Coming Soon! - 68

Four or five years ago, I read a book entitled Hiking Through.

It was the first person account of a man named Paul Stuttman. He'd been a restaurant owner and had a longing for hiking the Appalachian Trail. And because of busyness and life and the demands upon him, he really didn't know whether that dream would ever find fruition. But in God's providence, his wife contracted cancer and eventually died of cancer.

But toward the end of her life, she said to him, I want you to follow your dream. Find a way, find a time to hike the Appalachian Trail. So he sold his business, restaurant business, did a bunch of reading, a bunch of study, and prepared to hike the Appalachian Trail.

It begins in Georgia. It's 2,176 miles. It goes through 14 states, and it took him four and a half months to travel that journey. It's a moving book. It's a page turner. I would highly recommend you to read it. He's a Christian.

He's a little bit vague about that at the beginning, and I think it's on purpose because he wants to gain an audience. And when you get toward the end of the book, he lays the gospel on you. And I recall, it's one of very few books that I've read more than once. I've read the book twice because I love adventure. Anybody who spends two weeks on Kodiak Island, I guess, loves adventure, which I did a few years ago. Still questioning the soundness of my mind with that adventure. Anyway, he tells in the beginning pages of the book, somebody taking him to Georgia, dropping him off in the parking lot as he begins this long journey.

It was raining, and he's hurting, and he's in pain, and he's hoping that this experience will help bring him peace and healing from the loss of his wife. And you need to know that there are various people who have an interest in the Appalachian Trail. There are people who hike sections of the trail, and that's a good thing.

They're easily marked out. And there are some who, over a period of years, will hike the entire trail by taking sections and just, in the accumulation of effort and time, hike the entire trail. But there are very few people who do what he did.

Go to Georgia and hike 2,176 miles to Baxter National Park in Maine, which is the ending point in the northern part of the trail. He was a purist. And what I mean by that expression, I didn't know it until I read the book, is there are those who approach the trail, and they are going to hike the marked trail, regardless of what they encounter. And over time, windstorms and trees falling down have made being a purist and following the trail very, very difficult because there's obstacles in the way. But for whatever reason, he wanted to be one of those few people who could be identified as a purist.

He hiked the Appalachian Trail. He stayed the course. He didn't veer off. He didn't avoid any obstacle.

And why I'm telling you this is I hope you can maybe relate with me our study in the book of Revelation. I didn't skip any obstacles in our study. We plowed on through the hard part. In that sense we've been purists.

We didn't skip anything. We headed right on. He was so committed to that that at one point he had been through some rain and he got to this place and the water had risen and it was moving very quickly. And he thought, I've come 2,000 miles committed to being a purist.

I'm not going to be a coward now. There was a detour around and he took his hiking poles and he threw them on the other side of the bank. He was committed. He nearly lost his life.

He nearly drowned. But if you know anything about the Appalachian Trail there's this very strange phenomena they call trail magic. And there are people who live along the Appalachian Trail and they know that there are people that routinely in hiking season are moving through the trail and they in kindness will set coolers of ice down drinks at places on the trail.

There are places that you'll come and you'll smell barbecue and you'll come and here will be barbecued hamburgers somebody did on a grill and just left them for whoever was hiking through the trail. And he talks about how encouraging and inspiring that was to help them to keep moving forward. And I don't like the word trail magic but in our journey to God, God has a way of surprising us, to encourage us along the way. One of the things I like about the book is it's an adventure story but he's not in competition with anybody. And you and I are in a race called this Christian life but we're not competing with one another. We have a commitment to one another because I want you to finish well and I'm going to do everything I can. In fact, God lays obligations on us to help each other to get to the end, to finish the course and to finish the race.

Well something interesting happened. Along the way he talks in his book about these beautiful vistas. He would get to this high place and he would just be awestruck by the beauty of God and creation and the birds and the pristine air. And as we've studied through the book of Revelation, we've come to the pinnacles from different times, haven't we? And we've just been awestruck at what God has laid out for us that we're going to enjoy someday that's been secured for us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't have time tonight to go back and stop at those vistas and review the scenes that we've seen. But if you've been with me in this study that concludes tonight, this is the 68th message in this series. We have rejoiced together and eyes haven't seen, ears haven't heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

But we've had glimpses of them and it's created a longing in our hearts to enter into what Christ has secured for us. Something happened with this man that I was a bit taken back as I was getting toward the end of the book. On the one hand, he wants a sense of satisfaction about persevering as a purist on the Appalachian Trail. And there is a tradition for those who hike and particularly those who are hiking the entire trail to memorialize the event by having their picture taken there at Baxter National Park at this large rock that marks out the ending of the trail. And he talks about seeing this vista for three days and longing about it and thinking about it and wondering about it. And he was wrestling inside about whether he wanted to get his picture taken and whether he wanted to touch this rock. And as I've thought about that book, I can, I think, share some of his experience because I feel a little bit about like that coming to the end of the book of Revelation.

There's a sense of accomplishment that we've studied through this book together and I'm happy about that. But there's another part of me that says, I just don't want to, I don't want to come to the end. And in his book he tells that toward the end how much this trip, this journey had helped him, four and a half months, how God had brought peace to him and healing to him through various people he met on the trail and various experiences the Spirit of God ministered to him throughout. But when it came to the end of the trail, he walked away.

He did not have his picture taken. He didn't touch that rock. And the reason he didn't is because his journey wasn't over. The Appalachian Trail wasn't the destination per se. And for you and I, the conclusion of the book of Revelation isn't the destination. It's just part of the journey, right?

It's helped us to understand better what awaits us, that there is unbroken, unhindered union and communion and fellowship with the Godhead that we're going to enjoy forever and ever and ever. So if you don't mind that lengthy introduction, that's where we are tonight. And again, I would very much recommend the book to you.

I think you would find it enjoyable. And let me just tell you one more thing that happened in conjunction with that. I'd read the book probably five or six years ago, and I was making a trip to Zimbabwe, and it's a 15-hour trip from JFK in New York to Johannesburg. And I thought, you know, I'm going to redeem this time. I packed that book, and I was going to read it again on the trip. My trip was delayed, and it was postponed a day or two. And let me tell you why God in His providence postponed my trip. I got on the plane, and I pulled this book out and began to read it.

And I noticed a man sitting beside me, noticed sitting beside me, only God could arrange that, stealing looks over what I was reading. And I noticed he had an interest, so I struck up a conversation with him, asked him where he was from and where he had been. And he said, well, I live in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I've been five weeks with my daughter at the, what's the trail on the other coast, the coastal trail, anyway, it's the Californian trail that matches the Appalachian Trail.

It's longer. He had flown here from Johannesburg, South Africa to meet his daughter, and he hiked for four weeks on the trail. And I thought, whoa. And I thought, okay, Lord, I know what's in this book. I know that he's going to be captured by the story hiking through, but I also know this man's a Christian that wrote this book, and the gospel is going to hit this guy in the face. So I just kept reading and reading, and as I thought, I said to myself, I'm going to finish this book, and I'm going to ask a commitment out of this man. I'm going to say, you know, I'm reading this book, and it's just not a coincidence that I'm reading this book and you've had this experience and you have this interest of all the people I could be sitting by.

I'm going to give you this book, and I'm going to ask you to promise me that you're going to read it. And I did, and he said I would, that he would. So I'm just anxious to see in eternity whether God brought any eternal fruit out of that because, I mean, I couldn't have arranged that in a zillion years. Only God could do that. He delayed my flight, put a man in the seat beside me who knew exactly about the experience of hiking a trail like the Appalachian Trail.

I just was amazed at how God did that. All right, back to Revelation. I knew that would take me 10 minutes or so, but we have come to the end of our study, and I've got four points tonight that I want to couch this message around. Number one, I want you to see a warning. Number two, a promise. Number three, an affirmation. And number four, a closing benediction. Now last time I preached here, I preached on the warning that's in verse 18 and verse 19.

We're not going to revisit that. That message stood alone. It was just those two verses, and the warning there about adding to or taking away from the Word of God. What do I mean about the warning? What I mean about the warning is the promise of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is both a promise for the people of God, and it is a warning for all the disobedient, all the rebellious, all the unrepentant. So within the promise that is precious and dear to the Church of God, the blessed hope of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is embedded in it, a warning, because when He returns, there will be judgment.

There will be no second chance. Now follow with me the times that the second coming, the imminent return of Jesus Christ comes up in this last chapter. Notice verse 7, red letter in my Bible, again the words of the Lord Jesus, Behold, I am coming quickly.

That word behold is to draw attention to what He's getting ready to say. Behold, pay attention, take note, I am coming quickly. And then the promise attached, blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Notice again in verse 12, red letter, and behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. In response to Jesus' announcement that He's coming quickly, we have the words in verse 17. In response to, and the Spirit, capital S, the Holy Spirit, and the Bride, that is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, say to the Lord Jesus Christ in response to His promise that He's coming, Come! And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! So here is the Spirit of God speaking through the Church of the living God, the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, beckoning, pleading, praying, asking for the Lord Jesus to return. We have in verse 20, Jesus' response to the Spirit and the Church is pleading with Him. He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming quickly. So do you see that sequence, this interchange?

I think that's helpful to see. We're looking at the promise of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those words of the Lord Jesus, again in red letter, there in verse 20, Surely I am coming quickly, are at the heart of the doctrine of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

When you begin to study that doctrine, you will be surprised, perhaps even amazed at how often that subject is addressed by the New Testament writers. It's just not John here. It's not just Paul. It's Peter.

It's James. It's so I'm going to read a bunch of scripture to you, numerous passages, and I'm going to ask you not to try and follow me. Don't turn in your Bible.

Try and follow. Just sit and soak in the truth that you're hearing. I would encourage you to write down the passages so you can go back and revisit them on your own.

But because of the number of passages I want to read, I want to try and reduce the time that it's going to take to do that. Because if I'm sitting there and someone says, Well, turn to James Chapter 2, and I don't like it when the guy starts to read before I've got to James. All right? If you're asking me to turn to James, wait till I get there.

Okay? So I don't want to frustrate you. So just listen. Listen to James Chapter 5, verse 7 through 9. James says, Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned.

Behold, the judge is standing at the door. James 5, 7 through 9. Peter in 1 Peter Chapter 4 in verse 7 says, The end of all things is at hand.

Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers. The writer of Hebrews, again, citing the imminent return of Christ as reason to remain faithful, says, Let us consider one another. This is Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as in the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. 1 John 2, 28. And now little children abide in him. And when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Titus Chapter 2. We have these words. A watchful, hopeful expectation about Christ's return for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is one event, folks. That is not two separate events. That's not the blessed hope and the glorious appearing. That is one in the same.

The one adds to the other, explains it a little bit better. What is the blessed hope? It is the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Listen to 2 Peter Chapter 3. Again, in response to Christ, surely I am coming quickly. The passing of 2,000 years is no reproach whatsoever against the faithfulness of God or the trustworthiness of His Word.

2 Peter 3.8. With the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Those who are skeptic and say, well, people, the church has been talking about the second coming of Christ for 2,000 plus years. How can it be imminent?

How could it be at any? Well, here's how it can be at any moment because we do not know the time nor the season when He's coming. Nobody knows and therefore we must be ready.

He could come at any moment. That's the point. The amount of earthly time that has passed is of no consequence. We get so hung up from our perspective, but we need to understand what is being told us in relationship to the second coming of Christ. A day to the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.

He's not time bound. So we must see it from His perspective. So a thousand years is as a day to Him.

That's the point. We need to see it from God's perspective. He is not bound by time as we are and no amount of time can ever nullify His faithfulness because the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Here's the beauty of the Lord's forbearance and long suffering. The real reason for the Lord's delay is not that He is negligent or careless in fulfilling His promises, but simply because He is long suffering and kind. Christ is delaying His coming so that the wrath of God will not fall on any of His elect. Christ will not return before the merciful purposes of God are complete. So far from suggesting apathy or neglect on God's part, the long delay before Christ's appearing simply underscores the remarkable depth of His nearly inexhaustible mercy and long suffering.

Therefore, the fact that 2000 years have elapsed is utterly irrelevant to the doctrine of Christ's imminent return. Christ's coming is still imminent. It could occur at any moment. You believe that tonight, don't you, church?

At any moment. Therefore, the command to be ready and watchful is applicable for all of us. The return of Christ should be an even more urgent issue for us because it is drawing nearer with the passing of each day. And if it was imminent in Paul's day 2000 years ago, is it any less imminent today or is it more imminent today?

I think the answer is pretty obvious. Paul says in Romans chapter 13 in verse 11, now our salvation is nearer. I say 2000 years nearer than when we first believed. So let's continue to be vigilant.

Let's continue to be steadfast, looking with expectation. Again, Romans 13 11, Paul writes, and do this knowing the time. Now he uses a word, there's two words in Greek for time. The word he uses here is the word kairos, which speaks of age or era.

I think sometimes that messes people up in their endeavor to try and understand what is being said. There's another Greek word for time and it is the word kronos, which is time that we measure by the clock. But that's not what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 13 verse 11. He says, knowing the time, knowing the era, knowing this age, therefore speaks of this time in which we live.

Knowing the time like the sons of Issachar who had understood their times. That's what is being communicated. We're to understand the times. And if we're paying any kind of attention, this world is right for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was encouraged as I was thinking about Abraham entering into dialogue with God and pleading with God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were 50 righteous people. And God says, if there's 50 righteous people, I will spare the city.

And you know that story went all the way down to 10 people. God was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, not judge it and pour out his wrath on the city if there were 10 righteous people in the city and there weren't. And therefore judgment fell. I've heard people say, well, if God doesn't judge America, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, God's not going to apologize to anybody, by the way. I don't like that statement.

I hear people say that. But the question is, why hasn't judgment fallen on America? Well, there's two answers to that question. Answer to the question number one is judgment is already falling. Romans says that the wrath of God is being revealed presently from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness. What's going on in our world right now is partly the judgment of Almighty God. I told our Sunday school class recently, we talked about Jacob and Esau. And a lot of people get all upset about that statement where God says, Jacob, I've loved and Esau, I have hated. But when you begin to think about how was God's hatred toward Esau manifested? You could go back in the historical account and you look at Esau's life. God blessed Esau. Esau became a father of a nation, became wealthy.

So how was the wrath of God? How was God's hatred manifested toward Esau in this way? God allowed Esau to be Esau. What was Esau's problem? Esau sold away his birthright for a bowl of soup. He was controlled by his passions.

He was controlled by his physical appetites. And God never restrained him. God never reined him in. God never dealt with Esau like he dealt with Jacob. God hated Esau. And the evidence is God let Esau be Esau.

You go live your life the way you want to live it. Now, God loved Jacob and how was love manifested toward Jacob? Jacob, you are a deceiver, but when I'm done with you, you're gonna be a prince.

And it's gonna be painful because you're a stubborn rascal. And the old saying, what goes around comes around, right? And God's providence, he gets mixed up with, who did he get mixed up with that had the two daughters?

Laban, yeah. He got some additional lessons on deceit, didn't he? But God dealt with Jacob. God subdued Jacob. God wrestled Jacob to the ground.

He didn't do that with Esau. So this is a long answer to my question that I raised about wrath, judgment. God's wrath is already being manifested in this world because he is removing his hand of restraint and he's letting sinful men do what they want. And the manifestation of depravity is shocking us. And that depravity has always been there, but God's been restraining it. But now that he's backing off and allowing it to be manifested, we're shocked at what men will do. Well, we're just seeing the, we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

But what else? I believe God is restraining judgment because of the influence of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If God was willing to spare the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for 10 righteous people that he couldn't find, doesn't it stand to reason that God is restraining, judging this world because of the influence of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ?

There's more than 10 of us, right? We're not going to hold God to numbers, but the point was that God was going to relent his judgment for the sake of righteous people. And as long as there are righteous people on this earth, I think we can be encouraged to know that God is taking note of us. We are salt and light, and we are our influence.

Let's move on. We have no idea how much sand remains in the hourglass of human history. But we ought to realize that a lot of sand has passed through the hourglass since the Apostle Paul and John the Apostle and the writer of Hebrews and Peter wrote about the imminent return of Christ. The nighttime of Satan's dominion will soon give way to the dawn of Christ's coming for his own. Listen to what Paul said to the church in Thessalonica chapter 5, but concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape, but you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-9. So we're talking about the promise of the imminent return of Christ. It's not just here in Revelation. It's all through the New Testament epistles, not to mention the words of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospels.

But let's bring this down to practical application. I want you to note with me the specific ethical behavior the imminent return of Christ should produce in his people. James 5, verse 8. The first thing is steadfastness. Be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. James 5, verse 8. Number 2, prayer. 1 Peter 4, 7.

The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers. Number 3, faithfulness in assembling together and encouraging one another. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Number 4, holy conduct and godliness. 2 Peter 3, verse 11. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? And then number 5, similarly, purity in Christ's likeness. Verse John 3. When he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So this doctrine of the imminent return of Christ, what's the point? The point is not to make us obsessed with earthly events. In fact, if your interest in the return of Christ becomes a consuming fixation with what is happening in this world, you have utterly missed the point. The knowledge that Christ's return is imminent should turn our hearts heavenward, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians chapter 3 and verse 20. So that's the longest of the four points.

The first one was short. A warning. It is a promise to the church. It is a promise to every born-again believer. It is the blessed hope of the church, but it's also a warning to the rebellious, to the disobedient, to the unrepentant. But we've now looked at the promise itself. Number three, let's consider the affirmation.

What is the affirmation? Notice with me in verse 20. He who testifies to these things says, this is Jesus in response to the Spirit and the bride urging, appealing, praying for the return of Christ. Christ says, surely I am coming quickly. And then not in red letter, but these words, amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Who's giving that affirmation? That is the church. The church is expressing satisfaction and agreement in Jesus's promise to return. This prayer at the end of the book expresses the joyful hope of the church for her bridegroom. Now, that word there is Aramaic.

You wouldn't know that. We don't see that, but your Bible is an English translation. But that word, amen, is really to be understood. Even so, come Lord Jesus, it is Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus. And I can't, for the life of me in the history of our church, since I've been around here, I can't say Maranatha or hear Maranatha being referred to without thinking of a particular person who was a pillar of this church for years and years, who was in the presence of the Lord. And those of you who've been around here know exactly who I'm talking about.

He was on his lips all the time. Maranatha, he would say, wouldn't he? Maranatha. The church's affirmation in agreement with Christ's promise to return. Now, there's a little book of liturgy that you may know about, you may not know about, but you're going to know about it here in a moment.

It's called the Didache. It was used by the early church in worship. It's not inspired, it's not like the books of the Bible, but it was a church manual to aid the church in its worship. And in regards to the Lord's table, there is a liturgy for the Lord's table for the Lord's supper. And at the end of that liturgy for the Lord's supper, the church would cry out, Maranatha! The Didache, part of this order of worship, a liturgy.

And what did it show? It showed how deeply woven into the hope and the expectation of the early church and its worship was the summon of Christ spiritually to manifest Himself, I think, in the Lord's table. That's part of what they were appealing to. Come, Lord Jesus, because it's associated with the Lord's table. But beyond that, and I think more importantly, at least for our application tonight, the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ to return as He's promised in His second coming. The longing for the coming of Christ.

It was at the heart of their worship and it ought to be at the heart of our worship. If it is our blessed hope, this world is hopeless. If there's anything that ought to characterize the people of God, it ought to be hope. And what are we hoping in? We're hoping in our Savior. We're holding on to the blessed hope.

So don't let that escape you. The last point is a closing benediction. Verse 21. John concludes this beautiful letter with the words, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

You say, well, that seems a bit strange. Why would there be this benediction, this promise of grace? Well, let me just take a couple of minutes to tie that last verse with what John was instructed to do at the very beginning of this book. This is John chapter 1, verse 9. John says, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. And what you see right in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. The totality of this book was a revelation of the person of Jesus Christ and it was for the purpose of encouraging the church, Christ's church. This whole book is for the church.

All right? You can't miss that. He's told what you see right in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. And there are the seven churches.

We misunderstand and misinterpret the book of Revelation if we don't understand that in its totality it's a message to the church, a church that is under persecution, a church that is being threatened, a church that is being persecuted. So, here is a closing benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Grace. Grace to face the challenges. Grace to face the difficulties in order to overcome and be ready for the Lord's return. Because without His grace, without belief and strength from Him to persevere, we will not persevere. We need grace. We need God's enabling grace to help us to persevere to the end, that we might be faithful to Christ. We might serve Him well until He brings an end to this world and history as we know it. So the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, and then the amen.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this revelation that you have given through the Apostle John. We thank you for His faithfulness and dutifulness to record and preserve for us, for His church, for your church. And Father, thank you for your enabling grace that has illuminated our minds that we might understand this book. We pray, our God, that you will deepen our appreciation for Christ, for the entire book is a revelation of Him.

And if we miss that, we've missed the whole intent of the book. We thank you for Christ and how He's been revealed to us and has become more and more precious to us as we've come to understand His purposes, not only in this life and in this world, but in the world to come. We thank you that He is a conquering Savior, that He's ruling and reigning, that He's ordering all of history according to a glorious end, that sin will finally be destroyed and all evidences of it will be gone, that the adversary will be cast away into the bottomless pit in all of His cohorts, and we will enjoy the glorious presence of you in heaven someday. Thank you for those who've gone on ahead of us. Thank you, Father, for the promises you've made to us, your church. Strengthen us, fortify us, give us grace that we might remain faithful in persevering unto the end. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.