Second Coming Kind of Christians

Let's pray. Dear Father God, evil is all in the world, and

evil can be in the heart. That doesn't allow Christ to rule. Give

us Jesus You're coming. Get fake religion out of our hearts and minds.

Give us Bible religion, truly converted lives, sincere love for the brethren.

Thank you for loving us in Jesus name. Amen. How many of you

really believe that Jesus is coming again? They raise your hand high. Now.

I wish we could get a head count of that. It's probably most

of us here. Some don't, but most do. Boy, if you

really believe it, you better get ready, Jeremy, better get ready.

Now. There are certain ways you can get ready if you've never been.

Jesus says, the one is baptized into Christ will be saved. Why is

baptism important Because it's your public confession that Jesus died from my sins, to

your way of saying, I am a sinner, Christ my savior, and

I'm not ashamed of that fact. It's that basic. And you know a

lot of stuff. Folks have been making decisions for baptism here, and we're

gonna get you moving. We're working on it. But that's a very important

decision to make. Second, the decision can make is to surrender your life

to Christ and quit fooling around. If you aren't. You know, we

can come to church, we can have fake religion going on and be uncommitted

to Christ. We have to be surrendered up kind of folk. So the

title of my sermon here, and I'm just going to tell you forth throughoutly

what it is second coming kind of Christians? Would you like to know what

kind of people are gonna be saved? Okay, we're gonna find out today

from the scriptures. I like the children to come forward. We're gonna read

some verses. I've missed it for two weeks, not this week. And

if I go ten minutes over, it's because I'm let the kids do it.

I've got myself scripted for time. But it's the try our best.

So come on up here. This is the best part of the service for

me. Frankly. Okay, now I'll let you start. Let's form a

nice good line when the Kingdom of Heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who

took their lamps and went to meet the blood. Five of them were foolish,

and five of them were wipes. For when the foolish took their lamps,

they took no oil with them. But they but the wives took flasks,

took flash of oil oil with their lamps. What's their Well, that's

well, said, yeah you did. Yeah. As the blood bomb was

delayed, they all slumber and slept. You got it, you got a

preaching voice, yeah, number six. But at midnight there was a cry,

behold the bridegroom come out to meet him. Then all the maidens rose

and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish and a foolish said to the wise,

give us some of your oils for our lamps. For our lamps are

going out, are going out? Well? But the wise reply, perhaps

there will not be enough for us. And for you go badder to the

dealers and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy the bride,

the bridegroom came, and those who already went in with them to the marriage

marriage beast, and the door was shut. Afterwards, the other maidens came,

also, saying, Lord Lord, open to us. But he replied,

truly, I say to you, I do not know you watch therefore,

for you know neither the day nor the hour now who did not get

a chance to read, raise your hand. Everybody read well done? What

oh andy, our head deacon did and you can come on up and read.

If your life well done, you may go back to your seats.

We have a generation of children who love the Bible, and I'm proud of

them, proud of every one of you. In a recent Pew thank you.

Recent Pew research, Paul was discovered that fifty two percent of all American

adults believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. Did you know that well

you do now? Not a spiritual coming, but a literal physical return of

Christ. That's the number. Fifty five percent of Americans believe it's going to

happen. That means the majority of the people in our country believe in the

second coming of Christ. Ninety two percent of American Evangelicals believe in the second

coming of Christ ninety two percent. Eighteen percent of Americans who belong to non

Christian religions believe that Jesus is coming back to Earth one day. That's about

one in five people from non Christian religions. Here is the racial breakdown.

Notice the numbers. Fifty five percent of white Americans believe in the Second Coming

of Christ. Fifty fifty three percent of White Americans, fifty five percent of

Hispanics believe in the Second Coming. Thirty nine percent of Asians believe. Here

is the largest group ethnically. Seventy seven percent of African Americans believe the highest

of the total. Sixty nine percent of Republicans believe in the Second Coming.

Forty five percent of Democrats believe that Jesus is coming again. So both parties

have people in it to believe in second Coming of Christ. Now, what

makes these poles really amazing is that we are living in its time when many

Christian pastors have stopped preaching on Bible prophecy, and many leaders in the Christian

world don't believe it's a big deal or they don't believe a christis coming at

all. In fact, have many of you heard of the Emerging church movement?

You heard of it? The Emerging Church movement started at Cedar Ridge Church

in Maryland where we used to rent for almost twenty years, about seventeen years

or so, and Brian McLaren, who was the leading pastor there, a

very nice man. I'm not here to be critical of him personally, but

he's written a series of books and others have that have really says we don't

need to wait for the coming of Christ and all that, we just need

Christ in community, the King of God here, you know, forget about

whether he comes now or a thousand years later. Now, when nine to

eleven hit, Pastor McLaren, he's a very nice man, invited me to

speak at Cedar Ridge because they really didn't know what to say about the catastrophe

that it hit in New York City. And I opened up my Bible.

I went to Luke twenty one and I gave him a Bible study on the

second Coming of Jesus Christ. And so it was very nice of him to

offer that. But the emerging Church movement has nothing to offer the present generation

for the coming of Christ. I mean, there's certain thought leaders that I

have met in certain conferences in our division who have thought to rescript Adventism based

on the emerging Church movement. It's a bankrupt ideology. We should ask ourselves

today, who is responsible for this large number of people who do, in

fact believe in the Second Coming of Jesus when so many pastors out there don't

believe in it and don't know how to preach on it and really don't understand

what it's about. I think we have to admit there's one person who's responsible

for this. It is the Holy Spirit who is preparing the world for the

second coming of Christ. That's why so many people believe Jesus is coming back.

It's not because we're good at teaching and preaching. When Christian pastors will

not preach on the second Coming of Jesus, the Holy Spirit has gone ahead

of them to convict the hearts of people everywhere that this is coming again.

Now let's move into our denomination. In a recent poll conducted internally, ninety

three percent of seventh the Abneusts believe that Jesus is coming soon. That's a

good number. I don't know why it's not one hundred percent, but it's

only one percent more than evangelicals, So, frankly, it's a wash.

We have just as much conviction in our church that Jesus is coming as evangelicals

have in other Christian denominations. Now, what's amazing is that we are the

people that God raised up at the end of the twenty years of Daniel eight

fourteen to change the world from postmillennial expectation to premillennial expectation to believe that Christ

is coming soon. And so if all the people on the earth, the

Seventh the Abneist Church should be those proclaiming to soon return. In fact,

of all the Christians in the world today globally now moving outside of our country,

the seventh the Abanist Church believes the most and has invested the most energy

and means in the coming of Christ in a global coordinated proclamation to prepare the

world for the coming of Jesus Christ globally. That's a fact when Elder Mark

Finlay can go down to Africa, working with local leaders and have the entire

nation of Tanzania stop shop and open it up for the gossip and preach to

the entire country and thousands can be baptized in a day. You can't tell

me the Holy Spirit's not poured out and stuff like that. There are men

and women turning to Jesus around the world. Now, our topic this morning

is entitled of the second Coming kind of Christians. It could be restated as

a question what kind of people will be ready for the second Coming of Christ.

So let me ask you forth rightly, do you want to be ready?

For the secd coming of Christ. Raise both hands, not one,

both hands. Okay, you're in the club. I do now. Very

often when a preacher preaches on the sudden coming to Christ, he or she

will go to first Thessalonians four sixteen. Let's put it on the screen,

Paul says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of

command. Does that sound like a silent, secret rapture to you, No,

a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound

of the trumpet of God. I'm sorry, the secret rapture dies with that

verse right there. Impossible. Paul's description of jesus return is anything but a

secret rapture. It is loud, it is visible, It is dramatic.

It is the fulfillment of Daniel twelve. The dead or resurrected at the end

of the age as a glorious God with a loud voice calls to him from

death's chambers to life and immortality. It is the glorious event from which the

entire planetfil station planet Salvation was geared to bring us to the great event,

the Second Coming, and it changes the world. It brings Jesus to us,

and us to him in resurrection, glorification, power. And but this

morning, let's take our bibles and turn to the next chapter, not first

Thessilian's four, but first Thessalian's five. In first Thesslian's five one, Paul

spends valuable time, valuable Bible time, showing us how to become second coming

kind of Christians. So let's start with verse one, he writes, But

as to the times and seasons now, he's referring to Daniel, Daniel seven,

Daniel twelve, Daniel eleven, Daniel Light that has prophetic time chronologies.

The early Church was on the front side of these prophecies. In many ways,

we are on the backside. We're living in the days of final fulfillment.

They were living in the days of unfolding fulfillment. So he says,

but as to the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need to

have anything written to you. Why because the apostles taught Bible prophecy. They

were well informed in the Church of Thesslanaika. First two, for you yourselves

know well. I wish that could be said of every Christian here today,

that we know the prophecies well. For you yourselves know well that the day

of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Now what does

that mean. Does that mean he comes silently? No? In verse sixteen,

it says he comes with a trumpet call loudly. So what does it

mean to become like a thief in the night. If you're loud, it

means he comes suddenly, unexpectantly. It means he comes in an hour that

we are not expecting him to come. People will be unprepared for the second

coming of Christ. At the time of the end. The trumpet call of

his loud voice, in his visible return will startle the world, and suddenly

it will be the end of time and all over. John says in Revelation

one seven, Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will

see him, and those also who pierced him. He's going to drag Caiaphas

out of the grave. He's going to drag those Roman soldiers out of the

grave to see the one they crucified. And he says, all the nations

of the earth will well because of him. Even so, come, amen,

Christ is coming and is going to be the end of the world in

a new beginning. At the same time, secret rapture is possible that such

a view. Look at verse three. Now, Paul continues here he says

this when people say there is peace and security merging church movement kind of thinking,

you know, secular people trying to figure out how to stabilize the nations.

When they think they've fixed it, then sudden destruction will come upon them

as travail comes upon a woman with a child, and there will be no

escape. Friends, we have to prepare for the sudden coming Christ. That's

why Bible baptism matters. That's why I can surrender. Christ matters, and

walking with Jesus matters, not on your terms, but God's terms. And

that means we need to be prepared for the second coming of Jesus inside where

our lives are ordered through the Holy Spirit to be obedient to the word of

God. So I say we need to be second coming kind of Christians to

avoid the destruction. So at this point Paul encourages the church that has listened

to him, it has heard his prophetic teaching, that understands the coming to

the Lord, that's accepted the Gospel and it's good moral counsel. He encourages

them to be steadfast in this end. Now May verse four be true of

everyone here today go down to verse four first Thessalonians five four, Paul says,

but you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise

you like a thief. You see he comes like a thief, unexpectedly,

surprise, not silently. So why verse five? For you are all sons

of light, sons of the day. We are not of the night or

of darkness. I don't know about you, but we need to get this

out of our thinking that we can teach our children that there's a low bar

to being a Christian. We need to teach our children that being a Christian

there's a high bar to Christianity, that God is calling them to fidelity,

to utter amendment, to truth and honesty. I appreciated the children's story today,

Samuel, or are you at Thank you for being right on honesty integrity.

Now we're all sinners, but high bar isn't there, and we need

to strive for that and teach it to inculcated. Paul uses the word all

here because every Christian should have nothing to do with night and darkness, and

every Christian should be sons and daughters of the light. The Bible says God

is light and in him is no darkness at all. And when he says

it, it says, if you hate your brother, you're in the darkness.

Do you know that? It's what First John says, this notion that

you can say I'm of the light and you despise someone, You're in the

darkness. You're a child of the devil. Until you get that figured out

with God and you come to Christ. Do you hear me? There's no

room to not to exclude someone from the love of Christ and your life and

relationships. You must show kindness and love to the people that you don't know

what you like? Am I right? What about the racial groups you may

not be comfortable with? Is the church to be a place where racism has

a root or it's rooted out? It's rooted out? And what about if

you're rich or poor? Should it matter when you come to the church.

What if you've messed up in life and you've really have a life record,

and if people find out, you're going to be embarrassed? Should you be

able to come to the church and be okay? Because of the love of

Christ? Absolutely? You see Jesus Christ meets us all at the foot of

the cross and there we discover that where are the sinners that are in darkness

unless we come to the light. So every Christian should be sons and daughters

the light. The Bible says God is light and in him is no darkness

at all. We as believers in the light business, not the night business.

So what does that mean for all of us who are in the light

business as children of the light? Verse six, here's the answer. So

then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and

be sober. For those who sleep at night, and those who get drunk

are drunk at night. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand

and say how many of you ever gotten drunk in your life? Keep your

hands down. Okay, you don't have to confess that in front of me

today, But I did. When I was a young person, I was

led into alcohol abuse. As a young person, I was not a Christian,

didn't go to church. A family member took me out to some wild

party with rock and roll music and put a beer in my hand. A

couple more, and then hard liquor came into the mix. I know what

it's like, and I'll tell you when I went into those waters of baptism

at the age of fifteen. I thank god I don't have to do that

anymore. I thank God that I could raise my kids and they've never seen

an ounce of alcohol in our home, and to know that that's the Christian

standard that we hold because the Gospel and God has liberated me from this.

When my dad was an alcoholic, wrecked his health. He had liver damage

because of various means. But alcohol is a component. My grandfather died early

from alcoholism. My brother struggled with it. I have to say during those

years, I would have been diagnosed as an alcoholic because I kept on drinking,

couldn't and I come to school, you know, drunk as a skunk

on Monday morning at the age of fifteen. So when people tell me,

and I've heard this Pastor Mike, we gotta have an open mind about alcohol.

A little bit of social drinking is okay. I don't buy it,

and I'm gonna show you why in a second. I think at verse six,

so here's the answer. So then let us not sleep as others do,

but let us be awake and sober. Now what do you say let

us be what? Come on? Look at the verse there let us be

drunk, let us be partially drunk. Let us be, you know,

a little tipsy. Is that what he's saying? Let us be sober Verse

seven. For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk

are drunk what at night? So if you're in the business of letting alcohol

alter you, you belong to the night. That's what the New Testament teaches.

That's not Pastor Mike Paul here focuses on two concrete concerns. Number one,

we need to be awake as Christians. Number two, we need to

be sober as Christians. Christians have no business belonging to the party culture of

the world. I'll just repeat myself. Christians have no business belonging to the

party culture of the world. We are not put here to act like the

world that is going to be lost at the second Coming of Christ. That

is not our Kingdom culture calling. We are called to be faithful in our

generation, true as the needle to the pole, to love Jesus and his

word and to live it. Not to make us look good, but because

we love the Lord Jesus. Friends, the Kingdom culture of Christ is a

faithful culture that will not mix the great things of God's word with the corrupt

practices of the world, it won't do it. So at this point Paul

gives us the concrete characteristics of second coming kind of Christians. Look at verse

eight. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober and

put on the breastplate of faith and love for a helmet the hope of salvation.

There they are one verse, so let's look at them. Break them

down. Characteristic number one. Second Coming of Christians belong to the day,

to the light of the day, and the Bible of the sun represents the

word of God as it rules the day. Jesus face shines like the sun

in Revelation one sixteen, because he is the living and abiding Word of God,

the light of the world. If you want to be ready for the

second Coming of Christ, you had better be in the light business by getting

into your Bible and asking God to guide you by reading it, studying it,

surrendering to its truths, deeply committed to its message and mission. Now

in Psalm's one nineteen one oh five, you know the verse the Bible says,

thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to path.

He cannot figure out how to navigate life without the Bible characteristic number two second

coming kind of Christians are sober? Sober Proverbs twenty verse one, and here's

a verse that destroys social drinking, just destroys it. Look at it.

Solomon, who got involved in all these things, learned from the hard way

that you shouldn't it was the wisest man before he did it, a fool

while he did it, became wise again when he turned away from it.

But he said, wine is a mocker? Ever had anyone mock you?

Yang ya? Do you like that? You know? How did to come

to church? Has someone mock you? Yeah? It's harsh, isn't it?

Wine is a mocker? Strong drink a brawler. You ever someone trying?

I'm gonna beat you up. You know? Whoever is led astray?

Another translation will say is deceived thereby is not wise. How many of you

want to be fools? Keep your hands down? How many you want to

be wise? Raise them high? To get alcohol out of your life.

The Bible just says it. You don't need some doctoral dissertation splicing that verse

apart. You're a fool if you let this stuff mess with you and your

family. I mean I'm being direct here. That means fools give into alcohol

and drugs to alter themselves so they'll feel good. Our kids need to be

taught temperance. Now, I'm gonna say something here, and I want you

to hear me. This is not meant to poke at you. I took

a graduate level course in addiction when I was at the seminary. It wasn't

taught by preachers. It was taught by scientists. And you know what one

of there's crossover drugs that we experience that we experience, you know, Maryland,

I guess we're doing little health stuff early here. Okay, there are

crossover drugs that help you get associated to other drugs. And guess what the

big one is. It's caffeine. Caffeine you know, to get these cokes

and doctor peppers and I'd get I drink enough of them when I was fifteen,

I didn't have alcohol and be bouncing up and down, you know everything

kifen en. And you know when you do that for two or three years

and you try to quit it, you know you're go into withdrawal symptoms because

it hooks you. I have family members that can't get off the stuff.

I don't need to be a slave to any drug in my life, nor

do you. And as a reason why the high temperance principles of this movement

based on Scripture would make us look at a lot of things and reassessed.

Daniel had nothing to do with wine. And Daniel one and God gave Daniel

wisdom and knowledge and all kinds of learning and visions and dreams and prophecy.

He purposed in his heart not to defile himself. And he knew the Bible,

he knew math, he knew science, history, he could he could

predict the future. He was a man who understood prophecy. And men and

women at the second time in Christ will be like Daniel. They'll be like

Daniel. I'm sorry the Bible condemned social drinking. It's just a fact.

I've been in homes in our denomination church members, Holmes, and I'm not

going to say who don't leave. Please if you're one of those people to

stay here and don't want to figure it out. I've been at homes in

our denomination where false believers have refrigerators full of alcohol. I'd say false believers

because they're not honoring their baptismal vows. I don't have to guess what they

do with it. They drink it to feel good. I know that's what

King Belshazar did when God's hand wrote upon the wall, and that drunken feast.

Many many techo you farson, you know your kingdom's toast to night,

guy, and the entire king of Bablin came down. Babylon is epitomized as

a kingdom of intoxication. In the book Revelation, we learned that the whole

world's drunk from the wine of Babylin end time, Babylin makes the world drunk

with false teaching, elaborate displays of ritual. I'm gonna go a little further

now. Okay, rock and roll Christian music that devoid of the Holy Spirit.

I said rock and roll, not contemporary rock and roll Christian music.

Every generation has a right to write and produce good music, and it does.

Every generation does, but also has a lot of rotten stuff out there.

And you know, you cannot mimic a secular rock culture and call it

worship. You can't do it incompatible with the Bible and the council given to

us in the spirit of prophecy. Incompatible and out of control worship gatherings,

and I have been in them outside of this denomination where people are losing it

in church and they call that worship, and it's not the mind that's engaged.

It's the emotions and manipulation. The Book of Revelation calls it the sound

of the millstone shall be hurt in you no more. In Revelation eighteen,

the in time babel and uses elaborate and loud music to decee. You can

see the musical instruments there. You can move to the high falutin classical side

of things. It has the same effect. You know. The music that

changes the heart is based on scripture. It's Holy Spirit based. You know.

There were three times when they brought water of the rock. Moses struck

the rock. Second time he was supposed to speak of the rock, he

struck it. But there's a third time in numbers twenty one when they sang

to the rock, and that rock was Christ. Paul says, you cannot

force the Holy Spirit to come into the church. You sing you give glory

to God, and the sweet quiet spirit of God will come. And the

fruits of the Spirit are not in show and display because he's a humble being.

When Nebuchadezar commanded is people to bow down to the image of Down three,

the band played in the background with very loud and manipulative music. It's

there in Daniel three and it's also repeated in Revelation eighteen. It made it

easy to bow down. It manipulated people, was not worshiped. So entertainment

is not worship. Entertainment is not worse. It's not what I need,

it's what God requires that should come from us. In Christian worship. The

same thing will happen the Mark of the Beast tests in the book Revelation,

the same kind of mess will be used. Christian world reunite against God's word,

a compromise Christianity, and they'll build an image to the Beast, and

they'll force those to worship them as the beast. And the Bible describes in

Relations sixteen a very out of control worship culture that is participative and bringing about

the mark. Friends, we are to be sober, intelligent, focused Christians

who don't live on religious highs, but who feed on the living and abiding

word of God. When you're tired of your Bible, you know, I

can tell people get add Bible. Oh they give me half a verse today

I don't want you know, and then they close it. They cut the

music on. Yeah, you know if if what you're listening to, we'll

take up your time or watching so that you cannot focus in God's word and

growing God's Word. You've got the wrong mix. So when you're tired of

about your Bible, when you want music to take its place in your spiritual

experience, you can put yourself in the end Time Babylon Camp Now, friends,

Christian hymnity float out of the Bible into the church. Smart Luther King

Jr. Was noted for wisdom in the areas, but he knew the difference,

and he said, you cannot mix the two. There is a sacred

culture to Christian worship. Don't mess with it. Christian him and he float

out of the Bible into the Church. It was the product of the Reformation.

And those songs have stood the test of time, and yes we can

add to them. I'm a songwriter. I write songs, and not that

everything I write will ever appear anywhere, But you know, the best ends

up as the music for worship with God. Characteristic number three second Coming kind

of Christians, where are the breastplate of faith and love? John says in

First John five four. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world,

and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith. A Christian

is incompatible with the world. Will we repeat that a Christian is incompatible with

the world. That doesn't mean they're not in it, doesn't mean they're not

friendly, they're not community based. Just means they're not of it. He

or she is in the world, but absolutely not of it. And the

real kind of faith that saves us, you know, it's saving faith.

God's love draws a line in the sand, and it cleans out the DVD

rack, the video online library, the music collection, you know, the

games. You know, if we're a culture where we're involved in games instead

of focusing on character development, service mission, we got the wrong mix.

The reading lists, the associations make or break the Christian life. You could

apply the test to anywhere. God wants all of it. He wants to

be in every bit of it. For us, we are either with Christ

or we are against him. There is no middle ground if you're a second

coming kind of Christians. So we had better be about the things that pertain

to the light, not the night. There was a sermon written in eighteen

forty three that was preached by Charles Fitch that gave rise to the Seventh the

Abanist Church, the greatest sermon ever preached since the Reformation, maybe the greatest

sermon ever preached since the Apostle Paul. And I would challenge every believer here

to look up Charles Fitch's famous sermon get out of Babain, Get out Now

in eighteen forty three. He called, I mean that sermon created the Abanist

Church, and it was a call to be so serious about the second Coming

of Christ that we will want it more than anything in our life. We

will root the world out of our life. We will love, we will

share, we will grow, and we will not abandon the clear teaching of

the Bible. And Charles Fitch was given prophetic utterance in that sermon to raise

up the Advent movement at the time of the End, at the end of

the twenty three hundred years and friends would that there would be a generation of

Bible believing teaching Christians for the time of the end. Faith in Jesus Christ

justifies the Christian, so he or she is accepted by God as if they

had never sinned. So we're not about the night. We're about the light

and that same powerful faith that justifies us, that forgives us, gives the

Christian true Holy Spirit power to resist sin and to overcome the world. There

is no such thing as a failing Christian. You ever feel like you could

just give up as a Christian? Oh, man, I don't know how

I can do this anymore. It's so hard you ever felt that way?

Friends? When we come to the cross every day and we are crucified with

Christ, it is a privilege to follow Jesus and to obey a privilege.

You can't look at that cross and see Christ bleeding too long, suffering for

your sins without realizing that He doesn't like sin, but he loves you,

and so we are called to follow Jesus and leave sin. There's no such

thing as a failing Christian. Every single Christian has been called to Christian victory.

We are overcomers in His name. Doesn't mean we're perfect, doesn't mean

we can go tell people we're better than them, but recalled to victory.

We are to teach our children that by faith in Christ, they can and

will overcome the world in every area of life. We are to model this

faith by our faith, our life practice. And yes we can admit when

we make mistakes. That's part of it. And by doing the same they

we become godly examples for the next generation. Here was a quote that was

shared with me shortly after I was baptized at the age of fifteen. It

messages to young people, I love this quote. Through faith in Christ,

every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected,

every excellence developed. Friend Love is the other component found in the breastplate

of faith in love. But I look at that quote and I say,

Jesus can get it done. In my life. There's not an area where

I lack, an area where I've sinned, an area where I fall short

that Jesus can't help me and bring me through. Not about you. But

I'm gonna say amend that dear lady wrote that quote for us. Now,

Jesus said in John thirteen thirty five, By this, will all men know

that you are My disciples. If you have what love for one another you

know, faith and love you know is that breastplate business. Love is the

faithful fuel that makes faith powerful, real dynamic. We overcome through our faith

and that love. You don't overcome. Faith overcomes the world, and love

wins the world of Jesus Christ by faith. So love and faith working together

powerful components. So a rude and harsh Christian is not an overcomer. Now,

there are times in love when a Christian will need to rebuke, but

Jesus uttered his rebukes with tenderness and with tears in his eyes. That's the

difference. A rude and harsh Christian is not an overcomer. There's nothing attractive

about an arrogant, unkind Christian is just focused on themselves. A rude Christian

doesn't put people down to pop themselves up. A rude Christian has been overcome,

and his or her face tells the story of the spirit that drives the

evil within. Friends. Kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, compassionate Christianity is the

kind of Christianity that protects the church. The breast plate of faith in love.

It empowers the believer to believe and to labor it's safeguards. The soul

is the breast plate of both faith and love. A breastplate guards the heart.

So what guards our heart is faith and love. Faith in Christ and

love in your heart will guard you from sinning. It will guard you from

falling. It will protect you for the coming of the Lord. Characteristic number

four and read this with me second coming. Kind of Christians where the helmet

of what of hope and salvation? What does that really mean? It means

that they believe that they'll be saved. They don't have this negative attitude.

God couldn't save me. There's no way I could be accepted because I did

this. I can't be perfect enough to be saying. Get that nonsense out

of your head. You see second Coming. Kind of Christians say, thank

you Lord for saving me and Jesus, thank you Lord that you'll get it

done. Thank you for loving me. I believe that now that protects you.

And what does it really mean? It means that they believe and they

will be saved because they believe that Jesus died for them. The truth of

the Gospel matters for them. The Christ died for my sins. He died,

he was buried, He took my sins away, and he did more

than that. He was raised for my acceptance, my justification. Christ is

all in all and if you believe that it carries you, it prevents you

for being overcome as a Christian. God's love for USh and mad Look at

first John three, one, see what love the Father has given us?

That we should be called the children of God? Now what does it say

next? And so we will be when we get perfect in the time of

trouble? Does it say that? What does it say in your Bible?

So we are? This is what's wrong with final generation theology. It's not

biblical. It puts acceptance at the end of the road, like the medieval

church did of the Council of Trent. I don't care who came up with

it inside our church. It's not based on the spirit of prophecy. It's

not the Bible. It's arrogance, narcissistic. It says, so what See

what love the Father has given us? That we should be called children of

God? And so we are. And the reason the world does not know

us is that it did not know him. See we know God. We're

accepted. Now look at verse two, Beloved, we are God's children.

Now it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that

when he appears, we shall be like him. For we shall see him

as he is and everyone. Now here's the phrase. Read it with me,

everyone, how many of that would it mean? That's all of us,

everyone who thus hopes in him. What does he do? Purifies himself

as he is pure? So what's the standard? Christ? Our righteousness?

Hope in God in Jesus. Christ's return causes us to purify our lives to

prepare for the second commune of Jesus Christ. There is no secular sacred divide

for the Christian. We are sacred people hopes. That's a high bar for

getting ready for his return. John says, we purify ourselves because we hope

in him. The helmet guards your head. Go to the picture with the

helmet. This is an army ranger helmet. I like the rangers for good

reasons. It protects them from getting shot. Now, dear heart, when

we have the hope of salvation, it protects our thinking from bad theology.

We don't slip away from God. We stay with Christ. We don't go

for theological extremes. Now, Paul tells us in First Corinthians fifteen one.

Now I would remind you, brethren, what terms I preached you the gospel

with which you received, and which you stand, but which you are saved

if you hold it fast, unless you believed in vain. We need the

truth now here. It is for I deliver to you as a first in

importance what I also received. So here's the most important truth of the gospel

that we put our hope in. That Christ died for our sins. And

according to the scriptures, that's the big one. Number two, that he

was buried, that he took him away, he buried, he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day, in accords of the scriptures.

Romans four twenty five tells us he did that so we could be accepted

by God because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. That

will keep you on track if you don't let that go. Now go to

first thessline's five to nine. Paul says, for God has not destined us

for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. We weren't

made to be lost, We were made to be saved. That's why God

says to be baptized, surrender your life. Now look verse ten, who

died for us so that whatever we wake or sleep, we might live with

him? Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as

you were doing. And the verse that follows, Paul tells us to respect

legitimate Christian leadership in the church. You know, there have been times in

my experience where I've had leaders that I didn't agree with, But I'm out

of the faith if I can't submit to them. Look at verse twelve.

But we beseech you, brethren, to respect those who labor among you and

are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very

highly in love. See they're to love you as shepherds, but you're to

love them because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. Paul is

saying not to give your pastor your elders, your local church leaders, and

world leaders a hard time. Yes, there are times you may have to

engage in love because leaders can err stop, but he says he really means

here, stop the quarreling, the bickering in the church, stop the other

things. Support these people and winning souls for Christ. That's what Second Coming

kind of Christians do. And he also tells us the church is no place

to be lazier, un focused. Look at verse fourteen. We exhort you

brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the thing hearted, help the week,

be patient with them all. Don't just come to church and sit there.

Do something for God. Verse fifteen. See that none of you repays evil

for evil, and get that out of the mix. But always seek to

do good to one another and to all. That's the kind of love Paul

was talking about that protects the church as the breastplate of faith and love.

He continues verses sixteen to eighteen. Rejoice always, now how often, oh

my, that's hard. Pray constantly? How often? Yeah? Give thanks

in how many circumstances, all circumstances. And here's the point, for this

is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And what is the

effect of these vibrant actions in our lives of rejoicing, always, praying,

constantly, giving thanks in everything? Friend, It brings the Holy Spirit into

our lives. The verse nineteen, do not quench the spirit, do not

despise prophesying. We live in a church that God has given an end time

profit too. And if you don't believe it, check it out. And

friends, that gift is a glorious gift to us to help us get back

to the Bible. Don't despise these gifts verse twenty one. But test everything

hold fast was good, abstained from every form of evil. The Bible doesn't

say we can pick and choose our evil. If it is evil, if

it has evil in it, get it out of your life. That's what

he's saying. I'm not saying that. Paul is saying it apostolic authority.

So let's go to the slides. Let's review them together. I'm gonna let

you help me. Number one, second Coming kind of Christians what belong to

the day? Number two Second Coming kind of Christians are sober? Number three

second Coming kind of Christians? What where the breastplate of faith and love?

And? Number four Second Coming kind of Christians? Where the helmet of the

hope and salvation. Paul ends his Second Coming Epistle to the thessel Nikins by

sharing with us that the result of these four concrete each second Coming qualities will

save us Verse twenty three, twenty four. May the Peace of May the

God of Peace himself sanctify you holy, So when you allow God to clean

your life out, God's with you. And may your spirit and soul and

body that's all of you it's total temperance, be kept sound and blameless at

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and verse twenty four. He who calls

you as faithful, not you, he is, and he will do it.

He will do it. Friend, when you accept the authority of God's

word in your life, God will get it done in your life. He

will do it. You will be fully prepared and wholly saved and blameless in

the day of the coming of the Lord Jesus, God save you everyone.

Let's pray for my family too. Let's pray for each ose that our families

are saved. Let's stand, dear Father God as we bow our heads here.

It could be the certain person here today needs to say the Lord,

Lord, I need to recommit my life to you. The Bible has touched

spots in my life that need to change. I need to be more loving

Christian to get worldly stuff out of my life. And you hear the sweet

sound of Jesus that does not condemn, does not bully you, but he

loves you, and he wants you to be ready without spot or wrinkle at

the second coming of Christ. If you need to tell the Lord right now,

Lord, I need revival in my life a rebirth. Raise your hand.

I'm raising mine. Father. There are others here who need to be

baptized, and they need not wait because they need to be in Christ.

You haven't asked much. You've asked someone to come to you and be baptized

to show they believe. Here that person, just raise your hand to God.

I don't see it. Raise your hand to God. And you you

come to one of the pastoral staff here, John dam or Irvin or me

or pastor Nick, and let's let it get done. Father, bless your

people. Send them away saved, abiding in Christ, obedient, and help

us Lord to live for the saving of others in Jesus name. Amen,