MATTHEW 24:36

                                                          By Pastor F. M. Riley

                                                          January 6, 2021

    “But of that day and hour knoweth    no man, no not the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” Matthew 24:36. 

INTRODUCTION

   I love to study Bible prophecy!  My reason for such a love of prophecy is twofold 

     First, it is inspired Bible prophecy which sets forth my “blessed hope,”  Titus 2:11-15. 

    Second, Bible prophecy is the only teaching in the Bible which God’s inspired Word says is absolutely certain to come to pass.  Even some believers today  have never realized this truth.  Read it for yourself in 2 Peter 1:19-21.

    In studying, teaching, and preaching ”the whole counsel of God…..Acts 20:27-28” over the past 66 years, I have often taught and preached Bible prophecy, especially emphasizing the resurrection and rapture of the Lord’s church and believing people.  I have no apology to make to anyone for having done so, for Biblw prophecy is absolutely certain to be fulfilled

 

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THE REACTION

    Over all of these years, I have had dozens of “professing Christians” who have thrown Matthew 24:36 in my face, telling me that they never study Bible prophecy, and are not interested in it, because the Lord said that no man knows the day nor the hour of  the Lord’s return.  The Lord did not make any such statement, and now I am going to prove this by the inspired Word of God!

     What hypocrisy!  What blatant hypocrisy!!  These people excuse themselves from STUDYING the inspired prophecies of God’s Word, by misusing and misquoting this inspired scripture spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself, because they have decided that no man can know anything about the time when the Lord is coming again.  Shallow Bible study, if any real STUDY is  ever done by these people.  

EXAMINING THE LORD’S STATEMENT

    Some highly educated people, when reading the Bible, throw out all the rules they once learned about comprehending and speaking their own English language.  My King James Bible is written in English, having been translated from the Hebrew and Greek texts.  Therefore, when reading or STUDYING the Bible, the rules of comprehending and speaking  the English language certainly do apply.

    I was taught how to properly speak and write the English language in my English Literature class in school, beginning when I was a young boy in the third grade.   I was blessed

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with enough  intelligence  to believe  what my English teachers taught me.  Thank God!  What I learned back then has been of great benefit to me over the many years I have been preaching and  writing out the great truths of God’s Word.

    Now let’s examine carefully what Matthew 24:36 actually and literally says. 

    “But of that day and hour KNOWETH no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” 

        Folks, anyone who has ever studied our English language knows that every word spoken or written in English is either speaking of that which is past, that which is present, or that which is future.  These are the past, present, and future tenses in our English language.  However, the same holds true in the Greek text from  which our King James Bible was translated. 

     Now it doesn’t take a great deal of intelligence, to understand that this statement of the Lord was made in the present tense.  In other words, at that specific time no man knew the appointed time for the Lord Jesus to come again, or for “heaven and earth to pass away,” 24:35.

      Compare Mark 13:32.  This passage is also written in the present tense.  In other words, at that specific time, no man, including the Lord Himself knew the time He was appointed to return. 

                          THE LORD’S TRANSFORMATION

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    Now why did the Lord explicity say that He didn’t even know the time He would return? 

    Even many believers today  do not comprehend the humanity of Christ,    Christ Jesus was born into this world as a true human being.    His humanity was just as real as that of those reading this study.  The sole and only difference in the  Lord Jesus and the rest of us humans was that Christ  did not have the Adamic  “sin nature” in  His body like we do.    Romans 5:12.  The “sin nature” is passed from father to child,

due to us all being descendants of fallen Adam.    

    But the father of the Lord Jesus was not a fallen man, but rather was the Holy Spirit of God, Luke 1:35.  Therefore Christ was born without a “sin nature,”  but was still a human.  The inspired Apostle refers to Christ as “the second Adam,” 1 Corinthians 15;45-47. 

    The first Adam was created sinless, but willfully disobeyed God, thereby bringing sin and death upon all of his descendants.  Fallen men could not redeem themselves. so God mercifully sent His own sinless Son into the world to become the blood sacrifice for all of fallen mankind.  Read Hebrews 9:22..    

    Dear readers,, it was MAN who disobeyed God and brought sin and death upon the whole human race.  Therefore, a sinless man was required to pay man’s sin debt by the sacrifice of Himself for the sins of mankind.  That price was paid by the sinless man; the Lord Jesus Christ, as He suffered

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 and bled and died at Calvary for you and for me.  Glory to God!

THE APPLICATION TO MATTHEW 24:36

     Now if the reader truly wants to  “rightly divide the Word of truth,” then don’t miss the fact that at the time Christ spoke Matthew 24:36, He had not been crucified; His body  had not laid in the tomb for three days and night,  He had not been gloriously resurrected. 

    He was  still a man, and even though He was God incarnate in the flesh, and without sin, He had some of the limitations  of being a natural man.  This is why He explicitly said that even He did not know “the day nor the hour;’ the appointed time for His return.  Therefore,  He spoke Matthew 24:36 IN THE PRESENT TENSE.   

     But shortly after He spoke these words in Matthew 24:36, He was arrested, given an illegal trial, and crucified.  Three days and nights later, He arose from  the grave.  Upon His resurrection, Father God made Him LORD OVER ALL in both Heaven and Earth, Matthew 28:18-20. 

                     THE COMMAND OF THE LORD

    The Lord Himself repeatedly exhorted His disciples to  “watch” for His return, and gave them “signs” to watch for, which would indicate His SOON return.  Then in Luke 12:37 the Lord pronounced a blessing upon those of His disciples, who, when He comes, He will find “watching.”  I am one of

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the Lord’s disciples, and I want that blessing.   But one can only have it if they are obedient to the Lord’s command. 

    What command?  The command the Lord gave His disciples in Mark 13:37.  No true believer is exempt from this command given by the Lord.  If there was not something to “watch” for, then this commandment would not have been given. 

     Now how many of our readers are like Adam, who refused to obey the Lord’s command?  When one makes the choice to not STUDY the prophecies of God’s Word, using Matthew 24:36 as their excuse, they are not fooling the Lord God.  They ought to hang their heads in shame, and seek mercy from the Lord Jesus whom they have disobeyed. 

COMING AS A THIEF

    Are God’s people really ignorant of the time when the Lord is coming, as those who misquote Matthew 24:36 claim? 

     Now, it might appear to some readers,  that those excusing themselves from studying Bible prophecy and watching for the Lord’s coming, could be right.  Doesn’t the Bible say that the Lord is coming as “a thief in the night?” 

    The Scriptures most certainly do say that Christ is coming

as a thief in the night.  Five times this truth is stated in the New Testament.  Four of those places are 1 Thess 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, Rev. 3:3, and Rev. 16:15.  Yes, I did say five times in the New Testament, but I divided the four from the fifth time,

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In order to emphasize it’s importance to our readers.     

     This fifth reference has the Apostle Paul  speaking directly to the Lord’s church, to whom he was inspired of God to write,

    “But ye brethren, are not in darkness, that thqt day should overtake you as a thief,

    Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness,” 1 Thess 5:4-5.

    Now do these Scriptures plainly  state that the Lord will not come upon His church as a thief, or do they not?  In other words, those believers who are in the Lord’s church are supposed to know  the time of the Lord’s coming.  The Lord  will come upon the lost, unbelieving, world “as a thief in the night.”  But He  will not come upon  the Lord’s church as a thief.  Now readers, don’t try to correct God’s Word here.  Just believe what it says. 

THE BRIDEGROOM IS COMING

    The Lord’s church is presently the espoused Bride of Christ.  The Lord’s church is to be married to  Christ following her rapture from the earth to Heaven.  The marriage between Christ and His church takes the form of a Jewish wedding, as practiced by the Jewish people at the first c oming of Christ. 

    Now read in Matthew 25 the parable commonly referred to as the Parable of the Ten Virgins.  In the course of this parable  at midnight,  a cry goes forth  that the bridegroom is

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 coming. 

    This  was common practice by the Jews living back then.  The midnight cry was specifically for the purpose of alerting the espoused bride,  giving her time to put on her wedding garments in preparation of meeting her bridegroom and going with him to their wedding.  

    Now does the Word of God tell us  believers who claim to be a part of the Lord’s church, about any garments the church is to put on?  Oh boy, does it!  Read Colossians 3, especially noticing verses 12 through 16.  The things listed are the wedding garments Christ wants to see on His espoused bride when He comes for her at the rapture.  Are our readers listening? 

    Dark midnight, morally and spiritually,  has come to this present evil world, and the midnight cry is going forth as I write.  We are definitely in the minority, but there are true dedicated “men of God”  all over this country and the whole world today, who are lifting up their voices crying out the warning ,  “Behold, the bridegroom: go ye out  to meet Him,”Matthew 25:6. 

    Are our reader’s listening?  Do you have on the wedding garments?  Or are you putting them on as instructed in Colossians 3:12-16?  Are you  saved?  Are you ready to meet Jesus? 

YOU HAVE MY MESSAGE!  WHAT YOU NOW DO WITH IT IS BETWEEN YOU AND THE LORD.  THANKS FOR  LISTENING!