Address—J. Smith
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We see in this chart on the wall.
The Lord's coming to judge the world.
And the object of taking this up is to bring home to our hearts as Christians that the Lord's coming to take us out of here before he judges it.
Is right at the door before. If these things be so, then how much nearer is the coming of the Lord Jesus to take his people out of here before he sets the place on fire? We've used a sort of a wheel here and the circumference, let us say, represents.
Time passed without defining how long ago, but the hump of the whale towards which everything points denotes.
The Lord's coming to judge the world.
When we have two or three evidences of a thing.
According to scripture it is accepted.
As true.
The mouth of two or three witnesses shall every matter be established.
But if we shall find, on opening the Word of God, that we have at least eight distinct lines of proof that the coming of the Lord to judge the world must be right at hand.
Then there can remain no more ground for the slightest doubt, and it should give our hearts.
To rejoice when we realize that our departure.
To meet the Lord in the air is just that much nearer.
Let us take on, first of all, this line of things, the Church.
Apostatizing.
There was a day and Christendom and that not so long ago when?
Fundamentalist Christendom was basically Orthodox.
The Bible was received as inspired Word of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ was believed on as the eternal Son of God come from the Father.
He was believed on as the one who was born of the Virgin Mary. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
It Adam there was innocent flesh, and when he fell, and in all his posterity sinful flesh, but in the Lord Jesus Christ there was holy flesh.
That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Furthermore.
It was believed and held firmly that apart from the precious blood of Christ.
Which cleanses from all sin. There is no salvation.
For the Sinner without the shedding of blood, there is no.
Remission and on the positive side, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all.
And beside that, this blessed book holds out to believers the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to receive them unto Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.
But beyond that, it speaks of a more serious matter of which we hope to treat.
And that is that God is appointed today in which He will judge the world in righteousness.
By that man whom he hath our dance, whereof he has given assurance unto all men, and that hath raised him from the dead.
All these things were held.
Up until not so long ago as fundamental. But beloved brethren and friends, today we are living in a change.
Attitude of things.
In Christendom, toward the Word of God, toward the Christ of God.
Toward the work of Christ, toward his coming again.
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And that is?
That these troves are either being watered down.
Are openly rejected.
Now we are only going to quote a couple of scriptures to bear this out.
There are many, but let us turn to Second Timothy chapter 4 and verses 3:00 and 4:00.
Second Timothy, chapter 4, verses 3:00 and 4:00.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they hate to themselves. Teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned onto fables.
We see here that because of the state of Christendom.
For this passage does not treat of heathens, but of those who've heard the name of Christ.
Because of the state of the people.
The teachers who are false.
Are made welcome.
Now their sayings are accepted and fables are believed in rather than the truth of God.
This stems, we repeat, from a state of art on the part.
Of the people 40 years ago, there are places in Southern California.
Where we used to preach the gospel.
In the open air, those doors have closed.
If we were to go to those same places today to preach the gospel.
We would find there was number air for it, no one to listen to it.
No turning back two epistles to 2nd Thessalonians also.
And chapter 2.
Let us read from the middle of verse 10 through verse 12.
The 2nd Thessalonians 2 from the middle of verse 10 through verse 12.
They receive 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 a lie.
That they all might be damned or judged, who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Because of this attitude of turning away from the truth.
Which we've read about in Second Timothy, we see that unbelievers lay themselves open to being judicially blinded by God and delivered over to judgment.
They receive not the love of the truth.
That they might be saved? Well, what is the love of which the truth of God speaks?
Oh, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
This is the love of God by which the truth of God speaks. Now the time has come when.
They received not the love of the truth.
Might be safe. What then?
Well, if man will not receive the love of the truth.
God's truth then there's only one other thing that he can receive, and that is the devils lie.
And when men and women resist the Holy Spirit to the point where He no longer strives with Him.
For God has said, my spirit shall not always strive with men. Then men and women are given over to satanic delusion.
So that we read continuing on that God shall send them strong delusion.
That they should believe a lot.
Is God unrighteous that he sends strong delusion? No, he is not.
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Man is unrighteous because he has refused to believe the truth the love of God brings before him. Man is unrighteous.
And when he persists in an unrighteous course.
He reaches the point where he's delivered over to delusion. God is righteous.
All is righteous that they all might be damned or judged who believe not the truth.
Now what underlies this refusal to believe the truth? We have it in the end of the verse, do we not?
But had pleasure in unrighteousness.
That is, to put it very plainly, they like to sin.
They like to sin.
And they want no bridle put upon.
Well, people who like to sin, who willfully continue in it.
Are going to fall under the delusion and the judgment.
Now I repeat, beloved brethren and dear friends, christening today is in this condition so that as we look at.
This one things here from time past, from Pentecost, let us say, when everything was set up in perfection and we come down through the edges of the church's history, Where do we find ourselves? We find ourselves right here at the hub of the wheel. We find ourselves.
Very near to the introduction of the day of the Lord. His judgments in this world.
Let us pass on to the second line of testimony.
Israel.
Unbelieving. Shall we turn to Isaiah chapter 18, which expresses much in few words?
Although there are many other scriptures to the point Isaiah chapter 18.
To identify these people, let us read verse 7.
First of all, Isaiah 18, verse seven. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts.
Of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning.
Hitherto the nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled. To the place the name of the Lord of Hosts, the Mount Zion. The last few words here. To the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, the Mount Zion, identifies this passage as referring.
To the Jewish people.
And rail there is only one place where Mount Zion is located.
And that is at Jerusalem, and so the people of which this chapter speaks.
Are the children of Israel now going back to the beginning of the chapter.
Wool or whole?
To the land, shouting with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
Senate ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bull, rushes upon the water, saying, Go, you swift messengers to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning, hitherto a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers has spoiled.
The history of the Children of Israel since their persistent disobedience and their scattering.
The 10 tribes from the day when the kings of Assyria.
Carried them captive and they're lost to this day among the nations.
Later, the two tribes.
Who, on rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ in the land 19 centuries ago, were likewise scattered among the nations, but have retained their identity until this day? These are the people who have been meted out and trodden down. Who's land, the rivers, is far.
The actual existence of the Jew today as a separate people is a miracle. The Lord Jesus said this generation shall not pass until all these things shall be fulfilled. Referring to the Jewish people, I believe it was King Frederick the Great of Prussia some centuries ago.
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Who was at least a profession Christian Who asked his chaplain to give him?
And one word, a proof of inspiration of the Bible.
And the chaplain promptly answered Your Majesty the Jew.
A Jew. The fact that he exists as a separate people to this day is a miracle.
Now how are these Jews found back in the land today?
Why? Because the time has come when Messiah is about to return to that people.
The Lord Jesus solemnly protested to them that if they persisted in their unbelief.
They would be scattered, and they've been scattered these 19th centuries.
But.
51 years ago.
The close of World War One.
The British General Allen Van His forces entered into Jerusalem and took it from the Turks without a shot being fired.
Then for 30 years.
Palestine was under what is called the British.
Protectorate. Well, whether this is foreseen in the land? Shouting with wings.
We shall not discuss at the present time, but under this protectorate the Jews little by little, whose heart LED them that way.
Return to the left.
In the year 1948, just 21 years ago, the independence of the nation of Israel was declared.
I remember when that took place, but I said to myself.
Have we actually lived? Have we actually been left in the world?
By the Lord to see the very formation again.
Of the nation of Israel in their land, after all the fruitless efforts.
Of The Crusaders during those Dark ages, endeavoring by force of man's arm to restore Palestine.
If not to the Jew, to the ranks of Christians, all in vain, and every other attempt made to return them to the land in vain until God's time came.
And then the Turks surrendered it without even firing a shot.
Well, how did this nation?
Re established in 1948.
How did it?
React.
Was there thankfulness to God?
For this, was there a word utter about?
They're expecting the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah. Was there any repentance?
For those centuries during which they had been scattered, and because they had brought the curse upon themselves with these terrible words, His blood be upon us and upon our children. Was there any? None.
Of the country, their leader made this shocking statement.
The arm in which we are trusting is our own right arm.
Imply.
As the prophet Isaiah had said, Chapter 53 one who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord reveal, implying that they weren't caring about the arm of the Lord.
Who is Christ, as chapter 53 abundantly testified.
No, they were not relying in the arm of the Lord in Christ. They're relying on their own right arm. And the history of Israel these 21 years in the land has established beyond shadows of doubt that they are trusting in their own right arm and in their own right arm alone.
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Now what is going to happen to Israel back there in the land? Unbelieving.
Granted that about two years ago they scored a tremendous victory over the armies of three Muslim nations, but what is going to happen to that people? Just the opposite of what they think. They are going to be trodden down because they are back there in unbelief. Now notice in our chapter.
Verse five and six. Isaiah 18. Verses 5:00 and 6:00.
For for the harvest, when the but is perfect, the sour grape is ripening in the flour, he shall both cut off the springs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches.
All about us in Southern California, we have extensive a great vineyard.
And the normal procedure is to harvest the grapes in the fall.
And then the pruners go in and ruthlessly cut back the vines to the very stump, but not until after they've taken off the harvest. However, here in verse five we see that the reverse is going to take place before the harvest, before the grapes are ripe. He that is the Lord.
Is going to prune back the vine which is Israel, and take away and cut down the branches.
In other words, this unbelieving nation of the Jews in the land is going to be chastised.
By the Lord for this very unbelief.
It cannot bring forth good for God in its present condition.
Well, who are going to be the instruments to chastise Israel? Well, verse.
Six says they shall be left together to the fowls of the mountains and to the base of the earth.
The fowl shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
Well, we believe that the fowls of the mountains here and the beasts of the earth represent the nations roundabout, the Muslim nations whom the Lord is going to use to chastise this unbelieving people. And I'll just read without our turning to it, a verse in Zechariah. I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.
And the city shall be taken.
And the houses rifle and so on.
Jerusalem is going to be overrun again.
By the enemy.
How near we must be in the history of this people to the fulfillment of these things.
Looking back at the chart, Miss Arrow about unbelieving Israel, we're not back there.
When Abraham was separated and the stock of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob began to take root of the earth, we're not halfway through at Sinai. We're not at the time of captivity. We're not at the time of the birth of Christ. But we're right down here at the hub of the wheel, the nation reestablished in the land after 19 years of scattering and in exactly the condition in which the Lord said they would be found.
As full of pride, arrogance and unbelief, ripe for the chastisement that is coming upon them. Now should we turn to another aspect of things, the menacing?
Muslims.
The 83rd Psalm gives us, in just a few verses, an up-to-date picture.
Of the situation today.
Psalm 83.
Let us read from verse.
Three through verse 8.
They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation. The name of Israel may be no more in remembrance, for they have consulted together with one consent. They are confederate against thee.
Now in verses 6 to 8 we see who these people are that are saying these things, the tabernacles of Edom.
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The I do means whether to this day and the Ishmaelites.
The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid of Moab.
As the sons of Luck and the Hagarenes Gable. And I'm a sons of Lot and Amalek, grandson of Esau Jacob's brother the Philistines.
From whom Palestine got its name with the inhabitants of Tyre. Asher also is joined with them. They have often the children of Lot.
Not so long ago.
The Muslim.
Leaders of the countries that surround Israel on three sides.
Got together for a general conference to discuss matters of mutual import to them.
But #1 item on the agenda was this. What is to be done about Israel?
And as though.
The leaders had opened the Bible at Psalm 83 and read verse four. They said virtually in the very words that we have here, which are written down 3000 years ago. Come and let us cut them off from being a nation. The name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
Do young people. What a wonderful thing it is to have in our hands the word.
Of the eternal God.
Who knows the end From the beginning, From eternity to eternity, thou art gone.
God reading the minds of these Muslims 3000 years ago.
Had his summons right down in Psalm 83. Exactly what they were going to say.
In the latter half of the 20th century.
Also wonderful thing to have God's inspired word in our hands.
And being his children by faith in Christ Jesus, and being sealed by the Holy Spirit and having.
The unction of the Holy Spirit we are able to understand these things. They are made good a torso. According to the import of these verses, Israel is going to know no peace from now on. These Muslim nations that surround her are determined upon her destruction.
Of course, things may fluctuate one way or another.
But the trend is certain. God has said it. He's going to chastise unbelieving Israel by the hand of, if not all some of these Muslim peoples. Now it's a remarkable thing that when men of my age were boys studying history in school.
We understood from our history books that the Muslims were.
Mainly.
Nomadic tribes shake care with his little group and another one over there on his sandhill and alongside of his Oasis and date palm and so on. They were disorganized, disunited.
Scattered folk, but look at them today.
Nations highly self-conscious and with ambitious programs that laid out before them, some of them too immensely, immensely enriched.
By the flow of oil from their desert sands and substantially able to make a mark for themselves in this world. Able to buy arms, munitions and wage war against Israel.
So we are compelled to this conclusion that the very fact of these menacing.
Muslim nations marks out the end.
Time when, according to Psalm 83, they would be united with one consent.
One heart to exterminate Israel.
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Will they be able to do it?
Only so far as God permits.
The unbelieving in Israel will be cut off and God uses.
Instrumentalities for it, but we noticed in the end of our chapter 18 of Isaiah, we noticed that it said in that time, shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts? Well, the present we take it to mean the believing remnant of the Jews, those who will receive after we're gone, those who will receive the gospel of the Kingdom.
The preaching of the fact that Jesus the Messiah is coming.
To set up his Kingdom in the earth, the Kingdom is at hand.
And Zechariah elsewhere we read.
2/3 of the people in the land will be cut off and died, and that the Lord will bring 1/3 through the fire for refinement as silver and gold are refined.
We come now to the fourth line of things indicated by this around here.
The Reviving Roman Empire.
Let us look at a few scriptures which define these facts for us.
In the prophet Daniel first of all.
Chapter 7 and we can only read a verse here and there.
Continue to read the entire chapter as you have time.
Daniel, Chapter 7.
1St, 2:00 and 3:00.
Daniel, speaking, said. I saw in my vision by night.
Behold, the four winds of the heavens strolled upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Now God, in giving to Daniel the vision of these four great beasts, diverse one from another, was presenting to us.
Under the picture of beasts, the four great world empires, commencing with the Babylonian and then successively the Middle Persian that displaced it and was itself displaced by the Macedonian or Grecian empire headed by Alexander the Great. And finally the 4th and last of the world empires, the Roman, which is described here in verse 7.
After this I saw in the night vision and behold a fourth beast.
Dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and breaking pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had 10 horns.
Now there's something about the word of God that is remarkable.
Because it comes from God.
As its author.
And that is that it looks clear on to the end.
The Roman Empire ceased to be, but we're reading something about it here, which was shown to Daniel that as yet hasn't even taken place, but is about to. In that empire. Verse seven at the end said the beast had 10 horns.
Well.
In past history the Roman Empire has never existed in A10 Kingdom forum, but we read here this beast had 10 horns. So the day is coming when it will be manifested in that way. Now verse eight I consider the horns, and behold, they came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the ruts. Behold, in his horn were eyes.
Like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. Now Passover to verse 23rd.
Verse 23 Thus, he said, the 4th beast shall be the first Kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces.
And the 10 horns out of this Kingdom are 10 kings that shall arise.
And another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the 1St. And he shall subdue 3 kings, And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and so on.
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Daniel tells us this much, that the time would come when the Roman Empire would be manifested with 10 kingdoms or kings, and that from among external to the 10 they would come up a little horn, a power which started from small beginnings, but which become greater and greater, until one day.
This little horn would pluck up three of the other horns.
By the roots, as he would subdue 3 kingdoms. And it also tells us that he would be an infidel, an atheist, an ungodly person who spoke against the Most High. Now shall we turn to the Book of Revelation? And the prompt sees this same beast.
Daniel saw only he sees him 5 or 600 years later.
In Revelation chapter 13 verse one, and I stood up on the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and upon his horns 10 crowns. Upon his head is the name of blasphemy. Here he is same beast that Daniel saw. There's his 10 horn, and upon the horns are crowned. These kings are now reigning.
And upon his heads, the name of blasphemy. It's the same infidel leader, the head of the revived Roman Empire.
Verse Two. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard in his feet, whereas the feet of a bear.
His mouth is the mouth of the lion.
Now in Daniel seven and the verses we did not take time to read, the first beast was likened unto a lion, the 2nd to a bear, and the 3rd to a leopard. Well, those 3 kingdoms passed on, but the salient feature, the salient features of each of the three.
All will combine at the end in this.
4th being, there will be the majesty and strength of the lion, there'll be the crushing power of the bear, there'll be the swiftness in action of the leopard, and finally, and most solemn of all, the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and his great authority. When this comes to facts, the powers that be will no longer be ordained of God.
They will be ordained.
Of the dragon that is the devil Satan in his crew.
Character the dragon, the one who devours.
And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death.
And his deadly wound was healed, And all the world wondered after the beat.
The Roman Empire came to an end along the 4th or 5th century.
The gossip vandals came in and destroyed it. When it had become morally corrupt and weak, unable to resist, it ceased to be. It was the imperial head in which it was wounded or slain. But now John sees this deadly wound healed. The Empire is going to.
Reappear as.
An absolute monarchy and autocracy and the dragon Satan the Devil is going to give to this leader his power, his throne and his great authority. The world is going to see such a Kingdom as it has never before said.
And all the world is going to wonder after the base.
Well, people used to say.
How can people all over the world wonder after something that's going on?
In Rome, for doubtless his throne will be there.
Well, the eternal God only repeat knows everything, and from the beginning He knew what men were going to be able to devise in our day.
And that by means of that one eyed monster.
That, morally speaking, is devouring the children of the same in our day. And if you ever let him into your house, you're going to have an awful hard time getting him out. My monster is going to capture that beast there. And by means of these telescars that they're parking up in space and pulling them right where they want them, anybody on the face of the Earth is going to be able to see what's going on most any place else.
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The Word of God is true and to be absolutely relied on, all appearances, all human reasonings to the contrary notwithstanding.
And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power under the beast.
And they worship the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him?
Russia herself, with other elements, with our power, will be worried of that beast.
She won't dare to tackle it.
Now let us notice in verse six that he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God. We repeat this personage as an infidel, an unbeliever, an atheist.
Now turn to Revelation 17 for just a few more details. Revelation 17.
Verse 12 And the 10 horns which thou sawest are 10 kings.
Which have received no Kingdom as yet.
So these did not yet exist in the apostle John's day, but Daniel saw them. God, when he showed him the vision, gave him a comprehensive picture of this being.
But receive power as kings. One hour or a brief space of time with a beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength onto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.
Now we have stated here in the diagram that their own empire is reviving and may we submit this At the close of World War Two, Western Europe was left and ruined any way you wanted to look at it.
Considerable reviving took place through economic assistance from the United States.
But still things were in a dreadful condition, and there was anything but unity among these individual nations of Western Europe, and they had been separated from one another by racial differences and by international boundaries, by high tariff walls, by custom.
For innumerable centuries.
Well, a Frenchman, name is John Monet, got to thinking about this matter. An economist and Ben and Sarah still living and he can see the idea of helping to pull themselves out of the chaos.
By forgetting their enmities and getting together. So he sold the idea to the French and the Germans, who of all people were pitted against one another in carnal strife the last 100 years.
That they should take Francis Cole and Germany's ire and make steel.
Well, it went over and it was tremendously successful, Tremendously successful. So he said, well, it works with coal and iron put together to make steel. Let's trade another commodities too. And this became rapidly extended until finally in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, at Rome there were Six Nations, including western Germany and France.
Who subscribed to what is known today as the European Common Market?
And there's a nine man Commission which heads up this European Common Market and has its present headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Now there's a significant thing about the nine man Commission that each and every one of the Six Nations subordinated their national sovereignty to the decision of those nine men.
The nations at present are western Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland. Now England has been wanting to come in for a long time, and England forms a part of the old Roman Empire. But Mr. De Gaulle steadfastly refused to give his assent to the admission of England. Well, he removed himself two or three weeks ago.
From consideration.
And already.
George Pompidou Pompidou, who is candidate for election in his death, has announced publicly that he is not going to continue De Gaulle's policies and he has spoken about United Europe. And just the other day the Premier of England made the public announcement that they are applying for membership.
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European common market at the earliest possible moment and that it is a necessity that there be a united.
Europe.
In fact.
One of the members of this Commission.
Said years ago, Let people not be mistaken. Our primary objective in the European Common Market is not.
Economic but political the United States of Western Europe.
Spain would like in Portugal probably and with England that would make 9 and if we should add Switzerland or Austria, there you have 10. In any event, the word of God is clear there will be 10 kingdoms in the revived Roman Empire, and we are just so close to it that if the Lord took us Christians home today, tomorrow.
You could have the United Nations of Western Europe. We're just right there.
And it's not stretching the imagination to see one man out of that nine man Commission.
Get control of the whole thing, and what up three of the kingdoms? Take the power over the tent. This is what the Word of God marks out before us, and the present kind of things is unquestionably toward the consummation of this very thing. Of course, they're not calling it in so many words.
The revised Roman Empire, but that's exactly what.
Is in embryo before us right now.
Now, just a little resume.
We'll see #1 The Church apostrophe and that it awaits judgment.
The hands are lost.
The Gentiles could be cut off with their own places. We have seen that unbelieving Israel is in the land, in unbelief, awaiting judgment.
We have seen that the Muslims, who are nothing but a roving bands of people, are now not only nations, but they are in a confederacy with one thing before them, to exterminate the Israelites.
As the Word of God said 3000 years ago and we have seen that the Roman Empire is an embryo forming before our very eyes.
Now none of these things can come to the climax until we're gone.
The Lord is going to take His redeemed ones out of the world before these things come.
To the climate, but they're already on the verge.
Of the climate. So where are we?
We should be on the tiptoe of expectancy, brother, listening for that show.
Have causes harm. Now passing on to.
The arousing Orientals while we're in Revelation just turned back to chapter 16 and.
Verse 12A. Short notice but quite sufficient, Revelation 1612 Says.
And the 6th Angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up.
That the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared.
The oriental menace has been.
A subject that statesman have considered for a long time, but now?
Things are shaping up.
For the realization of the invasion.
From the audience for centuries the underprivileged Orientals, the Chinese, Japanese and other nations.
Those in the East Indies have been exploited by the farmer.
By the white man.
And now these people are aroused and they're resentful.
And as much as in them as they're going to drive the last white man out of the confines of the Orient.
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Not only so, but they number over 1/3 of the population of the whole world, and they now have military resources that are fearful, for example.
Red China has the atomic bomb has already exploded 1/2 a dozen test bombs, including one of about 3 million tons of TNT of potency and that they're in the manufacturing process and.
When the Lord no longer stays there in hand, they're going to start sprinkling those around.
That the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared the influences today.
That are holding back, restraining their invasion of Palestine are spoken of here under the figure we take it of the river Euphrates, which is a natural barrier between the Near East and the Orient. Well, these influences that restrain today are going to be removed. The obstacles to the invasion from the Orient will be removed and then this time.
Will come in.
What is their objective Palestine and the riches that are there?
And there and round about. But what will her end be?
We take it from the verses that follow that the Lord Himself will deal with those Oriental horrors.
The very fact that in our day and at this moment and in the last few years.
The Orientals have been so signally aroused and are armed.
And have resources.
And are resentful.
All of these things contribute to sharks that the time is right for them to come. Now pass on to the sixth line of things here, Russia preparing. Let us turn to Ezekiel chapter 38.
Ezekiel chapter 38 I'm going to read.
With a little variation.
In verses two and three, Son of man, set thy face against God.
The land of Mega and as Mr. Darby's version renders it.
The Prince of Rush, Meshach and Tubal, and prophecy against him. And say thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O God, the Prince of Rush, Meshech, and Tubal, I will turn thee back and put hooks into that jaw, and so on. Now Russia's allies are named here in verse five and six.
Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them. All of them with shield and helmet.
Gomer and all his bands the House of the Garment of the north Quarters and all his bands, and many people with the.
Well, start for a moment.
May God is Russian, it's the ancient name of that people.
Some years ago, our brother Christopher Willis told me that he had seen in Shanghai, China, a piece of pottery imported from Russia, and the trademark or stamp on it was Megaw.
The ancient name of the Lamb.
Those who understand languages tell us that these words rush, the Prince of Rush, Meshach and Tubal.
These English words that we use correspond to Russia.
Moscow and Tow Balls, which is a large city in Siberia.
So.
The one to whom Ezekiel addresses this word of the Lord is unquestionably Russia and its leader.
Now, many years ago, our brother Eric Smith met up with a Russian silk merchant.
In Bolivia they fell in a conversation and before long, our brother.
Understanding that he was a Russian, started to read to him Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39, and he hadn't got very far before the Russians stopped him, interrupted him stop.
That is the destruction of my people.
Non converted Russian silk merchant recognized as the word of God was read.
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That it was talking about the destruction of his people.
Now we read here.
How Ezekiel wrote down 2500 years ago.
What the Russian leader was going to think about.
And what he proposed to do again we repeat, only the eternal God knows the future, knows the end from the beginning. Verse 10 Thus saith the Lord God, it shall also come to pass that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought, and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages, I will go to them that are.
That dwell safely, all them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates to take a spoil.
And to take a prey for How will this come to pass?
We believe in this way, the land of which the Russian leader is going to speak, the land of on wall villages and those that dwell safely without walls and neither bars nor gates, refers to the saved ones of Israel who come through the great tribulation and are restored in their land under.
The Christ, the Messiah.
All the enemies having been judged, the Muslims will have been judged to the Lord directly or providentially. The Roman Empire will have come to its end when the Lord takes the beast and the false prophet Revelation 1919 and he throws the two of them alive in the lake of fire, and by the sword that proceeds out of his mouth, His word he annihilates.
Their army. That will be the end of the greatest empire the world has ever seen, and the Lord will be the one that puts an end to it when man lifts his hand up to fight against Almighty God.
Against the Lord coming out of heaven.
Maybe men by this time will be so insensate they'll put warheads on their space vehicles and head up into the heavens to fight with the Lord. The Roman Empire will be destroyed. These oriental hordes that have come across when the obstacles to their invasion are removed to seize upon all the riches of that land, they will have been destroyed.
So that Israel will be restored in the land. No locks, no bars.
No walls around the villages, all dwelling in peace. And Russia, who has always played a waiting game and has sat back and watched, restrained by that mighty power over in the West, the power of that Roman emperor actuated by Satan. Russia marks time. She quits growling so loud, pulls her claws in and sits there and wait.
Now she takes a look down at Palestine. Why look?
I don't know how it happened, but all these hosts have disappeared.
There's nobody left down there to fight with me, Those people. I'm going to army, any Navy, any Air Force.
Why? All I got to do is go down, take possession so.
So Russia will go down with all our hearts and all our lives to take the land of which the Lord said it's mine.
And without reading the Jennifer's.
We see in Ezekiel 38 and 39 that's terrible destruction.
That comes upon the Russian horse, five out of six slams.
6 Fair.
And so fearful will be the slaughter that will take seven years to bury the bones of death.
And they won't need to gather fuel out of the forest for their fires for seven years. They'll use the weapon.
Over immediately, somebody will say.
Why combustible weapons in the 20th century?
Menu Still they don't use what? Oh, wait a minute, we're reading the Word of God, the eternal God who knows the end from the beginning. A few years ago, a man perfected a process by which wood can be hydraulically compressed and usable, where it has the strength of steel and the flexibility and the lightness of wood.
And it's being used commercially today even to make gears that have to endure tremendous way.
Those weapons are going to be combustible.
Well, they're made out of wood or straw or what They're going to be combustible weapons. God's word.
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It tells itself, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Let God be true, but every man alive.
Lord only remain two things to consider.
Are the most solemn of all because they touch each and everyone of us here more or less directly.
Before God destroyed the Anatolivian world with a flood, he looked upon it and he pronounced it full of violence and corruption.
Those two principles of evil, violence and corruption.
Now the Lord Jesus and His day said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days.
Of the Son of Man, that is. When I come to judge the world, I'm going to find it violent and corrupt.
Now something is that this violence and corruption has erupted.
More right in these enlightened professing Christian lands and among him.
The morality that existed up to a while ago in this country is vanishing.
Is almost gone.
And each and everyone of us, and particularly those of us who are young.
And full of them, and bigger and vitality and life, and with everything before us in the world, each and every one of us is exposed to the strongest of temptation to give way to the time of wickedness that is sweeping everything before it.
Even to men who call themselves Christian leaders advocating promiscuous immorality.
It is shrunken.
And as a brother, very old and respected of mine has said more than once.
The state of the Church is always affected by the state of the world around.
And this tide of iniquity that is sweeping the world and professing Christendom in particular.
Is having its effect.
In our own right, we don't have to sit down and recall things to memory very long before we have to bow our heads in view of what has come in among us.
The favorite people of God.
Long years ago, a Christian wrote a good hymn, Yield not to Temptation.
For yielding instead.
In the Psalms we read Enter not into the path of wicked men.
Avoid it passing up by a turn from it and pass away. Let us learn to say yes in the fear of God to the Lord. If you love me, keep my commandments and to say a resolute no to the world. I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not walking with you and you're talking with you, I'm walking with my love.
And his promise is sure he giveth more grace.
And he is able to keep us not only from falling, He is able to keep us from even and the abounding violence.
That is, in the world that is multiplying before our very eyes so fast that the powers that be are at a complete loss. They don't know what to do.
It's engulfing everything. We repeat that our Lord Jesus said that when He came, this is what would be happening. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. But those days haven't arrived yet. And yet these things are here, and they could hardly be worse.
Than they are.
So, beloved brethren, summing it all up.
We have 8 different lines of testimony to the fact that the coming of the Lord to judge the world is right at hand.
8 witnesses to one and the same thing. 8 evidences that we are at this time. We're not in time past 3000 years ago, or 2000 years ago, or even 50 years ago. We are here for every one of these things is right.
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At the climate and before this can take place.
The Lord is going to call out his redeemed people, everyone who has been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, at the large descent into the air, at the voice of acclamation.
At the sound of the Archangel and the trump of God, anyone is going to be caught up, dead, raised, living, transformed to meet the Lord, not on this polluted earth, to meet him in the air and to be forever with the Lord.
Well, suppose it took place right now. How is it really?
Am I personally happy as I think of the Lord's coming, that there's nothing between me and the Lord right now? They would make me say, Lord, wait a minute or wait clock. I've got something to square with that brother over there. That sister and I, we, there's friction between us or there's something in my life that isn't quite right and I haven't said it right.
Wait 5 minutes Lord, till I get it straightened out. Would it be that way with us or are we free from everything?
That would make us hesitate for a second to say Even so, come.
Oh Lord Jesus.
What a wonderful truth it is, the early Saints. They turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and the way for His Son from heaven.
And what a powerful.
More of it is to be living momentarily for the largest the fact that he's coming again because he loves me and he wants me and he's taking me out of the world anymore to build himself.