Christ's Return for the Believer — Mack Tomilson

Good morning. What a blessing to be able to worship together. Let's pray again now together and ask the Lord to give us his mercy and speak to us. Father, we bow our hearts before you in your presence in this place.

Help us week by week to not grow used to preaching and teaching. Help us not to get used to having the Bible. Let us not nod off, Lord, when you're speaking, whether spiritually or physically. So we do pray again together what we just sang, that you would speak.

Speak to our minds, our hearts. Speak to our conscience. Speak to the inner man, that the word of God would be sharp and dividing between soul and spirit. That you'd search our hearts and expose things and change us through your word, by your spirit, for your glory.

Lord, I look to you now. I am nothing and apart from you I can do nothing. We all need fresh eyes to see and ears to hear. So, Lord, grant us that today. In and through the sure mercies and the righteousness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Well, there are two texts, so you might find the second one first. 2 Thessalonians 1 .10, put your finger there, 2 Thessalonians 1 .10. That's the New Testament text. The first one we'll read is Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 33.

Christ’s Appearing and the Believer’s Homecoming

Isaiah 33. This is the third message in a three-part series on the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm speaking today on Christ's future appearing for the Christian, for believers. Isaiah 33 .17 gives us a wonderful messianic promise.

And the text simply says in Isaiah 33 .17, Your eyes will behold the King in His beauty. Your eyes will behold the King in His beauty. They will see a land that stretches afar. Brethren, that's what's ahead of us.

Every believer is going to see the King in His full beauty. And then we will not be living by faith. We'll be living by sight. And then 2 Thessalonians 1 .10, the second half of verse 10, speaks to believers.

2 Thessalonians 1 .10, Paul says, When He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who believed. On that day, every Christian, Christ will be glorified by their very presence.

He will be glorified among the saints. And every believer will marvel at Him with astounding wonder and joy. This morning is about Christ's return and the believer, Christ and His church. Titus puts it this way, Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As we saw last week, the Second Coming warns unbelievers of the worst that's going to be happening to them. Eternal damnation, eternal separation, eternal judgment, eternal punishment. For the unbeliever, the Second Coming is the worst day possible.

But for the believer, it's the best day possible. Why? Because that day is homecoming forever. I don't always enjoy, I often do, I often have. But you know, in family reunions, there's wonderful things, there's fun things, and there's negative things sometimes.

Things you don't like that goes on. And that day, this family reunion, is homecoming forever. There will be nothing there on that day when He appears and inaugurates eternity that will be negative. Now the believer, it's going to be the believer's homecoming forever.

Because we are already in His family before He returns, right? We're already His, we're already in the kingdom. We've already passed from death to life. We've already been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

We're already children of the King. Therefore, there's no future punishment or judgment awaiting the Christian. There is nothing to fear about that day when He appears a final time to be glorified among the saints and to be admired.

There's nothing to fear whatsoever for the Christian. So for those believers who are alive when He appears, what will their experience be like on that day? We don't know fully. We haven't seen, we haven't heard fully yet, have we?

But we can know this. I think a wonderful quote that I read kind of describes maybe what believers are going to experience that moment. Quote, on that day, we will stand before Him quietly, unhurriedly, overwhelmed with relief.

Standing under the felt flood of divine affection in a way that we never can in this life. Standing there quietly, unhurriedly, overwhelmed with relief. Not only that, that's the moment we're going to see the King in His beauty.

And our hearts will melt, our perfect hearts will melt with love, overwhelmed just at His presence. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the second coming is not something the Christian should fear or have anxiety about at all.

Are any of you as believers dreading that day in any way? The sight of our Savior will bring forth from every Christian unhindered praise. Perfect love and worship. Marveling amazement. Unleashed full emotions.

Extravagant joy because we're seeing Him finally. We're seeing Him. And faith has ended. And then we will know as we're known. And we're seeing in full. No Bible or prayer any longer. No spiritual disciplines any longer.

No fight of faith, no confession of sin, no repentance. It's all glorious rapture and joyful freedom in His presence on that day for the Christian. At His appearing, all the promises of God in Scripture will then come to full fruition and fulfillment.

All has been accomplished. Every word that God ever spoke from Genesis to Revelation has been finalized and fulfilled. Now Christ appearing will mean many things for the believer. But there are a few major ones revealed in God's Word we want to see this morning about what is awaiting for us as Christians.

What can we expect to happen when we see Him? What are we in for? Well, this morning let's just have a little trailer of the full reality that's coming in the future. So we can learn and know and grow to love His appearing even more.

What will His appearing mean for the Christian? Five major truths briefly. Number one, we will appear with Christ. Number two, we will be rewarded. Number three, suffering and sorrow gone forever. Number four, the new heavens and the new earth.

Appearing With Christ in Glory

And number five, how should we live before Christ appears? So number one, when He comes, the Bible tells us we will appear with Christ. Colossians 3 verse 4 says, When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

You, as a Christian, will appear with Him in glory. Jesus says, come. On that day He's going to say to all the sheep, Come, you blessed of my Father. Come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you. Come, inherit what is yours now because of my love.

We will appear before Him, with Him, and in that moment made like Him fully. Growing in Christlikeness now is essential because we are being conformed into the image of Christ. As we grow. But then, face to face, we will be changed to be fully glorified and immortalized.

Fully glorified and immortalized. Where death no longer can take any of us. I love what John Piper says about that reality. If you really want to be like Him when you see Him, you should pursue being like Him now.

Because you know what? The second coming won't change you. It will only reveal who you are and what you were five seconds before He comes. Second coming is not going to change anybody. It's just going to be the full revelation of the reality that we were.

When He appears, you will appear with Him. We can't figure out the numbers and the mathematics of how a multitude can be numbered. Each one individually is going to feel like they're appearing with Him.

But we will, together, and as individuals, appear with Him. And your appearance with Him will finish you off as a new creation. You were saved when you were converted. You are in the process of being saved in your sanctification.

And on that day, you will fully and finally, eternally be saved. Spirit, soul, and body. Eternal salvation. When He appears for you, you will love Him fully as He is without any human limitations. Do you ever feel in your heart, Lord, you know I love you, but I just don't love you the way I want to.

I just don't. We're held down. We're drugged down. We're imprisoned in this physical tent, this flesh. And we don't love Him without human limitations. But then, on that day, we will. We'll love fully as much as an immortalized son and daughter of God can in eternity.

We will love Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. You will experience what it means then, fully experience what it means to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ. What all are you going to share in and participate in, in all that Christ has inherited?

We don't know, but it's going to be something. And you're a joint heir. It's yours along with Him. Joint heirs. You'll experience that then. You will eternally be in the state of perfection when you appear with Him in glory.

Rewards at Christ’s Return

That's your future as a Christian. Secondly, when He comes, we will be rewarded. We will be rewarded, rewarding according to our works, rewarded for various services. And every reward may be different and unique, and it's unique to the Christian.

But when He comes, every believer will be rewarded. 1 Peter 5 verse 4 says, When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. A crown of glory. And Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

The crown of righteousness. A crown of glory. A crown of righteousness. Are at the heart of the reward for the Christian when Christ returns. Now the crown of glory, what does Peter mean by a crown of glory?

This has to mean full glorification. Full glorification. Your spirit then is finally perfected, and you can worship God without any hindrance, fully as He ought to be worshipped. As far as humanity, glorified humanity can worship Him, your spirit will have no hindrance in the full worship of God.

Your mind, your soul, your mind, will, and emotions. Your mind will no longer be hindered by earthly thoughts. Your mind will fully be engaged about Him in worship and adoration. And thinking pure thoughts only.

Your will will be utterly sanctified and perfect to delight in the will of God in heaven. Your emotions will be perfect and pure and holy. No bad ones, no negative ones, no sinful ones, no wrong ones, no selfish ones.

Spirit, soul, and body. Full glorification. You will be glorified. Now Romans 8 sheds light on this. Romans 8. Paul says, If children, then heirs, and join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified together with Him.

Your future glorification together with Him is coming when He comes. Glorified together with Christ. What greater crown could be given to the Christian than that? The crown of glory. If we could see one another now, what our glorified state will be like, we wouldn't be able to believe it.

Those who struggled and persevered and have fought the battle, then, when they're there, they realize, I'm in. I made it in. I'm His. This is the kingdom. And it's all behind us. Think of that. Now further down in Romans 8, Paul says that all of creation is eagerly awaiting something.

What is creation eagerly awaiting on? The appearing. The manifestation of the children of God. The full, final manifestation of the children of God. All creation is eagerly awaiting that day. The revealing of the sons of God.

The manifestation of all the redeemed of all the ages. All perfected in glory. Everyone in His image shining and glorious. The church triumphant and glorified. Full glorification is the Christian's crown.

It's a crown of glory that awaits you as a believer. But Paul also speaks of a crown of righteousness. A crown of righteousness. How does anyone get crowned in that day? Righteousness. A righteousness that dresses a person in beauty not his own.

Dressed in beauty not my own. His righteousness. The wedding garment, right? That I might know Him having no righteousness of my own. It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.

Right standing with God. And on that day that will be gloriously real to us. As the hymn writer says, when He shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

So the crown of righteousness means perfect acceptance in heaven because of Christ, just as accepted in heaven as Christ is accepted. Crown of righteousness. But not only Christ's righteousness given to you freely, but also it's a crown of imparted real righteousness.

True godly living and righteous living. Righteousness fits the believer's life. The garments of the saints are white. Nothing that defiles shall enter heaven. Jesus made it clear that it's the wise virgins who had oil in their lamps that will be ready.

Titus 2 affirms that those who are looking for Christ's coming are those who are living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. And John says those who truly have this hope within them, the hope of seeing Him and being like Him, they will be the ones who are purifying themselves.

That is, putting off sin, pursuing holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And Peter says it's only those who are holy in conduct and godliness that will be looking for and longing for His appearing.

Beloved, as a Christian, you're going to receive a crown of glory and a crown of righteousness at His appearing, meaning that you'll be crowned as a joint heir of Jesus Christ. And what a reward that's going to be.

Suffering and Sorrow Gone Forever

It's beyond our highest thoughts. Third, His coming will mean that all suffering and sorrow are gone forever. All suffering and sorrow gone forever. As long as we're still living in this body, living on this planet, we can know nothing of what that truly means, that all suffering and sorrow are gone for good.

Here, there's sorrow regularly. Here, there's tears. There's losses. There's stress. There's pain. There's grief. There's heartache. There's sickness. There are wrecked lives all around us that give us sorrow because of sin, not to mention the grief and sorrow that remaining sin brings to our own hearts.

When we sin, it grieves us. It saddens us. It robs us of our joy. This body of sin keeps us back from knowing and loving Him fully as we should. The dearest believer who's ever lived, if there is one dearest one, the godliest person you've ever read about or ever known, lived with sorrows and suffering and tears and doubts and hurts and unbelief and struggles and battles at times.

Under the sun, Solomon says, we have sorrows. Job said, when a man is born, he's born into trouble as the sparks fly upward. A new babe born into this world is bound for a boatload of sadness and sorrow at times in this life, sorrows.

Sin has produced it, but God hasn't preserved us from it, right? He uses it for His glory. He uses it for our sanctification. But in that day, the day that's approaching, the day that's coming, no more sorrow ever again.

Gone forever. Revelation 21 .4 is the key verse on this. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Well, that one verse tells us what things have passed away. Every tear gone. We'll never cry again when He comes. All death gone. Death is dead forever, killed at the cross. Mourning and sadness gone.

All pain gone. We will know nothing then of hard human life now, because we're utterly transformed from what we were on earth. And nothing that is impure or unclean or evil or sinful will ever be present again.

The New Heavens and the New Earth

All sorrow and suffering is over when He comes. Number five, when He comes, the new heavens and the new earth will be ushered in. The new heavens and the new earth. I don't have time to get into that today, but it's clear in the Bible that Christ appearing brings and ushers in the eternal state of all things.

Matthew 19, Jesus said, Surely I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, the final regeneration, the future generation, it's translated in some places, the new world.

In the new world, in the regeneration, the final regeneration of all things, the final recreation of the entire cosmos, then it's a new heavens and a new earth. And His coming ushers that in and brings it.

Revelation 21, John said, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. For the former things have passed away. Behold, I make all things new. He's going to make you new.

He's going to make the church pure and spotless on that day. He's going to wrap up this earthly creation, this heavens, the present heavens, the present earth, and all is going to become new. Now Romans 8 speaks to this also.

Creation itself will be delivered from the present bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Decay, corruption, evil, wars, danger, violence, human alienation, human hatred, killing, lying, all sin is gone.

Sin's mouth has been shut forever in that day in the new creation. And then will be fulfilled literally what Revelation 15 says. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.

His future appearing brings the new final creation. So if we will appear with Him, if we will be rewarded by Him, if sorrow and suffering are over, if the new creation will be ushered in, then in light of this truth, in light of His appearing, how are we to live now until that day or until the day of our death?

We must live looking for that blessed hope. You must live hoping. We must live expectant. We must live with His return in our minds and in our view and in our theology and how we live life. We must be longing for Him as we live for Him.

If you aren't living for Him now, really living for Him from the heart with your life, with your heart, with your love, why do you think you'd enjoy being with Him in heaven? If anyone who doesn't have a heart to love Jesus Christ now and live for Him and pray to Him and seek Him and love the church and love the kingdom of God, if they don't have a heart for that now, they will not have a heart for it then.

Therefore, they won't be in. Only the saints who love His appearing are going to be living for Him now, taking it serious. Live hoping and expectant and prepared. Now, Hebrews uses a unique phrase about the Lord's future coming.

As you see the day approaching, as you see the day approaching, you have a big trip that's coming up and the days go by and the day's approaching and you begin some preparation. And the more the day approaches, the more you prepare.

I mean, what bride doesn't prepare for the wedding day? What are we to do with the truth? As we see the day approaching, number one, we're to live ready, live with readiness and be spiritually alert. Live with readiness and be spiritually alert.

Living Ready and Spiritually Alert

Luke 12, 40, be ready for the coming of the Son of Man. This means watchful, eyes open, discerning, seeing reality, not letting earthly things weigh us down, not minding earthly things, but heavenly things, spiritual mindedness and alertness, not nodding off, being on guard, spiritually awake.

One of the gospel writers quotes Jesus saying, but stay awake at all times, praying that you're ready to stand before the Son of Man. Revelation 3, 11, I'm coming soon. Hold fast to that that you have.

Keep holding fast to the truth. You've learned as it is in Jesus Christ. Hold fast to this gospel. Don't hold it with loose hands. Hold fast to the things of God, to the people of God, to the Word of God.

Hold fast to fellowship. Hold fast to the things God has shown you that are true and real. Hold fast to them because I'm coming soon. Do we hold fast, brethren, with a heart like a vice grip, holding steadfastly to the things God has shown us in the gospel.

Hold fast to what you have and keep on. Stay spiritually awake and don't nod off. Spiritual sleeping and spiritual drowsiness is about as you live your life, you become insensible, insensitive to spiritual realities.

You become unaware of the Lord's presence. You drift into ignorance in your thinking sometimes. You're just oblivious to spiritual reality. And you're living in a way that shows you're not at all getting ready for the bridegroom to appear.

You're not living with readiness. You're spiritually drowsy. Jesus warns about this. That was his biggest warning. Be awake, be alert, for you don't know the day or the hour the Son of Man comes. So how are we preparing in our life?

With anticipation, with clarity. Paul says, we are not in darkness that that day should catch us as a thief unaware. He said, you're sons of the light and of the day and not of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

This is in the context of Christ's future appearing. Paul said, let us who are of the day be sober-minded, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of future salvation.

Brethren, the impulse to live a holy life comes in part by loving his appearing more and more. And loving his appearing more and more will increase you living a holy life. Why must we be watchful and alert?

One word, deception. Deception is here. Hasn't deception increased even since 2020? In the final days, the New Testament writers make it clear that difficult, hard times are coming. Paul said that in 1 Timothy 4.

Great deception is coming and will prevail over many people leading up to the time of his appearing. 2 Thessalonians 2. We're not going to read it, but there Paul speaks about a time of the great falling away, a great apostasy that's going to come at the end times.

A great deceptive apostasy and the appearance of the man of Christ, the man of sin. Paul says that the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders to deceive.

The nature and power of deception, you don't even know you're being deceived. Such powerful, persuasive arguments and movements and ideologies and views about things are going to come and sway many so much so it'll be so powerful that it would even get the elect if it were possible to get them.

Great deception. John Popper said, quote, Satanic deception will intensify as the end nears. I believe he's right. What must we do? Remain watchful. Remain faithful. Stay close to the brethren. Stay close to the saints of God.

Don't be misled by reports you hear, by this or that. Don't be misled. Don't be carried away. Don't be drawn aside. Be watchful. Be careful. Be on the alert and live faithfully. You know, I was reading in a book this week and some thoughts about the future coming of the Lord and I never saw this in this way.

Our Lord said, who then is that faithful steward? That faithful servant? Just a faithful servant. And then it says, blessed is that servant whom his master comes and finds him so doing. Just being faithful.

When the Lord Jesus returns, he just wants you going to work and going to church, as John Popper says. Going to church, worship, worship with your family, go to church, go to work, live faithful, live out your life in faithfulness.

That's what we do to be ready for the second coming. It's not move to North Dakota and buy a bunker and have 50 years of food underground and we're alone, hovering until the second coming. No. Live your life faithfully, watchfully, in a holy, godly, serving way.

Spreading the Gospel Until Christ Returns

Blessed is that servant to whom his master finds so doing. Living, ready and alert. Secondly, as you see the day approaching, keep spreading the gospel faithfully. That's what we're here for, right? Worship and witness.

Worship and witness. Matthew 28, go into all the world and what? Preach the gospel. To who? Every creature. And I will be with you. How long? To the end of the age. Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature and I am with you even to the end of the age, until the age that I will come and consummate.

Preach it to all nations, to all people. The gospel is going to triumph in the earth for the kingdom of God. The worldwide spread of the gospel is going to advance and we here are a real part of that.

In Alaska right now, through Providence Chapel, the gospel is advancing. In Jordan and Lebanon. In South America and China and Canada. In Britain. In this county, in this city, in your neighborhood. As we see the day approaching, live out the gospel and share it where you are.

In your row of the vineyard. In your sphere of influence. Speak up for Christ. Because Christ's kingdom will come. It's coming fully. His purpose in the earth will be fulfilled. And his gospel will go worldwide because that is a promise of God.

Psalm 72, the kings of the islands will render their tribute. Yet kings will fall down before him. I read yesterday morning Psalm 102. So the nations will fear the Lord and all the kings of the earth, your glory.

Kings have often come to Christ over the years in different lands because simple faithful missionaries went there where those kings lived. John G. Payton, many of you know that name. 19th century Scotsman.

He died at the beginning of the 20th century in 1907. When he was a young man he went to the South Sea Islands near Fiji out in the ocean off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. And he labored among the cannibals for 30 years.

A white Scotsman among these black Tongan, who else knows what all the nationality was, these black cannibal tribes, Payton labored for 30 years among them. His young wife and first child died and he buried him under the tree outside his hut.

And he kept on. And often the tribal kings, they didn't trust him usually. They were scared of him or they were angry with him for bringing new influence. So they would try to set ambushments for him.

They would try to make plans to get him killed. And for 30 years God kept John Payton and gave him favor. And then the Holy Spirit was poured out on one whole island. And the king and all the tribe seemed to have been converted.

And a true church was birthed that lasted for decades and decades. One of them, that king, King Nowar, a cannibalistic king among cannibalistic people with no knowledge whatsoever of the good news. Nowar was bowed and humbled before God through the simple sharing of the Savior who had come, the good news that a Savior had come from the true God for all peoples.

And Nowar was humbled and he came to Christ and he was changed from being an enemy of this white man to loving John Payton like no one he had ever loved. And he loved Payton like no one had ever loved Payton, Payton's wife said later.

And when Payton and his wife were going to leave there permanently and move to a different island because their mission agency said, we're moving you, they were very sad. And so was King Nowar. And Payton's wife wrote of their final moments with Nowar and wrote about Nowar.

She wrote this. He said very little, but his respectful, wise, and expressive face showed how he felt as he sat on the ship's deck with tears in his eyes. She said, oh, how I loved and respected him, this man who had risked his life to save my husband.

I had read of such devoted love but had never seen another living example of it. That's gospel love. That's the triumph of the gospel in the nations over the centuries. Kings have come to believe this gospel that has been preached.

A people yet to be created will praise him, the psalmist said, and all nations will serve him. This is why before he comes, the church is to be faithful, to plod along and creatively advance in, spreading the gospel everywhere we as can, as often as we can, as much as we can by God's grace and by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Malachi 1 .11 uses this phrase twice. From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be presented in my name, for my name will be great among the nations.

God says my gospel is going to triumph among the nations. And Jesus said it this way in Matthew 24, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.

Brethren, the kingdom is marching on. Let's keep sharing the gospel faithfully. Keep making disciples. Keep going to the prisons. Keep sending missionaries. Keep planting churches. Keep praying for the spread of the gospel weekly.

Live ready and alert. Keep spreading the gospel. Thirdly, live with patience and endurance through your suffering. Until he comes, live with patience and endurance through your suffering times. Paul speaks of the faith and perseverance of the Thessalonians through all their persecution and affliction.

Their faith persevered on through much tribulation. Now, the early church seemed to have actually believed that Christ would return the final time in their lifetime. There were clear hints of this, that they believed that.

They did not know that many would be martyred, that decades would pass, that persecution would follow believers everywhere they went in spreading the gospel. They did not know that at least over 2 ,000 years later, he would still not have returned.

They didn't have that in their mind. But now two millenniums have passed, over 2 ,000 years since the cross and the day of Pentecost, and he has not returned yet. But don't be slack about that certainty of that promise.

Patience and Endurance Through Suffering

James tells us, be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Peter said, With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward all, patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Brethren, we must cultivate, in light of his future appearing, we must cultivate faithfulness in light of his return so that the comforts of compromise, compromising can make you comfortable. It can be the comfortable thing to do.

But don't let the comforts of compromise and the fear of man or the fear of suffering, don't let it rob you from persevering to the end. Because it's the one who perseveres to the very end, who loves his appearing, that's who will be saved.

That's who will prove to be truly among the saved. We're to live in patience with endurance until he comes. Finally, as you see that day approaching, comfort, encourage, and love one another all the more.

Encouraging One Another as the Day Approaches

Comfort, encourage, and love one another all the more. Hebrews says, Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but rather encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching.

Brethren, every day you wake up more, it's another day that his return will be here soon. The day is approaching. Every day of the week, the day is approaching. Every month passes, the day is approaching.

Therefore, we ought to increase in encouraging one another, in exhorting one another, in loving one another, in strengthening one another. Because the fact is, the more we build one another up in the faith, the more we are equipping one another to be ready for that day if he appears in our lifetime.

In conclusion, Augustine said this,. The one who loves the coming of the Lord is not the one who says it'll be soon, or no, it'll be a long way off. It is the one, rather, who is waiting for him in faith, in hope, and in love.

Setting Hope Fully on Christ’s Revelation

Now, Peter's exhortation is for us today. 1 Peter 1,. Therefore, he says, preparing your minds for action and being so reminded, set your hope fully on the grace that is to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Set your hope fully upon the grace that is to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the writer of the Hebrews in chapter 10, he just says it kind of in passing. It's kind of like just a nudge.