Everything About Jesus's 1st And 2nd Coming EXPLAINED

We are in the applied series on Wednesday nights. We're going through Bible prophecy. What does the word of God say about prophetic things? That is future events. Uh and um God, by the way, tells us in the Bible we are to know them, not avoid them. We are to be paying very close attention to what is over 1/4 of the entire Bible is uh the prophetic word of God, where God is speaking to us about future events.

And uh we're looking at tonight part two uh of our message titled The Coming of the King. And uh we're looking at these uh biblical events regarding uh what does it mean regarding the coming of the king? And we looked at that by way of last week uh looking at the kingdom realities of God's uh rule and reign. And how many things that God speaks to us in the Bible about are regarding uh his kingdom coming, his kingdom established. Uh but in advance, he has put his kingdom in our hearts as believers.

And even if you're not a believer tonight, and somebody is telling you the gospel, which is Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and mine, and rose again three days later from the dead according to the Bible, and according to eyewitness accounts, and according to Bible prophecy, if you repent of your sins and trust him for his love and for his sacrifice, the Bible says you will be saved. When when I say that, that's for the kingdom of God is near you. Imagine that. The kingdom of God IS NEAR YOU, AND IT'S GOD'S desire that the kingdom OF GOD MOVE INSIDE of you. And that happens when you say yes to the Holy Spirit, yes to the salvation of God that is in Christ Jesus. And when you say yes, the Bible says that God comes in and he sets up his throne in your life, inside of you. And that is by the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, when we talk about the kingdom, the kingdom is now around you, but if you've accepted the kingdom of God, it is residing within you, but hallelujah, the kingdom is yet still coming. The When Christ returns, and we're going to talk about some of this tonight, he's going to establish his kingdom on Earth forever. And uh we look forward to that. Bible has talked about that from Old to New Testament.

Of course, the theme verse is John chapter 14, verse 29. We love this because um Jesus said, "And now I have told you before it comes that when it comes to pass, you may believe." So, uh Bible prophecy should lead us to a deeper understanding. And um repeatedly, by the way, the Bible teaches us that in the last days, uh there's going to be many uh false doctrines and false uh teachers that are going to be coming along promoting heresies, uh which these heresies, these false religions, Jesus warned us about, uh have their origin in Satan himself. And we talked about him uh quite a few weeks ago.

But in our last time together, uh we introduced ourselves to the glorious aspect of God's kingdom. And it's a kingdom that's in a collision, and it's a beautiful collision. Ha. It's the It's God's kingdom of light and of glory colliding with the kingdom of evil and darkness. And that's what you and I are living through right now. All the evil and ugly in the war and the death you see in the world, none of us cheer that stuff on, but we do understand that it's going to be like that. And Jesus said it's going to increase until he returns. What we're to pray for and stand up and fight for is that righteousness would prevail. There's no room, listen, I'm going to shock some of you, there's no room in the Bible for somebody to be a pacifist when your family is under attack by lunatics or your nation is under attack. Did you know that? Well, what about turn THE OTHER CHEEK? THAT'S REGARDING personal insult. If somebody personally insults you, you're to turn the other cheek. IF SOMEBODY PICKS UP A KNIFE AND GOES after your wife or your kid, you do not turn your other cheek. Do you understand that? God put that within you to exercise self-defense and God put it within nations with borders to defend themselves. God God did that. And people don't like to hear that cuz most people live in a theory. They do live in a theory. Most people live in a theory. Well, I don't like that that kind of talk. It doesn't matter. Right now, the Sudanese are trying to stay alive BECAUSE THEY'RE BEING INVADED BY ISIS and terrorist organizations. They don't live in a theory. People who Listen, people who are comfortable live in a theory. They can dream dreams and they can play games because they can afford to. But when an enemy attacks, reality hits. And that's wake up time.

And so, um Bible's very clear about that. Please mark these verses down in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 cuz it matters where we're going tonight. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 says, "Now the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, expressly says that in the latter times, I believe it's now, these days, some will depart from the faith. Doesn't tell us why, but it tells us how. They're going to give heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons." This is pretty uh crazy, pretty intensifying uh our our uh alertness this way. Jesus said in the last days, the apostles said in the last days, there's going to be uh an uh an advent or a release of or the coming of demonic spirits and deceiving spirits that are going to put out there false teaching, doctrines of demons. Now, demons are not going to preach it, humans will preach it. But the demons will be manipulating people. Cults, occult. Aberrant way of thinking. Some of the deception as we've talked about in the past, impossible to detect unless the Holy Spirit is in you. He will warn you.

Next verse. We have quite a few of these verses. Uh 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1 says, "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies." Okay, everybody, that's a big warning. If you're Christian tonight, wherever you go to church, even here, always be on the guard for weirdos. There Listen, you know what? This is a big church. Big church, big problems. Big church, big blessings. Big church, big influence. Big church, big attacks against it. And people come all the time to try to bring in destructive heresies. Listen, we've had to have people they were so We've In the last couple of months, we've had two Jesus's show up here at in services. They didn't look They looked completely different, by the way. But two We had two different Jesus's show up saying they were Jesus. Last week or the week before, a God's anointed prophet came here. And he said, "Can I talk to you?" And I said, "Well, after I'm done greeting people." I was greeting you guys up front on the Sunday morning, and he got kind of impatient. And then he came up to me and he said, "I need to talk to you now." And I said, "For being God's anointed, you're not very patient." >> [applause] >> And um But the You see, that really happens. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But anyway, Huh? It's biblical. False prophets among the people even as there will be false teachers among you who will secret who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. That doesn't mean that happens in the instant, it means their destruction is in route. It's moving quickly to get to them even though you would want to see something happen right in that moment. Uh God is the one who exercises his vengeance. Verse two, and many will follow. That's a sad word in Greek. It means this. And not a few will follow their destructive ways. A lot of people will go after them. WHY? BECAUSE OF WHOM THE WAY OF TRUTH will be blasphemed. Deception, remarkable.

Um this is the age in which you and I live in and as I've been harping on this lately a lot and that is if you don't know your Bible, you're going to get sucked up into this stuff. Matthew's gospel warns us. Uh now as he Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, "Tell us when will these things be?" He was speaking about the end of the age and the destruction of the temple and all that stuff. He says, "Tell us when when will the They said, "When will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming?" And three-part question, "And the end of the age or the end of the world?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "Number one, take heed that no one deceives you." WOW. FOR MANY WILL COME IN MY NAME SAYING, "I am the Christ or I'm THE MESSIAH" AND WILL deceive many. Verse 24, "For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders that is uh demonic, miraculous things. If possible, even uh the elect are deceiving even the very elect, which means again I always tell you guys take the word if and hug it. Give it a big hug because that means it's impossible for the elect to be deceived, but the deception's going TO BE SO BAD THAT the only ones who are not going to be deceived are God's elect. His people. By the way, that applies that has always applied to any age of his saints, any age of his believers, his people.

Verse 25 says, "See, I have told you beforehand," Jesus says. And then Matthew chapter 24 verse 45 tells us this. "Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find him so doing? ASSUREDLY, I SAY TO you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, listen, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and to drink with drunkards." In other words, people would say, "I don't think Jesus is coming back soon. I believe in Jesus. I don't think he's coming back soon." And you listen, when you really believe that, you get sloppy with your life. Cuz you think you got time. You think you can what? Play God. I don't I don't mean play like you are God, but playing him like a instrument. You can't do that. Verse 50, "The master of that servant will come in a day when he is not looking for him and in an hour when he is not aware of." Wow, very important.

And the Bible tells us regarding uh those that uh deny, those that put off the belief in the understanding that Christ could come. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 says, "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come." I really believe we're in these days. I really do. And the word perilous means to wear you down. Like a plane and wood, just blade whittling down the wood. "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control." Wow. "Brutal, despisers of good." They hate good. "Traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Here's the kick. "Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. From such people turn away." They look like believers, but when you're not looking at them, that's who they really are.

And then there's a there's a quote. I I don't know if this is up on the There it is. Okay, good. But one of the paramount teachings of false prophets will be that of mocking. Number one, the return of Jesus Christ both for his church as well as number two, his second coming to the nation of Israel and to the Jewish people. Listen, these are the things we're going to be looking at tonight. Don't be a mocker. Well, you know, I know you go to a church or you're the pastor that says Jesus is coming back. I'm not the pastor that says Jesus is coming back. The Bible says Jesus is coming back and I'm repeating what the Bible says. THERE'S SO MANY PEOPLE THAT THEY WANT TO QUOTE THE BIBLE, BUT THEY DON'T KNOW the Bible, and then when you quote the Bible, they think you're wrong. It's amazing to me. But men are lovers of themselves. Remarkable.

So, I'm going to show you this. Get ready. Uh here's an umbrella. I'm going to show you this umbrella. Hopefully, it's going to help for tonight. The coming of the king. I want you to think of it tonight as we go through this study as a giant umbrella. And all you need to be concerned about, no matter who you might be tonight or who wherever you are you're watching, just look at right now these three categories. Coming or the coming of the king. We're talking about Jesus Christ. There is the first coming of Christ, which you guys are experts in by now on Wednesday nights. And there's the second coming of Christ, both of them on the on on the outer ends of our umbrella, our prophetic umbrella. And in the middle of those two comings is the appearing, we'll call it the appearing of the king. It's not an official theological coming. It's a it's an appearing. Now, those words will sometimes be used interchangeably, not to worry. The context dictates what is a coming and what is a what is an appearing. And this is very important, guys, you understand this. Uh it's critical that you understand this.

Number one, let's dive into this. The coming of the king, number one, let's go to the first coming. I'm going to ask you to uh dive in and go and let's let's just go fast. The king's first coming. When people talk about the coming of Jesus Christ, I want you in this church to be able to say, "Are we talking about the coming of Christ? Yes, we are." Okay, let's be clear. Which coming are you talking about? Because it matters where we go in our Bibles to explain these things. It's critical. Why? Because if you say, "Let's talk about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." If you don't know what category, what column we're talking about, you are going to mix scriptures up. Are you hearing? And you're going to you're going to quote or you're going to think that there's certain events applying to a certain column WHEN THEY DO NOT. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S TALKING about the return OF CHRIST. And it may be talking about the return of Christ, but you're in the wrong column. And this is but just so vitally important.

So, we're looking first of all, the King's first coming. Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 tells us, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons." Even though that does seem to tend to talk about Bethlehem, it's not Bethlehem. Jesus was, of course, born in Bethlehem. We are talking about him being born of Mary, the virgin. But we're talking about the mission. The first coming mission was to redeem mankind, and all those who put their faith in him are those who are adopted by God. And you might be here tonight saying, "Well, well, am I adopted by God?" I don't know, are you? Well, I want to be. Well, then you are adopted by God. Well, how how Well, what about me? I don't want to be. You you're not adopted by God. You want to make a big deal about it? Go sit in the corner and try to figure that out. Here's the deal. If you want him, it's because he's called out to you. If you don't want him, it's because he knew that when he called out to you, he knew that you would reject him. So, IF YOU WANT HIM, GRAB HIM. TAKE HIM. BUT IF YOU DON'T WANT HIM, that's on you. He died on the cross for your sins anyway.

But check this out. I'm calling this the advent of the promised new covenant. Look at Jeremiah 31. The first coming of Jesus Christ is all about the fulfillment of this. And by the way, this will continue to be fulfilled until Christ comes in the second coming. But we're talking the first coming right now. "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. I love saying that like that and cuz I'm reading the Old Testament. All of our Jewish friends say, "We don't read the new covenant. You guys do that. You're Christians." Yeah, well, guess where we got the IDEA FROM? JEREMIAH 31. With the house of ISRAEL AND WITH THE house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. He's talking about the Ten Commandments. My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Church family, listen. Christ came in the first coming to institute and to initiate this. And then he was rejected as prophesied in scripture, and the Jews who were saved took the gospel all the way TO WHERE YOU'RE SITTING TONIGHT. When the seven-year tribulation period comes, God is going to double down on Israel again and fulfill this in totality. That's what the seven years are for. Amazing.

Luke chapter 4, all this dovetails together. Luke chapter 4 verse verse 16, Jesus' words are in yellow on this on this display. So, he, that's Jesus, came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. Okay, that's amazing because that's 66 chapters, but there were no chapter breaks. There were no verses. And he turns to this portion of scripture. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written. Verse 18, "The Spirit of THE LORD IS UPON ME because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the recovery of sight to the blind." All this has to do with his first coming. "To set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable YEAR OF THE LORD." DO YOU SEE why I have those little parentheses there around that around that uh period? You want to know why that's there? Jesus stopped reading. He wasn't supposed I mean he knew exactly what he was doing. But the BUT IT KEEPS GOING. HE STOPS LIKE MID-SENTENCE. He closes the book. Look what happens. THEN HE CLOSED THE BOOK. That's weird. He closes the book and he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to SAY TO THEM, "TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE IS FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING." WHY? IT'S HIS FIRST COMING. THAT WAS HIS FIRST COMING. And here's what's amazing. HE STOPPED AT THAT PERIOD that you have IN YOUR BIBLE RIGHT THERE. IF HE WOULD HAVE KEPT READING, his next line would have been, "And to bring the VENGEANCE OF ALMIGHTY GOD." HE'S HE STOPPED. HE DIDN'T KEEP READING. WHY? Because the vengeance of the Almighty God is coming at the end of the 7-year tribulation period. We've been rescued by a little period right there. >> [laughter] >> Amazing.

There's more. Look at Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. Kind of the same thing. "Behold, I send my messenger, AND HE WILL PREPARE THE WAY before me. And the Lord whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. You've read that in the New Testament, haven't you? Even the messenger of the covenant, and you now know what that is, WHOM YOU DELIGHT. BEHOLD, HE IS COMING, SAYS the Lord of hosts. You know what? If I would have kept reading in Malachi 3 verse 2, if I if I get through my notes, you'll see that would have been a lot of trouble because verse 2 tells you that he will bring vengeance and judgment upon the nations. He stops. God's promises.

Matthew chapter um 21. You guys okay? >> Yes. >> I know this is abusive. You just get a wave of verses after another, but at least it's Bible verses rather than recipes and potluck instructions. Uh Matthew 21 verse 1. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say" This is the code word. "The Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them." All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a colt uh uh a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'" You guys, that's New Testament quoting Old Testament to confirm this was his first coming. SO, WHEN SOMEBODY SAYS, "LET'S TALK ABOUT THE COMING OF CHRIST." WHICH ONE? First coming or the second coming? Because, listen, everything that was prophesied in the Bible about his first coming, he fulfilled it. Hang on cuz I love saying what I'm about to say. I really like just digging it in. Kind of turning the knife. Every prophecy in the Old Testament that was written about his first coming before Jesus died on that cross, he fulfilled them. What does this mean? Not Not 97%. What's like this Nostradamus crazy stuff you hear? You know, it's it's a December It's December 31st and we're going to review Nostradamus' prophecies of the future. He was 71% accurate. And the things that he was accurate about, you have to be a dreamer to figure out what he was talking about. By the way, if you are a biblical prophet and you're 71% accurate, what happens, Neil? You were stoned to death. So, if 100% of the prophecies by the prophets relating to Jesus' first coming were literally fulfilled, then how many What's the percentage you think of his second coming? 100%. Doesn't take an Einstein to figure that out. You need to trust Christ tonight. You need to believe and follow him now. Amazing.

So, I'm going to SHOW YOU THE UMBRELLA AGAIN. Things regarding the first coming, we just touched on that. Those are Those are things that that you can study deeper. That was the first coming. And then the second thing is his uh the uh appearing. We're going in chronological order. So, what do you mean this thing the the appearing? And I'm going to ask you to mark down uh point number two tonight, and it is this under our umbrella, is that we're talking about the King's one and only appearing. There's the King's first coming, there's the King's second coming, but there's the King's one and only appearing. Now look, this is a non-denominational church and a lot of non-denominational people watch us. And this is where everybody GETS UPSET. WELL, MY CHURCH doesn't teach that. Or my church does and this one does it or they teach half of it or they teach the or none of it. I just want all of you to know something. I I ain't Ain't a Hebrew word, you can look it up. Ain't It actually is. Anyway, I am not asking you to believe me. I am asking you to follow along as we go through the Bible. But always make sure that you study in context. You can see how critical that is.

We're talking about the King's one and only appearing. And we're talking in that way of what is known as the doctrine of imminency. Meaning suddenness. The doctrine or the teachings of his sudden appearing. So, the question is this, if you don't know, does the Bible teach, watch, listen, does the Bible teach that before the first coming of the Messiah, there's got to be prerequisite uh prophecies? Um for example, the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem. Prerequisite. The Bible says in Isaiah, prerequisite, the Messiah has to be born of a virgin. Hm. That said, there are many verses of Christ's first coming that have to be fulfilled. When we talk about the doctrine of suddenness or imminency, the Bible teaches no such warnings, no such um prerequisites, none. And by the way, this is kind of fun. Wha- When it teaches the doctrine of suddenness, imminency, it is solely confined to the church age of believers. I find that fascinating. Don't take my word for it, go study this. That when the Bible teaches you need to be ready, you need to be watching, you don't know when, you don't know the day or the hour, you you've got to be uh you know, scanning the horizon while living at the same time, that wasn't true in the Old Testament. It's not going to be true in the tribulation period. It's only been true for the church age since the birth of the church. Think of this. So, I don't know about that. That's okay. Just follow follow through on this. It's a remarkable thing.

Watch. I'm going to have it prompted to you this way. I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 15:50 right now. And here's here is the why of it, the why. Can you write that down? I don't think you'll see it. Well, you will see it. These Aren't these guys great? That Let's thank God these guys who do my notes. I mean, I do the notes, but they're faithful to make them look good. Here is the why. Why is this important? Because remember, we want to approach the Bible right now. I say this affectionately, very, very cautiously. So, here's the why. The appearing of Jesus Christ, why? Who cares? I don't get involved in that. Causes controversy. Now, this I say, brethren, Paul is speaking to the believers in Greece, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, our skin, our body, cannot live in the presence of God. It's impossible. You can't live at the bottom of the ocean, either. Unless you're in a submarine. Your body is not built to walk around in the bottom of the ocean. You're going to drown before you get there. Are you with me? You got You got a You got better chances of of walking on the walking walking from Newport to Honolulu than you do in the presence of almighty God with this carcass you and I are wearing. It can't be in His presence. The Bible says in numerous places no human can can see God and live. We don't have the eyeballs for it. We would fry. It's amazing. Also, flesh and blood has got to be redeemed. Cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall not all die, but we shall be changed. Really? In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. Doctrine of suddenness. At the last trumpet, there's only two. Don't worry about it. It's not the trumpets of the tribulation period. We're talking about the two trumpets here. There's one, there's the first one, and there's the last one. FOR THE TRUMPET WILL SOUND, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Did you see the word changed? Changed. Here's the Greek word, to take something and make it something different out of the same. To change what was into what is. Transformation of this body. That's That's good news. That's the reason and that is the why we must understand that there is a doctrine in the Bible that there is uh an appearing. So, something's going to happen. We don't know yet, right? We're making our way through this study tonight. There's going to be something that's going to go on and it is going to cause there to be a change.

Next next portion, guys. We're we're going to keep going. Oh, I'm sorry. Back up. That was my bad. For this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this corruption has put on incorruption and this mortality has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that it is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades or hell, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus >> [applause] >> Jesus satisfied the law. Thus, listen. Jesus satisfied the law by his perfect life. He filled it up, so to speak, cuz he was perfect. He met all the demands of the law. Only God can do that. Only God can meet the demands of the law that he gave. Christ did that and by doing that, he disabled sin because, listen, by disabling sin, he satisfied the law. So, the law was no longer looking because it had BECOME SATISFIED. ARE YOU HEARING ME? And your life is hidden Christ. You say, "Well, I'm not sinless." No, you're not. Neither am I. But as a believer, you're in Christ. And now, the power of sin, because the law has no power over you, sin has no power over your life. You've been set free from that. When you and I give in to sin, it's because we choose it. We're no longer slaves to it. We are slaves to Jesus now.

And here's interesting. I mean, I think it's interesting. Did you not read a moment ago that there's going to be a sudden in a twinkling of an eye change? We all agree, right? No matter what your theology is. Well, you read it, right? There's only one event recorded in the Bible that that can be applied to. Only one. It's his appearing. It's his appearing. Not a Not any of Not either one of his two comings. It's his appearing. A twinkling of an eye. Corruption takes on incorruption. Come on, folks. Think of it. So, I don't believe in the rapture. Why not? How come? How are you going to get changed? In fact, I wrote in my notes, no rapture, no change. How are you going to change? Do you believe, according to Corinthians, that Christ could change you IN AN TWINKLING OF AN EYE? In fact, SO MUCH SO THAT WHEN IT HAPPENS PEOPLE ARE GOING TO ESCAPE DEATH. NOT EVERYONE'S GOING TO DIE WHEN THAT MOMENT HAPPENS. EXPLAIN THAT TO ME. I DON'T believe in that. That's your problem. Think of it. See, we get SO CAUGHT UP WITH PEOPLE teaching us denominational persuasions that we forget to read the Bible.

Galatians 5:5 says, "For we through the Spirit eagerly wait." That word in the Greek implies anticipation. We have great anticipation. We are waiting with eagerness. What for? For the hope of righteousness by faith. Do you know what the hope of righteousness is? The transformation. We know this is true based on Titus chapter 2:13. I'll read it I I I'll read it tonight. I can't believe the time zone we're in. The clock just goes so quick here. It's It's not right. No hope, by the way. I mean, no rapture, no hope of righteousness. Think of that. Because the rapture brings a transformation of this mortal body into immortality. Wow, I'll take it. The older I get, the sweeter that sounds.

And here is the when, the when of it. The when. John 14:1, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me." Watch this. "In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Listen, no rapture, no new home. It's simple. Jesus said, "I'm leaving. I'M GOING TO PREPARE A PLACE. I'M GOING TO COME BACK AND PICK YOU UP. AND I'M GOING TO TAKE YOU THERE." CRYSTAL CLEAR. WHY WOULD SOMEBODY HAVE A PROBLEM with this? Well, my pastor or my priest or my pope or my my bishop or my How about my Bible told me? That's a way better way to go, everybody. Yeah, wow.

And then here's the how. The how. Philippians 3:20-21. For our citizenship, the word in Greek is politics. You say, "I don't get involved in politics." Oh, yes, you do. For our politics is in heaven. I Here's the way I look at it. If my politics is in heaven, I'm waiting for my king to return. In the meantime, I'm going to go about doing the best thing possible to honor God. And so, I like to look at it this way, trickle-down politics. See, our politics doesn't come from a party. Our politics comes from God. And when we walk around, we bring the kingdom of God in whatever we say, do, or how we live. Is it perfect? No. We live in a fallen world. But we are representatives of the king. No king You know those people no king's day? They got a big shot coming. The king is coming. The king is coming. >> [applause] [cheering] >> What will they do? From which WE ALSO EAGERLY WAIT FOR THE SAVIOR, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, who will transform our vile body that it may be conformed TO HIS GLORIOUS BODY. EVERYBODY LOOK. THAT'S HOW THIS IS THE HOW of it. He's going to transform us. And we're waiting. We're eagerly waiting. Listen, are you eagerly waiting? Does that excite you? Listen, when you're younger, it's like, "No, no, not yet. Not yet." I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT LISTEN, I ALSO UNDERSTAND I used to be young once. And I was a Christian. I got saved at 19. And I believed all this. I'm studying it. I'm reading. I'm learning. But then, you know, I really Wait a minute. I mean, I mean, I love Jesus and all that kind of stuff, but I mean, it'd be kind of I I kind of like to be married to a Christian girl and you know, do Christian couple stuff. Always Always When I do a wedding, I always tell the guy before we come out. Lord, we just pray you bless this service and bless their marriage and make him the best husband possible. Lord, may his heart just be to serve and to love. And Lord, the The thing else we ask that would be greater than this service is that you'd come back right now, Jesus. >> [laughter] >> And you should see the guys. They They you'll you'll you'll hear a guy go They at least would They would What about tomorrow? They always They It's the one moment in their life they hope the Lord doesn't come back that day.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4, you guys know all this. You guys know all this, but listen. This is This is important. Do not I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, believers who have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. Lead, listen carefully. And Tina, if she's in here tonight, listen carefully. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep or died in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word that we who are alive and remain, hello, suddenness, until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are who have sleep or fallen asleep or died. FOR THE LORD HIMSELF WILL DESCEND from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, and the dead IN CHRIST WILL RISE FIRST, then we who are alive and REMAIN SHALL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH them Wow, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And of course, based on John 14 verses 1, 2, and 3, and thus we shall ALWAYS BE WITH THE LORD. THEREFORE, comfort one another with these words, and all God's people said Amen. Absolutely. >> [applause] >> The imminent appearing of Jesus Christ ought to be a motivator for our Christian maturity. Knowing that Christ could come back should cause us to grow up. Knowing really believing Here you know what? Um I'm not going to rush. I'm going to I'm going to start I'm going to start to land. I got 7 minutes to land this plane. We're still like 80 miles out from the airport.

So if you're asked or if you ask someone, "Do you believe in Jesus?" Yes. Okay, that's the right answer. But does that right answer actually define my life? Let me put it this way. When I say I believe in Jesus, what do I mean? >> Jesus died for me. >> You would have to probe me to find out what I mean. What you mean may be different than what I mean. So when I say I believe in Jesus, a lot of people say it. And in fact, I'll go this far. Let's say they all mean it. But we're now probing. Pause right there. Did not Jesus does not the New Testament say watch and be ready, you don't know when he's coming? Didn't Jesus say me leaving and coming back is like a land owner who has a great place and he put his servants in charge and he went on a great journey? And he doesn't he didn't tell them when he's coming back. But he told them to be faithful and to watch for him. And then that master comes back. And some servants have stolen a bunch of his stuff. Some Some have gotten all drunk and lazy. Some have just gotten all sideways and goofed up. And a few of them were waiting and watching. Jesus says, "When that master comes back, boys, he going to give them according to what they how they conducted themselves." But why did they conduct themselves the way that they did? That's the golden question. Because those who began to go out partying and ripping off the master's land and all that stuff, why did they do that? I mean, we all know that they were wicked. We get that. Wickedness is in our heart. We talked about that on Sunday in Proverbs. You know why they did it? They did it because they didn't believe he would be back soon. Jesus said it this way in another place, "If you would have known what hour the thief was coming, you wouldn't have allowed your house to get broken into." Isn't that a great word? It's like, "Duh." But imagine tonight. Imagine tonight if you somehow found out that at like 12:05 your home's going to be broken into. Would you go to sleep tonight? I mean, I could understand going to sleep, but then setting your alarm for 12. Remember we used to do that when our kids were just starting to go out. They were old enough to start going out. You have a curfew at 10:00. So, I don't know about you, but I'm a early riser. I never stayed up. Did you stay up? Why would you stay up? All you have to do is to be awake at 9:55. Did you not know that? You suffered so much unnecessarily. Well, my kids' CURFEW WAS MIDNIGHT. ALL THE MORE, GO TO BED. Set your alarm at 11:55. Get up. Go sit in the room. Have a book. Turn the light on. Have a Have a cup. Make Make them fake It could be water. Look at like coffee to them and then they walk in and you're sitting up there. >> [laughter] >> All right, good job. You don't stay up all night. Why would you be up at 10:00 if you told them to be home at midnight? If you knew that a burglar was coming, you would be awake. Jesus says, "I'm coming at an hour you don't know." So, what do YOU DO? YOU STAY UP. OF COURSE NOT PHYSICALLY, SPIRITUALLY. You stay awake. Do you get it? If If you say you believe in Jesus, I'm going to come back and ask you, "Are you ready?" >> Yes. >> Are you ready? So, what do you mean by that? What do you mean BY THAT? YOU SAID YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS. JESUS SAID HE'S GOING TO COME BACK WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHEN. AND IF PEOPLE COME ALONG AND SAY, "THE LORD DELAYS HIS COMING." >> [gasps] >> MY BIBLE warned me about you. You're in the Bible. Right there. My Bible says that there's going to be scoffers and mockers coming in the last day saying, "Where's the promise of his coming? Everything has continued since creation." In other words, he ain't coming back. If you belong to a spiritual gathering group, church, whatever and they say, "He's not coming back." I don't know how fast you can run, but it ain't fast enough. See, so if you believe in Jesus, then why don't you believe him when he says things? >> Amen. >> What do you mean I believe in him when he says things? He said, "Pray. When you see all this stuff going on in the world, you pray. Call out to me. Pray that you may escape all the things that are coming. That's what he said. And if you say tonight, well, I mean, I think that what that really means is You see how important this gets? Now, and I get it, most people will say, well, we should never make eschatology a doctrine of fellowship or a doctrine of division. And understand that to a point. But when someone contradicts what Jesus says, that's a problem. Because where are you going to stop? If you tell me Jesus isn't and not and he cannot come back tonight, you're getting confused with the first coming and the second coming, which we didn't get to tonight. You can snoop ahead on the notes for next week cuz we'll pick it up next week. First coming, Bible tells you what to watch for. Second coming, Bible tells you what to watch for. The appearing, ain't nothing to watch for. You The Listen, the demand is you better be ready. And you've got to be ready by the disposition or the attitude of your life and your heart. Do you really believe him? You say, but pastor, that's got to be hard. Yes. Let's be honest. It is hard to stay ready. But it's also incredibly rewarding. Um, life's hard, period. I would assume that the events leading up to someone torturing you to death or beheading you because you're Christian? I think the I think the drama leading up to that's probably pretty hard. I think I think once the moment I really do believe what I'm about to tell you. I think once the moment gets underway, I think the Christian I think there's a lot of evidence throughout history on this. I think once the the event starts happening, Christians uh something happens. God's grace remarkably gives them unbelievable strength. I mean, read Can you all read Fox's Book of Martyrs? You should read that book. In some Listen, it's In some places it's required reading. You should You should read it. Fox's, f o x e s. Fox's Book of Martyrs. You should read it. Because, listen, it doesn't matter if you're dying of cancer or at the at the end of a scimitar uh saber. Fox's Book of Martyrs, you read it what God does with his people? It's like, are you kidding me? In England, when when Bloody Mary was burning the Christians, I forget who the pastor's name was. He said to his flock, "So, here's the deal. She's going to burn us all alive. I'll go first. Keep your eye on me." So, I'll go into the flame I mean, they're going to tie me to the stake. I'm going to sing praises to God. They're going to light the fire. And if I don't feel anything, I'll keep singing praises to God. Now, I don't know about you, but that's a huge step of faith. And he tells that to his flock. So, they're all out They're standing there ready to be burned, and he goes first. Pastor goes first. He goes He goes and then they tie him up, they set the fire up, and he's singing praises to God. And he's singing, he's singing, he's singing, and then he's silenced. He's gone. They saw that. And without restraints, without guards or soldiers, they stood in line. And they went one after another. Precious in the sight of the Lord are the death of his saints. I'm so glad that Jesus is not only my Lord and savior, but like Dr. Ed Hindson used to say, I'm not looking for the undertaker. I'm looking for the upper taker. >> [laughter] >> And I love that.

You say, "Well, well, pastor, what if Jesus doesn't come back?" And you Hey, what do you mean? So, what if he doesn't come back? I'm going to go to him. It's a win-win, folks. Do trust him tonight as Lord and savior. Next week we'll dive into this and finish it off, and there's a whole lot of notes, so you'll see how many. Oh, it's like, yeah. We might not even finish next week.

Father, we love you, God. We love you, Lord. We live in a serious world and we should take it seriously. But there's that remarkable reality that when we look around, we all know we're not home yet. And Lord, we pray that this evening people would honestly examine their own life and their own position and their own belief system as to do they really believe you? Or do they believe you on certain things and not the others? Father, we pray tonight that as a church that we would be a a church of solid believers who love you, who worship you, who serve you, and all the while, Lord, we are really hoping and praying that uh if if you are coming back in our time that you would catch us being busy about whatever you want us to be doing. If that's being a faithful mom and dad, if that's being a faithful police officer, or a faithful uh mom, or a faithful nurse, or a faithful doctor, or student, or professor, if it's a if it's whatever it is. May we be doing what it is you would have us to do when either you come for us with the trumpet blast or we breathe our last breath. You are precious to us, Lord. Pray for the power of your Holy Spirit to be revived in our lives. We ask you to lay hold of us, Lord, and ignite a new fire within us. We all need to grow up. We all need to grow deeper. We all need to live more with our eyes tilted toward heaven. Lord, will you please and start in my heart, please. But Lord, will you will you do a work in our hearts that intensifies the urgency of the hour? A lot of lost people out there. And Lord, no matter what, don't don't put up with us. Don't let us get by with anything that is un-Christ-like. So many mean and ugly things and lies and junk flying out of people's hearts. And you hear it all and you see it all. I'm glad you do. But, at the same time, Lord, I ask you to forgive me. Lord, when my thoughts wander or impatient or intolerant of wherever or however other people learned how to drive cars. Lord, let us walk with with reverence and fear because your Bible tells us that the very judgment that we put on other people that's the judgment that will be put upon us. So, Lord, will you purge from us any critical spirit? Will you wash away out of us one-upmanship? Lord, will you will you search our hearts and make sure that the throne of our heart doesn't have you halfway on it? May there be no rivals. May you not be number one, Lord, on the of 10 things. We don't want you at the top of the list of 10 things. We want you to be Lord on a list of one. No No idols. We trust you. You've never lied to us. You've always been there. Through the pain, the sorrow, the thick and the thin. When we felt like you had left us, it turns out you didn't. We've always been wrong about you. You've always been right about you. We're so glad. We are so glad. Church, let's stand and give our praise to him in this song. Will you make this song a prayer? At the end of the song, then will you say amen? Let's make it a a song of worship to him.