I’ve taken the same scripture which we used last Sunday night, but my message will be a bit more general. Christ was telling the Jews of the Tribulation period to get ready for His return and their redemption. When the fig tree puts forth its leaves, you know that the hardships of winter are just about over. “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” The people of Noah’s day should have known that the flood was coming, but they ignored the signs and the preaching of Enoch and Noah. “Watch ye therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Therefore by ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” “The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.”
The ideas of preparation and readiness are something which should be a part of lives in many ways. The fireman, the policeman, the EMT and the ER doctor, have to be ready every minute of their shift. Mother needs to be ready for the needs of her child, sometimes at a moment’s notice. The photographer, the news reporter, the scientist, the soldier all have to be ready. The other day I got an email from David Creighton, a distant cousin of mine – someone whom I have never met personally. I appreciate the fact that the announced that he would be passing through Post Falls, and would like to spend a few hours. I get to prepare for the visit. Another email came a week before that telling me that the Nimmos will be here this week. They, too, would like to spend some time with us. Judy and I can prepare for that pleasant visit as well. It is fun once in a while to break the rule, but usually we want to know before the guests arrive for visit. It helps to be ready before the big bill comes, or the Mormons knock on the door, or the electricity goes out. It would be wise to keep a few special things in car especially when driving on cold winters’ nights. We want our car ready, our furnace ready, our beds ready, and our meals ready.
And in like manner the Bible often speaks about spiritual readiness; spiritual preparation. In our scripture the Lord Jesus told the Jews to be ready for the Second Coming. Elisha told the widow to get ready, gather pots in which to collect oil, and the oil was multiplied in exact proportion to how well she prepared. John came to prepare the way for the Lord, some people became prepared, but most were not. Hezekiah was told to prepare to die, and when he prepared for that eventuality, the Lord spared his life for a few more years..
It’s a good policy to take up the motto of the Boy Scouts: “Be prepared.” “Sanctify … the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” We can miss so much if we are not really prepared to take advantage of the Lord’s blessings.
We know that in this chapter Christ was talking about His coming prior to the Millennium. We know that it is at least seven years in the future, but still He tells the Jew to be ready. And how can we not be exhorted even more, because our redemption draweth even more nigh. But there are other areas and things to remember in staying ready.
The Lord is ready, willing and able to do some miraculous things among us.
Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? We serve a miracle working God, who has not lost a bit of His power. “With God all things are possible.” “He divideth the sea with his power; and setteth fast the mountains.” “In his hand are all power and might:”
And Christ promises us use of this power during this age. Matthew 18:19 – “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” Anything according to the will of God. “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard see, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” But there is a caveat here: power is available if we have the mandatory faith. “Verily, verily I say unto you, that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also; and greater things than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Greater but not necessarily of the same kind of works. What kind of power is Jesus talking about in these verses? Power in the realm of the spirit. He is not promising us power to raise the dead, heal the sick and to call down fire from Heaven. Our power is the power of the preacher, the evangelist, the witness, to bring conviction and to lead people to Christ. We can have power to turn church services from meetings into miracles. Power to make aliens into heirs, paupers into princes, killers into kings. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the “dunamis” of God unto salvation. To hold the power of a uranium isotope we have to be properly prepared. And to wield the power of power of God, we must be prepared as well.
In every age, God has had his special miracles. Moses had his, Abraham, David, Joshua, Elijah, Peter, and Paul. And God has His miracles for today. The lost can be saved, the back-slidden can be regained, the atheist can be won, the Buddhist can be beaten and the Hindu can be humbled. I know a pastor in Wichita Falls, Texas to whom the Lord gave five acres of land on a beautiful boulevard out to a lake. But then again, the Lord has given the property on the corner of 12th and Spokane to this church. I’ve seen churches which were given phenomenal growth.
It is the proposal of God: You can see my miracles. It was the proposal of Christ to the Jews, if you are prepared servants, you shall appreciate my return and the upcoming Millennial kingdom.
But preparation is essential.
I can’t explain, nor do I understand, but God has chosen to put man at helm of certain responsibilities. The things to which I refer are not removed from the Lord’s decree or His sovereignty, yet they are the responsibility of human beings. God gave Adam free rein to sin or not to sin, and man chose sin. For salvation, faith and repentance are the responsibilities of man; God enables by grace, but the responsibility is ours. There are other things which God conditions upon our prayers. He says that we must humble ourselves, and the responsibility for that humility is ours. II Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Is the fact that America is in a spiral of self-destruction due to the fact that its Christians are not prepared to see whole-scale repentance and revival? Jeremiah 29:13 – “Ye shall seek me and find me, when he shall search for me with all your heart.”
It is the heretical faith of some people that God has chosen some people to salvation, and those people are going to be saved apart from any work of man whatsoever. That is not the doctrine that I find in the Word of God. I see that without repentance and faith, sinners will never be born again. I’m not saying that repentance and faith create salvation, or that they force God to save people. But God himself has said that without these things there is no salvation. However, “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” If it were not for publishing companies, book stores, and the money to operate them, there would be precious few Bibles for the lost man to read. If no Christian ever told another person about Christ, who would hear about Christ? If the brethren in Romania didn’t publish the Word of God, would there be any true believers in that county? I would hope that there would be, but it would mean that God sent His Word through other people. Someone has to sow the Seed before it can germinate. Someone must prepare the soil for the seed of the Word to sprout properly. If no Christian ever tithed, there would be no warm church buildings where the gospel could be preached. If Christians didn’t do their work, there would be no work done.
We can even go a step farther: if no Christian took the trouble to prepare for work there would be no work. Christians have a huge responsibility within the will of the Lord. The tongues are ours, the hearts are ours, and the feet are ours. The church is ours to do with as we please. I know of a church building in Calgary which became a pizza parlor, and another was turned into a karate school. There are church buildings all over the country where the gospel was once preached, but now only weddings are performed. We can make our church building into just about anything that we want – the responsibility is ours. But the power is God’s, and we must prepare ourselves to for that power. Without the power for our service that service will be useless; there will be no service. Think of yourself as the cake pan. Into that pan goes the flower, the sugar, the baking powder, the butter, the lemon, etc. When everything has been readied, it is baked, and eventually out comes the cake. We are the pan. Are we clean? Are we empty? Are we ready? God puts in the ingredients and lights up the fire, but there must be a pan.
God works through prepared people.
And how must we prepare?
Joshua answers that – Joshua 3:5 – “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” Take yourselves back to what Jesus was saying in Matthew 24. What preparation was Israel to make in respect to the coming of Messiah? Isn’t it just what Joshua said – “Sanctify yourselves” – set yourselves apart – “be ye holy.” Determine whether or not you want the return of your Lord; determine to accept Him when He comes. Give up your compromise with the Antichrist in an effort to spare yourselves. In a sense, if you’ve had the mark of beast tattood into your hand, cut your hand off. Sanctification is not some sort of second blessing. It is not sinless perfection or a special work of grace. It is a command of God and therefore falls upon our shoulders – at the very least to seek it from God. It means – separate yourself – draw nigh unto God and resist the Devil.
First, it is a separation from evil in any form. No church, no individual, and experience the power of God, unless he’s willing to do battle with sin. If Christ should return during those days when Israel will be living under the umbrella of the treaty with the Antichrist, all would be lost. If we let our pet sin go unchecked it will weaken us and destroy us. One faulty o-ring, permitting the wrong chemical into the wrong place destroyed the space shuttle. One drop of oil can make the belt slip and keep the engine from doing it’s work. You, me or any one of us might be the cause of keeping the power from the machinery by refusing to admit and deal with the sins in our lives.
Secondly, sanctification involves a dedication to Christ. Israel, by way of tribulation, will be brought to the absolute end of themselves, and to every human or earthly resource. Their only hope that point will be the Messiah. Sanctifications the pointed, personal effort to draw night to God with all our hearts and minds. It’s the seeking of God’s face in prayer, will in obedience, glorying in living. It’s the filling of our lives with God to the exclusion of many other things.
What are the alternatives to not being prepared for the Lord’s return?
By way of a parable the Lord describes what will happen to the ill-prepared. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Similarly, what is the alternative to not being prepared for the translation of the saints? I suppose that there are two levels of answer to that question. There are probably thousands of genuine Christians, who are so self-centered, sinful and uninterested in the Lord’s return that they will be caught off guard and thoroughly embarrassed at Jesus’ coming. But then there is the much sadder condition in those who are living in rejection of the Saviour. Most of the people to whom Jesus had been speaking before Matthew 24 began, will be slaughtered by Romans, by disease, by natural disaster and by supernatural disaster during the Tribulation. They may have said that they were looking for the Messiah, but they were not prepared to receive Him. They were not prepared or they would have received Him at His first coming.
And what about us? Lord, we have readied ourselves to be tools in your hands. We’ve honed our blades and trimmed down to fighting weight. We’ve laid aside the weights and sins which so easily beset us. We dedicated ourselves to your glory. Strengthen our faith, stir our hearts.
Who knows what the Lord has prepared for us this coming year. We have been stagnant too long. Will the Lord give us a dozen new families? Will he save some of our children who are yet in their sins? We should be seek God’s working in our midst. We should at the same time, watch for and prepare for the Lord’s return.
The Lord is ready, will and able to do miraculous things. The question is: are we ready? “If we purge ourselves from sin we shall be vessels to honor, sanctified and mete for the Master’s use.” And we will be ready for that moment when the trumpet shall sound and we shall be changed, caught up to meet the Lord in the air to be forever with Him.