I love that song. I love Kristoff's
song. All right, turn with me to Matthew
24. Matthew 24, I would like for us to look at
another subject matter here that our Lord mentioned in this chapter
in regard to His second coming. And when I read this one verse,
it really got my attention. This really got my attention.
Look at verse 14, Matthew 24, verse 14, it says, And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations. And then shall the end come. You know what that makes me think?
We need to get to preaching. We need to get to preaching.
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. We need to get to preaching. That makes me want to get to
preaching this gospel unto all the world. Why, you ask? It's because I'm
ready for Him to come back. I'm ready for Him to come back.
Now we cannot do anything to hurry that along. He is going
to do that at His appointed time. He has an appointed set time
that He will come back and that's when He's coming back. But if
He said He's not coming back until this gospel of the kingdom
is preached unto all the world, that makes me want to get to
preaching this gospel unto all the world. because I am ready, meaning excited
for him to come back. Now I want to say something for
just a minute tonight because not every person here is ready
for that. Not every person here is ready
for that and that's okay. I kind of would like to get honest
for just a minute on this subject. Not every person is ready for
that, and that's okay. God's people are not morbid and
they don't desire death. We desire the Lord. We desire
the Lord. We desire the Lord's return,
not because we want to die. You hear people say, I'm just
ready for the Lord to come back. I'm just ready to go be with
the Lord. We don't desire the Lord's return because we just
want to die. I don't want to die at all. I
don't want to die at all. It'd be fine with me if he just
comes and just gets us. I want to live. I'm ready to
leave this body in this world of death to go live. But I also have a desire to stay
right here. I'm just being honest. I'm ready for the Lord to come
back. I'm ready to go be with him. And I have a desire to just
stay right here all at the same time. And the thing is, is I
know that most of you do too. Most of you
do too. I would almost say all of you
do too. We just announced two mothers who are carrying children. And
believing mothers, I believe that both of these mothers desire
Christ, desire the Lord Jesus Christ. And you don't have to
answer this. I'm just gonna tell you what
I believe in my heart. I believe you're not ready for the end
to come. And that's okay. That's okay. You have children
to be born. Many of us still have young children
at home. We have responsibilities, we
have loved ones who need us. For me to say that I'm ready
for the end to come and for the Lord to return, that does not
mean I'm ready to leave my wife and my children. I'm not saying
that at all. Even the Apostle Paul, who had
already been to the third heaven. You think about this. He had
already been there. Even the Apostle Paul said, I'm
torn between the two. Having a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. But he said, I'm torn between
leaving to be with Christ and staying here to be with you.
And all of God's people can enter into that. And it's because we
all have such a desire and a concern for the salvation of our loved
ones. Paul said, it's needful for me to be here. It's needful
for me to stay here. And we see it that way. We have
such a desire and a concern for the salvation of our loved ones.
Our Lord chose who He was going to save before the foundation
of the world. Our Lord chose every single person
that He was ever going to save before the foundation of the
world. And He will make it clear who
that is through the means of preaching the gospel. He will
make it clear who he chose as time goes on. And as the message
goes out, this is why we're here. Number one, we're here to worship
God. We're here to glorify God. We're
here to praise him, honor him, say thank you to him. And we're here to sow the seed
of his word. for the calling out of his sheep,
the calling out of his people. As time goes on, as the message
goes out, our Lord will call his chosen to himself and he
will call all of them. He will call all of them. He
will not leave one of them behind. He will not leave one soul behind. And he will not return before
all of them are called. And we're thankful for that.
Therefore, we're content to wait and let him call all of his people.
That that is what causes me to be content to just wait and just
be here. If the Lord would call sheep
and call sheep. Wonderful. Call as many as you will, Lord,
you just Show mercy, show mercy. Turn with me over to 2 Peter
3. 2 Peter 3. Verse one, it says, this second
epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir
up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you be mindful
of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets.
and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and
Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last
days scoffers walking after their own lusts." In the last days,
there are going to come men and women who scoff and mock The
Word of our Lord, the message of His truth, everything He's
declared right here. Verse 4, and saying, where is
the promise of His coming? He said, I'm coming back. He
said, the end shall come. And they say, where is the promise
of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
Things just keep going and going and going. For this they willingly
are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were
of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished."
They're willingly ignorant of the flood. God destroyed the
whole world with a flood. Verse 7, but the heavens and
the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. I think all the time about how
concerned this planet is with global warming. They don't want
anything to happen to the planet. You know, it's going to be global
warming and they are completely ignoring God's word that this
place is going to burn up. This place is going to burn up.
And I'm thankful for this earth. I'm thankful to live on this
earth. But this earth is going to burn
up and it could be any time. Verse eight, he said, but beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord
is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness,
but is long suffering to us word, his people, his elect, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance
and they will. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness? looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness, which is Christ. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
of him in peace without spot and blameless. Verse 15 says,
In account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom
given unto him, hath written unto you. He said, Concerning
our Lord's return, concerning when the Lord comes back, He
said, account, realize, know that the long-suffering of the
Lord, the patience of the Lord, the waiting of the Lord to return. He hasn't just come back and
burned it up. The moment he comes back, it's burnt up. And the
long-suffering, patient, waiting of the Lord to return, that is
salvation. That is Him saving His people.
That is Him calling His people. The end has not come yet because
He still has more people to call. And if that's the case, we're
happy to wait. We're happy to wait. This is
a tough world to live in. It's a tough life to live. But
if that is His will and His goodness to sinners, such as we are, then
we're happy to wait. Save, Lord, save all that you
will. Let it be us. Let it be our children. If. If God would save our children,
our grandchildren, we have some in this congregation who have
great grandchildren here. We'll wait. We'll wait. And in regard to living this
life here while we wait, the scripture says that our Lord
has given us all things richly to enjoy. There are many enjoyable
components to this life. You young people want to grow
up and live life. I know you do. I did too. I used
to think about that. When I was young, I used to think,
I don't want the Lord to return. I'm not ready for the Lord to
return. I wanted to grow up. I wanted to get married. I wanted
to have a career. I wanted to have children. I
wanted to raise those children. Grandchildren, it doesn't change. And that's okay. That's okay. But my prayer is that along the
way, God will give all of us here a heart for Christ. That's okay to feel that way.
But I pray God will give us a heart for Christ and a desire for the
coming of Christ, seeing the glory that is to come. Seeing
the glory that he's promised of life in him, life with him. I pray he'll give us a happy
anticipation. Hope is an expecting anticipation. That's what it is. I pray he'll
give everybody here hope. A happy anticipation for the
end of all sin. All the sin that taints the life
that we've been given here. That is the end that we desire. The end of sin. We don't desire
the end of relationships. Well, I'm just ready for the
Lord to come back and I'll just sever all my relationships here.
We don't desire the end of relationships. We don't desire the end of family.
We don't desire the end of love. We don't desire the end of anything
that originally our Lord said was very good. What we desire
is the end of sin that ruined all of it. That's what we desire,
the end of sin. In Christ, that's the only thing
that's going to be gone. That's the only thing that will
be removed in the end, sin. God's people in Christ, they're
not going to lose each other. We're not going to lose life.
We're not going to lose love. We're not going to lose happiness.
Only the sin that ruins those things. So if that's the case,
let the end come. If that's all we're losing, then
let the end come. The end of sin. Our Lord said,
as soon as this gospel is preached unto all the world, The end of
sin will come. Now, the end of the power of sin,
the end of the penalty of sin, that's already come to God's
people through the cross of Christ, on the cross of Calvary. The
power of sin over God's people and the penalty of sin, that's
already been dealt with. By His sacrifice and His death on the
cross, He put all of that away. But the presence of sin is still
with us. And it's because all of us have,
we had a lifetime of sin that either needs or needed,
depending on how you're looking at this, it needed to be dealt
with. And it was. But it was a whole
lifetime of sin and we're still living our lifetime. So as long as we're here, the
presence of sin is still with us. But the moment Christ returns,
the end will come. The end of the presence of sin,
the end of a lifetime of soul ruining, body ruining, family
ruining, happiness ruining, everything ruining, sin, the end. It'll
come. The moment Christ returns, it'll
all be over. And that's what causes me to
desire His return. That's what I desire, the end
of sin. If it's hard to understand, you
know, you, young people or anybody, if you hear this and you think,
why do you want our Lord to come back so badly? It's because the
moment He returns for God's people, And I'm talking about God's people
here. The moment he returns for God's people, all of this sin
will be over. It'll be the beginning of ruin
and dread for those who are not God's people, those who are outside
of Christ. It'll be. It'll be absolute terror,
but for those who are God's people, it'll be the glorious end of
all sin. Now, How can we know who is who? How
can we know who is who? How can we know who God's people
are and who this glorious end is for? Here's the answer. Here's
how we can know. We preach the gospel. We preach
the gospel. That's how we know who God's
people are. We preach the gospel and through
the preaching of the gospel, God will make it clear. He will
make it clear. How will God make it clear? Turn
with me over to Mark 16. Mark 16 verse 15, it says, And our Lord said to his disciples,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized,
that word means immersed by God's Holy Spirit into Christ, into
that faith. in Christ and faith on Christ. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not and is not immersed into
faith, immersed into Christ, shall be damned. He said, that's
how you'll know. You preach the gospel to them
and God's spirit will make it clear who God's people are by
creating faith in those who hear and Look to and believe on and
hope in only the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ. Only they'll
look to and hope in only the body and the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The righteousness and the redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go into all the world and preach
Christ. Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we're going to go to all the
world and preach the gospel, starting with this town, If we're
going to go to all of this town and preach the gospel, what are we going to preach?
What is the gospel of the kingdom of God? Turn over to Romans 1. Romans 1, verse 2 here is in
parentheses. We can, that's inserted into
the middle of a thought. We can read verse 1 and verse
3 right after that. Verse 1 says, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God, verse 3 says, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
The gospel is concerning Jesus Christ, our Lord, who came in
the flesh and accomplished the salvation of His people by resurrection
from the dead. That's the gospel. It's the accomplishment
of Christ in saving His people from their sin by His own death,
giving them life through His own death. Look quickly at Galatians
1. Galatians 1 verse 3, Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. That's the gospel. To preach
the gospel is to preach that man, the accomplishment of that
man in saving his people. Our Lord said, as soon as the
accomplishment of Jesus Christ is preached unto all the world,
and as soon as faith is given through that message to all of
God's elect people, And as soon as all of those people, as soon
as that last soul, the last one receives that faith and believes
on Christ and looks to Him for all of that soul's eternal hope
of salvation. He said, as soon as that happens,
as soon as that look takes place, the end will come. And every soul who God calls
us to desire that will cry, come quickly. Every soul that God
calls us to see Christ and to desire Christ and sinlessness
in Christ will cry, come quickly. I desire it, Lord, come quickly. I desire the end of sin. I desire
a wonderful earth full of holy people wherein Christ dwells. And sin never ruins anything
ever again. I desire it. I've told you so
many times, I'll just remind you that. My mother, when she
found out she had cancer, it was 11 months from the time she
found out to the time the Lord called her. And from the moment
I found out until the moment called her, I was scared to death. And I begged the Lord to heal
her body. I mean, I begged God like I've
never begged God in my life. It was continual. It was fervent. I was begging Him, please, if
you would be willing, heal her body. Please, if you would be
willing. I bow to your sovereignty. God
gave me the ability to say that. I bow to your sovereignty. I
know you will do right and I know you will do best. Thy will be
done. But if you would be willing,
please heal her body. And He was not willing. And it's, I'm going to say this, but then
I'm going to have to say, it's the greatest thing that's ever
happened to me. You know, this is the greatest thing that's
ever happened to me. This is the greatest thing that's ever
happened to me, but it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to
me. I wouldn't be married to her. I wouldn't be the father
of her. I wouldn't be the pastor of you. I know I would not. It changed everything for me.
And I was scared to death and begging God for the opposite
of what He did. And the reason is because it
wasn't my time. And He had not made me ready yet. It was her
time. It was clearly her time. Because
at the end, two weeks before she was called home, she was
sitting in her chair, I was sitting on the couch watching TV. She
had a Bible in her lap. And all of a sudden, she just
threw her head back, belly laughing. She just busted out laughing.
That's the best memory. Oh, she was just laughing. And
I looked at her, and she tried to stop herself. And so I said,
what is it? And she just shook her head no. And she's just laughing over
there and smiling. I said, what is it? She said,
nope. I said, come on and tell me,
what is it? She cut her eyes at me and said, I'm getting excited. I'm getting excited. No more sin. I'm getting excited. Did she want to leave all of
us? No, she didn't. She told us she didn't. But she
was getting excited. It's okay to happily, patiently
wait down here. It's okay. But it's also okay
to get excited. Because the moment the message
of this man goes out to all the world, It's all over. It's all over. And I'm getting
excited. I believe that when the last
sinner who was chosen to and elected to hears the message
and the Spirit puts faith in that sinner and that sinner looks
to Jesus Christ and it dawns on him. It's not by my works,
it's by Christ. this robe of flesh, we'll all
drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize. And we will all shout
while passing through the air, farewell, sin. It's over. It's over. That's something to
get excited about. Let's all go preach the gospel
to all the world. Because the end will come, the
end of sin, the end of sorrow. I'm ready. All right, let's all
stand together.