I want to continue our study
in Luke 21 this morning on this subject, Good News in Perilous
Times. Last week we talked about the
subject matter of this chapter, what our Lord was talking about
and why He said the things that He said. He was giving to them
a warning. First of all, concerning the
destruction of Jerusalem. And that came about in 70 A.D. and certain signs and evidences,
he gave them of the end of time, of the very end, not just the
end of the Old Testament age, that typical age, but the end
of all things. The destruction of Jerusalem,
the temple, typical worship was both a judgment upon Israel and
also the end of a typical age. The days before the coming of
Christ were foundational days. The foundation is being laid. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid. The Lord laid the foundation.
Nothing's going to change. He's going to build something
on it, but the foundation is solid. The foundation has not
been changed. These were days, foundational
days, when the person and work of Christ was set before men
and women symbolically in the Lamb. There's no... I don't know. I can't help but see it because
it's on display everywhere. And the worst time of year is
around Christmas when they start displaying all this stuff. There
was lambs involved, goats, bullocks involved in the worship of God
in the Old Testament. You don't see that today. Why? Because that typical age has
ended. It's ended. The high priest and his annual
atonement pictured our Lord in his priestly sacrifice entering
into heaven itself. and obtaining eternal redemption
for us. He did it by His own blood. We
have no need of a temple. The purpose of that temple is
past. It's past. The Lamb offered on
the altar pictured the Lamb of God. That's why John the Baptist
said, Behold the Lamb. Here's the Lamb. This is what
the Lamb's all about. Look to Him. Look to Him. The lamb offered on the altar
pictured the Lamb of God dying in our room instead. And as it
is today, so it was in that day that ignorant men misused, misapplied,
and misunderstood the purpose and means of God. They included
those things in their worship, but they didn't understand them.
They misapplied them. Rather than preaching Christ,
they preached the law. They were kind of like, they
reminded me, I told Yvonne earlier in the week, we were talking
about this study this morning, and I told her, I said, they
remind me of children at Christmas time, little small children. You give them a present and they
open it up and they play with a box and take the gift and set
it aside. And that's exactly what they
did in the Old Testament. They played with a box. The gift
they laid aside. And though they memorized the
messianic prophecies, yet they looked the Son of Man right in
the face and believed not on him. That this can't be the Messiah. This is not the Messiah. Their
unbelief did not hinder or weaken or prevent the Lord from doing
what he purposed to do. But it did bring about a severe
judgment on them. Now we live in what I like to
call the gospel age. Christ has come. He's the gospel. Christ has come. We're not waiting
on him to come. He can. Jesus of Nazareth is
God come into the flesh, and he's the fulfillment of every
messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. It's Christ. He clearly revealed as our Sabbath
of rest in Hebrews 4 verse 10. For he that's entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. What kind of work can you rest
in if it wasn't the work of Christ? God himself rested in it. He
didn't destroy the world when Adam sinned. though it was polluted
and mankind fell, yet God didn't destroy it. Why? Because He trusted
in His Son. He trusted in that redemption
that He purposed in His Son. And we as believers enter into
that rest, and we rest in the same person, and we rest for
the same reason. There's rest in Him. He's our
rest. And He clearly set forth as the
city of refuge That's what Paul's doing throughout the book of
Hebrews. He's showing us symbolically what these things were in the
Old Testament and the fulfillment of them in Christ. God's counsel
and God's oath concerning His Son and His eternal purpose of
grace gives us a strong consolation, Paul said, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. And Christ is
our eternal high priest. He said in Hebrews 7.21, those
priests were made without an oath because they were typical
priests. The Levitical priesthood, but
this, Christ our priest was made with an oath by him who said
unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was presented in
the scripture as an eternal priest. He had neither beginning of days
or end of life. He was without father and mother,
without descent. An unchangeable priesthood and
God justly and wisely brought Judaism to an end in 70 AD. It's over. It's over. And yet there's people today
still talking about the rebuilding of the temple. They're still talking about holy
days and things that are gone, things that have already transpired,
they're gone. And as I examined the end of
these things, I began to see the same thing happening in our
day. We preach the personal cross. We preach His incarnation. God
come into the flesh. What's so different about Jesus
than any other man? This is God. God and man in one
person. There's only one in all eternity
that you can say that about, and that's Jesus Christ. He's
God come into the flesh. He's the God-man. He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. the covenant seed. He saith not
unto seeds as of many, but his seed, which is Christ. God is man in one glorious union,
a representative man, a substitute. When he cometh into the world,
he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not, but a body
hast thou prepared me. And I come to do thy will, O
God. And that will is the sacrifice
of themselves for chosen sinners. You, Paul said, who were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy. You can't look at yourself in
the mirror and say, I'm holy. You can't do it, can you? But
in Christ, you're presented before the Father holy. Consistent in
every way with the character of God. Perfect harmony with
the character of God. You're holy. That He might present
you holy and unblameable. Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? God didn't justify it. and unreprovable. You can't get any better. I don't
know why people talk about this progressive sanctification. You're
presented perfect in Christ. You ain't gonna get any better
than that. That's perfect. We preach his incarnation from
glory in his life as a representative man he'd made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law that
we might receive the adoption of children. And by his continual
and unbroken obedience, he exalted the law and made it honorable. Actually, the crowning act of
his obedience was his death. on the cross. He'd become obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And Christ is our
righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. We preach the accomplished redemption
of Christ. We're sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Are we sanctified? We are if
we're in Christ. Of God are ye in Christ. who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. By one offering
he hath perfected forever them who are sanctified. Once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin. Has Christ put away sin?
He put away all the sins of his elect. He put them away. They don't exist anymore. They've
been put away. He died the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. And then we preach the resurrection
of Christ. He was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification. What makes you think you're justified? Huh? Where's your hope of justification? It's all in Christ. Well, how
do I know I'm justified? God raised him from the dead. And then we preach the reign
in Christ, for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived
that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. There's
a man In glory, a man accepted of God, honored of God, seated
with God, and wearing the crown of God. And he sits in the highest
seat there is. There is no higher seat than
where he sits. So what's he doing? He's sitting.
That's what he's doing. He's sitting, expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. He's ruling, arranging, controlling
all. This present age in which we
live is an age of mercy and grace, an age of forgiveness and reconciliation. And our message concerning the
exalted Christ is be ye reconciled to God in him. Reconciled to the truth concerning
who he is, to the revelation of God in him. to the work he's
accomplished, to the work going on right now, to the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But even the days of light and
revelation have an end. And that's what our Lord's telling
his disciples. The purpose of these verses is
to give comfort and assurance to his saints. And while this
present evil world ought to be terrified at what they now see,
You can't help but read the scripture and with a natural eye be terrified
by what you see and what you're going to see. But his people
are exhorted to look up. Isn't that what he tells them
there in our text? Look up. Lift up your heads. How can you
do such a thing at the end of the world? For your redemption. draweth nigh. Redemption is not
so much a thing as it is a person. You remember the conversation
between Christ, I think it was Mary or Martha, whichever one
he was talking to, and he said, well, you believe in... Oh, yeah,
yeah, we believe in the resurrection and the life. He said, I am the
resurrection. We talk about redemption and we start talking about paying
back and settling all accounts, and all of that's true, but redemption
is a person. That's why His name is Redeemer. We're looking for a person. We're not looking for a piece
of paper that says this, that, and the other. We're looking
for a person. A person. Jesus of Nazareth having performed
the will of His Father, sets in glory as our Redeemer. We
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He redeemed
us from our sins, paid the price, settled the debt. But we're still
in a sinful body. We're still in a sinful world.
We're still surrounded by sinful men. And the worst of it all
is sinful religion with Satan at its head. But our great God
and Father, because of the salvation accomplished in His Son, has
given to us the gift of faith, sealed us with the Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of what is yet to come, until,
you read this in Ephesians chapter 1, until the redemption of the
purchased possession. He purchased us and the right
to enable us to become sons of God. And the end of the Levitical
priesthood and temple worship was not something to mourn over. He was ushering in something
better. And this age, when we see all that's going on around
us, we don't want to go home and mourn. He tells us to rejoice. When you see these things, rejoice!
For your redemption draws nigh. clear revelation and declaration
of Christ who's all in all. And likewise, the end of this
world is not for saints to mourn over. It's ushering in the purpose
redemption of every chosen sinner. These mortals, he tells us, shall
put on immortality. There's no ifs, ands, or buts.
This corruption shall put on incorruption, death shall be
swallowed up in victory. The end is not the end, it's
the beginning of something that we can't even identify with except
in Christ. A life without sin or any effects
of sin. We don't know anything about
that. The only place I can see that
is in Christ. I've had sin and dealt with sin and I am a sinner
and shall be till I die. I don't know what it would be to
live without sin, but I sure want to find out, don't you? Oh, life without sin or any effects
of sin and what of this typical world? Did you know this world
is typical? Not only was the priesthood typical,
And the temple, and the tabernacle, and all of those stuff's typical
of Christ, and we're shown that in the Scripture. But this whole
world's typical. Every relationship in this world
has no meaning apart from our relationship with Christ and
God. Is there not? John said, I saw no temple there. There wasn't any temple there. God Almighty and the Lamb are
the temple of that city. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither the moon. They have a natural purpose in
this life, but they're typical also. He tells us that the Son
of God, he said, you do well Peter said, you do well to take
heed until the day dawn and the day star, that's the sun, arise
in your heart. That's typical of Christ. And
so is the moon and so is the stars. All of his preachers he
called stars. This world's typical. Said he
had no need of the sun, neither the moon to shine in it, for
the glory of God did liken it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And what about commerce? Those things which we value most
in this world is described as commonplace in glory. Streets
of gold. You can't imagine such a thing.
I'd be happy with a street without potholes. He's talking about
streets of gold. I don't look for literal streaks
of gold in glory, but what he's telling us is these things that
are so valuable to us here are commonplace in glory. Gates of
pearl. And what about relationships?
Well, there'd be no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven. And relationships are created
for the sole purpose of identification with Christ. They come and told our Lord,
they said, your sister and your mother's out here. What'd our
Lord say? Who is my sister and my mother?
Huh? Whosoever shall do the will of
my Father, which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister
and mother. And while everything around us
serves a natural purpose here, it's just a temporary purpose.
And it won't reach its creative purpose until Christ comes again
and declares the end of time. Then we'll understand what marriage
really is about. We got a taste of it. We have
a taste of it. We're seething. But all we have
is a taste. Then we're going to know as we're
known. And so he tells us to look up.
Verse 28. Look up. Luke 21, verse 28. Don't look
within, don't look around, look up. Lift up your heads. And this world will be a place
of drooping heads as they watch what they value most coming to
an end. And with bowing heads they'll
cry for the rocks and the mountains to hide them from His face, but
not believers. Why? Because their redemption
draweth nigh. And we have redemption. We have
it in part. We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his
grace. The full debts of my sin have been settled. The infinite
justice of God fully satisfied. And he tells us wherein, that
is, by way of this redemption he hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will." There's a sense in which Christ
in his accomplished redemption has redeemed us from our sinful
ignorance. Everything God has to say to
the sinner is based on the crucifixion of Christ. And even time is relative
to him. We're told to walk circumspectly
Not willing to live a risky life. Not willing to mix too much world
into our daily lives. Now listen, redeeming the time. Redeeming the time. Even time
is described with that term redemption. Look up, he said. Lift up your
head. And your redemption draweth nigh. Oh my. May the Lord be pleased
to encourage us with such promises as these. Everything around you
falling apart in it. Falling apart. And the more it
falls apart, the more we ought to rejoice, knowing that our
redemption's