Isaiah 21:11-12 presents the watchman's cry and response as a message for different groups of people in light of the end times. It explains the role of a watchman in ancient cities and applies this to the spiritual vigilance required of believers. The message distinguishes between the coming "morning" for believers and the "night" for the unsaved, urging inquiry and return to God for those who have strayed. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the urgency of salvation and the imminent return of Christ, calling for readiness and faithful service.
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Thank you, Dr. Jones. Now, if you have your Bible with you, I would very much like you to find two verses in the prophet Isaiah, chapter twenty-one. Isaiah chapter twenty-one and verses eleven and twelve. The Burton of Juma, he called it to me out of fear. Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye, return. Come. Now, as we look at these two verses, the first pair thing to do is to ask the setting in which these remarkable words were spoken. If you were to take your map and you were to go back to the book of Genesis, you would very, very quickly find where Juma is.
Juma was the son of Ishmael. who was the son of the bondwoman Hagar. You remember when Abraham, the man of faith, the man of God, put Hagar and Ishmael out of the camp, God promised to Hagar that her children would become nations. And so at the same time that Abraham, who had begot Isaac, and Isaac had begat Jacob, and Jacob became Israel, and his son Joseph went down into Egypt, and later the family moved down there and multiplied, and a nation called Israel was born out of Egypt.
So, in the deep south of Palestine, across the Jordan and the Dead Sea, in the deep back country, other nations were growing from families to tribes and becoming little nations. Now when Israel was born out of Egypt and came through the desert, she came right through the country of these tribes and small nations, and they didn't like her. They didn't believe in her God, Jehovah. Little tribal nations like Amalek, the firstborn nation attacked her from behind, the Edomites beset her.
and Guma, the descendant of Ishmael, again were her opponents. But when God brought her into the land and gave her the land of Canaan, somehow they knew in that big temple and Gaurab dwelling in the midst of his people, and the message growing out far and wide that Israel had something. And it's from the deep, deep south, that the voice of a nation, an opponent, cries to Israel, who has the truth. Watchmen, what of the night?
Watchmen, what of the night? Leave anxiety, there's emphasis behind the word. The answer comes from the watchmen. The morning cometh, and also the night. If ye would inquire, inquire ye. Return, come. An amazing answer. It seems at first to be a jumble of words. Now let's get some idea of what a watchman is. St. Petersburg doesn't need a watchman at night except the police on their patrols.
But if you were to go to an eastern city like Jericho or any of those cities, you would find all round the city a big wall. And in the wall gates, and through those gates, right through the day, the flow of trade and commerce would go in and out of the city, but as the sun set in the west, the gates would be closed for the night. And as the city settled down to sleep, If everybody's sleeping, there will at least be one person watching. That's the watchman, a trained, skilled man whose task it is to care and watch. High up by the side of the gate of the city, on the watchtower, all through the night, peering out toward the hill, knowing all the signs, the silhouettes, the trees, the mountains, the sky, right through the night, the watchman guards the city.
Now I want you to imagine in the city that there's a woman and she can't sleep. Her husband's away on a long journey and she hasn't heard of him for some time and she's anxious. Somehow the responsibility of caring the home and the children and other things is heavy and she tosses on her bed. At last she feels she must speak to somebody and she thinks, well who can I turn to? The only wakeful man in the city that she can think of that she could approach would be the watch. And so rising from her bed she girds herself and she goes out into the night and hardly a cat is stirring on the street.
As she passes through the dark streets the city is sleeping except for a few who are turning night into day and day into night. She can hear, for instance, the chink of the dice as the gamblers are busy gambling through the night. She hears the tinkle of music and the tap of toes as the dance on is going on through the wee hours of the morning. But somehow they're not the type of people in her anxiety she wants to turn to. She wants to get to that good man, that wholesome watchman. And at last she comes to the gate and peering up toward the watchtower, you can hear her voice.
Watchmen, what of the night? And there's anxiety and there's emphasis. Watchmen, what of the night? The watchman is peering out into the darkness toward the hills, and the quiet, confident voice is heard. The morning comets, and also the night. If he would inquire, inquire ye, return, come, and you can take his words, and you can divide them into five distinct messages.
At first it looks like a jumble of words, but it isn't. Now in my preaching I do hope In a measure, I could take the honored name Watchman. We are living in days when a very sad happening has come to our world. As Jesus said, there is a sort of snare creeping over the world today, and people are not conscious, largely, that the age is going to end. that there are multiplying signs that soon our Lord is coming back again the second time apart from sin to complete salvation, first at his blood-bought church, second of ancient Israel, and then the world's nations with all their appalling needs.
And this snare is going out through the world, and in nineteen sixty-five the great message of the Lord's return is not ringing out in our churches today as it used to fifty years ago. The day that our pastors and preachers utterly silent on it. And I may be wrong, but a simple missionary comes to you to tell you that instead of being a great preaching message today in North America, it's a debatable point. And you hear them arguing in secret whether it's pre or mid or partial or post, whether it's our millennial or bar millennial.
And they want the message of the hope of the coming of the Lord, and it could happen at any time. When I was a boy, a naughty, wildish boy, I used to go out into the English fields to snare rabbits. I know what snares are. Jesus said it will come like a snare and cover the whole earth. You see, I would go out and I would walk down the side of the field and I would see the holes, the rabbit holes and the hedges. And I would see their runs out into the field. And I would say yes, about six tonight, as it's getting dark, the rabbits will come out to feed in the field, and I would get out my little snare.
I would get out my little peg and peg it to the side of the rabbits' run. I would get my little slipknot piece of wire and put it very carefully just where the rabbit would run. And then have a good look at me. I would pin up a little notice by the side on which was written, Dear Rabbit, please tick your head in my trap because I want to kill you and tomorrow we are going to have Rabbit's part. I don't tick. No, when you go out the snare you don't give any warn.
You try to cover up. And instead of putting the notice by the side, I would take little bits of fern and little bits of leaves and grass and carefully cover the wire so that Mr. Rabbit coming out would run along and see just grass hanging over. And then he would say, oh, well, that's nothing. And push right on and all of a sudden we got it. And we caught Mr. Rabbit. There. He didn't know he was running into danger. He wasn't aware of the... unkind, nasty boy who was trying to catch him. And there are multitudes in loved America tonight who are not aware of the fact that world happening amongst Jewry and the Arab world...
And in Russia, and in China, and in Europe, and in the newborn young nations, and the world with distress of nations and perplexity, men's hearts, craving them for fear, shout out! But the coming of the Lord, Lord knows. And Christians are living today as if he doesn't have. In a lush, comfortable world that they think is going on, at least for the rest of their lives. And if he keeps And that's why our Lord said at the end of his holiday, Lord, watch, watch in such an hour that she speaks of.
If you're watchful, you will see, and you will know that it is near, even at the door. No one knows the day, no one knows the hour. Be afraid of any date fixer. But those who are watchful will be aware. But those who are not watchful will be snared. They won't know this thing that is creeping over the world at the end of the age, which shouts out that our age is doomed, that Jesus Christ must step back with divine judgment to take his rightful place, to run the world that men can't run. No. Here's the amazing answer of the watchman.
The morning cometh and also the night. If he would inquire, inquire thee. Return, come. And in the audiences that I face in any land today, if I had the time and the skill, I could divide those audiences into five groups, and those five distinct statements are the tremendous need of five distinct groups in every audience that I see. Do you know tonight in this auditorium there could be a man or a woman, a young person, who is not yet saved.
I use an old-fashioned blunt word. Jesus Christ saw the world was sinful and perishing and in awful danger, and he came into the world of saved sinners and died upon the cross to win salvation and sent out the glad tidings of salvation, and it ran out in all its power. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Not over the world I meet people who look into my face and they say, Thank God I am saved. Saved from sins awful, awful, awful. Saved from sins penalty. Saved from sins power. The prospect is to spend eternity with that Savior.
No need to be frightened of that old-fashioned word. If you are not a saved man and you sit on that seat, face it, you are a lost man. You are still in your sin. You are still with the word condemnation written over your heart. You are still guilty before God if you've never bowed at that cross and looked into the face of a Savior and said thank you and yielded yourself with all your need to him. And if there's one sinner here tonight, a guilty sinner before God, there's a message for you. Then, thank God, in my audiences I find many, many Christians.
Yes, I find many Christians, and there's a message for them here. I find many, many backsliders, there's a message for backsliders here. I find earnest hearts that are seeking the Lord, and they really long to know that they've never heard it clearly put. It's amazing the number of people, even in Christians and so-called, that when you preach fearlessly the simple gospel, they said, I never heard it just like that. And I find that a sympathetic earnest heart that long for guidance, long for things to be made clear. And so with all these different groups, I wonder if I could very simply point out the five messages that come through the Watchman.
Now look at it. The first one is, the Watchman said the morning comes. Now I'm going to shout the shouts, people. That precious company, and I believe most of you are in it, who really are redeemed by precious love. You are blood-bought believers in Christ. You say, yes, it is done. The great transaction is done. I am my Lord, and he is mine. I know the dear Savior. I belong to him. Thank God. Christians, the morning comes.
This is not day for us. When you were brought into the kingdom of God, dear son, you faced it that your king was catapult and crowned with thorns and rejected. Did you face the fact that in the world the one that you had learned to love and trust is despised of men and given no rightful place? Have you found out that round the world today in politics and commerce till they cry, we will not have this man to reign over? Did you find that as a Christian, it was night time for you, the time when perhaps you would have to share the despised Nazarene sufferings and rejection?
Well, that night is soon going to pass, the morning coming. Using words from Romans thirteen, Paul says, the night is past, then, the day is at hand. At any moment now there could come in the sky of hope, the morning star, the morning star of hope that ushers in the dawn, and then the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. Sometimes the darkest hour comes before the dawn, and many are surprised that our twentieth century, with all its boasted progress and advancement, bringing the darkest hours into humanity, the night is far spent.
When you say I'm a Christian, what does this mean? It means this. that the little night of Christ's rejection in our world when he's despised and rejected is soon going to pass, and the glorious eternal day will dawn for you that will never have an end. And you will look into his face and give an account for your Christian life. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We shall all give an account of ourselves to him. And when Paul uses the word judgment seat, he uses a special Greek word that speaks of the Bima, the exhorted seat that was used in the Greek game, when all the competitors came together for their rewards and their cups and their medals and their certificates.
I tell you, it's going to be no picnic. It's going to be a solemn time when we look into his face and say, Lord, you saved me as a boy. You called me to bear thy name, and you gave me of thy spirit, and you entrusted me with thy service. And Lord, you gave me a pound to trade with. I've traded with this pound. Here is what I've gained by trading with that pound. And, Lord, you put talents in my hand, and I have traded with those talents. And here is the increase. And, Lord, you called me to labor in your field. You called me in the early morning, over midday hour. And I've come now to stand before you, and thank you for the holy joy of service.
And it's then he will speak words like, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. And we Christians today are creating the capacity to enjoy the Lord for eternity. Did you get that? In the school days of faith as Christians, we are creating our capacity to enjoy the Lord for eternity. Some illustration, I used it last time I was here, but I don't know a better. If I was going to be very liberal towards some boys, and I said, boys, I'm going to give you a good old drink of Coca-Cola.
Now, you go and run and get a container, and I'll fill it up. And one brought a cymbal, and the other a wine glass, and the other a teacup, and the next a jug, and the next a barrel. I would have to fill all those up according to their capacity, and when I filled them to the brim, I'd say, now, boys, could you take any more? And they all shake their heads. I've filled it with capacity. But the boy with the barrel, greedy fellow, has got more than the boy with the symbol. You know it's going to be amazing when we meet the master and give an account to him. Never forget this that Abraham will be Abraham, and Sarah will be Sarah, and Dorcas will be Dorcas, and Peter will be Peter, and you will be you.
And I will be I. We are creating our capacity now to enjoy the Lord. There will be no sense of love, but there will be differences in capacity. And he says, now I want you to enjoy the Lord, his presence, his company, his service in the great future that I'm born. And Christian, the little night is far off thin. past it, the eternal day will soon dawn. What manner of men we should be in view of our Lord's return.
Then he moves to the second phrase, and he says, and also the night. You see, lots of people have turned what should be their day into what night and night into day. Don't get confused in the picture. The woman to whom the night was so long and she was anxious to know from the watchman. Watchman, what of the night? Heard people all around her changing. The night into day. They're gambling. They're dancing. They're fun. It was their little day. And as the night is far spent and the day will dawn for the child of God.
So... The little day of God's grace, hidden toward the guilty careless sinner, will run to its clothes, and the night will come. I can't bear to think of it, the cry that's going to ring from the Pacific to the Atlantic across America. After Jesus has come, the cry will ring out the harvest is past. The summer is ended, and we are not saved, and the day of God's grace will draw to a close when with patience outstretched hands. He is pleaded with sinners. The harvest of the world has been gathered in, and the summer days of God's grace are up, and they are still without Christ, and they are facing with the day of grace ending the eternal night.
hand before the great white throne and the open book to be judged every man according to the record in the book and whosoever's name was not found written in the book of life cast into the lake of fire this is the second sin oh i spoke to the christians if there's one unsafe person here i can only look into your face with earnest heart and tell you i honestly believe The dull little day of grace is ebbing out very, very far. The shadows are lengthening. Yes, the summer time is reaching its fall.
The leaves are falling. The days are shortening. The clouds are lowering. The winter storm will soon burst. And I believe that you, don't sleep tonight if you're on day. Get it settled. cease the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near. Now comes a third group of people and the message comes if he would inquire, inquire ye. Oh, I'm so glad that wherever I go I find amidst a hundred people, one hungry half, one who's searching, one who's eager, one who longs to know, I can call them inquirers.
They manifest themselves. You can't preach for a week without beginning to meet them. They come and shake your hand, and you meet a hungry heart, someone who longs for more of God's truth. And here's the message for you in the days in which we live. If he would inquire, inquire thee. It's no time for delay. You must go through with your search for all that you know you need, that you long for. And I can apply this to many here tonight. And if I looked into the face of an unsafe person, I would say, for God's sake, for your own soul's sake, if you're inquiring for salvation, now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation. Don't talk about tomorrow. Vote not thyself of tomorrow. Now know it's not what a day may bring forth. If I met someone who's a shallow Christian and they've just sort of got converted and joined the church and they say, well, Jesus died for me and I'm saved, but they're not living for Christ. If there's a hunger in your heart and you want to know true holiness and sanctification and victory in court, whatever it costs you goes through the God's death. You may be living in closing days when... They may come even to the most favored lands, what has come to many other lands in years gone by.
Your brothers and sisters have died by the hundred in Colombia or in the last twenty-five years. They died in Korea. They're dying in the Congo at the moment, sweethear of love, missionaries who are laying down their life. But believe me, hundreds of elders and preachers at the Congo assemblies and church, have been shaken down by the hand of the rebels and our martyrs. Is it sound to you? I hope it won't. Oh, how easy we found it if we look back over our lives to see. a fairing time for loved America.
And at the end we keep swirling, happening to our world and we see things, the thugs of evil ones everywhere, wriggling the ground under our feet. We see, if we lift the lid off the cauldron, we can see in every branch of American life teasing iniquity. over the great nation you can write covetousness and selfishness and sin and lust and a throwing away of God's standards and you can see the very moral, the very survival of the nation being eaten into by the disease of sin.
One day the crash will come. It must come. And this gracious revival spruces the nation again from coast to coast. No, if God's on the move in your soul, and if there's an inquiring heart, and you feel, oh, I long for God's best, if he would inquire, inquiring. Then comes a significant word, return. And, oh, dear, oh, dear, I don't think we preachers are faithful enough with backsliders. I don't know a more horrid name for one who has tasted and seen that the Lord is good and then has grown cold, has turned back, has become disqualified, a castaway, laid aside, no more youth, but you can meet them everywhere.
They talk about twenty, thirty years ago, but they're doing nothing for God today. They talk about the happy day when Jesus washed their sins away, but they very well need their Bible today. They talk about the day when they used to witness in the pulpit, but they never open their mouths for Christ today. They go to church on Sunday morning after twelve. They take the communion and then say, Qatar, for six and a half days to God. You could write over many of them that awful, dreadful, disgusting word. That! Slaughter! You say, will they ever born of God?
You can nearly always tell the difference between a backslider and an apostate. Oh, yes, there are many people who come and they make a profession. Now, will you slip up your hand? Oh, yes, you're converted. And they are. That deep work of God, spirit, that new creation work, that new birth, work has not happened in their lives. And if you make converts like that, very often you'll go back for those hundred converts and find five or six or ten at the most of the others. Where are they? Oh, you see, they've gone back. Perhaps they never really went forward.
You made them come forward or slip up their hands or move their emotions, but God deep reels not in a soul. It's something by the Spirit of God, a new creation, a new birth that can never be underdone, even though the child is naughty, even though the child wanders. It's still a child. You could see I believe in eternal security of the blood-bought, spirit-born child of God. I could believe nothing else with this Bible in my hands. No fact-siders, you can always tell them they're the most miserable people in the world.
They're always criticizing, always finding faults, always trying to fend their own position of wrong by finding fault with others. and they're out of touch. They've left the secret place. They've neglected the word of God. They've allowed sin and selfishness to come and reign in their hearts. Oh, how God mourned over backsliding Israel. Why, if you read Hosea fourteen without a heart movement, I can't understand you. God comes and he says, I will heal by backsliding. He said, I remember how I brought you out of Egypt.
I brought you into the desert. I remember the love of your espousal. I remember the fresh love that cried at the Red Sea. The Lord has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider have he laughed in at the feast. But where did you come to now? Oh, he says, take with you words. Come back with confession on your lips. Come to my arms of love as you came the first time. I will heal thy backsliding. I will forgive them freely. And then he gives a picture of the due and truthfulness of the Christian life and all that it could be if only the backslider would come back.
You know, in most of the congregations that I am personally asked to address in America in my happy visits here, if I were honest, I should make my appeal to backsliders. I shouldn't plead with sinners and say, will you come to Christ? Will you step out? Will you come forward? I should look at the congregation and say, Oh, may God search you until you cry. God be merciful to me. The poor back sliding sinner, I'm coming back home. I'm going to stumble home with a cry. I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight make me one of thy servant. If you are conscious of that nasty, horrid name in your life, that's life.
God sent him to you. He wants a watchman to speak to you. It's a simple word. Return. Come back. And you know, if you come back to the road where you left him, if you came back to that spot where you know you swung away, father and father, if you come back, you'll find him waiting for you there. Then I'll step back. your same Lord, who wants you to walk in fellowship with him day by day, closely. Don't sleep tonight with that horrid word written over you, that's right. Then come the gospel word, as it were, crystallizing everything.
Come, come. The word that rang out in Eden's garden of God's thirst for the fallen couple. Come and let me minister for your need and clothe you as is the one who said, Come, all through to the end until at last the Spirit, and the bride say, Come, it's the gospel word. Whatever dispensation God's healing, his arms are outstretched to say, Come, through his servants. Come. It's the word a child understands. It's the word the outstretched arms of a mother to a little baby learning to walk, said, Come, and he stumbled into the mother's arms.
Sometimes when we are talking to the children, we try to explain it simply, and we say, now children, look, C-O-M-E. Now think of some words, boys and girls. C stands for what? Little hands go up. Children? Yes. He wants the children. Papa the children. But what about O? They look at each other, and they can't think of anything for O. And we say, now one day you are going to grow up, and one day you are going to be like Grandpa, and you will be... Oh, that's right. He wants the old folks to come as well as the children. But listen, you're not always children, and you're not always old. What about the end? And they think and think and think and at last they get it.
Little age! Yes, little age. But when they get to the E, they all jump everybody. And the arms of God are stretched out to everybody when the word comes. Let me tell you quite frankly, it's not only to a sinner God speaks that word. If you hear the voice of Jesus saying to you this week, come ye yourselves apart and rest for a while. To save you from the barrenness of a busy life. Did you hear the Lord saying to you this week, Come, take my yoke upon you and learn of me?
I want to give you a responsibility of discipleship, a new task. I want to fit you for it. Yes, the word come is ringing out and will ever ring out as the Savior deals with us. And so this is the watchman's message. The watchman says to one group, The morning cometh, for the night is fast then. And also the night, the little day of grace is ebbing now to round. If he would inquire, inquire ye. Go right through with your inquiry for God's sake. Return back, Father. Come. Now I want to do something which may not be easy for me or for you.
You know I was up at Camping the Woods. not summer, and on Saturday they have a wonderful musical put on by the staff. And everyone's there, the great auditorium is packed, and the curtains are all across, and we wait with expectation for the movement of the curtain, for the coming of the wonderful evening of music and message and songs and drama sometimes. And I was sitting just at the side of the curtains, and as everyone with eager expectation watched those curtains, I was able to take the curtain and just deep breath.
And I sat for twenty minutes peeping round before the curtains went up. Every time I peeped, I saw the stage getting more and more ready for the pulling back of the curtain. I saw people taking their place and moving their instruments in. I saw them getting into their position. And at last, I peeped round and I see the one sitting next to me. And it started in a minute. Why? It saved me. I believe with honest heart, this book left two feet behind the curtain that they're going to lift very soon.
For fifty years, fifty years, your friends have peaked behind the curtain. I started peeping as a boy. Fifty years ago, a boy, twelve, just turning to his teen, coming home who schools the old home, the home I loved so well in Western Supermare, Somerset, England, The home without electric lights. The home without a telephone. The home without a radio. Never heard of them. The gadgets of the day were unknown.
What a healthy home. Yes, the home with a big log fire at night, and the table with plenty of food, and the family gathered down the table, and dad, a businessman, came, and sat at the head of the table. And a leisure in the U went through, and when it was over, one by one the family gathered round the fire for an evening. Sometimes my father, who was a Christian businessman, brought his friends in to spend an evening together. And children in those days were seen and not heard. And I used to sit with my hands tucked around my chin, looking into the fire, and listening, and listening.
And if you believe a boy of twelve and a half can't take things in, let me tell you he can. It went in, and it was a way back in those days I first heard about Bible prophecy. My father and his friends, I won't bother you with their names. They've all gone to the better land. There were men who knew this book. Oh, I wish I knew this book as dad did. They could turn to Daniel. They could turn to his teachers. They could turn to Joel. They could turn to the remote minor prophets. They knew that. And as they compared scripture with scripture, they used a lot to talk about.
Scarce feelings through the ages of time. And how he used different methods and different dispensations. And there came different crises and judgments. as they talked of these things they used to love to talk about the future. And as they turned the pages, they said, one day the times of Gentile dominion will lift over the land of Palestine, and that amazing Jew scattered amongst the nations will go back to the land in unbelief. They never saw this happen. They said they will go back for the hour of Jacob's trouble, and they will be beset by their inveterate enemies, the Syrians and the Egyptians and the Arab people.
They turned the pages of this book, and in Samuel they spoke about a reviving Europe, a Roman empire that would come back to ten kingdom empire in the west where the Houthi would be produced. They turned to Isidio, and they followed through the valley of dry bones, and they saw, Gargant may God, let us go down to the land of unwalled villages and take spoils. They talked about China's millions coming, two hundred million of them strong, the war of the Euphrates Valley, and the valley are being removed. They talked about the birth of little nations, little trees that would blossom after Israel had been born in unbelief as a nation again.
They talked about an age when it would be like the days of Noah, a day of invention but a day of violence in the world, a day of throwing up populations, a day of distress of nations and perplexity, men's ask pain and for fear. They talked about these things fifty years ago, and the boy listened. And fifty years ago I got a picture of the end of the age happenings when men would run to and fro on the earth and science would be increased. The world would get more and more witty. There would be apostasy in the church at turning away from the truth. There would be nations who would abandon God and evil would increase until at last the judgment of the nation's iniquity would rise to the fullness.
and God would have to step in and deal with them. One by one, these old men have left. School day, day, day turn to college days and college days to business days and business days to missionary days. And I am a twentieth century father. And I've been our boasted centering, moving forward with all this wonderful skills and advancement I've seen the hopes of the amazing Hague Convention with its Palace of Peace smashed. I've seen the League of Nations with all hope to end war and make the world fit for heroes to live in broken society.
I've watched the United Nations with its struggle and war within its own ranks. to try and preserve peace in a world that is warring in every outlook except the hot war at the moment. And at any moment it seems as if the fair the dam will burn. Your ambassador of the United Nations standing before seven thousand people at the University in Kingston, Jamaica, Stevenson, three times in his clever, brilliant The world could destroy itself and come to act in five minutes if we use what we've done.
It means that it's not the big nations that can save the world, it's little nations like you to make us, whose voice is just as straight as ours in United Nations. Behind all his brilliance of talk, one sensed a hopelessly to try and stop the damned birth. And up there on the east bank in New York, they gather all the around in their struggle on praise, good, fine men that we should pray for. For God's poverty and overruling might give them success for a little while. But never from January the first to December the thirty-first do they ever mention the name of Jesus in that year.
He comes from their count. As Jews sit down with heathens, and godless Communists sit down with Christians, as Hindu sit down with God. They dare not let him go. God looks down from heaven and says, Oh, the world's without you. I sent him amongst you, and you put him on a cross, who has twittled on his face and said, We don't want... And on the throne at the right hand of the Your Majesty expects him to tell his enemies, be nay, his mistress. Not the Olivet talk, he said, except those closing days shall be shortened by divine intervention.
No flesh shall be saved. And it's only the return of Christ that can bring solution to our plentiful sentience. And the day is setting with magnificent blood now. And these eyes have watched the pieces moving into shape. Eighteen years ago, Israel was born. Shortly after, you find Syria was free from France. You find that Egypt is free from British military control. You begin to find the little nations being born like little trees and blossoming. of them.
I live in one, little Jamaica. Not two million population, but she's a little nation. As I can see today, Israel facing her hour of trouble, Jacob's trouble in unbelief, and only delivering the Messiah coming and peace standing upon the Mount of Olives, the divine power and stepping into the last day's conflict of the nations will bring salvation to Israel. And her eyes will be open, as she looks upon him, whom she pierced unto himself. And with deep mourning and humiliation and confession, her eyes will be open to say, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was wounded. And I tell you, with startled nations watching, Israel will take the hour of her conversion.
Before that, Jesus promised he would come in the air for his own. the amazing secret behold I show you a mystery the secret of God's outgathering of the church his purpose in this dispensation of grace how he's coming in the air to rapture from the hands of the Holy Spirit the builder of the church that amazing company from every tribe and kindred and son irrespective of race or position share his life and affections, and will share the day of his triumph. Sometimes I know this, and with all my heart I know it, with the stage-setting streets of the tomb, coming of the Son of Man in power and glory, this divine forces back into world politics.
How much nearer must the moment, unknown to anyone, when he will come to receive his own? I honestly believe that she could come tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, I don't know when. But everything says to my heart, when you begin to see these things come to pass, you will know it from here. No one will know the day, no one will know the hour, but those that are watchful will see a world ensnared, thinking only of material things, thinking only of holding their own promise. And in their growing perplexity and distress, all too few eyes will be upward to Christ the solution.
And at any moment the Lord could descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with a prompt God, and the dead in Christ shall be raised first. And the living believers changed, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is the secret. We shall not all sleep. Every Christian will not fall asleep and taste death. That's the truth. There will be a multitude of Christians who will never die at the end of this age of the mansion. Are you ready for it? Christian, are you ready? As a man and woman watching and waiting for a master, standing in your place, occupying and doing business for your Lord, that when faith gives way to sight you will be ready to meet him to hear his well done good and faithful son what manner of men we should be as women if we know christ you're not saved i believe that you'll settle it you're not tiny short this could be your last opportunity i'm not fooling you when i say that you could be saved tonight very
lovingly and very earnestly as this meeting dismisses, I say to anyone who's not right with God, is not sure of their salvation, stay in your seat. Thou, your seat. And while this smirked self that others would glad to come to explain to tell you how you could settle this greatly, God made it so easy for a sinner to be saved that an ignorant man, the little child, commended. The living Christ tonight could step into your life with pardoning power to give you that new creation work, that newness of life in the family of God. And I say to you earnestly, don't leave this auditorium. If you're not sure of your salvation, just stay seated, bow your head.
Let others go out into the foyer to wait for you for a few minutes. Very gladly, I would come to your side. Is it worth it? Any devoted Christian would love to help. God's spoken to you this week, and if you feel that there are depths in the river of God, there is higher ground to which you could go. There's no need for emotionalism. Quietly faith can enter into this. Your possessions, you can move forward in your spiritual life. Don't, don't put it off, for drifting will get you nowhere. Inquirely, be earnest to see it through, whatever the...
You're a backslider. Come back to his arms of love. He's waiting just where you let him fall. And the word come rings out as it always rings out. Come, come. The Spirit and the bride say come. In other words, the bride, those captured by the affections of Christ, share with the Spirit in the great invitation. And God uses a mere man or a woman whose heart is captured to speak that lovely word of you, that we stretch out our arms and say, Come. Watch me.
What is the night? The morning coming. And also the night. And he would inquire, inquire with the girl. All is out here. Lord Jesus, it could be that someone would like to look into thy face and tell thee that they are coming to thee tonight just as they are. They would like to come as a sinner to thank the Savior for taking their place upon the cross.
dying to meet their desperate needs, bearing their sin and condemnation. Maybe someone would like to open their heart and life to thee as never before. And as thy blood-bought children look into thy face and join in the closing prayer of thanks, and once again make their confession of faith. The voices are heard all around the auditorium speaking these words to thee. Could thou lead someone to use these words from a true heart with deep meaning? It may have made the difference. Oh, Lord, by thy spirit and through thy word, tell thou each one to forget everyone else except thee.
Looking into thy face off thou heart, can I thank him for all he has done? Can I tell him that this life belongs to him tonight, as never before? And who ask all who mean it, say it after me aloud to the Lord. I want every Christian who means it to say it, and those who are seeking the Lord, if there's one here, I want you to mean it. Of course, if you don't know or want Christ, you've no use for him, you must be respectfully silent, but I hope That heart of yours is responsive, and you would like to thank him and tell him that from tonight, in a new way, you belong to him.
The Christians will look back to a happy day, to some day when they spoke these words before, but they love to repeat it, and as the voices all around you voiced this closing prayer, would you join with us? And I thought you would begin. Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for loving my soul, for coming down to see me, for dying on Calvary, shedding thy blood, bearing my punishment, to win my salvation.
Lord Jesus, my heart is open. Cleanse and possess. Make me all thine own. Thank you, Lord Jesus, my Savior. Empower me to live for thee. For thy name be. Loving Lord, keep us hushed for a moment in thy presence. And as we grip each other's hands and move out into the night at the end of another happy Lord's day, we do pray that should there be one who would like to linger in their seats for quiet prayer, one who would like counsel, but they may be given the courage and the earnestness of heart just to stay seated in the auditorium.
Now we would love to be a counselor and helper to them. Oh, what a tremendous happening it could be if they went from this place tonight, knowing him as Savior and Lord, whom to know his life eternal, to be a true watchman and witness for him day by day until he comes again. By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, our Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, abide with us all. Until the day dawn of the shadows free away, we see the Master is coming, day to face, for his dear name's name.
Amen. Now, dear friends, I'll be at the door shaking hands for a moment or two, and then I shall come back into the auditorium, and if anyone feels they want to talk, that as well as to myself, the other two, at your service, maybe you'd like to turn to a dear friend who brought you. Maybe there's someone by your very side who could counsel you if God is speaking, and you feel you want to do business with your Lord tonight. Don't go. Don't hurry away. Just stay. God bless you.