Preoccupied and Oblivious

It's our only hope, our only shelter. Christ Jesus' work reminded me of a time when I was in seminary and the professor was trying to describe what was going to go on when it comes to pain for sin. He said, just imagine a football stadium and you're in the center of the field and a sniper with a high-powered rifle is aimed right at you.

Nowhere to run, you can't hide. Just off to the side that there is a small tree there, a stick, and you can hide behind that stick for shelter. And then he went on to talk about the sniper of God's laser eyes judging sin and there's only one place to hide and that is behind the cross of Christ.

And that's what I was thinking of the whole time. Thank you. Two words, in my opinion, describe our society. If you could pick two words to describe what's going on out there in the world, maybe in West Boylston, maybe in Worcester, maybe you live in Boston, maybe you're here just visiting, probably lots of words you could come up with, but the two for today I have are these.

Preoccupied and Oblivious

One, preoccupied. We live in a preoccupied society. People are so busy, so taken up with, so absorbed in, so engrossed in, all kinds of things, they are preoccupied. Matter of fact, not even in always bad things.

Some are preoccupied with sin, but some are just preoccupied. Education, work, sports, fun, rest, people are immersed into just things and being busy. The second word that I think describes our culture today is this, not just preoccupied, but secondly, oblivious.

The world around us today is completely, absolutely, entirely oblivious to what happens after they die. That Jesus would return. They're so busy in things like eating and drinking and marrying and being busy building, they forget that one day Jesus will do what he says and that is return.

And one day there's going to be judgment. It's appointed for man to die once and then what? Judgment, and the judgment isn't death, the judgment comes after death. And if we as a race, as we as a people, are those typified by those who have sinned and fall short, not just of the law of God, but of the glory of God, what will happen?

My question now becomes very personal. Are you the type of person that is so immersed, so absorbed in, so preoccupied with things, maybe even good things or maybe sinful things, that you forget that you are born to worship your creator?

There's a reason to live. You have been created to give honor and worship to your creator. My second question to you is, are you the kind of person that's completely oblivious to what's going to happen when you die?

Have you considered your latter end? Have you thought to yourself, one day Jesus is really going to come back? Memorial Day weekend, people like to look in the past to help them be affected in how they live today.

That is to say, let's look back so we can live this way. Let's remember some wars and those men and women who fought in those wars so that we can live this way, more thankful, more appreciative, etc. Well, today I want to make you look at two historical facts that should motivate you to live today.

We're not going to look at 1 Corinthians 2 today, we're going to look in Luke 17. If you've got a Bible, Luke 17. If you don't have a Bible, you should use one because we're not called Bethlehem Bible Church without cause.

We're going to look at two historical events that so mirror our society today, but should motivate you to live for someone else. I don't want you to be oblivious. There's nothing wrong with working, there's nothing wrong with education, there's nothing wrong with sports.

But if you're preoccupied with them and you forget God and you become oblivious to judgment day and safety only found in Christ Jesus, then this sermon's for you. I am absolutely positive there are people here today who aren't Christians.

I don't mean all visitors aren't Christians, and I don't mean just because you're a member here, you are a Christian. I think I even have people in my own family that need to realize they aren't going to get to heaven on the coattails of pastor dad, on baptism, on last rites, on anything else.

And I don't want you to be so preoccupied with school or anything else that's good that you become oblivious to your latter end. Two historical facts in Luke 17 that should motivate you to live today.

Jesus is going to return and he says, today's just like these other days, let's look at those other days so we don't make the same mistake. Sometimes if I go to a large sporting event and I say to myself, there are 80 ,000 people here.

I think to myself, I never see that many people in my life altogether. 80 ,000 souls, every one of them will live forever. And every one of them, except for the grace of God, is running around chasing things that will not matter on judgment day.

Luke is a gospel written by Luke. And basically, what Luke wants to do is this. He as a physician wants to put together an orderly account of Christ Jesus. You would imagine a physician being orderly.

And so here Luke says, I want to show you that Jesus is God, but I also want you to see that he's man. And then you see in the gospel of Luke, like I read in chapter 18, that very thing. And we pick up our account in Luke chapter 17 verse 20.

He's just cleansed the lepers and now he's going to talk about his kingdom. Jesus is a king. He calls himself king. He's the fulfillment of the prophecies of King David. And now people have some questions about his kingdom and then that will lead into these two historical events that should motivate you to question, am I a preoccupied, absorbed person, so much in temporal things, I've forgotten about heaven, I've forgotten about hell.

You're just going to find this fascinating passage, Luke 17 verse 20. Let's pick up the historical account here and then we'll look at some application. Being asked, Luke 17 verse 20, by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, the Pharisees were not nice, they were not good, they were not righteous, they were legalistic, they were religious.

And now you have the king. You say you're the king, Jesus. I don't see a kingdom. They're probably getting after him with some good sarcasm. You're the king? You know, Rome is still taking over here. Rome dominates us.

We'd like to get out from underneath their leadership. And you're going to talk about your kingdom. I'd like to see it because you're a pretty weak looking king. When's it going to arrive? Hardy har har.

What do we look for? Jesus, you're the king and you say your kingdom's coming? What should we look for? Like you're going to rise up against Rome? Like you're going to do some kind of great sign, like some of these other people have done?

Tell us, we'd really like to hear. He answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is. Are there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

There it is. I see that sign. I see what's going on. Jesus doesn't say it's within you, Pharisees, but he says it's in the midst of you. It's right here. And now look what he does in verse 22. And he said to the disciples, he changes the audience and he says now to the disciples, of course, the other people can still hear, I imagine.

The days are coming when you, disciples, will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man. Jesus, he calls himself often and regularly with a favorite term, and that is the Son of Man. I'm a lowly servant.

I'm a suffering servant. I'm a great king. All implied in the Son of Man, right from Daniel chapter 7. You desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. There's going to be a day, disciples, you're going to wish I was here as king, but I'm not going to be.

I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be in the tomb. And Jesus is saying to these guys, and anybody else who will listen, no sense looking for the kingdom when I'm here as king. It's going to be obvious when this man returns, the Son of Man, this God-man.

Verse 23, and they will say to you, look there, look here. Do not go out and follow them. Do not go out or follow them. Why? Because it's going to be obvious. Don't believe these false fictional accounts.

Some kind of secret Jesus, some kind of code Jesus, some kind of covert Jesus. It's going to be obvious Jesus. Verse 24, for as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to another, made me think of Wednesday night.

Did you see that lightning storm on Wednesday night? That was unbelievable. I was in Chestnut Hill. I saw it. I drove back to Worcester. I saw it. It's got that kind of effect. It's obvious. It's evident.

This is a greater lightning, but still, as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. And Jesus says to the disciples, don't be seduced by people saying, look at the sky.

It's a sign. Here's some kind of man who says he's Jesus. Listen to him. By the way, lots of people like to say they're Jesus. And I don't want you to be seduced by some Jesus who's not the true Jesus, because when the real Jesus comes back, Jesus said everyone will notice.

Nobody's going to have to get on MSNBC to go, is that the real Jesus? And you think I'm joking, but the latest false messiah in the long list of loons who call themselves Jesus, the messiah, I mean, if you want to be called Jesus, that's not my issue.

But calling yourself Jesus, the messiah, Lord and King, Jose, rather, Luis de Jesus Miranda. He's the latest guy. Lots of people since the time of Jesus have said, I'm the messiah. Jesus is going to come back.

I'm Jesus. How about Marshall Applewhite? That wasn't that long ago. 15 years ago, he was the leader of Heaven's Gate, committed suicide so he could rendezvous with the comet Hale-Bopp. Henri Cristo, a Brazilian man who said he's the second Jesus.

Jim Jones, I say, Jim Jones said, I am the reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha and the Father divine. That was before the mass suicide at Jonestown. David Koresh, Branch Davidian leader, proclaimed he was the Son of God, the Lamb.

And I have a whole list of other people who said that they're Jesus. Some say I'm not Jesus, but I'm just the messiah-like sun, young moon. Jesus says, when I come back, you aren't going to have to turn on the TV to figure out who it's going to be.

And it's not going to be somebody divorced four times over, and living a corrupt life. You're going to see what's going on. It's going to be obvious. Do you see the passage, verse 24? For as the lightning flashes, this is indisputable.

This is cosmic. This is conspicuous, plain, clear, evident. What's the root word for evident, by the way? What's the root word for video? The Latin to see, vid, video, you see video. Evident, you see clearly.

Evident, V-I-D, where we get the word video to see, it will be evident. That was just free, by the way. Just a little free class there. And there's going to be a prerequisite to Christ's return as king, verse 25.

Remember, Jesus is not yet crucified. Here's the prerequisite. But first, he, the messiah, must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Jesus is going to have to be crucified. He will be rejected, crucified, and he will raise himself from the dead.

He's not going to die for his sins. He'll die for other people's sins. You want to sign, watch Jesus be raised from the dead. And now Jesus shows conditions here in verses 26 and following, that will be prevalent at his second coming.

What will society be like? We've had the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. When Jesus returns, what will society look like? And here we have conditions existing at the second coming. What will it be like?

What will be going on on earth? And then he gives two historical times, the time of Noah and the time of Lot, so that you can be ready. And you're going to see what was going on then goes on now. Now, let's look at Noah's day first, and how oblivious they were, how preoccupied they were.

And I don't want you to be oblivious and preoccupied. Everyone here is going to die and then face judgment. I don't know about you, but I've never been audited by the IRS. But I can imagine the gulp I would have in my throat when I went out to the mailbox and came in, and it looked like I was going to be...

How many people here have been audited by the IRS? People are like shamefully raising their hand. Some have. But can you imagine the spiritual audit on judgment day? Every word, every deed, every thought, every motive, every attitude, sins of omission, sins of commission, sins of thought, word, mind, and deed, there is going to be an accounting.

And there won't be fees. The just holy accountant will give people what they deserve. Or if they'll take God for his word, they'll look to the cross, and he will give them what they don't deserve, grace.

Well, let's take a look at these conditions. Very fascinating. The first historical account is Noah. And the return of Christ will be just like it was in the days of Noah. What was it like? Verse 27. What's going on in those days?

By the way, these people were wicked Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 makes that clear. But that's not the focus here. Oh, look at how wicked they were. The focus is they're preoccupied. Look at how they live life.

They're not thinking that there's one above me that I'll have to answer to. They were eating. These verbs, by the way, are ongoing. They're eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage.

Is food good? Marriage good? Sex good in marriage? All these things, they're all good. Drinking. We're not talking about inherently evil things here, the point is these people are preoccupied so much so that they are unsuspecting.

They've forgotten that they answer to God. In the routine of their life, in their daily pursuits of degrees and spouses and children, all things that are good, the good things can turn out to be bad things.

Virtue can damn you. Because if it's not your virtue, your virtue is tainted. You need Christ's virtue. Busyness. And I just, you know, as I read this, I just think of the culture today. And when we're on some kind of family vacation and we're driving, I look into the van of another family.

There's about six different DVDs of every different one and everybody's got all their own eye buds in and all these different things. And I just think people have no time to just sit there and think, you know, I don't even go to a funeral.

I don't even look at dead people. I can't even think about these things because I'm just too busy because I don't like to think about those things. Our society said people that think like I do, they're crazy.

They're obsessed with death. People live unprepared lives because they will not ever consider their latter end. Day in and day out. Show me what happened in Noah's days and here's what I'll show you. Business as usual.

They're unsuspecting. They're clueless. They're working for the weekend. It is a dangerous thing to be absorbed in the details of life so much so you forget what's coming. Because if you know the storm's coming, you only have to look down in Florida in the news during hurricane season for just a little bit and they say this category X storm is coming.

And what do people run to? Well, they probably run to a lot of places but they go to Home Depot and before you know it, there's no plywood, there's no water. They're preparing. You should be preparing for your death because you're going to die one day and then you're going to go, I was busy going to school.

I was busy going to do all these things. Just like in the days of Noah. Ordinary human life. Soccer games, recitals, 40-hour work weeks, engagements, weddings. What's wrong with that? Answer, nothing inherently.

But if it forgets God, everything. And what comes in a time like this in Noah's day? The Greek word for flood is a cataclysm. A cataclysm comes. The flood came. Paul writes to the Thessalonians in chapter 5 of 1 Thess.

Now concerning the times and seasons, you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying there's peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape.

Yeah, but you know what? We don't really ignore God. We throw the bone out for Easter. We throw the bone out for Christmas. We go to some wedding and they've got some kind of ceremony there. I think a good word I could have used earlier today is they're anesthetized.

People are just anesthetized to the world. They're without sensation, literally, anesthesia. And look at the passage again. Living in total disregard of God. They were eating, verse 27, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark.

You think my sermons are long? A 120-year-old sermon. No rain ever. And here he is in the middle of some place building a boat. Here's the sermon illustration as I'm sure he also proclaimed the truth.

You're in danger. Ha, ha, ha. We're not in danger. We're busy. And Jesus is saying, listen, disciples, and I'm saying, listen to you. Don't think you're out of danger because it's not like bad as it was in Noah's day.

This is a warning. Flip over with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 6. I want to just show you. I can't go through the whole flood account, but Genesis chapter 6. Show me why people want to say that it's a localized flood.

And I'll tell you they're trying to live a corrupt life because if you really realize there was a real flood, you'll realize God made the real flood and there's another flood coming, a flood of fire on judgment day.

And so people have to somehow get rid of the flood. Jesus believed in a world-wide flood and he used it as an illustration in Luke chapter 17. Of course, people were wicked back in those days. Chapter 6 verse 5, but they were preoccupied when God brought the flood.

Do you see what it says? I'm reading from the NAS here in chapter 6 verse 6. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air for I am grieved that I have made them.

Thankfully though, even though Noah deserved the same punishment, verse 8, you see the nature and mercy and grace of God. First time in the Bible, a word for grace that means to bend down low. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah was just as bad, but God graced him. Verse 13 of Genesis 6, God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all the people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I surely am going to destroy both them and the earth.

You're destroying the earth already? Then I'll just turn up the volume. So make, verse 14, yourself an ark of cypress wood. Put pitch on it. By the way, the word means, the word ark means basket. It's used also when Moses was put in the basket.

Think of delivery. Well, here are the specs. Verse 15, this is how high you're to build it. The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Just a little bit smaller than the Queen Elizabeth, number two, the ship.

Verse 17, I'm going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy what? All life under the heavens. Every creature, he repeats it, that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. Verse 10 of chapter 7, and after the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth.

There might not be anything as powerful as water. Verse 11 of chapter 7, in the 600th year of Noah's life, on the 17th day of the second month, on that day, all the springs of the great deep burst forth under and the floodgates of heaven were opened over and the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.

Scientists have calculated with mountains, 40 days, 40 nights, 186 feet a day that water rises. That's a little over seven feet a day. I believe seven feet an hour. I just was thinking about the floods we had a couple of months ago.

You can imagine you're saying to yourself, yeah, but I've just been busy with marrying and eating and working and all these other things. And then all of a sudden, now here comes the rain. Noah was right.

And can you imagine the shrieks and the howls? I know if I had four kids and it was flooding like that, I'd first think, I've got to get to Wachusett, find the highest place. Let's get to Mananoc. And then the water keeps raising up and you're lifting your kids up as the waters keep coming.

And every single person died. I always find it funny when people go shopping for children's play pens and children's cribs. They always like to get them the Noah's Ark stuff. I think because of the animals.

But I'm thinking, this is cataclysmic. Noah deserved it. He got grace, but everybody dies because the wages of sin is death. The Hebrew in this passage is, the sluice gates of heaven were opened. Noah has no control.

There's no locomotive thing in there. He just floats. And the text says, the waters prevailed. Verse 24 of chapter 7, we don't have time to go through this passage any longer. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days.

The shrieking and the roaring and the bellowing of the beast on every side of Noah. Could there be anything worse than every man, woman and child, except for those in the boat, drowning? And the answer is, yes.

The answer is, there's an eternal death that's worse. There's something worse than that. It's dying and going to hell because you have to pay for your own sins, because you haven't taken God at His word.

And when God says in His word, look to Christ and live, you haven't looked to Christ and lived. Well, let's go back to Luke chapter 17. That's the first memory that Jesus says, don't get preoccupied and become oblivious because Jesus is going to come back.

He's not going to flood the earth again with water, but He's coming back and it's going to be too late to get your house in order. I grew up in the business world and everything in my world was, especially in sales and corporate America.

Here's my one-year plan. Here's my one-month plan. Here's my five-year plan. Here's my 10-year plan. There's nothing wrong with planning, is there? But if it's at the exclusion of God, James 4 says, if you know the right thing to do and don't do it, if you don't plan like God's going to return, that is sin.

You say, well, what does this have to do with anything? I just came to church to kind of feel good. I just wanted to kind of be affirmed. I needed some kind of sentimental love. God is what I need. No, that's not what you need.

You need to be considering your latter end because if you're preoccupied and oblivious, the wall is going to fall very, very hard. The second illustration comes from Lot's day. Another thing that Jesus assumed to be true.

He didn't correct it. You think Jesus would say, oh, that big flood. It's not really a flood. It was just kind of, you know, localized and it was just made up. It's just kind of like the Gilgamesh epic and everything.

No, Jesus affirms it and now He affirms another thing that people don't want Him to affirm. Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brimstone. Luke 17, verse 28. Here's another example from history. Likewise, Luke 17, 28.

It's like a Noah's day. Just as it was in the days of Lot, what are they doing here? Again, wicked people, of course, the text will tell us that in Genesis, but that's not the focus here. Eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building.

It's just regular stuff. Same old, same old. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. And then Jesus says, if you want to know what it's going to be like, it's going to be business as usual, but then I'm going to come back.

Verse 30, so get ready now. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. And you know what I love? Noah was a dirty, rotten sinner. I don't really love this first part, so hang in there with me.

Noah was a dirty, rotten, filthy sinner. Lot was a dirty, rotten, filthy sinner. But both Noah and Lot and any other filthy, dirty, rotten sinner here that will look away from themselves and look to Christ can be saved.

It's not Lot was so good. Yes, he was called righteous in 2 Peter, but because of who God was, who Christ was, you can take the worst sinners, Noah included, Lot included. You don't have to read too far in Genesis chapter 9 to realize how horrible Noah was.

And you don't have to read too much farther in the Genesis account of Lot to realize the horrible things that they've done. But they didn't look to themselves. They looked to the God and they took his word for it.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him righteousness. Genesis 15, that word believe is where we get our root word, Amen. It's pretty close to that. Lewis Ferry Chafer used to say, and Abraham said Amen to God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Your sinfulness, your uncleanness, your corruption will not prevent you from being saved because you're no worse than Lot or Noah. They just both looked to the promises of God and they believed what he said.

Look to the Savior and live. Look at verse 30. You should probably write on the side of that note, surprise. Catching people by surprise. So absorbed in life that they're not ready to die. Now that I'm 50 years old, I think to myself, my dad lived to be 55.

My mother lived to be 66. I've got 10 years to go. When I face God and meet God, I can't say, oh, I knew Greek and I preached to the church and I taught people the Bible. When I stand before Him naked and undone as a sinner, I have absolutely no hope besides Jesus lived in my place.

He died on my behalf. He was raised from the dead and I believe every word Jesus said. I'm taking His word for it. That's your only hope as well. And so if the society is preoccupied and oblivious, I'm not going to preach a sermon today to just keep you preoccupied and oblivious.

I want it to be a wake-up call. You say, oh, I don't like to talk about it. Of course you don't like to talk about it. Who does? But I like to talk about it if Jesus likes to talk about it. Verse 29, but on the day when lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur, brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed.

Do you see the theme? Them all. They're gone. So, verse 30, you can see what Jesus is trying to do. You all want to know when my kingdom's coming back? Focus on the king for safety. But when I come back, it's going to be obvious, evident.

So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. No hiding, no running, no kind of asbestos, you know, asbestos you can put over yourself so the gaze of God can't see you. Son of Man comes, He brings judgment to those who hate Him.

I ask you the question, are you so busy in your life, eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, sporting, listening, that you don't say to yourself, I have a God I must serve. Four responses Jesus gives to these two truths.

They're right there in the text, so let me give you those four. Jesus is coming back, what's my response? There are four. Number one, motivate. Repent and have a wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ, found in verse 31.

This isn't well, you know, I'll do this later kind of talking. Verse 31, On that day, let the one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away. And likewise, let the one who is in the field, not turn back.

Those are things back in those days you would be tempted to do. Let's say Jesus is coming, the end of the world is going to come. Let's say I just need to run into my house and get that photo album. Everything else can be replaced.

I just have to get some goods in my house. No, because then if you're thinking about that, you can tell your mind is split. Your mind is not wholehearted to God, to his second coming, to eternity, to answering to God.

You're thinking, but I got things on earth I got to get. Find things to think about unless it's in this situation. Jesus says, I want everything. I want your life, your soul, your everything. You're created for me.

And somehow to think, well, you know what? I'll get religion when I get married. And I'll get religion when I have to teach my kids. He wants it all. It's all or nothing. I've said a hundred times here.

It's all or nothing. If you don't say, even though I'm a sinner, and even though I don't follow like I want to, my whole heart, my life, everything, it's devoted to you, God. You've affected me. You've changed me.

You've born again. You made me born again. And I repent from running my own life. I believe in you. You've got it all. If you can't think that way, then you are oblivious. Or you say, I can't think that way because I'm weak.

God help my faith. I want to live that way. I know it's right. Here's what Jesus means here. You should have single-minded focus on the right things. Second word I want to give you in response. It's found in verse 32, and that's remember.

Motivate, number one. Number two, remember. Would you like an illustration of holding on to your life, and possessions, and things, and education, and business, and career, and family, kids? You want an illustration of what it's like to hold on to the temporal at the risk of the eternal?

Here's the answer. Here's the illustration, a bad illustration, of what not to do, of the opposite of what was in the last verse. Remember Lot's wife. She was as close as you could get to temporal salvation.

She was out. She was there. She was saved, rescued, delivered. Almost. Out of the doomed city, and she looks back and lingers. Close. Remember Lot's wife. Jesus said in Luke chapter 9 earlier, to another, he said, follow me.

But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.

Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God. If you're on the very precipice of delivery, of deliverance, don't stop. Judgment's coming. Stein said this, seek without reservation, the escape from the future judgment, that is available in following Jesus.