"Jesus is Coming"

Matthew 24:37, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son of man be." He said there was going to be a parallel between the day of the coming of the Lord, and the days of Noah. Certain characteristics about that day weve talked about. Some of them we havent. All along the line, somebody somewhere has used this verse of scripture of deal with the coming of the Lord. I want to mention certain things about it today that have not been a part of it. In the 15th chapter of Corinthians Paul talks about us being changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Thats how suddenly all of this is going to take place. There has been many arguments and debates in theological circles about the coming of the Lord. What is going to happen? Some people dont believe there will be a rapture. Some preach the church is going to usher in the millennium then Christ is going to come to rule. There are others who believe the church will pass through the tribulation. Others believe they will be taken out before the tribulation. We will touch upon all of that. But first, we must settle in our heart that He is coming. Paul said, "...the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to be with the Lord." There is no such word in the Bible as rapture. But there are all kinds of words that infer a rapture. You wont find the word Trinity in the Bible, but the trinity of God is from the very door of the Bible throughout. God in three persons is shown throughout this Bible and you cant even balance the Bible without that, and so it is with the rapture. John 14, Jesus said, "If I go away, I will come again." Now if there wasnt anything else said in the Bible about it that would tell you that Jesus is coming. There are certain characteristics about His coming that I believe need to be fixed in our mind. Number one, Paul made it very plain that Hes coming suddenly. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. That doesnt leave any time for you to change your mind. Youre going to be ready then, or you wont be ready. The twinkling of an eye is the twentieth part of a second. I would never be anywhere I wouldnt want to be if He came, because I dont know and you dont know, not even the Son knows the day or the hour but God the Father does know. You could eat supper in Heaven this afternoon. Jesus could come and since He is going to come so quickly, then it says to us that we ought not to ever be engaged in anything that we wouldnt want to be doing if He came. When you witness the carelessness of Christians in this hour, its really frightening. You see people so involved, and so engaged, in the things of this world, when the Bible says, that it is possible for you to become so overcharged with the cares of this life that, that day takes you unawares. You can be so involved with eating, surfeiting, that that day over take you unawares. If there is anything in your life more important than being a part of the raptured church, more than likely, youre not going to make it. Paul said, "That I might apprehend that which Ive been apprehended for." Not that Im already perfect, nor that Ive already apprehended, but I am determined that Im going to be a part of that. He was talking about the first resurrection. So the first aspect is its going to be suddenly. The second thing that I want to say before we move into whose going to make it is only a few people are going to make it. There is no talk about people of the world making it. People who have never been born again arent looking for Him, they are not going to be a part of it. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man. One of the aspects of that day was only eight people got on that boat. This brought me to fearful thought. I cant theologically point out every detail, but I believe we learn from the days of Noah, that unless youre walking in the good things, your little children will not be a part of that rapture. There werent any little children on that boat. No babies got out of Sodom. The only children to escape Sodom were the children that got out with Lot. It is an awesome responsibility. That doesnt mean the little children went to hell. All flesh will be destroyed but that doesnt mean that all of them were lost. They made it but they had to pass through the flood and the fires of Sodom. When you come down to only a few making it, it isnt just numbers. If that is so, there may not be two hundred people in the world ready. Its not numbers, but the Spiritual content. Only that which is spiritual is going to get out of here. Children are saved because they are innocent, they are not spiritual. Little babies that are not born again are sinners by birth. Only the spiritual will be in the rapture. The word spiritual has suffered

much but it means to be controlled by the Spirit. Spiritual people are people who are led by the Spirit. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The word meek means tamed. Moses was the meekest man on this earth. Moses was the tamest man on earth. God had tamed him to his own will. The people who are going to be raptured are those controlled by the Holy Ghost. There is no alternative to the Spirit of God, but the flesh. I was in an all night prayer meeting, and out of a church with several hundred members only forty were in the prayer meeting. I was in the altar, and something said to me, I believe it was God, "Youre looking at the rapture in this church." I said, "My God, is this all of us?" And He said, "If I cant get a man or a woman to a prayer meeting, I sure couldnt get them to a rapture." Only the spiritual. There is a lot of religion, but there is not much Spirit. We have learned how to sell religion, promote it, make it exciting. Try to sell Jesus like you sell soap. Weve took up the worlds habits, we run the church like a supermarket. There is so little thats really spiritual in the world we live in. But there is nothing going to Heaven that didnt come from Heaven. Flesh and blood will not inherit that world. The rapture is going to take place, it is going to happen suddenly, and only a few are going to be a part of it. The greatest controversy is when is the rapture going to take place. There are those that are pushing us through the tribulation. There are others who have us half way through the tribulation. The Bible has to be the answer. Everybody claims to have an answer, but when we try to find answers in the Bible by trying to make the Bible fit what you believe, then youre wrong. I have to change my belief if my belief doesnt fit what the Bible says. Number one, God says, "As it was in the days of Noah..." and "As it was in the days of Lot..." Before any fire ever fell on Sodom, Lot was out. Before any rain fell on earth, Noah and his crew were in that ark. I used to believe that nobody listened to Noah. I have since changed my mind. He had thousands of people in that church. They went home every Sunday thinking "That old man might be right." They shouted and praised the Lord, just like they do now. They talked about the judgment coming, just like we come to church and say, "Oh, I Want To See Him," but if you thought He was going to be here in the next five minutes, Id never get to preach the sermon. Youd be down here in this altar, crying out to God, repenting, getting things right. But since you dont believe He is going to come in the next five minutes, you are going to tell yourself you are alright. Noah had a crowd, he was a great preacher. They listened to him. If the rapture takes place on a Sunday morning, you wont hardly miss those out of Sunday School that left. Theyll get a letter from the absentee department. When is it going to take place? When you talk about the Great Tribulation you are talking about a time when God pours out His wrath. God hath no appointed me to wrath but to obtain salvation. God isnt mad at me, Ive been born again. Im His child. He chastens me. He hasnt appointed me to wrath, but to obtain salvation. Revelation 3:10, "Because youve kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation that is going to try every person on this earth." The hour of temptation is the tribulation. If He is going to keep me from it, Hes going to have to take me off of the earth. Again, I want you to notice here, in Revelation 2:20-22, some very conclusive evidence about the church and what point in time the church is going to be raptured. "Notwithstanding (talking to the church at Thyatira) I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." Jezebel isnt what we try to make it, somebody that combs her hair a little different, that isnt what hes talking about at all. Jezebel incorporates more than that. Youre dealing with a mixture. There was a woman in the Old Testament named Jezebel, and the spirit of that woman, pops up in Thyatira thousands of years later, and what is said, "...who has caused my servants to commit fornication..." Not talking about somebody getting in bed with somebody else. Hes talking about spiritual fornication. The mixture of the true and the false. Because of this, God said, "And I gave her a space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not..." Its over with for her. But listen, "Behold, (this is God talking) I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her (those who tolerated this) into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." Except they repent I am going to cast them into tribulation. Into great tribulation. He is talking

about the tribulation. God says, Except they repent, I am going to do it, that means, if they repent they are not going to have to go through the tribulation. So there is some who are not going through it. That is the people who are going to be raptured. The rapture is going to take place before the tribulation. In the world you have tribulation. Sixty-eight million people were slaughtered by religion because they believed in Christ, between the years 1200 and 1800. In 600 years, sixty-eight million people. They are being killed today. I preached every year in Communist Eastern Europe, to a people who have been tormented, persecuted, and jailed. In the world you have tribulation. If Jesus tarries His coming a little while, you and I are going to face the wrath of hell for what we believe in a way we never dreamed possible. But that is not the tribulation. The tribulation is when the vials of Gods wrath are poured out on a world that has rejected God. When that happens, we that know God and walk with God are going to be out of here. The question is, Who? Everybody believes theyre going to be raptured if they believe in the rapture. Then youve got this crowd of folks that believe they are the only ones that are going to be raptured. There are these organizations, The Church of Christ, The United Pentecostal, who believe nobody is saved but them. There are all kinds that pop up everywhere. I was in Saint Louis in the Keel Auditorium, this fellow met me on the outside, said he was from the Sons of the Prophets, I asked, Who are they? They are the man child group that is going to be in the rapture. I said, How many of you folks are there? He said, about ten or twelve. There has to always be these kinds of folks. In spite of the false there are just specific people that are going to make it. There is no specific organization. You can belong to the Assemblies of God or any other, that wont put you in the rapture. A preacher who listened to me on TV out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, took me to dinner. During the meal he said, "I listen to you every Sunday, you are too great a preacher to miss the rapture." I said, "You think I am not going to make it?" "Well," he said, "Youve got to join up with us." I dont buy that. But I do agree with one thing, there are a particular people who are going to be in the rapture and nobody else is going to be there. That particular people are called in the Bible by one word, Overcomer. Seven times that term is used in the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation. Seven times it says, "To him that overcometh..." And every time it gives a specific promise. One promise, "To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne." Throne in the Bible denotes authority, government. The government shall be upon His shoulders. When he said to him that overcometh I will give to sit with me in my throne, He was saying, It is those that overcome who are going to make up that glorified raptured church. The overcomer is going to be in that rapture. Somebody said, Well, what have we got to overcome? There is only one thing you have to overcome. If you are a born again Christian and have any hope of making the rapture, then there is only one thing youve got to overcome, SELF. When you come to Christ, when you are born again, repent of your sins, those sins are forgiven. It is as if you never sinned. The Bible calls justified, that means you stand before God as if you never sinned. That happens the day you are born again. But, the rest of your life has to be spent in walking in the Spirit, overcoming what you are, being conformed to the image of Christ. The whole course of your life is overcoming self. The enemy of mankind is in us. The anti-christ is spelled S-E-LF. To the degree that we are full of self we are full of the devil. If you give him any ground, hes going to take a hold of it. It is said of Jesus, "The devil came and found nothing in Him." He had no carnal nature. he had a natural man, but He had no carnal man. He wasnt born of Adam. His father was God. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, so the devil couldnt get a hold of Him. To the degree that you and I have overcome that self life, weve overcome. The rewards of Heaven are going to be on this ground. Not how many times I preach, not how much money Ive given, but how much like Jesus have I become while I lived on this earth. How much have I allowed the Holy Spirit to work in me spiritually, to conform me to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible said hell is going to be worse for some folks than it is for others. Also Heaven is going to be a bigger place for some people that it is for others. Some are going to be saved as of by fire, others are going to have an abundant entrance into the things of God. And its all going to be on the grounds of how much we have given our life to the things of the Spirit while were on this earth. To most Christians, things are the blessings of God. That thinking has cost us a generation of kids. Instead of loving our kids, we give them another television set, or buy them a second car. The things that we have sought have not been a blessing, theyve been a curse. People have spent their lives in quest for them, if they are saved at all,

they are going to discover Heaven is going to be a limited space for them. Years ago in the church, we had a boy we called Junior. He wasnt a boy, he was as old as I was. I was 24 hours older than he was. But the difference was he was mongoloid. He was a little boy in a great big body. You couldnt let him out on that parking lot, he would get run over. His older brother kept him, his mother and dad were dead. He called me My My. He hugged every woman when he came in the church. He was just a little boy. And one day when I was praying about this thought of rewards, God brought Junior to my mind. He showed me, Junior has lived on this earth as long as you have. He was born 24 hours after you got here, but life has not been one millionth part to Junior as it has been to you. He never knew what it was to have a lovely wife, beautiful children, and to be able to travel around the country. He all of his life has been a little boy. There is nothing more beautiful than children, but nothing sadder than a child that never grows up. Wouldnt it be sad if you knew your child was always going to be a child. The thought continued, he never knew anything that you know, he never knew what it was to get on an airplane. His life was a very limited life. And God said, Thats the best I can show you but that is an example of what its going to be like with people who have spent their life in quest for things, and just barely get into the kingdom of God. Dont seek after things, all will be yours tomorrow if you serve God. It is the overcoming of self, walking in the Spirit. It is the overcomer that will make it, but that requires diligence. Nobody is accidentally going to be raptured. If you are a part of that raptured church, it will be because you want to be. If there is anything on this earth more important to you, you will not be there. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, "And it appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" To them that look for Him shall he appear a second time without sin unto salvation. Notice its to them that look for Him. I know we have people that preach us through the tribulation. That means that the anti-christ is going to have to come, take charge of the earth, rule it for those seven years, then Jesus is going to come. Those people are not looking for Christ. He is coming for them that look for Him, if you are looking for the anti-christ, youre not looking for the Christ. If you believe we have to go through the tribulation before He comes, then you believe that its got to be at least seven years before He comes. Youre not looking for the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is not coming for you. It is the diligent. The key word is to watch. Watch and pray. Watch always. How we need to hear that. The most frightening thing is the carelessness of the part of Gods people. In the 25th chapter of Matthew, Jesus gives a parable of the ten virgins, five wise, and five foolish. Five had oil, five didnt have any oil. Five went in and five didnt get in. The other five that didnt get in, didnt fail because they were unclean, they were virgins. They were people that t lived for God, they went to church on Sunday mornings, what cost them their place in that rapture? Neglect, carelessness, not being diligent to the things of God. They were without any oil. You dont have to backslide. All you have to do is burn the oil up. If you dont take time to be refilled, then all you are operating on is the flesh. When I was a boy, the REA (the Rural Electric Association) hadnt got to where I lived with electricity yet. We burned lamps. One characteristic about those lamps, you had to keep the wick trimmed and keep oil on it. You let it get low on oil and it began to burn the wick and would smoke the chimney. And wouldnt put out any light. You let the Holy Ghost leak out of the church, and it begins to burn the flesh, and all you get is your eyes smarted. Youll have nothing. It was carelessness on the part of those five virgins that cost them their place in the raptured church. That is what is going to cost a lot of people their place in the raptured church. They drift along, their prayer life becomes nothing. They dont have time to read the Word of God. They barely have time to get to church on Sunday morning, once in a while on a Sunday night. That isnt going to make it, it requires diligence. Them that look for Him, is the ones he is coming for. There is a story in the Bible of Elijah and Elisha. God told Elijah, to appoint the young man Elisha to be prophet in your room. In other words, to take your place. Im going to get you out of there. You know the story, the young man was plowing in the field and the old prophet came up behind him, passed his mantle over him and kept walking. When he touched him with that mantle Elisha dropped the plow and took out after the old prophet. The prophet asked "What have I to do with you?" he said, "Let me go kiss my mother and dad good-bye, Im going with you." The old man did everything to discourage him. If you can be discouraged, you are going to be discouraged. If you can be knocked out, you will be knocked out. If there is anything more important than God to you, youre not going to be in the rapture. Get back to your plowing boy. Elisha slaughtered the oxen,

barbecued with the plows, he burned every bridge and took out after the old man. For eight years he followed Elijah. He followed him to Bethel, when they went to leave Bethel the boys of the school of the prophets, said to him, "Why dont you stay here, dont you know your head is going to be taken away." Everybody was aware that Elijah is going to be raptured, the old prophet said, "You wait here, Im going down to Gilgal." "Not on your life, Im going with you", he said. He said, "Im going to Jericho, stay here." "Im going with you, where you go, I go." When they came to the waters of Jordan, the old man parted the waters, they walked across on dry land, got on the other side, the Jordan began to flow again. Eight years he had been following after what he felt in that cotton patch. Finally, the old prophet said, "Elisha, what do you want?" He said, "I want a double portion of your spirit." Elijah said, "Youve asked a hard thing. But nevertheless if you see me when I go, you can have what youre asking." He is saying, if you are attentive to what I am, if you keep in tune with it, you can have it. Im going to get out of here one of these days. I dont know when Im going, and you dont know when Im going, but the one requirement for you to have what youre after, you must see me when I go up. I dont know when Jesus is coming, you dont know when He is coming, but the one requirement for me to go with Him, I must be looking for Him. Cant you see that young man? He slept with one hand on that old man. With one eye open. You let that prophet roll over in his sleep and he is up on his feet. He never let a tree get between them. The requirement is you must see me. There was a diligence in him. This careless, soft underbellied thing called the church today isnt going anywhere. To watch is to pray. To watch is to be in Gods Word. To watch is to be in the house of God. To watch is to be a watchman of souls. To watch is to be attentive to things spiritual. "...nevertheless if you see me..." To them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin. Thats the word of God. That is what God is saying to us. The carelessness of this age is a rebuke on us. Were careless with things spiritual. We think somehow God has slackened up and loosened up. Jesus said, Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken. The old man didnt know what day he was leaving, he had been looking for it for years. One day that Chariot swept down and picked up the old gentleman, the young man rent his clothes and said, "My father, my father." What he was saying is the hope of Israel is in that chariot. The anointing of God is in that chariot. He saw a door and out came the mantle. The man had been wearing it for years and now it fell across him. He went to the very place where he and the old man had crossed in the first place. His message was, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" What he was really saying, Did I get what I asked him for? It wasnt a matter of could he say something in tongues, but did I really get what I asked for? He smote the waters, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah," and the river parted again. The school of the prophets said, "The same spirit is on him." The requirement was, you must see me. Diligence, continually watching. Walk in the morning to pray. All during the day, the spirit of prayer, waiting, watching, hoping, longing. I remember when I first was saved, the coming of the Lord was so real to me. I used to work in the oil field, and I remember many times I would look up, I expected it any minute. That was the hope that was born. If thats not there now, something is wrong. Ive told this story a lot of times. It more than any other thing tells you what I am saying. The people who are going to be in the rapture are going to be people that have overcome themselves, a people who are diligent in the things of God. A people that look for Him. Years ago, the zoo in Saint Louis, Missouri, one of the great zoos in this country, lost their eagle. They kept it in a cage, its wings clipped. You never find an eagle down where chickens are, hes not a barnyard fowl. He was made for the heavens. It is a crime against everything that is decent to put one in a cage. One day somebody carelessly left the cage open and the eagle got out and flew away. He hadnt flown in a long time and because of the lack of exercise, he flew 35 miles into Illinois and fell on a farm. The farmer captured the eagle and staked him in his barn yard. That evening as he was reading the Saint Louis Dispatch he saw on the front of the paper, a headline, Zoo Loses Its Eagle. Anybody that finds or captures the eagle, call this number collect. He called the number, and said, "I think Ive got your bird." They said they would be out in the morning to identify him. The eagle was staked, he was walking looking straight up as he walked. He hit the end of that rope and without ever looking down would turn around and go the other way. He never paid any mind to anybody. The zoo people said, that is our bird. Just load him in the cage and take him back to the zoo. The farmer said, no youre not going to load him in anything until you let me tell you something about that bird. I staked that bird last night, just getting dark and from the moment I turned him loose he has been

going just like that. He never stopped to my knowledge, all night long. He has never looked down at the ground. That old hound dog never saw a bird like this. He snarled at him, barked, but that eagle never even looked at that dog. He just kept walking. Even the chickens and turkeys came out there kicking around that thing, he never paid them no mind. My little boy was throwing clods, but that eagle never even one time looked at my little boy. What is the matter with that bird? The man said, nothing is the matter with that bird, sir, the only thing he wasnt made for this cow pen. He is not a chicken. he was made for the skies. God made a path up there for that eagle to fly. And he knows that one day across these Illinois skies there is going to fly another eagle maybe five thousand feet up there, and as he flies across if he sees this eagle, hes going to let out a scream. Hes going to shout, like eagles shout, and when he shouts if this eagle answers back, he will come down and will either set him free or kill him. He wont let you embarrass him in this barn yard. If this eagle is listening to your dog bark, or your chickens, or your little boy, if he is all involved with that kind of nonsense, hell never see that eagle when he comes. And his only desire is to see or hear that eagle when he comes. To them that look for Him, shall He appear the second time. If you are listening to the gossip and to the cheap trash that is going on around you, if youre involved in this world, youll never hear Him when He comes. Hes coming with a shout and if youre listening to the bark of gossip and the foolishness of the world, youre never going to see Him in the first place. God never made us for this earth. We were made to walk on the mountains of eternity in fellowship with God. Something inside of every human knows that there is a limitation, that is the reason he builds these rockets, he is trying to break out of the limitation of the flesh. In his theories of relativity, he has discovered that if he can ever travel as fast as light, he can live forever. He is bucking up against a world that is impossible, but that doesnt change a thing. Something down deep in the inner most recesses of the human spirit, tells him he was made for bigger worlds. He wasnt made for this world, he was made for eternity. Ill never make it out of here if Im caught in the world around me. That may not be all sin, but its death. If youre caught up in the world, if that is what occupies your thinking, youre never going to hear Him when He shouts. Like that eagle, he knew if he ever stopped, and paid attention to that dog, no doubt it scared him, but he was more scared of spending the rest of his life in that barn yard than he was scared of being killed by a dog. Im more anxious about being a part of that raptured church than I am of accumulating things on this earth. The one that is going to be a part is the man or woman that overcomes. The overcomer is a person of diligence. To them that look for Him, shall He appear the second time without sin.