The Day of the Lord, Part 3

Whenever God said, I'm going to judge and I'm going to bring retribution and vengeance and wrath, the false prophets would say, peace, there's coming peace, peace is coming, have no fear, all is well, everything is fine, but there is no peace. The same satanically inspired false prophets in the future are going to do exactly what they did in the past. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. What would you change today if you knew what happens tomorrow? How about events five or ten years from now? See why knowing what Scripture says about future events should change the way you live today as John MacArthur continues his series called The Rapture and the Day of the Lord. But before the lesson, John, a lot of our listeners right now might not realize that you are in the middle of your fifty-fifth year as pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. You've been here your entire pastoral ministry, fifty-five years. So give a little history.

Talk about what led you to full-time ministry and what drew you to becoming a pastor-teacher. Well I think it's sort of in the DNA in my family. I am a fifth successive generation pastor going back to Canada, going back to Scotland.

That's an amazing record. Yeah, it is. And I don't think it was something that we were forced to do. There was just a line of men coming down that MacArthur channel that the Lord called into ministry. And so I say that to say not that I felt like there was some inherited necessity for me to be in the ministry. It was more the fact that I watched my father and grandfather at such close proximity, and I saw both of them love the ministry, enjoy the ministry, flourish in the ministry.

And so it was always very attractive to me. And I don't know that that is necessarily the case for every PK, every preacher's kid who may look at his dad in ministry and see the problems and the issues and the struggles and difficulties and say, boy, I don't want to do that. And while they're always there, there was an unbounded joy and love and fulfillment on the part of my grandfather and father in being in the ministry. And I remember another aspect of it was that they had such profound friendships with other pastoral guys, that that was their world.

And those friendships enriched them. So yeah, I think it was seeing the obvious benefit and the joy of ministry and what else has that kind of fruitfulness and seeing the rich, long lasting relationships that built up made me consider the fact that ministry would be a great way to spend your life. That was in the background, but it wasn't until I had a car accident that the Lord threw me out of the car at just 18 years of age.

And that was my come-to-Jesus moment on a highway in Alabama. So, but from the beginning, I never had to get over any negative attitude toward Christian ministry at all, because I saw it so beautifully demonstrated in my own family. Yeah, thank you, John. That is an encouraging testimony. And friend, if you have the same passion for God's Word, if you're convinced it's trustworthy, you don't want to miss today's verse-by-verse lesson as John takes a look at the future and Christ's future return. Here now is John to continue his series, The Rapture and the Day of the Lord. Open your Bible, if you will, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We're back to our little text of three verses, which has become quite familiar to us as we endeavor to understand its truth. I would like to read the first three verses of this fifth chapter so that you might have its setting in your mind. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1, Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

While they are saying, Peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. A writer by the name of Hendrikus Berkhoff wrote a book called Christ, The Meaning of History. And in that book he focuses on the old and crucial issue of where is history leading? Where is it going? What is its purpose? What is its meaning? How does it end?

Does it have a goal? He makes the statement in the book, quote, Our generation is strangled by fear, fear for man, for his future, and for the direction in which we are driven against our will and desire. And out of this comes a cry of illumination concerning the meaning of the existence of mankind and concerning the goal to which we are directed.

It is a cry for an answer to the old question of the meaning of history, end quote. We have already seen two world wars and have lived on the brink of another. We have experienced the holocaust of Hitler's Germany, the difficulty of the Korean conflict, the futility of Vietnam, many other revolutions, conflicts, rebellions and riots, and now a time bomb looking like it may explode into another conflagration in the Middle East. And through it all, our generation continues to search for an answer about where is history going? It seems so hopeless and that in the face of unbelievable intellectual, economic, scientific advancement. We can do so many things, so far better than they could ever have been done before, but it seems as though we continue on the path of self-destruction. How are we to live? How are we to work?

How are we to love? How are we to play in the chaos and confusion of the meaninglessness of life? Now there are three possible interpretations, popular ones, to history. It can be viewed, perhaps most simply, in these three perspectives. Number one, the first view of history is a cyclical view. What this says is that history is an endless circle of repetition. It just continues to circle back through the same things over and over and over again.

And we as people are also caught in that endless series of cycles through a process called reincarnation in which we reappear and reappear and reappear and reappear. This view of history basically says that there is no end, there is just the same over and over and over again. It gives no meaning to history.

It has no meaning. It cannot gain any meaning because it can only repeat what has already been and if there's been no meaning, there will be no meaning. A person might have goals in his life, but history has no goals. This particular view of history was very familiar to the ancient Greeks and held predominantly among them. In our more modern world, it is the philosophy of Hinduism and has been for centuries that history is a series of repeated cycles in which you are reincarnated and reincarnated and reincarnated to experience the same things over and over and over from a different vantage point.

That Hindu worldview has become the worldview of the New Age movement and thus it has worked its way into Western culture, New Age being nothing more than Hinduism in the West. And so it is very popular today to believe in reincarnation, to believe in a cyclical view of history. John Marsh in his book The Fullness of Time writes, "'If such a view be true, then historical existence has been deprived of its significance.

What I do now I have done in a previous world cycle and will do again in future world cycles. Responsibility and decision disappear and with them any real significance to historical life which in fact becomes a rather grandiose natural cycle.'" He writes, "'Just as the corn is sown, grows, and ripens each year, so will the events of history recur time after time. Moreover, if all that can happen is the constant repetition of an event cycle, there is no possibility of meaning in the cycle itself. It achieves nothing in itself, neither can it contribute to anything outside itself.

The events of history are devoid of significance.'" And those who seek to find relief from this endless series of cycles, who seek to be freed from it, believe that the only way to get out of it is somehow to rise to a higher level of mystical consciousness that transcends reality and puts you in the nebulous unconsciousness of nirvana. So there is this mystical effort to ascend, to transcend, to elevate, to reach another plane so that you can lift yourself above the meaningless of mundane repetition. There's a second worldview that is quite popular, running also alongside the first one. We can call that an atheistic existential view of history. It says history is a line.

It is not a series of repetitions, it is a line, but it started by accident and no one knows how in the world it's going to end. There is no God. We are all the result of a collocation of atoms or some kind of primeval slime that out of it oozed something or other that eventually became what is and who knows what will eventually happen. There is no God, there is no rhyme or reason, there is no method, there is no purpose, there is no Creator, there is no progenitor, there is no concluder. We are simply in an accidental existence and the only way to live it is to cram it full of every bit of gusto you can possibly get and make it as meaningful in its meaninglessness as you possibly can. Existentialism of this type, writes Anthony Hockema, is without meaning. No significant pattern, he says, can be found in history, no movement toward a goal, only a meaningless succession of events.

And this being the case, one is left with what would appear to be sheer individualism. Each person must try to find his way from non-authentic to authentic existence by making significant decisions, but history as a whole is devoid of meaning. These kinds of views of history are often articulated in parabolic form by writers. One familiar one is Albert Camus, who wrote the novel The Plague. And in that novel he talks about a city called Oran and the city was overrun by rats and these rats brought with them the dreaded bubonic plague. Valiantly, the doctor in the story and those associated with him battle this plague.

Finally, they succeed in bringing the epidemic under control. At the end of the book, Camus puts these words, however, in the mouth of the doctor, quote, it is only a question of time and the rats will be back. And that is Camus' comment on the purposelessness, the meaninglessness, the pointlessness of living in this world. They say, to those in an atheistic, existential view of history, that everything remains exactly the way it's always been in terms of meaning and meaninglessness. That's the popular view of philosophers and hedonists.

But there's a third alternative. The third alternative to those worldviews is that there is a sovereign Creator God who is working out His purposeful plan in history. That is the Christian view of life. It has several components.

Let me kind of give them to you. The Christian view of history says that history is the working of God's purposes as explained in the Scripture. That's a very important statement. History is the working of God's purposes as explained in Scripture. Secondly, God is sovereign over all history. He rules it all by providence, which is the supernatural pulling together of all diverse natural factors. And by miracle, which is supernatural intervention into the natural, He controls it all. The Christian worldview of history also says that Christ is the main person of history, that all of history looks to Christ. His coming is the greatest and most notable event in human history. The Christian view of history says that God is moving all history toward a divinely planned goal. And every person has an ultimate appointment with God to determine His eternal destiny.

God started it, God controls it, and God is bringing it to its conclusion. As we look at the goal of history, as God's goal, as we understand that God is working out His eternally planned purposes in time, one event looms with a foreboding character over the end. Paul names that in verse 2 of our text. He calls that event the Day of the Lord, a foreboding event that culminates human history. That term, the Day of the Lord, refers to the final cataclysmic judgment by God on unrepentant sinners who have rejected Jesus Christ.

It is the day when the Lord unleashes His final fury. The Thessalonians had already been taught some things about this, as Paul reminds them in 2 Thessalonians 2.5. They already had been instructed in the time that He was with them several months before He writes this letter about the Day of the Lord. But there was something that they didn't know, and it is that which is the query on their minds. In verse 1, He says, "'Now as to the times and the epics, the kranos and the kairos, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.'" Very likely, Timothy, who had recently visited them, came back and said among their questions is a question about the Day of the Lord. When is it coming? When is it coming? And he says to them simply in verse 1, "'You have no need of anything to be written to you.'"

Why? Because there is nothing to be said about the times. God has not told us that. In fact, Jesus said that the Day of the Lord would come in an hour when you think not, in a day and an hour when no man knows. The times and the seasons, He said twice, are not for you to know. The Father hath them in His own power and even the Son of Man does not know them. All you need to know is the character of that day and that it will come unexpectedly so that every generation of human existence since this New Testament was written has had to live with the reality that the Day of the Lord could come in their lifetime.

And so, He says, you don't need to know the time. God has not chosen to reveal that to anyone. But, though you don't need to know that, you do need to be reminded, verse 2, of what you already know full well and that is that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. It's going to come unexpectedly. It's going to come unwelcome and it's going to come harmfully.

That's how a thief comes. But the major concept is the unexpectedness of it. It will be a surprise to those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. As we looked at the first point here, the point of its coming, and we've been looking at three points, its coming, its character, and its completeness. As we looked at the point of its coming, we simply stated for you that He reminds them that its coming is like a thief in the night, unexpectedly.

And then we began to launch off on that concept to try to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding so we'll better grasp what He means here. Every generation then lives with the possible expectation of the Day of the Lord. Now you remember that when we studied the Rapture in chapter 4, verses 13 to 18, we also said that every generation of Christians has lived in the light of the fact that the Rapture could take place in their lifetime. We don't know when the Lord is coming to take His church out before the Day of the Lord. We don't know when that is going to take place, so every generation has lived in the light of the fact that the Lord could come in their lifetime.

And every ungodly generation has lived with the reality, though they may not have understood it or known it, that the Lord could come in final judgment in their lifetime. Now last time, I reminded you that no passage dealing with the Rapture gives any preliminary signs that will indicate the Rapture is near. You have three explicit Rapture passages.

John 14, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4, they describe the Rapture of the church, the catching away of the church to be with Christ in heaven. None of those passages gives us any preliminary sign so that we refer to the Rapture as a signless event. But on the other hand, passages dealing with the Day of the Lord do mention signs to indicate its nearness.

And though the day or the hour cannot be known, the general timeframe can be known. Now remember what I shared with you last time, that Scripture says before the Day of the Lord can come, several things have to happen. According to Malachi 4, 5, one like Elijah must come as a forerunner to the Messiah. And until that Elijah-like forerunner comes to announce the Messiah's arrival, the Day of the Lord cannot come. Secondly, in Joel 3 and verse 9 it says that before the Day of the Lord, the nations will be gathered into the valley of decision. The world will move toward Armageddon before the Day of the Lord may come. So when the Elijah-like forerunner comes and starts to announce the return of Christ in judgment, that's an indication it's near. And when the nations of the world begin to converge into the Middle East at Armageddon, that indicates that it's near. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, it also tells us that the apostasy will come.

There will be a worldwide apostate religious system that will develop and grow. And that final form of world rebellion against the true God and the true gospel and the true faith will be preliminary to the Day of the Lord. Also, we read in 2 Thessalonians 2, that the Day of the Lord cannot come until the man of sin is revealed, the Antichrist, and until he moves into the temple and abominates the temple by setting up in the temple in Jerusalem the worship of himself. Then, the final preliminary indicator we noted starts way in the Old Testament, moves all through the New Testament, and that is that the stars go out, the sun goes dark, the moon goes black, and then the Day of the Lord hits, the great and terrible Day of the Lord. So you have these signs that are preliminary to the Day of the Lord. So those people who are living in the time period between the rapture and the Day of the Lord are going to have ample warning, ample warning.

But look at verse 3. What are they going to say? Are they going to be running around saying, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming? What are they going to be saying?

Peace and safety? How can they say that? It's inconceivable, and yet it's true. Non-Christians in that dark and deceitful satanic kingdom of Antichrist will not be expecting the Day of the Lord in spite of all the signs. And you remember I told you last time that this is a pattern that you can see clear back in the Old Testament. Whenever God announced judgment, the false prophets started to cry what? Peace, peace, peace. And God said they say peace when there is no peace. Whenever God said I'm going to judge and I'm going to bring retribution and vengeance and wrath, the false prophets would say, peace, there's coming peace. Peace is coming. Have no fear. All is well.

Everything is fine. But there is no peace. The same satanically inspired false prophets in the future are going to do exactly what they did in the past. In conclusion, a word of comfort. We're not going to be there for the darkness.

We're not going to be there for the day to overtake us. We belong in the light. And verse 9 says it, for God has not destined us for what? For wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, as we think about this, it is an awesome reality and must have implications for what we do with our life. Since this is true, I don't want to spend my life doing anything other than what I'm doing to warn as many as possible of this coming judgment. There are those who hear my voice who will not experience the catching away of God's beloved church, those in Christ, because they have not believed the truth and turned from their sin and wickedness. And so they will experience your judgment either in the day of the Lord if they live that long or eternal hell if they die first. But Father, we pray that that would not be the case, that no one hearing this message would turn his or her back on the salvation that is in Christ. Thank you for the Lord Jesus who came into this world to pay the penalty for our sin and to offer us eternal life through His resurrection. May we preach Lord faithfully the saving gospel to doomed men and women. And may they know that if they will turn from their sin, receive the gift of salvation that the Lord Jesus offers and follow Him, they will pass from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom and from death to life.

Amen. You're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, on Grace to You. He's titled our current series from 1 Thessalonians, The Rapture in the Day of the Lord. Well, friend, if you have benefited from John's series on prophecy this week, or any of the teaching you hear on this broadcast, we would love to hear about it. Your letters help us know that you are listening and learning and that we're making a difference.

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Or if you prefer regular mail, you can write to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And when you visit gty.org, make sure you download the Study Bible app. It's a free app that gives you the full text of Scripture in the English Standard, King James, or New American Standard versions. And it also allows you to link instantly from whatever passage you're studying to related online resources, including study guides, blog articles, and sermons from John MacArthur. To download the app—and again, it's simply called the Study Bible—visit gty.org. And again, if you've benefited from John's teaching, let us know. That's very helpful. Again, our email address, letters at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you and your family to watch Grace to You television this Sunday, check your local listings for channel and time, and then join us on Monday when John looks at a spectacular way the gospel will be preached to the whole world right before Christ returns. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.