Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

No Second Chance Pt.1

A-men! Let's turn to I John 3. One of my favorite passages in all of the Scriptures. I have a whole bunch of them. This is one of them. In this first epistle, of course, we're all aware of what is being written towards--the spirit of gnosticism that was very prevalent at that particular time. John the Apostle is writing to deal with that heresy; and the heresy was this: That you can be right on the inside and have a good heart, and it didn't really matter what your outward behavior was, because the flesh was evil and it was ultimately going to be destroyed; but the spirit would return to God.

John is speaking toward this heresy, and he's dealing with this approach of gnosticism, and says it's really not so. In the third chapter he says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ... [Very interesting phrase that follows:] Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." So, we begin to see whether or not we're in right standing with God by whether or not we're in right standing with the world. If you're one of the boys, then you don't belong to the kingdom of light. If everyone can embrace you at work and in the neighborhood, and you're politically correct, then you're not part of the kingdom of God. He said you can tell by how the world receives you and how you embrace its ideologies, its philosophies. Then John says, behold "...now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

We're going to talk a little bit for the number of sessions, again, about the Blessed Hope. I think it's time to do that again, and to have our hearts stirred up and looking for that glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. How many of you are living momentarily expecting the Lord's presence? You see, if you are, it changes the course of your life. You're not all caught up with cares, you're not all caught up with the anxieties; you understand that we're just sojourners, we're just passing through. Nothing in this life is really what it all about. It's about preparation for the coming of the Lord; and every man that has this hope, then, will purify himself, even as He is pure. If you believe the Lord's return is imminent, if you believe that it's something that is immutable--it's sure, there is no change in the course of God--then we make decisions for eternity and not for the moment. Our decisions are not made--whether it has do with our vocation, the way we're going to respond to inter-personal relationships--everything is made understanding that it can change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Then O foolish man, whose shall all of these things be? You see, the doctrine of the Blessed Hope is the greatest contributor to holiness. It's not how hard you try. It doesn't have to do with whether or not there is enough time in prayer or study. It doesn't have to do with self-discipline and somehow I have to pull myself away from the cares of this world. I want you to understand something: If you believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ, you will live a holy life. It will absolutely provide all of the external motivation that is necessary. How many of you, like myself, need external motivation? Or are you one that is so totally disciplined and internally motivated that you need nothing external? I think that all of us need the externals. We all need to understand that there are benefits and consequences to all of our actions. Those are things that direct us and they are not just absolutely pure internal motives; but there is cause.

The apostle is writing towards this, and he says, Look man that has this hope, verse 3, will purity himself. The hope will bring about the motivation to purify yourself. The hope of what? The hope of being like Him. The hope of what? The hope of seeing Him. We're going to see Him and we're going to be like Him. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen?

It's an exciting doctrine, the Blessed Hope. As the apostle is writing to us here, he said that "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him there is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him [is not dominated by sin]: whosoever [is dominated by sin] hath not seen him, neither known him." You see, there is one thing that you can count on and that is this: that if you don't have an excitement about the return of the Lord, sin is dominating your life. If there is not an anticipation and an excitement, then sin is dominating your life. You cannot be walking free and purifying yourself as He is pure, and living in expectation, and be under the dominion of sin in your life. So it's exciting, this imminent return of the Lord Jesus.

Turn over to Mathew 25 for just a second. In the great classic concerning the preparation of the coming of the Lord and the parable of the virgins, and the admonition, in verse 13, to watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man comes. Mathew 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

Chapter 24:36-39, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away...."

Things just continued on. Everybody was about business as usual. We're not going to get any great special signs that say, "Okay, you've got 24 hours. Start getting your act together." It's not going to be like this movie that's out now, this series of books that's been written. One of the basic themes of that whole series of books and the movie is heresy; because the whole premise is saying there is a second chance, and there isn't. The Scripture clearly speaks to the fact that there is no second chance. The song written years ago, back during the Jesus movement, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready".

"Life was filled with guns and war [Let's you know what day this was. Vietnam. Right?]

And all of us got trampled on the floor

I wish we'd all been ready"

There's a phrase in that song that goes on and says,

"There's no time to change your mind

the Son has come and you've been left behind

I wish we'd all been ready."

(©1969 Beechwood Music Corporation).

There is no time to change your mind. Nobody knows the day or the hour. He's coming, the Scripture says, as a thief in the night. Let me ask you a question this morning: Have you been getting ready for the sales presentation on Monday? Are your kids getting ready for exams? Are you getting ready for the basketball tournament in Tennessee? What are you getting ready for? "I wish we'd all been ready." There is nothing wrong with daily preparation and the preservation of our lives as we continue on a daily basis; but where is the real treasure of our heart? Is this doctrine preeminent in your lives? I wish your children could respond as ours did at the young age that they were. My concern is now that maybe they've lost that same thing. I want to make sure that my family is ready. As little children we used to drive around, they were just two, three, four years old. On a cloudy day, the thing that occupied their minds was looking at the clouds and wondering if Jesus was coming. They knew the doctrine--Three years old--that Jesus was coming in the clouds. Do your children have that expectation and desire for the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ? They "...knew it not until the flood came and took them all away: [the Scripture says, and] so also shall the coming of the Son of man be." There is no preparation! It's going to happen and... no second chance. Now, we'll build on it later, but I want you to understand where that statement comes from. Keep your fingers here in Matthew and turn over to Thessalonians. We've shared it in the past and we'll refresh your minds again with it as we start into the teaching. You'll see why I say that so much of what was stated in the movie, and also in the basic theme of this series of books, is heresy. When I say heresy, I'm talking about the fact that it doesn't line-up with sound doctrine. We're not saying that these are people who have maliciously gone out; we're just saying that they don't understand the Scriptures. They need to spend a little bit of time seeing what the Holy Spirit had to say in the most prominent chapter concerning this, in II Thessalonians, chapter 2. We'll look at more detail as we go on in the study.

In chapter 2:7 it says, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work...." We interpreted this as you know more literally in the Scriptures, a teaching we did a number of months back when we saw that the "spirit of iniquity" is really a phrase that means "the secret power of lawlessness." Some of you remember the series we taught on, "The Secret Power of Lawlessness" . I think as we look at our society today, we can see that really describes where we are, lawlessness. Even though it hasn't totally manifested in society today, basically, men, in our society doing, each man, what is right in his own eyes. Making decisions as to what we will, or will not do.

We were out in California driving the freeways and they have commuter lanes, just like we do here, somewhat. The same, with occupancy of two. It made it pretty nice as we were going through the different areas of LA. The majority of them are just not going to share their car with anybody. So they are all backed up, and we're ripping down through the commuter lane--pretty nice, Janet and I. Everybody else is going about 15 mph and we're going about 75 mph. I came up on this other car that was in the lane, that was one guy. Many times, chances to get out of it. He never did. He stayed in this--this one guy. He made his calculated decisions. He finally got to his exit and he pulled off. I didn't realize what the fine was. I thought the fine was kind of unique. I didn't know if it was that way just to catch your mind because so often we see things and don't pay attention. The fine for driving in that lane as an individual was $261.00. Now, I don't know why $261; but it stuck. You see, it works! I saw that thing and it stuck in my mind. I thought, I don't want to pay $261.00. But I may choose sometime to be willing to pay that. This fellow obviously did. Man's natural tendency is to think that he is the exception. This spirit of lawlessness is prevailing in our schools and in society in general. The Scripture is speaking towards that, but primarily its talking about within the Church and within professed Christendom.

Remember who this epistle is written to; and you can't understand the Scriptures if you don't know who is being written to and why they're being addressed. You can't just read the Bible and take little phrases out and think you're going to come up with "truth". You have to understand what's being spoken. We've talked about that before in our own Bible study. In proper biblical interpretation, if you're going to be someone who consistently gets proper exegesis, it's going to have to be a discipline in your mind when you're reading the Scriptures. As an exegete, you've got to go and say, "I'm looking to draw truth out of this, so I have to understand what the circumstances are, who's writing, why is he writing, what the customs of the day were; how does this translate into the day that we're in, this truth, so that we can now apply it properly?" What we're looking at here, in Thessalonians, is this: Paul is writing back to the Church in Thessalonica because they have been told that they were in the tribulation. Paul is addressing that situation. He says, "Look, you guys are not in the tribulation." "Don't be soon shaken," he says in chapter 2:2, "In mind or troubled neither by spirit." "Thus sayeth the Lord," there were people prophesying, revelations, by word, (the teachings that were taking place) "...nor by letter as from us, as that the day of [the Lord] is at hand." Don't be shaken up. Don't believe all of this teaching. It's not true! This must happen first, before the great tribulation.

So we do have warning before the tribulation, but there is no warning before the rapture of the Church. Paul is writing and he is saying, before the tribulation, before the second coming of the Lord, you can understand historically in time when that is going to happen because of a consequence, because of an event; but the rapture, no man knows the day or the hour. It happens as a thief in the night. The way we know the tribulation has started is how? The rapture just occurred.

Now we know, historically, where we are in this chain of events. Those of us that are preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, and those of us who profess to be believers, are mandated to be ever ready. Watching, for no man knows the day or the hour. So, this spirit of iniquity is at work; but there is a restraining force. I don't want to spend a lot of time here. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. "...only he who now letteth will let [the Scripture says], until he be taken out of the way." What that is speaking of, that word "let", is a restraining force that must be removed before the man of sin can be put into power. That restraining force is the power of the Holy Spirit in the Church. In the visible, physical, representation of the Church. That is what is restraining the Antichrist, or the man of sin. For him to come into prominence, the Church must go. In the midst of all this,. Paul is writing to Church in Thessalonica and he says, when this man comes, verse 9, he will come "...after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." That is a powerful statement! Not only will he come after the manner of Satan, he will come with all power. "All power" is a pretty strong term. He is going to be irresistible, is what the Scripture is talking about.

If any of you saw the movie, it was kind of interesting little thing. It may have been slightly hokey at the UN table. Everybody was going "EEEERRRRR"--zombies. But that is strong delusion, is it not? It's strong delusion, whether it's going to be through hypnosis, whether it's going to be a transferring telepathy, whatever it's going to be, the enemy is going to have the power to manipulate the minds and the hearts of men. That is what Thessalonians is saying. He will "...come after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders And all deceivableness of unrighteousness [Look at the next phrase] in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." They had an opportunity to receive the truth that they might be saved. They rejected the truth that could have saved them. "And for this cause [verse 11 goes on to say, God shall send them Who is going to be the source of it?] God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: [Who? Those who have rejected the love of the truth,] That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

You're not going to have pleasure in unrighteousness, and live a life to yourself, and then get a second chance. When you've been given the opportunity, through the love of the truth, that which is eternal life, and you have rejected, God himself will send strong delusion, that you would believe a lie, that you would be damned.

This movie and these books and these things that try to cause us to believe that the little preacher who didn't go up in the rapture can run over and say, "God, thank you for the second chance." There isn't going to be one. So it's very important for those of us who have embraced the knowledge of the truth--and I'm just not talking about the fact that you're born again this morning; but I'm telling you if you know how to be born again and have rejected it. If you have been born again and you're walking separate now, backslidden, from it. "I wish we'd all been ready." There is no second chance. For two will be working at the mill and one will be taken and one will be left; and two will be sleeping in the bed and one will be taken and one will be left. I don't know for sure if people's pajamas will be laying around like in the movie. Probably. That's cool.

The chaos, as you watch the movie, it lacked; but how are you going to duplicate something like this? It's beyond imagination, the chaos that's going to come upon the earth. The fear. The terror. "Surely, everybody will know what is taking place and be open to the Gospel; but there is an external force sending strong delusion that they would believe the lie of UFOs, of whatever, now that there was some kind of interference in the molecular realm and people just disintegrated. They have people who catch on fire, supposedly. Spontaneous combustion. This is spontaneous disappearance. Dissolved.

What lie is it that's going to be propagated? We don't know, but they're going to believe it. You know, it's probably going to be the best thing for the world anyway, because the people who are gone seems to be the ones causing all the trouble. They didn't want to go along with the program--the one world government--and they were surely politically incorrect! Are you ready this morning? Where is your heart as it pertains to the promises of God?

Go back to Matthew 24 for just a second. They "...knew not until the flood came...so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Marrying, given in marriage, they're all out going on with life. The man of God had been speaking of judgment of God that was at hand. They'd been preparing an ark to save whoever wanted to go for the ride; but it was foolishness. The rapture is foolishness to a lot of professed Christians today. The influence that is still upon so much of the Church, now, as we come into the influence of what's being termed in our day the "Kingdom Now" theology, that some believe that we're actually living in the millennium. What a rip that would be. Some think we're in the tribulation. It's going to be a lot worse than this! See, the problem started back with a guy named Augustine. Any of you bad Catholics probably remember him. He wrote a treatise that really became the whole philosophy of the Catholic Church, called The City of God. In his writings on The City of God, he brought about, really, what was the establishing of the "kingdom now" to where the Church was actually physically rule in Christ's stead, politically, economically, etc.; which, in fact, was the Kingdom of God, or the City of God on earth. It wasn't going to be a literal, future, event that would take place for a thousand years where Jesus would come back literally and rule and reign. Jesus would reign through the Church. It was an allegorical interpretation of Scripture. Therefore we could literally do away with all of these other applications. If you don't literally interpret the Scripture you're going to get into trouble. Literal interpretation doesn't mean that there are not symbols used; it means truth is literally applied. So when you're studying the Scriptures and you're looking at these particular principles, we see why there has been a loss of an expectation of the return of the Lord, because this became the primary doctrinal influence for a thousand years or more. Up until the time of Reformation, a guy named Darby. Not the rangers, another guy. There began to be a literal interpretation and now a return to the true Biblical understanding of the literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ who will literally rule the nations with a rod of iron for a thousand years, who will literally, prior to that, appear in the clouds to receive to himself a purified people. The dead in Christ will rise first. Those of us that are alive and remain will be changed and caught up into the presence of the Lord, "...and so shall we ever be with the Lord," the Scripture says.

Now what are we doing to prepare for that if we believe that its really going to happen; and nobody knows the day or the hour? It's sooner now than when we first believed. "People have been preaching this ever since I've been saved." Me too! But it's sooner than I first believe, praise God. Now, if it's sooner than I first believed, why am I less fervent about it? We've lost the love of the Blessed Hope and the understanding of what the Scripture decrees is ours; and every man who has this hope in Him, the Scripture says, should purify himself, even as He is pure.

Jesus teaching here, concerning this, said the ark was ready, the people weren't. So shall it be. So shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man. "Then shall two be in the field: the one taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one taken, and the other left."

Verse 42, lets look at it again, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." Now, we don't know what hour He is coming, but the one thing we do know for sure is He is coming, amen? That's what's exciting.

Turn over to John 14 for just a second. You might keep your finger here. We'll be back. In John 14, the good funeral passage. Verse 1, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way..." Thomas saith unto him, Lord, show us the way. And Jesus said--everybody ever hear this passage? "I am the way, the truth, and the life: and no cometh to the Father, but by me." I go to prepare a place for you. All of the great promises of God--you know, so of us today were thrilled, and don't misunderstand what I am saying. I delight in this. I thank God for it. I understand that it is the thing that keeps us. But there is so much emphasis on the intercessory ministry of Jesus. "I am so glad that Jesus is praying for me." I am too; but that is not the end of His ministry toward us. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us that we might be preserved that He might come and gather us to himself. Amen?

To me, the most exciting thing that Jesus is going to do in ministry from this point on is to come back and get us. I'm looking forward to Him coming back and getting me. I'm so glad that He came the first time and took sin upon Himself and died for me. I'm glad that He has gone to heaven before the presence of the Father and has represented me. I'm so glad that I'm being sustained by the gift of the Holy Spirit that He sent on his behalf, that dwells in me. I'm so glad for the intercessory prayer that sustains me; but He is coming back to receive us to Himself, praise God! There is more ministry left to take place. He is going to come back and gather us to Himself, the Scripture says, and to those of us that overcome we will be granted to be seated with Him on His throne even as He has overcome, the Scripture (Revelation 3:21) says. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

This world isn't our home. There is nothing here that is worth staying around for. Everything in this life is so sub-par to what He has prepared for those who love Him. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them who love Him." What's your soul worth? Everybody's talking about this guy that sold his soul over the Internet. Anybody hear about that? The guy sold on--what's that thing that you buy and sell stuff on the Internet? What is it? "e Bay!" So people, I think are buying--I guess it's like a marketplace or something I guess. Some guy sold his soul. Somebody was really concerned. Somebody came up and said, "A guy sold his soul. It's terrible! A guy sold his soul." That's not terrible if the guy sold his soul; what's terrible is, somebody bought it! It wasn't his to sell! This guy didn't get anything! You have got to watch out what you're buying in that place. "I go and prepare a place for you; and I will come again." That is the promise of God!

II Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness;" The promise of God that He will come again and Revelation 22:20 says, "Behold, I come quickly." Well, it's been 2000 years, lets get on with the program. But a day is with the Lord, as what? (Response: A thousand years) You see, we're dealing with an eternal God. We're dealing with a God who is compassionate, loving; a God who sees the beginning to the end. We don't know how long the program is going to go. Nobody knows the day or the hour, but we can discern the seasons. You see, the problem with the former Biblical interpretation that I talked about was that the nation Israel had just been dismissed and all of the promises reapplied to The City of God, the Kingdom of God, and that's, of course, what led to Catholic anti-Semitism. God had just basically abandoned the Jews in this theology, and so when you went to the Scriptures things didn't make sense. When you come back to the literal interpretation and you have to make some distinctions now, and you realize that God is still dealing with natural Israel, and He's introduced a spiritual Israel, or the Israel of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. We see God's promises affecting these two covenants that are running parallel. We are able to discern a few things, and maybe get our finger on the pulse. There was a blindness for all of those generations; but then there was the fulfillment of the parable of the fig tree, and in 1948 when the miracle of national Israel emerged on the scene and everything has tried to annihilate them to this day. It's a sign of the times. Nobody knows the day or the hour, but we're able to start looking at some of the seasons here. We're saying, "Maybe we're in the season of harvest, of the Lord coming and drawing His people to himself."

What else has changed since 1948? Well you have the six day war, 1967. We see an occupying of the city of Jerusalem. We see a greater acceptance of a one-world ideology. We see a technology that's emerged that now all of these things that we accepted by faith before--everything that I accepted by faith thirty-five years ago, saying, "God can do that!" I'm now seeing. "How in the world is there going to be this kind of communication almost simultaneously." Now, all of the satellites are in place and all of the great Web is in place. All of the working in men's minds, as we talk about the sub-atomic knowledge and the manipulation of DNA that is taking place, right now, and all of these things that are going to answer much of these great mysteries that the prophet spoke of; and yet nobody knows the day or the hour. We're just saying, "You know, it looks like maybe the season is upon us. Has been since 1948. It's sooner than we first believed."

Revelation 22:20, "I come quickly. Surely, I come quickly." How many of you believe that the Lord is coming back? It's a sure thing. He said it. If this isn't true, then nothing else in the Scriptures is true. It's not allegorical, it's literal. Every man who has this hope in Him will purify himself, even as He is pure. What is taking your thoughts and your time and your energy? What is preeminent in your mind and the minds of your children? I think, maybe, preparation for the coming of the Lord should go up a few notches on our practical list. Theologically, it was probably in the right place. What about practically? When's the last time you caught yourself drifting and came back on course because it didn't fit with a person who lived his life based on the blessed hope, the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ? The understanding that in one moment we stand before Him for judgment. Oh, thank God that as we are caught into His presence, at that time, that it assures our relationship, it assures and seals the truth of our sonship and the finished covenant. We know that there will be the judgment of the behavior in our lives that will burn: wood, hay, and stubble. Is our heart fixed upon His return?

Look over at Hebrews 9:28. As the Lord is speaking to us again through the "mouthpiece" of God. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Unto them that what? Look for Him. Can you say, this morning, that I'm really looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, the assurance isn't just a having accepted Him; it's a constant expectation of Him being formed in us: the daily life of obedience, the sanctification process; because we love His appearing, the Scripture says, because we accept the free gift of sonship. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." It hasn't appeared "...what we shall be: but we know that, when he [appears] we shall be like him..." When he appears we shall be like Him.

I do so want to be like Him, and I'm ever looking for Him. Is it today, that I can finally lay down this body of sin that so opposes everything that I want to do? I'm so tired of living less that what the blood of Jesus has afforded me; and yet God, in His sovereignty, and omniscience knows, and He ever lives to make intercession. He preserves me and the promise is true and I continue to press on towards the mark, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14); but I want to be free. I'm tired of living in the natural. I so long to lay this burden down. There is nothing that this world offers that interests me, when it's held up against the light of His glory and grace. What is it that is motivating us this morning?

Let's go back to Matthew again, in Chapter 24. "...The one shall be taken and the other left." Verse 42, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, [Okay? I think that's a pretty important phrase.] that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched...." How many of you think you would watch if you knew it was real close? Let me see your hand. How many of you would watch if you think it was real close? It is! You can't get closer than imminent. At any moment! We must not believe that then. Well, how do we get to believe that? You spend time in prayer and study and you understand the war that is going on for your souls and the strong delusion that is already in the world. The spirit of iniquity that is already at work; and many of us is already being lulled to sleep. "Well, what is God going to do about it?" God has already done what He is going to do about it. He gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit indwells you. The Word of God has been fulfilled and finished, and provided for us, and the Lord ever makes intercession for us. What are you going to do to be ready? Well, the Scripture says if he had known, he would have been ready and his house wouldn't have gotten broken up. Verse 44, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." In such a time when you think not. "I think I've got time." I wish we'd all been ready. "You see, I've got this project..." When you think not! "I'm really going to get into that imminent stuff next week." When you think not! What do we believe as it pertains to the coming of the Lord Jesus? "Who then is a faithful [verse 45] and wise servant, whom the lord hath made ruler over his household...." Who is that person? Blessed is that person whom the Lord when he comes shall find doing, watching, preparing himself. Truly "...I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods." In this kingdom that is to come and this hour that is upon us; "But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming:" You'll see what the person who hold that doctrine lives like. He begins to smite his fellow servants, eat and drink with the drunken, a spirit of reveling, worldliness, temporalness, cares, deceits; and "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Father, make us ready. Cause us to be a people who change the course of our lives based upon this doctrine. Cause the treasures of our heart to be the eternal treasures. Let our conversation be in heaven from whence we also look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is our conversation in the heavenlies today? Are we living in the heavens? Are we living in the spirit? Are we looking for that blessed hope? Waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. I wish we'd all been ready. It's our heart's prayer and cry to You this morning, Father. I don't know how to better represent You than we have, so Holy Spirit, we stand in full confidence in Your ministry touching the hearts of those that need to hear, and we say, "Thank you, in Jesus name." Amen. Let's stand before the Lord this morning.

As Gary plays for us and the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts--Men, I would like to ask you again, as it pertains to your house, are you watching? Is the thief, there, ready to break in and steal the hearts of your children and your wife? Has the world been allowed in and the Blessed Hope lost? Are you making decisions based upon temporal increase of goods and the ease of life, or is the fact that we're just pilgrims here the reality? When I'm out-and-about, and some of the things that we involve ourselves in outside pastoral ministry, this is the message that I take. This is the message of the Gospel. The Gospel is not a universal salvation that Jesus died and everybody is going to be saved. It's when He comes and finds them doing. What's really important? What really sets the course of your life? As we sing this together, just thank Him for the Holy Spirit's word to us.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus...."

Sing it one more time. Make your living in the heavens. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah! Lord, that our eyes would be upon You. That we would understand, Lord, the hour in which we are living, and that our hearts would be fixed in the heavens, and that we would understand the working of the mystery of iniquity around us and the need to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation. Help us love Your appearing, to hate the things of this world: its philosophy, the way it applies and abuses all of the great principles of God. Help us to be faithful servants. Amen. Amen.

Before you go, Turn to somebody next to you and say, "Jesus is coming." Amen! Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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