life behold all right the ninth chapter and I want to read this verse six very familiar to everyone here but it's very much in keeping with this theme that we're taking for these three little talks that I'm giving and that is on the two appearances of our Lord Jesus for unto us Isaiah chapter nine verse six Isaiah I'm sorry I didn't say Isaiah before, didn't I? Well, have mercy on an old man. For unto us a child is born. Now there is nothing unusual about that. That's happening hundreds of thousands of times every single day. Unto us a child is born. But there is something very unusual about the next statement. Unto us a son is given. Now, this child that was to be born was to be a boy. You know how it is. When you're expecting a little one, you're not quite sure what color layer you should buy. You don't know whether it's going to be a girl or a boy. You don't know whether you buy the layer in pink or buy the one in blue. So you usually settle in yellow, because that'll go with either one of them. I don't know whether we have any doctors here this morning or not, but if we do, I'm sorry, doctor, but I'm going to betray some of the secrets of the medical profession. Have you ever noticed that the doctor will always tell you that the baby is going to be a girl? Always tell you that. They say, we can tell by the heartbeat and everything, all the different signs, is going to be a girl. Do you know why they tell you that? If it is a girl, you'll say, boy, he's a smart doctor. We'll go back to him the next time. But if it's a boy, you'll be so thrilled you'll forget all about his prophecy. That's why they always tell you that. Now unto us a child is born, but unto us a son is given. You've heard a lot of talks on this. But now between the word given and the word and, well, already nearly two thousand years, I'm simply speaking this because most of you already know this principle. You learn the Bible by principles. And you've heard of the principle of the gap. Now, there may be one or two here that have never heard it. And if you don't mind, I'd just like to tell it for their sake. The principle of the gap. G-A-P. And I want to say there are many portions of the Bible that will be absolutely closed to you unless you understand this principle of the gap. In Genesis chapter one and verse one, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And between that verse one and verse two, there could be billions, trillions of years. We don't know how long it is. And the earth became without form and void. We don't know how long it is. In Daniel's image, we have the head of gold and the breast of silver and the belly and the thighs of brass and the legs of iron. And then between the legs and the feet of iron and clay, between those legs and the feet, there is this gap already lasted nineteen hundred years. And unless you do see that, that portion will be closed. Many other portions in the Bible will be closed to you. So I want to say that between the word given and the word and is this age in which we live right now. The age of mystery. Not the age of prophecy. Major age of mystery. I've been asked already about something about, do you think now what we're seeing happen in... Egypt and Israel making this little pact and peace thing under Jimmy Carter and this. Is this a fulfillment of prophecy? I'm not prepared to go that far. This is primarily the age of mystery. There's only one purpose of this age, and that is the gathering out of the people, Jews, Gentiles, a people for His name, the church, the body of Christ, liken unto a body, liken unto a bride, liken unto a building. This church, the fellowship of light, the fellowship of love, the fellowship of, and the church which is not Jewish in character. It is not Gentile in character. It is something absolutely new. Solomon said, there's nothing new. I can say, Solomon, I have news for you. This is new. Understand? That's the only purpose for this age right now. And I'm glad that I'm a part of that, aren't you? The church. There's nothing on earth that equals the church. And you can go anywhere in the world because the nature of my work I do go. And I find people who wear different kind of clothing than I do. And they wear the different kind of food than I do. And their cultural background and their economic background and all the rest altogether different. But you know this lovely, wonderful gospel that the Lord Jesus died to win. It always works regardless of the people wherever it's preached. And it always produces the same fruit. You go among the Africans and you go among the Indians and you go among the Asians wherever you go and you'll find this fruit is always the same and the body of Christ is the same. I'm glad to be a member of the body. I rejoice in that today. That's the only claim I have on God. And it's the only thing on earth today that attracts the eye of God. Do you understand that? Only thing that impresses God is the church when he looks down upon this world. So that happened between this word given and the word and. So there is the first coming of Christ, the first appearing. Now the rest that I'm going to read has to do with the second appearing of our Lord Jesus. I said on my first little talk that his present ministry, to my knowledge, is only foreshadowed one time in the Old Testament, and that is on the day of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Let's read. And the government. shall be upon his shoulder not shoulders shoulder only take one shoulder for him to run the affairs of this world you take a look at our president and it's a tremendous job to govern a country like ours even a little country where they don't even have a budget as large as Asheville yet it's a tremendous responsibility to govern any country and you'll notice that the shoulders of our presidents begin to droop awfully fast as soon as they take that office. It's an awful job. And we certainly ought to be praying. I'm afraid I spend more time criticizing than I do praying for those in authority. But the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called, wonderful counselor. He'll be infinite in wisdom. His name shall be called, the mighty God. He'll be infinite in power. His name shall be called, the everlasting Father. He'll be infinite in love. His name shall be called the Prince of Peace. He'll be infinite in redemption. And then there are three words that you should underscore in your Bible because you cannot separate them. Of the increase of his government, that word should be underscored. And peace, that word should be underscored. There shall be no end upon the throne of David. Now look this way. It's absolutely impossible to separate government, peace, and the throne of David. I want to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, because you already know this. The second proper noun in the New Testament is the name David. The next to the last proper noun in the New Testament is the name David. The New Testament begins with David. The New Testament ends with David, and all of God's purposes for the future settle in the throne of David. God said, David, there will never be lacking a man for your throne. But we haven't had anyone sitting on David's throne for twenty-five hundred years. And before I get through this morning, I hope that I'll be able to make it plain and clear. I hope it won't be like Mark Twain said that the more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. I'd like to be able to point out to you this morning that there is only one man in heaven, earth, or hell that can lay claim to David's throne. Only one man, not two. Remember, when the temple was destroyed in seventy AD, all of these records of families and that were destroyed. You take the average Jew. Now, if he's a Kohen, if his name is Quinn or something like Cohen, he can pretty much decide that he is a Kohathite. But as far as the rest of the Jews, they don't know a tribe they're a member of. God knows, but they don't. All records were destroyed. But we have a genealogy this morning. And we can show you from the scriptures, I believe, that only one man can lay claim to this throne of David. All right? Upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with justice or judgment and justice or justice and righteousness from henceforth even forever. How's he going to do it? When you go into that glass house in New York, right inside of the door, you'll see some words taken out of context. Beat your swords into plowshares. And they're saying, we're going to do it. We're going to do it here. And I know that many of them are dedicated people. And they're working hard. Some of them are brilliant people. They're saying, we're going to do it. But God says, you will not do it. Messiah, Jesus will do it. My son will do it. He will be responsible for the beating of the swords into plowshares. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. You know, the only ones, did you know this, the only ones who really know what is going to happen in the future are people like you, who know the Scriptures and have shifted all over the world. They're not all in one little crowd either. But the Lord is His people, and they know where we're going. I was telling some a year ago, I was in a little country called Brunei. Have you ever heard of Brunei? I've never had. It's a little oil-soaked kingdom, a tiny one, and the end of Borneo. Boy, they've got more money than Carter had pills. There's all kind of money there. And in our meeting, I'm not trying to impress you, we had eighty-five percent of the professing Christian population in our little meeting. We didn't have as many as there are here. They were there. But I found out that there was a woman, a Chinese woman, in that little town, and she had been connected with Watchman Nye. She was out of China. She was ninety-two years old. She was blind. I said, I've got to see her. And so this friend of mine took me. We went up these stairs over these Chinese shops, you know, way up there, and this woman came out. What a face on that woman. She had escaped out of China. As you know, Watchman Nye died about two years ago this month. They killed him. They were going to let him free because the Chinese population of Singapore had got a lot of money and gave it to the People's Republic of China to let the watchman knee go and said, yes, he can go. But when they brought him out of prison, they said, you're so emaciated and so sick, you need vitamins. And so they gave him some shots. In less than a week, he was gone. But anyway, this woman was associated with watchman knee. When I went up to see her, blind, she knew all about Israel. When she heard that I had just come from Israel, are they going back? I said, yes. One-fifth of all the Jews in the world are back in their own land now. They're about three million, seven hundred thousand back in their own land from a hundred and twenty different countries of the world. They're back there, and they're back to stay. They're back there to face their greatest hour of trouble. She knew all about this from the Bible. And she just wanted to know from someone that had been there. Because she didn't read the papers. She didn't have the information from the papers. But she had the Bible to go by. And the only ones who know what is going to happen in the future are simple little people like you and me over the world. We know what's going to happen. Now, I want you, because everywhere I go, like wherever you go, your neighbors talk about it. And the papers are loaded with it. And you only get a smattering of the news. You see, no paper... with all due respect to North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, or Florida, wherever it be. It would be impossible for them to carry all the news of the world. There's so much news. My son-in-law is a managing editor of a Raleigh paper. And he told me the other day, one of the biggest jobs is to sort out the stuff, put the right things in the paper because of so much news. But people come and say, do you think there is any solution to the world's problems? So many of them, the race problem and the Bangladesh problem and African problems and all of these, is there any solution? I said, yes, there is. What this world needs is a dictator. That's what we need. This world needs a dictator who will have enough wisdom and enough power to straighten out the world's problems. And they'll usually say, do you really believe that? Do you think he's alive today? I said, yes, he is alive today. He is alive. Well, would it be Mr. Carter? No, not Mr. Carter. Do you think it could be Brezhnev? No, it's not Brezhnev. And I usually say, do you ever go to church? Oh, yes, I'm a member of the Methodist Church. I'm a member of the Presbyterian Church. Well, I said, in your church, or you may be an Anglican, Episcopalian, don't you have statements of faith that you repeat every Sunday morning? Don't you say in your churches, I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth? Don't you say, I believe in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he arose again from the dead. He ascended into the heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God. Oh, yes, we say that in our churches. Well, I say, do you believe that he is alive? Well, we say so in our creeds. Well, I'm not asking you, do you really and truly believe that he is alive? Yes, yes, yes, I'm quite sure. Well, I said he is the only one who is big enough for the job. He is the only one who has the authority and the power to straighten out this world's situation, regardless of where it is. He is the only one. Now, I hope I won't be... You say, Gus, listen, you couldn't be too deep for us. Anyone with a little mind like yours. But I would like to have you turn with me to Jeremiah twenty-two. I'm going to make you think, I hope. While you're turning, I'd like to remind you again of something that you already know. You've been told this in your assemblies, in the Bible readings, in Bible studies. Do you have Jeremiah twenty-two? I look. There are only six triplicates in the Bible. Six. Twice you have holy, holy, holy. But there are only six of them in all of the Bible. Whenever you come across a triplicate, it means tremendous emphasis. I know verily, verily means a lot. And you have names like Saul, Saul, and so forth. But you have six triplicates. And when you have a triplicate, it means that something of tremendous import is going to follow. Understand me? All right. You have Jeremiah chapter twenty-two. And I want you to commence reading with me with verse twenty-eight. And please discipline your mind to think in a straight line if you can. Is this man Cana? In the New Testament he'll be called Jeconiah, but he's the same old boy. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? Is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out? He and his seed. He's going to have seed. But they're cast out. And are cast into a land which they know not. Now here's your triplicate. O earth. Earth, earth, something of tremendous import is going to follow. Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, write this man childless, as though he never had any kids. It's going to have, but just as though he never had any. Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days. I look. for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and I've already tried to underscore that all of God's purposes for the future center in the throne of David. None of Canaia's children shall ever prosper, and none of them shall ever sit upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah. Does that nail down for you? Now, You may keep your finger here if you want, or we may drop back here. But turn now with me to Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one and verse eleven. And while you're turning, let me again remind you that only in Matthew and in Luke do you have the genealogy of our Lord. Now in Matthew you have the lineage of Joseph. Understand? Joseph. In Luke you have the lineage of Mary. Of Mary. Now you can forget Mary for a second while we turn back to Matthew chapter one and verse eleven. And if I don't make it clear, I'll be glad to sit down on the grounds and run over it with you again. Because I want you to have this to take home. Verse eleven. And Josiah begot Jeconiah or Caniah and his brethren. Now look up this way, would you please? Joseph is the descendant of Canaia, or Jeconiah. And when he was born, there was a curse upon him. He would never have a right to sit upon the throne of David or to rule anymore in Judah. And all of the children that were born to Joseph and Mary after the virgin had given birth to Jesus, Emmanuel. All of the other children had the curse of Cana upon them. Do you understand? So James, Jude, these other boys, sons of Joseph, and Mary had a curse so that they could never sit upon the throne of David. Now, to show you the wisdom of God, do you know what he did? The Lord Jesus is the descendant of David, not through Solomon. God bypassed Solomon. went right around and is a descendant of David through Nathan bypassed Cana and Mary is a descendant of Joseph without the curse of Cana on her or any of our children so that the only one who has a right to sit upon David's throne for he must be the seed of David must be the seed of David would be the virgin born son of Mary. That to me is absolutely thrilling. No one in heaven, earth or hell. I speak to Jews a lot. In fact, I hope I won't offend you, but I did. I spent about ten days in Canada and I went from Montreal to Vancouver. And I spoke to Jews and others, of course. in every city with every major city with exception of Ottawa and the only place we didn't have the auditoriums filled was in Montreal but in Vancouver we had three thousand three hundred in the Sunday afternoon and I had privileges speaking to these Jews and others and I said I beg of you I beg of you please do not judge Jesus Christ by me because I said I'll be glad to come and speak for you but you must remember I'm a Christian evangelist and I must be able to give my message and I said I'm happy to come and speak And so I said, I beg of you, do not judge Jesus Christ by me. And please do not judge him by the seventeen hundred years of suffering that you've received in his name. Because remember, the Jews have received more persecution from those who have come in the name of Jesus Christ than they ever have from the Arab world through the years. Never have. Arabs and Jews get along if you leave them alone. They get along, okay. But they've really suffered from those who have come in the name of Jesus. Let me say something while I'm talking. Did you know that the Byzantines took the whole Jewish population of Jerusalem, put them in a synagogue and burned them up? The Crusaders, which were the biggest bunch of cutthroats that ever went through the Middle East, took ten thousand and threw them off the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Nice people. And they did it in the name of Jesus. But then I looked into the eyes of these Jews and I said, but I do not know what more you can ever expect in a Messiah than is all refound in our Lord Jesus. Now, when you go here, you find out that he is the only one, he is the only one without a curse on him. All the rest of them had the curse. All right, turn with me to Ezekiel chapter twenty-one. So what you want to say here, another triplicate to me is very, very interesting. Jeremiah chapter twenty-one, and I'm going to start reading with verse Twenty-five. Ezekiel. Ezekiel. Did I say Ezekiel? All right. Twenty-one. Verse twenty-five. And thou profane wicked prince of Israel whose day has come when iniquity shall have an end. Thus saith the Lord God. Remove the diadem and take off the crown. These shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low and abase him that is high. Say, you have it again. A triplicate. God said, I will overturn. overturn overturn it and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is and I will give the diadem to him now I'm going to let you make up your mind about this but I have from pretty knowledgeable friends who believe that the first overturning was the first world war And the only constructive thing that ever came out of the First World War was the Balfour Declaration, whether we like the Balfour Declaration or not. It had to do with real estate. And if anybody calls that Palestine, at the end of this week, I'm going to fail you in the course. Since there are no more Philistines, there is no more Palestine. You must bow to the Scripture and call it what the Bible calls it. It is the land of Israel. Take it or leave it. I mean, Almighty God is the supreme landlord of that part of the Middle East. And I'll never forget, when I was in Beirut, boy, it was hot. It was in August. And I went out to the swimming pool in the hotel about nine, ten o'clock at night, take a swim. And a young Arab believer came out, and he came out to witness to me. I appreciate that. Don't you, anybody, take an interest in me. And he came out and he didn't know how to get started, but he did. He said, I don't know who you are, sir, what you believe, but the United States and Russia and England and France all go against Israel. They will all lose. He said, this part of the world belongs to the Jews and all the nations of the world will never be able to build a diplomatic fence high enough to keep them from having it. I said, would you learn that? He said, from the prophets. Well, I said, are you a believer? He said, I'm a believer. And then he told me his story. And it was a lovely, lovely story. And so this is true. And God is the supreme landlord, and the title deed for this piece of real estate is not only written on earth in the Bible, it's also written in heaven. Now, I'm sure that a lot that's going on right now, these Jews are jumping the gun. Remember that Israel probably has a higher percentage of agnostics. Of course, they all turn orthodox when they get war. They all become believers. But when they're not in war, then they're all orthodox. Then they're all agnostics. And I have to go to this crowd, and I say, have the prophets ever been wrong? Well, we hope not. I said, hope. I said, the thing I'm trying to do with you is make you a good Jew to get to believe what your own prophets have said. But all right, this title deed is there. Now, the first overturning had to do with real estate, the Balfour Declaration. The second overturning, I will overturn, overturn, had to do with getting the people back to the land. Listen. Forty years ago, had you gone to a rabbi in Asheville or Charlotte and said, do you know? Talk to the average Jewish merchant that there is going to be a Jewish state in a matter of months and years. Did you know that? And he'd say, as Brother Pernus would say, you're magnum. You got rumors for rent. They never will. Every Passover next year in Jerusalem, but they have no idea that it would be there in Jerusalem. Never idea. But we've seen it. And you and I are seeing them come. And God said, I'm going to send for them with fishers and hunters. The fisher lures them and the hunter drives them. Hitler was a hunter. Nasser was a hunter. The king of Morocco was a hunter. There were three hundred and thirty thousand Jews in Morocco. They couldn't get a visa to leave or permit their leave to go from anywhere. But they're there. And they've come. A year ago, you would never believe that the Jews that ever leave Tehran But they're glad to get out of there now, I can tell you that. Are they going to make their head shorter? The hunter drives them to the land, and the fish allures them. I could go on and talk about that. The third overturning will bring him back, whose right it is to rule and to reign, and God is going to give him the diadem, this second appearing of our Lord Jesus. I see I have exactly eight minutes here, and I'm going to let you go at this, and maybe I can pick up. later on. I told you at the very beginning when you get to be an old man you enjoy your preaching and you preach longer. But just one thing and you're going to help me with this. Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one and verse thirty. Luke chapter one and verse thirty. And I am going to ask you to count. I'm going to ask you to do two things while we're reading this. I'm going to ask you to count how many times you have the word shall or shelt in this little passage. Then I'm going to ask you to think at the same time how many of these shells or shelt have been fulfilled and how many have not been fulfilled. Ready? Verse thirty. And the angel said unto her, Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son. And shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. How many shells or shells are there here? Seven. How many of these have been fulfilled? Four of them have been fulfilled, right? They have already been fulfilled. Then how many does that mean have not been fulfilled as yet? Three. Here's the first appearing of our Lord Jesus and the second appearing of our Lord Jesus. And for anyone to say that the first part of this is literal, but the latter part is to be spiritually interpreted has violated every principle of biblical interpretation that we know anything about. Of course the last three are going to be fulfilled. The Lord God is going to give to him the throne of his father David. We try to underscore this right along through my little talk. That all of God's hopes for this world center in the throne David. Broken down throne for twenty-five hundred years. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. How anyone can say there's no future for Israel. I know that they're an unbelief. Now, that's what the Bible told us there'd be an unbelief. That should be no surprise to us. They're not stumbling all over one another to get to the Lord Jesus. There's a tiny little believing remnant there. But I'll tell you, you'll find many, many, many more Arabs that are believers in Israel today than you'll ever find Jews that are believers. Well, I'm sure. And of his kingdom, there shall be no end. Well, in September of last year, I had heard about it. and I wanted to see it. I was getting a plane, I flew into Amsterdam, and then I got a bus that took me over to the Hague. Anybody here ever been to the Palace of Peace? Anybody ever seen the Palace of Peace? Well, in eighteen ninety-nine there was a conference in the Hague of the statesmen from all over the world. And they decided that the Boer War of South Africa was going to be the world's last war. There'll be no more wars. The twentieth century was going to be the century of peace. So they laid elaborate plans to build a big palace of peace in the Hague. When you go to Europe, by all means go by and see it. It's worth seeing. And the nations of the earth literally poured their treasures into this palace of peace. It was started in nineteen o seven. Turkey sent their carpets, the largest Turkish carpet that was ever made. And one loom came from Izmir, which is Smyrna in the Bible. They furnished the carpets. Italy furnished the marble. China furnished the delicate porcelain work, these beautiful big basers from the Ming Dynasty in that. Britain furnished the stained glass windows. United States furnished the busts of all of the marble busts of all of those statesmen that had taken place in the Conference of Peace in eighteen ninety-nine. They actually poured their wealth into this great palace. So I went in and got a whole thought. I said, you have a library here. Oh, yes, sure. We have a million volumes here. I said, a million volumes. And I saw them coming from all over the world to study international law and righteousness and judgment and how to solve the world's problems. They come there. I said, don't you have a section of the library on peace? He said, oh yes, we have one hundred thousand volumes on the subject of peace. Anyone that has ever written a book on the subject of peace, regardless of where, of the language, it'll find its way into that library, a hundred thousand volumes. Well, I said, I wonder, would you have a copy of a book called The Sacred Writings? Or you might call it the Holy Scriptures. Or simply the Bible. He said, let's look. were in and flicked the cards, you know. They had one volume tied up in string, a sixteenth-century copy. Well, I said, would you have a copy of Billy Graham's book, Peace with God? He said, look at it. Flicked the cards. He said, no, I'm afraid we don't have that. Now, we've changed that since I was there in September. I looked at Pat Zonderman and was sent a copy of the new international version, so that's in the library. And I also spoke to George Wilson and said, how about getting Billy Graham's book, Peace with God, and put in there? But you know when I walked out that, and I'm not a book burner, you know what I felt like doing? I just felt it would be great if we could take all hundred thousand volumes, bring them outside, and there's no one here that's going to understand what I'm saying except the penders from Nassau. They'll understand this. I thought it would be a wonderful occasion to have a good, big, guy, Fox night. Now the penders understand what I'm talking about. Nobody else knows what I'm talking about. A big guy, Fox Knight, and burn up the whole business. And in their place to get a nice, I mean a real nice one. A big pulpit desk. And a nice big Bible that anyone can read it. And open it to Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. And read about government and peace. and the throne of David, and the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. He hath appeared in the past, the sufferings of Christ. He shall appear in the future to bring in everlasting righteousness and peace. We ought to long for that day. I long for Egypt to commit a blessing. Our brother Phanus could tell you about it, as he and I have both seen it, from the bottom to the top, from top to the bottom. Are people growing increasingly sick, increasingly hungry, increasingly illiterate? How they need that blessing. Bangladesh needs it. Tuck and friend last night, you're telling me of a program you saw. What's happening in Southeast Asia? You dare not even look. And I just can't enjoy the affluency that I have when I know, but what can I do? There's a little bit we can do. But I long for this world to commit a blessing, don't you? But it won't come until He come, whose right it is, because nineteen hundred years ago, Gentiles and Jews clapped hands in mutual hatred against God's Son and said, We will not have this man to rule over us. And God said, All right, run your world to see yourself. And look at what we're in. All right, our time is exactly up. Let's bow in a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this time of thinking again about thy son and thy purposes for him. We pray thy blessing upon the recreation today. We pray for the little ones that thou will keep them from accident and danger and harm, and that thou will give great physical and spiritual relaxation to these who go to the golf course and the tennis court and these that have come here for their holiday. We pray thy blessing upon our brother who shall minister to us tonight that as he comes, He may come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, in whose name we pray, as for his coming we long and wait. Amen. Amen.