Book of Luke - Ch. 17, Vs. 1-37 (09/27/2020)

Let's begin with a quick word of prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all your many blessings.

Thank you for giving us the additional blessing today of having a church service where we actually have real live bodies in the building.

Thank you also for all of the people that have joined in online, virtually, and they are just as much a member and a part of this service as the ones that are here.

Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us what we need to get out of the information that you present to us.

Bless us and keep us, go through all the services today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We are in the 17th chapter of Luke. And the 17th chapter of Luke is really a weird chapter.

It looks like it was just bundled together to make a chapter about the same size as the other chapters.

There are five major lessons in this chapter. I see a scant correlation between the first lesson and the second lesson, a total disjoint for the third lesson, and then a stronger and more important connection between the last two.

In any case, we're going to begin with a quick review of what we've already done.

Thus far in chapter 17 of Luke's Gospel, we've talked about two of the five lessons.

Lesson one I entitled Traps or Snares. With the question, who is trapped, who sets the trap, and the consequences to both the trapped and the trapper.

I'm going to read it, and we're not going to discuss it because we did that last week. Verse one, then said he unto his disciples, it is impossible but that offenses, now

I'm going to give you one comment. Literally that word offenses is translated snares or traps.

So it could have said, it is impossible but that snares will come, but woe unto him through whom they come.

It would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Now people always read that as being little children, but I don't think it is little children in this particular passage.

I think it is just new believers. But that's just me thinking, and you can take that with a grain of salt.

Take heed to yourselves, that if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.

And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again to thee saying,

I repent, thou shalt forgive him. That seemed hard to the apostles.

So they said, Lord, increase our strength. And the

Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it should obey you.

Now that was the reading of the material from which the first lesson was taken.

And what was that lesson? Beware of the traps, beware of being a trapper.

It's worse to be a trapper and trap your brethren than it is to be the one that's trapped. Then lesson number two, this one, going beyond, or the servant is not above his master, or maybe you could say, who is serving whom?

I believe it's just barely connected to the first. When I first did this,

I didn't think it was connected at all. But then as I read it over and over again, I saw that there was a faint connection between who is serving whom and bewaring of trying to trap your brothers.

Well, here's what it says. But which of you having a servant, plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him, by and by, when he has come from the field, go and sit down to eat, and will not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith

I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink?

Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded of him?

So he's saying, do you think that the owner will thank the servant for the servant doing what is commanded of the servant to do?

And he says something that I had to look up. I throw not, I T -R -O -W not.

And I looked that up and it says, I don't think so. That's the way we would say it.

No, I don't think he'd say that. I think if you were a Gentile believer, a Gentile master, you'd only serve before the servants.

Jesus is laying it to them in a different way. To be a master, you must first be a servant.

Jesus came as a servant and he is telling us that we need to come as servants as well. So that's what this lesson is all about.

So likewise he, when you shall have done all of those things which are commanded, you say, say to yourself, we are unprofitable servants.

Why are they unprofitable? Because we have done that which was our duty to do. Not more, just what is our duty to do and nothing else.

To be a profitable servant, they would need to have done something more than was required them to do.

They would have to say, yes, serve yourself and then

I'll wait on you as the master. The master waiting on, taking care of the servants.

Now those were the two that we did last week. And it took a lot more time than I thought last week.

Partly because we got started late and partly because we discussed a good bit.

This morning we're gonna explore three more lessons maybe. When I wrote this down,

I thought for sure we'd get through the three messages. But since I've done that, I've set up here this morning and added 10 minutes.

So I don't know if we'll get through or not. Lesson number three, the 10 lepers.

Now this one is totally disjointed from the verse two. You can just feel like a paragraph divider has been here and you're starting a new thought.

The 10 lepers, or should we not all praise God? I hit the wrong button.

I hate it when that happens. Should we not all praise

God for his blessings? Now this is not a parable as many of the other lessons are.

This is an event in Jesus's life. But he uses that event to teach a third lesson.

Now let's look at what he says. And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

You might need to kind of think about where Jesus was and what he is doing in Galilee and Samaria to start with.

Just before this happened, he had raised Lazarus from the dead. And that made the

Pharisees and the leaders angry. And they sought to stone him. And so he left.

They were not able to stone him. But he went into Samaria and into Galilee and he wandered around there, staying there until it's time for him to come back.

Jesus took that roundabout trip so that it would keep him out of Jerusalem until the

Passover. That's only a few weeks away. At which time he would return in order that he'd be there in Jerusalem to offer himself as the sacrificial lamb to take away our sins.

That is to say, to take away the sins of the elect. And that was, of course, part of the plan for the beginning.

Part of the plan that the triune God set up before time began.

When they created the earth and the understanding was Jesus would come into the world to save the elect, to save a remnant from the sin that they all three knew was gonna be committed by Adam and Eve and passed on to the rest of us.

And we're all gonna commit our sins. So there was a plan for the salvation before the creation of man.

There was a plan for salvation before the creation of the universe. Before the creation of the universe.

There was a plan. That's fine. There was a plan for the redemption of man before there was even a space to put the universe that was gonna be created.

There was no time, there was no space, there was nothing but the triune God. And the decision was made for all that was going to happen.

And part of that plan was that Jesus was gonna come and he was gonna come to Jerusalem and he was gonna die on the cross at a particular time.

And that's why Jesus was not afraid to go back into Jerusalem to heal

Lazarus when the disciples already knew that they were trying to stone him.

Basically he said, don't worry, they can do nothing to me until it's my time.

He was kind of like the Stonewall Jackson who rode in the white horse in front of the armies. And he said, one of the reporters asked, aren't you afraid you'll be shot by one of the different people?

And he said, no, I will live as long as my mission is here. And when he died, he was shot by his own people.

By accident, but he was shot. The sins of elect, the sins of the elect will be forgiven.

That is part of the plan from the very beginning. So as he's heading back now, he's heading back towards Jerusalem.

He's been up in Samaria, he's coming down and somewhere along the way, he enters a certain village.

And as he entered into a certain village, there made him 10 men which were lepers, which stood afar off.

Now, this I kind of stumbled into last night when my brother and my sister -in -law were going through this.

And Clarence made the comment, social distancing. These men were ceremonially defiled and forced to live outside the village.

They were legally required to stand at a distance. So we have socially distancing in the first century.

In fact, before the first century AD, because Christ has not yet been crucified. So we're still in the

BC period before Christ. I don't think it's counted from the time

Christ was born. I think it was counted from the time Christ died, but I may be wrong on the AD and BC. But in any case, it's within 30 years.

And it was in effect all the way back until the law was given.

And the law was given in Leviticus. Not a mere six feet, but so far away that they had to communicate by shouting at one another.

So let's go on. Verse 12, and as he entered into a certain village, there made him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off.

They were ceremonially defiled and forced to live outside the city. I guess

I just did that. Not a mere six feet, but so far that they had to shout. Now, I wanted to go to Leviticus and pull down the passage from which all of this came.

And I found some more interesting things there. This will be Leviticus chapter 13, verse 43.

It's where we'll begin, and then we'll skip a little because it gets kind of gory because leprosy is a gory disease.

And he said 13, 43. 13, verse 43, Leviticus. Well, it's talking about what to do, what a leper should do.

A leper should present himself to the priest, and the priest will look at him. And then if the priest shall look upon it, look at his body, and behold, if he is a leprous man,

I skipped a little bit, he is unclean. And the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean.

The plague is in his head, 45. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip.

They had to wear a mask, and shall cry, unclean, unclean.

Not only did they have to separate themselves a great distance, but they had to wear a mask, and they had to yell through that mask,

I am unclean. Don't come near me. And all the days when the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, and is unclean, and shall dwell alone.

Without the count, his habitation shall be. So he is in quarantine for seven days.

You'll see the seven days in just a second. And after the seven days are up, you know what he has to do? Present himself to the priest again, to see if he's still unclean.

And if he's still unclean, he'll have to present himself again. And he has to continue doing this all of his life, if he ever wants to come back into society.

Then I skipped down to verse 50. The next of that is just a gory description of leprosy.

Verse 50, and the priest shall look upon the plague, and shall shut up it that hath the plague seven days.

So that's where the seven days comes from. In quarantine for seven days. So there we have it.

Separated from society, forced to be at a distance, so far away that they have to shout, wear a mask, live in isolation, report to the priest every seven days to see if they're clean.

If they're not clean, go through the same procedure, and do it again next week. So these people, these 10 lepers, are under quite a burdensome task.

In verse 13 of Luke says, and they lifted up their voice and said, Master, have mercy on us.

Effectively, they were still in quarantine. So they had to stay far enough away that they could not possibly transmit the disease to anyone else.

So far away that they had to shout the request. The request was have mercy upon us.

What did that mean? What is he asking Jesus to do? Probably heal.

They're asking Jesus to heal them. The request, have mercy on us, is that he would heal them.

And that's exactly what Jesus did. The healing was sudden, and it was immediately visible.

But it occurred only after they began to obey. You'll see that in the next verse.

Okay, so they call out to Jesus, Master, heal us, Jesus sees them.

And when he saw them, he said unto them, go, show yourself to the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, now, as they went, they're now beginning to obey.

As they went, they are immediately made clean. They don't have to take more than two or three steps before they're clean.

And that's interesting and instructive as well. Now, I didn't say, as it came to pass, as they went, they were in the process of being clean.

It says, and it came to pass that as they went, they were clean.

It's over, it's done with, they're utterly, totally clean. Now, you might make note of what's gonna happen next.

How many men were healed? 10. How many turned back to thank the

Lord? One. Only one. Only one turned back to glorify

God. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice, glorified

God. Now, that one happened to be of the most hated group of people in the world, even more hated than the

Romans, even more hated than the tax collectors, probably even more hated than the lepers.

A leper who was a Samaritan. John MacArthur says this, and I added a little bit to his comment, so when

I do that, I'll tell you, when I break up his thought and replace it with my own. So here's what he said.

The others, the other nine, eager to be declared clean so that they could return to normal life.

Remember, they've been going through this process every seven days for who knows how long, presenting themselves to the priest, finding that they're not clean, and now they're clean, and they are on their way to the priest.

They want to get this thing turned around right now so they could return to normal life in society.

And he says, evidently, continued on to the priest, forgetting to give thanks.

Now, I added this. Either they forgot, I don't believe they forgot, to give thanks, or they thought that they deserved to be healed.

They thought they'd been a leper long enough, and that it's time for them to be healed, and that no thanks were warranted.

But in any case, only one went back to give thanks. Now, MacArthur goes on to say this.

Jesus is sending the lepers to show himself to the priest, suggests that nine of the 10 were

Jewish. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been sending them to the priest to be cleaned and to come back and declared clean, not to clean them, but to declare them clean, and to put them back in society.

So he said, that suggests that not all of them were Jewish. This Samaritan had been permitted to associate with them when they were all unclean.

I mean, a leper is even more unclean, I guess, than a Samaritan. But in their healing, they did not share in his deep gratitude, that of the

Samaritan. And I added this, and they will probably no longer tolerate his company.

They will no longer tolerate his company. I don't think they will want to allow him back into their society, because after all, he's got a disease that even

God can't. Is that right? That even

God can't heal? Oh, he can, but they didn't think he could. He's a

Samaritan. The Lord could clean a leprous Samaritan, but he couldn't make him not be a

Samaritan. But he could, because the Lord adopted him, as well as other

Gentiles, into the family of God. But there was one who did return.

And the one that returned fell on his face, at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a

Samaritan. Now, Jesus doesn't make note of the fact that he was particularly a

Samaritan. He only identifies him as an alien in the next verse.

He identifies him as no worse than a Greek, or no worse than a Roman, or no worse than an

Egyptian. In any case, Jesus answered, said, were there not nine cleansed?

But where, I'm sorry, are there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine?

There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger, save this foreigner, save this alien, save this

Samaritan. So, where were the nine? On their way back to see the priest to get reestablished in the society of the day.

Where was the Samaritan? At the feet of the Lord, praising him and glorifying him.

And Jesus said to him, arise and go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.

That's a different word, isn't it? He didn't say, thy faith has healed you.

What healed them? God healed them, Jesus healed them.

Jesus healed them because he wanted to heal them. What did their faith have to do with the healing?

Nothing. What did have to do with it is, when they started obeying, the healing was then.

Had they not obeyed, I don't know if there would have been a healing. But had they not obeyed, there would have been, that would have been a direct revolt against God.

And they would not have been part of his family to start with. I think these nine lepers were all, we would say, saved.

I think they were all part of the elect. And I may be wrong on that. There are people that have different opinions. Yes. And you may be right.

I'm not gonna argue with, that's why I purposely prefaced what I said. I kind of believe that all 10 were saved.

I also believe that only one got the blessing of being made whole.

I bet that we all agree on, that only one was made whole. The other nine were just healed.

Now, they could become healed and they could at some later time, but I don't know. In any case, all 10 were healed, but only one was made whole.

I, you know, you may have almost talked me into it. I'm not gonna capitulate right now, but I think you may have convinced me that we're talking about nine who thought they were saved and only one who was.

Maybe that's what is being taught here. And maybe that's, maybe the Lord put that in your head to tell me that so that we didn't misteach everybody that's listening in.

And if I did misteach, I apologize. I just do the best I can. Now, that's the end of that lesson.

And it is completely disjointed from the next one. So that's the reason I think that when the guy put this chapter together, he just wanted a chapter of about 30 something verses.

So it was about the same size as the rest of them. Now, lesson four and lesson five need to be connected in one thought.

And this lesson I have entitled in my notes, the present kingdom or the kingdom that is within us.

This also is an event in the life of Jesus. And it is another opportunity to teach another lesson.

So what's the lesson that was taught? Well, let's read the passage first or part of it. Verse 20, and when he was demanded of the

Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.

Now, John MacArthur said this, I'm just gonna go ahead and read it. They may have asked the question mockingly, having already concluded that Jesus was not the

Messiah. The Pharisees believed this. They believed that the

Messiah's triumph would be immediate. When the Messiah came, they thought his triumph would be immediate.

And what they were looking for him to do was to come and overthrow Rome and set up his millennial kingdom.

Christ's program was entirely different. He was inaugurating an era in which the kingdom would be manifest in the rule of God in men's hearts, rather through the faith of the

Savior, rather than overt, open as a overt kingdom.

And in fact, Paul tells us the same thing in Romans 14, verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.

It's not made up of what you have and what you eat and what you drink. It is of righteousness and peace and joy in the

Holy Ghost. That's what he is inaugurating right now. Right now, meaning at the moment that he ascends into heaven and leaves the

Spirit behind and leaves the church behind, that kingdom, that kingdom, the one we're in right now, is not overtly ruled by Christ.

We know that, that right now, Christ is not overtly ruling the kingdom of earth now or things wouldn't be the way they are.

He would be ruling with a rod of iron and people would be obeying, even if it were only out of fear.

MacArthur goes on to say that kingdom was neither confined to a particular geographic location nor visible to the human eye.

That kingdom will come quietly and invisibly without the normal pomp and splendor associated with the arrival of a king.

So that kingdom is gonna be different than the kingdom that the Jews were looking for, that the

Jewish leaders were looking for, the Pharisees were looking for, the ones that rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they weren't looking for the kingdom that Jesus the

Messiah is bringing. They're looking for another different kingdom. Now, will that kingdom come?

MacArthur says, Jesus did not suggest that the Old Testament promise of an earthly kingdom were nullified, rather that the earthly visible manifestation of the kingdom is yet to come.

That's what MacArthur says. So anybody that says, well, okay, the kingdom of God is not a millennial kingdom ruled by Jesus with an iron rule for a thousand years sometime in the future, is somebody that misinterpreted this scripture.

This is a different kingdom altogether. It's a kingdom that's going to last until the next one begins.

Even today, the kingdom of God is in our hearts.

It's not with Jesus on the throne in Jerusalem ruling the world with an iron rod.

And I sometimes wish it was. I often wish it was. It will come.

It just won't come yet. We're told when it will come in Revelation chapter 20.

And I do want to read that, and I would like for you to turn there. Let me take a quick look at my time. Oh, I've got plenty of time.

I may actually make it today. Revelation 20, verse one.

The inauguration of the millennial kingdom, the manifestation of the kingdom of God, visible earthly kingdom after this event.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he lay hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and the Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and put his seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more.

I'll put a period there because that won't last forever, will it? He's going to be confined to that pit for a thousand years.

When he's thrown into the pit is the beginning of Christ's earthly reign in the millennial kingdom.

And when he comes out is the close to the end of that reign, very close to the end, he will raise an army, he will attack

Jerusalem and Jesus, and he will be destroyed and cast into the lake of fire.

That's what's going to happen. But that's at the end of a thousand years. In between, there's a thousand years of peace and prosperity and rule, fair and honest, justice all the time, ruled by the perfect ruler.

Just to show how evil man in his heart really is, they still find a way to rebel when given an opportunity.

So the thousand years are now up, and after that, he must be loosed for a little season. Why? To show just how depraved man really is.

And I saw thrones and they that sat on them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, which had not worshiped the beast, neither his throne, neither his image, nor received his mark upon the forehead or in their hands.

And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.

And this is the first resurrection. I suspect Brother David will talk about the first resurrection a little bit later today, and also the second resurrection, the one that's in the very next part of this verse.

On such, the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

And they do not have to face the judgment at the end of the day. Verse 21, back in Luke.

Now he's talking about the kingdom that is now, not the kingdom that will be for just a few more seconds. Neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there.

For behold, the kingdom of God is within you. That's the one that's here now. This kingdom is not one you can seek and find.

Rather, it is one that has been put in you by the Holy Spirit. There is an earthly kingdom.

The earthly kingdom is coming, but it is much later. In fact, it's not here yet, but it will come.

And then we come to lesson number five. And this one does need to be linked to the first one so that you can tell the difference between the two.

And I may not have got my linkage of the lessons exactly right here. But lesson five is dealing with the coming kingdom.

Not the one that's here now, but the one that's coming that was referred to in Revelation 20.

The visible manifestation of the kingdom that is yet to come. It's another event and another lesson.

So here's what he says. Jesus said in disciples, the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the

Son of Man, and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you, see here or see there, go not after them nor follow them.

There'll come a time when you will want to find or see this manifestation of the earthly kingdom.

There'll come a time when you want to see that. But don't follow every Tom, Dick, and Harry that says, follow me.

Don't follow David Koresh or Joseph Smith or all the people that say the kingdom of heaven is now.

Don't go where they say to go. Don't go into the desert. Don't go into the, don't go, it's not yet.

When Jesus does come to set up his kingdom, there'll be no doubt about it.

You will not need to search. You will not need to imagine. You'll not need help to find it.

For yes, yes, everybody will know.

So this is not referring to the rapture. This is referring to the second coming.

Now, if it is as Brother David believes, and I'm kind of inclined to believe as well, that the rapture is very close to the second coming, maybe part of the same event, then at the first part of this, they won't see it, but there'll come a time when everybody will see it.

It won't be a secret any longer. So if in this time, and we may be in that time right now, that somebody says, the kingdom is over here, the kingdom is over here,

I will lead you to the kingdom, don't believe him, you'll know, you'll know.

For as the lightning that lighteth one part of the heaven and shineth unto the other part, so shall the coming of the

Son of Man be in his day. So he will come like a bulk of lightning that comes from one side of heaven, lighting up the sky all the way to the other side of the heaven, and it'll be everywhere on the earth all at once.

Everybody, everybody will know. If you can't see it because you're blind, maybe you can see it anyhow, but certainly you'll be aware of the presence of the coming of the

Lord. You won't need anybody to tell you where to go. You'll know that it's here. There'll be no missing it.

But we're not ready for that yet. Luke tells us, and he tells the disciples of that day, that's not coming now.

And he's gonna say, and I do actually see for the first time a link between this to see kind of why the bishop put these two pieces together.

But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.

This is Jesus talking about the Son of Man and indirectly talking to his disciples.

The disciples are not better than the master. The master must first suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

And so will his servants. And the disciples that are gonna follow him need to know this.

They need to know that he is going to, they're going to also be rejected of this generation.

Jesus is talking about the generation that he is living with, the one that is just in a few weeks going to proclaim him the

Messiah and then a couple of days later, demand that he be crucified. And that is by itself interesting.

But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. And I said this, not everyone will reject him, but most will.

Matthew 7, verse 13 says, "'Enter ye at the straight gate, "'for wide is the gate and broad is the way "'that leadeth to destruction.

"'And many there be which go in thereat, "'because straight is the gate and narrow is the way "'which leadeth to life, "'and few there be that find it.'"

Part of God's sovereign plan from the beginning was for Jesus to die, to atone for the sins of his elect.

That part of the plan was laid out before anything was even created. There's another part of that same plan.

And the other part of that same plan is the non -elect will reject him. It was no surprise to Jesus.

It probably was a surprise to the disciples, especially after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey and the people laying palms out in front of him waved at him and shouted, blessed be the king.

And days later, they're screaming for his crucifixion, choosing an outlaw to be spared instead of him.

It was probably a surprise to the disciple and they needed this reassurance. It was no surprise to Jesus.

That's why he could tell them that, but first he, Jesus, the

Messiah, and you must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.

Verse 26, and as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the son of man.

But most of us won't even notice that anything is amiss. And I look around it today and I say,

I notice that something is amiss, but not everybody does.

There's a lot of people think this is like normal. Maybe this is a way to producing for them an environment which will get what they want.

It's just the elect will notice, but the non -elect will not notice even though there are ample warnings.

They will ignore them until it's too late. And then like those who ignored the warning of the flood,

Noah didn't just build the ark. Noah built the ark and preached for a hundred years while he was building it.

And what did he tell them? He told them a flood is coming. See, I'm building a boat. And they laughed at him.

They scoffed. They said, it's not even rained. There's no flood. There's no just, what is a flood?

They ignored the warnings of the flood and they experienced sudden destruction. They did eat, they drank, they married wives and they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Now, it was not Noah and the flood alone that set the precedent. Lot and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah reinforced that precedent.

Verse 28, likewise, also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted and they built it.

Similarly, they also ignored all the warnings until it was too late and they were destroyed.

John MacArthur says this, and I think I need to throw that in. None of the things that Jesus cited with regard to Noah or to Lot were inherently sinful.

Building, marrying, planting, buying, selling, none of that is inherently sinful.

What he said though was, but people were so absorbed in the things of this life, the things of the life that we have right now, that they were utterly unprepared when the time of judgment came.

Well, let's go on. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

Well, we need a little background on that, I think. And I think I still have time enough to do it if my machine will work properly.

Whoops. Just at the time that I think I've got everything under control, it balks on me.

I don't know why it's doing that. Now, even so, thus shall it be when the

Son of Man is revealed. What he's saying is, don't hesitate. Don't look back.

Destruction awaits the unwary. Verse 31. And in that day, he which shall be upon the housetop and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away.

Leave the stuff in the house behind. And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

Remember Lot's wife. Now, John MacArthur says this.

Lot's wife was destroyed on the very threshold of deliverance. Her attachment to Sodom was so powerful that she delayed and looked back.

And she was overwhelmed by the coming judgment just before reaching the place of safety.

Now, I want to quickly read Genesis 19, starting at verse 15, just to get a couple of words.

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, the son -in -laws were not, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

And while he lingered, who's lingering? Lot's lingering. The men lay hold of his hand, these are the angels, on his hand and upon the hand of his wife and on the hand of his daughters.

And the Lord, being merciful unto him, brought him forth and set him without the city.

So he's no longer in Sodom. And said to him, and it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad that he said,

Escape for thy life. Look not back behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain.

Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. But Lot still wants a little extra.

And Lot said unto him, Oh, not so, my Lord. Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy.

You've given me a little, I want you to give me a lot. Which thou hast shown me in saving my life.

I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die. Behold, this city is near thee, is near to flee unto, and it is a little one.

Oh, let me escape thither. Is it not a little one? I'm not asking for much, just a little city in the plain to stay in, so that I don't have to go to the mountain, so that I might, so that my soul shall live.

Now, the angel is magnanimous. He says, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for the which thou hast spoken.

Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything till thou become thither.

So he says, I can't do anything to destroy the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the rest of them until you're safe in this one.

Therefore, the name of the city was called Zohar. The sun was risen upon Zohar when

Lot entered Zohar. Lot is now in the sanctuary city.

He's safe. His daughters are there with him. They're safe. But his wife is another story.

Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire upon the

Lord from out of the heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, except the inhabitants of Zohar, that grew upon the ground.

But his wife looked back from behind him. You see, she had lingered behind. She was not yet in the city.

She was not in the city and she is not yet safe. And why is she not yet safe? Because she chose to not yet be safe.

She wanted one last glance at Sodom and the life that she was leaving behind.

And she became a pillow of salt. Now, Charles Spurgeon has two comments.

Lot's wife looked at what she was told to turn away from. After lingering and doubting, even lingering and doubting more than her husband, she then looked.

She did look back. Thus proved that she had sufficient presumption in her heart to defy

God's command and resist her all to give a lingering love glance at the condemned and guilty world.

And by that glance, she perished. Spurgeon remembered a further tragedy regarding Lot's wife.

She almost made it. She was on the edge of the city. And he said this, "'Doom befell her at the gates of Sore.'"

And then he added this, and I don't know if I agree with this or not, but I'm gonna read it. "'Oh, if I must be downed, "'let it be with the mass of the ungodly, "'having always been one of them, "'but to get to the very gates of heaven "'and to perish there would be a most awful thing.'"

Well, I do agree with that. I just don't think I would have said it. But then

Spurgeon is much more bold than I am. Verse 33, "'Whosoever shall seek his life shall lose it, "'and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.'"

If you're looking for the old life that you had, you're gonna lose the life you're gonna get. Verse 34, "'I tell you that night there shall be two men in one bed.

"'One will be taken and the other left. "'Two women shall be grinding together. "'One shall be taken and the other left.

"'Two men shall be in the field, "'one taken and the other left.' And they answered and said unto him," this is the disciples talking, "'Taken where,

Lord?' And he said unto them, "'Wheresoever the body is, "'thither the eagles will be gathered together.'"

Now here's what Chuck Misler said about that. There are two major opposing views. Taken, some people think, are the blessed ones.

Many assume that this refers to the rapture or the rapazzo. And eagles do not seek out dead meat as vultures do.

And some see eagles as the saints being gathered around our Lord.

There is another view. Taken means taken to judgment, taken to be judged.

Most conservative commentators take that view. And I thought when I read this that that was the view that Misler was taking.

But he adds a little bit later. It's, however, it's interesting to note that in the two previous allegories, the ones who were taken were the ones who were spared.

And then 2 Peter 2, verse one, "'But there were false prophets also among the people, "'even as there shall be false teachers among you, "'who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, "'even denying the

Lord that bought them, "'and bring upon themselves swift destruction. "'And many shall follow their pernicious ways, "'by reason of whom the way of truth "'shall be evil spoken of.

"'Through covetousness shall they with feigned words "'make merchandise of you, "'whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, "'and their damnation slumbers not.

"'For if God spared not the angels that sinned, "'but cast them down to hell, "'and delivered them to chains of darkness "'to be reserved to judgment, "'and spared not the old world, "'but saved

Noah, the eighth person, "'a preacher of righteousness, "'bringing flood upon the world of the ungodly.

"'So he took Noah, "'and left the world behind to be judged. "'And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, "'condemned them with an overthrow, "'making them an example to those "'after that should live ungodly, "'and delivered just Lot.'"

So he took Lot. Next with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

"'For that a righteous man dwelling among them, "'and seeing and hearing, "'vexed his righteous soul from day to day "'with their unlawful deeds.

"'The Lord knoweth how to deliver the ungodly "'out of temptation, "'and reserve the unjust "'until the day of judgment to be punished.'"

So the Lord has a way of knowing how to remove those that he does not want to face judgment, and to leave the ones behind that, that should face judgment.

So I believe, I agree with Missler, that the ones that were left behind were the ones that were facing judgment, and the ones that were taken.

In this allegory, one was grinding and taken, one was asleep and was taken, that those referred to the ones that were preserved.

And the ones that were left behind were the ones that dealt with, the ones that were going to judgment.

But that is also just my opinion. I may be wrong on that one too. Okay, I've gone probably into Brother David's time, but if there's any quick questions, if not, most gracious heavenly

Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all of our many blessings. Protect us and keep us, continue with us into the service that's to come.