- Br. Abraham Koshy
(Borivali Assembly, 12th April, 2020)
(Borivali Assembly, 12th April, 2020)
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Sermon Transcript
Matthew 24:44
Therefore, you also be ready for in such an hour as you do not think the Son of Man comes.
Shall we pray before we go ahead, Lord, Father, we thank You for Your Word. We prayer Father as we look into it. May you shine into our hearts, the light that comes from it. We pray that your spirit would help us. Listen to your voice. We prayer Lord, that our hearts would be ready, and our ears would be opened to listen to your voice. Father, we pray that you may speak to us, Father to each and every one of us that are listening according to your needs. Father that you would help us, instruct us, and encourage us warn us, correct us And Father through this word that we will look Father and that you will prepare us for your coming. Bless this time for your glory’s sake, for your eternal love. And for your own sake which you do not deny yourself. We pray you may bless us. In the name of Your Son, Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
The Context of the Passage
This passage that we're looking at, comes in a passage which is familiarly called the Olivet Discourse. Before we go into this verse, that we read. Let's look at what these two chapters really are. Matthew chapter 24. And Matthew chapter 25. We refer to this passage in the morning, where the disciples come and ask of this temple. And they want to know, what is the signs of the coming of the Lord. And of the end of the time. That is the background to this. That is the background to this chapter, at the backdrop of this temple, and of the city of Jerusalem. The disciples want to know, what is the signs of the end of the time? What is the signs of the coming of the Lord? and the Lord goes in detail to tell us all the signs that will precede His coming.
That will precede not just merely the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. But the signs that will fall upon this whole world. And that is what these two chapters are it is a single sermon that the Lord gave, sitting at Olivet Discourse talking about his coming and the first about the first 35 verses in this chapter, chapter 24 speaks about the signs. And when it is all done, when the Lord comes towards the end of His message of where he is giving the signs, he takes a diversion from that point, to talk about a problem of one issue that will prophetically that will inevitably be fulfilled as a prophecy. And that issue is the issue of not being ready for His coming. And this is very important.
This is a problem that the world will face. And we know it as to how critical this problem is because the Lord would repetitively not just once, twice, thrice, but four times, in this passage, make it a point to say that we need to be ready for His coming. And he's only saying it because he knows when he comes. It's going to be a surprise. He knows that that when the judgments come the judgments and the wrath of God that gets poured out on this world before His coming and all of that comes he knows it is going to be a surprise, despite he talking about the signs. So yes, there is a big inquisitiveness in the minds of the disciples to know what the signs are But there is a larger problem in play, there is a larger issue in play that will evidently be fulfilled.
Four Warnings
And that is the fact that the people will not be ready for His coming. And that stems out of what he says in Matthew 24:26. It stems out of this fact that of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven. But my father, only. No one knows. We know what is coming. We know judgment is coming. We know his coming. We know the signs, but no one knows the time. And that puts a lot of us into dilemma. The whole world knows what is coming. The whole world knows the judgment that is coming. But just because we don't know the time, it puts us into this fix.
Again, the Lord will say the second time, Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. The disciples only wanted to know the signs and maybe we like the disciples would be would stress our mind and exercise our mind to analyze everything that the world is going through in times like this and find a fitting parallel to the signs that the Lord has given in Daniel and Matthew in Revelation, we would stress our minds to see it is the time but the Lord is more focused not merely on the signs that follow, but he's focused on the unpreparedness that he has to repetitively say, watch, because you do not know when this is going to happen.
And the third as third time, which is the verse we just read. Therefore, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour, you do not expect. It is a given fact over here that the Son of Man is going to come and Nobody's expecting, when nobody's ready for His coming. And when nobody is watching for it. But nobody has any anticipation for it. That's when Jesus Christ comes back. And again, the Lord would say, be ready, because you do not know when the when the Son of Man is coming. Finally, once again, in this passage, Lord will again repeat it, Watch therefore, for you neither know the day, nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
If the Lord must see this about four times and repetitively say that nobody knows. When the Lord is coming, he's actually referring to a very critical problem that the world will face, that the world is completely unprepared for what's going to hit them, that they have absolutely no clue of the times that they're living in. They have absolutely no clue of the wrath that is to come. And of the coming of the Lord. They have absolutely no clue of, or they can't even imagine to the stretch of which the world is going to disintegrate and degrade and be a decadent place. They have absolutely no clue what's coming. But in between these four warnings in between these four repetitions of the Lord saying that nobody knows you need to watch you need to be ready, you do not know when to expect it.
Four Illustrations
In between these four warnings in this same passage. The Lord sandwiches or intermixes four illustrations. These four warnings are sandwiched between these illustrations they follow and precede these four illustrations. The Lord gives again to give us an impression as to how important this issue is as to why the disciples merely asked for the signs. And once the Lord had done with the signs, the Lord goes into a larger issue that nobody is going to be ready for the Lord, Lord where he's going to be coming. And to drive home that point he says it four times and he gives us four illustrations to show how nobody will be ready for it.
Illustration 1: Time of Noah
The first illustration that the Lord gives is of the time of Noah, the same chapter verse 36 we are reading. But of the day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be for as in the days before the flood, They were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.
So also, will the coming of the Son of Man be. The Lord is stressing on the fact that history will repeat itself. This is how judgments have always fallen, it has taken the wicked unaware that the wicked had absolutely no clue that they were into a judgment, and they were about to die. You see the phrase over here, 'They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage' or in other words the people of those times went about their lives has if nothing is going to befall them. They had plans for their temporal pleasure’s day in and out, and they had long term plans for their own lives. They live their lives with a bit of foresight in mind. And they expected themselves to live long, like 900, 800 years.
They expected themselves to go about their lives daily chores as if nothing is going to be wrong, nothing is going to befall them. And we see that they did not know that Noah entered the ark. And they did not know until the flood came. It's like they were completely taken in the dark when the judgment fell. If you must read between the lines that we understand that Noah preached the gospel, he preached for them to be saved. And the fact that they were not prepared, and they went about their lives as if nothing is going to befall them, was showed that they considered the whole preaching of Noah and the whole exercise of building an ark of hogwash. They had no belief in what the message was saying. But here's a thing that when the day of judgment came, they did not even know that Noah had entered the ark.
They did not even know that the door was shut. And it started to rain, and it still did not hit them until the flood came they did not know until the flood came. I think we can relate this in the city of Mumbai because whenever it rains over here, we, The question we keep asking is, will it flood? We keep looking out for floods, we expect the rains to stop and the flood will not happen. And these people were completely in the dark that when it started to rain, they still did not understand. It is their judgment. And not until the waters rose to a very dangerously high level. They came to know that it is the judgment. They did not know until the floods came. I mean, that's how unprepared. That's how unready the people in the times of Noah were.
They had absolutely no clue what was hitting them until it actually hit them. You see, a very small glimpse of this is shown throughout history. Whenever judgment falls, it falls unaware the people on the on which it is fallen. The people are taken by surprise. We read in Egypt for example, The angel of death passed through the whole land and the Egyptians were sleeping peacefully not knowing judgment had fallen. And on the other hand, we see the Israelites girded with their soles in their feet and ready to move out. And that's the picture that the Lord is trying to drive that when the judgment falls on the wicked the wicked will not be prepared.
When the judgment fell on Sodom and Gomorrah the people of that city had no clue that fire and brimstone is going to hit them that day. They had no clue that day is their end. We see that they in their lust and in their sinfulness wanted to sin, but they had no clue what was coming in store. And then we see even in today's time even in today's time as to how people are dying and 1000s 2000 a day, 1000 a day. Lakhs are getting are getting affected by this disease on a daily basis. How the governments are clueless on their preparation. How people are clueless of what to anticipate.
That's how the judgment of God always falls the world will be taken by surprise. They have absolutely no clue of what is coming of how the times are going to get bad. I mean, today it is just it is just a virus. But if we know the prophecies, we know from the Bible that it's going to get worse. You can throw in pestilences you can throw in multiple diseases you can throw in wars and rumours of wars. You can throw in entwined famines, you can throw in earthquakes and tsunamis. You can throw in cosmic changes of stars falling of the sky and you can throw in huge geopolitical changes.
Where there is domestic hostility and civil wars and social disharmony, and you can throw in all of this happening together. And to top it all off, there is a great tribulation and persecution of the saints. That's what's coming. And the world absolutely has no clue that this is what we are entering into. And the question that we need to be asking is what the Lord would ask, be ready? Are we ready? Not this ready for the post lockdown, or a post quarantine or a post Corona world, are we ready for the world that that is going to disintegrate? That is going to degrade. It's not getting any better.
Illustration 2: Thief
When we see the second illustration, the Lord is giving the illustration of, of a thief And the Lord is saying that the master of the house, if he knows the hour, in which the thief would break, she would watch. But the fact is the master of the house, we do not know nobody in the world knows the Hour. We do not know when it is coming. And the Lord is likening his coming to a thief because that's exactly what will happen just like a thief, plunderers, and ransacks and burgles. That's exactly how the judgments will leave this world ago ravished. I mean, just a single virus can throw off, trillions of dollars can throw off economies can throw off jobs can literally plunder the world markets, just the single virus.
So, imagine what's going to happen. In the end times Imagine how it will really be a time of thief, plundering and destroying the resources of this world. And sometimes, not just we but a lot of Christians are taken up in this foolishness. And in this madness of saving this world, we spend our resources and in saving this world, in today's time, when you look at the discourse that happens in in social media and otherwise, and there's just about every Tom, Dick, Harry in this world wants to change this world, everybody wants to save this world. And sometimes Christians also are taken up in this wrong teaching. And they call it the social justice where they want this world to change. And it's up to the Christians to save this world.
If he really had the right sense of prophetic timeline, if he really had a sense of right eschatology, if he really understands that the world is going bad from now on, then we would know the mandate given for the Christians is not to save the world. You can in your goodwill, pray your hearts out for global warming, for climate change for greenhouse gases for all conservation. But the mandate that God has given us is not to save this dying world, the world already has a saviour in Christ, God has not asked us to be the Saviour, the mandate given is to save the souls.
It's like a titanic that is sinking. And we're not been given a mandate to fix a sinking ship, but to save the souls that the world will end, the world will reach a time of chaos and absolute madness, before the coming of the world. And so, there is no point in wasting our resources and fixing a world that is going bad, we ought to look at the mandate the Great Commission that this which is our responsibility towards the coming of the Lord.
Illustration 3: Servant
When we look at the third illustration in this passage, it's an illustration of a servant. And this illustration takes a different turn from the first two illustrations. Because the first two illustrations could be applicable to just about anybody to the saints to church to the world at large. But these next two illustrations are specifically talking of people having a relationship with God. And that's why in this illustration, they're called a servant, a servant that was put under the, as a ruler of the household, a servant that has been given divine responsibilities, to take care of God's kingdom of his household, to take care of his ministries, and even those servants, even those saints are going to be unprepared for His coming.
You see the problem again, arises by the fact that we don't know when it's all going to happen. And this evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming. And then it is clearly written, the master of that servant will come on a day, when he is not looking for him. And at an hour that he is not aware of. That is the given fact that people are not going to be prepared for His coming. It's not just to world and the wicked. people of this world, but even the servants on who are put rulers of the household, even they would not be looking at him. They would, they would, they would run out of patience. They would say master is delaying His coming, and then give themselves to eating and drinking with drunkards, they will give themselves into this world.
You see this has happened so many times before. It happened in Sinai, for example, they got tired waiting for Moses, and they did give themself up into eating and drinking and sitting and rising, and all kinds of revelry. You see the danger that the Lord is trying to say that the church might run out of patience and give themselves over to the temporal pleasures of the world thinking that this is all that is of this world is all that is. And that was the mistake of the people in the times of Noah. To think that this world is eternal, and that there is nothing befalling them. It is so explicitly written that this servant will be taken by surprise, that the Lord will come when he's not looking for him.
Illustration 4: 10 Virgins
When you go to the fourth illustration, illustration that we are very familiar with of the 10 virgins of 5 foolish and 5 wise. and it's clearly written again the same thing the bridegroom was delayed. It's about the Lord taking his own good time and grace to not come. He's, He is waiting that sinners repent, but the church the bride, who will sleep and slumber they all slumbered and slept, all, not just the foolish ones, but even the wise ones, they all slumbered, and slept. And this parable ends with this verse in verse 13, which we read, you do not know the day, nor the hours in which the Son of Man is coming. Mean if the Lord has to go about giving us four illustrations giving us four warnings repetitively, repetitively saying that nobody knows when it's when the Lord will come.
Nobody knows when these things will befall. And the larger problem in hand is that people are going to be taken for a huge shock, they will be surprised, what strikes them and what hits them, then it is not just merely the world that is unprepared, but even people with a covenantal relationship with God. And those that are His servants and those that are his bride will slumber and sleep and not be ready for what's coming in. This is a given fact; this is a prophetic word. And it is given us a warning for us to not slumber, not sleep, but to be watchful and ready.
The Readiness of the church in the Light of His Coming
For the remaining time that we have, I just want to look at two passages from the, from the from the epistles of Paul, the passages in Romans 13, and 1 Thessalonians 5. It's beautiful to look at these passages for a reason, because they've been written to two different churches. And we see a number of similarities in these two passages. And the theme of both passages is the same the Lord is coming. And what is the responsibility of the church in the light of His coming, As to how are we ready? Let's read both of these passages.
Romans 13:11-14.
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Let’s also read the second passage 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9.
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
The way we would go about in both of these passages is to look at how familiar and how similar these passages are, they have the same theme, they have the same words, they have almost the same order. And they've been written under the same context of the Lord's coming.
Knowing the Times
What's the first thing we see here is the similarity of time in both of these passages, when writing to the Romans, Paul writes, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. I mean, the encouragement for Paul to write this passage is where he looks at the time. And he is giving this as a fact that you too know this time you are knowing the time in which you're living, and you will know it is high time.
It is high time and that our salvation is nearer he's again referring to Time of the coming of the Lord, He is He is saying it is high time and you know, the times in which you live that is the motivation for writing these few words, the times in which he was living, he will say it is high time. The same thing and the same motivation we see in 1 Thessalonians he will say concerning times and seasons, brethren, you have no need, that I should write to you, for you yourself know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night concerning times and season.
There are two aspects here. One is times in terms of the year in which you live, and seasons in terms of the specific incidents of that time. And concerning the times you're living in, and concerning the seasons of going through. All is saying you have no need that I should write to you. This same phrase we read times and season, in the words of Lord Jesus Christ, when the when the disciples asked the Lord is He going to establish the kingdom? The Lord would say, it is not for you to know the times and season that has been fixed by the authority of the Father. And probably Paul is driving in the same principle here that we do not know the exact time of His coming.
But we are also not people who should be taken as a surprise. In verse 4, you or not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. We are not a group of people for which this day should come as a surprise and that it should be a rude shock like a thief burgling and as a thief intruding our lives, this is not supposed to be response. Yes, we do not know the times and seasons that has been fixed by the Father because that authority is not given to anybody.
But at the same time Paul wants to drive home the point that the day of the Lord is going to be like a thief coming and we are not going to look at the day like a thief is coming. It is not for us that we should be surprised like a thief, burgal somebody spoke. You see the two aspects over here. One that we are certain we are near; we are certain that the salvation is near. And at the same time, we don't run into a mindless exercise of determining the exact time in which the Lord comes our response should be to watch and to be ready for the time when he comes.
Walk as if it is Day
The second similarity in this passage is the reference to night darkness day and night. In Romans chapter 13, We read this way the night is far spend the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the Armor of light. Let us walk properly has in day, and not in revelry drunkenness, lewdness, lust, strife, and envy. The same theme we see again in First Thessalonians five. Brethren, you are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you, as a thief, you are all sons of light, sons of day, we are not of the night, nor of darkness, for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night, but let us who are of the day be sober.
Paul is referring to this time, in which we are living as night and darkness. He is referring to as a time of absolute abject wickedness. And in First Thessalonians he gives us in what sense this time is the time of darkness, you read here, brethren, you are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. Over here darkness signifies ignorance where Paul is saying, you are not in dark. Concerning the day of the Lord, you are not in dark concerning that the day of the Lord is going to be like a thief coming, you are not in that darkness of ignorance.
But over here later on we are saying we are not of the night nor of the darkness which is the darkness of moral wickedness and moral degradation. And this is the times in which we live. It has always been the time since Adam It's been the time of darkness and in this darkness, Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world came, and it is clearly written that people loved darkness and they hated the light because their works were evil. And as a contrast to these times of darkness as a contrast to these times of night, we are supposed to be ready in terms of we being light. We being children of light, we being children of day, we let it be putting on ourselves the Armor of light we properly walking as in the day it is not day.
It is not at all day it is still night but we walk as if there is light upon us. We walk as if the sun is shining bright, has in the day has said the light is shining and is exposing every deed of ours, deeds of this world. We walk under the fear of light, we walk as if it is day, though it is a night. And that is the sense in which Paul wants the church to be ready because it is the night now. And the night tis far spend. It's about time it is high time that the salvation is coming, and we are asked to be walking as if it is day. It is not a time of night in and that follows.
Awake out of Sleep
The next thing we see in this passage of sleeping, both the passages talk of sleeping we see in Romans chapter 13. It is high time to awake out of sleep. It is given that night is for sleeping, and that we should sleep in the night but we are not acting as if it is night that the church is not supposed to sleep and slumber like the Virgin’s, but we are not asked to be lazy. We are not supposed to abdicate our duties and responsibilities that there should be no dereliction of our duties. There should be no letting go of our responsibilities. There is a mandate given to us and we ought not to act as if it is time for us to sleep this ain't times of sleeping.
These ain't times of slumber these ain't times of laziness. These ain't in times of not being watchful or not being ready. The advice to church is to awake and it is high time that the Church awakes out of the sleep. The same thing again we read that let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and darkness. In First Thessalonians we again read this repetition Therefore let us not sleep as others too. The world is sleeping. The world is in drunkenness and revelry. That's what the world will do in the night time. But we are not asked to be like others. We are not asked to sleep through this period.
We are asked to watch and be sober. The world will get drunk we have been asked to be sober. The world will sleep we've been asked to watch the world is part of night we are part of light. The world is part we are part of day the world is part of darkness we are part of light. You see the contrast that Paul wants to bring that the church has a different response to the coming of the Lord, that the world is going to be in a rude shock but we are supposed to be watching and sober.
We're supposed to be like the watchmen put what's been put to warn the world of impending danger to see again and again. Paul would again say this in other epistles. Awake you who sleep arise from the dead where sleep is compared not just to laziness and slumber but sleep is compared to death. And Paul would say, awake you who sleep arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. And so the world today is sleeping not just because they are not doing anything, just sleeping in the sense that they are dead in their sins, and Christ will give them light.
Again, Paul would write to the Corinthians church, this time to the believers in the church and says, wake up from your drunken stupor, wake up from your drunken, insensitiveness or in a Brit, or, or in the state of unconsciousness or state of perpetual sleep. Wake up from that state of being drunk and sleeping, that is not us. That is what others do. That is what the world does.
Put on the Armor
And you see, the next thing that is so common in this both passages are the aspect of the Armor. Both passages talk about Armor. Both the passages talk about the church being prepared for the evil times. In Ephesians six, we read that we had to put on the whole Armor of God and be prepared for the evil day for that is coming. And the same thing is put on over here that it is the day of revelry. It is the day of drunkenness, it’s the day of lewdness it’s the day of lust, it’s the day of strife, it’s the day of envy. And if there was no reason for this darkness, these works of darkness to affect Christians, then there would be no reason for Christians to put on this Armor.
We're living in darkness, not isolated from the wickedness of this darkness. We are not living in times when the when the dirt and the muck of this world cannot stick to us. It can stick to us, it can attack us. It can so much like the evil servant, we would slumber and sleep and give ourselves to eating and drinking. And that we would give ourselves into the revelries of this world. And so as a warning, in both the passages, Paul would talk off, putting on the armor. Yes, the world is getting drunk, but let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of, of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Salvation is nearer than when we first Believed
Finally, the driving force behind both these passages, the salvation we read in both the passages Paul is saying our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And in First Thessalonians He ends that passage by saying this, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there is a salvation that is coming, a salvation of our souls and of our bodies. A salvation which is the perfection of the saints which is the glorification of the saints where that where what the Lord has started, he will complete and finish it, where it is the redemption of the possessed, possession that we wait for.
It is the time of His coming. And we are waiting for that day of salvation where this wretched body of ours were we in the sinful body would where this body of corruption would be put on the body of incorruption. We are waiting for the day of purity and perfection to be clothed upon to be put upon the righteousness of Christ. We are waiting for that salvation I can and it is in this driving motivation that Paul is telling us to be watchful. To be ready to be sober, to not sleep, to be awakening, to walk as the sons of light and sons of day. To not give ourselves over to darkness and drunkenness to not be like others, Knowing the times that it is near.
It is in this motivation. You see, God did not appoint us to wrath. The world will face the wrath of the lamb, the world will face an unimaginable wrath. And the world will face wrath where they will say let the mountains and the hills fall upon us. Because who can withstand the wrath of this lamb? There will be times when 1/4 of the world will perish just by mere death and pestilence and famine. And it will still not be the end it will just be the beginning of the times and as to as the scriptures says, its going to be great tribulation. But God has not appointed us to wrath. God has not appointed us to that cup which is in his hand and which the dregs of the dregs of it, the wicked of the world are going to drink.
We see the same wrath in the Garden of Gethsemane we see the Lord Jesus Christ saying, let this cup pass from me. And if the Lord did not drink, yes, it would have passed, it would have passed upon every single soul to drink of the wrath of God. We read this again in Jeremiah where the Lord would say to Jeremiah in the hands of the Lord's a cup, and Jeremiah is asked to give it to all the nations of the world. Every King, every government, every leader is going to drink of this wrath. That there is unimaginable wrath coming. That's how we look, and we find that there are seven bowls of, of wrath of God coming.
And but it's so amazing that for those who trust in the Son of God, who bore all wrath of God in its infiniteness, in his infinity, who for us, we are not appointed to that wrath that is in the that is in the hand of the Lord that is in the cup, that which is in the hand of the Lord, we are not appointed to the wrath that the world is going to go through, but we are appointed to salvation. You see, this gives us not a sense of complacency. This gives us not a sense of unpreparedness, this gives us this should not give us a false hope that we are, we are not going to the wrath. So, let's have the time of a lifetime. And that is the wrong response.
We have sometimes the teaching of God's word yes, we are not appointed to the wrath, but we are not asked to be to be sleeping, to be lazy to be to be in darkness, we've been asked to be watchful, to be ready to be sober, to be fulfilling the duties that God has given us as a servant. And that's the message that we can learn from all these passages. In what sense today. Are we ready? In what sense? Are we prepared for the coming of the world? the world the coming of the Lord? the world is going to go through unimaginable sorrows unimaginable crisis and the world has no clue about it. The world will not know it until it hits them hard.
And when it hits them hard, they will not have time to respond they will be less scrambling for all possible help and they will find nothing. That's those are the times which are left in the future. And the church has been asked to be ready to be watchful and not sleep. During this time of the night May the Lord help us and prepare us that once all of this is all over. And once we resume our lives and resume our normal lives that we live has if you're watchful and ready for the coming of the Lord because the Lord will come at an hour when no man, no angel, not even the Son knows. The Father has appointed in the hour in which he will come.
May God bless these words to our hearts
Therefore, you also be ready for in such an hour as you do not think the Son of Man comes.
Shall we pray before we go ahead, Lord, Father, we thank You for Your Word. We prayer Father as we look into it. May you shine into our hearts, the light that comes from it. We pray that your spirit would help us. Listen to your voice. We prayer Lord, that our hearts would be ready, and our ears would be opened to listen to your voice. Father, we pray that you may speak to us, Father to each and every one of us that are listening according to your needs. Father that you would help us, instruct us, and encourage us warn us, correct us And Father through this word that we will look Father and that you will prepare us for your coming. Bless this time for your glory’s sake, for your eternal love. And for your own sake which you do not deny yourself. We pray you may bless us. In the name of Your Son, Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
The Context of the Passage
This passage that we're looking at, comes in a passage which is familiarly called the Olivet Discourse. Before we go into this verse, that we read. Let's look at what these two chapters really are. Matthew chapter 24. And Matthew chapter 25. We refer to this passage in the morning, where the disciples come and ask of this temple. And they want to know, what is the signs of the coming of the Lord. And of the end of the time. That is the background to this. That is the background to this chapter, at the backdrop of this temple, and of the city of Jerusalem. The disciples want to know, what is the signs of the end of the time? What is the signs of the coming of the Lord? and the Lord goes in detail to tell us all the signs that will precede His coming.
That will precede not just merely the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. But the signs that will fall upon this whole world. And that is what these two chapters are it is a single sermon that the Lord gave, sitting at Olivet Discourse talking about his coming and the first about the first 35 verses in this chapter, chapter 24 speaks about the signs. And when it is all done, when the Lord comes towards the end of His message of where he is giving the signs, he takes a diversion from that point, to talk about a problem of one issue that will prophetically that will inevitably be fulfilled as a prophecy. And that issue is the issue of not being ready for His coming. And this is very important.
This is a problem that the world will face. And we know it as to how critical this problem is because the Lord would repetitively not just once, twice, thrice, but four times, in this passage, make it a point to say that we need to be ready for His coming. And he's only saying it because he knows when he comes. It's going to be a surprise. He knows that that when the judgments come the judgments and the wrath of God that gets poured out on this world before His coming and all of that comes he knows it is going to be a surprise, despite he talking about the signs. So yes, there is a big inquisitiveness in the minds of the disciples to know what the signs are But there is a larger problem in play, there is a larger issue in play that will evidently be fulfilled.
Four Warnings
And that is the fact that the people will not be ready for His coming. And that stems out of what he says in Matthew 24:26. It stems out of this fact that of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven. But my father, only. No one knows. We know what is coming. We know judgment is coming. We know his coming. We know the signs, but no one knows the time. And that puts a lot of us into dilemma. The whole world knows what is coming. The whole world knows the judgment that is coming. But just because we don't know the time, it puts us into this fix.
Again, the Lord will say the second time, Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. The disciples only wanted to know the signs and maybe we like the disciples would be would stress our mind and exercise our mind to analyze everything that the world is going through in times like this and find a fitting parallel to the signs that the Lord has given in Daniel and Matthew in Revelation, we would stress our minds to see it is the time but the Lord is more focused not merely on the signs that follow, but he's focused on the unpreparedness that he has to repetitively say, watch, because you do not know when this is going to happen.
And the third as third time, which is the verse we just read. Therefore, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour, you do not expect. It is a given fact over here that the Son of Man is going to come and Nobody's expecting, when nobody's ready for His coming. And when nobody is watching for it. But nobody has any anticipation for it. That's when Jesus Christ comes back. And again, the Lord would say, be ready, because you do not know when the when the Son of Man is coming. Finally, once again, in this passage, Lord will again repeat it, Watch therefore, for you neither know the day, nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
If the Lord must see this about four times and repetitively say that nobody knows. When the Lord is coming, he's actually referring to a very critical problem that the world will face, that the world is completely unprepared for what's going to hit them, that they have absolutely no clue of the times that they're living in. They have absolutely no clue of the wrath that is to come. And of the coming of the Lord. They have absolutely no clue of, or they can't even imagine to the stretch of which the world is going to disintegrate and degrade and be a decadent place. They have absolutely no clue what's coming. But in between these four warnings in between these four repetitions of the Lord saying that nobody knows you need to watch you need to be ready, you do not know when to expect it.
Four Illustrations
In between these four warnings in this same passage. The Lord sandwiches or intermixes four illustrations. These four warnings are sandwiched between these illustrations they follow and precede these four illustrations. The Lord gives again to give us an impression as to how important this issue is as to why the disciples merely asked for the signs. And once the Lord had done with the signs, the Lord goes into a larger issue that nobody is going to be ready for the Lord, Lord where he's going to be coming. And to drive home that point he says it four times and he gives us four illustrations to show how nobody will be ready for it.
Illustration 1: Time of Noah
The first illustration that the Lord gives is of the time of Noah, the same chapter verse 36 we are reading. But of the day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be for as in the days before the flood, They were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.
So also, will the coming of the Son of Man be. The Lord is stressing on the fact that history will repeat itself. This is how judgments have always fallen, it has taken the wicked unaware that the wicked had absolutely no clue that they were into a judgment, and they were about to die. You see the phrase over here, 'They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage' or in other words the people of those times went about their lives has if nothing is going to befall them. They had plans for their temporal pleasure’s day in and out, and they had long term plans for their own lives. They live their lives with a bit of foresight in mind. And they expected themselves to live long, like 900, 800 years.
They expected themselves to go about their lives daily chores as if nothing is going to be wrong, nothing is going to befall them. And we see that they did not know that Noah entered the ark. And they did not know until the flood came. It's like they were completely taken in the dark when the judgment fell. If you must read between the lines that we understand that Noah preached the gospel, he preached for them to be saved. And the fact that they were not prepared, and they went about their lives as if nothing is going to befall them, was showed that they considered the whole preaching of Noah and the whole exercise of building an ark of hogwash. They had no belief in what the message was saying. But here's a thing that when the day of judgment came, they did not even know that Noah had entered the ark.
They did not even know that the door was shut. And it started to rain, and it still did not hit them until the flood came they did not know until the flood came. I think we can relate this in the city of Mumbai because whenever it rains over here, we, The question we keep asking is, will it flood? We keep looking out for floods, we expect the rains to stop and the flood will not happen. And these people were completely in the dark that when it started to rain, they still did not understand. It is their judgment. And not until the waters rose to a very dangerously high level. They came to know that it is the judgment. They did not know until the floods came. I mean, that's how unprepared. That's how unready the people in the times of Noah were.
They had absolutely no clue what was hitting them until it actually hit them. You see, a very small glimpse of this is shown throughout history. Whenever judgment falls, it falls unaware the people on the on which it is fallen. The people are taken by surprise. We read in Egypt for example, The angel of death passed through the whole land and the Egyptians were sleeping peacefully not knowing judgment had fallen. And on the other hand, we see the Israelites girded with their soles in their feet and ready to move out. And that's the picture that the Lord is trying to drive that when the judgment falls on the wicked the wicked will not be prepared.
When the judgment fell on Sodom and Gomorrah the people of that city had no clue that fire and brimstone is going to hit them that day. They had no clue that day is their end. We see that they in their lust and in their sinfulness wanted to sin, but they had no clue what was coming in store. And then we see even in today's time even in today's time as to how people are dying and 1000s 2000 a day, 1000 a day. Lakhs are getting are getting affected by this disease on a daily basis. How the governments are clueless on their preparation. How people are clueless of what to anticipate.
That's how the judgment of God always falls the world will be taken by surprise. They have absolutely no clue of what is coming of how the times are going to get bad. I mean, today it is just it is just a virus. But if we know the prophecies, we know from the Bible that it's going to get worse. You can throw in pestilences you can throw in multiple diseases you can throw in wars and rumours of wars. You can throw in entwined famines, you can throw in earthquakes and tsunamis. You can throw in cosmic changes of stars falling of the sky and you can throw in huge geopolitical changes.
Where there is domestic hostility and civil wars and social disharmony, and you can throw in all of this happening together. And to top it all off, there is a great tribulation and persecution of the saints. That's what's coming. And the world absolutely has no clue that this is what we are entering into. And the question that we need to be asking is what the Lord would ask, be ready? Are we ready? Not this ready for the post lockdown, or a post quarantine or a post Corona world, are we ready for the world that that is going to disintegrate? That is going to degrade. It's not getting any better.
Illustration 2: Thief
When we see the second illustration, the Lord is giving the illustration of, of a thief And the Lord is saying that the master of the house, if he knows the hour, in which the thief would break, she would watch. But the fact is the master of the house, we do not know nobody in the world knows the Hour. We do not know when it is coming. And the Lord is likening his coming to a thief because that's exactly what will happen just like a thief, plunderers, and ransacks and burgles. That's exactly how the judgments will leave this world ago ravished. I mean, just a single virus can throw off, trillions of dollars can throw off economies can throw off jobs can literally plunder the world markets, just the single virus.
So, imagine what's going to happen. In the end times Imagine how it will really be a time of thief, plundering and destroying the resources of this world. And sometimes, not just we but a lot of Christians are taken up in this foolishness. And in this madness of saving this world, we spend our resources and in saving this world, in today's time, when you look at the discourse that happens in in social media and otherwise, and there's just about every Tom, Dick, Harry in this world wants to change this world, everybody wants to save this world. And sometimes Christians also are taken up in this wrong teaching. And they call it the social justice where they want this world to change. And it's up to the Christians to save this world.
If he really had the right sense of prophetic timeline, if he really had a sense of right eschatology, if he really understands that the world is going bad from now on, then we would know the mandate given for the Christians is not to save the world. You can in your goodwill, pray your hearts out for global warming, for climate change for greenhouse gases for all conservation. But the mandate that God has given us is not to save this dying world, the world already has a saviour in Christ, God has not asked us to be the Saviour, the mandate given is to save the souls.
It's like a titanic that is sinking. And we're not been given a mandate to fix a sinking ship, but to save the souls that the world will end, the world will reach a time of chaos and absolute madness, before the coming of the world. And so, there is no point in wasting our resources and fixing a world that is going bad, we ought to look at the mandate the Great Commission that this which is our responsibility towards the coming of the Lord.
Illustration 3: Servant
When we look at the third illustration in this passage, it's an illustration of a servant. And this illustration takes a different turn from the first two illustrations. Because the first two illustrations could be applicable to just about anybody to the saints to church to the world at large. But these next two illustrations are specifically talking of people having a relationship with God. And that's why in this illustration, they're called a servant, a servant that was put under the, as a ruler of the household, a servant that has been given divine responsibilities, to take care of God's kingdom of his household, to take care of his ministries, and even those servants, even those saints are going to be unprepared for His coming.
You see the problem again, arises by the fact that we don't know when it's all going to happen. And this evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming. And then it is clearly written, the master of that servant will come on a day, when he is not looking for him. And at an hour that he is not aware of. That is the given fact that people are not going to be prepared for His coming. It's not just to world and the wicked. people of this world, but even the servants on who are put rulers of the household, even they would not be looking at him. They would, they would, they would run out of patience. They would say master is delaying His coming, and then give themselves to eating and drinking with drunkards, they will give themselves into this world.
You see this has happened so many times before. It happened in Sinai, for example, they got tired waiting for Moses, and they did give themself up into eating and drinking and sitting and rising, and all kinds of revelry. You see the danger that the Lord is trying to say that the church might run out of patience and give themselves over to the temporal pleasures of the world thinking that this is all that is of this world is all that is. And that was the mistake of the people in the times of Noah. To think that this world is eternal, and that there is nothing befalling them. It is so explicitly written that this servant will be taken by surprise, that the Lord will come when he's not looking for him.
Illustration 4: 10 Virgins
When you go to the fourth illustration, illustration that we are very familiar with of the 10 virgins of 5 foolish and 5 wise. and it's clearly written again the same thing the bridegroom was delayed. It's about the Lord taking his own good time and grace to not come. He's, He is waiting that sinners repent, but the church the bride, who will sleep and slumber they all slumbered and slept, all, not just the foolish ones, but even the wise ones, they all slumbered, and slept. And this parable ends with this verse in verse 13, which we read, you do not know the day, nor the hours in which the Son of Man is coming. Mean if the Lord has to go about giving us four illustrations giving us four warnings repetitively, repetitively saying that nobody knows when it's when the Lord will come.
Nobody knows when these things will befall. And the larger problem in hand is that people are going to be taken for a huge shock, they will be surprised, what strikes them and what hits them, then it is not just merely the world that is unprepared, but even people with a covenantal relationship with God. And those that are His servants and those that are his bride will slumber and sleep and not be ready for what's coming in. This is a given fact; this is a prophetic word. And it is given us a warning for us to not slumber, not sleep, but to be watchful and ready.
The Readiness of the church in the Light of His Coming
For the remaining time that we have, I just want to look at two passages from the, from the from the epistles of Paul, the passages in Romans 13, and 1 Thessalonians 5. It's beautiful to look at these passages for a reason, because they've been written to two different churches. And we see a number of similarities in these two passages. And the theme of both passages is the same the Lord is coming. And what is the responsibility of the church in the light of His coming, As to how are we ready? Let's read both of these passages.
Romans 13:11-14.
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Let’s also read the second passage 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9.
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
The way we would go about in both of these passages is to look at how familiar and how similar these passages are, they have the same theme, they have the same words, they have almost the same order. And they've been written under the same context of the Lord's coming.
Knowing the Times
What's the first thing we see here is the similarity of time in both of these passages, when writing to the Romans, Paul writes, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. I mean, the encouragement for Paul to write this passage is where he looks at the time. And he is giving this as a fact that you too know this time you are knowing the time in which you're living, and you will know it is high time.
It is high time and that our salvation is nearer he's again referring to Time of the coming of the Lord, He is He is saying it is high time and you know, the times in which you live that is the motivation for writing these few words, the times in which he was living, he will say it is high time. The same thing and the same motivation we see in 1 Thessalonians he will say concerning times and seasons, brethren, you have no need, that I should write to you, for you yourself know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night concerning times and season.
There are two aspects here. One is times in terms of the year in which you live, and seasons in terms of the specific incidents of that time. And concerning the times you're living in, and concerning the seasons of going through. All is saying you have no need that I should write to you. This same phrase we read times and season, in the words of Lord Jesus Christ, when the when the disciples asked the Lord is He going to establish the kingdom? The Lord would say, it is not for you to know the times and season that has been fixed by the authority of the Father. And probably Paul is driving in the same principle here that we do not know the exact time of His coming.
But we are also not people who should be taken as a surprise. In verse 4, you or not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. We are not a group of people for which this day should come as a surprise and that it should be a rude shock like a thief burgling and as a thief intruding our lives, this is not supposed to be response. Yes, we do not know the times and seasons that has been fixed by the Father because that authority is not given to anybody.
But at the same time Paul wants to drive home the point that the day of the Lord is going to be like a thief coming and we are not going to look at the day like a thief is coming. It is not for us that we should be surprised like a thief, burgal somebody spoke. You see the two aspects over here. One that we are certain we are near; we are certain that the salvation is near. And at the same time, we don't run into a mindless exercise of determining the exact time in which the Lord comes our response should be to watch and to be ready for the time when he comes.
Walk as if it is Day
The second similarity in this passage is the reference to night darkness day and night. In Romans chapter 13, We read this way the night is far spend the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the Armor of light. Let us walk properly has in day, and not in revelry drunkenness, lewdness, lust, strife, and envy. The same theme we see again in First Thessalonians five. Brethren, you are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you, as a thief, you are all sons of light, sons of day, we are not of the night, nor of darkness, for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night, but let us who are of the day be sober.
Paul is referring to this time, in which we are living as night and darkness. He is referring to as a time of absolute abject wickedness. And in First Thessalonians he gives us in what sense this time is the time of darkness, you read here, brethren, you are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. Over here darkness signifies ignorance where Paul is saying, you are not in dark. Concerning the day of the Lord, you are not in dark concerning that the day of the Lord is going to be like a thief coming, you are not in that darkness of ignorance.
But over here later on we are saying we are not of the night nor of the darkness which is the darkness of moral wickedness and moral degradation. And this is the times in which we live. It has always been the time since Adam It's been the time of darkness and in this darkness, Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world came, and it is clearly written that people loved darkness and they hated the light because their works were evil. And as a contrast to these times of darkness as a contrast to these times of night, we are supposed to be ready in terms of we being light. We being children of light, we being children of day, we let it be putting on ourselves the Armor of light we properly walking as in the day it is not day.
It is not at all day it is still night but we walk as if there is light upon us. We walk as if the sun is shining bright, has in the day has said the light is shining and is exposing every deed of ours, deeds of this world. We walk under the fear of light, we walk as if it is day, though it is a night. And that is the sense in which Paul wants the church to be ready because it is the night now. And the night tis far spend. It's about time it is high time that the salvation is coming, and we are asked to be walking as if it is day. It is not a time of night in and that follows.
Awake out of Sleep
The next thing we see in this passage of sleeping, both the passages talk of sleeping we see in Romans chapter 13. It is high time to awake out of sleep. It is given that night is for sleeping, and that we should sleep in the night but we are not acting as if it is night that the church is not supposed to sleep and slumber like the Virgin’s, but we are not asked to be lazy. We are not supposed to abdicate our duties and responsibilities that there should be no dereliction of our duties. There should be no letting go of our responsibilities. There is a mandate given to us and we ought not to act as if it is time for us to sleep this ain't times of sleeping.
These ain't times of slumber these ain't times of laziness. These ain't in times of not being watchful or not being ready. The advice to church is to awake and it is high time that the Church awakes out of the sleep. The same thing again we read that let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and darkness. In First Thessalonians we again read this repetition Therefore let us not sleep as others too. The world is sleeping. The world is in drunkenness and revelry. That's what the world will do in the night time. But we are not asked to be like others. We are not asked to sleep through this period.
We are asked to watch and be sober. The world will get drunk we have been asked to be sober. The world will sleep we've been asked to watch the world is part of night we are part of light. The world is part we are part of day the world is part of darkness we are part of light. You see the contrast that Paul wants to bring that the church has a different response to the coming of the Lord, that the world is going to be in a rude shock but we are supposed to be watching and sober.
We're supposed to be like the watchmen put what's been put to warn the world of impending danger to see again and again. Paul would again say this in other epistles. Awake you who sleep arise from the dead where sleep is compared not just to laziness and slumber but sleep is compared to death. And Paul would say, awake you who sleep arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. And so the world today is sleeping not just because they are not doing anything, just sleeping in the sense that they are dead in their sins, and Christ will give them light.
Again, Paul would write to the Corinthians church, this time to the believers in the church and says, wake up from your drunken stupor, wake up from your drunken, insensitiveness or in a Brit, or, or in the state of unconsciousness or state of perpetual sleep. Wake up from that state of being drunk and sleeping, that is not us. That is what others do. That is what the world does.
Put on the Armor
And you see, the next thing that is so common in this both passages are the aspect of the Armor. Both passages talk about Armor. Both the passages talk about the church being prepared for the evil times. In Ephesians six, we read that we had to put on the whole Armor of God and be prepared for the evil day for that is coming. And the same thing is put on over here that it is the day of revelry. It is the day of drunkenness, it’s the day of lewdness it’s the day of lust, it’s the day of strife, it’s the day of envy. And if there was no reason for this darkness, these works of darkness to affect Christians, then there would be no reason for Christians to put on this Armor.
We're living in darkness, not isolated from the wickedness of this darkness. We are not living in times when the when the dirt and the muck of this world cannot stick to us. It can stick to us, it can attack us. It can so much like the evil servant, we would slumber and sleep and give ourselves to eating and drinking. And that we would give ourselves into the revelries of this world. And so as a warning, in both the passages, Paul would talk off, putting on the armor. Yes, the world is getting drunk, but let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of, of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Salvation is nearer than when we first Believed
Finally, the driving force behind both these passages, the salvation we read in both the passages Paul is saying our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And in First Thessalonians He ends that passage by saying this, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there is a salvation that is coming, a salvation of our souls and of our bodies. A salvation which is the perfection of the saints which is the glorification of the saints where that where what the Lord has started, he will complete and finish it, where it is the redemption of the possessed, possession that we wait for.
It is the time of His coming. And we are waiting for that day of salvation where this wretched body of ours were we in the sinful body would where this body of corruption would be put on the body of incorruption. We are waiting for the day of purity and perfection to be clothed upon to be put upon the righteousness of Christ. We are waiting for that salvation I can and it is in this driving motivation that Paul is telling us to be watchful. To be ready to be sober, to not sleep, to be awakening, to walk as the sons of light and sons of day. To not give ourselves over to darkness and drunkenness to not be like others, Knowing the times that it is near.
It is in this motivation. You see, God did not appoint us to wrath. The world will face the wrath of the lamb, the world will face an unimaginable wrath. And the world will face wrath where they will say let the mountains and the hills fall upon us. Because who can withstand the wrath of this lamb? There will be times when 1/4 of the world will perish just by mere death and pestilence and famine. And it will still not be the end it will just be the beginning of the times and as to as the scriptures says, its going to be great tribulation. But God has not appointed us to wrath. God has not appointed us to that cup which is in his hand and which the dregs of the dregs of it, the wicked of the world are going to drink.
We see the same wrath in the Garden of Gethsemane we see the Lord Jesus Christ saying, let this cup pass from me. And if the Lord did not drink, yes, it would have passed, it would have passed upon every single soul to drink of the wrath of God. We read this again in Jeremiah where the Lord would say to Jeremiah in the hands of the Lord's a cup, and Jeremiah is asked to give it to all the nations of the world. Every King, every government, every leader is going to drink of this wrath. That there is unimaginable wrath coming. That's how we look, and we find that there are seven bowls of, of wrath of God coming.
And but it's so amazing that for those who trust in the Son of God, who bore all wrath of God in its infiniteness, in his infinity, who for us, we are not appointed to that wrath that is in the that is in the hand of the Lord that is in the cup, that which is in the hand of the Lord, we are not appointed to the wrath that the world is going to go through, but we are appointed to salvation. You see, this gives us not a sense of complacency. This gives us not a sense of unpreparedness, this gives us this should not give us a false hope that we are, we are not going to the wrath. So, let's have the time of a lifetime. And that is the wrong response.
We have sometimes the teaching of God's word yes, we are not appointed to the wrath, but we are not asked to be to be sleeping, to be lazy to be to be in darkness, we've been asked to be watchful, to be ready to be sober, to be fulfilling the duties that God has given us as a servant. And that's the message that we can learn from all these passages. In what sense today. Are we ready? In what sense? Are we prepared for the coming of the world? the world the coming of the Lord? the world is going to go through unimaginable sorrows unimaginable crisis and the world has no clue about it. The world will not know it until it hits them hard.
And when it hits them hard, they will not have time to respond they will be less scrambling for all possible help and they will find nothing. That's those are the times which are left in the future. And the church has been asked to be ready to be watchful and not sleep. During this time of the night May the Lord help us and prepare us that once all of this is all over. And once we resume our lives and resume our normal lives that we live has if you're watchful and ready for the coming of the Lord because the Lord will come at an hour when no man, no angel, not even the Son knows. The Father has appointed in the hour in which he will come.
May God bless these words to our hearts
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