Well, it is so good to be back
with you again. Gene said when he said he was
just a few months shy of 70, I said, wow. I'll tell you why. The last three years, I jumped
from 30 to 61 in three years. And if it's like that for the
next three, I don't know what I'm going to do. Turn with me,
if you will, to the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter 2. Some of you may know or be familiar
with the ministry of my friend, Brother Tim James, pastor of
Sequoia Baptist Church in Cherokee, North Carolina. Brother Tim and
I were from the same hometown. We both grew up on the south
side of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He's a little older
than I am. His sister and I went to school
together. My sister and he went to school together, known a long
time. And Tim has a lot of Tim James eccentricities that make
him precious to us. One of them is a common phrase
he uses when we're about to part company. Most of us say goodbye,
hope to see you soon. And Tim always says when it's
time, When it's time, we'll see again. When it's time, we'll meet again. That's the title of my message
tonight. When it's time. On May the 19th, one of our couples
was over at the office cleaning the church building, and so I
was doing some work at home, and I got a telephone call that
said an old friend was there and wanted to see me. So I walked
over, and I walked out of my office and sat right down the
front row. I recognized the fellow's face, and then I saw a baseball
cap he had on. And I began to boil. And then he stood up and had
on a gold t-shirt, had the same thing on that baseball cap did,
May 21st, Judgment Day, and wanted to talk to me. I said, Al, Get
out. And he started to say something
else. I said, Al, get out now. And he started to say something
else. I won't tell you everything I said the third time, but he got out.
Well, how would you talk to him? There were some folks sitting
there for whose souls I care, dear man. And he was spreading
utter, utter heresy. by which multitudes were again
terrified by this camping fellow over here. And I know almost
every one of you have family or friends or neighbors who have
been affected by that man's ministry, and some of you have. And I want
to address this issue this one time plainly, as forcibly as
I possibly can. And I remember back And Camping
made the 1994 prediction that didn't come to pass. Just a few
days before that was all supposed to happen, I said to him, Mr. Camping, you know that no one
in history who has ever made such a ridiculous prediction,
once it was proved wrong, not one of them has ever backed up
and said I was wrong. Are you prepared to? to which
he answered nothing. And when this fellow left the
other day, I said to my friends who were there, I said, he already
has an answer in the bag, something just in case it doesn't turn
out right this time. Because fellows get themselves
in a trap and they won't, they just will not say, I was wrong. No man knows the day nor the
hour when our Lord will come again. The language is so very
plain in Mark chapter 13, it cannot be misunderstood except
it be deliberately misunderstood. But what's wrong with warning
folks about Judgment Day? You get folks scared to death
about nothing. Scared to death, and you think
you're going to scare folks into faith in Christ. It's not going
to happen. Faith doesn't come by fear, it
comes by revelation. It doesn't come by men scaring
you into making a profession of faith. It comes by the revelation
of Jesus Christ in you. Don't you want to know when the
Lord's coming? I'm not even slightly interested if I could know. Why would you say that? Because
the Lord said it's not for you to know. Is that what it said,
Jim? Acts chapter 1, it's not for
you to know. If you knew, you'd do just like these folks who
have been led astray so many times. So many times, I said
to Alwyn, he said, surely you haven't fallen for that crap
again. Surely you haven't fallen for it again. Folks are just
like blind hogs trying to dig around and find some nuts, they
just keep on following. That's so ridiculous. And what people
do when they, oh, we got it figured out, now we'll sell everything
and act irresponsible and start looking for the Lord. Lord Michael,
that's how the adventist got started. Exactly how it got started. Same kind of foolishness. It
is not for you to know. So please, please, Next time
you have somebody start to make a prediction about when the Lord's
coming, ignore it. Don't listen to it. Don't pay
any attention. They don't know what they're
talking about. A fellow wrote to me several weeks back, two
or three months ago, and asked me, he said, have you read Mr.
Camping's things on his website? And I wrote him back and I said,
don't read garbage as a general rule. I just read good stuff.
Why do you want to read garbage? Why do you want to read stuff
that is of no value to your soul? But just to make a long story
short, you ask me what I think of it, I say nuts. Just nuts. But I can tell you exactly when
Christ is coming again. When it's time. When it's time. Back in 1994,
I told what day was it, September 4th, I can't remember. Folks
asked me about it, I said, well, he may come today, he may come
before I get the next word out of my mouth, he may come tomorrow,
he may come September 5th, but he ain't coming until September
4th. Ain't gonna happen. Ain't gonna happen. Same thing with
this May 21st thing. I am a little anxious to see what he is going
to say come October, the first day of November. It will be interesting to see
how the world is dissolved in a spiritual way. But let's get
on with something good. Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 3. Habakkuk is prophesying at a
time just before God sends Israel into Babylonian captivity for
70 years. God raised up these vile, wicked
Babylonians to be his rod in his hand by which he would chastise
his people Israel and carry them into Babylonian captivity for
70 years. By the Babylonians he would destroy
the temple in Jerusalem. and destroy the worship of God
in Jerusalem and destroy the visible outward worship of God
in that which was known then as the Holy City and then after
70 years he promised that he would bring Israel again into
their own land and reestablish his worship in his house and
in his Holy City And Habakkuk takes this prophecy and writes
by divine inspiration and says in verse 3 of chapter 2. He says,
I'm going to stand on my watchtower. He says, let's see what God will
say. And then he writes, for the vision is yet for an appointed
time. But at the end it shall speak
and shall not lie, though it tarry, wait for it. Because it
will surely come, it will not tarry. Turn to Hebrews chapter
10. Hold your hands here Habakkuk.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Now there is absolutely no question
that Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 3 was a prophetic declaration
concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as he was set
forth in the Old Testament scriptures. In Hebrews chapter 10, the Spirit
of God tells us so. But in Hebrews 10, the writer
for the Hebrews was inspired not to quote from the Hebrew
text of Habakkuk 2, but rather to quote from the Greek translation
of the Hebrew text. Let me read that Greek translation
to you. For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot
forth at the end, and not in vain. Now listen, though he tarry,
wait for him, for he will surely become, and will not delay. Or look at Hebrews 10, verse
35. Paul is urging us to perseverance
in the faith. He says, cast not away therefore
your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye
have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God,
you might receive the promise for yet a little while and he
that shall come will come and will not tarry without question
this At the time appointed, our Lord Jesus Christ Habakkuk, and
here in Hebrews 10, the Apostle writes to us and tells us that
Christ will appear in his glory and will appear in his glory
with ten thousands of his saints. But we miss much. We miss very,
very much. When we think about our Lord's
coming, if we only think of his coming with reference to the
glorious second advent of our Redeemer. In fact, if you read
the Old Testament prophets, with regard to the Lord's coming,
almost always, and I can't think of an exception offhand, almost
always, pastor you may think of an exception, The prophecy
refers to the Lord's coming and it takes in both his first advent
and all the reign of his grace during this gospel age and his
second advent. Is that right? I can't think
of an exception. So that when the prophets speak
of our Lord's coming, it's talking about the appearance of our Redeemer
in the full accomplishment of redemption which is culminated
at last in resurrection glory in the last day. So when we think
about our Lord's coming, we ought to always think about His coming
in every aspect of His glorious coming to His people in grace
and in mercy. When you read the book of Revelation,
people get so mixed up in trying to interpret Revelation. You've
got seven visions in the Revelation. And people try to put them all
together. Did you ever take a bunch of
negatives, and you're trying to see what a negative looked
like, and put seven of them together? Let's make a picture out of that.
That would be absurd. You couldn't see anything. That's
the reason folks can't see anything in Revelation. They try to put
all the pictures together. The pictures are all given individually. Each vision speaks of the triumph
of Christ and his church by the gospel. Each begins with the
first advent and continues to the glorious consummation of
all things in our Lord's second advent. So that the whole purpose
of prophecy is not to teach us to look for signs and things
to happen in history, all those things. The whole purpose of
prophetic scripture is to teach us to look to, worship, trust,
follow, and serve our Redeemer with full confidence that soon
he shall make all things new. That's the purpose of prophecy,
so that we might know him who is our Redeemer. There's always
been a set time ordained of God to favor Zion. Turn to Psalm
102. Listen to this. Here David sings
about that set time. All of God's times of mercy are
appointed times. All the times of Christ's revelation
are set, fixed, appointed times. Here in Psalm 102 verse 8, the
psalmist says, My enemies reproach me all the day. And they that
are mad against me are sworn against me. For I have eaten
ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, because
of thine indignation and thy wrath. For thou hast lifted me
up, and hast cast me down. My days are like a shadow that
declineth, and I am withered like grass. But thou, O Lord, O blessed, blessed, blessed word
from God, that turns me from my withering and from my trouble
and my sorrow and my darkness to Christ and His light and His
grace. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure
forever, and thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt
arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea,
the set time is come. There's always a time set by
God when he comes to favor Zion. A set time. We now have come this weekend
to such a sad time, when the Lord God will favor us with fresh
revelations of himself. We're like impatient children.
We're always anxious to pick fruit before it's ripe. My wife's
kind of that way. We have a garden and she was
raised on a farm, I wasn't. And we plant corn, and she'll
go out every time, every time, she'll pick some blisters, don't
have anything except sugar water in them. Because she wants that
first year corn, that fresh corn. And we're that way with most
everything. We always want to pick the fruit before it's ripe.
We always are in a hurry to get things and to get things done.
But God Almighty is never in a hurry. And you're not going
to rush it. He's never ahead of time, and
He's never behind time, but always right on time. He waits until
the mercy He intends to bestow is fully prepared. And He waits
until He has fully prepared you to receive the mercy. So that when the mercy comes,
it's more precious than mountains of gold. More delightful than
words can express. God waits to be gracious. He waits until the grace He's
prepared is fully developed. And He waits until He has fully
prepared you to receive the grace. You understand that? He has a
set time when he will be gracious, a set time when he will favor
Zion. Our Lord God has appointed it
for us from the beginning, from everlasting, and at the appointed
time, his mercy comes. The vision is for an appointed
time. In our minds, God His promised
mercy may seem long and wearisome in its coming, the time of our
waiting may seem horribly long and difficult, may be excruciatingly
painful, but God's promised mercy comes at exactly God's set time. At exactly God's set time. And when it arrives, the mercy
received explains all the reason it didn't come sooner. And makes us to understand more
clearly God's ways of mercy and grace and providence. Our God
knows what He's doing. And he does all things well,
and he performs everything for me. He performeth all things
for me. God's appointments are sure.
Never shall his people be disappointed in them, or disappointed of them. Come they will, and they will
come at the very time he has ordained. All these appointed
mercies are but the coming of Christ to his people. So Habakkuk's
words as given by the apostle in Hebrews 10 are exactly what
we ought to live upon continually for yet a little while and he
that shall come will come and will not perish. Turn back to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. You remember what God told Abraham
about Israel? He said your children are going
to sojourn in Egypt for 400 years. It didn't start until a good
while after Abraham was dead. And then the Lord brought Joseph
and then Jacob and all of Israel down into Egypt. And there, the
children of Israel dwelt for 400 years. But God promised Abraham,
after 400 years, I'll bring them out. After 400 years, I'll bring
them out. And when Moses came to deliver
them, they could hardly believe his words. In fact, it took some
doing to convince them that God had sent Moses. And even after
they came out, just as soon as they got out, they would have
turned around and gone back in. But God said, after 400 years,
I will bring them out. Look here at Exodus 12, verse
17. The Lord has begun now to bring
Israel out of Egypt. Ye shall observe the feast of
unleavened bread, For in this selfsame day have I brought your
armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe this
day in all your generations by an ordinance forever. Verse 41. And it came to pass at the end
of the four hundred and thirty years Even the selfsame day it
came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from the
land of Egypt, verse 51. And it came to pass the selfsame
day that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt by their armies. Exactly the same thing took place
with regard to Israel 70 years in Babylonian captivity. Their
deliverance was at the appointed time. And so it is with God's
Israel in all ages. At the appointed time. At the
set time. God delivers Israel. At the appointed time. At the
set time. God calls out his elect, gives
them life and faith in Christ. At the appointed time, at the
set time, God brings you out of your heavy trial and your
darkness and sets you in a broad place. At the appointed time,
at the set time, God always delivers his own. There is a set time
for all God's wondrous works. A fixed set time, oh for grace
to wait my God on you. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage. Wait, I say, on the Lord. God give me grace to learn your
admonition and wait. Mike, that doesn't mean sit down
and say, well, I'm just waiting on the Lord. That means you're
waiting on a tip-toe thing. Waiting full of anticipation. Waiting, expecting God to visit
his people at the appointed time. Now, let me apply our text to
several things. This blessed, sweet promise certainly
is seen fulfilled in our Lord's first advent. In Romans 5, if you want to look
there, without question, God's word to Abakuk, as we've seen,
refers to our Lord's coming in human flesh. It's referring to
the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're told in Romans
5, verse 6, when we were yet without strength, in due time, in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarce before a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure, for a good man some would even
dare to die, but God communeth His love toward us, and while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When the fullness of
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. In John
17, our Lord Jesus prayed, lifting up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour is come. The hour is come. You remember
the Jews wanted to take him by force and make him a king. And
he said, my hour is not yet come. Over and over again he spoke
about this hour. He told his mother about this
hour for which the world was made. The hour for which he had
come into the world. And now he comes to the end of
his days on this earth. He's fulfilled all righteousness
and he's about to lay down his life for us at Calvary's tree.
And he says, Father, the hour has come! The hour for which
God made the universe. The hour when God would reveal
His glory in the face of His Son, redeeming sinners by the
sacrifice of His Son. Our Lord Jesus, speaking to His
Father, says, Father, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, that
Thy Son also may glorify Thee. You remember Moses said to the
Lord, Show me Your glory. Show me Your glory. And he put
him on the cliff to the rock, put his hand over him and passed
by him, and proclaimed his name, the name of the Lord, declaring
himself merciful and gracious, sovereign and absolute in his
sovereignty, saying, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But oh, what
mercy! What grace! What great sovereign
goodness! He, who will by no means clear
the guilty, declares that he will indeed forgive iniquity,
transgression and sin. By the sacrifice of this one,
he revealed in the mount. And he showed Moses the accomplishments
of our Redeemer, all portrayed in the tabernacle. The Lord Jesus
Himself spoke to His Father, to our Father, to His God and
our God. He was speaking to the Father.
about the redemptive glory of the triune God. And he said,
the hour is come. Certainly Habakkuk 2.3 was a
prophecy concerning our Lord's incarnation. Him coming in the
flesh to redeem us and finish his work of redemption by the
sacrifice of himself. The vision is yet for an appointed
time. But at the end it shall speak
and shall not lie. The Lord Jesus came at the appointed
time. At the end, He said, It is finished! And the work was done as God
Himself would have it. It shall speak and shall not
lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come
and will not tarry for yet a little while. And he that shall come
will come and will not tarry. Secondly, this prophecy of Habakkuk
clearly refers to our Lord's coming in judgment against Jerusalem
in 70 A.D. Turn to Matthew 24. Jesus went out and departed from
the temple, and his disciples came to him, for to show him
the buildings of the temple. Now try to get a picture. These disciples had never seen
the original temple. They had never seen Solomon's
temple. All they saw was the rebuilt temple that was built
after the Babylonian captivity. But it was magnificent. It was
something else to behold. And to these disciples who were
themselves traditional Jews, the temple was a reflection of
everything concerning the knowledge and worship of God. It was magnificent,
and it was glorious. And these disciples walked out
of the temple, and as they were walking out, they turned around,
got a distance away, and looked back and said, Lord, oh, would
you look at that. Would you look at that. All right,
read on. And Jesus said unto them, See
ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down. Can you imagine the shock? You
mean, Lord, you're going to destroy this? You're going to absolutely
destroy this? He absolutely did. He absolutely
did. If you want to spend good money
to go over to what they call the holy land, don't be tricked. Don't be tricked. It's no more
holy than the dirt out here in Rescue. It's just dirt. And folks, they've got a place
out there, they will tell you, this is the tomb where the Lord
was buried. And I think there's three or maybe four of them.
And this is Mount Calvary, this is where the Lord was crucified.
I had a professor, this is a true story. I had a professor when
I was in Bible College at Winston-Salem. She and her husband went over
to Israel and they decided to get baptized in the River Jordan
all over again. It just felt so good. Isn't that
wonderful? You stand here and you just get
a tingling feeling up down your spine, kind of like Chris Matthews
when he hears Obama talk. Brother Don, are you poking fun
at that? I meant for you to laugh at it.
I meant for you to laugh at it. It's nothing but religious superstition
and idolatry. If I could find them, I'd run
them over with a bulldozer. We don't worship holy places
and things. And these disciples had to learn it. And our Lord
said, I'm going to turn this thing upside down. And when it
got done, nobody could find anything in Jerusalem. And they still
can't. You can't find a Jew to this
day who can show you any record of his lineage and tell you what
tribe he's from. How come? Because God destroyed
it. He destroyed the whole thing.
Permanently! You mean God's not going to return
to Jewish worship and set Jesus on a throne over in Palestine?
Why would he want that? He's sitting on the throne of
glory. What about Israel? You who are
Abraham's seed are God's Israel. Do you understand that? And this
was set exactly as Daniel said it would be, after 490 years,
at exactly the time given in Daniel the prophet, in Daniel
chapter 9, the Lord God sent Titus, the Roman general, that
pagan, heathen Roman general, God's servant to destroy Jerusalem. And it came exactly at the appointed
time. 70 weeks are determined upon
the people. and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, to make an end to sin, and to make reconciliation
for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and
to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." When Daniel's 70 weeks were finished,
those 490 years were accomplished, which were determined and appointed
in the space of time God had ordained, so it came to pass. Alright, turn to Ezekiel chapter
16. Ezekiel chapter 16. Here is the third thing. The
third marvelous visitation of our God. How can you refer to the destruction
of Jerusalem being a coming of Christ in grace? Blindness in part has happened
to Israel that the gospel might be sent to you Gentiles. And when the fullness of the
Gentiles is brought in, all Israel shall be saved. That's exactly
the point. God sent judgment upon that physical
nation that he might have mercy upon you and send the gospel
into all the nations of the world. Alright, here's the third thing. I am equally certain that our
text is talking about the promise of God that Christ will come
at the set time of love to every chosen redeemed sinner in the
mighty operations of his grace. He will send his spirit in the
saving omnipotent power of his saving mercy. He will send his
spirit to the chosen redeemed sinner precisely at the moment
he prepared. And he will have the chosen redeemed
sinner then prepared for his mercy. Ezekiel 16, verse 6. When I passed
by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto
thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live! Yea, I said unto thee,
When thou wast in thy blood, live! I have caused thee to multiply, and thou hast increased, and
waxen great, and thou art become to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts
are fashioned, and thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked
and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. I say to you brethren, every
time you have occasion to preach the gospel, preach the gospel
with boldness and confidence. Preach the gospel with boldness
and with confidence. Whatever rescue Baptist Church
puts her hand to do in the cause of Christ, do it with boldness
and confidence. Because God will, at the appointed
time of love, call out every chosen son. We need to have altar calls and
we need to tell sad stories We need to give sinners a chance
to get saved. I'm not being silly, I'm as serious
as I can be. That's religious garbage. It's religious garbage. But what do you do? We preach
the gospel and wait. We don't pull tricks on folks.
We don't try to psychologically manipulate people, get them to
make a profession of faith. If you do, Brother Jim, you just
make them two or four more child of hell than they were before.
What do you do? You preach the gospel! And you
wait. And at the appointed time, if
you're God's, He'll get you. And you can't get away. You can't get away. I know. I ran hard as I could. I ran hard as I could and God Almighty stepped in as
He did with the waters of the sea and said, hitherto shalt
thou go and no further and one day I found myself believing
on the Son of God I just couldn't help it I just couldn't help
it And I didn't want to. Anymore. From that day to now, yet I've
been crying, Oh God, teach me to believe you. At that point in time, He comes
to His own. And He calls them by His grace.
Creates life and faith in them. And reveals His Son. For yet
a little while, and He that shall come will come. and will not
tarry. Turn to Isaiah 54 Isaiah 54 With every time of trial and
trouble, with every season of darkness and languishing, Every time of heaviness in our
hearts and souls, with every storm, with every fall, there
is a set time for deliverance. The Lord said to Moses, go in
to Pharaoh. Kevin thus saith the Lord, God
of the Hebrews, let my people go. And the Lord appointed a
set time. Here in Isaiah 54, in verse 7,
the Lord said, For a small moment I have forsaken
you, and a little wrath I have afflicted you. And look at verse
9, This is as the waters of Noah unto me, For as I have sworn
that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so
have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee. For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord. that hath mercy on thee. O thou
afflicted and tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I
will lay thy stones with fair colors, and I will lay thy foundations
with sapphires, and I will make thy windows of the gates, and
thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. I don't know when the Lord will
come to you. You who are heavy hearted. I will be tomorrow. I don't know
when He will visit you in His grace. I don't know when He will
hear the cry of your heart that you can share with no one except
God and yourself. But though the vision tarry,
wait for Him. At the set time, He will come. And He will not tarry. He will
walk across The stormy sea that's got your boat turned upside down.
And he will step into the boat and say to you, it is I, be not
afraid. And turn your storm into a calm. After Peter's fall, when the Lord warned him it was
coming. His next word was, now Peter, before the rooster crows
twice tomorrow morning, you're going to deny me three times.
And then he said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. When I'm terribly concerned for
friends, difficulties, difficulties they
often bring on themselves, I will say to my wife, if he's God's,
He'll take care of him. If she's God's, He'll take care
of her. At the set time. at the set time. And until then, all you do is
wait. Wait. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. There is another set time. An
appointed fixed time. Fixed by God's wise decree before
the world was made. when our Lord Jesus shall come
to each of his chosen, and that is at the day that we commonly
call death, when he comes to take us home to glory. O blessed,
joyful prospect! To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. Is there not an appointed time
to man upon the earth? Job said, all the days of my
appointed time will I wait till my change come. Read about it
here. 2 Corinthians 5, we know that
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. For in this 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
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed
up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for
the selfsame thing is God. who also hath given unto us the
earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident,
knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent
from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident,
I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord. I don't know when the Lord is
going to come for me. But I know this, when it's time,
He'll come, and I'm glad. When it's time, He'll come, and
I'm glad. My friend, Brother Jim Jensick,
a fellow out in Arizona, he used to be a professional golfer.
And he was in an accident and lost his right arm. I've never
met him, but I hear from him fairly often. He'll send me an
email. always signs his emails in his
grip. He wrote to me a good while back
and he said, I had a great laugh this morning. I was thinking
about a friend of mine who died about ten years ago. He and I
were with some folks chatting and involved in a conversation
with some will worshipers who hated what we believed. And my
friend was dying. He was only 45, but he was dying.
And he knew it. I knew it. And this fellow looked
at him and kind of snarled and said, If you knew you were going
to die tonight, what would you do? He said, My friend looked
at him and kind of smiled and said, I'd go home and go to bed
early. I'd go home and go to bed early. When it's time. When it's time. And then our Lord Jesus is coming
again in His glory when it's time Look at 2 Thessalonians
1 Without question, our text to
the Baptist is talking about this 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 7 To you that have tread the 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 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. What a way to
describe his coming. He is coming to be glorified
in his saints. and to be admired in all them that believe. He's soon coming, Brother Gene,
to be glorified in us. So we stand around forever and
say, Wow! Oh, what a Savior! Oh, what grace! Oh, what mercy! At the appointed time, He's coming. But what do we do? Look for Him. Looking for that blessed hope,
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. How do you look for Him? The
last three years, Shelby, as you know, started traveling with
me. She didn't come out here much.
She stayed home, took care of our daughter until she got out
of college and took care of things at the house. And now she's scared
to death I might get sick while I'm gone. So she's always wanting
to be there for me and I appreciate that. But she used to wait for
me a lot. She spent the better part of
these 42 years waiting for me. And you know how she'd do it.
Now I've never been there when she was waiting. But I know exactly
how she'd wait. I know exactly how she'd wait.
In fact, we had CD radios. I'd call a little bit ahead of
time. I'd go on top of the mountain
and tell her I was coming home. And then I've got cell phones now.
I'd call and let her know I was coming home. And she will, that
time for you to come, she'll run out to the front window and
look. Then she'll go back to the kitchen and do some cooking.
While she's running out the front window and look. And then she'll
go downstairs, put some laundry in, she'll run out the front
window and look. And then she'll go back and slide that dish of
macaroni and cheese in the oven. And then she'll run out the window
and look. And she'd see those headlights
coming down the driveway. And before I could get to the
garage, she was up there. What's she doing? Going about
her daily responsibilities as a good, faithful wife. looking for her husband. Children of God, go about your
daily responsibilities, serving your Redeemer in the place where
He put you, on the tiptoe of faith. Behold, He cometh. Amen.