6 lessons from COVID-19

I want to read with you in Matthew chapter 24, verse 1 of Matthew chapter 24. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the mount of olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, and see that ye be not troubled.

For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginnings of sorrow.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.

That's as much as I want to read. There are at least six signs that are given here relative to the second advent of Christ. Now this isn't the rapture that's in view here.

There are no signs relative to the rapture. It's imminent, which simply means it's hanging over your head, and it's hanging over my head. We don't look for signs in relation to the Lord's coming.

We look for him. That's who we're looking for. We can look at signs, I suppose, or things that seem to be going on all around us.

We can look at them. But we're not looking for signs. We're looking for the Christ of God to come to the air and shout his waiting people.

We hear a lot about this COVID-19. It's been mentioned here a number of times this weekend. And I take it that it's probably something that's been upon our minds for at least a year, maybe more.

And rightly so. It's a very devastating plague. But you know, I think there are things that we can learn from it.

There are at least six lessons we can learn from COVID-19. And one of those lessons I believe that we can learn is man's vulnerability. You know you're wonderfully made.

The Word of God makes that crystal clear. But you know you're really kind of fragile. And I'm really kind of fragile.

Physically. Maybe even mentally fragile. And yet there are those who think they are invincible.

And they manifest it by their carelessness and they manifest it by their indifference. And this virus is no respecter of persons. Doesn't respect anyone.

It treats everyone alike. Interesting. Saint and sinner alike.

This virus will treat a saint the same way it will treat a sinner. And it will treat the rich the same way that it treats the poor. No difference.

And it will treat the young the same way that it treats the old. It will treat the well-known the same way that it will treat the unknown. It will treat the famous the same way that it will treat the infamous.

1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5. God resisteth the proud. He giveth grace to the humble. This virus is just like sin in spiritual leprosy.

There is no one excluded from it. Because we're born into this world. And our only hope to overcome that is the person and work and worth and welcome of the Lord Jesus.

And there's not anyone in this room today young and old alike that is ever going to get to heaven without him. You just cannot get to heaven without Christ as your Savior. Man is very vulnerable.

And this COVID-19 has proven it. It also, I believe, we learn from it, the credibility of the Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

That means it's God breathed. And this is the only book that I'm aware of that's God breathed. And the libraries in the country and in the world are filled with books.

Books. You can get books everywhere. You can even get it on your smart phone now.

You can get books. You can get Lewis Lamore and some of them good writings like that on your smart phone, you know. He wrote 90 some books.

You can get them all on your smart phone. Some of it ain't too bad reading either. I've read every one of his books, by the way.

I just will admit that. I didn't buy them. I used to find them in the place where I used to work, you know.

I used to work in a veterans hospital. And when these old boys would die, their wives would bring all of their stuff to the veterans hospital. And the veterans could take what they want.

And their books came. All of their books came. A lot of them was Lewis Lamore.

And their clothes would come. And then they'd go. And they'd go to the nearest beauty shop.

And they'd get their hair done up. And they were good to go. We learned the credibility of the gospel in relation to this thing called COVID-19.

It's a pestilence. And if this pestilence can happen now in this day and in this age, what will it be like in the future day? Revelation chapter 16. The vials of the wrath of God.

Is there a wrath of God? Yes, there is a wrath of God. And men and women and boys and girls are going to find that out. Like Willie Mullins found out years ago.

He went to a gospel meeting and the preacher preached on the wrath of God. One day he was going to look over this place that he was going to rob. And he stepped over a hedge.

And he thought to himself, there's no wrath of God. And then he thought, but what if there is? Well, let me tell you, there is. There is.

The book of the revelation, that's not revelations. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. We learn of the wrath of God.

It's promised. And it will come to pass. And this COVID-19 is a cakewalk.

In relation to the wrath of God that is soon to come upon this whole world. This is a Christ rejecting world and they don't know. But we know, don't we? That they're on a collision course with the judgment of God.

And really God doesn't want to collide with anyone. And that's why he's made a provision in the person and work of his beloved son. We've heard so much about this weekend.

Very delightful. Things that we ought to hear. Mr. Paisley told me years ago.

He said, when you're ministering the word or when you're preaching the gospel, bring Christ in. And I would like to think that Christ has been brought in this weekend. And that's a good thing.

Something else I think we can learn about is the uncertainty of life. Life is like a poppy's petal. One day fair, the next day withered.

Like a snowflake on the river. A moment seen and gone. How long? Forever.

They never come back, do they? There's times we wish they would. When my wife died, people would say to me, well, you'd never wish her back. Well, they hadn't a clue what they were talking about.

Absolutely, I wished her back. I missed her. There were a lot of things that I wanted to say to her that I should have said to her and didn't.

And then I had regrets. And if there's something you should say to your wife today, get it said. So you don't have any regrets.

Did you tell her today that you love her? Did you now? Really? Did you really? One brother shaking his head, yes, but he's the only one I see. One out of this crowd, come on, brother. You see, all my wife knows that I love her.

Yeah, I suppose she does, but she still wants to hear it from you. You say to me, preacher, do you ever tell your wife you love her or do I ever? I talked to her quite a bit on the telephone. And every time we hang the phone up, she says, I love you.

And I tell her, I love you. And you know something, we mean it. It's not just empty words.

You do that, brethren. This COVID is a cakewalk. Life is so uncertain.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then what does it do? It vanishes away. Now, all these sisters are smiling because they know that their husbands are going to tell them sometime today that they love them. You know, there's but a step between you and between me and death.

Could be alive one moment, and the very next moment, and this COVID-19 has proved that. People that were just getting on healthy, living their lives, loving, loyal, laboring, and in a moment of time, they're out into eternity. How uncertain life really is.

Here today and gone tomorrow. And it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this is judgment. And I'm not saying that that's a date on the calendar.

I never believe that. It's the lot of all men. It's your lot and my lot.

And the only way we're going to jump the ditch of death is by the rapture of the church. And the only way you're going to be raptured out of this world is if you know Christ as your Savior. That you're genuinely saved and born again the Bible way and washed in the precious blood of Christ.

The uncertainty of life is something we learn through this COVID-19. And if we didn't, we should have. And then there's the scarcity of hope.

What's that brought about by? That's the media. That's what Rash Limbaugh used to call the drive-by media. Now, takes away your hope.

And that's because of negative reporting. There is hope. I read somewhere that 99% of the people afflicted by this COVID-19 have recovered.

Well, I don't know if that's so, but it sounds pretty good to me. And if anything is believable, that's just as believable of all the other things that you hear that we're expected to believe. So I wouldn't mind believing this.

99% affected, have recovered. And the repurposing of some drugs. I don't think that COVID-19 is a sign.

You know what I really think it is? It's a warning. It's a warning to you and a warning to me. It's a warning to this whole wide world.

Romans 12 and 12 I think is the word. Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation.

Continuing instant in prayer. I wondered in this COVID-19 thing, in Oklahoma they call it a thingy. I don't know the difference between a thing and a thingy.

Well, that's what they call it down in Oklahoma. They have a lot of different sayings down there that you all don't have up here. So I wonder in this COVID-19 pan panic, that's what I call it.

It's a pan panic. Have we learned a sufficiency of the Lord Jesus? He is sufficient, you know. Now we know that.

And if we never knew it before this weekend, we know it now. Because he has been ministered to us. In John's Gospel chapter 14, there's a lovely little verse there.

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. And go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I'll come again and receive you unto myself.

That where I am, there you may be also. John 16 we read, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. You can't have peace.

This world has no peace to offer. Just tribulation and tears and trials. But in the world, he goes on to say, tribulation, but be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world. And that makes me think of this one simple thing, that the Lord is in control. Regardless.

Regardless of the government of the land, whether it's here in the United States or Canada. God is in control. And ultimately, he will have his will and way about things.

How about the urgency of salvation? Did we learn that from COVID-19? How urgent salvation really is? It's not something that can be put off. Because it is something that is absolutely urgent. We must remember something, that without spiritual healing or the new birth, physical healing is meaningless.

Because I can go to heaven missing an arm. I can go to heaven missing a leg. I can go to heaven missing my sight.

But I can't go to heaven missing God's salvation. No one in this room, no matter who you are, no matter what you come from, whether it's a criminal's hut or a Christian home, you cannot go to heaven without God's salvation. And I think this COVID-19 is something that should teach us the urgency of how important it is to get this eternal matter settled before it is eternally too late.

And your bitter cry, Jesus of Nazareth has passed by. Opportunity over, offer withdrawn. We can go to heaven from a COVID sickbed.

Hopefully there was a great number that did because there was a lot of them that died on sickbeds. But we cannot go without salvation. We cannot get there without the Lord Jesus.

And there are absolutely no exceptions to the rule. None. That's why the Savior says in Matthew 11, Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden.

That's for you and me as the saints of God. And that's for the dear unsaved in the world today as well. You know, there are many conflicting reports about this sickness.

One thing we're sure of, it's real. It's real. But so is God.

God is real. He's really there for you and for me. And he cares.

And God may allow this to intrude into our lives. And if so, it's the permissive will of God. I don't believe it's the deliberate will of God.

Not everything is the deliberate will of God. But there is the permissive will of God. There is the direct will of God.

And there is the ultimate will of God. And some folks think that every little thing that happens, it's the direct will of God getting you. I remember my first wife was wiping the ceiling off in the bedroom one day.

I think that's because the furnace blew or something like that. And I said to her, I said, You know, we have a cleaning company coming in here to do this. And she got up on top of the bed and she was washing this ceiling off.

And she fell off the bed and broke her leg bone. And ultimately she ended up in a cast and it was a big purple cast. It looked like a plum about that long, you see.

And I took her to meet him. And my brother walked up to her and he said to her, he said, What have you been up to? Just as God stepped into the room and took a sledgehammer and busted her leg. And I remember one time I was, I won't tell you where I was at, because then you'd figure out who I was talking about.

But I might slip and tell you anyway. Anyways, I'm standing in the kitchen with a man and a woman. And this woman said to her husband, she says, You know, I went around the back of the schoolhouse this morning and a grate had been removed from the sewer system or whatever.

And the front end of her car dropped down in there. And he looked at her and he says, What have you been up to? I said, You know, for sure the Lord got up early this morning before anybody else was up. And he went over there and he removed that grate off of that sewer so that when your wife drove around the backside of the school, the front end of her car would drop in there.

Well, you see, that sounds crazy. I said, So, so do you. I don't know if you ever got it right.

There is a direct will of God. And there's a permissive will of God. Things that God allows to happen in your life, doesn't directly make them happen, but he allows those things to happen in your life.

And then there is the ultimate will of God. And the governments of the land aren't counting on that. But we are, right? Ultimately, God will have his will in way about everything.

I'm going to sit down here. Proverbs 3 in verse 5, we read this, Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. We're so prone to do that, aren't we? To lean to our own understanding rather than trusting the Lord.

Not just trusting the Lord, but trusting the Lord with all our heart. And that he is the true center of true wisdom over against all self-confidence that exists in this world today.