Matt 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Whats going on in the world these days? Exactly everything the Lord told us would happen. And? And, we were told not to be troubled, these things must come to pass. We see the nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences and earthquakes. Where does that put us? The beginning of sorrows. The trick is we do not know where the sorrows end and the tribulation begins but we do know we are getting closer to the time of the tribulation day by day.
The Lord also told us He is coming back at least two more times. One is the unexpected coming, the other is the expected coming (the "second coming"). We see both of these two distinct comings laid out for us in Matt 24:
Matt 24:29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matt 24:36But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven,
but my Father only.
37But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be.
38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into
the ark,
39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be.
40Then shall two be in the field; the one shall
be taken, and the other left.
41Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall
be taken, and the other left.
that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Words matter. Specifically, His Words matter. When He talks about "they" and "ye" we need to pay attention. He is clearly making a differentiation between different groups of people here.
2 Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
To be understood correctly, the Word must be ^^^ rightly divided. Right division of the Word to correctly interpret the Word can only come from the Spirit of the Lord:
John 16:13 King James Version (KJV)
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Do we know how much time we have left? Absolutely not. What do we know? We know with absolute certainty that we have less time today than we did yesterday. One way or another, either through death or the unexpected coming of the Lord we are one day close today to standing before the Lord than we were yesterday. Nobody guaranteed us we will see tomorrow which requires readiness today and every day to meet the Lord. This is exactly what our Lord counseled us in Words like this:
32But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father.
man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his
servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
35Watch
ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at
midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
36Lest coming suddenly he find
you sleeping.
37And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
The Lord is not wordy so when He repeats something over and over again He is putting a neon sign over it. Watch, be ready. Ready for what? To meet the Lord. When should we watch and be ready? Since we do not know (purposefully) the number of days allotted for each of us on this earth, nor do we know the day of His unexpected coming we must be watching and ready to meet our Lord right now, today.
Everything is going according to plan. We are exactly where we need to be on the Lord's timeline because He Himself is managing that timeline. The election of Trump (which pretty much nobody saw coming) is evidence of this. The Lord is able to put the brakes on current events and He is able to put the accelerator down to keep this world and all of its inhabitants exactly on the timeline He has prescribed to work out His Word with flawless perfection.
Ecc 3:1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
grace and peace
