The Blessed Hope

[0:00] The end of the world.

[0:25] The end of the world. We've got this conference coming up. God willing. And it's exciting. Because there's some anticipation of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[0:37] And in Matthew 24.3. He sat down on the Mount of Olives. The disciples came unto him privately saying. Tell us. When shall these things be?

[0:48] And what shall be the sign of thy coming? And of the end of the world. We're still wondering today aren't we? We're still wondering what will be the sign of the end.

[0:59] Of the last days. Of the end of the age. Of the close of this dispensation. This current dispensation. And what are we to make of it meantime? And you've got there 2 Peter 3.

[1:10] From verse 9. 2 Peter 3. From verse 9. And again. Along this theme it says. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. As some men count slackness.

[1:21] But is long suffering to us. Not willing that any should perish. But that all should come. To repentance. But the day of the Lord shall be. I'll come as a thief in the night.

[1:35] 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.

[1:45] Shall be burnt up. Seeing then. That all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons. Ought ye to be.

[1:56] In all holy conversation. And godliness. Looking for. And hasting unto. The coming of the day of God. Wherein the heavens being on fire.

[2:09] Shall be dissolved. And the elements shall melt. With fervent heat. Nevertheless we. According to his promise. Look for new heavens.

[2:20] And a new earth. Wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore beloved. Seeing that ye look for such. Things. Be diligent. That ye may be found of him.

[2:30] In peace. Without spot. And blameless. What shall be the sign. Of thy coming. And of the end of the world. We read. Much through the word of God.

[2:42] About the coming. Of our Lord Jesus Christ. And. In the latest news. And current. Events. It provokes. It provokes us to think of that. Again. How close it is.

[2:53] How close it is. The end of the world. The doom. And the gloom. The disaster. And the despair. That's how Hollywood would paint it.

[3:05] As we see. Often in the latest. Disaster. And. Doomsday. Things. That we're seeing in. Hollywood. Movies of late. Not that I'm much of a.

[3:16] Fan of such. But we're seeing such things. That the world is. Is often thinking about. Doomsday. About disaster. About. Such troubles. And wars.

[3:27] And. Crises. And when our Lord answered this question. Of the disciples. He said. Of days of. Trouble. Of days of pestilence.

[3:40] We read in the word. Of perils. Of persecutions. Of deceptions. Of false prophets. Of great signs and wonders. Of abomination. Of false Christ.

[3:52] Of false prophets. Of telling. Times. Perilous times. And. One of the. Main books that we read. About the coming.

[4:03] Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is. The name of. Some recent films. These days. The apocalypse. The apocalypse.

[4:14] It's revelation. It's the apocalypse. It's the. Unveiling. It's the unveiling. Is this what it means? Apocalypse. Apocalypse. It means an unveiling.

[4:25] It means an opening of a curtain. It means a revealing. The apocalypse. Of Jesus Christ. The apocalypse. The revelation. The unveiling.

[4:36] Of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we. As God's people. Can anticipate. In these. Doomsday. Times. As it were. As we approach.

[4:48] The midnight hour. As we see. Brothers and sisters. As we see. The day approaching. We ought to be. Exhorting one another. More. And more. The case. As we approach.

[4:58] That midnight hour. Of planet earth. As we hear. Of the word. It tells us. Of the famine. Of the word. That will be. A sign. Of the. End.

[5:09] Of the hopelessness. Of the godlessness. We see that. Of the moral decline. As we see that sweeping our nation. As ungodly laws.

[5:20] As ungodly justice. Has its way. Of times. And yet. My message today. Is not to dwell on that. As such.

[5:31] This time. We'll cover that in this upcoming. End times conference that we're having. God willing. In January. And I'm sure we can be. Stirred to think.

[5:41] Of the. Disastrous. And. Devilish. Days. Of the end of the world. But for. We that believe. There is encouragement. This morning.

[5:52] There is encouragement. For you. And for me. And positive things. That we can. Anticipate. And we read of that. In 1 Thessalonians 4. As we know. That familiar one. Brother Don's favourite passage.

[6:04] 1 Thessalonians 4. From verse 16. On the positive side. It tells us. If we that are alive. And are here to play a part. In these final stages. Before our Lord's return.

[6:16] What. We can anticipate. With great. Anticipation. And there's many reasons. We can be encouraged. As we read there. In 1 Thessalonians 4. From verse 16.

[6:27] For the Lord himself. Shall do seem. From heaven. With a. Shout. Amen. With the voice. Of the archangel. And the.

[6:38] Trump of God. And the dead. In Christ. Shall rise first. Then we. Which are alive. And remain. Shall be caught up. Together.

[6:48] With them. In the clouds. To meet the Lord. In the air. And so. Shall we be. Ever. With the Lord. Wherefore. Comfort. One another.

[6:59] With these words. It tells you brother. It tells you sister. Comfort. Encourage. One another. With these words. So these are words. We should say. To one another.

[7:10] That the dead. In Christ. Shall rise. That the voice. Of the archangel. That the shout. And it comes. The sense of it here. Is a cry. Of command.

[7:20] That's the intention. Of this word. Shout here. It is a. Authoritative voice. It is the authoritative. Word. Of the captain. Of our salvation. They shout.

[7:32] Will come from heaven. And then it says. The voice of the archangel. With the trump of God. And the sense of it here. Is that that trumpet. Will be sounded.

[7:43] At God's command. God will say. When that trumpet will sound. He will tell the angel. The angel doesn't know yet. As we know. That the father knows. And he will.

[7:54] Give the order. For that. Trump. To sound. And then it says. We. That are alive. And remain. Shall be caught up. Together. With them.

[8:05] The dead in Christ. In the clouds. To meet the Lord. In the air. Aren't you looking forward. To that meeting. It could be the next one. We go to. Amen. Wouldn't that be good.

[8:16] The open air meeting. In the sky. Wouldn't that be good. To be. Able to meet again. Halfway. To. Seeing our saviour. Wouldn't that be glory brother.

[8:26] Wouldn't that be glory sister. To meet the Lord. In the air. It could be our next meeting. We may not get to the six o'clock service. Tonight. Wouldn't that be good. Praise the Lord. I'm looking forward to that.

[8:37] And it says. We're going to be caught up. It's got the sense. Of snatched away. Forcibly. We're just going to be snatched. From this earth. By his hand.

[8:47] As it were. By the power of God. He must have some. Almighty magnet. Or some. Amazing power. As we know he has. To take us forcibly.

[8:58] Unto himself. And so shall we. Ever. Be with the Lord. We're going to always be with him. Ever. And ever. And ever. And with our brothers and sisters. And with our loved ones who love him.

[9:09] Who've gone before. So be encouraging one another. Is the sense of it here. Be encouraging one another. With these words. So the nearness of the coming of our Lord.

[9:20] For us. It's great joy. It's great glory. And it provokes us. In a number of ways. To respond. And take action. And there's three things. I'd like to touch on.

[9:31] That I think are. Noteworthy. In the days. Of the end of the world. The days of the end of the world. Three positive things. That we are provoked about.

[9:43] Given that we are in. The last days. And the first one. Is harvest. The first one is. Harvest. These are days. That should be marked. As days.

[9:54] Of harvest. Just helps to. Put it up to. To take. Attention. Matthew 13.

[10:04] 39. It says. The harvest. Is the end. Of the world. And the reapers. Are the angels. There's going to be. A reaping time. There's going to be. An end to that harvest time. The ultimate harvest.

[10:16] Is approaching. And God's desire. As we read. In 2 Peter. Is that. The Lord. Is not slack. Concerning his promise. As some men. Count slackness. But is long. Suffering to us.

[10:27] With. Not willing. That any. Should perish. But that all. Should come. To repentance. While these are days. Of famine. Of the hearing.

[10:37] Of the word. We can point others. To the bread of life. You and I. Brothers and sisters. Every one of you. Can take. That precious word. And have it.

[10:47] On our person. Have it. In our hearts. Have it. In our minds. In our memory. And most of all. Have it. On our lips. That these are days. Of harvest brother. These are days.

[10:57] Of harvest sister. And the Lord. Is not slack. He. Is not willing. That any. Should perish. While we see. The apostasy. That prevails. At times. Abounding.

[11:08] In many quarters. We can be. Heralds. For the truth. These are days. That we can be. Encouraged. Brothers and sisters. That while we're. Living in this time. Of what the world.

[11:19] Was saying. As despair. Of confusion. Of globalism. Of conspiracies. Of all manner. Of awful things. That are. Being engineered.

[11:29] Did by the puppet masters. The illuminati. And all that. Kind of carry on. That I'm sure. Is happening. But we know. That God. Is the ultimate one. Who's pulling the strings. He's the ultimate one.

[11:40] Who's in charge. Who will dictate. When Christ will come. And when. He will come. As all conquering king. When he says. To the reapers. It's the end of the harvest.

[11:52] It's the end of the harvest. Time's up. Just like he did. In Noah's day. God. Shut the door. God. Shut the door. And then. No more chance. No more opportunity.

[12:02] No more harvest. And as it was. In the days of Noah. Brothers and sisters. There's still time now. And you are the reapers. You are the harvesters. You are the ones. Who should be sowing. With tears.

[12:14] You are the ones. Who should be. Going. And sowing. And reaping. As heralds of the truth. While there's still. That window of opportunity. For souls to be saved.

[12:24] Brother. Sister. You are to be about. The work of harvest. That is your. Call. That is our call. And there is still time.

[12:36] There is still time. In the light of the second coming. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is still time. Now. For harvest. These are exciting days. Exciting times.

[12:47] And God has granted grace. That in this time. There's still time for repentance. He's not closed the books yet. He's not got that final one in yet. As it were. There's still souls to be won.

[13:00] As the song goes. Though millions have come. There's still room. For one. There's still room. There's still room. Yet there is room. So go forth.

[13:10] And invite. And compel. It's incumbent on us. To reach out. To seek out. To search out. To win the lost. Because one day. The harvest will cease.

[13:23] As it says in Jeremiah 8.20. The cry was. The harvest is past. The summer is ended. And we are not saved. What a tragedy. Some will miss.

[13:34] Heaven. God forbid. That we'll be any way neglectful. In that regard. Souls are precious. And each day. A new page.

[13:45] Is turned. Never to be rewritten. Every day. Is your day. You have the now. You have the moment. And we're nearing those closing chapters.

[13:56] Of world history. As we know it. So make your mark. It's time now. Not in four months. Not in three months time. Now is the day of harvest.

[14:08] Today is the day of salvation. It is now that he calls labourers. Into the harvest fields. It's not a time for slumbering. It's a time for harvest. And the nearness of the coming of our Lord.

[14:19] Encourages you. It likes to encourage you. To be about. And responding to. The call for harvest. And secondly. In the light of the coming of our Lord.

[14:32] There's a wonderful. Other H word. There's wonderful hope. Wonderful hope. Blessed hope. Glorious hope.

[14:43] Titus 2. You might like to turn there. The second coming of Christ. Is for us. A blessed hope. A joyful hope. A happy hope.

[14:54] Titus 2. Well the world. In its misery. And confusion. And despair. And all manner of. Woes.

[15:05] And worries. Climate change. You name it. Whatever their. Reason is. That they think. That man is somehow. In a great state. For us.

[15:18] There is a blessed hope. That goes beyond. The current state of affairs. Whatever they be at the time. And Titus 2. From verse 11. It says. For the grace of God.

[15:28] That bringeth salvation. Hath appeared. To all men. Tenting us that. Denying ungodliness. And worldly lusts. We should live. Soberly.

[15:39] Righteously. And godly. In this present world. Looking for. That blessed hope. And the glorious appearance. Of the great God. And our saviour.

[15:50] Jesus Christ. Who gave himself. For us. That he might redeem us. From all iniquity. And purify unto himself. A peculiar people.

[16:02] Sell us. Of good works. It's called for you. The blessed hope. It's his promise to you. He's coming back. His promise.

[16:13] He says. If I go. I will prepare a place for you. And I will come. And. Receive you. To that place. A source of hope.

[16:24] Springs up in our hearts. As we know. He's coming back. He's coming back. He will not leave us. Comfortless. He's coming back. And it's a source of hope.

[16:35] Of encouragement. And of joy. And we can look forward. In confident expectation. Brother and sister. There's a hope for you. There's a hope in this hopeless world.

[16:46] As it is. At times. And the Lord. Of the harvest. Will greet you. The Lord. Of the harvest. Will say come. Welcome.

[16:57] Welcome. Well done. He'll say that to you. He'll receive you. Not by virtue of your own doing.

[17:08] But by. The virtue of his blood. And Revelation 22. Think of that day. Of heaven. We can't. Think of. It in.

[17:20] Human. terms. To describe it. But we see. A glimpse. Of it there. And I love to read. The verses about heaven. Because. We're going to spend. The rest of our. Life there.

[17:31] Amen. That's going to be. Where we are. With our saviour. In. In the heavenly places. I'm sure. They'll be. Wonders beyond. Compare. And we read of it there. In Revelation 22.

[17:42] From verse 1. And he showed me. A pure river. Of water. Of light. Clear. As crystal. It's going to be. Sparkling like crystal. This water. You know.

[17:53] It'd be better than. Adelaide water. Or that. That rain water. With all those. Wrigleys in it. That water. Clear as crystal. It's going to be. Coming from the throne. Of God. And of the land.

[18:03] Amen. You can't beat that. And in the midst. Of the street. Of it. And on either side. Of the river. Was there. The tree of life. Which bared. Twelve manner of fruits. And yielded her fruit.

[18:15] Every month. And the leaves of the tree. Were for the healing. Of the nations. You want to get. Mr. Cliff in there. Those trees. Will be perfect. They'll be just. Flourishing.

[18:25] And wonderful. All year round. And every month. There'll be. Some beautiful fruit. And it'll be a tree. For the healing. Of the nations. And there shall be. No more curse. Neither.

[18:36] But the throne of God. And of the lamb. Shall be in it. And his servants. Shall serve him. And they shall see his face. That'll be the glory of heaven. Won't it? Just to see his face.

[18:47] And his name shall be. In their foreheads. And there shall be. And there shall be no night there. And they need no candle. Neither light of the sun. For the Lord God. Giveth them light.

[18:59] And they shall reign. Forever and ever. It's telling you there. That you're going to reign. As kings. Forever and ever. There's a wonderful. Reigning. A wonderful. Place of.

[19:11] Glory. That awaits you. And so given. The nearness of his coming. There is a great hope. A great hope for you. When all about you is confusion.

[19:21] And you see the signs of his coming. as we know the dread signs and the dismal signs as it were as apostasy prevails, as there's a lukewarmness, as there's a falling away and an abandonment of truth where people don't hold fast to doctrine of the Word of God, where we're seeing an overflowing of wickedness that seems to be prevailing in all kinds of media and government of our world today.

[19:59] For you there is hope. The blessed hope, hope beyond compare, hope beyond any hope of man. This is resurrection hope, this is the living hope, this is the everlasting hope, the great hope, the blessed hope.

[20:13] It's got the sense of an expectancy. It's not a hope as if I hope so, but it's a confident assurance, a confident expectation, a confidence that we can have.

[20:25] The nearness of the coming of our Lord. It provokes us. It ought to provoke you, provoke me, to consider the harvest, to be responding and taking action, to consider the hope that is in you, that you have reason of, the hope that you can not keep to yourself, I pray.

[20:43] And thirdly, another H word, that we should be provoked to in the light of his coming again. Another word to think of our standing, as 2 Peter 3 puts it, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved.

[21:04] You know, don't worry about climate change, even if it is real, because it's all going to be dissolved anyway. Who cares about this old planet? But consider what kind of persons you're going to be. What manner of persons are you going to be in all holy conversation, in all holy conduct and behaviour and godliness.

[21:24] That's the sense of it. Consider that. Consider that in the light of his coming. What manner of persons ought you to be? Consider that this time is finite.

[21:35] It's ticking by and you can't retrieve it. But every moment, make it count. Life is but a vapour. It's a passing smoke, as it were, a passing bit of moisture in the air.

[21:48] Life is but a vapour and it just dissipates. What manner of persons ought you to be? Why you have life in your bones? Why you have blood in your veins? Why you have breath in your lungs?

[22:00] Make it count. Make it count. Holiness, holy living, righteousness. When all the world is full of misery and confusion and sinfulness, how the people of God ought to shine.

[22:13] As it says in Matthew 13, ultimately we will shine. In Matthew 13, 43 it says, Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.

[22:26] Let us shine now that people may see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven. That we might live a life without regrets, without skeletons in the cupboard.

[22:38] That we might live a life that is pleasing unto our Lord. And if we fail and slip, we can come to him at any moment. And like that, he'll take it away. He'll take it.

[22:48] That which we have done amiss. Friends, if you fail, you can. Pick yourself up again. If you've fallen, you can.

[22:59] Lift yourself up again. He's long-suffering towards us. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

[23:13] Ephesians 5, 15, 16. Redeeming the time. Buy it back. Make the most of every opportunity, of every moment of time. Make it count.

[23:24] Because we only have this present time to make an eternal impact. We only have this present time. The harvest time will end.

[23:36] The door will close. The last one who's going to get saved will get saved. By God's grace and calling and by his mercy.

[23:48] And then he'll say, that's the last one. Time's up. Friends, we are exhorted to be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.

[24:00] Be diligent. Think of that word. Are we diligent? Not by working to gain for ourselves, but we're diligent because we love him.

[24:18] We're diligent because time matters and eternity matters. Souls matter. And what more important thing can we be about? Are we diligent or slack?

[24:31] Only you can answer that for yourself. When the master comes, will he find us faithful? Will he find us serving? Will he find us watching, working, waiting?

[24:42] 1 John 2 tells us, 28 of 1 John 2. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

[24:58] Will you be ashamed before him at his coming? It's got the sense of shrinking away from him in shame. Let's not have any skeletons in our cupboard.

[25:11] Let us come before him. Let's make things right. Let's make this a moment of dedication, of rededication.

[25:23] We can make recommitments every day, every moment. That's a good thing to do. I know I look back as a young Christian. I made a commitment, but then I made a recommitment.

[25:34] It was just a reinvigorating of that commitment that I made to Christ. It's always good to make that recommitment. And we can do that often. And not like we're getting saved again and again, as some would think it, because it's a once for all.

[25:47] And we're saved for time and eternity. At that moment, we trust him. But we can all grow slack instead of diligent. We can all grow cool and lukewarm instead of on fire, on a flame for him.

[26:05] And friends, to close, think of it. He says, when he speaks of teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

[26:16] And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. He's with us until the end of the world, until the end of the age, until the end of this dispensation, as it were, and for all eternity.

[26:30] He is always with us. We can take heart in that today. We're looking for his coming, but he's already with us in the here and now, in the present time. His presence, his person is with us in our gathering together, in each believer's life.

[26:46] He lives within you as his living temples. And friends, just to close, think of it. Revelation 22, just three, from 12 to 17. A closing, encouraging scripture.

[26:58] It says, he says to you, And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

[27:15] You could put it there where it says, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. You know, some people like Jehovah's Witnesses think he was the beginning as he was in the first one created.

[27:29] But no, he is in the beginning as he is the beginning. He is the one who began. He is the creator of all. The Alpha and Omega, the originating cause, is the sense of it here, and he's the one who brings it to completion.

[27:44] And his apocalypse is imminent. His coming is imminent. The unveiling of the curtain, as it were, that revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's imminent.

[27:56] It's within a whisker of it, brother and sister. I would expect that it could be at any moment. Of course, we can't put a definite time or date on it.

[28:09] But we see the signs of Matthew 24. We see the signs through the word that we read of. And friends, it goes on. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

[28:25] For without our dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.

[28:40] I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star, and the spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

[29:03] Christ is coming to planet earth. Are you coming unto him? Come unto him while you have the opportunity. If you're not saved today, I urge you, I urge you, I implore you, I beseech you to seek his face.

[29:21] While there's still opportunity. For you that believe, think of that harvest that you're called to be workers within. Think of that hope that you have that you don't want to keep to yourself.

[29:31] The reason of the hope that is within you. The blessed hope that you can have hope. When all about, as you read the news affairs and watch the media and you see the despair, there is hope for you.

[29:44] There is a glad hope, a blessed hope for you. And there is a reason for holiness for each of us in the light of his coming, that we will be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.

[29:57] And that we would think of how we can live our lives in all holy conversation and godliness. I love to tell the story of haunting things above, of Jesus and his glory.