I want you to take your Bible tonight
and turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Jude.
Jude chapter number 1, verse number 6.
Jude verse 6.
And the angels which kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains, notice those next two
words, under darkness, unto the judgment of the
great day.
Now turn with me back in the New
Testament to 1 Peter chapter number 1.
1 Peter chapter number 1.
And in 1 Peter chapter 1, I'll begin
reading in verse number 4, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for who?
For you, who are kept, I like this
phrase, by the power of God.
I've been working on some thoughts about the
power of God, but I like the fact
that He is a God of power.
He's not a God that's out of business.
He's not a God you're going to impeach.
And He's not a God that's going to
resign.
He's a God of power.
And you have yet to see the power
that He will demonstrate in the days that
are to come.
But let me encourage you with this verse.
Who are kept by the power of God,
how?
Through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed,
notice this phrase, in the last time, wherein
you great rejoice, though now for a season,
if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith,
the trial of your faith, being much more
precious than of gold that perishes, though it
be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, at the appearing of Jesus
Christ.
The last few days, the Lord has been
dealing with my heart about the thought that
we just read there in 1 Peter, the
last time, the last time.
I got in trouble with all these allergies
and we'd been going for about 41 or
42 days straight and got all irritated and
all the rain and the mold in the
mountains.
And then I got a sinus infection on
top of that.
And before I knew it, I was sick
and with a fever and in the bed.
And I got to thinking, you know, all
these weird germs going around and the antibiotics,
you know, it didn't seem to respond.
And we ended up the Jubilee and I
was still battling this in the week after
the Jubilee.
And then I think, well, you know, it's
going to clean up.
Tent meeting is getting ready to start and
it's getting worse.
And so I don't go to church on
Sunday and I'm thinking, well, I'll just pray
and rest and I'll be able to go
down to the tent meeting and, and that
Trinity crowd, they'll just be praying for me
and they'll understand.
And it's, it's worse and it's worse.
And in that room for those four or
five days, I got to thinking about that
phrase, the last time.
Now in the context of 1 Peter, it's
talking about that you and I are going
to go through a period of time that
are alive here.
When Jesus comes back, that'll be known as
the last days or the last time.
And that we've gone, uh, we're going to
experience a trying of our faith.
You're not going to serve God in the
world today that we're in 2005 peaking into
2006.
You're not going to serve God on your
emotions or your feelings.
You better know that Bible.
You better know what the Bible teaches.
You better know what you believe, not what
aunt Lucy told your uncle Bill told you.
You better know that you and God have
a working relationship that, you know, he's alive
and well, and he's in your heart and
you believe that book.
That's why the devil's after the authority of
the word of God.
That's why he wants to pollute the authority
of the word of God.
That's why he wants to water down the
authority of the word of God is because
we are headed into that last time.
And men's hearts are going to be failing
them for fear.
By the way, that's already happening.
You know, they were on the news today.
They've had 200, uh, people die over the
last decade or so with this weird amoeba
and killed two little boys over the weekend.
And about the longest you live with it
is about three days.
And, uh, out of the 200 that have,
uh, contracted this amoeba out of warm standing,
stagnant water, only two people have lived.
So there's not a high survival rate.
And then they're talking about the avian flu,
that if it continues to mutate, that we
could be experiencing a pandemic, uh, episode around
the world.
And then they're talking about war and rumors
of war and terrorism.
I'll just clue you in.
They're already experiencing men's hearts, failing them for
fear.
Mamas and daddies are afraid to go to
the mall and take their own babies out.
Afraid to go let your child play in
the backyard because the predators have been turned
loose in our society.
We're already walking into that period of time,
but the burden that's on my heart is
no, not so much the time that we're
walking into, but it's that all of us
are presented with last time when I was
in that room and I was thinking about
how, uh, only a preacher can identify with
this.
But if you're supposed to be somewhere to
preach, only a preacher knows how you want
to go preach.
And then it got into that room, you
know, well, you know, if God doesn't touch
that old flesh, you've preached your last time.
And I got to praying for this meeting
and I got to asking God, I said,
God, you know, my sanity always is in
your sovereignty, but I'll have to confess God.
I can't figure out what you're doing or
what you're trying to do.
I love you.
We've worked hard.
We pray Greg's down there.
Greg used to be 382 pounds before this
meeting started and look at it.
He sweated everything off.
I mean, it's been unbelievable.
And then you wonder, well, what's going to
happen?
Why are you doing what you're doing?
And as I, uh, prayed and prayed for
you and I prayed for the area pastors
and I prayed for the board members and
these churches that are working hard.
I got to thinking about that phrase over
and over Monday, Tuesday, every day, last time,
last days, one day be the last day.
And then I got to thinking and, and
you think with me, have you ever considered
the thought that one day you will eat
your last breakfast.
One day you'll have your last breakfast for
all.
You know, you had your last breakfast today.
One day you'll have your last lunch.
I don't know when you don't know when,
but one day you'll have your last lunch.
You'll have your last supper.
One day you'll go to work for the
last time and you'll be on the job.
You'll drive your car for the last time.
I remember as my dad was sick and
we left the neurosurgeon and the doctor had
just told my dad that you are terminal
and, uh, looked him in the eye and
say, there's no way you can live.
This brain tumor will kill you.
And on the way home, he said, you
know what, son, I, I guess I've preached
for the last time I've driven my car
for the last time.
And I got to thinking about it.
All it takes is one little old medical
report, one phone call, one scan.
That's all it takes.
Just takes one intersection with a drunk driver.
That's all.
It doesn't take a lot for that last.
All it takes, you know, uh, the other
day there was a family at Lake Lanier
and they started to roll up some big
old thunderclouds.
And they, they started, uh, they were having
a family reunion there outside of Atlanta.
And, uh, it started to thunder off on
the horizon and they started grabbing up the
stuff and said, let's go get in the
shelter.
And one of the teenage girls, uh, uh,
about 18, 19 years old, she picked up
her little niece, 17 months old.
And as they were scurrying to get in
the shelter, a lightning bolt hit and kill
that teenage girl and that 17 month old
baby, a lightning bolt.
You begin to think about one of these
days, the last time I will ever be
inside a church.
I'll be in the last time I will
attend church.
But you see what God's dealing with.
All of us is the fact of the
last time, the last time.
Can you imagine with me for just a
moment that one of these days, uh, God,
the Holy ghost is going to deal with
arts Dale for the last time.
Have you ever thought about that?
The last time the Holy spirit of God
will go up and down the streets of
high point and say, I'm going to come
through here one more time.
And if anybody wants to go to heaven,
I'll be coming through one more time.
I'll be troubling the water.
I'll be stirring the leaves one more time.
I'm going to walk through Greensboro.
I'm going to come through Charlotte one day.
God, the Holy ghost will make his last
trip through every neighborhood.
It'll be the last time.
Could it be the last time?
Could this be the last meeting that God
gives us the opportunity as a community?
I don't know if you understand how unusual
you are.
I don't know if you understand what it,
what a rarity you are in today's world
to have an old dinosaur, like a gospel
TNF having a community meeting churches and pastors
working together, people getting off work and driving
to a gospel tent.
Do you understand how rare you are?
Do you understand how unusual this is?
Could it be the last place?
It couldn't be the last intersection before the
lamb of God comes back, that God's going
to trouble the land one more time and
visit with his divine presence at an outpouring.
Could it be that God's allowed us to
be a part of that last visit?
You see, it's a sobering thing to me.
The last time God will ever deal with
my family.
When's the last time God dealt with your
family?
When's the last time God talked to your
son or your daughter?
When's the last time God woke up your
grandson or your granddaughter?
When's the last time God got ahold of
your best friend?
When's the last time you pushed away from
the dinner table and said, I don't believe
I'll eat today, but I believe I'll go
back there in the back or I'll go
over in the break room and I'll get
on my place and I'm going to intercede
with the Holy God that God at you,
within mercy, said revival one more time.
And that our little town, our street, our
neighborhood, our local church, one more time before
King Jesus come could have the visitation of
an almighty God.
The last time, you see, before we get
out of this tent, the trumpet of God
could sound.
We're that close to the coming of the
Lord.
Later in the week, maybe Wednesday night, I
want to tell you about a new alliance
that was just announced about three 30 in
the morning over in the Middle East.
You won't believe how close we are to
the imminent return of the King.
Yet the devil has the church of the
living God in America intoxicated on the wild
pleasures of this world, trying to see how
close we can walk with the world and
play with the world and look like the
world and be like the world make sinners
comfortable in the house of the Holy God,
the King of Israel, the Lord God Almighty,
while the blood of lost men, women, boys,
and girls are running down the gutters in
front of our street and the church finds
itself with no power or no authority.
Oh, we need a revival.
We need God to shake the church, to
shake God's men, shake God's women, shake the
teenagers in the church, shake the families.
God stir us one more time.
Don't let this be the last time you'll
deal with our hearts or our lives.
Don't let this be the last day you'll
walk by my house.
Don't let it be the last hour I'll
ever feel your presence.
Oh God in wrath.
Remember mercy.
God touches one more time.
If God pulls off of us and he
leaves us, who's going to intervene for the
heart of America?
Are we going to be cast away in
a land of prosperity?
We've never had better cars, never had finer
homes, never worn better clothes.
We've never eaten more calories and yet we
have less power with God than any generation
of Christians that have ever lived.
When God pulls away from us, will we
experience the last light?
Will we experience the last love of God?
The last touch of God?
Will we experience what we need in this
generation?
Will we see the hand of God pulling
off of us?
I wonder how will we experience that pulling
away period?
If we bowed our heads and we closed
our eyes and if we started seeing nothing
but darkness, what would we experience tonight?
Would it be a warning of where the
darkness is beginning in this day, in this
generation?
The darkness of the heart, the darkness of
the family, the darkness of the church, the
darkness of the community, the darkness that's hitting
America.
What are we going to experience?
What are we going to face as the
people of God?
I begin to think how we've been snared
in sin.
I begin to think how we've been caught
up in the things of this world.
We got caught in the devil's trap.
The coils of sin sickness have wrapped around
our heart and around our life.
How can we tonight face tomorrow's rising sun
knowing that we played church and we played
religion?
How can we go through another day or
another night without the power of God and
that thirst to get our soul, oh God,
touch me one more time.
God, break my heart one more time.
I really believe tonight we need the presence
of God more than we need air in
our lungs, more than we need blood in
our veins.
We need the power of God back upon
our hearts and lives.
Have you noticed our society has been caught
up into a gothic society?
We're fascinated with darkness.
We're fascinated with the things of this world.
We're caught up with the dark side of
life.
We're feasting on the bad.
We're feasting on the death, the dying.
The most popular movies for our kids are
the pain, the suffering, the horror, the torture,
the slice and dice.
The heart has already been given over to
the darkness of this old world.
I wonder tonight, has that darkness began?
Has it already begun to invade even the
house of the Lord because we've lost our
tears and our tenderness towards the holy God?
When I begin to think about 2 Peter
2, 4, notice what the word of God
says in 2 Peter 2, 4.
It says, For if God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment.
Ladies and gentlemen, when you begin to think
about what darkness has done to America, what
darkness is doing to families, what darkness is
doing to churches, we've got people that are
sitting on our church pews, but yet they're
wrapped in chains of darkness, sitting in the
house of God.
We've got people walking with us to the
workplace and they're caught up with chains of
darkness.
We've got people that live next door to
us and they're caught up in chains of
darkness.
The only hope that we have is that
God's presence would come back on the individual,
on the church, on the house of God,
on the family of God, and His light
would break those chains of darkness.
People aren't going to listen to me.
They're not going to listen to you.
They're not going to listen to Baptist.
They're not going to listen to Presbyterian.
They're not going to listen to preacher.
They're not going to listen to Sunday school
teacher.
They're not going to listen to daddy.
They're not going to listen to grandmother.
But if the power of God comes on
the land and the Holy Ghost of God
begins to breathe, then men will melt at
the voice and the power of this Holy
God.
We've got to have His presence.
We've got to have His power.
The only way we can escape the darkness
is the light of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the chains of darkness.
Jude 6 says, I don't know if you
caught the phrasing of that in Jude 6,
but the angels which kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation, He hath
reserved in everlasting chains.
Then notice the next part of that phrase,
under darkness, under darkness.
There's no way for you to get out
from under the darkness unless the Lord God
Almighty gets you out.
You can't turn over enough new leaves to
get out.
And God's warning you here tonight.
He's saying, well, one more time, maybe the
last time, you need to lay down that
sin crowd.
A lot of you said, I'll do good.
You come to revival and you say, I
want to do better.
And you'll come to tent meeting last year,
years ago, I'll do better.
But you're not willing to turn loose of
that old crowd.
And until you get some new friends, you're
not going to be walking in life.
You've got to have the power of God
to break those chains of darkness.
You can't go to the same old places,
run around with the same old crew and
expect to bear the fruit of being a
child of God.
We've got to have a new walk, a
new talk.
We've got to have a new attitude.
We got to have a new fellowship.
That's the only way.
And those of us that are saved, we
got to beg God to give us a
fresh anointing and God give us a new
touch.
Make my soul thirsty for your presence and
your power.
God, I don't want to walk in last
year's walk.
I don't want to read in last year's
book, but God, I want a fresh anointing
upon your word and upon my life and
upon this day and hour that I'm in.
We've got to have it.
What's going to set us free?
If not, the church is going to meet
Jesus at the second coming under darkness.
We're going to be bound up by the
things of this old world and bondage.
And you know what's killing a lot of
our pulpits is that we've gotten caught up
in a man fearing spirit.
We're wondering what some other preacher will think
or some other church will think instead of
being obedient and tender to the holy things
of God.
Last time.
Christian, is this the last time God's going
to deal with you?
You say I'm saved.
You just call me Christian.
To him that knoweth to do good and
doeth it not, to him it is what?
Sin.
First Corinthians 5.5. If I refuse to
walk in the light after salvation and I
know to do right and I don't do
right, he said, First Corinthians 5.5, I'll
turn you over to Satan for the destruction
of your flesh.
He didn't say you lose your salvation or
your soul.
He said, I'll take your tabernacle out.
I don't want any more other weak Christians
stumbling over your half-hearted, inconsistent ways.
See, that's the Christians.
And then what did he say to the
lost?
He said to the lost that you shouldn't
harden your neck.
He that be an author and prove hardened
his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that
without remedy, without a cure.
He said today is the day of salvation.
So the last time God will come by
your chair, the last time God will come
by your house, the last time God will
deal with your family, last time God will
talk to your husband, your wife, last time
God will talk to your son, your daughter.
Is this the last time, is this the
last meeting where God's going to give you
an opportunity to get your lost family in?
A lot of you would even invite your
friend or neighbors to come, but you're embarrassed
to even invite them to an old-fashioned
tent meeting.
They'll think I'm a holy roller.
I almost said something to my boss about
inviting him to the tent meeting, and before
I could get anything out, he said, have
you heard her down there with that snake
-handling fella down there at the archdale?
Well, he handles snakes, but he's called Slewfoot.
Well, we need to understand the devil's a
serpent.
And God's people ought to step upon the
serpent in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ through the power of God's holy word.
Is this the last time God's going to
deal with your house, your family?
I interviewed that mother on the radio today,
a little nine-year-old boy out in
Oklahoma just went swimming, and that amoeba got
into his brain just a matter of hours,
and that child's gone.
I thought, the last time they talked, I'm
driving down the road, the last time they
laughed, the last time they hugged, the last
time they kissed.
Husband, you might ought to be sweet to
your wife.
You might ought to be tender.
You might ought to tell her you love
her.
You might ought to tell her you care
about her.
You don't know if you're going to wake
up in the morning.
I got a precious lady in my Sunday
school class two years ago.
She went to bed, her and her husband,
they kissed, laid down, went to sleep.
Woke up the next morning, she slipped out
not to wake him up, went in, made
the coffee, started frying some eggs and bacon,
went in to wake him up.
He was gone home to be at the
Lord, died in his sleep.
One year later, almost to the month, her
36-year-old son came over to check
on her, spent the night with her.
He died in his sleep.
She said, Brother Ralph, I'll never forget what
you told me about don't go to sleep
without saying you love me, care about each
other.
The last time, a few hours ago last
Thursday, a Russian mini-sub got caught in
a fishing net 620 feet under the ocean.
They struggled and tried to get loose, forward
thrust, back thrust, they tried to blow the
ballast, they tried to use every part of
that mini-sub to break it out.
And the more they struggled and the more
they maneuvered, the more entangled they got.
Their batteries and power began to fall apart.
The lights went out.
They had no way to process water.
All of a sudden, they're rationing, there's no
water.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they can only
have a swallow or two of water per
sailor.
They said it was cold, 40 degrees in
that mini-sub.
Their friends on top got a rope on
them with a hook and snared, and they
had the cheers and excitement as it pulled
them up and started moving with them about
300 feet, and it became even more entangled.
And the rope broke, and they settled back
down to the bottom, hopeless, without water, without
lights, in that darkness and just the fear
they'd seen the sun for the last time.
They'd had their last warm cup of coffee.
They'd had their last warm home-cooked meal.
They'd seen their wife and children's faces for
the last time.
There's no way to get out of this
tangle.
But a higher power over in Moscow got
on the phone and said, could the Brits
or the Japanese or the Americans, do you
happen to have an undersea rescue vessel that
could go and help these seven men that
are in a hopeless, trapped, snared condition?
And ships and planes began to respond.
And early Sunday morning, a Scorpion undersea rescue
device went down, piloted by our robotics and
video cameras, began to go in and cut
that one-inch cable, began to cut that
netting, and went to go down and take
the tangles off.
And those men that thought they'd seen the
sun for the last time, thought they'd never
be warm again, thought they'd never see their
family again, they were set free, they were
cut out of that tangle, and they came
to the surface and are alive today because
someone came to them.
But if you'll think for just a minute,
that's sort of the way you were.
You were out there on the sea of
life, bobbing around with the toys and trinkets
of this world.
All of a sudden you got snared in
the sea-end's big net, and you began
to say, I don't want to be like
this, I don't want to be on alcohol,
I don't want to be on drugs, I
don't want to be caught on the lust
of the flesh.
And you tried to come up on your
own, you tried to turn over a new
leaf, and you would do good for a
few days, and then you'd settle back down
to the bottom in despair, because your flesh
had failed you again.
And your family and your friends said, you
can make it, we'll get you in this
program, and we'll get you with this group.
And they drug you for about 300 feet,
and you did good for a few hours,
and then once again that old flesh took
over, and you settled back down, and the
coil of sin wrapped around your soul, and
there you were in that darkness and hopelessness,
and you were freezing outside of the love
of God.
But one day, up in another world, out
of sight, there was a word came from
the commander-in-chief for a rescue vessel
to come down out of glory, and God's
amazing grace began to pierce into the darkness
of your sin, and grace and mercy began
to cut away the coils of sin, and
the snares of sin, and begin to liberate
you.
And the blood of Jesus Christ burned you
out of the coil of sin, and liberated
you, and when nothing else could help, love
lifted you.
And God brought you to newness of life,
and you had that opportunity to serve Him
with all your heart, and all your soul,
and all your mind.
And God's given us an opportunity here tonight,
one more time, maybe the last time, for
God's people to get serious.
Maybe a last time for a prodigal son
or daughter to come home.
Maybe the last time the call will go
out for a sinner, whosoever will, may come.
The welcome mat of God's grace is out.
Porchlight of mercy is burning bright, looking for
the wayfaring pilgrim, when nothing else could help,
love lifted me.
Let's bow our heads tonight.