FOT SERMON VIDEO 2001
Announcer
Welcome to the Feast of Tabernacles
2001. These Feast days picture a wonderful time of restoration and hope for
this ailing world. We continue to pray, "Thy kingdom come".
The General Conference of Elders met in Cincinnati, Ohio in May of this year
to take care of annual Church business. The theme for the three day event; the
urgency of the times. Elders and their wives from around the globe participated
in the most profitable conference. Many key presentations were delivered on
the subject of urgency. And three of them directly apply to the work of the
Church today and the reason we are all looking forward to the kingdom of God
being established on earth.
Leslie McCullough, a member of the
Council of Elders and Church President, Richard Thompson, also a member of the
Council of Elders and a local congregation pastor, and Bill Bradford, also a
local pastor, brought forth material that is imperative for us to understand.
The very words of Jesus Christ, the future King of this world, dictate to us
the work we are to be involved in and the preparations each of us must now be
making to prepare for the wonderful world tomorrow.
In the presentation today, we will be looking at three vital areas of concern
about which we must be most urgent. They are, number one, preach the gospel
of the kingdom of God. Number two, warn the House of Israel and other nations
of their future. And number three, prepare the bride of Christ. (Listed on screen)
First of all, Mr. Richard Thompson
introduces the topic of a sense of urgency by asking the questions has Christ
delayed His coming? Are we nearer the time of the end than ever before? And,
how do we capture that same sense of urgency that the early apostles had? Why
did they continue to do what they did, when Christ did not yet return?
Richard Thompson
When we began to look at our beginnings,
our origins, I'd like to go back to Acts the first chapter and read again what
it was that Jesus Christ had the apostles when they were there to watch Him,
and that the commission that He gave them in Acts 6:6-8
Acts 1:6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Now they thought that during their
day and during their own lifetime, that Jesus Christ was going to restore the
kingdom to Israel. They had their own perceptions of when it was that these
things were going to happen. They had their own perceptions of what it was that
was going to take place.
Reading on here; Acts 1:7-8 And He said to them, "It is not for
you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
[8] But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the end of the earth."
At the time that we began to look at what we were going to do as far as the
United Church of God is concerned, we really didn't know how far it was that
we were going to be able to reach out, and where it was that there would be
those that would be of the same mind, the same belief, the same conviction,
the same commitment as we. You and I have entered into the labors of those that
go back a long way. We can trace our heritage, genuinely so, all the way back
to a line of righteousness that reaches back to Able. We know that there has
been the truth of God on earth, that God has not left His people, that God has
not left this planet with that at least some time, some one, through whom He
was preserving what He considered precious. And He chose individuals through
whom this precious truth was going to be committed. And it was then their responsibility
to make sure that that precious truth was going to be committed not only to
themselves, but also to others.
And you know what? There are certain
specific things that have remained constant regardless of the time in which
God's truth has been given and committed to people. There was a time of Noah,
where a 120 year time period passed before finally the floods did come. In Abraham
and Lot's day, Sodom and Gomorrah, there was a time period when Abraham and
Lot had to do whatever communication it was, and a warning was given, and there
was suddenness at that particular event. Moses in Egypt; God gave them a certain
responsibility. They had a commitment that they had to follow God and they left
at the appropriate time. And they did that which God expected them to do, at
least for a time when they left Egypt. Then you look at the times of the prophets
of Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah in particular. And then later on Jeremiah,
Daniel, and Ezekiel.
In all of these various cases there were common difficulties in all of them.
The first was that God's help was needed. His intervention in their lives was
necessary for survival. Secondly, they had a very real enemy who threatened
their existence. And thirdly, God's way of life was essential for their ultimate
survival.
We are tied in to a heritage of individuals who have protected the truth and
who have been faithful to God. We are not a group of people who simply have
emerged at the end of the earth and we are doing something separate and not
tied in with and not associated with anything that is preceded.
I hope that we appreciate our heritage.
I appreciate the fact that what God has drawn us into is something that He has
been doing for thousands of years. I appreciate the fact that that we are not
individuals who are isolated out here; we are doing our own thing. No, we are
tied into what it is that God has done for a long period of time. And you read
the events that precede the return of Christ, the religious heresy's, the false
prophets, the threats of war, famine and pestilence; those four which have begun
and and are continuing in our day today.
We have to ask ourselves this; knowing
that these conditions are much worse then they were in the early part of the
twentieth century, what are we supposed to do about it and what will we do about
it? What have we been doing that can be improved? What have we not been doing
that needs to begin? I would like to ask us all these questions? How urgent
is God? How urgent is Jesus Christ? And then, do we have the same sense of urgency
as they? They have waited, as far as time is concerned, a lot longer than you
and I. The apostles thought that Christ would come in their lifetime. In Acts
2:16-21, when Peter was talking there and he says;
Acts 2:16-21 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
[17] 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams. [18]
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy. [19]
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. [20] And he goes on to say,
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great
and awesome day of the Lord.
Now in their own mind they really
did continue to believe that Jesus Christ was going to come in their lifetime.
Let me ask you something? Why is it that they continued to do what they did,
when Jesus Christ did not return? When we begin to think about, and the attitude
that we have to always fight, and that is, that the Lord delays His coming.
And if we are not careful, we can get caught up in that same kind of an attitude.
So how do you handle the fact that these individuals, what was it that drove
them? Because the same quality they had ought to be the same quality we have.
Being urgent is as much about eternal character as it is time. As a matter of
fact, when you really begin to look at it, time really is of no consequence
with what you and I are dealing. You and I are not dealing with a certain "thing"
that is going to happen all by itself. We are dealing with what is necessary
that is for eternity. The eternal character that God was building in the early
apostles is the same eternal character He is building in us. This is more important
to God as far is what is essential and what motivates, what drives us in everything
we do?
It is very, very difficult to separate
the preaching of the gospel and the caring of the Church. They are both their
hand and glove. The gospel of the Kingdom of God does both. It gives an individual
a reason and a hope to want to continue despite when Jesus Christ returns.
And I will ask this question as
well, does then, the time of Jesus Christ's return have anything to do with
the work that you and I are doing? In other words, is there a sense of urgency
that ought to be greater at the time preceding the return of Jesus Christ?
When Christ returns is obviously
very important. But when is not the only issue. What it is that is going to
ensure that there is faith on the earth, is character that has been built that
will be eternal character. Time and eternity don't have anything to do with
each other. Time, you can't measure eternity. Eternity simply is. It always
has been. Time is a measure of certain orbs in the sky that God has placed there.
And so when it really gets down to it, what you and I have been given is not
based on when the sun, moon, and stars are going to happen in a certain way.
What we have been given is going to last forever even if the stars, the moon,
the sun etc. don't exist anymore, because God has given us that quality of character.
This is what sustains us. Some people, when Christ does not return in their
lifetime, give up. They do not value the eternal life they have been given.
There are some things that are so important and so essential and are so absolutely
germane to everything that we are as a Church, and everything that we are as
an individual. You know, when you have something that is eternal, that has been
a gift to you, you don't want to keep it to yourself. You want to give it to
somebody else despite when it is that Christ returns.
Let's read a couple of things here
though, in reference to the fact that what do we do as a Church, and what should
our state of mind and what should our message be, when we do know that the time
is closing in.
2 Tim. 3:1-2 But know
this, that in the last days perilous times will come: [2] For men will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy,
And then it goes through with a whole list of other things that describe our
world today.
2 Tim. 3:14 But you must
continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of,
And then he goes on in chapter 4 and really stirs Timothy with these statements;
2 Tim. 4:1-5 I
charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the
living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: [2] Preach the word! Be
ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering
and teaching. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will
heap up for themselves teachers; [4] and they will turn their ears away from
the truth, and be turned aside to fables. [5] But you be watchful in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
So when we begin to think about
what it is that Paul told Timothy to do, it was this; he said I charge you before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, preach the word, be in season and out of season.
Do the job of the ministry despite what it is that time might do. It might stretch
out. We all know it has been 2000 years since these men lived and since they
died. And yet the work that they did is a model for what you and I ought to
do. And that is, we depend on the same Eternal God. We look to Him for His strength.
We look to Him for his guidance. And what we do is because of who and what we
are becoming. Those who eternally love God's truth and are going to give it
out regardless of when Jesus Christ returns.
Let's take a look at three things
that we ought to be most urgent about. There are three major areas about which
we need to be very urgent. And within this, it is the character of God, it is
the will of God, and it is the support of God, that is going to see us successfully
through each of these. (Listed on screen)
Announcer
Now let's look more closely at the
first item of which we must be most urgent. Preach the gospel of the Kingdom
of God. Mr. Thompson begins discussion on this very important point, followed
by Leslie McCullough, the President of the United Church of God.
Richard Thompson
We look at our world which is dying
around us. The kingdoms of this world are doomed to failure. Mr. Herbert Armstrong
realized as a result of God's inspiration, that the kingdoms of man had no total
complete eternal answers to mankind's solutions and problems. Man just can't
come up with the solutions to what he has caused as problems. Now what he did
understand and what he passed on to us and what we ought to pass on others is
that the kingdom of God is the answer to all peoples hopes and dreams. They
might not know it. They might not accept it, but it a matter that this gospel,
the gospel of the kingdom of God, does give the answers and hope.
You know, I think that in some cases, maybe the only thing that we can give
to some people now, is hope. It's hope that this will not end in total destruction
of our planet. The hope that there is a promise of something better that is
coming.
I would like to read to you this afternoon the Council's statement on public
proclamation. This was given about a year or so ago.
(On Screen) "Jesus Christ commissioned
the Church to make disciples of all nations and to preach the gospel of the
kingdom of God as a witness. Matthew 28:19 and 24:14. In serving as witnesses
the apostles were commanded to preach the good news of the promise of eternal
life in the kingdom of God. Luke 24:47, 48. The Greek word, kerusso., means
to preach as a herald. It connotes formality, gravity, and an authority which
must be listened to and obeyed as Jesus came preaching, 'The time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent you and believe.'" That is from
Mark 1:14, 15.
"The messages of Jesus Christ
and the apostles were highly focused and challenging. Moreover, their messages
contained a warning to the listeners that their refusal to repent would result
in punishment. Col. 1:27, 28. Furthermore, the Old Testament prophets admonished
God's servants to stand in the gap and serve as watchmen. Ezek. 22:20, 33:1-10."
"In view of all the Biblical examples, the Council of Elders of the United
Church of God believe that it has the responsibility of making disciples of
all nations and feeding the flock while proclaiming a warning that the kingdom
of God is at hand. Therefore the Council of Elders is determined to fulfill
these responsibilities in carrying out the mission of the Church. This determination
will be reflected in the Church's public proclamation of the gospel. Thus the
Council intends to provide the policies and oversight toward this end."
I believe that you and I stand at one of the greatest moments in the history
of humanity. And that is when God decides that He is going to cross the threshold
and enter and cause eternity to enter into earth's rulership. I do not want
to fail in any way, either to not be there, or not tell people what is going
to happen prior to that time.
Leslie McCullough
So the message we have is one of
repentance. One of being forgiven sin. One of being able to have eternal life
available. That message is to be given whether or not anybody responds. That
is not copout. Because God is the one that gives the increase. He is the one
that opens the minds. He is the one that goes ahead and brings them along. Every
man, woman, and child, in their time, is required to repent. You talk about
a challenge.
In 1986 when Mr. Armstrong died,
there was something over three billion people on earth. Today that is in excess
of six billion people on earth. The job is twice as big as it was when Mr. Armstrong
was preaching. When you look at that and take it as a directive, again, it is
desperately audacious. But there are six billion people that we are supposed
to be trying to get the word of God to. So the tiny handful of dedicated men
and women who are serving God in this age, have an immense opportunity. And
an immense responsibility. The same is God behind us as He was behind those
disciples back 2,000 years ago. The only thing with the passing of time, I am
sure He must be much more urgent about the matter now, because Jesus Christ
is returning. And prior to His return this world is going to be such a mess
that nobody can even remotely begin to dream of what is going to be happening.
1 Cor. 9:6 For if I preach
the gospel I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe
is me if I do not preach the gospel.
A necessity has been laid upon us to be preaching the message that He had to
be helping people, to be guiding people, to be leading people, to be providing
people, to be serving people, all of that. But in one sense, to me, it is so
much bigger than that, because it is about six billion people out there that
need to change.
But still, when you look at society
today, just think about society today, being 2.000 years closer to the return
of Jesus Christ, how much more urgent should our message be than the message
was that those twelve apostles went out and began to teach. Now they didn't
know they had 2,000 years, but nonetheless 2,000 years has gone by and mankind
has degenerated and sunk that much lower during the course of time. And we still
have the same commission to preach the gospel to all the world as a witness.
And man's choice is to repent or die. And that is the message that we have.
How much more should we being 2,000 years closer to the return of Jesus Christ,
be feeling urgent about preaching repentance?
I heard this when Marion and I lived in Britain. But I just saw it again recently,
in I had forgotten what paper, (On screen) "The Archbishop of Canterbury
declared that Britain has become an atheistic society in which people look to
medicine to provide them with eternal life, rather than religion. A tacit atheism
prevails. Death is assumed to be the end of life, bleak though that thought
is."
And accepted by the British populace.
And I have another one here that
just staggers me. Dr. Calem McKeller (sp?) lecturer in bioethicis and biochemistry
in Edinburgh made this comment (On screen) "Male homosexual couples could
conceive children without a mother, using the genetic techniques pioneered by
Dolly the sheep, and by using their own DNA."
Can you stretch your mind that far
to grasp the incredible wretchedness of that. Oh sure they would have to have
a surrogate mother to carry the fetus. But that two guys can get together and
go down and pass on their DNA, and it is conceivable.
Back then in the tower of Babel, God said now nothing will be restrained from
them. Well we are certainly in that age here today. They no doubt, given a little
time, will clone human beings, or whatever you would call them, providing God
doesn't stop it. I just read the other day that they are discussing the possibility,
listen to this, of cloning Jesus Christ. Taking DNA samples from the Shroud
of Turin. Well I don't know what they would get, but it wouldn't be Jesus Christ.
With these things in mind, how urgently should we be reaching out to those that
will listen? How desperately should we be about preparing a people? What else
does God want us to do? Well, look at that logo on the front of the lectern.
Preach the gospel and prepare a people. Those are wonderful things to think
about. Much has been accomplished, by comparison to what we have had. Much more
needs to be accomplished because we do all want to receive that, "well
done and thou good and faithful servant". If we looked at what God did
with the early disciples and where the Church of God has come to at this point,
we can see that there has been a great number of things that have occurred during
the course of the centuries that have gone by. So we keep out minds on the past;
our connection to the past. Because our connection goes back to the very time
of Jesus Christ beginning to preach, "repent for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand". And if we have that firmly in mind, it motivates us more for
the future.
We have come from being a carnal
minded, rebellious, stiff necked, hard headed, unresponsive, group of people,
to having been given the opportunity to repent, having been given God's Holy
Spirit, and even more than that, having been called to serve Him in serving
other people. That is very hard to imagine sometimes when you stop and think
about it. Here I am, and you can put your own name in that place, here I am
and God has called me and He, of all things, has washed me clean. He has made
me white. He has given me opportunity for His Holy Spirit, and the opportunity
to, if I conduct myself properly and live as I should, to live forever in glory
I can't even begin to imagine. Me. How did that happen? Well, for whatever reason
He looked down and saw the lack of light in your eyes or whatever, and decided
you need to have a little light in your eyes, and then said okay now I would
like for you to help the rest of the people on earth, in as much as you are
given the opportunity, to understand what has been done from you, where they've
come from, that they all can come from a carnal minded attitude to being the
begotten sons of God, future kings and priests. No greater thing than to serve
in that way.
Isaiah 29:14
Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden."
I am saying to you, that God intends
to do a marvelous work.
Announcer
Continuing on now with the second
item about which we must be most urgent; warn the House of Israel and other
nations of their future. This world is heading on a path of destruction that
can only be stopped by Jesus Christ Himself. And a warning must be sounded.
Richard Thompson
Now after that we have preached
the gospel of the kingdom of God, this proclamation also does say that there
should be a warning that the kingdom of God is at hand. Let's face it, we would
be foolish to see what is happening on the world scene and not tell people if
you are not careful you are going to be caught in a trap and you will not be
able to escape. The time is going to come when there, as we have already heard,
there is going to be a famine of the word. There is also, prior to that time,
ample opportunity for you and for me to do our job. And secondly, after preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, to warn the House of Israel and the other
nations of their future. What is happening and will happen to the world around
us?
Charles Krauthammer wrote that, (On screen) "We are also defining deviancy
up, at the same time that we defining deviancy down. As part of the vast social
project of moral leveling," Krauthammer wrote, "it is not enough for
the deviant to be normalized, the normal must be found to be deviant."
Now what is normal is what God defines
and normal. We have in our society of today a culture that thinks anyone who
would stand against certain reprehensible personal conduct is a right wing religious
radical. But what we have seen in our day and age is something that we should
have expected. This has been going on for a number of years. If a person would
have gone to sleep in 1960 and would awaken into today's culture, this is what
the person would see; (On screen) from 1960 to the year 2000; a doubled divorce
rate. A tripled teen suicide rate. A quadrupled rate of reported violent crime,
quintupled prison population, sextuple, the guy writes no pun intended, sextuple
of babies born to unmarried parents, a seven fold increase in cohabitation,
a soaring rate of depression to ten times the pre World War II level by one
estimate. If a person would have gone to sleep and awaken about 35 to 40 years
later, this is what they would have seen. But you know what?
If you've lived during that time, if you are not careful, it is just the way things are. And our society is that way. They really do not understand how bad things are from God's point of view. To move in on a person's view of what is right and wrong is so subtle, and it becomes so acceptable that now you can have all kinds of things on television, and brothers, if you say one single word against any kind of a thing on any kind of these programs, why you must be one of those right wing radical people who don't have sense that God gave little chickens. What kind of a mind are you? Don't you know that these are the times in which freedom is here and all of these things? What we have done is what Bork and Krauthammer have defined. We have defined deviancy up, we have defined it down, and now the things that are wrong and you had better accept as right. And whatever it is that God says is wrong you are out in left field. You are someone who is a non-person. We don't want to have anything to do with you. You are a scary individual.
I don't know what it is going to
take to get through to some people's mind. I honestly fear that some people
will not understand how bad things are until they are caught in a trap. And
I tell you what, I want to do the best that I can. And I know you folks do to.
You would like to do the best that you can, to at least get some truth out there
so that people do not fall for the culture that you and I see around us all
the time.
In Jeremiah 30, a chapter that ;you and I are very familiar with as a time of Jacob's trouble.
Jeremiah 30:4-9 Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. [5] "For thus says the Lord:
'We have heard a voice of trembling,
Of fear, and not of peace. [6]
Ask now, and see,
Whether a man is ever in labor with child?
So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
Like a woman in labor,
And all faces turned pale? [7]
Alas! For that day is great,
So that none is like it;
And it is the time of Jacob's trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it.
[8] (he skipped)
. [9] But they shall serve the Lord their God,
And David their king, Whom I will raise up for them.
In other words this is a time setting
that has not yet happened. And there is a message that needs to get out to individuals
to make absolutely sure that people understand there is a standard, and that
standard is God's standard. Now in addition to that there are various other
kinds of problems that our current world faces. For example, we have had two
very good articles in the latest Good News Magazine. Some of them, some of you
are reviews, you have read them before, and they are very good articles on the
rising superpower and also an article regarding religion that is happening.
You know, here not long ago, in the Daily Mail, this is Saturday, October the
7th, 2000. I thank Mr. Jewel for this cutting.
(On screen) "Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday unveiled his vision of
Europe as the next superpower."
For a long period of time we have
understood, as a result of knowing what prophecy says, that there is going to
come a superpower that is going to conflict with the United States. And that
superpower is going to arise from central Europe. It is going to be a gather
of ten nations in some configuration or another. Prime Minister Blare went on
to say in his speech in Warsaw, "Whatever
its origin, Europe today is no long just about peace. It is about projecting
collective power. Europe as a Europe are free, independent sovereign nations
who chose to pool that sovereignty in pursuit of their own interest and the
common good, achieving more together than we can achieve alone."
But hey folks. We do understand
these things. And we need to be about telling people this is what this event
and these events are in relationship with Bible prophecy. There are events that
Jesus Christ said would happen before His coming. We understand what those events
are and we ought to be the forecasters that can help people to understand what
it is that is happening, and put them in relative terms, as far as what is going
to happen to our world.
From the New York Times Service, Roger Cohen writes in February of this year;
(On screen) "The fifteen-member European Union, long a mere trade block,
has begun to develop into a grouping with its own serious military and strategic
ambitions. Where exactly such ambitions are directed remains uncertain but this
much is clear; the scope of Europe's quest for an altered balance of power in
a post Cold-War ties with Washington, is not yet fully appreciated by the administration
of President George W Bush." He goes on to say, "Already the European
Union has set up a military planning staff, established a so-called 'political
and security committee'; and is readying a 60,000-member ready for a rapid reaction
force." Many of you have read about that. "At the same time, most
of the Union is less than a year away from the fast forward to a European identity
likely to occur when the Euro become the currency on the streets of Barcelona,
Brussels, and Berlin next year. The Euro was always a political project. "Its
politics involved foraging a united Europe as a counter weight to American dominance."
They are going to challenge the
United States in many different ways before it is all over.
Once again, these are signs, these
are indicators, these are things that hopefully you and I never take for granted
to the point where we don't think they are important enough for somebody else
to be able to relate with and understand.
One of the more cryptic comments, and sort of a scary comment I guess, and this
is where this missile defense plan President Bush is coming from. "Throughout
history" says, physicist John Pyke, an international weapons expert, "aggressors
seek the high ground in conflicts. And so it is inevitable that the world's
only superpower covet the ultimate ground---Whoever controls space has control
of the earth. The United States is unable to resist it. If the U.S. is in a
position to control earth from outer space, there is nothing to stop us. Of
course we are going to do it."
This now is beginning to cause problems
and difficulties between the United States and the relationship with NATO. There
already has been in the in the World News and Prophecy booklet, there already
has been information written by Paul Kieffer on that NATO Alliance and how it
is in the process of being cracked. That ought to mean something to us. And
it does mean something to us. It is not something that we ought to keep secret.
It is something that we ought to share.
And also, just this past week, the
Pope who has traveled more than any other Pope in history, is now trying to
mend the continuing fences between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman
Catholic Church. These are ongoing efforts that he is making in order to be
the Christian leader of the world. He has made the statement in times past,
a quote that came originally from Charles DeGaule, that he envisioned "A
Europe stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals."
And so there is this thought that
there is a religion and there is a religious leader, and that there are those
who are interested in trying to help to combine to make not only a political,
economic, and military power, but also a very powerful religious power. One
that is going to be able to, with one voice, unite all the Christians of the
world. And maybe even unite other non Christian groups, because non Christians
have even gone and prayed, as I heard this morning from Mr. Anastasia, that
they pray together in Assisi. And so you begin to hear of these kinds of things
and you don't become just wild eyed fanatic, but at the same time, because you
have the mind of God, you know that these things are not happening in ordinary
times. There simply are too many ways for a human being to destroy life off
our planet. They can do it either by a nuclear weapon, or they can do it by
putting some kind of a biological or a chemical warfare weapon on the top of
a missile, launching it six or eight thousand miles, dropping it on a city within
a matter of fifteen to twenty minutes. Barely a warning. So, our world is not
living in ordinary times. We have a commission to give a warning message and
let people know these are extraordinary times. These are the times that are
likely, if God does not intervene, to bring about the desolation of the earth
and the destruction of all life off our planet.
Announcer
Now let's look more closely at the
final item of which we must be most urgent. Prepare the bride of Christ. Mr.
Bill Bradford covers this essential area, followed by Mr. Thompson. Each of
us has a personal responsibility before our Father in heaven regarding this
foundational point. The bride will have made herself ready.
Mr. Bradford
To share in the responsibility of
preparing the bride of Christ is as much a part of the work as anything else
that we might do. In fact, it is a part of our statement as to who we are and
what we do. So what is the bride to become? How will she become what she is
supposed to be?
In Romans 8:18 we have some very forward looking statements about the bride
of Christ, what she is to be, and the vision that not only the apostles had,
but the vision that Christ Himself had of His own bride, the Church.
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the
manifestation of the sons of God because the creation itself shall also be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of
God.
The entire creation is in a period,
or a time of decay. And the children of God are going to experience, and to
some extent are now experiencing freedom from that decay, human nature. The
physical is not of itself regenerative forever. We are going to be put in a
state where we are freed from that bondage of decay. And the entire plan of
God, the entire creation waits for this one time, for this one moment. It groans,
and it labors in pain for this to occur.
Waiting, waiting intently, for one thing. Not the emergence of the beast. Not
for the tribulation upon Jacob. Not for some great natural calamity to happen
before the end is going to come and the next stage of God's plan is going to
come about. But for the one event of the appearance of the most beautiful part
of God's creative efforts to appear, the bride of Christ. And this above all
determines when the end of this age will be.
He says, let us be glad and rejoice. He records this as it were, a voice
that comes out from the throne. Rev. 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice
and give Him glory for the marriage of the lamb is come and His wife has made
herself ready.
And of course implicit in that statement is the fact that she has a part in
this to play herself. But here we have God declaring His people, the Church,
the firstfruits to the world. They will be the leaders. They will be the ones
who have gone before the rest. Just as Christ, who is the captain of our salvation,
was the one who Himself has gone before. And He has showed us the way. Christ
will use His beautiful bride to revolutionize the world. And the world is waiting
for this, though they are not aware of it at this time. The beautiful bride
of Christ, the new Jerusalem, is the one that Christ will trust to carry out
His will forever in the universe. This is the vision that He had of His Church,
of His body, when ever He made the statement, He said, I will build My Church.
He knew exactly where He was going. He knew exactly where she would be. He describes
His bride, the New Jerusalem, in glorious detail right at the end of the book
in Revelation 21, beginning in verse 2.
Rev. 21:2 Then I, John,
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev. 21:9-10 …"Come,
I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." [10] And he carried me away
in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the
holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
And we have a full description of
this in Revelation 21, right at the very end of the book. And so right at the
very end we know exactly where Christ is going with this. And she is beautiful
when she is presented. Everyone hear has a spiritual direction. And we all have
to know what that direction is, and that spiritual direction is real. It is
just as real, if not more real, than any direction you might take to achieve
some tangible task. So when we speak of preaching the gospel to the world, which
we have already done, we may think of this in terms of something tangible, something
measurable.
Now since we have a part in this,
we have to ask the question do we have a clear picture of what this means? Is
it measurable? Where are we now spiritually? Do we have in our minds focused
a very, very clear spiritual direction? We can have goals or objectives in many
other matters.
Let's understand something, this is a spiritual matter and a spiritual direction
is real. And it is tangible. And it provides a path or a direction for us, if
that is adequately defined. In fact, I would suggest that everything else that
we might do depends on our spiritual condition. Our spiritual state will in
fact determine whether anything else will get done.
Do you get the impression that the Father knows exactly what He wants in the
bride of Christ? And do you get the impression how important it is that He actually
achieves this for reasons of course they have gone before because He knows what
He wants to establish in laying the foundation for His kingdom forever and ever.
It has to be laid. It has to be done right. He Himself personally is in that
foundation as the chief cornerstone. I somehow don't get the impression that
the Father is going to compromise with what He intends to present to Christ.
Christ will only recognize Christ in the Kingdom of God.
I have often wondered, perhaps you have too, what would you say if you were
asked to fill out a resume or an application to enter the kingdom of God? What
would you put down? If we would talk about the positions that we held in the
Church, if we said here are all the things I did, implying here, Lord, this
shows You that I really can do Your business. You can do the business of God
if you know Him. And you can hold Him up to others. Therefore it is not just
what we do. Here it is, is what we must become. You and I speak of the message.
And so many people don't know the message. But if you don't understand the messenger,
and the messenger doesn't know you, then you don't really know the message.
The image of Christ must be clear, never muddied because there is a conflict
in what we say or in what we are.
Now is a time to reevaluate where we are and ask what must we do to stand in
the times ahead? What must we be to fulfill Christ's purpose for us? Are we
where we should be that we may accomplish Christ's purpose as the end of the
age draws near?
Our organization is not of itself a spiritual body of Christ. Our organization
was established to serve the spiritual body of Christ. It was not established
for the spiritual body of Christ to serve it. Now, any organization of humans
will only be blest if it has as its foremost purpose to construct the house
of God. The extent that we relentlessly pursue that end, will be the extent
that we have Christ Himself dwelling in the house. If it does not have this
as its foremost object, then it will eventually fall. The house that lasted
for centuries is the house that Christ built, the spiritual body of Christ,
and for any organization to have this as its key focus is to survive and continue
to serve the ends of the body of Christ. The body of Christ will always exist.
Organizations that you and I might call churches, come and go.
Eph. 2:19 is explained in complete clarity. Ephes. 2:19-22 Now, therefore,
you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, [20] having been built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone,
[21] in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple
in the Lord, [22] in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place
of God in the Spirit.
We must as an organization function without compromise according to the principles
of the fullness of Christ. If in His body we wish to remain and prosper and
serve that body, what we call for then is a single minded dedication to establish
the fullness of Christ in every member, and the fullness of Christ in His body.
Our calling has this as its supreme objective. Paul was telling the Galatians
in Gal. 4:17, and 19.
Galatians 4:17-19 They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they
want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. [19] My little children,
for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,
Paul labored for this. Not so that they would serve him, much less those who
would come after presuming to have a position within the body. If Paul were
among us today, perhaps he would say I know who I am employed by, but I never
forget who I work for.
Richard Thompson
Hey folks, when you get down to
it, preparing the bride of Christ is to assure that people never drop from God's
hands. One of my favorite scriptures is Joshua 1:5. In Joshua 1:5 God
tells Joshua, He says look Joshua, take and walk and just let your feet go.
Just start walking and I will be with you. I will give you the land under your
feet. And He goes on and it says I will not forsake you and I won't leave
you. And the word there in Hebrew, one of them, has the indication that
I will not drop you. I am not going to let go of you. When I think of the gospel,
I think of two things. Reaching the masses, but changing the life of one person.
Your life was changed, our lives were changed one at a time. We have our jobs
cut out for us. We gave a job to prepare the bride of Christ.
A few things that I would like to leave you with this afternoon. 2 Tim 4:
1-8. I will only read the first portion, that which we have read already.
Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season.
It makes no difference where the bride of Christ is. It can be in Italy. It
can be in Philippines. It can be in the heart of Africa. It can be in the United
States, or Australia, or Canada. Where ever it is there is a culture that is
destroying the people of God. And Central America you have your own tasks and
difficulties. You know the pressures of your area and you know what it is that
what God's people are being affected by and what they are being trapped into
believing, and how they are being drawn into a way of thinking that is so personally
destructive and absolutely destroys all sense of community. In the United States
one of the worst things that we have to deal with is family destruction and
what it is that will keep families together, that will keep parents together,
that in some way we could preserve that. Our life is only brief. We really do
not know how long it is that our life will be able to be used by God before
Christ returns.
You know the way we ought to think is this, simply speaking; we have been given
an eternal life and an eternal life is going to be dedicated to God. It doesn't
have anything to do with time. This is forever. This is the way I want to be.
I really do want to be like Jesus Christ. He is the only person I want to be
like And we need to help God's people to be inspired that He is worth emulating.
He is worth imitating. He is worth being like in what He thinks, how He thinks,
what He did, and what He would do now.
Notice the warning here that precedes watch you always. Luke 21:34 He
says, take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overtaken with
surpeting, drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you
unaware.
It is a lack of character that causes
people to have this day come upon them unawares. Because I can tell you, you
can tell anybody that you want to that all these events in Europe, all the religious
things that are happening here, you can tell them they are tying in and it is
going to lead up to the return of Jesus Christ, but folks, if they don't want
to have the character of God, they are just not going to be able spiritually
discern the times in which they live. There were those in Jesus' day who did
not discern the times when Jesus was there. There will be those in our day who
will not be able to discern the times in which they live. But I tell you what,
I want to give it our best shot. What we have is the pearl of great price. It
is worth having. It is worth keeping. But the only way that you can keep it
is to give it away.
Bill Bradford
Christ will never deviate from His
purpose to prepare the bride. We must do all we can to cooperate with Christ
to accomplish His purpose. Some time ago a few ladies met to study the scriptures.
And while reading Malachi 3 they came upon a remarkable statement in Malachi
3:3 where it says He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. One lady
decided to visit a silversmith and report to the others on what he said about
the subject. She went accordingly, and without telling the silversmith the reason
for her visit, begged him to tell her about the process of refining silver.
After he had fully described it to her, she asked, "Sir do you watch while the work of refining is going on?"
"Oh, yes ma'am", replied
the silversmith. "I must sit and watch the furnace constantly. For if the
time necessary for refining is exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver
will be injured."
The lady at once saw the beauty and comfort of the statement. He shall sit as
a refiner and purifier of silver
God sees it as necessary to put His children to the furnace, but His eye is
steadily intent on the work of purifying. And the wisdom and love are both engaged
in the
best manner for us. Our trials do not come at random. He will not let us be
tested beyond what we are able to endure.
Before she left, the lady asked one final question. "How do you know when
the process is finished?"
"Oh that is quite simple",
replied the silversmith, "When I see my own image in the silver, the refining
process is complete."
Richard Thompson
We are small. We are not great.
We are not mighty. But we have the same One who fed 5,000 people and had twelve
baskets left over and He started with hardly a handful. We have the truth of
God. It is a kernel. It is a seed. But it is going to be planted and it is going
to bear fruit. Well I will tell you what guys and ladies, I am glad we started
in Indianapolis. I am glad we are here today. And I will be honest with you,
I want to go out of here and knock the socks off this world's way and let them
know there is a better world coming. I want to be a part of that. Thank God
we are.