Pastor Joel Laswell

In Matthew 24 Jesus talks about the signs that will show that the end of the world and thus His second coming are near. What are these signs and are we living in that time?

Jesus is to prepare a generation of people--by cleansing them of sin--that they will then make the demonstration to all creation that mankind can be trusted to live among Creation for all eternity. To declare by their character that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain and thus vindicate the character and love of God. Those glorious events which happened almost 2000 years ago, are to be paralleled by a wonderful triumph that awaits the remnant church down here in the closing scenes. These are a generation of people who follow Jesus whithersoever He goes and they trod the winepress like their Savior. And so they will triumph like He did and they will be glorified like He is glorified.

As I have pointed out, there is much in the agony of the Savior in Gethsemane and on the cross that human beings can never fathom. But there is also much that we can understand through having an experience like Jesus and only through an experience. This is our cup to drink..... will we drink it?

We want to note the parallel in the coming crisis of the remnant church with those trials that Jesus went through so we can be prepared, or as prepared as we can be, to react as He did--with nobility and glory to the Father--and endure them. For like Jesus, we too will be seized. Like Jesus, we shall be thrown into trials. Like Jesus, we shall suffer the results of the combination of church and state uniting to inflict persecution. Like Jesus we want to endure the trials and like Jesus we want to be victorious.

Now we’re going to study the sequel of the Savior's prayer experience and the sequel to the disciple's experience of sleep. Keep in mind the parallels with His crisis experience and that of the remnant people and their crisis experience. Humanity must be so blended with and subservient to the divine will that the remnant will be prepared to give an exhibition during their trial such as Jesus gave in His trial. And as we shall see, friends, we’re going to be tried in every way that men and devils can invent.

The Bible describes two of the major identifiers and characteristics of the remnant people of God, those who will go through the end time of trouble, in Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” But there is another attribute that precedes those two, and is the prerequisite, and it is found in verse four of the same chapter, “…These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth…” Revelation 14:4. All through the universe the remnant go with Him. But before they follow Him there, they first must follow Him here.

In the great plan of salvation, there are two special crises: the crisis at the close of Christ's earthly life, and the crisis that comes at the close of the experience of His remnant people. And between these two experiences there are a number of most interesting parallels.

As we get closer and closer to the final battle the bible calls Armageddon, it becomes more and more important to know Jesus and His people. If it weren’t important, the Bible wouldn’t spend so much time describing the attributes of Christ, which will be reflected in His followers—which are members of His body, His church.

Is it just me or have you also realized that evil is considered good today, and good is now considered evil? It seems to be the norm for our world. I was contemplating the state of God's professed people in regards to the sin issue and what kept coming to my mind was how clever the devil is in using the Scriptures in such a way as to confuse the differences between truth and error. He can get us so confused that we will call the truth error and error the truth. As Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Now truth in Christ is progressive for us as individuals as well as for Gods church and if we do not keep up with the truth we will fall into confusion and ultimately have the woe of Isaiah 5:20 on our heads, all the while thinking that we are headed to the kingdom. What banner will we be lifting up before Jesus returns?

God's people had kept neither the letter of the law nor its intent. The law--which defines sin, given by angels, could have been their glory; its perversion was precipitating their shame and destruction and they recognized it not, but believed their sin of the murder of Jesus was actually doing God a favor. They had gotten to the point where they called sin, righteousness!