24, and our text will be found
in verse 44. Matthew 24 and verse 44, Jesus
says, Therefore, be ye also ready. For in such an hour as you think
not, the Son of Man cometh. The title of my message this
night is, Are You Ready? Jesus said, therefore, be you
also ready. Ready for what? Ready for the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I should be ready. Are we ready for his coming?
Now this, as by way of introduction, after Jesus had departed from
the temple in Matthew 23, He said to them, Behold, your house
is less desolate unto you. Jesus pronounced that the house,
that the temple would become desolate even because He was
departing from it. For centuries the Lord had been
present at that temple. For centuries the gospel had
been preached there. The Word of God declared there.
And now, at this time, the Lord Jesus Christ is leaving. He is
departing the temple and His glory is going with Him. He leaves,
and He said, that house is desolate. And His disciples, when they
come up in verse 3 of chapter 24, they come to the top of the
Mount of Olives. And they're sitting there privately.
They came to Him secretly, saying, Tell us, when shall these things
be? And what shall be the sign of
Thy coming and the end of the world? Three things here that
these disciples were asking the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you
were to, we're not going to be able to take the time, but if
you were to, from verse 4 all the way over to the end of chapter
25 in verse 46, He is answering these three questions. These
three questions. They ask, when shall these things
be? What shall be the sign of thy
coming? And when is the end of the world? That's what they were asking.
They said, look, you're going to leave this temple desolate.
When is that going to happen? Oh, and by the way, when is the
judgment coming? Is that when the judgment's coming?
Think about that. They had thought that when that
temple was destroyed, that that was it. There was no more. They
said, surely, then judgment must be coming. And surely, you must
be ready to set up your kingdom. Now isn't that what they thought
when the Lord appeared to them, even after He rose from the dead?
They said, when are you going to establish Israel? When are
you going to set up your kingdom? See, they still didn't have full
understanding of this. And so He's answering these three
questions. When is the destruction of Jerusalem?
When is the coming of the judgment of men? And when is the end of
the world? It is truly foolish for men to
waste their time on trying to predict future events. By taking the Scripture and looking
at the Scripture and trying to predict what is going to happen
in this world, we've seen multiple examples of this foolishness.
Matter of fact, there was, I believe in the 1800s in this country,
there was a group of people who had believed that the Lord Jesus
was coming. At a certain time, they gave
up all their property. They gave up all their possessions.
And you know, when he didn't come, they all apostated, most
of them. Most of them just apostated.
It's a foolish waste of time to try to predict these things. Now, I'll tell you this, we should
study future prophecy. The scriptures are full of it.
But you know when you're going to know when a prophecy is fulfilled? Only after it happens. You're
not going to be able to predict when it's going to happen and
what is happening even when it's happening. Even when it's going
on, you're not going to predict it. You're not going to see it
until after it happens. Consider that's why that the
gospel writers were written after the Holy Spirit had come. Many years after, some years
after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended. And what did they say? They said,
oh yes, this happened that it might be fulfilled, which was
spoken of the prophet. That's what, all through the
scriptures, you see that they understand only after it happened. Scott and I were talking about
a passage in Luke, the Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm going, he said
this plainly, he said, I'm going to Jerusalem. They're going to
spit on me, they're going to crucify me, I'm going to die
and be raised again. And the scripture said they understood
not what he said. Now how much plainer can you
get? I'll tell you this, we cannot understand any scripture except
the Holy Spirit reveal it to you. You can't. Our towering
intellects mean nothing. without the Holy Spirit to show
us the revelation of Scripture. Now, so it's good to study these
future things. The Lord is telling us these
things for our benefit. Now, show us why in just a minute.
What benefit we can see from these things. But you're not
going to understand it until after it happens, until the Holy
Spirit reveals it. Now, as we read in through these
two chapters, I want you to also understand that the Lord Jesus
is weaving in all three answers into these two chapters. He's
weaving in the destruction of the temple, the coming of judgment,
and the end of the world. He's weaving all of these in.
He's answering these three questions throughout these two chapters. And as He does so, He gives us
many warnings. Warnings. Gives His disciples
many warnings. He warns us of false Christs
and false prophets. He tells us of future things
that will come. He tells us of earthquakes and
troubles and difficulties and trials that will come. But in
the end of it all, in our text, Jesus said this, therefore, in
conclusion, look at this, this is what you should be concerned
about. Are you ready? Be you also ready, because you
don't know when he's coming. He said, you don't know when
I'm coming. The only thing I tell you is
to be ready when I do come. Ready when I do come. So I'm
asking you tonight. I want each of you to ask yourself
this. Are you ready? Are you ready for his coming?
I'm speaking to a man and he was concerned. He was concerned
about his desire to depart this world. He was concerned whether
he wanted to leave this world because of the consequences of
his sin or because he loved Christ. A lot of people want to leave
this world because of the consequences of their circumstances. They're in bad, bad trouble.
They don't realize that if they're not ready, they're going to be
in worse trouble. So are you ready? Are you ready
to embrace Him? Are you ready to hold Him? Are you ready for Him to come
and to receive you unto Himself? Are you ready? Now then, in Christ revealing
all of these catastrophes and things that are going to happen,
the point of this is to tell us that He's coming. That He's
coming again. Now the first time the Lord Jesus
Christ came, how did He come? He came in humility. God said
in the prophet Isaiah, He said, Behold My servant. My servant. Jesus Christ first
came as a servant. He came meek and lowly in heart. He came healing the sick. He
came giving sight to the blind. He came to free the captives
from their sins. He came as a representative man
for all the elect of God. That's how He came the first
time. The first time. He came to provide
righteousness and to make an atonement for our sins. And look,
He came willing to do this. He was humbled. He humbled Himself
and became a man So that He should fulfill the law of God as a man
for us. So that as a man, He was able
to die. So that as a man, He could have
the sins of His people imputed to Him. So that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. What greater love is this? What
greater display of the love of God? I don't know how many times
a day I ask, Lord, do You love me? Lord, do You love me? Did you not see my Son hanging
on the tree? And you ask a question, do I
love you? Did He not willingly sacrifice
Himself for our sins? He did. And I tell you this,
that He was successful. The Savior came as a servant
of God and was a successful servant. A faithful servant. An honorable
servant. Nothing like us. When Jesus Christ warns His disciples,
He said, many will come saying, I'm the Christ, and many false
prophets will come and say, hey, here's Christ, and here's Christ,
and here's Christ. Listen, I don't care who says,
here's Christ. If their Christ is not successful,
He's not Christ. Does that make a lot of theology
very simple for everyone to understand? This is the basis of all theology. Christ is successful. He's triumphant. And any Christ
that is not triumphant is not Christ. Just as plain as we can make
it. And I think this is how you should declare the gospel to
your friends and to your family. Any Christ that's not a successful
Christ is not Christ. Jesus, the scripture says, He
shall save His people from their sins. He shall not fail nor be
discouraged. That's Christ. And so if you
tell me Christ is over here, well, tell me about Him. Well,
He made salvation possible. Nope, not Christ. Not Christ. I don't want to hear it. And
so we are warned of these false prophets to come because our
Savior is successful. And as He came the first time
in humility, died for our sins, what happened after His death?
He rose again from the dead. He is alive now and sits on the
throne of God. That's where He is. Our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is seated on the throne of God. The Apostle in Hebrews 1 in verse
3 says, "...who being the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His
power." Listen, "...when He had by Himself purged our sins."
Does that sound iffy to you? Does
that sound like a maybe to you? That sounds definite to me. when
He had purged our sins. Isn't that something? Even before
I ever committed a sin, they were purged. By Himself, He purged our sins. And then what? Sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. Where is Jesus now? He is ruling over all things. He is seated on the right hand
of God. He has taken the book from the
hand of God. He is loosening the seals thereof. I'm telling you, He is reigning
right now. How many people are preaching
a Christ that's waiting to reign? Oh, Jesus is waiting. Everything's
bad. Everything's in chaos now. But
when He comes again, then He'll reign over all things. No. No,
He's reigning right now. He's ruling right now. He's not
waiting to be given all power. Look over a couple of pages in
Matthew 28. Listen what He told them. I tell you, a lot of errors
can be done away with just by simply reading the Scriptures.
Listen. All power is given unto Me in
heaven and earth. Does that sound like someone
who's waiting to reign? No, that sounds like someone
who is reigning right now. Jesus is not waiting to reign,
He is ruling, and He has all power over all flesh. And what is Jesus doing right
now? What is He doing now? He is doing whatsoever He pleases.
That's what He's doing. I do not have the authority nor
do I have the desire to explain why he's doing what he's doing
specifically to you or to me. The only thing I have the authority
to tell you is that he's doing it. He's doing it. Whatever it is, he's doing it. Nothing escapes His power. Nothing happens by chance or
luck. Everything is by divine decree. Now behold and notice what Jesus
says about these future events. He says this. Look at verse 4. He said, "...take heed that no
man deceive you, for many there shall come in My name, many shall
come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and shall deceive
many." And you shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. See
that you be not troubled. For all these things must come
to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines, and
pestilence, and earthquakes in diverse places." And listen,
all of these are the beginning of sorrows. Does this sound like
somebody who's guessing at what's going to happen? No, Jesus is telling you what's
going to happen. He's telling us what's going
to happen. Jesus warns us of false Christs
and false prophets. He warns us that wars are coming,
that disease is coming, that false prophets are coming. He warns us of this. Why? That
you be not troubled when they do. He tells us of the destruction
of Jerusalem. He told those disciples, He said,
this temple is going to be torn down. Why did He tell them the
future event of that temple? So that when it came to pass,
they would not be discouraged. So that they would not be troubled
in their breasts. I was reading of some Christians
during the time of Pompeii, that island that Mount Suvius erupted
and killed all those people on that island, that small island
of Pompeii. When believers saw that, they
said, He's coming! He's coming! And they all began
to prepare to be ready themselves. You know, He didn't come, did
He? He already told us that these things would happen. He told
us these things would come. so that we wouldn't be troubled,
but that we would know He rules over all things. That's why He's
telling you these things. Are you sick? Are you in trouble? Are there diseases? Are there
wars? Are there famines? Are there nations rising and
nations falling? Don't be troubled. That's what
He was telling us. I need that because I'm easily
troubled. We need to hear this over and
over again because we're easily startled when things happen.
We start looking around and say, oh, man, it seems like it's really
close now. Seems like he's really going
to come now. It's worse now than it was before. Don't be troubled
by those things. Don't be troubled. Christ is
ruling over all things. And He will rule over all things,
even as He decrees them. The Scripture tells us that He
is by Himself declaring the end from the beginning. And He is
doing all His pleasure. When the unbeliever asks you,
Christian, where is your God? You tell them He's where He's
always been. Our God sitteth in the heavens,
and doeth whatsoever He hath pleased. That's what He's doing. And what is it that He pleases?
Now that Jesus is ruling and reigning over all things, what
is His pleasure? What is He doing? Why are there
wars and rumors of war? Why is there pestilence and trouble
and difficulty? Here it is. Go over to John chapter
17. John chapter 17. He said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. As
thou has given him power over all flesh. Isn't that what we've
been talking about? That He's sovereign, He rules
over all things. What is He doing? That He should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. What is He doing? He's saving
His people from their sins. Why do kingdoms rise and kingdoms
fall? Because Christ will save His
people from their sins. That's what He's doing. That's
what He's doing. Therefore, listen to me. Today... Today, then, is the day of salvation. All things have happened in time
and eternity to bring about this one point in time. To declare
the gospel of Jesus Christ and that His people should believe
on Him. That's what it is. Today is the
day of salvation. In Hebrews 3, the apostle says,
While it is said today, if you will hear His voice, harden not
your heart as in the provocation." Remember those people in Israel,
when they heard the Word of God, they heard the preaching by the
types and pictures of the Lamb slain, the Passover Lamb. They
were delivered out of Egypt. They were passed through the
Red Sea, saw many wonderful signs, heard the voice of God. And yet,
what was their testimony? They did not believe. They did not believe. They died
in the wilderness. Why? Because of unbelief. Even so it is now the gospel
is preached. But I'll tell you, if it's not
mixed with faith, listen to me, you are not ready to meet Christ. You must believe on the Son of
God. If there is no faith in Christ,
then there is no promise of rest in Christ at the end. I hear the fools of this world
say when a lost man dies, they say, oh, he's in a better place. If he didn't believe in Christ,
he's not. If he didn't have faith in Christ,
he's not. But unto us who do believe, we
shall have this promise. We shall enter into his rest
when he comes. How do I know I'll enter into
His rest? The Apostle said, because the works were finished before
the foundation of the world. Because God purposed it. Because
God planned it. Because God chose us. Because
Christ redeemed us. Because the Holy Spirit calls
us. And because the Holy Spirit keeps us. Do you not see that
I'm going to rest in glory and eternity in Christ? Because He's
finished the work. I believe on Him who finished
the work. And therefore, we who believe
are ready. Already. Because the work's finished.
The Apostle tells us in the next chapter of Hebrews 4, he reminds
us that there still remaineth some who must enter into His
rest. You've entered into His rest?
Great! But listen, The reason why He
hasn't come yet is because not all have entered into His rest.
There are yet some more that must enter into His rest. This is what the Sovereign Lord
is doing. He's saving His people who must come to Him. Go ask the world why Go ask the
lost men of this world why the world spins, why the sun sets
and the sun rises, why the earth maintains its orbit. Ask these
men why some men prosper and others suffer. Ask them why the
wicked are rewarded and the righteous suffer. Why do kingdoms rise
and fall? Why are there earthquakes, famine,
disease, pestilence, famines, earthquakes? Why are there troubles? And lost men, because they're
without understanding and ignorant, they'll begin to mock you when
you say that Christ is saving His people, when Christ is ruling. They say, well, if Christ is
ruling and He's so loving, then why are all these evil things
happening? If He's on the throne and has
all power, why doesn't He just make earth like heaven? But we know why. We know why. Because he's decreed to do so. Who art thou, O man, to reply
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay? Can he not do with his own as
he pleases? You bet he is. Whether men like
it or not. And what is he doing? He's going
to save his people. This is what he's going to do.
Consider, Ruth, consider this example. The famine in the land
of the judges at that time. There was a famine in Bethlehem,
Judah. And there was a man named Elimelech. You know what his name means?
God is king. Now imagine having that said
to you every time. Every time somebody called you,
hey, God is king. Hey, God is king. Could you come
here for a minute? Every day of his life he heard that. God
is king. God is king. God is sovereign. God is king. And yet when a famine
come, what happened? He did not believe God was king.
He left the place where God manifested his presence and his gospel was
preached. He left Bethlehem, Judah. You
know what that means? House of bread and praise. He left the house of bread and
praise for Moab. You know what Moab is? God's
washpot. He did not believe God was sovereign. And so he left for fear of his
life, for fear of his family, for fear of his inheritance. And you know what he lost? Everything. Everything he tried to keep by
going away from God's Word, he lost. Now, is that not a lesson
for us? Is that not a wonderful lesson
for us to learn? And because of his disobedience,
his sons and he died. He lost everything. Because of
the hardness of his heart, he left God, and the result was
his death. But listen, what was God's purpose
in this? We know what Elimelech's purpose
in this was. What was God's purpose? God's
purpose was to save Ruth. He took that man's sin and he
turned it for the good of Ruth. Do you not see how sovereign
that is? Elimelech is responsible for
his sin. Yet God is sovereign in using
all of this to bring Ruth to Himself. This is what God's doing now.
Right now. In all your trouble. You and I need only to hear the
words of Christ. Don't leave His Word. Trust that He is King. And that God is saving His people
from their sin. God purposed it for the salvation
of that one woman, Ruth. Now is Elimelech to be praised
for his sin? No. No. Just as Judas is not
to be praised for his sin in betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says, shall we
sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. But I know this, truly God does
work all things together for the good of His people. He does. Jesus says of his sheep, those
that he died for, he said, I have sheep which are not of this fold,
them I also, what? Must bring. Do you realize he was talking
about you? He was talking about you. You know, I must bring Cheryl. I
must bring her. And you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna work all things to do that. Isn't that something? Isn't that something to marvel
at? To be amazed at? Now then, when the last one of God's elect
is brought in, When the last one is brought
into the fold, then you can mark this down, then Jesus Christ
will come again. Somebody said this, I was reading
it earlier, that God's determination of Christ coming again is not
on a slide rule. It's fixed. You get that? His first advent was fixed. So is his second. There is a
last person. There is a last one that's going
to be brought in. And that's fixed. And when that's
done, He'll wrap all this thing up. He'll burn it all and create
a new heavens and a new earth. That's when He'll come. And He
won't come, listen to me, He won't come like He did the first
time. The first time He came in obscurity, only a few knew
about His birth. When John the Baptist preached,
only those at Jordan, on the banks of Jordan, heard of Jesus
Christ being the Lamb of God. Only a few in that region saw
Him walking and preaching. They saw Him heal the sick, raise
the dead, as He obeyed God. He did not lift up His voice
or cause His voice to be heard in the street. Jesus did not
promote Himself, but rather God promoted Him,
and so did His witnesses. They heard His words, they saw
His miracles, and they preached His gospel, and even so has this
continued on since He left. Isn't that right? Ever since
He's left, departed to be in glory, seated on the throne,
He has sent men to preach His gospel, to perpetuate His gospel,
to call His people to faith. And even because now the Holy
Spirit is sent by Jesus Christ, He is calling His people by the
preaching of our gospel, saying, Whosoever will, come! Come! Drink of the water of life freely!
And whosoever does come to God by faith in Jesus Christ, it
is because God has purposed it. Therefore, we who believe, do
we not give praise to God? We give praise to God for His
salvation. And we who come to Christ, we
still come to Christ, not by works, not by merit, but by faith,
with love for Him and hope of eternal life. Therefore, we who
walk by faith, Jesus told us to be ready for His coming. To
be ready for His coming. In other words, make your calling
an election, sure. Is there anything more important
than your soul? Jesus said, what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul? Consider, believer, the warnings
of Jesus Christ. They are not to be taken lightly.
Beware of false prophets, false Christs, such as freewill works
religion in our day. The Scriptures, Jesus tells us
that these men have worked wonderful miracles even. And if it were
possible, they would deceive the very elect. That shows how
great their miracles and their works are. Can you not I testify
to this, that the false church, man, they work, don't they? They labor. And I'll tell you,
they do many wonderful things. They feed the hungry, they build
houses, and they do all sorts of good things. Why is it that
we don't follow them? Because they don't believe on
Christ. They're false prophets. Believer
in Christ, don't be discouraged or cast down because false religion
flourishes, because iniquity abounds and the truth is hated,
but rather let us be ready by having our hearts not wax cold. He said, because of iniquity,
the hearts of many are wax cold. Let us preach the gospel of the
kingdom while we are here. Let us proclaim it boldly that
salvation is of the Lord. Boldly call sinners to repentance
and faith in Jesus Christ. To believe on his perfect righteousness
and perfect atonement. To believe that he is king and
ruling over all things for the salvation of his people. And
when the last message is preached and the last sinner is saved,
verse 14, he said, then cometh the end. Then cometh the end. Then shall the end come. Believer,
let us look for his coming. Let us endure by faith even to
the end. Isn't that a sign of true faith?
Isn't that what real faith does? Real faith endures to the end. Jesus tells him, he says, he,
but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Sinner Christ is coming. He who is God of very God will
come, and when he does come, he will not come as he did before. He will come in holy vengeance
and judgment. You see all of these meek and
these effeminate pictures of Jesus descending down from heaven. He came passive the first time. My friends, He will not be passive
the second. He will not be humble the second
time. He will gather His people from
the four winds of the earth, four corners of the earth, and
He will gather all of the lost, and they will all be set before
Him and His judgment seat. You realize how many people are
going to be there? Every one of them. Not one of us will escape this
judgment. When He comes again, He will
come in majesty. He will come in authority. When
He comes again, will you be ready? Well, how do you know when He's
coming? You won't. You won't. There will be no signs, no warning. He'll come without warning. You remember, he says it, matter
of fact, go to your text, look at this real fast. He says this
in verse 38. He says, for in the days before
the flood, I'm sorry, verse 37. But as in the days of Noah, so
shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For in the days that
were before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying
and giving in marriage. What does that tell me? What
does that tell you? They had future plans. They had
things they wanted to do. They had things that they were
going to do tomorrow. "...until the day that Noah entered
into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them
all away. So also shall the coming of the Son of Man be." When Jesus
Christ comes, He'll come quickly. You won't have to ask When He comes, you'll know it. Are you ready? Are you ready? Well, believers, seeing that
Christ rules over all things and seeing that the end is near,
either by death or by the coming of Christ, Seeing that there's
none of the earthly things or relationships that will last,
what manner of persons then ought we to be? Isn't that what Peter
asked in 2 Peter 2? He says, you know, seeing that
all these things are going to be burned up, what kind of person
should you be now? Shouldn't you be as a holy person? Shouldn't you be as one looking
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let none of God's saints look
to please men, but only to be found faithful when our Lord
comes. Faithful by looking to Him by
faith, looking for His coming when He'll reveal Himself. Remember this, believer, you
are not your own, but you are bought with a price. even the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus and seeing then he will return when you know not
what manner of man ought you to be. I'll tell you what manner
of man we should be. We should be the most faithful
and loving people on the face of God's earth. We should be gracious and forgiving.
We should always be setting our affection on things above and
not on things of the earth. Remember Mary and Martha? She
was fixing the Lord's Supper. She was fixing dinner for the
Son of God. And when she was all worried
and anxious about that dinner, she went in there and needed
Mary to get up and help her. So she went in and said, Lord,
don't you care that she's not helping me? And he said, Martha,
Martha, you are troubled about many things. Mary had chosen that good part,
and it will not be taken from her. Believer, we should not be so
anxious about these things. We should be focused on our life
to come. We should be focused on Christ
where our heart should be, with Him. Don't be anxious about these
things. Don't be troubled by the things
that'll happen. Our God sits on the throne and
is ruling over all things and He is soon coming to make all
things new. Lastly, notice this. that in that day when He comes,
there will be a great separation. If you go over to chapter 25
and look at verse 31, it says, When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all His holy angels with Him, then He shall
sit upon the throne of His glory, that great white throne, that
judgment throne. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divided his sheep from the goats. And he shall set his sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left." And you know the
difference. What's the difference between
the sheep and the goats? The sheep, he said, you come,
you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from before the foundation of the world. When I was hungry,
you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited
me. When I was sick, you visited me. When I was naked, you clothed
me. And they said, Lord, when did
we do any of this for you? When you've done it unto the
least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. But there will be some who are
not ready, who think they're ready. He'll say to them on his left
hand, depart you cursed into everlasting darkness. For when I was hungry, you didn't
feed me. When I was naked, you didn't
clothe me. When I was sick and in prison, you didn't visit me.
And they'll say, Lord, when did we not do those things for you? Notice they called him Lord. They thought they were ready.
ready by all their righteousness and works, but in the end they'll be cast
out. They'll be cast out. So I'll ask you again, are you
ready? And if you're ready, why do you
worry? If Christ has secured all things,
all our salvation, and he sits on the throne reigning over all
things, why are we so anxious when these evil things come? The only thing we need to be
concerned with is being faithful to Christ. And by this, we can have confidence
we're ready. I know this. You and I both become
anxious about this. Am I ready? Am I ready? Faith in Christ is the only assurance
we're going to have we're ready. He's my assurance. If he's done
the work, then I'm ready. If I'm having to do the work,
I'm not ready. That's why works religion is
never finished. It's always working, always doing. We're ready because
it's finished. May God give us comfort in our
troubled times, knowing he's on the throne and he is coming
again. And when he comes, he will receive
all who believe on his son. I pray that God bless this. This
stand will be dismissed in prayer.