Last time, we were looking at Luke 13 and I would like to go back there [note: see Bible Class II – 4/06/08]. I will read the passage, beginning in verse 24 through 30. We read in Luke 13:24-30:
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, 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. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
I will stop reading here. We were looking last week mostly at the first couple of verses, where God, the Lord Jesus, is encouraging us to “strive to enter in at the strait gate,” and that “many…will seek to enter in, and shall not be able…when the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door.”
It is very important that we understand what the “door” represents in the Bible. If we go over to John 10, in John 10:7-9, it says:
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.
Here, when God gives Himself a name like this, when He makes declarations like this, it is teaching us something. The portal, the entrance, the way into the Kingdom of God is through the “door,” which is Christ. There is no other way. “There is none other name…given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Also in doing this, when Jesus makes the statement, “I am the door,” then that sets up all kinds of potential spiritual possibilities throughout the rest of the Bible wherever we find a “door” in view, because God is defining a term: “I am the door.”
So when we read about, for instance, in…we do not have to turn there…but in Genesis 19, in Sodom when Lot was taken into the house by the angels, who were really God Himself, and God struck the men who were outside with blindness so that they were trying to find the door but they could not find the door, we just bring the definition from John back there and we see what it is teaching, which is that spiritual blindness causes people to not be able to find the “door,” which is Christ, into Heaven. They can not find the “door.”
There are all kinds of ideas out there—philosophies and religions—that say, “This is the way to go to Heaven. This is how you do it. This is the pathway.” And they are all wrong because they are all developed out of darkness itself, out of the minds of men. And men are spiritually blind, just like they are spiritually dead. They do not have eyes to see.
And so, no human being is going to be able to go into a door that they cannot see, into a door that they have no idea where it is, and no one is going to be able to enter into a door of their own making. You can try to do it, but you are not going to end up in Heaven. You are going to end up under God’s judgment. And so, Christ is the Door.
Look at Acts 14:27, the next-to-the-last verse of Acts 14. This further gives us definition to the idea of the door:
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.
So it is a “door of faith,” and God tells us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” This is the only way to be saved, to enter into the Kingdom of God, and it is a “door of faith” because Christ is faith Himself, also, and that is the way. That is the only way.
We are just saying this, as we went over it last week, because God tells us a very scary thing in Luke 13, when He says in verse 25, after saying that many are striving to enter into the “gate,” which is really pointing to Heaven…I am sorry; I have to read the end of verse 24 to understand verse 25. Luke 13:24-25:
…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,…
Now the door is shut. There is only one way. There is only one entrance, one possible way, and if God shuts it, remember that Goes says in another place in Revelation that what He has shut, “no man openeth,” and what He opens, “no man can shut.”
This is a wonderful truth in the book of Revelation. We read about a door there that is always open. It is always open. “And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.” So it is always open. It is an eternal Door that goes into eternity future.
But, here, in this world, on this earth, God has a specific timeline. He has a definite time of salvation, when it is possible to become saved, and today is the day of salvation. Today it is possible. For the next couple of years, it is possible. For the next three years and a little bit, it is possible. But when we get to May 21, 2011, the truth is that the door is shut. This is what God is really hitting home, what He is driving with force to make sure that we all understand.
On May 21, 2011, it is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew or the Biblical calendar. That is the day that God shut Noah in. The door is shut. The 7,000 years from the flood to 2011 falls on that day—the door is shut.
Christ is the door, and if the door is shut, nobody can open it. You can bang on the door after that. You can bang on the door. You can knock on the door. You can do whatever you would like, whatever you think, to beg God.
Esau beseeched God with crying and tears once he heard that he did not get the blessing; he sought it that way. And there will be all kinds of people who will realize at that point in time that it is a final finish to everything, that they missed the opportunity to enter into God’s Kingdom to live forever. I am sure that the mortality of man will really impact them at that point in time.
You know what is really even more frightening? To think that somebody who has been listening to Family Radio, who has been listening to these things, they are going to have a lot of head knowledge. If they never became saved, they are going to have a lot of head knowledge about that five-month period. So they are going to, I am sure, because they are not going to change from the personality that they are and they will remember these things, and they are going to think, “I heard that. I heard that. I heard it over and over and over and over and over. Five months—May 21st to October 21st.”
Here, on May 21st, there will be a rapture that will not go unnoticed since it will be perhaps a couple hundred million people, or tens of millions of people, at least, from around the world, many from India and China and Africa and the Arab lands, maybe not so many from America, but still, some from America, some from other nations. It is going to be noticed, especially when God opens the graves with a great earthquake.
If anybody is left behind, if anybody is remaining and they have heard it, it will be terrible. It will be terrible to think, “Well, I know what is coming. I know what is coming.” It is a very sad thing to think about.
So God is telling us to strive to enter in at the gate today because many are going to seek to enter in on that day. They are going to put it off. That is the nature of man. That is the nature of a sinful person. When they hear about their spiritual condition and they hear that God is a merciful God, that He does permit people to come to Him and beseech Him for pardon, “Yes, I need to do that,” but then it is put off till next week, for whatever reason.
We are busy. We have a lot to do. We have jobs. We have families. We have to run to baseball games. We have to go food shopping. We have to go to the doctor. We have to go to the dentist. Busy, busy, busy, and, yet, never, it seems, do we take the time to really set apart to pray to God, earnestly and diligently, “Have mercy; have mercy on me, Oh, Lord! Have mercy that I might be saved.” But I am sure that if God is dealing with someone, they will take the time, because God is going to impress this on their hearts in the days to come.
So it says in Luke 13:25:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,…
Let us turn over to Matthew 25. I am going to read, beginning in verse one of this parable. It says in Matthew 25:1-2:
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
Here, in this parable, God is giving us “ten virgins” who represent all those who are professing to know Him, professing to be children of God, to be Christians. He has divided them up: five wise and five foolish.
The number 10 points to “completeness.” It points to the complete number of those who have some type of relationship with God, either intimately, as we will see, or outwardly. The wise are the elect, and the foolish are those who are not saved and who never become saved.
Remember that Jesus is called “wisdom” in 1 Corinthians, and that is really what makes someone “wise.” If anyone has the Spirit of Christ, they have wisdom. They have wisdom. They might be two years old, but they are a “wise” child. They might be someone who is mentally handicapped, but that person is “wise.” Or anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ, they are a “fool” in God’s sight. They are a “fool” in God’s eyes, because they do not possess “wisdom” who is Jesus.
So you can have a professor or a lawyer or a doctor or a scientist who are very intelligent, but they are a “fool” in God’s sight. This is how God breaks up the human race. Either we are “wise” or we are “foolish,” depending on where we stand in relationship to the Lord Jesus.
Here in Matthew 25:3-4, it goes on to say:
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
And so, both groups have “lamps.” The “wise” and the “foolish” have “lamps.” Again, we are getting a picture like Cain and Abel, or like the wheat and the tares, or the sheep and the goats.
You could not tell these “virgins” apart; nobody could. There are ten of them. There are ten of them, and looking at them outwardly, they are all carrying a “lamp.” They are very similar; you can not tell them apart.
Then it says in Matthew 25:5:
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
Both—the wise and the foolish—both groups. So here, you see ten sleeping “virgins,” each possessing a “lamp,” and you can not distinguish between them. You can not tell who is who, or you can not say, “This one is wise and that one is foolish.” You just would not be able to know this.
Then it says in Matthew 25:6-8:
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
So let us see what is going on here. What does the “lamp” represent? Anybody know what the “lamp” represents in the Bible? The Word. If we turn to Psalm 119:105, it says:
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Look also at Proverbs 6:23:
For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
So the Bible is the “lamp.” The “wise” have “lamps”: the “foolish” have “lamps.” They both have them. Just like today, the Bible is readily available in much of the world. There are many, many Bibles in the churches. There are many Bibles out there in the world.
So professing Christians have Bibles and true believers have Bibles. But, you see, when we have the Bible, that is a great blessing, it is a great benefit, it is a great start, but we need something a little bit more to understand the Bible. If you have a lamp, it is of no use unless it is lit. You need to light the lamp in order to have light in this dark world, to have “light” in the darkness of our own hearts. We need a light or we are not going to see; we are not going to understand what is written in the Bible.
For instance, the Apostle Paul refers to this in Ephesians 1:17-18. It says there:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;…
You see, if you receive the Spirit of Christ who is “wisdom,” you have the Spirit of Wisdom and your eyes are enlightened to see, to understand what the Bible is saying. We will not get into this, but the “oil” represents the Holy Spirit. It represents the Spirit of God that an individual must have.
So here, we have “ten virgins.” They all are carrying “lamps,” but only half of them…and the number 5 is pointing to “grace” and “judgment,” which are particularly in view in the atoning work of Christ or in the Atonement—half of them have “oil,” meaning that they are saved.
This is a parable indicating that the “wise” with “oil” are children of God. They have the Spirit of God. The other half, they have a relationship to God. They have Bibles, but they can not understand them. They do not have “eyes to see.” They remain in darkness, in the darkness that is in their sin, so they can not see spiritual truths.
Then it goes on in Matthew 25:6:
And at midnight there was a cry…
This “cry” at “midnight” is pointing to the judgment that God is bringing on the churches and congregations. As a result of this “cry,” there is a commandment, “Go ye out to meet Him.” We, I think, are familiar with this. This can be related to Revelation 18, “Come out of her, My people.”
This begins the separation process, because when the cry is made, “Go ye out,” the “wise virgins” do go out and the “foolish,” though, now realize that their “lamps” are gone out. They do not have any “oil” for their “lamps.”
Remember; when we read a parable, not every detail will necessarily match up. Like today, when believers have left the churches and congregations, we do not find all kinds of people who are related to the church coming to us desiring “oil,” desiring the “light” of the Gospel. We do not really find that too much.
But this is the picture that God is using here in order to describe this separation that is taking place. This is happening today and this will continue to happen up until the last day when God finally does separate, completely and forever, the “sheep” from the “goats.”
Then it says in Matthew 25:8-9:
Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
This seems kind of harsh, kind of stern, “Not so.” They wanted “oil.” Why would they not share the “oil”? Why would they not give them of their “oil”? Because, can anyone here who is a believer, who has God’s Spirit, can you give this Spirit to anyone else? You would desire to, like the Apostle Paul or Moses—we read about people who would desire to die for their brethren. But can anyone impart the Spirit that God has given them to their wife or to their husband or to their children—people they love and would want to do anything for them that they could?
You can not do it. You can not do it. You can give them the Bible. You can give them the “lamp.” “Faith cometh by hearing.” Maybe God will bless the hearing of the Word so the Spirit enters into them, but there is no way that one believer can give “oil” to another person. It is impossible. So this is why they honestly answer, “Not so.” Of course, here it says, “Lest there be not enough for us and you.”
This is the historical situation. In the world, if you had a lamp and oil and someone did not have oil, yes, you could share a little bit of oil with them, literally. But in order to paint this picture, God is having them be concerned that they have enough oil for themselves. It is just the matter of them not wanting their own lamps to go out. They just can not share it, and so they say, “No so;…but go…to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.”
Actually, what are they telling them with this statement? Go to God. Go to God, because God speaks in the Bible of the Gospel as buying and selling, like in Isaiah 55. Remember that passage? I will just look at the first couple of verses there. In Isaiah 55:1:
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
So the Gospel is freely given, but the language is of buying and selling, and so the believers are saying to go to them who sell and buy. What they are really saying is to go to God Himself, because God is a Triune God. This is why it is in the plural; not go to “him.” God, of course, through that plural word in there, “them,” is to, again, lead people astray. But actually, this is pointing back to Himself: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Go to “them” and “buy.” Go to God.
It says in the next verse, in Matthew 25:10:
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came;…
But, you see, they missed it. They missed it, just like the ten lepers, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” Nine went to Jerusalem to find a priest, but the Samaritan went back to Christ, who that commandment really pointed to, and he glorified God.
So here, with these five foolish virgins, because they are foolish, because they can not understand the Bible, they go to the church. They go to the corporate body where there is buying and selling going on. Then the Bridegroom comes and they are in trouble. They are in trouble because they are in the churches and congregations. They are in that place where God has already begun His judgment on. And now, they are like the tares who are bundled for the burning, and they are going to be destroyed forever.
Then it says in Matthew 25:10:
…and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Just like we read in Luke 13. The door is shut. This is basically giving us the events of the Great Tribulation, leading up to the Last Day of the world: for the believers, May 21, 2011. The door is shut, and following this, we read in Matthew 25:11-12:
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Again, we are seeing this in many places. People are self-deceived. They think that everything is okay and that they have a good relationship with God, that they must be a child of God, and yet it was not true; it never was true. It never was true, “I know you not.” There was no intimacy. There was no real communion of any kind between God and that person.
Let us turn also to Matthew 7. This is speaking about the very same thing. When we read anywhere in the Bible about these people saying, “Lord, Lord,” after the door is shut, it is pointing to the beginning of the five-month period. In Matthew 7:21-23:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
This is what all our works come down to, if Christ is not our Saviour. It is all iniquity. It is all “filthy rags.” It is not pleasing to God in the slightest bit, and so God is saying to watch out, be careful, examine yourselves. He is warning us, repeatedly, that we might not be one of those, that we might not be one of those who are going to say this on that date coming soon, “Lord, Lord.” “Lord, Lord, let me in now. Let me in now!” Begging…beseeching…weeping. “Let me in now!”
This is the nature of man after the judgment is pronounced. Then, quickly, immediately, they see the error of their ways. They see that God was right all along, the entire time, and so now, they want mercy. But God says that there will be “judgment without mercy” on that day. So this is a very critical warning that God is giving us.
Let us go back to Luke 13. I will start reading again in verse 25. Luke 13:25-26:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.
You can see the eating and the drinking, pointing to the bread and water of the Gospel. It is pointing to having the Word of God in their presence, in their churches, in their congregations, in the houses, in the homes. “You were here.” Let me read it again. Luke 13:26:
…We have eaten and drunk in thy presence,…
Truly, God’s Spirit was in the churches. It was in the churches. It was in the “midst” of the churches and congregations. But once judgment began at the “house of God,” the Holy Spirit came out of the “midst” and He has forsaken them and abandoned them. And so now, they are saying that God was there. But, you see, God needs to take up residence. He needs to be within the heart, not just outwardly in the church, in the outward representation of the Kingdom of God upon earth during the Church Age, but He needs to be in the heart of a particular person in order to save that person.
With the language of teaching in the streets, let us go back to Jeremiah 7:17-20:
Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? saith JEHOVAH: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Then towards the end of the chapter, Jeremiah 7:33-34:
And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
That phrase, “the cities of Judah” and “the streets of Jerusalem,” is used several times together. Really, it is saying the same thing, as both Judah and Jerusalem typify the church. You see, the “cities of Judah” are all that which makes up Judah, and “the streets of Jerusalem” are that which makes up the city Jerusalem. A city is really built by its streets, its neighborhoods. Even today, this is how it is.
So the “streets of Jerusalem” are pointing to all the various parts of the city. This would be the churches and congregations that are in view. This is why, for instance, in Revelation 11, the “dead bodies” of the “two witnesses” are lying in the “street” of that “great city.” This is where the traffic would take place. It would be the coming and going, the going to and fro through the streets. This is where the Gospel would be sent forth. There is a verse in the Psalms that says that there are “thousands and ten thousands” of “sheep…in our streets,” and that is this idea.
Okay, going back to Luke 13, again, in verse 27, after they are saying, “Thou hast taught in our streets,” we read in Luke 13:27-28:
But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are;…
And He repeated it a second time:
…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.
I used to think that “weeping and gnashing of teeth” was going to happen in “hell.” Remember how we understood “hell”? There was Judgment Day. Mankind stands before God. God pronounces the judgment. He creates a place called “hell.” He throws all of the ungodly, all of the sinners, in this place of “hell,” and now, eternally, there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And we thought that this would glorify God, this would bring Him honor, bring Him glory. But actually, it would not.
If you really think about it, you are throwing rebellious sinners into a place where they are going to continue forever and ever and ever “weeping.” Okay, okay, we can understand that. That word “weeping” has to do with the finality of it, like “Rachel weeping for her children…because they are not,” or the brethren weeping over the Apostle Paul because they would “see his face no more.” That is the same word “weeping,” and it is only used in those two places and in several verses that speak of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is a final end. Rachel will not see her children. The brethren will not ever see the Apostle Paul’s face again.
So once God shuts the door, there will be weeping, and, yes, we could see how that could go on forever and ever and ever in “hell” because, wow, it would be terrible to suffer that way forevermore. But gnashing of teeth, gnashing of teeth…for ever and ever and ever, there would be rebels, there would be sinners continuing to sin because they would be blaspheming God? They would be gnashing their teeth at God eternally. Despite the punishment, despite the pain, they are railing on God forever. And God knows everything. He would know exactly what was going on in Hell.
So in that place He created, they are still sinning against Him. He is still pouring out more and more wrath, and they are still sinning and sinning, into eternity. Does that glorify God? No, that does not glorify God.
That is like…and I hate to bring up evil deeds because God tells us to be babes in evil, but this is so prevalent today…this is like there is a murder in your family and the killer, he is not regretful, he is not sorrowful, he is not mournful. He goes to court. He is sentenced to life in prison, and he is laughing his way out of the courtroom. Laughing! He is going to jail and he is not repentant. He still does not care. He is going to continue on for the rest of his life in jail, mocking, even though it is a miserable place, a place of torment, a place that you would not want to be, yet that is going to go on.
Would it not be better…and this is why so many families who do have a loved one that is slain…they are just hoping that the penalty will be death. They want that person to die. They do not want that person to go to jail for the rest of their life; they want that person dead so it will cease and it will stop.
This is exactly the idea that God’s judgment is going to bring forth with the sinner, because the “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” well, the “gnashing of teeth” is not something that is pleasing to God at all.
If we go to Acts 7, in Acts 7 I am going to read the context here because the context is very important. This is the account of Stephen right before he is stoned to death, and it says in Acts 7:51:
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Those are strong words. Acts 7:52:
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
He is telling them exactly how it is. Then Acts 7:53:
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Conviction! You are guilty! You are guilty! Then look at their reaction in Acts 7:54:
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Then in furious anger, they got stones and they stoned him to death. This is not the same word; it is a related word—but it has the exact same idea as “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is a shaking of the fist. It is, “Alright; you say this about me. You say that I am guilty. Well, I hate you!” Then they pick up a stone and they throw it at you. And they did and they killed him, and the Apostle Paul was “standing by, and consenting unto his death,” we read. And that is what “gnashing of teeth”…and we can picture that. I am not going to illustrate, but we can picture that—how someone gets so angry that they can gnash their teeth.
It says also here in Acts 7:54:
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,…
That is found back in Acts 5, and it goes right along with “gnashing of teeth.” In Acts 5:29, I am going to read the context again. It is very similar. Acts 5:29-30:
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Again, “You are guilty!” Acts 5:31-32:
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Not to you, is the implication, but “to them that obey Him.” Acts 5:33:
When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.
You see, that is the same word as in Acts 7, “cut to the heart.” Let me kill! Let me murder! Let us get rid of this person who is daring to say these things about us! And it is trying to avoid the judgment by destroying the one who is bringing the information.
But, you see, in this case, on the Last Day, God shuts the door. “Lord, Lord;” knock-knock; “Lord, Lord! Let me in! Let me in!” And Christ says, “Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” “But You have prophesied in our streets and we have done this and we have done that!” “Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” The door is shut! What God has shut, “no man openeth.”
What is the response? Weeping—yes; there will be sorrow, mixed with anger, mixed with fury, mixed with ongoing rebellion against God. So that can not go on forever. That can not go on forever. You can not have people shaking their fists…preachers…into eternity…still rebelling against the magnificent Creator. It will not last forever.
So God has developed a plan of five months, for His own purposes, to bring “greater damnation,” because those who heard much and yet were never saved will receive “greater damnation” and that is part of it. Information about that five months might be included in that “greater damnation” for some, for a few. Then, at the end of the five months, God will burn up the earth and its works. It will be completely and utterly destroyed, and all of the rebellion stops. It ends. It is brought to a conclusion. It is over. Man stops gnashing their teeth, and there is no more rebellion. There is no more sin at that point, because it has been destroyed along with them.
Let us read one last verse in Psalm 112. In Psalm 112, it is speaking of believers at first. Psalm 112:8-10:
His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. The wicked shall see it,…
You see, they are going to see that Abel’s offering was acceptable; Cain’s offering was not. They are going to see that God has taken up His people, “Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob…in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” And then, they are going to weep and gnash teeth. Psalm 112:10:
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
Do you see how God brings it together? They will see it. They will respond with “weeping and gnashing of teeth” until they “melt away,” until they perish eternally like their own dung, as it is put in the book of Job. And we know that this time is fast approaching; it is coming very quickly.
Let us close here with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for the Bible. We thank You for advance warning, and we thank You that You have mercifully opened up the Scriptures to reveal these things to us so that it is possible that we might not be caught unaware, that we can be children of the day and that this day will not come upon us as a thief. But Father, we pray for those who might be in darkness yet, and we ask that You will shine the light of Christ in their hearts, that the Bible might be lit, that their eyes of their understanding might be enlightened to see these things. And Father, we pray for the rest of this day. We pray that You would be with us in all things that we do and everything might be according to Your will and good pleasure, and we pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.
We will take the questions now, if there are any, or comments, and then following that, we will close with a hymn. Sorry for the repeat, for anyone who has been here since the morning. But if anyone on Paltalk has a comment or a question you would like to ask, you are welcome. You can raise your hand and we will try to get to it, or if anyone here has something.
1st Question: I am confused about the end up of October 21st, 2011. Will the Lord Jesus physically return on that particular day?
Chris: I do not know. I do not even know if that is important, whether…remember Christ commended the Roman centurion who said, “You do not need to come…you do not need to come personally; Your Word is good enough. You can just speak the Word.” And so, if God destroys the world and by His Word alone or…I do not know. We know the end result. We know the world is going to be completely destroyed and the whole universe. And I think we…you know, I have not really checked that out myself thoroughly so I can not say how it is going to work, but we know it is going to happen.
2nd Question: Hi, Chris. There seems to be a great encouragement for those who are alive before 2011 happens, before Christ’s Judgment Day happens. If someone was listening to Family Radio for this and you know they are not studying or they do not have too much information or they are so-so or they do not see—maybe they are not saved; maybe they are—but I guess my question is more as to current time. Some people do not know that they are saved. Some people do not think they feel they are saved. How much does the Bible speak about today being the day of salvation, and if Esau and Jacob and Ephraim and Manasseh, how God has election…so if someone listens to Family Radio, they are going to know that they just were never elect. How could they be remorseful, as if they were to say, “I had an opportunity and I blew it!” So, basically, my question is how does salvation plan into it, and how does hope, and all of that information?
Chris: Not everybody is going to have knowledge of the Gospel who was unsaved, and I think that is why there is “greater damnation” for those who are hearing these things and yet resisting. They are saying, “Not so, Lord!” You know, all of the reviling that is going on and in the world today, in the church world, that is not necessarily going on out there in the world. And so they are just going to suffer those five months and then they will be destroyed, and they will not have too much information.
But as far as assurance of salvation, God gives that. God gives it just like He gives any other spiritual gift: faith, repentance. Whatever it is, He must give it. So we can go to Him, and it would be a good prayer, and say, “I have heard the Gospel. I believe the Gospel, up here, because that is as far as I can know. I desire to be obedient, but, Father, could You confirm it? Could You give me assurance?” Like it says in Psalm 35, and, yes, it is also true that it could be that someone is doubting, right up until the very last day, and, yet, God tells us in 1 John, that is another passage, in 1 John, “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” And so someone…our intellectual belief or our lack of belief, our doubts, are not going to save us anyway. It is Christ who saves us, and so we could be unsure, and, yet, we might be a true believer. But who wants to spend the next three years not being sure of their soul and where they are at? And so the best thing would be to go to God, and Psalm 35:3 says:
Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
That is a prayer that we can make, anyone of us, “Say to my soul,” and it is not that God is going to speak from Heaven with thunderous voice coming from the sky, but “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,” which is the soul, “that we are the children of God.” And so God does that through the Bible—that is how He speaks.
And so, it would be a good thing for anybody to do before they read the Bible, “Lord, say to my soul, through Your Word, You are my salvation—convince me. Convince me through the hearing of Your Word.”
3rd Question: In your answer to Gary about that question of having assurance, you said how would you like to be going all the way to the end without really knowing? Well, I pose this as an alternative. Suppose I really think that I am saved, but I am not? Now, I think that it is more prudent for me to always question my salvation, because I know the Lord, He is attracted to a broken and contrite spirit. So I would continue to pray. Most of the time, I think I am saved and I know I do not have a darn thing that I can take credit for, except my sin, but I would continue to plead to my Lord. When I start thinking I am saved and am not sure about it, I am frightened of that day. What do you think?
Chris: Well, no…I know what you are saying. It is much better to be in a position of “I do not know,” to doubt, rather than to have false assurance—that is a much better position—and yet, there is nothing wrong with going to God and saying, “You confirm it.” I would not say to anybody…I would not say to anybody, “Think, well, I am going to evaluate myself”…and God does tell us to examine ourselves. He says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” But I would not say to anybody, okay, after doing that, well, then, you see, you gave so much money and you handed out so many tracts and you were not involved in these sins, you turned, so then you say to yourself that you are a child of God—no. But God does give us ways that we can examine ourselves. For instance, in 1 John 2:3, it says:
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
“We do know that we know Him,” and, you see, that is very helpful, because if we are in an ongoing sin, if we are continuing to sin and it is troubling us, then we can ask ourselves the question, “Am I truly saved?”, and that would be a right question to ask. “Am I really saved, because I keep falling into this sin? I keep doing this sin.”
And so, God is telling us that if we have an ongoing desire to do His will and we see that sins that were once troubling us, we have gotten victory over them—I used to be a drunkard; I used to smoke; I used to do drugs; I used to curse; I used to lie all of the time, but God is working in me and I am seeing that I am getting victory over these things as they are brought to the forefront of my mind, that I need to do something about this—and so, there can be evidence in that direction. There can be evidence that we are a child of God.
And yet, we do know that it is possible for someone to be a true believer, like King David. He sinned. He fell into sin with Bathsheba and he murdered her husband, Uriah the Hittite. He was a true child of God at that point, but as God moved him to write Psalm 51, he writes, under the inspiration of God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” Now, it was God moving him to write it, but it was also the desire of his heart.
So it does not hurt anybody who is saved, if they are troubled by something going on in their life, to go to God and cry out for mercy. If we are already saved, that is not going to hurt anything, and that would be a good thing to do if something came up, if there was sin in our life and we were troubled by it. But thank you.
Anyone on Paltalk? You have a question? Okay.
4th Question: Yes, back in Jeremiah 7:33-34, you had mentioned these verses and I just wanted to think, you know, now that we know about the five months and the carcasses and that this kind of ties in, but in the past, we used to think about the Bridegroom leaving as being identified with the 8400 days. Can you explain that again?
Chris: I am glad that you asked the question, because I was not trying to relate this passage to the five months, that this is what we can expect to see, even though, it is true. The voice of the Bride and the Bridegroom will not be in the world at that time. I was just going here because of the word “streets,” and that the activity in the streets…what is in the streets.
Comment continued: I understand, but I was just taking this opportunity because I have been thinking about this in the past, too, and was just wondering if the Bridegroom leaving, is that tying in with the 8400 days, for sure, or is it the five months, or is it both?
Chris: I do not know. I do not know. It is a tough question because we know that God left the church and He is the Bridegroom and He called the believers out and we are the Bride. It is similar to the verses that talk about the door shutting. Like in Luke 13 and Matthew 25, we see clearly that it is into the five-month period. But in Genesis 19, when Lot is pulled in, they shut the door…so it is very similar language. But it is hard to distinguish and this fits right in with that, so I do not know.
Okay, Lester, and that will be it.
6th Question: I was looking through this book called, We Are Almost There!!!, and it was talking about these judgments that are going to be taking place on the Last Day. I was wondering, how are we going to get the message out to the people, and if they say this is not true, how are we going to convince them?
Chris: Well, we can not. We can not convince anybody. We do want to bring the message of the Gospel and what we are learning from the Bible to the world as much as we are able. We know that Family Radio is reaching much of the world today and potentially covering the earth. And so, we support ministries like that, and then we also do whatever we can do in addition. But that is not our worry; that is not our concern. We have to worry that we are understanding it right, that we are proclaiming it right. But as far as the results, you know, you give people tracts, right? Five people come for it; you want to give one to everyone of them. Well, God does the rest. He must give “the increase,” and that is how it is in all areas of the sending of the Gospel into the world.
Comment continued: I was glad that I was bringing up the thing about the Pope coming into New York, and all of that. I mean, that would give us a great opportunity to get this message out. It would give us a great opportunity to do this because people look up to the Pope as “god.”
Chris: Was that announced earlier? Okay; I must have gone upstairs. Okay. Yes; where he goes, normally a lot of people will show up; so, yes, that could be an area to get the Gospel out, one of the areas. We know that there are many—there is no limit to the possibilities in sharing the Word.
But thank you, Lester, and we will close with a hymn.