Preparing for The Last Days (1987)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you would like to turn with me to some scriptures, first. In the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, in chapter five from verse one. One. Thessalonians, chapter five from verse one. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that ought be written unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, when they are saying peace and safety. Then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall in no wise escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For ye are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. So then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore exhort one another and build each other up, even as also ye do. Verse 23. And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly. And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it. And then in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21. The Gospel of Luke and chapter 21 from verse 34. But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day come on you suddenly as a snare, for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of man. And lastly, in the book of revelation, chapter 16 and one, verse 15. Revelation, chapter 16 and verse 15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. I have been asked if I would speak on the subject this morning, of preparing for the last days, and I cannot think of any subject that is perhaps more vital, more strategic, and more necessary to be heard by the people of God. Many people get very excited with prophecy. It is almost a kind of carryover from the old days when people read their week in the stars or went to palm readers or were crystal ball gazers and all the rest of it. A kind of fascination with the future, particularly as it relates to each one of us personally. Sometimes it's just a sheer fascination with the supernatural. And somehow or other the prophetic word has that kind of fascination. I have known people in my christian experience who have been walking encyclopedias as far as dogma on the whole matter of the prophetic word goes, but who I could never say for one single moment were contributing factors in the fellowship where they were, were not living contributions in the work of God. Indeed, could be quite the opposite, difficult, divisive, critical, everything that we shouldnt be if were going to be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Now, it is a most amazing but true fact that our Lord Jesus and indeed the apostles never put the emphasis on the details of his second coming or the events that preceded that. What I mean is this. The Lord Jesus certainly spoke about his coming very much. He spoke about the glory of his coming, and he spoke about the events that would precede it. He spoke about the signs that would indicate when those periods, that phase would begin and the different eras within that last phase. But the Lord Jesus never put the emphasis on the sequence of events. And this is why in the christian church we have so many different interpretations concerning, for instance, the rapture, or concerning, for instance, the millennium. It is because, in fact, in many ways there is a certain amount of vagueness, if I may put it that way, within the word of God itself. Jesus, in other words, was not unaware when he spoke of the confusion that that there would be on the matter of whether we would go, for instance, before the tribulation, after the tribulation, or during the tribulation, whether we would all be taken, or whether only those who would be ready would be taken and the others would go through, whether there would be a millennium or whether there wouldn't be a millennium. I mean, the fact of the matter is, Jiz could not be unaware of the confusion that there has been and the rise of these different schools of interpretation. Why in the world then, didn't the Lord Jesus give one supplementary discourse of exactly five to seven minutes in which he spelt out dogmatically and categorically to clear up the confusion forever? But he never did. In other words, we have precisely the amount we need to wake up if we have living faith and be ready, and we do not have enough to walk by sight and not by faith. In other words, if the Lord had only spelt it out, we could be living compromised, worldly lives right up to the last moment and turn over a new leave when we are absolutely clear that he is coming. But in fact, I have no doubt about it. If we want to sleep, we shall be able to sleep right to the coming of the Lord. And if we wish to be half baked, we can be half baked till the coming of the Lord. If we wish to remain more than half dead, we can remain more than half dead right to the coming of the Lord. And this is how I understand those amazing words which used to puzzle me so, so greatly in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible. Ill read them to you so that I dont misquote them. In revelation and chapter 22 he said, verse ten, he saith unto me, seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still. And he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still. And he that is holy, let him be made holy still. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to render to each man according to his work. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. In other words, if you want to, you can continue in a compromised worldly state right till the coming of the Lord. If on the other hand, you want to wake up and discover the Lord and discover all that he has provided for you and for me, we can do so. And therefore, the point I wish to make in introducing this whole subject is that the emphasis of the Lord Jesus and the apostles is like a trumpet call in its clarity. His emphasis is found in these take heed. Take heed to yourselves. Be ye also ready, for in an hour that you think not the son of man comes. Or again, watch and pray. And what I say to you, I say to all, watch. The Lord Jesus spoke in a warning manner about his coming, being like a thief in the night. In other words, something that was unexpected, sudden, stealthy, that would catch us out when we least expected it. Thieves do not make their visits known beforehand. They don't telephone you with the time of their visit or send a letter to make you aware of what is happening. Thieves come suddenly and unexpectedly. And I always think to myself how almost blasphemous this illustration is of the coming of the Lord Jesus. If the Lord Jesus had not himself used it, if any child of God or servant of God, had likened the coming of the Lord to a thief, I think they would have been in serious trouble, because, after all, most christians will say, theres nothing like the Lord Jesus thats remotely akin to a thief. He doesnt rob us. Hes not a brigand. Hes not a thief thief in that way at all. But it was Jesus himself who spoke about his coming as a thief. And in the book of Revelation he says, behold, I come as a thief. Now, one other point before we get off these few introductory remarks is this, that we need, at least as I see it, we need to have an ear to hear what the spirit is saying, lest we discover that we are caught out. Now, it is a salutary and very solemnizing fact that Jesus did not speak these words in the major discourse that he gave on his second coming, nor in this book of revelation, behold, I come as a thief, nor the apostles words in the first thessalonian and second thessalonian letter. These words were not spoken to the unsaved multitudes, as most people imagine, warning them that they might be caught out by his coming. Of course that's true, but it wasn't an evangelistic meeting, nor was it a great concourse of believers, many of them worldly and compromised, many of them going to fall away from the Lord. It wasn't even the 120 that finally were found in the upper room in Jerusalem, not even the 70 that he sent out in his name to cleanse the lepers, heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons, who Jesus said he saw Satan falling out of heaven like lightning. It wasn't even the twelve, the inner circle, the twelve apostles. It was the inner circle of the inner circle. Mark tells us that Andrew, Peter, James, and John, the closest to him, he went with them out of the garden of Gethsemane, somewhere on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the whole temple area and the city of Jerusalem. And sitting down, they said to him, master, tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And then he said to those four, take heed. Take heed to yourselves. Be ye also ready, for in an hour that you think not the son of man comes. Watch and pray. And what I say to you, for I say to all, watch. It is exactly the same with the apostle Paul writing to that marvelous church at Thessalonica, which, if it had any fault, was because it was so devoted to the law that it went to extremes. And writing to them, he says, be careful that this day doesn't overtake you as a thief. And then this marvelous book of revelation given to the believer, to the church, Jesus says to us, behold, I come as a thief. Now, all of this at least ought to wake us up. It means that the most responsible of us, the most devoted of us, the most knowledgeable of us, even in prophetic things, could be caught out by the coming of the Lord. How then, should we be prepared for that coming of the Lord Jesus? There are one or two matters I want to underline this morning, and the first is this. We need to settle all outstanding issues in our lives. Don't leave an outstanding issue in your life or it will become your undoing. Remember, lots, wife. I've always had great sympathy with poor lot's wife. I used to think how mean it was really that the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt on that way up. I mean, after all, she had left everything, poor soul, and all she did was stand there and look back and she got turned into a pillar of salt. My dear friends, our christian churches and fellowships are filled with such pillars of salt. They're everywhere pickled, if you like. I mean, they've got. They've got to a certain level. We've got to a certain level level of experience, a certain level of devotion, a certain level of committal, a certain level of understanding. But there are issues that have not been settled in our lives. And when the great crisis comes, that issue overtakes and undoes us. What was it? Do you think, that the Lord was so mean that this faithful woman should be turned into a pillar of salt? No. She had put her own home and the things of this life. First. She believed in the Lord. She belonged to the Lord. The angels had to carry her out of the home. Of course, that was the first thing. And she went with them. Her daughters were there and her husband, and she went along with them. But in that one moment, when she took a breath, she looked back and only God knows what she was thinking. But it was a clear indication of an unsettled issue in her life. And the amazing thing is that right in this whole passage in Luke 17 about the coming of the Lord, Jesus suddenly says like a bullet, remember lot's wife? Now, these issues that we sometimes have can be very big things. Sometimes it's an issue with God. We have an argument with God, which has been pretty well all through life. We feel he's done us out of something, or we feel he's not done the best for us, but we wouldn't say that. Of course, obviously we try to praise the Lord, but simmering underneath is this kind of thing that, well, I don't know why the Lord gave me brown eyes instead of blue eyes, or why he brought me into such a family as I've got into, or how I ever got into the circumstances that I am in. It's a kind of issue we have with the law. We've never brought it out into the open, never faced it, and never got it settled. There are many other kinds of issues. Of course there are issues with one another. Most people settle this issue by moving from one fellowship to another, only to find that probably in the kingdom to come, theyll be sharing a bedroom with the people they move from. After all, were all going to have to live together in the end. But weve all got a sneaking suspicion that the Lord is going to vindicate us and downgrade them when it comes to the final crunch. But, you know, these issues with one another are disastrous in much of what happened originally in the chinese church, the marxist party, the chinese marxist party boasted that it never, ever made an accusation against a christian servant of God or a Christian. They said the members of the churches made all the accusations. It is absolutely true. My dear friends, we need to settle this kind of issue. There are also issues to do with the world. Now, this whole matter of the world is a very big thing, and its very hard to know. I mean, I remember when I was first saved, I was for some years in a particular group of christians who never went to see a film, who never wore makeup, who never smoked, who never drank, who never watched sport. And these werent some weird cult. This was a good baptist church, actually, but it was separation from the world. I shall never forget my first shock in one of the church meetings when I saw church members losing their temper with one another and virtually calling each other names. They didn't even know what tobacco smoke smelt like, drink had never wet their lips. They even had, in those days, arguments about whether you should have a television or not. But the world was inside. Nevertheless, we have to face the fact that there are times when God tells us to give something up, or when God speaks to us about some particular habit. It's all right for others, it's not right for you. And it's an issue because we argue with the Lord. Why should I do it? So and so does it. So and so does it. But the fact of the matter is, it is an issue of obedience, and it's to do often with some very simple thing few of us ever realized till afterwards how much hinges on a small act of disobedience, on a small act of obedience over what seems to be a very insignificant, significant matter. And then sometimes we have issues with ourselves. In other words, we've got a kind of ongoing argument with ourselves. We can never come to terms with the kind of person we are, the kind of temperament we have, the kind of personality we have, and all the time we just feel that although God loves us, we can't believe it. We think that God only loves a projection of us, that we have to be a different type of temperament for him to love us. These are the issues. They have to be settled. If they're not settled, they can be our undoing. Now, I find this very interesting because in my estimation, it is best to settle this thing in one. I was very interested some years ago when brother knees ministry came out in a little booklet called release of the spirit. My word, the fuss that there was over that little book. In some charismatic circles, this was followed by a much bigger, a three volume affair called the Spiritual man. Then there was an even bigger fuss over the spiritual man, followed a little later by a little book called the Latent power of the soul. And that was the end. His books were banned from certain charismatic bookstores. Now it is those same areas that have got into trouble so much in recent years. It's because there is a whole area that many of us in the renewal want to face, and it is as simple as this. If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. He that loseth his life for my sake and the gospels shall find it. And he that holds on or seeks to preserve his life the same shall lose it. It is an unfailing principle. Even if youve had the greatest, most powerful experience of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit will not last in your life unless you are prepared to lay down your life for him and for the sake of the gospel. Those who know permanent anointing, permanent power, permanent fullness, permanent fruitfulness, who go on and on with the Lord, you will always find they are lives that have been laid down for the Lord. My dear friends, I could speak for an hour on this subject. Its everywhere. Its the missing note in many a, in my estimation. In much of the renewal. When I think of the empire building, there has been a certain amount of fraudulence over money that there has been, and much else. Men of God, truly called by God, truly anointed by God, truly gifted by God, but somehow or other theres been some issue inside that was never dealt with at the beginning and beginning in the spirit we end in the flesh. My dear folks, if, and I dont think even in the days past you could get away on this matter. But if we could have got away with these things in days gone by, we will certainly not get away with anything like this. In the days that lie ahead, the days that are coming with all their shaking, with all their trouble, with all their challenge are going to find us out. If there is any atom within us thats for self. This is an uncomfortable message. It is much nicer to hear of fullness and power and victory and overcoming. But Jesus put it again and again whenever he came to the heart of the matter, he said, give up all rights to yourself, take up your cross and follow me. When you lose your life, you find it. Now, some people think that if you lose your life you become a permanent misery. You sort of have to go into dark colors, look miserable, and all the time tell everybody else how you are knowing the fellowship of his sufferings, you know, that kind of pious and holy religious kind of holiness, which isn't holiness at all, it is religion. But as I see it very often we've got the idea if I start to go this way it's going to be. But Jesus never said that. He said he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospels the same shall find it not meaning in the kingdom to come. He'll find it now, it'll come back. To him it's always the same. Have you got a gift for singing let it go to the cross and youll get it back only in a very different way. Have you got a gift for playing let it go, it will come back and the Lord will be in it in a way that he was never there before. Have you got a gift for preaching let it go, it will come back. God will then have an anointing in you and upon you you never had before. Its the same in every single thing. It doesnt matter what it is. We let it go, God gives it back. We go down into death and God takes care of the resurrection. People often say to me, especially young people, they have a problem about how to live the christian life. My dear friend, I always say to everyone, that's no problem. There's no problem about how to live the christian life. The problem is how to die. Thats the problem. If youll only learn how to die, God takes care of the resurrection. Youll come out of the grave like a bomb like a rocket. The deeper you go into the grave, the more youll come out the other side. It is an absolute principle with God. He that exalts himself shall be humble, and he that humbles himself the same shall be exalted. It is a principle with God. You go down to go up and thats what Im talking. Well, anyway, I must leave it. And heres another matter. If were going to be prepared for the last days, we need to have an understanding of the times in which we live. In Ephesians, chapter five and verse 16, it puts it quite simply. It says, look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is? And then, and be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the spirit speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and so on. Now, dear folks, isn't this interesting? I mean, here there is, and we need to have an understanding of the times in which we live. Now, this doesn't mean necessarily an absolutely dogmatic, categoric, pigeonholed idea of exactly what is going to happen and when it's going to happen and where it's going to happen and who's going to do it and all the rest of it. That's not what I mean. But I think that God has to give us an inward understanding of the days in which we live. Now I will not spend too much time on this matter because most of you, I think, are quite aware that we must have passed into the last days. I've been speaking all over the country pretty well on this as one of the subjects, and I've said to everywhere, everywhere I've gone is everybody says it's the last days. But how do they know it's the last days? I mean, most evangelicals believe we're in the last days. All charismatics believe we're in the last days. The Dalai Lama thinks we're in the last days. The lamas in Tibet think we're in the last. The fundamentalist Muslims say that we're in the last days. The ultra orthodox Jews believe we're in the last days. The man in the street thinks we're in the last days. Most of the people never go to church, have nothing to do with the say. I think something very strange is happening. They think we're in the end, the end of the world. The only people who don't know we're in the last days. Liberal theologians, they apparently think there's no danger, and things are just continuing as they've always done, even in the charismatic, in those who are most devoted and clear on many things, who believe that God is going to restore the church, recover the function of the body of Christ, and manifest his glory all over the earth through the body of the Lord Jesus. They believe we're in the last days, they say, because we're in the last days, the time has come for the recovery of the church. But they say that Israel is a political accident. Many of them. I don't understand it. How in the world do we know we're in the last days? So someone says, well, we know, because Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines and plague, diseases and persecution. But I mean, anybody who's been an average student of history knows that there hasn't been a single year in the last 1900 years when there haven't been wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines and plague, diseases and some degree of persecution. Oh, someone says, don't be so stupid. The Lord didn't mean that. He meant universal, worldwide, worldwide wars and worldwide wars and rumors of wars, and with it at the same time, earthquakes and famines and plague, diseases and persecution. But how did anyone ever know in the generations gone by, that this was in fact, there was worse to come, that what they were going through wasn't the worst? As I've said to people all over the place, if you had been fortunate enough to have lived through the hundred years war, which would have made you 100 and 104 or something like that, but if you had been, and you'd seen the ravage that had come through that, and the destruction of economies all over Europe, wouldn't you have thought perhaps the Lord was coming with the famine and the infectious diseases that came and everything else, and if you had lived through the black death that took 87% of the population of the Mediterranean, continental Europe, scandinavian, the british isles, into eternity, wouldnt you have thought the Lord must be coming? But the fact of the matter is, the Lord gave one validating sign, and that sign was contained in a clear and very simple statement that I personally find very hard to misunderstand. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down under foot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And it is a fact of history, an incontrovertible fact, that in the last 1900 years, Jerusalem has not been under jewish government and jewish sovereignty, except for a few months in 135, 136, until the 6th and 7 June 1967. So in this way we know that we've passed into the last phase of world history. And we ask ourselves now, is there this morning today a jewish state? There most decidedly is, and the whole world knows it. 41 years ago the state didn't exist. Today everybody knows it is Jerusalem, its capital. It most decidedly is. Are there at the same time wars and rumors of wars? There are. And are there earthquakes and famines? Yes. And more to come. And plague diseases? Yes. Like AIDS. And more to come. And is there persecution? There is. From this we know we have passed into the last phase of world history. Now, if that is true, and we need to have an understanding of the times, is that all we need? Not at all. We need much more than just an understanding that we're in the last days. I find it very interesting, that little phrase that comes again and again when the Lord refers to some of these matters. He says he that hath wisdom, let him understand. I find that very interesting because it seems to suggest that not all believers have wisdom. Well ones experience backs that up. There are very few of us that have wisdom, but he says he that hath wisdom. So I understand the way it's put, we can ask for wisdom and this is what it says in the book. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. And it shall be given him if he ask in faith, nothing wavering. How thankful I am that when I was first saved, that old aunt said to me, now you need wisdom. Now he was only twelve years of age, but she said, you need wisdom, and if you are humble enough to ask God for wisdom, he will give it to you. Well, I didn't understand really what she was getting at, but it burned into my heart and I prayed every night for she gave me the scripture and read it out to me. I used to claim that scripture said, lord, I don't have wisdom, give me this wisdom. I really believe that we can have wisdom to understand not only the times we are in a general way. I mean, I'm not being unkind, but we really do have to be a bit dumb spiritually, even stupid, not to know that we're in the last days. I mean really, some people think its wonderful when someone exercises a gift, but I always remind myself that Balaam Zas once prophesied its a wonderful thing to be used by the Lord. But dont get big headed about it. The fact of the matter is, its better to have character as well as the gift. And in my estimation, this matter of wisdom is of tremendous importance because we need to know where we are and what is happening and what the Lord is really calling us to in a particular phase. For instance, how many of you know perhaps what the Lord is doing with Britain, or at least how you should be praying for Britain, how you should be standing before the Lord for Britain. It's not only Israel you should be praying for. You should be praying for your own. You have a responsibility before God, for your own nation and for its way at the present time. But if we don't have an understanding, what can we do? Do we often understand what is happening to the church of God in our day and generation? Or we can be mixed up with all the trivia of church routine kind of things that just are like a whirlpool, suck us into it, and we don't even know what is happening because we don't know what God is saying to the church in our day and generation and what he's seeking to do in the church in our day and generation. So this measure of understanding of the times is, to me, of tremendous importance. Obviously, we need to understand what God is doing with Israel and what he's doing with the jewish people. But since most of you, I believe, understand that, I will say no more on that matter. I want to make a third point about being prepared for the end times. It is very interesting to me that the Lord said repeatedly, and so did the apostles, watch and pray. Now, isn't it interesting? The Lord didn't just say, pray, pray. He said, watch and pray. And this seems to me to have a lot to do with this understanding of the times. If we can only watch and pray. Now, the word watch is to be awake, to be alert, to be alive. Some people have developed a marvelous capacity in christian circles of being asleep with their eyes open. You know, it's a kind of mentality that has developed miraculously over the years from sitting in pews and listening. It's a kind of marvelous sort of safety reaction, I almost suspect, amongst many of the Lord's people. Now, the fact of the matter is we not only need our eyes open, we need our brains functioning, if you know what I mean. In other words, we need not only have the eyes of our hearts open, but we need to have our spirits alive knowing what God is doing, what God is saying. We will otherwise pray routine prayers all over the world and all around the world and never get anywhere unless we learn to watch and pray. When we watch and pray, then the Holy Spirit can bring us under his anointing in prayer and it is amazing what can be done when we are under the anointing. So, my dear friends, I believe that this matter of watching and praying is very important. All real and true intercession is related to watching. The matter of prayer. Warfare, it seems to me, is of tremendous importance. Importance in the last days. Why should we throw in the glove? Why should we decide, for instance, that no one's going to be saved in the last days, that it's going to be a pathetic little few that finally make it battered, sails gone, masts gone, rudder gone, that finally, somehow or other, get into the divine harbour. But this has come from a corruption. Understanding it is an incorrect response or reaction. In other words, let me put it this way, it is absolutely true. There is going to be a great apostasy in the church and I am not at all sure that we are not watching it. There is going to be a great falling away. It says so in the word repeatedly. And furthermore, it tells us that the love of the many will wax cold because iniquity shall abound. Also it tells us there will be seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, things that are not of God. But because people have got itching ears, they will heap to themselves such teachings. All these things were told in the word. But Jesus never said, the love of all will wax cold, because iniquity shall abundance, as many understand it. Nor did he say there will be a total apostasy of the church. Nor did the Lord ever say that there wouldn't be sound teaching and true understanding of the word of God right through to the coming of the Lord. There's the other side of the coin. It says hallelujah right in the midst of all these visions of antichrists and world system 666 and all that and false prophets and world faiths and prostitutes riding on the back of the beast looks like the bride of Christ. But she isn't the bride of Christ. I mean, all these things, tribulation, affliction, persecution, martyrdom, you know, we feel, oh, dear, dear, dear, why did the Lord bring me to birth in such a generation or two? And then suddenly we hear the words hallelujah. For the Lord God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad for the marriage. Supper of the lamb is coming and the bride hath made herself ready right in the midst of it. Well, I want to be in the bride. I don't mean in some denomination or some particular organization that says it's the bride. I want to be a member of the Lord Jesus and of his body that by the spirit of God is being prepared for his coming. Isn't it interesting that the apostle Paul, in this letter, Thessalonian, when he talks about the coming again of the Lord, Jesus refers to the apostasy, refers to the man of sin, says, let us not sleep as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober, and let us put on for a helmet the hope of salvation and the breastplate of faith and love. Very two things that some christians say won't be found in the last days. Put on the breastplate of faith and love. Well, if we're told we can do that in the very last days, let's do it. Let's put on the helmet of salvation to protect our minds and faith and love to protect our heart, and lets go on with the Lord. How wonderful it is that in the Old Testament you have the same picture, but its to do with a menorah, all of gold. Seven branched lamp alight with oil coming into it, gold coming out of two trees on either side. And the word comes not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of host, who art thou, o great man mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. And the topstone shall be brought forth with shouts of grace, grace unto it. So whatever mountains are before us, the Lord intends to bring the top stone forth and our response will be grace. The grace of God began the work. The grace of God kept the work alive. The grace of God preserved us through all the centuries, and the grace of God has completed this work. Praise the Lord. So I believe you and I need to learn how to watch and pray. Now one other thing on this before I pass on to another matter, and this is to do with being prepared for the end times. There is a little phrase in Matthew that I find quite extraordinary. I'm sure many of you have read it. It's in all Matthew 24. It's also in. It's in Matthew 24 and verse 20. It's also in mark 13. And this is the little word speaking about one particular terrible time in the last epoch of the end times. And pray ye that your flight be not on a sabbath, nor in the winter. Now, I dont know how many have ever thought of this. Most christians read their Bible and it goes off them like water off the ducks back. I mean, you know, they just get one thing and never question anything. But I always wondered about this funny little thing. What did the Lord mean? Pray surely if this thing has been predicted, its predicted. So how can you pray about it? But the Lord said, if you pray, I can change the day of the week to suit you and the season of the year to suit you. He didnt say, if you pray, ill cancel the whole thing out. He said, if you pray, then I will see to it that the day of the week that this happens on is a day that will be most suitable to you as believers. And the season you see in Israel, the Sabbath in the old days meant no traveling whatsoever. And anybody who went out of the city on that day would be noticed immediately, so they couldnt really flee. Secondly, if they went in the winter, when the rains come, the desert that you think of as soft sand becomes as heavy as clay. And if you walk on it, your feet will become balls of clay until youre totally exhausted. So when our Lord said this, he knew what he was saying, but he didnt say, my father is so gracious, hell settle on the day that will suit you. He said, pray ye. Pray ye. Now, isnt that practical? Isnt that practical? How thankful you must all be for that hurricane that when it came, it came in the night and not in the day. But all gods judgments begin gently. All God's judgments begin gently. The next one will be severer unless people repent. If they harden their hearts, the judgment becomes severer. They harden their hearts, it becomes severer, and it will become even severer. So take note of it. The ten plagues with which God judged Egypt began with a gentle kind of play, built up in the end until the final one was devastating to every single egyptian family. Now, my dear friends, I believe that this watching and praying is a tremendous call that you have in the last days. After all, if there comes a point where we can't do a lot of things, we can pray and praise the Lord for that. Now just a few more things. Another way in which you can be prepared for the end times is to be a functioning member of the body of Christ. Not to opt out, but to be a functioning member of the body of Christ. It says in one Thessalonians chapter five and verse eleven, wherefore build ye one another up, even as all say you do. Now, isn't that interesting? Here he is talking about the end, and he says, and build ye one another up, even as also you do. How we need one another. And when there are so many queer things going on, we need each other even more. There's not one of us that couldn't be deluded or deceived. Left on our own. But in the fellowship of the body of Christ, there is a kind of ballast which sort of tends to balance us all. If were only prepared for the discipline. And I find it very interesting that the word of God says in that remarkable letter to the Hebrews in chapter ten. It says in verse 24, let us consider one another, provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as ye see that day approaching. In other words, as we see that day approaching, we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and just go it alone. We should seek to be functioning members of the body of Christ. And isn't this interesting? Consider one another. To provoke one another, to love and good works we can excite one another to do. It's infectious, you know, it's infectious. It's amazing the effect we can have on one another. We can either depress one another or we can inspire one another. We can either sort paralyse one another, or we can somehow activate one another. To good love and good works. Oh, that God would deliver us from this lovelessness which is everywhere amongst us who are named with the name of the Lord Jesus. But we have to consider one another. What a lovely word that is, to consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works and exhorting one another. And I've had so much of this when I was young. I was nearly driven into the ground by some of those dear brethren who, because I knew nothing and was very young in the Lord. And so I was always being sat on or corrected or put in a straight jacket or told I was wrong on this or wrong on that, or whatever it is. I don't thank God for any of them. I have to be quite honest. I don't think, for one thing, I used to get a terrible name for it because I used to answer back, which you weren't supposed to do. I really sort of felt that many, any of them, had pretty little life and very little character. But there are those who did help me tremendously. They never sat on me. They were full of the Lord. And somehow or other, when they corrected you as they did, it was altogether different. I thank God for those dear ones who, in their own marvelous way, risk their lives to try and correct one when one was like a wild ass sort of kicking around all the time. But they did it in such a wonderful way because they had character and they had life and they were sensitive to the spirit of God. And I don't know what it is. Some of us, when we get old, get old. And some of us, when we get old, remain young. You know what I mean? And when you get old and remain young, you can always help somebody, somebody who's young. But when you get old and get old, you can't help someone who's young. Oh, dear Lord. Well, a functioning member of the body of Christ has no need for anyone to get old and be old. It says your youth can be renewed as the eagle, which means that though youre old and your bodys waiting for your redemption body, and you know it every passing day with greater clarity, the fact is that inside you can be renewed as an eagle. Now, an eagle soars effortlessly, effortlessly. It uses the current. Effortless idiot. Can drop like a stone, and it can go right up into the heights. What a lovely picture, as we get older, that our youth can be renewed as an eagle, so that we learn to use the currents of God's power and God's love and God's grace and wisdom. We can drop like a stone on the prey. Instead of shooting like the Americans did recently on that oil platform, four great, great warships firing thousands and thousands of shells. All we have to do is drop like a stone when God. When we're moving with the Lord and the prey is ours. May God give you such grace to be a functioning member of the body of Christ. And then I'd like to just say three more things and shut up. I won't actually take too long on these, but we do need foundations or roots, however you like to put it. Now, that storm, who would have thought that many of those trees, when I came back one week after that hurricane that you experienced, I had lived most of my life in the Richmond area. I never thought that some of those trees would ever come down, but they came down to look at those trees. Who would have known? Some of them were decrepit. You expected them to come down, but, I mean, there were many of them that were so strong, so magnificent, they almost seem to be eternal. They seemed like institutions. And now, suddenly, within hours, they're down. Now, my dear friends, that's exactly what will happen during the last days. Many who seem to be outwardly strong and almost uninstitutional, they almost disappear overnight. We need roots. We need to know the Lord. We need our own direct experience of the Lord. And we have to thank God for every mini storm that he put us through to get our roots to go down, so that in the bigger storms coming we can stand. Every tree that has stood this storm will have deeper roots by next year because its roots will go down to grip things in the expectation of something more severe than even that that hit it a month or so ago. So, dear friends, it is with us. God allows these storms to come upon us deliberately, so that in degree, by degree, our roots go down. We get to know the Lord inwardly and we become founded on the rock. We've digged deep and laid the foundation on the rock. May God help us in this matter. What a lot there is in the word of about being rooted and grounded in love and growing up into the Lord as head. All these things that are so important. And then sixthly, there is one other matter. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Isn't it a wonderful thing to know the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit? I feel so sorry for those who are frightened of the Holy Spirit. As soon as they see anything to do with the Holy Spirit, they sort of seize up. I just can't understand it. My experience of the Holy Spirit is, though the Holy Spirit is fire and the Holy Spirit is power. The Holy Spirit is so gentle, so incredibly gentle. The way he handles us, the way he leads us, the way he educates us. I think it is the most wonderful thing in the world to know the person of the Holy Spirit. In the letter to the Ephesians, chapter five, it says, be being filled with the Holy Spirit, and goes on to speak about a worshipping heart, speaking to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual psalms and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart, if you can't, with your voice. And it's to one another. I find that very interesting. Now, again, you see, you can get this kind of false exhortation, this slap on the back and praise the Lord, brother, you know, which you feel has a horribly cold wing sometimes, especially if you're in deep waters. Or sometimes you can get somebody who will sit down and give you a little paraphrase of the book of Jonah for your edification, but you really feel like hitting him over the head with the Book of Jonah when he's finished. But still, this is the way we treat one another. I have to say that really, it's the most wonderful thing when we understand this with the songs and so on. There are some people who can sing and give this kind of thing to one, and it's somehow. It's just religious. It's an automatic thing, like a sausage machine, like a mince thing. It's just coming out sort of you feel as if its not real. But when it is a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit, there is something marvelously life giving in sharing that kind of worship with one another, touching one another in the Lord. And then it goes on about esteeming, deeming one another more great than ourselves in the Lord, subjecting ourselves one to another. Well, you bring me anywhere to show me people who can esteem each other greater than the Lord without the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I dont know any such thing except a kind of man made police system which you can set up, and it becomes a dictatorial atmosphere. But when it's in the spirit, we can really esteem one another in the Lord. We can know each other's faults failing, and yet esteem one another in the Lord, and we can be subject to one another in the Lord. I think that's why wonderful. Its all to do with being filled with the Holy Spirit. When we cant have any fruit without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces fruit. You dont have to tie it on. Go off to some convention and buy a bag of spiritual apples and tie it on all over the tree. When you happen to be a pear tree anyway, it just doesnt look right somehow. And the apples last for a while, but they wither because theyre not come out of the life of the tree. But when the Holy Spirits in you, and youll know something of the principle of his life and of his government, what ive been talking about, laying down your life, theres no blockage. Then fruit comes and love, joy and peace, and all these things are the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And then theres the power of the Holy Spirit. What a marvelous thing it is in these last days to know the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you think that Antichrist is going to be greater than the Holy Spirit? Absolutely nonsense. Do you think that the power of an antichrist system is going to quench the Holy Spirit? Absolute nonsense. The Holy Spirit has got the whole thing under control, even terrible and malicious evil. And its a wonderful thing to know the Holy Spirit within you, empowering you, so that youre enabled to pray, enabled to witness, unable to be a functioning member of the body of Christ, enabled to love where theres lovelessness, unable to humble yourself where it is almost impossible to do so naturally. Power. And another thing about the Holy Spirit, when he fills his equipment, some people are very frightened of gifts. I remember once I was in a queue for lunch at a conference, and this brother tapped me on the shoulder. It was very democratic conference. They didn't sort of give anything to the speaker. We all just acted like everybody else. I was all right. And I mean, and he tapped me on the shoulder and he said, brother, he said, what do you think about the gifts of the Spirit? So I said, well, what do you mean, what do I think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Do you mean do I wonder whether they're for today or not? Well, yes. Well, I said, of course. I think, therefore today I don't know what we'd do without the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So then he said, oh, he said, jesus is enough for me. I don't want the gifts. He said, jesus is enough for me. So I said to him, well, dear brother, I don't look at it like that. I don't see the gifts of the spirit on one side and Jesus on the other. I see the gifts of the spirit as basically gifts of Jesus, a manifestation really of the Lord Jesus, that he looked at me, I obviously couldn't accept it. And then I said to him, well, my dear brother, if I had to have an appendix operation, and you brought to me a surgeon with degrees after his name and told me that he had a very high moral and ethical character, and he opened his bag and took out a tree, saw a chisel and a few other things, I said, I would be off that operating table in a flash. I said, you can have his degrees, his education, and his moral and ethical code and character, but if he hasn't gotten got the right equipment, how can he do the job? And this is just what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are. Theyre not for self advancement, for self expression. Theyre to enable us to do the job that God has given us to do. And we cant do that job without those gifts, without that equipment. Its as simple as that, as I see it. So, my dear friends, there are, it says in the word that those that are led of the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. But how few of us are truly led of the Holy Spirit? In the last book of the Bible, it says again and again, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. But how few really hear what the spirit is saying to the churches? Many people say, say the spirit is saying this and this, but I dont think he is. And others say the spirit of God told them to do this and told them to do that. Its manifest later that it wasnt so, but its very important. The last thing I want to say is that if were going to be prepared for the last days. There are two things we find in the book of revelation, a phrase that we find nowhere else, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Now to put that in very simple words, it's this. The root of the whole battle and conflict that we are in and which will increase in intensity till it comes to its climax in the last days, is over. The authority, infallibility and practical relevance of God's word for today and the lordship and saviorhood of the Lord Jesus. The word of God and the testimony of Jesus dear friends, we need to be very careful about this matter to do with the word of God. We have in the renewal tended unwittingly to move away from the word of God as the basis of fellowship. Now, in many ways that's right. You and I have fellowship not because we are agree on every detail in doctrine, but because of our Lord. He is our common life, he is our common salvation. We belong to each other on that. But we have to be very careful that we dont devalue the word of God to the point where the word of God is just a starting point for messages. We dont study it, we dont meditate on it, and we dont memorize it. If you want to be prepared for the days that lie ahead, then you need to study gods word and you need to meditate. Now this is something that doesnt happen in the rush 20th century, but you've got to learn how to meditate on the word of God, and you must learn to memorize the word of God. It's so important to hide God's word in your heart. When I think of some of these wonderful men, like Brother watchman Lee, who was for 22 years in prison without a bible for the larger portion of that time, how he must have thanked God that he memorized the whole gospel of John, that there were other portions of the word which in his younger years he memorized totally, so that in that the Holy Spirit could bring back accurately to his mind that word. And we know that through those years he was so faithful that some other gods came to know the Lord. Now, my dear friends, I believe this is tremendously important. The lordship of Jesus and the word of God. May the Lord prepare us in these things. May we all be those who in the days that we have left to us, may be prepared by the spirit of God. For parts is coming upon the face of the earth. Already we see the beginning, the first signs of the judgment of nations. In my estimation, it began with the Chernobyl disaster, and it has gone on ever since, I could give a whole list of things in different areas where, as I see it, judgments are abroad. Now, as we move into these last days in which there will be such a harvest for the Lord, and wherein he intends to complete the work concerning the bride and to bring salvation to Israel, then, my dear friends, you and I, we must be those made ready so that we can be functioning members of the body of Christ, workers within the vineyard, those whom God can use as servants of his in these last days. Thank you. [01:14:55] Speaker B: There shall come from among you a voice crying in the wildernesses of the world. You followed your messiah coming. Prepare the way. Make your hearts holy. Come before me with reverence and dedication. For I will prepare my people before I come. And I will send out my messengers that the world may know I am coming. Come to me. Therefore with dedication and holiness seek me my face, for I will call you, and you will go. So instead with me. [01:16:18] Speaker A: My children. [01:16:22] Speaker B: Is raging. I shall rage more and more, but you shall stand in this battle, my children. You shall stand tall and free in the midst of a church which is torn with deception and with fear and is misled, my children. And I say to you today, listen to my voice. Hear my voice. [01:17:12] Speaker A: Now, my children, give unto me all that you have. [01:17:21] Speaker B: Give me your grace. [01:17:26] Speaker A: Give me your love. Give me your heart. And then in only that can I. [01:17:41] Speaker C: Use you for the purpose in which I created you. [01:18:01] Speaker D: Is it not written in my word that before that great and terrible day of the Lord's wrath, will I not turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children? And as shall I not turn the hearts of the children unto the fathers as a sign of the last times, the end times, those days in which I hold back, by my mercy and grace, the wrath that is to come upon the land shall I not judge in righteousness. But before that time shall there not be seen love from the father to the children, and greater love for the children to the father? Have I not said in my word? Did I not put into my word in the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of that covenant with Abraham, that I shall indeed turn the hearts of the fathers unto their children, and the hearts of the children unto their fathers? Can you not now see I am doing this in your midst? [01:19:04] Speaker A: Thank you, father. Thank you, father. Hallelujah. We see it by your grace. Thank you. Hallelujah. [01:19:18] Speaker B: Throw off the hoods that you would wear about your head. Throw off the hooks that would hide you even one from another. For ya'fa, says the Lord, even if I would turn the hearts of the fathers could at children. So would I turn your hearts, yea, your hearts one to another. And that you would turn and look upon one another with love, wherein I look upon you. So I say unto you this night, yea, I say unto you, my children, throw off the hoops over your eyes and the hooks of your ears, that you may indeed turn your faces to one another. [01:20:01] Speaker A: Thank you. [01:20:02] Speaker B: You may turn your stiff necks, and you may humble yourself one to another, even as you would humble yourselves before me. For thus shall you resist the enemy. [01:20:15] Speaker A: And thus shall you please your great. [01:20:21] Speaker C: Because I have the name of James, because my character and my nature is above all mankind and above all characters, all natures, I shall stand faithful to my word. I shall stand faithful to my promise. I shall gather my sheep. I shall feed them, I shall heal them, I shall bring them into one hole. Because unto faithful and true the amen. Because I am a father to Israel, my firstborn. And you, my children, know that you play a true, real part in this. Because through you shall I work through your prayer, under the spirit shall I operate. So think not, my children, that sins. Because it shall come to pass. It shall come to pass. As you obey, as you yield to me, as you realize that it is everything by prayer, together with thanksgiving, therefore will I have you yield for purification, for consecration, for complete yieldedness, and surrender anew in the days ahead. I am a father not only to Israel, not evil, but to you, my people likewise. Therefore God only draw near. But I beseech thee, my children, keep near to me in the days of darker, because truly my light will arise and my glory will be seen upon you and on Israel. My people, praise God, for salvation is of the jew Jesus, and only by him can amen.