This, according to the church calendar, is Ascension Sunday, where we remember the ascension of Christ. That's probably one of the least understood and appreciated doctrines. The Christian calendar is simply about starting in January and going down through the year, and in one year, recounting the events, various events in Jesus' life. That's where Easter and Christmas and all those things fit in just for us to remember. But this is Ascension Sunday, and it commemorates where we remember the ascension of Christ into glory. So I'm going to read as our scripture reading, Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 6. So when they had come together, They asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it's not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up. And a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Now, that would have been a pretty incredible thing. That's an incredible thing to even read, let alone to have been there. But that is the word of God, and that is what happened. And we want to consider the ascension of Christ this morning, and also keep in mind that he who has ascended will one day descend once again. In other words, Christ then is coming again, and they saw him lifted up. We will see him appear coming down, and it will be a bodily and real return of Christ. Well, let's ask the Lord's blessing then on the ministry of his word. We pray that you would, by your spirit, open up your word to us that we would be able to comprehend it with more and more clarity. We know there's far too much of the world's wisdom still lurking around in our thinking, and we want to be free of it. We want to be sanctified, that we want to have the mind of Christ. And we know that we won't perfectly have it until we're glorified and with you, but we know that you want us to be increasing in the knowledge of the Lord. And so we pray that you would use this morning's time in your word for just that end, that we might be able to see things as you see them and love the things that you love and hate and reject sin and the things that you hate. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, what I want to do this morning is begin by adding some more thinking, some more thoughts to than what we discussed last time, at least in part of our time together last time, the nature of the church, and we'll tie this into the ascension of Christ, but the nature of the church, our thinking about the church, which is the body of Christ, and I wanna begin this way with an illustration, all right? How many of you know who Susan Boyle is? Right? Raise your hand. I should send out the YouTube link, Susan Boyle. Vicki, who's Susan Boyle? Yeah. Yeah. It's really a very incredible, an incredible story. She, as Vicky said, Susan Boyle was a plain, unmarried, probably call her a spinster, right? Unemployed 47-year-old woman. She still lived in the house, I think she still does, that she grew up in, in just a small village in Scotland. Our friend Dorothy in Scotland, I'm sure, is well aware. of those things. Now, I say she was because also as Vicki mentioned, in 2009, she was a contestant on that program, Britain's Got Talent. I don't usually watch those things. I happened to cross this YouTube clip though of her 2009 appearance on that program. And when she walked out onto the stage, Nobody expected anything marvelous at all about her because she had a plain, very plain, unassuming appearance and nature. And in fact, she struck you as being rather eccentric, even eccentric. And she stumbled a bit in her response to a couple of the questions. And when she announced, they asked her, what's your dream? Why are you here? What do you want to be? She wanted to be a professional famous singer. And she named, I think the lady's name was Elaine Page. She must have been a famous singer in Britain as well. She wanted to be like her. And Susan was even a little bit comedic in every way. And there were some laughs and cheers from the audience. I think there was probably 3,000 or 4,000 people there in this place. Later on, the judges were interviewed, there were three of them, and they said that they just knew, this audition's gonna be over in five seconds. I mean, she's gonna start, we're gonna hit the buzzer, and she's outta here. And that's not what happened. In no more, as they said, in only two seconds, as she began to, and she was singing, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, the musical. Everyone in the audience, that whole 4,000 people and all the judges, they were stunned. And within 10 or 15 seconds, the whole place, they were standing on their feet and applauding. And also, as Vicki mentioned, in just one evening, I mean, overnight, but even less than overnight, she became a world famous star. And she would go on to make millions of dollars and she would even sing for the queen, right? She made all kinds of albums and so on. So what happened? What was it that happened that night, at least initially? Well, the book was judged by its cover. And the judges later on confessed, we were cynical, and judgmental and they were just kind of hanging their heads. We heard from John Bunyan last week in his sermon on the rich man and Lazarus that he said, those who make judgments based on outward appearances are destined to make wrong judgments. Those who see with the world's wisdom will always judge wrongly. The rich man, according to the world's wisdom, he was the guy to be emulated, right? He was the one, because he appeared blessed by God. That's how the world thinks. You know, that's how Job's friends, that's the theology they were giving him. If you're worthy, God will, if God's blessing you, then he must be pleased with you. If he's giving you temporal things, money and so forth, and popularity, then you must be blessed by God. And such a person is the one that you are to envy. And then there was that beggar Lazarus. Nobody wanted to be like him. So initially, when Susan Boyle walked in, nobody wanted to be like her, you see. Her presentation lasted, what, two or three minutes, three minutes, say? And when she walked off, everybody wanted to be like her. You see, that's how it went. But Lazarus, here he is. He's covered with sores. He's a beggar, bones protruding, starving, nearly dogs licking him. Well, obviously, there's a guy who's abandoned by God. Boy, how did he? It's like the disciples asked Jesus once when they came across the guy that was born blind, was it? Lord, who sinned, this guy or his parents? Somebody sinned. This is a man of God. So nobody wanted to be like Lazarus. But in two seconds or less, everything changed. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was thrown in a hole. See, no angels there. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. Now, everything's changed. What do you suppose Lazarus looked like? When the rich man, there he is in hell, he lifts up his eyes. For the first time, he sees accurately, but it's too late. And he looks up and he sees Abraham, but he sees Lazarus. He recognizes Lazarus, but how do you suppose Lazarus looked? Lazarus was beautiful. He was clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He was glorious. Gloria was shining around him. The sores were gone. All of that was gone. And here is the rich man. He is in torment in hell. Outward appearances and judgments made by outward appearances had all been totally wrong. And that's what Paul is trying to get through to these foolish Corinthians and to us, that we must set our minds to thinking with the wisdom of God that is given to us as believers. It's only given to believers. It's given by the Spirit of God, and God's way of thinking, God's truths are revealed to us by the Spirit. They cannot be figured out and discovered by the natural man, their foolishness then to him. To the degree that we see things as God sees them, we will evaluate things that we come across accurately. But to the degree that we slide into that old way of thinking, according to the world's wisdom, we're going to make wrong conclusions and wrong decisions then every time, you see. Now, let's apply this. Look at this church. Look at this church. Look around. Look at ourselves. And if you look through the eyes of the world's wisdom, your evaluation of this church is going to be absolutely wrong. Let me go back to the illustration here. When Susan Boyle stepped onto that stage, she was evaluated as a nobody, as a joke. And in fact, I think one of the judges told her immediately after she sang that, who was that? It was Piers Morgan was the guy. And he said, you know, Susan, when you came out here with that cheeky grin and you said you wanted to be as great as this, the name of that lady, this famous singer, he said, everybody was laughing at you. And then he said, nobody's laughing now, you see. Everybody was laughing at Lazarus. Nobody's laughing now. The rich man, he's not laughing at Lazarus now, you see. So again, we look at this church every time Now, this is kind of hard for me to explain because I don't still have a complete handle, needless to say, on the wisdom of God, but with Paul's help there from 1 Corinthians, I'll try to do the best job that I can. Every time we as a church gather here on the Lord's Day, we are on a stage. You know, where's the stage? We don't see this. You know, when Susan Boyle stepped onto that stage, she could see all these people out here and so forth. But we can't see. But we're on a stage when we gather together. And the world's wisdom says that we're nothing, that we're weak, and that we're powerless. Much of the so-called Christian church today will tell us that, all right? They will tell us that, that we are a failure, something's wrong, and so on. But what's really happening? At this moment, right now, we as Christ Church are gathered together. What is really happening? Listen to Hebrews 12. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, that's the elect, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. In other words, we are the body of Christ. We're the body of Christ. Do you know what the doctrine of the communion of saints is? Do you know what that doctrine is? It is that every believer, every Christian, whether here on earth, or whether in heaven, is joined, is in communion, because we are all members of the body of Christ. And it is an uncountable, innumerable number. Furthermore, then, think of us on a stage, all right, we are also joined by this uncountable number of angels, and they're all giving Christ glory in heaven, and yet it is a very real standing ovation. They are participating with us when we pray. They're participating with us when we sing. They're participating with us when we preach and hear, then, the word of God. And because this is the body of Christ, the communion. Now, we don't see that. Someday we will. But we have to see it by the eyes of faith, because the word of God tells us this is the case. One interesting thing, if you and I watch some more of those Britain's Got Talent shows and so on. But one of the things that happens there, you know, normally in a performance of some kind, I mean, if you go to see a concert or something, they go through the whole concert, presentation, and then everybody applauds. But in this show, what happens, if the person is doing good, right, performing, People are applauding and standing up already. That's what happened with Susan Boyle. All the time that she's singing, they're standing up and cheering. Now, how come they're doing that? Why are they doing that? They're cheering her on. They're applauding. They're doing this for encouragement. That's what's happening right now. God's word says that's what's happening right now here. is that there is an unseen and innumerable number of angels in festal gatherings, right? And the souls of righteous men made perfect, all those named in Hebrews 11 and every believer that's ever passed then into glory. John Bunyan's in the crowd, right? And what are they doing? They're joining with us, and they're cheering us on. All the glory goes to Christ, who has done all this, but they're cheering us on. If you don't see that by faith, if you don't understand that, then your idea, my idea, because I struggle with the same things too, of the church is going to be deficient. It's gonna be wrong. So we have to ask ourselves, what do you, what do I think of the church? More specifically, what do you think of this church? I mean, what do you think, how do you see it? And really what we struggle with is seeing it and evaluating it by the wisdom of the world, but not by the wisdom of God. Now you say, I know that this stuff, I know the Bible says those things, but it's hard to believe because I can't see it. Think about this. 2 Kings chapter 6. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, Behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. I read that line. I always think of that line in Old Brother. Who art thou? Where art thou? Right, that one. Man, we're in a tight spot, you know. Well, that's what's happening here. We're in a tight spot. The whole place is surrounded by the enemy. They got chariots and horses and everything. What shall we do? And he, and I think this was, you know, it was Elisha, he said, don't be afraid for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And he's like, you know, at that point he'd have to be thinking, what are you talking about? What do you mean? How can you say? Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And then Elisha prayed and said, oh, Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. Look it. If the Lord were to pull back the curtain, whatever that would mean, for even a second, and open our eyes so that we can see the unseen, we would see that uncountable audience that's there of righteous men made perfect and angels in festal garb and so forth, all there. We would see them and we would hear them because they're there. Here in this case, the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, and here's what he saw. The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha and of course the Lord would strike the enemy and defeat them. We have the same promise, Psalm 34 7, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. We don't see it with our eyes but we see it with the eyes of faith. So if we're judged by the world standard And if we judge by the world's wisdom, by appearances, we are going to go wrong. And we're gonna go wrong in regard to our thinking about the church, and about this church, and about the Lord's Day, and about gathering together, and what's really going on when we gather together with the saints on the Lord's Day. We won't really regard it as that big of a deal. You know, I mean, I've been guilty of that kind of a thing. We all have. It's like, OK, we know everybody's name. We know everybody. Look, it's fun to get together and enjoy one another's company and have refreshments and sing songs and this kind of a thing. But that's just a social club. A social club can do that. That's exactly what they do. Most, I say most anymore, certainly many local churches, that's all they are, is social clubs. And so it's not that important. It's not that big of a deal. But think of this. Maybe this will help us all. Think of this. What if all this is true? Now, we ask that question, and it's easy to say, well, of course it's true. God's word says it's true. Yeah, but do we really believe it? What if all this is true? What if, in fact, there really is this heavenly audience cheering us on? Cheering us on, right? Come on, you guys, here you are. This is great that you're here. This is the Lord's doing. You are his body. You are his church. Persevere. Persevere. The world might mock you. You might look like nothing. Religion, the religious world might mock you because you're not mega. I said mega, not mega. But you're not. You're great. You're not great. You're nothing, you see. But if you could see the heavenly audience, well, maybe think of it this way. Just how big is our church? It's pretty big. In fact, you can't count the members, because it's the communion of the saints. The body of Christ, you see, is not just us. It's us and all of Christ's people from every nation. Revelation 5, then I looked and I heard around the throne the living creatures and the elders and the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in them in the sea and all that's in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and worshiped. Now, that's what's really happening. That's the church triumphant in heaven that we are one with. Now, Rome likes to come along and say, no, no, no, no, no. We are the church. Can't you see our glory? Look how ancient we are. Look how universal. We are all over the world, right? down through the centuries. Look at our glorious cathedral and all the priestly vestments and, you know, we can transubstantiate this bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. We, in fact, hold the keys. And our Pope can either grant admission to heaven or reject admission to heaven, you see. We are the ones who dispense salvation. We're the ones who justify when we baptize. We are, our head guy in fact is personally appointed by Christ and he represents Christ on earth. Look at us. And our response in truth to that is, that's all you've got. That's all you got. The innumerable company of angels and the souls of righteous men made perfect and King Jesus on his throne is not present with you at all. In fact, he detests you. He despises you. And you are of Antichrist. And he's going to judge you then one day. So think again this way. When we gather together, we're We're on a stage, we're serving the Lord, worshiping him, and there's this vast audience that's really participatory, and with it there's this vast audience that you can't even number. If you could see those things, if you could really grasp that they're real, Wouldn't that affect your thinking about the church and about our life in the church? You know, most people that profess to be Christians regard the church, as I said, really as just another social club and not that important at all. And that's why they regard, listen to this now, most people that claim to be Christians regard being a Christian as an individual, solo enterprise. It's me and the Lord. The church, well, you can take or leave that. What's really important is me, me and the Lord. Well, the Bible says, yes, we are individuals, but we are individually what? Members of the body of Christ. So that we, being a Christian is not a solo enterprise. It's not just some private matter into which no one else is ever allowed to intrude. That's not what following Christ then is all about. we've seen uh... mac and i were talking recently you know how over the years we've still so often so often seen people that are professing christians who uh... who who refused to permit anybody to intrude into their into their spiritual life so that you think well you know We'd like to, here's this church member over here and they're, we just see them kind of straying off over here and we'd really like to see them growing in the Lord and so forth. So then you go and just as tactfully as you can, talk to them and what happens? Gone. Why? Why? Now, let's be honest, there's a little bit of that in all of us, right? But look, if following Christ is a matter of being a member, as an individual, a member of the body of Christ of the church, then it's not just a solo enterprise. It's a matter of us being in communion together with the church still here on earth and the church triumphant then in heaven, you see. So we really do need the church, but we have to see what the church is through the eyes of Christ, by his wisdom. That's how important this is. So look, here's another angle on it. If we think of this church as the world using the world's wisdom to evaluate Then what's going to happen is we're going to tend to be drawn to Laodicea, which was a lukewarm, pathetic church, if a church at all. And we're going to reject Smyrna, which was the suffering, little, apparently weak church, you see. That's what's going to happen. It's going to lead us wrong then every single time. There's, if we think of the church, the way that the world evaluates things, we're gonna be sitting ducks for Rome. or for some other crazy megachurch that's got all kinds of programs and everything going for it. Because, oh, man, I want to be like the rich man. I don't want to be like Lazarus. I want to be like the rich man. Surely that's the place that's blessed by God. Just recently in the news, there's been a couple of politically conservative leaders and so forth. Candace Owens was one of them. And they announced, I've come home to Rome. They've come out and said I'm, I mean, I think she had a evangelical background, but she says, you know, now I'm a Roman Catholic. I'm a Roman Catholic. Well, why is that? Well, something's certainly amiss there, because she's seeing things through the eyes, then, of the world. So it's vital. And I hope that's the best as I can explain it. is that we have to see, we have to evaluate things, everything, by the wisdom of God, not by the wisdom of the world. If you're thinking like the world thinks and evaluating it, then you're going to be like that crowd that was jeering at Susan Boyle, you know, when she came out onto the stage. Well, what's this got to do with Christ ascended? Well, everything, because we continue to peer into heaven with the eyes of faith. And we look at the ascended Jesus, the ascended Christ. We already read it in Acts chapter 1. Let me just review here verses 9 through 11. When he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Now, in the same way, that means he will come in the clouds. But there's also a very different way that he's coming. He's coming in absolute with his saints, and you can read all about that in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Listen to the Westminster larger catechism, this is the larger catechism, it's longer than the shorter, on the ascension of Christ. How was Christ exalted in his ascension? Christ was exalted in his ascension in that having, after his resurrection, often appeared to, and conversed with his apostles, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations. Forty days after his resurrection," so you see this must be about, this Sunday must be about 40 days after Easter, right? Yeah, that's how the church calendar works. So, 40 days after his resurrection, he, in our nature, really bodily, and as our head, triumphing over enemies, visibly went up into the highest heavens, there to receive gifts for men, to raise up our affections there, and to prepare a place for us, where he himself is, and shall continue there until his second coming at the end of the world. Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God. In that, as the God-man, he is advanced to the highest favor with God the Father, with all fullness of joy, glory, and power over all things in heaven and earth. And he does gather and defend his church. You see why this is an important doctrine. He does gather and defend his church. and subdue their enemies, furnishing his ministers and people with gifts and graces, making intercession for them. That's a great statement of all the things that happened. Our ascended Lord gives account of his ascension, and once he went out of the apostle's sight and into heaven, Psalm 2, tells us more about what happened on that day. This is what happened. You'll notice here in verse 7 the narrative shifts to the first person and it is the ascended Christ who is actually speaking there. All right. Psalm 2. Why did the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain. The kings of the year set themselves. The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, his Messiah, saying, let us burst their bonds apart, cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill, and then Christ. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I've begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned. See, imagine this. This is Christ speaking at the UN, right? That's what he's doing here. Kings, wise up, be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, bow to him, serve him, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So this psalm is the coronation psalm. It's what happened on that ascension day when Christ ascended into heaven. What happened? He was crowned king. by the father and given authority over all kings and all nations. How did the nations react to this? Look at, if you believe Psalm 2, you have the explanation of everything that's going on in the world. Everything that's going on in the world. How did the nations react to the coronation of the king? Why do the nations rage? The peoples plot in vain. The kings of the earth set them so they dig their heels in. The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let's burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. So what's true about the nations of the world right now? They're in rebellion against the king. The rulers of the world. I suppose if you looked close enough somewhere along in history, here and there, you might find a godly king. But the general rule is that the rulers of the world, the nations, hate the king. They hate Christ. That's why it's so typical that down through history, what do they do? They persecute Christ's people. They rage. The apostles quoted this psalm in Acts chapter 4 when they were being persecuted. They say, through your holy servant David, Lord, you told us what would happen. And you explain what's happening right now. The Gentiles and the Jews, they're persecuting your church and persecuting us. And in response, they prayed and asked for boldness. to keep on preaching, and the Lord sent the Spirit to them in even more power. We're seeing this wickedness in our own nation today, right? Our president and whoever's pulling the strings behind the scenes is digging in and setting themselves against God, hating, hating, then crying. What's the king's reaction to all this? Now, this should be really encouraging to us. Because we see, I mean, we see this nation of ours just going to pot, right? Things being destroyed. We have a fool for a president. He's worse than a fool. He's an evil, evil fool, establishing all kinds of wickedness. And, you know, it's easy for us to get to be kind of hopeless. It's also easy for us, if we're not careful, to put our ultimate hope in man, right? Our ultimate hope. We hope that a righteous person gets elected then in the fall. But look, that can't be our ultimate hope. Somebody asked me on that talk show that I was on, they said, well, do you have hope? Do you think things are getting better? Because one fellow had said that He sees signs of people waking up to the evil in our country, and more and more people even pulling their kids out of schools, and where this wickedness is going on, and so forth. And in the short term, there can be some hope. We hope that things get turned around here. But looking at things through the eyes of God's wisdom and what he's revealed to us, we know that in the last days, things are going to go more and more evil until ultimately what's going to happen? Ultimately, the man of lawlessness is going to be revealed and there's going to be a one world empire. That's what's going to happen. And if you don't bow to him, to the Antichrist and receive his mark that you're owned by him. If you don't do that, you're not even going to be able to go to the grocery store and buy food. That's what's coming. Now, it's for a short term. It's for a short term. And then Christ is going to come and wipe him. But those things are coming. Our hope is in Christ. We always have to see these things. through the eyes of his word. But we can also, so we take great comfort in the fact that we're reminded here in Psalm 2, the king's in charge. You know, at this moment, King Jesus is not in a fret. He's not like, oh man, what a mess they got going over here and you got this war going over here. Ultimately, these guys are all going to get together under the Antichrist, and they're going to try to destroy me and my kingdom. And so, boy, I better be on guard. No. What's his reaction? He who sits in the heavens laughs. He laughs at them. He laughs at Putin and whoever's running China, and he laughs at our president, right? He laughs at these wicked He holds them in derision, derision. He's going to speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying, as for me, I've set my king on Zion. This is my king. God's saying that. This is my king. You better bow to him. So here's the picture. Here's what's going on in the world. Here's these little worms. That's all they are, be it in history, All the Caesars, the Nebuchadnezzars today pick out the tyrants around the world that think they're just really something, you know, and they're going to conquer the world. They're like little bugs where the Lord is going to speak and squash them one day. It's wicked, and it's ridiculously comedic. Jesus laughs at them and holds them in derision. They're fools. All he needs to do, and this is how it's going to go down. Here's the Antichrist, ultimately, and he's got all of his forces against, gathered together to destroy Christ and destroy his church and be done with Christ, and once and for all, And so we talk about the Battle of Armageddon. And you know what the Battle of Armageddon is, right? One little word will fell them. He speaks, and it's done. Satan's in the Lake of Fire, and all the rest of them are thrown in there with him. Because they're nothing. They're nothing then before him. He speaks. It's the power of his terrifying word. You have a little hint of this, Israel at Mount Sinai. What is it like to hear the voice of the Lord speaking, right? When all the people saw the thunder and flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet, the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and troubled. They stood afar off and they said, Moses, you talk to us, but don't, make him stop, make him stop. And that was just him speaking to give them his law. But what's it going to be like when he speaks to destroy his enemies? Isaiah 11, with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. That's just, that's his word. And with the breath of his lips, he'll kill the wicked. That's all it takes. His word is how he created the universe, you see. Revelation 19, look at this great account here of it all. Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He's clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he's called is the Word of God. The armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth, see here's his word again, from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun with a loud voice he called to, all the birds that fly directly overhead, come, gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him. who was sitting on the horse and against his army. The beast was captured. And with it, the beast is the Antichrist. Satan's already in the lake of fire by that time. And with it, the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. That's why Luther said one little word shall fill them right. So that's King Jesus that's Christ ascended. That's what happened when he ascended he was crowned with glory and all power by the father and one day he will descend and he'll judge from the greatest to the least who stand in rebellion against him. He's poised to come now. Armies are being gathered. If I take how it's gonna come down correctly here, certainly if his return Terry's for another, how long's the youngest one of us here gonna live? Another 80 years or whatever? All right, that long. If you're in Christ, you're gonna be in that army. You're gonna be coming back then with him. Wherever we are, we're gonna see this thing go down, that it's going to happen. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Bless all who take refuge in him. They'd never allow it, but Psalm 2 would be the perfect sermon to preach to the UN. They'd be throwing stones and darts at you before you got halfway through. But that's God's message to them, to the kings, to the rulers of the world, be warned, I'm giving you notice. I'm coming, bow to me, submit to me, kiss the son, my king, or else. Christ is risen, he is ascended, and he is coming again. Father, thank you for these great truths from your word, we pray that that you would descend very, very soon. And enable us, Father, in the meantime, to see things with the eyes of faith, to see things as you see them, to see this little church as you see it, and to recognize it We don't stand alone, there is such a thing as the communion of the saints, that we are individually members of the innumerable body of Christ. We thank you for these things in Christ's name, amen.