Gospel as recorded by John, the 14th chapter,
one of the best-known chapters in the
book, and one of the best-known verses
in the chapter.
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.
If you are here, you remember, and if
not, let me remind you that in the
past two weeks we have dealt with texts
that had just three words in them.
The first one was the word of the
Lord Jesus when he died on the cross
and he said, it is finished.
We call them the three most important words
that were ever uttered in history.
It is finished.
Last week we dealt with three words that
superseded those three words.
They were the words again of an angel,
he is risen.
They completed what he had begun on the
cross.
Today we have four words, though we could
reduce them to three if we took the
book of Revelation, and in the four simple
words, we have this exciting statement of Jesus,
I will come again.
Whatever level you look to on the, in
the world outside, economically, economically, morally, even spiritually,
socially, internationally, whatever level you look on, the
outlook is dark, but the outlook is glorious.
One of the old men in the Old
Testament said, I shall see him, prophetically speaking,
I shall see him, but not now.
It is a prophetic word concerning the Lord
Jesus, I shall see him, but not now.
I shall know him, but not now.
I shall see him, I think the word
is, I know not when, a star will
arise out of Jacob that shall rule my
people Israel.
So again, I say the outlook is exceedingly
dark, the outlook is exceedingly glorious, because we're
the only one that have a star in
the sky.
And you remember that when the sky was
dark, those wise men followed that star and
they found the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is nothing more glorious, surely to the
believer, the anticipation of the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet I confess to you that as
I meditated over this, I kind of saw
a cloud over this pulpit, over every pulpit
in the land.
Not a white cloud, not a small cloud,
not a thin cloud, a heavy cloud, a
black cloud.
A cloud, I think with judgment, a cloud
that I think I could say for my
own comfort easily, though it's not comfortable, I'm
comfortable to say it's a cloud of condemnation.
Just one thing that makes this joyful anticipation
of Jesus Christ, it kind of smears it
for a little for me.
It takes a little of the dullness off
the excitement of it, because in speaking of
the return of Jesus, Luke says amongst many
other things that he's describing, that one thing
must happen before the Lord Jesus comes, and
this is it.
You see, I'm going to tell you in
a very limited way about the second coming
of the Lord Jesus.
The shadow is this, there are millions in
the world haven't heard about the first coming
of Jesus.
And this is our shame.
If we were really excited about his coming,
we'd just bend every energy that we have,
that nobody will be sitting in darkness as
far as possible before this great event, the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you notice last week they had, was
it last week, they had a Veterans Day,
which normally would be this week.
And the government has decreed now that this
anniversary is going to be held again on
the 11th day of this 11th month.
After World War I, there was an armistice
signed.
It wasn't a true settlement, it was an
armistice, which means there's a cessation of hostilities.
It was signed at 11 o'clock in
the morning, on the 11th day of the
11th month, 11 months after Allenby entered Jerusalem,
11 months from the signing of the armistice
with Turkey.
Now there you have a sequence of five
11s in 1918 or dawning into 19.
Five 11s in succession.
Would it be unreasonable to say that God
was telling us that humanity is entering into
the 12th hour of human history?
It's dark today.
When man turned his back on the Garden
of Eden, he began the human race downhill
and it's become increasingly dark, dark and increasingly
vicious from that day to this.
You've seen pictures maybe of, faked I suppose,
on TV of a man trying to get
out of a quagmire or sinking sand.
And the more he struggles, all he does
is go down quicker and finally you see
him just sucked down in the vortex of
that horrible thing.
And so to use a children's story again,
man is trying to still, trying still to
put Humpty Dumpty together again and he just
can't do it.
Man is made for God.
To quote H.G. Wells again, that little
arrogant man who strutted before World War II
and said that his bunch of intellectuals who
happened to be very superior men, including George
Bernard Shaw, they'd formed the Fabian Socialist Society.
Why, it was a peaceful world.
There hadn't been much trouble in the world,
certainly no world war.
One of the signs of the end of
the age was not only war but nation
lifting up sword against nation.
That didn't happen till World War I anyhow.
But he was strutting around two years before
World War I, telling us that by intellectual
and biological processes that men could make a
new world order.
He didn't talk about sin and redemption, he
talked about the adequacy of materialism, the sufficiency
of man, the inevitability of progress.
Aren't those high sounding words?
But remember he did live to see the
horror of World War II, which is a
love feast compared to what the next blast
will be.
But before we got through World War II,
he had already written another book which was
Mind at the End of its Tether.
And he did not say there's hope for
mankind, he said man is incurably evil, there
is no cure for him.
He did say one thing that was intelligent
about all as far as I'm concerned.
He said there is a God-shaped blank
in every man.
There is a cavity in there which God
alone is able to fill.
Education cannot fill it, science cannot fill it,
wealth cannot fill it, success cannot fill it,
achievement cannot fill it.
There is a blank in there.
We used to sing a hymn many years
ago, written by Dean Alford, if I remember
right, from Greenland's icy mountains.
He talks, he visualizes the heathen and he
says, the heathen in his blindness bows down
to wood and stone.
There are people foolish enough to say, you
know, leave the heathen alone, they're all right,
they're content.
Well you can be sure that nobody has
ever seen heathendom in its raw nature, that
ever does a foolish statement like that.
They panic, they're afraid, death is terrible.
They still tear their hair, they still beat
themselves up, they still pay exorbitant things to
their witch doctors, they still offer even human
blood.
And yet again I say that that world
outside, this great lost world, is a kind
of a millstone around our neck.
So today we have not three words, we
have four words.
Jesus says, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there
you may be also.
So first of all we have the promise
given by the Lord Jesus Christ, I will
come again.
Well there are different ways of saying that.
You can say, I will come again, or
you can change the emphasis, say I will
come again, or you can change it and
say this, I will come again.
There's no question in my mind, but what
this was the hope of the church, the
early church, and to some degree it is
the hope of the church of Jesus Christ.
In fact it is the hope of the
church of Jesus Christ today, whether we recognize
it or not.
So first of all I have the promise
of his coming, Jesus says, I will come
again.
This promise is personalized, because it says in
Acts chapter 1 verse 11, when the disciples
saw Jesus going up and they did not
want him to go, and one of the
angels said, the men standing there said, wait
a minute, don't be worried about this, this
same Jesus will also come in like manner
as you have seen him go.
So we have the promise, we have it
personalized, it is this same Jesus.
We have the proclamation given by the apostle
Paul, 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.
I've got a daddy and mommy in the
cemetery.
I had an old friend in England and
people used to say, oh I hope I'm
alive when Jesus comes.
He said, I hope I'm dead.
What do you want to be dead for?
Because the dead in Christ shall rise first,
the word of God says.
They're going to get a start on us.
I'm going to be caught up to meet
them with the Lord in the air, and
so shall we be forever with the Lord.
So we have a promise of his coming
from Jesus.
We have this personalized and emphasized by the
disciples, this same Jesus shall also come in
like manner.
We have the proclamation given by the apostle
himself, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout.
The promise personalized, proclaimed, and prophesied over and
over and over again in what we call
the four gospels.
Emphasized, repeated, lest we become slack and careless
about this.
Now it's good for us to remember, we
do believe, I'm sure you do, I don't
have to labor this point, that the same
Jesus that went stepping up the clouds is
going to come down on the clouds.
You see, you say there's nothing wonderful or
very new about that.
No, but I've heard preachers say this, the
second coming of Jesus Christ is when he
comes into your heart and you're born again,
that's the second coming.
There's no kingdom, it's just when you're born
again, that's when he comes.
All others have said the second coming is
at the resurrection, when the Lord Jesus comes
to call us out of the grave.
In other words, they depersonalize the visible appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now this subject is vast, we could spend
every Sunday of the year on it.
I remember being with some preachers a while
ago and one of them said, you know,
I wish Jesus would come today.
The other one said, I don't.
Well I do, and another fellow said, I
know why, you'll just run your church into
a hundred and fifty thousand dollar debt and
you wish he'd come today to get you
off the hook, that's all.
Now what is the motive for his coming?
You see, it does not matter which part
of this, this part of eschatology, you know,
pardon me, of theology is called eschatology.
All right, it's concerning the things that are
still going to happen.
The two words concerning the Lord Jesus, it
is finished, it was in the past.
He is risen, it is in the past.
I will come again is in the future.
There were not many people saw Jesus die,
it was too, blah, blah, blah.
It was too horrid to watch people die,
too morbid for most people.
There's nothing to go outside to go, they
were always crucifying men.
Why go again anyhow?
Not many people saw Jesus die, not many
people.
In fact, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was
private, personal property to the disciples.
He never bothered to manifest himself to the
world.
It was a secret rising only for the
church.
But the death is in the past, the
resurrection is in the past, but the coming
is in the future.
Every man from Adam right down to the
last day born before Jesus, he's going to
turn his eyes in that direction because the
Word of God says, every eye shall see
him and all the nations of the earth
are going to bow down to him.
See him as the King of kings and
as the Lord of lords.
Now again, immediately you talk about the coming
of Jesus, you get schools of theology, and
if you stress one, other people turn up
their nose, and if you don't have theirs,
they turn up their nose.
So where are you?
You've got people who today are excited about
a pre-tribulation rapture.
You know, we're not going to suffer.
Oh, the Lord won't let one hair of
our heads be hurt.
Well, it says that in the 18th verse
of the 21st chapter of Luke, that they
shall not a hair of your head perish.
The only thing just before that, he says,
some of you will be killed.
Now what do you do about it?
You think God's concerned about your hair?
Do if he is, I'd better get a
better one.
I'll get some more hair.
I'm growing up through it.
It's getting thin or something.
You see what he's saying is this, your
hair or anything else does not matter.
You've got something which is eternal.
Now you get people saying, you know, things
are getting worse and worse.
Well, I don't think you need to be
too smart to say that.
Twice in the last week, I've heard one
of the national broadcasters say, well, that's the
end of the bad news.
You know, when Satan starts casting out Satan,
you're in trouble.
When some of the devil's children start ringing
the alarm bells, we'd better watch out.
Well, I hope Jesus comes before the great
tribulation.
Yeah, I guess you do.
I don't know whether we sell it.
There's a book by George Ladd called The
Blessed Hope.
He destroys that pre-tribulation theory pretty, pretty
quickly.
He gives it no foundation at all, I
guess.
He's very strong on the fact that the
church will go through the tribulation.
And I suggest to you that if you
were living in Russia today, in a concentration
camp or China, and you hadn't seen your
darling wife for 10 years, and the last
thing you hear is she's walking around with
two new sons you don't know a thing
about.
She'd become the servant of the state.
And your daughter at 16 had been pulled
out of your hands, and your boy at
18 had been taken away.
And you've lived in misery, and you're living
in filth, and you're sleeping your own urine
every night.
And the men that come out as fierce
as tigers, and they brutalize you every time
they come in.
I think God would excuse you if you
thought you were in personally in the great
tribulation.
You know, if I were to wear green
glasses and go out there, everything would be
green.
And you know, in America and England and
a few countries, we live in such creature
comforts, we think God's going to have to
shift the Rocky Mountains and blast everything under
our feet before tribulation comes.
There are some who are still in great
tribulation.
I've reminded you before about my friend.
A very famous missionary, a book is written
about him, and I asked him where he
had been, and he said, I'd been with
a friend of mine.
Did you have a good time?
No, no I didn't.
He said he upset my theology, upset my
thinking, because he had just come through Taiwan.
He had been a missionary in China, when
China fell in the 1920s, somewhere there, or
later, when the Communists took over.
He said he went down into this particular
place, where these people were working, and he
spoke to this China man who turned his
head away, and he spoke in his own
language.
He spoke a second time, and thirdly, he
said, listen, you don't recognize me.
I've got fatter, and I'm bald, and I'm
older, but I'm your pastor.
I'm so-and-so.
The man, he said, had tears in his
eyes, and he turned on him and said,
you're a false prophet.
He said, call me anything but that.
What do you mean I'm a false prophet?
Well, didn't you have a great big map
at the back of your preaching?
Didn't you have a great big sign, Russia
in red?
Didn't you have great big arrows with murder,
and rape, and pillage, and plunder, and all
those other things on them, sweeping down into
China?
Yes.
And didn't you tell us that we'd live
to see Communists come down our streets, and
rape our women, and burn our churches, and
tear our Bibles up?
Yes.
And didn't you tell us that just as
it was happening, we would be raptured, and
not one thing would happen to us?
My wife was dragged out of my arms,
screaming.
My son was put in a truck with
man's big boot behind him to get him
in.
My terrified daughter was taken away.
We saw our churches go up in smoke,
and our Bibles just torn to shreds.
And you told me that would happen, but
you said you'll be raptured.
No rapture happened.
I've lived in misery since.
Somebody came through this area a few years
ago, and said they'd seen my wife with
two little boys, and asked, well they're my
children, who do you think you are?
They were born for the state.
He said, you might, if you'd cut a
knife, put a knife in, and rip my
heart out, I'd rather have heard that than
hear that my wife had become subject to
the filth of those brutes.
When I mentioned that in Canada, a man
who had gone through the Russian Revolution said,
the hardest thing for me to put up
with was not the Communists, it was the
preachers.
They said, Russia is going to run with
blood.
Don't worry, that's not for you.
You believers are going to be caught up
to meet the Lord in the air.
There's going to be no punishment, no suffering,
no hardship.
They'd lost sight of the martyrs.
People burned at the stake, and brutalized for
his sake.
He didn't rapture them.
You see, there are many things that have
to happen.
Let's just say, it would take a month
of Sundays to describe the things the Word
of God says must happen before the Lord
Jesus Christ comes.
But to me, one of the most serious
challenges of all is this, that the Gospel
must first be preached to all nations, then
the end cometh.
It's a very serious charge that's laid against
us.
Well then, the theory that Jesus comes when
we're born again doesn't hold water, because he's
going to come in the clouds.
Or that we come from our graves.
No, no, no, that is not.
This same Jesus shall also come in like
manner as ye have seen him go.
And Luke says, of the lightning, night and
the thunder, one part of the heaven unto
the other part of the heaven.
So shall the Son of Man be in
his coming.
Now, what do we usually stress about the
coming of the Lord Jesus?
We always stress it, it seems to me,
on the ground level.
One of the particular scriptures is this, as
it was in the days of Noah.
And I don't think there's any doubt about
it, that those sons of, of those evil
men that came down and produced children by
women were, were demon-possessed people.
They had spirit power.
There's no question in the days of Lot
that the earth was given up to corruption
and, and now we change the word.
It's a smooth, easy word, homosexuality.
In the Bible it's called sodomy.
It's a damnable thing in the sight of
God.
We, we, today we're almost legalizing it.
A woman was accepted into the ministry.
Well, I wouldn't skip too much against that.
I don't think that's the job.
I don't think there's any scripture for it.
There might be some women who prophesy now
and again, but recently the Episcopal Church admitted
two women into the priesthood, and one of
them is a pronounced lesbian, and she defends
the gay rights.
There's a church up in, the Metropolitan Church
in Dallas, where when you go in, there's
somebody, David Wilkerson has a, has a, an
expose of this.
He sent one of his men to see
what was happening, and as they went in,
they were given a, they were given a
brochure, and it had naked centerfolds of men,
and it had all the gay clubs of
Dallas area outlined.
And do you know what it said at
the end of that thing?
He recorded it.
It actually happened.
This man says, yes, God says he had
condemned men who burn in lust one toward
another, but that won't be us, because we
were born this way.
And he actually says, get filled with the
Holy Ghost and enjoy your homosexuality.
Did you ever think you'd live to a
day when such vileness would be proclaimed from
the pulpit?
My Lord, I'd expect that in, in, in
Las Vegas.
I'd expect it in Hollywood, but to, to
hear it pronounced from the pulpit?
Oh yes, there's no question about it.
We, we've hit an all-time low in
morality.
We've hit an all-time low in politics.
Right now, we're worried there might be something
that will follow Watergate, which will be worse
than Watergate, and they're trying to hide it.
This week, a man got exemption because he
wouldn't spill the beans, and maybe rightly so,
because there's so much to uncover that we
want to keep secret.
It gets more and more plain to me
this, you either live in the kingdom of
this world, or you live in that kingdom,
and you can't bridge the two very well.
You can't stand with a foot in either
of them.
The kingdoms of this world, and the kingdom
of Satan, they're diametrically opposed to each other.
Right now, the great problem is the problem
of what we're going to do with that
marvellous little country called Israel.
It's so big, you could drop it in
one of the Great Lakes, and yet it's
a thorn in the flesh.
There are not as many Jews in Israel
as there are in America.
There are less Jews in America than there
are in Russia.
Russia just about beats us in that area.
But here is a little country, a thorn
in the flesh.
Menachem Begin, the new Prime Minister, is constantly
reciting the Scripture.
He holds on to the Scripture.
He thumps the people with the Scripture.
And it was interesting last week to hear
Mr Carter say on at least two occasions,
he said, look, I'll commit, not spiritual or
moral or physical, but I'll commit political suicide
before I let Israel down.
Well, I think that's a very brave statement,
and if he does it, I feel he'll
be honoured, though I'm afraid it might trigger
off another war too.
But you see, we have this nation, this
thorn in the side of all nations.
The Jews wanted a place of their own.
They got it through the Balfour Declaration, and
I'm glad that they got it.
But they're a sign, a sign to the
nations.
This is what the Word of God says.
You may try to destroy the Jew, you
can't do it.
There was a time when the Incas numbered
about five million.
One of the greatest tribes of Indians that
I know of, the Incas, where are they
today?
They've gone.
The Jews, they have been less than five
million on more than one occasion, but you
can't erase them.
You can't find the Incas.
The Incas thought the Jews have never been
a warlike nation.
Until recently, they've had no coinage of their
own.
Since Old Testament days, now they have a
currency, now they have stamps, now they have
an air force, now they have a navy,
now they're building up.
And one of the signs the Word of
God says that when you see Jerusalem compassed
with armies, it says in this 20th verse
of the 21st chapter, when you see Jerusalem
compassed with armies, then know that the desolation
thereof is nigh.
But these, let me read these things that
the Word of God tells us about the
near coming of Jesus.
The disciples asked, when shall these things be?
What shall be the sign wherever thou speakest
that shall come to pass?
And he said, take heed that ye be
not deceived.
For many shall come in my name, saying,
I am Christ.
As the time draweth near, go ye not
therefore after them.
But when ye shall hear of wars and
commotions, be not terrified.
For these things must first come to pass,
that the end is not by and by.
Then said he unto them, nations shall rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great
earthquakes shall be in divers, or many places,
and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights, and
great signs shall be from heaven.
But before all these, they shall lay hands
on you and persecute you, delivering you to
the synagogues, into prisons, being brought before kings
and rulers, for my name's sake.
He goes on to say, you shall be
put to death.
He goes on to say, when Jerusalem is
surrounded with armies, he goes on to say
in the 25th verse of this 21st chapter
of Luke, there shall be signs in the
sun, in the moon, in the stars, and
upon the earth, distress of nations with persecutions
and perplexities.
And the sea and the waves roaring, men's
hearts failing them for fear, and for the
looking after those things which are coming on
the earth, for the powers of heaven shall
be shaken.
Then shall they see the Son of Man
coming in clouds with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to
pass, begin to come to pass, then lift
up, then look up, and lift up your
heads, for behold your redemption doth nigh.
Paul gives it to Peter in this language
again, this know also in the last days,
perilous time shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures,
more than lovers of God, having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
And from such he says, turn away.
Then he goes on to say, thou hast
fully known my doctrine, my manner of life,
purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions and
afflictions, which came to me at Antioch and
so forth, and yea, all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Okay, that's one other aspect.
So as we see this distress of nations
with perplexities, again that country of South Africa
that has stood so long is in danger
now, in my judgment, of falling like a
a lot of dominoes.
You flick the first one, the man does
this on TV and 2,100 dominoes just
go around like that and they fall, fall,
fall.
And I think this domino theory is going
to work there too.
Suddenly the United Nations got a bit of
conscience and decided to jump on South Africa.
I noticed they didn't jump on Idi Amin.
I read this week a review of the
book of one of his statesmen that said,
I saw 150,000 bodies floating on the
lake.
I saw doctors pulled out of surgery and
brutalized and murdered on the streets.
I saw judges pulled out in their robes
and they were put to death before people.
One of the wives of Amin was dismembered
and then her body, the members of her
body were sewn back in reverse order and
the body was exhibited to warn others of
what might happen to them.
But I haven't seen any condemnation of him
hardly.
At least nobody's ganged up.
Of course we've ganged up on Rhodesia.
Saying that to pass over the political aspect
that these are the uneasy things, these are
monsters we're dealing with and nobody knows the
answer.
And more than once Mr. Carter has teetered
on the edge of saying, look I'm in
a state of confusion, I don't know which
way to go.
How can he know which way to go?
These things are all outlined.
We need to remember them and keep them
clear before our own eyes.
Let me go now to the scripture that
really, two scriptures that really matter about this.
One is in Paul's first letter to the
Thessalonians and in chapter 4 and verse 15
he says this, 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
and 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 be forever with the
Lord.
Now what is Jesus coming?
Who is he coming for?
Again you've got six different theories about this.
He's coming for his church.
Whether he comes before the tribulation, mid-tribulation,
post-tribulation, right now I'm not concerned.
Who is he coming for?
He's coming for believers.
He's coming for a bride.
Well then the argument is who makes up
the bride?
You see there's one thing I'm very sure
of, I think you are too.
In the parable that's given of the ten
virgins, and remember they were all virgins, what
happened?
Well they were all asleep.
Number two, they all had lamps.
Number three, all their lamps were lit but
some of them said our authorized version says
our lamps are going out.
Well why do you light a lamp?
Well they light a lamp in the darkness.
Some of them had lamps, some had not.
Now they were all virgins but they did
not all go into the marriage.
It doesn't say they were the bride even.
It's assumed on the basis of an oriental
wedding the bridegroom had already gone in.
That's what he'd done, he'd gone in.
And the door was shut, he was in
with his bride.
Five of the virgins had gone in, the
other five were not there.
Now I remember going to Martha's home in
Ireland, they used to have servants and whatnot,
and I remember a maid would gather all
the lamps in the morning, refill them, they
were burning low.
And I watched her cut those wicks, change
the wicks or trim the wicks as they
said.
Now the oil in that vessel surely is
a type of the Holy Spirit.
The wick surely must be a type of
faith which draws on the Holy Spirit.
But faith can get clouded, faith can get
lazy, faith can get unexpected.
Who is the bride?
The only recorded prayer at the end of
the Old Testament, of the New Testament is
the spirit and the bride.
The last prayer of the Holy Ghost, the
prayer of the Holy Ghost is come.
Actually the Greek is come thou.
The last statement of Jesus is not about
the world being on fire.
It's not about wars and rumors of wars.
It's not about great earthquakes.
There was an earthquake in China months ago
but we're told destroyed three quarters of a
million people.
We're told that we shot a thing up
in the sky there, one of those amazing
contraptions we have these days, satellites that can
take a photograph of anything on earth.
But I noticed they never produced a photograph
of that great earthquake.
Did you happen to see one of the
great outstanding men of government say two weeks
ago with a face as though he were
announcing the death of the nation?
He said we've got so much stuff floating
up in space that the Russians have put
something up which we call a killer satellite
which can neutralize every satellite we have there.
We put billions and billions and billions of
material up in the sky.
We can spy on Russia.
We know where their armies are marching.
We know where their silos are.
We know where they're going to shoot rockets
in there.
And suddenly this man says they've got a
thing that can go like that and liquidate
everything we ever put in the sky.
And yet the last words are not about
anguish and the travail the nations are going
into.
Sure they're going into travail.
Forty thousand Jews that thought they'd found the
promised land pulled out of Israel last year.
Twenty thousand new lots of folk went in
for sure.
But the Word of God says and I
think it's in the future as far as
I read it that Jacob's trouble, the time
of Jacob's trouble is still to come.
I say listen when you talk about this
theme of the second coming, I hear somebody
say one night well bless the Lord, drive
carefully before you get home tonight the Lord
may come.
Hallelujah.
Then he says listen to me tomorrow night
I'm going to tell you about the rebuilding
of Jerusalem.
What?
They're going to build it before you get
home?
They'd have to if the temple has to
be rebuilt before the Lord comes.
They'll have to build it before you get
out of your car.
That would be a bit of smart engineering.
All the theories we come up with.
Yes sir there are some dreadful things.
What about the Antichrist?
Well John says back in those days you
see the world is Antichrist.
Systems are Antichrist.
Well is there going to be a person
Antichrist?
One school of scholarship says yes the other
says no.
One school goes back and says remember what
John says in this day in which he
lived there were many Antichrists.
Well read a bit about uh Antiochus Epiphanes
and see what happened in it.
Read a chapter or two about Nero and
see what he did with the Christians will
If you had to see your precious wife
dipped in oil and put around the Colosseum
and set on fire at midnight to be
a torch would you say well of course
things will get worse than this.
It might happen to me.
You wouldn't say that.
If you saw your wife standing in an
arena with a babe at her breast and
and they said look your wife will be
eaten and that babe will be chewed up
in front of your eyes if you don't
say three simple words Caesar is Lord.
But if you say them we'll call your
darling wife back and you're going to live
a happy ever after.
What are you going to do?
Now you wouldn't be a brute and say
that Jesus that that that that Christ is
Lord would you and and let the lie
and a man had to stand there and
make you and I not demanding.
Demands are not made like that on us.
God help us.
What would you do if they were?
Well I don't think you could read every
bit about Foxe's book of martyrs to your
children but I'm glad I read it when
I was a teenager.
Changed my life.
We're the most lush easygoing comfortable Christians the
world has ever known.
Man there was a conflict in those days.
There's a conflict now in certain countries not
in our country so much thank God.
Though there's opposition.
Antichrist.
Let's mention three and pass.
The antichrist system.
Sometimes I look at a map of North
Africa I take a globe in my hands
there's that vast Sahara desert then there's a
northern part there about there what Antibes and
and those places they were they they came
up in the second world war.
Do you know once right across northern Africa
there was a string of churches on fire
for God.
Do you know how they went out?
They were slaughtered by the sword of Mohammed.
That's how they went out.
And under the desert sands of North Africa
there was there was once an apostolic thriving
church and it was massacred by Mohammedan power.
And men were given special privileges in heaven
because they liquidated the Christians.
The second great religious power was Rome.
It's very compatible to some people today but
she's drunk with the blood of the saints
and don't you make any mistake about it
in judgments coming you read the book of
the revelation.
In my book she's still the great whore
she's still the imitation of the true church.
Whatever God does Satan counterfeits.
The greatest miracle this side of eternity possibly
in you and me is that we're regenerated
that we become children of God by faith
in Jesus Christ with a heart that is
cleansed and the spirit indwelling us.
That's God's supreme miracle in us because of
Calvary.
But Satan has an imitation for regeneration it's
reincarnation.
And you have men on TV talking about
it how many times they've been in the
world and so reincarnation is a substitute for
regeneration.
God has given us divine healing.
Satan gave us Christian science.
We were in a shopping mall this week
and a man came past us picking up
cigarette ends and doing things and I said
hi and my friend said hi the Lord
loves us all.
He said yes he does.
I said do you know the Lord?
He said yes yes I'm a spiritist baptist.
I said you know what?
Oh we commune with the dead you know.
We baptize people but he said you know
that that that chapter up there that talks
about because he got it all wrong he
talked about Ahab instead of Agag and that
was about as clear as this theology was
but that poor man was as confused as
it was possible to be.
God has given us the Holy Spirit.
Satan has given us demon spirits.
God has given us Christ.
Satan has given us Antichrist.
God has given us the true church.
Satan gave us the church of Rome.
It has no foundation in the word of
God.
It's very acceptable to many people these days
for sure but it's still a it's still
a fake and the church went up and
you read about the Spanish Inquisition you see
where the church is in the minority the
church of Rome she's a lamb where she's
in equality she's a fox and where she
is in superiority she's a tiger.
When she asserts her power again the world
will surely shake under the power there's no
question about that and then after those two
horrible powers of Mohammedism and Romanism you have
the third and the worst perhaps in to
some degree and that is communism.
I forget to what degree it advances somebody
gave us some statistics recently that were terrifying.
Somehow Mr. Carter believes that Russia has had
a change of heart and he can make
a deal with her and yet if you're
going to read the word of prophecy you
know it's very very different.
Russia is going to come swarming down another
thing that's a tributary to the second coming
of Jesus apart from antichrists and apart from
wars and apart from earthquakes surely is this
this monstrous thing that's yet to happen the
most devastating war when it's going to take
seven months to bury the dead after the
holocaust all the nations of the earth are
terrified.
What is Russia after now?
She's after oil more than gold.
If Mr. Carter moves one way the second
greatest seller of oil to us will dry
up and that is Africa.
If he goes all the way with the
Jews the the the way that the uh
the Arabs will strangle us is to withhold
their oil and and they can rush us
into an economic and very disastrous situation.
All these pressures are there and yet despite
wars and rumors of wars despite the fact
that antichrist will come as a person you
say all right there are antichrist systems yes
there are.
I got a new brochure this week from
David Wilkerson he's been sending a series out
his new one is on the rush of
suicides amongst teenagers under 18 years of age
38 000 committed suicide last year in America
alone he's dealing with American statistics 38 000.
The rise of pornography evil men wax worse
and worse they delight in it they live
evil they think evil they plan evil they
send it sell evil and yet when he
comes to the end of the chapter again
it's not wars it's not rumors of wars
the lord is concerned about two things god
almighty the father of our lord Jesus Christ
is concerned about two things mainly one is
the bride for his son the lord Jesus
Christ and the other is the gift that
he's going to give his son is Jesus
coming just to snatch us out of trouble
can I put it in quotes is that
all he's bothered about is a supreme concern
of god that I don't the hair of
my head isn't touched or I don't lose
a limb or I don't end up for
10 years in a stinking prison not getting
a bath once in three years hardly getting
decent food suffering for his name's sake is
he just going to snatch me out of
that well it sure would be wonderful but
there's something more important than that to the
father number one it is that his son
has a bride the bride the second thing
is and I think we ought to read
it every week I suggest you do and
I will this coming week that we ought
to read that second psalm in some ways
it's the most prophetic psalm for the days
in which we live why do the heathen
rage and the people imagine a vain thing
the kings of the earth set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together against the lord
and against his anointed saying let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cords
he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh
god shall have them in derision then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath and
vex them in his sore displeasure yet have
I set my king upon his holy hill
now why do the heathen rage now that
does not mean heathen as we think of
them in foreign countries the other word that's
translated heathen there is gentiles why do they
imagine a vain thing the kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel
together against the lord and against his anointed
saying let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords he that sitteth in
the heavens shall laugh god shall have them
in derision then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his
sore displeasure yet have i set my king
upon his holy hill now why do the
heathen rage now that does not mean heathen
as we think of them in foreign countries
the other word that's translated heathen there is
gentiles why do they imagine a vain thing
why do the heathen rage the heathen they're
being against gentile nations not just heathen as
we think of them and why do they
range rage this is a great song disturbed
making a noise they're angry against the lord
against it read the whole psalm through william
let me step back a minute there to
the first epistle of paul to the thessalonians
chapter four where he says the lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout with
a voice of the archangel well there can't
be much speaking about that can there you
say but peter says he's coming as a
thief in the night sure because the thief
doesn't serve notice that he's coming the emphasis
should not be on the thief the emphasis
should be on the darkness that's why they
lit their candles that's why they lit their
lamps it was midnight when the cry came
behold the bridegroom cometh the lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout with a
voice of the archangel with a 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 revelation one seven revelation chapter one verse
seven gives an amplification of that clouds behold
he cometh with clouds and every eye shall
see him and they also which pierced him
and all kindred of the earth shall wail
because of him but what about the preparation
step now to the end will you have
wrote of revelation in the 22nd chapter there
he said in verse 17 the spirit and
the bride say come and let him that
heareth say come and let him that is
at first come and whosoever will let him
come and take of the water of life
freely and then verse 20 he which testifieth
these things saith surely i come quickly so
here is the last recorded prayer of the
church the spirit and the bride those who
are blood-washed those who are living in
the place of obedience and submission to him
the bride says come well let me ask
you a simple question you don't have to
answer it to me answer it up there
how many times have you said this week
come lord jesus hmm we like rutherford's hen
the bride eyes not her garments how many
times have you said lord jesus i want
you to come not just to get me
out of difficulty but oh i'm longing because
you see god has promised this earth to
his son the earth shall be filled with
the knowledge of the lord as waters cover
the sea the earth is the lord and
the fullness thereof he's coming to set up
his kingdom on earth and so the bride
says come the holy spirit's only recorded prayer
that i remember in the book is he
says come because you see he's been working
ever since jesus came into the world he's
been working with a desire to prepare a
bride and present that bride to the lord
jesus christ and not only does he say
come but the bride says come i think
so often of isaac and that sending eliezer
to find a wife goodness as i've said
often it's bad enough to find a wife
for yourself but finding a wife for somebody
else and eliezer goes and he goes to
this lovely girl and she says well i
don't know but he says listen let me
tell you about you know what this man
that wants you is the most gorgeous man
in the world and she describes all his
qualities and she says let me give you
some samples of of what he inherits and
he undoes one parcel i forget how many
camels he took camels loaded and she gapes
and gasps so and says well well what
are these and he says well my dear
these these are nothing but he just wanted
to have a foretaste and see what these
things are and i want to tell you
about it what he's going to inherit i
want to tell you about god's anointing on
him and i want to tell you all
these wonderful things about him and he says
well let's go we better tell your father
we're going and the father says now look
don't don't now don't go yet you don't
know who he is i mean this could
be a fake you know what these sheets
are and this this fell doesn't look that
smart to me his long black beard and
flashing eyes i mean he could have a
dagger in his back now let's let's go
she says and her mother says supposing you
stay here a few more days and then
just a few you know till we check
up and she says i can't wait i
want to go and she went remember you
isaac was walking in the field meditating and
worshiping and as soon as she saw him
she didn't say well uh give me 36
hours to think this over she didn't say
uh well you look pretty decent but do
you really have diamond mines and gold mines
and all these there was something in her
that responded and immediately she saw him in
another language of another scripture whom having not
seen we love and as soon as she
saw him said that's the man for me
now there's nobody on earth i can do
it no one else can can describe what
is going to be the moment you see
jesus face to face always sing it and
i shall see him face to face everything
we've dreamed about perfection and holiness and beauty
the spirit was given to him without measure
then he had unlimited love he had unlimited
power he had unlimited knowledge he had unlimited
beauty everything in creation was made for him
i read to you last week and let
me read the end of it i read
to you that statement of philips there in
ephesians chapter one and verse nine where he
says for god has allowed us to know
the secret of his plan it is this
he purposes in his sovereign will that all
human history missions shall be consummated in jesus
christ rockefeller never had a dream about that
the stock market never thinks that everything is
pointing it's going in one direction god says
even about evil men he puts evil men
on the throne for his own intentions he's
going to do something even out of that
evil now that boggles my mind i can't
think all the devilish things hitler did will
glorify god but they will one day all
human history shall be consummated in jesus christ
but listen to this nice little bit at
the end everything that exists in heaven or
earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in
him isn't that beautiful well if you lick
your lips at that listen to this and
here is the staggering thing that in all
which one day will belong to him he's
promised us a share in it well you
didn't disturb heaven with your hallelujahs but thank
you whatever is in this kingdom in the
future i've got a share in it wouldn't
you rather have just a square inch of
territory in heaven than a million acres in
hell the hymn writer says well one smile
from the sage that i know will through
the ages be glory for me somebody said
to one day to mr wesley when he
was grieving over the death of his friend
who he said was the holiest man since
the apostle paul well john fletcher of madeley
somebody said mr wesley don't grieve like that
there's going to be a resurrection the trumpet's
going to sound he's going to be caught
up in the air and you'll see him
you'll see him around the throne so mr
wesley said friend you're right he's so holy
if there's a 13th apostle he's it he'll
be so near the throne and i'll be
so far away i'll only see the reflected
glory of jesus in his face i'll be
so far my not so many of us
are humble like that most of us are
going to run up to jesus and shake
hands first away get away apostles and prophets
i've come from sage here jesus how are
you i just want you to know how
good i was i served you i tithed
and i prayed when i felt like it
and i did a few other things when
it was convenient i'm sure i'm going to
get a major reward a brother said to
me the other day ravenel i've been chewing
over that word but when we've done miracles
and signs and wonders and preached he's gonna
say to some i never knew you think
of it they've done it in his name
he said that knocks me cold it knocks
me dead but some ministries when we get
there i never knew you in spite of
all you did you use my name you
use my power well thank god i believe
there'll only be a very very small minority
he wants a bride and the bride of
course is to be pure so while it
says in the 16th verse of 1 thessalonians
4 the lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout would all be caught up
and so forth but wait a minute what
about what precedes that he says in verse
1 of that same chapter ye ought to
walk to please god he says in verse
3 this is the will of god even
your sanctification that is we've got a purified
heart and in the first epistle in chapter
3 the first epistle of john 3 he
says he that hath this hope in him
purified himself even as he is pure nothing
that defile us will be accepted the very
god of peace sanctify you all he says
in 1 thessalonians 5 23 the next chapter
if you're going to be part of the
bride rejoice evermore and pray without ceasing and
in everything give thanks you see the most
the cleansing and stabilizing preserving keeping power of
holiness is what we shall need if we're
going to be caught unawares although plenty of
signs i think all the signs are flashing
now the state of israel the model collapse
the exalting of filth depravity suicides drunkenness there's
not been a chapter written like this amongst
any civilized people since the days of the
romans and they hadn't as much as we
have they didn't flick it into your home
anyhow down a tube at night they didn't
have girly magazines and all the filth we
have they didn't have gay clubs and gay
bars and all the rottenness that we have
around but again don't think as far as
we're concerned the reason the lord jesus is
coming he's coming for a bride he's coming
for a chosen purified people and god is
going to see this world is going to
be cleaned up and people say i can't
wait till i get to heaven you're better
because we're going to rain on the earth
with him the word of god says he's
going to set up his kingdom in the
millennial age he's going to rule with the
lord of iron everything's going to be in
total subjection to him and there's going to
be a final kingdom when he shall reign
the good book says reign forever and ever
as the king of kings and of the
lord of lords i've told this story let
me tell it again if you don't need
i think i do about a couple in
the world war ii in england this story
isn't in a book in preachers buy books
of illustrations so they'll have the sermons out
but this is a book of illustration it's
concerning a young couple and the young man
thought he was secure he couldn't be drafted
and he went along in this happiness for
a long while and one day sure enough
he got his draft papers and he said
to his girlfriend i got some news she
said right well we're going to fix the
wedding no no he said no wedding what
do you mean no wedding i got my
draft papers and i've got to go the
day after tomorrow oh that's all with everything
i said i'll tell you what we'll do
dearly tomorrow we'll go to town and and
i'd like to help you select all your
all the wedding gear and so they went
to town she got everything she needed you
know beautiful ensemble all the out things she
needed took them home he kissed her goodbye
that night he went away and he wrote
faithfully every week for about two years then
the letter stopped she began reading the old
ones she began to get discouraged and then
one day when she got home her mother
handed a telegram from the war office saying
that this boyfriend george was missing belief killed
the girl said i don't believe that somehow
i i don't believe he was killed i
i'll i'll still hope but down the street
there was a young man who didn't have
to go to the war and he was
pretty well off financially and eventually he he
asked just to take her for a walk
and she said well you could walk to
church with me and he did this a
few times and one day he said you
know really mary uh i talked with your
mother and she said you did get a
notice from the war office that george isn't
coming back that he's dead she said i
i i believe it but you haven't heard
for two years well i i still think
he might come no no no look why
don't you get look i i can i
can supply you with everything i've got the
money i can buy the home you can
choose the furniture do as you like i
love you but she kept him at arm's
length and one night she came home from
work and told her mother i haven't felt
good today and i i should go to
church tonight wednesday but i won't go and
uh i i don't want to see anybody
i'll go upstairs and i'll just bathe and
rest and she went upstairs and being depressed
she got more depressed when she thought about
her boyfriend and then she she thought well
in his last letter he said i love
you and i'll be back to see you
and she said well all right i'll tell
you what i'll cheer myself up so she
she went and put on her wedding dress
and she got a picture in her arm
like this she was sitting in front of
a vanity with this picture looking at him
and reading his last love letter and then
reading another one and thinking about him and
reading the love letters and getting all hot
and stirred up and thinking oh if he
came he will come he will come i
know he'll come downstairs a man knocked at
the door and when the mother opened the
door there was a soldier and he went
he looked around he said Mary Mary where
is she is she ill no is she
married no she's upstairs see she isn't very
well and she said she didn't want to
be disturbed unless it was very important so
he said well is this important enough her
mother said i think it is and mother
went upstairs you know in those old english
houses they have keyholes i'd often said you
could nearly walk through them never look through
them and the mother bent down put her
eye like this and look what what in
the world's happening my daughter all dressed up
for the wedding she went downstairs and she
said to the boyfriend uh go upstairs and
the room is on the left i just
looked through the keyhole mary's dress don't worry
about that didn't say how she was dressed
she's dressed and you just opened the door
gently and they said you know when it
when it when you open that door the
the knob kind of groans a bit so
open it very quietly and just push it
open and just step inside would he do
that and he said yes and he did
it he opened the door and there she
is with his picture and a love letter
and she had the door open and she
looked through the mirror saw his reflection and
oh george it's you who said no oh
you come at this hour she turned around
and picked up that long bridal dress and
she made one step and then she was
airborne she was up in his arms and
he hugged her he hugged her and hugged
her and hugged you well he said you
sent me a letter and i've stuck a
match many times in the darkness and read
that letter i'd love you and i'll be
waiting for and i'll be ready when you
come but he said i didn't think you'd
be so ready you know the book says
we're looking for that blessed hope the glorious
appearing of our lord and savior jesus listen
there's one thing the world does not have
a shred of right now it's hope it
has no hope it has no confidence in
its own effects it has no confidence in
governments it has no confidence in money.
I read a big picture this week he
says raise now the crash isn't far off
everybody comes up with the same thing the
crash isn't far off we have a hope
we have a star in our sky we
have an assurance because he said i will
come again because the angels said he would
come again because the apostles said he would
come again and the spirit's one cry is
come lord jesus and if i'm part of
the bride i say come lord jesus and
the last thing that jesus said in this
marvelous marvelous book of the revelation with all
that's there it says in verse 20 he
which testifies these things says surely i come
no no surely i come quickly and the
apostle puts an amen he says amen even
so come i wonder what he'd think if
he came back today 1977 the world drags
on and the church is sleepy and she's
defiled her garment he that hath this hope
in him purifies himself he's going to keep
as far away from impurity as he can
he's going to live right tiptoe on expectation
he's going to be in a place of
submission he's going to be in a place
of obedience he's going to be a place
that when he comes he won't blush as
the apostle says when he comes we shall
not be ashamed at his appearing if he
come this week would he have caught you
somewhere where you'd have been embarrassed would he
have caught you saying something something you wish
my dear lord forgive me if i'd known
you were coming i wouldn't have said that
would he i'm through with this we used
to have signs in the houses when i
was a kid nearly every house you went
into where there's any spirituality said this go
to no place where you would not want
to be found when jesus comes do nothing
you would not like to be doing when
jesus comes say nothing you would not like
to be saying when jesus comes you know
i used to think somebody's carried that card
to every house we visited i thought they
mailed it ahead or something every house we
go in i say mother that's the same
thing yes because they're expecting the coming of
the lord they don't want to do anything
they wouldn't want to want to say anything
they want to what they say they want
to go anywhere they wouldn't like to be
found trim your lamp the word of god
says