Sunday, June 28, 2020

Sermon at Lake Marburg Baptist Church this morning on Luke 12:22-12:59 - important things


Luke 12:22 ¶  And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23  The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24  Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25  And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26  If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27  Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28  If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29  And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30  For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31  But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33  Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Jesus was previously invited to dinner with a Pharisee who considered that Jesus did not follow the ritual hand washing the Pharisees required which drew a sermon on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees which he then reiterated to a throng of people, encouraging them to confess Christ before men in spite of the persecution they would face from the Pharisees. He then reinforced that they should focus on what is important and not on worldly matters. He spoke of covetousness and laying up treasure with God. This has been a very powerful teaching time for Christ and is very important for us.

Jesus continues His lesson about covetousness and what to concern ourselves with and not concern ourselves with from the previous passage and tells His disciples that they should not worry about the basics of life; food and clothing. In His model prayer for them, which He gave in the previous chapter He included Give us day by day our daily bread.

Paul wrote by the wisdom given to him by the Holy Spirit.

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Paul told the Philippian church…

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

An interesting note here is that God provides our food and that of the beasts and fowls in spite of all of the National Geographic and Discovery Channel blather about predator and prey. You didn’t think that zebra that the lions brought down was chosen by God for their food did you? We are so clueless to the unsearchableness of God’s mind, the Holy Ghost, acting in the world.

Psalm 104:21  The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

In God’s own words as He spoke to Job He said the following.

Job 38:39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Jesus reveals how powerless we are to change many of the most important circumstances in our lives. For instance, all of the Norman Vincent Peale or Dale Carnegie type of positive thinking in the world won’t make you 6’3 rather than 5’8.

We don’t control the most basic of circumstances and yet we worry about things that are way beyond our control. We think we control our health and thereby extend our lives by diet and exercise, one of my favorite objects of thought and action, but that too may be an illusion.

Job 7:1  Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

Psalms 39:4  LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

We see news stories about how scientists are on the verge of or at least thinking about everything from extending our lifespans hundreds of years to curing all diseases with gene manipulation and, truthfully, it is almost laughable if it were not so painfully sad in that man thinks so highly of his ability to oppose God’s ordinances and the boundaries He has set and people hope while they lay dying.

God will care for us and we are not to doubt. The unbelieving world is concerned about these carnal things, these things of the flesh, but we are to be about God’s business and all of these things will be given to us as needed. Of course, this is easy to have as a standard of our faith in a rich country where we spend so much less of our income on food than in places in Africa, South America, or Asia. Christians are suffering in some places and in some instances almost always due to cultural impediments and economic injustice and the oligarchic rule of a few powerful, narcissistic sociopaths, sin and wickedness which we who are so blessed should be willing to fight on our poorer brothers and sisters’ behalf. They, on their side, need to trust in God to provide, to pray for deliverance, and that this day they receive just enough to get by knowing that things may not be resolved in this life as they live in a fallen world in fallen bodies under the judgment of sin and the evil, malicious designs of the powerful and the wealthy.

Specifically, and doctrinally, though, Jesus is speaking directly to His Jewish disciples in the first century in a preview of the book of Acts by telling them to sell what they have and be about His business telling Israel about Him and then, after His crucifixion expectantly waiting for His return in an hour they will not have imagined. We must remember in reading this that Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection were immediate future. We must also remember that God dispersed the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem in Acts so that they would fulfill His command for them to be witnesses to the world rather than hold up in that compound/bunker mentality in Jerusalem.

We Christians today are given this from Paul to keep in our hearts.

Titus 2:11 ¶  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

For those who would use the watches mentioned as a key to knowing when Christ will return verse 40 is an alarm that tells us we should not claim knowledge we do not have. Your preacher does not really know when Christ will return and acting as a minister of Satan by misrepresenting God does not speak well for those who claim that knowledge from the pulpit. We are not given prophecy for us to sit smugly and shout to those we consider spiritual lessers that we know when that will be or who the Antichrist is or other things we do not know. Prophecy is given for a specific reason according to Jesus Himself.

John 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Just as Paul gave us the reason for the preservation of the Old Testament writings and histories.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

To all those people out there who divide and parse out words and verses and examine numbers and compare verses to current news items, writing books like ones I have from the 1990s about how Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Babylon and could be the Antichrist all the way back to those who called Kaiser Wilhelm the Beast of Revelation I say one thing. Spend more time considering and obeying what Christ has told you to do, how to treat God and others, and less time presuming knowledge you do not have.

Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

My final comment on Old Testament prophecy in particular is to ask you to remember that every individual Christian’s life is like the experience of the entire nation of Israel taken collectively. We can be visited by God and judged in this life for our sin and disobedience but God will never forsake us, as He will not Israel, or put us away forever because it is Christ’s righteousness and not our own that saves us. We can look at Old Testament prophecy as directly applying to the Jews then, as applying to the first and second advents of Christ, and as a tale of how our backsliding and rebellion can lead to ruin and despair knowing only that Christ will lift our sorry heads out of the dust, as He will Israel’s, at the end of the day.

    12:41 ¶  Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42  And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44  Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. 45  But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; 46  The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47  And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? 50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! 51  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52  For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53  The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Peter’s question is met by a direct answer from Christ regarding the labors of the apostles and even future ministers of the gospel. Paul referred to the ministers of the gospel as stewards of the mysteries of God.

1Corinthians 4:1 ¶  Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

He moved from covetousness to being watchful to now a warning to the shepherds of His flock. Disobedience to this warning is apparent all through Christian history as it was all through the history of the Jews before Christ. The primary duty of a minister of Christ is to feed the flock of God with His words, not to lord it over the flock as some kind of boss man.

1Peter 5:1 ¶  The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2  Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3  Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 4  And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Down through the last two thousand years abusers among the so-called clergy have run rampant through the flock of God doing great harm. We hear about Catholic priests today who abuse the most helpless members of their congregations but we also must consider the thousands of Baptist pastors and youth ministers who have done the same. Jesus talks about how the fowls of the air, used in typology for the Devil himself in Mark, chapter 4, will lodge in the shadow of the tree and in its branches, the tree that grows unnaturally large as the kingdom of God and Heaven in Luke 13:19 and Mark 4:32.

Jesus also warns that there are counterfeits among the brethren in Matthew 13:24 regarding the wheat and the tares. In the Old Testament God has an accusation about the false teachers in Israel. Understand that Biblically defined, with and uniting synonyms in most contexts, a pastor is a teacher as per Ephesians 4:11 and prophets are preachers and teachers as per Nehemiah 6:7 and 2Peter 2:1.

Jeremiah 23:1 ¶  Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3  And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4  And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 5  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6  In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8  But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

    9 ¶  Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. 10  For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. 11  For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. 12  Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. 13  And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14  I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the
LORD. 17  They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. 18  For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? 19  Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. 20  The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. 21  I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22  But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23  Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? 24  Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. 25  I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26  How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets
of the deceit of their own heart; 27  Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. 28  The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. 29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30  Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31  Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 32  Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

    33 ¶  And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD. 34  And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. 35  Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 36  And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. 37  Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 38  But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD; 39  Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40  And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

Peter devotes what has come down to us as a chapter to the damage wrought by Christian false teachers in 2Peter 2.

2Peter 2:1 ¶  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

    3 ¶  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 4  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6  And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

    7 ¶  And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8  (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9  The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

    10 ¶  But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 11  Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 14  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 15  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16  But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet. 17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Here, in this lesson Jesus is giving it is worse for you to know the truth and to act on it unwisely and disobey than it is for you to not know the truth at all. Perhaps that can be one meaning of Paul’s statement in Romans.

Romans 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 ¶  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

The truth that Jesus reveals will not produce unity in the world but cause divisions down to the very household and family of believers and those who reject Him. There can be no middle ground with Christ. You either trust Him or you don’t. This fire is already kindled by the work of the dividers and the false teachers and elders who plague the cause of Christ as evidenced by the multitude of Protestant denominations and the three great branches of Christianity that are polluted by leaven, a type of hypocrisy and false doctrine in Matthew 16:12 and here in Luke 12:1.

Matthew 13:33  Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Luke 13:20  And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

[The woman of this parable may be a reference to Ashtaroth, the fertility goddess of the Canaanites of the Old Testament, who is basically the same as Ishtar, the goddess of liberty and prostitutes of the Babylonians whose statue sits in New York Harbor as Lady Liberty, and various feminine incarnations of Satan around the world including the Japanese Amateratsu, the Roman Diana, or the Greek Artemis among others. It should not be hard to think of Satan as both masculine and feminine as some of the gods of the ancient world were portrayed as both male and female. For instance, the Egyptian god, Atum, was also called the great he-she.]

It appears that what Jesus is saying here is that His servants must be expectantly awaiting His return at any time and going about the business He has given them of expressing the fruit of the Spirit in the world, loving God and their fellow mankind, particularly the brethren, not abusing or mistreating those who God has placed in their care and, most importantly, feeding the flock of God. Those who know the most have the most expected out of them and will suffer loss in that degree based on their unfaithfulness.

James 3:1 ¶  My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

As was mentioned earlier in the parable found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and upcoming in Luke 13 of the mustard seed that grows unnaturally into a great tree, in the Christian church organization there are many unsaved fake tares, false wheat, and these counterfeits are hiding among its branches and in its shadow.

2Corinthians 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

They will find their place in the lake of unquenchable fire when a reckoning is made, with the ignorant unbelievers, though their punishment will be greater.

Matthew 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
   
Verse 50 appears to be likening the coming crucifixion to a baptism for the man who is also God (see Matthew 20:22.) He is focused on it and it is His mission and His purpose. He must be killed by man, paying the price for man’s sins against Himself as God, and then rise from the dead after 3 days.

Straitened is a synonym of being narrowed or focused, restricted by something, either a thing, person, or circumstance. See the definition of strait in the following in the context.

Matthew 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The gate and the way are strait and narrow. I hope you can see one way the Bible defines itself here.

12:54 ¶  And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. 55  And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. 56  Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? 57  Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? 58  When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. 59  I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

Christ has spoken directly to His disciples and now He turns to the people in general. Here, Jesus talks about how they can predict the weather by what is clear and plain in the sky or in the direction of the wind but they cannot see what is going on right in front of them and make a judgment. He warns about judgment. They do not realize the day they live in as the day of God visiting them on earth. He visited Israel in blessing and in judgment in the past and now He has come bringing salvation or eternal loss if they reject Him.

Here is the Messiah, the Christ, offering salvation to the Jews and to mankind. Man is in rebellion against his Creator and he would do well for himself if he accepted that Creator’s terms before judgment came upon him.

People who are not blinded by self-conceit will come to a place in their lives where it is obvious that God is speaking to them through the events and circumstances that placed them where they are. If they will just acknowledge that the signs are showing them just how badly they need to repent of their wickedness and turn to God they can be saved. God doesn’t just speak through a person who is presenting the gospel. He speaks through the events of your life, the consequences of your sins, and the circumstances brought upon you either by yourself or others stumbling blindly through this world.

We must be ready and be about God’s business as the time of the end or our time of the end approaches not wasting our time in the idolatry of covetousness and glorifying things of this world that get in the way with our responsibility as Christians. God’s business does not include abusing each other, trying to control each other, dominating each other, being implacable, unmerciful, and self-righteous. God’s business is the kingdom of God and just as Jesus will tell us in Luke 17 that the kingdom of God is an invisible kingdom and is within us and in John 18:36 not of this world, Paul tells us in Romans 14:17 that it is not a physical thing but is in fact righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.  

Jesus has told us what is not important and what is. He was warned His Jewish disciples and the future Christian. He has given us commands and we would do well to consider them and weigh them carefully in our hearts. Time is short. If Christ does not return this year or the next you or I may certainly die and go see Him face to face in that time. It is not for you or I to know that time. But, be prepared.

No comments: