It's because of Christ that we
ask these things. Amen. All right, brethren. We've made
it to Acts. I thought it was good to end
in John. I just kept reading, kind of
like going into Exodus as we finished Genesis. That's what
came next. It was too good to stop. I've titled this message, The
Second Coming. The Second Coming, Christ is
gonna come again. And like I said, we're taught
a lot of things and there's a mess of precepts and knowing Christ,
how to walk through this world. And that's important. It's important
how believers live. It is. But it's more important
how mankind dies. And that's what I'm to prepare
us for, and the people that hear this, and as the Lord raises
up people throughout time, you gonna die. Everybody's gonna
die. And I tell you what, pay attention
to me today. Right now, there's a lot of concerns
around this world, in your world. Here in a minute, you ain't gonna
care. I mean, Twinklove and I, you ain't gonna care about nothing.
You ain't gonna care about your spouse, or your children, or
your neighbor, or your rent, or your taxes, or your jury duty,
or your work, or your retirement accounts, or what benefits you're
gonna leave to the legacy of your heritage. The Lord don't take us in an
instant. We might be on a deathbed and none of what we call life
is gonna matter. We ain't gonna care. Now we'll
slowly migrate that way as time goes on. And either we're gonna
go to the Lord or he's gonna come to us. And we ought to be
ready either way. And this ain't affable matters. This isn't something that's flippant
and that we ought to take lightly. This is very serious. This is
for you. This is a message of God for
you, for this hour. Here in Acts, from whom is this
letter? Who's writing this? Well, Luke
wrote to Theophilus and Luke, didn't he? And he writes here
to Theophilus. And so many think that Luke wrote
this, but whether it was the gospel according to that disciple,
Luke, God wrote it. That's who's speaking. And whether it's Luke right in
here or whoever else, this is God speaking. That's who this
word is from, this recorded history of the church. God told them
to do something. You're going to serve me, feed
my sheep. Now here they're going to do it. And we have a listing
here of all the things that's going to happen that they're
doing. This is the acts of the apostles. This is what they did.
They were given a job from the master to do. And this word is
recorded from the Holy Ghost moved upon Luke or somebody else
to move hand. Whose hand does it matter? Men
talk themselves blue in the face over who wrote it. But that's
who it's from. It's from God. Who's it to? Theophilus. You know what that word means,
that name? Friend of God. Friend of God. This is from God
to his friends. And he told his disciples, and
then he said, you're my friends. You're my friends. Do you want
to be a friend of God? This is who this is to. Christ
came and he did things on this earth. He didn't just show up
and kind of observe for a while and then leave. He came and he
did stuff. He did something. And he taught
things. People don't like me taught,
because we think we know everything. He taught things. He died for
his sheep, he arose, and he sat at the right hand of the Father
on high, making a recession for us, the mediator. And he sent
the Holy Ghost to his people. He said, if I don't go, the Comforter
won't come. You got me right now. And in that day and in this
day, God sends a Holy Ghost to his people. He sends his spirit
to him, and he's doing that to hold us over as an earnest down
payment for a little while because he's coming again. There's a
phrase where I grew up that's horribly just misused, but it's
so. Parents catch their children
doing something they ought not be doing, and that says, is that
how you want to be when Jesus comes? Well, I think of that to myself. If I go to do something that's
dumb and I know it's wrong, I thought, is this what I want to be doing
whenever the Lord comes? When that sky opens up, here
he comes with a shout and a trumpet and a whole host of angels. He's coming again. Verse one
there in Acts says, the former treaties have I made, O Thelopius,
of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. I wrote to this
before in the Gospel of Luke, likely. until the day in which
he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given
commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen." This is
not an urban legend. This is not an old wives' tale.
This ain't the tradition of your fathers. This isn't a fable. You know what a fable is? That's
a lie to teach a moral lesson. Isn't that a little oxymoron?
A made-up story to teach something that's true. That's not what
this is. This is the truth. It says in
verse 3, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion,
after his temptation and forsakement and torture and payment. that he was passionate about,
that he was willing to forego with a joy set before him. He
showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. You gonna list them? I don't
need to. You'll experience them shortly, if you're used. Being
seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. He wasn't talking about things
that didn't matter. He didn't want to sit down and
have a long two hour conversation on your goldfish. He talked about
the kingdom of God and not about your heart medication or where
your kids go to private school or the curriculum that they have.
He talked about the kingdom of God. I asked friends of God, has he
came to you? Has he showed himself alive to
you? after his sufferings, knowing
that he did die. And he showed himself alive.
And has he done this by many infallible proofs? There are too many to list. Has he proved himself to you
out of his word? That's what it says. That's what he did.
It really does say that he really did do what he said he's going
to do. And in providence and in creation and salvation and
everything, over and over and over again, we live in this world
with experiences. And while we work during the
day, we think about him all day. And we say, that's right, that
is what he said. Infallible proofs. He's proved
himself to you. Has he been your teacher? Have
you learned anything? Has he taught you something about
the things pertaining to the kingdom of God? Not how to change
oil in a vehicle. Has he taught you something? Are we better off now than we
was four years ago? Have we learned anything? Something? Experience? Patience? Hope? Has he given
you commandments? Has he put something in your
hand to do? Verse four says, and being assembled
together with them, commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but The Lord speaks, wait for the promise
of the Father, which ye have heard of me. You stay right here
and wait, and remember what I told you. Remember, remember, I told
you plainly, remember, you stay right here and wait on me. For
John truly baptized with water, that ye shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. I told you I was gonna
send the comforter, I told you the Holy Ghost was coming, and that's
who I'm sending, now you stay right there. I have something
for you to do. I told you I'm going to send
you to go feed my sheep. In some way, shape, form, or fashion,
all 120 of them is going to. You wait there, I'm sending the
Holy Ghost. This is going to happen. God's going to send His
Holy Ghost to His people. The children of the devil can
mock it, and they can make fun of it all they want. Comedians
can make fun of it. Do what you want. Mock God if
you want to. But when the Lord sends His Spirit
at His command, His people shall receive the Holy Ghost. It's just like the wind. I don't
know when it's coming. I don't know how it works, but it's so. It's so. He'll wake them up and
they'll be alive. And then the first thing they're
going to say, I was dead. I want to die. It's so. That's what was prophesied
in Joel 2. You know, a lot of times with
these prophecies that we don't understand, we understand them
real well whenever it comes to pass. So wait. Wait. And then that day will
come when we'll know as we're known. And the Lord will set
us down and be our teacher. He'll preach to us. And all the... That's exactly what that said.
That's exactly... I can't believe I didn't see
that. Joel said, he said, the Lord will pour out the spirit
on you and your brothers and sisters and your children and
they're going to run through the streets and the skies are going to do
crazy things and the Lord's going to send his spirit to his people
and he's going to save them. Here in chapter two, Peter's going
to stand up and he'll say, that came to pass. It's exactly what
Joel was talking about. I get it now. And that keeps
happening, doesn't it? Well, verse six, it says, when
they therefore were come together, they gathered together. They
asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again
the kingdom to Israel? Does that mean that he's gonna
establish an earthly kingdom over in a physical place called
Israel? If they ask that question, people still asking that question.
Just like these believers. But they're looking at the wrong
thing. They're looking at the wrong thing. Well, what's going
on in Palestine? Who cares? Look to Christ. It don't matter. But they were
saying, they were asking us, like, is this it? We kind of
got a handle on what you're saying. You're going to make us kings
and priests and you're going to wrap this whole thing up.
We don't know what that's going to look like. Is the end coming now?
Are you coming? Are you going to be gone for
three more days and come back? Is this your second coming? He
said in verse seven, he said to them, it is not for you to
know the times or the season. Several times throughout scripture,
the Lord says that. No man knows the day. And if somebody's focused
on a day, they don't know Christ. They're looking at a day and
not a man. If I could say that more bluntly and people get it,
I'd say it more bluntly and people get it, but the Lord has to teach.
He said, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons,
which the father hath put in his own power. He's done that. Well, what are we supposed to
do then? God's gonna give us something to do, hang on. He
told him over Matthew, he said, the day and hour and oath, no
man, no, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only,
that's it. It cannot, we don't decide that
that's right, that is right. What are we gonna do? He said in Matthew 24, 42, watch
therefore. Watch, for you know not what
hour your Lord doth come. Until then, I gave you something
to do, feed my sheep, make them look to me." In Matthew 16, the
Lord told him, he said, those Pharisees said, you can discern
the face of the sky. Pink skies at night, sailors
delight. We still say that, don't we? You can discern the face
of the sky and you can't discern the sign of the times. He said,
you're not going to get a sign other than the sign of the prophet
Jonas. And he left them and he departed. He said, you want to
see something? You're getting somebody that's going to go in
the ground for three days. He's going to be dead. Declare to all mankind,
salvations of the Lord and rise again. You're going to get Christ,
not a day. That's what he's telling them.
And then immediately. He's telling them it's time to
preach and to look to Christ, not the evidence of his coming.
That's what he's telling Matthew 16. And then they get to the
other side of the water and he told his disciples, they came
to him, he said, beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees.
That's just a little, well, no, it ain't that bad. It's just
a little bit of leaven. He just got through talking to
them. What the master is saying is
they're pointing to something other than me. You watch out for him. You watch out for him. This is
serious because he's coming again. Like he told Peter, he said,
what's it to you? What I do with these others?
You go feed my sheep. Now in verse eight, it says, but you
shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has
come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me. What are you
going to do? You're going to witness me. You
saw me. You know me. I've revealed myself to you.
I put my Holy Ghost in you. The Spirit's with you. And you're
going to witness. Witness. And I'm going to be
with you. You're going to witness unto me both in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and Samaria and in the uttermost parts of the
earth. You preach to them. And then you baptize them. If
they're baptizing that Holy Ghost, both those baptisms are the same
right there. John baptized, but I'm gonna baptize the Holy Ghost.
If the Lord comes to someone and they're completely immersed
in the blood of Christ, they will publicly confess Him after
that. They will publicly confess Him
in believers baptism. It's so, but he says, you preach
to them, you baptize them, you teach them my commandments, tell
them to look to me and tell them to wait on me, because I'm coming
back for them. Verse nine says, and when he
had spoken these things, while they beheld, they were looking
at him, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their
sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward the heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by
in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into the heaven? Up into heaven. This same Jesus. You were looking up, you watched
him, what'd he go up in, a cloud? You sure you remember right? This one
you're watching, he went up and that's done. And they're just
staring. Is he coming right back? He told
us to wait on him. They told him, I said, this same
Jesus, which is taking up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
him go into heaven. Well, that's important. That
ain't just words on a page, that's a message. He's gonna come in
like manner. Are we interested in the second
coming of Christ? Do we care about the first coming?
This is important. In like manner, they beheld him,
they saw him, didn't they? And a cloud received him up.
In like manner, on that day of Christ's return, Let's all get us excited. It's
going to be a cloudy day. I was coming at peak the hill coming
down here this evening, about four o'clock, and I saw them
clouds. I love watching that ring layer come in. I said, this
might be it. I mean, I had preached that. Lord may be preaching.
This could be it. It's going to be a cloudy day.
Do we get upset when it's cloudy day? I was wanting to get a chance
of sunny, I'm cloud rolling. Rain, rain, go away, come again
another day. That's what we teach our children
to say, isn't it? Come, Lord. When he comes, it's
gonna be a cloudy day. It's gonna be a cloudy day. He
says in Revelation 1-7, behold, he cometh with clouds. They saw
him, he went up into a cloud, right? But when he comes back
in like manner, it's gonna be a cloudy day and every eye shall
see him. They beheld him and now this
time, every eye's gonna see him. and they also which pierced him,
and the kindreds of this earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, hang with me to the end, amen. Even so, amen. You know, there's some similarities
between the first coming of Christ to this earth, the Messiah, and
the second coming. Just like in our spiritual birth,
there's a lot of similarities to our physical birth and our
spiritual birth. lot of similarities and there's
some similarities between that first coming of Christ when he
came to this earth and the second coming and if we care to see
him again we ought to ought to delve on these things and dwell
on them and consider them what's similar about it the first one
it was a personal appearance He came in the flesh. He came
as a real person. It wasn't as if he came, as if
he had a body. A body was prepared for him.
He was born of a virgin. He had mitochondrial DNA, just
like every other child of Adam. He was one of us. He wasn't a
child of Adam. He was a child of the Holy Ghost.
He was a child of his father, son of God. It was a supernatural
took place in him, but he was one of us. Flesh and bone, he
walked this earth. What'd he eat? He said, if I
was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. And then he went to his disciples
and he said, children, do you have anything to eat? And they
gave him fish and a piece of honeycomb. Was he hungry? He
was proven to them, he was not a spirit. He said, a spirit,
I'm flesh and bone. He said, come here, put your
hand, you look at my wounds on my hands, you look, feel my side,
look at my feet, you handle me, he said. This is a man, this
is like us. The other thing, it's similar,
he was promised by the father. That second coming, he's a man's
coming too, isn't he? He was promised to the father,
Moses and all the prophets. What'd they say? He's coming. What does the four synoptic gospel,
or the four gospels say? He's here, and he's doing something.
What's the epistle say? He's coming again. He's coming. Just as he was prophesied to
come exactly and when and where and everything that was just
right, he came. And in like manner, God's teaching
us something. He's going to come again. He
said he's going to. He said he was. That promise of the first
and second coming alike. You know something that's similar
they have in common? It makes believers happy. It makes children
of God real happy. It don't make them mad, it don't
bore them. They like to hear these things, they wanna learn
their Lord. And it tickled those prophets and saints of old, and
it does us too. I wanna know about these things.
He's coming again. The Lord, people was troubled. His disciples were troubled.
He told them, he said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I'd have told you. But I go to
prepare a place for you. Don't be troubled. I'm going
to prepare a place, and if I go to prepare a place, I will come
again, and I'm gonna receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may
be also. Does that make you happy? He hadn't
left us to ourselves, and this ain't just a fact we gotta stick
with. He's coming again. He said, I want a prayer place.
I'm going to come get you. You're going to be with me. Another
thing that's similar to that first and that second coming,
it was unexpected. It was unexpected. What's going
to be going on when the Lord comes a second time? Well, we're
all gonna know when we're gonna have three weeks of this and
two weeks of that and then this is gonna happen a volcano is
gonna go off and little Spaceships are gonna come down and things
are gonna be in the clouds and they're gonna be all goofy. You
won't know it's gonna come He's gonna come in the cloud and it's
gonna be rolled back as a scroll. We ain't gonna be expecting it
Mankind ain't gonna expect he said they did eat and drank and
married wives and they were given a marriage until the day that
Noah entered that ark and And the flood came and destroyed
them all. Don't you want to warn folks? Is there anybody that
you love or care about that you want to know about this? Likewise,
also, as it was the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they built it. But the same day
that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed. People will be going on about
their daily lives, won't they? Be completely unexpected. but
some won't be surprised. Simeon wasn't surprised, was
he? He was looking for him. He didn't know when, he didn't
expect, oh, it's gonna happen tomorrow. He wasn't foolish like
that, but he wasn't surprised. He looked for him and we do too.
He said, Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace according
to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. That's how
they're the same. But you know, there's a lot of
differences too. I just thought this was so precious. I hope
it's better and buoyant to you. How it's different. That first
coming across and that second coming across, it's going to
be different. How is it? How did he come the first time?
As a baby. An infant. How will he come the
second time? The God man, the infinite. Instead
of the infant, it'll be the infant. First time he came, he was born
in trouble and poverty. Second time, in full glory and
all majesty. First time he came, it was a
lamb that opened not his mouth. I can't wait, Revelation says
it'll be like a roar when that angel speaks. He'll come as the
victorious lion of the tribe of Judah, the King of kings,
the Lord of lords. First time he came, he tread
the winepress alone. Second coming, he'll be accompanied
by millions of saints and angels and heavenly hosts with him. The first time he came, you know
what his enemies said? Crucify, crucify, crucify. They're gonna say something different
the second coming. They'll cry for the rocks and the mountains
to fall on. The first coming, the scriptures say, all they
that see me laugh me to scorn. The second coming says, you know
where I'm going with that? I will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh. He came first in Luke 19, those
people, he rode that unbroken ass into Jerusalem and people threw
palm leaves out on that and they cried, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. What did the Pharisees do? Shut
them up. Make them stop talking so much."
And he said, if I hushed him up, these rocks would cry out
to me. They'd worship me. Do you know what's gonna happen
that second time? Isaiah 52, 12 says, the mountains
and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and
the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Says the milks
will run out of the valleys. Wouldn't that be something? We
ought to know these things, that way if the hills start singing,
the trees start clapping, and milk starts coming out of the
valleys, we ain't worried to death. Crying if they fall on
us, we'll say, our Redeemer's coming, this is wonderful, this
is good news. Something that's very different
between the first and second coming of Christ was the purpose.
purpose of his coming. That's different too. The purpose
of why he came the first time was to suffer the penalty of
death for his people. That's what we earned. He came
to lay down his life for the sheep. That second coming, he's
coming to receive his inheritance. those heathens that he died for.
He said, I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. He's coming
to get us. He said, if I go to prayer place, I'm gonna come
and get you. You'll be where I am. The first time he came
to save his people from their sins as an offering for justice. The second time he comes to judge
all apart from those that he died for, he come to process
justice. The first time, he opens the
door to grace. How can a man be just with God?
Well, here comes God to make us just with him. That door of grace is open. Whosoever,
eat, drink, buy without money, come to him. You labor and heavy
laden, come to him. Come to him. The second time
he comes, he's gonna close that door. In Revelation 3, it says, He
that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth
and no man shutteth. Right now, that door's open and
nobody can keep him out. Come, not me, not anybody else.
Come, come. But when he comes, he shutteth
and no man openeth. It's done. Well, I don't want
it to be done, no matter what you want. The time's come. That he came first to draw the
guilty to himself. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Come to me. And that second coming, he'll
cast out all those that oppose him. He'll say, depart from me,
I never knew you. Turn over Revelation 6, that
might help us. Help us look at it while we hear
it. Revelation 6. Verse 14. It will come in that cloud and
it says there in Revelation 6, 14, and the heaven departed as
a scroll when it is rolled together. We sang that, don't we? And the
clouds be rolled back as a scroll. Precious thing. It always gets
exciting when the clouds come in. And every mountain and island
were moved out of their places. And the kings of earth and the
great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty
men and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in the
dens and the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and
the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that
said it on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For them,
it was too late. Here's the good news. For us,
it's not too late. For you, it's not too late. That door to the ark will be
shut and it will be sealed with pitch by the hand of God. But
that hadn't happened yet. We have brethren on this earth
that haven't been saved yet. The Lord hadn't gathered them
together to worship with them and to meet with them. That hadn't
happened yet. What's it going to be for the
believer? We see those things and we rejoice. And there's things
that right now we'll be sad about that I won't be sad then. I'll
say, amen, this is right. Those that I love, the Lord cast
into a lake of fire. I'll say, this is good. What
he does is right, amen. I can't enter into that yet,
but it's so. What it will be for us, I want
to see him coming. I want to see him in all his
glory and majesty and power and heavenly host with him. Whatever
he's going to do, the mountains and trees and whatever that means,
I want to see it. All his majesty. But what does
that mean for us? What's gonna happen to us? We
know that that judgment's coming with it, but what about us? Turn
to 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse 13. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13. Paul's writing to the church
at Thessalonica and he said, but I would not have you to be
ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep. You know,
if we, if we're troubled over believers that die, we're being
ignorant. We don't know. And Paul said,
I don't want you to be ignorant. I want to teach you something
to pay attention to me. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye
sorrow not. Don't be tore all to pieces. You're gonna miss
them, but don't sorrow, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
them which are asleep. Remember what prevent means?
That's pervenient grace. We're not gonna go before. Those
that the Lord's already taken, he's gonna come, he'll get those
bodies out of the grave and then he'll deal with us. They'll go
first. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven. A man's gonna come. He's not
sending a representative personally, he's coming. with a shout, there's
gonna be a trumpet going off, with the voice of the archangel,
and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall first rise.
What a thought. There's an old, there was a hymn,
and Hank Williams Sr. sang it, and it turned into a
bluegrass song, and they just made the lyrics terrible. Originally,
it's pretty good, because they're just quoting scripture. It says,
he said, his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the
earth, that great angel will come. And he cried with a loud
voice, as when a lion roareth. What a thought that'll be. Verse
17 says, and when they are that which are alive remain shall
be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Are you uncomfortable? Are you
disturbed? Are you sad? Are you heavy, heavy
laden? Are you troubled and whatever
synonyms go with those things? Is it bad for you? The Lord made
Paul's hand move to tell those brethren to tell us verse 18,
wherefore comfort one another with these words. You want comfort? Let's talk about when the Lord
comes. Wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't that be a good day? How will this take place? We're
going to be changed. I ain't fit. I can't go to be
with the Lord right now the way I am in this body. I can't do
it. I have scars on me. Did you know that? I got a bunch
of scars. I can't be in his presence like that. Only one's going to
have scars. I have to be pure, holy, without blame, unapproved
before him with love. What's going to happen? First
Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15, we'll start in verse 50.
1 Corinthians 15 50. Now this I
say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold,
I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. If we don't go to the Lord first
and we're alive when he's coming, we're going to be changed. This
is a very common expectation of God's people from Eve on. There ain't been a believer that
ever lived that didn't say, this has got to be it. I mean, the
Lord's coming soon. She had a man child. She said,
I got the man. You said he's going to send one. Your seed's
coming. Here he is. We're going home now? He told that church at Thessalonians,
I know you were calling an election to God, brethren. They didn't
know there was an elect of God, but Paul knew. From outside looking
in, I can tell that. I know the difference between
a dinosaur and a chicken, don't you? Well, it's pretty obvious. You turn from your idols. God
came to you in power. He has your spirit in you. I've
heard, I've seen the fruits of the spirit come out of you. And
he said, and you're waiting for him to come. You're waiting on
the son to come. You're expecting, you expect,
that's, he's our expected end. He's our expected end. We're
going to be changed, verse 52. John wrote about this too. This
was a concern. I want to know something of that, don't you? What's this going to be like?
John said, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. I want to be conformed to his
image. Whatever he is, that's what I want to be like. However,
he thinks that's how I want to think. Whatever he does, that's
what I want to do. However, he smells. I heard somebody say it one time
about cologne. They said it should be discovered,
not declared. Don't put too much on, everybody
can smell it. Let them get in close to find out about it. I
want his smell declared. I want to smell it plainly. Verse
54, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall we be
brought to pass the saying that's written, death is swallowed up
in victory. What does that mean? It's time
for somebody to die, and they believe Christ. Oh, death, where
is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. We may experience that death,
that grave, in six minutes, I don't know, on the way home, right
now. Will we praise God for it? Will we leave a testimony that
our family can be comforted in? When my dad died, one of my brothers
said, I want to know the God that he knew. And I said, there's
a man God sent to preach him three times a week right down
the road. Come hear him. Come hear him. What's our response? What's our attitude to something
like that? David wrote in Psalm 47, oh clap
your hands all you people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
For the Lord most high is terrible and he's the king over all the
earth. Just like those trees and those mountains. We're gonna
sing and we're gonna clap. Makes us happy. He said, God
has gone up with a shout, the Lord, with a sound of a trumpet,
sang praises to God, sang praises, sang praises unto our king, sang
praises for God is the king of the earth, sang you praises with
understanding. Don't just know that's what it
says. Get a hold of it. God teach us what this means
and make us rejoice in him and what he said. Believers look for that day. Like I said, Paul told that at
the church of Thessalonica. He said, you wait for the son
from heaven who was raised from the dead, Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. That one that laid down his life
for us came the first time. He's coming a second time. That's
who we're looking for. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Everybody
wants to escape hell. Those that the Lord worked with
in power, they want to be with him and be made like him. Turn over
to Luke 21. Luke 21 verse 25. And there shall be
signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the
earth Distress of nations with perplexity and the sea and the
waves roaring. There's going to be a whole lot
going on. There used to be a whole lot going on. There's a whole
lot going on right now. And if the Lord keeps this place
for another 500 years, guess what's going to be going on?
A whole lot. There's a lot going on. But man's heart's going to
fail. Verse 26. Man's heart's failing
them. Why? From fear. They're scared. and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall
be shaken." They're afraid because they're looking to things of
this earth. And then, shall they see the Son of Man coming in
the cloud with power and great glory. And when these things
begin to come to pass, when this happens, when that cloud takes
over the whole earth, and then it's rolled back as a scroll,
and the mountains are singing, and the trees are clapping, when
that happens, believer, I want you to do something, because
God says to do it. Then look up. Look up and lift
up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. Your Redeemer's
coming. Look up. That came out of that movie a
couple years ago about the end of the world and it says don't look up. Isn't
that mankind? God says look up. They don't
want to. Keep looking down. He says look
up. When that happens, You're in
Christ and He's your hope. Look up. Look up. Look to Him. He's coming. He's
drawing nigh. We've been talking a lot about
the Revelation. I've referenced that a whole lot. How does that
end? How does that end? I'm going to teach you something. You ready? Do we want to learn
something? Turn over to Revelation 3. I'm going to switch it up
in my notes. Revelation 3 and we'll close. Verse 14. Hold on. I'm in John. Revelation 3, verse 14. And unto
the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things
saith thee, Amen. Who's that? The faithful and
true witness. Do you know that's Christ's name?
He's the Amen. The beginning of the creation
of God. How does this whole book start
out? In the beginning, God. How does it end? How does it
all end? Revelation 22. The Lord's coming
again. He has come. He has risen. He's seen victorious and he shall
come again. in the beginning God. Revelation
22 verse 20. He which testifies these things
saith, this is Christ speaking, surely I come quickly. Amen. And then John responds, even
so come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Christ. Amen. He's God. He's the beginning.
He's the alpha and the omega. And he's coming again. He's coming
again. And I pray those that don't know
him would. And I pray that all men will be saved. I do. But
until then, we'll watch and wait, and we'll do what he's putting
our hand to do. All right, let's pray together. Father, keeps our hearts turned. To our master, our king, our
Lord. And even so, come quickly, Lord.
Come. What a day that'll be. When our king we see. Lord haste
the day. Thank you for this gospel. Thank
you for giving these words a comfort of teaching us what this will
take place and to prove that word to us when it does come
to pass. Thank you for the heart you've
given your people, Lord. Keep us tuned to him. Forgive us for
what we are. Be with our brethren everywhere,
those that are suffering and in pain and grief. Lord, fix
their eyes above too, on things above. We ask these things because
of Christ. Amen.