I'll turn back in your Bibles with me and we're just looking at those words of the Lord Jesus Christ again, till I come, till I come at the end of John's Gospel, John Chapter 21. Those closing verses, and God the Holy Spirit has caused it to be repeated and therefore it's a glorious repetition. What, if I will, verse 22, Jesus saith unto him, to Peter, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. If I will, at the end of verse 23, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

We've been looking at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and this part of our service. I think of us going from here and going out into this world, and I want us to leave our church fellowship with sweet thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we have the Lord's Supper, we are declaring the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's interesting, isn't it? I don't know if I think about that as much as I ought, but you listen to what the Paul The Apostle Paul declares...

He says in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 11, For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me.' After the same manner also he took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament, the New Covenant in my blood, this do ye as often as you drink it, of me. So we're looking back, remembering his cross, and then listen to the Holy Spirit's words here. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. What? Thy kingdom The Lord's Supper is looking back to what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary and it's looking forward to that coming kingdom. This glorious, glorious return of our Saviour to gather his people to himself. And we are commanded in Scripture to look to Him and not ask silly, speculative questions about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turn back with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 1. He says in verse 7, it seems very plain in verse 7, doesn't it? He said unto them, it is not for you. They were wanting to have the kingdom restored to Israel and he just told them over and over again for three and a half years that his kingdom's not of this world, his kingdom's a spiritual kingdom and he reigns and rules as the king in the hearts and lives and over. all things to do with his people. Will you restore the kingdom, this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put into his own power, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. He knew where that gospel was going. It was going to come all the way to Nauru. And when he had spoken these words, these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

I love this. This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. This same Jesus, this resurrected Jesus, this reigning, ruling Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. That's the one who's coming back. What triumphal glory will all this world see when he comes back? Like all issues to do with the fundamental glory of God in the Gospel of this Lord Jesus Christ, it has been polluted in so many ways that people are confused. And Satan is the master of confusion, and the religion of Babel is a religion of confusion. What does Babel mean? The great whore of Babylon made the whole world drunk. Babel means confusion by mixture. So they take some of the words of God and add a whole bunch of the words of men.

So the Lord Jesus Christ, just to lay out some facts, and there's an article in your bulletin I'll just take from there, but the Lord Jesus Christ can come back and may come back at any moment. That's a Revelation 170. It says, Behold, I come soon. I come quickly. We read it at the end of the book of Revelation. There is nothing not ready. In Matthew 24 he says, For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Therefore be ye also ready. The issue is about us here. For in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. So when people won't think he's coming, that's when he's coming. And so let's forget about the ridiculous speculation and let's rejoice in the fact that the angels have said that this same Jesus is coming back.

Don't you love the fact that two angels were there at the turn of the Resurrector declaring the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why are you seeking the living among the dead? And two angels are declaring the Lord's return. He's coming with great power and glory.

Turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 1. These verses give me deep pause for serious contemplation and prayer. Let's start in verse 7. It's a righteous thing, verse 6, it's saying, it's a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a Gospel. There is a Gospel believed and there is a Gospel that is disobeyed. The Gospel is a command. The Gospel comes to sinners in this world And with the power of God, the command is exercised in the hearts of his people. Obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. Why do they believe? Because our testimony among you was believed. That's why they believe. They've had the gospel preached to them in that day.

Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling. and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, Isn't that remarkable? How on earth is that going to happen apart from a sovereign work of grace? And you in him. That's how it's done, isn't it? Listen to it. According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The next chapter talks about the deception, the deceivableness. Verse 10, the deceivableness of unrighteousness. This is the work of Satan. all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. And here is human responsibility. In them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now this verse doesn't send you to your knees in private, trembling before God Almighty. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. A lie. It is the lie. That they all might be damned who had believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. If God sends a delusion, what do you think happens? They are deluded. How on earth can they be undeluded unless God Almighty does what the next verses say? If God has deluded people, if people are deluded, they can believe what they're doing is absolutely right and absolutely honouring to God. The Pharisees thought they were doing God's service when they crucified the Lord of Glory.

What is the solution? But we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Listen to what he goes on to say. Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions, hold the gospel that you've heard from the beginning which you've been taught.

He's coming. His coming is going to be momentous. He's coming, He's coming in great power. He's coming, as we read in Acts chapter one, He's coming in a real body. And when He comes, turn back in your Bibles to John chapter five, and when He comes, there is a great resurrection coming. As one of the prophets said, the earth shall cast out her dead. Chapter 5, verse 24. Verily, verily, amen, amen, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and believeth on him that hath sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming And now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man.

As we saw earlier, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, this world is wrapped up. The till is going to come to pass. The terminus will have been reached. It will be cataclysmic and this universe will be wrapped up. Such is the glory and greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And God's children love his appearing.

Turn with me just one more time and we'll have some notion, I trust the Lord might be a teacher of what is happening on that great and glorious day when he comes back and In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, if you can turn there, we might just read a few verses and then we'll go back and look at this great day and pray the Lord will be gracious to us. And as we look back to His cross, we can look forward to His return with great joy.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4. He said, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Don't you love the way the Lord talks about his people who have departed? They're not dead. They're asleep. They're asleep. The older I get, the more I love sleep. Sleep's not a trouble for me. It's not a trouble at all.

We concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. We're not to sorrow without hope. Christ is our hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, don't you know that? What's the sleep of the saint of God? We sleep in Jesus. How do you get in Jesus? 1 Corinthians 1.29. God the Father puts you in him. That's how you sleep in him.

Will God bring with him? For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain. There will be saints on this earth alive when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Alive unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, not go before them which are asleep. Because the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. With the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive, you get the picture, when the Lord returns, all the dead will rise. You go out to that cemetery there and tread very carefully and with great respect. They're not there for very long, I promise you.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. What's the terminus of it? And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Therefore, we're for comfort one another. These are words of comfort that we are to share with one another, aren't we? And what's the heart of it all, isn't it? We're gonna meet him in the air, but we shall ever be with the Lord. Ever be with the Lord. It's a glorious return, and as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, we need to be reminded of how glorious it is. Also, we need to be reminded of how deadly serious it is, and how weighty it is. And you read those verses in 2 Thessalonians. May the Lord cause us to love the truth. The truth is a person, and the truth is everything that's true about that person. So we love the truth and to love the truth is to hate the lies about him. God's children hate the lies that are spoken about the Lord Jesus Christ and this world is absolutely full of them according to the promise of God.

So turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 25 and I just want us to capture something which is so extraordinarily important in these verses. Matthew 25 and verse 31. The power of it, before it, probably need to be looked at very closely. The wise and foolish virgins are a salutary warning because from a distance they looked exactly the same. Exactly the same. But let's read from verse 31 down. May the Lord help us and be our guide and our teacher in these things.

When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. We don't know how many holy angels there are, but what a glorious entrance of the Lord Jesus Christ this is. There are thousands upon thousands of angels. How glorious and how powerful they are. They are here. God says that they're here witnessing us and witnessing what is said about the Lord Jesus Christ. One angel outside Jerusalem in one evening and maybe in one millisecond killed 185,000 people. A whole army of Seneca, one angel. He's coming with all of them. Heaven's going to be emptied of angels.

Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. We looked at that at the beginning of our service, Isaiah 46.10. He declares the end from the beginning. And then he declares, for I was hung and hungered, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came unto me. Now all of those things have a physical representation, but all of them are spiritual representations of the declaration of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. How do they find out about righteousness? The only righteousness there is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst. Okay, naked and you clothe me.

Then, listen to this, then shall the righteous answer him, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee and thirsty or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee? He says they've done those things, and they have absolutely no notion of having done them at all. You can read Romans 7. Paul said, in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. The goods that I want to do, I don't do, and the evil that I do, I don't. This is what it is to be a sinner. A sinner has no knowledge and no recollection before God of having done good things. He said, when did we do it? And the Lord said, And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily, truly, I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.

They have no knowledge of having done it. Mark that, brothers and sisters in Christ. Mark it well, because this world tells us about what we have to do to get right with God and how we can do them. And if you were trained in the Bible colleges I was trained in, you were declared, you were told that to preach a sermon, the last 30% of your sermon has to be a sermon about the application of it. What do you have to do now? These ones on that day don't know. They don't know. They know nothing about progressive sanctification. They know nothing about getting extra awards in heaven and extra crowns in heaven.

And if you think that this is a light thing, I spent an hour pleading with a missionary in Africa several months ago, and he was talking about the good works and the crowns he's going to get, and the extra rewards he's going to get, and how magnanimous he's going to be on that day when he meets the Lord, and he'll take all the crowns that he's got, and he'll throw them all at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he'll say it was all of grace. But I did it and I get my rewards. I quoted these words and we read these words. And he didn't get it. And I did it again. And he didn't get it. And I did it again. And he didn't get it. I could not get him to just acknowledge simply what happens on the Day of Judgment when you turn up there with your works.

I beg of you, brothers and sisters, if you have any works other than the works of the Lord Jesus Christ, God must punish them infinitely and eternally. God's children are zealous for good works. They are zealous for the glory of God. They are zealous to live in this world such that He will be glorified by their actions and even by their thoughts and their deeds in every way. We want to live for the glory of God. You go and read Romans 7 and see what happens in the hearts of God's people when they know themselves to be sinners. And thank God the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. He didn't come for the righteous who can do things. He came for sinners.

Now listen on. Then, verse 41, this is a separation and an eternal separation forever. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. Naked, and ye clothed me not. Sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison? and did not minister unto thee.

They're saying we did all those things. They're standing there before God Almighty saying we have done these things. Then shall he answer them saying, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not. You thought you did it. You thought you did it. And you did it not. You did it not unto the one of the least of these, you did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto eternal life.

I need a Saviour. I need a Saviour. I need a Saviour not just to rescue me from my sin, I need a Saviour to rescue me from my righteousness. I need a Saviour to rescue me from trusting in the good things I do.

Not everyone, Matthew 7.21, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. I want to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I don't want anyone to go from here not being someone who wants to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I pray that the Lord will be gracious and merciful to us all and to any who might hear.

Not everyone shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, they're proclaiming his name and they're emphasizing that they're proclaiming his name. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord. They're emphasizing the fact that they're doing this for God. Have we not prophesied? This is talking about preachers. Have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works. They do it all in the name of God, and they do a vast quantity of them, many, and there is an amazing quality to them, wonderful. works. Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity.

Brothers and sisters, these are solemn, solemn things to ponder. What a saviour we have. I pray that out of all of this, that that blood that was shed on Calvary's tree 2,000 years ago, not a single drop of it was wasted. And all of God's children are washed in His blood and robed in His righteousness. His righteousness. And they'll have it no other way. And they'll do, as Peter said, they'll follow me. We just look to Him. How do you follow someone? You fix your eyes on them. Have you ever lost a child? I've lost children sometimes. How do they stay with you? They keep their eyes fixed on them. We can't fix our eyes on this world or fix our eyes on the law or fix our eyes on our good deeds and have them fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ at all. We fix our eyes on Him. And we only do it by His power and His grace and for His glory such that We rest.

We began our service by talking about a rock. Our God's a rock. There's a great story told of a young mariner who got swept overboard. His ship was wrecked and he was the only one left in all of that stormy sea. The next morning they find him and he's on a rock. Ship's gone, everyone dead, everything lost. And they finally get out and rescue him. And they say to him, weren't you terrified on this rock? He said, I was shaking all night long on this rock. Do you know what? The rock never moved once. The rock never moved once. And our God will save his people.

He says, take, eat. Take him, all of him. To take and to eat is to have, in a sense, his very life energising our lives, isn't it? a little bit and do a little bit because we're taking a little bit of wine and a little bit of bread. But they picture something far greater, don't they? We're taking his broken body and we're taking his shed blood. And he says, do this in remembrance. It's broken for you. It's broken on your behalf, children of God. In the same manner he took the cup when he was saying, this cup is the new covenant, the new testament. In my blood, it's a testament in his blood, a blood that speaks, a blood that cleanses, a blood that washes his people. In my blood, this do you, as often as you drink, in remembrance of me. You can only remember someone that you know. Knowing him, for as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.

Wherefore, whosoever eat this bread shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily. What's to be worthy in his sight? How are you worthy in the sight of God? By faith. for all of your acceptance before God, looking to Him alone for dealing with all of your sins and putting them away such as they do not exist, for Him being all of your righteousness before Him. May you be enabled by our great and gracious God to eat and drink unworthily. If you don't, you shall be guilty of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. But let a man examine himself. We're not in the business of fruit checking. You examine yourself. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. May the Lord enable us to eat and drink worthily. May he be made precious.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we have been looking at things which are so extraordinarily momentous and so eternally significant, Heavenly Father, and we pray that you would be once again the teacher of your people and you would cause us to hear, you would cause us to be led in your paths of righteousness, Heavenly Father, for your namesake. We thank you again, Heavenly Father, that there is a Saviour for sinners. We thank you that not a single sinner that came to the Lord Jesus Christ pleading for mercy was ever turned away. Oh, Heavenly Father, what a name we have to call on. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a glorious name, what a glorious God we have, what a glorious Saviour. Heavenly Father, your Apostle Peter, who was told just to feed my sheep and to follow me, declared that this blood was precious blood. to the death of your son, and see that blood that was shed on Gethsemane's garden, and shed in the halls of Pilate and the others, and shed on Calvary's tree, this precious, precious blood. Wash us in it. Save us by it, Heavenly Father, and cause us to go from here rejoicing that there is such a glorious and successful and sovereign Saviour, the substitute and sacrifice for sinners like us. Bless your word to our hearts, Heavenly Father, and cause us to go