2 Corinthians 13, now go there
with me. The title that I sent you is
taken from this. Farewell. Say farewell and greet
the saints. I sent that out to several of
you. And Sister Roberta, are you listening
to Roberta? She texted me back and said,
are you leaving? I said, well, I don't plan on
it, but it might be. Right? You might be too. The title is, it's just not backwards.
Say farewell and then greet one another. We need to start saying
farewell. We need to start saying goodbye
to everything and everyone. And I'm going to say all this
with a smile on my face. We need to say, start learning
to say farewell, goodbye to family, friends, home, health, youth. Life, I tell us, I remind us
to read Psalm 90 all the time. And then after that, read Psalm
91. Psalm 90 talks about the frailty, the brevity of this
life. It's just a sleep, you see. It's
a watch in the night. A sleep. You go to sleep and
you wake up. It's over. It's like the grass
that flowers in the morning. It's gone. I mean, in the morning
it raises up and in the evening it's gone. But that's this life,
isn't it? It's amazing how fast it is,
how fast it goes by. Life is short. It's like a sleep.
We need to start now, right now, saying farewell. Farewell to
all. For all those who can say with
the Apostle Paul, there's one thing that I desire. You can say with David, one thing
of I desire. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and be with the Lord. David said, I want to behold
the beauty of the Lord. I want to dwell in his house
here. in this earthly tabernacle, but
oh, he said, I can't wait to live in my heavenly tabernacle,
be clothed with immortality. Job said this, all the appointed
time, all my appointed time, I will wait till my change comes. And once again, there's some
of us in here who have expectations. Some of them literally are expecting. And that's fine. That's fine. If you know the Lord. If you trust the Lord, you have
nothing to fear. It's all good. Come what may.
But I'm here to tell you from God's word, it's short, it's
brief. It passes in an instance. But if we, by grace, can look
forward to the end, it will no sooner end than it's just the
beginning. I keep saying, I'm telling you
the truth. I'm not the one who said this. God who cannot lie. Man
wants to live forever. Their secret thoughts are, the
proverb says, that they're going to live forever. No sir. No sir. But all who can say goodbye
can say farewell in a moment in the twinkling of eye. It's
going to be eternal. Hello. Never say farewell again. Do you hear me? Which would you
rather have? You're going to say hello, dear
Lord. Hello, Saints. Hello, eternity. Farewell, mortality. God's Word is correct. Listen
to 1 Corinthians 15. Listen to this. You can turn
if you want to. 1 Corinthians 15. Listen to this. This is the whole
long chapter on eternality and the change and the new heaven
and new earth and new body. It's not morbid. This is marvelous.
This doesn't bring you down. This lifts you up. Okay? And you know God's word
is correct, say farewell and then greet one another. We're
going to learn to say goodbye, say goodnight, it'll be eternal
good morning. But listen to 1 Corinthians 15
verse 51. Behold I show you a mystery,
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye. You know, don't blink. Some of
these country music songs I like. I don't like the people that
sing them so much, but some of these songs I like. Don't blink,
because it's over that fast. Well, in a blink of an eye, it
says, verse 52, at the last trump, the trumpet shall sound. Rahab,
you've been hearing it. You've heard six of them so far.
You hear me? Some of you in your 60s. Three
score and ten, that's 70. The last trump is going to sound
for you one way or another. And you've been hearing them.
Lift up your heads. Your redemption draws nigh. Some
of you are way past due. The trumpet shall sound. The
dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must
put on immortality. So when this corruptible This
flesh shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put
on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written in Isaiah 25, Death is swallowed
up in victory. What victory? Christ's victory. Read that. We just read it, Psalm
25. Oh, death is swallowed up in
victory. Warfare is accomplished. Oh,
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. Christ was made sin. The strength
of sin is the law. The thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So say farewell. Say farewell. You know, the Lord
kept telling His disciples about His imminent suffering and death,
didn't He? He did. He kept telling them.
Remember, we read that in Matthew. From that time on, he kept telling
them. They didn't want to talk about
it. But he kept telling them, the Son of Man is going to suffer
according to scriptures. He's going to die on a cross
according to scriptures for the sins of God's people. You know,
he went in depth about why. And he said he's going to be
buried, but the third day he's going to rise again. He has to. And they didn't want to talk
about it. They loved him so much, and death to them and the thought
of losing their Lord was just, they didn't want to talk about
it. But they needed to talk about it, didn't they? After he arose, it's all
they want to talk about. You know that? After he arose,
it's true. He's true. Life is not death. He told them, our friend Lazarus
is sleeping. Oh, they said, well, let's go
sleep with him. And our Lord wept, you know,
and they just don't understand that, like Ecclesiastes 7 says,
the day of death is better than birth. You know, a new child coming
into this world is a wonderful thing, it's a wonderful thing. But you have mixed emotions.
It's just joy and rejoicing and so much to look forward to. But
yet this world is such a corrupt place, such a sinful place. It's getting worse and worse,
isn't it? It really is. So shouldn't our conversation
be in heaven where our home is? Listen to Philippians 3. Let
me quote this. Let me read this for you. Shouldn't
this be our conversation? Our conversation What we talk
about who is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, this body
of death. Paul said, who's going to deliver
me from this body of death? That it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body. Yes, this is the way it should
be. Say farewell to this old world
and you're going to say hello to a new heaven and a new earth.
Say farewell to this sinful world and you're going to dwell in
a land if you know Christ, if you trust Christ, if you believe
Christ. You're going to say farewell to this sinful world and you're
going to go to a land wherein dwelleth righteousness. You're going to say farewell
to a world full of evil and go to a world full of eternal goodness. You're going to say farewell
to a world full of enemies and you're going to go to a land
full of family and friends. You're going to say farewell
to a world at war and go to a land of sweet peace. You're going
to say farewell to a land of hate and go to a land of love.
Farewell to fear. Hello to eternal safety. No fear. None. Farewell to darkness, hello light.
Farewell to grief and sorrow, hello eternally to joy and rejoicing. Farewell to a veil of tears and
weeping to a land of laughter if nobody quits laughing. Farewell to sadness, hello eternal
happiness. Farewell to sickness, hello eternal
health. Farewell to aging, Eternal youth,
the dew of youth on your brow. Farewell to loneliness. Hello
to unbroken fellowship, a multitude that no man can number. Farewell
to absence of missing one another. Hello to eternal fellowship,
and joy and union will never be broken. No more partying over
there. Farewell to guilt, regrets, horrible Hello to eternal relief. No bad
memories. No bad memories. No bad thoughts. None. Farewell to toil and labor. Hello to rest. Farewell to faith. You're going to see him as he
is. Farewell to death. Hello, life. Farewell to prayer. You're going to hear his voice. You're going to speak to him.
He's going to put his arm around you. The Lord Jesus Christ. Farewell to farewells. Hello
to eternal hellos. Hello, Abraham. Hello, Paul.
Hello, Jeanette. Hello, David. Hello, Rahab. Hello,
Polly. Oh, yeah. I'm not making this
up. When I dropped this robe of flesh, I'll drop it and rise
and seize that everlasting prize and shout while passing through
the air, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer. Yes, the
Lord has it right. Say goodbye. Didn't say hello. Wouldn't look forward to that. What if you know you're going
to fall asleep tonight and all your troubles are? That's what it is. Just fall
asleep in the Lord Jesus. It really is. Trust in him. So,
in our text, finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Verse 11, be perfect. That's
mature is what that means. You know that. We've looked at
this so many times. Be mature. And Paul wrote of this quite
often, didn't he? Says, do we all come for the,
he said, the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and
teachers are for the perfecting, the growth and maturity of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, the edifying, the building up
of the body of Christ. Do we all come into the unity
of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect
man, mature in the faith. There are babes, there are young
men, and there's fathers in the faith, right? This is growth.
and grace and the knowledge of Christ, to measure the stature
of the fullness of Christ, that we'd be no more children anymore,
tossed to and fro. Children are so fretful and fearful
and unbelieving, and you have to keep reminding them, keep
encouraging them, keep allaying their fears. Let's be perfect. Don't you wish you had perfect
faith? We've got a perfect Savior, don't we? God's people are complete
in Him. There's no contradiction in Him.
There's a new man created in the image of Christ, holy, unblameable,
unreproved, as he is, so are we in this world. But we need
reminding. No, we need encouragement. We need exhortation. Be a man.
Look at 1 Corinthians, the last chapter, 1 Corinthians. He ends
his first letter this way, 1 Corinthians 16, you have it? 1 Corinthians
16. Look at verse 13. 1 Corinthians
16, 13. Watch ye, that is, in prayer. Stand fast in the faith. Quit
you like men. Be strong. Act like men. Act like women that believe their
Lord. Don't fret. Part of maturity is Facing things by faith and face
life and face death with courage. Paul did, didn't he? He said,
the spirit witnesses everywhere that I go. I'm going to Jerusalem
and suffering and afflictions await me. He said, none of these
things move me. I don't count my life near unto
me. That's what he said. I want to be like that. Don't
you? Don't you? He that loveth his life, lose
it. But he that doesn't count his life dear, and whatever happens,
it's the Lord. Job was a perfect man. What'd he say? Though he slay
me, I'll trust him. The Lord gave, the Lord took
it all away. Blessed be the name. I want that faith. I have it,
but not like I want it. Don't you? So we need to be exhorted
to that. Face it. By faith in Christ,
basic confidence, we have nothing to fear. Trust the Lord. We have
nothing to fear and everything to look forward to. Did you hear
me? Everything to look forward to,
whatever the Lord gave you. It's the he, she, it, what is
in, he gave it to you and it's in your, his hands to do with
as he pleases. Trust it. We have everything
to look forward to. Everything. Be perfect. Look
at verse in our text, back in 2 Corinthians 13. Look at the
next thing. It says, be of good comfort. And this is part of being mature. Being of good comfort. I tell
you that some people I hate to ask how they're doing. Because they're going to tell
you, if we got a slice of the lake in pain. That's not the
way we need to be. Paul said, and again, read 2
Corinthians 6 and places where he talked about all that he went
through. He said, our light afflictions. That's what he called it then.
Our light afflictions worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal
weight of glory. The former thing, Isaiah said,
will not be remembered or come to mind, because they're compared
with eternal glory. What pain? Do you remember the article in
the Bulletin Sunday, Be of Good Cheer? Wasn't that good? That's
a refrigerator article. It's fitting that nobody knows
who wrote it. That's fitting. Nobody needs
credit for this. Well, the Lord said it. And Paul
was on a ship, was about to be, to wreck, and he was going to
spend, you know, he spent, he treaded water for 24 hours one
time. Were there sharks out there? Sure there were. Ask Jonah. And Paul, you know, those who
honor God the most are those who walk before him in a cheerful
heart, full of joy. believing his precious word,
rejoicing in his glorious gospel. Paul was in the most difficult
circumstances as far as outward things are concerned, but all
his hope was being delivered from the raging sea. It looked
like it was gone, but he found cause to rejoice and reason to
hope, and he said, Sir, be of good cheer. The wind's howling,
the waves are raging, the boat's breaking up. Be of good cheer,
he said. He said, I believe God, it's
going to be like you told me. I'm going, I've got some, I got
some people to preach to. So be of good cheer, no matter
what the day may hold, no matter how bleak the outcome may seem,
no matter how severe the pain may be, no matter how hopeless
the situation appears to be, be of good cheer. If you belong
to the Lord in eternal covenant of mercy, if you're purchased
by Christ's redemption, redeeming blood, if you're called by His
effectual grace, you have every reason to be of good cheer. Cheer up. Like our Lord said
to the man who was lying there with a palsy and never walked
his whole life. And before the Lord healed him,
He said, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. He hadn't healed him yet. Oh,
but he did. He just told him the best news
he could possibly tell him. That man died of something. If
he lived a long life, he got down where he couldn't walk.
He was on a first in a cane, then a walker, then a wheelchair,
then he was bedridden again. But the Lord said, your sins
are gone. And he woke up one day, and glory,
like Mephibosheth, walking around, walking with the Lord. Be of good comfort. Be of good
comfort, the comfort of the gospel. My, my. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
1. I just read it to you, but let
me read it to you again. Maybe you didn't listen too well. He says, Grace be to you and
peace from God our Father, from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
be God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy,
infinite mercy, eternal mercy, delights to show mercy, takes
pleasure in them that fear Him and those that hope in His mercy.
He takes pleasure in showing mercy. You need mercy? That's
what we need more than anything. That's what God is full of. And
you just ask for it and He gives it every time. And it never,
it endures forever as long as you need it. I'm not going to
promise you what I'm preaching Sunday because my promises aren't
any good either. But I may preach from Isaiah
41 where he said three times, I will help you. Anybody need
help? He says it three times. I will
help you. Anybody want to hear that? Good. I might preach on it. But listen, He's the Father of
Mercy, He's the God of all comfort. Full of compassion, full of mercy.
He comforts us in all our tribulations, no matter what we go through.
He brought us through it, and He's going to send the consolation
and the comfort. And He promises, for good, it's
all good. Be of good cheer, be of good
comfort. It's all said and done. Finally,
brethren, be of good comfort. Comfort of the Scriptures. Remember
this? Everything that's written is
written for our learning that we through patience and comfort
of the Scriptures might have hope. Hope of eternal life. Hope
in Christ. He's promised us strength for
the day and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings with all and ten thousand
beside. Be of good cheer. Be perfect. See, the believer says be of
good cheer. Be perfect. Be of good comfort.
Be of one mind. The believer is complete in Christ,
as I said. He has faith. She has faith. She has hope. If you have a little
bit of faith, it's faith. It's a gift of God. That we have
faith, we have hope, we have peace, we have comfort, but we
need more, don't we? And yet we're exhorted and reminded
and commanded to be, be holy, be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of good cheer, right? We need that. It's how we are
and it's how we ought to be. You need to hear that. Whom he
loves, whom the Father loves, he chastens. What's wrong with
you? He kept telling disciples that over and over again. What?
Where's your faith? Be of good cheer. He was the
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He bore our sorrows
and our grief, didn't he? He came here to remove all our
griefs and sorrows by being separated from God on Calvary's tree. So
that we'll never be, we'll never have to say, my God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? Never. Because he said, I'll
never leave you forsaken. But God forsook him. They never
saw him sorrowful until they went to the garden. He said,
now is my soul exceedingly sorrowful. You know that? He's the blessed
man. That means happy. He knew if
he was here, his work wouldn't be cut short. He was going to
finish his job. I'm going to finish the course like Paul said.
I know it's going to be like God told me. I've got a course
to run. And then it's all good. So he says, be of good comfort. Look at the next thing. Be of
one mind. One mind. Listen to this. You
know these scriptures. Don't you love them? Don't you
love them? Where would we be? I know where
we'd be, we'd be in darkness even as others. But listen to
this, Philippians 2, if there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, any comfort of love, I can say this to God's people.
I don't say this to everybody. It's wrong, it's blasphemy to
say this to everybody. But I can say this to God's people,
those that trust Christ, those that believe Christ, smile. God
loves you. I've said this so many times,
if there was a bumper sticker on the ark, it was on the inside. Smile. God loves you. That's
why you're in Christ. That's why you're not outside.
That's why you're pitched. That's why you know. God, like
Manoah, anybody ever hear about Manoah and his wife? I might
preach on that thing. Listen to this, any consolation
in Christ, any comfort of love, God's love in Christ, who shall
separate us from the love of God in Christ? Who or what can
separate us from the love of God in Christ? Nobody. Be of
good cheer. Oh God, you're going to cast
me out. God can't lie. You're the problem. He's going to save you in spite
of you. You know that? Any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels of
mercy, fulfill my joy, you'll be like-minded. One mind. Think on these things. Having
the same love, in one accord, one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory. We're going to see that, live
in peace. In lowliness of mind, this is
humility of mind. One mind. Let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
thing. Don't think of yourself. That's
what the last generation does. The last day, lovers of self.
But every man on the things of others. Let this mind be in you,
which was in Christ Jesus. He didn't think of himself. That's
why he came to earth. There wasn't one waking moment
of his life on this earth. He was thinking about himself. He made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men,
being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself, became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. So God has highly
exalted him and given him a name of every name, the name of Jesus,
every nation bound, every tongue convented that he's Lord to the
glory of the Father. So brethren, be of one mind,
be of good cheer. Be of one mind. Live in peace.
The next thing. Live in peace. Peace in your
heart. Peace. Peace. Where do we do? You're a sinner, aren't you?
God's angry with the wicked every day, isn't it? That's scripture.
That's what scripture is. God hateth all workers with an
iniquity. Well, what's your hope? You still work some works of
iniquity? You still sin? What's your hope? Somebody give
me one word. That's a good hope. That's a sure hope. God's not angry with his people.
Why? Because God poured out his wrath
on his son on Calvary's tree. Christ said, peace I leave with
you. Didn't he? Peace I leave with you. See,
he's going to the cross. to take the chastisement of their
peace by His strife, they're going to be healed, but He's
the one that's going to bear it all, not them. And He says, Be of
good cheer. Peace I leave with you. My peace
I give unto you. Peace. Peace with God. He made
peace by the blood of His cross and Christ came, the Spirit of
God came and preached peace to you. We're preaching peace, peace. But it's not what the world says,
that you make your peace with God. No, no, no, no, no, no,
no. Christ made peace, brother. You see that? Listen to Philippians. Well, let me go on. Live in peace.
Live in peace. Live with peace in your heart.
Let the peace of God rule, he said in Colossians. Have peace
among yourselves. Ron wisely read. Romans 12. Good choice, Ronald Jean. Good
choice. And in Romans 12, verse 8, it
says, it says, verse 18, if it's possible, as
much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. If it's possible. Blessed are the peacemakers.
David one time said, I'm for peace, they're for war. But he
was a peacemaker. That's who's called the children
of God. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that
make peace. Make peace. Make it. Don't just take it.
Make it. The God of peace will be with
you, it says in our text. Live in peace. The God of love
and peace shall be with you. Now look at verse 12. I'm not
going to be much longer. I hope. You've enjoyed what you've
heard thus far. My, my, we don't meet very often,
do we? Verse 12, greet one another with
a holy kiss. Paul says that in Romans, 1 and
2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Peter said that with a kiss of
charity, a kiss of love. We greet one another for the last
time. Greet one another like it's the
last time you're going to see them. Say goodbye and say hello
tonight. You just don't know them, do
you? They sure don't. Say hello with
a holy kiss, you know, apart from a sensual holy kiss. You know, I hug my mother. That's a holy kiss. My sister
used to hug her and kiss her. Sisters and brothers in Christ,
it's a holy kiss. It's a kiss of charity. It's a greeting. It's an embrace,
a holy embrace. Everybody needs to be loved and
everybody needs to feel it. Everybody needs to hear it. Don't
they? Do you love one another? Say
it. Show it. Provoke one another
to that. Everybody needs to feel it. Everybody
needs to hear it. The holy kiss from the heart.
Genuine love and affection. Greet one another. Greet one
another. Oh, brothers and sisters, don't wait for somebody to come
greet you. That's self. Okay? We taught our daughter
in early age, and you need to teach your children this, to
go up and speak to people. Greet one another. That's what
the Lord teaches his children. Greet one another. You see me
come around, I try to lead. That's what the scripture said.
And I try to lead by example. And I'm not doing it because
I'm supposed to. I'm doing it because I'm glad to see you.
Do you feel like I'm glad to see you? I am. I stand there at the window and
wait for you to come. I look forward to seeing there she is.
There he is. There's old Steven. Look at him. Glad to see you. All the saints salute you. Brothers and sisters, you just
don't know how much you're loved. This church Every time I talk
to one of the pastors or even members of the church, how so-and-so,
how so-and-so, how's the church there? Greet the brethren. I
forget to tell you all the time because so many of them say it.
Greet the brethren. How they all doing? How's that
old John Davis? Old. How's Jeanette, you know? Yes, they do. They know you.
They've been here. They love you. You love them?
All the saints salute you. all of them, all of you, all
of you. Look at verse 14, this is a closing prayer, very brief
closing prayer. It wouldn't hurt to just read
this at the table or read this as a prayer. The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, communion of the Holy Ghost
be with you all. The grace of the Lord, grace,
all grace, God of all grace. The grace of the Lord be with
you all. All of you. From the weakest
to the strongest. From the sinfulness. Well, there
ain't no such thing. To the chief of the Senate, grace,
the God of all grace. Grace, gift, faith, his word,
his gospel, family, fellowship, love, life, peace, joy, communion. All of it. God of all grace is
for all y'all. All grace. All of it. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God. God loves all of you that love
His Son. Yes, He does. How could God love
me? Because He's God. That's right. And He said that. You love His
Son, He loves you. You know why you love His Son?
Because He first loved you. You didn't set your love on him,
did you? You know that? Then why do you
love him? Because he set his love on you.
Jacob have I loved. What Jacob end up doing? Loving
the Lord. What John end up doing? Loving
the Lord. Do you, John? It's not presumption. It's not pride to say that. We don't love him like we want
to. We don't love him like we ought to. We don't love him like
we're going to. But we do, don't we? There was a time I did. And
now I do. I wish I loved him more. And
I will. But I'm thankful I do. Aren't
you? The love of God. Communion. And if God loves you, He'll never quit loving you.
And the communion of the Holy Ghost. This is the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit. What is the fellowship? The Holy
Spirit. It gives us this communion. What
is this sweet communion? It's the communion of the body
and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the fellowship of
His suffering. This is what the Holy Spirit,
this is how you know that you have the Holy Spirit. You're
a Spirit-filled person. This is a Spirit-filled church
if this church is all about Christ and Him crucified. Not part of
the time, not Christ-centered, Christ all. You hear me? That's the communion
of the Holy Ghost. Be with you all. All of you. And what do you say to that? The Amen's happy. All right,
you're dismissed.