Will You Be Ready?

Take your Bibles if you would turn to Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13 Lord willing we're gonna finish up Mark chapter 13 today. As Christ answers his disciples, disciples come to him they said, When will the end of this age, when will these things, these prophetic events, the coming of your kingdom happen. When are they going to happen? Now, think the disciples were thinking they were going to happen sooner than later.

Matter of fact, it seems some of them thought maybe they were going to happen right then but they were going to happen right then. There was going to be a period of time we call the church age that would separate the first coming of Christ from the second coming of Christ. Christ went back to heaven where he intercedes on behalf of all those who come to him by faith. That is us who know Christ as savior. But one day, as he's prepared a place for us, he's going to come again, receive us unto himself that where he is, there we may be also.

We call that the rapture. Rapture is not primarily in view in Mark chapter 13. What is primarily in view in Mark 13 is what happens about seven years after the rapture which is when Christ returns to Earth with his saints, that would be us to establish his kingdom and to destroy the kingdoms of the wicked one, of Satan, of the Antichrist, and to establish his eternal kingdom. So, that's what we look forward to and that's what Mark chapter 13 primarily has in view. It's a message to those who will be alive during the tribulation time before Christ returns and as Christ returns to set up his kingdom.

Again, if you know the Lord, we're going to look at in a few weeks on Sunday nights from first Thessalonians. The Lord's going to take us home. We're going to be watching these things like John was in his vision in Revelation from the shores of heaven. Mark chapter 13, if you would, verse 24. Mark thirteen twenty four.

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars of heaven shall fall, the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken, and then shall they see the son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory and then shall he send his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you for your word this day. Guide us in our study. Lord, may the spirit use it mightily and these that are here today in our in our lives Lord.

To open our eyes and give us understanding to give us faith for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. May it give faith today that someone might believe and put their faith and trust that Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life. He is the Lord, the king of kings who will return once again to to take his rightful place upon this earth. May we all be prepared for that day. We pray in Jesus name, amen.

Entitled my message this morning, will you be ready? Not will your your neighbor be ready, not will, your friend be ready. First of all, is the question is this, are you ready? Are you ready? For what is coming?

And it is coming. Man will not stop it. Man will not change it. God has a plan for this world. That plan involves the rapture of the church.

It involves a seven year tribulation, a time of great judgement upon the earth. And great battle between the forces of Satan and the forces of God and finally, the return of Christ to take his place and that's what we're looking at this morning from the text. As we read from Mark thirteen twenty four to 27, it told us several interesting things that will accompany the return of Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, it also says nearly the exact same thing here in Revelation chapter six concerning the end times and the return of Christ. It says and I beheld and when he had opened the sixth seal and low, there was a great earthquake.

The sun became black as sackcloth of hair. The moon became his blood. The stars of heaven fell onto the earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs. When she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. This is what will happen at the latter half of the tribulation period as God ramps up to send Jesus Christ back to Earth to establish his kingdom.

The sun will be darkened. The moon will nearly disappear. The stars will fall. Now, we know today that you look up in the stars in the sky that there are big balls of gas that are are thousands of light years away. What is it talking about?

Probably what we call falling stars or meteorites. It refers to here as figs that fall from a tree. When I was in Georgia it wasn't figs they were pecans. Everybody seen anybody seen a pecan tree? Alright.

Everybody in Georgia they have large pecan groves full of these huge pecan trees bigger than most of the oak trees around here. And when they go to harvest the pecans they bring out this big machine. And it has wheels and they drive it down the road and they drive it into the field. It's got a huge belt or it has a huge claw and it grabs a hole to the bottom of the tree and it shakes it. And you can hear it from half a mile away.

Shakes the tree and the pecans just rain out of the tree onto the ground. And they go and they do that to every tree and then they come by with a thing that harvests and picks up the pecans. Now that's if you have a pecan grove and you have all the machines. Otherwise you just have to wait for them to fall and pick them up by hand which is what we did. But that's the symbolism here.

God is going to shake not just the earth. God is going to shake the universe. Even space itself. And meteorites are going to fall from the heavens and bring devastating destruction. Upon this earth.

This is what will happen before or as Christ returns to this Earth. As the kingdoms of this Earth burn to the ground and they will. The people of this Earth die by the billions, by the billions. It says several times in Revelation and a third of the earth died and a third of the earth died. Well, back then, a third of the earth wasn't very many people compared to what it is today.

A third of the earth is now billion as you can imagine. As man's glorious civilization falls into ruin and chaos, at man's most desperate hour the son of God will return with great glory and with great judgment. He will bring hope, peace, and victory to the righteous who welcome him. He will be welcomed. It will be a time of rejoicing for those who know him and have received him by faith.

However, bringing hope to those who know him, he will come spelling doom and death to those who oppose him. And there will be the majority of the earth in that day that will stand in defiance. And it will be over quickly. Men today are crying, the sky is falling. The sky is falling.

Does that ring a bell to any of you? I think it's in a real children's book called Chicken Little, right? And Chicken Little is running around saying, the sky is falling. The sky is falling. Do you hear that today?

I hear that today. Turn on the news. The sky is falling. The sky is falling. Global warming and greenhouse gases are going to destroy our fair planet.

While being good stewards of God's creation we should be the threat humanity faces is not from greenhouse gases. The threat humanity faces is not from fossil fuels but the awesome and terrible judgment of almighty God. That is what man should fear. That is the catastrophe that man faces. For it is the judgment of God which will rain down fire from heaven and it will.

You can read about it in Revelation. It is the judgment of God that will send searing heat that man cannot withstand. Not automobiles and planes. It will happen. It will happen when God brings judgement.

It is man's rejection of God that will destroy him. Not our neglect of mother nature. Let me say that again. It is man's rejection of who? God that will destroy him.

Not man's neglect of man's mother nature. If you would hold your place in Mark 13 turn over to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19 and if you would let's look at verse 14. Revelation nineteen fourteen. And if you don't mind, I'm a bit hot.

I'm going to take my coat off. I don't know why I put it on because I put it on and then I take it right back off but oh well. Revelation nineteen fourteen describes the return of Jesus Christ and guess what? It is not a pretty picture particularly for the enemies of God who have sided with the antichrist. Look, you would begin in verse 14, the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed with fine linen, white and clean.

Those are the saints. Out of his mouth go with a sharp sword and with it, he should smite the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treaded the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of all mighty God. This is a very very brutal picture of the wine press.

When they put the wine or the olives in the press and they pressed it down and and the juice would burst forth. This is the the rather gory metaphor, picture, illustration of what's going to happen to the armies of this world that stand in opposition to Jesus Christ when he returns. It's not a pretty picture. Verse 16, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written king of kings and Lord of lords. I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together into the supper of the great God.

These are these are buzzards. These are vultures. That you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great, and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together. This is the Antichrist, and the armies of men that sided with him, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. You think as man sees Christ bursting forth through the clouds, he would realize he is God.

I have rebelled against almighty God and would lay down their arms and surrender but no, instead, they will hold their fist in the air. In opposition, to the God who made them. The battle will be short and it will be brief. Verse 20, and the beast was taken, that is their leader, the antichrist, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, which deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped the image. These both were cast alive in the lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Not a pretty picture. Reality the judgment of God is coming up upon this Earth. It does no good to ignore it. It won't stop it. You can reject him.

They will not keep him from coming. The Bible says that one day, every knee shall bow and every what? To confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. He will be Lord. The question is, which side will you be on?

When judgement comes. Will you be on his side? Or will you be on the other side? Look if you would in Matthew chapter 13. Turn back if you would to Matthew just before Mark there.

Turn to Matthew chapter 13. Jesus told a parable. It's called the parable of the weed and the tares. A man sowed his field. He sowed his field in wheat.

He went out. He tossed the the wheat seeds out on on the ground. Today, they have of course big machines that did that back in those days. They took handfuls and they threw it out and and they seeded seeded the ground with their wheat and sometime an enemy during the night came to the field. You know what he did?

He brought seed of tares. It's it's it's a it's a a weed that produces no fruit. It looks very much like wheat when it begins to grow but it doesn't produce any fruit and it and it and it stifles the growth of the the wheat. So, the enemy came and he threw out all these weed seeds all over the field and so they began to grow and they looked just alike when they began to grow and so the master of the field said to his servants, well, you can't do anything about it now because it's hard to tell the wheat from the what? The wheat from the tares and if you pull the tares up, you might accidentally pull the what?

The wheat up. So, let it grow together and then when harvest time comes, you'll be able to tell the wheat the tares because one will produce fruit and the other won't. It'll make a little more more work for us because we'll have to go through and get rid of the tares and harvest the wheat and Jesus gave this this parable to as a metaphor of the age in which we live that there's who those who are are his sheep and those who are not his sheep. There are those who bow to him and receive him as Lord and savior and those who reject him as savior and they grow together in this world and God lets them grow but one day, judgement is coming. So, he specifically here interprets it in verse 36 of Matthew 13.

So, look if you would in verse 36 of Matthew 13, he tells his disciples what exactly he meant. Jesus sent the multitude away and went to the house and his disciples came unto him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man. That would be Jesus Christ. The field is the world.

The good seed are the children of the kingdom but the tares of the children, the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. As therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so it shall be at the end of this world.

The son of man shall send forth his angels. They shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend of them which do iniquity. He shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun and the kingdom of their father who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Jesus says, the day of my kingdom is coming. The righteous will be welcomed. The righteous will shine forth. In the kingdom of the Lord but the unrighteous, those who reject the righteousness of Jesus Christ, those who reject his offer of salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life. They will be rooted out.

They will be burned in the fire. It says in Revelation 20, verses fourteen and fifteen and death and hell were cast into the what? Lake of fire. This is the second death and whosoever is not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire. There must be a real lake of fire.

A place of torment. The Bible says, the smoke of their torment ascended forever. It seems to be eternal. And it seems to be the lot of those, the end of those who reject Jesus Christ It is the fate of those during the tribulation will receive instead the antichrist and take the mark of the beast and reject and rebel against the Lord when he returns. This judgment is coming.

It is coming upon all. The Bible says it's point on the man wants to die but after this the what? The judgment. Whether you're alive when this event happens, you will still face the judgment even if you die today. And God is your judge and if you've rejected Jesus Christ, this is your lot.

I don't tell you that because I want to scare you. I don't tell you that because I don't like you. I don't tell you that because I somehow think I'm better than you. I'm not. This is where I deserve to go.

Because I'm a sinner. I've rebelled rebelled against God. But I have received God's offer of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ. I have embraced Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior and I do have eternal life and so can you. This does not have to be your end.

Jesus came and died so that it would not be your end. That is what Jesus did for you. But the day of judgement is coming. The day of personal judgement is coming. We read about in Revelation 20.

The day of the judgment of this world and the kingdoms of this world is coming. That we read about in Revelation 19. The question is, when? When is it going to come? Is that that might be a question you want the answer to?

Well, the disciples did. Look if you would in Mark chapter 13 again in verse 28. Mark chapter 13 and verse 28. Now, as we looked earlier and we'll come back to it just briefly in a moment. In earlier in Mark chapter 13, the disciples asked this question and Jesus gave them what we call the signs of the times.

Jesus said, this is going to happen. These things, these type of things are going to happen leading up to the return of Christ and and his kingdom. We'll get back to that in just a moment. But that's not what probably the disciples wanted. What do you think the disciples wanted?

What what do we want? What does man generally want? If you say, if my kids come to me and say, dad, when are we going to the zoo? Okay. Let's say I told them sometime we're going to go to the zoo and they sang to me and said, Dad when are we going to the zoo?

What do you think they want? Okay, they want me to tell them what day they're going to the zoo, okay? That's what they want. They want to know the day. They want to know the date.

Jesus disciples came to him and they said, when is this going to happen? What do you think they wanted? They wanted a date. They wanted a day. Did they get that?

The answer is no. They did not get a date. They did not get. It'll be so many days or so many years or so many hours. Instead, they got, well, the world's going to get worse and worse and worse and then, these things are going to reach a fever pitch and this is going to happen and then, then I'm coming back.

They didn't give them a date or an hour. Matter of fact, look in verse 28. Says, now learn a parable of the fig tree. When a branch is yet tender and put it forth her leaves, yet know that some, yet, know that summer is near. So, you in like manner, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, it is near, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth what? No man. No not the angels which are in heaven neither the son but the father.

They wanted a date. I'm sure of it. I I I'm that's what you want if you ask. When are we going to do something? You want a date.

Jesus didn't give him a date. Jesus said, no man knows what? The day or the hour. Sadly, there's always somebody out there setting a what? Setting a time, setting a date.

It's going to happen this time. It's going to happen that time. It's going to happen. You know, one thing I'm quite absolutely sure of, That Jesus is not going to come back on a date that sometime that somebody sets. Somebody says he's going to come back today.

He might come back the day before. He might come back the day after but I very much doubt he's going to come back on that day. Because Jesus said, no man knows the day or the hour. So don't be misled by these charlatans that say, oh, he's coming next week. Oh, he's coming next year.

Oh, it's going to be a hundred years. Don't listen because they don't know. That's why Jesus didn't give a date and he says, no man knows a day. Instead, he gave us signs. So, that we could see the storm coming on the horizon and that we could prepare.

We could prepare. That's what God wants us to do. He wants us to prepare and he wants us to prepare when? He wants us to prepare now. That's what he wants.

Why no date? Well, when I was in college I had assignments and I had papers that were assigned. Sometimes we were given the assignments at the beginning of the semester and three or four or two months into the semester I had a paper due on this date and I knew the date it was due. And so what did I do? Well I began right away to get working on that paper.

Right? I did the research. I studied. I took time. And then when the date came I was ready.

It was finished and there was no hurry and there was no cramming because I knew the date and so I was prepared. You think that's what I did? If you do, you don't know me. And it is not to my glory that by nature I am a procrastinator. No, what I did in college is I saw, okay, well, it's due on that day.

Okay, good. Good. I'm glad I know. Well, it's two months out. I don't have to worry about it when?

Now, I don't have to worry about it now. It's not due for two months. So that's great. So a month later, well, I don't have to worry about now. It's still what?

It's still a month away. So I don't have to worry about it. Three weeks later, hey, well, it's a week away. I don't have to worry about it yet. It's still a week off.

The day before comes, uh-oh. Uh-oh. It's here. I have better get I better get this paper done. Run to the library, get the books, do the research, write the paper, maybe I get it done in time.

Maybe I don't. Why did Jesus not give a date? That's why. What would we do? Oh, I don't have to worry about it because hey, it's not in my lifetime.

It's not going to affect me or it's thirty years down the road. It's not going to affect me. You realize this? Your life is but a vapor which is here for a moment and it's gone. By nature, we all think we're going to live to be a 100 but we're not.

Some of us might not live to 40. Some of us might not live to 60. Some of us might not see 80. Some don't see 10 or 20. The fact is, no man knows the day or the hour of Christ's return but no man knows the day or hour of their own what?

Of their own death. And what do we do? We procrastinate. And what's sad is sometimes people procrastinate too long. One day, the world will procrastinate too long and it will be too late.

Why does Jesus not give a date? Because I think he wants us to be prepared now. Because you may need to be prepared now because you may meet him before tomorrow gets here. It could happen. It happens every day.

We always think it's going to happen to somebody else. It's not going to happen. The Bible uses the metaphor of a thief coming in the night. To to describe the coming of Christ. Let's say your neighbor right next door to your right.

Let's say their house was burglarized. Let's say two houses down the street from you, their homes were burglarized. Well, it may be that whose home might be next? Yours. So what do you do?

Hopefully you prepare. You lock your doors. Maybe you get a security system put in because your house could be next and the thief isn't going to send text message or or phone call you and say, hey, I'm going to rob your house tonight. Doesn't work that way. God isn't going to tell this world when he's coming either.

We just need to be prepared. Matthew 24:43 and 44, but know this that if the good man of the house had known and what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore, be you also ready. For in such an hour as you what, think not the son of man cometh. Jesus comes to take his children, the church home at the rapture.

There's going to be no no signal in the sky that says, I'm coming in an hour. The Bible says it's going to happen in a moment in the what? In the twinkling of an eye. And then the tribulation comes. And then even despite the judgments that are told about in Revelation, the world is still not going to be ready.

When Christ comes back. It's going to catch many of them by surprise. Don't wait too late. Don't wait too late to prepare Jesus is coming again. We just don't know the day and we don't know the hour.

Christ does not give us the day or the hour but he does give us a warning of the signs that we could recognize that the time is drawing near. That we might prepare ourselves, that we might surrender to the Lord of heaven, that we might accept his lordship by faith before it is too late. In the beginning of the chapter, he tells of wars and rumors of wars, Particularly, centered around probably The Middle East. Are there wars and rumors of wars? Centered around the Middle East?

Jerusalem? Yeah, there is. And no matter how whoever the president is, tries to bring peace to the Middle East. There's only one person who's bringing peace to the Middle East and that is Jesus Christ. When he returns.

False Christ and false prophets, we named a bunch of em a couple weeks ago. They're all over the place. Natural disasters, there's a ring of fire that circles the Pacific Ocean of vol volcanoes and earthquakes that are happening more and more often a bunch of them in the past year. Terrible diseases from cancer to age to Ebola and other serious outbreaks still threaten to wipe out humanity. When will the next daily deadly contagion be unleashed?

With all of our knowledge and wisdom and science, we still can't cure cancer. We still can't cure many viruses and diseases. Christ warns the people living in that day that when these signs reach a fever pitch, watch out. God's judgment and Christ return will come quickly and with finality, there will be no way of escape for the enemies of God that day and no second chances. No second chances.

When is the time for second chances? It is today. Don't pass it up. Because there may be no tomorrow. There may be no second chance next year.

Behold, today is the day of salvation. Jesus concludes in Mark 13 with one more parable. Mark 13 verse 33. He says, take heed, watch, and pray for you know not when the time is. For the son of man is a man taking us as as a man taking a far journey who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch.

Watch you therefore, for you know not when the master of the house cometh at even or midnight or at the cock crowing or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping and what I say unto you, I say unto you all, watch. What is Jesus say? What is Jesus emphasize here? What does he say?

Watch, watch, watch, watch. What's that mean? It means watch. It means get ready. It means prepare yourself.

That's why he doesn't give a day. He wants you to get ready when. He wants to be ready now. And one day, he will come. It's like a master of the house who in that day had servants.

When he went to leave the house, he told the servants, you take care of this, you take care of that, you take care of this. When I come back, I'll see how you did and he went away and he was gone for for days. He was gone for months. He was gone for years. The servants began to think, oh, he's not coming back.

I don't have to worry. I'm not going to be held to account and then when they least expect it, the master returns. And they've been squandering what he gave them. They've been lazy. They've been selfish and now they'll have to give an account.

To the Lord and the master. Who put them in charge of his things We're in charge of this world. We're we're in charge of our lives. We're in charge, entrusted with the gospel to reach out to a lost and dying world that needs him. Have you received him?

And if you have received him, are you telling others about him? Are you prepared and are you preparing your family? Are you preparing your friends? Because Jesus is coming what? Jesus is coming again.

Are you prepared and ready for his return? As I mentioned earlier, I am not one to try to scare you into making a decision. I am warning you so you can make a decision and save yourself from a terrible faith. If you were going down the road and I knew a bridge was out and you were flying past me going down the road, I wouldn't be trying to scare you if I told you the bridge was out. I would be trying to what?

Stop you and save you from sure death. That's why we preach the gospel. That's why Christ said these words. That's why we proclaim them today because we want you to be saved because he wants you to be saved. Isaiah 1:18 says, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson.

Crimson, they shall be as wool. God says, I will save you. I will forgive you. I will wash your sins away but only if you come to God through faith in Jesus. Only if you will repent and trust Christ alone as the Lord and savior of your own of your life.

Only if you will surrender to him as your Lord and receive him by faith as your savior. He is the only way. The Bible says, John three thirty six, he that believeth on the son hath what? Everlasting life. He that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.

We just talked about the wrath of God. Personal wrath, wrath against the world. His wrath is coming. Or his deliverance and victory. It all depends on what you have done with Jesus.

Please, don't wait too late. Let's pray. Dearly father, thank you Lord. For your word and for the warnings, signs that it gives us here, that we might see, your return on the horizon, that we might prepare ourselves, that we might prepare ourselves by receiving Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, who rose again from the grave, was promised to receive us as his children if we will come to him by faith. Lord, I pray that we who know you will prepare ourselves by using the days wisely that you have given to us to bring glory to our God and proclaim the gospel to a needy world.

To warn them. Lord, I pray for those who don't know you. Even if there be one here this morning, that they would not put it off till it's too late but would even come today as we give this hymn of invitation and receive Jesus Christ as Lord. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.