Good morning. Praise the Lord.
I’m not sure if there will be a morning tomorrow, so that’s a good morning. And if there’s not a morning tomorrow, it will be an even greater day. Praise the Lord.
I think it’s pretty obvious what has been on my heart for a while. As we begin this morning, let’s just have a word of prayer.
Lord, You indeed were made a little lower than the angels for a time. Lord, You knew time; You knew Your purpose in time, and You fulfilled God’s purpose in time: to come and redeem man, to pay the great sacrifice for our sins, and to forever bind us to Your own heart, that we might never, Lord, be allowed to let go.
Lord, we thank You this morning for Your great love, that love that binds us to Thyself. We pray this morning, Lord, as we look at Your Word and share with one another, that You will touch our hearts; that You will reveal Yourself to us afresh and anew, and in a living way.
Lord, I pray that You will give me, Lord Jesus, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit this morning, that I might be able to share what I have been sensing from Your heart. I pray, Lord, that we will be able to receive, including myself, what You have been saying. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let me share three Scriptures with you as we begin this morning, some that I mentioned at the conference when I shared the opening message.
1 Chronicles 12:32
The sons of Issachar had understanding of the times,
And they knew what Israel ought to do.
The sons of Issachar had understanding of the times, and they knew what they ought to do.
Revelation 1:3
The time is at hand.
The time is at hand.
Revelation 3:11
Behold, I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast.
Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast that which thou hast.
After the conference was over and the Lord had touched me personally, revealing Himself to me in a fresh way, I was deeply grateful that the Lord answered our prayers. I was before the Lord saying, “Okay, Lord, You’ve shown me something new of Yourself. You’ve shown me Who You are. What do I do, Lord? What do I need to do that I not lose what You’ve given to me during this time of the conference?”
The Lord has spoken to me many times before, and, brothers and sisters, He has warned us in His Word that the cares of life can steal from us the Word that He gives to us, and it not bear fruit. So it is important that everything God gives to us bears fruit and that nothing be lost.
This burden was on my heart, and the word came to me: “Hold on. Hold on. Jerry, you’ve got to hold on to what I’ve given you.”
As I pondered that and began to think about it, it seemed as if the Lord wanted me to share with you, brothers and sisters, this matter of holding on.
Then came the Lord’s humor, I think. As I was saying, “Well, Lord, is this really something to share with the assembly?” I flicked on the radio, and immediately I heard the words, “Hold on, I’m coming. Hold on, I’m coming.”
That was the first thing that came through the radio. They weren’t mystical words; they were right out of the radio. It was an old fifties or sixties song—I can’t think of it now—but there was a verse in it that said, “Hold on, I’m coming.”
I said, “Okay, Lord. I think I got Your message.”
As I thought about the message and developed it yesterday, I was down at the Children’s Miracle Network. They had a little gathering at the children’s hospital yesterday. All the lemonade stands you saw around Richmond—maybe some of you were involved in some of it—were collecting money for the Children’s Miracle Fund.
My daughter-in-law works for that, and she was there. Of course, I had my grandson there. There was a man there who was forty-two years of age. He was in a wheelchair, a nice-looking young man, and we got to talking to him. His name was David.
They asked him why he had come there, and he said, “Look, the first eight years of my life, I was here.” He was born with spina bifida, and during the first eight years of his life, he spent a good bit of time at the children’s hospital. He said, “I’m grateful and thankful for the things they’ve done for me, and I just wanted to be here today.”
That really touched my heart. At the end of the event, after a thunderstorm had rolled through, I asked him, “Do you need any help?” He said, “Yeah, I need for you to take me to Eighth and Broad. I can catch a bus there.”
I said, “Well, where are you going?” He said, “To Rock Church.” I said, “Well, hallelujah. We’ll see that you get to Rock Church this evening.”
I had the privilege of taking this young man over to Rock Church yesterday afternoon. On the way, he shared with me that his mother had passed away when he was eighteen years old. He did not speak of his father, so I think his father was out of the picture.
What the Lord seemed to reinforce in my heart was this: here was a man who had experienced great difficulties, even from birth, but he was holding on. He was holding on, and the cares of life, his own troubles, and the tribulations he had experienced had not taken him down.
He was still holding on. That greatly impressed me. I was thankful for the honor and privilege of being able to serve that young man in the simple way of getting him over to Rock Church.
The Lord has really touched me about this matter of not allowing anything that the Lord gives to us to slip away through the cares of life. Brothers and sisters, it is important. The reason it is so important is because the time is at hand.
When the Lord was coming the first time, we remember from the stories in Matthew and Luke that there were shepherds in the field. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, “The Savior has come. He is in Bethlehem. You will find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes.”
The shepherds, brothers and sisters, did not say, “Well, wow, the Lord has spoken to us. Oh, this is great. This is wonderful. This is marvelous,” and then simply go back to tending the sheep.
They said, “Let’s go and see what the Lord has made known to us.” In other words, it was not good enough just to have this revelation. They had to go and see. They had to hold on to the word that the angel had given them, and in holding on, they were some of the first to behold the Messiah.
The Magi—the wise men—saw the star in the east. These were Gentile kings, but, brothers and sisters, I find it very interesting: they understood the time. They had read the Scriptures, and though they were Gentiles, they understood the time in which they lived.
When they saw the star, they realized that God had given a sign that the King of the Jews had been born. Many in the nation of Israel did not know that. The star had obviously been visible all over the world, yet most of the nation of Israel did not recognize that this was a sign from God.
But these Gentile kings did not merely say, “This is a marvelous event in history.” They began their trek, their journey, to see the King of the Jews—this One born King of the Jews.
If you read the Scripture, you will realize it took them two years. I know the manger scene shows the shepherds and the wise men all there at one time, but in history that is not the way it happened. It was two years later that they arrived.
Brothers and sisters, they held on to what they had seen. They realized that this was a sign from God, a sign of the times in which they lived, and they took action. They did not simply go back to running their countries, or whatever they were called to do. They had to go and see this King of the Jews.
They held fast to what they saw until they came and saw Him.
It is important that we understand the time in which we live. I shared on it at the conference, but I feel compelled to share a little bit more so that we will understand exactly where we are in history.
Brothers and sisters, the first thing we need to realize—and young people need to realize—is that time is not man’s device. Time is not something that man came up with and invented. Yes, he invented the watch and the clock to mark time, but he did not invent time.
Time originated with God. In Genesis 1:3-5, it says:
God said, Let there be light.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
This means that with creation, God began to mark time. For man, time began. We know that in the beginning, as God began to reckon and mark time, He was remaking the earth habitable for the man whom He would create on the sixth day.
That was the beginning. In Revelation 10:6-7, it says that when the mystery of God is finished, time will be no more. When the mystery of God is finished, time will come to an end.
So time is a definite period within eternity, and it has a specific purpose that God designed it for. We live in time, so it is important that we connect time with God’s purpose, or we may indeed miss what our purpose is within God’s great purpose and within eternity.
Brothers and sisters, the whole creation has been designed for God’s glory, and that includes you and me. We need to understand the time.
In Genesis 1 and 2, we get some idea of what God’s purpose was. He told man to have dominion over the earth, over the things of the earth, and to guard the garden.
This was in relationship to the fact that God had just created man and restored the earth for man. He told him to have dominion over it. Why did God tell him that he needed to have dominion?
It is because, brothers and sisters, sometime in ages past, before time began, Lucifer, the highest archangel whom God had created, rebelled against God. He wanted to take the place of the Son, Jesus Christ, and God cast him out from His presence.
We know from what we see and hear in the Scriptures that the enemy, along with a third of the angels who rebelled with him, took up residence in the atmosphere around this earth.
Now, if humidity has anything to do with the enemy’s presence, I certainly felt it in the last month. I’ll tell you, it is really something. But regardless of that, that is his domain.
When God first created the heavens and the earth, everything had to be perfect. But it says the earth had become void and dark. Darkness was upon the face of the deep, and there was chaos. That is because the enemy’s presence was here.
It was God’s intention to restore what the enemy had ruined, to overthrow and cast out the enemy, and to use man to do that. That was His purpose.
But in Genesis we find something else. We get a hint of what this mystery is that has to be completed. When this mystery is completed, time will come to an end. God’s purpose for time will be completed only when the mystery is completed.
We get a hint of that in Genesis 2, when the Lord takes something from the side of Adam, puts him to sleep, and makes a helpmate for Adam—a bride for Adam. He brings her to him, and there is a wedding.
What do we see at the end of time in the book of Revelation? In Revelation 22, we see that right at the end of time, before time ends, there is a marriage feast of the Lamb.
That is a thousand-year period yet to come. It is the kingdom age, the age that follows this age of grace in which we live now. It is a thousand-year period, and it is called the marriage feast of the Lamb.
After that, when the enemy has been dealt with, the New Jerusalem is brought down from heaven. It is presented like a bride for the Bridegroom. So we see that at the very end, as time ends, the New Jerusalem is brought down and presented to Christ. His helpmate has been made ready.
What is this mystery of God? God Himself is a mystery, brothers and sisters, but He has chosen to reveal Himself to us, and He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
The mystery of God is Christ. Christ Himself is the mystery of God. But it says the mystery of God has to be completed. We know that in the Word of God there is another mystery: the mystery of Christ, a mystery within a mystery.
The mystery of Christ is the church. It is the bride that is to be presented to the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ. So the complete mystery of God is Christ coming into full union with His bride.
When that occurs, God’s purpose for time has been completed, time will end, and we will enter into eternity.
It is important that we understand that time has a very specific purpose and what our purpose is in that time.
We know that Adam fell. He did not take dominion; he was overcome by Satan. But God sent a new Man. The Word of God says that Christ was the last Adam and the second Man.
The first man failed, but God sent Christ, the second Man. He overcame the enemy on Calvary’s cross. He paid the price for your sins and mine. He is the Savior of the world to all who believe in Him.
Not only did He take care of our sins, brothers and sisters, but He nailed us, the sinner, to the cross. The old man has been nailed there at Calvary’s cross. He was totally victorious at Calvary and finally freed man from all darkness, evil, and Satan. He overcame and took dominion.
And now He is looking for His bride.
As a result of the work of the cross, brothers and sisters, we become a new creation in Him. This new creation that He puts into you and me becomes the building material for the bride, for the New Jerusalem which is to be His bride.
It is Christ, the second Man, who completes God’s purpose for the hour in which we live—for time.
The Lord our God has made provision for us through the apostles and the prophets so that we would understand the time and not miss what God is wanting to do. So that when time begins to come to an end, we would be prepared and ready for Him.
He gives us points within history that He wanted us to know about through the prophets and apostles: the creation itself, the fall of man, Calvary prophesied in the Bible, and the church age.
The age of grace was hidden in mystery, but it was finally revealed once Christ was crucified. It was revealed to the apostles and prophets.
We know that at the end of the age of grace, at the end of the church age in which we live today, there will be a rapture. At the beginning of this parousia, as it is called, which has quite a number of events involved in it, there will be the resurrection of some of the saints.
The Lord says He will come as a thief in the night, and some will be raptured. That will be the kickoff event to the Lord’s final return and the setting up of His thousand-year kingdom on this earth.
Once the thousand years are over, Satan will be judged and thrown into the lake of fire. There will be what is referred to as the great white throne judgment. Then we will see the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, and then time will end.
Where are we in this timeline that God has given to us? He is ready to come back. He is getting ready. Are we ready?
The point is, brothers and sisters, we have reached that point in history where Christ is ready to come back to reign and rule on this earth. We need to be aware of this time and be ready for it.
Our brothers Lance and Stephen both said at the conference that, as far as they could tell from all the prophecies, everything was ready. At any moment, some saints could be raptured, kicking off the Lord’s return.
If we understand the time in which we live, we should be ready. Have you ever thought about why God gave us this? Why He let us know what was going to happen? He did not want us to be caught off guard. He wanted us to be ready.
That is the whole point: He wants us to be ready. Which leads me to my burden this morning, which is to hold on—to hold on to Him, to hold on to what He has shown you, to hold on because Revelation 3:11 says, “Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast.”
That was the message He gave to the church in Philadelphia, which was the only church that He actually had praise for. He said, “Hold fast. I come quickly.”
My personal burden is that the cares of life, just living everyday life, will steal from us what the Lord has shared with us. Our minds and hearts will go other places. Our priorities will not be Christ, brothers and sisters, and we will lose what the Lord has given.
We may become disqualified from participating in the marriage supper of the Lamb, the thousand-year period in which Christ will reign and rule. But even greater than that, brothers and sisters, we may not know the presence of the Lord or be able to serve Him for those thousand years. What a tragedy. What a tragedy.
My heart is that we would hold on. As I thought about holding on, I could not help but think of Jacob.
You all remember the story of Jacob: how Jacob had tricked his brother out of the birthright and out of the blessing. Jacob wanted the things of God. He was after the things of God, but he wanted to grab them. He was a twister and conniving. He was not a person that I think most of us would like.
All of his life, the more he connived and the more he strove, the deeper in trouble he got. Remember, he had to work fourteen years just to get his wife. His brother Laban outsmarted him.
Later in Jacob’s life, at Peniel, his brother Esau was coming with his forces, and Jacob did not know what his brother was going to do to him. He knew his brother probably did not like him, after what he had done to him.
So he began to make preparations to try to spare at least part of his family, that his brother would not kill them all. In the midst of all that turmoil of life that he was experiencing—most of which he had brought on himself—a strange thing happened to him.
The Lord appeared to him. It says the Angel of the Lord—in the Old Testament, that is the Lord Jesus—appeared to him. Strangely enough, Jacob began to wrestle with Him.
Jacob’s flesh was so strong, the old man was so strong in Jacob, that the Lord wrestled with Jacob and Jacob just kept wrestling.
Finally, at daybreak, the Lord said to him, “Let Me go.” Jacob said, “No.” Then the Lord touched Jacob’s hip. Now, for those who are wrestlers, you know that if you lose the strength in your hip, you cannot wrestle anymore.
Thank God that the Lord Jesus finally touched his life. Jacob could not really wrestle in the flesh any longer. In fact, the Word of God says that in his old age he was found leaning on the staff, worshiping the Lord. Finally, he was leaning on the Lord rather than himself.
The Lord had done a marvelous work in Jacob in touching him. After the Lord had touched his hip and said, “Let Me go,” Jacob said, “No. I’m going to hold on. I’m going to hold on until You bless me. I will not let go.”
“I’m weak. I’m wounded. But I’m holding on, and I’m not going to let go of You, Lord, until You bless me.”
Do you know what the Lord did? He said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but it will be Israel.” No longer the twister, but now a man of God, leaning on the Lord rather than himself.
He held on, brothers and sisters. He did not have the best character as far as the Christian life goes, but when things got critical in his life, and when the Lord spoke to him and touched him, in his own way he held on until the Lord changed him.
He held on until the Lord changed him. May we hold on so the Lord changes us, until He gets through to us. May He touch our thigh, that the old man will stay on the cross where he belongs.
Brothers and sisters, when we are being dealt with by the Lord, and we think all is lost, and we no longer have any strength, may we hold on and let Him change us.
I think of Simeon. The Lord was coming; the time was at hand for His first coming. Only a few realized this. We need to know this: only a few really realized this.
Simeon had been given a word from the Holy Spirit: “You will not die until you see the Lord’s Christ.” Now Simeon was an old man and was ready to die, but he held on. He would not let go of God’s Word.
God had promised him that he would see the Messiah before he died, and he held on. Thank God, that day, when on the eighth day they brought baby Jesus to the temple, nobody had to tell Simeon, “Here is the Lord. Here is the Messiah.”
Immediately, he knew in his spirit, “This is the One I have been waiting for. This is the One I have been waiting for all my life.” He took Him up and blessed the baby.
Then he said, “Lord, Your servant has seen the Christ. Now let Your servant depart in peace.”
What a ministry. What a brother. He knew the time, and he was prepared. Thank the Lord. He could go in peace.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is coming soon. Maybe before you die. It may be in your lifetime. In fact, my inclination is that it probably will be.
I shared with you at the conference a couple of signs from the nation of Israel. In 1948, the nation of Israel, which had disappeared from the whole earth, God brought back. Something that had never happened in history: a nation that had totally disappeared was brought back into being.
God did it in 1948, and Israel was politically recognized. That fulfilled the Scripture in prophecy which says that when you see the fig tree begin to blossom, then you know the time is at hand. “My return is coming soon. I will be at the doors when you see that.”
Then, in another prophecy, the Lord says, “I will come back when the time of the Gentiles has been fulfilled.” The time of the Gentiles began when Nebuchadnezzar took over Jerusalem, and the Gentiles effectively remained in control of Jerusalem until 1967.
In 1967, in the Six-Day War, Israel took full control of the city of Jerusalem and has been in full control ever since. Another prophecy, another sign to the nations, has been fulfilled.
We also know that as a part of the tribulation, the old Roman Empire will rise again into power, because that is the ten toes of clay and iron mixed together. The Roman Empire was the empire of iron.
I do not want to go through the whole Nebuchadnezzar thing, but it says in the last days there will be ten toes—ten nations that will come up unified. Yet they will be mixed with clay, so they will not be like the original Roman Empire.
When I was around eighteen or nineteen years old, I heard about the Common Market. Many people speaking on prophecy were saying at that point in time, “We believe that this may eventually develop into the ten toes.”
Today we see what has happened. The Common Market, the EU—the European Union—is now being formed. There is a political union being formed today. The old Roman Empire is rising.
Out of the revived Roman Empire, one will rise up to be a leader out of the Gentile nations, which will be the Roman Empire of Europe, and he will become the Antichrist. It will be a man like you and me, a man of great power.
Probably out of the nation of Israel itself will rise the false prophet. That is to come. But praise the Lord, may we be raptured before all of that happens.
A lot is about to happen—a lot that we need to be ready for. But the main thing for Christians is not all these events, other than the Lord’s return and being ready and prepared for His return.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be prepared. We need to be like Simeon, watchful, because the Lord may come before we die.
I think of Anna. She was a widow. In the seventh year of her marriage, her husband died. At that point in her life, she gave herself fully to the Lord.
For the next eighty-four years, she was in the temple day and night. Listen to what it says she was doing: she was worshiping, fasting, praying, and looking for the Redeemer.
She held on for eighty-four years. She too, when the baby Jesus was brought in, did not need anyone to say, “This is He.” She came and said, “This is the Redeemer that I have been waiting for,” and she prophesied over Him.
She held on for eighty-four years. She prayed. Brothers and sisters, this is a time in which the Lord is coming again. We need to be in prayer, hastening the return of the Lord, praying that the Lord will come soon and that His purpose will be fulfilled, as Anna did.
I think of John the Baptist, the one who had this great testimony. When he saw Jesus, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” He also said, “He is the Bridegroom.”
He had a great revelation of Who Jesus Christ was. But you remember when he was put in jail how he almost became offended. After all, he had served the Lord faithfully. He was the one prepared to prepare the way for the Lord, yet he was in jail waiting to be executed.
He did not understand. The Lord was out there raising the dead and ministering, and John was in jail. He began to wonder, “Is this really the Messiah?” The enemy began to get to John.
We can understand why, brothers and sisters, if we think about it a little bit. Here was a brother who had been so faithful to the Lord and had carried out his purpose in his time. He understood the time in which he was living.
But he did not fully understand a statement that he had made himself. He said:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
He did not understand the full import of what he said, but it began to be worked out very practically in John’s life. John almost was offended, but the Lord sent John a word.
At the end of that word, He said:
Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.
Thank God John held on to those words. We know that he was executed; he was beheaded. He did decrease, and the Lord increased, as he had prophesied.
Well, brothers and sisters, in this last hour, there may be things that happen in your life and mine that we do not understand. They may actually seem contradictory to what we would think the Lord would do in our lives.
“How could this be, Lord?” We do not understand. We may become discouraged and even become offended in the Lord and not be ready when He returns. But the Lord said, “Blessed are the unoffended in Me.”
It is a great test, but, brothers and sisters, let us hold on to what the Lord has shared with us. Let us hold on to Him and not be offended, but press on.
I think of Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was the one, you may remember, who had seven demons. The Lord had cast those seven demons from Mary Magdalene.
Seven is a perfect number, which means she was fully possessed. She had no hope. There was nothing she could do. She was helpless. These seven demons had full control of her and her life until she met the Lord Jesus.
When she met the Lord, He cast out those demons, brothers and sisters. It changed her life.
But it did something deep in this sister that I wish the Lord would do in my life and in your life—something extremely deep.
The Lord once said:
Those who have been forgiven much love much.
Mary Magdalene was so grateful to the Lord. She gave herself fully to the Lord and to His service.
Stephen said at the conference, brothers and sisters, that the greatest sin was a lack of gratitude. I had never thought about that. If you had asked me what the greatest sin was, I would have said unbelief.
It is a great sin. If we do not believe, we cannot be forgiven. If we do not believe, we cannot receive eternal life. If we do not believe, we will perish in hell rather than live with our Lord Jesus Christ in His presence. The consequences of not believing are tremendous.
It is a great sin. But our brother made this statement: “The greatest sin is a lack of gratitude.” As I thought about it, I said, “Lord, I think I understand.”
The ones you love so much are the ones you are willing to give your life for and pour out your whole life upon. When they are ungrateful, what could hurt deeper? What deeper hurt is there than for the one upon whom you have poured out everything to be ungrateful?
So I began to understand, and I had to say, “Lord, that is my greatest sin. I have not been grateful for all You have done for me.”
Mary Magdalene so loved the Lord and was so grateful. She served Him while He ministered during those three years. She helped take care of the Lord.
She was at the cross, brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus died. She was at the cross. She watched Him die there.
She watched Joseph of Arimathea take the Lord down from the cross. She watched Joseph as he put the Lord Jesus into the grave.
On that Sunday morning, before the sun came up, she was the first one at the tomb. What a heart. She could not live without the Lord. She was holding on to the Lord. Her heart was broken.
She immediately ran back to tell Peter and John that somebody had taken the Lord. Peter and John responded and came back to the tomb. They looked in, and they were bewildered. They did not quite understand what was going on, and then they left.
But Mary came back. She came back.
She saw One whom she thought was the gardener. She said, “If you will just tell me where you have taken Him, I will go and take His body and take care of it.”
The Lord Jesus turned to her. He said, “Mary.” And she knew it was the Lord.
The point is, brothers and sisters, the Lord could not resist the affections of this sister. He could not resist the love she had for Him, the gratitude she had for the Lord that caused her to hold on.
Even when life seemed impossible, even when the tomb was empty and she thought it meant He would be lost forever, even when she thought she would never be able to see His body and anoint Him as they wanted to do, she held on.
The Lord could not resist. Brothers and sisters, He did not first appear to His own mother. He did not first appear to the disciples.
Bless Peter and John. They were disillusioned, but somehow they were able to go back. If needful, life would be presented to them. But for Mary it was not that way. She could not go on living unless she found the Lord once again.
The Lord cannot resist that.
As I have thought about it over the years, I really see that the Lord treasures our affection more than anything. He treasures our gratitude more than anything.
I really believe, brothers and sisters, my greatest need—and maybe our greatest need—in this last hour is to get our affections right, to get our affections for the Lord Jesus corrected.
There was another Mary, the Mary of Mary and Martha. Remember the story of how she came and poured the ointment on our Lord Jesus, on His head and on His feet, and began to wipe His feet with her hair?
We do not know if it was Mary Magdalene or not. Most scholars think not. But you know what the Lord said? The disciples said, “Why this waste? Why are you wasting all of this expensive perfume?”
It was most likely her dowry for marriage. Frankly, she was giving up being able to be married because she loved the Lord so much and was so affectionate toward the Lord. She wiped His feet.
When the disciples said, “Why this waste?” the Lord said, “Wherever you share the gospel, whenever you share the good news, share this story also.”
I do not know how often you have heard the story. We have heard the gospel a lot, but I do not know how much we have really heard this story. He said, “When you share the gospel, share this story also.”
Why? Why is the story so important, brothers and sisters? What good is the gospel of Jesus Christ if there is no response?
I believe the Lord Jesus was trying to emphasize the kind of response that should come forth from our hearts when we hear the good news, when He speaks to us, and when He meets us.
Our response should be, “I am willing to pour it all out on You, Lord. My affection toward You is great. Lord, I cannot live without You. I have to hold on to You.”
Think about this: the Lord is preparing to return. What is it that is going to draw our Lord back? It is the affection of the bride. That is what is going to draw Him back.
Now, the bride has to be made ready. But let me ask you something, brothers and sisters. I will talk to you brothers: would any of you want to marry someone who had no affection for you? Would you be drawn? You might skip out on the wedding day.
Oh, brothers and sisters, I am so convinced about this matter of affection, how we have to be careful about our affections.
Let me end with this story. There were some climbers—I think I have shared it before, but I think it so illustrates what is on my heart, if you will just be patient.
Some climbers had decided to climb the sheer rock face of a mountain. As they got about halfway up the mountain, late in the afternoon, they were being observed by friends, relatives, and others on the ground through telescopes.
An unexpected storm arose—a tremendous storm arose on the mountain. It became dark, and the family, friends, and those who were observing could no longer see them up there on the mountain.
The wind howled all night, the rains blew tremendously hard, and the hail hit. They were all hoping for some miracle.
The next morning, as the storm clouds cleared and the wind died down, they anxiously went back to their telescopes. The man looking first looked down toward the foot of the mountain, expecting to see signs of them where they had fallen off the mountain, but he did not immediately see anything.
So he began to raise the telescope up the mountain, and finally he shouted, “They are alive! They are alive! I see them! I see them!”
People wondered, “How did they survive the storm? How could they survive the storm?”
The man looked closer, and he said, “They found a cleft in the rock. They found a cleft in the rock, and they pinned themselves to the rock. That is the way they survived.”
Everyone, of course, was joyous. But today, brothers and sisters, I need to ask you: in this last hour, have you found the cleft in the rock? Have you pinned yourself to the rock?
Have you pinned yourself in such a way that you will not let go through the storms of life, through the cares of life? Is your only hope to be pinned to the rock?
The mighty Rock has been cleft for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the mighty Rock, has been cleft for you. Are you hid in Christ?
Are you hid in the work and person of Jesus Christ? Brothers and sisters, it is only the blood of Christ that can offer any atonement for our sin. It is the blood of Christ that frees us from the defilement of the world that we are in every day.
Do you know you need the blood every day just to cleanse you of the defilement of this world? Do you know, brothers and sisters, when you allow your old man to live in your life and run your life, that defiles you? You need the blood of the Lamb. You need forgiveness.
“Lord, I have allowed the old man to take over here. I need Your blood. I need Your forgiveness.” That is what the blood of the red heifer is all about, if you want to read it sometime.
But also, more than that, the Rock was cleft. Our Lord Jesus went to Calvary. Not only did He die for your sins, but He put the old man—you—on the cross with Him, and you are nailed there forever. That cross is unto death.
That is why, last week when I shared my testimony, I said that when we see the old man wanting to rise up off the cross in our lives, we need to say, “Away with him. I have nothing to do with him. I no longer know him.”
You are a new creation in Christ. Cling to that. Stay in the cleft of the Rock.
But, brothers and sisters, you also need to be pinned to the Rock. You need to know that it is only the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who is your salvation, who is your way through the storm.
As I thought of this analogy last night, I said, “Well, Lord, the pins are really our faith. We have to believe.” But what is it that causes us to have the pins? What is it that causes us to have faith? What is it that causes us to activate faith and drive the pins into the Rock?
That is what we need to know. Our brother said it at the conference a number of times:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
In other words, we need to look to Him, away from everything else. Look at Him. What does that do? Brothers and sisters, when we really take time to look at Him, it melts our hearts.
Our affections of love begin to rise in our hearts, and faith arises with it.
What I am trying to say, brothers and sisters, is that if our heart is cold toward the Lord today, we need to repent. We need to ask forgiveness. If we can come and take this table and it does not touch our heart, our hearts are cold.
If we can sing about the Lord’s grace, mercy, and lovingkindness, and it does not touch our hearts, our hearts are cold, our affections are not right, and we need to get straight with the Lord. We need to ask forgiveness and ask the Lord to give us a warm heart toward Him.
Our hearts may be only lukewarm. In other words, we love the Lord, but we just do not seem to have time for Him. Our days are taken up with the busy things of life, caring for our families and our children, and we only think about Him maybe at night or first thing in the morning a little bit.
Brothers and sisters, my thought is this: if our affections are correct, any time we stop thinking about anything else, immediately the thoughts of the Lord Jesus should flood our hearts.
If our affection is only lukewarm, the pins will not be driven deep enough in the Rock, and we will not be ready.
But, brothers and sisters, I realize we cannot work up these affections, and I would not suggest that we do that. I would suggest that we look off unto Jesus, as our brothers encouraged us to do.
I would suggest that we remember that we love Him because He first loved us. So we need to think of His love for us.
The maiden in the Song of Solomon said to the Lord:
Draw me; we will run after Thee.
We need to ask Him to draw us.
A lack of gratitude causes the deepest hurt to our Lord. May the Lord return us to a great heart of gratitude. May we, like the prodigal son, awaken to our condition and return to Him.
Lord, as we come today, we know You have been very clear with us that You are coming soon and that You want us to be ready. The thing You are most after is our heart.
Lord Jesus, forgive us for our lack of affection, for our ungrateful hearts. Lord, today we look away from what we are to what You are—Who You are, Lord Jesus.
Oh Lord, may You ever be cherished in our hearts. May we respond to You, Lord. May we respond. May we be found wiping Your feet with our hair, Lord.
Lord, do this for Your own sake. Lord, I feel like Peter when You asked him if he loved You. He could only say, “I am attached to You, Lord.”
Lord, work in our hearts, I pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.