You know, as I speak to you week by week, as I've often said, I'd like to hold you here a long time because there's so much to say. The Spirit of God, I believe, in these last days is really speaking to our hearts in a special way about the things that I think we have to be very careful of, for we're living in a day of great apostasy. And I've been dealing with you from the epistle of Jude. Now, we've been in Jude for about six months. Jude has one chapter. But we have gone out from Jew to scriptures all over the Bible. I think this is the key, you see. I often think, I happen to be quite an admirer of a man of God who I think is probably the greatest preacher that I know of in the world today. He's not an American. He happens to be Martin Lloyd-Jones. Martin Lloyd-Jones is in his high 70s now. He resigned or retired from his church and he's merely writing at the present time. However, I have subscribed to his paper, it's called the Westminster, for many years. It will be hard for you to conceive of this, but Martyn Lloyd-Jones, during the last four years, his messages on Sunday morning for four years have been on Ephesians 6, one verse. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. Tremendous. And each week, each month, I should say, as I get them and get his messages, you know, it thrills my heart, this man, as he weaves in the Word of God. I'm not going to, in any sense, compare myself with a Martin Lloyd-Jones. This man, to my mind, stands so far above the average preacher in the world today. God's given him special gifts for 50 years. He has, of course, the largest church in England. I believe on Sunday morning it would run 2,500. To listen to this man expound the word of God. And I remember him putting in a few of his messages. You know, it would say, reference Ephesians 6 in the verse, you know. And then he would say, I trust I am not wearying you, but I must speak so that you understand these days we're living in. And sometimes I feel in Jude, there is so much to be said. It seems that in these days we're living in especially, God is speaking in a special way to all of our hearts. I see the corrupting seeds, if I might say, just as a prologue to what I want to talk about. I see all the corrupting seeds of a Holy Spirit-less world. It's coming when all the restraining powers of the Holy Spirit shall be removed. and the earth or the barrel will begin to really rot. The seeds are all there. And I couldn't help but think that a great portion of this has already taken hold of this earth that we live on, this vast place, and yet so infinitesimal in the scope of the universe. Isn't it amazing, you know, that we've gotten to the moon? And I was listening yesterday to someone, they've got some rocks on display out here, you know, on Long Island. And I see the kids all looking through the big, you know, glass at the rock. And then I listened to a scientist and he said, frankly, they could have picked a rock up in their backyard and it would look the same and is the same. Then I think of our great explorers, some of our great missiles that have gone out, these tremendous things that we see as they take off. Russia sent one, I think, yesterday. But I think of, well, they got to Mars, and they went around to circle Mars, and they came back with great news. It's worse than the moon. No human life could be there. From that, they assume that in this galaxy, there could be no human life. If there, on Mars, it would be possible or not. And this, as I think of Earth here, and that it is God's scene, God's place of gathering a family for himself. And I see all of the areas of the last days coming into the scope of our vision. Because, as I said, I see the corrupting seeds of a holy spiritless world, where Thessalonians says, when he that is taken out of the way shall be taken out, then shall that wicked one be revealed the Antichrist, the false prophet to. False prophet and the beast shall be revealed, and then shall run amuck in the earth the kind of things that we at this moment cannot even conceive of. Wickedness shall be so tremendous that we would never be able to conceive of it. The church shall be taken out. We shall not see that Antichrist. I'm glad I'm not going to meet him face to face. I'm glad I'm going to meet Jesus face to face. I'm glad I'll never receive the mark of a beast upon me, because I have the mark of Christ upon me. And I think that sometimes we can't quite fathom what's happening in the world, but actually what's happening is this. Slowly, little by little, the Holy Spirit is being removed. Finally, it will be cataclysmic. there will be the rapture of the church, and then he shall be taken out completely, except as God controls all things, the great tribulation and the war that Israel shall suffer, tremendous, already taking form. You know, It's so hard to get people to realize that God has said in his word that in those last days, the powers of the Northern Confederacy, and so clearly he says in Ezekiel, Meshech and Tobolsk, Moscow and Tobolsk, shall descend upon Israel to take a spoil. And then God says, and my wrath shall come up in my eyes. against that people, all the nations of the earth, he says, they'll be unrighteous. They shall see Israel as the great place to conquer. In Israel by itself and in the Dead Sea and all the rest, the scientists tell us, between the oil of the Arab lands, which Israel claims belongs to them, and the salts and the chemicals in the Dead Sea, it is worth more than all the gold in all the earth and is numbered in the trillions of dollars according to science. Russia has a vast fleet. If you read in the paper the other day things that I would never think of, Outside the 100-mile limit in the Atlantic Ocean, Russian submarines with nuclear warheads are continually there. 100 miles to hit New York and wipe it off the face of the earth. The United States, it says, is well conscious of this, that we are lined with Russian submarines, nuclear submarines. They know that they're there because of radar. And it says, our navy even plays Russian music to tell them, we know you're there. Tremendous power, tremendous things are coming into play. And I think that if we would realize that the Holy Spirit is going to be removed gradually, He'll not suddenly be removed from a dynamic, vibrant church, because that doesn't exist. The church is dead. In Revelation, it might well be said, thou hast a name to live, but thou art dead, Jesus says to one of the churches. And so there is a deadness in even the true church of Christ. Oh, how I pray that deadness doesn't come into your hearts. And if deadness has come, you recognize this is not the work of God. The Lord needs a dynamic witness upon this earth. And he said, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses. this is what God needs from us, that there'll be a slow taking away. Rather, I believe that we're already seeing in these last days the slow, painful withdrawal of the Spirit of God. First, I think, beloved, because the children of God are dying off. The vibrant servants of the living God are dying off. It isn't the new generation that is empowered by the Holy Spirit of God unless there is a great awakening and our young people, as the scripture says, begin to dream dreams and have visions of what Christ can do. That's why churches like this, this is the only possibility. May I say that, young people? You are the only possibility of Christ's tarrys, of there being a great ministry of God. Locally, it may not be universal, but to do what you can here and now, or possibly out in Aruba, or out in some other area of the world where God can use you. But because the old ones are dying off, slowly dying off. And because the prophecies of the last days tell us that there would be coldness, the Holy Spirit is withdrawing slowly. May I show you this way? How many souls do you think were one to Jesus Christ Imagine now, in the Southern Baptist Convention, this is the tremendous convention throughout the United States. I'm not gonna take it by number of souls, but number of churches. 75% of the Southern Baptist churches didn't win a soul last year. Tell me, those of you who are old timers, who sat in churches years ago, 15, 20, 25 years ago, what kind of response did you see to the gospel message? I remember when I was redeemed. Cliff probably remembers, and some of you others. Stanley, I see out here, several others. But I can remember when I found Christ as my personal Savior, and it took me I guess nearly a year before I was convinced as a Roman Catholic that I should follow the Lord in the waters of believers' baptism. But I'll never forget that night when I was baptized, and Alice was baptized, and her sisters were baptized, the four of us all in the tank together, being baptized into Jesus Christ. And as we gave our testimony for Jesus Christ, in Belrose Baptist Church, it rang out so that right after the baptismal service, the pastor gave the invitation, 17 souls walked down the aisle to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior. Where do you see this anymore? But do you think that was just that way? Every single Sunday evening, Four, five, six, eight, ten souls were finding Christ as personal Savior. So what am I saying? Coldness has come. How seriously do we take the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do we really believe that unless Christ Jesus died for me, or for you, or for your mother or your father or your children that they're lost? Because that's what Jesus says. If ye believe not that I am he, I quote Jesus, ye shall die in your sins. And yet I believe that as we look at this world around us, this dying world, How many are really serious enough about the gospel of Christ to bear a testimony, a tender, loving, sweet testimony to the neighbor next door? We talk about nobody wanting to be involved. Well, I want to tell you, Christians today fit right into the pattern. wants to get too involved in speaking for Jesus. And so I see a holy spiritless world coming at the time of the rapture, when the final one shall be taken out, but I see slowly the Holy Spirit departing from the world. And because of the death of God's saints. He says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. I see Brother Riley in the presence of Jesus now. I don't know who will take his place. I really don't. God will have someone, but I don't know how many will put the energy and the time that he put into the things of God. I don't know how many consecrated lives there are anymore that are willing to give of themselves to serve the living God. And I couldn't help but think as I looked in Ezekiel and I saw the Holy Spirit there. And I remember it was the Shekinah glory of old, and it says in Ezekiel, and the Shekinah glory, the Holy Spirit, if I might put it in that way, God's presence, left the holy place. And then the next thing says, and God's Spirit left the altar of atonement. Then the next thing I see, it says, and God's Spirit left the whole house of God. Then the next thing I see, it says, and God's Spirit left the city. And then the next thing I see in Ezekiel, it says, and God's Spirit hovered over the mountaintop and brooded as though he did not want to go. But they did not want Him. That's the kind of a world we're living in today. Who wants Christ? He's made the ridicule of jokes. Our heart should be rebuked by what we see on television. It wasn't too many years ago when you wouldn't hear any four-letter words on television. It wasn't too many years ago, beloved, when the Bible was read in the school. May I say this? I'm rather thrilled. Listen to this. I'm rather thrilled that my daughter Lynn's letters from Kentucky When I was down in Kentucky last time, I went over to the large Baptist church there. Tremendous building. And I said to Alice, undoubtedly here's a great Christian school. So I went in and I saw the pastor and I said, boy, you have such a wonderful plant here. You must have a great Christian school. This was in the summertime, see. He says, we don't have a Christian school. I said, what do you use all that building for? Sunday school. So I said, you don't have a Christian school with all those classrooms? He says, what do we need a Christian school for? We teach Bible in our public schools. My daughter Lynn tells me every morning in her class in Kentucky with all the kids, number one, read the Bible. Number two, everybody bow your head, praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? But beloved, it's not true, is it? Up here. Disregard for God, disregard for Christ. I see the Holy Spirit slowly departing because the great saints of God who love the Lord Jesus are dying off, and there's a coldness coming into the professing church of Jesus Christ, and an indifference, and some falling away. And when I go down my family list in my church, my heart breaks as I go down the families. Joe Hart would know. As I go down my families and I look at them, and I'll say, six years ago, ten years ago, they were faithful to the Lord Jesus. At morning, at evening, and prayer meeting, coldness in part has come into their hearts. Now they watch television. Now they've found something else, become more fluent now, got lots of things to do. When the Lord Jesus is coming, then what shall these things be? Let me read just a portion of Scripture to you. Now I'll start my message. Don't get frightened. But, oh, it's so important. I want you to understand. This is the key. I want you to see what's happening. Don't be blinded. Remember, that's what it says about Satan. He blinds minds and eyes. So much so, it says that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. In other words, there'll be so much going on in their minds that there are times when they go well off the beam, and they're almost deceived completely about this Christian life and what Christ is, and then suddenly they're swept back by something happens in their lives, and they think, oh, thank God I'm saved. But whole times and areas of their lives, they go along forgetting what Christ has done for them. not forgetting that Christ is their Savior, but forgetting what Christ wants for their personal lives. And so it was in Jude, and also Timothy, and also Peter, and also Titus, and one epistle after the other. We see all of these things gathered up. Let me read just Jude quickly, and then let me just go on to Timothy for a few minutes with you before we go home for dinner and then come back tonight. All right? Jude, beginning at the 12th verse, he talks of these people in these last days, and that's why I say you shouldn't be ignorant. You know, I want to say this lovingly. If your lives fail as Christians, it won't be from the lack of hearing. You've heard it. But it will be from the lack of listening and doing that which God calls upon you to do. I have not held back from you anything from the counsel of God. and the things that I speak to you on you know are happening. You would have to blind your eyes not to see that the Holy Spirit's tremendous power is waning because he doesn't float through the air. The Holy Spirit only functions through human beings. He's not some ephemeral nothingness. He's a somethingness. He comes to dwell in the human heart, that that human heart may become a witness for Jesus Christ. He does not witness about himself, he witnesses about Jesus, and he witnesses through the heart of those individuals who really believe. Now let me read just this portion on these men, these who are the problem makers of the last days. The 17th and 19th verse tells you about the last days. These are spots in your feasts of love. Charity is love. Not the way charity is considered today. Charity today is giving something to somebody who has a need and are poverty stricken. That's not the meaning of scripture. The meaning is love. It is agape, the love of God. They come to your feast of love when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear with you. They can be in the true church of Jesus Christ. Could be here this morning. There could be someone here this morning or more than one has no thought for Jesus Christ, no regard for Jesus Christ. They feast with you at your feasts of love. Without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth. Without fruit, twice dead. I want you to underline that word twice dead. I'm not going to talk about that this morning, but I'm going to talk to you about that and it'll be very important. Twice dead people are the most sorrowful people in the world. Twice dead. plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And then go down to the 15th verse, we'll just skip Enoch. To execute judgment upon all, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. Well, I want to tell you, we got a lot of hard speeches today. right from pulpits. Now, I noticed in the paper last week that Harry Emerson Fosdick died. Harry Emerson Fosdick was the progenitor, if I might say. He was cast out of the Presbyterian church for his heretical views. Then, after he was cast out by the General Assembly in New York, he was invited by Mr. Rockefeller, and this is the father now, don't charge Nelson with this, you might vote for him, and I don't want that to be confusing, by his father. His father built a church just for Mr. Fosdick, the Riverside Church, which I think most of you know of. It's a Baptist background. God deliver us. It is, I believe, around 15 stories high of nothingness. But in 1922, he started in this nation a great sweep away from the gospel of Jesus Christ as a Baptist. When he went into the Riverside Church, it was Riverside Baptist Church. What a wide horizon we have, huh? Listen, beloved, what a wide horizon we all have. If you were to look at the Catholic Church today, look at the wide horizon that it covers. From those right now in their great battle with the Pope, I see it says in the paper that, you know, the last council made the age of 75, the Pope can resign, and he's hoping that 75 comes quick so he can get out of this whole thing. That's what it says. They never had a retirement before for the Pope. Now he retires at 75. But if you were to take the Catholic scope in the church and its great scope, from those who are fundamentalist Catholic, let's say, to the modernist. Tremendous area. Take the Lutheran church. From those who have departed so far that Martin Luther would turn over in his grave. He wouldn't believe that the name Luther could be attached to the name of the church that came from his heart as he found in Christ justification by faith without the deeds of the law. and wrote two great treatises on the book of Romans and the book of Galatians. So the Lutheran church has this great, take the Methodist church, Paul, Wesley, Charles, and John. What a sorrowful thing to see the Methodist church seated in communism and in modernism. so that many of the preachers in Methodism, in Presbyterianism, in Lutheranism, and in Baptist groups are known to be card-carrying communists. And then you expect the preaching of the gospel to be sent forth in great power? They're hard speeches. Listen to Harry Emmerson Fosdick. Why do I say the Baptist? Because I want everyone to hear, to know, I don't know where you come from. You may come from Lutheran churches. I'm thankful. I see a man here who came from a Lutheran church and he came into my study and he had but one thing to say. He said, I've been going to the Lutheran church for years. And he said, I had to come to a Baptist church to hear the message of Martin Luther. But I'm saying Baptist, so you don't mistake what I mean. That it is not because we're Baptist that we're redeemed. It is because of Christ and his atoning work on the cross of Calvary. But these men have made hard speeches. And it seems the harder your speech is, the more popularity you get. I don't see any of the humble gospel preachers being given great areas of the newspapers to spew their doctrines, but I do see men such as Dr. Pike, who now has departed this earth. I'm not going to say any more about that, but he's departed this earth. Someone said, he's gone to his reward. I said, God forgive him. What a terrible thing. But spewing his damnable doctrines, no virgin birth, no physical resurrection, no atonement for sin. Listen to Fosdick. He says, I question very deeply any doctrine that spews the virgin birth. Anything that says the Bible is inspired. I disagree with the atonement of Jesus Christ. I do not believe in his bodily resurrection or his coming again. Now, if you would tell me what he believed, if you don't believe that, where are you getting what you believe in? But this is the kind of doctrine, all their hard speeches, notice that, that's what the Scripture says, twice dead. and their ungodly deeds, which they've ungodly committed, 15th verse, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaks great swelling words. That's it, orators. Nobody ever took that from Fosdick, he was an orator. Having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. Let me tell you, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ does not get men's persons in admiration of me, nor does it give me any advantage in this dying world. But Harry Emerson Fosdick was able to build a $10 million building. Because what he preached satisfied the carnal hearts of men. And did nothing for them. He was a cloud without water. He had nothing to offer to the people. He gave them no refreshment. He did not deal with their conscience to give them peace. He sent them to psychiatrists. that they might somehow bring their sins up to the surface and their guilt complexes and looking at them say, what can I do about it? Oh, listen to me, beloved. God is calling upon men and women here today to really begin to live for Jesus Christ and to stop all of the silliness and begin to live the Christ life. Not to be babies in a nursery. Not to have to feed on the little milk of the Word of God, but to be mature, as Paul said. He says, whereas ye should be mature and able to eat the meat of the Word of God, he says it must be that you have to eat of milk. And I would remind you that babies, beloved, depend entirely upon their parents to feed them. But when the baby grows up into maturity, it begins to feed itself. And so it is with the children of God. as they grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. They don't depend entirely upon the pastor in that hour, that little over an hour on a Sunday that he speaks of the things of God. But they begin to say, I am not a baby having to be spoon-fed anymore. I am now mature. The meat of the Word of God shall be my portion. And I shall not only depend upon the pastor who feeds my soul week by week and I rejoice in it. God's called him to be a pastor and a teacher. but I myself now am mature and I'm able to eat the meat of the Word of God. I can feed myself. I don't have to be given milk all the time." Well, that's true in nature, isn't it? And so, beloved all, may the Spirit of God grip your souls. The Holy Spirit is slowly slowly being taken out of the way. His power is diminishing, not because His power has diminished, but because the number of souls who really are bearing a witness for Jesus Christ have diminished to a nothingness, so that there's no power manifested. People say, where is the Holy Spirit? I say, where are the people? People say, where is the Holy Spirit? The church is dead. I say the church is not dead, the people are dead. Churches are buildings. The true church is a deadness in it. May God grip our hearts. Listen to me, beloved brother and sister, young person. Is the fire of the Spirit really residing in your heart? God says His children shall be like flames of fire. I want to tell you something. If the fire of the Holy Spirit came into your hearts and you really believe that you were redeemed in the blood of Christ, that your redemption is complete, that Christ suffered death for you and you're a free man, whosoever the Son shall make free, he is free indeed, and you are free now, you don't worry about your salvation, it's absolute positive because Jesus did it. And from that point, you begin to go out and say, I'm not worrying about that. Now I'm concerned about others. that they might find Jesus. Until we get that concern into our hearts, the gospel has not sunk into our breasts as God desires it. Oh, may the Holy Spirit, all of you, and me, may I never say that I'm outside the message. Do you know that God speaks to me while I speak? You didn't think I just speak from me to you, did you? You don't think that I just speak out for me at you, do you? When I speak, God speaks to me about the very things I'm speaking about. Because it is the Holy Spirit who speaks and not Pastor Gideon. And so it's for me and for you. But together, May we have a dynamic for Jesus. Let us pray. Now, Father, we know there's a lot of hard speeches going on around the world right now about the church, its ineffectiveness. Lord, we hear so much of this. We hear jokes. Lord, there was a day that no one would ever dare cast a joke about a Catholic priest. There's plenty of that now. Ministers were always a little bit joked about, God's servants. But Lord, in these last days, we can see it increasing, and in a sense, we understand why when we think of the condition of the Church of Christ. Powerless! Lord, put your hand upon us. It has to be to each individual heart, to mine and to every individual heart, not to anybody saying, well, I'm doing all right. Maybe someone else will get the power. Lord, if that were it, this would be terrible. Lord, may every soul here this morning cry out, oh Jesus, give me the power of the Spirit of God. Give me the power. May I be able to speak to others about Christ. May my life so shine before men that they will see my good works and my good words and glorify my Father which is in heaven. Lord, there's little glorification of the Father anymore because there's little glory to see in his children. So we pray that that glory of old might begin to shine out from us Remember that the Old Testament saints had said, often their faces shone and they wished not that God was with them. Oh, Father, shine through us. And may we be those who are willing to get involved and to serve our living Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.