I invite you to turn back in
your Bibles to the Gospel of Saint Luke chapter 21. I'd like
to read verse 25 this morning down through verse 31. Verse
25 through verse 31. Luke chapter 21. And there shall
be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon
the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and
the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear and for
looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for
the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see
the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your
redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable,
behold the fig tree and all the trees. When they now shoot forth,
you see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh
at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these
things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh
at hand. I'd like to look at verse 28
if you would. Listen as I read verse 28 down
through verse 31. Take note, verse 28 primarily
is our text this morning, and I'd like you to look at it with
me carefully. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your
redemption draws nigh. And he spake to them a parable,
behold the fig tree and all the trees, When they now shoot forth,
ye see and know of yourselves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these
things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh
at hand. Know ye that the kingdom of God
is nigh at hand. Now the subject this morning
of this portion of our Lord's prophecy as we find it here in
Luke chapter 21 is His own second advent or His own second coming
back to this earth. Now I do not believe that these
verses can be applied to any event less than this important
subject, the coming of the Son of Man, the coming back of the
Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. Now we believe in the second
coming of Christ. The testimony of the Word of
God is so clear on this subject that we certainly cannot deny
it. And so as we have often said we believe this subject and even
so come quickly Lord Jesus. Now as we look at this I'd like
to read just a couple of passages of scripture if you want to turn
to Acts chapter 1. I'd like for you to look at verses
9 through 11. verses 9 through 11. And our conviction is that
the passage that we read here in Luke chapter 21, these few
verses that we have selected this morning for our text applies
to the second coming of the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, from
heaven. Listen to these verses. And when
He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up.
And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they
looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 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. Now this is the testimony of
these two men that are robed in white. I believe they're the
angels of God and they say that this same Jesus that you've seen
taken up into glory, that he will come again in like manner. And also found in the book of
Philippians, chapter 3, verses 20 and 21, the Bible says, for
our conversation or citizenship is in heaven, from whence also
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change
our vile body, that it may be fashioned right unto his own
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even
to subdue all things unto himself. And so, beloved, our citizenship
this morning, if we're believers in the Lord Jesus, if our names
are inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life, if our hearts are truly
given to Christ, Then, beloved, we're looking. Our citizenship
is already in heaven. We're citizens of that country,
and we're looking this morning for the Lord Jesus Christ to
come back from heaven. Now notice our focus is to be
upon the precept that we find here in verse 28. And when these
things begin to come to pass, now my focus this morning will
be upon these next words, then look up. Then look up and lift
up your hands or your heads for your redemption, draweth nigh. Look up and lift up your heads
for your redemption, draweth nigh. Now first then, I want
to talk about the terrible time in which we're told here to look
up. and lift up our heads for our
redemption draweth nigh. Now I want you to think with
me this morning and listen carefully to what we have to say. I trust
the Lord will be pleased to own this message and to prepare all
of our hearts for those things which are to come to pass in
this world and in connection with our lives. Now nothing is
so calculated as to chill the heart and to damp the faith of
a child of God as the indulgence in unscriptural expectations. When we begin to expect something
that we have no scriptural warrant for, then, beloved, I'm sure
that we're going to run into certain various states in our
life here in this world wherein we're going to be very discouraged
and very disappointed. Now, one of those things which
I believe is an unscriptural expectation is that the world
is getting better. or that things are going to improve
in this world. Let us dismiss from our minds
this vain idea that nations will ever give up war entirely before
Jesus Christ comes back. We have heard various ones say
that in the latter days we're going to find that nations are
going to get along better and there's not going to be the friction
Beloved, as long as there's unconverted men and women in this world,
and as long as Satan is the prince of the power of the air, we are
going to have wars, there's going to be commotions, and there's
going to be perplexity among the nations. There'll be no universal
peace. This is an unscriptural expectation. It's not going to happen. before
there will be no peace, before the second advent, or before
the coming of the Prince of Peace. Then only shall men learn war
no more. That is after the Lord Jesus
Christ comes back and sets up His eternal kingdom in this world. Now the last days of the earth
shall be its worst days. Now that, beloved, is what the
Word of God teaches. The last days of the earth shall
be its worst days. The last war shall be the most
fearful and terrible war that ever, I believe, desolated the
world, desolated the earth. Beloved, let me continue here
to talk a little bit about this because I think that it's important
that we be prepared and that we have no delusion about what
is transpiring in our world today. This is to be a time, the very
days in which our Lord here exhorts us to look up and to lift up
our heads is to be a time of fearful national trouble. Now you can look at it clearly
here in verse 25 and 26. And there shall be signs in the
sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress
of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's
hearts failing them. for fear, for looking after those
things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken." Now this is an awful picture here that we
have in these verses. It is indeed an alarming picture. It's not easy for anyone to attach
a precise meaning to every part of these verses. But one thing
is abundantly plain. One thing is abundantly clear
here in these verses, and that is that the second coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ will be attended by everything which
can make it alarming to the senses and to the heart of natural men. If the giving of the love at
Sinai was so terrible, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and
quake, then beloved, the return of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
this earth, here as we know it, as he returns in great glory
according to the testimony of the scripture, shall be much
more terrible. And if the Roman soldiers became
as dead men when the angel of God rolled away the stone, and
the Lord Jesus Christ rose again, how much greater will be the
terror when Christ shall return unto this world. Now, what shall
men do when worldly business shall suddenly be stopped and
the precious things of the world are made worthless? What will
men do? Well, we're told here in verse
26 that men's hearts will fail them for fear and for looking
after those things which are coming on the earth. You see,
beloved, the majority of people in this world have an expectation
and they expect something, you know, from their labor and from
those things that are going on around them and they expect to
profit. I believe everyone feels that
way. But there's coming a time when
the world shall be shaken to its very foundation. And I think
this morning that we're to come and to bring ourselves to that
place and to see the exhortation and the precept of our Lord when
he said, look up and lift up your heads. Look up and lift
up your heads. These are terrible times and
climatic times that are coming in the world. When you hear of
wars and commotion, Be not terrified for these things, our Lord said,
when these things come to pass, because the end is not by and
by. Meaning that these things are
going to go on, and they're going to go on, and they're going to
go on. And there's not going to be any sudden end to these
things. These things will continue to
be, and we know that they have been, The Lord Jesus Christ spoke
prophetically in the first part of this chapter about the destruction
of Jerusalem at the hand of the Romans. And we know that about
40 years after our Lord ascended up into heaven that the Romans
did destroy the city of Jerusalem. And so whenever we begin to hear,
and I really feel that war, you know, it seems to be a long ways
from us, but even if it was to come near at hand, that the people
of God are to listen to the admonition of the Lord Jesus Himself when
He said, be not terrified for these things, because these things
must first come to pass. These things must come to pass.
These terrible things must come to pass and they will not be
suddenly ended because they're just going to keep on coming
and going and coming and going. A great war at this very time
is occurring, but this should not terrify the believer. It
should not terrify the child of God. Those that are anchored
in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should not be terrified by these
things. It is not for believers in Christ
ever to be the victims of a scare. Children of God, those that are
believers and those that trust the Lord beloved, are not to
be people that are victims of the general panic and scare that
will come upon the world. Now the Lord Jesus Christ gives
us this precept for a time when it will be impossible, I think,
for us to carry it out unless it be by faith in Him. Now, beloved, I want you to recognize
that I'm not minimizing the terribleness of war, and I'm not in any way,
shape, or form implying that what happens in this world, that
it's not real, and that it, to the flesh and to the flesh mind,
that it is a very alarming thing. I'm not in any way this morning
discounting that. But I want you to know that most
of the commands of Scripture are given to the people of God
and when they're given, they're given with the idea in mind and
behind it all is this thought that the Lord must give the grace
for those precepts and commandments to be fulfilled on our behalf. And so when you're in a state,
and it may appear sometimes that you just simply cannot control
yourself, and you may feel panic, and you may feel that things
are just closing in, and that you are not able to successfully
deal with them, and beloved, it is true that they can only
be dealt with by faith in God. And so if you're able to look
up and to lift up your heads, in these terrible, terrible times,
it will be because God gives you the ability and the grace
to do so. Now, the second thing that I
want to say about this time when our Lord tells us to look up
and to lift up our heads is this. that this will be a time of awful
physical signs and wonders in the world. Verse 25 here makes
it clear. There shall be signs in the sun
and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress
of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. Now there may be a season of
unnatural darkness that will come upon the world, or the solar
system may be disturbed, so that the stars of heaven, which have
been fixed for centuries, shall fall like unripe fruit from the
trees. Yet even at such a time as this,
the children of God are to look up and to lift up their heads. These signs, now beloved, these
signs that we see in the heavens and see in the earth, these things,
as we've tried to say, are real, they will be real, and they're
terrible, and these things are very, the world will become very
unstable and very fickle, even those things which have been
fixed, as it were, for centuries. Yet even then, even when the
world is trembling to its foundation, Even then, beloved, we're to
look up and to lift up our heads. Now, this is a precept for the
worst times supposable. Now, I'm sure that many Bible
scholars would say, well, all of this should be applied to
the destruction of Jerusalem. I don't believe that. I do not
believe that. I'm sure that this latter part
of this prophecy that we're dealing with today or this portion of
the prophecy is to be applied to our time and to be applied
to that time when the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to this
earth. Now if you would look at Psalms
chapter 46 quickly. I like to read a couple of verses
here in Psalm 46. Listen to what this says. is
our refuge and strength. a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the seas, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with swelling thereof. See, now pause and think of that. We will not fear. Now you say,
beloved, nature cannot rise to that height. You say, you know,
I know what I am and I don't think nature can rise to that
height. When we have all of these calamities, all these signs of
the heavens, all the distress among nations and commotion and
perplexity, human nature just cannot rise above that where
it can look up and lift up its head. It just can't do that.
Now beloved, we cannot but the grace of God can enable us to.
Now you say I just can't see preacher because
I'm human and I can't see where I can ever rise up to this. Well there is one who can enable
us to rise up and look up and lift up our heads. And let me
go on to say this morning that this one is the God of all grace,
the God of all mercy, the God of all comfort, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, yea, even the eternal Jehovah God,
even He can sustain us and enable us to not fear, even when the
foundations of the world is shaking, And we have all of these signs
in the heavens and signs in the nations of the earth. Now I'd
like to say that this terrible time which our Lord describes
here is also going to be a time of universal alarm. Let them be brought to a place
where they cannot act or move. Let whatever will happen around
us The duty of a child of God is very clear. We must give all
diligence to make our calling and election sure. And while
others are occupied in national conflicts and political speculations,
we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
knowing that all things that we have need of will be given
unto the people of God. So doing, we shall feel our feet
Upon the rock, when the foundations of the earth are out of course
and the kingdoms of earth are going to ruin, we will feedle
the rock under our feet. Isn't that what we like to feel?
Did you ever get out in the water and you were kind of, you were
pretty deep? And he was looking for something
to get your feet on. I remember one time baptizing
a lady out in Indiana in a lake. And I backed down the bank into
the lake and the bank just went straight up. right down. And
I remember when I baptized her, my feet came off of the ground
and I was looking for something to get my feet on pretty quick,
you see. And so that's the way it is in
the world. Now we always, by the people of God, if we would
have, listen to me, if we would have our feet to feel the rock.
then we must continue on with the duty, make our calling and
election sure, and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Now, let it be a settled principle
in our minds that the true child of God always will enter the
kingdom of God through much tribulation. Then any of us going to get out
of this world and get into the kingdom of God without going
through some trouble and some tribulation and traumatic times
in our lives. Our faith will be tested, and
all that goes on before the second coming of the Lord Jesus will
be a great test to our faith. But Beth, the best things for
the child of God are yet to come, and this world is not our home. Praise His name, this world is
not our home. And the best things are yet to
come for the child of God. Well, I think that we need to
impress upon you that with God all things are possible. With
God all things are possible, and in Christ we can do all things,
and without Him we can do nothing, my friend, only in Him. If you turn from Him, in the
time of calamity, in the time of trouble and perplexity, your
hearts are going to quail with fear, and you'll be just like
other men. You'll be just like other people.
But if you run with them, and you think like they do, then,
beloved, you will fear, with them. If your strength is where
their strength is, then you'll be as weak as they are. You'll
be just as weak as those around you are. But if you have learned
to look up, even in stormy times, then I believe that you'll keep
to that habit of looking up and lifting up your head, even when
the whole world around us is in great trouble. We will still
be looking up, looking up, because that's to be the very habit of
the child of God in this world. If your portion is in heaven,
it shall not be shaken when the earth rocks and reels to its
very foundation. It will not be shaken, I say,
if your treasure is in heaven. If your treasure is in heaven,
then your treasure shall never be lost. If God be with you,
you can stand, brethren and sisters this morning, you can stand,
I say, in the very jaws of death or in the center of hell and
feel no fear. If God be with you, if Christ
be by your side, you may be calm amid the wreck of matter and
the crash of worlds as your Lord Himself is calm now in His glory. You don't think He's panicking,
do you? You don't think he's upset, you don't think he's terrified,
do you? No, he isn't. No, he isn't. This God that we're talking about
is a God who can make war cease. when he purposes to do so according
to the testimony of Psalm chapter 46, and he is in no panic, and
there is no problem. And if he be with us, then we
may also be calm, and we may also be restful, regardless of
what's going on around us. He can work this in us. He can
work it in us, amen? He can work this calmness, and
he can work this rest in us. And so let the world shake, the
foundations give way, and the righteous shall yet stand unmoved
in their God. Now, beloved, I must leave this
point by reminding you of this, that when the Lord Jesus shall
come, the heaven shall tell us, Because there shall be signs
in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the earth shall tell
us. For upon the earth there shall be distress of nations
with perplexity, and the events of the world shall tell us. For
men's hearts shall fail them for fear and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth. And then as all
of these voices shall proclaim his coming, Our own eye shall
tell us, for they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud
with power and great glory. What a day, what a day that will
be, a day when the people of God, beloved, shall shine forth
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. a day when the
righteous shall shine forth in the King of the Father. What
a day that will be! In anticipation of that glorious
day, each believer can say with the patriarch Job, I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth, and though after my skin warms, destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for
myself. And mine eyes shall behold, and
not another, and not another. Isn't that a marvelous thing
to be looking forward to? Well, that's the testimony here
of the word of God in this prophecy that we're studying this morning.
Now the second thing I want to do is I want us to look at this
precept itself, which I've been talking about that our Lord gave.
He gave it to be observed in the worst supposable times. And the precept itself is very
important, and I want us to look at that just a minute. Now, he
said, look up and lift up your heads. Now, brethren and sisters,
there are some professing Christians in this world who seem to think
that it is almost wicked. almost sinful for anybody to
be encouraged, for anybody to look up, for anybody to lift
up their heads. I mean, they consider it to be
a thing that we just ought not to do. You know, we ought to
be morbid. God knows we're not suffering
from being morbid. Somebody says, well, we ought
to be very careful. Well, we're not suffering from
being careful either. I want you to know this, that
the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ, the precept of our Lord,
in the worst supposable times is, look up! This is the word
to his people, look up and lift up your heads. Lift up your head. Somebody said I'm a miserable
sinner. My friend, and it is true, we're
all sinners. This is a house of sinners here. We don't profess to be anything
else. We know we're all sinners, but
beloved, there's been something happen. We have been regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, we've been washed in the blood of the Lamb,
and we've been adopted into the family of God. And surely we're
to rise up and to obey the precept of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
up and lift up your heads. We are the children of the King,
the blood of the Lord Himself, the pure blood of Christ has
washed us and made us clean. And we're every whit clean if
we be in the Lord Jesus. And we're God's children. We're
as near to God as we can be. Because in the person of His
Son, we're as near as He. And so why should we go around
with our heads held high? hanging down like a weeping willow
and like the moonrushes. Why should we do that? Why should
we not obey this precept? Now, beloved, listen to me as
I talk to you a little bit about this. Amidst the plague and the
pestilence or amid earthquakes and storms and wars, we are told
to look up and to lift up our heads. Then, sure, if we're to
do that in the worst times, then in ordinary times, should not
this be our attitude? I mean, should it not be our
attitude in just ordinary daily life? I mean, when everything's
going alright? And you know, if some people,
some of us around here had some problems, we'd have something
to talk about. But most of us, you know, we
get all upset about little things that don't matter at all, little
things that probably won't happen anyway, and just little situations. I mean, we ought to be grateful
to God that things are as well with us as they are, and that
we don't have some of these awful, awful, awful things happening
in our backyard that's happening in other places in the world. Now listen, the poet said, Why
does your face, ye humble souls, those mournful colors wear? What doubts are those that waste
your faith and nourish your despair? What is it? In ordinary times,
beloved, we surely could obey this precept, but we're not even
on that ground yet, are we? Where we're looking up and lifting
up our heads. Most of us, most of the time,
are all cast down. And David said, my soul, how
I felt so cast down. I mean, why don't we look up
and lift up our heads? Well, what does this precept
mean? Well, Here's what it means. I
believe it implies first it implies an absence of fear That's what
it means. It implies that. Look up and
lift up your head. Now perfect love, the Bible says,
casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth
is not made perfect in love. And then I would invite you to
look at verse 18 of Luke chapter 21 where our Lord said, but there
shall not a hair of your head perish. There shall not a hair
of your head perish. Now, I know that this, and I
believe this, that this applied to the true children of God in
Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Gentile army, by the Roman army. And our Lord had said to them,
said, you flee to the mountains. And as Josephus says, he believed
that most of the true children of God, the Romans came up to
the city of Jerusalem and they were about to attack and then
they backed off for a matter of months before they really
came in to attack To destroy Jerusalem and most of the true
people of God did escape to the mountains to the north up and
now what is called? Lebanon they escaped up into
there and they was not a hair of those true believers that
perish but now Listen, I want you to I want you to see that
a child of God has no cause, no cause to fear. A child of
God has no cause. If God loves you, then who can
really hurt you if God loves you? Who can really hurt you? The sun, moon, and stars, the
earth and the seas, and wolves and pestilence. Have we not discovered
all work together for good to the dear children of God? So
away with fear. He says, there shall not a hair
of your head perish. Now our Lord knows. That the
hearts of his people, when he said the things that he did,
would make them to faint and that their hearts would tremble
within them. He knows our frame, that it's
even of dust. He knows that. He knows what
we're made out of. Now, but this plumps. This promise
that our Lord made here is the property of all believers, of
all those who believe on the Lord Jesus. Now, a literal interpretation
of this promise is clearly impossible, and we should not assume here
that our Lord, when he said, but there shall not a hair of
your head perish, We should not assume that this is to be interpreted
literally because it cannot apply to the bodies of all God's people. James and the other apostles,
they died violent deaths. They did. Now a figurative interpretation
must be given this promise. Now you listen to what I'm saying
here. It teaches us that whatever sufferings A child of God is
exposed to and may go through in this life that his best things
can never be injured. They can never be taken from
him. His life is hid with Christ in
God. His treasure is in heaven and
he can never be touched. His soul is beyond the reach. of harm. Even his body is going
to be raised again and made like his Savior's glorious body at
the last day. Now we may lose much in this
world by walking in faith, by serving the Lord, by doing what
the Lord would have us to do, but we shall never lose our souls. We shall never lose our souls.
The world may deprive a believer of property, may deprive a believer
of friends, country, home, liberty, health and life, And it has done
so in innumerable cases, even from the days of Stephen, the
first martyr of the church in Acts chapter 7 until this very
present day. But one thing the world cannot
do to any believer, any child of God, it cannot deprive him
of his interest in and his union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The world cannot touch this. It cannot break. that you in
between Christ and his soul. Listen to what Paul said in Romans
chapter 8 verse 38 and 39. He said this, I'm persuaded. that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now that was the conviction of
the Apostle Paul. They cannot, we cannot touch,
our best things cannot be touched. They we can no harm come to our
soul now also believer. I believe this precept Look up
lift up your heads that it means that even in the worst of times
that we are to show those around us the signs of joy that were
to show the sign of joy and to those around us even in the worst
of times. Even when all of this commotion,
all of this distress and perplexity is going in the world, there
should be signs of joy. Let us put away our sorrow and
our grief and our misery and say what the prophet Habakkuk.
Listen to what he said. He said, although the fig tree
shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vine, the labor
of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet. I will rejoice in the Lord, I
will joy in the God of my salvation. So look up and lift up your heads
and our Lord is saying to us here, now is the time to fly
your flag, now is the time to ring your bell that those around
you cannot help but see your happiness and your joy in anticipation
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ back to this earth. Now, beloved, listen. This coming
of our Lord Jesus back here, it says this, for your redemption
draws nigh. Your redemption draws nigh. Now, this thought is precious
to me. There are several verses in the
Bible that deals with this. But it signifies the full and
the very complete redemption of the believer, which will be
accomplished when his body is raised again and the soul and
body once more unite. Now from the guilt and power
of sin, God's people are already redeemed. We were redeemed at
Calvary, but from the humbling consequence of sin, the people
of God will not be completely redeemed until Jesus Christ comes
again and calls us out of the graves at the last day. I'm saying
that this is what this is talking about. It's talking about when
the Lord Jesus comes and we have full and complete redemption. Now we have the Spirit of God,
which is the earnest of our redemption. We have that in us. And it's
the guarantee that God finally is going to come back and that
he's going to catch us up. The very day when unconverted
men shall lose everything, this shall be the day when the believer
shall enter in to his eternal reward. And the very hour when
the worldly man's hope shall perish. shall be the hour when
the believer's hope shall be exchanged for joyful certainty
and possessions in the full. The child of God is going to
expire. Our redemption draws nigh. And
so, beloved, we should be happy about it. We should look up and
lift up our heads because, now let me say this, there should
be no looking down. There should be no looking down
because the earth is quaking and shaking. But let there be
a looking up because we're going to rise from this earth and from
this world unto eternal glory. No looking down because the graves
are opening beneath us. No looking down, look up. We're
going to come out of the graves and never more to die. The people
of God will never die. Even though they experience the
putting off of the flesh and the unroving here in this world,
their souls will take its flight and the people of God shall have
a joyous reunion with their bodies and all of their loved ones in
eternity to come. The time for you to hang your
heads like weeping wolves, beloved, is over! I mean it's over! It's over now because the victory
is sure and the people of God are to look up and certainly
it will be over when the Lord comes and our redemption draws
nigh. It's over, beloved. It's a time
to show those around us that there is a gospel joy and a gospel
hope in our breast, that there is in the deepest recesses of
our souls there is an overwhelming conviction that all is well. Now then, I think the Christian
should have an inward peace and a holy expectancy. And this is
what I think this means also. The child of God should have
a calmness and a peace about them, and they should have this
expectancy. Expectancy. Not the doom and
gloom that is everywhere, but an expectancy about them. Whatever happens, All is well
with the righteous. The Word of God says it shall
be well with the righteous. It's going to be well. Nothing,
my friend, should keep us back from showing this joy that the
Lord Jesus told us here to express. And I don't know what's going
to be, and I don't wish to know, but I know that all is well.
and that all shall be well forever and ever with those who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's something brighter
and more joyful coming for the child of God down the road, more
than we've ever yet known. And all of our earthly bliss
that we have enjoyed here in this world is but the vestibule
of our eternal delights. You say, I've had a pretty good
life. Preacher, well, all that is, beloved, is just simply,
all that is, is just the first fruits, if you please, of all
of those blessings that we will have in eternal glory. Now, therefore, let us look up
and lift up our heads. Look up to Him who's coming back. Let us trust the Lord and say
farewell. Tadows. and to tremble him. Let us trust the Lord and believe
that our Lord Jesus Christ in times like these would say to
us, what would he say to us? He would say, look up and lift
up your heads. That's what he would say. That's
exactly what he would say. You say, well, I mean, am I to
go out here this morning and believe that this is the time
to look up? I'm telling you, on the authority
of the Word of God, this is His message to every one of us. Shake
off the fear and the trembling and look up and lift up your
heads. Now, therefore, in closing, There's
a parable here, verse 29, to encourage us, I believe, to obey
this precept that we've been talking about here all morning
this morning. And in verse 30 and 31, it says,
well, in verse 29, He spake to them a parable, Behold the fig
tree and all the trees, and when they now shoot forth, ye see
and know of your own selves that summer is now at hand. You know
that when you look at a tree and it starts to bled out, you
know that that's a sign that summer is nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when you see
these things, and that's all these signs that we've been talking
about, commotions, wars, pestilence, disturbance, men's hearts failing
them, and all these signs in the heavens and so on, that when
you see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom
of God is nigh at hand. Know that it's nigh at hand. Now, what can we say about this? Well, I like to say these things.
Notice, if you will, and keep, if you can, your mind upon this
because this, I believe, is to encourage us to keep and to obey
this precept. What does it say? Well, it says
to us that summer is the time of the bursting of buds, the
unfolding of flowers, and the forming of ripening fruit. Now, there may come many showers
in the spring. But this will not keep summer
from coming. It will not keep summer from
coming. And what this implies is that there are going to be
many things, many of these signs that we witness and see in our
lifetime, but it's not going to keep It's not a time to give
up. It's not a time to throw in the
towel. It's not a time to be discouraged.
It's not a time to say, well, there's no use. Because these
spring showers will not keep summer from coming. And rather,
it will help summer to come. It may be cold and chilly beneath
the black clouds that hover over us for a while. But that will
not hinder summer from coming even because the April showers
bring May flowers. All these are just the tokens
of summer coming. And all of these signs that we
know about and are hearing about are just tokens that the kingdom
of God is drawing nigh. So when you're in trouble, expect
that you're going to have a blessing. And when you're passing through
a great trial, look out, for that is another sign that summer
is coming. Do not fear to look up and lift
up your head, for the clouds, the poet said, that you so much
dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your
head. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break with blessing on your head. I want us to get in the habit
of believing that in every time of want, in every time of pain,
in every time of depression, that these are but the commencement
of a season of blessing. Summer is coming. The kingdom
of God is drawing nigh. Therefore, as you look at the
black buds on the tree of your life, say to yourself, I wonder
what bright flower is coming out of these buds. I wonder. Think of the ugly bulbs that
people plant in the spring of the year, flower bulbs, which
we put in the ground. Yet the flowers come out of these
ugly bulbs are beautiful. They're beautiful. Summer is
coming. So when God plants some black ugly bulbs in the garden
of your soul, Do not cry out at the cause of their ugliness,
but look for the flowers that shall in due time appear, and
expect something beautiful to come from God's sowing. The kingdom of God is coming
near, and all of these things that are happening are only signs
of that. That's what they're signs of.
Now, then, these are signs that tell a certainty to me. Every
day is just coming closer. The Kingdom of God is coming
closer. Somebody says, well, all these things that are happening,
this is a scary time. It is a scary time to the flesh,
but it's just a sign that the day is coming closer. The Kingdom
of God is coming near. The Son of Man will appear in
His glory. All the devils in hell cannot
keep the spring from going on to the summer. And all of these
things that are happening cannot keep the Son of Man from coming
back, and the complete redemption of His people being fulfilled,
and it cannot keep, beloved, the Kingdom of God from coming
nigh in this world to the Lord's people. Now then, God is with
you, God is in you, and who can stand against Him? If God be
for us, who can be against us? And for those of you who are
not believers, Those of you who know not the Lord Jesus Christ. Those of you whose sins are not
under the blood of Christ. Look for a place to hide. Look
for a place to hide. Because the Lord Jesus is coming
back in power and great glory. And the call will go out. Come
to judgment! Come to judgment! Come to judgment! Beloved, listen to me. The best
place For a sinner to hide is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the best place to hide. And for those of you that are
here this morning, seeing that Christ is coming back, seeing
what the world is coming to, seeing the conditions that are
all around us, why don't you just hide yourself in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The people of God have hid themselves
there. Why don't you come, come along
with us and hide yourself in the five bleeding wounds of the
Lord Jesus. Come and hide yourself in his
person and in his matchless grace and his mercy. Come and hide
yourself in his merit. What a wonderful, wonderful place
for a poor sinner to hide when the foundations of the world
is quaking. What a wonderful place for the
Lord Jesus. I tell you, hide yourself in
Him. Father, thank you this morning
for your precious word. Encourage us all, enable us,
our Father, every one of us, to look up and to lift up our
heads. enables us to see the sure foundation
upon which we stand as the believing people of God, and help us, our
Father, to so rest ourselves that we shall be a great encouragement
to those around us, and that many shall be brought to fear
the Lord, and to hope in the Lord, and to hide themselves
away in the hand of the Lord Jesus. And he said, my Father
is greater than all, He said that no man can pluck them out
of his hand. I give unto them eternal life.
They're my sheep and no one can pluck them out of my hand. Help
us all to find our place this morning in Him. We beg it for
Christ's sake. Amen.