93-73 – When God Doesn't Make Sense – The Day of the Lord

This sermon is Part 3 of the series "When God Doesn't Make Sense" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

This series was preached by Dr. Betters just six weeks after the death of his 16-year-old son Mark. Dr. Betters gives us a real, raw message as a man struggling with God, as a man wrestling with his faith. In his transparency, we see that Dr. Betters learned during this time that he is not very different from the rest of us. Walking by faith is hard, especially hard when God turns our lives upside down. God is in control of all things, even during these hard and emotional times. This is when we need the strength of other believers to help us through these times, to help remind us that God is in control and HE has a greater purpose for why things are as they are.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Trump F. Fetters, produced by Marcus Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Fetters as he preaches this series, When God Doesn't Make Sense.

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Please take your Bibles and turn with me in the Old Testament to 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 19. For the past few weeks I have been trying to preach from my heart to your heart on principles when God doesn't make sense. When something happens to us, when we experience some sudden loss or some sudden grief, or we are experiencing some extended pain, or problems that will not go away, painful marriages, or pain in raising our children, or pain on the job, or stress of any kind when we seem to cry out to God and God seems to be silent, or at least God seems to be saying to us, wait or not yet. No matter how we cut it, it seems to us, from our perspective, from our angle, that God simply isn't making any sense. And I've tried to outline for you certain principles of Scripture that tell us what to do when we find ourselves in that kind of situation. What to believe, what to think, what to experience. I'd like to briefly remind you or refresh your memories as to what those principles were, five of them so far, and today I'm going to introduce a sixth principle, and then we'll be studying this probably this week and next week as well. We'll see how far we get. But let me list for you so far the five principles of Scripture when God doesn't seem to make any sense to us. Principle number one is the inevitability of the refiner's fire. Stated as a principle, not all of us will have to drink the same cup of sorrow. But all of us will have to suffer some pain to some degree or another. And under that, I listed three P's for you. The price tag of refined faith is the fire of testing. The product of refined faith is the joy of the Lord. And the purpose of refined faith is to prepare us for glory. Three P's to help you remember the inevitability of the refiner's fire. The price tag, the product, and the purpose of refined faith. Principle number two, which we're going to explore in a little different way in our sixth principle today, but let's just remind you of what it was. Principle number two is there is an eschatological dimension to suffering. As Satan is loosened from the binding that he has taken, that is, Christ dying on the cross, binds Satan during the reign of the king, from the time of Christ's first coming to the time of Christ's second coming, Satan is not permitted to hinder the flow of the gospel. But in the last days, he will be let loose for a season. He will be allowed to unleash his attack on the church in the last days. He will be freed from that binding, if you will, in order to attack the church. And that is to invade the church in such a way so that we will be deceived, the church itself becomes apostate, the church itself suffers tribulation as the result of this satanic persecution. Now, suffering prepares us eschatologically for that day, if God so sees fit to allow us to live in that age when the coming of Christ is imminent. But secondly, the eschatological dimension is that sudden pain rekindles in us a desire for the hope of Christ's return. When people are suffering, especially suffering grief, one thing becomes crystal clear: the coming of Christ cannot be soon enough. Every book I have read since our tragedy, every book I have read tells us the same thing. That people who go through sudden pain always have a new perspective on life. What the Bible calls the blessed hope, what the Bible tells us over 376 times in the New Testament alone, is the blessed hope of the church. That is the coming of Jesus Christ. That blessed hope has been lost and muddied in those dirty waters that we call life. We lose perspective that this is not all there is. There is more to come. Christ has held before us, he has held out to us the hope that he will return. Now, what suffering does is it rekindles that hope. It helps us to say to God, God, your coming cannot be soon enough. Isn't that why John, who was on the Isle of Potmos, who was in exile and suffering horrendous alienation, isn't that what he meant at the end of the book of Revelation, where he says to God, even so, Lord Jesus, come what? Quickly. Even so, Lord, come quickly. So there is an eschatological dimension to suffering. The third principle was this although sudden pain is incredibly self-centered, and it is, what we're going through ourselves is self-centered. We know that. You can't really think of much more when you're going through incredible pain. You know that if you've experienced any kind of pain. You see your problem as paramount to everything else. But although sudden pain is incredibly self-centered, God does make sense even when God doesn't make sense. We talked about the presence of God in our lives, even when he seems to be deaf, or when he's on an extended leave of absence, or at least we think his timing is catastrophically late, and we find out that it is absolutely perfect. Why? Because for reasons known only to God, human beings are incredibly precious to him. My arms are just plain too short to box with God. Jacob found that out as he wrestled with God again and again and again. He said, I won't let you go until you bless me. And God said, All right, I'll bless you. But you will walk through the rest of your life crippled, and your limp will be a continual reminder of the fact that you have wrestled with me. My arms are too short. I cannot explain the tragedies of life. I don't know how to tell you why certain things happen. All I know is that all pain is relative. We've lost a son. And I've heard recently of other people who have lost more than one son, two sons, three sons. One author in particular that wrote a book called Roses in December. We've talked to her on the telephone. She lost three children. The first child was stillborn. And there's an incredible heartbreak when that kind of a thing happens. A year and a half later, on Christmas Day, Christmas Day, she gave birth to twin boys. And those twin boys were kind of a joy or relief for her. It's like, God, you took one and you've blessed me with two. What a wonderful God you are. And so she took one of the twins home. But the other one had to stay in the hospital for a while because the weight was a little low and nothing real serious. Until later she finds out that the baby had contracted something and never left the hospital and died there in the hospital. She had two other children subsequent to that, and the one twin who survived was 17 years old when he was at a basketball game. And uh when he left the basketball game, you talk about timing. One second sooner, one second later, this would not have happened. But some little friend, a little girl, asked him if he would mind taking her home, and so he kind of went out of his way a little bit. Took her home and was hit by a drunk driver, and that twin boy was killed. She's lost three children. We talked to her on the telephone, and we spoke to her about her faith and the questions that are raised. And the bottom line, conclusion, is you can't answer all these questions. You can't make sense out of all these things. Just found out recently about a friend of ours, many of you who know this person, has lost four children. All tragically. One child was stillborn, and another child had committed suicide. And a third child was over in Vietnam and came home after the Vietnam War, and within six months after the child who committed suicide died, contracted leukemia and he died. And then her 16-year-old child was up on a roof where he should not have been, and fell from that roof, hit an electrical line, and was electrocuted right before her very eyes and died. Four children. Four children. How do you answer questions like this? What do you say to people when this kind of thing happens? My arms are too short to box with God that way. We have to come to the point of saying that although sudden pain is incredibly self-centered, God does make sense even when God doesn't make sense. Principle number four. We talked about the circle of fear. And it is a big circle of fear that surrounds those who are involved in some pain or crisis. The circle of fear, the principle goes, demands faithful friends who will empathize with the sorrow or the sudden pain. And here's the key and not avoid it. Many people have asked us, we don't know what to say to you. And our response is, you don't have to say anything. There's nothing you're going to say that's going to make our pain worse. But I want to tell you something. Don't avoid the pain. If you know somebody that is suffering some sort of pain, if you know somebody that's involved in some sort of a crisis, don't avoid that person. Enter into the chamber of their pain. Enter into their sorrow. Acknowledge their pain. Be like Job's comforters in that second chapter of Job. Sit down with them and acknowledge that pain. Sometimes there's not much to say, but simply faithful friends who will help to narrow that circle of fear. The fifth principle that I talked about the last time some questions will remain unanswered in this life. It's not sinful to raise questions to God, but there is great comfort in the fellowship of sufferings. See, the human spirit is intricately woven with human emotion. We go through different stages of acceptance and grief and anger. And I know people who have gone through incredible ranges of emotion as the result of that principle that some questions will remain unanswered in this life. And the main point I wanted to say or give you on that particular point was this. Even though those questions may remain unanswered, healing begins with good doctrine. It is so important that you know what you believe. Because when Satan's whispering in this ear and God is whispering in this ear, and it all gets muddied in the middle, and you don't really know which voice is coming from who, you need to understand and you need to know what you believe. Our reformed faith caused us more pain initially when we heard of the death of our son. You say, why? Because our reformed faith says God is sovereign over everything. Ultimately, we had to say initially that God determined that on July the 6th, 1993, the same child that he gave to us on May 11, 1977, would be taken home. The doctrines of our faith said God was in absolute control because you can't add one hair to your head, you can't add one day to your life. Our Reformed faith said God was responsible for that death. Ultimately speaking, I gotta tell you, that's very painful initially. That's very painful because then you begin to ask the question, what? Why? But over the long haul, as the years go by and as we continue to absorb a greater understanding and appreciation for the sovereignty of God, over the long haul, that surgery of doctrine that took place at his death is going to prove to be very beneficial for us in the years to come. Now contrast that with the Arminian doctrine. The Arminian doctrine that talks about, well, you know, you could have prevented this. In fact, during the time of our initial grief, we heard a preacher preach. I've never heard such shallow doctrine in all of my life. I was infuriated as I sat there. The title of the sermon was How to Extend or How to Have a Long Life. He took some psalms and twisted them and perverted them in a way I've never seen. You would have expected more out of somebody who'd been in the pulpit for 40 some years. But he sat there and talked about, well, if you do this, this, this, and this, you'll live a long life. The implication, of course, is if you don't do this, this, this, and this, you'll live a short life. Well, then how do you explain children or babies who die early? How do you explain young people who are killed tragically? Does everybody who goes too fast in a vehicle pay with their life? If that's the case, then all of you would be dead, wouldn't you? Amen? All of you would be. What a shallow doctrine Arminianism is. What a shallow system of belief it is, because it lays the responsibility of life and death, of salvation and lostness in your hands. And ultimately it's in God's hands. Good doctrine is the starting point for dealing with the questions that will remain unanswered in this life. And for the reformed person, it will be painful at first. But ultimately, it'll bring healing in the long run. Well, that's all review. Let's look now at principle number six. Now listen to this carefully. The promise of scripture concerning the day of the Lord forms the heartbeat of restored hope to ones who despair. Let me say it again. The promise of scripture concerning the day of the Lord, underlined that. The day of the Lord forms the heartbeat of restored hope to people who are in despair. That theme, the day of the Lord, is spoken of all the way through scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, we have that concept laid out before us again and again and again. The Bible speaks of the day of the Lord. Yam Yahweh. And in Yom Yahweh, we see God revealing his glory at first in creation, ultimately in glorification. Now, as you read your Bibles originally, Israel looked forward to an earthly rule in which her position among the nations would be enhanced. They envisioned that the day of the Lord would be a time in which Israel, as the people of God, will rule the earth, that their position as a lowly nation would be enhanced to a position of a mighty nation where the day of the Lord would be ushered in and they would rule. They expected blessings. They expected the promises of God, the benefits of being citizens of the kingdom to increase in that day of the Lord. Israel had this expectation. I call it a limited horizontal view, because you see, that's all they were able to see. They saw that the day of the Lord is going to bring them some sort of earthly happiness, earthly blessings, earthly inheritances, and so they could only see this way horizontally. And that limited horizontal view of God's purposes and plans caused them to ignore something that was much deeper: the principles of obedience and commitment and devotion. The vertical view, their relationship to God vertically. Now, when the prophets come along in the Bible, and you read about Amos and Elisha and Elijah and the great prophets that culminated in the coming of John the Baptist as the last of the great prophets, when the prophets came along, they spoke of a rekindled vertical dimension. They started talking to Israel about a hope. They said, now here is where your hope rests. God is going to call out of Israel a remnant. Not all of you are going to be saved, the prophets would say. Because you see, not all of you have an understanding of that vertical dimension of obedience and commitment and devotion. And so the prophets stood up and said, Not everybody is saved. You must rekindle your understanding of the need for cleansing and purification. And a radical teaching that came out of the prophets that God planned to reestablish his kingdom on earth by invading human history personally. That's the kingdom concept. Now, if you have 1 Kings chapter 19, you're going to see it's a two-sided warning. The day of the Lord has two sides to it. It has the warning side and the blessing side, a vertical dimension and a horizontal dimension. 1 Kings 19, beginning with verse 10. He replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. They didn't like that message. They didn't like the message of cleansing and obedience and devotion and purification, the vertical dimension. I am the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. The voice said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. Sounds like a broken record, doesn't he? The Lord said to him, Go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazel king over Aram. Also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshe, king over Israel. And anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat from Abel Manoha, to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escaped the sword of Haziel. And Elisha will put to death any who escaped the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal, and all whose mouths have not kissed him. You get the picture? Two sided coin. On the one hand, judgment in the form of wars and pestilence and natural disasters and exile for the disobedient. On the other hand, a remnant would be sifted out like kernels separated from the chaff. Now, that's a principle that runs all through Scripture. There is a vertical dimension to the day of the Lord. There is a horizontal dimension to the day of the Lord. And people who are solid in their faith have got to understand that both dimensions are essential to bearing you up under sudden pain or sudden loss. God is doing something in history, yet God is calling me to an intimacy vertically that cannot be comprehended. Horizontal, vertical, in our understanding of the day of the Lord. Now you don't have to turn to this, but Amos the prophet, one of the first classical prophets to redefine the concept of the day of the Lord, says this, Amos chapter 9, verse 8. Listen to these words. Surely the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth, yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob. Get that picture? I'm going to destroy it, but not totally. For I will give the command, I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground. All the sinners among my people, notice where the sinners are among my people, all the sinners among my people will die. They will die by the sword. And those who say disaster will not overtake or meet us, in that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name, declares the Lord, who will do these things. There's that two-sided coin again. I am going to bring judgment, and out of that judgment, I am going to purge a remnant. I am going to teach that remnant the vertical dimensions of a relationship with God. In the day of the Lord, I am going to separate the wheat from the weeds. I am going to sift the wheat and get rid of the chaff. I am going to burn up the sinner who's sitting in the midst of my people. The day of the Lord. Bless us as a people. He's going to establish his kingdom on earth. We're going to rule with him and have a place of prominence among the nations. The prophets stood up and said, No, that's not all there is to the day of the Lord. Yes, he is going to bring blessings. But no, those blessings are not going to get better and better simply because God had promised it, without regard to the vertical intrusion of God into the life and fabric of his people. The day of the Lord will be a terrible day. Do you realize that in every church today there is the true church and there is the organic church? Sitting here this morning collectively, we are the organic church, but not all of you are saved. The tragedy is that some of you think you're saved. And when you die and stand before God, and when the day of the Lord happens, you're going to be as lost as the devil. The sad part is some of you are members of the church. The real tragedy is some of you have for years deluded yourselves into believing that you know the Lord and you expect all of these blessings and all of these promises to be fulfilled. But when the day of the Lord hits, it will be terrible judgment. Because your faith has been phony. Now nobody knows that except you and God. Nobody knows what truly is in your heart except you and God. But if you have that horizontal understanding of the day of the Lord, and you've missed that vertical understanding of the day of the Lord, that God reserves the right to intrude in your life, that God reserves the right to intrude history, that God truly has invaded history, God became flesh and dwelt amongst us and calls men to that vertical relationship. The day of the Lord will not be a day of blessing, but it will be a day of tragedy until you come to understand what that means. Amos continues and says, Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good, maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. Therefore, this is what the Lord God Almighty says. Listen, here's what the day of the Lord is. This was revolutionary thinking to the Jews. The prophets standing up. No wonder they hated him. No wonder the women at Bashan hated him when he called them cows who are lowing in the fields. No wonder they got upset with him. You talk about pulpit etiquette. This is a man who mints no words. Listen to what he says. There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord. Woe to you who longed for the day of the Lord. Notice what he says to the people who long for the day of the Lord. Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord. Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear. As though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light, pitch dark without a ray of brightness? Now you're sitting there in the congregation listening to this sermon. Amos stands up and says, You have a false understanding of the day of the Lord. You've missed the whole point. You've missed the promise. The day of the Lord is a day of judgment. By the way, parenthetically, this is what Jesus meant when the disciples asked him about restoring the kingdom, and he says, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons. And then in another gospel it says, not even the sun knows. Have you ever wondered what that verse means? Traditionally, we have interpreted it to mean that we cannot know the day of the coming of Christ. We cannot set timetables on it. But is it possible that even the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, does not know something when the scripture tells us elsewhere that he knows all things? When one of the character qualities of divinity is omniscience and Christ demonstrated omniscience again and again. Is it possible that Jesus is saying to us that he does not know when he's coming back? Of course not. And traditionally we have interpreted it that way, and we have ridiculed people who have sought to put together the pieces of the coming of Christ. It doesn't mean any such thing. What Jesus is saying to his disciples is this it is not for you who are truly my disciples to know judgment. And in that day, the day of the Lord, the Son will not know judgment because he will have already judged our sins. It is not even for the Son to know judgment. And it is not for you to know judgment. You who are truly my disciples, that's the day of the Lord. It will be a blessing for those who know him, but for those who long for the coming of Christ but are not saved. The day of the Lord will be a severe tragedy. You will be lost for all eternity. You will stand before a holy God and you will be lost. In that day, God is going to confront the systems of this world. He's going to confront the political systems of this world. He's going to judge the Democrats. He's going to judge the Republicans. And He's going to bring those political systems before Him and judge them and the people who led them. The humanists and the abortionists and the evolutionists and the false teachers of systems of doubt. All of the framework of salvation is in the book of Genesis. Everything we believe has its roots in the book of Genesis. What is the book that is attacked more in our secular institutions than any other book? The book of Genesis. Why? Because everything we believe about life is in there. That's why the abortionists don't like to hear about creation. Everything we believe about sin and our responsibility before God is in the book of Genesis. That's why the humanists don't like to talk about Genesis. What do we do? We write it off. We eliminate it from the pages of history. We say it's a myth. And what does Jesus tell us? He says, if you don't believe what Moses wrote, how are you going to believe what I tell you? Well, what did Moses write? He wrote the book of Genesis. Jesus says, if you don't believe the book of Genesis, how are you going to believe me? Why? Because the roots of our doctrine are in that book, and that's why that book's under so much attack. But God's going to judge those systems. My son started college this week. First thing his professor tells him in one of his courses is, I am to the left, left, left of liberal, liberal, liberal. Well, aren't you just so great? You're just a wonderful person. I read the syllabus before he even went into the course, and I said, This man, this man is going to challenge everything you believe. He's going to try to dismantle everything you believe. In his very next class, the professor stands up and says, I don't see anything wrong with a homosexual lifestyle. I mean, this is the kind of system that these kids are in. This is the university mindset. This is what these people who pride themselves on being intellectuals believe. Even simple logic, a 101 course in logic, would dismantle most of their arguments. The bias and bigotry of their belief system. You know, the Bible is held up to a scrutiny and to rules of interpretation that no other book is held up to. They would never hold Shakespeare. They would never hold the writings of Dickens. They would never hold any other book up to the rules of interpretation that they hold the Bible up to. The Bible has a separate standard. Why? Because we don't want to believe it. But God is going to bring that judgment. He is going to bring that cultural, educational, political, industrial, financial, and yes, even religious system before him in that day, and he will judge it. And what will he judge it by? He will hold every value system and belief system up to the scrutiny of this book. And he will say, your system rises and your system falls on whether or not you embrace this book. And so does yours. So does yours. The day of the Lord. The earth's value system will be brought down in swift judgment. Catch the language of Isaiah. I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty in the day of his burning anger. Catch the language, Zephaniah, be silent before the sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated those he has invited. On that day, declares the Lord, Zephaniah says, A cry will go up from the fish gate, wailing from the new quarter, and a loud crash from the hills. Wail, you who live in the market district. All your merchants will be wiped out. All who trade with silver will be ruined. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think the Lord will do nothing. He's not going to do anything good, he's not going to do anything bad. Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished, they will build houses but not live in them. They will plant vineyards but not drink the wine. That's the concept of the day of the Lord. Yet on the other hand, having said all of that, the day of the Lord introduces a new era of restoration. The great king comes to rescue his own. Listen, to make sense for them out of their suffering, to reward them for their faithfulness to his word. And listen, to take revenge on their enemies, the greatest of which is the enemy of death itself. The day of the Lord is a day of destruction, but it's also a day of renewal. The day of the Lord is a day of judgment, but it's also a day of liberation. The day of the Lord is a day of condemnation, but it is also a day of justification, vindication, and salvation. The day of the Lord will be ushered in with the sound of divine trumpets. Now, what I have done that I'm going to introduce to you today is I've taken the word trumpet, which by the way, Matthew 24 says, He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call. They will gather his elect from the four winds from the one end of the heavens to the other. Paul would say to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15, 52, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. He would say to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. The book of Revelation, chapter one, and all the way through the book speaks of the sounding of trumpets as God unleashes his judgment. Chapter 4 of Revelation, I looked, he says, and before me there was a door standing open in heaven, and a voice I had at first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. And in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants and the prophets. What is this trumpet talk? Are we going to hear trumpets blowing in heaven? I mean, are they literal trumpets, brass trumpets, you know? All the angels are blowing these horns. Is that what it is? No, the trumpet of the Lord symbolically is simply announcing his coming. Revelation tells us that the trumpet that he heard was like the voice of God speaking. The trumpet is the voice of God. God is going to come with a shout. We're going to hear audibly the voice of God. That's the trumpet. The trumpet, which is the voice of God, announces the day of the Lord. Now, what I've done is I've taken this word trumpet. I've made a little acrostic out of it. And each letter stands for some particular dimension of the day of the Lord. We're only going to deal with the first one this morning, the letter T. The day of the Lord is a day of total restoration. Say, what do you mean? Listen carefully because I think we have some false understanding of what the day of the Lord means. Total restoration. T and trumpet stands for total restoration. Redemption is not deliverance from the material world, but the re-establishment and sanctification of the material world. Say what do you mean? Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and look with me at verse 31. What's going to happen in the day of the Lord? What do we mean when we speak of total restoration? 1 Corinthians 7, verse 31. Quickly. Those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them, for this world, underline this now, in its present form is passing away. Underline that. Paul says, in its present form, the material world is passing away. Now go over to 2 Peter chapter 3. Look with me at verse 13. Keep in mind now what Paul said. This present form, the world in its present form, is passing away. 2 Peter 3, verse 13. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to what? A new, underline the word new, a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Mark this verse down and you can look it up when you go home. Revelation 20, 1 through 8. We read, For the old order of things has passed away. Now let's put these concepts together. When the day of the Lord happens, the world as we know it is going to pass away. God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. And he is going to reestablish a new order of things. Now, traditionally we have taught in the church, and I think wrongly so, that when the day of the Lord happens, God's going to destroy the earth. Wipe it out, totally obliterate the earth. Poof, out the earth goes. But we have a problem now because he also said he's going to create a new heaven. And what we have believed about heaven is that heaven is a place of perfection. So why in the world is he going to destroy heaven? If God is going to destroy heaven and destroy earth and create a whole new heaven and a whole new earth, then God is destroying perfection, which is contrary to his character. Now we know the earth is fallen, but heaven is not fallen. He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth. But any careful scholar of the Bible looks those words up very carefully. Because you see the word new can be phrased two ways. There's two words in the Greek for new. I can go out and say I'm going to buy a new car. Now, if I go out and buy a new car, the old car is history. I'm going to go out and buy a new car. It's new in the sense of age. It's new because it's different. It's new because it's separate from. But that's not the word used here when he talks about a new heaven and a new earth. The word new that he uses here is a brand new word. It's a word that has a specific meaning, not new in the sense of a new car, but new in the sense of essence or quality. And when you put the little prefix A and A in front of it, anna, it means to renew something. You see what God's going to do is He's going to take the world of heaven and the world of earth. The world of earth, which is matter, time, and restricted by our sin. And the world of heaven, which is perfection. And he's going to bring those two worlds together into one. A new heaven and a new earth, not new in the same. Of something different, but new in the sense of something essentially and qualitatively different. The new Jerusalem is going to come down out of heaven from God, and the spirit world is going to merge with the material world. Now, I've taught you for years that we live in the spiritual world, we just can't see it. That if we could lift the veil of this sanctuary right now, you would see behind the scenes demonic powers and angelic powers warring. I think Frank Peretti captured that very beautifully in both of his books. But you see, when the new heaven comes, when the day of the Lord happens, God is going to bring heaven to earth. You know, I drive down the coastline from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Any of you ever done that? Drove that coastal highway? Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life? For the life of me, I cannot imagine that God's going to destroy that. I cannot imagine that as I look at the beauty of his creation, he's not going to destroy it, he's going to renew it. And in that sense, he's going to create a new heaven and a new earth. He is going to rule and walk among us in this earth with new material bodies. Not limited by time, space, or matter, but new in the sense of essence or quality. Earth is fallen into sin, and because of that, we've been separated from the glory of God. Heaven is awaiting the physical resurrection of the dead, and because of that, heaven is still incomplete. Our Son in heaven is not yet glorified. Your loved ones in heaven are not yet glorified. Why? Because their bodies are still in the grave. And until their bodies come out of the grave and are glorified and joined to their spirits, they're not yet glorified. And so, in that sense, heaven is still incomplete. But on the day of the Lord, he will bring heaven into earth, and earth will be brought into heaven, earth and heaven will become one, and the king will rule. But with new bodies, where there is no more time, space, or matter as we know it in its fallen condition. God is not going to destroy heaven and earth in the sense that he's going to start all over. He is going to merge the two into one where he will dwell in the midst. Time will be swallowed up into eternity. God will recreate the earth devoid of sin and disease and the limitations of space, time, and matter. He will also recreate heaven in that it will enter into the sphere of the physical, the two will become one. That is why the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, how are the dead raised? With what kinds of bodies do they come out? How foolish. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he is determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same. Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, the splendor of the earthly bodies is another kind. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another, and stars differ from star in splendor. So will it be in the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, but it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. And after that the spiritual. Listen, I tell you a mystery. Metamorphosized Greek word, like a caterpillar to a butterfly. The essence or quality is changed, but the butterfly is still a caterpillar, the caterpillar is still a butterfly, but it goes through a blaze of glory and is metamorphosized. And that's why he says, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Whereow death is your sting, whereow grave is your victory. The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see what's going to happen? Heaven and the spiritual body that Christ has, which was a body, by the way, that ate, talked, drank, yet it was the same body that walked through walls, was in two places at the same time, moved at will from one place to another. The spiritual body will be visible, recognizable, because heaven and earth will merge into one. He will bring the new Jerusalem to earth, and a new heaven and a new earth essentially will be recreated right before our very eyes, in the moment, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. Oh, yes, the day of the Lord will bring judgment. But the day of the Lord will also bring total, total restoration of the spiritual universe and the physical universe will be merged into one. I don't have any way of proving this. But I believe if we have bodies like unto Christ and I look up at the stars in the new heaven and a new earth, when we enter into that world where our King rules and recreates this earth essentially bringing the spiritual and temporal worlds together into one, I have no trouble believing that if I look out there and I see something and will myself to be there, I'll be there. That I will not be bound by space, time, and matter. If I want to fly somewhere, I'll fly somewhere. If I want to be somewhere, I'll be somewhere. And I will live wherever I go in the very glory of God, his glory will shadow us, his glory will hover over us. That's why there's no sun or moon. Why? No time. Sun and moon measure time. That's why there's no sun or moon. You don't need it. That's why there's no warmth coming from the sun. Why? Because the glory of God warms us. A spiritual heaven, a physical earth becoming one, our bodies glorified. Why do you think he took so much time in 1 Corinthians 15 to tell us about that? Sown one way, raised another, sown in corruption, raised in incorruption. The day of the Lord, when that trumpet sounds, will bring total restoration. Let's bow together in prayer. Thank you, Father, for giving us the truth of Scripture. And as we begin to unfold this acrostic, as we begin to look at the day of the Lord and its meaning, comfort us with hope, especially those who are suffering right now. That you've promised us something in Scripture. All the way through, from the prophets to the book of Revelation, you have spoken of that day. You have told us that the day of the Lord will bring judgment to those who are lost. Lord, if there's one sitting here right now who is not a Christian. Lord, if there's anything we can do somehow to convince them that life is brief, that it is so short, that our days are numbered, and that at any moment we could die. Lord, help them to see that. If even in the example you have done in our own family, where none of us expected that to happen. Nonetheless, it happened. Lord, may you use that as an example to others who think that they have a long time to live, a long time to make decisions, a long time before the day of the Lord happens. And Lord, use this message to bring a new urgency to those who are lost and a new commitment to those who are saved. Help us to see, Lord, that there is judgment and there is restoration, and that we in the church must get on with the business of building the kingdom, not toying with pettiness, not Pharisees or legalists, not ritualists or traditionalists, but people who are urgent, urgent with the message that the day of the Lord is quickly approaching. And so, Lord, help us to put aside our own biases, our own prejudices, and to see the greater picture that you have called your people to build the kingdom.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people.

SPEAKER_02 55:48

To learn more about after that, our resources, for concepts, is the end of our hands. Even when you do not understand the things.