[0:00] In John chapter 13, right before you get to John chapter 14, obviously, back up in verse 31, your Bible says, Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified. God is glorified in him.
[0:15] If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify him. And he goes on and talks to them about loving each other. And then he says, Simon Peter says in verse 36, Lord, where are you going?
[0:31] Where are you going? Whither goest thou? What's he say? He says, Whither goest thou? And Jesus answered and says, Whither I go.
[0:41] Where I'm going, you cannot follow me now. You cannot follow me now. But you will follow me afterwards. Can't follow me now, but you will follow me afterwards.
[0:52] And Peter said to him, Lord, exactly why can't we follow you now? Well, I'd be willing to die for you. And Jesus said, Oh, no, you won't.
[1:04] You'll deny me three times before the cock crow. Excuse me. You will say thou will lay that. Barely, where I send you, the cock shall crow till thou hast denied me three times.
[1:14] Thrust. John 14, 1. Very familiar passage. It's almost a funeral passage. And I need you to know that we do not believe that when you die, you come back as a spirit or on the wind or a raindrop.
[1:33] We believe that when a Christian dies, they're buried, they're alive. The second they die, as they ever were, they're more alive. And we believe that everyone lives somewhere forever.
[1:47] Everyone lives somewhere forever. Jesus literally arose from the grave. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.
[2:00] 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.
[2:12] I wish you'd underline that. I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may be also. Jesus is talking to them about going to the cross.
[2:25] He will shortly die. But he says, I'm going to go prepare you a place. And then I'll be back and bring you to be with me. Receive you unto myself.
[2:37] I'm going to prepare you a place. And I will bring you to me. Jesus is coming again. That first coming was so clear in the scriptures.
[2:49] The Old Testament said he was going to come. And the New Testament, we see when he did come. And the Old Testament said it would happen. And the New Testament, it said it happened. While Jesus was alive in Mark chapter 14 and verse 61, while he's alive physically, in Mark 14, 61, he said, But he held his peace and answered nothing.
[3:07] And again, the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Are you the Messiah? Are you the Anointed One? Are you the Sent One?
[3:19] Are you the one that God sent to the earth? And Jesus said, I am. Now, in our English language, that's as close as you can get to saying, I'm God.
[3:33] When Moses asked him what his name was, he said, I am. I am that I am. He is the same today, tomorrow, and forever.
[3:44] He is God, eternal God. Time has nothing to do with it. He said, I am. I'm that Christ. I'm the Son of the Blessed. And then he said, and you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, the right hand of God, coming in the clouds of heaven.
[4:02] Jesus is coming again. He said he was coming again. In Matthew chapter 16 and verse 37, I told you all this this morning. I'll get you to the real point of the message tonight.
[4:13] But Jesus told him this morning. He said he would come in glory of his Father with his angels to reward every man according to his works. We need to understand that sometime, we don't know when, and scripturally we believe it could be any second now.
[4:31] He will come and he will reward every man according to his works. In Luke 21, 27, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud. In Revelation 1, 7, every eye will see him.
[4:45] Jesus is coming again. Now, how am I supposed to act if that's true? How does that affect me? One of the most fun studies you could ever do of your Bible is to take and find a passage where he promised that he would come and see what he said you ought to do about it.
[5:02] So I want to take you through quite a few of those passages before the end of this service tonight. Go with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8. I will take you through several passages of Scripture, and I want you to underline how a believer is to respond to these promises.
[5:20] In 2 Timothy 4, 8, how many of you believe Jesus is coming? Say amen. See, do you really believe he's alive? I could ask, do you really believe he was born the first time? Do you really believe he was more than the son of Mary, an illegitimate son of Mary?
[5:35] Do you really believe he was God in human flesh? Do you really believe that he died on a cross and was buried and rose again? Do you really believe that? If you do, you have to believe this part. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8, Paul says to Timothy, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.
[5:55] Now, I'm fixing to die. And when I die, you need to know God's already got me a crown of righteousness, and he's waiting on me to give me that crown. The righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
[6:11] I wish you'd underline love his appearing. We ought to be desiring to see him appear. We ought to be desiring to see Jesus come back.
[6:22] We ought to love to see his appearing. And it ought to be on our hearts like I can't wait for him to get here. When I was a country boy, as a little kid, growing up on a dirt road, in a house with no air condition, no ceiling fan, just some window fans, and four rooms, and towels that you could see through, and an outhouse out back, and a tub on the back porch.
[6:46] But when family was going to come, man, we couldn't wait. My mother cleaned the house up really good. Well, we cleaned it with her, but we got the house clean. And she got out the nice towels and the nice plates, and we put on the dog.
[6:58] That's what we called it back then. We acted like we was city folk. We had good stuff. We had good plates. We never saw them until you came. And we got all that out. And then we would get dressed, and she would say, do not move.
[7:12] You do not get dirty before they get here. And we'd be sitting on the porch, and you could hear the cars crunching on the gravel a long ways off as they came towards the house. And we loved their appearing. We waited for it.
[7:22] We watched for it. We expected it. We were looking to see them come. And, buddy, when they started coming, people jumped up. They ran in the house and said, grandmama's here. She's coming around the corner. Whatever. We got excited.
[7:33] We are to love his appearing. It ought to be that in our minds, he's coming, and I can't wait. He's coming, and I can't wait. Look at 1 John 3 and verse 2 with me, if you would.
[7:46] 1 John 3 and verse 2. 1 John 3 and verse 2. The Bible says another one of those promises. Paul said, when I die, when I get to heaven, he's going to have a crown waiting on me.
[7:58] And he's got that same crown for everybody. Can't wait to see him. Everybody can't wait to see him. I can't wait to see him. I hope you can't wait to see him. It's honestly like when you stand at the airport and you wait on them to come off that airplane.
[8:13] You can't wait to see them. I can't wait to see Jesus. 1 John 3 and verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be.
[8:24] You know what? He said, brethren, loved ones, people I love, we are the very children of God. We are his sons. And we don't know what it's going to be like to be us.
[8:35] But we know this. Underline it. When he shall appear. When he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is.
[8:46] I don't know what he's going to do with me. But when I do get to see him, I'm going to be like him. What does that mean? I'm not sure. But I'm going to see him and I'm going to be like him. And then he said, and every man, you got that?
[8:59] Every man that had this hope in him purified himself. Even as he is pure. If your love is appearing, if you can't wait for Jesus to come back, you're trying to get your clothes cleaned up.
[9:11] You're trying to take a bath. You're trying to wash behind your ears. You don't understand that. I was thinking just the other day as I was brushing my hair, how you know I got this brush and I brush my hair and it is never nasty.
[9:23] But when I was a boy, a comb could be filthy in a week. Of course, we didn't wash our hair about once a week. I don't tell you how much grime. You know, I think it was gross. You know, and I can remember trying to clean your own brush up.
[9:36] Like, what in the world? Somebody should have told me if you wash your hair, your brush doesn't have to get that nasty. But you know what happens here? He said, hey, you know he's coming. You know you're going to be like him. You know you are his.
[9:46] So clean up. So clean up. Clean the house. Get the stuff ready. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Purify yourself. Be ready for his coming.
[9:58] Look, if you would, at Matthew chapter 24 and verse 44. Another word for all of us. You are to be ready. Be ready. In other words, we are to be expecting him to come.
[10:12] We are to be expecting him to come. Years ago, in Adi Kippa, when Jeff and Mindy were very young and barely married, I told Jeff we would swing by and pick up Mindy if she would be ready.
[10:27] We pulled up to where she was supposed to be ready. I didn't see her, and I left her. She's been mad at me for the last 20 years because she said she was ready just standing further back off the road.
[10:39] But what? Do what? Move on. But be ready. You know, here's the deal. He's coming. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready.
[10:50] It says, Matthew 24, 44, Therefore, be ye also ready. Because you don't know when he's going to show up. Be ye ready. For in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes.
[11:03] Here's a really harsh one. Luke 21, 34, if you would. Luke 21, 34. Now listen to this. Here's what he said.
[11:14] You can get so caught up in this world, it's going to mess you up. And he's saying this. If you believe Jesus is coming, don't get caught up in this world.
[11:25] And I think this verse may describe me on a lot of days. I thought as I studied and prepared about how guilty I can be of this verse.
[11:37] Luke 21, 34 says, Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life, so that day come upon you unawares.
[11:54] Be careful that you don't get so caught up in this world that you get, see, basically you're getting tired because you're doing so much stuff that's fun.
[12:04] You're partying, surfeiting, you're partying, you're enjoying life, you're eating too much and you're drinking too much and you're getting drunk and you're worried about this life. If you've got your Bible open, I don't know the cares of this life.
[12:16] Because I'm thinking all the time, well, I need retirement and I need a better salary and I need a newer car and I need and I need in this world and this life.
[12:27] And all of that begins to call on me. And that's what I'm interested in. That's what I want. And I get kind of consumed with it, overcharged. I get kind of consumed with it.
[12:38] I'm consumed with, can I have enough stuff? Am I getting enough food? I get consumed with it. Take heed to yourself. Does at any moment your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life?
[12:51] And so that day come upon you unaware. I am so busy paying my bills and buying me a new phone and buying me new stuff and enjoying new stuff.
[13:01] And I'm partying and I'm vacationing and I'm having a lot. I'm enjoying this life so much, I'm not interested in that life. And that life will catch me, his coming will catch me unaware.
[13:12] I wonder how often I get so caught up in this world I forget that world. Lost people love to say you can be so heavenly minded you're of no earthly good. That's pretty much the opposite of the truth. Truth is you're so earthly minded you're of no heavenly good.
[13:25] That's what this verse is saying. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 11. The last book in your Bible, Revelation chapter 3 and verse 11.
[13:37] Do you know when you're young, you do a lot for Jesus. And you get busy and you do a lot of stuff and time goes by.
[13:47] You'll recall we were in 2 Peter chapter 3 and we were expecting him to come. And so we got busy, we got busy, we got busy, we got busy, and we got busy. And then all of a sudden, he didn't come and he didn't come and he didn't come.
[13:59] And he began to doubt that he would come. And then you got off target. You got off target and you could lose your reward. You'd never believe this.
[14:10] But we would expect our cousins and aunts and uncles and grandmother and granddaddy to come to the house. And we'd get all prettied up. We'd be looking nice and acting nice.
[14:23] But if they didn't show up pretty good and parents weren't watching us, we'd get off that porch. And dogs were running around. We had to run with them dogs. Huh? We had to get out there and play with a horse. I mean, all of a sudden, my mother would come out and say, what are y'all doing?
[14:37] And, you know, they hadn't been there. I've been sitting there like for three days. I mean, it's been an hour, I know. But it feels like three days. And so now I've got dirt on my shoes. I've got dirt on my pants. And I've been out and walked into cow manure.
[14:49] And I smell like cow manure. And I'm just telling you the truth. That's what a country boy does. And my mother's like, I can't believe it. The city folks are coming. You smell like cow poop. And it's too late to get a bath and go clean yourself off, get a hose pipe, do something.
[15:02] Do you realize what happens? Life goes by and you forget what you're doing. Life goes by and you forget what you're doing. You get off target. You think you can retire. Revelation 3.11 says, behold, I come quickly.
[15:14] Hold fast at what you have so that nobody takes your crown. Don't lose what you've gained. How much have you done for Jesus? How much have you been used by Jesus? Don't lose it.
[15:27] Revelation chapter 16 and verse 15, if you would. Revelation chapter 16 and verse 15. Stay alert. Stay alert. You have to constantly be looking.
[15:39] You have to constantly be on guard. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments.
[15:51] This is terrible. But listen, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. I was on the boulevard in Caracas, Venezuela. And I had an army paratrooper with me.
[16:05] Retired. Not retired, retired. But he'd been in seven, eight years. Big old muscle bound guy. And so when we got on the boulevard, I said to him, now I'll explain something to you. This is pickpocket alley.
[16:17] But you got to walk down it. Everybody loves it. This is like a world sightseeing tour. We're going to go on. I said, now they will pick your pocket. He said, you don't need to talk to me. I'm a paratrooper. I said, now let me explain.
[16:29] It might be good to take your wallet out of your back pocket and put it in your front pocket. I don't need you to tell me what to do. I told you I'm an army paratrooper. I'll give you his name. I'm telling you I didn't make this up.
[16:41] And I said, now if somebody were to spit on you, don't fight. Just keep walking because that's just to get you distracted. And when you get distracted, another person will snatch stuff. They'll throw something on you.
[16:51] He said, that's the most ridiculous thing. I told you I can handle myself. Okay. So we started walking. We've been walking. I mean, the thing's long. It's wide. And we've been walking.
[17:02] And I got up there and I couldn't find him. So I just pulled off to the side. I was waiting on him. He come up to me. He said, you ain't going to believe it. I said, what? He said, they got all my stuff. He said, they took my wallet. They cleaned my pockets out. And I said, what happened?
[17:13] He said, they spit on me. And I whooped around to get them. I said, I told you not to. You got to stay alert. You got to stay alert. If you ever lived overseas, you'd have to learn. You got to stay alert. You got to keep your eyes open. You never know, man.
[17:24] They'll snatch your, I tell people in Peru, they'll take your underwear off and you'll never be missing it until you got home. You never know when they got it. We had somebody, I mean, they've stolen computers.
[17:35] They've stolen everything. Look what it says in the verse here. I come as a thief. You know what a thief does? He comes when you're not ready. Jesus isn't up there saying, y'all have revival and I'll show up. He's up there saying, I'm going to wait till you get sleepy.
[17:47] You're not watching and you're not thinking about me and I'm coming. Blessed, happy is the guy that keeps watching and the guy that takes care of his stuff. Because if you don't take care of your stuff, you're going to end up naked and people are going to look at you naked and you're going to get embarrassed.
[18:03] First John chapter two and verse 28. Abide in him. We got to make sure we just keep stuck on Jesus and stuck in Jesus.
[18:17] First John two, 28. And now little children, abide in him. Be careful about your walk with him. Be careful about your love relationship with him. Be careful about your prayer life.
[18:28] Be careful about your church attendance. Be careful about your Bible reading. Be careful about your mind being focused on Jesus all the time. That when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
[18:43] We don't want to get embarrassed when he shows up. In a lot of ways, most of us are Sunday morning Christians or Sunday night Christians night. We get our Bibles out.
[18:53] We know where our Bible is. We look up the verses. But we go home and tomorrow morning we put it down and we pick up our business books, our school books, our work books. And we take those with us and we go off. And we're like, I'll be back to see you on Sunday, Jesus.
[19:05] And he said, no, no, no, don't do that. Abide in him. James chapter 5 verses 7 and 8 if you would. James chapter 5 verses 7 and 8 if you would.
[19:18] Do right. James 5, 7 says, be patient therefore, brethren. I need to get you on the line patient. You see, here's the whole deal.
[19:30] As a Christian, you know what the key word for Christianity is? Patience. Endurance. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. I have been in meetings at Dykes Creek Baptist Church, the first church I worked in.
[19:46] I saw some people get so excited. I mean, it was like shaking up a Coca-Cola bottle and knocking the lid off of it. I mean, the excitement just blew all over the room. But when it was gone, it was gone. And here's what it takes.
[19:57] It takes hanging in there. I've seen people get married and they got the best marriage you've ever seen. They're so excited about marriage, but they don't have patience. But you run the race with patience. You keep doing right day after day.
[20:10] That word patience is also like the word endurance. Hang in there. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. You hang in there and you deal with what you've got to deal with because Jesus is coming.
[20:21] Yes, bad things might happen to you. And yes, things might go wrong in your life. And yes, you might get discouraged. And yes, the money might be short. And yes, you might get problems in your life. But you hang on until Jesus comes.
[20:34] The farmer, the husbandman, waits for the precious fruit of the earth. He plows and plants and fertilizes. But he has to wait. So wait. He has long patience.
[20:46] He has to wait for the early rain. He gets to the end and he waits on God to send the early rain. And then after that, he's got to wait on God to send the latter rain. And finally, he gets his harvest. So that's an illustration, he said.
[20:58] Verse 8, be ye also patient. Like a farmer, you put the stuff in the ground, but you've got to do a lot of waiting. My daddy used to say when I was a boy, he said the closest people to God on the earth are farmers.
[21:11] He said our whole life depends on if God's good to us or not. He said I put the seed in the ground. I've got to pray to God he'll send the rain. Now I've got to pray to God he'll send the sun. Of course, I know that's not true, but you get his point, can't you?
[21:24] Be patient. Establish your hearts. Get strong. Get established. Get settled. The coming of the Lord is getting closer.
[21:35] Draweth nigh. Jesus is coming soon. You know what's hard about this as I preach it to you? Is that 45 years ago, I thought he was coming.
[21:45] 45 years ago, I believed he'd come. 45 years ago, I got excited. 45 years ago, I was expecting him. 45 years ago, I didn't expect that I would live this long.
[21:57] I thought Jesus would come. And so it's easy now to not be established. It's easy to take it as ho-hum. I don't believe it. It sounds sweet. And he probably will come eventually, but not now. But we can't be like that.
[22:10] That's wrong. Romans chapter 13, verse 11, if you would. Romans chapter 13, verse 11. Make no provision for the flesh. This is probably one of my favorite passages of Scripture, and I got two and I'll quit.
[22:25] I got three minutes. I might go a couple over. Watch this. Romans 13, 11. That knowing the time, when you recognize what the Scriptures say, and you recognize what the truth is, you need to know it is high time to wake up.
[22:39] It is high time to awake out of sleep. Get up. You know what time it is? My daddy used to come down. We didn't really have a hallway. He'd step out of his room, slap the wall, and say, I better hear feet on the floor.
[22:51] You know what time it is? I think my daddy said we was burning daylight before John Wayne never thought of it. High time to wake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
[23:05] It's a lot closer. I got saved in 1962. I'm a lot closer to heaven now than I was. The night is far spent. It's almost dawn.
[23:15] The day is at hand. Therefore, let's cast off the works of darkness. Let's put on the armor of light. Let's walk honestly as in the day.
[23:27] Not in rioting and drunkenness and chambering and wantonness. Not in strife and envy. You see, the day is close. Don't be partying in verse 13. But put on the Lord Jesus and make not provision for the flesh.
[23:42] Put on the Lord Jesus and make not provision for the flesh. If Jesus is coming, it's time to take off the work clothes and put on the Sunday clothes.
[23:53] Because you wear Sunday clothes when families come in to visit. We had Sunday clothes and school clothes and work clothes. And you never wore work clothes. You might just wear school clothes, but you never let anybody see you in work clothes.
[24:04] Get ready. And don't be so worried about your physical stuff as you are about your spiritual. My last verse. Hebrews 10, 25.
[24:17] I'm glad you're here. But listen to this. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Hey, stop missing church. Stop missing assemblies. As a matter of some is.
[24:30] Some people just lay out of church. Some people just don't get together when the Christians get together. But exhort one another. Challenge each other. Motivate each other. And do it even more as you see the day approaching.
[24:43] I know Jesus is coming. You know, here's the truth. If there was some way we knew that Jesus was coming next week, churches would be full. If we knew that at any moment we said, look, within the next 168 hours, he will split the eastern sky.
[25:01] We wouldn't even question whether or not we gave offerings. We wouldn't question whether or not we were in a church attendance. We wouldn't question whether or not we read our Bibles. We wouldn't question about any of that.
[25:11] It'd be like, hey, none of this matters. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. I can hear your thoughts right now. Yeah, but that's not realistic.
[25:21] The Bible thought it was. The Bible thought it was. And the song you taught me to sing when I was a little boy in vacation Bible school said it was. This world is not my home.
[25:32] I'm just a passing through. My treasures are let up somewhere down at the bank. No, somewhere beyond the blue. Somewhere in our minds, we've got to know this.
[25:43] If he promised to come at Christmas, and he came, and he promised to come again, he will come. Are you ready? Are you ready?