Understanding the Day of the Lord, Part 3

now we have been talking not about our Lord's first coming but about his second coming the first coming of our Lord is historic it took place 2,000 years ago the calendar of the world marks his arrival everything before that is BC everything after that is anno domini the year of our Lord that is the great high point of all of human history the arrival of the Saviour the Incarnate son of God but he came the first time to provide sacrifice for our sins so that he could redeem his people he comes the second time to punish the wicked and to establish his kingdom with his Saints he promised that he would come again he promised that explicitly and repeatedly the Old Testament promises that the Messiah will come and judge the ungodly and establish his kingdom the new testament reiterates that the book of Revelation describes the events surrounding his coming in great detail but the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in judgment is an Old Testament reality I want to begin by reading some passages from the Old Testament but before I do that I want to remind you that we're in 1st Thessalonians 5 just the first few verses and we're taking a look at the future return of Christ through the eyes of the Apostle Paul as he wrote these letters to the Thessalonians let me take you back to 1st Thessalonians 5 and just to read the opening few verses before we look at the Old Testament first that's 5:1 now as to the times and the epochs brethren you have no need of anything to be written to you for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night while they are saying peace and safety then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape but you brethren are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief or you are all sons of light sons of day.we not of night nor of darkness we're focusing in on the term day of the Lord there in verse two the day of the Lord is a technical term it's used a number of times in the New Testament used many many times in the Old Testament and it describes two very critical events it describes first of all our Lord coming to execute final judgment on all unbelieving wicked people and then to gather his Saints into his earthly kingdom we call the Millennium because of the language of Revelation 20 so our Lord in his second coming comes to judge the wicked and to gather his Saints dead and alive into his earthly kingdom the day of the Lord describes all of that the day of the Lord sweeps across history from the time our Lord takes the church out as we saw in 1st Thessalonians 4:13 2:18 the church will be snatched away from the time the church is snatched away things begin to change on the earth and the day of the Lord begins to rumble it's like the war machine of Revelation starting to move as we see it in chapter 4 and 5 of Revelation it's like the war machine in Ezekiel chapter 1 beginning to move as judgment is on the horizon so we're considering the coming of the day of the Lord we're looking at the coming of the day of the Lord the character of the day of the Lord and the completeness of the day of the Lord but let me give you some Old Testament insight into this event I'm just going to read it to you so listen this is from Isaiah chapter 13 verse 6 wail for the day of the Lord is near it will come as destruction from the Almighty therefore all hands will fall limp and every man's heart will melt they will be terrified pains and anguish will take hold of them they will ride like a woman in labor they will look at one another in astonishment their faces aflame behold the day of the Lord is coming cruel with fury and burning anger to make the land of desolation and he will exterminate its sinners from it for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light The Sun will be dark when it rises in the moon will not shed its light thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and a base the haughtiness of the ruthless I will make mortal man scarce err than pure gold and mankind scare sir than the gold of Ophir therefore I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his burning anger graphic severe language as the prophet Isaiah looks to the future day of the Lord in Joel chapter 2 we have a brief passage that kind of builds on this and reiterates some of the characteristics of this day it says I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth blood fire columns of smoke The Sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved or will be delivered though there will be judgment on all who have not called upon the name of the Lord to be delivered in the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah as he draws his prophecy to its conclusion Zechariah looks ahead to the day of the Lord as well and he writes starting in verse 1 behold a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you and I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city will be captured the houses plundered the women ravished and half the city exiled but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights in a day of battle in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem on the east and the Mount of Olives will be split in the middle from east to west by a very large valley so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south you will flee by the valley of my mountains for the valley of the mountains will reach to a Zell yes you will flee just as you fled before the earthquakes in the day of Isaiah king of Judah then the Lord my God will come and all the Holy Ones with him in that day there will be no light the luminaries will dwindle it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord neither day nor night but it will come about that at evening time there will be light and in that day Living Waters will flow out of Jerusalem half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea it will be in summer as well as in winter verse 9 and the Lord will be king over all the earth in that day the Lord will be the only one and his name the only one this again is the Lord coming in his day in judgment and then establishing his own Kingdom over which he rules completely and exclusively the day of the Lord was such an important part of divine truth that the first Christian sermon ever preached on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 Peter preaches this great sermon the church has just been born that day by the coming of the Holy Spirit Peter stands up in preaches and what is it that Peter says he says starting in verse 17 it shall be in the last days God says that I will pour forth my spirit on all mankind and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men dream dreams even on my bondslaves both men and women I will in those days pour forth of my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke The Sun will be turned into darkness the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved drawing language Peter did from the Old Testament day of the Lord it is a two-fold event the day of the Lord it is the time of the judgment of all the wicked dead and alive and all the righteous dead and alive will be gathered into our Lord's Kingdom and I want to take you all the way to the book of Revelation and read the very description of our Lord's return in detail that was given to the Apostle John in the revelation revelation 19 verse 11 this is the very event of Christ's return on the day of the Lord at its culminating point and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges in wages war his eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadem's or crowns and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean were following him on white horses from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nation's and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written king of kings and Lord of lords then I saw an angel standing in the Sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in Midheaven come assemble for the great supper of God so that you meet the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all men both freemen and slaves and small and great and I saw the beast or the Antichrist and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army and the Beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped His image these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone and the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh that is a dramatic scene to say the least of the coming day of the Lord the prophets wrote about it the Apostles on the very first day of the church in the first sermon preached spoke of it the book of Revelation concludes with it and a lot more detail than what I just read that's just the moment when the Son of Man sets his feet on the Mount of Olives and splits it as Thakker ayah says this is the coming day of the Lord you will not come in a major he will not come as a baby he will come as a sovereign supernatural king he will not come to die for men's sins he will come to take the life of those who have rejected his sacrifice and his lordship he is coming this was not only important to the prophets and the apostles and not only the way the the Bible ends this was a very critical subject to our Lord and I want to show you what he said about a turn in your Bible to Matthew 24 Matthew 24 we're just expanding what Paul said a little bit out of first Thessalonians when Paul said that he is coming the day of the Lord is coming we're looking at that first point that the day of the Lord is coming and I want to show you what is basically contained in that reality now in Matthew 24 and 25 we have our Lord giving us a clear clear revelation of his coming he promised us to return to judge all the living and dead unbelieving wicked and to take all the living in dead believing righteous into his millennial kingdom this is the separation if you will of the sheep and the goats in the parable that our Lord gives he comes to judge the ungodly and to gather the godly into his kingdom some of the godly will come back with him namely the church that's already been raptured will be coming back with him in fine linen and on those white horses whatever that means we're not sure what those vehicles would be but we are coming back with him to gather together with the Saints on earth for the kingdom so in Matthew 24 the Lord answers the question that his disciples asked about this and the inevitable question is when we have a lot of detail about the Lord's second coming it's it's in the prophets of the Old Testament it's in the words of our Lord as we find here even so much detail that the Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians you don't need to know anything more for you full well know the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night so they had been instructed on the issue of the coming day of the Lord the return of Christ now the disciples according to Luke 19:11 believed it was going to happen immediately they supposed that it was going to happen immediately they had seen their Lord rejected they were really on the brink of his crucifixion in Matthew 24 sitting on the Mount of Olives looking back at the temple Jesus pronounces judgment and doom on the temple and the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and the Land of Israel and the disciples are not too sure how fast after all that destruction which actually came in 70 AD 30-some years later we're not sure how after that destruction how fast the kingdom would come but they thought it would be very fast very soon they wanted to know when so in verse three they asked him when when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and at the end of the age they knew he was coming back before he even left and they knew he was coming back to end human history as this earth knows it they wanted to know when that's the inevitable question and that was certainly the question in the minds of the Thessalonians believers they they wanted to know when how far away was it what was going to happen next they had even been made to believe that some of their suffering indicated they were already in the day of the Lord and Paul straightens that out and says no you're not going to be in the day of the Lord you're gonna be snatched away when the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air you're gonna go to the heavens that the Lord has prepared for you to live with him and you're never going to be out of his fellowship again you're gonna come back later when he sets up his kingdom but he'll be snatched before the day of the Lord starts well they don't know those nuances they just want to know when this all begins to happen and the Lord answers them and I just would read you a kind of a composite of his answers from Matthew Mark and Luke that pulled together in one perfect life this is our Lord describing the actual return his actual arrival taken from Matthew Mark and Luke this is the this is what the composite of His Word says speaking of his return for as the Lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west so also will the coming of the Son of Man be for wherever the carcasses there the vultures will be gathered together immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light the Stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and there will be signs in the Sun in the moon in the stars and on earth distress of Nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of the heavens will be shaken then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and great Laurey and he will send His angels with a sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven now when these things begin to happen look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near our Lord says the day of the Lord reaches its pinnacle when the Lord Himself appears and the whole world will see him and he comes like lightning flashing from one part of the sky to the next unmistakable no one will miss it but I'm not going to tell you when it's going to happen in verse 36 of Matthew 24 our Lord says of the day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father alone no one knows the exact moment that the Lord is going to return at his second coming now remember the rapture of the church that also is an imminent event we have no timetable for that we don't have any precursors to the rapture could happen any moment it could happen immediately there's nothing it has to be fulfilled before that happens but once we're snatched out the events begin to unfold leading up to and including the day of the Lord but even in that environment where there are manifest things going on that point to the day of the Lord still people will not know the precise day and the precise hour and they are warned to be ready so the question is the critical question is when is this going to happen they asked the Lord again in Acts chapter 1 will you at this time bring the kingdom when is all this going to happen and as Paul said the the Lord is not going to tell us the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night unannounced so you have to be ready at all times we have to be ready for the rapture those who are alive during the preliminary time - the day of the Lord have to be ready for this judgement in his sermon then our Lord is going to answer their question in remarkable remarkable ways he gives them some things to think about if you look down at verse 8 of Matthew 24 all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains the beginning of birth pains he describes them another way in verse 6 at the end these are the things that must take place but that is not yet the end this is just the beginning of birth pains there will be times and epochs as we read in 1st Thessalonians 5 these are being described here by our Lord here are the the seasons the events that are going to be taking place as birth pains leading up to the arrival like a woman has birth pains they start and they continue they get more intense and more intense until finally the child arrives so that is how to look at his second coming in creasing frequent painful birth pains that high the Lord says I will describe to you the first one the first thing to look for in that age in the future that time of tribulation that indicates the Lord's coming is in verses 4 and 5 Matthew 24 see to it that no one misleads you for many will come in my name saying I am Christ and will miss lead many the first birth pain is false teaching wide spread deception remember I told you last time somebody's gonna have to explain what happened to all the believers what happened to all the churches why they're all empty the true churches why all these millions of people have disappeared in a in a flash in a split second from the world they're going to have to explain that you would think that that would that event itself would dry people to find a Bible and read the New Testament and and realize that what it said happened and they need to make sure they accept the veracity of Scripture and might lead to their salvation but that's not what's going to happen what's going to happen is a proliferation of false teachers and down in verse 11 it says many false prophets will arise and will mislead many them in verse 24 false Christ's false prophets will arise show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if it were possible hypothetically even the elect so the first thing our Lord says that is going to be a precursor or a initial birth pain the beginning of Sorrows or the beginning of pain is deception escalated deception and the world will just be overrun with false prophets false Christ's and deceivers there will be many of them there will be demons let loose on the earth who will basically be the power behind these deceivers the the main one is figure in Revelation 13 called the false prophet who as I read from revelation 19 a few minutes ago deceives the whole world he is the arch deceiver he is the companion to the Antichrist in Revelation 13 you have the Beast in the opening part of the chapter who is the Antichrist depicted as a beast and then you have the next beast who is the false prophet who comes alongside the Antichrist and deceives the entire world comes up with explanations for why the Christians are not here anymore that the world believes in fact the world will begin to believe them and they will be so locked in on believing them that the Lord will actually make their unbelief permanent listen to second Thessalonians 2 which says verse 9 that the Antichrist will come in a court with the activity of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders he's going to undergird the lies and the deception with false miracles with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they didn't receive the love of the truth so as to be when they have finally rejected the gospel they have rejected the love of the truth so as to be saved they are now on the way to perishing verse 11 2nd Thessalonians 2:11 for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness which tells you why they didn't believe the truth he didn't believe the truth because they were taking pleasure in wickedness they loved their sin so this is a world plunged into sin the church is gone and with the church restraint is gone Paul says in 2nd 2nd Thessalonians the restrainer is taken out of the way so all hell breaks loose in terms of sin in the world and false teachers rise up to give explanations that suit the sinners who want to fully indulge themselves in ways that perhaps the world has never experienced because the restraint of godly people has been totally removed the leader of this world deception is the false prophet the Antichrist is part of it as well the false teachers are going to say as we read in 2nd in 1st Thessalonians 2 peace and safety remember that that when they say peace and safety that's going to be the message hey everything is fine you're safe the Antichrist is going to make a peace treaty with Israel it says in Daniel 9 and not only that according to revelation 6 the Antichrist is going to basically take over the world he is going to be a false peace maker it shows him in the first seal now I just filed this in your mind what our Lord says here about these preliminaries to the day of the Lord parallels chapters 6 of Revelation and even following their parallel even some of the language is the same so our Lord says there's going to be deception well the first seal in Revelation six one and two is false peace basically achieved by the Antichrist who is of course in himself the deceiver of all deceivers he comes with a white horse like a conqueror he has a bow interestingly enough he has no arrows in the picture there in Revelation six no arrows which probably means he doesn't conquer by war he conquers by ideology he conquers by craft he conquers by deception he conquers in a political way and creates a false global peace so first thing our Lord says that tells you that the day of the Lord is coming is deception the second birth pain is in verse 6 and the beginning of verse 7 you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars see that you're not frightened for those things must take place but that is not yet the end for nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom the next birth pang intensifying as unparalleled global warfare the issue of war will dominate universal conversation wars and rumors of wars will increase some of this is laid out in detail in Daniel chapter 11 in his prophecy there but we also see this is parallel to the second seal in Revelation chapter 6 which is a massive global slaughter a war that literally slaughters people all across the globe just to read those couple of verses Revelation chapter 6 verses 3 and 4 and he broke the second seal I heard the second living creature say come and another a red horse went out and to him who sat on it it was granted to take peace from the earth and the men would slay one another and a great sword was given to him so the picture is of this red Horsemen of the Apocalypse who comes and takes the false peace that the Antichrist has and rips it away and all of a sudden the whole world goes into a blood bath it is a slaughter of proportions like the world has not known the book of Revelation adds even to that I might just read you while I'm in chapter 6 verses 12 and following and it'll relate to the next one as well I looked and he broke the sixth seal there was a great earthquake the Sun became black as sackcloth made of hair the whole moon became like blood the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind the sky was split apart like a scroll and when it wrote when it's rolled up and every mountain and Island were moved out of their places then the kings of the earth the great men the commanders the rich the strong every slave every free man hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains and they said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to survive peace has been taken from the earth and there is literally bloodshed globally and that is followed by the third hour Lord says in verse 7 there will be famines and earthquakes and that is what I just read you and that's what the third seal in revelation 6 indicates as well that there would be there would be famine in the earth paralleling again the seals of revelation to the words of our Lord in this sermon I wish I had time to keep jumping back and forth but do we don't have the time for that so we have then precursors to the arrival of the Lord the first one is going to be global deception of a high level and people are going to believe it because they want to plunge themselves into unfettered sin and there are going to be false teachers who will accommodate that and they'll be eager to believe it because they love their sin that'll be followed by global Wars and that'll be followed by massive natural disasters all across the earth disasters that the world has never experienced I can't resist one other portion of Scripture in the 8th chapter of Revelation and verse 7 the first trumpet sounds later in the tribulation there comes hail fire mixed with blood thrown to the earth a third of the earth is burned up a third of the trees are burned up and all the green grass was burned up second angel sounded something like great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea like like some kind of body out of the sky now a third of the sea became blood a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died third of the ships were destroyed third angel sounded a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters the name of the star is wormwood and the third of the waters became wormwood many men died from the waters because they were made bitter a fourth angel sounded in the third of the Sun and the third of the moon and third of the stars were struck so to the third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it in the night in the same way the whole planet is judged in devastating fashion that's kind of where the in original earthquakes and famines go the original wars go to Armageddon in the sixteenth chapter of Revelation you have Armageddon the bloodbath of the world when the Lord comes to destroy them all so our Lord is saying I can't tell you exactly when the day or the hour is not known but prior to the day of the Lord the generation that is alive in that day need to see deception widespread deception war and natural disasters as precursors to the day of the Lord the fourth one is persecution now during this time people will be being saved that's very clear people will be being saved and what will happen to them verse 9 they will deliver you to tribulation relation and will kill you and you will be hated by all nations because of my name they will deliver you to tribulation trouble pressure and kill you and you'll be hated this is the fourth mark of this series of birth pains persecution of true believers now let me remind you again there is going to be a great great revival during the time of the tribulation after the church is taken away the nation Israel will be saved and out of Israel according to revelation 7 144,000 Jews will be redeemed and they'll become preachers of the gospel and they'll be protected so they can't be killed until they preach the gospel everywhere there will be a flying angel in heaven preaching the gospel literally in the sky there will be two witnesses in the city of Jerusalem who are killed and who rise from the dead who will preach the gospel there will be widespread salvation our Lord warned in mark 13 9 be on your guard for they will deliver you to the courts and flog you in the synagogue's then you will stand before governors and Kings for my sake as a testimony to them the gospel must first be preached to all the nations this is looking at the day of the Lord and when they arrest you and hand you over do not worry beforehand about what you're to say but say whatever has given you in that hour it's not for you to speak but it is the Holy Spirit brother will betray brother to death the father his child children will rise up against parents have put them to death you'll be hated by all because of my name but the one who endorsed the end he will be saved and then he goes right into the abomination of desolation which happens in the middle of that time of tribulation persecution will be manifest in Chapter six of the book of Revelation we see that as well again just going back for a moment to chapter six verse nine the lamb breaks the fifth seal and what comes out of the fifth seal I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained they are slaughtered by the Antichrist and his forces and they cried out with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth and there was given to each of them a white robe and they were told they should rest for a while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been would be completed true believers slaughtered in the time of tribulation same thing in Chapter 7 verse 9 after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and tribe and people and tongue standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and pomp branches in their hands they cried out with a loud voice saying salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne worship God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and Thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever amen then one of the elders answered saying to me these who are clothed in the white robes who are they and where they come from and I said to him my lord you know and he said to me these are the ones who came out of the Great Tribulation they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb for this reason there before the throne of God and they serve Him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will spread his Tabernacle over them they will hunger no longer nor thirst any more nor will the Sun beat down on them nor any heat for the lamb is the cetera of the throne and he will be their Shepherd and guide them to the springs of the water of life and God will wipe every tear from their eyes saved people slaughtered in the Tribulation coming into the presence of God in heaven persecution then is the fourth birth pain the fifth one is defection defection please notice verse 10 at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another just as we read in mark 13 betraying family members many will hate one another many will betray one another because many will fall away there will be people claiming to be Christians in the time of the tribulation but they will defect why will they defect because the price is too high the price is too high they'll be delivered to death the price is too high - they'll defect because the false teachers are too convincing verse 11 many false prophets will arise and will mislead many the price is too high the false teachers are too convincing thirdly sin is too easy because lawlessness is increased again the restraints are off Satan is in full power demons are running over the world the restraints are off the restrainer is gone and sin is now full steam ahead people may pretend to believe but they will defect the price is too high the false teachers are too convincing and sin is too easy that's what we see in the book of Revelation as well when the judgments come they don't repent they don't repent they don't repent they don't repent they plunge deeper into their sin the final the sixth precursor that our Lord identifies in Matthew 24 is the proclamation of the gospel verse 14 he says in verse 13 the one who endorsed to the end he will save not the defector but the one who endures to the end not the defector the one whose faith stands the test of persecution but the final precursor the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come so even in the time of tribulation the gospel is going to be preached to the ends of the earth by the hundred and forty-four thousand by the converts from every tongue and tribe and people by the two witnesses through media no doubt because the whole world sees them it says by the angel in the sky the globe will be covered with the gospel obviously we have the technology to make that happen in a very short period of time today then the end shall come so our Lord is saying I'm not going to tell you when it's going to happen but I say to the generation that's alive before it happens here are the things that indicate it is very very near then the end will come the next trigger that he identifies in verse 15 is the abomination of desolation when the ant I guess I won't go into details spoken of by Daniel the Antichrist goes into the Jewish temple desecrates it as Antiochus Epiphanes did in Jewish history and in that desecration of the temple triggers the second half of the Great Tribulation the second half called the Great Tribulation forty-two months three and a half years of increased judgment increase judgment now when that happens you're headed into the worst of it so the people are warned they're warned to flee in verse 16 flee to the mountains if you're on the housetop don't even go down to get what's in the house just get out of there if you're in the field don't go back to get your cloak run and woe to those who can't run because they're pregnant or nursing babies pray your flight will not be in the winter the Sabbath for then there will be Great Tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now not nor ever will three and a half years of these preliminaries escalating escalating and then the abomination of desolation happens in the temple and that triggers the second half and now the worst of it is unleashed on the world verse 22 unless those days have been cut short no life would have been saved but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short there will be living elect believers saved in the first half who will still be there and for their sake so that there's some of them who don't die the Lord doesn't want all the elect to die he has to have some alive to go into his kingdom his earthly kingdom and the false teachers will be at it they'll say here's Christ there's Christ don't believe them false Christ's false prophets will arise show signs wonders to mislead even the elect hypothetically if somebody says he's in the wilderness don't go there if he says he's in this inner room I have I have the Messiah he's here I want to take you to him no it's not going to be a secret meeting in the desert not going to be a secret meeting in a private room when he comes verse 27 it's going to be Lightning flashing from the east to the west every single person on the planet is going to see it it's like corpses we always know where the corpses are because the vultures are circling over the corpses there will be manifest it'll be visible and then immediately after the tribulation that Great Tribulation that final three and a half years the Sun goes dark the moon goes out the stars fall the heavens collapse and the Son of Man appears in the sky that's the culmination of the day of the Lord amazingly when it comes first 36 of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father alone but we have some signs that is near but the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah for in those days before the flood having been warned about the flood for 120 years they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the Ark they didn't understand till the flood came and took them all away so will the coming of the Son of Man be even with all of that even with all of that the love of sin the effectiveness of satanic Li inspired false teachers and the judgment of God on unbelievers is going to leave people vulnerable to the judgment verse 42 he says to his disciples and to the generation alive at that day beyond the alert you don't know which day your Lord is coming you don't know he tells the story about slaves being ready when their master came because he might come sooner than you think and then in chapter 25 he tells us about some virgins and that's a warning that he might come later than you think you have to be ready all the time now that is exactly what Paul is explaining to us let's go back to 1st Thessalonians and we'll wrap up quickly he is saying the day of the Lord is coming in an unexpected hour we will already have been taken to heaven we'll come back with him in his glory he comes to do two things he comes to judge the wicked living and dead and to take the living and dead Saints into his earthly Kingdom for a thousand years followed then by the new heaven and the new earth he comes like a thief in the night and when he arrives the world is going to think they're in a place of peace and safety all the birth pains of Matthew 24 line up with the first five seals of Revelation but even after those preliminary birth pains it gets so much worse the trumpet judgments and I read you some of it far worse followed by the bowl judgments rapid fire in the last few days or weeks far worse the judgments escalate like birth pains getting more intense and more intense and more intense the trumpet judgments are described in Revelation 8 and 9 and the bowl judgments in Revelation 16 and with all of this escalating the false teachers are going to be crying peace and safety so that's the coming of our Lord what's the character of his coming verse 3 then destruction will come upon them suddenly it's a sudden destruction oh let us disaster ruined used in the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament to speak of eschatological destruction not anihilation not eternal destruction in the sense that you go out of existence but it's it's ruined it's hopeless ruined it's not the destruction of being it's the destruction of well-being it's not the end of existence it's the ruination of any reason for existence they will come on them not us them us he's been saying comfort one another with these words we are gonna be caught up together with the Lord in the air and verse 17 they they are going to be destroyed suddenly Peter describes it in 2nd Peter chapter 3 in ultimate terms that even include the complete dissolution of the whole universe it's going to happen suddenly it's gonna happen in a flash it's gonna be over before anybody knows it even started they will all be catapulted into eternal judgment so our Lord says in Luke 21 34 be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life and that day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth keep on the alert at all I'm praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place and stand before the Son of Man you want to be sure that you escape that judgment and are standing in the presence of the Son of Man devastation and death in a flash one final point that the Apostle Paul makes is the completeness of this judgment the completeness of this judgment he says and they will not escape destruction will come suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape no way to escape our Lord said this back in Matthew 13 when he was telling the parables about the kingdom listen to what he said in Matthew 13 41 the Son of Man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and all who commits lawlessness and throw them into the furnace of fire in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth then the righteous will shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their father he who has ears to hear let him hear you better listen when he comes he's going to be judging all the lawless sending them to hell the righteous he gathers into his kingdom says it again in the same chapter verse 49 so it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth that judgment will take place and there will be a separation eternally between those who have rejected Christ and those who belong to him so what is our response to this hear the words of mark 13:35 237 watch therefore you do not know when the master is coming in the evening midnight that the crowing of the rooster or in the morning lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping and what I say to you I say to all watch you might say well I'm just gonna live it up until the rapture and when all the Christians go away I'll know what happened and then I'll become a Christian no you won't can't count on that there's no guarantee for that because you will be over run by liars and deceivers and false teachers you will sink deeper into the morass of sin and unbelief and you have no guarantee that you can be rescued from that that is why the Bible says now is the day of salvation father we thank you again for your word so profound are these realities they overwhelm us but you've been saying this since the Old Testament that you're coming in ferocious vengeance and wrath because that's how you feel about sin and unbelieving sinners you are a God of love and the God of mercy and a God of grace we know that we have been the recipients of that but we also know you are holy and for those who reject that your grace and reject your mercy and reject your love and reject the love of the truth of the gospel your holiness must act in judgment Lord we pray that no one here would be in the position of the wicked to be left and caught in this eternal sentence lord help us to understand the realities of the world we live in and the realities of your world help us to interpret everything in our lives from the divine perspective to look at life in history in the future not in a speculative way not in a sort of science fiction way will help us to look as realists into the future knowing that this is it what we've just seen and knowing this terrible reality may we be faithful to be sure that we are ready when you come to gather your church so we're not left for that hour help us to be faithful to warn others that's why we're here we're here to warn as well as to woo to warn of vengeance and to woo with love use us even in these days around the holidays for that end we'll thank you in Christ's name Amen [Music]

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 18,823

Rating: 4.8638296 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, end times, the day of the lord, great tribulation, bible prophecy, second coming of christ

Id: JmWAm47JDKQ

Length: 54min 27sec (3267 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 02 2019