Ready or Not - Here I Come! Pt. 1

Matthew 24:36‑42

     We open our Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 24, looking again at the signs of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the signs of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

     I don't know about your childhood, but my childhood was filled with lots of games.  I...when I look back and think of myself as a child, I don't think of myself in a house, I think of myself outdoors.  Maybe that's because I lived much of my life in Southern California.  And we used to play all kinds of outdoor games.  And one of the ones that we often played, and you did too, was Hide and Seek.  And somebody was "it" and everybody ran and hid and the game was sort of triggered when the person who was "it" said, "Here I come...what's the rest?...ready or not."  You played it, too.  It wasn't a very sophisticated game but that's the way it went.  Here I come ready or not.

     Well, that statement, if referred to the Lord Jesus Christ, has great and profound eschatological implications.  And the text in Matthew 24 that we'll be looking at this morning really could be titled "Here I come, ready or not" because that's exactly what it teaches.  It is a text that deals with the suddenness and the unexpectedness of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We're going to be looking at verses 36 through 42 of Matthew 24.  And this is really only part one in the message that takes us all the way down through verse 51.

     Now, I want you to remember the setting so that you understand where we are in this tremendous gospel and in the life of our Lord.  It is Wednesday of Passion Week.  He is only a few hours now from betrayal and execution on the cross.  He sits on the Mount of Olives and His disciples approach Him with a very important question that's on their minds and it's given us in verse 3.  They say, "Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the age?" 

     They have this feeling inside that the end of the age of man is very near, that the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is coming very soon.  They have been led to believe that because He is, after all, the King and He is there.  He has done signs and wonders to prove His Kingdom power.  He has recently denounced the false religious leaders of Israel.  He has cleansed out the temple of all of the godless enterprises that were being done in that place.  He has also announced that there will come soon a desolation of the whole temple complex and He even has pronounced the truth that He would come in glory.

     And all of these things have led them to believe that it must be very, very soon.  In fact, Luke 19:11 says they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear.  I mean, it seemed to them that He was there announcing Himself as King, He was there destroying the false religious system that existed in order that He might establish the true spiritual Kingdom promised to them by the prophets of old.  And so they were filled with anticipation.

     Now their question has two parts.  It has a "what shall be the sign of Thy coming" part and a "when shall these things be."  What are the signs and when will it happen?  Now our Lord began by answering the what are the signs question.  And the answer we've already studied from verse 4 through 35.  In that section, He tells them the sign of His coming.  And it's particularly given in verse 29 where it says the moon doesn't give its light, the sun is dark, the stars fall, the powers of the heavens are shaken and then shall appear the sign.  And the sign is the Son of Man in heaven.  That's the sign of His coming to earth, when they see Him in heaven.

     Now it will be preceded by some other general signs described from verse 4 through 28.  So there will be some general signs.  By the way, those general signs are triggered by a very particular event in verse 15, the abomination of desolation when the Antichrist sets up the idol of himself in the Holy of Holies in the temple of Jerusalem and demands that the whole world worship him.  That triggers the birth pains.  That triggers the signs, the general signs.  So you start with the abomination of desolation, that's the first of the signs.  Then there are general signs described in the rest of that portion we looked at which culminate in THE sign which is the appearance of the Son of Man in heaven.  That's the sign.

     Now, all of these signs‑‑beginning with the abomination of desolation until the sign of the Son of Man in heaven‑‑are very rapid signs.  They come in a very brief period of time.  The Bible tells us three and a half years, or 42 months or 1260 days.  And that's why they're called birth pains, they are rapidly increasing, intensified as they come toward the Kingdom.  They are general indicators and finally a specific indicator of the coming of the Lord Jesus.  Now that's the what are the signs question.

     Now beginning in verse 36, He discusses the when question. When specifically will He come?  In other words, we see the general idea of that time period but when specifically will He come.  And beginning in verse 36 and all the way down through verse 31 of chapter 25, He deals with the when shall these things be.  And that's where we begin our study this morning.

     Look at verse 36.  Here's the key to the rest of that section.  "But of that day and hour knoweth no one.  No, not the angels of heaven, nor the Son but My Father only."  And with that statement, He directs their thinking to the issue of when and tells them the when is an unknown.  The signs that precede the Second Coming have been clearly given.  They are unmistakably detailed here in Matthew 24 and also in Revelation chapters 6 through 18.  You can't miss those.  And the generation that is alive during that period will see those signs.  They will be observable signs.  They will be worldwide signs.  They will be unmistakable indications of the collapse of the world and its systems as well as the universe.  But the specific moment, that is‑‑notice it in verse 36‑‑the day and hour are not known.  They're not known.  And we must remind ourselves that He is speaking of a day and an hour.

     Down in verse 42, "Watch therefore for you know not what hour...what hour."  Verse 44, "Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not."  Verse 50, "The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour he is not aware of."  Verse 13 of chapter 25, "Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes."  So, He's talking about the specific moment.

     Now listen.  The time period of the Second Coming will be known, it has to be known.  It has to be known because of all the sequence of events.  The abomination of desolation will be an historical event.  The tremendous worldwide conflicts, the wars, the rumors of wars, the nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, the famines, the pestilences, the descriptions of Revelation 6 to 18 where the fresh water is devastated and the salt water is devastated and the sea is turned to blood and where the day is set off its normal cycle and daylight is shortened and there's a greater amount of darkness and all of those events that are very observable will indicate that it is the general period and the general time of the Second Coming.  But the day and the hour will not be known.  That will come with suddenness in an unexpected way.  The period of the Tribulation very clearly indicated and we know the coming of the Son of Man, verse 29 says, is immediately after the Tribulation.  But how immediately, we don't know. 

     To approach it another way, remember this.  That both Daniel in the Old Testament and John in the New Testament writing in Revelation tell us that the Tribulation period, the Great Tribulation, is a period of three and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days.  We find that in Daniel 7:25, 9:27 and 12:7.  We find it in Revelation 11 verses 2 and 3, in Revelation chapter 12 verse 14 and Revelation 13 verse 5.  So there are all those indicators, very clearly, that that's a three and a half year period.  It starts with the abomination of desolation in verse 15, the Antichrist setting up his self‑worship.  So that's very observable. 

     Then it will be three and a half years.  Immediately after, says verse 29, says the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.  Now how immediately after, we don't know.  And once the sign comes we don't know how long it will be before He actually establishes the Kingdom.  So there is some latitude in that.  There's a period of time in there...Daniel gives us a hint of it because in Daniel 12:11, Daniel speaks of a period of testing and tribulation of 1290 days.  So he adds another 30 days on the end.  And then in Daniel 12:12, he speaks of 1335 days and he adds another 75 making a total...another...he adds another 45 making a total of 75 days.  So Daniel sees a three hundred....a three and a half year period, 42 months, 1260 days and then he sees another period which is not described as to its content of 75 days. 

     So we don't know exactly the day and the hour.  The time period, yes, the general period, yes.  Now we only know that once that period has begun, right?  We don't know it now because we don't know what generation that's going to come upon.  It will be initiated with the Rapture of the church.  That hasn't happened.  And then three and a half years of peace as Antichrist comes to the political rescue of the Middle Eastern country of Israel and brings them safety and starts to build his revived Roman Empire in Europe.  And everything's going along fine.  And then it's in the middle of that seven‑year period that all this begins when he sets up the worship of himself. 

     So the Rapture, the rise of Antichrist, the birth pains, the sign of the Son of Man, those have not happened yet.  We don't know what generation they will come upon.  It could be this generation.  It could happen any moment..the church removed and the Tribulation begins.  So we don't know what generation it is.  But the generation that it comes upon, even with all those signs, even with all that goes on, still won't know the exact day and the exact hour when Christ is coming.  That is a secret.  Now this is not talking about the Rapture, this is talking about the Second Coming.  We're at the end of the Tribulation here as is every obvious from verse 29.  We have passed through the time of the Tribulation in the thinking of Matthew and the teaching of our Lord.

     So, it is a time that no one knows about.  Now notice verse 36 and we'll look at some specifics.  It is a day and an hour we're looking at, not an era.  We don't know what generation it will come upon but we do know this, that whatever generation it starts with it will end with, right?  That's verses 32 to 35.  The generation that sees the beginning is going to see the end because it's going to come so fast...so fast.  Three and a half years of Tribulation will be over and then sort of an undetermined period of time, somewhere in there, the Lord will come and set up His Kingdom immediately after the Tribulation, but it will come fast.  But no one knows the day or the hour, the specific moment.

     And He starts by saying "no one knows," and He's referring there to the humans, mankind, natural men.  They don't know.  They don't know.  It's not revealed to them.  It's also pointed up in Matthew 25:13, as I read a moment ago, "Ye know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes."  God has chosen not to reveal that specific moment and to give no specific sign of that specific moment.  And there's reason in His great wisdom for that.  If men knew the exact moment when the Lord would come, they might be godless until just short of that moment.  Or even the people who were prepared might be living in panic, or might be giving up think the time was too short.  Life would become hopeless if you knew exactly when the Lord was going to come.  There could be no plans, there could be no on‑going relationships, everything would be effected dramatically by that knowledge.  So the Lord has chosen not to give us that knowledge but to live every moment expecting His coming, every moment expecting His intervention so that there is preparedness all the time.  If the world knew the very moment of the coming of Christ, it would dawdle itself away thinking that in that last and final moment it might take the steps to make things right just in time.  And so God has not told us that.  So no man knows that.  It is hidden from men.

     And then He says, "No, not the angels of heaven."  Even the angels don't know it.  The natural world does not know it and neither does the supernatural world.  Now angels are the intimates of God.  In Isaiah 6 they are hovering around the throne of God doing His bidding.  In Matthew 18:10 they are seen face to face with God in intimate communion with Him.  They are very close to God.  They are around the throne.  They commune with Him regularly to do His bidding. 

     Furthermore, if you remember in Matthew 13, it tells us that the angels are the agents of judgment in the Second Coming.  When God reaches out to judge the world and gather men into that judgment, He sends His angels who are the reapers, you remember, to gather the wheat and the tares in.  So, angels are very involved in the judgment activity.  In verse 31 of our chapter we're looking at now, the angels are the ones sent out to gather the elect as well.  So though angels are the intimates of God and though they are face to face with God in a spiritual sense doing His bidding and though they are the agents of judgment and the gathering in of the godly and the ungodly in that time of Christ's coming, they‑‑in spite of all of that‑‑do not know the exact moment.  God has chosen not to reveal it to them.  And He has His reasons.  I'm not privy to those reasons because Scripture doesn't reveal them.  But they do not know either.

     Now the better manuscripts of Matthew indicate to us that it also should be included in the text "nor the Son...nor the Son."  In Mark 13:32 which is the parallel passage, it is definitely included by Mark, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels who are in heaven neither the Son but the Father."  And it would be best to include here in Matthew.  I think in the New American Standard and the New International version they correctly do include it.  Jesus says, "Even the Son of Man doesn't know...even I don't know." 

     And, of course, this has created all kinds of interesting discussion.  How is it that Jesus Christ who is God cannot know something?  How is it that Jesus Christ who is God, who is omniscient‑‑which means He knows everything‑‑can't know something or doesn't know something?  Well, that's‑‑I believe‑‑rather easily explained if we understand the meaning of His incarnation.  Jesus Christ is fully God, very God of very Gods‑‑as the theologians used to say‑‑very God of very God, He is God fully and totally because you can't be part God, is all God.  But when He became a man, He voluntarily restricted the use of His Godhood, of His divine attributes.  It wasn't that He laid the attributes aside, it wasn't that He set His deity aside, it was that He restricted the use of those things.  He had them as instruments but chose not to pick them up and use them.  So He lived, as it were, without using His omniscience, unless the Father told Him to use it. 

     We know He was omniscient on some occasions.  John 2, He says He needed not that anybody should tell Him what was in the heart of a man because He knew what was in the heart of a man.  We see Him in John 3 answering a question that Nicodemus doesn't even ask, but it's in his mind.  There are many indications of His great knowledge, of His divine knowledge.  But He restricted the use of His omniscience to those things which the Father desired Him to know.  That is the design of the incarnation.  When the Bible says He became a Son, He took upon Him the form of a servant, it means that He submitted Himself to that which the Father wanted Him to do, that which the Father wanted Him to say and that which the Father wanted Him to know.  That's why in John 15:15 you have a very, very important verse in understanding Christ.  It says this, Jesus speaking to the disciples, "Henceforth, I call you not servants for the servant knows not what his lord does.  But I have called you friends‑‑now listen to this‑‑for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you."

     In other words, Jesus' knowledge in His incarnation was qualified by what the Father had revealed to Him.  And the Father revealed things to Him through Scripture, that is the Old Testament, as He studied the Scripture, through experience as He walked in the world and saw the moving of the power of God, and through direct revelation.  But Jesus limited His knowledge to what the Father chose to reveal to Him.  He didn't have to do that but He chose to do that to play the role of a servant to accomplish the redemption of mankind.  It's a very important concept so that when it says He humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant, was made in fashion as a man, and so forth, it means that He limited the use of those attributes.  And if you studied, for example, in the passages that deal with His early life, you will remember that it says "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature," you remember, "and favor with God and man."  He grew in wisdom. 

     You'd say, "How could He grow in wisdom if He was God?"  Because He grew in wisdom in the sense that He limited His knowledge to what the Father revealed to Him so as long as He lived the Father was constantly revealing things to Him so He was growing in wisdom.  You understand that?  That was a self‑ imposed, if you will, humiliation of the divine nature to accomplish your redemption and mine.  And so, as you look at Him here, in a sense He is still growing in wisdom.  He is still increasing in knowledge because the Father has yet not revealed this to Him.

     Now it is my own personal feeling that after the resurrection this was revealed to Him.  That when He came out of the grave in the glory of His resurrection life, it says in Matthew 28:18 He said to His disciples, "All authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth."  And I think what that's saying is nothing is missing, I have authority over all things.  And then in Acts 1:7 He said this, "But unto you it is not given to know the times and the seasons which My Father has put in His own power," and He doesn't include Himself anymore.  He says unto you it isn't given.  So it may well be that after the resurrection, His knowledge was complete.  It's as if the Father only revealed to Him the next great even and He never revealed to Him the full moment of His Second Coming until He had already come out of the grave and accomplished the resurrection.  And then the Father opened to Him the next event in His marvelous, marvelous work.

     And so, He says people don't know and angels don't know and for now even I don't know, to show the tremendous unexpectedness, suddenness and mystery of the moment of the coming of Jesus Christ.  And then at the end of verse 36, "But My Father only."  And remember, He always called Him Father except for one occasion when He says, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me," because He was dying on the cross and separated from God.  Every other time He spoke to God, He spoke to Him as Father.  That was His favorite term for God.  And "only" is emphasized.  He's the only one who knows.  And, of course, that's why I believe that when Jesus entered into His glory, if not immediately after His resurrection, certainly after His ascension, He then was entered back into the fullness of that which He had before the incarnation and this moment right now, He knows fully when that Second Coming moment will be.  But in the midst of that incarnation, that had been abandoned in favor of learning what the Father would tole Him...would tell Him and nothing more.

     And so, we don't know, that moment we don't know.  And that's...there's a reason for that.  Because the Lord want's every generation to live in expectancy, every generation to live‑‑are you ready for this word?‑‑in preparedness.  We don't know what generation it's going to come upon.  But when it comes, it's going to come in a holocaust and it's going to come rapid fire.  And we don't know what generation that will be.  And even the generation that comes on isn't going to know the exact moment.  So Christians ever since the New Testament have always lived in the eagerness of the coming of Christ. 

     The Corinthians, for example, Paul writes to them in 1 Corinthians 1 and says, "So that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."  There's a first generation church in Corinth waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They're waiting as if He were to come in their own generation. 

     And then in Hebrews, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together," the writer says in chapter 10 verse 24 and 25, "and much the more as you see the day approaching," as if those people who were getting that letter to the Hebrews were going to live to see the day approaching. 

     And then in Philippians, the Apostle Paul writes in chapter 3 verse 20, "Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."  Paul says we're looking up there to see if He isn't coming any moment.

     And in James you find the very same thing in James chapter 5 verse 8, "Be patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws near."  And in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 7, "The end of all things is at hand."  And 1 John 2:18, "It is the last days."  And Revelation 22:20, "Behold, I come quickly; even so come Lord Jesus," says John.

     So, you see, the writers even in the New Testament time were looking for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  They didn't fully understand the time that would go by, they lived in expectancy.  And every generation should because every generation should live in preparedness.  You understand what I'm driving at?  That's the point.  If we expect it at any time, we're prepared for it at any time.  And God only knows when it will be.  God only knows when that specific moment will take place.

     And so, you ask the question, "Well, why is He waiting?"  And I think I can give you an answer.  The first part of that answer comes out of Revelation chapter 14 verse 15.  I believe He is waiting for this reason, "Another angel came out of the temple," Revelation 14:15, "crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud," that's a picture indicated to us in verse 14 of the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ sitting in heaven, and the angel comes and cries with a loud voice, "Thrust in the sickle and reap for the time is come for Thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.  And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped."

     The imagery here is very, very important.  You plant and you take care of the planting and the grain grows to its full ripeness and then you harvest.  And the picture here is this, the Lord has waited for the ripening of evil.  He has waited for the ripening of sin.  And God is not going to move in in judgment on this world until the harvest is ripe, until sin has run its course, until it has spent itself, if you will.  Until all the ungodliness of the mystery of iniquity, that is the evil of evil yet unrevealed‑‑and it's hard to imagine that there could be some evil yet unrevealed, isn't there?, it's hard to imagine that in our world‑‑but the unrevealed evil of that future time when sin runs its full rampant course will reach its apex and then the sickle will be put in and the harvest will be accomplished.

     So, the reason God has waited for these two thousand years is, first of all, because He is allowing sin to run its reckless course, to spend itself, to ripen to the point where it will be fully finally and forever harvested.

     There's another reason, and that reason is indicated to us in Romans chapter 11 verse 25.  And it says, "I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, this unrevealed truth, lest you should be wise in your own conceit, but blindness, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in."  The fullness of the Gentiles speaks of the gathering in of the church in this age.  And I believe another reason the Lord waits is for the gathering of the church.  I believe He is waiting to gather all the saints whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.  He is waiting to collect the Gentiles who will forever and ever and ever throughout eternity give Him glory, give Him praise, give Him honor, give Him adoration and serve Him.  He is gathering together occupants for His eternal heaven to praise and glorify His name. 

     And also, after the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, verse 26 says, "So all Israel will be saved."  There has to be also in the future, the salvation of Israel.  That Jew and Gentile together through all eternity may praise God. 

     So there's been a time going on since the first coming.  We've waited all this two thousand years and He's not yet come.  And the reasons are two‑fold.  One, that sin may ripen; two, that the redeemed who have been planned for His glory eternally may be brought to that eternal glory.  So it is for sin and for salvation.

     Now look at 2 Peter chapter 3 for a moment, and this, too, relates to the same point.  In 2 Peter chapter 3...we say, "Boy, this is taking such a long time, this is just going on and on and on.  When is...when is it going to end?"  But what we forget in verse 8, "Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day." 

     In other words, God doesn't keep a clock.  And what seems to us like a long period of time because we're creatures of time is no time at all to a timeless eternal God.  And the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men would be.  It isn't that He can't fulfill it or that He's not living up to His Word, He is waiting because He's long‑suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  He is waiting until all the Gentiles and all the Jews planned from eternity past have come to redemption.  And then will come the Second Coming.  It's not that He can't act, it's that He's gathering His redeemed.  It's not that a lot of time has gone by because for God no time is gone by at all.

      So, how foolish are the scoffers in verse 3, aren't they?  Scoffers that come in the last days, walking after their own lust, verse 4 says, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?  Where is the promise of His coming?  Why He isn't going to come.  We've waited and we've waited and we've waited and we've waited.  And since the fathers fell asleep, all the way back to the patriarchs, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, they say.  We're uniformists, uniformitarianists.  Now we believe in the uniformity theory, everything goes on the same, nothing ever changes.

     But in order to say this, verse 5 says they have to be willingly ignorant that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water by which the world that then was being overflowed with water perished.  They have to be willingly ignorant of the flood.

     Listen, the world hasn't always continued the same.  God wiped out the entire world, except for eight people, didn't He, in the flood.  It hasn't continued the way it was.  And there's evidence all over the world, all over the globe for a universal worldwide flood where God drown all of human civilization.  In Genesis chapter 6, God looked over the whole man and said He saw nothing but wickedness and evil continually and decided to drown them all except for the eight righteous souls on the face of the earth, Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives.  And if you're going to say, "Well, all things have always continued the way they were," you've forgotten that that happened.  All things have not continued the way they were.

     The reason there is a time here is because in verse 8 God doesn't even see time and secondly, because He's waiting to gather all of His elect.  But, verse 10 says, the day of the Lord will come, won't it?  It will come.  And it will come like a thief in the night, unexpectedly and suddenly is the point, when we don't expect it, when we don't think about it, when we don't realize it.

     And then He discusses the passing away of the heavens and the earth and all of this.  And it's interesting to me that Peter...Peter sort of throws his arms around the whole big picture of the Second Coming and doesn't make a distinction.  And I mean by that this, at the time when the Lord comes in His Second Coming to begin His thousand‑year Kingdom, the heavens are dramatically changed and the earth is changed as well.  We know that.  The stars fall.  The moon doesn't give its light.  The sun goes out.  All the water, fresh water, salt water, the configurations of the earth are changed.  The whole thing is in chaos, the powers of the heavens are shaken.  We believe that all of this is going to take place in the millennial period, as He recreates‑‑as it were‑‑a new heaven and a new earth for the Kingdom, for the Millennium.  There will be, in a sense, a new kind of heaven and a new earth at the Second Coming.

     Then at the end of the Kingdom, in Revelation 21, John talks about the THE new heaven and the new earth.  And I believe we have to see then that this recreation process is two‑phased, if you will.  That when Jesus comes there will be a modification of the universe.  And at the end of the Kingdom, there will be a recreation of a new heaven and a new earth that are eternal.  During the Kingdom it will be a restored earth as we know it and a restored heavens as we know it.  In the final eternal state it will be a new heaven and a new earth, something we've never known.

     So, in a sense, Peter just sweeps us all the way to the whole dissolution of everything at the end of the Kingdom and says to us‑‑in effect‑‑that when Jesus comes there will be a disintegration of everything as we know it in space and on the earth and a new heaven and a new earth, he says in verse 13.  And so in that sense, he's very likely sweeping us to the total change that comes at the end of the Kingdom.  But that change begins before the thousand years as we have a restored heaven and a restored earth.  And we know that because the collapse is very clear in the Tribulation and something new comes out of that and then finally something even more glorious in the eternal state.

     So, it's interesting to think about.  God creating an unfallen world then the world is fallen.  Then the world is restored the way the Lord wants it to be for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  And then ultimately it's recreated for the new heaven and the new earth in the eternal state.  And so, the history of the globe, in a sense, and of the universe can be seen in this great prophetic literature.

     Now it's going to come, then, Peter says.  It's going to come.  When it's going to come, nobody knows.  Now let's go back to verse 36.  No one really knows the exact day and hour.  We know the generation, right?  We do, don't we?  Because it's the generation that sees the birth pains, verses 32 to 35.  That's the generation.  But the day and the hour nobody knows...no one knows.

     So, what should be the attitude of every generation?  What should be the attitude of every person since we don't know the exact moment?  Particularly, what should be the attitude of the people who see the birth pains?  What should be the attitude of this generation that's alive in that time?  The generation that sees the abomination of desolation, the generation that sees the rise of the Antichrist, the generation that sees the changing of the face of the earth, that sees all the disasters, natural and spiritual and supernatural and whatever, what should be their attitude? 

     First of all, should be alertness.  Secondly, readiness.  And thirdly, faithfulness.  And we're going to look only at the first one, alertness, verse 37.  The unexpectedness of the Second Coming calls for alertness.  "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."

     Now here again we find what Peter does in his epistle in relating the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and its judgment, its cataclysmic holocaust of judgment back to the flood.  It is the only illustration in human history that can even come close because it totally destroyed the face of the earth.  And so, we're going to find that the attitude that prevailed during the time of Noah will be the attitude that will prevail during the time of the Second Coming.  That's what he means when he says "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."  It's going to be like it was in Noah's time just before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

     You know, not only do people not know the day and the hour the Lord is coming, but most of them aren't even going to care.  Even with all the signs and all the wonders and all the things going on, they're not going to care.  They're not even going to think about it.  They won't even be considering that as an alternative.  It's hard to imagine that.  I mean, it's really hard to imagine that.  They'll be scoffing and mocking like in 2 Peter chapter 3.  And they'll be getting out their little slide rules and they'll be getting out their little charts and they'll be fussing around with their computers and they'll be analyzing the universe to try to explain scientifically why everything's going haywire.  Why there are earthquakes and why there are all kinds of movements in the heavens and why the tides are all messed up and why the moon goes out and why the sun isn't working properly and why daylight has been shortened and why there's blood in the seas and there's bitterness in the fresh water and why people are slaughtering each other and why there are terrible massacres all around the world...they're going to be trying to figure all this out sociologically, scientifically, rationally.  But they're not going to look to the truth of the Word of God.

     You say that's almost impossible to believe but that's exactly right.  I mean, why would we expect them to be any different than when the Lord Jesus Christ was here the first time, right?  I mean, they could see Him.  They could hear Him.  They watched Him remove disease from the land of Palestine.  They watched Him raise the dead.  And they still couldn't conclude the right things.  In fact, the religious leaders decided that He was of the devil.

     So, the mind of man is blinded, you see.  And the world of our Lord's time was so selfish, so self‑centered, so pious, so hypocritical, so materialistic, so sinful, so godless, so devoid of spiritual life and perception that it couldn't even see the Savior when He walked in its midst.  Why should we expect the world of the future to be any different when they see the signs of His coming?

     In Matthew chapter 16, do you remember the first three verses of that?  Tremendous indictment, the Pharisees and the Sadducees came and tested Jesus and they desired that He would show them a sign from heaven.  I mean, it's ludicrous to ask such a thing.  "Give us a sign from heaven..." they had seen thousands upon thousands of such signs from Him.  And He answered and said to them, "When it's evening you say, Fair weather, the sky is red.  And in the morning you say, Foul weather today for the sky is red and overcast.  O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern the signs of the times." You're supposed to be religious leaders, you're great at telling the weather but you haven't got a clue about what God's doing.

     You see, they shut their minds to the truth of God just as the history of Israel has been a history of ignoring the Word of God.  They ignored the prophets of God.  They ignored the miracles of those prophets.  They ignored the words of those prophets.  They murdered the prophets.  They murdered the Son of God.  And when it comes to the sign of the...signs of His coming and the Great Tribulation, the world will be just as darkened, just as imperceiving, just as blind as they have ever been to what's going on.  And they will do what they've always done, they will explain it away, some rational means. 

     The fact is, they're going to be more wicked in that time than any time in the history of the world.  The Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that during the time of the Tribulation, the restrainer is taken away.  The Holy Spirit is in the world today restraining evil, holding back evil.  It seems as though He's letting a little more out all the time.  But finally when the Tribulation comes, He takes His hands off and evil runs its full course.  And then Revelation 9 says hell belches out the temporarily bound demons and they overrun the earth.  So, the population of demons immediately increases dramatically.  And then it tells us that Michael and Satan have a fight and Satan is cast out of heaven to earth, Revelation 12. 

     So now you've got Satan on the earth and all the demons have been up and out of hell like filthy unclean frogs, as it were, coming out of hell and all the demons that are already here and no restraints and the world just goes amuck in sin.  And that kind of debauched world, gross beyond what we can imagine, that's why it's called the mystery of iniquity, it is iniquity at a level that's not even yet revealed or known or experienced in 2 Thessalonians 2.  That world will be so vile and so wretched, so preoccupied with sin and sex and drugs and alcohol, so engulfed in its materialistic preservation of political economic Babylon, so evil, so filled with hate for each other, for God, for the truth that when all of this happens, there will be all kinds of explanations except the willingness to understand the truth.  And they're not going to be willing to understand the truth.

     And He says it will be like it was in the days of Noah.  You see, in the days of Noah people ignored the truth, didn't they?  Do you know how long Noah preached?  Second Peter 2:5 calls Noah a preacher of righteousness.  Do you think he just built a big wooden chest, that's the word ark, it's a...the word is the word for a wooden chest, he built a big wooden chest in the middle of the desert and told people there was going to be a flood.  And they laughed because it had never rained.  There was no such thing as rain.  And there was no water there.  And you know how long he built that boat?  A hundred and twenty years and they laughed and they ridiculed and they mocked and they derided him. 

     But 2 Peter 2:5 says he was a preacher of righteousness.  He wasn't just a boat builder, he was a preacher.  Before he was a boat builder he was a preacher.  And for 120 years while he built the boat, he must have been asked a million times, "Why are you building the boat?"  Right?  "Why are you building the boat?"  And that was the trigger for the sermon, "Because God is going to judge the wickedness of this world and only those who put their faith in Him are going to escape.  And I'm building the boat as a way of escape, would you like to come on?"  And they laughed and they laughed and they mocked.  For 120 years they went on with life as usual while he preached judgment, preached judgment, preached judgment and demonstrated it to them by building a great big wooden chest, bigger than the Queen Mary, right in the middle of everywhere so everyone could see it.  And they didn't buy it.  And I'm sure the first time a raindrop hit somebody's nose, they thought a dinosaur sneezed behind a hill or something.  Still wouldn't believe it.  They didn't want to believe that.  They could have come up with all kinds of excuses not to believe that.

     Well, how was it in the days of Noah?  Verse 38, "Whereas in the days of Noah that were before the flood, they‑‑that is the people‑‑were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark