#118 Lu. 12:54-57 READING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Introduction:

    In our previous text Jesus spoke to His disciples about the
fires of conflict that His coming had brought to the world.  In
our text today He speaks to the multitude of people about their
inability to read the signs of the times.  In particular He is
talking about their inability to recognize that He is the Christ.

I.  Their ability to read the signs of the weather

    He first points out that they are able to recognize the signs
regarding the weather.  For instance, they could recognize a rain
cloud coming when they see it.  V. 54, "And he said also to the
people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye
say, There cometh a shower; and so it is."
    It just so happens that their rain clouds came from the same
direction from which our rain clouds come.  Most of our own rain
clouds come to us from the west.  Moisture is the form of clouds
often comes to us from the Gulf of Mexico and is caught by a cool
front from the north and moves in on us from a somewhat westerly
direction.  Sometimes our rain clouds come to us all the way from
the Pacific Ocean.  They are swept across Old Mexico by a jet
stream and they come in upon us from the southwest.
    So it was with the people of Israel.  The Mediterranian Sea
lay to their west.  The clouds of moisture from the Mediterranian
would blow in upon them from their west.
    One could look to the west and see the clouds coming and say,
"It's going to rain.  We're about to get a shower.  We are about
to get a downpour."   And they were right.  It would rain just as
they said.  One did not have to be exceptionally brilliant to see
that it was going to rain.  Any dummy could see that.  There were
the rain clouds right there in the sky for them to see and they
were getting closer and closer all the time.  Sure it's going to
rain.  We know that much, don't we, when we see the clouds coming
in from the west?
    Another sign of the weather which they could read was the sign
of hot weather.  V. 55, "And when ye see the south wind blow, ye
say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass."  The desert lay
to their south.  In Scripture it is known as the Sinai Desert.  In
modern times it is known as the Negev.  It was a very dry and very
hot region.  Any winds that swept over this desert would lose
their moisture and would become hotter and hotter as they move
along.  By the time they reached Israel they would be very hot.
    So whenever the wind made a change to come from the south, the
people would say, "Boy!  It's going to be hot today.  This is
going to be a scorcher."  And so it was.  They were exactly right.
The temperature would start climbing and the people would start
hunting a shade.  They knew they were in for some real hot
weather.

II.  Their inability to read the spiritual signs of the time

    But those same people, who were so sharp in predicting the
rain and predicting the hot weather seemed to be as blind as a bat
in reading the spiritual signs of the times.  V.  56, "Ye
hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth;
but how is it that ye do not discern this time?"
    The prophets of old had predicted that the Christ would come.
They had predicted that He would be born in Bethlehem of Judea.
They had predicted that He would come to Israel from the land of
Egypt.  They had predicted that He would do certain special
miracles.  For instance, they had predicted that He would cause
the blind to see, the lame to walk, the dumb to speak and the deaf
to hear.  These were special miracles that only the Christ would
be doing.
    Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea as the prophets had
predicted.  This was common knowledge among the Israelites.
Joseph and Mary had not lived in Bethlehem, but they had been
forced to go there by an edict from the Roman authorities.  All
this was common knowledge to the people.
    Jesus came to Israel from the land of Egypt as the prophets
had predicted.  Joseph and Mary carried Jesus to Egypt shortly
after He was born in order to protect Him from Herod, who sought
to kill Him.  When Herod died, they returned to their homeland.
The common people may not have known this at first, but after He
became popular as a miracle worker, they would know it.  They
would dig up every little detail of information available
concerning such a well known person.  So by this time they knew.
    Jesus performed the special miracles as the prophets had
predicted.  He caused the blind to see.  He caused the lame to
walk.  He caused the dumb to speak and the deaf to hear.
    In addition to this He performed other mighty miracles that
should have awakened the people to the fact that He is the Christ.
He healed lepers.  This was something that no other man in all the
world was able to do.  On two different occasions He fed a
multitude of people with a few little fish and a few little cakes
of bread.  He cast demons out of those who were demon possessed.
He even raised the dead to life again.  On one occasion He stopped
a funeral procession and raised the boy back to life again.
    The people knew about the miracles.  Many of them had been
eye witness to some of the miracles.  All of them knew about the
miracles.  The fame of Jesus had reached such great heights that
there was not a man in all of Israel who did not know about Jesus,
the miracle working man.  Wherever Jesus went, great crowds of
people gathered around Him.  Even at this very moment as He spoke
the words of this text, there was a great crowd of people gathered
around.
    In addition to the great miracles there was the great
preaching and teaching that Jesus was doing.  They had heard great
speakers, but they had never heard one speak like Jesus.  Wherever
and whenever He spoke men marveled at His teachings.  They said,
"Never a man spake like this."
    But in addition to all these signs which pointed out that
Jesus is the Christ, there was another.  There was the life and
ministry of John the Baptist.  God had promised in Old Testament
times that He would send a special messenger before the Christ to
prepare the way for the coming of the Christ.  John the Baptist
was that man.  The people recognized that John was a great prophet
of God and John the Baptist had declared that Jesus is the Christ.
They should have believed John for John identified Jesus as the
Christ.

III.  Why they were not able to read the signs

    Why was it then that the great masses of people did not
realize that Jesus is the Christ?  Why was it that they could see
all these signs fulfilled and still fail to see that Jesus is the
Christ?  Why was it that they could see that the clouds from the
west meant rain and wind from the south meant extreme heat, but
they still could not see that Jesus is the Christ?
    This is the question that Jesus directed to them right here on
this occasion.  V.  57, "Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye
not what is right?"  They could read the signs of the weather.
Why was it that they could not read the spiritual signs of the
times and know that God had sent the Christ to them as He had
promised?  Why is it that they could look to the west and see the
clouds and say, "Rain is coming" and yet could not look at the
signs and see that the Christ had come?  Why was it that they did
not know that Jesus is the Christ?
    Let us see if we can at least partially answer that question.
In the first place, their own sinful flesh nature was rebellious
to that idea.  Like all men, they had inherited a depraved,
wicked, sinful nature from Adam.  The sinful nature of the unsaved
man is opposed to the will of God and the way of God.  The sinful
nature of man always tries to get him to reject God's word and
God's way and God's will.  Therefore their own sinful nature
inclined them to reject the truth of God that Jesus is the Christ.
    Furthermore, these people were accustomed to following the
leadership of the scribes and Pharisees in religious matters and
the Jewish leaders had almost unanimously rejected the idea that
Jesus is the Christ.  What they needed to was to listen to God
instead of man and believe what God had to say on the subject.
    Still, yet, there was the influence of the Devil upon them.
The Devil did not want them to believe that Jesus is the Christ
and be saved.  The Devil always tries to blind the mind of those
who are lost so that they will not trust in Jesus Christ and be
saved.
    Now it is not that it just never crossed the minds of these
people that Jesus might be the Christ.  There were some few among
the masses of people who had read the signs and were already
saying that Jesus is the Christ.  Even the Samaritan woman, who
met at the well of Jacob, was convinced that Jesus is the Christ
and she said so.  She went back into the city and proclaimed to
all, "Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did, is
not this the Christ?" If a Samaritan woman could read the
spiritual signs and recognize that Jesus is the Christ, how much
more the Jewish people should have been able to do so!

IV.  People of our day

    But now let us come down to our day and let us observe some
things about own ability to read the signs.  We can drive down the
highway and read the road-signs along the highway and find our way
from one city to another.  How do we do this?  We just read the
numbers along the road so that we will make the right turns.  Sure
enough, the first thing you know, we reach our destination.  We
get to the right place.
    We are able to read the directions on the bottle of medicine
that the doctor has prescribed and we are able to know just when
and how much we are supposed to take.  Some are able to take a
pattern and a piece of cloth and make a beautiful garment for them
to wear.  Many can take a recipe and go into the kitchen and
prepare a delicious dish to set at the table.  Some are able to
build automobiles and boats and airplanes.  Some are able to build
great buildings or great dams or bridges.  They read the
blueprints and build accordingly.
    But why is it that many of these same people have trouble
seeing that they are sinners and headed for the fires of hell and
that they need to turn to Jesus Christ for the salvation of their
souls?
    Why is it that men have trouble believing the plain teaching
of the Bible that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Savior of the
world?  Why is it that they have trouble believing the testimony
of good Christians who testify that they got saved by trusting
Jesus Christ as their Savior?  Why is it that they have trouble
believing the very Holy Spirit of God as the Holy Spirit of God
who knocks at their heart's door and tries to impress upon them
that they are lost and hell bound and that God loves them and
wants to save them and keep them out of hell?  Why is it that men
have trouble believing that Jesus Christ is their only hope of
staying out of the fires of hell and we insist on trying to reform
their lives and live good enough to make it to heaven instead of
trusting Jesus to save them?  And why is it that when people tell
them that Jesus is going to return to this world very soon that
they have trouble believing them?
    The answer for them is the same as it was for the Israelites
to whom Jesus directed His questions.  In the first place, it is
because of the sinful nature that they have inherited from Adam.
The Bible declares that all have inherited this depraved sinful
nature from Adam that inclines us all to go directly in opposition
to the will of God.  In Ephesians 2:3 the Apostle Paul said that
we are all influenced greatly by the lust of our flesh and the
sinful desires of our mind and that we are all by nature the
children of wrath.  To put it another way, we were all born
sinners.  We all came into the world with a sinful nature that
inclines us to sin.
    Also, like the people of Israel, too many people today listen
to the wrong people and let them do their thinking for them.  Most
of the Israelites were under the scribes and Pharisees and let the
scribes and Pharisees do their religious thinking for them instead
of looking at the signs and reading the signs for themselves.  The
world today is filled with religious leaders who preach and teach
works for salvation.  They preach that a lost sinner can change
his own ways and straighten up his own life and that by his own
efforts he can make it to heaven, but they are wrong.  The only
way that a lost sinner can get to heaven is by trusting Jesus
Christ to do the saving.  And understand this.  Jesus does not
help save anybody.  He does not help a lost sinner save himself.
It is only when the lost sinner will turn the whole job over to
Jesus and let Him do the saving that Jesus will save.
    Then, too, there is the Devil who stands in the way.  If you
are lost, the Devil knows that you are lost and on your road to
hell and that is just the way he wants to keep you.  He wants you
to stay lost.  He wants you to go to hell and he will do all in
his power to hinder you from trusting in Jesus and being saved.
The Scripture says that he blinds the minds of the unsaved lest
they should believe in Jesus and be saved.
    Now in some cases it just might be that one has never believed
in Jesus for the salvation of his soul because he has just never
heard the true gospel message.  Even right here in this part of
the world where there are so many churches up and down the roads.
Yet there are still some who have never heard the true gospel
message.  They need not only to hear the gospel but to believe the
gospel and be saved.
    But for the most part, it is not that the people have not
heard the gospel.  It is just that they have not believed the
gospel.  They can believe the highway signs and go from one city
to another and get to the right place, but when they die they will
not go to the right place.  For most people it is not that they
have never heard the gospel, it is just that they have never
turned to Jesus Christ and trusted in Him to save their soul.
They have never even asked Him to save them.  They can see the
rain clouds coming and they will get out of the rain, but they see
hell coming and they make no preparation to stay out of hell.  The
wind can turn from the south and they know that it is going to be
a hot day and they will do whatever is necessary to stay cool.
But they see the fires of hell coming and they do nothing
whatsoever to stay out of hell.  They know to do and some of them
know what to do, but they just don't do it.  They know that they
need turn to the Lord, but they just don't do it.

Conclusion:

    I wish that I could preach to all those unsaved people in the
world and tell them about Jesus Christ, my Savior.  I trusted Him
to save my soul and I wish that all of them would do the same.
But I will never get to witness to all of them.  What I can do is
to speak to you.  I am going to ask you to come and trust Jesus
Christ today.
    I am also asking that those of you who are saved and who wish
to unite with this church to come forward at this time.  Come and
present yourself as a candidate for membership in this church.