Do you really believe Jesus is coming soon?

Do you believe the Lord could come for His church at any moment? There are a few thousand pastors and a few million believers in the U.S. who claim they believe Jesus could come today. However, do they really believe that? If they really believe that Jesus could come today, why have they not connected the dots to realize what that means for all those who would be left behind? A brief reading of the book of Revelation indicates that within a very short period of time, perhaps in the first year of the Tribulation, one-fourth of the world’s population will die as a result of the wrathful judgments of God. (Revelation 6:7-8) How can pastors and church members who claim to love the Lord and sinners be so silent about what they say they believe is about to take place? The silence of the church with regard to this message of warning is sinful! To not warn this present generation of the impending wrathful judgment of God is ethically wrong! We have a moral obligation to warn those with whom we come in contact about the divine judgment that will fall, both in this age and in eternity to come, upon all those who reject Jesus Christ!

 

If believers really do believe that Jesus could come today, there should be at least three things that would be different about their lives. First, there would be a fresh sense of daily urgency in their lives. If one is really expecting the Lord to come at any moment, it will change his outlook on life. The real, daily anticipation of the coming of the Lord is the “blessed hope” that will fill our hearts with the joy of the Lord and spur us on to be “zealous of good works.” (Titus 2:13-14) There is no room for apathy in the heart of a believer who is honestly watching, looking, longing, and waiting for the coming of his Lord! This was the Apostle Paul’s point when he wrote, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”(Romans 13:11) Does your heart beat with excitement as you contemplate that He could come for us today?

 

Second, if a person really does believe that Jesus could come today, it will have a very sobering impact upon him. Do you realize if Jesus should come today that it would be our judgment day? The thought of entering into the presence of a holy God who knows everything about us should have a spiritually purifying effect upon us. It should cause us to flee from sin and to take sin seriously, confessing it immediately! This was the impact that the imminent return of Jesus had upon the early church. Note what the Apostle John said, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”(1 John 3:2-3) Does your personal sin bother you? If it doesn’t, you are not in fellowship with the holy Lord Jesus, and you are not looking for His coming today!

 

Furthermore, if a person is looking for Jesus to come today and realizes what horrible judgments await those who will not be raptured out of this world with us, he will be moved with fear and a holy boldness to warn his family and friends of the approaching judgment of God. Because he fears God, believes His Word, and loves his unsaved family and friends, he will be compelled to warn them of the judgment of God in this life and in the next to come! Long ago the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…”(2 Corinthians 5:11) Where are the voices of warning in our homes, schools, shopping malls, factories, offices, and churches? There is currently a deafening silence within the church concerning a message of warning from God.

 

Our world is pregnant with the signs of the approaching wrathful judgment of God! Note that the Apostle Paul warned that when the world would be crying for peace and safety in the last days that “sudden destruction [would] com[e] upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they [those left behind] shall not escape.”(1 Thessalonians 5:3) Speaking about this period of time, our Lord gave the following warning, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”(Matthew 24:21-22)

 

It is obvious that the world and the professing church are preoccupied with their own personal agendas, to the point that they are oblivious to the approaching judgment of God. This is also a fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus said that the beginning of the tribulation period would come upon the earth’s inhabitants as a total surprise as did the global flood in the days of Noah. He said, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39) In light of this, Jesus gave this most solemn warning to His disciples, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with [excessive indulgence in pleasures], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21:34-36)

 

According to Daniel 12 the Lord told this great prophet that the prophetic knowledge of God’s revelation would be “shut up” and sealed until “the time of the end.”(Daniel 12:4, compare with 12:8-9) This would indicate that the Lord, in His sovereign plan, has chosen to blind the eyes and minds of believers concerning certain prophetic matters until the last of the last days. Then, He told Daniel, “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”(Daniel 12:10) Why would the Lord choose to wait until “the time of the end”(Daniel 12:4) to illumine the minds of His people concerning the prophetic truths that were recorded in His book over 2,000 years ago? The answer to that question is very simple. He has chosen to increase the knowledge of prophetic truth among His people in the last days because He is a gracious and merciful God, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”(2 Peter 3:9) Also, the church is His mouthpiece, and as salt and light, we are being enlightened by His Spirit to warn the world because we are living in that generation that will suffer the vengeance of a holy God who has promised, “Vengeance is mine: I will repay.”(Romans 12:19) My friend, if we are where I think we are in God’s prophetic plan, you and I are looking into the eyes of a world that will experience the judgments spelled out in God’s prophetic Word! That very thought should cause us to weep and pray that the Lord will give us a holy boldness to sound the message of God’s warning to a world in spiritual darkness!

 

We live at a time when most preachers are proclaiming a message that is rocking the church to sleep, rather than sounding the alarm and preaching the whole counsel of God, which includes a message of warning. This too, is a fulfillment of prophecy. Paul exhorted young Timothy, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

 

Our Lord has given us a book that is full of warnings. The Bible warns us about the judgment of God in His prophetic plan for the last days, and about the eternal fires of hell and the Lake of Fire. Speaking of the Word of God, the psalmist proclaimed, “Moreover by them is thy servant warned.” (Psalm 19:11) Jesus, as the living Word, modeled this in His earthly ministry. He was faithful to His Father and displayed the mercy of God by continually warning people of the consequences of their rejection of Him and His eternal Word. Jesus had far more to say about hell than He did about heaven. He continually warned those who would listen to Him about the judgment to come and the fact that many would be deceived, thinking they were saved, when they were not. (Matthew 7:13-27)

 

When John the Baptist began his public ministry, he looked into the eyes of the godless religious leadership of his day and warned, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”(Matthew 3:7) John’s message was not popular with men, but it was with our Lord! Later, Jesus spoke to His disciples about John, saying, “Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” (Matthew 11:11) John had been preceded by many great prophets who also had warned their generation of the approaching judgment of God.

 

Jeremiah stood alone in his day to warn his people of the judgment of God because of their sin. There were many other false prophets that were speaking words of blessing to the people, making Jeremiah look like a radical prophet who was out of step with the rest of the prophets. However, listen to God’s indictment against the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath marked his word, and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. … I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor … Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words everyone from his neighbor. Behold I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:16-22, 25-27, 30-32)

 

Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, stood up for his Lord in the face of all these false prophets and faithfully delivered his message of warning from the Lord. He wasn’t popular with the people. They even put him in a pit and tried to kill him. However, the Lord raised up this prophet to deliver His message of warning. Jeremiah was popular with God, but not with the people!

 

Several years later, after Judah had been carried away into captivity in Babylon, God raised up a street preacher named Ezekiel. The Lord said to him, “Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.” (Ezekiel 2:3) God told him that they would not listen to him and that he was not to be afraid of them. The Lord clearly warned him of the consequences if he failed to deliver His message of warning to Israel. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou has delivered thy soul. Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.” (Ezekiel 3:17-21)

 

Some might want to argue that Ezekiel’s commission and assignment were unique and that the Lord does not require us to warn people today of the judgment of God. While Ezekiel’s commission and assignment were unique, they do illustrate for us the moral obligation that all believers have concerning warning sinners of the judgment of God. This was certainly modeled in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. When Paul met with the Ephesian elders, with whom he had ministered for three years, he warned them that false teachers would rise out of their own congregation “to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:30-31) Later, when he wrote to the church at Colosse, he reminded them that his ministry among them was one of “warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Colossians 1:28)

 

Long ago, the father-in-law of Moses gave him counsel concerning the appointment of men to help him shepherd the flock of Israel. He said, “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them …”(Exodus 18:21) This is the kind of leadership we need in the church today. We need men who fear God more than they fear men! We need men who speak the truth and know the truth and are compelled to live it and proclaim it with without favor or compromise. We need men who are not in love with material things and do not covet them, or the power and prestige that they appear to bring. Oh that the Lord would raise up men in the church today who are not afraid to preach the Word and warn this present generation of the imminent wrath of God. If the men that stand behind the pulpits of our churches do not rise up and warn those who listen to them, God will require their blood upon their hands. They need to be reminded that they will soon fall into the hands of the living God, who “is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29)

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