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I didn't know I was going to be in California because it's green. If I were to stand directly in front of one, I'd also sit there just to see it. Except for the white here, it should be a very, very eerie impression for you all to have. Well, let me take a look at things to each one of you.

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I've just said so many places that I've seen at past conferences. And some of you, I know very, very well and know your names. But others, thank you for having your name tag on. I don't have to be so embarrassed when you tell me you've been to the last 10 conferences.

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And I've forgotten your name. So just absolutely fantastic to see you all here. And it's wonderful to be, again, able to teach you on this day under the hand of God. Well, we're talking today about I'll be back.

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There is a person, other than Jesus, who is very famous for having this issue. Arnie, Schwarzenegger. I'll be back, the famous words out of Terminator 3. Look at it.

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Full of muscle, jaw-setting, ragged determination, full of threat. Don't think I'll not be back. He's saying, no, I'll be back indeed. Very, very frightening.

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If you are his enemy, we've seen what Arnie can do, haven't we? And it's not a pretty sight. The renter that's left, who's wanted. He's very threatening, because after all, that's why he's called the Terminator.

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But if you're a friend, he's good for friends, isn't he? Great for friends. If you're on his side, on the side of truth, with a bit of violence, then you're full of hope.

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The disaster that you are living in will end. He's promised, and he keeps his promises. When he comes, it will be to achieve a great sensational dramatic rescue. It will be the greatest liberation that's ever been seen.

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That's the promise. And that's the hope of his friends in all of those films. But Arnie's rescue is a noisy world rescue, isn't it? It's not a real rescue.

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Here's a rescue, really, ultimately, is just a human fiction. That is all it is. You see, the situation is that the Arnie Schwarzenegger, the Terminator, can actually fix things here, up.

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This is actually able to do that, and don't we love the blockbuster movies? Don't we love the disaster, the rescue film? And finally, the perpetrators of evil are caught. They're punished, they're destroyed, they're done away with.

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All the pent-up tension that we've felt about whether the heroes and the heroines will ultimately be rescued. So we've known before then the seasons that will be. But the pent-up tension is there, we're just sitting there waiting.

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And then the good news is played out on the street before us. The rescue finally reaches its climax, and it is finished. And the good news ending is running again. It's exciting, isn't it?

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The human fails its story, which is what it is. It's a space-ticket Cinderella, or Shrek, or even Lord of the Rings. We love the happy ending, I love the happy ending. The one who makes the jump, the wise, and usually it's a beautiful,

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or it's not beautiful as in Shrek. The good, we love the story of indecation. It's what we really want. Oh, we love the story, it's a bad luck.

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Winning against the odds, the castle, can we try and tell you something? I've seen at least five now, I think. So I thought television isn't a... Oh, or recently, so called the world's fastest.

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Isn't Indian? Indian, if you've not seen it, can't see it, it's fantastic. So in this genre of the battle of winning through, and you know what, we never ever get tired of the story.

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Never. If we did, the movie world would be out of money because there's a lot of blockbuster movies that are coming day after day. It's interesting that even though we know the end before the beginning,

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and we still know, it's time, isn't it? I bet the kids, the Superman, the weak, have been heartbeat. I'll see it sometime, I might not be able to lose it, but sometime, I'll see it.

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But you know, human reality is of course not like that, even though we would like it to be like that. We know that life is unfair, and we know that really unfair and tragic things happen.

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And we're really too long for the Superman, don't we? You know, we love the Superman. We love that one to come and put it large. In fact, we cry out day and night to God

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about injustice in the world, about poverty, about our marriages, about our painful lives, our divorcees, our grief in the midst of someone that we love. When a disaster comes, a child, we're heartbroken,

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and we cry out to God. And day and night, we receive evil, writ large on our television screen, and we cry out. And our heart felt cry is God help us, we say.

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God, stop this, we plead. God is this, we implore. God, we intrude. We petition endlessly.

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Day after, down through the ice, we humans cry out. And every day the Lord hears such petitions, those billions of petitions that run endlessly before His Christ.

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He is the reason for this institution. And as we say, please stop it. His answer is, I will. That is His answer.

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I will bring an end. So we go to open the Bible now, and it's a bit of a Bible flip, so help each other. And the references are there in your booklets,

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so that will also help you. And the first thing I'm going to look at is Matthew 6th, verse 27. And what we're doing here, and looking at these verses, is we're setting out to listen.

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Listen to God. In His Son Jesus, saying, He will stop this, because He will be back. While I'm making myself look at these references at the same time,

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I do think about things making and marking them all for the piece of paper. But then I thought that's a bit of a little struggle together. So in Matthew 6th, I want to read to you from verse 27.

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For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels. There's a statement from Scripture. He is going to come with angels and with glory,

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or there's a word we don't use very much, but we do know that something glorious is magnificent, extraordinary, outstanding, different, unsightly, long-lasting, all of those things.

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It's something that really is probably even when God uses the bottom silk beyond our imagination. All right, now we're going to go to Luke 17. Luke 17.

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And in Luke 17 at verse 24, we read this, "For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes and lights up the sky from unmanned to the other.

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But first, you must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." So the experience of the coming, the return of the Son of Man will be as unmistakable

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as that blinding, flash of lightning across the sky. Then in Acts chapter 1, I can still hear pages looking at very good. In Acts chapter 1,

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at verse 11, we read in the words that the Apostle Luke recorded word of history, and we're reading here in 1, 11,

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"This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. He is gone into heaven and he will come back from heaven. And we give it some terms of reference here by the Apostle Luke.

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But just as those four and the experience, the extraordinary reality, what is the vision of the reality of Jesus returning to his father in heaven. So humanity will likewise be able to seek him return." Then in Monticello here,

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some Jews may wish to just keep a little bit of patience when we get there because we'll be going back there again and again across the day. You're all scared when it starts just being out in your feet. What do I do, Israel?

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I have a reputation in my own head. I don't know that it's real that wherever I go, I need anything electronic and a piece of it to work. You just have this traumatic experience

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of sometimes across the day. You're about to make the dramatic point of light coming out as well. Someone thanks for the back of the room. Please, stay in your seats.

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All right, well here we're reading in Monticello and we're reading at Chapter 4. At first we'll be coming back to this little world. Here we read, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven." Well, there you are, just written on the page.

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It's like a wire, something so extremely extraordinary. It's like it is that. "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God."

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Excellent. So it's going to be dramatic. A loud command, and I'll talk about that a little bit later. The voice of the archangel and the trumpet will might be one on the same.

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A person doing those things. The trumpet call of God, and it did, will run. And then in Revelation 1 and 7, that's the age of a farmer. And in front you have got a concordance in that.

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Then you've got those. It's still floundering. All right, Revelation 1 and 7. Look, he is coming with the clouds. And any eye will see him, even those who have pierced him.

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Well, Acts 1 and 11 told us that he will return as he had just gone. And clouds are mentioned in Acts 1. So here you have a reference again to a likeness of what will happen on that day. And Revelation 22 and 7, you can just look it up later.

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Jesus says, "Behold, I am coming soon." And in 20 to 20, he says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Well, Jesus Christ has returned the eye of the back of the New Testament, if you like. It's really filled with great hope, isn't it?

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It's full of the promise of a new heaven, a new earth, God resides in living entities, it's full of the idea of God being visibly with us. Every tear that's been shed is knocked away, every grief resolved and comforted. No more death, no more mourning, no crying, no pain.

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When I read these words, relief washes over me. In some way, it's like the relief I felt when I was on a very dark night flight to Armadale. In the days before, I was not afraid of flying, so I was terrified on this night. And we're coming to Armadale, not only that it is often really quite a difficult term to land in.

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And there was a storm. And so the flame is jumping and rearing around and it's sort of backing. And because you couldn't see outside, you had no reference points. So at times you weren't sure whether you were playing on a side or whether it was going down or going backwards.

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It was just a dreadful experience. And then it started to hit the earth. And you know, we veered across the runway, and we all suddenly pulled up and the whole carried as we stood there. We just erupted, we couldn't get out of our seat because it stuck in, but there was a relief.

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And we cheered and we shouted and we quacked the pilot. I let me tell you that it was just fantastic to be born again. It was so wonderful, because just for a few minutes we actually looked into the very face of death. Well, I had mine here, didn't I? I can't speak for anyone else.

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And you know, I'm a Christian. And I know, I was saying in my head, I should have been scared like this God, I should have been scared like this God. There you are, we're humans in the earth. See, that's the hope of Christ coming, isn't it? When we read those words in the Bible, the promise is

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to have actually looked into the very face of death as each one of us will know. Life will be restored. That is the hope of Christ coming. In fact, more than life really will be restored.

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Because it will no longer be life that's defined over against death. You see, we constantly define life because it's the opposite death. So when this life is restored to us, we are given continuous ongoing, never any life. The life that only God and the kings of heaven knows.

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It's a tremendous event. Well again, as I've been told in Scripture, not the absolute completion of God's purposes. They will have finished for the world when Jesus comes. There is nothing more for this ruined world.

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This world that's torn by our rebellion and their opposition to God. Nothing less for what we call the sinful world, this dysfunctional world. It will be destroyed. Every last part will be destroyed.

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And in New Heaven and in New Earth will be created and in Earth. Again, the doesn't know things, doesn't know frustration, doesn't know things. Now, we are living between the first coming and the second coming. And we are enormously privileged to be alive in this stage of God's purposes.

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Because you know, we know so much. Compare yourself to a Jewish man, faithful to God, living in 400 species. He would have killed to know what God was doing, to know when the Messiah would come. We know that. We know so much.

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And what a privilege we have to meet in this particular day. But can I keep a word of caution? Can I say to you, there are many false teachings around. They're driven by imagination and enthusiasm.

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And they just run riot with people's minds and hearts and fears. We've got to remember to be cautious. There are a couple of things we need to do. We need to depend on the scripture. We need to learn how to read the scripture.

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Come to a Mary and just call it a call. We need to learn how to read the scripture. Evangelical churches, we are Evangelical. Have a 2000 years.

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But working out how we can correctly read the scriptures. Therefore, we've got to learn how to do that for ourselves. We mustn't get such things. If somebody comes and tries to proceed to you or me, with some sort of a, you know, a blow-by blow description of what will happen just walk away.

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Just walk away. No one can do that. We can talk exactly what scripture speaks. That is all we can do. The blow-by blow description is that I text another book of Revelation. Let me tell you.

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Unless they're very, very skilled at reading metaphors and the task of literature, if I text those verses literally, your expectations of God and of the second coming are going to be totally wrong. So these are words of caution, as we tackle what is a very important topic in the New Testament.

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Do you realise the second coming is mentioned 300 times in the New Testament? How many times we start the Lord's sub-imension? Two, three. It's obviously a topic of faith interest to God and to the Lord Jesus,

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that we tend to start on it a little bit. Let us then move back to thinking about the fact that the promise of the coming of Jesus is a bit large in scripture. And we read some verses about it a year ago,

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and those of you who are fast-readers know that I got the last bit off in some of those verses. And you're out there thinking, "Oh, she's been dodging with the scriptures." So I don't like any of her, might come back again. Might be funny, though, hoping not, though.

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Because I'm aware that I've left off some of it for half of the verse, because it's important at that point to have left it off. Because I wanted you to feel the hope of the promise, that at the same time between now and when Jesus returns, the hope of His coming also needs to galvanise us into action.

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And the action is to galvanise us into the action of living like Jesus. And so, and you may rise to your Bible now and find these, but because I want to stop in a few minutes and be on time, I'm going to read them out to you.

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In Matthew 1627, we read, "For the Son of Man is going to come, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. Let me tell you, I have had a very dodgy life."

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"You don't believe me, do you?" He said, "This right here is purple clad woman." "It's an elephant." "That's not true, but I'm not going to tell you."

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"I'm not going to let you know." "But it's a passable movie, you see, according to what she has done," I said. "Well, that could make me feel, it'd be ages.

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It could make me think, 'Well, where does that leave me?' Because I know what I have done. And I know, even though I'm now in spectrum, still looking white here, don't believe women,

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I know that somehow I get to know and when I die, there will be some other things. Maybe many, many other things. But I would prefer to think that I wouldn't do,

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but let me tell you because I'm human just as you are. And do you think I know this because I know you know. I read it, Romans 1. Give me your description.

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And you can read it there, and when you read it next time, think in a real jar. Because I'm here too. So, what is the test?

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What exam? Do we have to get through? And let me tell you, it is so easy. The test is, have you loved my son?

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Have you loved Jesus? That will be the test. Revelation 1.7, when Jesus comes, all people will mourn because of him.

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And you know, I think we're Christians, who are probably mourn most of all, because we will really understand for the very, very first time how the right God must have been for us.

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And we will mourn when we say the heart was in Jesus' hands. We say the heart was in his face. And the scars still, he must be on his throat from that crown of thorns.

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We will mourn at the same time that we rejoice because those scars, he has born for me. And that is what I will know. But I, as a human being,

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have at many times not done what God would want me to do. And neither have we. And we will grieve what that has caused for this wonderful will Jesus.

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Revelation 22 says, "I will give to everyone according to what he has done." Do you have it again? On the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,

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the Big King, and the Edge. From there to the those who wash their roads. Well, there's a quintile passion of praise. That's just used to talk about being washed

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in the blood of the Lamb and equipped across into the Anglican Stufe, while we're physically totally now. It's about the fact that when we acknowledge Jesus and we can see that he has stood in our place before God,

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he is blood is shed for us. And in a sense, metaphorically, we're being washed in his roads and washed in his blood and we're cleansed by it.

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So bless those who wash their roads as they may have the right to the tree of light and may go through the gate into the city. But here is a threat because with the promise,

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there's a threat. Outside is everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have set my message just to give you this testimony.

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John is the messenger. He's the apostle. It's testimony for the churches. Look at the language.

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You know, I, Jesus and the root and the offspring of King David. So interesting. He is the root from which King David

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has thousands years before the birth of Jesus. And he is also the descendant of King David. He is the Christ Messiah. Will Martin describe himself

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as the bright morning star? So the full story, the full Christian story, is full of hope

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with an edge of threat. And the importance of becoming a Jesus is to swear upon, to see in what way we will live,

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to show our deep gratitude to the one who loved us and died for us. A little bit later, I'll be turning back up here on the platform

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and we'll be talking with you again about ignorance and knowledge and faith in the light of all of this. And then you, badly,

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is going to be speaking after that. And then you, badly, is going to be addressing one of this learnings, chapter four,

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second part of that, might as well be five. He went far across this learnings, chapter five. And where the second coming again

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is being played out in other sorts of turns. So that's where we're heading. And I'll show to you that we are not as important that you hear this.

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We are not doing a straight what's called exegetical study out of one place alone. We're not moving from one verse one to five verse.

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What have you done? We're not doing that. We're doing what we call a doctrinal study. We will take a theme

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and we hone in on that theme. And we look at what this book says about it. But I'll also bring in some other things from the register description.

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So if you're expecting a verse by verse study, can I say that it's one legitimate way of teaching at a conference? Another legitimate way of teaching at a conference

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is to take a doctrine or a theme and just explore that. Jesus is. I'm coming soon.