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Here that with some power the Lord himself.
For the sunshine.
Almost all the time.
Verse 29 down through the 13th verse of chapter.
25.
Matthew 24 verse 29 and down to where the 13th verse of chapter 25.
2439 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened. The moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.
They shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when he shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the door. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Having a nurse shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away but of that day. And our soul shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For us in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken, the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, the other left.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
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But know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh. Who then is that 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 is Lord when he cometh, shall find so doing.
Barely I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods, but in if the that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, 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, shall cut him asunder, and appoint him as portion with the hypocrites.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened under 10 virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom, And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish set under the wise. Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, Say not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, But go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour, when the Son of Man cometh.
I wonder if, Brother Steve, you could give us a little outline again of the three sections that you spoke of at the start of the meeting last time as to how they each section that we would consider in each of these meetings boardwaling.
The first section this takes us down.
To verse 44 and that's the coming of the Lord in relationship to Israel.
For judgment upon the three parables that the Lord gives, that I believe have to do with His coming in relation to.
Professing Christianity both for the faithful that will go into be with the Lord when he comes the rapture and those who will.
Go on to judgment are brought out, and then in chapter 25 after those parables were given, the Lord picks up the thread again.
With verse 31, with the coming of the Son of man and coming in glory and there it's in connection with the Gentile nations, and there is again a blessing for the faithful and judgment for.
Those who?
Were enemies of Christ, and their judgment is based on the faithful remnants preaching back in verse 14 the gospel of the Kingdom.
Remember first they preached the gospel of the Kingdom in the first half of the Tribulation, and that which is professes to be the Church of Christ, the false bride, having seized the reins of power in this world.
Does not want to hear anyone preaching the coming of another gang, someone else who everything belongs to and who's going to take that which is by right but.
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In the middle of the tribulation that false church is destroyed under the judgment of God using the beast, the head of Gentile power in this world and two men come onto the scene. The man who is head of of Gentile power and the revived Roman Empire called the beast. His empire is also called the beast and the Antichrist. The beast is head of you might say political affairs and the Antichrist head of religious affairs. The anti Christ becomes the leader of apostasy for all those who once professed Christianity when.
The false church is destroyed and he's the leader of apostasy for that part of the Jewish nation that refuses to hear of the coming of Messiah as well preached by those who carry out the gospel of the Kingdom. While those two will not suffer the thought or the preaching of another king coming either, but.
In far greater ferocity they persecute that faithful remnant, and the warning of the Lord is to flee.
Nonetheless, some will receive those messengers, some will believe, and so when the Lord comes as Son of Man in connection with the Gentile nations in the end of chapter 25, it's going to be a judgement based on whether they receive those messengers or not. That went out in verse 14 of chapter 24. So in between we have these three parables.
I believe apply to.
Professing Christianity and there's some things that are notable about them that you don't get. And the other two portions, Christ is not mentioned. Christ is brother Derek pointed out means Messiah. He's not mentioned. It's Lord. Jerusalem is not mentioned.
You have no reference to the temple, nothing about the Sabbath.
There is.
Nothing about the Son of Man.
Coming, which is coming in judgment. And so there are some things that are notably different in those.
Parables that would indicate to us that they apply to professing Christianity.
So really it was on my heart maybe to get more into those parables in this meeting, but like to go through the rest of the verses that we didn't cover, at least in an outline form that lead us up to that transition that we get in verse 42 Through 44 that leads us into those parables.
I mentioned that in verse 40, the.
Commonly taken.
In a in a wrong way.
We know this will happen at the Rapture, but.
The people the person spoken of here in verse 40 is not the rapture. This is the words coming to set up his Kingdom and prior to that there will be.
The harvest discriminating judgment which will take place before the Lord returns, and the one that is taken here is taken in judgment. The one that is left is left for earthly blessing, so that discriminating judgment, perhaps through the angels, will take place at the end of the tribulation. I judge and then.
Those that are left will pass into the millennial period.
The result of the awful.
Cataclysmic events of the last half of the tribulation are really the great tribulation leave the world in this condition that we have in verse 29. Really what we might say is.
More the prophetic earth, that sphere in which we see the prophetic nations that we come across in the Old Testament prophetic scriptures, we have those successive nations.
Barack of course empires really of Babylon of Persia and Greece and then the Roman empires and so the that's more of the circumference where these things tend to unfold and perhaps even extending to those lands that were colonized by those peoples could be North America included in that as well. But.
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It leaves them in this place of no light whatsoever.
Complete moral darkness, no one to lead, no one to guide, as we have with the light of the sun and the moon and the stars, All are shaken. Even the powers of the heavens shall be shaken because you know up in heaven there's going to be a tremendous change of events.
When Adam fell, God placed the administration of this world into the hands of angels.
But it's going to be taken up by the Lord Jesus Christ in the coming day as a man once again. And those angels are going to become his mighty angels rather than as they are now, the angels of God. And he's going to use the church and Israel to administer affairs of this world. Well, that's shakeup's going to take place, you might say, in heaven, like a, like a transition of government, so to speak, but here in this earth.
All moral light is just completely gone.
It's going to be such an oppressive situation when man has absolutely no spiritual guidance whatsoever.
1St 28.
I know it mentions in verse 24 the fraudulent Gentiles times the Gentiles being fulfilled by the 1St 28. I'm just wondering is it parenthetical says and when you when these things beginning to come fast and look up and lift up your heads for your exemption throughout nine years, lots of that.
This is the same account, but the Spirit of God has a different purpose in its details. And but I do believe that that is the faithful remnant, and the coming of the Son of Man may be that sign. His sudden appearance in this world may be the sign that we read of in verse thirty of our chapter. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.
When they see all these things take place, even as awful as those judgments are, it's an indicator to them that their salvation is at hand. Israel looks for salvation here in this scene.
Peter says of us having received the salvation of your souls. We don't look for an earthly temporal deliverance. We have the salvation of our souls. We're looking for the Lord to come to take us. But they're going to be looking for an earthly temporal salvation from their enemies and deliverance here. And it's going to be right at hand when they see these things unfold. And this is the redemption of Israel, isn't it? Not the redemption of our bodies we're waiting for. The redemption of our body comes for us.
But here increase the redemption of Israel as a nation. How does this relate to?
Revelation chapter one and verse 7.
It says here in Revelation One and Seven, Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of earth shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen.
Notice in our chapter in verse 30 it says here then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now is this the same time?
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You know these two references.
I believe so that it's the same time, but there's a little different emphasis. Revelation largely takes up prophetic things in the light of church truth and in the light of the failure of the Church of God and its testimony and hands of responsible man. Whereas this portion that we're reading through right now, these first 44 verses are the Lord's coming in relationship to Israel.
And so they that pierced him, the Gentile nations are responsible. It was a soldier that pierced his side. It was Gentile soldiers that nailed him to that cross. But Israel is also responsible because they're going to look on him whom they pierced.
They're going, they are responsible as well. And so I think you get more Jewish responsibility here in our chapter, where in Revelation it perhaps takes up a little wider sphere of things.
The tribes of the Earth.
Mourning in our verse 30 perhaps refer more to those tribes that will be in the land.
When the Lord comes, you know the 10 tribes were long ago taken captive and were not in the land when the Lord Jesus was here. It was mainly Judah and some of Benjamin. There was a scattering of the others, but mainly Judah, a little Benjamin. And they're the ones responsible in the sight of God as to the crucifying of their own Messiah. And they're the tribes that the judgment of God as to the portion of those tribes that's apostate.
That the judgment of God is going to fall upon. And so perhaps this tribes of the earth mourning, so to speak.
Maybe that in view, but you know, those who are faithful are also going to see him and they're going to mourn as well, aren't they? They're going to be sorry when they see that their Messiah, whom they long looked for, they had actually crucified. And so perhaps that's making an application of it.
But there's going to be mourning. He's Son of Man is coming in the clouds of heaven.
They asked for a sign from heaven, and they're going to get a sign from heaven, not what they were looking for when they asked him. And the Lord said to the council that tried him that they were going to see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, and they will see him coming in the clouds of heaven with all the ensigns of Jehovah, great power and glory, for he is Jehovah.
And he is Son of man, and so he's going to send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they're going to gather the scattered seed of Israel from all over this world. They're going to be brought back in as well when he comes brought into blessing, though the the scattered ones not responsible in the same way as those tribes in the land, but they're going to be gathered in at that.
Time.
And so this figure of the fig tree is brought out, and the fig tree is a picture of Israel often in the prophetic Scripture, and it's going to begin to grow. It's going to and will in time bring forth fruit once again for the Lord.
Sends his angels.
She gathered the elect of Israel, and he also sent the angels and imagined 13.
Negative diversity, John, referring to those that were taken away.
And that's magic. 1341 And the Son of Man sent forth his Angel.
She'll get it out of his Kingdom all things, and then iniquitous acquired her shall be waiting and asking her teeth.
We have the Lord power gathering the elect of Israel and continue to contain them.
It's interesting that at the rapture it speaks about how the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with the shout, with the voice of the Archangel Trump of God. Now here it speaks to about the angels.
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And a great sound of a trumpet.
But in this case, it's not to call Saints up, but to call them back into the land and margin. The Bible says with the trumpet and the great voice. It's wonderful how God will work to draw his own back into the land of Israel.
I think in two of the contrast that we have here in verse 30 when they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Well, what was the last sight yet they had of the Lord Jesus Christ? Was it not as he hanged on the cross, a picture of weakness and defeat hanging there?
And I suppose many thought what a loser, but.
We know it's going to appear in power and great glory, and history will indicate otherwise, that he's no loser, He's the victor.
He's a winner and how wonderful that you and I through faith in him. We're on a winning side too, although the world looks upon us and they probably think that, you know, we're at a disadvantage because of our faith and so on, losing out on the things of this world. But.
We're on the winning side.
And so we need to look ahead, don't we, and rejoice in hope that the glory of God. I know this speaks here of Israel, but how wonderful. When the Lord returns, I think we're going to be with him, are we not?
We're going to reign with him over here.
I had a problem for a long time with the.
30th verse.
Because of.
Becoming the thoughts of coming to the Lord and.
Angels looking at some of the verses, the Old Testament that prophesied at the time of Israel is gathering again and I wondered if you could put this a couple of verses to help us with that factor.
10.
Congestion, which stands for many sign of the people to Intel and mental sheep is rest of the glorious shall become the path. And I think that the warriors shall set his hands again the second time and recover the remnants of his people, which shall be landed in Syria and Egypt, and from Kushal mainland, from Sinhar and Kohana, from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an Ensign translation shall assemble the outcast of Israel and gather together.
Judith on the Four Corners a year.
Also in Deuteronomy that there's very many other restrictions that speak of that event. Some of them mentioned trumpets even.
Chapter 3 If you do not mean it shall come to pass this one, when all these things are come upon me, the blessing and the curse which I've set before thee, and thou shall call them to mind among all the nations with to the Lord thy God had driven thee shall return unto the Lord thy God shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day.
Now are my children with all thine, heart, with all thy soul. Then, then, then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon me, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God has gathered thee. If any of thine be driven out for the almost parts of the heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gathered thee, and condense will affect you.
I think that.
We see that verse 38 in our passage here that people will be completely unaware of the judgment that is about to fall. They will look up at the beast and they will think, here is the man that we will put our confidence in. He is all powerful and he's going to bring peace and safety.
Sudden destruction is going to come upon them. They're not like in the days of Noah. They they have no premonition or.
Any.
Thought of destruction coming upon them and they are simply indulging themselves and.
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Rejecting any testimony, and suddenly the Lord appears. Power and great glory. That's His appearing in judgment.
And you have a series of judgments there, the Armageddon and the harvest and the vintage judgments, which perhaps we won't go into here, but there are various judgments that come into view there at the end of the tribulation period. But I think if we're going to go on to the the section that we have before us.
Which?
Wonderfully brings before us ministry in the House of God, that perhaps we should look at these verses toward the end of the chapter. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? This is the period now portrayed of the of the Church having.
Having a place in the ways of God, being now the vessel of testimony and the whole thought of ministry in the Church of God in this present period. This this period of grace while the Lord is absent is brought before us remarkably at the end of the chapter here. And it's important to see that there's a ministry now in the Church of God.
That was never so in the Old Testament. There wasn't a ministry, there was a priesthood and.
That was confined to one family, the family of Aaron. But now in Christianity, which is portrayed in these verses from 43 onwards, really is is a picture of Christendom, the period that we are in. There's a ministry now and the Lord is.
Is using His servants the faithful and wise servant.
To minister the word in in his household, and this brings us to the present application.
That there are there is a ministry. You have that verse in First Peter chapter 4.
And we better turn to the first Peter, chapter 4, verse 10.
As everyone has received the ability, Even so minister the same one to the other as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Now we have a stewardship brother, and although public ministry is confined to the men in the assembly, everyone has a ministry in the body of Christ. Everyone is a servant of God, although it may not be in the public sphere.
And so that's brought before us here, giving meat and due season. And it's a beautiful thought that God the Lord having ascended into the glory.
Has imparted gifts to his church.
And these gifts are now being.
Are functioning now in the House of God and we are part of that house and the Lord in His grace has provided that ministry for us to build us up, to give us that meat and due season, bringing before us our responsibility as stewards.
Something has been entrusted to us. What are we doing with it? Whatever it is, what gift the Lord has imparted to us, we're responsible for what the Lord has given to us.
And we're going to have to give an account of how we have used, whether it be.
Natural resources or whether it be a spiritual gift, we are responsible and blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find. So doing that is there's going to be a reward for the way in which we have used.
That ability that the Lord has given us now for the benefit of his people and the the body of Christ, there's going to be a reward.
And a place in the coming Kingdom according to our walk and our conduct and our stewardship down here.
Connection with that would just like to suggest a thought.
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Read your Testament. We read your Old Testament now with the line of the New Testament.
And so when we read the Gospels, we read the Gospel with the like of the epistles.
And we specifically were delighted with this is the apostle Paul.
So we have in this portion of what describes prophetic events and believe in connection with the establishing of his Kingdom. I believe he refers mostly to the character of the servant in that aspect in the king, because it's all responsibility. It's a question of how they've performed the responsibility because some are cast into weeping and gnashing of teeth. You know, believer is going to be cast in that because we did serve properly or didn't fulfill ministry or.
It's never to be called in question, so.
We could apply it and use it in that connection and that light, but I believe the Lord is addressing the responsibility as a servant his brethren that he refers to in chapter 25 that has been treated and you see, they're the ones that are going out in the Revelation chapter 712 Thousand from all the tribes. And there we immediately gone on opinions of the people and they're the ones I believe in that character are going to be brought into giving an account of themselves as to how they perform that service.
Just a little May in connection with, we kind of ran over quickly versus 32, three and four.
And it was mentioned about how the fig tree is a picture to us of Israel.
Israel became a nation in 1948.
Before that, it basically laid dormant for hundreds and hundreds of years.
And you notice here that it says the Lord is saying in verse 32. Now learn a parable of the fig tree. I take it the Lord is addressing what was to happen to that nation of Israel. So it says when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh, So likewise ye.
When you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door.
Isn't that a picture to us of what the Lord looking ahead as to what was going to happen that the nation of Israel was going to be reformed again and our brother read, I think it was you Bill about over in Luke's it says when you see the fig tree and all the trees. So what happened? Well, a lot of nations taken sprung up.
And it's a picture and the Lord, it seems to me is, is, is telling the Jews this at that time.
That this is what was going to happen in the future and and to know that his coming is near. That's the hope that is brought before. We don't look for that. We're looking for the Lord to come from heaven for us to take us up. But this is for the Jews, is it not Him? I got the right thought with this.
Believe that's right. There's no knowledge what he's saying and there have no sign to be looked for the stars in the sky. And so for us, no sign is to be looked for before the coming of the Lord for us. But we see the foreshadows of things. Israel might be cast out of the land again.
They might be regathered again, They might be cast out again. There might be a confederation of the nations called the European Union today. There might not be tomorrow.
But when this takes place, they're going to be back in the land. And when this takes place, there will be a confederation of nations that form that final Gentile power called the beast. That will happen. And so we see these things take place in their foreshadows to us. We know that those things are coming. And but for the Christian, we don't look for those things to say. Well, now we know the Lord's coming as near. But for the Jews.
00:40:10
There to understand that the Lord's coming is near. When that takes place the Lord gave a parable and and Matthew chapter 13 through Luke chapter 13 and.
He had spoken in the 12Th chapter of the need of repentance and of judgment, coming really for the nation, and then they told him about the Galileans, whose blood pilot mingled with their sacrifices, those on whom the wall of Siloam fell.
And what does the Lord tell him? He says, Do you think these were sinners above all the rest? Nay, except ye likewise repent, show all perish. Israel's blessing hinges upon their national repentance, even if just represented in a remnant. It hinges on their repentance. And the Lord gives this parable of a fig tree that didn't bring forth fruit and had to be cut down.
And Job speaks of a stump in the ground, though it looks dead. Through the scent of water will spring up again. And in the tribulation, through the scent of water, that nation, you might say, is going to spring up again, The branches tender. Why? Because God is working in the tribulation and through what they pass through to bring them to repentance, because their blessing hinges on repentance. They're going to bring start to bring forth leaves. But fruit isn't mentioned here.
In our chapter because that's not going to come until after the Lord comes, but when they see those things take place.
Really pictured, I think in that remnant. Then they know the coming of the Lord is 9 For us, we know these things are going to take place. So seeing Israel back in the land isn't a fulfillment of prophecy, but it's a fortune to us the things that we know are going to come.
But not one.
Word of prophetic scripture is being fulfilled right now. The Lord isn't interested, you might say, in Israel right now.
He's interested in his bride. That's where his treasure is on this earth. When it's his brides gone, he's going to take up his dealings with Israel again. The prophetic clock is going to be ticking. There's a website out there. Brother referred me to prophecy in the news and I kind of got a tickle out of it. You know, no, no prophecies being fulfilled right now. But you know, people like to bend all the news events and just make them fit prophecy if they can. It's not being fulfilled.
And so for us, I think, as a brother pointed out, yes, this properly really applies to the Jews learning this parable of the fig tree, the faithful remnant.
16 you think because the Lord said that means those terrorists in the same manner, and so part of the perishing is pilot and exclude some of them. And then the tower was still away that fell upon. And so the judgment from a hammock man, and the judgment from the Lord, when he comes from heaven as a law.
I was thinking the Daniel chapter 12, just what we have been commenting on verse two. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Well that speaks of the national resurrection of Israel that we have been commenting on here, the nation.
Is does not seem to have any life at the present time, nationally speaking. We know that the Lord saves souls out of that, out of that system, but naturally they're going to be resurrected. It's going to be like a resurrection from the dead. Those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. That's the national resurrection of Israel. And some to everlasting life. That's the Millennium and some to shame an everlasting contempt.
But I was thinking in our connection with our chapter that we must see that the church is a parenthesis in the ways of God.
Unless we see that, we're not going to understand these passages. The church is a parenthesis. It was not foretold in the Old Testament scriptures. There's no prophetic.
Delineation of the church period at all in the Old Testament. It was a revelation to the Apostle Paul not known in the ages before. Now in the dispensation of grace we understand the the purposes of God.
00:45:11
For for ourselves as part of the Church of God and so the parenthesis will come to an end when the Lord comes and when the rapture takes place. But during that parenthesis the the Lord is giving instruction here in chapter the end of chapter 24 into chapter 25. It's really a portrayal of the of the period of Christendom. Now there's profession there certainly, but.
Those who take the name of Christ are held responsible. They may take the name and and and even occupy a place of of responsibility in the in Christendom and not have divine life at all. And those are contemplated here, the Lord of that servant that shall come.
Shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. Those are not true believers at all, of course, but they are in the sphere of Christendom, therefore they bear the name of the Lord.
Really baptized to Christendom, therefore they are responsible and.
That is, that is the. You might say the.
The great house or the.
As we have in Matthew chapter 13.
The Kingdom of Heavens in its present character.
Please. Wonderful. Or could I say Boston?
That as we contemplate these future events the Lord Jesus tells us about, He speaks about them with such assurance as though they already happened. And it reminds me of what?
Falsehood with respect to the promise to Abraham, you know he speaks in Romans 4 and verse 17. How did God quickens the dead and he calls those things which be not.
As though they were well in a wonderful that by the power of God's Holy Spirit and His precious Word, is what we have in our hands. We can contemplate future events just as though they'd already have.
You know somebody said that.
Prophecy is simply history written ahead of time and I think we need to take the heart not to back up too much here, but in verse 35 I think it's a good verse to take to heart. 35 of our chapter the Lord says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, and I believe we have in our hands.
This afternoon.
We call it the word of God. I noticed the Lord Jesus here. He speaks about his words.
And I believe that every word he spoke very important and not one's going to fall to the ground.
That's why I feel it's important to.
Try to get a word for word.
Translation of the original. Now we hear about.
Dynamic translations and what they are, I believe is an effort to put into today's language.
A thought that's expressed.
But I believe by doing so, we're missing out on many words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And every word of God is pure.
So we need to think about this. You know, it's been said, some of these translations, they're not translations, they're just interpretations.
But what I see here is the Lord is placing importance on His words.
Works.
Everyone is false. True.
34 is generated from the past, all these things fulfilled in the sand energy, a moral generation, unbelieving Israelites or representing award, and so on, the fine similar generation on these things.
00:50:17
And we know that so from the Lord's words himself.
The.
Previous chapter 23 The Lord calls them the serpents, you generation of Vipers.
How can you escape the damnation of hell? And then he says that upon you may come. Verse 35, all the righteous bloodshed on the earth from Abel and so on. That generation started with Kane. It's a generation that claims to be religious, to have approach to God, but it persecutes the true children of God. That generation shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled. And so it really is contrary to what has been speculated of generations of physical years and trying to make an application that way to these scriptures.
I was just thinking about the woman at the well and.
I believe themselves personally that the Lord has given us lots of indications to to know.
That the time is near for us to be going home for well when the woman is at the well.
That's in this.
And.
Verse 43. Well, go to verse 42.
Well, actually for a 41 and many more beliefs because of the because of his own word and and said unto the woman how we believe not because by saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Savior of the world. Now after the days he departed them and went into Galilee and.
So he's gone back to the dunes here after two days. I mean that book, two days.
Two day subscription the monthly study on meditation on the.
Time period that Lord is going to.
That parent setting the time in 2008 around for 2000 years. I think we all know that.
Think we believe that is soul brother Bill in those two days of Scripture are real encouragement to us and yet those two days of Scripture I would not count them as prophetic or that prophecy is being fulfilled that remains in advance, but they are there for our encouragement, aren't they?
The Second Thessalonians there and chapter 2.
And we know the following way has happened and worth, I would say we're really close to the end of the falling away. I mean, you can try to pass some of you attract on the street. They will not take it. And you can hardly even talk to people with the water because Christmas has fallen away. And it's just so very sad. I know third world countries that are standing in line. They take tracks from your hand, you know, But where they've heard the message over and over and over again, it becomes so hard.
And.
They just we know that we're near the end because of the evil, the great evil and I believe the Spirit of God, God of involves us, lets us know that it is time to go home. It's getting very, very close. Nothing to do with processing prophetic scriptures at all, but.
Verse three in Thessalonians Second Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse three. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except their comma falling away 1St and then.
The Son of Perdition and then if you go down to verse seven for the mystery of iniquity has already worked, only he's not letters for that until he'd be taken out the way. And I do believe that when the Spirit, when the Spirit of God gives up a territory, even takes it over, the Spirit of God never goes back to take it back. He gives it over to Satan and we can see that it's not going to go back. There's not going to be any great revival. I don't believe in Christendom and we know that it's very near, very close.
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Very close.
So the expectation to the faithful and wise servant is to be waiting for the Lord, and in the meanwhile he's occupied with what's precious to the Lord, how occupied with his own things. He doesn't have a title, He's not chief Butler or anything like that. He's just a servant in the Lord's household. And what's he busy doing? He's busy feeding.
That which is precious to Christ, his own, He's busy giving us household meat. And what kind of meat? Meat in due season, that which is suitable for the present condition of that household. And so there's a practical application there for us. Not everything that we might know from Scripture may be suitable to bring out at a certain time, but there's that which is suitable, that which is meat and season.
And.
This servant is not only faithful to the Lord, but he's wise. It takes wisdom to be in that household of faith and give meat that's appropriate, suitable food, that which is really going to sustain his own. And so that's what he is occupied with in the Lord's absence, watching, waiting. But here's one who says.
Not my Lord isn't coming, but my Lord Goliath is coming. He's putting off the Lord's coming. He's saying it's Oh yeah, it's coming. He's coming his way out in the future somewhere, someplace off in the distance that I don't have to really worry about it or think about it. And what is the result in his heart where the thought of the Lord's coming is really lost?
The true character of ministry in that house is lost too.
The Lords coming for his own. And so that first servant, he's serving the Lord in the light of his coming and making sure his own are fed and cared for. But this other servant has put the thought way off. He loses that true character of ministry, and he even begins to be critical fault, finding, beating those other servants, misusing them. He settles down and takes part with those who are.
Finding their pleasures in this world intoxicated with the pleasures of this world drunk. They that be drunk are drunken in the night, unaware that the Lord is really coming and he has a portion that's going to be appointed him.
And that's to be a portion in eternal destruction and eternal judgment. He's going to be cut asunder. And so the Lord wants us to be, in whatever capacity He's given us, to seek to be an encouragement and a help and defeat and sustain in any way we can, that little household of faith. Now that's different than what we have. We didn't read that portion yet.
Of the servants later in Matthew 25 there you might say it's more going out with the Gospel. Evangelization perhaps is more the picture where here it's more service in the household of faith. And so it's good and wise are the character or faithful and wise the characteristics of the servant there, but later on it's faithful and good.
Why? He's going out with the gospel.
Displaying the goodness that's in the heart of God to lost and ruined man. But wisdom is what is needed in the household of faith to give those portions that are so needed to sustain souls. One doing that, one occupied with that service, the Lord says he'll make him ruler over all his goods. He's got a wonderful reward in the Kingdom for one who's occupied in that service.
The one ministers understands the truth and has an understanding of the times. I was thinking of that verse in First Timothy, chapter 4. The exhortation of Paul to Timothy his son in the faith. Chapter four. First Timothy verse six. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
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Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast detained all right energy was necessary that Timothy should understand the truth. He had to be nourished up in the words of faith. That shows that there had to be a devotion and an energy to understand the truth. Not only the Old Testament, but.
The present truth that God has given to the Church.
He needed to be fortified and acquainted with the truth by diligence, study, and that's how we use nourished stuff in the words of faith. That's how he can be a wise and faithful servant as we have in our chapter here. But I think this is all part of the Kingdom of heaven. You know, from the 13th chapter of Matthew right on to the 25th, you have a, a series of parables.
About 10 parables and they all have to do with the the Kingdom of heaven and for for the young people we might just.
Backtrack here a little and say that the Kingdom of heaven is not heaven itself, and the Kingdom of heaven is the rule of the heavens in the person of the Son of Man. But it's not manifest now. It's in mystery at the present time. What is the Kingdom of heaven now in in the in the teachings of Matthew? Because it only comes in the Gospel of Matthew.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the sphere.
Where the Lordship of Christ is acknowledged outwardly, and this is Christendom as we see it today. It's becoming more and more corrupt. But the Kingdom of heaven is where the Lordship of Christ is outwardly acknowledged. Therefore the responsibility is much greater. And so this is a parable of the Kingdom of heaven.
And inside the Kingdom of heaven are baptized Christendom. We might say there are professors. It's like the great house. There are clean vessels and unclean. It's a it's a mixture. It's.
It is confusion. The Kingdom of heaven is now composed of everyone who takes the name of Christ upon that.
But within that Kingdom of heaven there is reality and this is what the the Lord is Speaking of here in verse 45, that we're looking at those who are truly servants of God amidst that confusion around us.
To minister the truth in its purity and its integrity, for the blessing of the Lord's people. And then the reward is assured. Here it's a Kingdom reward. In fact, rewards are mostly connected with the Kingdom, perhaps entirely connected.
With our position in the Kingdom, when the Kingdom of heaven will no longer be in mystery, it will be in manifestation when the Lord comes to establish His rule of righteousness in the Millennium.
We want to make sure we don't lose sight of the position that God has brought us into.
Through the Lord Jesus.
The question in the end of chapter 24.
50 The Lord of that servant will come today when you look at none for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appointed his portion of the info, Chris, there shall be reaping in action and peace, and so with the service, with the talent.
Which it says in verse 29, For everyone that hath shall be given, and shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
And cast me, the unprofitable servant, into our doctrines. There shall be weeping and national fee. And so we have to be clear that the discourse of the Lord is the evaluation of service.
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The lawyer wants you to be a good servant, but he's made you to be a child of God. And so this is not the judgment of the children, it's the judgment of the surgeon. And if you're a child of God, not to.
Should disqualify us for any measure of service, but that is never going to change. It's based on the Ortiz and there's reward connected with faithfulness and lost reward connected with but you never lose the fact that God is your father and that your childhood God. I want to mention that because these verses I just begin the day before are often used in the counter to bring doubts in the hearts of the believers that the Lord's judgment and entities into blessing is based on your performance or mine. It's not. It's based on the word of Christ. And so the one that magic seven said yeah, we're not prophesied in my name. Have we not cast out demons in my name.
Have we not done miracles in thy name, or says, I never knew you? It's what they did for the Lord that they're bringing to him, what we bring to God and what the Lord has done for us, and nothing can change that.
Perhaps the next portion in chapter 25 gets more to the root of that. We find that mixture of that which is real and that which is not. But there is not an evaluation of service. The picture given to us is whether there was oil in the vessels or not, whether there was the real possession of the Spirit of God, which as was brought out to us as consequent upon believing real believers and those who just make an empty profession.
So this.
Portion in beginning with chapter 25 of the Virgins is a little history of professing Christendom. We get a these 10 virgins that go forth to meet the bridegroom. They the early that early company at professed Christ went out separated from this world outside the camp of Judaism, they went out.
To be watching for the return of the Lord. You think of the Thessalonians Saints, they turn from idols, they turn to God from idols to serve the living God and wait for his Son from heaven. That's what characterized those early believers. And so they all went forward to meet the bridegroom. But five were wise 5 foolish. There's some that are real, some that are not, but they all says slumbered and then.
Slumbering starts first, doesn't it? You get sleepy and then you fall asleep. And that's what happened, that they gradually really lost the hope and the expectation of the coming of the Lord, which is taken up in the first parable. They lost that expectation. And here it is coming as a bridegroom, non connection with reward for service. A whole different motive is presented here. It's himself and.
That profession of Christianity, all real and unreal alike, fell asleep as to that expectation. And so even in the very earliest Church Fathers, in their writings, you'll find they lost that truth. Someone asked Mr. Darby about reading those early Church Fathers writings. You know, from the 1St and 2nd century, He said I stopped.
Just can't find hardly anything that really fully comports with the Apostles doctrine.
They lost that early on and they slumbered and then slept, but finally there is a cry that goes out.
Behold the Bridegroom that cometh because it's himself that's the object. And it was many hundreds of years before the truth that the Church's true hope that the true expectation of Christianity was the personal return of the Lord for his own as bridegroom for the bride and.
When did that take place? It was really the early 1800s when that cry went out and that truth was recovered and there was a general awakening as to that hope among believers. Before that it was a hope that if I die, I'll go to be with the Lord in heaven. And that was it. It was a hope and death, not in life, but now that went out. That cry went out and go ye out to meet him. And so there is an flurry of activities.
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To to respond to that crime that went out and there was a flurry of activity that took place, real and not real around the time of the recovery of that truth. And some of the great cults in Christianity Today rose at that time, false cults, Satan dot dizzy 2 our times out. But perhaps we can.
We sing together hymn #300 and 10310.
Heather oh how by the thought was anywhere thy son reapers.
Again.
And our church is dreadful, as I say, Lord.
That is in the cloud rain.
Right, Father, How we.
The choice to contemplate.
By purposes and councils with respect to this world and think of how to step plans for Israel.
Loved of thee, you think of how there will be this restoration of Israel in the coming days to enjoy blessing here on earth.
Think of nations who that will be brought to.
Ondi is Sword of Lords, King of Kings.
And you could how the whole world could be filled with knowledge. The Lord is the waters covered the sea. So would you rejoice as we contemplate the future?
We think particularly.
Of what our portion is to, and we think of our Lord Jesus.
Thou wilt come perhaps today and descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, the trump of God, And we think of how the dead are going to be caught up, and then we return lives and remain caught up together with them to meet the Indian heirs. So we thank you for this right and blessed prospect.
And we know, our Father, that I desire in all of this is that thy Son should be exalted. I was given him a name which is above every name. And we thank thee that all will be gathered together in one. Heaven and earth exalt that Blessed One. So we do thank thee for this sweet kind of fellowship.
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In thy word.
Whereby we encourage one another and magnify thy name, Lord Jesus, and we think of the basis of all the blessing.
The workout is to accomplish there at the cross of Calgary. We thank thee that by faith we can behold the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. We thank you to know we've been redeemed that was corruptible things. A sovereign golfer with the precious blood of Christ has ever a lamb without blemish without spot. So our Father, we just commit our way to thee now and.
Continue in my presence.
And thank you for liberty that we have together as we do, and for the kindness of our brethren to invite us to be together in this way. And so we acknowledge all my goodness. There's many ways to get the art, lengths and praise.
Precious and worthy names are soon come, and Savior, Lord Jesus, Amen.