Do you sometimes feel as though you would give anything if the Son of God would graciously call your heart away from the
hard, heavy burden that seems to choke the very life out of
your soul? Your heart's cold and hard, unmoved
and seemingly unmovable, and you long that he might call your
heart to live vibrantly again. Your care is constantly with
the things of this world, things that you know are perishing,
things that you know are vanity, things that you know Really in
all reality are meaningless and soon must pass away But you it
seems that your heart cannot break away from those things
and you Long that he might call you away from these call your
hearts away from the the mundane Vain things of this world and
cause your heart to soar With wings of a dove the very throne
of God, where you might sit in sweet fellowship and communion
with him? He does. He does. I want you to read with me in
Revelation chapter 11 and verse 12. Before I read that, let me
read you another text. It crossed my mind while Merle
was reading from the Song of Solomon a little while ago. In the Song of Solomon chapter
2 and verse 10, Listen to these words. My beloved spake and said
unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for,
lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. I read that text a little bit
ago, and I pray, Lord God, Graciously now, so speak to the hearts of
your people. Rise up, my love, my dove, my
fair one, and come away. The winter is all over. The winter
is all over. Now here in Revelation chapter
11 and verse 12, And they heard a great voice
from heaven saying unto them, This is a specific call to God's
elect, his church, as represented by the two witnesses. And this
is what the call is. Come up hither. And they ascended
up to heaven in a cloud. I have no question the text speaks
of the glorious resurrection of the dead at the second coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Contrary to popular opinion,
this resurrection will not be a secret rapture. In the text
we are told that as the saints of God go up to meet the Lord
in the air, and their enemies beheld them. As the saints of
God rise up out of their graves with the power and glory of Christ,
calling them from death to life, calling their bodies back to
life again, and they ascend up out of the graves, men are going
to stand in astonishing wonder. There'll be nothing secret about
it. There'll be nothing hidden about this. The Lord Jesus is
coming in power and in great glory. And when he does, the
graves will open up. The graves will open up and the
dead will come up out of the graves. And as they ascend right
on their heels, we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up to meet the Lord in the air and our enemies will stand astonished
as we ascend up to meet the Savior. Then our Lord Jesus will come
and we with him and will destroy the world with the brightness
of his glory. And all of this will be done
in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. I think sometimes
we imagine that the judgment day, the final event, when God
wraps this world up, when God destroys this present creation
with fire and judges the ungodly and judges the wicked and brings
again his new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, and
establishes his kingdom upon the earth, we imagine that it's
going to take some terribly long period of time. It's not so.
Just like that, it's done. Christ Jesus descends. And as
he descends, he says to his saints, those who sleep in the graves
and those who are alive upon the earth, Come up hither, and
they'll rise up to meet Him, and all their enemies behold
them. Now that's the principal meaning of our text, and I'll
return to it before the message is over. But tonight I want to
use these words of our Lord, come up hither, in a much wider,
and I hope a very practical sense for your hearts and mine. I want
to show you how it is that these words fall from the lips of the
Son of God and how they speak to the hearts of his children
upon the earth as he calls us up to himself. The Lord Jesus
Christ from his lofty throne in heaven constantly calls his
people away from the world and with That call, he draws us away
from the cares and the temptations and the trials of the world up
to himself saying, come up hither, come up hither. He's saying,
come up, rise up, my dove, my undefiled, my fair one. Let us
arise for the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. Come
up hither, come up hither. Oh, may he so speak to your heart
and mind tonight. so that we may arise above the
mundane things of this earth and come up to worship and fellowship
with Christ Jesus. When he so speaks, when the Son
of God so speaks, those to whom he speaks arise to him. Let me
show you how these words apply to us in four distinct ways. Come up hither, number one. This
is the gospel's invitation. There are some of you here this
evening who do not yet know our God. Some of you here this evening
who yet cannot see and cannot hear. You have neither eyes to
see the glory of Christ nor ears to discern the truth of God,
and you have no heart to perceive, no heart to believe, no heart
to understand the things of God, no heart of faith toward Christ.
Will you hear me? The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
to sinners in the gospel and he says, come up, come up, come
up to me, come up to me. He calls me in to come up from
the pit of destruction, to come up from the pit of the dam, to
come up, come up to him, hear him, hear his call tonight, come
up to him by faith. So how on earth does a sinner
on this earth come up to Jesus Christ with the heart? with the
heart, by faith. You come to Christ not by making
some move physically, not by walking down a church aisle or
kneeling at an altar or a mourner's bench or saying a prayer. You
come to Christ with your heart. I wish we could understand that.
I am often away from my family. I'll be driving down the road
in the middle of the night, wife and daughter at home in the bed,
and I get to thinking about them. Just like that, I'm there. Just
like that. I go immediately to them. Here, my heart's with them. You understand what I'm saying?
My heart's with them. That's what it is to come to Christ.
We come to Him with the heart and He calls for you, sinner,
this night, to come up to Him, to come up from the grave of
sin, to come up from the tomb of iniquity, to come up from
under the curse of the law to Him. Come up to Him by faith.
Come up to him. The fact is you deserve to perish
under his wrath. And if you die without Christ,
you will surely perish forever. But you do not have to die. The Lord Jesus Christ calls and
reasons. Yes, He even pleads with men
to come to Him. He says, why will you die, O
house of Israel? Don't you understand? I have
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. The Lord Jesus speaks
and He says, I've called. I've stretched out My hands.
He says, turn unto Me and I'll pour out My Spirit upon you.
Turn to Him and He will right now pour out the Spirit of Life
upon you. I know He will. I don't have
any question about that. Oh, if you would but look to
Him, you'd live. That's what it is to come to
Him. It's to look to Him, buddy. Just like that. Come to Him.
Just look to Him. Not with the physical eye, no.
Not with these eyes, but with the eyes of your soul and the
eyes of your heart. You look away to Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. And there you find eternal life. You say, well, a man can't look
unless God gives him life. I know that. But I know that
everyone who looks gets life. I know that everyone who looks
gets life. Our Lord came to that man with
a withered arm. And he said to him, stretch out
your arm. Well, Bob, if he could stretch out his arm, there wasn't
any need for the Lord to come by. He couldn't stretch out that
arm. That arm withered. He had no
power in that arm. But when the Son of God said,
stretch out your arm, you know what he did, Bobby? He stretched
out his hand. And it was made whole just like
the other one. And I'm saying to you who are yet in your sins,
dead in trespasses and sins, the Son of God says, come up
to me and I guarantee you, you come, you'll find him. I guarantee
you, you look to him, you'll have life, life everlasting,
life eternal like that. For to look to the crucified
one. The Lord Jesus Christ, by the gospel that I preach to you,
is calling you up to heaven and eternal life. He's calling you
up to the throne of grace. He's calling you up to the heavenly
Jerusalem. He's calling you up to the blood
of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. He's
calling you up to himself. Oh, may God enable you now to
hear and obey his gracious call. Christ Jesus, is an able and
willing Savior who saves all who come to God by Him. He's
able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him.
Look to Him then with the eye of faith. Look yonder to the
throne in glory. There sits the Son of God, the
man who was crucified at Calvary 2,000 years ago. He has the right
and the power to give eternal life to all whom He will. He has the right and the power.
The Father's committed all things to the Son. And as the Father
gives life to whom he will, even so the Son quickeneth whom he
will. Jesus Christ, right now, right
now, has in his hand The right under God as our mediator, as
the representative of his people, as the covenant surety. He has
the right under God to give life to anybody he wants to, even
you. Even you. He has the right to
give eternal life wherever he will. And he wills to give eternal
life to all who come to him. That's what the book teaches.
That leper came to the Lord. They fell down on his feet and
worshiped him. And he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. If you will, you can make me
clean. You know what our Lord's response
was? I will. I will. And there's never yet
been a leper come to him seeking mercy on those terms. But what
he said, I will be thou clean. There's never yet been a sinner
who comes to Christ Jesus in humble faith, acknowledging his
sin and acknowledging the Lord's dominion. And he says, Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole every time. He says, I
will. Be thou clean, be thou made whole. Turn over to the book of the
Psalms, chapter 30, Psalm 30. I read a text this evening. I'd read it so many times. Here
David is speaking to the Lord and he's speaking of God's grace
and mercy and God's deliverance. And here's a verse. Now you talk
about a plea for mercy. Here's a reason. When you go
to the throne of God, when you go to the throne of the Lord
Jesus Christ and you cry for mercy, is there anybody here
who needs mercy? Is there anybody here who needs
God's grace, who needs God to be merciful to them? Is there
anybody here who's perishing under a load of sin? Let me give
you an argument, a plea with God, a plea that you can argue
before the throne of the Most High God. Here it is, Psalm 30
and verse 9. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? Lord
God, here I am, a sinner, a guilty sinner, a sinner deserving eternal
damnation. I deserve to go down to the pit.
I know I deserve to go down to the pit. But Lord God, what profit
is there in my blood Shall my dust in the ashes of hell praise
you? Shall my dust speak your truth? God be merciful to me. You see
what I'm saying? Call upon him. He'll give you
mercy. He'll give you mercy. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, be it sinners, come to him. He calls upon them. He waits to be gracious to them.
He's willing to give eternal life. His blood is atonement
sufficient to wash away all your sins. His righteousness is sufficient
to give you acceptance with God in everlasting approval in God's
sight. His power is sufficient to give
you life, to save you, to bring you safely into His everlasting
kingdom. I recall when I was a young man,
I had made Like most people, I
made a profession of faith when I was a kid, you know. And then I had gone back, gone
back, gone back every time I got in trouble and rededicated up,
you know, get things straightened out. And at last, when God began to
deal with my soul and I realized something of my sin and something
of Christ's work of redemption, there was still within my heart
a haunting suspicion that if I should confess Christ
again, if I should call upon him again, if I should profess
faith in him again, that no way on this earth it'd hold out.
No way on this earth it'd last. I was talking to somebody the
other day. I forgot who it was. Maybe it was in the letter, I
don't remember. In correspondence. Somebody who knew me when I was
in school. One of the fellows said, well,
well, Fortner's got religion, but it won't last long. And to
be honest with you, there was times when I wondered if it'd
last long. But let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.
He who says to you, come up hither, is able to save your soul and
to keep what you commit to him against the day of judgment.
He's able to give eternal life and to preserve you in eternal
life and to see to it that you never perish. He's able to give
you a heart. He's able and he will give you
a heart that shall not and cannot depart from him. He promises
so. Do you hear his call? As I speak
to you in his name, do you hear his voice echoing in your heart
saying, come up hither? I rather suspect. No, I'm very
confident. I'm certain that some of you
do. Some of you hear his voice. The Lord Jesus has made a way,
opened a door in heaven by which he beckons sinners to come to
himself. He is the way and He is the door. And that door stands
wide open. Here it is. A wide open door. Jesus' blood and righteousness.
A wide open... Do you see it? Do you see it?
The Son of God made a way for sinners to approach the Holy
God acceptably. And He is the way. He is the
door. And that door standing open beckons
you. Come on in. Come on in. I go to greet guests
at my door, and when I see somebody that I'm interested in receiving
into my house, I open the door. Just open the door. Come on in.
Don't have to say anything else. Just open the door. You're welcome.
Now, if it's somebody I'm not interested in receiving, I may
pull that door back, peek around the corner, you know, hold my
foot against it so you can't push it open. But when it's somebody
I want to receive, the door is thrown open. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, O sinner, I'm
telling you, the door is flung wide open in glory for every
sinner who will come up and enter in. It's wide open. Will you
come? God Almighty in his providence
constantly shows you the vanity of all things in this world,
the brevity of life, the certainty of death, the sureness of judgment,
and the eternality of the world to come. And he says, come up
hither. God, the Holy Spirit, now strives
with you through many means. And he urges your heart to repentance,
saying, come up hither through the word that he's inspired.
You open this book and you read in the scriptures, these things
are written that you might believe on the Son of God and that believing
you might have life. was written for. Through the
preaching of the gospel, the Spirit of God speaks to your
heart. He calls you to repentance and faith in Christ and through
the preaching of your conscience. Some of you sitting here go to
bed at night. You went to bed last night and your heart pricked
with the Word. as though the finger of God were
in your heart, causing you pain, giving you no rest. It's the
Spirit of God speaking to you. You best hear what he says. He
says, come up here. Come up here. Today, oh, today,
if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. I quoted that
wrong. I said today, if you hear, The
book says today, if you will, hear his voice. If you will hear
his voice, don't harden your heart. Don't harden your heart.
The eternal, triune, glorious, gracious God waits in heaven
to be gracious and merciful to every sinner who comes to him
by faith in Christ. That's right. That's right. I
read in the book of God only one time that God got in a hurry to do
anything. One time. He didn't get in a
hurry creating the world. He didn't get in a hurry destroying
the world. And he's not in a hurry to destroy
the world again. But there's one time God got
in a hurry. In Luke chapter 15 we read of that prodigal. He
said, I'll arise and go to my father, and I'll say, Father,
I'm not worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of your hired
servants. And that prodigal arose. He came
to his father, and the scripture says, here's God. He's sitting on the throne of
glory in the ease of his suffering. He saw that prodigal coming. He ran, and he met him. And he
fell on his neck and he kissed him. He said, look here, my son
was dead, now he's alive. He killed a fatty cat. Bring
the robe, put it on his back. Put the ring on his finger and
shoes on his feet. Let's have a party. My son's
come home. That's the picture we have of
God Almighty loving to be gracious to sinners. Oh, how on earth,
how on earth can you resist such mercy? and hold your heart hard
against such compassion? I ask how, and I know how. Because you're still dead. And dead men don't feel anything.
Dead men aren't touched by anything. Dead men aren't moved by anything.
Oh Spirit of God, breathe upon these dead. And if he does, if he does, somebody's
going to come up hither. Somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. Secondly, come up hither. This
is the believer's inspiration. How often we're troubled and
cast down by the temptations and trials of this world. We're
running in a race. But man alive sometimes, those
hands get so heavy you just can't pick them up. And those feet
seem like they're cemented to the ground and you can hardly
move one foot in front of the other. This heart grows weary and begins
to faint. The enchanting cares of this
world seem to charm our hearts until it seems nothing matters
but perishing things of clay. Oh, what clods we are. What clods
of earth in love with clods of earth. But our Lord, being full of compassion,
forgives our iniquity and destroys us not. Many times he has turned
away his anger and would not stir up his wrath against us,
for he remembers that we are but flesh, a wind that passeth
away and comes not again. And just when it looks like we
will surely be overcome or surely turn aside in fair, are that
we will surely fall by the wayside just then. The eyes of these
hearts, weak eyes, dim eyes, they are that. But these eyes
somehow get a glimpse afresh of Jesus Christ, the author and
finisher of and of that great cloud of witnesses set before
us. You want to read about it? Turn over to Hebrews 12. Hebrews
chapter 12. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, the pictures
of one of those ancient Roman games They'd be seated at one end of
the Coliseum, a great assembly of men and women watching the
game, runners in a race. They're seated at the finish
line. They're seated there at the very goal to which the racers
are running. And here are the racers running,
running. It's a long race. They've not been running around
and around the track. They've been running out in the
country. They've been running for miles
and miles and miles, and they're just about ready to fall over,
just about ready to collapse, just nearly ready to give it
up. We can't make it any further. But then they get in sight and
see that cloud of witnesses around them, the gold lines right there. And that just kind of inspires
them. pick up their feet and they get a second wind and off
they go. This is the picture. We have seated in the heavens
a cloud of witnesses, men and women, who have run the race
before us. Let us lay aside then every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. the author and the finisher of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God. For consider him, him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds. You've not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. Our Lord reveals himself, the
author and finisher of our faith, He's seated on the throne of
glory. And he said, Merle, come on. Come on. Lindsay, come on. Come on. Keep up the race. Keep
up the race. He stretches out his hands. Says,
see what I endured for you? Come on. Come on. Come up in
there. Christ Jesus calls our hearts
away from the perishing things of this world. Oh, if you then
be risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above, not things
which are upon the earth. Set your affection upon things
that are above. Set your heart upon Christ. Oh God, set my heart on Him. Set my heart on Him, upon nothing
but Him. God, give me such a heart. He
calls us away from the weary arms of our flesh. to the glorious
arms of his everlasting strength. He calls our hearts away from
our trials and conflicts to our triumphs and conquests. The Son
of God turns our hearts away from ourselves to himself. He
says, come up hither. Fierce and long the battle rages,
but our help is near. Onward comes our great commander. Cheer, my comrades, cheer! Hold
the fort, for I am coming, Jesus signal still, wave the answer
back to heaven, by thy grace we will. And so he bids us come
to him, constantly be coming to him. How often we're inspired
along the way by these fresh tokens of his grace which cheer
our hearts. How blessed it is to the weary
heart to hear the Son of God, by some
means or other, speak in your heart and say, come up here. Sometimes my heart is drier than
my garden was last summer. The ground's parched and dusty. It seemed like it would just
soak up just a drop of dew in the morning. And this heart's
like a dry, parched land. Oh, just for a drop of dew from
heaven. Here it is. He makes himself
known, he says, come up hither. Just a drop causes that heart
to begin to beat with life again. Oh, blessed be God, he will not
leave us to ourselves. He will not leave us to ourselves.
Then thirdly, come up hither. This is the dying saint's consolation. There is an hour fixed by God's
irreversible decree, an hour appointed by God when every believer
will be called out of this world, called up to his home in heaven.
Very soon, you and I will hear this voice from heaven, and this
is the summons. He's going to come tap you on
the shoulder, come up hither. He's calling. The hour's coming.
The appointed moment has been fixed. How should we look upon
it? Well, this should be a subject
of joyful anticipation. Now, let me tell you, as far
as I can tell, if we are in Christ, truly united to Christ by faith,
there is absolutely no reason why any believer should dread
or fear that coming hour. There's absolutely no reason.
There's absolutely no reason why we should desire of God that
he prolong our days or that he delay the hour when he would
call us to himself. Believers ought to salute death
with intense delight and welcome its approach as we would welcome
the arrival of our best friend. We know, we know, that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a house
from God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Immediately. Immediately. I wonder if we know that. Do
you know that? I'm talking about know it. Do
you know that? If we do, we know that to be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And whether present or absent,
we labor that we may be accepted of him. Labor putting off our
flesh, putting off our confidence in the flesh, putting off all
fleshly confidence and looking to him only, trusting him only
that we may be accepted of him. I have no doubt that there's
absolutely no reason for a believer to fear the approach of death. It should rather be looked upon
as a matter of confidence and certainty. I have watched a few men die in my time. I have watched some die without
faith, and I have watched some die with
confident faith. And oh, every time I visit the
bed of a believer, one who has been faithful, one who has walked
with Christ through the thick and the thin, who has fought
the battles I come away asking, Lord God,
when my time comes, let me show men how to die. Let me show men
how righteous folks die, how men die who believe God. Oh, let me die the death of the
righteous. Let my last end be like his. I recall several years
ago, a friend of mine, Darwin Jr., or Sandy Thornberry's mother,
up in Ashland, Kentucky. I was in town. She called, wanted
me to visit her. I was laying in the hospital
room, eating up with cancer. I think Shelby went with me.
Went to visit her and chatted with her a little bit. The lady's
laying there dying, knowing she's dying. Not a word of anything but confidence
and praise gratitude, thanksgiving, not a shake in her hand, not
a tense nerve in her body. Oh, Bob, that's the way I want
to go. That's right. No reason why we shouldn't. We
anticipate that hour. Our Lord said, don't let your
hearts be troubled. You believe God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I'm going now. I'm going now. And when I do,
I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am, there
you may be also. And when the time comes, if I
go away, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there you may be also. That's what he's doing.
That's what he's doing. He's coming to get his own. Why
is it that we trust him so little. I know why. It's because we know
him so little. We just know him so little. If
we knew him better, we'd trust him better. My daughter comes up to me and
asks me if I'll do something. I've got the ability to do it.
She knows I've got the ability to do it, and I say, yeah, I'll
help you with that. I'll do that for you. Well, she
can bank on it. Man, she can just bank on it.
She'd been living with me for 16 years. I don't believe I've
ever told her I'd do anything I didn't do. In 16 years, I don't
think I've ever said to her, I'm going to do this, whether
it was good or bad. Never told her I was going to
do anything I didn't do. She'd bank on it. I expect her to bank
on it. She knows man. She knows she
can bank on it. If I knew the Son of God like
that, I could trust him like that. No wonder Paul said, oh,
that I may know him. Know him in the fellowship of
his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection being made
conformable unto his death. I know we're going to face a
holy God. But I know that God in holiness
cannot refuse us a home in heaven if we're in Christ. I know that
our sins must be punished to the full satisfaction of divine
justice. But I know that the blood of
Christ has satisfied the offended justice of God for all who believe. I know that without holiness
no man shall see the Lord, but I know that all who trust Christ
have been made perfectly holy, for they've been made the righteousness
of God in Him. I know that every man will be
judged according to strict justice, according to the record of his
works in the book of God. But I know that Christ's obedience
is my obedience, His works are my works, and His acceptance
is my acceptance. What then have I to fear? He's
coming, the hour's coming when he shall speak to my soul and
say, Don, come up here there. I anticipate it. I anticipate
it. I look forward to it. For in that day, the very same
voice that calls me from this life unto glory will speak to
me by virtue of my union with Christ, by virtue of Christ's
obedience, and say to me, Well done, thou good and faithful
servant, enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. I say that our departure from
this world should be a subject of joyful anticipation. And yet
it must also be an object of patient waiting. You remember
how Paul spoke in Philippians chapter one? He's writing to
the Philippians and he said, I'm in a straight. Chapter one,
verse 23, I'm in a straight betwixt two. I'm between a rock and a
hard place. I have a desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. I know it's better. I
know it's better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful. He said, I want to. I really
want to depart and be with Christ. But it's needful for me to stay
here for a while. It's needful for me to remain here for a while.
You see, the Lord knows best when it's time for us to be bidden
to come up hither. And we must patiently wait his
bidding. We must not. Now listen to me.
I think it's so important. We must not cling to this life
as though this life is all there is. Don't do that. Don't cling
to this life as though you just can't let it go. And yet at the
same time, we must not neglect our responsibilities in this
life as though there were no purpose for our existence upon
the earth. We are servants. Christ Jesus is our master. It
is ours to diligently serve his cause as long as he is pleased
that we should serve. Just that simple. It is ours
to diligently serve him with faith, with confidence, and with
patience until he says, come up hither. When George Whitefield
on one occasion was very sick and he thought he was at the
point of death, He had a black lady who was his nurse, and she
saw Mr. Whitefield almost anxious to
leave this world, and she said to him, no, Master Whitefield,
there'll be no dying for you yet. There are many a poor Negro
yet to be brought to Jesus, and you must live, and live he did. When Martin Luther's companion
Melanchthon was about to die, Martin Luther went to Melanchthon
and called upon God in his presence, called upon him with such fervency.
Melanchthon responded to him. He said, he said, Martin, let
me die. Let me die. And Luther said,
no, I can't let you die. The kingdom of God needs you.
The cause of Christ needs you. The cause of truth needs you. And Melanchthon was preserved
yet a while longer that he might serve the cause of Christ. This
is my prayer. Lord, let me live as long as
it pleases you. And as long as I live, make me
useful as you see fit for the souls of men in the glory of
Christ. And when the time comes for me
to come up hither, make me willing to go. I'm anxious. I really am. I'm anxious to be with the church
above. Oh, to be seated around that
throne, in that seat prepared for me before the world was.
I can't think of anything I'd rather have right now. But I would not leave the church
below until my work for her is done, until she no longer needs
me. I'm anxious, truly anxious, to enter the courts
of my king, to see the king sitting upon
his throne, in His royal beauty, in His glorious Godhead and perfect
manhood, in all the splendor of His being. Oh, blessed Son
of God, hasten the day, hasten the day. I'm anxious to enter
His courts, but I would not leave His vineyard until his vineyard
no longer needs me. I'm anxious to enter into rest,
eternal rest, glorious rest, anxious to be done with this
battle, anxious to be done with struggling against sin. I'm anxious
to be done with resisting Satan. I'm anxious to be done with my
own carnal passions. I'm anxious to be done with the
cares of this earth. I'm anxious to enter into rest. But I have no desire to rest
until my labor is over. Does that make sense to you?
I come over here and work and then take my work home and
work. And sometimes work until the
wee hours of the morning. So, why don't you go to bed? Get you some rest. My work's
not over yet. My work's not done yet. Can't
go to bed until my work's done. I'm getting ready to preach.
I can't go to bed until I get the sermon done. I can't go to
bed until the work's over. You understand what I'm saying?
Aren't you tired? Sure, I'm tired. Sure, I'm tired.
That bed looks so soft, so comfortable. Sure, I'd like to get in that
thing, but my work's not over. My work's not over. That's exactly
what I'm saying. I'm not speaking to you so I
don't have to impress you. And I'm certainly not trying to impress
God. I'm simply telling you what I honestly believe to be the
truth. I'm anxious for the rest, Lindsay. I'm anxious for the
rest. But I wouldn't lay my head down
to my work sofa. I would not enter the rest until
the labor is done. That's our Savior's purpose. I'm anxious to wear the victor's
crown. Yeah. Anxious for those days
of triumph. But I would not wear the crown.
until I've run the last step of my race and finished my course
with joy for the glory of Christ. When the hour comes and the Savior
says, come up hither, I'm quite confident that God's saints will
be ready. Paul said, I'm ready to depart.
I'm ready. The time of my departure is at
hand. I fought a good fight. I've kept the faith, I've finished
my course. Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but
unto all them also that love is appearing. Take one more brief
look at these words. Come up hither. This is the church's
blessed hope. Throughout the ages, God's saints
have always lived in hope of that glorious day. When Christ
Jesus shall come again, when Christ Jesus appears in his glory
and says to his elect, to his church, to his redeemed ones,
come up hither. We're looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior,
Jesus Christ. That day when he with the voice
of the archangel shall speak and the dead shall hear his voice
when he says, come up hither. Richard, do you really believe
it's going to happen? exactly like the book says it will happen,
exactly like the book says it will happen. For the scripture
speaks and says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, maybe these very words, maybe
these very words, with a shout for the voice of the archangel,
reverberating through the universe when King Jesus appears in his
glory and he says, come up, hither, and immediately, this is what
will happen, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. I don't know where he's buried.
He could be, may very well be some of the particles of his
ashes are laying in the fields around Danville, Kentucky. All
I know, I don't know where he is. He long ago returned to dust
and ashes, long ago. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Peter, Paul, James, and John, and all the multitudes who've
gone before, are going to come up out of their graves. They're
going to come up out of their graves with distinct physical
bodies, only difference being, immortal bodies, glorious bodies. Preaching nobody but a fool believe
that. Fool or a believer, one of the two. Fool is somebody
who believes God, one of the two. And when they do, the dead
shall rise first. And look at it now. Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. Just kind of catch on their heels,
rise up to meet the Lord in the air. We'll rise up with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Let me read you another text. You
know it. It'll do you good to hear it. Behold, I show you a
great mystery. We shall not all sleep. Not all
of us are going to go to the grave. But we shall all be changed,
both those who are in the grave and those who are out of the
grave, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible, this perishing form of clay must put on incorruption
and this mortal This perishing mortal body must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks, thanks, thanks be
unto God, which giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.