Have you ever stopped to think what the fate of this
world will be when every true Christian has been
removed?....(1 Thess. 4:16 and 5:3.) Doubtless
there will be many nominal Christians and Laodicean
churches left (see Matt. 25:1-12), but it will be
a sad day for them and the world when not even a single
sleeping saint is left. (1 Thess. 4:16.) With the
salt all gone, corruption will set in. The world's
midnight is yet to come and is fast approaching.
It was a sad day when the great flood swept this earth
(Gen., chap. 7). It is interesting to note that
God has permitted abundant evidence of the flood to be
revealed. It was a sad night when Pharaoh defied God and
the plagues swept Egypt (Ex. 9th to 11th chapters).
It was a dreadful day when the fiery billows swept the
fair plains of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Gen. 19.) The
Siege of Jerusalem under Titus, when people ate human
flesh and untold horrors reigned supreme, was the
penalty of a Christ-rejecting world. (The elements of
revolution are already strongly organized).
The French Revolution affords another striking
illustration of what befalls a nation which rejects and
blasphemes God. In her frenzied fury, she banished God
from her government, her coin, etc., she blasphemed His
name, defied his power and dared Him, but God did not
need to act. He simply let her alone. All moral
restraints were removed. Hell was let loose and the
guillotine and axe, suicides and murders, turned France
into a slaughter pen. The Seine actually ran with human
blood, children of murdered parents were herded together
and shot down like brutes. Yet again, I would warn you,
this is but a mere shadow of the fate which is coming
upon this Christ-rejecting world.
The prophets foretold it, the Lord Himself confirmed it,
the Revelation re-confirms it, and the world to-day is
preparing for it. At the time appointed the crash will
come (1 Thess. 5:1-3; Dan. 8:19), when the number
of faithful ones is complete. Meanwhile, the duty of
these faithful ones is to be in the world, but not of
it, warning others of the wrath to come. Calling people
out of the darkness and death into light and life
through Jesus Christ.
The Christian's hope is NOT on the earth, but in Christ,
not an outward, but an upward look. This world under
man's organization is doomed. God has clearly shown that
it will sink deeper and deeper into sin, distress, and
perplexity, yet we find to-day professing disciples of
Christ working and organizing to prevent these
conditions which God has so clearly foretold will come -
trying to patch up, as it were, a Christ-rejecting
world.
They have departed from the Word, ceased to co-operate
with God, and therefore their efforts are in vain.
(See Matt. 7:26) The Lord likens them unto a man
building his house in the river bed; quite all right
until the flood comes. Their one duty as disciples of
Christ is to obey God and preach the Gospel for the
salvation of souls, and leave the world alone. Paul's
ministry was one of tears for perishing souls. Have the
modern servants of Christ received some new commission?
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall. (1 Cor. 10:12.)
Again, in support of these Truths, I would remind you
that the Old Testament is teeming with Types and
Pictures of these vital commands which God in His
fore-knowledge planned and recorded as examples for us
in this dispensation (1 Cor. 10:1-11), and it is
in these pictures, or types and shadows as they are
called, that one sees not only the love and
long-suffering of God, but also the judgment and sure
punishment that must follow disobedience, as I have
already shown....In each dispensation God has made known
to man His will, and punishment has followed
disobedience, so it will be again and even more so for
us, because we, not only have the will of God contained
in a Gospel so clear that a child can understand, but we
also have these examples of God's previous dealings with
man.
Again before closing, I would remind you it is half the
battle of the Christian life to bear in mind the mighty
power of the devil to deceive. Beware, for the wages of
disobedience is death, but the gift of God is Eternal
Life through Jesus Christ. The condition of that Life is
OBEDIENCE, which, bear in mind, is impossible apart from
the Holy Spirit.
"For the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the
vine, no more can ye EXCEPT YE ABIDE IN ME". |
