The Future - The Assurance Of God's Word

Good morning, my wife and I were blessed last two weeks. I've got to see your grandkids and New Mexico. Then we went on to Texas for my nephew's wedding and it was good to get back you all. So here's our scripture reading this morning. It's the second Timothy 1:9 through 12, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. But according to his own purpose and Grey's, which was given to us in Christ Jesus Before Time begin. But now now that has now been revealed by the period of our Saviour. Jesus Christ was abolished death, brought life immortality to the light through the gospel. Which I was appointed a preacher and Apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles for this reason. I also suffer these things. Never less. I am not ashamed for, I know whom I have believed, never swear you that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day. You may be blessed for the reading and hearing of God's word, Maybe.

Thank you, Mike for we just want to have a word of prayer for Kevin schimpke. He's going for eye surgery tomorrow and James chapter 5 talks about if anybody is sick. Well, as far as we know, Kevin is not really sick in the normal terms and sew it also costs, a let the elders come and anoint him with a well and pray for him and the anointing with oil to the nation. Israel was a type of the giving of the Holy Spirit and so we won't ask the Holy Spirit to be with Kevin and guide the doctor's hands. I don't know how many of you have had high surgery. But I remember when I had eye surgery back at UCLA in the doctor described what he was going to do and it gave me the willies. So it's not something that you like to think about what you have confidence, that they have learned what to do and know what they're doing. And so your trust the Lord to guide their hands. Spray for Kevin and his wife. Father, we come to you this morning. And we thank you for the fact that you are the great physician. We thank you for the fact that you know, aren't age. I know we pray that you will guide the doctor's hands as he cares for Kevin as he performed this surgery to drain the oil from is detached retina. And we pray that it will be restored to perfect health so that he can continue in the field and you have let him to we pray. Lord that he may be in the same position that the Apostle Paul was in who prayed to have his sight restored. And you said no my grace is sufficient for you and we pray that Kevin may have confidence in your grace and in spite of that that you will bring healing to his eye and Care through the doctors and Physicians and nurses. We just pray that you will be with him and his wife Bella tomorrow that you'll be close to them and make them aware of our prayers. Only today. But through the days to cut.

I want to talk to you this morning for a few minutes about the future. As you have watched, the news you've been aware of the fact that our country is in turmoil. The world is in turmoil. There have been a number of things that have come up. And we wonder why is this happening to us? Because we believe that America's founded on Christian principles. We believe that we have been faithful and most cases to the Lord, but none, the less things are happening, and we don't know about them. I know that many of you have been concerned about this. Nobody seemed to know where they force, the au pair of a Down area are oh, well, it's not the apparel. So, I mean it's not the down arrow. So let's try the other one. That's Is that this one? No, is it this one?

Well, I tell you what, I'll do. Have you got one back there? Daryl. I'll try and let you know when we have to go to the next one. As I am not smart enough to run this machine. I hope I can run the one up here and see what I need. Let's go to the introduction a number of years ago. Some of the you remember this situation, Donald Rumsfeld who was then the secretary of defense was being questioned as I recalled by a number of the press and they asked him, how could this happen? I don't know what it was that they were concerned about. Maybe it was 9:11 or whatever, but they said, how come we didn't know about this. How come intelligence didn't inform us about this. We've got intelligence and counterintelligence and so on and his answer was something that I thought about it for a while. And I thought that's true with regard to the Lord's word. And so I won't tell you what he said. He said, we know what we know. And in some cases, we know what, we don't know. But in some cases, we don't know what we don't know. And so as we come to the first point, that's we know what we know. And I want to talk about that a little bit today. And look at the first point under that, we know that Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a terminal life. I don't want to take a few minutes to look at John 3:16 with you. It says for God. So loved the world. I'm going to stop right there. It starts with for God. There are influences in the world today, which have been income increasingly strong that helped us as a result of the adversaries work to the existence of God in Hebrews chapter 11. It says he that cometh to God must believe that he is, or is there an Abby says that he exists? That's the first step and the adversary knows what we're talk to deny. God is easy to put all kinds of things in place and not pay attention to what God's word says. But it says here in John 3:16 for God. That's the first step. We must know. God, we must pay attention to his word. Now. Let me illustrate something. Just to you to make you think a little bit about this. Supposing the week after creation, you happen to be at the Garden of Eden and you met Adam and Eve Walking in the cool of the day with the Lord. As the scripture, tells us he did. What? Adam b a 2 week old baby? No. No, he wouldn't. He was a full grown man. God had created him as a full grown man. Will let me take that. A step further supposing, you were to cut down all the trees. Would they have rings in them? Of course, they would. God was intelligent enough to make all things with a parent age. Supposing, you look up in the sky. Would you see the stars that were millions of light-years away? Were told. Yes, you would because God created them and made them visible. God is Sovereign, he has a purpose in his creation and he will bring it to pass. And the scripture says in John 3:16 God so loved the world. There are number of people in the world today who say that. Christ only died for a certain number of people, is called the doctrine of limited atonement. That's not what. This verse says, says, for God, so loved the world.

Everybody on Earth. Christ's sacrifice was sufficient to pay all of their sins. Every single one, God's sacrifice of his son was sufficient to pay for your sins and mine. And anyone else who accepts That's the truth of God's word over and over again, the scripture emphasizes. Who's whoever Will May Come. For God. So loved the world that he gave.

It's important to understand that in the world. Today. There's a great deal of emphasis on being the best. You possibly can and maybe you'll learn righteousness. Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6, says, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Now, some of you have been in shops mechanical shops, you know, that you don't store greasy Rags. The NIV uses that term greasy Rags, you don't store them inside the shop because eventually they'll catch fire and burn your shop down. And they are absolutely useless when you're working for cleaning your hands. Why? Cuz they got grease and oil on them. Their filthy rags. They're not good for anything except to be thrown away or completely cleaned and start again. That's the way the Lord pictures are works, you know, centuries ago, the Greek philosopher Plato.

Made the statement. We do our best and God does the rest.

Well, that's not true. Cuz all our best is filthy rags. We have nothing in ourselves, The Book of Romans says, there is none righteous. There is none that doeth good, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the truth of God's word for God. So loved the world that he gave. Salvation is a free gift. You don't have to do anything in spite of what the song says that Santa Claus is coming to town. You better be good and he better not cry. It's on itself. What God gave without us doing anything. God gave us through his son. It turn alive. That's what counts for God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God. That whosoever. I talked about that earlier and I will talk about it again. Who's whoever believeth in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. How long does Everlasting last? Forever. Is there anything that that verse or any other worship? Is that indicates that you can somehow lose your salvation? No, cuz God gave it. He's the one that guarantees it and he says it's ever lasting. Now. If you are not obedient to God, God treat you as a child of his and he will discipline you. That may involve 1st Corinthians, 11 taking you home to be with him. You don't want that to happen. I remember a number of years ago, talking with a lady. I would not been faithful to her husband and she said well, that's none of your business. That's between me and God. You don't want to say that. Because the scripture says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.

God will discipline you as his child. He will make sure that you will take care of that either here or you'll stand before him. In order to be corrected and in order to understand that God is in charge. So it's important to understand what such a verse is. John 3:16 Says God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Now, I want to tell you one other thing. That we know. And that is, we know that unbelievers will suffer Eternal punishment. Revelation chapter 20 verse 12 near the close of the New Testament says this. And I saw the Dead.

Remember what John 3:16 Says have everlasting life. Those who don't have life are dead and the scripture refers to those who are spiritually dead. As the debt. I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is The Book of Life. And then it says in the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books. God keeps track of everything you do. And you may think that God will balance, stop the good against the bad, but you know what? God expects absolute Holiness and he's provided that as a gift who is selling the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you depend upon your own works, the bad is going to weigh the good because all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They don't count for anything in God's sight. That's the truth of God's word. That's what we can know. Because we're told that and God's word. We know what we know. Now, the second point is that, we know what we don't know.

Let me show you a verse in Scripture. And that's in the first John. Chapter 3.

Beloved now. Are we the sons of God and the death? Not yet appear? What we shall be.

The Apostle John is talking about eternity.

And he says, we don't know what we're going to be like. We only know one thing and that is we shall be like him for. We shall see him as he is, but we don't know much about what we'll be like in eternity. We only are assured that we will be like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's important, understand because there's a great deal about eternity that we don't know. And I want to talk about that more when I get to the third point. What is important? Understand that we will not know what we look like? That is what kind of a body will we have? Will we be able to do anything? We want to do, we don't even understand and comprehend fully. We know that the scripture says they will be an endless day. But we have never experienced that we don't know what that's like, I'd guess to be a certain time of night or early morning in some cases and we eventually get sleepy. And we go to sleep. Maybe we're having a long drive and then we keep stretching in the scratch them, but we eventually get after a certain amount of time to where we need sleep. What will it be like living in an eternity? Where there is no night. We know.

What? We don't know. We don't know what it will be. Like, I have no time. Analyst day, but we know that Revelation chapter 22 verse 5 says and there shall be no night there. And they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord. God. Give them life and they shall reign forever and ever, that's the promise of God. Gosh. No, not endless day. It's incredible. When you think about it. I've talked to some of you about Mary going home to be with the Lord. We're going to get there on exactly the same David. She got there. That's incredible. When you stop think time passes here and we take all this a long time. There is no time in heaven. And we know that. And yet, we don't know it. We have never experienced anything like that and yet God promises because of what he gives us and salvation. He gives us eternal life. That's what's important. We know what's important and God is revealed to us. What's important and therefore we know that even though there's a great number of things that we don't know some of them, we know. Now. The third thing is that we don't know what we don't know. And I thought about this and I realized what Donald Rumsfeld was trying to say, but the interesting part is that it's hard to think of anything while I know what. I don't know when that case, don't you don't? You just know what it is, but you still don't know about it. We are told, is, what we are told is beyond our comprehension. One analyst day is beyond us. In that endless day, what will we do?

What kind of activity will we perform? Well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't have any idea. I would think that after a certain amount of time. Let it be over. But it's not going to be, it's going to go on forever and ever and ever. God's going to see to it. That there is activity for us in heaven and we will enjoy the Peace of heaven. We will enjoy his presence. I think about a number of things and I want to get to one here pretty quick. Where will we go? What will you do? Where will we go? Will there be land on somewhere? We can go? Oh,, we just go wherever we like. During the Millennium. Can we come and visit Boise, Idaho, or some other place? I don't know. I don't know. The Bible says, we will rule and reign with the Lord during that time. What does that mean? Does that mean we'll be local and being limited in our sphere? Or does that mean? We can go wherever we choose to go? I don't know. I don't know. But God knows and he's got it all organized. He's got it put together and just to show you how my mind works. Will it be a big dining hall in heaven?

I don't know whether you've thought about that or not, but the Bible speaks about the marriage supper of the Lamb. And the picture of that is found in the Lord's first miracle in Kano Gallery. When they were gathered for the wedding Feast. Everybody was eating together. Everybody was drinking the other. The entire crew I was going to say was there. What's it going to be like in heaven? Can you imagine how big the dining hall would have to be? For the millions of people that will be Believers and we know they'll be a great multitude.

How will we even know who the Apostle Paul is? How will we know all of those people? I don't know where they wear name tags. Probably not. We'll probably just know, but I don't know that. I don't know that and you don't know it, but when we understand how great God is, we begin to understand what he's prepared for us. For God. So loved the world, you know, we talked a few minutes ago, about some people going to hell. And sometimes people say why, loving God would send anybody to Hell. Let me really explain that. Help. You understand it, a loving God would give it ternal life to anybody who wants it.

A gift not required that they do anything, not to require that they be anything not require that they come to church every Sunday. Not require that they join the right Church. None of that whosoever will May Come. And receive the gift of everlasting life. Now if you refuse that if someone refuses then, God is just as just as he is loving. Equally as much. And he will see to it. That in every case, if you refuse his gift, you will suffer Eternal punishment. Can you imagine that? Being in the Lake of Fire forever and ever and ever. And after you're done, still being there.

That's God's justice. Here's equally as loving as he is just that's why he gave us his son. That's why he offers the free gift of eternal life.

It's not that God is not loving cuz the scripture says for God, so loved the world. All of the people in the world. But if they refuse that gift, he will bring judgment upon them. So we don't know a lot of things. About a trinity. All of this, we don't know and it is beyond our imagination to even think of some of these questions.

You know, you can think of some things maybe that I can think of maybe your mind works differently. I'm sure it does differently than mine. But maybe you've never thought of a large going and call big enough to accommodate everybody and that may not be there. I don't know. But it occurs to me that if we're having a marriage supper of the Lamb, we got to have somewhere to go. I remember the story that was told about a person who died and got to have it, and the course is always saying Peta, that shows them around for some reason why they're saying, Peter, we're showing them around and they walked past one of them while he was that. Well, that's the Presbyterians. And who is that in that room or less than as a range? And then came to one room and it was the door was closed. And he said, who is in there. He said the Baptist. They think they're the only ones here. We have to realize that there's a great deal about having that we don't know. But I don't believe that anyone will be segregated according to what church, they went to. I believe that we will all know the Lord and have fellowship with him in spite of even how we were baptized, because I know the people that know, the Lord on our faithful to him have been baptized even in different ways. I practice a certain type of baptism as this church does baptism by immersion because I think it shows the right picture but there's going to be people in heaven. That weren't baptized that way. My mom for one. I know she's going to be there. That's the thing of it. Is that all of this? We don't know. We don't know and don't understand, I can't comprehend, but God knows. God knows, and he has a plan for everyone of us. He has planned it out and he knows exactly what's going to happen and his plan began long before time began, when he loved us and made plans to send his son to die for us and give us eternal life. That's his plan. And the scripture says that the dog does not, will that any should perish? But that all should come to repentance. It is not God's desire for anyone to refuse his gift. There will be many, that do.

But that's not God's purpose. God's purpose is to redeem every single individual. God wants us to believe his word and to accept his son as our savior. Any offers that as a gift. Now years ago. I was talking to a friend of mine that has gone to the same Police Academy that I had gone to. He'd been a policeman for a number of years and he was dying of cancer. I sat down with him and I said to him go and now I want to share something with you and I shared with him how God had given us eternal life. And I went through the process Heaven, is a free. Gift is not only deserve, man, has missed the mark the bullseye. That's the word, that's indicated. A lack of refraction and Glenn. Being a police officer had shot his pistol as I had every single month for many years. And It is a human impossibility. The shoot a pistol, every single month for a year and hit the bullseye every single time because eventually Augustine when will come up and either blow your hand, a little off track, or blow the bullet, a little off track, and you'll miss, maybe I'll only miss by this much, but it's a Miss. That's the concept of sin. All have sinned, all have missed the mark. None of us are perfect. But God, offers salvation is a free gift. I'm going to look at me when I asked him. I said, what do you accept the gift? He said a guard be crazy not to. A guy would be crazy not to, that's right. That's what God has done for us. He's giving us a free gift. Now. I want to say a couple of things in conclusion. The future is in God's hands. This we know and we trust his faithfulness to provide the best for his children. The future is in God's hands. Not in Joe Biden's hands, not a lot of Trump's hands, but in God's hands, God knows what he wants, and he will accomplish his purpose. We need to be prepared for eternity had to tell others that the job, he has left us to do his shows in us to give the truth of the word of God daughters. That is the job for us. Our job is not to worry about the future. Our job is not to try and arrange the politics of the world. Although we have a responsibility to vote. We are not going to ultimately control things. We're not going to change the climate, cuz God has created the climate. And he's in charge. He will see to it that nothing goes wrong until he's ready for it. Every single thing, God knows every detail. You remember the scripture that talks about a bird doesn't fall from the sky without the father, knowing it. God takes care of us and he takes care of every one of his creatures and he knows what's happening. This we are assured from God's word. So we know all of that, we can know that for sure. But there's a great deal. We don't know. But one thing we do know again, is that we must accept the gift that I wanted and closing just illustrate this. Some of you have heard this illustration before, but I want tell it to you again. Supposing, you leave here this morning. And you drive out of the parking lot and you go to the stop sign to Jack Tone Road.

and for some reason, or other You missed the stop sign and roll right through it.

And I know that would never happen to any of you but let's just suppose that happens. And there's a car coming from the other direction. And you collide. And totaled both cars. And all that time right around the corner, there's a CHP officer sitting in a funny-looking vehicle with painted, weird with weird colored lights on it and he smiles and walks up to your car and gives you your ticket amongst other things that your promise to appear in court.

And when you get the court. The judge says, well, how do you plead? And you think, well, it doesn't do any good to plead not guilty cuz of CHP officer was sitting right there watching me. And so you plead guilty. And the judge looks at you for a minute, and he said, there are no. They can paid quite a bit for medical costs cuz both of you were injured, although not severely, you were injured had to go to hospital and so on and so forth. You have to repair your car and you can't afford a big fine. So if you'll step over to the bailiff, he has a check made out to the county in your name. All you have to do is sign it.

Would you take the check? Yes. Yes, you would you would wonder what cord do you rent at that point? I would too but supposing that happened. The judge said that and he said and by the way, I know that you wrecked your car and the bailiff will have the keys to a new car and he'll give them to you. And he also has a credit card. Or you can pay all the expenses from now on for that car. Because it has a lifetime warranty.

And at that point you will come to shake your head and wonder what cord here in. That's what God does. He pays the fine for the wreck that were in. He pays for new life and he assures us that it's going to work and it works because he's given us his holy spirit to maintain it. That's what God does. May God enables today to trust him cuz I don't worry about the events of the world to trust him for the future and know that he has a plan for us to enable us to be with him for eternity.

Let's try to get in prayer. Father. We thank you for your word. We thank you. That there are certain things that we can know about your word. There are certain things that we are told. We thank you that you have described to us your great love. And who you are? And what you give us? Eternal life. Are we pray that today? Lord, each one of here may once again be reminded even though they know this truth be reminded of what they know. And in addition may they be reminded of what they don't know? When they know, they don't know and what they don't know, they don't know. And I have faith in you. That you are the one who is The Sovereign God, who is in charge of everything? In the universe and you have prepared a place for them for eternity. Is beyond our comprehension what you have done for us, but we pray for the that you won't able us to live for you. I'm just as the judge you. And we are graded. Put pray for our needs. We asked that we will return to you out of gratitude for what you have done our service. Bless us. Lord, as we seek to accomplish your purpose in the world today. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

We're going to sing and closing the course of I know whom I have believed. That's the scripture that Mike read from 2nd Timothy and it is the theme of this message. We know God, we know that we believed in him and were persuaded that he is able to keep that which we've committed to him against that day. If you don't know the Lord. Speak to me on the way out. Will either deal with it right away. If you want to or will come and visit with you and help you to know for sure that you have eternal life. It's the most important decision you will ever make me. God, enables us to do that.