The Sign of the Lord's Return — Charles E. Fuller

Christian Heritage Ministry, in cooperation with Fuller Seminary, proudly presents the Old-Fashioned Revival Art, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle.

Stand please and sing Heavenly Sunshine. I wonder what the introduction will be next Sunday on Heavenly Sunshine. You ought to copyright those, Rudy, and we'll have them all down. Everybody hand me say Amen.

That's fine. Now let's sing Heavenly Sunshine through, and as you sing through the first time, turn around and shake hands as many as possible. All together, Heavenly Sunshine. ...for children to have the memory of a Christian mother.

The Christian Mother and the Sanctity of the Home

It seems that Satan is doing everything in his power to break the home, and Christian mothers seem to be becoming fewer and fewer. That is the way it looks, at least. But thank God for Christian mothers.

As the summer months approach, there's a tendency on the part of some of our radio friends to let down on their letter writing because, well, the garden takes up so much time, or outdoor recreation, or perhaps that planned vacation which you need.

Whatever the reason may be, our letter response has a tendency during the summer months to fall off. I know it takes real determination to keep your letters coming to us regularly. The weeks fly by so quickly.

But your letters are essential to the continuation of this worldwide radio ministry. Especially do we want to hear from those of you who have not written for some time. We'll be expecting a letter from you this week.

Thank you so much.

To read the letters, go right ahead on the Old-Fashioned Revival. Greetings, friends.

Letters of Spiritual Longing and Worldwide Encouragement

From Belfast, Ireland, an interesting and appealing letter. Dear Reverend Fuller, I am a man in my early twenties, and your program means so much to me, but I would enjoy it better if I had the joy and salvation which you possess.

I know there is no hope for me, but I am asking you to pray for me as you are a man of God. Very few preach like you today. God spoke to me quite early in life, but of course I thought I had plenty of time.

And then a few years ago I realized that I had breathed the Holy Spirit. I have been praying ever since, but no matter how much I try, I can't get this out of my mind. I am always frightened of dying without Christ.

I do enjoy Mrs. Fuller's reading of those letters, also that beautiful music, and your sermons inspire me. I do hope God will answer your prayers for me, that I may find salvation. A letter from a Chinese pastor of the Mandarin-speaking church in Taiwan, Formosa.

Dear Dr. Fuller, we announce your hour in the biggest newspaper of Free China in order that a larger audience can be reached for you, because I myself didn't know of your precious program until four months ago when I turned accidentally to it, although I could have been hearing it for six years before.

And then this man asks for prayer for their radio program going out in Mandarin. From a construction camp in British Columbia, greetings in the name of Jesus, the name that has the same comforting sound all over the globe.

Never before has your program been such a blessing to me as it was last Sunday. There are four of us Christians out here in what we might call the wilderness of sin. In this construction camp of approximately 400 men, we have no Christian fellowship with the outside world save by the radio.

Sunday evening we turned the radio on loud when your program came on so that all in the bunkhouse could hear, and did we ever enjoy it. We desire to hear the gospel like a heart that panteth after the water brooks.

It feeds us and strengthens us in God. Dear leader of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, I am an Icelander living in the north part of Iceland, pastor of a Lutheran church here. I try never to miss your program through Radio Luxembourg.

It comes as an awakening every time. It inspires me in my work. Think of me and pray for my work, please. I'm sure that God sent your hour to me so far up north. Still everything is covered with snow and the north wind is blowing heavily.

We are glad you come to us with your inspiration, though in such a roundabout way, from California via Luxembourg. Dear Mr. Fuller, I was in the regular army during the Second World War and was in the Army of Occupation in Luxembourg after the war was over.

Whenever I hear you mention that broadcast, I cannot help feeling how wonderful that is and how wonderful that would have been if we had had such a broadcast when I was over there. And then this last letter is sweet from an old lady, and I think that old folks, to them sometimes youth seems such a little ways away, and their memories are so very precious.

It doesn't seem to them always that youth was so far back. This little old lady writes a very sweet letter. Dear Reverend Fuller, I live in this old folks' home, in bed all the time, 83 years old, and how I do love and look forward all week to your service each Sunday.

I used to sing in the church choir when I was young and pretty, and they said I had a good voice, too. The wonderful man that I married said he fell in love with me when he saw me there singing in our little white church choir on a bright May morning.

I remember I wore a bunch of lilacs on my shoulder that day, and we were married in that little church the next year. My memories are very sweet. Many years have passed since then, and here I am, a wrinkled little old lady, just waiting for God to call me home, to be reunited with the loved ones, and to look on His face.

I am all alone, and it seems there isn't much to hold me here, but that is in God's hands, and I will be patient. I feel His presence with me all the time, and when the old-fashioned revival hour is on, it almost seems that I've gone to heaven.

The music is so sweet. The program just feeds our souls and encourages us old folks to keep on happily waiting. Isn't that a good letter? God bless all the old folks today as they listen in. That is all I shall have time for.

This is the number 85 on your song sheet, the much beloved song of the Christian faith. Meet me there. Let's sing it out. Everyone taking part heartily.

The quartet, come up and help me. I'm going to sing that chorus. You hum in the background. Change the key a little bit, Rudy. All right. I love this song. It's one of my favorites. Meet me there. Meet me there.

The storms of life are on, on that happy golden sea. Where is everyone?

Prayer for Reconciliation, Hope, and National Leaders

Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that we, Thy children who rest upon the authority of have not only the hope, but the certainty that we will be in heaven with Thee for eternity. How thankful we are that we can come from this world of confusion to Thee, a God who art all-knowing and all-powerful, loving and righteous.

Father, we do thank Thee that we've been reconciled to Thee by faith in Thy Son through the blood of Jesus Christ. And how thankful we are for the certainty that surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives.

Father, we pray especially today for the leaders of our nation upon whom are such heavy responsibilities in these trying days. We pray that they may seek more and more the wisdom which is from Thee, which is so far more perfect than anything we have in our own weak capacities.

Bless our fighting men and their loved ones who remain behind. Comfort and encourage both of them. And may this broadcast, as it goes forth into the continent of America and into the lands across the oceans, may it bring comfort and courage to sin-sick hearts.

We ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. You are listening to the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour with Dr. Charles E. Fuller. The message today is titled, The Sign of the Lord's Return. Open your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 24, as we rejoin the broadcast.

I'll return after Dr. Fuller's message to provide you additional information.

The Olivet Discourse and the Promise of Christ's Return

Please have your Bibles open to the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 24. The Olivet Discourse is indeed a great prophecy, the King's last great utterance before he ascended to be at the right hand of the Father.

This prophecy, recorded in Matthew 24 and 25 and Mark 13 and Luke 21, was spoken in answer to three questions propounded by Peter, James, John, and Andrew. And this prophecy, the Olivet Discourse, sets forth not only the characteristics of the days since Calvary, but especially the days just prior to our Lord's second coming, that is, his return from heaven in power and in great glory.

You see, I have to preach upon the second coming because so many pastors never do it, and I have to sort of help you believers out once in a while. As we meditate upon this Olivet Discourse, we should bear in mind that in point of time there's been a partial fulfillment, that is, such as the destruction of the great and beautiful temple in A .D. 70, some 40 years after the prophecy was uttered.

But the greater portion of the discourse is yet to be fulfilled, and personally I believe that the final fulfillment of this prophecy uttered by our Lord may be sooner than we realize. So will you give careful attention, as you usually do, and may we sit truly in heavenly places, trusting the Holy Spirit to enlighten us as we look into his precious word.

And when ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled? For such things must need be, but the end shall not be yet. And then nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, that there shall be earthquakes in diverse places, and there shall be famines and pestilence and trouble.

Then these very significant words, these are the beginning of sorrow. And the point is this, we've always had wars and rumors of wars for the past 2 ,000 years, but when you see a global conflict, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, synchronized with earthquakes, pestilences and famines, notice these are the beginnings of sorrow.

Now, please bear that in mind. In other words, the beginning of sorrows, or the birth pangs, that is the death agony of this age, is the birth agony of the next. And in Romans, the eighth chapter, twenty-second verse, we find these words, for we, speaking always when you have the word we, believers, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And the figure of a child being brought into this world, and as the time of delivery approaches, and just a few moments, or perhaps a few hours before the delivery of the child, the birth pangs become more frequent.

That is the thought of verse eight of Mark thirteen. The whole creation is groaning, but when we see a synchronizing of these things, it is the frequency of the birth pangs that tell us that the old age is dying, that a new age is about to break forth upon this earth.

And so verse eight of Mark thirteen speaks of the great rapidity, the frequency, the synchronizing of events, the beginnings of sorrow. Now I give you that as a brief review that we might go back to the twenty-fourth of Matthew and study this great Olivet Discourse.

Copy this down if you so wish. This great Olivet Discourse outlined in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of Matthew is divided into three general sections. First, twenty-four, verse four to forty-four.

Second, twenty-four forty-five to twenty-five thirty. And third, chapter twenty-five, verse thirty-one to forty-six. But it's upon the first section, Matthew twenty-four, four to forty-four, we plan to spend a considerable time.

In other words, a series of messages within the series upon the Olivet Discourse. So read Matthew twenty-four and twenty-five over and over and over. And in these two chapters the Lord passes over the answer to the disciples' first question, when shall these things be?

In Mark and Luke this first question is answered and was fulfilled some forty years after Calvary. As I said a moment ago, in A .D. 70 the temple was destroyed. But in Matthew twenty-four and twenty-five we find the Lord's answers to the second and third questions as follows.

What is the sign of thy coming? What is the sign of the consummation or the completion of the age, the end days, just prior to our Lord's second coming? Now with an open Bible turn to these chapters. My earnest prayer is that the Holy Spirit will do His great office work.

I'm not going to go off on the deep end and be fanatical and bring a lot of extraneous matters in, but stay right with the Word. Now notice, as we look into God's eternal Word, heaven and earth may pass away, but God's Word will never pass away, and every detail that He has outlined will come to pass in the spite of the counsels of the ungodly.

In verses five and six, as in Mark thirteen five to seven, we again see the general characteristics of the age between Calvary and the Lord's second coming, wars and rumors of war. And then note the conclusion.

These, all these things in verse six, all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. And then in verse seven, as in Mark chapter thirteen and eight, the rapidity, the intense frequency of world sorrows in the days just preceding our Lord's visible return.

And thus beginning with chapter twenty-four, verse nine to forty-four, the Olivet Discourse goes into more detail regarding end-time events. That is, when the frequency of end-day events began, then one can expect the following events to take place, and to take place rapidly.

Intense persecution against God's earthly people, Israel. World War II saw that. The camps of Buchenwald and other terrible death camps. God's earthly people, Israel, have been persecuted as no other nation.

Verse eleven, false prophets. Verses twelve and thirteen, lawlessness to abound. Here it is. And because iniquity, lawlessness shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold. That is, some departing from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.

Then verse fourteen, the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. And I say to you on the authority of God's word, that this world is yet to see the greatest missionary worldwide activity since the dawn of human history.

Just prior to the Lord's return, there will be perhaps the hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe of Israel that will go out like Paul, one born out of due season, and preach, behold, he cometh, and preach the gospel of the kingdom unto all nations as a witness.

Then shall the end come. God raises up a standard when the enemy comes in like a flood. And godless nations will yet hear the truth of the Lord's return. And then in fifteen to twenty of Matthew twenty-four, the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.

We'll enlarge upon that in a later broadcast. And then verses twenty-one and twenty-two, the great tribulation. Listen. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And Antichrist, the man of sin, the great world ruler, will be upon the throne, ruling. And then Revelation thirteen. No man be able to buy or sell, save he have the mark of the beast, will then be enforced.

Know your Bible. Be able to give a reason for the hope that is within you. And then verses twenty-three to twenty-six, false Christ, especially the manifestation of the Antichrist for the false prophets as in the days of Elijah.

And then verse twenty-seven, listen. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. The great consummation of the age, the personal, visible, glorious, powerful return of Christ.

Now, verse thirty-two. Now, you see, the Holy Spirit's a master teacher. After laying out the outline of end-day events, He says, Now, learn, and He gives you an illustration. Learn the parable of the fig tree.

When his branch is yet tender and put as forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the door. And I say to you upon the authority of God's Word, as I'll try to bring out to you in a few moments, that verse thirty-two, the budding of the fig tree, is in reference to the regathering of God's earthly people, Israel, from the four winds and their establishment not in the land of Palestine.

Now, don't be misled. It's the land of Israel now. Don't refer to it as Palestine, for just in May 1948, overnight, a nation scattered to the four winds of the earth with no rest for the sole of her feet, persecuted, strangers, and pilgrims, suddenly was recognized as a nation among the nations of earth.

And you'll have, in my humble judgment, the budding of the fig tree, which I'll enlarge upon next Lord's Day. Now, today, the sign of the Lord's return. That is after the Lord has set forth these events.

Now, learn something. Heaven and earth, verse thirty-four, I'm just getting started. I may have to close right in the middle of my message. This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away. Then he refers to the days of Noah, and also how there'll be two in the field. One shall be taken and the other shall be left. Then he winds up with these words, Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man is coming.

Israel as the Vine, Olive Tree, and Fig Tree

Here in Matthew 24 -32, in my humble judgment, we find the sign of the Lord's return. And for thirty-four long years, God has given me the blessed privilege of preaching on the Lord's return. When I started out thirty-four years ago to preach this wonderful truth, I wondered how certain things would come to pass.

And I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father today that I stand in front of this worldwide broadcast. And I say to you that He's permitted me to live, to see things come to pass now that we're on the very threshold of the Lord's return.

Hallelujah. Things are happening. Now, in the Scriptures, Israel is referred to under three emblems. I'll mention them today and enlarge upon them next Lord's Day. First, a vine in a vineyard. You'll read Isaiah 5, 1 -7 between now and next Lord's Day.

Second, Israel is referred to an olive tree. The eleventh of Romans. How that the olive branch was broken off and a wild olive branch, the Gentiles, contrary to nature, was drafted in. But when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, God will break off the wild olive branch and regraft Israel into the olive tree.

It's about to take place. And then the fig tree as a picture of Israel. Turn in your Bibles quickly to the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses six and seven. Here it is. We speak also of this parable.

A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he came and sought fruit thereon and found nothing. And then in the twenty-first chapter of Luke, verse twenty-nine, we find these words. And he spake unto them a parable.

Behold the fig tree and all the trees, Gentiles as well as Israel. And then in Matthew 21, 18, here we have it. Listen. Now in the morning, as he returned unto the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only.

He said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth. And the tree became withered. Now listen. The barren fig tree is cursed. Hear the fig tree, the withered fig tree, a type of Israel's spiritual and national death.

And for nearly two thousand years, Israel out of the land, scattered among the nations. But wait, we have the budding of the fig tree. And anyone familiar with the nature of a fig tree knows that when it buds, that fruit and leaves are found together.

For as soon as a branch becomes tender, the fruit is found and it speaks of rapid development. And Israel's blessing, new life, new fruit, new glory will be quickly realized in the end days. And coupled with Israel's new life, the budding of the fig tree, the events of chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew will come to pass with great rapidity.

The Nearness of the Lord's Return and the Call to Readiness

Wake up! The return of the Lord is very near. The next Lord's day will enlarge upon this budding. Will you notice Matthew 24, 33? So likewise, when ye shall see all these things, know that it, revised version, he is near, even at the door.

And how long before he calls his church out during these past two thousand years, the Holy Spirit's been calling out a people for his name. And when the last soul is saved that completes the body of Christ, God will say to the church, come on up, as he said to Noah before the waters of judgment came upon the earth.

He said to Noah, come thou into the ark. Christ will say to the church, come on up hither. And the dead in Christ shall arise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

When? I don't know. But watch and pray and be ye also ready. And the only way to be ready is to be our new creation in Christ Jesus and be washed in the precious blood of Calvary. Are you ready? Let's bow our heads in prayer.

The Invitation to Receive Christ

Friends out in the radio audience, may the Holy Spirit convict you now as you've never been convicted. That you see your need before God, a lost soul, without Christ, without God, without hope, outside the ark of safety in Christ Jesus.

Come now. Come unto me all ye labored, heavy laden. I'll give you rest. May you kneel right where you are. Give your heart to Christ today and be found in the body of Christ before the judgments of God fall.

Quickly now in this fine audience, how many will put their hands up and say, Pray for me, I here and now want to accept Christ as my personal Savior. We'll continue the altar call at the close of the broadcast.

Continue in prayer, please. This is Charles E. Fuller bidding you goodbye and God's richest blessing upon you.