The Concealed Time of the Second Coming

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides three textual reasons why Mark 13:32 marks a shift to the Second Coming: the contrasting particle 'but', the strong demonstrative pronoun 'that day', and the…

Martin uses the example of a child refusing to eat 'that' mush or a girl refusing to like 'that' guy to explain how a demonstrative pronoun emphatically points out something, connecting it to 'that day' in Mark 13:32.

But there is a strong intimation that a contrasting event with contrasting circumstances is now to be introduced. Then the second reason I'm convinced that our Lord is speaking about His own second coming, beginning with verse 32, is the presence of a strong demonstrative pronoun by which the event is isolated and identified. A strong demonstrative pronoun by which the event is isolated and identified. You say, Pastor, what in the world is a demonstrative pronoun? Well, it is a pronoun which points out someone or something. We use it all the time, you kids. Maybe one of your buddies has you ov...

16:11 - 17:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides three textual reasons why Mark 13:32 marks a shift to the Second Coming: the contrasting particle 'but', the strong demonstrative pronoun 'that day', and the…

He speculates that Jesus, as a master preacher, might have used gestures, pointing towards Jerusalem for its destruction and then pointing 'far out' for 'that day' of His return, to visually emphasize the transition in subject.

But of that day or the hour. You see, our Lord very clearly is putting an emphasis upon something other than the circumstances of the near impending judgment upon Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. And could it be, and I only offer this as a question, that since our Lord was the master preacher, and any preacher worth his weight in salt, not only uses his voice and his eyes to preach, but all of his humanity and engages what is technically called his paralinguistics, his hands and eyes in preaching, could it be that what our Lord was doing was something like this? Having described th...

17:57 - 19:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon affirms that the Father alone knows the time of Christ's return, and amplifies this by specifying that not even angels, apostles, or the Son Himself (in His incarnate…

Martin imagines an angel needing an 'appointment book' to ensure he's present for the gathering of the elect, highlighting the absurdity of angels knowing the date when Christ explicitly states they do not.

He shall send forth His angels to gather His elect. And according to Matthew 13, the angels will also gather out the wicked. And as they would bind the tares in a harvest so they will be bound and they will be cast into the fire, who then more likely among non-humans to know the day of the Lord's return than angels? Pure, sinless spirits near to the throne of God, waiting for the slightest glance of God's eye to leap to immediate obedience in performing their divinely established errands. They will form the great entourage of the returning Lord in order to gather out His elect. Surely they mus...

30:44 - 31:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: he was in a self-embraced position of utter dependence upon his Father.

The example of an angel strengthening Christ in Gethsemane illustrates Christ's voluntarily assumed humiliation and dependence, even to the point of needing help from a creature He created.

In Isaiah 42.1 God says, Behold my servant whom I uphold. And in a short time he will be in the garden of Gethsemane so overcome with the trauma of facing the awful reality of the abandonment of the cross, so weakened in the agony of his prayer, that the Scripture says that an angel appeared and strengthened him. The Creator of angels is so weak that he needs to be strengthened by one of his creatures.

38:23 - 39:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Focus on practical duties: keep your heart free of the love of sin and the world, keep your heart warm, your hand at His work, your tongue speaking the gospel, and your eye waiting and longing for His return.

He uses the metaphor of people trying to fit together 'the jigsaw of the beast and his horns and the weeks of Daniel' to describe the carnal curiosity of those who attempt to calculate the date of Christ's return.

What a powerful. And ugly manifestation of carnal curiosity. When men are determined to know. And so they take the jigsaw of the beast and his horns.

58:56 - 59:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Heed the warning against date-setting movements, as they wean hearts from Christ and from practical obedience.

Martin recommends reading Delamore's book on Edward Irving, a forerunner of the charismatic movement, to understand the tragic spiritual results of date-setting movements.

If you want your heart to be broken. Read. Delamore's book.

64:42 - 64:46 Read in full sermon