The Great and Solemn Day

The kingdom we touched upon for
several weeks. We took a week off last week.
We took a week off two or three weeks ago. And so it’s been an
extended series of considering the kingdom of Christ. The series
that we called Thy Kingdom Come. We began nearly almost a month
ago, I suppose. We find ourselves once again
in the gospel of Luke and chapter 17. And if you would turn, I
want to return there to read the passage in its entirety. Luke, chapter 17, and we begin
in verse 20. Now, having been questioned by
the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming. He
answered them and said, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs
to be observed. Nor will they say, look, here
it is or there it is. For behold, the kingdom of God
is in your midst. And he said to the disciples,
the days will come when you will long to see one of the days of
the Son of Man and you will not see it. They will say to you,
look there, look here. Do not go away. Do not run after
them. For just like the lightning,
when it flashes out of one part of the sky and shines to the
other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.”
At first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by this
generation. And just as it happened in the
days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.
They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were
being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the
ark. And the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as
happened in the days of Lot. They were eating, they were drinking,
they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were
building. But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained
fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will
be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On
that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are
in the house must not go down and take them out. And likewise,
the one who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s
wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life
will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I
tell you that on that night there will be two in one bed. One will
be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women
grinding at the same place. One will be taken and the other
will be left. Two will be in the field. One
will be taken and the other will be left. Answering, they said
to Him, Where, Lord? And He said to them, Where the
body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.” We can pretty much determine,
as has been my position, that the attitude of the Pharisees
was one of contentiousness, was one of trying to challenge Christ,
to show Him up, to bait Him, as it were. And so the question
when they come to Him is not this innocent little question
that just asks, oh, when is the kingdom coming, Lord? In a sense,
it was a challenge. It was a doubtful comment. It
was a. It was it was meant to put Christ
on the spot. It was as if they were saying,
as I’ve said in weeks past, look, you keep talking about this kingdom,
you keep advancing the notion of this kingdom that is coming
upon the earth. So where is it? You would call
yourself a king. If so, what kind of a kingdom
is this ragtag band of followers that you have? Where is the kingdom?
And what it does is serve to give Christ an opportunity to
lay out one of the most complete statements of a description of
the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Christ. The kingdom of God. And Christ begins immediately.
Christ begins immediately laying out the characteristics of the
kingdom of God. And we’ve looked at them in times
past and just by way of review, the first thing that he tells
them, the first characteristic that he presents about the kingdom
is that it is going to be subtle. It is a subtle, almost imperceptible
kingdom. Look at verse 20. Having been
questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was
coming, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God is not
coming with signs to be observed. It’s distinctly possible you
can completely miss it. Not going to come with all this
pomp and fanfare as we’ve seen. They wanted to know when. And
Jesus tells them, not only is it possible that you may not
know when, you may miss the kingdom altogether. It is a subtle kingdom. It’s not going to come in with
all the flash and glitz of a Hollywood production. It is a subtle kingdom. But secondly,
not only is it subtle as we saw, it is a spiritual kingdom. Jesus
said in verse 21, nor will they say, look, here it is or there
it is. And that’s the tendency that
we have. We have a tendency to want to follow movements, even
we, the Pharisees wanted to follow a movement, even his disciples
at times wanted to follow a movement. They wanted to be on the side
that was winning. They wanted to have a big fanfare. They wanted a big political takeover.
The Jews certainly did. We follow much the same fads
in the church. When people say, here is the
latest. This is the latest. Follow this. Look, here it is. There it is.
Jesus says, no, it’s not that way at all. It’s not going to
come in some big physical manifestation because it’s a spiritual kingdom.
He says, behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. First
and foremost, it begins with you. begins in your heart by
a work of God, a blowing, remember in John chapter 3, a blowing
of the Spirit, the wind of the Spirit of God that we can’t determine
or pinpoint or predict. It’s a movement of God. It is
a spiritual kingdom. And thirdly, we saw the third
characteristic of the kingdom that is coming is that it is
going to be a surprising, kingdom. We spent some time on this one
point, because what Jesus does is give them three illustrations
of this very simple point that it is going to be a big surprise.
The first point that he the first reminder that he gave them is
this idea of lightning in the sky. There are those that are
going to come and say, come look over here. This is where Christ
is or look over here. This is where Christ is. And
Jesus says, don’t even bother. When the kingdom of God comes,
it’s going to be as lightning flashing from one end of the
sky to the other. In other words, you will not
be able to miss it. In an instant, it will be upon
us all. The East and the West, the dark
side of the globe and the bright side of the globe are all going
to find out about Christ in an instant. We’re not going to have
to resort to the Internet. We’re not going to have to wait
for an email. We’re not going to have to be paged, text messaged,
whatever. It will be there for everybody
in an instant. Look at verse 24. Just like the
lightning. That’s His first illustration.
That it’s going to be like a bolt out of the blue. We looked at how lightning functions. We looked at how quick it happens. How unpredictable it is. How sudden. That’s what Jesus
wants us to know about His return. It’s not like we can sit and
calculate and predict and sit back and gauge our lives and
measure and predict and calculate and determine that, well, I better
get things going because Jesus is coming back soon. We don’t
have that luxury for sloth. This is a second illustration.
In verse 26 it says, it will be just like in the days of Noah.
You know what gripped me about that passage, going back and
re-reading it? Imagine for the unbelieving world that first
drop of rain. It hadn’t rained. They’d never seen anything like
this. And here’s Noah building a boat, predicting this rain.
And all of a sudden, this first drop of rain. Can you imagine
when it hit? Can you imagine? I mean, they
didn’t have a tin roof, but can you imagine whatever it struck?
The sound that it made must have been deafening. They knew in
an instant that they had been surprised by the judgment of
God, and that’s exactly what Jesus says. The same exact scenario
in an instant. It’s over. God’s kingdom is upon
us. There is no more time to negotiate.
There’s no more time to run to church. There’s no more time
to come and to make things right and to repent. And to do all
those things that we should have done all the way along. I mean,
look at the suddenness of it. Some people are in the midst
of a meal. Some people are sipping a beverage. Some people are in the midst
of their marriage ceremony. And all of a sudden, just like
when those doors of the ark were closed, can you imagine the deafening
sound that that made? to the unbelieving world. Same
thing, Jesus says in his third illustration about Lot, the days
of Lot. They were eating. They were in
the midst of a meal. They were drinking. They were
buying. They were selling. They were
planting. They were building. And they were doing a lot of
sinning. And it says, in an instant, On that day that lot went out
from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone. Remember the description
of that. It’s like it’s like a gooey pitch
that is on fire and catches everything in its path on fire. Such as
brimstone. Fire and brimstone rained down
from heaven and destroyed them all, and Jesus says it will be
just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. I’m
sure that there was a commotion And that sinners and Sodom ran
outside to see what the commotion was. And in an instant. They
and everything in that town was cooked. Jesus says it’s going to be the
same exact thing, it’s going to be sudden, it’s going to be
surprising. But I said that there were five
characteristics, and if I’m going to get to number five this morning,
we must do number four. The fourth characteristic of
the coming kingdom of Christ is that it is severe. It is severe. Look at verse 31. On that day,
the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house
must not go down to take them out. And likewise, the one who
is in the field must not turn back. I love the perspective
that I heard from one pastor. He was talking about a wealthy
widow. And he said, do you know how
much her husband left her? I said, no, I don’t. And he said
he left her everything. It’s amazing what people think
that they can take. And the severity of this moment
is such that it causes everybody to stop what they’re doing in
an instant. This is the same severity that
we see throughout Scripture in all kinds of Scriptural scenes.
Imagine Uzziah in the ark. He had been commanded not to
touch the ark. And the ark starts to tip. And
most of us empathize with Uzziah who just reaches out and touches
the ark. It’s the same severity of God
that took Ananias and Sapphira who did something good They gave
a portion, but they gave pretending to give everything that they
had reaped from the sale of their land. They kept back a portion. You know what? Nowhere in Scripture
were they commanded to sell their land. It says in the book of
Acts that people were doing that. There was this magnanimous spirit.
that they were selling off their possessions and giving to anyone
who might have need. And Ananias and Sapphira wanted
in on that. And so they sold their land and
they gave this portion, but they pretended that it was everything
and that was their sin. And God was severe with them.
God severely dealt with them. He struck them both dead. And
that same severity is exactly what we see in this passage.
You’re not going to have time to run back into your house.
It’s going to be instantaneous. It is to escape with utter suddenness. You’re not going to have time
to call your friends. You’re not going to have time to go
gather up your earthly possessions, not even your photo albums. I have one thing after the children
are out of the house, if there’s time to run downstairs, I’m supposed
to grab the photo albums. We’re not going to have time
when the Lord comes back. Number one, you’re not going to need
the photo albums in eternity anyway. You’re not going to need
anything, no matter how precious. You’re not going to need anything.
Christ will be your all in all. Let me describe the rooftops. When it says the man who was
on the roof of his house, he’s not up there putting Christmas
lights. That’s the only cause that I have to get up on my roof
other than a Frisbee. But in the east, the houses have
these flat roofs. And in the evening, the cool
of the evening, that is a very common place to spend the cool
hours of the evening. And what it speaks about here
is one who is up on the roof of his house and there were two
ways down. One is the inner ladder and one
is the outer ladder that he could send down over the side of the
house. They very rarely kept the outer ladders down. because
of thieves. But in an instant, he could drop
the outer ladder and scamper down the ladder to safety. And
Jesus says, don’t go back in the house. Don’t use that inner
ladder. It’s amazing. I’ve heard in times past news
stories. Haven’t you? Such-and-such a
man. House is on fire. Rushed back
in to retrieve certain articles. something precious, something
special, beyond family, beyond even the household pet, some
little trinket, some treasure, some amount of money, perhaps,
only to perish in those flames. Jesus says you don’t have time
for that. You don’t have time to run back in the house. In
Matthew 24, in a very similar passage, but one speaking there
specifically to the Jews about the destruction of Jerusalem
that was coming. He said this, those who are in Judea in that
day must flee to the mountains, whoever is on the housetop must
not go down to get the things that are in his house. Do you
know the sense of urgency here? It’s the same sense of urgency
that Christ says the day that we hear the trumpets and it will
be unmistakable. We’re not going to think that
somebody has their stereo cranked. It will be unmistakable. We who
are Christians, we who know Christ will know it’s his return in
an instant. I mean, can you imagine the absurdity? Hear me out. You
know, and somehow we don’t know. Somehow we are going to know.
We who know Christ will know it’s His return. Can you imagine
the absurdity? Yeah, Jesus. Great to have you
back. Can you hang on just a few minutes
while I finish this project? Can you hold on while I gather
up a few things? Can you imagine the absurdity?
That’s what Jesus says. Don’t even think about it. Don’t
even think about going back into the house. Your flight to Christ
has to be prompt. It’s got to be immediate. You’ve
got to be ready to drop everything and have absolute indifference
to the world. Ready to leave all and everything
for Christ and Christ alone. And I ask you, Because even in
my own life, I wonder how I will respond in that moment. How will
you? Will you want to put Jesus on
hold? Will you want to plead with God for just another few
moments? You know, I’m right in the middle
of this program. Let me just check the score. Let me finish this phone call.
Let me go gather up my stuff. I mean, it’s just absurd, isn’t
it? It’s just absurd. And yet, in the instant that
it takes place, can you not imagine yourself stammering, pausing? Jesus warns us here against this
sinful, selfish attachment to worldly things. One person said it this way.
For those who seek their highest happiness in material things
and they fix their thoughts above them, on them, above all else,
the coming of the Son of Man will be fraught with fatal consequences. Do you know that there are some
people who claim to be Christians that in that instant will pause?
They will turn back to what they were doing. They will turn back
to their things. They will yearn for those things
that where they find their safety and their security and their
comfort. You think that I’m. Being farfetched in this, I am
and I’ve told people before, I am not a strict Sabbatarian,
I’m not going to tell people how that they are to honor God
on the Lord’s day. But if we have such a difficulty
honoring the Lord on the Lord’s Day, what makes us think that
we’re going to just run to Christ the day that we hear the trumpet
sound, the day that we know that he’s back? What makes us really
think if we can’t honor him on the Lord’s Day, what makes us
really think that we’ll honor him for eternity? In an instant,
drop whatever it is we’re doing to honor him. Jesus says it’s just like a man
up on the house. He tells him, don’t even go back
in the inside way. You don’t have that kind of time.
You don’t have that luxury. It’s a warning against that lingering
reluctance to go and embrace the one that we claim to love. And he uses a rather striking
illustration here, doesn’t he? Look at verse 32. Read it in its context on that
day, verse 31, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods
are in the house must not go down to take them out. And likewise,
the one who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s
wife. Oh, yeah, I remember her. Is that all Jesus is telling
us to do? No, he’s saying, remember the lesson from Lot’s wife, remember
what she did. Remember how she treated the
judgment of God, the severity of it, the suddenness of it.
Remember Lot’s wife and change your ways. What did Lot’s wife do? What
was so terrible about Lot’s wife? She just paused and looked back
over her shoulder and God, in some people’s mind, unfairly
judged her. Was it so unfair? Let’s look. Turn back, if you would, to Genesis
19. Genesis 19, we get the story
of the judgment of Sodom. We saw what provoked that two
weeks ago. The evil, sinful, sick desires
of these perverted men blindly knocking at the door trying to
gain access to Lot’s home. And then the angels proclaimed
judgment upon the land. We pick it up in verse 12. Then
the two men said to Lot, Whom else have you here? A son-in-law
and your sons and your daughters and whomever you have in the
city, bring them out of this place. Lot knew what was coming. For
we are about to destroy this place because their outcry has
become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to
destroy it. I believe that was the angel’s
purpose from the very beginning. And all they saw just confirmed
God’s judgment upon them. Lot went out, spoke to his sons-in-law
who were to marry his daughters and said, up, get out of this
place for the Lord will destroy this city. But he appeared to
his sons-in-law to be jesting. I think that’s what most parents
experience, don’t we? We give a command to our children
and we have that same appearance. When morning dawned, the angels
urged Lot, saying, Up, take your wife and your two daughters who
are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the
city. Remember, the mercy that they
are enjoying has been procured ahead of time by one named Abraham
on their behalf, pleading with God. God will not relent. He perseveres
in showing them mercy. But he hesitated. Can you imagine? Here you have the angels of God
telling you the judgment’s coming, and he hesitates. For whatever
reason. So the men seized his hand and
the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for
the compassion of the Lord was upon him. And they brought him
out and put him outside the city. And when they had brought him
outside, one said, escape for your life. That was the cry that
we used two weeks ago, wasn’t it? That’s the cry that God gives
to us. Escape for your life from this
evil world. Place your life and place your
faith in Christ. He said, escape for your life.
Do not look behind you. Do not stay anywhere in the valley.
Escape to the mountains or you will be swept away. But Lot said
to them, Oh no, my lords. Now, behold, your servant has
found favor in your side. You’ve magnified your loving
kindness, which you have shown me by saving my life. But I cannot
escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me
and I will die.” It was a practical situation. He didn’t think that
he could make it that far. And note the mercy of God. Now,
behold, this town is near enough to flee to and it is small. Please
let me escape there. Is it not small that my life
may be saved? He said to him, behold, I grant
you this request also not to overthrow the town of which you
have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until
you arrive there. Therefore, the name of the town
is called Zohar. The sun had risen over the earth
when Lot came to Zohar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom
and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants
of those cities and what grew on the ground. Do you imagine
the total destruction? God blotted it off the face of
the earth. Everything that even grew on
the ground was burned. And you have this dramatic pause. In verse 26, but his wife, We don’t have a whole lot of
detail. Scripture doesn’t lay out all that was in her heart.
It just says, but his wife, from behind him, looked back. That was enough. She had been
commanded not to look back. And in fact, the looking back
showed what was really in her heart, where her affections really
lay. She looked back. She became a pillar of salt. Some have suggested that perhaps
the look back was just one of curiosity. She heard this noise.
It must have been awful. I mean, barring the screams of
all the humanity, just the sheer sound of the fire and brimstone
raining fire out of heaven, it must have been horrific. Maybe
it was out of curiosity. Maybe it was out of unbelief.
The angel had told her not to look back. He had given her a
severe warning. Maybe she didn’t take him at his word. Maybe. Or maybe it was a desire for
all those things that she had left. Maybe it was, oh, I just had
my kitchen remodeled. Just had it remodeled. You know
what? It would be just like some of
us. You know what? Finally, in my house, all the wood in my
furniture is the same kind. It all looks pretty much the
same. Finally, after all these years,
and now this. Is it that far-fetched? Is it
that far-fetched to say that there might be some Christians
or some so-called Christians who glance back on the day of
Christ, pause, and instead of immediately running to embrace
Christ with whom they will be for eternity, They pause and
they look back to their things. They look back to their house.
They look back to their stuff. Is it that far fetched? I don’t
think so. Otherwise, why would Christ say this? Why would Christ
say, remember Lot’s wife? Remember the example of Lot’s
wife. I think she did look back, longing
to recover those worldly possessions. It was far more than photo albums.
It was things that was stuff. And in doing so, she proved herself
unworthy of this salvation that was offered her. She was attempting to flee from
Sodom, but her heart was still there. She was attached in her
heart to this doomed city and all the things in it. Not look back. was a look back
of saying, do I really have to say goodbye? Does it really have
to be destroyed? How sad was that, that in her
scale of values, essentially she placed earth above heaven. And as one said, she became a
monument to unbelief. And that’s why Jesus says to
His followers, says it to you and I. We should be so ready
for His return that our thoughts and our words and our deeds have
to be always ready to give Him preeminence in everything. And
in that moment, give no pause at all. No pause at all when we know that He has returned.
To immediately turn and bow before Him for all eternity. That wasn’t Lot’s wife’s approach. Perhaps she looked back and said,
you know what? Bruce is such a marvelous hairdresser. And
his partner, the designer, has such a way with color. Perhaps
she longed for those sinful relations that she had so long overlooked.
It wasn’t the way with Paul. Paul was ready to divide, to
be with Christ. This was a dreadful caution against
unbelief and disobedience and worldly mindedness that she embraced. Paul said, not me. For me to
live is Christ. And a lot of Christians will
say that. And yet, a lot of Christians in reality, that’s not the case. For them to live is not Christ. For them to live is Mercedes.
For them to live is Cancun or Bally’s or Club Med. For them
to live is to dine. For them to live is to party,
to indulge, to splurge. That was the case with Lot’s
wife. Jesus says in verse 33, whoever
seeks to keep his life will lose it and whoever loses his life
will preserve it. What he says there is that Lot’s
wife essentially was trying to preserve her lifestyle. And in trying to preserve that
lifestyle, she lost her soul. One said it this way, in the
present context, those who are represented as trying to hang
on to their life and losing it are the earthbound people of
Noah and Lot’s day, including Lot’s wife. And all those similarly
minded, the fact that they are indeed losers will become apparent,
especially on the day of Christ’s return. But what a sad, sad thing that they couldn’t see that they
were attempting in all the wrong ways to so-called preserve their
life. What does Jesus mean by these
words? To find life in the sense of the things that We can delight
in the here and now is to lose our lives, if that’s all we do.
It is to be rich in the things of the earth and poor towards
God, as we saw with the rich ruler. It’s interesting, this word to
lose can have the same meaning as destroy. It’s not just that we lose our
souls, lose our lives. We destroy them in the process
or in the pursuit of these things. You know, that’s that little
phrase is one of the most frequently repeated phrases in Scripture. Luke 9, 24, we saw it there.
Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever wishes
to whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will
save it. John 12, 25. He who loves his
life loses it. He who hates his life in this
world will keep it to life eternal. The bottom line question is,
which life are you trying to preserve and maintain? Eternal
life or this here and now so-called life that we have that is so
fleeting? Are we living like the envious Cain trying to hang
on to every little thing and critical of anyone around us
who may have more? Are we like the greedy Ahab and
Jezebel who only want more no matter how much we have? We want
more and more and more? Anybody who selfishly tries to
seek fulfillment and fullness in life and in earthly things
essentially estranges themselves from a holy God. and does so
for eternity. It’s amazing when you stand back
and look at this passage and you see that the grip that things
get on people’s lives. Remember Lot’s wife. There’s
a fifth characteristic of the Kingdom of God. Not only is the
Kingdom of God and the coming of the Kingdom of God subtle
and spiritual and surprising and severe, fifthly and finally,
it is separating. And there is a solemnness to
this fifth and final point. And it is by design. Look at
verse 34. I tell you that on that night
there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other
will be left. I mean, this talks about the
husband-wife relationship. The most intimate relationship
there is. Closer even than parent and child. There will be two women grinding
at the same place. Perhaps siblings, perhaps relatives,
perhaps just friends, close friends. It doesn’t matter. One will be
taken and the other will be left. There’s not a lot of textual
support for verse 36. It’s taken from another passage
of Scripture. Two men will be in the field.
One will be taken, the other left. The fact is the same. You
take two people, no matter what spheres of life you could find
them in. Work? So be it. Sleeping at night
in the bed? So be it. Grinding at the mill? So be it. You take two people,
no matter what spheres they’re in. And Jesus says, one will
be taken, the other will be left. Do you get the close intimacy
that there is at that day of the coming of Christ? How blended
together we’re going to be? It’s not this total takeover
that’s going to bring Christ back. And that these close relations
will do nothing for the one who does not love Christ. The husband-wife
relationship, we don’t know who was taken and who was left. Most often, it’s the wife who
is, more often than not in my experience, it is the faithful,
godly wife who has come to Christ and maintained a walk with Him
while the husband tubed in his spirituality if he ever had it
to begin with. There will be two women grinding
at the mill in the same place. Who knows what their relationship
is, but it’s close and in an instant, this separation takes
place. And it’s the selection, this
separation it is, that it immediately is going to break earthly relations,
even the most intimate. There’s going to arise basically
from that two new groups, two new societies, if you will. The
taken and the left. The believing and the unbelieving.
The saved and the unsaved. I mean, it’s a striking image
that those who are prepared for Christ’s return and those who
are completely unprepared for Christ’s return are going to
be completely blended together. And that this surprise is going
to catch them as such immediately. Whether they’re working or sleeping,
when the Son of Man appears, this complete and final separation
is going to take place. It will be brought about between
the faithful and the unbelievers. It’s a solemn point, this last
point. And it does give us cause to
plead with those who are family members and to plead with those
who are friends. Those with whom we work and those
that we love, those that we pray for. To plead with them, to put their
lives in perspective. To lay down the earthly things,
to set aside for a moment their earthly life in consideration
of life eternal. It’s a great call. To examine our hearts as to what
our priorities are. What kind of a kingdom we’re
looking for. Let’s pray. Lord God, We do pause and we
humble ourselves and Lord, our hearts ache. It is a bittersweet thing that
we consider the day of the Lord. It is a great day. There’s part
of us that rejoices and can’t wait for that day. And there’s
part of us that knows What a sad and sickening day it will be
for so many. It will be a day of being totally
and utterly surprised and to suddenly face judgment that they
knew was a possibility and now find to be an instant reality.
Lord, we do pray that You would open our eyes to the subtleties
of Your Kingdom Father, it will come upon us
just like the rest of the world. Indeed, as a surprise, that may
we be ready. May you tune our hearts to your
word and may we be found to be in your will and doing your will.
Being obedient to your commands and to your cause. That we would
not be caught off guard. Father, continue your work in
our lives, making us more Christ-like. Lord, we know the severity. We
know that we will not take a thing with us. We long to take our loved ones.
But even in that day, we must not give pause to turn and even
to attempt to grab the hand next to us. Because, Lord, it will be a day
of separation. Lord, we thank You and praise You for Your Word.
We thank You for the fact that Jesus, You on this occasion,
laid hold of the opportunity that was there to outline and
give to us one of the fullest accounts of the description of
Your Kingdom. Lord, make us to be faithful, as my brother John
said, in receiving and implementing Your Word into our lives. Grant
us that grace, Father. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray,
Amen.