Scripture
texts are from the King James Version of the Bible
We read in
Isaiah 13:9:
Behold,
the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the
land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
This verse is summing
up a very, very important, a supremely important teaching of the Bible. It is
describing the ultimate terror this world will soon face.
Significantly, as we
come to that last day of ultimate terror, the world is being trained to think
about and be frightened by terrorists. We are living in the day of terror. On
September 11, 2001, two airplanes struck the World Trade Center, one airplane
struck the Pentagon, and one airplane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, and
over 3,000 people were killed within an hour, and suddenly, the whole world
changed.
Prior to that terrible
day, there were acts of terror here and there. A few were killed in one city or
another city somewhere in the world. However, we in the United States together
with many peoples of the world did not pay a whole lot of attention to these.
These were news events that we read about in the newspaper or heard about on TV,
but they really did not register in our hearts with any seriousness. But come
September 11, 2001, the temperature of the world changed dramatically. Suddenly,
terror was on everybody’s heart. Our government began to spend billions of
dollars in security. Suddenly, everything changed.
Ever since September
11, 2001, any time there is a major event going on, security is of number one
importance. This is not only true in our land, but in every land. For example,
when I get on an airplane in Taiwan, it is clearly evident that security is of
uppermost importance. Every bag put on the plane is carefully checked. Security
officers look at it carefully to make sure there is nothing in it that could
produce destruction. Terror is the name of the game. When two snipers recently
killed about ten people in the United States, terror was in the hearts of the
people in the environs of Maryland and Virginia. Terror is the name of what is
happening today all over the world. People in Israel live in constant terror
because they never know when another bomb is going to explode. More than 100
people were recently killed in Moscow because of the action of terrorists.
Terror is a fact of this world, and all the people of the world must live with
it. The big change or the focal point of all of this really began in 2001. We
could say that the world has officially come into the age of terror. The world
has been violently introduced into the age of terror.
A
Fictional Story of Terror
Now suppose there was
someone in the world who was a very, very evil person, and yet, he also had a
very brilliant mind. This is pure speculation. This is pure imagination. This
person does not exist, but I want you to suppose for a moment that this person
does exist. This individual has somehow been able to assemble together enough
components so that he was able to build a half dozen huge nuclear warheads. Not
only has he been able to assemble these nuclear warheads, but he has also been
able to put together a means of distribution, and he has a lot of alternative
means of distribution.
This is an imaginary
story, so we can make it as complex as we wish to make it. He is living in a
hideout that is somewhere in the world but nobody knows where it is, and it is
impossible to find. This evil genius sends a message to all of the governments
of the world. In this message, first of all, he gives enough information to show
that he is completely able to do what he is threatening. The information he
provides is so conclusive that there is no question at all about the fact that
these governments will understand that he is able to perform what he plans to
do. Not only that, but in this message he emphasizes that he has a very
destructive mind. He is determined to destroy. We do not have to imagine that a
man could have such a terrible desire in his mind. We see this kind of thinking
all over the world today. We know that there are many who are ready to destroy.
This evil genius of our
story has a very destructive mind. His goal is to destroy as much as the world
as possible. Therefore, in the message he sends to the governments of the world,
he warns that in the very foreseeable future, he is going to drop a nuclear bomb
on one of the great cities of the world. It could be New York, it could be
Tokyo, it could be London, it could be Beijing. He will not disclose which city.
He also says that right after that, he is going to drop another nuclear bomb on
another city. He warns that he plans to do this until his supply of a half dozen
nuclear bombs has all been used up.
What do you suppose the
governments of the world are going to do? They are going to start spending not
billions of dollars but trillions of dollars trying to find this evil genius,
trying to stop this from happening, if they possibly can. What do you suppose
the people of the large cities are doing? They are frantic. They are paralyzed
with fear. The whole world is paralyzed with fear and they are all charging out
of their cities and into the country sides. They do not want to be there when
the bomb is dropped. When they carefully analyze the material that this evil
genius has sent, it is very obvious that he is capable, totally capable, of
performing what he planned to do. Thus, the world would be totally paralyzed
with fear. We don’t have any trouble understanding that kind of scenario because
we have seen examples of fright. Think of the example of when snipers can
paralyze a whole state with fear so that the children are afraid to go to school
and men are afraid to pump gas out in the open for fear that they might get a
bullet in their heart.
A True
Story of Terror
The above scenario is
super awful. We are glad it is only a story. It is like a fairy tale that could
never come true. However, there is a scenario that is absolutely true that is
infinitely more terrible than that described in that imaginary story. It is
going to happen even though the world pays no attention to it.
There is a God in
heaven who wrote a book that was finished about 2,000 years ago. That book is
called the Bible. The Bible. And there God has written what His plan is. He has
written very, very plainly. He has written that there is going to come a day
when Christ is going to return. He is going to come as the judge of all the
earth. At that time, every man, woman, and child who has not become saved is
going to be subject to the eternal wrath of God. Thus, the consequence for his
life will be far worse than that of being killed by a nuclear weapon. It will
mean that that person will be subject to the second death, eternal damnation.
God has warned the
world. He has written about it again and again in the Word of God, and He has
indicated that this act of ultimate terror will happen. It is the terror of God
coming as the judge of all the earth. God has decreed that the time will come
when He will end this world.
All of the evidence of
the Bible shows that the time for Christ’s return has drawn very, very close. It
is very, very near, and He has indicated that He is going to come with great
wrath and with fierce anger to destroy the sinners out of it.
In the Bible, God warns
in Isaiah 13:9:
Behold,
the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the
land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
This kind of warning is
sprinkled all through the pages of the Bible.
They will receive a blow
that is far more terrible than being destroyed by a nuclear weapon. Each and
every unsaved person will be caught and will stand for judgment. It will be too
late for salvation. Those who stand for judgment will end up eternally under the
wrath of God, under eternal damnation. Nothing could be worse than that. It is a
terror that is indescribable in its horror. The age of terror we are presently
in becomes completely insignificant in comparison to this gigantic terror that
is fast approaching.
God Can
and Will Do What He Has Planned
Immediately, this
question must be raised. In our imaginary story, the evil genius was able to
prove to the world governments that he had the ability to carry out his threat
of terror. Is God able to carry out His threat of the ultimate terror of
Judgment Day?
We need to go to II
Peter 3. God has given us this letter. He has given the document to us, and He
is showing us that He is perfectly capable of doing what He has planned. Nothing
can be done to prevent what God has planned. We read in
II Peter 3, verses 3 and 4:
Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?...
In other words, many
people are saying, Ah, now, wait a minute. We have this letter from this person
who says He will destroy the world in the very near future, but we don’t believe
it. We just don’t think it could happen.
In answer to this, God
effectively says, Now wait a minute, wait a minute, look who is speaking. In
II Peter 3, verses 5 and 6, we read:
For this
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that
then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
Oh, when did that
happen? When did that happen?
To find out, we must go
back to Genesis Chapter 6, and there we
read in verse 3:
And the
LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
God Gave a
Timetable
God had given a
timetable for something to happen. At the end of 120 years, something awful was
going to happen. The world had become very wicked at that time. Oh, yes, it was
about 7,000 years ago, and the world wasn’t nearly as populated as it is today.
However, the Bible tells us what God did to the world at the end of that 120
years, and it is a true and trustworthy declaration that God can make a
commitment. He can set a timetable and He can make it happen. We read in
Genesis 6, verses 5, 6, and 7:
And GOD
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it
repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his
heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face
of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the
air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
In this statement, God
is effectively saying, I am going to destroy this world.
You mean God was going to
destroy the whole earth? Come on, that is an impossibility. How could He do
that? Let us learn how He did it.
God commands Noah to
build an ark. It is a huge boat. It is an impossible idea. This man and his
family are to build this huge craft that is 450 feet long and 75 feet wide and
45 feet high with three floors in it so it has a ceiling height of every floor
that is about 14 or 15 feet. It is a craft that is to be built on dry land. Noah
has 120 years to complete the task.
Certainly, by the end
of 120 years, everyone on the earth of that day knew about this crazy man Noah,
this crazy idiot Noah. Look what he is doing. He is spending all of his efforts
building this ridiculous boat on dry land. Why there never could be enough water
to float that craft, much less do what Noah is preaching about. Noah was a
preacher of righteousness (II Peter 2:2), therefore, he would have been
preaching, God is going to destroy this earth. You have to repent. You must turn
away from your sins. Nobody listened. Nobody listened except his own family, his
wife, his three sons and their respective wives. They were the only ones who
listened.
Then came the day, and
all the animals began to congregate in order to be put into this huge boat. Two
of each kind of dinosaur, two of every animal that had the breathe of life, two
of every bird that had the breathe of life, they all had to be brought into that
ark. Noah had to bring seven pairs of all the clean animals. There were a few of
those, like sheep and oxen and turtle doves. In our mind’s eye, we can see a
huge crowd all around the ark, watching. People are watching, watching, but no
one is repenting. How could anybody destroy this earth? Look what that crazy man
Noah is up to. Look at the effort he is putting forth. Certainly, this is a
ridiculous thing that we are looking at. My, my, after a while they are going to
come out of that ark, and we are really going to laugh at them.
Then God shut the door,
and the waters began to pour down. In all likelihood, God put the earth on a
path so that it would pass through a great rain cloud in deep space because for
40 days and 40 nights, it rained and rained and rained. The waters rose above
the highest mountain of those days. Since water seeks its own level, when the
highest mountain was covered, it means that the whole face of the planet was
covered with water. So, we read in Genesis
Chapter 7, verse 10:
And it
came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Verses 18 and 19
tell us:
And the
waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went
upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the
earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Genesis
7, verses 20 to 23:
Fifteen
cubits upward [that is, the waters covered the highest mountains by at least
22.5 feet] did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh
died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and
of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in
whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground,
both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and
they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that
were with him in the ark.
Proof that
the Deluge Did Happen
Now, it is significant
that we have very clear evidence of this great flood as we look at the fossil
records.
The unbelieving
scientists and theologians and archeologists say something happened a million or
more years ago that caused the fossils in the rocks. They speak of dinosaurs
that lived 20 million or 50 million or 80 million years ago, but they will not
at all consider the fact of the flood of Noah’s day. They do not at all realize
that the fossils in the rocks are clear evidence that such a flood did occur.
Ordinarily, bones do not fossilize. They slowly return to dust. Thus, a very
special and unique situation was required to produce the immense quantities of
fossils presently found in sedimentary rock. The only reason the fossils are
there is because of the cataclysmic nature of the flood. The animals were caught
in huge mud slides, and under the pressure and heat that generated from the mud
floes, the mud floes turned to sedimentary rock, that is, rock that is laid down
by water, and the bones that were in it fossilized. Thus, we have striking
evidence that this flood did occur.
So, what does God say in
II Peter? He says in II Peter 3:5-6:
For this
they willingly are ignorant of [these scoffers], that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
By the flood of Noah’s
day, God has clearly demonstrated that God will not only carry to full fruition
any threats that He makes, but He is absolutely able to carry out His threats.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to listen carefully when God gives us a
warning.
God once again sounds
the warning of the ultimate act of terror Judgment Day! God has repeatedly
sounded this warning in the Bible. We saw the warning in Isaiah 13:9. God
declares in II Peter 3, verse 7:
But the
heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
We read in
II Peter 3, verse 10:
But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Later on, for example,
we see that the four cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim had
become very wicked. It became God’s purpose to destroy them. He told Abraham
that He was going to destroy these cities. He even came into the city of Sodom
and told the family of Lot, his daughters and sons-in-law, that the time had
come and He was going to destroy this city, you have to get out! Lot and his two
daughters reluctantly obeyed but Mrs. Lot did not obey. Her heart was still in
Sodom, and the next thing fire and brimstone came down, and the whole city and
all the individuals, men, women, and children, babies, everybody, including Mrs.
Lot, were incinerated because God brought this enormous holocaust on Sodom and
Gomorrah.
By means of these
events, God is illustrating His absolute ability to carry out His warnings. He
is effectively indicating, Look, when I tell you there is going to come a time
when I will return and bring this world into judgment, you better listen to me.
You better listen to me because I have clearly demonstrated in history my
complete ability to carry out my threats.
For a Long
Time, God Has Been Warning
The Bible was completed
about A.D. 95, and for the last 1900 years, the world has had the Bible.
Theologians and Bible scholars and curious people have read the Bible, and they
have seen that at some time in the future there is a Judgment Day coming.
Someday, that dreadful event is to occur. But it is in the future, in the wild
blue yonder, so to speak. Because it is in the far future, it is nothing that we
really have to be concerned about.
Nevertheless, it is
something that is gnawing at the heart of man. Even secular men talk about
doomsday. They talk about a final end of some kind, but they do not speak about
it with great fear or trembling. It is more of a curiosity. It is something that
they can think about a little tiny bit, but basically, it is not of great
concern. Aren’t we making this world better and better for mankind? Aren’t we
solving our problems left and right? Aren’t we getting more and more medical
discoveries so that we are able to prolong life? Aren’t we finding ways in which
to begin to abolish war? Aren’t we becoming one world so that we are able to
adjudicate grievances in various countries? Surely, we are somehow going to make
this world a better place.
Yet the Bible keeps
persisting there is going to be a Judgment Day.
Now let us return for a
moment to our imaginary story. We imagined an evil genius, and in this world,
only a very evil person would be a terrorist today. Remember in our fictitious
story, this evil genius was able to convince the governments of the world that
he was able to drop a nuclear weapon on a large city. He has indicated that he
has the capability to do it, and so the whole world is in stark terror. Everyone
is absolutely paralyzed with terror. They are paralyzed with fear as they
wonder: What is going to happen? We know this would be the reaction of the world
to such a threat because we see the terror that is already in the hearts of
people as a result of the things that are already happening in this era of
terror that is the present legacy of the world.
But let us compare the
threat of this evil genius with this declaration from Almighty God Himself. As
we have noted, God repeatedly insists that there will come a time when He will
destroy this whole world and every human being on it who has had the breathe of
life and who has not become a child of God. It will not be a physical death. It
will be something infinitely more terrible. He will be destroyed by being cast
into hell forevermore, and this world is going to be a holocaust. It is going to
be burned by fire, and it will come to an end.
As we have noted,
secular man, who could not care less about what the Bible warns, is hardly
affected by this warning. But what about the theologians and Bible students who
earnestly study the Bible?
At any time in history,
those who were warned by the Bible could agree, Yes, someday there will be a
Judgment Day. That is going to happen, but praise the Lord, that is not in our
generation. We don’t have to worry about it, even though all around us people
die, and we think how terrible it is if they died unsaved. We know the Biblical
truth that on the last day, they will be resurrected to face the judgment
throne, but Judgment Day is far in the future. They died, we buried them, the
world keeps going. We are busy trying to build our business. We are still trying
to make this world a better place to live. We are still trying to solve our
health problems. We are still trying to get a cure for cancer and a cure for
heart disease or whatever. We are still working hard at this, and we are making
a lot of progress, aren’t we? Aren’t people beginning to live a little bit
longer, and don’t we have a little bit better quality of life in some ways.
Don’t we have nicer things and a whole lot more toys that we can play with and
new electronic gadgets of one kind or another. Aren’t we happier? Isn’t this
what happiness is? Are we not obtaining what we are looking for. Even though we
have doubts about how well we are doing, nonetheless, we are getting along very
well. And so, our friend died, too bad, too bad he can’t enjoy this world
anymore.
Fact is, God is a holy
God. He is an absolutely perfect God who has demonstrated beyond any question at
all that someday, He is going to come and destroy this world. At that dreadful
time, all of the unsaved are going to be sent to hell to experience eternal
damnation. God uses the most lurid language possible as He warns of this
dreadful event. Repeatedly, He speaks of the terrible nature of this event.
Repeatedly, He emphasizes that it will impact every human being on the face of
the earth. God has written profusely about this awful event and has demonstrated
that He can do it and He will do it.
It Is
About To Occur
Now we have come to a
time when we sense more and more that this terrible event is about to envelop
the whole earth. We are near that moment. In fact, there is enough evidence to
believe that probably the vast majority of the people who are living today will
still be living when Christ comes again. All of the evidence is pointing to the
fact that we are near the end. The Bible teaches that just before the end of the
world there will be a period of Great Tribulation. We read in Matthew 24:21:
For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be.
This Great Tribulation
will be immediately followed by the return of Christ. In
Matthew 24:28-30, God declares:
For
wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
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, and the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son
of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory.
The return of Christ is
at the end of the world.
All the evidence shows
that we are now in that period of Great Tribulation. Since the Bible teaches
that the Great Tribulation is the last great event before the return of Christ,
we know that Judgment Day is almost here. Immediately after the tribulation of
those days, Christ will return. Therefore, we know that we are very close to the
end.
It is not in the wild
blue yonder any longer. It is not someday, someday this will happen. We have to
say it is almost ready to happen. When we examine the Bible carefully, we can
know that there is a very high probability that most of us who are alive today
will still be alive when Christ comes again. I believe we are very close. We are
moving rapidly to the end of the world and Judgment Day. In Family Radio, we
have been teaching for months and months that we are already in the time of
Great Tribulation. Therefore, we know we are very near the end.
When we see what is
happening in the world, whether it is the World Trade Center tragedy, the
terrible terror events that are happening in Israel, Indonesia, or anywhere else
in the world, we know we have entered into an age of terror. Acts of terror are
occurring everywhere, and in one sense, we can say these are warnings pointing
to the ultimate act of terror, Judgment Day.
The likelihood is,
however, that we also have to look at these tragic events a little differently.
What is happening in the world today is actually a distraction. It is a
distraction and a diversion from where men’s minds ought to be. We can look at
the physical characteristics of present acts of terror and realize that we must
do something about it. Not only must we do something but we can do something
about it. We can marshal our money and our efforts and we can stamp out this
kind of terror.
But simultaneously,
almost entirely unknown to the world, there is this infinitely greater terror
that is stalking the world. It is the return of Jesus Christ to judge the world
and almost nobody is paying attention to it. Virtually nobody is in fear or
trembling. The fact is, if the world could only realize the awful predicament it
is really in, every human being on the face of the earth who has not come to
know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior should be trembling in fear. They
should hardly be able to sleep at night because just think, in the next few
years, some time shortly, Christ is coming, and He is coming to end this world.
It is going to be total destruction. It means that if I am unsaved, I am going
to be brought to trial. It means that I have to answer for my life, for my sins.
It means that I am going to be found guilty and be cast into hell forevermore.
How terrible! How terrible! How can I sleep at night when I think about these
things.
These warnings of the
Bible are absolutely true and trustworthy. As we study the Bible carefully,
carefully, we have to admit, yes, it is indeed very, very true. That means that
this terrible event, this terrible holocaust, this terrible thing, that is
infinitely more terrible than what is going on today as we are being terrified
by terrorists, will happen. It is infinitely more awful than what an evil genius
could pull off, if such a thing could ever exist (and of course, it doesn’t
exist at all, that is pure fanciful imagination). The ultimate terror is not
fanciful, it is not maybe. It is the fact that God has declared that He is going
to come and destroy this world. He has written about it all through the pages of
the Bible. He has clearly indicated He has full capability to do that. He has
demonstrated His total capability to do that. No matter what security system all
of the governments of the world can put together, this awful event cannot be
stopped. They can provide every nickel of their government budgets to attack
this problem, but there is no way that they can stop it from happening. There is
no way that they can stop God from doing it. There is no place where they can
find security. Even if they could dig a cave into the bowels of the earth, 10
miles down, and somehow get all of the people down there, they would not be safe
because God will find everybody wherever they might be. There is no protection.
None whatsoever.
This scenario that God
paints on the pages of the Bible, in which He warns that He is coming to destroy
the wicked in His great wrath, is absolutely true. Since it is absolutely true,
one would wonder why every unsaved person in the world isn’t paralyzed with
fear? Why isn’t every person stricken with fright?
One of the reasons, of
course, is that if they hear about it, they will scoff. Remember, God said in II
Peter 3, verse 3, that scoffers will come. They effectively say, Ah, come on, we
don’t have to believe that. That’s a scare tactic. Come on, a good God would not
do that, He loves the earth. He would never do that. Oh? Won’t He? Won’t He?
Read Genesis 6 and 7 again, and read about Sodom and Gomorrah. Read about what
He did to Judah in 587 B.C., when He threatened to bring Babylon against Judah.
He did bring Babylon against Jerusalem and totally destroyed it. Think of all of
the places where God says, I will do it, and He did it. Anyone can deceive
himself, and stick his head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, and say, it
won’t happen, but that will not change the fact that it will happen. It is going
to happen. What a terrible thing. What an enormous predicament the world is in.
What Can
Be Done?
Is there nothing that
anybody can do? Isn’t there someone who can warn the world? Is it the task of
our government to warn the world of the reality of this ultimate terror? To whom
has God assigned the responsibility to sound the warning? Certainly, it is not
the government. Fact is, this is precisely the task that God has given to each
and every true believer. That is exactly why God assigns the task of preaching
the Gospel to you and to me and to all who become believers. Incidentally, to
preach means to publish or proclaim the Gospel, and when God uses the word
preach, He is not necessarily talking about a man who is an elder in his church
and has been ordained in some way to be the preacher. Every true believer is a
preacher. We are to proclaim the gospel.
THIS IS WHY WE EXIST TODAY.
We have one task and that is
to proclaim the Gospel. Given the awfulness of and the certainty of this
ultimate terror, it is of the utmost seriousness that each and every true
believer realize how utterly important it is to faithfully sound the warning.
We know that no matter
how carefully we warn the world that this terrible judgment is coming, and that
it is so bad that everyone ought to be so paralyzed with fear that they won’t be
able to sleep tonight because they are climbing the walls worrying about it,
most people will not listen to the warning. We know that the heart of man is so
dead, it is so much in rebellion, that most people of the world will pay no
attention. They will say, Well, I know you are saying all of those things, but
first of all, you must prove to me that the Bible is true. You must prove that
the Bible is Word of God. You claim that it is, but I don’t buy it. I just don’t
buy it. Now, this is the end of the matter, don’t disturb me. I have to keep
building my business, and I have to keep trying to find some happiness in this
life. That is on the minds of men.
But you see, it is
God’s business to decide whose minds He wants to open up. If we go to Romans
Chapter 10, we can read the instructions God gives to the true believers who
have been mandated to sound the warning.
Remember, in connection
with the terrorists of today, the government can spend billions of dollars on
security trying to protect the citizenry. However, the government cannot spend
five cents nor five trillion dollars to try to protect the people from this
super-duper terror that is going to strike this world in a very few years. They
can’t do anything to protect anybody. In this matter, the governments are
completely helpless.
Wonderfully, however,
there is a protection and that protection is in Christ. If anyone does become a
true believer, and only God can make someone a true believer, it means that he
is safe and secure. This is so because when that awful day comes, he, together
with all the true believers, will be caught up to be with Christ in the air.
They are not going to experience one figment of trouble because during that last
day’s terror, when Christ comes on the clouds of glory as the judge of all the
earth, and all of these prophecies and all of these declarations of judgment and
the wrath of God are taking place, you and I who are true children of God will
be absent. We will be with Christ in the air. We will not be here. We are safe
and secure. It is the maximum security. It is total security. It is a security
that is as real and wonderful as it is real and terrible that God is going to
come to terrorize the world as He brings the unsaved into eternal damnation. We
can’t leave our cities and we can’t leave the world to escape this holocaust.
Holocaust is the right word because the Bible calls hell a lake of fire, and
Christ speaks of Himself as a consuming fire.
Wonderfully, God has a
divine plan by which people can escape the horrible consequences of the ultimate
terror that is coming. We read in Romans 10:14:
How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a
preacher?
In other words, God
here has set up His divine plan. It begins with hearing the Word of God. We read
in Romans 10, verse 17:
So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Now, what is the Word
of God? It is the Bible. It is the key; it is the key to the needs of the world.
It is the key to the whole terrible situation of ultimate terror that is going
to come. We do not know the exact day or hour or year or month, but it is going
to come, and it is very, very close at hand. And the Bible is the key. It is the
solution to the security problem.
But how then are the
peoples of the world, more than six billion of them, how are they going to hear
the Word of God? God declares that His Word is to be preached. Let us ask again,
"who are the preachers?"
Normally, we think of a
preacher as someone who stands in the pulpit because he has been specially
ordained to preach the Gospel. During the church age, the Bible called for
qualified men to be elders and deacons. They were the ones who were particularly
called upon to minister the Word in the congregation. But remember in Acts 2 God
indicated that beginning with Pentecost in A.D. 33, every believer was called
upon to be a prophet, that is, he or she was to do the work of a prophet which
is to prophesy. To prophesy simply means to declare the Word of God. Remember
Acts 2 where God declares in verse 17, And it shall come to pass in the last
days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy. From that time till the end of the world, every
true believer, men, women, and children, became a prophet. At the moment of
salvation, they were commissioned, qualified, and mandated to bring the Gospel.
During the church age, it was under the oversight and guidance of the local
congregation. Now that the church age has come to an end, it is the
responsibility of each individual believer to declare this precious Word of God
to the world.
In Luke 8:38, we read
about a man who was filled with evil spirits, and God healed him. He was an
ordinary man. He was just someone like you or me who has become saved. When the
evil spirits were cast out of him, he became a dramatic picture of someone who
was taken out of the kingdom of Satan and translated into the kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is, he had become saved. He was no longer subject to
Judgment Day.
He was told by the Lord
Jesus in Luke 8, verse 39:
Return
to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he
went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had
done unto him.
The word published is
the identical Greek word that elsewhere in the Bible is translated preached. He
couldn’t keep still. Look what happened to me, look how good the Lord Jesus is,
look how he healed me from my terrible suffering. Look how He healed me. So, he
became a preacher, and it wasn’t that he now headed up a church and a
congregation, he himself is the preacher.
Furthermore, we read in
Luke Chapter 12 that God tells us where
we are to preach. Look at verse 3:
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and
that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed [same word,
preached] upon the housetops.
In
Mark 13:15, God is describing the Great
Tribulation that we presently are in. In this context, God commands:
And let
him that is on the housetop not go down into the house,...
What are they doing on
the housetop? Luke Chapter 12, verse 3, tells us that they are proclaiming the
Gospel. They are proclaiming the Gospel to the world. God commands the believers
in Luke 12:3:
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and
that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the
housetops.
In other words, God is
commanding us in this time of Great Tribulation to get busy proclaiming the Word
of God. Why? Why? We can know why when we think about the enormous danger the
world is in. This super-duper terrorist act of all time, of Christ returning and
destroying the whole world, is about to happen and we have the key; we have the
key. Only true believers have the key. The key is the Word of God. We have to
proclaim it. We have to get it out there to the world and we are not to come off
the housetops. Don’t go back into the house or your church to try and get more
information or whatever. You stay on the housetop. You stay out in the world and
keep sounding the alarm. It’s my program, God is saying. As individuals each one
of you has a task to proclaim the Gospel, to preach the Gospel.
Therefore, we read in
Romans Chapter 10, verse 14:
How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a
preacher?
That is the way God
gets the Gospel out. Throughout the church age, God assigned the local churches
the task of preaching. Now, in this day, He has assigned that task to us as
individuals.
Again let me underscore
how important that is. This world is on the edge of the greatest tragedy it has
ever, ever known. It is a tragedy that makes every other tragedy like a
kindergarten class or like a child’s play thing. In this age of terror, no
terrorist, not even the potential terror that would come if our fictitious evil
genius were real, can remotely terrorize the world as God is doing. This is the
ultimate terror as Christ warns that He is coming with his righteous wrath. He
is coming with his furious anger to destroy the wicked by sending them to hell.
He tells us about the role of the true believer in
Romans 10:14, where we read:
How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a
preacher?
And
Romans 10:15 tells us:
And how
shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good
things!
Does it take a church, a
congregation to send a preacher? The answer is: No. No. We are sent out by God
Himself. God says in II Corinthians 5:20, we are ambassadors for Christ, and He
says in Acts 1:8, ye shall be witnesses . . . unto the uttermost part of the
earth. God says in Mark 16:15, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel.
He is telling each one of us who is a true believer: You are to do the
proclaiming. You are to publish the Gospel. The need to warn the world is not
tomorrow, it is not next week or next year, it is now! Never in the history of
the world has the need to warn the world been as urgent or serious as it is
today.
God warns in
Ezekiel 33:2-9:
Son of
man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the
sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set
him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow
the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the
trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood
shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not
warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver
his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and
the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among
them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the
watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the
house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them
from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if
thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die
in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if
thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way,
he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
The watchman can only
be those who have been designated by God to give warning. They are the true
believers who have been given the task to send the Gospel into all the world.
The enemy that is
coming is Christ as the Judge. The unsaved of the world are enemies of Christ.
Thus, Christ is the enemy of the unsaved world.
Thus, this passage is
warning the believers that they have no option. They know that Judgment Day is
coming as the ultimate act of terror that will strike this earth. If they do not
sound the warning, they themselves will come under the judgment of God. The
language of this Biblical passage is so emphatic that it permits no argument. We
who are true believers must sound the warning to the whole world that Judgment
Day is almost here.
In
Isaiah 34:1-4, God declares:
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 the LORD 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.
The nations, the earth
must hear. The language of verse 2, he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath
delivered them to the slaughter, is in the past tense. This emphasizes the
absolute certainty that this slaughter (Judgment Day), will happen. Already in
God’s mind it has happened because God is the great I am, the ever-present one.
This world is on the
edge of oblivion. It’s right on the edge. It’s like the world is living on a
volcano, a huge volcano. This volcano hasn’t erupted for a thousand years and so
fields have been planted and cities have been built on that volcano. However, a
group of scientists has been studying that volcano, and they suddenly realize
that this volcano is ready to erupt. At any moment it could erupt, and if it
does erupt, it’s such a major volcano that it will utterly destroy all the
cities that have been built on this volcano. And so, they run through the
streets of the city, screaming to anyone who will listen, We’ve got to get out!
We’ve got to get off this volcano! There’s going to be an explosion that will
destroy all of us if we do not immediately get away from this volcano. This is
the kind of thing the world is facing today as righteous God is soon to come
with the ultimate terror.
Sometimes we read about
people who warn that there are comets or asteroids out there. If a large comet
or a large asteroid would strike this earth, it could bring it to its end. But
then they add, Wonderfully, we don’t see anything out there that will threaten
us maybe for the next million and a half years, as near as we can tell.
The terrible fact is
that there is a comet coming. There is an asteroid coming. It’s already on the
way and its coming from heaven. It’s God and His wrath and His fury! It is going
to strike, and God has given us enough information so that we can be absolutely
sure it will strike. Moreover, we know it is going to strike very, very soon.
It’s not in the wild blue yonder. It’s not someday. It’s going to strike very,
very soon.
People, can you
understand what the position of the true believer is? God has saved us and
because He has saved us, He has given us the task to warn. We are the only
security system that exists in the world. There is no other security system.
Only the true believers believe the Bible and understand that this will happen.
We Need to
Sound the Warning
Only the true believers
are in a position where we can send out the Gospel. We are the only people who
absolutely trust the Bible. We are the only people who have been commissioned,
and qualified, and commanded to sound the warning. We read in
Romans 10:17:
So then
faith [that is, to trust in Christ, which is the only remedy for this terrible
thing] cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The Word of God must be
sent out into the world. Without you and me who claim to be children of God and
who intensely want to be obedient to Him, without us proclaiming or publishing
the Word of God to the world, there will be no warning to the world of this
impending holocaust. This is God’s plan. We whom God has saved are to publish
the Word. The Bible declares, how shall any believer preach or publish or
proclaim except they be sent. The moment we become saved, we are automatically
sent out. This is God’s plan. We who have become saved are to publish the Word.
That is the role that God has assigned to us as believers. We are sent into the
world to publish, to proclaim the Gospel.
How important is this
Gospel? Can you now begin to see some things tying together? How important is
the Gospel to the world? This world is on that volcano that is ready to erupt.
This world is at that moment when God is about to terrorize the world like it
has never been terrorized as He comes in judgment to destroy. Who is there in
this world who can provide any answer for security? We can’t marshal all of the
political money or the political entities to provide security.
The answer
is the Word of God.
In the Word of God, God tells us all about this ultimate act of terror. He
commands us to send out that Word, publish it on the housetops and proclaim that
Word to the world. This is imperative because the world is ready to blow. The
world is ready to receive the maximum destruction, the maximum holocaust it will
ever, ever face, and we are the ones who have been made custodians of that Word.
We have been sent by God to proclaim that Word to the world.
Can you see what our
life is all about? Hey, look, you have a business to take care of, you have an
office job, you have to make a living. We are all busy with life. We all have
plenty to do in this life, and we find that most of our attention is focused on
taking care of our family. We are planning to buy a new house, we are planning
to take a vacation next year. We are doing all of the normal things that the
world is doing. Everything is under control. It is just so nice when we are
thinking about buying some new clothes, and these are all the things we care
about. Oh, yes, on Sunday, we fellowship together, and we sing some songs, and
we have some nice Christian conversation with each other. We feel spiritually
refreshed, and now we go back to work on Monday morning, and we go back to
school, and everything appears to be fine.
Another week goes by
and it is another week closer to d-day. It is another week closer to the
holocaust, closer to the act of terror that is going to happen, which we who
trust the Bible know about. We know it is going to happen because we trust the
Bible. We have learned that the Bible is the Word of God, and God does not play
games. God is not fooling around. God is not just giving idle warnings. God has
given us a message. He has told us that this holocaust is going to happen, and
it is going to happen very soon. It is going to impact the whole world. There is
only one possibility of security and that security is in the Lord Jesus, and we
who are true believers know about the Lord Jesus.
We have trusted the
Bible, and yet, we are just kind of folding our hands and living out our lives,
effectively declaring, who cares about the world? Who cares? What difference
does that make? Let them go to hell if they want to go to hell. This is very
crude language but isn’t that the way it is, to such a high degree?
Unfortunately, that is exactly the way we live our lives. Let people just go, we
are not going to worry about them.
The fact is, that isn’t
the way God designed a true believer. He has commanded us to occupy till I come.
He has commanded us to be His ambassadors. God is evangelizing the world through
the true believers. To them has been given the responsibility to evangelize the
world. Because this is God’s divine plan, we ought to be terribly agitated about
this. Our whole lifestyle ought to change. We ought to have an entirely
different focus for our life. We should recognize that this terrible act of
terror is almost ready to happen. We should clearly recognize it isn’t business
as usual. We can’t go on with our normal life the way we have in the past. There
is a world out there, six billion people and more who are going to be
incinerated and not just suddenly be annihilated, but they are going to be
incinerated in hell, they are going to be in the lake of fire forevermore. They
are going to be under the wrath of God forevermore and the only solution is
Christ.
Now we know that Christ
has elected those who are to become saved. We must remember election is God’s
business. Therefore, since God does all the work required to save the elect, why
do we have to be concerned?
We must remember God’s
election program is not our business. That is God’s business. Why do you think
God has commanded us to go into all the world with the Gospel? Why do you think
He tells us to stay on the housetops and not go down into the house? Do you
recall that God declares in Luke 12:3:
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and
that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the
housetops.
To be on the housetop
is a figure of speech that we are to ceaselessly send out the Gospel. Is this
just conversation? Is God just kind of making some small talk with us? No way.
These are expressed commands of God. This is what God desires. This is what He
wants. This is what He commands. This is His plan. It is through you and me who
claim to be believers that God goes out to seek and to save those who are lost.
These are the ones He still has to bring in before that final day when Christ
comes. It is altogether God’s business. It is not up to us to make that
decision. We know it is a great multitude because
Revelation 7, verse 9, says:
After
this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
This great multitude
consists of all those who become saved. And where did they come from? They came
out of the Great Tribulation.
What I am trying to get
across to you and to me is that life is no longer business as usual. Today is
the day when we have an absolutely important task. It is an insistent task, and
we who are true believers in Christ as our Savior are the only ones with the
message that the whole world must hear. That message is that Judgment Day is
almost here. And Judgment Day is super awful. It is no wonder that we read, for
example, in Revelation Chapter 6, verses 15 to
17, that when Christ comes, He warns:
And the
kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains,
and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the
dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks,
Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and
from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who
shall be able to stand?
These are the very
words that God is saying to us. These words are similar to the message God
brings all through the Bible. In II Peter Chapter 3, for example, God reminds us
of what He did in the flood of Noah’s day. He says
in II Peter 3, verses 3 and 4:
Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
You and I know we are
very nonchalant about this whole business, but we are not actually saying out
loud, Where is the promise. We do believe He is coming. But we are demonstrating
that it isn’t really important at all that He is coming. What is so big about
this? Effectively, we are saying, I have to get on with my life. I want my
children to go to college. I want to build this new house, and I want to have
this other thing and that other thing. I and my family are getting along very
well, thank you. Don’t bother me.
If we really knew in our
hearts and accepted the fact that His coming is near, we could not be
nonchalant. We would have to be trembling with fear for our loved ones. We would
have to be trembling with fear for the world. We would be exercising every
muscle of our existence and of our strength in order to somehow tell more people
about this. We would have an enormous compulsion to tell anyone and everyone
that this holocaust is coming. It is coming. In His Word, God tells us
in II Peter 3, verses 5 and 6:
For this
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that
then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
These are facts that
God is declaring. God is saying remember, remember, go back to the flood of
Noah’s day. Didn’t I say I was going to destroy the whole world. I did destroy
it, so what are you doing about this warning that I intend to destroy the whole
world by fire. Remember, God says in II Peter
3:7:
But the
heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
He goes on to say in
II Peter 3:10:
But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Is this just poetic
language? Is this just small talk? Is this exaggeration? No way. These are
warnings from Almighty God. It is Almighty God who is speaking. Is this
something that will happen in the wild blue yonder, some hundreds of years down
the corridors of time? No way. It is coming very close.
I am trying to get a
very serious message across to each one of us. Life is not the same. We have to
get this serious message into our thick skulls, into our hardened hearts. We
have to begin to understand that we are living in a most serious time.
Throughout history, God has warned that Judgment Day is coming. When Christ
comes to judge the unsaved, it will be the end of time. There will be no more
grace, no more mercy. There will be no more salvation. It will mean that it is
settled once and for all that anyone who is unsaved at that point is going to
stand before the Judgment Throne of God and end up in hell forevermore.
For the believers the
real crisis is not that we are at the end of the church age. That is not the
issue but that is definitely a part of the program that God has established.
True, it is the final season when God is no longer using an institution like the
churches, which God had divinely utilized for over 1950 years. True, God is not
using them anymore as the custodians of the Gospel. True, the church age has
come to an end, even as 2,000 years ago, God finished with the nation of Israel
as His special people. They were the institution that God used for about 1500
years.
But now He has shifted
a second time. As He completes the evangelization of the world, God has assigned
the task to individual believers to publish, to preach, to proclaim the Word of
God. This is the assignment that He has given us, and that is why we understand
that we are to be on the housetops. This is the task that we have to do.
Please let me repeat,
it isn’t business as usual. Each one of us who claims to be a believer has to
ask, Oh, Lord, what can I do? I can witness to my loved ones. I can stand on a
street corner and pass out tracts that proclaim the Gospel. I can send my money
to a ministry like Family Radio where it can as faithfully as possible be used
to buy radio stations or to buy radio time in order to reach whole continents
with the Bible.
Incidentally, I (
Harold Camping, president of Family Radio) am in awe at what God is doing
presently through Family Radio as we are able to reach whole continents with the
Gospel. It is the very same kind of Gospel that can be heard in so many cities
in the United States. It is the whole counsel of God that Family Radio tries to
bring, we are trying to be as faithful as possible to the Word of God.
God has placed an
enormous responsibility in the lives of each and every believer. We dare not
say, That’s not for me. There are plenty of others who are available to carry
out the task of warning the world. They will provide the funds. They will see to
it that the work is done. If that is our thinking, then it simply means that we
better ask the question, Am I really a child of God? I am very, very candid
about this because God commands us to remain on the housetops, and it is from
the housetops that the Gospel is to be proclaimed. If we do not obey this
command, it is because we are not truly saved.
If we have been healed
of our spiritual illness, we, like the demoniac who was healed of his demons,
should be proclaiming to anyone who will listen what God has done in our life.
In
Romans 10:17, we read:
So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The faith that we want
the people of the world to have is a trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is,
they must become saved. Only then are they in safety. Only then are they secure.
Only then will they not be incinerated in hell forevermore. Only then is there
any kind of safety.
So what is the remedy
for the world? They must hear the Word of God. That is why in our task today, as
individuals, we have only one purpose, and that purpose is to get the Word of
God out into the world.
Earlier, I indicated
that the crisis today is not the end of the church age. The crisis is the
authority of the Word of God. That is the real crisis: The authority of the
Bible. All kinds of people will hear this kind of message, and they will say,
My, is he trying to scare people? Is he trying to get people to support Family
Radio? They can scorn and they can scoff all they want but the fact is that if
people are not going to listen seriously to this kind of message, the question
must be asked: What do they think about the Word of God? It is the Bible at
issue. It is the Bible that is at issue.
The time is desperate,
it’s critical. It is super, super critical. It has never been more desperate. We
have never been closer to the end than we are today. Never, never. It has never
been so close. We can almost hear the sound of the trumpet. We can almost hear
the sound of the trumpet as we will hear it when Christ does come. Yet God gives
us opportunity to warn the world.
This concern should be
burning in our souls all the time. How can we reach more people? What else can
we do? We have got to reach the peoples of the world. We, like every true
believer, are the only security system for this granddaddy of all terrorists’
activities that is going to come. And it’s coming.
It’s going to come, and
yet, isn’t it true that we continue to live out our lives very complacently.
Let’s be honest about it. We’re very complacent.
Every day we ought to
be thinking, it won’t be long now, and that great terror is going to strike. Who
can I warn? How can I help to tell somebody that it’s time. And I know, as I
warn, there will be scoffers. I know that my friends will think I’m crazy. I
know they will think I’ve lost my mind. I know all of that will happen. But that
is beside the issue. I can’t worry about how or what they think of me. I’ve got
to warn. I’ve got to warn. There were no individuals in the entire history of
the world who, as true believers, have had a more insistent task than we have
today. We are in the wrap up. We are in the final inning of the game. We are in
the final minutes of the ball game. It’s almost time for Christ to come. Beloved
ones, do you get the picture? Do you get the picture?
On the one hand, we are
living in the most exciting time of history. But on the other hand, we are
living in the most terrible time of the history of the world. The Bible has
threatened throughout it pages that the time will come when Christ will return
to judge all the unsaved of the earth. Let us read again from
Isaiah Chapter 13, verse 9:
Behold,
the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the
land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isaiah, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote these words 2,800 years ago. Thus, it was
2,800 years ago that God was already warning mankind, and that warning has been
sounded again and again throughout the Bible. However, today, it is not 2,800
years ago. In all likelihood, it is in your lifetime and it may even be in my
lifetime that the day of the Lord will come, "cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger."
Remember,
Isaiah 13:9 declares:
Behold,
the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the
land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Cruel! How can that be?
God is a merciful God. A compassionate God. But now God says the day cometh with
cruelty. Why? You see, there is no longer any mercy when Christ comes.
Oh, today there is
mercy. Today there is mercy. Today there is still a great multitude that no man
can number who are being saved. But when Christ appears on the clouds of glory
on the last day, Judgment Day, there will be no mercy! There will be countless
people at the judgment throne arguing in some way with God, saying, But, oh,
God, look how I have lived for you. Look at all of the good things I have done,
and look at this and look at that. Oh, God, aren’t you a merciful God? And God
is effectively saying, You never did become saved, and now it is too late. I
must send you into eternal damnation because I never knew you! It is too late!
The time is gone. That, my dear ones, is what God teaches in the Bible.
I wish that I could be
accused of, My, are you exaggerating! My, are you getting carried away! I wish
that could be an honest accusation but it isn’t. I am not getting carried away.
I wish I could be ten times more excited about this. I wish I could tremble 50
times more than I am trembling as I think about where the world is. And please,
when you read about the various acts of terror that are going on, and they are
going on, that is a diversion. That is a diversion to get our minds off the real
problem. The real problem is that the greatest terror of all is almost here. It
is almost here.
God is teaching that He
has become cruel with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate, and He
shall destroy the sinners out of it. Isaiah
13:10a says:
For the
stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light:
Ordinarily in the
Bible, when God talks about stars, He is talking about the believers. When
Christ comes, the believers no longer can bring the light of the Gospel to the
world because God is finished with this world.
Isaiah 13:10b says:
the sun
shall be darkened...
Ordinarily, Christ is
looked upon as the sun that rises with healing in His wings. He, as the very
essence of the Gospel light, is no longer saving. The sun is darkened.
Isaiah 13:10c:
and the
moon shall not cause her light to shine.
The moon, ordinarily,
is a picture of the law of God. The whole Bible is the law of God. And while God
sometimes uses the word moon in the sense of bringing judgment, in this setting,
it does not give light, that is, He is speaking of the fact that there will be
no more light of the Gospel. It’s too late. It’s too late! You can beg and cry
and weep for mercy, and you can hope that there is still some possibility, but
it’s all gone. No wonder God says in Hebrews
2:3, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation."
Of course, we know we
can’t get anybody saved, God has to save them. But we read in
Romans 10:17:
So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
So, what is our task?
It is to get the Word of God out to the multitudes of the world. On the Family
Radio program, The Open Forum, people call with their problems. They are being
told that whatever their problems are, no man can truly help. God is the only
solution. God speaks to us from the pages of the Bible. Therefore, read the
Bible. Read the Bible! Read the Bible! Read it prayerfully, asking God to give
you some understanding. Read it praying that you might be obedient to what you
are commanded in the Bible. Our task is to encourage people to read the Bible.
If you are sharing the
Gospel with someone, and he is arguing about a theological point, say, Look, I
don’t know. I’m not an expert in that, but let me tell you, you must read the
Bible. Keep reading the Bible. Keep reading the Bible. Wonderfully, God has
given us each Sunday as a marvelous day to assemble ourselves together. And we
assemble, first of all, around the Bible, around the Word of God. Oh my, may all
of us get this seared into our souls. May we fully realize that you and I, who
are true believers, are the only security system that God has put in place. It
is the only security system that can give any protection from this gigantic,
super terrible terror that is about to happen, and it will happen.
Without any question
whatsoever, it will happen very soon.
To Him be all glory and
power and praise. Amen
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