Will you turn with me in the Word of God to the passage with which we have all started, in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians?
Ephesians 1. I will read verses 9 and 10:
Making known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him,
unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times,
to sum up all things in Christ,
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him, I say.
Then, if you will turn to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 24, from verse 36:
But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.
And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.
For as in those days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.
Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.
Luke’s Gospel, chapter 12. We will read from verse 35:
Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning;
and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him.
Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them.
And if He shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through.
Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.
Then in the second letter of the apostle Peter, 2 Peter 3, from verse 10:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness,
looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Just a further word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, we want to thank You for Your presence. We want to thank You, Lord. We are not asking You to join us; we are here to be with You.
And we want to thank You, Lord, that when it comes to the ministry of Your Word, You, in the most wonderful manner, make provision for us. You have provided us with an anointing through the finished work of our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is here to make it a reality.
Lord, by faith we stand in that anointing, grace, and power for the speaking of Your Word, for the translating of it, and for the hearing of it. Lord, touch our hearts. Do something in us, O Lord.
We are very conscious that we are standing together at a point in history that is significant. We want, Lord, to be holy with You in these days. Therefore, beloved Lord, we commit our time to You. Fill it with Yourself.
And somehow reach our hearts. Where we need to be woken up, wake us up. Where we need to be challenged, challenge us. Where we need to be equipped, equip us. Lord, make us ready for these days in which we live, and for Your coming. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think you all know the theme of this conference: “to sum up all things in Christ.” Dana has the responsibility of presenting Christ, Stephen has the responsibility of returning to Christ, and my responsibility is to be ready for Christ.
This word ready is a very interesting word. It comes from a very old Greek noun that is not used even in classical Greek. It was so old, but it meant fitness: to be ready, to be fit, to be prepared.
It is a tremendous thought that every child of God should seriously consider, because we are living in momentous days. You parents need to deeply consider this matter of being ready. You who are businessmen ought to be ready. All of us who are members of the body of Christ need to be ready—not just in our heads, but equipped, fit for the coming of the Lord.
It is of tremendous importance, this matter. I am going to speak this evening in general about the coming of the Lord and being ready for Him. I am going to talk about the emphasis of our Lord Jesus whenever He spoke about His return. Tomorrow, the Lord willing, I will speak about imperatives in being ready, both tomorrow and on Wednesday evening.
First of all, then, I think it is amazing, the point we have reached in history. I can imagine that many of those saints I knew when I was first saved, many, many years ago now, would be amazed at what is happening to this world—the quickness with which things are changing all around us.
You can hardly call Western nations Christian. They are pagan, essentially pagan. They have rejected the Word of God, the law of God, which made them great and made them, as it were, instrumental in bringing the light of the gospel to so many nations.
But today, you go a long, long way in any Western country to find vestiges of the gospel. It is gone—socially, morally, educationally, politically. Where is the church?
A little while ago, some Danish newspaper published a cartoon of Muhammad, and the whole Islamic world went up in smoke. Denmark lost millions and millions of dollars in business, and Norway also.
But in these countries in which you and I have been brought up, we have every kind of blasphemy. Now, Jerry Springer: The Opera in Britain—absolute blasphemy. The Da Vinci Code—I hope none of you go to see it—it is absolute blasphemy.
Any child of God who goes to look at these things—there is a demonic dimension in this thing. It means that spirits can begin to interfere even with believers. That is where we need to wake up. How are we to be ready for the coming of the Lord when we are living in this kind of situation?
Nobody has said a thing about The Da Vinci Code. Can you believe it? That Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children? I mean, we know it is supposed to be fictional.
But the whole Islamic world went up in smoke over a cartoon or two about Muhammad. Nobody in the Islamic world believes that Muhammad is God in the flesh; they believe he is just the prophet. But we who are supposed to be Christians—there has not been a protest, not from the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, not from the Archbishop of Canterbury—God help him—and a whole number of others.
I mean, it is unbelievable to me that such things can happen. Only the Pope, God bless him, has spoken up. It is unbelievable.
We have reached a point in history—a turning. We have passed it. We are on the way down. The sooner we as believers wake up, the better.
I was so thankful for what Dana said last night. Many Christians criticize the Charismatic movement, but the fact remains that, whatever faults it has, it is going to go down into history as the greatest single movement of the Spirit of God since Pentecost.
It has swept countless millions into the kingdom of God. It began in the middle of the 1960s. It is interesting that those statistics Dana gave us were all to do with 1970 to 2000. Is that not interesting?
Yet I hear many people speak disparagingly of the Charismatics: “You know, what is the Charismatic? A lot of emotion and hysteria and all the rest of it.” But I believe that something tremendous happened. There was a breaching of a blockade the enemy had made on the question of the body of Christ.
No one would even think about the body of Christ. But something happened in the Charismatic movement that made people talk about the body of Christ, the house of God, and being living stones.
I know there is empire-building in the whole thing. I know there is a whole lot that is absolutely fraudulent. I know that it is dying, like every other movement of the Spirit of God in the history of the church. But the fact still remains that the Lord is at work.
But where are there believers who are alive, who are hearing the Lord, who are aware of where we stand?
How interesting, then, this matter of being ready for Christ. I believe it is of tremendous importance. Do you believe the Lord is coming? I do. I believe He could come tonight.
I have certain things I personally believe must take place before He comes, but I might be wrong. I would not be the least bit surprised if I heard the trumpet—that great blast on the shofar, the heavenly trumpet.
I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that great shout of the Lord Jesus Himself. He is seated at the right hand of God, but He will rise to His feet and descend from the heavens with a shout.
Oh, what a tremendous thing to hear that shout of our Lord Jesus. I think it will be like, “Finished!” again—something like that. It is done.
And the voice of the archangel—I wonder what that will be. “Behold, He comes,” I suppose.
And in a single moment of time, in the twinkling of an eye, it will happen. You do not think it is going to take a great long time, you know, because the Lord has been so slow about coming. We think, “Well, He will take days and days, circling round the earth in the clouds,” and so on.
No, no, no. It says, “In the twinkling of an eye.” Have you ever seen the twinkling of an eye? It is gone. Twinkling of an eye—one moment, and the dead in Christ are raised.
And we who are alive—oh, I look forward to it so much—we shall put on incorruption. How amazing it will be, in a moment.
That will be the manifestation of the summing up of everything in Christ. It is in process now, but when He comes, it is the manifestation of it. It will be the manifestation that everything that cannot be summed up in Him is closed. It is gone. It belongs to the past. It will not be referred to again.
I love the way the Lord says in Revelation 21, “Behold, I make all things new.” What a wonderful world: no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, no more corruption. It is all gone.
It belonged to the first things. It is in the parenthesis of sin, and the final bracket has been added. It is over. In a moment of time, it will happen, and every believer will be there—every true believer.
“Oh,” you say, “no, no, no, no, no. I am not sure.” Yes, I am. I am absolutely sure about it. And the dead will be there, because they are not dead. That is why—the dead in Christ.
It will be tremendous. So if you think, right up to the point of going, “Well, why will not your dad like to see the Lord come?”—you will see him. You will be the first to see him.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up to be with the Lord forever.
“I make all things new.” You know, it all began at Calvary: a new man, a new covenant, a new life, a new beginning. It all began at Calvary.
I find this tremendous, because the more I think about it, the more excited I become. Everything is new: a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Sin did something to this old heaven and this old earth, so that somehow or other within it there is a corruption—a physical corruption, let alone a moral corruption. It is within the very fabric of the universe.
I think it is tremendous that there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. That is something not to miss.
Then I think of another thing. Altogether apart from the new man, I mean you: if you are a child of God, if you are born of the Spirit of God, you are part of the new man.
You may look Caucasian, you may look Chinese, you may be black, or white, or yellow, or you may be a kind of tinge of brown. It does not make any difference. If you are born of God, you are in the new man—Jew or Gentile, one new man in Christ.
This newness is so tremendous. Then think of the New Jerusalem—think of that New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, having the glory of God. All this is going to happen in a moment.
Is it any wonder that the Lord descends with a shout? The shout of triumph: “It is over. It is done. The thing is completed.” A whole old order has passed away. Everything is summed up in Christ.
I say that this, I say it again, is tremendous.
But you might say to me, “Maybe you are getting old, Lance, and as you get older you think more about the coming of the Lord. It would be so nice to have a new body—no aches, no pains, recovered agility, flexibility, versatility.”
I rather fancy having a body that goes through walls. And you know, they all say about these things—taking trips to Mars and the moon—that you can book them now for so many millions of dollars. But who wants to go to one of these things with all that gear? I would rather wait for the Lord.
Though they will get there in the flesh then, if it is right for us to go to such places. The fact of the matter is, you might think, “Well, he is old, he is getting old, and he wishes the Lord would come quickly.” There is no doubt about my wishing the Lord would come quickly, but it has nothing to do with my age.
I am convinced that we are in the last phase of world history. There are a whole number of things that convince me.
There is, for instance, a little word buried within Daniel 12, verse 4. After this tremendous revelation that God gave Daniel, all the way down through history—we call it the times of the Gentiles—the whole thing: Babylon, Persia, the Greek, the Hellenistic, the Roman, and then in the end something happening which is a conglomeration of them all.
So that both at the first coming of the Lord and the last coming of the Lord, this incredible empire will be back in its place. I understand Revelation 13, 14, and 15 to describe the final restoration of this whole terrible thing—the attempts of the enemy to take the world.
I am often asked, “Why are the Chinese not in the Old Testament?” Especially the Chinese ask me about it. Sinim is in the Old Testament, and that means, in Hebrew—today Sin means China, Sinim means the Chinese people. In the Chinese language, it is there.
But you see, all these great empires that were not attempts by Satan to take the world for himself are not mentioned. It is only those that were demonically inspired. So you had Babylon, Persia, Hellenism, and Romanism—these four great things.
I am not going to stay with it, fascinating as the whole thing is. What I want to say is this: you say to me, “Why are you so sure that the Lord is coming in your lifetime? Why are you so sure that we are in the last phase of world history, however long it lasts?”
I tell you, because there are certain things that have been fulfilled that have never been fulfilled before. Listen to the word to Daniel. After he saw all this, the Lord said to him, “Shut up the book and seal it, Daniel, till the time of the end.”
Then the Lord gives two little clues: “Many shall run to and fro in the earth, and knowledge shall be increased.”
I find that tremendous. Every time I sit in London Airport, or Kennedy, or Washington, or Atlanta—any of the airports—and see people going backward and forward, rushing here, rushing there; trains carrying people here, trains carrying people there; people queuing up here, people queuing up there, I think, “Many shall run to and fro.”
Is it not amazing? You can get anywhere within the world now within twenty hours. And knowledge will increase. Have you ever thought about the internet?
Now, I am computer illiterate, but I am amazed at the expansion of knowledge that there is through the internet all over the world. It is something colossal that has happened, that even Communism could not stop. Islam cannot stop it. It is something that bursts through every border, and no one can do anything about it.
“Shut up the book till the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro.” Has there ever been a time in the whole history of the world where men and women have literally covered the globe within hours? I am not talking about a hundred; I am talking about thousands, millions in the end.
Has there ever been a time when knowledge has been so increased, so available? I would say we have to be somewhere in the last phase.
The very things that God showed to Daniel, and the consummation of it all—those wonderful words about this One who shall come near to the Ancient of Days and shall receive a kingdom that is eternal. It is wonderful, the consummation of it.
But then there is something else. I thought about whether I should say anything or not say anything, but I think of little Israel.
On May 14, 1948, one of the most amazingly cataclysmic events took place in the history of the whole world. It has never taken place before, not in all the chronicles and annals of world history: a nation that was scattered for eighteen hundred years came back to its homeland against all odds.
Now, I am not talking about the political rights and wrongs. I am talking about the fact that, on May 14, the Jewish state was recreated within its homeland in the Middle East—amazingly, within the Islamic homeland.
Can you believe such a thing could have happened? How could it have happened? It is a miracle. Nobody can tell me this is a coincidence. As one great evangelical said, it is “a political coincidence,” an accident—a coincidence of history. Some accident. Some coincidence, that is all I can say.
Twice the Jewish people have been exiled from their homeland, and twice they have been returned to it. The first time, seventy years—fifty years of exile, seventy years of captivity—a thousand miles east. The second time, nearly nineteen hundred years, to the far north, far east, far south, and far west.
Brought back not when the Jewish people were the strongest, but when two-thirds of our people died in the most horrific circumstances in the Nazi Holocaust. When Israel was most weak, most heartbroken, when it seemed most impossible, the miracle happened.
Israel reappeared on the world scene exactly as the prophet said it would—exactly as the Lord Jesus said when He said, “Learn the parable of the fig tree.”
Then, on June 7, 1967, another cataclysmic event took place, and a large part of the church of God was asleep. Jerusalem came back in its entirety to the Jewish people.
The words of the Lord Jesus—“And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”—came to pass.
Never before, since Pentecost, has there been anything like this. That means we have to be in the last phase of world history.
Now, I will not say any more about Israel. I could say a lot more, but I will not, other than this: think. This is not just something to do with Jewish businessmen, Jewish tycoons, people pulling strings behind the scenes. It is nonsense.
These people were a brokenhearted people, survivors of the most terrible genocide in history. They had nowhere to go. Do you know that there were some two million little children orphaned, without anywhere to go?
Do you know that many of those who went back to their homes in Poland and Lithuania were murdered? Yitzhak Shamir, one of our prime ministers—his brother and his father were murdered going back to find their home, by Polish neighbours.
It is amazing. There is no record in history like this.
Let me just say one more word on this and leave it. What does God say to the prophet Jeremiah?
Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations,
and declare it in the isles that are afar off,
He that scattered Israel will gather him,
and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Here, this is interesting: He is not speaking to the Jewish people. He says, “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations. Declare it in the isles that are afar off,” as if God is saying, “This is a sign. This is a sign of the coming end. This is the sign of the consummation of the age.”
“I scattered this people, and I have gathered them, and I have kept them as a shepherd doth his flock.”
Now, that in itself is extraordinary. In fifty-seven years since 1948, there have been seven wars, four of which should have been the liquidation of Israel. In every one of them, she has triumphed. It is a shepherd keeping his flock.
Ah, but someone says, “I do not know why you are talking like this. All these things were fulfilled years ago in the return from Babylon.” Oh yes, really? Do you know your Bible? Listen again.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love;
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria;
thou shalt plant vineyards, and shalt enjoy the fruit thereof.
There you have a time frame. What do I mean? It is simply this: when they returned from Babylon, from the exile in Babylon, they never recolonised Samaria. They found a hotchpotch of mongrel peoples, and they would not touch them.
Nehemiah would not allow them to take part in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Ezra chased them out of the temple. They would have nothing to do with these Samaritans.
If you have any argument with me, let me say: do you not know the story in the New Testament, in John 4, when Jesus sat by the well in Nablus, Shechem, and said to the woman, “Give Me to drink”?
She said, “What? You, a Jew, a rabbi, asking water of me, a Samaritan woman? Do You not know that Jews and Samaritans have nothing whatsoever to do?” So even in the New Testament, they never recolonised Samaria.
That means you have a time frame for this amazing word of the Lord: “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles that are afar off. He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock.”
What is the time frame? It is something to do with Samaria. In 1968, Jewish settlers began to plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria. I know there is a great fuss about it. I am just saying it is a fulfilment of God’s Word, that is all.
Now, Ehud Olmert is going to give it all away, but it does not matter. The fact is, you have got the time frame. Now we know that when the Lord said, “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations … He that scattered Israel will gather him,” it is something to do with our day and generation.
It means the coming of the Lord is near. Thank God.
When I see the wickedness in this world, when I see the pollution that is in this world, when I see all that we have done to this world—it was a charge from God that we would keep this world. We have not kept it. We have exploited it and destroyed it.
I know Christians are not very interested in environmental things and feel somehow or other that the whole thing is a big scam. But God made a solemn charge to Adam and Eve: “You are to keep this world. You are to till it. You are to guard it. You are to multiply.” And we have failed.
I find this tremendous. This world cannot go on for much longer. Praise the Lord, when He comes, I shall find it—I am sure you will—interesting how He will deal with the corruption that is in the world physically.
What will happen to animals when they do not die in the same way? It is all in Romans 8. In the gospel, it is to do with the gospel. It is a redemption that is not only to do with us, but is to do with the whole world.
Feather, fur, and fin—what a redemption.
Well, I must watch myself on time. But you can see there is something exciting about this. It means that any child of God who is asleep is crazy. Pardon me for being so blunt.
I think any Christian who is asleep in this day and generation is stupid. If you are swept away by the events that will suddenly come upon us like a tsunami, do not blame the Lord.
You and I have had every evidence given to us of where we have come to, the point in history to which we have come. We need to be awake.
There are many things one could talk about at the present juncture we have arrived at. I will only touch on them very briefly. Globalisation.
“Oh,” you say, “that is not wrong, is it?” Well, it would not be wrong if the right Person was in charge. If the Lord Jesus was here, then that kind of globalisation would be different.
But this globalisation—listen carefully to me. If you have been asleep, just wake up for the moment. Listen carefully: this kind of globalisation is all to do with Babel.
“Babel?” you say. Yes, Babel. Babel is where it began: one world, one language, one people. How very interesting it is that that is the motto of the European Parliament.
They have actually built a building according to a Dutch fifteenth-century painter, Bruegel, depicting the Tower of Babel. Is that not interesting?
Now, you must understand: if you take Babel, then you have Babylon, and you come right the way through your Bible. Even when Babylon is destroyed, you find it there in Revelation 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. What have you got? Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, Babylon. It is called Babylon.
Just remember that Babylon is the Greek name for Babel. The Hebrew is Bavel—Babel. Babylon is the Greek name. In our Bible it has always been rendered Babylon because it makes much more sense.
But if you read the Hebrew Bible, you will find it is Bavel all the way from Genesis 11, right through Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, and in the Hebrew New Testament it is Babel in the book of Revelation.
In other words, here you have something tremendous. Think for a moment what is happening. I must curb myself because of the question of time. I do not want to get lost on this, but it is extraordinary.
What were they doing in Babel? Good question. They spoke one language. They did not have to have translation. They all spoke one language, all one people. It was the first city ever built, and they built some kind of high-rise building.
Now, because we are all so very superior in the twenty-first century, we naturally think, “Poor, poor sort of creatures. I mean, probably a fairy story. You could not build something like Manhattan. After all, they all came from tadpoles. They did not have that kind of mentality. They were all hairy, and had brains like peas.”
What was it? I want to tell you something: it is not a fairy story. It was so significant to God, so vital to God, that He came down and destroyed their understanding of one another, and thus put a divine brake upon the whole thing which has lasted until this century.
By causing there to be a multiplicity of languages, He caused a multiplicity of cultures and a multiplicity of groups that became ethnic groups. A great divine brake was put on the whole thing.
What were they trying to do? Was it the first space exploration? Oh, so ridiculous—ridiculous. “Only the twentieth century could have got a man to the moon.” Oh? I am not so sure that mankind has evolved. I think he has devolved. That is my view. I believe in devolution.
I think Adam and the others were incredibly clever, incredibly intelligent, vastly more so than most of us today. Whatever it was for which they were building that tower, it was of such significance to the Lord. Whether it was space exploration or, as some people have believed, it was occult, I do not know.
But what I do know is this: the Lord put a brake on it. Now that brake is off. We have got a man to the moon. We had a moon buggy running around on the moon. We are exploring Mars. We have even gone to Venus. It is amazing. The whole thing is off.
I believe they could have cloned a human being then, those fallen human beings, if they had been left to themselves. Now, all these centuries later, fallen man has for the first time cloned a sheep, cloned a dog, and it is only a question of time before they clone a human being.
Now, if we start cloning human beings, tell me: is it spirit, soul, and body? Are those human beings candidates for demon possession? Think.
No wonder the Lord put a brake on this thing in Babel. One day He stopped the whole thing. All the way through history it has been back. There have been attempts—Babylon, Persia, the Hellenists, and the Romans—to try somehow to take the whole world, but the brake has always been there.
Until the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: globalisation.
It cannot be very long before the Antichrist appears—this one who will lead the whole world and become the darling of the world, giving it a new order and a new way of living.
People always think the Antichrist will be a cross between Adolf Hitler, Stalin, and Nero—all three rolled into one. I do not. I think he will be much more like some of your American politicians. I will not mention any names.
But I am pretty sure: suave, intelligent, good-looking, falling into sin regularly, and somehow or other forgiven by the whole world. That is going to be the Antichrist.
When Psalm 2—the second Psalm, which is a Messianic Psalm but also a prophetic window into what is happening at present in the world—says, “Why do the nations imagine 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.
Is that not interesting? In other words, they are going to say that the law of God, the Word of God, is unhealthy. It puts the human brain into a straitjacket. It is not like the beautiful humanism of Hellenism, where the mind can go out and out, and where everything is the product of the human mind.
Humanism begins with man and ends with man. That is humanism: six, six, six—fallen man.
For me, I find this tremendous. I keep on saying it because I do find it tremendous, that is why. It bowls me over. Therefore, I find it very hard to understand why Christians do not get bowled over by these facts. They are so startling. Why do we not wake up?
Well, if there is a paralysis in the Western world, thank God there is no paralysis in the Third World. Tremendous things are happening there. Thousands are coming to the Lord.
I was with one of the brothers who helps me in Singapore, and we went past a column of young people one mile long—from here to the piano—all mid-teens, playing guitar, reading the Bible in circles, praying. They were waiting to go into one of the megachurches.
I know some people say, “Well, you know, it is all very superficial, very shallow.” But when I spoke with some of the leaders, they said, “We are very conscious of it, but what are we to do? We are swamped by those coming to the Lord.”
Is that not amazing? I think I would thank God on bended knee if, in Britain, I saw a column one mile long of mid-teens waiting to get into a meeting to worship the Lord and hear the Word of the Lord.
I would thank God, whether it was shallow or not. I would say, “It is a beginning. It is a beginning. Thank God for it.”
What are these poor men to do when thousands are turning to the Lord? How are they to counsel them? It is amazing.
But there is a total rejection of God’s Word, God’s law, and the Lord Jesus.
Now, dear folks, let me shock you a little more—some of you, anyway. Our Lord gave a major discourse on His return. It is recorded in Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13, and Luke 21; but you must also add Luke 12 and Luke 17.
What was the emphasis of our Lord Jesus?
People always ask me, “Do you believe we are all going to go before the tribulation? Or do you think we are all going to go through the tribulation? Or do you think some of us are going to be taken during the tribulation?”
I have my own definite view, and upon that view I believe I cannot be budged. I believe in a partial rapture of those who are ready, at the beginning of the tribulation—into it, not before it; into it.
However, I must tell you that I do not find the Lord’s emphasis on the sequence of events, or even the events themselves. He speaks of a sequence of events. He speaks of the birth pangs of the coming kingdom. He speaks of the final phase—the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to stand.
He speaks of all kinds of things that are unfolding, but that is not His emphasis. His emphasis is contained in these words:
Therefore be ye also ready:
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.
Take heed.
Take heed to yourselves.
Take heed to your heart.
Take heed that no man lead you astray.
That is His emphasis. You find it everywhere you turn. This is the thing I find so amazing: it is completely overlooked in the charts we have, and everything else that gives us every single thing worked out from beginning to end—exactly how it is going to happen and when it is going to happen, and all the rest of it.
Some of the folks who get wrapped up in biblical prophecy are the most unprepared people in this world for the coming of the Lord.
Listen again. Your new versions say, “Be alert.” Be alert. Again, listen: “Watch.” You will find it again and again and again and again.
Now, some of you will say to me, “Well, just wait, just wait. Are you sure about this?” Yes, I am.
Do you know to whom this major discourse was given? It was not given to the unsaved multitude. It was not given to the great company of followers of the Lord Jesus at that point.
Nor was it even given to the one hundred and twenty who were finally to be in that upper room, nor to the seventy who went out in His name and saw Satan falling from heaven, healing the sick and cleansing the leper, nor to the twelve.
It was given to an inner circle of the twelve: Andrew, Peter, James, and John—the most responsible of all the apostles, the inner circle of the inner circle.
To these, the Lord Jesus said, looking into their eyes, “Watch, for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh.” Or again, “Be ye also”—underline also—“be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.”
Now, the Lord knew that they would not be present at that coming. He knew they were going to die and be with Him. So why did He give this? Did He not give it to wake us up?
The most responsible of us may not be ready. Those who are most involved in the work of the Lord, those who have the heaviest burden upon their shoulders, can get lost in the work, get lost in the routine, get lost in our knowledge of biblical prophecy, and not be ready for His coming.
Why did the Lord say again and again, “When ye think not”? Did you notice? The Son of Man comes when you think not. Be also ready.
It is the same in the parables. Now, I know all of you have heard this because you have been well taught, but for many believers it comes as a terrible shock: the parable of the ten virgins.
You often hear that this is a gospel address, and I thank God for everyone who got saved in such a gospel address. But the ten virgins were ten virgins. Nowhere in the Word of God is a person in this world, unsaved in their sin, called a virgin.
They are called adulterers and adulteresses and lots of other things, but never a virgin. These were ten virgins. Secondly, they were all related to the bridegroom. Thirdly, they all had torches, every one of them.
Fourthly, they all had torches alight. Think of that. They were not just holding a dead torch; they had torches alight. Fifthly, they all had oil in their torches.
Wherein was the difference? The difference was in reserves. Five of them had flasks—reserve flasks with oil, emergency reserve, you could call it—and five of them did not.
When they were delayed, waiting—as so often happens in our weddings in Asia—waiting, waiting, waiting, finally the bridegroom comes. A cry goes out, “Behold, the bridegroom!” They all go out, and the five panic and say, “He has come so late. Our lamps are going out.”
They actually said, “Our lamps are going out.” They were still alight. This means that the parable of the ten virgins is much more serious than most Christians understand.
And the Lord said, “Be ready.” That is how He ended that parable: “Be ready.”
I say, then, that this is of tremendous importance, as I see it anyway.
I do not want to be irreverent, but let me push this one step further. Do you not think the Lord knew the confusion there would be over this question of His coming? Do you think He was just ignorant of it, and has remained ignorant of it, and somehow or other is waking up now: “Oh, My word, they are confused”?
Some believe they are going before the tribulation; some believe they are going right through the tribulation at the very end; and others think only those who are ready are going to be taken, and the rest purified.
Do you not think our Lord would have said, “I think I must give one supplementary ten-minute discourse. I will clear up this thing once and for all, and I will spell it out exactly as it will be. It will not be before the tribulation, and it will not be after the tribulation. It will be during the tribulation, and it will be for those who are ready”?
I am taking my understanding of it. You understand? It would have been absolutely clear to all of us.
Why did He not do that? I will answer this way: I believe the ambiguity of our Lord Jesus is deliberate. I will say it again: the ambiguity of our Lord Jesus in this matter is deliberate.
He was not going to give us a kind of chart whereby we could go so far in sin and then say, “Now I must wake up, because He is definitely coming.”
In other words, if you want to continue in sin, you can continue. If you want to continue in lukewarmness, you can continue in lukewarmness. If you want to say to yourself, “Well, people have always thought He was coming. I do not think He is coming just yet—another generation or two,” you can think that.
But if the Spirit of God stirs you up, you can be ready for His coming.
Think for a moment. The best thing of all is to be ready. Then, if we are all taken before the tribulation, you will be ready. You will not be ashamed.
If we are going to go through the tribulation, you are at least ready—prepared. If only those who are ready are taken, you are ready. You cannot lose if you are ready. It is so simple to me, at least.
I find it interesting that when you come to the apostles—and I can only just touch on three of them—every time they touch on the return of the Lord Jesus, it is the same emphasis.
Take the apostle Paul in his first Thessalonian letter, chapter 5. “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you,” he says. But you need to wake up.
It is very interesting how he puts it. You need to be alive. You need to wake up on this. Do not sleep like the world. Do not be drunk like others are in the night. We do not belong to the night; we belong to the day. Let us therefore be sober and watchful.
I always tell a story here. When I was a boy, my mother was ill and had to have an operation. She was taken away to hospital, and an aunt came to look after my sister and me.
One night—I have never forgotten it—my aunt burst into my bedroom. I slept in a four-poster, and I had the curtains pulled. She burst in and swept the curtains aside, saying, “Lance, get up, get up! The whole avenue is filled with police cars and police dogs and policemen!”
With that, she went straight out. So I fell out of bed and stumbled across my bedroom, onto the landing, into my mother’s bedroom, where I saw my sister hanging out of the window and my aunt discussing who was being burgled.
Everywhere there were policemen with great big—well, we call them Alsatian dogs; you call them German shepherds—and flashlights and Black Marias, those big black police cars. They caught the man.
My aunt was saying, “I think it is so-and-so.” My sister said, “No, they have got a huge dog in that house. The thief would not last a minute if that dog got hold of him.” Then my sister said, “I think it is so-and-so.”
“Oh,” my aunt said, “I think I will go downstairs and make myself a coffee.” Off she went. My sister and I continued watching all the events going on in the avenue.
A few moments later, we heard the most bloodcurdling scream. I mean, it was enough to raise the dead in the cemetery across the River Thames.
There was my aunt, standing on the landing at the top of the stairs, shaking like a leaf. I do not know how she got up; she got up so fast. White as milk. “Oh, oh, oh!”
So we both said, “What is wrong?” “The thief! The thief!” So we said, “Yes, what about the thief?” She said, “He is downstairs!”
Then I said, “Did he say anything?” My aunt said, “He said, ‘Good evening, madam.’”
My sister said, “Well, what was he doing?” My aunt said, “He was eating one of our blancmanges.” A blancmange is, I do not know what you call it in America, a kind of milk pudding.
He went out the way he came in, through a tiny little window. They never caught him that night, but one year later they caught him. He was a famous cat burglar; he had done thirteen houses that night.
Would you believe it? There we were discussing who had been burgled when we had him in our kitchen. It is amazing.
I have thought to myself ever since about Christians who say, “So-and-so is going to get caught out by the coming of the Lord. So-and-so is going to get caught out by the coming of the Lord.” But maybe you could be caught out by the coming of the Lord.
We need to watch, be alive, be ready.
Then I thought also of Peter, in this passage, 2 Peter 3:11: “What manner of persons ought ye to be?” He does not give you a chart or a whole scene. He just says, “Listen, this is what is going to happen. The whole thing is going up.”
This world has had its baptism in water; now it is going to have its baptism in fire. But he says, “What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness?” That is the emphasis: ready for Christ.
Lastly, I am only picking on one or two of these things. I think of John and of how he records this amazing word. Of course, he was recording something he saw; it was really the Lord Himself who was speaking.
In Revelation 16:15, suddenly in the middle of this whole thing about Armageddon, it says:
Behold, I come as a thief.
Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments,
lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
I find that very interesting. Right in the midst of this whole thing about Armageddon, when everyone has ideas about Armageddon—when it is going to take place, how it is going to take place, all the rest of it—here we have just this word: “I am coming as a thief. See to it that you are not found naked.”
I find it also very interesting, the words of our Lord Jesus. With these I will end. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, verse 10:
And He saith unto me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand.
He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still:
and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still:
and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still:
and he that is holy, let him be made holy still.
Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
I find it interesting, this word. Some of you may have heard me say this before: it is the most unevangelical word in the New Testament.
“He that is unrighteous, let him go on and become more unrighteous.” Now, who is the Lord speaking to? Seven churches. He is speaking to believers.
He that is unrighteous—okay, go on. He that is unholy, let him become even more unholy. He that is righteous, let him become even more righteous. He that is holy, let him become more holy.
It is almost unevangelical. It is as if the Lord is saying, “If you do not want to wake up, you do not have to.”
Now, that is what I mean about the ambiguity of the Lord. I have no doubt in my own mind as to what is right. But the ambiguity of it—do you understand what I mean by ambiguity? The sort of not-clear way He speaks about this matter—is almost as if He says, “If you want to wake up, wake up.”
“If you want to be ready, get ready. If you want to be prepared, get prepared. If you want to be equipped, be equipped. But if you do not, go on.”
Is that not a serious word? Ready—why?
We all have such deceitfulness in us when it comes to sin. Like Achan, we bury it in the tent. We cannot do anything with it, but we bury it in the tent.
It is there. It is on our conscience. We know where it is. The Lord knows where it is. And we do not do anything about it.
I think it is interesting to note the emphasis of the Lord Jesus and the emphasis of the apostles when it comes to the return of the Lord Jesus. It is all to do with watching, taking heed, being ready.
May the Lord use this word to challenge you and enable you to wake up. We do not know how much more time we have, but you can be sure that the only safe thing is to be ready.
There is no insurance when it comes to the coming of the Lord and what will happen, other than to be ready. When you are ready, you are insured.
May the Lord use this word to touch our hearts and wake us up to some of the things that are happening with such rapidity all around.
You in the States, in many ways, have had a little respect—but only a little. The fight is on to destroy the last vestiges of biblical conscience, biblical principles, in this nation.
When that is gone, then, like an Amazon flood, the enemy will sweep over the Western world. It is all in place: the rise of the European Union, the deterioration of the United States, and the huge forces at work in Asia. It is all in place.
May the Lord touch us, challenge us, and wake us up.
Shall we pray?
Lord, what can we say? When we think we are ready, we often are not.
Lord, will You use this word this evening to put Your finger upon each of our lives? Make it, Lord, unavoidable, inescapable.
We pray that every one of us may be ready for Christ. Help us, Lord. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.