Now, before we turn to Matthew 24, we want to watch a short little video. And unfortunately, I don't think we can webcast it because of the nature of it. But we're going to look at this morning at this coronavirus or COVID-19 to give it a scientific name that it has recently been labeled. This passage we're going to look at in Matthew 24 will describe a number of signs that will be present in the world, including pestilences, plagues, dangers, and earthquakes. And I was interested this week just to see a clip on a number of different channels on the plague of locusts in Africa, unprecedented for that part of the world. We're just gonna watch that first just to set the tone of what I'm going to say in Matthew 24. So we'll watch that, just last a couple of minutes, and then we will turn to God's word. Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking in what's often called the Olivet Discourse, and he's at the temple in Jerusalem. And the temple was one of the great buildings of antiquity. It was a temple that really was often called Herod's Temple because Herod renovated the Temple of Zerubbabel and made it a very beautiful building. Spent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and silver and precious stones renovating this temple. And when you travel to Jerusalem from outside the city, especially when the sun was shining, all you could see was gold glittering in the sky. And it was an amazing building. And it was the center of Jewish life, Jewish culture. And the Jews were very, very proud of it at the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the disciples, they thought they would impress Jesus. by bringing him to this glorious temple, the greatest building in the world at that time. And verse one says, they brought him to show him the buildings of the temple. But then in verse two, the Lord Jesus Christ said something to them in response that surprised them. He didn't say, wow, this is an amazing building. Rather, he said, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, or truly I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. In other words, Jesus says this. You see this temple that you're really impressed with? This temple is going to be destroyed. Every stone of it is going to be torn apart in the future. And the disciples were amazed by his answer. They were stunned. by his answer. And they took a little time before they could even speak. And they waited until he sat down upon the Mount of Olives in verse 3. And they came and asked him two questions. And the two questions were these. Number one, when will the temple be destroyed? When will this happen? But then they asked him a second question. Tell us, they said, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Now, it's very interesting the disciples didn't question that this was going to happen. They had learned with Jesus Christ to trust in him. They had seen him do the miracles. And when he said the temple is going to be destroyed, every stone of it is going to be torn apart, they believed him. They didn't question and say, well, are you sure? That's impossible, this great, this temple that's so impressive here in Jerusalem. So they asked him two questions. Number one, when will this happen? And number two, what will be the signs leading up to your second coming, your return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't answer them about the first question. Now we know the answer to the first question because we know history. And history tells us that about 30 to 40 years or so after Jesus Christ made this prediction, the temple was destroyed in AD 70 by the armies of Titus. And the temple in Jerusalem was so devastated and so destroyed that not a single stone of the original temple is standing today. Now you say to me, well I thought when you go to Jerusalem there's this wheeling wall that you see the Jews praying beside at the Temple Mount. That's not part of the original temple. That's a supporting wall. Every stone that was built of Herod's temple, and some of the stones were 50 feet long, They were huge. Every single stone was torn apart by the Romans and the whole city was burned to the ground and destroyed by the Romans. So what Jesus said here absolutely came true about the temple. But then he goes on in verse four to give a long discourse about the end times, about his second coming. And he tells them, take heed that no man deceive you. He says, don't be fooled by other men's opinions and ideas that they throw out. He says, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. Now, this word, I am Christ, means I am Christos. I am the anointed, because the word Christos that's translated Christ just means the anointed. It's the Greek word, that's the Hebrew translation of the word Messiah, which means the anointed one. So Jesus says there will be people who will come at the end times who would claim to be the anointed, or the anointed one, or the one who everybody must follow. And of course we're seeing that today, aren't we? I noticed in Korea they had an outbreak in a particular cult that the leader of that cult says he is Jesus Christ, he's the Messiah. And we have people in Singapore, parts of cult groups that say they lead the messianic movement. Jesus, don't be frustrated, don't be upset, don't be perplexed, don't be confused when people like this behave. But then in verse seven, he tells us some other signs that will precede his second coming. And this is really the one we want to look at today. He says, for nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Well, We're seeing that everywhere, aren't we? Everywhere there's a war going on or a threat of a war. And if it's not North Korea, it's Iran or it's Iraq or Syria. If it's not there, it's somewhere in Africa or there's a clash going on, isn't there, in the South China Sea over some little pieces of islands there. Everywhere there's wars, killings, murders, threats. Christ says, this is how it'll be. And then he says, there shall be famines. Well, we've just seen an example there of a famine on the screen that's about to break out in Africa. He says, there will be pestilences. Now, what is this pestilences? It's a generic Greek word that has the idea of diseases and plagues and viruses all caught up within the meaning of this word. He says there's going to be viruses and diseases and earthquakes in diverse places. But then in verse eight we have the key to when this will happen and how often this will happen. He says all these signs that he's described from verse 5 to verse 7 are the beginning of sorrows. Now he uses an idiom here, a term that's taken from childbirth. And many women in this room I know are mothers. And you don't need me to tell you about the pains of childbirth, labor pains. And how does the labor pains begin in childbirth? Well, it doesn't last for five minutes, does it? And then the child is born. Often it will last more than 24 hours. In fact, in some cases, many days. And the contractions start off relatively light. And the gap between the contractions is relatively wide. But then as time goes on and it gets closer to the birth of the child, what happens to the contractions? They get deeper in intensity and they get more frequent, don't they? And the Lord Jesus Christ takes that picture of the birth of a child here with this expression, the beginning of sorrows, and he says, these signs that you will see, including diseases and plagues and viruses, They are simply the beginning of sorrows, like the beginning of birth pains. In other words, they will begin relatively light, but as we get towards the second coming of Christ, they will increase in intensity and in frequency. Of course, we're seeing that today, aren't we? More and more diseases are springing up around the world, and over time we're seeing it. And earthquakes, and wars, and all kinds of upheaval and turbulence in the world. And the world is trying to define it, and they're coming up with all kinds of man-made terms to try and cover it up. And they talk about climate change, don't they? And all these other terms they like to throw out there, hoping that they don't have to accept what the Bible says about in the end times, there's going to come all these problems. The Lord Jesus tells his disciples, this is how it's going to be. Throughout time, there's going to be all these problems. There's always going to be earthquakes. There's always going to be plagues. There's always going to be diseases. But as you get towards the end, it's going to get much worse. It's going to get more difficult. Now, in Revelation chapter six, we're told something further, more detail. If you turn to Revelation chapter six, we get an insight there of a number of things that will happen just before Christ returns. And almost you get in Revelation 6 a more detailed commentary on Matthew 24, especially towards the end of time. And we're told in Revelation chapter six of seven seals that will be open, seven moments really, during what's called the tribulation period. And the earth will be struck by great troubles sent by God himself. And the four seals, the first four, are pictured with four horses. But it's very interesting in verse eight. of the seals and the horsemen, the fourth seal. It says, and I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth. to kill with sword and with hunger and with death, and this expression with death includes the plague and the pestilence, and with the beasts of the earth. Now, remember what we said about what Jesus said in Matthew 24. What you see today is the beginning of sorrows, the beginning of labor pains. which will get worse and worse and worse as we get closer to the return of Christ. In Revelation 6, when we get towards the very end and into this period called the Great Tribulation period, the Bible reveals to us that one in four of the earth will die. under the hand of God's judgment, from war, from plagues, from diseases, from viruses, from earthquakes. Now, just to put this in perspective, right now in February 2020, I looked it up yesterday, there are 7.7 billion people on the earth. Now, you don't have to be very good at maths to work out that if there's almost 8 billion people on the earth today, that if one in four will die in the Great Tribulation judgment on the first part of it, just this first four seals, that's almost two billion people who are going to die. Now, we are panicking because 2,200, 2,300 people have died of the coronavirus. I have to say this to you. You haven't seen anything yet. That's only a tiny fraction of what God will send upon the earth in the very last of the last days. He's going to unleash incredible judgments, incredible diseases, and famines, and earthquakes, and wars, and social breakdowns. Now let's go back to Matthew 24. And I want you to see that this pestilence that's referred to here, there's a number of lessons that you and I should learn from them today. So I've set the context. I've set the overall picture that these things are going to intensify. But I want you just to learn these lessons. And there are eight lessons. You can write them down that you can learn from the present crisis. Number one, the signs. that are listed in Matthew 24, these signs are fixed. They cannot be changed. Man cannot stop these signs happening. No matter how we develop our technology, no matter how scientifically advanced our medical care may be, treatments may be, no matter how much we talk about preventative medicines and preventative interventions with technology and the farming and agriculture world, no one can stop these plagues coming. In fact, I was very interested in verse 6 of Matthew 24, this little expression. Notice what it says. It says, for all these things must come to pass. These are not possibilities. These are not probabilities. These signs are promises from God. These will happen. And the reason I showed you that clip earlier of the locus was to let you see these people desperately trying to stop the locus from coming. Did you see them? Some of them had relatively advanced technology. Some of them were using drones to spray chemicals on the locusts. Some of them were using chemical sprays by hand. Some of them were banging drums and musical instruments. Some of them were beating the locusts with the sticks. And do you see what happened? They couldn't stop them, could they? They just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And you know, it's the same even with this coronavirus. People are trying their best to stop it, but they can't stop it. It just came up from nowhere and suddenly the world is shaken by it. And I want you to notice, number one, that the signs that will precede the second coming of Christ, the wars, the earthquakes, the viruses, these signs are fixed in God's appointment calendar. And they cannot be changed by anyone. But here's the second lesson. Lesson two, these signs will intensify toward the end of the age. If you think SARS was a major incident. If you think Ebola, the Zika virus, if you think the latest flu virus is particularly contagious, if you think the AIDS epidemic is something to be concerned about, if you're afraid of the coronavirus, I have to tell you, you haven't seen anything yet. It's going to get much worse. It's going to get to the point in Revelation 6 where just at the beginning of the tribulation period, one in four, almost two billion people, will lose their lives. And you know what this coronavirus is telling us? It's telling us that God hasn't changed his mind. It's telling us that God hasn't forgotten his promises in Matthew 24. It's telling you and I that when you read the Bible, it can be trusted. That God has said this will happen and it's happening because it's his promise And it's not a probability, it's not a possibility, it's an absolute promise from Him and it's going to happen. And these things will get worse over time. But then the third lesson is this, that I want you to notice this morning. These signs, including the signs of these viruses that will increase, are under the sovereign control of Almighty God. You notice this expression, these shall happen. Look at verse seven of Matthew 24. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. You know, God's saying these shall happen. Now, why is God so confident? Because God controls them. Why does God know the future so perfectly? Because God controls the future. That's how he knows. And in Revelation 6, I was reading it very carefully yesterday, and we're told that the the four angels or the four horsemen of the apocalypse, these things are given into their hand. Who gives it? God gives them. God gives them the power. God gives them the authority. God gives them the permission to unlaunch or unleash all of these judgments. If you turn with me to Deuteronomy 32 in the Old Testament, there's an interesting statement there. to Israel by Moses, Deuteronomy 32. And it says this in verse 39. See now that I, even I, God speaking, am he, and there is no God with me. There's no other God, he says. I stand alone. And then he explains, I kill and I make alive. I wound And I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. God says, I'm in control. And you read from Genesis to Revelation, this whole book is full of statements of God's sovereignty. In fact, the whole world begins with God, doesn't it? What does it say in Genesis 1, verse 1? In the beginning, God created the heavens. and the earth, not man. Man wasn't even found in Genesis chapter one till later on in the chapter. It all began with God. And then you read the book of Revelation and the last chapters and you'll discover it'll all end by God. He says, I will make all things new. I will make the new heaven and the new earth. So right from the beginning of time, to the end of time, God assures us, I am in control. I am sovereign over all of these things. All these signs that you read of, they're all under my control. C. H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist pastor of the 19th century, was ministering in London. when a great plague broke out, a great disease called cholera, still around today, but it was a disease that particularly affected the West at that period in history. Thousands died in London, including many of his congregation. And Spurgeon was asked by the people he went to visit who were sick and dying, They said to him, Mr. Spurgeon, who has sent this calamity? Is this bad luck? Is this coincidence that this has occurred in our city, in our lives? And he turned them to the book of Amos, chapter three, verse six. And the statement there, he says, where God says, shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it. Now the word evil doesn't mean sin, it means judgment. Shall there not be an evil judgment, a judgment that comes upon the people to deal with their sins, and God not be responsible? In other words, it's saying, of course God is responsible. God's behind it. God's in control of it. And all through the Bible, you'll see God controlling, guiding, directing, permitting his people even to go through great trials and difficulties, great times of suffering. We think of Job, don't we, in the book of Job. People say, well, the devil came with all those temptations. The devil came with all those attacks on his family and on his business. Well, you read Job chapter one and Job chapter two carefully and you'll discover Satan was only allowed to do what God permitted him sovereignly to do. God decided. how much the devil could touch Job's life, and how long he could touch Job's life. It was all under the sovereign control of God. And you know, it always amazes me that here we are in the 21st century, and we boast of our scientific knowledge, we boast of our ability to do so much, and yet we're really so helpless, aren't we? And this coronavirus is another example that man is not sovereign. Only God is sovereign. I mentioned last week when I first came to Singapore, we were in the throes here of the SARS epidemic. And people were very worried. I flew from the Philippines, Cebu, to Singapore. And all the Filipinos, they had the masks on. And all the Singaporeans had the masks on. And I thought there's something wrong with me. I'm the only one on this plane with no mask on. They're all panicking. And everybody thought the world was going to end. Did it end? No. Because these things are the beginning of sorrows, not the end of sorrows. The world will not be destroyed by an epidemic called SARS or coronavirus. How do I know? Because the Bible says seed time and harvest will continue until the return of Christ. Life will go on. There will be troubles. There will be difficulties. There will be these epidemics and pandemics. If you don't know the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic, just look it up. It will be good for your education. There will be all these problems, and they're going to get worse. And SARS was bad, and we got over it, and people started to relax again. So God has permitted another disease, Ebola, Zika virus, and all these other things. And people sort of go, well, we got through that. We're scientifically advancing. We're progressing. Science has all the answers. But now we're discovering, no, no, it doesn't have all the answers, does it? That the one that we've just escaped from 15 years ago, the one that we're in today is far worse, far more contagious, far more dangerous to the world. Far more people have died already from this latest virus than the one that we thought was so dangerous 15 years ago. God is reminding us that man is not sovereign. Man is not in control. Man doesn't have the ability of solving these things. Now don't miss this point because if you don't grasp this point you will go into a panic. I think one word that describes people in this country 15, 16 years ago, and the word that describes people over the last few weeks is this one word, panic, isn't it? Panic. And all these rumors. And if someone is on the bus or on the MRT, coughs beside you. I think I've got it. And all the shelves have disappeared of the thermometers and the hand sanitizers and the masks. And I watch the people every day at JEM over there at Geelong East panicking because there's one little shop that sells sanitizer. And as soon as it opens, there's a big long queue. And the ones who got their little sanitizer, they're coming out saying, ah, ah. You see the relief on their faces. panic. The world's panicking because the world doesn't know who's in control. But the Christian knows, the child of God knows, that everything is under the sovereign control of God. And the reason these signs are revealed to us in Matthew 24 is so that we don't panic. is to tell us this is what you have to expect. This is what God is promised to send to this world and this is what's going to happen. Don't panic. Fear not. In fact, things will get worse. And every time you see a person running around with a mask on, it shouldn't panic you, it should make you say, God's kept his promise. God's kept his promise in sending these signs. Jesus is coming. And you know, I find it interesting that when Jesus said in verse two of Matthew 24, this temple will be destroyed and every stone of it will be destroyed, that the disciples were amazed, stunned. But here we are 2,000 years later. Is the temple in Jerusalem today? No. The Jews have been in control of the temple since the 1970s. Is there a temple there in Jerusalem? No. God has kept his promise in the big things, and he can be trusted to keep his promise in the small things. Just as the temple has been destroyed, so the promises of these pestilences and viruses. God can be trusted to keep his promises, and he will keep his promises. But then the fourth lesson I want you to learn is this. Worse is to come for the ungodly than what we see today. I honestly don't know what's going to happen with this coronavirus. The doctors don't know. How could I know? The politicians don't know. How could I know? But one thing I do know is this, that no matter if they get over this particular crisis, there'll be another one around the corner. and it's going to be worse. And for the ungodly, things are going to get even worse than that. Because after they leave this world, they go out into God's eternity and they face God and go out to eternal judgment. And if they think it's fearful here, it's infinity in terms of infinitely more faithful out there when they come before God. That's the lesson you also must learn. If you see people afraid today, that's nothing compared to the fear that's going to come, compared to the problems that's going to come. But then the fifth lesson is this. You and I, as Christians, are called to learn lessons about life in this trial. You know, God doesn't send these things without a reason, without a purpose. We like to quote Romans 8, 28, don't we? All things work together for good to them that love God. Well, here's my question to you this morning. What good is God working through this coronavirus in your life, in the life of your family, in the life of this nation? in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ at this time. And I believe God is sending this particular trial to teach us a whole range of things, personally, corporately, as the Church of Jesus Christ, and even as a nation. And let me just throw out some of them. Number one, the first lesson that you should be learning in all of this is the fragility of life. Isn't that right? How helpless we are. How weak we are. Has anybody in this room seen the coronavirus? You don't see people walking with their head glowing orange, you know, and got the coronavirus. Oh, that person's got it. Can't see it. Can't see it with the eye. Yet it's so small, so deadly. Creates such panic in people. And it should be a reminder to you and I of the fragility of life. It should be a reminder also of the helplessness of man. We tend to trust in other people too much. Put our confidence in governments, in scientists, in bankers, in businessmen, in academics, in scholarship. We have this tendency to look up and put trust in such people and confidence in such people. Too much confidence. Movie stars, sports stars. And this coronavirus is a reminder to you and I, be careful who you trust and put too much trust in because you'll discover they're very, very weak. very, very fallible individuals and groups of individuals. The third thing I think that God wants us to learn as a lesson is the danger of complacency. There's a lot of Christians who are very, very complacent with life. When there's a recession on, when there's the SARS on, everybody suddenly says, well, we need to be praying to God and asking God for help. But as soon as the thing is lifted and the economy is going well, and everybody's got a clean bill of health, we all have this tendency to forget God, isn't that right? And become complacent. And it's times like this that we realize how much we need God. That when we sing songs like moment by moment, I'm kept by his love. Well, that becomes true to us. at a time like this. I think a fourth lesson that we learn as well is the importance of the main things in life. You know, when you go through a crisis like this crisis we're all going through as a nation and as a church and even as individuals, it really helps focus us on what's really important in life. Isn't that right? Family becomes much more part of our thinking. Our careers, our achievements, our possessions, those things are not so important. I'm interested, walking around yesterday, watching how these people buy sanitizers. And it used to be $1 for three sanitizers. Now it's $6 for one sanitizer. And the people that said, huh? $2 for a sanitizer? One month ago? I'm not buying that. Today it's $6, money not so important now. You notice? How quickly our priorities change when these things start to shake our lives. And people who never message their children are suddenly on the phone, are you okay? You feeling sick today? How's school? Suddenly we become concerned more. And there is this danger of putting other things ahead of the proper things, the priorities in life. And these situations help us as a people, as individuals, to refocus our thoughts. But then here's lesson six. I told you there was eight lessons, so you can work out how long we have left. Lesson six. Christians are called, yes, to take precautions. but to keep on serving the Lord. Now, if you go back to Matthew 24, I think it's very interesting, and I read deliberately in the reading to the middle part of the chapter, because in verse 14 it says this, having given all these signs that will grow in intensity until the return of Jesus Christ, it says in verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for witness unto all nations and then shall the end come." Who's doing the preaching to all the nations? Who's to take the gospel to all the nations? Go ye into all the world and preach the gospels. Isn't that what Jesus said to his disciples? So as Christians, yes, we are to take the proper precautions at times like this. but we're also not to forget we have a duty to tell others about Jesus Christ. We're not to lock ourselves in a little oxygen tent and say, well, as long as I'm okay, let everybody else perish around me. No, we have a duty as Christians to keep on serving the Lord, keep on telling others about Jesus Christ, keep on serving. And in the midst, by the way, the description here of the terrible end times, when things are going to get worse and worse and worse than it is now, when one in four of the world dies, it says the gospel is still going out. There's people still telling others about the Savior. And you'll discover in the book of Revelation, there's all these witnesses going out into the world telling others about Jesus Christ. So as a Christian, yes, we're called to take precautions at this point, but we are also called to keep on serving the Lord, where God puts us. Keep on telling others about Jesus Christ. Take the opportunity. I thought it was fascinating, I'm sure some of you have seen the videos and saw the pictures, in Wuhan, in China, where all this started, that many of the Christians there have gone out onto the streets to give out tracts, to help their neighbours, to give food to their neighbours, give masks to their neighbours, and even taking risks for their neighbours. Even in Singapore, we have people going around seeking to help those families that have been afflicted by this situation, or even those who are just afraid, old folk, vulnerable people. And Christian groups have gone out to minister to them. And that's right, and that's proper. For who knows that God could be speaking to them at this time through this, about their own soul, about their need of a savior. So don't lock yourself away. Don't hide your candle under a bushel at this time. Maybe you're going to a home tonight in which there are many people in that home who are not Christians. And maybe you say, well, I've tried to tell them about Jesus Christ before and they just reject me. They laugh at me. They sneer at me. Well, who knows, this might be a different reaction this time. God could have used this situation to speak to them. And in the end times, the Christians are there to be witnesses. Don't be a witness to hand sanitizer or the best masks. Be a witness to the one who can wash away all sins, who can give eternal life during this season of crisis. Mr. Spurgeon, I mentioned him earlier, in the middle of the great plague in London, he had a house in the countryside and many rich friends who said to him, leave London and come out to the country areas where there's no cholera. And you're too important, you're too strategic a person in Christianity to be mixing in the people in London with all this cholera plague. Spurgeon said, no. God's called me to be there, to be a witness to him amongst those people. And he stayed there. And every day he would visit the sick in his church who were dying. And he said in his writings on the subject, every day he had to do a funeral of a member of his church who had died of the cholera plague. And he said it got to a point he was so exhausted, so tired mentally and physically, that he even started to think that he might have got the plague. And he was on his horse and carriage going home to his family and he was passing a shoe shop and he looked out and he saw a verse from Psalm 91. on the shoe shop which said, because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh or near thy dwelling. And Spurgeon said, I believe that was God speaking to me that day. And he says, I took faith and I appropriated that promise. And I said, Lord, well, deliver me and my family and I'm trusting in you. and I'll keep serving you in this place. And the Lord protected him and used him for a number of years after that terrible plague that struck London. But the seventh lesson is this. Every Christian will die of some disease at some point. Have you ever thought about that? If coronavirus doesn't get you, something else will. Now, I know these doctors write on some of these death certificates, died of natural causes. There's no natural cause of death. That just means they don't know. They're not sure exactly what it was that killed you, but it wasn't something pleasant or helpful. We're all going to have to cross this barrier of death at some point. unless Jesus Christ returns and we're caught up in the air to meet him. So if it's not coronavirus, it'll be some other virus or some other disease. The Bible says this, it is appointed unto man once to die. Every one of us in this room has an appointment put down in God's calendar. And it's an appointment we have to keep. It's an appointment that God puts. We don't put it in. You notice it says it is appointed using the passive. It's not something that we decide. We don't message God and say, you know, I feel that when I hit about 70, that'll be long enough for me. I have no desire to be here at 80 years of age. 70 will do me. And other people say, well, my life's hard. I'd like to go to heaven faster. Could I go at 55? No, it doesn't work that way. It says it is appointed. God chooses. for every man, unto man, wants to die. But then, of course, there's another appointment after death. But after this, the judgment, all must stand before God. So the seventh lesson I want you to grasp is this. Get it into your head and into your heart that even if this coronavirus doesn't take you out of this world, something will. Something will. And it will be something that God chooses, God sends into your life. But then the final lesson is this, lesson eight. Death for the Christian is not the end of the story. Death for the Christian is simply the door into a glorious future. Because the Bible makes it clear repeatedly that the moment we leave this world, we are absent from the body and present with the Lord. Now I know there are people who are fearful. Who isn't afraid of something? Everybody's afraid of something. We're afraid maybe even for others, for our children. Even if we're not so much afraid for ourselves. And we say, well, I'm old. I'm past it anyway. For my sake, I'm happy. But my children, my grandchildren, I'm afraid for them. Let me ask you this question. What's the worst thing can happen to you this week? What's the worst? You contract a virus, you die, and you go to heaven. That's the worst. That's the very worst that can happen. You leave this world with all of its trouble and its sufferings and its sorrow and its temptation, and you go out into eternity, free from all of those things forevermore. So for the child of God, as you and I face the future, and we hear all these people talking and all these rumors, maybe we even meet people who have been struck down with this virus or some other disease, and there's a tendency to start to panic. Start to get afraid. I say this to you. There's no need to be afraid. Because the very worst will be that you just go to heaven earlier than you thought. That's the very worst that can happen. You say, well, I might have to suffer. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Well, the psalmist always said, for thou art with me. He'll be with you. right through all the difficulties of life. He said he will never leave us. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I will be with thee always, even unto the end of the world or the age. So there's no need to be afraid. In fact, for the child of God, if he dies what we would call prematurely, before his time or her time, That's not a loss, that's a gain. That's not something that we've been cheated out, that's actually a blessing, that's a gift, that's a privilege. And you and I must face the unknown future to us, but the known future to God on these eight principles. Learn these eight lessons. about this coronavirus. Don't panic. Don't be over-anxious. Yes, by all means take the precautions that are necessary and are required, but don't lose control of yourself. In fact, I think this is a great moment for you as a Christian to be a witness to those around you. that you have faith and trust in something far greater than them. And you can be an encouragement to others. I remember the story of how John Wesley was converted. John Wesley grew up in a family, a religious family, but he wasn't a Christian. He went to Oxford University and he became a very religious man, but he wasn't a Christian. He went about the prisons, visiting the prisoners. He fasted twice a week. He gave all of his surplus money and clothes away to the poor. And yet he could find no peace. Why? Because he wasn't trusting in God, he was trusting in John Wesley's good works to get him to heaven. And John Wesley heard in the newspaper of a group of people in America, because America at that time wasn't a country, it was a colony. And there were all these Indians, American Native Indians. who didn't believe in Christianity. And he heard about them and how savage they were and how primitive they were. And there was a call went out for those to go and preach the gospel or Christianize the Indians in America. And John Wesley said, well, if I just do that, I'll be at peace. God will be really happy with me. He got on a boat. Of course, there was no airplanes in those days, 18th century. Got on the ship. and went across the Atlantic Ocean. On that ship, there was a group of sailors, non-Christians, ungodly men. But there was also another group of people called the Moravians, who were Christians, born-again Christians from Europe. And there was John Wesley, there was the Moravians, and there was the sailors. And in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles from any land, a terrible storm hit the boat. Now, the storms in the Atlantic Ocean, if you hit them, they're terrible storms. Some of the waves can be 100 feet high. You imagine being on a boat with no engine, just sailing by wind. bouncing up and down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on 100 feet waves. And everybody was terrified on the ship of the sailors. They thought, they told everybody, the boat is going to be sunk any moment. We're all going to die in the icy cold waters of the Atlantic in the middle of this storm. And the sailors were terrified. And John Wesley. was terrified because he wasn't a Christian. He was religious, but he wasn't a Christian. And he went down into the depths of the boat in fear and trembling. And he discovered in the corner of the boat the little group of men, women, and children of the Moravians. And he looked at them, and not one of them was terrified. or afraid, and he couldn't understand it. He said, why are you not afraid? Everybody, the sailors, these are experienced professional sailors who've sailed the Atlantic many times. They are terrified, and I am a proper educated clergyman from Oxford University, and I'm terrified. Why are you not terrified? And the Moravian Christians told him. We're not afraid because whether we live or whether we die, we go straight to heaven. Because our faith is in Jesus Christ and him alone. The ship survived the terrible storm by the grace of God. And John Wesley never forgot that lesson from those simple Christians And it kept irritating him for the next few months and convicting him that here he was with all his religion and his good works and his education, and these simple Christians who simply believed in the God of the Bible and trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation alone, they had peace in the midst of the storm. And through their witness, John Wesley came back to England, went to a little place in London, and while reading the Book of Romans and the commentary, he was gloriously converted and became a Christian. And he realized the only way to not be afraid in the storm is to believe in the same God who controls the storms. And I say this to you, don't be afraid. Don't panic. Yes, take your precautions. We as a church have taken precautions which we believe are prudent and balanced based on the reports that have been sent to us. But we're not afraid. We're not panicking. What's the worst can happen to Cornerstone Church? It closes down and we all die and go to heaven. Well, that's not a disaster, is it? That's a blessing. We're very happy to say, let Suntec City have the place back. We all go to heaven. So be it. Where's the downside in that? Let them have our homes. We're going to our home in glory. Where's the loss? So don't be afraid in the storm. The anchor holds in the storm. And we have that anchor rooted to the rock. that can never be shaken. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word, for the lessons that we must learn in this storm that has hit not just Singapore, but the wider region. We don't know how long it will last. We don't know how deep and intense it may yet be for us as individuals, for our nation, or even for other nations. But we do know this, that God is with us in the midst of the storm, that God controls the storm, and God is working all things together for good for all of his people. We may not understand exactly why, where, or how he will work this together for good, but we do acknowledge that he is doing it in all of our lives. Bless us now as we come to sing our last song together and as we part one from each other. May the peace of God and the love of God strengthen and establish all of our hearts in Christ Jesus. We ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Our closing hymn is a hymn that I want to show a little video to explain it. It's a hymn by Martin Ringkart, a Lutheran pastor in Germany, during the time of a great plague that hit the country and the city that he was in. I'm going to watch the little video. It lasts, I think, seven minutes. And then we will sing the closing hymn, Now Thank We All Our God. So let's just watch it, and then Elder Boone will come forward and lead us in this closing hymn.