Luke Chapter 21 # 9

Luke Chapter 21 # 9

Let us turn from the study of these verses with a deep conviction that the second coming of Christ is one of the leading truths of Christianity. Let the Christ in whom we believe be not only the Christ who suffered on Calvary - but the Christ who is coming again in person to judge the earth!

Section 125. Watch and Pray! Luke 21:34-38

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear Him.

These verses from the practical conclusion of our Lord Jesus Christ's great prophetic discourse. They supply a striking answer to those who condemn the study of unfulfilled prophecy, as speculative and unprofitable. It would be difficult to find a passage more practical, direct, plain, and heart-searching than that which is now before our eyes.

Let us learn from these verses - the spiritual danger to which even the holiest believers are exposed in this world. Our Lord says to His disciples, "Watch out! Or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life - and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap!"

These words are exceeding startling. They were not addressed to carnal-minded Pharisees, or skeptical Sadducees, or worldly Herodians. They were addressed to Peter, James, and John, and the whole company of the Apostles. They were addressed to men who had given up everything for Christ's sake, and had proved the reality of their faith by loving obedience and steady adhesion to their Master. Yet even to them, our Lord holds out the peril of carousing, and drunkenness, and worldliness! Even to them He says, "Watch out!"

The exhortation before us should teach us the immense importance of humility. There is no sin so great - but a great saint may fall into it.

There is no saint so great - but he may fall into a great sin. Noah escaped the pollutions of the world before the flood - and yet he was afterwards overtaken by drunkenness. Abraham was the father of the faithful - and yet through unbelief he said falsely that Sarah was his sister. Lot did not take part in the horrible wickedness of Sodom - and yet he afterwards fell into foul sin in the cave. Moses was the meekest man on earth - and yet he so lost self-control that he spoke angrily and unadvisedly. David was a man after God's own heart - and yet he plunged into most heinous adultery.

These examples are all deeply instructive. They all show the wisdom of our Lord's warning in the passage before us. They teach us to be "clothed with humility." "Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall." (1 Peter 5:5; 1 Cor. 10:12).

The exhortation before us should teach us the great importance of an unworldly spirit. The "cares of this life" are placed side by side with carousing and drunkenness.

Excess in eating and drinking, is not the only excess which injures the soul! There is an excessive anxiety about the innocent things of this life - which is just as ruinous to our spiritual prosperity, and just as poisonous to the soul.

Never, never let us forget - that we may make spiritual shipwreck on lawful things - as really and truly as on open vices! Happy is he who has learned to hold the things of this world with a loose hand, and to believe that seeking first the kingdom of God, "all other things shall be added to him!" (Matthew 6:33).

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 10)