Well, the Bible promises true believers the ultimate sight with their eyes, and it does so in many, many places. In Job 19, verse 26, we read that, in my flesh, I shall see God. In Psalm 17, verse 15, we read, I shall behold your face in righteousness. Matthew 5, verse 8 says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, we read, now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. 1 John 3, 2 says, we shall see him as he is. And the Bible practically ends on the statement in Revelation 22, verse 4, they will see His face. And so throughout Scripture for thousands of years, the writers of Scripture have been preparing the people of God to know that they will see their God, and simultaneously warning unbelievers that they too will see God face to face and give an account to Him. And the text that we have before us as we continue returning to the book of Revelation looks at the time when all men will see God and see Him face to face in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you would turn to Revelation chapter 1, We're going to look at verses 7 and 8 this evening. This is the last review message I'm doing to return us to Revelation after we were away from the exposition for an extended period of time, just kind of reviewing things and getting ready to launch into verses 9 through 16 on Sunday. And tonight's message is titled, The Second Coming Revisited. We're looking again at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we read this in Revelation 1, verses seven and eight. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. You see it there in verse 7, He is coming with the clouds. Verse 8, the Lord God says, He is the one who is to come, the Almighty. And in this text, we see five aspects of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we're going to look at them rather quickly here this evening. Let me just remind you that we have posted the past messages. There were about 10 in the initial start on Revelation. Those have been all conveniently put on a link on the front page of our website, truthcommunitychurch.org. And so if you want to go back and review those messages, I would encourage you to do so. We kind of assume a lot of the things that are said in those messages in what is about to come. I'll give you the five points at the start and then we'll go back through them. The second coming is a prophetic event. It is a glorious event. It is a universal event. For believers, it is a welcome event. And lastly, it is a certified event. It is certain to occur. The second coming of Christ is more certain than your next breath because this coming of Christ is something promised by God. We don't have a promise for our next breath. We do have a promise for the next coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see, first of all, that it is a prophetic event. And what I mean by that is that the Old Testament, in many places, prepared the way, prophesied before the first coming of Christ that there would be this glorious appearance that He makes at the end of the age. If you'll turn back in your Old Testament to the book of Daniel, chapter 7, Daniel chapter 7, we read this in verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. This is looking forward from Daniel's time, this is looking beyond the first coming to the second coming of Christ. In the first coming of Christ, it was not such that all peoples, nations, and languages served him. He was in Palestine, he was in a localized area, and there were many people throughout the world who weren't even aware of his presence at the time. But in his second coming, when he comes and he reigns from Jerusalem, Scripture teaches abundantly in the Old and in the New Testaments that all nations will serve him. Now, Daniel wrote that prophecy more than 500 years before the time of Christ, And Revelation, obviously, is building on that prophecy. The Apostle John draws upon this language from Daniel as he introduces the main text of the book of Revelation. And so we see that Revelation is building on the prior prophecies that were made. Now, not long after Daniel, if you can find the book of Zechariah in your Bible, It is the next to the last book of the Old Testament, so you could go to Matthew and just turn back, cross Malachi, and you'll come to Zechariah in a very stunning prophecy in Zechariah 12, verse 10. We read that God will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. Again, this is looking beyond the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ. And it tells us that there will be a time when the Jews will look upon the Messiah that they crucified. They will look on Christ himself. They will look on him. And in that future time, God will pour out a spirit of repentance upon the Jews, and they will repent and turn to Christ in a spirit of mourning and weeping. They will mourn over the fact that as a people had crucified their Messiah, but there will be an outpouring and they will turn to Christ in a spirit of great repentance. That is what lies ahead. Now, in these texts from Daniel and from Zechariah, We find that in his earthly ministry, Jesus Christ himself joined these texts together. If you'll turn to Matthew 24 with me. Matthew 24. And we're just seeing the unity of Scripture in predicting this second coming of Christ, and we're not at all trying to examine every text that we could consider here. Matthew 24, verse 30, and we'll come back to this text later in the message. Matthew 24, verse 30, we read that, there will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And so 500 years before Christ, you see Daniel, Zechariah prophesying this way. You see Jesus affirming the words of His servants, the prophets, in His own statements during His earthly ministry. And then toward the end of the first century, you see these same texts and same phrases and images being gathered up in Revelation 1, verses 7 and 8. Look at it again with me. Revelation 1, 7 and 8. where we read, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Beloved, it's very important for you to understand that the second coming of Christ is an essential aspect of biblical Christianity. God will send His Son back to earth. It will be in the fulfillment of the prophecies that have made. And the Scriptures make it very plain that the world as we know it will not always continue on as it is today. Jesus Christ is going to return, He's going to come from heaven to earth, and He is going to supernaturally intervene, bring judgment on the wicked, and introduce the kingdom that His prophets prophesied and promised to His people Israel back in the Old Testament. And so this is essential to understand, and it's just very necessary for us to keep these things in mind, that in Christianity we have a supernatural religion, if I can use that term. This is something supernatural. It is not simply a matter of superior ethics. It's not simply a matter of abstract theology. This sets the course for what will be the outcome of the world in which we live. And so Scripture makes it plain, states in unambiguous terms, that Jesus Christ is coming with the clouds. Now, when we first got into Revelation a year ago, I spoke a little bit about the concept of a coming, and I just want to remind you of what we said there, because it's such a common word that it's easy to miss the significance of what's being said. If a mother goes out on the porch and calls for her son that it's time for supper, she says, come in. Come in for supper. I want you to move from where you are over there and come here. Move from there to here so that you can be where I want you to be. Well, in the greater sense of the coming of Christ, let's just think about what happened when He was here on earth the first time. After His resurrection, He ascended into heaven. He went from here to there. He went up into the clouds and He was received into heaven where ever since He has been interceding for His people at the right hand of the Father. And that, in his ascension, was a supernatural event. When He comes again, He is going to come, and He is going to move from there to here. He's going to move from heaven down here to earth. He is going to come. He will move from there in heaven to here on earth, and it will be a supernatural event that Scripture says everyone will see at the time. And so this is all in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. God will honor the words of his prophets. He will fulfill what he moved them to say. And this is all an expression, it is all an indication of the absolute sovereign control of God over all things future from the beginning of time. He had this plan from the beginning. This is not some kind of afterthought that is introduced. This was the plan from the very beginning that the Lord Jesus Christ, he would come in his first coming in humility. without any fanfare. He would suffer a cursed death on the cross. He would die, as it were, alone. And yet, there would be another coming, a second coming, where all of the marks of his humiliation will be left behind, and he will come with glory and with power. as we will see on Sunday in verses 12 through 16. I'll resist the temptation to go into that right now. So it's going to be the fulfillment of prophecy when he comes, a prophetic event. Now secondly, The second coming of Christ will be a glorious event. It will be shrouded in a mighty display of His glory. Look at Revelation 1, verse 7. Revelation 1, verse 7. where we read, behold, he is coming with the clouds. Now the clouds are an indication of the manifest presence of God. They are manifestation of the glory of God. It's not a statement of what the weather is going to be like, it is coming. as I've said in the past. This isn't an indication that it'll be partly cloudy and in the 60s when He comes. It's not an indication that there's going to be cloud cover. This is an indication that He is going to come with a manifestation of the great glory of God. If you think about in the Old Testament, as God was leading His people through the wilderness, He manifested His presence through a glorious pillar of cloud during the day and a glorious pillar of fire by night. He manifested His presence in that way, and the clouds are associated with that glory of His. Supernatural clouds will magnify the display of His glory. And so we start to get something of the sense, this kind of builds as you go along with it, you get a sense of the magnitude of what we're talking about here as we consider His second coming. the reality that this is going to be in the fulfillment of prophecies that were made millennia ago. God will fulfill the prophets' words and will do so, and it will be a sign that throughout the thousands of years that followed, God was operating on a precise plan to a predetermined outcome where Christ would return. And then you add on to that the fact that somehow, somehow there is going to be this great supernatural display of Christ coming with the clouds, and you get an added sense of the glory. Think about it this way. as, you know, if you're like me, you love it when a major thunderstorm rolls in. There's the far off rumbling in the distance, and you see those magnificent black clouds starting to roll in, especially if you're right at the beginning of the front. And these clouds are just expressing a power that is beyond you and a power of more to come. And there is the voice of God speaking in the thunder Well, multiply that which we know and you get a foretaste of what is going to be even more magnificent, more powerful, more glorious when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. You see, we don't know, we can't imagine, we can't envision exactly what it's going to look like. But we know enough by our present experience, God has given us enough in the world around us to get a sense that if it's anything, and I mean, it will be beyond the rolling power of an incoming thunderstorm, and it's going to be far greater than that, then you get a sense, you get a feel, you can project a little bit of the glory that must accompany the return of Christ. And we're going to see that. That is going to be a visible event. But beloved, it's not just for a select few that this coming will affect. This is a universal event, point number three. It is a universal event. Now, at His first coming, Christ was clothed in obscurity and in humility, so much so that the wise men needed supernatural direction to be able to find him because it wasn't known where he was. Herod wondered where the baby had been born. It wasn't visible and manifest to everyone. And you think, as you go along, Scripture says that he had no appearance that we should be attracted to him. He lived for the first 30 years of his life in utter obscurity. We only see very brief glimpses when he was in the temple and when he was there in the manger. We only see very brief glimpses of his manifestation before his public ministry, and people thought that he was simply the son of Joseph. Isn't this the carpenter's son, they say in the Gospel of Mark? There was nothing about his physical appearance that distinguished him in his first coming. He was clothed in humility, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, as we sing in the Christmas hymn. Well, in his second coming, it is going to be very different. In his first coming, he died in utter shame on the cross. There was no outward display of glory that men could recognize. We look at the cross with the eyes of faith and we see great glory in what He did, but it wasn't an outward manifest display of the glory of Christ when He was on the cross. It was all clothed. It was all veiled. It was all something that was, as it were, hidden from human eyes. And even the parables, for example, Jesus said, things are given in parables so that they won't see and understand. It was a deliberate veiling of him in his first coming. But in His second coming, it's going to be completely different. It will be another matter altogether. Look at verse seven with me. Revelation, verse seven. When it says, behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him. even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him." You see, beloved, the first coming required eyes of faith to understand that Christ was there and present. That's why there was so much confusion about Him. And they argued. And the crowds were divided over who he was. Some said he was Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Maybe he was another coming of John the Baptist. They didn't know. There was all this confusion. Yet, at his future return, at his second coming, no one is going to be able to contest the reality of what's happening. No one will miss it. It will be a universal event witnessed by all that are there. Every eye will see. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Christ will confront all of humanity without exception. And beloved, let me say that Hollywood and movie makers and Christian filmmakers are going to do what they want to do regardless of what I say about it. But this is not something that is given to us to make films for entertainment purposes. This is the fulfillment of the eternal plan and purpose of God. This is the judgment of unsaved humanity. This is the glorious hope for those who believe in Christ. This is not something to trifle with and to be a matter of fictionalized books or things of that nature. This is the fulfillment of everything that God has promised all along. And if you'll turn to the book of Titus, you get a sense of what this means to us as believers. Titus 2. Titus 2, we read in verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope. the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. We are living godly lives now as believers. That's what we're called to do, whether everyone's doing that or not. It's a matter for your own conscience to deal with in this moment. But it is all done with an eye of what comes in the future. We live for Christ today, but not in a self-contained, isolated bubble of time, only for what happens in the here and now. Christ saved us so that we would have and cling to and look forward to this blessed hope, looking forward to the time of His coming, looking for things that go beyond this life, looking for things that transcend life and death, things that transcend marriage and family, things that transcend physical health, things that transcend death and life. You see, this is central to what real faith is. And in your conception of Christianity, in your conception of what it means to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, there should always be this preeminent, transcendent expectation of the coming of Christ, and that that coming of Christ is a motivating influence on you to live a godly life. Because if he, and he can come at any time, He could come before I finish the end of this sentence. And when he comes, we want to be prepared. We want to be ready. We want to be found living a godly life in that time. And so this is essential to everything that we believe and everything that we teach. And we see in Revelation 1, verse 7, you can go back there, In Revelation 1, verse 7, you see that there is a spiritually mixed reaction to his return. For believers, it will be a time of joy. For the Jews, as we saw in Zechariah, it's going to be a time of mournful repentance. There will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them, and they will turn in repentance, but there will be a mourning in their repentance over how long they had rejected their Messiah. But it will be a turning to Christ as He comes as their King to redeem them. But unrepentant Gentiles are going to mourn, but they're going to mourn for a different reason. Look at it there in verse 7. Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. There is going to be a mourning by unbelievers when Christ returns, a mourning of terror, a mourning of hatred, a mourning of resentment, a mourning of fear that comes upon all tribes of the earth. And Scripture is very explicit about this. Go back to Matthew 24 with me. Matthew 24. where we read in verse 27, For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. You see it there, beloved, in the middle of verse 30. All the tribes of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And it reminds me of what we read in 2 Peter 3, if you would go there with me, after the book of Hebrews, 2 Peter 3. It is essential for us to know these things, to believe these things, to live by these things, and to be able to have discernment on the spirit of the age in which we live and to not be sucked into it like so much dirt into a vacuum cleaner. Not that I should be comparing believers to dirt. Sometimes the metaphors work, sometimes they don't. 2 Peter 3. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. Scripture tells us to discern the age in which we live, to recognize the scoffing of unbelieving pagans and irreligious people, to recognize the scoffing of liberal Christians who do not believe the Word of God, And for us, without shame, without a sense of embarrassment, to boldly and confidently and expectantly proclaim that there is another coming of Christ and this age will not continue on indefinitely as it has existed. That's what Scripture calls us to. And so we have a fundamental choice, we have a fundamental responsibility to fulfill when we recognize the biblical teaching on the second coming. This is another aspect of God calling His people out of the world, out of the mindset of the world, and living by faith and living by confidence in the revealed Word of God for what is to come. rather than slipping into a worldly mindset that just rather naturally assumes that things are going to continue as they have and that there is no such thing as a second coming. These matters of what will happen in the future are an essential part of the biblical faith. And there is no way, beloved, there's no way to hold this clearly and boldly in a way that makes it acceptable to unbelievers. We have to embrace the fact that proclaiming and upholding a confident faith in the inerrant inspired Word of God is inconsistent with the mindset of the world. We have to uphold the fact and believe the fact that men are lost sinners and that they cannot save themselves, and only an act of outside grace acting upon the heart can move anybody to come to saving faith in Christ. We have to believe that. We do believe that. And we have to proclaim it without apology or without shame or without embarrassment. We have to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. We proclaim that over against those who would want to reduce him to a created being, to someone who was just a prophet, someone who was simply a good teacher. but not God in human flesh. You go down the line of all the things that we believe, beloved, and the second coming is included in this, there is no way to reconcile it to the hostile carnal mind. And so rather than trying to ingratiate ourselves with an unbelieving world and shaving off everything that we possibly can that they will find offensive, We should do the exact opposite. Churches should do the exact opposite instead of tailoring to the lowest common denominator, uphold with the greatest boldness, the greatest clarity, the greatest confidence, the fullness of what Scripture teaches. And it is that distinction from the world, it is that distinction from the unbelieving mind that God will bless as we honor His Word, He will honor our testimony to His Word, But if we try to cover it up, if we try to save our respectability before the world, before our family, before our friends, churches in the midst of the community, if we try to make ourselves respectable to them, we will quench and grieve the Spirit, and Ichabod will be written over the doorpost as we do. Look, these are the most serious of matters. And ultimately, this just comes down to, it challenges us in the deepest part of our heart. Do you really believe the Scripture? Have you really been born again? Are you really and truly grateful to the Lord Jesus, so much so that you're willing to go outside the camp with Him, to bear reproach with Him for the sake of His name and for His word and for His glory, that you would rather be identified with Him than with a scoffing, unbelieving world? Now to me, I mean I can honestly say this, to me it's no choice. There's no contest there. There's no attraction to want to be loved by the world when I have in mind its hatred for Christ, its darkness, its blindness, its sinfulness, and its ultimate destiny. I don't have any desire to be identified with the world at the expense of Christ as if I wanted to actually partake in their share of the judgment to come, as if I wanted to be with them amidst the shrieks of demons and Satan and the unbelieving hosts that are punished in hell forever. I don't want any part of that. And so one of the ways, beloved, that you keep your testimony clear and distinct, and you make these things clear in your heart, is that you recognize these truths. You say, I believe that. I gladly give my life to that. And God helping me, I will not be ashamed of the gospel. This is what Paul said in Romans 1. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. When he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's a negative way of saying, I'm proud of the message that God has given me to preach. I'm proud of the gospel. I'm proud to proclaim these things. And so right at the start, as we come to these opening verses of Revelation, the very nature of our worldview and the clarifying commitments of the convictions of our heart are brought to bear, and we're given opportunity to review them and say, yes, that is what I believe. God giving me help, I can do nothing without Christ. Without Him, I can do nothing, but God helping me. We say together, we say as a church, we say as individuals, God helping me, the undivided desire of my heart is to be faithful to this truth. and to be found in Him when He returns. Nothing else matters to me by comparison. Take away my loved ones. Take away my prosperity. Take away my character, my reputation. Take away my friends. Exile me to the island of Patmos, which is what happened to the Apostle John. I don't care. I don't care. Just let me be found in Christ. Let me hear Him say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, and all will be well. Now, Not only in the teaching of Matthew do we see this promise, this expectation of the mourning that will take place at the return of Christ, mourning as in wailing and weeping, not the start of the day. Turn to Revelation 9 with me. Revelation 9. And you know, beloved, I trust that for at least a few of you, as we talk about these glorious themes, and we talk about the glory of Christ and the glory of the privilege of following Him and knowing Him and being identified with Him, I trust that for some of you there is within your heart that which was happening to the disciples on the road to Emmaus as Christ Himself was explaining truth to them and explaining what the Old Testament Scripture said about Him. They didn't realize that it was Christ at the time, but after He flashed His appearance and then disappeared, they said to one another, weren't our hearts burning within us as we heard Him speak? Wasn't there this burning within us? Like the Prophet Jeremiah, wasn't there a fire in our bones as we heard the truth and we responded and there was something greater than life, greater than life itself that was manifest to our hearts? So real, so true, so powerful, so great that my man inside wasn't enough to contain it. Well, beloved, I trust that for some of you, you have a, you know, if not, if you don't at least have the fire burning in your heart, you can at least whiff something of the of the aromatic smoke that comes from it. that you realize and detect within you, this is something that is greatly important, and not just greatly important in general, it's greatly important to me. This is the reason that I live. I live for Christ, you say to yourself. I live for Him. I live to see His face. Everything else is secondary by comparison. If I'm suddenly struck down and I don't live out the fullness of the days that I expected, just let me be found in Christ and all will be well. And a burning in your heart, a burning in your heart. that says, how can I continue on in my indifference, my prayerlessness, my pursuit and presumption of sin in my life? and just continue living a carnal ungodly life, and at the same time say that I love Christ and this is the most important thing to me. These things have a purifying effect on you, which is why we read the passage in Titus chapter 2 that Christ saved us to purify for himself a people who are zealous for good works. There is a zeal within that comes from knowing and recognizing and embracing the second coming. Let every man, every woman examine himself, herself. For centuries, For centuries, noble men and women have gladly, boldly, courageously laid down their lives for these truths. People burned at the stake, people nailed to the stake, people drowned over these things. You see, beloved, I just desire for you by and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For your sake and for his glory, I desire for you to love him enough to repent of your sins, to love him enough to be unashamed before unbelievers, to name his name, to love him enough to be bold in the face of bad news when it comes, confident and peaceful when it comes, because you are so owned by and loved by and loving this sovereign Christ of whom we will hear more on Sunday. And the culmination of all of that is just the idea that He is going to return and we are going to see Him face-to-face. That sums everything up. That sums everything up. And the idea that we'll see Him face-to-face and to understand that that and that alone, that and that only will be the climax of existence. not getting married, not having children, not having grandchildren, not having prosperity in this world, not being popular, not being famous, not being, you know, an influencer on social media, which I say with as much disdain as I can possibly gather up in my heart to say, None of that stuff here on earth matters. As the famous revivalist evangelist George Whitefield said, let the name of George Whitefield perish from the earth as long as they remember the glory of Christ. And to understand that anything good or bad on this earth is utterly insignificant by comparison to the privilege of seeing Christ face-to-face, being welcomed by Him in love, owning us, confessing us before His Father in heaven. Yeah, that one's mine. And as it were, letting imagination take over for a little bit, you know, as it were, as he confesses our name, grabbing hold of him at his waist and clinging to him in a love that will not cease. I am his and he is mine. So this will be a universal event with different implications for the believing and the unbelieving. If you look at Revelation 9, I might as well have it in the notes. I might as well show you this, that the return of Christ is going to be a time of mourning for unbelievers. Revelation 9, verse 20. The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. In chapter 16 of Revelation, We read that they were scorched by the fierce heat as the wrath of God is poured out in the last days. They cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. You know, beloved, there's a false sense of what prompts repentance. And sometimes people are under the mistaken impression that severe affliction will provoke repentance in people. That's not true. That's not true. Only the grace of God can produce repentance in a soul, and those who suffer affliction who are unrepentant and not under the influence of the Spirit of God, it merely makes them more hard, more resistant, more angry. And so it's, when we see that even at the end of the age, they're going to know that the eschatological end is upon them, and they are going to curse God all the more. Hard to believe, yet that's what Scripture says. And so it'll be a universal event. For those in Christ, glory, fulfillment, my Lord and my God, as Thomas said in this first coming. For the unsaved, anger, pain, resentment, and ultimately, final judgment. This going out, it says in Revelation 14, verse 6, to every nation and tribe and language and people. It's universal in its consequence. What we're talking about here tonight, we are getting a preview of what lies ahead for every man, woman, and child that has ever existed. Now, Point number four, I've kind of alluded to this, so I don't need to spend much time on it. It will be a welcome event. We've said it's a prophetic event, a glorious event, a universal event. Fourthly, it is a welcome event, and it is a welcome event for believers. It is staggering to contemplate the things that we have talked about tonight. It requires the work of the Spirit in our hearts to help us understand that the only realm of existence that you and I have known is going to come to a close and something new will be introduced. That's pretty remarkable. But as we do, we see the believing response at the end of verse 7 when we read this at Revelation 1-7 again. Every eye will see Him. All tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. But look at what it says there at the end of verse 7. Even so, amen. Taking it all in, taking the fact that this will be catastrophic, eternal judgment being introduced upon unbelievers, realizing for some of us You know, I mean, I don't want to go too far with this implication, but even people that we know, people that we respect, people that we love may enter into this judgment and be cast away. Here's what the true believer says. Even so, I acknowledge all of that to be true. I acknowledge that not all of my loved ones are going to be with me in heaven forever. Even in light of that, I can recognize that and affirm that, and I can say, amen. So be it. I would have it no other way, because this is the will of God. This is what God has determined is good and righteous and just and His will. And who am I to resist His will? I embrace it all, the believer says, I submit to it, even in light of all of it, amen, may it so be. Despite the mourning that will come, despite the judgment that will come, John holds out his arms, as it were, He sees this future coming of Christ and all of its consequences, and he holds out his arms and says, come. I embrace it. I don't resist it. I am in complete submission and subjection to the Lord. who has determined that this is how it should be. I embrace God's right to manifest His righteousness and justice. I embrace the fact that sin must be punished. And if you go to the end of Revelation 22, verse 20, And even if you don't go there, it's still going to say this whether you turn there or not. The entire book of Revelation, the entire Bible ends on this note of submission and embrace. Verse 20, Revelation 22, verse 20, he who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. And the response of the biblical writer, which is the response for every true believer, there is no room for deviation here. All of us together in Christ, when Jesus says, I am coming soon, we say, amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Hasten the day. May it come quickly. May you vindicate yourself. May you vindicate your righteousness. May you vindicate the prophets. May you vindicate the martyrs. May you do everything that is necessary for the ultimate, full, complete, exhaustive manifestation of your glory. And may there be no part of it left out. Come, Lord Jesus. And so, whatever the consequences may be, we as believers, we affirm the right of Christ to return to the world that He created and do with it whatever He chooses to do. And we manifest our submission to the will of Christ, who says, this is what I'm going to do. This is what lies ahead. And what we do is described for us in Scripture in many places, but Philippians 2 comes particularly to mind. We bow the knee. We bow the knee and say, Jesus Christ is Lord, which means whatever he says, whatever he does is right, and I align myself completely with his person and his will without reservation, hesitation, or regret. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. It is a welcome event to believers, whatever the consequences may be. Now finally, going back to Revelation chapter 1, fifthly, we see that it is a certified event. a certified event by which I mean that it is guaranteed to happen. This is certain to come to pass. I have absolutely no fear whatsoever of being found out wrong in the end, that when everything is said and done, when I have proclaimed that Christ will return again, there is no possibility that I'm mistaken. or anybody who believes in the second coming of Christ, there's no possibility of mistake, not because of any wisdom or insight that we have, but because it is certified to us by the word and will of God. Look at Revelation 1, verse 8. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Now, the alpha and omega, those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. It would be like an English speaker saying, you know, we covered everything from A to Z, meaning that everything was covered from the beginning to the end. Everything was gathered up. Everything was complete. Everything that is necessary has been included in the statement from A to Z. Well, same way, Alpha and Omega, it speaks to the fact that there is a completeness to everything that God has promised and said in this summary overview of the things that we'll see later in Revelation. It speaks to the omniscience of God who knows it all. We'll see later in the chapter about the eyes of Christ and the perspective of His eyes seeing all things, His eyes like a flame of fire, it says. For now, it's enough for us in light of what we saw in verse 7. Even so, amen. God adds His testimony to what John said. Even so, amen. God adds His testimony, His affirmation, His attestation to what had just been said, that Christ is going to come with clouds and every eye will see Him. The biblical writer says, even so, amen, and God comes along and says, I'm the Alpha and Omega who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. He stamps it with the authenticity and the full power of His authority and says, I guarantee this in all that is to come. It is eternally settled in the plan and mind of God, and it's just a matter of time. The Almighty speaks to His omnipotence, speaks to His sovereignty. God is saying, I will certainly do what you have just read. This will certainly all come to pass. And as it were, He throws the blanket of His sovereignty, the blanket of His eternal will over all of the universe, over all of creation. He throws it over all of it and gathers it all in and pulls it in and says, everything is covered by the statement that I have made. So, beloved, to simply state it for tonight and look forward to Sunday, Christ will intervene and bring human history to a close. And I ask you, what is your response to that? What will be your response to that? If you know Christ, you can and should say, even so, amen. Whatever the consequences may be, amen, may your will be done. I mean, this is just, you know, here I am wrapping up a conclusion. I'm opening a tangent. That's not the way you do it at all. This is intrinsic to the Lord's prayer. Thy kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, let your kingdom come, let your will be done. Everything fundamental to praying is wrapped up in the fact that you have a kingdom that's coming, and I submit to that without hesitation or reservation. This is what believers do in response to teaching on the second coming of Christ. Amen. Bring it to pass. For those who don't know Christ, this has a bad outcome. This is the path of mourning and loss and destruction, far too awful to contemplate. And so we just ask God to help each one under the sound of my voice to judge himself, judge herself rightly, and prepare to see Christ. Let's pray together. Father, Jesus said in John 14, if I go away, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Father, as your believing people, We say, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. And Father, we understand that you delay, you tarry, you hold off on the intervention in order to gather in more into your kingdom. The warning about the second coming is a promise of grace to those who would hear and believe in the Son and receive eternal life. Father, we pray that you would heighten the urgency in the heart not to procrastinate any further, but to come immediately now to Christ for an immediate and true salvation by believing in Him. And yet, Father, how awful the consequences for those who harden their hearts. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Show mercy, Father, to each one. who comes under the sound of my voice tonight or in the future, who comes under the sound of Your Word in any place at any time. Father, we ask for the grace of Your Spirit, for our desires to see many brought in, and Father, to have all that we know and those that we love with us. But we leave that in your hands as we commit ourselves to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thanks for listening to Pastor Don Green from Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can find more Church information, Don's complete sermon library, and other helpful materials at thetruthpulpit.com. Teaching God's People. God's Word. This message is copyrighted by Don Green. All rights reserved.