I am very glad to be able, once again, to be here in this part of God’s family and to share with you from the Word of God.
So, one or two scriptures I would like to read to you. First of all, from the Psalm—the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament—Psalm 110.
The Lord saith unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Zion:
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.
Thy people offer themselves willingly
In the day of Thy power, in holy array:
Out of the womb of the morning
Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.
The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent:
Thou art a priest for ever
After the order of Melchizedek.
The Lord at Thy right hand
Will strike through kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations,
He will fill the places with dead bodies;
He will strike through the head in many countries.
He will drink of the brook in the way:
Therefore will He lift up the head.
I would like to add to that, in the New Testament, in the Acts of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:32.
This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
For David ascended not into the heavens: but he saith himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand,
Till I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
To that I would like to add yet another scripture in Hebrews 1. I will read from Hebrews 1:1.
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
Who being the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Having become by so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they.
And Hebrews 1:13:
But of which of the angels hath He said at any time,
Sit Thou on My right hand,
Till I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet?
Then lastly, in the last book of the New Testament, Revelation 5.
And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon.
And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look thereon.
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals thereof.
And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.
And He came, and He taketh it out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne.
And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof:
For Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
And madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.
And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever.
And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped.
Could we have a further word of prayer?
Beloved Lord, we are so glad that we are here this evening in Your presence, because when we really come into Your presence, anything can happen. There is nothing impossible with You.
And we thank You, dear Lord, this night that You are seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Lord, You have a purpose and a design for our time together, and all we want to ask, Lord, again is that You fulfil that purpose and design.
Meet every one of us, Lord, we pray. Make Your Word live to us. Help us to understand the situation that we are in, and have our eyes opened by You to understand the times in which we live, what we should do, and how we should live.
Dear Lord, we commit ourselves to You. We thank You for the anointing, grace, and power which are ours in the Lord Jesus. He has won them for us on the cross at Calvary, and He has made them a living reality in the outpoured Holy Spirit.
Now we stand in that, for both the speaking and the hearing this evening. Let this be an anointed time, Lord. Let it be a time when You reach our hearts and touch them, when You open the eyes of our hearts in a new way to see You.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
Well, as I have said, I am very glad to be able to be here this evening and to share from the Word of God. I want to begin by giving a little overview of the global situation. Then I would like to say something about Israel, and something about the Middle East situation in particular.
Then I want to ask the question: What should we be, and what should we do? This situation is, in many ways, centred in the United States. For this reason, we as the people of God need to have an understanding of the times in which we live.
I believe that the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He has risen with anger and fury in His heart, and He seems to be touching everything.
The economic recession, so-called, is not just in the United States, the United Kingdom, or the European Union. It is in Japan. It is touching nearly every country in the world. It is global.
That recession, I believe, is one of the greatest shakings that has come to us in our generation. When you think that one of the largest banks in the world has collapsed, and when you understand that the largest automotive manufacturer in the world has collapsed; when you understand that in little Iceland, with 334,000 citizens, every bank has gone bankrupt; when you understand that many people have been thrown out of jobs—not just in the United States and Canada, but in the United Kingdom, the European nations, and Japan—it is amazing what is happening.
I wonder whether it will get better, whether we will get over the worst and return to the never-never principle—living on credit, rolling forward on credit—or whether, in fact, it will take a nosedive after a few years.
In Britain, Europe, and especially in the United States, they are printing money and, in what we call the stimulus, are hoping in some way or another to jump-start the economy. Now, it seems to me that because of the billions and hundreds of billions that are being printed, it must have some effect upon lifting the economy.
But I wonder what will happen in two to three years’ time, when we face the real crunch. It is not only an economic recession that is global; it is also a financial meltdown.
The dollar has lost a very large amount of its value. We see it more, I think, than you do in the rest of the world, in the way that it has become virtually so small in value that Iran is suggesting there be a new world currency—a petro-dollar, not a dollar but a euro-dollar—that would be the basis for finance in the world. I mean, these things are concerning.
Because the Word of God tells us that God, in the last days, will shake everything that can be shaken, so that that which cannot be shaken may remain. Now, what is it that cannot be shaken? There is only one thing that cannot be shaken: it is the kingdom of God.
And if our treasure is in heaven, then we shall be unshakable. But if part of our lives, whether we are young or old, belongs to the shakable, we are going to be very thoroughly shaken. We are going to wake up to the fact that much of what we are putting our value on is, in fact, worthless.
The financial meltdown is very interesting. I refer to Iceland only because I find that everywhere I have gone in the States, folks do not seem to know what happened to Iceland.
Iceland is a very small country, but a very alive country, and her banking system was quite extraordinary. So much so that half of Europe, and especially the United Kingdom, invested all their money in the Icelandic banks because of the high interest that was being given.
Then suddenly the collapse came. Bank after bank in Iceland went bankrupt. To give one example, many of the universities in the United Kingdom—the top educational system—put their money in Icelandic banks because of the high return in interest.
Many of the municipalities in Britain—cities like Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, and Newcastle—put all the ratepayers’ money into Icelandic banks because of the high rate of interest. Then suddenly all the Icelandic banks went bankrupt.
So the Prime Minister of Britain said he would sue the Icelandic government. The Icelandic government promptly fell, and there was an election and a new government elected immediately. But the money is lost forever, and the effect on the ratepayers in Britain and upon the whole educational system is colossal.
This is very political, what I am saying to begin with. I understand it. But how can you be anything but political when God is shaking the whole economic, financial, and political system of the world?
It is not Satan who is doing this. It is God who is doing it. And it should encourage us that we know the Person who is doing it. If it is Satan who is doing it, then we are very fearful about the whole thing. But if it is God who is doing it, then we know that there is a purpose of grace in it all.
It is not just that. We have to add to that the world climate. We are continually told about the warming of the climate, but it seems to me, on my travels here in the United States, that it is the cooling of the climate that is taking place just at present.
Everywhere we have been, from the east to the west, I have never been so cold as I have been in San Francisco this summer. It was bitterly cold. Other places have told me about all the unusual rain they have had.
It is not Al Gore and his view of the whole thing that bothers me, although I think there is some sense in what he says. What bothers me most is that everywhere you go, there is a change in climate. Therefore, there is a change in agriculture.
But far more troubling to me is that the bees are dying in their millions. Nobody can yet find what really is the reason for the death of the bees. Insecticides and pesticides have been put forward as a possible cause, but there are some very strange things.
For the first time ever in history, worker bees are leaving the hives and not returning. It is almost as if—most of you know that we joke about it—the bees are the focal point of our ecosystem.
It seems quite amazing to me that in China, for instance, recently they have had to put feather dusters on the top of long bamboo poles and go out and try to pollinate trees. I mean, what is happening?
Then take another thing that most of you will probably not know so much about, though some of you may: the bats. Bats are normally looked upon with horror by most people, but bats are an essential part of the ecosystem.
For the first time ever, bats have been developing a fungus which is killing millions of bats. It is almost as if God Himself is touching the planet.
If man is responsible—which he is, very largely—man can probably put it right again. But if it is God who is touching the climate, then it is God, and only repentance would ever bring it right.
Now, I think all of you know that the Bible is very clear on this. It is not just the book of Revelation that tells us, for instance, that a third of the green things will die and a third of the trees will die. In the seals, as they are broken, there is both the saving of a wonderful remnant of those who are faithful and know the Lord, and at the same time a judgment on everything in the world—both men and plants, everything to do with it.
But you all know that all the prophets and the New Testament say that, in the end, in the final phase, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth pillars of smoke. This is not something that is just poetic. It is actual.
That means, as the Lord Jesus Himself said, when you see these signs in sun and moon and stars, you know that your redemption draweth nigh. In other words, once it touches the sun and the moon and the planets, it is beyond the power of man to put it right. It has gone into the realm of God Himself.
If we take all these things together, there are other things I should also mention. For instance, there is a colossal social change coming: the whole acceptance of living together and not being married; the whole attitude toward marriage and the family as the unit of society. For the first time, it is being challenged.
Then there is the whole question of whether we can clone a human being. We have cloned animals, and there must come a time when we clone a human being. Once we clone human beings, do they have a soul? Do they have a spirit? What kind of society are we moving into? It is incredibly interesting.
The whole move now—as if, I have to be careful because I do not want to talk too much and depress you too much—but I take Babel, for instance. You all know that at the very beginning, the first city was called Babel.
It comes from the word that Nimrod and the others chose: Bab-el, the city of God, or gate of God. The Lord, with great humour but sadly at the same time, said to the scribe putting it down, “Do not call it Babel, the gate of God; call it Babel, Bavel in Hebrew: confusion.” What they called the gateway of God is nothing but confusion.
You know the story of Babel. You know how they tried to build the first skyscraper, and they were to reach heaven. We tend to think that Adam and all those people were hairy, prehistoric human beings, running around with hair all over their bodies—more like apes than people as we know them today—and with the intelligence of apes, which sometimes is greater than that of human beings.
But nevertheless, we will not go into that. The fact is that we tend to think they were playing around with very superficial, shallow things. But I wonder, with their huge intelligence and the number of years our ancestors at the beginning lived, whether they were in fact building the first skyscraper to somehow reach the heavens.
Or was it a space programme? You laugh at that. You think, “No, no, of course not. We have only now got to that stage; we are so intelligent.” But I wonder: was it the first spaceboat? Others have suggested it was witchcraft, a séance-type of thing, reaching spirits and angels and all the rest of it.
We do not really know, except that it was so important that God said, “I must put an end to it.” And He confused the one language they all spoke. Suddenly all the families spoke a different language and could not understand each other. Gradually, the whole question of the nations developed.
But language has been a tremendous brake upon human progress. And the interesting thing is this: whatever it was, the brake is off.
God said, “If they complete this building, nothing will be impossible to them.” Now, I think the brake is off.
The cloning of an animal, getting a man to the moon, the exploration of Mars—the brake is off. And man is where God does not want him to be. That means that we must be much nearer the end than we imagine.
I do not mean necessarily tonight or next week, but it is all in the Book.
Socially, the whole world is changing. For instance, would you believe it? The European Parliament is built according to the oil painting of Pieter Bruegel, the Dutch-Flemish painter, when he made a picture of the Tower of Babel.
The actual Parliament of the European Union is built according to the Tower of Babel, at least according to Bruegel’s understanding of it. Furthermore, inside there is the extraordinary staircase realm built into the Parliament building.
What kind of government is it that wants a parliament built on the Tower of Babel? What I have not been able to confirm is that, if you walk inside, there is a text across the wall in large letters which says, “We will finish what Nimrod began.”
The other thing I can tell you is that the European Commission, which is far more powerful than the European Parliament, is in Brussels. Outside the European Commission is a stylized bull, and on the back of the bull is a stylized woman.
It is the legend of Europa and Zeus, or Jupiter. He fell in love with Europa. He could not get her; she was not interested in him. So he turned himself into a bull. When he saw she was weary with walking, he said, “Get on my back; I will carry you.” She got on his back, and he carried her away. Then he turned into Zeus and raped her.
Would you believe that in front of the European Commission such a thing is put as a large statue?
Now, I am not a Catholic, although I must say the Catholics have been more faithful just recently in standing up on moral issues than most other denominations.
The fact of the matter is that Pope John Paul pleaded with the European Commission, in their run-up to the European Constitution, that they say one of the major sources of European civilization was the gospel and the Bible. They refused.
Pope Benedict XVI again went to them and pleaded with them that they mention the gospel and the Bible as one of the sources of European civilization. They refused. They said to Pope Benedict what they said to John Paul: “The source of our civilization is neither the gospel nor the Bible. It is humanism, Hellenistic humanism, and Roman law”—not Roman Catholicism, but the Roman Empire.
That is exactly what Psalm 2 says:
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.
They look upon the Bible as a bondage of the human mind. They look upon biblical principles as a bondage of the human mind. Man has now reached a point where he believes he can throw off these fetters, break these fetters, and stand.
So then you have all the new ideas about marriage, the new ideas about family, the new ideas about homosexuality, the new ideas about abortion, and a thousand and one other things. There is a colossal change that has come.
And what can I say about the church? A very large part of the church is reinventing itself, reinventing its witness, recasting its whole idea as to where it stands. It no longer holds the testimony of Jesus.
Even in evangelical circles, judgment is never mentioned, although the last book of the Bible has a tremendous amount to say about judgment. It is almost as if that is the Old Testament, with a dreadful God of thunder and wrath. I think that is rubbish.
God is as much a God of love in the old covenant as He is in the new, and He is as much a God of judgment in the new as He was in the old. God does not change. He is the same—yesterday, today, and for ever—the Rock of Ages.
Well, I do not know whether I have bored you, but I normally say this: those of you who belong to this fellowship know that for years I have been saying that we are approaching the judgment of God.
You know that I have said to you, taking my life in my hand and speaking to good American patriotic citizens, that you are like the Titanic: you are sailing into an iceberg, and you have no idea that that is the end.
All lights blazing, bands playing, entertainment, food being eaten—the captain himself saying, “No one can sink this ship, not even God Almighty.” And it sank within minutes.
I remember the Lord saying to me in the Philippines, in Caliraya, Laguna, one day in the biennial conference of intercessor leaders. I woke with a disturbance in my spirit all that morning, and finally it became a prophetic utterance.
I asked the leaders—these were all leaders, not just ordinary intercessors, but leaders of forty-two different national movements—if they would judge this prophetic utterance. They all felt that it was of God.
But the Lord said, “I have risen with fury. I am now the enemy of the nations, and I will judge them because they are dividing My land and they have thrown down the gauntlet.” I am just quoting from memory, and I have taken it up.
“I will judge them by natural disasters, by floods such as they have never had before; by fires they have never had before; by hurricanes they have not had before; by tornadoes they have not had before; by earthquakes of a kind and intensity they have not had before.”
The Lord said, “They are potentates, so powerful, but I will touch the root of their affluence. I will smash their economies, and I will bring them down to destruction.”
And the Lord said, “I will lead them to make mistakes.”
That could be written over the last ten years. This was 1998, long before any of these problems took place.
So I think the consequence of all this is that we are in a period of shaking. Is it what is spoken of in the prophecy of Haggai, when the Lord says He will shake not only the earth, but the heavens also, and the seas, and everything within them? Is it really that, or is this just a hiccup on the way, after which we shall revert back to the original?
We, as God’s people, are very responsible in this situation. We are supposed to be the light of the world. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” Jesus said that we were to be like a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. Jesus said we should be the salt of the earth, preserving and fighting against corruption.
We are not just to take this thing on that is happening. We are to be a light. And the Word of God says something wonderful in the prophecy of Joel, quoted by Peter on that great day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out.
There shall be signs in sun and moon and stars,
And on the earth pillars of smoke.
And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
In other words, the work of salvation is going to go right on to the very end, until the Lord comes, until the trumpet sounds, and He comes with glory and great power on the clouds of heaven.
Now, I would like to say something about Israel because, in my estimation—it may sound crazy—I believe that Israel lies at the heart of this whole problem.
That must seem very strange to good Americans. But the root of the whole problem here in the United States, in North America, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and elsewhere through the world, is little Israel. She has always been a sign.
When Balak paid Balaam to curse Israel, he opened his mouth and found he could not do it. Instead, he blessed them. Then he said a most remarkable thing: “I see them. They shall be a people dwelling alone, and they shall not be reckoned among the nations.”
In other words, they will be unique. There will be something about them, even in their exile as well as in their gathering, which is unique. They shall be, as it were, a sign to the rest of the nations that God is the God of history.
It is very interesting when you read what God says in Jeremiah 25:30:
The Lord will roar from on high,
And utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He will mightily roar against His fold;
He will give a shout, as they that tread the grapes,
Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
A noise shall come even to the end of the earth;
For the Lord hath a controversy with the nations;
He will enter into judgment with all flesh:
As for the wicked, He will give them to the sword, saith the Lord.
This is confirmed in Joel 3:14:
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
And the stars withdraw their shining.
And the Lord will roar from Zion,
And utter His voice from Jerusalem;
And the heavens and the earth shall shake:
But the Lord will be a refuge unto His people,
And a stronghold to the children of Israel.
I know that you as a company are marvellous in your prayer for Israel and your concern for Israel. But it might be good to say a few things about Israel, that you may understand why I have said she lies at the heart of this whole problem.
I believe that the root of the judgment on the United States is the division of the promised land. Let me explain what I mean.
There is only one part of the earth that God calls thirteen times “My land,” as if it is the deposit, the guarantee, that the rest of the earth will come back to Him. That land is the promised land.
When I was first saved, so many years ago, everyone spoke of the promised land—the promised land, the promised land. What was the promised land? The promised land was the Holy Land. What was the Holy Land? The Holy Land was the land of Israel.
Everyone spoke about it as the promised land. I never hear it today. In evangelical circles, I do not hear this word that was so common in the 1940s when I was saved. They call it the Holy Land, Palestine, or the land of Israel, but I do not hear it referred to as the promised land.
If it is the promised land, who promised it? No wonder people do not want to say “promise.” God. And if God promised it, to whom did He promise it?
He promised it to Abraham and to his seed through Isaac, not Ishmael, and through Jacob, not Esau. He made a separate covenant with Ishmael: that He would bless Ishmael and bless the seed of Ishmael; kings would come out of them, and great nations. He has kept that word to the last letter.
If you take the oil sheikhs, they own half of Europe. They have invested so much money that the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain are frightened that they might suddenly withdraw it. It is incredible.
But the promise was not made to them. It was made to the seed of Abraham through Isaac and through Jacob, not Esau.
And the Lord said, “It is an everlasting covenant throughout their generations.” In other words, while there is a physical generation of the seed of Abraham through Isaac and through Jacob on the face of the earth, this covenant is operative.
This explains the Holocaust. It explains how God turned the Holocaust into a catalyst for the recreation of the State of Israel, and the fact that in sixty-one years we have had nine wars, and out of every one of them Israel has come through. I find that extraordinary.
Now someone may say to me, “But just wait. If the Jews are unfaithful, if they are disobedient, God will not keep this covenant. Just wait.”
In Genesis 15—what I have been quoting is from Genesis 17—you are told the extraordinary way God made the covenant with Abraham. In those days, you cut animals into two. You had one half on this side and one half on that side—the goats, the bullocks, the sheep, whatever. The birds you did not divide.
Then the two parties walked up and down between the pieces. The blood that was shed in the sacrifice of the animals sealed the covenant.
If you read Genesis 15, you discover that God made a covenant with Abraham, telling Abraham to cut the animals and put them on either side, and then causing a deep sleep to fall on Abraham.
When he woke up, to his amazement he saw something like a furnace of fire going up and down between the animals. It was an unconditional covenant made by the grace of God with Abraham and his seed.
Now comes an American president—forgive me for saying it, but I cannot say it was a British or European one; it was an American—and here comes an American president who, with his State Department, tells the Almighty that He has made a big, big mistake. He is not politically correct, and we have to put Him right.
Thus we have the two-state solution: the division of the baby. Cut it in two, and somehow or other it will all come out right.
Then we had the Annapolis Conference. I personally believed, and told many friends in Jerusalem, that there the thing was set in concrete and America was heading for judgment.
I ought to explain this. One of the girls in our fellowship, at Hebrew University, was taking her doctorate in philosophy in Holocaust studies and Jewish studies. Her professor told her to search through newspapers to see about the run-up to the Holocaust in the Nazi period.
She found a copy of The Times, and headlines which she was very shocked to find. On 11 November 1938, the headline said, “Severe earthquake recorded, greater than the Tokyo shock of 1923.”
The report said that an extraordinarily severe earthquake shock was recorded in London and West Bromwich. It began at 8:30, and at midnight was still proceeding. The maximum swing of the needle on the seismograph was twelve inches. The report stated that there was no doubt the earthquake was extraordinarily large, greater in its effect than the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923.
The shock was thought possibly to be in Central Asia or the East Indies. In Dublin, the epicentre was estimated to be in Afghanistan or northern India. But the Carnegie Foundation Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena, California, thought that it was in Central America or Alaska.
There never was such an earthquake recorded. It was 9.5.
It was on the very day, at the very time, the Kristallnacht began: the smashing of Jewish shops, the burning of Jewish synagogues, the burning of the Torah, right through Austria and Germany.
It is quite extraordinary that such an event took place. Most Jewish historians today believe that the Holocaust began on 10 November 1938. Fifty thousand men were taken into custody; many of them never came out alive.
All Jewish businesses were closed that day. Even doctors had to leave their clinics and their positions. It was the beginning of the Holocaust. What was that earthquake?
America thought it was in Central America. Pasadena, California, thought it was somewhere in South America. Dublin thought it was in Afghanistan, Central Asia, or northern India. The British thought it was somewhere in India or that area. It never happened. It was God.
It was the basic energy of the universe which shook. Maybe this will bring home to you just how important this little Israel is to God.
Now, there is no doubt that we are in the run-up to another Holocaust. I lost fifty-eight members of my family in Auschwitz—my father, my grandmother, as well as fifty-six other members of the family. So I speak from a little experience.
I was not in a concentration camp. My mother had a British passport and got us out in time with my father’s help. But my father died, and my grandmother.
Elie Wiesel, who was a survivor of Auschwitz and a Nobel laureate, and Tommy Lapid, who was the founder of one of our political parties and who recently died—he was also a survivor of Auschwitz—they say that all the characteristics of the run-up to the Holocaust are present at present.
We have an American president who wants dialogue with the Iranian president. I do not understand exactly what he hopes to do. They are very clear in Iran that they first believe they must destroy Israel, and that Israel will become the stepping stone to the destruction of the United States. What is there to have a dialogue about?
Only to give them more time to carry on. We believe that this summer they will have enough plutonium to create the first atomic bomb, the first nuclear device. We believe that within the next year or two they could have many more.
Now Israel has a small window of opportunity to at least halt this possibility by two or three years. Once the plutonium is created, they believe they could bomb it, and that would hold the thing. That is why Mr. Gates has gone to Jerusalem with George Mitchell, to try and put us off from doing anything.
There is no doubt that if Israel attacks Iran, the whole Middle East will go up in flames. And in the present economic woes and financial meltdown, it would just need that to tip the whole thing over the edge.
The other thing, of course, is that the Lord could do something Himself in the States—some massive physical occurrence, an earthquake—that would finally tip the American economy over the edge.
We are not dealing merely with human beings. We are not dealing with some petty evil spirit. We are dealing with Satan, with principalities and powers, and world-rulers of this present darkness.
I think I have gone on far enough—too far, almost—into all of this. But I have no doubt at all that we are in a run-up to another Holocaust.
Ayatollah Khomeini, who was the main power behind the Islamic Revolution, said that the stepping stone was Israel. The liquidation of Israel, the liberation of Jerusalem, was to be the stepping stone for world conquest for Islam.
Ahmadinejad is a faithful custodian of Khomeini’s policy. Khomeini called Israel the little Satan and called the United States the great Satan.
Part of God’s judgment on the United States is delusion. I will not say any more. It is delusion: delusion of the political system, delusion of church leaders, delusion of the people in general, and particularly of the younger generation.
So you young people have a job to do. We older folks, we white-haired ones, we cannot do what you can do.
You can stand up. You can speak by your life, by your behaviour, by your conduct, as well as by your words and your testimony. You can speak, and only you—no one else—can do it for you.
Our Middle East situation is as grim as ever. Afghanistan is not—do not believe the reports that it is all going very well. It is possible that it will go well, but it is possible that it will become a trap.
Afghanistan destroyed the Soviet Union, and it could be the same again. Alexander the Great said of Afghanistan, “It is the destruction of nations.” Even the British, after four hundred years, could not control the North-West Frontier.
It may be one of the mistakes: Iraq, Afghanistan. If there is a coup in Pakistan, it will be a door that will open to Ahmadinejad. He will not even have to worry; they are already a nuclear power.
It means the nuclear weapons will come into the hands of Islam in a way that has not been there before.
Well, I had better hasten. What does all this portend? It means the Antichrist is coming.
Since the nations have shut out the Messiah and do not want to have the Word of God, the second letter to the Thessalonians says God will send them a delusion, that they will believe a lie.
One of our boys, who now has a very responsible job, has a boss who is one of the top financial experts and analysts in Britain. He said some while ago to this fellow, “We have a superhuman problem, and we need a Superman to solve it.”
He said just recently—this is private, non-official, of course—“There is not a bank in Britain that is solvent. It is all a cover-up at present.”
If that is true, what does this all portend? It means that into this turbulent situation a Superman will arise, and the nations will go after him.
Anyone who could solve the financial system, anyone who could solve the economic woes, anyone who could do anything in any way, even with the climate, will be worshipped almost.
Here is the second thing. What does this portend? The Lord is coming.
You know, there is a little prophecy that says, “Watchman, watchman, what of the night?” And the reply is, “The night cometh, and the morning.”
We have got to fix our eyes on the dawn that is coming. Here is a wonderful word. The writer to the Hebrews, whom I think was Apollos—others will not share that thought with me, but I think it was Apollos—said:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
Despising shame,
And hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Looking unto Jesus, who has sat down at the right hand of God. I do not really think there is any other way to come through this situation.
I am taking a little more time than I will tomorrow, but the church is in such a mess because she is reinventing everything, recasting everything, trying to make herself up to date and to accept the philosophy of the world around, which is humanist.
What should we do? We need to see the enthroned Lamb. Now, if you will ask the Lord to open your eyes to that, He will.
The Lord Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, and He is the Lamb as though it had been slain.
That speaks of two things. Is the Lion of the tribe of Judah just an antique title, looking backwards to the old covenant, the Old Testament, and nothing more? Or has it something to do with the future—the ages that are ahead?
The Lamb as though it had been slain is certainly not looking backwards. It is your salvation and mine. The only way we are going to come through all this mess and all this shaking is through the Lamb.
Where is the Lamb? He is in the throne of God. Read carefully Revelation 5. Why was John so upset about that vision to begin with?
The word that came from the angel was so tremendous: “Who is worthy to take the scroll and to open it?” In the ancient Jewish world, when you made a will or a testament, you wrote it on parchment, on a scroll, rolled it up, and then sealed it.
Now, the Jews basically are a suspicious people—reasonably intelligent and suspicious—and so they sealed it, not with one seal, but at least with three.
John understood that God had not died, as such. He understood that that scroll was the will of God, the eternal purpose of God. It was closed and sealed with seven seals. No one could fiddle with it. No one could change it.
But no one could open it. The Greek word which in my version says, “He wept much,” is actually far more emotional than that. It says he burst into wailing and tears.
John understood what the scroll represented: no one could fulfil the eternal purpose of God. Then an elder came, put his arm around John, and said, “Do not cry any more. Look.”
“The Lion of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome, and He has opened the scroll.”
The rest of the book of Revelation is all the breaking of the scroll and its seals. Out of it come the overcomers, and finally the city of God comes down out of heaven. The bride is prepared. It is wonderful.
That bride is made out of only three materials: gold, precious stones, and pearl.
Now, you could be a little confused, because the Book says the bride has made herself ready and is dressed in white. It is a white wedding, which is the righteous acts of the saints.
But the bride herself—not what she is wearing—the bride herself is produced out of only three things: gold, precious stones, and pearl.
Now, where is your treasure? Is it in heaven?
In other words, is the Holy Spirit working the gold of the life and nature of Jesus into your life, no matter how young you are or how old you are? Is He doing that? Are you experiencing the Lord? Are you walking with the Lord?
Everyone gets all worked up about the rapture: “We are going to be raptured before all this trouble, taken away, snatched away,” and all the rest of it. I personally believe in a rapture, but others do not. They believe we will go through the tribulation. What does it matter, as long as you are ready?
If you are really ready, if only the gold, the precious stones, and the pearl are being produced in you, that is treasure. Where is it? In heaven.
That is where it comes down from—out of heaven. It actually comes down. Everything that God is doing in your life is being preserved, if you can understand me, in heaven. None of it is lost. Every experience.
Aren’t we stupid? Well, I think we are. I think we are utterly stupid. We spend all our time arguing with the Lord, murmuring against the Lord, and having little situations where we want everybody to gather around us and help us, and all the rest of it.
All we have got to do is get right with God and let Him do something in our lives. Settle the issues. Let the Lord be Lord.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things—clothing, food—will be added unto you. The Lord said that the sparrows and the birds eat, and God takes care of them. The flowers—even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Then He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” But we do not think that. We think that if we were to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we would have the most miserable of all lives.
You know, the Lord has a factory for bad times. He turns them out the whole time, so that we have to be afflicted and unhappy. I can only tell you: the people who have settled the issue of their will and His will are the happiest people in the family of God.
As simple as that. God takes responsibility for you once you have given the responsibility to Him. In other words, once you have said, “All right, Lord, You be Lord, and I will obey You,” the Lord steps in and says, “You are Mine. I take care of you.”
Well, I could say a lot more on this issue, but I will just finish with these things. If Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God, everything else that happens in the book of Revelation cannot touch Him.
Satan—it is not some spirit that is after Him; it is Satan himself. Satan did everything in his power to destroy Jesus, and he could not.
And now where is He? He is enthroned at the right hand of God. Satan cannot unseat Him, can do nothing about the eternal purpose of God, because the guarantee that the eternal purpose of God will be fulfilled is the enthroned Lamb.
But it is not just the enthroned Lamb. Have you ever heard a lamb roar? I have not. They bleat, but I have never heard a lamb roar. I have not even heard a goat roar. But I have heard a lion roar.
When people say that the Lion of Judah is an antique term, I do not think so. I think the Lion is roaring.
If you have ears to hear, you will hear Him roaring in the United States, in Canada, in the United Kingdom, in the European Union, and everywhere all over the world.
It is an interesting fact that the church in the Third World is much more alive and awake to this matter than the church in the so-called home countries.
Why, then, are we in this great battle if Jesus is enthroned? I will tell you why. Very simple. Satan cannot get at Jesus, so he will do the next best thing: get at us.
He will do everything in his power to see that we do not come to the throne, that we are not enthroned with Jesus, that we will not be kings and priests who reign on the earth for ever.
Well, I do not know whether this has been of help to you. There is a beautiful word in this Psalm: “Thy people are freewill offerings.” I will end with this.
“Thy people are freewill offerings.” The Hebrew is very clear. It is not, “Thy people volunteer freely.” The Hebrew is very simple: they are not merely people who give; Thy people are freewill offerings.
Shall I tell you what is the problem amongst us believers? We are tithes, not freewill offerings.
The tithe is very interesting—the law of the tithe. A tenth of everything: a tenth of all the grain, a tenth of all the fruit, a tenth of all the animals that are born. A tenth of everything shall go to the Lord. The rest, you can do what you will.
Most Christians are tithed Christians. In other words, they give a tenth to the Lord: a tenth of their energy, a tenth of their time, a tenth of their personality, a tenth—and the rest is theirs.
“Here You are, Lord. See, I am blessing You, Lord. I am giving You a tenth. But the rest is mine. I will do with it as I think.”
But if you are a freewill offering, that means you are completely given.
Now here is another wonderful thing. The tithe was for the priests and the Levites, but the freewill offering is how the tabernacle and the temple were built.
It was out of the freewill offering that all the materials came: the gold, the silver, the bronze—everything.
Are you a freewill offering, or are you a tithe?
It is interesting that the Lord says, “In the day of Thy power.” The word there in Hebrew is power, or might, or force; but it can also be translated “army.” Chayil is the Hebrew: army.
So listen again: “Thy people are freewill offerings in the day of Thy army.”
That says something to us, does it not? An army moves together. An army is one in which everyone has a relationship to the rest. You cannot give orders if you cannot take orders. That is an army.
Can you take orders? Can you move together, as it says in some modern versions, in holy array, with everyone in their right place?
In the day of His power, in the day of His army, Thy people are freewill offerings.
The Lord’s army is a voluntary army. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. I once heard Mr. Sparks say that. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman; He never barges into you.
He can knock you out, stun you, but He never barges in. He never imposes Himself on you.
In this question of being an army, it is entirely a matter of being a freewill offering. Either you offer yourself, or you do not. If you do not, the Lord says, “Thank you for the one tenth you are giving Me of your life, of your family, of your business. Thank you. But you are not in the army.”
So really, how can we face what is happening? I can tell you straight away. Some people are paralysed by this. They say, “Well, the Lord is judging America. We just have to accept it.”
Yes, you may have to accept the anger of the Lord and the judgment of the Lord. But you can pray for two things.
You can pray, first, for the revival of all true believers: that there comes a renewing, an awakening, something that will shock the real church into action.
Second, you can pray for an awakening. I have said for years about judgment coming. Those of you who have heard me for years know that I have said judgment is coming.
But I have also said North America could be the scene of the greatest awakening in the history of the church.
Maybe the Lord is calling you to be that.
It is all a question of being a freewill offering. May God bless you very greatly. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we have spent some time talking about the situation that we are in and where we are going. We mourn for what is happening, Lord, and the speed with which it is happening.
Beloved Lord, wake us up. Speak to our hearts. Bring us to the point where we will say, “I want to be a freewill offering. I want to be in that army of Yours.”
Lord, hear our prayer. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.