Dear Friends,
this is Brother Frank speaking to you from the Mission Center in Krefeld, Germany. It’s wonderful to know that God’s people are everywhere and the message addressed to them is now reaching the ends of the earth. We do know that all things that God does are not only for one city or nation – they are for God’s people in every country, every colour, every race, because already in Abraham we have the promise that God would bless all the nations of the earth. And if you go to Galatians, chapter 3, there we find that Christ was the promised Seed through whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. He was the only begotten Son, and we are also sons and daughters of God, if the Word of God as the seed has been placed into our soul and the Holy Spirit has brought new life into us. We are living very close to the return of Christ and therefore we have to understand that Bible prophecies are now being fulfilled, as it was with the first coming of Christ: everything happened according to what God had foretold by the prophets. In the same way we are now seeing the fulfilment of Bible prophecies in our day. We only need to read Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 17, also going to what the Apostle Paul by the Spirit was saying in 1 Timothy, chapter 4; 2 Timothy, chapter 3; 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5; 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2; 2 Peter, chapter 3; and then going on to what Jude, the apostle, had written. Now we are living in the time when all these things predicted take shape and do happen before our eyes, even the coming up of the old Roman Empire. Since January, 1st of the year 2002, we have the single currency. 280 Millions pay with the same currency. The old Roman Empire is coming up and the power is moving on further and further as the European Community is being enlarged. East and West are joining. We could go the Prophet Daniel who saw in chapter 2 the four world empires which would be. He looked right down to the legs and then also to the toes. There were two legs: East and West. And there were also ten toes. We see the fulfilment of all these things, but we must have divine revelation, not to interpret Scripture, but to go from the Prophet Daniel, chapter 2 to chapter 7, to chapter 8, to chapter 9 and then go to Revelation, chapter 13 and then on to chapter 17 and 18 and to various Scriptures to understand the constellation of the last world empire, which is now coming into existence. But our main purpose is to share with you the precious Word of God, promised to the New Testament Church before the return of Christ. As I already mentioned, there were promises in reference to the first coming of our beloved Lord and Saviour. And before He had His ministry, there was a man sent from God with the Word of God to the people of God to prepare the way of the Lord. This man was not schooled anywhere in a Bible seminar, he did not belong to the Pharisees or Sadducees, he was not one of the learned man, as we would say today, not a man graduated from a very special seminar. But he was a man sent from God with the Word of God that through him all might believe. This is very important: God never uses groups of men. If you go to the Old Testament, you see, there was only one Noah, one Abraham, one Moses, one Joshua, one Elijah and then one Elisha. You can go further: in the days of Ahab there was one by the name of Micah, a true prophet. At the same time there were four hundred prophets of Israel, and they were prophesying what the king wanted to hear. But the man of God said, “Only what the Lord will reveal unto me that will I say.” So the true prophets were not in multitudes. There was always one man, but he was a man of God, sent with the direct revelation and message to God’s people. So, before Christ had His ministry and all the predictions referring to Him were fulfilled, there was a way prepared for Him. It’s the same now before the second coming of Christ. There are so many voices, but we must hear the one true voice. And that will always be the voice which is already found in God’s Word. There must be a promise first, before we can see the fulfilment. Now, if we go into what the Lord had promised for the first coming of Christ, then I have to mention again that 109 prophecies from the Old Testament were actually accomplished. Everything was written from the birth of the Saviour to His ascension to heaven. If you wanted to know about His birth, you just have to read Micah, chapter 5. If you wish to know about His ministry, you just have to read Isaiah, chapter 35. If you wanted to know about His sufferings, when He took our place on the cross of Calvary, shedding His blood, giving His life, being forsaken of God, as we were forsaken of God, taking our place, like it says in Psalms 22, verse 1, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me.”, and you only need to go to Matthew 27 to find the Son of God saying what David had already prophesied and spoken in the Spirit. If you wanted to know about His resurrection, you just had to read Psalms 16, “I will not leave His soul in hell nor His body to see corruption.” You just had to go from scripture to scripture, and if you wish, you can read it in Luke 24, where our Lord began with Moses, continued with the Psalms and furthered on with the prophets to show to His disciples, at first to the two on the way to Emmaus, and at evening time when all were gathered He shared the Word of God with them. And then He opened their understanding that they might know the Scripture in its fulfilment. There is a big difference between interpreting God’s Word and to see the actual fulfilment. The teachers in the days of Christ had their own understanding of how things would be when the Messiah comes, and they of course would play the most important role. Because they were serving God, as they thought, but not realising that when God makes history, then Bible prophecies are fulfilled. God made a new beginning, all that was according to the law and to the prophets now merged into fulfilment, and Christ was the answer. And Christ is the answer today, and He is the Word! And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. In the same way to know what now takes place we have to go to the Scriptures. Already the end God knew, and He knew also the beginning. Because from all of eternity God has already promised, and His plan of salvation was already taken, before time began. We can read it in a number of scriptures. Titus, chapter 1: here the apostle actually goes into some of the most wonderful thoughts. He says here in Titus, chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness …” First we find the word “elect”, second “acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness …” Beloved Friends, dear Brothers and Sisters, it is so important not to mix the Word of God with men’s interpretations, because in the original Word of God there is life, in every interpretation is spiritual death, because every interpretation originates with Satan, and the poison is right there, the sting of death is there, as it was right in the very beginning, when the enemy twisted God’s Word and gave his version to Eve, and she believed it. And she gave it to Adam, and he believed it. And then it just happened that the fall was done and people were separated from God. And then the Lord gave the promise that the seed through the woman would come to bruise the serpent’s head, to pull out the sting of death, to give us the victory over death and hell, because Christ, the Son of God conquered all things. Now in verse 2 in Titus we read, “… in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began …” God promised eternal life before the world began. As I said, God is eternal and He has an eternal plan of salvation, which He brings to pass in the course of time, and we must submit to the will of God, become part of this plan of salvation. We must not only speak about Christianity – we must speak about Christ. I don’t have a Christian message. Everybody today in all of Christianity, they have a so-called “Christian message”. But we need the message of Christ! Christ is the answer. Christ is the One we proclaim, because God was in Christ – not in Christianity. God was in Christ, reconciling the world with Himself. In 1 Peter, the first chapter, the second verse, the apostle says, “… elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Here we have again the wonderful truth about foreknowledge. God knew – God foreknew all things from all eternity. He knew who would accept and who would reject. So He could put the names of those who would receive salvation, who would believe the true Word of God, who would receive Christ as personal Saviour, He could put their names into the Book of Life, actually into the Lamb’s Book of Life, before the foundation of the world. Beloved, let me emphasise today again from 1 Peter, chapter 1. It says here in verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Just as our Saviour was the only begotten Son of God, so all who are born again, they are sons and daughters of God, begotten again by the same Word, by the same Holy Spirit. And if you read John, chapter 20, verse 17, our Lord says, “I go to My Father and to your Father, to My God and to your God.” Christ, the Firstborn among many brethren! Beloved, let me emphasise: it’s not enough to be in Christianity, to belong to a church – we must be born again! We must receive eternal life! We must have our personal experience with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour! I have to say again: God did not introduce to us a new religion. In Christ we were reconciled with God, our sins were forgiven. And then coming quickly to the subject of the return of Christ. It says here in II Peter, chapter 1, I read from verse 3, “… according to His divine power He hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue; by which are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in this world through lusts.”
Beloved, this is the beginning: we are born into the Kingdom of God. Our Lord said in John, chapter 3, “You must be born again, otherwise you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Then in verse 16, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Beloved, whenever God does something on earth, there are witnesses. There were people when our Lord was born in Bethlehem. They came; they saw Him; they worshipped. There were witnesses when Christ was baptised. There were witnesses when He had His ministry. There were witnesses when He died. There were witnesses when He rose again. There were witnesses when He was taken to Glory. We just need to read Luke, chapter 24, from verse 50. Our Lord took His disciples to Bethany, raised His hands, blessed them and was taken to Glory. So here the Apostle Peter says, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ …“ Beloved, we speak about the return of Christ, but we also wait for the manifestation of the power of God in the full restoration before He comes. We need to see the restoration. We need to experience the power of God dwelling in us, so that our mortal bodies can be changed when He returns. And then we have in verse 19 the admonition, “We have also a more sure Word of prophecy, unto which ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place …” What is it? When Bible prophecies are revealed by the Holy Spirit, the Word is a bright shining light in the darkness. As we have said many times, I repeat, and it’s here in verse 20, “… knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” What should we interpret if God says, “I will send unto you the Prophet Elijah, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.”? Do you need my interpretation for that? Do I need your interpretation for such a promise? Or do we all have to recognise that God must fulfill His Word or promise. We have just read, unto us the most precious promises are given, by which we partake of the divine nature. Because God’s Word is of divine nature! And therefore we must receive God’s holy Word promised for this day. If we bypass God’s promised Word, God will bypass us. That was the problem in the days of our Lord. They did not recognize the ministry of John the Baptist which forerun the ministry of our dear Lord. It’s the same today: we must recognise the ministry which goes before the return of Christ to turn the hearts of God’s children back to the fathers, back to the beginning, back to the apostolic days and teaching. Let us summarise what we try to say here today: First we must have a right start, not in religion, not in Christianity, but with Christ, our Saviour! As God met with us in Christ, we can only meet with God in Christ. And therefore the Apostle Paul has already in his day said, that we call upon all: Be reconciled with Christ, come into the fellowship with Christ, and then get the revelation of Jesus Christ, and with the revelation of Jesus Christ all the other things contained in the Word of God which are part of the plan of salvation for the endtime will be revealed unto us.
Beloved, may God bless you, may He be with you, may your hunger and thirst for righteousness, may it be fulfilled that men will not have a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but to hear the Words of God. I like to share with you every time the Word of God which remains for ever. Please get ready: the Lord is coming soon! Be prepared to meet Him! God bless you and be with you. In Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.