Let us turn to Acts 1. I will read the first eight verses. Acts 1:1-8:
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
I will stop reading there.
All of us who are watchmen and who have been understanding the things that the Lord has opened up concerning “time and judgment” have been sharing this information with others through tracts, through just talking with our neighbors or friends, or through many different ways.
There is a common response that we receive from those in America and actually from around the world. Just over the last couple of weeks, we have heard responses from a pastor in Egypt and from individuals in South America and in Africa.
They write and without fail, over 90% of the time, they will quote, “No man knows the day or hour,” or “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man.” Then they will ask, “So how is that you know?” and then they will say, “How dare you say that May 21 in 2011 will be the end! How can you say this?”
Let us go to the verse that they go to most often, which is Matthew 24:36:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
So this does say that no man knows the day or hour because it says:
…of that day and hour knoweth no man…
We would never want to deny that this verse as well as similar verses are in the Bible, and we do not want to avoid this either. If people want to talk about Matthew 24:36, that is great. We can discuss this and we can show many things from the Bible that indicate that we, God’s people, will know once we get to the time of the end.
The problem is that people read this verse and before going into any further discussion about it, they cut you off. This is their solution. This makes the whole warning of May 21 go away, they think, and they do not go further into the Bible to make sure that their understanding is correct.
It is true that throughout the church age, God did not want people to dig into information concerning the end. This is one of the big reasons as to why God has given this verse as well as similar verses. This was to discourage those who would check out the end-time passages and try to develop a scenario, which the church has done. Actually, they have developed several scenarios. Many churches present possibilities: a, b, c, or d—it could be pre-mill, post-mill, or a-mill. I remember one teacher who laid out all the possibilities and then said, “Take your pick.”
This is how it is taught. It is taught as if no one can even know the basics concerning Christ’s coming. This was true throughout the church age because God has indicated that He did not want people to know. But He has also indicated elsewhere that at the time of the end knowledge will increase. “Seal the book, even to the time of the end,” Daniel is told, and then “knowledge shall be increased.” Of course Daniel had no ability to seal up the Word. Daniel could not close up the Bible. He was used in the book of Daniel as a type of God Himself. It is God who closed the Bible and sealed it, and it is God who must open it, as we read in the book of Revelation, “he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.”
So the teaching that the Bible really gives is that no man can know throughout most of history, but once we get to the time of the end of the world then God indicates that His people will know. They will be able to understand these things.
Again, Matthew 24:36 says:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
“My Father,” the Father knows. The Father has information about the day and hour. This is what it said in Acts 1:7:
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
The word “power” here is the Greek word exousia and it is Strong’s #1849.
Then it says in Acts 1:8:
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…
This word “power” is a different Greek word. It is the Greek word dunamis and it is #1411 in Strong’s Concordance.
But God is saying:
…It is not for you to know…
If we look into the Interlinear Bible that has the original Greek and Hebrew, it actually says:
…It is not [of] you…
This is in the genitive case, so it should not be “for” or “to you”; it should be “of.”
This is the same case as in Galatians 2:16:
…the faith of Jesus Christ…
The transliterated Greek words are Iesou Christou. The ending in the Greek of ou when it comes to Jesus, Iesou Christou, means “of Jesus Christ.” This is how the genitive case should be translated.
In many Bibles, they translate this as “faith in Jesus Christ,” but that is just as wrong as saying in Acts 1:7:
It is not for you to know…
This is because this is the same genitive case. So the proper translation of Acts 1:7 is:
…It is not [of] you…
This really helps us out a lot because of course it is not “of us” to know times or seasons, or to know the timing of the end of the world. God’s people do not make this claim.
Is anyone saying to people when you witness to them, “May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day because I figured this out; this is why I know that May 21, 2011 is going to be Judgment day”? But no, we do not share in this way. We are telling people, “Look, there is no difference between you and me. There is no difference between all of the people out there in the world and us, except that God is revealing truth and opening up the understanding of His people’s minds and showing us what He has kept hidden throughout the centuries.”
This is the only reason why some of us know that May 21 will be Judgment Day while some do not. Of course, this deals with the fact that this is what God does with His people, with those whom He saves, and so this involves salvation and whether you have “eyes to see” or not. Whether or not you believe this involves God’s Spirit that He gives to His people in order to show them these kinds of things.
Well, when it says in Matthew 24:36 that the Father has the knowledge of that day and hour and that no man knows “but my Father,” this means that the Father knows and understands. And in Mark 13:32, people get a similar idea about “the son” where it says:
…neither the Son, but the Father.
This is a difficult verse and I can understand how people could get this wrong. At this time, I do not want to get too much into this, but some people think that “the son” is referring to Christ. Because of this, we have gotten responses where people say, “How dare you think that you know when even Jesus does not know? When the Son does not know, how can you be wiser than Christ, the Son of God?”
Maybe they understand this and they are just not thinking this through, but they need to realize that Jesus is God. Jesus is eternal God and He has never ceased to be eternal God. Even when He was on earth and when He entered into the human race, He was eternal God. He knew what people were thinking. He knew what was going to happen before it happened.
Look at all of the miracles that He did. Was He performing miracles just like other men because He became a man? No, man cannot do the things that Christ did like opening the eyes of the blind or giving a tongue to the dumb and ears to the deaf. Man cannot do this.
Jesus was performing the work of God by the power of God, and we have to realize that Jesus is Almighty God. Job 24:1 makes this statement:
Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?
Times are not hidden from the Almighty. That is Christ. That is the Father, that is the Son, that is the Holy Spirit. Whatever name God gives Himself, times are not hidden from Him. He understands. He knows the timing of the end.
It is pretty ridiculous when anyone tries to claim that Jesus does not know, when Revelation 22: 13 says, and this is Jesus speaking:
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
These are names that Jesus has given Himself. He is Omega. He is The End. He is The Last. These are His names. These are the names of the Son, of Jesus Christ. How can He have the name of The End, the name of The Last, or the name Omega, which means the very end of things, and be ignorant of when it is going to happen? It is just not possible that the Son does not know.
Why does the Bible stress that the Father knows? I am not really sure why, but we also know a verse from Isaiah 9 that we will hear a lot more during this month of December as we approach Christmas. Isaiah 9:6 says:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…
Whom is this speaking of? Whom is this referring to? What child is born? What son is given by God but the Lord Jesus Christ? And this calls him “a son.”
Well, a little further down, it gives some more names. God gives Himself many names to teach different aspects about His character or His nature. So Isaiah 9:6 continues:
…and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
So who has the name “The everlasting Father”? The Son does:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called…The everlasting Father…
How can it be that Jesus the Son is called the Father? We know that the answer is because God is a Triune God. He is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. How many Gods are there? There is One. There is One God, just One. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” Ephesians 4 tells us that there is “One Lord.” There are not three Lords; there is One.
Some people try to understand this and they try to get into figuring this out, yet you cannot. You cannot. Yes, it is true that we are living at the time of the end when the Scriptures are being opened, the seals are coming off of the Book, and God is revealing much truth to us, but some people have jumped at this opportunity to present teachings that God is not revealing.
For example, I heard on Family Radio’s “Open Forum” program where a man called in about the issue of homosexuality. He stated that God is opening up the Scriptures and that Mr. Camping was just not seeing what He was teaching about homosexuality. Others have thought that maybe there is something in the Bible concerning divorce that God can open up, so maybe we are being too hard on divorced people.
But, no. No, we understand what the Bible says about homosexuality very well. This is a sin like other sins and God makes no allowance for it ever, ever. No matter what generation we are in, this is a sin and has been a sin throughout time.
Likewise, Jesus said, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Therefore, when a couple who was married in God’s sight divorces and go their separate ways, the Bible says that they are committing adultery.
You see, moral laws never change. Opening up the Scriptures is not going to change a moral law. It is not going to suddenly make murder right or homosexuality right or marriage and divorce right.
This is not the kind of information that God is opening up. He is opening up information that helps us better understand what He did in the matter of salvation and when He did it, which was from the foundation of the world. He is opening up information about timelines so we can know that May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day.
But no one should expect that something we are going to learn is suddenly going to make stealing Biblical or homosexuality Biblical. That is not going to happen. God is not going to change His moral law in any sense.
This helps us a little bit as we do realize that it is true that God is opening the Scriptures and we want to dig in and find out what He is saying, but this is not going to change certain definite facts and truths that He has declared from the very beginning. This is not going to condone sin. Nothing that we learn should condone a sinful practice.
So one point that we need to consider when we are looking at the Bible being opened up and the Scriptures revealed is that this will not change a moral law. We will never get more information that will make murder proper.
Another thing is that, yes, God is opening up the Bible and He is revealing truths, but it is not true that we can learn everything about God. For instance, who here understands one aspect of the nature of God, which is that He inhabits eternity, that He is an eternal God?
Does anybody here understand how God could have never had a beginning? God is opening up the Bible and the seals are off. Should we not be able to understand how God never had a beginning?
Have you ever tried to go back and think about before the world was created and yet God was there? You just keep traveling back in your mind. I can only just picture space. If you begin traveling back in time, where is it that God started?
Well, you just keep going and going and going and you never come to a starting point because God is and He always has been. He is “from everlasting to everlasting.” This means that we—with our tiny, finite, puny, little minds—cannot comprehend that part of God’s character and nature. He is eternal, and we do not understand this at all. We do not get this. Yes, we can understand a beginning. We can understand that man had a beginning and that the world had a beginning. We can understand this, but we cannot understand something that does not have a beginning and that has always been.
You see, this same mindset that recognizes its humble position before the God that we read about in the Bible who inhabits eternity is the same mindset that we need to bring to any discussion concerning the Trinity that we read about in the Bible where God says in Genesis 1, “Let us make man in our image,” and yet He is One. He is One. He calls Himself ‘elohiym, which is a plural name. He has a plural name and yet He is One.
Jesus prays to the Father. The Father says, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” at the same time that “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove,” and yet He is One.
We cannot understand this nor can we understand how the Son can be “The everlasting Father”. How can He be “The everlasting Father”? I do not know. This is a mystery. This is the decision that we eventually come to. It is just like I do not know how God is eternal. I do not know how He has no beginning, how He could have always been this glorious and mighty God from everlasting, but this is what the Bible teaches so this is what we have to recognize and humbly submit to. We have to submit to the fact that we do not know certain things about God and that just because God is opening up the Bible, this is not going to change some of these things that we cannot comprehend. His Person is too glorious and enormous for us to get our hands on to try to figure Him out. We are far better off saying, “Well, I know that this is what the Bible teaches but I do not know how these things are.”
So Matthew 24:36 says that the Father knows. Acts 1:7 says that concerning times and seasons, the Father has placed that in His own power, which is the word exousia. This is in His own authority, which means that this is in Jesus’ power, in Jesus’ authority, because He is also the Father. “I and my Father are one.”
I do not know how this is but no one can say that Jesus does not know the timing of the end when the Father does know. This is in His authority.
Let us take a look at the end of Luke 24. It says in Luke 24:45-49:
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you…
This is what we read in Acts 1:4:
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father…
Luke 24 mentions this promise. Luke 24:48-49:
And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
Here is a reference to that power again that we read about in Acts 1:7-8.
In Acts 1:7, we read:
…It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
This is the word exousia and it is Strong’s #1849.
Then in Acts 1:8, we read:
But ye shall receive power…
This is the word dunamis and this is Strong’s #1411. This is referring to God’s promise to His people.
Now here in Luke 24:49, Jesus is telling the disciples, which really applies to the believers:
…tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem…
And they are to do this until a certain point:
…until ye be endued with power from on high.
Well, what was to happen after they were endued with power? They would no longer tarry in the city of Jerusalem.
The word “tarry” is only translated as “tarry” in this verse. In 48 places in the New Testament, it is translated as “sit” or “sat.” And we understand that when the Bible uses the word “sit,” it refers to ruling, like when a king sits upon His throne.
…[sit] ye in the city of Jerusalem…
This is why the translators translated this word as “tarry.” If you are sitting, you are not going anywhere. People stand up to walk out. When you sit, you are indicating that you are going to stay awhile. You are tarrying, so this does actually make sense.
But I think that Christ is actually also saying that this implies ruling or the Word of God ruling:
…in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
What does this phrase mean?
…until ye be endued with power from on high.
When did this happen? Tarry in Jerusalem, sit there until you are empowered from on high. What is the first thing that pops in your head? Pentecost. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come,” the Holy Spirit was poured out and they were endued with power from on high. They spoke in the tongues of other languages and the Jews from many countries understood them. After this, they all left Jerusalem. Is that true? That is not true. Not in Acts 2. That happened in 33 A.D.
If we go to Acts 5:15-16, we read:
Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.
This was taking place in Jerusalem.
Look at Acts 6:7:
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Or go to Acts 8:1:
And Saul was consenting unto his death.
Saul will soon become the Apostle Paul, but he was consenting unto Stephen’s death.
It continues:
And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
So now at this point after Stephen is stoned to death, they do begin to scatter. This is several years after Acts 2 has taken place in 33 A.D. This was several years later, maybe even a decade or more. I do not know the exact date, but we know that soon the Apostle Paul will be on the way to Damascus to hail men and women and cast them into prison. Then God will convert him mightily through His own power, God’s power. He will save Saul and call his name Paul.
Awhile after this, after three years, Paul goes to Jerusalem and he meets with the apostles. Then he also refers to another 14-year period after which he goes to Jerusalem and meets with the apostles.
So the believers were in Jerusalem for many years actually after Acts 2, but Luke 24:49 says:
…I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
We really should not be surprised. This should have occurred to us that God uses Jerusalem to typify the church.
What does He say in Matthew 24:16 to those in Judaea when the abomination of desolation is in the holy place?
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
This is a reference to churches.
Or in 2 Thessalonians 2 when the man of sin has taken his seat in the temple, where is the temple? The temple is in Jerusalem, and yet we do not understand this to be referring to the earthly Jerusalem over in the Middle East. We recognize that this is speaking of the churches. Also, almost all the way through the book of Jeremiah, God uses Jerusalem and Judah (Judaea) as types and figures of the churches.
But Acts 2 does not fulfill the requirements of what we read in Luke 24:49, that you are to:
…tarry…until ye be endued with power from on high.
However, this does have to do with the Holy Spirit. But how many times is God going to pour out the Holy Spirit? Is it just in Acts 2? No, He is promised to “set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people.” There will be a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we have learned has taken place back in September 1994. It can be called the latter rain or it can be identified as the second Jubilee. It was the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit and God is in full control. He is opening up the Bible. He is opening up His Word and revealing these things to His people.
For instance, Revelation 18 speaks of Babylon and this was one of the earlier chapters that we began to understand that the Lord was calling his people out of the churches and congregations, as He said in Revelation 18:4:
…Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins…
We understood that this was similar to the command that we read in Matthew 24:16:
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Well, notice what it says in Revelation 18:1:
And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
This angel is Christ who calls Himself “the messenger of the covenant”—which could be translated as “the angel of the covenant”—because the word aggelos could be translated as “angel” or “messenger.”
…I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power…
This is that same Greek word exousia from Acts 1:7, which says that it is in the Father’s power. It is under His authority, and now the angel is coming down with great power, great authority:
…and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Did anybody see this? I must have missed this. I missed that bolt of lightning that lightened up the whole earth that had to have taken place somewhere back in 1994 or somewhere back during this period of Great Tribulation. I did not see the lightning that shined and lightened the whole earth. So what does God mean by the word “lightened”?
Let us go to Ephesians 1:17-18:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling…
This is the same word as in Revelation 18:1. “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” means that God is shining the light in your heart and, therefore, you have oil in your lamp so that you can understand the Bible, you can understand the Word of God. This is what He means when He says that Christ, the messenger, comes down from Heaven with great power and enlightens the earth.
“God is no respecter of persons” and has not just enlightened American Christians. He has also enlightened African Christians and Chinese Christians and Indian Christians. All of God’s elect across the face of the earth are seeing these things and understanding these things. They are realizing that they cannot go to church anymore and that they have to leave their church. Now they are realizing “time and judgment.” They are discerning “time and judgment” because the Lord has opened up their eyes. He has opened up their eyes to see these things, these truths.
I wanted to get into the word exousia, which is translated as “power,” because it is mostly translated as “authority.” It is also translated as “jurisdiction” and as “right.”
Let us see how this word relates to government by turning to Luke 23:7:
And as soon as he knew…
This is referring to Pilate.
…that he belonged unto Herod’s jurisdiction…
This is the word exousia, Strong’s #1849, the word that has been translated as “power” or “authority.”
…he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time.
What does this word “jurisdiction” mean? We use this word today. This means that government—local government, state government, or federal government —has a certain jurisdiction or an area of ground that they cover where within that area, as in Herod’s case, they are the authority. Herod was the governor and he was the king, but Herod had limited jurisdiction because he was not the ultimate king. The ultimate king was Caesar, and Caesar had established government and provinces. There was Pilate in one place and Herod in another. But this word means that in that area that was under Herod’s command, he was the one with authority. Herod was the one who covered that particular area. It was his jurisdiction.
Also look at John 19:10-11 where this word is found three times:
Then saith Pilate unto him…
Pilate is speaking to Jesus.
…Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power…
This is the word exousia.
…to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
Pilate had authority. He was the appointed ruler of that area by Caesar and he had authority over his jurisdiction.
Jesus is saying, “Yes, it is true that you could crucify Me or that you could free Me, but actually you have no authority except the authority that God has given you.” This is what we know about government from Romans 13, which is that God is the One who establishes powers and authorities. Actually, all authority begins with God. All power begins with Him because He is the sole authority. He was in the beginning, He created this world, and He is the One who is said to own “the cattle upon a thousand hills.” He is the One who sets up the basest of men. It is His authority that the world operates under. He gives authority to men.
In Romans 13:1-3, it says:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
The word “powers” is exousia, Strong’s #1849. Actually, every reference to “power” in these first three verses is that same word.
For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Then it goes on to speak about how God has given the minister or the government the sword where they can execute wrath. Therefore, the government can execute a person. That is not wrong to do. If someone killed a man and the government hangs him or shoots him or electrocutes him, this is within their power. This is because God has given the government that ability and that authority to do this.
You know, we as Christians always need to be careful that we do not speak evil of the government, of that authority that God has given to them. This is because it does not matter what type of government a Christian is under, whether it is communism or a dictatorship or a democracy. This does not matter because we are to respect the power and the authority that the Lord has given them and not speak evilly of them. This is something that we all need to be careful about.
This is because if we are speaking evil of them, who allowed them to take this position? Who set them up in that position? Who even says that He “setteth up…the basest of men” at times?
Well, that is God. So we would really be speaking evil of God who brought all of this to pass to where a certain government is in power in the world. God warns elsewhere about speaking evil of dignities. In Jude 1:8, He says:
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
This is also found in 2 Peter 2 where God warns that we are not to revile and speak evil. We were not to do this while in the church towards the leaders in the church. At this time, we do not have a church that has any authority from God, but we still do not want to speak evil of them, nor do we want to speak evil of government. Even if a government is changing and enacting certain things that were not there before, like maybe higher taxes, Jesus pointed out, “Show me the…money.” Then He asked, “Whose is this image and superscription?” Then they said, “Caesar’s,” and He replied, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
So we should not become upset with taxes or government programs or ideologies. If it is the Lord who has set someone up, then we are to respect that. We are actually too occupied and busy anyway, or we should be. We have to get the Gospel out to the world. What does it matter, even now, whether or not a program that the government is sponsoring to begin in 2013 is going to take place? Why would anyone who is a child of God fret or be concerned about anything like that when May 21 in 2011 is Judgment Day? There is no need. It is needless worry and we should not even be going down that road anyway because God is the Supreme Authority who has given authority to men to perform certain functions like government.
He has also given authority to the home, to the house, to the parents, to the husband and wife, that they are to rule their house. The children are in the same position as all of us are in relationship to the government of whatever country. We are obligated to obey whatever law is just, even though the law may not be wise, as long as it is not going against the Law of God, the Bible. We are all obligated to stop at the stoplight, to obey the speed limit on the highway, to pay the taxes. We do not have any choice about this. We might think that it is not the smartest or wisest thing to do, but we do it.
Likewise, children may have parents that are not the smartest or the wisest and they may think that they know more than their parents, and they could have learned more than their parents in certain areas, but really God has established government in the home and the children are to be in submission to the government. If they disobey, have they disobeyed mom and dad? Yes, but who else have they disobeyed? God. They have disobeyed God. This is because God said to the fathers that they were to raise their children well and to love their wives. He said to the wives that they were to be in submission to their husbands. He said to the children that they were to obey, as it says in Ephesians 6:1-2:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Not this earth. Not this earth. Someone could look at this and say, “But there are eighteen months left! So why should I obey my parents to live long on the earth?” Because it does not have to do with this earth. It has to do with a new earth, with “a new heaven and a new earth.” If a child is obedient to Mom and Dad, there is only one reason that this would be. It would be because God is working within them. Yes, they can be obedient on some levels to some degree, but a real heart’s desire to obey Mom and Dad—not even because of them but because God tells them to do this and commands them to do this—is an indicator that a child may be one of God’s children, a child of God. This is especially true with little children, because how many indicators of salvation are there? There are not too many. And we are living in the time of disobedience, which is one of the sins mentioned in Romans 1 where at the end God will give children up to disobeying their parents.
This is just another aspect of God’s government. He established the main government in every country in the world, He established government in the home, and He also has established authority and power in a few other ways that we do not have time to look at today. Maybe, Lord willing, we will see how the Father has given the Son authority, and the Son turns around and gives authority to His disciples for them to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel.”
Then there are those who question authority. There is a saying that we see today, “Question Authority!” This really means to rebel against it.
But who questioned authority in the Bible? The Pharisees did. When Jesus would do His mighty works, “He taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” He spoke with full authority, and the Pharisees asked Him the question, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?” They were questioning His authority.
This is like the churches today question the authority of God’s people to say the many things that God’s people are saying that are coming from the Bible. I stated earlier that I’ve heard people claim, “How dare you to give a date!”
Well, the big thing that people are opposed to about May 21 in 2011 is that it is so definite. We put an exclamation point at the end of this declaration and not a question mark.
In the church, they do not teach with authority. However, God does. Christ does and He gives this authority to His people.
Okay, we will stop here and close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your help in all things. We thank You that You are with us every day. You guide us and lead us. You direct our paths. Father, this is a narrow way and the path is sometimes difficult, but we pray that You would open up our eyes to see, that You would enlighten our minds to understand and to follow the way that You have made for us to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. We know that in order to get into Heaven, it can only be a result of Your work and grace and faith. We do ask that You would have mercy on our children, have mercy on anyone here or listening over Paltalk who may not yet be born again. We pray that You would open our eyes to see the day that we are living in, that this is not any normal period of time. This is unlike anything that the world has ever known because now we are at the end of all things and the day is at hand. Father, we do pray that You would give us Your Spirit to strengthen us in the inner man in order that we might move and will and do of Your good pleasure and give up ourselves to that which is right and that which is our reasonable duty to do, that You would move in our lives to put down all selfish wants and desires and to turn to You for strength. We ask that You would strengthen us according to Your Word and by Your Word. Father, we pray for each one here and those listening over Paltalk. May You be with them in the coming week, especially the children. May You have mercy on them and may they be led to open up their Bibles and to read the Bible and to pray on their own, not because they are being told to do this. May they realize the great wisdom that is in reading the Bible at this time, that it would be a blessing for them. Father, we pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
(There was no question/answer session pertaining to this study.)