In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing Jesus Christ as God. He describes a vision from the book of Revelation where stars fall, the sky rolls up like a scroll, and land masses move, illustrating the terrifying events that will occur in the end times. The preacher compares the fleeting nature of our lives to the ebb and flow of the tide, highlighting the brevity of our existence. He urges the congregation, especially the young people, to consider their spiritual standing before God and not be deceived by worldly things. The sermon concludes with a reference to Revelation 6:17, emphasizing the need for individuals to examine their relationship with God.

I thought that the hymn that we sang now, it's a hymn that I love very much, and it is a very searching hymn. And I thought maybe that we might just recite together one verse of that hymn. The number is 590. And the verse that I have chosen is the third verse of 590. Just that one verse, and we'll begin now. Short of thy love, I would not stop A stranger to the gospel hope The sense of sin forgiven I would not, Lord, my soul deceive Without the inward witness live That thought is now of heaven. Thank you. There are many striking sentences or lines in that hymn, but I think amongst them, I would not, Lord, my soul deceive. And so the text that I have tonight to you would be to ask you a question, where do you stand spiritually? For at the end of the day, when all is said and done, and when all the arguments have been made, and all our self-justifications tried out, all those things, at the end of the day, how do we stand in the sight of God? Not what our minister thinks, or our fellow Christians, but in the sight of God. Now I've chosen a text in the book of Revelation, and it's in chapter 6, Revelation, and chapter 6, and verse 17. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? Well, I'm sure that you have very mixed feelings, sadness and longing, and such feelings as those as you come to the last evening, and the last meeting of the series of meetings held this week in this conference, held under the auspices of the Evangelical Movement of Wales. And I'm sure for perhaps all of you, you look forward a great deal to the days that you would spend in Aberystwyth where the word of God would be expounded, and where also you would share fellowship with many friends and renew acquaintances from last year as well. And very happy days. Days are strange little things. They pass so very quickly. And now we have come to the last day, and the last hour or so of the conference itself. The last day. And the days of our lives really are something just like that. I'm going to speak about God's day. But first of all, the days of our lives, they pass so very, very quickly. So quickly. I'm sure that you're familiar with the verse of this hymn. Swift to its close, ebbs out life's little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away. Change and decay in all around I see. O thou who changest not, abide with me. And I'm sure since you're in a town, which is a seaside town, that you cannot help but be conscious of the sea and the ebbing and the flowing of the tide as well. And I'm sure that you have gathered that it comes in twice a day and goes out twice a day as well. And how brief really is the time of the full tide. It soon ebbs away again. That tide is forgotten and replaced by what seems to be another. And they come and they go. From the days when I myself was in this town in a theological college, the same sea, it looks the same sea, the same tide ebbing and flowing. But how many times has it come in and gone out and pounded against the walls along the promenade and thrown its rocks over Alexandra Hall where we used to come and watch the great spray of the sea in November particularly. And our lives are like that. Just like a little tide that ebbs and flows and it is gone. And the poet here puts it in a very dramatic way. Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day. That doesn't seem to be the right thing to say when there are so many young people in the congregation here tonight. Nevertheless, I am inclined to think that young people think of these things perhaps more often than older people do. Older people are hanging on to the hope that the tide is not ebbing out. Whereas young people in a way can afford to consider it and say, yes, I can see what you're saying. Life is a very brief thing. Days are like turning over the leaves of a Bible or of a book. And before you know where you are a chapter of your life is gone. And there are not many chapters in your life. And ebbs out life's little day. And our glory as well. And all our boast and our pomp and all our vanity remembered for a while, but then soon forgotten. Life's little day. But even in this hymn, you know, it directs us immediately almost to God and say, that wearies me and it depresses me to think that things around me change and decay. Even things that I can touch and feel, they change and decay. And my life itself, it ebbs out and I can do nothing about it. O thou who changes not, abide with me. And that's the wonder really of that which we have to talk about here tonight in this chapel, about the great God who does not change. He is the one and the only God. He is the creator of all that ever can be. And he upholds his creation by the word of his power. And it is he who will decide at some time in his divine economy to bring this part of his creation or this little planet earth to its final day. Very often, you know, we can be very anxious and say we are living in the shadow of a nuclear war and we are wondering what the Kremlin is going to decide or the White House and as if the final day were in the hands of irresponsible men from either of those countries or any other countries that might be in power at the time. We are far more anxious about that rather than the reality that will happen that the day of his wrath will come. There may be or there may not be a nuclear war. There may or may not be a Holocaust. But one thing is certain that there will be a day described here as his day for the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand? And it is with that day that we are particularly concerned. Let me read you a sentence that I read about these verses from some book. Thus, under symbolism, John sees the entire godless world seized with sudden fear. He sees terror, then terror-stricken and fleeing from something far more terrible than crumbling mountains and falling rocks. They even seek safety in death itself. If only death could come to them, John hears shrieks of agony uttered by thousands of voices, kings and slaves, princes and servants. They are all caught in the same self-inflicted agony of despair. The dreadful, the dreadful wail is heard. Mountains and rocks fall and hide us from the face of the one sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For it has come, the day, the great day of the wrath of God. And who is able to stand? The day of grace is closed forever. And where do we stand? Now, that is really what that text is. It's regarding the culmination of all things. In it you can put the great second coming and the great event of the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And there the judgment of all mankind. And there God bringing all to a final conclusion. And every man in his time having to stand before that eternal God. And it is where he stands will judge whether he will be able to stand in that day. What I'm trying to say is this. That true religion must be a real and a living experience in the depths of our hearts and our souls. Even beyond the boast of our scripture knowledge. Even beyond the boast of multitude of experiences. Even beyond the boast of knowing many doctrines. You see, it's put in one hymn like this and put it well. Beyond the sacred page. The page is essential. Beyond the sacred page. With its teaching, with its verses, with its doctrines. Beyond the sacred page. I seek the Lord. And unless we have an experience of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then all our knowledge spiritual as it may be is of very little avail unless the grace of God has laid hold upon our hearts. Now that's where I am tonight. Considering that day. There may be a war. There may not be a war. There may be a nuclear war. There may not be. We spend our time fretting and worrying and wondering what we will do and what it will be like. And we read books about the subject. But this is a positive thing. This day will come. And this day there will be no comparison if we will have had a nuclear war. This day will be far, far in excess of anything that we have known on such a day as that. And this is a day that you and I should be deeply concerned with. So I bring my first point to you. A point perhaps that would not be very accepted amongst many today but nevertheless one that I cannot help but feel a very real one in my heart as the more I go on in the things of grace and of God the more aware I am of this little heading I have for you now. The fear of God. Now what do you think? Have you ever considered the fear of God? You see we live in an age of instant blessing, instant happiness instant joy, instant credit instant everything. That kind of age. And it has crept into our evangelical thinking and permeated almost into every part of our worship until we have forgotten this God whom we worship is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit triumph, splendor, a glorious unity. There is no one like unto Him or ever can be compared. This is our only and our great God upholder and maker of all that ever can be. And this tiny, tiny solar system and this minute little planet Earth and we tiny, tiny things less than the dust of the Earth live for a short period of time and we are stupid enough some of us who are dust to think that we are special dust and we are only dust at best. Yes, this great God is able to reach men and women like ourselves and raise us from the dust of Earth and cause us to be sons of God and heirs of glory. The miracle of this is so great and so tremendous that every time I consider it my heart is overwhelmed at the thought of it. And you can only think of it as praises of how great Thou art. Great in His abilities perfect in all His attributes absolute in everything that He does and true and perfect. Great in His mercy great in His love and great in His concern for a fallen world like this. A God to be considered seriously. There are many verses there are many hymns. Do you remember this one? My God how wonderful Thou art Thy majesty how bright how beautiful Thy mercy seat in depth of burning light how dread are Thine eternal years O everlasting Lord Thy prostrate spirit day and night be incessantly adored What's your attitude when you pray? Do you come to Him with a familiarity that you are parley with the Almighty? If you are like that you have no idea of the gospel of God. Yes there is a friendship with God by the grace of God but never ever forget that He is God Almighty and dwells in depth of burning light and is incessantly adored and when some little speck of dust like myself raises his little heart in adoration and in praise and in petition to God how can I ever come without coming in the merits of the only one that makes it possible in His son's name my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I can't say to Him Hey! He is God! We have in this careless age forgotten that and we wonder why we're not there and we wonder why there is so little godliness and reverence in our attitude towards the things of God. This God in His vision the Apostle gives us a picture of stars falling and sky rolling up as a scroll and land masses moving can you imagine anything so terrifying if it should happen here tonight that His day should come and that we should look outside and whether it is light or dark we begin to see in the heavens great stars falling out of their place and the repercussion of all that would mean in the galaxy and in the universe and then we look at our own earth and the sky around us is rolling up like a scroll and we might say we have never seen that before we've seen it dark, we've seen it bright we've seen it dark grey we've seen it blue we've seen it the dark blue of night but we've never seen it roll up like a scroll before what's happening to us and then we say is this an earthquake? No, the whole land mass of the earth beginning to move and we say we've never had an earthquake like this before and men will look desperately in their records and they say they have mighty records and we kept records as far back as the turn of the century and we are told by certain people in the Americas and other countries that they have not recorded an earthquake like this this is not an earthquake this is the earth moving what would we consider of that? It would be quite useless to hope for any material stability and to rush to the bank and grasp all the found notes I can in bundles and say here, give me this, give me that so long as I can feel my feet steady within me it is a terrible thing it is like one of those nightmares and I hate it and I cannot bear it unlike a nightmare you dream I dream sometimes nightmares I can remember one particularly I was in a pulpit like this but it was an English Presbyterian church that once you were in you were locked in and I dreamt I dreamt that I'd been locked in and I'd forgotten my hymn book now it's a very little thing to forget but when you're starting in the ministry it seems as if now you deserve at least a prison sentence for forgetting and it's a terrible thing and I dreamt this and as I was trying to do things I could see the pulpit sliding away from under me and the chapel as it was bending over it was horrible, absolutely horrible but what followed was worse still I was preaching in that chapel that Sunday and he locked me in and there wasn't a hymn book there but the pulpit didn't slide away but imagine my friends that time when there is no stability in any material thing or any influence you might say, well I know the county councillor, I know the MP and he rang me up once I'll ring my MP and see if there is any way where I can get stability from this great sliding of my property and myself and my family and the sky, what is happening to it all, clinging to everything like men do, gasping at this and holding at that, clutching at any straw or at anything that might mean there is some kind of stability but there is no hiding place it's clearly put in the verses that you are familiar with in the chapter, verses 15 and 16 and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks now look what they said they made a request fall on us they must have been pretty desperate in this vision fall on us fall on us and hide us hide us from what? from another mountain coming from another land mass moving from more of the sky rolling up again no, hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne what's wrong with these men and women they are unprepared for this day and that's why they would prefer to be crushed by a mountain and by a whole range of mountains rather than to face the one that in life they have rejected the only begotten son of God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ you might say well that's then listen to this in Hebrews 5 verse 13 neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do in that great day whether we shall be alive when that great event takes place and in the second coming and the culmination of things or whether we shall have passed on before then, whatever it may be this to be certain that we shall stand before this God and in standing before this God my immortal soul is laid bare and the destiny of my immortal soul becomes the most important thing that can ever be will it be eternal damnation with no reprieve or pardon or hope of reprieve will it be eternal glory will I be able to stand the gaze of God eternal light eternal light, how purest the soul must be when placed within thy searching sight it shrinks not but with calm delight can live and look on thee oh how can I whose native sphere is dark whose mind is dim before the ineffable appear or upon my naked spirit bare the uncreated being we have to stand there and whatever the arguments may be of a multitude of denominations and a multitude of voices and of philosophies and of ideas and of extra blessings here, there and everywhere and all sorts of consortiums and things at the end of the day will I stand in the sight of God that's the issue that we have that's my first point the second is this the face of God who shall stand in that day and survive well now then why is this issue so terrible it is serious because of one or two reasons that I will name just now to face God I have to consider it the character of God do you consider the character of God do you make him up to be a character according to your own convenience or is he the God of the Bible and when Isaiah when he was in the temple a godly man, a spiritual man and yet when he was on that day in the temple he felt terrible, why there was a degree of the presence of God in that place that he almost felt that he could not bear it and he said, you know, he cried out in mercy, avoid me for I am an unclean man with unclean lips and dwells amongst a people that are unclean he felt like that, why because even only the skirts of the garments of God as they swept to the holiness of the place of the temple was a frightening thing to him what is God teaching us that is holy and that is the one thing that we must remember, yes is love, yes is all these wonderful things, perfect in those attributes that he can communicate, perfect in the attributes that he is incommunicable, yes in all those things, but holiness without it you cannot see God holiness listen to a verse in Habakkuk thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously he's saying there about God, oh God I know thine eyes, I know what kind of eyes you've got, oh they're wonderful eyes, they're terrible eyes they're frightening eyes their eyes that search my soul their eyes that expose my mind and not only is it that thou know me and know my heart but I'm exposed before all the congregation that is there oh God what is this and you know when a person is on the brink of faith and the Holy Spirit mediating Christ to take away the veil of unbelief, there could be many here tonight as I speak, although I may not mention your sin, you'll feel as if you have been exposed and yet it's nothing to do with me and yet everything to do with me, but it is the Holy Spirit that does that you'll be aware of your sin only in my mentioning that the eyes of God, such eyes of purer eyes that thou canst not look upon iniquity how can I stand there dirty sinful let's use the right words the mind of a person without Christ, what's your mind like, what you think how you think you really are what will it dwell on, an unclean mind a heart or our emotions what delights you you may say ah yes I'm interested in that, I'm interested in the other then something else, and your heart beats with joy, that's it, you're interested your heart is there your mind has dwelt upon it your heart is hovering around it what are we learning about ourselves and then my will in complete harmony with my mind and its thinking and my heart and its emotions say go go go get to, why not, it's only a short life and before long we can find well what can be done about me spiritually, there is this battle within me I would desire somehow I'm in the congregation of God's people I would have some desire for the things of God and yet in the very congregation of God's people and my mind can go on a fantasy of sin, isn't that right how can I ever look in His eyes and live how can we ever hope to be accepted in the sight of God and enjoy His glory forever, to be really honest about it now, not to boast vain things that have never been real to many, but to understand this that He will not look on me if I remain like that but why why won't He have mercy upon me, this world is hard isn't it, and I try my best and I do this and I do that and I do the other and then I'm not only confronted with the caricature of God which is righteous and holy, perfect in all its attributes, but I am confronted by something that is written and it's called the law of God, it is holy and just and right, it is the law of God, what is this law of God my attitude to God and my attitude to man it is the law of love, ah that's easy we're experts on love we love ourselves very very much and so we might be able to manage this one and so we ask for details and the Lord Jesus Christ very kindly gives a little synopsis of the Decalogue and He puts in Mark 12 these verses the first of all the commandments is is here, is here O Israel the Lord is our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength this is the first commandment O Father stay a moment, what exactly do you ask of me now, I'm telling you this if you're inclined to be religious and desire to see me face to face I'll just give you two things to love the first thing I ask you to love me and I'm asking you to love me like this I love you with my heart all your heart, with your mind my mind, all your mind, all your strength Lord you're asking me altogether, yes I am I'm asking for that, I thought it was a law of love, it is a law of love how can you say that you love me unless it is a total love what kind of love is it if you have a husband and a wife and the husband says to his wife I love you and loves another but me say I don't love her as much as I love my wife, what kind of love is that ask yourself so what do I learn I learn there that I fall short to you my dear friend be honest because you could be in hell regretting your dishonesty tonight I fall short we think in Wales that Wylfa, Snowdon is a very big mountain the people have travelled today and they've been to the Alps and they've been to the Himalayas and I've got a memory my children even climb to the mountains of the Himalayas and so when I talk of Snowdon then it doesn't even come to one of the foothills and I might think my little effort is a Snowdon of an effort I try and then I look at Mount Everest and I say I feel silly but then God says think again, look at your planet, think of life years think of 13 life years think of 3 billion life years if you want measurement, my dear child you do not register so if a person says I'm better than another he is a fool for in the sight of the perfect standard of God all have sinned and can short of the glory of God we are sinful sinful unclean and the wages of sin is death and so I cannot look upon his face and live I cannot look there and then I hear about his heaven in the book of Revelation and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defile it neither whatsoever work it abomination or make it a lie but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life and see how final that is let us imagine now that we come to our latest hour and as we are standing outside the gates of heaven, if we can put it in a pictorial way like that and we are knocking at the door and a voice says oh what do you want entry who are you I'm an evangelical are you yes I'm an evangelical I know my truths I know my doctrines name is there please we've looked there's no accounts of repentance and faith here is there anything at all not in this book not in this book but imagine my friends on the day of examination I don't want to depress the dear friends that I hear now but you might as well be realistic about it I can remember how results used to come when I was in school there used to be a list in the hall and crowds around jumping up and down like this to see that terrible list and all you wanted to know is my name there and at first you see you didn't mind what grade you had or anything was your name there and if your name was there then you felt alright is your name there then lastly or rather let us think of that for a moment if my name is there or if my name is not there it is a fallen thing what shall I do what shall I do that I might see the face of God a hymn that has changed my mind now listen to the desire of somebody really seeking God show me thy face one transient gleam of loveliness divine and I shall never think or dream of other loves divine all lesser light will darken quite all lower glories wane the beautiful of earth will scarce be beautiful again show me thy face my faith and love shall henceforth fixed be and nothing here have power to move my soul's serenity my life shall seem a trance a dream and all I feel and see elusive visionary thou the one reality show me thy face I shall forget the weary days of yore the fretting ghost of vain regret shall haunt my soul no more all doubts and fears of future years in quiet rest subside and not but blessed content and calm within my breast abide oh show me thy face the heaviest cost will then seem light to bear there will be gain in every loss from peace with every care with such light peace the years will fleet life seem as brief as blessed till I have laid my burden down and entered into rest to see the face of God the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley and of Paris of ten thousand to my soul the altogether lovely one yes thee yes thee Jesus Jesus thou art far far more than the world can ever be our blessed savior father son and holy spirit in triumph splendor and to be able to live and look on thee oh lord look upon a wretched speck of dust and tell me how my last point then is this the favor of God particularly of that day a seeking soul that God has awakened and the veil of unbelief is beginning to be taken away from your understanding so that your understanding is enlightened and for the first time in your life you consider the possibility I'm a sinner it may be for some here tonight who are faithful chapel goers and honorable people but you've never considered yourself to be sinners then all of a sudden you might say well maybe I am after all if you're thinking that then thank God because that is the holy spirit enlightening your understanding quickening your spirit won't you begin to think that yet it is a terrible place to be in we call it the valley of the conviction of sin and we shouldn't mess about with people that are there leave them there leave them to suffer there leave them to organize there there must not be a predator birth here it must be done in the right way allow them to feel the terrors of the law of God allow them to see something of the holiness of God allow them to see something of the iniquity of their heart and then let the holy spirit turn their eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face that the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace in this area in the vision John meets people who are there already in chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 it reads who are these which are arrayed in white white robes and whence came they and I said unto him sir thou knowest these are they which came out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb that's who they are that's who they are they were once on earth and they wept and toiled and mourned but they are people that had some great events that happened in their lives during their life on earth they came into an area, an arena a space, a place of grace where they began to take attention to the things of God and to consider the destiny of their immortal soul and to stop listening to a myriad little silly voices, do this, do that or the other, or superficial things and they began to consider if I should be called on this life today how should I stand, where would I be let me tell you in 2 Corinthians 5 21 there is a very helpful verse for he, God hath made him, Jesus Christ to be sin for us for knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him this is the question what does thou require God of a sinner righteousness I'll try then so I show my best work and he says filthy rug, filthy rug I spent a whole lifetime on that rug filthy rug and somebody else comes along and says I am very religious and I am very acceptable and I jump and dance and do all sorts of things, filthy rug filthy rug what's he looking for he is looking for something in the depth of your heart and your soul with a righteousness that will not the righteousness of God so self-righteousness is never going to do it or self-activity or self-energy or all the myriad things that surround us today will not do it, God is looking for a righteousness that matches the righteousness of God how can a speck of dust and dirty dust at last be righteous in the sight of God here is the gospel and he God perfect in all his attributes crowned with holiness and righteousness he then allows his son who knew no sin, no sin, he could not lie, he could not sin, he could not deny himself, we can lie we can sin we can deny ourselves but not God, there is the veracity and the integrity of the person of God, he is true to what he is, holy righteous and this God sends this son into this world and what does he do this son lives a life that merits eternal life for others but not himself and all the graces of God God is so pleased with him that he says this is my beloved son hear ye him, for there is a very special time when we shall survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died and there we see the Lord Jesus Christ but it is no ordinary crucifixion and what do I see there, he was never a sinner but he became sin the word is sin was imputed to him, the little word put is a helper sin was counted on him as if he were wild as if he were filthy as if he were all that so sin is imputed to him, what is the wages, death but oh what death is this, is it the death of a cross, many people were crucified and died on a cross but you see what does he say from this cross my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, why does he say this because you see the quality of the suffering and the intensity of the suffering of the cross was of eternal damnation, telescope if you like, into that time on Calvary, that cross no wonder that cross can lift up my head that cross that a resurrection vindicates its great value, that cross, and so we look at him and the Holy Spirit has shown me my unrighteousness he tells me he will take your unrighteousness, my sin or the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord O my soul he will forgive you but then I shall naked be ah but he has wrought a gown of righteousness in the life that he lives and for your gown of unrighteousness which he takes a punishment for, he gives you a gown of righteousness which you never earned on yourself at all well how can this be mine how can such a righteousness be mine, a righteousness that matches the righteousness of God why, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in complete harmony in these things and the Holy Spirit works for me and we are given grace to repent grace to have faith grace to repent that our faith might be in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to believe with all my being that it is enough sacrifice on Calvary and that which is done for me is my only hope and the righteousness that he has wrought for me can be my only dress and that righteousness must be mine if I am to face God and live, my faith must be there, how can I put my faith anywhere else, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus name, it must be there and he gives us grace to repent what is repentance are the tears there yes according a great deal to our temperament but there are inner tears if there are not outer tears of shame and remorse, but is shame and remorse enough no, that can be a repentance which is of the world and leads to death and nothing more but holy sorrow what is this where when I am given grace to repent, I look at my life sin is sweet I'm right, sin is desirable sin clings like a clinging vine sin is there what is repentance I look at it and by the grace of God I turn away from it, I turn from that life, where am I turning to, I'm turning towards God and holiness and righteousness don't forget repentance something that shakes your very life to your foundation, yes of course it's going to be a radical change you have to leave that life and turn to this life because it's going to be a righteous life on a narrow way, otherwise you have never ever understood the gospel of Jesus Christ repentance and faith, by grace I say to faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God and what happens the righteousness of Christ now is appropriated by faith to the sinner and because the righteousness of Christ is appropriated to him and his sins are also forgiven in the merits of Christ he is justified in the sight of God that's a wonderful thing and it always remains the same always when that real experience has taken place you may be feeling up and down as Satan will come and tempt you to despair and tell you of the guilt within upward I look and see him there who made an end of all my sins, it remains the same, justified by faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ if religion hasn't done that for you at this moment in time you face a lost eternity eternally dumb and in that day when the finality of all judgment is made however important, however clever however religious, however much you play to the evangelical faith and the peripheral of it all that kind of thing whatever it was, unless you have this work of grace in your heart God will say to you, depart from me ye cursed I never knew you, I'm pounding at the door, I won't leave here Lord you've got no choice, depart hey but it is still a day of grace that's the wonderful thing of it all a day of grace where you might be able to say I heard the voice of Jesus say come unto me and in that coming you see there is a work of the spirit enlightening you and helping you and guiding you and quickening you and making you aware of your sin and aware of the holiness of God and you cry out from the depths of your being to God you know something big is happening you can't understand it all together but you know there's something very wonderful that's happening and then suddenly you know that you're a forgiven person and that you are an accepted person in the righteousness of Jesus Christ then you know you can sing the terrors of law and of God in the waiting room you can put it like that, his day has come a crowd of people in the waiting room, wait a second well very sure where do you stand? I'm in Christ how do you feel about it? the terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do my saviour's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from you how sure can you be? my heart, my hand, my being, my name from the palms of his hands eternity will not be erased, maybe he forgets, forgets eternity will not be erased impressed in his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace to stand and to be able to stand there and they shall be his people God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away think what that means think as we breathe our latest, we breathe into glory and he shares his glory with us thus praising God thus he questions it away and one day when we shall have our new body there shall be no sorrow, no death or any of these things and we shall be like unto our saviour and we shall be going from glory into glory and we shall be amazed and astounded at the wonder of it all and wonder why on earth did we dither sometimes when we put things on the scale when it seems pretty bad, my sorrow, my heaviness and my misery and I forgot to put together an eternal weight of glory why didn't I have correct measurement and to know that when I mean great glory is mine that is the end of our journey in heaven and God himself where do you stand there may be a war there may not be a war but there'll be nothing like this for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand and he's angry with his world and rightly so, angry with his empire and their greed I'm angry with his country and their self-pursuit and their selfishness, angry with men and women who only sought gain all along, angry with men only rejoicing and delighting in that angry, then who will be able to stand against the wrath of God those who are in Christ they're safe and safe forever let us pray our gracious and our heavenly father we thank you that we can come to thee and ask you that thy good favour might be towards us oh heavenly father thou who art the great one the holy one oh forgive us oh lord when we handle lightly the eternal things of God that were wrought and bought for us at such great price oh we would humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he might lift us up and that we might know that inheritance incorruptible and defiled that paid us not away reserved in heaven for us for thy name's sake Jesus Christ Amen