Revelation Insights

Here He Comes - Ready Or Not

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. Lyle Albrecht

Home

Series Code: RIN

Program Code: RIN000009


00:59 Welcome to each of you.
01:03 It's good to see you always.
01:06 You're faces are becoming familiar to me.
01:09 Becoming like family.
01:11 And if I were to look out now and see some of you missing,
01:16 I would feel badly.
01:17 So don't let me down, alright?
01:20 Tonight's travel is very, very special.
01:22 I want you to fasten your seatbelts while
01:23 the lights go down.
01:24 We're going to go together to Masada.
01:28 It's a rock down on the shores of the Dead Sea.
01:33 We're, from the top of the rock, looking down now
01:36 upon the Dead Sea.
01:37 In distance, we're only about 30 miles, perhaps a little less
01:41 than that from Jerusalem.
01:43 We are a bit to the east and a fair bit to the south.
01:47 The waters of the Dead Sea, by the way,
01:51 are some of the most interesting in all of the world.
01:55 There is so much salt, saline, and other kinds of chemicals
02:00 I guess, in the water that you easily float.
02:05 Folks go down there to swim and because you don't have to
02:09 worry about putting those little water wings on the kids.
02:11 Everybody floats.
02:13 And the fascinating thing is that if you have a fair amount
02:18 of body fat, you float higher and higher still.
02:22 Curious the way..
02:23 I got in there and didn't even get wet.
02:29 Now here we are from the shore of the Dead Sea
02:32 looking at Masada.
02:34 And I want you to notice something here
02:37 from this vantage point.
02:38 I'm going to use my pointer.
02:40 Right in the middle of the screen, there you'll see
02:43 a zigzag trail.
02:44 That's called the snake trail, ladies and gentlemen.
02:47 And for hundreds of years, that was the only way up to the top.
02:51 There was a ladder that allowed you to
02:54 make the last 20 or 30 feet.
02:58 How big is the thing?
02:59 Well, it's 1400 feet high, this rock
03:03 that juts up out of the desert.
03:04 And the top is flat and it's about
03:08 2000 feet in length at the top.
03:12 And the shape is very much like the flat iron that we use to
03:15 heat to iron the clothes with.
03:17 Anybody old enough to remember that?
03:19 No? Alright.
03:21 Well in any event, 150 years before the birth of Jesus,
03:28 a Jew by the name of Jonathan went up there and built a fort,
03:34 because it was a place of refuge for Jewish warriors
03:38 who were fighting against the Syrians at the time of
03:42 the Hasmonean Revolt.
03:45 They built a wall around the place.
03:46 How did they do that?
03:47 Well, they went over the side and quarried back in to the
03:53 earth that is much stone like.
03:55 And then they brought those blocks up over and placed them
03:59 in a perimeter around the top of it.
04:02 Well, after the Hasmonean Revolt, it was used
04:06 really as just kind of a place of resort.
04:09 A place to go up and have a nice view.
04:12 A place to give you some good exercise if you climbed
04:15 from the bottom up toward the top.
04:16 You had a wonderful view then of the Valley of Zin
04:20 and the Dead Sea.
04:21 And you could, on a clear day, see to the north up to the
04:25 beautiful mountains of snow at the north end of the Dead Sea.
04:31 But this place began to take on an air of serious importance
04:36 when about 60 before Christ the Romans took the place
04:45 and continued to hold it until Herod, Herod the Great,
04:51 decided that he would go up there and make it
04:53 a winter palace and a winter resort.
04:55 And that he did.
04:56 He built two great palaces up on the top of the place.
04:59 And it was very safe.
05:00 Any enemy would have to do the zigzag thing
05:04 to try to get up there.
05:05 And then once they were near the top, they'd have to climb
05:08 the ladder to gain entry.
05:09 And it'd be pretty easy to push them back over.
05:11 So Herod built a great palace with wonderful views.
05:14 Two palaces, both of them with wonderful, wonderful views.
05:18 Now, we're going to move forward in time and in importance.
05:24 In 66 AD, a revolt among the Jews against the Romans
05:29 who were ruling the world, broke out.
05:35 Titus Vespasian, Rome's most able general, initially sent
05:40 his general, Silva, over to the Holy Land
05:44 to put down the Jewish rebellion.
05:47 Up north from Jerusalem at a village called Jotapata,
05:50 the Jews had built a wall around the city and were on the inside
05:55 laughing at the Romans.
05:56 Silva went around a hill and out of site and had his soldiers
06:00 build a battering ram.
06:03 And then they brought the battering ram around the
06:06 corner of the hill and the folks on the inside stopped laughing.
06:09 They rolled that huge war machine up against the wall.
06:13 And on the third strike of the ram, the wall caved in
06:18 and the Romans moved in and destroyed the place.
06:23 Down in Jerusalem, the folks heard what had been happening
06:28 up north in Jotapata.
06:30 And they decided they would reinforce
06:32 their wall in Jerusalem.
06:34 And that they did.
06:37 Titus Vespasian himself, decided it was time to join the battle
06:40 because Silva was going to have a tough fight down at Jerusalem.
06:44 And so he came down and instead of building a battering ram,
06:48 instead of trying to knock down the wall,
06:50 he simply played the waiting game.
06:52 He put the Roman legions in a perimeter around
06:56 the city of Jerusalem.
06:57 He knew that on the inside they had sufficient water
07:00 to last for days and days and days.
07:02 But he also knew that they did not have enough food
07:06 to last for more than a couple of months.
07:12 By the 82nd day of the siege, the folks inside
07:17 were cannibalizing their dead.
07:19 Babies were dying and the old and the sick were dying.
07:23 And the Jews were cannibalizing them.
07:26 And a group of them, under the cover of darkness,
07:29 decided it was time to get out of town.
07:31 And so, about 1000 of them made their way, slipped out of
07:35 the city and made their way over to the Dead Sea area
07:39 and went up the snake trail and got inside.
07:43 960 to be exact.
07:46 That included men and women and children.
07:49 Now there's an aerial view of the top of the place.
07:51 You see it's not unlike the shape of an iron.
07:53 And if you look down around the base, by the way,
07:56 you can see some of the stones still,
07:58 some of the foundation stones of the camps that the Romans
08:04 placed there when they came to take this thing back in 73 AD.
08:10 To get there today, you can get aboard this tram.
08:14 You see the folks going, but still at the very top of it all,
08:18 you have to climb a ladder.
08:19 There it is.
08:21 The tram doesn't go all of the way to the top.
08:22 So you climb the ladder the last 30 or 40 feet
08:26 to gain an entrance to the top.
08:28 Now, let's talk together about what happened in 73 AD.
08:37 Generals Silva and Titus Vespasian,
08:40 who was soon to become the Emperor of all of Rome,
08:42 moved in on this place.
08:45 They had taken Jerusalem and all of the other wild fires
08:50 of Jewish revolt in the surrounding areas
08:53 and they moved the armies here.
08:55 And up on the top, the Jews began to laugh at them.
09:00 Laughing, "Ha ha, do your best. Catch us if you can. "
09:04 That was the idea.
09:06 A man by the name of Eleazar ben Jair
09:10 was the leader of the Jewish zealots.
09:13 And he led them in their clapping and in their hooting
09:16 and their howling.
09:18 So Silva decided that they would build a ramp on the
09:24 west side of this mountain.
09:26 And so he put the legions of Rome to work gathering rocks
09:30 and gathering dirt in wheel barrel like affairs,
09:33 and in bushel baskets and in sacks.
09:35 They began to carry earth to build a ramp.
09:38 And the Jews up inside laughed more loudly than ever.
09:43 "Even if they came up on that ramp, they'd never be able to
09:46 breach the wall.
09:47 They don't have a chance at all. "
09:50 Now as you look up there, you see the remains
09:53 of one of the palaces that was built by Herod the Great.
09:58 You can imagine spending the winter time up there, can't you.
10:00 There is plenty of forced labor to bring him everything
10:03 that his heart desired.
10:05 There is plenty of water for they would fill those cavities,
10:09 those caves from which they had taken the stone
10:12 to build the wall and to build the palace,
10:14 filled them up with water.
10:16 And you can imagine the chore that was.
10:18 Going to the Jordan with horses and wagons and some other
10:22 devices perhaps, and getting fresh water and bringing it here
10:25 and then laboriously taking it up snake trail, up to the top.
10:30 But if you have enough men, it doesn't really matter.
10:33 If you have all that power.
10:37 And now we're up near the top and we're looking back down.
10:41 Imagine the Roman soldiers with spades.
10:45 Not good shovels like we have today, but really crude
10:49 instruments digging up the dirt and putting a few rocks
10:52 in a bag or in a basket and carrying them over and
10:56 putting them and then tamping them down,
10:58 and tamping them down.
11:00 Months and months and months went by.
11:05 And the ramp grew and grew.
11:08 But still on the inside the Jews laughed out loud.
11:12 Now we're going to take a look at some of the ruins
11:15 that date back to the time of Herod the Great.
11:18 Well, you see those great stones?
11:19 Those stones are the drums, or sections, from the Greek
11:24 style pillars of the temple and the palace.
11:27 And you can see that they had carvings in them
11:30 to make them very lovely.
11:31 And after they were all finished and put together,
11:35 then the craftsmen striated them and painted them
11:39 so that from a distance they looked like marble.
11:42 They looked like something that had certainly come from Greece
11:45 or maybe from Rome itself.
11:47 And they were living the good life up here.
11:49 Having a good time. Plenty to eat.
11:51 Plenty of fresh water.
11:54 Now, hold the revolt of 73 in your minds
11:59 and let me bring you to modern time.
12:02 In 1971-72, an archaeologist and a brilliant political mind,
12:11 a man by the name of Dr. Yigael Yadin
12:14 who would teach archaeology and Hebrew history at
12:18 Hebrew University in the city of Jerusalem, came here
12:21 and began an archaeological dig.
12:23 And he found armaments, pieces of armor and weaponry
12:27 that dated back to the times before Jesus.
12:31 A 100 years before Jesus in the Hasmonean revolt.
12:33 And then he found the absolute proof of the palaces
12:37 of Herod the Great.
12:39 And some of the other things.
12:40 There are lines that go through these stone walls
12:43 that they have put back together.
12:44 Sometimes we can see them pretty well and other times we can't.
12:48 But below that black line, that we may see soon,
12:52 the stones that are standing there are original.
12:56 They date back to the time of Herod
12:58 and the final revolt in 73.
13:00 And the stones above that were placed there in 1973.
13:03 Now this is one of the water tunnels, one of the holes,
13:07 one of the mines if you please, from which they took that
13:10 building material and then filled it up with water
13:14 to make it to become a reservoir.
13:17 We're walking in and amongst the ruins now
13:20 that date back to the time...
13:21 There's one of those black lines.
13:22 Right in the very center of the picture is that kind of
13:25 crooked black line.
13:26 Everything beneath that is original.
13:28 It dates back to the time of Herod the Great.
13:31 And everything above it has been replaced
13:33 since the time of the archaeological digs.
13:38 Some of the buildings have been put back intact and we could
13:41 go inside to discover the nice lifestyle that many lived.
13:46 For they had hot and cold water treatments here.
13:49 And they had steam baths.
13:51 Yes, here it is. The bath house.
13:53 Can you imagine, again, carrying the water up there.
13:57 That was a chore.
13:58 In the floor there, you see the results of where the fire burned
14:02 and where once the tiles were.
14:07 Here is the well or the cistern.
14:09 Now you can imagine, the Roman soldiers that are
14:13 working down below.
14:14 And they have to send details miles and miles and miles away
14:19 to get fresh water.
14:20 And it's a constant job and a constant worry.
14:22 And you're allowed only just a few ounces every few hours.
14:26 And up here the Jews, on the other hand, are going
14:30 back in there cistern and bringing out gallons and gallons
14:34 and gallons of drinking water.
14:35 And on occasion, from up on the wall they would throw over
14:39 a gallon or two.
14:40 And the Roman soldiers that are building that ramp
14:44 up near the top, would run to try to lap it up.
14:47 But of course, it would become mud before they could get to it.
14:50 Coming out of the bath house there.
14:54 Now here, ladies and gentlemen, today
14:57 is the evidence of that ramp.
15:00 The engineers of the Roman legions, every so many yards
15:05 put in a great tree trunk.
15:08 They buried the thing down 15 or 18 feet, and left standing up
15:13 a stomp about 5 feet.
15:15 And up inside, the Jews wondered why.
15:19 "What's going on, what do they think they're doing?
15:20 What a joke.
15:21 Do they think it's going to grow?"
15:24 But the Romans had a plan.
15:26 They continued to build the ramp
15:28 and build the ramp until they had it right up
15:32 to the base of the wall.
15:34 And the Roman soldiers could march up to the top.
15:37 But on the inside, the zealous Jews would
15:41 laugh at them the more and throw rocks down at them.
15:46 What the Jews did not know was that again
15:48 a big battering ram around the hill and out of site
15:52 was being built.
15:54 What was the purpose of those tree trunks?
15:57 Well, that was to give leverage to the pulleys
16:00 to wench that big battering ram up to the top of the mountain.
16:04 And when the battering ram was lifted up, raised up and
16:09 brought around the corner, the zealots up on the top
16:12 stopped their laughing.
16:14 They knew it was only a matter of time now.
16:17 And they would wench and push and pull,
16:20 and would block and tackle, move a few yard every day
16:23 that great battering ram.
16:27 When the Romans got the ram up to the top,
16:33 they cocked it and struck against the wall and the wall
16:36 shuttered but it did not give in.
16:38 For on the inside, they had lined this area behind the ramp
16:43 and above the ramp with great timbers.
16:46 They had dismantled some of the temple work of Herod the Great
16:49 and reinforced the wall until it was strong enough to
16:54 withstand, I suppose, a blast of dynamite.
16:56 Or at least that was the thinking of the
16:58 folks on the inside.
16:59 They cocked the ram and struck it again.
17:01 And the earth, the rock earth began to crumble some.
17:06 And they did it again and again and again.
17:08 And the rocks crumbled away.
17:11 Now, there were the reinforced timbers.
17:15 "What now do we do?"
17:17 Someone got an idea.
17:19 Let's burn our way through.
17:21 The timbers were pitchy.
17:24 On the inside, it was time for a meeting.
17:30 And so the leader, of whom I've already spoken, Eleazar,
17:34 gathered the men together and he said to them,
17:37 "If the Romans break in, they're going to desecrate
17:42 our women and our children.
17:45 It's going to be ugly, it's going to be nasty.
17:47 And then they're going to destroy every one of us.
17:51 And I, personally, am not willing to die by their hands. "
17:57 He said, "I have a plan. "
18:00 "My plan is this, that when we go to bed tonight,
18:04 because tomorrow they're going to start the fire.
18:07 And in just a short while it will burn through.
18:11 When we go to bed tonight, we sleep together with our
18:16 families, love our children, hold them in our arms.
18:20 And after the families are asleep and the children and
18:22 the women know nothing of what's going on,
18:27 a death guard will go through the camp
18:32 and will kill everybody.
18:36 And when he has killed everybody, this man will
18:40 fall upon his own sword and will take his own life.
18:45 Do you agree?"
18:46 And they voted, and it was unanimous.
18:49 And the men went back to their home, back to their places,
18:52 back to their families, and as if nothing was wrong
18:55 they shared the last evening meal together.
18:58 And then they went to their places of rest.
19:03 And on the outside of the wall, the Roman soldiers
19:06 went up the battering ram, used it as a final approach
19:11 to the timbers, threw burning material upon the timbers.
19:16 Tar and pitch like substances, rosins.
19:19 And then put the torch to them.
19:22 And it happened that the wind was blowing in just the
19:24 right direction and it began to act like a blow torch.
19:29 And within about 12 hours, 10 to 12 hours,
19:33 a hole was burned through.
19:35 And the Roman soldiers now began to douse the flames and
19:39 beat against them with dampened sacks.
19:44 Then the general asked, "Are you ready?
19:47 Are you men ready?"
19:49 "Yes, we're ready. "
19:50 They had their weapons in their hands.
19:52 And they lined up, with two abreast, they went
19:55 across the battering ram.
19:57 And they jumped through the burned hole inside.
20:00 And they shouted the charge.
20:02 And they were sure now that the Jews would come out of
20:04 wherever they were hiding.
20:07 But nothing happened.
20:08 And their echoes fell back upon their own ears.
20:13 They decided it's a trick.
20:15 And so, they went back out through the burned hole
20:18 and regathered around the ram and replanned.
20:22 And then they made another charge.
20:25 And when about 150 soldiers had gotten through,
20:28 they gave the word, "There's no one here.
20:31 It seems there's no one here. "
20:32 And so the rest of the army, hundreds, went through
20:35 the burned opening.
20:36 And they began to go into the houses.
20:41 And there they saw the carnage.
20:43 All were gone.
20:48 In a remote corner and in a bit of a hole,
20:54 there they found two ladies and five little children
20:59 who had caught, somehow, word of what was going to happen
21:03 and decided they did not want to die in that way.
21:06 They were the only survivors of this great tragedy
21:10 atop the mountain of Masada.
21:14 Today, many many, hundreds in fact,
21:19 of the young Jewish boys are taken to the top
21:23 of the mountain, they relive the story,
21:26 and there they are given bar mitzvah
21:30 and welcomed into the religious circle.
21:32 But more importantly, I think, the Jewish officers,
21:38 and for the last 50 years the Jewish army has been the most
21:43 powerful army in all of the Middle East.
21:45 We've talked about that on prior evenings.
21:48 And one of the reasons they're so very powerful, of course, is
21:51 that they have been trained by American servicemen.
21:55 And they have the weapons that have been made here.
21:58 With a few exceptions of their own automatic
22:00 machine guns and so forth.
22:02 The pilots have been trained here.
22:04 But, the officers climb the snake trail and up the ladder
22:11 and over the top.
22:13 And there they are commissioned, and there they take their vow,
22:18 "Never again. "
22:21 "Never again. "
22:24 And I think it is the history of the era and the story of Masada
22:30 that has made the army of Israel one of the finest
22:34 fighting machines in all this world.
22:38 I thank you for traveling with me.
22:44 Our subject tonight that we've entitled,
22:46 "Here I come, ready or not"
22:49 is built around the second coming of Jesus.
22:54 I'm going to be sharing some things this evening
22:59 that are going to touch a raw nerve in my own heart.
23:04 It's going to be difficult for me.
23:07 So I ask for your indulgence, please.
23:11 Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1.
23:14 Revelation
23:16 The last book for those who live in the very last days
23:18 just before Jesus comes again.
23:20 Revelation chapter 1.
23:22 We read from Revelation chapter 1 last night.
23:24 And we shall again this evening.
23:27 We're going to read the scripture that is really
23:29 the theme of not only chapter 1, but of the whole of the
23:32 rest of the book.
23:33 It is the fulcrum, if you please, the balance point
23:37 for the rest of the book of Revelation.
23:39 Revelation chapter 1 verse 7.
23:42 I'm going to ask you to follow very carefully while I read,
23:44 if you will please.
23:45 It says, "Behold, He comes with clouds,
23:49 and a few of the folks are going to be able to see Him. "
23:52 Is that the way your Bible reads?
23:54 No? How many then?
23:55 ".. every eye shall see Him, including also
23:58 those who pierced Him. "
24:00 You remember when Jesus was standing before the Sanhedrin
24:04 at that farce of a trial?
24:06 And He said nothing.
24:09 And the High Priest said, "Why don't You answer?"
24:11 And Jesus said nothing.
24:12 And finally, the High Priest put Jesus under oath.
24:15 He said, "I adjure Thee by the living God.
24:18 Are You the Messiah or are You not?"
24:20 And the High Priest had done the same thing that in the
24:23 court of law we do today when we say to a witness,
24:26 "You place your hand upon the Bible.
24:28 Now do you solemnly swear to tell the truth,
24:30 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?"
24:34 The High Priest has put Jesus under the same kind of an oath.
24:38 "I adjure Thee by the living God.
24:41 Are You the Messiah?"
24:42 Now Jesus respected the oath and He answered and said,
24:46 as it reads in the King James, "Thou saith. "
24:49 Other translations say, "You said it correctly.
24:52 Indeed I am. "
24:53 And then He went on.
24:55 He said, "I tell you here after, you're going to see the
24:58 Son of Man coming in the clouds of glory
25:01 seated at the right hand of Power. "
25:03 And so Jesus, in a courtroom and under oath, said
25:07 and promised He would come again.
25:10 And now, here then is the evidence of the revelation.
25:14 Jesus said, "You evil vile men who have taken My life.
25:18 You who have plotted and planned and schemed against Me,
25:20 are going to be made alive to see Me when I come. "
25:24 And so we read here in Revelation chapter 1 verse 7,
25:26 "Every eye shall see Him, including also
25:29 those who pierced Him. "
25:30 Going to be made alive in a special resurrection
25:32 to see Him coming back.
25:34 And then he goes on to say, "And all kindred's of the earth
25:37 shall wail because of Him. Even so, amen. "
25:41 Truly, you can take it to the bank.
25:49 When I was married, my wife Peggy,
25:51 I worked for 6 years for her daddy who was a logging
25:55 contractor out of Baker City, Oregon.
25:58 Back then in the old timey days, it was simply Baker.
26:02 But now, of course, it's become much more sophisticated.
26:05 A lot of Idahoans have moved in and now it's Baker City.
26:16 You're right, it did. Yeah.
26:18 It started out originally as a mining camp.
26:20 Baker City.
26:21 But at any event, I worked for him for 6 years.
26:23 And my job was to load the trucks that hauled the logs
26:26 down to the saw mill.
26:28 And then we felt the call of God to go to Walla Walla University
26:32 to take and study Theology.
26:35 And that we did.
26:36 But during the summers, I would go back and run a machine
26:40 for Peggy's dad loading logs.
26:42 I'd just finished my sophomore year and had gone back
26:46 to work in the logging camps.
26:48 I'd been working for Peggy's dad for one week.
26:51 One week exactly.
26:52 On a Sunday morning, early, he got up and said,
26:56 "I'm going to go out to the job site
26:58 and build some skid trails. "
26:59 I didn't know exactly where he'd be, but he drew a map for us.
27:05 And he said, "You guys and the kids,"
27:07 my wife's daddy's grandkids whom he loved so, who are
27:13 now about ages 7 and 8.
27:15 "You come out and meet me and we'll have a
27:18 picnic lunch together. "
27:21 So just about noon, Peggy and I and her mother and sister
27:26 went to the place that we were to meet.
27:29 And her daddy was not there.
27:35 I could see where caterpillar tracks had gone over
27:38 this side of the road and down into the brush.
27:43 And I took my little kids, one in each hand, and we
27:45 walked down there, I suppose 200 or 300 yards.
27:51 The further we went, the more steep became the ground.
27:56 Until finally it was so steep that you hardly needed to
28:01 bend over to tie your shoes.
28:03 We stopped and sat on some logs and listened and we could
28:07 hear nothing except, way down in the canyon,
28:11 the bleating of some sheep.
28:14 We went back up to the road and thought, perhaps
28:18 he's going to come in his pickup and meet us.
28:21 We waited about an hour and he did not show up.
28:24 And so we left after eating the little lunch alone.
28:28 Went back home to Baker.
28:31 And he didn't come in at the usual time.
28:35 Nor an hour later.
28:37 At about 3 hours later, there came a phone call.
28:43 And whomever answered motioned for me.
28:46 It happened to be one of Peggy's dad's foremen on the phone.
28:52 And he asked, "Are you sitting down?"
28:56 I said, "It's Oren, isn't it?"
28:59 "Yes," he said, "the caterpillar tipped over and
29:01 crushed him to death. "
29:10 Peggy's dad may have been the finest man I ever knew.
29:15 He was kind and gentle.
29:19 A combination of humor and reality,
29:26 blended in a way that everybody loved him.
29:28 I think, probably not a man that had worked for him more than
29:32 just a few months, would have at any time taken his place
29:36 to do the dirtiest job.
29:38 When we would come in, in the afternoon, from the
29:40 logging camps, the neighbor kids would come and
29:43 bring their little pets.
29:44 He would play with them and tease them.
29:46 And everybody loved him.
29:53 After the crowds had left the committal where we placed
29:56 his coffin in the ground, Peggy and our two kids,
30:02 Tammy and Terry, and Peggy's sister joined hands
30:07 over that fresh mound.
30:11 And we prayed that God would keep us faithful
30:17 so we could meet Grandpa Oren on the day of first resurrection.
30:30 A few months ago, Peggy and I were working in meetings
30:33 just like these in Lacey, Washington.
30:35 We'd opened on a Saturday night just as we did here.
30:38 And we opened to a full crowd, a full house.
30:41 Packed.
30:44 The next morning, Sunday morning,
30:46 I was running an errand.
30:47 Somewhere around 10:30 or 11:00, I had with me my cell phone,
30:50 it rang and I answered and it was my daughter-in-law,
30:54 my son Terry's wife.
30:58 She said, "Lyle, Terry's heart has stopped beating.
31:05 He's in the emergency room and I don't know
31:08 what's going to happen. "
31:14 I said, "Well keep us posted, please.
31:16 Minute by minute, keep us posted. "
31:18 And she said, "I promise you I will. "
31:21 And I turned around and I went back to Peggy and I told her,
31:23 "Something terrible has happened to Terry. "
31:30 She said, "What should we do? Should we head to the hospital?"
31:32 And I said, "They don't know enough about
31:34 what's going on yet.
31:35 They don't know what's caused it and maybe it's premature. "
31:39 And I said, "Besides that, I feel like I
31:40 can't leave the meeting.
31:41 We just started last night and it's a huge crowd.
31:44 And I don't feel like I can leave. "
31:48 A bit later, our daughter-in-law called and said, "His heart
31:52 now has a natural rhythm again and they have transferred
31:56 him to intensive care and things are looking better. "
31:59 And so I said to Peggy, "Let's have our meeting tonight.
32:04 I'll go and preach and you sit in the car and pray.
32:07 And as soon as I'm finished, we'll take off for Boise. "
32:10 And that we did.
32:13 In the event that I wouldn't be back the following night,
32:15 I left them some videos to play at the sermons
32:18 that I would have preached.
32:20 We drove through the night.
32:21 In the interim, our son Troy, who's a nurse from
32:24 Medford Oregon, had left his home several hours prior
32:27 and had arrived at Boise ahead of us.
32:30 And we met him there at about 5:30 in the morning
32:33 at the front entrance of the St. Luke's hospital.
32:38 He said, "I need to prepare you a little bit, mom and dad.
32:41 Firstly, he looks good.
32:44 He looks really good. "
32:47 "But," he said, "I'm afraid it's very serious. "
32:53 We went up to his room,
32:56 the Intensive Coronary Care Unit,
32:59 and he did look good.
33:03 His body was muscled.
33:08 Abs showed the result of working out.
33:13 He was the picture of health.
33:16 And I always told him, "You got all the looks in the family. "
33:20 Many folks had told us at many times that he
33:23 looked like Tom Selleck.
33:24 But I always said, "Oh no, he's so much better. "
33:30 So much better looking.
33:32 And the doctors would come and go and they would say,
33:35 we're going to do this test and we're doing this and
33:36 we're cooling his body down.
33:38 And in the interim, we learned what had happened.
33:42 My boy had been in 6, 6 automobile accidents
33:49 in the prior 16 years.
33:50 None of them his fault, curiously enough.
33:53 But one of them had been really tragic.
33:55 He'd been driving one Christmas morning, about
33:58 15 or 16 years ago now, to take a Christmas card
34:02 to the lady for whom he drove a big diesel truck.
34:05 And as he was driving his little compact car down the highway,
34:09 two men in a full sized pickup turned left
34:12 right in front of him.
34:13 Said they never saw him.
34:14 He didn't have time to touch a brake.
34:16 And he went into the windshield and the steering wheel
34:20 went into his chest.
34:21 And his feet were mashed as the little car crumbled
34:25 beneath him and around him.
34:26 And his back was broken and his right knee was shattered
34:30 and his leg was broken.
34:31 And he had a concussion and he was bleeding from the head.
34:34 And the nurse called me from the hospital and said,
34:37 "Your son has been in a terrible accident
34:39 and we're not sure that he's going to live. "
34:41 But he did live.
34:43 But he lived, after that, with a great amount of pain.
34:46 Terrible, terrible pain.
34:50 He'd gone to a number of doctors, including
34:52 some pain specialists.
34:53 And they really were not able to help him a lot.
34:55 He didn't want to get hooked on some of these powerful drugs.
34:59 He did everything that he could including
35:00 very healthful eating, exercising.
35:06 Two days prior to the event that I'm now describing,
35:10 he'd gone to a doctor in Ontario, Oregon.
35:13 And they doctor had given him hope and had given him help.
35:16 He said, "I feel better than I have in years
35:17 and years and years. "
35:18 And so he said, "Tomorrow," which was the Sabbath,
35:21 "let's load the dogs," for they had no children
35:24 but two German Shepherd dogs that are worse than kids.
35:28 "Let's load the dogs in the camper and we'll go down
35:30 to Boise and we'll go through the park.
35:32 And after sundown, we will eat at our
35:34 favorite Indian restaurant.
35:36 And then Sunday morning, we'll go to the pet shop and
35:39 we'll get some special things for the kids, the dogs. "
35:42 And so they did just that.
35:44 They went to the Indian restaurant and ate.
35:49 And then Terry drove their little RV to a commercial area
35:54 where he had delivered things from his trucking business.
36:00 There was a man-made lake and there was green grass.
36:04 And they played with the dogs and threw the Frisbees
36:07 and the balls and had a good time.
36:09 And then they went to bed with a plan that they would sleep in.
36:13 And next morning at leisure, they would get up
36:16 and go to the pet store.
36:17 And then go on back to Baker, Oregon.
36:22 Somewhere around 9:00 the next morning,
36:24 his wife, Brenda, wakened.
36:26 And she could tell he was breathing erratically.
36:33 And then she felt for his pulse and it was
36:35 very faint and very erratic.
36:37 And she began to try to help him to breathe
36:40 and at the same time call on her cell phone 911.
36:44 And the folks at the 911 end said, "Tell us where you are.
36:48 We'll send the ambulance. Please tell us where you are. "
36:50 And Brenda said, "I don't know where we are.
36:53 I don't have any idea, we came in here in the dark
36:55 and I'm not from here. I don't know. "
36:57 And the folks said, "You must go find a street corner and
36:59 give us an address, please.
37:01 You'll have to leave your husband. "
37:02 And so she left Terry and went to the nearest corner.
37:05 Ran and got bearings and ran back and called them again.
37:09 And in 3 minutes, they were there because they were
37:12 less than a half mile from the St. Luke's Hospital Meridian.
37:23 The doctor took us aside and he said,
37:25 "I'm afraid there may be serious brain damage, brain deficit,
37:31 because we don't know how long he was without oxygen.
37:35 But the signs aren't good. "
37:37 "This evening however," he said, "when things slow down
37:41 a bit, we're going to do a brain scan. "
37:45 So we took our little family and went to a restaurant
37:49 and prayed and ate.
37:52 Then went back to the hospital.
37:55 They brought Terry back up.
37:57 And I could see on the faces of the nurses,
38:01 the bad news.
38:06 My son, who takes care of patients who are in
38:09 exactly the same condition as his brother, knew
38:12 what was going on.
38:13 He'd read the charts.
38:15 And so he went to the charge nurse and he said,
38:18 "Give it to us just like it is. "
38:20 And she did.
38:23 She said, "The result of Terry's problem was a
38:27 hemorrhage from the brain. "
38:33 "And he is brain dead. "
38:47 We talked with Brenda.
38:49 Prayed.
38:53 Then called the nurse and said,
38:56 "We don't want to prolong this. "
39:01 If ever there was one ready to meet Jesus, it was my boy Terry.
39:07 Talked about Him, endlessly.
39:11 While he drove up and down the freeways in his truck,
39:14 he listened to the Bible on tapes and listened to other
39:18 Christian books and listened to Christian music always.
39:20 And he'd come to visit you and he talked so much about Jesus
39:23 and His love that sometimes you wished he'd
39:26 talk about something else.
39:27 I'd give a million dollars to hear him again.
39:40 Our son Troy said, "We can do this one of several ways. "
39:45 Said, "The fastest way to let him go is to turn off
39:50 his breathing machine. "
39:54 And he said, "It'll be a matter of minutes only.
39:58 But the last few moments are not going to be pretty.
40:01 He's probably going to convulse. "
40:09 He said, "My suggestion is that they turn off the
40:13 heart medicine machine.
40:16 It'll take a little while, but his heart will just slow down
40:19 and slow down,
40:22 and then stop. "
40:26 And so we gathered, his mother and I on one side,
40:31 his brother and wife on the other.
40:38 And we held him and hugged him,
40:42 and kissed him.
40:57 In one hour
41:03 he'd gone to sleep in Jesus.
41:22 We took his cremains,
41:35 we, just the close family; his brother, sister, nephews,
41:41 nieces, his mother,
41:47 put them in a little hole
41:52 atop his grandpa.
42:01 And his brother and sister closed the grave.
42:09 Then the immediate family gathered, again,
42:16 and prayed that same prayer.
42:23 "Keep us faithful, Lord.
42:30 Till we're caught up together.
42:37 Amen. "
42:48 When Thanksgiving came, Peggy said,
42:50 "I don't want to stay home. "
42:51 Our home was the gathering place for the kids and grandkids
42:54 and everybody, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
42:56 She said, "I just can't stand to be home. "
43:00 So our granddaughter, who just had a new baby...
43:04 Peggy, by the way, is a great grandmother.
43:07 Can you imagine that?
43:08 My Peggy is a great grandmother.
43:11 You know what that makes me.
43:15 Proud, by the way.
43:17 They said, "Come and be with us in Austin.
43:19 Fly down and we'll have Thanksgiving in Austin.
43:22 And we'll take you and show you where Willie Nelson lives. "
43:24 And they did that.
43:30 And as we flew back,
43:34 from Austin to Medford, and somewhere...
43:41 ...somewhere at 40,000 feet above El Paso...
43:44 Does that not sound familiar?
43:48 ...God gave me these words
43:54 for Terry.
44:00 "I guess, Lord,
44:05 that I've always known about the Son You lost.
44:10 But I didn't fully appreciate the awful cost.
44:14 You looked down with a breaking heart
44:15 and watched Him as he died.
44:19 His mother stood beside Him and softly cried.
44:25 Now I better understand the pain You bore.
44:29 You knew this coming tragedy long before.
44:34 Well, You said He was eternally on the cross.
44:36 You suffered in anticipation Your own Son's loss.
44:41 Not long ago, I held my son
44:46 and watched him die.
44:50 I heard his mother weep and say goodbye.
44:58 We've soaked the pillow soft,
45:03 his mom and I,
45:07 recalling with pain and joy those days gone by,
45:10 thankful for the promised meeting in the sky.
45:13 So I better understand, I better understand the pain You bore.
45:18 And I long for the return of son's,
45:24 Yours and mine,
45:29 so much, much more. "
45:31 Would you open your Bible, please, to Matthew 24.
45:35 Matthew chapter 24.
45:36 We've read from here before and must do it again tonight
45:39 because it's vital to our study together,
45:41 the second coming of Jesus.
45:42 The Blessed Hope toward which all creation moves and longs.
45:47 Matthew chapter 24 and I'm going to read for us several verses
45:51 beginning with the first.
45:52 Matthew chapter 24 and I'll begin with verse 1.
45:57 And we shall see how time allows as we begin
45:59 to read on down through.
46:00 You'll remember now, the context.
46:02 Our Lord Jesus has begun to answer the question
46:06 of His disciples, "Tell us Lord, what will be the sign of
46:08 Your coming at the end of the world?"
46:10 And Jesus said it'll be like this and this and this.
46:13 So follow now while I read.
46:15 Matthew 24:1
46:18 Jesus then departed the temple and His disciples came to Him
46:21 and said, "Look at this beautiful temple. "
46:25 And Jesus said, "Take a good look, but I tell you this.
46:29 There's not going to be one stone left upon another
46:32 that will not be thrown down. "
46:34 Then while He sat on the side of the Mount of Olives,
46:37 the disciples came to Him privately and they said,
46:38 "Lord tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be
46:41 the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?"
46:43 Now I want you to notice, the disciples asked a two fold
46:46 question, but they really, in their minds, had them together.
46:50 When is that temple going to be knocked down?
46:52 Is it going to be the very last day when You come
46:54 in Your second coming?
46:56 And Jesus, in answer, gave them a prophecy
46:59 with a dual application.
47:00 It had an application for the destruction of the
47:02 city of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.
47:05 But it had a fuller broader application for the last days
47:08 when Jesus comes in His second coming.
47:10 "Tell us," they said, "what will be the signs of Your coming and
47:15 the destruction of the temple and the end of the world?"
47:18 And Jesus said, "Take heed that no one deceives you.
47:22 For there's going to come, a lot of folks in My name saying,
47:24 'I am Christ,' and will deceive very many.
47:26 You're going to hear of war and rumors of wars.
47:28 But don't be troubled.
47:30 These things are going to come to pass but the end isn't yet.
47:32 Nations are going to rise against nations,
47:34 kingdom against kingdom.
47:35 And there are going to be famines in different places,
47:37 and earthquakes in places where they've never had them before. "
47:40 Oh, and by the way, did you hear the world news tonight?
47:42 Did you happen to hear it?
47:44 You remember we talked about the Cascadia Fault
47:46 about 2 nights ago?
47:47 Did you hear in the world news tonight that just off the
47:50 Oregon coast, just out from Bandon several miles, there was
47:54 an earthquake of over 5, I think 5.5 or something like that.
47:58 Yeah?
47:59 Amazing.
48:00 You know, we need to keep our ear to the ground
48:03 for we're living in the last days.
48:04 And then in verse 8 He says, "These are but the
48:06 beginning of sorrows.
48:08 They're going to deliver you up and you'll be afflicted
48:09 and they're going to kill you and you're going to be hated by
48:12 everyone because of Me.
48:14 Then there are going to be those that are offended
48:17 and some are going to betray one another
48:18 and you'll see hate grow.
48:20 There'll be many false prophets that will come and deceive many.
48:23 And because iniquity abounds, the love of many
48:26 is going to wax cold.
48:27 But he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved.
48:31 And then this gospel of the kingdom has to be preached
48:33 into the whole world for a witness unto all nations.
48:36 And then shall the end come. "
48:38 I'm going to pause right there for a moment.
48:41 And we're going to get into it and enlarge upon this
48:42 dual application business.
48:44 Our Lord Jesus said the destruction of the city of
48:46 Jerusalem in 70 AD would be an example.
48:49 It would be the paradigm for the end time and the second coming.
48:54 In the meantime, He said there's going to be
48:56 a lot of difficulties.
48:57 Now the city of Jerusalem was a city of extreme beauty.
49:00 It really was an ancient wonder of the world.
49:05 It was considered to be the place of great pride.
49:09 And it was often referred to by Jewish people as the glory,
49:12 the glory of Jerusalem.
49:14 But the city had rejected Jesus.
49:16 They disallowed Him to preach inside the temple.
49:19 And so Jesus, in Matthew chapter 23 verses 37-38, you remember,
49:24 wept as he overlooked the city.
49:26 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem; how often I would have gathered you
49:29 under My wings like a mother hen does her chicks.
49:31 But you wouldn't let Me. "
49:33 And then He said, "Your house is going to be
49:36 left unto you desolate. "
49:37 He was talking about the temple.
49:38 Now let's talk about some of the parallels and the
49:41 destruction of Jerusalem as it was a sign, a paradigm,
49:46 for the last days.
49:48 In Luke chapter 21, and I want you to turn there with me,
49:51 we need to read from verses 10 and 11.
49:55 Luke chapter 21, reading verses 10 and 11.
50:00 The very same subject matter now.
50:02 Jesus said unto them, "Nation shall rise against nation,
50:05 kingdom against kingdom.
50:06 And there will be great earthquakes in different places,
50:08 famines and pestilences; and fearful sights
50:11 and great wonders there shall be... "
50:13 Now you tell me what it says.
50:15 Where are the great signs and wonders going to be?
50:17 "... in the heavens. "
50:19 Alright.
50:20 Great signs and wonders there are going to be in the heavens.
50:24 Adventists. Adventists.
50:26 That means folks believe in the second coming of Jesus.
50:28 It's one of their main tenants.
50:30 It is a teaching and a belief toward which they move and long.
50:34 And I read not long ago about an old guy by the name of Enoch.
50:38 He's spoken about in Jude, that little one chapter book
50:41 before the Revelation, in verse 14.
50:44 In Jude verse 14, it says about Enoch,
50:48 "Behold, he saw the Lord coming with
50:51 ten thousands of His saints. "
50:53 The hope of the second coming was given to God's children
50:56 in the garden at the time of sin.
50:58 In Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15,
51:00 God promised, "He will bruise thy head. "
51:03 And that's talking about the ultimate victory
51:05 of our Lord Jesus.
51:06 The apostle Paul, from prison, would write his last letters
51:10 to Timothy and to Titus.
51:11 And he would refer to the second coming as "the blessed hope. "
51:14 I long for the glorious appearing, the blessed hope.
51:17 I want to say to you and I tonight, and all of our hearts,
51:20 it is not only just the blessed hope, it is our only hope.
51:24 It's the only hope for this troubled world of ours.
51:31 Get your kids ready.
51:37 Our Lord Himself said, "Let not your hearts be troubled.
51:42 You believe in God, believe also in Me. "
51:43 John 14
51:44 "In My Father's house are many mansions.
51:46 If it weren't true I would have told you.
51:48 I go to prepare a place for you.
51:50 And if I go, I will come again. "
51:54 Now I want to underscore something for you here.
51:56 And maybe you've never quite thought about it in this light.
51:58 Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled. "
52:07 Your heart.
52:09 The atheist, alright, let his heart be troubled.
52:12 The agnostic, let him be troubled.
52:14 The infidel may be troubled.
52:15 The modernist may be troubled.
52:17 The heathenist and the skeptic might be troubled.
52:20 And the secularist is going to be troubled.
52:21 But let not your heart be troubled
52:23 for Jesus is coming again.
52:25 And His coming is not an allegory or a metaphor
52:27 or some kind of a parable.
52:29 It's real.
52:30 This same Jesus that ascended up into the heavens in a cloud
52:33 is coming back.
52:34 The same Lord that walked the weary miles, the same Jesus
52:37 that calmed the seas, the same Lord.
52:41 To opened blinded eyes, this same Jesus who was beaten bloody
52:45 and dragged the heavy cross and died, and was buried
52:48 in the grave and rose again, is coming again.
52:50 This same Jesus.
52:56 Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14 says
52:58 in the interim, "He's our great High Priest. "
53:01 Ever intercedes for us.
53:04 Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, Paul said,
53:06 "Let our minds always be in heaven
53:08 from where also we look for the coming of our
53:11 great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. "
53:13 At the end of his own life and ministry, he would write to the
53:16 young preacher Timothy in the 4th chapter of the second book
53:19 and the 7th verse, and he said, "I fought a good fight,
53:22 and I've finished the course, and I've kept the faith.
53:25 I've hung in there.
53:26 Henceforth there's laid up for me, a crown of righteousness
53:31 which the Lord will give me at His appearing.
53:33 And not to me only, but to all those
53:35 who anxiously long and look for it. "
53:39 Titus 2:13, the glorious blessed hope of Jesus.
53:45 Revelation chapter 21 says just before He comes on a
53:50 rescue mission, the final mission, He's going to
53:52 stand up from that heavenly courtroom where He's been
53:55 our High Priest and He's going to shout to the whole universe,
53:57 "It is done. "
54:01 It's done.
54:03 I've been asked on several occasions,
54:04 "What does that mean, Lyle?"
54:05 I'll tell you tonight what it means.
54:07 It means that rape and riot and robbery
54:10 and rage and rust are over.
54:11 It's done, it's finished. It's no more.
54:13 And pain and sorrow and separation and sin are finished.
54:16 They're gone, it's no more.
54:18 And no longer will my sweet little granddaughter cry bitter
54:22 tears because of the multiple sclerosis that her mother has.
54:26 "It is done. "
54:29 My favorite preacher, my dear friend Charles Brooks
54:34 said this, and I love it.
54:36 When he breaks through the sky's,
54:40 He's going to tear open the cemeteries.
54:44 Tear them up.
54:49 And the saints are going to come out of their graves
54:53 like popcorn on the top of a hot stove.
54:56 I like that, don't you?
54:58 And we shall be changed.
55:00 We'll be changed.
55:01 Then in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 16 and 17,
55:06 "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
55:08 with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God.
55:10 And the dead in Christ will rise first.
55:12 Then we which are alive and remain shall be... "
55:15 What now?
55:16 "... caught up together with them. "
55:17 Raptured up, snatched up.
55:19 I'm going to fly, folks.
55:22 I took my first airplane ride when I was 5 years old.
55:25 It was in one of those open cockpit things and
55:27 the guy decided he'd do some acrobatics up there.
55:29 And I have a problem with motion sickness and it scared me
55:33 and I was really cold besides all of that.
55:34 And from that time on, I haven't really cared for flying.
55:37 Peggy loves it, on the other hand.
55:39 My son Troy loves it.
55:41 They go together and fly in helicopters and all kinds
55:44 of wonderful things.
55:45 I fly when I have to.
55:47 And you've heard about white knuckle landers?
55:49 I'm white knuckle taker off'er and everything in between.
55:52 And there comes a little bit of a bump, and I jump.
55:54 And Peggy says, "It's alright dear.
55:56 It's going to be alright. "
55:57 I've been asked on occasions more than once,
56:00 "Are you afraid of flying?"
56:01 And I say, "No, I'm not afraid to fly.
56:04 I'm not afraid of the fall.
56:05 It's that sudden stop that bothers me, however. "
56:08 And besides that, I read from my Jesus,
56:11 "Low... Low I'm with you always. "
56:20 I'm going to fly.
56:22 I'm going to be snatched up
56:29 higher
56:32 and higher
56:40 until with my boy,
56:44 my father-in-law and my daddy,
56:48 you and your loved ones,
56:54 meet together in the arms of Jesus.
57:04 One sat alone
57:08 beside the highway begging.
57:12 His eyes were blind, the light he couldn't see.
57:17 He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows.
57:21 And then Jesus came
57:23 and set the captive free.
57:25 When Jesus comes, the tempters power is broken.
57:28 When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away.
57:33 For He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory.
57:37 And all is changed
57:39 when Jesus comes to stay.
57:42 Let's pray.
57:44 Thank You, dear God, for Your promise.
57:47 Thank You, sweet Jesus,
57:50 for Your testimony given in a courtroom, "I will come again. "
57:54 Your promise to your friends in the upper room,
57:56 "I will come again. "
57:58 It's the blessed hope.
58:02 It's that promise that gives us the courage
58:05 to leave the fresh mound
58:08 and face tomorrow and the next day.
58:11 Even so,
58:14 come Lord Jesus.
58:17 Amen.


Home

Revised 2014-12-17