America's Last Call (Part 4 of 6) — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. America's last call.

A Prophetic Warning to the Church

I believe that this church has been rooted and grounded enough that you can take another prophetic message this morning. And this time, in line with what I've been preaching, in fact, come February, I'm going to take two or three weeks off.

I'm getting alone with God, and I'm going to put this all in a book and rush it out, all of the United States, because I believe it's so near. And whether I've heard people say, well, if you preach that kind of thing, we have nearly a mailing, we have nearly a million people on our mailing list, and I've had some suggest if you preach that kind of message, they'll cut you off.

Well, be that as may, God's blessing comes by obeying what he tells you to do. My message this morning, not one stone shall be left upon another. Not one stone shall be left upon another. Go to Matthew 24, if you will, with me, please.

Matthew 24, let me read just a few verses, then leave your Bibles open to the 24th chapter of Matthew. We'll be coming back to that in the course of the message. Amen. Before we start reading, we're so excited about our Bible school.

Starts Friday night. Now, if you have not enrolled, if you've not been able to enroll, because enrollment's been closed, you come Friday night, you won't be disappointed. You're going to be in a general session, and that general session is also a Bible study, and going through the book of Nehemiah, a very able teacher, a fine teacher, and you will be mightily blessed.

So you tell your friends, they can come in on the general session. I believe that's going to grow and grow. We may have to move it to here in the main auditorium. Matthew 24, chapter 1 and 2, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.

And Jesus said unto them, see ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Not one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I will obey you. I will do what you told me to do. I will speak from this pulpit. Lord, the prophetic warnings that you have put in my heart. Lord, you raised up this church to be a lighthouse, a lampstand church that could send blessings and warnings throughout the United States and around the world.

You placed us at the crossroads of the world at this time and this place, and you raised up a holy remnant who are not afraid of reproof, not afraid to hear of the judgments of God because their hearts are set, and they've learned to rejoice when they see these things come to pass because they know the redemption's drawing nigh.

Now, Lord, I pray for the authority and power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Lord, Jesus, let me not soften what you've told me to preach. Lord, Jesus, help me not to back away from it, and I pray, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.

Lord, these things that I talk about are going to come to pass. Lord, you are preparing a people. Lord, awaken us now. Help us now, Lord, to enter into the spirit of what you're saying to us, that everyone who has ears to hear, let them hear what the Spirit has to say.

Amen. This morning I'm going to prove to you that just prior before sudden destruction comes on a nation or society, even God's people have a tendency to turn a deaf ear to the warnings. I want to prove that to you from the Scripture.

Now, we Christians enjoy the prosperity in America just like everybody else, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying the blessings of God. He's a merciful God. He's a loving God, and He loves to bless and prosper those who walk with Him, although that's not a sign of spirituality or holiness.

But there's a tendency among Christians, just as well as among the wicked, to be satiated with the luxury, to be blinded by the materialism, and to want to so continue the prosperous lifestyle that we do not want to hear anything of gloom or doom or anything that's negative or the slightest suggestion that our prosperous lifestyle may be shaken and absolutely changed forever.

Isaiah's Warning Against Rejecting Hard Truth

Now, Isaiah the prophet was instructed by the Lord to write a prophetic message and distribute it to all of Israel. You'll find that in the 30th chapter of Isaiah, and God warned him that his own people had become rebellious, God's own people become rebellious, and were not ready to receive any hard truth.

The Scriptures told, in fact, God told Isaiah in verse 9, Isaiah 30, they will not hear the law of the Lord. He said, I'm sending you with a message, but I'm telling you, my special people, my chosen people are not going to want to hear you.

They will not listen. They'll close their ears. They did come to hear Isaiah proclaim his dire warnings. These were the people of God. These were the chosen of God. But they wearied, absolutely wearied, according to their Scripture, of hearing that their good prosperous lifestyle was in jeopardy.

And the Scripture says, they replied to the prophet Isaiah, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits or illusions. We prefer illusions. In other words, give us happy thoughts, smooth thoughts, nice thoughts.

Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. In plain language, they were saying, Isaiah, we are having a good lifestyle. Everything is prosperous. We really don't want to hear this. It's negative.

We don't want to serve the kind of God you talk about. And as far as this holiness preaching, this holy God you're referring to all the time, it's getting on our nerves. We don't want to hear that anymore.

God's not like that. We can't serve your kind of God, Isaiah. We can't handle this negative preaching. Preach to us entertainment. Preach to us smooth things. Smooth things means entertainment. That which is easy to take.

Beloved, if you read the book of Isaiah carefully, you'll soon discover that this prophet that preached about the decline of their society and the devastation that was coming, proclaimed a message of divine mercy and grace.

He talked of the tenderness of God, the long suffering of the Lord, Isaiah. In fact, in this very chapter, when he's talking about what was coming, he said, the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He waits to have compassion on you.

He yearns to be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. And when he hears it, he'll answer you and be merciful. That was the cry of the prophet. In fact, Jeremiah, all of the prophets. We have people today who don't want to even go into the Old Testament.

They preach only from the New Testament because they don't want to hear the words of the prophets. But the prophets, first of all, were compassionate men. They were men full of the grace of God. They preached mercy.

They preached grace. Now, folks, let me tell you, I've never thought of myself as a prophet. God's never spoken to me that I'm a prophet. One of his many watchmen. But I want you to know I have preached as much grace and mercy.

I've talked about the long suffering of Jesus as loudly and proclaimed it as strongly as any preacher on the face of the earth today. I have stood in this pulpit. Recently, I went into my study and I looked over my message of the past 10 years.

Two thirds of everything I preached was mercy, grace, long suffering. God is gracious. He's merciful. He's long suffering. But he's also a just God that must judge sin. They had been given numerous messages extolling the mercy, long suffering of the Lord.

But they had convinced themselves that God was only a God of mercy, that he was all mercy. Now they wanted no longer to endure or listen to any message of warning. Now folks, I fear the same thing is happening to multitudes of American Christians, even evangelical Christians.

We love to hear of the tender mercies of the Lord, of his grace, his forgiving love, his everlasting compassion. And folks, he is all of that. But when a message comes, a warning message, when God awakens his servants, they begin to warn.

God has never done anything in the history of time without first raising up watchmen and prophets and warning. He said, I rise up early, as I told you. That means before it happens. Not that the prophets get up early in the morning and prophesy, but they come before the calamities and they warn and they cry out.

Get ready, prepare. But folks, whenever I have written a prophetic word or preached it, the most vociferous critics have been pastors, ministers. They have been Christians, so-called spirit-filled Christians.

I've had people, many, many people write to me every time I send out a prophetic warning and they say, take me off your mailing list. I can't serve your kind of God, Brother Dave. I can't handle your gloom and doom.

This past week, I read letters like that, said we can't handle that. One lady said, I've got enough of my problems. I've got enough to deal with trying to make it without having to be scared to death by what you preach.

Micaiah and the Rejection of Prophetic Truth

Tragically, Isaiah's warnings were rejected and God's people ended up in total, totally unprepared for the shaking that was soon to come. Folks, there are plenty of hirelings. There are plenty of coward pastors and shepherds in the land who will give you what you want to hear.

They'll give you a good, happy feeling message. They'll entertain you. But that can send you straight to hell. And when it comes, you're going to turn against those men and say, where were you? Why didn't you hear?

Why weren't you siding with God? Why didn't he speak to you? Why didn't you warn us? When King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat gathered together to go to war against Syria, there were 400 feel-good prophets that prophesied success.

And they said, go up for God's going to deliver the enemy into your hands. And Jehoshaphat, who knew God, had a knowing in his spirit, said these men preach success. They preach prosperity. They say everything's fine.

Go, there's going to be no problem. But he knew something was nagging in his spirit. He said, is there not a prophet of God? She's just being blessed. Let her come backstage there and let her just enjoy the Lord in his spirit.

Amen. Hallelujah. That's fine. Folks, this message has to be heard. It has to be heard. Spirit of God will not let me go until this message is completed. They said, Jehoshaphat, is there no true prophet?

And so Ahab knew of one. And so he sends for prophet Micaiah, messenger that went to get him. Says, now Micaiah, all the prophets are preaching smooth things, good things to the king. And he says, will you not soften your message?

Let the word, let thy word be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. Speak that which is good. Soften your message. Preach what they do. Now, Micaiah, the prophet, had been shunning with God, and he heard another word.

He said, God would say, no, there's danger coming. Ahab's going to be slain. All the armies of Israel and Judah are going to be scattered over the hills, and I'm going to judge the land. So Micaiah looks before, stands before these two kings, and he says, you want to hear what the other prophets are saying?

I am one against 400, but I'm telling you, gentlemen, you go and you die. It's all over. Ahab, the whole army of Israel, 400 self-proclaimed prophets, even the messenger that came to get him, all supposed to be chosen people, God's people, but they didn't want to hear the truth.

They preferred to listen to illusions. They knew this man was holy. They knew he had the word from God, but they had shut it out completely. We don't want to hear it. I'm trying to prove to you from the scripture.

I'm going to keep on going at it this morning until I prove to you conclusively that just before judgment comes, even some of the most saintly are going to want to turn off the message and not want to hear it.

Amos and the Spiritual Blindness of God's People

The prophet Amos came with a message, first of all, with mercy. He knew that judgment was coming. He knew that they were right at the door of calamity. But then he came preaching mercy first. He said, thus saith the Lord, seek ye me and seek him, or seek ye me, saith the Lord, and you shall live.

Seek the Lord, lest ye break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devoured, and be none to quench it. He said, God wants to show mercy. If you will repent, if you seek the Lord with all your heart, the Lord will be merciful.

When you cry out to him, he'll hear you and deliver you. But then came this warning. Then the virgin Israel, she has fallen. She shall rise no more, for she's forsaken upon her own land. He shall go into captivity.

Now, he's speaking to God's people. He's not speaking to heathen. He's speaking to the church of the day. Not only did they reject the prophecies of Amos, they hated him for doing it. They hate him that rebuked at the gate, and they abhorred him that spoke uprightly.

I want to tell you something. When true prophets come in the land and raise their voices, they become the most hated of all. I've heard young men say, I want to be a prophet. One of the great prophets of this generation, Leonard Ravenhill, said, what do you want, son?

You want to die young? He said, don't pray that unless you're willing to die. Now, they'll stone you to death verbally, if not physically. Amos cried out, you, the people of God, are ease in Zion. You put away the evil day.

You don't want to hear it. You put it off, out of your mind. You lie on your beds of ivory, stretched upon your couches, eating the lambs of the flock, chanting to the sound of the harp, composing new songs, drinking wine, perfuming and anointing yourself with the finest of oils.

And yet, you do not grieve for the afflictions of Joseph. You don't agree for the poor in your land, in other words. What a vivid picture of the backslidden church of Jesus Christ in America today. Couch potatoes sitting in front of television, cry and weep over the sins of the land.

How can we, because the Packers are playing San Francisco at 3 o 'clock, grab the potato chips and Coke? Judgment coming to America? No, no, no, no, folks. We're not talking about judgment. We're talking about a hundred million dollars for five years for ballplayers.

We talk about a mission country. We spend more for dog food than we do on missions in America now. Amos could hardly believe the spiritual blindness of God's people. Life to these people become one big banquet.

Good food, wine, music, plenty of leisure. They didn't want to hear a prophet crying out warnings that the party was soon to end. They ate, they sang, they danced, they enjoyed ease and prosperity. While Amos stood at the gate of the temple crying out, there's going to be wailing on your streets, and in your vineyards there shall be wailing.

You're going into captivity, and those who banquet the most shall go first into captivity. God said, I will spare you no longer. This was the message of Amos. And history shows that they did not heed the warnings of Amos and the other prophets.

God did, Scripture says, turn their festivals into mourning, their songs turned into lamentations, their fine clothes were turned to sackcloth, their laughter was turned to bitterness. That's all history.

Jesus Warns of Coming Judgment

Then you go to the New Testament, and you find that even Christ's own disciples chafed at the hard, detailed message of coming judgment. In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, Jesus was in the temple, and he was crying out about what was coming.

He saw the apostasy and the wickedness and the vileness of the priesthood, and of Israel, most prosperous at that time. And Jesus, his disciples standing nearby, heard him say to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and those in the temple, Upon you is coming all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, son of Barakias, whom you slew.

Behold, your house is left to you desolate. His disciples were incredulous, and so they took him out to some vantage point outside the temple to take another look. The Scripture says in Matthew 24 -1,.

And his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. Now get this, the Lord had just warned them, It's all coming down. Your house is left to you desolate. It's all over. Disciples turned to one another and evidently agreed.

They took the master out to take another look at all the grand buildings. Now, Josephus says that King Herod had just spent eight years and ten thousand slave labors to restore it to its majesty. This temple had stood for 589 years.

And the Lord's saying it's all coming down. So they take him to a vantage point and they show him all the buildings of the temple. Why do you think they did that? Because they could not conceive that buildings of such antiquity and magnificence could ever come to an end as if to say, Lord, take another look.

Look at the magnificence, the pomp. Look at the majesty. Look at the greatness of it. This is that city, beautiful for situation. This is the city built on a hill. Look at the walls, they're impregnable.

They thought maybe he would soften his message. Look at it, master. Look how great it is. Look how fantastic these buildings are. Look at the greatness. People are coming from all over the world. This is the trade center, the trademark of the world.

And you say it's coming down and Jesus looked at him and said, Verily I say unto you, and he's thinking of what they have in their mind, you can't believe it, but I'm telling you, there shall not be one stone left upon another.

Not one stone left upon another. This is the same problem in the church today. We look at this great nation and, for example, we look at New York City with all of its majestic skyscrapers and its buildings, the trademark of the world, all of the multi-trillion dollar economy.

We see the majesty, the tall buildings rising into the skies, the World Trade Center. We look at all of this and it seems absolutely unbelievable that somebody would come along and say, Judgment is at the door.

How do you explain? Did you see the newspaper this past week? Trump has an apartment right now for rent for $100 ,000 a month. A five-room tower apartment rent for $100 ,000 a year. And now there are many, many apartments renting now for $25 ,000 a month.

And who's going to believe a man when he comes and says, Those apartments one day soon are going to lie empty. There'll be no buyers. They're going to be auctioning off their Rolls Royces and their $200 ,000 automobiles just like they're doing right now in Indonesia.

That overnight millionaires are going to be paupers. That their mansions are going to be shut up and there are going to be bats flying all over the rooms. Those who wallow in wealth on their ivory couches are going to be paupers.

They're going to be penniless. Who's going to believe that? Look at the majesty. Look how great it is. That's what Jesus was saying. Look at it. Yes, look at all the majesty. Look at all the traders coming from India, from all over the world.

Look at it. A busy, busy city. Nobody thinks it could ever end. But I'm telling you, Jesus said, Not one stone shall remain upon another. Forty years later, after Christ ascended in 71 A .D., the emperor Vespasian sent his son Titus with a huge army and besieged Jerusalem.

And both Josephus and Eusebius, historians tell us that on August the 10th, the year 71 A .D., Titus took Jerusalem. And while he himself tried to stop his armies from burning down the temple, a mad spirit came upon his soldiers and they rushed into the temple, torched it, burned it to the ground, and there was not one stone left upon another.

It's history. God spoke to Jeremiah, the prophet, and he said, Jeremiah, tell the people to go back in history. If they want to know what I'm about to do, tell them to go back to Shiloh. Now, Shiloh was the tabernacle or the temple where Eli was the high priest.

Remember, that's the place where God wrote Ichabod over the door. The glory of the Lord departed. Eli dropped dead. His two sons were murdered. The armies of Israel decimated, and Israel went into years of ruin and devastation overnight.

And he says, you go back and see what I did. In fact, I read it to you. But go now, this is Jeremiah 7 .12, go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

God was saying, I have already dealt with cities and nations at this point. Go back to Shiloh and see the flashpoints. You see at the point in which I said enough, and I judged it. Listen to what God says.

Because you have done the same things, verses 13 and 14, just like their wicked works, therefore I will do also unto your house as I have done to Shiloh. He said, now, you don't need a voice from heaven.

You don't need some dream or some vision. God said, I'm an unchangeable God. You saw what I did to Sodom for their wickedness. Now you go back to Shiloh and see what I did to my house and to my people because of their wickedness.

And he said, because you are just as wicked or more so than they are, I'm going to do the same thing to you that I did to Shiloh. So go back, study it, take a look at it. Jeremiah was speaking to a people who had become cruel and hateful and oppressors, murderers, adulterers.

And yet they were going to the temple to pray every day. And they were saying, God has released us to do these abominations. They had invented a doctrine of ease. They had invented a doctrine that Christ, or rather that God was all mercy.

They could do what they pleased. And they could rob and murder and steal and commit adultery and fornication. And they'd go in and cry their tears, raise their hands and worship God. And Jeremiah stood at the temple gate.

He said, amend your ways, repent. If you repent, I'll still have mercy. But you do not hear me. You trust in your lies. You go on committing adultery. You swear that you come into God's house and tell yourselves we are free to commit these abominations.

God said, if you really want to know, people, what I'm about to do, you better get your Bible out, your history book and see what I did in the past. Now, folks, I'm not going to take you back to Shiloh.

I've done that, but I'm going to take you back to London, England, because I'm a student of history. I love history. And all you have to do is go to the New York Library and get about and learn about the history of London as I'm going to share it with you now.

London as a Warning to Modern Prosperity

Take you back to London, England, 1665, 1666, 334 years ago. Not all the way back to Shiloh, but to a city that was the New York City of its day. It was the trademark of the whole world. At that time, it was the world's most prosperous city.

It was called the jewel of the English empire upon which the sun never set. Anywhere you went on the earth, England, the East Indies, India, everywhere. This was the empire of England. London was called the business part of the world.

Its ships sailed every ocean, bringing in the wealth of all nations. It became the center of commerce, a city full of stately churches, magnificent public buildings, parliament buildings, king's houses, great monuments.

There were also great churches and great preachers in London at the time. It was considered a Christian city, a city of religious activities. There were praying people in that city who really grieved over what was happening.

Because of the wealth and prosperity, people turned to atheism, agnosticism. Prostitution was rampant, fornication. Atheism especially. The poor were neglected and despised in the city. Whole areas of the city given over to poverty.

You could go anywhere at that time and hear preachers, especially the Puertin. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over. Brooks, you could hear Baxter. You could hear some of the John Owens, some of the great, great men of God.

You could hear them and you could hear them warning. I speak unto thee and thy prosperity, but thou saidest, I will not hear. Jeremiah 22, 21. They spoke to the people in their prosperity. There were dire warnings, messages that when I read today, they make me shudder.

I've never preached as long as any of these Puertin and holy pastors of the time in the 1660s and 1670s. Powerful. You read those sermons today. They warned of pestilence. They warned of judgment. They warned of fires falling on London.

They cried. They prophesied. But London refused to hear. The warnings fell on deaf ears. The people said, how can the most prosperous city on earth suddenly face devastation, fire, pestilence? But folks, in 1665, a plague of smallpox engulfed London.

Thousands and thousands died from smallpox. So many people died, they piled the bodies on wooden carts and buried them in mass in these big graves. The rich fled the city to safer areas. Near the end of 1665, the plague was stayed.

The rich came back. But not anyone in London saw it as a warning from the hand of God. No one listened. 1666, London went wild because now they thought they were impregnable, nothing could stop this city.

The pestilence was over. London reverted to its wicked ways. Now a sense of false security. And according to English records at the time, London was supposed to be 2 ,770 years old, almost 3 ,000 years old.

Many believed it was older than Rome. And the people reasoned that Jerusalem was only 1 ,179 years old when it was destroyed. We've already outlived Jerusalem by over a thousand years. How can a city that has existed almost 3 ,000 years be destroyed?

But on Sunday, September the 2nd, 1666, at 2 o 'clock in the morning, when London was sleeping, a madman by the name of Hubert set fire to a house on Pudding Lane. Within hours, the fire was spreading uncontrollably.

There had been no rain for months, so everything was dry tinder. No one could stop the flames. It burned for four days. Thousands and thousands of buildings were destroyed. The whole inner city of London was a raging fire that no one could extinguish.

Eighty-four churches burned to the ground. Destruction of the whole inner city infrastructure. The monuments melted. The mansions were destroyed. The rich were standing in the streets, having collected many of their articles out in the streets.

And they saw men running with carts. And one would say, 10 pounds for your cart. And the guy across the street, I'll give you 30 pounds. Another said, give me 40 pounds. And to those days, that's like hundreds and hundreds of dollars, just for a wooden cart to haul their jewels and their finery out of the city.

And many of the rich who thought they had secured their wares and their wealthy belongings were flattering themselves that they were safe, but soon the fire spread and consumed everything, except a few suburbs.

I'm going to read to you a first-hand account of a man of God, who was on the streets at the time. He said, oh, the sad looks, the pale cheeks, the weeping eyes, the smiting of breasts, the wringing of hands that was to be seen in every street and in every corner.

What a consternation did my eyes behold upon the minds of all men in that day of the Lord's wrath. There's no expressing the sights, the sighs, the tears, the fears, the frightfulness, the amazement of the citizens, the confusion.

And they were now compassed about with flames of fire and choking smoke. Many rich men that had had enough time to remove their goods, flattered themselves that they were beyond the reach, and the fire would not reach their habitations, but they were not safe and secure because the fire consumed it all.

Yes, London slowly rebuilt over the years, but it never did return to its glory and power. And then you come down through history to about a hundred years ago, and the world mark, the London of the time, became New York City.

America's Borrowed Time and the Need to Listen

New York City is now the world's wealthiest city. It is the trademark of the whole world. It has made the merchants of the world rich. And now, while all of Asia totters in economic confusion, unemployment in France, thousands took to the streets this past week in France because of so many unemployed.

The euro-dollar now is being introduced this past two weeks. The euro-dollar, all of the money now, all of the currencies have been melted into one currency, the euro-dollar, preparing for the Antichrist.

I tell you, beloved, and I want you to hear me, and I speak it from, I believe, the heart of God. It's not midnight. It's past midnight. New York and the United States of America is on borrowed time. It's on borrowed time now.

And it's only the grace and mercy of God. Where God waits mercifully. But folks, what about the church of Jesus Christ? What about how you sit and respond to the word of the Lord right now in this service?

You hear your pastor warning. You've heard me warn now this is the third week. Probably if I had my way in the flesh, I would stop, but I won't stop if the Holy Ghost says, But how are you reacting this morning?

How does this message fit? Is there something in you repelling and saying, I don't want to hear this anymore, Pastor, I can't handle it? Some might ask and say, Pastor, why do we need to hear all this?

Why can't we just wait and see what's going to happen rather than to be so frightened? Can't we just wait and God give us the grace as we need it? Let me ask you a question. Why did Jesus go into such great detail in Matthew 24, when he spared no words in telling his disciples what was coming?

Why did he, folks, if you think what I'm telling you now seems frightful, and I'm not trying to scare anybody. I don't want to hear this anymore than you do in my flesh. But why did Jesus tell his disciples, there's going to be famine, pestilence, earthquakes.

You're going to be delivered up. You're going to be afflicted. They're going to kill you. I've never said anything like that from this pulpit. But Jesus did to his disciples, they're going to kill you.

You will be hated by all men. False prophets are going to rise and deceive, even attempting to deceive the elect. Great tribulations are coming such as have never been seen since the beginning of the world.

Satan will try to deceive the elect. Even the stars will fall from heaven. And because iniquity shall bound, the love of many shall grow cold. You read the prophetic words of Jesus, and they are far stronger than anything you hear from this pulpit or any pulpit in America or the world today.

And why did the Lord go into such detail? Why did he prepare? This is not what they wanted to hear. I'm going to serve you Lord, and I give up everything, and it's going to cost me my life. I'm going to be persecuted.

I'm going to be afflicted. I'm going to be killed. They're going to mock me. They're going to hate me. All the happy-go-lucky, candy-cotton preaching in America. One day has to answer to a holy God.

For Christ himself has set the example. He said, no, you take up your cross, and you'll follow me. It's not going to be easy. And folks, what is coming is not going to be easy. There's going to be a lot of suffering.

Watchfulness and Readiness for the Coming of the Lord

And let me tell you why Jesus did it. You have your Bible open to the 24th chapter of Matthew. Go to verse 44 with me, if you will, please. Let's start verse 42. Here's why. Watch, therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.

And for that matter, you know not what hour when judgment strikes. But know this, that if the good men of the house had known what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh, who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season.

Blessed is that servant, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily, I say unto you, that you make him ruler over all his goods. But, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, shall begin to smite his fellow servants, to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.