We are obviously in the midst of the largest,
longest, most elaborate and most expensive celebration in the western world, Christmas. Nothing even comes close to it. In fact, you could collect all other holidays
celebrated in the western world, put them together and they wouldn't approximate Christmas. More activity goes on, more events, more spending,
more celebrating, more parties, more everything than with any other event. In fact, this is surely the most well-known
ancient story in all of western civilization, the story of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's interesting to me that the world
would spend so much time and so much effort for good and bad reasons to accumulate such
a massive event as to what Christmas has become, realizing that at the heart of it all, it
is to mark the birth of the Son of God. It is amazing what the birth of the Lord Jesus
Christ two thousand years ago has set in motion in terms of society. And it seems to me it gets bigger every year. It certainly starts earlier every year...for
sure. Though the main event historically is the
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, that no longer is the simple reality of Christmas...that
has been severely obscured and confused and clouded by unrelated silliness like Santa
Claus and reindeer and all the entourage that goes with that. And mix in a few winter items and somehow
you get a rather confused scenario. But still, the reason for all of this at the
heart is the birth of the Son of God. The world has literally created its biggest
party around that event. There will not be a party the next time He
comes. In fact, the Bible says all enterprise business
will cease when He comes. It will be the end of everything. The Bible says no more music, no more singing,
no more joy, no more celebration the next time He comes. For some reason the first coming of the Lord
Jesus is politically correct, it leads to some extent, although our society is whittling
away at it, however the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is not politically correct. It is popular. To sentimentalize, the first coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, it is not popular to proclaim the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The world is very eager to embrace a baby
in a manger, but not at all interested in embracing a sovereign Lord coming in power
and glory out of the sky to judge the world. And yet, when our Lord was ready to leave
this earth, He said, "I will come again." Physically, literally, historically just as
He came the first time. The first time He came as a baby to save sinners. The second time He comes in full deity and
glory to judge sinners and to establish His Kingdom. The Bible tells the story of His first coming
in detail. The Bible tells the story of His Second Coming
equally in detail. In fact, the most dramatic revelation concerning
this Second Coming of Jesus Christ comes from His own lips. Jesus gave instruction to His disciples concerning
His Second Coming. The world that He said, all on one evening
in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives to His disciples are recorded in Matthew, chapters
24 and 25, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 21. I want you to look at Luke chapter 21 and
I want to show you what our Lord said about His return. Let me read in verse 25 and following. "The disciples had asked a question, what
will be the signs of Your coming? What should we look for?" Our Lord has given a lengthy answer, but coming
right down to the very event in verse 25 He said this, "There will be signs in sun and
moon and stars and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the
sea and the waves, men literally dying from fear and the expectation of the things which
are coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in
a cloud with power and great glory." With those words, our Lord says there will
be signs just prior to His final return to judge sinners and to establish the saints
in His Kingdom. There will be signs, signs in the sky and
signs on the earth. He has already said much about that in this
chapter earlier. Matthew records, Mark records even more words
concerning those signs. The specificity of those signs is described
in careful detail in the book of Revelation, starting in chapter 6 and running all the
way to chapter 19. Literally there is a devastating reorientation
of the entire universe as we know it. It effects the stars, it effects the sun,
it effects the moon, all the heavenly bodies. It effects this planet, fresh water, salt
water, plant life, animal life, human life. It effects seasons. It effects day and night. Therefore it effects the growth of plants,
food, everything. Devastating judgments and then the coming
of the Son of Man in power and great glory. Now what our Lord did not say is exactly when
this would happen. Will it happen? It will happen, absolutely it will happen. Verse 33 says, "Heaven and earth will pass
away but My words will not pass away." If He said it, it's true, it will happen. What we don't know is when it will happen. That is why our Lord said in Luke chapter
12 and verse 40, "You too be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not
expect." Matthew 25:13, He said, "Be on the alert then,
for you do not know the day nor the hour." We don't know when the Lord is going to come. We don't know when the first event of the
eschaton, the first event of the end will take place. We don't know. It could happen at any time. It is the Rapture of the church and it triggers
all the other events that lead finally to judgment and the destruction of the universe
and its replacement with a new heaven and a new earth, the eternal state. We don't know when it's going to begin. Every generation lives with the reality that
it could happen at any time. The first event that triggers all the events
of the end and they sweep through seven years of judgments, according to the Old Testament
and the New Testament. The church is taken out, a signless event,
in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, gone. Christians all over the planet disappear. Then judgments begin to unfold over a seven-year
period, ending with the Lord's return and the destruction in casting into hell of all
unbelievers all over the planet. And then He establishes His earthly kingdom
for a thousand years and reigns in a kingdom of peace and righteousness and after that
the literal uncreation and implosion of the whole universe and the creation of a new heaven
and a new earth wherein will dwell all believers in the presence of God forever. We don't know when that sequence begins. We talk about that as being imminent, meaning
next...no sign will precede the beginning of those eschatological events. The New Testament is full of warnings about
these things. It's also full of encouragement about these
things because the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is both frightening to the nonbeliever
and encouraging to the believer. In Titus, Paul's letter to Titus, chapter
2 and verse 13 is a good summation of New Testament instruction about His coming. It says there in verse 12 of chapter 2, Titus
2:12, that we are to deny ungodliness, and deny worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously
and godly in the present age, the age that exists now, this age, looking for the blessed
hope and the appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. For believers it is a blessed hope. We're looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ for His own because He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us. We're looking for the one who redeemed us. He's coming for us. He said, "I'm going away to prepare a place
for you, when I come, I'll take you to the place I've prepared for you." So for Christians, this is a glorious appearing. This is a wondrous hope. In fact, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we
again are instructed with hopeful language where it says, "The Lord will descend from
heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will
rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air and will ever be with the Lord." And then this, "Comfort one another with these
words." This is our hope. This is our comfort. This is our joyous anticipation. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 4, "I thank
my God always concerning you for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus
that in everything you are enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the
testimony concerning Christ was concerned in you so that you're not lacking in any gift,
waiting eagerly for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yes, it's our hope. We wait eagerly. We say with John, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." For the believers, this is our great hope. James writes in chapter 5 verse 7, "Be patient
therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Be patient. Strengthen your hearts for the coming of the
Lord is at hand." We need to be patient, encouraged, anxious,
eager, waiting, all that in balance until the Lord comes. For us this is a joyous hope. And we know at the same time, for the world
it is devastating. Once the church is taken out, horrors come
on this earth for seven-year period, the second half particularly, the judgments are inexplicable. They could not be comprehended, the likes
of which the world has never ever even imagined, leading up to the return of Christ, to judge
all those who have rejected Him and to take into His glorious Kingdom all who have believed. As our Lord speaks in this text of His Second
Coming, He is speaking to His disciples. So the message is to believers. And He gives some exhortations regarding His
coming at the end of this section. Look back to Luke 21. His last words on this subject appear in verses
34 to 36. Here they are. "Be on guard that your hearts may not be weighted
down with dissipation and drunkenness and worries of life and that day come on you suddenly
like a trap. For it will come on all those who dwell on
the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying
in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place
and to stand before the Son of Man." Our Lord has said so much about His Second
Coming. It fills all the prior verses in this chapter,
starting in verse 7. It fills the thirteenth chapter of Mark and
it fills two chapters in Matthew...Matthew 24 and 25. The Lord has a lot to say. And at the very, very end of what He has to
say comes this directive, "Be on guard, keep on the alert," and some very specific instructions. And that's what I want you to look at today. What...to put it in a Christmas context...what
gifts would the Lord want us to give Him the next time He comes? We know what the gifts were the first time
He came. We know that the wise men brought gold, frankincense
and myrrh. They brought them because they felt that they
were appropriate gifts, suitable for a King. And even though He received a cross and not
a throne, nonetheless He was a King and next time He comes back there will be a throne,
the throne of the whole world. And what gifts are appropriate for the King
to be given to Him by His people? Clearly He's not going to expect anything
tangible, for He will have entered into His full glory, His humiliation past, He will
have received all that belongs to Him originally and eternally. And so there will be nothing material that
we could give to Him. There would be no sense in giving Him anything
that our hands could hold. He wants something far different than that. In fact, I think in these verses that I just
read you, there are four gifts that the Lord would want from us to be given to Him the
next time He comes...four gifts. They are heart gifts, soul gifts, inward gifts. First of all, the Lord would desire vigilant
anticipation...vigilant anticipation. That's indicated in the two commands in verse
34 and 36, "Be on guard." Verse 36, "But keep on the alert at all times." Talking about vigilance, talking about watchfulness,
talking about readiness. You never want to forget the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It should be in the front of our minds all
the time. First Thessalonians chapter 1 describes a
model church and it says, finally, that this model church in Thessalonica was waiting for
God's Son from heaven. A church should always be living in expectation. It should always be a Second Coming church. For many churches, this is not even discussed
or presented. It is, if anything, avoided. And therein is lost a massive and formidable
and essential and divinely demanded motivation on how to live our lives, we are to live our
lives in the realization that the Lord Jesus could come at any moment...any moment. The whole eschatological scenario could begin
at any moment. There is no sign preliminary to the Rapture
of the church which launches everything. It is incumbent then upon every generation
of people who profess to be Christians to live in the light of the fact that the Lord
could come at any moment, to always be on guard, always be alert because He could come
any time. Now in Luke's record of our Lord's teaching,
he doesn't give us everything the Lord said to illustrate the need for readiness, but
Matthew does. Matthew records come illustrations of the
need for readiness. So let's go to Matthew 24:36, same evening,
Wednesday evening of Passion Week, same time sitting on the Mount of Olives talking to
the disciples. And our Lord had more to say then what Luke
records but the Spirit of God placed it for us in Matthew's gospel. Let's go down to verse 36 of Matthew 24. This is the parallel text to the one in Luke. Verse 36 says, "But of that day and hour no
one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son but the Father alone." This is the thing you must understand at the
beginning, no one knows when this all begins. The interesting thing in verse 36 is no one
knows, not even the Son. Well we know the Father knows. We can understand that the angels may not
know, they're not omniscient, they're created beings. But how is it that the Son doesn't know? Well that's easy to understand. In the incarnation, Jesus, God in human flesh,
places upon Himself limitations, self-imposed limitations. Yes, He continued to be God with all the attributes
of God, fully functioning, but there were some self-imposed limitations. He had power that He didn't use. He had knowledge that He didn't use. So in His humiliation, there is a limitation
of even His own knowledge. When He went back to heaven in the ascension,
He went back to heaven and re-engaged fully God face to face. And He possessed in that moment the glory
which He had before He ever came into this world so that now He knows everything. But in self-imposed limitations on earth as
a part of His incarnation, He set aside the prerogatives of knowing as He set aside the
prerogatives of power for the time that He was here on earth, expressing some omniscience,
occasionally, and certainly great power as well occasionally. But nothing like what He possessed before
He came and since He has returned. But we don't know when He is coming. Verse 37 then imposes on us an urgent understanding
of the need to be ready. And it takes us back to the story of Noah. "For the coming of the Son of Man will be
just like the days of Noah, for as in those days which were before the Flood, they were
eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah
entered the ark." The point of that is not that the eating and
drinking was some indication of sin or that marrying or giving in marriage is some indication
of sin, none of those are. Eating and drinking is necessary and so is
marrying and giving in marriage. What it's saying is life as usual, life as
usual. Another way to say it is they paid absolutely
no attention to what Noah was saying. Now remember, Noah is in virtually a desert
building a ship the size of the Queen Mary. And there is no place to float it in the desert. And it takes him a hundred and twenty years
to build it. And for a hundred and twenty years he is telling
people it's going to rain. There has never been rain. He says it's going to rain. They don't even know what rain is. He says there's going to be a Flood. They don't know what a flood is because there's
no rain. They pay no attention to him. They think he's bereft of his senses. So, on the day that it rains, verse 39, they're
trapped in misunderstanding. They didn't understand it till the Flood came,
took them all away. Too late, so shall the coming of the Son of
Man be. The world will not be ready. You can preach the Second Coming and preach
it and preach it and preach it as preachers have done through the years, and the world
pays no attention. They're happy about the first coming. They are disinterested in the Second Coming. Every year at this time I start getting phone
calls from news television programs, cable programs. They want me to come and talk about the birth
of Christ. I was unable to do the programs that I often
did this year because of some other commitment. No one has ever asked me if I would come and
talk about the Second Coming of Christ. Could you explain to us what's going to happen? Could you tell us what it means in the Bible
that the sun goes dark, the moon goes dark, the stars fall, the earth shakes, etc., etc. No one has ever asked me that. Now if I wrote Harry Potter and the end of
the world....or some fantasy about that...I would be in big demand. But reality concerning the Second Coming of
Christ, that is politically incorrect. Nobody is interested in that. And so the world goes on, eating and drinking,
giving in marriage, marrying and marrying just like in the days of Noah until it's too
late, the door is shut and the rain comes and the flood comes and all humanity, except
eight souls, are gone into eternal hell. Life as usual. There will be two men in the field, verse
41, one will be taken, one will be left. Two women grinding at the mill, one will be
taken, one will be left. Life as usual. People doing their work, working in a field,
grinding in a mill. One of them taken in judgment, one left to
enter into the Kingdom of Christ. Like the judgment of the sheep and goats. Therefore, verse 42, "Be on the alert, you
don't know which day the Lord is coming." Again the reminder. You can't just live like the world...indifferent. Be sure of this, verse 43, that if the head
of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have
been on the alert, would not have allowed his house to be broken into." Thieves don't call and say, "Hey, by the way,
I'm coming at nine. I'm going to break in your house at 9:10,
I'm going to be out of there by 9:30." If we knew that, we'd stop him. We don't know when the thief comes and we
don't know when the Lord comes either. Verse 44 again, he repeats it. "For this reason you be ready too for the
Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will." And he tells another story, "Who then is the
faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them
their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds
doing when he so comes." When you know your master is coming back and
you have been given an assignment, you're going to be blessed if when he gets back he
finds you doing what he asked you to do. And if he comes back and finds you not doing
what he asks you to do, you're in trouble. If you are found doing what he asked you to
do, verse 47 says, he'll put you in charge of all his possessions. Look, if you can be trusted when the boss
is not there, he'll give you more responsibility, right? If you only work when the boss is looking
at you and when the boss disappears, you take advantage of that to demonstrate your disloyalty,
believe me, you're not going anywhere in your job. But if when the boss is gone you work hard,
he comes back, finds that out, he'll give you more responsibility. It's a simple principle. That evil slave, however, in verse 48 says,
"Ah, my master's not coming for a long time," and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat
and drink with drunkards." Takes advantage of his opportunity. "The master of that slave will come on a day
when he doesn't expect him, at an hour he doesn't know, and cut him in pieces and assign
him a place with the hypocrites, weeping shall be there and gnashing of teeth." Pretty graphic language, right? That's hell, eternal judgment. We expect unbelievers to live indifferently
and irresponsibly. We expect the unregenerate, those who are
not Christians, to live indifferently and with no regard for the Lord. We expect them to say, "Hey, where is God? Where's the promise of His coming? Are you kidding me? Jesus coming back to judge the earth? What a joke that is." To go out and live either indifferently or
outright immorally as if they had no responsibility and some day when the Lord comes back at a
moment they think not, they will be cut to pieces. A very graphic description of devastating
judgment. But certainly we don't expect believers to
take advantage of the absence of the Lord in some irresponsible way. He will come. He will come. We don't know when He will come. And so, we live in perpetual vigilance, a
vigilant anticipation, never letting that out of our minds. He could come at any moment...He could come
at any time...He could come at any day. This needs to be kept before the church at
all times. This is one of the gifts that our Lord wants
from us. When He comes...Oh, we expected You, we expected
You. We've been waiting, we're ready. That leads to a second gift, spiritual separation...spiritual
separation. And it's implied by the first one, vigilance
leads to holiness, virtue. You could say it this way, vigilance leads
to virtue. If vigilant anticipation is present, then
spiritual separation follows. That's why in Luke 21 there is a result clause
and the result clause is very obvious. "Be on guard so that your hearts may not be
weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life and that day come
upon you suddenly like a trap." You don't want, as a believer now, He's talking
to believers, He's talking to His disciples and all the disciples in the future that they
represent, in every generation there are those who really belong to Christ, it is to them
that He is speaking, you want to live in such anticipation of the coming of Christ that
your heart is not burdened down with sin so that when the Lord comes you are caught, trapped. What that imagery is that everything stops
at that moment and you're there where you were caught. So that mepote is the result, consequence
clause. Hearts, kardia in the Greek, inner person,
you want to so live that when the Lord comes you can give Him the gift of a heart that
is not weighted down with sin, weighted down, overpowered, burdened, pressed. It's used, this verb, bareo translated weighted
down, it's used of heavy sleepy eyes overcome with sleep. In Matthew 26:43 and Luke 9:23, in 2 Corinthians
and 1 Timothy, it's used of excessive burdens that overwhelm a person. The idea is, you don't want the Lord to come
back in a moment when you are under the weight of sin. Is it forgiven? Of course. But it is possible for Christians...not only
possible, it is inevitable that we will sin. But the imagery here is not of you sinning
because we will sin, but of you literally being under a pile of sin. And He uses some characteristic sins as general
examples, dissipation. By the way, that word literally means the
nausea that accompanies debauchery. The nausea that accompanies the sins of debauchery
which were common in the ancient world, alcohol consumption and gluttony. You eat and drink until you literally are
nauseous and vomiting. This is what went on in the ancient world,
very often connected with religion. And drunkenness He actually refers to, methe. These are symbolic of worldly excess, succumbing
to the intoxicating iniquitous conduct of the world. Drunkenness and its subsequent base behavior
has always been an issue since right after the Fall when you have drunkenness in the
book of Genesis and the lewdness that goes with it. And He adds, "The worries of life." Life, biotikos, biological life, the worries
of life simply has reference to issues, struggles, temptations, matters of this world. Very general, the world of the flesh, the
devil...the world of sin. It's really a call to holy living is what
it is. You want to make sure that when the Lord comes,
you aren't trapped under some behavior or behaviors of sin. You will forfeit your reward. You will forfeit your reward. "Look to yourselves that you lose not the
things you've wrought but receive a full reward." You will forfeit your reward. This is a call to holiness. This isn't the only one, by any means, in
the New Testament. Let me remind you of a few other familiar
ones, very important. Romans 13....Romans 13, verse 11, "Knowing
the time, understanding the time, it is already the hour for you to waken from sleep spiritually,
for now your salvation is nearer to us than when we believed." What does he mean? Salvation in the sense of final salvation,
final glorification, the coming of Christ, or even your leaving this earth in death to
be with Him. Your final salvation is nearer than ever. Of course, the night is almost gone, the day
is at hand, speaking of the coming of the Lord. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness,
put on the armor of life, let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness,
not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy but put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust because you don't
want to be engaged in that kind of behavior when the Lord comes and you'll be trapped
and caught in that very sin. This would be a shame. And that's what John says. Look at 1 John 2:18...2:28, 1 John 2:28....well,
let me start with 18, 1 John 2:18, "Children, it is the last hour," I just wanted to grab
that thought. "It is the last hour, this is the last period
of history." John knew it, though it stretched on for a
while, a day with the Lord is like a thousand years, a thousand years is a day, it's not
a long time to Him. It is the last hour, we're living in the last
hour in the sense that the Lord came, He died, He rose, He ascended. The next event is the end. We live in the last hour. Now drop down to verse 28, "In light of that,
now, little children, abide in Him." Abide in Him, what does that mean? Be obedient to Him, be faithful to Him, live
in the sphere of His will so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink
away in shame at His coming. You don't want to be caught in a trap when
He comes and be ashamed. In verse 3 of chapter 3...well, verse 2, "We
are now the children of God. It is not appeared as yet what we shall be,
we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is." When He comes and we see Him, we'll be made
like Him. "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him,
purifies himself just as He is pure." When you live in the light of the Second Coming,
it gives you vigilance and vigilance turns into separation from sin. It's a call to holy living so that the day
doesn't come and trap you under the burden of sin. And then will come shame and the loss of eternal
reward. Who would want to give that up? So what gifts can we offer Christ the second
time He comes? Vigilant anticipation, spiritual separation,
a third one implied in verse 35, I think it's important, evangelistic occupation...evangelistic
occupation. The point is strongly implied in this verse. Back to Luke 21 verse 35, "For it will come,
that day is the antecedent, that day will come upon all those who dwell on the face
of all the earth." The final judgments in what is called in the
Old and the New Testament, "The day of the Lord, the final vengeance of our God, the
day of final judgment is universal. It will come on all those who dwell on the
face of all the earth, just as in the case of Noah which is a parallel to that, as in
the case of Noah, the judgment drown the whole of the human race on the planet with the exception
of eight souls, so the judgment come will fall upon all those on the face of the earth...all
of them. What does that do to us as believers? It intensifies our obligation and responsibility
to fulfill the Great Commission...the Great Commission. In fact, the Lord does not come finally to
judge and set up His Kingdom until the gospel has been preached to the ends of the earth. Universal judgment should lead us to understand
and to demonstrate compassion toward the lost and the perishing. Jesus even wept over the city of Jerusalem. God finds no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. Judgment is not God's favorite responsibility. Each and every unregenerate sinner will fall
under the final wrath of God and what we would want the Lord to receive from us as a gift
when He returns would be a life consumed with evangelistic occupation. We're losing this, seriously losing it. First of all, there's a movement in evangelicalism,
whatever that is, to affirm that everybody who believes anything about God, or anything
about Jesus is a Christian. And even people who don't believe in Jesus
or the God of the Bible, worship God in their own way and they're all going to heaven. So you have this growing universalism that
is sort of going to leave God in a very difficult position because there won't be anybody to
judge...if these people are right, and, of course, they're not. So you have that trend to reclassify everybody
with any kind of religious perspective or intention as bound for heaven, and that sucks
the heart out of evangelism because we no longer see these people as doomed and damned
and perishing. But you also have in the contemporary scene
in evangelicalism, the idea that the whole purpose for which God and Jesus exist and
the whole purpose for which the quasi-church exists is to make you comfortable...to make
sure you're making no sacrifices, feeling no pain. The typical modern contemporary preacher wants
to give you a spiritual anesthetic, put you to sleep, sort of jolt you into nirvana, fulfill
all your dreams, fulfill all your desires, all your hopes, all your ambitions. Get rid of all your pain just to anesthetize
you, your comfort is the consuming idea. If I go through another airport and see another
copy of a book called Your best life now, I don't know if I can contain myself. And they buy them like mad. I'd like to put a book in there that says,
How To Lose Your Life in Rescuing Sinners From Hell. Who would carry that? No one. But that is the call of the church. We don't have any other responsibility in
this world, other than to live holy lives to make the message believable and to preach
the message and to give up whatever we need to give up of ourselves and our lives and
all that we possess to that end. And when we say to you, give to the Christmas
offering so we can send missionaries to the end of the world, what you do with that opportunity
will tell you an awful lot about what your priority is. Well you say, "I'd like to do that but I've
got this long list of stuff that I really need." What are we doing in this world other than
being the means by which God gathers sinners to Himself? That's the point He is making. Look, this is going to come on the whole world. We need to be ready to proclaim the gospel. That's what we live for. So, the Lord says, "These are the gifts I
would like from you, vigilant anticipation, spiritual separation, evangelistic occupation,"
one more...this is critical...faithful continuation....faithful continuation. Verse 36, this verse is loaded with truth
and we'll just give it a brief look, it's truth we've covered on other occasions. "Keep on the alert at all times, praying in
order that praying for the specific reason that you may have strength to escape all these
things that are about to take place and to stand before the Son of Man." Let me make it real simple. The only people who will escape are believers. The only people who will stand before the
Son of Man are believers. The rest are going to fall before Him. To stand before the Son of Man, what does
that mean? That means to come into His court and to hear
Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." That means to come into His court and hear
Him say, "Not guilty, perfectly righteous, go to heaven." By the way, there's no illustration of this
here, but there is a marvelous illustration of this in Matthew 25 and it's the judgment
of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are the ones who stand before the
Son of Man. The goats are the ones who do not. The sheep are the ones who know Him and He
knows them. The goats are the ones who do not know Him
nor does He know them. That separation in that judgment is described
graphically in Matthew 25. Also, earlier in Matthew 25 you have a story
about servants. Some of the servants are faithful and they
stand before their master and are rewarded. And there is an unfaithful servant who does
not stand and is cast into hell. And you also have a story in Matthew 25 about
ten virgins, remember that? Five were ready, five were not. Five had the strength, the God-given grace,
the power of true regeneration life, they had oil in their lamps and when the bridegroom
came, they went into the wedding. There were five who were superficially committed
but had no real life, no oil, they were shut out. So the Lord illustrated this exhortation with
three stories of a sheep and goat judgment, of servants, and of virgins. And He illustrated it on that same occasion,
as Matthew tells us. But the final point is this, pray that you
may have strength. Pray that you have true spiritual life. That's essentially what He's saying. This is essential. This is foundational. We are commanded to believe. We are commanded to continue in the faith. We are commanded to not turn back. We are commanded in that sense to come all
the way to Christ, to embrace Him in a true saving faith that is the real thing, and then
to continue in that faith. God actually securing us by means of that
perseverance. We are called to a life of humble dependence
on the Lord's strength and the Lord's power. We can always say, "I can say...you can say
as a believer right now that I was saved by the power of the Lord and no strength of my
own, and I am kept by the power of the Lord and no strength of my own." And I pray continually as I pray to be saved,
I pray that God in His grace will give me the strength to persevere. We want to be the true believers and two promises
are given to those who faithfully persevere. One, you will escape all these things about
to take place. Now that's a powerful, powerful statement. You are to escape all these things that are
about to take place. What do you mean "all these things"? Everything that's been said since verse 24,
everything that's associated with the end. Escape, ekpheugo, from which we get fugitive,
ek intensifies, pheugo means to flee, to take flight. When you put an ek on the front of it, it
intensifies it, it means to flee out from, to flee out of. If we're true believers then we will escape
all these things that are about to come. To those who are living during the time of
the Tribulation, this would mean they would escape, of course, final judgment. To those living in this age right now, this
may well mean we will escape the future judgements in the time of the Tribulation and thus can
be a verse related to a pre-tribulational Rapture. The only way you can escape these things is
not to be here, right? Cause it's going to be everywhere. The judgments will be everywhere. How could you escape them if you were here? So, to those living in the last generation,
they will escape the final judgments of the wrath of God on unbelievers. To those of us living in this age, this could
well be a promise that we will escape everything that is to come, consistent with us being
taken to glory before these things begin. Well the first promise is escape. The second promise is that when we've been
taken out of here and we're brought before the Lord, we will stand. We will stand. Now if I look at my own life, I would say,
"Look, if you ever bring me into the presence of holy God and the presence of the glorified
Lord Jesus Christ, I don't think I could survive." Isaiah couldn't, "O wretched man," like Paul,
"I'm a man of unclean lips. Woe is me." Imagine going into the presence of the Lord
and being able to stand, to survive it means, to stand as righteous, acceptable, made worthy
by the imputed righteousness of Christ purchased at the cross. Only God could do that. That's why Jude closes his little epistle,
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His
glory blameless." Wow, so for those who live in anticipation
of the return of Christ, we will...and our faith is real, and it's a continuing, persevering,
enduring faith which gives evidence of its reality, we will escape, we will be taken
out, brought to the Lord and we will stand blameless because of Christ. So what is it that the Lord would want from
us? Vigilance, living all the time as if He could
come in the next moment. That has a powerful effect on how we live. Holiness, living lives of virtue separated
from the sinful indulgences from the world around us so that when He comes we're not
caught in some overbearing iniquity. Living lives of proclamation of the gospel
faithfully, so to the very end we are proclaiming the glories of the gospel of Christ that sinners
might escape judgment. And persevering in faithfulness, demonstrating
a true saving faith. And Jesus said in Luke 12, "If you confess
Me before me, I will confess you before My Father who is in heaven." If you're faithful in your profession of Me
here, enduring in your devotion to Me, you will stand in My presence. I wasn't there, neither were you the first
time Jesus came. I wasn't there. Oh the story's been told many, many times,
I've heard the story many times, I've talked about the story, taught about it, preached
about it, written several books about it, I understand the story but I wasn't there...wasn't
there. But I will be there next time He comes. If I've already died, I'll come with Him. If I'm here, I'll be taken. I won't miss that one. I wasn't there the first time to give Him
anything. But I will be there the next time either when
I leave this world, or when He comes to take me to be with Him. And I want to be able to give Him gifts them. It's the only opportunity I'll have and these
are the things He asks of me, and of you. Father, we thank You again for the wonderful
truth of Your Second Coming. We can't even think of the manger in Bethlehem
and the baby without thinking about the King, the Lord of glory, the one who will come as
judge, they are one and the same. There's no point in knowing only the beginning
of the story and not the end of it, the end is everything. We thank You, Lord, that You've told us not
only the beginning with regard to the story of Jesus, but the end. Bound up in this is our end also. Prepare souls even now, Lord, for Your return. Prepare us all to give you the gifts that
You deserve when You come. And I pray, Lord, that for those who do not
know Christ, do not know salvation, for whom this will come like a thief in the night as
the flood came upon the generation of Noah, or as the fire and brimstone came upon the
generation of Lot, and took them all away forever, that they might even now be rescued
before this judgment comes. Save people from indifference and from debauchery
as if You would not come and they had no accountability. Help them, Lord, to come to the only refuge,
the only ark of safety, the only place where they can come and escape even to the Lord
Jesus Christ who died and rose again for our salvation. Bring many sinners to Christ, we pray, for
Your glory. Amen.
