Jack, you ready?
Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. It is good to be together again. We are thankful for Zoom; even in this remote way, we can be together.
Our burden during this time of being separated and meeting through the computer in this distant way has been to have a short message of encouragement to God’s people during these difficult times. So, the burden that the Lord has very much impressed on my heart is the Lord’s encouragement in difficult days.
This all comes from the whole chapter of Luke 21. I will just read a few verses to help us become familiar with the tone of this chapter.
Look at Luke 21:7. This is speaking of the disciples, by the way:
And they asked Him, saying, Teacher, when therefore shall these things be?
And what shall be the sign when these things are about to come to pass?
I want you to notice those two questions very much: when and what. They are at the heart of the message.
Look at Luke 21:9:
And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults, be not terrified:
for these things must needs come to pass first;
but the end is not immediately.
Then, in Luke 21:10-11:
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
and there shall be great earthquakes, and in divers places famines and pestilences;
and there shall be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Let us stop at verse 11 and then go to Luke 21:25-26:
And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars;
and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows;
men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world:
for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You that we could be together this morning to remember the Lord. How precious it is to be gathered with the brothers and sisters, and how grateful we are for Your Word. Without Your Word, where would we be?
As we consider this thought of Your encouragement in difficult days, we pray that the Holy Spirit would anoint. We know You alone have the words of eternal life, and we look to You to quicken us by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I think I will not get any disagreement from you all that we are living in difficult days. This coronavirus has—if you can imagine—the whole world shut down.
I think these will be days we will relive with our grandkids, and they will hardly believe it. They will say to you, “You mean they closed all the schools? You mean most of the businesses were shut down? You mean you were in your home for months?” No one will believe it.
These are indeed difficult days. There have been many deaths—historic days, unprecedented anxiety. But how thankful we are that the Lord has a word for us in difficult days.
Today, as we look at Luke 21, we see a great unveiling of how difficult days will be. This is called, by the way, for those of you who do not know, the Olivet Discourse.
You can read the Olivet Discourse in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, and here in Luke 21. I have chosen Luke 21 because I think it says some emphatic things about the Lord’s encouragement.
These are difficult circumstances for the world and for the Lord’s people. This word in Luke 21 is a comprehensive word. It begins with forecasting the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and it goes all the way through the second coming of the Lord Jesus and the establishment of the kingdom of God.
What a comprehensive word that is. It is laden with tremendous difficulties and problems. Many call this “the signs of the times” when they read these verses. These are especially cataclysmic events, I think, when you read Luke 21.
But I think Luke 21:26 tells us how strong, how difficult, these days are. It has this incredible phrase:
For the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Can you imagine? You remember that the anointed and anonymous writer of Hebrews said that the Lord said, “I will once more shake not the earth only, but also the heaven.” What we have experienced is incredible shaking.
I like what Brother Graham Scroggie said about this explanation of these events in Luke 21. He said:
In forecasting the future, Jesus did not paint a golden age, a rising race, a world fit for heroes to live in. No, He talked of deceivers, wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, fearful sights, persecutions, prisons; and though these things are not all, yet the fact of those things and all shows us the world is wildly astray from God and proves the necessity for Christ’s return.
Yes, brothers and sisters, these are the facts. If you want the facts, Luke 21 and those other two places where the Olivet Discourse is explained show horrendous circumstances.
But this is the burden the Lord has laid upon my heart: I believe embedded in the middle of all these circumstances are words of great encouragement—words of extreme encouragement, words of profound encouragement.
There is a higher message than the message about the difficulties, the pestilences, the wars, the rumors of wars, the persecution, and all those things. The Lord did not gloss over those things. But what He did, in fact, was bring encouraging words to His own so that they would know how to live in these days.
The thing that caught my attention, first of all, was the two questions by the disciples. Now we know from Mark 13:3 that Peter, John, James, and Andrew were the ones who asked these questions.
The questions they asked were—let me put them in the right order—when and what. Those are the obvious questions when you hear about these dilemmas and difficulties: “Lord, when will these things take place? And what will be the sign of these things?”
Those are obvious questions. In fact, they looked at the outward and considered the obvious. When this Olivet Discourse starts, it starts with those disciples looking at the beauty of the temple and seeing the stones. They said, “These are goodly stones,” and they saw all the beautiful things with which the temple was adorned.
So, the disciples saw the outward, and the disciples asked the obvious.
What the Lord did in His mercy was answer their questions in a prophetic way. Maybe it is a cryptic way to you. Maybe He did not come right out and say, “At this moment, this will happen.” But He did, in His mercy, answer their questions.
And more than that, embedded in those great dilemmas, He offered them the greatest encouragement.
The important question is not merely when and what. The important things, brothers and sisters, for believers are not the obvious things.
The Lord must have shocked them. He said, “A day is coming when not a stone shall be left upon another stone.” They must have been stunned. Their whole life revolved around the temple, and to think that, in just a short number of years, all of this would be in ruins must have been a great shock to them.
Brothers and sisters, I believe there is a much deeper message embedded in this chapter. I believe the when and the what are important, but they are not the most important.
I think the most important things that we need to know are the how and the Who. Those are the important questions. What the Lord brought out to these disciples in the most horrific moments coming upon the earth was this: what you need to know is how to live, and what you need to know is Who is the One who lives in you.
If you know how and Who, you can overcome even in the most difficult days and hours. This, to me, is the message of Luke 21.
Now, I think the Lord gives abundant encouragement when you read these verses. We will talk about a few of them. You may have more, but I believe the answer the Lord gives is a fivefold answer. It is a complete answer. It is a perfect answer.
It tells us who believe on this earth, “How do we live in these days?” It tells us the source through which we live in these days. If we know that how and are not just focused on the outward, and if we know that Who and are not just focused on the what and the when, then I believe we can live in these days in victory.
That sweet aroma of Christ we talked about will flow out from us, His people.
I like a hymn very much—Frances Havergal’s hymn, “Live Out Thy Life Within Me.” I do not think we sing that enough. When I travel and speak, other places sing this hymn more often than we do. I would like to put in a request that we sing it more.
I believe this is the Who:
Live out Thy life within me,
O Jesus, King of kings;
Be Thou Thyself the answer
To all my questionings.
That is the answer. They had profound questions: what and when? But He is the answer to all our questionings. He is the how, and He is the Who.
Now, I would like us to think about these fivefold things, at least briefly. I know our time is limited.
The first one: look at Luke 21:8.
And He said, Take heed that ye be not led astray:
for many shall come in My name, saying, I am He;
and, The time is at hand: go ye not after them.
The King James Version says, “Take heed that ye be not deceived.” Now, the word He is in parentheses. They will say, “I am.” They have stolen the Father’s great name that was given to Moses: “I AM.”
I believe this is the most important encouragement He can give us in difficult times, because there will be days when believers become deceived, going after teachings and men and ideas that look right, and thoughts that even appear to be Christian. And He said, “Go not after them.”
I am the Who: Christ alone.
I love what T. Austin-Sparks used to say: “It is not Christ plus, and it is not Christ minus; it is Christ alone.”
He is the answer, and that is what He brings out here in this chapter. The world and Satan love to deceive, and when they deceive, their deception is always to take us away from the person of the Lord Jesus.
Overcoming in difficult days is simple: if our focus remains upon the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus alone, we will not be deceived. I think that is the great secret He brought out.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:3:
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness,
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.
Brothers and sisters, it is so easy for believers to fall into things—to look in other directions, to look for other answers, to look at the obvious, to look at the outward—and miss the great secret.
The great secret is Christ alone. Just look at Him. It cannot be any more simple than that.
Paul’s testimony in Philippians 3:10 is profound to me. I shared it Wednesday night:
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
becoming conformed unto His death.
This was the secret of the Apostle Paul. As we read 2 Corinthians, we see that he went through major difficulties, cataclysmic struggles and trials and perils. This one secret alone was enough.
“Be not deceived. Go not after them.” Brothers and sisters, there is one antidote to the deadly virus of deception, and that is looking unto Jesus. It is the only secret you need to walk in victorious life, to walk and overcome.
You do not need many things, but this is essential. This is the reason the Lord Jesus said it first: “You, My own that I love, that I care for, that I am leaving—be not deceived.”
The second thing He said to them, I think, is the second part of that fivefold secret: “Be not terrified.”
How easy it is during these days of such great difficulty to be overwhelmed with fear. Look, I will read Luke 21:26 again:
Men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world:
for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Fear is the most crippling contagion. If you are a believer, there is no more crippling contagion than a spirit of fear. Thank God, we can say that He has not given us a spirit of fear. That is what Paul said to his dear son. We are not given that spirit of fear.
This should be the encouragement to us in these days.
I think of 1 John 4:18-19:
There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love, because He first loved us.
Anyone who has been gripped by a spirit of fear knows what that is like. It is tormenting. I speak from firsthand experience. It is crippling. It is paralyzing.
And yet, we have reason not to fear. We know the One who is perfect love. We do not need to fear because He has not given us that spirit of fear. We do not need to fear because we know the very One—the Who—who is perfect love.
All He is trying to say to these dear ones in those dark and difficult days is, “Focus on the Who and the how.”
Now, I know you all know Psalm 23:4. Jeffrey mentioned it in both of his sessions on Psalm 90 and Psalm 91, and Mac mentioned it also in that word about how He is with us.
When you think about it, this was David’s great secret:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
If that was all he said—“I will fear no evil”—there would be a tremendous loss. But he said, “Because Thou art with me.” That is the secret.
Brothers and sisters, the reason—the hope—the Lord brings in difficult days is, “I am with you.” There is no reason to fear.
You remember the word that came to Moses and Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:
Fear not, neither be dismayed:
for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee;
He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
That was the encouragement to Moses, and then to Joshua, as they prepared to enter in and take the land.
The cure of all fear is that He is with us. Brothers and sisters, I think this is so important. This is what we need to know. This was the how. This was the Who. This was the critical answer in a time of great difficulty.
The third thing is persecution that produces testimony. Make sure you heard all of that—not just persecution.
The Lord talked of grave persecution, and I think every one of you will agree with me that we are living in days of increased and unparalleled persecution of individual believers and the church. But I think what we see here is something tremendous.
Look at Luke 21:13. When He is talking about persecution, this is the embedded hope:
It shall turn out unto you for a testimony.
Isn’t that wonderful? In other words, the encouragement the Lord brought is that whatever you go through, whatever you experience, will produce in you a living testimony. That is the hope.
That is what it means in Acts 1:8, when He told them:
Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Brothers and sisters, this is the answer. How wonderful this is. It is producing in us testimony.
Do not ever forget that. Everything you go through during these dilemmas, difficulties, and trials—one word He had for His own: it will produce in you testimony. Can there be a better word than that?
It has an effect. It does something tremendous that ease could not do.
I always remember one of the first messages I sort of bungled through as a Christian: David’s great word, “In my distress Thou hast enlarged me.”
What is happening in these days of difficulty, and in these generations of difficulty, is that God is producing in us a living testimony. To me, that is so tremendous.
Romans 8:28-29 says:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Thank God it starts that way: “And we know.” What He is doing through everything is conforming us to His image, that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.
When you look at Luke 21:18, there is a most precious verse. The Lord did not have to say this, but in this cataclysmic persecution, He said:
And not a hair of your head shall perish.
Isn’t that mercy? It does not matter what you go through. You may not believe me, but believe the Lord. It does not matter how dark the days get if you are His, because not a hair on your head will be lost.
This is precious. And there is another phrase in Luke 21:19:
In your patience ye shall win your souls.
Now, many believers, I think, do not even know what that phrase means. When they think of the saving of our souls, they think of being saved from hell and living for eternity.
But I am so thankful we have heard things from Brother Nee, Brother Stephen, Lance, Austin-Sparks, and many others who have told us that the salvation of the soul is much greater than that.
In the end, all that you go through is to produce in you the saving of your soul. Now, that is not saved from hell; that is saved from self.
That means Christ, through these most difficult circumstances, conforms you to Christ. Christ is manifested in you. In that moment, that sweet aroma, that sweet fragrance, comes out.
That is the Who, and that is the how.
Remember, Peter said in 1 Peter 1:9:
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
There is a fourth encouragement the Lord gave. It seems most simple on the surface, but it is so profound when you think about it. Look at Luke 21:28:
But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads;
because your redemption draweth nigh.
This was the great secret the Lord shared with His own.
What is our natural tendency if we only look at the outward? If we only want the facts—the what and the when—we will look down in despair. Our heads will droop, our shoulders will fall, and our knees will weaken, as it says in Hebrews. We will be in the slough of despond.
But, brothers and sisters, there is one recipe for overcoming difficulties, and that one recipe, the Lord said, is: “Look up.”
Look up, for your redemption draws nigh. These were the words of encouragement embedded in these words of great calamity.
May the Lord help us. Let me put it as strongly as I can: this one response will transform your circumstances. This one response. May the Lord cause us to look up.
You remember Job. He went through the most difficult circumstances that anyone could imagine. I do not think anyone would argue with me on that.
And it says in Job 19:25, when he was in the heart of the trial—he had not gotten to chapter 42; it was not the end of the trial; he was at the beginning of the trial—he was in the fire, overwhelmed in unbelievable difficulties, and he said these wonderful words:
But I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and at last He will stand up upon the earth.
Brothers and sisters, catch the Lord’s advice to us: look up. Do not look down. That is the secret. How we need to know that secret above everything else.
And then, finally, the Lord said several things together which were of tremendous encouragement. In Luke 21:33, you probably know this verse:
Heaven and earth shall pass away:
but My words shall not pass away.
Now, if you are looking at the obvious and the outward, that is all you will read: “Heaven and earth shall pass away.” Full stop.
If you are focused, like the disciples were, upon the wrong thing, that is all you will read, and it will be over. But then He says, “My words shall not pass away.”
Brothers and sisters, can you think of a greater how? Can you imagine that the Lord of glory has left us His Word? It is not an impotent word. It is a word full of life. It is a word full of power.
It is a word that can transform us, change us, and conform us to the very image of the Lord Jesus. This is His encouragement: “I have left you My Word, which cannot and shall not pass away.”
He went on to say more after that. I think this is a lot of our problem in Luke 21:34:
But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
and that day come upon you suddenly as a snare.
I think one thing that has happened to many of us, while we were living in relative ease and even luxury compared to most of the world, is that the cares of life can so easily overtake us.
Those obvious things, those outward things, we give our attention to—and they become our life. “How do we make a living? How do we raise a family? How do we do this? How do we do that?”
The Lord said, “Do not be concerned just with the cares of life.” If you do, they can take you out. That day will come upon you unawares because this was your focus rather than the how and the Who.
And He said one more thing in that fifth admonition: “Watch and pray.”
Do not ever doubt the power of prayer, brothers and sisters. The key to surviving in difficult days, and even coming out victorious in difficult days, is a simple recipe: watch and pray.
You may think, “Well, I do not know what to pray for.” Well, pray. You may think, “All I see are these bad things.” Well, just watch Him. Look to the Who. Do not look at the what. Do not look and say, “When is this going to happen to me?” Do not look at outward things and be overwhelmed.
Look up. Watch. And pray.
We may even pray in our weakness, “Lord, we do not know how to live.” But you can watch and pray and say, “Lord, You said You are the life.”
That was the secret He was sharing with His disciples. We may not know the way. We may see a way that is full of darkness. But we can pray, and we can watch, and say, “Lord, You said You are the way. Show me Yourself.”
It is the secret.
You may say, “I do not know what to think. I am overwhelmed. I have never lived through things like this.” But then you can say, “Lord, You said You are the truth. Show me Yourself.”
This was the word, I believe, the Lord brought to His own.
If you want to be ready for the Lord’s coming, it is a simple recipe: watch and pray.
You remember Brother Kong’s burden that was so alive for these recent years: “Are you ready?” The way to get ready is to see how He does it, to see Who He is, to watch and pray.
If you do these simple encouragements by His own life living from within you, then you will be ready. That is the secret. This is the how and the Who.
This is the encouragement the Lord gave in the darkest of circumstances. Thank God He did not tell just about all the troubles. He gave the secret.
And if you have ears to hear, you can hear the secret, and you will overcome even in the darkest of hours.
Let us pray.
Lord, we are so grateful that You tell us the way. We are so grateful that You show us that You are our life. We are so grateful that You are the truth. We are so grateful that in the darkest of times, You have the most encouraging words to Your own.
These are the secrets of how to live and Who we live through.
Thank You, Lord. I thank You, Lord, again and again, for the Apostle Paul’s declaration in Philippians 1:21:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
There is no greater secret, and there is no clearer way than that. All these thoughts we commit to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.