The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter 21. Luke chapter 21, verses 34 through
38. The subject of the verses, though
it deals with several things, but the main message of these
verses is about God's faithful servant. Let's read these verses
together. Luke chapter 21, beginning with
verse 34. And take heed to yourselves,
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting,
and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day, that
is the day of God, the end of time, come upon you unaware. For as a snare shall it come
on all them that dwell on all the face of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of Man. And in the daytime he was teaching
in the temple. And at night he went out and
abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives. And all
the people came early in the morning to him in the temple
for to hear him. Now last week we talked about
the passing away of heaven and earth. Heaven and earth is the
stage wherein God will manifest His glory. That's what creation
is all about. It's the stage upon which God
has purpose to show or manifest His glory in the salvation of
sinners. That's what creation is all about.
That's the purpose behind it. Creation is not the playground
for fools, although there are plenty of
them in it. It's not the playground of fools.
It's not the great beyond for adventurers. And it's not the
untapped source of riches. It's the stage. That's why it
continues on. That's why it's going to continue
on until God's purpose is fulfilled. All creation is here. It's being
ordered and run and managed and set in motion and continued in
motion. It's preserved. to this end that
God is going to manifest His glory. And it had a beginning
and it has an end. It has a purpose and it has an
expectation. And creation is a marvelous thing. It's breathtaking sometimes to
go out at night on a clear night. Most of the time there's so much
pollution and stuff in the air you just see a few stars. But
it's breathtaking in a certain area or at a certain time to
walk out at night and look up into the heavens. You look up there on a clear
night and you see the night lights in the sky and take in what surely
must be just the edge of the universe. Just what's seeable
to the naked eye. But even more breathtaking is
the knowledge that God spoke it into existence. He commanded. He spoke and it was done. He
commanded and it stood fast. It's more breathtaking to know
that God spoke it into existence by His Son and has given Him
the power over it, and the work to perform in it, and the authority
to order it, and the power to destroy it. It's all in His hands. And even more is the glory of
the salvation of chosen sinners that He accomplishes in it. That's
more glorious than the universe. The universe is just the stage,
you know. You go and you see an act. We don't have that so
much anymore. You just watch television and
stuff. But years ago they had an act and performers would come
out on the stage. Well, everybody didn't sit there
in awe of the stage. They sat there in awe of what
was going on on the stage. And this is what our Lord is
talking to us about. And oh, may the Lord make us
mindful of His purpose of grace in this world and make us daily
active in it. It says by Him, talking about
Christ, were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. Creation is not for you, it's
for Him. It's for Him. The glory of it
is not what you do in it, it's what He's doing in it. He's before all things and by
Him all things have a continuance, all things consist. And there's
a purpose in creation, and that purpose is being fulfilled one
day at a time, every day. We wait, we work, whatever we
do, we go to sleep. God's purpose is being fulfilled
every day, constantly, 24 hours a day. And when that purpose
is fulfilled, heaven and earth shall pass away. And then secondly, we talked
about words of Christ. My words, he said, should not
pass away. Everything he promised is going
to come to pass. Everything he talked about has
a continuance. His words concerning our preservation
from the destruction of all things around us. His words of deliverance
from the wrath to come. His words of promise concerning
eternity and life everlasting. His words of blessing and peace
and refuge from the judgment of God. And then we talked about
a warning, take heed to yourselves. That's what he said. Where do
I fit in concerning these things that are coming? Take heed to
yourselves. It's not enough to look out here
and know what in general God's doing. He said, take heed to
yourselves. What's that mean? Each one of
us. Each one of us. Now this morning
I want us again to consider three more lessons from this chapter,
and this should wind us up with chapter 21. I want to talk to
you a little bit about the snare of worldliness. And then the worthiness to escape
that snare. and then God's faithful servant
ministering to those who shall be heirs of salvation. So let's
begin here with the snare of worldliness. What is worldliness?
You know, somebody wears a dress too short or they wear their
hair too long and, oh, he's so worldly. What is worldliness? Worldliness is anything that
has to do with this world. That's worldliness. Anything
and everything that has to do with this world. He said of the old priesthood
and tabernacle that they had a worldly sanctuary. It was made of things of this
world, it was managed by things of this world, and it was managed
by those he appointed to manage it. And they were of this world. That old tabernacle had a worldly
sanctuary, something you could see and touch. In Ephesians 2.2,
he defines being dead in sins as walking according to the course
of this world. There's a course that men walk,
unbelieving men, in this world. And it's death is what it is. It's death. All false religion,
John defines as being of this world, verse John 4, verse 5. Satan and his fallen angels are
called the rulers of the darkness of this world. Religion without
true knowledge of God is paganism and nothing but darkness. In
Galatians 1.4 it says, Christ gave himself for our sins that
he might deliver us, now listen, from this present evil world. And that according to the will
of God our Father. We're warned in Colossians 2.8
not to be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men and after the basic principles or rudiments of this world, and
not after Christ. He tells us in James 4.4 that
the friendship of this world is enmity with God. And Paul said, Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved. this present world. James tells
us again, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is
this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction
and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world. From the world. And then John said this, in John
chapter 2, or 1 John chapter 2. He said, Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. And if any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of this world. And the world, are you listening,
passeth away. It's hard to get a grasp on that,
ain't it? It passeth away. This world and
the things of it, its philosophy, principles, pleasures, promises,
are nothing but a snare. They're a snare. A snare is something
used to trap a bird or a rabbit, a simple... I had a friend of
mine who was in the Boy Scouts, and I went with him, and the
lesson that day was about a snare. And they had a little box. They
used to deliver milk, and they had a little wooden box. And
we had one of them boxes, and you'd pull a little stick up
there with a string on it, and you'd put a little bait inside,
and you'd sit back, and when a rabbit or bird or whatever
you're after goes in there, you'd pull the stick out, the box comes
down. A snare. This whole world is
a snare. It's a snare. That's what it
is. God set it up. It's a snare for unbelieving
men. What's the bait? Religion. That's the bait. Oh, my soul. Put a little bait in there, attract
this one or that one, and they go in at the end of time. This world and especially its
religion is debate and men and women are attracted to it, drawn
to it, sacrifice things to have it, devote whole lives to get
it. It's a snare for the ungodly. In Isaiah, he said that Christ
would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both
houses of Israel and a jinn and a snare to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, these Pharisees and scribes and so forth. And they'll stumble and fall
and be broken and snared and be taken. And while this present
evil world and their religion draws in the multitudes, our
Lord will suddenly appear. He'll suddenly appear in the
twinkling of an eye. It'll be so fast. and they'll
have no way of escaping. Where as a snare shall it come
upon all them that dwell on all the face of the whole earth. And he warns us, take heed to
yourselves that this day don't come upon you unawares. Know
what the snare is and avoid it. The world, its promises, its
pleasures and religions shall be a snare upon the bulk of humanity
just before Christ returns. And secondly, he talks about
a people worthy to escape these things. He said, watch therefore
and pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass and stand before the
Son of Man. This standing he's talking about
is standing there without fear, standing there by faith in Him,
standing there as Him as your representative, your substitute,
your salvation. You'll stand there with Him.
And he mentions four things in this verse that we need to pay
attention to concerning the judgment of God. First of all, a spiritual
awareness. In Ephesians 5.15, Paul tells
us, see that you walk circumspectly. What's that mean? Don't take the day frivolously. Well, whatever will be, will
be. Don't take the day that way. Walk carefully, carefully. See that you walk not circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise. Believers are cautioned in the
preceding verse not to let that day come upon them unawares because
it will as it's now. And then secondly in that verse,
he said, watch you therefore and pray always. Now, I just
cannot imagine a marriage where the husband and wife never speak.
I know that there are some. We know them. A husband and wife never speak,
live in the same house, eat the same food, never speak. I can't imagine a marriage where
a husband and wife never speak. Neither can I imagine a saving
relationship with Christ without prayer. Can you? There's nothing too small or
too common for a wife and a husband to discuss, is it? There isn't
with Christ either. And that's the way it ought to
be. Prayer is a sacred thing. Prayer is a divine privilege
given to the children of God. Listen to this over in Hebrews
10, 21. He said, having a high priest
over the house of God. Now, if you do a little study
on the priesthood, The people didn't go into the Holy of Holies,
they didn't even go into the front part of the tabernacle.
These were all priests that did this, and they did it for the
congregation. And he said, having a high priest
over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. We have
boldness, Paul said, to enter into the holiest of all. We don't
go to a priest and confess our sins and ask him for salvation
and ask him all these things. No. Where do we go? He said,
when you pray, say, Our Father. Where's He at? In the holiest
of all. We have a privilege to enter
into the holiest of all, he said, by the blood of Jesus. Huh? Oh, what a privilege, and how
we need to exercise it. He says, watch therefore and
pray always. A watchful prayer is a prayer
with a sense of understanding and awareness in it. What do we know that the rest
of the world don't know? Huh? What do we know that millions
out there don't know? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. That's the main thing. We know
him. We're not deceived. They'll come
preaching another Jesus. and another gospel by another
spirit. He tells us that. They're going
to come. They're going to use the name Jesus. They're going
to use the name prayer, and saved, and sanctified, and all the words
that you read in the scripture. But they're preaching another
Jesus. We know whom we have believed. And Paul said, I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. How'd he know that? He read the
Word of God, and God revealed it to us. We know whom we have
believed, who He is and why He came and what He did and where
He's at. We know the way of God. Christ
is the way. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And we know the will of God.
His will is that of all which He's given the Son, He should
lose nothing. His will is that those who see
the Son and believe on Him should have everlasting life. We know
the will of God. Not His will that any of His
elect should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And the good pleasure of His will, we understand that. He's
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
And I know this, He worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will. And we know this, He's coming
again. Yet a little while, Paul said, and He that shall come
will come, and will not tarry. And then the third thing he tells
us in this verse is that there is a way of escape. How shall you escape if you neglect
so great salvation? You want to die in your sins?
Neglect the means of God. I'm telling you the truth. You
don't care if you go to heaven or hell. You don't care about
your soul. You don't care about the things of God. All you have
to do is just ignore it. That's all you have to do. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. They'll self-destruct. We know that He's coming again. And we know that there is a way
of escape. There are some who won't be taken
in the snare. Let me tell you something. There's
no getting out of the snare. Once the snare is tripped, once
the Son of God comes, that's it. There's no way. You're not getting out of the
snare. And no escape when the trap is
front. There is but one way to escape
and that is to avoid the snare. To know what it is and keep away
from it. And then the fourth thing he
tells us in verse 36 is that some are counted worthy to escape. Don't you hear me? They're not
counted worthy because they watch and pray. I don't know how many
people I read and they picked right up on that sentence and
said, this is what makes them worthy. They pray always. That's
not what makes you worthy. Those are the fruits of worthiness. But their worthiness is all together
in Christ. You're complete in Him. There's no other way of escape. Christ is all and in all. He's the new man that we strive
to put on. He's that which we put on as
we are renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Am I worthy to escape the horrors
of this unbelieving world? I am if I believe in and on the
Son of God. I am worthy. Do you know what
he's going to say to every believer? And believe me, I've been around
a while, and I can say this to myself. I've got a lot of ifs
and ands and buts. But even those Even those, oh,
listen to me. Even those, he's going to look
at it and say, well done, my good and faithful servant. He
can't be talking about me. He has to be talking about Christ.
But if I'm in him, I'm a good and faithful servant. and to stand before the Son of
Man with confidence and assurance, with a good hope by grace, and
to stand before the Son of Man knowing that He's the reason
I'm able to stand. And then lastly, I want us to
consider God's faithful servant, the Son of Man. Verse 37. It says in the daytime, He was
teaching in the temple. from the time the sun come up
to the time the sun went down. Did you know that the daytime
describes his dealings with men? You're not of the night, he said,
you're of the day. All his dealings with men, all
the gospel he preached, all of his teaching is light. It's life. And he worked while it's day. Night cometh when no man can
work. In the daytime he was teaching
in the temple, and at night he went out and abode in a mount
that is called the Mount of Olives. And all the people, now listen
to this, all with an interest. All that was willing to come
to him. All the people came early in
the morning. And they came to the temple.
No, that ain't what it says. They came to Him. There's a difference. It's one thing to come to church.
It's another to come here to hear Christ. Well, I'll go to church, and
that way my conscience won't bother me. Oh, your conscience
will bother you if you come for the wrong reason. He'll keep
on bothering you. All the people came early in
the morning to Him, now listen, in the temple. Where can I go to hear Him? Wherever He's at. Huh? Wherever He's at. Where's He
at? Where two or three are gathered
together in my name. There shall I be in the midst. They all came to Him in the temple. Why did they come? To hear Him. They've never been a servant
of God like Jesus Christ. His whole body, soul, and spirit
dedicated to God and the work given Him to accomplish and every
waking moment He was giving of Himself to them who are in need. Every waking moment, he was either
healing somebody or he was teaching or he was feeding, he was curing,
he was giving of himself to those in need. And then in the evenings,
he'd have to be exhausted. In the evenings, he was in prayer
with God. In prayer with God. I'm yet to
read in the scripture a frivolous moment in his life. I've never
read one. Not a frivolous moment. He was
doing something to accomplish God's purpose every second of
every hour of every day. Now listen to this, verse 38.
All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple
for to hear him not the temple that drew them, but the servant
of God. And he very clearly tells us
they came early in the morning to him in the temple for to hear
him. I wonder this morning if there's
some here today as there were in that day whose reason for
coming is to hear him. Is that what brought you here
this morning? to hear Him. And I'll tell you
what the Lord said. He took these disciples. They
had no clue. You know, you think preachers,
that's this guy who comes to his pastor and he said, I want
to be a preacher. That's not how preachers are
chosen. He took these men and he said,
you, you, you, you. And he got quite a few of them.
And he said, now you go out. He that heareth you, heareth
me. Now, he didn't single out three.
What was it, a hundred and some men
he sent out? Twice he did that. He didn't
say, now, these four, you really won't listen to them. No, he
said, he that heareth you, from the greatest to the least, heareth
me, heareth me. Do you believe that? Do you believe
when you come here that God may give you a word from Him? That's why they were in that
temple. They were hoping to hear a word from God. They came believing him to be
God's servant and to have God's message to them, and they didn't
show up out of duty or a sense of guilt, but excited and expecting
to hear it, because they heard before. If you ever hear, you'll
come expecting to hear it, won't you? And to hear him untangle
the deep mysteries of God, I couldn't tell you how many times I've
said in my study, and God will open something up to me, and
I'll preach on it, and there'll be ten people walk up to me. I never saw that before. This
is what Christ was doing. He was untangling these mysteries. All these things are mysteries
to men. They've never thought about predestination. They've never thought about eternal
matters. Oh, they came there and listened
to him untangle the deep mysteries of God and to tell and interpret
the parables. What do these things mean? That's
what his disciples asked him and he told them. Oh, to interpret the parables
and the types. And they came there believing
him to be the source of great blessing and provision. He was
the reason for their being there. And then notice this, they came
early. Those who truly have an interest in Christ, they seek
Him early. Not only did they come to seek
Him, but they come to hear Him. This is the man who spoke the
universe into existence. Never! Why didn't you stone him? Why didn't you do what we sent
you? Never a man spoke like this man. This is the Son of Man, our Savior. May the Lord give us what He
gave them and bring us early to hear a word from Him.