I was in a store last evening to pick up some milk. I picked up a half gallon of milk. We know that milk has an expiration date. This one was 5-21-11. I just stared at it because I also know how quickly milk goes bad. What struck me is that this milk will expire on May 21st. Actually, this is a pretty long time. Most of the ones I see expire in a week or in eight or nine days. You have to reach all the way in the back to get one of the newer ones, but this one expires in two weeks. It is good until 5-21-11 and then it is gone.
What happens to milk after the expiration date? They are pretty good in predicting when milk is going to expire. It starts to sour and tastes terrible. It can even make someone sick, and so the expiration date is really a warning. Right? The warning is to not purchase the milk after the date. If you do, it is not going to have any benefit and it is going to be something that could actually harm you.
What about the Bible? Does the Bible have an expiration date? No; it goes forever. The Bible says that “the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” The Bible also says, “For all flesh is as grass,” and that “the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven.” In contrast, the Word of God, the Bible “endureth for ever.” But there is something that expires concerning the Word of God on May 21st, which is the salvation that it brings, the salvation that God has kindly, graciously, and mercifully granted to this world, to mankind. We might as well stamp every Bible, “May 21, 2011.”
If you are going to get benefit or experience any good thing as a result of possessing a Book like this, then you had better do this soon; because on May 21st, that will be it. There will be no more blessing. There will be no more salvation, even though the world will continue for five months and even though the Bible will be here. I am sure that people will be able to find a Bible as they sort through the rubble of their homes or wherever. There will be Bibles on earth during that time. The Word of God will be here.
I do not know what people will be thinking. We do read that there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” as mankind will try to dialogue with God, “Lord, Lord, have we not…in thy name done many wonderful works?” This is prayer, and so there will be prayer being made.
Will people pick up the Bible out of what is left from this world, from their house or from their neighborhood or from their city? Will they pick it up and then try to read it?
Let us go to Luke 16. We will look at many passages today, but Luke 16 speaks of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus; and the rich man had many riches.
When someone’s hands are full of the stuff of the world, when they have all that they can desire or want, they do not have time for the stuff that entertains beggars. We are more sophisticated than this. We are more enlightened than past generations. We do not need a crutch. We do not need God to save us. No; we are beyond this because there is no sin. We are free agents and we can do as we please.
All of this type of thinking - and much, much more - changes in just 13 days. It completely changes; because when this happens, then the people who will witness this are going to respond much like the rich man here in Luke 16. We read in Luke 16:22-24:
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell [or the grave] he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
Is the rich man crying for mercy? This is the same man who had no time for anything but his own comforts. Is he now crying for mercy? This is a parable, but he wants Father Abraham, who is a figure of God, to send Lazarus with what? It says:
…that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue…
If you are walking around the city and you see a homeless person on the street, someone who has been out in the elements and who looks dirty because he has not had a bath for awhile and might even be sick and full of sores, would you want him to give you a drop of water off of his finger and to apply it to your tongue? No! But the rich man has learned something. He has learned something about life and he has learned something about God, which is that, ultimately, the real valuable stuff, the true treasure, is not in his earthly riches. It is not in his car or in his house. It is not in gold or silver or money. It is not in things.
So this rich man could ask God for whatever it is that he is wanting. He could say, “Father Abraham, send Lazarus to bring me all of my delicate clothing. Father Abraham, send Lazarus to bring me all of that good and rich food that I used to eat.” He does not ask for any of this. We could even update these requests to be from someone who might say, “Oh God, give me my bank account. Give me all of my electronic toys. Give me all of those technical things that I so enjoyed,” but he wants none of this. He wants something from a filthy beggar whom we are not sure if he even noticed.
It says in Luke 16:19-21:
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
So this poor man Lazarus desired what the rich man had, but he never experienced these riches. I guess that we should feel so sorry for Lazarus. Is this not pitiful? Is it not a shame that he had no things? He had nothing. He had no money. He did not even have physical health. He was not even strong physically. He was weak and sickly and full of sores. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Clearly, Lazarus is the person whom we should pity and we should envy the rich man. The rich man had it all. He had everything.
People’s hearts are saddened as they do hear about people who have everything in the world. I heard things like this at work when someone would win the lottery or when there was any kind of news about a billionaire. I could just hear the longing in people, “Oh, wow! What I would do with fifty million! What I would do with this and what I would do with that.”
So the rich man is envied. The rich man is the one who we think has it all. Lazarus is the one who we think has nothing. But God changes this, because death is a difference maker. They both die and we see that it was Lazarus who possessed the real wealth because he was a saved individual. He was a child of God. The person who was really poor was the rich man.
God says in Revelation 3:16-18:
…I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing…
The rich man all his life was basically saying, “I do not need that Gospel. Go give it to some person who needs a crutch.”
It continues:
…and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich…
This is the salvation of God. This gold represents the true riches that God gives, the abundance of riches that He gives to each sinner that He saves, which is eternal life.
If you were to tell someone who was 100 years old that they could live forever but in their present body, a body that is decrepit and has aches and pains—there are many things failing in their body, but they could keep their body—would they take this deal and live forever in the body of a hundred-year-old?
Many people would. They keep trying to keep themselves alive as long as possible, and yet God is talking about an eternal life that is not in our present form. It will not be in a weak and contemptible body, a body that is falling apart and is subject to illness and all kinds of ailments. It will be a new resurrected body, a spiritual body. It will be a body that will live forever with no sorrow, no tears, and no pain. It will be an everlasting gift that God gives, that of eternal life for His people.
Here in Luke 16, finally the rich man understands this. We read what he says in Luke 16:24:
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
This is pointing to the Word of God, the Bible that people just do not have time for. Everyone is busy, busy, busy. We are all so busy, right? We have stuff to do. We have a lot of things to do, things that are very important.
What do we have to do? Well, we have to go to the game or we have to go play baseball. What else do we have to do? Well, we have a novel that we are reading and it is very exciting; it is an excellent book. How long will it take us to read this novel? Maybe we could finish it in a day or two. Many people do this. They immerse themselves in books. They read the whole thing, cover to cover.
Do they read the Bible? Are they going to read the Bible? Have they heard that Judgment Day will be on May 21st, just 13 days away? Are they still reading books or magazines after hearing this? Are they still doing this and that and watching movies and television? Does everything else still have priority to the Bible? Are they not making time to go to God and to read His Word, to read the Bible? Are they not making time to go to Him and to beseech Him for prayer? Does everything else still have priority? Sadly, with many, many people this is the case. Everything else does have priority and the Bible does not.
So here, finally, the lesson is learned by the rich man. All he now wants is just one drop of water; that is, the slightest possibility that after May 21 comes, he might find some relief. This man is in torment and we know that there will be five months of torment, and so we can relate his desire and his petition to the five-month period. After this day comes, he will just want to find a Bible somewhere that he can read and then cry out to God for mercy; but no.
It says in Luke 16:25-31:
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
So the messenger of God, Lazarus, who in his low estate typifies the true believers, is taken to Heaven. He is in Father Abraham’s bosom. There is now “a great gulf fixed” and God is basically saying that He cannot send Lazarus and that the rich man cannot come to us, because there is no possible way for this to happen. It is over. The portal, the door, the entry into Heaven is gone. This leaves a “great gulf” that no one can cross. It is an impossibility to get from earth to Heaven after the Day of Judgment comes.
One more time, let us think about what is going to happen on May 21st and why this is such a big deal. In John 10:9, Christ is saying:
I am the door…
This is how God has written the Bible. He makes statements like this that we always need to remember and to keep in mind when we are reading in other places in the Bible. This is because this is a definition of a word. Not in every case, but this basically means that when we find a word like this in the Bible, a door or a gate or something of this nature, it will often relate to Christ who is the door.
For instance, we read in Acts 14:27:
And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles [or unto the nations].
A “door of faith” had been opened. Christ is faith and God ministers this door. His Word opens this door. This is what is going on today. There is a door that is open and it is open wide. The only condition that God is setting regarding entering into this door is that, first of all, someone cannot be in a church because the door is shut in the churches. There is no salvation in any church or congregation; but in the world, He intends to save “a great multitude” of people. This is why He is sending the Gospel into all of the world. If it is God’s good pleasure, He will save anyone whom He chooses to save here or there, from country to country. This is what He is doing. This is the door that is wide open. It is “a great door and effectual.”
Look at 1 Corinthians 16:9. This says:
For a great door and effectual [or powerful] is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
They accompany one another.
We could know from this statement that due to all of the hostility and the mocking from the church and from the world, all of the people who are coming against this idea, that God must be saving a lot of people. This is because when “a great door and effectual is opened,” what goes hand in hand are adversaries, those who will be against this, those whom Satan is able to stir up in order to come against this.
Why would Satan do this? The reason for this is if Satan allows this without fighting against it, without trying to stop this - which, of course, he cannot do – but from the perspective of him allowing this, this means that on a daily basis people are leaving the kingdom of darkness, his kingdom, and they are being translated into the Kingdom of Light.
He is losing people at a rapid rate, and he does not want this. He wants everyone to serve him. He is deluded into thinking that he is like God. This is why he has taken a seat in the temple; and yet there are a limited number of Satan’s henchmen. There is Satan and then there are the fallen angels, the demons. Are there billions of them? No. There is a limited number and they cannot be everywhere at once, and so Satan can stir up trouble here or there, but this information is all over the world now.
This presents a very real difficulty, does this not? How does Satan go to snatch away seed from the hearts of men when it is falling everywhere, when the radio is broadcasting this worldwide, when shortwave and the Internet are broadcasting this worldwide? People who would never turn on religious Christian programming are seeing this information as they drive down the road on their way to work, which is really infuriating many people. This is what they have tried to avoid and to get away from, and it is now placed directly in their view. It is right in front of them and they cannot avoid this.
This means that Satan needs some help. He needs a lot of help today because just about every country in the world is hearing this message, but he is not omnipresent. He just cannot be everywhere, but he does have emissaries who are in the churches and congregations. He can stir them up to come against this whole thing. This is why we find that when “a great door and effectual is opened,” there are “many adversaries.”
If it were true that we are a cult, that we are heretics, that we are just like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that we are just like any other group from the past that made a date, if any of this were true, why is it that people care about this? Why does this disturb them?
Why is it that people steal lawn signs that say, “Judgment Day – May 21, 2011”? This happens to be my personal complaint. Why do they steal these lawn signs if they are supposedly thinking that this is a fairytale? On Halloween when someone puts up ghosts and goblins, I do not like it but it does not bother me. Let them go ahead and do this. If someone is in a cult and they advertise their cult, I do not care. This is just not the believer’s role. We are not to go chasing after every wrong doctrine and teaching to try to correct it, like the church is intently doing with Family Radio at this time.
The reason for this is because there are spiritual forces at work. They are able to stir up trouble, to stir things up. For example, just look at Job’s wife. If you remember, as Satan went into Heaven after Job had experienced a lot of trials and troubles, we read in Job 2 that Satan said to God, “All that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” Then the very next thing we read is something happening on earth. Job’s wife is going to Job and she is just greatly burdened. She had lost her children because what had happened to Job affected her also. Out of frustration, she finally said to Job, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.”
This was what Satan had just said to God, but this is now coming out of her mouth. This is because Satan can stir things up. He can stir things up because he is able to work this way. For example, when we are standing on a corner handing out tracts and someone comes around the corner who is angry. He just looks angry and he is. Maybe he did not get any sleep last night. Maybe things are not going too well at home. He just has that kind of temper, and so he comes around the corner and thinks, “Here is another one of these guys standing here with a tract.” He snatches it away and rips it up in your face and then he goes on.
This person was primed to be used of Satan, which is what Satan does. Things were not going well in his life. In a way, we could say that Satan can direct this kind of animosity towards the true believer. He is able to do this.
So this verse is actually very comforting. When “a great door and effectual is opened,” there will be “many adversaries.” We are seeing this in action today as adversaries are coming at us right and left against the teaching that Judgment Day will be May 21st.
Let us go to Genesis 7. We read in Genesis 7:11-12:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
This is the 17th day of the 2nd month of Noah’s 600th year.
Then it says in Genesis 7:13-16:
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth…
Some people say that Noah entered into the ark seven days prior, but no. He entered on “the selfsame day.” On the 17th day of the 2nd month, he went into the ark. Of course, he had been in and out of the ark as he was building it, but this is when he went into the ark for the last time.
So on the 17th day of the 2nd month, Noah went into the ark with:
…the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and JEHOVAH shut him in.
This happened on the 17th day of the 2nd month. This means that the door was shut. The ark only had one door and one window. They went in and out through the door, and so God shut this door on the 17th day of the 2nd month.
We have not really gone over this recently, but if you had gotten the book 1994? when it came out in 1992 and was available for a couple of years, you would have read about the judgment and the Great Tribulation and its duration. It was expected to be 23 years from 1988, from May 21, 1988. In 1992, Pentecost was spoken of as being the last day of the church age in 1988. Then God brought judgment on the churches.
In this book it was not understood that this judgment on the churches was not complete, that it was 100% of the churches that were being judged, like we now know, but it was mentioned that we would expect the Great Tribulation to last for a 23-year period. However, this is where the mistake came in, Matthew 24 tells us that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
This was taken to mean that instead of the Great Tribulation period lasting for 23 years, it was thought that it would last for 2300 evening/mornings: from May 21, 1988 into September of 1994. It was expected that the end would come then, but it did not. However, this information that had been discovered about the 23 years became obvious that this must be a full 23 years. A full 23 years goes to May 21st of this year. In 13 days, it is the end of this 23-year period. It will be the 8400th day, and the number 84 has everything to do with the Great Tribulation.
I am just saying this to show that it was quite awhile ago that May 21, 2011 came into view. It was understood that the Great Tribulation would last for a full 23 years. I even remember discussions that I had at that time about this.
So we knew that the Great Tribulation would end on May 21st. The problem was that there was one last feast, the Feast of Tabernacles/Ingathering that would come in October of 2011. This brought confusion as to how to understand this. We had the 23-year period, but then we had the Feast of Tabernacles/Ingathering. God had fulfilled all of the other feasts, so we knew that He must also fulfill this feast. We knew that this feast would relate to the end of the world.
For awhile, there was confusion. What do we do? But then it was learned that there was an additional day in the Feast of Tabernacles/Ingathering. We had been thinking that this feast would fall on October 20th, but then we learned that God had made provision for an additional day for this feast for the purpose of travel. This means that the end of this feast was really one day later, so this got bumped over to October 21st.
At this time, this became a little easier to see: May 21st to October 21st is five months. I do not even know who originally found this information. I think that there were others who had contributed this information to Mr. Camping. But then we found verses in the Bible that related to five months that have to do with torment, like in Revelation 9. But still, why this gap? Why was this happening? Then another person, and I have no idea who this was, but he realized that May 21st of this year will be the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew calendar.
If anyone would like to check this out, they can go to Hebrew calendar converter (http://www.hebcal.com/converter/). Type in the Gregorian date of May 21, 2011 and it will show you the equivalent Hebrew date, or the Biblical calendar date. May 21, 2011 is the 17th day of the 2nd Hebrew month. The Hebrew calendar differs as it relates to our Gregorian calendar. The Hebrew calendar is based on a different system. Just to look at one span, if we look at the years 2000 to 2020, it is only in 2011 that May 21st falls on the 17th day of the 2nd month. It is only the year 2011 within this 20-year period.
I heard this and I heard this and I heard this, but this just did not click for me. Then one day, I heard it again. This is why I am talking about this again, because maybe this will click for someone else. One day this clicked. May 21st on the Hebrew calendar is the 17th day of the 2nd month and this is the year that is exactly 7,000 years after the flood, but we did not think that May 21, 2011 had anything to do with the flood.
Nobody came to May 21, 2011 as a result of studying the flood or 7,000 years. The 7,000-year span was arrived at much earlier because of the Great Tribulation and its length of 23 years. Nobody tried to make this fit. Actually, we just did not understand. Yet this is the day that is the 17th day of the 2nd month. May 21, 2011 is the 8400th day of the Great Tribulation, the full 23rd year, and this day happens to be the 17th day of the 2nd month in the Hebrew calendar.
On that day that I heard this again, it just clicked. This is not a coincidence. No one could have done this. I know that Mr. Camping is quite smart. People think this about him and I think so, too. But he is not that smart. Nobody is so smart that they can manipulate dates and calendars. We are dealing with Noah’s calendar, we are dealing with the Gregorian calendar, and we are dealing with the Hebrew/Biblical calendar; and they come together and they all fit and they all point to this day, May 21, 2011. Everything points to this to such a degree that this locked this in. There is just nowhere else we could move this.
It is kind of like the pieces of a puzzle. If you are like me, you let the kids work on the puzzle until they get to the last few pieces, then you help. Then it is easier. When you take a piece of a puzzle when there are only four or five pieces left, then it is easy to fit it in right in its spot. It cannot go anywhere else. It locks it in.
This is why this is an infallible proof. This was no mistake. It is not possible that man did this. This was not contrived. We have all of this information now. We know about the Great Tribulation and the end of the church age. 1988 was so significant because it was the 13000th year of earth’s history. There were 1,955 years for the church age, and so on. All of this was developed separately. Then later, just a few years ago, God opened Mr. Camping’s eyes to the meaning of “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” as the believers are warned, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing.”
Then we read what God said to Noah, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.” What did this mean? This meant that the earth had an expiration date, right? We had “seven days,” and by next week we will be able to say this. Everyone had “seven days” to get into the ark. How does one get into the ark? The only way into the ark is through the door. No one would have been able to climb up into that little portal of a window. They had to go through the door.
In less than one week, we will have from then - the 10th day of the 2nd month until the 17th day of the 2nd month - to listen, to hear this information, to agree with this quickly, to obey this, and to get into the ark. Of course, the ark represents Christ in Heaven and salvation and eternal life. We have this limited amount of time. Afterwards, the door shuts and this kind and generous offer is closed and it expires.
So God is saying to each one of us and to the whole world that we have until May 21st and then this door shuts forever. Fate is sealed. On that day, the earthquake comes. It begins on the other side of the world, in all probability, and it will begin to come towards us.
There will be many people, like the ones in Revelation 18, who will be crying out “for the fear of her torment.” They know all about this because they have heard of these five months. I have even had people come up to me on the street to talk to me about these five months of torment. This is very common knowledge today as more and more people are hearing this information.
So the people in Revelation 18 are referring to some people who might be here in this room or who are listening to this, definitely the people in our families and neighborhoods. They are going to see this. They are going to see this approaching them and then they will begin to cry like the rich man. It is then that they will be weeping. They will be like Esau. After Esau heard that Jacob got the blessing, it was then that the Bible says “he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry,” and said, “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father?” In other words, “Is this all you had and did my brother get all of it? Do I not get this blessing?” His father had to tell him the truth; and the point is that the blessing that typified salvation and eternal life was something that only the father could give and he gave it to Jacob and not to Esau.
Look at Hebrews 11:20. This says:
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
He blessed both of them as a father does of his children. He wants all of his children to hear.
It is interesting that Isaac preferred Esau over Jacob, even though Jacob was a true child of God. He preferred the other son. He preferred the other twin, Isaac; and yet he did not make a difference between them. In regard to this, he was not a respecter of persons. He told both of his sons. Both of them heard, and God says that the fact that both of them heard was a blessing. Esau was blessed as well as Jacob by hearing about “things to come.”
This is also true of everyone who is hearing about May 21st. At least you have an opportunity now. You have been forewarned, and this is a blessing. This is a blessing because we do not know who God’s elect are. Any one of us could finally get serious with God and say, “I do not know if I am an elect, but from here on I am going to do everything that I can. I am going to go to God and beseech Him that I might go through this door before it closes and before salvation is no more.” This is why everybody has to hear and why the believers tell everyone whom they can of this information that God has given them, which is that the 17th day of the 2nd month is May 21st and then the door shuts.
Turn to Luke 13. We read in Luke 13:24-25:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate…
Basically, what is a gate? A gate is another form of a door. It continues:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
God is talking about May 21st here. Strive; that is, put forth effort to get into this gate. This gate is a “strait gate”; it is a narrow way. Actually, it is impossible for someone to get in this way. Of our own, no one can do this, but we can go to the One who can bring us through the “strait gate.” We can beseech Him for all it is worth, “O God, have mercy on me. Please, take me into Heaven only for Christ’s sake, only for what He has done.”
But let us read Luke 13:24 again:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
What is unusual about this? There is something very different about this statement.
A lot of people think that Luke 13:24 is actually the same as what we find in Matthew 7, where we read in Matthew 7:13-14:
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Is this the same verse that we read in Luke? No; it is not.
It is typical of God to do this, but this is very understandable. There is the true Gospel by which God will save His elect, which will be just a few people out of the totality of mankind, probably a couple hundred million. But the rest are going the broad way “that leadeth to destruction.” They are Buddhist, they are Hindu, they are Muslim, they are Christian, they are atheist, and they are agnostic.
There are many different ways in which people think that they can get into Heaven. They think this is possible by doing good deeds and so on. Most think that they are basically good people. But whatever way they try, there is only one way. Jesus said, “I am the way.” This is the only legitimate and possible way to enter into Heaven. It is only through Christ; but the world adds multitudes of other ways, and this is the way people normally go. This is the way that they are going today.
Let us go back to Luke 13:24-25:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate…
This is speaking of the “strait gate,” the true Gospel, the way that the Bible actually presents. It continues:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
It is then that the multitude that has been going the broad way “that leadeth to destruction” will understand this. It is at that time that they will understand. It is then that they will have seen the gate. There will have been the rapture and the resurrection of the dead. They will see “Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God” and that they themselves are “thrust out.”
So the desire at that time will be, “O Lord, let me do this Your way. You require that I cry out for mercy. This is what I read on the billboards. I am to ‘cry mightily unto God,’ so let me do this now,” which will be like Esau as he cried an “exceeding bitter cry.” It is then that they will be pleading like the rich man, “Give me a drop of water from one of those crazy people. I will not say that they are crazy anymore. They were not crazy. Their reproach has been removed and I now see what they were doing and I see why they did it. They wore those shirts and those hats and they carried signs and they put up these billboards and put bumper stickers on their cars and handed out tracts. It was all out of love and I see this now and understand it. It is happening now. They actually did know because You told them.”
All of this is involved in these verses. When the “master of the house” has “shut to the door,” it is then that mankind will see this and understand it. Yet there is a problem, as we read in Luke 13:25-27:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
The Bible tells us that at that time, God will have “judgment without mercy.” There will be no more mercy. No one is going to come from thence to here with just a drop of the Bible that could possibly save, because this will not be possible any more. The messengers of God will have been taken into Heaven. God Himself has left the world for judgment and it will just be tragic that many like doubting Thomas will not believe this until they see it. It is when they can touch this, when their house has been made a ruin, when maybe their mother or their father has indeed gone up and they are left behind to fend for themselves that they will believe this.
As you try to fend for yourself, do you think that you are still going to have water in your house? The water mains are out in the street and they are going to break. The electric wires are going to come down. Gas will not work. This means that lights, television, stoves, refrigerators, and toilets will not work. The washing of hands will not be possible. You will not be able to do any of this even if you had a house and even if there will be any of your house left. Just take a look at Haiti or take a look at Japan, and these earthquakes were minor in comparison.
So there you will be, and I am going to speak to the children because it is so sad to see these children who just are not getting this. They are thinking of summer vacation. They are thinking of college in the fall or they are thinking of the future in general. This means that they are not getting this, that they are not understanding this; but when this happens, this will be a terrible thing. It will be a terrible thing for a little boy or for a little girl or even for a teenager to be left. There will be no help, and do not expect help from your fellowman. Do not expect this. What are you going to do for food when you do not have electricity and the food in the fridge starts to rot? Where are you going to go? Everybody will be rummaging through the local supermarkets taking whatever they can get. All of the stores will be out of goods shortly. If you survive the earthquake, you will have 153 days left. You had better be big and strong because who will be left in this world?
People say that they hope that this will happen so that they can be rid of the Christians. They want this Gospel out of here, “Go ahead! The world will be a better place. We do not want your God either; take Him with you.”
Well, the world will get an opportunity to see what it is going to be like in this world without the goodness of God and without God’s people. They will be able to see this if they continue in the way that they are going. In their mindset and in the way that they are thinking, they will be here and they will see all of these things firsthand; and yet it will be too late at that point.
Let us go to Zephaniah. I would like to read this before we close. These are encouraging verses. Zephaniah 1 speaks of the day of the Lord. We read in Zephaniah 1:14-18:
The great day of JEHOVAH is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 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, 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. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of JEHOVAH’S wrath; 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, God follows this up. We read in Zephaniah 2:1-3:
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of JEHOVAH come upon you, before the day of JEHOVAH’S anger come upon you. 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.
There is this possibility, and this is a good hope. There is good hope for anybody, for anybody at all, for any person, if you humble yourself. If you humble yourself, there is good hope.
If everyone right now would do what God would have them to do and we cried to the Lord and prostrated ourselves and cry out mightily to God, even if we did all of this, this does not guarantee salvation. It is possible. It may be. As we read in Jonah, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent?”
The Ninevites understood this. But what do you think about people who hear this and hear this, and yet they have no time to pray, they have no time to read the Bible, they have no time for this information?
Well, God still might spare an individual here or there who is kicking against the pricks and fighting against Him and striving with their Maker. He might save them. But we can see that if someone were to do everything, there is still no guarantee.
But if someone is doing everything wrong and they are fighting against this and if they do not “agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him,” then it is almost guaranteed that they are going to be here. They are going to be one of the ones who will later realize the truth of what is going on.
We will stop here.