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Foreword
Paul said, when writing to Timothy that it was the desire
and will of God that all men might be saved, and come to a
knowledge of the truth. The second part of that verse is
being forgotten. Mass evangelism is working hard to get
people to God, and then leaves them to starve spiritually,
or because of no depth of a real experience, they get into
a worse condition than If they had made no profession of
faith. It is the desire of our heart that all men be
brought to an understanding of God's Word that they may be
on a solid foundation and be able to stand in this evil
day.
In
the 13th chapter of Matthew we have the seven parables
recorded. We want to teach you by God's eternal Word and
by His Eternal Spirit that these seven parables coincide
with the seven letters to the seven churches. These seven
letters, we have proven by the Word of God, cover seven
periods of time through the Gospel Day from A.D. 33 unto
the end of time.
Many
people do not see the kingdom. There are two main reasons.
Jesus said: "Except a man be born again he cannot see
the kingdom of God." Many people are trying to see
it, and even teach it, who have not been born again. Many
are teaching large congregations about the kingdom, yet
fight the definite teaching of the new birth. Second, some
have been truly born again by the Spirit of God, having
laid hold to a certain extent of the truth thereby, and
then because of erroneous doctrine and false teaching they
have been led astray to look for some millennial or
literal reign of the kingdom here on earth. We have made
the statement that these seven churches cover the Gospel
Day in its completeness and will give you the Bible reason
for it. When you begin to see that--you will begin to
understand the message of God*s Word in a greater way.
First,
let me say that the morning church was represented by a
rider on a white horse who went forth conquering and to
conquer and the early church ate the Word of God. We are
living in a day and age when there is a great deal of talk
about the Word of God. The people say, "We must have
truth, for the truth will set us free." They say,
"We must get back to the Word," but fail to give
the people the Word.
Also,
we have many people like Pilate, who, when Jesus spoke
about truth, said, "What Is truth?" In the 24th
chapter of Matthew, Jesus was asked three questions by the
disciples. First, when the destruction of Jerusalem would
take place? Second, what the sign of His coming would be.
Third, what would be the sign of the end of the world? He
answered the last question first, and gave us a resume of
the Gospel Day. He said, "Beware" - Take heed
that no man deceive you. Also, that many false Christs
would come claiming to be the true Son of God. He told of
the darkness that would come on the earth and of a time
when the Christians would be delivered up to their enemies
and would be hated by all men for His sake and there would
be an apostasy and men would betray one another. He was
not talking about things that would be among the worldly,
but things that would exist among His followers.
He
said also that kingdom would rise against kingdom, and
nation against nation. Radio and TV preachers take hold of
that and say that wars and rumors of wars are a sign of
the end. But He said that it is one of the signs, and the
sign of the beginning of despair and sorrow. In the 12th
chapter of Revelation you will see kingdom rising against
kingdom. The old dragon and beast kingdoms and that which
Revelation calls the kingdom of this world rose up against
the Kingdom of God and the Church went through the dark
ages and martyrdom. False prophets arose and deceived
many. There were 1260 years of the Dark Ages and then the
day of the False Prophet or the deceptive teaching of the
Protestant Church for a period of 350 years. After that
period, what? Matthew 24:14, "Iniquity shall abound
and the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endureth
unto the end, the same shall be saved."
Some
will say, "Will we be able to make It?" Yes,
turn to the 13th chapter of I Corinthians and get the
spirit of that message. "Charity endureth all
things." Those who endure until the end shall be
saved. If you get the real love of God in your hearts you
can endure. If the last sign of the end of the world is
not wars and earth quakes, then what is the sign of the
end? "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to
all the world and then shall the end come." We are
right here on the threshold of the closing of the Gospel
Day and there is a renewing of holy effort going forth to
all men, then shall the end come..
Jesus
declared it would go forth as a witness. All men will not
receive it, but it must be preached for a witness before
the end. There will be two witnesses at the judgment bar
of God. The Word and the Spirit were the two witnesses all
through the Gospel Day and when we come up to the Judgment
Bar of God, the Word and the Spirit will witness for or
against us according to our loyalty to God and truth.
When
I was in the services of the Armed Forces, I was a first
sergeant and it was one of my duties to have the articles
of war read to the men at least once every thirty days.
They did not like to hear it. None of us did. The reading
of this material took about 45 minutes of our time. We had
the best lieutenant we could find who would go through it
quickly to mumble through it so we could say that It had
been read. When a man was court-martialed, the first thing
they did was to look up the record and see how long it had
been since the articles of war had been read. Then they
could say, no matter what you had done, "You knew
better. You just had it read to you eight or ten days
ago."
Now,
the same is true with God. Man has led God*s people far
from the 'way' of truth. God is circling this old world
once more with the pure unadulterated Gospel of Jesus
Christ, so that men cannot say that they have not heard,
or that they forgot, or that they did not know. It will be
fresh on our minds when Jesus comes.
I
thank God that I can live on this old earth one last time
with the glorious Gospel of the kingdom. We are being
brought down to a time when the golden Gospel is preached
again. Three times it goes forth in the Gospel day. It was
preached in the morning time in all of its fullness, and
the darkness fled away. Again In the 14th chapter of
Revelation (about the year 1880) when God had gathered a
people out on Mt. Zion, there came an angel or ministry
with the ever lasting Gospel to preach. Now it is going
out once more for us, but because of lukewarmness and
coldness there has been a compromising spirit and a
turning away from it as 'a whole' over the land. But,
thank God, there is a returning and this everlasting
Gospel of the kingdom is going forth again, and it will
bring the same result if you hear It, see it, and do it. I
pray God will help us to see it.
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