As we draw closer and closer to the end of the world, there are going to be more and more events that will disrupt our regular business operations, whatever kind of business we are in.  Yesterday afternoon I had to go to a car part place.  I was told shipping has all been disrupted, but things are starting to come in again.  And so their business was disrupted.

Our business was disrupted.  As we get closer and closer to the end of the world, there are going to be more and more events that will disrupt life.  And as these things happen, one of the consequences of some of the events that are going on in the world today is that we see an unbelievable amount of hatred developing in the hearts of men and women.  And this is a very dangerous development

This past week should give people a little idea of how dangerous hatred is.  We are going to study what the Bible says about that in just a moment.  First, let us ask the Lord to help us to understand what we are going to read and what we are going to study.

“Father, we are at that time now in our worship service where we are going to open Your Holy Book and read it.  Oh, Father in Heaven, we feel our great insufficiency.  We feel our great need of Your Holy Spirit to help us understand truth, to transform our hearts, to prepare us for the future.  We know that we are at the beginning of a period of earth’s history, which is described in the Bible as a period of great tribulation.  We pray that You will help us to understand what is coming, how to be ready for it and how to be ready for Jesus to come.  We thank you in Jesus’ name.  Amen”

In the Bible, the Second Coming of Christ is described as occurring at the darkest period of this earth’s history.  Do you remember the story that Jesus told about the ten virgins and the bridegroom?  Do you remember what time the bridegroom came?  It was at midnight, the darkest period of the day.  The Second Coming of Christ is going to occur at the darkest period of earth’s history.

It is getting dark, but it is not yet midnight, but it is going to get to midnight, and you and I had better be ready.  There is a great controversy going on in our world.  It has been going on for several thousand years, but it is reaching a climax.  Now an interesting thing has occurred.  I find that people in all different churches and people who are not Christians at all, as they look around at what is happening, they realize that we are not just living in ordinary times, that something is building up.

Something is building up.  This great conflict that has been going on that is building up toward a tremendous climax, the controversy between Christ and Satan that you can read about in your Bible in Revelation 12:7–9.  This is a controversy in which each side—there is Christ’s side and there is Satan’s side—is attempting to get control of the minds of men.  The devil is trying to get control of your mind, because the great controversy is in the mind.

And I want to tell you that there are millions of people in the United States whom the devil has gotten control of their minds this week.  Do you know how that happened?  Because this is how the devil works.  Hatred generates more hatred and it just keeps going up and up and up.  If you do this to me, I will do that to you.  Well, if you do that to me, I will do that to you, and so on.

Where does that end?  It ends the same place that it ended with Cain, that is where it ends.  I will just kill you, then!  Have you heard talk like that this week?  And if the devil can get your mind filled full of hate, he has you.  You are on his side.  It does not matter whether you call yourself a Christian, whether you go to church, if your mind is filled with hate, he has you.  You are following him, he has his spirit in you, and he has gotten control of your mind.

All evil is a twist, a perversion of something that is good.  It is all right to hate evil.  In fact, the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.  There is nothing wrong with hating evil as long as you do not hate the people.  Love includes justice, but if the devil can get your mind full of hatred against other people, he has you.  You cannot go to heaven, nobody will go to heaven whose mind is full of hate.

Let us read a few things that Jesus said about it.  If you have your Bible, this is the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5.  Look first of all at verse 22.  Who is Jesus talking about here?  He is talking about the person who hates his brother.  Who is your brother?  Your brother is every human being that needs your help, even if their minds are full of hate.

You cannot solve the problem of hatred with more hatred.  So look toward the end of Matthew 5:43, 44.  Who are we supposed to love?  Our enemies.  I am going to read this to you from Luke 6.  You can turn over there if you want to.  Luke 6 contains very similar words to Matthew 5:43, 44.  “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” Luke 6:27, 28.

I always remember the story when I read these words of a Christian pastor in the Middle East in a Communist country who was taken prisoner and who was in a Communist prison.  He was in prison between ten and twenty years.  He was in prison, by the way, because he was a Christian, not because he had committed a crime.  While he was in prison, the guards treated him very, very cruelly.

There were prisoners who were beaten to death.  There were prisoners who, for one reason or another, the guards would get angry and give them blows and sometimes their jaws would be broken.  When your jaw is broken, you cannot eat, so you are going to die unless somebody helps you out.  This man told about what some of the other prisoners did, because there was a prisoner whose jaw had been broken by the guard.  He could not open his mouth.  So they would take the bread, that is about all they had, not much more than bread and water, and they would take the bread and break it up into little tiny pieces so they could get it into his mouth to keep him alive.  He was describing this and he said, Two things I saw happening in this prison.  There were these people who were being tortured, but, he said, as they ministered to the needs of others around them who were even worse off than they were, it just seemed like the presence of God and angels were in that prison.

Not only did they minister to the needs of those around them who were worse off, but also as they thought about it, the Christians decided that they needed to pray for their guards.  In fact, they not only needed to pray for them, they decided that they were going to tell the Lord, We choose to forgive them for what they are doing to us.  And he described how in the midst of all kinds of trouble, torture and pain, when they had a forgiving spirit, the spirit of God came into that prison and transformed those people in character.

They were just Christians when they walked in, but they were saints when they walked out.  That is one of the things that was happening in that prison.  But there was something else happening in that prison.  The devil was working.  He said that some of these guards became so satanic, you could hardly look in their face, they were so satanic.  So in the very same place there were some people who were becoming like the devil and there were some people who were becoming like Jesus Christ.

I want to tell you, friends, that is a little microcosm of what is going on today all over the world.  Because of the awful things that are happening, some people are going to be filled with hate and they are going to become just like the devil.  Other people are going to turn to the Lord and become just like Jesus Christ and learn to forgive.  Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”

How is it in your life?  Who is getting control of your mind?  Does the devil have control of your mind, or does the Lord have control of your mind?  If you are filled with hatred against people, no matter what they have done, the devil still has control of your mind.  And a person who is filled with hatred cannot be taken to heaven, even if what they were hating was wrong, even if the people were wrong.

Let me read you a few paragraphs on this subject from the pen of Ellen White.  This is recorded, if you have the book, in The Mount of Blessings, 55, 56.  There is a comment on some of these texts that we have just read.  “Through Moses the Lord had said, ‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. . . .  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’  Leviticus 19:17, 18.  The truths which Christ presented were the same that had been taught by the prophets, but they had become obscured through hardness of heart and love of sin.  The Saviour’s words revealed to His hearers the fact that, while they were condemning others as transgressors, they were themselves equally guilty; for they were cherishing malice and hatred.”

Notice, while they condemned others, they were just as guilty.  Why?  Because they were cherishing malice and hatred, and malice and hatred are the foundation of the problem.  Is not the devil a devil?  If he gets you to have hatred in your heart, you are on the same ground as the other people with hatred in their hearts who do all these things.  That is the root cause of all these things.

“They were themselves equally guilty; for they were cherishing malice and hatred.  Across the sea from the place where they were assembled was the country of Basham, a lonely region, whose wild gorges and wooded hills had long been a favorite lurking ground for criminals of all descriptions.  Reports of robbery and murder committed there were fresh in the minds of the people, and many were zealous in denouncing these evil doers.  At the same time they were themselves passionate and contentious.”

Oh, friend, are we passionate and contentious?  If we are, we have the very same problem.  The very same problem.  “They cherished the most bitter hatred of their Roman oppressors and felt themselves at liberty to hate and despise all other peoples, and even their own countrymen who did not in all things conform to their ideas.”  Is that not interesting?  They “felt at liberty to hate and despise all other peoples,” all other nations “and even their own countrymen who did not in all things conform to their ideas.”

Have you ever met somebody with whom it is either my way or else?  Now they do not tell you that, but you get it figured out pretty quick, right?  It is either my way or else.  That is the problem that Cain had.  That is the problem that the devil had.  That is the root cause.  You know, it HAS to be MY way.  Oh, really?  That is why we have the problems that we have in the world today. It has to be my way, you have to do it the way I want to do it.

“In all this they were violating the law which declares, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’  The spirit of hatred and revenge originated with Satan, and it led him to put to death the Son of God.  Whoever cherishes malice or unkindness is cherishing the same spirit, and its fruit will be unto death.”  What is the fruit of malice and unkindness?  The fruit is unto death, it says.

“In the revengeful thought, the evil deed lies enfolded as the plant in the seed.  ‘Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.’  1 John 3:15.”  So, if you are filed with thoughts of unkindness, revenge, hatred, the devil has taken over your mind. 

The devil has taken over a lot of minds this last week.  If he has gotten hold of yours, you need to ask the Lord to deliver you from his power, because as long as you have hatred and revenge in your heart, the devil has control of your mind.

Oh, somebody says, Pastor John, this is so awful what you are saying.  Do you not believe in justice?  Well, yes, I do.  The Bible teaches it.  Let me read to you about justice and vengeance.  There is a place for justice and vengeance, but look what the Bible says about that in Romans 12:19.  “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.’”

Is there going to be vengeance?  Yes.  Is God going to straighten out the problems in this world?  Yes.  Must their be a price paid for things that are done that are wrong?  Yes, but the Lord says, You are not competent to do this.  You leave that to me.  There is a place for vengeance, but God says, Do not you do it, let Me do it, because if you try to do it, it will ruin you spiritually.  It will ruin you.

And so God says, You do not do it.  You let Me do that.  Oh, somebody says, Pastor John, you mean then we should not have any punishment for evil until the Lord comes?  No, I did not say that.  We will not take time to study Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2.  Romans 13 says that when a crime is done, the state has authority from God to punish the crime, including the death penalty.  The Bible teaches that.  You can read it in Romans 13 or 1 Peter 2 or in Genesis 9, for that matter.

But let me tell you, even at that, if it is done with hatred in the heart, it will end up making more problems to be solved.  You see, you cannot overcome hatred with more hatred.  It will not work.  So there are developing two conditions in the world today.  There are some people who are developing the very characteristics of Satan, the very image of Satan.  And there are other people who are developing the image of Christ in their character. 

What is taking place in your character?  Now, it is not for me to judge your character.  It is not for me to judge what is going on in your heart, but you can.  It is perfectly appropriate for you to go to the Lord and say, Lord, what is going on in my heart?  What is developing here?  Am I developing the image of Jesus Christ in my character or am I developing the image of Satan in my character?  What is going on?  What is happening?

What are your inner thoughts and feelings?  (The ones that other people do not know about.)  That is the surest indication of what character you are developing.  What are your inner thoughts and feelings, the ones that other people do not know about?  Let me read to you what is developing in the Synagogue of Satan right now.  I will read it to you.  This is the Manuscript that Ellen White wrote in 1894.

It is found in several places in her writings.  It says, “The forces of the powers of darkness will unite with human agents who have given themselves unto the control of Satan, and the same scenes that were exhibited at the trial, rejection and crucifixion of Christ will be revived [happen again].  Through yielding to satanic influences men will be merged into fiends, and those who were created in the image of God, who were formed to honor and glorify their Creator, will become the habitation of dragons, and Satan will see in an apostate race his masterpiece of evil—men who reflect his own image.”  Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 1136.

And I want to tell you, friends, we are close to that time.  You see, when you come to the end of the world, there are only going to be two kinds of people in the world.  Right now I cannot say that because it is a great mixture.  But when you come to the end of the world, remember Jesus said, talking about the harvest, and at the harvest time every plant is fully developed and goes to seed.

So at harvest time there will only be two kinds of people in the world.  Listen, here is who they will be.  There will be people, we just read about them, who are actually in the very image of Satan.  That is why it says in Daniel 12, talking about the end of the world, that there is a time coming when there shall be a time of trouble such as has never been since there was a nation.

There is coming a time that what happened this last week will sound like a small piece of what is going on.  That is the truth according to the Bible.  There is going to be such a strife of bloodshed and fighting all over the world in every city that is unimaginable.  Ellen White saw it in vision.  She said, No pen can picture what is going to happen.

If you want to get a little idea of what it will be like, look in your own history book about two different events in the past which are symbols of the end of the world.  One is the destruction of Jerusalem and the other is the destruction of France during the French Revolution.  That will give you just a little idea of what is going to happen all over the world.

Why?  Because the character of the great mass of mankind will be in the image of Satan.  And when a person’s character is in the image of Satan, he is filled with hate.  And when you are filled with hate, you will do anything.  Is that right?  People cannot even imagine what you will do.  And the whole world is going to be full of people like that at the end.

There are only going to be a few people who decide that they are going to go a different direction.  I want to be one of that little group.  In Bible prophecy they are called a remnant.  There are going to be some people at the end who will reflect the character of Jesus Christ perfectly.  I want to be part of that group, do you?

As I have thought about it, I have said, Lord, it really does not matter whether I live or die, that is not even important.  What is important is, does my character reflect the character of Jesus Christ?  And Lord, whatever happens, death is all right, but do not let me die in my sins.  You see, that is what Jesus said to the Jews who rejected Him.  He said, this is what is going to happen to you—you are going to die in your sin.  And let me tell you, friend, if you die in your sins, you will be resurrected at the second resurrection at the end of the millenium.  You will never enter the Holy City if you die in your sins.

There is going to be a group of people who will reflect the image of Jesus fully at the end of time.  The Bible clearly prophesies this.  Let us read a few texts.  I do not want you to think that I am making anything up, I want you to see it right in your Bible.

Look first of all at Ephesians 5.  We can read many, but we will just read two.  Two witnesses will verify every word, the Bible says.  Here are two witnesses to this truth.  Ephesians 5:25–27.  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself [on her behalf] for her [in order] that He might [make her holy or] sanctify [purify] and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, [in order] that He might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should [might] be holy and without blemish.”

Now if you have faith, that is about one of the most exciting texts in the Bible.  What is the Lord going to do?  He is going to purify a people.  He is going to cleanse a people so that they are going to be holy.  They are going to be without blemish.  Why does God need a church that is without blemish to take to heaven?  Well, let me tell you why.  If you took somebody to heaven who had one blemish of sin in their character, you are headed right back toward events like we had this last week at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Let me read something to you about that from the pen of Ellen White.  She says, “If we were defective in character, we could not pass the gates that mercy has opened to the obedient; for justice stands at the entrance, and demands holiness [purity] in all who would see God.  Were justice extinct, and were it possible for divine mercy to open the gates to the whole race [that is every human being], irrespective of character, there would be a worse condition of disaffection and rebellion in heaven than before Satan was expelled.  The peace, happiness, and harmony of heaven would be broken (up).  The change from earth to heaven will not change men’s characters; the happiness of the redeemed in heaven results from the character formed in this life after the image of Christ.  The saints in heaven will first have been saints on earth.”  Maranatha, 326.

Now that is plain, is it not?  If I am going to be a saint in heaven—by the way, only the saints are going there, that is what the Bible says in Hebrews 12:14.  If I am going to be a saint up there, I first have to be a saint down here, because my character is not going to change when Jesus comes.  Now, I will get a new body when Jesus comes, but my character is not going to change.

And that is why we have such a large part of the Christian world so deceived today, because people have been taught that you can live like the devil and just keep your sins confessed.  And then when Jesus comes, there will be some magic button which will transform you and you will go to heaven, even though you have been living like the devil your whole life down here.

That is a deception.  There is no promise of eternal life to anyone like that in the Bible.  We just read it in Ephesians 5:26–27.  God is going to purify unto Himself a people who are blameless.  If you want to look in a Concordance, look up the different texts in the New Testament where it says over and over again that God’s people are going to be blameless.  You will find a whole bunch of texts, not just two or three.

Look at one more, though.  I told you I would give you two witnesses.  Here is one more.  Look at Revelation 14.  This is talking especially about the last generation.  We will just read verse 5.  You can read all five verses at your own leisure.  Revelation 14:5 says, “And in their mouth [there] was [not] found no guile. . . .”  Yes, that is one translation.

What is guile?  I find that a lot of people do not know what guile is.  Guile is deceit.  It is something that is a lie.  “There was not found in their mouth any [lie] any deceit.”  But notice the rest of the sentence.  “For they are without fault.”  In other words, they are blameless.  There it is.  We read two texts that say the same thing as you would expect.  The Bible always teaches the same thing.  The people who are taken to heaven are going to be people who are not like the devil. 

Let me tell you something about how deceived people are.  This happened first of all in World War II and it happened again this last week.  In World War II there were pilots of Japanese planes who dived their planes right into our ships.  Of course, they died when they did that.  Well, why would they want to commit suicide by flying their planes right into our ships?  Do you know why?  Because they had been told by their Emperor, whom they worshipped as a god, that if they died in this war they would go instantly to heaven. 

I have heard a lot this last week about people going instantly to heaven and it is not true.  Whether you are saved or lost, people did not go to heaven last week.  They did not go to hell last week, either.  That is not our subject.  We cannot get into the state of the dead right now.  But when they saw that ship coming up, the Japanese pilots knew that in a few moments they were going to smash into it and die, they were not worried because they thought, In just a moment I am going to be in heaven.  Are they ever going to have a shock when they wake up a little over a thousand years from now!  How do I know that?  I am not judging their character.  The Bible judges their character.  Look in Revelation 22 and you will see that I did not make this up.  This is what the Bible says.  It says in verse 14: “Blessed are those that do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”  That is the Holy City.  But look at verse 15.  It says, “Outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral [harlots] and murderers.”

Now whether you murder yourself or somebody else, it is still murder.  And those people, are they on the inside or the outside?  They are on the outside.  There will not be one inside.  The people who go in according to verse 14 are the people who keep the commandments.  When you go inside that city, you do not have to worry about locking your door.  No thieves in there.

You do not have to worry about anything.  You do not have to worry even about security.  No murderers around.  You will never have to go through a security system again in that city.  If you are on the inside, that will be in the past.  The murderers are not there and the thieves are not there and the liars are not there.  The people who break God’s law are not there.  That is what it says.  Did we read it out of God’s Book?  They are not there. 

You see, the devil has deceived people and that is the reason they are willing to do the things they are willing to do.  They have been told that if you die in a jihad, that is a Holy War, if you die in a Holy War, then instantly you go to heaven.  That is a deception.  They are going to find out about a thousand years from now that they are not going there at all, they never have gone there and they never are going to go there.

The Bible teaches you what is going to happen in the future and how to get ready for it.  There is going to be a group of people in the last days when all these things are happening who say, how will I ever make it with all these things happening?  Well, Jesus did it.  Do you remember when Jesus was in our world and Philip went to Nathaniel when he said, Come and see Somebody?  I have found the Messiah.

Well, where is He from?  Well, he is from Nazareth.  Nathaniel said, Look, can any good things come out of there?  But Jesus came out of there.  We are living in a world like that again.  Oh, they are sly, impurity, licentiousness, and pornography.  The breaking of every one of God’s Ten Commandments all around the world.  But in the middle of all these awful things, God is developing a people.

You see, those Christians who were in that Communist prison, the harder the trials got, the more they prayed, and the closer they got to Jesus the more they were transformed in character.  They were just Christians when they walked in, but they were saints when they walked out—the ones who walked out.  And that type of thing is happening again.

There is a great controversy going on in the world.  There are two supernatural powers seeking your allegiance.  They are seeking to have control of your mind.  And sometimes we are tempted to judge other people.  We say, Well, I am thankful that I was not here, was not there, was not in this disaster, was not in that disaster.  Jesus’ disciples had that kind of temptation, too.

Do you remember the story we read in our Scripture lesson this morning?  There were people who came to Jesus, recorded in Luke 13, who said, What do you think about those people?  They were killed by Pilate right when they were offering their sacrifices.  They were killed right in church.  That is not the last time that has happened.  Actually in 36 A. D. Pilate went over to the Samaritans and killed a bunch of them while they were offering sacrifices.

It raised such a stink that Caesar recalled him and Pilate was not the governor any more.  But Pilate evidently had done this more than once and evidently it had just happened.  And they thought, Well, those people who suffered those terrible things. . . .  You see, they had the idea that people who suffered misfortune, must have deserved it.  Oh, that person, they are divorced, they must be a terrible person.  That person got this sickness, they must not be obeying the health reform.  This person, look at what an awful thing happened to them. 

And so they were thinking that they were better off than those people.  However, the disciples, they decided, were wise this time.  Once in a while Christ’s disciples were wise.  They were wise this time.  They decided that when these questions arose that they would not venture to give an answer, they would wait and see what Jesus said about it.

And were they ever shocked with His reply!  Because Jesus did not say that those people who suffered those disasters were worse than other people were.  That is a common human feeling.  Oh, that person!  They had a divorce.  Oh, that person!  They got cancer. That person, they got burned.  This person was in a car wreck.  This person . . ..  And I have not had any of those things happen to me.  And so they were expecting that Jesus would tell them what awful sinners they were.

But Jesus said, No.  He said, Do not think that they are worse than other people.  Let me tell you the truth, He said, if you do not repent, you will perish, too.  And Jesus said, Do you remember those people around the Tower of Siloam and that tower fell down and eighteen people were killed.  Do not think that those eighteen people were worse sinners than other people.  Do not think that the people who have been victims of disasters are one bit worse than you or I are!  Do not think that. 

Jesus said, Unless you repent, you will perish, too.  You see, Jesus saw forward.  We can only look backward.  We did not know about this disaster last week, we can just look back.  We do not know what is going to happen next week. 

But Jesus can look forward and Jesus saw Jerusalem encompassed by armies and many of those people right around there who were with Him, He saw many of them perish.  He knew that would happen.  He said, You are going to perish yourselves unless you repent. 

You see, do you realize, friends, that when Jerusalem was destroyed it was only the Christians who escaped?

Jesus said, Unless you repent, you are going to perish, too.  Do not look at the people who are having troubles and say, Well, they must have done something awful.  They must have deserved something awful.  Because, Jesus said, unless you repent, you are going to perish, too.

I want to ask you, friend, What is the state of your mind today?  Is your mind in the state of repentance, or is your mind in the state of dissention or hatred?  What is in your inner thoughts and feelings today?  Have we really repented?  Do you know what will happen when we repent?  Here is what will happen.

“As living branches of the true vine, all will be united to Christ, the Living Head.  Christ will abide in every heart, guiding, comforting, sanctifying, and presenting to the world the unity of the followers of Jesus, thus bearing testimony that the heavenly credentials are supplied to the remnant church.  In the oneness of Christ’s church it will be proved that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world.”  This Day With God, 88.

What is going to happen when we really repent?  God is going to draw us together in unity.  Oh, we may not think the same in everything but we will have what the Bible calls the unity of the spirit, Paul says in Ephesians 4:3.  You see, when God takes this church to heaven, from all over the world, from all different nationalities, all different ages, they are going to come together in one and they will have instant unity and harmony.

How will that be?  Because they all reflect the character of Christ.  They have repented. 

You know what repentance means, do you not?  Well, I will make it as simple as I know how.  The word repentance comes from a Greek word that means to turn around.  The person who has not repented is going in the way of sin, developing hatred and all the other characteristics of the devil, but when a person repents, he turns around.  He turns his back on his sinful life.  “Sin is the transgression of the law.”  1 John 3:4.  When a person repents, he turns his back on his past sinful life and he starts following Jesus and going the opposite direction.  His character begins to be changed into the image of Christ instead of the image of the devil.  And that is why repentance is something that grows in a Christian every day.  He becomes more repentant and more repentant and more repentant.  What does that mean?  He is more determined to turn his back on the former life and to follow Jesus.  The repentance grows deeper and stronger.

If you are really a Christian, your repentance will be much deeper and stronger now than it was last year at this time.  And the stronger and deeper that repentance grows, the less chance there is that person will ever turn back into the ways of sin again because they are rejecting it and they are abhorring it.  And let me tell you, sin is something that should be rejected and abhorred.  If we have not learned that lesson this week, we have not learned much. 

Let me read one more statement to you.  “I feel an earnest interest that those who have been creating dissention and strife shall be convicted of their wrong, and shall repent and be converted. Tell this to the people: ‘Yet a little while is the light with you.  Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you.’  (John 12:35).”  The Upward Look, 188.

Oh, friend, have you seen the light and are willing to turn toward the light?  Turning toward the light means you are turning your back on sin.  You are turning your face toward righteousness, toward keeping God’s law, toward obeying the Lord, so that when He comes, if you have repented, if you have turned toward the Lord, the Lord has promised to transform you so that at His coming you will be blameless.  God has promised that He will do that in your life if you are willing to repent.  (See 1 Corinthians 1:4–8.)  

But God cannot do anything for you unless you are willing to turn toward Him.  That is the reason for the problems that we have in the world today.  Not very many people are willing to repent.  People want to be saved without repentance, but there is no salvation without repentance.  If we are not willing to turn our back on sin, there is no salvation.  When we repent, dissention and strife will cease in the home, it will cease in the church.  The Lord will bring us into unity and harmony.  We have to be willing to repent.  Jesus said, Except you repent, you will all perish.

Oh, do not look at somebody else and say, Well, I am surely glad that I was not there by that Tower.  I am sure glad that I was not there when Pilate killed those people while they were right in the act of worship.  Jesus said, Do not say that.  Realize that unless you repent, you are going to perish just like those people.

Are you willing to repent?  It is serious, is it not?  Life is serious, because one of these days, what we call the future, will not be the future any more.  It will be the present.

I want to appeal to you, if you want, I am not trying to force anybody, but I want to give an opportunity to people who are saying in their hearts, Lord, I want to repent.  I am willing to choose to repent.  By the way, repentance is a gift that Jesus will give you if you want it.  The ability to turn from sin and go a different direction.

Do you want to pray and ask the Lord to give you the gift of true repentance?  If you do, I will invite you to just kneel with me and ask the Lord to give us that gift.