To be moved to the chapel.
This is a message I plan to give tomorrow.
THE POINT OF NO RETURN
Luke 19:36-44
"As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting:
“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
What a picture! Here Jesus is sitting on a donkey with all manner of clothing as a path before Him. Folks waving palm branches and praising the LORD, shouting Hosannas, and here Jesus is weeping. What's that all about?
The Greek word for weeping here is different than the word used for weeping in John 11. Remember the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, "Jesus wept." The word there means to weep silently under control. But here in Luke 19 the word for 'weeping' means to cry audibly and with emotion. Sitting on the donkey, Jesus is crying out loud. Why? Because He can see what the rejection of His kingship means. It means death and destruction. Even the little children would not escape the Roman sword.
There was another man who wept over Jerusalem. His name was Jeremiah and he was called 'the weeping prophet'.
Here is what Jeremiah (9:1) said,
"Oh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!"
But they too had passed a point of no return. God told Jeremiah (15):
1 Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! 2 And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD:
“Those destined for death, to death;
And those destined for the sword, to the sword;
And those destined for famine, to famine;
And those destined for captivity, to captivity.”’
3 I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. 5 “Indeed, who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
Or who will mourn for you,
Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6 “You who have forsaken Me,” declares the LORD,
“You keep going backward.
So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am tired of relenting!
7 “I will winnow them with a winnowing fork
At the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;
They did not repent of their ways.
8 “Their widows will be more numerous before Me
Than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A destroyer at noonday;
I will suddenly bring down on her
Anguish and dismay."
Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah had passed a point of no return. God even told Jeremiah to stop praying for them:
"Thus says the LORD to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account.” So the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people." 14:10,11
They had passed a point of no return.
During Jesus' ministry He warned the cities that rejecting Him and His messengers would bring judgment since they did not recognize the time of His visitation.
Luke 10:8-16 "Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades! “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Looking back we can see that Jesus' prophecy of doom was fulfilled just as He said. The city was leveled with over 1 million Jews inside. It was a horrible destruction. No wonder Jesus was weeping out loud.
That leads me to ask about our country, America. Has America passed a point of no return?
Remember what caused Jerusalem to pass the point of no return. Their passive refusal of Christ turned to active rejection and war against Him and His anointed messengers.
Is that happening in our nation?
David Wilkerson said it did. He had a vision in 1973 and declared that America had passed a point of no return and that judgments, severe judgments were coming.
He put it in a book entitled "The Vision".
In March of 2009, he was clear that calamities were near. THE VISION was reissued not too long ago in 2010, "The Vision and Beyond". DW continued to tell America that severe judgments are on the way. I wonder if the fourtieth year since this vision was given will mark its fulfillment (2013).In a sermon delivered in 1989 at Times Square Church in New York City, Pastor Dave Wilkerson proclamed that America has passed the point of no return in its rebellion against God and has thus been destined by God for final judgment. He began the sermon with the following words:
"America is dying! The country's wound is incurable. It is now in the final throes of a terminal disease. The great empire is crumbling!"
The crucial points make by Wilkerson in this historic prophetic declaration were as follows:
1- America is a sinful nation that is currently experiencing the judgment of God.
2- God has raised up many prophetic voices to call America to repentance and to warn that continued rebellion will lead to doom.
3- America has refused to listen to these prophets. Instead, the nation has stiffened in its rebellion against God.
4- The result is that America has passed the point of no return, the point of "dread release," when God delivers a nation from judgment to destruction.
5- And thus, the wrath of God is about to fall on this nation, most likely in the form of an economic collapse from which there will be no recovery.
I can remember as a man who prayed for this nation being invited in 1998 to join intercessors in Washington D.C. for three days of fasting and prayer concerning our nation. I sensed God's leading me and said yes. As I fasted and read the Word of God in my hotel room, the Spirit led me to passage after passage clearly indicating that America was under judgment. I could only weep at what was revealed to me.
I believe America has passed the point of no return.
America no longer passively ignores God and His anointed messengers. She has removed God from its educational system and inserted the false theory of evolution. Mention of God is not permitted much less the name of Jesus.
America has actively legislated abortion which is merely a violent last resort of birth control and promotes fornication.
America is actively promoting gay rights and civil unions that fights against the sacred union of marriage. She allows gay pride to march down its streets.
Listen to Adrian Rogers, a great man of God:
September 11th was a warning that God was removing the hedge of protection around this nation. Many men of God have preached this: Bill Bright, Henry Blackaby, David Wilkerson and recently Jonathon Cahn. Cahn has written a book called "The Harbinger" that details from Isaiah 9 how America has arrogantly missed the message of September 11th.Many can remember a time in America when pregnancy outside marriage was a scandal, homosexuality a sin, pornography a moral sickness, child abuse was rare, marriage was sacred, and “living together” was shameful. In public schools our students were allowed to pray and the Ten Commandments were posted on the walls.
But a proud nation, wallowing in materialism, rotting in sin, searching for what we call pleasure and freedom, has insulted the Almighty.
Those who preach the Word of God are shunned and laughed at today. If a reporter were to read this, he would call it “extreme right-wing rhetoric.” The matter is not right or left; the matter is right or wrong. And God’s Word is right.
Are we really going to sing “God Bless America” while we’re killing little babies, sodomy struts down main streets with pride, and God is cursed, maligned, and cannot be mentioned in our public concourse?
But not all is lost.
After Jesus entered Jerusalem, He was crucified by His own people. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not....but to as many as receive Him to them gave He the power to become the children of God." John 1:11,12.
But 40 days after His Resurrection, He ascended to Heaven and 10 days after that He poured out the Holy Spirit of God upon His disciples who were waiting in prayer. For the next 40 years the disciples witnessed to the saving grace of Jesus Christ and many thousands of Jews were saved. After 70 A.D. it was too late for those who rejected Christ as Lord.
And it's true today. It's not only America but all the nations who have passed the point of no return. And we need to weep like Jesus did at the thought of what will happen to these nations when Jesus returns.
But just because the nations have passed the point of no return doesn't mean that individuals have. God wants to pour out His Spirit on us to help Him reach as many as possible before the destruction of this world. It is coming just as surely as the destruction of Jerusalem.
There will come a time when God will tell His people that it is time to stop praying and interceding for sinners, but that time has not come yet.
Let us colabor with God and His holy angels. Let us commit ourselves to His desire to seek and save that which is lost. Let us go and tell them that Christ is coming soon and that this is the time of their visitation. Let us invite them to receive Him as Savior and Lord...before it's too late.