In the sermon 'Returning in Glory' by Douglas Campbell, the speaker delves into Revelation 1:4-8, focusing on the return of Christ as depicted in verses 7 and 8. Campbell draws connections between the books of Daniel and Revelation, highlighting the theme of rulers without God becoming beasts, a concept from Daniel that resonates with the imagery in Revelation. He emphasizes the significance of Christ's return, noting that it will be a time of deliverance for believers and judgment for non-believers. The sermon discusses the dual nature of prosperity as both a blessing and a curse for the church, leading to complacency and a false sense of self-sufficiency. Campbell urges believers to stay faithful and vigilant, reminding them that Christ's return will set things right and deliver them from the tribulations of earthly rulers. He concludes by encouraging listeners to live for eternity rather than temporary pleasures, emphasizing the importance of sharing the gospel and remaining steadfast despite challenges.

If you would turn with me to Revelation chapter 1. This morning we'll read verses 4 through 8 and we'll look specifically at verses seven and eight. Revelation chapter one, starting at verse four. John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of earth will wail on account of him even so amen I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. Let's pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning being reminded just earlier of your unchanging, unchangeableness, that you are the God today and yesterday, and the God of the future. You are the one and only true God. And Father, you are good, and that will never change. How amazing to ponder your goodness, to ponder your love, to ponder your patience, to ponder your mercy, to ponder your justice, to ponder your wrath. And Father, as we ponder all these things, yet again it should well up within us praise that in these things you will never change.

Father, we are not that. Father, we seem as fickle as the wind blowing chaff to and fro and and all these things father that we read of us and and we intimately know of ourselves so father this morning we need your word we need you we're thankful for your word We are thankful that your word says that if any desire wisdom that we should come to you and we should ask of it. And so Father, this morning we ask, would you give us wisdom? Would you give us understanding? And Father, in that wisdom would you change our hearts that we would be obedient?

That we might display your glory throughout the world first for your glory we ask these things and we lift them before you we ask in Christ's name amen amen well this morning as we continue on in the book of Revelation, we've already pondered a bit verses 4 through 6. And so this morning, if you remember the verses prior to this, we're talking about, or talking about things that we are, that John has witnessed, or things that God has done for us in the past. And so beginning at verse 7, we see a transition from remembering and thanking and pondering upon things that He has done for us and who He is to now what He is going to do. Or we shift our focus to now, the future. So look again at verse 7.

It says, Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, Amen." Now we oftentimes, and rightly so, when we see this, we're reminded and we're told of the return of Christ, that He will be coming in the clouds. But this is a new idea found in the book of Revelation. And to understand this rightly, I believe that we have to go back to the book of Daniel where this is mentioned in Daniel 7, 13 through 14. As God gave a vision to Daniel or a dream, this is multiple dreams, but we come to verse 13 in Daniel chapter 7.

It says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And He came to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before Him, and to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." I believe to understand this in Revelation, it's helpful or it's necessary that we take an overview look at the book of Daniel. If you have spent time in the book of Daniel, or if you've read through it, as I hope most or all of you have, Daniel is, it takes place that now they're being brought into Babylon, they're brought into, the Israelites are brought into captivity, And amongst those are four notorious people that stood out amongst the others that were actually called to serve in the king's court because the king saw or the ruler saw that there was something different about these men, that they were wiser and they were better than even his best men. Those four were Daniel and there were three other names of which I can't recall very well and you won't be able to recall them very well because you know them by their Babylonian new name that was given to them.

You would know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now as you progress through the book of Daniel, these men went through some different trials and tribulations. But amongst that, God always came out victorious. Whether that was if you've, I always think of Sunday school and I think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because if you grew up in Sunday school, if you taught Sunday school, oftentimes you teach these stories through the Old Testament. And who can not forget these three men who were thrown into a fiery furnace and it didn't consume them.

It did consume the men that threw them into the furnace. It did kill those guys because the furnace was so hot. But for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who stood firm on the foundation of serving the one true God, God rescued them from the fiery furnace. And then you remember Daniel and the lion's den. All these things, which gives us an overall theme of the book of Daniel.

And that overall theme, if you had to sum up the book of Daniel into two phrases, the two phrases would be this, rulers without God become beasts. Rulers that won't serve God become beasts. Now this should be for those of you who are looking forward to the book of Revelation, this is a trigger word, right? We know of the beast and we're introduced or we find this concept all the way back in the book of Daniel. Even in our day, we oftentimes, we know as we go forward and even in the book of Daniel we find this, that it seems that there will be one ruler, a major ruler, that all the other rulers will bow to, and he will be the beast that we often refer to as.

But all through history there have been many beasts, and any ruler that does not submit himself to God's Word and God's authority becomes a beast. Friend our world is filled with beasts. Though we are called to pray for our rulers, we have many rulers who are beasts. Though maybe they haven't risen to the level that they are in Babylon, or that we read of in this account, they're all rising or falling if God so chooses to destroy them. But rulers without God become beasts.

This understanding should cause you to really question your motivation if you think reform of a nation will be done through politics, because it won't. And you can spend all of your time trying to convince people who think differently than you about political things, And at the end of it, I think that you will find that it was a complete waste of time, because you're not going to change the mind of a beast. It's only God who will change their mind. It's only the gospel that will change people's opinions of who God is. It's only the gospel that will change people's opinions of who God is.

It's only the gospel that will cause rulers, if God so chooses, to change their hearts, who will then lead their nation to be back under the Word of God. It's only the gospel that will change a beast back into a blessing. Now, I took that a little bit. So two phrases that will sum up the book of Daniel. First, rulers without God become beasts.

And second, and what's even more glorious, God will deliver us from the beasts. Isn't that awesome? So rulers without God become beasts, and God will deliver His people from the beasts. That's the summary of the book of Daniel. And when we come to Revelation 1 verse 7, it no doubt brings in this understanding.

That when it says, behold, He is coming with the clouds, it's behold, He is coming to deliver His people. When Christ returns, He is coming to deliver us from the beasts of the earth, from the untrue rulers. To those that though God may or did rise up, they were risen up that He will conquer them. I believe so often that as we see different cycles of the church and different cycles of God's people, what a blessing it has been to live in the United States of America in our time where we have been extremely prosperous. Been extremely prosperous.

In fact, so prosperous that it's so normal that we can't even comprehend the amount of prosperity that we've experienced. I say this very often, but I think it needs reminded that when my parents were children, they were overwhelmingly thrilled that for Christmas they would get an orange. And that might have been their only Christmas present. But they weren't as prosperous as we are. We get a bag of oranges, and half of them go bad.

We're extremely prosperous, and for the most part those whom are in American poverty are more prosperous than the rich people were a hundred years ago. Poverty, the poverty line is very subjective, it's very interpretive. And because of this prosperity, it has hurt the church. It should well up within the church much thanksgiving. And the more free time we have, it should well up into more service to God.

We're at a point in history where we have so much free time that we fill with with silly things and yet we still, when it comes to serving God, we say, well, I can't do that. I'm busy. We've been extremely prosperous. And in that prosperity, our guards go down. In that prosperity, we tend to stop praying.

We tend to stop relying upon God. We tend to stop putting His Word first. It's the tragedy of self-sufficiency. It's the tragedy of self-sufficiency. We begin to believe we are completely self-sufficient.

And so begins the downward turn. So is prosperity a blessing? Absolutely. Is prosperity a curse? Absolutely.

It's done much damage to America. Within this then rises up the beasts. People begin to not vote or elect leaders who live out or conform to the word of God, but they begin to elect leaders that can get them more of what they want. The more the culture falls away from God, the more they elect leaders that are just like them. The more they cry out for things like socialism and communism and say, well, the government must take all control because it transitions from God being God to then the government becoming God.

And the more the government will get, the more they will demand, and the more they will take, the more the beast will rise. Unfortunately, in a culture of prosperity and of one falling away from the Word of God, in almost all cases, the beast will rise to an extent that no one will know is even happening until it's too late. Until he begins to spill the blood of the Saints. Until he begins to persecute the righteous. Until we begin to truly say and as we approach woe to those who call good evil and evil good.

It is the path of every beast. And for those whom are truly in Christ, we begin to pray deeper. We begin to pray, Come Lord Jesus. See, when everything is good, this is convicting of myself, when everything is good, I begin to think, well, maybe I don't want Jesus to come today. It's a nice day.

There's this golf to be played today, Caleb. Surely I don't want him to come today. And as I'm more Deceived into thinking I'm self-sufficient and and everything is good. I begin to forget about the one whom is truly good And I think I stop I begin to stop praying come Lord Jesus I believe there's a gift in persecution. That gift is to draw us near to Christ, to look forward to what is permanent and not what is temporary.

To live for eternity and not for this afternoon. When you're living for eternity and not this afternoon, Him coming in the clouds is the best thing that could ever happen today, could ever happen this year, that could ever happen in our life. When we are living for Christ, Him coming back in the clouds to set things right, to deliver us from this world around us, and even better yet, and more infinitely more so, to deliver us from this wretched flesh, to no longer struggle with this flesh that always wants to drag me back into the the temporary things but that that I would be freed from it and I would be with my Lord and Savior. I will be with the King of Kings who will rule in righteousness. He will set things right." Friends, that is the best thing that could happen in the next three minutes.

I hope it's the best thing that could happen to you too. And if you're in Christ, it will be. But if you're not, you will wail as we see coming up. Again, Revelation 1-7, behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him.

Even so, amen." We're reminded, and we back up just a little bit to Matthew chapter 16 verse 27. It says, for the Son of Man is going to come with his angels and the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. We're reminded in the foreword, behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Friends, those that would have a false understanding that the God of the Old Testament is God the Father and He's mean and hard to get along with, and Jesus is the God of the New Testament, and He protects us from the Father, and He's nice. Fails to even understand this at service level.

It's the Son of Man. It's the Son of God who is coming to repay. It's Him who is coming to avenge. It's the one that much of mainstream Christianity says, Jesus just loves you, this is evangelism, just tell everyone Jesus loves them. Well, did you tell them what it says in Revelations he's going to do?

Because it seems a little different than what you're telling people. Yes, Jesus loves you. If you're in Christ, He laid down His life for you, but if you're not, He's coming with a sword. He's going to set things right. He will repay.

Every eye is going to see Him on this day. Every eye will know that He is God. Every eye, it will be confirmed that they, those whom have rejected him, they will know without a shadow of a doubt that they have rejected the God, the one true God of the universe." Now this is, I can't remember who I was talking with this week. One of the things that we find in the New Testament that was deeply offensive towards the Pharisees was that the Pharisees knew in the Old Testament, they knew how often that prophets would come, and what did they do? The religious leaders of the time, the Pharisees or the the Israelite leaders, what did they do to the prophets?

They stoned them. The Pharisees knew this. And so when Jesus dwells among us, they know that they have this understanding coming in. And then when we find, I think it's in the book of Acts, when Peter preaches his first sermon, and he says, you all crucified him. This was deeply offensive.

Because they would have said, no, if that was Christ we would have known better. We don't go down those same paths. We're smart. Yet it was deeply cutting. And I believe that's part of why there will be wailing.

It's because those whom God entrusted His word, though there are some who have come to Christ, There are many who still treat him only as a good teacher and yet still submit themselves to the law, to the Old Testament, and still even looking forward to praying for the soon coming Messiah that may one day finally come. They will know without a shadow of a doubt that just like their forefathers, they stoned the prophets. And in fact they stoned the chief prophet. They stoned the Word of God. They didn't stone him, but they crucified him.

Amen. And that's continuing on. It says, even those who pierced him. When we come to the text that says even those who pierced him, while it can be in reference to the Roman soldiers who put the nails into his hands, I believe more so that it's pointing to the Jewish people, the Pharisees, and those whom should have known better, but they crucified him, they put him to death, that even those will see him on that day when he returns and they will know that he is the king of kings and the lord of lords. All the tribes of earth will wail.

Now I believe as we come to this, what is the reason for the wailing? And I think I had a brother send me some commentary on this this week and I think his observations were correct. That though they will wail that they were wrong, though they will wail that they thought they got away with everything, They thought that everything was going good, and they find out that they were completely wrong. Just as, and I pray not, that some of you will find that just living with a form of religion, but lacking the power thereof, or living a form of Christianity that doesn't obey the Word of God completely Because we want to keep in line with our culture on that day when he comes I believe you will wail Because you thought everything was well you you thought that he would say well done that good and faithful servant But as we see in the text so often, He says, depart from me, I never knew you. Do you truly know Christ?

Because if you only have a form of religion that agrees with the same name, you will wail on this day. Draw near to Him while you have time. Come to know the one true God of Scripture. Come to know Christ. If you truly know him, brothers and sisters, on this day there will be much wailing, but it won't be from you.

It'll be shouts of joy, your king has returned." Look at Zechariah 12.10. It says, And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn. Zechariah 12 it says the land shall mourn each family by itself the family of the house of David by itself and the wives by themselves the family of the house of David by itself, and the wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves. And you can continue on. It keeps listing people that are going to mourn.

But first off, they mourn because they thought they knew Christ, but they didn't. But I think secondly, they mourn, and it continues on this realm, They mourn because they still hate him, and now they have to stop doing what they were doing. Now he's going to force them. Now as every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Today God has grace, today God has patience, today God will allow those enemies of his to continue on in his beautiful world.

And they may even blaspheme his name, even onto the TV or the Internet, for all the world to hear. And God in his patience oftentimes restrains himself. He holds back. But on this day, on the day that's to come, they will bow and they will confess and there's no longer patience, there's no longer freedom. God will set things back in order.

God will set things back to perfection, and He will do away with and punish the evildoer. As we come back to thinking of the book of Daniel, what was one of the purposes for this book? What was one of the purposes for this book? What was one of the purposes that Daniel is going through? Daniel though, they lived in extremely hard times.

This book was to encourage them to stay faithful, to encourage them that God will win. God will be victorious. They'll always suffer for a time. It's only but a short time, and God will set things right. And when that happens, just as you think of the disciples and those who walked with Christ, it seems that they were all thinking of this time, that if you remember even the question, Jesus, when is your kingdom coming?

Let's get this battle started. Isn't that what you're here for? Now Christ had a much more important reason he was here for, and that was to reveal who God was and to deliver His people not just from a beast, but from the beast of their sin, which is a much greater beast, a much greater problem. The disciples and many missed him because they saw him as coming for this day, where he will be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he will set things right. And in fact, he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and He delivered them from their sin.

And He went to be with the Father that one day, as the number of whom He has elected have come to know Him, He will come back and He will finally set the world right. He will conquer all of the beasts. It will be as they expected. But friends, what happens when that day comes? What happens for you when he comes in the clouds?

If you're in Christ, is that a bad day? No. It's as if you're in a great battle. And maybe you're surrounded and in a foxhole, and War is coming at you, soldiers are coming at you from each side, and whaling, and shooting rounds, and mortars, and bombs into you. And you endure, and you endure, and you endure.

And then one day, all of a sudden, you hear a helicopter, and jets, and all of the army that is coming to defend you. And you don't say, oh, I was hoping I'd have another day of this. You shout with joy. Our Deliverer has come. We endured, and now He comes to deliver us.

Friends, Revelation is not scary. And if you think it's scary, ponder the end. That this is a great encouragement, that God, Jesus Christ is coming back to rescue you, to deliver you, to set you free from the beast. Some of this loses some emphasis because though we look at our rulers and though we see great sin in them, we haven't experienced the beastness that, the full beastness that can come from them. There are other countries where brothers and sisters are meeting this morning at risk of death if they are caught.

And because of their circumstance, I believe they would be all the more excited about this text. And I believe very rightly, this will come of you all too. You will desire to be delivered from the beast. And the more you experience it, all the more glorious Christ becomes. He will conquer.

He doesn't need an election. Doesn't need the right judge to be in office. He will conquer. Amen? Continuing on, Revelation 1, 8.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Now, alpha and omega are, it's the Greek, it's from the Greek alphabet, and for you young people, if we made a translation or a paraphrase into what you might understand better. The Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and so it might be easier for you to understand, I am the A to the Z. But I like Alpha and Omega better. But just understand it that way.

The A to the Z. God says, I am everything. I am everything. Oftentimes when we look at Alpha, we think of the beginning, that God is the creator. He is the one who created the heavens and the earth.

He is the one who created everything we see around us. He was in the beginning. And Omega oftentimes is looked at as the one who ushers in the new heaven and the new earth. That if we apply it to the realm of time that you and I live in, he is the beginning and the end. He is the creator, and he is the one who ushers in the new kingdom and the new earth.

He is the one who sets things right. He is the one who created Eden to be perfect, and though the sin of man we have brought a curse upon our land and upon our rulers and upon ourselves and upon everything around us, God will once again set everything back to perfection. In the MacArthur commentary, he says, an alphabet is an ingenious way to store and communicate knowledge. The 26 letters in the English alphabet arranged in almost endless combinations can hold and convey all knowledge. Christ is the supreme sovereign alphabet.

There's nothing outside His knowledge, so as there is no unknown factors that can sabotage His second coming." He's coming back, Amen. And Isaiah 41, 4 again gives this illustration of God. It says, Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am He. When we come back to some of the texts that we've just read and we've read in another spot, when we think that He is and He was and He is to come, He is the I Am we find in the Old Testament that He calls himself.

It says, I am he. He's the Almighty. Sorry, going forward in the text he refers to himself as the Almighty. And the Almighty means he has omnipotence, he has all power, and he has sovereignty. He is in control of everything.

And I say this often, but when you begin to worry, you begin to question that He is the Almighty. You either believe that He can't do whatever He needs to do, or you believe that He's not in control of everything that's going on. But friends, He is the Almighty. He has all power, and He is sovereign. He is who is and who was and who is to come.

If you remember, all the way back, I think it was to verse 4, it's a repeat from the introduction. He is the Almighty, the Almighty in the present, the Almighty in the past, and the Almighty in the future. He is God. That's who's coming in the clouds. That's who's coming to judge.

That's who's coming to set things right. Remember, rulers without God become beasts, But God has promised to deliver us from the beasts. One of the reasons I shared with the elders that for pastors I wouldn't say that preaching through the book of Revelation is a nice picnic on a summer day, but one of the things that I shared was, I believe God is leading me to do this because I believe we need to be prepared. And when suffering comes, and maybe there's a form of, there's an amount of suffering in your life right now, When suffering comes, be reminded Christ is coming. Christ is coming.

And if you aren't alive when that day happens, he's still coming. Eternity is coming. Life is but temporary. Whatever you're coming through, I giggle because I keep being reminded of there was a time Jake shares a story of when he was at a store and his back was particularly hurting him pretty bad that day and he said it must have shown well on his face because one of the young ladies of the store said sir Christ it will return but friends brothers and Amen. But friends, brothers and sisters, as you suffer, be reminded Christ is coming.

My deliverer is coming. This is but a short amount of time, and if the beasts of our rulers continue to grow and become ravenous beasts, Christ is coming. Amen. We find in the book of Daniel, an encouragement too, that Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, They lived for God. They lived out what He called them to, even when times were hard.

And through them, God even changed the heart of the ruler. And we see, I think it was Nebuchadnezzar, we see him change course. Now his son didn't change course, he hardened his heart at God and God took care of it. God will take care of things. Amen?

Amen. Let's continue. Revelation 22-7, And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. As we know, He's coming soon.

Saints remain faithful. That's really... This text is really to encourage you to stay faithful. Stay faithful to His Word. When the world around you is hard, and understand this, I'm not trying to be disrespectful by calling rulers beasts.

We still pray for our rulers. We still respect them. When I say beasts, that means when they become really hard, when we suffer under them. But stay faithful. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

Revelation 2212. Oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry, let me back up. Let me read that once more. There's three things that I want us to see, or three, this is the conclusion. So three things I want you to see.

Revelation 22, 7, and behold I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Revelation 22, 12, behold I am coming soon. Bringing my recompense with me to repay each one what he has done. In Revelation 22 20, he who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus. He is coming soon. And when you suffer, be reminded He is coming soon. Amen.

Finally, and to rehash or come back to this, the beasts will wail. Those whom have rejected God on that day will wail. Whatever you think is causing you to not give Christ your all, to turn completely and trust in Him and live for Him with all of your might, whatever is holding you back from that, you will wail one day because you'll be so ashamed of what you thought was so important and you now realize was one of the dumbest things you could ever do. If you won't repent and trust in Christ, there will be a day that you will deeply regret it, but it won't be any different because you will still hate God even for that. Beasts will wail, but the saints will rejoice.

Amen. If you're in Christ, This is a great message. This is a great message. Keep on, as they say, keep on keeping on because your King is on the way. Keep serving him.

We can go down different roads with this as we've heard before and see different illustrations in the in the in the Gospels. What will you be doing when your King returns? Will He find you serving Him? Will He find you loving Him? Will He find you living for Him?

It's going to be a great day. Amen. Amen. He will return. He'll return in glory.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you once again for your Word. Father, thank you that By your grace you have put within us. It seems the older we get to see the frailty of life, or that it's just a vapor, As I talked with my sister this morning, Blessed is the one who spends his time in the house of mourning, in the house of celebrating. We're reminded that life is but a vapor.

Father, we know that in just a small, short amount of time, this life will either be over or we will be with our Lord. We will see Him return. This morning we pray, Come Lord Jesus, to be your will to deliver us from the persecution and the trials and the suffering that we have seen to be normal throughout all of history for those who serve the one true God. Father, we would be blessed, but God if it be your will that we would suffer, let us do it to your glory. Let us suffer well.

Let us suffer for your kingdom. That you might be glorified. That you might bring in every last one of your elect. That they might hear the Word of God. You might change their hearts and adopt them into your family.

Father, we fail so much at sharing Your Word, at sharing the greatest news that humanity has ever heard. And Father, we know You leave us here to do that task. So Father, we ask that You would forgive us. But Father, not only that You would forgive us, but that You would give us the strength and the courage and the desire to go forth and proclaim the word of God to all creation, that God, your name might be glorified, that the full elect may come in, and that Father, your Son might return and set things right. Father, if there are those here who don't know you, Father, please draw them.

Please not let them be those that wail on that day. Father, draw them, we ask in Christ's name. Amen.