Christian Vigilance

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Please turn in your Scripture to Luke 17, this is on page 877 if you're using the

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Pew Bible. Luke 17, we're going to begin our Scripture reading in verse 20, but the preaching text will begin in verse 26.

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When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Luke 17, beginning in verse 20.

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Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.

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Nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. And he said to the disciples,

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The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

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And they will say to you, Look there, or look here. Do not go out and follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the

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Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

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Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when

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Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

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But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all.

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So it will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop with the goods in his house not come down to take them away.

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And likewise, let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

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I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.

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There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. And they said to him,

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Where, Lord? And he said to them, Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

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These are the words of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that you've given us for this disclosure of the future.

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And how that is a great kindness to us. Something that your Son has told us makes us his friend.

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That he has told us what he is doing. And so we thank you for this disclosure of your plan.

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And we ask that you would help us to live in accordance with that disclosure. That we would understand your word and that we would live by it.

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In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I have good news this morning. That good news is that Jesus is returning.

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Amen. Yes. Amen. Now, we do not know when he is returning. But he has given us instructions for how to be vigilant during that time.

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And the key to vigilance in this passage is not the sorts of things that you might usually think of when you think of vigilance.

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While the Bible does occasionally speak of vigilance in terms of staying awake and watching. Here it speaks of vigilance in terms of desire.

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And so the key to Christian vigilance is desire. As we see even beginning here in this passage.

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So looking at verse 26 and just reading the first part of this. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the

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Son of Man. We've spoken about how the days of the Son of Man are known in the

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Reformed tradition as the kingdom of glory. The kingdom of grace is here. But that kingdom being fully manifested in a glorious way known as the kingdom of glory.

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That is still coming. And so these are spoken of as the days of the

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Son of Man. Because Daniel 7 speaks of the Son of Man coming in glory bringing judgment.

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Daniel 7 verse 13 says, So because sin has entered the world and God has saved a particular people for himself.

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It is necessary for that king, for that Son of Man to come and to save his people by coming in judgment.

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And this is given with a couple of analogies here. We see the comparison made to Noah. We see the comparison made to Lot.

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Both of these were large scale judgments that saved

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God's people. There was judgment in Noah's time through the flood.

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Through the flood that wiped out the entire world and saved the eight people in the ark. There was judgment in Lot's time by fire raining from heaven.

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It speaks here of fire and sulfur. Older translations talk about fire and brimstone.

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You might be familiar with that phrase. Referring to the fire that came down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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In order that Lot and his family would be saved out of the city. So these are pictures of judgment that will come upon the world because of its sin.

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Now the desire of each individual person should be to escape that judgment. How do you escape that judgment?

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You escape it by turning to the mercy of Jesus Christ. He will forgive you of your sins. And he will save you from that judgment.

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But what should a Christian be doing during that time? As I said this is a passage that speaks of vigilance.

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And so we must be vigilant. Vigilant through continuing to desire this kingdom. It speaks here of the revelation of the

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Son of Man. It says they were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage.

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Until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise just as it was in the days of Lot.

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They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all.

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So it will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. The Son of Man has already come.

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But he will be revealed in glory on that last day. And it's fitting that this passage speaks of both

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Noah and it speaks of Lot. Because this is a similar comparison we see later on in Peter.

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In 2 Peter says in chapter 3 verse 5. And so there was a worldwide cataclysm of flood, of deluge.

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And there will be one of fire. And so to describe this, Luke speaks of the flood that was worldwide.

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And he speaks of a citywide fire. A fire raining down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. You will note if you compare this to Matthew 24 that this mention of Lot is additional to what you see in Matthew.

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In Matthew it only mentions Noah. And so what is the comparison that's being made between the days of the

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Son of Man and the days of Noah and the days of Lot?

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The first is that it's sudden. It's something that people weren't expecting. People weren't expecting this in the days of Noah.

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They were going about their own business. They were marrying, giving in marriage. They were buying and selling, etc. Planting and building.

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And then the flood came and they were not prepared. Only Noah and his family were prepared. In the same way with Lot, when judgment came, it was sudden.

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And the city was not prepared. There was no one righteous. There was no one who was ready for this. And so they all suffered and died in the raining of fire and brimstone, the raining of fire and sulfur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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And so these things were sudden. Now they were not sudden in the way, in the sense that God had not given them sufficient means to anticipate these things.

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In fact, there were plenty of warnings. Noah had warned his people for many years. There were many years that he was building the ark before the rains came.

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In addition, those people who were banging down at Lot's door were given ample warning.

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And then they were even blinded. Something that's clearly some divine act.

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And yet, they did not take this warning and go their way, but continued in their foolishness.

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And so, the fact that it will come suddenly, the fact that judgment will come suddenly when the Son of Man is revealed, does not mean that people don't have ample warning.

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They do have ample warning. It's simply that they do not heed this ample warning. And so, it is unexpected for them, though it is not unexpected for others.

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However, something that you should consider here is that this is not primarily talking about the suddenness of judgment.

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That's one side of the coin. It's primarily talking about the other side of the coin, which is the suddenness of this salvation here.

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You see this when it talks about Noah. Noah was one who was saved through judgment.

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Lot and his family was one who was saved through judgment. It's about being ready for salvation, which is the same thing as being ready for judgment.

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These are two sides of the same coin. But I believe the emphasis here is on being ready for salvation.

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And you see that Luke has some intention with where he has placed this and what he has done in adding the mention of Lot.

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In adding the mention of Lot, he includes not only the statement about Lot's wife, who looked back, right?

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She was, in some sense, ready for judgment, but she was not ready for salvation. She was not ready to continue looking onward.

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And with the mention of Lot, he also adds buying and selling, building and planting.

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Not just eating and drinking and giving in marriage and being married, right? These are things that might sound, on first glance, like excessive celebration.

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With the mention of Lot, it adds some smaller things, some things that are just the parts of daily life. Building and planting, these are things we're supposed to do, certainly.

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Buying and selling, this is just normal life. And so the concern here is not about a kind of vigilance that you might think.

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It is about desire. That we must desire and not be distracted by the things of the world.

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And by the things of the world, I don't just mean the sinful things of the world. I mean anything in the world. That we must be ready for salvation, ready to not look behind and be attached to anything here.

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But be ready for the return of the Son of Man. So to read this passage again.

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Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage.

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And then for Lot, it says that they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

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So some of these things are celebratory, right? And some of these things are just normal things.

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And these are all good things that God has told us to do. Where it becomes a problem is where those things conflict.

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And they compete with other things that God has called us to do that are of higher priority. One of those is to repent.

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Now when you hear eating and drinking, you might even think of the phrase, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

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Often people neglect repentance because they have joys now to enjoy. Many people are very much wrapped up in the pleasures of today and are not thinking about anything else.

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And so they do not repent. They do not turn from their sins. But moreover, in addition to just the simple fact of competing with repentance, it also competes with a desire for the things of God.

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It is the case as people encounter the things of this world, maybe they are living a relatively good lifestyle.

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Maybe they have involved themselves in a church, and so outwardly it looks like they are one of repentance.

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But because they are developing and harboring and cultivating an inward attachment to the things of the world, they are not desiring the things of God as they ought to desire them.

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And why is that? It is because the things of the world are so much easier to be entertained by. Your five senses are so much stronger than your spiritual senses.

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They are more immediate. They feel more natural. Just comparing your senses themselves, people enjoy video.

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They are more engaged by video than they are by audio. Why? Because your eyes are a much stronger sense than your ears are.

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Now this is true also when you think of the soul. The spiritual senses that you have are an even weaker sense.

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And so it is very easy for people to be very engaged and stimulated by their outward senses rather than by those spiritual things that are true.

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Consider what Paul says about Demas.

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He says in 2 Timothy 4 .9, Do your best to come to me soon, speaking to Timothy, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

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Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. And so you have all these various people leaving

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Paul and Demas especially leaving him on account of his love for the things of the world.

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Imagine someone who is at that time in the first century engaged in ministry but then just becomes dissatisfied with it and wants to enjoy the things of the world, wants to enjoy the good things of the world.

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And so he leaves. This is how the enemy often works. A lot of times he doesn't tempt us with things that are bad inherently but things that are good that compete with the things of God.

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This is what the fisherman does when he lures in the fish. It's not that there's anything wrong with the worm. The worm is good food for the fish.

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But he lures him in with that good thing in order to trap him. And this is how the enemy often works. Even those good things in your life can compete with the desire that we must have for the things of God.

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And this is especially a concern for any who live in a world of prosperity. Just consider the prosperity that Noah experienced and Lot experienced.

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I'm not sure if you've ever thought of this, but I think this is one of the main comparisons that's being made here is that these were people who were in lands that were incredibly prosperous.

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And so they were doing all these things, you know, feasting, eating, giving in marriage, enjoying all the things that you can have in good times of peace.

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These were prosperous people. Now, just consider, the Bible doesn't tell us much about it, but if you just speculate a little about the times of Noah, in our times, we live 70 some odd years.

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You know, people start their career in earnest from 20 and maybe work until they're 70, maybe.

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And so that's 50 years of experience, right? 50 years of hard work and building things.

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In the time of Noah, you have people who Scripture is telling us are living 600, 900 years.

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Imagine if the world were full of people who are living 900 years, 920 years, and so you've got 900 years of experience, right?

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As you're building, as you're doing, as you're making. These were people who were far more advanced than you might have previously considered.

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I don't know how advanced they are, Scripture doesn't tell us, but there was a very massive society that had developed and that was able to develop in the time of Noah and advance.

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And build and plant, and these were almost certainly a very, very prosperous people.

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One thing to illustrate this. Okay, so, Tolkien, when he wrote

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The Lord of the Rings, this was supposed to be in our Earth. Middle Earth is not supposed to be in some other universe like Narnia is, right?

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Narnia is on the other side of a wardrobe in a different planet, right? Or in a different universe.

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Tolkien, when he wrote The Lord of the Rings, he intended Middle Earth to be a prehistoric version of this

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Earth. Now, there are some things that don't fit with the Bible, but what he was imagining in his head was basically, what does that antediluvian, antediluvian meaning before the flood, what does that antediluvian world look like where people are, where some creatures are living very long periods of time and are building large societies?

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And so he's, in his mind, speculating about how prosperous society could look like before the flood when people are living long, when people are, you know, able to enjoy these things prior to the flood.

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So, Noah is living in an incredibly prosperous time. The same is true with Lot.

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If you read Genesis 14 and it talks about how some had come and stolen all the possessions away from Sodom and had taken it away and then the king of Sodom ends up getting the help of Abraham and Abraham rescues

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Lot and all the possessions of Sodom and gives them back to the king of Sodom. The king of Sodom offers him all these possessions.

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And this is, if you've never considered about how great this is, Lot went to the land of Sodom because it was so prosperous, right, because the fields were good.

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And this is a picture of Abraham essentially being offered the wealth of the world and rejecting it, right, just like Jesus does in Matthew 4 or Luke 4.

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Sodom and Gomorrah, these were prosperous, prosperous cities. So one of the main points of choosing these particular examples is not just the sudden judgment but the prosperity that they were experiencing.

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Now, how does that apply to us? Oh, man, we are a prosperous society. We live in the most prosperous time that has ever existed.

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We live in the most prosperous country of all the countries in that time. We live in the most prosperous state of all the states in that country.

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And our own city, arguably, is one of the most prosperous of those. And I've mentioned this to some of you before, but in 2022 there's a website called

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Smart Asset. They did a bunch of calculations. They called it, you know, they were trying to quantify the happiest city in America, but basically they were just taking quality of life metrics and personal finance metrics together and grouping them together.

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And what city out of all the cities in the entire U .S. was considered the number one, the best quality of life?

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It was Sunnyvale. It was Sunnyvale, California. If you have not considered just how similar your time is to the time of Noah, how similar your time is to the time of Lot, it is very similar.

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The kind of danger that they experienced to go and enjoy the things of the world are the kinds of danger that you may experience.

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And just one note that I forgot to mention here about Sodom. Sodom's sin is described as the same sin of the

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Pharisees and Ezekiel. It's described as the same sin of being prosperous and not caring for the poor. Remember, that's the context here in Luke 17.

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Ezekiel 16, 49, Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

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You know, you often might think of Sodom and Gomorrah, their primary sin being homosexuality. Now, there's a reason that homosexuality and prosperity go hand in hand, why when people are affluent they end up going to these things.

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But the way the prophets remember Sodom is that their sin was primarily and the root of their sin was in the prosperity, right, and the not taking care of the poor.

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So this is, once again, you know, Scripture attests to the fact that this is how we're supposed to be thinking of Noah and Lot as these are prosperous times, and these people are getting distracted from the things of God.

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And so we ought not to let these things be such to be such distractions.

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It says in this next passage here, in verse 31,

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On that day, let the one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away.

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And likewise, let the one who is in the field not turn back.

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Remember Lot's wife, whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

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And this is something that Jesus has said before in Luke. In Luke 9, 24, he said, Whoever preserves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

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So on that day, let not the one come down. You know, he should not go and get his things. He should just run, run for salvation.

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The same thing with the one who is in the field. He should not go back to his house. He should run for salvation. What happened to Lot's wife?

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She looked back at Sodom. She turned into a pillar of salt, and she was not saved because she was looking back.

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She was not just running, running to salvation. And this is what is required of us. So what is the vigilance?

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And I've already said this many times already. The vigilance here is not the kind of vigilance that you might initially think of.

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It's not watching. In fact, this passage has already told us that we cannot watch for this.

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Right? It is said, they will say, look there, look here. Do not. It is not something that can be watched for.

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It said previously that it is not coming in a way that can be observed. The kingdom of God is not coming in a way that can be observed.

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The way that you are vigilant is not by trying to read all the going on geopolitically to try to figure out when

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Jesus is coming. This is not the task of vigilance for the Christian. The task of vigilance is to maintain that fire of desire within your heart.

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To be ready when the house is on fire that you don't go back to it, but you run from it.

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You don't rush in and it will all collapse on you, but you run from it. You have that stoked desire in your own heart.

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I'm mixing metaphors here with two different fires. Apologize for that. You've got that fire in your own heart that you are running, running for salvation.

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You are not like Lot's wife here,

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Lot's wife who turns back. How do you do this?

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How do you develop this desire? You cannot seek to preserve your own life or you will lose it.

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If you lose your life, you will keep it. And this was the case for the people of old as well.

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You see in Hebrews 11 .15 it says, If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

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But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. So even those folks who went into the promised land, who were seeking the promised land, they could have turned back to their homeland, but they continued on dwelling in tents because they had that desire for these things.

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And this is a very Lucan theme, right? This desiring the consolation of Israel right from the very beginning, the first two chapters.

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You know what marks the people of God from others? It's that they have a desire for the consolation of Israel.

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They have a desire for the Lord to come and rescue them. Why is this so important?

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This is important because this is the nature of saving faith, basically is to desire the things of God.

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The one who does not desire, who thinks that they have what they need in this life, is not trusting in the

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Lord. The one who realizes they do not have what they need in this life and they need the Lord is the one who truly trusts in Him.

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This is the difference between believing the gospel in a saving way and believing the gospel in a not -saving way.

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Believing the gospel in a way that is superficial and outward. We must have this desire for the kingdom of God.

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It's just like the song says, if you know the song we sing that says, the only fitness He requires is that you feel your need of Him.

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That is the fitness He requires, not your works, but that you realize your need of Him. And so we must cultivate this desire.

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First off, just in enjoying the things of God, almost every sermon, one of the applications is going to be, use the means of grace, right?

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Read your Bible, pray, enjoy the fellowship of the saints. Yes, do those things, but do them in a way where you recognize that part of the purpose of why you're doing those is to cultivate a desire.

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As you read the Bible, part of your goal should be to cultivate a desire for the word of God so that you enjoy it.

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As you pray, it should be to cultivate a sweet relationship with the Lord so that you enjoy it. And those people who do spend time in the word, do spend time praying, do enjoy it more and more.

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You speak to an older saint, and you will see very quickly that they tend to enjoy these things way much more than the young do.

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It's because they have spent a long time cultivating that desire, cultivating that enjoyment of the things of God.

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Do not neglect these things. Do not neglect the fellowship where we gather to celebrate, to have that antithetical celebration, right?

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The celebrations of the world, which are not necessarily bad, celebrating a wedding, etc. But then when we celebrate the things of God, we remind ourselves that this is far more important.

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This is worth celebrating every single week, not just once a year. This is something of profound importance, that Christ has come to die to save his people, and he is coming again.

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So cultivate a desire by enjoying the means of grace, and as you enjoy them, know that part of your purpose is to enjoy them more.

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Secondly, flee from the things of the world. Now, if these are sinful things, then that is the application right there.

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Just simply flee from those things. Flee from sinful things. Do not develop any kind of attraction to them.

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Do not develop any kind of attachment to those things. Leave those things behind.

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But in addition to that, consider other ways that you can reduce your attachment to the things of the world that are not inherently sinful.

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Many people spend a lot of their time in entertainment and not a lot of time in work. That's a way of just really satisfying your senses with the things of this world.

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Once again, nothing inherently wrong with entertainment on its own, but the way a lot of people use it is in a way that develops attachments to the things of this world, and this is something that you should be moving away from.

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You know, the commandment that we looked at this morning in the Catechism question, the Fourth Commandment, it starts off not with the seventh day.

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It starts off with the sixth day. Six days shall you labor and do all your work. Because of the prosperous society we live in, we don't have to do nearly as much work as people have in times past.

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In times past, almost everyone is involved in something that's part of the bare necessities of life.

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They've got to get up and milk the cows or take care of things all around their home.

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There's a lot of things that have to be done in less prosperous societies. In our society, even people who work quote -unquote difficult jobs get up late and show up at a late hour and have a lot of free time for themselves.

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Now, that's all wonderful to have those blessings to be able to enjoy more things, but rather than filling all that with just an entertaining of the senses, using that as temptation rather than as a real opportunity of blessing, you should use that in some productive way that's for the good of your family, for the good of your church.

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Do not fill up all that free time that you have in this prosperous society with just entertaining the senses and becoming more and more attached to the world.

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Also, give generously. You want a fire drill that you can do on that day when the

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Son of Man comes and you need to leave all your stuff behind? Here's the fire drill. Practice getting rid of it now.

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This is hard to do, but be generous with your wealth. Give sacrificially, not just a little bit and in an amount that doesn't feel like any kind of difficulty.

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You are training for that day and it doesn't matter whether or not he comes in your lifetime because on that day, the question is will you be found faithful?

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You must be found faithful. Train yourself now to be giving your stuff, your wealth generously, sacrificially, so that you don't feel attached to it.

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You know what happens as people give? As people give, they feel less attached to their things. If they don't give them, they feel attached to them.

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You can practice this. You can develop this now. The same is true with fasting.

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Fasting is a Christian discipline that many people do not practice. Maybe you look at your own life and you try to think back to the last time you fasted and maybe it's never.

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Maybe it's a very long time ago. Maybe it's never. This part of what we do in fasting is to reevaluate our priorities and to acknowledge that God is more important than bread itself.

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God is more important than food itself. Seek the Lord even in fasting. Give up things so that you can have a well -practiced spirit in acknowledging that the things of the world are not valuable compared to the things of God.

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Once again, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you of how much danger you're in and in the situation you live.

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You're in a very prosperous, you're in one of the most prosperous areas that has ever existed in the history of the world and in the whole geography of the world as it exists.

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And then on top of that, we're in a society where even Christians do not practice a lot of these things like fasting on any kind of regular basis.

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If you hear this and you think about the need for cultivating desire and your first thought is, oh yeah,

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I desire these things, definitely make sure that you aren't lying to yourself.

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Make sure that you are not kidding yourself because the situation that you have been placed in is one that is set so hard against you to make sure that you do not desire the things of God and you do desire the things of the world.

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You know, the addict always says, oh, I can quit any time I want, right? And then when the time comes to quit, he can't quit, right?

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That's what a lot of people in the world are doing. They say, well, I can devote myself to the things of God when

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I see the need to. When that day comes, you won't be ready.

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You need to be doing this now. Now is the time to be giving yourself to the Lord. Now is the time to enjoy the things of God, like that song that we sang.

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Love makes obedience sweet. This is not a, the things that are being given to you here now are not hard burdens.

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They are light burdens. They are far better than the slavery that the world offers, right?

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This is the good news, that you can enjoy these eternal things. You can enjoy the things of God in a way that is far greater than anything that the world has to offer.

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And I'm inviting you to start enjoying that now in preparation for that day when we get to enjoy it forever.

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In the rest of this passage, he says, I tell you, in that night, there will be two in one bed. One will be taken in the other left.

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There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken in the other left. And he said to them, where,

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Lord? His disciples asking him. Remember, we're going back and forth in this discourse between him talking to the

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Pharisees and him talking to the disciples. Right now, he's turned and talked to the disciples about the kingdom after having talked to the

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Pharisees about the kingdom. So the disciples are asking him, where, Lord? He said to them, where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

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Also, I'd note that, recall that as he's talking to his disciples, he has told them, essentially, do not over -desire the kingdom so that you're being duped by people who are saying, here he is, there he is.

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And now he's telling them, but do not under -desire it either. It must be desired fully the way it is meant to be desired with the appropriate vigilance.

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A couple of comments about this passage because it confuses several people, or it confuses many people.

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The first one is the Luke 36.

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I mentioned this earlier in the Scripture reading. You see Luke 36 is not there. It's simply the case that the oldest manuscripts we have do not have this verse.

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It seems apparent that this verse is an attempt to harmonize with Matthew. It's just the verse that you see in Matthew that says there are two men standing in a field and one taking the other left.

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So it's just that verse that we have in Matthew. The second is,

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I don't know if you've ever heard this, but some people use this as a verse trying to show that the

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Bible affirms homosexuality. If you've ever encountered that before, that's not the case.

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It should be obvious that's not the case. Older translations in verse 34 say, I tell you in that night there will be two men in one bed, comparing to the women in the next verse, right?

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Two women grinding. Talking about the work of grain, working with grain.

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And so because an older translation says there will be two men in one bed, many people take that to be an affirmation of homosexuality.

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It's obviously unrelated to that. It does not even literally say men. It just says there will be two in one bed.

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And then it goes to women. And like I said, older translations just make it parallel women by inserting the word men.

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Okay, so those two things considered. The next thing to consider for this passage is what does it mean to be taken?

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When I first read this, I thought the one who is taken is the one who is being judged, right?

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Judgment is coming. Oh no, one is being taken and the other left. The one who is taken is being carried away and judged.

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This does not seem to be the case given all the analogies we've seen. What happens with Noah? Oh, he's taken away.

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What's happened with Lot? He's taken away. What happens when the Son of Man comes?

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The Son of Man comes to take away. You know, the phrase, the days of the Son of Man that compares to the days of Lot, the days of Noah, right?

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These are people who are exiting in salvation, right? Days of Noah, he's leaving in salvation.

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Days of Lot, leaving in salvation. Days of the Son of Man, he's taking the people away in salvation. This is a picture of people being taken away from a situation of judgment so that the others may be judged.

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Now, secondly, this is talking about the rapture. When I grew up, I read a lot of the

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Left Behind books. I don't know if you've ever read that book series. And so, I was all about that. I didn't even understand why that was in the fiction section, you know?

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And it was, you know, I was just really, pun not intended, enraptured with that book series.

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Now, is this talking about the rapture? Yes, it actually is. It is talking about Jesus taking people away.

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It is not talking about people being left to live for many years after this, right? It's not talking about the picture in that book series where those who are left behind continue on with other lives, right?

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This is talking about judgment is coming. And so, there's no suggestion that there's any time period after this that they continue living.

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Rather, they have to experience the judgment that comes just like in the days of Noah, just like in the days of Lot, right?

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It comes immediately after. Noah's in the ark, the flood comes, people are gone, right? Lot's out of the city up on the mountain, the fire and brimstone comes down.

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So, yes, it is speaking of a rapture where God's people are taken away, where Christ comes and takes them away, but it is not talking about a continuing of those who are left behind for judgment.

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Now, the second question here is what is it talking about in this last verse?

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This is a notoriously difficult verse. It says, And they said to him, Where, Lord? And he said,

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Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. Now, that really sounds like, the way it is translated here sounds like judgment, right?

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It sounds like, okay, the corpse is a dead body, there's judgment, vultures are gonna come and they're gonna get it, right?

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This is not, I don't believe this is the right interpretation for a few reasons. First of all, like I said, it's notoriously difficult.

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There are, one commentator listed 20 interpretations of this one verse.

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But if you just consider what has been said here before and what these words actually are, it says where the corpse is.

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It uses Matthew's words. In Luke, it actually just says the word for body. Where the body is, there the vultures.

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And also vultures is probably the word for eagles here. I think there's every reason actually to count it as the word for eagles.

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So where the body is, the eagles will gather, it speaks of. What is this, what is this describing?

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Well, if it's talking about things being taken away, consider what the question where means.

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When the disciples ask where, Lord, they're not asking where the judgment will happen. He's already answered them there.

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He already said it will be like the lightning that flashes from one end to the sky to the other. The judgment will be everywhere.

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He's already answered that question. When they ask where, they're asking where will the people be taken to?

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And he says this, where the body is, there the eagles will gather, right? Or in this translation, where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

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The eagles know where to go. They will go to the place that they desire to go.

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This is what he's saying is that it is not for you to know specifically, but know that those who have this desire, they will end up there.

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This is where they will end up. This is where they will go. And this is what will divide the people.

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This desire will divide the people. It will divide those who are two in one bed, one taken in the other left, two grinding together, one taken in the other left, and then

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Matthew two in a field, one taken in the other left. It will divide the people. It will divide the people just as Simeon had prophesied.

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And if you remember Simeon, he's described as one awaiting the consolation of Israel, right?

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His whole thing is that he is desiring this kingdom. And he said to Mary, So this child is coming to show the thoughts in the hearts of people.

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Are they ones who are desiring the kingdom? Or are they ones who outwardly are going along with the people of God and not desiring the kingdom at all?

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There's a passage that Luke is probably speaking of when he talks about the consolation, when he talks about these kinds of comforts, and that is in Isaiah.

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If you'll go ahead and turn there, in Isaiah 40, I believe this is what a lot of these passages are alluding to, is the prophecy of Isaiah 40 that the comfort of God is coming.

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And this is what the people are awaiting. They're awaiting the comfort that comes from God, the comfort that comes from this kingdom of glory.

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Isaiah 40, verses one and two. Okay, so speaking of comfort, speaking of God's coming comfort.

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And then at the very end of this chapter, it says in verse 30,

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By the way, the Greek translation of this passage, in the Septuagint, which is the

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Greek translation of the Old Testament, this uses the exact same word that you have there in Luke. So remember when

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I said I believe it should be translated eagles? This is part of the reason. Isaiah uses the same word to speak of eagles.

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This is talking of the same thing that Isaiah talks of. Jesus is alluding to this very passage here.

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And so this is for you today to cultivate this desire for the things of God.

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Do not be attached to the things of the world. They are worthless. Jesus Christ has died. He has offered his life.

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He has shed his own blood in order that you might be saved. And he has, not just that you might be forgiven, but in order that you might enjoy a glorious kingdom with him forever.

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And this is something of far more value. And those who are truly his are those who desire this, are those who long for this kingdom.

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And so we should be a people who are not duped by others in order to think that he is here or he is there when they say and believe false prophecies.

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But we should be a people who are so earnestly desiring it that on the day when that comes, whether it comes beyond our lifetime or even on our final day as we draw our last breath, we are ready to leave all behind.

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Even now we should be ready to leave all behind because it is all worthless compared to the eternal glories that Christ has prepared for us.

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And he himself is worth far more than any of these things. I would hope that as you consider this, as you consider how much this world is calling for your attention, how it's calling for your attachment, how it's wrapping its tentacles around you and wants you, you should fight that with every last breath that you have and desire the things of God knowing that the things of the world are ultimately worthless.

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They will all pass away. The flood has come. The fire is coming. It will all pass away and all will remain is

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Christ's kingdom. All that will remain is those things that cannot be shaken. Love those things today.

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We're enjoying those things today as we gather in worship and we enjoy those things that shall not be shaken. Enjoy those things and develop an earnest, earnest desire.

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Leave the things of the world behind and enjoy the mercies and riches and glories of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for the wonderful gift that you have given in him, the wonderful future that you have in store for us in him.

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We ask that you would encourage us in this, that you would keep us from sin, that you would keep us from temptations, that we would not be attached to the things of the world, even the good things of the world, that we would enjoy them as you have called us to enjoy them, not as things that compete with your things but as things that point us to you and that we would spend much time in your things, in the word of God, in prayer, in fellowship with the saints, enjoying these things, cultivating that desire.

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We ask that you would give us encouragement and endurance in this world and we pray that you would hasten the day that Christ returns and we see that day of the son of man and we might enjoy it, leaving all these things behind.