When President Roosevelt ordered him to leave the Philippines and go to Australia, he spoke these words that went down in the history books, “I shall return.”
In 1945 President Roosevelt sent him back. A year later, the Japanese surrendered to him and ended the war.
But MacArthur is not the first to utter the words, “I shall return!” The Lord Jesus uttered almost these identical words hundreds of years before.
He said it this way in John 14:2-3, “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
The Lord Jesus has promised to return to gather His church.
Knowing that He is going to return for His church any moment now, HOW SHOULD WE AS CHRISTIANS LIVE OUR LIVES?
In the parable of the distribution of pounds, in Luke 19:13, Jesus tells us how Christians should live until He returns. He said, “Occupy till I come.” We get our word “occupation” from the word “Occupy”.
So the Lord is saying, until he RETURNS for the church we should all find the job we can do, and BE BUSY WORKING FOR THE LORD.
If He were to return today, how should He find us? He tells us:
I. BE SOBER
Look at 1 Peter 4:7, we read, “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore SOBER, and WATCH unto prayer.”
Look at the words SOBER and WATCH. These two words bring a double emphasis.
• BE SOBER - to be of sound mind
• WATCH - to be sober (sound mind) and watch
In other words, as we are looking for the return of Christ, we need to make sure that we do not have the SAME MINDSET the lost world has.
WHY? Because it is obvious that the lost world is not looking for Christ to return. The reason we know that, is because if they thought He would return soon, they would not be living in sin.
God wants Christians to live each day with a SOUND MIND.
One of the biggest traps that Christians can fall into each day is to conform to the way the lost world thinks.
HOW DO THEY THINK? They don’t! They allow others to do their thinking for them. They do not believe in thinking things through, they simply follow others, and allow them to do their thinking for them.
Illus: They remind us of these journalists on television. Frequently the President addresses the nation. As soon as he completes his address, these journalists appear on television. They tell us what we just heard him say, twisting it to what they want us to think he said.
We live in an age when very few people think for themselves. They are being shaped and molded by the lost world in which they live.
Illus: It is difficult these days to find people like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who will say, “No we will not bow to the gods of this earth. We refuse to be to be cut from the same mold that everyone else is cut from.”
We live in a society today that has molded us and shaped us into what they want us to be.
Romans 12:2 states, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
There are all kinds of people who are trying to get into your mind.
• THE POLITICAL LEADERS WANT TO SHAPE YOUR WAY OF THINKING
• THE FASHION INDUSTRY WANTS TO SHAPE YOUR WAY OF THINKING
• THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WANTS TO SHAPE YOUR WAY OF THINKING
• THE JOURNALISTS WANT TO SHAPE YOUR WAY OF THINKING
• THE RADIO TALK SHOW HOSTS WANT TO SHAPE YOUR WAY OF THINKING
• HOLLYWOOD WANTS TO SHAPE YOUR WAY OF THINKING
Everywhere we turn these days, we have people who are battling to see who can get control of our minds.
But listen, we CANNOT and we MUST NOT and we WILL NOT allow them to mold us and shape our minds.
This is why God’s Word says in Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world…”
Look at the word, “conformed”, this is the Greek word suschematizo, (Pronounced as soos-khay-mat-id'-zo) which means to fashion alike, to conform to the same pattern.
God’s Word says, “Be not conformed”. Why?
• BECAUSE THE WAY THEY THINK IS WRONG
• BECAUSE THE WAY THEY LIVE IS WRONG
What they want us to be is the opposite of what God wants us to be.
As we wait for the Lord to come back for His church, we need to make sure that we are of SOUND MIND so we can make SOUND DECISIONS. We need to make all of our decisions in the light of God’s Word.
The Word of God says we are to be SOBER.
Illus: Have you ever heard a drunk person talk? Their mind is so messed up that they say all kinds of ridiculous things. WHY DO THEY TALK LIKE THIS? Because physically they are not sober.
Paul picks up on this idea about being sober, but uses it in the spiritual realm of our life. In 1 Thess. he says we are to “…BE SOBER.”
Every day, we are able to make GOOD DECISIONS because we have a SOUND MIND that is not affected by the lost world in which we live.
Also, we who are looking for Christ to return, need to -
II. BE WATCHFUL
Look again at 1 Peter 4:7, we read, “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore SOBER, and WATCH unto prayer.”
WHAT ARE WE TO PRAYERFULLY WATCH FOR?
We are to PRAYERFULLY WATCH for those people the devil has placed before us, who want to do our thinking for us.
A. BE WATCHFUL FOR SIN
Perhaps someone is saying, “Preacher, we do not need to watch out for sin, everyone knows what sin is!”
I am here to tell you that is not the case. The devil has so cleverly CAMOUFLAGED SIN today that it has become unrecognizable.
Illus: Have you ever seen any of these television shows where they had men appear on their programs as women? These men fix themselves up, and they can walk down the street and people will never know they are men.
This is what Satan has done. He has dressed sin up in so many ways, that today we live in a society where we can no longer recognize sin, even when we are surrounded by sin.
Illus: Sin is like a chameleon, in that it can change it’s color so that you and I cannot see it.
WHY HAS SATAN CAMOUFLAGED SIN? For two reasons:
(1) SO PEOPLE MAY BE DECEIVED BY SIN
Illus: Consider the beer commercials on television where they have some young, healthy, nice looking couple standing with glasses of Budweiser in their hands, and saying, “This Bud is for you.”
They give the impression that beer has brought nothing but joy and happiness to their lives.
But if the true story was told, and they showed you:
• ALL THE HOMES THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY ALCOHOL
• ALL THE LIVES THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY ALCOHOL
• ALL THE CAREERS THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY ALCOHOL
• ALL THE BUSINESSES THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY ALCOHOL
No one would buy their evil product.
So they disguise sin and make it look like something it is not. The devil knows that to get people to sin, he has to disguise it.
BUT WE HAVE TO WATCH OUT FOR SIN AND MAKE SURE SATAN DOES NOT DECEIVE US.
But He disguises sin for another reason also -
(2) SO PEOPLE CAN COMMIT SIN AND NOT FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT
He knows that if people commit sin they are going to feel guilty, and soon they will turn to Christ. So, he disguises sin in such a way that people can participate in it and not feel guilty.
HOW DOES HE DO THIS? He does this in TWO ways:
(a) HE CHANGES THE NAME OF SIN
For example, he tells many that the sin they are involved in is not a sin, IT IS AN UNFORTUNATE DISEASE they have contracted.
Let me give you an example. During the early 60’s, the devil got his workers promoting alcoholism as a DISEASE, NOT A SIN.
When many first heard that they laughed at this ignorance.
But today, there are intellectual people who will appear on national television, and they will make you think that you are ignorant if you say that alcoholism is not a disease.
Illus: I like what someone said, They ask the question, Is alcoholism a disease? If it is. . . .
• It is the only disease that is contracted by an act of the will
• It is the only disease that requires a license to propagate it
• It is the only disease that is bottled and sold
• It is the only disease that requires outlets to spread it
• It is the only disease that produces a revenue for the government
• It is the only disease that provokes crime
• It is the only disease that is habit forming
• It is the only disease that is spread by advertising
• It is the only disease without a germ or virus cause
(Taken from the EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN, Toronto, Canada, June, 1962.)
The devil is very clever in getting some people to sin, by telling them that they can do it and not feel guilty because it is a DISEASE.
HE CHANGES THE NAME OF SIN. He also does something else to get people to sin so that they will not feel guilty. That is:
(b) HE BLAMES GOD FOR THEIR SINS
That is, they can participate in some sins and not feel guilty, because they can say God made me that way.
This is what the homosexuals do. They choose to involve themselves in a sin that is so despicable, that God’s Word calls it an abomination in the sight of God.
God never made homosexuals, that’s despicable! God said this sin is an abomination in His sight.
It would be unfair for God to hold homosexuals guilty if He created them that way.
But look what God says about this despicable sin in Lev. 18:22, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”
Illus: Look back at creation. When God made Adam, he did not make Eve and a man named Steve, and say, “Adam, which do you prefer, Eve or Steve?” It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Sin is not AN ILLNESS, sin is a CHOICE. That is why people will be judged for sin. It was a choice they made.
• It is not an ASTROLOGICAL PROBLEM where the stars control and determine your action
• It is not an SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEM where the environment determines your actions
• It is not an GENETIC PROBLEM where your genes determine your actions
SIN IS A CHOICE! This is why people are going to have to give account for the sin in their lives, on the Judgment Day. IT WAS A CHOICE AND THEY MADE A BAD CHOICE!
When it comes to sin, the devil wastes no time working in the heart of man. AND WE NEED TO PRAYERFULLY WATCH OUT FOR SIN.
Why? Because the Word of God states, in Jer. 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
AS CHRISTIANS, WE NEED TO LEARN TO DEFINE SIN BY THE WORD OF GOD.
• What God’s Word calls sin, IS SIN!
• Sin is defined by God’s Word, not by society. Society is ever changing, God’s Word remains the same.
The Bible tells us to BE SOBER and BE WATCHFUL. But we need to consider one more thing. The Lord is coming soon and we need to-
III. BE READY
Illus: Many of us can remember as a child playing the game “Hide and Seek.” There might be 10 to 15 children, and they have a home base to work from. They select one to close their eyes and count to a hundred, while everyone else runs and hides. And then when everyone had a chance to hide, he would finish his count and open his eyes and say, “Ready or not, here I come!” Then he would find those who were hiding, one by one.
The Lord Jesus is coming back, and this is your time to get ready.
HOW CAN WE GET READY?
• If you are lost, you need to come to Christ TODAY and ask Him to forgive you of your sins. You need to repent of sin and ask Him to forgive you.
• If you are a Christian, you need to live a holy life.
HOW CAN YOU DO THAT?
(1) THE WORD OF GOD WILL KEEP US FROM SIN
Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
We have to allow the Word of God to DEFINE WHAT IS SIN.
(2) WE NEED TO LEARN TO UNDERSTAND THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD
John 16:8 11 “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to lead us into righteousness, and He will do that for us, when our hearts are kept sensitive to sin.
Conclusion:
I. JESUS IS COMING - BE SOBER
II. JESUS IS COMING - BE WATCHFUL
III. JESUS IS COMING - BE READY
