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Take heed.

Take heed you sinners for the end is near. No, I am not a crazed, bearded and sandaled man parading in the park or standing on the street corner with a sandwich board sign around my neck saying "Repent: The End is Near." I am a servant of the Most High calling back your fleeting and lagging attention to His Words: "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down..." Your hearts are pulled down into the blackness of dust, ash and dirt by sin. You say "but I don't carouse." The company you keep in your entertainment life, what you watch on television, listen to on the radio, and view on DVD is proof positive that you can at times keep far worse company than the libertine Corinthians ever did. You carouse with but a simple lustful and adulterous stare. You may not become drunk on "Mad Dog 20/20" or "Grape Ripple" but any time your mind and spirit become clouded and obscured with the fog, smoke and haze of this world's glitz and distractions, to the detriment of your walk in the Light of Christ... you my brethren are inebriated... soused and hung-over on the world, the sinful flesh and the devil. We all feel at times listless, depressed, "hung-over" because we are imbibing the wrong things; we are not drinking enough of the pure milk of the Word and eating daily the Meat of the Gospel. Alcoholics don't eat right; neither to people who call themselves "Christians" but who don't properly eat and drink the Word.

Take heed. Take heed lest the end of all things come upon you unawares... like the rabbit that is caught in the snare: "SNAP" the jaws of the trap spring shut in an instant and it is all over.

Take heed lest your own earthly death comes upon you suddenly - - maybe today.

The Lord has given His people signs. Even as one can look at the fig tree and tell when summer is near from the buds about to bloom; even as a woman in childbirth can tell when she is about to deliver from the space and time of her contractions, so too He has given you all a sign.

He has given signs since the beginning. He came walking in the garden in the cool of the day; wishing to commune with His beloved children; a sign of the Incarnation to come. He gave the woman a sign in the First Gospel preached: "I will put enmity between your seed and her Seed...He shall bruise your head" [Gen 3.15] God gave signs through His physical appearances (His "Theophanies") His Old Testament Miracles, and even in the very design and layout of the Tabernacle and Temple. He gave signs in the words of prophecy which spoke of the Messiah to come. He gave men, after His own heart, to "image" and "typify" the coming Suffering Servant. Even the bronze serpent wrapped around the poll was a veiled sign of what would happen to sin, death and the devil when the innocent Lamb would be nailed to another poll, a cross pole.

Your "sinful self" wants different kinds of signs, other signs that are more to your liking, understanding and acceptance. The Pharisees too wanted Jesus to show them signs. What they really wanted was more tricks and miracles to suit their fancy and to satisfy their doubts. You also, of your "old natures," crave a Jesus Who will be your kind of Jesus rather than the Slaughtered Lamb Jesus; the Uncompromising Teacher against Sin and Unrighteousness Jesus; the Welcoming and Associating with socially undesirables Jesus; the sweaty, blood stained, beaten black and blue (in your rightful place) Jesus.

But dear saints, there is only One Jesus. The real Redeemer Who reveals His true identity and mission in Holy Scripture. There is only one legitimate Savior Who comes to you in His Preachment, His cleansing Water and His Life-giving Body and Blood.

There is only one sign given: The sign of Jonah. Even as the prophet was in the belly of death for three days, so too the Son of Man, the Son of Mary, would be in the belly of death for three days.

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations..." Was this a prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the final eclipse of the Jewish nation as God's sole covenant people? Was this a prophecy of the Final Coming at the end of time when all the stars and all the heavens will melt, be rolled up like a carpet, and be reshaped into the new Heavens and the new Earth? Was this a prophecy of what was soon to occur to the Nazarene on Golgotha when both the sun was brought down to darkness for three hours and the True Son was overshadowed in the fury of hell, abandonment and death? YES.

Taking Heed are words of the Law. Yes, you are supposed to do so, but you don't. And when you do, you don't do it very well, very completely, for very long.

But now brothers and sisters have your hearts strengthened. Look up and lift up your bruised and weary heads. He has heeded all things on your behalf. He has done all the Law for you. He has kept the watch, prayed the prayer and made the atonement. Your redemption draws near. You have your sign-- the cross of the Crucified One. It's not an empty historical distant sign. No, Jesus is still on this cross, this crucifix, reminding you of His sacrifice for your sins, and of His all-giving love and life on your behalf. Your redemption is complete, secure and guaranteed. You have His sign to you in your own Baptisms, wherein again the sign of His Crucifix was traced upon you. You have His sign of His eternal presence with you in His "God Breathed" words of forgiveness and care. You have His sign in the Pledge given at this communion rail. And here, it is both a sign and the reality itself: the very Body and Blood of the Son.

The Sign given, is here now...the source is present...the Savior doesn't just draw near, but is in your midst.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost