Alright, in Mark chapter 13,
back in the portion that Brother Joe just read, my text this morning
is actually the last verses beginning at verse 32 through verse 37. And I'm talking about here, the
Lord is talking about in this passage and in my message, I'm
talking about the second coming of Christ. And I've sort of entitled
this series through Mark, The Last Days. And I'm going to finish
up Mark 13 today, but I've got more messages that I'm going
to be preaching from the scriptures on this subject of the last days. How we're living in the last
days. And that's been so since the death, burial, resurrection,
and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as we approach what
we would call the end of time, the second coming of Christ,
there are things revealed in scripture that inform God's people
of the events of this time and the signs of this time. Some
people go too far with it, some don't go far enough with it,
but it is revealed for our good. It's revealed for our safety.
The message of Mark 13 And really any other teaching in scripture
concerning the second coming of Christ, the end times is this,
simply, prepare to meet your God. That's the message. That's the message of the prophets
of the Old Testament. But it's the message of God's
preachers today, prepare to meet your God. And so the question
comes, how can I prepare to meet my God? Well, the simple answer,
and we'll see this throughout the Scripture, is by believing
in, following, and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how
we prepare to meet God. We meet Him in Christ. Paul expressed
it in the book of Philippians, chapter 3, when he said, Oh,
that I may know Him. Speaking of Christ. know the
power of his resurrection. That includes what he accomplished
on Calvary to save his people from their sins. As Daniel chapter
9 put it, as we studied a few weeks ago, that he finished the
transgression, made an end of sin, brought in everlasting righteousness,
sealed up the vision and the prophecy, and was anointed as
the Most High. And so we prepare to meet God
by looking to, resting in, following, serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote, he said, that I may be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, standing before God, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness. That's the preparation. of God's
people by His grace. So then, how can I be sure of
this? How can I know, and this is the
question here, how can I know personally that I am truly looking
to, resting in, and serving the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Christ?
You know, back up here in Mark chapter 13, he talked about false
prophets coming, false Christ, false preachers pointing to a
false Christ. He even said there in verse 20,
look at that again. Mark 13, 20, he said, except
that the Lord had shortened those days. He's not talking about
God meant for them to be longer, but He had to make them shorter.
He just simply that God has ordained a short period of time for this
to take place. And it is a short period of time
in God's view. A day is a thousand years and
a thousand years is a day. Time means nothing to God as
far as His nature is concerned or His purpose. And he says,
if except those days had been shortened, no flesh should be
saved. That's a frightful thought. No flesh should be saved. But
for the elect's sake, who are the elect? Well, simply put,
they are those who are believing in, looking to, resting in, following
and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. by the grace of God. It's an
election of grace. They don't do this because they
deserve to do it or they've earned the right to do it or they were
better than everybody else and decided to do it. No, they do
it because of the sovereign grace and mercy of God in Christ. He said, but for the elect's
sake whom he hath chosen, God hath chosen, he hath shortened
the days. And so he talks about false Christ,
false messiahs. false preachers who point to
false messiahs. So, when we talk about preparing
to meet our God by believing in, following, serving the Lord
Jesus Christ, how can I know that that's what I'm truly doing,
the true Christ? How can I know that I'm truly
doing it from the heart and that I'm truly following the true
Christ? Well, the short answer to that is by getting into God's
Word. Get into the Word. Not the newspapers,
not the local newscast, not the late great planet Earth. Get
into the Word of God, not the left behind series. Get into
God's Word. That's what you need. That's
what I need. And this is what he says. And throughout this
passage, He continually tells us to take heed. Take heed. Listen up. Watch. He says in
verse 5, He says, And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed,
lest any man deceive you. Don't be deceived. Now we know
the natural man is always deceived. The heart is desperately wicked
and under a deception. Who can know what the Scripture
says? Well, you take heed. Listen to what God's Word says.
And then over in verse 9, He says, but take heed to yourselves. Look to yourselves. Examine yourself
to see whether you be in the faith. Now, and I always caution
people on that because I've heard so many messages, that's out
of 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Examine yourself, and people
say, well, examine yourself and not others. There's some truth
to that. But I always caution people when you read that scripture
now, it says examine yourself to see whether you be in the
faith. And what I want to know in that
self-examination by the Word of God is am I truly looking
to and resting in Christ? That's what I want to know. The
self-examination is not to examine yourself to see if you're good
enough or if you've done enough Because I can tell you right
now, if that's what you're examining yourself for, the answer's no.
You're not good enough and you haven't done enough. Neither
have I. But I can tell you one who is good enough, and I can
tell you one who has done enough. And his name is Jesus Christ
the righteous. The Lord. Now, am I looking to
him? In verse 23 here, he says, But
take ye heed, behold, I foretold you all things. This is a forewarning.
This is not an afterthought. This is not something that should
take us by surprise. Now he says, no man knows the
hour or the day. We don't know the exact hour
or the day. But whatever hour it is, whatever
day it is, it shouldn't take us by surprise. That's what he's
saying there. We should be looking for it,
hoping for it, expecting it, waiting for it. Now, what are
we to be doing in the meantime? Well, from verse 32 to verse
37, he gives us over and over again what we're to do, and this
is the title of the message. Watch, watch, and watch. How many times did he say that
through those verses that Brother Joe read? Watch ye therefore. Now, this watching, this watching
now, does not mean that Christianity and living the Christian life
is a spectator sport. He's not just telling us to sit
down and watch what's going on around us. That's not what he
means at all. Again, simply put, watching simply
means to keep looking to Christ. Keep your eyes focused on Him.
Keep your gaze upon Him. Run the Christian race. Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 2, looking unto Jesus. That's a gaze. It's not just a glance. But I
mean, it's an intent look. Looking unto Jesus as the author,
the beginner, and the finisher, the completer of our faith. What
that means is I look to Christ because if I'm saved, it's by
Him and in Him. If I'm preserved, it's by Him
and in Him. And if I finish this race, it's
by Him and in Him. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. See, I'm not the same yesterday,
today, and forever, and neither are you. Yesterday I feel good,
today I might feel bad. But Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And He's my hope. He's my forgiveness
by His blood. He's my righteousness, you see. So watch, watch, and watch. And
this watching has to do with the context of this. Listen to
what he says. Look back up at verse 31, first of all. He says
this, he says, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words,
that's God's words, not man's words, but my words shall not
pass away. My words shall not pass away. And he says in verse 32, But
of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which
are in heaven, neither the Son, neither Christ himself as the
Son knows that day or hour. But the father knows, now we'll
talk about that in just a moment, but in verse 33 he says, take
ye heed, watch. Now he says, watch and pray,
for you know not when the time is. Now let me give you these
three things. First of all, watch in his word. If I'm going to
know Christ, If I'm going to set my gaze by the power of the
Holy Spirit upon Him and look to Him alone, it's going to have
to be founded and grounded upon God's Word alone. It can't be
what I think naturally. It can't be in visual aids like
paintings or movies or things you wear around your neck or
bumpers. It has to be a gaze into God's... If you want to
be watchful, look to the Word of God. If you want to be on
your guard, and not taken by surprise, and not stand before
God at judgment, just as shocked as those false professors in
Matthew chapter 7 who said, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name, cast out demons, done many wonderful works, only
to hear him say, depart from me ye that work iniquity, I never
know. If you, listen, if you don't want to be shocked like
that, and that's a shocker, isn't it? Watch in His words. Study His words. Study to show
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
What was wrong with those fellows at Matthew 7, those false preachers? They weren't pleading Christ.
They weren't pleading His blood and His righteousness. They were
pleading what they thought God had enabled them to do. And see,
that's not the ground of our salvation. That's not the hope
of our salvation. And what did they end up being?
They ended up being ashamed. Well, study to show yourself
approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth. And I'll tell you why. Now, I
know there's a lot of different teachers out there, a lot of
different preachers, a lot of different ideas, a lot of different
books. I know, and it's confusing. I'll tell you, that's what the
last days are all about. That's why he said, he said that,
but for the elect's sake, those days have been shortened. In
fact, later on, over there, he also said that it will be so
deceptive That if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect,
didn't he? So, I mean, it's not an easy task, is it? It's not
a five-minute task. It's not put it in the microwave
and heat it up, you know. That's not it, you know. That's
not the kind of spiritual food we need. I mean, it takes some
time. It takes some study. That's why
we're met here this morning. Many of you don't have a lot
of time, and I understand that. But we have it here, and that's
what we're here for. We're here to worship God through
the preaching of his word as it is in Christ. But let me tell
you this much about the whole thing. And, you know, you cannot
simplify, I mean, you know, you cannot oversimplify all the confusion
and everything. But I'll just tell you this,
anything you read or hear in religion that doesn't leave you
totally, totally at the mercy of God in Christ for all salvation,
you can cast it away. You can cast it away. Anything
that doesn't preach Him in His deity, in His humanity, in the
work of redemption that He accomplished for His people, you can cast
it away. It's no good. Watch in His Word. He says here, verse 31, "...heaven
and earth shall pass away." You know, everything earthly. earthly
things that hold our time and our attention so much and even
sometimes, God forbid, captures our hearts. Do you know it's
going to pass away? It's going to pass away. That's
why over here in verse 15 he talked about when that destruction,
that abomination of desolation comes as recorded in the book
of Daniel. He said those who are on the
housetop They don't go back to the field and turn back again
and say, well, I've got to get my clothes. Those things will
mean nothing in the day when the wrath of God comes through.
Now, here's the case. Here's what the Word says. You
want to watch in the Word. Well, when the wrath of God comes
through, when the judgment of God comes through, when Christ
comes again, everything that we think so highly of this world,
at that time, it will mean nothing. our clothes, our homes, even
our earthly families. Now, I know that's hard to take.
I know that's hard to take. But all earthly relationships
will be dissolved. The only thing that's going to
remain is that which is by the grace of God in Christ. The brotherhood
of faith. That's so. All pass away. This is why Peter wrote in 2
Peter chapter 3 that this world's going to melt away with a fervent
fire and all that's going to remain is a new heavens and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And the problem is that we can't
wrap our minds around that right now. But then we won't have any
problem at all, do we? That's right. You say, how can
that be? There are things I enjoy here on this earth. And sometimes
I'd like to think, well, I'll enjoy them in heaven. I don't
know, but I know this. It's going to be a place wherein
dwells righteousness. Righteousness. Paul wrote in
2 Corinthians 4 and verse 18, While we look not at the things
which are seen... In other words, we don't set
our gaze and our hearts upon the things that are seen, but
at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. Temporal. Temporal. They're not
eternal. But the things which are not seen are eternal. And
that's why he said in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7 that we walk by
faith, not by sight. We walk by the Word of God. The
Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 that faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You know
what that literally means? It means this, faith, believing
what God says. Now understand that. Understand
that when the Bible says faith, that it means believing what
God says in His Word, and God's Word always directs us to focus
and gaze upon Christ and Him crucified and risen again. So
when it says that faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen, it means this, that faith is
the fundamental fact of existence. And that's trusting Christ. That's
what God's Word says. This faith is the firm foundation
under which everything that makes life worthy is seen. It's our handle on what we can't
see. It's our handle on reality. That's exactly right. We're not
redeemed with corruptible things, Peter wrote, such as silver and
gold and the traditions of men. but we're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ and His blood is the blood of an eternal everlasting
covenant Hebrews chapter 13 says you can count on His blood now
let me tell you something you cannot really count on blood
ties in family here on this earth that's right somebody gets mad
at somebody and they don't speak to each other for years It happens. You can't bank on that. And that's
going to be dissolved. Even the closest ties are going
to be dissolved. But you can count on the blood
of Jesus Christ eternally. And you know how I know that?
That's what this Word says. I'm watching in the Word. He
says, Heaven and earth shall pass away. That's the heavens
and this earth, the heavens as they presently are, and this
earth. But My Word shall not pass away. God says He'll forgive
me. and bless me, and entitle me
to eternal life through the blood and righteousness of Christ."
That's eternal. Do you know that if you're in
Christ, and based upon the Word of God, you have a better righteousness
than what Adam had before the fall? He had a creature righteousness. You know what creature righteousness
means? It means changeable. But we have in Christ the very
righteousness of God, who's the same yesterday, today, and forever,
who never changes, with whom there's no variableness or shadow
of turn. We have an everlasting righteousness of infinite value,
which will give us a complete, eternal standing of justification
before a holy God. You know how I know that? God's
Word says it. We're watching in God's Word.
You see what I'm saying? We live in a sinful world in
which everything is temporal, passing away. We see it. You
see it happening, don't you? We're all going to a world which
everything is permanent and eternal. Our standing, our state, our
condition in the unseen world of eternity depends entirely
upon our relationship to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in this world of time. And the only way we can know
our relationship to Him is by the Word of God. The Bible says,
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Do I have
ears to hear the Word of God? That's the question. Well, if
I do, I'll receive it. I'll listen to it. I'll take
heed to it. If you're washed in the blood
of Christ and robed in His righteousness now, the Bible says you will
be clean and holy and blessed forever and ever and ever. If
you trust Christ as your Savior now, He'll be your Savior forever
and ever and ever. If you're one with Christ now,
you'll be one with Christ eternally. That's what heaven is, to be
one with Christ. If you love Christ and are loved
of Christ now, you'll be loved of Christ, you'll love Him and
be loved by Him forever and ever. But now if you meet Christ in
judgment as an unbeliever, you'll be damned forever. And I'll tell
you, I'm afraid that the downfall of many false professors will
be that they proclaim loudly with their lips they believe
in and love Christ, but they act in opposition to His Word. Watch in His Word. He says, my
words shall not pass away. And my friend, if we stand before
God in judgment, we're going to hear His words of grace in
Christ, or we're going to hear His word of judgment in our works. God has words of grace and mercy
and love for all who rest in Christ, but only words of wrath
for all who refuse Him. Now, in verse 32, let me deal
with this just briefly. It says in verse 32, But of that
day and that hour knoweth no man, No, not the angels which
are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Christ says He
is the Son of God. As God in human flesh doesn't
know the exact day and hour, that is knowledge that the Father,
who represents the sovereignty and authority of the Godhead,
has reserved for Himself. Now, you know, many people take
a verse like that and they try to use it to deny the deity of
Christ. But that's not what's happening
here. First of all, understand this
now, the Lord says no one knows the exact day and hour of His
second coming. Now, you know what that means?
That means nobody knows the exact day and hour of His second coming.
Pretty plain, isn't it? There are people who say they
know the exact day. I've been reading some of that
just to see what they say and how they deal with it, and it's
crazy, but I haven't seen anybody put the hour to it. But the thing
about it is, I believe what the Bible says. Let's watch in His
Word. No one knows the day and the
hour. We know He's coming. We know certain signs of His
coming. He's telling us here. I believe He's coming soon. I
don't know how soon. I don't know what day. I don't
know what hour. Nobody does. There's only one who does, and
that's the Father. And when that day and hour comes,
the Father will speak to the Son, and the Son will obey the
will of the Father. And He'll come. So nobody knows,
only the Father knows this. Now how do we reconcile that
with the fact that Christ himself is God? And as God, He knows
everything, equally with the Godhead. Well, let me just give
it to you this way. First of all, understand now
that Christ is both God and man in one person. He is God in human
flesh. There's no doubt about that.
There's no denying that if you're watching God's Word, if you believe
the Scripture, if you believe in Him. If you're looking to
a Christ, if you're gazing upon a Christ who is not God, you're
gazing upon a counterfeit. And if you're gazing upon a Christ
who's not man, you're gazing upon a counterfeit. This is Christ. This here. And we have other
scriptures. I don't have time to go into
them all. The book of John has quite a few of them. But this
is Christ here acting as the mediator in which he himself
as God-man became subjected to the Father's authority and the
Father's will. Why? to save His people from
their sins. And what He did, what He did,
He voluntarily, as God-man, restricted the use of certain divine attributes,
such as here His omniscience, all-knowing. And he only manifested
them as he was directed by the Father. Now in the book of John,
turn to Philippians 2. Really, Philippians 2 gives us
the entire answer to this question. Turn over there. Philippians
chapter 2. But there are many times you'll
read in the book of John, he'll say things like this. He'll say,
I didn't come to do mine own will. He said, I came to do the
will of Him that sent me. I came to do the will of the
Father. Well, wasn't His will and the Father's will one and
the same? Oh, yes. But for the salvation
of His people, He voluntarily subjected Himself as a servant
to the Father. And that's what He's saying.
He told them one time, he said, I'm not speaking these words
on my own, but I speak as the Father giveth me words. Well,
Christ in his divine nature is the very Word of God. He's the
Word of God incarnate as God-man. But he's simply saying as he
subjected himself to the authority of the Father. Why? for the salvation
of his people. And Philippians 2, look at verse
5, explains it. It says in verse 5, "...let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God..." Now that's a term that when you read it
like that, it's kind of confusing, but when it says he's in the
form of God, what it means, he is the exact same as God. And the reason it says that,
and it shows you that in the following line, "...thought it
not robbery to be equal with God?" Now, you know, any man
who claims any attribute that is equal with God, do you know
what that is? That's robbery. You're stealing
from God, trying to, that which belongs only to God. That's why
the Bible says don't call any man Holy Father. Think about
this now. Who in religion today is called
Holy Father? You know what the Bible says
about it? That's robbery. There's no man on earth who is your holy
father. God alone is your holy father.
I know people don't like to hear things like that, but my friend,
watch in the Word of God now. See, Christ could say that of
Himself, that He is God. He's the great I Am. He said
it. They brought Him up on charges because He claimed to be equal
with God. He claimed to be able to forgive
sins. Well, only God can forgive sins.
But with him it wasn't robbery. You know why? Because he is God.
God in human flesh. And so he says in verse 7, "...but
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, fully a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself." Literally,
he emptied himself. That means he emptied himself,
he restricted many of those divine attributes that are attributed
to his deity for a while for the purpose of the salvation
of his people. That's why when he sent the disciples out in
the Great Commission, he made this statement. He said, all
power and authority is given unto me. Now how could it be
given to him? Didn't he already have it? As
God he did, but as God meant, it was given to him. You know
why it was given to him? Because he earned it. And that's
why he prayed in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, he
said, glorify me, thou me, with the glory which I had before
the world began. See, he set aside that glory
for a little while, just the manifestation of it. And that
was to be attributed to his humanity. He's God in human flesh. And
he said, give it back to me. Well, he earned it. That's his
mediatorial work. So he says, and being found in
fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. That's why he did this,
folks, to go to the cross. That's why he became subject.
to the authority of the Father. That's why back here in Mark
chapter 13 he restricted even his knowledge. The Bible says
that as a child he grew in wisdom and stature. That's attributed
to his humanity, see? Not to his deity, but he restricted
himself voluntarily. Why? Because he was going to
be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Why did
he do that? Because that's what it took to
redeem his people from there. That's what it took to redeem
me and you. The blood of his cross. So don't let verses like
that confuse you. And don't let people tell you
that he's not God. Look at verse 33 back in Mark 13. Next he says, watch and pray. Take ye heed. Watch and pray,
for you know not when the time is. This watching has to do with
praying. We read, study, hear His Word
preached, we watch in His Word, but we watch in prayer too. Prayer. Communication. Worship. Faith. Pray unto our Heavenly Father
through the Son. Here are the keys to prayer.
We pray unto the Father, that means the God of our salvation
who saved us by grace, through the Son, based upon His high
priestly work, His blood and righteousness alone, and pray
according to his will. Thy will be done. Thy will be
done. There's the keys to prayer. Lord,
I don't know when you're going to send your son back to gather
your people and to judge this world, but I know that you're
going to send him because you promised. I believe it's coming
soon. Lord, thy will be done. Whatever
day you've set forth, let him come. Lord, I want this. I want that. I want to be healed
of this. I want to be healed of that.
Lord, thy will be done. I have no right to come to you,
Lord, but through Christ, my great high priest. I have no
grounds upon which to communicate with you, to commune with you,
to ask of you blessings, but His finished work alone on the
cross. I'm a sinner. I need mercy. I need grace. Thy
will be done. Watch and pray. Lord, I want
to see other people saved, don't you? I pray for their salvation. Lord, thy will be done. That's
watching and praying. And then look at verse 34. Here's
the next one. Watch and work. Listen to him. He says, For the
Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey who left his house. Remember he told his disciples,
I go away. But I'm not going to leave you
comfortless. I'm sending the Spirit to comfort you. So he
left his house and he gave authority to his servants before he ascended
into glory. He said, all power is given unto
me. Now you go forth and preach,
you have that authority. He said, all authority given
to his servants and to every man his work. These are all,
this is not just preachers now. This is all the servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Their authority is not their
own, it's not their Ph.D.' 's or T.H.D.' 's or their seminary
experiences or their ecstatic experiences. Their authority
is not miracles they perform, their authority is one authority
and that's the Word of God as it leads sinners to Christ. And
their work is the gifts of ministry that God gives them, every man
his work, and commanded the porter to watch, that's the one who
watches the door, and he says in verse 35, "...watch ye therefore,
for you know not when the master of the house cometh." You don't
know the day or the hour, you know he's coming, but you don't know
the day or the hour. He may come in the evening, or
midnight, or when the clock crows in the morning, or later in the
morning. But verse 36, "...you watch,
you watch in his word, watch and pray, watch and serve. That's what that work means.
Less coming, suddenly he find you sleeping. Now, that doesn't
mean that you're not supposed to go to bed tonight and go to
sleep. Because we've got to sleep. What it means is that in this
matter of spiritual ministry and service, we're never to go
to sleep. And he says in verse 37, and
what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch. This work, this service,
what are we to be doing, engaged in until the time of His second
coming? Let me give you these. First of all, we're not working
to save ourselves. Christ already did that work.
We're not working to establish a righteousness of our own. Christ
already did that on the cross through the shedding of His blood.
We're resting in Him as we're working and serving Him. We're
resting in Him for all salvation, for all righteousness, for all
life, for all glory. This means working in the grace
of God by faith in Him as willing, loving, bond servants of Christ. Serving Him. It means bringing
forth fruit unto God. Serving in newness of spirit,
not legally, not by the law, but by love, by grace, by gratitude. It means what Paul wrote in Ephesians
2.10, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, not because of, but unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them, walking in good
works. What are we to do? We're to get
the gospel out to the world. Back over in verse 10, he said
the gospel must first be published among all nations. Get the gospel
out to the world. We're to give diligence to make
our calling and election sure. That's why we're here. That's
why we worship God. We're to be in the service of
God, worshiping Him. That's what we're here for. We're
not here to draw attention to ourselves. We're not here to
make a name for ourselves. We're here to worship Christ. We're to be working in fellowship
and love and unity to edify one another. We don't want to be
divisive. We don't want to divide brethren.
We don't want to be instruments of division and hatred. We don't
want to spread rumors and all that. We want to build up... Lord, make me an instrument of
edification to build up the body of Christ, to help myself and
others grow in grace and knowledge. That's what He's talking about.
That's what watching is. The church of Christ is His house,
not mine, not yours. He alone is the master of the
house, and whatever you do, make sure... Listen. Think about this. Whatever you do, whatever I do,
as far as this ministry goes and this church goes and the
gospel goes, whatever move I make, whatever attitude I take, make
sure I have orders from the master. And where I get my orders? Watching
His Word. Watch and pray. Because if I
don't have, listen, if my orders and my methods aren't from the
Master, then that's bad, that's wicked. The Lord Jesus Christ
left His church, His house, under the care and authority of the
Holy Spirit and the rule of His servants. And his servants are
men counted worthy by him to preach the gospel and to rule
his house with the authority of the word. That's why Paul
said to the elders at Ephesus, you take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath
purchased with his own blood. Belongs to him. The Lord Jesus
has appointed to each of us a specific work to do. It says there that
he gave every man his work. To every man his work. These
are gifts from God. And we're not to look and envy
each other over those gifts. If he's given one, the gift of
preaching, or the gift of teaching, or the gift of encouragement,
or the gift of giving, we're not to look and say, well, I'm
upset, I don't have that gift. No, sir, use the gift that you
have, that's what he's saying. The master has not abandoned
his house, he's coming back to it, that's what he's saying here,
so you watch. Now, though we can discern the signs of his
coming, his coming will be sudden and without warning. So let's
be diligent, that's what he's saying, to watch. Be diligent
to witness the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Be diligent
to worship God and hear and study his word. Be diligent to watch
over our own souls, to make our calling and election sure. Examine
ourselves to see if we're in the faith. Be diligent to love
the brethren and be instruments of edification to the praise
of the glory of God's grace. All right.