End of the Age Instructions

One month from today, as calendars go on September 7th, you and I will be back in this room, observing the Feast of Trumpets. That's just how close the Fall Holy Days are. It's the day after Labor Day this year. And I know as you are preparing for the Fall Holy Days, because once we get into the first day of the seventh month and the Feast of Trumpets, the Hall Holy Days just happen. They happen right on top of one another as we go through Trumpets, and then Day of Atonement, and then Feast of Tabernacles, and of course the eighth day. So they'll be here before we know it, and I know you are all thinking about that. Physical preparations are going on as we go away for eight days during the Feast of Tabernacles. But there is much in those Holy Days that we need to be contemplating before we get to them. Just like before Passover, God tells us, prepare yourself, examine yourself, be thinking about what you're going to be doing, what you're going to be observing. And while we don't have that explicit command in the New Testament regarding the Fall Holy Days, we know that we should be preparing for those ahead of time. We don't think about the Feast of Trumpets until the night before we're coming together. We're not going to get a whole lot out of it. We're not going to understand the meaning of it the way that God wants us to. We have to be preparing ourselves. We have to be thinking about these things. And each year, God gives us a better in-depth understanding of His plan. You know, as we look at the Feast of Trumpets, it signals the end of this age. When Jesus Christ returns, which He will return with the accompaniment of a trumpet, He says in Matthew 24, verses 30 and 31, the age that we are living in now ends. It ends. And a new age will begin. The age we live in now, called the Christian Era or the Church Era, as some will call it, began with Jesus Christ's death. And we celebrate on Passover. So as we go through this Holy Day season, you and I have been living in an age that began back with Christ's death when the Church began. And Jesus Christ works with us in a body, in the Church, led by His Holy Spirit, continuing through the Feast of Trumpets when He returns. And this age ends. The Bible tells us clearly that Jesus Christ and God are not the God of this age. Satan is the God of this age. And when Jesus Christ returns, He will take the kingdoms of this earth and they will become His. He will be King of Kings. He will be Lord of Lords. And the current God of this age, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, He will be deposed. And we picture that on the Day of Atonement. And then there will be the ushering in of the reign of Jesus Christ, a time of peace, joy, abundance, harmony on earth, the likes of which mankind has never seen. That we picture during the Feast of Trabernacles. And then all the time, beyond that, as the 8th Day pictures. We'll talk about more of those things as we get into the Holy Days. But remember the rich, rich meaning that God has given us as we head into this Holy Day season. Now, just one month ahead of us.

You know, another notable thing that happens on the Feast of Trumpets, the Bible tells us, is the resurrection of the firstfruits. Let's turn back to 1 Corinthians 15. You know, sometimes people from the outside will wonder, what is this Feast of Trumpets? And it looks like it's just an Old Testament thing, but trumpets are there accompanied by these things that will occur when Jesus Christ returns. And certainly the resurrection of the firstfruits, the first resurrection, comes accompanied with trumpets. In verse 51 of 1 Corinthians 15, it says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We, that is the people of God now, those led by his Holy Spirit, I told you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That will happen as this age ends, and everything in the world as we know it changes with the return of Jesus Christ. Just as when Jesus Christ died, the world was going to change in ways they couldn't imagine, and the world has never been the same since Jesus Christ lived and died and gave his life to us. In Acts, we haven't gotten to there in the Bible studies yet, that turned the world upside down. And the dispensing of the gospel throughout the world. We go over to 2 Timothy. We see the Apostle Paul—I'm sorry, not Timothy—Thessalonians. It's not 2 Thessalonians, actually. It's 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. In verse 13, Paul talks about this momentous time ahead of us as well. I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain, until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. As God calls us, as we become his disciples, as we live our lives, as we live our lives, as we talked about last week, dedicated to him, committed to him, allowing his Holy Spirit to bring us through the process of purification and spiritual maturity that he wants us to have, that's the day you and I look forward to. The return of Jesus Christ, and for the people who do and live their lives the way that Jesus Christ expects and wants as he calls us, that's a momentous day.

But we have to be doing something between now and then. Knowing is not enough what the truth is. Knowing what the Feast of Trumpets pictures isn't enough. Now is the time that we are getting ready for the Feast of Trumpets. If we are letting this time go by, and as we're just looking to the time when Jesus Christ returns and magically we'll be there, we're missing. We're missing something. The time is now for us to be preparing for the Feast of Trumpets and the fulfillment of it.

Back in Matthew 24, you know that very well as the Olivet Prophecy. And as Jesus Christ would talk about the end of the age to his disciples, they might have wondered, or they did wonder, just like you and I would wonder, what are the signs? What will be the sign of the end of this age? What will be the signs of your coming and the end of your age? And those disciples asked him to that, and we had that recorded in Matthew 24.

They tell us that. They asked that question in verse 3, and Jesus Christ goes through the rest of that chapter that we know is chapter 24, and he gives them signs. He gives them guideposts along the way. When you see this happened, this happened, this happened, you know that the end of the age is near. He talks about things like pestilence. Pestilence, a worldwide pestilence.

He talks about things like people being divided, people hating one another, people turning each other in, people doing those things that seem so foreign to us maybe a year ago, but today we turn around and we look at the news and we can see that happening. He talks about things like lawlessness. You know, what's lawlessness? What society could ever exist without laws? But today we see the word lawlessness used quite a bit in our news today.

He talks about false gospels. He talks about, you know, at the end of the discourse there, he talks about as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot. The land would be filled with corruption, extreme corruption. The land would be filled with violence, unexplainable violence, different than what you have seen in the past, and the land would become filled with it as it was in the days before the flood. As it was in the days of Lot, it would be filled with sexual depravity, such as you can't even imagine and never think possible in the society that you live.

And Christ said, when you see all these things happening, when you see all these things happening, know the end is near. He says down there in verse 8, as he begins talking about these, these are the beginning of sorrows. These are the times where times change. They're no longer the way you used to. You know, throughout human history there's been wars and rumors of wars. There have been pestilences in various places. There have been famines in various places.

But things are different now. The violence we see, even in American cities and as we saw on the news in South Africa, that's raging down there, is different than the violence we've seen in the past. The attitudes that we see in the world around us are different. We see a division and a divisiveness in the country among groups of people that is deeper than it ever has been.

And as you look at it, you think there's no way that the two minds are ever going to meet again. And we in the church have to be aware of those things and never let the ways of the world or the ideas or thoughts of the world ever divide us because God's will is for us to be one. And we need to be looking and paying real close attention to what God wants going forward and remembering our calling. But as you go down through Matthew 24, among the many things, you find that Jesus Christ gives some end of the age instructions to his people.

He says all these things are going to happen, but he gives us, you and me, some instructions that we should pay attention to. So let's look at Matthew 24. Let's pick it up in verse, Matthew 24, verse 30. We'll read down to verse 33. And verses 30-31 are what I referenced before, but since I referenced them, I will read them as well. Matthew 24, verse 30 says, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he will send his angels with the sound of a great a great sound of a trumpet. And they will gather together his eulach from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

You know, as the churches of the world don't really think Jesus Christ is returning, they don't know how you can read the Bible, the plain words of the Bible, and see Jesus Christ is returning. It's all over the New Testament. And if you don't believe that, if you can't see that, then you are just not wanting to see it. There is a plan. He will return. He will take the kingdoms of this earth and become king of kings. Verse 32, he tells us, you and me, Learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the doors. What will be the sign of your coming? What will be the signs of the end of age, the age? And Jesus Christ says, watch those signs. See what's going on.

Be aware of what's going on around you. Back in Matthew 16, he says a similar thing to the Pharisees. The Pharisees in Matthew 16.

In verse 1 of Matthew 16, it says, The Pharisees and the Sadducees came, and they tested Christ, asking that he would show them a sign from heaven. And he answered it this way and said, When it's evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

Look at the time they were living in. Jesus Christ was the Messiah that they said they had been waiting for. They saw how He was among the people. They saw His method. They saw His manner. They saw Him healing everyone who was brought to them.

They saw the miracles. They knew the Old Testament. They knew the Messiah would come, but here He was among them, and they weren't discerning the times at all.

He was there among them, and they were just letting it pass right on by, not paying attention to it at all, as if they didn't even want to know.

And letting pride and letting resistance and letting all those things that humans do, like He can't be the Messiah. We don't want to believe He's the Messiah. We don't want to believe that we're living in those times that have been prophesied since the Old Testament from the beginning of time. We don't want to believe it, so we're just going to kind of reject it and wash it away with our own ideas and our own thoughts. They couldn't even discern the times they lived in to know this was the time of the Messiah, the most momentous time on earth.

Shame on them. Shame on them. Look what they did. Look what they did as they didn't discern the times. And Jesus Christ tells you and me, who are living in a time before the return of Jesus Christ, He says, you'd better discern the times. You'd better be able to discern the times and see what times you are living in. You know that word, discern, is an interesting word.

I have marked down here in Matthew 16, verse 3. It comes from the Greek number 1252.

Discernment, in this case, it means to separate something. Like, look at what's going on.

How do we separate the good from the evil? How do we separate the right from the wrong?

There's a lot of separating that goes on, and Jesus Christ says, you know what, you need to be able to be looking at those things and saying, what are the trends that are around you? Where are things going? What time are you living in? Discernment is a very valuable thing to Christians.

You know, it takes us from people who just live in the world and accept everything the world says, but if we have God's Holy Spirit, we have to be doing some things through a biblical perspective. We have to do some biblical thinking. Jesus Christ says, you discern the times, and you discern the times through the Bible. You discern the times through the Bible. You look at what's going on, and you will be aware. You'll be aware, but if you're not aware, if you're going to just kind of bury it like the Pharisees and Sadducees did, you're going to pass right by it. And that day, he tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, that day will take you unaware. And for those of us who that day takes us unaware, it's that familiar phrase, that haunting phrase, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So one of his instructions to us is discern the times. Look at what's going on. Think about what's going on. Just don't automatically act because you hear something in a world that's not under the sway of God, but under the sway of Satan. You and I, with God's Holy Spirit, should be under the sway of God. That we stop and we think, and we look at what's going on around us. We know the Bible. We understand it well. We know the shepherd's voice, but we look and we think. And we seek God's will and look at it through the biblical perspective, not through just the things that we hear every day in every way, because this world is not looking out for us. It's not looking out for mankind. Satan has never looked out for mankind. Satan has always been about destroying mankind and certainly destroying God's people and God's church. Christ said, pay attention to the times.

Look at it through a biblical view. Pay attention to what's going on. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5. I mentioned that here a second ago. Because we see this word discern, or the Greek word, appear in some other parts of the Bible. It's not necessarily translated discern there, but as God inspired the Bible, it's the same word that he puts in these places. So as the people who understood the Greek language would read it, they would know exactly what he's talking about, even though our English translators chose different words here and there. In 1 Thessalonians 5, and verse 21, 5-21, as you're leading up to the... Let's go back to the beginning of the chapter so we can see the context here. Here it is that Paul is talking to Thessalonica about the time of the end. Verse 2, You know yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord comes as the thief in the night. People aren't ready for it. For when they say, peace and safety, hey, this is the way, this is it, you know what, just do this, everything will be okay, this is the answer you've been waiting for, everything will be okay. If you just do what we say, for when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they won't escape.

You brethren are not in darkness. You brethren, you and me, we're not in darkness that this day should overtake us as a thief. You are sons of light and sons of the day, not of the night or of darkness. So he comes down through there and as Paul finishes the chapter that we have here, he says in verse 21, test all things. The Greek word test is that same Greek word 1252, discern all things, test all things, pay attention to what you're hearing and think about it, pay attention to it, test it, and then hold fast to what is true. That requires some work on your and my part. That requires us realizing we need to pay attention to what we're hearing and not believe everything we hear from the world. Test it. Is it of God? Is this a trend God would have? Or is this something different that's out there? Is it leading to something different that is not what God's people should be following? 1 John 4 and verse 1.

The Apostle John in the 90s AD, he's lived the longest of any of the apostles. He's seen what's going on in the world. He's seen the deception that has come upon. He's seen people leaving the truth, believing false prophecies, believing false doctrines, doing things that would separate them from God. And he says, verse 1, 1 John, Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. That word, test, easily and probably should have been translated as discern.

Look at it. Distinguish what those spirits are leading. Is that spirit of what you're being told of God? Or is it of a world that remembers under the sway of Satan, whose mission is destroy people, destroy humanity, interrupt the plan of God, destroy the church of God?

That's what the sway of the world is and who it's under. Test the spirits. Is this what God would have? You know discernment is not an option for the Christian. It's a requirement. It's a requirement. As you read through the Bible, it's there. When we read things and we think about things, your and I job is not just to sleepwalk through life. Our job is to test what God wants and then make the choice for Him. In some cases, that's very easy and led by His Holy Spirit, we'll make it. In other cases, we have to think, well, we're going to read a verse later. I'll preempt myself a little bit. We have to examine what our motives are. We have to discern what are we about? What are we wanting? What are we looking for with some of the decisions that we make? Are we really wanting to do things God's way or do we really want to do it another way, thinking that it'll lead to a path that it may not lead to? We know for certain where God's path leads. It leads to the resurrection of the first fruits. It leads to eternal life. We know the path of the world is not at all in that direction. We won't have to turn, but in Luke 21, Jesus' account uses the same statement that Jesus Christ said. You can discern the sky. You know what tomorrow is going to be like because you can discern the sky, but Luke uses a slightly different word there than Jesus Christ said. It still has the meaning of discern, but on this one, it means to be able to distinguish between the two. You can distinguish between what's going on. You can distinguish as you read the sky. You can discern what it means.

And so those words show up in the Bible throughout here as discern and some other words as well.

Let's look at one of them here in Hebrews, Hebrews 5.

Hebrews 5 and verse 14. As the author of Hebrews is leading into chapter 6 that talks about the elementary doctrines or the elementary principles of Christianity. Chapter 5 closes with verse 14.

You know, he's chiding the people here because they still need milk instead of being able to eat solid food because they are spiritually mature. At least they're of an age they should be spiritually mature. Verse 14, the author says, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

They've practiced discernment. As they've seen things and as they've done things, it's like, oh, that's not of God. That wouldn't be the thing to follow or do. But this is good. This is in line with the Bible. And as I think of it biblically and as God's Spirit leads us in our thinking and directs us to the right path, by reason of use we're able to discern. Have to use it. Have to practice it. God gives us His Holy Spirit. He's not going to make us be in His kingdom. He's not going to make us have eternal life. He's not going to make us do His commandments. He's not going to make us do the things that He wants us to do carefully and diligently. That's up to us. He gives us the tools. And to discernment is a tool that He gives us through His Holy Spirit as well. Paul, in a verse that we're so familiar with, back in Romans 12, talks about this discernment as well as part of our Christian development. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And if we really recognize what God has brought us to, that He has given us the opportunity at eternal life, that Jesus Christ died, that our sins could be forgiven, that we have that opportunity of eternal life, it is our reasonable service. We are dead men. We have no future without Him. What He has given us and asks us in return, no one on earth could say that is an unfair bargain. He expects us to do what He wants us to do if we're going to have eternal life. I beseech you. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world. Don't be conformed to them. Don't do things the way that they do. Or if you do, think about it. Weigh the spirits. Test the spirit. Is this what God would have me do?

Is this the way that Christians that believe in God, have faith in God, trust in God, believe in His return? And understand the plan of God that it isn't going to be just all a bed of roses between now and the return of Jesus Christ? Is this what we would do and choose? Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove, that you may discern what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Look at the times. Look at the choices.

Discern what's right. Discern which way is the way God would have you go. Discern what is the way of the world. And don't follow that way. Don't be conformed to that. Let God lead you through what He wants you to do and the choices to make. In 1 Corinthians 12.

1 Corinthians 12, here Paul is talking about the spiritual gifts that God gives that He puts in His church. Not every single one of us have every single one of these gifts that are given, as Paul says, but the gifts are there and He distributed them as He will.

Some of us have certain gifts, others have certain gifts. It's how we all bond together as a family and how the body fitly formed together, is able to perform what God's will is together, because not everyone has all the spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 10, breaking into the thought here and talking about the spiritual gifts, it says, you know, to one, to another, God gives the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, and so on, to another, different kinds of tongues, etc. So there are those who have the gift of discerning the spirits. What is going on?

How are things going? What are the trends? Where is this leading to? Because things don't happen.

Well, to those who aren't paying attention, those who are asleep, as we'll talk about in a minute, things are going to seem like they happened just overnight, because they were asleep during the time that these things were developing. It's like, whoa, how did that happen? Well, it's been happening all along. If you were discerning the times, if you were discerning the spirits, it wouldn't take any of us by surprise. It'll take the world by surprise.

And those who are asleep, soundly asleep during this time, survive surprise, just as the Pharisees, they still didn't admit that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. They never discern that and never would admit it. You know, 1 Kings 3, verse 9, you don't have to turn there. Solomon prayed that God would give him a spirit of discernment, that he could distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, truth and error as he led his people. You and I should be praying that same thing. God helped me to discern what is going on. Let me see things the way you see them. Let me see things the way the Bible says them. Let me make the choices as I do biblical thinking, rather than just what I hear and the voices out there that are trying to urge me in one way.

But I'm watching what's going on and I see, I see the times. I see where it's leading.

I see buds on the trees that weren't there before. And I understand the time is near.

Let me give you an example here back in Proverbs 7 of a young man who didn't discern the times and just kind of went with his gut, went with his feelings, listened to the voices around him, and never stopped to think, what am I doing? Should I be doing this? And we find this the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament Greek words we were just talking about here in Chapter 7. Let's pick it up in verse 4. Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call understanding your nearest kin, that they may keep you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, that will tell you anything that you want to hear. Just come my way. Safety is here, peace is here. Don't have to worry about it anymore. This is the way to do it. For at the window of verse 6 of my house, I looked through my lattice and saw among the simple, I perceived that's the Greek or the Hebrew equivalent, I perceived or I discerned, I'm sorry, among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner, and he took the path to her house. He listened to the words, I listened to the media, I listened to what's going on, I read the internet, I look what all the voices of the world are telling me, and hey, they're all saying, this is the way, this is the way, walk you in it. This is the answer to all the problems. A young man devoid of understanding passing along the street near her corner, and he took the path to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night, and there a woman met him with the attire of a harlot, a crafty heart. She was loud and rebellious, her feet would not stay at home. At times she was outside, at times in the open square, lurking at every corner. Everywhere you went, there was that voice. Everywhere you go, it's like, this is what you need to do. Come to me, come to me, come to me. So she caught him and kissed him with an impudent face. She said to him, I have peace offerings with me. Today I paid my vows, so I came out to meet you diligently to seek your face, and I found you. I've spread my bed with tapestry, colored coverings of Egyptian linen. I perfume my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come, it'll be great. It'll be great. Just do what I'm asking you to do. Let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight ourselves with love. My husband's not at home. He's gone on a long journey. He's taken a bag of money with him. No one can catch us. This is the right thing to do. This is what you can do. It's okay. He'll come home on the appointed day. With her enticing speech, all the promises, all the flattering words, all the enticement that you can imagine, with her enticing speech, she caused him to yield. With her flattering lips, she seduced him.

Immediately he went after her. He followed what she had to say as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till an arrow struck his liver.

As a barred hasten to the snare, he didn't know it would cost his life.

How important is discernment in knowing the path to choose? To think about what you're doing. To think about what you're planning to do, and seek God's will, and follow his will. And not just follow everything we hear, or believe everything we hear. Discernment. Jesus Christ said, discern the times. Pay attention to the times. Look at the buds on the leaves. See where it's leading. And this is a destruction to us for the end times, was do that. Do that. Let's go back to Matthew 24.

As we go further down the chapter, we see Christ giving another instruction to his people.

Down to verse 42 of Matthew 24. After he gives the examples of men being in the field, and one taken and the other not, etc. He says in verse 42, watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know what your Lord is coming. Luke says the same thing in Luke 21 verse 36, but Luke says, watch and pray. Two separate accounts, Matthew's and Luke's. Both words watch. Two different Greek words. Both mean, specifically, stay awake. Keep awake.

Luke's has more meaning is, don't give any way to sleepiness. Don't give any way to sleepiness.

Watch what's going on. Keep your eyes open. Don't fall asleep. And leading up to verse 36 in Luke 21, he talks about the carousing of this world, the lures of this world that can put us to sleep, that can kind of make us feel like everything is okay, nothing's going to go on and whatever. The world is a safe place. It sure doesn't look like the times. Then I've got plenty of time to do what I need to do. He says, you watch, you pray, you stay awake. It specifically means, stay awake. And Jesus Christ accentuates that as he goes on in this discourse with his disciples. In chapter 25, the first parable he gives is about virgins. Ten virgins. We know what virgins are in the Bible. Those are the ones who have followed God, who have gotten rid of all the impurities in their life and who have worked through that in their lifetimes. But these virgins are sleeping. Five of them are sleeping. Five of them are so sound asleep, they don't even know what's going on. Right? So the bridegroom crumbs. Do you know the story? Five of them can go in when the bridegroom calls because they haven't been so thoroughly asleep. The other five, he says, I don't even know you. I don't even know you. Verse 13, chapter 25. You know, as he says, I don't know you, the door is shut, you're not going on. He warns again, watch, it's this very same Greek word, stay awake. Stay awake. For you knew, you knew, you know, neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. As the time of the end of the age draws near, he says, you stay awake. You know, it's the same thing that Jesus Christ said at his first coming.

Remember what he said to the disciples as on that night that he was going to be arrested and he went off to pray? Well, we find it one chapter later in chapter 26 here. As that evening goes on, if we turn to chapter 26 in verse 36, this is the night of that Passover when Jesus Christ is arrested and he knows what's coming about and he is, you know, praying earnestly to God. And he takes some disciples with him as he goes out into the garden to pray. In verse 36, it says, then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, those who were following him closely and intently, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

And he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. Same Greek word, stay here and keep awake with me. Stay awake. He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh, my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, what? You couldn't even stay awake with me one hour?

You couldn't even stay awake that little bit of time?

And then they weren't discerning the times. It was going where they didn't realize what was going to happen that night. Christ gave them plenty of warning. I will, the son of man, will be crucified.

But they didn't get, they didn't even discern in his face the intensity and the sorrow and the distress, as it says, that he was going through. So they were tired, and as he went to pray, they fell asleep. And he comes back and he's not happy with them. So he tells them again, verse 41, watch and pray, stay awake, stay awake and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again, a second time he went away and prayed. And verse 43, he came back and he found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. You know, when they slept, when things happened so quickly, they weren't ready.

When the people came to arrest Jesus Christ, they weren't ready for what was going to happen.

They didn't stay awake. They weren't discerning the times. They weren't paying attention to what was going on. And what did all those disciples, except John, and a few of the ladies do when they didn't stay awake?

They all scattered. They all scattered. When the time came, they ran. Peter denied Christ three times that he would never do it. None of the other disciples were there at the crucifix. John was. The ladies were, but the rest of them scattered. It took them by surprise.

They repented. They repented. They understood what they did. And for the rest of their lives, they stayed awake. They stayed awake. They didn't sleep. They didn't slumber.

They didn't let things take by them by surprise any longer. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8, another very familiar verse that has the same Greek word translated watch in Matthew 24 and in Luke 21 and in Matthew 25 and where we were just in 1 Peter 5 verse 8, Peter warns, be sober, be vigilant. There's that same Greek word. Be sober, be vigilant, be awake. You know, to be vigilant, you got to be awake. You have to have your eyes wide open.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. How easy would it be for a lion to devour something that's sleeping?

But if it's alert, if it's awake, if it sees what's going on around it, if the eyes are wide open and it knows the times and it knows the seasons, it can resist. It can run. It can flee from Satan and run to Christ. Resist him, he says as he goes on in that verse. Stay awake. Proverbs 6. I always like to tie in an Old Testament chapter here in Proverbs, which is full, full of wisdom. And if we haven't read through Proverbs for a while, we might take it slowly through the book of Proverbs and digest what it's saying in there, because there's so much truth and so much instruction that God has put in there. And sometimes there can be the danger of, I've got this goal of reading one proverb a day or, you know, or same thing in the Psalms, and we miss, we miss the meat that's in here. In Proverbs 6 verse 10, you know, we're talking, talks about sleep, and it has a spiritual as well as physical implications.

Proverbs 6.10, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little of the folding of the hands to sleep.

So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.

You'll be startled. You'll wake up. You'll panic. You won't know what to do.

And you may run. How sorry would that be for those of us who know that we would run when that day comes when Jesus Christ warned us and gave us instructions. Stay awake. Pray. Discern the times.

Stop and think before you do things and make choices. Is it of God or is it of another spirit? Let's go back. Matthew 24. See the third instruction that God gave his disciples here in this All of the Prophecy as they asked what will be the signs of your coming at the end of the age, and he tells them and tells us what we should be doing as that time approaches. Matthew 24 and verse 44 says, therefore, Christ says, you be ready. You be ready.

For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you don't expect. You be ready. He's not saying, consider it, think about it, be ready because you don't know the time. Time's too late when the events of the pain that goes on. They're not too late. You can still, you know, have your robes washed white in the Great Tribulation if that's what you choose to do by the actions that we take now. Too late when those things happen, the time is now preparing for those things as we see those buds occurring. We drop down to verse 45. Well, yeah, verse 45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant who was master made, ruler over his household? To give them food in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

How do you get ready? By so doing. By so doing.

The Greek word be ready is simply be prepared. You know, to prepare, it takes work. It just doesn't happen automatically. If you wait until the morning you're leaving to go to the Feast of Tabernacles and you've done no work ahead of time, what a mess you've made of yourself. None of us would do that. If we let the time fly by and we're not making ourselves ready at this time for the return of Jesus Christ, for the time that he's going to be, knowing the things that we know, how pathetic is that? How short-sighted is that? Be prepared is what he's saying.

You know, again, in Matthew 25, as Jesus Christ says these things, he goes through the parables and he mentions it in verse 10. While they went, Matthew 25, to buy the bridegroom came, and those who were ready, those who were prepared, same Greek word, those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut. And those who weren't ready were left out.

They wasted their time. They slept it away. They played while they should have been working.

Christ said, be ready. He gives us the tools. He gives us everything. We have to use them. He's not going to do it for us. Jesus Christ has already done enough for us, more than we could ever possibly repay him for doing by offering his life. God the Father for giving him eternal life and giving us the hope of eternal life. They've already done plenty. It's our job to get ready and to use the tools that God has given us. They've already given us the Holy Spirit that helps us overcome our laxity, our ambivalence, our desire to come compromise, to overcome the sin that does so easily beset in all those things that we have to do in our lives as God will work with us as he works with us to make ourselves ready. Let's talk about so doing. Let's look at a few verses where the same Greek word that's kind of strange when it's translated so doing. We know what it means, but back in Matthew 5.19 we find the things that we need to be so doing. That as we might even think his return is delayed, we better be about so doing the things that he did so that we are ready. We find one here in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5.19. Now, as he's talking about the Ten Commandments and validating them for the New Testament Church, these are just as applicable today, but even more so because now there's a spiritual application of the Ten Commandments and not just the physical requirements of them. Matthew 5.19, Jesus Christ in his own word, says, whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does, there's the Greek word translated so doing in Matthew 24.44, but whoever does and teaches them, he'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So what do we do? We obey God. We follow the commandments earnestly, diligently, carefully, exactly the way Jesus Christ said to do, exactly the way He expounded them in the New Testament. This is what you need to do. You need to be so doing up until the return of Jesus Christ, becoming more and more the person that He wants, more and more like Jesus Christ. That's what disciples do, become more and more like their master and the teacher.

And He kept them perfectly. I had a long way to go before I keep them perfectly, I think. I think probably all of us do things that we need to learn and be ready for. Matthew 3, we go back a couple chapters, in Matthew 3, in verse 10.

Matthew 3 and verse 10 says, And even now, Jesus cried, well, talking here, or John the Baptist, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Does not bear. I think of the old King James that says, does not bring forth good fruit.

Bring forth, does not bear is the same Greek word translated so doing in Matthew 24, 44.

Every tree that says, does not bring forth good fruit is chopped down.

You know, last week we talked about the verse in Matthew 15. Was it at verse 16, somewhere in that John 15, 16. God has appointed us to go and bear fruit. That's our job. When He gives us His Holy Spirit, it's not supposed to just lay there dormant. Oh, I have God's Holy Spirit. Therefore I'm sealed until the day of His return. No, no, no.

He expects something to be done with it. Work to be done with it. Getting ready, being prepared, using that bearing fruit so that we are pleasing to God.

So when He looks at the tree that you and I are, He says, this is a tree.

This is a tree that has grown and used what I have given it very well. If there is no fruit, they're not so doing. If the fruit isn't being developed, they're not doing what Jesus Christ commanded in Matthew 24 and verse 44. Matthew 13.

Matthew 13 and verse 23.

Parable of the seed and the soil. Matthew 13 and verse 23.

He who receives seed, God calls, puts the truth in our minds. He who receives seed on the good ground.

Is he who hears the word and understands it. Who indeed bears fruit and produces some 100-fold, some 60, some 30. The word translated produces is so doing.

The same Greek word. The seed that receives, that hears, that works, that goes to work, as it is so doing, will produce fruit. Some 100-fold, some 60, some 30.

So doing. That's what God wants from us. Ephesians 5.

I'm sorry, Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4 verse 16. We're very familiar with chapter 4. Here Jesus Christ pretty much outlines the plan for his church, the body that we must be in. We must grow in the body. He's working with us individually, but he works with us in a body as well. Things that we learn that we can never learn on our own. That's why he puts us in a body, and we learn in that body. Verse 16, cutting into the thought here, says, from whom the whole body, the whole body, that's everyone in this church in Orlando, everyone in Jacksonville, everyone around the world, but we're in our different locales and the bodies that God has put us in and placed us in today. From whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. Every joint. I don't know how many are here today, but you know if we have everyone who is in Orlando, there would be 120 joints or more that were here in Orlando. Knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share. Causes growth of the body, for what reason?

The edifying or the building up of itself in agape. Exactly what Jesus Christ wants to see his body develop. How does that happen? Well, by the way, the Greek word for so doing is the word causes there in verse 16, the same Greek word. By which every part does its share, brings forth, if we use other translations, the word's been translated before, brings forth the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

You know when God says every joint, he means every single person. We're all family.

When one of our joints in our body isn't working, some of you have this happening right now, the body suffers, doesn't it? It isn't able to function the way that it should. When a joint is out of whack or a few joints are out of whack, life becomes difficult. We can't do and produce all the things that we do. It's the same with the body of God. Every, what every joint provides, all working together, that the body can build itself in love. You know how we work together?

Each of you have a talent, a gift of God. We all do. God hasn't brought any of us in here without some talent or gift that he wants, and he knows exactly what this body needs to work together as an effective body. Are we using it? What part of your body would you just choose? I'm going to let it lay dormant. I don't care if I ever use it again. None of it, right? We want all the joints of our body to work together. We want to be mobile. We want to be productive. We want to be everything that we can be. You know one of the things that COVID has brought about that I see in society, but I see it in the church as well. We've gotten away from service a little bit.

You know, we're all called to serve. When you're a member of a family, you have your job that you do. You do the things that those in the family, when it's working together, it all works well.

I didn't grow up in a family with a lot of kids, but I remember hearing the stories from my mom and dad about how, you know, one had eight kids and one had six. All the kids had all the jobs that they had to do. None of them just had time to just lay around and do nothing and watch TV or play video games. This one did this. This one did that. And parents kind of understood, I see where the interests are, and the family worked together. They didn't have the leisure that we have today. There was structure in it, and the family worked together. If we all lived on a farm and had to produce our own food, we would find out just how valuable it is to have all those joints working together. And so God wants in his family to do that. We need to be, you know, we need to be looking at what we do. How do we work? How do we serve in the local congregation? How does everyone get involved? What's your talent? What's the gift that God has given you? How do we work together so that we can see God build this body? Build the body in Jacksonville? Build the body of whatever congregation you're in as you're listening in on the web? How does he do that? It takes every joint working together so that body can work the way that God intended it to do. He built it. He supplied it. He provided everything here. And you and I need to be part of that. We need to be doing the things that God said. We need to be so doing in our lives, in our personal lives, but in the body that God has placed us in as well. And if we're not, we're not so doing.

We're not getting the benefit of what God wants us to do. We're not growing together as the body that He wants us to. He's not able. I won't say not able. God can do anything. But if we hold Him back because we are holding back on ourselves and we just don't have the time, don't have the interest, you know, there are opportunities. You know, we had to cancel a service here because we just didn't have enough people willing to serve in a sound system last week. Not enough people to be able to do that. And I think God taught us a lesson in that. We need more people participating in the church, working in the church. There's a whole lot that goes into putting a service on each week. And you don't have to do all the physical stuff. There's a lot of work that goes in keeping a body together. We have people who can't attend, who all they want sometimes is just a phone call, just a message, just an email, just a short note. I know you're there. I love you. I'm praying for you so they feel that they haven't been forgotten. And it isn't just one or two. I hear it from a number of people. We can all do that. That's serving. That's bonding the body together. That's joining it together in love. That's remembering our brother and remembering who we are. We can be where God wants us to be. You know, I would shudder if my elbow, just one morning, said, well, you know, I really want you there, but I'm just going to take the day off. I don't have to be there. You know what? God told us where He wants us to be and what we need to do.

Are we doing it? Are we doing? Are we so doing the way God said to be so doing?

If we will, if we are, He'll provide what He wants us to have and who He wants us to be. We'll see the growth. We'll see the agape. We'll see the building up of the church in that regard. We have to be doing it in our personal lives, too. It's an individual calling and the church calling as well. Let's go to Revelation 22, because right here at the end of the Bible, in Jesus Christ's own words, as He's talking about the people who will be in His kingdom, the ones who will be with Him for eternity. In verse 14, we find that same word, so doing. Greek word, so doing. Verse 14, blessed are those who do. There it is.

Blessed are those who are so doing His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life. They may enter through the gates into the city. If you want to be in God's kingdom, Christ gives us the instructions. He says, as you see the end of the age coming, here's what you need to be doing. Here's what you need to be focusing on to discern the times. Read the times. See what you are being told. See where you are and make the choice and use that distinction that God gives us the Spirit to see what's right, what's good, what's leading to eternity, and what's not leading to eternity. What is God's will and what is not God's will? And do His will. Discern the times. He said, be prepared. Just like in Revelation 19. I didn't even turn to Revelation 19. I should have, when we were talking about be ready in Greek 2090. Let's be prepared. Remember, it says in Revelation 19, the bride has made herself ready. She's made herself ready. Can't do it without the tools of God. Can't do it without each other. But it's our work. It's our work that we have to do.

We have to be doing the things. We have to stay awake, as Jesus Christ said. We can't be lulled to sleep. We can't be just give our lives over to the cares of the world and say, oh, how wonderful this is. And all this every answer to all of our problems is in the world. It's not God's world.

The God of this world and the spirit of this world is not God. He is in us. That's the spirit that we follow, but that's not the spirit of the world. God tells us that. And the end of this age is coming. Be so doing, he said. Let's, as we see the end of the age coming, as we look forward to the physical fall holy days this year, be thinking about that. Be looking, as it says in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, which also, you know, if you look at that word examined in 2 Corinthians 13 5, it's discern. What's your real motive? What are you doing? Why are you making the choices that you make? Let's look at keeping the holy days. Let's learn from the holy days. Let's follow Christ's instruction as we go through the end of the age.