Great Ready, Jesus is calling

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. There's a moment coming in history, folks, where God the Father leans over to the Son and says, Son, go get your church. And suddenly Jesus says, Gabriel, get the trumpeters, get the horns.

Let's blow the trumpet blast. There's going to be a great shout from heaven. And I'm going to show you what that might look like based on the days of Noah.

We're glad you've joined us for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. In Genesis, Chapter 7, Noah and his family entered into the ark they built as God commanded Noah to do. When it was completed, the Lord closed the door before the rains fell and shut them in. He protected them from the destructive judgment that was coming on the earth. And the Bible tells us there will be a day coming soon that will be lived like the days of Noah, where many will be unaware because they live in darkness. But those living in the light will understand the season they're living in when mercy comes to an end.

Let's join Carter now with his message titled, Get Ready, Jesus is Calling. Now, Matthew, Chapter 24 and 25, because these are the chapters where the disciples came to Jesus and they had just brought to his attention the stones of the temple. And if you've been to Israel and you've seen these stones, they're mammoth stones. It's even marvelous as to how they could actually move these without the modern machinery that we have today.

But they did move them. And they laid the foundation of an incredible temple, a place that was once built for the glory of God. And they had a sense of permanence just looking at what they had accomplished, in a sense, with their hands. And they remarked on it, look at the temple, look at the magnificence of all of the things that we have created. And Jesus said, Do you not see these things? As surely I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. So in spite of the sense of permanence that they saw, there was a day coming when everything that could be shaken would be shaken.

And if you've been to Israel, you've seen these stones scattered, not left one upon another. Of course, he foresaw it. He foresaw a time of shaking coming to the nation of Israel at that time. But also Jesus Christ speaks in his word of a time of shaking coming to this whole world. As a matter of fact, in the book of Hebrews, the writer talks about a season where everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken. And if your confidence in Christ can be shaken, it will be shaken.

But there's a confidence that God builds into the heart when we are built on the foundation of the truth of God's word. Remember Jesus said, Whoever hears my sayings and does them, I will liken him to a man who built his house upon a rock. And when the rains came and when the floods came and when the winds beat against that house, it did not fall, for it was founded upon a rock. The cry of your heart and mind today has got to be, Oh God, establish my life on this rock. Establish my mind on this rock of truth.

Establish my ways upon this rock. And Oh God, give me that sense of stability that we're all going to need, not only to survive, as wonderful as that is, but to make a difference in an ever darkening and ever confused world around us. As things are beginning to unravel quite quickly all around us, society is turning very dark. Paul the Apostle talked about a lawlessness breaking out in the last days and increasing in intensity until the Antichrist, the man of law, is actually revealed. We see lawlessness now everywhere. Lawlessness in our streets. Lawlessness, unfortunately, is attacking our schools. Lawlessness in our homes. Lawlessness in people's voices and structures all through society. And suddenly nobody wants to obey any rules. Everybody wants to create all their own. Nobody wants there to be truth anymore.

Everything has got to be relative. And what I think truth is, the guy that shouts the loudest gets to be the one who holds the truth of the moment until somebody louder comes along and shouts another truth. Really a confusing time, difficult time that we're now living in. Jesus was sitting then on the Mount of Olives and the disciples came and said, what will be the sign of your coming?

And at the end of the age, suddenly they're fast-forwarding in a sense from the stones that were their focus of the temple right to the end. When are you coming again? When are you going to return? You're talking about going somewhere. And as Thomas said, we don't even know where you're going. How can we follow you? But you have said you're going somewhere and you are telling us you're going to come back again.

So when will you be coming back? And what are the signs we should be looking for when this whole world, as we know it, the age of it, has come to an end? Now, in response to that, you have both chapter 24 and 25, but I want to focus on verses 36 to 44 in Matthew chapter 24. Now, He's talking about essentially the social condition.

That's what I'd like to focus on of the day. Let's not get caught in all the minutia of these chapters. A lot of people just get so caught in the arguments of, is He coming pre-tribulation? Is He coming mid-tribulation?

Is He coming post-tribulation? If you're not familiar with those, you'll eventually hear about these things. And I liken it to people going to a football game or a baseball game and arguing about who's going to be the referee or the umpire and actually missing the game.

So you can get so stuck in the smaller details. Trust me, when it comes, we're all going at the same time. So don't worry about it, okay?

It's all going to happen. I remember Brother Dave used to say he was a pan-tribulationist, believing it'll all pan out in the end. So let's just stick to the text of Scripture, not worry about the smaller details.

Of that day and hour, chapter 24, verse 36, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. In other words, so if anybody tells you that Christ is coming October the 6th at 2-12 in the afternoon, you can just write them off right away. And many have done that.

Many have tried that. How many here remember the group that came to New York City with signs? They'd be outside the church and Jesus is coming, I think it was like September 21st at 4 in the afternoon kind of thing.

Get ready. And there was a lot of them. They came and they were part of this church that believed that. I met a guy in the street and invited him for lunch on September 22nd. I said, you're going to be needing a friend the day after he doesn't come. No one knows, not even the angels, but only my Father knows that day. But, he says in verse 37, but as the days of Noah were, also will the coming of the Son of Man be. And so he's immediately moving from focusing on a time and a date and such like that to the season and the social climate that will be prevalent, may I say, in that season. 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.

Now eating and drinking is not wrong, neither is marrying and giving in marriage. The context, what he's speaking about is the people will be unaware of the season that they're living in. They'll just be carrying on as if everything is going to go on the same as it's always been. That's exactly what happened in the days of Noah. And they did not know, verse 39, until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. So generally speaking, the society as we know it all around us will not be aware of the hour. But the Bible says that you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

We're children of light, we're children of the day, we should be aware of the season we're living in. I honestly feel that I might be alive when Christ returns for his church. Somebody said to me after the service, they said, that must be soon then.

You're probably right. I might be alive. I've had that sense in my heart for years. I might live to see this event called the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ. We'll get into that in a moment where Christ comes. There's a moment coming in history, folks, where God the Father leans over to the Son and says, Son, go get your church. And suddenly Jesus says, Gabriel, get the trumpeters, get the horns.

Let's blow the trumpet blast. There's going to be a great shout from heaven. And the Bible says the dead in Christ will be raised first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be gathered together with them in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Folks, that's in the Bible. That's biblical truth. There is going to be a gathering from the earth of the church. But I'm going to show you what that might look like based on the days of Noah.

It's amazing when you start looking at it. Now, a man named Noah was building a place of safety for his family, which would lift all of them above and out of the flood that was soon coming upon the ungodly. He was building a boat, an ark of safety. He heard the words of God. And their whole society at that time is not hearing the words of God, but there was one man called Noah that actually heard what God was speaking. And Noah began to build based on the Word of God, which is why a biblical worldview is so important right now. We can't just build our lives on emotion or songs or just going to church.

All of those things are good. We have to have those things. But our lives have got to be built. Our pursuits have to be built on the Word of God. There has to be this biblical worldview.

And obviously, Noah had a biblical worldview in his time. The biblical worldview is that the world is about to be judged by God because of the weight of its sin. But God has prepared a place of safety for those who can hear what He's speaking to His people. And for you and I today, that place of safety is in the cross of Jesus Christ. It's in the shed blood of the Son of God. It's in the promise of the Son of God.

I will never leave you or forsake you. I've not come to judge the world, but I came that the world might be saved. When you came to Christ and gave Him your life as your Lord and Savior, you entered into the ark of safety that's been provided for this generation.

Second Peter chapter 2 and verse 5 talks about Noah not just building the ark at this time, but he was a preacher of righteousness, a voice that's saying essentially to the people, judgment is coming, folks. The weight of sin has become intolerable to God in this world. There are lines you can't cross with God. And when those lines are crossed, God says, I'm sorry, I would like to extend time, but I can't. There's something in the heart of God. There's something about the nature of God and the holiness of God and looking down on the creation when He has created humankind in His image and we have allowed debauchery to get ahold of us to the point where we're in a sense not able to even hear anymore the cautions of the Word of God.

And He looks down and says, it can't go on anymore. And folks, I feel in my heart we're so close to that line now. We're, as in the days in Sodom, when the Sodomites were trying to find the door and break down the door to force the innocents as it was to be partakers of their sin. They had crossed the line that cannot be crossed in the kingdom of God.

It was at that point that the angels took the hands of Lot and his wife and his daughters and took them out. It's a foreshadowing of what's going to happen in our generation as it's happened in generations before us. And can you imagine the mockery which he had to endure while building a boat in a place where some had said it never rained?

Can you imagine? You're building this boat and everybody's walking by and it's, look at that stupid old man. You know, it's like some it's like some people if they hear this message online say, look at that stupid old preacher in New York City talking about the judgment of God coming. Second Peter chapter three and verses three to ten, this is what Peter says about our day, knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. So in the last days scoffers will rise and folks these are people in the church.

Do you understand? Many of these scoffers are going to be behind pulpits. Jesus himself said there's going to be great religious deception in the last days. Many are going to be deceived and the deception will increase as the days get darker. The false prophets will be there all the way through and they will literally start abounding if they're not already here in the house of God. And the scoffers arise because other voices are rising up and saying get right with God because Jesus is coming.

People will maybe take a copy of the message and give it to them and they will say, oh don't listen to that old those old guys are always talking about gloom and doom. Listen, this world's still got lots to offer us. Live your best days, be your best you now. There's so much ahead of us.

Stock market is going to bounce back. You're going to be able to get that job in that house and the whole focus is not on eternal things but on the things of this world. And they say don't listen to these guys because since the fathers fell asleep all things continue from the beginning of creation. Listen, Paul believed this and and he died and Jesus didn't come. Peter believed it, he died, Jesus didn't come. So and so said it, he died, Jesus didn't come. So why would you listen to this guy or these guys now because all things are carrying on just as they have from the beginning of creation. But Peter goes on in verse five and says for this they willfully forget.

It's not negligence, it's willful. They put it away that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water by which the world that then existed Paris being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Beloved do not forget this one thing that what the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness but is long suffering towards us and not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

In other words, Peter is saying the only reason the world hasn't been judged now is because of the kindness of our God. He waits. If there's still a heart that's looking for him, if there's still some more somebody sighing in the night and saying oh God are you real, are you really there?

Can you really help me? For the sake of somebody that can still hear he will be kind and he will withhold his hand of justice. But again verse 10 the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore since all these things will be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and all godliness? I want you to think this through for a moment. Karl Oppenheimer who invented the the nuclear the atom bomb actually in World War II was a nuclear scientist and when they detonated the atom bomb for the first time he knew something that I think a lot of people are willfully ignorant of today. They just don't want to think about it but he knew something.

He knew this device had the capability of actually igniting the atmosphere around the earth. Think it through for a moment. And what he had developed back then we have weapons that are so much more powerful now and they're in the hands of unstable people all over the world now. Our time might be shorter than than we'd like to think it is.

You know as I often say one nuclear bomb contains your whole day. In the time of judgment Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 24 he likened it to the season of Noah in Genesis chapter 7. He talks about the people who entered into the ark Noah and his family entered in male and female of all flesh went in as God had commanded him and the Lord shut him in.

And now the flood was on the earth 40 days the waters increased and lifted up the ark and it rose high above the earth. God shut the door. There is a season there is a time where mercy ends.

There's a time when the door is shut. You know in the scriptures it says because they received not the love of the truth God gave them over to delusion that they should believe a lie. There's a moment hell is bad enough as it is and we don't understand what being in a place for eternity where God is not is like. Even the worst of sinners God's still omnipresent in this world.

Even when you're in a bar and you're doing stuff you shouldn't be doing the Holy Spirit is still pursuing you still whispering. There's still an evidence of God. His mercy is still available but we don't understand what it would be like one day to be in a place where God is not. The Bible describes it in different ways and whether they're literal or whether they're just metaphorical I don't know but I know that there's a darkness there so thick it doesn't carry the sound of your voice so you can scream all you want in hell and nobody will ever hear you for all of eternity.

There's there's no connection with anything. You imagine just spending eternity in a place like that and the Bible says it's a place where the worm never dies the conscience never stops turning. Can you imagine if you don't make it to heaven if you don't receive Christ as your Savior if you choose to ignore the words you're hearing today if you put it away this this day of God's retribution on the earth you put it far from you can imagine one day you end up in a place where God is not forever but you will remember being here this day. You will remember my voice you will remember this this this message that was preached you will recall the opportunity you were given to receive Christ as your Savior. Am I trying to scare you?

Absolutely. You better believe I'm trying to scare you because there's reason to be scared. We don't play games with the holy God. Listen, eternity is a long time to be wrong. God sent his son on a cross and it wasn't just for some vain display of religion.

He sent his son so that every person is now without excuse whoever hears this message. There's nowhere else to go there's no other truth. Jesus Christ himself said I am the way the truth and the life and you can't come to the Father except through me. There's no other way not through religion not through works not through singing songs not through being a nice person.

You can help everybody across the street with their groceries from now till the day you die. That won't get you into heaven. Only confidence in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for your sin will give you a guarantee of eternal life.

This is a serious message. You think of all the people that have ignored it for all the centuries since Christ. You imagine if if we could just have a window into hell this very moment if we could just open the gate you imagine the screams down there. Could you imagine the the intercession that's going on not for themselves they know there's no no no chance but as Jesus said in the scriptures this this man who was in hell cried out father Abraham send somebody to my family. Send somebody to those who are still alive on the earth that warned them about this place. Hell is a real place just as heaven is a real place but in the day of God's judgment on the earth the scripture says those who took seriously the provision of God the the ark of the ark that was built in Noah's day was a type of salvation in Jesus Christ and those who took seriously the provision of God went inside the ark and then God closed the door and the as the judgment came down on the earth the ark was lifted up above it that's the promise of God for his church in this last day as the judgment of God comes upon this world with famines and wars and pestilences and unbelievable conflict and hardship and difficulty even the stars of heaven being shaken the scripture says the people of God as in the days of Noah are going to be lifted up out of this world by the power by the presence and by the mercy of God and so shall we ever be with the Lord the trumpet of God is going to sound the dead in Christ will be raised first then we who are alive and remain will be gathered together with them and so shall we ever be in the presence of the Lord I've often thought I said oh God let the rapture of the church happen while we're in church singing while we're preaching the gospel while people are coming forward and receiving Christ as the savior let the trumpet sound and let us go into the heavens what a shout that's going to be what a day that's going to be what a glorious moment that's going to be when we realize God it was worth the ridicule it was it was worth the struggle it was it was worth standing when everyone else was falling it it was worth holding the truth when everyone else was letting it fall through their fingers oh God it was worth it oh God thank you for saving my family thank you Lord for answering my prayers and not letting my children or my grandchildren or my cousins or my brothers or my sisters or my aunts and uncles dying their sin God thank you for moving heaven and earth to answer my prayer thank you Lord for giving us the courage to stand and preach the gospel in an unpopular time thank you for giving us the backbone not to cave under this barn of men would have been so easy for Noah just to say oh boys hang up your tools this is nuts we're building this thing for years everybody all they do is mock nobody listens to my I preach to them every morning and I tell them about the judgments coming on the world and they just laugh and they wave their hands and miss that crazy old man in his boat why don't we just pack it in sons thank God he didn't do that thank God he stood thank God he was faithful because his family would have been very very thankful when this was all over you can be sure of it now in the context of the ark of Noah being lifted up from the earth and the rapture of the church now we go back to Matthew chapter 24 verse 39 let's go back to verse 38 in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark so I said it before unaware unaware of how close they were to the return of Christ to the end of things as we know them they did not know until the flood came and took them all away so also will the coming of the Son of Man be they didn't know God help us not to hold not to hold the truth to ourselves God help us imagine getting to the throne of God and people you worked with people you live beside walk up and look at you and say you knew this you knew this day was coming why didn't you tell me I might have mocked you but at least you could have warned me at least I would have known then two men will be in the field one taken and the other left that talks about the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ one two in the field two two guys are at work where they work at a city bank or they work at a janitor's place or they work in a restaurant maybe in a kitchen cooking together and one man's telling the other one about Christ oh since I came to Jesus it's so changed my life it's it's I feel so free I feel like my sin is forgiven I feel like I have the promise of a new life that's come into my heart oh Bob won't you consider giving your life to Christ and suddenly gone the spatula hits the grill the cook's hat falls on the ground gone two men will be in the field one is taken the other left two women grinding at the mill one is taken and the other left watch therefore for you do not know what hour your lord is coming but know this if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into therefore be also ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect don't wait for the rain to start Jesus is coming are you ready for him when he comes you've been listening to carter conlon from times square church in new york city for more information and resources to help you in your walk in christ log on to tsc.nyc that's tsc.nyc and be sure to be with us next week for a call to the nation with carter conlon