In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the prophecy of the millennial kingdom as described in the book of Isaiah. The speaker explains that this prophecy refers to a future time when Jesus Christ will rule on earth and all nations will come to worship Him. The sermon also discusses the contributing factors to the pride and arrogance of mankind in the last days, including technological advancements, prosperity, and entertainment. The speaker emphasizes the need for humility and the exaltation of the Lord in the face of man's pride.

The following message is provided by Eternal Weight of Glory. For other sermons, teachings, and articles, please visit EternalWeight.com. Okay, praise the Lord. We're going to take a look at Isaiah chapter 2 this morning. Isaiah 2 is part of a prophecy that actually encompasses chapters 2, 3, and 4. All of that was one prophecy that Isaiah gave. And if I was right about what I said last week, that Isaiah 1 was actually given much later, then this would be the first vision, the first prophecy that Isaiah gave. And it's a whopper, if I could put it that way. But let me just go over the whole prophecy real quickly, just kind of give you a sense of it. But we're only going to be looking at chapter 2 today. The first section is the first four verses of chapter 2, which is referring to the glory of the millennial kingdom, or you could say the Messiah's kingdom on earth. And so it's jumping ahead. It actually starts out at the end, and then in verse 5, it changes. And verse 5 through the rest of the chapter begins what is called a double reference. That's very, very typical in the prophetical books, is the law of double reference, which means that the prophet is giving a word, and primarily in his mind's eye it has to do with Israel or Judah. And so he is seeing something happening. He's seeing judgment coming upon his nation. But God, of course, is seeing the whole entire history of mankind and what he's going to be doing way off in the future. So this is a perfect example of the law of double reference where it's referring to the day of judgment that's going to come upon Judah one day, but it's also and really more so referring to the last days. And then in chapter 3, it kind of continues on in the same vein, but now Judah is taking more of the prominent role, if I could put it that way, with this prophecy. And then in chapter 4, actually starting with verse 2, it's one of those unfortunate chapter splits, but starting with verse 2, and it's only six verses, then it goes back to where it began, the glory of the millennial kingdom. So the first four verses in chapter 2 and the last five verses in chapter 4 are dealing with the same thing. When Jesus Christ rules on earth after he has brought all the kingdoms of this earth under subjection to himself, that is what those two sections are talking about. Okay, so I want to talk about the rest of chapter 2. And mostly, again, I'm going to be referring to the end times because I believe that's the main emphasis of it. And my title for the message is The Day Before the Day of Yahweh. The Day Before the Day of the Lord. I'm not going to be talking about the Day of the Lord. That's a subject all in itself, and we will definitely be getting into that before long. But I want to look at the day before. Now let's say, just for the sake of illustration, let's say that 9-11 was the beginning of the Day of the Lord. Judgment has fallen upon America. Now I'm not saying that it isn't the case, but just as an example. Let's say that is the Day of the Lord, 9-11-01. Well, what was going on on 9-10-01? Because there was a spiritual atmosphere, there was a lifestyle in our culture going on at that time. Now we all remember where we were when 9-11 happened, right? You know exactly. I'm sure every one of you remember exactly where you were when you found out about it. We had just come out of prayer here, and we had just gone up to the office up there, and George Mooney was here, and he's the one that had found out about it and told us about it on that morning. And I remember distinctly. But how many of you remember what you were doing the day before? But really it's not so much what was going on, but what was your life like in those days? Think back on those days. What was going on in your life when 9-11 hit? And what we're getting here with this Isaiah 2 is kind of like a snapshot of one aspect of the spiritual atmosphere of mankind when the day of the Lord unleashes, which I believe can't be too much further into the future. But what we're going to read about and see in this section of Scripture is kind of like this is what life is like, at least one aspect of it, when the day of the Lord begins. Now the one aspect that is mainly alluded to throughout this section is man's pride. But even that, it's a certain type of pride. It's the pride of Nimrod who built the Tower of Babel. It's the pride of Babylon, the world spirit, the whole mentality of, look at what we can do. Look at how much we can accomplish without God. Who needs God? That's the mentality that is seen very clearly throughout this chapter, and you'll see it as we get into it. I'm trying to give you a heads up before we go through it so you'll know kind of what to look for. But before we get into that, there's a couple of things about pride that I just want to bring out. And I'm going to actually read out of my book Irresistible with God, which is, of course, dealing with the subject of pride and humility. Let me just read a couple of passages here to just kind of set the stage. And, of course, I'm cutting into a thought here, but that's okay. You'll get the sense of it. Unquestionably, pride is one of the most prominent subjects addressed in Scripture. The Bible uses at least 17 different words and countless derivatives to describe this spiritual disease. However, no matter which term is used, there is almost always a connotation of height, something high, rising, exalted, or being lifted up. Thus, a proud person has a high estimation of himself and lifts himself above those around him. This concept of self-exaltation forms the basis for our working definition of pride, having an exaggerated sense of one's own importance and a selfish preoccupation with one's own rights. It's the attitude that says, I am more important than you, and if need be, I will promote my cause and protect my rights at your expense. Pride is the governing principle of hell and the unredeemed world it influences. All right, so that's a paragraph that describes what pride is, and then later on in the book, I actually did a chapter on kind of the consequences of a pride-filled life. Let me just read a couple of verses. Proverbs 16, 18 says, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. And then Proverbs 18, 12 is similar. It says, Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, but humility goes before honor. Okay, now I'm going to read again a little paragraph here referring to these verses. Notice that Solomon used the word before three times in these two statements. This shows the large part character plays in determining what befalls a person in life. What he is governs what he does. The person's actions not only establish a pattern of life that reinforces what he is, but they also promote a variety of reactions. Thus the principle of cause and effect is in operation. Being prideful causes the person to do certain things, the effects of which bring about terrible consequences. Just like any other sin, pride carries with it its own judgment. Okay, now that is very true, of course, but it's referring mostly to an individual person. But what we are going to see here in this passage of Scripture is mankind in general. You'll get a sense of more of like this is what man is in when the Lord finally says enough. Just as a reminder, John said, The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And this spirit that is growing in intensity and pervasity in these end times is the spirit of Antichrist. It is the devil himself. And that is what is growing on this earth. And his pride, his besetting sin, the thing that marks him out as an individual more than any other characteristic is pride. And we'll be dealing with that here in a few weeks when we get into Isaiah 14. All right, now before we go any further, before we actually get into these verses, what I want to do is I want to play this whole chapter on a CD. So just listen for these things. It will only take less than four minutes to go through this. And then I'm going to go through it verse by verse. But let's just listen to this. All nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with Eastern ways. They are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners. Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land is also full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is also full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. People bow down, and each man humbles himself. Therefore do not forgive them. Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled. The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low, upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall, upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols He shall utterly abolish. They shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty when He arises to shape the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the crags of the rugged rocks from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty when He arises to shape the earth mightily. Sever yourselves from such a man whose breath is in his nostrils, for of what account is he?" Did you catch all? It just really stands out that this is what the Lord will find when He returns. Of course, I'm saying that figuratively. But what these different things are that's being referred to, at least from verses 5 to 16, I'm going to call these contributing factors because these are the different things that are going on in this world prior to the day of the Lord. And I'm saying contributing factors because I believe that these different things are describing what is propping man up in his pride and causing man to have this mentality that we can do whatever we set our minds to doing and we don't need God. So let's go through these verses. I'm just going to give some explanations very briefly because this is full of prophetic imagery. And I'll just say before I get started that I remember when I first started studying the book of Revelation back in 93 when I really gave myself to studying it. And the different commentators I would read would talk about the imagery that was being used and they spoke about it with so much confidence. And there was a part of me that was just a little bit suspicious, I guess. It's like, well, how do you know that that's what that means? And you're just saying it so confidently. Well, now all these years later, having studied the Bible in depth all these years later, now I understand why they were able to speak so confidently because when you really get into the Word of God, you do see patterns and you do see things that resemble each other in different parts of Scripture and so on. And you start to pick up on these patterns and how words and images are used. For instance, I just got done going through the book of Psalms and some of this imagery I found in the book of Psalms. And it's like, oh, yeah, look at that. It's like nothing to me. It doesn't even faze me anymore when I see the kind of imagery. Oh, yeah, that means this. For instance, water, seas often represents people masses. Well, how do I know that? Well, for one thing, in Revelation 17, it says so that the waters represent people in that particular spot. But you go through different places like Psalm 46, for instance, where it talks about the churning waters and stuff, and you start to see, oh, yeah, that's describing a lot of consternation amongst the different people groups around the world. And it begins to make sense to you. So don't get too hung up on this, or maybe you need to learn this on your own before you really give it the credibility it deserves. But I'm just going to give you some brief explanations for some of this imagery. In verse 6, he says, now, again, in his mind's eye, he's got Judah in front of him. And, you know, but again, this is being extended to the world population at the end of the age. But he says, for you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east. That is describing what? You know, when you think about eastern influences now, what comes to your mind? The New Age movement? Hinduism? You know, all of that mentality that is going on and has grown in strength over the years. And what is the message of the New Age movement? That you don't have to turn to some, you know, great being out there. You are a God. You are a God. That is the overriding message of the New Age movement. And it is certainly one that has gained strength in the last 20, 30 years in this world. And then he goes on and talks about the soothsayers like the Philistines, and that's describing the whole occultic realm, you know, diviners, soothsayers, witches, Satanists, all of that is in here. And that is going on in different places around the world. Not so much in the United States. You see it more strongly in places like South America, for instance, or Africa. It's very strong in certain places. India, you know. So don't get totally hung up in our American mentality, because that's an example of something that's stronger in other parts of the world than it is here. Okay, verse 7. Their land has also been filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land has also been filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. This is describing prosperity and travel. It is describing a country or a culture or a realm where people are in constant motion. There's a little verse in the book of Daniel that has hung with me for many years, and it's in the King James that I remember it. And it's just a little phrase that perfectly describes the end times. It says, People will be rushing to and fro, and knowledge will be increasing. And man, is that the truth. That is exactly what is going on. Think about what life was like 120 years ago, the 1890s, let's say. Cars were nonexistent. If you wanted to go somewhere, it was either by train or horse. That was the only modes of travel, or walking. So in other words, life was at a very slow pace. And obviously, there was no air travel in those days. And look at what life is like now. You know, you and I have grown up in this. We don't know anything different. But 100 years, when you think of how much things have changed in just 100 years, and knowledge increasing, of course, and we'll be seeing it here in a second, it's describing the enormous advances in the technological field. What was life? It was the Industrial Age. I mean, that in itself took place over 100 years, the 19th century mostly. The Industrial Age brought in a lot of things, but the change was nothing compared to what you and I have witnessed. And even now, you know, think of how much things have changed in the computer realm in just the last 10 years. They're saying that knowledge doubles now every, what is it, every year or something like that. I can't remember, but it's some enormous number. It's like, wow, you know, all the way for 6,000 years or 5,900 years, whatever, knowledge stayed fairly much the same. And then all of a sudden, it just started growing by leaps and bounds. All right, let's continue. Verse 8, this is definitely one of those double references because, again, he has Judah in mind. Their land has also been filled with idols. They worship the work of their hands, that which their fingers have made. But, you know, to extend this out to our day and age, and I don't believe I'm wrong in doing this. I think that this is describing technology. And that has become the great idol of mankind in the 21st century is technology, the whole realm of computers and the Internet and all of that, the work of their hands. All right, let's continue on. But it's like Isaiah gets overwhelmed by all this, and all of a sudden, he just bursts out. So the common man has been humbled, and the man of importance has been abased, but do not forgive them. You know, I think what he's saying is that is what's coming. Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty. The proud look of man will be abased, and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. Well, what day is that? The day of the Lord. You know, we're describing what life is like prior to, and then he makes this statement, but when God arrives here, everything is going to change. For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning. That is supplied in the NAS. It just really says the literal, for the Lord of hosts will have a day against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up that he may be abased. Now, this word against reminds me immediately of what is said in the book of James, that God opposes who? The proud, right? God opposes the proud, and that's exactly what you're seeing here. God will oppose everyone lifted up in that day and time. I'm going to read these verses 10 through 12 through the Knox. It's just a colorful translation. I like to hear it. See where the Lord comes in all his terrors, in all the glory of his majesty. Now, indeed, man's haughty looks must fall to earth. Human pride must be abated. No room for any greatness but the Lord's when that day comes. The day of the Lord of hosts. With the dawn of it, all human pomp and state must be overshadowed. All human magnificent grows dim. All right. Well, let's continue on because now that's kind of like a commercial break. Isaiah just bursts forth with this reality of what's coming. And then he goes back into his description here in verse 13. And that day, that's supplied, and it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up against all the oaks of Bashan. Now, that represents men, trees. And, in fact, if you look in Isaiah 10 just as one example of that, there's actually many examples of trees representing men. But in Isaiah 10, the Lord uses a forest to describe the Assyrian army that is going to be marching on Israel and Judah. So this is describing the great political and military leaders of the end times. That's what's being described right here. And the first thing that comes to my mind are the 10 kings that you see in Revelation 17 through 19. These 10 kings, most people believe it's the European commonwealth. I don't know if that's the case or just the Western civilization, you know, Europe and the United States, Canada and that sort of thing. I don't know exactly. But I could certainly see the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom or Germany or France or whatever these nations are. That's what is being described here, the pride in these leaders. All right, verse 14. Against all the lofty mountains, against all the hills that are lifted up, mountains and hills are a description throughout Scripture of countries. And again, you know, it's all over the place. But just as an example, Psalm 46 is one place where that is used that way. All right, verse 15. Against every high tower, against every fortified wall. Now, when you think of high towers, of course the first thing I think of is the Tower of Babel. You know, it began way back then in the early days of mankind. But I can't help but think of the skyscrapers and this earth. We have a 14-hour documentary that was produced by Rick Burns about the history of New York City. And it is fascinating. It is very fascinating. And one of these days I'll talk about that maybe. But one thing that stands out about that series was when they talked about the Rockefellers planning and building the World Trade Center. And you could just see the pride of man at work there in those men. Just that driving ambition to have the greatest building on earth, you know. And it was that kind of pride that was driving them forward with all of that. And, of course, that has continued on around the world. There's constantly some building project going where someone else is going to come up with the biggest building, you know, and so on. So, again, pride of man. Look at what we can do. The very attitude that Nimrod and his followers had. And fortified wall represents what? The Defense Department. Military might. And there again you look at the enormous technological advances that have occurred over the last century. It's amazing. You know, World War I was, what, 90 years ago. And all they had were cannons, you know. And basically they came out with mustard gas. But basically all they had in those days were cannons and rifles. And then by World War II you see the advancement of fighter planes and bombers. And now look at what it is. I mean, it is amazing what they can do nowadays. In fact, that whole military might is being switched towards the Internet and towards the whole technological field. Okay, verse 16, against all the ships of Parshish, and that is representing the world's commerce, industry, and trade. You know, just all the business that drives the economies of the world forward. And, of course, in Revelation 13 you see that all coming together into the one world government where the Antichrist, the beast, is able to control all the buying and selling that goes on on Earth. And how is he going to do it? Well, he's going to do it with the whole computerized system. And most people believe that they will be implanting chips under people's skins to identify them, and then they can buy and sell with that. And, you know, it certainly seems like they're ready to do that now. So that's the world of commerce that we're looking at there with that. And then the next one is a phrase that's a little bit obscure, the wording on it. In the NAS it says, against all the beautiful craft. And there's two different ways of looking at that. Some translators tied it in with the ships of Parshish, you know, so they kind of continued that thought. The New King James does that. The NAS does that. But other translations go for more the literal Hebrew. The literal Hebrew means images of desire. That's what the literal Hebrew means. So the King James says pleasant pictures. The Amplified says picturesque and desirable imagery. Young's literal translation says desirable pictures. The Jewish Bible says delightful imagery. So to me what that represents is the entire realm of entertainment, the motion picture industry, televised sports, the Internet, and of course pornography, the whole adult entertainment realm. Okay, so all of those things that have been summed up in these verses, 6 through 8 and then 13 through 16, are describing what the world looks like when the Day of the Lord begins. And again, I said contributing factors, meaning that because of all the prosperity that the world is enjoying and the technological advances, all that that is doing, all the pleasure, the entertainment, the military might, you combine that all together and it is just pushing man's pride to greater extents than it's ever seen in the past. All right, now let's look at the Day of the Lord, which again, he goes back into the same thought that he kind of interrupted with a few verses ago. Verse 17, the pride of man will be humbled, or some translations say will be brought low, which is a good way to say it. And the loftiness of men will be abased, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. But the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks and into holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty when He arises to make the earth tremble. Something is coming to earth. Something is coming to earth. In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the cliffs of the cliffs before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty when He arises to make the earth tremble. All right. Now, I believe that's where that chapter should have ended and that last verse actually should be the beginning of chapter 3. So I'm just going to stop there. Now, I have to share this with you. It's just so sad, it's comical. This is a little news story. It actually comes from a CBS Internet story. I'm just going to read it. You'll see what I mean. A San Fernando Valley adult entertainment studio began construction this month on what it calls a post-apocalyptic underground bunker in anticipation of a global catastrophe rumored to take place in late 2012. A spokesman for Van Nuys-based Pink Visual said the bunker will be, quote, far more than a mere bomb shelter or subterranean survivalist enclave with amenities such as multiple fully stocked bars, an enormous performing stage, and a sophisticated content production studio. Quote, Our goal is nothing less than to survive the apocalypse to come in comfort and luxury, said Pink Visual spokesman Quentin Boyer. Whether that catastrophe takes the form of fireballs flung earthward by an all-seeing deity, extended torrential rainfall, biblical rapture, an earthquake-driven mega-tsunami, radioactive flesh-eating zombies, or some combination of the above. Wow. Man, is that insanity or what? You know, what are they thinking? If God wants to bring mankind to an end, do they really believe that some elaborate underground shelter is going to protect them? But again, that is the insanity of human pride, that people actually believe that sort of a way. Whatever is coming, it is going to be tremendous in the spiritual realm. I'm not sure exactly how much physical will take place. I want to read something Albert Barnes wrote about these verses here. The earth shaking, the consternation and alarm of the people, their renouncing confidence in all to which they had trusted, their rapid flight, and their appearing on the high projecting cliffs are all sublime and terrible images. They denote the severity of God's justice, and the image is a faint representation of the consternation of people when Christ shall come to judge the earth, Revelation 6, 15 to 17. And that is exactly where I want to turn here. If you want to open your Bibles up to Revelation 6, this is describing this breaking of the sixth seal. And so what we have here through the first five seals, Rex Andrews teaches this, and I have come to accept this and believe it myself, that those first five seals actually opened up at Calvary and it began an unfolding of certain events that have transpired over the last couple thousand years. But the sixth seal has been held in waiting all this time. And actually, if you look at verse 10, talking about the martyrs who have been waiting, they said, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Those who dwell on the earth. That is a phrase that you see over and over in the prophetical books describing mankind in the last days. And so they are told that they just need to wait for the Lord a little longer. And then in verse 12 we see something powerful, something overwhelming coming upon earth. Let's just read these verses. I looked when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake, which very much sounds like what we just read, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood. Now, again, this is imagery. It doesn't mean that that's actually going to happen. What it means is something will be so bright that it will make the sun and the moon just pale in comparison. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. Again, just describing more consternation. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. There's mountain again. And this is describing nations, just a lot of upheaval around the world. Then the kings of the earth, that's those ten kings, that's these mighty leaders that are going to be humbled. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. The same thing we just read. But this is a little further elaboration than we got in Isaiah 2. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the presence, or the face, it's the same word, of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand? All right, now the sixth seal is the beginning of the day of Yahweh. When the sixth seal breaks, what it means in a spiritual sense is that the cup of iniquity is full. Mankind has crossed the line and that's it. It is time now for the day of man to come to an end, the day for man to control this earth, the day of man to determine what's going on on this planet. That day has come to an end because something is going to break forth in the spiritual realm that is going to begin a process that will take some amount of time to actually come to a conclusion. And by the time you get to Revelation 19, you see that it's being wrapped up. But there's a process of God using the judgments that are described through the book of Revelation to bring all of this earth under subjection to His Son. That is the day of the Lord. Now what is it that could be so terrible for these people? You know, the natural instinct that people have is to preserve their life. That is the natural, the strongest instinct man has is to preserve life, to protect themselves, to run from danger and so on. So what is so terrible that these people are begging for death, that life has become intolerable all of a sudden? What could be so terrible that they would prefer death than to continue on? It's that face. That face of such innocence and purity that it would make people go mad to be in its presence. People who are in an unrepentant state, it would make people go mad. And I believe that. We have not seen, we've gotten tiny, tiny glimpses of the innocence and purity of Jesus Christ, but we don't know much about it. All right, I want to wrap this up with, I'm going to read a little section out of Rex Andrews' book, Meditations and the Revelation, because he really captures what Christians need to do in these days. Again, we are still in 9-10, right? We're still in the day before. I don't know when that actual day is going to happen. It could be tomorrow, it could be today. I don't know. It could be a year from now. It really could. Look at the changes that have happened in the Middle East over the last year. Unbelievable changes in one year's time. Things are just escalating at a pace that we've never seen before. The day of the Lord is coming. What must we do to be prepared for that? Let's read what Rex Andrews wrote. We are in the time now, and we have to experience and know how to flee the love of the world and to enter into God. Therefore, in this climax of the history of the world, there is nothing so important to you as the knowledge of how to flee the world and the love of it and to go into God. Every child of God comes to that entrance when they first surrender to God because in that surrender there is repentance from sin and from self in which is the knowledge of sin. Repentance is a turning completely to God from sin and from the world and from self. At the time of that turning to God, the repentant one has come to nothing for in the light which the cross of Christ shines upon the soul in darkness, the convicted one can see his utter helplessness to save himself, and he can see that he has nothing of his own whatsoever that will cover his sin. In repentance, the heart is broken and humbled by the Holy Spirit. There it knows that it has nothing but the blood of the Lamb to offer to God. That knowledge of self-nothingness is poverty of spirit. It is true repentance and true turning to God, and it should remain as the eternal state of the soul. It is what is meant by becoming as a little child, which Jesus said is the only entrance into the kingdom of heaven. In this utter humbling of the heart, the entrance into God is found and is always found there. The poor in spirit find that the kingdom of the heavens is always open and they are of it and they have it and they are in it. So I guess what I want to say in conclusion is that having some kind of religious Christian existence is not going to get people through the days ahead. We have to know what it means in a real way, not in some religious formula. I went forward to the altar one time and said the sinner's prayer and I've lived the Christian life since then. We have to know what it means in the reality of our daily life, what it means to live in some semblance of this poverty of spirit, this awareness of our complete lack, our complete need of God in every area of our life. Because this pride of man that we've been talking about, I can do it without God. That is the spirit of the Antichrist in which the world will be completely taken up in, is completely taken up in today.