If everyone could turn to 2 Corinthians 6, I am just going to read the first couple of verses. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2:
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
I will stop reading there.
Just to put before us what the Bible presents, May 21 in 2011 will be the day of the rapture. It is the “day of the LORD.” It is the day of God’s wrath, which will extend for five months. It will continue for five months until October 21st in 2011. Then God will destroy the world, the whole universe. He will wipe out sin. He will wipe out all of the unsaved of the world who were left behind, and that will be it. That will be it. He will “make an end of sins.” He will “finish the transgression” in the sense of completely eliminating sin from not only this world but from the realm of all of God’s Kingdom. From that point on, there will no longer be sin or rebels within the whole Kingdom of God. Never again, as far as we know from what the Bible tells us, will there be sin that can rise up as rebellion against the Kingdom of God or against God Himself.
We have also learned that May 21st is a very significant date because it is the day that is the equivalent to the time when God shut the door of the ark. It was on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah’s six hundredth year when “the LORD shut him in,” as it tells us in Genesis 7. And shutting the door is very important language, because it says in John 10:7-9:
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
You see, we enter into the door, and Christ is the Door. There is no other way to be saved. There is no other way to get into God’s Kingdom other than through Christ.
In Acts 4, it tells us, “There is none other name…given among men, whereby we must be saved.” It is only through Christ. He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” It is only through Him that a person can experience salvation and live forever with God in eternity future. It is only possible through Christ.
Take a look at Acts 14:27, which says:
And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
That is, He made an entryway into Heaven. There is a portal. It is not very big or wide, as we read in other places in the Bible that “narrow is the way.” It is a “strait gate,” but there is a way. However, “wide is the gate…that leadeth to destruction.” And there are many of those kinds of “doors,” many of those kinds of roads that lead to the destruction of a person. But as far as the true way and the faithful way and the only real way, God has opened it up. He has made it possible—He reveals this in His Word, the Bible—to mankind.
The Lord has opened up this door and it is a great and effectual door in our present day, according to 1 Corinthians 16. Let us read this. It says in 1 Corinthians 16:9:
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
Now, this goes hand in hand. Whenever God intends to save some people, that is when Satan and his emissaries start coming against this and trying to oppose this way, because Satan does not want people to leave his kingdom, to come out of his dungeon, as individuals are in the kingdom of darkness and they are kept there, not through the power of anyone but their own. They are wrapped about with the cords of their own iniquity. It is a person’s own sin that keeps him in the dungeon and prevents him from escaping or from finding freedom. And no individual is ever going to be able to unwrap those cords on their own. It has to be done by the Lord Himself. He has to set the prisoner free. He has to set the captives free, and that is what He does in salvation.
So there is this open door, an open door of faith that God has opened to the Gentiles, to mankind, where potentially any human being, any man or woman, could become saved and enter into the Kingdom of God and live forever.
Is this important? Some people kind of act like it is not, “Oh, okay; eternal life, salvation…” Yet they only act this way because they do not know and they do not understand that this world is very temporal and that this world is only going to be “but for a moment.” This world and all of the things of the world are going to shortly be taken away from every individual. Then they will find that the reality is and always was that the most important thing was the Bible and their relationship to God.
Now, this is the truth. This is the most important thing for every single one of us, for every single person in the world. We do not treat it this way. We cloud the issue with everything else under the sun, with bills and troubles and just living day by day. But the truth is that we should shove all of those things aside, set them apart and focus on the question, “Am I a child of God? Has God saved me? Am I going to Heaven?” If not, “Is there anything that I can do?”
Now, we have to be careful because the Bible tells us, “No, you cannot get yourself saved.” You cannot bring salvation to yourself, but you can “strive to enter in at the strait gate.” You can make sure that you are not doing things that are hindering salvation; for example, being a part of a church is a great hindrance to salvation because the Lord is not working in the churches.
So this is one thing. If an individual is in the church and they seriously want to start dealing with this situation of being under God’s wrath and they are going to the Lord and seriously crying out to Him and beseeching Him for mercy, then the first thing that they would need to do is to get out of the church, no matter what church, because God is not saving in the churches and congregations. It would be defeating yourself to be in a church and to be crying out, “O Lord, have mercy on me! Have mercy! I hear that May 21, 2011 is going to be the rapture.” Maybe I am also learning that I cannot save myself. “Have mercy!”
Alright. Well first, get out of the church. Leave whatever church it is. The Bible would recommend that you leave as fast as Lot left Sodom. As quickly as that, flee the churches and congregations and do not look back like Lot’s wife. That was her problem. She looked back and she was turned into a pillar of salt because, really, her heart was still in the city of Sodom, just like some individuals may still have their heart in this world. They may still be attached to this world and they are feeling troubled inside at the idea of leaving this world.
So this is one thing that we can do if we are in the church. We can get out of the church. But if we happen to be outside of the church, then we can read the Bible and read the Bible and pray, “O Lord, I know that You save through hearing the Bible. Could You not save me and have mercy on me? As I read a chapter, Lord, bless this Word to my heart, if You would, if You would have mercy and save me. And may You open up a door of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. May You bring me in, not for anything that I have done. I do not deserve it. Only because of what Christ has done in paying for the sins of His people, may You please have mercy on me.”
By the way, somebody could go home today and they could cry to the Lord. They could say, “O Father, save me! Save me, O God!” Maybe they will even cry out with tears because they are sorrowing. They see their sin and they are worried and fearful because this day is fast approaching. After praying this for a few minutes, they could get up and go away discouraged.
Yet how do they know that God did not just have mercy? How could we ever know? We may not know. We may not know that, at that point, God saved us. But maybe from that day on, they start turning from sin, they start having a strong desire to do the will of God, and they are delighting in the Scripture.
We may never be able to trace it back to any particular time, but it could be that God could save a person today. If it were His pleasure to do so, He can. This is within His ability. There is forgiveness with God. The Psalms tell us, “There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”
Why would the Bible say that there is forgiveness with God that He may be feared? (It says this in Psalm 130.) This is because we have learned and we have realized that this is not with us. We cannot get ourselves saved. It is in His hands. We have to “wait upon the LORD” and He may or may not save us.
It is at this point that many people start fearing the Lord because what if He does pass them by? What if He does leave them behind? This is how someone starts to think when they are becoming fearful, and God recognizes this. When salvation is rightly understood to be in His hands and completely under His control, an individual can start to fear.
Let us go to Luke 13. God is going to shut the door on May 21, 2011 after taking His people out of the world and bringing them with Him into Heaven where they will be with the Lord during those five months and then evermore after that. But it says in Luke 13:24-28:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
May 21 is the equivalent day of the seventeenth day of the second month because in the Biblical calendar, that is the day that this is. It is the seventeenth day of the second month, which ties in with the day that God shut the door on Noah and his family in the ark.
…and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
Again, this is May 21, 2011. This is the day that the door is shut. Christ is the Door. He is the only door—the only way—and when the door was shut, did God ever open up the door again to the ark? After that door was shut, did He open it up to the people of the world after the flood started coming down?
We are not told, but it could be that those people began to realize, “Something is not right here, because we have never had a rain like this.” The water started pouring out as the Lord opened up the windows of heaven and water came from sources that it had never come from before.
What do you think those people were going to think when they first realized that this was out of the ordinary? “This reminds me of what that crazy old man, Noah, was telling us for one hundred and twenty years. He even became more insistent over this last week. He became very insistent that the flood was going to come and he told us that it would be today. Now the waters are coming and they are rising quickly.”
How many people went to the ark, banging on the side of the ship, banging on the door? I do not know and that would be speculation, but I am sure, knowing the nature of man, that this would have popped into their heads. They would have realized, “He was right; he was right; he was correct.”
But, you see, it is always after the fact. This is our nature. It is after it is too late that people want to do what they should have done before. This is how it was when they came back with the evil report from the spies. Remember? They went to search out the land and some of the spies came back and said, “Oh, it is too difficult. It is too tough. The people of the land are giants and we cannot do it. We are so fearful.” So they discouraged the people from going and taking the land. Then God said, “Okay. Alright. Now here is the penalty. You searched the land for forty days. Now you are going to wander in the wilderness for forty years, one year for each day.” Once they heard this, then their minds changed and they said, “No, we will go up. We are going to go fight, Lord. We are going to go take the land.”
You see, once God shuts a door, that is it, as it says in Revelation 3:7:
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
God has opened up a door of salvation today. He has opened it wide, wider than it has ever been opened in the sense that a great multitude will be saved. And no man can shut that door. Nobody can stop this. Nobody is going to prevent each and every one of God’s elect people from being saved. No one at all is going to be able to do this. God will accomplish His purpose. But likewise, when it comes time to shut the door, then nobody is going to be able to open the door. No one will be able to open the door. It will be an impossible thing for a man to do, even though they would then greatly desire it.
After the Israelites went into the land, after God had said, “No, you will not inhabit the land at this time. It will be forty years from now,” they did not listen. They went to fight against the people of the land and they were beaten because God was not with them. They had to go and experience the punishment of God, and they did wander for forty years in the wilderness.
Likewise, when Christ comes for His people, notice the cry of many Christians, professing Christians yet not truly saved, who will be saying, “Lord, Lord, open unto us.” Believe me; we can even sense the feeling that is here. This is an earnest plea. This is not playing around anymore. This is, “I see people going up into Heaven. I see that the ground has opened up and I see individuals coming up out of the graves. The rapture is taking place. The resurrection is occurring. There are earthquakes all over the face of the earth. The Bible certainly has proved to be true in everything it said, and yet I remain. I am here. I am left behind. Oh Lord, what about me? What about me? Save me!”
This is like Esau after Jacob had gotten the blessing. It was then that Esau came in. It was after the fact when He pleaded with his father, “Oh father, is there not a blessing for me? Do you not have a blessing beside?” Then he hated his brother because of the blessing that was given to him.
You see, “he sought it carefully with tears,” the Bible tells us, after the fact. Earlier, he “despised his birthright.” “I would rather have a bowl of porridge. I would rather have a bowl of soup than the birthright.” But once it was actually time for the blessing to be given, then he desperately wanted it.
And today, a great many people are despising the tremendous mercy and grace of God, as it said in 2 Corinthians 6:1. Let us read this again, because God is indicating that some are receiving the grace of God in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1 says:
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
Here is the opportunity. Today; today; right now, as it says in the next verse, “Now is the day of salvation.” Today the door is open. Today it is possible that anyone could potentially become saved. Today is the time to take the example of the Ninevites and repent as much as we are able and beseech the Lord that He would grant us repentance to turn from sin. Repent and go to Him, not physically or literally in sackcloth and ashes, but go to Him in a broken way.
May the information that we are learning from the Bible interrupt our busy schedules, interrupt our busy lives. May it interrupt us and may we take the time now, today, like the Ninevites did. They did not keep selling their wares at the market. They stopped marrying and giving in marriage and building and planting. I do not know how long, the Bible does not tell us, but it does tell us that from the king on down, they sat in sackcloth and ashes and fasted and cried “mightily unto God.” And that is where it is left. That is where it is left. Right there. And their lives, which were just as important as your life or my life, their lives were interrupted for a very important reason. Whatever they had going on in their lives really did not matter because forty days from that point, their lives were going to end and God was going to destroy them.
This is what the Lord would have each person do today. He would have us to make the Bible the most important thing in our lives, to make the information that we are learning from the Bible the most important thing in our lives. This is because nothing else really can compare to this information that we have a short time to live.
This really is very similar to a person going to the doctor and hearing the news, “You have a couple of years to live, because the cancer is spreading and you are going to die. You are going to die.” The doctor could not give an exact date. But we know even more because we know the date, specifically: May 21, 2011.
Now, when people in the world get this kind of report from the doctor, they take stock of their life. They look at how they have been living and they think, “I have not been living right. I have not been appreciating the sunsets. I have not been appreciating the smell of flowers. I have not been living right with my own family. I have not expressed my love to them as I should.”
You see, it does impact their life and everything else becomes secondary to the information that they have learned, which is that their life is going to end shortly. And we also have learned this, except the impact on the child of God is not for him to go around admiring the sunset or to profess love to his family. The impact upon the child of God is to bring the Gospel to our family, to our neighborhood and to the people around us, and also to serve God in whatever way that we can.
In 2 Corinthians 6:2, we read:
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee…
Now, the “time accepted,” I think we can find out what this means in Luke 4, beginning in verse 17. Luke 4:17-20:
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias [or Isaiah]. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister…
You see, Christ opened up the book to Isaiah and He read this passage and then He said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” He read from Isaiah, which speaks of “the acceptable year of the Lord,” and it is very significant that He then “closed the book.” He closes the book because the Year of the Lord has to do with the Lord sending the Gospel into the world and it is likened to only a year. Then after the end of that year, the book is closed. The Bible closes up. Spiritually, this would mean that no one is going to be reading it or hearing it, because it has accomplished its purpose.
We know that the Acceptable Year of the Lord will end on May 21, 2011. We know this. God will not be saving people after that point. So for all intents and purposes, on May 21, the Bible closes, even though there will still be Bibles in the world for five months. They are not all going to disappear after May 21, but the book closes. And as we have learned from another area, when God closes the Word, nobody can open it. When He closes the door of salvation, it is like the Bible is a closed book because it will not profit anyone. There will be no saving grace. There will be no blessing.
We can imagine people going to verses in the Bible and trying to convince themselves and others, “See, God is still saving. God is still working, even during this time for this five-month period.” But, actually, no; that will not be true and that is a big part of the torment that people will be experiencing for the five-month period.
Let us look at what it means to be acceptable, as it speaks here of the Acceptable Year of the Lord. Let us go to Philippians 4:18. It says:
But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
The acceptable sacrifice, of course, points to Jesus and His sacrifice; so, too, that “sweet smell.”
If we go over to Ephesians 5, this really explains a lot of statements that we read in the Old Testament concerning the “sweetsmelling savour” of the sacrifice. It says in Ephesians 5:2:
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
So Jesus is Himself this “sweetsmelling savour.” But, you see, that is the acceptable sacrifice.
If we go to Leviticus 22:20, it says:
But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.
And Jeremiah 6:20 says:
To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
This is related to God’s salvation plan. In order for it to be a sweetsmelling savour, it must only be the grace of God and nothing else. When people add anything else to God’s grace, then it no longer is acceptable. It is no longer pleasing to the Lord. It is no longer something that He will receive. And God is saying that there is an “acceptable year” wherein people can be saved.
If we go to Genesis, I think that we will be able to see how the “acceptable year” ties in with the rapture. In Genesis 5:21-24, it says:
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
That is, he was translated. We read this in the New Testament. He was taken up after 365 years.
We know that God has given us timekeepers that keep the track of time. He has told us about the Acceptable Year of the Lord and He has also built into this world the fact that a year is 365.2422 days. And it is not a coincidence that Enoch lived to the age of 365 and that he was pleasing to God so the Lord “took him.”
This is actually more the language of the rapture than the word “rapture,” because when we find in Luke 17 and other places language of “one shall be taken, and the other left” or “two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left,” this is the language of the rapture and this is exactly what God did with Enoch. He “took him” after 365 years of Enoch’s life.
If we go to Jude, it just further confirms that this is what God has in mind. In Jude 1:14, it makes reference to Enoch:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
This is what Christ is going to do when He comes, and the Lord has Enoch make this statement who himself was taken up at an age that points to a year in order to tie it in with the Acceptable Year of the Lord. And the Acceptable Year comes to a close on May 21st, 2011 with the rapture.
Now, let us go back to 2 Corinthians 6:2:
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
Does anybody know what “succored” means? It means “helped.” Right.
God is saying, “In the day of salvation have I helped thee.” And this is very significant because we are in trouble. To put it mildly, we are in trouble. If we are in our sins, then there is no greater trouble because we are going to be destroyed. We are going to perish. We are also going to be wiped out. And before this, we will experience five months of torment. This is a great trouble, and yet there is the possibility for help.
I wrote down a few verses where this word “succour” or where the word that actually means “help” is used. For instance, in Mark 9:22-24, it says:
And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
And that is the same word for “succour.”
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
You see, this is what God is able to help with. He is able to help us with our unbelief in order that we might believe. That is, He gives us the gift of His salvation. His faith is applied to our life and then we will begin to believe.
Or let us go to Psalm 109:26 and look at this verse, which says:
Help me, O JEHOVAH my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
This is the help that we need. This is the help.
If you were shipwrecked and marooned and on a desert island and a plane was flying over, you are all by yourself and you are trying to get their attention, so what are you going to cry out? “Help! Help!”
Or you are in the ocean because you fell overboard in the middle of the night and the boat just kept going. There you are all alone in the middle of the ocean, floating for awhile, but then you realize that there are sharks in the water. You are cold and you are not going to last very long, so what are you going to cry? “Help me! Help me! Someone, help me!”
Is this not the natural reaction of man when we are in danger? If we are in the city and we are walking down an isolated street and someone approaches us with a weapon, we are going to cry, “Help! Officer, help!” And this is what God is saying. This is what the Lord is telling us.
First of all, we need to realize that we are in trouble. We are in bigger trouble than being caught in an ocean at night with sharks all around. That is not the trouble that we are in. We are in bigger trouble than somebody coming at us with a gun. We are in trouble with God Himself, and yet it is God Himself and only Him who can help. He is the One who is going to destroy, but He is also the only One who can save; and so the Lord instructs us to go to Him and to cry for help.
Is He able to help? Yes. Remember the parable that Jesus gave of the individual who came down from Jerusalem and fell amongst thieves and was wounded and left lying on a pathway? A priest came and saw him, but crossed to the other side of the street. Then a Levite came and saw him, but did likewise and crossed over. Then a certain Samaritan came and helped him, and that Samaritan is typifying the Lord Jesus Himself. He poured oil and wine into his wounds and he took him to an inn. He made provision for his every need, because God is a God of help. He is able to succour His people.
Let us go to Psalm 46:1. It says:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
This is the Lord. This is the Lord. He is everywhere present. He is anywhere a person could be. Wherever we are and wherever our trouble is in our life, we can go to God and we can beseech Him for His help.
Or go to Psalm 121:1-2:
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from JEHOVAH, which made heaven and earth.
Not man. Do not put your trust in man. He is a vain thing for help. Do not trust your church. Do not trust your pastor. Do not rely on any other help but God Himself, help that He is able to give and does give through the Bible.
Let us also go to Isaiah 41. These verses are really encouraging. We read in Isaiah 41:10:
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Also verse 13, Isaiah 41:13-14:
For I JEHOVAH thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith JEHOVAH, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
This is the character of God. He is that Samaritan. He is compassionate and gracious. When we go to Him, we have to know this about Him, that He is able and that He is willing to help His elect. Yes, He will help His elect.
We do not know if we are one of His elect, but we can go and beseech Him for this great help, help in everything: help in salvation, most of all, but help in just living, help in making it day to day and from here until the end of the world, help for every need. No matter what our situation is, God is able and willing to help, especially if we are a child of God and we are going to Him and crying out, “Oh Lord, help me in my home; help me at work; help me in whatever the difficulty is.”
Let us also go to Hebrews 4. This is what God tells us to do in the last verse of Hebrews 4, Hebrews 4:16:
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The “time of need” is now. It is “the last time.” It is “the end of all things.” This is “the day of salvation.”
Today, the doorway is open and individuals can become saved. And we who are believers are simply doorkeepers. We are just doorkeepers who share the message from the Bible so that there might be someone who hears the Word and does experience the grace of God and then enters into the Kingdom through the open door that is now available to any person.
For one last verse, let us turn to Hebrews 13. I will start reading in verse 4, Hebrews 13:4:
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
This is relating to the spiritual marriage that is honorable between Christ and His Bride, the elect. But the rest of mankind will be likened to “whoremongers and adulterers” and will face the judgment.
Then verse 5, Hebrews 13:5:
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
This relates to the marriage vow, “Till death do we part.” This is what many still vow during the marriage ceremony. Here Christ is basically making this vow of His Bride. It is an eternal marriage and there cannot be a putting asunder of it for any reason. There is no divorce. This is why God teaches that there is no divorce for any reason. It is not acceptable in His sight. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,” because it teaches this principle that there is an eternal marriage.
Then verse 6, Hebrews 13:6:
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
This is the great information that the Bible gives us: God is our helper. He will help His people to do His will and to live according to His will in this world and forevermore.
Let us stop here.