TV 1737 | Valley of Decision Part One

Well, I'm just going to launch out in faith today. I've had thoughts and in a way that they're not directly, directly related and yet everything is related to Christ and who He is and what He's done because His name is above every name. The problem is we've got a world that doesn't recognize that. And earlier this week, I had a very strong impression to go back and read something that I wrote, oh, it must be 45 years ago or so, and it has to do with, praise God, has to do with the value of decision. And actually, I felt like, felt a freedom to go back and kind of just tweak it a little bit, update it, revise it, and I think we'll probably publish it at some point. But that particular expression comes from the third chapter of Joel. And there's some tremendous prophecies that some of them, of course, had their application to Israel in its day, but there were a lot of prophecies, a lot of things that he prophesied that had to do with our day. You remember how Peter on the day of Pentecost, when he was explaining what was going on, he referred to Joel and how the Lord in the last days was going to pour out His spirit. And you can find that prophecy in chapter two. And it actually puts that in a timeframe where the day of the Lord is still future to that, but it's coming. So there's an era, as it were, that was launched by the outpouring of God's spirit, and that was going to end with the expression, the day of the Lord. How many of you know what, when the Bible uses that expression, what's it talking about? I mean, what kind of a day is that? It's a day of judgment. It's a day of reckoning. And you see them throughout history in various levels, various scales, where a nation would come to a point where, all right, now it's time to deal with this nation. It's become so wicked. It's beyond hope. And now we're going to go, now it's time for judgment.

That's all that's left. In a sense, the day of the Lord in Noah's day was what? The day the flood came, wasn't it? And for Sodom and Gomorrah, it was the day that the Lord got Lot out of there with his two daughters. But there is a, and of course in Israel's day, in the time of Jesus, we see a day of the Lord that there was a day of reckoning for Israel, wasn't there? There was an outpouring of God's spirit. There was a timeframe when God dealt with the nation, and there was a great separation that took place where God absolutely called people into a time of reckoning. Either you're going to bow down to my son and worship him and become part of my kingdom, or you're going to perish. That was exactly what was going on, and so we see the judgment of God that fell upon the nation that Jesus had specifically predicted. And so, you know, people are looking for all kinds of things to happen. What was it that Peter was looking for in chapter three of the second book of Peter? Anybody awake yet? I'm not sure I am either, but Peter was looking for the day of the Lord. He was looking and expecting the day when we know that the other aspect of it is that God's going to gather his own just as he did, just as he got Lot out of Sodom. But there's going to become a day when fire will fall and consume everything. That is a day of reckoning. We talked last week about God's calendar and how, you know, on an individual level, God's got your name on a calendar page and he, you know, he absolutely works in your life according to his timeframe. Thank God that we're in his hands and not in ours. We would make a mess. How many of you know that when we ever try to take things in our own hands and work them out, that's all that happens. It's a big mess.

But, oh, we've got somebody into whose hands we can commit our lives and who's promised to save us, promised to work unto the end. Thank God. Everything that we sang about Jesus, lifting up that name, a name to which we can look. But we're living in a world that's absolutely been called to what Joel is talking about. And let's see, I'm not going to read the whole passage, but there are a few verses in the middle of chapter three that I believe absolutely are relevant to us. And well, let's just begin in 12. Let the nations be roused. Let them advance into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and that's a time of reckoning, of judgment. And there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. So this is not just limited to a particular outpouring of judgment within history. This is the grand picture. This is the end of the age. This is what Jesus was talking about. Heaven and earth, He said, will pass away. but my word will never pass away." And so this world is absolutely careening in the direction of destruction. It doesn't know it. But this is God's Word to the world in this time. All right? Swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe. You get the language there, the imagery of a harvest, two harvests as a matter of fact, that are growing up and maturing and there comes a time when it's harvest time. Now it's time to do something about it. The entire purpose has been fulfilled. Come trample the grapes. You know, you go into the book of Revelation and you see the same imagery and you see it as a symbol of God's judgment. There comes a God that allows man to go so far. There is a freedom for man to make choices for which he is responsible in eternity. But there is also a time when, okay, now it's time for judgment. You have made your choice and that's what's going on here. Come trample the grapes for the wine press is full and the vats overflow. So great is their wickedness. And here is the verse that prompted that particular article. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of

decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. And then it talks about the judgment that's coming and how complete it is. And I believe with all my heart that, I don't know, there's something that in my spirit that wanted, that felt like the Lord wanted to emphasize this. Because as I say, this world, if you're not paying attention, you need to. We live in a world that is making choices every single day. And God has reached out throughout the entire church age, but He continues to reach out in so many different ways to people to call them to bow down before His Son who sits on a throne right now and is awaiting the calendar, the day on God's calendar when the Father says, go home, it's over. And we see again the pattern throughout history of nations and times and peoples when God has had to intervene because they've gone so far there's no other way to go. There's no, there's no reclaiming anybody out of that particular group that's made its choice. And we are seeing the world absolutely make its choices today. Boy, you need to recognize what's going on in this world. You need to recognize the voices and the ideas that would cause you to just rationalize. You know what a rationale is? A rationale is when you've already decided you want to do something. But now you've got to be able to justify it and explain it and work it out so it's okay. It's not like you look at the Word of God and say what's right and that's my standard and I'm going to go by what God says and what He has planned for my welfare, but here's what something I want to do and so I've got to work out a way in my own mind where it's okay. Where does the wisdom like that come from? It comes from the devil himself who is absolutely seeking to take over hearts and lives. And I'll tell you there is a no compromise thing when it comes to the gospel. I mean I'm saying many of these things that we've said so many times before, but in a relativistic world we need to understand that there are some absolutes in God. It's not just about a rule to live by. This is a matter of whose life is it? Is it my life to follow my own desires and to do what I please with it? Or is it His life and every issue has to be laid at the foot of the cross? Lord, I don't have the right to choose my mate. If I have desires, if I

have things that pull me, I need to lay them down and say Lord, I feel this but it's not my will but yours be done. Lord, I know you have the plan for my life and that's the one I want. I belong to you. I do not belong to myself. I mean Jesus was the ultimate example of somebody who did not love his life unto the death. He showed what it costs to be a part of God's kingdom and it meant laying down his life. Thank God he did. How could we, how could any of us be here if he had not done that for us? Thank God for the cross. But did he not say there's a cross for us? There is a cross for every single one of us. You think about some of the followers or would-be followers. How many times have, has the rich young ruler been brought up? Now here was a man who genuinely, it appears, wanted to be part of the kingdom of God. He had lived a very moral life. It wasn't like he was looking for something bad to do and a very moral life. And it even says in one of the Gospels, Jesus loved him. So that wasn't an issue. What was the issue? Jesus knew something about this man and he said, you sell what you have and give it to the poor and come take up your cross and follow me. So now there's a choice to be made. Am I going to do what I want to do, what my natural being is attached to, or am I going to be willing to lay that down and follow Jesus? Now riches are not a sin, but the love of them is. If that comes before Jesus, then that's your God. You talk about idolatry in the Old Testament where they literally worshiped images. I'll tell you, people idolize everything under the sun today that stands in the place of Jesus Christ. And so this man went away sadly. He made a choice that affected his eternal soul. How many people are making those kinds of choices every single day around us? We see a society that is being torn apart from the foundation up.

Homes are in disarray. People are suffering all kinds of emotional trauma, every kind of temptation you could think of. All the entertainment world is pulling at them. If you dare to say anything that's different than they're saying, you are absolutely to be crushed and rejected. Folks, God is calling us out of that kind of a world to live for Him in this time. That scripture we read in Joel, multitudes, multitudes. This is not just, like I said, it's not just one little time in history, but this is the broad mass of humanity. God has said, I'm bringing you into this special valley. We're going to find out. You're going to have to make up your mind. This world is not simply going to go on and on and on. There is a day of salvation. There is a time when I will hear you and when I will reach out to you. Thank God that He's patient, isn't He? You ever wondered why in the world God just puts up with this? You read the stuff every single day that goes on and it's incredible what the things that are happening every single day in our world that just reveals what's going on, reveals the things the Lord showed us so many years ago, about the devil being loose as never before. Well, He is and we're seeing the fruit of it in lives. But you know, the most dangerous thing possibly, probably, is when people do rationalize and they feel like they can come up with a way to do what their flesh wants them to do and still serve Jesus. I thank God that we do have a remnant of brothers and sisters that are scattered throughout this land and throughout the world, probably a whole lot more than we could imagine if you got them all in one place. How many of you think that everybody that's going to church and singing Amazing Grace

this morning really knows what we're talking about? How many of them are doing what the rich young ruler wanted to do and, you know, I'll bring my money, look at all the good we can do. I can serve Jesus and use all this and it's going to be so good. But the problem is, that's where His heart was. And how many people come into that place of choice and of decision and it's not everything laid on the altar, did not, does not the Word of God say that we're bought with a price? We're to glorify God in our bodies and spirits, which are what? They're gods, aren't they? If you ever come to Him, you won't belong to yourself. See, what's the alternative? I'm going to bring part of me into the kingdom of God, okay? Does that make sense? If I am infected with this disease, if you will, called sin, how in the world can I bring part of me into the kingdom of God and expect God to accept that and take me on to heaven with that? Man, He is going to have to find a way, one way or another, to put that to death. I thank God this isn't a call to measure up to a legalistic standard. This is a call just to hand over our lives. You know, I thought of one scripture we use so many times and just one aspect of it. But are we not told in life ... of everything that God has done for us through Christ, the promises, the provision, everything is so amazing. What is the result of that? Therefore, I'm trying to remember the rest exactly how it starts from there, but the thought is that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. See, there may come a time when it'll be a sacrifice and our bodies will fall over dead because we've been killed for the faith, for the gospel. You know, sometimes I almost envy people that go that way. You go suddenly, they kill you. Man, that is a one-way ticket out of this place. You don't have to get up and look at the news in the morning. You don't have to see what's going on and

feel the pull of this world and feel the weight of what's going on in this place. That's victory, folks. But God has called us to be a living sacrifice. That is, there is a principle of death that is applied to us. There is a principle of dying, of laying down our lives every single day, and yet it's a living sacrifice in which we give ourselves to Him. There's that part of us that lives, that part of us that is put to death over time. Thank God. I just pray the Lord to help me with this. I hope this is the Lord. I hope, yeah, sometimes I know there's a part of me that wants to look for response, but there's a sober thought here, folks. We are in this time, the Valley of Decision, and there are people right in our midst and people who will hear this, who are in a valley, and I pray that they are some that can hear this and recognize where they're at. This is not a light thing. This is not where you can go along and go to church and live your life. It's either His life or it's yours. There is no middle ground. It's 100%. How many times throughout history has the Lord challenged His people? When Joshua passed off the scene, who was on the Lord's side? I think that might have been Moses that said that, but choose you this day is what Joshua said. Choose you this day whom you will serve. And they had to make a choice, didn't they? And for a time they actually walked in that. But what happened? A generation passed off the scene. They intermarried with all the heathen people around, worshiped idols, and went right straight to rebelling against God. Folks, there are choices being made today that have eternal ramifications. How many know what happens when people persist in pushing the Lord aside, rationalizing their way around this thing that really is the idol that my heart worships? That's really the thing that's most important to me that I just won't give up. I can't lay that down. You cling to that long enough when the Lord is calling, what happens? What happens? There comes a day when the Lord takes His hands off. How many of you think that you can come to the Lord when He stops helping you? We're saved by grace. Grace is the divine help that I need to believe and repent. That's central to it because I

can't do that. I don't even have the motivation, the strength. I don't have anything that it takes to do that. I need God's influence upon my heart and His strength to do it. Now, He doesn't force me to do it, but He makes it possible for me to respond. If I don't respond and I resist that, as Hebrews says, do despite to the grace of God. Despise it. Resist it. There comes a day when the Lord says, you've made your choice. The world is in that place. Not only is it in that place, how many of you know that the majority of the world has made its choice? The devil is ... his objective in this hour is to unite the world against God. That's something he has not been able to do because God absolutely put a limit on him. Through the cross there was a victory that was won. He has not been able to unite the nations of the world and absolutely ... drive the influence of God out of this world. He's not been able to do it. But there comes a period at the end where the Lord says, all right, I've spoken with the world. I've sent out the gospel. I've reached out to the hearts of people. Now we're going to bring, now you're all going to come into a valley and make your choice. And I'm going to let the devil loose to do what he, to follow his dream. And of course, we know how that turns out. Just when it looks like he has won the ultimate victory, the Lord comes on the scene. Fire rains down. There is no victory that this devil can win. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also, for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, The Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.