Anchors of Truth

The Parousia - The Blessed Hope

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Carter

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000021


00:12 Welcome to Anchors of Truth,
00:15 from the Community Adventist Fellowship Church.
00:18 Present Truth with John Carter.
00:21 Well, we are live and we're coming to you from
00:24 Arcadia California, which is right in the heart of
00:28 Los Angeles County and a part of the greater Los Angeles area.
00:34 It's great to be here, isn't it.
00:35 It is indeed, the Lord has treated us well.
00:37 The weather has been great, it's been fine.
00:40 Not like what we left at home at 3ABN, much cooler and dryer.
00:45 And it's been great.
00:47 It really has been and everyone has been so friendly to us.
00:50 We've just really enjoyed the few hours now that we've
00:54 spent here in beautiful sunny southern California.
00:59 And so some of you are watching us, it's later where you are;
01:04 Central time 9 pm, Eastern time 10 pm.
01:09 We appreciate your staying up late.
01:11 I was just talking to some folks in Dyersburg Tennessee
01:15 and they're waiting up for us to watch this program tonight.
01:20 So we are excited about coming to you and being
01:25 with Pastor John Carter.
01:26 This is a very special Anchors series.
01:29 This is, I think, the first one we've done away from 3ABN.
01:32 This is sort of an Anchors Away, as it were,
01:35 and coming from California.
01:37 And we're really excited about the subject matter
01:39 that Elder Carter is going to preach on tonight.
01:41 Well, that is true.
01:42 Anchors Away. That's great.
01:45 We have several of those that we have planned here
01:48 before the end of the year.
01:49 And you'll hear about them later on.
01:51 But this is the first.
01:53 And boy I tell you something, we are just looking forward.
01:58 The response we've had so far to the Anchors series,
02:01 all the different series, have just been tremendous.
02:05 And we're just praying.
02:06 We're already lining up our series for next year.
02:10 We've got January, February, March already filled with
02:13 some very exciting speakers.
02:14 And so you're going to be wanting to stay tuned for that.
02:19 But you know, right now before we begin,
02:22 I wonder, Pastor, if you would lead us in a word of prayer.
02:25 I'd be glad to do so. Shall we pray.
02:28 Gracious Father, we thank You so very much for the occasion
02:32 that calls us to the house of prayer and praise this night.
02:35 We thank You Father, for the great advent message and the
02:40 great advent movement.
02:42 We thank You that You are preparing a people
02:45 for the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
02:49 And we plan, even this night, to be in that number
02:52 that will greet You on that great and glorious day.
02:55 But now this night, Lord, we commit ourselves to You.
02:58 We submit and humble ourselves before You and ask that
03:02 You might be the honored guest in this place on this night.
03:05 We ask that You will bless this speaker, Elder Carter,
03:09 in a very special way.
03:10 Anoint his lips and give him words that will be meat
03:14 in due season for us.
03:16 Bless the music that shall be sung.
03:18 May it transport our hearts and minds to heaven.
03:22 We submit and commit ourselves to You.
03:24 Bless the technical equipment and those who hear and see
03:29 the message this night.
03:31 May we be drawn closer to Jesus Christ.
03:35 And we thank You for Your promise to hear and answer
03:38 the prayer of faith.
03:39 In Jesus' name, amen.
03:41 Well Pastor Murray, would you tell us about the music
03:45 that we're going to hear at this time, and the one that's
03:47 going to bring it to us.
03:48 Our music tonight comes from someone that I had the
03:51 privilege of baptizing quite a few years ago, plus twenty.
03:55 We were both children at the time.
03:58 She was a member of my church and God has blessed her with
04:00 a beautiful voice and to be a beautiful Christian person.
04:04 She is Yvonne Lewis.
04:06 She is now the General Manager of our Dare To Dream network.
04:11 But a wonderful singer in her own right.
04:14 And she's going to be singing, I'm Amazed.
04:21 I'm amazed each time I think
04:29 that You would love me.
04:36 And You made Yourself a willing,
04:43 such a willing sacrifice, yes,
04:52 when all I've ever done
04:58 is cause You pain and so much sorrow.
05:08 When I think of what You've done,
05:14 well, I'm amazed.
05:25 I'm amazed to know that soon
05:32 my Jesus is coming back for me
05:39 with a robe of light
05:45 and the life that never ends.
05:51 Oh Lord, it never ends.
05:57 Because all I've ever done
06:03 is go astray when You said follow.
06:13 When I think of what's to come,
06:18 yes, I'm amazed.
06:28 Now I've often asked what kind of love is this.
06:36 Because I just don't understand
06:43 why my Savior left His glory
06:52 to die for sin upon man.
07:00 When all I've ever done is go astray,
07:10 oh, when You said follow.
07:17 When I think of what You've done,
07:23 well, I'm amazed.
07:33 When I think of what's to come,
07:39 yes, I'm amazed.
07:44 I'm so amazed.
07:50 How could You show such love.
08:06 Well, I'm amazed.
08:11 I'm so amazed.
08:29 I'm so amazed.
08:47 Thank you so much, Yvonne. We appreciate that.
08:50 Our speaker tonight is no stranger to 3ABN.
08:55 He has been one of those that has been a speaker on 3ABN
09:01 since early in its existence.
09:04 And his partnership with our founder, Danny Shelton,
09:08 has been one that has benefitted the work of God
09:13 all over the world.
09:14 And this is a man who has held evangelistic campaigns
09:19 in all parts of the world, nearly every continent.
09:23 And in such places as India and in Russia, and in others
09:30 where the Lord has called him to go.
09:32 I appreciate his ministry.
09:36 Tonight he is going to, through this series, the Anchors series,
09:40 he's going to be talking about present truth.
09:43 And specifically tonight, he is going to be speaking
09:48 about The Blessed Hope.
09:50 And so Pastor John Carter, we invite you to come
09:53 to your own pulpit.
09:55 And we welcome you.
10:00 Thank you, sir.
10:01 Nice to see you, Jim.
10:03 Good to see you.
10:04 I just want to say to everybody...
10:06 And this is a worldwide telecast.
10:08 It makes you excited, doesn't it.
10:09 1.65 billion people can turn in.
10:15 I hope that most of them will.
10:16 Millions are watching, there is no question about it.
10:19 You don't get nervous about this anymore, do you.
10:22 I'm always nervous.
10:23 Are you nervous? Yea, I'm nervous.
10:25 I'm going to ask you some questions.
10:26 Now I'm getting really nervous.
10:30 I just want to say to the folks watching on television,
10:35 I appreciate and respect 3ABN more than I can say,
10:41 because they have the courage, as Danny Shelton said
10:45 many years ago, 25 years ago, the courage to preach the
10:50 undiluted truths of the three angels messages.
10:53 Praise the Lord.
10:54 And so we are privileged to be partners with 3ABN;
10:58 with you, Dr. Gilley, with our dearly beloved Danny Shelton,
11:03 and all the rest of the staff who've come out here.
11:06 And I just want you to know something.
11:09 They're nice people.
11:11 Yes, I know that.
11:13 They're nice people.
11:14 I've very aware of that.
11:15 My team has said they're nice people.
11:17 They are. Yea, they are.
11:19 And I'm going to tell the folks, you're a nice person too.
11:23 Well thanks.
11:25 Now, you've been a conference president and you've been
11:30 an evangelist at one stage in your work with Camille.
11:34 You would run 8 or 9 campaigns a year?
11:37 Was it 8 or 9 or 10?
11:39 I've held 10, as many as 10 in one year.
11:42 They were 4 week crusades.
11:44 You're going to go straight home to glory.
11:46 Yea, well...
11:47 That's 40 weeks in a year.
11:48 Yea, and it was tough. It was tough.
11:51 That should be written somewhere in the Bible.
11:54 It is in the book of Acts.
11:57 It's not in the Bible, but it's written.
11:59 It's written, I know.
12:00 It's written in the very nervous system
12:02 and everything like that, and the aches and the pains.
12:05 Exactly.
12:06 And we've been around longer than some of these folks
12:08 have been around, Dr Gilley.
12:10 Well, not all of them.
12:11 Not all of them, I know.
12:14 In fact, some of them look to me as though they've been
12:16 around even longer than us.
12:17 Well I think, you know...
12:19 Yea, I know. We'll just leave it there.
12:22 Let me ask you this.
12:23 You became the Vice President of the North American Division
12:28 of the church.
12:29 Yes.
12:30 That must have seemed like translation.
12:32 Well to tell you the truth, they called me there
12:37 and told me that I'd be in charge of evangelism.
12:40 And when I got there, they gave me all these different
12:44 committees to chair.
12:45 And I said, "Wait a minute.
12:47 I thought I was supposed to be involved with evangelism."
12:49 They said, "Well, that's a title.
12:52 But you are to be involved with all these things."
12:56 So I chaired 65 boards and committees.
12:59 Now some of those met several times a year.
13:02 So you spend a lot of time being bored.
13:04 If you were a Roman Catholic, they would
13:08 canonize you straight away.
13:10 You wouldn't have to go through all the process.
13:12 They'd just make you Saint Jim.
13:14 Now after you retired from the North American Division...
13:19 My people here like to laugh.
13:20 Is it alright to laugh on 3ABN?
13:24 I just want to clear this up.
13:25 As long as you do it within certain limitations, yea.
13:29 Not too much laughing is okay.
13:30 Exactly, right.
13:32 Now you retired from the North American Division.
13:35 You could have gone into real estate.
13:40 Yea.
13:41 You could have gone to the beach in Florida.
13:44 You could have just sat back and watched the grass grow.
13:48 Why on earth did you assume, when invited,
13:53 the presidency of 3ABN?
13:57 Well you know, Danny was having some
14:00 health challenges at the time and I felt like
14:02 he needed a younger man to come and to be with him.
14:09 It has been hot out here in Los Angeles today.
14:11 You've been standing out in the sun.
14:14 You know, we just had so many indications from the Lord.
14:19 You believe in 3ABN.
14:20 Oh, totally.
14:22 You believe in the Bible. Absolutely.
14:24 And in the Spirit of Prophecy. Yes.
14:26 And in the great message that we believe in,
14:29 the three angels messages.
14:30 Yes, absolutely.
14:31 So that's why you're not retired.
14:33 Well because, you know, Elder Richards, HMS Richards,
14:37 use to say, "There are two things that aren't in the Bible.
14:40 One is Sunday keeping and the other is retirement."
14:43 Elder Richards was absolutely right.
14:46 He preached right up until he could preach no longer.
14:48 I know.
14:49 So I've come to the conclusion; I'd rather work than not work.
14:52 I'd rather preach than not preach.
14:54 And I'd much rather be at 3ABN than any place I can.
14:58 And you'd rather wear out than rust out.
15:00 Well, yea.
15:01 Absolutely.
15:03 Well it's a privilege to have you here in our church.
15:06 And I want to thank you for the long association
15:10 we've had with 3ABN.
15:11 We love the folks at 3ABN.
15:13 We believe in them and we support the mission.
15:16 And the feeling is absolutely mutual.
15:19 The people love you.
15:20 God bless you, dear old friend. God bless you.
15:29 You can just see when Pastor Gilley and I get together,
15:32 we get all tensed up.
15:36 The topic tonight is, The Blessed Hope.
15:40 Last week I was talking to an old friend whose been with us
15:46 on many occasions overseas.
15:50 I noticed he was missing at church.
15:52 And I called him up and I said, "Are you okay?"
15:54 He said, "No, it's tough."
15:57 He said, "I'm hurting all over."
16:00 He said, "The days come when I wish the Lord
16:05 would put me to sleep."
16:08 We then talked about the blessed hope
16:12 when God is going to give us new bodies,
16:14 when we're going to be young again and live for eternity.
16:19 I ask you my friend, where would we be without the blessed hope.
16:26 Would you take your Bibles please, and turn with me
16:29 to our theme text.
16:30 It is Titus chapter 2 and verse 13.
16:33 I want to welcome the worldwide audience,
16:35 my friends up there in Tennessee,
16:39 you know who you are,
16:40 and the rest of my friends across this great land
16:44 of the United States of America.
16:46 Not forgetting our friends here in southern California.
16:50 Also my friends down under in the land of Australia.
16:56 We've got friends right around the world,
16:58 people whom we love around the world.
17:01 We ran a big series of meetings over there in Johannesburg
17:05 and we want to send you greetings also.
17:07 The text we're going to start with is Titus chapter 2
17:11 and verse 13.
17:12 If you folks have got your Bibles, hold up your Bibles
17:15 so everybody can see that you've got a Bible.
17:19 We believe that this is the word of God.
17:24 And so we bring our Bibles to church
17:27 and we read them every day.
17:29 Titus 2 verse 13, "While we wait for..."
17:32 What does it say, folks?
17:34 "...the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our
17:38 great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."
17:42 My friend, we have a blessed hope.
17:46 Recently, I got some bad news from Australia
17:50 of an old friend.
17:53 We have gone back a few years, as Elder Gilley says.
17:57 Not as far as some of you folks go back,
17:59 but still going back a fair while.
18:01 And this man and I have been buddies, mates,
18:06 friends for 50 years.
18:11 Then I discovered that he had developed an awful sickness.
18:15 He has a marvelous wife.
18:19 The last time in Australia, we spent time together
18:23 because I just, I really love those folks.
18:26 Because this person led me to Christ.
18:32 When I was a wayward boy at Avondale College
18:35 about to get expelled, he led me to Christ.
18:39 I wrote to him and I said to him, I said to his wife,
18:44 "I want you to know that the day is coming when you're
18:46 going to be new again.
18:48 You're going to have a new body and you're going to
18:50 have a new mind.
18:53 And the pain is going to be a thing of the past."
18:59 I say to you tonight, folks, how utterly tragic to be
19:04 without faith, to believe there is no meaning
19:07 to human existence.
19:10 On occasions in my lectures, I refer to the famous scholar,
19:15 the scientist, Professor Richard Dawkins.
19:21 He says that man is a cosmic accident.
19:26 That man is the blind product of time plus matter plus chance.
19:34 He says there is no hope at all, and when we die,
19:39 we simply finish the evolutionary process.
19:43 He believes in blind chance, no creator, man is nothing more
19:50 than animated mud on the way to dust.
19:56 Look at this magazine.
19:58 And maybe we can get a camera come in close on this one,
20:02 The New Yorker.
20:04 It shows the ascent of man from a monkey.
20:11 And as the millions of years roll by, he becomes
20:17 even a Pharaoh.
20:20 And he gets better and better and better.
20:24 So he continues to rise up the evolutionary scale
20:29 until the very end as he stands at the summit of success.
20:35 You notice what happens?
20:37 Well look.
20:39 He falls off the escalator into oblivion.
20:45 So much for Professor Dawkins.
20:49 So I will present to you tonight, the truth,
20:52 that it is not oblivion.
20:55 It is the coming of Christ.
20:58 As most of you know, well some of you know,
21:01 I have been to Russia and Ukraine forty times.
21:04 I plan to go back again next year in January
21:08 when the weather is nice in Russia.
21:11 I like it when it's cold in Russia, I really do.
21:13 I get dressed up and I feel like an Eskimo.
21:17 It's no hardship for me to go to Russia.
21:20 I enjoy it so much.
21:21 I have my own Russian hat and I'm never cold
21:25 because I have so much clothing on.
21:27 I look as though I weigh 500 pounds.
21:33 Let me tell you a story that some of you will know.
21:38 I've told it before.
21:40 There was Olga, a woman who was born in the land of the Ukraine.
21:48 When the Nazi's invaded the Ukraine, as they called it
21:52 in those days, it was a part of the Soviet Union,
21:54 her whole village had protested about the Nazi's.
21:58 They were marched out into the forest in the dead of winter.
22:03 They were forced to dig a huge, huge hole.
22:07 They were marched into the hole and after they were
22:11 stripped naked, standing there in the snow,
22:13 the Nazi's opened up with the machine guns.
22:17 Everybody fell except Olga and a young man.
22:22 They fled naked from the scene.
22:24 She found refuge with some farmers.
22:27 They clothed her and they fed her.
22:29 They put her on a train that went north to Moscow
22:33 and then on to Nizhny Novgorod,
22:35 where 3ABN, glory be to God, has a center today.
22:39 She came to our meetings back in 1992.
22:43 She said, "I came as a Communist and as an atheist."
22:47 Her husband had been murdered by the KGB
22:50 when they were just newly married.
22:53 She said, "I came with no hope at all."
22:58 But she discovered there was a God who loved her.
23:04 And she found hope.
23:08 I want to tell you folks something.
23:10 If you find hope, hope in Christ,
23:14 you can face anything.
23:17 Our authority is the Bible.
23:19 Would you please come with me to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1.
23:22 And you may wonder why I would go to Genesis chapter 1
23:25 when I'm talking about the coming of Christ.
23:28 Genesis 1 and verse 1.
23:30 The Bible is our authority.
23:33 And as you're turning to the text, I'm going to walk over
23:35 here to my old blackboards.
23:37 I like them because they're old.
23:39 I've come to the stage in life where I like old things.
23:43 Our authority, our authority.
23:50 It is not the teaching of any church.
23:53 It is not the teaching of the church fathers.
23:56 Our authority is the Bible.
24:01 As Martin Luther said; sola Christus, only Christ.
24:05 And then he said; sola scriptura, only scripture.
24:08 Sola gratia. What does it mean?
24:10 Only grace.
24:11 Sola fide, only faith.
24:13 Our authority is the Bible.
24:16 And it says, "In the beginning God created the heavens
24:20 and the earth."
24:21 Let me tell you something which is quite incredible.
24:25 Scientists once believed in the steady state of the universe,
24:29 that the universe had always been there.
24:33 Even Einstein as a young man believed in the steady
24:36 state theory of the universe until he spoke to
24:40 Professor Hubble who showed him that the universe was exploding
24:44 out like a cracker, moving out at a tremendous speed
24:49 and forming space as it went.
24:53 Thus they said, if it is going out, there must have been
24:57 a time, there must have been a time...
24:59 If it is exploding out, then it is logical to believe
25:06 that there was a point of creation.
25:10 And therefore today, virtually every astronomer
25:13 believes in this verse.
25:16 That there was a time when there was nothing,
25:19 and all of a sudden, there was everything.
25:23 Every scientist today believes in what he calls, the big bang.
25:27 We would call it creation.
25:30 Every scientist is aware of this fact I'm going to tell you,
25:34 but not every church member.
25:38 One milli millisecond after the moment when there was nothing,
25:44 and then all of a sudden there was this tremendous explosion
25:47 that the call the big bang, there were four great forces
25:51 created in the universe.
25:52 And those four great forces hold the universe together.
25:56 Without these four forces, we could not exist.
26:00 There would be no universe.
26:03 And those four forces are these, try to remember.
26:07 You all know about gravity.
26:23 There would be no universe, we would not be here,
26:26 there would be no planet, except for these forces
26:29 that were created within a millisecond of the big bang.
26:33 All astronomers tell me this.
26:35 And they tell me this, that if those forces
26:38 had been out of sync, listen to this,
26:42 if they had been out of sync by one quadrillionth,
26:48 more than the Federal debt, one quadrillionth,
26:52 we cannot have any idea of the greatness of that figure,
26:57 one quadrillionth of one quadrillionth
27:00 of one quadrillionth of one quadrillionth
27:04 of one quadrillionth of one percent...
27:08 All those quadrillionths are more than the
27:11 atoms in the universe.
27:14 And if those forces had been out of sync
27:18 by that amount which is too small to conceive,
27:24 there would be no universe.
27:29 How can one accept this scientific truth and
27:33 not believe in "in the beginning, God."
27:40 We live in an age today where God is giving to the world
27:45 its last opportunity, last chance to believe.
27:51 I believe in the Bible because of some of these
27:53 scientific discoveries.
27:55 I believe in the Bible because of the prophecies.
28:02 I do not believe in the naive assumption of having
28:06 faith in faith.
28:09 There is no virtue in faith.
28:13 Bin Laden had faith, more than most of you and me,
28:17 but faith in the wrong thing.
28:20 So faith in faith is crazy.
28:27 I have faith in the Bible for many reasons.
28:32 But one reason is because of Bible prophecy.
28:36 I've spoken to vast crowds of people around the world,
28:40 not like you sitting here in our church tonight,
28:43 but I'm talking about atheists and Communists
28:47 and rank unbelievers.
28:49 I've spoken to millions of them.
28:53 And when I presented the prophecies of Daniel 2,
28:56 the great metal man, and Daniel 7 and the
28:59 great beasts of Daniel 7; the lion, the bear,
29:02 the leopard, the monster, the little horn power that comes up
29:06 that describes the history of Europe.
29:08 When I've gone through those prophecies,
29:11 I've seen hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of atheists
29:17 believe in God.
29:18 Because it's true.
29:20 I have over on my desk, and I'd planned to bring it tonight
29:23 but not everything functions as well as it use to,
29:27 and I didn't bring it.
29:29 But it is a silver crucifix that was given to me, Elder Gilley,
29:35 by the General who was in charge of indoctrinating
29:41 atheism with the Ukrainian soldiers.
29:46 He was a professor of Marxist atheism.
29:50 His job was to teach atheism.
29:52 And after he saw the prophecies, he came to me
29:56 and gave me a cross made of silver
29:59 because he had become a believer.
30:02 We do not believe because it is convenient to believe.
30:06 We believe because of the overwhelming evidence.
30:13 But the greatest reason that I can give you tonight
30:16 why I should believe the Bible...
30:19 You see, if Genesis is wrong then the end of the
30:23 Bible is wrong too.
30:28 But the greatest reason to believe in the Bible
30:32 is not Bible prophecy.
30:34 And it is not the theories of the four great forces
30:39 of the universe.
30:42 The greatest evidence to believe in the Bible
30:45 is the person of Christ.
30:50 Now, Richard Dawkins hates Him and criticizes Him
30:52 and scoffs at Him.
30:55 But when Richard Dawkins dies, nobody will remember
30:59 after a year.
31:01 Jesus is the person with the greatest influence for good
31:06 in the history of the world.
31:09 Let me read to you this old statement.
31:13 "He was born in an obscure village,
31:15 the child of a peasant woman.
31:18 Until He was 30, He worked in a carpenter's shop.
31:23 And then for three years, He was an itinerant preacher.
31:27 He wrote no books, He held no office.
31:31 He never had a family or owned a home.
31:34 He didn't go to college.
31:36 He never traveled 200 miles from the place where He was born.
31:41 He had no credentials but Himself.
31:48 He never did any of the things that usually
31:50 accompany greatness.
31:53 The authorities condemned His teachings.
31:55 His friends deserted Him, one denied Him,
31:59 one betrayed Him to His enemies for a paltry sum;
32:03 the price of a slave.
32:05 He went through the mockery of a trial.
32:09 He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.
32:11 While He was dying, His executioners gambled
32:15 for His only piece of property He owned on earth; His coat.
32:21 When He was dead, He was taken down and laid
32:24 in a borrowed grave.
32:27 Nineteen centuries," see this is an old statement,
32:30 "have come and gone, yet today He is the crowning glory
32:34 of the human race, the adored leader of hundreds of millions
32:38 of the earth's inhabitants.
32:41 All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies
32:48 that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat,
32:55 and all the kings that ever reigned, put together
33:01 have not affected the life of man upon this earth
33:05 as much as that one solitary life."
33:10 Hallelujah
33:13 Therefore, I must believe on the basis of the evidence.
33:18 I do not...
33:19 And I wish to say this to the people here in the church.
33:23 And what a great crowd.
33:24 Seven o'clock in Los Angeles.
33:27 Everybody in Los Angeles is on the 405 freeway.
33:31 Or the 101, or the 210.
33:35 We're a strange mob here in Los Angeles.
33:38 But here you are in a church.
33:43 I had a great point to give you and now I have forgotten it.
33:47 I got on the 405 freeway and then the 101 and the 210.
33:54 Listen, here it is. It's come back.
33:58 It's back.
34:00 I don't want to be a superficial person.
34:04 The world is full of shakes and flakes; superficial people.
34:08 Some Christians have got a name for being
34:11 very superficial people.
34:14 Many Christians think that Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers.
34:18 I'm tell you, you know, it's true.
34:21 I want a faith that will stand the test.
34:26 And I believe in Christ and I believe in the Bible.
34:30 Not because religion is a crutch for my faltering faith.
34:36 I believe because, as an honest man,
34:40 I am forced to believe.
34:43 Can you say, amen?
34:45 Say it again.
34:46 Yea, let them know that in America, folks in this church
34:50 still know how to say amen.
34:52 Say it again.
34:54 That's good.
34:59 That's good.
35:00 I asked Elder Gilley if it was okay to laugh on 3ABN.
35:03 He said, yea but not a lot.
35:07 Let me talk to you about the parousia.
35:09 Now Elder Gilley has got a great sense of humor.
35:11 Do you know why?
35:13 He laughs at things that aren't funny.
35:16 You know why he laughs at things that aren't funny?
35:19 Because he said if he only laughed at things that are
35:21 funny, he wouldn't laugh at all.
35:25 Since he's been working there at 3ABN in southern Illinois,
35:28 in Thompsonville, he's been laughing lots.
35:34 And we're just glad that he's here tonight and his
35:36 beautiful wife, Camille, who looks better
35:39 as the years roll by and who likes Coach purses.
35:44 The Parousia.
35:47 Well, every minister should talk a little Greek
35:50 even if he doesn't know much else.
35:52 It means, the actual presence.
35:55 Parousia of Christ, the actual presence.
35:59 He will return because He has already come, died,
36:03 and been raised from the dead.
36:06 And they are historical truths.
36:09 That is why I am certain He will return.
36:14 You folks doing alright tonight?
36:16 Are you happy tonight?
36:18 Put up your hands if you're happy tonight.
36:20 Put up your hands if you're glad you're here
36:23 listening to me preach.
36:24 God bless you folks. I love you to death.
36:28 We won't even take up an offering tonight.
36:30 We'll let you off.
36:31 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 down to 8.
36:34 Guarantee you folks haven't even eaten yet.
36:37 I did.
36:40 But I'm the one doing the working here tonight, so.
36:46 "Now, brothers..."
36:48 Whatever happened to the sisters back there?
36:52 It's a bit strange back there, couldn't have had any sisters.
36:55 "Now, brothers..." It's just a custom.
36:58 But the sisters have gotten over that one now.
37:02 "...I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you,
37:05 which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
37:08 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly
37:12 to the word I preached to you.
37:14 Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
37:17 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance."
37:21 Remember this, all look at me.
37:24 There are some things that don't matter a great deal.
37:30 Sometimes we get bent out of shape and we cause
37:35 a lot of distress for the saints by messing around with stuff
37:40 that's not that important.
37:43 There are some things that are not very important,
37:47 some things that are important,
37:49 and some things tremendously important.
37:53 Here it is; it's the gospel, the good news.
37:56 And say amen to that.
37:59 You know, when people in Australia hear this,
38:02 it's going to turn them upside down hearing all these amen's.
38:06 "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
38:10 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
38:16 That's of first importance.
38:18 "That He was buried, that He was raised on the third day
38:22 according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter,
38:28 and then to the Twelve.
38:29 After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the
38:32 brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living,
38:36 though some have fallen asleep."
38:39 We're not talking about people sleeping in church either.
38:41 We're talking dying.
38:44 "Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
38:48 and last of all He appeared to me also,
38:50 as to one 'born out of time.'" It says in the KJV.
38:54 He was seen.
38:57 Remember this.
38:58 These folks were not crooks.
39:00 They were not religious charlatans.
39:01 He was seen.
39:04 He was seen after He was dead.
39:07 A spear was put in His side.
39:09 It was not a fake death. He was dead.
39:15 And a wise man asked the question,
39:17 what happened to the body if it wasn't raised?
39:20 Did the Romans take the body?
39:21 I don't think so.
39:23 They would have said, "Ah ha, here's the body."
39:27 The Jews?
39:28 Could you imagine the Jews taking the body?
39:30 They could have squelched the Christian church
39:34 in one glimpse by displaying the body, the dead body.
39:39 No, the Romans didn't take the body.
39:42 The Jews didn't take the body.
39:45 The body was raised from the dead.
39:49 Say, hallelujah.
39:51 Hallelujah, praise God.
39:52 The body was raised.
39:54 And the disciples, these simple earnest good men,
39:59 were so convinced that Jesus had been raised
40:04 that they were prepared to die for their convictions.
40:08 I'm not dying for something that I don't believe in.
40:16 So He was born, lived, and died, and He was raised.
40:23 And He's coming back.
40:25 I notice today that people everywhere are in expectation.
40:31 They believe some mighty event is about to happen.
40:35 I'm not talking about church people.
40:37 They say, "What's happening to the planet?"
40:41 The tsunami's, and the earthquakes, and the tornadoes.
40:47 Something seems to be going on in the world.
40:52 And there's a restlessness in the hearts of men and women.
40:56 And they say, "What is going to happen?"
41:04 Listen to me.
41:07 The most certain event...
41:09 Are you folks listening?
41:12 The most certain event...
41:13 Are you listening strong?
41:17 You know how to listen strong, don't you?
41:19 Okay.
41:20 The most certain event, one that will change the history
41:27 of the world and the universe and our lives forever,
41:33 is the soon return of Christ in power and great glory.
41:41 Because I believe in Genesis chapter 1,
41:45 I believe that He will come again.
41:51 It's the hope of the church.
41:53 Would you please come to the words of our blessed Lord,
41:57 John chapter 14 verses 1 down to 3.
42:12 And while you're looking for the text, I've got a CD
42:18 for you tonight after the meeting, from The Carter Report.
42:22 You want to know about the miracle?
42:25 It's free.
42:26 We're going to give it to you free.
42:29 Yea, it's a great CD on the signs of the times.
42:35 Oh no, I think it could be on, I'm not sure but I think
42:38 it may be on...
42:39 Now I don't want anyone to hear this so I'm going to
42:41 whisper it to you folks.
42:44 I don't want anybody watching outside this church,
42:47 just don't listen.
42:49 I think the CD is on the Antichrist.
42:54 ssshhhhh
42:56 So after the meeting tonight, you're going to get it free.
43:00 Okay?
43:02 John 14 verses 1 down to 3.
43:04 "Let not your hearts be troubled."
43:05 Don't worry.
43:06 Don't worry about what's going on in Congress, folks.
43:09 Don't worry about any of that stuff.
43:11 "Trust in God; trust also in Me.
43:14 In My Father's house are many rooms."
43:17 The Kings James version, "many mansions."
43:19 I'd rather have a mansion than a room.
43:23 I'd be staying in a hotel room, I don't want that in glory.
43:27 Or a motor home, I don't want that.
43:29 I want a mansion, Lord.
43:33 With hot and cold water, too.
43:36 "In My Father's house are many mansions.
43:40 If it were not so, I would have told you.
43:42 I am going there to prepare a place for you.
43:44 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back
43:51 and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am."
43:57 It says in the beautiful wonderful King James version,
44:02 which is the Bible of my old mother church.
44:08 Did you know that?
44:11 Published in 1611.
44:15 The wonderful King James version.
44:17 It says, "I will come... I will come...
44:25 I will come again."
44:30 Dead, buried, resurrected, and coming back to this planet.
44:39 "I will come again."
44:41 And that is the parousia.
44:43 That, my friend, is the hope of the church,
44:48 and the hope of the world.
44:52 That is going to be, dear friends and gentle people,
44:56 a day of incomprehensible joy and glory for God's people.
45:06 Come with me over here to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
45:10 to the words of the great saint Paul, an itinerant preacher,
45:18 the prince of preachers, a great theologian,
45:23 a sinner saved by grace.
45:31 May the Lord write these words down upon your hearts tonight,
45:37 everybody watching on television.
45:39 This is what 3ABN exists for.
45:43 This is why God raised them up.
45:45 That is why God used Danny Shelton to do this.
45:48 That is why Pastor Gilley is involved with
45:51 this great ministry.
45:54 Here it is, "For the Lord Himself..."
45:56 Not some pseudo-Christ, not a counterfeit.
46:01 "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven,
46:04 with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel
46:09 and with the trumpet call of God,
46:12 and the dead in Christ will rise first."
46:16 Christ is going to come back.
46:19 And Christ is going to raise the dead
46:23 and translate the living saints.
46:26 Verse 17, "After that, we who are still alive and are left
46:31 will be caught up together with them in the clouds
46:34 to meet the Lord in the air.
46:36 And so we will be with the Lord forever."
46:40 Say hallelujah.
46:42 Hallelujah, praise God.
46:44 Come over here to 1 Corinthians 15.
46:47 And every night after the program, we're going to
46:50 give you a new powerful CD.
46:54 One of them is on spiritism.
46:57 Demonism.
46:59 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51 and onwards.
47:02 Have you got it?
47:03 "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep,
47:07 but we will all be changed, in a flash,
47:10 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
47:14 For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be
47:17 raised imperishable..."
47:18 Do you believe that?
47:19 I believe it.
47:21 "...and we will be changed."
47:24 I'll get rid of my white hair.
47:27 I'll get nice blonde hair back.
47:32 It won't come from a bottle either.
47:34 "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable,
47:39 and the mortal with immortality.
47:41 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable,
47:46 and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written
47:50 will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'
47:54 'Where, O death, is your victory?
47:56 Where, O death, is your sting?'"
48:00 So I say to my old friend who came with us to
48:05 Russia and Ukraine so many times,
48:07 "Hold on, old friend."
48:10 I say to my friend back in Australia, "Hold on.
48:15 You're going to get a new body.
48:18 God is going to take away the aches and the pains.
48:20 You're going to be made completely new again.
48:24 You're going to go running down the streets of the New Jerusalem
48:28 and you're going to know this is just the beginning of glory."
48:34 The blessed hope.
48:35 No wonder it is called the blessed hope.
48:38 I pity people like Richard Dawkins,
48:42 where he thinks that a man is simply animated mud
48:46 on the way to dust.
48:48 We want him to know that Jesus is coming
48:51 and Jesus loves him too.
48:53 And He loves you.
48:55 You know the greatest truth in the Bible?
48:58 The greatest truth in the Bible is that God loves you.
49:02 Not because you're good, not because you're good enough.
49:05 Because there's only one person, my friend, who is good enough.
49:08 And that is Christ.
49:10 And He loves us.
49:11 And He loved us so much that He went to the cross
49:15 and went through hell to save our souls.
49:20 Hallelujah, what a Savior.
49:23 I remember the coldest winter in Russia.
49:31 We had run this great campaign in Nizhny Novgorod.
49:34 We'd seen 2530 souls initially, more were baptized later,
49:41 baptized in the cold waters of the Volga River.
49:47 And in that great campaign, where we saw the latter rain.
49:52 Don't tell me there's not a Spirit.
49:55 Don't tell me God is not alive.
49:57 I am here to testify to the power of God.
50:01 I've seen it.
50:05 And there was a young lady who conducted the great mass choir
50:08 that we had up front.
50:10 Her name was Anna.
50:12 She was a beautiful girl.
50:14 Like these Russian girls, some of them are
50:16 absolutely beautiful.
50:17 Had long glorious black hair.
50:20 I went back there...
50:22 That was in summer, I went back in the winter six months later.
50:27 It was Friday afternoon, it was snowing like crazy.
50:30 It was rather cold.
50:31 We were staying in this awful hotel.
50:35 It was cold in the hotel.
50:37 Had to go to bed to get warm,
50:40 with all your clothes on.
50:44 And there was a pounding on the door.
50:46 And one of the pastors with me went to the door,
50:49 one of the Russian pastors.
50:50 He said, "There's a man here whose wife is
50:52 dying in the hospital.
50:53 Would you pray for her?
50:55 Will you come and anoint her with oil,
50:57 in the name of the Lord?"
50:59 So we brought in this young man who was bereaved with grief,
51:02 to a young Russian doctor.
51:04 They said, "Come now."
51:06 They took us to what we could only describe as, bleak house.
51:11 A dreadful hospital.
51:14 There was no shortage of care in that Russian hospital.
51:17 The Russian doctors were magnificent.
51:19 They gave us those blue gowns and things to put
51:22 over our shoes, and masks.
51:25 We went into this room and there was Anna lying on the bed.
51:31 She had two little babies.
51:34 One baby had died in child birth.
51:38 One baby was still alive.
51:39 Anna was unconscious.
51:44 I still remember her hair flowing out.
51:50 And I can still remember the whiteness of the
51:53 tops of her shoulders.
51:54 She was covered with a hospital sheet.
51:57 And she was hemorrhaging.
52:01 I said, "Anna, Anna." She could not hear me.
52:04 This was our Anna, our Anna, our Anna,
52:08 who conducted the choir.
52:13 I anointed her with oil in the name of the Lord,
52:16 and committed her into the hands of Christ,
52:19 with the hope of the blessed hope.
52:21 I want to tell you, unless you've got your hope then,
52:24 you've got nothing.
52:27 If you've got Christ, you've got everything.
52:29 But if you don't have Christ and if you don't have the
52:31 blessed hope, I want to tell you, you've got nothing.
52:36 As the sun went down that Sabbath,
52:38 she fell asleep and died.
52:41 I was asked to perform the service,
52:45 the funeral service.
52:48 She was buried in a cardboard box because they were so poor.
52:53 And her family had drawn flowers on the cardboard box.
52:58 We'd purchased a little bus and we gave the bus as a hearse.
53:03 And I traveled on behind in a Volga car.
53:08 We got out to the cemetery where the wind was howling
53:11 through the trees that were naked.
53:15 So cold.
53:16 They blasted the ground open, it was frozen solid.
53:26 She held in her hands a little tiny baby.
53:34 The church members who had been decimated by the
53:37 ravages of the atheists and the Communists
53:40 who'd killed 50 million people...
53:42 Never defend atheism.
53:44 They killed 50 million people in Russia.
53:51 The church members stood around and stroked her hair
53:55 and sang hymns.
53:56 I thought, after a reign of terror, you cannot
54:01 kill the church.
54:03 You cannot kill the faith in the hearts of the people.
54:08 And after I preached, I remember our feet.
54:14 Beverly told me, "It's so cold, I'm freezing."
54:17 The ground was solid ice.
54:19 We put her down into the ground with her little baby.
54:22 They put a cardboard covering over her body.
54:29 But I said to the folks there, I want you to know something.
54:33 This is not the end.
54:36 I want the devil to know, this is not the end.
54:41 I want the world to know, this is not the end.
54:44 I said to her husband and the grieving church,
54:47 "This is not the end. Anna will live again."
54:52 She's going to come out of the tomb with that gorgeous
54:55 black hair and that beautiful little baby.
55:00 And she will live for eternity.
55:02 We have this hope.
55:08 You can believe it.
55:11 Not because it is a story.
55:16 You can believe it because the word of God vouches for it.
55:22 You can believe it because the Man who inspired
55:28 the book came down.
55:31 He was the Man who made the universe.
55:34 He came down and He went down, but He came up.
55:42 And He's coming again.
55:46 "Let not your hearts be troubled.
55:49 I will come again."
55:53 This is our blessed hope.
55:56 I want you to pray with me.
55:58 I want you to bow your heads, please.
56:02 Our Father in heaven, here in Los Angeles
56:05 in this vast teaming city, in this beautiful church
56:10 that You gave to us as a gift,
56:14 we lift our hearts to You.
56:17 We thank You for the Bible.
56:19 We thank You for Jesus, our Lord.
56:22 We thank You that our Savior came down to us
56:26 when we couldn't go up to Him.
56:29 We thank You that with His own blood,
56:31 He made a perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins,
56:36 and that He came up out of the grave.
56:39 And that there is nothing more certain in the history
56:42 of the universe than His return.
56:47 Who would raise their hand tonight and say,
56:49 "Oh God, I thank You for Jesus."
56:52 Can you raise your hand and say, "Thank You, Jesus."
56:55 Can you say tonight, you say it out loud, "Thank You, Jesus."
57:00 Thank You, Jesus.
57:02 And burn this blessed hope into my heart tonight.
57:07 Say it; Lord, put this hope into my heart tonight.
57:12 Take away my fears, fill me with Your love,
57:18 and everlasting life.
57:20 We worship You.
57:22 In Jesus' name, amen.
57:27 And to all those watching on television, goodnight.


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Revised 2014-12-17