Both here and in the virtual world, we appreciate all the saints being able to come together this morning. We thank the Lord.
You know, He is King. It is not just some mental thing that we carry in our minds; He is King in our hearts. We are thankful today that the Lord has brought us into that personal relationship. We can truly be a part of His kingdom.
This relates to what I have this morning: He is King. I think we can never forget that. He has been King eternally, but He established His kingship as Son of Man by coming to this earth, walking in our shoes, so to speak, and taking upon Himself the sin of the world, being crucified on our behalf, and being raised from the dead.
We too are raised in Jesus Christ. One day we will actually experience a kingdom where He is in full view. Right now, it is a spiritual relationship, but in that day, we will be face to face. Thank the Lord for that.
Well, I digress a little bit. Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so grateful to Thee this morning. We come with that sense within us, Lord, that we are not able to really express Your burdens and Your heart as we should. But, Lord, we lean not to ourselves. The sentence of death rests upon us that we might fully trust in God, the One who raised Christ from the dead.
So we come this morning trusting You, Lord, that You will be able to get through to our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit and be able to give unction to the burdens that I have sensed over the last months. So, Lord, we just come to You in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Well, I do not think it is any secret that I have had this matter of lawlessness on my heart for a while now. Last time I spoke, I even mentioned the fact that I thought it was a day in which spiritual militancy was in order. I will explain more of that later.
Last Sunday, of course, Roger spoke on our Lord Jesus, our Warrior. We know in Ephesians 6 that the church is called to be His warrior on this earth. I had these things on my heart, and I said, “Lord, I just need some confirmation.”
Roger had asked for confirmation, and I am no different. Anytime I have something on my heart like this, I always say, “Lord, I need some confirmation, either out of Your Word, from my brother or sister, or through some event that occurs.”
Well, I walked out the door and got to my truck. It was the only vehicle parked in the back lot, and the children were out there. Praise the Lord for our children. I think they did not know how prophetic they were.
When I got to my truck, there was a huge dragon drawn on the lot, with a big tail. Its mouth and jaws were wide open with big teeth—I mean, big teeth—and they surrounded my entire truck.
I said, “Lord, is that not Revelation 12? Is that not where the beast is ready to devour the man-child, devour Your church, devour Your people?”
So I took that, I really do, as confirmation from the Lord that this is an hour in which the jaws of death are around us all the time and ready to crush any saint individually, and particularly the church corporately.
But this morning, I think it is important that we realize the hour and the days in which we live. When the Lord Jesus was with His disciples, right before Calvary, He shared some thoughts with them. He said, “My coming again will be as in the days of Noah.”
That is my message today: the days of Noah. I think it is important that we recognize the days in which we live and how we need to respond once we know that fact.
I am going to read some Scriptures fairly quickly. I am going to try to be as expedient as I can this morning and still get the spirit of what the Lord has on my heart.
As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.
—Matthew 24:37
God spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others.
—2 Peter 2:5
Noah was a righteous man, and Noah walked with God.
—Genesis 6:9
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
—Genesis 6:11
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; behold, I will destroy them.
—Genesis 6:13
That was the hour when the Lord said, “The end of all flesh is before Me, and I will destroy them.” We live in a similar hour, I believe.
And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.
—Matthew 24:12
For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is One that restraineth now, until He be taken out of the way.
—2 Thessalonians 2:7
The Lord links the days of Noah very much with the days in which we live and His second coming. Peter links the days of Noah with the coming judgment of the ancient world and the coming judgment that will come upon the world in which we live in this age and in this hour.
When you come to the days of Noah, you come to the completion—the consummation—of the ancient days, the first world that our Lord brought humanity into.
I think Sparks puts it this way: the first cycle of human history was coming to an end. The second cycle of human history is about upon us, brothers and sisters.
After 1,700 years, after Adam and Eve came and the Lord brought them upon this earth—He created them—1,700 years later, that is not very long, really, the Lord said, “It is enough. I have had enough of mankind.”
The fullness of iniquity had come. Men at that point were full of iniquity. They rejected God. They rejected even the thoughts of God. They did not want Him in their minds. They were full of pride. They were self-centered. They only thought about themselves—nothing about God.
It says their deeds were evil, and their thoughts were evil. Brothers and sisters, it seems to me that at that time the whole being of man had become evil, except for Noah and the seven others, who were his immediate family.
One word sums up the days of Noah, I think: lawlessness. Lawlessness was not only prevalent, but pervasive throughout the whole world of that day.
What is lawlessness? I was not given a definition for this, but before the Lord, after reading this, I felt that lawlessness is this: “I will not submit to God.”
That is lawlessness. The fruit of lawlessness is all the violence, all the chaos, all the sins, and all the evil of man. They come out of the lawlessness that is in our hearts, unfortunately.
They would not submit to God or acknowledge God. In the days of Noah, fullness had come to the lawlessness in man. The fruit of corruption in man is lawlessness. Not only his deeds, but his very being was lawless.
Man was his own god. That is the way he saw himself. He saw himself as independent, able to take care of himself, with no need for God.
There is a word for that. It is a religion that people do not know they are holding to: humanism. Man without God. Man is self-sufficient. Man can be his own god.
Brothers and sisters, we have to remember this was the sin of Adam and Eve in the very beginning of mankind. What was the enemy’s temptation to Eve?
Ye shall be as God.
—Genesis 3:5
“You do not have to be under God anymore. You can be like God. You can rule your own life. Do as you please. Satisfy yourself as you please. There is no need to satisfy God any longer.”
That is what it meant. That challenged Eve, and she was deceived. You think, “Man, if I can be like God, that would be great.”
I am sure in her heart the total rejection of God probably was not there, but it eventually came. It was that seed the enemy planted in her mind, and she succumbed to it.
Not only that, she was so excited about it that she immediately went to her husband and said, “Look, man, if we can just eat of this fruit of knowledge of good and evil, we will have all the knowledge that we need for our lives to live.”
Now, Adam saw through that. But Adam loved Eve more than he loved God. I hate to have to say that, but he did. It is obvious, because he could not give her up. He could not let her go. He could not just put her in God’s hands to deal with it.
He chose to disobey God, and sin came upon this earth. Corruption came. It says that death came by one man, and that was through Adam.
Brothers and sisters, the door to the garden and the tree of life—eternal life, the life of God—was immediately shut. The angels guarded it with swords. The seraphim, I think, guarded it with swords. The way was closed.
But we have a merciful God. He loved Adam and Eve. So He made a way almost immediately. Some animals were slain, most likely a lamb, and the skins were brought to them for a covering.
We know today that that looked forward to Calvary, when the Lord Jesus, God’s Lamb, would give up His life. By taking Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us into our lives, we too are set free, able once again to have a door into the way of life.
It is really magnified in the life of Cain and Abel. Abel presented a lamb sacrifice. He was a sheep herder, and he offered a lamb sacrifice to God.
Now, both these boys—we cannot be naive about this—were well aware. I am sure their parents had told them, “The Lord gave us these animal skins, and we are now under the mercy of God.”
But Abel came to the Lord with a slain lamb. Abel recognized that he was a sinner. Abel recognized that he was a man of sin. He realized, brothers and sisters, that he needed to come to God with a lamb sacrifice because there was no hope in himself. There was no way he could ever make himself righteous.
When he brought that lamb, it was not just because he had probably committed a few sins. He brought that lamb as a substitute.
In the lamb’s death was his death to the old man, and the only way to life was through resurrection in Jesus Christ. That is what that all meant. It was very fundamental to the life they were to live: a lamb sacrifice.
Also, he offered the fat of the lamb. That represents worship. Worship. He worshiped the Lord.
In other words, when we look at that story, we have to realize that Abel accepted God’s evaluation of man’s condition. Without a lamb sacrifice, it was hopeless. He accepted that and brought that lamb sacrifice.
Cain, on the other hand, was a farmer, basically, and he brought the best that he had.
I believe at that time Cain had no thoughts or ill will toward his brother. I do not know if they had any difficulties prior to this, but I think it is unlikely. I think there was no ill will in his heart toward his brother.
He was not an atheist. He came to God. He was going to offer a sacrifice to God—the best of who he was—and that was the crops he generated through his hard work and labor, the crops and the fruits.
He brought them to the Lord and offered them to the Lord. But what does that mean? He had heard about the skins, but when he brought those fruits to the Lord, he was really saying, “Look, I am a pretty good man. I may not be perfect, but I am pretty good. I can come to God, and I can worship Him. I can offer a sacrifice out of the goodness of the works of my hands.”
I think today it is like so many people. You may talk to them and start trying to speak to them about the Lord and His salvation, and they will say, “Well, I am a pretty good guy.” I do not know how many times you have heard that, but, “Yeah, I am pretty good. I have got goodness. There is goodness in man.”
Cain could not accept the fact that, once man had fallen, he was no good to God any longer in that fallen condition. He was not able to accept God’s evaluation of fallen man.
Man was in a place where he could not redeem himself. He could not ever gain righteousness before God in that condition. The sin nature was there. It could not be rooted out. The only thing God could do was bring death to the old man. The sentence of death was upon man.
But Cain did not see it. He would not recognize it, and so he brought the fruit of his hands.
I think Abel’s attitude can be summarized in 2 Corinthians 1:9, which we have been studying:
We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.
—2 Corinthians 1:9
God made it very clear, as you read the Word, that He accepted and was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice, but not with Cain’s. As soon as Cain saw that his sacrifice was not acceptable, it said his countenance fell.
He was so discouraged, so embittered at that point. The Lord went to him and said, “Cain, sin is at the door.” It was sin within him, but now it was ready to be expressed. He basically said, “You need to get hold of yourself.”
But instead of humbling himself before God, who was basically telling him he was a sinner, he got bitter and angry. That lawlessness already inherent in his nature came forth in full bloom, in fullness of passion.
Instead of humbling himself and repenting before God, being willing to bring the appropriate sacrifice before God, he killed his brother. Murder was in his heart, and he slew his brother.
Brothers and sisters, do you realize that inherent in the nature of man is the same thing that was in Cain? It was in Abel too, but Abel recognized it. Abel accepted it. Abel brought the correct sacrifice before God, trusting in God’s righteousness.
I am not trying to be too hard on Cain, but he really messed up. When God spoke to him, he would not humble himself. He would not submit. That is the very nature of lawlessness, and it unleashed the fruit of lawlessness, which was murder.
The Bible speaks of the mystery of lawlessness. The one who restrains the mystery of lawlessness—brothers and sisters, that simply means it is a hidden thing within, but it can be manifest. Without restraint, that lawlessness within will manifest itself in actions, and that is exactly what happened to Cain.
The Lord came back to Cain, and you remember He cursed Cain and told him he would be a vagabond. Cain went out from God. When he left God, it was his last time in the presence of God. He went out unrepentant, bitter, resentful, and rebellious.
That is a spirit that spread throughout the days of Noah. Lawlessness is the result of not being subject to God. In Noah’s day, God had had enough. It had come to full fruition—the spirit of lawlessness that invaded everything and consumed every man and woman.
Think about it. How many years did Noah preach while he was building the ark? You all remember. Somebody got it. Was it 140 years? It was a long time—more than my lifetime, I know that.
They laughed at him. He told them of the impending doom. He said, “It is going to flood the earth.” Of course, they did not know what rain was at that time. They just laughed at him.
He was building this ark, and he said, “You are going to need to get in the ark to be saved from the doom, from the judgment.” They would not listen. They laughed at him. They despised him.
Is that not the way of our hour in which we live today? When I was growing up as a boy, if you openly said that you were a Christian, you were kind of admired, frankly, for taking that stand. But no longer.
You say you are a Christian, and you are considered evil. You are considered inherently prejudiced. Days have changed. The days of Noah.
So God said, “It is enough. It is time to get in the ark, Noah.”
The days of Noah were a collective, universal repudiation of God, the way of the cross, and of Christ, which the ark represented. A collective, universal repudiation of God, the cross, and Christ.
Is that not the days that we live in today, brothers and sisters? The first round was 1,700 years. We now have a little over 2,000 years in this second cycle of humanity. It must be close. It must be close.
The interesting thing was this: we leave Abel, who had gained righteousness through that acceptable sacrifice, and we come to Noah and seven others.
Brothers and sisters, this is the corporate testimony. Not just one man, not just eight individuals, but they were together—a corporate testimony to the Lord, the way of the cross, and to Christ.
They were the only remaining testimony to God on this earth at that time, and the only testimony to God in the new cycle that was about to come.
In the midst of all that lawlessness, what I want to say is that God had His testimony. Brothers and sisters, that is our calling. In a day of lawlessness, we can testify to Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.
There is no other way except through Jesus Christ. A lot of people say there are many ways. Brothers and sisters, we know better, do we not? There is only one way.
It is because we have come into relationship with Jesus Christ—not just a doctrine that we hold, not just something that we learn from the Bible. It is because the Holy Spirit has come into our life, and we are in living union with Jesus Christ.
That is how we know. That is how we carry the testimony of Christ. It is living within us: the new life in Christ. Oh, the old man is still there. He wants to raise his head occasionally, but we live in the new life in Christ.
You know, I want to say that it is a great revelation when you finally discover—and sometimes it is late in your Christian life—that there is no hope in your natural man, no hope in your flesh. It is corrupt.
It may be able to do some good things and some good deeds and even try to serve God the best that it can, and come and offer the works of your good deeds to the Lord. He says, “Filthy rags.” No, it is rejected. It is gone.
In His sight, the judgment and sentence of death is upon all of that in your life. The only thing He wants to see is Christ when He looks at you. That is what He sees.
It is the life of Christ within you. That is the seed that needs to grow and develop.
I thought about this because I have about an acre at my house. Over the years, we have landscaped it. I like to sit out there. It is kind of serene just to sit in the backyard, with the birds chirping and the doves cooing. It is really beautiful, and Anna is really great at this stuff.
Of course, I had to do all the digging, spreading the mulch, pulling the weeds, and trying to kill the weeds.
But that is the way your old life is. No matter how beautiful it may look, weeds are there. If you do not pay a lot of attention, they are going to come right back—and they have, by the way. I had to spray them again last week.
The point is, we can go through our whole Christian life trying to deal with old weeds, or we can say, “No, it is the life of Christ that matters in my life.”
I look to Christ. I fully depend on Him. I depend on His blood. I depend on His victory. I depend on His salvation. I depend on Him for day-to-day living.
It would be just like my yard. If I could dig up everything, throw it away, and bring in soil perfectly free of corrupted seeds, weeds, and briars, then plant the good seeds the Lord provides and allow them to grow in my life, then I would have the Garden of Eden.
So we have two plots of land in us, if I may say that. We can spend all our lives trying to get all the weeds out, and it will never happen. It is corrupt, condemned by God; His judgment is upon it.
But, brothers and sisters, there is a new plot of land in your life. Work on that. Feed that land. Keep it watered. It will bring forth fruit unto righteousness—a righteous life. Enough said about that, but you see the difference.
Lawlessness is inherent in every man, but there is a way through, and that is through Jesus Christ and the lamb sacrifice.
Noah and the seven others represent the testimony of God in the fullness of those days. He has His testimony today, brothers and sisters, and it is a collective testimony. It is not just a bunch of individual Christians; it is the testimony of unified Christians through union life with the Lord.
In union life with the Lord, we come into union with one another. I think they represented the church that was to come, and also, more specifically, the man-child that we see in Revelation 12.
That takes us back to the parking lot and the drawing of the dragon around my truck.
A universal cataclysm is about to come upon us, something like we have never seen. Nothing. I mean, the coronavirus is just a taste, if you want to say that, of what is coming upon this whole earth. The judgment of God is coming upon this whole earth. We know that.
I hope at some point in your life you realize that it is not very far away. That is why our brother Stephen, I think, over and over again says, “Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready?”
The second cycle of human history is just about to come to an end. What do we see when we look in Revelation? We see the dragon.
The woman is there representing the church, but what is his attention focused on? That man-child. The man-child—the vessel.
If you remember, the man-child is the one that breaks through the air to the throne, causing a universal war in the heavenlies. Satan is cast to earth, and all—you know what—breaks loose.
Brothers and sisters, it says they overcame him. That is why he is so interested in the overcomers.
These are ones who understand the blood of Christ and the need for it every day—the need for that blood, that precious blood. We still sin. We still know that.
But not only that: the blood. I remember going through battles with the enemy in my life personally and in the church. The one thing that always backed the enemy off was when I said, “I know You may see some things that are wrong, but we are under the blood of Christ.” He backs off every time.
He may attack many times, but he backs off. The blood of Christ is one of our great weapons that the enemy cannot stand against.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
—Revelation 12:11
They had a word to speak for God because they lived for God. That is very simple. The testimony was real in here, so it had effect when they spoke it.
They were the testimony of Christ. They were not just having knowledge of the testimony of Christ or understanding that doctrine; they were a testimony.
It says they loved not their lives unto death. I think that is interesting. They realized there were things in this life more important than their physical life, more important than the life they had, and they were willing to give themselves for it.
It was the testimony of Christ in their life and in the church corporately. They were willing to lay down their lives for that. These are the overcomers, brothers and sisters.
Noah and the seven represented, I think, that man-child at the end of days. The reason I say that is that they were together in that boat. The ark represented Christ, right? They were together as one man in Christ: the testimony to the church.
I want to emphasize one thing at this point: they were together. They were together in Christ, but they were together physically as well. They were in close quarters on that boat.
Now, you all know it was a pretty big boat. I think it was about 400 yards long. That is pretty big. But they were in close quarters all that time.
They went through the forty days of the flood together. They supported one another together. They functioned together in taking care of the animals and one another on the ship. They worshiped together. They were together.
Everything they did was together. They were in such close quarters there was no choice, so to speak. But that is the way of the church.
I want us to go away with that thought this morning: togetherness is the way of the church. Being together.
That is what the Lord put on my heart so much. These ones in that storm, they were together. The whole point is togetherness. Brothers and sisters, why is it important? It is the way of life for the church: being together.
That is the way the church grows. What does the Word say? “You are the body of Christ,” and every joint supplies together to the building up of the body of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians says we have been brought into death together in Christ. We have been raised together in Jesus Christ. We are sitting together in the heavenlies in Jesus Christ. Together. It is always together. It is a together life.
It is critical because when we are together, we become a local expression of what is the spiritual reality in the universal.
Now let me be very clear. There is the universal church:
Upon this rock I will build My church.
—Matthew 16:18
Every Christian is a part of the universal church. We come into it, praise the Lord. We are joined. It cannot be broken. The Holy Spirit has unified us all over the world.
Sometimes we can sense in our spirits that something is going on in another nation or another part of the world, and the Lord brings us into prayer. We pray for saints and local assemblies all over the world because we see the need for prayer. That is the universal church.
But the Lord also spoke of the local church:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
—Matthew 18:20
In other words, the Lord wants a local expression of the testimony of Jesus together. That is what Noah and the seven were. They were together. They had become an expression of the local testimony upon this earth.
Now, the enemy is so interested. His focus of attention is upon the man-child because he is the instrument God will use to bring about his demise.
The sentence of death is upon Satan as well. But, brothers and sisters, his demise will begin as the man-child is raptured to the throne, and there is the war in heaven that I mentioned.
The enemy knows his demise is bound up with that corporate testimony which will stand for God’s will on this earth.
Does it not say that we are to be those who bind and loose—the local testimony? What does that mean? It means you bind up lawlessness, the things that are not of God, the will of man, and the will of the enemy. That is to be bound up.
What is to be loosed? The will of God. It is just that simple.
We are the salt of the earth. We are to bring life to the earth. We are the remaining example of eternal life on this earth. The only reason the earth is being preserved right now is because of Christians, because of the church. God is still preserving. He is holding off.
We are the instrument that is supposed to restrain evil. We know it is the power of the Holy Spirit that does that, but it is the Holy Spirit working through His church, and in particular, through the local church that we are called to.
So, in this last hour, what do you think the enemy’s strategy is?
He wants to destroy God’s militant instrument. By militant, I do not mean going out and tearing up this world or assaulting anybody. I am talking about spiritually binding and loosing in prayer.
He wants to destroy the instrument God has on this earth: the church, the brothers and sisters. He will attack togetherness. He wants to separate us.
That is the reason Eve got in trouble, brothers and sisters. She was separated from Adam. The Bible makes that very clear. We do not know what occurred or why they were apart at that point, but they were separated. The enemy took advantage of it, and he came in.
He wants to attack the togetherness of the church. Another way to say it is that he wants to divide and conquer.
He wants to get you off to yourself, away from the brothers and sisters, away from their love, away from their counsel, away from their caring, away from their ability to build you up in Christ, protect you in Christ, and share with you in Christ—to bring the life of Christ to you.
We need one another. The Lord does not just dump all the spiritual things, blessings, and promises on you as an individual.
You may, as an individual, receive many blessings and promises, but a lot of the growth of the church comes from being together. Every joint supplying is the Word. Every joint supplying the life of Christ, the building and growth of the church—and how does it say? In love.
That is the other thing the enemy wants to attack: the love not only of the Lord that you have in your heart, which he does a good job at attacking often, but the love we have for one another. The church is built up together in love.
I think of Noah and the seven. They loved each other. They were family, and I think they also represent the family of God. We are to love one another and take care of one another.
You know, not one of them abandoned ship. Now, you can understand it: everything was flooded. It was pretty dangerous. But nobody abandoned ship.
If you are out there on your own and you have abandoned ship—there are some out there, I know, who are isolated, and the Lord will take care of you and loves you and will bring you into the goodness of the corporate body because you see it.
But, brothers and sisters, some people are out there because they have abandoned the ship. That happens, and they are in dangerous trouble. Of course, the flood will get them.
Divide and conquer. He wants to attack our togetherness. He wants to separate us. He loves to create offenses among the saints.
One thing I have noticed in this coronavirus issue is the way we are trying to handle the coronavirus within our assembly and work together to do what we should do before the Lord. We have differences of opinion that have come up, and I think a few may have been offended. I am really sorry. I really am.
We are all moving before the Lord together. We are in this together. But the enemy will bring up an offense in our hearts. Sometimes he will put a phantom thought in your mind about Jerry Amon: “You know, he is not paying any attention to me.”
Well, that could be true. I do not know. I confess. But he will bring up thoughts that are phantom thoughts.
I have shared this before. Over the years, a sister—it has most often been sisters; I think you are more sensitive than us brothers—would come up to me and say, “Jerry, are you mad at me?”
“No, absolutely not. Nothing, nothing I can think of.” But that has happened quite a few times. I know there might be something in me that is not operating right; I do not know. But I do know this: it was a phantom thought.
The enemy will do anything. The other thing he does to keep us apart is keep you so busy in taking care of the family or in your job at work that you have no time to be before the Lord, no time to be together.
“I can skip Wednesday night. I can skip even the Lord’s Table. Occasionally I will come, but I am so busy.” It will always be that way, brothers and sisters. It is going to get more intense as the days go on.
The cares of life swallow you up and keep you apart. Our likes and dislikes do the same thing. “Well, I do not mind going to be with Brother John over there. He and I understand each other. We get along pretty good. But there are some in our midst that I would just rather not be around.”
Brothers and sisters, that is not love of the saints. That is not being together in love. The enemy wants to divide us, to take away the togetherness that we have. He will attack our love for one another in the very same ways I have just mentioned.
I believe he is using the virus to do just that. You may feel differently about that. Actually, there are some good things that have come out of this, I will have to confess.
My children and grandchildren are much closer as a family because they have had to be together all these three months now.
He works at home. She does get out some, but most of the time when we would go over and see our grandchildren, they would be here and there, looking on their iPhones or playing games on the computer, pretty much oblivious to Granddad and Grandma.
But about six weeks ago, we had them out, and man, they were all over Anna. They were loving it. I set up a volleyball net. We played volleyball together, and they were interested in talking to us.
I thought that was pretty good. They actually wanted to talk to us. You see, that is togetherness, is it not? As a family, it is because they were more together.
But for the most part, as far as the church is concerned, the enemy wants to separate us, to keep us apart as much as he can. That is why we need to stand, brothers and sisters, in this last hour. He wants to destroy the local expression.
Brothers and sisters, the other thing we have noticed in this last hour is that the way some of our government officials are reacting is totally unrighteous, totally out of character with being together.
We have even had some officials say it was okay to go to the local bar or whatever, but you cannot worship. You cannot meet together to worship.
That thing that does not want to submit to God is out there. It does not want anyone to recognize God, and it is against us.
Lastly, I think the strategy of the enemy, in all the breaking up of togetherness, is to destroy corporate prayer. That is where our weapon is as the church—not in protesting, actually, not in all the chaos, but in prayer.
I heard a couple of these leaders who have been doing all the violence, and they were basically saying violence is the only way we can get things to change. “It is the only way they will listen to us.”
Brothers and sisters, I think we need to be militant in prayer, binding and loosing. As we said, we are the restraint to lawlessness.
The mystery of lawlessness is coming out. It is restrained, but it is going to come out in these last days. It is the church that is a restraining force.
Now, if you are a theologian, you might say, “Jerry, you are absolutely wrong. It is the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit leaves, then the restraint is totally gone.” That is true.
But where is the Holy Spirit today? Where does the world see the Holy Spirit? It is in His people, in the Lord’s people, in His church.
In actuality, it is the Holy Spirit who has to do it, no doubt about it. But we stand with the Lord. You notice the Lord does not say, “Having done all, I want you to just mow them down.” He says, “Having done all,” what? “Stand.”
We are not trying to gain victory. We are standing for the victory that the Lord has already accomplished in the spiritual realm, that it might be made effective in that situation here on earth. That is what we do.
You know, in World War II, the Japanese finally surrendered. I saw Battle of Midway last night, as a matter of fact. They eventually surrendered. They were a warrior nation, by the way. That was their creed. That was their religion. They were a warrior nation.
They had no thought of God in their hearts at all. To them, a warrior was the greatest thing, and to die in battle, there was nothing more glorious.
When they finally surrendered, there were a lot of Japanese soldiers scattered throughout those Pacific islands. They did not care whether they surrendered or not. They were fighting on.
So the United States had to go back to those islands and begin to liberate them from the ones who refused the surrender order. That is kind of the way it is with the church in the world today.
God’s judgment upon evil, chaos, and lawlessness has already been decreed. The edict has gone out concerning the judgment of the enemy, Satan.
It said in the very beginning that he would bruise the heel of the Lord Jesus, but the Lord Jesus would bruise his head. So I am saying that the church is called to be a prayer vessel, an instrument in the Lord’s day in this last hour.
So, a couple of thoughts to end this morning. I know I am a little long.
I think we need to be faithful. We are called to be a faithful corporate instrument before the Lord, faithful in corporate prayer to restrain the work of the enemy, to bind and loose as a local church, as the Lord shows us.
Basically, we are binding the will of the enemy and loosing the will of God in any situation.
I hope that we will be awakened in this last hour to the preciousness and necessity of togetherness.
Lastly, that we love and care for one another.
Lord, we just come to You today. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You are King. I thank You that the victory is secured, that lawlessness one day will be totally gone, and, Lord, You will rule over a kingdom that is all out from Christ.
Lord, what is on my heart is that we have read Revelation. We know what is coming. But somehow, I sense even in my own heart that it has not quite made the impact of how close it is.
And, Lord, it is real. You say it is going to be an earthquake that shakes the entire world. It is coming.
It is meant to awaken man, to bring man to his knees. But unfortunately, the Word says they will refuse to repent.
Lord, have mercy. Have mercy on all of us. Lord, we want to be just like Noah and the seven: a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth in this day. In Jesus’ name, amen.