We're at the second letter of code to
the Thessalonians, and we're at the second chapter.
And all the scholars are agreed that this
chapter is one of the deepest and one
of the most difficult chapters in the New
Testament, so that we're at something that's really
deep and difficult.
And I want to try to bring it
over to you in a way that you'll
never forget it.
If you've been reading through this second chapter
or second Thessalonians, and you've looked at it
carefully, I think that you'll find this out,
that the key word for opening the whole
chapter is the word, remember.
Do you see the fifth verse?
Paul has said a few things in the
first four verses, and then he comes in
quickly with this, Remember ye not that when
I was yet with you, I told you
these things.
So that the things that he's bringing before
the Thessalonians in this chapter are things that
he has taught them before, but like many
believers, they have forgotten some of the things
they were taught.
And so he's reminding them, he's filling up
their pure minds by way of remembering.
And he wants them to remember certain things
that he had already told them when he
was present with them.
But these things that he wants them to
remember, they fall into three groups.
First of all, Paul is reminding the believers
here at Thessalonica in the first twelve verses
of this chapter about some very precious and
important dispensational truths.
Dispensational truths that take us from the Lord's
coming in the first verse.
Do you see the first verse?
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dispensational truths that take us from the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ for His saints.
The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
all gathering together unto Him.
Of course, that's the last two very plainly,
isn't it?
That's the Lord coming through the air for
His saints and all gathering together unto Him.
Now these dispensational truths that he wants them
to remember, they go from the coming of
the Lord for His saints right through to
the coming of the Lord to destroy the
Antichrist.
Do you see verse eight?
Then shall that wicked be revealed whom the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of His
mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
His coming.
Now there are two comings mentioned.
The first one is the coming of the
Lord for His saints and all gathering together
unto Him, and the second one is the
coming of the Lord to the earth to
consume the Antichrist.
And the dispensational truths that the Lord wants
these believers to remember range from the coming
to the air right through to the coming
to the earth.
And there are many valuable truths in between,
but we'll find them just in a moment.
The things that he wanted them to remember,
first of all they drop into the group
that we call dispensational truths.
And then the second thing that he wanted
them to remember begins at verse thirteen.
But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you brethren beloved of the
Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth whereunto he called
you by your gospel to the obtaining of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Of course that's evangelical truth, isn't it?
Do you know he wanted them to remember
the great dispensational truths that he had taught
them and then secondly he wanted them to
remember the great evangelical truths that he had
taught them.
Evangelical truths that take you from a point
that Paul called the beginning.
God hath chosen you from the beginning right
through to a point that he called obtaining
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you can measure that, it comes
from eternity to eternity.
It's evangelical truth that sounds that sound.
From before the foundation of the world to
the time when every believer will obtain the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So that's something to remember.
And then the chapter ends like this.
Verse sixteen.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God
in whom our Father is which hath loved
us and hath given us everlasting consolation and
good hope through grace comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good word and work.
Do you know that's devotional truth.
And Paul wanted them to remember these things
things that he had told them when he
was with them And these things drop into
three groups.
Wispensational truths evangelical truths devotional truths You see
he's reminding them here at the end of
the chapter of God's love in the past
God which hath loved us past love and
hath given to us everlasting consolation and good
hope You know a way out in the
future there we have everlasting consolation and hope
God's love in the past God's hope and
consolation for the future and God's comfort for
our hearts today That's present comfort God comfort
your heart These are devotional truths And so
I think that you get the key to
the chapter when you see Paul making this
plea Remember!
Remember the things that I told you Wispensational
truths evangelical truths devotional truths So he's making
a plea that they'll remember these things Now
he had a very good purpose for making
this plea and for presenting these truths again
in an epistle after he had offered them
verbally to them when he had been with
them He had a very good purpose for
doing so You see some people had come
in behind Paul's back when he had left
Thessalonica and they had written to these young
believers a letter and they put Paul's name
to it It was a false document and
the false document contained error and the error
had upset these young believers and Paul's going
to counteract this You see this letter that
was supposed to come from Paul that taught
these young believers that they were in the
great tribulation, the day of the Lord because
they were going through tribulation My, it had
upset them!
They didn't know where they were and Paul
is going to put things right Do you
see the second verse?
He says Thus ye be not soon shaken
in mind or betrothed See these young believers
were shaken in mind and troubled Neither by
spirit nor by word nor by letter are
some You see somebody penned a letter and
pretended that it was Paul and said this
is a spiritual revelation given to Paul and
this is the word of the Lord You
are in the day of tribulation And you
know saints would swallow that very quickly You
know almost every time we have a world
war you meet believers who say we're in
the tribulation There's been a lot of tribulations
according to them And sometimes people when they
come up against thorns and trials and tests
and troubles they're in the tribulation Do you
remember when we had the wet summer some
time back?
Well you would hardly know which one it
was would you?
If I'd said the good one you could
have picked this out But we had a
very wet one some years back when the
hay rucks were floating in the meadow And
I met an old farmer one day and
he said to me Mr. Mullen, we're in
the depths of the tribulation I said how
do you make it out?
He said look at the hay rucks floating
in the meadow If that's all that's going
to happen then the tribulation is all right
The same old boy I was talking to
had about 40,000 quid in the bank
It was just morning you know And
so these Thessalonian believers were passing through persecutions
You remember we saw that in the other
chapter And they were passing through a time
of real tribulation And someone had come in
behind Paul and sent them a letter And
said this is the word of the Lord,
we've got it by the Spirit You're in
the day of the Lord, you're in the
great tribulation And so Paul says that shook
you didn't it?
You're shaking in mind, you're troubled Well you
must have forgot the half of the teaching
that I taught you So I'll have to
teach you over again So he stopped, to
put them over a truth they had already
heard So we'll start where he stopped At
the beginning, verse 1 Now here's a plea
to them Now we beseech you brethren By
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And
by our gathering together unto him That ye
be not too shaken in mind He said
you know I want you fellows to get
the hold of this That all believers down
here The first thing that you are to
look out for Is the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ The return of the Lord
That's the first thing That's what you want
to get the hold of Don't be worried
about tribulation Or storms, or tests, or trials,
or wars Or peril, or thorns, or famine,
or negativity The first thing that must happen
Of real importance to the believer Is the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ We're waiting
still And mind you I think before I'm
through with this chapter I can bring to
bear upon this meeting The real conviction that
we're desperately near To meeting the Lord just
now This world is standing at a spot
tonight And I believe that we're on the
verge Of our Lord Jesus Christ's return to
the earth And our gathering together unto him
What a moment isn't it?
The return of the Lord The removal of
the church Our gathering together unto him He
said those are the first two things If
you get this thing all right now Get
this sensational truth right Don't let anybody upset
you The first thing is the coming of
the Lord The second thing is the removal
of the church The Lord himself shall descend
From heaven with his church With the voice
of the archangel and the trump of God
And the dead in Christ shall rise first
And we believers which are alive and remain
We shall be caught up together to meet
the Lord in the earth That's the truth
that he had talked to me He said
now you just get your eyes on these
things The first thing that will happen Will
be the coming of the Lord And the
removal of the church And so he's making
a plea He said don't let anybody upset
you We beseech you by this We beseech
you look out for that first Why that
must happen before the time of tribulation comes
When he goes on in the third verse
And he said this Let no man deceive
you by any means For that day That
is the day of the Lord That these
people were talking about In the second verse
it's called the day of Christ But all
the Greek scholars are persuaded That the word
Christ ought to have been Lord there It's
the day of the Lord That is the
day of tribulation You remember I dealt one
night with the day of the Lord Who
pointed out that it was the day of
tribulation Now he's saying in the third verse
Let no man deceive you by any means
For that day shall not come Except there
come a falling away first You know the
moment that Christ comes to the earth And
the removal of the professing church Of the
believers There will come a relapse In the
professing church that left behind Remind you of
the will You know I think that some
of us are not too clear on this
You know there are a whole lot of
people stuck in churches And they're not saved
And there are a whole lot of ministers
stuck in pulpits And they're on their way
to hell Well they are And you know
they'll carry on the business when we go
But I'll tell you this As soon as
the true believers leave their sins The church
will fall away And the church will be
left behind My dear friends Did you see
the supposed to be Reverend Young Talking in
the paper the other day Did you?
Pulling the Bible to pieces Trying to make
a fool out of the Lord Jesus Tootooing
America And then that date of it when
he got a slap or two Well when
there's nobody here to slap him he'll go
on with it There'll be a few of
them left behind and he'll be one of
them Super will be another And all who
deny the virgin birth To think that a
man with a call around his neck Would
call merely a bad woman And Jesus Christ
a bastard Why I know where there's a
minister Who stood up not so long ago
and said That the Lord slithered with Mary
and Martha all the days of his life
The heathen They should blow them out But
there's a whole lot to support them you
know There'll be some of you stuck here
tonight to support them And maybe you'll be
left behind or all of them And when
the true church has taken out The professing
body that's left behind They'll get away What
that church has stood for They'll be out
crawling away then That's what the apostate called
The apostate My, you can see they're merely
nothing today Only they can't get off of
it Thank God for men like Paisley who
stand up and shout Thank God for the
two Presbyterian ministers in the town Who wrote
against this apostate preacher Thank God for every
truth evangelized in the land That stands fast
and fearless It means the last of the
last days Thank God for everyone Ah yes,
when the true church goes There'll be a
falling away down here And then something will
happen, watch it Well that's the third verse
Let no man deceive you by any means
For that day, that is the day of
tribulation, shall not come Except there come a
falling away first And the man of sin
be revealed That's one of perdition Sir, are
you getting these texts through this dispensational teaching?
The return of the Lord The removal of
the church The relapse of prophet Christianity And
then the revelation of the Antichrist My, you
needn't look round you for the Antichrist these
days You believers will never see him He'll
not be revealed Until we're gone And the
professing church has gone to hell upon us
But it'll be a right groan to reveal
him then, won't it?
It'll be right for us But what a
caricature he is Have a look at him,
Paul takes his time to describe him for
us Here he is in verse four The
man of sin Who opposes and exalteth himself
above all that is called God All that
is worshipped So that he of God Sitteth
in the temple of God Showing himself that
he is God You know there's a tremendous
lot in that little verse that reveals this
man This is the person You see, first
of all you'll notice this That this character
will oppose and exalt himself above everything that's
called God or that's worshipped He doesn't want
any God He's not going to have any
God But he will eventually come to the
place Where he'll be as God You know
that's desperately like the way communism goes on
You know years back when they began My,
they didn't want any overlord And they didn't
want any king or they didn't want any
emperor Let's throw this upper ten crowd down
And let's put to night He
doesn't want
God but he finishes up being God Tremendous
thing isn't it How easily deceived we are
But watch this man I'm only illustrating communism
there You know he's not a communist Not
by any means he's not But he's walking
along the same principle Beginning by opposing God
And ending up that he himself is God
But we go on to see not only
the passion But let's go down the chapter
a little bit till you see his power
Verse nine, even him Whose coming is after
the working of Satan With all power and
signs and lying wonders You know this fellow
has power You know the moment the true
church was out And the apostasy begins This
man will step in and take command of
everything And you know friends while he opposes
everything that's called worship By lying wonders and
signs He'll make the world worship him For
he'll have power Power, mighty power The power
of Satan You see Satan tries to eat
God and everything Our Lord Jesus Christ Was
God incarnate He was God manifest and flesh
Yes, he was perfectly human He could weep,
he could eat, he could sleep And yet
through him all the fullness of the Godhead
Bodily was demonstrated All the power of God
Well so Satan, I'll get a man And
he'll be Satan incarnate I'll fill him with
my power And everything I have I'll give
to him And he'll be able to do
wonders But mind you, there'll be lying wonders
It'll be wonders done to deceive Done to
deceive There's a great lot of deception going
on even tonight in the support Christian church
You know I read some time ago and
I mean to expose this That in one
of these great healing campaigns in America The
healer was known to do this He was
known to send his right hand man in
an aeroplane Two hundred miles across the state
one morning And to pick up certain men
Give them twenty pounds each for the day
Say you come in the plane and you
come in the plane and you come in
the plane And you walk into the meeting
tonight pretending to be a blind man And
you come in in a wheeler chair and
you come in somewhere else And you know
this blind man was led onto the platform
Stood there, asked a few questions And before
a great crowded auditorium This healer raised his
hand upon him And immediately he could see
But if you were in the audience you
wouldn't know a thing about it You'd be
bluffed For you would come out there and
say Mr Moon but I saw it I
saw the blind man I saw the fellow
in the wheelchair I saw, see and believe
in it But very carefully The devil will
bluff you if you're not careful Now don't
go out and say that I said all
the healers did that I didn't say any
such thing And don't go out and say
that I don't believe in divine healing For
there's nobody in here believes more But I'm
just warning you So very careful about the
devil We're just at the end of the
age and he's preparing for a tremendous thing
And mind you in the not too far
distant future we're going to see lying wonders
We're going to see signs, I'll tell you
this We're going to see miracles And this
man indwelt with the power of Chisholm Will
be able to do miracles And of course
it's all to deceive The crowd that's left
behind And there's some of them wouldn't be
hard to deceive When you see the minister
stand and tear him pages Out of the
bible before his congregation And there's so many
more and so many pages down And they
all sit and swallow him So wouldn't be
hard to deceive, would they?
I don't know what some of you do
under these emissaries of hell at all There's
just one thing that I can never understand
How real born again blood-bought believers put
up with I can never understand that I
can understand a whole lot of things But
I can't understand that Now we've seen the
passion We've seen the power Let's have a
look at the people that's under him just
for a moment Now watch, we'll go over
verse 9 again Even him whose coming is
after the working of Satan With all power
and signs and lying wonders And with all
deceivableness Of all unrighteousness in them that put
Now that's the crowd that will be on
the believers a lot for that Not a
bit of them, you don't get one of
them there You know the crowd that's left
behind in the great apostasy The crowd in
the midst of whom is revealed the Antichrist
The crowd that will see these demonstrations and
lying wonders Is that crowd that And I'll
tell you why they're vanished The book tells
you, did you read it?
Look verse 10 again And with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness In them that perish because They
receive not the love of the truth That's
a micro-save You know, there are two
dispensations here You see, this dispensation that we're
in tonight We're preaching God's truth And in
Sunday night after Sunday night I try to
bring this meeting the truth of the gospel
And of course the truth of the gospel
Uplifts a person who is called the truth
I am the way, the truth And we're
uplifting the truth But you know, when you
go to a meeting And you begin to
tell the congregation That there's just one sacrifice
for ten Just one, it was offered itself
When you begin to tell the congregation That
nothing can force ten upon Nothing but the
blood of Jesus When you begin to tell
the congregation Neither is there salvation in any
other For there's none other name unto heaven
given To close the congregation into the cross
And the blood and the Christ They don't
like it Ah no, they don't love the
truth That's a micro-save You see when
I go to some churches And I teach
the old gospel Just like I've outlined it
now I know right well that I'll never
go back again You know I can sense
this at times I'm not very long preaching
Sometimes I hear the old minister behind me
coughing Sometimes you know ignorantly I turn round
And say what's up with you, you've got
the cold There's a
whole lot of people You love the truth
And you know, the child hates the
lie Well this book declares that there's one
coming In the not too far distant future
And he's going to be indwelt by the
power of Satan And his name is The
Lie He's just the opposite to the truth
And if you don't believe the truth now
You'll believe the lie then God will speak
to that So what's this working out, do
you see?
We'll read verse ten again Preachers for themselves
And with all deceivableness upon righteousness And them
that perish Because they received not the love
of the truth That they might be saved
And for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion That they should believe And the
two words there should be THE LIE Capital
T, capital L In your Greek New Testament
It's a person This person, this antichrist This
man of sin, this son of perdition Is
THE LIE He'll be in the other dispensation
And the boys who don't like the truth
now Will love THE LIE then Do you
know, I know that when I preach to
a congregation like this There's always somebody in
the crowd Who's got a thought like this
at the back of their mind They say,
you know, my mother was saved And my
father was saved And I knew the gospel
And if Christ came now and I was
left behind I would never bow to the
antichrist I know too much You've just left,
haven't you, we say That in that dispensation
GOD WILL SEND YOU STRONG DELUSION You should
believe the lie Say, that's quite good My,
you'll just be the fellow that'll bow And
you'll be found at the feet of the
antichrist In a day to come if you
don't watch Now, I want to get that
wee bit further to you Watch this We'll
read verse 10 again And with all deceivable
nets of unrighteousness And them that perish Because
they received not the love of the truth
That they might be saved And for this
cause GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION THAT
THEY SHOULD BELIEVE THE LIE THAT THEY ALL
MIGHT BE BROUND I say, that's hardly anything,
isn't it Mind you, I didn't think this
This is your Bible, I didn't know You
know, I remember I wasn't very long in
this country side And I stopped with the
old road man one day And leaned over
the chair and had a yarn whistle And
we got round to these things And I
told him that there was a day coming
When God would send people Strong delusion That
they all might be bound He says, that's
a lie I said, can you read And
I brings this out and let him read
it I can see his face, you know,
he looks at it He says, my God,
I didn't think that was in the book
No, he didn't Did you think it was
in the book?
Ah, well, it happens to be that it
is in the book And my dear, you
might be one of those folks tonight And
you don't love the truth I'll put my
name on a church roll And I'll just
go a few Sundays And I'll pray and
I'll do this You'll go to hell, that's
what you'll do You don't love the truth
You don't want a borrowed Calvary, that's your
trouble You don't want to come to the
tent of personal failure, that's your trouble You
don't love the truth Well, you love the
lie, and you'll get it And mind you,
we're just on the verge of this dispensation
changing Now, are you following the notes?
Have a look at the notes on the
dispensation The first thing that we look for
is the return Of our Lord for His
saints The second thing is the removal of
the believer The third thing is the relapse
of the proof-having touch The fourth thing
is the revelation of the man of sense
And the fifth one I've just underlined for
you Is the rejection of the sinner by
his God My, the tables are going to
turn on you Tonight you're rejecting God Well,
there'll be tomorrow, next God will be rejecting
you You'll laugh forever at God, you know
Some of you think you can wiggle about
with God My God will close the door
in your face and can your strong delusion
and let you go to hell Tremendous truths
in this chapter My, they should make you
tremble You'll not fool around with God forever
You'll think He was a wee lad on
the side of the street to see someone
He's the almighty maker of heaven and earth
And in great grace and love and mercy
He has come and treated with some of
your souls And you just laugh and you
say Well, maybe tomorrow night the tables will
turn To me, to you Tremendous Now, I
want you to notice this Verse seven, we're
back up to chapter For the mystery of
iniquity God already works You know, the devil
longs for the day and the hour and
the moment When he'll be able to put
this man of sin on the platform of
this world And have everything his own way
He longs for that You see, the mystery
of godliness Grief is the mystery of godliness
Do you remember the verse God manifests in
flesh Well, grief is the mystery of iniquity
Hidden, working through a man And he longs
for the day when he'll be able to
put the man on the platform of this
world Only there's somebody keeping him back There's
somebody keeping him back Do you see that
little verse It says, in verse seven He
who now let us will let Until he
be taken out of the way Now, it's
a great pity that that word let us
And let They have lost their original meaning
This is one of the English words That
has lost its original meaning Hundreds of years
ago, the word let meant to handle And
the passage can read like this Only he
who now handle Will handle Until he be
taken out of the way There's somebody handling
the devil tonight From doing it So I
can put this question to the smallest believer
in this meeting Who is You
think it's the archbishop of Canterbury You're a
fool if you do You think it's the
president of the Baptist Union of Ireland You're
still a bigger fool Look, we could put
all the presidents And all the leaders of
all the churches Into the arena with the
devil And they wouldn't last the first round
It's too big for us But there's one
person down here tonight bigger than him The
Holy Ghost The third person of the Trinity
And every move the devil makes down here
To flood this world with it The Holy
Ghost lives He does But the day the
church goes out And the day the believers
go out Is the day the Holy Ghost
goes out And the devil has the platform
to himself And only he who now hindereth
Will hinder until he's gone out of the
way You know, as we've got to the
end of the age You're bound to know
that things have got worse I wouldn't like
to go into this too deep But I
think that I should just say a little
word here You know, I'm just thirsty I
was thirsty last week I didn't get a
card from one of you And when I
was just allowed Of twelve, thirteen, fourteen We
used to play games at the corner of
the street In the winter at night Kick
the tin, do you remember that?
Some of you older ones We used to
play kick the tin And you know, we
could play this at night And run into
the shadows and hide And sometimes the losses
would play with us too But you know,
a loss could have had you in those
days There were three or four boys in
the docks And there was never anything wrong
It was just fun They don't play kick
the tin at the street corner now At
twelve and thirteen They're cuddling them round the
corner Am I right?
Well I shocked you when I...
That at one of the secondary schools in
America Just last year, nineteen hundred and fifty
nine Where a thousand boys and girls Forty
girls under fourteen Were found pregnant That's the
age we live in Oh you don't need
to blush about it You know all of
us That's the age we live in It's
good as hell as fast as it can
go I talked to a teacher from a
secondary school Not so very far from here
And here's what she told me She said
there's not a fast girl at the school
She said I'll talk them all They're living
in a terrible age Do you know the
devil would flood The earth with wickedness tonight
If it wasn't for the Holy Ghost Oh
they're getting nearer to it Just you take
the believers out Just you take the men
who rattle the mother in the church Just
you take the steadfast unmovable defenders of the
faith out Just you take the real chaps
out Take the Holy Ghost out And you'll
see your world will go to hell upon
earth It will Thank God for the Holy
Ghost been down here Thank God Because when
we go The man of sin The son
of perdition Will be revealed And although he'll
be mighty and powerful Here's what will happen
to him Verse 8 Then shall that wicked
one The wording should be See the capital
W there There should be wicked one Then
shall that wicked one be revealed Whom the
Lord shall consume With the spit of his
mouth And shall be scorned With the brightness
of his coming You see the Lord Jesus
Christ will come And destroy him Now look
down the notes in dispensation And you'll find
what Paul was trying to get over to
He said don't you fellows be worried or
troubled The first thing you look for is
the return Of the Lord for a change
The second thing you look for is the
removal Of the believer The moment we're gone
there's a lot Will come in the professing
church Then there will be the revelation of
the man of sin Then there will be
the rejection of the sinner by his God
He reminded them of the mystery that was
already working He pointed out the reliability of
the spirit who would keep it by And
then he underlined the reappearing Of the Lord
to consume the antichrist Why he touched some
truths didn't he You know Paul must have
been a great preacher Because when he went
into Thessalonica and preached the gospel Why he
went on just in a few weeks To
outline all these truths to them And he
said you know when I was with you
I told you these things How often I've
preached these things from this platform And then
I meet a young believer on the street
And he wants to know something that I've
said a hundred times He doesn't seem to
be able to get it And if he
did get it he seems to forget it
And they were just the same up Thessalonica
Now he turns from dispensational truths To evangelical
truths to assure them And I think this
is very lovely Can't you see the difference
he makes in verse 13 But, oh that's
one of these buts that come in But
we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you Brethren, beloved of the Lord
Doesn't he make a difference between the boys
that perish And the boys that are saved
Oh we are bound to give thanks to
God always for you Brethren, beloved of the
Lord So can the saved ones now Changing
the subject Something to say to them And
here's the first thing that he said He
said because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation Now that's a big subject,
that's election now we're on And that's something
that puzzled the young believers And the old
ones and the middle ones too Election You
know some people can't understand this They wonder
why and how God can choose a man
To be saved before the foundation of the
world And yet at the same time leave
him responsible for the choice That's a tremendous
one isn't it Shall I take a moment
or two to figure it out for the
young believers Now listen to me carefully I
was preaching some years ago At a certain
place And I was preaching on the choice
That Judas made The Lord Jesus looked at
Judas over the Passover table And said to
him What thou doest Do quickly And he
sat for a moment or two And the
devil entered into him And the group said
he roared and went out and it was
night He'd made his choice And I talked
that night on the choice that Judas made
And when I'd finished the meeting and went
into the little vestry A very dear friend
of mine One of the keenest intellects in
the country The headmaster of the secondary school
He came in through the door and he
said Willie you talked the greatest lot of
nonsense tonight I ever heard in my life
I just laughed I said what baiting He
said You must know that it says in
the book of Psalms That Judas was to
go to his own place I know that
He said well if God prophesied Six hundred
years before a man was born That he
would go to that certain place Surely he
couldn't go to any other place What are
you couldn't about that There's all the difference
between couldn't and wouldn't And if God knew
that he wouldn't Don't you say couldn't I
said sit down to head the kitchen for
a minute or two No I said listen
to me till we get this square and
fair I said it's twenty past nine now
I said to him And I'll say I'm
God And of course being God I know
everything I know the end from the beginning
don't I He said yes Well I'm going
to make a prophecy And I'm going to
prophecy that in two hours that will be
twenty minutes past eleven There will be a
car coming up Union Street and one coming
down Market Street And they're going to crash
up at that corner That's a prophecy And
I said we'll sit here for the next
two hours and just a minute or two
before the crash will drop And we'll stand
on the footpath And sure enough because I'm
God I know And because I'm God I
foretold At twenty past eleven there's a crash
I said the moment the crash takes place
the crowd comes the police come Who do
they blame for this crash me Go on
I said forty No I said I said
I'm not to blame I said just because
I was able to prophecy I didn't take
the wheel over their hands did I Just
because I was able to foretell did I
take the fellows responsibility away did I I
didn't make it that he couldn't do anything
else did I I just prophesied that he
wouldn't But I left the responsibility on him
didn't I He said worry you have got
this you know I said it does not
mean you worry about it you have you
got it Have you got it When we
talk about election And predestination And choice before
the foundation of the world In God's full
knowledge God looks down the ages And he
can see the very spot Where I would
of my own free will And with a
glad heart it's postulogy And he chose me
in Christ before the foundation of the world
And mind you Because he chose me he
didn't make it that you could Sir you're
responsible sir And if you go to hell
You'll be responsible And you're a free man
to me And there'll nobody hand me on
at the end of this meeting And if
you want to go to hell you can
go to hell Nobody keeping you back The
choice belongs to you And I'll tell you
this God will do everything he can To
start you on the way to heaven But
the choice rests with you You've got a
decision You've got a choice to take You've
got a savior to personally But if you
don't want them you can go to hell
But you know God knows everyone that will
bow and trust his son And because of
his full knowledge Of what you would do
at that spot responsibly You would take Christ
You were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world It's wonderful you know Your
salvation was right away back before the foundation
of the world Paul said All settled
as far as God was concerned Why the
boys would talk of being lost again You
only go that way for a while And
to the eternity past and have a go
at it How are you going to rub
this end of it out It's like a
fiddle with this end of it don't you
Have a go at the other end While
you get on You're stuck Let's go on
Verse thirteen But we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you Brethren beloved
of the Lord Because God hath from the
beginning Chosen you to salvation Now watch this
Fruit of the Spirit That's how he works
it out You see I can see the
triune God here I can see the Father
Choosing me in Christ before the foundation of
the world And you know down here in
time The Holy Ghost has to come to
convict me Of my deep needs He has
to burden me with the conscious sense of
my guilt He has to place me with
my imminent danger I'm on a broad road
that leads to destruction And the Holy Ghost
deals with me And you know sometimes when
I preach here on Sunday nights Why the
whole congregation rises and walks up And you
see someone sobbing Or someone coming the other
way Why it's not many Sunday nights ago
Since I saw Psalm Clark coming up through
this way And then I went down here
to meet him He just fell round and
said Mr. Wong I'm not leaving this place
till I'm saved What's wrong with you The
Holy Ghost had made hold of him What
a wonderful thing The Holy Ghost had gripped
him That was sanctification of the Spirit The
Spirit had separated him out from the crowd
Sanctification means separation The Spirit had separated him
out from the crowd Tell me was that
Sure that was the first one He had
got that one before he was saved You
read the Bible upside down You see God
the Father chose me in Christ The Holy
Ghost brought me out from the crowd What
did Psalm Clark need when he leant on
my back What did he need Belief of
the truth Belief of the truth Christ I
just led him to Christ The Father chose
me The Spirit girded me And the Saviour
saved me That's salvation by the triune God
That's what you call great salvation The Father
chose me The Spirit convicted me And I
was led to trust the Saviour Belief in
the truth And so you get saved Now
watch, it goes just a little bit further
We'll read from verse 13 again But we
are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord Because
God has from the beginning chosen you to
salvation Through sanctification of the Spirit That comes
first And belief of the truth Where unto
he called you by our gospel You see,
are you looking at the evangelical bit of
your notes He touched the election by the
Father He touched sanctification by the Spirit He
touched salvation by the Son And then he
touched proclamation by the preacher Why the preacher
needs to preach the gospel Something, you know,
that all you young men who go out
preaching And all you fellows who go out
singing You would need to learn to sing
the gospel Siddling around, you'd think you were
entertaining half-time The gospel!
Do you know what it is?
When I hear them singing, there's not that
in the gospel Not that in the gospel
Lovely wee lyrics, one thing and another Where's
the gospel?
It's the gospel, the gospel You need to
get there, you know And the preachers would
need to get there Because that's how God
works Yes, the Father chooses, the Spirit conducts
The Saviour is presented in the gospel For
the belief of the sinner And then here's
the end of the thing, watch To thee
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ
Look friend, I think this is wonderful In
eternity past I was chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world In time I
was convicted by the Spirit I was saved
at the cross as I trusted the Saviour
Who was uplifted in the gospel And in
the street by and by I obtained the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ There was
a gospel From eternity right through to eternity
Man, he's making these fellows at Cecil and
Acre Very sure that you fellows don't worry
The middle part of the devil Here's where
you fellows stand Frozen, sanctified, saved And you're
bound for the...
Wonderful isn't it?
Couldn't Paul preach?
The more I read the more ashamed I
am He was a great preacher Never stand
anywhere where some body belittles Paul He was
a mighty, mighty God And so having that
dispensational truth And evangelical truth He comes to
this devotional truth In the last two verses
He says, now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
And God, even our Father Puts the two
of them together, co-equal as usual Which
has loved us I think that's lovely So
he's making them turn around He said, do
you see away back there?
You know God loves You know there's one
thing that fills my heart More than another,
and it's this That God loves a character
like me God so loves me away back
there, who saw?
That fills me, you know, every day I
live that through And I know this, you
know That the God who loves me back
there will never change But you know, he's
just touching the love That God had for
them in the past And then he's touching
The everlasting consolation and good hope That was
brought to them through grace You know, are
we out there In the all-knowing future
In the unceasing cycles of eternity We have,
why we have everlasting I'll tell you why
it's everlasting Because we have an everlasting Savior
You see, Hebrews chapter one said That the
heavens would roll away like a scroll And
the earth would be folded up like a
vestal But one Lord Jesus will forever remain
It doesn't matter about the tribulation It doesn't
matter about the world being It doesn't matter
about the atomic bomb It doesn't matter about
the elements being melted with fervent heat Nothing
can touch us He'll always be there Thou
will be there That everlasting consolation The Savior
that I trust He'll always be there Always
be there But you know There's not only
love in the past And everlasting consolation For
all the unceasing cycles of eternity But you
know there's comfort for today You know God
comforts your heart Oh this is a great
subject This subject of comfort Sometimes when I
go into a home Where a loved one
has departed Why your words seem so empty
And every movement seems to mean something You
don't know what way to stand You don't
know what way to look You don't know
what way to speak You would need a
certain tone You would need everything that only
God could give you And I feel that
only God can really comfort I know that
only God can wipe away the tears from
your eyes I know that only Christ can
bind a broken heart I know that only
the Holy Ghost is called the comforter Why
this is a mighty work that goes on
every day we live Some of us have
been tearing in the shadows in these last
days The storm has been howling The boots
been full of water The night has been
dark But God can comfort your heart You
see I think that when he got back
to repeating things in this chapter He brought
this dispensational truth in To re-teach them
things they needed to know and had forgotten
And he brought this evangelical truth in To
re-assure them You are chosen man, you
are sanctified, you are saved, you are bound
for glory And I think he brought this
dispensational truth in Not so much to re
-teach them or re-assure them But to
revive them He said the God of all
comfort, do you see how he put it
Shall bless you in every good word and
much My, he was looking for revival for
the boys who are passing the night Friends,
there is a tremendous chapter With tremendous truth
with a great depth And I want to
make a special appeal To every unsaved man
and woman in this building just now Dear
unsaved friend I want you to think That
you are living in a day and hour
and age and dispensation When the grace of
God And the spirit of God and the
power of God And the word of God
and the message of God is presenting Christ
to you I want every unsaved man to
take their time tonight And have another look
at God's Son, I appeal As I have
never done before That you take your time
tonight and have a look at God's Son
I would love you to see him stretched
out on the cross With his hands nailed
to yarns, shirt and dress I would like
you to see his face is battered more
than any man I would like you to
see the thorns crushed down tight on his
lovely brow I would like you to see
the blood and the sweat As they fall
down his naked fore With every bone out
of joint His arms pulled asunder from his
breath heaving I want you to get a
hold of this This was God's Son And
he would guide that you might have a
saviour And before you rise from the seat
tonight God thou doest, very quickly And
you could rise from that seat and go
out And it would be everlasting night for
you You could be damned But if you
come quietly and humbly and sincerely Lift your
heart as best you know how and say
Lord Jesus I want you to make as
my saviour And with every fable of my
being I accept you now My soul for
you If you are not saved You will
be saved You could be saved tonight And
you could be bound Tomorrow When you come
Let us pray Let
us be still for a moment And let's
fool around with God in this meeting Let's
all just get our feet back on earth
Realize that there is more than the pastor
here The preacher doesn't matter too much He
is not worth talking But there is a
saviour here God's lovely Son is here And
the burning question of this moment is What
will you do with Jesus?
You need Him There is no other saviour
There is no other way back to God
There is no other door There is no
other land There is no other name under
heaven given among men Whereby he must be
saved It's either Christ or hell And
all heaven waits And God hasn't made it
that you couldn't But God maybe knows Would
He?
God forbid that He'll ever threaten over you
He would not How oft would I have
called you together as a hand And gather
us a brood under her wing But ye
would not Not ye could not Ye would
not Christ's waiting Marvelous mystery Christ's waiting
on you Lord,
save sinners For Thy glory Amen