We'll be reading quite a few short Scriptures today, but let's begin with John chapter 14. The last verse of Brother Libber's song fits in very well with our message today. Our message is "There Is Coming a Day." And there IS coming a day when we'll drop this robe of flesh and rise to seize the everlasting prize, as the song said, that he just sang to us. And we'll shout while passing through the air, farewell to this world here below. And then, we won't need to pray in the sense that we do now, because then we can speak personally to the Lord --- face to face.
Before I begin the message today, I want to read you my outline.
My outline is a song, "What a Day That Will Be."
"There is coming a day when no heartache shall come.
No more clouds in the sky. No more tears to dim the eye.
All is peace forevermore. On that happy, golden shore.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon His face. The one who saved me by His grace.
When He takes me by the hand. And leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There'll be no sorrow there. No more burdens to bear.
No more sickness, no more pain. No more parting over there.
And forever I will be, with the one who died for me.
What a day, glorious day that will be."
That's the outline of our message for today.
Let's read in John chapter 14. Beginning with verse 2, we'll read verse 2 and 3 there together. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
Then, in Acts chapter 1, verses 9, 10 and 11. We have three verses that we want to read together. Acts 1:9-11. "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
Then, jumping over to Daniel in the Old Testament for one verse. In chapter 7, verse 14. "And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
Then, back to the New Testament for one more verse in Matthew chapter 16:27. It says these words: "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."
Now, you'll notice as we go through the message today that I've not made a big point of separating Scriptures that refer to the Rapture from Scriptures which refer to the Millennial Kingdom. There's not really any point in it in this message today, so I didn't do that. I just put them in where they fit and let it go at that. And actually, for the saved person, it really doesn't make all that much difference, does it? Because when the Lord comes, then we won't have any more things to worry about anyway, will we? Whether it's in the time of the Rapture when He takes us away with Him and we're in heaven during the years of the Tribulation here on Earth, or whether it's referring to the thousand years Millennial Kingdom here, when we'll be back on the perfect Earth with Him. It really doesn't matter all that much to a Christian. BUT, to the unsaved, it matters a lot, to keep those separated.
As we begin to think about this song that we're using as an outline, we want to begin by thinking a little bit about the coming of the Lord at the Rapture. We said, "There's coming a day," and for the saved this means when no heartaches shall come, ever. That's what it means, isn't it? For the saved. Now, for the unsaved, this day that's coming doesn't mean that at all. But for the saved, it means where no heartaches will come, ever.
In other words, we'll be caught away to miss the Tribulation period. This Tribulation period is going to be a terrible time on the earth. But we'll be missing it. We'll be taken away from it. We will be raptured out of it. Never again any sorrows for the saved. Never again any problems. We're going to be taken away and miss all these problems here on Earth. But the unsaved will be left behind on the Earth at the time of the Rapture. All of the unsaved will be left behind. And they'll have to go through this awful time of the Great Tribulation.
Most of them will not survive. Yes, most of them will not survive. And those who do not survive will die in terrible agony, under all kinds of terrible things that are going to be happening during that seven years time when they've been left on the earth to meet these terrible things that are coming, unprepared to meet God. So, for the unsaved, it will be a terrible time at the Rapture. But for the saved, it will be a wonderful time because we'll be snatched away to miss all of these terrible things that are coming on the earth.
There's coming a day when there will be no more clouds in the sky, as the song says. No more clouds in the sky, figuratively speaking. Have you ever had one of these days, there's no point in really in asking you this, but I just want to remind you of it by asking you this rhetorical question, have you ever had one of these days when you'd get up and the first thing you'd do, you'd stump your toe before you got your shoes on and hurt your big toe pretty badly? And then, you'd go in to shave and you'd slash yourself pretty good? Then, you'd go in to eat breakfast and you'd put salt in the coffee or something? Well, that's one of those days, you know. And you say, "Oh, I better go back to bed." Well, there won't be any days like that. There'll be no more of these clouds in the sky, figuratively speaking.
When we are taken away, because there's coming a day when there'll be no more clouds in the sky --- No more of these days when it's just one of those really bad days, you know. When everything goes wrong, everything's bad, nothing works and it's all just trouble, trouble, trouble from the time you get up until the time you go to bed that night. And, of course, then, to finish that story, when you come back that evening, you find that the wife pranged the car a little bit during the day or something. Or maybe you did yourself.
That makes it even worse, doesn't it? One of those bad days. But there's coming a day when there'll be no more clouds in the sky. All the darkness will be removed from our life. There'll be no more gloomy days, both literally and figuratively. You say, "Well, what about that literally, no more gloomy days?" We've got a gloomy day today, literally, haven't we? But we've got sunshine in our heart if we know Jesus, haven't we? But there'll be a time coming, there's coming a day when there won't be any more gloomy days, literally or figuratively, either one.
Isaiah chapter 60 has a couple of good verses on this. Isaiah 60:19 and 20. "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
"So, there's coming a day when all these sad, gloomy days, both literally and figuratively, will be removed.
And then, as we go on with the song, we find these words, no more tears to dim the eye. That's going to be a wonderful time, isn't it? No more tears to dim the eye. Isaiah 65:19 also fits very well here: "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Never again, in other words! There's coming a day when there'll be no more tears to dim the eye. That day is going to be a wonderful and glorious day.
And then, as the song goes ahead and says, "All is peace forevermore, on that happy, golden shore." That's going to be a wonderful time too, isn't it? When we think of that day, when we'll have peace. And you know why we'll have peace then? There's only one reason why we'll have peace then, during the Millennial Kingdom. We'll have peace then because the Prince of Peace shall reign over all the earth. And that's the only time we're going to have peace on Earth, is when He reigns. Until then, we'll never have peace on the earth. It doesn't hurt for us to struggle to try to attain peace from a political viewpoint, but we should understand that we're never going to really attain it until we have a complete change in our political set-up. When we get a proper leader over all the earth, the Prince of Peace, then and only then will we have real peace. But until that time, there'll never really be peace on the earth.
Isaiah chapter 9:6 has something to say about that, as well as many other places. It says: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." The Prince of Peace in that day will judge among the nations and then, there'll be no more need for weapons, no more need for war, no more need for self-defense, no more need for aggression, no more need for any of these things that cause and promote war today.
Isaiah chapter 2, verse 4 tells us about this, when he said: "And he shall judge among the nations," --- speaking of the Lord, Himself, of course, the Prince of Peace --- "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. " Won't that be a wonderful time? None of our boys going off to the border. None of our boys going off to be shot at, blown up in land mines, all kinds of terrible things that happen. But it'll only happen, this time of peace will only come, when the Lord Himself reigns.
We find even Israel and the Middle East will be at peace. Jeremiah chapter 23 tells us about that. We won't read together over there because of lack of time, but if you read that chapter, you'll see that it explains very clearly that even Israel and the Middle East will have peace in that day. There won't be any war over there. There won't be any Arabs blowing up the Israelis and there won't be any Israelis making retaliatory raids against Arabs. It will all be settled then. There'll be peace because the Prince of Peace will reign.
Then, as we go on with our song, it says, "What a day, glorious day that will be." You know, when that time comes, we'll see the glory that Jesus had with the Father before the world was. Think about that. Incredible, isn't it? To think that we, someday will get to see the glory that Jesus had with the Father before the world was even created? The blessed privilege that we're going to have someday.
We'll not only see that glory which Jesus had with the Father before the world was, but He tells us in His Word that we will share that glory as well. Yes, we'll share that glory. He prayed that we would share that glory with Him over in John 17. Reading verses 22 and then skipping down and reading verse 24, it says these words: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:" and then verse 24, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." So, there we see not only will we see Jesus in His glory that He had with the Father before the foundation of the world, but we will share that glory with Him.
Then, as we think again about our song, going on to the next little section, "What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see." You know, that's going to be the greatest part of all, isn't it? --- When we see Jesus. When we see Him. The blessed privilege of seeing, literally, physically, personally, with our own eyes, the Savior of the world, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When we see Him with our own eyes, personally, physically and visibly, really seeing Him. Not just spiritually seeing Him as we do today, but seeing Him in reality, as we will in that day.
As we think back, we could say, "Blessed were the eyes of the disciples." For they saw Jesus, didn't they? They saw Him with their own eyes. They walked and they talked with Him. They ate with Him. They ate fresh fish on the shores of the sea of Galilee that they prepared there together. WONDERFUL, to think what they experienced with the Lord in the flesh. And even more wonderful to think that someday, we shall be able to share in all these things, just as they did in that day. To be with Him in person in the flesh. You say, "Oh, but He won't be in the flesh." Oh, but yes He will be in the flesh, too. It'll be a different kind of flesh, but He'll still be in a form that we can know Him and touch Him and hold His hand.
Jesus, Himself pronounced a special blessing upon those who have not see Him and yet, have believed. Did you know that? Over in John 20:29, The Lord Himself speaks: "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.'" That's us, isn't it? "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
Peter also speaks of those who have not seen Him in I Peter chapter 1. Over there, he says that the suffering that we've borne for the cause of Christ will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And then, he goes on ahead to say further in I Peter 1:8: " Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:" Isn't that wonderful? Even Peter speaks of this same thing of having not seen Jesus and yet loving Him. But it's going to be marvelous when we do see Him with our own eyes, as the song says, "What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see."
As we go on a little further, the song says: "And I look upon His face." One of the incomparable prophecies for us is that we shall see His face. The blessed face of Jesus. Yes, we shall see His face. Someday, and I think it won't be long, we shall see His face. I Corinthians 13:12 says: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." So, we're going to see Him and we're going to know Him. And He will know us. "Face to face," as Paul said there in I Corinthians 13.
Paul speaks also of the spiritual view that we have of Christ even now, in II Corinthians 4:6, when he said these words: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." So, even now we can spiritually see His face, can't we? But then, it won't be just a mirror image that we're seeing, it won't be just a reflection, it won't be just seeing through a glass darkly, but then it will be face to face in reality, looking on the blessed face of Jesus.
The new heaven, the new Earth, the river of life, the tree of life, the new Jerusalem, all these marvelous things that are coming on that day in the end times, all of these things will be as nothing at all, they will be as rubbish compared to looking upon His face. They'll be as nothing. Seeing our King and our Savior upon His throne, looking upon His blessed face, worshipping the matchless Savior who died for us; this will make all these other things seem as if they're nothing! won't it? There's not any good description in the Scriptures anywhere of what Jesus really looked But then, we'll see Him as He is. And we'll know Him and He'll know us.
There's coming a day when there'll be no more curse. Revelation chapter 22, verse 3 tells us that. It also says in that same place that His servants shall serve Him. And His mark will be upon us, as His own. There won't be any mistaking it, won't be any false brands or anything, but His mark will be on us, as His own! "And we shall see His face," it says. Revelation 22:4, "And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads." "They shall see his face." We'll see Him face to face and we'll know Him and He'll know us.
Even the wicked murderer Cain understood a little bit about this. Way back in the Old Testament when we read about Cain, we find that he understood the glory of seeing God's face. He understood that. Even Cain, the murderer, understood the glory of seeing God's face. He realized that his own punishment was severe. But as you read that story there where he's being cast out or chased away or punished by God, however you want to describe it, as you read that, if you look at it, you'll see that even though he realized his punishment was severe, he realized that the worst part of his punishment was being driven out from before the face of God.
What Cain said there in Genesis 4:13-14, I summarized it this way: basically, what he's saying is this; "My punishment is more than I can bear and from thy face shall I be hid." Now, that's the main point of this whole thing, isn't it? That is his whole statement to God. "From thy face shall I be hid." So, even this murderer, Cain, who killed his own brother, even he realized the glory of standing before God face to face. He realized that the worst part of his punishment was, "From thy face shall I be hid." Those are the very words that he used. So, even he realized the blessed privilege of standing before the face of God and the awfulness of being driven from before His face.
The next part of our song says, "The one who saved me by His grace." I like that, "The one who saved me by His grace." You know, we're saved only by grace. There is no other way. There isn't any way to be saved, except by grace, the unmerited favor of God, which is given to all who will believe. Romans 5:15 speaks of salvation as a free gift by Jesus Christ. Then, Ephesians 1:7 carries out the same thought when it goes ahead and says, "In whom," referring to Christ, "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
Now, I said earlier that this grace is freely offered to all men. I said it in a different way but I've already said that and I want to emphasize it again. It is freely offered to all men. Titus 2:11 tells us about that: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." This grace is what justifies us and makes us heirs of eternal life. It's the only thing that can justify us and make us heirs of eternal life. Titus again, in 3:7, says this: "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." So, this is it. The one and only way.
And, of course, when you're talking about grace, "The one who saved me by His grace," you can't fail to quote Ephesians 2:8 and 9. Just no way you could skip that one: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." That makes it very plain, doesn't it? The only way of salvation is by the grace of God. By grace through faith.
Then the song goes ahead and says: "When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day that will be." As I was studying for this, I checked around, there are several others that I could have used, but I jotted down a couple of Bible examples here of the Lord taking someone by the hand. One of them is recorded in Matthew chapter 9. You might remember the story when He healed the little maid, and He reached over and took her by the hand and lifted her up, with His own hand. Then, over in Mark 9:27, you find that Jesus reaches down and takes the demon possessed man by the hand and lifts him up.
There are other examples we could have given, but thinking about this for just a minute now, in our own case, "When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the Promised Land," --- think about the hand for a minute. The blessed nail-pierced hands will lead us and they'll wipe away all tears from our eyes. And there'll still be big, old scars there. But they won't be ugly at all; they'll be wonderful, won't they? The scars that He bore for us. And He'll take the nail-scarred hand, He'll take me by the hand and lead me though the Promised Land. That great, wonderful hand --- He'll lead us and He'll wipe our tears from our eyes with these nail-scarred hands.
Revelation 7:17 says this: "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." There's coming a day when He'll take me by the hand and lead me through the Promised Land.
"There'll be no sorrow there," it says --- Yes, no sorrow there. Jeremiah 31:12: "They shall not sorrow any more at all," it says. You notice the way he just goes ahead and emphasizes it. "They shall not sorrow any more at all." Making a big point out of the fact that there'll be no more sorrow any more at all, in Jeremiah 31:12.
Isaiah also speaks of this in chapter 25:8-9. And he not only says that He will wipe away all tears, but He also says that we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation in the kingdom age. Not only is He going to wipe away all the tears, all the sadness, but He's going to give us joy. Joy and happiness in His perfect kingdom on Earth.
Here on this Earth, we carry the burdens of life, don't we? We have lots of burdens sometimes, but there's coming a day when we'll leave all of this load behind. We'll leave it behind, just like we've dropped off a big rucksack or knapsack with lead in it off our backs; it'll just fall off and we'll go on to be with the Lord. Then, there'll be no more burdens to bear over there with the Lord. The burdens will fall away forever.
In II Corinthians 5:4, we find a good verse about this. "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." Now that reminds you of the little, silly joke that the fellow tells sometimes that he, thinking about going on to heaven, and all at once a bolt of lightning hits right close to him and almost gets him but misses. And he said, "Well now, Lord," he says, "I know heaven's my home, but I'm not homesick yet." And this verse that we just read sort of reminds you of that, doesn't it, if you really understand what he's talking about here?
He says, "We here in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed" --- in other words, "we don't really want to die," basically what he's saying here. "But, we want to be changed --- clothed upon." In other words, "We're happy to go to heaven, but we hate what comes ahead of it." That's basically what he's saying here. "Be clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life," he said.
Then as we step a little further into the song, it says, "No more sickness, no more pain, no more parting over there." When I read this, or anything about this subject of no more parting over there, I always remember the last time that I saw my father. He knew, and I knew when I was leaving him at the airport, though we said nothing about it, we knew that was (probably) the last time. We knew there was little chance that we would ever see each other again on earth. But there's coming a time when there'll be no parting. And sure enough, it worked out that way. The Lord took him --- the Lord took him while we were in combat, as we knew and he knew that it very likely would happen. But there's coming a day when there'll be no more sickness, no more pain, and no more parting over there. It won't happen again, brother, never again.
Isaiah 35:5-6 says several things there of interest relative to this. It says that the eyes of the blind will be open, for one thing. Another thing it tells us there, it says the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. And it says the lame man will leap like the hart. Have you ever been out and watched a herd of impala or some other kind antelope or deer or any of those animals of that type, and just watched them how they leap around and play and jump, in their joy and happiness of life? Well, it says the lame man will be that way in that day because he'll be healed. There won't be any lame in other words. The lame man will leap like the hart, it says, meaning like the deer or like the antelope creatures.
Then it says another thing that's of interest there in those two verses of Isaiah 35, where it says that the tongue of the dumb will sing. These men who've never been able to speak --- they've been dumb, but they weren't stupid because they got saved, didn't they? They're there in the millennial kingdom. They were dumb, but they're not stupid. And he says the dumb will sing. And he goes on to say that there'll be streams in the desert. You've heard that expression, of course, many times --- streams in the desert. There will be perfection on earth, and this time of perfection on earth is coming one day soon!
Revelation 21:4 says that when the new heaven and the new Earth are set up, that there'll be several things that will be no more. And some of the things on the list that it gives are these: there'll be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain. And God Himself will wipe all tears from their eyes.
Then in conclusion, our song says, "And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that will be."
Dr. Luke, the beloved physician, just about said it all when he recorded the words of the blessed Lord over in Luke chapter 12, verse 32, and He said these words: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." He just about summed it all up in those words, didn't he? "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Then Revelation 5:12 says --- and I always like to close with this message --- where it says, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
And then if you go back up there and read verse 10 just above, it says, "And we shall reign on the earth." "What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see. And I'll look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace. Then He'll take me by the hand and He'll lead me through the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day, that will be."
Are you ready for that day? If you're saved, then you're ready for it. If you're saved and not backslidden, you're ready for it. But, if you're backslidden, you're not really watching and waiting for the Lord, and you're not really ready for it, are you? Or if you're unsaved, you're certainly no where near ready for it! No way that you could even think that you might be ready for it. Because that means --- if you're unsaved when He comes, you're going to be left behind. And you'll go through this terrible time of tribulation, and most will not survive. Most will die in terrible situations.
If you're here today without Christ --- you're not saved --- trust the Lord and He'll save you. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." There is no other way. You can go through communion a million times. You can go through the baptistry a million times. You can go through anything you want to a million times and it won't save you. The only thing that will save you is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And then, by His grace, He'll save you. There's no other way. He is the way, the only way. He is the one, the only one.
If you haven't trusted Him , trust Him today and He'll save you. Or if you're here and you're backslidden, come down and tell us about it so we can pray with you and rejoice with you that you're rededicating your life today to the Lord, and going to serve Him until He comes to take us away with Him. Or if you're here and you know you've been saved, you feel the Lord leading you into the fellowship of this church in any way that we receive members, just come down and tell us that today. That you know you're saved, that you want to unite with this church in whatever way we receive members. You come and tell us about that now.
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