Participants:
Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190008A
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00:01 This incomparable Jesus, He keeps His promises.
00:04 He came on time the first time, 00:06 He's coming back the second time. 00:09 The real crucial question that must be answered for each of us 00:13 is, who will be ready to stand? 00:41 Our last time, we talked about the seven unbreakable seals 00:44 that Jesus breaks. 00:46 And of course, He can break the stuff in our life too 00:48 that needs to be broken and surrendered to Him. 00:52 But there was an almost haunting question 00:55 in that picture of the sixth seal. 00:58 And it said, as the people ran from the coming of Jesus 01:02 and the glory of the coming of the Son of Man, 01:05 the cry went up from the earth, "Who will be able to stand?" 01:11 That's a sobering question. 01:14 It's a question we don't talk much about. 01:16 We talk many times almost glibly about the coming of Jesus, 01:20 but we don't answer that question. 01:22 But Revelation answers that question. 01:24 Revelation takes the whole next chapter 01:27 to answer the question, "Who will be able to stand?" 01:34 And so we're going to spend some time on that. 01:36 If you have your Bible and have been following with me 01:39 on the broadcast here, Revelation 6:15-16 01:44 gives that picture that we want to set the setting with. 01:48 "And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, 01:51 the commanders, the mighty men, 01:53 every slave and every free man..." 01:55 That's pretty comprehensive. 01:57 I really don't want to be among that group. 02:01 "...they hid themselves in the caves and in the 02:03 rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 02:06 'Fall on us. 02:07 We'd rather die than face this coming King.'" 02:13 This incredible Jesus. 02:15 Because He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. 02:19 He comes with judgment the second time. 02:21 I know we don't like to talk about judgment. 02:22 Yes, He comes to rescue His people, 02:24 and I want to be among those that are rescued, 02:27 but He also comes to judge those who are trying 02:29 to destroy His people. 02:31 He comes, as God says in the book of Hebrews chapter 10, 02:35 "Vengeance is Mine." 02:37 And He comes with vengeance this time 02:39 because He's here to rescue His people, 02:41 just like He rescued His people from Egypt the first time. 02:46 So they ask that question, "Who will be able to Stand?" 02:49 Who is ready for this Jesus? 02:53 The Bible makes a case, in fact Jesus Himself 02:56 makes a case about getting ready for Jesus to come. 03:00 That's something else we don't talk as much about as we should. 03:03 What do we mean when we say, "Get ready for Jesus to come"? 03:06 Well first of all I want to make the case that we 03:09 should get ready for Jesus to come. 03:11 And I want to go to the Scripture again 03:13 and let's just listen to Jesus Himself. 03:15 He's the one that put so much emphasis on this. 03:19 Emphasis about getting ready. 03:23 In Matthew chapter 24, which is talking about 03:25 His second coming, in verses 37-39, He says this, 03:32 "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming 03:39 of the Son of Man be." 03:41 And then He describes what was happening with Noah. 03:43 Now you've got to remember, Noah preached for 120 years. 03:46 Maybe people got icy fingers of delay about that too and said, 03:49 "Oh, well, it's never going to happen. 03:51 The old man is just building a big boat." 03:53 And then when they saw the animals, you know, 03:55 they just so hardened their heart little by little 03:58 that even the great signs that this was going to happen 04:02 just didn't make the needed impression for them to change. 04:07 Now I don't want you to forget that. 04:09 In fact, Jesus goes on to describe, He says, you know, 04:12 there will be two men working in the field. 04:13 One will be taken, the other left. 04:15 Two women grinding, doing their work. 04:18 One will be taken, the other left. 04:19 One will be ready, one won't be ready. 04:24 Jesus is saying, He's telling us, He says, "Look, 04:29 this thing is coming. 04:30 And if you don't get ready for it, 04:33 it'll take you by surprise." 04:35 He's not coming in secret. 04:38 But He is coming as a great overwhelming surprise 04:40 to many of the people on planet earth. 04:44 He goes on in Matthew 24:40-44 where He talks about the two 04:51 will be grinding, two women will be grinding. 04:53 One will be taken, the other left. 04:54 Then He says this: 04:56 He says, "Watch..." 04:58 Now what does the word, "watch," mean? 04:59 It means to be on the alert. 05:01 Be on the look-out. 05:02 Nowadays we live in a modern society where 05:04 everybody has cameras everywhere, 05:06 everybody is watching. 05:07 In fact, it's hard to go anywhere anymore without 05:09 getting on a camera, somebody's camera. 05:12 "Watch," Jesus says. 05:14 It means, to be on the alert. 05:17 "...you do not know what hour your Lord will come." 05:21 You're not really sure. 05:23 You know the signs of His coming. 05:25 Jesus said you can know even when it's at the door. 05:27 But you don't know right when He's coming. 05:29 So you need to be on the alert. 05:31 And then He gives another illustration 05:33 in case that weren't enough. 05:34 He gives the illustration about the master of the house. 05:38 If he had only known what hour the thief was coming, 05:41 He would have been ready. 05:43 But he didn't know, and he wasn't on the alert, 05:45 and he wasn't watching, and he wasn't ready. 05:48 But Jesus adds again, "Therefore, be ready. 05:53 For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you don't expect." 05:57 Jesus emphasizing to get ready. 05:59 Now He's not done yet. 06:01 He really zeroes in on this business of getting ready 06:06 for His coming. 06:09 Now only is the house owner surprised by the thief, 06:12 but we are also given a parable of two servant leaders. 06:16 They're in charge of different households. 06:19 One is faithful, the other is unfaithful. 06:22 One says, "The lord delays his coming." 06:23 The other one has his house ready. 06:26 And one is given a great commendation, 06:30 and the other is destroyed because they weren't ready. 06:35 And then we all know the story of the ten virgins. 06:38 It's a great story, a great parable of Jesus. 06:42 Ten of them. 06:43 Five were ready and five were not. 06:47 Five had prepared, and five had not. 06:51 So there is something for us to do to get ready 06:54 for Jesus to come. 06:55 Now I may say this several times just so I'm not 06:57 misunderstood, you can't earn your salvation. 07:00 Jesus already earned your salvation on Calvary's cross. 07:03 We're talking about cooperating with the Lord Jesus 07:07 so He gets us ready for this huge event of His coming. 07:13 Now again, after the ten virgins you have the three stewards. 07:18 They were all given different amounts of talents. 07:20 Two of them got ready by investing. 07:23 One didn't get ready. 07:25 And he was thrown out where there was gnashing and weeping. 07:31 And then of course, we have the fourth angel 07:33 in Revelation chapter 18. 07:35 We'll talk more about that later. 07:36 But that angel says, "Come out of her, My people." 07:39 Why does He say that? 07:41 Because He's saying, "You've got to get ready." 07:45 And then you've got the bride that 07:47 gets herself ready in Revelation. 07:49 This is a very fascinating picture. 07:51 There are three hallelujah's in Revelation 19. 07:54 And the third hallelujah is an hallelujah because of 07:58 something that happens on earth. 08:00 And you can just listen to this. 08:03 Revelation 19:6-8, "And I heard, as it were, 08:07 the voice of a great multitude..." 08:09 This is happening in heaven. 08:11 "...as the sound of many waters 08:13 and as the sound of mighty thunderings, 08:14 saying, 'Alleluia! The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!' 08:20 Let us be glad and rejoice...'" 08:24 Why are they glad? 08:25 Why are they rejoicing? 08:27 Well there's a wonderful reason why they're rejoicing. 08:31 And they're rejoicing because the bride of Christ 08:35 has made herself ready. 08:38 He goes on to say, "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 08:41 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, 08:43 for the marriage of the Lamb has come, 08:45 and His wife has made herself ready." 08:48 Now I'm not as young as I use to be, 08:50 but I can certainly remember our wedding day. 08:52 And you know, my wife, when I proposed to her, 08:57 she took me serious. 08:59 She believed my promise. 09:01 She believed that I meant what I said. 09:04 That I wanted her to be my wife. 09:06 And you know what she did? 09:07 She started getting ready. 09:08 Started getting ready for that marriage. 09:11 Jesus uses the same illustration in the book of Revelation. 09:14 And He tells His people, "Look, I am coming. 09:17 You can trust Me. 09:18 And this is going to be an awesome event. 09:21 And you've got to get ready. 09:24 You can't just not be ready for My coming 09:28 and for the marriage supper of the Lamb." 09:30 So the bride does get herself ready. 09:33 And the angels in heaven and the crowd in heaven, 09:36 they are so excited when they see the bride 09:39 finally gets herself ready. 09:41 She's getting ready. 09:43 She's going to be ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. 09:45 All of heaven rejoices. 09:47 So this getting ready is a big thing in Scripture. 09:50 It's a big thing with Jesus. 09:52 It's a big thing, of course, with the book of Revelation. 09:56 So Jesus reveals Himself as that incomparable Jesus. 10:00 He's coming back to get His bride. 10:04 He uses that symbol, He's coming back to get His church. 10:08 He's coming back to get those who put their faith 10:10 and trust in Him. 10:13 Now we're going to be faced with something 10:14 that a lot of people don't understand 10:16 and we don't talk much about it, 10:18 but we should because it's all here. 10:22 And I'm going to give it a name. 10:24 I'm going to call it, the close of human probation. 10:28 Now the close of human probation is going to happen 10:32 in the book of Revelation. 10:34 And we'll talk more about that later. 10:36 But it's going to happen because everybody on earth, 10:40 because of the mark of the beast, 10:42 because of the great deceptions of the end time, 10:45 because of the rise of the beast from the sea 10:47 and the rise of the beast from the earth, 10:50 everybody is going to come to a place 10:53 that they're going to make up their mind 10:55 and they won't change. 10:57 The close of probation comes, not because God has run out 11:03 of the willingness to forgive, but because nobody else 11:07 wants forgiveness. 11:09 The people who are on His side, they made up their minds too. 11:13 We're going to talk about that. 11:15 Because that's the focus of getting ready for Jesus to come. 11:20 Revelation 22:7 says... 11:23 At the end of the book of Revelation 11:25 God begins to wind it up. 11:27 He says, "Behold, I am coming quickly. 11:30 Blessed is he who keeps the prophecies of this book." 11:33 In other words, if you keep the prophecies of this book 11:36 and the instructions of this book, 11:37 you'll be ready for Jesus to come. 11:40 And then in the same chapter, verses 11-12, 11:43 He gives these words, sober words, 11:47 "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; 11:51 he that is holy, let him be holy still;" 11:56 In other words, there comes a time in human probation 11:59 and human life on planet earth, in the context of the 12:03 mark of the beast, when probation ceases 12:07 because people have made up their mind. 12:11 So the crucial question is, who will be able to stand? 12:16 Who will be able to stand? 12:18 Jesus, when He comes again, He comes with His reward. 12:21 And that's why there's an investigative judgment 12:23 that the Bible talks about in the book of Revelation 12:25 which we haven't had much time to talk about. 12:27 Because it separates the sheep from the goat, 12:30 the wheat from the tares. 12:31 Because there's a lot of impostors. 12:33 There's a lot of people who claim to be Christian, 12:35 but they're not Christian. 12:37 And they're not going to be ready for Jesus to come. 12:40 You want to make sure that you're a real Christian. 12:43 You want to make sure that you're getting 12:44 ready for Jesus to come. 12:45 And there's no reason why you can't 12:47 be ready for Jesus to come. 12:49 I want us to be of good courage. 12:50 So let's come back to that crucial question, 12:53 who will be able to stand? 12:55 Now the book of Revelation in chapter 7 12:58 answers that question. 13:00 And we hear this wonderful picture 13:04 from the book of Revelation 7:1-3. 13:07 At least we'll start that just before the break here. 13:10 It says, "After these things I saw four angels 13:14 standing at the four corners of the earth, 13:17 holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not 13:20 blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree." 13:24 Winds of strife, winds of chaos, winds of difficulty. 13:29 Winds of strife. 13:32 And the angels are holding those winds back. 13:35 They're holding them back even now. 13:37 Why are they holding them back? 13:40 They have a great reason for that. 13:44 They're waiting for people, God's people, to get ready 13:49 for Jesus to come. |
Revised 2019-07-22