Charles S. Price preaches about the darkness and confusion prevailing on earth due to humanity's desire for sovereignty and rejection of God. Despite the chaos, God's promise in Deuteronomy 28:13-14 assures that He will establish His sovereignty over all. The sermon emphasizes the need for surrender to Christ, as only through knowing Him can true freedom and liberation be found. It speaks of the current captivity and waiting period, highlighting the importance of being overcome by God's Spirit to be prepared for His glorious manifestation in the future.

WHAT darkness there is over the face of the earth in these tremendous days! It is like the noise of a mighty sea, whose waves keep rolling and breaking in endless confusion. A sea that seems to have no destiny; imprisoned within its appointed limits and yet moans and rolls and groans in its restlessness as if it were crying for liberation! The confusion on the face of the earth today is caused by the rising up of flesh in nations who desire sovereignty over the face of the earth. The spirit which we discover in the hearts of so many individuals is repeated again and again in national endeavor and collective enterprise. Nobody wants to be ruled over; but everybody desires to rule. Genuine human rights seem to play very little part in the conflict of men and economies, ideas and systems. The Great Powers sit at the chessboard, not only moving kings and queens in their endeavor to win the game, but the little man is merely a pawn to be pushed off the board with each succeeding move. The only sovereignty left seems to be the sovereignty of the flesh while the Voice that called in vain to the children of Jerusalem in days gone by is still calling in vain, it would appear, to the restless, moving sea of humanity on this unhappy earth. Man has chosen union with the tail of the Serpent rather than the Headship of Christ! No matter what avenue of thought we travel, it all brings us to that ultimate and irrefutable conclusion. It may be in realms political. It may be in the kingdom of economics. It may be in statesmanship. It may be in inter national relationships. The end of the trail leads us always and inevitably to the same conclusion. There is not the slightest doubt that, externally, there is a very sad picture. Deuteronomy 28:13, 14 declares: "And the Lord shall make thee the HEAD and not the TAIL; and you shall be ABOVE only, and you shall not be BENEATH; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: And you shall not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them." There is no combination of circumstances, of environment, or human machinations which can prevent the will of our Heavenly Father being accomplished in and through His children. When the crash of civilization in its last struggle for self preservation shall come, my Lord will take the fallen stones and make Himself the Stone which is the Head of the corner and will re build fallen, collapsed humanity into a building of His own creation! God is autonomous! He is not dependent upon man! He needs no support of kings and His power is not dependent upon the assistance of statesmen from any realm or from any land. HE IS THE RULER! His sovereignty is soon to be seen throughout the whole earth! God Himself It is not a question of man having rejected the teachings and philosophies of Jesus. It is a question of man having rejected GOD HIMSELF! Fundamentally, it is not a question of accepting His teaching. It is the question of whether or not we accept HIM! Apart from His illuminating Presence, the teaching can never be understood and if He be not there, there can be no such thing as Christian life no matter how much we try and struggle to live it. In this tragic hour man has dethroned God! He wants his own way. He wants his own system in operation. He does not see that He is falling to a lower level of understanding, in spite of his vaunted civilization. His light is turning to greater darkness than ever before! "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people." (Isaiah 60:2) But this is the storm before the calm. This is the night before the Day. This is the sadness before the shouts of joy. This is the hour of grief before the era of happiness. This is the hour of the seeming helplessness of the children of the Lord before the day of the manifestation of the sons of God when all the earth will tremble at the outpoured might of our Heavenly Father manifest in and through His children. They shall leap over a wall and run through a troop! One shall chase a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight! It will not be a case of running around the world trying to evangelize it! God will speak! And in the utterance divine there will be such authority and irresistible power that nothing on the face of the earth will be able to withstand the operation of the Divine Presence. There is no doubt about the CAPTIVITY in which we are held today! Have we not been regimented? Are we not bound around by legalisms and surrounded by inhibitions and prohibitions? Yet there is the emphatic declaration: "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free!" Now the Truth is not a definition of some proven and accepted fact. Truth is more than verbiage. Truth is more than words, expressing some thing which has been proven and which cannot be successfully denied. Truth is not theology. Truth is not doctrine. The doctrine may be true; but fundamentally it is not Truth. The Truth that shall make us free is only CHRIST HIMSELF! It is when we KNOW HIM, the ETERNAL TRUTH, the unfailing Truth, that freedom comes from within that is the fore-runner of the freedom we shall know without. The internal will precede the external! The kingdom within must be experienced before ever we know the glory, the majesty and the power of the kingdom without. The reign of our Lord which is to be ushered over the hills and dales of earth is now beginning to be experienced within the hearts and lives of those who have surrendered their all, and have yielded to His blessed and holy will. No doctrine can set a man free! No concept or understanding of Biblical statement can bring liberation to a captive soul. Only when the Man with the nail-prints in His hands comes walking across the threshold of man's life will the shackles be broken and freedom, glorious freedom, ring its bell of Emancipation through the heart and through the once-captive spirit! He Is In Him is Light. He is the Way. He is our Life. Because we are doctrinally orthodox and accept the Biblical philosophy of the power of the Cross does not, of necessity, mean that we have passed from death unto life. In the world there is a VYING FOR POSITION. There are countless manipulations for positions of command and authority. Even in the religious world, we get a reflex of it. God is calling His children into a place of UNDER STANDING AND LIGHT. It is a period of PREPARATION! It is the "hour on the desert" before we are commanded to go on to " Horeb" - the mount of God! Perhaps human impatience will be like the mother of Jesus at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. She knew His power and in her heart she anticipated the manifestation of the glory of her Son. So, with her impatient spirit, she indicated that He should perform the miracle prematurely. Have you forgotten, however, how He turned to her and said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee. Mine hour is not yet come." He was not going to allow the tender relationship of Mother and Son to interfere with the Father's will. He would not make a move before the appointed time. Thai moment was set. It had been planned in the purpose of God from the very beginning and when at last that moment would arrive, HE WOULD ACT! We who love Him must not be impatient. I know we can see around us on every hand and side the seeming need for the manifestation of His power and the outpouring of His divine authority. Useless it is to move unless we move in His will. Help less are we if we move in enthusiasm and not in the center of His divine purpose. Impotent shall we become if we go out, unless we be sent. Helpless shall we find ourselves if the weapons we use are of our own forging and of our own manufacture. We are waiting patiently - that is the word PATIENTLY - awaiting with patience the morning light and the sound of the trump of the Lord. Then, in an instant, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, not because of human attainments, but be cause of Divine Intervention, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed in and through His children. Mightier than any army greater than any argosy of the seas more potent than the ships that fly, will be the manifestation of the fullness of His purpose and of His glorious power. The Rock Remember this is a time to be HUMBLED and not EXALT ED! It is the MEEK WHO SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH! This is the DAY OF PREPARATION FOR THAT DAY! This is the hour of being made ready for That Hour! This is the moment of surrender in order that we might be found as He wants us to be in that moment . . . and it is not far away! That which does not humble itself before God is doomed no matter how flourishing it may appear! Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken, be it an individual or a nation. Only the PLANTING OF THE FATHER shall remain! Only that which has been built upon the SOLID ROCK will endure the tempest, the earthquake and the whirlwind of that tremendous Day. Is not this the hour of which He spoke: "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give YOU the Kingdom!" It will not belong to any power or coalition of nations. Isaiah 2:12, 17, 19 declares: "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: . . . and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. . . . And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth." That picture is one side of the scale, and the manifestation of the glory of the Lord is on the other. This is the day when man seems to be out-weighing God; when he has put on his side of the balance all his might and military power, his possession and wealth, and he seems to be running along his own, unrestrained and selfish way. But thus says the Lord: "MINE HOUR HAS NOT YET COME!" God is waiting for man's cup of wrath, deceit and bigotry to reach its full. What a world! Recriminations! Accusations! Strikes! Labor against capital! Government against government! Fear and distrust, double-dealing and double-talking on every hand and side! Was it ever worse than it is now? Was the picture ever darker than it is at the present time? Can you turn on your radio without hearing the word "collapse"? The housing shortage is not the only shortage which confronts us as we behold the inadequacy of man to solve the problem, to answer the question and to meet the situation. I repeat that God is waiting for the cup of wrath, deceit and bigotry to reach its full. And then ... ! Overcome Now is the TIME OF THE WAITING! It is the TIME OF THE KEEPING THE WORD OF HIS PATIENCE! This is the hour when we are being OVERCOME BY GOD AND SUBDUED BY HIS SPIRIT AND MADE GENUINE CAPTIVES OF CHRIST! This is the time of HIS PREPARATION for the DAY OF HIS APPEARING! This is the hour when He is calling His children apart into the secret place of the most High for revelation, understanding and waiting upon Him in order that that Day may not take them unawares, and that they may be ready for the fullness of the manifestation of His Glory and power in them and through them, when at last that Eternal Morning breaks ! He that is to be an "overcomer" must first be overcome! Those only will rule with Him in authority who have come under His Rule first. It we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him. This is the hour of the necessity of the humiliation of self! This is the time when we should be going low at His feet, surrendering all of flesh and yielding our all to His guidance and to His leading. Remember He who has promised will come and will not tarry. This is the hour when patience is being tested. But, fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give YOU the kingdom ! The glory of that apocalypse, the unfolding of the triumph of our wonderful Christ, and the part you will play in it will repay you ten million times over for every testing through which you have gone, and for every difficulty which you have encountered in this contentious vale of tears. Let the outer do its worst! Let the nations rage and roar out there! Let the heathen imagine a vain thing! Let the kings of the earth come together and plan their work, and then endeavor to work their plans, only to find that in the end they are doomed to failure! Know ye not that "Jesus will reign wherever the sun does his successive journeys run!" His Kingdom will stretch from shore to shore and last 'til moon shall wax and wane no more!" So we are sitting "on the sidelines" and yet we are sitting in light, in understanding and appreciation of the meaning of the events which are occurring all around us. "In vain is the trap set in the sight of the bird!" One need not be in darkness as to the real meaning or significance of these current events. We may understand the iniquitous purposes; but our hour has not yet come! The children of obedience sit in complete and beautiful patience at the feet of their Lord until they hear the word: "NOW!" The Perfect Day "So be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord!" The hour of our deliverance is at hand! This is the day of UNDER STANDING and not of COMMANDING! The "Commanding Day" is to come. This is the hour of Waiting and not of Reigning! The Reigning is reserved for tomorrow. The meek shall inherit the earth. Impatience must not spoil the sweetness of our communion; neither must we allow anxiety to mar our walk with Him whom we love. "In patience possess ye your souls." So the house is tottering. The winds are beginning to blow. The shifting sands are moving restlessly, and from the ocean of humanity there comes a cry, half of despondency and half of fear, "What will the morning bring? What does the future hold in store? What will tomorrow mean for the weary races of a buffeted earth?" Dark, indeed, is the world picture but there is a Light shining through the darkness and the world comprehends it not. "The path of the just is as a shining light which shines more and more unto the PERFECT DAY!" Ye need not walk in darkness but ye may have the LIGHT OF LIFE! Just a little while. Keep the word of His patience and await the break of Day. Everything that man has tried to do and failed, He will accomplish in the glorious hour of the Triumph of His Righteousness. In the final drama with its final scene, TRUTH WILL PREVAIL! It will not be a religious philosophy that men will accept. It will not be a return to the teachings of Jesus. IT WILL BE THE RETURN OF JESUS HIMSELF TO A WORLD WHICH HAS REJECTED HIM. So Truth is marching on!