"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being

made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those thing which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:10-14 "Because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Revelation 3:10

"The World Without God"

There are two things involved in the desire expressed here by the Apostle Paul that I want to point out. I believe it is extremely important. The Bible said, "Let him that thinks he stand, take heed, lest he fall." Pride has always been the one great obstacle to people making it with God. God had to give the Apostle Paul a messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he be taken with pride and lose out. When the seventy came back from that first expedition, their first worlds to Jesus were, "Lord, even the devils are subject to us." His word was like a rebuke. He said to them, "I saw Satan fall as lightening." What he said was, "I see the same pride in you that caused the devil to be a devil in the first place. Devils are not subject to you, they are subject to you only because your name is written in heaven. Only because you are linked up with me." Now Paul, the great preacher, a man that wrote over half of the New Testament, at the very top of his ministry, is concerned about being a part of the raptured church. Here the two things: One, he was concerned that he might not have a part in the first resurrection. Out of twenty-seven books of the New Testament, Paul is credited with writing about fourteen of them, yet, he is saying, "That I might attain, be a part of that raptured church. Not that I've already apprehended, not that I'm already perfect, but I am forgetting what is behind me and setting my eyes on the things before me." Only one thing matters that I so live that when that moment comes, I am part of it. That when that trumpet sounds, I am a part of that raptured church. The second thing that we notice here is, Paul's cry is that he might escape the coming tribulation. From this, there emerges certain facts that are indisputable. First, there will be a people who attain unto the resurrection of the dead. There will be a people that attain unto the rapture. There is coming a moment in history when, in the twinkling of an eye, there is going to be a people raptured. If that wasn't so, the Apostle Paul wouldn't be praying that he might apprehend what he had been apprehended for. So there comes out of this, the fact there will be a people who attain it. The second thing, there will be a people who miss it. Now to be specific; the Epistles were not written to the sinner. You know that don't you? He addressed them to saints, so when he is implying that there is going to be saints who miss the rapture, not one unsaved person will make it. Paul is saying that there is going to be a part of that which calls itself the church, that will miss the rapture of the church. That is frightening. Not everybody who says unto me, "Lord, Lord," is going to make it. It's going to be a specific people. From Paul's prayer these facts emerge there is going to be a people who make it, and there is going to be a people that don't make it. There are specific promises made to each group. One group will pass through the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the judgment seat of Christ. The other will pass through the tribulation. The promises and conditions to escape are everywhere in the Bible. Hebrews 2:3, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation..." You cannot neglect what you don't have. Degeneration is a truth of nature. Neglect is the most awful crime against nature. If you neglect the process of salvation, you will

lose it. The definition of life is given by scientists is, those faculties that resist death. Life is the functioning of those faculties that resist death. So in the spiritual world, life is those spiritual faculties that resist sin. "How shall we escape, if we neglect..." The word escape, according to Mr. Strong, means to vanish away, to be caught up, to get out, to be taken away. How is that going to happen if you neglect? It will not happen. The careless will never be a part of that raptured church. It is those who walk with God, those that the spiritual life is the important life. If you don't want to pray, don't want to go to church, don't want to read the Bible, you are dead. Dead folks aren't going. "How shall we escape if we neglect..." We are not. We will revert back to type and become exactly what we were unless we continue to work at this great salvation. Feed it with the Word, water it with prayer. Again, Luke 21:36, "...pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape..." That same word. "...all these things that shall come to pass..." It isn't wrong to want to miss that. In Houston, I preached on the coming of the Lord. A man sent me a note showing how that the church had to go through tribulation to refine it. That is what the Catholic church says. You have to go through purgatory for a little while to be refined. If the Holy Ghost can't burn up the dross, it is never going to be burned up. If the blood of Jesus can't wash away your sins, they aren't going to be washed away. There isn't any fire, hell, purgatory, or tribulation to refine you. Pray that you will be counted worthy. In I Thessalonians 5:9, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." That word salvation is translated other places as deliverance. He that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. In the Hebrew the word salvation means healing, and they never separated the physical and the spiritual. If God heals, he heals of diabetes as quick as he would heal of sin. They are never separated. Deliverance meant that God had delivered. "God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." Deliverance from what? Deliverance from the tribulation, from the rule of hell. God never planned that we be here when the wrath of God is poured out. He's made a way of escape. Again in Hebrews 9:28, "...and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." That says, diligence is the key. Diligence about your spiritual life. Some are more concerned about their job, about their money, about their house, their prestige than they are about their spiritual life. They'll never be a part of the rapture. If there is anything on this earth more important to you than being a part of the raptured church, you will not be there. If you don't pray, forget it, you aren't going anywhere. You are dead. Jesus said to them, "Men ought always to pray and not faint." Prayer to the spiritual man is what breathing is to the natural man. If you don't breathe, you die. Diligence is the key, "...to them that look for him, he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Revelation 3:10, Because you kept the word of my faithfulness, I'm going to keep you from the hour of temptation which is going to try everybody on this earth. Those who have been faithful, God is going to keep from the tribulation. If he is going to try everybody on this earth, and he is going to keep me from it, He must remove us from the earth, hence, there is going to be a rapture. The living will be changed in the twinkling of an eye! We are going to rise to meet the Lord in the air. What is temptation? The great tribulation, the rule of anti-christ. What is temptation? The temptation of that time will be to receive the mark or the brand of hell. The hour of temptation, the tribulation, will bring that temptation on men. Those who have known God, yet missed the rapture will be under great and awful pressure. You that read this message know if you were to miss the rapture of the church, and accept that brand of hell, that mark, the Bible says you are cut off forever. When you being to think about this, knowing the cost of taking the mark, yet with children starving, the temptation will be unbearable. Some of you can't give God an hour a day in prayer. You are more concerned about things than you are God. You are easily tempted and moved away from the things that are spiritual. Don't talk about you being able to stand in that day, with your little children begging you for food, and you can't get food unless you join the system, and if you join the system you are lost forever!

At first, some will refuse, this will turn public opinion against them. Are you that holy roller bunch that used to tell us it was wrong to go to a motion picture? And now you won't join the only thing that can save us to feed your children? Do you mean to tell us you are so holy that you will let your children starve to death because of some kind of religious superstition? Talk about pressure! The news media, and the neighbors will come to pressure you to become a part of this system. God said, if you are faithful to the word of God now, He'll keep you from that hour of temptation. But if you aren't faithful now, you are going to face that hell. If you say, "I just won't take it." You are lying to yourself. You can't stand for God now, you'll not stand then. Some of you wouldn't fast a meal for the city to be saved. What would you do if it was going to cost you your life? You may mock at Esau for selling his birthright for a mess of pottage, but you'll sell your in that day. In that hour, the world will have gone mad. All restraint will be gone. The only reason there is any semblance of sanity in this world is because the Holy Ghost is still here. The only restraining force on this earth is the Holy Spirit. I know there is not much of the Holy Spirit working, for "when the Spirit of truth is come, he'll reprove the world." There is not much reproving going on in the world today. There is so much rottenness in the church. There is enough in the church to make grown men vomit. A preacher called for our prayers. The song leader for the past four years had been having an affair with one of the women in the church. Both of them have their own families, but they had been slipping around, then get up and lead the song service. No fear of God before their eyes. If you really probe the heart of the church, you'll turn up sins of the worst kind. The only thing keeping it from becoming a total madhouse is the fact that the Holy Ghost is still here in the church. Not like he wants to be, but he is still here. You think its bad now, wait until the church is gone. He that letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. You have those that want to put the church through the tribulation, say the Holy Spirit has always been here. Jesus is the Master of it all, and in the Gospel of John, He talks about the spirit of truth coming. That meant He wasn't there like He is going to be. He is here now and everybody that will can be saved, and filled with the Holy Ghost. That wasn't so in the Old Testament. They could not seek God and be filled with the Holy Ghost. He came upon the prophets but nobody could be filled with the Holy Ghost. When the church is gone, that will be over with, the restraint of the Holy Ghost will be gone. Satan's children will rise up in mass and begin to act like their father. When Napoleon was driven out of Moscow by that awful winter, temperatures dropping to fifty and sixty degrees below zero, a mall of dogs followed them. When the soldiers fell from the cold, the dogs ate them. Under conditions with war and hell of war, the Holy Spirit moves away, even domestic animals go mad and turn on human beings. In the tribulation there is every evidence that domestic animals will go wild. That dog you treat better than your child, will turn on you in that hour. On the other hand, in the millennium, the lion will be as tame as a house cat. With the restraint of the Holy Ghost gone, selfishness, the law of the jungle, will be the order of the day. That depraved human nature that we've seen demonstrated through a hand full will suddenly break forth like a pent up volcano. That neighbor who, when you were sick, used to bring over a meal, mowed your lawn when you were gone, will change. With the restraint of the Holy Spirit no longer on that depraved human heart, it will break out, and what the psychiatrist calls a sickness will be seen to be the bottom line of human nature without the Holy Ghost restraining it. What a frightening thing! What seems extreme to us now, will be common place in that day. When we had the gasoline lines a few years back, a woman in line was a little slow moving up and a boy moving down the line got in front of her. She got out of that car, went over to his car, and laid a six shooter in the window and killed that boy. A man driving down the interstate passed another car, and the men chased him for forty-five miles shooting at him just because he passed him. A few years ago in Houston, a man passed a car load of teenagers, the traffic forced him to move in quickly, he never hurt anybody, he never hit anybody. They followed him home and stomped him to death in his drive way. That is horrible, but that is what the human is. The works of the flesh are murder, fornication, sorcery, hatred, and envy. The only reason it isn't coming out the Holy Ghost restrains it. Once the Spirit of God is moved from the earth, then the depravity of this human will show itself for what it is.

The anti-christ will be the sum and total of self. Religion teaches self that if it can learn how to say certain religious things, it can reach across that line and receive from God. There is a gulf fix between the living and the dead. The law of biogenesis is, only live can give life. Life doesn't produce itself. We have stones, dead minerals along beside you have trees, and birds that light in the trees. You have life. But it is a gulf fix between that mineral world and that plant world that cannot be crossed. That is the gulf between the living and the dead. The Bible says, every man and every woman that is not born of God is dead. There is a gulf fix between the living and the dead. It is an impassable gulf. No matter how much scripture they are able to quote, dead folks can't reach across that gulf and pull things out of that spiritual world. Only the living can cross that gulf. We have a brand of religion that would make us believe that self can so improve itself and that finally God will accept it. When Adam sinned,, he became a different species. God made him spirit, soul and body. He was preeminently spiritual. When he sinned, his spirit was so violated it sank down in subjection to his soul, he became a soulish man. Because God is spirit, fellowship was broken. God drove him from that garden, which was the presence of God, put a cherubim and a flaming sword at the gate which said, your kind can never come back into my presence. God wrote vanity over that creation. God never walked with Adam again. Self is the essence of personality. God says, "To him that overcometh I'll give to sit with me and my throne." He is saying, to him that overcomes will rule with me. The glorified church is going to rule. The Bible is very plain that all you have to overcome is you. You don't have to overcome me. If you are born again, there is an old man and a new man. There is an outer man and an inner man. There is a spiritual man and a carnal man. The carnal man is called SELF. Self is the essence of personality. The three elements in human personality are Judgment, affection and will. The judgment is not to be relied upon. It puts darkness for light and light for darkness. But the affections are depraved, seeking things that are below and not above. I know if you give to God, God will give to you. But that crowd on a prosperity kick, follow him only for the loaves and the fish, they are not going to find him. Their affections are on things down here. Their lifestyle is things. The will has lost its regal power. Its strong when it ought to be weak, and weak when it ought to be strong. Self is the beast that will haunt and terrorize the world in the tribulation. You don't have to look any further than the heart of the unbeliever to know the beast that will make this a hell on earth. One dear saint had an old aunt, eighty-two years old, lived alone. A twenty-five year old man broke into her house, raped and beat her to death. How can such an animal be? When the church is gone, this earth will be filled with those kind of people. We're conditioned for that day. The regard for life will be gone. We aborted two million babies in America last year. We don't have any regard for life. The regard for life is all but gone. All getting ready for the beast world. The selfish man is alone but he doesn't know it. He multiplies self and mistakes the multiplied self for the lives of others. He multiplies it. In the Palace of ?? there is a hall of a thousand mirrors. You enter and a thousand hands reach out to you, a thousand smiles greet your smile. A thousand pair of eyes weep when you weep. But they are all your hands, your smiles and your tears. What a picture of the selfish man. Self is all around. Self multiplied and he is deceived. What a horrible awakening awaits the self centered man in tribulation when all the mirrors are broken. His naked soul unloved and unloving with a universe around him and hearts out of touch with his. He'll then come face to face with the awful solitude of a self that has never died. A self that has lost his power to die. Self, the nature of a damned race. The works of the devil are all wrought in self. Christ life is not, cannot be within us, but so far as the spirit of the world, self love, self seeking are renounced and driven out. Every temper, and passion that keeps Christ from being formed in the soul is a murderer and a killer of the Lord of life. To be saved from the leprosy of sin is to be saved from self. When a man comes to the altar and he asks God to forgive him, the sin proposition is taken care of. He gets up, as if he had never sinned, but he has a life time ahead of him of overcoming what he is. Lawlessness is selfishness. Sin is the result of self rising up in supreme power within us. Paul put it this

way, "He sitteth in the temple of God...usurping the place of God..." What takes the place of God in your life? Self? We'll go in debt for self, and give God the leftovers of our life. Self gains the preeminence. And you don't have to guess who we live for. All sin comes out of self rising up to take the place of God. Anti-christ will be a demonstration of all the potential of self. This spirit lies deep in the bosom of all regenerate men. Some have been raised right, they are morally good. Because their conscious has been conditioned there are some restraints. But with the removal of the Holy Ghost that restraint will be lifted. The human self will turn this earth into a hell during the tribulation. I'm not talking of a beast coming up out of a pit turning it into hell. I'm talking about a beast that is in the bosom of every unregenerate man. From the bosom of seemingly good men, belching forth like a volcano will come the true nature of fallen humanity. The awful wickedness labeled by psychiatrists as sickness, in that day will be revealed for what it really is, the depravity of the human spirit. The sons of men act according to their nature. Without the restraint of the Holy Ghost the streets of the Bronx, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., as mean as they are, will be like a holiness camp meeting compared with their neighborhood when the church is gone. The cure is not a change of environment but a change of heart. The dreams of man's world fold up like a house of cards before this awful nature. There are two things that expose it, a move of God and a lack of authority. When the government doesn't have the authority to enforce the laws, that nature belches up like a volcano. Once parent lose control of their children, that which has been there all the time, will expose itself for what it is. That unregenerate nature will make your home a hell. Humanists tell you that you're going to give them a complex if you correct them. God says, spare the rod and you destroy the child. If you exercise God given authority, you'll hold that nature in restraint until they are born again. It isn't a change of environment. Those that live up in the high rise apartments with their million dollar incomes are as rotten as hell itself. They may cover the stench with cologne, but its the same thing that is going on in the ghetto. It isn't the change of environment, it's the changing of the heart. Except a man be born again, he is as rotten as hell, and the possibilities of that life are frightening. David said, we're wonderfully and fearfully made. Fearfully made because we can sink lower than hell itself. Wonderfully made because Christ made it possible for you to conform to the image of Christ. Jesus said, pray that you may be counted worthy. Only Jesus can save. The world moves toward total control. Once that world church is in control it will tell you what you can believe. God is saying, "Flee from the wrath to come." A world without God. A world ruled by it's own Christ. A world too frightening to describe.