Can you imagine a world without war? Where there is total peace? Can you picture, can you imagine, a world where justice reigns and righteousness is the rule? Where there is total unending joy and everlasting peace? Can you picture a world where health is such that if a person dies at age 100 he's considered dying as a child? Can you conceive of a world where children can play in snake pits and yet the snakes are friendly? And can you imagine where snakes find the children friendly and the animal kingdom is led by a child? Can you picture a world where the food is so overabundant yet the earth is filled with people? Can you picture a world ruled by one Person, one perfect mind, one perfect will being done all the time? Can you conceive of a world where all the politicians in charge are saints? I know that's a stretch. A world where there's no rebels, no evil people. In fact, the moment they even conceive of wickedness they're judged instantaneously with a rod of iron. Well you don't have to imagine that kind of a world. The Bible predicts it. That's God's kingdom that is coming and it will all be inaugurated by the coming of Jesus Christ---the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The first time He came, He came to deal with the sin issue, the salvation issue. Now He will deal with the sovereignty issue. He will be absolutely, totally in charge over His creation once again.

And that really takes place in verse 11. Chapter 19, as we have already seen, we begin an entirely new scope, a new view of the book of Revelation. Verse 11 is the verse we've been waiting to get to for 36 weeks. It's the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It says in verse 11: "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great." And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh."

I found out that there is a lettering type that newspapers use called The Second Coming type. That's what they call it and Second Coming type is large, bold-faced, banner-type lettering that is used to announce some astonishing event like it what was used at the end of World War II, when the war ended it was used, when JFK was assassinated, when Ronald Reagan had an attempt assassination, when the Gulf War commenced and ended, when the space missions were successful, they used Second Coming type, that bold, bannering across the newspaper. What kind of type will they use when the Second Coming really comes? That certainly is a headline event. In fact, this event is the climax of redemptive history. This is it---this is the pinnacle! This is when all of the prayers of all of the saints will be answered when they've cried out, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That hasn't been answered yet. His will is not being done now. His kingdom has not come in its fullness. But when this event happens, when Jesus comes out of heaven and comes to earth, stopping the war of Armageddon, He will set up His kingdom. It will come and His will will be done.

When this happens, the day of man will permanently end and the day of Jesus Christ will begin and it will never end. This will be the culmination of all of the hopes of God's people for all of the ages. And this is so significant an event that, though I have given you an outline in your bulletin, we're only gonna cover a couple of these points today. This is so important an event I want to look at this slowly and in depth and in detail so that when you witness this event in reality, you'll know what's happening. You won't be taken off guard. Actually, we have spent a long time in the book of Revelation. Many weeks, many months, we've talked about a lot of bad news and we've taken a turn, talking about the good news. It's like the end of the movie when the guy in the white hat on the white horse wins. And though we have seen some unbelievable cataclysmic catastrophes that will happen during the tribulation period, and we see that it will end with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and though people scoff at it, I have found an interesting poll conducted by Time Magazine. They did a special issue. In fact, the issue was called Future Poll. They did a phone poll of 800 people and they asked them questions and the poll revealed that by the end of the 21st century, 22% of the people who took this poll predict the earth will be under the rule of a one-world government. 11% think there will be a single worldwide religion, which we discussed in Revelation 17 will happen. More than half of the people surveyed, 53%, expect the return of Christ to occur within the next millennium. I think it's gonna happen a lot quicker than the next millennium but certainly within that time element, we can expect it.

Now today we want to look at these verses, verses 11 through 16, but we can't deal with all of the details. We simply want to look at the coming of the King and look at the Second Coming in the Scripture. And then we want to look at what the King is called, the various names that are given to Jesus Christ in this chapter. And that will take us to the end of our time. We don't have all that much time and it's senseless to try to cram it all together with such an incredible event. In verse 11, I draw your attention to what John sees: "Now I saw heaven opened". Now the first time he saw heaven opened he was caught up into heaven and the church wasn't spoken about after that event and now heaven is opened and he's gonna see coming from heaven to earth the armies of heaven with Jesus Christ. "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war." The end of the tribulation, the gates of heaven will be opened, Jesus Christ will appear there with all of His glory, with all of His angelic hosts, with all of His saints, and will come instantly, suddenly to the earth, and He will end what is called and what we have already read as the battle of Armageddon.

We need to emphasize this morning the suddenness of this event. It's an instantaneous event. It's not a long, drawn out process of setting up a kingdom. It happens quickly. In fact, the only weapon in this battle is the sword, verse 15, that comes out of the mouth of the One that sits upon this horse---Jesus Christ. The word of His mouth, as Paul said in Thessalonians. It will be sudden; it will be instant. The Bible never talks about a quiet coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible never talks about a process from one kingdom into the next kingdom, very slowly. The Bible never talks about the notion that, well we might now be in the kingdom of God and we just quite haven't realized it yet because it's a slow sliding and transition. You say, who on earth would believe that anyway? Well there are a lot of people that do. They're called post-millennialists. And they believe that it is the church's job to present the kingdom to Christ, that we will slowly take over human institutions, political institutions, and we will take them over and assume control. It'll be a righteous reign and eventually, as things get better and better in the earth because we will make them better, then suddenly the kingdom will come. But it will be a process. Other titles that these groups of people are called are reconstructionists; we reconstruct the present kingdom and make it fit for the coming one. Another title, kingdom theologians, kingdom theology, and that is that demons are in control of certain parts of the earth and we must bind the demons, wrest the cities and nations from the control of demons, and be in charge of them ourselves as we bind the territorial spirits and we will then give the kingdom to Jesus Christ.

Well, that's just not true. This event is sudden and we have little to do with it. Jesus has everything to do with it as we see in this chapter. And by the way, the world will not be getting better and better. I don't know if you've read the newspaper in the last 20 years but things don't seem to be getting all that better. In fact, the Bible clearly says they will get worse and worse before He comes again. The tribulation bears that out. you can't get any worse than what we have already read about in the weeks previous. The church will never conquer these kingdoms and give them to Jesus Christ. He will take over these institutions. You know, sometimes we as Christians, in our various groups, can become a little arrogant. As if God's program is all dependent upon us and poor God can't do it without us. It's sort of like the woodpecker pecking away at the tree, pecking, pecking hard, suddenly lightning came from heaven, struck the tree, and it fell over and the woodpecker flies back a little bit and said, look what I did! Well he didn't do much. It was God who did it with His power. For centuries, God's people have predicted and anticipated this event that we just read. Prophets have foretold it. God's people have anxiously been awaiting it. For 3500 years the Jewish people have prayed that the Messiah would come. In fact, Jewish prayer that they have prayed in their services is this: I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah and though he tarry, yet I will wait for him every coming day.

Of course, they're waiting for the first coming---which He has already made. One appearance. He already promised that He would return to the earth, that He has come and He will come again. There's a rabbi in Chicago, Rabbi Ekstein, who said that the events in the Middle East portend of Messianic times, that this is the age of the Messiah, he believes the Messiah will come soon. He said when the Messiah comes to the earth, I'm gonna have one question for Him: is this Your first visit or Your second visit? I don't know if he'll get to ask that question. We know it will be a second visit. Last week we saw, in one of these verses, that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy and we took and just touched on the odds of those 330 prophecies of Jesus' first coming being fulfilled and we saw they were astronomical. Well you ought to know this. Though there are a lot of predictions about Jesus coming the first time, there's a lot more of Him coming the second time---much more. In fact, next to faith, believing, next to faith there is no subject discussed more in the Bible than the Second Coming. The Second Coming is dealt with 1,845 times in the Bible, 1 out of every 30 verses mention it, 7 out of 10 chapters in the New Testament talk about it. For every one time the first coming is mentioned, the Second Coming is mentioned eight times. For every one time atonement is talked about in the Bible, the Second Coming is mentioned twice. 21 times Jesus refers to His coming again on a personal level and 50 times in the Bible the church is called to watch for it, to be ready for it, to prepare for it.

The prophets anticipated this event. They were all looking forward to the time when God's Messiah would set up the kingdom. There was the prophecy of God through Nathan the prophet to David that somebody from his offspring, his house, would establish an everlasting kingdom. That hasn't happened yet. Jesus is the greater Son of David by lineage, by birth, but He will have to come again to establish that kingdom. It is this event that was in the heart of God when Isaiah the prophet predicted it: for unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder and of the increase of His government and of His peace there will be no end. It's detailed, that kingdom, in Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah chapter 42, what we can expect to see on the earth when that kingdom is set up. Then there's Daniel, who writes so much about the future kingdom. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We remember when Nebuchadnezzar had a dream one night of successive kingdoms that he saw portrayed by a polymetallic image. He told the dream to Daniel and Daniel said these are kings that rule the earth and you're one of them. but he said those ten toes that you saw in that image, King, are the ten final nations that will gather together under one ruler and that'll be the last world-governing empire. Nebuchadnezzar said yeah but, Daniel, I saw something else in my dream. I saw this stone coming out of heaven and the stone hit the statue and, in my dream, I saw that the statue was disintegrated, blown away like dust on the threshing floor, and that rock grew up into a mountain that covered the whole earth. Daniel said what you saw is this: in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up His kingdom and that kingdom will never end. That was a picture of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Jesus anticipated this when He stood before Pilate and this Galilean peasant who was the King of kings and Lord of lords, but was going to the cross, was asked by Pilate, are You a king? I don't think he expected the answer he got. He said, it's good that you said I'm a King. You're right. But My kingdom is not of this world. He anticipated a time when He would set up His kingdom. He told His disciples about it. In fact, the disciples asked Him a question. They said what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age? Tell us about Your coming, You've mentioned it before. And He starts talking about His coming. He answers the question, Matthew 24 and 25, about the end times, much of what we've read about in the book of Revelation is covered in Matthew 24 and 25. In that text He says immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. 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 with great glory. This is what John sees: heaven is opened, Jesus is about to descend and come back to take over.

In the very next chapter, Matthew 25, Jesus further says when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all of the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him. Then there was the angel who predicted it to His disciples. Remember when Jesus ascended up into heaven and the disciples, the Bible says, just stood there and watched? I mean, they were blown away. Here's Jesus rising up into the atmosphere. They're just going, wow. And the angel said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus will come again in the same manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. That's quite a statement. For Jesus left visibly, physically, and from the Mount of Olives. That's exactly how He will return. Every eye will see Him. He'll come visibly. He will come physically and Zechariah says His feet will touch the Mount of Olives and it will split in two. Same way that He left. He promised to return and He will return.

Douglas MacArthur, when he left the Philippines at the beginning of World War II and fled to Australia, sent a letter back which said, I will return. Three years later, he stood on the shores of the Philippines and said, I have returned. In John 14, Jesus said if I go I will come again and in chapter 19 of Revelation verse 11, it's as if Jesus is saying, I have returned. I told you I'd come back and here I am. The Second Coming is not only a theme of the prophets, it's not only a theme of the New Testament, it's a theme, as it should be, of the great songs of the church. I think any Christian church should sing songs anticipating the return of Jesus Christ. I don't really think it's a New Testament church without that theme. A song we sang last week that was written during the Civil War says mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. That was written when troops were going off to battle and young men were being killed and the woman who wrote that song anticipated the time when Jesus would end all wars at His Second Coming. Charles Wesley used the Second Coming as a theme to 5,000 of his 7,000 songs. 5,000 of his songs had the Second Coming as a theme. Isaac Watts wrote about it in the song Joy to the World the Lord is come. Sorry to disappoint you but that's not about Christmas---it's about the Second Coming. When earth would receive her king and He would rule and reign in righteousness. The song How Great Thou Art by Stuart Klein says when Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart.

Well it goes without saying, doesn't it then, that we as Christians should long and love His appearing? When you hear about the Second Coming it should be something that stirs your heart. Not like, been there, done that. You haven't been there. You haven't done that. It's something that we look forward to with such anticipation. In fact, when Paul the apostle was facing his last days upon the earth, before his death he wrote a letter to young Timothy. And he wrote these words: finally there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, our righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but to everyone who has loved His appearing. A Christian is defined in that text as someone who loves His appearing. Who looks for it; who longs for it. Do you long for His appearing? You know, there's two ways to look at the Second Coming. You can look at it or you can look for it. You can be like the observer who has a lot of intellectual knowledge about prophecy and is very astute as to the chronology of when things happen but it never affects him personally. Or you could be a person who doesn't know much about the theology, you're just in love with Jesus Christ, and you can't wait for Him to come back. And you live personally in the light of that. It's the difference between people who were invited to a wedding and the bride. They come and look at the wedding. She's looked for that day. She longs for it. The church is a group that has longed or loved His appearing.

Of course, what we are looking for is the first phase of that: the Rapture of the church which will usher in the Second Coming. And though we've touched on that in Revelation, next week I'm gonna go a little bit more into detail about those two events. But the reason we long for it and love it so much is because it will bring a new world order. I'm not talking about a political new world order that one of our presidents said. I'm talking about the real new world order---God style. It's interesting when I hear terms like the new world order, I always ask, whose? When I hear terms like the New Age: which one? Our president George Bush with his new world order said that he envisioned today when the nations of the earth would sit down and bring peace themselves. But after the Gulf War he said, you know, even the new world order will not be able to perpetuate peace. But God's new world order will. That's why we long for it. This is it. This is the event that changes the face of history. Once and for all. Truly a new age is coming---the age of the Messiah.

Now I think in our culture it's a bit harder to love His appearing. In a culture that is so pampered with creature comforts, who really doesn't know what it is to suffer much, we kind of like where we are, we like what we have. Ok, a coming kingdom is great but you know, some of us would say I've got it pretty good right here. But in other cultures where Christians are more persecuted and it's harder to live, they long for that appearing so much more. And perhaps, now that America is changing, and as they say the glory days of America are over and it's on a steady decline, maybe that will put it into the hearts of Christians to love His appearing more. And if that's the case then so be it---let it be. That we long for not our earthly home, but something that God has in store for us. I remember somebody said I hope Jesus doesn't come back before I get married. I said why? Don't you want Him to come back? No I don't want Him to come back now! I'm planning to get married here; I want to see what that's like first. I'm thinking this poor gal has no clue to what's up ahead. As if the joys of marriage are gonna be so much better than heaven. That didn't quite come out right and I will move on.

"Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war." There are four titles given to Jesus Christ in verses 11 through 16. It's intriguing. There are 700 titles in the Bible of Jesus. 4 are given at His Second Coming. This is what John sees and what he hears. And let's look at these names that He is called by. First of all, He's called Faithful and True. Why? Well, He's in contrast to the Antichrist who is unfaithful and false. Remember the Antichrist has been in charge up to this point for a long time. He promised Israel a covenant and he broke the covenant. He was unfaithful to the covenant. By manipulation and by deception, he'll cause the world to take a mark, the mark of the beast. He'll try to control them. He is unfaithful. He is false. Jesus, it says here, is Faithful and He is True. Why is He faithful? Because He's made promises that He is going to keep. All of you know somebody who's made a promise. People who have made you promises and every time they make you a promise, you think yeah right. Sure, I've heard that before. Good talk, great promise. But it'll never happen. I know this guy's track record. It's just not gonna happen. Because a promise is only as good as the one who makes it. And sometimes people make promises and there are loopholes in them. well you know and I did say and it's in fine print, if you'll look... Erma Bombeck, I love some of her writings and her insights. She tells a lot of good stories. And one of her favorite, what she calls Jewish grandmother stories, goes like this: This grandmother took her grandson to the beach one day complete with bucket, shovel, and sunhat. The grandmother dozed off and as she slept a large wave dragged the child out to sea. The grandmother awoke and was devastated. She fell to the ground and on her knees she prayed, God, if You'll save my grandchild I promise I'll make it up to You. I'll join whatever club You want me to join. I'll volunteer at the hospital. I'll give to the poor and do anything that makes You happy. Suddenly a huge wave tossed her grandson on the beach at her feet. She noticed color in his cheeks and his eyes were bright. He was alive. She stood up, however, and seemed to be upset. She put her hands on her hips, looked skyward and said sharply, he had a hat on, You know!

Now Jesus will always keep His promises. He said if I go I will come again. We see Him coming again. He promised forgiveness, whoever would confess their sins that He would be faithful and just to forgive sin. And there are also His promises that He would avenge His elect, that He would bring wrath and judgment on the earth. Now I know that there are some promises that people just don't like in the Bible. They sort of have their fifth gospel, all of the verses they like and they throw out the ones they don't like. Like judgment, wrath, vengeance. I don't want to deal with that but peace and joy and salvation, I'll focus on that. Listen, Jesus is just as faithful to keep those promises as the other ones. He's faithful. He's true. What He said will come to pass and here He comes as this warrior king to end the nonsense of the Antichrist. He's also called, not only Faithful, but True. You could look at that a couple of ways. Number one, He always tells the truth, but that goes without saying. The word in Greek means the embodiment of truth or genuine. He is genuine. He's not somebody who just tells the truth---He is the truth! He's the bureau of standards for truth. Jesus said I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life.

It's different than saying I'll show the way, I know the way, I have some truth. I have part of the truth. He said I am the Truth. That's pretty dogmatic, isn't it? In fact, the original Greek translation of the Bible as seen by Kenneth Wiest who translates it, puts it this way: I, in contradistinction to everyone else, am the only way, truth, and the life. It's very narrow. You say well that's pretty dogmatic. Yeah, truth can afford to be dogmatic, I think. It's funny. I had a teacher in school that was so dogmatic that 2 and 2 always had to equal 4---no negotiations! Why can't it equal 5? Let's debate on this issue! No. F. It always equals 4. Jesus said I am the Truth, I am the Way, I am the Life. Then He said something that's even narrower. Nobody will come to the Father unless they come through Me. He is Faithful and He is Truth.

And then He has another name given in verse 12. We don't know what it is but we'll read about it anyway: "His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself." It's funny how people will come up and ask me, what is that name? You can only conjecture, can't you? No one knows! We don't like statements like this. You know, if a kid says I have a secret. What is it? I can't tell you. Or somebody will say I have something really important to share with you, brother, but I can't. Well, why'd you even tell me that? And so we don't like statements that sort of lead us on. There's a new name---what is it? Well nobody can know what it is. Why is that written? I think simply to show us that there is part of the nature of Jesus Christ that is unfathomable. That even in heaven you'll be learning about Jesus Christ. You know, part of Jesus' nature is knowable. That's the reason we can love Him and follow Him. He's revealed Himself to us. But there's another part of His character that is like a fathomless depth of an ocean. He cannot be contained. He is infinite in His nature. Ephesians chapter 2 tells us that in the coming ages He will show His incomparable riches of His grace. Think of that. In heaven, you'll still be learning about Him. Then He's called a third title in verse 13 and it's a familiar title: "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood," we'll discuss some of that next week, "and His name is called the Word of God." He's called the Word of God.

John was the one who introduced us to the Word of God in the first chapter of his Gospel, right? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And as you open up John's Gospel you think, that's an odd way to introduce us to a person, by giving Him a title such as the Word. Why? It sounds like it's not even a personal title. Well he was bringing in an audience. Jewish people would've understood that concept. In fact, the Jewish people had a name for God called Memrah in Hebrew which is 'the word'. They thought the name of God is so holy, so ineffable, that we don't want to transgress by saying it so they would substitute the divine name with the Hebrew word memrah. The Greeks also used the term---the Word. They called it the logos. That's the Greek word: logos. The Word. And the Greeks would notice that the universe is ordered and is predictable. The sun rises every morning. You can chart the course of the stars. That there are predictable patterns of the universe. It's orderly. And so they asked the question what is the origin and the source of this order? They said it's the logos. In fact, Heraclites, 500 years before Christ, said the universe can be explained by the unitary principal of reason or the logos. So when John said here is the Word of God, to the Jews it would be like here's the memrah, here is that which is in the place of what we call God. This is God's ultimate expression in Christ. And to the Greeks, here's the reason that the world is ordered because of this logos. And then he said and the logos became flesh and He dwelt with us and we saw Him. It was God living among us. So it's understandable that John would see in this vision this One who is also called then the Word of God.

And then finally, and we'll close with this, He's given the title of sovereignty. Verse 15: "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." That's His victorious name. That's the name of sovereignty. We've already read a couple verses ago that He had many crowns on His head. No matter who's in charge, the Antichrist or whatever kings of the earth have allied with him, He is now moving them over. And they must all submit to Him. He's now the King of all the kings, the Lord of all the earthly lords. He's about to bring in His everlasting kingdom. And the next time we get together, we'll see how He lives up to this title and assumes total control of the earth. But I want to close on this note. He's called King of kings and Lord of lords---is He your King? Is He your Lord? Have you experienced His faithfulness and His truth on a personal level? Can you say I'm walking with Him and I know He's faithful to me? He is the truth that I have embraced in my life. I'm following Him. I love Him. Do you love His appearing? Do you long for His appearing? Instead of just getting disgusted at what you read in the newspapers, do you ever close them and just go, I can't wait until You set up Your kingdom, Lord Jesus? You know, I heard a story of a honeymoon couple. They went to their hotel. They get there late, wee hours of the morning. They checked in, walked into their room. Now they expected a honeymoon suite. They expected a view; they expected chocolates, flowers, bed all made up. They opened the door and they found no view, no flowers, no chocolates, no bed but a little couch with worn-out springs. The next morning, the groom walked down to the manager. He was ticked off. He said I wanted this room, I expected it to be ready and I came into this room and this is all there is---this couch. Manager said, young man, did you open the door to the bedroom? That was the anteroom. He goes, you mean, that door? I thought that was the closet door. I didn't even bother to open it. The manager took him upstairs, opened the doors, and there was a beautiful suite: a view, flowers, chocolates, and yes, a bed. Can you imagine how they felt when they saw that? It's like, why didn't I just check it out at least? Why didn't I just look around? You know how many people go through this earth and this earth to them is like that room. This is all they know; this is all there is. Really? You gonna be that lame to not check it out? Open the door? See what God has prepared for those that love Him? So that you can long and love for His appearing? I want to close with something I found. It's a fine book that Max Lucado wrote about this whole issue. He said we understand what Paul meant when he wrote, we groan inwardly and we wait eagerly our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Groan---that's the word. An inward angst. The echo from the cavern of the heart. The sigh of the soul that says the world is out of joint, awry, misspelled, limping, something is wrong. The room is too cramped to breathe. The bed is too stiff for rest. The walls are too bare for pleasure. And so we groan. It's not that we don't try. We do our best with the room we have. We shuffle the furniture, we paint the walls, and we turn down the lights. But there's only so much you can do with the place. And so we groan. And well we should. Paul argues, we were not made for these puny quarters, while we are still in this tent we groan and are burdened. Our body, a tent? Not a bad metaphor. I've spent some nights in tents. Nice for a vacation, but not intended for daily use. Flaps fly open, winter wind creeps from beneath, summer showers seep from above, canvas gets raw, and tent stakes come loose. We need something better. Paul argues that something we need is permanent. Something painless. Something more than flesh and bone and until we get it, we groan. I know I'm not telling you anything new. You know the groan of the soul. You don't need me to tell you it's there. But maybe you do need me to tell you it's ok. It's alright to groan. It's permissible to yearn, longing is a part of life. It's only natural to long for home when you're on a journey and we're not home yet. We're orphans at the gate of the orphanage awaiting our new parents. They aren't here yet. But we know they're coming. They wrote us a letter. We haven't seen them yet but we know what they look like---they sent us a picture. We're not acquainted with our new home yet but we have a hunch about it. It's grand---they sent us a description. And so what do we do here at the gate where the now already meets the path of the not yet? What do we do? We groan. We long for the call to come home. But until He calls, we wait. We stand on the porch of the orphanage and wait. And how do we wait? With patient eagerness. We are hoping for something we do not yet have and we are waiting for it patiently. We eagerly wait for our adoption as sons, said Paul. Patient eagerness. Not so eager as to lose our patience. Not so patient as to lose our eagerness. Yet we tend to one or the other. We grow so patient we sleep. Our eyelids grow heavy. Our hearts grow drowsy. Our hope lapses. We slumber at our post. Or are we so eager that we demand, we demand in this world what we have only in the next? No sickness, no suffering, no struggle, we stomp our feet and shake our fist, forgetting that it is only heaven that such peace is found. We must be patient. But not so much that we don't yearn. We must be eager but not so much that we don't wait. We'd be wise to do what the newlyweds never did. We'd be wise to open that door, stand in the entryway, gaze in the chambers, gasp at the beauty, and wait. Wait for the Groom to come and carry us, His bride, over the threshold. That's what we're gonna do in the next few weeks as we go through the Revelation 19, 20, 21, 22. We're gonna gaze into the portals of our future. And I hope and pray the more we do, the more you can't wait for what's ahead. And the more and more this world will have less and less of a grip. Or however you should state that. I just pray that more and more we would yearn for what God has.