All right, brethren, let's go
to Matthew chapter 26. I'm going to be all over the
place tonight. I couldn't land on one passage. Before I went to bed Sunday night,
early Monday morning, I just thought of this. I looked over
at my phone. And I counted 10 people, 10 brethren that I had
been texting with over the weekend, trying to find some scripture,
some words to comfort them. But it was 10 brethren that were
going through heavy, heavy burdens, through heavy trials. We have
many brethren right now. going through heavy trials in
this congregation and in other congregations. Some have a heavy
heart because their loved ones are departed, recently departed
to be with the Lord. Others have heavy hearts as they're
watching their loved ones prepare to depart to be with the Lord. I heard from a brother or one
of the brethren that got some awful news about their health. You know what that's like. And
other different kinds of trials. And I don't know what the Lord's
doing in this world today. It's a strange time we live in. But I do know the Lord's doing
it. And I do know He's bringing glory to His name in all of it.
And He's gonna do what's best for His people. He's gonna do
what's best for us. On Monday, I was out back. I
usually read a scripture and I'll walk around a little bit
and think about it. And I was out back and I was thinking about
these things, thinking about these brethren. And as I was
walking along, it was sunny that morning. and a cloud just came
over the parking lot. And I looked up, I was facing
back this way, and I looked up, and this big, giant cloud came
over the trees. And this verse came to my mind,
Matthew 26, verse 64. The Lord was answering Pilate
here, one of the mob, I can't remember. But anyway, he said
this, he said, I say unto you, hereafter shall you see the Son
of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds
of heaven. And I thought, when I saw that
cloud, I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if the Lord came
back today? Wouldn't that be wonderful? We're going to look one day and
he's going to be coming in the clouds. I don't have any idea
what that's going to look like or how that's going to be, but
that's going to happen. And we're going to see him coming
in the clouds with glory and great power. So why does God,
between now and then, why does he send these afflictions to
his people? Well, he's preparing us for either
for our departure or for his return. That's what he's preparing
us for. Whichever comes first. And he's
reminding us in these troubles that this is not our permanent
home. This right here is not our life. This is just a shadow. Our life
is in Christ at God's right hand. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
So for a little while, I want to try to turn our attention
and turn our affection from the troubles to some eternal things,
to Christ and his glory. These are eternal realities. Now, I'm not interested in end
times. I'm not interested in trying
to untangle all the debates over the order of things and different
signs and all that. I want you to focus on Christ. That's what I want you to focus
on. Only God's people will be comforted by this message. Only
God's people are looking for Christ's return. It could be
tonight. We don't know when it's going
to be. But it's coming. And it's gonna come like a thief
in the night. And those that aren't ready, ready by being
in Christ, this will be terrifying to them. I have no good news
for anybody that's not in Christ. But if you're in Christ, this
is a word of comfort for you. And I pray God would comfort
you. Let's go now to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. First, I just
want to talk about the fact. Our Savior is coming again. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. He's on His way now. Right now. At any moment, He shall appear. He's coming. Be it our departure,
He'll meet us. Or whether He returns in power
and glory, He's coming. He's coming. We have our Lord's
word on that. Our Lord's last word to John
in Revelation was, surely I come quickly. Surely I come quickly. That statement could be translated,
surely I am coming quickly, surely I am on my way. Our Redeemer's not a man that
he should lie. He's not a man, he cannot lie.
He's given us his word, he's coming again. He reminds us that
it's he himself that's coming. He himself is coming. Now, the
word I'm gonna read to you here, if you talk to a believer whose
loved one has departed, and that's how scripture describes our death
as a departure. But our body's asleep. It's in
the grave, it's asleep. So sometimes he refers to it
as sleep. But here's the word you wanna use to comfort that
dear child of God who's mourning about a loved one who has departed. Listen to this right here, verse
13. But I want you to see as we read this that we have the
Lord's word, he himself is coming. Watch this. Verse 13, I would
not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep. That's talking about folks who
have died, believers who have died, whose body is in the grave. He says, I don't want you to
be ignorant about them that you saw or not, 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. We have the Lord's word on this. That we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, we won't go before
them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. That's what he meant. We won't
prevent them, we won't go before them. The dead in Christ shall
rise first. If we're still alive when he
comes, they're gonna rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. to meet the
Lord in the air, so we shall ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. We have Christ's word. We have
his word that he himself shall descend. He's coming, and he's
gonna gather all his people to himself. He's gonna first gather
those that are in the grave, and then he's gonna gather us
that are yet alive, and we're gonna ascend with him in the
clouds. He's the God of gravity, that's
nothing. He is nothing. He's gonna do
this, he's life, and he's gonna do this. We have something else
over in John 14. In John 14, verse three, we have
our Savior's accomplished work to assure us he's coming again.
He's accomplished work, what he accomplished assures us he's
coming. Look here in John 14, three, Our Lord says this, he's
headed to the cross, and in John 14.3, he says, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there you may be also. On the cross, Christ
prepared a place for his elect. That's what he was doing on the
cross. He was preparing a permanent house for you and me who he died
for. Our Lord Jesus went there and
bore God's judgment for us. That's what the satisfaction
of justice is about. He bore our judgment, the judgment
we deserve, the judgment we would have borne. He bore that. He
died our death for us. He died that living hell for
us. He suffered hell, the justice
of hell for his people. We would never satisfy it, but
he did. In doing so, He put away all the sin of His people and
made us perfectly righteous in Him. He did this. He accomplished this. And so
His holiness demands He come again for us. The very same holiness
that demanded He lay down His life for us, Demanded he be raised
from the grave when he had satisfied justice and it also demanded
Demands he come back for all those he purchased with his blood
justice is satisfied. They're saved. He must come back
for us He's coming again Hebrews 9 26 is now once in the
end of the world if he appeared to put away sin By the sacrifice
of himself, that's what he did never to be brought up again.
He put away sin. And as it's appointed unto men
once to die, and after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many. We're gonna die and then face
the judgment. He faced the judgment. And then
he died. And it was satisfied. And unto
them that look for him, Do them that are looking for His coming,
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. See, He's not coming back the
way He came the first time. The first time He came and bore
the sin of all His people, but He put that away. The second
time He's coming back, He's not going to be bearing sin. The
first time He redeemed us from the curse of the law by being
made a curse for us. The second time, He's going to
redeem us from this earth, from this sinful, wretched, cursed
place into His eternal glory. And He's going to do it for those
He purchased with His blood, those He's already bought. You're
His purchased possession, believer. He's coming to redeem you out
of this world into His glory. There's a redemption yet to come,
the redemption of our bodies. He's bringing us to glory. The
first time, He wore a crown of thorns. Second time, he's going
to be wearing a crown of royal universal dominion when he comes. First time, he came in humility
on a lowly ass's coat. Second time, he's coming riding
on a white horse, conquering and to conquer as the lord of
lords and king of kings. First time, his heel was bruised
by the serpent. Second time, he's coming to destroy
the serpent's head for good and dash all his enemies in pieces
like a potter's vessel. First time, he was despised and
rejected of men. Second time, he's coming to be
glorified and admired in all them that believe on him. First time, men spit in his face.
Second time, men are going to bow their knee and confess he's
lord of lords and king of kings to the praise of God's glory.
He's not coming back like He came the first time. Behold,
He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him. Not everybody
saw Him in person when He came the first time, but they're all
gonna see Him when He comes the second time. Behold, He cometh
with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which
pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because
of Him. Even so, amen. I'm the Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. He's coming. So brethren, when you suffer
and you're suffering in these things, remember this. Christ
is entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. And he says unto them that look
for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. Do you remember when after he
had appeared to his apostles, after he had accomplished his
work, he appeared to his apostles, and he went out and he ascended. And the scripture says, a cloud
received him out of their sight. And they just stood there gazing.
We're going to stand there gazing when he comes back. They stood
there gazing as he went up. And two men appeared in white
apparel and they said, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so
come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. He's
coming back in the clouds just like he left in the clouds. Is
that too much? Is that just too, is that unbelievable? Not for you that have faith.
I believe him. I believe he came and did all
he said and ascended and is interceding for us and he shall come again. I believe it. I believe he will.
I hope that comforts you in the midst of trouble. This is not
it. This is not all there is. I know
it's hard and it's troublesome and we get turned from everything
that we should be looking to to everything we shouldn't be.
And that's what the devil wants to do. The devil wants you to
turn from Christ. He wants you to turn from him
and to one another and to the troubles and to the waves and
bite and devour and just throw your hands up, say, I go fishing.
But remember, Christ is coming. This is not all there is. He's
coming. So then, why does God send these troubles? Why is He
sending us these troubles? Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. He sends them to work for us.
He sends these heavy burdens and these troubles to work for
us. To prepare us for glory. to keep us watching and waiting
and longing for Christ. Look here in verse 17. For our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us,
is preparing us for a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. God gives burdens to make us
behold something far, far weightier. We have burdens and they're not
light to us. They're heavy to us and they're
hard to bear. But brethren, God's doing it
to show you a far more exceeding and eternal weight. It's a weight
of glory. He's doing it to make us see
His glory. He reminds us in our affliction. He makes our affliction
to be light in comparison to the heavy, heavy, heavy load
Christ bore on our behalf. That's one thing He'll remind
you of when you're bearing a heavy burden. This is nothing compared
to what Christ bore on our behalf. He was bearing the sin of His
people, yours and mine, and while He was under the fierce justice
of God, while He was bearing the temptations of Satan and
the lashings of wicked men, The scripture says, his visage was
so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of
men. I take that literally. I take
that literally. More than the sons of men, he
was marred and his visage was marred. He cried out, he's being
forsaken of God. You ever feel forsaken of God
in these burdens? You ever feel like God is just
not ever gonna come and take you out of it? He's just gonna
be, I'm telling you something. I've talked to some people this
week whose hearts had that hollow, aching, hurting feeling, and
there's nothing you can do about that. You just gotta bear that. But remember this, when our Lord
was redeeming us from all iniquity, when He was forsaken of God,
our Lord cried out and He said, behold and see. He said, look
and see. Look and remember this. If there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. You know, it's not always the
Lord's anger toward us. It's not anger, it's love. But it's not even always because
of sin. It's not even Job apparently
did nothing, God said. But our Lord Jesus, who's innocent,
bore our sins so that God poured out His fierce anger on Him. And when you're suffering, Scripture
says, consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against Himself, lest you become weary and faint in your minds. We've not endured unto blood,
striving against sin. Our Redeemer in the Garden of
Gethsemane, I just believe if God would let us see what was
going on there, we'd be like that boy that looked up and saw
all those good angels around him and all the heavenly hosts
protecting him. If we could see what was around
our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was hell. It was wickedness. Trying to get him to deny God. Trying to get Him not to go to
the cross. And He strove so hard against
that. He strove so hard against all
of that. He sweat great drops of blood. We haven't strove against sin
like that. But by His affliction, He worked
for us a far more exceeding weight. Is my weight heavy? Is my burden
heavy? He worked a far heavier weight. My burdens, he says, is just
for a moment. But this is an eternal, enduring
riches of glory that he wrought for us. Righteousness that'll
never end. Holiness that'll never end. Perfection
that'll never end. That's what he wrought for us.
These are unsearchable riches of Christ. more valuable than anything in
this world. I'm opening to you the treasure
chest of God and giving you the most valuable thing you could
ever hear in this life. The glory of God, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. That's what we're talking about.
He bought that for us by His blood, by suffering, suffering,
suffering, suffering in a far exceeding eternal weight of glory. And so J.C. Philpott said he
means to conform you to the image of his son in glory by now conforming
you to the image of his son in suffering. The servant's not above his Lord.
We're not suffering what he suffered. We're not suffering like he suffered.
But we will suffer. We have to suffer through this
life. But all our suffering is to make us see a far greater
eternal weight of glory in what He's done and accomplished and
what awaits us. By these afflictions, He turns
us from this flesh. He turns us from our troubles,
from our cares, from our concerns to Christ at God's right hand,
to Him who is Himself our far more exceeding and eternal riches
of glory. It turns you to Him. He makes
us behold Christ our life. When this life is so hard and
so sorrowful that you despair even of life, He reminds you,
Christ is your life. Whatever this is that you're
so tore up over, that you're so torn about, Christ is your
life. Not that. Can you say that? I don't care
what it is or who it is. Christ is our life. He's our sovereign King. He's
ruling everything. He's got this world in the palm
of His hand. He makes you know that through
suffering. He's our acceptance with God. We don't need any other. We have acceptance with God.
He's our acceptance with God. It'll never change. We have right now eternal life
in Christ and we have an eternal inheritance awaiting us. He graciously reminds us that
our purpose in this life is Christ and His kingdom. It's Christ
and His people. It's Christ and His church. It's
not us. It puts our present afflictions
and our present life and everything that we've been doing in perspective,
in proper perspective. And it makes them light and momentary. All your suffering become light
and just momentary in comparison to that exceeding weight of eternal
glory with Christ. He uses these things to turn
us from the temporal to the eternal, from the seen to the unseen.
Look at verse 18. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. We're such creatures of dust.
You know what I thought when I saw that cloud and I thought
that thought, oh, wouldn't it be good if the Lord came today?
Just about that quick, I thought, here's some reasons I don't want
him to come today. I got some lost loved ones. I have some responsibilities. There's some exciting, joyful
things that are about to happen I want to see. And I'm not condemning
anybody for that. Paul was that way. Paul said,
I'm in a straight between two. I want to go and be with Christ,
which is far better, but then I want to be with you because
you need my help, he said. But doesn't that show us something
of how attached we are to this fading dust? We're talking about
Christ coming. We're talking about Christ returning.
And a thought crossed my mind, well, maybe not right now. I tell you this, when He does
come back, Revelation 21 says He's gonna make all things new.
We're not gonna have any regrets. When He comes, you're not gonna
be worried about lost loved ones, because you're gonna know He
didn't leave one behind. He called them all. If He's coming,
He called them all, and you'll be happy. He'll give you perfect
contentment in Him, perfect rejoicing in Him, no sin in Him, no sorrow
in Him, no death in Him, so that there'll be no regrets when He
comes. You'll say, come quickly, Lord. But I'm just saying, don't that
show us how attached we are to dust? We look far too much at things
that are seen rather than things that are unseen. We are dust
and we shall soon return to dust. We're dying dust living in the
midst of dying dust. That's what we are. Think about
this, everything in this world is made out of dust, it's made
out of the earth. You are, your body is, the house
you live in is, the car you drive is, the clothes you wear are,
everything's made out of dust. You set a car out in the field
and before long it's gonna look more like dust than garb, if
you leave it there long enough. And everything's going back to
the dust. We are dying dust living in the
midst of dying dust. It's just what we are. But brethren,
Christ makes us know that the eternal is what's real. It is,
the eternal is what's real. It was here before any of this
time capsule was here. Eternity was here and God was
there and it's never changed. And when all this little bubble
is busted and it disappears, he's gonna remain. Look at here,
verse 18, the things which are not seen are eternal. For we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. He reminds us our house, our
body is just a house. It means a tent. Just a tent. You know, if you had a tent set
up in a yard and a tree fell on it and busted that tent, you
wouldn't be all that worried about it, because you got your
house. Well, we're living in the tent. This is the tent. It's going to disarm. You know,
men will say, well, man, I know man has a living soul. No, no,
that's wrong. Man does not have a living soul.
Man is a living soul. The body is just a tent. When
you lay this tent down, you're going to live before God, a living
soul, and you're going to either live an eternity of bliss with
God in glory or in condemnation in hell. But you're alive. You're alive. We put far too
much emphasis on these bodies because we see these bodies.
The soul is the man. Our soul is us. But Christ reminds His child
that He's prepared a permanent, eternal house for His people.
A permanent, eternal house, not of the earth, not of the dust,
not of the works of our hands. It's created by our eternal Redeemer
in everlasting righteousness, in perfect holiness, and so it'll
never, ever be dissolved. It's a permanent house, a permanent
dwelling. Notice there, he says, we have
it. We have it. He's giving you the
earnest of the spirit, a foretaste, a pledge to let you know you
have it. You have it. When Christ shall appear, we
shall see Him as He is and be like Him. And you know what these trials
do? You know, when He makes you see how fleshy and dusty and
sinful and dying you really are. You know what He does by that?
He makes you long for Him. Look here, verse 2. 2 Corinthians
5.1, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with
hands eternal in the heavens. For in this, in this tent, we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house,
which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, he that hath wrought us
for, it means he that has prepared us for this selfsame thing is
God, who also has given us the earnest of the spirit, the pledge,
to let you know you have it. Therefore, we're always confident
This may wane, this may be strong, it may be weaker, but God's child
is always confident of this, right here. Knowing that while
we're home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. It's the
Lord we're groaning for. It's not merely to be free from
the burden and free from the trial and free from the sin. God will give you contentment
while you're in the midst of that. We burden and long to be
with Christ Himself. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. You could look at some people
sometimes, and just what you see with your sight, judging
after the flesh, you'd look at them and say, they can't ever
be happy. They're not going to be happy. But if they're a child of God,
they will be. Don't look at what's seen. Look at what's unseen by
faith. We're confident, I say, willing,
and willing rather to be absent from the body than to be present
with the Lord. When He gives you these trials
and He brings you down to nothing and makes you look to Christ
and you see the eternal, you see that which is real, He reminds
you that you're a stranger in these bodies and a stranger in
this world. This is not it, brethren. This
is not it. Paul said, our conversation,
our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you look for him? Do you spend
your day, you get up in the morning and think, this might be the
morning Christ come. You lay down at night and think,
Lord, come tonight. When looking for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like to his glorious body, according to the
working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. We're confident and willing.
Are you confident and willing? We're not in ourselves, but in
Christ. The very purpose for which he
works this is to make us to have no confidence in us. I'm not
confident in my flesh in anything I do or say or have ever done
or said or will ever do or say. Where's my confidence? We are
the circumcision which worship God in spirit rejoicing in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. It's not in the
flesh. But in Christ, having Christ's
righteousness alone, we're confident and we're willing to be absent
from the body and to be present with the Lord. I know we got
our unbelief. I know that we have our things
that, for reasons, you know, nobody wants to hear you're sick
and gonna die. Nobody wants to hear that. The
Lord, I'm talking about what the Lord makes you do inwardly.
When he renews you inwardly and he makes you behold what's real
and what's important, he makes you confident and willing to
behold Christ's face, to know him as he is, think about that,
to be perfectly conformed to his image, to be perfectly righteous,
to have perfect worship and perfect praise and to never have any
more division and never any more sin and sorrow and never any
more getting stiff-necked and lifting up in pride and wanting
to have our way. Just always loving perfectly
and wanting to do what is honoring to Christ and loving to our brethren
perfectly. Imagine that, brethren. to have Christ present us as
his glorious church without spot or wrinkle. God, if he's ever worked this
in you, if he's ever made you burdened by your sin and by your
self-righteousness and made you see that you're a worthless worm,
and at the same time made you behold Christ in his glory, and
made you grown and made you long for Him to be honored and glorified
and want to be with Him. If He's ever done that, then
you'll know this last thing. He revives you. He renews you. He refocuses us to live less
for self and more for Christ. Paul says, wherefore, verse 9,
wherefore we labor, that where the present are absent, we may
be accepted of Him. What's this labor? We work? We
labor? He's using that what he used
over in Hebrew. We're laboring to make sure we're resting in
Christ. Because our acceptance is nowhere but in the Beloved.
I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which
is of the law, but that which is by the faithfulness of Christ
given to me through God-given faith. That's where I'm accepted.
Not in anything I do. He goes on to say there, we don't
know any man after flesh. We know each other by spirit.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are
passed away. All things have become new. We
got a new master. We got new motives. We got a
new way of doing things. We got a new way of the way we
interact in everything we do. It's new. And the world don't
know a thing about it. But when you see your sin and
you know your own acceptance is in Christ, that's when He
makes you set your affection on things above. In other words,
when you go through a trial and you come out, start coming out,
and He's done this work, He will grow you in faith. That's what
I'm saying. You want to make certain you're
in Christ and Him alone. You'll see He's all and in all. He's your only hope, your only
acceptance with God. You want to be in Him. And I'll
tell you something else He increases when you come out of a trial. He increases you with love for
your brethren. He does. He gives you the fruit
of the Spirit. He gives you that charity that
suffers long. You want to suffer long with
your brethren. You want to be kind. Envy not. Vault not yourself, don't be
puffed up. That charity that doesn't behave
itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not out for personal
whatever, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoices not
in iniquity, doesn't rejoice to commit iniquity, and doesn't
rejoice when others are caught in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. bearing all things, believing
all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. Y'all have
heard me talk about that trial in 2003. When we came out of
that trial, it just made me, I remember a brother, as soon
as I come out of that trial, I can remember a brother that
was overtaken in a sin and I just wanted to have mercy on him. I just wanted to be long-suffering
with him because I hadn't been that way. And I hadn't been given
that. And now I wanted to give it.
Now you want to love. Now you want to bear all things. It's just what He does when He's
broken you. And He makes this. He makes the
preaching of the gospel of Christ and His glory to be the preeminent
thing. the preeminent thing. Because
one, if he does this for you during the trial, he's going
to do it through the preaching of the gospel. You're going to hear it in your
heart through this word. And it just makes the gospel
that much more preeminent to you. And you know what your test,
this is always the believer's test for everything we do or
say, but it becomes more and more your test. Is this going to help my brethren
hear the gospel? Is this going to help my brethren
be focused on Christ and him only when the gospel is preached?
That's the acid test. I may know, I know, I mean, how
many times have you come to me, many of you have done this, you
come to me and you start to tell me something that you're going
through and you're having trouble with and I would say stop. If
you tell me that and I preach, You're going to think I'm preaching
at you. Wait. Don't tell me. And just wait
for three or four more messages and see if the Lord answers it
for you. And I've had people come to me after that and say,
I'm so glad I didn't tell you because the Lord answered it.
The Lord did it. This is how he's going to do it. We have
to wait on Him. And that's what He tells you.
That's something else He grows you in. Making you patiently waiting.
He calls you in the first hour, the patient waiting for Christ.
And we're waiting on Him all the time. We're waiting on Him
to come this hour. We're waiting on Him to come that first hour
we believe. We're waiting on Him to come
in the trial. We're waiting on Him to come from glory now. We're
gonna wait on Him to come and raise the bodies, our body. We're waiting on Him. Patiently
waiting on Him. looking for the blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. We're
not just waiting and looking for that in the end, though we
are. I'm looking for Him to appear right now. I'd like for Him to
appear in some lost sinner's heart right now and make him
just fall down and say, Lord, I believe. I see this eternal
way to glory. Make him say, whom out have I
in heaven but thee, and there's none upon earth that I desire
but thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God's the strength of my heart, and he's my portion forever.
Isn't that what Paul just said? He said our old man dies day
by day, but our new man's renewed day by day. And you know what's
gonna be left when it's all done? That flesh that I see in you. That old Paul said, it's no longer
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, that man's gonna be gone.
But if I know you after the Spirit, I know that's not the real you,
but you know who's gonna be left when it's done? Just the real
you, because that's the real you. We don't look at things
that are not seen, we look at things that are seen, we look
at things that are not seen by faith. And so, our Lord said
in Revelation 22, he which testifieth these things saith, surely I
come quickly. And you know what the bride echoed
back to him? This is what we echo back. Even so, come Lord
Jesus, come. I pray you do that for our suffering
brethren, amen. Father, we thank you for this
word. We pray now that you would bless it and that you would come
quickly. Come now through the preaching
of this word and bless the hearts of your people. Make us see this
thing is so much more about you and your glory in me, mine, mine. Make us selfless. Make us really
lay down our lives, Lord. Lord, comfort those that are
hurting. We ask you, Father, if it's your
will, comfort them. Lord, make us wait for your return
in power and glory. Make us look, make us wake up
every morning looking, expecting, hoping. Lord, save our lost children. We ask you to call them out.
Lord, we know you didn't shut Noah up in the ark until you
called the last one. You didn't rain a drop until
you called Lot out. And we ask you, Lord, call each
of your elect, your redeemed, and then come quickly. Forgive
us, Lord. Forgive us. Just, Lord, forgive
us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.