Why Jesus Will Return

Thank you, sir, very much. It is so good to see Bobby Mitchell sitting back there. Wonderful to have you here, and welcome to other guests we have, and wonderful to have. I'm sorry? I said it's wonderful to be here, I'm excited. Good, good. Glad to have you. And at any rate, we have lots to talk about, and we have to hit the ground running again. Were we to turn to Leviticus 23, as we often do, we realize that chapter starts out talking about these are the feasts of the Lord.

These are not man's feasts, and no one in the church set them apart. We're merely observing what God set apart and doing what God said. And as we get well into that chapter, there are about three verses, or maybe just two, that focus on the Feast of Trumpets. And it is the first day of the seventh month on the sacred calendar, and that is today, and began last night.

And it tells us it is a memorial, so today we memorialize, we commemorate something very important in the plan of God. It is a memorial of a blowing of trumpets. I noticed someone playing with a shofar here earlier today, so I don't know what you may be in for in the afternoon, but we're going to miss that. But at any rate, that's great. There was the shofar, the shofarim that were blown out of the ram's horns. And there also were the silver trumpets that were used for different purposes, different reasons, and some of those teachings we've covered in years past. But it was a memorial.

It was a day to abstain from normal work. It was a time when it was a called assembly, when we were gathered to come here together, and the world around us is doing what they normally do. They've gone on to work, and the schools are operating, and the businesses are open. But we gather here today, and we just gave an offering.

And so all of these things have to do with what we're told there in Leviticus 23. And we have a connection, as we look at the biblical record, we have a connection with the return of Jesus Christ with the sounding of the final trumpet. And of course, when Jesus, before he died, he reminded his disciples that Passover night, that I will come again.

And then weeks later, when it was time for him to ascend back up into heaven, and the men were there staring off at what they had just seen, and the angels said to them, why are you staring off into heaven? The same Jesus who has left, you will see him come back in like manner. But I think when we pause here today, it's always good for us to ask that simple little question and review from time to time. The little question is just simply, why? Why will Jesus return? Why is Christ coming back?

Now hold on to that thought. There was a man who was born in Seattle, Washington in 1912. He lived from 1912 until 1986. His name was, if I'm pronouncing it close to correct, something like Minoru Yamasaki, a Japanese-American. But he was American. He lived his life in Washington and in other parts of this country. He trained and became a highly respected, talented architect. He designed great buildings.

The Seattle World's Fair in 1964, I kind of sort of faintly remember that. The American building was his work. The old terminal building at St. Louis, the airport, that was his work. But the crowning pinnacle of his work used to stand in New York City. Once upon a time, I saw it when it wasn't quite open. It actually consisted of seven buildings known as the World Trade Center. And, of course, the two Twin Towers became the symbol of American economic wealth, power, opulence, and they stood for quite a few years. It had a unique architectural design.

It was a bit different. And, of course, with the events of a few years ago, this past week, we just had the 14th anniversary of 9-11-01. We all remember that. Our lives stopped, and we were frozen for a while whenever we turned on the news, and we saw planes flying into buildings. The buildings, the towers, actually had been designed to withstand the impact of a jetliner. Interesting that that was foreseen. But what was not foreseen was that those jetliners might have just taken off, not far away. Boston's not far away. And they were filled with jet fuel.

And with the fireball, and in a little time, the one tower stood for about an hour, and then just everything, the I-beams, everything melted, and then as the wait, you know what happened. And the other tower stood for almost an hour and 45 minutes, and then it, too, came down. Yamasaki died in 1986. He didn't have to see the news as it played over and over and over. But I think back on that, and I wonder, what would it have been like for him, had he still been living, to have seen the crowning pinnacle of his life's work just crumble and fall, and thousands of lives be lost? Well, we can't know that.

But I want you to keep that in mind. Think of that, because we come to a holy day. This is number four of the year. We have a lot behind us. Passover took place 2,000 years ago, at least the fulfillment, but it is an ongoing fulfillment.

And Unleavened Bread, the walking, the taking of steps and coming out of sin, that is an ongoing process. As God looks down on this earth and He opens a mind here, a mind there, and someone brand new who never understood. Maybe they read this Bible their entire life, and the scales suddenly were removed, like happened to Paul that day on the road to Damascus, and they could see what they had read.

Or maybe they had never had any experience with the Word of God. And it's a matter that there are some of us God has called, and we are in those days of Unleavened Bread. We're striving to live by the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth.

We're striving to put out the old and put on the new, and that's an ongoing daily struggle. And the pouring forth of God's Spirit that began on Pentecost, that too is ongoing. And it continues in our life, and also in the lives of others, as God decides. He's the one who said, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. But we come to number four, the Feast of Trumpets.

Pivotal. In one sense, Christ has come, is coming, but this one more so, and the ones that follow more so, focus forward to what will happen as God's plan unfolds and comes to realization. The time will come when the feet of Jesus Christ stand on the Mount of Olives, and we need to pray every day, Godspeed that day. But let's go back to our little question, why?

You know, Yamasaki, had he lived, he would have seen his life's crowning pinnacle destroyed. We covered some lessons from the book of Ecclesiastes just two days ago here. And there's one sub-theme. Well, for instance, chapter two, right at the end. Chapter two, verse 24. There's something God created and designed within us to enjoy the work, the fruit of our own labor. We build something. We work for something.

And God wants us to enjoy the blessing of what we work to build. And Yamasaki, had he been living, would have seen so much of what he lived for. There were seven years in building those towers of the World Trade Center. He would have seen it gone. We live in perilous times, as Paul called these days. We get news overload. I get depressed when I turn on the news.

It turns my stomach to turn on the news. And here, of the last weeks, another police officer, a person who has placed his life on the line to help, to protect. And somebody just came and it wasn't a killing, it's a murder. And then another one happens. Thankfully, the most recent one they have caught the man. Well, we're assaulted by the news. And we have to ask, we have to look at this from the point of view of the Almighty God and Jesus Christ, as we know Him today.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The Word was God. And as it goes on, the Word was the One who created everything that is. The Word is the One that with the events of Genesis 1, spoke the words, let there be light. He was the One who parted the waters and caused the dry land to rise up. He was the One who went about creating the various species of animal life and the fishes of the water.

He was the One who said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. What does the news do to God and to Jesus Christ? Of course, they know the rest of the story. They are not only Creator, but they are sovereign. They have a plan.

They have a purpose. And as this Holy Day years has taken the steps of the rungs of that ladder, that plan is right on time. We may be crying out, how long, O Lord, until you intervene? But His plan is right on time. He doesn't make a mistake. But they look down at this world and they see the senseless violence. And they see the environmental terrorism sometimes that takes place.

They see the fingerprints of man and the fingerprints of Satan all over this world. Why is Jesus Christ going to return? Number one is to save the earth. Now, we could say to save the universe, but let's just focus here on this earth because this is where God's plan is being put into effect for right now. To save the earth. Job 38. We finished in our local Bible studies not that long ago these latter chapters of Job and what marvelous chapters they are as we reach the point where God Himself appears out of the storm and God begins to speak.

And Job, the one who had spoken so many times and had so much to say, all of a sudden just sat there silently. And God began asking Him questions instead of Job talking about how if I could just have my day in court I would demand this and I would defend myself. But He had nothing to say.

Job 38 verse 4 just notice some of the questions because God turns the tables and God does not answer Job's questions. God begins asking His own. Verse 5. Who determined its measurements? Verse 6. To what were its foundations fastened when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy? Verse 8. Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb? Verse 12. Have you commanded the morning since your days began?

And so we have the evidence that God Almighty created every detail, every minute detail of His creation. How does it pain God to look down at what man has in his doing to this earth? Well, he has a plan. He has a purpose. And that plan involves giving the opportunity of every human who has ever lived to be a part of his very family as eternal sons and daughters. And because of that, and because of the love that he has, he's willing to wait.

He's willing to give it time. Yes, when Jesus walked the earth at one point, He said, I beheld Satan as lightning, fall from heaven. So He remembered He was there when Satan led some of the formerly righteous angels in rebellion against God. And war in heaven will happen once again.

As we read of in Revelation 12, once again, the neurotic mind of Satan will think it can rise up against God, and they'll lose once again. Let's go to Deuteronomy 11. I'm taken by the terminology that God inspired Moses to write here about the land where he was going to send them. Deuteronomy 11. Of course, Deuteronomy is close toward the end of Moses' life. This is his last long address, and then he's not going to cross over with them. They're going to follow Joshua's lead and go into the land of promise. But in Deuteronomy 11, He reminds them beginning in verse 8, Therefore, you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess.

Let's skip on to what he calls the latter part of verse 9, a land flowing with milk and honey. I often wonder how vastly different perhaps that little land bridge once upon a time looked. What a marvelous land it was, and still is, and what it will be. Verse 10, For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden.

Because in Egypt, of course, they had a series of canals from the Nile, and you just had to open up the soil and let the water flow in, and then build your little dam back and stop the water. The land you're going to is not like that at all.

But notice what God says in verse 11, But the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. How does God view this earth when he looks down and he sees what man has done? It must grieve him beyond anything we can imagine. What a beautiful world he created, and at the end of six days, God said, Behold, it's very good. And you look down in places. I've had the honor of standing in some of the most gorgeous places on earth.

I've stood at 14,000 feet, looked out across places, the John Muir wilderness out in the high country of California, looked out across that beautiful world, and all you could see was this little trail where the Pacific Crest Trail goes through, the John Muir Trail going the other way.

And all you see is just beauty. Guitar Lake, Crabtree Lakes, and it's a marvelous world. And God said it's very good. But, you know, man's been here a long time. Let's look at Romans chapter 8, because man, in his quest to enrich and improve and change usually has a way of messing it up. We've enriched and changed our grain so much that it's questionable whether we ought to eat it.

Romans 8. Let's just notice this section. We could start at verse 18, where Paul says that I consider the sufferings of this present life aren't worth comparing to what will be. But just notice verses 22 and 23.

So God looks down and he loves this creation of his. It surely grieves him beyond our ability to really fathom the way man has destroyed it, the way Satan has destroyed it. But the time is coming when the feet of Jesus Christ will stand on the Mount of Olives. And that will begin a process we could read late in Amos, where we have the most marvelous problem where the plowman tells those in front of him, harvesting, and getting out of the way.

We're coming through. And the world is going to be saved. The earth will be saved. The earth will begin being restored. And it'll take a thousand years. And probably when we get into the job, we're going to begin wondering if a thousand years will be enough. Number two, Christ is coming back to save mankind. Humanity. Because, yes, so long ago God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. And those words, image and likeness, speak of the purpose that God has.

We noticed last week in Ecclesiastes, what was it? Chapter 3, I think, verse 11, that God has placed eternity in their hearts. That there's something within the human mind that is different than the animal mind that operates basically on instinct. The human mind dreams, and we ponder and we wonder what can be, what will be. And the crowning pinnacle of Genesis 1 was the creation of human beings in the very image of God. Now, we all have our own places where we live. Maybe you rent it or lease it or own it. And maybe in some cases you live in a place where you built it.

But you have around it, maybe your own garden. Gardens are beginning to play out about now. You have a yard, maybe you've landscaped. It's something you've built. There's something within all of us, a passion to have our own place, to be the master of our own home. This country was founded by those who didn't want some king clear across the ocean, issuing edicts that told them how to live life.

And God designed within all of us this desire to rejoice and to enjoy the fruit of our own labor. And we value that property that we have. We value those automobiles, the house. But you know, none of those. We would trade all of those just like that. We would trade all of that for our spouse, our family, our children.

You know, probably any of us in this room, if we had something, some critical, some crisis that arose with one of our own children, our grandchildren, we'd probably be willing to sell everything we had, if need be, to give it to that child. Now think of that in the terms of Almighty God as He looks down at this earth. He has seven billion plus created sons and daughters here on this earth.

And most of them could care less, anything, about Him. Probably most of them don't even know His name and have never heard of Him. But then there are a lot who have heard an awful lot about Him, but they still don't do what He says. And there's just one here, one there, who do listen and who do heed and who strive with His help, with His Spirit, to walk in the path that He wants us to walk. We come to this fourth Holy Day of the year, and it is a time when, yes, we begin looking more so forward. But we live in perilous times. We notice in Matthew 24 that we live at a time, a time would come when there would be a danger of human beings exterminating humanity from the earth.

And we've been in that generation. It was determined not that many years after, well, it was the end of the Cold War, probably right after Korea, with the proliferation of the nuclear weapons of a number of countries. And now we really don't know who all has nuclear weapons. And we've entered a situation where we have some crazies. We have some loose cannons out there. And I hope you read the article. It wasn't this latest good news, but the one before Mike Snyder's article, and he talked for a while about the EMP, the magnetic pulse weapon, and what could happen to a country if one is set off way up in the sky above.

So we live at the time here in verse 21, For then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world unto this time. No, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.

And so Christ is returning, because man will get ever so close to pushing the buttons that could end up with the extermination of life on the planet. And he will not allow that to happen. Man has had that capacity for many decades now, and God isn't going to let it happen. And so he's going to return, because as through Paul he wrote, God who will have all to be saved, he wants all to come to repentance and a knowledge of the truth.

And because of his love for his created sons and daughters here on the earth, he will not allow that to happen. He has a plan. Think of some of the biblical characters, even some of the more obscure ones. God has a plan for Uriah the Hittite. You know, what we know about Uriah the Hittite, I think I'm going to like that guy. What a man of character. And he probably died with no earthly idea what his king was doing. But then there are others like Queen Jezebel, and you know God's got a plan for her as well.

And then there are human beings that have walked this earth. People like, oh, I think of Lou Gehrig. What a marvelous ball player. And yet he came down with that disease, and it took his life. And God has a plan for him. God has a plan for every last human being. Why is Christ returning? Number three, to save Israel. So still within humanity, but let's narrow it down a little.

God began a plan long ago. We are introduced to a man whose name was Abram. Actually, he's mentioned at the end of Genesis 11, but we begin having the book focused directly on Abram, Abraham, in chapter 12. And in Genesis 12, verse 1, Now the Lord had said to Abram, Notice the past tense. We don't know how much earlier this had taken place, but God told him.

Get out of your country from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed. We find chapter 15, chapter 17, chapter 22.

Over and over it is repeated, and it is expanded. The plan that God designed was to choose, in this case, one man, his wife. They had to wait a long time for that son of promise. But then it began taking off as you get to Jacob, the third generation. He had twelve sons, and we had the events that we could follow where they ended up down in Egypt. But that was where they began mushrooming as far as numbers. They ended up in the most horrible state, but then God called them out, led them out under the guidance of Moses, his servant. And, of course, we know the story of the wilderness wandering years, the mistake that they made and the forty years that they wandered.

But then finally they entered that land. They followed Joshua into the Promised Land, and they conquered part of the country. They never finished the job. But they did have different tribes. You have descriptions of the territory given to each one. And they were there for quite some time. A lot of times they hit the ruts of the road. A lot of times there were mistakes. We get to the book of Judges, and it's just this ongoing cycle, this pattern of Israel going into sin, and then being oppressed, paying the price of their mistakes, and then crying out to God, and God would lift up a deliverer here or there, a judge.

And then finally we have the Kingdom of Israel that was established. And there were some good times under David. A lot of war, a lot of bloodshed, a lot of prosperity, a lot of peace, peace from all the nations around them in the days of Solomon. But we also know the rest of that story, how it followed along, and Solomon made his own mistakes, and God said, well, for your Father David's sake, I'll leave you with a little bit.

But he lost his son, Rehoboam, lost the bulk of the tribes. And of course, the house of Israel, sinned, and they went into captivity. They were destroyed. They were lost to the most on the earth. They were lost. They're called the Lost Ten Tribes. Most people don't know where they are. The House of Judah continued a little bit further. But there are prophecies that indicate a 2500-20-year postponement of blessings because of their sins.

And the House of Israel fell there in the 720s BC, and 2500-20 years later, what do you come to? You come to around 1100 AD. And just one marvelous blessing after another, as Great Britain came to her zenith, enter her heyday, and had literally an empire upon which the sun never set. And the United States, a young country, began coming along. And by the time we get through World War II, it is the greatest single nation on the face of the earth.

And so the blessings waited for a long time, but then they were poured out. You and I have lived through it. We live in a country that is increasingly forgetting God. This country does not want God in their lives. This country does not want God's definition of marriage from Chapter 2 of Genesis. This country does not want what God says a man shall not lie with another man like, and you know what it says.

We live in a country where I wonder how long will it be before the currency notes and the coins, it will be deemed illegal or unconstitutional to have those words in God we trust. When will the time come when over the Supreme Court building up high, they have all these great lawgivers in history, and up high, top center, you have Moses with two tables of stone. When will that be deemed as being unconstitutional?

It's not just history, it's something that we have to get rid of. It's painful to live through that, but God loves this country. He had a plan. I say this country, I mean the modern countries of the descendants of Abraham. He had a plan that began long ago, and he will return to spare Israel because he told them from the beginning, I'll be your God, you be my people, you'll be my kingdom of priests, and you will be an example to the other countries of the world, and through you my blessings will go to them.

Israel has never fulfilled that destiny, and God hasn't forgotten, even though our country and our peoples have forgotten. We don't know who we are, by and large. God will return and save Israel so that, in the millennium, as it will turn out, they finally will be that blessing, and others will go up to Jerusalem to see how it is done, and then go forth and learn. Let's look at Ezekiel 6. It is an unpleasant passage to look at and to dwell on.

But Ezekiel 6, he was sent to, as it says here, verse 3, the mountains of Israel, and yet when Ezekiel's work took place, the house of Israel had long gone and disappeared in captivity, and so it was not for an ancient time, it is for yet future. Verse 3, say now, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God, to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, to the valleys. Indeed, I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. Well, we have our places of worship. Some of them are Christian. We are welcoming by the droves those who are of the faith of Islam into our country.

And we have other religions, and all of those are going to go down. Your altars shall be desolate. Let's go down to verse 6. In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste. And no, I don't like to dwell on that, and you don't like to either. But that is what lies ahead. The destruction of this people, so that at the end, God can save them. Isaiah 27. There are so many places we can look at, but let's just cut to the chase here.

In Isaiah 27, our peoples will go into captivity. Vast numbers will die. We don't like to think about that either. Vast numbers will die in disease and in warfare, and just the rigors of going into captivity. And maybe around one in ten comes out the other side, and maybe it's just one in ten of that third that survived. But notice the end of Isaiah 27. Verse 12. And it shall come to pass, that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt.

And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be in that day, the great trumpet. You see, the last one, the seventh one, is always distinguished as being the great one. The great trumpet will be blown. They will come who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt.

And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. Chapter 11 also speaks of this coming second Exodus of Israel, traveling back to appear before God at Mount Zion. This day reminds Israel, the end time descendants of Israel, even if they don't know who they are, it reminds them.

It reminds us in the body of Christ that God will remember His promise. That God started with Abraham a long time ago, and His plan is right on time. And it will be realized. And the time will come when He'll take that little remnant and He'll start all over. And so today we tell God, remember me. Remember your people. Remember your church. Remember your promise that you gave to us so long ago. Why is Christ returning? Number four is to save the church. Those who are spiritually Israel. Let's go to Psalm 83.

Psalm 83 is a very prophetic psalm.

It essentially gives us a listing of peoples at the time of the end who are going to be allied to the beast power. But it also has a little bit to say about not only the people, the descendants of Abraham, the children of Israel at the time of the end, but also the church. Psalm 83, verse 1, Do not keep silent, O God. Do not hold your peace. Do not be still, O God. For behold, your enemies make a tumult. Maybe we need to remember the way it's worded there. Sometimes we look across and we see some of these rogue nations that are rattling their sabers right now. We look at some of these, I won't say that, some of these mentally challenged individuals out there who are making great threats against our country. And your enemies, God calls them. They're enemies of God. Yes, they're our enemies, too. They want us dead. They want our country to go down. They don't call us the big Satan for no reason at all. They don't call Israel the little Satan for no reason. They want us dead. Those who hate you, because ultimately they may hate us, but they hate God. Have lifted up their head. They've taken crafty counsel against your people. And consulted together against your sheltered one, your people. Think of that as far as national physical Israel at the end. And your sheltered ones. Would that not be? Could that not be a reference to the body of Christ? Because Revelation 12 does speak of a time when the earth itself is an open up to hide that remnant of God's people at the end. They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may no longer be remembered. And then it goes on with this long list of peoples who will be helping the beast, which is Satan's house that he builds one more time at the time of the very end. A call for God to intervene for his people and for his hidden ones. Let's go to Matthew 24.

Many places in the Bible tell us that it's by much tribulation we're going to enter the kingdom. We read that all who will live godly shall suffer persecution. We look around at a congregation. We look at the prayer requests that we forward on to you from week to week. And the people of God are suffering a great deal. There are those with visual problems. There are those with heart problems, blood pressure. There's so much diabetes, so many injuries. There are little children that it breaks our heart. They suffer the way they do.

We have those who have a doctor who tells them, well, you have this lump. Well, all lumps aren't created equally. There's lumps in our oatmeal that we may fuss about, but we don't mind. But then there are other lumps that are pretty serious. There are times when we look around and we feel like we're the halt, the lame, the aging. We're just happy to be here. We face many trials, many tests, because there are some things that we only see and come to realize by hurting. It gives us a different perspective. Only by turning up the heat is a precious metal purified. Well, in Matthew 24, verse 30, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, With power and great glory. And he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, And they will gather together his elect from the four winds, From one end of heaven to the other.

Why is Christ coming back? Well, he's going to gather the elect. He's going to save his church. He's going to gather them back together, and let's notice 1 Corinthians 15. His return coincides with that sounding of the last trumpet, the great trumpet. And we notice what takes place.

1 Corinthians 15, we'll just read verses 51 and 52. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We should not all sleep. And this is that beautiful biblical metaphor for death. We will not all die. Paul believed very firmly he was going to live to the time Christ returned. He had to change his mind later when he wrote his last book, 2 Timothy, when he said, I've run my race. My crown's laid up for me. He was okay with that. And I think we need to get to the point where we're okay with that. We've run a good race. Sure, we could have done things better. But there is that crown waiting for us. We shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now, the dead will be raised. Let's add a little bit here in 1 Thessalonians 4, because it is a little more specific where Paul said, this is the dead in Christ.

The dead in Christ will rise. 1 Thessalonians 4, beginning in verse 14.

Excuse me. Make that verse 13. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. Again, speaking of those, he's writing the church at Thessalonica. He doesn't want them to be ignorant. He wants them to be aware. There are those of our brethren who have died before us. I want you to know what is going to happen. You and I have brethren who have died all across the ages, way back to... who's the first one?

Abel, probably. Jesus referred to from righteous Abel.

All the way back. And they are a part of that august body that Paul here calls the dead in Christ. Those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. When we lose a loved one, when we lose one of us in the body, always sorrow. There's a void. There's a hole in our heart. But we should not sorrow as those who don't have any hope, because they don't know what's ahead. And they don't know if they'll ever see that person again. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed, those who are asleep. For the Lord himself would ascend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. And there are those who look at that Scripture and they proof text and they say, Aha! We're going off to heaven! Thank you, sir. But we have to follow to other Scriptures and ask, Where is the Lord going? And His feet are going to stand on the Mount of Olives. And He's pictured as they're seated and dividing the nations to the right and to the left. And the disciples, the apostles, were told, You're going to reign over the tribes of Israel, and those tribes are here on this earth. So, so many places tell us where He's going to be. But He's coming to save the church. God reminds us this day, Help is on the way. Help is coming. It won't go on the way that it may appear to so many in the world that don't have the hope burning within them that they need. Let's go to Revelation 11.

It has been a personal tradition of mine for a lot of years, wherever I speak on the day of trumpets, that I read Revelation 11, verse 15. This is one of the most exciting scriptures in all the Bible. But you know, chapter 11, there's a lot that transpires after that until we get to the time when John wrote this new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem came down. Until that time when he said, Ultimately God's plan as it unfolds, there's that time. There'll be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more crying, no more death. You know, we hate death. It's awful. And there's a time when it will end and it'll be a thing of the past.

But Revelation 11, verse 15, Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. But let's read on. The 24 elders, see again, in chapter 4, he described that throne of God in sight like unto an emerald. And these 24 elders, these spirit beings who are there, as apparently the counselors of God, the 24 elders who sat before God on their thrones, fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is, and who was, and who is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned, the nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time of the dead that they should be judged, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints, and those who fear your name small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven. You see, everything that was down here on the earth was patterned after the reality of what is in heaven. So the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the Ark of the Covenant was seen in His temple, and there were lightnings and noises, thunderings and earthquake and great hail. The Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant assures us that God will remember His promises. Think back to that Ark that the priests carried around on the staves through the rings on the sides. Inside was a couple of tablets of stone written on both sides, consisting of the commandments of God.

And you know, the last Holy Day we kept, with the pouring out of God's Spirit that began on the day of Pentecost, that pictured in part the writing of the law of God on our hearts, changing us from the inside out. Also at that Ark of the Covenant, either some things were in and some were in the parts on the outside, but you also had Aaron's rod that butted. Aaron's rod that butted. Remember that, at a time of great rebellion. And God said, all right, each of you come, bring your staff, bring this piece of dead stick you've been carrying around for years, and I'll show you where I'm going to work. And Aaron of the tribe of Levi, his dead stick sprang back to life, and that was kept to show where duly constituted authority lay. And it's not with any man. Human beings are always going to, human beings are going to let us down. In time, we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ, the head of the church, the one of whom Joshua was a type. Christ is the one who will lead us into the family of God, into the kingdom of God. There also, with that Ark of the Covenant, was a golden pot filled with manna. That which normally, at least here on the earth, that which normally the next day would stink and would have worms in it, as a never-ending miracle. God had Moses take that pot, put manna in it, and place it there with the Ark, to remind them that there was a perpetual miracle there, that he was always with them, he was always providing for them, he was leading the way. And to this day, you and I are reminded, we have, even though he has not yet come back, we have an active, living, high priest, who is also our King, our soon-coming King, and he is the one who has told us, I will come again, and I will send a comforter, and he has, and he has told us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So, brethren, as we pause on this day of trumpets, it's good that God commands us on these occasions to stop and to assemble, and open our word, His word, and hear what He has to say to us on this day. Let us look to, let us anticipate, the eventual climax of this feast, let us rejoice in what God has already provided us, let us anticipate the full realization, let us give thanks that Christ, even now, is King, reigning in our lives, and let us pray every day, thy kingdom come, and may the feet of Jesus Christ soon stand on the Mount of Olives.