Let us open our Bibles to Isaiah 34 and we will read the first six verses. We read in Isaiah 34:1-6:
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of JEHOVAH is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of JEHOVAH is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for JEHOVAH hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
I will stop here.
One of the things that I have realized is that we, as human beings, do not listen. One of the problems with mankind is that we do not listen to God’s Word, the Bible. We will listen to everything else; but when it comes to God’s Word, the Bible, we want nothing to do with it. Yet we also know that God is the One who has to give us ears to hear the Word of God.
Here in Isaiah 34:1, we know that God is speaking to the whole world, because the Bible is for all mankind. No matter where you were born or where you are from, the Bible is for the whole human race.
So in Isaiah 34:1, God says:
Come near…
“Come near”; it is a command of God for us to “come near” to Him, to the Word of God. Then He says:
…ye nations…
God is speaking to all of the nations of the world. It continues:
…to hear; and hearken…
We are to listen to what God has to say, because the Bible is the Word of God.
Many people have opinions as to who wrote the Bible. I was speaking to someone one day who said, “Man wrote the Bible.” Someone else said that only part of the Bible was written by man. I asked this person, “What part? What book?” but they could not answer.
The entire Bible is the Word of God. We ought to be listening to it and listening very intently, because God is speaking to each and every one of us and He means absolutely what He says. What God says, He will bring to pass.
It makes no difference what you or I think; the Bible is true. God even tells us in Proverbs 3 that we are to “lean not unto thine own understanding.” Our own wisdom and what we think does not mean anything. What God says is absolute truth and He will bring it to pass.
As you know, we are at the very end. We only have a few more months left. We have ten months and a few days to go. Here, God in His mercy has warned us of what He is about to do; but how many people are listening to what He has to say?
Mankind is going about his own business. He is busy planning his wedding. He is busy with his job and concerned about his retirement. He is busy going to school. He is busy with all of these things.
Mankind in our day is just like in the days of Noah. What does God tell us that they were doing? They heard the warning from God. They heard that the flood was coming. Did they bother to really listen to what Noah was saying? No.
God tells us in the Bible that the people of Noah’s day were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” right up until the very day of the flood. They did not listen to what Noah had to say, even though God, though Noah, was telling the world of that day what He was about to do, which was destroy the earth. Mankind went right on with their lives as if it was business as usual, but then the flood came and they were all destroyed; they perished in the flood.
This is as we are in our day. God in His mercy is warning the world to listen and to hear what He has to say, and yet there are those who could care less. It goes in one ear and out the other.
This has been my experience when I have tried to talk to people about May 21, 2011. There are times when you know that they are not listening to you. It could be a child, it could be anyone, but you know that they are not listening. They hear you with their physical ears, but this is as far as it goes. They are not taking the Bible seriously. They are not listening because they think that they have more important things to do with their lives. They have their own problems.
But if you are not a child of God, you have a bigger problem. You are on your way to the day of judgment to be destroyed forevermore. What could be bigger than this? You are about to be destroyed! Do you not care? There are those who do not. They are just moseying along. But in that day of judgment, it is going to be terrible.
Turn over to Genesis 19 to a familiar passage. If you are a true believer and you hear this information about the day of judgment, you will check this out and you will see that this is what the Bible is teaching. You will see this to be true, and then one of the first things that you will do as a true believer is that you will go to your immediate family, will you not? You will tell your husband or your wife, as well as your children, about this information in the Bible.
God gave us this example in Genesis 19 with Lot. What did Lot do when he heard the information that Sodom and Gomorrah were going to be destroyed? What did Lot do? He warned his immediate family. Did they listen to him? They heard what he said, but they really did not hear him because they continued on with their lives. We read their response in Genesis 19:14:
And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for JEHOVAH will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
Do you see what they did? They laughed at him; and I am sure that for many of us, as we share this information with others, the mockers are lined up. The scoffers are lined up and they have many opinions. They are not listening to the Bible. They are not listening and their reaction to this information is just like Lot’s sons-in-law.
Is this your response when you hear this? Many people are like this. They hear it and it does not affect them in any way. They just continue on with business as usual. You can tell them repeatedly and it just bounces off of their foreheads and comes right back to you. In other words, they do not care. They do not care, and so they laugh at you or they tease you or they call you names. You name it, but this is the reaction of man to the Gospel. He does not believe it.
We are coming with the information that on May 21 of 2011, Judgment Day begins and they say, “I do not want to hear this. Tell me the goods things of the Bible. Tell me that God loves me.” It is all of these types of things that man wants to hear. But, no; we are talking about the end, about Judgment Day, and this is very serious information. This is what the Bible is saying and this will happen. Whether we want to hear this or not or whether we even care about this or not, this day is fast approaching.
Every day goes by, every week, every month. We just started the year and we are six months into it already. Where did this time go? Time is quickly moving along and we no longer have the luxury of time. Actually, we have never had the luxury of time because God can take any one of us out in death at any given moment; but we are living in the day when we are looking right at the end of time, at Judgment Day.
This is a reality. This is going to happen, and so we should not stop our ears and continue on as if we have never heard this because it will not go well with the wicked in the day of judgment. It will not go well with the wicked in the day of judgment, but it will go well for those who love the Lord because this is the day that we have been waiting for.
For thousands of years, the Bible has been speaking about this one day, Judgment Day, and the true believers are looking forward to this day with great excitement. Although, yes, in this time in which we know that man is going to be destroyed, we look at this with sadness, great sadness. But on the other hand, the true believers are looking forward to this day.
So what I want to look at is the wicked in the day of judgment. Let us go to Psalm 17. God has given us these bits of pieces of information in the Bible about the wicked. It will not go well for them in the day of judgment. It will not. It is going to be the most horrible day of their lives.
Many people in our day are hoping, hoping, hoping that this information in the Bible is completely incorrect. They say, “I will see you on May 22nd.” They are having a field day, so to speak, with this information from the Bible. They ask, “How can you know the date of Judgment Day? Even the angels do not know this, not even the Son of God!” You try to tell them that this verse is not saying what they think it means. You tell them what it means, but they do not want to hear it. They take comfort in the Bible verse that states that no one knows the day or hour. They comfort themselves with this verse, even though you try to tell them, “No, this verse does not mean what you think it does,” but they do not want to hear it. They ignorantly go on their way.
So in Psalm 17:9-15, God says:
From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O JEHOVAH, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand, O JEHOVAH, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life…
For the wicked of the world, their portion is in this life. In another part of the Bible, God tells us that they “mind earthly things.” This is why they do not want this world to end. The Bible even says, “whose God is their belly,” and Psalm 17 goes on to say:
…and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
Unsaved man finds his joy in this life. He has his dreams, his aspirations, his beautiful home, his good job where he makes a whole bunch of money, and he does not want to see this world end. However, he needs to fast-forward the clock and look at himself on the day of judgment. What good will these things that he has amassed in this life do for him on the day of judgment? It will all mean absolutely nothing because he is going to be destroyed.
So it will not go well with unsaved man on the day of judgment. A horrible thing is going to happen to him then. He is going to be destroyed forever. Forever and ever, he will no longer be remembered. God is going to wipe him out. His inheritance, his portion, is in this life and this is all that he is going to get. Because of this, he clings to this world even though he knows, as well as everyone else, that this world is going to end.
When we see some catastrophe happen in this world, unsaved man is beside himself. He is beside himself because he sees that this world is not as stable as he thinks. He is beside himself. He is concerned about global warming. He is worried about all sorts of things in this life because he is trying desperately to hold onto it since this is his portion. His lot is in this life and this is all that he is going to get.
Let us go to the book of Philippians and look at another familiar passage. God is speaking to those who are in the church and to those who are out of the church. In Philippians 3:17-20, through the Apostle Paul, God is teaching us and He says:
Brethren, be followers together of me…
Paul here is a picture of Christ Himself. It continues:
…and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk…
These are those who are just living out their lives.
(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
To be an enemy of the cross means that you are not saved.
During the church age, there were pastors who proclaimed a prosperity gospel. When the pastors proclaimed this, they were telling you that their god was their belly. As long as they could have the things that they had and believe that their so-called god gave them these things, then this was the god whom they worshipped.
God goes on to tell them here what is going to happen to them. It continues:
Whose end is destruction…
The end of the unsaved or the end of the wicked is destruction. It continues:
…whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Those “who mind earthly things” are those who love the things that this world produces. They love it and they do not want to face the fact that this world is coming to an end. Their only life is here.
For the true believers, this is not so. Our lives are not in this world because our eyes are focused on spiritual things where God is seated in heaven. We mind spiritual things. We should not be caught up in this world like the unsaved are. This should not be, as it goes on to say:
For our conversation is in heaven…
Our inheritance or our portion is really God Himself. When God comes to destroy this earth, we are going to be the inheritors of the “new heaven and the new earth,” which is only a few months away.
Let us turn to Psalm 11. We read in Psalm 11:5-7:
JEHOVAH trieth the righteous: but the wicked…
The wicked are all of the unsaved.
…but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked…
Now we are getting into God’s punishment of the wicked during that five-month period that begins on May 21, 2011:
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest…
It is not going to go well for the wicked during the day of judgment. God calls this “an horrible tempest.” He says that it will be:
…an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
This is what God is going to give to the wicked in the day of judgment. Although it seems like all is going well for them right now as they are enjoying life, as the sports stadiums are filled and mankind is going about their business, yet this is their lot. This is what Jehovah God is going to give them in the day of judgment. It continues:
For the righteous JEHOVAH loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
The upright are those whom God has given righteousness. As we know, we have no righteousness of ourselves. God is the One who has imputed to us the righteousness of Christ.
But the lot of the wicked is “an horrible tempest.” God is going to bring “fire and brimstone” upon them. During the five-month period of God’s judgment, the wicked of the world who are left behind on that day are going to have to face Almighty God and they are going to be punished for their sins and their iniquity. There will be no escaping this unless someone becomes saved.
This is why we need the Lord Jesus Christ as our refuge. If you read through the Psalms, you will find that God tells us that He is “our refuge” and our “hiding place.” He is our refuge and hiding place from what? It has to be from something. What is it? It is from the wrath of God. He is our safety as we escape this “horrible tempest” that God is going to be pouring out upon the wicked in the day of judgment. This is going to be an absolute terror for them on that day.
For now, we see mankind laughing at the Gospel. He is mocking it. He does not want to talk about it. He has all of his excuses, and they are nothing but excuses, excuse after excuse after excuse; but in the day of judgment when mankind sees and realizes what is about to happen to him, it is then that he will begin to understand what the Bible says, which is “JEHOVAH he is God,” that the Bible was right all along and that he was wrong.
How merciful it is that God tells us not to trust our own thinking. Mankind states, “I believe this but I do not believe that,” etc. This does not mean one thing. It is the Bible that we trust. What sayest the Bible? As Chris was saying earlier, “In multitude of counsellors there is safety.” It is to the Bible that we go to find truth, not within our own minds or inside a library or by listening to Dr. So-and-So. No, we will never find truth in any of these things. The truth is in God’s Word, the Bible, and this is where we have to go to find it.
Look also at Job 20. We will start reading in verse 21 to pick up the context. It says in Job 20:21-26:
There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him. All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
It is going to go ill with the wicked in the day of judgment. Those who are left behind are going to be consumed by God.
It continues on to say in Job 20:27-28:
The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
All that he has will be gone in the day of judgment. Then we read in Job 20:29:
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
This is what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to give to the wicked in the day of judgment. All that he has, whatever he owns, will be gone. It will be no good. All of his hopes and his dreams will be gone. God is going to interrupt mankind. Come May 21st, it will not make any difference what someone is doing or what they did not accomplish or what someone’s problems are. You will have a bigger problem if you are not saved because you will have to face God in that day of judgment, a day that is quickly, quickly approaching as time is running out.
So if you know that you are not a child of God, we hear this over and over and over again, be like the Ninevites. God is merciful. He is gracious. He is full of compassion. He is still saving a great multitude of people. No matter how many sins you have committed, the grace of God is sufficient. God can forgive, so we have no excuse.
We have heard the warning of the day of judgment and how this is coming. We know how things are going to go ill for the wicked in the day of judgment. Are we supposed to just sit around with an uncaring attitude?
God is an infinite being. He knows all things, and yet He is the One whom you think that you are wiser than. Is this not foolish? Is it not foolish to think that we are smarter than God? He shows us what He is about to do from this information in the Bible, so just think about this. He could have designed the Gospel a thousand different ways. Judgment Day could just come upon us suddenly and wipe us out. He could have done things this way because God is God, but He does not. God always warns the world what He is about to do.
He did this in Noah’s day. For 120 years, God warned the people. Do you see the grace of God and His mercy? He warned Nineveh, and we can see how He was merciful to them. He always warns by His grace. It is the grace of God. But then the day comes when His door of mercy and grace is closed.
God’s grace in salvation is not an open-ended thing, or when I feel like it. If it was up to us, none of us would cry out to God for mercy. It is not an open-ended thing. The day comes when God’s mercy is no longer going to be available, as we read in Isaiah 55:6-7:
Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found…
This is telling us that a day will come when He will no longer be found. The door to the ark did not stay open while it was raining, did it? No, the Bible clearly tells us that God Himself shut the door. No one else was getting in, no one. His mercy on that day was done for the people of that day, but now the door of God’s mercy is flown wide open. It says:
Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
God is near to us. It continues:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto JEHOVAH…
And why? Because He is merciful! Because He is gracious!
Turn to Job 24:18. This is speaking about the unsaved:
He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth…
For the unsaved, “their portion,” their heritage, is “cursed in the earth,” because God is going to destroy them. It says:
…their portion…
This is referring to “their heritage” or their lot in this life, which is:
…cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
“Their portion” in this life “is cursed.” God is going to destroy them.
It is not going to go well for them in the day of God’s anger. It will be terrible. A terrible thing is going to happen to them. It will be terrible for the unsaved when they realize on May 21, 2011 that the Bible was true. They will realize that it was true and they will be saying, “Lord, Lord!” Do you remember Matthew 7? “Lord, Lord! Master, Master! Have I not done this and done that?” God is going to say to them, “I never knew you: depart from me.”
The day of mercy will have come and gone on May 21st. After the true believers are caught up to be with Christ on that day, all of the unsaved will be left behind and there will be no more grace. People will still have the Bible. They will still have it, but the door will be closed. No one else will be able to get in. They will all be left behind here to face the wrath of Almighty God.
We ought to take this seriously. This is not a joke. The Bible is deadly serious. I know that there are many who laugh at this and have their own opinions of the Bible, but this will not change the fact that this day of judgment has been appointed by God from all the counsels of eternity. We cannot change this.
We cannot hope this away and wish that this is not going to happen. Judgment Day is going to happen. We are not to stick our heads in the sand and act like we have never heard this. We have all heard this over and over and over again. Remember that God tells us, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Do not turn away from this.
Mankind is going to mock and laugh at us all they want, but we should feel sorry for them because we know what is coming upon them. The wicked in the day of judgment, it will not go well with them. He laughs now and has his so-called fun, but the day is coming when they are going to have to face God—how terrible this will be!
Turn to Matthew 24. We will start in verse 48 to pick up the context. We read in Matthew 24:48-51:
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is speaking of the unsaved in the day of judgment. They are not looking for His return. They are not looking in the Bible for this and they are not listening to the warning of God that Judgment Day is almost here. Their portion is going to be “with the hypocrites” and:
…there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I hear many people mock Judgment Day. They do not realize what they are doing. It is going to be a horrible time for that five-month period.
I have often wondered if those last few verses in Deuteronomy 28 are literal. It says, “In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.” In the evening, they will wish to God that it was morning. In the morning, they will wish to God that it was evening. This is speaking of the suffering of the unsaved during this time as God has begun to pour out His wrath upon those who have been left behind.
It makes no difference who you are or your status in this life because God has warned us, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” This has nothing to do with your educational level or whether you live on the street or in a mansion. He does not mean this because the Bible tells us, “God is no respecter of persons.” God is not impressed by our status. The Bible tells us that He is impressed with “a broken and a contrite heart.”
Let us look at another passage. Turn to Zephaniah in the Old Testament. I am going to break into the middle of chapter one. We read in Zephaniah 1:13:
Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
Then we read in verse 14, Zephaniah 1:14:
The great day of JEHOVAH is near…
Oh, how near this is in our day!
…it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
He is crying. Why is unsaved man crying in the day of judgment? He is weeping because it is too late for salvation. He is weeping and wailing and gnashing his teeth. He realizes that he had been living his life without Christ. Maybe he had heard the Gospel all of his life. He had heard it. Many homes in the United States have a Bible that they never bothered to read. Many homes have godly parents who love the Lord and are teaching their children the Word of God, and yet the children are not listening. There they will be standing in the day of judgment and they will be weeping because they have to face the wrath of God.
Then we read in Zephaniah 1:15-18:
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men…
Who is the “I” here? This is God Himself. God will be doing this. It continues:
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against JEHOVAH: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
If you look at the word “dung” in the Bible, you will find that this relates to the day of judgment when all of the dead of the world go unburied. Their bodies are going to be cast out and “they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth.” They are under the judgment of God.
Then it says:
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of JEHOVAH’S wrath…
Mankind trusts in his riches, in his wealth, in his money; but in that day of judgment, this will all be useless. None of this can deliver man from the wrath of God. No one can buy their way into Heaven. This is all useless.
It continues:
…but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Then we read in Zephaniah 2:1-2:
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth…
It is as if God is telling us that before this decree, before Judgment Day begins, we ought to be crying out to God for mercy, “O Lord, could it be that You might save me?” Do you remember the song that says, “Nothing in my hand I bring”? We simply plead to God like the Ninevites and it may be that He might save us, but we do not know whether He will save us or not.
It continues:
Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff…
Do you see how He is repeating “before,” “before”? He continues:
…before the fierce anger of JEHOVAH come upon you…
Before this “come upon you,” you ought to be crying out to God for mercy:
…before the day of JEHOVAH’S anger come upon you.
Did you notice how He repeated this twice? He is emphasizing that we are to seek Jehovah before He comes, because the possibility of salvation still exists. It just might be that He will save you.
Then we read in Zephaniah 2:3:
Seek ye JEHOVAH, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of JEHOVAH’S anger.
Hid from what? We need to be hid from the anger of God. If you are saved, you are “hid with Christ in God.” The Bible says that we have “passed from death unto life.” This is the language that God uses in the Bible. We need to be hid from the day of judgment, and we can only be hid from the day of judgment when God has saved us, which needs to be before the anger of the Lord comes, before He does these things.
In the day when the Lord returns, the day of salvation is over. No one else will get into the Kingdom of Heaven. You can weep. You can cry, and there will be a lot of weeping in that day. All sorts of things will be going on, but God will not hear you.
Remember what Isaiah 55:6 said:
Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
He is near to us. He is still saving sinners. We have the Word of God in front of us. We are not in the day of judgment as yet. It is coming. The days are passing very quickly. Before we know it, we will be in December. We will soon be in May of 2011, and so we should be beseeching Him every day, night and day, crying out to Him, because we know that the Lord is merciful.
But the day of salvation is coming to a close very, very quickly. Time is of the essence. Time is get shorter and shorter as each 24-hour day goes by. We cannot reach back into yesterday and live it over again. That time is gone. It is gone. We are already at the end of June. Time is going by very quickly, very, very quickly.
We also know that in the day of judgment, which is fast approaching, it will go ill for the wicked. It will go ill for them; but for those who are saved, this is the day that Christians have been waiting for. All through the creation of this world, the Bible has been talking about this day of judgment. We know that God set up types and pictures of this day. The flood of Noah’s day was a picture of the end of the world, as well as the battle of Jericho. God was setting up types of this day.
We will soon get to this day. For those who are truly saved and who have been looking for this day in the Bible, we are going to be approaching this day with great anticipation. This day will come. Immediately, the true believers will be caught up to be with Christ and there they will be forever.
Let us look at another verse. Let us turn to 2 Thessalonians. We have been waiting for the completion of our salvation. As you know, for the true believers, in their spirits where they have experienced salvation, they are saved; but our bodies are not. Our bodies are not saved as yet, and so we are waiting for this day. We read in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10:
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God…
This is referring to the wicked. They “know not God” and God will take “vengeance on them,” on those who:
…obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
This is referring to the wicked who are going to be destroyed in that day. It continues:
Who shall be punished…
He is still speaking about the wicked:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction…
It is the Lord Jesus, God Himself, who is going to do this. He is going to punish them with everlasting destruction:
…from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints…
The saints are all of His people, God’s elect. God is going to be glorified in His saints:
…and to be admired in all them that believe…
This is the day that the true believers are looking for. The true believers are going to love this day. They are finally going to be with God forever and ever and ever. Forevermore, they will be with Him; but the unsaved are going to be “punished with everlasting destruction.” On October 21, 2011, God is going to destroy them. They are going to be totally destroyed. I believe that by the time it gets to October 21, 2011, everyone who had been left behind will be dead.
If you remember, the Bible talks about a “great earthquake…so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” It will be so great that it will be “such as was not since men were upon the earth.” God is going to use this earthquake to open the graves of all of the dead. We see earthquakes today and we just recoil at them, but the earthquakes that we see in our day are nothing compared to the one that will occur on May 21, 2011 as God speaks about this earthquake as being “so mighty…and so great.”
Let me read about this. Revelation 16 speaks about this. We read in Revelation 16:17-18:
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
This will be a horrible thing. With our little minds, we cannot understand how God will shake the earth in this way. But for those who are saved, this will be a great day.
Look at 2 Timothy 4. We find here that God is speaking about His people. We read in 2 Timothy 4:8:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness…
This is referring to Christ, to God, because God is our “exceeding great reward.” He is our inheritance. It continues:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Who are the ones who are going to love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ? It will be the true believers. The true believers will love the appearing of Christ. For the unsaved, no; this will be the most horrible day for them! For the true believers, this is the day that they have been waiting for. There will be a total difference in the response between the saved people and the wicked of the world. The wicked will see that this earth that they love so much will be gone; before them, it will become useless as God will begin to destroy this world.
Let us go on to look at Psalm 33:11-12. It says:
The counsel of JEHOVAH standeth for ever…
This is referring to the Word of God as it stands forever. It goes on to say:
…the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation…
What nation is this referring to? This is referring to the true believers. This is not referring to any political nation. This is the “nation” of true believers.
Blessed is the nation whose God is JEHOVAH; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
They are “the blessed of the LORD.” He has chosen them “before the foundation of the world” and He has chosen them for “his own inheritance”; God’s elect, He chose them to be His inheritance from the foundation of the world.
Let us look at another verse. Look at Psalm 37. We read in Psalm 37:8-13:
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
We should not desire revenge on anyone. No matter what someone has done to us, we should not seek revenge. Vengeance belongs to God.
It continues:
For evildoers shall be cut off…
This is referring to the unsaved. Then it says:
…but those that wait upon JEHOVAH, they shall inherit the earth.
The true believers are going to be the inheritors of the earth because God is their portion.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth…
The meek are His people:
…and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
This will happen in the “new heaven and the new earth.” It continues:
The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.
Do you see the difference between those who are looking for the day of judgment and those who are not, the difference between the righteous and the wicked? It will go ill with the wicked in the day of judgment. It is not going to be pretty for them.
Now look in this same chapter at verse 17. We read in Psalm 37:17-18:
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but JEHOVAH upholdeth the righteous. JEHOVAH knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
The inheritance of God’s people is forever. They are going to be the inheritors of the “new heaven and the new earth” forevermore.
Then we read in verse 20, Psalm 37:20:
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of JEHOVAH shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
We see the difference between the righteous and the wicked. On the day of judgment, the wicked will “consume away.” They will cease to exist on October 21, 2011.
Now go down to verse 27, Psalm 37:27:
Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
We are to “depart from evil,” which is sin. It just may be that God might save.
Let us turn over to Matthew 25. God gives us a parable here; this is all parabolic language. We read in Matthew 25:32:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
On May 21, there is going to be a separation. The true believers are going to be caught up to be with Christ. The unbelievers will be left behind.
Let us read on a little further. We read in Matthew 25:33-34:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed…
Those “on his right hand” are a picture of the true believers, as He says to them:
…Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
This Kingdom has been prepared by God for all those who have had their sins paid for. I tell you, it will be blessing after blessing after blessing for His people.
Let us look at one last passage. Turn over to Revelation 21. It is fitting to end this lesson in this chapter where we will see the true believers. We have seen the contrast between the two: the wicked and the righteous. It will go ill for the wicked in the day of judgment; but for the righteous, this is what we have been waiting for. We read in Revelation 21:1-4:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
This world is gone, no longer to be remembered. It will be forgotten.
Then Revelation 21:5 says:
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
When God has said something in the Bible, these words are true. He is the truth and He is the faithful One. He will do what He says.
Then we read in Revelation 21:6-7:
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things…
The true believers will inherit “all things.” It continues on to tell us:
…and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
This will be forevermore. For the wicked, it will go ill for them in the day of judgment. The only way anyone can escape this is if God has truly saved them.
When May 21st comes, the true believers will be gone and the unsaved will have to face the God whom they have been denying, the God who they thought did not exist. They laughed at the Bible and poked fun as you handed out tracts. If you hand out tracts, you see the responses. They write about you in the paper and call you names, etc. But in the day of judgment, the unsaved of the world will know that Jehovah, He is God!
Let us stop here.