For the sake of those who haven't been here on the nights of the week, they have been beaten by the two epistles of Timothy, and they've been beaten by Timothy in the church. The teaching that we get on these two epistles concerning the Church of God. Then on Friday night we were looking at the teaching concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the two epistles. Now, this morning I want to read the various references in I and II Timothy and also in Titus concerning the coming, the coming again of the Lord Jesus. I want to read these references, first of all, and the first one is in I Timothy chapter four. There are eight of them all together. I Timothy four in verse one. Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, giving him to producing spirits and doctrines of devils, seeking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meat which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good. I am not going to be refused if it be received at thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God on prayer. I shall look at the last chapter. First Timothy chapter six. Verse thirteen. I give thee chance in the sight of God who quickeneth all things. And before Christ Jesus, he, the fourth Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession. But thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word there is the epiphany unto the earth-shining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I shall look at the second of this verse, and we'll please count the two. Verse eleven. Second Timothy two, verse eleven. It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. For if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not yet, he abides a faithful, he cannot deny himself. Mark chapter three, second Timothy chapter three. Let us know also that on the last days perilous time shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boistered, proud, blasphemers, disobedient of parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, tears, despises of those that are good, traitors, heavy, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. Now, chapter four in verse one. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall judge the quicken the dead on his appearance. The word there again is the epiphany, the archshining of the glory. He shall judge the quicken the dead at his epiphany on his kingdom. Preach the word. The instant and season out of season reprove, rebuke. exhaust with all long-suffering and doctrine. Verse six, for I am now ready to be offered the time of my departures at hand. If I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, an unto me only. but unto all them also that love his appearing. Again the word appearing there is the epiphany, the art shining of his glory. The kind of righteousness which the Lord shall give me at that day are not to me only, but unto all them also that love his epiphany. Now further down the chapter please. Verse sixteen. Of my first hands a new man stood with me But all men forsake me. I pray, God, that it may not be laid through their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be truly known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now just one more reference in the epistle of Titus, chapter two. It is from the last verse. Titus, chapter two. Verse eleven. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us a denying on godliness and worldly lust. You should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Looking for thy blessed hope on the appearing of the glory, again it's the word of Sessonate, the appearing of the glory of the great God under our stager Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself of the cuter people jealous of good work. Now, these are the eight references that we find on the past epistles concerning the coming again of the Lord Jesus. And it's perfectly obvious that we want a time to look at them in any detail this morning. But what I want to do is to divide them into four categories, the eight references. Two of them have to do with the character of the day in which we live, the character of the last days. We get an outline, first of all, of the latter times in the first epistle, and then we get an outline of the last days in the second epistle. And for a moment or two, we want to look at the character of the day in which we live and compare them with the outline that the apostle gives to Timothy, the character of the last days. And then secondly, I want to take that lovely expression, looking for that blessed hope. We get that on Friday. And there we get a reference to the coming again of the Lord Jesus for his people, of the bright and morning star. And then the third place I want to look at as a two references that we get to the judgment seat of Christ. We get the reference in the second chapter of the second episode, on also Paul's great hope that is outgave when he sees the Lord, on the judgment seat of Christ when he's manifested there. is going to receive a crown of glory that saith us not away. Then three of the references, we get a practical application to the heart and life of a believer on the kind of life that we should live in view of the fact that the Lord Jesus is coming back again. I believe with all my heart that the day in which we live will come right to the very end of the dispensation. I believe that the next thing on the program is the coming again of the Lord Jesus. And we were to take time this morning to outline the various signs of the day in which we live. I think it was perfectly obvious to everyone that we have come to a crisis in the civilization of which we form a part. And we believe that the next item on the program... is the intervention of God Himself on the appearing, the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people. I don't know of any doctrine that's more confused today in people's minds. You know, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the great truth of the secret rapture of the Church was brought to light once again. It had been buried for centuries under heaps of tradition, but God brought that light again. He brought it forth, and in every part of the world, for about a hundred years, true evangelical believers had their heads up waiting for the coming again of the Lord Jesus. I can move back fifty years ago. I was just a boy at the time, and I did have the marvelous opportunity when I was a child and when I was a boy of listening to the greatest prophetic teachers that were in the world at that time. I don't want to mention their name, but I had the opportunity of listening to those men when I was a child, fifty years ago. And practically every one of those men had given outline of prophetic teaching and spoke about the Lord's coming. They believed that they were right at the very end of the age. You know, there's not one of those men left the day. Every one of them is home with the Lord. Men with honored names. great prophetic teachers of the church. Every one of them has passed on. They've passed through the article of death. And they haven't seen the coming of the Lord. And sometimes I ask myself the question, what right have we today to say that he may come in our lifetime or that we are right at the end of the dispensation? You know, if we were to give the signs and to give the reasons why we believe that the Lord's coming is very near... that would occupy quite a lot of time. I thought that possibly tonight in the gospel meeting we would speak about it in more detail and give some of the reasons, five or six of them, why we believe that the Lord's coming is very near at hand. But my purpose this morning is not so much to do that, but to point out that the doctrine is being confused in people's minds today by very plausible arguments and teaching but completely undermined the truth of the New Testament scriptures. One way that is being undermined today is those that would teach that when the Lord Jesus comes back again, it's only a spiritual honest prophecy that's going to rise to be with us. Those that have attained to a certain measure of spiritual attainment, they and they alone will rise to meet the Lord, successful and the loyal and the true. And a carnal believer... will be left here on this earth to go through some kind of a modified purgatory so that he might be purged and purified and then later he'll be raptured. That's the first form that this confusion takes today, this confused teaching concerning the coming again of Christ. Then there are those that would tell us that the church of the present dispensation is going to go through the Great Tribulation and they're going to be purified in that Tribulation. I was at a conference in Chicago last year on a beloved brother that's very well known here in Augustine, brother Peter Pell. I was with him when somebody came and asked him if he believed that the church was going to go through the tribulation. And Mr. Pell, he smiled. He said, do you believe he said that the church is the bride? And this friend said, oh, yes, of course I do. But he said, do you mean to tell me, he said, that if the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven, that a part of the bride is going to be there, and the other part is going to be left on earth to go through a tribulation, and that the marriage supper is going to go on on a part of the bride here on earth, said, do you believe that? And the man who looked at him with a kind of a confused expression on his face, he said, I never saw that before. And if you were to tell me that a part of the bride is going to be on earth, to the purified by tribulation fires on the rest of the bride. Not a raptured bride, but a ruptured bride is going to be in the presence of the Lord at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Well, I just simply wouldn't believe that. But these are theories that are being propagated on every hand of the day. There are others that would tell us that God is completely through with his people Israel. And they believe that there's going to be no such thing as a real literal millennium, a real literal reign of Christ as the Son of David upon a literal throne in Jerusalem here on this earth. These are things that are being denied to us. And people's minds are confused about the teaching concerning the coming of the Lord. You know, I wish we had about a week to go into some of these theories. and to speak about them in detail, but time wouldn't suffice. It's not my purpose to do that. But what I want to do very briefly this morning is to outline the teaching that we find in the Pastoral Epistles right at the very end of the life of the Apostle Paul. This final teaching concerning the coming we get in these three lovely Epistles that are called the Pastoral Epistles. Now, the initial teaching of Paul we find in First and Second Thessalonians, and the emphasis in First and Second Thessalonians is on the secret rapture of the church. That might mean when Christ comes back again, every true believer from Pentecost right down to the present time, when there comes the sharp of the bridegroom, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. We believe that every true believer... those in the grave, those that are asleep in Jesus, and those that are alive, that we've been caught up to meet the Lord on the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. The emphasis in the initial teaching of the Apostle Paul in the two epistles to Thessalonica, the teaching there, the emphasis is upon the secret rapture. But I want you to notice that in the pastoral epistles, the emphasis is is on the appearing of Christ, the outshining of His glory. And in six of the references that we have read together, it's the appearing, that is, the epiphany. When Christ is coming back again to reign, when Christ is coming back again in glory, as the Son of Man, the Son of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, on the Messiah, the King of Israel, coming back again in the outshining of His glory to reign, in the same place where he was cast out. In Thessalonians, the emphasis is on the rapture, but in the three pastoral epistles, the emphasis is on the appearing, the outshining of the glory, the epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And in the text of the references, this is what is referred to. Now it's not that there's any contradiction at all. There can't be any contradiction in Scripture. And friend God, Christ is coming back again, first of all for his church. Every true believer, the bride of the Lamb, is going to be raptured whole and entire. Not a roof will be left behind, raptured into the presence of the Lord. Not the emphasis is in the two epistles to Thessalonica, but here to Timothy at the end. in view of the last days, on in view of the rewards that are given to those that suffer with Christ, what is emphasized here is the appearing of the glory of Christ, his reign upon the earth on the church being associated with him in that reign. Now, just a word or two about the character of the last days and the two passages that we find in the two epistles. I want you to notice in the first epistles, what we get here is the character of the latter time. Under the second epistle, the term that's used is the last day. Now, those two terms are not synonymous. I believe that what we get, first of all, is a tendency that develops in some apostolic days, and went on and on and developed in sequence until finally we find the dark middle ages, and we find it with us at the present time. Now there's a three-fold tendency that we get in the latter times that the Apostle speaks of. I just want to mention it. The first thing we find is in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith. Now what we get there is an apostasy. What the Apostle is referring to here is what we call today modernism. An apostasy from the faith. Some shall depart from the faith. It's a denial of fundamental teaching. Some shall depart from the faith. Now, the second thing he speaks of that characterizes the latter time is the development of spiritism, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. You know, here again, if one were to speak at any length about spiritism, that would take a long time. It's something that we find in every part of the world today that's spreading like a bushfire. You know, I believe that the flood was an outbreak of satanic activity at the flood. I believe that that was one reason why that awful catastrophe overtook the world at that time. Spirit isn't. And the infiltration of satanic forces into the human race We find exactly the same thing when the Lord was here on earth. We find them casting out demons, demon possessions. If you hear anybody today saying that those cases of demon possession that we find in the four Gospels, that it was nothing more than epilepsy or some form of insanity, turn your ear away from that kind of propaganda. There's no one who has ever lived in a heathen country like Central Africa, as we have done, would ever deny that there's such a thing as real demon possession. And I believe that some of the leaders today in some parts of the world are demon-possessed men. I'm not going to mention men this morning. That possibly wouldn't be the right thing to do. But I believe that some of these political leaders that are leading civilizations on That slippery slope to oblivion, unto departure, taken man away from God. The denial of everything that's fundamental, I believe, that are demon-possessed men. Satanic forces are controlling man-to-day, and those things will get worse and worse as the time goes on. Now, the third thing that we get here is a doctrine that refuses marriage, forbidding to marry, On commanding to abstain from meat that God has given to be received with thankfulness. I'm going to speak about something here that someone may take exception to. I have spoken a number of times publicly recently about the development of the Roman Catholic Church in every part of the world, on the progress of its power. On every single instance that I've done that, after the meeting, somebody has taken me to task about it. They have said that that's bigotry. They have said that today we must be characterized by tolerance and that we must not criticize anybody. But I believe that the apostle here is giving us a three-fold tendency that is developing on every hand a day and people would be silly and stupid and absolutely foolish if they didn't recognize this three-fold tendency that characterizes the latter kind and that will come to a head, will come to a climax, at the end of the day in which we live. First of all, modernism, a departure from the faith. You know, it's not for me to criticize religious conditions here in the United States. I'm a visitor among you here. I think that courtesy demands that any visitor wouldn't criticize conditions in the country in which he's a guest. But there's one thing I do know. I know a little bit about the mission field. And I know a good deal about Central Africa, and we have traveled all over Africa, and we have met hundreds of men through professible missionaries. When I went to Africa thirty-seven years ago, by and large, the men that were in the country in those days from every branch of Christendom were born-again men. Men who preached redemption through the blood of Christ, who were fundamental to the core. But you know, in a period of thirty years, that is altogether different. And today, most of the men that are being sent out to evangelize in a country like Africa or India, on the mission fields of the world, some of them don't even take a Bible in their kit. And they arrive out there with ideas, humanitarian ideas, to try to uplift native races and so on. Now, if I were to give specific instances here this morning, it might startle you some of the things that we have met ourselves. But just to get through, I remember him going to Africa. I met a young African. His name was T. Mangal. He was an African of one of the tribes in East Africa. He had come in contact with the London Missionary Society in East Africa, and one of the missionaries had taken them into the center and sent them to school. He was bright. And after he finished school, he was sent out to South Africa for higher education. And he was so bright that finally he was sent over to the United States. And he was put through one of the theological seminaries here in the United States, and finally graduated from Columbia University with a PhD and came back to Africa. I met him when he arrived. And you know that young man, an African, Being sent back again by a recognized missionary society to preach among his own people, he was a rank modernist. Everything that he had learned in early life had been completely taken from him. He didn't believe in the deity of Christ. He laughed at it. He didn't believe in the virgin birth of Christ. He didn't believe in redemption through the blood. The vicarious atonement was something... that was absolutely outside his thinking. He didn't believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. He didn't believe in the inspiration of Scripture. And when I mentioned to him some things about eternal punishment, he just laughed in my face. He said, we don't believe those things today. You know, this is the kind of thing that the mission feels is being infiltrated with at the present time, a departure from the faith. The very foundations of Christianity are being undermined and destroyed by men who are being paid to propagate the faith. Some shall depart from the faith. We found that good many years ago. Just a month or two ago, I was in the city of Boston. I met a young Indian there, again, who had been trained in the mission school in India and had been sent over to this country for his education. After the meeting was over, he waited behind, and the face was just so sad, and blank. I said, Friend, can I help you? He said, I don't know whether you could or not. He said, I came over here, and he said, I was a Christian, or he said, I thought I was. And he said, some of the things that I have been hearing in theological seminary, he said, they've completely taken away everything from me. And he said, I don't know today whether there's a God or not. He said, I've become an infidel. And I said, I don't know whether you could help me or not. I said, I'm beside them, and I tried to. I'm not going to develop it. But this is the day in which we live. Some shall depart from the faith. That is the outbreak of modernism. That's what we call it a day. People that deny the fundamental doctrines of Scripture on people who are being paid to preach the fundamental truths of Christianity. are undermining on destroying those foundations today. Now the second tendency that we get here is the development of spiritism. Here again is something that one could speak about for a long time. But you know you find this among civilized people today. Spiritism. After all it's heathen, pig and idolatry. And I do want to warn younger people especially here this morning If you ever find anybody playing with a planchette board, or some people call it a Ouija board, or invite you to go to a CN where they come in contact with the spirits of the dead, that's what they tell you. It's not the spirits of the dead at all. It's evil spirits that are trapping men and women today. And very often, people who get trapped with these things may end up in the lunatic asylum. But the word of God tells me that in the latter time this is something that will go on and get worse and worse. Now the third thing that we find here is a prohibition of marriage under command to abstain from meats that God has given to be enjoyed by those that know the truth. I believe that in these two things what we get here is a little outline of Roman Catholicism as we find it today. Now I'm not going to develop that either. But I do want to say that in every part of the world today we find ruin on Roman doctrine. We find it's progressing, progressing, progressing. And we do believe that the Word of God gives every indication as it comes towards the end that that superstitious system is just as far away from God as it can possibly be on the undermining. of practically every fundamental teaching concerning salvation is being undermined by that awful superstitious system. I was born in a Roman Catholic country, and I've lived in a Roman Catholic country practically all my life. I suppose most of you can tell by my tongue that I'm an Irishman. I lived there until I was twenty-one years old. I had my education in Ireland. And then for thirty-seven years we have lived in another Roman Catholic country over in Angola. It's not that I make grants. I know a little bit about the system. Not only the system, but I know a little bit about the doctrine too. And I'm vitally interested in it. It's not that I have any prejudice. It's not that I'm a bigot. But the Word of God tells me that that system will get stronger and stronger and stronger towards the end and will become The dominant force in Christianity, and after everything that's vital and real is lifted out of the world at the rapture, we find that this is what goes on and comes to a head in what is called in the book of Revelation, Babylon, the Great. This is something that we can expect. The other day I picked up a book that is written by Bishop Fulton Sheen. It's called the Eternal Galilean. I suppose he's the monk piece of the church today, at least in this country. You know, I read the book. The first part of it is a wonderful, wonderful outline there of the person of Christ. He speaks of his deity, speaks of his sinless humanity, and is just fine. I could agree one hundred percent with what he says concerning the person of the Lord Jesus in his deity and in his humanity. But then as he goes on, he introduces the Virgin Mary. And towards the end of the book, he teaches in that book that Mary is the co-redeemer along with the Lord Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind. And he actually uses the word that her blood and her body is offered in sacrifice for the redemption of mankind along with the blood and body of her son. That's the next doctrine that's being propagated a day by that system, and it completely undermines the vicarious atoning death on the unique majestic glory of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now we would be silly and stupid today if we didn't recognize the three fools hand in faith that they get them a lot of times. When we turn over to the second and the first row, And look at the nineteen items there that characterizes the last days. Here we got a sequence. The latter claim, we believe, started in semi-apostolic days and developed right through to the Middle Ages. We have it with us today. But the last days give a description in nineteen items here of the day in which we live. You know, if you were to take these items and examine them carefully, you'll find that fall into three categories. And the first one is what you might call pleasure. And the second one is what you might call politics. And the third thing that we find here is a powerless religion. Pleasure. Politics and a powerless religion. Nineteen items altogether. And if we were to compare them with Romans one, that description of the pagan world. Very many of these items can be duplicated there. What we get in paganism in Romans chapter one we find here in Gagarin Christianity right at the end of the age. Now here again it would be impossible to go into them in detail, but there are about ten items here I believe that describe an awful system that we find in the world today that you can put alongside what we find in the first epistle. First of all, five times there we get the word love mentioned. Lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure. And then negatively, we read that they are not lovers of good, and they are not lovers of God. Five times we get that word love mentioned in the description. Now, there are ten items there that describe an awful system that is raising its head in every part of the world today on that communism. It's not my purpose at all this morning to speak of the political things that we find in this chapter or the condition of things that we find in the world today to compare it with the Word of God. Time wouldn't suffice to do that. But I do want to say that the four things that we find growing stronger and stronger and stronger in the world today is this awful, wicked, God-hitting system is called communism, and it's infiltrating into every part of the world. I just want to suggest to each one of us here this morning, thinking of the world in which we live, and we think of this fourfold tendency, it exactly describes the world in which we live. First of all, departure from the faith, modernism. Secondly, the outbreak of spiritism, Here's something that we find everywhere. Thirdly, the development of the power of Roman Catholicism, and finally the spread of communistic teaching in every part of the world, it exactly describes what we call twentieth century civilization. And it started down that long, slippery slope, but will end in complete hatred of God on complete departure from God. Now, this is the character of the last times that are described in the two epistles. Chapter one, the first epistle, chapter four, we get here the latter times on an ending in the last days in the second epistle. Now, just a word or two about that lovely expression, the blessed hope. What is the hope of the believer today? That blessed, that happy hope. It's the appearing in glory of the good God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, I think that when we see these things in the world today, we can lift up our heads, knowing that the day of our redemption draws nigh. We do thank God that when things get to the very extreme and things reach a climax, they reach ahead. The next thing we can look for is the Son of God from heaven. That blessed hope. on the appearing in glory of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We get there the two stages of the coming. The Blessed Hope. What is that? Christ coming as a bright and morning star. You know, the Lord Jesus is presented in a two-fold way in the New Testament concerning his coming. For us, we are believers. He's a bright and morning star. But for the people of Israel and for the world, coming back again in glory, he's the Son of Righteousness who shall arise with healing in his wings. I'll never forget the first time I ever saw the Morning Star. You'll never see it if you sleep in your bed through the dawn. The only way you'll ever see the Morning Star is to get up before daylight. I remember many years ago, I wasn't interested very much in astronomy at the time, but I was sent for by a Portuguese official to a place called Novogaya, about a hundred and ten miles away. The only means of transport I had in those days was an old bicycle. There were no roads anyway. And I started off a hundred and ten miles on the bicycle, and when I got there, I transacted my business with this Portuguese officer. and I was sleeping through the night waiting for the next day to start off home and the skirt came in in the middle of the night to tell me about something that had happened at home and it meant that I had to get home in a hurry. I got up at three o'clock in the morning, took the bicycle and started. It was raining and the soil was a kind of heavy red gumbo and then I had a puncture. I'd gone about ten miles I couldn't do anything with the old bicycle, so I abandoned it at the roadside and I started to walk. I walked the whole of that day from morning until evening. And as the sun was going in, I came to a little river called the Jombo, and I found some of my men there, sleeping in a grass hut, to try to get me to stay with them and to spend the night. I said, no, I have to go. I said, if any of you men would like to come with me during the night, And one boy, his name was Matchingongo, and he says, Ganna, if you determine to go, he said, I'll come where she is. And he stepped up from beside the fire and put an axe over his shoulder, and we stepped out into the night and started a walk throughout the night. We crossed the river in the dugout, and on the other side we went on and on and on, and on. I think it was one of the longest nights I ever spent. It rained a part of the night. As it came towards the dawn, He broke away from me and he threw his axe at something and I shouted at him. I said, what's wrong with what is it? Oh, he said, there's a leopard there who's eating an antelope, but he said, I've chased it away. He said, come on. He came back again and I grabbed him by the belt under the mud, the marina, and the dark. He staggered on through the night. And when I saw something come up over the horizon, it seemed like the headlight of a motorcycle that was so bright. I said, what's in Ganga? What's that? He put his head over his shoulder. Oh, he said, that's the Mutumbu. I said, what's the Mutumbu? Kutumbuka means to jump, and the Mutumbu is an arm. That means the jumper or the jumping one. Or he said, that's that star that comes up over the horizon before the dawn. He said, in our language, we call it the Mutumbu. And he said, if you watch that star coming up over the horizon, It said, in that very same place, it said, you'll see the sunrise. It comes up on the same spot. It's the first time I had ever seen the morning star. And we watched it come up over the horizon. It's so bright, I learned afterwards, it's the planet Venus. It's the largest object in the heavens, after the moon. Sometimes it's so large and so bright, especially in the tropics, it'll cast a shadow on the earth. I watched it coming up over the horizon, and staggering along, holding on to the boy's belt, we went on and on, and sure enough, just in the same place where the bright and morning star had come up, we saw the first weeks of dawn. And when we saw the dawn, we were standing on top of a cliff, and right away about as far as my eye could see, away down in the valley, I saw a little chimney. coming out of a grass roof, and that's a place that I called home. And we went on and on, but as the sun came up over the horizon, we staggered in, and we were home. We were home. It's the first time I've ever seen the bright and morning stars. I've never forgotten them. It's the lovely, lovely picture of the Lord Jesus coming for his people, the bright and morning stars. You know, there are four things about it. It comes up. At the weakest star of the night, the darkest star of the night, the sleepiest star of the night, on the coldest star of the night, the bright and morning star, it comes up over the horizon. You'll never see it if you lie in your bed until the dawn. It's only the air they watch her. The man who gets up before the dawn, it's only he in the darkness can ever see the bright and morning star. Many a time I'll set my alarm clock, It was so beautiful seeing it that night, sometimes I set the alarm clock at certain times of the year, knowing that Venus would be coming up over the horizon, and just the joy to see it come up over the horizon. I set the alarm clock and sank it out of bed to watch the bright and morning star come up over the horizon. This is a blessed hope. The hope of the believer, Christ is coming back again amid the darkness for his people. Then was the judgment seat. Paul refers to it twice. I'm not going to speak about it because our time is gone. But he refers first of all to that expression. He said, if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. If we deny him, he shall deny us. Now that's one side of the picture. Don't go away with the idea that there's anything here concerning the salvation of a believer. He said, if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. You know, I believe that what is referred to here is the judgment seat of Christ, the manifestation of the being not. Those that suffer today with Christ in a coming day will be given positions of administration in that kingdom, that glorious kingdom, at the outshining of the glory, the epiphany, the appearing of Christ. When he reigns, we shall reign with him. And then the apostle, in referring to it, in connection with himself, he said, I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only. but unto all them also that love his epiphany, love his appearing, the crime of righteousness. There are five crimes to the one, but you know it's possible to lose your crime. It's not possible to lose your soul. Salvation is something that's absolute and secure. This is something that never can be touched, but you know it is possible to lose a crime. You remember what Paul, what the Spirit says of the church at Philadelphia? That fixed our hands, told us that, that new man lose his crown. That fixed our hands, told us that, that new man lose his crown. Every time I think of that, I think of a poor creature that's wandering around the world today, one of the most pathetic figures could be found anywhere, and that's a man who's called the Duke of Windsor. You remember that pathetic story? There was a man who had a foot upon his throne. He already was a king. The only thing that left was to have the crown placed upon his head. But you remember how he made a decision on the Prime Minister of England at that time, Earl Baldwin, even then, and he spoke to David. spoke to the Duke of Windsor as he is today. He was the Prince of Wales then. And he told him, he said, It cannot be. You remember his answer? He said, Sir, he said, I'm determined, he said, to marry this woman. And the prime minister he shook his head, and all he said was, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But he said, you can't be king. He said, You can't have the crown and do that. It's impossible. That's the decision of the country. And Edward, with his foot upon the throne, he stepped down, and he became a commoner, and today he has lost his crown. He made his decision. He did it with his eyes wide open. That's his business, I suppose. But the point is, he lost his crown by a deliberate decision that he made with his eyes wide open, that which far hath full fast, that no man take thy crown. There are five crimes to be won. And thank God those that are faithful and loyal and true to Christ, that the judgment sees. They will receive that crime, that crime of glory, that spirit is not away. And then there's a practical application. The Apostle, he says to him as he said, I charge thee. Six times he speaks about a charge. I charge thee, I charge thee, I charge thee. And he does it in view of the coming again of Christ, of the appearing on the glory, the epiphany, the earth-shining of the glory, and his appearing on his kingdom. It says, preach the word, preach the word, preach the word. And the great charge in connection with the coming again of Christ is to take this book and write up until the time that Christ comes to proclaim it, to preach it, to herald the word of God to earth's remotest bond. He said, Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word. Preach the word. Preach the word. Amen. In connection with himself at the end, he prayed. He said that the Lord might deliver him from the lion. He had been delivered from the lion. That was from Nero. And he says, I know. He said that he will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. Here we get the preservation of the service of the Lord at the end. And here it is. of the coming again of Christ on this heavenly glory that he will preserve us until that day. Oh, may God bless his word. On each one of us here this morning, may we have our heads up. In spite of the darkness and departure on every hand, our heads up, looking for that blessed hope on the appearing of Christ with him, glorified with him in that coming day.