Okay, well good morning everyone. Now if you could turn with me to Matthew 24. I will be reading verses 8-13 here. Starting from verse 8. The fool is said to the prudent, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." But the prudent answered, "No, there will not be enough for us, and you too.

Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves." And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, "Lord, Lord, open up for us." But he answered, "Truly I say to you, I do not know you.

Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." Alright, I'll pray for us. Heavenly Father, after a year like 2020, we've arrived here at our last Sunday, and we thank you. God, we can't help but give you worship and praise. Thank you that we can trust in a faithful God who never changes.

And Lord, I pray that as we look into your Word, we would remember who you are, we would remember the power of your Word, and Father, we would allow it. God, pass all the rebellion and stubbornness of our hearts to soak and sanctify into our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Alright, well, this is the last Sunday of 2020, and I was curious, I couldn't remember, but last year, the last Sunday of 2020, I actually preached as well, and I didn't realize it until I looked back to see what the topic was on last year. And it was pretty fascinating because, you know, it's the last Sunday of 2020, so what you can do is look back at the year and think through, like, "Man, what was the year like?" In 2019, there wasn't much, but you kind of had to dig to look into some of the world events that happened.

This year, you know, it's pretty self-explanatory. There's a lot that happened, and I'm going to do the obligatory thing. I'm going to kind of draw our attention again to some of the things, I'm not going to go very long, some of the things that happened this past year. It was a year filled with protests, political turmoil.

We turned on the TV to see cities on fire. We saw notable deaths of famous people, among which were a few Christian giants. Wildfires, many of you were displaced from your homes because of these wildfires. There's explosions and killings. And obviously, the thing that probably rises to the surface of all of this is the global pandemic, COVID-19.

That's the craziest thing. 2020 really, really has been a crazy year, right? It's been so crazy that it's become a meme. For those of you who don't know what a meme is, it's this thing where it's a picture and then, like, people, like, describe something with this picture. And 2020 has become a description of sorts.

When people think about the year 2020, if you haven't noticed, people kind of get angry. Or if something bad happens, people yell out, "2020!" It's kind of funny, right? It doesn't really make sense, but people are like, "Oh, my gosh, only in 2020, this will happen." It's because this year has been so wild.

Because of this, though, I think, knowingly or unknowingly, we're looking forward to the turn of the calendar year. You know what I mean? As if, like, 2020 coming in is going to actually change something. It's not, right? It's not going to change anything. It's an arbitrary date in the calendar.

It's just something that's there. And then once 2021 comes, it doesn't mean that anything's going to change. Everything will continue to tick on. But I understand. 2020 was just so difficult. There are so many hard things going on that, from a worldly perspective, we want things to change. If you think back, especially at the month of March, when it felt like the whole world flipped upside down, when everything was beginning to shut down, we're all sheltering in place, a word that comes to mind, a favorite of Berean is this word "soberness." And what a sobering time it actually was.

It was so sobering. It put life into perspective. Really just one swing of things and the entire world was brought to its knees. And this virus, it's unseen by the naked eye, right? It's so small. And really, it just brought devastation. It flipped everything upside down. For many of us, as we sat in our rooms trying to work from home, and we had our frontline workers, we had our healthcare workers, among whom we need many prayers for them now, but besides them, many of us found ourselves working from home.

And I remember talking to people and thinking, "Wow, people sound very sober right now." And people would talk about their lives and how everything has slowed down and how everything was a little quieter and the time with the Lord for the first time in many, many months, maybe even years, it was so sweet.

I mean, I don't know if you kind of relate with that, but that time, that March, April, May, there were a lot of people who had just sweet times in the Word, in prayer, in trust, in faith. I mean, life is so crazy, it's so hectic, that finally you get to this point where everything slows down and you can't meet with people.

It felt kind of good. I had a friend, he had a phrase that he used to use a lot, it was like, "It hurts so good." I think that was very good, you know? It hurts so good. It felt good to feel that sobriety and that awareness and that perspective change and that sharp kind of jab of the reality of the world.

It felt good, right? And so for Christians, it was actually a great time. It was really good. To feel the brittleness and the feebleness of our own existence was good. It felt good. The reality of a sovereign God who reigns over the world was brought into spotlight. And so something that we can espouse so easily and so quickly about, like, oh, God is sovereign, God is good, God is in control, He is the King.

He is authoritative over all things. Nothing comes to pass but by His Word. But we stare at something so life-changing and we realize how far we are from the things that we would espouse. And it was good. Before we lived under the illusion that we are actually somewhat in control of our own destinies and talk of a sovereign God became very lip service.

And I think during that time, many of us began again to truly desire the coming Kingdom. Wow, this world is broken. I think many of our prayer lives were restored and rejuvenated. We were taking time to behold the Lord and it was really just a good time. And so as we think back at 2020 and as we think about everything that's been happening, my hope is that today as we go into a couple passages, or I mean a couple points, we're gonna be jumping around in a lot of passages, but that it would be an opportunity for us to think again about whether the soberness that came with the pandemic is still with us or now, where are our eyes?

Or to think about now, where have our attentions again gone? Where before it brought soberness and clarity and a desire again for God to return, is that the case? Even just this morning, when you think about yourself right now, is that the case? So I'm gonna take us through two points and these two points are gonna be pretty simple ones.

The first point is that the Old Testament people were waiting for the coming King. The Old Testament people were waiting for the coming King. And then the second point is very similar to that, it's we similarly are waiting for the coming King. So as this pandemic, like that broke us out of the pedestrian type of thinking and living, now if you think about how we're living now, I think we've gone back into that.

Like normalcy kind of occurs. And so there was a time when these things weren't a thing, right? You go into a supermarket and see everyone wearing a mask and you'd be like, "What is this? What world have we come into?" And so now you go into a supermarket, it's just, "Oh, everyone's just doing it," right?

Everything just kind of goes back to normal way of life. So our eyes just kind of go back to like, "Oh, this is life." And we try to make this world again something palatable to us. And so this first point, the things that we think about, the soberness that we're called to and the coming of a King and the coming of a kingdom is actually something that's been happening all through the Bible.

And so if you look at Christmas, for example, I mean, that's the whole point of Christmas is that there was a people called the Israelites who were waiting for the Messiah King to come, the promised King. And this Messiah King was supposed to bring in a coming kingdom. I mean, Israelite history is so fascinating because there are all these prophecies of this Messiah to come.

It's just chapter after verse after passage. It's all over the place. Starting with Adam and Eve, God promises that a singular seed, which is the Messiah, would come from Eve. With Abraham, He promised that a singular seed would come up out of his lineage, which is Jesus, the Messiah.

And God actually promised Abraham that there would be a great people that come out of you, and there's going to be a great king, and he's going to usher in a great kingdom. So when King David comes into the picture, it looks like maybe this is it. It looks like maybe God is, maybe this is actually the Messiah.

Not from the line of Judah, coming in to help us conquer the promised land. But even during the heyday of Israel, the golden age of Israel, during the time of King David, King Solomon, and you know it can't be it because there's so much sin. There's so much brokenness during this time.

And this current of constantly wanting to make this world it, wanting to look for a savior that's going to come and make this kingdom the one that we're living for, it's just been all over the place. But quickly we know that that can't be it during the time of David.

Because Assyria comes in and conquers the northern kingdom. Babylon comes in and conquers the southern kingdom. These kingdom after kingdom after kingdom comes in and takes over, and we're like, "Oh, that wasn't it. King David wasn't it. That wasn't the Messiah. That wasn't the Messiah who was supposed to come in and usher in the kingdom." And so Israelites again are brought to that place where it's just, "He's coming.

The king is coming. He's going to usher in the kingdom. Wait for him. Look for him. Don't establish yourself where you are." Especially when they're in the exile, right? Don't establish yourself where you are. Wait, look to his coming, to the salvation that he'll bring to the people. Don't get tempted by the world.

Turn away from sin and idolatry. Remain faithful to God. Put your trust in him. All of that stuff was for the Israelites. But this is very applicable to us because these promises of a coming king continued. I mean, these promises of a king that's supposed to come, we find it in multiple passages.

If you look at Isaiah 7.14, it says, "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." Micah 5.2, "But as for you, Bethlehem Epiphtha, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

From you, one will go forth from you to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." And so it's promise after promise. These are just three prophecies, three passages, but it's given to Israel saying he's coming. The Messiah's coming. The king is going to come.

He's going to bring in a kingdom. These Israelites are waiting, and they're waiting, and they're waiting. So during this time of Christmas, it's really awesome. It's a beautiful time to remember that he actually came, that the prophecies were actually fulfilled, that the Messiah actually came to do what he was purposed to do.

These Israelites weren't too different from us. They too were waiting for a king. A promised Messiah would bring the salvation, who was supposed to take them home. I mean, when we see how the Israelites were living, it's very, very applicable to us. But I think that's what's terrifying. This is what's really scary about that, is that the Israelites were waiting for the king.

Are you catching where we're going with this? They were waiting. Their entire culture was about waiting for the Messiah to bring in the coming kingdom. I mean, they were serving, they were sacrificing, they were worshipers of ... They were the chosen people of God. They knew that. These Israelites, many of them are crying out to God for him to come.

This is scary, because why? When Jesus comes, they kill him. How does that happen? How do you make that jump? An entire civilization of people waiting for the coming Messiah, waiting for the kingdom of God to come, Yahweh worshipers, that when the Messiah that they're waiting for, prophecy after prophecy after prophecy, text after text after text, waiting, waiting, waiting, that when he comes, they kill him.

That jump is just astronomical, right? How does that happen? In John chapter five, verse 39, it says, Jesus says, "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me, so that you may have life." How is it that they can't recognize the one they're living for?

Their entire lifestyle, everything about their life was supposed to be waiting for this king to come. What happened? Furthermore, when Jesus comes, after years and years and years of anticipation and expectation and suspense and a hope, when he finally comes, it's murder. Crucifixion. This happens because it reveals something about the human heart.

This isn't just the Israelites. This reveals something about the human heart. See, these Israelites are waiting and looking for a Messiah king of their own making. These Israelites, they were looking for a Messiah king who would deliver them to everything their hearts desired. When the Messiah king did not look like the king they wanted or the king they expected, they didn't just grumble and complain and unwillingly, grumblingly follow God or follow Jesus.

They didn't just say, "Oh, man, this wasn't what I expected." They didn't just push Jesus aside and ignore him. What was the response? It was murder. That's what the human heart does. That's what the sinful person does. When the promised Messiah king finally arrived into the world, their reaction completely exposed the desires of their hearts and how far they were from God.

A simple definition of sin means to miss the mark. Now, the Israelites missed the mark. What they did to Jesus was this tangible, concrete example of what sin is and what sin does and what sin accomplishes. Oh, you missed the mark. Look at this prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 53.

It says, "For he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground. He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him." This picture of Jesus being unattractive is not just being like, "Oh." First of all, it's not just talking about his physical appearance.

That's not what this is talking about. It's that people are just unattracted to the man. But when you think about that, you're like, "Okay." But when you think about that, what about Jesus was particularly unattractive? He isn't unattractive, right? He healed people. He miraculously fed people. He loved people so much and he preached others to love people.

He was gentle and kind to the poor. He helped the disenfranchised. He was a great teacher. He taught to love. When people think of Gandhi, I don't think of anyone hating the guy. I don't think of anyone saying, "What an unattractive dude. I don't like his message." No, actually, when we go evangelizing around the campus at UCI and different places, you talk to people and people say, "Who's Jesus?" He was a good teacher.

He was a pretty like, I mean, I know he's a loving guy, good morals. But this passage in Isaiah 53 is talking about like, "Man, he's unattractive." There's actually something repelling about the man. So what is it? What causes a person to look upon Jesus and be repelled? Well, if it's a Jesus of your own making, it's not repelling.

But if it's Jesus as who he is, it's incredibly threatening to the sinful heart. There is something inherent about Jesus that sinful man hates through and through. You know why? When Jesus comes, he's the king. You know how threatening that is? He's the Lord. He's God. Everything centers around him.

You know how threatening that is to the sinner? When he stepped into the world, it demanded recognition that everything is about God and life can only be found in God, that everything is about God's glory. You see, sinners cannot accept Jesus Christ who is here to make our lives better, right?

Sinners cannot accept the Jesus Christ who says that life is not about me, but that it's about him. Sinners can't accept someone who says that life is about his glory and not my glory. I mean, we can sit here and use Christian terms all we want, but man, the glory that we desire in sinfulness, sinners will murder the one that threatens that, even ultimately God himself.

Sinful man will be repelled by Jesus. Sinful man will hate him, see him as an enemy, a threat, and a danger to the very way they want to live. We all have definite shapes of what we want our life to look like. We all have ambitions. We all have goals.

When we come in here and we say, "Man, where are my eyes fixed? I want them to be fixed up in heaven where Jesus is and not on the things of this world. I want to seek the things above and not the things of this world. I want to seek the heavenly things and the kingdom things and not the things of this kingdom and the things of this world because we know they're passing away." Nice.

But when we really look at where our eyes are, when we really look at where our ambitions are and our desires, where they lay, I mean, it doesn't have to be I want a mansion and a Lamborghini. It looks probably more like I want my student loans paid off and a girlfriend, but it's still just everything revolving around me.

While desires themselves are not always wrong, while they are not always the culprit, many times if you take a good stare at your desires, if you evaluate what's going on in your heart, you can see how quick we are to ascend to that throne and to kick God off that throne.

See, that kind of sinful living is not me just grumbling and complaining and just going along with God. That's not just pushing Him aside or ignoring Him. That kind of sinful heart is closer and more representative of what sinners were doing to Jesus on the cross. We don't like to think that pushing God off the throne of my little heart is that bad.

I'm here to humbly say that what humanity does in sin is more than pushing God off the throne. The desire is actually for murder. It's for God's nonexistence. If I call attention back to Isaiah 53, I mean, just one simple thing of hermeneutics, just look at the pronouns. And that word "we" is actually very heavy.

It says in Isaiah 53, "We did not esteem Him." Not they, but we. This is Isaiah talking here. It's "We did not esteem Him." When we read this understanding that this is talking about the cross, and that's what happens right after this passage, right? The Messiah on the cross.

He's just talking about the crucifixion through which Jesus would go on our behalf. So when we read this passage rightfully, we look at it and it's very intimate to us. Yes it's for the Israelite first, but then it is also for us. We did not esteem Him. We sing about it.

We sing about it this morning. "Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed I heard my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished." See this is the desire of every sinful heart. Not just to turn and to grumble and push God aside, but it's to nail Him to a cross.

Every sinful heart. That's what that is. That's why the Israelites, they were living for the Messiah. They were waiting for the Messiah. Crying out for the Messiah and when He came, He did not look like what they wanted. He came in declaring, "I am God." That was incredibly threatening to them.

The Messiah did not fulfill their deepest desire to make life better for them, for them to ascend to the supremacy of the throne. And so they killed Him. And so this brings us into the pivot of our second point. Similarly, we are waiting for the coming King. Now we've been talking about Israel, but obviously this is so close to us.

Just like the Israelites were waiting for the Messiah to come, we're similarly doing the same thing. And this is where our passage today comes in. We're going to start from verse 1 here, Matthew 25. So if you could turn there, Matthew chapter 25 verse 1. It says there, "The kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps." So in this story, there are ten virgins, and you could think about them as bridesmaids. That's probably the best parallel we have with that.

It was customary to have a pretty extended patrol period before the actual wedding was supposed to happen. And so later on, the groom would come, and people would be waiting for the groom to come to receive him so that the groom could go to the bride and take her.

That was the custom of the day. These bridesmaids would line up in anticipation of this groom to come, but they would not know when he was supposed to come. They just knew he was supposed to come soon, and that's it. It could take a long time. The road could be pretty perilous.

There could be, you know, natural disasters that occurred or storms that happened so that it would impede their path and things like that, and so they didn't know. So this is the setting in verse 5. It says, "Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.

But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps." So what happens here is all ten fall asleep, and there's no judgment pronounced on the women for falling asleep. That's important. We're in First Thessalonians as a church right now, right?

We're not supposed to fall asleep. That's not the point of this passage. They all fell asleep. They don't harp on the ten saying they should have been awake the entire time. The reality is, even though we know Jesus is supposed to come soon, it doesn't mean that we're supposed to sell everything and then quit our jobs and then we all sit out there in the courtyard and wait for Jesus to come.

We're not going to do that, right? Because we don't know when he's going to come. We're called to continue to live our lives. And so it was similar to them. The point was that they were supposed to be prepared for the coming. And so when the bridegroom comes in the middle of the night, all of them wake up, all ten of them, and they all go out to meet him.

And then as they're going, they're all trimming their lamps. We know from verse two, even though it's all, all, all. These words, if you look at the text, it's all, all of them are doing this, all of them are doing that. But verse two, it showed us that there are two groups of people, right?

Five were foolish, five were prudent. When I would think of this parable, I would think, like, my mind would try to fill in the blank because we try to identify. That's what it automatically does. We try to identify what made the prudent the prudent, what made the foolish the foolish.

And there were a couple ways I went. First, I thought maybe it's because they all fell asleep. Well, but that can't be it because they all fell asleep, and even the five wise fell asleep. And so it can't be them, it can't be that. And secondly, I thought maybe it's because they let the lamp go out or close to going out.

But it can't be that either because they all got up and they all realized their lamps were running low, and they all trimmed their lamps. In verse three is where it helps us to identify why five were wise and why five were foolish. The conjunction four is very helpful there if you look at verse three.

It says, "Four, when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil and flasks along with their lamps." That four gives us the evidence judging why some were called foolish and why some were called wise. They weren't foolish because they fell asleep.

They weren't foolish because they let the lamp go out. They were called foolish because they did not prepare extra oil. That's why. The wise ones had prepared extra oil. The foolish ones did not prepare extra oil. That's it. Those preparation. That's what differentiates the wise and the foolish, preparation.

And what is the significance of this? Well, it's that the prudent were prepared to meet the bridegroom. The foolish were not prepared to meet the bridegroom. And what this does is it brings exposure to the heart. That's what this does. Preparation brings exposure to the heart. Remember, they look exactly the same.

They dressed in proper clothing. They're anticipating the same bridegroom. They're holding their lamps. They're ready to receive him and light the way. They all fall asleep because it takes a while. And when he comes, they all get up, trim their lamps, and rush over. But it says that five were not ready.

What does that say about their heart? I think this is the point right here, okay? What does this say about their heart? They didn't care. I think that's the whole point. Not being prepared showed that they did not care about the coming of the bridegroom. The problem wasn't their action at his arrival, or rather their inaction.

It was that long before his arrival, he didn't prepare. See, unpreparedness is the mark of a person who doesn't care. They had no desire for the bridegroom's arrival. You know how you know? Just look at your life. When you care about something, think about how much you prepare. And when you don't care about something, think about how you prepare.

I took out most of my examples for today because the sermon was going to go too long. I'm going to keep this one. I still play fantasy basketball with my old students from my old church. And they prepare. Man, they have like draft boards. One of my old students had like six different boards.

I'm sorry if you don't know basketball, but if one person gets taken at the top of the draft board, then what happens is they move on to their next draft board. It changes their entire plan. And if another guy gets taken, then they'll move to the next draft board.

And in their minds, they're thinking, if this person gets taken, then I'm going to choose this person, and things like that. And I love it because I don't prepare at all, and I still beat them every year. So it shows how much they care. If you don't care, you just kind of stroll in and just do your thing, right?

But some of you guys, I heard that fantasy basketball became an idol to some people at our church. Joking, kind of not joking, right? But when you look at it, you're like, man, that preparation you put into that. Why? Because you care. If you didn't care, there's no preparation that would happen.

Have you ever seen someone get ready when they're going to be in contact with somebody they like? Sometimes I think about, oh, maybe this isn't good to say. Oh, it's okay. Bam for six. There's bam for six. And I just think, it'd be funny, right? Your roommate, you know your roommate is going out to bam for six, and this roommate of yours likes this one other person.

Maybe this is not good to do. Anyway, but when you see this person taking care of themselves and putting every hair in place, you're like, what's the matter with you? What are you doing? You never do that. It's because they're preparing. Why? Because they care. Have you seen someone really desire a job and get ready for a job interview?

Have you ever seen someone? Man, they're like in front of the mirror, and they're getting themselves all ready. They have like paper after paper after paper all written down in these collated notes. If they say this, I'm going to do this. Oh, I know they're going to come up with this question.

And then here's 10 possible questions they might come up with, even though none of them might come out in the interview. They're so prepared versus the person who just kind of saunters into the job interview. And you know, they just sit down. You know they're not prepared. Why? Hey, do you even care about this job?

I mean, that correlation between preparedness and caring is very intimate. It's very close. When you care about something, you always prepare. And when someone doesn't prepare, it brings exposure to their heart that they don't care. So these five foolish women, they're exposed. When Jesus arrives, they're exposed. They weren't prepared.

Would it have been that difficult to procure the oil earlier on in the day? Would it have been that difficult for them to go into town and purchase it and have it ready? The answer is no. And so these five foolish ones, exposed at the moment when it says, "The bridegroom has arrived," they turn quickly to the five wise.

Look at verse 8. "The foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the prudent answered, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you two. Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut.

Later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open up for us.' But he answered, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'" And here's the exhortation, "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." You see, the five foolish can't take the oil from the five wise.

So five wise are like, "Hey, you got to get your own," and rightfully so, right? They need enough to receive the groom. They need all of it. It's for him. And so we understand it is on each individual's plate. It is each personal person's responsibility to account for their own hearts.

And these five, the moment they realized they needed oil, it was already too late for them. It was done. It already exposed something of the past, and the door closed. If you're familiar with the book of Matthew, it's all about the kingdom. It's all about the coming king. It talks about this is what the kingdom looks like, and so everything else is not that.

And so this is what kingdom people look like. Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, when it starts with Beatitudes, is telling you what the kingdom people look like. This is what the kingdom of God looks like. You will be either prepared or you will be unprepared. That's it.

That's how you can identify. That's how you can see where you are. And I'll show your heart. So when we look back at the OT Israelites, and we think, "Man, they completely missed it. When he came, they killed him." There is a danger of us being in a similar place, where we look like the wise, but we ourselves are actually foolish.

You might say that you're waiting for the coming Messiah king. You might say that you're prepared to go, that this world is passing away. You can say so many things that look so similar to what Christians ought to say. All of us would say we're waiting for the coming king.

But when he comes, we will be exposed. There will be no hiding on that day. And those who aren't ready will be exposed. That they actually have no desire for the king, and they never had any desire for the king. They're unprepared. So when Jesus comes again, many will be in panic mode.

Many will try to do the action of what they were supposed to do, but it will be too late. Because it's not that moment that matters. It's the heart that's presented in that moment. If there's an uncaring heart that has no love for the coming king, way prior to his arrival, it was just a matter of time.

Jesus could have come a month earlier, it would have been the same. Jesus could have come a month later, it would have been the same. It's not for, if I had just a little bit more time. We see that with the story of this Lazarus, right? This guy, if I just had more time, man, maybe I would have, but it's too late.

He finds himself in a place where it's too late. The time when he comes will only be an exposure to what already exists in our hearts. Unprepared people have no love for God. And so when he comes, they will panic, they will run around, they'll look for excuses. In actuality, he is unattractive to them.

They want him off the throne. They want to be on that throne. And judgment awaits. I'm going to take a look at 2 Peter 3 here, verse 8. It says, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promises, some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance." See, this time period that we're living in right now is a time of grace. It was never meant to be eternal.

And we sing these songs like, man, God's loving kindness, it never fails, his enduring love, all this kind of stuff. And for the believer, it's true. But for this world, it is not true. This world, we're existing in a ticking time bomb. If you've ever seen an hourglass with sand, it's already numbered how many, it's going.

And when that thing is done, it's up. That's it. And so it says here that this time is actually meant to bring people to repentance. I mean, it has a sense of this urgency that like when we're talking to people about this, it's not like, wow, God is good and gracious and loving and merciful and like that's it.

It's like all this stuff, yes, but hurry. That's why in the verse right after this in verse 10, it says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief." Yeah, it's slow right now. God's patience is long-lasting right now, but then when he comes, thief. It'll be right away.

It'll be sudden in which the heavens will pass away like a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its work will be burned up. That means everything that we see, gone. Everything that we're working for, just gone. It'll be sudden. This is what God has always, when we say God or Christ, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He never changes. We say, "How can God's kindness and grace and mercy upon this humanity ever change?" It's not that it ever changed. He never changed. He's always said, "I am going to return." He's always said, "Judgment will come." Judgment was always the end. Today, we can be so certain that tomorrow will come, but we can't be mistaken.

No one knows the time or the hour. 2 Peter 3 continues in verse 11, "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat, but according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." I love this.

You know what word I love a lot in this passage? In verse 12, "looking for and hastening." I love the word "hastening" because it has more—I feel like it has more oomph than like just looking for something. It's kind of the way my kids, like my 5-year-old and my 3-year-old are more aware of Christmas and all that kind of stuff.

So for the first time, my firstborn was trying to like hype up and get like my secondborn all excited about Christmas. And she would do that. She'd be like, "Four more days! Three more days!" We went to Home Depot like a long time ago, and then we made that thing where those blocks they change and you count down the days until Christmas.

And they were doing that every single day, like, "Three more days!" And then two days before Christmas, she got up and she's like, "Daddy!" And she was laughing by herself. I'm like, "What is the matter with you?" And then like she was—she was saying, "I'm so excited because tomorrow I'm going to wake up and say tomorrow is Christmas." I'm like, "What?

That's so weird." I'm like, "Wow, that anticipation though. I mean that's like hastening. I can't wait!" You know, it's like someone that's like, "Dude, chill out. I wanted to say that so many times. Like, calm down!" Those of you guys who have young children or have had young children, you remember, like, "Dude, calm down." For no reason, they're so excited, they just start running around the house.

Like, man, why do kids run? It's so weird. You don't see adults doing that. They're just running around the house. They're just, "I can't wait! I can't wait!" And this passage is talking about this desire. It's not just like, "Oh my gosh, the end is going to come. I'm scared." You know?

It's like, "I can't wait for it to come!" And there's this note of finality in this. When it comes, it's done. Pastor Peter, as he's been preaching through Hebrews 9, in verse 27, he read this, "In as much as it's appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him." Again, there's a lot to unpack there, but just to highlight, "Those who eagerly await Him." I love the word "eagerly." Are you eager?

But the point is here, it's just once. And once you're there, there is no second chance. That's it. It's like the parable. You go to buy the oil and it's too late. You miss His coming. J.C. Ryle says this, "Tomorrow is the devil's day, but today is God's. Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are or how holy your resolutions, if only they are determined to be done tomorrow, because tomorrow may not come." And it's exposing something about your heart today anyway.

That day is final. In Ecclesiastes 9, verse 12, I thought this was a good picture. "Moreover, man does not know his time. Like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared in an evil time when it suddenly falls on them." That word "suddenly." It's this fish that's swimming around, eating whatever food it could find, floating around in the ocean, but one day it eats the wrong one and then it's caught and then his life is over.

There is no second chance. There's a finality to it. And the fish knows when he's sitting there on the fisherman's boat. That's it. The word "suddenly." It means unexpected. Back to 2 Peter 3, look at verse 1. "This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words," listen to that, "you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior, spoken by your apostles.

Know this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep and all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.'" It's not the same, but I kind of get the feel of when the people are killing Jesus on Calvary and they're saying, "Who's going to save you?

Save yourself," challenging him. It says, "In the last days," he's not around, he's not coming, all is continuing. And verse 5, "For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." I mean, the people just look and laugh. The scary thing about this passage is that these people are people who believe in God and they're saying, "Where is he?" I was watching this movie, I highly don't recommend it, it's called 2012.

It's a movie about the end of the world. But there's this one picture in the middle of it that was kind of funny. It's a homeless man saying the end is near. And then it's in the beginning of the movie before anybody really, I think this was 2012, anyway, it's in the beginning of the movie before anyone realizes that the world is coming to an end.

You know the beginning of a movie where they do character development? It's that. And you're like, the foreboding, the eeriness of it, everything seems so normal, but you know that the movie is called 2012, it's the end of the world then. And so you know, right? And so they're just walking by this homeless man, the end is near.

Prepare to meet thy maker, that kind of thing. And he's being shown as a crazy man, right? Holding up this sign, like, "Prepare to meet thy maker." What's so wrong with that sign? Isn't that a great sign? Isn't that such a truthful sign? But the reality is, later on, when everything starts going crazy, it's like all these storms, waters come, tsunamis and earthquakes and stuff.

You see that? You see in the middle of all the chaos, the homeless man just standing right there in the middle, just holding that sign. I shouldn't be laughing at it, but it's kind of funny, you know? It's like, "Oh!" Because when we see clearly, like, yeah, like when we see the world being torn apart, it's like, "Oh!" That's what we see in the book of Revelation.

But you know what's so crazy about the stubbornness and the rebellion of sinful hearts is that in the middle of that, they still refuse to bow the knee before God. It's not worth time. That would have changed anything about unbelieving hearts. This day will come suddenly. Matthew 25 is in the middle of the Olivet Discourse when Jesus is talking about the end time.

And the point is clear because of the repetition in the Olivet Discourse. And chapter 24, verse 36, "But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Verse 42, "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." Verse 44, "For this reason, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think you will." Verse 50, "The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him at an hour which he does not know." The word is, the word I think we can captivate here is suddenly.

You don't know when it's going to come. I realized coming up out of that initial time of quarantine back in April, a lot more people seemed ready. It felt, I was very encouraged until I realized a couple months later, oh, things go back to normal. I mean, we know that about our lives, right?

When something crazy happens in our life, there's some, we get stricken with some illness or disease and like, whoa, and you start living soberly. But soon after that, things go back to normal. We know that. We go to a funeral and we're like, oh my gosh, I have to change the way I live.

And we leave the funeral and after a while, we're like, we're going right back to what we were doing. It just happens. And it's crazy that a worldwide pandemic hit us and months later, we're like, just, it became normal again. We just have to wear a mask and be careful.

And when we lose clarity, we again begin to put our sights on things where we once again, we're like, man, this is sweet time. I can't wait for Jesus to return. And now again, we're thinking like, man, I can't wait for the restaurants to open so I can eat.

I've heard this term light at the end of the tunnel so many times. Like, what light? I've seen pictures of people getting vaccines and the whole room sobbing as if this is their salvation. To the unbeliever, this thing will not save them. God light, like the end will come and the end comes.

And people think like, oh, like where's God or I'll do it tomorrow or I don't know, you know, like just, I'll just continue to living in that. I don't know. I don't think the bridesmaids are waiting for the groom to come or like living all like, you know, like, what do you call that?

Like with malicious intent and all that kind of stuff. I think they were just kind of living their lives going like, ah, I should be ready. And as they went, like it just hit them. For any unbelieving person that's listening today, it will come. And what are you going to do when you meet your maker?

There is no light at the end of the tunnel at that point. We cannot live in simple anticipation for our world to go back to the way it was because at the end, the world is promised to be consumed. To conclude, I realized as I studied this passage, the final, for a final application point, just one, because this is the last sermon of the Sunday sermon of the year.

I'm sorry that it's a little bit heavier, but I thought like it was just so like good thinking about the past year. Here's the final application point. I think the temptation is going to be to look at this and try to identify who I am. Am I the wise or the foolish?

I think that's going to be the temptation. Can I ask you today not to try to just sit there and as a final application to identify who you are, but actually to take this as an exhortation. So not identification, but exhortation. Do you know what I mean by this?

Not to sit there and say like, "Man, I'm living like I'm a fool. I think I might be a foolish person or I think I'm a wise person." You're trying to convince yourself one way or the other. Instead of doing that, the whole point is he's coming soon. So prepare.

There's no reason to live in guilt here. There's no reason to look back and go like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so terrible because of this and that." No, no, no, the point is here like if you hear his voice today, then listen. Let this week be different. Wake up tomorrow and say, "This world is passing away.

I'm not going to live for it. I can't wait for Christ to come." Just do that. In Hebrews 2 and 3, when it talks about today if you hear his voice, "Do not harden your hearts as in the time of the wilderness." It's that. You don't have to sit there and be like, "Oh, just continue to live in the past." Just like today if you hear the voice, listen.

It's a lot simpler than we make it where sometimes we think like we have to do something to our hearts like, "No, no, no, it's just obey. It's just surrender." I wanted to leave that as the final exhortation. Because at the end as we usher in, I'm really excited for the New Year's Eve service.

Even though it's going to be online, I'm very excited for the coming year. Even though the arbitrary calendar date changing, whatever, right? But still, it's a time to really reflect together. I love that. I love New Year's because we can reflect together. I think there's power when Christians collectively as a body unified do it together.

Let's live for that kingdom. As opposed to all of us just living our own lives, trying our best to, you know. Thank you. All right, let me break.