The Son of Man is Coming

Introduction: The Signpost to the Celestial City and the Purpose of the Series

0:00 We come in this portion of our service of worship to the ministry of the Word of God and to another message from the scriptures under the imagery of a simple signpost to the celestial city. And that imagery captures our ordinary concept of a signpost plus the language of John Bunyan in his Immortal Pilgrim's Progress in which he describes heaven as the celestial city. And the nature of this series, I trust, is captured in that title. These messages are meant to focus upon texts of scripture which, in a very succinct and focused way, set before us the great issues of how men and women, boys and girls, can be right with God. How they can be prepared to die and go to judgment. How they can have their sins forgiven. What it is that must possess the mind and heart if we are to be prepared to meet our God.

1:17 And the purpose for the series is that God would be pleased to own this preaching to bring those who are not the children of God, to a place of repentance and faith, that God would make the proclamation of the gospel, his power, unto salvation to some. And then the second purpose is to equip the saints with a working knowledge of these key gospel issues that they might be used in our witness to others. And our signpost tonight is found, as I indicated, this morning in the twenty fourth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew's Gospel and the Twenty fourth Chapter.

Context of Matthew 24: Disciples' Questions and Prophetic Distinctions

2:01 Matthew's Gospel and the Twenty fourth Chapter. Matthew's Gospel and the Twenty fourth Chapter. Matthew's Gospel and the Twenty fourth Chapter. This chapter begins with our Lord Jesus going out from the temple area in Jerusalem, and as he is passing by the temple there is this response of the disciples to what they saw Speaking of the magnificence of the temple, and they show the buildings of the temple to our Lord.

2:35 But according to verse 2, he responds by saying, See you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. He is speaking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in history in 70 A.D.

2:59 And as he went out from that area to the Mount of Olives, the disciples, stunned by this statement of our Lord, asked him the question, Tell us, verse 3, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end? And Jesus answered and said unto them, And then in the remainder of the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, our Lord is found responding to the questions raised by the disciples. When will the destruction of the temple occur?

3:41 And when will his coming and the end of the age occur? For in their thinking these things...

3:49 And therefore in responding to their questions, we have in Matthew 24, certain things said by our Lord, which are very clearly a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Other things are very clearly references to his second coming at the end of the age. And there are others that...

4:19 Commentators, equally devout and godly men, differ as to the precise point of reference, whether our Lord is referring to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the destruction of Jerusalem itself, or whether he is referring to the second coming. But our signpost is taken from one of those verses that unmistakably refers...

4:50 Not to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but to that other event, the coming of the Lord Jesus in power and glory at the end of the age. And I hinted this morning that it is found somewhere between verse 29 and the end of the chapter.

The Fact of the Second Coming Declared: Identity, Nature, and Purpose

5:11 And for those of you that took the time to read and make a stab at what the text might be, if you guessed verse 44, Therefore, be ye also ready, for in an hour that you think not, the Son of Man cometh. And as we draw near to this signpost, we see that it has three basic statements that constitute the very heart of its message. And the first is this. The fact...

5:50 The fact of the second coming declared. The fact of the second coming declared. Look at the latter part of the verse. The Son of Man, literally, is coming.

6:05 Not a future shall come, but a present tense. The Son of Man is coming. The Son of Man is coming. Be ye also ready, for in an hour that you think not, the Son of Man is coming.

6:24 Here the fact of the second coming is declared. The Son of Man is coming. Notice with me as we draw a little closer to that signpost what is involved in this fact. First, the identity of the person who is coming.

6:46 Jesus refers to him as the Son of Man. Who is this Son of Man? Well, if you're familiar with the Gospel records, you know that it is the title by which the Lord Jesus most often refers to himself. And if there were no other text to make it very clear that Jesus is speaking of himself, Mark 8 and verse 31 would be such a text.

7:16 And he began to teach them, that is, the Lord Jesus, that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. Here he says that the person who will be rejected by the chief priests and the elders who will suffer many things, be killed and be raised, is the Son of Man. And there is no one who fits that description but the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And when he comes in the end of this section of Mark 8 to verse 38 and says, The Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Our Lord makes it unmistakable. Only clear that the identity of the person who is coming in this second coming is none other than himself.

8:31 The same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, reared in Nazareth, the same one who pounded pegs and shaved boards in his father's carpenter's shop, was baptized in the river Jordan, who went about the various areas of the world, of Palestine, doing good, raising the dead, healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. It was that Son of Man who would go to Jerusalem and suffer, who would be killed and who was raised again on the third day. So the identity of the person who is coming is unmistakable. The Son of Man comes. That is, the very Lord, Jesus Christ, whose life and death and resurrection, whose mighty words and works are recorded in the gospel records, it is that Jesus and none other that will come again. And this is confirmed very clearly in Acts chapter 1, at his ascension, when you will remember the disciples are gathered with him and our Lord Jesus suddenly begins to levitate in their hearts. In their very presence.

9:53 And according to Acts chapter 1, we read in verse 9, and when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, You men of Galilee, why do you stand, looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you beheld him going into heaven. Not another, not one like him, but this very Jesus shall come again. As we further consider the fact of the second coming declared, note not only the identity of the person who is coming, but something about the nature of his coming. Here in Matthew chapter 24, and then on into chapter 25, where the great subject of that entire chapter are matters pertaining to the second coming,

11:16 we learn something about the nature of this second coming, the first coming was marked by obscurity. The life of the Son of Man, his mighty miracles aside, was marked by all the ordinary manifestations of human weakness. He was weary. He wept.

11:43 He knew disappointment. He was reared in poverty. He was humiliated. He was spoiled.

11:51 He was spat upon. He was mocked. He was jeered. He was impaled upon an instrument of cruel execution.

11:59 That first coming was marked, I say, by obscurity, by weakness, by poverty and humiliation. But the second coming will be marked by things far different from the first. We learn from this passage that it will first of all, be visible to all men upon the face of the earth. Look at chapter 4 and verse 27.

12:29 As the lightning comes forth from the east and is seen even unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. When the lightning makes its way from the east to the west, so says God, our Lord, shall His coming be. Verse 30a, And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming. All see the Son of Man coming. At His first coming, there were some angelic hosts sent to celebrate that reality on a lonely Judean hillside in the presence of some humble shepherds. But life went on as usual there in Bethlehem.

13:40 Life was going on as usual throughout all of Palestine and the entire Roman Empire. When the Son of Man came into the world the first time, He came in obscurity. When He comes the second time, all the tribes of the earth shall behold Him. Again, this is confirmed in Revelation 1 and verse 7, in which we read that when the Lord Jesus returns, behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him.

14:19 And they that pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. My friend, listen to me. This is referring not only to all the living at His coming, but all the dead at His coming as well. As surely as me, those eyes will behold the returning Lord Jesus Christ.

14:55 Not only the living, but the dead, for it says, those who longed shall behold Him at His coming. It will be visible to all. Furthermore, unlike His first coming that was marked by obscurity and weakness, His second coming will be marked by glory and by power. Look at the latter part of verse 30 of chapter 24.

15:27 Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with an mega glory, with great glory, not just glory, the outshining of Godhead and Godhood shining. He will come with clouds of heaven, with power and with great glory. And furthermore, His coming will be with an impressive anointing, accompanied with all the angels. Verse 31 of Matthew 24. And He shall send forth His angels with the great sound of a trumpet. Again, 2 Thessalonians 1, 7a, that He will be revealed from heaven in the presence of His mighty angels.

16:38 It will not be some heavenly host on a Judean hillside, manifesting something of the glory of what God is doing to a handful of sheep, but in a coming visible to all, one marked in the company of all. But then He shall understand the identity of Himself, the nature of His coming, visible with glory, accompanied with the holy angels. But the purpose, what will be the purpose? The fact is threefold, according to the Scripture. It will be first, to gather them to be with Him forever.

17:57 Verse 31 of Matthew 24. He shall send the sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather to His elect from one end of heaven to the other. And we learn from 1 Thessalonians that that gathering will not merely act upon the earth when He comes, but His dead elect will have preferential treatment. For Paul says this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive shall not with the voice of the dead. With the Lord, the purpose of being declared will be to gather people at last

19:15 throughout the end. But it will also be to bring final upon the world and upon the wicked men of this world. Chapter 25, verse 31. And before Him shall be and He shall seek them one from another as a sheep from His goat. And then the end of that sin in all is summarized and these into eternal punishment. But the right into that will find in the present

20:44 the wicked eternally banished into conscious punishment. It will be to, according to Peter chapter 3, it will be to usher in the new heavens and the new earth. For Peter tells us in language that is unique to Peter, though the truth is found scattered throughout the script of both the Old and the New Testaments, that Peter, in his third and his second letters, in the which the heavens shall be and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein, seeing that these things are thus all, what manner of who to be and all being in godliness looking for and being on fire shall be dissolved. And the elements shall be destroyed,

The Certainty of Christ's Return: More Sure Than Death and Taxes

22:09 but according to his promise we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells of believers for the creation created at the return of the Lord Jesus. As we come to this simple signpost and look at its first statement, it is this statement that only death and taxes No, no, my friends, there is something more certain than even death itself, for there will be some alive at the coming of Christ. And more certain than in this very

23:28 shall never. And I care not, may be said someone in nineteen ninety-four people have talked about for generations and for centuries the word see him, but believe it you will, believe it you shall, believe it you must.

The Time of the Second Coming Addressed: Unexpected and Unknown

24:42 The fact of the second coming declared. But then secondly, in our signpost we statement and that is the time of the second coming addressed. The time of the second coming addressed. Look at our signpost.

25:00 Be ye there ready for an hour the Lord is coming addressed. Now from the days to the present hour men coming almost about the time of that coming. Paul had his second letter to the Thessalonians because there were people who were engaged in date setting with regard to the second coming. And Paul had to write to them. The second Thessalonians makes it very clear that their minds dates now meet you brethren touching

26:25 and are gathering to to the end that you be not quickly shaken from your mind troubled either by spirit word of prophecy I have a revelation or by word. And I to the Thessalonians people were date setting and they were upsetting the Thessalonians. I want to lay that stuff. And from that date men hung great

27:42 to the doctrine of the second for when they addressed the issue of the second coming in an hour think not that is expected for the gods and figure out the the Lord Jesus said no man knows not even the sun

29:00 reveal and he says his force it will be an unexpected in an hour and then in the come you have the historical of the flood look up neither the son but the father and for the days of Noah shall be the coming of the son of for in those before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and given in marriage until the day

30:00 that Noah entered into deep the flood in the day of his coming but then in verse he says then shall no doubt in his heart it could be today and if he comes I should be found faithful at my God appointed task whatever my hand

31:26 finds and he goes out in his mind harvest and sowing with clouds the archangel and the trump of God and is gathered home with God's elect of all ages but some are left to the judgment some are left to the burning fiery anger of the returning Lord one is taken one is left on what day was the time reference of that flood and then he gives the practical but know this that if the master of the house the thief was coming. The thief had called him up and said, look, I'm between 2 and 6 a.m. I'm going to break into your house. If the thief had given previous announcement, he would not have suffered

32:47 his house to be broken through. He would have sat and be found. Or would have said, that's an obvious reality. If a thief ever pre-announced when he was coming, have watched. But because the thief comes unexpectedly, comes suddenly, for in an hour that you think not, the Son of Man comes. What do I have to say with respect to the time? Nothing more or less than what our Lord says.

The Preparation for the Second Coming Commanded: Foundational and Ongoing Readiness

33:38 It will come as to its time. For instance, and the real burden of this signpost and why it is indeed a signpost pointing to the celestial city is not so much the fact of the second coming declared. That's preparatory to what we're now going to see. Now to consider the time of the second coming address, but notice third, the preparation for the second coming commanded. The preparation for the second coming commanded. Therefore, be readiness or be ready is used to 22. Let's look at it for a moment. It'll give you a sense

34:50 of its meaning. It's the parable of the marriage feast, which a certain Kate for his son, or any sent forth other service saying, tell them that are invited. Behold,

35:06 here's our word. My dinner, my oxen and fatling are killed in or here's our word in a state aridness. Everything be in a state of readiness. Everything that is to be prepared. This is a

35:51 sometimes invites he command. They would not be prepared. And it is his grace that has provided both the foundational preparation and enables his own to undergo the ongoing preparation. And.

36:22 That's the organizing principle of the question. What does it mean to be in a state of readiness or preparedness? Does he leave what that state of readiness involves in the 25th chapter of Matthew, a chapter I say that points to various effects of events connected with the second coming. You have that parable of the ten virgins, the five who were the one that were welcomed in bridegroom. Look at Matthew, chapter 25, and verse ten. And while they went away to buy that is the foolish, you had a lamp, but no woman. They ready, they that were in a state with him to the marriage

37:34 fee. And the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgin saying, look to you. I don't know you watch there for you know, number of response they'd in this to Christ. While we're putting the sense of the parable. There is no.

38:30 about the meaning of paul's in second he described and the foundation set before us notice second thessalonians chapter one and to you that are afflicted rest with us at the revelation of the lord of heaven with the angels of his to those in howard you afflict and if

39:52 there's any would be those but the knowledge of natural revelation they unprepared might

41:07 represent the people whom he came to save and he lived a perfect life the father could speak from heaven saying my beloved son in whom i am well pleased that that perfect record of that life of the lord jesus be credited to his people constituted then in that obedience he carried it to its acme when as the scolipians too he became obedient unto death even the death of the only son of god and the power of life he 주 die on ethoros in the nv Hazen diminutum spreading his name throughout the world to the south and its VCT and their same name walking to the cross for we need not only the credit of a perfect righteous heaven but that he Christ became a curse for us for it is written cursed everyone that hangs

42:29 upon a tree in him what is the fight into Christ and to possess and that forgiveness of sins and in him alone the hymn writer understood when he shall come Christ is sinking sand when Jesus a foundation to be found in the gospel as

44:26 this and believe on the Lord Jesus throw the whole weight of your soul is so faith and sound if I pair and to your offer shall be that's the foundation and wonder of wonders if among 20 50 70 80 90 in different to God and in different the moment be ye therefore ready that the person is it should the lord jesus second to that heart belief and will join paul and martyr

45:45 because the ground of our acceptance is all christ and christ but in the setting more particular i've called the that is the continued aridness of the people of god for the return of their lord and while many things could be said limiting ourselves setting the ongoing preparation involved least these two basic things to live all as under the eye of your returning lord parable that he gives in verse 45 and following who then is the faithful and wise servant who is made of preparedness full and wise servant whom is lord household to give them their food in due season

47:10 blessed is that whom is lord you that he will set him over all that he has but if that evil search shall say in his my my I won't meet my lord's eyes for a long while yet therefore therefore I can live drink with the drunken the lord of that servant shall come in the day when he expects not in an hour when he knows not and shall cut him asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth he won't lose a few rewards he goes to hell he shows he never was a true servant from the heart who had seen any beauty or worth in the master to be an excuse to indulge a kind of vitriolic how to describe

48:30 indulge why because he said in his heart my lord tarry and while he's away and I shall thunder the eye of the returning lord then the second aspect of ongoing preparation is not only to live all of life is under the eye of the but to serve to the gifts by the returning lord 25 14 and following our lord gives the power of the talents and whatever interpretation we give one thing is clear but those are those according to the measure of the gifts given unto them and surely my brethren the ongoing

49:49 preparation is not a faded thing it's based each day as under the eye of the returning lord and so at any in that suddenness and I shall not be ashamed before him as is coming now some of us brought strange teaching about the second coming the so-called any moment theory of the secret rapture perhaps in our overreaction against some that unbiblical teaching things that spin off from it we've gotten away from a simple little practical godliness and it is the simple perspective what I want to be doing this when my lord returns but I want to be thinking what I'm thinking right now should my lord return but I want to be thinking what I'm thinking right now should my lord return but I want to be thinking what I'm thinking right now should my lord return

51:02 what I want to be contemplating this business enterprise returning lord is to live with preparedness and it is to serve according to the gifts given by the returning lord god does not seek to squeeze out of a turnip and not say look I brought back five and when he returns his two he gives him the same reward well done good and faithful service less endowed but the

52:13 one who's using of teeth in other words catch this dear people living in the state of Ongoing preparedness is an aspect.

52:44 It is an aspect of the holiness without which no man can be saved. For John says every man that has been in him continually purifies himself even as he is.

The Necessity of Ongoing Readiness: Holiness and Diligence

52:59 Reading a sermon tonight by Robert Murray McShane, seeking to have my own heart stirred by other non-related themes. And though his theme was not directly the second coming, in the sermon he was alluding to it. And he said these words that pierced my heart. At the conclusion of his sermon he said to his own people, Oh my, your faith is in.

53:26 If you do not live in the daily.

53:34 Oh, it's not the real thing, but that it lacks part of us. For his son of the heavens, even Jesus who delivers us to their returning Lord. To wait for his son.

54:32 That's the date setters, date setters. In his second epistle, he in no way are to obscure behind them the doctrine of the second coming. Rather, aridness of its suddenness and of their continual ignorance of the day and the hour until it breaks. The foundation is to get into the righteousness procured by perfect life and by his substitutionary death.

55:15 The ongoing preparation to states it in different language. He says we're convinced of the. Here's Peter's line, we we haste the coming of the day of God. Verse 14, wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, give diligence, perhaps one of the greatest in peace without and blameless in his sight, you aim.

57:02 Oh, you'll never attain it in this life. Now, are you giving diligence to be found in peace? No unresolved conflict with God. Without.

57:14 Spot and blameless while you sit there and let the images of your TV screen wash through your eye and leave footprints and prints of lust and lasciviousness and greed infidel before the to take any kind of stand being one of the God what he those are issues you've got to wrestle with and there's no double discipleship is discipleship whether you're 10, 20, 50 or 100.

59:56 You've got to say no to yourself. Take up a cross. You've got to be willing to be identified with Christ in his shame and rejection, for he says whosoever should be ashamed of this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and with the holy angels you want Christ to be ashamed of you in that day when he comes, then you'll be ashamed of him before your peers, you cave just because they're going to mock you out a little bit because they're going to say a few names to cave in before that and you'll cave in when Christ comes. Those of you.

Conclusion: The Practical Value of Expectation and Readiness

60:35 Are the issues be ready in an hour think not the son of then I close trying to answer it. I'd be very surprised in his mind, but Pastor, what about all those people when Paul wrote his epistles and Peter wrote his epistles and Jesus those words and those I'll tell you what good it did them living in the expectation of returning Lord made them fit to live the way they ought to live, made them prepared to die and made them prepared for the day of judgment. I'd say that's pretty good trade off. Wouldn't you through the dark river of death.

61:33 They weren't alive at the coming of the Lord like you feel often he died and he died and he died and he died and he Nick was not for God took him. He was the exception and so general by getting prepared for the returning that initial and with that on and have a lot of last minute business to take care of the man who lives every day and readiness for Christ return doesn't find himself with a lot of unfinished business.

62:36 I'd say that's pretty good trade off. Wouldn't you you're not fit to die, you're not fit to live, you're not fit to go to judge for Christ to come today and living sleep all things continue from the beginning until now.

63:22 That's the first uniformitarian so-called scientific view of reality. Everything is the same. They will. We forget one very clear fact.

63:32 There was a flood that upset the whole shooting match and it came suddenly as they forget this and they willfully forget it. God's embedded it in the creation and in the disrupted disorder and the marks of that just take the words of etched on this in which preparation for his incoming is commanded and lay them.

64:20 I'll take the shortest between where I am in my guilt and defilement forgiveness and your cleansing. And. I'm being found by you seek the Lord while he may be found take his own words and say Lord then having known the preciousness of this forgiving grace live in that ongoing frame of preparation all of life under the eye of a returning Lord seeking to serve according to the gifts given by that Lord and you will then at his return here his words well done. Well there's our sign.

65:13 And both be there for ready for in such an hour the son of man the fact of his coming the son of the hour that can coming is addressed in such an hour as you think not preparation for his second coming is commanded be therefore ready let us pray.