If you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 41. Last week I told you this was going to be a two-part sermon series. It's actually going to be a three-part sermon series. Eighty verses has turned out to be more than I can handle in one sitting, or even in two, but I believe it's profitable for us to take our time to work through it together. Our focus for this morning is going to be Genesis chapter 41, verses 1 through 36. hear the word of the Lord." Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream. And behold, he stood by the river, and suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine-looking and fat, and they fed in the meadow. And behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ugly and gaunt, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river. And the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine-looking and fat cows, so Pharaoh awoke. He slept and dreamed a second time, and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, plump and good. Then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads. So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream. Now it came to pass in the morning that a spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh. Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying, I remember my faults this day, when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker. We each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us, to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him. And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon. And he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it is said of you that you can understand a dream to interpret it. So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat, and they fed in the meadow. Then, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. So I awoke. Also I saw my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good. Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me." Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years. The dreams are one. And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Indeed, seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt. But after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will deplete the land. So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine." Let's pray. Our Father, we pray for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit. Father, it's not enough for the scriptures to be preached in word only. They need to be preached in the word and in power. And for that we need the Holy Spirit, not only for me as I speak, but for your people as they hear. Lord, we are not going to be changed and transformed if the Spirit does not give us illumination to understand the Word and then applies that Word to us. But also, Lord, we know that the Holy Spirit always takes the things of Christ and points us to Him. And so we pray that you will exalt your Son, Jesus Christ, in the midst of the preaching of the Word. that You will help us, O Lord, to meditate upon Him and to get our eyes fixed upon Him. Stir up holy love, holy affections for You, for Your Word, for other people. And Father, we do pray for people who are here, and there are some here who do not know You. We pray, O Lord, that this very day You might grant the grace that they would close with Christ and be saved. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. In our study of Genesis chapter 40 last week, we began by considering the nature of revelatory prophecy. Preaching, unfortunately, is not inspired and infallible. We preach an inspired and infallible word, but preaching is, of necessity, an interpretation that can't claim infallibility. But revelatory prophecy was not an interpretation of God's Word. Revelatory prophecy was inspired and infallible and inerrant because it was the very Word of God. and therefore it was to be received as truth. Foretelling prophecy wasn't God simply looking forward with His divine omniscience and saying, these things are going to happen, so let me tell you about them beforehand. No, it was God revealing to men in time the things He had decreed to come to pass from all eternity before they occurred in time. And so, I posited that the central truth of Genesis chapter 40 and Genesis 41 is this, because God cannot lie. He is always true to His word. What He has promised to do, He will always perform. And what he has prophesied will always come to pass. And we saw this operating in the lives of Pharaoh's officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. These two men were in prison, and they were in the prison where Joseph was. And they both had dreams in the same night. One had a dream that was a prophecy that was encouraging, full of hope. You're going to be set free from prison, and you're going to be restored to Pharaoh's good graces. The other had a prophecy of doom given to him. Three days hence, you're going to have your head lifted up and you're going to be hung from a tree and you're going to die. So both were given and both were fulfilled with exacting detail. And when Joseph saw that the chief butler was going to be restored to Pharaoh, he said to him, remember me when you're before Pharaoh. Tell him about me because I've been kidnapped, I'm in a place I don't belong, and I've been falsely accused of a crime. I'm paying for a crime that I simply did not commit." Well, the man gets set free three days later and promptly forgets for two entire years that he was even there. So, first of all, we've seen the prophecies given to Pharaoh's officers. This morning, we're going to be looking at Roman numeral 2, which is the prophecies given to Pharaoh. Next week, Scott Altery is preaching. Two weeks from now, God willing, I'll return to Genesis chapter 41, and we'll have Roman numeral 3, which is the prophecies given to Joseph. But for this morning, it's just Roman numeral 2, the prophecies given to Pharaoh. Verse 1 of chapter 41, opens by telling us two full years had passed. That's how long the chief butler had forgotten about Joseph. So he's got two more years on his prison record, two more years languishing in prison, wondering what is God doing. God never answers his promises or his prophecies in the time of our choosing, does he? It's always in his own time. And his time is almost never our time, but he's always on time. He always comes at exactly the right time, but we've got to learn to be patient and to trust him in the meantime. So as this happens, and after two years have passed, that now Pharaoh has two prophetic dreams. The first dream, he's standing by the Nile River, and he sees seven healthy fat cows come out of the river, the kind that you can carve up and make into steaks. And then while he's watching, and they're feeding on the grain, Seven gaunt cows, so skinny and ugly that apparently you could see their ribs poking out from underneath their skin. They come up, and then to Pharaoh's horror, they cannibalize the seven good cows and eat them. And he wakes up, doubtless in a cold sweat, probably saying to himself, that is the freakiest thing I've ever saw. And for some reason, he manages to go to sleep again. And he has a second dream. And in the second dream, a stalk of grain comes up. And there are seven good and plump heads. And then a withered stalk comes up, and there are seven withered heads. They're blighted by the wind. And suddenly, if he thought the first dream was weird, this one gets even weirder. Because suddenly, these seven bad grains suddenly grow a mouth, and apparently fangs, and they eat the seven good heads. And he wakes up again, he's startled, and notice, if you will, it says specifically, he says, it was a dream. In other words, look at verse 7. So Pharaoh awoke and indeed it was a dream. In other words, there was something so vivid about this that it seemed real. And he understands that this isn't just a standard, every ordinary kind of nightmare that you have because you ate something bad the day before or something. Something is going on here. So he calls for the practitioners of the occult and the leading wise men and the philosophers all throughout Egypt and says, come, here's my dream, interpret it for me. And they have no ability to interpret it. They don't know what to tell him. And finally, in the midst of all this, the chief butler is in his presence, and he suddenly remembers, oh yeah! This happened to me one time. I woke up disturbed by a dream as well, and there was this young man in the prison where I was. And notice how he starts in verse 9. The chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying, I remember my faults this day, when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker. He starts off sounding humble. I kind of wonder if this is really sincere on his part. He didn't want to say, you know, there was this time, Pharaoh, a couple of years ago, that you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and me, for no fault of my own, got put in a prison. No, no, no. I remember my faults. You put me in prison, and of course you were right, as you always are. You don't want to make Pharaoh mad, because Pharaoh can take your life, right? So he starts off by saying, I remember one time when I did something really bad, and you threw me in prison. Me, and also the chief baker. And there was this young man, this young Hebrew, who was there. At that time, Joseph would have been 28 years of age. There was this young Hebrew, and we both had a dream in the same night, and we had a different interpretation of the dream, but he interpreted our dreams, and it came out exactly as he interpreted it. I was restored to your good graces, and you hung the chief baker, but this is exactly what had happened. And so notice what happens. Verse 14, Pharaoh sins and calls for Joseph. And they bring him quickly out of the dungeon. And he shaved and changed his clothing and came to Pharaoh. Now, why did he shave? It's obvious he'd grown a beard. I like him. He'd grown a beard and a mustache while he was in prison. But he shaves. Why does he shave? Well, in Egyptian culture at that time, all men went around with smooth faces. And in the culture, if you saw a man with a beard, that meant one of two things. It meant either he's mourning the death of somebody, and so he hasn't shaven, or it meant he's just up to no good. He's a man who's a derelict. He's not really a worker. He's just kind of wandering around the streets, not really doing much of anything. So he was looked down on with derision. Now, in the Hebrew culture, beards were a sign of manliness and things like that. Which doesn't mean if you don't have a beard, you're not manly. That's not what I'm saying. But why did Joseph shave his beard? He did so because he understood the culture he lived in. He probably also didn't have a whole lot of choice. They said, you're going to go before Pharaoh and you've got to be clean-shaven when you come before him. But the reason I drive home the point is this. I can't help but think of missionaries. When missionaries go to other cultures, they have to be sensitive to the culture they're in, their mores and their concerns and the various issues that for them, at least, would be offensive, and they need to make themselves conform to the culture insofar as they don't compromise God's ways so that the people who are there will receive their message. This is what Paul said, isn't it? To the Jews, I become as a Jew. I adopt a kosher lifestyle when I'm in the presence of other Jews. If they're going to be offended, let them be offended by the gospel of Christ, but don't let them be offended by my personal thing. In other words, you don't show up at a Jewish man's home and say, I bought my own pork chops. Can I eat them in front of you? That would just not be wise. He said, I become and live as a Jew so that I might win the Jews. But he says, but when I'm among the Greeks, I dig in and eat the pork chops. In other words, I adopt a Gentile lifestyle that I may win the Gentiles. Here is Joseph wanting Pharaoh to hear his message. And so he's being sensitive to the culture around him. An example that comes to mind is back in 1995, my wife and I went to Indonesia. And in Asian cultures, If you summon somebody to you, like you tell your child, come here. Or you say to someone, could you come over here please, I need to talk to you. You do not put your palm up and move your fingers like this. Now we do that here all the time, right? But if you do it there, that's the way you summon your dog. That's the way you summon an animal. And what you have conveyed to the people is, I think you're less than an animal. You're less than human. So what do you do when you want to summon a person to you? You put your palm down, and you do like this. Now, to you and I, we think that's kind of silly. But it's not silly to them. It's offensive to them to summon them this way. And so because you love them, because you care for them, you adopt their manners. You adopt their customs so that they will receive your message. And that is what Joseph is doing here as well. In verses 15 to 16, are remarkable in that they, once again, give us insight into Joseph's character, the godliness of his character. Look at what it says in verse 15. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you, that you can understand a dream to interpret it. So he's flattering him here. But notice how Joseph responds. And Joseph answered Pharaoh and said, It is not in me. I don't have the power to do this. I'm not sufficient to do this. It is God himself who can interpret your dream. Do you see what he's doing? He's turning Pharaoh's gaze away from himself and giving glory to God. and saying, even if God has given me some gift, the gift comes from God himself. The editor of Calvin's commentaries has a footnote about this. He says this, quote, The force of Joseph's language is remarkable. Without me, God will answer to the peace of Pharaoh. He thus entirely renounces in a single word all the personal honor which the heathen king was trying to convey to him, that God alone may have the glory due to his name. Now the reason I give emphasis to this is consider how different a man Joseph is thirteen years later. Thirteen years earlier, by now he's thirty years old. Thirteen years earlier, when he was seventeen, God gave him two prophetic dreams. Dreams that his own family would bow down to him. And what did he do? He bragged about it. I had a dream and all my brothers, you were bowing down to me. And they hate him for it, and he doesn't get it, so he tells them again, I had a second dream, and this time even mom and dad bowed down to me. In other words, he was given a prophetic dream by God himself, but rather than humbling him, it swelled his head with pride. The Lord has a way of humbling his people when they're proud. When your brother's conspired to murder you, that has a way of doing it. When they decide that's not what they're going to do, instead they're going to sell you into slavery, that has a way of doing it. If that hasn't gotten your attention, then being falsely accused for a crime you did not commit and being thrown into prison, that'll do it. My point is this. Look at how these negative, horrible circumstances have been used for the good of Joseph's soul. And the point I would drive home to you is this. Humility is something God prizes. It is something that he considers extremely valuable. And it's all the more valuable because it's so rare. And he will take his children through just about anything to produce the fruit of humility in their lives. I pray on an almost daily basis, Father, help me to humble myself. I pray that you will not have to humble me. but I pray you'll grant me grace by the Holy Spirit to humble myself so that you don't have to humble me." Because being humbled by God is painful, isn't it? It hits our pride. It hits us where we don't want to be touched. And yet it's something so precious to Him, something He delights in so much, that He's willing to do anything holy to take you through any hard circumstance to produce the fruit of humility. Look at how these very hard circumstances accomplish God's end in Joseph's life. So isn't it true that even when the bitter circumstances come, if you're in Christ, Romans 8.28 is still in the Bible. that everything is working for your good. Not for your prosperity, necessarily. Not always for your health and happiness, necessarily, in one sense. But it is working for the good of making you more conformed to the image of His Son. That is what every good and bad thing in your life God is using for your good, so that we don't need to be bitter about them, as we're prone to be. But rather to come out rejoicing and saying, God knows best. I don't know what He's doing, but He knows what He's doing. You know, He never consults with me. How about you? This is how I'm going to run your life this week. What do you think? That's not what he does. He simply works out his providence and tells me to trust him and tells you to trust him as well. We see the fruit of it in Joseph's life. Well, he comes before Pharaoh. Pharaoh begins to tell him his dreams. Notice in verses 17-24, he tells us the dreams a second time that we read in the text. The only thing new he adds to it is this. When the seven ugly cows come out and eat the big fat cows, they don't look any different. They don't look like they've added anything or added anything to their bodies whatsoever. That's the only thing that he adds to it. He says, I told all the practitioners of the occult, all my wise men, about these dreams and they could not interpret them. And so Joseph begins in verse 25 all the way through verse 36 to interpret the dreams. And the first thing he tells them is these two dreams do not have two separate meanings. They're two different dreams that have one and the same meaning. And so he begins to tell them what these are going to be. And notice again that as he begins to speak, he continues to give glory to God. He's pointing Pharaoh to the Lord. Look at verse 16 again. Joseph answered Pharaoh, it is not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Look at verse 25. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Look at verse 28. God has shown Pharaoh what he's about to do. Verse 32. The thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now, my point here is that Paul tells us that we are to redeem the time, letting our speech be with salt among those who are outside. Now, what does he mean when he says that? What he's saying is this, essentially. Time is short, hell is hot. You and I rub shoulders with lost people day in and day out. Whether it's in the marketplace, in your job situation, going to the grocery store, your neighborhood, wherever it may be, we rub shoulders with people. And he's saying, be conscious of the fact that the day of judgment is drawing near. And make the most of your speech. Let it be salty. Let it be seasoned with salt. Make mention of Christ. Tell people about your God. Try to find ways to introduce God into every conversation to point them to Christ. And that's what we find Joseph doing here. He's before a pagan king who worships false gods, and yet you recognize that what he's doing here, he's telling Pharaoh certain things are true about who God is. It's almost like it's Paul at Acts 17 when he's on Mars Hill, and he's got a whole bunch of ignorant pagans in front of him who've never read the Bible, and he says, you worship God in ignorance, but let me tell you what God is like. And he suddenly gives them a crash course in Theology 101. God created you. You did not create Him. He's self-sufficient. He doesn't need you, but you need Him. He's everywhere. You walk in Him. You live in Him. This is the God that you don't know. And this God has a son named Jesus who's been appointed the judge of the whole earth, and you're going to stand and give an account to him. So repent, because he's coming again. God's raised him from the dead. What's he doing? He's saying, this is what God is like. Here's his attributes. And in so many ways, that's what Joseph is doing before Pharaoh as well. You say, what's he showing him? Well, I'll give you two things right now, and then we'll come back to some more things at the end. First, he's showing Pharaoh God is sovereign over all things. There's 14 years ahead, 14 years of plenty followed by 14 years of famine, and God Himself is going to do this. You can't stop Him. This is what He has ordained to come to pass. And the second thing he's putting before him is this, that everything God says is true, and every foretelling prophecy he gives will come to pass. This is what God said is going to happen, and therefore you better act right now as if what he's predicted about the future is true. And so he begins to interpret the prophecy. The seven healthy and fat cows and the seven good heads of grain are one and the same thing. They're both representing that the next seven years are going to be seven years of plenty. Not just good crops, but abundant crops. It's going to be a prosperous time for all the farmers in all of Egypt. But then the seven sickly cows and the seven poor heads of grain are seven years of famine. A famine so severe, as a matter of fact, that those seven years of plenty will be forgotten. We'll forget all about it. And so he says, God is telling Pharaoh what his providence will do in the next 14 years. Seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. And then in verse 32, he says, The dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. In other words, he's trying to get your attention. This is God's way, a bold-faced type, italicized in your head. He told you once, you might have said, well, it was just a nightmare, it was the taco ate yesterday, maybe it's not really anything. No, I'm going to set out to you two different ways, two different times, to tell you it's a certain thing. And notice what he does next. Joseph, without being invited to do so, boldly begins to give his counsel to Pharaoh as to what he should do. Now notice something. If you notice throughout the narrative, he never says, you. It's always, this is what God has said to Pharaoh. This is how things are. It's never to you, in the second person plural, or the second person singular. It's rather the third person, Pharaoh. He's showing respect to his authority. by calling him Pharaoh throughout all of this. Even the chief butler does the same thing. He never says, oh, by the way, Pharaoh, when you threw me into prison, when Pharaoh threw me into prison, this is what happened. He's showing respect to his office by using his title. But then he begins to tell him, here's my counsel to Pharaoh, verse 33. Let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Establish someone who can be your manager and can take care of these things. Notice he doesn't suggest himself, and I'm the guy. No. He says, you choose someone that you trust who is wise and discerning that you can set over this issue. And then that man can appoint officers over the land to collect one fifth of all the grain in the seven years of plenty. In other words, there'll be a 20% tax exacted upon the grain that's produced for the next seven years. Now, how many of you like taxes? Don't see any hands. None of us like taxes, and yet, Paying taxes is a Christian duty. We're commanded to do it honestly and with integrity, Romans chapter 13. But here's the point. What happens when people go through prosperity? They begin to presume that every year after is going to be the same as this year, and to spend things beyond what they should. Calvin says it this way, quote, abundance is commonly the mother of idleness. And then he goes on to say, because luxury generally prevails in prosperity and wastes the blessings of God, the bridle of authority was necessary. In other words, in these seven years of plenty, people are just going to spend like there's no tomorrow. And yet, here's God showing you there's seven years of famine coming, and you need to prepare for that by saving during the time of prosperity. That is, People don't plan for the future because they presume their present prosperity will continue without interruption. And so his wise counsel to Pharaoh was set aside 20% of all that's gathered in preparation for what's going to come. Now let me set before you three things that stand out to me as we think about the counsel that was given to Pharaoh. First, acting upon Joseph's counsel required Pharaoh to believe in the infallibility of God's word. that everything he had said in his dreams would turn out and come to pass just as it had, just as he said it would. Second, Joseph was teaching Pharaoh something else about God. that he's loving and compassionate. He's already shown him he's sovereign over all things. He's already shown him that everything he says is true. But what's he saying now? There's a famine coming. There are hard times ahead. But I'm telling you seven years in advance before it happens. And the other thing is, I'm going to give you seven years of plenty in preparation for that time. Is that not God's compassion? His love, making preventative measures to help you deal with this crisis that's coming down the pike. And the third thing we should see from this is God's temporal blessings were ravished upon Egypt as the by-product of His blessing His own people. The reason Joseph had been sent ahead into Egypt was because Jacob's family was going to go through this famine. And God was preparing to provide for them, and in providing for them, their near neighbors, the Egyptians, were blessed. My point being this, even to the present day, the world hates the church. But nevertheless, as much as they hate the church, the fact is, there are temporal blessings that they're the recipients of, even if they're unaware of them, because Christ's lampstands are burning nearby. People don't realize that the church is a preservative in the culture. That we are there, they persecute us, but they're really shooting themselves in the foot. Because God uses it as a preservative of the culture, there are judgments that could come upon a land that don't come upon that land because God's people are there. And so, even so it was in those days. Now, I'm going to make one application. I have only one application to make. But it's going to take me a little bit of time to make that application because this application is so multifaceted that I want to address different conditions of people who are here. Different Christians, different lost people. It has applications in many different ways to many different people. So it's one application, but that's a little deceiving. It's probably about six or seven applications out of this one application. Here's the application. You must live your present life each and every day in the light of the future Second Coming of Jesus Christ." That's my application. You say, wait a minute, the text didn't say anything about Jesus coming or anything like that. No, it doesn't. But what the text does tell us is that if Pharaoh had not believed the prophecy of God concerning the future, He would not have heeded Joseph's counsel. He would not have set aside 20% of the grain during the seven good years of plenty. And then his land and him would have perished in the seven years of famine. It required faith in God's future prophecies and future promises for him to act as he did in the present. Even so, if you believe in the future second coming of Jesus Christ, if you really believe it, Then you realize that you're to meditate upon that frequently, because it's a great practical help to your pilgrimage in the faith. You realize how often the Scripture emphasizes the Second Coming of Christ. As a matter of fact, in the 27 books of the New Testament, there are only four. Four of the smaller epistles that don't refer to the Second Coming of Christ. All the rest of them do. And often, more often than once. Even when we sing the Psalms. If you notice how many times we sing Psalm 96, you sing Psalm 98, you come to the end, what's the last verse about? It's about the second coming of Christ. Even in the Old Testament, people were to be meditating upon the fact there's a future day of judgment coming. And it's our business to keep that before us. Not about conspiracy theories and who's the Antichrist. If you take Barack Obama and spell it backwards and multiply it times ten or something, then you find out he's the Antichrist or something like that. All this goofy stuff that we waste our time on. That's not the way we're supposed to think about the Second Coming of Christ. The Second Coming of Christ is our glorious hope as God's people. And I want to go through and show you, from different varieties of God's people, why this is so important. First of all, Pastors and elders must live in the light of Christ's return, lest they succumb to the fear of man and compromise God's ways. The Apostle Peter gives exhortations to elders in 1 Peter 5, and he gives them three couplets. Three couplets telling them, this is not what you should do, and this is what you should do. A negative followed by a positive, then another negative with a positive, then another negative with a positive. Here they are. Serve not by compulsion, but willingly. In other words, don't have somebody pushing you from behind to nag you to death so that you do your work and fulfill your ministry. Do it willingly. Be driven from the heart. Be motivated from within to fulfill your ministry. Not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. Not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. In other words, it's not, I'm going to get behind the congregation and push, I'm going to follow Christ and say, follow me as I follow Christ. Be an example to the flock. And having said all these things, he then gives the reason, the motivation behind why you should do this. And this is what he says. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. What's he saying? Shepherd God's flock in the light of Christ's second coming. How about the primary work of pastors and elders, which, by the way, is praying and preaching. This is the primary work of a pastor and of elders. What about that? Well, when Paul was writing his final epistle, 2 Timothy, he had something to say to Timothy. He said, "...you have known from childhood the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, all Scriptures given by inspiration of God, proper for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training." In other words, the Word of God is sufficient for the conversion of sinners, and it's sufficient for the sanctification of saints. Therefore, he says this, "...I charge you..." I command you, therefore, since the Bible is sufficient for conversion, since the Bible is sufficient for sanctification, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ," listen to what he says next, "...who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." In the light of the fact Jesus is coming again, preach the Word! Preach it when it's in season. Preach it when it's out of season. Preach it when preaching is popular. Preach it when preaching is not popular. But whatever you do, preach. In the light of the fact that there's a day of judgment coming. And then, in verse 8, he says, finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but also to those who have loved His appearing. What he's saying is this. As you fulfill your ministry to God's church, do so always remembering you're going to give an account before Jesus Christ. And it doesn't matter if you make men happy. Your job is to please Him, the One who enlisted you as a soldier. A living example of what I'm talking about, many of you have heard of the name Hugh Latimer. Hugh Latimer was an English martyr. Hugh Latimer one time was preaching before a crowd, and in the crowd was the King of England. And he knew that some of what he was about to say was not going to make the King happy. And so his courage momentarily fell to him, and so he did something kind of weird. He started having a conversation with himself in the pulpit. Now, if I ever start doing that, just give me a break, and I'll get back to preaching to you in a moment. But this is what Hugh Latimer did. He said, Latimer! Latimer, be careful what you say! The king is listening! And he said, Latimer! Latimer! Be careful what you say. The King of kings is listening." And then he preached with boldness. Point being, I may tremble at a king, but I have to give an account to a greater king, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and I'm going to live in the light of his second coming. What about people who are not pastors or elders, but they're Bible teachers? They do teach the Bible in their home, or they teach the Bible in a Sunday school, or whatever. What about them? Remember the words of James, the half-brother of Christ, who was a much-respected pastor in the Church of Jerusalem? James 3, verse 1, he has a word about that. My brethren, that not many of you become teachers. Why? Knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment. Be cautious, be fearful, be apprehensive before you presume to be a teacher of God's people, because your judgment is going to be stricter than everybody else's. And let that sink in with you. Can you imagine standing before Christ and Him looking at you and saying, Why did you teach heresy to my people? Why were you not diligent to study the scriptures before you taught, and so therefore taught error? Why did you inject poison into the bloodstream of the church by the things that you taught? To stand before Christ in that way is a horrible, horrible thought. So Bible teachers must live in the light of Christ's Second Coming. You say, well, this is all great, but I'm not a Bible teacher. I'm not an elder, not a pastor. Maybe you don't even aspire to be. So I don't have to think about the Second Coming of Christ, right? Actually, you do. If you are a Christian layman, a businessman, a blue-collar worker, a homemaker, a homeschooling mom, perhaps you're a Christian student getting an education and preparing for your future career, you too must live in the light of Christ's Second Coming. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 24, verse 44, in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus said these words, Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." The Scriptures do not tell us when Jesus is going to come back. Whenever He does come back, it's the last hour of the last day of this present age. But nonetheless, we're not told when He's going to come back, and it's not our business to figure it out. Our business is to be ready for Him whenever He returns. That's our business. To be ever watchful. And this is such an important point that after Jesus said those words, do you realize He doesn't give one, He doesn't give two, He doesn't give three, but He gives four parables to drive home the point. The parables are the wise and the foolish servant, the wise and the foolish virgins, the parable of the talents, and then the parable of the sheep and the goats. I want to drive home just one point, and that is from the parable of the wise and the foolish servant. Listen to what it says, verse 45 of Matthew 24. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find him so doing. Assuredly, I say to you, he'll make him ruler over all his goods." But listen to verse 48. But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two, and appoint him as portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." He presumes that the coming of the Lord has been delayed. And notice when he does that, it affects his present conduct. He begins to mistreat fellow disciples. His conduct changes and then his eternal destiny is revealed to be he wasn't a true Christian at all. He's going to be cast out into utter darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. You get the impression Jesus wants us to think about and meditate upon the second coming of Christ. There's a negative side of it, but let's give the positive side. The positive side would be this. John tells us in 1 John 3, Beloved, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. He goes on to say, Beloved, we are now the children of God. We've already experienced the grace of adoption, and it's not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, that is, Christ comes again, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And then he says this, And everyone, who has this hope in him, this hope of glorification, this hope that we're going to be made like him when we see him as he is, purifies himself. That is, the more you have the second coming of Christ upon your heart and mind, this hope produces in you present holiness, the pursuit of holiness, the pursuit of godliness, to make you more conformed to the image of Christ. What about persecution? We don't go through persecution here so much as we're marginalized, spoken evil of perhaps, but beyond that we're not beaten or taken to prison yet. That could come next. But many of our brothers and sisters in the Lord all around the world are subject to such things. What should they be meditating upon to help them endure the persecution they're going through? And the answer is the second coming of Christ. The book of 1 Thessalonians was written to a church that was about three months old in the Lord. And do you realize Paul has more to say about the second coming of Christ to this baby infant church than he does to any other people that he writes to? Sometimes we think eschatology and the second coming of Christ, that's for advanced Christians. No. Here's new babes in Christ and Paul's saying, think about often the second coming of Christ. As a matter of fact, every single one of the five chapters ends with a reference to the second coming of Christ. Well, why? Well, imagine you've just come to faith in Christ, you were an idolater, now you've left your idolatry, and no sooner have you come to Christ than your neighbors don't like the fact that you're no longer worshiping the pagan gods, and they begin to persecute you. And you're undergoing persecution, and you barely know the gospel. And already you're being rejected by your fellow man. The temptation to apostatize and say, you know, it was a lot easier when I wasn't a Christian, that temptation is strong. And so Paul keeps telling them, remember that this present age is not all there is. There is an age to come, and you can be rich in this world's goods, but if you're not rich in heaven, then you're going to lose your soul. Remember, he's worth it. Remember, this isn't going to last forever. This present age is just a vapor, it's going to be gone. I'm already 50 years old, and I look back and go, man, where have the years gone? It's going to be not that long, and I'm going to wake up and go, man, I'm 70 now. I'm going to hold my grandkids in my lap, even sooner, God willing. You think about that and how quickly it goes, because I can remember things that happened when I was four years old, like it was yesterday. And yet, how quickly it goes, and how important for us to be reminded of things in the future. How about when you lose a loved one in the Lord? And you're going through that grief, and you wonder if things will ever be the same. And in one sense, when you lose somebody close to you, it never will be the same again in this life. It's a new normal after that. And yet, what does Paul say? If we've lost loved ones in the world, we're going to sorrow, but don't sorrow as those who are without hope. Why? Because when Jesus comes back, he's going to bring with him all who sleep in Jesus. Do you realize how many different circumstances we've just gone through in a short space here? People who are elders and deacons, people who are Bible teachers, people who are Christian laymen, people who are going through hardship and sorrow and persecution, struggling to perfect holiness and the fear of the Lord, all those things, and yet meditating upon the Second Coming of Christ applies to every single situation, doesn't it? That we should be more deliberate in the way we meditate upon these things. You say, what is our hope based on? Well, it's the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that the prophecies concerning His Second Coming are true. And it's by present faith in His promises that we have future hope. And so, what I would say before you, my brothers and my sisters, is meditate more upon the Second Coming of Christ than you have in the past. because it's only going to be profitable to your soul. The more you meditate upon this glorious hope, think about it. We believe in somebody we've never met. We believe somebody is alive who was alive 2,000 years ago, and that was crucified and risen. And yet, on that day, you're going to see him face to face. I can't imagine what it's going to be like to see Jesus face-to-face. To hold his nail-scarred hands in mine, to fall down on my face, worshipping him and grasping his feet that are pierced by the nails, and to realize the reason I'm in heaven is because of those scars, that that's my name written there. It's the most glorious thing about heaven is you get to see Jesus. And when I see Him face to face, finally my sanctification will be done. It'll be finished. No more struggles with sin. No more inner turmoil. No more warfare with myself. I'll be perfect. And you'll be perfect. And the church will always get along perfectly because we'll all be perfect. And we'll never have to repent of sin or seek each other's forgiveness about anything ever again. That's the number two thing that's great about heaven is you're sinless there. The number three thing that's great about it is you're reunited with all those who've died in Jesus. We're going to spend eternity with all of our heroes, all the people we've read about, all their exploits, and then all of our loved ones who have died in the Lord. We're going to be with them forever. No disease, no more pain, no more suffering, no more pandemics, no more any of this. No more need for a funeral home. No more need for funerals, doctors, hospitals, clinics, medicines, none of those things. It's not an illusion. Pharaoh acted as if the prophecies given to him were true, and therefore Egypt was spared. We must act as if the prophecies before us are true, because it makes a difference to how we live right now. I have one more application to make from all that we've seen this morning. I've been addressing different varieties of Christians, right? But let's talk about those who are not in Christ. Should you be meditating upon the second coming of Christ? And the answer, of course, is yes. There are some of you in this room who don't know the Lord. I don't know all of who they are. The Lord knows who they are. Perhaps you know who you are. What should the second coming of Christ do for you? It should fill you with dread. It should fill you with terror. It should fill you with mourning. It should cause you to mourn over your sins, that you have offended a holy God, and justly deserve His condemnation for all eternity. Because that day is not a day of hope for you, it's a day of judgment and of wrath, so long as you're outside of Christ. It should cause you to mourn over your sin, to weep over your sin, to be sorrowful before God over your sin, to acknowledge your sin to Him, and to embrace Jesus Christ by faith as the only refuge from the wrath that is to come. Turning again to Matthew 24, listen to what Jesus says. He says, "...of that day and that hour," this is verse 36, "...no one knows, that it is the day of my return, not even the angels in heaven, but my Father only." And then listen to what He says, "...but as the days of Noah were, So also will the coming of the Son of Man be." These two days of wrath are parallel to one another, he's saying. He says, "...for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away." So also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Noah built an ark because God instructed him to. And the Bible tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. There were people who heard the man of God preach and say, there's a day of wrath coming. Repent of your sins. Put your faith in the coming Messiah. And there is room in the ark. There's refuge in the ark that God told me to build, so you can be spared from the wrath to come. But nobody, not one person, listen, they didn't believe that what He said was going to come to pass. And so they didn't take heed. And on the day of doom, the day dawned just like any other. Whatever day it was, it was a Tuesday, a Wednesday, a Thursday, the calendar's full of them. It was just a normal day, like any other day. Women started cleaning their houses. Men went to their shops, to their places of business. There were marriage ceremonies going on, people getting hitched. It's just a day like any other. They had no way of knowing when the sun rose that morning, that before the day was over, They were all going to be drowned, and their souls, their unrighteous souls, would be standing before the judgment seat of their Creator. As far as they knew, everything was normal. Then the rain came, and it swept them all away. And Jesus says the day of judgment will be the same. The day He comes back will be just like that. Listen to what He says. Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding in the mill. One will be taken and the other left." And by the way, get the whole taken thing here. Taken isn't a secret rapture. That's not what this is talking about. Actually, the people taken away are the people who are judged. The flood came and took them all away. On the Day of Judgment, they'll be taken away, swept away by the flood of God's wrath. It's the one who remains who's safe. Actually. But it's saying that God will make a distinction between people. Those who are His and those who are not. And that day is going to dawn like any other. It's going to dawn and people are going to say, go about their normal business, do their normal work, oblivious to the fact that the day of their judgment has come. They heard it preached. They heard it talked about. They said, oh, those raving fanatics, those Jesus freaks, those religious people who just want to scare us into their religion. They didn't listen, they didn't believe, and so they didn't take heed. And just as on the day of Noah's judgment, when the judgment came on that day, everyone inside the ark was safe from the wrath of God. Everyone outside the ark was swept away. And what Jesus is saying is, on that day, everyone inside of Jesus Christ will be safe. But everyone outside of Jesus Christ will be swept away in the judgment. What about you? If you died right now, if you died before we give the closing benediction here in just a few minutes, would you hear Jesus say, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world? Or would you hear Him say, Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels? If He returned before this day is over, are you ready to meet Him? When I was a seven-year-old child, raised in a Christian home, I knew the language of saved and lost. I didn't know what it meant. Except that I knew if you're saved, you went to heaven. If you're lost, you went to hell. I knew that much. In my mind, the imagery of saved was you have a guy drowning in the ocean and a very kind captain takes his boat by him and sees him and throws out a life preserver to him and saves him from drowning. That was the imagery in my head. I knew whatever saved was, it was those people who were saved who went to heaven, and I knew I was not one of those people. My parents and my two older siblings, my two sisters, all had professed faith in Christ by this time. They had been baptized, added to the church. I knew that if Jesus came back, they were ready to meet Him, and I wasn't. And that began to convict me, and that began to trouble me, and I began to ask questions of my father about how it is that you are saved. A struggle that went on for many, many months until finally, about a month after my eighth birthday in December of 1977, I was able to close with Christ. The point I'm driving home is this. The second coming of Christ made me awaken to my condition. of my three children who profess faith in Christ, all of them have said to me, it's when they began to think about the second coming of Christ and the fact that they weren't ready for Him that put the fear of God in them. And if you're here and you're outside of Christ, understand there's a day of judgment coming. Do you believe Jesus is risen from the dead? That is the proof there's a day of judgment appointed. And there's only one way you can have refuge and find peace and find mercy on that day, and that's to be in Christ Jesus. So if you're here this morning and you're outside of Jesus Christ, believe, dare to believe that His promises are true. There is a coming day of judgment. But also believe His promises are true, that if you'll come to Him, He'll not cast you out. That He's able to reconcile you to God. And He's just as willing as He is able. Because He died for sinners just like you, upon the cross. And He delights in forgiving sinners. You know, Jesus didn't come to die for His friends. He came to die for His enemies. And that's something. He came to die for people who hated Him, that they might be reconciled to God. And He changes our stubborn hearts, and makes us to love the things we used to hate, and to hate the things we used to love, and to come to Christ and embrace Him by faith. Christ is such a beautiful Savior, such a wonderful Savior, such a winsome Savior. Come unto me, He says, and take my yoke upon you, because I'm gentle. humble and lowly of heart, and so you'll find rest for your souls." Jesus comes to give rest to people. He doesn't delight in the damnation of the wicked. He doesn't delight in the destruction of the lost. He came to save sinners. Remember the time His zealous apostles, James and John, the sons of thunder, The Samaritans did not receive the message that Jesus was preaching. Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them? And remember what he did? He rebuked them. You do not know what spirit you're of. I did not come to destroy men's lives. I came to save them. You're asking me to do something contrary to my heart. Jesus delights in saving sinners. So if you're here and you're a sinner and you're outside of Christ, come to Him. Embrace Him. Believe in Him. He says if you will confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Dare to believe Him and take Him in His Word, because you'll find Him always true to His Word, just as Pharaoh found Him true to His Word, just as everyone who's ever believed in Him has always found Him true to His Word. Flee to Christ that you might be saved. Let's pray. Father, we pray that for any here who are outside of Christ, show them the danger that they are in. Bear witness to them about the truth of Scripture, that there's a forthcoming day of judgment, and grant them the grace that they might flee to Christ for refuge and be saved. For us who are in Christ, Father, forgive us that we get so earthly-minded. We get our minds on the stuff of earth, sometimes because of the tyranny of the urgent, the busyness of our lives that is part of who we are. We can't change that part. But Father, we pray that in the midst of every circumstance, we would think and meditate upon our glorious hope that is set before us, the hope that things are going to be all made right someday. The day is going to come when you return to this earth. And when we see it, Lord, for us who are in Christ, it won't be a day of terror. Rather, we will rejoice and say, behold, the day of our redemption draws nigh. So Lord, we pray that you'll help us to be much more deliberate in our meditations upon the second coming of Christ. And they would produce fruit unto holiness for your glory and for your honor. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.