Are You Ready for Christ's Return? Part 3

Let's pray together. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we are grateful once again for the opportunity to study your word and to praise your glorious name. We remind you, Father, that you are the greatest of all and no one's greater than you are and we, as your children, come to worship your greatness. We are grateful, Lord, that we had this opportunity each and every week to bow before you and to gather together and worship your name. And on this day, we ask that you would open our hearts and minds to those things you want us to learn, to know and understand, that truly we might live in obedience to your precious word.

Truly, Lord, you are a great God and we are thankful for your salvation. In Jesus' name, Amen. Today is a great day. Every Sunday is a great day. I look forward to Sundays because they always remind me of the opportunity that we're gonna have one day in heaven when we praise the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, it's important to realize that, you know, I have a Christmas tree in my office. When Jimmy DeYoung was here, he told me that he has a Christmas tree up all year round in his house as well. So, I like the man just because he always has a Christmas tree up.

But we began to converse about why that is. You know, we spend so much time celebrating the birth of Christ and we should because we spent, in fact, we spent a whole month here at Christ Community Church celebrating the birth of Christ. But very few of us ever spend time anticipating the second coming of Christ.

And so, I think it's important for us to study that and we're going to do that again today as we look at Luke chapter 12 verses 35 and following.

But, you know, I am a low-tech kind of person and it's okay if our projector goes out because it doesn't really bother me because I don't use those kind of things. But we got a lady in our church who was so kind to put this together for me this week so that we'd have it for today so you can see it. Now, granted, this is old-school and I know that maybe if you're in the back you can't see it. But, you know, maybe if you weren't so carnal, you'd move up to the front. I don't know. But this is an opportunity.

Isn't that kind of neat? She did that for us this week. And so we can have that. And I forgot my little red dot thing that I always use. Oh, wow. I wish I knew where it was. It's in my office, babe. Want to get it? Top chair? Thank you, baby. But anyway, it's a great opportunity for us to once again look at the return of Christ.

Now, if you were here last week, I told you, I didn't tell you in the first service, I told you in the second service, that I have the same chart with all the verses.

Well, not all the verses, but a lot of the verses on it. So this is available to you in the tape window if you'd like it. For those of you here on Wednesday, we gave about a hundred of them out on Wednesday night. But there are available in the tape window if you want them. It's the same chart as this one is, but with verses in it to help you understand the events of the end times. And so I want to spend some time looking at it once again, because when you think about it, we spend so much time celebrating the birth of Christ, His first coming, but very little time anticipating His second coming.

And yet, His second coming was the first prophecy given by man to man from God. When Enoch, from the seventh generation of Adam, gave the prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. And when we begin to study the the birth of Christ, which we all should do because we do celebrate Christmas, we begin to understand more and more the importance of the fact that when Jesus came, He came to reveal His identity, reveal His deity, so we would understand who He is. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.

The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So when Christ came the first time, He came to reveal His deity, but He also came to ravage the enemy, right?

First John 3, verse number 8, He came to destroy the works of the devil, but He also came to remove our iniquity, First John 3, verse number 5.

But He also came to restore our dignity, First John 3, verse number 1. What manner of love is this? That the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. But He also came the first time, not just to reveal His deity, and to ravage the enemy, and to remove our iniquity, and to restore our dignity.

He came so He could return in glory. He came so He could return in glory. Because, you see, the Old Testament taught two comings of the Messiah. It's unmistakable. Two comings of the Messiah. All you have to do is is to read the text. We can read it in Isaiah 9, verse number 6. You know, the Son will be given, the Child will be born. We know about the name of our Lord God. But it also says that the government will be on His shoulders, and His kingdom will have no end, signifying that there are two comings of the Messiah.

Probably the most significant one is in Zechariah 12, verse number 10, when it says the Lord God Jehovah speaking to the nation of Israel says, they will look on Me in whom they have pierced. And so you ask a Jewish person, when was the great God Jehovah pierced? And if He's a spirit, which He is, if God is spirit, how could He ever be pierced? He can't be. Unless, of course, He becomes a man. And so it talks about the fact that, that they will look on Me in whom they have pierced, and they will mourn, mourn for Me.

And Zechariah 13, one talks about the great outpouring of salvation for the nation of Israel at that time. You can also read about the two comings of Malachi 3 and Malachi 4. Malachi 3 talks to us about how the Lord will come to His temple suddenly. Remember, Malachi was written after the destruction of the first temple.

The second temple had yet to be built, but the Messiah would come into His temple suddenly. And if you've been with us over our study of the book of Luke, you know that the Messiah would come to that temple suddenly in John chapter 2, when He would come and wipe out the money changers and turn over the tables because they had made His Father's house a den of thieves. He came to the temple before that at the age of 12. And so we begin to see that the Bible speaks about two comings because the Malachi 4, it talks about before the day of the Lord, a light show will come.

So you can go on and on and on and look at the Old Testament and realize that there are two comings of the Messiah.

And we celebrate His first coming and thus we should, but we should more anticipate His second coming because there are a lot of prophecies yet to be fulfilled in the second coming of the Messiah.

So the Bible says over 50 times, be ready, be ready because He could come at any moment. A day, an hour, which you do not know, the Son of Man is going to come. Jesus would refer to a second coming some 21 different times in the New Testament.

And one out of every 25 verses in the New Testament speaks of His second coming. It's paramount in the New Testament. It is a cardinal doctrine of our faith. So much so that Jesus says in Revelation 1 verse number three, that if you read the book of Revelation and you hear the book of Revelation and you keep the words of the prophecy of the book of Revelation, you will be a blessed person.

Blessing comes just because you know the plan of the end. Blessing comes when you're able to understand what the Lord God is going to do at the end, because it's going to motivate you in the present. Because you know how it's all going to turn out, you can live a certain way in the present. People of the world, they have no idea how it's all going to end. We do. Ask us. We can tell you. We can give you a chart. We can put it up on TV and let you know how it's all going to come to be because the Lord has spelled it out for us very clearly in His book, the Bible.

And so we come to study exactly that. And yet, isn't it interesting that very little of us ever anticipate the coming of the Messiah? We go through life and as if, almost as if He's not going to come. Over 20 years ago, I was at a church and the pastor of that church, David Hockey, was preaching and he read a poem at the end when he was talking about the coming of the Messiah. It was Christmas time. And this is the poem that he read, "'Twas the night before Jesus came. "'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house not a creature was praying, not one in the house.

Their Bibles were laying on the shelf without care in hopes that Jesus would not come there. The children were dressing to crawl into bed, not once ever kneeling or bowing the head. And mom in her rocker with baby on her lap was watching the late show while I took a nap. When out of the east there arose such a clatter, I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.

With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray, I knew in a moment this must be the day. The light of his face made me cover my head. It was Jesus returning just like he said. And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth, I cried when I saw him in spite of myself. In the book of life which he held in his hand was written the name of every saved man. He spoke not a word as he searched for my name. When he said it is not here, my head hung in shame. The people whose names had been written with love, he gathered to take to his father above.

With those who were ready, he rose without a sound while all the rest were left standing around. I fell to my knees, but it was too late. I'd waited too long and thus sealed my fate. I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight. Oh, if only I had been ready tonight. In the words of this poem, the meaning is clear. The coming of Jesus is drawing near. There's only one life and when comes the last call, we'll find that the Bible was true after all. Now within that poem, there are a lot of theological errors.

Because it's not completely accurate, because it kind of sums together the whole thing about the arrival of the Messiah. It talks about the rapture. It talks about the revelation of Christ, the second coming.

And it talks about, you know, the end of the great white throne judgment, the books were open. But the poem does do something to help us understand the second coming of the Messiah.

And that is that when it talks about the return of the king, it encompasses everything from the rapture of the church all the way to the end to the new heaven and the new earth. I told you that last week. And what we have to do is distinguish what it is the text is talking about to know exactly where we are. And yet if the Bible is so clear about the end and emphasizes it so much, I told you last week that outside the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of the second coming is the most emphasized doctrine in all scripture.

How come we don't know anything about it? So that Wednesday night, the Bible says, do not be ignorant about the coming of the Lord.

And there are seven times in the New Testament that says, don't be ignorant, don't be ignorant, don't be ignorant. But we are. And the things that we're not to be ignorant about, we tend to be ignorant about, whether it's the sins of Israel, the salvation of Israel, spiritual gifts, the second coming of the Messiah, and so forth.

Satan's devices, all those things the Bible says, do not be ignorant about. But we are. We need not be. And so we're spending some time here in Luke chapter 12, verses 35 to 40, because it says, the son of man is coming in an hour which you do not expect him to come. His coming is imminent. It's for certain. You need to be ready for his coming. Most of us have no idea as to the events surrounding it, let alone being ready for his coming. And that is what the Bible commands us to do. And yet, in spite of all these different things that are going to happen, and that we know the plan of the end because the Bible is very clear about that, I thought to myself, what is it that keeps us from anticipating his coming?

I love to speak about the coming of the Messiah. I do. Probably more than any other topic in Scripture. I love the book of Revelation more than any other book of the Bible, because it's the end, and we're home with the Lord, and everything is glorious and great. There is no more sin, no more pain. That's going to be a great time. And I love to speak about it because it's dear to my heart, and Jesus emphasizes so readily here in Luke 12. We'll see it again in Luke 17. See it again in Luke 21 again.

Jesus speaks about it an awful lot. But I began to think, well, how come we don't anticipate it? What's wrong with us? And then I began to think, well, how come the people of Jesus' day didn't anticipate the birth of the Messiah, especially when he told them that on the 173,880th day he would arrive in Jerusalem? We know that's when Daniel died in 24 to 27, right? We've studied that at length in our series, The Return of the King. He gave them the exact day of his arrival in Jerusalem, and they still weren't ready.

And so he's not going to tell them when he's going to come again, because they missed him the first time.

The exact day he told them when the Messiah, the Prince, should be presented. So in Luke 19, Jesus said, oh, if only you'd known the day, this day, on this day. But you did not know. You missed it. They weren't looking for the arrival of the Messiah. Well, the same thing that happened then is happening now in the church. Same thing. Now, this isn't in your notes, so if you're wondering about the metaphors we're going to talk about in Luke 12, we're not quite there yet. Hopefully we can get to them today.

If not, we'll get to them next week, unless the Lord comes back. But you better be ready, okay? Or you might miss his coming and thus be left behind. And that's not a very glorious thought. We'll talk about that later. But the point being is that as it was in the days of Jesus, so it is today. How was it in the days of Jesus? Well, there was apathy. Apathy seemed to reign supreme in Jerusalem. They had lacked interest in the coming of the Messiah. They had lost interest in the coming of the Messiah.

400 silent years between the Old Testament and New Testament, no angel had spoken to any man. God had not spoken to any man. And quite frankly, they just got tired of waiting. They began to be apathetic and lethargic. And their apathy began to be the rule of the day. Same way it is today. When people say, Peter tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3, scoffers will come and say, where is the promise of his coming? We're like, I don't know. I have no idea. I thought he was coming too. And we begin to be very apathetic.

Apathetic because very few preachers ever preach on the second coming of the Messiah. Prophecy is not something that people emphasize. In fact, what church do you know has an emphasis on the second coming of the Messiah on a regular basis?

Very few do. Because it's all about now. Marriages and relationships and all those things that seem to be so pressing. Oh, my life, my life is falling apart. My marriage is so bad. My kids are rebelling. What am I going to do? And we get so hung up on right now.

We become apathetic to the coming of the Messiah, not knowing that our anticipation of his coming rejuvenates our present life and our understanding of the present. If you know the future, the present changes. If you anticipate the future, the present changes. Not that the circumstances change, but your perspective on everything changes. But like the people in the days of Jesus, apathy reigned supreme. Number two, there was activity that seemed to keep them from anticipating the coming of the Messiah.

And the same is true for us today. We do so many things. And you know what? Most of the things we do just are meaningless. Read the book of Ecclesiastes and you'll change 95% of the things you do every day. Just read the book of Ecclesiastes. It's all vain. It's all empty. It has no worth for the future. We think that it's going to change my present. And so I spend all my time and money and effort doing these kinds of things. But it doesn't. It doesn't. We become so active doing all kinds of things and going here and going there.

And the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter two, verse number four, that no good soldier involves himself in the affairs of this world.

So that he may please his commanding officer. We got a lot of soldiers going AWOL in the church today. They're so involved in the things of the world that they become so consuming that our activity keeps us from anticipating the future. Because we're so busy with things that in all they just don't matter. They just don't matter. But because we spend so much time in them, they're bigger than they really are. And we think they do matter. So there was apathy. There was activity. The innkeeper, he was the one who through all of his activities missed the coming of the Messiah.

He was so busy finding rooms for everybody else. He had no time to think of a room for Joseph and Mary and the little baby that was about to be born. But outside of apathy and activity, there is religiosity. That's a killer when it comes to anticipating the coming of the Messiah. Religiosity is a damper. It blinds us to the reality of Jesus's coming. We told you before, you know, whether it's Judaism, whether it's Hinduism, whether it's Mormonism, whether it's Catholicism. If it's got an ISM on the end, it's incapable of saving man.

That's what the ISM stands for, right? ISM, incapable of saving man. That's why it's called an ISM. And they cannot save man. But religion, people in Jerusalem are religious. In Jerusalem today, they're religious people. And that religiosity blinds us to the reality of what the truth of the scripture actually does say. And therefore, we're blinded to the truth. Religious people, they talk about God. They talk about the Bible. But yet they do not know the God of the Bible. So it's apathy, activity, religiosity, familiarity.

Familiarity. Some people, well, they become, well, we're so familiar with the end time. Yeah, we know all that. You know what? Even though I had the chart, even though I got all the verses in the chart, even though I spoke on the second coming hundreds of times, I don't know it all.

There's so much I don't even know. So much more I can learn. So much more I can come to grips with. Let me give you an example.

When Jimmy DeYoung was here, he said something very significant. I never thought of it before. And most of us think that when the rapture of the church happens, okay, the tribulation begins. Answer, not so. It's not till the Antichrist signs a covenant for seven years with Israel that the tribulation begins. That's the beginning of the 70th week, not the rapture. The rapture does not begin the 70th week. It's when the Antichrist signs a peace covenant, confirms the covenant with Israel for one week.

That's when it begins. I never thought of that before. I haven't preached on the second coming of Christ for years.

So there's so much to learn and so much that you can explore. But familiarity? How about Jesus' family? They didn't even believe on him. How about the people in Nazareth? Is this not Joseph's son? How can he come in here and tell us that we're sinners? This is just Joseph's boy. He can't come into our synagogue in our town and tell us that we're far from God. He can't do that. But he did. Familiarity tends to breed contempt. But sometimes we think that we know it all, but we don't know nearly very much at all.

Because the Bible is filled with all kinds of precious truths that we need to learn and understand and study. And like it was in the days of Jesus, whether it was apathy or whether it was activity or whether it was religiosity or whether it was familiarity, there was also idolatry. That was Rome. That was Rome. Israel worshipped the right God in the wrong way. Rome worshipped the wrong God in the wrong way. And it's that idolatry that really hinders our anticipating the coming Messiah. Because if we're worshipping the right God in the wrong way, we're in trouble.

You've got to worship him in spirit and truth. If you're worshipping the wrong God, you're really in trouble. But even in the church, even in the church, there's times in which things become more important to us than the Lord. Anything that robs your attention or your affection away from Christ is an idol that you hold in higher esteem than God himself. A lot of people have their family as idols, their children as idols. They're so important to them. They're only gifts for a short period of time.

But they worship at the altar of family, and thus they cannot anticipate the coming of the Messiah. It can be the God of education. Big thing today, got to get educated. Got to get another degree. As if anybody really cares about how many degrees you really have. Nobody really cares about that, except you and your bank, because they get all your money when you go to get those degrees. Right? They want you to get more and more degrees because they get more and more your money. And so we worship at the altar of education, the God of education, the God of family, the God of activity, the God of athletics.

We bow before the God of even work. Work becomes such a priority for me. It robs my affection from God so much so that I can't even get to church on time because I'm so busy doing work for another God that I'm serving. You see, that always becomes an issue, doesn't it? Anything that robs your attention or your affection is an idol. If it robs you of your anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. For Israel, they had the right God. They just didn't worship Him in the right way. And thus they had become idol worshipers.

Everything about what they did was more important than who was to come. See? And then there was also, oh, by the way, that was the chief priests and the scribes, Pharisees. They were the ones who were involved in the, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It was Rome involved in idolatry, even Israel. But then comes another area that hinders our anticipation. That's self-sufficiency. And that's where the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees fit in. Self-sufficiency is a killer to anticipating the coming of the Messiah.

Self-sufficiency. And the scribes and elders and chief priests, they thought they didn't need God anymore. They had their own system. The system that made them the way they were. They even had to rewrite the system to make sure they could fit into their own kind of system that they might have a right standing in their own mind with God. Self-sufficiency. We don't need God. We can make it without God. Who needs God? And then, of course, there's jealousy. That was Herod. How dare there be another king that would want to take control of my life?

Right? How dare there be another king that would want to rule my life? And Herod wanted to make sure that that didn't happen, so he killed all the children two years and under. But sometimes, you know, that's us. Jesus wants to come in and take over. That's what Christianity does, you know. Jesus is a dictator. He comes in and takes over your life. He runs your life. He rules your life. And we don't want anybody doing that. We don't want God doing that. We want to rule our own lives. We want to make our own decisions.

We want to have our own choices. We want to do our own thing. And the Lord says, Oh, no. I am your God. I am your Lord. I am your master. You are my slave. You just do what I tell you to do. And that offends us. Really? If that offends you, you're probably not saved. Let me say that again.

If that offends you, you're probably not saved. Because a true believer understands his identity in Christ, that he's a slave of the master. He wants to do what the master says. He lives in submission to his master. That's so important. As it was in the days of Jesus, so it is today. Things don't ever change. Always the same. Always the same. Attitudes are the same. People are the same. And that same attitude seems to permeate the modern evangelical church today. So that we don't anticipate the coming of the King and all the events surrounding it.

Are you ready for his coming? Are you ready for the return of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ? I would hope that you are. Because number one, it is a sure event.

You talk about the coming of the Lord. You talk about when the church is translated up to heaven. There's the judgment seat of Christ. There's the marriage supper of the Lamb. That takes place in heaven while the tribulation is here on earth. We come back with him. Here, we go to be with him. Here, we come back with him. And in that time in heaven, there's a tribulation period. And then comes the great battle of Bozrah, which we believe is really the truth, not the battle of Armageddon, because there is no battle there.

That's what the Bible says. And it's always better to err on the side of the Bible than err on the side of your own opinion, right? But if you err on the side of the Bible, there is no error. It's always truth. So we go with what the Bible says.

And then there's the kingdom age, a thousand years, where Satan is bound, then loose at the end, one more great battle. Then there's the great white throne judgment, then the new heaven and new earth. Okay? So when we talk about the coming of the Messiah, the return of the King, there is the rapture, the revelation, and the retribution. All three make up the day of the Lord that's triggered by the event of the rapture of the church. Okay? The Antichrist does not come on the scene until after the church is gone.

It is a sure event. How do we know that? The same Jesus, the same Jesus, Acts 111. Don't you know the same Jesus is going to come again in the same way in which he left? Remember, he doesn't say he's going to come back down to the Mount of Olives. That's a big error that most commentators make. He will go to the Mount of Olives. He will split the Mount of Olives. But he comes down here in Edom, in Bezra, in the wilderness where Israel is. No sense in coming down to the Mount of Olives if Israel's in Edom and the Antichrist is pursuing Israel in Edom, right?

So he comes down and he saves Israel at this time, all right, at the end of the tribulational period. But it's a sure event because the two individuals in white apparel, maybe they're angels, maybe they're not. Maybe it's Moses and Elijah again. We don't know. So don't you know this same Jesus is going to come in the same manner in which he left? It is a sure event. It's going to happen. So sure that it was the first prophecy, we told you last week, given by man to man about God.

Enoch did that. It's about the coming of the King with all of his holy ones. So Enoch talked about this coming, the second coming of the Messiah, not the first coming before the church age over here and then the church age begins.

But he talks about the second coming of the Messiah with all of his holy ones with him. That's when we come back with him, having been in heaven with him for seven years. We come back to earth with him. And so it is a sure event. The book of 1 Thessalonians, every chapter ends with a reminder about the second coming.

Every chapter, all five chapters talk about something concerning the second coming of the Messiah, the return of the King.

And those in Thessalonica were really a second coming church. They lived in the light of the return of Christ and they would live anticipating his coming again over in John 14, verse number six, Christ said, you know, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And there he talked to his disciples. That was before the church age because the church age would ensue in the book of Acts about this event right here, the rapture of the church. He goes and he's preparing a place for us.

In my father's house are many dwelling places. He prepares a place for us in glory that when he comes back, he will take us home to be with him. That where I am there, you may be also. It is a certain event. That sure event should never cause you to yawn. Are you yawning this morning? You've got a problem spiritually. You've got a major problem spiritually. That's sure event of Jesus coming. If you're yawning right now, there's a problem. You say, how do you know I'm yawning? You don't have your glasses on.

Oh, believe me, I know a lot more than you think I know. And because it should be a stimulus in your life. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Are you ready? He's coming again. He's coming again. He's coming again. It might be am I ready for his coming? It's a sure event. On top of that, it is a surprising event. It's a surprising event. Both of these events, by the way, are surprising events. Okay. Luke 12, verse 40, okay, is about the rapture of the church. We'll tell you why if we have time this morning, why that is.

Okay. Luke 12, 40 is about the rapture of the church. He's coming at a time in which you least expect him to come. But the rapture, the revelation of Christ and his second coming, this is the rapture.

This is the revelation. This is the retribution. Okay. Three main events in the plan of the age, plan of the end to the end, the rapture, the revelation, the retribution. Okay. So at the revelation of Christ, when he returns to this earth, all right, that time is also a time in which no man knows the day nor the hour. And we told you a couple of weeks ago that, well, wait a minute, you know, once the covenant is signed and confirmed by the antichrist, we get seven years. We can count seven seals being broken.

We can count seven trumpets being blown. We can count seven bowls being poured. So when the seventh bowl is poured and there's a great earthquake and all the islands flee, flee away and are destroyed, then Jesus is coming back. We're going to be ready. No, because Jesus said, no one knows a day nor the hour. So if Jesus said it, don't think that you're smarter than Jesus and can figure it out. You can't. How can we think we can figure it out? Just because we know the plan of the end doesn't mean we know the exactness of that plan and how it fulfills at the end.

Jesus has given us a sketch of how it's all going to come to be at the end. He doesn't give you every single detail of every single moment of every single day of the tribulation period and how it's all going to unfold, let alone the millennial kingdom. We have a broad scope of what the millennial kingdom is going to look like in the kingdom age, but we don't know all the details of that. So you've got to be able to study those things. Someone asked me last week, they asked, he said, okay, now when this battle takes place and there's, there is a, a, a judgment here, it's called the judgment of the sheep and the goat, the judgment of the nations, right?

Jesus comes, he descends in Edom someplace, presumably in Bozrah, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 63. Okay. He makes his way up the Judean wilderness to Jerusalem to split them out of violence. And in the Kidron Valley there, the Valley of Jehoshaphat called the Valley of Decision, a judgment will take place. Joel 3 tells us about that judgment going to happen. So, so we know it's there. We know exactly where the judgment is going to take place because the Bible tells us. Matthew 25 is that judgment, the judgment of the nations, the sheep, goat judgment.

When that happens, okay, when that happens, the only ones left on earth are believers, believe in Jews, believe in Gentiles. They are the sheep, right? They believe in Jews and Gentiles. They're the ones who enter the kingdom age and they marry. And as they marry, they have children. And these children from those Jews and Gentiles that enter the kingdom age will populate the earth so much so that at the end, there will be a time when those children born in that age, because everybody who goes into the kingdom is saved.

This is where we rule and reign right here. We come back with him and we reign with him. Okay. And we come back and we reign with this, our Lord in the kingdom age. We have glorified bodies. Those Jews and Gentiles that are in the judgment of the nations who enter the kingdom do not have glorified bodies. We do. They don't. Okay. And they'll marry, they'll have children. Those children will grow up and they'll live in the kingdom age. And someone says, okay, look, if I'm an unbeliever, if I'm a believer and I die in the kingdom age, when am I resurrected?

Do I get a glorified body? Do I get a glorified body immediately? Or if I'm a believer in the kingdom age, do I ever die? Or do only unbelievers die in the kingdom age? That's a great question. That's a great question. I have a semblance of an answer, but not a good answer. So I won't give it to you. I don't know necessarily. Okay. The Bible is not real clear on that. Some commentators think that it's clear, but others are not so sure. So those are good questions to ask, but, but it's a surprising event.

This event is surprising because no one knows that the Lord can come back at any moment. Nothing. That's why it's called that imminent return. Why? Because nothing has to happen before this event takes place. Nothing. It's called an imminent return. Nothing. Things, certain things will happen, but nothing has to happen for the rapture of the church to take place. That's the next event on the prophetic calendar. That event triggers all of this, all of this. Okay. This doesn't happen until that happens, the rapture of the church.

Once that happens, everything else will begin to fall into place in God's own timetable, but not yet. And so this event is a surprising event. This event is a surprising event. No one knows a day, nor does anyone know the hour of the coming of the son of man, but the second coming of Christ is this whole thing.

This is the second coming of Christ. It encompasses the rapture, the revelation, and the retribution. It all entails a second coming of Christ.

And the Lord has made sure because he told you the exact day of his first coming. He's not going to tell you the exact day of his second coming.

You just have to be ready. And that's the point of Luke 12 verses 35 to 40, our text that we probably won't get to today, but that's our text. So you have the fact that it is a sure event. It is a surprising event. The Bible speaks of it as a thief in the night. Okay. And usually when the Bible speaks about the thief in the night, whether it's Revelation 16, second Peter 3.10, first Thessalonians 5.2, it speaks about this thief coming suddenly unexpectedly at an hour that you do not know.

Because when a thief comes, he doesn't tell you or call you on the phone and say, okay, I'm coming Friday at nine just so that you know you can be ready. I'm coming. No, thieves don't call you up and let you know when they're going to arrive to steal your goods. They show up unexpectedly, surprisingly. Okay. Suddenly. And Jesus compares his coming as a thief in the night. Our text in Luke 12 also speaks about the fact that it's a thief because it speaks of it coming unexpectedly. And suddenly that's why it's a surprising event.

On top of that, it is a sudden event. It is a sudden event. It is so surprising. It takes you so surprised because it's so quick. It's sudden. For instance, when it comes to the rapture of the church, the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15 says it's in the twinkling of an eye, not the blink of an eye, the twinkling of an eye. That's incredibly quick and you're gone. Your body's changed. You're gone. You're in glory. Bang. Just that quick. It's sudden. It's surprising. It's sudden. It happens when no one expects.

Plus when Christ comes back, that too will be a sudden event because the Bible says that the world will be, will be black, pitch black.

It'll be dark. All right. And the son of man will appear. And that's why when it says he appears in all of his glory, remember that his glory is his brightness. When the world is pitch black and the Lord returns, he lights up the entire sky, the entire world with his glory. And it will be just that quick. It will be a sudden event. It will also be a super natural event, a supernatural event. This is a supernatural event. People just don't leave this earth and go someplace else. That's supernatural.

That's why when Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1 off the Mount of Olives and they watched him going up, they had never seen anything like that before. That's why they kept staring up into heaven. There he goes. Well, there he goes. Look at that.

They had never seen anybody just ascend up into heaven. They'd seen a resurrection. They had never seen an ascension. And so they were taken by surprise. It was a supernatural event. So will the rapture of the church because we will ascend up into glory. Then we will descend with him on white horses, according to Revelation 19. That also is a supernatural event. None of the events in this tribulation period, the kingdom age, the great white throne judgment, the battle of Bozrah, all those things are all supernatural events.

Cannot be duplicated by Hollywood, no matter how many films they make or how many movies they make concerning the second coming.

I'm always a little concerned when someone makes a movie about the second coming of the Messiah, because whenever you add a little bit of fiction to truth, you get more fiction than truth.

You got to be careful about that, right? You can sell 25 million copies of a book and everybody reads it and gets so excited about a book that's mostly fiction, but they don't get excited about this, which is true. See, that always bothers me too. This really bothers me. Always be excited about the truth instead of somebody's fictional take on the truth. Okay. So it is a supernatural event. Boy, I wish I could go through all the aspects of that. You have the resurrection of the dead, the dead in Christ will rise first.

First Thessalonians 4. You have the rapture of the church that happens simultaneously. You have the renovation of our physical body. We get a brand new body, a glorified body, that which is perishable becomes imperishable. That which is normal becomes abnormal because it's a supernatural kind of body. You have the reunion in the air. First Thessalonians 4 verses 15 to 17.

You have then the revenge that takes place upon the earth, the tribulation. You have the return to earth in Revelation 19. You have the retribution of sinners in Revelation 19, 17 and 21. You have the removal of the servant, the reign of the saints, the release of Satan, the revolt of society, and the recompense of sinners. It's all supernatural. None of it's natural. All of it's supernatural because God's involved. And if God's involved, it can't be something natural. It's supernatural. It's a sure event, a surprising event, a sudden event, a supernatural event.

It's a sobering event. It's a sobering event. The Bible says these words in the book of Second Thessalonians chapter one, a very sobering event.

For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who've lit you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you was believed.

Paul talking about this event, the revelation of Christ to the world when we come back with Him that He will deal out retribution to those who do not know Him, to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a very sobering event. Let's know what Jesus says later in Luke, Luke 17.

I can read this to you because we're a long way from Luke chapter 17. It says these words in verse 26, talking about the second coming and Christ returning to this earth.

It says, and just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was a surprising event. It was a sudden event because it was a sure event. And then it says, it was the same as happened in the days of Lot. Now he's taking the days of Noah, he's comparing them with the days of Lot. And what's he comparing in Noah's day and Lot's day?

He's comparing the judgment of God, right? So it was the same as happened in the days of Lot. They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. And on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. The day the Son of Man is revealed is this day right here. This is the day the Son of Man is revealed. That's why he uses the days of Noah and the days of Sodom to let you understand the days of Lot to show you that judgment comes swiftly.

It comes completely upon those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. This will be when the Son of Man is revealed. The Son of Man is not revealed at the rapture of the church. It's not because nobody sees him except us as believers. But when he returns, every eye will see him. Every eye will see him. And then they will experience the very sobering event. Then it says this, verse 31, on that day, let not the one who was on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away. And likewise, let not the one who is in the field return back.

Remember Lot's wife. We'll spend a couple of weeks just on those three words. Remember Lot's wife. Why? Why? Because she was one who desired the world. That's why. She desired the world. Oh, she was told about the judgment. So was Lot. They were compelled by angels to leave Sodom and Gomorrah. Took them by the hand, dragged them out. She went kind of kicking and screaming because she desired the world. She couldn't believe it that her mall would be destroyed. The place where her nails were going to be done was going to be vanquished.

The place where she got her hair done and was going to look so beautiful for her husband and for her family was going to be burned up. She just had a hard time. She desired the world. The Lord says, remember Lot's wife. She couldn't keep from turning and looking when the Lord said, don't turn around. How hard is that to understand? Don't turn around. Okay. Then we turn around, right? It's like telling your kids not to do something. What do they do? They do the exact same thing you tell them not to do.

She desired the world. She desired the world because she did. She defied the word of God, didn't she? Don't turn. Oh, but she was so lured by the things of the world that she defied the very commandment of God, don't turn. And she did. Thus, she disbelieved the warning. Like those in the days of Noah, like those in the days of Lot, they disbelieved the warning. It's not going to happen. That's why Peter says, they're going to say in the end, where is the promise of his coming? He's not coming. And all the while there's so much terror and tribulation upon the earth.

But remember when the bowls are being poured out in Revelation 16 and the bowl is poured out with the sun, which scorches men's bodies. They are burned by the sun. It's one thing to get a sunburn. This is the ultimate sunburn. Okay. They are burned so badly by the sun. This is those who do not know the Lord in tribulation. They bite off their tongues. You can read about it in Revelation 16. They bite them off to redirect the pain from their sunburn to their tongue so that they could somehow be relieved.

They can't be relieved. And somehow you have all these people who are burned so badly with their tongues chewed off, still gathering together in the Valley of Megiddo because they have been deceived by the unholy Trinity. How do you get people whose bodies are so burned, so debilitated, their tongues are bitten off to follow you? How do you do that? Satan is a master deceiver. That's why you never know the day nor the hour. He's a master deceiver. And he gets them all to believe his falsities. And they gather together thinking they can defeat, because they gather together for the Bible says the great war of God, the great war.

They think they're going to battle God. They think they can defeat God. They're going to fight the Lord with their tongues chewed off, their bodies burned, half debilitated. They're gathering together. They think they can still win. And so much so that the Bible says two times they will not repent.

They will not. Except that they can't. They won't. They are so angry. They are so bitter. They are so filled with venom. They won't repent of their sins. The Lord will come back and destroy them. It's a very sobering event. Very sobering event because they don't believe any of the warnings. It's going to come in seven seals. I'll review that for you real quick. Seven seals span seven years. Seven seals span seven years. Okay. At the breaking of the seventh seal, he had to blow in his seven trumpets at the end of the tribulation.

When the seventh trumpet blows, you have seven bowls or seven vials that are poured out in rapid succession at the very end. Okay. But the seven seals span the seven-year tribulation period. With the seven trumpets flowing out of the seventh seal, it's broken. The seventh bowl being poured out of the seventh trumpet that blows. We go into great detail about this in our study of the book of Revelation. We did our study on the return of the King. We went event, event, event, event, event, event. We took you chronologically through the end times in our study on the return of the King.

So it spells out for you step by step by step by step as to what the Bible teaches concerning the whole scenario of the return of the Messiah, the day of the Lord that begins, the day of the Lord that begins with the confirmation of the covenant that's signed by the Antichrist. The day of the Lord begins here and spans everything into the new heaven and new earth according to second Peter chapter three verses 10 to 12.

See that? But it's so sobering because people like Lot's wife desired the world. And because they did, oh, they desired the world. Why? Well, the Bible says in the book of Revelation 10 times, those who do not know the Lord are called those who dwell upon the earth or earth dwellers.

Okay. The 10 times that phrase is used, it always deals with unbelievers in the book of Revelation. Okay. That's how we know that, I said this in the second service last week, the first service, Revelation three 10 says, I will keep thee from the hour or out of the hour of tribulation that's about to come upon the whole world.

Okay. The whole world. In fact, Revelation three verse number 10 says it this way says, because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing that hour, which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who phrase dwell upon the earth. That phrase is a phrase used 10 times, but revelation always described with the unbeliever. They're earth dwellers. Christians aren't earth dwellers. Their minds are in the heavenlies, right? They're so heavenly minded.

They are no earthly good. And so we, we think on things above, not on things below. And so what you have is you have people who are focused above. Well, during the tribulation, the Bible says, I will keep the out of to keep you out of, okay.

If it was going to keep you through the tribulation, it would be, if he was going to protect you in the tribulation, it would be, but it's to keep you out of the hour of tribulation. And we know that here, the 24 elders are in heaven. And the question is, who are the 24 elders? Well, if you read the book of revelation, only the church receives crowns. 24 elders have crowns, right? The 24 elders also sit on thrones. Only the church is allowed to sit on thrones. Okay. So therefore we know the 24 elders is representative of the church.

That means the church in revelation four and five is already in heaven. And therefore it does not come back down to earth to revelation chapter 19, because during revelation six to 18, the church nowhere mentioned. Okay. So we begin to put all those things together. People here, the reason they're here is because they desire the world. That's why they're there. They desire the world. And when you desire the world, you will always defy the word. And when you defy the word, you will always disbelieve the warning.

And when you disbelieve the warning, you will always die on the way. And Lot's wife died on the way. Did she not? Sure she did. She looked back. She was changed to a pillar of salt. And all these people who defy the Lord will die on the way and they will die because they have rebelled against the authority of God's only word. Are you ready? This is not something to scoff at. This is not something to say, that's just so far away. It's been 2,000 years. Yeah. But remember Jesus lives in a perpetual presence.

He doesn't live in the past. He doesn't live in the future. Everything is in the presence in heaven, in the presence in heaven, present in heaven, excuse me. And so he lives in a perpetual presence. And so just because it's been 2,000 years for us, a thousand years is a day with the Lord, right? It's no big deal. But are you ready for the coming of the King? When he comes for his church, will you go or will you be left behind? If you're left behind, second Thessalonians chapter two, verses seven to 10 says, you will not get saved here.

If you're in a Bible believing church, if you've heard the word of the Lord, you won't get saved. Many will. Yes, you won't. Because you heard the truth. Hebrews six applies to you. Hebrews 10 applies to you. Hebrews three applies to you. Hebrews two applies to you. Those warning passages in the book of Hebrews apply to you. It will be impossible to renew your repentance because you've heard the truth. You've scorned the truth. You've turned your back on the truth. And then we're gone. You'll say, well, I'll believe.

If my wife is gone and my kids are gone, I'll believe. No, you won't. No, you won't. You'll believe a lie. You'll believe the lie of the antichrist. And there's one more reason you won't believe. God will make sure you don't believe because he sends you a strong delusion. It's God who keeps you from ever believing in this period. Once you've heard the truth in this area, once you've rebelled against that truth, you've been in a church age, you've been in a Bible believing church, you've heard the truth and you've rebelled against it.

You turned your back against it. It will be impossible to renew your repentance after the rapture of the church because you'll believe the lie. You'll be a part of the delusion because God will make sure that you are deluded. It's got to do that to you because you hardened your heart here. He now will harden your heart here. That's why it's a sobering event. That's why you need to be ready. So when Jesus comes, you'll be gone. Let me pray with you.

Lord, thank you for tonight or today and the opportunity to spend time in your word. Truly, Lord, you are a great God and truly, Lord, there's so much we do not know, but we are glad that we do know you and you know us. I would pray for every man and woman in this room that they would know for certain that Jesus is their king and they know that they're going to go home to be with the Lord when they die. If the rapture occurs, they're going to go home to be with you and be in heaven with you. I pray, Lord, that you would convict us all of our sin.

Help us to live in the light of your coming, anticipating the future, knowing that it is a sure event, a very surprising event, a very sudden event, supernatural, yet extremely sobering because all of us know people who do not know you and they could miss out on the ultimate blessing of eternal life. May we tell them the truth today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.