Tonight we're gonna be in the
book of Proverbs, if you would like to turn there. Proverbs chapter four. I thought we were gonna wrap
up Proverbs chapter four at the end, but I believe the Lord's
gave me one or two more messages after night with these little
verses that are here, so we'll see how he leads in that. Last
Wednesday that we gathered was two Wednesdays ago. And the title
of that message was, Who Are You Looking To? Who Are You Looking
To? And we elaborated by saying we
do not look to self and salvation. We do not look to our works.
We do not look to our merits, to our efforts. We don't look
to others to verify whether or not we're a believer or not,
whether we're the Lord's. We don't look to others' actions
or lifestyle and justify ourself, none of these things. But as
we heard in the call to worship, Hebrews chapter 12 says, looking
unto Jesus, that's who we look to. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame. That word despise
means that he paid no attention to it. didn't bother him, didn't
faze him because he had set his eyes like a flint to the work
that was given to him by the Father. So it didn't faze him,
didn't bother him. Men spitting upon him and beating
him and all kinds of manner of wicked things they were doing
to him and he didn't pay no attention to that. He said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. Why?
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. In that same text, Hebrews chapter 12, he tells us in verse
15, looking diligently, looking diligently, lest any man fail
of the grace of God. Now, can I make the grace of
God fail? No. Grace of God can never be a failure. But I can
fail to obtain the grace of God. I can fail at that because if
the Lord doesn't bestow it, I don't get it. I can try and try and
try, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna get it. Thank the Lord
any mercy beggar that's ever come to Him begging has received
mercy. Every mercy beggar that's come
to Him begging. The Lord's people desire to look to Him. Who are
you looking to? Well, the Lord's people desire
to look to Him. And I said, well, I'm not gonna
do too long of a recap on this, but who are you looking to? Well,
the Lord's people desire to look to Him, to see Him as Isaiah
did, seated high and lifted up with no glory for anybody else
but Him. His train filled the temple. The train filled the
temple. He is salvation to his people.
He is our only rest. When John the Baptist saw him,
and this is amazing to me, I'll back up just a second, because
when Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, was expecting him, and
word came from Mary that Jesus was going to be born, the baby
in the womb leapt. It leaped in her womb for joy,
the scripture says. How'd the baby know that? That's
the miracle of grace. These are things we don't understand,
but here's what I do know. As soon as John the Baptist lays
eyes on him the first time he sees him, the Lord coming afar
off, he's walking, and the Lord said, behold, the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world. How did he know that?
The same way you and I knew the first time we ever laid eyes
on Him that He is the Son of God, that He is the Lamb of God,
we laid on Him with the eyes of faith, the Lord revealed Himself
and we knew He's God, I'm not. If I'm gonna be saved, I'm gonna
have to have that Lamb. I'm gonna have to have His covering
and His righteousness. He revealed Himself by faith,
by faith, that's how He reveals Himself. Everybody else just
saw a man that day, didn't they? John the Baptist was baptizing.
That's the Lamb of God? You remember when he was in the
temple, the Lord was in the temple, and they were, he read from Isaiah,
and they wondered at his gracious words. They said, is this not
the carpenter's son? Is this not Joseph and Mary's
son? The little boy we watched growing up, is this not him?
They couldn't see that he was the Lord Jesus Christ, but Simeon
did. The priest, we heard about that
Sunday, I believe, when Simeon saw him. I think I wrote an article
on that, either this Sunday or the last Sunday, and he said,
as soon as he saw him, he said, thy servant can depart in peace.
Mine eyes have saw the salvation of the Lord. A little baby was
handed to him. How do you know that? You see, it's the same
revelation. The Lord chooses to reveal himself,
and we just stand in awe. Lord, I see you. Don't depart
from me. Let me continue to see you. Show
me your face. And that's our whole life as
a believer. We just pray, Lord, show me your face. Who are you
looking to? Well, we hope that we're looking to him. Hope that
we're looking to him as the all-sufficient lamb. He's the only one that
took the sin of God's people away. If we're looking to anyone
else or anything else, it ain't gonna do us any good, is it?
Not for salvation. Well, tonight we're gonna be
in the same text, but the question tonight is, What are you looking
for? So who are you looking to, but
what are you looking for? What are we looking for? We've
answered who we are looking to, but there's some things promised
that God's people are looking for. We look for things, not
things in ourself, not, well, let's read this text before I
get too much farther along. Proverbs 4, verses 24, I'm sorry,
25 through 27. Let thine eyes look right on,
and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path
of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not
to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. If we desire to look to him,
what are we looking for? What are we looking for? Now
he says, turn not to the right, turn not to the left, but look
straight on, look to Christ. If I desire to look to Him, what
am I desiring to look for? Am I looking for a reward for
my good deeds? Think about the question because
so many people are. They're looking as our, I have
children, as you all know, and sometimes they'll do things that
normally they wouldn't do, and they're doing that to get our
praise and our attention. They do that to help, and it's
genuine, but at the same time, they like the praise that we
give them. We're like, thank you so much for your help. You've
been a big help, and that's an encouragement, and also bolsters
their confidence. Is that why we come to the Lord,
to looking? Are we coming to have Him say, good job? You did
a good job. Are we looking for a pat on the
back? Are we looking for a reward? Some people do, some people do. Christ is the reward, isn't he,
to the Lord's people? Christ is the reward. So what
are we looking for? Are we looking for recognition
for our works? No, we know that we're dead dog
sinners, not capable of working anything that deserves recognition.
Matter of fact, Lord, don't recognize anything that I've done, please,
because if you do, I'm going to be condemned. That's what
we come begging. So we're not looking for recognition
and we're not looking for rewards, so what are we looking for? What
are we looking for? Looking to obligate God? Boy,
there's one so many. So many in this day and time,
they come looking to obligate God. I have cast out demons in
your name. I have done many wonderful works
in your name. Have I not done this for you?
Have I not done that for you? Have I not stayed married for
you? Have I not attended faithfully
for you? Tithed regularly for you? What
does the Lord say to that? Saddest words anyone will ever
hear. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.
No, we don't come to obligate God, that's an impossibility.
We don't come obligating God, do we? So what do we come for? What do we come for? What do we look for in the Lord? We'll turn to Jude chapter one. I've got three tonight. I had
a lot more and I said, no, we're not going to do all those. I'll
end up doing like I did Sunday and have to go part one and part
two on a Wednesday and I don't want to do that. We might, but
not yet. Jude, and it's only one chapter
right before Revelation. What does, I'm not talking about
everybody, I'm talking about the Lord's people. What does
the Lord's people come looking for? What Jude tells us, Jude
chapter one, verse 20. And 21, but ye beloved, and that's
important that we realize you see the word beloved, that's
beloved of God. That's the elect. That's the
one the Lord loves, the ones that he died for. But you, whom
the Lord loves, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking,
here it is, looking for the mercy, of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life. Can you testify to that? Can
you say that's what I come looking for? The mercy of God unto eternal
life. I don't come for any other reason.
I come looking for the mercy of God unto eternal life because
I know that if he doesn't show mercy, I know that if he doesn't
show mercy unto eternal life, I will not have eternal life.
I will not. But if he shows mercy, and he
said, I show mercy to whom I will show mercy, that's good news,
because he said, I will show mercy. So if he shows mercy according
to his good pleasure and will, and he chooses to show it to
you and I, that means it's unto eternal life. He doesn't show
half of his mercy, and it's either all or nothing with our Lord.
He shows mercy. By his grace, he shows mercy
unto his people. Scripture says, it is of the Lord's mercies we are
not consumed. His mercies are everlasting. You know what everlasting, I
say this all the time, but I keep saying it because I love saying
it. Everlasting means it never had a beginning and it never
had an end. The Lord's mercies never had a beginning. Now explain
that to me. Well, you can't and I can't either
one. but it never had a beginning and it'll never have an end.
And I don't understand that one either. Everything we know has a beginning
and has an end that's around us in this world. Not the Lord's
mercies. They're new every morning. Not
that they expire, not that they run out, not that they grow less
and less. Just to get us to understand with our little minds compared
to His, no, you can't exhaust the mercy of God. That's why
we keep coming. To whom coming? Looking for the
mercy. of the Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life. That's what we're looking for.
That's what we come looking for. Is that not true? That's what
we come looking for. And here's some good news for
the Lord's people, the Lord's children. He delights in showing
mercy to his children. He delights in it. What do you
delight in? We can't understand the Lord's
delight. It's a perfect delight, perfect delight. I may delight
in, well, I delight in my children, of course. They bring me joy.
I delight in showing them things, but we don't understand how the
Lord delights in his children, delights in showing them mercy.
That's glorious, isn't it? He delights in showing you mercy
if you're his. This is what we're looking for.
This is what we look for. We're looking for the precious
mercy. We know what mercy is, not getting
what we deserve, not getting the eternal torment and punishment
that was due us because we were sinners. We broke the law. Therefore,
wages of sin is death. But he didn't stop there. By
mercy and grace, he says the next part, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's why we
come looking for mercy. If he stopped at the beginning,
the wages of sin of death, we're in trouble. But what came in
next was mercy, but the gift of God. See, that's what took
away the death was the gift of God. That's how that that's how
that mercy works. That's why we are coming to him
each time begging for mercy. That's why. That's why. He took
the punishment due his people, that's getting mercy. That's
getting mercy. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. That's mercy. That's not getting
what we deserve. Christ laid his life down in
our room instead, bearing our sin. He wasn't guilty. Pilate
said, I found no fault with this man. How could he find no fault?
There was no fault to be found. And yet the Lord chose to lay
upon him the iniquity of us all, the Lord's people. And the Lord
bore that iniquity on the cross, putting it away by the sacrifice
of himself. That's called mercy. That's called
mercy. Now why would he do that, grace?
It's called mercy when he did it, but grace is the reason he
did it. Grace is the reason. He chose in his sovereign, omnipotent,
precious power and purpose to save some dead dog sinners. And he did it by mercy and by
grace alone. so that you and I don't get to
go brag to anybody on what we've done. We don't get to come to
the Lord looking for a handout or because of something we've
merited or looking for a reward. Christ is the reward to the Lord's
people. We don't look to obligate God. We look, Lord, just give
me Christ. Just give me mercy. Just give
me grace. This is why we come. This is what we come looking
for. Lord, excuse me, when the Lord And the Lord's mercy, there's
no other place to see mercy and grace displayed any greater than
the cross. And when it was displayed, that
display is evidence for all time and eternity that the Lord's
people have been set free from the bonds of sin and death. That
their sins have been cast into the depths of the sea. I like
to call it the sea of forgetfulness. It'll never be remembered again.
The sea of forgetfulness. That's what he promised. This
is what the Lord did by his grace. This is what the Lord did according
to his mercy. No more sin. He paid the full
debt. The inscription that was above
us that we contrary to us, the Lord took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross. It said guilty. He took the inscription
and he knelt it to his cross. And now the banner above us says
perfectly righteous because of the sacrifice of himself. That's
what he did for his people. That's mercy. That's why we come. We come to him. We come to him
for mercy. He's the only bringer of it.
He's the source of it. He's the provider of it. Without
him, there is no mercy. There is no grace. By his mercy, he pardoned me.
By His grace, He paid what I owe. Had the Lord not given mercy, we would have died in our sins.
Eternal separation from Him, eternal darkness from Him. We
would have been without hope, without God. He didn't have to
come to where we were and say, live. He didn't have to choose
me. He was God. He could have chose
anybody according to His will. He didn't need me, and He didn't
need you. There's never a time that should arise in our life
that makes us think that I'm better than somebody else because
I've been chosen. No, you're probably worse than everybody
else and that's why you're chosen. Isn't that right? He didn't chose
the vessels of honor that were honorable first. He chose the
wretches and the vile ones and the polluted ones and the lepers
and then he made them a trophy of his grace and his mercy. A
vessel of honor, and he puts them on a shelf, and all they
do is just display his glory. They don't get any glory for
themselves. You ever seen a pot and thought, boy, that pot made
itself look really good? No, that's silly, isn't it? You
ever seen a painting and thought that painting painted itself
real nice? Boy, I bet that was a nice brush that was used on
it. No, all the glory goes to the
artist, goes to the potter. Potter hath power over the clay
to make one lump of honor or one to dishonor. That's what
the Lord did by mercy, by mercy and by grace. He saved us, made
us vessels of honor. He said, but God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. We dead dog hell deserving sinners
were made the very righteousness of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he bowed his head on the cross and said, It is finished.
Our inscription reads perfectly righteous. That's mercy. That's mercy. One of the writers
said in Ephesians 2, but God, who is rich in mercy for his
great love, wherein he loved us even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are
saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places. In Christ Jesus, he's rich in mercy. I like that. He's
rich in mercy. He can't run out. He can't run
out. This, this is why we look for
mercy. When we come, we look for mercy. What do you come to Christ for?
I come for mercy. I come begging the king for mercy.
Have mercy on me, the sinner. Have mercy. Jude also tells us here why we
look for mercy. Look at verse 24 and 25. Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and ever, amen. He's the only one that
can keep us from falling and the only one that can present
us faultless before the presence of his glory. You remember Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory. And what did the Lord say? No
man can look upon my face and live. You can't see my glory.
Well, Jude just says right here, Jude just says that he can present
you and me by his mercy and grace. Because of his precious blood,
he can present us faultless before the presence of his glory, not
in terror, but in an exceeding joy. Exceeding joy. We can be in his presence with
exceeding joy. Knowing our sins been forgiven.
That's called mercy. That's called mercy. That's why
we look for mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
able to keep us from falling and present us faultless. All
by his mercy. What great expectations we have
coming unto our Lord and do you know why? Because of his promises. He said, ask and you shall receive.
We don't come to him expecting in demand. Our children sometimes
will be at a grocery store, and they'll see something they want.
They get the gimme's. They'll say, I want this. I want that. And
they demand it. Give me this. No, you're going to ask nicely,
first of all. Then they asked lastly, and I said, no, put it
back. And they said, but I asked nicely. I said, it doesn't matter.
You still can't have it. We don't come to the Lord like that. No,
we come to the Lord as we are, sinners needing the Savior. We
come begging mercy. Lord, I don't deserve this. But
Lord, if you don't give me this, I'm going to die. I see that
now. I was blind, but now I see without
you, I'm dead. Lord, save me. Lord, please save
me. Save me. You know what he says? ask and you shall receive. He
promised and he cannot lie. I love that. He never turned
away a mercy beggar. Not one time. Not one time. What are you looking for? Looking
for mercy. Looking for mercy. The second one we're looking
for is found in Titus chapter two, if you'd like to turn there. The second one is the first part
of the verse, and the third one is the second part
of the verse, but I'm gonna go ahead and read 13 through 15. Titus chapter two, verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope,
in the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purifying to himself a particular people,
zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. What
are you looking for? The first part of chapter 13
tells us, looking for that blessed hope. Looking for that blessed
hope. I'm looking for that blessed
hope. It's the same hope that they had in the Old Testament,
that the Lord Jesus Christ would put away their sin. That's the
hope we have, is that the Lord Jesus Christ put away our sin.
It's the hope of eternal life, found only in one person, in
one place, the Lord Jesus Christ. not by the choice that I've made,
but by the choice God made before time ever began to redeem His
people. God said, I'm going to elect a people. And the Son said,
I will redeem those people. And the Spirit said, I will regenerate
those people. And thereby, they made the covenant of grace and
redeemed the Lord's people right then and there in eternity. And
then in time, the fullness of time come, God sent forth His
Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, His chosen people. And that's exactly what
He did. We're looking for mercy and we're looking for the blessed
hope of eternal life found in the Lord's electing and the Lord's
saving and the Lord's calling and the Lord's keeping. There's
hope in that. If there's not. If there's not hope. Well, let
me say it this way. There is no hope outside of the
Lord being absolutely sovereign. If he is not absolutely, and
really we use the word absolutely to try to put more of an explanation
point on it, but just sovereign is enough. Sovereign stands on
its own. I mean, there's nothing that
compared to sovereign. It means alpha, it means the supreme. There's
nothing else that can touch that. But we say the supremely sovereign
in words like that to try to make it more exclamatory. But it doesn't even need that.
He's the sovereign. He's the highest of the high.
That's who he is. And if he's the one that chose
to save, there's none that can stop him. There's rest in that.
But if he's not sovereign, I have no hope of eternal life. If it's
left up to me, I'm going to mess it up. I'm going to make the
wrong decision. I'm going to say the wrong thing.
I'm going to do the wrong thing. I am bound to this nature of
sin. And I am with Paul when he said
the things which I would do, I do not. But that which I would
do, that which I would not do, that's what I find myself doing.
And you don't even mean to do it. Don't even mean to do it.
Don't even mean to thank it. Don't even mean to say it. There
it is again. Lord, I repent again. Lord, have mercy. Here I come. I'm coming to you again for mercy.
Lord, save me again for myself. I'm made a mess of things again. What are we looking for? We're looking for the hope found
in Christ alone. That by grace are you saved through
faith. There's hope in that. Saved by
the sovereign God, the only sovereign, potentate, King of kings and
Lord of lords, the one who formed the world and all that there
is in the universe by speaking it into existence. That's who
we hope for. We hope in his glory. We hope
in his power. We hope in his sovereignty. We
hope in his shed blood for the remission of sin. Other than
that, there is no remission of sin. This is what we come to
him for. Hope, the blessed hope. Paul
said, if we had hope in this world only, we'd be of all men
most miserable. Aren't you glad our hope's not
in this world? It's not in this world. Our hope's out of this
world. People say, I heard an advertisement recently, actually,
that said, you won't believe this, it's out of this world.
I was like, well, I know something that is out of this world. My
Lord is out of this world, and I can't, I can't fathom Him. Can't fathom him, and I'm sure
they meant just astronomical or magnificent, or they're trying
to come up with different ways to sell whatever, I get that,
but the Lord's not of this world. He made it. Everything that's
ever came out of this world, other than the Lord Jesus Christ,
came out of this world. That's what I mean by that. It
was born in this world, it was created in this world, it lived
and it died in this world, and that's the end of it. Not him.
No, he made the earth and all therein is and then chose to
become one of the creatures to redeem his elected creatures
back to him. And that's what he did. And that's
the glorious hope that we have. The blessed hope that's mentioned
here is eternal life that he chose to do. We have that hope. We have that hope in earthen
vessels, as it's mentioned in the New Testament. Earthen vessels,
that's what we are. Don't ever forget, people think,
and you know it's you too, me too. I'm not putting you in a
category I'm not in. We're the same. Sometimes we
forget we're just dust. Is that not true? How often do
we forget? We get aggravated, well I deserve
this, I deserve that, or I get frustrated about this, and I
need this. What does dust need? It needs
to be gotten up and thrown away. And yet the Lord didn't take
us off the shelf and throw us away. He made a vessel of honor
out of us. Think about that. That's mercy. We didn't get what
we deserve. We forget that we're but dust.
And yet the Lord chose to save us by his grace. He didn't have
to breathe the breath of life into us, but he did for his glory.
What hope we have in a Savior that did it all and did it all
by his mercy and grace, not requiring one thing of you, not one thing. Didn't ask you for anything.
Didn't offer you anything to contribute. Didn't say, well,
if you have 10 cents in your pocket right now, then you can
have eternal life. Didn't say that. Didn't say that. It's not about that. He says,
behold, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my
beloved son. That's what he's satisfied with.
What hope? Not in me or you, but he provided
everything that he required. Everything that he required for
salvation for his people, he provided. What a blessed hope. God satisfied God by his own
blood. He said it is finished. That's
why we look for a blessed hope. God satisfied God on our behalf. We couldn't do it. Still can't
do it, can we? He did it. He did it. Why is it a blessed hope that
we look for? Well, number one, the Father
was pleased. Father was pleased by his son.
That gives hope. Father was satisfied with the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know he resurrected
his son? That's evidence he said he was resurrected because of
our justification. It's the word for there, but
look that up, it's the same word as because. So what that means
is, is the Lord was satisfied with the Son resurrected Him,
because we had been justified. The grave couldn't hold Him or
us because we were in Him. So the Father was satisfied.
That's why this is a blessed hope. That's a blessed hope.
Second thing would be, it's the only hope of salvation for sinners.
Name me anything else that saves a sinner from their sins. Name
another salvation. There is no other. No other name
given among men, whereby we must be saved. This is the only way.
Christ said, I am the way, period. The way, the truth, and the life.
No man come to the Father but by me. This is it. That's why
we come to him. That's what we come looking for
is this blessed hope. And the last reason it's a blessed
hope is because if we're hoping anything else that's been revealed,
that's futile. Anything else is futile. This
is the only hope that's not futile. The only hope that's not futile. I promised I wouldn't get off
on those three points from the other points, so we wouldn't
end up with six points, and I did okay there, I think, so. What
are the Lord's people looking for? The blessed hope found in
the Lord Jesus Christ, which brings us to our last point.
You see verse 13 here? Let's read that again. Looking
for the blessed hope, and here's the second, and actually the
third, what we're looking for as the Lord's people, the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We're looking for the appearing.
Why do you look to him? What for? For his appearing. I'm looking for his appearing.
What are you looking for? I'm looking for his appearing.
All the Lord's people are looking for his return. Turn to 2 Peter
chapter three. Second Peter chapter 3. Look at verse 9 through 14. The
Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count
slackness, but as long suffering to us word. Now you gotta understand
that word us word. If you go back to the very beginning
and I'll just show us case anybody else ever listens to this. It's
never heard this before. Second Peter chapter three, verse
one says this second epistle beloved very first verse, very
first verse of chapter three, this second epistle beloved.
That's who he's talking to. The beloved of the Lord, the
loved of the father, the elect. That's who he's talking to. Now,
verse nine, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some
men count slackness, but as long suffering to us word, the beloved,
not willing to any of the Lord's people should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness?" Looking for and hasting. under the coming of the day of
God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless, according
to his promise, look for new heavens and new earth wherein
dwell righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
in him in peace, be found of him in peace without spot and
blameless." And blameless. What are we looking for? Looking
for and hasting for the coming of the day of God. We're looking
for His return. What are we looking for? His
return. We look earnestly for His return. Scripture says, He
shall ascend. And you know what'll happen after
He ascends? His people will, when He descends,
will ascend. We'll meet Him in the air. will
be made like him. We long for that day as his people. We grow weary of this earth. There's things we go through
that we enjoy doing. But in all in all, we feel like
pilgrims and strangers. We feel in a weary land, in a
place of lies and deceit. And this is our home. This is Zion. This is where the Lord's city,
his kingdom is built with his people. We long to see him and
be made like him. Scripture says, in a moment,
in a twinkling of an eye, when the trump of God shall sound,
the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and
remain shall be called up together to be with him in the air, and
so shall we ever be with the Lord. When this mortal shall
put on immortality, when this body of death dies, the new man
created in righteousness will spring forth. The world will
call him forth. We'll just, you imagine just,
It's hard to enter into this, but you just drop the robe that
you've been carrying, the corpse that's been on your back your
whole life, you just drop it, it's gone, and you're weightless,
and you start flying. Made perfectly righteous. It's
already there, you just can't see it. You're his. Glorified
body right then and there, see him face to face. You may just
like him. No more sin, no more sorrow,
no more sickness, no more dealing with, All the troubles and trials,
no more unbelief. How about that one? No more unbelief.
What are you looking for? Looking for that. No more unbelief. What I believe helped my unbelief.
Looking for his return. That's what we're looking for.
We'll never transgress our father's word ever again. Never do nothing
but perfectly praise him. Can you imagine, I get to have
a perfect voice one day, You do too. We're going to be able
to sing together and there isn't going to be a competition of
who sounds better or. Oh, it's all going to be about
him and we're all going to sing 100%. We're all going to put
every every bit of being that we are at that time into it.
Just singing his praises. Why? Because he's worthy. He's worthy. What are you looking
for? I'm looking for his return. I'm looking for his return. Get
to sit at his feet like Martha. Get to hear him talk. Just hear
him speak. Just, I promise you this, all
of the Lord's people will be silent that whole time just because
he's the one talking. We ain't got nothing to say.
What are you gonna tell the Lord? Oh, that we can praise him, we
can thank him, but that he don't need to know nothing from us.
He already knows everything. No, he knows everything. Tell
me something. I don't, I know nothing. Is that not the truth?
No, I'm looking. I could put another point down.
What are you looking for? Everything from him. I need everything
from him. I am nothing. I need everything
from Him. We'll be saying, Alleluia, worthy
is the Lamb, which was, which is, which is to come. By His
mighty hand, He saved us. By His purpose, He called us.
By His power, He kept us. Worthy is the Lamb, which was,
which is, and which is to come. All glory and honor and praise
to the lamb that was slain. This is why we look for his return.
This is why we look for his return. I know some of you, and I'm not
gonna look at anybody, that way nobody will feel like I'm targeting
them, but some of you older ones, I'll look down, that's what I'll
do. You have aches and pains more so than some of us younger
ones do, and I've been told the older you get, the worse they
get. And it's true, isn't it? And one of these days you won't
hurt anymore. No pain, no sorrow, no sickness, no woes, no worries,
no concern. What a day that will be, just
perfect peace. You ever felt the Lord's presence?
You felt his peace before in this life by his grace? He just
passes by, blows upon you just for a moment and you just rest. That's in the new man rejoicing
that's still bound inside this corpse. One of these days, that's
going to bust free and there's going to be nothing holding it
back. It would kill us if we did it right now. It would have
to bust forth. But one day after a while, we're
going to have that. And it will never end. The joy, unspeakable
and full of glory that will never end. We don't understand that
because everything happens right now. Five minutes from now we're
gonna leave this place and who knows what's gonna happen. A
deer might run in front of us and scare us and we forgot half
the things we heard and rejoice. We're not rejoicing anymore,
we're frightened again. That won't happen there. It'll just
continually be peace. Continually be joy. What are
you looking for? I'm looking for that. A place
to finally rest at my Savior's feet. Finally rest. There's no rest in this world
other than with the Lord's people, other than in worship. Is there
the only place that we have to rest? Notice verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
in him in peace, without spot and blameless. He told us to
look for such. We said the title of the message is what are you
looking for? He tells us here, look for such things. Here's
the return of the Lord, the promise of the new heavens and the new
earth and the Lord coming back. Now he says, now look for those
things, look for them. That's the encouragement right
here from Peter. Desperately seek his face, is what he's saying.
Cry out for mercy, just as we've already talked about. Always
be watching for his appearing. Now quickly, in closing, I just
wanna go back and read our text. I want us to see the correlation
there between what we've been talking about with looking. We look, who do we look to? We look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and what do we look for? Well, Proverbs 4.25 says, let
thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight
before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet,
and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor
to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. What are we looking for? We're
looking for His mercy and His grace promised to His people
first. We're looking for that blessed
hope of eternal life found only in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the blessed hope that He promised. Looking for that. And lastly, we're looking for
the glorious appearing of our Savior. We're looking for His
return. We're looking for His return.
Return of our great God and Savior. And we say with the writer, even
so come, Lord Jesus. Let's pray. Father, cause us
to be ever diligently looking for you. Cause us to leave the
cares of this world behind and look unto you. You'll have to
make us and we desire it, Lord. Bless us to our understanding,
all for your glory in Christ's name. Amen.