Luke 12:54-59

SIGNS OF HIS COMING

Luke 12:54-59 “And He also spoke to the multitude, When you may see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say that the rain is coming, and it is so; and when you may see the south wind blowing, you say it will be warm, and it is so. Ye hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the earth and sky, and how do you not discern this time?” The seventy weeks of Daniel, four hundred and ninety days i.e., prophetic years, from the return of the Jews out of Babylonian captivity till the coming of Christ had already been fulfilled; and that notable prophecy, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh come,” had also been fulfilled, as Herod the Great, who died while the infant Jesus was in Egypt, was their last king, Coponius, his successor, being a Roman proconsul, so the scepter had already departed from Judah. Besides, all the prophecies were being wonderfully fulfilled in Him, John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets, having not only preached Him, but actually pointed Him out to them. Amid all of these wonderful prophetical fulfillments, corroborated by His stupendous miracles, yet they did not believe on Him. It was not the want of intelligence and learning; as we see here they very shrewdly diagnosed the signs of the material world. The trouble was spiritual. They had rejected the Holy Spirit, their only Illuminator. A similar phenomenon characterizes the present generation. While the present age is flooded with the fulfillment of the latter-day prophecies, indubitable omens of our Lord's return manifest on all sides, yet how blind the present generation! As in that day the greatest trouble was with the leading ministers, so it is now. “And why do you not judge a righteous judgment in reference to yourselves?” Their verdict in reference to the material world was correct; while our Lord is grieved to see them so utterly ignorant with reference to themselves, thus working out their own hopeless ruin. “For as you go with your adversary to the ruler, give attention on the way to be reconciled with him, lest he may deliver thee to the judge, and the judge shall turn thee over to the officer, and the officer shall cast thee into prison. I say unto thee, Thou mayest not go out from thence until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” We have this same statement in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:25). Our Savior is the Opposer of every soul rushing into hell. He is also the Judge of quick and dead. Here you are admonished to be reconciled with Him quickly, while in the way i.e., when you have time and opportunity; lest your Opposer (i.e., the Mediatorial Christ), in your hellward-bound way, shall turn you over to the Judicial Christ; who, of course, can do nothing but condemn you, and deliver you to the officer i.e., Satan who will cast you into prison i.e., into hell where you must stay till you “pay the uttermost farthing.” Of course, you will never get out, as you have nothing to pay with.