We greet you again in the worthy name, in the only name, the name of the one who is worthy. And we thank you again for the blessing and the prayer that you have prayed upon us. I have learned to appreciate the church here in a new way. would like to just simply bless you all as well, in your commitment and faithfulness to serve Him. For we know that the Lord is always faithful to those that call upon Him in truth. And so, I know this is the last, the final message of these of this week, of these meetings. And we want to thank each of you for all that you have done. I have immensely appreciated the meals and the fellowship that we have experienced by your generosity and the good meals that you have shared with us. I know some of you live quite a ways from here. I'm amazed at the distance that some people go. And yet, is God worth it? He is, isn't He? Because as we look at God, and we look at the calling of God, and we look at what God calls us to, what He calls us from, we seek a church that we can fellowship as one. And that is such a wonderful thing, is to be able to fellowship as one, with a common bond and a common union in Christ. And that we can stand together and fight the fight of faith in a church, as we heard this morning. And so we want to just simply thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Pray for us as you have done this evening through this coming week. Uncle Norman was a good friend uncle of mine. And he told me of many experiences that he had when he went for a week of meetings. And the week following was sometimes a hard week for him. And continue to pray that the Lord may continue to have His way, that we might simply give ourselves into His hand for whatever He has for us. Be willing to simply follow Him. We don't know the circumstances that God has for us, but we want to be open to whatever He has. Let's turn our Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3. In 2 Peter chapter 3, and I like to close meetings with a challenge to all of us. Because There is something that we as a Christian people are looking for. What are you here for? What am I here for? Why am I listening to the gospel, to the word of God? And I trust that I can attest to you or that you can attest to me that what you've heard is the word of God. And that no honor or glory goes to myself, but only to God. And I know that this evening being the last evening, I remember that in Acts chapter 20, when Paul was preaching, it says on the last evening when he was to leave the next day, he was preaching till midnight. I trust I won't preach till midnight tonight. And I trust there won't be a Utica sitting in the window as well. That fell asleep. Let's read 2 Peter 3 verses 1-14. And by the way, I have entitled the message, The Day of the Lord. This second epistle, Beloved, I now write unto you in which in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before of the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this, that first shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this, they willingly are ignorant of that For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Now that's kind of incomprehensible to us. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us. not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and without blameless. Now, I said something to the effect a while ago that there is a purpose and a reason that we are members of a church. There is a purpose and a reason that we come to Messiah. seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. And brothers and sisters, that is where we help each other, is to be spotless and blameless in Christ. If you'll notice in verse 10, but the day of the Lord, and then in verse, 12, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. The day of the Lord. It is something that we are all looking for. It's something that we have a hope, we have an expectation. And you know, down through the years, even in the time of the apostles, they were saying, the day of the Lord is at hand. But there were certain things, there were things that had in our minds, you know, we look back and it seemed like, well, we know God hasn't revealed Himself yet. And so we have come to this point and we are still saying the day of the Lord is at hand. Does that mean that we should just kind of lay things aside and just do as we please? No. No. But it seems like we should more fervently do, be busy in the work of the Lord. That is our calling. And you know, God gives us life, He gives us breath, and we do not know. We may not make it out of this service. we might not make it out of this service. But one thing I would like to notice is something that we face in our day and time, and it's probably more acutely now than we have in past years. I know back in the time of the Reformation and all those years where there was persecution of the church. But here it talks about the last days, in verse 3, It says here that, there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. And this is what they're saying, where is the coming? Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. You see, that's basically what I was saying a while ago. You know, we could say that, well, the disciples said back then, the day of the Lord draws nigh. A couple of thousand years later, it still has not happened. The day of the Lord draweth nigh. What do we read? There's one day with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. But let us recognize as well the fact that you and I have a hope. We are looking to that which is to come. And that if God should take our life tonight, that is forever. And so we need to shore up our commitment, our fervent spirit in Christ and in God, not lay down and not become discouraged, but that we should shore ourselves up in the most holy faith. And not only us, but God calls us to witness and testify to others as well, because there are people looking for what you have. And it seems like in this community you probably have a greater connection to a lot more people than what we would in Montezuma, Georgia. I see in from our little room that look out the window and I hear, I see a lot of people coming and going. There's a real opportunity here. But we are all bound by this little thing called time. What is time? We measure time by that little thing on the wall there. You know, we have a little piece on our wrist. on our wrists and we are so many times we are controlled by that little thing. We are controlled by time. Well, we have 24 hours in a day, which means there are 1,440 minutes in a day that God gives us. There are 168 hours in a week. What are we doing with our time? The Bible says that we should redeem the time for the days are evil. There's an interesting note about time. Have you ever thought about it? Rich people can't buy time. They can't buy more time. They can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent more minutes. And you can't even save time today for tomorrow. Did you ever think about that? The time as it is spent, it is past and gone. And time is so forgiving as well. Because if we decide to change what we have been doing in the past for the good instead of the past bad, God forgives that in our time, we can use it in a better way. Time is so forgiving. There are all kinds of inventions that we have that are supposed to save us time. But it seems like we have less time than ever before. Now here's a question that I have for you. I don't know if you ever thought about this. You know, our government is borrowing to the amount of trillions of dollars. Who can tell me how long a trillion seconds is? A thousand miles high. How many years is a trillion seconds? How long a time? Wild guess. 5,000 years. In the billions of years? Not quite. Not quite. 31,710 years. So you see, in perspective, One trillion seconds. Now in the lifespan of a man, our time in seconds is so minute as relates to this, to the time frame of God, if you please. But let's get back here. and see what we can read here. The world talks about, and the world scoffs at us, and they said, where's the promise of his coming? Jesus hasn't come in all this span of time. How many years has the world stood so far? 6,000 plus years. Where is the promise of His coming? So, in Revelation chapter 10, let's turn our Bibles to that scripture, Revelation chapter 10. We'll read the first six verses. And I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow upon his head. And his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as it were pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth. And he cried with a loud voice, and what did he say? He cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. And when he cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up those things. which the seven thunders uttered and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth forever. that there, excuse me, who created heaven and the, and swear, let me start over in verse six. And swear by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer. And this is the angel of God when he puts his foot on the sea, his foot on land, and he swears by almighty God in a voice that will make man tremble, that there shall be time no longer. And this, my friends, is what the world is fearing. This is what the church of God is anticipating. And that is the difference between having faith or living by the carnal nature. That is the difference. This same Jesus shall come in like manner, in verse 11, Excuse me, that's in another chapter. And let's go to Acts chapter one. I would like to look at that where the disciples, where the disciples were together. When we look at the day of the Lord, We have the disciples, we have Jesus together here. Jesus had taught the disciples for all these years, the three years that he was ministering to them. But Jesus kept telling them, you know, I have to be crucified. They couldn't understand it. He was crucified. And then he came back to them. And here, as they walked out, I suppose they were walking out into the country somewhere. And here it says, And being assembled, in verse 4, together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. And it goes on down, and then it says in verse 9, when he has spoken these things, while they beheld, he was... Taken up, while they beheld, He was taken up, a cloud received Him out of their sight. And can you imagine the disciples standing there in amazement as to what happened to this Jesus? He all at once, He was just lifted up and He was gone into the clouds of heaven. And they, I can just imagine the perplexity that disciples experienced here. And like, what is going on? And all of a sudden, here beside them, they noticed two men in white. And this is what they said, while they looked steadfastly towards heaven and went up, behold, two men stood beside them in white apparel. And this is what they said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. This is a promise of God. And there is a promise that you and I can stand on. It is something that God's people rejoice in. It's something that brings us, how would you say, an expectation. We don't have to be perplexed like the disciples were, but we can look forward and we can look forward in expectation and in the realization that this is true, it's going to happen. How do we know? It was told, the disciples, by God through these two angels or men in white. It's the truth. that Jesus will come again. But you know that today even there are many, many people more than ever before that say, that's all, that's nothing to that. Time will just go on like it always has. Brothers and sisters, time will not always go on like it always has. There will be an end to this time. Will the second coming of Jesus be a secret? No, it will not be a secret. Because in Revelation chapter one, it says, behold, he cometh in the clouds of heaven. He cometh in the clouds. And it says, and every I shall see him. Now there's a discussion we had just, was it last night? I'm not sure when it was. And I know at home we discussed it within the last week or so. I asked the question, I said, you know, the earth is round and the Bible says every eye shall see him when Christ come back. You know, if he comes back from the eastern sky and we're on the other side of the world, will we see him come? Well, I'm going to tell you something, friends. Brothers and sisters, I don't have to understand really how the science of all this is going to work. But I have to understand that it is up to me to simply believe what the Bible says. Some people try to reason their way through a lot of these things in eschatology. And this is something that I've basically committed myself to is not to discuss these issues that are controversial and have no answers to them. Because we as a human mind don't know. We try to reason in areas that we have no knowledge of. Only God And the sad thing about it is there are many churches that have divided and split over such issues. And another thing I would like to mention here, Jesus went up and it says, the clouds received him. In Ezekiel, there's a verse that says, The day is near, even the day of the Lord is near. It says a cloudy day. I don't know, my friends, but when there's a cloudy day, I'm looking for the clouds to split. I know that is in the prophecy of concerning the desolation of Egypt. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 24. There are a number of scriptures that talk about the coming of Christ. How is Christ coming? I don't know. I just get a little frustrated with people's ideas and thoughts on eschatology. I'm not here to discuss eschatology. I'm here to preach to you the Word of God. Matthew 24, verse 27 says like this, plain and simple. As the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. How are we going to change that? We can't reason it away. We can't discuss it away. That's what the scripture says. Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 4. Verses 13 through 18. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again. even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Isn't that wonderful? Some of us have partners that have gone on to be with Jesus, and we can recognize that when Jesus comes again, if He comes again and I'm alive, they will come back with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with a voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead of Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive shall be caught up. together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And then it says, wherefore comfort one another with these words. Brothers and sisters, we are to remind one another that we are living for this time. We are living in anticipation for this time. Some of you here are on up in age. If time stands, there will be funerals. There will be more funerals. And if time stands long enough, there will be a funeral for me. And then I can come back with the Lord as well. And those that are left behind, if the Lord comes when they are still there, If they are ready, waiting for the Lord, then we can be caught up together with Him in the air. But brothers and sisters, let's live today with that anticipation, not put it off to some other time. But today is a day of salvation. Today is a day when we live in that anticipation. There is no better time than today. Now, our bishop at home, former bishop, would challenge us and tell us, we have got to hear messages on hell. Whoa. Not a pleasant subject. So do we preach on hell? I would challenge you ministers, I don't know how, have y'all preached on hell? Good. Because hell is just as much a reality as heaven itself. So, what will the wicked do? Because in this world, you remember what I said the other evening, there's a broad road and there's a narrow road. The broad road meaning that's where most people are going. There's few people that find this narrow road. So what will the people that are on the broad road do? Let's turn our Bibles to Revelation chapter six. And I love the book of Revelation. I've not preached much out of the Revelation since I'm here. Maybe I should have. But I love the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is confounding some people. I love to hear brother William McGrath preach on the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 6, what will the wicked do? Verses 12-17, And when I beheld, he had opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. Now in this, here we have the opening of the seals and I don't claim to understand what all the opening of the seals mean, but here we have, I think it was a sixth seal that was open. When he had opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake. How many of you ever been in an earthquake? We have one hand over here. California. What does an earthquake make you feel like? People that recognize God or recognize there is a God. When there is an earthquake, it depends on how you relate to God as to whether it is a point of confirmation or fear. I remember the time in Costa Rica when we had that earthquake. It was a 6.9 on the Richter scale, I believe it was. It was strong enough to empty the shelves. That clot would have fell off the wall. There's a lot of things would be falling over. I remember because this young boy at that time did not feel like he was ready to meet God. And this young boy knew. that at the end of time, there was going to be a great earthquake. And I believe that when there is an earthquake, it draws people's attention to God. Because people realize that at the end of time, there's going to be a great earthquake. And at that time, out in the streets of the town, even a young man from A son to a member of our church there was out in the dance hall at that time. And when that earthquake happened at three o'clock in the morning, this young man and others with him went out on the street, fell on their knees and just prayed to God. Why? What will the sinner do? When God comes in a twinkling of an eye, what will the sinner do? As a tree has fallen, so shall it lay. We cannot change anymore. Right now we have time. We have the mental capacity, the reasoning. We have the ability to change our hearts, our minds, our lives. Today. Tonight. We can't do it today, gone past, but today, future, we still have time. What will the sinner do? In, I beheld, let's go on and read here. And the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, in verse 13, even as a fig tree casts its untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty winds, and the heavenly part is a scroll. When it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, and the kings of the earth And the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond, and every free man, hid themselves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? Brothers and sisters, that is going to strike such a terror and a fear in the heart of those that know not God. We cannot comprehend. It is going to strike terror in the hearts of those that know not God. I remember the day, and I remember how I felt. Have you ever felt like a like something gripping your soul that you are so helpless to prevent. And you know your face has just gotten ash and white out of the fear in your heart. These people were afraid. They called them the rocks in the mountains. Have you ever had a rock fall on your foot? or smash a finger with a rock. It's not a pleasant feeling. But here we have kings. We have the great men. We have the rich men. We had chief captains. And we had bondmen, freemen. They were hiding in caves. And they were like, fall on us, cover us, mash us to smithereens that the God of heaven cannot judge me. But why were they saying this? Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 26 and 27. Here it says, for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no sacrifice for sins. You see what this is saying? For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries fiery indignation, fearful looking of judgment. There is fear in the heart of the unsaved. Where can they go? From the eyes of God, of Almighty God. And I've preached a message, or a couple of messages already, on the eyes of Almighty God. The eyes of God are piercing. They see things that your eyes and mine do not see. Piercing even to dividing asunder the soul and spirits, and the joints and mouths, and the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The very intentions of our lives, our attitudes, our motives, and all this, God sees. You can be a member of the Messiah church, but the laity here does not see what you are hiding down to the depths of your heart. But God sees. God sees. Revelation chapter 14. We have here in verses 9 through 11, this is after the angel. The angel that flew in the midst of heaven said it had the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth. And verse 7, saying with a loud voice, fear God, give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come. Worship him that made heaven and earth, the sea and the foundations of waters. And then it says, another angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen. And then in verse 9 it says, And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image and receive the mark on his forehead and his head, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture. in the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Lord." Excuse me, in the presence of the Lamb, it says. See, if you will go into the book of Psalms, it says there that the wrath of God is mixed, it still has a mix. Maybe I'll just quickly read that. Psalms chapter 75, verse 8. I would rather read it and try to quote it and misquote it and tell you wrong. Psalm chapter 75 verse 8. It talks about the wrath of God. For in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup. In the hand of the Lord, there is a cup. And the wine is red, it is full of mixture. And he poureth out of the same, but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them. And now we come to the book of Revelation, it says, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And what is he talking about? What is the mixture that he's talking about? Any ideas? You know, isn't it, God, at the final judgment, when people have cast their lot with or against Him, either for Him or against Him, that at the final judgment there is no mercy. And it's not that God created hell for you and I, God created hell for the devil and his angels. And God does not want to cast man into hell with the devil and his angels. But man goes there because man chooses to go there. We have the opportunity tonight to choose to follow God. We do not have to have that fearful looking of judgment And then Revelation chapter 20 verse 10. Here it says, and the devil, this is talking about Satan's final overthrow. in verses eight on, but I'm not going to read all that. I see time is moving on. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophets are and shall be tormented day and night forever. And then we go down on down into the next verses here. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it whose face and the earth had, whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." And it says, this is the second death. And brothers and sisters, we as children of God, it says, whoever was, excuse me, whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now tonight, I would like to ask you, where is your name written? In the books or in the book? There are many, many people whose names are written in the books. Those people will be cast into hellfire with the devil and his angels. But if we confess and forsake our sins and commit our life to Jesus, He takes our name from those books and writes it in the book. Amen. And that is the book where our names want to be found. And we do not have to be caught or found in the lake of fire where there is the second death. Now, let's leave the thought of the sinner and where his destiny is. We have better things to think about as Christian people. We have better things to think about. You know, it saddens our heart, though, when we think about those that are heading there. But we have ourselves to think about. We have our church body to think about. We focus upon our own personal needs, our inner man, And so what is the experience of the redeemed man? Let's turn our Bibles to Revelation chapter five. And I wasn't sure just where to start here again. But here I have a book that has seven seals, and it said a strong angel in verse two, proclaiming with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb. Who is worthy? Excuse me. Who is worthy to open the book, to loose the seals thereof? Says, and no man in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth was able to open the book, needed to look thereon. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read. and to read the book needed to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, to loose the seals of him. Behold, and lo, in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth in all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And we had taken the book, the four beasts, four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps. having every, excuse me, having every one of them hearts and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals of, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred tongue and people and nation, and has made us into... unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I behold, I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and a number of them was 10,000. times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and this is what they were saying. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, such as are in the sea and all that are in them, heard, I sang blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the land forever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever. My friends, I want to be one of the thousands upon thousands that are there before the throne of Almighty God. And it's going to be such a wonderful time. And you know, we don't know when God is going to call us home. But I believe, I believe that the time is, we do not comprehend the glory. We do not comprehend the love of Jesus. And yet we recognize in our unworthiness that God has opened heaven unto us and given us that which we do not deserve. Let's turn our Bible to chapter 7. I'm just going to read just a portion here of what I was going to read. And it says here, After this, in verse 9, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongue, they stood before the throne before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation unto our God! which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell down before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, and saying, Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen." Brothers and sisters, that's what I want to do. And as another scripture says, I want to cast my crown before Him. That's what we are looking forward to. where we can cast our crowns before Jesus, where we can worship Jesus, because we cannot fathom the price that was paid for our redemption, we cannot repay it. It is only by His mercy, it is only by His love that we are even here today. And by the grace that we heard about the other night, the grace of God, Revelation, the last couple of books of Revelation talks about a new heaven and a new earth. I want to be there. And I trust you do as well. God has blessed us in so many rich ways. And yet we have to recognize that we have an adversary that wants us to stumble and to fall. And sometimes as, I mean you talk to older people, it seems like... It seems like what they say many times, the older you get, the stronger the temptations. I don't know, Brother Ivan, you're older, some of you are older. The things that y'all face, Brother Leroy, the things that y'all face, you know, you're quite a bit older than I am. You know, it's just, what are the things that we face as older people, as older brothers and sisters in the church? Brethren, those that are younger, those leaders in the church, it is up to encourage one another in the faith that we do not give up. Because giving up means giving all away. for the world and suffering the consequences. And the thing is, it is not just for tomorrow and next week and next week. It is forever! Have you ever thought about forever? How long is forever? We don't know. We can't fathom forever. But all I can think of when I think of forever is just I don't know, I can't explain it. You kind of have in your mind something that, you know, just kind of goes on and on and on. Revelation chapter 22. I'm going to read a couple of these few verses here as a warning to us. Jesus said, These are faithful and true sayings in verse six. The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Then John said, I saw these things and heard them, and when I heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel, which showed me these things. And he said unto me, See thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant. So he was a fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book. And he said unto me, Seal not the sayings of this prophet and this book, for the time is at hand. In other words, we have these prophecies now because the angel told him, he says, write these things so that the people like us today might see and might hear and read and understand, to open our understanding of what is to come. And then he says, he that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. Then he says, and behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me to give unto every man as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And it says, blessed are they, and now this is for us. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the holy city. For without our dogs, sorcerers and warmongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Do we know of such people today? Seemed like this just more than ever before. But for we as Christian people, Jesus said, I have sent my angel to testify unto these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star, and the spirit and bride say come, and let him that say come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely, for I'm testifying to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall, Listen to this. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book. And so, brothers and sisters, let me warn you. I believe that we need to, when we teach the Word of God, when we preach the Word of God, that we need to preach and teach it in its fullness, in its completeness. And we need to watch and make sure there's nothing added or nothing take away. And let me warn you of all the different translations that are out there. Because a lot of those translations take away a verse here, a word there, and try to concoct a meaning of their own interpretation. It is not what God intends us to do. God intends us to take the whole word and its whole content and not try to make the Word say something that I think it should be saying, but what God intends for it to say. And it's what God says and doesn't just intend to say, God says it. You know, sometimes I tell our church that sometimes we say, well, I think what the Scripture is trying to say is so and such and such. No, the Scripture isn't trying to say this. God says it and I'm trying to understand it. That's God's Word. That's God's wisdom. That's God in His fullness. This is God speaking to us. And I am trying to understand what God is really telling me. Let's turn our Bibles to 1 John chapter 3 in closing. Chapter 3, I would like for us to recognize that God is speaking to our hearts in verse Let's begin reading verse 18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we... I think we'll just stop reading there. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. That was one thought I would like to give. if our heart condemn us, if there is something in our heart tonight, That is bringing a sense of unrest. And we don't sense the complete rest with God. And I know what it's like when you have done something, there's a sin in your life, and there's just not this complete rest with God, this complete peace with God. God is still greater than all this. But God still expects us to come to Him in confession. and to bring it to Him. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. And my prayer tonight is that, and for you from today on, that our hearts could be in confidence toward God. Let us pray. Our heavenly Father.