REST IN A RESTLESS AGE

TRANSLATION ALERT 82

Rest in a Restless Age | Neal Frisby’s Sermon | CD #1395 | 12/08/1991 AM

Amen. How do you feel this morning? Good? How do you all feel this morning? Really great? Now Jesus, how wonderful you are! We delight ourselves in you, Lord because you are going to do what we believe for. You are going to meet every need. You are going to boost the faith of thy people, Lord. Sometimes, they are confused; they don’t understand, but you are the Great Leader. Now, touch all of them together here. Anybody new, inspire their hearts, Lord, by the Holy Ghost. Meet every need of the body, soul and mind this morning and bless us together, Lord, because you are with us. Come on, give Him a handclap! Thank you, Jesus.

The bible says, be still and know that I am God and there is no rest in anything else, but the Lord. When you become still with the Lord and know how to do it, there is the rest that money cannot buy, that no kind of a pill can do. Only He can satisfy the mind, soul and body in a great rest. That is what the people are going to need soon because it is coming. In this message—it was a surprise to me. I wasn’t in this condition that I am going to read here this morning and probably none of you, not very many, maybe. Probably a few of you, but who knows what tomorrow may hold for you? He gave me this message. I was thumbing through the prophets…. And I said this is a strange thing for a man of God to say. I have read it before, but this time it struck me and that is when He gave me this message I am going to preach this morning…. You listen close here.

Rest: A Restless Age and of course, God gives rest in a restless age. We are in a spiritual warfare, but we have a defense. We have the Word. We have faith. We blast satan’s attacks back! Those who do not have this kind of defense, they will be walled in by satan into the system and carried away. There are two kinds of walls: God puts a wall of fire around His people and satan tries to wall his…. We find out, satan is desperate. Time is running out. Satan tells the Christians, “You have your problems. Look at this. Look at that. Someone over here did this. Someone over there did that…. You are not going to win. It’s hopeless. What do you want to serve God for?” Now he is coming at the Christian on every hand and he is telling them, “You are going to be defeated. It will never work out.” First, he says there is no way out, plus he starts depressing them. Like some kind of computer, he keeps predicting that they are not going to win, that they are going to lose out. Now he tried this in the bible; even a great prophet in a weak moment, but he [satan] failed.

Listen real close. It will help you now. It will help you in the future. Now, we find out in Job 1: 6-12, God’s wall came down and satan’s wall went up, but Job defeated him. It didn’t look like that at first. Although God said he was a good man and perfect in his ways in that age, there were still some things that God brought out later. Let’s read the scripture right here in Job 1: 8-12. It says that satan came in when the sons of God came in before the Lord. He walked up there. The Lord saw him come in. He said, “Satan, whence comest thou” (v. 7)? The Lord asked that question and He already knew the answer. And then like always, satan, he had a bunch of questions, but didn’t have any answers and he was lying right there in front of God…. After He had told satan whence comest thou, then He told satan what he had come for. “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil” (v. 8)? At that point, in the age that he lived in like Noah age; they were not under grace. He [the Lord] just told him what he [satan] had come for. Satan hadn’t told Him anything. He answered that question that He had asked him a while ago; God did.

And He said, “…a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?” “Then satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought” (v. 9)? Even God called him [Job] perfect in that kind of age that he lived in. It wouldn’t be like that under grace. Then satan said, “Hast not thou made a hedge round about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land” (v. 10). Why, he is bigger than I am, satan said. “He is increased in the land. You’ve got a wall around him. I can’t break through.” Job was growing big at the time. Satan said, “But put forth thine hand, and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face” (v.11). Take all he’s got and he will curse you. You make it rough on him, he’ll do it. “And the Lord said unto satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So satan went forth from the presence of the Lord” (v. 12). He is always going forth from the presence of the Lord, isn’t he? Take all that he’s got, but don’t put your hand on him to kill him. You cannot take his life. He was told that he couldn’t do that, but he could do all the rest that he wanted to. At first, it looked like he was going to get to Job. And Job, like some of the prophets said, “Oh Lord, why was I even born?” Better off for him to go on, but as time increased, the providence of the Lord took hold there.

Let’s get into this and see what is going to happen here. Let’s see what is going to happen at the end of the age and how old satan is going to go forth—a restless age. He can really work in a restless people. Do you know it? The prophets faced the devil’s wall. Now, he threw a wall in front of anyone God ever called to do something, prophets or people. Satan would throw up a wall. But we find out that when he threw a wall to [before] Joshua in Jericho, the wall came down…. It crumbled before the faith of those people. There was a great wall of water before Moses, but he split that wall and went right through the Red Sea. Ever since Eden, satan has put up a wall, but we know what to do. We do exactly as the prophets if this comes around. David said he ran through a troop and leaped over a wall. John escaped the walls of Patmos. He got out because he leaned on God with everything that he had. Now, from Genesis to Revelation, God puts a wall of fire around His elect, but satan lies to them. He begins to oppress them in a terrible way and he tells them to give up. “Look all around you at the people. Nobody is living right for God.” He always tells the people of God that.

When he does this—depression is a terrible thing. When one gets too depressed without getting rid of it, they give satan the key to their inner self, and he gets into that inner self and tries to discourage and destroy. Get out of your depression and get into the Word of the Lord. If you give him (satan) that key through depression and discouragement, you open up your innermost being to him and he will get in there. When he gets in there, he will confuse and discourage [you]. Satan lied right in the presence of God. He told the Lord that Job would curse Him. “If you took what he had, he wouldn’t stay with you.” Everything that satan said was a lie and he didn’t have any answers…. All the way through satan lied, but Job defeated him. It is in the bible for each of you Christians, and he [Job] suffered more than most of you when he went through with it. People that go through trials and test with good health, it is bad, but his health went from him too. Still, he was able to hold on; a lesson for every Christian at the end of the age.

A lot of the messages that I have preached, some of them didn’t think they needed them then. I don’t know how many letters have poured in saying, It’s been six months or a year or two since you preached that message and it was just for me. The message—it didn’t seem like I needed it at the time, but now I need it.” They are going to need all these messages before the end of the age closes out. Every Christian, before the translation, is faced with giving up…. The temptation that would come would try the whole world in all manners, the bible said there. But don’t let him steal your victory. You will win. The ones that get out of here in the translation are going to be the tough ones in God’s Word. They are going to have teeth, man! They are going to hold to that Word or they are not going to get out of here [translated]. You watch and see.

So, he almost did it with Job. He almost got Moses. He almost got Elijah. See how he is moving and he almost got Jonah. Let’s break this: you don’t have to be a weak Christian to experience the depression and discouragement that satan brings. Look at the great prophets! When I read that scripture, I wasn’t feeling that way. It was when I read this scripture here that God gave me the message and He said, “Tell it to the people.” No matter these great prophets…. Look at what they went through! God allowed it for our admonition so that satan doesn’t try to do the same things in the day we live in…. Look at those great prophets; the pressure they came under! Did you know that you can actually profit from pressure? When pressure comes, don’t fight it. Don’t argue with it. Get alone! It will put you on your knees. It will put you towards God. But if you do it in any other way, it’s going to get you. Pressure is good if you handle it right. It will get you deep in the Word of God and you will have an experience with God, and He will work for you. It [pressure] is there for a purpose sometimes. It is to drive you where God wants you to be driven. If you don’t get a hold of God then satan can get a hold of that.

So, I read this and He told me to tell the Christians. In Numbers 11:15, at one time, Moses prayed to God, “Kill me, I pray, kill me.” Out of a man of faith, as powerful as what he had, and then turned around and asked God to take his life–the pressure, the complaints, the rejection of the people. Some are rejecting this message this morning on purpose…God tells me all these things. There is coming a thing and they are not going to be ready. Every way that God gave me the message, I tried to warn them. He told me that I will not have to give an account for the words that I have spoken. He has already told me that to encourage me to stay with it. “They are going to jump. They are going to run. They are going to make it look bad on you. Stay right with it, son, for I will bless thee. Stay right with it.” They will not shake God, but I will shake them from my tree, saith the Lord. We are at the end of the age. Boy, can’t you see Him separating the wheat and the tares now! Let them grow together. Oh, don’t try to do it yourself…. Let them both grow together. Matthew 13: 30, the tares and the wheat parable is in there. It says let them both grow together till the end of the age. Then He said, I will uproot them; they will bundle together, and I will gather my wheat. We are coming to that right now.

So, under pressure, Moses said, take my life. Notice, they didn’t want to commit suicide exactly. They just wanted the Lord to do that for them to get them out of it. The rejection, the complaint, no matter how many miracles, no matter how Moses would talk, they were against him. No matter which way he went, he was confronted. He was the meekest man on the earth and I don’t believe that any prophets outside one or two went under pressure for 40 years. Daniel was in the lions’ den for a short period. The three Hebrew children were in the fire for a short period. Forty years—he was in the wilderness for 40 years. Only Jesus, I believe or maybe a few more prophets went under the pressure that came upon that man. Satan pressured to make Jesus look like a false prophet, like an ordinary human, but with the great power that Jesus had, He blasted him back. With the pressure to kill Him, He had to face a stronger pressure, stronger than what Moses faced. No matter what He did, the people would find fault. They didn’t agree with anything that God said that it was all coming from the Lord. Every bit of it was coming from the Lord. You know what? Those people that did that, did not go in. They won’t go to heaven either at the end of the age, saith the Lord. That’s Him! I have been away with the Lord. You watch and see!

So, we find out in Numbers 11:15, the burden was so heavy. But thank God for Jethro. Old Jethro said, “You are going to wear yourself out here.” He said, “Come on, we’ll get some men here to help you even though all of them are not going to do just right, it’s going to take that pressure off. Old Jethro could see it coming. See, and he gave Moses some advice there through the Lord. So, the Lord had a better way and He took Moses out of that…. You are ok today, maybe, but who knows what tomorrow hold for any of you out there? But probably, some of you in the past had faced—in your life, you asked God, “Maybe it’s better if I just went on, Lord.” You probably said that. Yet, these great prophets had to face it. How about you today?

Listen to this right here: the depression and the discouragement of one of the greatest prophets of all time, disappointment at one of the greatest victories we have ever seen, Elijah, the prophet. Now watch, all of these are symbolic of the elect at the end of the age. They will face the same situation because satan knows that his time is short and he is going to try to get to God’s people. The depression…and the discouragement came upon him just before he was translated in that chariot when it came. Now watch out at the end of the age! Elijah requested that he might die. “It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life” (I Kings 19:4). Who would have ever thought of such a thing from those men! It is a warning to Christians, I wrote, to watch out. Satan will go forth before the translation with that great depression, discouragement that is coming upon the earth. But in my heart and the power that is upon me, I will break him with this anointing. He will be broken all across this land and where all these tapes are going and all my messages. God has said so and He has meant that He will break him.

Like I said, there is a blessing or torment however you want to take this. Why, that great prophet wilted. He broke down just before the great chariot ride. He wasn’t interested in it any longer. Now, I wonder how many people said, “I know, Lord, you promised me. We are going away. You are going to translate us.” Some people, they just bail out, jump out on the wayside…. It’s coming. It came upon that great prophet to show us there. So, he requested that he might die, but you know what? God had a cure for both of these men [Elijah and Moses]. In all the time, he [Elijah] still had his great faith even though he thought his time was over. Yet, God had a greater plan for him. He wasn’t through with him yet. By the time you think God is through with you, He may have a lot for you to do. Nevertheless, [for] Moses, He had a way out. He told him to stand on that mount. Get on the mount of God people and stay there! He will pull you out of it and you will have more success, and God will do more for you than even before you were faced with these trials and tragedies…that confronted your life. God will be with you.

Jonah said, “O lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4: 3). That’s another one! We find out in the bible what happened; lessons for Christians, lessons for those who think they stand, lest they fall. I believe that most Christians that fail God, it is through [the] persecution, discouragement and disappointment that satan puts upon them. They don’t immediately just go out and sin. They don’t immediately just go out and drink, smoke and carouse around. They just don’t do that and leave the church. First, they fall by the wayside generally through discouragement, through disappointment and through what they call failure. They are just opening themselves up and giving satan a key to their inner being. Then he can just kick them around like a football wherever he wants to kick them. Don’t err—if you see Moses, Elijah…and even Jonah (who Jesus used as an example Himself when He spent three days and three nights in the earth)—and you see those kinds of men drop back and make those kinds of statement, who are you, saith the Lord yourself?

See; people think, “I live this way every day. It will be this way every day.” You know what? When people get saved, there is one thing that needs to be told to them; you see, most people want to float around in the cloud right now in heaven you know, but you are going to have your valleys. How many of you believe that? Like Curtis [Bro. Frisby’s son] said, you’ve a taste of heaven on this earth. That’s true. But also, God shows you a taste of hell…. You get both while you are in this life. That’s a lesson for you to make it through those days. How many of you say praise the Lord? You say why did God even put that in the bible? The real elect are going to be faced with some problems similar to Job, similar to Elijah, Jonah and those prophets. Some, not just exactly, but they are going to be faced with that. Some of them have, and satan has gotten them. He got them in there and you are no longer seeing them serve God. So, be careful. You have to hold right on to His Word. Old satan says you are not going to make it. He is going to tell you all kinds of things. But these are lessons and they are powerful.

It will come to you and you will be let down right at the end. But you know what? The elect of God that hear my voice and believe in what I am doing, they are going to win. There is no way that you people that hear my voice are going to lose unless you willingly walk away from God. You will be blessed by the Lord. I believe that with all my heart. Rest in a restless age: it will come from God. Oh, but satan marched right in front of Him. God asked him a question. He [God] turned around and gave him the answer to what he [satan] had come for. He is the Almighty. Can you say Amen? Old satan kept asking questions for which he had no answers and he was wrong on every count. Job stayed with the Lord. You know what? We are talking about walls. God puts a chain of fire around His people. Sometimes, satan will throw up a wall to confront them. Satan lies to them for he was a liar from the beginning, the Lord said, and he abode not in the truth. He tells people, “God has taken the hedge down for you. See what happens to you; you are sick…. Well, the Lord is not around you.” Where is your faith, saith the Lord? That’s where your faith comes in. Do you have any faith at all?

The disciples were in the boat—it was like a big accident coming upon them. It was like a big something they couldn’t handle and yet they had faith just before that. Jesus said, where is your faith? Now is the time to use your faith. So he [satan] throws up these confrontations, these walls; he puts them up in front of Christians to discourage them in every way that he can. We know the final wall—all through history [the bible] from Genesis to Revelation, satan has thrown up a wall. If you are truly really the elect, you will run into that wall sometimes. But your faith will cause you to go right through it. You know Moses has a wall right in front of him many times, but Joshua was in the back and he had a wall of dirt to eat. He had to eat a lot of dirt before he ever got up front…. Satan may give you a lot of dirt before you move up to where God wants you, but He will get you there. Can you say Amen? He puts up the walls to block you, the real elect. He will try it, but your faith is going to be transparent. You will run through a troop and leap over a wall too. God has shown you how to do it there.

Listen: the final wall, the New City and the gates thereof (Revelation 21: 15). You say, “Why would God have walls and gates around the City? It is symbolic that the Lord has His people with Him and He has satan shut out. Satan will have to face those walls and he cannot enter therein. He was allowed to go before the throne in heaven, but here, the walls are up and the gates are there…. It is symbolic that we are evermore with the Lord. He [satan] will never be able to discourage you. He will never be able to disappoint you. You will never be sick again. You will have the encouragement of the Lord forever and ever. That’s what those walls and gates are; you are Mine, saith the Lord. “And let all the …principalities and powers and all those who have done evil—let them see that you are within my walls and no more can they do anything to you forever and ever. For we have the victory the bible said.” How many of you believe that? So, they can never terrorize or harm you again.

Certainly, at the time of the end he will try to discourage you people. I have done all in my heart to take away the sting of satan and what he would try to do to every one of you here…. Time shall be no more and be ye also ready in praise. Amen. Did you know that praise is faith walking into a miracle? We have the victory the bible said…. You will be triumphant and you will be victorious. You know you are victorious now. You are feeling in your heart you are triumphant. You will feel the same way when he confronts you. You will win the battle. As time is closing this age, the chapters of the bible are closing out; most of them left now are for the tribulation. As world history is passing through, the ancient history and our modern history shall soon be no more. Satan knows, and he is desperate. Well, look all around you. All you have to do is see the news [TV news] a little bit…and you can see how desperate he is. He knows—and he is trying to discourage and disappoint every Christian that is going to get out of here into that translation. You remember this message. Remember, at the end of the age, you will have your ups and downs, but you are the winner. When satan confronts you, that only means that God has something better for you. He is going to do it for you. He is going to win for you. He is going to stand for you. Because you are going to go away in the translation, you will pay a price, saith the Lord. Glory! Alleluia! That’s exactly right.

We are given ever so many promises. The victory is ours. Even the Name of the Lord Jesus is our victory. In that very Name is our victory. We are going to win. So, keep alert! Watch out! Know this also, when these things come upon you—they are going to happen—God has got a great blessing for you. Oh my! From looking around, you don’t have too much longer to wait, not too much longer in this world. The signs are too many and they are too varied. So we find out–a restless age—a spiritual warfare is going on right now, but there is rest from God in an age that is restless. Have you ever seen so many people across the world, that are so restless? That is grounds for satan’s work. Also, it is grounds for God because if they turn to Him; peace be still…. He will bless everybody that takes this message into their heart, believe it in their heart, for you don’t know what hour you are going to need it. If satan had his way, for every one of you in that audience—you don’t have to be some great miracle worker—for satan to march up there. If satan had his way, he would march right up to the throne and say that same things that he said about Job. He would tell the Lord that he could get each of you out there to quit if He just turned him completely loose. Just before the translation, just before we get out of here, no doubt, satan is going to be given some loose wires. But you know what? He is going to hang himself…. He is going to ask that at the wrong time and God is going to turn him loose. But he is not going to be able to do it and the Lord knows that he is not going to be able to do it. All he is going to do is bat out [blasted out] of the way of the people that are going to go up there. How many of you believe that?

So, you have rest in a restless age and it will continue. The nations will roar. They will be in an uproar. The people will be in confusion and there will be great anxieties upon the earth. They will be restless, frantic as it comes upon them. The scriptures begin to prophesy the perplexity and the chaos, and how this will increase until just before the coming of the Lord. It will begin to reach a peak and they will be taken out, the real true children of the Lord. Then it reaches a crescendo over in the gigantic climax, in the great tribulation period of time. You can’t help but see how close we are to the great tribulation. We are getting closer and closer. I pray in the future that the Lord [would] reveal, without a doubt, how close–and the signs that he would give–telling us that He is coming. There is going to be released a special Presence, a special Power. In every one of those men, after they had had their discouragement, there was a special move of God on their life. There will be a special move of God on the elect. He is going to give them a special Presence that will come to them. They are not going to feel anything like this before. God will give it to them just before the translation. That is coming. That is a promise from God. It’s going to be yours if you want it.

If they jump out on the Lord, they are not going to be able to receive it. But those that endure with God, He is going to give them such a feeling of power that they are going to be able to endure it and there is nothing satan is going to do about it. You are going to win now. You’ve won the battle, saith the Lord. Hold on to me. Glory! Alleluia! Glory to God! The victory is ours. The battle is won. All we have to do is believe and let it close in…. You never know, all that I was doing was totally different from this message. In fact, I intended to do something else…and I couldn’t remember. I said, “Lord, you will bring it. You always do. You will bring that back to me.” I went thumbing through the bible. All of a sudden, I thought what I thought I already had. It surprised me to come down here…. This was the message that He wanted to give me. He’s done it that way to keep satan from trying to change anything in what He had given me in my heart and mind. It just stayed like He gave [it to] me. I tell you what? It’s a great encouragement to me because I don’t remember the future. Nobody knows how satan is going to pressure…. But always, there is a great refreshing and power. It’s always there; when you go along with God, you feel Him in such a way…. He always has something real kind, real nice for the people to straighten them out and to help them.

How many of you praised the Lord this morning? Praise God! Alleluia! I told the Lord there is going to be no people, Lord, like your people that you are going to get out of here. There is going to be no people like those people. How many of you believe that this morning? Amen. You know, maybe your life out there this morning has been restless, maybe you haven’t given your heart to the Lord and you really want to give your heart to the Lord to have peace. All you have to do is to tell Jesus to forgive you and you just lean towards the Lord Jesus, and ask Him to come into your heart. When you take Him in your heart, you do it in the proper manner and you will be able to face those hard trials. You will be able to go through discontentment and discouragement. He will help you through every bit of that. You’ve got to do your part, but He is there to meet you.

Satan is out there on the warpath. We are being confronted all over the nation and everywhere. I pray that this message would help everyone, not only here, but wherever this goes. A special blessing will carry you through. I want you to go right on out of here [into the translation]. Remember, just before the great prophet got out in that chariot, he was discouraged. He was disappointed. “In fact, forget the chariot ride, just take me out of here anyway you can get me out of here.” You know that’s the truth. He told the Lord that. So, just before the translation–he is symbolic of the translation—satan is going to try to make some of you people, the elect of God, like that: “I went as far as I can go, you know.” They will probably get in that condition if they are not careful. So, just before the translation, this confrontation is coming. But God is going to—well, that prophet aroused himself. All of a sudden, he was calling fire again, wasn’t he? Man, he went over there and Jordan just split right open in there and he went right out of there! So, a special thing came to Elijah again and a special Voice is coming to His children. God will bless this message. I don’t have to ask Him to because I feel it. It is being blessed.

Let’s put our hands in the air. If any of you has got any confrontations, if any of you has got any walls, any of you running up against any obstacles from satan, let’s all pray together and tear them all down. Just tear down these walls! Let’s help each individual here this morning. Come on and shout the victory! Thank you, Jesus. Bless their hearts, Lord. Let the power of God come upon them. How wonderful thou art, Lord Jesus. Loose them! We command the devil to go! We are getting on through Jesus. Oh, how great He is! Great is the Lord God! He will push them down! He will tear down the walls and carry you on through!

Rest in a Restless Age | Neal Frisby’s Sermon | CD #1395 | 12/08/1991 AM