In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of time periods in relation to God's eternal purpose. He explains that these periods, referred to as dispensations, are symbolic representations of important events throughout history. The preacher goes on to discuss various charts that illustrate these periods, including the fall of man, the present age of grace, and Daniel's 70th week. He also mentions the future events of the seals, trumpets, and vials, which represent God's judgments on the earth. The sermon concludes with a focus on the glorious day of Christ's coming in power and great glory.

The time was just a little speck in eternity, just like the earth is the weeniest little speck in the universe. And we spoke about the eternal God, and the eternal Son, and the eternal Spirit, and God's eternal purpose. And the purpose that he has for believers in Christ, that is for the Church. And each evening, that is Tuesday, Wednesday, and now Thursday, and tomorrow Thursday, we are dealing one at a time with these various sections of time. We don't call them dispensations on this, but periods of time, which perhaps is a little more nearer to the meaning of the word. And all these are figurative symbols of important events during these periods. But the greater details of each period we have seen on the separate chart each night. So we've already dealt with chart number one, the whole lot, looking at it as a whole. Chart number two, from the fall to the coming of Christ. And then chart number three, last night, this present age of grace, from the coming of Christ to the rapture. Now this evening we are dealing with chart number four, as you see it there, from his coming for his saints to his coming with his saints. Now if you can possibly get here tomorrow night when we talk about the reign of Christ and the millennium, I think you'll enjoy that as well. You'll notice that there are some arrows here, peculiar kind of arrows, but they're made like that so that we could put some writing, printing in the middle of them, you know. This one points downwards and it says the day of grace. We might call it the day of salvation, the present day in which we live. Here this one is pointing upwards, it's the day of Christ. When he comes for his own, we call that the rapture. And this one is pointing downwards again, that is the day of the Lord. Always look forward to with fear because of the wrath and just judgment in the day of the Lord. And this one is pointing outwards into eternity and that is called the day of God. It's good to be able to understand something of those different days and their significance. Now let us read together two short portions of Scripture tonight. First of all from 2 Thessalonians 2 and then from Revelation chapter 13. 2 Thessalonians 2, We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind and be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand. In my Bible I've crossed out the word Christ there and put in the margin the day of the Lord. You'll see that is the revised version. You'll see it is the American Standard Revised Version, the RSV and every modern version. And indeed the Greek will support that, that it is the day of the Lord that it's speaking about in verse 2. Whereas in verse 1 he is speaking about the day of Christ, our gathering together unto him. Let no man deceive you that the day of the Lord, deceive you by any means, for that that day shall not come except there come a departure first. And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God's citizen, the temple of God, showeth himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things? Now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity, of lawlessness, doth already work. Only he who now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked or that lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan. Now a few verses in Revelation chapter 13. This is the chapter about the two beasts, you know, whose power prevails during the time of the great tribulation on earth. I stood upon the sand of the sea, chapter 13, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns. Upon his head is the name of blasphemy. The beast which I saw was likened to a leopard. Thus three one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world wondered after the beast. Verse 5, there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months, three and a half years. And now verse 11, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth this time, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake like a dragon. And he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. Verse 16, and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. No man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six. The Lord blessed to us these readings from his precious word. Now I hope you can see the charts, and I've been very encouraged, because I've noticed from time to time the last day or two, some friends coming forward, either in the evening or the morning, to look at some of the details. I believe myself the artistry is worth looking at, apart from the prophetic details. And I can say that because I'm not the artist. And one of the great artists of England has done these charts quite recently for me. And this is very, very good work. You just get a glimpse of the perfection of this artistry. The face of that second beast. The seven heads and the ten horns and crowns of that first beast. Very difficult to design. The angels with their trumpets and the seals and the vials or bowls. And the woman fleeing into the wilderness. And the day of the Lord and the Mount of Olives splitting when Christ comes in power and great glory. Look at the details of this beautiful marriage supper of the Lamb. Come and have a look sometime, tonight or tomorrow morning. And if you especially want to see some of the others, I think we have most of them here, be pleased for you to have a look. And this is the order that we're going to deal with the subject this evening. First of all, we're going to talk about the rapture. This is where we concluded last night, you remember. And then the judgment seat of Christ. And then the marriage supper of the Lamb. After that, we will talk generally about Daniel's seventieth week. And I keep telling myself I must make this brief. Because you can go on ad-lib, you know, about that. And go into a lot of detail, which I think in a meeting like this, that detail is not called for. And after the seventieth week, we should talk about these three evil beasts that you see portrayed here so artistically. And then after that, we should talk about the seals, the trumpets, and the vials or bowls in that order. And then finally, of course, our Lord's coming in power and great glory. And in the first case, the rapture. Now the details are there in the Word, 1 Corinthians 15. The trumpet shall sound. This corresponds with the trumpet of God in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And although the word rapture is not used, it is a very suitable word for us to use. If it isn't in the Word, the idea of a rapture is in the Word very definitely. And the meaning of the Word in 1 Thessalonians 4 caught up to thee with the Lord. The word caught up in the Greek has the idea of being snatched away, even taken away with violence. Such a deliberate, definite, snatching act. When we are suddenly, quickly, definitely taken as believers from this scene by the Lord into his presence. So at that time, you see, the heavenly bridegroom receives his bride to himself at last. And she shall go no more out of his presence forever. And at that time, his saints receive their reward. And at that time, the earthly people, the people of the earth, receive great tribulation. From God, from Satan and his emissaries, and of course at the same time from God. They bring the trouble, and God allows it. For it's all in his purposes, and they are working out God's plan of tribulation on the earth. Now you'll notice it says here that the rapture, the church and the Holy Spirit. And when the church goes, then the Holy Spirit will go also. In my mind, there is no doubt at all about this. The one that we were reading of, who hinders the working of lawlessness in the world until he is taken out of the world, must of necessity be the Holy Spirit. In my margin here, I've got quite a list of reasons stated why this must be of necessity the Holy Spirit. I'm afraid we haven't got time to talk about that now. But I think we have to appreciate the fact that the Holy Spirit is resident now. And although he came at Pentecost, he was here before. You see, the Holy Spirit has always been omnipresent because he is God. And yet he came at Pentecost in a new way to be resident in the church and resident in the lives of God's own people. And when his special residency and the work of it is completed, and the church is taken home to God, then the Holy Spirit will be released from his earthly labours and go at the same time. He who now hinders the working of evil in the world, and he does that through his own and their godly lives and Christian testimony, he who now hinders that evil working will continue to hinder. Thank God for his work. And it will be until the church goes and he is taken away. And then secondly, the judgment seat of Christ. I believe that almost at once, when we meet the Lord, the judgment seat of Christ will be set up. It is a judgment seat in the sense of the judgment seat at the Olympic Games, as it used to be in any case. The word in the Greek is bima, and it simply means literally a step. It's just a raised dais, a platform, on which the umpire of the Games sat. And the word bima in the Greek is never used for a judicial bench. It is nothing to do with law and justice and judgment and condemnation, although it's called a judgment seat of Christ. Every believer will appear, according to Corinthians, at the judgment seat of Christ to give an answer for the work done in his body and for everything he's done in his body while he's been alive on earth and what he's done for the Lord with sincere motives for his glory. All that will be rewarded, and what is done within sincere motives will be rewarded as well. The one will be rewarded with a crown, and the other will be rewarded with a loss. Now, there is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. At the judgment seat of Christ, I shall never be condemned for a thing. And you know why? Because Christ on the cross of Calvary bore all my condemnation, and all my sin and the judgment of a righteous God against it was borne by Jesus on the tree. And the work is completed, and it's finished, and it's ended, and it's enough. That's not condemnation. That is judgment for reward. There's either going to be reward or loss of reward. You may look upon loss of reward as condemnation, but it's not looked upon in that way in the Scriptures. This is the idea. Have you ever been to a baby show? Now, I've never been to a baby show as far as I know. Of course, I might have been taken when I was younger, but that's extremely doubtful. But you know, at the baby show they have the judges there. What do they have judges there at the baby show? What do they have judges there for? Well, to see who's worthy of a reward. And the others that are not, they're not condemned, the poor little things. They're sent home with a candy or something like that. Well, now, there'll be no condemnation, just judgment for reward. Mind you, in 1 John 2 there's a word which talks about being ashamed before Him at His coming. That phrase there suggests to me that the judgment seat of Christ will be virtually at, or immediately following, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rapture of the church. And what a dreadful thing to be ashamed before Him, and speechless because of our shame when we meet the Lord. Shall I empty-handed be when beside the crystal sea, when before the judgment seat of Christ? Well, now, the rewards in the Scriptures are called crowns. Stephanos is the Greek, and it literally means a chaplet of laurel, which they put around the ones in the olden days who got the prizes, who won the races, and so on. And we see just very briefly what these rewards are going to be. We have a crown there instead of a wreath, but that gives you the idea. There is the incorruptible crown that is going to be rewarded to those who subdue the corruptible. The apostate says, I keep under my body, I hold it in subjection, I subdue the corruptible because I am hoping for the incorruptible crown. There is the crown of rejoicing. This is the reward of the sole winner. The other morning we were talking about Paul saying to the Philippians, you are my joy and crown, my joy now, my crown then, my reward, my crown, my laurel wreath in that day which is to come, the judgment seat of Christ. The crown of rejoicing, the sole winner's crown. And then there is the crown of righteousness, says Paul, which the Lord shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but to all those who love his appearing. So this is the crown for second coming lovers. I'm quite sure in my mind there will be more American Christians getting this crown than anybody else. We love to look forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. Keep it up. And he that hath this hope within himself, within him purifyeth himself even as he is pure. And then, fourthly, there is the crown of life. Peter talks about this. He is writing to saints who are suffering and suffering for Christ's sake. This is the crown for suffering saints who go through with it, accepting the suffering for the Lord and for his glory in their lives. The crown of life. And then there is the crown of glory. This is the steadfast elder's crown. I personally have not found many elders, I mean pro rata according to the number there are, who are really doing what the Bible says. I know there are some, thank God. There are not many doing what the Bible says elders should do. I'm not talking about what they should be, thank God for the holy life, but to do. I can't give a lecture on eldership tonight. I'm called upon by elders in some country to talk to them about these things. And I admire their sincerity and how they adjust their lives from time to time. But, you know, I find that most of them are going to miss the crown of glory because they are not doing elders' work, they are doing deacons' work. And you'll never get an elder's crown for doing a deacon. That's three for four. Now thirdly, there is the marriage supper of the Lamb. I don't want to take much time about this, but I believe that this will be set up while we are there with the Lord in his presence, having been raptured away with all those who believe in Christ. It is the marriage supper of the Lamb. The glory of it will be this. There will be honor to him, as the Scripture in Revelation 19 plainly says. He will get the honor. He will get the glory. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Now, when it's Prince Charles' birthday, or the Duke of Edinburgh's birthday, they announce it on the BBC at eight o'clock in the morning, just before the main news comes on. And they say, we wish him, whoever it is, a happy birthday, many happy returns of the day. And then the band strikes up, God save the Queen. Well, it's his birthday, but the Queen gets all the honor. Now, that's right. And that's going to be right in that great day. We shall be there with him, but he'll get all the glory. And he's the only one who's worthy of glory. Well, the glory of it is his. The preparation for it. The Bride, his Bride, hath made herself ready. Now, how can the Bride make herself ready? Just simply by accepting the readiness that has been provided by the Bridegroom. His people are beautiful with his own beauty. It is an imputed righteousness. There she is arrayed at the marriage supper of the Lamb in fine linen, speaking of beautiful holiness. But you know, without holiness we're never going to see the Lord, let alone be at his marriage supper. But all those who are there won't be there because of their own holiness. In the context there where it talks about holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, it says we're partakers of his holiness. It's the only way. I would never have any hope of being there if it was left to me and my holiness. Thank God the holiness of Christ can be imputed to you tonight. Whoever you may be will say that is me and my sin. And will say this is the Savior and his holiness. Well, what happened was this. God put my sin on his Son. It was all imputed to him and he bore the judgment. And then, now that I'm trusting him who did that, God puts his righteousness on me. There's my sin on him and his righteousness on me. He was made sin and I'm made the righteousness of God in him. And that's how the bride makes herself ready by trusting Christ Jesus the Lord. As one's own personal Savior you can be part of the heavenly bridegroom's bride and share the glory with him in that day. And the blessing, of course, is there for all those who are in his presence. Blessed are those who take part and are there and present at the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is just the beginning of an eternity of wonderful blessing. Now, let's break away just for a moment and come down to earth. Because we must understand, it's important for us to understand what's going to happen on the earth. Now, when Daniel the prophet was in Babylon in captivity with God's people there, one day he was kneeling down praying and reading Jeremiah the prophet, which you've read. That's the book he was reading. And he was reading in chapter 25, but there were no chapters there for him to read. But he got as far as our chapter 25 and in verse 11 and 12, although there were no verses there, he came across the fact stated by Jeremiah prophetically that the captivity in Babylon would last 70 years. And at the same time, Gabriel comes and speaks to Daniel and tells him what's going to happen for his people, the Jews. That there's going to be 70 weeks for them. This is God's program for them on the earth. And that these weeks we now know are weeks of the earth. The Hebrew word is heptad, and a heptad can be a seven of anything. It could be seven hours, seven weeks, seven days, seven months, seven years. Now, we know it's seven years that Gabriel was speaking to Daniel about because we've worked it out from the time that the king gave permission for some to return from Babylon to set up the temple in Jerusalem again, from the time of that decree to the coming of the Messiah when he would be cut off would be 69 of those heptads. And working it out, very simple mathematics, we find out that it was 69 periods of seven years. Now, that's not difficult. And so it is that the events in the order as God, through Gabriel, told the prophet Daniel is this. There would be, first of all, the restoring of the temple, the rebuilding of Jerusalem. There would be a command to do it by the Persian king, the Babylonian king. This happened. There would be the coming of the Messiah and his death. After 69 of these heptads, that happened. There would be the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This happened in A.D. 70. Now, you noticed yesterday, on the bottom of the chart, something I didn't have time to talk about. My, what a mercy it was. We might have been here till midnight. But there were two half clocks. One half there and one half there. You'll get the idea on this big chart. Can you see that half a clock? And that half a clock there? And it said at the bottom of our program last night, God's dealings with the Jews are suspended during this age of grace. And that's what you see here. God's dealings with the Jews are suspended in this sixth time period, this rule of grace. What happened, you see, when they rejected the Son of God, God did not completely altogether reject them, but he laid them on one side and his dealings with them were temporarily suspended, so to speak, the Jewish clock in time, as far as God was concerned, stopped. But then it is restarting again at the end of this present period, or maybe at the end of the tribulation period. That is open to question. Which means to say God again is going to look toward his ancient people, deliver them, save them, that is the godly remnant in a day. And they will mourn and repent for their past rejection of their Messiah, and they again will be God's agents in the world, and God will be dealing with them in blessing once more. Now this period, I don't think I'd better go into too much detail, because it would take too much time. But this period is called Daniel's 70th week. I said we had 69 weeks up to the rejection of Christ. Well, what about the 70th week? Well, I said the clock stopped after that, and it starts again for Daniel's 70th week. He begins, God begins dealing again with his people, the Jews, but this time dealing with them in judgment. After all's been done, this is the judgment of believers. And there is to be the judgment of the nations here, and there is to be the judgment of the Jews as well, and this is actually their judgment, especially the last half of this 70th week. So this 70th week is really only seven years, but what a period of seven years it's going to be, and especially the last half of that seven-year period. In the midst of the week, says the Scripture, something fantastic is going to happen halfway through, and the tribulation and the trouble is really going to start. This last half is really to be the great tribulation. Now, during this time, there are to be, on earth, working with their evil minds in damnation for the people of the earth, three evil beasts. There is the man of sin, the antichrist, and the devil. They three form a trinity of evil. There is the divine trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the devil is anti-God. I want to say anti, because that's how we would say it in England. And the antichrist is anti-Christ, and the man of sin is anti-the Spirit. That's how it works out. The man of sin is the first beast of Revelation 13. He is the lawless one. He comes out of the sea, the Scripture said, figurative language speaking of the restless sea of fallen humanity. And he is to be the head of the revived Roman Empire, or something along that line. Don't try to be too precise. And he will, I'm quite sure, have his headquarters in Rome, which is built upon those seven hills. I'm quite sure those seven heads are representative of those seven hills. But on those seven heads you find there are ten horns with ten crowns. In my mind, these are representative of the ten western nations that form in the last days the Ten Kingdom Confederacy of the West. Now, the antichrist is the beast here labeled 666. He speaks like a dragon. He has the head of a lamb, and he has the horns, and he is the second beast, the false prophet. Now, I don't agree with Hal Lindsey when he says that there are two antichrists. I don't find that in the Word. I believe there's only one. The first beast is not the antichrist, it is the man of sin. Now, however, I will agree with that because the Scripture says it, that both beasts have tremendous power. It plainly says the second beast, the antichrist, has all the power, that is, the satanic power to do evil things and mighty things, as the first beast. Now, the antichrist is, of course, a religious head, whereas the first beast is a political head. And I believe the second beast will be a Jew. Now, Kissinger is doing, or trying to do, something like what the man of sin is going to do in the earth. But he couldn't possibly be the antichrist because he's doing the work of a man of sin or something similar. The man of sin is a Gentile, and the antichrist is a Jew. So, you must rule that out completely, if that was in your minds. And this second beast, the antichrist, comes out of the earth, it says, or perhaps more correctly, out of the land. And when it says the land, it is usually referring to Palestine, suggesting that he is a Jew. And, of course, the devil is anti-God. Now, the number of the beast, as you see, the second beast, the antichrist, is a treble number of men, 666. A trinity of six, representing the trinity of evil of which he forms a part. Now, the number one beast is the number one beast of Revelation 13. And he is the lawless one, and we were reading about him in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. He opposes true religion, and he becomes the object of worship. He is at this present time, or rather his spirit, in the sons of lawless men, or in the sons of men who are lawless, and lawlessness is abroad around the world today. This spirit is being restrained now. The spirit of the man of sin is in lawless people today, but the restraint is there by the godly lives of Christian people. I used to work in the Birmingham City Corporation drawing office and town planning department years ago, and I was the only Christian there among a lot of men. And the talk was filthy, but not when I was there. And I hadn't got a very strong testimony. I shouldn't think, but you know, it all dried up the moment I got in the door. There's the restraining influence, the Holy Spirit in an insignificant person like me, doing his work of restraining in a big office like that. Now, the power of the beast is, of course, satanic. And all Christ rejecters in this age, who are still rejecting Christ when he comes and are left behind, will be left behind for judgment. And indeed, God will send them all strong delusion, those people who had a chance to be saved and heard the gospel and didn't believe it. So much delusion that they will believe a lie, and all Christ rejecters now will accept him then. And it is the work of the second beast to make sure that everybody accepts him and has his own mark in their foreheads or on their hands. Now, his end will be, of course, with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, his appearing in power and great glory with thousands on his own in that day of power, the day of the Lord. Let us talk just for a moment about the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bells in that order. This is number one, number two, and number three. And I'm not going into the full details, just to give you a little idea. When the seven seals are opened according to the book of Revelation, and this is halfway through the tribulation period of seven years, that is after three and a half years, when the covenant that is made by the man of sin with God's ancient people Israel for their protection in the Middle East, when that covenant is broken, and the man of sin, or rather the Antichrist, sets up an image of the man of sin in the temple, in the holy place, and causes people to bow down to it and worship it. Now there is complete rebellion on the part of the Jews. And, of course, the covenant with the man of sin, or his covenant with them, will be broken by then. And then the great part of the tribulation really will commence. There is going to be war in heaven, and Michael the archangel will tackle Satan. For Satan is the prince of the power of the air. And in the first heaven there will be war, and Satan will be cast out. Michael is the military archangel. He is the one with mighty military power, it seems. He is spoken of in that connection many times. And then, of course, the seals will be broken, and the judgment of God, through whomsoever he wills, will come to the earth in a definite way. The first seal will mean that the white horse appears, the Antichrist with his power deceiving the people. The second seal is broken and the red horse appears. This brings war and chaos to the world once more. And then the third seal is broken and the black horse appears. This means there will be worldwide famine. Then the fourth seal will be broken, and so we go on. The fourth seal is speaking of death, and many will perish in that time of tribulation. And then Satan releases his power when the seven trumpets are sounded. And there will be at the first trumpet, hail, such hail that has never been known before. And there will be fire and blood mingled with it, such chaos. And when the second trumpet is blown, the mountains will burn. When the third trumpet sounds, the stars, or at least one star, will fall onto the earth. When the fourth trumpet is blown, the sun will be smitten in a fantastic way, and so on. And then the seven vials, or the seven bowls, will be poured out. You see, when the seven seals are broken, the tribulation really starts. When the seven trumpets sound, Satan releases his power, and it is God giving him liberty so to do, to perform his purposes of judgment in the earth, and especially judgment against the Jews, because this is the time of Jacob's trouble, significantly. It is Daniel's seventieth week about Daniel's people, Gabriel said. And when the seven bowls are poured out, God releases his power at that time against Satan. And when the first bowl is poured out, then there will be a plague of boils. And the second one, there will be blood. The sea in great quantities will be turned into blood. And there will be blood on the rivers at the third bowl. There will be tremendous heat throughout the whole earth on the fourth bowl. And when the fifth bowl is poured out, there will be darkness over the whole earth. I want to close this evening by talking for a moment about this glorious day, His coming in power and great glory. This, of course, is the earth. These are the judgments being poured on the earth. This woman fleeing into the wilderness represents Israel, of course, fleeing, seeking to flee from the judgment that she can see as coming to her in this last half of the tribulation. And here is now the Lord Jesus coming in power and great glory. He came for his saints here. He comes with his saints here. And we're going into more detail about that tomorrow night, God willing. We should try to find out where we're going to be, you and me, when Christ comes to the earth in power and great glory and there's a thousand years of peace on earth. You probably won't agree with me, but we'll try to see what the scripture has to say about it. Well now, you'll see here that the Mount of Olives is split, broken in pieces, dividing asunder at the coming of Christ as his feet stand upon it. A friend of mine, Ivor Powell, with whom we used to work years ago in the Pilgrim Preachers in Britain, was telling me the other day when I was in Santa Barbara in California in his home having a cup of tea. I didn't have English tea, I had Welsh tea. He's Welsh. He was saying that he was in Australia or New Zealand. I must check on that. One of the two. And he was talking about the Lord coming in power and great glory and how that, according to Zechariah, the Mount of Olives is going to divide. And he told the purpose of it and so on. And a man came to him after, he said, He said, excuse me, Mr. Preacher. He said, I haven't been here before, but I'm very interested in what you say. Can you really assure me that there is a verse in our Bible which says that the Mount of Olives is going to divide when Christ comes? And he referred it to the scripture in the book of Zechariah, turned it over to it and showed it to him. And he, you know, he opened his mouth and he was speechless for a while. Oh, he said, that's fantastic. Well, Iva said, why? Well, he said, I'm a geologist. I work for the Israeli government. And only last week I wrote a detailed report to the Israeli government of the geological fault I have found and surveyed beneath the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. And my friend, Dr. John Wesley White, who is Billy Graham's right-hand man still today, although he's the Chancellor of Richmond College, that reminds me of something. He tells me that his brother is a geologist and archaeologist. And his brother also has surveyed that same geological fault. Anyway, when he comes, not only will there be a great division there, but there will be great deliverance for those that remain of God's people. There has been judgment and death and sorrow and sifting and trial and tribulation for them such as never has been known in all the history of the world. And then suddenly, when the nations are converging in the Middle East and upon Palestine and the city of Jerusalem in particular, the armies from the north, Russia and Syria, the armies from the south through Egypt and so on, and again from the east, when at the point of converging, and Israel is about to flee and hide and call upon the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of God's judgment which is coming, God's Christ, their Messiah will come. He will stretch out his hand in power and the enemies will be kept back and millions will be slain. And they'll look upon their deliverer and they'll see a mark in his hand. And here they'll say, what are these wounds in thine hand? And he tells them what happened when he came once before and they received him not. He says, this is what the Father said when I came the first time. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, and smite the shepherd. He said, I was smitten when I came the first time. You rejected me, nailing me through my hands to the accursed tree. When I came as God's shepherd, you refused me. And they'll mourn and repent in a tremendous way. And God will see their real repentance and save them in a day. And a fountain shall be opened for sin and for uncleanness. And they shall be saved. And God will begin his purposes of blessing through the earth, following the judgment of the nations at this time, through his restored and saved ancient people. Now, considering that all these things are coming to pass, we feel very soon there are signs of this, let alone signs of that. In the world today, the spirit of lawlessness is abroad. And there are lots of signs of this, besides signs of that. How near! Because of that, what manner of persons ought we to be? O Lord, we don't tremble for ourselves. We rejoice because of the glorious hope which is before us. We believe every word the Saviour said. But we do tremble for those who are outside of Christ, and who, at his coming, is still unsaved, will be left to judgment and great tribulation on earth. And we do tremble for thine ancient people. Bless those who are working amongst the Jews, and use their testimony, we pray thee. We think there is a day coming, following their judgment and sifting, when their eyes will be opened to see Christ as their Saviour and Messiah and Deliverer. And what a great and tremendous day that will be. Now Lord, considering the fact that before long we're not only going to see the Lord Jesus, but he's going to talk to us at his judgment seat, about what we've done for him in this life. Considering he's going to talk to us then. Lord, make us faithful now. With such a glorious hope in view, we would more faithful be, more like our risen glorious Lord, whose face we soon shall be. So help us God, for Jesus' sake. Amen.