The Coming King

Revelation

The Coming King

December 17th, 1961 @ 10:50 AM

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
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THE COMING KING

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Revelation 4:3

12-17-61     10:50 a.m.

 

On the radio you are listening to the services of the First Baptist Church in Dallas.  And in keeping with that triumphant song, the pastor is preaching this morning on The Coming King.  In preaching through the Bible, we have come to the last, the climactic book, the Revelation, and preaching through the Revelation, we have come to the fourth chapter and the third verse.  And in chapter 4 and verse 3, John sees the throne of the Lord God Almighty, and around it a rainbow [Revelation 4:2-3].  And that rainbow represents our covenant-keeping God; the promises that He made, He will faithfully perform [Genesis 9:13-16].  The great covenant that God has made was with Abraham, and the whole Bible, after the twelfth chapter of Genesis, is a working out, a fulfillment in destiny and in history of that promise that God made to Abraham.  You will find it is several times repeated [Genesis 12:1-3, 7, 15:1-21, 17:1-14]; you will find it the last time in Genesis 22, verses 16 and 17:

By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord . . .

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore…

And in thy seed shall all of the families and peoples and nations of the earth be blessed…

[Genesis 22:16-18] 

 

And last Sunday morning, we mentioned that there are three things to which that seed refers.  First, it refers to the posterity, the descendants of Abraham.  It refers to the Hebrew nation, the Israelite people: “And the Lord sware saying: I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as of the sand on the seashore” [Genesis 22:17].  So the seed refers, one: to the descendants of the patriarch, to the Hebrew people.  As in James 1:1, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”  I turn the page to I Peter 1:1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the diaspora—the twelve tribes—to the diaspora scattered throughout Pontus, and Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Asia, and Bithynia.”

In the Bible there is no such thing as the lost ten tribes.  That comes out of somebody’s unscriptural imagination.  In the seventh chapter of the Book of the Revelation, there are twelve thousand sealed from each one of the twelve tribes of Israel [Revelation 7:2-8].  I don’t know where they are.  Nobody knows which one is in which tribe, but God knows. And the Lord said to Abraham: “In blessing I will bless thee.  And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the sky, and as the sand on the seashore” [Genesis 22:17].

The second reference of the seed of Abraham refers to his spiritual seed.  In the third chapter of the Book of Galatians, it ends like this:

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ . . . There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if ye be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

[Galatians 3:26-29]

 

Now that doesn’t mean there are not any women anymore, and there are not any men anymore, “For in Christ Jesus, there are neither male nor female” [Galatians 3:28].  But there are women here this morning, and there are men here this morning.  “And in Christ Jesus, there is neither Jew nor Greek.”  That doesn’t mean there’s no actual Jew and no actual Greek [Galatians 3:28].  Walk up and down the streets of Dallas, and you’ll meet a Greek, a Gentile, and you’ll meet a Jew.  But in this era in which we live, this age of grace, this dispensation, this period of time, there is in Christ Jesus a great fellowship called His ekklēsia, His called out people, His church, you translate it.  And that fellowship in Christ is Abraham’s seed and the heirs according to the promise [Galatians 3:28-29].  That’s the second way the word seed is used.

The third reference to the seed is as of one: [Genesis 22:18], “And in thy seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed.”  And in Galatians 3:16, Paul wrote, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ.”  The third reference to the seed is to one, to the Messianic hope, to that great Lord and coming King.   Now immediately when I read that in the Word of God, “And in thy Seed,” as of one, “shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” [Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16], immediately there comes to our heart that familiar refrain that began in the garden of Eden and reaches out to the great climactic triumph of all time and of all history.  It begins like this: in the garden of Eden God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; her Seed shall bruise thy head”; and crush that serpent, that old dragon, the devil, “and thou shalt bruise His heel” [Genesis 3:14-15].

The old rabbi pored over that through the millenniums past: “and the Seed of the woman,” the woman doesn’t have seed; a man has seed.  But the Seed of the woman shall crush Satan’s head [Genesis 3:15]. So as the unfolding is made, in the elective purpose of God, whoever He is, He is to be born of a woman and not of a man, He is to be virgin-delivered into the earth [Genesis 3:14-15].  Then I turn the page, in the twelfth chapter in the Book of Genesis, I read, “And the Lord God said unto Abraham, Get thee out . . . I will make of thee a great nation [Genesis 12:1-2] . . . and in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” [Genesis 12:3].  Then He is going to be a Hebrew and not a Gentile, He is going to be born a Jew.  Then I turn the page, and I read in Genesis 21:12, “And in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”  Then He is going to be born of Isaac and not of Ishmael, as Abraham so earnestly importuned before God [Genesis 17:16-18].  Then I turn the page, and in Genesis 28:1-4, “And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and said . . . The God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful . . . And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed . . . that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.”  Then, He is going to be born of Israel and not of Edom, He is going to come out Jacob and not of Esau.  Then I turn the page to Genesis 49:8-10: “Judah, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise,” Judah means praise.  “Judah is a lion’s whelp,” the lion of the tribe of Judah, “Judah is a lion’s whelp . . . The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.”  Then He is going to be born of Judah and not of Simeon or of Levi.  I would have thought He would have been born out of Joseph, for Joseph inherited the birthright [1 Chronicles 5:1-2].  He is to be born of Judah.   And Judah shall have a government until Shiloh, until that promised Seed come [Genesis 49:10].

Then, I turn to I Samuel 16:1 and I learn there, as in Micah, He is to be born in Bethlehem [Micah 5:2].  He is to be born in the house of Judah in the family of Jesse.  And I learned it is not to be of Eliab, the firstborn.  And He’s not to be of Abinadab, the second born.  And He is not to be of Shammah, the third born.  But He is to be born of David, the lad in the field, keeping watch over the flocks in his father’s house [1 Samuel 16:6-13].  And then finally, I come to the great Davidic covenant in the seventh chapter of 2 Samuel, verse 12, verse 13, and verse 16 [2 Samuel 7:12-13, 16], and God said to David: “When thy days be fulfilled, and thy shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee . . .” [2 Samuel 7:12].  All through the Word of God that seed:  “I will set up thy Seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy body, and I will establish His kingdom.  I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.  And thine house and thine kingdom shall be established forever…  Thy throne shall be established forever.”  You would think God would get weary of repeating that.  Three times—one after another: “Thy throne shall be established forever, thy kingdom shall be established forever [2 Samuel 7:13, 16], thou shalt have a Seed” [2 Samuel 7:12], A Seed, as of one, said God to David, and He shall reign forever and forever on the throne of David [2 Samuel 7:12-13, 16].

Then as I turn the Bible, in the Psalms, in the Prophets, I see that Davidic covenant reaffirmed, reiterated, repeated, avowed.  For example, in Psalm 89, verse 3 and 4: “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant.”  Thy Seed—thy Seed, as of one.  “Thy Seed will I establish forever, and build up the throne to all generations” [Psalm 89:3-4].  Verses 19 and 20—just verse 20, “I have found David My servant: and with My holy oil have I anointed him” [Psalm 89:20].  Verse 24, “My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him: and in My name shall his horn be exalted” [Psalm 89:24].  Verses 34-36, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the things that be gone out of My lips.  Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David.”  His Seed, as of one, all through the Word of God.  “His Seed shall endure forever; and his throne, as the sun before Me” [Psalm 89:4-36].  And so through the whole Word of God, that Seed.  In Jeremiah 23:5-6, “Behold—behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, shall execute judgment and justice…In His days—in His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby He shall be called: The Lord our righteousness.”

And again, in Jeremiah [33], verses 20, 21, 23 and following, “Thus saith the Lord: If you can break My covenant of the day, and My covenant of the night, that there should not be day and night . . . Then may also My covenant be broken with David, that he should not have a Son—a Seed, to reign upon his throne . . .” [Jeremiah 33:20-21].  And again:

Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

Listen to what these people say . . . Then God answers: If I have a covenant with day and night that can be broken, that there is no more day and no more night

Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will cause the captivity of My people to return and I will have mercy upon them.

[Jeremiah 33:23-26]

Thus does the Bible proclaim the coming of the great King, and the eloquent incomparable Isaiah, lifting up his voice says:

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. [Isaiah 9:2]

For unto us, a Child is given and a Son is born . . . and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

[Isaiah 9:6]

 

Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, upon the throne of David.

By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord to David, that he shall have a Son and shall reign upon His throne forever.

To establish that throne in justice and judgment forever.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it.

[Isaiah 9: 7] 

Then I had you read together this morning Isaiah’s incomparable description of the reign of the kingdom of that coming Lord, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid . . . when the lion shall eat straw like the ox, when they will not hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea [Isaiah 11:6-9].  Then, the great day of the new era and the New Testament.  Ah, but they say, “That may be true in the Old Covenant and in the Old Testament, there was a King coming then.  There was a kingdom promised then.  But the New Testament changes all of that.  There’s not to be a King, and there’s not to be a kingdom.  God has changed, He has forgotten.  He has let His promises fall to the ground, and the New Testament is something else, something different and something other.”

Listen to the Word of the Lord.  In Luke, chapter 1:31-33:

Thou shalt conceive in thy womb . . .

[Luke 1:31]

 

The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;

and that holy thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God—

[Luke 1:35]

 

the Seed of the woman—

He shall be great, and He shall be called the Son of the Highest;

and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom,

of His kingdom there shall be no end.

[Luke 1:32-33]

Why, that’s the exact thing that I read in the Old Testament!  That’s the exact thing that I’ve been reading to you in just a few of the multitude of the promises whereby God sware that David should have a Seed and a Son, born of a woman [Genesis 3:14-15], born of the tribe of Judah, whose throne should be established forever [Genesis 49:9-10].  And He shall reign over God’s people in the earth—a kingdom.  And He shall reign forever and ever [Psalm 89:3-4].

That identical thing is found throughout all of the Gospels: in Matthew 20, verse 20 and following; “Then came to Him the mother of Zebedee’s children—that was Jesus’ aunt.  Her name was Salome, she was the sister of His mother Mary, and those boys James and John were His first cousins.   There came to Him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her boys, and she had a request to make: “When Thou comest into Thy kingdom, grant,” said the mother, “that one of my boys can sit on Thy right hand and the other of my boys can sit on Thy left hand” [Matthew 20:20-21].  That one be the prime minister, and the other be the chancellor of the exchequer; or here in America we’d say, one be the secretary of state and the other be the treasurer of the United States. Ah, wouldn’t that be fine?  I don’t blame her, if I had two boys like that; I’d want it just like that too!  Well, Jesus did not chide her; for a mother to be ambitious for her boys is fine. Jesus did not chide her.  She said: “In Thy kingdom, let one sit on one side and one on the other side” [Matthew 20:21].  What a marvelous opportunity!

What an opportune time for Jesus to explain: “Now, you do not understand.  There is not going to be any kingdom.  I have changed all of that.”  He never said anything like that.  Jesus had been preaching the kingdom! [Matthew 4:23].  And He taught His disciples to pray that it might come! [Matthew 6:10].  And He said to this sweet, precious mother, “I cannot give you the seat on My right hand and the seat on My left hand, but there is a seat on My right hand in that kingdom, and there is a seat on My left hand in that kingdom, but it will be given to those for whom it is prepared of My Father” [Matthew 20:22-23].  There is still a kingdom [John 18:37].

I turn the page once again.  Just before He died in that awful and tragic night, in Luke 22:28-30, “Ye are they which has continued with Me in My trials.  And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me.”  Jesus said, “I was born a King.”

“Art Thou a king, then?” said Pilate to Jesus.  “Thou sayest I am a king,” the most definite, strongest affirmation in the Greek language: “Thou sayest I am a king [John 18:37]. 

 

I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; That ye may eat and drink at the table, at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

[Luke 22:29-30]

That same thing the Lord had promised the disciples in Matthew19:28:

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

In the kingdom that is coming:

I appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed unto Me: That ye may eat and drink at My table, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

[Luke 22:29-30]

At the end of His life.

And when I turn the page, there crucified next to Jesus is an ignorant, uncouth, rude villain; a malefactor, a rough buccaneer of a rebel.  But he had heard of the message of Jesus, and when he bowed his head to die, he turned to the Lord and said: “Lord, remember me, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” [Luke 23:38-42].  ”Where did he ever learn that?  Whoever taught him that?  Just somewhat of an acquaintance with the message and ministry of our Lord, the great thing that impressed itself upon his soul was: “He is a King and there is a coming kingdom.”  “Lord, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” [Luke 23:42]. “Thy kingdom come” [Matthew 6:10]—it never fails; God keeping His promise.

Now in the moment that remains, the kingdom in the Book of Acts, Acts 1:6: “When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, will Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”   Ah, again; that same marvelous opportunity.  What an opportune time to explain to the disciples:  “Now there is not going to be any kingdom.  I have changed all of that.  Those old promises that Jehovah God made to the people of the Lord in the Old Testament, I have changed all of that.  Those promises are not going to be kept; they all fall to the ground in the dust, for God is that kind of a God.  He makes promises, but He does not keep them.  He changes His mind. He is not able to carry through in the vicissitudes and fortunes of history, all of those things by which He made covenants in days past”

Why didn’t Jesus say that to the disciples?  For the Lord Jesus reflects the Lord God Himself, the Word of God, the expression of God.  And it was in the power and strength of deity that that covenant was made, and it will be in the power and strength of the same Lord God Almighty that that covenant is faithfully kept.  And the Lord said to these disciples: “You are asking when the kingdom will be restored to Israel and Israel has a part in it.  You are not to know the time; the Father has that in His own hands.  But, it is coming” [Acts 1:6-7].

We have nowhere in the Word of God any syllable or any hint concerning the length of this great intermission—this interval, this interlude, this day of grace, this dispensation of the church and the Holy Spirit of God—we don’t know.  “It is not for you to know,” said Jesus, “the times or the seasons.”  But, it is coming” [Acts 1:7].

“Lord, will Thou at this time?” [Acts 1:6].  Now you look at that carefully.  The men who are asking that question had been with Jesus from the day of John the Baptist; the qualification of an apostle was that he be baptized by John the Baptist [Acts 1:22].  They had been with our Lord from the days of His public ministry, they had witnessed Him die [Matthew 27:32-50], they had witnessed His resurrection [Acts 2:32; 3:15].  And for forty days, they had been faithfully taught the meaning of the Scriptures as Christ unfolded them out of the Pentateuch and out of the Psalms and out of the Prophets [Acts 1:3].  And at the end of that time, there had been nothing said or done by the Lord Christ that interdicted a coming King and a coming kingdom.  Just before His ascension into glory, in Acts 1:6 they asked Him about that kingdom: “Lord, when? Lord, when?” Not if—when, Lord, when?

And the Lord said: “It is not for you to know those times; that belongs in God’s hands [Acts 1:7].  But this is for you; this is what you are to do, “You are to be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” [Acts 1:8].  Witnesses: we are heralds, we are announcers, we are proclaimers, we are witnesses, but when the kingdom comes, it shall come by the intervention of God in history!  His own strong and mighty arms, says the Lord God, will bring to Him righteousness in this earth [Isaiah 59:15-17].  In this period and in this time, we’re to witness, calling men to repentance, calling men to faith in Jesus, calling men to prepare, calling men out of the world into the blessedness of the holy fellowship and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus our Lord.  You’re to be witnesses.  We don’t bring in the kingdom.  That comes by the strong mighty presence of our coming King!  We are witnesses, preaching to the world the unsearchable riches of the love and forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus.

And of that did the apostle Paul have so much to speak.  For example, in the third chapter of the Book of Ephesians, he begins, “I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If you have heard of this dispensation, this era, this day of grace, this time in the church [Ephesians 3:1-2]:

If ye have heard of this dispensation of the grace of God . . .

How that by revelation, He made known unto me the mustērion—

this mystery, this secret hid in the heart of the Almighty—

Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men . . .

[Ephesians 3:2-3, 5]

No prophet ever saw it.  No man of God ever ever knew it.  It was a thing hid in the heart of God [Ephesians 3:9].  In other ages, it was not known.

But now is revealed unto the apostles by the Holy Spirit;

That, that the Gentiles are to be fellow heirs, of the same body, partakers of His promise in Christ . . .

[Ephesians 3:5-6]

And I am a minister, and a witness, and a preacher of those unsearchable riches [Ephesians 3:7]:

To make known unto all men what is the fellowship of that mustērion, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.  But now,

To heaven above, to earth beneath, to powers and principalities. . .

[Ephesians 3:9]

That by the church [Ephesians 3:10], all of us are privileged now: male, female; bond, free; Greek, Jew; young, old; wise, unwise; unlettered, taught [Galatians 3:28-29].  To all men everywhere in this day and in this hour, God hath a dispensation of grace and forgiveness—all of us in one body, in the fellowship of the saints, in the circle and communion of the precious body of Jesus our Lord, His people, His church [Ephesians 3:9-12].  A mustērion: a thing the prophets never saw, this age of the grace and goodness of God [Ephesians 3:5-6].

But is there to be a kingdom?  Is this earth forever to go on as it is now, with blasphemers strutting up and down the stage, cursing God, damning and defying every holy thing in the heart and soul of the Almighty?  Is sin forever to reign? [Romans 5:14]. Is death forever to be here? [Romans 5:12].  Is Israel forever outcast?  “Ah, no,” says the apostle Paul:

Hath God cast away His people?  God forbid!

I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this musterion… blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

[Romans 11:1, 25]

Until this age of grace is done.

There is a set time known to God: that time and season that the Lord spake of in Acts 1:6.  There is a set time known to God.  And when that last Gentile comes down that aisle, and when that last elected soul is in, and God sets his name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, when that day comes, then shall arise that great denouement and that great consummation of all history.  And so Israel shall be saved; as it is written [Romans 11:25-26]:

There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:  For this is My covenant with them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election.

[Romans 11:26-28]

The sovereign purpose of God: as though the devil could contravene it, as though the history of the world could subvert it.  No.  “As touching the election,” the almighty purpose of Almighty God:

they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

[Romans 11:28-29]

 

And in that kingdom, Israel shall have a part.

I shall speak on that again, as I have in days past.  But in that great and final coming, God’s elect people—Israel—shall have a place and shall have a part.  “A nation shall be born in a day” [Isaiah 66:8].  As He appeared to the apostle Paul [Acts 9:1-5], He shall appear to His brethren after the flesh, and they will look upon their Messiah [John 19:37].  They shall mourn for their rejection and unbelief [Zechariah 12:10].  They shall be like the brethren of the Lord who disbelieved on Him in His lifetime—James, and Jude, and Joseph [Matthew 13:55]—they shall turn and be saved! [Romans 11:26].

 And in that final and ultimate kingdom, Israel shall have a part.  Oh, how many things!  I go to the consummation of it: the consummation of that final kingdom is in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of the Revelation, and the twentieth chapter, “I beheld,” in the eleventh verse:

I beheld, I looked, and behold, heaven was opened—heaven was opened—I saw a white horse; and He that rode thereon was Faithful and True…

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns…

He was dressed in a vesture dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.

[Revelation 19:11-13]

“And the armies of heaven that follow Him are God’s saints, dressed in linen, pure and white” [Revelation 19:14].  And out of His mouth that word of rule and authority by which He shall judge the earth and tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God:

And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

[Revelation 19:15-16] 

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold that old serpent, which is called the Devil, and Satan, and he binds him for a thousand years.

 [Revelation 20:1-2]

And in that thousand years, I saw thrones, and upon them sat God’s sainted people reigning with their King in the kingdom.

[Revelation 20:4]

When the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, when the leopard and the kid feed together, when the lion eats straw like an ox . . . When they neither hurt nor destroy in all God’s created universe.  And when the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea: the King and the kingdom.

[Isaiah 11:6-9]

That’s the Book, that’s the hope, that’s the blessedness, that’s the preciousness.  Not now, said Jesus, but someday, some glorious day; some triumphant day, some victorious day, someday when the King comes, and when the kingdom comes, and when we see His face, and we are made like Him, transformed, immortalized, changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16].  Oh, the blessedness and the preciousness of the hope God gives to the child of God in His rainbow promises!  [Hebrews 10:23].

Now while we sing our song of appeal, somebody you give your heart to Jesus, give the preacher your hand.  Somebody you coming into the fellowship of the church, a family, or just you, on the first note of the first stanza, while we sing the appeal, make it now.  Make it this morning.  If the Lord bids you come, trust Him.  Whatever the decision difficult, whatever the hindrances in the way, whatever the battles to fight, whatever the war you are in, let God work, walk, war by your side.  You and He are an unbeatable team.  Come, come, “Here I am, pastor, here I am.  Here I come,” while we stand and while we sing.