Turn with me to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, Chapter 5. First Thessalonians 5, and I am going to read from Verse 1.
But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief:
For ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
So then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober.
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Wherefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also ye do.
Shall we just bow together in a word of prayer?
Father, as we turn to You this morning, we want to praise You and worship You that You have given us all the grace and the power that we need, both for speaking and for hearing. And, Lord, we just commit ourselves into Your hands.
We pray, Lord, that Your Word may find a dwelling place in our hearts. We thank You for everything that You have done thus far in our week together in Your presence. And we ask now for this morning, Lord. We do not take it for granted.
We just come by faith to lay hold of that provision which You have made for every one of us, that whether speaker or hearer, we may know Your divine enabling and power, so that, Lord, Your purpose for this time may be fulfilled.
And we ask this together in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In these times that I have the responsibility to share with you the Word of God, the matter that has been in my heart has been this whole matter of biblical prophecy.
Now, do not get all excited, because I am not going to spend the time on all the many controversial and difficult matters to do with the things of the end. We shall take up some of those matters.
This whole matter of biblical prophecy is a matter of tremendous complexity. Upon it has centred much controversy; there is much confusion over it. There is not a little error, imbalance, and eccentricity.
And yet there is no subject more vital, more strategic, or more important for the people of God to understand and to have light upon than this matter of biblical prophecy. We are moving irreversibly into the last days of the age.
More than at any other time, as the people of God, we need to understand the Word of prophecy. We need to have an understanding of the times in which we live.
It is not good enough for God’s people to be kind of spiritual escapists: “Well, we are going to be with the Lord, and that is the only thing that matters, because the rest of the world is going to hell. The rest of the world is under judgment. After we have gone, they will suffer unspeakable horrors and terrible things, but thank God we are not going to be there.”
“All we have to do is withdraw from the world, worship the Lord, and read His Word. We are going to escape the whole thing.”
Now, I believe personally that the Lord is going to come for His own. And I believe it is essential that we should be ready for His coming.
Nor do I think for a single moment that some kind of morbid, dark, heavy, afflicted spirit should come upon us, and that we should start to look at the Antichrist, 666, the Antichrist system that is going to come, and the suffering and persecution that the people of God have got to face—all these things.
I mean, to be morbid would be very sad. The apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, put it in beautiful words:
God appointed us not unto wrath,
but unto the obtaining of salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him.
Wherefore exhort one another, and build each other up,
even as also ye do.
It is an interesting thing that whenever the Word of God has to define for us, or paint for us, a picture of reality—a picture sometimes in dark colours, of unpleasant things—the Holy Spirit, without fail, always reveals the Lord Jesus as the enthroned Lamb, or the coming glory of the kingdom of God, or the wonderful deliverance of those who belong to Him, or the fulfilment of the whole purpose of God for the creation and for mankind.
It is marvellous to remember this. Of course, the Lord Jesus put it very simply in those words: “When you see these things beginning to come to pass, look up; lift up your heads; your redemption draweth nigh.”
Now, this is an interesting thing, because although I have just made reference to the fact that we can be kind of spiritual escapists, just blessing the Lord and, in a kind of holy huddle, waiting for the Lord to come—thinking that we do not have to bother about the world around us, what is happening in the world, or what is happening to the people in it—it is an interesting thing that the Lord Jesus said, “When you see these things beginning to come to pass, look up; lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
Now, to stand up, to look up, to lift up your head, is the Jewish form of worship. What the Lord Jesus was saying was, “Be so unconcerned about all these terrible things that you will be able to worship the Lord, because your redemption is drawing near every day.”
You can lift up your head. You can straighten your back. You can stand up together in the presence of the Lord, and you can worship Him, because your redemption is drawing near.
Now, in this passage that we read together, the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, speaks of this day in Verse 2: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
And the Lord Jesus Himself referred to His coming as being like that of a thief in the night, in Matthew 24:43.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming,
he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Therefore be ye also ready:
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Now, the Lord Jesus did not say this to a lot of unsaved people. He did not utter these words to a great multitude of unsaved people. He did not even say these words to the great company of His disciples.
He did not even say these words to the twelve disciples who were the inner circle. He said these words to the most devoted and the most responsible of the twelve: Andrew, Peter, James, and John—the inner circle of the inner circle.
Again and again, He took them with Him on special occasions. When Jairus’s daughter was raised, it was three of these. When the transfiguration took place, it was these, and so on and so forth.
In other words, it comes to me—I do not know about you—but it comes to me with some solemnity that the Lord Jesus was speaking to the most responsible of His servants and said, “I will come like a thief.” That can catch out even those most responsible in My work and in the interests of My kingdom.
Therefore be ye also ready:
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Now, do you not think the Lord Jesus was seeking, as it were, to get something over to us? We may have a great knowledge of the Word of God. We may have responsibility in the things of God. We may have a long history in the work of God, and yet, according to the words of the Lord Jesus, we could be caught out by the coming of the Lord.
It is interesting that in Revelation 16:15, the Lord Jesus again refers to His coming: “Behold, I come as a thief.”
Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments,
lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
I think the New International Version says, “lest he be shamefully exposed.” Is it possible for a believer to lose his garments, to, as it were, be naked, to be found out, and be shamefully exposed by the coming of the Lord Jesus? It is not a possibility.
Why does the Lord Jesus continuously warn us to be ready?
People get so excited about whether we are going to go before the tribulation, after the tribulation, or in the midst of the tribulation; whether we are all going to go, or whether just a few of us are going to go; whether those who are ready are going to go, and all the rest of it. They get so heated, so upset on the details about the coming of the Lord, and altogether forget the main emphasis of our Lord Jesus:
Therefore be ye also ready:
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.
If our Lord Jesus, not once but again and again, spoke of taking heed, watching, being alert, being on our guard, and being ready, there must be some kind of spiritual loss if we ignore His advice.
It is a most striking term that Jesus and the apostles use: “like a thief in the night.” There is nothing about the Lord Jesus remotely akin to a thief.
If He had not Himself used the illustration, it would be offensive and vulgar. If I had taken it upon myself to speak about the coming of the Lord Jesus as being like a thief in the night, many people would have got up, I think, and walked out. They would have been disgusted that someone could refer to the Lord Jesus as a thief.
Yet it was the Lord Jesus Himself Who spoke of His coming as being like a thief. Not even a businessman—some of them are thieves, but never mind. I mean, if He had said a businessman, it would at least have been a bit more respectable. If He had said a politician—some of those are swindlers too—it would at least have been a little more respectable.
But to have baldly stated, “My coming will be like a thief in the night.” Thieves do not telephone you beforehand and say, “At such-and-such a time, I will be paying you a visit.” Thieves do not send a visiting card first: “Mr. So-and-so is coming.”
The very nature of thieving is to do it suddenly, stealthily, in a hidden manner. In other words, what the Lord Jesus is warning us—not once but again and again, and the apostles support this warning—is that His coming will be like a thief: stealthy, hidden, unseen, unexpected.
Now, most of us would think, “Well, I will not be caught out. I know the Lord.” And some of you will say, “And I actually am very interested in prophecy, so I do not think I will be caught out. Oh, I wish this kind of word would come to the church I am in, or the company I am in, or the brothers and sisters I meet with.”
But it was to Andrew, Peter, James, and John that the Lord Jesus said:
If the master of the house had known what watch the thief would come,
he would have kept watch;
he would not have suffered the thief to have broken through into his house.
Be ye also ready:
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.
This matter of biblical prophecy is not a matter to be despised. I know that this subject has attracted, like a magnet to it, eccentrics of extraordinary dimension and vividness.
We, of course, see them very much in Jerusalem. That draws them all more than any other place.
But just because eccentrics are attracted to a subject—after all, salvation has attracted some eccentrics; we all know them—just because the subject attracts a few eccentrics, because there are extremes sometimes and imbalance sometimes in the teaching, does not invalidate the truth of the prophetic Word.
If you and I are so easily put off by a few erroneous teachings, a few imbalanced teachings, or by the antics of eccentrics in this matter, we shall do so at great loss to ourselves.
That, in fact, in my estimation, is the very strategy of hell. If it cannot stop the people of God from understanding the prophetic Word—the Word of prophecy—if it cannot stop that Word of prophecy being a lamp to the feet of God’s people, a lamp shining in a dark and squalid place, giving them light, direction, and understanding, then Satan and his forces will seek to discredit the subject in such a way and to such a degree that most sane believers will be altogether put off the matter.
This means that you and I can then be left bereft of one means that God would use to give us an understanding of the days in which we live and awaken us to the danger in which we, as the people of God, are found.
So, dear people of God, this whole matter of biblical prophecy is not something which can be put on one side, which can be ignored—a kind of special subject left to those who have got a kind of feeling for it.
This is a subject of tremendous and strategic importance for the people of God, and particularly for the last days in which we are found.
I say this again, as emphatically as I can. For the simple fact of the matter is that we not only need to know the broad outlines of God’s purpose, the fact of our salvation, the nature of the church, the destiny of the church, and these tremendous matters.
If we are going to be a functioning church, or believers who are really overcoming in the final phase of world history, we must have an understanding of what is happening amongst the nations.
God is not only the God of the redeemed. He is the God of all nations, the God of all flesh.
This is why there will be a great final judgment. Every single human being will stand before God, great and small. No matter if they have been incinerated, no matter if they have been drowned, no matter if they have been dead for five or six thousand years, every single human being will finally stand before God, because God is the God of all flesh.
God is the God of history. He is not interested only in His people. Of course, He is interested in His people—supremely interested in His people. They are the apple of His eye. They are the bride of His Son. They are that New Jerusalem. They are His home in the Spirit. They are the heart of the matter, the pivotal centre of a whole new heaven and new earth in which righteousness will dwell.
Of course, He is supremely interested in His people. But, dear people of God, do not think for a single moment that God is an unknown factor in the Kremlin. They are atheists, but God, if I may so speak of Him, walks the chambers of the Kremlin and the corridors of the Kremlin.
There is not a conversation that is not heard by God and noted by God. He is no stranger to the White House, or to the Capitol, or to the Houses of Parliament in Britain, or to the Knesset in Israel. He hears everything, takes note of everything, and is working everything out according to the counsel of His own will.
Nothing happens by accident.
This should be a tremendous encouragement to the people of God. It is not as if the Lord is interested only in the church and the redeemed, and has thrown up the rest: “They can get on with it. I could not care less.”
This is the spirit of Jonah. When the Lord said to Jonah, “Go to Nineveh,” Jonah said, “Never, not on your life. Go to that cruel, wicked lot, who have done the most barbaric things in the whole of human history, and preach to them? Certainly not.”
And he fled before the Lord could say another word to him—down to Joppa, onto a boat—and the Lord prepared for him a great fish. I think you know the story.
In the end Jonah ended up in that great fish and had an extraordinary prayer meeting. I have often thought of the prayer meeting Jonah had in that great fish as one of the most amazing prayer meetings in history.
For instance, he remembered the words of King Solomon: “If anyone, anywhere on the earth, turns toward the place where I caused My name to dwell, I will hear him and forgive him.”
I have often thought, how did Jonah, in the belly of a fish, know which direction Jerusalem was? The fish might have been turning around in circles.
I take it that Jonah said, “Lord, You know my heart. I am turning towards Jerusalem, at least the direction I think Jerusalem is in. Take it as if I am facing the place where You caused Your name to dwell.”
And God heard him, and the fish was beached and coughed up Jonah. Do you remember the story? Then the Lord said, “Now, Jonah, I was saying to you a few days ago about going to Nineveh.”
And Jonah said, “Yes, Lord, I will go to Nineveh. Since it obviously means so much to You, Lord, I will go to Nineveh.”
How much God sometimes has to take some of us through before finally we hear His Word and are finally prepared to be obedient.
Jonah came to Nineveh, but now, unfortunately, Jonah threw himself too much into his message. It was a message of judgment; it exactly fitted Jonah’s mood.
He spoke not only with his spirit, but with all his soul. He spoke powerfully and had the shock of his life.
Jonah had ministered for quite a few years in Israel, but never had the king put on sackcloth, throw ashes on himself, and weep before God. Never had the people of the northern kingdom of Israel humbled themselves before God, dressed even their cattle in black, wept before the Lord, and fasted before the Lord.
But the royal house in Nineveh and the whole royal court mourned and fasted as if someone had died before God. And God said to Jonah, “Jonah, I cannot do this thing.”
Then you know the story. Jonah got very upset indeed. He said, “Lord, I knew You would do this to me. You sent me all this way with this message of judgment to this ghastly people. They should be destroyed to the last man.”
“And now I had a funny, sneaking suspicion all the while that if I gave this message, and they as much as wept a tear, You would put the whole thing off for a generation.”
You know, many of us are just like Jonah. We are perfectly prepared to pronounce a kind of judgment upon the world around us, but we do not want to be involved.
We do not believe that God knows the streets of Nineveh, that He knows every single family in Nineveh, that He could speak of the thousands of little children, kindergarten age, who did not know their left hand from their right hand.
You remember the words with which the Lord ended His talk with Jonah? I am sure He said a lot more to Jonah, but it took a great man of great spiritual character to write the record and leave himself in such a dark painting.
The Lord said to Jonah, “Jonah, do you mean to tell Me that you want Me to judge this city? What about the little ones who cannot tell their right hand from their left hand? And what about the cattle?”
I think it was the biggest shock Jonah ever had. “You mean,” he said, “Lord, You are interested in the domestic animals in this city? Jerusalem, I can understand. Everything in Jerusalem is precious to the Lord—but Nineveh?”
We are in a situation very much like this: a world that is moving steadily towards the judgments of God.
And we, as the people of God, are to be a prophetic community. What do I mean?
I mean this: the church is not essentially a matter of a pattern of offices, functions, and gifts. All these things are necessary, but you can have all of that and there is no lampstand there. It has been removed.
The lampstand speaks of something more. It speaks of the light of the life of God in the Lord Jesus. The lampstand holds a lamp, and in the lamp is light. Jesus is the lamp, and the glory of God is the light in that lamp.
And the church is the lampstand that holds the lamp: Christ in you all, the hope of glory.
You know, the church should be a prophetic community. What do I mean? I mean that the church should be a community of redeemed people who are a prophetic instrument in the area in which they are found.
Let me put it another way. It is not just that they have a knowledge of prophecies. It is much, much, much more than that.
It is that they not only have an understanding of the prophetic Word, but the prophetic Word has come into them. Something has come right inside that people, and they are acting according to the Word of God.
Jesus spoke of us as the salt of the earth. There is a fatalistic attitude amongst the people of God that the moral decline and wickedness in the nation is something that we, as the people of God, can do absolutely nothing about.
But we are the salt of the earth. In other words, it is not simply the truth we proclaim, but the truth that is in us which acts like an antiseptic. It acts like an agent that halts the corruption.
We are the light of the world. In other words, the church is to be an instrument through which the light of God streams into a locality, into a town, village, city, or nation. Any man or woman who wants to know the truth can find God through that light shining through the church.
The church is to be a city set on a hill. You cannot hide a city set on a hill. The truth is there in action for all to see.
But Stephen made reference to that verse yesterday in the most wonderful way, in Revelation 19, where it says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
I do not think that the way it is sometimes explained—as meaning that the prophetic Scriptures all point to Jesus—is a satisfactory interpretation of that statement. Of course, it includes that, but it is much, much more.
In my estimation, it means this: that the church, which holds the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God, has a testimony of Jesus that is prophetic in its content. It is the church’s ministry and impact upon the world, upon the nation in which it lives.
This does not all mean that you all become politicians, or that you all spend all your time agitating for reforms of one kind or another. But it does mean this: that the people of God stand up and be accounted for, because they have a responsibility to God.
Do not think for one single moment that any believer has only a responsibility for his own spiritual welfare and well-being, as if the only thing Christ will ask you when you stand before His judgment seat is, “What did you do about your own character? What did you do about your own well-being? How did you secure spiritual values in your life?”
Of course He will be interested in that, but that is not all. The Lord Jesus will say to you, “What kind of responsibility did you have for your brothers and sisters? Did you care for them? Did you wash their feet? Did you humble yourself before them? Did you love them? Did you clothe them? Did you feed them? Did you heal them? Did you lay down your lives for your brothers and sisters?”
“You talk so much about the building of the house of God, so much about the church of God, but what have you done concerning your brothers and sisters? Not on the other side of the world, but where you live.”
Do not think that is all. The Lord Jesus will then say, “You were a watchman. I set you on the walls of Jerusalem. I gave you in My Word warning of what would happen to the world.”
“Did you at any time pray for that world around you? Did you give yourself in intercession for those souls, those multitudes of souls that were going into a lost eternity? Did you become a prophetic instrument with others, by which My light could stream? Did you warn them? Did you blow the trumpet? Did you sound the alarm?”
Do you know what God said to the prophet Ezekiel? He said, “I have made you a watchman. If you sound the alarm when I say that judgment is coming, and they take no note of you and they die, you have saved yourself, and those ones will die in judgment. Their blood is upon their own head.”
“But if I say that you should sound the alarm and blow the trumpet because judgment is coming, and you did not do anything but spent your time in a holy huddle, and that judgment comes upon that nation, I will require their blood at your hand.”
You are responsible not only for your own spiritual well-being, not only for the building up and recovery of the church, but for the nation and nations amongst whom you are placed.
You may say to me, “Well, I do not know much about the Word of prophecy. The prophetic Word—I have never really taken too much account of it.”
Well, my dear friend, let me say this straight away: whether you have ignored it or whether you have regarded it, it has been given to you.
You and I have a solemn responsibility before God. So this matter of biblical prophecy is vital.
You see, it was bad enough centuries ago, but now we are on the brink of God’s judgment upon the nations. We are on the brink of all kinds of things that will come upon the face of the earth.
Which people, amongst all the peoples in the earth, have got understanding if it is not the church of our Lord Jesus?
Therefore, you see, we have this responsibility. Before I finish this morning, I would like to say something about the meaning of prophecy.
There are a number of words used in Hebrew, and they all help us to understand what it means.
We have two words that are akin in Hebrew. One is roeh and the other chozeh, and these two words mean that a prophet is a seer. They come from a root that simply means “to see.”
A prophet is nothing less and nothing more than a man who sees God. And in seeing God, he understands everything else. What he sees of the mind and heart of God means that his whole attitude to human and earthly events undergoes a change.
If you want Scriptures for that, you will find them in 1 Samuel 9:9 and Isaiah 30:10. There are, of course, many, many more references all the way through the Old Testament where the prophet is called a seer.
One who sees. He does not cook up ideas in his head. He does not gaze into some crystal ball and get ideas of the future. It is not tea-leaf divination, palm reading, or anything like that. It is not looking at the stars.
He sees the Lord, and that marks him out from all these other occult, magical things that belong to Satan and to this earth. He—and she—sees the Lord. And because they see the Lord, they speak.
There is another word that is used most commonly of all. It is the word nabi in Hebrew. There is much discussion about where this word came from.
Some say it comes from a Hebrew root which means “to announce.” The prophet is somebody who announces the mind of God. He sees the Lord, and he announces; he declares what he sees.
There are others who say it comes from an Assyrian root, nabu, “to be called.” They say the prophet is someone—this prophet, this nabi—who is called of God, and that is true.
No man can be a prophet simply because he thinks he will be a prophet. We have plenty of them. The Bible calls them false prophets. They announce things they were not told to announce. They say they are prophets when they have never been called by God.
The prophet is someone who is called and commissioned by God.
There is another word in Hebrew used in association with the prophet which is a little different to the others. It is a word that means “burden.”
By the way, if you want Scriptures for the word nabi, Genesis 20:7 and Numbers 11:29 are two examples for you.
But this other word you will find in Zechariah 9:1, Zechariah 12:1, and Malachi 1:1. You read there, “The burden of the Lord.”
This is a very interesting word in Hebrew: massa. It speaks of a load that is carried to its desired destination. It speaks of the revelation that God gives to a prophet being a divine burden or load which God lifts up and puts, as it were, upon the shoulders or heart of the prophet, so that that Word may achieve God’s desired end.
In the New Testament, we have one common word used throughout: prophetes, from which we get the English words “prophet” and “prophecy.” It simply means one who speaks forth, speaks out, or tells forth.
Here we come to the heart of this whole matter of biblical prophecy. It is not just predicting the future, as so many imagine. It is not just something about foretelling what is going to happen. It is the speaking out of the mind and heart of God. It is the forth-telling of the mind and heart of God.
Do you get it? So that it can be to do with the past, the present, and the future.
Sometimes a prophet will say to a people, “So many centuries ago, you did this, and that is why this is happening.” Only a prophet could have said that. He has put the finger of God, as it were, upon a matter which is the root of all the problem in that nation or community.
It is to do with the past. In Scripture, you will find a lot of prophecy about the past. Do you remember that amazing prophecy about Lucifer, son of the morning, falling down—the anointed cherub who said, “I will be like the Most High. I will ascend to the stars. I will make my throne above the throne of God”?
Do you remember? That is prophetic. Human intelligence could never have understood that. Going to a university or a theological seminary would not have produced that. That could only come by revelation.
So again and again prophecy is to do with the past. It is to do with the present. Sometimes God says, “If you do so-and-so, you need not fear; you will find My deliverance with you.”
Remember King Jehoshaphat. When they were surrounded and besieged, the Lord said to them, “Do not take any notice of them. Just worship Me and trust Me. I am with you. Take your position, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”
And that is exactly what happened. It was something to do with the present situation. The Lord was saying, “If you do so-and-so, you will be absolutely safe and secure.” That is prophetic.
Then, of course, we have quite a lot to do with the future. It is interesting. Here are some facts for some of you: out of the 31,124 verses of the Bible, 8,362 are predictive.
Now, maybe that does not mean anything to you. You all seem to be asleep on the ball. Let me put it another way: 27% of the Bible is to do with prediction. Twenty-seven per cent of the Bible is to do with prediction.
Now, do you mean to tell me you are going to ignore over one quarter of your Bible? “Well, you see, I do not like this kind of subject. I feel it belongs to the realm of cranks and lunatics—the lunatic fringe of Christianity.” So we are going to sacrifice 27% of the Bible.
Now, I am talking about predictive material. If you take what we call prophetic work, then we have to take a much larger percentage of the Bible, when we are dealing with the past and the present as well as the future.
You know, it is a wonderful thing for us. Listen to me in this matter. Let me read to you Isaiah 46:9-11.
Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like Me;
declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times things that are not yet done;
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure;
calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man of My counsel from a far country;
yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass;
I have purposed, I will also do it.
Now, do you not see how marvellously comforting it can be that God declares the end from the beginning?
Well, I do not know about you. I do not know what kind of mind you have. I find mine works overtime, and I have the kind of mind that is always wondering, “Is it really true?”
Now I am just opening my heart to you. I find again and again the devil comes to me and says, “You do not believe all that rubbish, do you? Really, you believe it?”
And sometimes I think to myself, just supposing that it was nonsense—what on earth have I been doing with my life?
There may be none of you who have such dark thoughts, but I find they are with me day and night. I have learned to live with them.
I just let the devil do his little war dance all around me all the time he wants to, telling me, “This is wrong, this will not happen,” and this and this and this. And I think to myself, I come back again and again to one or two things that I cannot explain away—not in any single degree can I explain them away.
And one of the things is this: God has said things thousands of years ago that are being specifically and accurately fulfilled before my eyes in a detailed manner.
Every time the devil comes to me, I think to myself, if God can say things like that thousands of years ago—more accurate and more relevant than The Washington Post or The New York Times—I, for one, can trust God.
When people throw the whole thing overboard and only want a kind of mystical, spiritual experience of the Lord, they say, “Oh, no, no, no, God is not fulfilling anything today. No, no, no. We just have to walk by faith.”
It is nonsense.
Moses had to walk by faith when he went through the Red Sea, but God told him they would get through it. There was a land into which God was going to bring them. He had to walk by faith.
There was no other way for that sea to be divided in two and for those people to walk over as on dry ground, but God had already declared the end from the beginning.
He said, “One day, when you get into that land, I will bring you to a place where I shall cause My name to dwell. There you shall worship Me, and there you shall offer your sacrifices to Me.”
He declared the end from the beginning, but they had to walk by faith all the way through. Where faith collapsed, they stayed in the desert for forty years. But where faith triumphed, a new generation went over into the land and possessed it.
Every single word that God had said came to pass.
So it is with you and me. When the enemy comes to me and says, “Oh, I do not think this will happen, nor that will happen. Do you not think you are barking up the wrong tree, or something or other?” I think to myself, it is a strange thing.
I never talk to the devil if I can help it. I think it is better to talk with the Lord.
But I say to the Lord, “You know, Lord, it is a strange thing, this coordination of evil. How come everything happens at once? Have you ever noticed that?”
I always say, when everything goes wrong—the tank splits, the car breaks down, the dog gets lost, the telephone goes out of order, someone is violently sick, and then you have some neurotic saint descend upon you in the final stages of a nervous breakdown—I say, “Thank God, He is going to do something before long.”
I have learned from bitter experience that when everything goes wrong, something is about to happen. Have you not found that out? I have never found it to be a mistake.
I wait and think, “Something is going to happen,” and sure enough, somebody gets saved, somebody gets blessed, or some tremendous breakthrough takes place. Then you say, “Now I understand that coordination of evil. Who coordinated all these things? Who sort of planned the whole thing?”
God says, on a much bigger scale, “My beloved children, I want to comfort you. You are going to go through all these centuries of time, but I am declaring the end from the beginning so that when these things come to pass, you may be comforted and strengthened.”
He says it again in Isaiah 45:21:
Declare ye, and bring it forth; yea, let them take counsel together:
who hath showed this from ancient time?
Who hath declared it of old?
Have not I, the Lord?
And there is no God else besides Me,
a just God and a Saviour;
there is none besides Me.
Now, dear friends, our time has gone for this morning. I would like to leave you in the second letter of the apostle Peter, Chapter 1, Verse 19. We have made reference to this verse two or three times, although we have not read it.
And we have the word of prophecy made more sure;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,
as unto a lamp shining in a dark place,
until the day dawn,
and the day-star arise in your hearts.
A lamp: the Word of prophecy, a lamp shining in a dark place.
The word “dark” here in the Greek means murky or squalid. I must tell you, I think the place we are all in—not this place; I mean the age, the generation in which we are living—is a pretty squalid generation.
We are returning to Corinthian situations. We are reversing, slowly but surely, back to the paganism of centuries ago: abortion, homosexuality, sex with children and animals, and all the other unspeakable things that belong to a pagan society.
That pagan society, so dehumanised because of its attitude to human life, could pack stadiums throughout that magnificent Roman world and watch men kill each other—and roar with delight.
This is where we are coming again.
We have this prophetic Word like a lamp shining in a squalid place, a murky place. My dear friend, what point is there in having a map or a chart in a dark place without a light? Have you ever thought about it? Think.
Some people say, “Okay, I have got the Bible.” My dear friend, if you do not have a lamp, what point is it?
You must be misdirected. You must stumble and fall. There are things in the way, obstacles and hindrances over which you will trip, or things in which you will be ensnared, because you have no light to show you the path or to show you the obstacles that are in the path.
A lamp shining in a dark place. Thank God for the Word. Thank God for the prophetic Word, which is like a lamp shining in a squalid place that can give us light, so that we can read the chart, see the map, see where we are going, understand where we have arrived, and know at what point on the journey we are.
Look again at this verse: “We have the Word of prophecy made more sure, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn.”
Until the day dawn. So biblical prophecy is not only relevant to the end of the New Testament age. What nonsense some people speak when they tell me everything ended with the New Testament age.
“Everything ended with the New Testament age: never a tongue to be spoken, never a prophecy to be uttered, never a gift to be exercised at all. It ended with the New Testament age. We, dear people of God, are to be left without any ecstasies, without any experiences of the Lord. We are just to go forward like zombies.”
Is that what it means to walk by faith? I do not think so for a single moment. This says, “Until the day dawn.”
In other words, the prophetic Word is relevant until the day when the Lord Jesus comes and the kingdom of God finally, finally arrives publicly.
Until that day dawns, this Word of prophecy is relevant, accurate, trustworthy, right.
Look again at this word: “We have the Word of prophecy made more sure.” Now, this is quite extraordinary. I am not always so good at English. I am English-English, of course; American English I am not going to talk about. But English-English-English.
Other people tell me, “You should not say that, and you should not say this.” Now, can I say something? You cannot say it is “made more sure.” It is either sure or it is not sure. Is that not so?
Either something is certain or it is not. Now, we speak in a colloquial way about something being more certain, and here the Spirit of God says, “We have the prophecy made more sure.” How can the Word of prophecy be made more sure?
I tell you: because when Peter wrote to these dear people, he was saying, “Do you know that a colossal amount of this prophetic Word has already been fulfilled?”
In other words, you have grounds for even more confidence than the saints who were before you, because all these purposes concerning the Messiah have been fulfilled. We have the prophecy made more sure.
It does not mean, as some people read the King James Version, that the New Testament is more sure than the Old Testament. Oh, I do not understand some of them, but they get the idea that the New Testament is more sure than the Old Testament.
I want to tell you something: the early church only had an Old Testament and did very well with it. Would to God that the church today, with the New Testament and the Old Testament, did as well as the New Testament church with only an Old Testament. Well, work that one out.
But the thing is this: made more sure. Do you know there are 590 major events predicted in the world, and all of them have now been fulfilled except for 20? Five hundred and ninety major events, and only 20 remain to be fulfilled.
We are at the end of the age, whereas when Peter wrote to these people, they were at the beginning of the New Testament age. We have the Word of prophecy made even more sure.
This means that it is not only relevant, but that we have confidence. We have a ground for confidence in the Word of God.
If God could talk about nations, a nation, peoples, and the church, and these things are being fulfilled before our eyes, do you not think that the things He says about you—that He will complete that work in you which He has begun—will be fulfilled?
Do you not think He is going to keep that Word if you will trust Him? Do you not think that if He says, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” He means exactly what He says? Of course.
Dear people of God, what a wonderful matter we have in this Word of prophecy made more sure.
Now, two last things, and we will only just mention them, and then we finish.
The Word of prophecy, made more sure, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a lamp shining in a squalid place until the day dawn—and listen—“and the day-star arise in your hearts.”
I have seen the day-star over the mountains of Judah more times than I can remember. But every time I see that great luminous orb hanging there in the darkest part of the night before the morning, I think of the Lord Jesus as the Morning Star.
But why does it say, “The day-star arise in your hearts”? Oh, dear people of God, why did the Lord not say, “Until the day-star arise”? That would mean the coming of the Lord Jesus, would it not?
But He did not say that. He said, “Until the day-star arise in your hearts.”
Could it be that God promises, for those who take heed to the Word of prophecy, special, intimate, and glorious touches of the Lord Jesus to enable us to go through this last phase until He takes us to be with Himself?
Till the day-star arise in your hearts. Thank God, He is going to come, but we need the day-star to arise in our hearts instead of getting all morbid and frightened about dragons, serpents, false prophets, beasts, persecution, and whatnot.
“Oh, do not tell us any more. I did not come to the conference to hear that kind of thing. I came to be comforted and strengthened. I did not come to hear dreadful things like that.”
But the point is this: the day-star can arise in your heart. Face reality, and let the day-star arise in your heart. Then you will have a touch from God of grace and power that will enable you to go through the last phase until He appears to take us to be with Himself.
Let me finally give you this word in Revelation 22:7—the words of the Lord Jesus:
Behold, I come quickly:
blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.
I do not think many believers associate prophecy with blessing. Prophecy with complexity; prophecy with having to put a cold pack of ice on your head as you read the different interpretations; prophecy with confusion; sometimes prophecy with fascination.
But the Lord Jesus links it to blessing.
It is no mistake that the Book of Revelation came to its final position as the last book of the Bible. In the last chapter of that book, in almost the concluding words, Jesus says, “Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.”
I think that means not only the Book of Revelation, but it goes right back through the whole Bible to Genesis.
Dear people, if really God has given us a prophetic Word to guide us, should we not take heed to it? Should we not now begin to wake up and ask ourselves, “What does this prophetic Word really say to us?”
We need help from God that we may be alive, alert, on guard, and ready for what is going to happen, and above all, for the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Shall we pray?
Lord, will You keep us from any exaggeration of this matter in our minds, or any imbalance or eccentricity? But, Lord, stir us up to be a people who begin to take heed to the Word of prophecy.
Make us a people, Lord, for whom it becomes a lamp shining in a dark, murky, and squalid place, giving light, giving us understanding, helping us to avoid the snares, traps, and obstacles, and giving us an understanding of Your objective and Your end.
Dear Lord, we commit ourselves to You. May, in many of our hearts, the Lord Jesus, the Day-Star, arise with that brilliance in the darkest part of the night to herald the coming of that day.
We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.