The Gospel

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SUNDAY 21 JUNE 2026 – MR CIARAN THOMPSON

THE GOSPEL

 

The apostle Paul says in Romans that he was not ashamed of the gospel because he said “it was the power of God onto salvation for anyone who believes.” For every man who believes, every woman, every child who believes. And he says later on “and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” But he said “how can they call on the one they have not believed in? How can they believe in the one they have not heard about? And how can they hear about someone if someone does not preach to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” Paul also says in Romans that God does reveal himself independently of the gospel. He reveals himself in creation. And he says men are without excuse for not knowing God – they know him through conscience and through the commandments as well. But we are commanded to share the gospel because that embodies the whole truth of God and God will judge people based on what they were exposed to in life. But we know that the gospel or we should know that the gospel is not just about people like me standing up here and preaching. It's a certain kind of lifestyle as well. Paul says elsewhere in 1 Timothy to watch your life and your doctrine closely. So, it's not just a doctrine, it's a lifestyle as well. If we say we're following the Lord, but we don't treat each other well, then we're liars. John says that in his letter. If we don't love our brothers and sisters, we have to demonstrate our love for God and our submission to God through our love of our neighbour and love of enemy. As Jesus said, if we don't do this, then we are deceived and we can fall into even greater deception. Well, we live in an age of hostility towards Christianity. Although, as I said earlier, we are seeing a bit of a quiet revival taking place, which is exciting, and we hope that that bears much good fruit in the next generation. Some Christians may find it tempting to give up or give in. And I do believe that we will face real persecution in the future as well as the way things are heading even if there is a revival on the way because the Bible promises it and says it will increase as we go through time. But we're told in scriptures not to be frightened. Jesus said that. He warned us of things in advance so that we wouldn't fear and so that we would continue to have faith in him. He says the one who endures to the end will be saved and indeed, we must always put Christ at the centre and always first in all things. So Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15, “always” - notice that word “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that you have, but always do it with gentleness and respect.” And that's a wonderful way, isn't it, that we were to be like. So he's saying that with Christ you have hope and always be prepared to give the reason. Why do you have a hope when other people are despairing? You know, when people say, "What's the world coming to?" We can say, "Well, we know that there is hope at the end of the tunnel if you believe in the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who is coming again to set things right." Let's turn to Hebrews 11 verses 1 to 3 “So now faith is the substance of things hoped for (there's that word hope again), the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders, that is the men and women of faith who've gone before obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So that things which are seen were not made by things which do appear.” And then skip to verse . “But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he6 exists and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him,” who earnestly seek him, as some translations say. So a summary of that basically is saying that we cannot see God yet we must believe in him because he is real. Why do we know that God is real? How do we know? Well, we've experienced his power, his presence, and his immeasurable ability to answer prayer. We've seen how he's changed our lives and the lives of others. And verse six basically says there that we must first believe that God exists and secondly that he created the world around us. Why does the writer to the Hebrews say that? I think it's because it's the very first two things we discover about God in the scriptures. The opening verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God," so it's acknowledging that there is a God created the heavens and the earth. So Hebrews is saying we must first believe that there is a God and two that he created the world around us. And for some time now for about 150 years or something like that we've lived in an age of scepticism really an age of sceptics and mockers. Peter actually in his second letter predicted that in the last days mockers would come and ridicule the idea that there is a God, that God created the world, that he caused the flood at the time of Noah and they'd also mock the idea that Jesus was coming again. We see that amongst atheists particularly the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Particularly 20 years ago they were very vehement and quite popular. But we are seeing a change in that where people are turning back to the Lord now which is very encouraging and people are really rejecting the new atheism as it was called. Even so many still say that science has disproven the Bible and rendered it sort of a fairy tale. They have rendered Christianity outdated and bigoted even and unnecessary and false. But you know, the Bible does make scientific statements. So in Genesis 1 it makes clear that the universe had a beginning. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And scientists for a time in the past believe that the universe was eternal. I think the ancient Greeks might have thought that. But the Bible says there was a first cause. There was a beginning. And now scientists acknowledge there was a beginning. The book of Job says that the earth is suspended over nothing. That it floats in space. That's in chapter 26. And this was written at a time when a lot of people thought that the earth sat on a large giant or on atlas.  The Quran says that the earth sits on a large animal. But the Bible was right all along that God has suspended the earth in space over nothing. It floats in space. Isaiah says in chapter 40 that the earth is a circle. And the Hebrew word for circle can be translated as a ball or a sphere, a 3D object. At a time when man thought the earth was flat and there was just a big dome. And still today some people think the earth is flat. But all along the scripture has said the earth was a circle and that God sits enthroned above. Many of our greatest scientists were inspired by the bible. Sir Francis Bacon who's considered the first of the modern scientists even Louis Pasteur, Sir Isaac Newton said “there are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than any other history.” Gregor Mendel as well who was a Austrian priest became the father of modern genetics as well and Francis Collins who's alive today spearheaded the Human Genome project in the early 1990s and he came to know the Lord because he could see as he studied human DNA he said there is it is so intricately and amazingly designed there is no way this came about by evolution, by random chance.  He's actually friends with the atheist Richard Dawkins and Dawkins just can't understand why someone so intelligent like Collins could believe in God but Collins said “I believe in the death, the atoning death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” To believe in the word of God means that you believe God exists. You can see that God has revealed himself in creation just as Paul says in Romans 1. The Bible says that in the beginning God created a very good world. That's how God describes it himself. Where there was no sin or disease or death or destruction, no war, no problems, no suffering of any kind. And he placed man in a perfect environment. And he said that the world was his and he was to take care of it and to have dominion and to spread over the earth and multiply and to look after the creation that he has it were bestowed to us. But he didn't force this on man in a way. He gave man the ability to make his own moral choices. And that's wonderful because if God had forced Adam and Eve and all people to live a certain way, that's not love, is it? That's not relationship. God gave us the ability to reject him or to believe in him. And that's grace, isn't it? If grace is forced upon someone, it's not grace. It's like if you give a gift at Christmas, you say you have to receive it. You know, you can't kind of refuse it because someone might say, "Well, I don't want that". But God graciously offers everything. He offered eternal life to mankind in the beginning. But he gave them a choice as to whether they wanted to take it. And he said, "If you keep my ways and you stay within good boundaries that I've set, you will continue to live and enjoy eternal life and delight in me." And in a way, we'll build a wonderful world together. But if you disobey me, you will die this day, you will suffer and pay the consequences. And of course, all humanity has suffered ever since because we're all descended from our first parents who sinned against the Lord. Very quickly, man deliberately followed the way of the devil, the serpent, who had already fallen from grace himself. Again, God gave the angels the ability to follow him and to worship him. And many manly angels fell with Satan as well and became demons as the scripture says. Paul says in Romans that “just as sin entered the world through one man and death also came through sin, so death has now come to all people because all of us have sinned. For the wages or the payment of sin is death.” That's the penalty for sin, it is both physical and spiritual death. You see, God is just, isn't he? If we break a law, we pay a price. And we've all broken God's laws, haven't we? He's a father. And of course, today is Father's Day. We remember the role of fathers in our lives. And any good father will discipline his disobedient children. It's only right, isn't it? The Bible speaks about this. But no one is perfect. And as I say, we're all sinners in God's eyes. God had promised eternal life to Adam and Eve, but they allowed themselves to be stained and tainted with sin, which began the process of death in their bodies and in their relationship. It damaged their relationship with him as we know. Disobedience, sin, impurities are all detestable to a pure and holy God. And that begins separation. You know, it's like the Michelangelo painting. I remember seeing that as a child. not the real one in the Sistine Chapel in Rome but you know a picture of it on the television and you see the two fingers and I used to think that represented the fall of Adam falling away from God but it's actually the creation but it's like as though he started to become separate from his creator. The Bible also says in Genesis 3 and Romans 5 verse 6 and 8 that sin didn't just affect us did it, it damaged all creation contrary to modern scientific teaching that, you know, we've always had natural disasters and we've always had violence in nature. We've always said killings and the survival of the fittest and all that. The Bible actually says that sin affected the animal  kingdom, the plant kingdom, the whole world and brought about disease and disasters and death and also injustice in our human world as well. Paul speaks about the frustration and decay that the creation was subjected to, but he also says that it longs for the new creation as well to be a part of that. What's so wonderful as well when you see in Genesis 3 that when God punishes Adam and Eve and says this is what's going to happen, he punishes the serpent, he punishes the man, and he punishes the woman. He says despite this he said a curious thing he says “the seed of the woman or an offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.” I wonder if Adam and Eve really knew what that meant. So the seed would crush the head of the serpent. Well the serpent was revealed to be the devil. In other words, it would some sort of seed, some offspring of the woman, of Eve would break the power of Satan, of evil that man had let into the world. But God also says that the seed would be bruised in the process. Isn't it amazing that right at the very beginning, God, we see the first glimmer, the seeds, if you excuse the pun, of redemption of our world. God had made sure that there was a way through this in his mercy. We see in this that God is both just and merciful, isn't he? And it's justice he has to punish. And in his mercy, he offers a way out, as it were, because he loves the creation. He loves mankind who he made. The Bible says that God doesn't desire anyone to be lost, but for all to come to repentance and the knowledge of salvation. But we know most people do get lost. As Jesus said, most people go down the wide road to hell. Few find the narrow path. To prepare people for the seed to come, God established a chosen people, a special people on earth called Israel, of course. And the man called Abraham was the first father of this nation. And God also promised him a seed. He mentioned the seeds to him as well. Paul speaks about this in Galatians 3. It's also in Genesis 12- 15 and 20 chapter 24. Later through the man Moses centuries later, he gave Israel a set of laws and commandments and then Joshua Moses successor as we know brings the nation of Israel into the promised land. Israel was placed at the crossroads of the world. If you can imagine in your head a map of the world and you see, you know, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Antarctica at the south, you've got Israel is in the middle. In the time of Jesus, it was in particular a popular place to pass through. You know, the atheist Christopher Hitchens criticized, the message of Christianity, the gospel, because he said, "Why would this random man from Nazareth, die on a cross, and what about the rest of the world? And how would anyone know about that? It's this insignificant place really in the world." But that's a complete lie. The Galilee, you know, where Jesus grew up and Nazareth, it was called Galilee of the Nations because caravans of people would travel from Europe through Galilee to Africa. They travel from Africa through Galilee to Asia, from Asia to Europe. It was the crossroads, three different continents. That's where people passed through. And Jesus would have grown up seeing all these people passing by. There were constant flow of people coming through. And they'd stop in Israel many a time. And we know that the Jewish people spread over parts of the world as well. We read in scripture that God gave his people Israel lawgivers, liberators, kings, and priests and prophets to lead them towards righteousness and away from evil. But we read, don't we, in many of the books of the Old Testament that many of the leaders of Israel turned Israel away from God and towards sin. Not one king or one judge or one leader could live up to God's perfect standards. You see, what the people needed was a lawgiver, a liberator, a king, a priest, and a prophet all rolled into one. But someone who would live perfectly, sinlessly before God the Father. Only such a person could destroy the power of the devil that God spoke about in the beginning. The power of the serpent that has affected and infected the whole world. The Bible is clear that we cannot save ourselves. We needed a Saviour. And God was preparing his people for this. So that person, that seed sort of had to be both human and divine really to be that bridge between man and God. And so it began to be born in the hearts of particularly the prophets in the Old Testament that God would send such a person would save a Saviour, a redeemer, a Messiah from heaven to earth. Around 740 BC, 740 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah said, "The Lord himself will give Israel a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.” And that's exactly what Israel needed, exactly what the world needed, God with us in human form. Someone we could relate to who wasn't distant in heaven because we'd caused that separation. That distance. It's interesting when you see in the Garden that God walked, God the Father walked with Adam, you know, and Eve probably as well. And there was such closeness. It says he walked with Enoch, you know, the seventh generation from Adam and he was close to Abraham and Moses and others. But there's almost this distance that develops. And the Bible says “shout to the Lord” and it's almost like you have to really shout to get through the heavenlies. The Bible says there's all these demonic forces. We heard about this this morning, didn't we, in Ephesians 6. And there's a battle sometimes in prayer, isn't there, to get through to God sometimes because of all the evil in the dark spiritual realm. So we needed someone to come to us to our level. John says in the opening of his gospel that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, he pitched his tent amongst us. A very Jewish picture there of the Jews who lived in tents beginning with Abraham. God wanted to come and live amongst us. And over 2,000 years ago and more than 2,000 miles away, a young virgin named Mary conceived this seed by God's Holy Spirit and later gave birth to a baby boy in Bethlehem as promised. Joseph, her husband, who was the foster father of Jesus, named him Jesus in obedience to what God told him to do through an angel. and his name means God saves. I don't know if you know this, but sorry I'm sidetracking a bit, but you know how Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Well, Moses represents the Lord, doesn't he? Elijah represented the prophets. And Jesus said, "I came to fulfill the law and the prophets." Moses was succeeded by Joshua. Elijah was succeeded by Elisha. And John the Baptist, we read, prepared the way for Jesus. The name Joshua, Elisha, and Jesus all mean the same thing. They all mean Yeshua. They mean God saves. Isaiah, actually means the same as well. And he's the most sort of messianic prophet of the Old Testament, isn't he? We read of Jesus that he grew up and he perfectly obeyed his human mother Mary and his foster father, Joseph, and learned his father's trade, carpentry. He only lived 33 years but lived a perfect sinless life before God because we needed that perfect example. How do we live? What does perfect living? What does godliness look like? See all the other characters we have in the Bible, they all were far from perfect. They were very many of them were very good and godly men and women, but they were all imperfect. Whereas Jesus was totally sinless in every way. Never once sinned. There was no deceit found in his mouth. Jesus recruited 12 disciples, didn't he? And drew massive crowds as he taught them parables and healed the sick and loved people in a way never seen before or since. In all the other religions, man is having to reach up to God or to the gods as it were, whatever they believe in to earn God's favour, never knowing if they had done enough good deeds to outweigh our bad deeds. But we know that in Christ, God came down to us. Jesus himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you know the Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." And when Jesus's closest followers began to realize who he was, the prophesied Messiah, the son of God, that the Old Testament spoke about many times he could then reveal to them what his ultimate mission was. Remember when Peter said, "I believe you are the son of God. I believe you are the Messiah, the son of the living God." Jesus said, you know, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. He says, "You now know need to know that I, the Son of Man, will be rejected by the chief elders and the leaders and he'll be handed over. He will be condemned, but on the third day he will rise again." And he fulfilled what the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1 where he says that he will be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Paul says in Romans, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the payment of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ." I love how Paul says, "It's a free gift." You know, it cost Jesus everything as we know, but we got it for free. It didn't cost us anything. He paid the price for us. And I know everyone here, I'm pretty sure that we all know this, but we can never fully get our heads or our hearts around that, can we really? And in obedience to God, Jesus willingly allowed himself to be falsely accused, although he'd done no wrong, physically and verbally abused, murdered in the most cruel and humiliating way, completely naked on the cross. We see him when you see crucifixes, always a loin cloth around his waist, but that's not how it was. They were completely naked on the cross. On a Roman cross, he took our place and our punishment that we deserved. Jesus endured at the hands of evil men so that the hand of the evil one would have no would no longer have authority over us. In his dying breath, Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Let's just pause there for a moment at that point. It's as though the father had to look away as his son became sin itself. Jesus Christ, the son of God, had a perfect loving relationship with God the Father for all eternity. Again, we can't really get our heads or our hearts around that. We just have to believe. But for that brief moment, they were separated. That I believe was far worse than any of the physical, emotional, and mental torment that Jesus endured. In a way, he endured hell on the cross for us. It's interesting that the last three hours Jesus was on the cross, it went really dark. Jesus said, "I thirst." Hell is a dark place. It's the place of outer darkness, the Bible says. And it's a thirsty place because it's very hot. And it's a place where you're separated from God. And Jesus for one brief moment at the very end was separate to God. You know, it says that in the scriptures that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to God. I think that day felt like a thousand years to Jesus. Albert Einstein actually said that because we interpret time differently, don't we? Paul says in 2 Corinthians that God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we would become the righteousness of God. He clothed us in his righteousness and takes away our sin such as the achievement of his death on the cross. He was there, you know, with his arms outraised, suspended between heaven and earth. God was saying the payment of man's sin is dealt with. But it's only dealt with for those who believe and repent of their sins and acknowledge their need for salvation and forgiveness. We read that all of this was done out of love. The most famous verse in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but enjoy and have eternal life. So Jesus was restoring that original promise that God made to Adam and Eve. The ardent atheist who I mentioned earlier, Richard Dawkins said, "If God wanted to forgive our sins, why did he not just forgive them? Who is God trying to impress by allowing his son to die on the cross? That's a ridiculous thing to say when you think about it. God is also a judge. Can imagine in a UK court of law if a murderer was on trial and the judge said, "You know what? We'll just forgive you. You're free to go. I'm sure you didn't mean to do that. We'll forgive you and just move on." We'd be absolutely outraged. And that sort of thing has happened in human history because it's so unjust. We know that God has to punish sinfulness. But because he also wants to forgive, he provided a way of escape, as it were, from our sins. Isaiah says, "The Lord himself laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was pierced for our transgressions." Pierced. He was pierced in his hands and his feet. As we know, that was written before Roman crucifixion was invented. He was crushed for iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was laid on him and by his wounds we are healed. Written more than 700 years before the event. Jesus died and was buried. But that was not the end. We know that on the third day he rose again from the grave. And in doing so, he defeated death itself but also the power of sin, the power of hell, the power of the world, the power of Satan and his demons. Those things only have power over people who give them the that power. But those of us who are in Christ and safe in him, the only safe place there is to be, we share in the same victory of Jesus. And we then through the Holy Spirit who has given us, we can overcome the sin that we struggle. We won't go to hell. We can overcome the worldly passions and pleasures of the world and the flesh and we are not subject to Satan. We don't have to allow him to influence us. Christ's death was the payment for our sins and he took our sins and died for us. But because he was completely innocent, not deserving of death, that punishment of death was reversed. God vindicated him by raising Jesus back from the dead. It's interesting that that God, the father, the son, and the spirit were all involved in his resurrection because God him, it says that God raised him back from the dead. Jesus himself said that “I lay down my life for my sheep and I will take it up again. No one takes my life from me.” So he had power over his own death and resurrection in a sense. And Romans Paul says the spirit who raised Jesus from the death is living in you. So Father, Son, and Spirit were all involved. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And a time is coming when all those are in their graves will hear my voice and come out. Those who have done what is good will rise to life. Those who have done what is evil will rise to condemnation." There's a resurrection coming of the righteous and the unrighteous when Christ after Christ's return. And despite great scepticism even amongst some Christians. There was a polling years ago about Christian churchgoers, if they believed in the resurrection. And many said, "Well, they believed spiritually that he rose again. I don't know if you saw “The meaning of life”, which is a series on RTE that Gay Byrne, the late great Irish presenter, presented for many years, and he interviewed. One of the women on the Irish band The Corrs said, she was a committed Roman Catholic. Gay Byrne asked her, "Do you believe in the death of Jesus?" And she said, "Oh, absolutely." He again asked her, "Why did Jesus die?" And she was like, “I don't know really. I think it's to help us in our suffering.” And he said, "Do you believe he rose again?" And she said, "spiritually, I think I don't know about physically." And you could just tell she had no idea. I know from being a Roman Catholic originally that there was such an emphasis particularly on the death of Jesus. Yes there was a belief in his resurrection, but it was never really taught. Why is that so important? What does that mean for us? It's really sad when people who purport to be believers just don't understand these things. There's a disproportionate number of lawyers and judges across the world who've come to know the Lord because they've examined the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and his death as well. And they've been overwhelmed by the evidence. And they know how to examine evidence, how to spot truth, how to spot integrity in reports and things like that, in evidence that's laid before them. I'll give you some examples. Dr Simon Greenleaf, who lived in the late 18th to mid- 19th century was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University. He was considered one of the greatest law makers in history. He concluded that the evidence for the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus was so overwhelming that he could hold it up in a court of law. And also Brooke Fos Westcoat who was born in Birmingham in 1825 was a scholar and a distinguished theologian. He once said, "Raking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ." If you've heard of the story of Lee Stroel as well, there's a film about him. It's amazing. It's a really good film if you've seen it, The Case for Christ. It's based on the book that he wrote. And he was a real strong atheist and his wife became a Christian and he really turned against her and their marriage nearly broke up. But he said, "I'm going to try and look at the evidence." And he thought, "I'm going to disprove that Jesus died and rose again." And he actually came to the conclusion that it's true. And many of the people who've taken that path have found the same thing. As you probably know, they set out to try and disprove and then they realize, "Oh, actually, I can't disprove it. It's got to be true." We have to remember as well, there's other evidence as well for the resurrection of Jesus. Think of the early Christians we read in the book of Acts in particular who saw the risen Christ or were converted by people who saw the risen Christ and they risked their lives and they faced torture and death. They were fed to the lions. All on the belief that Jesus was real, that he was alive, that he rose again. And millions have suffered ever since for this. I don't believe many people would really put themselves to that. I mean, why would some put themselves through that torture and death if it was all a lie, if it never happened, Christianity would be a very short-lived thing. It probably wouldn't have lasted very long. But no, they knew and believed with all their hearts that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive. We read that these early Christians had such boldness, didn't they, in the face of  imprisonment and death and suffering. What gave them that boldness? Well, the Bible says that Jesus remained with the disciples for 40 days after he rose again. And towards the end, he commanded them in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 1, he says that to wait in Jerusalem for the gift that my father will send. And he was referring to the Holy Spirit. The rest of the New Testament is indeed a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus entrusted his disciples to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we must remember that it was the Holy Spirit who came to live within them and all believers as well. Jesus said, "You must be born again of the Spirit, born again from above to enter the kingdom of God." And then the Holy Spirit filled them and anointed and  inspired them and guided them. Just as Jesus was anointed and filled with the spirit so too his followers would be so that they wouldn't do things in their own strength and their own flesh which we see in all other religions really it would be done by God as it were through them. We are just vessels aren't we for God. See Jesus is no longer on earth. And he actually said "It's better that I go away because then the Comforter can come, the Counsellor can come, the Advocate, an advocate just like me." Jesus is the advocate, isn't he, before the Father. And he also said there is another advocate coming, the Holy Spirit. And he says he will come to convict the world of its sin. And he'll be with you always. And he says that he will empower you with gifts and with fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, humility and self-control. The fruit of the spirit is a description of the character of Christ. And Paul says “against such things there is no law.” You can't legislate against that. You can't say that those things are wrong. Who could say that love is wrong and peace and joy and kindness? That's Galatians 5 that we read about the fruit of the spirit. Jesus and every writer of the New Testament says that he was going to return to earth one day. He was going to leave the earth but one day come back. When Jesus was on earth, he told parables explaining this to his disciples. He said the master was a long time coming. So from the earthly perspective, it's a long time and it has been 2,000 years nearly now. But when Jesus speaks in the book of Revelation, he says, "I'm coming soon." Because a day is a thousand years to him. It's only been two days to Jesus since he was here. But to us, it's been 2,000 years. What's he going to do? Why is he going to come back? Why does Jesus need to come back? Well, we see the state of the world. He will come to remove and punish the devil and his followers, the antichrist that we read about, the great tyrannical leader who will rise up at the end. He will fully establish his kingdom on earth. He will later judge all people for how they lived and then bring about the new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells. Let's turn to 2 Peter 3 verse 8 “But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” In verse 11 he says “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be? Ye are to be in all holy conversation and godliness." You are to be holy and godly looking for and even hastening the coming of the day of the Lord, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements will melt in fervent heat. “Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found in him in peace and without spot and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” We can even speed the coming of the Lord because Jesus said when he predicted the end times he said the gospel will reach all nations and he said then the end will come and Peter is saying here that as you spread the gospel you are in a way hastening the coming of the Lord. Jesus now is preparing a beautiful place for us. He said “I go away to prepare a place for you. If it were not so I would not have told you. In my father's house and many rooms, many mansions, and one day I'll take you to be with me so that where I am, you may be also. A place where there'll be no more sin, no curse of sin, no disease, no death, no war, no problems. God himself will wipe the tears away from people's eyes." After all that Jesus has done, particularly in his work on the cross, he's still doing things for us because he said, "I go away to prepare a place for us." In a way, he's gone back to carpentry because he's preparing a room or some translations say a mansion, don't they? He's also interceding for us before the Father. He ever lives to intercede us for us. And he is able to save those to the uttermost. He's filling people with his Spirit. He's appearing to people in visions and dreams as the Bible says. Many Muslims are coming to the Lord Jesus because he's appearing to them in dreams and revealing to them who he is. So Jesus is still working and then when he comes later on at one point we'll have the marriage supper of the Lamb and it says in Luke 12 Jesus talks about this and he says the master will wait on the servants and will wait on us. You know that after all Jesus has done and he's going to wait on us. You think of the humility of the Lord Jesus, there is no one like him. Surely if we know this, if we know the good news, the gospel of Jesus, the only good news there really is in our world, we should surely be spurred on every day to live by his good news, to live by the word from Genesis to Revelation, cover to cover, to continue to spread his gospel, regularly confessing our sins. John speaks about this, doesn't he, in his letter. “If we do sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And we are to confess our sins regularly to him. And the blood of Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We are to love others John says. This is how we know we are saved. That we show love. That we live like Jesus in this world. You know, if we knew the cure for cancer, we wouldn't keep it bottled up. We wouldn't keep it a secret, would we? And sin is a cancer and it's metastasized across the world, hasn't it? If we don't know this, the Bible says that if we are stirred by this message, we feel convicted. As Jesus said, the spirit comes to convict the world of its sin. We must first say, "Yes, I am a sinner. I have done wrong." We say sorry to God the Father and acknowledge him and ask him to forgive us of all past sins. This is repentance, isn't it? To turn away from your way of living. The Bible also says that we are to believe in our hearts that he sent his one and only son to pay the price of our sins and that he raised him back from the dead to offer us eternal life. We are to confess with our mouth as well that Jesus now is the Lord of our life. We're not the Lord of our lives. Jesus is now Lord. And we ask that he fills us with his Spirit. It's so important that we encourage new believers to come to a bible believing church, to be baptized in water as a sign of that faith, of the burial of the old life and the beginning of a new life. That new believers are well discipled, that they are encouraged to study the word, that they keep confessing sin and living for Christ in the Spirit. Let's encourage those around us to look at the word of God more because it has a purifying effect on us. The Bible does. It's the pure, flawless, spotless word of God, isn't it? And Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that there'll be a great falling away around the time when the antichrist comes. And he says they fall away because they did not hold fast to the truth. They preferred to believe the lie that came from Satan rather than the truth. And again as I said Paul says elsewhere to have that belt of truth. Keep truth very tight around you. The Bible is living and active. It's a double-edged sword. It divides between flesh, doesn't it, and soul and spirit. It gets really to the heart of the matter. No other book can do that. It's the only book that you can read and read and read and study and study. And you'll never exhaust it. You'll always see something new. It's always yielding up new things. Just like the earth yields up precious stones forever. This word is precious. Let us memorize it. There may come a day where this gets taken away from us. And when people outside the church criticize us for believing and mock us for believing the Bible, well, challenge them and say, "Have you ever read it? Just read it.” I remember Billy Graham saying that. He said that to someone when he was invited to some dinner, great big banquet or whatever, and this man opposite him was an atheist and he was ridiculing him. And Billy Graham said, "Have you ever read any of the Bible?" And he said, "No." and he said “I challenge you to read the New Testament over the next six months and then contact me. The man did contact him after six months and says “you know I have to say it's changed me, I am not sure I like what it's doing but it has actually changed me.” So it has an impact on people. Probably everyone here knows the Lord Jesus Christ because someone told you about him so let's not keep Jesus from the people of Coleraine and those around us wherever we may live. It's often our parents who've told us about the Lord or a friend or a preacher or even a stranger. There are some exceptions because sometimes people have just said to God “if you're real please reveal yourself to me” and he has but again God will do that through a person. So let's share and show the wonderful powerful gospel and good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to spread his kingdom in the world as he told us to do and let's live for him in every way and every day. Revelation 22 verse 12 “And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and the sorcerers, and whoremongers, and the murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth say come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of this book, of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from things the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”