Some very beautiful words to the special music, I know that had to be composed by one of our people. Certainly look forward brethren to the World Tomorrow when all the music will be beautiful. And you won't have to be selective anymore as you turn the radio dial. Instead, all the songs will be songs full of meaning; praise to God and of course gratefulness to be a part of the wonderful World Tomorrow.
Some of the brethren; as you realize I guess? This is my first sermon since I've been to England, and some of the brethren were asking me if I'd speak about England or say something in relation to the trip. I will in part in some ways indirectly brethren as I go through the sermon. You will perhaps of noticed that one thing I did make sure of this year when I went to England, I arranged my return date for July the 5th. This way I would not have to put up with any of that July the 4th nonsense! I was out of the country. Actually I was watching a football game on July the 4th when, England played West Germany, and lost. So when they lost I was glad to come back, you don't have to worry, I'm glad to be back here.
I'd like you to turn brethren to Daniel chapter 12 and the last verses of the book of Daniel, to a prophecy that has particular application to the Church of God today, to our future as it will be in a few years time. Daniel was told to go his way, that it was not for him to understand many of the things that he had written. But the angel having told him that made one last prophecy, a prophecy about our time , in verse 11 of Daniel 12: "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days" (1290), which is a period of three years and seven months. And we know of course that the Third world war occupies a period of three years and six months, 1260 days. But two other lengths of time are given here; the twelve ninety days with the extra month and then verse 12: "Blessed is he who waits, or as Bullinger puts it: 'Is stead fast', some have believed that it has the meaning 'endurs', "and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days". An extra 45 days on top of the twelve ninety, because 1290 of course from 1335 leaves you with a month and a half (45 days).
Now we have shone you brethren, in the past, that the conclusion the Church has come to is that that 45 days from the standpoint of "he that is steadfast, he that endures" relates to a period of persecution on the Church of God just before it flees to the place of safety. And with regard to the extra month there in verse 11; as it says in Hosea 5 and verse 7 the next book, Hosea 5 and verse 7 and the latter part of the verse: "Now shall a month devour them with there portions". So the church will go through a special trial that last 45 days, and those that endure it will be accounted worthy evidently to go to the place of safety. And after the church flees there is a month, a month before the final and total desolation of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.....
Part of the question that I want to put to you today brethren is "during that 45 days" - What will be the attitude of the outside world to the Church of God? Lets turn to 1st Kings chapter 18 and beginning in verse 17. Because we are in this sermon brethren going to deal with the last day particularly of those 45, "The Day That Begins The End", and that is the title to this sermon. Because the last day of the 45 is "The Day That Begins The End" because that's when the Church flees to the place of safety; as we understand these prophecies in the Church of God. And at that point "they'll be no man standing in the gap" when God looks upon this nation; the Laodicieans will still be here, but they'll be no man spiritually qualified to stand in the gap - spiritually strong enough. And when that time comes God says in Ezekiel: "Because there is no man to make up the hedge or stand in the gap", then the beginning of the end will be here with our people.
But how will they regard us during those last 45 days? 1Kings 18 and verse 17. We are a part as the bible shows in the last verses of Malachi, of an Elijah like work. And these were the words spoken by the king of Israel to the first Elijah - aforerunner of our work of God today. "And it came to pass (verse 17) when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Are you he that troubles Israel?" Now, obviously, Elijah was not a criminal. Elijah was not an individual who had gone around robbing banks or shooting up people or being a part of terrorists activities, he had simply spoken the words of God! He had done nobody any harm. And yet, because he spoke the truth of God he was regarded by those who did not want to believe that truth, as one that troubled Israel. Now in verse 18 Elijah gave the truth of the matter, he answered: "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of God and you have followed Baalim". But of course people in this world will not blame themselves for the troubles that come upon the nation. And certainly, Elijah as we know from the story was responsible from God for calling a drought upon the nation of Israel back then, which will probably be repeated in future history of our nation before the end is over with. That we will be regarded as troubling Israel, because of certain of the prophecies we will be making at that time. We'll be regarded as a cult in the eyes of many, as a group certainly out of step with the rest of society, we will be despised and as Jesus Christ said: "In that day you'll be hated of all men for My name sake". So that when the Church of God does get up and leave this nation, the vast majority are going to be saying "Good Riddens"; with them go a portion of our troubles and our difficulties.
Psalm 69 brethren and beginning in verse 7, "Because for your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face". You want to know what it will be like during that final 45 days, verse 8, "I have become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mothers children." Christ talks of the time when we'll be betrayed of kinsfolk and even former members within the Church. It says why in verse 9, "For the zeal of your house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached you are fallen upon me." In reality they hate the truth of Jesus Christ, but they can't persecute Jesus Christ, as they did 2000 years ago , because He's not around so they persecute those who are His servants. As Jesus said to Saul: "Saul, Saul, why persecute you Me?". Saul was waging war on the Church of God, but Christ said your persecuting Me in so doing. And so the reproaches of those that reproach Jesus Christ, in the end time, fall upon us! "When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment; I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gates speak against me; I was the song of the drunkards." We will be ridiculed brethren, as well as hated, we will be despised, and people will have nothing but contempt for members of the Church of God during that 45 day period. And so clearly, we understand why it will be a time of testing and trial... and why we will have to endure and remain steadfast if we want to be accounted worthy to escape the things that are to come to pass.
How did they regard Noah, brethren, as he prepared for his place of safety? A hundred and twenty years, preaching to the people that the end was coming and building a huge ship out on dry land with no where for it to go; because he didn't need to build it near a river and he didn't need to build it near the ocean. It wasn't going to need that kind of proximity to water because water was going to come to this boat, the boat was not going to go to water! But of course the people did not believe the prophecies, and Noah's Ark was undoubtedly for a 120 years in the building the great tourist attraction in the middle east. You know, "Noah's Folly", as people came from miles around to see this crazy thing of the biggest boat that had ever been built and was being built on dry land, it had no where to go!! But it was a tremendous witness and an act of faith on the part of Noah; he was saying a great flood is coming and only those that are on that boat are going to escape when it arrive's. But of course, it was utterly ridicules, it was totally stupid in the eyes of people what he was preaching and what he was doing!... And so, just as Noah was ridiculed for his work brethren so we also will be ridiculed, and most certainly as Christ prophecied we'll be called the servants of satan and it will be said that we are doing the devil's work. You see part of the problem was that Elijah was troubling the moral of the nation. He was telling them that they were being punished for their disobedience - to God!!! And when we say the same thing, in direct contradiction of what all the Protestant churches in this land will be saying; when we say that the troubles American and Britain are experiencing is because God is punishing our people and calling them to repentance!!! There big question is what in the world do we have to repent of?? Were are a God fearing people, were a Christian nation!! You people are a bunch of weirdos and fanatics.... And truly in consequence, we'll be regarded as trouble makers, as dooms day prophets... And, we will be so hated, that when the time comes for the Church of God to flee to the place of safety, as I mentioned, people will be saying: "Good Riddens" to that group, we won't have to listen to them anymore. No more of their "Plain Truth", no more of their "World Tomorrow" telecast, we can have some peace at last as things are going to go right for us now because we got rid of these servants of the devil.
But if the world, brethren, will be glad to see us go on that last day of the 45, will we ourselves be happy to leave?
Now, through the decades gone by of this era of the Church of God there has been of course the speculation that the place of safety could be in Petra, and a lot of people have, you know, got themselves hung up on the Scriptures that can be used to indicate that. And, very much thought in terms of when they would go to Petra; sort of made it a great goal in mind, I called them "Petrified Christians". Through the years many brethren have got excited about going to this fabulous place of safety, a sort of Spiritual Eldorado for the Church of God - a Grand Shangrila. And certainly brethren there is the desire to escape this societies problems, the difficulties that we have in living in this world. Of wanting to get away from it all. And even for some there is a desire to go to the place of safety so they can prove to their relatives and to their former friends: 'See, the Church I joined was right after all, all along', which of course is a totally wrong attitude. Yes, it will be a relief to go brethren. It will be a relief to escape this world, it will be a relief to be accounted worthy in the sight of God, to be accounted Philadelphian. Every last one of us will be glad that we no longer have to live in satan's world. But over shadowing those concepts will be an awful feeling of sorrow, when we leave... because the day we go brethren, is "The Day That Begins The End".... All our former friends... and all our relatives... are going to suffer terribly, in what will follow, after the Church of God is gone. Because there will be nobody any longer to stand in the gap, before God.
You know it's not going to be a great day of celebration when you board a plane or whatever method of travel it is for our people to go to the place of safety. There will be that sigh of relief, that you have been accounted worthy to escape, but there will be a time of great sadness in your heart when you go.... When Noah entered the Ark brethren; yes it was a relief for him also to no longer have to suffer the ridicule of this world, to no longer have to suffer persecution... But you know when the rains came, after the doors to the Ark were closed, and that Ark began to lift up in the water and they could hear the screams outside of people drowning, and then finally the screams were stilled and there was nothing but the howling wind and the waves lashing against the Ark; there was a tremendous sense of finality.... and an emptiness and a deep heart ache undoubtedly, in every last one of those eight people on board.... The cold, the gloom, the half light and the knowledge as they sat there in that Ark, meditating, and thinking about people they had known - that every last one who had not boarded the Ark was now dead! All there former relations, friends, kinsfolk were gone. It was for them brethren, a terrible sense of loss in the day that they went and boarded their place of safety. You'll be glad when your on the plane to see fellow members on board with you. But as that plane takes off and you look out of the window at the land your leaving behind brethren, your thoughts will turn to those human beings, in that land, in that country, that you've left behind... to a land that you'll see no more in this world... Your thoughts will turn to what will happen to America after you are gone, and no prayer you can offer to God at that point will be able to stop the onslaught of the coming tribulation....
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and beginning in verse 2, there are times when we a Ministers, brethren, have to bring to you sermons that are perhaps of a more sobering nature. But it's simply because of the times in which we live and also because of the command and the instructions given to us by Almighty God to do so. We sound a warning not to just the world, we also sound it to ourselves within the Church. We blow the trumpet not just to mankind... we blow it to ourselves here, because of the great danger that lies for us in the years ahead, because there will be those who survived the seventies who will not survive the nineties.... And there are those who are coming into the Church of God now who when the next major trial engulfs this Church will not have sufficient standing with God to survive it; who would not have applied certain of the things that were said for instance by Mr. Shaw in the sermonette, and in consequence will not have a strong enough hold on God to survive that which is to come... But God says to us in Ecclesiastes 7 and in verse 2: "It is better to go to the house of morning than to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of morning, but the heart of the fools is in the house of mirth." Now God intends brethren that we be Christians who are happy, who are rejoicing in our calling, who are looking forward to His wonderful World Tomorrow. But we also live in a time of terrible sadness, a time of trouble to come such as have never been before Jesus Christ said, and we cannot simply look forward in vision to the World Tomorrow without considering, all that is going to happen to human kind around us. Those who have not been blessed and not as fortunate as ourselves to be called into the Church. By the luck of the draw we are here!! And where the world is concerned: 'There but for the grace of God go you or I brethren,' if God had not called us. And God is saying that when an individual dies it's better to go to the house of morning than to consider the end of that person as it relates to yourself cause you and I also will one day die. There will be an end for each one of us brethren, whether it be before the return of Jesus Christ or whether it be when our bodies are consumed in spirit at the first resurrection when Christ returns. But today were not considering the end of a person, were considering the death of a nation.... and "The Day That Begins The End" for America and for Britain....
Though we don't like to consider some of these things brethren, the Bible obligates us to do so. Because God has given so many prophecies of what His punishment will be like, as a warning to us also, that we might remain faithful to our calling and escape what is to come to pass. Which is spoken of in Ezekiel 5 and beginning in verse 1: "And you son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barber's razor, cause it to pass upon you head and upon your beard; then take you balances to weigh and divide the hair." Now why was it, in this symbolism of Israel, that God said to the prophet Ezekiel, 'take some of the hair off your own head and some of the hair off your beard to represent Israel'? Because we have to understand brethren that those people out there are a part of ourselves, at least THEY OUGHT TO BE!! If we have the Spirit of God within us and we deeply care for the people in this world, as Jesus Christ cared for them, then they are a part, in one sense, of our own body. To represent the people of Israel who were against Ezekiel - God said to Ezekiel: "Take hair off your own head and off your own face", "And you shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled", because there is going to be an economic blockade and a siege of the Anglo-Saxon peoples' in these coming trading blocks, before the end. "And you shall take a third part and smite about it with a knife, and a third part you shall scatter in the wind and I will draw out a sword after them." They go into captivity and many of them still die in slavery.....
But while your doing this, and before..... "The Day That Begins The End", "You should take also thereof a few in number and bind them in your skirts", those that represent the Church of God! "Bind them in your skirts", as a type of the protection that God is willing to afford His people. But some don't allow themselves to be accounted worthy of that protection, and so He says verse 4: "Take of them again", those that you bound up in your skirts, "and cast them in the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire." Because the Laodicean era, all of them, will die in the tribulation.... There will be no survivors... of that era of God's Church..... The Philadelphians will out live them in the place of safety. The sixth era out lives the seventh.... "For thereof shall come a fire forth into all the house of Israel". In conjunction with that great economic blockade will come a drought and a dust bowl all over again, such as was in the 1930's, but a dust bowl of far more reaching extent than what happened in Oklahoma and those surrounding states. And, we will be prophecying to the people when the drought and the difficulties come upon America: That this is the hand of God!! And the people are to repent and change there ways while there is still time for them to do so. But they will refuse, and because they will refuse they will hate the people that are telling them the truth, the "Plain Truth", and in consequence we'll be persecuted to the point where God if He did not take us to a place of safety we would die here in Israel, let alone in the tribulation.
Deuteronomy 28 and beginning in verse 22. This is your nation brethren, and you keep July the 4th to commemorate it's birthday. And I'm sure there's a feeling of patriotism in you, towards your nation, that if I talk in terms of America you can feel perhaps more deeply than you can for another nation of this world. It's the same with myself, we have to learn to rise above national borders. We have to learn to feel for all people. But obviously, your homeland has a particular place in your heart, the place you were born. And so, you can consider things more in depth, if I can use it that way, from the standpoint of the way you feel about your home, where you were born, and the people that you grew up with and your relatives that are still back there. Many of you don't have the kind of experience that I have or Mr. Orchard has, because we live in what to us yes, is a foreign country, even though you regard us as the foreigners. But each time we go back to visit our home country, when we get on the plane to leave we never know when it's going to be the last time for us. See, I don't believe at this point; because of the changes that are taking place on the world scene, and with the work of God and its move to Big Sandy, that I've visited England for the last time. There were times in the past though, particularly when the Church believed in 1972, when I did truly wonder "Was this the last time?" But if it wasn't the last time for me this year brethren there is a time coming when I will visit it for the last time, and there will be a last good-bye. And so there's something that, as a foreigner living here I experience when I go to my homeland and I leave it, that many of you have not yet experienced, and will not yet experience directly, until "The Day That Begins The End"!! Until it comes time for you to leave your homeland, the land in which you were born, the land that gave you your education, your culture, your prosperity and you've envied so many of the blessings that were promised to Abraham and to Joseph in this land in which you live.
Now I can think to times when I've gone back to visit England; there was a time after God called me - and I was working one summer before I went to Ambassador College. And I was new in God's truth and I was out working at a farm with some other men. And came lunch time, we were out; we went to visit different farms to pick up certain things so this was just a certain day that we were at this place, the other men decided that they would go to the pub in the village to get a beer. I didn't think that was necessarily appropriate for me so - cause I was new in the Church and I went ahead and just had a lunch with me. I went out to the back of this farm. And this village was way off in the English country side and at the back of this farm was a very deep valley; they've made a reservoir there now, since I've left England. But I remember sitting at one of the hedges there, overlooking this valley eating my lunch, and there was such a total peace in that English country side. The birds were singing, the valley was verdant and green; I had such a sense of tremendous peace.. it was just like you were there all alone with God. And it was a beautiful and a wonderful feeling. But you can find spots here in America brethren where you can look at tremendous beauty, a lavish verdant green as it is in certain areas of the country; not here in California I know but further back East, and you know that one day its not going to look like that anymore... That instead of a beautiful blue sky with white clouds God says it's going to be as brass above us. And the ground beneath your feet is going to be dry, it going to be dust, the ground is going to be parched and cracked. Instead of the song of the birds that gives that sense of wonderful peace when you sit some where as I did in that place in the English countryside near a small English village. The birds won't be singing anymore... because they'll be dying. You'll only here the cows bellowing in pain and in starvation, because of all that is happening to the land.
Deuteronomy 28 and verse 22, "The LORD shall smite you with a consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with extreme burning, with a sword, with blasting and with mildew; and they shall purse you until you perish. And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass and your earth that is under your feet shall be iron. Then God shall make the rain of your land powder and dust". The great dust bowls of the 1930's to come back once again in even greater magnitude. "From heaven it shall come down upon you until you be destroyed"..... Where England is concerned for me, the green, green grass of home is going to disappear, and a land that in the last 2000 years has never experienced, as far as we know, drought and famine, serious drought and famine... is going to finally experience the worst of all time. The rich, loamy soil, is going to become baron from the dryness in the land. Verse 68, and when that terrible time is over, where the land is concerned, then God says: "God shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I spoke to you, you shall see it no more again. And there shall you be sold to your enemies for bondsman and bondswomen, and no man shall buy you back." A Scripture that has not yet been fulfilled because Israel has never gone to Egypt in ships. Every time they've gone in the past, as I mentioned to you once before, they've always walked or traveled by camel. This Scripture at the end of Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, has never been fulfilled , and therefore clearly, it is a prophecy for the future.
But it goes beyond brethren the condition of the land, the trees that no longer have leaves upon them, the hedge rows that are empty of life and the cattle bellowing for lack of water and feed. It goes beyond the condition of the land to the condition of the people during this time. There's the witness of a man, God had it put in the Bible, who saw this kind of destruction, the first time it happened !! Lamentations chapter 2 and verse 11, and some of this we will witness brethren before we flee..... So that when you finally board that plane to leave, though you have a sense of relief, there will be that awful sense of finality - it's over.... there's no more work you can do to save them or help them... they are truly a doomed people..... Your relatives, your friends and some in the Church that your leaving behind, who have proved to be Laodicean - it will be a great time of sadness.... And so in Lamentations 2 and verse 11, Jeremiah says: "Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers. Where is the corn and the wine? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out in their mother's bosom. What thing shall I take to witness for you? what thing shall I liken you to, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion?", there's nothing, there's never been anything so bad, "for your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you?"..... Verse 20: "Behold, O God, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and the children of a span long?" - shall they feed on their own children...... "shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Eternal? The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; you have slain them in the day of your anger; you have killed, and not pitted." Chapter 4, verse 3: "Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the sucking child (chapter 4 and verse 4) cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them"..... Verse 9: "They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field. And the hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they have eaten their own children in the destruction of the daughter of my people.......
You see brethren.... knowing all these things, there won't be any rejoicing in going to the place of safety. A sense of relief, yes. But otherwise, a tremendous amount of sadness and sorrow. When you board that plane and when you look out of the window, as that plane takes off, at your homeland, for the last time, there won't be a dry eye on board that plane.... And there won't be much conversation, just a silence and a thoughtfulness, because you know there's nothing more you can do to help them - it's over, for them.... And when I go back to England each time, as I say, there are memories for me, because of my childhood and my growing up there. But each time I've gone back, knowing that some time would be the last time, I've always considered, what it would be like... and wondered about the time I would make my last good-by?.... There's a school that I went to, and they have a cricket pavilion, and on occasion I've gone back to visit the school, to walk around it, to see the changes they've made. Its a sizeable place and occupies a good portion of acreage, in fact it's a very well known school in the county. And you can go to that cricket pavilion and on the wall you'll see the names of those that were the Captains of the cricket team, but they also include the Captains of those who played field hockey, the Captain of the first division of rugger. And for the young boys going there now when they walk into that cricket pavilion and they look at these names from say, 1957 or 1961, those names mean nothing to them. I mean there living in a different generation, 3 decades later, 30 years! So they weren't born at this time, they look at the names - it has no meaning at all. But I can stand there, and I can look at names written for the years of 57, 58, 60, 61, and those names conjure up for me faces, images of people I once knew. They conjure up experiences that we went through together, because those people were a part of my life at one time. And you remember, happy memories yes, but you think about those people and you wonder where they are now and what became of them. And you know that even if they had a successful life, sadly; though you don't know what has become of them now, you do know what will become of them in a few years time.
Now I don't mean brethren that in going to England each time, you know, it's an unhappy or an unpleasant memory. There are a lot of things that I can go back and enjoy; relatives and getting to meet one or two people that, you know, obviously I haven't seen for a distance or for period of time. And there are plenty of things to enjoy while I'm over there. In fact if you went to visit my home town you'd have some difficulty because you wouldn't even be able to speak the lingo. You think they speak your language over there - I'm afraid not. One of my kids went over there with me and said: "You know these people over here talk funny." Ah, if you think Mr. Orchard sounds strange brethren well, you should visit my home town. In fact you'll hear the greetings in the market place: "Ar u arth en?", this is a phrase that you don't choose to annunciate brethren. Annunciation is not one of their linguistic abilities, and so you simply have a greeting in the market place: "Ar u arth en?", now a lot of times it's prefixed with a "Al lo lortha', and then an "Ar u arth en". Now if you don't know what the latter part means, translated it is: "Are you all right then". And so that's what: "Ar u arth en" means, (quite a bit of laughter at this point!) because over the years they know they don't need to annunciate that to be understood. In fact some people will simply drop the "Al lo love" and part of the rest and they'll simply say: "Ar ryt en", and then there are those who believe in a totally economy of words and they'll say: "Ar ry". Now if you heard some of the other stuff you'd also have difficulty and you'd need a translator to go with you undoubtedly. My wife, the first time I took her over and she got to shop in the local market; and she got offended by this man that she was asking something about, the man serving at the store, when he called her "Ducky". And, you know, the men when there serving the ladies there it's just natural they use the term "Ducks or Ducky". But my wife had never heard this as so she thought the poor man was trying to be fresh with her, so she was a little taken back. Of course to me it's just a cute phrase, a duck is cute'er than a goose, but then whether your called ducky or goosey doesn't, you know, doesn't really matter to much brethren, it's a native familiarism and he's just being sociable and friendly, he wasn't trying to make a pass at my wife. Any lady that came by she was either "Ducks or Ducky".
So there are a lot of quaint things to enjoy in visiting you homeland, and I know some of you brethren have had opportunity to go to the Feast in England, and I hope you've enjoyed your experience there. But your experience will always be different from mine, because you have no childhood there, you have no memories there. Your childhood, your memories are here in America, except for some of the Philippino brethren of course who immigrated over here. But for the rest of you this is your homeland, and so the nostalgia and the feeling of patriotism, where a nation is concerned, is for you with America. And of course when you leave this country brethren, it won't be any July the 4th, it will be a time of great sadness and sorrow for you... One time when I left England in 1982, as I boarded the plane, well after I had boarded it, they played the movie "Chariots of Fire", which was the Oscar winner for that year in 1982. And, that movie was very hard for me to take having had a visit in England; because it's about England, the way it was shortly after the first world war, in fact many of you may have seen it. But there was so much in that movie that; because I was brought up in England, struck accord within me. Now when the movie was over I had to go back to the wash room to get control of myself because of the way I felt, about England and the way it had been and the memories that I had and the knowledge that one day it wasn't going to be that way anymore. That one day I would board a plane, and it would be for the last time... So when you board that plane brethren, for yourself to leave America, on "The Day That Begins The End", two emotions will predominate.... A deep sense of sorrow for those you leave behind, not just for the land, but far more for the people... and also, a deep sense of regret for yourself.... Now that latter may sound strange, but I do tell you that will be the case brethren... You won't only feel sorrow for the people you leave behind, you'll have a deep sense of regret towards yourself.... Because when your in that plane, thinking of your past life in this land, of the people you once knew who are now doomed to a terrible death; you will deeply regret the fact that you did not do more while you had the chance...... And all of us brethren, can do more, which is the crux of this sermon! Knowing what is going to happen, knowing that there will one day be a last good-by, knowing that one day we will leave this nation and never come back to it in this world, in this lifetime.... We need to be "motivated" by the warnings God gives in His word, some of which we've read today - that we are truly on fire for the work of God, while we have the time and the chance and the opportunity to do it!! Because as Jesus Christ said brethren in John chapter 9 and in verse 4: "I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day, because the night is coming, in the which , no man can work." And that night starts for us the day we leave, America...... If we are to do anything to help them brethren, it is now, TODAY!!
Proverbs 17 and verse 5, we need to understand that there's an attitude God wants us to have toward the end... that is up ahead of us. Proverbs 17 and verse 5 speaks of an attitude in this world that is all wrong, but sometimes finds it's way into the Church of God. "Who so mocks the poor reproaches his maker. And he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished." I say who that's glad at calamities. And we do and have had people in the Church of God, that when some disaster occurs, rather than being deeply moved for the people that are in that disaster, they have the attitude: "Well prophecy marches on, I mean God's word was written with these prophecies, we're seeing them come to pass, isn't it exciting!!" Have a tremendous earthquake over there in the Philippine's, and you've got 2 people buried for 11 days!!! Can you imagine the mental trauma that those people went through for 11 days??? There are hundreds of thousands of people who are going to suffer a similar fate, when we leave!!! - America.......
We have opportunity now to do something about it, to promote a work that can save as many of them as possible... from the kind of horror that lies up ahead of them. And God says if were not willing to do it then He'll leave us behind , to suffer the same fate with those people!! That's part of the problem with the Laodicean's, as it says here in Proverbs 24 and verse 11: "If you forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain". We live in a nation of millions of people who are waiting to die.... "If you say behold, we knew it not", verse 12 of Proverbs 24, you know if you turn a blind eye to the sufferings, and your attitude is simply: "Well prophecy marches on, were seeing God's word come to pass, those people deserve what they got"... Think there any worse sinners than us brethren??? That what Jesus Christ said about the tower that fell upon those people - as He mentioned it in Luke. 'Think those people were worse sinners than you', He said to the others that escaped??? No brethren.... Once again, there but for the grace of God go you and I. We would still be out there with those people waiting the same fate, except God had called us. If you and I turned a blind eye to human suffering - "Does not he that ponders the heart consider it? and he that keep your soul, does he not know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his works?" If we chose to be Laodicean in the way we serve the work of God brethren, then we will suffer with the same people we should have warned and helped. See, the attitude we have got to have, in the time that remains with us before the end, is an attitude of compassion and concern for a humanity that is soon to die... soon to die in the greatest and most terrible time that has ever been.... Many are concerned with themselves in the Church, with there own problems and their own difficulties; it is very easy for us brethren, I speak to myself as well as speaking to you, to get wrapped up in our own problems and our own difficulties and our own daily life... and forget about our calling!!! And about reaching all the people outside of our own little square yard of geography. We can worry about saving our own hide, by qualifying for the place of safety; but that's not the attitude God's wants brethren! The kind of attitude He wants is one that truly cares for the people that are out there - to the point, that we would give up our own salvation if necessary, that others might be saved.....
Romans 9 and beginning in verse 1: "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart." I look around me Paul says, and I see suffering and hurt and the misery of a sin laden people.... And I feel terribly, deeply sorry, toward them.... "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites;" I'd be willing to give up my own salvation, if it would mean, that they could have theirs instead of me.....
Ezekiel chapter 9 brethren.... Ezekiel chapter 9 is a vision, of the time when the Church of God is separated into 2 groups; the Laodicean's and the Philadelphian's. It's a vision of "The Day That Begins The End".... He says verse 4: "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." Verse 6: "Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; yet begin at my sanctuary." - Begin with the Church of God..... Because not all members of the Church of God will have this mark. Not all members of the Church are truly Philadelphian, are truly filled with brotherly love towards their fellow man, that they sigh and cry for the abominations that are done in this nation today. On the contrary there are those who call themselves Christian in the Church of God who actually want to be a party to some of those things that are going on out there - even though they know the truth. It looks to tasty, to inviting, and so in consequence they go out to get a taste of it!! Well... they may get it, but afterwards as the Proverb says: "Their mouth will be filled with gravel."
You know there's a man that I read of brethren in the Old Testament, and every time I read of him, in that section of the Bible, I get the impression of a man who was a total cluts - and that was Lot. Nothing I read about Lot in the Old Testament gives me really a very high opinion of Lot. Basically He was on our side, and that we can be happy about. But other than that when you read the story of Lot there's nothing very laudatory in his behavior. First of all, Lot, when Abraham gave him the choice - you know the land wasn't big enough for both of them; for all their heards to be together, so Abraham said you go this way and I'll go that way, you go that way I'll go this way? You choose. So what did Lot do? You know, real generous, real unselfish - He took the best of the land. He chose what he thought would be really good for him, not good for Abraham. So in his selfishness he chose the plane of Jordan because it was well watered; he would be more prosperous in consequence. And as you know he got himself into the vicinity of Sodom and Gomorrah. By so doing he got himself into trouble because there was warfare between that particular land and another land from the north; and he got taken captive, and his family, by an invading army. So then Abraham had to build up an army of his own and go out and rescue Lot and bring him back home. Lot didn't learn the lesson; I think God was tring to tell him something - God forcibly took him out of the country by the invading army. But no he went back to Sodom and Gomorah to dwell there because he was concerned about having the best of the land.
Well, the day came for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah; this of course is recorded between Genesis 14 and Genesis 19. And the angels came to Lot, they were considered very good looking indivuals so the homosexuals wanted them... What did Lot, shiverous Lot do under that circumstance? He said: "Don't touch these men they are guests in my home, here you can have my two virgin daughters. You know once again I'm not impressed with Lot, as a man and a father. I realize by the tradition of that day that it was considered better to give a girl because it was a total perversion - homosexuality. But regardless, in my mind there wasn't a choice. You don't say: Well you can have my daughters instead of this man! As a father you get out there and your willing to die to lay down your life for your daughters. Now fortunatly the Angels intervienced and they smote everybody with blindness, and Lot and his daughters they tried to rescue them from Sodom. They gave him opportunity to go and speak to his sons-in-law but they wouldn't hear him, and they said: you get ready for tomorrow, we've got to leave the city its going to be destroyed. And what do you find? The next morning Lot was dilliydallying until finally the Angels had to grab him by the hand and forcably take him out of the city - you know, God's mercy once again. And they said: "Now we got you out; get up to that mountain where you'll be safe." He said: "Oh no, I'm to tired, it's to far (emphasis by Mr. Brittian); look there's this little city over here, just let me rest here, isn't it just a little city"? You know, you read his plaintiff cry there; I mean if the Angles had told him to get to the mountain he had the capacity to get there! They weren't telling him to do something he couldn't do. But of course undoubtably he was emotionally distressed with the loss of his sons-in-law and he was also going to be distressed with the loss of his wife.
But they stayed in Zoar, then the destruction came, they saw the destruction, they got frightened and so they did go out of Zoar (that little town) and went up into a cave. Ah, and then of course you have the pretty horrible story about where the 2 daughters committed incest with their father, because they said no man was alive on the face of the earth. That's a little suspect to me. Did they not believe that Abraham and Sarah had not been protected, by Angles also?? And what about this little village that they'd had just left that had been spared by the Angles - weren't there any men in that city?? Anyway for some reason they were convinced that nobody was left on the earth so they had incest in reverse and they got pregnant 2 nights in a row, one daughter one night the other the next, by their own father. They got him drunk, interesting thing? They left Sodom and Gomorrah and they took enough booze with them too.....
So everything I read in the story of Lot in the Old Testament brethren leaves me with the impression this man may have been a Christian but he was a total clutz, you know he most certainly wasn't of the caliber of Abraham and Sarah. But there's something that redeems Lot brethren and it's found not in the Old it's found in the New Testament. Despite all that I said to you and all that's recorded in the book of Genesis about this man, there was one quality that Lot had that many of us in the Church of God do not have today! Who also live, in a modern day, Sodom and Gomorrah!! And that quality is found in 2Peter chapter 2. 2Peter chapter 2 and beginning in verse 7. It talks in verse 6 of the destruction of Sodom and of Gomorrah, and then it says verse 7: "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conduct of the wicked: For that righteous man", despite all his faults brethren, despite all his dillydallying, despite all his wrong choices, "For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds". You know why God took Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah, because he cared..... He sighed and cried for all the abominations that were being done around him.... And so a mark of deliverance (Ezekiel 9 and verse 4) was placed on the forehead of Lot, and he escaped with his daughters.
You know, we live in a society brethren, as I said, that is so similar to the one back then. And because we've lived in it for a long period of time we can allow future shocks, so to speak, to take it's course in our lives..... To the point where we except what is going on, and we're no longer really bothered by it.... We don't consider how those people are suffering as a result of their sins, in this pornographic society. Sometimes we lose sight of just how bad it is getting as we go our daily round - and to a certain extent blind our eyes to what is going on. Well there's an editorial at the end of the U.S. News and World Report, July 30th edition - "Who Should Pay For Porn". YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW BAD IT'S GETTING IN THIS NATION?? Then take a look at the latest editorial at the end of the latest U.S. News and World Report:
As congress prepares to vote for new funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, leading artistic figures are angrily protesting any and all restrictions on federal moneys. A recent rejection of 4 grants, they claim, means that America is retreating into a dark age of censorship and Stalinist-style art.
What rubbish!! Amidst all the pieties coming from people who know better, there has been very little talk about exactly what the four "artists" in question would do with their cash. Let the protestors call off their press conferences and hold a town meeting in Main Street America where they explain why tax payers should pay to support these four? (And then it lists the abominations that these four individuals commit, publicly, on stage! It not a question of here of censorship, their not censored for what there doing.
Adults can go and watch it, its simply that they want to be funded by the government by the tax payer for the wretchedness of what they do publicly. And I'm not going to read it brethren, you can read it at your leisure, cause its to filthy to read publicly).
What is at issue is that some artist apparently believe they can have it both ways: They want to engage in wanton destruction of a nation's values, and they expect that same nation to pay their bills. Grow up, friends. No society, even one as tolerant as this one has usually been should be willing to go to pay for its own demise. The American people are rightly concerned about moral decay in our public life, from the thievery at savings and loans to the suppression of prayers in school. (But their not concerned enough!! They are slowly being sucked in the vortex of moral degeneracy themselves - and that's why they will hate us so much, all of them brethren..... Even your good Church going Protestant's out there).
To argue that in the name of freedom they must send in money for smut peverts the idea of freedom itself - taxpayers have rights too!!
Psalm 119 brethren verse 53, the psalmist says: "Horror has taken has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake your law." You want to be horrified brethren, read the editorial at the back of the present U.S. News and World Report. But it shouldn't take that to horrify us. There's enough out there that we know of brethren.... that should really sadden us, because of what its going to mean for this nation in the future, and what its doing already to the people that are a party to those abominations and those disgusting things which they do..... Verse 136, "Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because they keep not your law." This is the emotion and the feeling that we have to have for the people out in this world brethren.... And yes it's God that's going to punish them, but God takes no pleasure in so doing. He says in Ezekiel: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. In Isaiah it says: "In all their affliction He was afflicted." "The Day That Begins The End", brethren, will also be a tremendously sad day for God..... God will hate what He has to do.... to help these people. To bring them to repentance and for those that are killed in what takes place when they come up in the second resurrection will have so learned their lesson, that they will willingly take hold of the salvation that God will help them then. But in the meantime brethren!! You and I are given the responsibility to serve those human beings. And to help as many as possible be a part of the Church of God; as we were helped by people who were in the Church of God before us. We have to have a zeal..... for all peoples, but particularly because you were brought up here you can relate it to your homeland......
I brought you a piece of memorabilia from England, souvenir if you wish, something that I can give to all of you - it's a poem. And it's the poem that's inside the bulletin that was handed out. I noticed that Leandra when she Zeroxed this for me she Zeroxed it in pink. I don't know whether that was by chance or by design, but I do have my suspicions as to which. This is a famous poem in England brethren, in fact, its a poem that's been made a hymn, and is on occasion sung in the Churches. As a young lad growing up in England, come veterans day; although it was called poppy day - weaver in the cadet's for the RAF or for the army would go to one of the Churches (remember this was before God called me) and we would sing this hymn based on the poem by William Blake. Because there is a tradition in England that Joseph of Arimathaea brought Jesus Christ there to visit during the 18 years that are missing in the Gospels. Ah, we know Mr.; I mentioned to you that Dr. Hoeh had speculated that Joshua went to England after he had established Israel in the promised land; to go work with those Israelites to Organize them - the original Kelt's that had already gone to England. Jeremiah of course went to Ireland. Ah, the Apostles some of them as I showed you in a past sermon on the key of David, went to ah England. And there is a tradition that in England, that Jesus Christ Himself came as a young lad with Joseph of Arimathaea who was His uncle and owned property in that area. Now there's a certain amount of documentation, the Church does not officially subscribe to that thought, that Christ was there, it may simply be fiction, we'll just have to wait till the World Tomorrow to find out. But William Blake in the 1800's, because this was more known back then, wrote this poem about it, and I give you the poem as a little bit of memorabilia from England because of the message in the poem and the way it can relate to us:
And did those feet (ref. to Jesus Christ) in Ancient time Walk upon England's mountain green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine Shine fourth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?
(Possible reference to the industrial England at that time, others have other opinions as written below. Because there is the belief that Jesus came to south west England, and ah; my wife and I visited the town of Glastenberry which was built on that sight, we were supposedly there. And though the middle ages, well up to the middle ages till it finally burned down. For a good portion of that millennium the kings of England were crowned in the cathedral at Glastenberry and afterwards of course as you would know now in Westminster Abbey in London. And when you go to Glastenberry you see the tomb of King Auther; supposedly the tomb of King Auther, whether he's really there or not I don't know, once again we would have to find out. But based on this concept, whether true or false that Jesus Christ may have been in England - Blake was inspired. And so the next verse deals, as we have say in Ephesians 6: "Taking the armor of God", and he makes this the statement of his last verse:
I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green & pleasant Land.
You and I brethren are also called to a great work. And you and I, daily, must never cease from mental fight... Must never let our swords sleep in our hands, till we have finished the work that God called us to do in this nation... But you see, whether or not this is legend or fiction is irrelevant brethren.... we don't need to be inspired by some historical event, we are looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. Whether He went there as a lad is immaterial. Certainly as God He has walked upon the pastures of England, and walked upon the mountains of America. And I'm not talking "Book of Mormon"; there have been times when Jesus Christ has come down to visit this land also, as a Spirit being. But we have to be inspired by what lies up ahead of us brethren.... Motivated..... to never give up..... on the mental fight, of working upon ourselves and of caring for all the people around us..... Before it's too late ...... before you have to say your last good-bye...
You know this time visiting England, leaving it was more difficult from the standpoint of saying good-by to my mother. Each time I have left I have found that I am always saying good-by for the last time to somebody over there. When I went in 1977 I got to see my favorite uncle that I hadn't seen for 14 years. And God worked it out for me to see him just in time... I didn't know it... he had cancer, and three weeks later he was dead. When I left the next time in 82, and said good-by to my father, to my step-father and to my mother, I didn't know then for sure that it was going to be the last time. And it wasn't from the standpoint of world events, but it was a last time for my stepfather... I didn't know that. I really though it would be my mother, because of her health, who would go first. And now visiting her alone... was particularly difficult, because when I said good-by to her at the house... this time there was a sense of guilt as I was leaving. Before she'd always had my stepfather to take care of her with her health problems and with her difficulties. Now... there was nobody there as a direct relative to be with her, to stay with her, to help her, through her loneliness. Everywhere we went during that 2¤ weeks my mother went with us, even to Church. When we went to Nottingham one Sabbath and Cambridge the next, she came to the Church. She didn't come in, but she sat outside for three hours both Sabbaths, just so that she could make the ride with us and make the ride back; she did not want to be left alone..... And this is the way your going to feel brethren when you say your last good-by.... A deep heartache for the people your seeing for the last time... Relatives who didn't come into the Church and relatives you deeply wish... you could take with you....
Luke 21 and beginning in verse 25, we have to, as Ecclesiastes 7 instructs us, "consider the day", that begins the end.... Not the day of the funeral of one person, but the day that involves the death of a nation..... And I've shone to you brethren that the time of our leaving will be a time of great sorrow. And we do have to work before that day comes, we have to face that day somewhere in the future... But when we face that day, God wants us to look beyond it. To face it yes, to handle it, to be ready for it. All the Scriptures that I've read to you have shone that we do have to be ready for that day!!!! But when it comes, despite all the sorrow of heart that we feel, God says there's another day... You've got to consider the one your a part of, the day of the last good-by, but I want you to look forward... beyond it... to another day, the day spoken of here in Luke 21. See Jesus Christ in Luke 21 gives the Olivet prophecy of all the troubles to come upon our people.... And He says verse 25, Coming to the end of those troubles: "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear," (suffering heart attacks and strokes) "and for looking for those things which are coming upon the earth; and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. He finishes at that point - the tribulation - all that it's involved. I've only read you the last part of the verses that deal with the tribulation brethren, but now notice verse 28. He goes back to the beginning of the tribulation, to the last good-by, to "The Day That Begins The End".... "When these things begin to come to pass,".... when the tribulation starts, "then lift up your heads; look up, for your redemption draws nigh." There's another day coming..... a day of true rejoicing.....
In conclusion brethren, Psalm 126, this is that day beyond: "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dreamed. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing". But to get to that day brethren, we have to go through this period of time first.... And so verse 5: "They that sow in tears".... they that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the land.... They that allow horror to take hold upon them, because of the wicked that forsake Gods way. They that sow in tears now, shall one day.... in that day beyond.... "reap in joy. He that goes forth to do God's work (verse 6) and weeps," in compassion for a dying humanity, "bearing the precious seed", of the truth Almighty God, the Gospel, "shall doubtless come again", in a new time, in a new day, "with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Bring the results of his work and of his labor. One day... you as Americans are going to pull up roots and leave the nation that has been your home... And the day you leave brethren will be the saddest day of your life.... But Jesus Christ says, despite the sadness and the heartache... look beyond... to a day far greater... the day of Jesus Christ's return..... The day when you can finally put all things right, the day as it says here in Psalm 126: "When you will be like them that dream.... When your mouth will be filled with laughter and your tongue with singing"....
End.