Prepare The Way

You can help to hasten the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ by hastening the coverage of this whole world with the Gospel.


Scripture: Mark 13:3-10, Romans 2

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, it’s your friend, Dr. Cook, and I’m glad to be back with you to look into the Word of God and to share some of these precious truths that God gives to us in His Holy Word, the Bible, God’s inerrant, infallible Word. I was in a meeting not too long ago. For me, the way I’m making the broadcast right now, it’s just been hours ago, but for you, it’ll be weeks ago, because that takes that long for the program to get to you. But in this meeting, people wanted to know, what is an evangelical? And they sort of hopped around with various types of meanings. But when it came down to the real meaning of an evangelical believer, it is a person who takes the Bible seriously, who believes it to be inspired, and who seeks to live by it, including commitment to Christ as Savior and the desire to share that blessed Gospel message with all the world. That’s what finally came out as people, many of them unbelievers, tried to find out what an evangelical really is. [chuckle]

Well, I don’t mind being called a fundamentalist. I use it the benign sense, I’m not mad at anybody. I don’t go around knocking people down and standing on their necks and saying, “Are you prepared to die?” But I do, as I know many of you do, I do believe in the fundamentals of the faith, the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the inspiration and infallibility of the Word of God. The need of the new birth and the personality and work of the Holy Spirit of God, and the oneness of believers in Christ all over the world, and the ground is level at the cross, isn’t it, beloved? And the certainty of heaven and hell, of judgement and reward. All of these things, and I’ve only touched on a few, as you theologians know. But I don’t mind being called that kind of a fundamentalist, and if you wanna call it evangelical, that’s fine. It’s a little bit more vanilla in the word, not quite so much tabasco. [chuckle]

Well, I’ll tell you something, this is just a little detour, but let me just wind it up by saying it makes a great deal of a difference what you believe. It makes a great deal of difference what it is that you’re willing to die for. Many a person is ineffective in his or her life situation because there is no deep commitment to anything eternal. There’s nothing to live for, nothing to die for, and so, the individual just goes on drifting through life. It’s true of so many, isn’t it? Be sure of what you believe and be sure of the Savior to whom you have committed yourself. Paul the Apostle said, “Nevertheless, I’m not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I’m persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.” Make sure that you’re definitely committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, now, we were in Mark 13:9, where our Lord Jesus said, “Take heed to yourselves for they shall deliver you up to councils. In the synagogues, ye shall be beaten and ye shall be brought before kings and rulers for my sake for a testimony against them.” A small thought here. Do you realize that God looks at your sufferings as part of the evidence that is being piled up for Judgment Day? “For a testimony,” it says, “against them.” It’s an awesome thought that God, who has all the time in the world, is going to take the time, at some point or other in the future, to bring before His august presence those who have persecuted the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and He’s gonna read the indictment and He’s gonna say, “You beat such and such a person, and you harassed such and such a person, and you killed such and such a person,” and so on. “They shall deliver you up to councils and in the synagogues, you shall be beaten, brought before rulers and kings for My sake for a testimony against them.” God looks at your sufferings, your persecutions, your harassment that you’re presently going through as part of the evidence that’s going to be presented at Judgment Day.

Let me tell you something. There’s not gonna be any unbeliever who can blame God for being lost. People sometimes say to me, “What kind of a God of love is that that would consign anybody to eternal loss?” And I’ll tell you, when the evidence is in, beloved, and God doesn’t lose any of the evidence, there isn’t any blank in Heaven’s Watergate tape, I wanna tell you that. When the evidence is in, there’s not gonna be one unbeliever who has rejected Christ and turned his back upon salvation and God’s mercy in the Lord Jesus, there won’t be one unbeliever who can blame God for his lost condition. No, God does things right. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right,” the Bible says.

So, learn to look at it this way. Some of you are going through horrible experiences right now. Somebody is the only Christian in your family and everybody is picking on you, even for the smallest mistake, you get picked on because, “That’s a fine Christian. Didn’t even put the cap on the toothpaste,” that sort of a thing. And that digs so deeply and hurts, doesn’t it? And then in the office, somebody’s always picking on you because you’re a Christian. And they’ll laugh and mock and sneer. And then to compound things, when it’s time for you to maybe get a promotion and it’s merit rating time, you’re passed over for promotion. And the word gets around, “Oh, you can’t promote him or her because, yeah, they’re religious, you know.” Oh, that hurts. So unfair. I know. And there are some of you who are related to government procedures and you find the hard heel of government coming down so strongly on you. I was in one foreign country not long ago and I said, “Do you find that the government opposes you?” And the answer came back, phrased very carefully, “No, the government statements never opposes.” And then thoughtfully a moment later, “The government, in practice, often makes things hard for us.”

Well, of course, that’s the way it is all over the world. The paper says, “You’re free,” the practice says, “You’re not free. Do as I say.” Well, beloved, whatever the condition may be, listen to me. What’s happening to you is part of God’s plan to set things right when Judgment Day comes, and it is coming. “God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” Jesus, our Lord, is alive and He is God’s guarantee that things are gonna be set right. Now, you look at your hardships from that point of view, and I think it’s gonna make a difference. What you do, do for Jesus because he’s going to make things right.

Now, he says, “The Gospel,” this is verse 10, “must first be published among all nations.” This verse is quoted elsewhere in the other Gospels. “The Gospel must first be published among all nations and then shall the end come,” it says in another of the Gospels. Part of God’s plan is that every part of this world shall hear the Gospel. Now, I’m not gonna get into a discussion today about what will happen to people who never had a chance to hear the Gospel; I simply have to say God is just and He’s going to deal, as Romans chapter 2 says, “in perfect justice with them.” But now, what about the chronology of this age? The publishing of the Word of God, this Gospel, the good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, has to be published throughout all the world. Wycliffe translators seized upon this concept and began methodically to translate the Word of God into all of the various languages that did not yet have a written copy of God’s Word.

They’ve narrowed that gap down now to some hundreds of groups that still haven’t got the Word of God and they’re working very hard at it. Together with that, the advent of radio and television, satellite broadcasting, and all of the technological wonders that go along with that field, have made it possible now for the first time in the history of the human race to talk to every part of all of the world at the same time. And the fact is, the technology is there if Christians only had the heart and the determination to do it. I’m glad to hear that our brother, Graham, is planning to speak to a worldwide congregation later this year, I believe it is, or next year, whenever, by satellite. And there’ll be congregations listening in all of the parts of the world. I was just in Brazil a few days ago and they’re so excited there over the fact that, in the major cities of Brazil our brother, Graham will be speaking by satellite to all of those people gathered in that area as well in all the other nations of the world here and there. Well, thank God that that’s happening. And Jesus said, “When that particular job is finished, then I’m coming back.”

When I was a student at the Moody Bible Institute, the institute did two things for me. It gave a lifelong emphasis on knowing the Word of God. “Find out what the Bible says,” Dr. Gray used to say, “and you’ll have no trouble with what it means.” And second, it gave me an emphasis on winning the lost. I’ll always be grateful for that. But when I was a student there, Dr. Gray used to call for the singing of a hymn in the chapel services when the entire student body was gathered, and like as not, it would be this song, “Why say ye not a word of bringing back the King? Why say ye not a word of bringing back the King?” And the chorus would go, “Bringing back the King. Oh, bringing back the King.” [chuckle] I remember how we used to sing it.

Well, you can help bring Him back by spreading the Gospel. That’s the point I’m making today. You can help to hasten the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ by hastening the coverage of this whole world with the Gospel, by your own personal witness, by supporting Christian radio and television, by supporting publication of the Word of God across the world, by supporting other missionary efforts that help to tell the blessed good news that Christ can save to the uttermost. Or by going yourself as a missionary. I’m speaking to many people, some of you in your teens and 20s and others of you in the full flower and bloom of middle life, who could conceivably either take an early retirement or take a year of sabbatical and go preach the Gospel somewhere where Christ’s name has not been heard. You could do it if you wanted to. Think about it. Think about it, and help to bring back the King. This Gospel must first be published among all nations. Let’s keep at that blessed, wonderful, number one job until he comes.

Dear Father, today let us do our part in bringing back the King. In his name I pray, amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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