It will not be necessary to go into a long reading to show how it all came about, for I believe that every one present is well acquainted with the fact that the intruder beguiled our first parents by causing them to disobey the word of God and to partake of the forbidden fruit. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. 5:12.)

The amount of pain, sorrow, and tears which sin has caused from its very beginning up to the present time no human lips can describe; only the Infinite One knows -- He Who is everlasting and Who at a glance can see it all -- which horror if one of us would be permitted to behold the weight of its burden would crush us to the very dust.

Having briefly called your attention to this most dreaded and blackest cloud which is hovering over the entire human race, I shall now remind you of the One Who is just about to lift us up from beneath this unbearable weight and place us above it where we can behold its bright side and where the sun never grows dim.

Just before His crucifixion Jesus promised, saying: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:1-3.)

Here we have the words of Jesus Himself that He has gone to prepare a place for us and when it is ready He will come and receive us so that we may be with Him where He is now.

Forty days after His resurrection, on the day of His ascension, having led His disciples to the Mount of Olivet and after answering their questions concerning the kingdom, "He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)

Besides Christ's own promise we have the testimony of the apostles who witnessed all that took place and the angels who stood by testified that though Jesus was taken away He is to return. Therefore we are not trusting in cunningly devised fables.

Having prepared a place for all the redeemed Jesus will return, not only for those who are alive, but also for those who are dead, as described in 1 Thess. 4:16-18: "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." (Isa. 25:8.)

Concerning our holy, happy state, we read: "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." (Rev. 21:4.)

In closing I call your attention to the peaceable habitation which begins here on earth and will be ours for eternity. Says the Spirit of God: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. 11:6-9.)

Books

(Waco TX) Never To Be Forgotten