This sermon from noted evangelist Billy Graham is on the subject of Jesus
Christ's second coming. It is quite encouraging and I found it to be
uplifting as well.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
---
The Second Coming Of Christ
by Billy Graham
[Preached in Charlotte, N.C. on October 5, 1958]
Now I want you to turn with me to the book of Acts, the 1st chapter. How
many have your Bibles? Lift them. Fine. Thousands of Bibles.
The 1st chapter of Acts, beginning at the 8th verse, "But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost [will] come upon you." This is Christ
speaking now. "And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Now that is not as simple as it may sound. Jesus is giving His parting
instructions to His disciples. He says, "I want you to be witnesses." Now,
what is a witness? A witness is a person who tells what he has seen and
heard. His disciples had seen and heard a risen Christ. Jesus said, "I
want
you to go out and tell it."
Now that is the reason, in the book of Acts, why you find such a
tremendous
emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. They had seen and heard Christ.
They
had experienced Christ. They went out to tell it. They went out with such
fervency and such dedication that in a short time they turned the world
upside down. They did not have any seminaries; they did not have any Bible
schools. They did not have any Bibles, even. They did not even have any
version of the Bible to argue over. They did not have any churches. There
were no printing presses, no radio, no television, no automobiles.
Then, you say, how in the world can you witness without all these things?
How in the world can the church exert a witness in a community without big
churches and without lots of money and without seminaries for training of
preachers? Well, they did in the first century. Why? They were filled with
the Holy Spirit, and they had seen our living Savior. They turned the
world
upside down. I wonder if, in our generation, we don't need to catch
something of the dedication and the spirit and the fervency and the fire
of
that early church.
First, it was "in Jerusalem," and that was not easy to witness in that
city.
You see, their enemies were looking for them there. These people had
crucified Christ right in Jerusalem, and now they were out looking for the
disciples. It was not easy to go out on the streets where people were
liable
to stone you, or crucify you, or kill you, or throw you in jail because of
a
true witness for Christ.
Then He said, "Go into Judea." Judea was where they had beheaded John the
Baptist [see Matthew 14:10]. That was not a very safe place to go and
witness. But Jesus said, "I want you to go to Judea."
Then He said, "I want you to go into Samaria." Why, the Jews had nothing
to
do, in those days, with Samaritans. That was a terrible thing to try and
witness for Christ to those three places, and to the uttermost parts of
the
earth. That meant going way out beyond the borders of the Roman empire
where
no men had ever gone before. Go witness for Christ, even though it meant
suffering and hardship and persecution.
Then we go on to read verse 10 [Acts 1]: "While they looked steadfastly
toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white
apparel." We don't know who these two men were. There is a lot of
conjecture
as to who they were. Some say they were two angels; some say they were
Moses
and Elijah. I do not know who they were. But they were two heavenly
visitors
who, like these disciples, were watching Jesus disappear; and tears were
trickling down their cheeks because their Master and their Lord was
leaving.
They said, "Why stand [you] gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which
is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen
him go into heaven" [verse 11].
Ladies and gentlemen, the hope of the second advent of Christ has filled
the
church for centuries. Our Lord Jesus Christ first uttered that prayer
which
we prayed a moment ago, "Thy kingdom come" [Matthew 6:10]. Someday that
prayer will be answered. God's kingdom shall come; His church shall be
triumphant. But it shall not come until there is direct intervention from
heaven.
Now the world today is in a mess. I do not need to tell you that, for you
know it. Anyone who can read a newspaper or watch a television set knows
that there is something wrong with the world in which we live. One of the
great British philosophers, Bertrand Russell, said a few weeks ago, "I
wouldn't give you a fifty-fifty chance that one person will be on this
planet forty years from today." That is the thinking of many of our people
today.
I was invited a few weeks ago to address the Sanford[?] Research Center.
Eight hundred scientists were there. I was the first minister they had
ever
invited. I felt like a fish out of water because I know very little about
science. I didn't talk to them on science. They did not invite me there to
talk on science. Dr. Carter[?], who is the head of the research center,
said, "The thing that we are dealing with is actually the human equation."
He said, "Science needs the help of the church!"
Scientists today have come to the point where they are turning to the
church
to help them for an answer. There is nothing but darkness and blackness as
the scientist looks out into the future. He sees the possibility of making
a
wonderful world. Then he looks into the human heart and realizes that the
greatest scientific things of our day are building engines of destruction.
So what could be the possibility of a glorious world if man is actually
building bigger and better bombs and missiles for his own destruction?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, writing a paper to be delivered at Lambeth
Conference in England, stirred up a hornet's nest when he said, "It may be
God's will for man to destroy himself."
In a recent issue of Religion in Life, which is published by Abingdon
Press
in Nashville, Tennessee, by the Methodist Church, an article was carried
entitled, "The Christian Hope: Its Meaning For Today." And they had three
men writing on that subject. One was Dr. Arnold Toynbee, the famous
British
historian; another was Dr. Amos N. Wilder, the well-known theologian of
the
University of Chicago; and the other was Dr. C. S. Lewis, the famed
English
scholar and a professor at Cambridge University.
Toynbee sees the world divided into two camps as a result of technological
changes which have made all men neighbors without giving them tolerance,
love, and understanding of one another. The Christian hope, according to
Dr.
Toynbee, is to fight man-worship, materialism, and collectivism.
Dr. Wilder, on the other hand, doubts if man can find a Christian hope
within himself. Redemption, he believes, must come from spiritual
resources
outside the human race. Dr. Wilder says that if the human race is to be
saved, God will have to do it. Man does not have the capacity to save
himself.
Dr. Lewis of Cambridge University frankly declares, "It seems to be
impossible to retain in any recognizable form our belief in the deity of
Christ and the truth of the Christian revelation by abandoning or
belittling
the promised return of Jesus Christ." Dr. Lewis accepts literally Paul's
definition of the Christian hope: "Looking for that blessed hope, and . .
.
glorious appearing of [our] great God and . . . Savior Jesus Christ"
[Titus
2:13].
Dr. Lewis says in that article there are three reasons why people scoff at
the coming of Christ. One, he says, because many professed Christians say
it
is a false teaching since the second coming of Christ did not take place
in
the early church as predicted. In other words, why has not Christ come
thus
far? Christ predicted He was coming. All right, two thousand years have
passed and He has not come. That is exactly what the Bible predicted in 2
Peter, that in the last days scoffers would say, "Where is the promise of
his coming?" [3:4]. So, you have a lot of people who scoff at the idea.
They
dismiss it, or they try to rationalize around it.
Secondly, Dr. Lewis says the theory of evolution keeps many from
believing.
If we believe man is progressing ahead of himself, we will never accept
the
promise of Christ that He will return and bring an end to sin and death.
In
other words, those people who think we are getting better and better in
every way, every day, they don't want to talk about the coming of Christ.
That interferes with their belief in the divinity of man himself, that man
somehow is going to save himself. He doesn't need God, and he will save
himself with history.
Then, thirdly, Dr. Lewis says that the doctrine of Christ's coming cuts
across the plans and dreams of millions of people. They want to "eat,
drink,
and be merry" [Luke 12:19] without interference in their selfish course of
action. That is exactly the reason why the scoffers in Noah's time refused
to believe in a flood [see Luke 17:26,27].
You are making money, you have got a comfortable home, you have got a fine
family. Why should you want Christ to come? You would be embarrassed if He
came. So you don't want to believe it, and you cast it aside.
Then there's another reason, I think, which He did not add. I think this
might be one reason why we in the church--we ministers--sometimes neglect
this subject, is because during the past many years there have been so
many
fanatics on this subject. And I mean fanatics. So the church had a
reaction
against that sort of thing.
I remember reading some years ago about a group of people up in New
England
who had decided the date when Christ was coming back again. They put on
white robes, and they climbed up in a tree to wait for His coming. By
midnight He had not come. Somebody, however, blew a trumpet. And they
jumped
down, thinking that was the coming of Christ; and they fell down and broke
their legs. Everybody made fun and said that's where such an idea will
take
you, that's where fanati-cism will take you. That has frightened away many
people, including many ministers.
Surely the time has come for helping the church to give to the people the
right view concerning the blessed hope, that Christ is coming again. Dr.
Bryan Green, the Episcopal rector of Birmingham, England, arrived in
Australia some time ago and was addressing one hundred Anglican clergymen.
Here's what he said: "I really feel we are going to move into a dark age
of
civilization. The only real light for Christians is a faith in the second
coming of Christ."
The Interpreter's Bible was edited by Dr. George Buttrick, and is used by
many ministers in the preparation of their sermons. In the exegesis of
Matthew 24, page 541, he says this: "Christ wishes to awaken in His heroes
a
vivid expectation that He will come in glory, in person." He goes on to
say
that the teachings of Jesus Christ in these chapters teach that the world
as
now constituted will come to a catastrophic end. This age will be
superseded
by a permanent order of righteousness and bliss, the kingdom of God on the
earth. This will come about not as a result of evolutionary processes but
by
God's direct action. Many of our modern theologians are beginning to
preach
and write that Christ is coming again. I predict that in the next few
years
there will be a tremendous swing within the church to eschatalogy, which
means a study of the last things and future events. Indeed, unless the
church can hold out a hope to its people and hope to the world, communism
will sweep the world.
The communists say, "We are going to build a new world; we are going to
build a kingdom on the earth." What is our answer to communism? Are we
ready
to say, "We, too, by God's grace and with His help, when Christ comes are
going to build a kingdom." We are not going to lose. We have got to
emphasize this point more than we have done in the past. The Bible teaches
that Christ is coming again.
In the New Testament, baptism is mentioned twenty times. We emphasize
baptism. Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the
Episcopalians
emphasize baptism; and it is important that every Christian should be
baptized.
We believe we should repent of sin. Jesus said, "Except you repent, you
shall perish" [see Luke 13:3]. Do you know how many times repentance is
mentioned in the New Testament? Seventy times. Do you know how many times
the second coming of Christ is mentioned in the New Testament? Over three
hundred times! That is the importance which the Holy Spirit gives to this
truth--the coming again of Christ. It is mentioned in almost every book of
the Bible.
John gives the great promise to all the leaders: "Now are we the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when
he
shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" [1 John
3:2]. Jude says, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten [thousand] of his
saints"
[verse 14]. And the entire book of Revelation is given over to picturing
the
last things, the coming again of Christ. Church leaders of every
denomination of the past have believed it and accepted it. This book is
your
hope, and it has been called "the blessed hope" that Christ shall come
again.
You say, "Well, Billy, you think that Christ is coming. When is He
coming?"
Well, I am going to give you a date. I am going to give the date that
Jesus
gave. Some people came and said, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore
again
the kingdom [of] Israel?" [Acts 1:6]. And Jesus said, "It is not for you
to
know the times [nor] the seasons, which the Father [has] put in his own
power" [verse 7].
Jesus said in Matthew 24:36, that "of that day and hour knoweth no man,
no,
not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." None of us knows the day or
the hour. It may be a thousand years from now, it may be a hundred years,
it
could be today. There is no use speculating. There is no use trying to set
a
date, because Jesus said at that time He did not even know. He said, "The
angels do not know; only my Father knows." Then why should we try to
speculate? But I tell you this. He told us to be ready, "For in such an
hour
as [you] think not the Son of man cometh" [Matthew 24:44].
How many of you think He is coming today? Very few. You have not made your
plans for Him to come this afternoon, have you? You've got the afternoon
all
planned. He said, "When you think I am not coming, that is when I am going
to come."
However, He did leave certain signs to guide us, certain indications that
would lead us to believe that when these things are taking place, His
coming
is drawing very near. I believe we see certain signs today which indicate
that the climactic point of history is about to be reached.
In Matthew 24 He listed several signs. First, He said, "Many shall come in
my name, saying, I am [the] Christ; and shall deceive many" [verse 5].
Now,
we had quite an experience with that chapter not long ago. We were in San
Francisco, California; and we had about forty thousand people in the great
stadium. That evening they called on a woman to read the Scripture. She
got
up and read the entire 24th chapter of Matthew in a great booming
voice--all
the fifty-one verses. It is a gripping chapter, the 24th chapter of
Matthew.
Now, when you read it, you have to understand that in part of it Jesus is
talking about the destruction of Jerusalem which took place in 70 A.D.
when
Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem. Now He is using it as a type of that
which is yet to come.
One of the things that Jesus said would happen is this: "Many shall come
in
my name, saying, I am [the] Christ; and shall deceive many" [Matthew
24:5].
I take that to mean that there will be resurgence of interest in religion.
There will be an interest in religion all over the world, and we are
certainly seeing that today. We are seeing today the greatest interest in
religion, probably, in the history of the world. I doubt if there has ever
been a time when there has been such a revival of Mohammedanism, of
Hinduism, of Buddhism, or Christianity--of all the religions of the
world--as we are seeing today. All over the world, men are speculating.
All
over the world they are talking about God. They are talking about
religion,
because the world sees the hopelessness that we are in. So we have a
revival
of religion, but that does not mean that we have a revival of true
religion.
In Christendom today, all over the world, in every church, there is the
church within the church. There is usually a minority of people that do
the
work in every church. Those are the ones the pastor can count on all the
time--the ones that tithe, the ones that are there rain or shine, the
little
crowd that are there at the prayer meeting. Oh, on Sunday morning
everybody
is there. But there is that faithful number that believe, there is that
group born again by the Spirit of God; and nobody knows who they are.
Within
the church, the wheat and the tares grow [see Matthew 13:24-30].
And that's the reason there is no such thing as a perfect church. I know a
lot of people that jump here and jump there, looking for a perfect church.
You'll never find it. If you found a perfect church, the moment you joined
it, it would be imperfect. None of us is perfect. The wheat and the tares
grow side by side.
I know people who carry their Bibles with them. They can quote you one
verse
after another. They are orthodox to the core, but it is questionable if
they
have ever been born again of the Holy Spirit. They have become cold and
hard
and callous, like the Pharisees. There is no warmth; there is no love.
We have others today who give intellectual assent to Christ. They believe
in
the Bible, yet they have never had a personal experience with Christ.
Their
lives have never been transformed. Their talk and their conversation and
their thoughts are on the things of the world entirely. They give
themselves
to pleasure and to business, and have little time for Christ. They want to
be a Christian if it's not too inconvenient. If it is going to cost them
anything, they don't want to pay the price.
Then, secondly, Christ said, "[You] shall hear of wars and rumors of wars:
see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but
the
end is not yet" [Matthew 24:6]. In other words, Christ said until the end
there will be wars and rumors of wars. He said kingdom shall rise against
kingdom [see verse 7]. And some people feel that great alliances would be
formed to fight other great alliances, which brought us to two great world
wars and the possibility of a third world war. Christ is saying, in
effect,
"War is a part of the degenerate economy; and because men refuse to go my
way, there will not be real peace among the nations until I come back."
Ladies and gentlemen, I think every one of us should do everything we can
for peace. Every day of my life I pray for peace. We are told in the
Scriptures to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" [Psalm 122:6]. We are told
to work for peace; we are told to pursue peace [see Psalm 34:14]. And I
believe that is why we should back every effort of the United States to
bring peace. But after all is said and done, the very best efforts of man
will fail. Men will still fight as long as there is hatred in the human
breast. As long as there is prejudice in the human heart, men are going to
fight. As long as there is greed within men, they are going to fight.
Jesus foresaw all of that. He knew that as long as human nature was
separated from God, there would be wars and rumors of wars. And He said
when
these great wars get devastating and worldwide, the end is not far.
A third sign: "And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one
another, and shall hate one another" [Matthew 24:10]. Pick up your
Charlotte_Observer this morning and you find an article by Dr. Karl
Menninger, the great psychiatrist from Kansas. He has an article on hate.
How much hatred there is in the world today! This seems to involve mental
problems.
When has there been a moment when the American people had such prosperity,
and when there are so many mental breakdowns? Psychiatry is busy today
with
nervous breakdowns in such a frantic effort to patch up our jangled nerves
that I am told psychiatrists are going to each other for help.
Do you know how many chronic alcoholics we have in America? We have five
million! Think of it, five million chronic alcoholics in America.
You know how many sleeping pills we take every night? Twenty-one million.
Twenty-one million sleeping pills a night to put us to sleep. I don't know
how many wake-up pills we use to get us up.
How many people are taking tablets and pills just to dull them from the
realities of life?
Never before in history has there been a nation that had so much and is so
bored with life. Walter Reuther says that he wants to bring about a
four-and-a-half day week. Well, that sounds fine. But I am going to ask
you:
What in the world are we going to do with our leisure time? If we are
going
to invest it for the kingdom of God, let us have it. But if we are going
to
give it to the devil, let us work six days a week.
Then, fourthly, Jesus said, "As [in] the days of [Noah], so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be" [Matthew 24:37]. What were they doing in the
days of Noah? They were eating and drinking and making merry. In the days
of
Noah, they were not against God, they were not antagonistic to God, they
did
not hate God. They were religious; they believed in God. But they just did
not have time for God. They were too busy with their eating and drinking
and
making merry. They were too busy with their work. They were too busy with
their pleasure. They were too busy with their own selfishness to give any
time to God at all. They were marrying and giving in marriage. Do you know
what that is? That is the divorce problem.
We have one out of every three-and-a-half marriages in America that goes
to
the divorce court. How many changing of lives we have today. Jesus
indicated
that there would be a tremendous increase in immorality. We have got to
the
place that if some actress can have three or four husbands, the more she
can
attract them at the box office. I don't blame the star so much. I blame
the
people. The morals of the people have got so low that they are buying the
filthy literature. Don't blame the man that is publishing it. Blame the
people that buy it. We are in the position today that a man can commit
immorality and the people don't even think anything about it. They just
accept it.
And Dr. Sorokin, the head sociologist of Harvard University, has written a
book that everybody, every American, ought to read. It is entitled THE
AMERICAN SEX REVOLUTION. He says that it is the greatest revolution in
history; and he says that that revolution is going to defeat us, and not
communism. Jesus said it is a sign of the end.
Fifthly, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached [to] the world
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" [Matthew
24:14]. The Gospel today is being preached for the first time in history
to
all the nations. Every nation in the world today can hear the Gospel.
Nearly
every tribe in the world is in the process of being reached. I am on the
board of trustees of Wycliffe translators at the University of Oklahoma.
Wycliffe translators are now in the process of translating the Bible in
scores of languages and dialects all over the world. And they say that it
is
now possible that, within the next ten or fifteen years, every language in
the world will have a Bible.
We get letters every week from Russia and from the satellite countries,
from
people who have listened to "The Hour of Decision." I got one since I've
been here from a man in Moscow. He wrote and said, "I heard 'The Hour of
Decision' last night." That's just one little program. Thousands and
thousands are listening to the Gospel all over the world by radio and
television for the first time in history. Christian literature is now
around
the world. And the prediction of Christ that looked hopeless at that time,
that looked hopeless a hundred years ago, is now reaching fulfillment.
Then there is another sign that He gave us in Matthew 24:10 and 12. He
called it the great falling away. Second Thessalonians 2:3 mentions
it--the
great apostacy, the great falling away. We are seeing that today. That
means
a desertion of Christ. A person who has once known Christ and then falling
away. To the church at Ephesus he wrote, "I have somewhat against thee,
because thou has left thy first love. Remember from whence thou hast
fallen,
and repent, come and remove thy candlestick" [see Revelation 2:4,5].
There are people who used to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of the
living God. They used to believe in God's holy Words, but intellectually
they have fallen away. They no longer believe. I have a friend who
recently
left the ministry because he no longer believed. He fell away.
There are others who fall away morally. They still believe intellectually,
but they fall away. Very much like "Demas hath forsaken me." The same word
is used, "Demas [has] forsaken me, having loved [the] present world" [2
Timothy 4:10]. You can fall away by Phariseeism. You become cold and hard
and callous, still believing the creed and the dogmas, but not producing
the
fruit of the Spirit. You have lost your first love, that freshness with
which you first came to Christ--the joy, that bubbling-over radiance that
characterizes every Christian.
Yes, I believe the signs all point to the fact that Jesus may soon come.
There are many other signs. In the 3rd chapter of 2 Peter, I believe you
will find a description of the atomic bomb. Nobody could explain those
passages of Scripture until the bomb fell on Hiroshima. And now no
theologian dare deny that that can take place, in which a third of the
world
can be burned up!
Oh, there are so many things you could talk about. You could talk about
the
tremendous happenings within Israel which many people believe is a sign of
the end. That doesn't mean that we are to become hysterical. It doesn't
mean
that we are to become morbid. It doesn't mean that we are to sit down and
say, "The Lord is coming; we shouldn't work."
But I'd like to ask this: How will Christ come? First Thessalonians 4:16,
"For the Lord himself shall descend from [the heavens] with a shout, [and]
with the voice of the archangel, and with the [trumpet] of God: and the
dead
in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain 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" [verses 16,17].
There is going to be a resurrection of all your friends that have died in
Christ--your loved ones, your mother, your father. You say, "But, Billy,
their bodies have disintegrated." Why, scientists have already discovered
that no chemicals disappear. The same God that made us in the first place
can certainly bring us together again. We will not have actually the same
literal body. It will be a spiritual body, a body like unto that of the
Lord
Jesus Christ had after His resurrection. You will be able to recognize
them.
They will look the same, but it will be an eternal body. It will be a body
that will never decay. We shall be rejoined with our loved ones, and we
shall ever be with the Lord.
I don't pretend to know all the details and events that surround the
coming
of Christ. I only know this: that He is coming! It provides hope for every
one of us. We may be in a minority here. We may be suffering here. But the
sufferings of the present time, Paul said, are not worthy to be compared
to
the glory that will be ours later [see Romans 8:18].
Do you know Christ? Are your sins forgiven? Have you been born again of
the
Spirit of God? Have you had this encounter with the living Christ? Have
you
come to Him?
I tell you, His coming could take place at any time. I know theologians
who
believe that prophecy has been fulfilled to the point that Jesus could
come
at any time. I have found that in talking about this subject to
businessmen
who have given up, and men who are pessimistic about the world today, that
this brings a new light and a new interest in their eyes. They want to
know
about it.
The Bible is filled with hope. It is filled with anticipation. It is
filled
with glory of the future. It is filled with the fact that this same Jesus
shall so come in like manner.
One time I was watching a checker game by two friends of mine. Both of
them
were excellent checker players. I saw one of them make a move that I
thought
was very foolish. Then he made another foolish move, and I thought
something
had happened. He is going to lose the game. He lost two men. But all of a
sudden I saw the plan that he had: He jumped three men of his opponent,
put
his man on king's row, crowned him, came back and swept the board, and won
the game.
God said to Hitler, "Make your move." "Mussolini, make yours." "Napoleon,
make yours." "Stalin, make yours." "Khrushchev, make yours."
"Devil"--Satan,
that arch enemy of mankind, that enemy of God--"make your move." And the
devil today is making his great, grand move.
But then one day God, by divine intervention and divine action in the
coming
of His Son, is going to snap history in two. The climactic point of
history
will be reached. God is going to crown Jesus King of kings and Lord of it
all. There will be a coronation in the sky. What a moment that is going to
be! All of us are there in our white robes, and the orchestras of heaven
are
going to play. The choirs are going to sing; the angels will furnish the
music. What a moment that is going to be. The stars will sing together.
They
are beginning to find now that stars do sing. They send forth rays that
make
music to ears that can hear. The stars will sing, and our ears will be
attuned to the songs of the universe.
And then, as someone has written, the angels will fold their wings. They
will sit down, and then we are going to sing. We'll stand and sing
redemption's grand theme song, "Saved, saved by the blood of the crucified
One." The angels can't join us because they never knew the joy that our
salvation brings. I'm glad to be a Christian today. I'm glad that I'm a
Christian. Are you?
There are three basic things taught in this 24th and 25th chapter of
Matthew: what we are to do when Jesus comes. First, we are to be prepared.
"Be [you] . . . ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh" [24:44]. I want to ask you today: Are you ready? If you are not
ready to meet Christ, you be ready before you leave here today. You can
make
ready by coming and repenting of your sins and receiving Christ. It's just
a
very simple act. It's a sincere act by which you present yourself to Jesus
Christ and say, "Lord, from this moment on I'm yours. I want to receive
you,
I want to follow you, I want to live for you."
Why do I ask you to come forward? Because Jesus said, "If you are not
willing to confess me before men, I will not confess you before my Father,
which is in heaven" [see Matthew 10:33]. I ask you to come out of your
seats
and stand here and say today, "I want to be numbered among that
blood-bought
throng. I want to come to His cross so that I can go to His coronation."
Only those that have come to His cross where He died for sin are going to
be
able to go to His coronation up yonder and receive a crown.
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