into our hearts by believing Him? No. He gives
us faith and His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, dwells in us.
But faith gives the evidence of the fact that it's the Spirit
of God that has done this. We don't produce faith. Faith
is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Isn't it? Look at Galatians 5,
verse 5, just to underscore this point. In fact, look at Galatians
4, verse 4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. What did God do? He sent His
Son. What did Christ do? He redeemed them that were under
the law. Why? That we might receive the
adoption of sons. That we ourselves might experience,
know in our hearts, that we were the chosen, adopted sons of God
from eternity. Now we've been redeemed by Christ.
Verse 6. And because you are sons, because
God chose you as his sons, Christ redeemed you because you were
chosen of God, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father, What is the result of sonship?
Christ redeeming us. What is the result of our redemption?
We've been set free from sin. Our eyes will be opened to see
that Christ has done this. And we'll be made to know that
we're the sons of God. God has done this. And so He
sends forth His Spirit in our hearts. And by His Spirit we
say, Abba, Father. Look back at Galatians 3 verse
8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached the gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall
all nations be blessed. The scripture promised Abraham
blessings. And the blessing promise was
that God would save his people throughout the world by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that salvation would be Christ
justifying them by what he did. And so that was the gospel. What
Christ would do to justify his people. And God preached that
gospel to Abraham. In thee shall all the nations
be blessed. In Christ, Abraham's seed, God
would justify his people. And then verse 14 and 13. Verse 13, Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree, that the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. We receive the promise of the Spirit in believing. We're
justified. We're redeemed. God gives us
His Spirit. He gives us faith to look to
Christ. And in this believing, we know
that we've received the Spirit of God. And therefore, we know
that we're the sons of God. We know that we're the seed of
Abraham, just like Abraham. We've been given faith in Christ.
These are the evidences that God has done this. It's His Spirit
that does this work in us to cause us to look to Christ who
died for us. And so back in Matthew chapter
24, watch therefore. It's an on guard. We put on Christ by faith. We
live by faith. We overcome by faith. Isn't that
what 1 John 4, 5 says? In Revelation 12,11 they overcame
him. How? By the blood of the Lamb.
We don't overcome the devil, except in Christ. He overcame
him. He stood in heaven's court and
offered his own blood. And God the Judge threw Satan
out and Christ sent forth His Spirit to spoil Satan's kingdom
and bring us out of that kingdom, giving us faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so we look for Him. We put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is all of our armor. He is our only defense. What
Christ did. His blood is all of our defense
against all of the wiles of the devil. Whom resist steadfast
in the faith. 1 Peter 5.9 This is how we live. This is how we walk. This is
how we watch. This is how we are made ready.
Remember Psalm 1? Look at Psalm chapter 1. I was
thinking about this psalm. I remember a long time ago, maybe
when I was living in the same house with Glennis and Neil.
I remember memorizing this psalm. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does
he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are
like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the
ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the
congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
What is the one thing here he emphasizes about the ungodly?
They shall not stand in the judgment. They shall be taken away like
the chaff in the wind. Who is it that stands in judgment
then? It's the righteous. It's the
man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who walks not in
the way in the counsel of the ungodly, doesn't stand in the
way of sinners, doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful. His
delight is in the law of the Lord. And who can this possibly
describe among us? But the Lord Jesus Christ, who
did not take counsel from the ungodly, who did not stand in
the way of sinners, who didn't walk in their ways, His delight
was in the law of God. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O God, yea, thy law is within my heart. His leaf doesn't
wither. Whatsoever He did prospered,
and we prosper in Him. We prosper in Him. He stood up
for us as our surety. He obligated Himself to God to
bring us again to answer every demand God's justice could make
against us for our sins. He answered with Himself. And
he pleaded his father's eternal love. He pleaded his own eternal
suretyship, his engagements with his father for us. And then he
laid his life down as a substitute, taking our place on our behalf
under the judgment of God. He answered for us. And this
is what faith teaches us. This is all my hope. This is
all my hope. I'm going to give you seven reasons
why we have this hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seven quick
reasons and then I'll let you go. First, why do I have a reason
for hope? First, because God promised. If God hadn't spoken, I would
have no basis for faith, no warrant to believe. But they have not
all obeyed the Gospel. The Gospel of Isaiah 53 is the
message that God has given us. And that's God's promise, what
Christ has done. He would do all for His people. Ezekiel 36, 36. Here's the second
reason. Not only did God promise, but
God said He would do all that He promised. Look at this one
verse in Ezekiel 36, 36. I love this verse. This is about
the New Covenant. And we know the New Covenant
is the same covenant God gave to Abraham in Galatians 3, 8,
because of justification and the indwelling of the Spirit
of God as described here in Ezekiel 36. But here, in verse 36, look
at this. He says, "...then the heathen
that are left round about you shall know that I, the LORD,
build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate. I, the
LORD, have spoken it. We'll do it. You see that? I,
the Lord, have spoken it. And I will do it. Everything
the Lord promised, I the Lord have spoken it, I will do it. The covenant God made with Christ,
He promised blessings in that covenant. And everything required
to bring about those promises, God says, I have spoken it, I
will do it. That's why, the second reason,
because God himself... promised to do all that he needed
to do to make his promises come to pass. And then third, the
Lord Jesus Christ is the one by whom God did all that he promised. He did the will of God. Hebrews
10.5, he says, I come to do thy will of God. He cried from the
cross, it is finished. John 17.4, I have finished the
work you gave me to do. The Lord Jesus Christ actually
did the will. And then fourth, the Lord Jesus
Christ actually obtained, by what He did, He actually obtained
our eternal salvation. He was a surety for His people,
as I mentioned, just as Judah stood up and approached Jacob
for Benjamin to bring him again. And as Judah stood before Joseph
the judge, the Lord Jesus Christ stood for us. with the Father
before time began to bring us again, obligating Himself to
do everything for our salvation. And that He did. He obtained
eternal redemption. He made full remission. He's
our justification and our sanctification. In Him, we're actually already
glorified. And then in fifth thing, the
fifth reason we have hope, is that God says, and this is dear,
isn't it? That God says that He sees only
Christ for His people. The Lord tells us that He looks
upon His Son, when I see the blood. Remember that message
in Exodus 12, 13, when I see the blood? Where does it say
that in scripture? Well, remember Jeremiah 23, 6?
The Lord, our righteousness. How could the Lord Jesus Christ
be our righteousness? Well, because God made him our
righteousness. He laid our sins upon him, and
he suffered for those sins. He obeyed God in doing so. He
established an everlasting righteousness. And God says, This is His name,
the Lord, our righteousness. And it says that throughout scripture.
He's the Lord, our righteousness. God has made Him our righteousness.
Everything God requires of His people, He sees it only in Christ. Finds it in Him, and received
it from Him. And then, here's the sixth thing.
God tells us, me and you, all men everywhere, look to Christ. Don't look at yourself. Don't
think about what you don't have. Don't think about what you do
have. Look away from everything that you are to everything that
he is and find in him all that God requires, the full satisfaction
to God and the satisfaction to your soul. He tells us to look
to Christ only, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. And seventh, God tells us, in
so looking to Christ, we are to come boldly into His presence,
depending only on Christ's blood and righteousness and intercession.
And in so doing, He tells us that we're received by Him. Him
that cometh to me, Jesus said, I will in no wise cast out. God
has spoken. God committed Himself to do it.
Christ actually did the will of God and obtained our salvation. God sees only Christ for His
people and tells us to look to Him only. And then He says to
us, in looking, come boldly. Come boldly. When the Lord Jesus
Christ comes, tears of joy and rejoicing are going to flow down
our faces. We're going to see Him who washed
us in our sins in His own blood, who loved us from everlasting,
and will be overcome with delight." We're going to admire Him because
of the grace given us to see that it wasn't us at all. It
wasn't anything in us. God never looked for one thing
from me because He already provided and received from His Son everything
that He demands of me. Let's pray. Our Lord and Savior,
We pray that you would so teach us by your own spirit that our
salvation is in you. You, say it to our souls, Lord,
that you are our salvation. And let us never look away. Let
us never look further. Not to another. Let us keep us
from the deception that comes upon this world that trusts in
something of its own. Help us, Lord, to exalt you only. Help us to receive you as sinners
and to preach you as sinners to those who need to be saved
as sinners by one who does all and saves to the uttermost. by
His own blood and righteousness, His own intercession, according
to the eternal will of God. Lord, we thank You for a salvation
that glorifies You and Your Son and saves us in spite of all
that we are. Let us be found in Christ, and
so be found ready, and help us to watch looking for our Savior,
who shall come again, and let us be found in confidence in
Him, coming boldly by His blood. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.