"In the Last Days #2" - Ronald L. Dart

if you run a standard concordance search on the expression in the last days you'll find six occasions where the term is used in the old testament but if you run the hebrew which almost anyone can do anymore because of the computer programs we've got with a couple of clicks of the mouse you can determine what the hebrew word is and then you can tell it go find that everywhere it is in the old testament you get 13 times that it shows up now the reason for that is that an over half the occasions where it's used it's rendered in the latter days or i think an NIV it even has in days to come I presume there are contextual reasons for choosing one phrase over the other depending upon where it is found we would sometimes like to insist that the expressions always mean the same thing everywhere we find it makes life a lot easier but the problem is English isn't that way and I don't know why we would expect Hebrew to be that way either words are used with different meanings depending upon syntax and on structure upon context upon the near context and the larger context set up on the there's a wonderful word for you hermeneutics of the passage as to how we're going to interpret this thing so you do have that happen from time to time we run afoul of some very bad interpretation sometimes because amateurs find a meaning of the Hebrew that in some context or other suits their assumptions and then they attempt to apply it across the board in the Old Testament and it just doesn't work that way I'm sorry in fact I have come to conclusion down through the years that when I'm reading a paper and people send me a lot of papers from time to time doctrinal papers on this or that the other thing and whenever I'm reading along and they find now that word there is and they give you a word and they say that Strong's number and they give me the number from Strong's Concordance that's an infallible sign of an amateur infallible sign now don't get me wrong Strong's Concordance is a very useful tool it's very helpful but using it doesn't make you an authority in Hebrew or Greek most of us no then I'm far more impressed when I'm reading a paper and the writer has found a translation or a commentary you know somebody that written by somebody who knows what they're talking about - that supports his thought about what this particular word or expression means so I'm telling that to say that in the in the Bible in the Old Testament New Testament there is some in ambiguity in the use of the expression in the last days in the latter days as to exactly what it means there seems to be less ambiguity in the Greek then there is in the Hebrew we should try to keep that in mind when we study these things I have the impression that God wants us to be a lot less dogmatic and much more enquiring much more saying well I don't know this is the way it looks to me today but and I'm filing that away in my memory but we'll see what God reveals in the course of time now the last time I spoke here I introduced the topic of the last days the expression was in the last days I pointed out that when Paul said in the last days perilous times shall come he used the word he used suggest that the last days would be perilous but perilous because they would be debilitating and weakening which is what the word translated perilous actually means in the Greek we should pull up our socks Paul says and struggle against this not go along with the spirit of the age it's something that he warned Timothy about 2,000 years ago in the warning is just as viable to us today in these last days the times the circumstances the spirit of the age will tend to want to just cut the heart right out of you take away from you your your understanding of God your knowledge of your commitment to God and weaken you in the faith then there came Peters powerful admonition where he said know this first there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying well where is the promise of his coming since the father's fell asleep everything continues as it was the beginning the creation till now and I think new Under the Sun nothing has changed then Peter went on to tie the last days to the day of the Lord which is another one of those expressions that you find again and again in the Bible with some ambiguity there is a an express eschatological another word for you in times last day's interpretation of the day of the Lord it also appears in the Old Testament to occasionally be used to express the day of God's vengeance the day of his wrath the day of his anger which has to do with this circumstance or that nation or so forth there's a day when the Lord is going to come down on you and that is a day of the Lord but having said that there is also one time not like any day that has ever come before it not like any day that will ever be again after it that is the day of the Lord not just a day of the Lord and Peter says the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth and everything in them shall be burned up he spoke in any spoke as Paul did he said seeing then that all these things shall be shattered what kind of people should you be in all holy conduct and reverence how should you be live in your life watch out for it then his final admonition he says you therefore a bread beloved see you know these things before told you ahead of time beware lest you also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness the grow in graciousness and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now all that is in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 if you want to look it up and see how its put just last night I was watching a documentary I had never seen it before I had even heard of it's produced by the BBC called hyperspace and what it is is a documentary about about space about the sir about the earth about the planets and so forth but it's different from many anything I think I've seen before because what it effectively does is it outlines for us and demonstrates the life of our solar system and the death of our solar system which is a little bit discouraging when you think about the fact that of course it's not anything you and I necessarily have to worry about because as far as we can tell in the next hundred years nothing dramatic is going to happen so you and I are okay I don't know what to say about your children grandchildren that's another matter entirely but even there they're probably okay because what this was talking about was something I had never seen before I I and I was kind of shocked I thought I knew about these things but the problem you everybody knows that comes going to come when the Sun will burn out and the Sun will finally explode blow everything out of the solar system and collapse in on itself we all know that what I did not know is that the Sun is getting hotter all the time it is continually hotter it is hotter today that it was a thousand years ago or a million years ago it just keeps on getting hotter and they demonstrated graphically how that the earth sits in what I would call fact they presented this way kind of a green zone that goes around the Sun there is a space out here where basically life is possible where your planet can survive going beyond it it's just dirt it's just stone cold ice the other way it's too hot for life to exist and what they demonstrated was that is in years to come now don't worry it's not going to happen anytime soon but it is going to happen of a certainty it's going to happen there is no question that green zone is going to start moving further and further out from the Sun and there comes a point and it's really striking how what a narrow range this is that we sit in and there's so many times in that documentary they didn't say anything about God but I sure thought about it and we have been placed in the one place at all the solar system where we can survive and set in motion around the Sun but the time is coming when this planet will be burned up just like Peter said and they actually had some good computer graphics and special effects to show just what it would look like in the process of developing and I was somewhat stunned by some of the things I saw as a documentary I didn't think it was all that great dialogue was kind of a hyper it was a little bit overly dramatized but in a way how can you over dramatize the end of the world so anyway the whole point of prophecy is to remind us of what we are how small we are and that we're temporary neither we as individuals nor even the human race are destined to survive it is prophecy is not given to satisfy our curiosity about the future or to encourage us to play a game of ain't it awful now there was another occasion where Peter addressed the the issues having to do with the last day in some ways it may even be more familiar because it is on that first Pentecost of the New Testament church when the Holy Spirit fell on them in power and started them out on the trek that has led to us today being where we are Peter stands up in front of everybody with Amen all gathered around us all these guys are just drunk and Peter says he'll give us a break this is this the third hour of the day these people aren't drunk this is that he said which was spoken by the Prophet Joel find us in acts 2 verse 16 and it shall come to pass in the last days there's that expression says God then I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams well you know you know something interesting about this it says I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh not upon an elect not a handful here in a handful there a person here and nobody there he says all flesh how can that be I got to thinking about that last night and I began to realize something I hadn't quite thought about and that is if the Holy Spirit comes upon a man who has himself evil it will make him worse it will make him more Mis it will create for him a private hell that arises right out of his own heart and out of his own mind if it falls on a man who is not wicked or evil that will transform his life of course it transforms both lives it transforms one life this way the other life the other way so the pouring out of the spirit upon all flesh I take it that's what he means and it's a kind of sobering thing to consider what that might might bring also notice that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy so can women preach apparently so that's going to happen at some point in time and under some circumstances because God says I'll pour my spirit out upon them and they will prophesy some look at this and conclude that the last days then began at Pentecost that maybe on the other hand perhaps what Peter was describing on this day was a type of what Joel was talking about you kind of have to go back and take a look at Joel before you get this quite right but anyway Peter went on to say on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they will prophesy I will show wonders in heaven above signs in the earth beneath blood fire vapor of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come there's that expression again in the last days the day of the Lord and should come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved it's as though what he's saying is there is to come a time when the door is kicked wide open and this is not going to be a religion of the Jews it's not going to be a religion of the Hebrews it's going to be a religion of all men whoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved now to call on that is to invoke the name of Jesus is to accept his name to carry that name to put that name upon your shoulders and bear it forward it isn't just to pronounce a formula at the end of your prayer in Jesus name Amen as though somehow our that was supposed to give us at whatever is we asked for you would think by now someone would have figured out that it didn't work wouldn't you how many prayers have we made in Jesus name that as far as we can tell have never been answered the fact of the matter is it's not a formula it is say it is a condition it is a relationship that exists between a man and Jesus Christ as he carries Jesus name forward into the world now I don't know what Peter thought about this because it's pretty obvious when you read this that this didn't happen I don't know whether he thought it was going to happen the next few weeks or months I don't know if he thought it's going to happen in his lifetime I haven't got a clue what he thought all I know is what he said and he was honest and straightforward about this he didn't just pull the scripture out of context and and and try to make a sermon out of it he quoted the whole thing so consequently it's very obvious that that what he would what he was trying to say on this occasion when I got back and I looked at the context though of what Joel said that led him to come to this conclusion about Joel's prophecy again it was pretty clear to me than what Peter is was seeing was a type now in prophecy a type is a previous fulfillment that takes place before the final fulfillment some prophecies in the Bible are fulfilled twice some of them are filled three and four times some of them are repeated over and over again because human beings keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again so consequently what Peter is saying is what I'm seeing here looks very much to me like what happened what the Prophet Joel was talking about and so he cites the prophecy now I want us to go back to kajol well it's the second chapter of Joel where this comes down and consider what of all the things that Peter said we're going to happen are yet to come blow you the trumpet in Zion he says sound an alarm in my holy mountain let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord comes it's Nyad hand now you know when you hear the trumpet being blown it calls to mind the Feast of Trumpets the book of Revelation and the seven trumpets that are blown there you and then you see the expression the day of the Lord is at hand you've got to realize we're talking about stuff that's in the last days sure enough the eschatological last days not just times after the times we're living in he goes on to say it's going to be a day of darkness of gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness like the morning spread upon the mountains a great people and a strong there has not ever been the like neither shall there be anymore after it to the years of many generations so here we are we are coming on down to a day unique in all of history a day that there was nothing like it before there will never be another day like it after this occasion then he describes this army coming in I know we had a him once upon a time he'll hemulen talk about God's army you know and it is God's army the Assyrians that came in were the sword in his hand and what they were the instrument that he was using to chastise Israel he says the fire devours before them behind them a flame burns the land is like the Garden of Eden in front of them and behind them it's a desolate wilderness nothing shall escape them you know scorched earth policy now this seems to be talking about an army of what human beings might do at the same time it also sounds an awful lot like what was happening on planet Earth is that that heat band manages to get out beyond our planet to where we can no longer survive here he said the appearance of them is like the appearance of horses and as horsemen soul shall they run it's quite a description of this incredible army that's coming down with all of their destruction in verse 10 he says the earth shall quake before them the heavens shall tremble the Sun and the moon shall be dark and the stars are withdraw their shining and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army for his camp is very great he is strong that execute his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible who can abide it now this explains why Peter invokes the expression the day of the Lord in connection with his spray as his phrase in the last days this is something which they saw at the very end of days therefore God continues in Joel turn to me even with all your heart with fasting with weeping with mourning rend your heart and not your garments and turn to the Lord for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger of great kindness and repents him of the evil I mean turn your life around that that's reminiscent of you people rend your hearts or in your hearts and not your garments isn't that from Mendelssohn's Elijah this is gorgeous song there was son who knows how can you tell that God will not return and repent and leave a blessing behind him now blow a trumpet in Zion sanctify a fast call a solemn assembly gather the people sanctify the congregation assemble the elders gather the children those that suck the breasts that the bridegroom get out of his chamber the bride out of her closet this is no time for that what's he saying to us here what is he describing now can you think of a day in Israel's annual cycle of stuff that they do that this fits day of atonement the trumpet has been blown at the beginning of the month now we have sanctified a fast everybody is called their man woman child suckling nobody is exempt on this day from coming to appear before God in humility that they might have been that an atonement to be made with them before them before God let the priests the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar let them say spare your people O Lord give not your heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them but it continues on through here with this really powerful description of the terrible things that are coming and the call for Israel's repentance and then he comes to the section in verse 28 where Peters citation would from which Peter citation is drawn it says it shall come to pass afterward I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions and upon the servants you know how whole service and upon the handmaids in those days I'll pour out my spirit not just the priesthood it's on everybody and I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord and it shall come to pass that whoever will call on the name of the Lord not just pronounce it call upon it invoke his name carry his name he shall be delivered for in Mount Zion and Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord has said in the remnant whom the Lord shall call now it seems to me that Joel and Peter see Pentecost symbolically as the opening of the door of salvation to anyone and everyone who will come who will accept there isn't my mind a serious problem with the perceived doctrine of election that means that God elects these people doesn't elect these people he calls these people he doesn't call these and rejects these people this does not seem to be the message of Pentecost it does not seem to be the message of Joel that there comes a point in time in this world in this age when the door is thrown open to everybody it's not really new by the way on Pentecost I don't know how we overlooked this but strangers could always call on God there has never been a time in history when the stranger the Gentile the person is not an Israelite could not should he choose to do so call on God and receive a blessing from him the picture you see with Peter and some of them in the New Testament has to do with Jewish law not God's law because when you make actually take the word stranger and look it up right straight through the Old Testament you will find that the stranger had every right every privilege and every responsibility living in the land that any Israelite had he had to obey the same laws you're gonna live here God said you live our way you adopt the culture you assimilate you become one of us and then the Israelites were forbidden to vex the stranger they were forbidden to take advantage of him they were forbidden to mistreat him because God said you were a stranger in the land of Egypt and you know what the Egyptians did to your forefathers I don't want you doing the same thing that they did so there are those who think that the door was not opened wide on Pentecost but that this will only happen in the last days and I think they're stumbling over the ambiguity of the expression because it seems clear to me in acts 2 it seems clear to me in Paul's epistles that the Apostles and all of them are making great personal sacrifices in order to get the gospel to as many as they possibly could so that as many as possible could be saved and that what they did made a difference and what they did not so anyway I think the door is open I think the door has always been open another prophet uses this term his name is Micah Micah chapter 4 verse 1 in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains it should be exalted above the hills and the people shall flow into it now I've mentioned this before forgive me if I plow all the same ground again we're all now in the 20s in 21st century becoming quite familiar with the idea of an icon I was set down one day when I was writing and my screen hadn't had my word processor open and I forget how many icons I counted on that screen must been 30 or 40 of them or more at the same time sprinkled around this screen every one of them stood for something some of them I knew what they were some of them I did not know what they were I knew that if I clicked on it I'd probably find out it I might not want to find out so I was careful about that but every one of these is just a single little icon you click on it and it it stands for a function most common one is a little little tiny printer you click on it it opens up the screen that controls your printer and you tell it how you want to print this you click on print and away we go so these are what icons are now in prophecy prophecy is absolutely salted with icons and sometimes you have to spend some time sorting the thing out saying well wait a minute I don't think he's talking about a high hill here when he speaks of a mountain I don't think he's talking about Zion except symbolically now this is an icon and in truth you work your way through this you'll find that a mountain in prophecy is an icon for a nation or a government a political structure as it were and you can still come across this this in is the mountain of the house of the Lord he goes on to say that many nations shall come and say let's go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob again you're apt to think of that solely in terms of the temple but the word the house of as it's used in the Bible has to do with the governmental structure the administration the house of David was in ascension David's dynasty David had a government he had soldiers he had a chief of staff he had an army he had all sorts of people who were who combined together to carry out his government it was his house Abraham had a house probably close to a thousand human beings who would be considered in Abraham's house based upon my reading of what I find there and this is basically his span of control it is that group of people who owed him loyalty and who owed him fees my thesis is not the one I'm looking for whatever but in other words it was his his thing so when you see the house of the God of Jacob you're talking about his his structured administration as you are with the house of Judah which is a structured administration the house of Israel another structured administration which went on for many many firt some to hundreds of odd years as two separate kingdoms as it were and so we see these these these patterns that develop and so important when you read them to kind of stop and think of what does this mean rather than just trying to take the word so I guess they're talking about the temple I don't think so I think they're talking about rather more than that let's go up to him he will teach us his ways we will walk in his paths for the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem so there it is in the last days this is something that's coming so it's pretty obvious that in the last days we'll probably spend some little period of time because you have those events that start before the great and terrible day of the Lord transition through the terrible day of the Lord and then go on into this particular time when it appears this is what we would call millennial it's of the kingdom of God time when all the kingdoms of the earth now are beginning to show a fealty that's the word I was looking for to the kingdom of God so this is coming then there's Isaiah Isaiah 2 verse 1 the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains in other words it will be the supreme world-ruling government over all of their governmental structures that exist it should be exalted above the hills small governmental structures nations shall flow into it and many people shall say come on let's go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob he will teach us his ways we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem he shall judge among the nations rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore o God hasten that day now obviously in the last days spans a broad period of time from what shall we say fifty years twenty years thirty year who knows before the return of Christ and it also reaches into the kingdom of God when the whole world now is under the authority of Jesus Christ kind of a interesting thought so what is the word to all of us from this what what can we take away from this well Matthew 24 is that prophecy where Jesus gave us the broadest possible view when his disciples came to him he told them the temple was going to be torn down not one stone left on top of another and they came and since when is this going to happen and one of the signs of your coming and at the end of the age that's what they wanted to know as a result now this whole prophecy of Matthew 24 and 25 all were given in response to that question having told him all kinds of stuff that would take place he comes back to this in verse 44 Matthew 24 verse 44 therefore now so now learn a parable I'm sorry verse 32 learn a parable of the fig tree when his branch is yet tender and it puts forth leaves you know that summer is near now around here you were doing that you'd say no when you start seeing the red buds come out you know that summer is not that far away so check your air conditioning out so likewise you when you shall see all these things know that it's near even at the doors verily I say unto you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled heaven and earth shall pass away my words shall never pass away but of that day and hour knows no man not the angels in heaven but my father only now if I understand Jesus correctly on this occasion he had no idea and it's obvious to me that that his disciples had no idea you will read in Peter you'll hear in Peters words on Pentecost you will read and Paul implications that they thought it was possible for Christ to come in their day I think that you know some people are troubled by that because they think these throat this in the Bible and that's infallible and they should know exactly when Christ is coming but he said he didn't know so they couldn't know it was utterly impossible and they knew that but that didn't keep them from saying we've got to be ready because for all we know it is we need to live our lives as though we are heading into the last days this is what Paul is trying to say is what Peter's trying to say take care you know look to your life look to the way you live it so we need to understand in that we don't know the time we just have to live it as though this is it later he says in verse 2 verse 44 therefore be you also ready or in such an hour and if you think not the Son of man comes so we don't look around amongst all the prophets who out get out there setting dates for the return of Christ we go a certain set of dates when it's not going to be those days God will have to I supposed to find a notch somewhere where he can fit his rage of Christ to return into in order to prove everybody wrong and I wouldn't who isn't the doubt that he will do that but all what do we have to do to prove them Oh biggest number of false prophets wrong so be ready who is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord has made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing what he expects of us as we think about these things to look forward to them is not to be looking for a time when we can lay down our tools not looking for a time when we can stop work not working looking for a time when we can start now as all well we got playing time it's not going to happen he says you need to be working he need you need to have Jesus when he comes take you away from his work that you are in an ongoing state of doing he said I saying to you he'll make him ruler over all his goods but if that evil servant shall say in his heart my lord delays his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunken the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn't look for him in an hour he's not aware of and will cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites be weeping and gnashing of teeth so what does mean to us it really means you need to settle in to a way of life a way of doing service to Christ that you can maintain and he takes you away from it you know it's no no no not a good idea well I'm on the gun lap and I'm gonna sprint now on the way out the end well you know no you need to have something that you can maintain because you don't know the level of alertness a level of work that you can keep up day after day day after day without getting burned out because you have no way of knowing whether Christ will come when I start to say you have no way of knowing where you're coming your thirty a lot of us know that's not gonna happen we passed that a long time ago we have no way of knowing when Christ is coming then on into Matthew 25 then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom five of them were wise five of them were foolish they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps now I have heard sermons and sermon heads over the years trying to explain every nuance every detail every little icon that's in this particular thing the oil is the Holy Spirit only kind of stuff it's not really the point the point is you had five of these virgins five of them were prepared and five of them were not you know just do with that we're not looking for ratios we're not looking for one thirds and 2/3 the point is are two categories of people people who look ahead people who plan ahead people who stay ready and people who just don't okay that's what we're dealing with now while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept at midnight there was a cry made behold the bridegroom comes go meet him all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise give us some of your oil our lamps are going out but the wise answer is saying no we can't do that there wouldn't be enough for all of us you go quickly and biased it to some of them and sell and buy for yourselves go buy some more what should have done a long time ago and while they went to buy the grub bridegroom came they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut afterward came also the other virgins saying Lord Lord open to us and he answered and said verily I say unto you I don't know you watch therefore for you know not the day or the hour when the Son of man comes and don't make the silly mistake of saying oh well he's not going to come for another hundred years you don't know you can't know I had a friend I was talking to not that long ago who had a terrible terrible nightmare he had dreamed that Christ had come and then he was standing knocking at the door and the door opened and whoever was behind the door says I'm sorry I don't know you and in slammed the door to space now he woke up in a cold sweat what he saw in vision and I relieved you know I don't really think he's in this condition but he saw in vision what could happen and if only only we could all understand this but there are some people who will and there are many who will know it but the bottom line is there are coming dreadful days ahead of us there are coming wonderful days ahead of us in the middle of it all Christ will return and those who are ready those who have prepared will go in with him and the rest of us even though we thought we were virgins and even though we thought we belong to him who are not ready we'll find ourselves unrecognized at the door so the bottom line of all the stuff I'm trying to say to you today is in the last days perilous debilitating weakening times will come don't let them take you down

Channel: BornToWinCEM

Views: 2,682

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

Keywords: Born to Win, Ronald L. Dart, CEM

Id: nu2AKOdReU8

Length: 37min 21sec (2241 seconds)

Published: Sat May 12 2018