Not yet

The book of Genesis plays in chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15 verse 16. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Over to the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew's gospel chapter 24. Matthew 24 verse number 6. They shall hear of wars, rumors of wars.

See it be not trouble, for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Mark's gospel in chapter 11. Mark's gospel chapter 11.

Verse 12. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if happily he might find anything thereon.

And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. Over to the book of Hebrews in chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews 2 verse 7. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honour.

Thou didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him.

But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Crowned with glory and honour, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Finally in John's first epistle. John's first epistle in chapter 3. 1 John 3 verse 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now where ye be the sons of God, doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

That's our reading with the Lord's blessing. I draw your attention to two words from these readings. Not yet.

Not yet. First occurrence in the book of Genesis chapter 15. It says the iniquity of the Amorites, not yet full.

The cup is filling up, it's filling with iniquity, but not full just yet. Matthew chapter 24. The Lord, he was speaking about end conditions.

And he says he shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see it ye be not troubled. All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. The fig tree.

Israel. Mark chapter 11. The time of the figs was not yet.

You'll follow our thoughts as we come to Hebrews chapter 2. Iniquity in its fullness, but not yet. Wars that are coming in all their fullness, but not yet. God's dealings with Israel, but not just yet.

Hebrews chapter 2. Creation. We see not yet all things put under him. Iniquity, wars, Israel, creation.

What about you and I, my dear brother, dear sister? Maybe you're part of the aged community and saints that have come with struggles to the meetings. And we've been reminded of the difficulties and the prognosis and all the difficulties of the medicine and all those things. And the aging body that is ours down here.

But what about that glorified body? Well, not yet. It does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall like him.

We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. In the earlier session this morning, we've been pondering the majestic words of the blessed Lord as he stood about Mount Olivet before he ascended onto glory. There seems to be a majestic authority about it.

The end of the gospel of the king, he says, all power is given unto me. That promise. Lo, I am with you even unto the end of the age.

My dear brother, dear sister, we're almost at the end. But not yet. Through the line of the conference, and I know I'm perhaps on a different line.

But you know, not a little sound line. In the midst of the iniquity that abounds, in the distress of nations, and all the confusion of earth, and the very rottenness of the fabric of society in which we live. You know, as things shape up for those end experiences.

There's only two things out of step. One is the present indwelling spirit of God and his restraint. And the other is that little assembly.

That little assembly of God's people. Those praying saints. Praying individually.

And I hope you're at the midweek meeting. For that is, that is, stay against the darkness that abounds. The testimony of the believer, like the salt amongst the corruption.

There is only one thing out of step in the end period. Soon the rapture of the saints to be called to glory. Genesis 15, the first reference.

Iniquity, Amorites not yet full. Now never think that the Canaanites were driven out of the land to make way for Israel. No, we're not.

Don't think about that. The Canaanites were driven out of the land because it was God's judgment upon their own sin. It was God's judgment upon their own sin.

And there's that principle in our Bible that God will judge when the time is right. God will judge when the time is right. When the windows of heaven will open and the fountain of the great deep be broken up and the antediluvians be swept away.

God waited in the days of Noah. God tarried in the days of Noah. God was long-suffering in the days of Noah.

Only one thing that will explain why we're still here to preach the gospel. God's long-suffering. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

What about the destroyer in Exodus? Plague after plague, message after message, until this destroyer passed through. What about the idolatry in the land? God with patience wrought with them in those days. What about today? Days where atrocities have been seen on earth.

It seems to be the more horrific and more dreadful. Well, in their thinking, their warped thinking, the better. Corruption in the corridors of power.

That evil of our day that poisons the very well-heads of legislation. You know, it seems to be that in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, they practiced their infurious activity at night. Is it any worse now? Well, I don't know about here, but the land in which I come from, it's not just at night.

The Savior said, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. I come from a country where they paraded in the streets at midday and call it pride. Put pride as a name for it.

My dear brother, my dear sister, God will judge sin. And God will judge the awful evils that seem to be worse than ever before. Iniquity, but not yet through.

Matthew 24, wars, rumors of wars. You should see these things, but be not troubled. The Savior said, all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

The context of the passage, the destruction of the temple. The disciples were full of questions. When shall these things be? What shall be the sign of my coming? The end and the consummation of the age.

My brethren, the language of Matthew 24, 25, as I understand it, is not church language. It's Jewish. Salvation by enduring.

Verse 14, the gospel of the kingdom. Verse 15, Daniel of the prophet. Verse 16, Judea.

The son of man seven times. The Sabbath, verse 20. The great tribulation of verse 21 is not church language.

We're listening for the shout, not looking for the signs. We're in the, and I like a conference, you know. I like a conference where there's a stress upon assembly, truth, and doctrine.

But I like before we go home to have a little word. I'll hear a little word about the Lord's coming. Yes, the expectation of the Lord's coming.

That tiptoe of expectation as we come to end things, but not yet. The rapture of the saints, you know, does not depend upon faithfulness and vigilance. There'll be loss of the judgment seat, but not exclusion from his presence.

The kingdom age includes the church and the end and the consummation of the kingdom, but that has to do with the nation and the nations, not the rapture. But already, already, the Bible would tell us that the mystery of a lawlessness doth already abound. Even now, there are many antichrists, says John.

You know, there's three features of the end times. One's disturbance, the other's deception, and the other is delay. Disturbance, wars and rumors, pestilences, earthquakes.

Thousands on this world flee from wars and famines in a way that was never seen before. Europe is being swamped with refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Disturbance, disturbance of millions of humanity.

Deception. Let no man deceive you, the Savior said. You know, to believe the lie rather than believe the truth.

I say again, the only thing holding it back is that little man preaching the gospel, is those saints in communion with God. Yes, that little assembly, or as a testimony on a dark day, a light set upon a hill. Deception.

I don't need to come to this country to tell you about fake news. You ever seen so many peace movements and trade agreements and accords and communication and IT and technology and propaganda? The bulk of the people, they're just running around in saber space. There's a secular book about the wars of Antanan.

And it speaks about wars that were lost, not on the battlefields, but on the television screens. You know, deception. Deception.

Indeed, I would venture to say that that first seal of Revelation chapter 6, it's bloodless. It has to do with the breaking of the first seal. I take it it has to do with deception.

Fake news. Today, the disciples were looking at the temple. All seemed so imminent.

But the Savior said in verse 6, the end is not yet. God and patience linger still. But here we are, my dear brother, dear sister, at almost the very end.

I know there's vital lessons for the citizen of the kingdom to be learned from those passages. We should be watching. We should be waiting.

We certainly should be working, as we've heard. Watching, not for signs, but for the shout. Looking for that blessed hope.

Looking expectantly for. Waiting up for. You know, someone is out of the home at a late hour.

And they've been expected at a certain hour and haven't just come yet. You wouldn't think of going to sleep. You would be waiting up for.

That's it. Waiting up for. Brethren and sisters, are we waiting up for? Are we expecting? Are we just a little settled down here? Becoming like worldlings in this world.

Waiting. Romans chapter 13 says, Knowing the time, it is now high time to awake out of sleeping. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed.

Not your tribulation, no. He'll save you, not through that hour, but out of that hour. Waiting, working.

You know, even in the parliaments, the one talent man, it's something to do. We've been hearing that already today. Don't bury it.

Don't bury it. Handle the currency of heaven. Gain wealth in the bank of glory.

Handle the currency of redemption. Don't be gathering it up down here. The only thing to do down here is tax it.

Working. Investments in the gospel, in the assembly, in the extension of the kingdom. My dear brother, dear sister, it would be well spent time this Saturday afternoon if we went home on the expectation of the Lord's coming.

If we settled down tomorrow morning in the will of God around those emblems, this do in remembrance of me, but don't forget, till I come. Iniquity filling up now, but not full, not yet. The Savior said the end is not yet.

Going into the city, the fig tree. The fig tree, you know, sometimes it's slow budding. And sometimes the fruit coincides with the leaves and sometimes even before, usually in June.

But it says here the time of the figs was not yet. Matthew 11, it was April. And the fig tree, there it was and it had leaves.

And it could have been expected to have fruit, but the thing was barren. The nation of Israel in its barrenness. It says at verse 20 of that chapter, the fig tree was dried up at the roots.

Romans chapter 11 speaks of that judicial action against the nation. The mystery of blindness that has happened in part unto Israel. And it says until the fullness of the Gentiles be coming.

What's that? Well, that coincides at least this with the day of grace. To the Jew first and also to the Gentile. The great triumph of the gospel in the book of Acts.

What about the Jew nationally? Individually, there were those unreached and saved by the gospel. But nationally, the Jew, we know about it, the Holocaust, antisemitism, hatred. Thousands and thousands of Arab nations around Israel, the UN, Europe, Russia, Syria.

Don't need to preach about all that, do I? My dear brother, my dear sister, the actors are on the stage. And all is shaping up and forming for the man of sin and global government. And all those things, everything is just, you can see the actors getting ready.

But the Savior said, not yet. Patiently and a long suffering. For Israel, the future of great tribulation.

Certainly, we believe the future of great glory for the nation. But not yet. Not yet.

Hebrews chapter 2, the subject is creation. You'll follow our thinking. Iniquity filling up, but not yet.

Wars, the scene has been set in all its fullness, but not yet. Israel, surrounded by all the actors that will play into that great final scenario, but not yet. What about creation? What about mankind? Says Hebrews 2, we see not, not yet all things put onto Him.

Verse 6, it's asking the question, ask the question, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest him? Poor, frail, mortal, insignificant man. Oh, we do rejoice that God has been mindful of us. And the son of man visited, he did.

God had ever his heart toward his creature. You remember God drew near in the cool of the day in the book of Genesis. God in a bigger and a fuller sense has drawn near, says Hebrews 2, in that one that was made lower than the angels.

Now that's just a little period of time. Don't understand it that way. You know, there was no angel ever laying a manger.

There was no angel ever hungered. There was no angel ever thirsted. My Savior at the beginning of His public ministry, He hungered in the wilderness.

As He died upon the cross, He said, I thirst. He was lower than angels. Adam was made head of creation.

He was visited by God in Eden's garden. God crowned him king over creation. Adam in that sense had delegated power.

God confirmed to him his sovereignty over creation. Set man over creation. Superior to the animal and the vegetable, creation.

But Romans chapter 8 says creation. Creation now has been because of sin made subject to vanity. Creation that is about us, it lacks fulfillment.

It's not really fulfilling what God purposed it for. It's not working properly. That passage speaks about it groaneth, it travaileth.

The waves seem to thunder onto the shore. The beast is red of tooth and claw. The ground grows the weeds and the thistles.

Listen to the wind as it blows through the trees. It seems to have a sigh. Creation not working.

Breaking out of that bondage. But says Hebrews, not just yet. God hasn't abandoned his original purpose, you know.

God's first thoughts are God's final thoughts. I don't know about you, but with this idea of global warming and tides raising and all those things, well, I'll go home and the climate's not too good around Iowa even in April, but I'll sleep all right tonight. It's all in God's hands.

Oh, yes. For the destined King will come. In fact, verse 9 would say that the destined King is already crowned.

But we see Jesus. Oh, my dear brother, dear sister, before you go home, get a look at Him. The man that was upon the tree.

After the tree has come the throne and after the cross has come the crown. We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. That's the primary clause of that verse.

The great theme of Hebrews, the present crowned sin purger. After He had purged our sins and sat down. One sacrifice for sins forever.

Calvary's cross has sat down. His present glory. His present glory means that God in His decree and God in His purpose will see that creation is restored.

And through the person of Christ, I was thinking about this from the psalm, then I restored that which I took not away. In the day of restitution in the Old Testament, there was to be an assessment of the debt and of much that was owed. And in the time of jubilee, it was to be restored and recovered, but 20% on it.

You know, the purposes of God, the purposes of God even for creation and the purposes of God for you and I, not just a circle, you know. God's not just going to bring us back to the state that Adam was in, an innocent man. But God is going to bring us to a state, we'll be at it in a minute, when we'd be restored to the image of His Son.

Higher and higher. It'll be a good conference, my dear brother, dear sister, if for a few moments we would lift our attention from earthly things and the things of time and sense and with expectation in light of the Lord's coming. In light of the Lord's coming.

Don't be too concerned about the iniquity that is about us. God will... Well, iniquity is full, but not yet. God will judge it.

The end of all this wars and all this business, we'll be raptured to glory for the end is not yet. Israel, God will take them up on His purpose, but not yet. Creation.

God will show in this literal earth that all was lost by the first man is restored by the second man. For the first man was of the earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven.

Who are we looking for? The Lord from heaven. 1 John. 1 John.

The glorified body. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. So he says in verse 1, Beloved, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God? Not sons as adopted, but children.

Children by birth. You'll find that at the end of the previous chapter. We know that He is righteous, and you know everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him.

And so as being born of Him, He's saying we are now the sons of God. Now, that's present. And it doth not yet, that has to be the future, it doth not yet appear what we shall be.

This is God's work for them and in them, not yet completed. God will work and vindicate His righteousness as mankind raises to a zenith of iniquity, but not yet. The tumults and distress of earth are coming to fruition and all their fullness, but not yet.

God has a purpose for His ancient people in their fullness. The fig tree will blossom, but not yet. So as even to creation, God will not abandon His initial purpose, but He will be glorified.

Beloved, now we are the children of God. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but what we shall be. You see, for the world as we've been thinking, the worst is to come, but our prospect is to be raptured out of it.

My dear brother, dear sister, for you and I, the best is to come. Now we have tasted of that which is good, and we rejoice of the blessing of God's salvation, but are we... Well, John would have us in expectancy. The date is unspecified, but it's undisclosed as yet.

But he says, but we know that stimulating power of the blessed hope, that blessed hope and appearing in glory of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. When He shall appear, we shall be like Him. When He shall appear, we shall be like Him.

The second speaker after mealtime. Maybe the audience gets a bit heavy. Listen to this.

We shall be like Him. That is Christ, Christlikeness, the ultimate for the believer. But not yet, not yet.

You see, that spiritual likeness that is ours as a result of calvary and the indwelling spirit that is ours today, but that likeness at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, says Romans chapter 8, we shall be conformed unto the image of His Son. That's what they say. Not just back to the state that Adam was in, in innocence, but conformed to the image of His Son.

For we shall see Him as He is to complete our transformation to His likeness, as He is presently. Well, how is that? These first three verses of 1 John chapter 3. Verse 1, there's a love to contemplate. Verse 2, there's a likeness to anticipate.

And verse 3, there's a life to emulate. A love to contemplate. And this love, behold what manner of love.

A likeness to anticipate, conformed unto the image of His Son. Be like Him. A life to emulate.

He, as He is. Well, how is He in the passage? Verse 29 of the previous chapter, He's righteous. Chapter 3 verse 3, it says He's pure.

Chapter 3 verse 5 says, in Him is no sin. He is righteous. We are already reckoned righteous.

But that righteousness is to be manifested insofar as is possible in this lifetime here. Not in, not sinless perfection. But Paul ever strove to be as near as possible the image of the resurrected man.

A resurrected man. In that day, we shall be actually righteous. But in this meantime, that testimony that I've been talking about, in a dark day, my dear brother in your business, dear sister in your dealings, even in the school, in the college, whatever stage of life, if you live a righteous life, you'll be different now.

Not stooping to the standards of men that are about you. Righteous. It says He is pure.

Every man that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself. Then, in that day, we shall be holy and without blame. But in the meantime, with this hope, this cleansing hope, this hope of expectation, this which urges us on to the very end.

And here we are. Let us be pure. Verse 5, In Him is no sin.

Since John, He was manifested to take away our sins. He has delivered us from the penalty. Insofar as is possible, we should be delivered from the power.

We look forward to that day. Then, we shall be delivered from the presence of sin altogether. What a thought.

Can you get any higher than this? A body like unto His body of glory in which, dear brother, dear sister, we will not be able to sin. To look within and see no sin. Abroad, no guilt to trace.

Sure, we would long to be away from this sinful, wretched scene. If it were not so, for those that are the loved ones of God's people in the little family circle, let us labor on, that we might see not only souls saved, but family circles complete in light of that day. There are some that are young here.

Maybe not see it. Be assured of our prayer for you on the very verge of the Lord's coming, lest you be left behind. This world, there is worse to come.

Iniquity, war, tribulation, groanings. But the believer, not yet. That glorified body, when we shall be away from the groanings of earth and the infirmities of the scene.

And we're thinking just now of aged saints in care and those that have had diagnosis and prognosis. And you've heard that long list of prayers just to be in a body free from sorrow and sin. And there's souls here, widows and widowers that grieve and mourn and loneliness.

Happy that day. If they were saved, united with them in yonder glory. There was an old sister in the care home and she had a little plaque on the wall.

And the little plaque said, have patience with me. God is not finished with me yet. God is not finished with me yet.

It doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Darby said, and can it be? And can it be I shall be like thy son? Is this for me the grace that I must want? May God bless this word.