This Christ shall rise from the
dead, and you shall be its host. The King shall come with morning
dawn, and I and Him be praised. We'll sing in that day, won't
we? Really sing. Okay, let's go back to 1 Thessalonians
4. Well, let's read from chapter
5. as a text, verses 5 and 6. Chapter 5, verses 5 and 6. Ye
are all the children of light, and the children of the day.
We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us
not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. I hope you have your Bibles ready
and are willing to look at them tonight. We're going to look
at several verses of Scripture. He tells us here, watch and be
sober. Watch and be sober. We need to
be reminded of this lest we forget. Lest we forget. What we are,
what every believer is, someone who is waiting on their Lord's
return with the bride, Our husband has gone away, we're waiting
on his return. I remember, and perhaps you remember,
around the turn of the century, the millennium, when we, it wasn't
really a bold prediction, it's pretty obvious from the scriptures,
that the Lord was not going to return at that time, because
the whole world was somewhat looking for something, you know.
that he would not return then. But do you remember me telling
you, us, reminding us, that it will be some years after that,
at a time, he said, when you think not. When the dust settles,
when everything settles down, and everybody's forgot all about,
Y2K. And all their fears have subsided.
And as we read there when they say peace and safety, our Lord said, in such an hour
as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. And in verse 2, he
says, in verse 2 of chapter 5, he cometh as a thief in the night. Now thieves come when people
are asleep, don't they? When people aren't expecting
them. It's the last thing they expect
to happen to them. And so we are reminded, we are
reminded, let us not sleep as do others. And we're going to
see what that means to sleep, but watch and be sober. Now,
I want this message to be a comfort to you who are believers. I want
it to be a comfort. I don't want to give anyone any,
not even the youngest person. I don't want to give anybody
the least sense of fear or apprehension or dread or anxiety, especially
young people, newlyweds or would-be-weds who
look forward to the future. You know that? Young people do
that. They look forward to the future. We old folks, well, you
old folks, Henry. have already lived your life.
So we can easily say, well, there's nothing to it, so don't, you
know. But young people haven't lived
this life. And so I want to remind all of you, let's turn to Ecclesiastes
chapter 2. Ecclesiastes 2. I really don't
think of myself as old. Some of you in your fifties and
even sixties, I'm sure you don't think of yourselves as being
old. You still feel young at heart. Some of you very young
in body, mind. Ecclesiastes 2, now let me remind
everyone in here that when the Lord returns for his people,
There will not be one second's fear or horror or anxiety, not
one second. Not one second. It will be like
awakening, an awakening. It will be an awakening, like
you wake up in the morning. It's a beautiful, the most glorious
day you've ever beheld. That's what it's going to be
like. In a moment, a twinkling of an eye, the scriptures say,
will be changed. There won't be one second's fear
for true believers. Not one. There won't be any horror when
the Lord comes. Just like in death, we've watched
believers die, you and I, and when it comes time, he giveth
his beloved sleep. They die in peace. Mark the end
of that perfect man. The end of that man is peace. But there will be instant glory. So don't worry about that when
the Lord comes. The second coming of our Lord
will not be a horrible thing for God's people. It will be
the most glorious awakening where we can't even put it into words.
And let me remind everyone here, especially young people, there's
no need to quit living your life here. There have been some false prophets
that scared their people to death and had them sell everything
they had and go live in a cave and stock up things like that. That is against the scriptures
totally. We don't need to quit living
our lives here. We don't need to sell everything
and move to a remote place and live in a commune and take up
arms against the government. We are permitted by our Lord.
We are permitted by him to marry, to build, to buy, to sell, to
eat, to drink. Look at Ecclesiastes. I've told
you, we looked at this whole book together. Ecclesiastes 2,
24. There's nothing better for a
man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make
his soul enjoy good in his labor. Now, that's a follow-up. God
told him to write that down, didn't he? He said, this I saw
was from the hand of God. From the hand of God. Look at
chapter 3, verse 1. Now there's a time to everything.
There's a season, there's a time to every purpose under heaven,
time to be born, time to die, time to plant, time to pluck
up, that's planted, time to kill, time to heal, time to break down,
time to build up, time to weep, time to laugh, time to mourn,
dance, time This and any other. Verse 6, time to get, time to
lose, time to keep, time to cast away. So there's a time for everything. Now let me just remind you of
this. So our Lord, the scripture says, giveth us all things richly
to enjoy. Yes he does. Do you not love
to give your children things? There's nothing that gives you
more joy. You parents, especially your grandparents, there's nothing you enjoy more
and it makes your day just to give things to your children
and to do things for your children and spend a little time with
them and so forth, right? As I said, you've already lived
your life pretty much and you want to heap love is extravagant. Love, as my father said, seeks
to give the best that it has to the object of its affection.
Love is extravagant. Love is generous. The Lord loveth
a cheerful giver, a generous person, and he'll give it back.
But our Lord, what I'm trying to say is, our Lord giveth us
all things richly to enjoy. Our Heavenly Father delights
for his children to have things and enjoy them as long as we
acknowledge him. Right? As long as we don't forget
him. As long as we give him the glory.
And whatever we do, eat or drink, we give him the glory for it.
He said now, our Lord did say this though, seek ye first the
kingdom of God. Young people, don't put this
off. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. That means salvation. Seek Christ.
Seek Him first. And He gives us this promise.
All these things will be added to you. Seek Him first. If you
don't seek Him, there's no promise at all. And the Lord said this. I remind
you of this. The Lord said this in His Word. If riches increase,
and they have for most of us, haven't they? We're all rich
and increased with good, most of us. Well, we all are compared
to people in Mexico, people in Santo Domingo, people in Africa. He said, if riches increase,
set not your heart on them. That's all he tells us to do.
If riches increase, don't lay hold on them. Set not your heart
on them. And remember this, Solomon said this, remember, vanity of
vanities, it's all vanity. It can't satisfy us, it don't
seek satisfaction there. Look at chapter 4 here in Ecclesiastes,
chapter 4 says this, verse 6, he reminds us of this, But before
verse 6, better is a hand full with quietness than both hands
full with travail and vexation of spirit. And he said in another
place, better is little with a fear of the Lord than great
treasure and trouble therewith. And it's just the fact that the
more you have, the more you worry about it, and the more trouble
you have. and the more strife you have
trying to take care of it and try to pay for it and all of
that. Huh? All of you married people that started out real
meagerly, you remember how life was so simple, wasn't it? Had
so very little, handed down furniture in a rented apartment with not
a trouble in the world. Huh? Isn't that right? Now, years
later, we get all this stuff. And we've got a lot of trouble.
So remember those things. But to all of us, live your life. Live your life. Whatever your
hand finds to do, do it with all your might. And here in the
book of Ecclesiastes, he tells a young man, love your wife,
just love her to death, and vice versa. Enjoy yourself. Our Father would have us enjoy
ourselves. He giveth us all things richly
to what? Enjoy. Don't let these religious
prudes tell you you need to be miserable all the days of your
life. That's not glorifying God. All right. Live your life, but
look for the Lord to come. He's coming any time. Maybe you're not. There are several people that
have gone out of our midst, haven't there? The Lord has come for them. Some
very unexpectedly, right? The Lord came for them. He most
certainly did. They are with him now. I mean,
they are really with him now. So this is reality. He will come. If not his second coming, he's
going to come for us one way or another, right? And I just
believe, based on the scriptures, his actual return is very soon. All right, go to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. Now, he says here, I don't want
you to be ignorant. We don't need to be ignorant
about this. Scripture teaches us about those that I like the
way the Lord, he doesn't refer to it as death. Our Lord said, he that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. When Lazarus, his friend,
Lazarus died, his friend Lazarus got sick, didn't he? How? It's a fatal illness he
got. How could the Lord gave it to
him? The Lord said it's for his glory,
and that's what happened. Well, when Lazarus, in our language,
died, when he died, the Lord said this, Lazarus is
sleeping. And the disciples were confused.
They said, well, if he's sleeping, he'll be alright. Well, that's
right. But they didn't know he meant death, so he plainly said,
Lazarus is dead. To you, he's dead. But I see
him right now at the right hand of the man. The Lord calls it
sleep. Sleep. He went to sleep. He giveth
his beloved sleep. What is sleep? What is sleep? Does anybody in here dislike
sleep? I know, Elizabeth, I know, Laura,
you like to just play all through the night and wake up. Some of these days, you look
forward to going to bed, let's see, go to sleep. You'll even
be asleep sometime about 8.30 at night. You don't believe that,
but it's true, isn't it, Mom? Sleep, is anybody in here, older
person, dislike sleep? Well, death is going to be like
sleep. Rest, eternal rest. And the awakening, well, I can't
even describe that. Sleep, they went to sleep, as
in taking a rest, eternal rest, rest. All right, verse 13, he
said, I don't want you to be ignorant of them which are asleep,
verse 13, but you sorrow not even as others which have no
hope. Don't sorrow for them. We do sorrow. He doesn't forbid
sorrow in there, does he? He says that you sorrow not as
others, unconsolably, uncontrollably. don't do that, and I haven't
seen God's people do that. I've seen people of this world
just completely lose it. But we're not to sorrow as those
who have no hope, because, well, Sister Tate, Frank Tate, who
passed away recently, his wife, Lee, said this to me on the phone. I called her right after Frank
went to sleep. She was not crying, she was,
I could see the smile in her voice. And she said to me this,
she said this, listen. She said, Paul, she said, I loved
him so much. And even now, I love him too
much to want to bring him back to this life. I really do love
him. I would have him with me, but
I would love him too much to bring him back here. And so for them, our Lord, when
he was going to the cross, that's what he said, don't weep for
me. Weep for yourselves and for your
children. We do weep over the loss of our loved ones, but we
don't sorrow as those who have no hope. Why? Because we're going
to see them again. If they know Christ, we're going
to see them again. Sorrow not as those who have no hope. He
doesn't forbid sorrowing, but don't sorrow without hope. Hope
keeps you going. Hope keeps you going. Alright, he says in verse 14,
now here's the proof he has that we have hope. He says, if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, do you believe that that
one that made Jesus that came to this earth 2,000 years ago
is the Son of God? Do you believe that, Stan Anderson?
Stan, Stan, got it tonight. Stan, do you believe that? That
was the Son of God, and when he died, three days later, he
actually rose out of that grave. When we believe, verse 14, he
says, even so, then also which those that fell asleep, or those
that died, in our language, believe in Christ, they're going to rise
with him, just as surely as he rose. If he did that, that means
he is and he says he was, said he was. And everything he said
was true, and he said that he that liveth and believeth in
him shall never die. So just as surely as we believe
that, we're going to sleep in Jesus. And the reason he says
Jesus, he's talking about that man. There's a man in God. There's
a man who died, actually died, and went into a grave, like we're
going to, and he came out. That man actually walked out
of that grave and walked into heaven itself. And he's coming
back, this same Jesus, the man. If that man did, then this man
will too, because I believe in him by his grace. And it says
in verse 14, look at this, it says that those that sleep in
him will God bring with him. Go over to chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians
3. It says that he will bring them
with him. Now, the Lord said, since the
Lord said he would never leave his people, then he doesn't go
anywhere without them. He said, I'm with you always.
He's representing it by spirit now, but someday you'll actually
be bodily present with the Lord. He will never, ever, will never
be out of our sight. In chapter 3, and this is what
it says here. I've never really paid that much
attention to it. In verse 13, chapter 3, it says,
to the end, he may establish your hearts unbreakable in holiness
before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, without his signs. Look at Jude 14. Jude, that's
the last book before Revelation. Second to last book was by Jude
XIV. Got it? I've got a lot of pictures I
keep carrying, so don't use that little index, tell it. Trouble
the pride. It says in verse 14, Enoch also,
the seventh from Aaron, caught the sign of these, saying, Behold,
the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his faith. So when the Lord
comes back to this earth, evidently, oh that's good, isn't it? All his departed loved ones are
loved ones who know him. And then this will be the resurrection
of these bodies. Look in our text, chapter 4,
1 Thessalonians 4. This is the resurrection of the
body that we have laid in the grave, that people have laid
in the grave. This we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,
that is, those of us who are still here, if we're still on
this earth and haven't actually died when the Lord returns, we
don't. We shall not forbear, that is,
we won't go before them which are asleep. That is, we won't
actually rise from this earth before they do. Verse 16, read
on. The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Somehow
or other, this is going to be when those departed believers,
their bodies, that were laid in the grave and were put into
the dust will be changed, and there will be a body, soul, and
spirit. Now, you say, well, where are
they in that? I don't know. They're not some,
as someone said, disembodied spirit. I do know that our Lord,
when I thought about this, when our Lord arose from the grave,
do you remember when He arose from the grave and He appeared
to Mary, and Mary saw the grave, and what did He say? Do you remember
what She said? He said, touch me not. I have not yet ascended
to the Father. So, He heard about it. So it was Him. And then a little while later,
He appeared to His disciples and He said, touch me. So, that may not explain it,
but that's what it is. But this is the resurrection
of the body that 1 Thessalonians is talking about, verse 17. shall be caught up together with
them in the cloud." In 1 Corinthians, turn over there. 1 Corinthians,
chapter 15, that whole chapter that's about what's returning
and our change. 1 Corinthians 15. That's a good
reading or not. Read that. 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 51. You got it? Verse 50. Let's read that. As we have borne the image of
the earth, 3 Cor. 15.49, as we have borne the image
of the earth at a time, we shall also bear the image of the heaven,
2 Cor. 5, the image of heaven, the protective
dominion. Now, this, I say, brethren, is
flesh and blood. This flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption endure in corruption,
but they will not kill you this way. For we shall not out-sleep,
but we shall out-return. All of us might not go into the
grave if the Lord comes tonight, and nobody in the world will
be that dead such as they were, but we'll have with us a chance. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, trump shall sound. I like that. It shall sound. And the day shall
be raised incorruptible. Those of you who follow us, we
all shall be changed. This corruptible must put on
incorruption. This mortal must put on imperfection. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, this mortal that put on incorruption, then
shall be brought to pass the same. It is written, death is
swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?
The grave never has, never will have the victory of the God's
people, though their bodies went down there and they rotted. The worms ate them, yet they
will return to their person. with an elephant, and blow up
that sky. What did Philippians 3, uh, Philippians
chapter 3 look like? Philippians 3, verse 21. Philippians
3, 21, it says, And I know that Jesus Christ shall change our
vile body. Our vile body. Then it will be fashion, how
can you get to all of this? Now, we're going to be working
here by and large, and it's a big opportunity. It's going to be
a trip. All of it. It changed our dialogue. And we remember each other. We remember each other. Disciples
knew Moses and Moses. People knew Pestilence and Spaniel
when he was, when he came back. And I don't know. We want everything,
because we will have it as long as we want to have it now. That's
all I can say about that. And I wouldn't be made a demon. I would not be me. But I would
be me. That is to be honest, and I would
die. So that's fine. Now, it may not
back off very much. It will never back off. So he
says in verse 18, verse 17, verse 17, we meet, look at this, we
part up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. He never says in verse 18, I'm
sorry. I've never seen that before. And my pastor and his son up
there said, this world is not fit for him to set foot on the
hill. He doesn't know that he's going to get to the atmosphere.
He said, brother, every time I see him, it's like he's in
the heavens, in the air, you know what I'm saying. And the day of his death arrives,
and then he dies. You know, but don't go further than that, brother,
we're going to meet the Lord in the air. This world is not
fit for the Holy Lord to set his foot on the hill. That's
why I'm not going to say that I'm going to die. This world
is not fit for being good and bad. He came down and went down
and laid in the lap of a Satan, but his world I want to save,
not the next life. And he shall have to burn down
and create a new one, but there's only three disciples. It's not
going to show up this week, either, on this earth. That's what Satan
does. We're going to rise above nothing.
We're going to rise above nothing. We're going to rise above nothing. We're going to rise above nothing. We're going to rise above nothing. We're going to rise above nothing. We're going to rise above nothing.
We're going to rise above nothing. I said, you look fine to me. I didn't see you there. I've kept the time. But, uh, first things
first, the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need to
ask. The fact here is that, number
one, God speaks with love. In fact, that may be the way
the Baptist thing must be, but God speaks with love of something
else, the centers. We should be able to discern
the centers. What our Lord tells us here in
Matthew 16, verses 1 through 3, the Baptist is saying, The
Bible started shifting, you know. The diaries had to be shown by
the signs of death. Let's see if I remember the first
sign again. Well, he said an eagle and a
pelican should be the most successful signs. Mark the band, people.
The individuals and people that look at the signs, they all think
that the signs talk about people. But you don't see signs. You
don't see something. Absolutely. I don't want to see more of this right here.
I don't want this kind of thing in my heart, the Word. They don't want to see. David
wanted to see Sinai, and he actually said unto them, If anything you
say, it will be fair to others besides me. And I don't mean
to be foul-mouthed, but that ain't the Sinai I ain't told
you. And so Seder's at Sinai, not
in Seder's day. That's what he's, that's what
we got there. But, sorry, if this fowl wasn't
dead, this fowl wouldn't be here, Chris. He could discern the faces
of the fowl, but he couldn't discern the signs of the fowl. He couldn't discern the signs
of the fowl. Can't you see the sign in the
sky? Can't you see that the sky is
red and golden? After he comes home, the whole
chapter is about his return. It's a detailed information about
the things preceding his return in Matthew 24. And he says, I
do not compare it with a pig trip. He said, from the pig's
three-foot stroke, it's tender leaves, and those hummers there,
and so on and so forth. And with the fruit on it, and
the fruits harvested, tender leaves falling, Why? It's almost not a problem, isn't
it? He said, you learn that. And
so many times, on the scripture point, and the citizens, particularly,
think about Timothy 3. You know, he's pictured the Pharaoh's
town. It's not meaning that they've
gone to bed. It's a perfect description of
this generation. At all, in 2 Corinthians 2, he
says some things about the waking one, our Lord is coming, and
those things are facts. All right? So, our Lord is telling
us that we should be able to re-release the general time. But the day and the hour, our
Lord says, no man knows. The day and the hour, no man
knows. Look back at our text, verse 2. He says, "...yourself
known perfectly the day before, so come up as a thief in the
night." The day comes up as a thief in the night. Unexpected. Who's saying these things? Who's
saying that? Now, let's look at some of these,
all right? Jeremiah. Let's look at Jeremiah
chapter six. Prabhup�da, where am I sitting? Where am I sitting? He said, peace and safety. Who says that?
Jeremiah 6, verse 14. They have healed the hurt of
the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there
is no peace. Who's he talking about? False
prophets. Do you ever hear any more? The
money that... Do you ever hear these preachers
anymore talk about the wrath of God? Anyway, ever hear a modern-day
prophet? He said this thirty years ago,
didn't he? He didn't say that anymore. You'll never hear a modern preacher
anymore even mention the destruction of this earth. I grabbed the
dog, I punched him in the chin. They don't even talk about the
Second Coming. They act like they don't know anything about it. Why does he make us
all healthy and wealthy? On this, on this earth? Why should
he? Who's going to die? Everybody's
going to be born with one knee and two feet and get sick. Who's
going to die again? Well, Chapter 14 of Jeremiah. Let's go over there quickly. Chapter 14, verses 13 and 14.
And this is one of the last Holy
Testaments I'm going to show you. Chapter 14, verses 13 and
14. That's what the prophets were
saying. The Lord said unto me, The prophets
prophesied lighter than thy name. I said, They're not. Neither
have I commanded them, neither spoken unto them. They prophesied
unto you a false vision, a defamation, a thing of naught, the seed of
their heart. Chapter 23. One more. Chapter
23. And this sounds so much like
today. Chapter 23. Quickly, verse 17, verse 16,
"'Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,' Jeremiah 23, 16, "'Hearken not
unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you, that
make you vain, that speak a vision of their own heart, not of the
mouth of the Lord. They say, still, or they say,
he saying, of the men that hate me.'" Those that hate the God
of God. "'They say of the men that disguise
me.' The Lord hath said, You shall have peace. God loves you. And they say, I'm a different
kind of adult than the imagination of his own heart, be he homosexual,
whatever he is, it doesn't matter who they are. They say unto them,
No evil shall befall you. God loves you. And that is. And the Lord goes on
in this chapter to say, Who heard him say that? Who stood in the
house of the Lord and heard him say that? Now, who was there when the Lord
said, Where did they get that? And he goes on to say, They're
dreaming. I didn't say that. And when I'm going to say that,
I'm going to talk with my people about it. All right, back to
the Narcissus. Now, he said, But you, brethren,
you brethren, you brethren, you brethren, you brethren, these
false prophets, P-R-O-F-I-T, prophets, P-R-O-F-I-T, The ones
that, by peace and safety, this sudden destruction, are going
to fall on their heads to the fullest. They don't know whether
Don Bell said, Him ain't hot enough to be free. But, uh, they're going to be,
and those are the ones that are going to be standing. Our Lord
spoke in Matthew 7 and said, they're going to be standing
right in front of Him. I've just been saying, look what
we did here now. That's how to lose it, how to
deceive evil men into misery. I love that. So to speak, deceiving
and being deceived. They themselves, so to speak,
are going to stand in the face of their holiness and flee what
they've done for you. Unbelievable, isn't it? That's
what the Lord said there, actually, wasn't it? That's England. Sudden destruction. So follow
me. They talk to you, verse four,
you brethren are not in darkness, but that day shall overtake you
as a thief. You are all children of light,
children of day and of night, children of darkness. We're not children of light.
Why don't we call children of light? Why are we not in darkness
even as others? Huh? Why don't we call children
of light? Why don't we call children of
light? Why is it that we have the light? Where do we get this light? What
is this light? What are we talking about? That's light. Anybody
know what we're talking about is light? This is light. The scripture says, the entrance
of thy word giveth light. The entrance of thy word. I know
many people seem like they're looking at this book. And I'm not, you know I'm not
bragging, I'm just stating the fact here. We looked at over
50 books in the Bible. Did you know that? Some of them were
more. Some of them were more. We're
going through all of them for the third time. First and I've
heard, we haven't read that one part. And I'm not bragging, I'm
just stating the fact here. Why? This is where we get all
our information. This is life. I mean, we're actually
line upon line, line upon line. That's the way the Scripture
agrees, doesn't it? You understand? It says it does,
line upon line, line upon line. That is, you look at it line
upon line, go back again and look at it line upon line. Keep
learning. Every time you look at this verse,
you get more life. Precept upon precept, precept
upon precept, here and there, here and there. I was worried. The evidence of this word is
life. The scripture says, thy word
is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. We'll stumble,
we'll fall, we'll fall into nets, we'll fall into the webs that
spiders golden for, we'll fall into the pitfalls and the ditches,
but not if we have the light. We won't fall for anything. We
don't have to fall for anything. You know what? Even if I went
wrong, you don't have to fall for it. You've got a light in
your hand. We talked about walking through
the woods, you know. Would you rather follow somebody
that's right side or would you rather go with the right side?
Huh? Very nice. Oh, very nice, yes,
quite nice. Very nice. And you too, I would
like to follow some others, but no, no,
no, it's not good. It's called the sincere milk
of the Word. One old fellow told his preacher, he said, I just
kind of like that young cow to milk from. Don't have to take
anybody's Word for it. Do it. We don't have to call
for some slick fella, and you won't, if you've got this. It's
about you. Thy Word is the entrance of thy
Word given to life. Here's what Peter said in 2 Peter
1, he said, You do well to take heed as unto a light that shines
in a dark place. The reason this world is in such
darkness is because of so little of this. Really. And I blame
it all. I do. I do. All, everything to
blame in our society. Everything. You can do, but that's
why we have to call people in. We preachers in this bloody world. The light, the knowledge of God. Here's the chief light, here's
the chief light. Here's the light that gives life. Here's the light that illumines
all things. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. It says in 3 and 4, see? The
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The light of the knowledge
God Because the light and the shine of the darkness has shined
in our hearts to give us a light of the knowledge of the glory
of God." Now, what's that say? Here's the light of all lightning.
This is what illuminates everything. Light, light illuminates darkness. Light uncovers things that are
hidden. Light discovers things He didn't
know was there. Light reveals things. Light sets,
lights set on the sun. Right? Here's the light of all
lights. This is the light of salvation,
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And I know a lot of people talk about
that. What is that talking about? What does that mean? The light
of the knowledge of the glory of God, that everything is for
His glory. He created everything for His
glory. This will shed light on God.
This will shed light on why he's going to destroy this planet,
and why he's going to create a new one, why everything's like
it is, and why everything's not. It's all for his glory. God doesn't,
it's not waiting to make man happy. He just offers all that. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. Moses, over half a century, you
remember the story. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. Now Moses had already seen the Red Sea party, manna
comes out from heaven, the smitten rock, the serpent on the pole,
and on and on. Right? He'd seen a lot of signs
and things, had miracles, hadn't he? But he said, show me your
glory, your essential glory. Show me what is all of that.
And the Lord said, all right. I'm going to make all my business special
for you. I'm going to proclaim the name
of the Lord. Chapter 34 is where he gave the
name of the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord God, merciful, gracious.
He said, I will be merciful unto my Lord, and I will be gracious
unto my Lord. This is God's hope. His name. And while this whole world is
dragging His name down, even in His name, we know His name is His hope. His name, the Holy Spirit's name,
His goodness is His sovereign mercy and His grace. All in all. The light of God's Word, the
light of God's glory, the light which is Christ Himself, the of God's Word tells us what we
are, tells us what we are. Our Lord said in John 3,
He said, He that cometh to the light, he that believeth, listen
to this, he that doeth truth cometh to the light. That's what
Thanksgiving is all about. Alright, when you clean your
house, do you turn on the lights? Who should I ask to do it? Sherry
will do the housework. Do you turn on the lights? You
can do it in the dark. I bet there's so many of you that do
this. No, there's a whole lot of people that do this. Do you
turn on the lights? Come on, sweetie. Alright. Why? You want to uncover the dark.
No, you need to clean it up. You need to do it with the truth.
Turn on the lights. We've come to this book to be
exposed by. We've come to this book to be
told what we really are. We've come to this great position,
Brother Gary, to tell us what's wrong with us. We don't want
anything to say, here's some medicine, here's some dopey up,
you'll feel real good. I don't want to feel really good.
I want to know if I've got a disease that I want to die from. Yes,
you do. He said. You've got it. It's terminal.
Well, what can we do about it? You can't do anything. He said.
You can't do anything about it. I have to do it. Christ has to do it. We come to have our feet laid
down, because they're all in stock, he said. What we're going
to see was, you know, someone The lie of God's Word tells us
what's in us. It doesn't make it pretty picture.
It tells us who He is. The lie of God's Word tells us
that God's Lord is the living and true God, who He is, God
who is God. I'm not trying to think who He is, God. Revealed by the lie of His Word.
The lie of God's Word reveals Christ, who He is, Jesus. Lies. Here it is. Lies came into the world in the
middle of darkness last night. I was going to have you turn
to another place, Isaiah 30, where people said, no, don't
tell us like that. People told the preachers, don't
tell us like that. Don't do it, don't tell us that. They prophesied smoothly. And that's what he said there. He
said, Timothy, as each of themselves teaches, he said, tell us what
we want to hear. We'll tell you this. No, not those who want to know
the truth. Exposing it. Exposing it. And in doing so,
exposing the disease that's in your heart. All right, we're
not of the night, he says, verse 5, we're not of the night. If
you're in the light, if you're in the day, you're not of the
night, or darkness. So, let us not sleep as the others. Let
us watch and be sober. Now what does that mean? Sleep.
He's not talking about actually sleeping. And he's not talking
about drunkenness here. He's not talking about actually
having to do with alcohol. So it means sleep. Right? What does it mean to sleep? He's
talking about spiritual sleep. Spiritual sleep. Being indifferent. When you're asleep, you're dead
to the world, huh? Well, when you're spiritually asleep, you're
dead to God. That's what he's talking about.
When you're drunk, physically drunk, you just do not care in
the world. When you're spiritually drunk,
you don't care about the things of God, you care more about this
world. You're intoxicated by other things. You're intoxicated
with things that your mind's not guided by. What causes that? What causes this sleep, this
drunkenness, of the world? to work, or cause us to sleep. John Bunyan wrote that book,
Pilgrim Prophecy. Some of you read it. And Pilgrim and his friend were
traveling, and the evangelist told them, said, Now, when you're
traveling, beware, there's a place called the Enchanted Ground.
It's a nice place. Oh, it's so nice, and it's so
pleasant. You'll really enjoy it there.
The weather's perfect, everything's perfect. Don't lie down there. Get some more sleep. And then
you go out after them. So they went through. They
chatted around all night. And they lied down. They fell
asleep. And a big giant called Despair. Giant Despair grabbed a moose
and flew him down to the castle. down in a dungeon, down in a
castle, under the reign of despair. I love that book. Oh, of course,
I fell asleep in that, Channing Cranston. The world, he said, Channing
Cranston, our Lord said to me in Luke 21, he said, be careful,
you know, all these disciples, be careful, you know, aren't
taking up the authority to serve Him, and so forth. We can't drown
this world. It will level us to sleep. It
will level us into a false sense of security. Oh, where's the
promise of this coming from? It's a call to action, you'll
see. This world, and Buddhism, and
people, and bands, and we've taken up with it, we'll be asleep
just like that. It'll let us not sleep if we
don't. No word, none of this, Do you
sleep with a light on? Anybody in here sleep all night
with a light on? Anybody? Buzz Farber. Farber's
a good name. He ain't like that. Anybody? I go to sleep a lot. Benji and I lie in bed and read
books, you know, and I read for how long? 45 seconds. And I'm asleep. And she's got
her eye on all of this. We're there about 45 minutes
later, I let her go. I said, now you've got to turn
it off when I say it. She walked into the blinders,
girl. I'll be in a night chair sometime,
good. And I said, as sure as the world,
I'll put those things on that the house will catch on fire. And I'll probably find the can
and shoot him in the night. All right, you're awake now.
Thing is, you don't sleep with the light on, and neither will
you sleep spiritually if you're under the sound of this light. This makes you watchful. It makes you wary. It makes you
aware of the Lord in return. It makes you think about the
Lord. It hastens His return. It makes Him the center of that
person in the earth. And it's especially true for
me. I'm the watchman. I'm supposed to be the watchman.
And as the scripture says in Ezekiel, Watchman, what are you
lying? What are you saying? Watchman's the one staying awake
at night. Well, they sleep, like our Lord did. What of the night?
What do you see, Mark? He's a good watchman. He's got
the light on. I see war. I see the enemy. I see the Lord
coming. I see life on the horizon. The Lord is coming. Watch unto prayer, he saith.
Watch, that's watch. Our Lord said, watch and pray.
As you enter on into temptation, watch. You watch through the
word, you hear the sound of it, you read it. You watch with prayer. Our Lord said, without me you
can do nothing. You can't watch if you don't ask Him to give
you assurance of watching. Without any way to do that. Be
sober. What does that mean? Be sober.
Let us watch you be sober. Don't get intoxicated. I think
that's easier said than done. I love you. I like to spend time with you. I like people. I love my family. I love you.
I love to be with you. I love to spend time with you.
What's the problem with that? But don't be intoxicated. Don't be overcome by joy, but
just take ignorance and put it down. And because that's not,
it can be a false sense of peace and all that, but none of this
is lasting. None of these relationships,
none of these things, none of this is going to pass away. Don't
be intoxicated by these things. You wake up from it, and it's
sorrowful. An old and rotten room comes. If you're glad to be still with
all of them, you're actually going to die. Be like those who
wait on their Lord. If you say that the old and rotten
room comes, you'll go after it. And so shall you be with the
Lord. And yet, you shall not. All right. Let's, uh, let's... Our Lord, thank You
for Your Word. It is life, truth. And we, again,
we say, we preach in part, we know in part. And we do thank
You for the little life we have. The Lord enables us to walk in
that life. Don't let the light that's in
us be darkness. Don't be deceivers if we hear the word on there. Don't do it. Don't listen to
what you say. Repeat it. It will be darkness
still. But let it be light. And let
our minds, our hearts, our ways keep us from being taken up with
this world, this abandoned ground. Let us not sleep with the others
who think, who barely think they're going to live forever. And to
mock the Lord in return, we are like those who wait on our Lord's
certain return and say, sure, He comes. And even so, come quickly,
Lord Jesus. We look forward to that day.
I give you for your word. Blessed is not the fowl that
e'er take the way of the Lord, but is chosen. Christ came to
be called to be saved, but it is Him. Bye.