Mat 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.<\/b>
\nMat 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?<\/b>
\nMat 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.<\/b>
\nMat 24:47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
\nMat 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
\nMat 24:49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;<\/b>
\nMat 24:50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,<\/b>
\nMat 24:51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.<\/b><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
The blessing that God’s elect are called unto as His first fruits and little flock is manifested through eyes and ears that have been given to hear the simplicity [“singleness<\/span>“] that is found in Christ (2Co 11:3), that makes it possible for us to be more than conquerors through Him<\/span>. (Joh 6:68)<\/p>\n 2Co 11:3\u00a0 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtiltyG572<\/sup>, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity [singleness<\/i>] that is in Christ.<\/p>\n Joh 6:68\u00a0 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. [singleness that is found in the words of eternal life, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth of <\/i>1Co 5:8]<\/p>\n subtiltyG572\u00a0 hap-lot’-ace<\/i>\u00a0 From G573; singleness<\/i>, that is, (subjectively) sincerity<\/i> (without<\/i> dissimulation<\/i> or self<\/i> seeking<\/i>), or (objectively) generosity<\/i> (copious<\/i> bestowal<\/i>): – bountifulness, liberal (-ity), simplicity, singleness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Christ, who is our hope of glory (Col 1:27), tells us that this singleness of mind is going to occur and be maintained as we grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ (2Pe 3:18). We are caused to stop trusting in our own righteousness by way of that grace and faith we receive from God (Eph 1:12, Eph 2:8-9). It is God’s grace that causes us to stop trusting in our own works so that we can rest in the Lord while we believe and experience his powerful and mighty hand (Mic 6:8, Zec 4:6) doing the exact works that God has ordained for us from the foundation of the world (Php 3:9, Eph 1:4).<\/p>\n Php 3:9\u00a0 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:<\/p>\n Eph 2:9\u00a0 Not of works, lest any man should boast.<\/p>\n Eph 1:12\u00a0 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.<\/p>\n Eph 2:8\u00a0 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Eph 1:4\u00a0 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world<\/span>, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That trust spoken of in Ephesians 1:12 can only be developed through the fiery trials which cause the precious tried faith of Christ (1Pe 1:7) to be formed within us; tried faith that acknowledges the righteousness of Christ within, and that without Him we could do nothing (Joh 15:5, Joh 5:30).<\/p>\n 1Pe 1:7\u00a0 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:<\/p>\n Joh 15:5\u00a0 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.<\/p>\n Joh 5:30\u00a0 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We all start off trusting in ourselves, and that is what God has ordained; that the beast on the throne reigns supreme for the longest time as we are filled with our own (caused) thoughts of how we can overcome. We build up our own religious lives separate and independent of Christ (Mat 19:22), wearing our own apparel and eating our own food, while maintaining the name ‘Christian’ as our spiritual calling card. As we know, God is the one deceiving the prophet within us at that time in our walk (Jdg 21:25, Psa 127:1, Isa 4:1, Eze 14:9).<\/p>\n Mat 19:22\u00a0 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.<\/p>\n Jdg 21:25\u00a0 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.<\/p>\n Psa 127:1\u00a0 A Song of degrees for Solomon.<\/i> Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it<\/span>: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even after we come to see that we’ve been deceived of the devil, and that the Lord has ordained that ongoing deception, it is only the beginning of the great battle of overcoming. The Lord orchestrates what seems like endless tribulation and wars in our heavens (Heb 10:32, Mat 24:21), and we learn through those tribulations to no longer lean to our own understanding, and we overcome the world within us through Christ, our hope of glory (Joh 16:33). It is through the suffering that God provides a way for us to bear, that we will cease from sinning, and we are told to arm ourselves with the same mind of Christ who anticipated that suffering and yet knew that our Father would be faithful to deliver Him through it all (1Co 10:13, 1Pe 4:1, Luk 9:22).<\/p>\n Joh 16:33\u00a0 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.<\/p>\n 1Co 10:13\u00a0 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.<\/p>\n 1Pe 4:1\u00a0 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;<\/p>\n Luk 9:22\u00a0 Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n God has to show us that we naturally lean to our own fleshly devices which we must overcome through Christ, and unless there is a struggle, and unless He shows us the wretchedness within us and the need to be delivered from it, there will be no overcoming (Eph 6:12, Rom 7:24-25, Gen 32:26).<\/p>\n Eph 6:12\u00a0 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.<\/p>\n Rom 7:24\u00a0 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Gen 32:26\u00a0 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me [1Pe 3:9].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the last part of our Matthew 24 series, and this last section focuses on the readiness that is required of God’s servants,\u00a0 the sacrifice of our life and time that is required in order to be that blessed servant who is providing spiritual meat in due season when our Lord returns (Mat 24:45-47).<\/p>\n The subject in these verses is about overcoming and how it has been ordained from the foundation of the world that God’s elect will overcome, and that nothing would ever prevail against us (Mat 24:24). We are of that generation within whom all these judgments are being fulfilled, and it is through those judgments that Christ’s righteousness will be formed within us, and the gates of hell won’t prevail against us (Mat 16:18).<\/p>\n Mat 16:18\u00a0 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mat 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.<\/b><\/p>\n God’s word is written for the elect, and it admonishes us at every turn with a primary message of overcoming through Christ (Rev 2:7). Our flesh is never ready, and that is why it says “in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh<\/b>“.\u00a0 We “sleep on<\/b>“(Mat 26:45) as the disciples did the night Christ was betrayed, and it takes conversion, the receiving of God’s holy spirit, to keep us ready with extra oil which God simply gives (Mat 25:4-5) to those whom He has ordained to be made ready by His grace through faith which will save us (Eph 2:8-9).<\/p>\n Rev 2:7\u00a0 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.<\/p>\n Mat 25:4\u00a0 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Eph 2:8\u00a0 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: We would be sorely missing the point of the gospel if we thought we were somehow profitable to God and able to watch and be made ready of our own accord. That is the self-righteous spirit we have been called to overcome and conquer through Christ, and as we do, we come to acknowledge more perfectly each and every day, as we die daily, of how the Lord has to build the house and deliver us from ourselves through the seven last plagues, or else we would simply slumber and sleep (Rev 15:8).<\/p>\n Rev 15:8\u00a0 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mat 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?<\/b><\/p>\n We just read the answer to this question “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?”, and again there is a simplicity here we will miss if we don’t just take God at his word. The faithful and wise servant is the one who took oil in his lamp (Mat 25:4), but now we see who it is in this section of scripture that provided the oil to light the lamp which symbolizes the word of God or the spiritual meat we are blessed to give one another in due season.<\/p>\n The answer is “whom his lord hath made ruler<\/u> over his household, to give them meat in due season<\/b>“. This person who has been blessed to do this is the Christian who is partaking of God’s goodness in this age. He is not experiencing the severity of God as others will for our sakes not being ordained to recover from that moment when “they all slumbered and slept”. This is something we must never boast in but see with very somber hearts as the work of God, His severity and goodness being revealed, which applies to each of us in our own order (Rom 11:18-21). We are not excused from feeling that severity of God; not by any means.<\/p>\n Luk 13:4\u00a0 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mat 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.<\/b><\/p>\n I should say they are blessed if they’re doing this when the Lord comes, because it simply means the Lord had ordained this from the foundation of the world that they would be doing this work and in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye be blessed to be in the blessed and holy first resurrection (1Co 15:52, Rev 20:6, Rev 4:8).<\/p>\n 1Co 15:52\u00a0 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.<\/p>\n Rev 20:6\u00a0 Blessed<\/b> and holy<\/b><\/u> is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.<\/p>\n Rev 4:8\u00a0 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy<\/u><\/b>, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s wonderful news to hear that you have been called to a blessing (1Pe 3:9), and it is important to see the word “holy” included in “blessed and holy<\/u><\/b> is he who has part in the first resurrection”. If not for that holiness, that process of overcoming through the judgment which is upon this generation with whom God is working, we would not be there in that first resurrection (Rev 15:8, Rev 4:5 Act 20:35).<\/p>\n 1Pe 3:9\u00a0 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing<\/b>; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing<\/u>.<\/p>\n Rev 15:8\u00a0 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.<\/p>\n Without Revelation 15:8 being fulfilled in our lives we would not be able to administer Revelation 4:5 in the lake of fire at the great white throne judgement.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rev 4:5\u00a0 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.<\/p>\n Act 20:35\u00a0 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed<\/b> to give than to receive<\/u>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nEph 2:9\u00a0 Not of works, lest any man should boast.<\/p>\n
\nRom 7:25\u00a0 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.<\/p>\n
\nMat 25:5\u00a0 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.<\/p>\n
\nEph 2:9\u00a0 Not of works, lest any man should boast.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n