I believe with all my heart, Jesus is
coming.
I believe the world is screaming that Jesus
is coming.
I believe the geopolitical maps of the world
are screaming that Jesus is coming.
I believe science, China, announced yesterday that they
became the seventh nation with the power to
clone human life by going and producing a
pig in a cloning situation.
They're playing with the very concept.
Just a few months ago, a DNA scientist
stood in London, England in a press conference
and he stood up with a chart and
he held in his hand a computer printout
and he said, here is the human genome.
Here's every DNA cell.
It's marked.
It's labeled.
We have taken apart the human structure.
We know what it takes to make a
man.
He said, and I quote, we are only
months away from becoming just like God.
I tell you folks, the world is changing.
But while all the explosion of knowledge and
technology is taking place, we always wondered how
Revelation 13 would be fulfilled.
How could men and women take a mark
in the right hand?
And how men and women could take a
mark in the forehead?
But since we were here last year with
the tenth, already the government, the key officials
of Mexico, the president, the cabinet, and the
key officials are now already implanted with a
chip in their right hand.
They're already opening doors.
They're already accessing secure areas.
They're already opening secure files.
But nothing more than an implant that is
inside the human body.
Even our own secretary of Homeland Defense has
now suggested with the increase of terrorism, maybe
Americans could and should consider having an implant,
a chip.
And he said, I am willing to have
the plant put inside of me so that
we can decide who's in our borders legally
and who's here illegally.
We wondered how Revelation 13 would ever happen.
But now, because of fear and terrorism, why
you've even got conservative people saying, we need
a chip, we need a bio-identification marker
in the human body.
I don't want someone because of fear to
kidnap my baby or my grandbaby.
And now the sexual predators are loose on
the children.
Isn't there some way we can mark our
children?
And we're seeing Revelation 13 getting ready to
be fulfilled right in front of our eyes.
With all of these things happening, the economy,
the world, crude oil went up two dollars
a barrel today.
And now we're seeing the power, the manipulative
power of the energy markets around the world.
And really, the governments of the world are
at the mercy of those that are controlling
energy around the world.
And we're seeing your world change.
This world is getting ready to change.
We've always said we've got deep pockets.
We can always buy anything we want.
You see, God's got another way to get
our attention.
If we won't come in tenderness and find
a place to kneel down and say, God,
be merciful unto me and to my family,
and may my blessing and my prosperity not
push me away from you, but, oh God,
make it a magnet of my soul and
draw me to you.
If we won't repent in His goodness, if
we won't repent in His prosperity, then all
it takes is a few weeks and a
few months and a few more jobs leaving
and a few more hours of the economy
changing.
And then, my friend, it might change the
story in America.
But I pray tonight, and I hope you
pray tonight, that with all the world changing
and the world economy changing and the Bible
prophecy being fulfilled, I haven't even talked about
Israel.
I haven't even talked about the new alliances.
But at 4.30 in the morning last
Thursday, a new alliance was announced as Iran
announced that they had made a mutual agreement
with Red China.
China had made an alliance with Syria, providing
them with silkworm missiles.
In a matter of hours, we had Russia
making an agreement with Iran, making an agreement
with Syria.
And as these chess pieces are moving on
the field, the book of Ezekiel, the book
of Revelation, you're beginning to see things happen.
You never dreamed, and I never dreamed we'd
see in our lifetime.
But you turn around.
You've got the revived Roman Empire rising up
out of Europe.
One nation uniting together, calling for world peace,
trying to get rid of little Israel, writing
and passing laws not to trade with Israel.
Let's get rid of Israel.
The United Nations declaring, we could have peace
in the world if it wasn't for Israel.
And then all of a sudden, while that's
taking place, and Germany and France are pushing
Europe to be against Israel, while that's happening,
all of a sudden, an alliance is announced
at 4.30 in the morning last Thursday,
and now we see the kings of the
east, the bear of the north, and they're
all making an alliance around a little piece
of real estate called Israel.
And when we see these things, Gershon Solomon,
the leader of the Temple Mount Faithful, he
called me just a few weeks ago from
Jerusalem, and he said, Ralph, you must get
on a plane today.
You've got to come to Jerusalem today.
And I said, what's the matter, Gershon?
He said, how can I put it into
words?
He said, you are my brother.
But he said, the Messiah is coming.
Do you understand this?
Now remember, he doesn't believe Jesus Christ is
the Messiah.
He's an Orthodox Jew.
They're already cutting the cornerstones to rebuild the
third temple.
He doesn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
But he calls me on the phone in
North Carolina, and he said, you've got to
get on a plane.
You've got to come.
He said, the Messiah is coming.
He said, everything is just about ready.
He said, you've got to come.
I said, Gershon, I can't come.
I said, you don't know if he's coming.
He said, you've got to know.
Surely a man like you that knows the
book must know that he's coming.
He said, Ralph, I can't explain it to
you, but you get up in the morning,
you eat your breakfast, and you walk outside
the doors of your house, and he said,
when you go outside, he said, those little
bumps get on your arm, and they begin
to stand up.
I said, bumps?
He said, you know those things you have?
I said, goosebumps?
He said, yeah.
He said, walk outside and get on the
street.
And he said, the goosebumps jump up on
your arm because you can feel the presence
of the Messiah.
And he said, you and I must be
here together in Jerusalem to greet him.
He said, I'm going to call you just
as soon as he gets here because he
could come today.
And he said, stay by the phone if
you can't come.
He said, stay by the phone.
I said, Gershon, I'll tell you something.
I bet you I'll find out, glory to
God, before you can call me on the
phone because the King is coming.
And the King could come today.
He could come at any moment.
And you know where we find him most
of the church?
We're finding the church in despair, in depression,
in discouragement, and in defeat.
God's people, we ought to be living in
victory.
We ought to be walking in victory.
We ought to be talking in victory.
But instead, we're finding God's children beaten down
by the circumstances.
We're not excited about the imminent return of
the Lord.
We're not loving the Lord like we used
to.
We've allowed the world to press us out
of measure.
And God warned us in His Word that
we should not be conformed to this world.
And what's happening in this world is that
we are being conformed with the pressures.
It's like being inside a mold and you're
being pushed and pushed and pushed.
Instead of looking like the Lord, we're looking
like the world.
Instead of acting like the Lord, we're acting
like the world.
Instead of talking like the Lord, we're talking
like the world.
And what we need is an old time,
Holy Ghost, heaven sent, sky blue, wind a
rattling, hell shaking, life changing, born of God,
old time Holy Ghost revival meeting to break
us out of our lethargy, our unconcern, our
half-heartedness.
And beg God one more time, would you
look our way and have mercy on our
household, our family and our children, that our
families can see the power and the demonstration
of God one more time in this day
and in this hour.
And the only way that's going to happen
is for God's people to break out of
the fear factor that's got us bound down.
Yes, there's a last time.
Yes, there's a last trial.
Yes, there's a last time.
Yes, there's a last trial.
But I also want to encourage you tonight
with this thought.
One day, by the help and grace of
God, there will be the last tear you
will ever shed.
Hey!
If we're going to have revival and beg
God to get on lost people, we've got
to have some Holy Ghost, heaven sent first
aid.
We've got to have the rescue rangers from
another world.
We can't keep dragging the burdens we've got.
We can't take these old broken down bodies
and do what we need to do unless
God Almighty settles in on the church one
more time and breaks us out of our
routine and our lethargy and our lack of
commitment and our lack of concern.
And we say, God, by Your help and
by Your mercy, I want to get my
eyes off the storm.
I want to get my eyes back on
the Savior.
I want to quit looking at the walled
cities that I have looked at all these
years.
God, may I look at the one that
is taller than the walled city.
God, may I get my eyes off the
giant.
But God, would You look me up into
heaven.
Put 440 in my soul and let me
see the God that's taller than the giant
that's taken this day and this hour.
Oh, God, would You revive us again.
Would You stir us again.
Would You thrill us again, God.
Would You liberate us again.
God, would You restore our souls with the
spirit of the eagle that we can rise
up for this day and for this hour
and see revival sweep our home, our family,
our church, and by the help and grace
of God, our town before Jesus comes back.
The only way that can happen is for
us to understand where we are and that
God will deliver us.
In Revelation 21, notice what the Word of
God says in verse number 1.
And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away and there was no more
sea.
Verse number 2 says, And I, John, saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride,
adorned for her husband.
Hallelujah, we're headed to a wedding.
And I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men.
Oh, listen to this.
And He will dwell with them and they
shall be His people and God Himself shall
be with them and be their God.
Now here's the verse I want you to
take home tonight and highlight it, underline it,
write it on a note card, stick it
on the refrigerator.
Look at verse number 4.
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes.
One day you'll shed your last tear.
One day it'll be the last time you
cry.
Last time your heart'll break.
Last time you'll have to experience the frustration
of this old world.
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes.
And there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying.
Neither shall there be any more pain, for
the former things are what?
Passed away.
Now God said here that we would see
the church being prepared for the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And in verse 3, the tabernacle of God
is with men and He will dwell with
them and they shall be His people.
If you need to be encouraged tonight, you
be encouraged with this thought.
Even though you may be in deep water,
even though you may be in a circumstance
you don't understand, if you're saved, if your
name's been recorded in the Lamb's Book of
Life, if you've been washed in the blood
of the Lamb, then you tonight are the
people of God.
You are God's son.
You are God's daughter.
He loved you enough to let His darling
son die for you.
He didn't save you to forget about you.
He didn't save you to let you be
played with by the devil.
Somehow we get in our mind that after
we get saved, we turn into a little
old toy for the devil.
Have you ever seen a cat play with
a mouse?
Have you ever seen them catch a little
old field mouse?
And they'll catch that old mouse and they
want to show it off to you.
They'll bring it on the front porch or
the back porch and they'll say, come and
look at this.
I've got this mouse.
And then that cat will raise its paw
and that little old mouse thinks, I'm out
of here.
And he'll start running and then that cat
will pounce right back on top of him.
And then he'll get that mouse down and
he'll go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
And that little old mouse will flop, flop,
flop, flop.
And then he'll sit there for a minute
and he'll lick that mouse and let that
mouse know, I'm that close.
And then all of a sudden he'll move
those paws and that mouse will take off
again.
Woo, I'm out of here.
And just as he gets about two feet,
that cat will pounce on him again.
And those claws will dig into his back
and that little old mouse will roll over
and then that old cat will go wang,
wang, wang, wang, wang, wang, wang.
And he'll bounce him around.
And you know what?
That's cruel and that's mean.
But somehow we've got it in our head
that that's what the devil has the power
to do to the child of God.
And I've got news for you.
You're not some play pretty for the devil's
entertainment.
You are a child of a three times
holy God.
Your God was God early this morning.
He was God at lunch.
He was God at supper.
He'll be God at the midnight hour.
And not one thing is going to come
to your house unless it's been by the
throne of a holy God.
It's got to go through God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
It's got to go through the blood that
was shed on Calvary.
Not one thing can come to your house,
to your family, to your wife, to your
husband, your children, unless it's been by God
and has the approval of His handiwork.
And He said, Yes, sir, that's My child.
Yes, that's My daughter.
Yes, you can send it over there.
But I've got news for you.
When it gets there, I will be there.
And My grace will be sufficient for them.
And I'll not leave them.
And I'll not forsake them.
I'll not abandon them.
They are My child.
We've got the documentation in the inerrant, infallible
Word of God that God will take care
of His children.
Verse 4 says, And God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes.
And there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying.
Neither shall there be any more pain.
The former things are passed away.
What are the former things tonight?
There's five former things, if you're making notes.
Number one, tears are a former thing.
Death, number two, is a former thing.
Number three, sorrow is a former thing.
Number four, crying is a former thing.
Number five, pain is a former thing.
Now, you say, Well, Brother Ralph, how do
you know that anyone under this tent is
hurting tonight?
How do you know that somebody needs the
Lord and His care and His comfort?
I'll tell you how I know.
Because if you're alive and you're breathing and
you're pulling air in your lungs and you've
got blood circulating in your vein, you're going
to be associated and acquainted with these five
things.
If you're alive and you are on this
earth, you're going to know about tears, you're
going to know about death, you're going to
know about sorrow, you're going to know about
crying, and you're going to know about pain.
Listen, this is so prevalent that our little
children that can't even talk know how to
cry.
Our little babies, when they need something to
eat, they don't even know how to say,
I'm hungry, I need a Big Mac.
But they do know how to cry.
And they will cry.
When they get hungry, they cry.
When they need a little change of situation,
they cry.
When they get too tired, they cry.
When they get frustrated, we're handing them around
like a toy, they cry.
They don't even know how to talk.
But the way you know they're alive is
they know how to cry.
Now the good part is sometimes as an
adult in the hands of a holy God,
I don't know, God, what You're doing.
I don't know, God, I don't know if
You know how hungry my soul is.
I don't know if You understand, God, what
I'm waiting through.
I don't know, God, if You know how
lonely this night is being.
I don't know, God, if You understand how
frustrated I am.
God, I don't know if You know what
I need today that I am so pressed
out of measure.
But I know that inside my bed that
my soul is crying and groaning.
I don't know how to tell my wife.
I don't know how to tell my husband.
I don't know how to tell my mama.
I don't know how to tell my daddy.
I don't know how to tell my best
friend.
But when you can't even put it in
words, when you don't know how to verbalize
it, inside of you is the living Lamb
of God, the sweet third person of the
Godhead, the Holy Ghost of God.
And He said, when you're like a baby
and you can't even put it in words,
He said, I'll take your groanings.
And I'll say, oh my goodness, this one's
hurting so bad, they don't even know how
to say it.
Let me just take those and I'll run
up to the Father at the throne and
say, she's down there on the front row.
She don't know what to tell you, but
here's what's going on on the inside.
Hey!
And the Holy Ghost will carry to the
ear the Father, the petition of your soul.
And you can understand that God knows all
about the crying.
Not only the physical crying, but the crying
of the soul.
These five elements become five evidences of life.
Tears, death, sorrow, crying, and pain.
And God wants you to know that He
knows that we're hurting.
He's aware of what you're going through.
He's not a stranger.
He's so identified with us that He allowed
His only Son to put on a fleshly
tabernacle.
Can you imagine that awesome day in eternity?
God was not caught off guard by man's
sin.
God didn't sit up there with the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit one day
and they went, oops, look what Adam just
did.
Can you believe that?
That didn't happen.
He's God Almighty.
But God, in His love, one day, my
kinsman redeemer, my elder brother, one day, he's
there on the throne, and he said, Father,
Galatians 4.4 is here now.
It's time.
Okay, son.
Jesus reached over and took His royal robe
of righteousness.
He said, Dad, I'm just going to lay
this here on my throne.
I'll be right back.
Took off His crown of righteousness.
And He put it there.
Slipped off His meditatorial throne.
And in a moment, the Holy Spirit whistled
back up to heaven and said, I have
prepared the womb of a virgin.
He didn't have to look for a place
to go.
He didn't have to go up and down
the road and wring His hands and say,
I wonder what I'm going to do to
invade this mud ball of sin.
But He left His throne, left His robe,
left His crown, and stepped off when the
Holy Ghost said, I have prepared a virgin's
womb.
And my friend, down in little Bethlehem, all
of a sudden we see a little teenage
virgin who was espoused to be married to
a stonemason named Joseph.
And He started to put her away for
the shame and embarrassment because she was going
to have a baby.
And she didn't have a husband.
And she said, I've not been with a
man.
And Joseph said, who would believe such a
story that you could have a baby and
not be with a man?
But the angel of the Holy God said,
hey, hey, hey, before you pick up any
rocks to throw them, you better know what
God has chosen her to do.
And God allowed His Son to invade this
world, put on a little robe of flesh,
and came out of the womb crying and
identifying with pain and sorrow and death and
suffering so He could know how you feel
when you're laying on the gurney rolling down
the road to have your chemotherapy, when you're
there in the ER and they're on top
of you, pushing on your chest, trying to
get you to breathe, and the angels are
standing around saying you can't go anywhere unless
God says it's time for that child to
leave.
That's the kind of God I serve.
A big God.
A powerful God.
My sanity is in His sovereignty.
He's God Almighty.
And He allowed you to know that He
identified with our flesh.
Mary takes that little baby boy and all
he can do is cry.
He's the same God that spoke and whirls
flew off His fingertips.
The same God that spoke stars into their
sockets.
The same God that hung planets and galaxies
in the universe.
And now all of a sudden, He puts
His hand over his mouth and says, I
won't talk.
I'll just cry like a baby.
Hey!
Because one night, all you'll be able to
do is just cry like a baby and
Jesus will say, hey, I've been right there.
I know how it feels.
I know what you're going through.
And I promise you, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you.
What a God!
And Mary takes that little baby and suckles
it to her breast.
And she is now feeding the One who's
going to save her soul who'd believe such
a thing.
She's hugging the Lamb of God.
She's hugging the Lion of the tribe of
Judah.
She's loving to her breast the King of
Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Kinsman Redeemer,
the Bride and the Morning Star, the Alpha
and the Omega.
He's God Almighty hanging in a little fleshly
form so you could know He understands the
former things.
Pain, sorrow, death, crying.
He knows all about them.
You know why?
He loves you.
You say, I'm just 15 years old.
He knows you need Him.
You say, but I'm just 10.
He knows you need Him.
Well, I just turned 21.
He knows you need Him.
I just had my 40th birthday.
He loves 40 year olds.
Hey, I just turned 55.
I'm a double nickel man.
Hey, He loves you.
You just turned 91.
He's in love with 91.
I just had 104 birthdays.
He loves you if you're 104.
And your heart's been washed in the royal
red blood of Calvary.
And your name's been recorded in the Lamb's
Book of Life.
You're going to leave these former things and
we're going to head into revival for all
eternity because we're in the presence of a
holy God.
What a God and what a Savior.
When we begin to think about His power.
You see, when I read this Bible, you
know what I find out?
I find out that God doesn't comfort me
in my hard times with things.
Have you noticed that?
God doesn't comfort you when you're in your
storm.
I'm not going to give you a verse
of Scripture here tonight.
And it's going to read something like when
you're in the valley and you don't know
what to do, I'll give you a bigger
house.
When you're walking down to the valley of
the shadow of death, I'll give you a
new car.
There's not one verse of Scripture in this
Bible that talks about God giving us the
promise of paying our bills, our prosperity.
He doesn't talk about making you famous.
He doesn't say they're going to erect statues
about you and put your name in lights.
He doesn't talk about fortune.
He said no.
He said when you're dealing with these former
things, when you're dealing with tears and death
and sorrow and crying and pain, He said
I want you to know I will be
with you.
I am the friend that sticketh closer than
a brother.
I am the one that'll never leave you
and forsake you.
I am the one that you can cast
all your care upon me because I care
for you.
I am the refuge in the storm.
I am your anchor in the harbor of
life.
I am the place that you can go
to find sustenance and strength and encouragement because
I know all about the former things.
I wish I had time to tell you
tonight, but is there a reason there's a
difference between tears and crying?
Between tears and crying?
Have you noticed that he said tears, death,
sorrow, pain, and crying?
Sometimes it gets past tears.
Sometimes that heart is broken.
You see, all those material things of this
world, they will not reach the pain that's
behind the eye.
When the doctor has written his prescription and
it won't touch it.
When the shot won't reach the pain.
When the IV won't reach the pain, only
God can get behind the eyes of where
the pain is.
When you're there in the privacy of your
home and dad and mom is expressing the
grief and the sorrow of a son or
a daughter that's become a prodigal.
A new car can't take that away.
Another million dollars in the bank while you'd
give all your money and all your cars
and all your houses if your prodigal son
had come home, your prodigal daughter.
It's not in the price of this little
old world.
Life is not measured in the amount of
toys or trinkets that I possess or you
possess.
Life is measured in the abundance of the
one who possesses me.
That's the true measure of life.
God knows that right before his darling son
comes back, we will be a hurting people.
Sin has separated so many that we love.
Sin has separated marriages.
Sin has pulled children out of the arms
of loving parents.
Sin has caused people to weep and to
cry all night long.
Sin has caused families to be separated by
pride, by greed, and by selfishness.
Moms and dads many times are left all
alone to grow old and don't even have
their own blood children to care for them.
Tears of fear, tears of anxiety, tears of
panic, tears of sickness, tears of loneliness.
Jews in the Old Testament and the New
Testament were so impressed with the human suffering
that if you go over in that culture,
if you go with me over to the
Holy Land, I'll show you they make clay
bottles and they're called tear bottles.
And they'll catch those tears as they run
out of the eye and they'll bottle up
their tears to show how their heart is
broken and how they're grieving over a loved
one or a family member.
Psalms 56 verse number 8 it says, Put
thou my tears into thy bottle they not
in thy book.
He said, Psalmist David said, God, I'm so
broken, I'm so suffering on the inside, you
put my tears in your bottle.
They're far past the human tear bottle on
this earth.
Jesus, you remember when He was in the
Garden of Eden and He said, God, if
it be your will, let this cup, huh?
Let this cup do what?
Pass.
A lot of the Jewish scholars I've studied
with in Israel, they tell me that that
word is translated in the Hebrew tear bottle.
Let this tear bottle pass from me.
He was weeping over a lost and a
dying world.
It wasn't a cup to drink, but it
was a cup to catch the tears.
He was weeping over a lost and a
dying world.
It could be, ladies and gentlemen, tonight, we
need to know more than ever that God
is going to see you through.
He's going to see your family through.
He knows about the last tear one day
we'll shed.
He knows about the last funeral we'll go
to.
He knows the last time you'll go to
the cemetery and leave your loved one.
Back in February this year, I went and
helped do a funeral for a preacher friend
whose 20-month-old baby got sick and
died in a matter of hours.
There's a sweet young couple, love God, love
their church.
They want to see revival.
Why did they have to go to the
cemetery and bury their little baby boy?
How many times have you been to the
cemetery and seen a husband bury his wife,
a wife bury her husband?
Death takes a friend, takes a parent, a
sweet mother, a loving dad, a best friend,
a child.
There's one day we're going to go to
the last funeral.
One day we'll shed the last tear.
One day there'll be the last sorrow.
Sorrow's not always about pain and sickness.
Sometimes sorrow is sorrow over regrets, things we
did wrong.
Why didn't I speak up?
Why didn't I say something?
Why didn't I do this deed?
Sometimes sorrow is over omission, things we've left
out of our lives and it caused pain.
Sometimes there's sorrow as adults because our kids
are grown and we were just too busy.
And there's sorrow over being too busy.
Not only are there tears and death and
sorrow, but there's the crying, the crying of
the broken heart.
Not just tears, but sobbing.
The crying of the enter man.
And then that last one is pain.
That's cruel pain.
That's that migraine headache.
That's that abscessed tooth.
That's that broken bone.
That's that IV that has broken out of
its vein and swollen up the arm.
That's the ventilator.
That's the pain of the intensive care.
That's the pain down at the burn center.
That's the pain of the transplant.
That's the pain that's so blinding, red hot,
searing the human body that people don't even
know how to put it in words.
It's pain many times that people can't see.
And God says, I know about that pain.
I know about that crying.
I know about that sorrow.
I know about that death.
I know about those tears.
I know what pain is in a human
body.
But I also know what pain is to
a soul.
The pain of sin.
The pain of separation.
And Christian, sometimes the pain of silence when
we can't hear from God.
Where's God in the middle of my storm?
How do I get that pain to be
removed?
God said tonight, church, I want you to
know that all around you are people just
like you.
And they're all experiencing tears, death, sorrow, crying
and pain.
Some of them are saved.
Many of them are not saved.
And unsaved people, now you think about this.
Unsaved people have tears, death, sorrow.
They have the same things, but they don't
have Jesus in their heartache.
That's why God wants us to have revival.
That's why God wants us to make these
next few nights so important.
Because one day we have the comfort of
knowing that there will be the last tear.
The last time.