I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Luke 17. You can follow me in your commentary
if you wish. The points are there. Luke 17. Once again, we are privileged
to observe how that God would handle questions of a very serious
nature, albeit from those whose motives are quite suspicious. Nevertheless, our Lord entertains
questions when they serve as an opportunity for Him to teach
and instruct His people as to the nature of eternal things.
Luke chapter 17, Luke is giving us insight into an aspect of
the conflict that has been ongoing between the rulers of the church,
called the Pharisees in more particular, as opposed to the
Sadducees, which we will see in a few chapters. But it appears
that what Luke has done for us has allowed us to have a bird's
eye view of our Lord's engagement with those who were the authorities
of the church. And what we get to do, saints,
is to observe how he handles and fields their questions to
him that are just as relevant to us today as they were in the
first century. So I would encourage you to pay
attention to our subject matter. In fact, the title of our message
today, for which I would encourage you to pay great attention, is
The Nature of the Present Kingdom. That's the title of our message,
The Nature of the present kingdom. There have been four aspects
of the kingdom of God that have occurred in our world. Now, when
we talk about the kingdom of God, we are talking about God's
rule and his presence manifested in a particular mode for the
purpose of God accomplishing the goal of his own glory in
his universe. So let me say that again so we
can lay a foundation. You're gonna learn some things
today if you don't already know these things. We use a lot of
religious terms, we all do, and sometimes these terms are not
understood, they are not investigated or clearly defined, but today
you will learn some things about terms that we take for granted. The kingdom of God is one such
term. You hear this term a lot. Books
are written about it. Whole themes are built on it.
Churches name their church the kingdom of God. And in fact,
the kingdom of God is a title, a concept that people who are
even on the outside of the Christian church would use. But if someone
were to ask you, what is the kingdom of God? How would you
define it? See what I'm getting at? And
so the idea of the kingdom of God or the concept of the kingdom
of God can be the presence and power of God manifested in a
particular mode for that season. The kingdom of God is the presence
and power of God manifested in a particular mode for that season. The first manifestation of the
kingdom of God in terms of a model for the world was the patriarchal
family. The first presence and power
of the kingdom of God given to the world was the patriarchal
family. You must understand this. God
had chosen to manifest His will and His purpose in family when
He created Adam and Eve and the subsequent generations to follow,
Genesis 5 and Genesis 10 and Genesis 11. As you and I know,
we call it the patriarchal period. During the patriarchal period,
that is the period of the fathers Methuselah, Noah, Lamech, and
all the brothers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That patriarchal period
was the period in which God manifested the kingdom of God in modal form. This is why the writer to the
Hebrews used the term in Hebrews chapter one, verse one, God,
in many ways, in different times, spoke to our what? Fathers. through the prophets,
revealing to them his will, and they were to operate in modal
form. This is why Brother Tony Evans,
whose book is out recently on the kingdom man has such substantive
relevance to it. For the early fathers, Adam,
Seth, Methuselah, Noah, Enoch and the rest, The kingdom of
God was their responsibility. They were the stewards of God's
revelation. They were those who were under
authority to express the will of God in the world. There is
a sense in which that should be true today in every family. The father should have a primary
role and burden and conviction to see to it that the kingdom
of God is established in the home. Down the line, as God began
to expand the kingdom, he moved it to the monarchial system or
the theocratic system under the 12 tribes of Israel. They became
God's modal manifestation of the kingdom of God. We call it
Israel. National Israel took that next
stewardship calling for God to manifest God's will and purpose
in the world. That kingdom is the kingdom that
now is summed up in the coming of Jesus Christ. God gave Abraham
the promise of a seed, didn't he? And that that seed would
be the seed by which the whole world would be blessed. That
seed was not Isaac, that seed was Jesus Christ. So Jesus came
through the patriarchal family. He came through that theocratic
government called Israel. And once Jesus came, we begin
to move into another modal form of the kingdom of which the leaders
of the church are highly interested in. In fact, the leaders of the
church, according to verse 20, are demanding that Jesus explain
the kingdom of God. Look at verse 20. And when he,
that is Christ, was demanded of the Pharisees, do you guys
see that? Demanded. Now, in most of your newer translations,
you will have the word asked. That's because our scholars have
become wimps. That's my little side note. See,
we don't like confrontation anymore. We don't like debates. We don't
like arguments. So let's take that little Greek
term and water it down and have them asking Jesus. But now, if
you know anything about the storyline, we've been dealing with these
knucklehead Pharisees for months now, haven't we? And we know
one thing, that they have a real ill motive towards Christ. and
that their questions are not rooted in honesty, nor are they
rooted in a sense of real naivete about the kingdom of God. You
and I know that they would love to catch Jesus in a technicality
around the concept of the kingdom. You know that. You know that
they would love to catch Jesus in a heretical understanding
of the kingdom so that they could, as it were, condemn him as a
false prophet and false teacher. But if you know anything about
the language, it's spoken in the imperative, And the imperative
always has an element of command behind it. They are commanding
that Christ explain the kingdom. They're commanding. Now, why
are they doing that? They're doing that because they
are so perturbed by something that has been going on for the
last three years. You know what that is? Jesus
and his cousin John have been preaching the kingdom of God
is at hand. And this is driving these fellas
nutty because everywhere Jesus goes and everywhere John goes,
they declare that God's kingdom is already here. Now here's their
problem. They don't understand it and
they don't see it. So they're struggling with the
proposition coming from these very popular prophets who are
saying the kingdom of God is present. In fact, the way their
question is raised is this. We demand that you show us how
it is that the kingdom of God is already at hand. That's the
construction. I just want you to understand
that. We demand that you show us how it is that the kingdom
of God is already at hand. Because Jesus, if you are right,
the kingdom of God is at hand. But we can't see it. We got problems. Now we're the theologians, we're
the scholars, we're the ones that know the book. We're the
ones who tell people what is truly substantive in terms of
the kingdom of God. And here you are saying the kingdom
is at hand. Your cousin said it too. And
yet we cannot authenticate that. Tell us how it is that the kingdom
of God is at hand. You guys got the context now?
We can go to work then. Because the Pharisees are really
struggling with three fundamental realities that were inherent
in the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ. First, what
was inherent in the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ
is that Christ declared the kingdom of God. He declared it. When
he was baptized by his cousin, John, and then he departed the
wilderness after being tested for 40 days, he proclaimed everywhere
he went, repent. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand.
His cousin did too. That's called declaring the kingdom.
That's part of what we call proclamation. The part of proclamation that
is designed to be the proclamation or the ambassadorship, as we
learned last night, is to speak in behalf of the king to let
the world know what the king is doing. Now we're not explaining
anything. We're just declaring to you that
the kingdom is at hand. It's your obligation to believe
it or not. That's what the herald does.
He brings the news that the kingdom is present. And in fact, when
you work through that language, ladies and gentlemen, here's
what he's saying. The kingdom of God is not only at hand. The
kingdom of God is upon you. Not only is the kingdom of God
at hand that is near, the kingdom of God is upon you. The kingdom
of God has seized you. You don't know it, but you have
been seized by the kingdom of God. That's the way he was speaking. Now that makes it all the more
nemesis, all the more ominous, because what do you mean we have
been seized by the kingdom of God? He not only declared that
the kingdom of God was at hand, that the kingdom of God was presently
upon them, but he explained the kingdom of God. Much of Jesus'
teaching was about explaining the kingdom of God. Isn't that
right? He explained that the kingdom of God is like unto this,
that, and the other thing. He constantly explained to his
disciples the nature and character of the kingdom. We're about to
get into that. But the third thing that Jesus did was defend
his claim that the kingdom was at hand. Because if you remember,
there were a handful of very wicked Pharisees who would charge
Jesus with operating under the power of Satan when Jesus was
the only one whoever actually healed anybody. I mean, for real,
not like the cons today. I'm talking about real healings.
And Jesus said, dealing with them, just basic logic. If I'm
casting out devils by the devil, then who do you cast them out
by? And it was really satirical because what he was saying is
you ain't even casting them out. At least I'm casting them out.
Are you guys following me? And here's what Jesus said to
them. He says it to us. If you don't believe me for my
word, believe me for my work sake. See, because everyone knew
that a genuine authentic prophet had to come with credible signs
in order to affirm his apostleship. And so we know a crook from the
genuine article because a crook not only lies about what he says,
but he lies about what he does. And our Lord Jesus never lied
about what he said. No one could convince him of
not telling the truth. And our Lord Jesus never did
a bogus miracle in his life. All the miracles Christ did were
authentic. All of them were valid. All of
them were credible. They were the insignia of his
calling as the Messiah. See, so when the Pharisees are
saying to Jesus, show us the kingdom, you know what they're
struggling with? the fact that he called them blind leaders
of the blind. And now people are starting to
pay attention to the Lord Jesus. See, you can't overcome the evidence,
can you? The evidence speaks for itself, doesn't it? And this
is what's going on in our text. So for us, we want to learn some
lessons about the nature of the kingdom of God. Jesus not only
dealt with their demanding, pressing concern because of the implications
of his declarative, because of the implications of his work,
because of his ability to so successfully defend his claims
as Messiah. But now he's going to explain
to them why it is they are struggling with seeing the kingdom And these
will be lessons for you and me as well. In your outline, point
number one, the nature of the present kingdom of God constitutes
three things. The kingdom of God, ladies and
gentlemen, is spiritual. It's spiritual. Did you get that? The kingdom of God is spiritual. And what that means is, Unless
you have spiritual qualifications, you cannot comprehend the kingdom. The kingdom of God is spiritual.
That means it is not affirmed by the physical senses or what
we call empiricism. You cannot through sensory perception
or even human intellect, intellect as it were, grapple with or grasp
or affirm the reality of the kingdom of God. This is what
causes people to struggle. This is what causes people to
struggle because one of the faculties that we really put a lot of trust
in is our intellect. Now, we ought to because it's
the primary thing by which we discern right and wrong. But
the problem is your intellect alone can never penetrate into
the realities of the kingdom of God. Am I telling the truth?
The carnal mind is enmity against God. And so there is a fundamental
Entity between us and God that blocks us out. Remember we got
cast out with our mom and daddy out of and As a consequence entrance
into the kingdom of God requires a certain qualification Jesus
taught it in John chapter 3 except you be born from above Except
you be born again Except you be born anew you will not see
the kingdom of God and you will not enter it Those are fairly
exclusive terms, aren't they? And they're very narrow, aren't
they? You understand the implications of that, which caused that proud
Pharisee, who was on his way to being humble, to be demolished.
He was completely demoralized that night. When Jesus told him,
you don't know anything about the kingdom. You know nothing
about the kingdom. You neither, your peers, know
anything about the kingdom. You are utterly blind to the
kingdom. Until you are born again, Nicodemus, you don't know nothing
about the kingdom. He just unraveled. What do you
mean? Can I go back in my mama's womb?
And the point is, is that until God does a supernatural work
of grace to transform your mind and give you a real authentic
spiritual comprehension, you are speculating about the things
of God. Will you hear me? You are speculating. You are merely speculating. The
kingdom of God is spiritual. And we quote these verses often,
and I'll share them with you. They're in your outline. Go back
home and study them. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God is righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God is righteousness.
That is an imminently spiritual concept which is absent in our
world today. Follow me now. Righteousness
is not found in our world. People don't even believe in
the concept of righteousness. You see, because righteousness
assumes a moral absolute, a set of moral absolute principles
that have their derivation or their origin from God. When we
talk about righteousness, we're talking about a standard that
comes from God to you and I, by which we can determine, hear
me now, right from wrong. And our world in its postmodern
pluralistic relativistic society today says there's no such thing
as right and wrong. All they're telling us is they
haven't seen the kingdom. They haven't entered into the
kingdom. God hasn't given them the mind of Christ. They don't
believe the word of God. Are you following me? The kingdom
of God is righteousness and the kingdom of God is peace. Now
we're not talking political peace. We're not talking physical peace.
We're not talking economic peace. You can have all that and not
have peace. We are talking about the peace
that comes with a sinner being made right with God on the grounds
of justification, free justification by a God who redeems you from
all iniquity and makes you right through his darling son, Jesus
Christ. Ain't no peace like that peace. Am I telling the truth? Now that peace is not discernible
either. It's not discernible either by the carnal intellect. See, because I can be in the
midst of a storm of all kinds of troubles and issues and still
have that inner peace like a river that attends my soul, right? Right. And I can be unraveling
on the outward because of my physical constitution being weak.
Pastor, you all right? I'm definitely all right. Don't
look at my flesh. My soul is as solid as a rock
because it's grounded in the Prince of Peace. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And then the joy that flows from that, sometimes we, cause we're
good at crooks. This is the problem with religion.
I'm going to talk about them in a minute. We're crooks in religion. We love to fabricate knockoffs
of the real thing. So we, we, we fake joy and we
fake peace. and we fake righteousness. Our
righteousness are fig leaves. It's the works of our own hand.
Now we're not deceiving God, and we're probably not deceiving
our neighbor, but we are deceiving ourselves. Because we go through
all of these forms of righteousness to make people think we're all
right with God. But I'm not talking about that
righteousness. I'm talking about the righteousness of God in Christ
imputed to sinners freely by grace alone. It is a righteousness
that a person has to go to the word of God and find out about.
Are you hearing me? The kingdom of God is spiritual
in that sense. Here's the other problem with the kingdom of God
that people don't comprehend. Pay attention. Pay attention. The kingdom of God is a mystery.
Now spirituality and mysteries are two different things. The
kingdom of God is a mystery in this sense. It is filled with
enigmas and parables and metaphors and types and symbols of which
God has given us this earthly world as a model by which we
can exercise our senses and get a little bit of an understanding
of what we call the mystery of the kingdom of God. But a mystery
is something that's hid. It's there but it can't be seen
until the veil is removed. Are you guys following me? God
has intentionally chosen to set the kingdom up as a mystery in
order to make a distinction between those who are sincerely pursuing
God and those who are fictitiously pursuing God. Can I share something
with you? When you are in earnest seeking
something, a mystery is not gonna stop you. Are you hearing me? When you
are in earnest seeking something, A mystery ain't gonna do nothing
but get you stirred up. Am I telling the truth, brothers? Am I telling the truth? You know
that sister's a mystery. She always has been. Probably
always will be. But we don't mind the pursuit
because we understand the benefits that come from the pursuit. Am
I telling the truth? And you know what God says, if
you pursue me like rubies, like gold, like silver, like precious
stone, willing to excavate, explore, penetrate, break up, tear down,
rip up, destroy, demolish to get at the real thing, you'll
find me. Am I telling the truth? And so our Lord taught the kingdom
of God in the context of parables. One of them is the way he closes
out his narrative today. Where so ever the carcass is,
there will the eagles be gathered. There's a mystery. Guess what?
Those disciples said, Lord, you better tell us what that means. If you hang out long enough,
we'll talk about that. Let me say this to you. You will miss
the kingdom if you don't have a love for the king. You will miss the kingdom if
you don't have a love for the king. Did you hear me? What makes a
man or a woman set out for the kingdom is a love for the king. It's a love for the king. If you don't love the king, you
are already on the outside of the kingdom. You know what? The
mysteries are too laborious for you. Pastor, just tell me plainly. I can't tell you plainly. God
has to reveal these things to you. The gospel is a revelation
of the glory of God made known to the hearts of men. That is
a very, very private, profound, but real revelation that God
must give you. Then you can understand why I'm
so passionate about the same God you say you are, but you
may not be. So I'm going to warn you here,
if you don't love the King, you will not have the kingdom. Be
sure of that. The kingdom of God is a spiritual
kingdom. It is a mysterious kingdom. It is a mystery. Paul says, God
has given me the stewardship of the mysteries of the kingdom
of God, of which I preach and proclaim and declare to every
man the mystery of the fellowship, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. These things have to be explained.
The kingdom of God is also eternal. It's eternal. That's what your
outline says. Do you know what that means? It's not going anywhere. It's
the kingdom that when the smoke clears, it will be here forever. It's spiritual, it's mysterious,
it's eternal. You're not going to get rid of
that kingdom. You might as well submit to it because that kingdom
is going to shake everything that can be shaken out of it
so that that which cannot be removed will stand. We then receiving
a kingdom and everlasting kingdom that cannot be moved. Let us therewith serve God with
grace and reverential fear because he's worthy to be served. Let's
go to work a little bit more. The kingdom of God. constitutes
these dimensions that require God's help for us to penetrate
and enter into them. But as our Lord said, the kingdom
of God are these things. He also said the kingdom of God
are not what you think. Look at verse 20, the latter
part. He answered to them and said, the kingdom of God does
not come with, what's the word? Observation. So let's go to work.
Cause I really do think that most professing Christians think
that they are all right. Cause they see what they see.
I really believe that. But here, let me help you understand
something. If you are judging the nearness
or farness, the distance of the kingdom of God, based upon your
own ability to assess how things are in our present world, you
are once again mistaken. Jesus says to the Pharisees the
kingdom of God is not manifesting itself It is not appearing presently
in your presence by virtue of your empirical sensibilities
The word observation there is a very advised term that our
Lord uses and it describes two occupations the first occupation
is the occupation of the astrologer the prognosticator The folk that
think that they can look up at the stars, Pleiades and Sagittarius
and all the other ones and determine how your day gonna go. You know,
the thing that's in the back of the newspaper that you run
to every day that causes you to buy the different color stones.
You know, you buy, I'm a Sagittarius. I'm a Capricorn. You're deceived. You're deceived. Now what they
do is they carefully and diligently watch the stars and they see
how the stars move. And somebody thousands of years
ago lied to them and told them that there's a pattern to the
stars that if you follow, you can be blessed. Jesus says, looking
for the kingdom in the way the prognosticators and the astrologists
look. The word means to peer upon with
great intensity, observing what you see. It's a real strong emphasis
in what takes place with the natural eye. The other one that
is used in the Roman culture in the first century for this
particular term That's only used here, by the way. Its root word
is used several other places, but here it's only used this
way. It's for the physician who observes keenly the diseases
on the body. Dermatological diseases, skin
diseases, like the high priest who looked for the disease of
leprosy on the skin. What the doctor does is he looks
and he examines the physical body for evidences of illness. You know how they look in your
eyes? You know how they tell you, open your mouth and go, Right? And they look at your skin. They
do a lot of external things to determine the health. That's
the same idea. And what Jesus is telling the
Pharisees, fellas, you have been looking for the last three years
at what me and my cousin have done, and you still don't know
whether or not the kingdom is present. It's because you do
not comprehend the kingdom by social events. by political wins,
by what's taking place on certain epics in life, whether or not
these trends are good or bad. You and I have been sold a bill
of goods in religion for decades. out of the fear-mongering that
takes place, Y2K and many other epics where the world was about
to end and many folks sold books and made all kind of money on
people who think that they can observe the kingdom of God empirically. Am I making some sense? And boy,
you get to preaching and telling people, you better get saved,
the world's going in tomorrow. And then the Lord shows himself
to be who he is, God, and he allows the sun to rise tomorrow,
like he did yesterday. And then to your consternation,
it rises another thousand times after that. And then you look
around and your hair was black then, it's gray now, and God's
still allowing the sun to rise. And you haven't asked yourself,
now maybe I was wrong. Yeah, maybe you were wrong. What
was your problem? It's the same problem that a
lot of people have. And I think even Christians who don't dabble
in eschatology have this problem. And that is you actually think
that you are all right with God because your outward external
circumstances appear to be OK. Nothing could be further from
the truth. You are in trouble. You are in trouble. You are in
trouble. Some of you are in trouble right now because you think you
can judge where you are with God based upon your circumstance. Are you hearing me? It's very
important for you to know this. Jesus said the kingdom of God
does not come with observation by a deep probing into the mere
political conditions of the world at the present time. The kingdom
of God does not come by a tangible, obvious, sensible, empirical
perception of the things. And notice how he builds on this.
Look at verse 21. We're going to work our way through
the text today. Neither shall they say, lo, he's over here. Or lo, he's over there. The kingdom of God is not a place
that you go to to get a revelation of God. Did you guys get that? Now let me help you with that
now. Because our Lord Jesus was teaching what was prominently
taking place at that time by hoodwink crooks that took place
in that first century as it does today. Come to our church, Jesus
is in our church. Come to our conference, Jesus
is in our conference. come to our denomination, Jesus
is in our denomination. The Spirit of God is moving here. See, all such terminology denies
the true nature of the Kingdom of God and it limits the omnipotence
of an omniscient God who moves in a dimension totally different
than the idea of meeting Him in Africa or meeting Him in China
or meeting Him in the East Bay or the South Bay or even Hayward. Let me help you. Even if Jesus
was in a certain place, if your heart is not right, when you
come, you won't see him. So what he was teaching to, and
he's getting ready to instruct his disciples when he says this,
neither shall they say lo here or lo there, for behold, the
kingdom of God is within you. You guys see that? He says the
kingdom of God is not comprehended. The kingdom of God is not revealed.
The kingdom of God is not affirmed by where you go or what you see. The kingdom of God is affirmed
by a revelation that takes place internally. So now the term is
not as simple, I wish it was, as the preposition implies. Because
the preposition presently has set folks up to think that they
can be their own little kingdom all by themselves. You know how
we got all these little atoms running around? I'm talking atom,
A-T-O-M. Atoms running around. These free
radicals, I call them free radicals. These are the folks that don't
attach themselves to nobody. And don't you understand to be
a non-attaching person is to be in a culture of death. Everything
attaches itself to something because that's the way God made
us. You don't know that. Go back to Biology 101, it'll
teach you that. You're not autonomous, independent,
self-sufficient, able to sustain your own life. You and I are
interdependent on some sphere of life. Only God is independent,
autonomous, free, self-sufficient, and needing nothing other than
himself. But we need everything that God has for us. So you meet
these maverick Christians who don't go to church, because you
know what they tell you? Jesus is in me. Isn't that what
they say? I know Jesus, Jesus in me. Well,
that's not really what our text is saying. The implication is
legitimate. If Jesus is in you, it will be
evident because you will be in Christ. And if you are in Christ,
you're going to be those doing those things that affirm that
you're in Christ, like. Worshiping the true and the living
God with a people who love the Lord. Committed to the cause
of Christ with a people who love the Lord. Inclined to share the
gospel all around the world with a people who love the Lord. After
all, Christ is saving a church, not a fingernail. So the term really is a difficult
term for the Greeks to have for the grammarians to have developed.
So they use the word term within. And what the word really means
is this, that the kingdom of God in its contextual setting
was first among them and that the king was there. The geographical
setting is Palestine, it's Israel. The Messiah had actually showed
up. He was there. And wherever the king is, the
kingdom is there. He affirmed that through his
miracles. He affirmed that through his
healings. He affirmed that through his preaching. The kingdom of
God is in the midst of you. Listen, Pharisees, you don't
go looking for Messiah. Messiah's right here in front
of you. That's the first truth. Secondly,
Messiah is more than in front of you. For those of you who
are pursuing the kingdom, Messiah is upon you. In other words,
when a man or woman comes to a real knowledge of God, it's
because the kingdom of God has seized them. It has taken a hold
of them. It has overcome them. It has
pursued them. It has gotten a hold of them.
See, you and I were in darkness at one time, and we didn't go
looking for God. God came looking for us. He got
a hold of us. He pursued us. He hunted us down.
He broke us down. He broke us down. He broke us
up. He got inside of our head. He
got inside of our heart. He got inside of our emotions.
He stripped us of all the lies, the facade. He stripped us. And he made us subjects to the
kingdom. You know what God did? He knocked
the door down, came in, and took his seat on the throne of your
heart. And you know what he said? Watch this. You know what he
said? I'm here. Now watch this. Now watch this.
You struggled with that because prior to him invading your life,
you thought you were God. But see, when God enters in,
he takes his time convincing you that his having kicked the
door in and taking the seat on the throne of your heart was
the best thing in the world that could happen to you. Now he's going to work with you
because God resists the prowl. But you know, when God gets ahold
of you, that's it. You can't do nothing about that.
You can't do nothing against it. Paul said to King Agrippa,
King Agrippa, when the Lord knocked me down on the road to Damascus
and revealed his glory to me, who was I that I should disobey
such heavenly vision? So I'm here today letting you
know right now, Christ is alive. See, this is a matter of Him
overcoming you in such a way that if you're going to be right
about your testimony, you're going to tell the truth that
Christ came to you and you didn't come to Christ. And you're going
to tell the truth that Christ saved you. You didn't save yourself. You're gonna tell the truth that
over time as Paul said it, you know what Christ, you know Christ
hunted him down in front of those fellows that was it He said Paul,
let me help you brother. It's hard for you to kick against
the goal Watch this you the ox I'm the master and my stick is
the Word of God kept poking your conscience until you finally
submit it Am I making some sense now? That's how God gets a hold
of you. I That's how he gets a hold of you. Because you and
I by nature fight against the truth. What we don't like naturally
is for some other power to have absolute dominion over us. We're
cool with God so long as he keeps his parameters, lets us do our
thing. But if you ever meet a God like
that, it's not the God of the Bible. Are you hearing me? All right, let's keep going for
a little bit because there's some lessons to learn. He says in verse 22,
the kingdom of God, 21, the kingdom of God is within you. And then
he says in verse 22, and then he said to his disciples, see
now, you know what he just did? He turned away from the Pharisees.
And now he's getting ready to explain to his disciples in a
fuller, more practical way the importance of them understanding
the nature of that last statement. The kingdom of God is within
you. He says, the days will come,
you disciples. He was not talking to the rulers.
The days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days
of the son of man and you shall not see it. Do you see that? Point number two, the absence
of his presence, the absence of his presence. Let's talk about
this a little bit because this will give you discernment as
to where you are as well. The disciples will be our model
for this. You know, the disciples would agree with you and me that
the Lord Jesus came after them. They didn't come after him. They
would agree with you that they were doing their business. They
were running their businesses and doing their own thing. And
the Lord showed up in their life. And you know when the Lord showed
up, he didn't pull out a contract so that they could agree and
sign. You know what our Lord did? He said, come on, let's
go. And you know what they did? They went. This is what we call
sovereign grace. When God, omnipotent God calls,
you come. And they started following him
and their lives were changed forever. It was, it was radical. They left their fishnets. They
left their businesses. They came and followed him and
he took them through a journey where they saw the presence and
power of the Son of Man everywhere they went. These people were
privileged. These men were blessed to be
with the God-man Jesus Christ. He taught them. He instructed
them. He fed them. He protected them. He kept them when they got in
trouble. He constantly built them up in a knowledge of the
truth. He was their master, didaskalon, meaning he was their scholar.
They were his students. That's what the word disciple
means. Don't tell me you are serious about Christ and you're
not willing to be a disciple. To be a disciple means you sit
down and you let God teach you as it is written. They shall
all be taught of God. He therefore that has heard and
have learned by the father comes to Christ That means when we
are really truly serious about God, we become students of God
Are you hearing me not students about God? students of God God
becomes our teacher We become his students. We take his word
seriously And in the process of Him teaching us truth, which
we're getting ready to talk about, He reveals His glory to us. Am
I telling the truth? God reveals the reality of His
presence and His power in the life of those who are willing
to be taught. When God teaches His people, we are able to see
the hand of God. the work of God. When God teaches
us, we are able to comprehend how the Spirit of God enlightens
men and women, how He saves men and women. When God teaches us,
we are able to see how God heals men and women, how He heals relationships,
how He heals minds, how God restores, how God brings about a unity
that only God can do. Am I telling the truth? See,
when we see things the way God sees them, then we can perceive
His presence. but the only way you perceive
God's presence is to be taught. So long as you do not care about
the Word of God, you cannot know how God works. You are still
in a realm of speculation. You are still in a realm of filling
things through, which also makes you vulnerable. That'll be our
next point. When our Lord says, you fellas are going to be desiring
these days that you have now. They're having a good time now.
The master is with them. They're having all their needs
met. The master is with them. The rulers of the church, the
very rulers that could have these guys killed for blasphemy, that's
of no concern for the disciples at this moment. Do you know why?
The master is with them. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want, right? He's going to lead me. He's going to make me
to lie down. He's going to bring me in the
path of righteousness. And when I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I'm not fearing anything because his
rod is there. And his presence is there to
take this dumb sheep all the way to glory. The comfort of
the sheep is the presence of the shepherd. Oh, but those days
come when the shepherd is not around. That's what he said.
There's a day coming when you will desire one of the days of
the son of man, a euphemism for the presence and power and blessing
of God in the world. What are those days that he was
talking about? It was the days that would shortly transpire,
obviously, after the Lord went back to glory. But he was talking
about any period of time after which the gospel has done its
work to save that cluster of elect sinners from a culture. And then the culture starts to
turn against the gospel and starts to persecute the Son of Man. It starts to persecute those
that are part of the Son of Man and starts to bring about as
it were, conditions in the culture which tests you and I. Let me
help you. When the days of the son of man
are absent, that is the absence of his presence, do you know
what takes place? The tokens of the kingdom of God are gone.
The first is a loss of interest in the word of God. How do we know that the kingdom
of God is departing from a land? How do we know that the kingdom
of God is leaving a culture? How do we know that the kingdom
of God is leaving a church, a denomination? How do we know the kingdom of
God is leaving a person who has been in the austensive sphere
of the kingdom of God? You lose an interest in the things
of God. One by one, family by family,
society by society, city by city, state by state, all of a sudden
the momentum For commitment to a pursuit of God's word starts
to dry up. Are you hearing me? Over time,
a culture starts to wane in its interest in the things of God.
Jesus warned about this in Matthew 24. You can read it for yourself,
11 through 14. Because iniquity abounds. Are you hearing me? I preached
this for the last 17, 20, 30 years. You and I don't live in
a vacuum. We don't live in an empty space.
This is the this here is the the phenomenal aspect of what
it means to understand spiritual things and mysteries and eternal
things. The believer who is committed to the cause of Christ is also
committed to adversity. We're committed to trouble. We're
committed to the conflicts that come with being a believer. Are
you hearing me? I'll go to the text in a moment. We're committed
to that. But where men and women are not committed to trouble,
committed to afflictions, committed to trials, committed to opposition
to the truth, you are susceptible to the seductions of the culture,
which over time take away the heart. You see, apostasy takes
place in your heart. Departure from the things of
God take place in the soul. And when the son of man is gone,
you don't even care. When the gospel is not being
preached in power, when the word of God is not being soundly taught,
when the preaching and teaching of the word, our elders said
it a little earlier, you know, every time the word of God gets taught,
it's kind of salty. You better bet it's salty. It
must be salty. The whole world needs to be salted.
with the truth of God's Word. When do you think you are so
all right with God that God does not need to remind you that you
need to make your calling and election sure? When do you think
you're so all right with God that you don't need to be reminded
that we are to seek those things that are above where Christ sits
at the right hand of God? When do you think you are all
right when God doesn't have to tell you to make your calling
and election sure? When are you all right where
you don't need to hear the Word of God that warns us every day
what amos said in amos chapter 8 verse 11 you know what it says
the days are coming and they're not far away when there will
be a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a famine of water
but a famine of hearing the words of the lord a famine of sound
thorough comprehensive Christ-exalting, God-glorifying, God-demanding
biblical truth that acts like there's really a God. You can go to a thousand churches
and they don't act like they believe in God. And you can meet
a hundred thousand professing Christians and they are as carnal
and worldly and earthly as any unsaved rebel. And there's no
sense of shame or ambivalence or struggle. They can talk to
you and be so excited about nothing. Nothing. It ain't nobody saying what Jeremiah
said. Where is the God of Elijah? I hearkened and I heard, that's
what Jeremiah said, and you know what I heard? No man spake the
right things about God. That's what the prophet said.
I was listening to the church and the folks in church and everybody
was talking about earthly, carnal, sensual things. Nobody was exalting
God. Nobody was encouraging their
brother and sister to look to Christ. No one was saying, let
us get back to the Lord. See, that's a famine in the land.
And it starts in the pulpit. See, like leadership, like people,
like people, like leadership, you get what you want. See, this
is what Paul meant in Second Timothy chapter four, verse three. The time will come when they
will not endure the kind of preaching that I'm doing right now. They
will not endure it. They will not endure the preaching
that is designed to save you from yourself. Are you hearing
me? They won't endure it. But they
will keep to themselves teachers that make them feel good. their way to hell. Are you hearing me? Those are
the days when the Son of Man is absent and the churches are
burgeoning, busting out at the seams by the tens of thousands. That's what Jesus is talking
about. You're gonna desire those days, they won't be here. He's
telling his disciples that. You can read it in his disciples
epistles. Peter talked about it. You know what Peter said
in 2 Peter chapter 3? Brothers and sisters, as our
Lord told us, we're telling you, scoffers will rise up in the
last time, they're already here, saying, where is the promise
of his coming? For since the fathers of old,
everything seems to be going on as normal. Are you guys hearing
me? You know what they were deceived
by? What they saw. what they saw. They didn't operate
according to kingdom principles. Their heart wasn't burdened because
men and women who professed to know the Lord had now started
preoccupying all their time in other carnal pursuits. Their
heart wasn't breaking because they weren't hearing the gospel
preached faithfully, consistently, all the time. Their heart wasn't
breaking because they weren't seeing lost sinners come to Christ
by the efforts of the church to reach them outside of the
doors. I'm talking about out of the doors. I'm talking about
own your job. I'm talking about going to the
store. I'm talking about meeting them on the board or at the gym
or wherever you go. The church no longer cares about
eternity bound souls. All you care about is getting
yours. Those are the days that Jesus
said would come. Those are the days that are here.
Those are the days that we are in. He told his disciples, be
careful of that. When your heart is hardened,
you will let truth fall to the ground. Point number three in your outline,
the vacuum of deception. The vacuum of deception. This
is verse 23 and 24. This is the other side of the
same proposition, the absence of his presence. The days will
come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son
of Man and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you,
lo, he's here, or lo, he's there. Do not go after them and do not
follow them. Do you see verse 23? Do not go
after them and do not follow them. It's an evidence of a vacuum
in the soul when you go after them and you follow them. You
don't go after them. You don't follow them. Let the
people who don't know the Lord go after them and follow them. Because that's what they're going
to do when they don't know that the kingdom of God is not over
there or over here. The kingdom of God is in Christ
and it's in you. And the kingdom of God is only
found where the truth is honored. While that's not the case, people
are running all over the place. all over the place. He's saying
to his sheep, don't follow him, I'm not there. That's the vacuum
that takes place. That's the vacuum that's going
on now. The vacuum of deception. And what are they being led by?
The lust of the flesh. I laugh when I hear conferences
on healing or prosperity by a special prophet. special prophetess I
say the vacuum needs to be and you know what I know those places
are going to be full of deceived people full of people who don't
understand the true nature of the kingdom of God are you hearing
me Those false prophets and false teachers according to Peter second
Peter chapter 2 says they know that they are Alluring them drawing
them in through the lust of the flesh because they are ignorant
about what constitutes spiritual things All they want is God to
sign on to their agenda. They need a God that will help
them get over That's what's going on tens of thousands of them
It's absolutely amazing. Our master says don't do it.
Let's go to work a little bit more. I He says, you don't have to worry
about going here to meet Jesus or going there. And he begins
to develop another concept that you and I need to grasp. He says
in verse 24, for as the lightning that lightens out of the one
part under heaven and shines unto the other part under heaven,
so shall also, here it is, the son of man be in his days. You know what he's doing? He's
using a metaphor, again, of the nature and character of Christ's
coming and Christ's presence. So let's deal with this a little
bit because you know what he just said. If it were true that
I'm showing up in this chamber or I'm showing up in this conference,
then you would really have to work hard to find me. But what
he's saying is when God shows up, you don't have to look for
him because it will be evident. And there are two things that
I want us to get a hold of because he means to teach us something
here. Here's the first one. Lightning. When it shows up,
shows up everywhere and it lets you know that it's here. Now
you Californians, y'all don't know nothing about this. So I'm
going back to the South where my folks are. I remember this,
every summer I would go back home to Galveston, Texas. and be with my father, grandfather,
because we'd work, he'd work a brother to death. But when
I came back to California, I had a pocket full of money. But we
loved us some baseball. Texas is a big old baseball state.
It's not doing good right now, but that's beside the point.
And we loved us some football. Now, we worked hard all day long
just to go to the baseball game. We didn't care where the baseball
game was. We went to the baseball game.
I remember distinctly after work worrying about one thing during
the summer. I'm talking about during the
summer. Do you know what that was? Thunderstorms. Because when
the thunder cracks in Texas, your whole body shakes. Are you
hearing me? And I remember specifically one
time We were heading to a game, and it came on the news that
there was a little baseball game for people my age. I was 13,
14 years old at the time. And the boy was on the mound
pitching. And as he pitched, boom, the
lightning struck, hit him, fried him immediately, fried him. that was indelibly pressed into
my soul from that day on, I never ever pitched, ever. Now watch
this. I want you to follow me for a
moment. I wasn't pitching, brother. Because you know what I was taught?
I taught that when lightning shows up, he don't ask you when
he comes. And he doesn't tell you to move
over. And here's what our Lord is teaching. And you got to get
this. When lightning shows up, everybody knows it. When lightning
shows up, it takes over. There's no one controlling lightning.
No one yet has put lightning in a bottle. Are you hearing
me? The other thing is when lightning comes, it overcomes you. So the lesson that we're getting
ready to learn now through the next several passages is the lesson
that you cannot get prepared for when the Lord comes. If you're not right now, you're
just not right. Are you hearing me? You can't
get prepared for lightning. If you miss all of the other
prerequisite evidences, the building of the clouds, the lowering of
the clouds, the darkness of the cloud, light precipitation, and
you get arrogant and presumptions that you can kind of make your
way around in the building of the clouds, the darkness of the
cloud, the lowering of the cloud, light precipitation, then you're
already seized. You just don't know it. The lightning's
gonna get you. Are you guys following me? Let
me go to work and work through this. This is not hard. He sets
the context with the metaphor. And then he says in verse 25,
what is called a parenthetical statement. It does not directly
relate to it, but the disciples need to know this. Here's what
he says. But first there must be, but first he that is the
son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.
But now getting back to what I was saying to you, disciples,
don't ever fall prey to thinking you can find me here or there,
because when I come, I'm coming quick. I'm coming powerful. I
am taking over when I come. You can't prepare for my coming.
Either you are ready or you're not. Verse 26. Do you see it? Verse 26. Notice what it says. And as it was in the days of
Noah, so shall it be in the days of the son of man. Now he's getting
ready to give us the historical narrative. And in your outline,
this is called the normalcy principle. God have mercy on you. In the
days of Noah, men were doing life just like you and I do life.
It was a very normal world. Everybody was buying and selling,
building homes and getting married and marrying, doing normal life.
Are you hearing me? This is what we call the normalcy
principle. And here's the fallacy of the normalcy principle. Watch
this. Because we all view life as normal,
we think we're all right with God. Are you hearing me? Everybody thought they were just
fine with God. There was one nut out of the
whole group who was stuck on this foolish
scheme. called building a boat when it
ain't never rained ever in the history of mankind. And he's
going around telling everybody, except you get in the boat, you're
going to perish. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
giving us the contrast between the ministry of the gospel, where
the ministers of the gospel are engaged in the ministry of the
gospel, because they see the world different than the rest
of the people. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? How does a brother like Noah
spend a hundred years building a boat that defies logic and
stay at it? How does he do that unless he
sees the kingdom Unless he understands spiritual things, unless he understands
mysteries, unless he operates out of an eternal principle.
After all, people who understand spiritual things operate with
the knowledge of the mysteries. They don't seek those things
that are below. They don't look on things seen, they look on
things unseen. They don't operate out of the
temporary, they operate out of the eternal. Isn't that what
the text says, 2 Corinthians 4? Looking not on the things
seen, but the things unseen. We are not deceived by the normalcy
of things. We understand where the Lord
stands over against the culture. And we are building the ark,
and that ark is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we are telling
men that there's only one door into the ark, and that door is
Christ Himself. Faith in Christ Himself. And
we are letting the world know that God is angry with the wicked
every day. His wrath is luring over the
head of humanity even as we speak, even though everybody is doing
life as normal. Am I making some sense? Watch
the text. 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 did drink. They married wives. They were
given in marriage. And our Lord is using a very
interesting verb form. We call it in the language imperfect.
And what that means is this is what they were doing. They were
in the process of doing this. This was huge for them. You know
how like you're building a house, but you didn't finish building
the house? Like you're getting married, but you didn't get married.
You're in the process of getting married. Like you're doing things
and you haven't accomplished those things, which means you
are smack dab in the middle of that thing. All your interest
is involved in that thing. That's what he's talking about.
They were busy with life as normal, seeking to satisfy and fulfill
their goals. And then one day the whole thing
dropped. See what I'm getting at? See
what I'm getting at? Now, isn't it remarkable that in Noah's
day not one person believed him? Are you hearing me? Isn't it
remarkable? That requires for you a personal
investigation into the power of mass deception. How that the
masses can deceive you into thinking that life is one way when God
has said it's a total different way. Are you hearing me? This
is the normalcy principle that we get deceived by. The other
parable that our Lord gave was concerning Sodom and Gomorrah.
Both the Noah account and the Sodom and Gomorrah account are
really instructive. They are two accounts that really
pertain to the present time in which you and I are in, but we
won't develop that. We will simply say this, that
the culture of Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah, was very much like
the culture we are presently in in its hostility towards biblical
truth, its departure from the parameters that God sets up for
sexuality, in its angst and antipathy towards God's model of relationship. The culture you and I are presently
in is telling God, we don't need you in our life. We are doing
fine all by ourselves. Now, I've told you that Sodom
and Gomorrah was a very unique case study. in that time. This period of time was about
1900 years before Jesus that came. And Sodom and Gomorrah
was not just a homosexual couple. Sodom and Gomorrah was a homosexual
culture. And what that means is they had
deliberately broken all of the normal societal boundaries and
parameters and had set up legislation that basically promoted that
lifestyle. Are you guys following me? That's part of the analysis
that's required in understanding why Sodom and Gomorrah becomes
a model for us of danger in a culture. Anyhow, the parallelism between
Sodom and Gomorrah and the Noah account is this, that both of
these societies, which are as it now conflated in our culture,
both of these society were arrogantly under the assumption that they
were all right. That Jesus would not come upon
them unawares. as a thief in the night. But
what Jesus is telling his disciples is, when I come, they won't be
ready. And the reason they won't be
ready is not because the word of God is not preached. The word
of God is not taught, nor preached it, nor taught it. Locke tried
to do it, but he messed up. And in our present day, our churches
are very much like Locke churches, half in and half out. Right? Half in and half out. Why would
I believe a brother that's half in and half out? In any event,
our Lord makes it very clear that the normalcy deception will
get you. Notice what it says in verse
27. They ate, they drank, they married wives until the day that
nor entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed
them all. Likewise, also it was so in the
days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they built. See? Life. But the
same day that lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone
from heaven, destroyed them all. So here's what our Lord does,
just helping you if you enjoy the scriptures. He shows us the
destruction of water and he shows us the destruction of fire, dominating
both cultures because of their rejection of biblical truth.
Are you hearing me? Dominating both cultures. I am
so tempted to get into the geological evidence, but I'm not. It's all
there. You know what I love about the
Lord Jesus? He had no qualms of quoting the very historic
events that most people laugh and say that's a myth. The awful effects of being deceived. Let's work our way through this
so I can close. The awful effects of being deceived verse 30 through
verse 36. This is where we're going to
wrap it up Even thus shall it be in the day when the son of
man is revealed verse 31 In that day he which shall be upon the
housetop And his stuff in the house. Let him not come down
to take it away And he that is in the field let him not likewise
return back verse 32 remember lodge white Amazing Lord, what
are you saying? Here's what he's saying When
you are deceived And then finally you are interrupted by reality
Now you try to make some adjustments, but the problem is your heart
has already been advised and overtaken by carnal priorities
and in both of these while they were warned about God's coming
The first is that fellow was trying to go back in his house
to get his leather jacket. Isn't that crazy? So I'm gonna leave that one with
you. Cause you know, you can go to hell over a car. You can
go to hell over a jacket. You can go to hell over any stupid
thing. In fact, going to hell when you hear the gospel is going
to hell over something stupid. So we'll leave it like that.
The second one is Lot's wife. Now this blows me away. Lot's
wife was a woman whose husband knew the gospel. In fact, her
husband was in the line with the greatest patriarch of the
Old Testament, brother Abraham. She probably saw brother Abraham
get down in the battle that delivered her knucklehead husband, who
still felt like he could do Jesus and get rich. You know what he
did? He chose the green plains of
Sodom. See how tempting they are? So
he figured he could go down there and get wealth and prosperity.
But you see, you really can't do the world in Christ too. I'm
just telling you, you can't do the world in Christ too. No man
can serve two masters. But if you are God's elect, God's
going to get you out. you better make your call in
the election, sure. Because his whole family burned up. He had
son-in-laws that were destroyed. He had daughters that were so
vile and so base that even though providentially the angel pulled
Lot out, pulled his daughters out and his wife initially, when
they were just a little bit down the road, they had been so perverted
by that homosexual culture that they engaged in incest with their
daddy. They didn't even have enough sense to just come out
of their drunken snooper and wait to get married to continue
to proliferate. Proliferation was big. You see
how you get twisted when you don't operate out of biblical
model? But see, all this will get taken care of in our gospel and
sexuality class. Here's the problem. Here's the
problem. How do you experience the power
of God that gets a hold of your hand and leads you out hell's danger and then turn around
and look like somehow there's something back there that you
missing out on. Are you hearing me? She turned
when the angel said Take off. Keep running. Don't look back. Don't let nobody ask you no questions. Don't salute nobody on the way.
Pretend you don't see nobody. Get clear of the whole thing.
This is how you know you want to be saved. This is how you
know you want to be saved. See, when you want to be saved,
you're not paying attention to no dumb stuff. Like, you know, don't let him
talk to you like that. He's just too zealous. How are
you going to be too zealous of keeping your tail out of hell? How are you going to be too zealous
of keeping yourself out of hell? How are you going to do that?
Somebody tell me that. How are you going to do that? She made
a mistake, didn't she? Ladies and gentlemen, God is
the only one that recorded this woman's error in the New Testament.
That needs to be paid attention to. Because there are lots of
people who are turning back. And obviously, during this epic,
this crisis, this hour that's going to come upon the world,
there will be a lot of people, watch this, whose hearts will
not be right. Even though every evidence in the world is, come
out from among them, touch not the unclean thing, and I will
be your God, and you will be my people, and I will protect
you, saith the Lord. The awful effects of being deceived.
Second to the last point. In the world, but not of it. Verse 34 through 36. Are you
there? Am I boring you? Well, that's too bad. You got
to stay here anyway till I finish. It don't really matter if you're
bored. I'll be done in 10 minutes. I tell you, in that night, Sorry
verse 33 whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it
and whosoever shall lose his life will preserve it That's
the moral of the gospel Are you hearing me? The moral of the
gospel is when you come to Christ, you are not preserving your life
When you come to Christ you give your life up for God When you
come to Christ you exchange your life for his life If you're gonna
do the gospel, right you lay down your life for his life.
I When you actually come to Christ, you are about your father's business,
not your own business. When you come to Christ, you
give up what you think is right for what God thinks is right.
When you come to Christ, you lay down all that's yours and
let God use it for his glory, even if it means death. Verse 34 to 36. In the world,
not of it. I think this is a good way. Now,
in your outline, it says something else. Scratch it out, write in
this point. In the world, but not of it. I tell you, in that night, there
shall be two men in one bed. The one shall be taken, the other
shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together.
The one shall be taken, the other left. Two men shall be in the
field. The one shall be taken, other
left. Verses 34 through 36 needs to
be understood contextually. It needs to be understood in
terms of its moral lesson. Don't let contemporary twisted
perverted thinking cause you to read into the text, something
ain't there. Do I have to explain myself? I was at a funeral three weeks
ago and And this nut came to me. I didn't know him from the
man on the moon. And he said, I got a special
message from God for you, pastor. So, you know, I'm thinking I
could just wrestle with this guy right now, pin him down until
we call, you know, John George. But I'm just going to entertain
him for a minute because he said this message is from God. Okay,
just keep it low because we're in the middle of a funeral. So
he starts speaking into my ear. He says, you know that text in
Luke where it says two men in the same bed? I said, man, get
out of here. Hey, he got so mad at me. He got so mad at me. I'm telling
you, this is a word from God to you. Okay, okay. Get out of here. So when you understand Hebrew
idioms, and you understand the way God speaks to us in parables,
these are called dualisms. Dualisms in Hebrew idioms. Two
men, two women, two men. These are dualisms. All through
the Proverbs. All through the Old Testament.
Christ is Hebrew. OK? Two men. Now it's not two men,
as it were, in the same bed because of some intimacy issue. All right? I want you to mark it like this.
This is gonna help you. This word is gonna help fix all this Two kinds of men At night in bed sleeping because
it's time to sleep two kinds of women at the Millstone that's
used to grind corn Because we don't have a mule or an ox or
Samson. Okay? You got that? That's what that word grinding
means. Are you with me? Just stay with me a little bit.
All right, I'm just trying to help you. Are you with me? This is stuff
you have to deal with. Are you with me? Because they're
going to tell you that that's what that means. They're grinding the millstone,
crushing the corn, All right, y'all with me? And these are
two sisters chatting and talking like we do when we go to work.
Y'all with me? Same thing with two brothers
out in the field. Now what y'all going to do with that? Two brothers
in the field. They're out in the field working.
It's the normalcy principle. Everybody's doing normal everyday
life. Some are out in the field picking
corn, sowing corn. Some are out at the mill grinding
corn. People are sleeping. Daytime
activities, nighttime activities. And what God is saying is this.
When I come, it don't matter what you're doing or what time
it is. Are you hearing me? Now let's
make the distinction. But here's the reality. One man
will make it out not because he empirically observes what
time it is, but because his heart is right. His heart is right. He knows
God. He's committed to Christ. He's
perceiving things as they are. Are you ready? He's ready to
go. Because he's committed to the
glory of God, the truth of God, the gospel of God, the honor
of Christ. And see, when you know Christ,
you're ready to go whether you're working or sleeping. Man, I'll
be talking to the Lord about getting out of here in the middle
of my sleep. Dreams don't stop me from talking to Christ. How
about you? But the other fellow is sleeping
under the assumption that he's going to get up the next day
and life is going to go as normal. Never say, Lord, I thank you
for a hard day's work. Keep a brother when he lays down
tonight. Wake me up in the morning by the grace of God. And should
you take my life, make sure I enter into glory on the grounds of
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because it ain't
guaranteed that I'm going to wake up the next day. You see how people are deceived?
They go to sleep without talking to God. Like they got power over
their breath. See what our Lord is saying,
I'm done here. It ain't just about the end time. It's about
your time. See 500,000 people died today. 200,000 of them didn't wake up
from their sleep. Those are the statistics, ladies
and gentlemen. 500,000 went to eternity today. You and I are still here. But
we're not guaranteed tomorrow. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Our Lord says over in verse 36, 37, I'm sorry. And they answered
and said unto him, Lord, where? And he said unto them, wheresoever
the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. And here's what he's teaching. There is a judgment coming. And the scriptures depict the
judgment of God as to a great battle being fought by humanity
against God. And God's going to win. And the
picture is that of the old Hebrew-Jewish chronological paradigm. Because we ain't dealing with
fighter jets and big ships. We're dealing with horses. We're
dealing with swords. we read in Revelation chapter
19 when our Lord comes back on a white horse and a sword protruding
out of his mouth and on his thigh is written the name King of Kings
and Lord of Lords and as he rides on his white horse with his army
with him which is the church of the Living God he will declare
to the fowls of the air come and feast on the carcasses of
the men and women who rejected my gospel and did not obey my
word and denied the testimony by my servants. These are the
slain human beings who will perish under the wrath of God. Wheresoever
the carcass is, that word is tomah. It means dead carcass,
no life in it whatsoever. There shall the vultures, the
carrions, the evidence of death is the soaring, circling, carnivorous
birds. Are you hearing me? Christ is
making it plain. There's a day when every one
of us will meet God. Amen.