On earth the Day of the Lord will show a sad aftermath for Israel and the nations. However, it will end in glory. The Church of the Lord Jesus will have become complete and been taken into Heaven to be with her Redeemer. Her disappearance will bring a mighty wake-up call onto the earth. In this world there will be many deeply disturbed people, left behind with shocking questions on their mind. They will remember the many times and ways in which they were warned by parents, pastors, friends and family members. All those people talked about the Bible and how it tells that Jesus will come, riding on a cloud, to take all His followers to Himself, into Heaven. Now it happened. A distressing question will trouble them. ‘What about me? I would not listen, what now?’ There will not be one Christian in the world to help them, but . . . there will be many millions of Bibles, left behind by them who went to Heaven. Those precious, pre-loved Bibles, will they have lost their divine power? Or will they still be leading disturbed souls to God? What do you think? In those Bibles those disturbed people will find their answer. The answer! In those Bibles, they will find God. By this time the Church will already be complete and with the Lord in Heaven. Those people will never belong to the Church; they will be the people of God like there were people of God on earth, during Old Testament times.
More than that, Jews will awake. Jews will see the grave mistake of their forefathers who crucified their Messiah.
For them the Day of the Lord will be a time of severe trial and temptation. “But he who stands firm to the end” said the Lord Jesus, “shall be saved! (Matthew 24:13).
That is so very different to the Gospel of Grace we may bring to the world today. Salvation in Jesus, salvation eternal and free, in Him Who Himself stood firm to the end. That is our message today.
Up to this point we have been looking at history as it is unfolding. But the Day of the Lord is still future. Let’s have a look at prophesy. Many books have been written and many sermons preached on prophecy, but not many touch on the Day of the Lord; we need an urgent desire to take to heart what Peter encourages us to do:
2 Peter 1:19 ‘And we have the word of the prophets made more certain and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining into a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning-star rises in your hearts.”
We must realize that all Scripture has been given for all the people of God, but let it be ‘all’ Scripture. Let it be God’s truth about the Nations, about Israel and about the Church. Failure to accept this has led to many weird and inaccurate predictions. Primarily ‘The word of the prophets’ was directed at Israel. After the Lord has taken His Church away from this world many in Israel will wake up and understand ‘the word of the prophets’.
From the ancient prophets, from the Lord Jesus and from the Apostle Paul we learn about ‘the Day of the Lord’. Through the previous chapters we have seen that the Nations first appeared on the scene. Followed by the nation of Israel. The Church of the Lord Jesus came third.
In prophecy the order is in reverse. Before God’s judgment on the Nations and Israel, His Church will have been taken out of this world. Then, like it was during Old Testament times, God will deal with the Nations and Israel. For some judgment will end in doom, for others in forgiveness and eternal glory. Peter’s encouragement is meaningful to us, but, to God’s people during the Day of the Lord it will be so much more, because they will see that light shining in a dark, a very dark place.
Now let us see what the prophets have to say about ‘the Day of the Lord’. They were Jewish prophets and primarily addressed Israel.
According to Isaiah:
Isaiah 2:10-12 “Go into the rocks, hide in the ground for dread of the Lord and the splendor of His Majesty! The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day! The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted, and they will be humbled.”
Isaiah 13:6-13 “Wail, for the Day of the Lord is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this all hands will go limp, every man’s heart will melt. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them. They will writhe like a woman in labor, they will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame! See, the Day of the Lord is coming, a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it! The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light, the rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless, I will make man more scarce than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Almighty, in the day of His burning anger.”
According to Joel:
Joel 2:10,11 “Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened and the stars no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of His army. His forces are beyond number and mighty are those who obey His command. The Day of the Lord is great, it is dreadful, who can endure it?
Joel 2:14-16 “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision! The sun and the moon will be darkened and the stars no longer shine. The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem. The earth and the sky will tremble but . . . the Lord will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.”
According to Amos:
Amos 5:18,20 “Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord. Why do you long for the Day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. Will not the Day of the Lord be darkness, not light? Pitch dark, without a ray of brightness!
According to Zephaniah:
Zephaniah 1:14,15 “The great Day of the Lord is near, near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the Day of the Lord will be bitter. The shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish. A day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.
According to the Lord Jesus:
Matthew 24:21 “For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equalled again.”
No doubt the question has been asked, ‘Lord, when will be the ‘then’ and ‘now’?’ From the second half of Matthew 24 we are assured that they still are in the future. In the Day of the Lord the Nations and Israel will be confronted with the question of how to answer a most Holy God. He will show them and they will see their horrendous debt of sinfulness. Then only they will learn that they have nothing, absolutely nothing, with which to settle that awful debt. They will discover that they were without God in the world. In creation God gave man the faculties of faith and choice. Whoever decides to choose and believe Him and His Word finds a ready welcome from the heart of God. Whoever decides to ignore Him will suffer the full weight of His holy anger. Yes, the Lord Jesus predicted a time of great distress (K.J.V. ‘tribulation’). That tribulation will be for all who did not belong to Him when He took His Church up into Heaven. In His own body, on the Cross, the Lord Jesus has taken the judgment of God for the whole world. Now, in the sight of a holy God the Church of the Lord Jesus is ‘holy, without blemish and . . . free from accusation!’ (Colossians 1:21,22). But people who rejected Him and His saving work on the Cross, will still suffer great distress.
Today Christians are blessed with 2 Thessalonians in their Bible. In it the Apostle Paul writes:
2 Thessalonians 2:1,2 “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him we ask you brothers not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the Day of the Lord has already come.”
In these lines Paul states two facts. First he writes about ‘the coming of the Lord and our being gathered to Him.’ Which relates to us, Christians. He had taught about this in his first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter four.
Secondly, he also writes about “the Day of the Lord” which relates to all who will be left behind in this world, when His Church will have been gathered to Him.
The Thessalonians received two letters from Paul but they did not have the New Testament. Apparently Paul received news that there was some misinterpretation of his first letter, so he then felt he must write again. He knew that christian Jews could not be ignorant about the Day of the Lord. Christians were suffering persecution and because of that some teachers were thinking that now the Day of the Lord had come. Paul continues:
2 Thessalonians 2: 3,4 “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way! For that Day will not come until the rebellion occurs, until the man of lawlessness is revealed. The man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called god or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be god.”
In other words, the Day of the Lord has not yet come and the evil anti-God man has not yet appeared. The Day of Salvation is still in progress! Paul explains again:
2 Thessalonians 2:6,7 “And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. But the One Who holds it back will continue to do so till He is taken out of the way.”
There is a ‘HE’ Who holds back the secret power of lawlessness and He must first be taken out of the way before the man of lawlessness can act. But Who is the HE standing in his way? There will be only one power to do that, I believe He is God the Holy Spirit. Today He employs the Church of the Lord Jesus as His instrument to reveal the Holy righteousness of God to a sin-sick world. The secret power behind lawlessness has been active since Adam and Eve, but when the Holy Spirit, together with the last remaining part of the Church, will have been taken out of this world, the secret power will have its full swing. The restraint of Heaven’s righteousness will have been removed and the evil anti-God man will do as he pleases.
On the isle of Patmos the Apostle John names the man of lawlessness as the Beast, supported by the false prophet who will perform the miraculous signs of which Paul also is writing. The two will be empowered and used by the dragon, the ancient serpent, the Devil. Together those three will form a false, unholy trinity and John tells us how the holy and everlasting trinity will deal with them (Revelation 19:20 / 20:2,3).
Please, let us not forget, we are not dealing with ‘the day of lawlessness’ but with the Day of the Lord! However, the lawless man “will oppose and will exalt himself” and will demand all worship which in fact belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. There is precious, joyful peace in the hearts of today’s christian believers. They will be at home with the Lord, far beyond the reach of that lawless anti-Christ
Again we follow Paul’s teaching and will see that in the end it will be abundantly clear ‘Who indeed is God’.
2 Thessalonians 2:8,9,10 “THEN the lawless man will be revealed ‘whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the strength of His coming’. The coming of the lawless man will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.”
Yes, it will be “In accordance with the work of Satan”. Do you see the secret power that is still being held in check? The day will come when the world will see it fully displayed. In every possible way the lawless man will endeavour to usurp the power and glory that rightfully belong to the Lord Jesus and to Him alone! That lawless, anti- Christ will act ‘in accordance with the work of Satan’ and ‘with the breath of His mouth, by the strength of His coming’ the Lord Jesus will overthrow him.
When suddenly the Church disappears from this world it will be a very loud wake-up call for those who are being left behind. In particular individual Jews, as they read their Old Testament, will see the counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders as false. They will not see the mighty hand and outstretched arm of God, which Moses spoke about (Deuteronomy 4). They will read the New Testament and find their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. But the nation of Israel will fall for the evil deception of the lawless man and think that he is the Messiah they were waiting for.
No doubt Paul knew the Old Testament. Did the Spirit of God draw his attention to the Book of Daniel? It seems so. Let us read some of Daniel’s writing:
Daniel 8:23-25 “In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue will arise. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty and the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper. And he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.”
Place these verses side by side with 2 Thessalonians 2. It will soon be clear that Daniel’s stern-faced king and Paul’s lawless man are one and the same. After Daniel had received this vision he was exhausted and lay ill for several days (Daniel 8:27). Gabriel’s message had caused him great distress. Now he understood that a very evil man was to come, stand against Daniel’s God, the Prince of princes, and make havoc, bring harm and hurt to those who, in those days, are God’s people.
Nevertheless, Daniel must write again:
Daniel 9:27 “He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. In the middle of the seven years he will put and end to sacrifice and offering and on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is poured out on him.”
“He will confirm a covenant with many.” But, many others, who have turned to a Bible, will not be interested in such a covenant. And they will suffer horribly for the stand they are taking. The covenant will mean that the evil anti-God man will first appear in a benevolent approach. Israel will get a temple and begin bringing sacrifices and offerings, an awful insult to the true and living God and a stiff-necked rejection of the sacrifice at Calvary.
The stern-faced king, a lawless man, will begin his run by bringing peace to the world. Millions of dollars, left behind by Christians who went to Heaven, at his disposal. He will be seen to ease the problem of homelessness because of all the homes left behind and vacant, furnished and available to new occupants. And there will be job-vacancies galore, easing the un- employment crisis of the world.
But after the first three years and a half of the seven-year covenant he will suddenly break it. He will change his face. He will be stern and his benevolence will give way to cruel violence. The Apostle Paul confirmed it all. He was writing about the Day of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 “While people are saying ‘Peace and safety’ destruction will come on them suddenly.”
More and more Jews will then know that this evil man is not the Messiah from Heaven. They will be surprised when suddenly he will put to an end their sacrifices and offerings. Without any scruple he will demand the total allegiance of the world-population. People will need to identify with his person and his reign. Everybody will have to wear what John mentioned as ‘the mark of the beast’ on the hand or the forehead. His sinister objective will be to single out those who will not receive that mark. Those who want to remain true to the God of the Bible. He will bitterly hate the God of the Bible and all people who wish to be true to Him. Many of them will be Jews, who by then, have learned to SEE and HEAR. True godly people will suffer pain, persecution and death on account of their rejection of the lawless man, “until the end that is decreed is poured out on him” writes Daniel (Daniel 9:27).
For ages religious and non-religious people have been singing about ‘peace on earth.’ Perplexed many have asked ‘ Where is that peace?’ That peace will not come until after
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on His Holy throne.
The nobles of the nations assemble as
the people of the God of Abraham
He is greatly exalted.
No comments:
Post a Comment