Turn to Matthew chapter 24, and
we'll finish up this chapter tonight. I titled this message, Ready
or Not, The Lord is Coming. Ready or not, He's coming. We
used to play a game, and this is not a game. I'm not comparing
it to a game, but we used to play a game. Ready or not, here
I come. But he says here, there's going to be some ready and some
not. But he's coming. I'm coming. That's what he's
saying. I'm coming. No one can say throughout this world that
they were not warned. There's been plenty of it given
throughout the ages. I believe that whatever's going
to happen in time, we have an example of it already in the
Word of God. Solomon said there is nothing
new under the sun, nothing new. And our Lord has given plenty
of warning. He's given plenty of notice that He's coming. He's coming to receive His own
to glory. He may come tonight and receive
some of us, but there'll be a time that He will come, go to the
end of all things, and there's some He will bring to final judgment. Some to glory and some to judgment.
This world has been given plenty of warning. Yet, when you look
at it, you look at the religious world, just look at it a lot,
they remain unprepared. Unprepared as if it was never
going to happen. As if the sun was always going
to shine. Just like the days of Noah. Just like his days. He says in verse 36, But of that
day and hour, What hour? That hour of His coming. That
hour of His appearing. You know, it says back in verse
29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars
shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in
heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. They're
going to mourn because it's over. The end. And they shall see the Son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. That's
the day he's talking about. That's the hour. But he says,
knoweth no man. No man. Man doesn't know what's
even going on. And he surely doesn't know anything
about this hour. No, not even the angels of heaven.
And in another place he says, not even the Son. But my Father
only. He only knows that hour. Our
attention is not to be on when the end will be. I remember several
years ago, back when I was 18 years old, I worked at a place
and there's a couple men in there got this book called Late Great
Planet Earth. I think it was written by Hal
Lindsey. I've watched men become scared to death, and they started
going to this one man's preacher, and he'd come back. I got saved
last night. And it just went throughout the shop. It just
went throughout the shop. And all it was about the end
of time and the antichrist and all that stuff. Well, our attention
is not to be on when the end will be, but on Christ who will
put an end to all things. Henry said this, which is more
important, the last days of the earth or my last days on this
earth? Which is more important? Well,
which is more important is my last days when the Lord comes
to get me. But we are given an example in
the days of Noah what the days will be like when the Lord Jesus
Christ returns in his second advent. And he says in verse
37, But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. History always repeats itself. Do you know why? Because human
nature never changes. Same old, same old. That's us.
Same old, same old. And history always repeats itself.
And we have a time given to us and the Word of God to look to
and see how it will be in our Lord's second coming. Now, false
preachers have people looking to world catastrophes. They have
them looking for the Antichrist. As I heard Joe Terrell say one
time, the spirit of Antichrist is leading the search for Antichrist.
But that's what they have them looking for, the mark of the
beast. And you can go on and on with
these things. But you know what our Lord says it'll be like before
He comes, before I read to you all this other stuff that'll
happen, the destruction of this earth and world and all that's
in it? He says it's going to be very prosperous. It'll be
times, the times will be prosperous times. It'll be times as just
be things going on as normal, as usual. Status quo, you might
say. But that's what it'll be like.
It'll be like that. For as in the days that were
before the flood, before rain, before the first raindrop fell,
they were eating, banqueting. You know, I read that to you
over there, men of renown, mighty men. That was men that, in our
day, we'd call them Bill Gates. We'd call them these rich men,
you know, Donald Trump. That's the kind of men that they're
speaking of. That's the way they became. Just
like we have nowadays. But he says here, they'll be
eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until
the day that Noah entered into the ark. I want you to turn over to Luke
17. In Luke 17, In verse 28, look at this. Likewise, it says in verse 26
and 27, just exactly what I read to you there, in verse 26, and
as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days
of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives,
They were given in marriage until the day Noah entered into the
ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it
was in the days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they built. Prosperous times. It doesn't sound like a time
of drought and pestilence. It doesn't sound like that. It
was a prosperous time. But the same day that Lot went
out of Sodom, It rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. But as it was in the days of
Noah, they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage.
There's nothing wrong with eating and drinking. These things are
necessary. Our Lord did. They called Him
a wine-bibber and a gluttonous man. He would eat with publicans
and sinners and they charged Him with that. Nothing wrong
with that. Nothing wrong with marriage.
It's an institution of God. God gave it. But the problem
here is this. They are given to these things.
They were given to what am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to live? That
was their life. That was their life. Men's concerns
were the things of this world. Getting. Just getting. That attitude. Their God, the
Scripture says, was their belly. Satisfying this flesh. That's
what it was like. We read while ago, it says their
imaginations was only evil continually. You know it starts with the imagination. First thing it says is their
imagination that was always contriving, always doing something in their
minds, in their imaginations, in their thoughts. That was sinful. It was ungodly. It was evil,
Scripture says. And violence filled the earth. And perversion, as in the days
of Lot. There was violence. There was
perversion. And he said, this is how it's
going to be. Prosperous times, violent times, and perverse times. Are these not our times? I believe
we're in that last day. I believe we're in that hour.
I honestly do. I believe we're in that hour.
You know, the Scripture says there's 2,000 years from Adam
to Moses. I'm not going to predict a day
or an hour or any such thing as that. But the Scripture says
there was 2,000 years from Adam to Moses and 2,000 years from
Moses to Christ. And now it's been, we don't know
exactly because of our calendar, we don't know how exact our calendars
are, but we're roughly around 2,000 years since that time.
And I do believe we're in that time, that hour. You know, Noah went into the
ark, and I believe he was in there for seven days before it
finally started to rain. And we don't know what our Lord
says what hour. He didn't say what year. Because
he says later, watch, watch, because you don't know what hour.
It's 7.30, it might be 8 o'clock. It's that imminent. It is truly
that imminent. It could be within an hour. That's
what he's telling his disciples. But this is how it is. It's prosperous
times. I'll tell you something else
about the days of Noah. God gave them a preacher. They
had a preacher of righteousness. They heard the gospel. They did. They heard the same gospel that
you are listening to. Heard the same gospel. That generation
was preached to by the Spirit, by that same Spirit that preaches
to this generation. Turn over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 3. 18 For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,
by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which
sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God
waited a hundred and twenty years in the days of Noah, while the
ark was being prepared, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were
saved. They heard the gospel, the same
Spirit, he said. So if the same Spirit preached
in Noah, that is the same Spirit preaching to you today, they
heard the same message. Christ was preached to them.
I have no doubt He was preached to them. His righteousness was
preached to them. We know Him by name now because we have written
in the Word of God, but His person was preached to them. They had
a preacher. God sent him a preacher, the
Spirit of Christ, through Noah, priest of that generation. Just
as the gospel is being preached to us today, same message, same
message. Noah preached judgment and mercy. He preached judgment and mercy.
First he said, judgment's coming. Judgment's coming. And only in the ark is there
safety. They must have thought Noel had to think he was a madman. I'm sure a lot of them thought
he was off a little bit. Building a boat on dry land,
not even near water. They'd never seen a drop of rain,
not a cloud in the sky, not even a thunderclap. They'd never seen
it. And here's a man saying, judgment's
coming. And you know that generation
was just as religious as we are today. It doesn't mean that violence
filled the earth and it doesn't mean that there was just no religion
and everybody's walking around like a wild man. They were just
as religious as we are, as this day. And Noah, he's saying, judgment's
coming. Only in this ark is there safety.
Every stroke of Noah's hammer cried, judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. But it also cried, mercy. Mercy. An ark is provided. An
ark is being provided with pitch, within and without. And that
pitch is atonement. Judgment's coming, but mercy's
provided. There's mercy with the Lord,
as we saw here the other day, the last week or so. There's
mercy with the Lord that He may be feared. There's forgiveness
with the Lord that He may be feared. That was His message. The ark
was sufficient to provide safety for all who entered in. It was
sufficient. Come on in. Whosoever will, let
him come. Let him come. No one perished
who entered into that ark that Noah built. And no one wanted
out of that ark either that was in it. No one wanted out of it
once in it. But it was sufficient. It was
sufficient. I'm sure the people that day,
they just listened and heard Noah with a deaf ear about this
matter of judgment coming. The Lord's coming. He's going
to judge the earth. He's going to judge this world,
as the Scripture says, in righteousness. But they saw no need for such
an ark. There's not a sign of judgment
coming in the sky. There's not a sign anywhere of
judgment coming. They didn't believe Noah. They
didn't believe they needed it. They did not believe they needed
that ark. And if there is such a judgment coming,
that ark sure couldn't stand that deluge. They said, well,
I don't believe judgment's coming, but if it's so, surely that boat
couldn't save us. Someone said, and I never thought
about this, but someone said that in the days of Noah, back
about 150 years ago, there's probably more people on the earth
in the days of Noah than there was 150 years ago. There was
1.5 billion people 150 years ago. In the days of Noah, they
lived almost 900, they lived 900 years, 700 years, 600 years. And I never really thought about
this, probably over a billion some people on this earth. Probably
more than there was in the 1800s. And I'm sure a lot of them looked
at that boat and said, if judgment is coming and you're talking
about salvation, you're going to have to build a bigger boat
than that. And that's exactly the way people feel about Christ.
It takes more than Him. It takes more than Him. There was no sign of judgment.
And if you do not believe Noah's message, Just as when the Lord
comes, I believe this is so, when the Lord comes, He said,
when the Son of Man cometh, will He find faith on the earth? I think it will be very few at
that time, whenever it is, whenever it is. It's hard enough to find
a place to worship as it is. It's hard to find a place where
the gospel is preached. And then when you do find a place
where the gospel is preached, there's very few in number. Very
few. I tell you this, Osher wouldn't
have passed that boat. Osher wouldn't have passed. Osher
would have looked at that boat and they would have said, that
boat would not stand a catastrophe. There's no way that boat could
save. Not against that kind of a deluge.
Not against that kind of deluge, Noah. Noah, if judgment's going
to be as you say, I wish you wouldn't pass that boat. No way. There's only one window in it.
That's not enough windows. That's not enough light for such
a crowd. Men do not see. When they look
at the Lord Jesus Christ, with the natural eye, with natural
understanding, they do not see his power to save. They do not
see the sufficiency of his blood and his righteousness alone to
save. They don't see it. They said,
we know you. You are the carpenter's son. We know you. And they said, how
do I know if this man letters having never learned? You don't
have enough light to save us. You don't have enough knowledge.
You don't have enough understanding. You don't have any learning. They were negligent of their
souls. The same as today. I tell you,
it's troublesome to me. It is. It's troublesome to me.
People just so negligent of their souls. So concerned about this
world and the things of the world and having and having. You know
when the news starts talking about it, it's an epidemic. When they start talking about
people being given over to all this worldliness and all this
having and getting, I was watching that this morning. They were
talking about how all this country and people just absorbed with
having. Now when they start talking about
it, you know it's noticeable. They were negligent. They were
religious like Cain, but lost. Lost. And it says in verse 39,
And they knew not until the flood came. For a hundred and twenty
years they heard that hammer pounding on that ark. They watched
that ark being assembled for a hundred and twenty years. It
said, When the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah while the ark was being built, 120 years. And they heard that hammer
day after day after day. They heard it. And one day, like this, dead silence. It was finished. It was done. The ark was complete. It's timed out with a flood.
It's timed for God to do just as He said He would. He said
he's going to bring judgment. 120 years went by. You know,
nothing happened. Nothing happened. And then one
day that hammer stopped hammering. And the noise down there stopped. There was no noise down around
the ark. It was silence. Noah entered the ark, all those
animals, all of them entered the ark. God shut the door and
it was dead silence. They knew not. They believed
not. They did not believe Noah. They did not believe Noah's message.
They believed not Christ. Because it's the Spirit of Christ
preaching to them through Noah. They didn't believe Him. Until
the flood came. And then it was too late. He
said the door was shut. That door was shut. And notice
here. And took them all away. Took them all away. The flood
was universal. It was not just where Noah was. It flooded this part of the country
as well. There was not a living thing
left when God's judgment went through. Not a living thing. It was universal. It took away the rich and the
poor. No distinctions. No class distinction. No exceptions
to the rule. It took them, every one of them
outside the ark, all away. It took away the husband and
the wife. It took away the mother and the
child. It took away the rich and the
poor. It took away the healthy and the sick. No distinctions. No exceptions. He took away the
judge and the criminal. He took them away. He took away the learned and
the unlearned. There was no distinction made.
Not at all. There was universal worldliness. Universal. Lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. And that's not just out here
in the world playing around. That's so. It covers that too.
But I believe it also is like this. You've got to make religion
fun. Lovers of pleasure. Just like
today. You've got to make it fun. You've got to build gyms.
You've got to do something to make it fun. I've been asked
this more than once since I've been pastor here. What do you
do for the children? I've been asked that more than
more than once by people outside of here. What do you do for the
children? We preach the gospel to them. We don't entertain them. We preach
the gospel to them. We do it in the Bible classes.
We do it for his pulpit. Lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. And there was universal indifference.
It says back in verse 12 of this chapter, the love of many shall
wax cold. It says over in Romans that they
will lose their natural affections. Just universal indifference.
You just go in, you hear what's said, and you go out. And no
difference. No difference is made in the
heart, in the life. No difference. And then there
was universal unbelief. Scripture says in 2 Thessalonians,
before that day, there'll come a falling away. There'll be a
general falling away from the gospel, the truth of the gospel.
They'll fall away. And when this happens, he says,
when the Son of Man comes, like in the days of Noah, they were
eating, drinking, people just going on living, and times were
prosperous, and everything was kind of like status quo, And
he said, and like they knew not, it was immediate. When the flood
came, it was immediate. You read, go back over to Genesis
and read that. It was, you know, they're looking for all these
signs and all this, like it's coming slowly. The Lord said
it's immediate. He said it's going to be like
lightning. When he comes, it's going to be like lightning flashing
from the east and the west. That's what it's going to be
like. And he says, when this happens, just like when the flood
came immediately and took them all away, took them away to judgment,
then shall two be in the field. One shall be taken and the other
left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill. The one shall be
taken and the other left. The elect will be taken to glory
and the other left for judgment. That's what's going to happen.
And this happens every day. God takes one of his children
away from the field of labor while his co-worker is taking
the judgment. This happens in families. It
happens in families. And people don't think of it
that way when someone dies, someone you've worked with that didn't
believe the gospel, or someone that did believe the gospel,
which you know they're going to be with the Lord. But one's
taken away the glory. And one has taken the judgment.
He says that's what's going to happen. Now, seeing these things
are so, seeing the Lord's coming. He's coming. He says, watch,
therefore. Watch. Well, you know, not what
hour, not what year, what month, what hour, because it's down
to that now. It's down to the hour. You know
not what hour your Lord doth come. He's coming. He's on His
way. He is on His way. He's coming.
But our duty is to watch till He comes. Ever ready, ever busy about our
Father's business. Our Lord tells us this because
we are prone to wonder, we are prone to slumber, and we are
prone to forgetfulness. And He says, Watch. Watchfulness shows that He's
real to my soul. Do you know that? If someone
that I know tells me they're going to come at a certain time,
I'm watching for that person. That person is real to me. If
a person is not watching for Him, anticipating His coming,
looking for His coming, He's not real to them. This shows
that He's real to my soul. To watch is to look with anticipation. He's coming. He's coming. Now know this, if the good man
of the house had known what hour or known in what watch the thief
would come, he wouldn't have stayed up all night. He wouldn't
have wandered all night long. If he'd have known that the thief
was coming at a certain time, certain hour, he would have been
prepared at that hour and he would have prevented that thief
from coming in and stealing his goods. Preparedness can save
one from a great loss and great heartaches and embarrassment. Therefore, I want you to notice
these two verses, 44 and 45. Therefore, be ready Ready. Bags packed. Golden Reed Exodus, I believe
it was Exodus 12 in the Passover. They were to eat that with their
shoes on their feet, staff in their hand, ready to go. Ready
to go. A young man said to me some years
ago, and I mean, he was a young man, teenager. And I was talking
about the Lord coming and I was saying at that time, I wish the
Lord would come. Put an end to all this. And he said, I don't. He said, I'd like to live a little
longer and enjoy some of this. That's a teenager for you. As
someone who doesn't know their heart, they don't know this world,
they don't know these things. I understood what he was saying
from where he was at. I said, no. I wish he'd come
now. Just put an end to it. Ready. Ready. Wishing he would come
before we even get out the door tonight. Ready for them to come. Everything in order. Having everything
in order. That's what it means. Having
everything in order. You know, when we go on vacation
or something, she cleans the house. I mean,
if she puts that house in order, like somebody's going to come
while we're gone or something. Ready. Everything in order. Prepared. Or if somebody's coming over,
it's worse. I mean, it's worse. I mean, it's like, I mean, it
stays clean anyway. Jason says he's got OCD. Cleaning disorder. But it's just,
you know, you're ready. You want to be ready when they
show up. You want your house. You ladies, I know you ladies.
You don't want your house to be dirty when someone, especially
someone you think highly of, shows up. Now, we don't know
what hour he's going to show up. He didn't tell us. But we
just do know this. It's soon. If we know it's soon,
he's saying, have everything in order. Have everything in
order. For such an hour, if you think
not, You see everything going along just fine, that's when
it will happen. In an hour you think not, the Son of Man cometh,
who then is faithful, be ready, faithful and wise servant. You see here, it's be ready and be faithful. That's part
of ready. Faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler
over his house. He's given you something to do
in his house. Whatever it is you're doing now
is what He's given you to do in His house. Take care of it. Take care of it. And this is especially true to
people like me who preach and pastor, to give them meat in
due season. It tells me to be ready, be prepared,
be faithful, and be wise in handling this church, feeding the flock,
You know, the apostles were called stewards of the mysteries of
God. Over in 1 Corinthians 4. And good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. The one qualification that was
required in a steward was this. Faithful. It wasn't being highly
educated. He didn't have to have this large
amount of learning. He just had to be faithful. There's
a young man that worked for me at the shop, and now he works
for that other company. He's faithful as an old dog. He's
about as backward as can be, but he's faithful. I'm telling
you, he's there 15, 20 minutes before time to punch in, and
he's there every day, never misses. Faithful. And the servant of the Lord is
to be faithful to his Lord, and he's to be faithful to the household
that he's over. He's to be faithful. He was made
a ruler. Not someone who lords over God's
people, but a ruler. And if he's going to be that,
he needs to be wise. Solomon said, Lord, give me wisdom.
He asked him what he wanted, and he said wisdom. Make me wise. You'll be wise in dealing with
God's servants. And never forget that you are
still a servant. You are still a servant. And
then, feed the church of God. He says there, and to give them
meat in due season. Feed the church over whom the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers. You'll be faithful. You'll be
ready. You'll be faithful. You'll be
wise. And watch. Watch. Blessed is that servant whom
his Lord, when he cometh, and remember this phrase right here,
he shall find, he'll find that servant so doing. Doing just what you were given
to do. Not trying to do great exploits,
but just so doing. Whatever he's given us to do,
let's be found doing it. Verily I say unto you, that he
shall make him ruler over all his goods. Let me read you what
one writer said, the best way to handle this. There are rewards
for faithful service, not of debt, but of grace. Not according
to the rule of law, but according to the discipline of the house
of God and the higher rule of love. It should be noted that
faithfulness is in one form of service is rewarded by future
service or further service and increased responsibility. Remember
that servant who was given five pounds? And he brought it back
and the Lord, he doubled it and the Lord made him ruler over,
what was it, ten cities? And I'll wind it down. If that
evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delays his coming,
what does that matter? What should that matter? If he
does not come in our day, what does that matter? And he shall begin to smite his
fellow servants. You see, the Lord, he thinks
the Lord's delayed his coming and he's revealed his character.
Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven. Not everyone that stands in a pulpit is God's preacher. Not everyone. There are hypocrites
that stand in pulpits. There are. And he shall begin
to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and to drink with
the drunken. The Lord of that service shall come in a day when
he looks not for him, and in an hour that he was not aware
of. And we'll see this in the next chapter with those ten virgins.
This man's a servant. He's called a servant. But he's
called an evil servant. An evil servant. And the Lord
will find him out. The Lord will rout him out. He
will rout him out. And he will expose him for who
and what he is, a hypocrite. This is one who had intruded
into an office which he had no right to occupy, and he'll be
taken care of. The Lord will take care of him.
He says here, and he shall cut him asunder and appoint him his
portion with the hypocrites, and there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? These religious hypocrites stand in pulpits and
make other men and women two-fold the children of hell. Can you
imagine the gnashing of teeth against those men? The unleashed
hatred for lying to me? For duping me? They'll be weeping
and wailing and he says, But you watch. You watch. You be ready. You be wise. And you be faithful. For your
Lord is coming. Our Lord is coming. Our Lord
is on His way. It may be tonight. It may be
tomorrow. I may not be, I think I wrote
this in a bulletin, I may not be here when the world ends. I may not be alive when this
world is ended. But I'll be alive when He comes
for me. And that's what I'm waiting for.
That's what I'm watching for is when He comes for me. Ready or not, the Lord's coming.
He's coming.