In 'The Son of Man - Part 1,' Douglas Campbell discusses the tendency of humans to intervene in God's plans when they perceive God as silent or slow to act. He uses the biblical story of the golden calf to illustrate how people often create idols, forming images of God that align with their comfort rather than the truth. Campbell warns against the cultural tendency to depict Jesus in ways that detract from His true nature and attributes, cautioning against images that reduce His divinity and limit His boundless nature. He explores the title 'Son of Man' to assert Jesus's divine nature, countering liberal theological claims that deny His divinity. Campbell underscores the importance of understanding biblical texts to truly grasp who Jesus is, rather than relying on physical representations. The sermon also delves into the role of the seven golden lampstands, symbolizing the church, and emphasizes that believers are called to reflect God's glory. Campbell insists that Christians should not live in fear, as Jesus is the righteous judge and ultimate victor. He encourages believers to deepen their understanding of Christ through scripture and prayer, advocating for a life aligned with God's will and glory.

In the text before something really bad happens. You know? No. Is something bad going to happen today? The first thing that often happens in the text right before some man does something really bad, and oftentimes, and forgive me for the the wording, very stupid, they say Moses is taking too long, or God seems to be taking too long, He's silent, therefore we must do something.

We must intervene. God isn't bringing the people into the church like we want to. It's not overflowing. Therefore, we must do something. And do something is OK if that do something is.

We must go to the tax and see what should we be doing? But that's not man's normal response. Man's normal response is, we must do something, let's put our heads together and see what we can figure out and how we can help God. Friends, brothers and sisters, hear this with all love and compassion. God doesn't need your help.

In fact, you and I'm putting myself into this category, you and I are so ignorant, we can't help him. So stop trying to do it. Don't go down this path. Amen. If we need to do something, it's dig into his word and see what he's told us to do.

If he didn't tell us to do it, it's probably really bad, even though in our minds it reasons out to be very good. So, and I'm trying to stay within rabbit trails here. What do they do when Moses goes on the mountain? Well, the people are getting worried that God's abandoned them. We got to give them something to look at.

They can't see God, Let's give them something to look at. And this is what my brother shared with me, that a lot of theologians actually believed when they formed the idol, when they formed the calf, they potentially believed that they were forming the God in whom Moses was communing with and talking with. They just wanted to see something. But what illustrates this concept really well is that in their minds they say, let's form a calf out of gold. Now how many of you would look at the calf and be overwhelmed and say, that surely is what God looks like?

It's silliness. But when you do the same thing, it's just as silly. So when we come to, thou shall not create an idol, thou shall not create an image, this applies to more than calves. Ray Comfort very well points out that this can also be forming an image in your mind. People do this very often, almost extensively.

They create a God in their minds that they like, and he magically is oftentimes just like them, and he thinks the way that they do. And he doesn't punish all sinners. Maybe he punishes Hitler, but he certainly doesn't punish everyone that sins. And lying isn't that bad, and stealing isn't that bad, and not putting God first isn't all that bad, but the murderers, they are the really bad people and surely God will get even with those. But surely if I hate my brother, that doesn't make me a murderer.

You see what we do? We create a God in our minds that we're comfortable with. And that's okay if you want to serve a God who can't save you, because He's false. And this goes even farther than this. Not only a God with our hands, and not only a God with our mind, I believe this also applies to images of God that we would create.

So as we come to this text, we call it a picture of Jesus Christ, but I would warn you what is very common in our culture, even within our mainstream Christian culture, is to put pictures of Jesus up in their house. That picture is just as silly as the calf, because that's not what Jesus looked like. We even know historically that's not what he looked like. So if it's not what he looked like, what is it? I'm trying to be very gentle, but I want to get this point across.

What is it? It's a golden calf we put up on our wall of a Jesus we're more comfortable with. Because the Bible said he wasn't someone with great physical appeal. He wouldn't have been, you know, a great world ruler in man's cause, because he wouldn't have fit the image that people would want to see in a great world ruler. So, and I've taken lots of time here, and I did promise you it's a part one, so at some point we will stop.

But we come to the text where we get a picture of Christ. But as we come to these words, understand that this isn't a picture so much that's supposed to be in our heads that we would paint. There have been men who have tried to paint this, and it's not what the text is doing. It's not giving you an image of Christ, it's telling you who He is. It's giving you attributes of who He is.

So today, if you're a young person and you try to go to this text and say, well, we know that the traditional pictures of Jesus are incorrect, and so let me go to this text and let me see if I can draw this. And you draw a man with with lasers coming out of his eyes, you're still wrong because that's not what this text is trying to do. It's telling, it's not giving you an image of him, it's telling you who he is. I can't remember, I think it was Scott Brown who commented. He said, by God's will, or by His plan, Christ came before we had cameras.

And he thinks that was by the will of God, and I would agree with him. Because if we put that image in our heads, even his correct physical image, it takes away from who He really is. And that really is part of the problem of idolatry. Even if we try to make the God in whom is the one true God of Scripture, if man can form an image that would contain Him, it would tell us how much limitation God has. God doesn't have limitation.

So any time that we make any sort of image of Him, we limit Him in a crazy amount, in almost an infinite amount, we limit Him to what we think in our minds. And God is limitless. Amen. You can't capture him in an image. It's not possible.

And here, just a couple of years ago, I wrestled with this, and this is something that really, as I dug into this and began to think it through, You know, it's so popular these days to have movies and to be completely honest with you, in my ignorance, we had a Christmas tradition to where we thought we were doing well. We didn't have a Christmas tradition like most people would have. On Christmas morning, we would get up and we would watch the Gospel of John in video. We would watch the life of Christ before us. Now, if you change that tradition to read the Gospel of John to your family, that is a great tradition, right?

But our culture, because we're so entertainment-driven, we don't like to read like we should. We don't like... This is the way that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. And we say, but God, this is a little bit boring. So let's make a movie.

And I'm going to sound extreme, but I would encourage you to really look into this. Really think it through. Really study the second commandment. If you watch a video, let's say the Gospel of John or whatever, the latest one that's even more wicked, the chosen, that to take a short rabbit trail, if Mormons and everybody else like it, it's probably because it's not good. And that's if idolatry was okay, right?

So, and I'm jumping around, but hear me well. If it takes a movie for you to watch and see Christ acted out for you to get anything, you need to study more. You need to shut your TV off. Your brain has been preconditioned to need entertainment. But if you have watched this, I would encourage you and tell you that right now, One of the things that you should work on is getting this image out of your head, because that's not Christ.

It's a false image. And I would suggest, I would, I would encourage you and suggest work at it. Don't let your image of Christ be limited by a video. Amen? So with that, let's transition.

I've probably hit on sore toes enough in that area. So let's transition to what does the Word of God give us as an image of Christ, or what does it tell us who He really is? Let's look again, let me read again, 12 and 13 as it begins. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands. In the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

We begin to see this picture of Jesus, or this description, or this understanding of who Jesus is. And unlike the multitudes who die, or they have some illness, or they get hit by a semi and they make this mysterious trip to heaven, and then they give you all kinds of details and none of them ever typically agree on lots of different things. To understand Revelation, right, to understand John's vision, right, we actually have to go to the Old Testament for its confirmation and even explanation. So what I would tell you about modern people who say they went to heaven and it doesn't line up with Scripture, what do we know about them? What does the Old Testament tell us?

If someone tells us something about God that isn't true, And I don't mean just like mostly is true, but sometimes isn't. If it's not 100% true, what did they do in the Old Testament? They stoned them as a false prophet. So if you made 100 prophecies and 99 of them came true, even if they were like, that is crazy that this came true. Even if it's, you know, whatever game is going on today, I've been seeing people talk about basketball lately.

I tell you, will the game between so and so and so and so, and maybe it's not even basketball seeds, whatever. I tell you, the score is going to be 107 to 26. And I make a hundred I guess every game that day and every single one of them was correct exactly except for one I missed it by one point what would you say well in a worldly aspect, you would say, you are amazing. I have a friend that does some things in Las Vegas that would love to give you lots of money if he could be your friend. Right?

But do you know what the Bible says? And obviously there's transitioning from sports to more important things like knowing God. You know what the Bible says? If that was true of me, you should stone me. Because God doesn't lie.

And if I speak for God and I tell you something that's not true, even one thing, it's not true. And I'm taking lots of rabbit trails, so let's come back to this. So to understand this image or this picture of Christ, we go back to the Old Testament. And not only is it confirmed, but it's explained. And so let's go back to Daniel chapter 10 verses 5 through 6 as we examine the Son of Man.

It says, I lifted up my eyes and looked and behold a man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like a barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. Daniel has a vision of God, and it's not ironic that it lines up exactly with the Apostle John's. They have a vision of the Son of Man. Now turning to Daniel chapter 7 verse 13, it says, I saw in the night, or I'm sorry, let me preface this.

So when we come to the term, Son of Man, oftentimes liberal theologians will do this with that term because it's very strange. At face value, if we don't know the text, It's very strange. What does it mean by son of man? And liberal theologians will try to push this into it. They'll try to say they refer to him as the son of man because Jesus wasn't actually God.

He was a son of man. He was just a really good person. He was just someone whom God used. And actually, when I was a teenager, I was in a Bible study of a church that's in this area, that the pastor went on to explain that Jesus wasn't all-knowing, that He was learning as He went. It's liberal theology.

But liberal theology would point out and they would show you, See, he's not the son of God. He's the son of man. That's that's the label that it gave him And though he was a good teacher just as the Muslims would tell you though Christ was a good teacher. He wasn't God And friends if you don't know Jesus Christ as God he cannot save you Because he has something else. He is an image you formed in your mind.

Now understand too, rightly, He is fully God, but He is also fully man at the same time. God is the only one that's allowed to have two 100%s and they equal 100%. And for him it's not common core mathematics, it's that he is God. Amen. So liberal theologians would try to tell you this.

It refers to him as that because he isn't the Son of God. And yet, we find that even this term is found in Daniel 7 verse 13. 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." We find this wording all the way back in the Old Testament with Daniel as he speaks of Christ, or the Son of God, and he speaks of God the Father. To confirm even farther, we can go to Mark 14, verses 62-64. And this is what it says, it says, And Jesus said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

So let me ask you, if Jesus is saying, I'm just a man, would that upset the Pharisees? Alright, but notice here the Pharisees are not just a little bit upset, they are extremely upset. They're ready to put him to death over what he just said. It says, and the high priest tore his garments and said, what further witnesses do we need? He just said it.

What further witnesses do we need? I find it comical that they like to tear their garments. If you make me really mad, maybe I'll tear your garment, but I'm not messing mine up. But that was just common then. It was to show how disgusted and angry they were at what he just said.

And look what he defines it. You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision? And they all condemned him as deserving death. What blasphemous thing did he say?

What angered them so much? It's not that he said, well, I'm a man. It's they understood Daniel. And they understood what this referred to when Jesus said, I am the Son of man, he was claiming to be God. And so for all the liberal theologians out there, I would ask you, If he's such a good teacher, why is he lying about himself?

If you don't believe that he's God. But we know that he is. And he claims to be God. And he uses this phrase to tell people that would have understood it well. First he starts with I am.

That would have made their back hairs on their neck stand up immediately. They know what I am means. It's what God says of Himself. He says, I am. And we could go into this, but Jesus is saying, I'm God.

So when we come to the words, the Son of Man, we understand rightly this is God. This is Christ. This is the Son of God. We see it again in John 5, 25-29, when Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He also granted the Son also to have life in himself.

And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out and those who have done good to receive resurrection of life and to those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. And so Jesus clarifies even farther that when he refers to the Son of Man that the Son of Man will be involved in the judgment that He is God. So before we go into this picture also, we have to take note of what we just read. It says, Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.

We have to ask ourselves, what is this picture? Again, remember that the lampstands aren't just a picture of something to look at, but there's something to this. It's a picture of something that we should understand. We see this first in Zechariah chapter 4 verses 1 through 6. It says, And an angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who was awakened out of his sleep.

And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see and behold a lampstand of all gold, with a bowl on top of it and seven lamps on it, and with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on top of it, and there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left. And I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these, my lord? Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? I said, No, my Lord.

Then he said to me, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts." Zechariah gives us definition to the seven golden lampstands. First, these seven lampstands are referring to the seven churches that we are going to be reading about in the coming weeks after we finish this section. But overall, they're referring to God's church in general. It's not just the overall church, but it's each local church that they are golden in the eyes of Christ. This afternoon we are very blessed to join together a brother and sister in Christ.

And we'll be reminded That marriage is an image of Christ's relationship to His church. That it is gold in His sight. But within each church is the flame at the top. And that flame at the top is a reflection of God's glory. And that flame at the top is the reflection of those who are in God's or in Christ's or in God's church.

In God's church. And God has called each of you to reflect His glory. For mothers and fathers, you are called to glorify Him in teaching your children about Him. You're called to glorify Him in discipling your children. And if you don't have children, you are called to glorify God in building up His church.

He builds the church, but you are faithful to serve His church. You are faithful to go forth and proclaim the message the way that God has chosen to build His church. And our culture has become very common to think of church as being something that's extra, or something that's, or even our relationship with God as being something that's added on to our current life. But that's not the image or the picture that God gives us of Christianity. The image of Christianity is, I was an enemy of God, And God grabbed a hold of me and He gave me a new heart.

I became a new creation. And I'm not just the same person with religion added on. I am a new person that lives to glorify God. I thought about this for some time this week as we we think about those things in our culture that sometimes gets us excited. I think of just a few years ago, there was, I can't remember who it was, There's a baseball player that came to Quincy and they had, you know, a big gathering where churches were coming together to listen to the testimony of this Christian baseball player.

And as I ponder that, Before you get too deeply into it, I see a problem with this. I see a problem with our phraseology even of this. When we say we have in this room, we might have, actually let me not label it this way, we look into the world and we say we have Christian baseball players, and we have Christian football players, and all the things that our culture loves to worship, and they add on Christian. He is a Christian movie maker. But I would tell you that phrase is completely wrong, and here's why.

It's reversed. He should be, he should be a baseball player that they're Christian. And that sounds weird now that I'm saying it. Christian is the center. The other thing is what the add-on is.

Does that make sense? I'm a Christian who also does this. I'm a Christian who glorifies God and being an electrician. I'm a Christian who glorifies God in however this could be possible, and selling used cars. I love my brother, that's why I pick on him.

The phraseology is flawed. It's flawed because this is what's normal in our culture. We think that we can be the same person and just add on Christianity. But this morning, if you are in Christ, you are primarily a Christian. You're primarily here to serve God and to glorify Him.

That changes everything. It changes from VBS is coming up. It changes from the church needs to try to get a few people who can fit it into their schedule to help with BBS to, BBS is my primary and I got to figure out how to get my work done in spite of that. And that sounds extreme, but church, if you are in Christ, this is our primary. We see this also fall apart in lots of areas.

You talk to lots of different pastors and things and you see how sports has Infiltrated our culture and and people will miss church because they got a ballgame or they got this or they got that But I rarely hear people say I missed the ballgame because the church had an activity going on. I missed the ball game because they scheduled it on Sunday. Part of that is because Christianity in America has declined, or at least the numbers have declined as far as those who would attend church. And part of that is those who are part of it, if all of us decided, if say the Carthage softball people came to us and said hey we would like you to play on This league and and we and we get this invitation and I look around I look at Ethan and I look at Caleb and Brody and Jake and oh I look at Josiah I'm like oh yeah and I'm like oh I wonder if they've even heard about Greg they wouldn't be inviting us to this if they would have heard about Greg I'd be like oh yeah we're all over it I'll start cleaning a place for our trophy.

When do we start? And then they start scheduling them on Sunday mornings. You know what? If all of us decided we're not going to be a part of that, they'll reschedule. Do you know why they keep scheduling things on Sunday?

It used to be when I was young, I fought in the youth group with people over Wednesday nights. I said, you know in the past Wednesday nights were supposed to be church night? I don't know why you're not here. I don't know why they would practice the drama every Wednesday night. And then it grew from there in the YMCA, the Young Men's Christian Association started scheduling their football on Sunday mornings and I asked why.

Well because everybody is busy every other time. So why do we need this then? They're too busy. But people don't see it that way. So I'm taking it.

Where, how did I get here, Brody? Okay, okay, I see. You are the flame on top of the lampstand if you're in Christ. You are called, if my son likes astronomy, not astrology, but astronomy, he likes astronomy, Matthew. And he would know very well that when we look up at the moon at night, the moon doesn't have a light bulb in it.

Right? The moon actually has no light of its own. It's simply reflecting the sun. And that is what you are called to, brother and sister. You are called to reflect the glory of God.

And you can only do it by obeying Him and drawing near to Him and doing, ordering your life the way He has called you to order it. Not to pause and say, but you know God's awful quiet. I've got a good way of doing this. So let me give you two examples and we'll move on. I hear this lots.

People will say, well there's going to be, who knows what, let's say there's gonna be hopscotch practice on Sunday morning. And pastor, and I've had people come to me and say, pastor, I think I really need to go to this because I can go there and tell people about Christ. I can be a witness. And depending on how good of a day I've had, I can say, well, what will that tell them about the Lord's Day? What kind of witness will that bring them?

It'll tell them it's not important. Hopscotch is. Amen. I hear this also. Man intervenes in marriages and engagements.

And This was especially bad when I was in youth ministry, and I had youth come to me and they will say, well, I'm dating him and pastor, I know that you said we shouldn't date people at all. Then you even said it's really bad or unacceptable if they aren't a Christian. But I know Him really well, and I've had lots of talks with Him, and I think that if I spend more time with Him and I start dating Him, I can win Him to Christ. And my now approaching 50-year-old self who isn't as patient as I was then, I'm tempted to say, well you sure think you have pretty good ideas don't you? Way better than God's.

But friends, that's you and I. We may not go to that extreme, but our flesh wants to lead us there all the time. It wants us to justify why we don't need to shine the way God has called us to shine, to reflect the way He's called us to reflect. And we get entangled in so many things. So what are the lampstands?

They are the local church. Christ thinks highly of His church. In Ephesians 5, He laid down His life for His church. It's gold. And this morning as we gather together, Christ thinks highly of this church.

It's why God is jealous. It's why He wants you called to holiness. So, moving on, I know I'm really, I haven't even got to the, let's look at one thing. Let's look at his clothing and then we'll jump to the conclusion. First, let's see how the Son of Man is clothed.

In Revelation 1.13, in the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. Where this isn't a new idea, This comes, we can see this in Exodus chapter 28, verses three through four, when it speaks of the priests and the temple. So as you shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments that they shall make, a breast piece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons to serve me as priests." When we look at the image of Christ as brought to us in the book of Revelation, We understand that He is the great high priest.

In the Old Testament, the priests were intercessors between men and God. In the New Testament, we transition that when Christ was crucified, that it changed man's relationship with God, that man was no longer the intercessor, that you and I as Gentiles, we can come to God without an intercessor. We don't need a priest to stand in between. Because if you're in Christ, you are a kingdom of priests. It's not restricted to a certain family, but it's restricted to the elect.

And if you know Christ, you can come directly to the throne of God. But you can come directly because Christ is your great high priest. He sits and intercedes for you at the throne of God. He is the great high priest who gave Himself for you if you're in Christ. He is the great high priest who made the way for God's enemy to be reconciled, for the punishment that your sins require to be poured out upon Him and His righteousness to be placed into your account, that you could be made right with God, that you can approach the throne of God without hesitation, without worry of your head being chopped off.

Now, as we know Him, as He reveals Himself to us, that reverence and that overwhelming sense of His holiness will still cause us to bow, because we know, the more we know Him, the more we see Him in truth, and the more we realize how far from Him we are and apart from Christ. What's the Bible say? No one will see him and live. If God was to give us, to display Himself before us today, it wouldn't be that we fall down like we were dead, it's that we would be dead. Why?

Because His glory is so beyond what we can even comprehend. As we go forward through this, we begin to see things like this. And just to touch on a few things for next week, we see Christ's hair, His white hair. It tells us of His holiness and purity. And not only that, in our culture we've lost this, but it also tells of His dignity and His infinite wisdom.

We see His eyes, who are like the flames of fire, who sees all, who sees to the center of your heart, but not only knows what you did in secret yesterday, but he knows every thought and every emotion and every detail of everything that you've ever done. Nothing is hidden from his sight. I believe it's Joel Beke who when he looks at these qualities, he reminds us that this is speaking to his righteous judgment, that he is the right judge, because He knows all and He sees all. There's nothing hidden from Him. We hear His voice of rushing waters.

We see his feet of bronze, who will step, who has crushed the head of the serpent, who's crushed the head of the enemy. We're reminded that his feet, his sheep hear his voice, and he knows them, and they follow him. We see what he holds in his right hand, his right hand of authority and power, and we see a picture of his face. Finally, this morning in conclusion of this part one, Revelation 1 17-18, When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not, for I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades." Why does John give us this vision?

Well, because God told him to write it down. Why does God give John this vision? I believe this section, this hits on the emphasis of it. And the emphasis is this. It's fear not.

He is the righteous judge. He is the ruler. He is the king. He is the victor, and one word from his mouth will fell the enemy. We're given this for the Church in the end times.

And in conclusion, as we travel the times that we're in, the end times, we look around us and we see tribulation, and we see hardship and hard times, we can get convinced to live in fear. If you watch the news All the time, you're going to live in fear. God doesn't want His church living in fear. God didn't design His church to live in fear. Friends, you and I were given a great blessing just a couple of years ago.

That blessing is this. We were given an in-depth opportunity to examine our fear before God. Would we obey God and gather together on the Lord's Day and worship Him? Or would we fear a bug that could kill the body. And I'll be 100% honest with you, when it first came, I had some sinfulness and fear within me.

The first things that they The first things that they spoke of sounded really bad. I believe hindsight is 2020. I believe the elders made the right decision and if this only takes a few weeks and if our government is acting in our best interest and if we are to to isolate ourselves for a few weeks and that will save lots of lives, there is the legalist would say we have to meet every single Sunday without fail or bad things come or you know we're going to hell because of that. Do we have to meet every single Sunday? I think we should want to.

And I remember, I don't remember if it was Easter or when we set up the tent in Jake's yard And being, I might have secretly met with people, some people before then, but I remember gathering together to worship God together for the first time in two or three weeks. Couldn't hardly contain my tears. I was in such so much joy. It should have hurt. It should have hurt to miss your brothers and sisters.

It shouldn't be normal to not care to be there. Amen? Even if it means death. And during this time I began to evaluate myself. I had to fix myself before I could give any sort of advice.

And I began to reason with myself and say, if you're afraid of a bug, what's going to happen when real persecution comes? If, if the government's standing outside the door with a sword ready to chop your head off, if you go to church, Are you still going to go like our brothers and sisters around the world are doing? If we're scared of a bug, I don't think we're going to do it. I don't think we're going to be willing martyrs for Christ. Now I'm not saying if that happens we will gather somewhere else if at all possible, right?

I'm not saying we just try to make martyrdom happen, that's a bad concept. But I'm also not going to not gather. Amen. I'm way past. But let me come back to, Let me come back to the heart of this.

Christ doesn't want His church in fear. His church shouldn't be in fear. And brothers and sisters, if you're in fear about what's going to happen tomorrow, I'm not saying don't be unaware and just isolate yourself. If that's what it takes, then do that. But if you're in fear of anything, study this text.

Read of your king. Perhaps you're in fear because he's not your king. And if that's the case, I would beg of you, run to him. Run to Him. Friends, if you're not in Christ, run to Him.

As if tomorrow isn't going to come because it might not. Young people, don't pretend that tomorrow is always guaranteed it's not. I've done funerals for young people. Again as we come to this text it's very hard for us to... There are parts of this that are very hard for us because you and I have experienced 400 years of abnormality in human history, the abnormality of peace.

I keep referring to Brother Scott Brown because he explains us so well. America is the last bastion of freedom in the world and it seems to be very quickly falling away. We are what appears to be on the end of a 400 year abnormality, but because it's all we've known, we aren't thinking correctly. If you're in fear, ponder who Christ is. He's not the feminine Christ that our world tries to paint before us.

I promise I'm almost done. Vodi Bakum explains so well in the pictures that we see of him, he calls him a shampoo model. That's not Christ. This is Christ. It's nothing like that.

And if you're in fear, it's because you don't see Christ correctly. You don't understand, one word shall fell him. That is the God we serve. That is the God who rescued us. That's the God who calls us children.

There's nothing to fear, brothers and sisters. But if you're in Christ, if you're not in Christ, you have much to fear. I would beg you to come to Him today. Let's pray. My Father, thank you for your word.

Father thank you that though we walk sometimes even in the valley of the shadow We need to be reminded that we should fear no evil because you are with us. Father, though our fallible brains can't comprehend perfectly who you are, Father, knowing you better is the greatest comfort we can have in relationship to this world. Father, help your church not to fear. Help us, Father, to beat our flesh into subjection. Help us to be in our Bibles and on our knees.

That we might prepare for this abnormality of peace to come to an end. That we might be prepared for that day to reflect your glory. But Father, above all, we would hear, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Father, that will be the greatest comfort. It will be so great that all of our troubles will but vanish.

Father, help us to keep our eyes upon Christ. Help us to be about your glory. Father, help us not sin against you by living in fear. Father, it's By your grace and for your glory that we ask these things in Christ's name Amen