From His Heart

Speaker 1

So here's the question. How are we to live until the Son of Man comes? Well, we must be ready. Are you ready?

We must be faithful. Are you living faithfully? Are you living sensibly? Are you living wise?

Are you like the wise man who's building his house on the rock? Or are you like the foolish man who's building his house on the sand?

What's the difference? One hears the word and applies it. One hears the word and blows it off.

Speaker 2

More than once Jesus says in Scripture, behold, I'm coming quickly now. He meant that when he comes, it'll be sudden or rapid. And this makes the question Pastor Jeff asks all the more meaningful. How exactly are we to live until the Son of Man comes?

You've joined us on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve today. Thank you so much for being here today. A compelling lesson entitled Watchful and Wise. Pastor Jeff shares three essentials for living watchful and wise as you anticipate the return of the message.

This message is from Pastor Jeff's series When the Son of Man, a study of Matthew 24 and 25. If you'd like more information about this, or to get a copy of this entire nine-message series, go to fromhisheart.org; you'll see it right there on the homepage. It's yours for a gift of any amount to From His Heart this month.

Right now, though, open your Bible to Matthew chapter 24. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1

How are we to live until the Son of Man comes? How are we to live until the trumpet sounds? So three essentials that I want to share with you today. From the end of Matthew, chapter 24, we'll begin reading in verse 42. Therefore, Jesus says, be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this: that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready. For the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will.

Three essentials for today. Essential number one, we must be ready. Look at verse 44 again. For this reason, you must also be ready. That word ready means to be prepared. Well, Jesus likens himself to, in several places in the New Testament, a thief. I'm coming like a thief in the night. Just like a thief does not tell you when he's going to come to your house, but it's at an hour when you do not think he will, that's when he comes. So are you prepared now? Preparation comes in the heart. Our hearts must be prepared. Lots of us have our heads ready. I mean, we know things about Jesus, we believe in Jesus, but many don't have it down in their heart. You have to have a prepared heart if you're going to be ready, if you're going to be on the alert.

But not only must your heart be prepared, our lives must be on red alert. See verse 42. Therefore, be on the alert. That literally means to be watchful. Hey, how are we to live until the Son of Man comes? The first imperative, the first essential is we must be ready.

Essential number two, not only ready, but we must be faithful. So Jesus goes on to say he gives that little parable about the thief coming and the person being ready for the thief. And then he says in verse 45, who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

Well, what does it mean to be faithful? Let me point out two meanings for this. Number one, it means that you're trustworthy and dependable. That's obvious from the context of what he's talking about. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave? He's the one that the master can trust. He's the one that is going to do the master's will. But what else does it mean to be faithful? Not only that you're trustworthy and dependable, but it means you're walking by faith and not by sight. The Bible tells us that commands us that in 2 Corinthians 5:7. For we walk by faith, Paul says, and not by sight. So we must be faithful. We must be ready.

Essential number three, we must be sensible and wise. Because he talks about the faithful and sensible slave, and sensible means wise. If we're not faithful and sensible, well, we're going to make some terrible decisions, as the parable goes on to say, because he talks about the faithful and sensible one, and then he talks about the unfaithful and foolish one.

Jesus said in Revelation 22, verses 12 through 13, behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is it. He is from A to Z. He is from everlasting to everlasting God. And all of us have a date with deity. We're all going to have to give an account one day of our lives to God. Saved and lost are going to have to stand before God.

Now, the saved stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ. And when we stand before God, it has nothing to do with our destination. Our destination is already secure. We're going to heaven when we die. But we stand before God at the beam of judgment to determine what rewards or lack thereof. And as you know, I've preached on this a lot of times. 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, that we're going to be tested by fire. The fire will test the quality of each man's work. And if you build with wood, hay, and stubble, the things out of the flesh as a Christian, it's going to be burned up. But if you build with gold, silver, precious stone, the things done in the power of the spirit, those will stand the test of time.

Sadly, many are going to see their lives just go up in smoke. There's nothing to show for their time as a Christian—10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, whatever it is—because they did not let the Lord live through them. They were saved, and they'll be saved yet so as through fire. But they're not going to have anything to show for it. And there are going to be tears, I believe, at the judgment seat of Christ, because he wipes away every tear that's for the saved. We're all going to heaven, but some go to heaven with lots of rewards and attaboys from the Lord, and others go to heaven, and the Lord can't do that because there was nothing there.

But now for the lost, they are going to be judged at the Great White Throne judgment. They're going to have their day before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hey, every knee is going to bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. As Paul said when he preached on Mars Hill, God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

Adrian Rogers used to say, don't think you can pull the dirt up over your face and hide from God. He's going to raise you up one day, and you're going to have to stand and give an account of your life to him. Well, that's the flavor of this as he talks about the servant who wasn't ready; he was an evil slave, and he did terrible things.

Now, listen, as you think about the faithful servant, as you think about the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand, I mean, it's very obvious to us, hey, the guy that's building on the sand, that's not going to turn out well for you. I can look at somebody's life, and if they tell me the direction they're going, it's like, yeah, it's not going to work out well for you. You are getting away from God, his will, his ways, his word. It's not going to turn out well for you.

Well, don't judge me, man. I was like, I'm not judging you. I'm just telling you. If you get away from God, his will, his way, and his word, and you start wandering like the prodigal did and go, you know, find your thrills, you will end up at the pigsty, because that's where that leads every single time. And so it makes sense to believe the Lord. It makes sense to believe him and what he says.

And it makes sense not only to believe him. That's what faith is. Faith is just believing God, but it makes sense to obey him. And those go hand in hand. If I believe God and what he's telling me in His Word is true, and no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly, and if I want to experience love, joy, and peace, I do what he says. I don't go my own way.

As the testimony of one of those guys that got baptized, he said, the thing that the Lord used in his heart is when I shared about my grandson Jack. And Jack always wants to go his way. Jack, is it between your way and your mom's way, which way are we going to go? My way. He says, no, we go your mom's way. If it's between your dad's way and your way, which way do we go? My way? No, we go your dad's way. Then he cries to his dad, dad, Gigi's not letting me go my way. No, because when you go your way, you're going to go off the rails.

And so we believe him, and we're going to go his way. And then we obey him. Now, when we obey the Lord, that is the great commandment and the great challenge. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the greatest commandment. And anybody who's not loving the Lord, they're violating the greatest commandment.

And how do you know if somebody is fulfilling the greatest commandment? Because the greatest evidence that you're fulfilling the greatest commandment is you're obeying him. Because Jesus said in John, chapter 14, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him.

It makes sense to believe the Lord. It makes sense to obey the Lord. And the Master is coming to reward the faithful. I'm coming, and my reward is with me, the Lord says, to render to every man according to what he has done. And so think about it again. He says, who is the faithful and sensible slave whom his Master puts in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his Master finds so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

And guess what? Everything that that guy had to endure, it was all a test. A test to see if he would be faithful. Why is the Master delaying his coming? He's testing for two reasons. He's slow about his coming from our perspective because he wants more to be saved. He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter, Chapter 3, verse 9). But he's also slow from our perspective in his coming because he's testing us. Will you be faithful to me? Will you obey me? Everything in your life and my life is a test. How well do we do with the test?

Speaker 2

Well, the question we started with is still the same. Are you ready? Are you living faithfully? Are you living sensibly? Are you living wisely? Now is the time to do a serious and honest review and thank God for helping you each day and confess where you're missing the mark. There's no more important time to do this than right now.

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and he'll be back with more on this lesson in just a moment. But a quick reminder that From His Heart has a global outreach, and we're even growing exponentially in our international reach through both traditional and digital platforms. Listeners and viewers from dozens of countries are now engaging with Pastor Jeff's regular teaching.

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The number to call is 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) to make your gift and receive the series When the Son of Man Comes. Now let's get back to the close of the lesson, Watchful and Wise. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1

The book of Job proves that Job feared God for nothing. Now, did Job like what he went through? Of course not. Job's a human being. He lost everything. He lost his 10 children. Just bam. Like that. Job didn't like it. But he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." It's all a test.

Now, when my kids were young, there was a movie that they liked to watch. They watched it over and over and over again. It was the 1971 *Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory* with Gene Wilder. Well, if you remember at the end of *Willy Wonka*, all these other kids, Mike TV and Veronica something or other, had these bad things happen because they broke the rules. Charlie Bucket is supposed to win a lifetime supply of chocolate. He's poor as a church mouse, and this is a big deal for him.

Then all of a sudden, Willy Wonka turns very stern and says, "You're not getting anything. You broke the rules. You stole Fizzy lifting drinks." Grandpa Joe is all mad because he's like, "This guy. You're a terrible person. How dare you break a little child's heart?" Willy Wonka then says, "Come on, Charlie. We're gonna take that little everlasting gobstopper that you got, and we're gonna give it to his competitor, Mr. Slugworth."

Suddenly, Charlie stops and grabs that little piece of candy. It looked like a jack, all different colors, like, you know, throwing jacks. He brings it to Mr. Wonka, puts it on the table, and says, "Mr. Wonka." Then he walks out very humbly. All of a sudden, Mr. Wonka gets a big smile on his face and says, "Charlie, you won! You won the grand prize. You won it all. Not just chocolate for the rest of your life. You won the whole factory." He adds, "I hated to do to you what I had to do, but I had to test you. And I knew that you would come through."

Hey, God is testing us to see if we are really going to love him, serve him, and fear him even if the whole bottom drops out. Do we love him for him and not for the things that he can do for us? It's all a test. And this steward passed the test. When the master came back, he said, "Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions." It makes sense to believe him, to obey him because you're going to be rewarded. He will reward the faithful.

But then he will judge the hypocrites. He goes on to say, "But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour when he does not know. And he will cut him in pieces." He is going to separate him. We get our English word "dichotomy" from that Greek word that means to cut in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, with the play actors. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

That's talking about the terrible, horrible place called hell. That's where they weep. And the weeping is not just a few sniffles; that's wailing, lamentation, and gnashing of teeth. You're gnashing your teeth in pain and in anger. And that's where the hypocrite goes. That's where the unfaithful go. That's where the evil person goes.

Now, he's not talking about a Christian. He's not talking about losing your salvation. A Christian is never called a hypocrite. He saved that word to talk about the religious leaders: "Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites." A hypocrite was a play actor. They all knew what that was because they would see plays, and you'd stand on the stage, and actors would have a mask in front of their face. You've seen those masks that people hold up on a Popsicle stick. An actor could play several different characters because he'd take that mask off and put on another mask. He's presenting himself as something and someone he is not.

The Lord says, "How do I know who's faithful and who is not?" Remember, he said, "The one who endures to the end, he shall be saved." Because the one who endures to the end is saved. The hypocrite doesn't endure to the end. They can play along; they can hold up the mask for only so long. But then their true colors come out. They say, "Hey, I don't care about feeding the master's household. I'm going to feed myself. I'm going to hang out with my crowd. I'm going to hang out with the drunkards and the gluttons."

"Bad company corrupts good morals," the Scripture tells us. Then that master comes back, and that guy is not ready. He's not prepared. He's not alert. It is stern judgment for him because he didn't believe the master. He didn't obey the master. He didn't love the master. And it is horrible. He's assigned a place with the hypocrites. And in that place, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So here's the question: How are we to live until the Son of Man comes? Well, we must be ready. Are you ready? We must be faithful. Are you living faithfully? Are you living sensibly? Are you living wisely? Are you like the wise man who's building his house on the rock? Or are you like the foolish man who's building his house on the sand? What's the difference? One hears the word and applies it; one hears the word and blows it off.

There was a television show years ago called *Early Edition*. It was about a guy named Gary Hobson, a resident of Chicago, Illinois, who would mysteriously receive the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper a day in advance. It would give him knowledge of what was going to happen the next day—things that hadn't taken place yet. He would read about murders, accidents, and terrible tragedies. He said, "Hey, I have 24 hours to stop this from happening." Because he had the early edition, if he did nothing, those things would happen. But if he intervened, then those things wouldn't happen.

Listen, the Lord has given us the early edition. We don't know if it's 24 hours or if it's 24 months or if it's 24 years. We don't know. But he's told us this is what's going to happen. We have an opportunity, and I have an opportunity as a pastor to hopefully warn you and say, "Listen, this doesn't have to happen for you. You don't have to be the one that is assigned a place with the hypocrites and torn in pieces where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth."

But the reality is many who come to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday just have it in their heads. It's just in your head; it's not real in your heart. How do you know it's real in your heart? Because it changes your life. That's how you know you can't be the same. Once you come to know Jesus, you're under new management. You've been bought with a price, and you cannot live the same way. If you try to live the same way as a true Christian, the Holy Spirit will convict your heart and say, "You belong to me. You can't do that anymore."

And you will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Listen, if you've never felt that, guess what? You've never been saved. And you don't want to roll the dice on your eternity. Because when the Master does come—and he is coming—three times in Revelation, chapter 22, he tells us, "Behold, I'm coming quickly. I'm coming quickly. I'm coming quickly." He is coming. And when he comes, he will reward the faithful and he will judge the faithless. You have an opportunity with the early edition to get your heart and life right with him. If you've never trusted Christ, today is the day.

Speaker 2

Are you ready to put your faith and trust in Christ alone to repent of your sin, to accept the gift that God is offering you in Christ? Just ask him. Ask him to save you and to be the Lord of your life. And when you do that today, you will have received Christ into your heart. The Holy Spirit will come in, and you will rejoice, and your life will be different. Your wants will be different. Your "I don't want to's" will be different. Join a Bible-believing church in your area and grow in your faith. Go to fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link for some resources to get you started in your Christian journey, and God bless you as you begin your new life in Christ.

Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, reminding you that From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, who believes that no matter how much you may have messed up in life, God still loves you and has a plan for your life. Find out about that when you go to fromhisheart.org.

On our website, we also have a small sampling of many real testimonies from real listeners all around the world, sharing the real fruit from this mission called From His Heart. We would also love to hear what you think about and how God has used this ministry to help in your daily walk. Go to fromisheart.org/real-testimonies and leave us your thoughts on the impact the teaching of Pastor Jeff has had on you. Thank you so very much.

When you're at our website, we hope you'll sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly Real Hope email Encouragement Devotional letter. You'll get that in your Friday morning inbox. The web address again is fromhisheart.org. Also, join us next time for the next lesson in Pastor Jeff's new series, "When the Son of Man Comes." It's the seventh message in the series called "The Wise and the Foolish." Here's part of what's to come.

Speaker 1

Jesus is speaking on the Mount of Olives to Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They asked him about end times.

And then in Matthew 25, he gives us three parables. The first parable is another emphasis on the fact that you don't know when he is coming.

So it's very important to be wise and not foolish.

Speaker 2

That's next time here on From His Heart.