It is a joy for me to be with you all again. I would like to turn you to just a few verses in the book of Revelation—Revelation, chapter 1.
Revelation, chapter 1. I am just going to read from verse 8:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
“I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”
The same chapter, from verse 1:
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John; who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.”
We shall just have a further word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, we just want to recognize that without You we really can do nothing. But You, Lord, provide always—sufficiently, gloriously, powerfully—for the ministry of Your Word.
Into that anointing, grace, and power we stand by faith, for both the speaking of Your Word and the hearing of it. Be with us, Lord, in this, and we shall be careful to give You all the praise and all the glory; for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
This little phrase is the one thing that has stuck in my mind and heart: “for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus the Messiah.”
For the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus the Messiah. What amazing days we are living in. Events are moving now so fast that it is hard to keep up with them, let alone to have an understanding of their meaning.
Yet it is essential that we do have an understanding of these times in which we are living. This phrase, “for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus the Messiah,” I believe lies at the heart of all the turmoil, all the disorder, and all the assault upon the Word of God and upon the person of our Lord Jesus that we are recognizing in world society.
I just want to spend a little while talking about it, no doubt going over some matters that are well known to you all. But perhaps the very focusing upon it may give us a new impetus in prayer, and above all in our understanding of what is happening.
I believe, first of all, that this question of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus sums up everything. As such, it particularly explains the fury—the intense hatred of Satan—that is becoming more and more manifest.
So remarkable is the manifestation of this anger, this rage, at the Lord, the law of God, and the person of the Messiah, that it seems to me something is happening somehow in the unseen—a tremendous movement.
Everywhere I go, servants of God in the forefront of the battle tell me that they feel stressed in a way that they have not been stressed before. There is so much faction, so much division, so much misunderstanding, so much collision between saints and between servants of God.
It all adds up to a war, to a conflict. I am not talking about the war in Iraq or the war on terror. It may have something to do with it—I mean, with this war on the saints—but I do not have any doubt in my own heart that we are moving into one of the most difficult periods in the history of the world.
I feel the sense of stress. When I was younger, I did not feel anything like this. I remember staying, convalescing, with dear Lady Ogle in that beautiful home of hers.
I walked around the garden on a gorgeous summer’s day—not a cloud in the sky. These days happen in Britain once in a year! I just could not believe it. It was so beautiful.
Everywhere in the gardens, which went down the whole hillside in terraced forms, was so beautiful. Birds were singing; there were baby birds. It would take me too long to describe it all. There were grass snakes sleeping on the yew hedge, I remember. All the roses were blooming.
Everything was so beautiful, and suddenly I heard this voice calling my name. Looking up, I saw, in the swing chair, Lady Ogle. She said, “Would you like to take some tea?”
Well, I was always ready for a cup of tea. So I went out to have a cup of tea, and as I sat down she said, “Do you not sense the enormous conflict in the atmosphere today?”
My mouth dropped open. I stuttered a little and said, “Well…” She said, “Ever since I rose for my quiet time at five o’clock this morning, I have sensed this conflict in the heavenlies. There is an enormous conflict going on. I asked the Lord what it was.”
Of course, I then was glazed. I just sort of blinked at her and thought, Am I so far from the Lord that all I felt was this beautiful summer’s day? Everything was so beautiful. Where is this conflict?
But anyway, I did not tell her anything. I just nodded sweetly and diplomatically. She said, “I asked the Lord what this means, and I think I got a feeling from Him that it is to do with the Middle East. You and I will listen to the six o’clock news.”
“Yes,” I said. Then we had our cup of tea, and I went off round the garden. It rather spoiled it for me, because I now felt I should not really be enjoying the beauty, peace, and tranquillity of everything because of this conflict.
At six o’clock we listened to the news, and the first item on the news was the assassination and murder of the king and queen of Iraq, of their whole family, including the babies and the governess.
Now, the governess was a great friend of Lady Ogle and a wonderful Christian. Immediately she turned to me and said, “That’s it.”
I have never forgotten it. Of course, I still did not feel that conflict for quite a few years, but now I seem to feel it. I must be getting near to going.
I now begin to feel the conflict in the heavenlies, and I have felt it very much in this last year, in a growing manner. It has nothing to do, firstly, with the American election, nor with other things that are happening—not even the Middle East situation with Israel.
Those are symptoms of this thing. But in my estimation, there is a war in the heavens. There are huge movements going on in the heavenly places, and that which is happening in heaven is going to have an effect upon the earth, upon the house of God—the church of God in particular—and upon Israel.
Everything that in any way is related to the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose is going to know this conflict, this battle that is on, that is within. I find this quite amazing.
There are, of course, a whole number of things one could talk about which are symptoms of this. The rise of the European Union—is it Revelation 13? Is it that beast described in Revelation 13 and 14?
Certainly, it speaks of Rome: the city set on seven hills. It is absolutely clear that there is something to do with Rome, and every one of the member states of the European Union has signed the Treaty of Rome—at present, twenty-six nations numbering 460 million people.
That would seem to me to suggest that something incredible is taking shape before our eyes.
The fact that some of the motifs of this European Union are so extraordinary is significant. For instance, on many of the euro coins, you have a bull and a woman riding on the bull.
It is, of course, the old Greek—the Hellenic—myth of Europa. The god Zeus, apparently, so the myth goes, fell in love with this young woman, but she was not interested. So he turned himself into a bull.
Then she rode on his back, and then he turned back into his form and raped her. I find it extraordinary that Europe should take such a motif for the European Commission. I do not think it is fanciful to see that woman riding on the beast. Is there a link?
Even more remarkable, I think, is the motif for the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg. It is the Tower of Babel, believe it or believe it not, with the motto underneath: “Many languages, one people.”
In other words, we are overcoming what God did at Babel.
This rise of the European Union is a phenomenon, considering European history.
John, when he describes this in Revelation 13 and 14, and in those chapters up to Revelation 17 and 18, interestingly speaks of it as Daniel understood it—in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.
I will not go into it all, but I think you all know that there were four great kingdoms. You may wonder, why are there these four? Why is the Chinese dynastic empire not mentioned? Why are the great Indian empires not mentioned? Why are other great empires not mentioned?
It seems as if there were four great attempts at world domination: Babylon, Persia, Hellenism—the Hellenic Empire, the most seductive of them all—and Rome.
Remember that in Hebrew, Babel is the word for Babylon. Babylon is the Greek word, but in Hebrew it is always Babel. So you have a continuity all through the Hebrew Scriptures. When you read Babylon, there is no difference.
Whereas, for most people from the Western nations, when you read your Bible, you make a distinction between Babel and Babylon. But in fact the two are linked.
What happened in Babel? The attempt somehow to unite heaven and earth. We do not quite know what they did—whether it was the first skyscraper ever built, or whether it was just a simple tower. We know that some of the things of antiquity were incredible.
Of course, we have all been conditioned by our educational system, which tells us that we basically all came from primeval slime, and we are sort of tadpoles that have gradually developed and devolved into the gorgeous human beings we are today—pure and sweet and so marvellous.
But in fact, according to the Word of God, people lived for nearly a thousand years. Therefore, I imagine they did not run around on all fours, but probably had an intelligence far greater than ours.
I would say it is devolution, not evolution, that has taken place over the years, so that man has become, as it were, degenerate.
The interesting thing is that they wanted to make a name for themselves. The other interesting thing is that when the Lord took note of it, He said, “If they have begun to do this, nothing will be impossible unto them.”
So you have four great empires: Babylon, Persia, Hellenism—the Hellenic Empire, the most seductive of them all—and Rome.
When God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar, He showed it to him in the form of a human being, by the statue: a monolith—gold, silver, bronze, iron, and then a mixture of earthenware and iron.
But the interesting thing is that Nebuchadnezzar saw it as a human being. The only thing is, a statue does not have a heart and does not have any mobility, which is exactly what has happened with humanity.
Every philosophy humanity has evolved through the years has become a straitjacket. It does not matter what it is. But I must not digress.
The main thing is that when God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar, He revealed this whole world history—this attempt at world domination—as a human being: as man, fallen man, in his glory, ingenuity, and energy.
When Daniel himself saw it, the Lord showed it to Daniel in the guise of four wild beasts. Now, wild creatures are unbelievably beautiful and sometimes captivating, but they are unpredictable. They cannot really be fully tamed.
He saw the whole of human history as four great wild beasts, the last of which was so diverse that it could not be recognized as such.
John saw the same thing, but he saw something rising at the end of world history that would be, as it were, the summing up of these four great empires.
In my estimation, these are the four great attempts of Satan to take the world for himself. You have other empires that are ignored because they were still fallen man—the ingenuity of fallen man, the energy of fallen man—but they were not attempts at world domination.
If I am right, then we understand from John, and from what the Lord showed him, that there would be one final, huge, intense attempt to take the whole world for the Antichrist.
What interests me is this: is the European Union the beginning of that?
Grattan Guinness wrote a book in 1860 called Light for the Latter Days. There were some amazing things that God showed to Grattan Guinness, and it became almost standard among those who were interested in the prophetic Word of God.
He was one of those who defined very clearly the fact that the Jewish people would return to the Middle East before they were saved, and that tremendous work would be done on the physical side, as far as a nation goes. Then there would come later salvation, and so on.
But what is interesting in Grattan Guinness is that he believed there would be a revival of the Holy Roman Empire, which was a ten-kingdom confederacy. I always had a real doubt about that.
At one time it looked as if it was going to happen, because that Holy Roman Empire—Germany—was divided into two. It looked absolutely, in the last century, in the twentieth century, as if it had happened.
Of course, Scotland would be out of it. That is interesting; so would Scandinavia. But I never had a witness somehow that that would be so.
I have a feeling that the fact that the United Nations is in love with the European Union and not with the United States has some very real influence on this. The United Nations has divided the world into ten regions, which I find very interesting.
There are some other factors, and some are not depressing you, but there are some other factors in this that are very instructive.
The Europe of today that makes up the European Union is basically amoral. It has completely rejected biblical principles as the basis for society.
Now, this is all the more remarkable when you realize that Europe, for good or bad, was made great by the adopting of biblical principles.
Those principles in the law of God, in the Word of God, which European civilization adopted, became the basis for justice, equality, freedom of speech, and a thousand and one other things.
Now we are returning not to the Bible, but to Hellenism and to Rome. In other words, we want to have a Hellenic culture. Put another way, what we are really saying is that we are returning to a pagan culture.
This is what lies at the root of the gay movement, gay rights, and gay marriages. The whole thing is: why can we not return to a totally free society?
One very famous Swedish psychologist, some twenty or thirty years ago, said this: “Until the Christian concepts of Sweden are obliterated, there will always be mental hospitals.”
That is exactly the newer posture to this matter. What European society is saying is this: the Word of God is a straitjacket. The Bible, as interpreted by evangelicals—by, as they put it, born-again Christians—is a terrible limitation on the human mind and the freedom of the human being.
This adopting of these concepts, really, is 666. It is fallen man. It begins with him, it ends with him, and everything in between is him. It is humanism. In other words, we are returning to Hellenism, and the whole of Europe is in love with this idea.
Thus, if I may put it this way—bring it home to you and save you from going to sleep while I am speaking—the hatred of the United States manifest in the European Union, and particularly of President Bush, is because Europe, as it now is, does not want the kind of faith that many people in the United States represent. It has rejected it.
I think most Americans want to feel that they are loved by the world in general. I mean, there are some Americans who could not care less, but there are, on the whole, Americans who want to feel that they are respected, honoured, and loved.
It is a great shock to Americans to discover that the Europeans are not in love with America. They do not like Hollywood, although they watch all the films. They do not like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, fast food, and a thousand and one other things. And they do not like American evangelicalism.
As one of your brothers pointed out to me, one of the well-known rags in Britain, the Daily Mirror, said, “How can so many million Americans be so dumb as to vote for President Bush?” The Independent, another British paper, put it another way: “Are they all crazy?”
You see things probably in quite a different way. You see the election here as a triumph of God’s mercy and grace—the giving of the United States a further opportunity to really seek Him. Not so with Europe.
One wonders: is this union, as it were, between the United Nations and the European Union going to slowly develop and expand to include most of the world? This is an open question.
I want just to mention this because I find it very, very significant. I got here on election day and arrived early enough to get into all the ballyhoo, you know, and watch CNN, CBS, and a few others telling us that Kerry was ahead.
Then slowly the tide turned, until in the end Bush won by a handsome majority.
I find it very interesting that this question of the American election has been described here in a particular way. The question asked again and again on the programmes I watched has been this: “How much have the evangelicals—that is, Bible-believing Americans—affected the outcome of this election?”
I say it is very interesting that there could be so many Bible-believing Christians as to affect, in any way, an election.
On the other side of the Atlantic, you have a very fine man, an Italian, Rocco Buttiglione, a confidant of the Pope, a Catholic believer, an observant Roman Catholic, who was appointed by the European Commission to be Commissioner for Justice.
In an interview, he was indiscreet. When asked about his views of gay marriage, he said, “In my personal estimation, that is living in sin.”
Asked about one-parent families—that is, not divorce, but children out of wedlock—he said, “In my estimation, my personal view is that that is sin, but it does not affect the interpretation of the law.”
The European Parliament was so upset that, by a very large majority, they voted that they would throw out the European Commission’s ministers for the administration. So Barroso, of Portugal, the chairman of the Commission, withdrew him. Buttiglione had to resign.
Now, that puts in a little nutshell what is happening. On this side, still, Bible-believing people can affect things—a little. On the other side, that I am on, it is gone.
The church of God is there, thank God for that. Stephen and I have just come from Italy, from a conference in the south of Italy, in Sicily. We thought there were going to be a hundred people; there were five hundred. They all came out of the woodwork.
I found it very interesting. I have been speaking more recently in an assembly in Athens where I really believe the Lord is moving. It is the first time for a long time that I have thought, It is about time something happened in Greece and Italy.
This is exciting. It is the same with Eastern Europe—the tremendous things happening in Eastern Europe and Russia. I think you are well aware of that. Of course, Russia is not in the European Union, but it is tremendous what is happening in Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and so on.
But the fact remains that these folks have no influence at all upon what is happening in Europe. Even if the grassroots people do not agree with much that is evolving, the fact is that they seem powerless to do anything, as if some invisible power is, as it were, energizing the whole thing.
Now, I must watch myself, as always, on time. If I may say something about your election, this is chutzpah on my part—to make some comments on the American election—but I will do so.
I believe that God has given you, in mercy and grace, one last opportunity. It is an opportunity of, at the most, four years. It could be shorter.
I think it is very, very interesting that God in His grace has done this. It has come as a great surprise to your media—other than Fox—and to the whole of Europe, and indeed, I think, most of the world. They are stunned. “How is this possible?”
I believe that God has recognized that within the United States there are still many faithful believers, and He is giving one last opportunity.
What do I mean? Simply this. Forgive me if I am overstating it. I think the church here in the United States is basically a Laodicean church.
Now, I am not talking about the institutional thing. Someone sent me a comment—and he knows him very well—of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He said, “I think you should know this.” I meant to bring it and read it to you, but perhaps it is just as well that I did not.
But in it he spoke of the book of Revelation as “paranoid fantasy.” The Archbishop of Canterbury—the head of the Anglican, the Episcopalian church. It is gone. It is gone; let us face it.
There are still faithful believers mixed up in it. How much longer, I do not know. But the appointment of gay bishops, one of them living in sin with another partner, is incredible in my eyes—the reinvention, the recasting, of the Word of God.
You see: “for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus.” The recasting of the Word of God, the taking of the Word of God and making it say what it never said and has never been interpreted to say in over two thousand years.
I mean, it is incredible, is it not? To adjust the Word of God to contemporary society; to adjust it to things that are clearly denounced and condemned in the Word of God.
It is apostasy. But I am not talking about an apostate church; I am talking about the real church. In my estimation, much of the real church is Laodicean.
You know what I mean. The whole thing is a well-oiled organization that could run on whether the Lord is there or not. Now, I know that is very unkind, but we have such a methodology, such a system, such a routine, that whether the Lord is present or not, it will run on.
We have built a machine so beautifully—so biblical in one way, outwardly—that whether the Lord is there or not, it does not matter. It will continue.
You say, “Now, are you going too far?” Just wait. The Laodicean church—I think most of you know—Laodicea was an incredible place, on the crossroads, and very, very wealthy.
The interesting thing about Laodicea is that this church—we are not talking about a church that was in error, a church that was heretical in that sense, apostate—we are talking about a church that was faithful, at least in doctrine, in sound doctrine.
Yet the Lord Jesus was outside its door, knocking. The whole, “I stand at the door, and knock.” It is unbelievable. He is outside, and they are not aware of it.
They must have had the Lord’s Table, the breaking of bread, Bible studies, gospel meetings, gospel outreach, children’s work—if they had such a thing in those days—and all this kind of paraphernalia. The whole thing was there, and Jesus was outside.
It is amazing to me to hear what He says: “If any man hear My voice.” Is it possible for the Saviour of the church, the Head of the church, and the Life of the church to say, “If any man hear My voice”?
What in the world has happened to this church? It does not even hear His voice. It studies His Word and does not hear His voice. It has the Bible and does not hear what He says. That is Laodicea.
We have our ministers of education, our ministers of music, our youth ministers, and all our various levels of administration. This is my fear: most American evangelicals will probably say, “Thank God, Bush is back,” and return to their lukewarmness only.
In other words, they do not recognize that, in grace and mercy, God is giving the church in America one last opportunity to repent, to seek His face—that is, to put the house of God in order.
Perhaps, by His grace, there may be an awakening—the greatest spiritual awakening that America has ever seen. Do you believe it could be possible? If there was an awakening, that would affect the next election.
If not, you will have a whole different society, the same as Europe—conditioned to the Europeans, able to fit in with the whole, and thus be part of the whole scene.
I do hope that I have not been too hard on you all. But I just want to say that, to me, it is a miracle that has taken place. I fully expected Kerry to win, myself.
I believe that God, in His mercy, has given this nation a last opportunity. Everything will depend on the way believers respond.
Because in the end, it is not the nation that will determine things—not even its leadership—but the house of God.
The key to the whole lies in the hands of the believers. If they were to seek the Lord, whatever happens on the outward and official level, thousands—tens of thousands—could find the Lord.
Well now, dear friends, I think I have almost said enough, but I have to say something else in looking at this whole world situation that we are in. I have to say something about Israel, because she is totally isolated.
It is one of the most extraordinary things happening with the world media: they have been able to represent America and Bush in such a way that most of you here would not recognize Bush, and would not recognize American Christians.
You are dumb, empty-headed, fanatical, straight-laced, old-fashioned antiques. You may not recognize yourself, but that is the way the world media has represented you.
In exactly the same way, they are representing Israel. They are a bunch of horned devils—people who go around beating up Arabs, rolling over them with tanks and guns and all the rest of it.
Those of us who live there see it in a very different way indeed. It is quite extraordinary, the alienation of the nations from Israel, the misrepresentation of her every move.
I find it interesting because it seems to me that somewhere in the unseen world, the decree has gone forth that the church is to be liquidated, and the Jew with it.
All through the history of the last two thousand years, the principle has always been the Jew first, and then the Greek, or the Gentile. Salvation was to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. The gospel is to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.
It is very interesting: the Crusaders murdered everywhere they went. They murdered Jews, and they murdered real Christians. If they were not part of the Roman Catholic Church—even Orthodox—they murdered the Orthodox Church.
The Inquisition murdered Jews in vast numbers, whole communities. So much so that I remind my Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Greek brothers and sisters: you have all got so much Jewish blood, and you have no idea.
They murdered the parents, took the children, gave them Christian names, brought them up in nunneries or monasteries, and they came into normal national life.
One of the reasons that Italy has been the most sympathetic nation to Israel, under Berlusconi—of course, not if the others got in, not under Berlusconi—is, I think, partly due to the fact that there is a lot of Jewish blood in Italians.
This is very interesting to me because Hitler wrote a letter to Martin Bormann, the deputy Führer, and said to him, “When we have liquidated the Jewish people, we will liquidate the Christians.”
Those Christians who supported the Nazis had no idea what was in store for them.
I believe the decree has gone forth in the councils of Satan that the true church is to be liquidated, and the Jewish people.
Now, I know there will be a rapture. I have no doubt about it. I know that we shall be caught up to be with the Lord, and I am very thankful for that.
But I am just saying that I believe we are in the beginning of this whole movement to destroy Israel. The battle in Israel, the turmoil in Israel, the disorder in its government, are all part of this thing.
Well, I must bring myself to a close, or you will all be asleep. But Psalm 2 is a prophetic window on our present situation.
“Why do the nations rage,
And the peoples meditate a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying,
Let us break their bonds asunder,
And cast away their cords from us.”
The word in Hebrew has the idea of plotting, conspiring, in tumult, in an enraged manner. Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate something empty?
These bonds are the Word of God. These fetters are the revealed law of God. It is against the Lord and His Messiah—the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
That is what lies at the heart of this whole thing. Listen again to this marvellous Psalm:
“I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son;
This day have I begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,
And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.”
The uttermost parts of the earth—from where? From Israel. Oh, you say, “No, no, no; you cannot say that.” Well, where do you measure the uttermost parts of the earth from?
Where does the Lord call one portion of the earth “My land”? Why does He say that? Why does He say it three, four, five times? Actually, someone told me it is nine times. The Lord says, “My land.” Why?
The whole earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. Why did He reserve one little portion as “My land”? The uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are not at the beginning of this great movement; we are at the end. This gospel has gone out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, and from every tongue, kindred, and race, men and women have been saved by the grace of God through Messiah Jesus, through His finished work, joined to the Lord.
Is that not wonderful? Now, no wonder the nations are meditating a vain thing. No wonder they are conspiring. Behind them is the power of darkness. Behind them is Satan himself.
He will not allow this to be fulfilled. Listen. This is what the Lord says:
“He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:
The Lord will have them in derision.
Yet I have set My King
Upon My holy hill of Zion.”
He that sits in the heavens is not even agitated. He sits in the heavens and will laugh. He will, to put it in a modern version, simply stop them and hold them in derision.
“Yet have I set My King”—the word is, “I have installed My King”—upon My holy hill of Zion.
That means the King is already enthroned. His coronation may yet be, but His enthronement, His installation, has taken place. He is at the right hand of God.
Now, this to me is simply wonderful in the light of all this darkness we have been talking about. It is gloomy and depressing to think about it, but, dear child of God, there is no need to be depressed by this, because God has already won.
The King is at the right hand of God. He is installed at His right hand. I find this simply marvellous. The Lord is not the least bit bothered by all these nations being enraged, conspiring, and meditating emptiness.
He says, “Let them do it. I have already got My King at My right hand, and this work of the Holy Spirit, calling the people out of every tongue, kindred, and nation in grace to be part of My dwelling place, is near complete.”
There is no need to fear. As you all know, I have much to do with Israel, and I do these updates and so on. I get letters and other things, and people get so agitated. You would think the whole purpose of God depended on them.
They get so neurotic about the whole thing. “Oh, what is going to happen? We must fast and pray,” and all that. Well, I believe in fasting and praying—do not get me wrong—and in real prayer warfare. But the fact of the matter is, there is no need to become neurotic.
The government is on His shoulder, not yours. If the Lord is on the field, there is no need to fear.
Oh, my dear friends, we have a King at the right hand of God. Do you know what the Father has said?
“The Lord saith unto my Lord,
Sit Thou at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.”
That is exactly what the Lord Jesus is doing. He is ruling in the midst of His enemies. That is something tremendous.
I am going to end, but let me end with a story. I told some of you before, so it is about the shocking one; I have to tell you. But it puts this whole thing into perspective.
We had a fellow at Halford House who was an absolute blackguard—alcoholic, gambler, womanizer; you name it, he was it. He was so terrible that in some of the churches in the Richmond area—not this Richmond—they had warned from the pulpit against this man.
Then he got saved. He got saved in the most extraordinary way. He was in the Royal Air Force, and he was in Gibraltar. He got so depressed by losing his money, his wages—which were not very great—and by his alcoholism and drug addiction, that he went and lay down on the one single track that goes along the southern coast of Spain.
There was an express train every day that went along the track. He planned to commit suicide. On that particular day, the train did not run.
So he lay for hours in the hot sun, waiting for the train to finish his life. Because there was a strike in Britain, the train never came.
Then he got up, wandered back to Gibraltar, and fell into the arms of an army Scripture reader, who led him to the Lord. The change was colossal.
But of course, he had all this background. One day he stood up at the Lord’s Table and gave this testimony. I have never forgotten it.
He said, “I was so depressed last week, and I did not know what to do. So I decided the only thing to do…” He was bothered about his two sons. They were teenagers and giving a lot of problems. They had some of his genes in them.
He said, “I thought, ‘I am just going to go out for a walk.’” It was pouring with rain, one of those dark, dreadful days you get in Britain—grey sky, everything wet. He was even more depressed as he walked.
Finally, after an hour or two walking in the rain, he went back. As he came in, he saw that the two boys were glued to the television set. They were crowding round; you could hardly see the television.
He heard this commentator saying, “Such-and-such a horse is coming round the bend. It looks as if it is going to overtake the favourite.” Because of his old instincts, he could not help it. He came to the television and began to look.
He said, “These two horses came round the bend, and it looked as if the favourite was going to be beaten. Finally, when they both went over the line, you could not see who it was.”
The commentator said, “You will have to wait a few moments till we decide by the photo finish which has won.” A few minutes later the announcement came: “Such-and-such a horse, not the favourite, has won by a nose.”
Then the Lord said, “Fred, you see, when the nose has gone over the finishing line, the last hairs in the tail have won. You got it?”
If the head has gone over, the tail may be like that there, but it has won. You and I may be in the tail, but the Head has gone over the line. That means we have won.
We just have to take all this in and think for a moment. Get one’s eyes filled with the Lord Jesus. He is God’s King, installed at God’s right hand.
May the Lord help us in this: for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. What does it really mean?
Tomorrow I will say something about the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. What really does it mean for us, in simple terms, that we might be able to say, “I am living for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus”?
May He help us. Shall we pray?
Beloved Lord, we are living in amazing days. Forgive us, Lord, if at times we can hardly keep up with the events that are taking place.
But, Lord, we need the understanding that only Your Holy Spirit can give. We pray, Lord, that You will preserve us from being confused in any way, or blinded by what is happening.
May the Lord give us that kind of clarity and understanding that we shall know what we are meant to do, and the kind of people we ought to be at this present time.
Hear us, Lord. We want to thank You for what You have done here in the United States in this election. We praise You, Lord, that You have done something quite remarkable and given this nation another opportunity.
For however long it lasts, may, Lord, Your Holy Spirit energize those who really belong to You in this nation to take this opportunity fully and use it.
That it may, Lord, result in the building up of the house of God, the purifying of the church, and the salvation of the unsaved. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.