The second coming of Jesus Christ is certain, as foretold in biblical prophecy, and holds personal relevance for believers. Jesus is presented as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of kings, fulfilling roles as prophet, priest, and sovereign. The sermon contrasts the hope for believers with the hopelessness for those who reject Christ, urging readiness for his return amidst end-times turmoil. Believers will ultimately share in Christ's glory and reign with him.
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of the little children. They come unto me for of such, the kingdom of them. For a tremendous heritage. What a thrill. And if I get somewhat emotional tonight, you'll forgive me. Well, this is the last day of the feast. And what a feast it has been. Mountaintop experience, freedom, fellowship, and food I'm not anti-deluvian but I've been around for a long time and I can't ever recall having spent such a week the receptivity of the word the appreciation of the word has been absolutely And so I'd like to thank all on behalf of Peggy and I for the privilege of being here.
And I think the staff deserve a special hand tonight for what they have done. General Schwarzkopf would have been delighted to have had such a staff. a desert storm. Well, thanks again for the privilege of being here with you. And we're going away tomorrow with priceless memories that will carry with us throughout time and into eternity. Now, I told my beloved colleague, as he's over here now, that I would have the last word.
Now since it was Maggie that fell out of the plane and not Peggy, I will not be retaliatory, but I certainly will be complimentary. Our faith has been stimulated. We have been refreshed and encouraged with the ministry of our beloved brother. And it certainly must be a work of grace when a Scotsman and a Jew work together. Of the many famous quotes from the House of Commons, to me the best came from a Jew in London, England.
His name was Benjamin Disraeli, who became Lord Beaconsfield. The young parliamentarian was attacking the Jews, and after his almost endless harangue, he sat down, up got stately Benjamin Disraeli. He said, I am a Jew. And while the ancestors of the right honorable men were cruel savages, in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of King Solomon. And he sat down. He went to see Queen Victoria, and he asked Queen Victoria, what was her greatest moment?
Queen Victoria said, my greatest moment is yet to come. And I shall take my crown and put it at the feet of my blessed Lord Jesus. So Benjamin, the frail of Lord, begot of you, wrote the message that Jesus Christ is all. I'd like to turn you with some of you, please, to the New Testament. And incidentally, one of the greatest moments of my life in the field of evangelism was pointing a Jew to the Lord Jesus. Reaching in Markle, Pennsylvania, some years ago, speaking on the subject, what think ye of Christ?
There was a lady coming to the meetings every night, a married lady, inquired about her husband. Or she said, he's a Jew and won't come. Well, it says, tell him that the preacher sends him a special invitation. To my amazement, O ye of little faith, the next night he showed up at the meeting. He listened to the message, What think ye of Christ? At the end of the meeting, he said, I'd like to tell you what I think of Christ. We went down to the basement, opened up the scriptures. We prayed. And he was getting almost impatient with me.
He said, When do I pray? That's right now. And that dear man, Bill Klein, sprang down on his knees beside me. And he said, Lord, I am a Jew that hated thy son, now I love him. He put his trust in the Savior, and he looked to prove the reality of the experience, saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Shall we turn, please, to the revelation? chapter one and verse four John to the seven churches which are in Asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth and to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and have
made us kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever amen behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him they also which pierced him And all kindreds of the earth shall wail, because of him, even so, Amen. So I will bless to us again this reading from his precious word. We have looked at the subject, Behold, Your God. Behold the man. Behold my servant.
Behold the land. and the night the subject is, behold, he cometh. We can almost hear his footfall on the threshold of the door. Behold, he cometh. We're living in dark typical days, days of departure, days of declension, industrial upheaval, Racial tension, economic turbulence, political chaos, international intrigue were living in dark, difficult days.
It was General Booth who became the founder of the Salvation Army who said that the dangers of the twenty century is a Christianity without Christ, religion without the Spirit, forgiveness without dependence, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell. He was no prophet or the son of a prophet, but he sure was right on target. as we see this in evidence all around us today.
And these are conditioned preparatory to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, he cometh. Will you be ready if he comes tonight? The Lord Jesus Christ must come because of biblical inerrancy. His first coming was predicted and for four thousand years and finally he came. The feet of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Isaiah said, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child.
His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. Michael then points the exact location to which he would come, Bethlehem, Africa. And so the scriptures were all fulfilled in relation to the first coming of the Lord Jesus. He must have because of biblical inerrancy. And just as his first coming became a reality, be assured his second coming will be a reality. And maybe tonight. Will you be ready? I spoke in the Lord's coming, his Spanish weld in the Bahamas, and just got the scripture out, behold, the bridegroom coming, and every light went out.
And that night a young lad braven pinder came to Christ. He thought the Lord had come. I told of that incident last February in the Reichsdale Gospel Hall in Toronto, just quoted another scripture regarding the Lord's coming. And guess what happened? The light went down. The two young teenagers, Cameron and Philip Lutley, gave the grants. So the lights go out tonight. You know what? The Lord is speaking. He must come because of biblical endurance. But he must also come because of personal relevance.
He said, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house of many mansions, it were not so. I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again. And receive you unto myself. That's where I am. There. He may be also. Personal relevancy. the great harriet moorhouse or henry moorhouse outstanding english evangelist went to visit a lady in the hospital he was well known not only in the uk but also in the u.s he went to chicago on one occasion at the invitation of d l moody moody was going away for a week's meeting And the Harry Moorhouse began to preach on Sunday evening, Lord of the evening, on John three sixteen, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Monday evening, John three sixty. Tuesday evening, John three sixty. Moody returned on a Friday and said to his wife, how are the medics going with that young Englishman? She said, I never heard such preaching. Wives sometimes have a way of deflating the ego of their husbands. And Moody listened that night, John, and he became known as the man that changed the man that changed the world. Moody's preaching given a new dimension as he heard Harry Moody's preach on the love of God.
So he went to this hospital to talk to this lady. And he said the best verse in all the Bible for a person who is sick is John's Gospel chapter fourteen verse two. I go to prepare a place for you. She says, Harry, give me the next verse. That where I am, there you may be altered. The place will be wonderful. But that person unsurpassed. He must come because of biblical inerrancy. He must come because of personal relevancy.
But he also must come because of moral degeneracy. When we look abroad at the violence just the other day, everything within me recoiled with disgust. A young lady in Boston was mass raped and stabbed a hundred times. Everything within me recalled. That's such wickedness. The Lord said that it was in the days of Noah. That it was in the days of Lot. Who shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man? Living in days similar to the days of Noah and the days of Lot. And he must come.
because of political expediency. This world needs a man badly. You can take up the reins of government and rule in righteousness. Winston Churchill said in nineteen forty-six that the governments of the world have lost their ability to rule. If that be so in nineteen forty-six, what would Winston Churchill think of nineteen- ninety-one? but Jesus shall reign whereer the sun, because his successive journeys run his kingdom stretched from shore to shore, from moon shall wax and wane no more.
He must come. Tonight for a few moments, let's look, first of all, at the man who is coming. The man who is coming. Secondly, the motive of his coming. And thirdly, the manner of his coming. The man who is coming. The faithful witness. The first begotten from among the dead. And a prince above the kings of the earth. That's the man who is coming.
the faithful witness that takes us into the past, the first begotten from among the dead that takes us into the present, and the principle of the kings of the earth that takes us into the future. The faithful witness, we see him as the redeeming Savior. As it first begotten from among the dead, the risen supplicator, and the prince of all the kings of the earth, the royal sovereign, that's the man who is coming.
Happy those tonight who can say, praise God, he's coming for me. The faithful witness, we see him as the redeemed Savior, the prophet. It is first recorded from among the dead in the present, the risen supplicator, the priest, and the principal of the kings of the earth, the royal sovereign, the potentate, the prophet, the priest, and the potentate. That's the man who is coming. He is the faithful witness.
Because he was a man who came to this earth to bring a message of hope as the prophet. He came to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to give sight to the blind, to liberate the captive, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He came with a message of hope. Joe said man's days are smoother than that we were shuttled and are spent without hope. But my friend, there is a hope for you tonight, if you're not saved, because of this faithful witness.
As we were hearing this week, he brought a message of hope to Nicodemus. Verily, verily, I say unto you, and he delivers a message. He must be born again. He demands that you and I be converted, except he be converted and become like a little child. And you have to have a heart of stone not to be moved to see these children up here singing and repeating their memory verses. Except he be converted and become like a little child. ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
I believe there are more children who will come in by the east gate into the heavenly city than those that come in by the west gate at the setting of the sun in old age. The earth flyable submissive when adults become stubborn as a mule. Some useful feature was handling a certain scripture, Isaiah fifty-five, and was somewhat having difficulty, O everyone not thirsty, come ye to the waters, ye that no money, come, ye buy, and eat, ye, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price. So she said to the glass, How can you buy something, without money, and without price?
The sharp little girl says, Charge it. You know, she was right on target. That's what it's all about. We charge it to his account. He paid the price in the currency of his precious blood, and they are more responsive, I'm sorry to say, than many adults. A message of hope. He says, Verily, I see unto you he that hears my word and believe within him that send me hearts everlasting life. and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life a message of hope John three thirty six he that believeth on the sun has everlasting life he that believeth not the sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abided on him we were having meetings in Niagara Falls Ontario side some years ago And gentlemen there went to every meeting, carried a Bible, but he was not saved.
He finally found himself a wife, and we were invited to their home one night. And she said, John, do you mean to tell me that you have gone all those years to those gospel meetings and never gotten saved? Well, John's face turned red. And she said, I'm not going back until we do get saved. And you being the husband, my husband now, I'm wanting you to make the first move. Well, John couldn't move. He was perspiring and twisting a cushion as we sat there. Then finally we dropped on her knees. I can't wait any longer, she said. And dear Jean, she put her trust in the Savior.
And as she prayed that night, she said, Lord, please help John. He went through five weeks of preaching, and the last night I spoke from the little verse in the book of Genesis, Leave for thy life. John went out his way towards the end. I said, John, are you going to let it go? He went out, never said it were. Miss Floyd Nicholson was there that night, saw him outside walking up and down, twenty below zero, and the snow was flying. I think he wants to talk to you.
The pulse of divine veins. I went out and said, John, do you want to talk to me? He said, yes. So then he came. Look at that verse. He that believes it on the sun has everlasting life. He that believes it, not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him. I said, John, how many classes of people in that verse? He says, two, those that believe and those that believe not. Well, I said, what class are you? Oh, he says, I'm in the class that believes. I believe the Bible to be the word of God. I believe the Lord came that he died, died, rose again, and he's coming back again.
I believe everything. Well, I said, John, somebody has made a mistake. Either you or God. Oh, he said, it couldn't be God. He that believed it on the sun has everlasting life, and you told me that you do not have everlasting life. Well, it's me that I only believe ninety-eight percent. Well, I never dealt with percentages in my life before. But finally, John Miller got down, and his heart was breaking. He swore like Niagara. And he's the only person that I've dealt with many, many souls.
The only person that ever mentioned his name directly to God. He says, I, George Miller, I'm a sinner. Please come into my heart and give me this everlasting life. A message of hope. But this faithful witness also brought a message of hopelessness. If ye die in your sins, thither I go, ye cannot come. When the master rides it up to you and shuts the door, he might shut that door tonight.
And he began to knock saying, Lord, Lord. Not atheists, not agnostics, but religious folks. Lord, Lord. Open unto us. I never knew you. Religious propriety. Dorish son. And then they continue. We ate and we drank in your presence. We've gone to the church. We've partaken of the sacraments. The bread and the wine. We have eaten and drunk in thy presence.
Religious participation. I never knew you. Lord, there must be a mistake. You taught in our streets. We've gone to the Sunday school, the Bible class, maybe to a seminary. religious propriety, religious participation, and religious instruction, I never knew. Unknown, but then unwanted, departs from thee unwanted by Christ.
Why? because they were unchanged on earth. They were never born again. When ye see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, and ye yourselves cast out, ye will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of peace for ever and ever. somehow, some way, the ungodly will look into outer space and see the things.
But ye see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, maybe a father and maybe a mother, maybe a husband and maybe a wife. What an awful tragedy. And that will add to the affliction. And ye see them did, and you asked. The Lord said, Do you see that woman up there? That's the Queen of Sheba. She gave them the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. There she is. You wouldn't cross the streets of your local city to hear me.
There's the men of Nineveh. They are appended to the preaching of Judah. And ye see them in them. And you aren't. They'll be weeping and wailing. And gnashing of teeth. Forever and forever. The wise thing, my friend, is to continue. one evening a little girl on a stormy night came to this minister's house he opened the door she said sir get my mother in he you her mother by reputation he said if your mother's drunk is the arm of the law she needs not the minister he says sir you don't know or realize that my Get my mother in.
My mother is dying. Get my mother in. So he put his jacket on, followed his little girl down the street into a very questionable part of the city, looking right and left, and finally into this room. And he was shocked to see this woman, her body emaciated, lying on a cot. And the little girl said, Get my mother in, get my mother in. He said to the lady, And if you've got any good works, that will get you in there. She said, Sir, you know I'm a woman of the streets, and I have no good works. He was a dilemma.
So he got his Bible, and finally in the mercy of God, his eye rested on the first official by John. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. He said, sir, read that again, for that will get me in. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And the minister, Dr. Charles Berry, fell on his knees, put his arms around that woman, and said, that also will get me in. he discovered for the first time that all his righteousnesses and all his theological degrees could not save his soul.
In or out, such is the message of the faithful witness. A measure of hope, a measure of hopelessness for those that reject the Savior, and a message of hope. Oh, how he trails our hearts when he talks about all. Let not your heart be troubled. The peace is right. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, but he also may. In my father's house, not only the peace right, but the place is right. My father's house are many mansions.
It was not so I would have told. a faithful witness. I go to prepare a place for you and thank God I believe it was a double preparation. He went to the cross and he's gone home to glory. I prepare a place for you. The beach is right. The place is right. The preparation is right. But so also is the person that where I am there he may be also the faithful witness the man who is coming secondly the first begotten from the dead that takes us into the present where we see him as the risen supplicator the priests who are gone the first begotten from the dead.
I was traveling down the New York street some years ago, put on the radio to get the news, and this announcer was very emotional. He says, the king is dead. Well, I wonder what king there's not many left. The king is dead. Then he got back on the air. He says, Elvis Presley is dead. As I was traveling along toward Albany, New York, I lived in my heart heavenward and thank God that our king is alive. He's alive. And I love to read of Paul at Antioch in Presidia.
When he went into the synagogue and they asked him to say something, and he said, and he bet him with his hand, brings in that tremendous panoramic view of the nation's history. And right to the death of the Lord Jesus. And he reaches that crescendo and you can almost see the movement of his hands. But God raised him from the dead. And if Christ be not risen then, our preaching is in faith. We are still in our sins. And we are of all men most miserable. But thank God he rose. from the dead.
Paul says to the Colossians that he is the firstborn of every creature who delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He is the firstborn of every creature. And being the firstborn has nothing to do with time, its rank and dignity. There were those who were raised from the dead before the Lord Jesus, such as in the Old Testament, you remember the man that touched the bones of Elisha.
And then in the New Testament, you know, of the resurrection of a Trier's daughter and a widow of Nade's son and Lazarus. But in all things he must have the preeminence. And he is the first begotten from the dead. He is the head of the body small again to the Colossians. The church who is the beginning, the first born from the dead. And he is the firstborn among many brethren. So he said, I am he the living and became dead.
And behold, I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and of hell. Such was the triumph of the Lord Jesus. And today he is at God's right hand as the risen supplicant, ever living to make intercession for us. Twenty-four hours a day he is functioning in God's presence as the great on the merciful, the faithful, the sympathetic, the perfect, the untrue, on the unchangeable priest. We should thank God every day for his finished work, but also every day for his unfinished work, constantly functioning on our behalf in the presence of our great God.
That's the man who is coming, the faithful witness, and the first begotten from among the dead. But also he's the prince above the kings of the earth. There were many great kings in Israel. You remember David was a great king. Paul mentioned in that address that Antioch and Presidia, he was a man after God's own heart. David was a great king. He demanded a clean heart. and a clean house of the Lord he was a great king but also Josiah was a great king saved at the age of sixteen years of age at the age of twenty he broke down the groves and the images of these false gods and at age twenty six Josiah he renovated the house of the Lord and he restored the word of the Lord.
Great kings, but there never was or ever will be a king, like the Lord's, a prince above the kings of the earth. In the days of the judges, there were thirteen judges, and there were three outstanding enemies. There was one man called Shushan Rashadayin, king of Mesopotamia, an enemy of the people of God. The second was a man called King Eglon. He was a fat man.
And the third great king was a man called King Jibon. And they are representative men. Hushan Rishabhiyam represents the world. That's a great enemy for you and for me. King Eglin forgot that they'd be slim fast. He was a rotund heavy big man. A type of the flesh. And Javan, King Javan is a type of the devil. The world the flesh and the devil.
You and I are no match for the world, the flesh or the devil. So God sent a man to take care of Shushan Roshan Roshan means darkness. Roshan means double, double darkness. And beloved, the darkness is intensifying. It doubled darkness in our day as compared with what it was fifty years ago. Because say there is a prince of darkness, and men love darkness rather than life for the greater evil. And we are no match for the world.
But thank God there is one who can help us, and that is the prince above the kings of the earth. Who did God raise up to deal with Shushan Rashad-Lehem? A young man with the name of Osniel. Osniel. An Osniel is named means Lion of God. And he's a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. The Lion of God. Jacob said, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, though the lawgiver from between his people shall come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be the lion of the tribe of Judah.
He was the one that overcame, Satan, that overcame the world. And he prayed in his high priest of prayer that we might be preserved in the world. Not out of it, but in the world, that we might testify for his flown air. So off the air overcame Shushan Rishabhael, a type of the world. And this man, this eggloon, this fat man, raised his ugly head, and incidentally, a ten thousand of an army of fat men. They must have been well fed. God sent along a man to thee with him, and his name was Ihan a Benjamin.
And he said to this King Egil, I've got a message from God for you. And you remember he went into his prince, and with a dagger he struck him in the stomach, and the dagger or sword disappeared. That's how sad he was. It was Ihad the Benjamin that overcame the man of the flesh. And dear saints of God, you and I are no match for the flesh. But there is one who can help us overcome the battle, and that is the Lord Jesus. Benjamin was born, his mother called him Benonai.
You remember she died in Childbirth, Benonai, but Jacob rose to the occasion and called him Benjamin, the son of my right hand. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows, the man of Calvary. God rose to the occasion and said to him, Sit thou at my right hand, my Benjamin. You sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies at most of life. He's the one that can overcome, help us overcome the flesh. The man at God's right hand.
God's Benjamin. The third great king was Stephen, and that wasn't a name, that was a title. It was a dynasty like the Pharaohs and the Abimelech and the Herod. And we're introduced to this man called Javan in the book of Joshua chapter eleven. He was a king of kings. Many kings under his jurisdiction, a king of kings. And he was defeated by Joshua. But the dynasty continued and the final destruction of Javan was done by the hands of a man called Barak, the son of a Benoam.
He was the one that finally destroyed this dynasty, this King Javan. Barak means lightning, and he's the man from the sanctuary. That's the man that will overcome the devil. The devil is a powerful enemy. He is a king and has kingdoms. But he's no match for the Lord Jesus. And he is the one who will come and destroy the Antichrist and his forces with the brightness of his coming. As lightning, he'll come and destroy it.
From the sanctuary. The world, the flesh and the devil. and we can be helped by the Lord Jesus Prince above the Kings of the earth we know him to be the King of heaven now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven the mystics on the east they came with a gift swear is he that is born king of the Jews we saw in Nathaniel rabbi if thou art the son of God thou art the king of Israel he is the king eternal in Paul's letter to Timothy now unto the king eternal the invisible the immortal the only wise God be glory and honor the king eternal He's the king of saints, according
to the writings of John in the Revelation, the king of saints. He is the king of kings and Lord of lords, but also he is the king of glory. Psalm twenty-four, we are reminded that he is the king of glory. And in Psalm forty, lift up your Henry gates, and be lifted up your everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord mighty in battle, he is the king of glory.
You and I, beloved friends, if we are saved, born again, we will share in that glory. He said in his high priest of prayer, the glory which I had with thee before the world wars, Father glorify me, he said. Father, I would that those who never given me be with me where I am, that they might give all my glory. So fellow saints, we are going on to glory. And maybe tonight. the glory shines before me, I cannot wander here, or cloud me darken, or me, my father's house is near.
If through this barren desert, a little while I roam, the glory shines before me, I am not far from home. Beyond the storms I'm going, beyond the changing years, beyond the floods or flowing, beyond this veil of tears. I'm going to the better land long since my faith possess that glory shines before me, for this is not my rest. The land is all the glory. The land is all the light. Affliction draws but cares. you