Transition

Amen. I want you to turn here this morning to Matthew 24 again. We've been dealing with our series on wars and rumors of wars, dealing with the signs of the times, because I believe things are up in pace, becoming far more intensive, becoming closer together, becoming more obvious, that the nations of the world are being set in place.

We know that if you watch the news to any degree, all the nations of the world are arming up, preparing. Generals, presidents, prime ministers are constantly talking about the third world war. Nations are aligning.

Nations are preparing. They're not talking about peace. They're not saying peace, peace at this moment.

They do at times, but not at this moment. They're not trying to engage for peace. They're preparing for an inevitable war.

It's not going to be a small war. It's not going to be less than the previous wars. It's going to be global.

It is going to be widespread involving all nations of the world. And it's going to involve weaponry that we've never had involved in wars ever before, to the degree it's going to be. You're going to have an unleashing of power that you cannot imagine.

And so Jesus gave this, and this is what we've dealt with now. This is going to be part five here this morning of our messages. We have dealt with and looked at Jesus giving this as a sign that war is going to be like the birth pangs or the contractions of a woman about to give birth.

She's gripped by them. They become intensive and closer together. You can't ignore them.

You can't do anything else. At that point, you're only engaged in one thing. This is birth pangs.

This is the beginning of sorrows. We are locked into something here. We'll never pull back from it.

And one of those signs Jesus gave were wars and the rumors of wars, not just wars, but also the rumors of wars. And he actually gave us a warning. Let's read from Matthew chapter 24.

My message here this morning might seem like a strange title initially, and especially in this series, but I'm going to explain very quickly. There's at least one person, no, about 10 people who'll immediately know what I'm saying and where I'm going, but one definitely. My title is Transition.

Reading from Matthew 24, verse 1, sorry, verse 3. Matthew 24, verse 3. And as he, that is Jesus Christ, sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear, notice this, and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet for nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.

And many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.

And then, and then shall the end come. Let's pray together. Father, we pray right now for your Holy Spirit.

We know, oh God, that your Holy Spirit is working mightily in this world. He is the spirit of prophecy. He has given us this Bible.

Lord God, he is bearing witness to it right across the globe. Many are getting saved and nations far flung. Lord God, you are reaching tribes that haven't even heard the gospel before.

My God, you're reaching communities for the very first time and breaking in upon families. We thank you that this gospel of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, of his death burial, Lord God, and resurrection, Lord God, it's being preached and proclaimed in all of the earth. But Lord God, we need an outpouring, a revival, an awakening, oh God.

We need a lasting gathering of the last harvest of souls, Lord God, before, oh God, the wrath of God falls. And oh God, we're asking of you, Lord God, even here this morning, awaken this church, awaken this local bride, oh God, awaken these individuals. Let a fire burn, oh God, a fire for holiness, a fire for truth, a fire for Jesus, a deep love, oh God, and a gaping love for Jesus.

Don't let the growing iniquity around us dampen our love, Lord God, or make us grow cold. We're asking of you that we might burn with holy fire, that we'd experience an awakening, behold, the bridegroom cometh. Lord God, that we'd see the signs, that we'd recognize what Jesus taught, that we'd be able to discern the hour, the time that we're living in, and Lord God, begin to prepare and make ourselves ready.

Lord God, come, Lord Jesus, we long for you, we desire you, oh God. We're tired, we're weary, but oh God, we're so filled with hope and expectation concerning you, and Lord God, we want to do the will of God in this last hour, in Jesus' mighty name, amen, amen. My message, transition.

Transition is a change, a change, but I'm going to give you the context here this morning. We have read in Matthew 24, verse 8, that these signs that Jesus teaches are the beginning of sorrows. The word sorrows is the word for birth pangs, or the contractions that grip a woman, the labor that she goes through in the bringing forth of a child.

When you go to the Bible, you read the term birth pangs, or pangs, or giving birth time and time again. In other words, Jesus in his parables and his teachings uses the birth pangs of a woman to apply it in a spiritual way to other things. Also, the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament, New Testament, uses these birth pangs, this short period of time at the end of nine months of pregnancy.

The Bible constantly refers to birth pangs, but it uses it in different ways. Here in Matthew 24 and 8, we actually read about birth pangs being the global signs that will indicate that we are the last generation and that Jesus Christ is about to return again the second time. We also read about birth pangs in Romans 8 concerning the earth, that it is groaning, it is travailing, it is desiring, it is bringing forth something.

So this is even used that all of creation is in travail. It is in birth pangs. Our world is in birth pangs.

We read in Revelation chapter 12 concerning the woman, a vision of the woman who is Israel in the last days, and we see that she is pregnant and she is given birth. I could take you through the Bible and show you time and time again how this statement or this thing a woman experiences at the point of child birth. After nine months of carrying a baby, of being pregnant, of having a child grown, after nine months she reaches birth pangs and that birth pangs is used time and time and time again in the Bible to represent different things.

We have it in Jeremiah 50, 43 concerning the king of Babylon at the time of the fall of the city of Babylon. He's like a woman experiencing birth pangs. We have it again in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 1 in the teaching of the apostle Paul.

Listen to what it says here because these verses are very important. But of the times and of the seasons. He's talking about the spiritual times and seasons taught in Bible prophecy.

He's actually saying here, Paul is teaching, as is all through the Bible, that the Bible does teach certain things happening at certain times at certain seasons. So certain things will happen at a spiritual winter or in a spiritual summer. In other words, if you know the season, you know what's going to happen.

If you know the time that you live in, then you know what is going to happen. The Bible teaches that. So he says, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, talking to the church, you have no need that I write on to you.

He's writing to Christians at Thessalonica, saved about two years and less. Young Christians, but he's saying, you know the times and seasons. I wish you knew as well as them.

I wish the church abroad knew the times and seasons. In other words, biblical Christians know the order of things. They know what's going to happen when, they know events, they've been well taught.

And he says, I have no need to write on to you concerning these things. For yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord, so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.

As travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Notice this, that a time is coming concerning times and seasons and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. That those who aren't saved, those who do not know Jesus, those who do not love truth and do not love Christ, those who walk in darkness, which is disobedience.

And this includes people who say they know Jesus, but they're walking in darkness. That's how I know they're not ready. They walk in darkness because they're children of darkness.

And it actually says they are going to get caught unawares. Jesus is going to come as a thief in the night. And do you know how it's going to come upon these people who are not ready? Sudden destruction is going to come.

And he likens it as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. In other words, a whole generation is going to be like a woman gripped in birth pangs, not ready. Tremendous pain where you can't do other things.

You are gripped. You're locked into this. There's nothing you can do.

But ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. He's not coming as a thief in the night for me. He is not coming as a thief in the night for those that walk in the day or are true believers in Christ.

He only comes as a thief for those walking in darkness, not ready. The foolish virgins will not be ready. The wise virgins will be ready.

The wise virgins are walking in the light. The foolish virgins are walking in the dark. And so it takes them unawares.

So those caught off guard are caught as a woman in birth pangs, the same effect. You're all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness.

Therefore, let us not sleep as the others, but let us be let us watch and be sober for they that sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do.

I'm going to preach to you on transition. Last week after preaching on birth pangs, and if you didn't hear it, I'm encouraging you to listen to the message on birth pangs. It's important for this and it's important for us as a church at the minute.

After preaching on birth pangs last week, it was Neve O'Regan, always good to say McNamara there, have to be careful. But Neve messaged me and it was almost like a prophecy to me what she explained, something about this, which I didn't know. I'm a man.

I don't know these things. I'm learning. And why I learn is because I know it has biblical importance.

She sent me a message and she's a mother of six. She's got some experience in this. She's speaking from experience and she said she'd talked to the midwife and the midwife had told her this.

The medical term at the end of labor, that's used for that period at the end of nine months after birth pangs begin, at the end of that first stage of birth pangs, it is called transition. That's the medical term. That's what they call it.

It's a very specific part of birth pangs. Transition. Listen what happens then.

See, this isn't the easy beginning birth pangs at intervals. No, this is more. Transition as at the end of that period where it begins to grip you, birth pangs become obvious, dominant, close together.

You can't ignore them anymore. Remember the 10 signs Jesus has taught you. He says, these are the beginning of birth pangs.

The beginning. Listen what transition is when it becomes so intense emotionally. Sorry, so intense emotionally, you feel you cannot go on.

Mentally, you are gone is a voice of experience. You feel you can't do it. You feel you can't bring the child forth.

You don't want to. Then your body suddenly kicks in and the baby comes forth at that very point. In other words, at the point of birth and the baby, that's when you reach your emotional height in all of this.

You reach a point just before your body brings forth the baby when mentally you can't do this anymore. When you feel like giving up, when you say, I don't have strength. When your thoughts and your words and your desires turn in a very different direction, you're not thinking of the baby.

You're actually thinking of the pain, the pain surrounds you. And it happens with every pregnancy. Mentally, you have given up.

Now I looked into this a little bit more because of Niamh just pointing this out. And so I read a few other things. It's this stage of birth pangs characterized by a big emotional change.

You might feel all kinds of feelings at this point in labor, but this phase is very, very short. Very often just 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes an hour. See, it's not all the birth pangs, but it's a specific point just before the baby is born or just before the finale.

You are on an emotional high. Your emotions go through the roof. And some of you ladies, you know about that.

You know what it's like. And so during the transition, contractions come closer together and can last for at least 60 to 90 seconds. It's not long and another hits and another hits and another hits.

And so they all say being prepared is the key to not succumbing to your fears. Your anxieties are just given up. This is called transition and it is a vital point.

It is the hardest point, the most dangerous point in childbirth. This is the point in the labor when your hard earned focus will begin to fail you and your mind loses its control. You need someone there to speak to you to say, keep going, keep pushing, hold on.

It's not long now and it's all going to be over. And as we said earlier in John chapter 16, Jesus said concerning when a woman gives birth, as soon as she gives birth, she has sorrow, she has travail. But as soon as she gives birth, immediately she rejoices.

All sorrow has gone. All travail has gone. All pain has gone.

And instantly, you know, when it's darkest, the day is about to break. Do you realize when we reach our crisis points in our Christian life, Jesus is just about to answer. I've seen it my entire life, all through my Christian life, the crisis points I'm about to give in.

I can't go any further. I'm not sure I can do that. Jesus intervenes with miracles.

He actually breaks upon us with daylight and he does extraordinary things. It says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and 15, notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing. Talking about women, Christian women.

She shall be saved in childbearing. Not talking about salvation. It's talking about being saved or not dying in childbirth.

If they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. So the Bible gives a promise to every pregnant woman. I know the dangers aren't there today, but it used to be.

A hundred years ago, many women died in childbirth. I've read the testimonies of those whose wives died bringing forth a child. It was a regular thing.

It was a frequent thing. Many men in past days in the 19th century or the 18th century married three times. That was very, very normal because a woman bringing forth a baby, it was a very volatile situation.

Thank God we've got all the medicine. Thank God for the nurses, the hospitals. They're not perfect.

We all know that they're far from perfect, but I tell you, we've got a lot in around us, a lot of safeguards, a lot of understanding and a lot of protection. You see, I believe the Bible constantly, the Holy Spirit and Jesus constantly use birth pangs. This bringing forth of a baby to speak prophetically into the last generation, more than anything else.

It covers every aspect of life. And I'm going to show you, and not only speaks of the coming of the Lord, not only speaks about the generation left behind being caught as a woman and birth pangs. It doesn't only say about Israel and birth pangs, bringing forth the man child in the last days.

No, no. It speaks about more. It speaks about God's people who are going to be in birth pangs.

Birth pangs are something that we in this hour are going to experience. And I believe we're going to experience transition. There is coming a transition.

Birth is very dangerous. And so the Bible instructs us in childbirth, if they continue in faith, if, and charity and holiness with sobriety, they'll be saved. I believe this is true of the church as well.

See those churches that are birthing forth that are in this transition, that are in birth pangs, that are in travail, that are pregnant in this hour. Sorry to use that term, but I believe a church can be pregnant. Do you know what that church has to continue in the faith and in charity and in holiness and in sobriety.

Let not a church think that it's going to be gripped by birth pangs. And the way I'm going to speak about it shortly, prophetically and the will of God and bring forth what God wants them to bring forth. Unless they're continuing in the faith, unless they're walking in charity, which is the term for love and action and in holiness, a church that's lost its love, its faith and its holiness is in a very dangerous aspect.

You are not given the hope of surviving childbirth. In fact, trying to birth something in this generation, you may die. Many churches are trying to birth forth movements, revivals, many things in this hour.

Listen to what happened in 1 Samuel chapter 4 and his daughter-in-law, this is Eli, that far from God, blind, fat, cold, disobedient priest who died. Listen to what happened. His daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife was with child near to be delivered.

And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the woman that stood by her said unto her, fear not for thou has borne a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.

And she named the child Ichabod saying the glorious departed from Israel because the ark of God was taken and because her father-in-law and her husband had died. And she said the glorious departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken. She died in childbirth.

She died at the point of transition. When it gets darkest, when your mind kicks in and says I can't do this, when all manners of pressures come and you lose strength and you think I can't do this anymore. It is one of the most glorious points in a woman's life, but one of the most dangerous points.

It is filled with expectation of what is just about to happen and yet it's filled with grave dangers. And so childbirth is not a casual thing. See what we've already said about Matthew 24 and 25.

It's the midnight hour, the time of the beginning of sorrows or the birth pangs that Jesus talked about 10 in number. He said these 10 signs are going to come. Wars and rumors of wars are just one of those.

And he said they're going to come at the end of nine months of pregnancy. You get birth pangs at the end of all the prophetic history. You're going to get a short period of time almost like these 15 minutes of birth pangs.

And there is going to be a time of being gripped by these birth pangs. And at the end of that period is transition. A very mentally, emotionally testing time.

You know what Jesus taught? He called this the midnight hour of the wise and the foolish virgins. All of them are going to be there. All of them are going to wake up from their sleep at the midnight hour.

All of them begin to hear the call. Behold the bridegroom cometh. Jesus is coming again.

Do you know what the wake-up call is? It's seeing beyond doubt that the 10 birth pangs are happening. They begin to understand the signs of the times. They understand times and seasons.

They're not ignorant. No man knows the day. No man knows the hour.

But we've got to know the season. We ought to be wise enough. Saints, you ought to know the time that we're living in.

And if you don't know, why don't you know? But do you know what? There's an hour where both the wise and the foolish are asleep. One have prepared. The other have not prepared for the nighttime hour.

All are sleeping. All of them, their lamps are going out. It's a crisis hour.

But the wise are ready when the call comes. This is the hour of birth pangs that's going to grip the foolish and the wise virgins. Five of them are not going to make it five hour.

The five wise are ready for birth pangs. They're ready for the transition. See, what is that transition hour? It's midnight.

It's the hour of darkness. The hour where your mind will not suffice. Where your emotions will not carry you through.

Your resolution. Your choices. Oh, I've chosen to follow Jesus.

That won't sustain you. That's why in Matthew 24, Jesus said this. He says, in those days, birth pangs, in those days, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived.

And it's not possible. And I'll tell you why. Because he's not talking about your resolution or you knowing truth or you knowing the gospel.

He's speaking about his elect. He uses that term because this is now his work. See, I believe birth pangs and the midnight hour is going to be the most deceptive hour in all the world's history.

The most confusing. And what's being let loose on the earth, you haven't even seen it begin yet. I'm warning you here.

Transition is coming. At midnight hour, where you're going to feel like fainting. I'm really warning you.

And do you know what? In that hour, it's not going to be your resolution or your knowledge of the Bible. And that's very important. Or your prayer life.

And that's very important. You know what's going to keep you the hand of God? Because we have so many in the church say, I can't be deceived. I know the Bible.

I'd never be deceived. You don't know what you're dealing with. Spiritual powers and principalities.

The like of which you can't even imagine. And they're going to mess with the minds and hearts of people. And there's people who are trying to play church and play Christianity.

They are going to get caught out in this hour. Because something's going to get unleashed, the like of which you have never, ever encountered. If God doesn't keep you in that hour, you will not be kept by anything else.

And I've got a lot to say. Don't judge me on my statement about deception, because I've taught a lot on how a Christian can be deceived. But not ultimately on their salvation, when they love Christ and walk with Christ.

So I believe we're at a real crisis point at the moment. We came through COVID, a worldwide lockdown, utterly unique in world history. It's only happened once.

Do you know that within the past few weeks, the WHO, the World Health Organization, has ratified and passed through the International Health Regulation. It is the first ever pandemic agreement. And they spent three years of tough negotiations trying to get all the nations of the world to sign this and be legally bound into this.

And so now we've got 196 countries that are legally bound, that when we get another, when we get another pandemic or another world crisis of their choosing, and they say, this is a lockdown, all nations must fall in step. And you as an individual, it's not what your country says. It's not what the laws of your land say.

It will be this WHO organization. And if you know anything about that, if you know anything about its leadership, that ought to alarm you terribly. That being put into their hands is power like this.

The past two years, immorality and the pulpits of the greatest pulpits in America have been exposed for longstanding sexual immorality. And I could keep going. See, I believe we're going to reach a crisis point concerning these 10 beginning of sorrows.

What are they? Number one, deception in the church. Take heed that no man deceive you. Deception in the church, not in the world.

It's not going to be the world that's deception. It's in the church. It's false prophets doing signs and wonders and miracles.

And it's them that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. Number two, it's wars in the world. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars here.

It means to sit as an audience, not to be involved in the war, to sit in the audience. Number three, the clash of cultures for nation shall rise against nation. And kingdom against kingdom.

Number four, famines. Number five, pestilence, which is all manners of diseases. Number six, earthquakes.

More earthquakes are being recorded now constantly than ever before in world history. Number seven, worldwide persecution of the church. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations.

This is not the tribulation. This is before the tribulation. The tribulation hasn't begun at this point.

This is another time. Number eight, betrayal in the church. Verse 10, and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.

We've just been in training, but this is going to explode. Betrayal by brothers who you thought were in the church and they're going to get offended with one another and hate one another. And believe me, someone who hates, there's something wrong.

Number nine, abound in iniquity around the church, not in the church, around the church. Verse 12, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And then I won't mention number 10 just yet.

Let me give you a message just more than three points and take you to a scripture. If you can turn to it very quickly, if not listen very closely. Isaiah 37 verse three, and they said unto me, thus saith Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and a blasphemy for the children are come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth.

Here you have birth pangs and that point of transition, that 15 minute point at the end of nine months where it's now applied to Hezekiah and to the remnant of Judah in the city of Jerusalem in Isaiah 37. And I've got three points for you right now. And I want you to listen carefully.

I've got three points. The remnant prepared, the remnant in revival and the remnant in transition. Let me tell you about a holy remnant of God's people that comes to the phase of transition in childbirth and birth and something for spiritually and faces death.

They have no strength, no energy. Their mind fails them. Their emotions fail them.

They are worried. They are concerned. It's a very real thing.

And yet right at that point, they see revival. Saints, don't despair if your heart's fainting. This could be our greatest hour.

Number one, the remnant prepared. Do you know where God prepared Hezekiah? And that remnant that's seen one of the greatest revivals of the Old Testament. Do you know where they were prepared? When they were prepared? How they were prepared? Right up until the day before revival began.

Listen, they're prepared in darkness. You don't get prepared in revival, for revival, unless you are very dead or you're a sinner. God actually, those who are going to be used to bring revival or in a revival are prepared before the revival, not in the revival.

They're actually prepared at a time where there's no revival, where it's cold, it's hard, it's lukewarm, where there seems to be an apostasy, a compromising all around them in what they call the church. There is no time to prepare in revival for revival. It breaks upon a nation suddenly.

Listen how God prepared Hezekiah. He was 25 years old when the revival began. He was nine years old when his father began to reign as king.

And for the next 16 years, from nine years old to 25 years old, for a period of 16 years in Jerusalem, in Judea, which represents the remnant of God all through the ages, he watched the darkest spiritual conditions fill the entire nation. As a little boy, a child, he was dedicated by his father to Moloch in the fire. His father, King Ahaz, actually dedicated his children to false gods.

His father was an apostate. He's in Judah, on the throne of Israel, in Jerusalem. He knows the truth.

He's in the temple. He's in the house of God. He's got all the titles.

He has been raised in the real. But suddenly, Ahaz becomes king of Israel at the age of 20, and he reigns for 16 years. His father, Jotham, had built up the temple, fortified Jerusalem, defeated God's enemies.

But not Ahaz. Ahaz is an apostate in the house of God. See, we've watched it in our generation.

Men get in control of the churches, the denominations, become pastors, take over the Bible schools. Charles Spurgeon's Bible school has just closed its doors in London in the past weeks, in the past month or so. Closed the doors.

After all of these years, many generations of men of God being prepared, they closed the doors. Why? Because they moved away. They began to promote Rick Warren and had moved to compromise an apostasy.

Thank God the doors shut. They changed direction. They preached the foreign gospel.

Since I've watched it in entire denominations and individual churches, you get an Ahaz coming in. And in one short period of time, he destroys the church of that generation. Ahaz took the nation from revival to apostasy and from prosperity to poverty in a short few years.

The more he was afflicted, the more he sinned. God allowed enemies to rise up, allowed armies to march against them. But the more the opposition came, the more the enemy encroached in the land and took over their nation, the more he sinned.

He didn't repent. Not at all. In fact, the Bible says Ahaz made Judah naked without restraint.

See, he created a new revival. Oh, he didn't say he was serving a different God. He said, this is a new revival with new sacrifices, new kinds of prayer, new kinds of worship, new kinds of forgiveness.

We redefine what forgiveness says. Do you know what he done? He moved the old brazen altar out of the way and brought a brand new one in from Damascus. Oh, we believe in the altar.

We still have the old gospel. We still preach the truth, but he wrecked everything he destroyed. Now it's a different kind of worship.

Get rid of the blood. See, if you lose the conviction of sin, the real Holy Ghost, you don't want the brazen altar anymore. You lose any desire for that.

It was a revival. No, he called it revival. It was a revival without changed life and the gospel without repentance.

This is where God prepared Hezekiah. He grew up watching his entire city begin to corrode the entire city. It actually says there was a false gospel on every single street in Jerusalem.

We're told that finally, just before the change came, the doors of the temple got shut. Ahaz closed the doors of God's house. He ruined the entire thing and yet he was bold.

He was confident. He thought he was in revival. There were more people around than ever before.

Religion was more popular than ever before, but they had destroyed the faith of Israel. But do you know what? In his own household was a young man who come up through his childhood, into his teens, all through his teens, then into his twenties and he's not in his early twenties. He's being prepared of God.

When does he get prepared? During apostasy. Things aren't getting better. Things are getting worse.

They are plummeting. It's in his own house. It's his father.

It's in the house of God, the church that Hezekiah goes to. It is getting worse. The city, the culture, the nation, all of it around him.

Since it was in that environment of darkness, great pressure, great opposition and ridicule, that you had a young man called Hezekiah begin to be prepared, set apart unto God. Things didn't increasingly get better. They kept plummeting out of control.

This is a remnant getting prepared. Number two, a remnant in revival. This was among one of the most sudden revivals in the entire Bible.

It was the greatest of the Old Testament. Few revivals emphasized the blood like Hezekiah's revival. And guess what? It happened in one month.

It says in 2 Chronicles 29, 39, and Hezekiah rejoiced on all the people and God, that God had prepared the people for the thing was done suddenly. When were they prepared before the suddenly? Remember that word suddenly. Acts 2 verse 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven.

Suddenly. They're hiding for their lives. The Lord was crucified.

Their enemies are raging on the streets. They're hiding. But suddenly, everything changes in one hour.

Suddenly, men that were scared, who seven weeks ago denied Jesus and said, I don't know him. Suddenly stand up in the center of Jerusalem and preach and see 3,000 born again. Suddenly.

So you've never seen that. You haven't had a suddenly. I mean like revival suddenly.

Your generation has not seen this yet. You read about in your Bible. You read about it in history books.

You maybe hear someone share about something that's at least remotely like revival. Do you know where God prepared them? It was in an hour of apostate darkness where everything was being destroyed and the armies were marching against Jerusalem. It says God prepared the people.

The word prepared means to be firm, be stable, be firmly established, to stand upright. It means to covenant with God. And so God in the hour of darkness is preparing a people.

See in Matthew 24, I believe the wise virgins have been prepared for an hour, an awakening call, a time of revival and a time of meeting the Lord. I actually believe that they were prepared. The wise virgins have prepared themselves even before the darkness fell.

They were ready for it. We're told that Ahaz died. In one moment there was a termination and a quick sudden work took place.

The most sudden and shocking revival of the Old Testament. And it was an absolute reversal of everything. Everything suddenly reversed.

Listen closely to this statistic. 16 years followed by 16 days of recovery. It only took 16 days to repair Jerusalem.

16 days, two and a half weeks, less than two and a half weeks. And the entire city is transformed. What was done in 16 years is reversed in days, in weeks.

Saints, you can't imagine what a real revival is like. You can't even fathom it. That's why it's so hard for so many to believe a revival can take place in this hour.

They say, but the machinery of revival is destroyed in the church. There's no foundations anymore. You can't just have it all change overnight.

You can't have a sudden work of God like that. They can't believe it. So they believe a few scriptures that say it's going to get worse and worse.

Yes, it is. Wicked men are going to become worse. Yes, they are.

Deceivers are going to become worse. Yes, they are. Events are going to move on politically and militarily.

Of course they are. It's not coming back. But listen, the Bible time and time again speaks about sudden revivals and in gathering the harvest.

We haven't had the foreman latter rain coming in the last month. It has not happened yet. 25 years old.

It took him eight days to sanctify the house of the Lord. There's Hezekiah. He watched apostasy.

He had to endure it all his days. And yet in eight days, he clears out the entirety of God's hearts, the temple in Jerusalem, 16 days to finish the work within the city of Jerusalem. And within two months, it has swept the entire nation from end to end.

Everyone is ablaze. There is a move of God. The revival was entirely according to the word of God.

It was a blood revival, a sacrifice revival. The altar of God was there. Pure worship, pure prayer, a real message of repentance.

Holiness was there. This is a real man of God. And you know how God prepared Hezekiah? Do you know who preached to him? He didn't have internet, didn't have YouTube.

He didn't have his iPhone, but there was a voice sent from God. See, during that dark hour, do you know who was preaching? Isaiah, the prophet was in the nation. You don't read about him in the story.

You don't even read about him interconnecting with Hezekiah not once during his childhood, teens or twenties. You don't see any interaction, but as soon as the revival begins, Hezekiah and Isaiah are working together. Do you know who got to that young man? Was a prophet called Isaiah.

Also, during that same time period, Hosea was alive and Micah was alive. Three prophets of God, all at the same time, all magnificent prophets, but you don't hear their voice. We have their books, we have their writings, we have their testimony, we have their message, and yet you don't see it in our apostasy.

You know why? They're ignored by those in power who are dominating the churches of that hour. But do you know what? There was a young man who heard the message of Isaiah. Do you know what he heard? Isaiah 53.

Do you know what he heard? Isaiah 7. He heard the testimony of Isaiah 6 about having prophesied to nations and cities and that an angel of the Lord came and took a coal of fire from off the altar in heaven and touched his lips and he had a holiness experience with God, a life-changing encounter with God. See, you need someone to tell you there's something better. We need a message in this hour to prepare us.

How did Hezekiah get ready for a revival? How did he know what to do day one? How come he was so prepared? He didn't get prepared in revival. He didn't start saying, what are we going to do? He immediately, on that day his dad died, immediately changed everything. Saints, I'm waiting for such a day.

In one hour, you're going to see more change and happen than has happened in my entire lifetime. I promise you, in one hour, we'll see things that will shock you and almost so fast, you won't have time to get ready for this. You won't have time to prepare for this.

You won't have time to jump on the boat. This will move so fast, you will literally watch what God does. See, God is going to move by His power.

Third and finally, I've covered a lot. I'm mishmashing these sermons at the minute, but forgive me. Third and finally, the remnant in transition.

Now we come to birth pangs. We come to this scripture that it talks about. You see, Isaiah was a prophet who knew about birth pangs.

He mentions it many times. Like, for instance, Isaiah 21 verse 3, and Hezekiah knew about this. Therefore are my loins filled with pain.

Pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth. I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

This is Isaiah experiencing birth pangs in his own personal spiritual experience. Listen again. Pangs have taken hold of me.

He's talking about birth pangs. He's likening it to a woman giving birth. The pangs of a woman that travaileth.

He's very exact. What's he speaking about? God's just giving him a vision of the fall of the city of Babylon, of God's judgment. He's got a message to preach to Babylon in that hour.

You're finished. But you know what happens? He's not ranting and raving. He is a man of great pain and agony.

It's like he's been lifted into the city of Babylon. He's in Judah. He's in the land of God.

He's in Jerusalem, but it's like he's been transported to the city of Babylon. He's like a woman in agony, in pain. When I looked up that transition period, and I looked one, I thought this might be too much for poor Hannah.

She's not here this morning, but she'll be online. If I start to tell her all the things that she's going to experience in transition, and I looked up these and I started, there was a lady online, a Christian lady, and she listed all the things. She went for natural childbirth.

So no injections, no epi, whatever it is, none of the drugs, none of that. She's just going to go through. I'm doing it.

And she's signed up to a plan. I'm doing it the natural way. They have to sign for it.

Do you know why? Do you know why they have to sign before, I'm doing this naturally? Because she says, once you get there, you scream out, you change your mind. Bring the drugs. I don't want to do this.

I renounce my signature on that sheet of paper. Get me something badly now. And she went through.

I read that. I was going to read them too, but I thought, no, it's too much for anyone who's going to have this in the days ahead. And she just listed all the things with her three kids that she went through that she said.

She threw people out of the room. She said things she had to apologize for later. Do you know what she is? She's in transition.

She's in transition. This is the greatest hour. She's about to give birth.

Do you know what happened with Isaiah? Here he is prophesying, but do you know what? He feels the burden of the people. He is like a woman in travail. He is birthing something forward.

I'm not happy about people who stand on street corners and just revile people and rebuke people and point at people and say, you're a fornicator. They don't know that. They don't know that.

We're sent to preach the gospel. Men are already condemned. We're to rescue men.

Very easy to condemn a man, rescue them, reach them with the power of the gospel. And we need that. We need the grace and the power of God.

The vision of Babylon falls upon him and he prophesies, but he enters into the grief. He is a broken, weeping prophet. He feels the travail.

He's not rejoicing over Babylon's fall. He's not saying that serves them right. They rejected God.

He's actually broken over that generation that rejected God. Or what about Isaiah 26, 17, Isaiah again speaking, he says, like as a woman with child, the drawth near the time of her delivery, it is pain and cry out in her pangs. You know what he's talking about? Jerusalem.

He's talking about Judah. It's a certain time that God's people were drawn near to an Isaiah 26. And he said, it's exactly like a woman in travail.

She cries out in her pangs. So have we a nice side. Oh Lord.

We have been with child. We have been in pain. We have as at worth brought forth wind.

We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth. Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. He's describing pain and distress experienced by God's people in that hour.

God desired to birth something forth, but they weren't able. They had no strength to bring us forth. It was during times of great distress.

God's people often find themselves in a state of spiritual birth pangs, fervently seeking deliverance. Lord, deliver me. We are carrying something immense.

Either I'm going to die or bring something forth. And Isaiah chapter 26 speaks about an experience of God's people in Jerusalem. They're not able to do it.

They've carried this baby all this time, all the plans, all the preparation. But when they get to transition, they've had it. They've given up.

They give up on a spiritual work in a very real way. But listen, he speaks about another move of God in Isaiah 37 verse 3. Listen to it. And they said unto him, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and a blasphemy.

Do you know what's happening in Isaiah 37? The king of Assyria comes up against Israel, against Jerusalem specifically. King Sennacherib and his general Rabshaketh leads the armies. They invade the land of Judah and they take after town, after town, city after city, hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching through the land, the enemies of God.

Guess who the king is? Hezekiah. Hezekiah. Here's this man prepared in darkness who's seen revival, seen God work.

And here he is again, the enemy invading the land. What are they going to do? He said, it's a day of trouble and of rebuke. The enemy is rebuking and blaspheming God.

For the children are come to the birth. Listen to what he says carefully. He says, we in Jerusalem, there's an army of 185,000 Assyrians marching against the walls of Jerusalem and they're going to destroy and annihilate the city.

They're going to bring it utterly down and annihilate it. They had made all the possible preparations for defense and now in the most critical time, they're prepared, they're ready. But you know what they're at? They're at transition.

Saints, listen to me. What transition looks like? You're prepared. You love God.

You serve God. You've defended the city and now you've got to sit tight. You're pregnant.

This is what he says. And there, he says, we have come to birth and there's no strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord, thy God will hear the words of Reb Sheketh, whom the king of Assyria, his master has sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God has heard.

Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left. Hezekiah sends Isaiah and says, pray man of God, pray man of God, begin to pray. Do you know what transition looks like spiritually? This is it.

This is it in the Bible. This is childbirth, not the nine months pregnancy, not even the beginning of labor. This is transition.

It's that 15 minutes where either you're going to die or you're going to give birth to something spiritual. And what Hezekiah is saying here, we need to pray right now. We are at a point where we've got 185,000 men around us and there's nothing more we can do.

We can't fight against them. We can't deliver ourselves. We can't do that.

We are the remnant of Israel. And you know, all we can do now, they knew that their energies are exhausted. They knew their strength is insufficient to defend them.

And they needed the interaction. They needed God to step in and revival and do something. What are they going to do? Let's go to prayer.

You know, in this hour, we need a man of prayer. We need a people who know how to pray, who know how to wrestle with God. When you get to birth pangs in Matthew 24, there better be a praying people.

See, as you see night, dawn on this world, saints were fast coming to this point in time. And guess what? The church isn't ready. Just not ready.

Not prepared, hasn't packed her hair, hasn't washed her hair. And I get concerned. Because when birth pangs grip you, there's lots of things you can't do.

And let me prove it. See with the wise and foolish virgins, when the midnight call comes, the midnight call is the signs of the times. The birth pangs gripping the remnant, gripping the church.

And do you know what? Five of them never got ready and can't get ready. The five foolish were told suddenly to go, oh, I've got no oil. Give me your oil.

Sorry, can't do that. And they go looking for oil. They've never had the real, but they don't know it until the darkness.

They don't know it until the signs of the times or the beginning of birth pangs. Until birth pangs come, you don't even know. You're a foolish virgin that's never interacted with the word of God.

Outwardly, you're fine. You've got your testimony. You've got your little lamp.

That's okay for the daytime, but it won't do you now. What you have will never sustain Matthew 24. Because you know what? All this is going to let loose on you.

This is the birth pangs, world wars, persecution, famines. You ain't seen nothing yet. How do you think you're going to prepare for that? I've got an answer.

Jesus. Jesus Christ. That's all you need.

The man of God prayed. The next morning when they woke up, guess what? One angel of the Lord had come in the night and had smote with his sword 185,000 soldiers. This was the mightiest army on earth.

This was the Syrian empire with its full might and power. And you've got a small pregnant remnant gripped by birth pangs and they're at their point of transition when their mind fails them and their emotions fail them and their heart fails them. And now it's over to God and God saves them.

Do you know what that is in Matthew 24? You have the wise virgins are ready. Oh yes, they fell asleep. They did fall asleep.

I wish that wasn't true, but they were ready. God help you if you fall asleep and you're not ready. You're in serious trouble.

At least if I fall asleep and I'm ready, I wake ready, prepared to do it because I'm waiting. I'm longing. But see in the dark, you easily fall asleep.

When you're waiting and there's a delay, easily doze off. I've been waiting for some people and go, just five minutes, I'll close my eyes. I can go a lot longer because you've fallen to deep sleep.

Who are these wise virgins? Are they in Matthew 24? They have to be in Matthew 24. They have to be. They are in Matthew 24 because it's all one message.

The wise and foolish virgins are awakened by the signs of the times and wars is just one of those. Dominant wars, constant, rising all around, increasing in intensity. All 10 of these only last 15 minutes.

Not in actuality in ours, the 15 minutes of a woman, a transition. I don't know how long that is, but it's equivalent to the nine months and even the birth pangs. This is the last stage before you bring forth and it's over and it's all over.

Do you know what you have these five wise virgins? Who are they? Where are they in Matthew 24? They're actually in different places. They're in verse 13, but he that shall endure unto them, the same shall be saved. See the birth pangs are the beginning, not the end, but this is the end.

We are to endure to the end. You know what it means? Stay the course, stay under, stay in your place, remain, persevere, undergo whatever happens. You're being hit mentally.

Saints, listen to me. AI is about to explode in our world. You don't know what's coming.

In the next year, next two years, it's going to explode in a way that's going to mess with your reality and your mind. A whole generation, their mind is going to be so messed. I just spent 10 minutes looking at some of this stuff and it began to mess with my mind.

What is reality? If you see what they're doing, it was Rory sent me just a few weeks ago, a video, sent me a nice video. And he says, I'm just working on this. And it was a video of Elisha getting axe head to come up out of the water.

I went, wow, where did he get that? He created it. His own version of the axe handle. The first one didn't work out very well.

So he said, oh, here's the second one. It works better. I think this is a high rate Hollywood movie.

No, it's Rory at his desktop messing around with a very, very elementary version of AI. You don't know what's coming and they're aimed at a generation and everything is exploding. And they've got their agreement with the who and everything's being set in place because there will be pestilence.

There will be earthquake. There will be wars. Hey, I'm not a doom and gloom preacher.

I love Jesus Christ. I believe in being born again. Listen, they are in verse 13.

They are going to endure to the end. The wise actually endure. They stay in their place.

They're not moving away. They're not backsliding. They're not moving away from the local church.

They're also in verse 14. And with this, I close. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.

And then the end shall come. Oh yes. I know brother Keith, the gospel has been preached over 2000 and it's spread out into all of the nations and it's reaching the last tribes and by this is birth pangs.

It's not the preacher of the gospel for 2000 years. This is birth pangs. Listen again.

This is an intense more than ever in world history. This is birth pangs when it gets so close together and so high on the rector scale that it becomes unbelievably noticeable. In other words, this is one of the 10 signs Jesus is just about to come.

What is it? This gospel, not just any gospel, not the prosperity gospel, not the compromise gospel, not an American gospel, not an Irish gospel. It is this gospel of the kingdom. And Paul preached the gospel of the kingdom.

Paul preached his gospel was the gospel of the kingdom. And it says his gospel shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Then shall the end come.

Do you know what the wise virgins are doing? They are going to preach the gospel in all the earth. Then the end. Don't tell me they're batting down, hiding in their house, giving up rubbish.

That's anti-biblical, anti-prophetic. They're actually evangelizing and it says they're preaching the gospel of the kingdom. That means his kingdom, his order, his commands.

It's got his regime. It's under a king. King Jesus.

You're going to know the gospel because it's got order in it. It's not a loose gospel, not a light gospel, not a watery gospel. If you don't line up with the gospel of the kingdom, you are not born again.

This gospel ain't changing for you. You need to change. If you're born again, you change.

And it said they'll be preached as a witness. The word witness there is used in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 concerning the Holy Ghost coming and preaching the gospel as a witness. The only example we have of a witness being preached in all the world is the book of Acts.

That's the only example of what it looks for the church to be a witness preaching in all nations. You know what I want to tell you? Awakening is coming of the wise and foolish virgins. And these 10 signs are going to be evident.

And there's going to be a witness of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need oil again in our in our lamps. Saints, you need to trim your lamps.

You need to prepare yourself. There is going to go out a worldwide cry to say Jesus is coming again. Are you ready? Saints, it's going to become very stark.

Either you're in this world or you're in the kingdom of God. Either you're for Christ or you're against Christ. And God help you, if you reject the truth and you don't love the truth, you know what's going to get happen? Deception unparalleled is going to get released.

And God himself is going to send a great delusion. And all those who do not receive a love for the truth and believe the truth, God is going to give over to a great delusion, which is to worship Antichrist. Do you know where we are? We're right down to the end.

It's not going to be 20 world religions. Catholicism won't be there. And Islam won't be there.

You're either going to serve Jesus Christ or you're going to serve the Antichrist and worship Satan directly. And that's where our world's heading. And you know what? The signs of the times are to waken us up.

See that voice? Behold, the bridegroom cometh. How do you know? The signs that he taught and he said, get your lamps ready. Wake up church.

You know what? You've got a short time to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then it's all over. Stand with me.

Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, we love you. We bless you.

We praise you, our God. Father, we don't want to be asleep as we see the rise and tide of abound and inequity, Lord God, of corruption. Lord God, all around us, the love of many waxing cold in the church, the agape, fervent, fiery love of many waxing cold, the false prophets doing signs and wonders, trying to deceive the elect of God, of all of these things arising and exploding.

Lord God, we realize we are barely ready and yet we love you with all of our hearts. And we realize that this generation is not ready for what is just about to take place. But oh God, one thing I do know, that you are ready, that you're preparing a people in darkness, in apostasy, in the coldness of night, just like Hezekiah and the remnant of Judah.

Lord God, you're preparing a people. Lord God, we can't see them as yet. And yet one of these days, very shortly, we're going to see this remnant break upon the scene of time, and they're going to preach repentance and lead a revival.

And Lord God, bring back a generation to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I do pray for my friends. Make them ready, prepare them.

Lord God, quicken them, stir them. Let this church hear that cry, behold the bridegroom cometh. Let there come an awakening in every home, every mother, every father, every child.

Lord God, every individual in this church. Lord God, to do the first works, to return, to repent, to make right, to make ready. Lord God, we are living in a technical age that's about to engulf us.

Lord God, with immorality that is literally saturating the streets of our cities. And Lord God, we realize there's only one answer. It's not time for a half-baked gospel.

Lord God, to be half in the world and half in the church, it's a time to be sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you help us, O God, even this morning in Jesus' mighty name.