Armageddon, Calvary, Heaven, Hell

Now for those who have their Bibles, we'll read together in the book of the Revelation, chapter 19. Where our brother ended, that's where we hope to begin tonight. Revelation, very glad to see all that are here and we're very glad to be here.

Whether the hall is completely filled or just a woman by Syker's well, one lone sinner. I remember having meetings with Alec Drybury and Tabatia, that's all on the Labrador shore. We were left behind to have meetings in a little tent while Brother Campbell and Brother Joyce and others went further to another village.

We only had four of an audience. If they didn't come to the meeting, there was no meeting. So we watched as they come over the hill and there they were, all Roman Catholics.

Two got saved in those series and the following the summer, two more got saved and a little assembly was formed in the years to pass, about 16 in fellowship. God is interested in the individual and not only the old or the middle-aged, but the very young. Because if you get saved when you're young, it's a two-fold salvation.

Your soul is saved and your life will be saved from many of the things that take place. Shall we read together now reverently the word of God in Revelation, chapter 19. We'll begin at verse 17.

Like I say, where our brother finished, that's where we're going to start. Revelation 19 and verse 17, and I saw an angel, this is John on the isle of Patmos. How would you like to be alone on an island and no other soul around? And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God.

Not the great supper of Luke chapter 14, the gospel supper. This is God's supper, it's judgment. That ye may eat the flesh of the kings and of the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men both free and bond both small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse against his army. And the beast was taken with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and they that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

God will be pleased to bless what we have been listening to and the reading of his precious word. I would like to gather my thoughts around four words. This world system, not creation now because creation is going to go on for another thousand years after this what we have read together, but this world system dominated by the devil is on an irreversible course.

Armageddon, that's the next great conflict that's going to take place. Not the battle of Gog and Magog after the thousand years but before that at the end of the greater the time of the last half of the great tribulation. It's the battle of Armageddon.

That is this world system is on an irreversible course, the Armageddon. The Savior was on an irreversible course, the cross. Saints, those that are born again are on an irreversible course, heaven.

Sinners outside of Christ are on the irreversible course, hell and eventually the lake of fire. I believe the two greatest signs of which we read in Matthew 24 are indicators that the coming of the Lord is very, very soon. One is the land of Israel and the other was as in the days of Noah.

If you look in Matthew chapter 24, I do not believe that in 1948 when the state of Israel was recognized that that was the beginning of that truth. But though God is working his purposes out, many years have passed since 1948. But we see in Matthew 24 and verse 32 speaks when you see the fig leaf budding.

And the fig leaf, the fig tree is emblematic of the people of Israel, especially in the times when the Lord Jesus was on earth. In the Old Testament, it was the vine that brought forth stinking fruit. It was not a false vine.

Israel was God's vine of the Old Testament, not in contrast with the true vine, but what God expected from Israel didn't appear. In the days of his flesh when he, in his public ministry especially, as he moved along by the Sea of Tiberias in Jerusalem, these various cities and towns, with his disciples, he saw a fig tree and he lifted it leaves and there were no figs. Profession without possession.

That's Israel today. Four years ago, my children gave me the best birthday present they could ever give, and that is a trip to Israel, and I was glad to go. Israel today is a very secular society.

It's a godless place. There are Orthodox Jews, thank God, throughout the world for many years already. Jews individually have got saved.

But as a nation, they continue in the rejection of the person of Christ. Paul says the veil is over their minds in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil shall be done away in Christ. When we went to the Wailing Wall with my son-in-law, Lucas Griffin, I saw many men.

The women are segregated. They're on the other side of a of a fence, but we were with the men. There were hundreds of them, old, young, and in between.

Many were tourists. I saw an old man, he must have been 80 years of age, and he just had his head against the wall, the Wailing Wall, the only rampart of the remembrance of the remnants of the second temple. It's called the Wailing Wall.

Bounced his head against the Wailing Wall, literally crying for the coming of the Messiah, which we present here tonight. Tapped him on the shoulder, I said, Sir, I want to tell you he has come, and he's fulfilled the purpose for which he came. The promise of Genesis 3, that the seed of the woman, here we are, people in the audience tonight, were they all the product of the seed of the man.

That's why we have inherited the Adamic nature, a fallen, sinful nature. I have five children. They're all married now, but I never told them once to be bad.

They were just bad, that's all. Time and time again, I told them to be courteous and say yes, please, and excuse me. I don't know how many hundred times I tried to plow that into them, but they never got it until they got older and mature.

They were just bad. Why? They had a nature, children of wrath, children of disobedience, even as we once were. And so we find here that Israel, as I have read from Matthew chapter 19, or Revelation chapter 19, this world system, and there's the Jew, and he continues in the rejection of Christ, because he's wrongly introduced to what the Bible says.

The Bible closes with the book of Malachi. They'd only go into the New Testament. They'd find out the one that they long to come has come, and he's gone to the cross.

On such love my soul still ponders. Love so great, so full, so free. I say in my heart, and William and all of us that are saved, why, O Lord, such love to me.

The age of 24 in the city of Vancouver, we were brought up as Calvinists, not to believe that you could be sure of heaven. We were covenanters. We're baptized as infants, but we had no assurance.

But oh, when we heard the gospel properly preached, that it's possible on earth to be saved and sure of heaven, I says, if that's true, I'm going in for it. Are you there tonight, boy, girl, man, and woman? It's real tonight. It's possible to be saved and sure of heaven.

On the 11th of October 1951, under the preaching of Sidney Maxwell and Theodore Williams, I came to Jesus as I was, with all my religion, weary and worn and sad, found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad. Listen, if it wasn't real, I'd have given it up long ago, because by nature I'm a sportsman. And if you know anything about the Dutchman, soccer is their game, their national sport, like you have others.

And I would have got the biggest TV screen and watched world soccer. But you know, in the light of eternity, in the light of knowing Jesus as your Savior, it's real tonight, friend. He gives joy and peace and satisfaction.

And so here we are, we are in Matthew 24, two signs, the fig leaf lifted up, profession without possession. Then you have it about the days of Noah. And I believe these are the real signs to watch.

I knew that there's tsunami in Japan and the Pacific Ocean a few years back and the big hurricanes along your eastern seaboard and the earthquakes, they're terrible. But I don't believe they are the real signs. There have always been those things.

But watch Israel and watch what the Bible says about us at the day of Sanoa. So shall it be when the Son of Man cometh. Read Genesis 6, 7, 8, and 9. There you see the conditions that were in the days of Noah are repeating themselves today.

Homosexuality, lesbianism, and all these immoral things are being recognized legally by governments. You take the Netherlands where Calvinism run rampant. Very godless country today.

This world system dominated by Satan is on an irreversible course. Nothing is going to stop it. It's going to get worse and worse until the Lord says it is enough and he's going to come.

If he should come tonight, on what side of the door are you on? Are you ready? Therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. Then we have the Savior. He was on an irreversible course.

I have a baptism to be baptized with and wherewithal shall it be straightened. That's the cross and all the judgments and sin of a vile world were laid upon him. Jesus bore them on the tree.

God who knew them laid them on him and believing we go free. Outside of London, maybe 75 years ago, there was a one-room schoolhouse. No doubt here in Iowa you had many of them and days gone by before you had buses to transfer, transport children to the schools.

One Monday morning, some of the boys came with elastic bands and shot little pieces of paper at one another when the teacher was writing on the board. They saw these little pieces of paper on the floor. He says, who did it? But of course, nobody did it.

The elastic bands were all gone. So he started writing it again and again. He turned around very much upset.

He says, the first one that I find doing that, I'm going to give him a strap on both hands, three on each hand. Those days the teachers carried out discipline right in the class. Now you can't touch anybody, get human resources on top of your head.

And again, he turned around very much upset because one of the girls by one of the boys got elastic band in her hand, but not knowing how to really shoot it, it hit the teacher instead of a fellow student. He says, now they're picking on me. And he got upset and he turned around and it was obvious who did it.

It was Margaret, nine-year-old Margaret, never caused any trouble. Her face went all red, who did it? She had to admit it. Now he was sorry that he said, I'll give a strap on both hands.

But he says, if I don't carry out the discipline, I'll lose the respect of the class. So while he was reaching for the strap, he thought of a plan. He says, is there a boy in the class that will take Margaret's punishment? And when he said it a second time, you know who put his hand up? A boy of 12.

And it was a teacher's son, the son of the teacher. And he was very glad to give him the discipline and not her. Now, this is my point.

When he finished giving his own son the discipline that really should have fallen upon Margaret, he turned to the class, he says, now how many shall I give Margaret? And practically they all could say, not one, because you said three on each hand. And Ronnie took the three on each hand, she spared. That's substitution.

That's what took place at the place called Calvary. All our sins were laid upon them. God who knew them laid them on them and believing we go free.

It's not that God, you know, what a wonderful love can save you without punishing somebody. Somebody had to be punished. And Christ bore the punishment, willingness on his own body, the tree.

And that's what we have read here. Christ was on an irreversible course. He was going to go to the cross.

I have a baptism to be baptized with. All the sins from Cain right on down to this present day, only God would do them, were laid upon his son. And the Bible says on the basis of that, when he cried, it is finished, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

Christ on an irreversible course. It was Calvary, the cross. The saints are on the irreversible course.

I have not seen nor heard neither hath it entered the heart of man. The things that the Lord had prepared for them that love him. I remember having meetings with Burt Joyce and Lancelot and Labrador, maybe 25 years ago.

And I says, brother, Burt Joyce has his, have you ever heard anybody speak about heaven? Well, he kind of thought, well, he says, we refer to heaven. Yes, we refer to heaven. But I says, I have never heard of anybody speak about heaven itself.

But I says, I'm going to my room now. And for the meeting tonight, I'm going to take out heaven and tomorrow night on hell. After two hours, I came back to his room.

I says, brother Joyce, I'm not going to speak about heaven because there's nothing in the Bible about heaven. Now don't be shocked, brother and sisters. There's lots about what's in heaven, but you and I don't know what heaven's going to be like.

I have not seen nor heard, neither hath it entered in the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love him, but he's revealed them unto us by his Holy Spirit. I know what's in heaven. Our Redeemer is there.

Some of us got relationships in heaven, our rewards are there, and there's a lot of things in heaven. When you come to the book of the Revelation, again, it's negative. No night there, no pain, no sorrow, no death there, all negative.

And so where's heaven? I don't know where heaven is, but I know who's in heaven that makes heaven. Heaven is heaven because Christ is there. When my kids and maybe your children did the same thing, we lived out in the country on five acres and when they'd come home sometimes, neither myself nor my wife was at home.

I was away visiting lightly. She was just shopping and not back in time. And when the kids were very young, they'd come and open the door and they'd call out, first of all, mother, no sound, no sound, no response.

They'd call out, dad, again, I wasn't there. Listen to those children. It was a house and not a home.

Heaven's not so much a place, but it's the person that makes heaven. You must know him in time to enjoy him throughout the countless ages of eternity. Yes, the saints are on an irreversible course.

It's heaven and home. And oh, I'm so glad when I hear the gospel preached in the quietness of my own soul, as we get older and near the end of the journey, we know it's going to be absent from the body and present with the Lord Jesus. I remember talking to a professor of the university in the city of Vancouver.

That's when we, before we went out in the work of the Lord, about 20 or 25 of us went to the open air on a Sunday night at Bramble and Hastings on the library steps, a lot of area there for people to stand. And amongst other people, but very few stayed long enough to listen. But there was a man and he looked very well-dressed.

And about four or five Sunday nights in a row, he came out to listen to the gospel. So I said to Ed Tracy, you go this way and I'll go this way and we'll corner him. Wasn't necessary.

He just stood there. And with a tract, we approached him. And I says, sir, I says, we've noticed you've been out a few times.

Are you? Oh no. He says, I'm not interested in what you got to say. He says, I believe when I die, I'll go six feet under him.

That'll be the end of me. I says, you hope that. I says, sir, let's look at it this way.

I said, I've been saved for three years now. And I says, and we have peace. We have joy.

We've got purpose in life. We know where we're going and we want others to follow in their footsteps. If there's nothing after death, what have I, what have I missed? Nothing.

I says, I'm not taking that chance. But I says, if there's a life after death, as the Bible says, it's appointed unto men once to die after death, the judgment. And there is a life after death.

Are you willing to take that chance? Oh, friend and fellow traveler to eternity night. It is appointed unto men and woman, boys and girl wants to die. And after death of judgment, there's no chance about it.

The Bible is God's authority. And though heaven and earth pass away, my word shall not on the grounds of what the word of God says. We know there's a life after death that's either heaven or hell forever.

That leads me to the last point. Not only is this world system on an irreversible course, Armageddon, not those only as a savior on an irreversible course, Calvary, not only are the saints on an irreversible course, heaven and home, listen, the unsaved tonight. And if you're one of those in the meeting, you're on an irreversible course, hell and the lake of fire.

Sam 19 and 17 says, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. Oh, my dear friend and fellow traveler to eternity. Like our brother has been preaching and bringing out that old English word.

Behold, look, take a concentrated look upon them. Behold the lamb of God that bears away. If there ever was anyone that loved you, it is the Lord Jesus.

He gave us all that you might have everlasting life. Come to him tonight. You say, well, what do I need to be saved? I struggled with that and you do likely to.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The word of God is God's basis for belief. If you take God at his word, so as the Bible says, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast.

You come believing that Christ died for you and God will assure you from the holy scriptures that you have become a child of God and inheritor of eternal life. Trust him today and be saved for the great eternity. Shall we pray? We thank the loving father that down through the ages this gospel has been proclaimed and Christ is the center and the circumference of the love of God and the revelation of salvation to the soul.

We do pray for young and old alike that they might be wise for eternity and seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he's near. Bless thy word here and every other place for Christ our dearest sake. Amen.

Shall we sing a hymn 201 together? 201. Read thou art not very far from the kingdom. Maybe you're very close tonight.