Am I Ready for Christ's Return

I used to teach a big Sunday school class in a big Baptist church, and one year I taught a series on the last days. Back then, I was a big Clarence Larkin fan, and I had all his books with his charts and diagrams of the end times that he wrote in the 1930s. And I would draw out on a chalkboard of the Sunday school class a timeline of all the events of the last days, and I taught it with utmost certainty.

But now, I'm more concerned about my disposition than I am my dispensations, but I know for a fact, friend, that Christ will return. And I must ask myself, and you must ask yourself the following question. Am I ready for Christ's return? Is my hope in the blessed hope, or my eyes upon the skies, like the song says in the midnight cry, I can almost hear the trumpet sound? Eschatology is the study of the end times, the final events of world history.

And whatever your theological stance is, whether you are pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib, whether you are pre-millennial or amillennial, or you're just a young millennial who says, who cares? You must agree, friend, that Christ is coming again. And to live in the end times as we are living in these last days now, and to pay no mind to it, is just plain ignorance or stupidity. Wait a minute, preacher, did you just call me ignorant and stupid? No, sir, I said you were one or the other.

As believers, we are exhorted by God's word to watch and be prepared for Christ's imminent return. Because God's word declares in 1 Thessalonians 5.2, the day the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. And our Lord himself had said so in Matthew's gospel, in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh.

Every born-again believer should take these things very seriously, especially in the times in which we live, where there is a falling away, where society crumbles all around us, where false prophets abound, and when morality spins out of control into moral chaos. And lest you think, friends, that the term rapture is a product of the modern church or Plymouth Brethrenism, I point you to the Puritan Matthew Henry, who uses the very same term in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4.15 and 16, where God's word declares. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord.

And Matthew Henry writes, they shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Immediately before this rapture into the clouds, those who are alive will undergo a mighty change. Listen to me, friend.

We need to be prepared. We need to be on the lookout for his return, which could come at any moment, but he won't come back as gentle Jesus, but as a judge, a conqueror, and mighty king. Listen to what God's word declares in 2 Thessalonians.

When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Do you believe, friend, that we are living in the end times? Do you really believe these are the last days? Is your hope in the blessed hope? Are you truly born from above and washed in the blood? What does the Bible have to say about it? All I know is that in the book of Daniel, God pins it down pretty close by making mention of the end time by two signposts. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Do we live in a day, friends, like these, where people can travel, they can fly all over the world, and even now some can fly out of the world like William Shatner just did? Where many go to and fro? Are we not in a time of increased learning because of computers and the Internet? Wake up and smell the roses, friend, and pay attention. We are living at the very end.

And what did Jesus have to say about it? What did Jesus say were the two signposts of the end times? He clearly marks them. Look at Luke's gospel in chapter 17. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Every time you see a wedding, be aware that it signifies Christ can come at any moment. Look at what Jesus continued to say about the road signs, marking these end times.

Likewise, also, as in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

Look at this closely and pay attention, friend, to what Jesus is saying here. He points to two signposts marking his return. One, as it was in the days of Noah.

Well, what was it like in the days of Noah? Genesis 6.11 describes it. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Let's look at the corruptness of that antediluvian generation.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This is the day in which we live, where society is morally rotten to the core, and governments call evil good, and the violence in society has gotten out of control. Fights are breaking out in public places like never before for no good reason.

Someone knocks someone down just because they want to. Blood spills all over the streets of America through senseless crimes and vicious murders. But the most violence generated by our country comes from our very branch as a government in the legalization of killing the unborn through abortion, where 62 million babies were butchered by abortions since Roe vs.

Wade. America is a violent and bloody nation. And look at the second signpost which Jesus mentions.

It's in the days of Lot. Genesis 19 paints a vivid picture of homosexual men burning with lust toward other men as they form a mob and try to break the door down on Lot's house. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in unto thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Translated into modern language, that says that we may rape them and sodomize them. We live in an unprecedented time where the governments of the world have legalized homosexual marriage. They not only approve of it, they protect it and promote it.

And if you try to fight it, friend, they will sue you or arrest you. Listen to me. If you don't get the wax out of your ears and wipe the sleep from your eyes and recognize the severity of the times in which we live, I feel sorry for you.

You'll be caught unawares when Christ comes again. And if you are a sleepy-headed pastor, I feel sorry for you for not warning your congregation of the coming days. I must ask myself, am I ready for Christ's return? How about you, friend?