Higgins, Eugene: Coming of the Lord ~ 1 Timothy 6

Second Thessalonians chapter two, and we'll read at verse seven. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let, that is an old English word for our word restrain. He who now holds back or restrains will restrain until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. So now please notice at the end of verse eight, we are reading about the coming of the Lord Jesus, and at his coming, with the spirit of his mouth, that is the word of his power, and the brightness of his coming, that is the display of his glory at his coming, he will destroy the wicked one, the Antichrist. But now notice that same word coming used in verse nine about the Antichrist, that the Lord will destroy this man at his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders. So we have the coming of the Lord Jesus with brightness and glory, and we have the coming of this world ruler, the Antichrist, whose coming is after the working of Satan. Now the next book, please, First Timothy chapter six, verse thirteen. First Timothy chapter six and verse thirteen. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Our final readings will be in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter nineteen. Revelation chapter nineteen. In verse eleven. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Down at verse nineteen. And I saw the beast. We noticed that that is the title given to the coming world ruler because he will be a beastly man. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. And then finally, chapter twenty. Chapter twenty. And we're not taking the time to read the whole passage, but if you notice verse ten. let me just simply say that the events taking place in verse ten will be a thousand years after the events that we just read about in chapter nineteen. So in chapter nineteen, we noticed that there are two men, the beast and the false prophet, who are cast into the lake of fire. Then a thousand year, years intervene. It is called the thousand-year reign, or the millennial reign of Christ. Now, this is the end of that thousand years, and notice what we read. The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. So after a thousand years, these two men are still in the lake of fire. And to make that doubly certain, the next words that follow actually are in the plural, and shall, or they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. If it ended there, it would not be so solemn, but notice verse fifteen: whosoever. Now we've read about two men going into the lake of fire forever and the devil going into the lake of fire forever, but notice verse fifteen: whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now I noticed with interest, as I pointed out to you, that the, the word in second Thessalonians chapter two, the word coming or apocalypse, the unveiling, is used about both the Lord Jesus when he comes back as king, and about the beast, the Antichrist. The devil will unveil his man in this world, and then about three and a half years later, God will unveil his man, the Lord Jesus, who will destroy the Antichrist and will set up his kingdom. There are actually three places on the chart that I would like to notice with you tonight, just to, uh, be as basic as I can. We have noticed that the left hand section of the chart deals with the future for individuals. So you could find tonight which of these two roads you are on, and that would tell you which of these two places you are traveling to. We are all born on the broad way. There are men and women in this world who have had a new birth. They have everlasting life. That new birth, that being born again, has placed them on the narrow way. If a person who is saved dies, their spirit goes to heaven to be with Christ. If a person has never had that experience of being saved or born again, then they are still on the broad way, and the Lord Jesus told us that the end of that road is destruction in hell. So that's very solemn. The left-hand section of the chart then would enable you tonight to find out where you're going or where you would be if you were to die tonight, and of course it indicates how, if you are still on the wrong road, you can find the right road, you can step through the door, that is, you can trust Christ as your savior and be saved and join us on the way to heaven. The right hand section of the chart, the main body of it, deals with events for the world, the future for our planet. If the Lord Jesus were to come back tonight, we call it the rapture of the church. It's symbolized by heaven's open door, and that could take place at any moment. If it happened tonight, then these events would begin to transpire. And what we're going to look at tonight is actually the coming of the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, when he will come for his church, the coming of the beast, when the wicked Antichrist will be revealed to the world, Satan's man displayed for the world to wonder and worship, and then the coming of the blessed and only potentate when the Lord Jesus will come to claim his kingdom and his crown. As we noticed earlier in the meeting, Roman generals, after a successful campaign, were allowed to return to Rome. They would bring their army with them, they would bring their captives with them. Among their captives would be foreign kings that had been chained, and the conquering general would ride a white horse up the Via Sacra, Rome's main street that led from, um, the Forum to the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill. The street would be lined with people praising the general, and in what would be, what would amount to a parade, that procession would move up toward the temple, with everyone lauding the victorious general. That's the picture of Revelation nineteen. The Lord Jesus is coming back as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the conqueror of all. But first I want to notice with you an event that could take place at any moment, the coming of the bridegroom, the coming of the Son of God to claim his church. That promise is a promise that has been potent to every generation of Christians. Have you ever thought how wise it was of the Lord Jesus not to give the date? It's incredible. It is absolutely incredible that in our day there are supposed Christians who are trying to place dates for when the Lord will come, and they're trying to figure out when it will be and, and print books about when it will be, and the, and the Bible plainly simply states that that is impossible, that you cannot discover the date of that, that it is only known to God. Think of the wisdom of that, because when Christians were thrown to the lions, when they were being torn asunder, when they were being put to death under cruel persecution, their, their great hope was this, that the Lord was coming, that the Lord was coming. They would think of the children they were leaving behind. They would think maybe of the wife that had not yet been caught, or the husband that had not yet been captured. The hiding place had not yet been discovered, and even while the arrows were piercing their body, their thought was, to put it in a New Testament word, Maranatha, the Lord is coming. Now, you see, if the Lord Jesus had said to the disciples in John fourteen, I am going away, I will come again in nineteen ninety three or nineteen ninety four, then they would never have had that hope. They would have said to each other, well, we're going to die now, but in two thousand years, the Lord Jesus will come back. But you see, because he did not reveal the date, it has always been a bright and burning hope in the hearts of the people of God all down through the ages. Let me tell you that the coming again of the Lord Jesus is as sure as the rising sun. As sure as the rising sun. As certain as his return to the Father, that is how certain is his return back to this world to claim his bride. It is as immutable, it is as dependable as the promise of a man who cannot lie. If I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Why has he not come yet? He has not come yet because he is leaving that door open for you to get through. How much longer he will wait, how much longer he will allow you, I cannot tell, but the moment will come when the last soul will be saved, and God will turn to his son and say, go for your bride, claim her, and bring her to heaven. And the Lord Jesus will bound from the throne of heaven to the air above the earth, and he will give the call, the shout that will be heard by all believers all over the world, and he will raise from the dead his people who have died, and he will catch up his people who have not yet died, and together, resurrected, now incorruptible, caught up, now immortal. The Bible says we who are saved shall meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It's a great hope before everyone who is saved tonight. Those who have stepped through that door, they are ready for the next great event that could take place at any moment. The coming of the Lord is drawing nigh. Now, we have noticed in the past two weeks what the purpose of that is, that the reason that the, that the Lord Jesus is coming back, and the reason that he will catch his people up to heaven without dying, is because he is not going to leave his bride here for these terrible coming days of judgment. Satan is going to clear planet Earth as a battlefield to challenge God. He will dare heaven to do anything about it, and those days are going to be days of war between heaven and earth. And before the war breaks out, the Lord Jesus is coming to take his bride away. How long, my, my dear friend, how long would you leave your bride? How long would you leave your wife where the shells were falling and the bombs were bursting and, and warfare was going on? He is not going to leave his bride here. He is coming to take her away and to take her to heaven. Now think of for just a moment with me of the power, the power that will operate on that day when the Lord Jesus comes back. Now again, very simply, if that happened now, that were to take place in thirty seconds from now, the preacher would disappear, as incredible as that sounds. People all around you would be gone instantaneously. We would be in heaven. You'd be left staring at a vacant platform, the chart would still be hanging. So, I find it a bit incredible, sir, that you in the twentieth century would actually believe in human beings disappearing. Well, now, could I tell you that what God is going to do at the rapture, he has already done? He's already given us a preview. He's already shown us. He has already shown us. There was an occasion when a man, and all his neighbors knew that that man in that house, that man knew God, and that man obeyed God, and that man, to put it in the language of the Bible, he walked with God. They enjoyed each other's company, and Enoch was walking with God, and there was a flood that was going to come in the days of Noah, and before that flood came, this is what God did. He took Enoch to heaven. One day, as they said, Enoch went out for a walk with God, and he never came back. And the Bible says God translated him. He took Enoch from earth to heaven without dying. Nobody saw Enoch go. They searched for him, because it says he was not found. He wasn't there. They searched for him, they couldn't find him. God had removed him from earth by divine power. Centuries later, there were two men walking together. They came to a river. The older of the two removed his cloak, and he smote the water, and the waters parted, and the two men went down into the dry riverbed and crossed over to the other side. And as they were walking further, suddenly the heaven was open, and there was a whirlwind that picked up that older man, Elijah, and whisked him skyward. His mantle floated down into the hands of Elisha. Nobody saw Enoch go to heaven. One man saw Elijah go to heaven. Twelve men were walking out to a place called Bethany one day. If I understand Luke twenty four properly, then one of the twelve separated himself from the others, and he lifted his hands like this in blessing, and he was blessing those men and praying for them, and while he was in the process of blessing them, he began to rise from their midst. It was the Lord Jesus. He was going back to heaven from the slopes of the Mount of Olives, and those men stood and watched as he went higher and higher and higher till they could follow him no more. Now we know, we know now what happened on the other side of those clouds, but the disciples, they they just saw him disappear. He was gone. The other side of those clouds, this is what happened. God said to his son, sit here, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool of thy feet. Nobody saw Enoch taken to heaven. One man saw Elijah go to heaven. Eleven men saw the Lord Jesus go to heaven. Now let me tell you about an event that hundreds saw, because they all stood, and many of them were people who hated, literally hated the Lord Jesus who was standing in the midst. And over there at the far end, there was a huge stone that was rolled against the sepulcher. And the Lord Jesus said, roll away that stone. And the men, the, the people that were there, they began to say, but Lord, the, the man who died and is buried in there, he has been buried four days. Corruption has already set in. There's no possibility that that man is still alive or that you can do anything about it now. They they knew that he had raised a little girl who had just died, twelve-year-old girl, and they knew he had stopped the funeral procession and raised a man back to death who had, who had died and was almost buried. But, but four days dead? The body already decomposing? Lord, what's the point of rolling away the stones? He said, just roll away the stone, and you'll see the glory of God. They rolled away the stone, and the Lord Jesus flung three words into that rock-hewn sepulcher. He said, Lazarus, come forth. Somebody has said it's good that he prefaced it with the name of the man, or every tomb would have been empty. It was the voice of the Son of God reaching into heaven for the spirit of that man, reaching into that sepulcher for the body of that man, and uniting the two, and before hundreds of hostile witnesses, Lazarus came out of his tomb. How can God do that? Because you see the laws of nature, the laws of nature that we think are so immutable and unchangeable. Those, those, those are the, the tools that the divine workman is just left hanging around his shop. A- and, and it's like going in and picking up a, a saw and saying, that's a marvelous saw. The saw's nothing, the mind of the man using it and his skill. So when we study centrifugal force, gravity, we, we understand we live in a world of death and corruption, that we're mortal, that we die, that bodies corrupt. That's the normal, that's the usual. But God is able to interrupt the usual because he's the one who established those laws. If you're on the way home tonight and you start to come up to an intersection and it's a red light, you put the brakes on and you slow down, and then all of a sudden you notice that off to the side there's a car, it has a, has a light on the top, the light, uh, started to turn, and coming out of the car door is a uniformed man, and he has, um, he has a flashlight with a, a pointed, a lighted end to it. And he walks out into the middle of the street, and he points the flashlight at you in the middle of that intersection, and he says, go. Now you look up and you see the light is red. The law says you don't go. And here's this uniformed officer in the middle of the street saying, you go, what do you do? You say, well, the normal thing is you stop because it's a red light, but this person has the authority to interrupt the normal. I'll listen to him. I'll listen to him. The normal thing is that we die, that we're buried, that our bodies corrupt. The normal thing is that we stay here on Earth, that we have no ability to rise without mechanical apparatus. That's the normal. Please don't tie down my God to the normal, because he is supernatural. You'd been standing in the Garden of Eden, if it had been possible for you to be in the Garden of Eden, the day after God was finished creating. If you were a biologist and I pointed you to Adam and said, you see that man, how old is he? You would have looked at a full grown man and you would have said to yourself, well, that man's got to be about thirty, thirty-five years of age. He must have been in this garden for thirty-five years. He was there a day, a day. If you were a botanist, and you looked at the plants and the flowers, and we cut down a tree, and you, you counted the circles, and I said to you, how old is that tree? You would have said, well, sir, I can tell you authoritatively, this tree, this tree has been growing for three hundred years. It was a handful of days old. If you were an astronomer and you had the, the ability to gauge it, and you knew that there were stars, stars, thousands and thousands of light years away, and their light was already reaching planet Earth, and I said to you, how old is all of this? You would have made a tragic blunder in your estimate because you would have thought that that light had to start from that star and work its way toward planet Earth, and you would have said, well, this all must be millions and millions and millions of years old. And it was all less than a week old. What happened? God created it with the appearance of age. You can't tie God down to your limitations and mine. And when he sends his beloved son, he will interrupt the normal laws of gravity. He will interrupt the normal laws of mortality. He will interrupt the normal laws of corruption. He will take his people to heaven. I wonder, friend, if it happened tonight, would you go or would you stay? If it happened tonight, would you be taken or would you be left? If it happened tonight, friend, would you be in heaven tomorrow morning, or would you be left here where it will be hell on earth? He is coming, and he will suspend the laws of nature, and he will raise the dead in Christ, and he will rapture his beloved people, and he will close the door of salvation. And that is why the most important matter facing you, friend, is the salvation of your soul, because if he came tonight, the door would close, and you would have absolutely no chance of ever being saved. It's the coming of the bridegroom. It's coming at any moment. But we have read in the past two weeks about this menacing, sinister, baleful creature, a man, a man who is going to be a normal politician at the beginning of his career, but who in the middle of this seven-year period will suddenly receive staggering power, tremendous ability to mesmerize the minds of men and women. He will be a, he will be a man with charisma. He will be a man with intelligence. He will be a man with ability. He will sway millions of men and women so that it will be a new cult. It will be the cult of beast worship, as men will worship this Antichrist. He has two ways in which it is described that he will come. He is coming out of the sea of nations, that is out of the, the troubled, tumultuous conditions that will be prevalent in our world that day, this man will arrive. We have noticed in past nights, we have noticed that the terrible conditions in Soviet Russia just after World War I, in Russia just after World War I, led to the rise of Lenin and communism, the overthrow of the Tsar, who was controlled by Rasputin. We have noticed that the backbreaking economic conditions in Germany were, were just, just perfect for the rise to power of Hitler and his Nazis. And the terrible economic conditions of the world in that day, out of those conditions there will rise a man that the devil will be able to use. Those conditions are described like these four horses. Conditions that will come racing into the world scene. That white horse represents the anti-God, anti-Christ policies, the attitude and mood of the minds of men in that coming day, the idea of the promise of peace, the threat of war, the boast of man, the sufficiency of humanity to handle its own problems. That's the white horse. The red horse, war will break out all over our world. And as always follows war, that black horse represents famine, privation, starvation, need, want. N- not all over the world, you see, because there will be the haves and the have nots. There will be people in that coming day that will have much, and there will be people in that coming day that won't have two pennies to rub together. How long do you think those nations ground down under the heel of wrenching poverty? How long do you think they will be satisfied with that before they take arms and figure, what's the point whether we die in battle, we will die here anyway? You think inflation has been bad in your day or in your lifetime? The scales here from Revelation chapter six, the scales that are associated with that black horse represent inflation that will be eight hundred percent. Eight hundred percent. Eight times what the normal cost of a thing would be. Now, c- can you imagine what that means? To buy a gallon of gasoline will cost you about ten dollars a gallon, not to fill your tank, a gallon of gasoline, ten dollars. That to go to the store, it'll cost you close to ninety dollars to buy just a roast for your family for one meal. That if you had an interest in buying a car, instead of getting something that is an exclusive edition for the price that you would pay, the cheapest car you will be able to buy will cost about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and a simple split level, a little bungalow, just a, a small little house in the San Diego area, prorated to these figures would cost close to a million dollars. Who's going to be able to afford that? The black horse. You see why the world will gladly turn to a man who says that he can lead them out of their economic morass and problems? That pale horse, actually yellowish green, tells us of the terrible amount of death and famine and disease and destruction. Now, in those conditions, this man is going to rise to power. But when the devil, as we noticed in Revelation chapter twelve, when he is cast down to earth, he sees that man, and he sees a man that he can use, and that man will gladly, gladly give himself over to Satan, to Lucifer, to be inspired, to be empowered, to be enabled by the devil himself. And through that man, the devil will work out his will. And we have noticed, if I could hurry along now, we have noticed that his coming will be after the working of Satan with signs and lying wonders. People will see this man do miracles and think, this man is tremendous. This man has all the answers. And we have seen that those days will end in the terrible campaign of Armageddon, when all of the armies of the world will be gathered together in the Middle East. Armageddon is just one facet, one part of the great battlefields that will be employed. The center will actually be the city of Jerusalem. It will be broken into. The city will be rifled. People will be murdered in the streets. Jews will be carried away into captivity. It will look like the end will have come. All the nations will be there. There will be that vast horde from the east, the kings of the sun rising, the technological know-how of Japan linked with the manpower of China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India, all uniting together, coming, pouring over the Euphrates River westward toward Jerusalem. The king of the north, the rebuilt armies of Russia, along with all of its Balkan allies, they will come south. The king of the south, Egypt, with its Arabic allies coming up from the south northward into Israel. And the beast, the Antichrist, leading his coalition from the west, heading eastward to try and defend and help the false prophet. They will all be together. Jerusalem will be captured in the middle, when, as we noticed on a previous night, the heaven will open, and the blessed and only potentate will come. Now, I just want to catch the meeting right there and tell you what is going to happen. With the nation of Israel up against a wall, fighting for its very life. If you've ever read anything of the, the hand to hand, street by street, house by house combat in Leningrad and Stalingrad, if you've ever read anything about what that was like, then let me tell you, that is just a faint picture of what it will be like in that day, when the nation of Israel will fight for its life, and in the midst of what will look like the very end, suddenly the darkness of Armageddon, suddenly it will be broken by a tremendous display as the heaven will open and the King of Kings will come back. And in the midst of that dark scene, just like the Mount of Transfiguration, likely a nighttime scene, when the glory of the Son of God lit up that mountaintop, so in the midst of that battle, suddenly the heaven will open. I don't think, I don't think that the, the Gentile nations will understand immediately what that glory means, but every Hebrew will know. They all understand about what they call the Shekinah, the cloud of glory that belongs alone to their Jehovah God. They all understand what that means, and when they see that, there will go, there will come into every Hebrew heart a thrill of praise. He's coming. After all these centuries, what he promised he's doing. Our great Jehovah God is coming. He will come. He will come. We noticed during the first week that what will be so stunning and overwhelming to them is that when he comes, they will see that he has nail prints in his hands and feet, that he came the first time and they rejected him. But he will come. What will happen now to those armies? Zechariah fourteen tells us that they're gathered together against Jerusalem, but you noticed, didn't you, that in Revelation nineteen, they're not gathered together now against Jerusalem. They are gathered together to fight against him that sits on that horse. You see what will happen when they realize what's taking place, and the beast sets up a canopy in the middle of the battlefield and calls together all of those warring rulers, and they all meet there, and he begins to address them, and he says to them, gentlemen, we have fought against each other long enough. We have allowed ourselves to be divided. Now we must unite for this last great battle. He is coming. He came the first time, and we crucified him, and now he is foolish enough to come back into our world, to place himself back in our hands. Let us unite now. Let us cast away his cords from us. Let us take counsel together and so unite that we will finally destroy once and for all the Son of God and be each other. They will turn all their guns toward the army coming from heaven. If the Mossad had not taken out Mr. Bull, Iraq might have had its super gun. Maybe it will have its super gun in that day. I can't tell you whether there will be nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, but it is very likely from the description of Zechariah fourteen that there will be. And they will turn all those nuclear-tipped missiles and all those guns and all that weaponry. It will all be pointed up there, toward him, toward the Lord Jesus. And what will happen? When God looks down the barrels of all men's guns, what will he do? Will he say to his son, come back? I didn't realize, I didn't realize there would be so many there against you. Come back. Will heaven tremble? Will God say, I wasn't ready for this? Well, I can tell you what God will do because he's already told us. You can read it for yourself in Psalm two. This is what will happen. God looks down the barrel of all men's guns. He that sits in the heavens will laugh. He will laugh. The long, loud laughter of the Almighty that fools, wicked men thought that their weapons could stop Christ. He will laugh. Do you know how rapid the destruction will be? It will be as crushing as a wine press crushing grapes. Hailstones, meteorite-like hailstones weighing from a hundred to a hundred and twenty five pounds, says chapter sixteen, will rain down upon that army, crushing those wicked men that tried to destroy people in the nation of Israel. Sword of his mouth, the word, the limitless authority of the word of Christ will take those two vile men that have murdered millions, the beast and the false prophet, and they will be cast into the lake of fire. His coming will be like a flash of lightning, awesome, powerful, visible. His coming will be like a flood of wrath, as in Noah's day, global, overwhelming, irresistible. His coming will be like the fire of judgment in Lot's day, fierce, final, and he will come. Now, we noticed last evening what happens, that the moment he comes back and destroys those warring armies, the Son of God will set up a judgment throne outside the city of Jerusalem, and he will gather before him the survivors, the survivors, the people who have made it through this seven-year period. He will gather them before him. See, I don't know, friend, whether you'll be there or not. The Lord Jesus came tonight and this seven-year period started. You must understand that there are billions of people, billions of people who are going to die under the mismanagement of that wicked man. So during this period of time, there will be many, many people who will die. But if somehow you did survive that seven-year period, you would stand before the Son of God, and because you are not saved, he would put you over here to the left, while he will take his people who are saved and he will put them over to his right. Do you know what he calls the ones on his right? He says they're my sheep, my sheep. I'm separating the sheep and the goats. And I would like to tell you in the closing moments of this meeting how you can become a sheep of Christ, a sheep of the Great Shepherd. The only people who are his sheep are lost people that he has found. Could I say that again? The only people who become his sheep are lost men and women whom he has found. You may know the parable about the man who had a hundred sheep, and he lost one of them. Now, you see, all of the interest and attention of the shepherd in that story was directed toward the one that was lost. You say, well, what about the ninety nine? Well, you see, they were in the wilderness too. The difference that the Lord Jesus is drawing in that story, when you read it in its context, is that there are ninety nine in the wilderness, and they don't realize that they need any help. But there is one that is lost, and it realizes it, and the shepherd goes after that one and finds that one and brings that one. Where does he put it? With the ninety nine? No. No, no, no, the one that was lost that he found, he brings it into his house, and he calls his friends and neighbors together, and he says, rejoice with me. Now listen, rejoice with me. I have found my sheep that was lost. You know, he never calls the ninety and nine my sheep, but the one that was lost and he found, he calls it my sheep. So you see, friend, if you say to me, well, I don't really think I'm on that road. I don't think I was born there. No, I've never had a moment when I was saved, but I still think I'm going to heaven. If you said that to me, I would have to tell you tonight that you're not one of his sheep. Because the only people that are his sheep are lost people that he has saved. You see, there's no, there's no magic formula. There are no, there are no buzzwords that if you use, suddenly you convince us that you must be saved. See, there's no, there's nothing like that. There's no magic formula. But I have noticed, I've noticed that it is only people who are saved who will tell you that they deserve to be in hell. Only people who are saved who will tell you that they were once on the way to hell, but Christ has saved them. I've met people who've told me that they don't think they're bad enough to go to hell. I've met people who have told me that they hope to be in heaven because they haven't done much wrong. But you talk to somebody who's saved and ask them where they deserve to go, and they will tell you to the last man or woman, they will tell you, I deserve to be in hell, but I am saved by the grace of God. So I'd like to ask you tonight, friend, has there ever been a moment in your life where you became one of his sheep, where he saved you, when he found you, and you found him? In the city of Jericho, there was a man named Zacchaeus. Now, the city of Jericho was a, was a thriving metropolis. It was one of the gateways of commerce and trade for the, the nation of Israel. The Lord Jesus entered into Jericho and left Jericho, and when he left it, he left behind three people who were saved, two blind men and a tax gatherer. If I could just focus your attention on the tax gatherer for a minute, it says about that man Zacchaeus that he ran through the streets of the city to see Jesus, who he was. And that passage in Luke chapter nineteen is one of those remarkable Bible passages where the key is hanging at the back door. It's when you get to the end of the passage that you get the key to understand what's going on. And if you just take the key down, go around to the front door and open it up, you understand the passage. It's when you get to the end of the passage that the key is hanging right there, that the Lord Jesus turns to the critics who were criticizing that man and criticizing the Son of God, and he says, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now there's the key. You know why that man's getting saved? Because he's lost and he knows it. Why'd he run through the streets of Jericho? Why didn't everybody run? Because they didn't think they were lost. Why did he run? He had to get to Christ. He knew he was lost. And when the passage is done and the Lord Jesus has moved out the far gate of Jericho, Zacchaeus is saved. Hundreds and hundreds of Jerichoites are not saved because they just never thought, never admitted they were lost. Now let me ask you tonight, friend. Has there ever been a moment in your life where you honestly faced, if I die right now, I will be in hell. I need to be saved. Has there ever been a moment like that in your life? Please don't, please don't se- settle for a moving conversion where, where you never faced that, but, but then you say, well, I'm saved, and yes, yesterday I would have been in hell if I had died. Face it now. Face it now. If your life came to an end tonight, friend, where would you be? If you say, well, I, I would be in hell. Well then, friend, we have a savior for you. That's who, that's who we came to save. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And that's why every person that's been found by him, saved by him, as I have said to the last man, they'll tell you the only reason they're going to be in heaven is because Christ died for them at Calvary. Do you know him personally? A number of years ago at the Dallas Fort Worth Regional Airport, there was a, a group of veterans with their wives waiting for a plane to land. A reporter had been, uh, tipped off. He was there. He was interviewing them while they were waiting for this man. It was a reunion. I think it was something like nineteen eighty three, so figure it out for yourself how many years that would have been from the Second World War. But, uh, this was another one of the reunion of, of these men. And the reporter interviewed a wife of one of those veterans, and she said to him, I think I had better prepare you for what you're going to see, because you're going to see grown men cry. There's going to be handshaking, she said. When he gets off that plane, when that man steps off that plane, you better prepare yourself for the outflow of emotion that's going to take place. So he stood and watched. Plane landed, taxied, people began to disembark, and then out through the opening there came a bent, old, white-haired Dutch doctor named Han Hecking. He made his way down, and the moment he appeared, those, those big men were jostling each other to be the first to, to get at him. And when he came up the ramp way, greeted those men. Now, there were no Hawaii doctors that could say that. They were wrapping their arms around his neck like this, brushing away the tears, hugging him tight, telling him how glad they were he was there. You know why? Because all of those veterans, veterans had been on the death march to Bataan. They'd all been pushed along, Japanese bayonets prodding them in the side. They had all understood, we fall, it's over. They had seen some of their members fall. They had heard the shots from the back. They had heard the cries. They had seen the Japanese soldiers come running to pierce the man that had fallen with their bayonets. And they limped their way along, underfed, overpushed, dehydrated. It was that man, Dr. Hum Heging, who called on all of his knowledge of the jungle, culled from the, the sides there of their journey, culled all he could of herbs, medicinal supplies, to try and keep those men moving just one more day. These were the survivors. They owed their life to that bent, white-haired old man. They weren't handshaking. My friend, there are people all around you here. When they think of the Lord Jesus, they don't think about a religious figure. They don't think about a historic personage. They think about a man who gave his life and shed his blood and suffered untold agony to deliver us from eternal fire. You know, when I meet him, friend, there's a day coming I'm going to be able to look into his eyes just as actually as I'm looking into yours, and when that day comes, I am going to be absolutely thrilled. The four of his feet. Thank him for saving me from a lake of fire. Now, do you know him? Have you become one of his sheep? Is all you have just a little bit of religion, just a little bit of church attendance, prayer saying, and psalm singing, and Bible reading? Now, there's a shepherd that's looking for lost sheep, friend, and if you're lost, he's looking for you, and if you find him and he finds you, you'll become his sheep. You'll be with him forever. You'll be saved for eternity. Trust him tonight. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and you will be saved. Shall we pray? Our Father, at the close of the meeting, we bow to ask thy blessing on thy word. We thank you for each one who has listened to the preaching of the gospel tonight. We can only pray that there are some here who understand that they are lost and will tonight long to be saved by the Lord Jesus. We thank thee that he is able to save to the very uttermost all who come to God by him. So we ask thy blessing on thy word and thy preserving hand on us as we travel to our homes, as we give thanks again to thee for thy beloved son, our Lord Jesus, in his worthy name. Amen.