Let us go to Luke 21. I am going to read from verse 14. We read in Luke 21:14-28:
Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
The last part of Luke 21:28 says:
… for your redemption draweth nigh.
This has to do with the resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the people of God.
Today is Easter and this is a good day to remember the resurrection of Christ. We do know that Christ died before the world began and rose from the dead before the world began, as Romans 1 indicates. It is stated there that He was “declared to be the Son…by the resurrection from the dead.” Because of or through the resurrection of the dead, He became the Son. Jesus entered into the world as the Son of God. This means that He had already risen; and then, as the Son, He created the world.
So when we are thinking about the cross, as Jesus went to the cross in 33 A.D., we are really just looking at what He did to make manifest and to declare what He had done before the world began. Resurrection Sunday teaches the people of God and assures them that because He rose, so will they rise.
As far as the resurrection of the believers, God has done this in an interesting way. He does this in two parts. This is like what we read about in Revelation 20. We read in Revelation 20:4-5:
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished…
This is a reference to 1988 when the church age came to a close and Satan was loosed. He was bound for a thousand years, and then he was loosed. The rest of the dead did not live again; that is, they did not become saved until this time of Great Tribulation when God plans on saving the “great multitude” of people.
It goes on to say in Revelation 20:5-6:
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
We are reigning with Christ and we are seated with Him “in heavenly places,” and this goes on forever. There is no end of this reign for the believers, and so this thousand years is looking at the completeness of eternity. This is a different thousand years.
God speaks about “the first resurrection,” and some of the people here have experienced “the first resurrection.” If you are born again, if you are a child of God, then you have been resurrected. This is because our souls, our spirits, were “dead in trespasses and sins.”
When God saves a person, when He brings His Word, He resurrects that individual and gives them a new heart and a new spirit. This is an actual resurrection because that which was dead is brought to life. This is referring to the soul existence or the spirit being of man. God brings the Gospel to a house. Maybe He saves everyone in that home or just one or two. They have then experienced “the first resurrection.”
Has there been any change to them outwardly? No; we cannot tell. As we look around, we cannot tell who is saved or who is not saved. This is why we are never to judge. We are never to make a judgment as to whether or not someone is saved. We can have an idea either way, but we really should leave this with God because God in His wisdom determined to make salvation two parts or two stages. The first stage is the soul.
When we think about this, He had to do this, right? If God gave complete salvation of body and of soul at the moment an individual became saved, how could they continue to operate in this world?
When we read of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were shining with Christ with the brilliance of the sun; but the saved cannot go about the world with the Gospel if they are shining with the brilliance of the sun. The world would not be able to accept this. Even when Moses went up into the mountain and was with God, he came down and his face shone. The Israelites “were afraid to come nigh him,” and so he had to put a veil over his face.
So it just was not practical for God to perform a complete salvation on individuals. Remember that the moment someone is saved, it is like they are transported into Heaven to be seated in Christ. Then they are dispatched right away to earth to be a messenger of the Gospel. In order to carry out this duty, we have to keep these bodies. We have to continue in these bodies. Then the world is not afraid of someone who is standing on the corner who looks just like them or like anybody else. They just seem like they are just another person and it is not known that there is a big difference and that this individual has been resurrected the first time in their soul, which is the first resurrection, and has a promise of the completed action.
This is one big reason for why we do desire this day to come - the day of the resurrection, the day of the rapture - because we only have half. We cannot really say what portion, but we only have a partial salvation and we need to be completely saved. We have to be rid of these physical bodies that are still seeing corruption.
This is also why even after someone is saved, they continue to age, their body continues to deteriorate, and they will eventually die. This is because their body has not been saved yet; only the spirit. Since their spirit is saved, when someone who is saved dies, the Bible says that “to be absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord.” Their soul is already prepared and they go into Heaven, but their body has not yet been prepared for Heaven. The body goes into the ground and has to wait.
All those who have died throughout history have to wait for this day, as Job said, “I know that my redeemer liveth” and that one day his body would be brought up and would rise. This is the hope of the children of God: to receive a new resurrected body, which is going to be something that we just cannot comprehend. Our bodies are weak. We are prone to illness and, of course, death.
Children, you may not realize this yet. Most of you probably feel strong. You probably feel that you can run all day, and some of you do; but this is just a little temporary period and then the body begins to see corruption. It begins to weaken until it finally will die in this life.
However, there is this promise to the people of God. One place that we read about this promise is in Proverbs 23:17-18:
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of JEHOVAH all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
This is our expectation. It is the hope of the promise of God, and He has promised eternal life. This does not just relate to our soul, but a whole new complete personality, body and soul, forever and ever.
We read incredible things in relation to this new body. It is a body that will not sorrow. It is a body that will not cry. It is a body that will not see death. This is going to be an incredible creation that God will give to His people. It is going to be a body that will be equipped to exist and to live forever and ever and ever. It will have no sin. It will have no disease of any kind. Nothing bad will ever harm it or kill it. This will be impossible. God tells us this repeatedly in many places. It is salvation forever, eternal life.
Some people just want to live in this world to be one hundred. They do not care if they have to be stooped over and if they have to kind of walk very slowly and if they cannot make too sudden of a move because they might break a hip. They are prone to all sorts of illnesses. It is a very difficult life as we get older and older and our bodies are aging, and yet people just want to live in any kind of condition. They just want to live because they are afraid of death.
What does death offer to the person of the world? It is an end of this life, and so people want to keep living; but this is not really living. The living that God talks about is just way, way, way beyond our ability to even imagine. Whatever your greatest desire has been, your greatest hope for living in this life, magnify this a billion times and it still would not be enough. We will be a perfect body at the time of the resurrection of the dead, and this is coming 26/27 days on May 21st. The hope of God’s people all throughout time is about to be realized in less than four weeks, and so we just stand amazed.
I just want to look at this one verse again and then we will move on. We read in Luke 21:28 again:
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Go to Romans 8:23. It says:
And not only they…
That is, the creation groaning and travailing in pain. It continues:
…but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
We have the firstfruits. We have the Holy Spirit. We have a new resurrected soul. God is indicating here that this produces a groaning and that we are waiting still. We are to wait on the Lord. Some might be waiting on Him for the first resurrection, and this is good. They are still waiting for Him to resurrect their souls; but also, even after God saves a sinner and gives them a new spirit, we still have to wait. We wait for the completion of all things.
This is spoken about in Hebrews 11, which is the chapter of faith. We read in Hebrews 11:39-40:
And these all…
That is, all of the men of faith who came before. It continues:
…having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
They had the first resurrection. Noah was saved by grace. David was saved by grace. But they have not received the completion, the body. God says that they have not received that promise yet because He has provided something better; that is, everybody gets this at the same time, which is what 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is speaking about. It is the day of the rapture and the day of the resurrection when God is equipping His people with that new spiritual body that will live forever.
The redemption is spoken about in Ephesians 1. After God lays out in the first couple of verses His plan of election and predestination, that He chose which ones He would save out of the whole of mankind, we read in Ephesians 1:6-7:
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
We have redemption in Christ and Christ’s name is actually Redemption as well as Wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:30, which says that He is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” He is the essence of redemption. Everything that the Bible says about redemption has to do with the Lord Jesus.
Then we read in Ephesians 1:13-14:
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed…
This would be the belief that God gives with a new heart. It continues:
…ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
God is dragging out this sentence and throwing a lot of things in here, but He is basically saying that we have been sealed because we have the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit is the “earnest of our inheritance.” It is our down payment. It is like the earnest money that is talked about when someone is buying a house. The Holy Spirit, within the child of God, is God’s guarantee that He will finish their salvation, that He will complete it, that He will redeem their body just like He has redeemed their soul.
So the Holy Spirit is actually evidence to the child of God of the truthfulness and faithfulness of God and His Word to do what He has said what He will do in the matter of salvation. He will save the sinner completely and entirely, both in spirit and then in body, on the day of the resurrection.
I actually want to go back to Luke 21 and read about this day of redemption, because God gives us indicators of when this is going to be. We know when this is going to be. We know that it will be on May 21st. All the evidence of the Bible points to this. But it is interesting how He makes reference to this in Luke 21:28, and so I would like to go through some of the preceding verses; for example, Luke 21:15:
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
This is referring to our day. In Mark 13, God tells His people to “speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost,” as we follow His methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture.
He is saying here that He is going to give His people “a mouth and wisdom,” and wisdom has everything to do with discerning “time and judgment.” We read in Daniel that “none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” In Ecclesiastes, we read that “a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.”
So in this chapter that is parallel to Matthew 24, God is saying that He will give ability and utterance to declare the Word and wisdom to discern “time and judgment.”
Notice how this says:
…which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Is this true? Are the adversaries not gainsaying this? Are they not resisting this?
No; they are in a big way, but what God means is that they cannot do this legitimately, honestly, and Biblically. Nobody can “gainsay nor resist” this information from the Bible itself.
If we go to Acts 6, we will find this word “resist” used in relation to Stephen. We read in Acts 6:9-10:
Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
So they could not resist Stephen and what he was saying, but then look at verse 11, Acts 6:11-13:
Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses…
They did this to the point where they stoned him to death. They definitely resisted and gainsaid what God had given Stephen to talk about, but they could not do this like a Berean. They could not search the Scriptures to show that what Stephen was saying was wrong. This is God’s point in Luke 21, “I am going to give my people a mouth and wisdom, which all their adversaries shall not be able to gainsay.”
Can they say that we are in a cult? Yes. Can they say that we are heretics? Yes. Can they say that we are crazy or stupid or morons? Yes; and I am just relating some of the things that I have been called within the last week. Can they say these things? Yes; yes they can. But can they show their conclusions from the Bible? No. They can repeat over and over and over, “No man knows the day or hour.” Okay; but that is only one or two verses. Can they show how the Bible supports this? What about all of this other information from the Bible that indicates that we will know, that Noah knew and Lot knew and Jonah knew and told the Ninevites, and so on? What about all of that? These things cannot be gainsaid or resisted. People harp on a couple of things and think that if they repeat it enough, it is going to be so; but this is not how it works. Any conclusion has to be shown with the whole Bible.
The following verses in Luke 21 are very interesting, but we do not really have too much time for them. Let us go to Luke 21:20. We read in Luke 21:20-22:
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
This is the Jerusalem that represents the churches and congregations. This is not referring to the Jerusalem that is over in the Middle East. It is not that physical city, but it is the Jerusalem that typifies the church. You can read Galatians 4 to see how God makes this identification. It continues:
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
This is referring to God’s judgment on the churches and congregations, and the command to “depart out”; that is, to leave the church, to come out of the churches. We are very familiar with this.
Then we read in Luke 21:23-24:
But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
We can compare Revelation 11:2 with this passage:
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
These verses fit together. God is describing the whole 23 years of the Great Tribulation, which is typified by “forty and two months” or three and a half years. In the days of Elijah, there were three and a half years of famine, which is 42 months.
Therefore, Luke 21:24 is speaking of our present Great Tribulation and the trodding down of the nations, as Jerusalem is trodden down:
…until the times of the [nations] be fulfilled.
This will be on May 21st. They continue for 42 months or for the full 23-year Great Tribulation duration.
Then we read in Luke 21:25:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars…
What does this fit with? This fits with Matthew 24:29:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven…
“Immediately after the tribulation,” these things are happening in the heavens, except God is indicating that this is not to be understood literally. On May 21, the sun will not literally go dark, the moon will not be darkened literally, and the stars are not literally going to fall. These things represent Christ, the Gospel, and His people. As He takes them out of this world on that day of resurrection, the day of the rapture, and He brings them up into Heaven, then immediately after the tribulation, spiritually, the sun and moon and stars have been darkened. It has to be this way because we know that other information tells us that there is going to be five months of time, and timekeepers are needed to have time. The sun, moon, and stars will still be needed.
God does not let us get this wrong. The Bible forces us to realize that on May 21st, immediately after the 8400th day of judgment, spiritually the Gospel is removed because God comes for His people. On the other hand, the earthquake is very real and physical. It will literally open the ground to bring about the resurrection. God is the One who determines these things, not us. We just have to carefully follow what He is saying.
So Luke 21:25 helps us to see that these things are spiritual because it refers to them as “signs”:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars…
Then look at the second half of this verse:
…and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
This is what will be happening four weeks from now. God is going to bring judgment.
Why does this say that there will be “upon the earth distress of nations”? This Greek word that was translated as “distress” is only found one other place. It says in 2 Corinthians 2:4:
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears…
This word “anguish” is the same word as “distress” and it just indicates great sorrow. We know that this five-month period of torment is a time of extreme sorrow for those left behind; and so upon the earth will be anguish and “distress of nations” among the people of the world who were never saved. At that time, they will know this.
Then it says in Luke 21:25 that it is:
…with perplexity…
This word “perplexity” is related to another word that means “doubt” or “doubting.” One passage that we can look at is John 13:21-22. This says:
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
Why is this used to describe what will be going on on the earth in relation to mankind doubting? People have no doubts right now. They are very confident that May 22nd will come, that May 21st will be a day like any other day, that it will pass without event. There is great confidence in the mind of mankind, those in the world as well as those in the church. Those in the church have confidence that we cannot know the day or hour.
Well, when they begin to see these things happen, of course, their confidence will be immediately shaken and they will doubt, “What is going on? We thought we had it all figured out. We thought that this world was eternal. We thought that this world would continue forever. There is no way that it could ever come to an end. Do not tell me that those people were right! Do not tell me that what was being proclaimed all over the world was correct and true!” Yes; it was true.
Just imagine this and try to place yourself there as a person who dismissed this. Maybe someone in your family or in your neighborhood had a sign up in their front lawn or maybe you heard a news report, but you just dismissed this out of hand and now it is beginning to happen; now this is starting over on the other side of the world. In all probability, this will come as a progressive earthquake, a rolling earthquake from “nation to nation,” as it says in Jeremiah 25. We read in Jeremiah 25:32-33:
Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of JEHOVAH shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
The bodies of the unsaved came up from nation to nation to nation and it is approaching where we are in our nation. This seems to answer a lot of questions that we had.
So this is beginning and Luke 21:25 says that there is:
…distress [or anguish] of nations, with perplexity [doubting]; the sea and the waves roaring;
Perhaps this will have a physical element to it, as we saw in Japan where the ocean came into the villages and the towns. The sea and the waves were certainly roaring there. But spiritually, God does liken false prophets, those who bring other kinds of gospels, to seas and waves.
Let us quickly go to one passage. You would need to read the context; but referring to false teaches, it says in Jude 1:13 that they are like:
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame…
So this can have a spiritual meaning, too. When this happens, the teachers in the churches, the priests and the pastors, will also be very disturbed by this, and it will be like the sea and the waves are roaring.
Then we read in Luke 21:26:
Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
On one hand, something has happened; something is going on because there is “distress of nations, with perplexity.” On the other hand, nothing has happened because it is coming, it is approaching them, it is headed their way. How could we have ever understood this? Nobody ever did, but does this now begin to become understandable? From nation to nation to nation, people will be able to see this coming:
Men’s hearts failing them for fear…
They are afraid because they can now see this. Men do not fear a declaration of Judgment Day that is even four weeks off. I am sure that even the day before, there will be people who do not fear. They are not going to be afraid. Why should they fear? They do not believe God. They do not believe the Bible. Even in the churches, they really do not believe what God says about there being an end to this world, about a day of resurrection and a day of rapture. They dismiss it with a quick flip of a verse. They quote: “of that day and hour knoweth no man.” This will not make it go away, but this is how they have handled this. Now, though, this is happening; this is the difference.
Mankind has no faith, and so they cannot be like Noah and be “moved with fear” in advance upon hearing this information, because they do not have spiritual life. They do not have spiritual eyes to see, and so they just do not know anything about this; but the interesting thing is that there is fear.
Look at Romans 3:18. Again, if you read the previous verses, they give a good description of all mankind, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” “There is none that doeth good,” and so on. This is referring to all people. God knows us better than we know ourselves. This is His analysis and His description of the world and the people in it. Then it says in Romans 3:18:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
This is the natural state of man. This is describing the sinner. They have no fear of God. This is demonstrated all over the place as people dismiss this with, “This is just another Judgment Day warning. This is just one more prediction.” Then they lump this with everything else and say, “See you on May 22nd.” They say that our first mistake is in believing that old Book.
They do not have a fear of God, but there is something deep down within them to where they cannot leave this alone. If this was really nothing but a fairytale, this would not bother anyone; but there are a lot of people getting upset and angry over what they think is a fairytale. If you watch something on television that causes you to get upset because you think that it is ridiculous, why would you even get upset about it? But they hear that Judgment Day will be May 21st and all kinds of people do not like this at all. This is because deep down mankind knows that there is a God. We know that we are also liable to Him and that we are guilty before Him, and yet they have no fear.
It is interesting how the Bible speaks of fear or the fear of God. Let us go to Leviticus 19. We will quickly look at a few verses. We read in Leviticus 19:14:
Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am JEHOVAH.
Then we read in Leviticus 19:32:
Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head [the grey head], and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am JEHOVAH.
Look at Leviticus 25:17. It says:
Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am JEHOVAH your God.
Look also at Leviticus 25:36:
Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
God gives a Law. He tells us what to do and what not to do. He says that we are not to disrespect our elders, that we are to honor our parents, and that we are to fear thy God.
What He is basically saying is that when people hear His Word, His Law, and follow it and desire to obey it, this is an example of fearing God. When we disregard His Word, we are not fearing God.
Go to Deuteronomy 6:1-2. This says:
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments…
These are all synonyms for the Bible. It continues:
…which JEHOVAH your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear JEHOVAH thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
We are to fear God and obey Him.
Is this not what it said in the book of Ecclesiastes when the conclusion was reached in Ecclesiastes 12? We read in Ecclesiastes 12:13:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments…
So we are to fear God and keep His commandments, but look at what is going on in the world today. I do not even know where to start. Where do we start? How about divorce? How about marriage, divorce, remarriage, and, in some cases, divorce again? God says, “They are no more twain [two], but one flesh.” God says, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” How many marriages are now estimated to end in divorce? Why? The reason is because they have no fear of God.
How about abortion? God says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Men then say, “Yes, we should not kill, but it is okay to do in a certain stage of the pregnancy,” and then they just make this a whole tangled mess. Basically, it becomes very simple and not all that difficult to justify; but this was a human being and God says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Men do not fear God, and so they kill. They kill by abortion or they kill by murder. People kill in many, many different ways.
What about Sunday? Today is Sunday and it is the Lord’s Day. To the world, this is just another day for shopping and going about, the game is on television, and this is just like any other day because they do not fear God.
How about gay pride and the homosexual movement in our day? To the world, this is a good and right thing. As far as the world is concerned, there is no problem if two people are in a committed relationship and if they want to get married; but the Bible indicates that this is sin. The Bible does not matter, though, because man does not fear God.
We could go to this area or that area. Today, what has always been in the heart of man is all over the place. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Judgment Day is May 21 and what do we see? We see mocking, reviling, and joking. There is no fear of God at all in regards to this.
Let us go to Proverbs 1. There are so many verses that we could read, but let us start in Proverbs 1:24. We read in Proverbs 1:24-30:
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of JEHOVAH: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
The Bible says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for…reproof.” They despised the counsel and the reproof of the Word of God. They would not fear God.
God is commanding all men everywhere today to repent. This is the command, just like He gives us a lot of other commands. Do you fear God? Are you going to obey this command or are you just going to give further demonstration of there being no fear of God before your eyes? If you do not fear God in these other areas, are you going to fear God concerning repentance before this Day comes?
God says in Jeremiah 5, “Fear ye not me?” Then He gives the example of setting the bounds of the ocean, a great demonstration of the mighty power that the whole heavens declare, and yet unsaved mankind does not fear God. That is fine; but as we read in Proverbs 1:26-27, “Your fear cometh.”
This is what Luke 21:26 is telling us:
Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Their hearts are failing them for fear for what they see coming on the earth; it has begun.
Look at Revelation 18. Again, there is a lot here that we could read, but we read in Revelation 18:8-10:
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment…
They see it begin, they have also heard about the five months, and now they are afraid. There are also other verses that indicate that it will be at that point that men will want to bless God.
It will be like the rich man in torments in Luke 16 who basically is crying out, “Send Lazarus with a drop of water on his finger so that I can lick it from his finger, just a drop. I do not even need the whole Gospel. Just send the slightest little portion.” If those left behind were to see a tract in a rain puddle, they would be crying out for just that one little section of Scripture that could be seen, “Just give me that one little verse of Scripture, that one possibility that I might be delivered out of torments, that I might be taken up to Heaven where I can see Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. I can see him. I saw him go up. I know that he is up there, but I am now in torment and it is now that I want this Gospel.”
This will also be like Esau who did not care about the blessing before. Once it was given to Jacob, then he wanted to know, “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also.” What is this blessing? Psalm 133 says, “The LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” God is just telling us here that if we do not fear Him now, we will; we will.
Look at Revelation 11:12-13:
And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither…
This is referring to the rapture. It continues:
…And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Let us turn to Isaiah 2. I think that we will be able to pinpoint exactly when this will take place. We read in Isaiah 2:10-21:
Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of JEHOVAH, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and JEHOVAH alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of JEHOVAH of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and JEHOVAH alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of JEHOVAH, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of JEHOVAH, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
There will be a lot of the fear of the Lord then; quite a bit. Notice that they are getting rid of their idols. They are throwing them all away. All of the idolatry that the Bible says, “God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” They have not repented; but in that day, they will try to repent. Then they will try to do what God had said.
Look at this language. They are “humbled.” They are “brought low.” They have the fear of the Lord, the fear of Jehovah; but what good is it? What good will this be on the day that God rises “to shake terribly the earth”? This will be that “great earthquake” that the Bible tells us is coming, and this will come from land to land and from “nation to nation.” Mankind will see this; they will behold it and they will see all of the people of God going up.
So there will be fear upon the unsaved when this day comes, but notice what it says back in Luke 21:28:
And when these things begin to come to pass…
This is speaking of when it begins. We know that this is going to happen now, but there is further verification when this actually does happen. This is like when God’s people knew the Messiah would come, but then He came.
We know when Judgment Day will be and it is a wonder to see God fulfill His Word precisely, and so when it begins to come to pass:
…then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
It is not here yet. You will see this come to pass, but you will still have to wait, just like the unsaved will have to wait in great fear. Their hearts will be failing them for fear; but the believer on the other hand is not to fear. God is saying not to fear and not to worry. We are to be comforted and encouraged. At that point, we are to look up.
This is as He tells us in Psalm 46. We read in Psalm 46:1-3:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
God’s people are not to fear this. We have lived our lives in the fear of the Lord. Now, at this point, there will be no more fear, just a confident security.
Wow! We are so busy now that we cannot even think about this. We are so busy trying to get the Gospel message to everyone, but we are literally days away from the fulfillment of all things that the Bible has said and of receiving an everlasting body.
There will be a few more days of sorrow, sowing the seed in sorrow, but then we will reap in joy. This is what the Bible indicates. At that time, we can just look up into Heaven and it will be finished. For us, everything in this world will be done.
Let us stop here.