Well, good morning. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 24, we'll continue
our study of Matthew chapter 24 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father which art in heaven,
holy, reverent is your matchless name. Father, we've met here
this morning with a dire need to hear a word from Thee. And
Father, I pray that you would give us that word from Thee,
the word from your heart to the hearts of your people, the word
that might cause us to one more time see our Lord Jesus Christ
and come to Him, to believe on Him. Father, I beg of you that
in the preaching of your word this morning that you'd show
us your glory Show us the saving, redemptive glory of Christ our
Savior. Father, let us in awe and wonder,
worship. Father, how we thank you for
this blessed opportunity. You give it to us week after
week after week. Father, I pray that you would
not allow us to take it for granted, but to always approach the worship
of our God carefully, reverently, prayerfully. seeking thy presence,
seeking a word from thee. Father, what we ask for ourselves,
we ask for our children's classes this morning, that you would
bless our teachers and bless our children in a special way
that you might use this time to plant the seeds of faith in
their hearts. Cause us to be faithful, to teach
them, to always teach and point them to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, for those that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial, We pray your hand of comfort and mercy would be upon them,
that you give them a special portion of your presence, and
that you would see fit to deliver them quickly. All these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
Christ our Savior, amen. I've titled our lesson this morning,
The Parable of the Fig Tree. You're probably familiar with
that parable. We'll work to that. in just a minute, but the explanation
for that parable is in these verses that surround it. That's
what we'll study this morning. Let me remind you that this chapter,
Matthew 24, is a chapter that's full of prophecy, that concerns
both the destruction of Israel and the second coming of our
Lord. And in the, all throughout this chapter, but particularly
in the verses that we'll look at this morning, It seems to
me that the Lord intentionally mixes these prophecies. He intentionally
mixes talking about the destruction of Israel or Jerusalem and in
his second coming. And I think he does that to give
those people who want to trying to predict the Lord's second
coming and look into all these things. I think he mixes these
things intentionally to give them enough rope to hang themselves.
If that's what they want to see, you know, that that's what they'll
see. And I hope that we always remember this, that whenever
we're studying scripture, whenever we think on spiritual things,
let's not get off topic. The issue is always Christ. It's Christ and Christ alone
always. The issue is always Christ's sacrifice. The issue is Christ's
righteousness. The issue is his glory. The issue
is the power and the grace of our God to save his people. He
is always the issue. and we're never the issue. These
other things that we're curious about is never the issue. And
as our Lord talks about these, he mixes talking about these
two things, the destruction of Jerusalem and his second coming.
We need to remember the issue is not when these things are
going to happen. The issue particularly concern, I mean, the destruction
of Jerusalem's already happened. The issue about Christ's second
coming is not when he's coming, but who is coming. And the issue
for you and me today is not to find out when is the Lord coming,
but to examine ourselves, see, do we believe him? Do we trust
him? Do we look for him now? You know,
we're told in scripture to examine ourselves whether we're in the
faith. Don't examine things in the world,
try to figure out when the Lord's coming and what the Lord's doing
and all these other things. This is what we're told to examine
ourselves, whether we're in the faith. Do we believe Christ?
And you know, most people apply these verses that the Lord is
talking in this morning. They apply those things only
to the second coming of Christ and they do it because he uses
the word tribulation and they, so they apply these things only
to his second coming. But that just can't be so because
look here at verse 34 the Lord says, verily I say unto you,
this generation shall not pass to all these things be fulfilled.
Now that generation to whom he was speaking has long since passed,
2000 years ago. So he can't be talking exclusively
about his second coming because that's generation's gone. He's
talking about something else, Sidney. And look at verse 36,
but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of
heaven, but my father only. The Lord said, No man's gonna
know the hour of his coming. No man's gonna know when the
Lord comes a second time. So he can't be telling us things
that we can use in order to figure out when we can predict the Lord's
second coming. This is what he's telling us.
Trust him. At all times, trust him. And
that's what I want us to see this morning. The first thing
that I want us to see is in verse 29. It's God's destruction of
ceremonial self-righteous legalistic religion. Verse 29 immediately
after the tribulation of those days show the sun be darkened
and the moon should not give her light and the stars shall
fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens should be shaken.
Now the Lord is primarily talking about the destruction of Jerusalem
here in 70 AD. Roman, the Roman army under the
general Titus is going to come and utterly destroy Jerusalem. And Lord talks about how horrible
that would be. Remember back up in verse 21,
for then it should be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning
of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be this destruction
of Jerusalem by the Roman army was, was horrible. Just they're,
they seized the city and I mean, just bombarded them and attacked
them for a year. And then they finally came in,
just wiped the place out. And at that time, The Romans
killed over one million Jews by hand. They took another 100,000
as slaves and they never returned to Jerusalem again. Now the Lord
used the Roman army as an instrument. They were an instrument in his
hand to accomplish his will. You think how horrible that destruction
was, but this is God using them as an instrument to accomplish
his will. And when God destroyed Jerusalem,
he was making it obvious to us He's done with the Old Testament
law. He's done with the Old Testament
ceremonies and types as a way that God is to be worshipped.
God is now to be worshipped. He was always to be worshipped
in Christ, but now he's done with these tangible things that,
you know, people can see and touch and feel. He's done with
those things and God is to be worshipped in spirit. He's to
be worshiped in Christ, in Christ alone, who is the fulfillment
of all those ceremonies and all those laws and all those tangible
things that people could touch and see that were in the temple.
Now, if you look in the book of Amos, if you got the authorized
versions, page 1146, Daniel, Jose, Joel, and Amos. This, the, the, the destruction,
of Jerusalem is a fulfillment of a prophecy that we finally
hear in the book of Amos in Amos chapter eight and verse seven. They are all, or I'm sorry, I
got in the wrong. Romans chapter eight, verse seven.
Well, no, Cause I was in Jose. No wonder I couldn't find it.
Hang on a minute. I should have looked at the pages
my own self page numbers. Shouldn't I? Amos eight verse
seven. The Lord has sworn by the excellency
of Jacob. Surely I will never forget any
of their works. So not the land tremble for this
and everyone more than dwell at their end and it's your rise
up wholly as a flood and it should be cast out and drowned as by
the flood of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in
that day, saith the Lord God, that I'll cause the sun to go
down at noon, and I'll darken the earth and the clear sky,
and I'll turn your feast into mourning, and your songs into
lamentation, and I'll bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and
baldness upon every head, and I'll make it as the mourning
of an only son, and the end thereof is a bitter day. Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord God, that I'll send a famine in the
land, Not a famine of bread, nor thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea
to sea, and from north even to east, and shall run to and fro
to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Now this
was fulfilled in the time that the Roman army came and destroyed
Jerusalem. And God sent them to destroy
that place, because he done with this ceremonial religion. He's
done with using those things, as pictures of Christ, the Jews
had taken all those advantages that God had given them, the
priesthood and the sacrifices and the temple and all these
things. And they did the law and turned them into self-righteousness. God gave those things to point
us to Christ and they turned them into a religion of self-righteousness. And God came in and destroyed
it all. And when it talks about the sun and the moon and the
stars and stuff being dark in there, he's talking about spiritual
darkness. Spiritual blindness the Lord
God destroyed that place and he left the Jews in judicial
blindness They didn't want to see Christ now as God made it
so that they can't that's what he did You know, they took all
those advantages and turned them that way and God's done with
it You know when he talks about the the powers and the earth
being shaken Those are pictures of the Lord shaking the powers
that were in control at that time, the powers of the high
priest and the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees and all those things.
And all those things that were just central to the Jewish religion,
the temple and everything that was in it, God shook those things
and destroyed them. They are meant to be a blessing,
to point men to Christ, but the Jews rejected Christ. They are
taken up with all that legalistic following of the law and the
legalistic of following all the ceremonies. I mean, you just
had to do every little nuance thing and all these ceremonies,
right? They're so concerned with observing the ceremonies, they
miss faith in Christ. They completely missed who those
ceremonies were pointing to. So God came and destroyed all
of it. Now, that's just an historical
fact. And the reason God did it is
to show us he's done with that way of worship. And I point all
this out for our sake today, not just to say, look what happened
to the Jews, but for our sake and our warning. It's not much of a stretch, I
don't think, to say that God has blessed these people, this
people, much like he did the Jews of old, don't you reckon?
How he's blessed us. He's showered his mercy and grace
upon us. He's given us the preaching,
the gospel here for so long. And one of my great fears is
that you and I become modern day Jews. We get so caught up
in the ceremonies. We get so caught up in the form
of religion. We get so caught up in the great
preaching that we've heard and the great preachers that we've
known. We get so caught up in those
things that we miss Christ. If you don't think it can happen,
look at the Jews as a warning. It can happen. And it's so important
that we just that we'd be focused on Christ. And it's a good warning
to us. Don't get so caught up in the
signpost that you miss Christ doing the signposts pointing.
Remember the cities of refuge and the tribe of Levi would go
out and clear the way and make sure the way to the city of refuge
is always clear, that there are plenty of signs pointing the
city of refuge is this way. Well, if you're fleeing to the
city of refuge, Don't stop and look at the signpost and just,
oh, how wonderful it is that the priest came and put this
sign up. Look what a pretty sign it is. Just talking about how
well it's painted and how well it's placed. And boy, they must
set that in concrete. That's just firm as can be. Just
look. Brother, forget the sign and
get to the city refuge. See what I'm saying? Forget all
the advantages that the Lord's given us and go to Christ. Look to Christ, trust Him. We
should be constantly examining ourselves that we're not just
in a religious fervor here, but that we're trusting Christ. All
right, here's the second thing, and I'll tell you why that's
so important. The Lord's coming again. Look at verse 30 back
in our text. 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. Now that
day that the Lord, when he returns will be a day of fear. It will
be a day of eternal sorrow for those who have refused to believe
on him because he's not coming as a land this time. He's not
coming as a sacrifice this time. He's not coming as a meek and
lowly man this time. This time he's coming as the
judge of all the earth and he's going to judge and he's going
to condemn all those who refuse to believe him. All those who
scoffed, at his second coming. All those that scoffed at his
gospel, all those that scoffed at the way that God saves sinners,
he's going to judge them and he's going to condemn them just
as surely as he destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. Now look over second
Peter chapter three. Here's one of the reasons why
I say the Lord kind of, he mixes together the prophecy of these
two things, his, the destruction of Jerusalem and his second coming. Because when the Lord does return
the second time, The sun will be removed from the sky. The
stars and the moon, all those things, they actually will be
removed from the sky when he comes again. Look here at second
Peter three verse 10. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also in the works that are therein
shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things
should be dissolved. What manner of persons ought
you to be? in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens,
being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Now when Christ returns, God's gonna burn this
creation up. Sin has marred it, he's gonna
burn it up and get rid of it, and he's gonna have a new creation.
The heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And the
elements and all these things being melted with the fervent
heat. That includes the sun and the moon and the stars. They're
not gonna be needed anymore. God's gonna burn them up and
they're not gonna even be needed anymore. Because the book of
Revelation chapter 21, John says there's gonna be no need of the
sun in heaven. For Christ the lamb is the light
of it. Christ the lamb is the glory of it. So those things
actually will be done away with when Christ returns. See how
that's a, this prophecy, the Lord is bifocal in it. He's talking
about the, the light of the God gave Israel. Well, he's taken
it away from him now, but it also does refer to the sun and
the moon and the stars when he returns the second time. And that's going to be a very
frightening day and frightening event for those that don't believe
Christ. But it's not gonna be frightening for those that do
believe on him. It's a day we look forward to
with great anticipation, because look at verse 13. Nevertheless
we, we who believe, according to his promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. See,
we who believe have something to look forward to. living in
righteousness, not just with the righteous spirit, but with
a righteous body and a righteous world, a world where there is
no sin. That's what God's going to give
his people when he comes again. That's why we say hasten Lord
the day. What a, what a joy to think about living in righteousness.
If you look back in our text, verse 31, this is what the Lord
is telling us here. God's people have no reason to
fear the Lord's coming. Yeah, the Lord's coming again,
but don't be trying to figure out when he's coming because
you're afraid of it. Anybody believes Christ has no reason
to fear his appearing. Verse 31. And he shall send his
angels with a 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 just, you know, when you
fear what God is, doing in Providence and all the events that are going
to surround his second coming. Just remember this. In all of
God's dealings with the sons of men, from always, from the
first one Adam to the last one, in all of God's dealings with
the sons of men, his first concern is his elect. His first concern. When Christ does return, first
thing he's going to do is gather his people out of this world.
None of them are going to be harmed when the elements melt
with the fervent heat. None of them are going to melt
or be hurt when the earth is on fire, you know, with this
great fire. None of God's elect are going to be harmed by that.
None of God's elect are going to be harmed by God's judgment
on sin in this world at all. They can't be harmed by it because
Christ our substitute was already condemned. So God's people can't
suffer for sin. Christ already did for them.
Now, I don't know when the Lord will return, but I do know this. I do know this. He'll not return
until all of his elect have been brought to faith in Christ. He
won't return till the end. He can't return before then,
can he? Because they can't be condemned. If they don't believe
Christ, they'd be condemned. He can't return till the end.
And when Christ returns, I don't know, maybe he will send his
angels to gather people. I mean, I don't know. The apostle
Paul talks about meeting the Lord in the sky. I don't know
how all that's going to happen. Maybe, maybe it will be angels
coming to, to take his people out of this world before it's
destroyed. But I do know this, there's a picture here. Remember
I said, I know the Lord's not going to return to all of his
people have been brought to faith in Christ. The Lord gives us
a picture here of how God saves his people through gospel preaching.
If scripture refers to pastors as angels, In the revelation,
John talks about the letters to the angels of the seven churches.
Those are the pastors. And the great sound of the trumpet
is the gospel. It's the gospel being heard all
around the whole earth from the mouth of God's preachers, from
his angels. And that preaching of Christ, that preaching of
the gospel, that is the means that God uses to gather his people
to him. And that preaching, the preaching
of Christ, It cannot fail. It can't fail. Because God is
pleased to save his people by the preaching of Christ. The
world calls it foolishness, but that's the means that God uses
to save his people, and he's not gonna fail. He's not gonna
fail to save them and to deliver them. So, see, there is a mingling
here. You see that, how the Lord's
talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and his second coming,
and I'm sure he's doing it for this reason, that for those that
don't want to see him, that want to find other things in it, he's
given them enough rope to hang themselves, given them enough
to, you know, but they're going to hang themselves in it because
they're not using the scriptures for the purpose God gave them
so that we see Christ, so that Christ is revealed to us. Now
that brings us to the parable of the fig tree, verse 32. Now
learn a parable of the fig tree. His branches yet tender and put
forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when
you shall see all these things, know that it's near, even at
the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Now, this
is a well-known parable among those who are looking for signs
of the Lord's coming, you know, the second coming. They're trying
to figure out, you know, what this means and what different
events in the earth could mean that the fig leaves are green,
you know, the Lord's about to come. But like I said before,
it's obvious that the Lord's not talking about his second
coming here because he says this generation has not passed. The
destruction of Israel happened while that generation was still
living. And that's what the Lord is talking about. The destruction
of Jerusalem. And just like he does so often,
he gives us this parable, it's just an illustration, that's
all it is. The Lord uses common, ordinary things in nature that
everybody understands, everybody knows about, to illustrate a
spiritual truth. So here's what the Lord means
by this illustration. You know that it's summertime,
that summer's coming when the leaves on all the trees, fig
trees and all the other leaves, when they start greening up,
they start getting full, that happens in spring, right? What
happens next? Summer. You know summer's coming
when you see the leaves start greening up, the trees start
greening up. And when you see that, you know
summer's coming, and after that, there's gonna be a harvest season.
You know that from seeing these signs. You know what's gonna
happen. Well, here's what the Lord's telling us. That generation
that was standing around hearing the Lord teach at that time,
when they saw the Roman army come and destroy Jerusalem, they'd
know God's done with this thing. He's done with this religion
that the Jews have been observing for all these years. He's done
using the Jews as a picture of spiritual Israel. Now he's sending
his gospel out to the Gentiles and that was their sign. God's
done with this thing. When he destroyed it, you think
about for a Jew who was so steeped in this Jewish religion to see
the temple destroyed. They didn't know any other way
to worship but go to that building. I mean, they just had no idea.
The priesthood is destroyed and gone. They're terrified. How will we come to God? They're
terrified. The brazen altar is gone. How
are we going to offer a sacrifice? The golden altar is gone. How
are we going to put in sins? What are we going to do? How
can we worship God? It's all gone. And God destroyed
those things to show he's done with the types and the pictures
because the person has come. Those things were all pointing
to a person. Now he's come. When that thing
was destroyed, the people would know God's done with people worshiping
him by offering an animal sacrifice by the blood of animals because
Christ, the lamb of God had come and offered the one sacrifice
for sins forever. We don't need any more sacrifices.
We just need one. Christ has already offered himself
as a sacrifice. When Jerusalem is destroyed and
that temple made of stone was destroyed, I mean, the people
were, they had to be so discouraged. But when that temple of stone
was destroyed, the people would know God's done with that picture. It was a good picture for a time,
wasn't it? The tabernacle, that's a good picture for a time. We
still study today, don't we? The tabernacle, how it's a picture
of Christ, but God's done with the picture because the person
has come. Now we worship God in spirit.
Now we worship God, not with buildings made with hands, but
in Christ. He's our tabernacle. He's the
way we come to God. When that building was destroyed,
the people would know undoubtedly God's done with the holy place. He's done with the holy of holies.
He's done with the ark. He's done with the mercy seat.
Because we don't need those physical things you can touch and feel
and see anymore. Because Christ our propitiation
has come. Christ our sacrifice has come. When God destroyed
Jerusalem, he killed all those people and carried so many of
them away captive God's done with the priesthood of Aaron.
He's done with it. We don't need that picture anymore,
because Christ, our great high priest, has come. And he's the
one that brings us to God. Not a mere man. We come to God
in Christ. We don't have a mere man offering
a sacrifice and offering prayers for us. Christ makes intercession
for us. He offered to sacrifice for sin.
God's done with all those pictures, because now the person has come.
The fulfillment of them has come. All those ceremonies and all
those animal sacrifices could never save anybody. Never. They could never put away sin.
God used them for a time to tell us somebody's coming. Well, now
he's come and we don't need the pictures anymore. God gave the
pictures for a time, but eventually the price had to be paid. Eventually
all those things had to be fulfilled and God sent his son into the
world to pay the price. He sent his son into the world
to fulfill all the law and the types and the ceremonies, and
he's come. Well, quit looking at these beggarly
elements, these poor, poor pictures, and look to Christ and trust
him. That was the sign that God was sending them when the Roman
army came and destroyed Jerusalem. And when that generation saw
all those things, they would know God's done with them. because of their rejection of
Christ. And that's all the parable of the fig tree means. There's
no sign there that you can look at and see, oh, this means that
Christ is coming. Now, after Christ comes, this
is just Frank's thoughts. After Christ comes, we may look
back. I mean, I don't even know if
we're gonna care to look back, but suppose you do. You may look
back and say, oh, I see now, there were some signs of his
coming. But we can't, when we're living it, we're never gonna
see it. If you ever see any of those signs of Christ coming,
it's only gonna be on the other side, in glory. And we don't
need to know when Christ is coming. We need to believe him now, today. And here's the fourth thing that
brings me to this. Until the Lord returns, now he's
coming, I know he's coming, but until he returns, let's be taken
up with what is revealed in God's word. When Christ is coming the
second time is not revealed in God's word, but let's be taken
up with what is revealed in God's word. You don't spend your time
trying to find things in God's word that God himself says you
can't find there like his second coming. Instead of that, spend
your time searching the scriptures for the subject and purpose of
the whole book, which is to reveal Christ. Look at verse 35, heaven
and earth shall pass away. but my words shall not pass away. See, the Lord knew, he's talking
here about his second coming, and after his resurrection, he
told his disciples how he would be coming again. The Lord knew
there'd be scoffers in the last day, like Peter talked about,
saying, well, where's the promise of his coming? Nothing's ever
changed, and everything's just like it was from the days of
our fathers, scoffing, saying, where's the promise of his coming?
What a silly thing, the Lord's not coming again. And the Lord
knew how prone his people would be, even though they believe
him, how prone they'd be to listen to those scoffers and start getting
afraid and start wondering. Maybe what they're saying is
true, you know, I don't know. So the Lord gives his people some
comfort and some assurance by reminding us that the foundation
of our faith is the word of God. This word will never fail. I mean, you think about things
that you think are sure. I tell Janet all the time, this
is sure, the sun's rising in the east tomorrow. All the time,
the sun's coming up on this side of the house, it's coming up
tomorrow. One day it won't come up anymore. I mean, you think
that's sure, but one day it'll be gone. You think the sea, you
know, is so sure. We go on vacation down to the
beach, and I like to just check in, just go look, and tell Janet,
yep, the sea's still there. I mean, ha ha ha, of course the
sea's still there. One day it won't be. John said
he saw heaven and earth, there'll be no more sea. There'll be no
more, you think those mountains will be there forever? No, they
won't either. No, they won't. But the truth
of this book will never fail. When Christ returns and God's
people are gathered together in glory, this book's still gonna
be true. Everything this book says is
still gonna be true. Every promise of redemption Every
promise of the salvation of a no good, no count sinner that you
find in this book to be saved in Christ will always be true. It'll never fail. Not one word,
not one promise of this book will ever fall to the ground.
The Lord made a promise, save his people by his sacrifice.
Well, he did it, didn't he? The Lord also made a promise,
He's coming back to get his people, to get them out of this place
and take them to a better place, to be with him where he is, that
we may behold his glory. But buddy, that's his promise
and he's going to keep it. He's coming. He's coming. Oh,
may the Lord help us to patiently wait. He's coming. He's coming.
Let's just patiently wait on him. And until he comes, maybe
the Lord would give us the grace and the faith and the strength
to serve our generation. That generation's gone. Maybe
Lord let us serve our generation and preach Christ to them till
he returns. All right, Lord bless you.