Luke's Gospel

Once on being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, the coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, here it is, or there it is. Because the kingdom of God is in your midst. Then he said to his disciples, the time is coming, when you will long to see 1 of the days of the son of man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, There he is. Or here he is.

Do not go running off after them. For the son of man, in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from 1 end to the other. But first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by his generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, So also will it be in the days of the son of man? People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day that nowhere entered the ark.

Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of lot. People were eating and drinking, buying, and selling, planting, and building, But the day lot left sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this. On the day the son of man is revealed.

On that day, no 1 who's on the house top with possessions inside should go down to get them. Likewise, no 1 in the field should go back for anything remember lot's wife. Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night, 2 people will be in 1 bed. 1 will be taken, and the other left.

2 women will be grinding corn together. 1 will be taken, and the other left. Where lord they asked? He replied, where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather. Good evening, everyone.

Good evening. Well, it has loads of you tonight. We're stretched right out the back. My name is Ben. I'm a member here at Cornerstone Church.

It's it's good to see you. We're carrying on in this series through Luke. And the last few ones have felt quite sequential. So Jesus was on his way somewhere He met some people at a conversation. This 1, it's a little bit like once this happened.

But we'll trust that God has put this here for a reason. And let me pray and then we'll dive into it. Father, we thank you that you've given us your word. And that you speak to us through it. We need your help though to understand it and to let it take root in our hearts and affect our lives.

So we pray for your help tonight, please, would you by your spirit be showing us new things, showing us the Lord Jesus and help us to respond to him, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay. So the kingdom of God is something that Jesus talks a lot about in in the gospels. In fact, he seems to talk about the kingdom of God more than anybody in the whole of the new testament. If you look at the number of times it's mentioned, he's got a lot to say about it.

And perhaps that's why at this point, The pharisees are coming up to him and asking him about it. They've heard him say to his disciples, when he's teaching them to pray, pray your kingdom come, a lot of other stuff. Perhaps that's why they're coming to ask him about it here. But if you read all of the references to the Kingdom of heaven, Kingdom of God that Jesus makes. You actually you'll see it's not the most straightforward concept, the kingdom of God.

For example, this patch of ground that I'm on right now is pretty straightforwardly England. But the kingdom of God, when Jesus talks about it, is a whole range of things. Some of which actually sound a little bit contradictory if you just take them at kind of face value. So for example, he says that the kingdom has come near He says that the kingdom is in your midst, is what we've seen tonight, it's among you. He says that it has come upon you, but also he says my kingdom is not from this world.

And he says that we should seek first the kingdom, and that we should pray for it to come. So if you look at all of those things, it's like It's it's near, but it's not from this world and it's upon you, but you should also pray for it to come. It's not immediately the most straightforward thing. But the pharisees on the other hand, they had a much clearer picture in their mind as to what they thought it was. And you can tell that by the way that they were certain it hadn't come yet.

Yeah. So here in verse 20, they're asking Jesus, when is the kingdom gonna come? When will the kingdom come? And they would only ask that question if they were sure it hadn't arrived yet. Yeah?

So if you're waiting for a bus in Kingston, if you're waiting for the 85, I used to get that a lot when I was a student up and down Kingston Hill. So if I was waiting for the 85, I know what it looks like. So other buses might come and go, the 1 11, k 4, whatever bus it is that you get. I was waiting for the 85. And sometimes, lots of other buses would come and go, but that 1 hadn't come.

So I started wondering when is that bus gonna come? Never came. And that's what's going on here. So the pharisees have a very clear picture in mind as to what the kingdom's gonna be, and because it hasn't arrived yet, they're asking Jesus, when is it gonna come? And it it's a little bit speculative, but I imagine that they were waiting for something really dramatic to happen.

That's what they were waiting for. Psalm 17 says, rise up, lord, confront them, bring them down with your sword, rescue me from the wicked. You know, at this point in time, the pharisees are living in the Roman Empire. The land that they're in is occupied by the Romans. So they're in the worldly kingdom of Rome.

And the kingdom of God coming, they thought, is gonna liberate them. From this occupation. That was the 85 bus for the pharisees, but they were waiting to see come down the hill and 3 of them altogether. But, it hasn't happened yet. That hasn't happened.

They're still living in occupied Rome. So, they say to Jesus, when? We know what's gonna happen, but when will it happen? Actually, we see from Jesus' answer here that that wasn't the best question. A better question than when would have been what?

Lord, we we think we know what the kingdom is, but we want you to tell us. What is it? And that would have been a better question because actually that's the answer that Jesus gives here. The pharisees asked when but Jesus corrects their what. They've misunderstood what the kingdom was.

So Look at his reply in verse 20. He says, the coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed. Nor will people say, here it is, or there it is, because the kingdom of God is in your midst. So Jesus starts his answer to the pharisees after they've asked this question, by dropping the bombshell that actually the kingdom is nothing like they thought it was gonna be. They thought the day would come when they would go, oh, look, here it is.

It last. And then they'd be able to go to their enemies and boast and say, look, there it is. We told you this day was gonna come, and there it is. But Jesus says, actually, it's not like that at all. That's not the case.

You won't even be able to see it with your eyes. It's not something that can be observed. And he proves that point to them immediately because he then says, and this is the biggest bombshell of them all for the pharmacy. He then says the kingdom of God is in your midst. It's among you.

So they're pinning all their hopes on this thing arriving, and Jesus says, it's among you. They're waiting for it to come and they're asking Jesus, when is this thing gonna arrive? And Jesus says, it's already arrived. But because you didn't recognize it, You didn't understand it. You've completely missed it.

You were expecting actually just to see something with your eyes, and because of that, you're blind. You can't see it. So this is not a worldly kingdom, the kingdom of God. It doesn't claim physical spaces like England, or Jerusalem like some people were expecting it to. It's a kingdom that is established in people's hearts.

And we see this connection with the heart in the way that Jesus talks about the kingdom. So in Mark chapter 1, Here we go. Mark chapter 1, Jesus says the time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.

So he doesn't say the kingdom of God has come, go to Jerusalem and see it. It's there. You'll be able to see it. He says, the kingdom of God has come, so repent. And believe the good news.

The kingdom is about repentance and belief of the heart. And then in Romans 14 17, Paul explains for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. In other words, it's not a matter of physical things of this world. But of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness, joy, peace.

These are these things are expressed outwardly, but they all start inwardly in the heart. Jesus also says in Luke chapter 11 verse 20. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So if the finger of God himself reaches into your life and cleanses you of evil within, then the kingdom has come upon you. So do you see, actually, that the marks of this kingdom aren't physically visible because they're all to do with this inside out change that happens.

They have to do with the heart. And it's true of the church, there, isn't it? The true measure of a church is not necessarily what it looks like on the outside, which looking at all you guys is a good thing. Look at me. It's a good thing.

But it is strange, isn't it? Because if you think about it, if you think about what happens to a Christian, it's this huge, huge change, isn't it? Colotions 1 uses this like really cinematic apocalyptic language to describe what happens to the Christian when they become a Christian. Says for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and he has brought us into the kingdom of the son that he loves. So if we're Christians, we've we've been saved from this dominion.

We're now in the kingdom, and we've gone through this life, eternally life changing change. We've gone through the biggest change possible from death to life, but it's not really manifested outwardly at all. Is it? You'll be able to tell by the way that someone lives their life that they are a Christian. But actually, if you just looked at someone, they probably wouldn't look any different.

So you don't grow taller as a result of becoming a Christian. You don't become smarter or richer, or better looking or funnier. You don't necessarily have a better chance of winning the lottery if you become a Christian. Sadly. You don't have a lower chance of getting ill.

If I went on the street and just got 10 people and 1 of them was a Christian and lined them up here, you probably wouldn't just by looking at them, be able to tell which 1 of them was a Christian. Instead, Jesus says in John 13 35, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you look different, no. If you're more successful, no. If you love 1 another.

The measure of God's people in his kingdom are that they love 1 another. So the pharisees were expecting this physical kingdom to come with visible blessings, but Jesus says that the kingdom is already among you. Because it's the kingdom of the heart. They asked when is it coming, Jesus corrected their what, and that's the first thing that we see in the passage tonight. The trouble is that the kingdom Jesus has just described, which is among us now, is like the first fruits of the kingdom that is coming when he returns.

And we've we've heard and we've seen a lot about that today and and Tom was talking about in that prayer that we said at the beginning of this service. When Jesus returns, it's gonna herald the coming of the new earth and the new heaven and God's kingdom is gonna be fully established, and there will be unlimited, unending adoration of Jesus, and all those wonderful things that we saw in that prayer. That's the kingdom that's gonna come when Jesus returns. But it is the same kingdom as we have now that is coming, but it's just like the first fruits of a bigger harvest that's yet to come. The full body of the harvest is yet to come when Jesus come comes back, but we have the first fruits.

Because that's the first fruits is the kind of language that the Bible uses to describe something that we have now, but we will have more of sort of later. The reality is gonna be later. So if you go blackberry picking, Everyone here been blackberry picking or like strawberry picking. Yeah. If you go at the beginning of the harvest, you can pick and eat those first fruits, and you can eat them, and you can enjoy them.

But the the whole season of the harvest isn't there yet. There's not like a million blackberries suddenly all popping out at once. There's just the first ones that have come through. You can pick them and eat them and enjoy them, But you know the rest of the harvest is still to come. Or if you think about a deposit, we all know about deposits in this world.

If you have any blackberry picking, I'm pretty sure you put a deposit on something before. A deposit is a down payment that's made now, and the full payment is gonna be made later. Yeah. So first fruits and a deposit, and that's the same with the kingdom of God. We've got the first fruits now that the kingdom is truly among us, but the full harvest The full payment is yet to be made in glory when Jesus returns.

So there's this like now and not yet. About the kingdom. And because of that, there's a problem. And that's the second thing that we see in this passage. The problem is that we're impatient, and we want the full harvest now by any means at all.

We can't wait for it, so we run after anything that claims to be it, or claims to give us what the full harvest offers when it comes. That's the problem. So after dealing with the pharisees after they've asked this question, and after he's corrected their understanding about the king Jesus now turns in verse 22 to his disciples. Terms to his disciples, and he gives them this warning about chasing this kind of counterfeit harvest kingdom now. So look at verse 22.

Then he said to his disciples, the time is coming when you will long to see 1 of the days of the of man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, there he is, or here he is, do not go running after them. So people are gonna long to see this full harvest, the return of Jesus. But do you see the parallels in with verse 21 about the kingdom. So Jesus says in verse 21 to the to the pharisees, people won't be able to say, here it is, or there it is, because that's gonna be false teaching.

In the same way, if anyone stands up and says about Jesus, here he is, well, there he is, it's equally false. There have genuinely been people throughout history who've stood up and claimed to be Jesus, or God. There's a Korean woman now who claims to be God, the mother, and thousands of people worship her. So this happens, and it's happened throughout all history. But Jesus says don't go running after them.

Equally, people don't necessarily stand up and claim to be God, but a lot of people claim to have a new revelation from God. Or kind of a new understanding of him. You know, they say, this is what Jesus is saying now. Look, look at this, here Jesus is, look what he's saying now. Or look, there he is, That's what he's saying.

Look over there. And that can be in the form of of a of a major world religion, like Islam, where there's a new revelation from God, or it can just be literally in our own Christian subculture, where someone can write a book that is like a new interpretation of this, or the the lost message of this, something we've never seen before, God has revealed to me this understanding that no other Christians ever had. Jesus warns his disciples, and he warns us, don't run after them. Don't get caught up with exciting new ideas or teachings. Don't let people fool you that Jesus has come back with a new message.

Because No one's gonna have to tell you when Jesus returns. We see from this passage. You're not gonna be sitting at home watching the 6 o'clock news and it's gonna be news flash. Jesus returns. You're not gonna be sat scrolling through Twitter and see that Jesus returns is trending.

That's not how you're gonna find out about it. You're not gonna find out about it in a book that someone writes, either. Yeah? When he's back, you're gonna know about it. Look at verse 24.

For the son of man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from 1 end to the other. But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. So wherever you are on that day, if we're all still around for it, wherever you are gonna be, you will see Jesus come back from 1 end of the sky to the other. It says his glory is gonna light up the whole world. If you think about lightning at night, it's amazing, isn't it lightning?

Because it's it's dark, you can't see anything. And then 1 flash and suddenly you see everything And everything Because there's like shadows and stuff, everything is in so, so much detail, isn't it? It's quite an amazing thing. And that's what Jesus is gonna be like, you're gonna know about it. And you don't have lightning without thunder.

And thunder is the sound of God's righteous judgment. In the bible. So Jesus is coming back in glory. No one's gonna have to tell you about it, but he's coming back in judgment as well. And we see this judgment in the stories of Noah and Lot, which Jesus is about to go on to to illustrate what it's gonna be like on that day.

But before he does, he slips in this little line in verse 25. Where he reminds us that actually in wrath, in judgment, he remembers mercy. He says, but first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. So before he comes back, in glory and judgment, Jesus will suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And what he means by that ultimately is that he's going to the cross.

He's going to the cross. And on the cross, the thunder of God's judgement is gonna be poured out on him instead of sinners like us. So the day is coming. He is going to return in lightning and thunder But before he does, he's gonna go to the cross and suffer and die so that we can be saved from our sin and judgment. So that little verse, verse 25, is the hope that we have going into these next section of verses where he talks about Noah and Lot.

Before we're told what it's gonna be like on the day that he comes back. Before he comes, he's gonna go to the cross. So with that in mind, let's take a look at what it will be like when he comes back. This is the third thing that we see in this passage tonight. What it will be like when he returns.

So look at verse 26. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the son of man? People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. So cast your minds back to Noah.

At that time, it's it's weird. We've got this weird idea of Noah. Haven't because we have little wooden children's toys and little beautifully colored children's books. But it's really gritty and you know, amazing story. So, at that time, it says in Genesis 6 verse 5, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

Well, that is just a staggering description of the state of mankind at that time. Every inclination, only evil all the time. And so God is right and good in his judgment to send a flood, to to wash the world from this evil. So he plans this flood that's gonna wipe out this evil and the humans from the face of the earth. And the flood we're told came as a surprise.

To the people. They were eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage up to the day that the flood came. Now, those aren't the normal set of activities you would do the day before a natural disaster strikes that you know about. Right? Yeah.

So we've got a few couples getting married in the church this year. Don't know what date you set. Have any of you guys set a date? No. Alright.

I got married on the fifteenth of August. So for the purposes of this, you're getting married on the fifteenth of August. Okay? I don't think any of you would knowingly set your your wedding day on the fifteenth of August if you knew that hurricane was coming towards England. And was gonna hit on that day.

Yeah? Being married on that day is not the best use of your time. Unless you really don't like your in laws, in which case, it's probably a good excuse. So, this isn't a normal set of activities. You don't do this if if you know that something's coming.

So it's come as a surprise. These people are just getting on with their lives. They're not living in the light of God's coming judgment. But we know that it should not have come as a surprise to them. Because year after year after year, nowhere who's called the Preacher of righteousness, was building an arc that foretold this flood that was coming.

So every day that Noah went out and worked on the ark, it was another sermon to these people. The flood is coming. The flood is coming. The flood is coming. And not only that, but every day as it was more completed, it's getting nearer It's getting nearer.

It's getting nearer. And you might have thought that people when they first started seeing Noah build this arc were thinking, wow, this guy's clearly gonna take over a hundred years to build this thing. So let's not worry about it now. And then as it was kind of being finished, he was putting the last finishing touches on it. You might have thought then, they'd go, whoa.

We should probably do something about this. But they don't. They completely ignored the warnings. They thought they could live however they wanted without any consequences. They certainly didn't believe that God had any judgment against them.

And so they were living that way up till the day the flood came. They woke up that morning. They looked out of their bedroom window. They saw the boat And they they they saw the message, it's coming. It's almost here.

The flood is coming. It's almost here. And they did nothing about it. Perhaps even they saw the swelling of the clouds, but did nothing about it. They just carried on in their evil thoughts.

They were hopelessly unprepared for the flood when it arrived, and they were destroyed. But Jesus goes on in verse 28. Look at 28. It was the same in the days of lot. People were eating and drinking buying and selling, planting and building, but the day lot left sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

So as in the time of Noah, the people are equally depraved in sodom. But God forewarns this guy lot about its destruction. And then lot goes and pleads with his sons in laws and says, this is gonna happen. We need to get out. But they don't believe him.

They thought he was joking. So, lot of suns, they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building, they were doing all of that, right on the day that God's judgment came to the city. And again, those are not the activities you do when you know something's gonna happen. So planting crop or building a house are not the best use of your time when you know a fireball is gonna come later in the day and destroy them. So the these people like the people in Noah's time just ignored the warnings.

They didn't believe them. They ignored the 1 who was preaching to them. And then in verse 30, Jesus says, It will be just like this on the day the son of man is revealed. So this, those examples are how people are gonna be living the day that Jesus returns. And I think, isn't that exactly how people are living now?

Eating, drinking, planting, building, buying, selling, marrying, being given a marriage, just kinda like everyday life getting on with things as if they're gonna last forever without any real idea or knowledge that actually God's judgment is coming. Think it's quite a good description of London, you know. There's so much activity in London without any kind of thought that there's a god who's coming back 1 day. And I can't ask this question to all of London, but I can ask this question to all of you guys. Is that how you're living?

Are you making yourself just busy, just getting on with activities, focusing on things in this world, but ignoring the warnings actually Jesus is going to come back 1 day. Do you think actually that this whole Christianity thing, you know, you'll deal with it 1 day when things in your life are a bit more settled. You'll take it seriously in the future once you've just got over this next thing. Once I just do that, If I can just do that, then I'll focus on it. Is that you?

Maybe you'll think you just deal with it on your deathbed, you know. God forgives anyone that we have to do is say a prayer, maybe I'll just wait then. But we don't know the day or the hour that this is gonna happen. What we do know is that as it was a surprise to those guys, it will be a surprise to this world. People will be eating and drinking.

They will be planting and building. They will be planning for the next day the day Jesus comes back. So this isn't something we can sort out last minute. This is not something that we can sort out even potentially tomorrow. Yeah.

We're currently in a grace period now between the warning and the coming. So we're in this grace period where Noah is building the ark. Yeah? God warns Noah, he builds the ark, and then the flood comes. That's the grace period.

And every day, Noah is preaching, the flood is coming, the flood is coming, it's getting closer. And lot, the grace period with with lot was much less. It was just 1 night. And so lot goes and pleads with his sons. But in both these stories, this grace period has an end date because then the judgments came.

So I don't know. Have you heard this your whole life? Are you like the people in Noah's time? You woke up day after day, looked out the window, and saw the ark. Do you come along Sunday after Sunday?

You just hear the same warnings again and again, but you haven't done anything. Or are you like lot's sons in laws? This is the first time you've ever heard this. We can't assume that we will have the same amount of time as nowhere to sort it out. The guys in sodom had 1 night before the judgement came.

So we don't wanna get caught out by this when Jesus returns. We don't wanna be like the people of sodom. We don't wanna be like the people in Noah's time who are just getting on with things, but don't know that this is coming in a completely unprepared So if you hear the warning now, how do you live? How do you respond? How do you prepare yourself for that day?

I've got 2 applications for us from this passage to help us. Prepare for that day. The first application is what not to do, and the second application is what to do. So it's quite simple. What not to do and then what to do.

Firstly, what not to do? Look at verse 31. On that day, No 1 who was on the house top with possessions inside should go down and get them. Likewise, no 1 in the field should go back for anything Remember lot's wife. Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

So when the fire alarm goes off in a building, we all know this. We know what we're meant to do. We're meant to not take anything with us. We're not meant to go back for anything. We're meant to just go back, just go out.

Sorry. And the reason for that obviously is because you're much more valuable than anything physical that you you own. And if somebody was crazy enough to go back into a burning building, It's because the thing that they're going back for is something that they value more than their life probably. Or they don't value their life without that thing, whatever it is. And so Jesus says here, on that day, no 1 who is on the house top with possessions inside should go down to get them.

Likewise, no 1 in the field should go back for anything. Why is he saying that? Is he saying that because we won't have time? You won't have time to go and get it and then come back? Now he's saying that because there shouldn't be anything that you long for in this world that's not gonna be in glory.

There shouldn't be anything that you look back at and want in this world that will not be in glory. If you go back for something that's only found in this world, it shows where your heart is. And we see that in lot's wife, who Jesus tells us to remember, remember lot's wife. So as lot and his wife and his daughters are fleeing the city, of sodom. They're told not to look back as they're leaving.

And I actually think, why would you want to look back? Sodom is described as this horrible evil place. There's nothing good to look back to. The angels that destroyed it, they tell lot, They say the people were so evil in that city, that the outcry about them to God was so great that God was like, I need to do something about this. There was nothing good in that city at all.

So as they left and she turned and looked, she was looking back fondly at something worldly and ungodly. And it showed where her heart truly was. She didn't love the lord. She loved her old life. And she loved this old world.

And so she's actually counted among the judge and she dies. And that's what Jesus means in verse 33 where he says whoever tries to keep their life will lose it and whoever loses their life will preserve it. If there's anything in your – in this life that you try to preserve that will not be in glory, then it shows where your heart truly is. It's in the world. It's not in the lord.

So you will lose it. But those people who gladly lose the things of this world and head towards the lord, as lot did as he ran away from sodom, are the people who preserve their life. Jesus says, also reminds me of Christian in a pilgrim's progress if you know that story. He he's told to head away from the city of destruction because it's gonna be destroyed. And he runs.

He he tries to convince his family. They're not coming, so he's going, I'm not looking back. I'm just heading off. There was nothing good for him to look back to. So the first point of application is this.

Examine yourself. Ask yourself the question. Do I love anything in this world that will not be in glory? In other words, it's not good. Do I love a particular sin, or do I have a fondness for or even tolerance of anything that's ungodly?

If the Lord returns now, what is it that I would turn around and have a lasting, kind of, parting look before I went? What would I turn around to take 1 last glimpse at? Whatever it is we need to see we need to see it for what it is. We need to deal with it now, actually, that on that day, we don't turn around and look fondly at it. We need to deal with it now.

That's the first point of application. Don't look back in love at the world. That's what's not to do. Actually, really, that that point makes me cry out for mercy. I don't know about you.

Because I don't think there's any is there anyone in this room who doesn't love the world what am I trying to say, who doesn't love things in this world? I think we all love things in this world to a certain degree. I think we're all a little bit like lot's wife. We're all fascinated by certain sins, aren't we? We all enjoy those little things on the side.

We're all a little bit like clot's wife. So I I cry out for mercy when I hear that first point of application. Don't look back at the world. So the second application is this. Depend on God's mercy and grace.

Depend on God's mercy and grace. Because these stories that Jesus tells us of noah and lot are actually, if you look at them, they're punctuated, beginning middle and end with grace. They were completely dependent on grace. So let's look at that. The beginning we had verse 25, which said, this lovely little line, but first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

So before we even get to those stories, we're reminded that Jesus had to go to the cross to take God's judgment on him instead of us. That's the first thing. In the middle, we see in these judgment stories actually, we see the grace that God has in the way that both of these men were saved. You can just look at these stories from the perspective of God's judgment and how his his judgment was completely destructive. But actually, these 2 men were perfectly saved.

So, God provides the means for Noah to survive his judgement. And in Genesis 7, actually, I hadn't noticed this before, but when I saw it this time, I saw this little detail. Once Noah was on the boat, it says the Lord shut him in. So it's the lord who's the 1 who shut nowhere in and sealed it so that he survived the flood. I hadn't noticed that before.

And in the story of lot, we've got this remarkable line, which I also hadn't noticed in Genesis 19, it said, With the coming of the dawn so that's the coming of the dawn on the day where the judgment was coming, the angels urged lot saying, hurry, Take your wife and your 2 daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished. When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and his 2 daughters, and he led them safely out the city for the Lord was merciful to them. So what's amazing is that lock wasn't perfect at all. He was told to flee the city that God's judgment was coming the next day, but he didn't run off immediately. Like, what is that about?

You've just been told that the the next day, the city is gonna be destroyed, but you don't run off. What is going on there? He puts it off. And then the next morning, there's this final warning from these angels and they're like, dude, seriously, it's happening today. You need to get out.

And then it says, when he hesitated, they would they just grabbed him and I right. Fine. We're gonna take you out. We're just gonna lead you to safety now. Because you're clearly you're too weak.

You can't do this on your own. And that is described as the Lord's mercy to him that he did there. So in both those stories, we see how God saved his people from judgement. He sealed the boat, it didn't sink. He took lot by the hand, he led him to save it was grace and mercy, all of it, for those 2 men.

And then at so that's the middle. And at the end, we get verses 34 and 35. Which just bookends these judgement stories with more grace. So verse 34, I tell you, on that night, 2 people will be in 1 bed 1 will be taken and the other left. 2 women will be grinding grain together, 1 will be taken and the other left.

So it would be right for God in his judgement on the whole world to to leave both of those people in bed and both the people grinding the corn. But actually in his grace, he's gonna save 1 of them. He's gonna save them by grace. It doesn't rely on your family. These 2 people are in the same bed, same family.

It doesn't rely on the faith or lack of faith of your family. Or your spouse perhaps, you are saved by grace through faith. It doesn't rely on the work that you do, which is an encouragement, isn't 2 women are grinding the same corn together. Probably 1 of them is doing it better than the other 1, but it doesn't matter. That's not the measure of your salvation.

It doesn't depend on how much grain metaphorically or or physically that you actually grind in this world. You're saved by grace through faith. And so in light of Jesus coming back, depend on his mercy and his grace, just like Noah and Lot did. Don't depend on anything else. Jesus says, in John 5, 24, very truly, I tell you.

Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. So if you hear The words of Jesus and you believe in the father who sent him, then you are like Noah in the Ark. He will seal it He will protect you from the waters of his judgment and you will not be judged. Jesus says. And like Noah, you will have crossed over from death to life.

If you hear Jesus words and believe the father who sent him, then you are like lot, who though imperfect, and I like lot, because I like him. If I was there, I would have hesitated. But he's imperfect, he's timid, he's hesitant, and he was taken by the hand of the lord. And led out to safety on the day of the judgment. It was the lord's mercy to him that led him from death to life.

So what is it that we must do in preparation? We know not what not to do, but we need to depend on God's mercy and his grace. Eat. Yes. Do that.

Drink. Yes. Do that. Get married. Yes.

Do that. Be given in marriage. Yes. But always, depending on God's mercy and his grace. So finally, just to tie this all together, because we've covered quite a lot.

The kingdom is among us, now, it is. The first roots of God's kingdom are among us. But don't run off after false teaching when people come and say, Listen to this. Listen to that. Here is Jesus.

There is Jesus. Instead, we need to prepare ourselves for the return of Jesus. And we do that by not looking back in love at the world. So what are those sins that we look fondly at now? Put those to death.

But then most importantly depend on God's mercy and grace, as no 1 unlocked it, because in the end there's gonna be no other reason other than that that we're saved. So depend on his mercy and grace. Let me pray. Our father in heaven, we thank you that you have not left us in the dark about the future. So you've revealed to us that the Lord Jesus is turning in glory and judgment.

And we know father, actually, each 1 of us here deserves your judgment. So we thank you for the cross. We thank you that you poured out your judgment on Jesus instead of us. Thank you that by faith, we can now cross over from death to life just like Noah and lot escapes judgement. Please help us to identify those sins in our lives that we're fond of, that we don't wanna change.

Please help us to see them for what they are. And help us on that day not to look back at anything in the world that is not good. But would you lead us please by the hand as you did with lot, away from death towards life, And please give us faith in your son. We ask in Jesus name, our men.