June 18, 2017
Scripture:
Scripture:
Scripture:
Ministry:
Hymn 363 - Long ago a flood was coming
Prayer
We sang about Noah, and the warnings that he gave while building the ark. The verse we’ll look at today is also a warning.
Proverbs 22:3 is exactly the same as Proverbs 27:12, “The prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.” If God repeats something in His word, that means that it’s important, and that He doesn’t want us to miss it. A prudent man is a wise man. He forsees, or knows what will happen in advance. If he sees evil coming, he hides himself. We get warnings in our lives, and if we don’t pay attention to them, we’ll get hurt. There are man-made things like road signs; there are also signs of nature—like “red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning”—that will maybe make us alter our plans for a day. Our verse says that simple people will do what they want inspite of warnings, and they will get hurt.
In the book Another Hive of Busy Bees, Danny and Debbie know that their Grandparents keep bees, and had been warned to stay away from them. They decided, however, that they were fast enough to take a short cut by the hives, though, and there were painful consequences! The prudent man would have seen the warning and the evil, and not gone. Sometimes you’ll hear of people that disregarded warnings of thin ice, and ended up falling into a lake.
John 3:36 warns of judgement that will fall on people who don’t believe in Jesus. Also, in Hebrews 11:7, we read of Noah. God warned him of coming judgement, and told him to build an ark so that he could hide from the flood. It took over one hundred years to build that ark, but Noah still had faith that the flood was coming. God has provided Christ as our hiding place from judgement. There were millions of people on the Earth in Noah’s day, but only eight were saved. The simple passed on and were punished; they all died.
Rahab from Jericho was also prudent. She saw that the Children of Israel were going to destroy her city, and she asked the spies she sheltered for protection. Her house became a place of safety, and all within it were saved. Hebrews 11:31. God has made it clear that judgement is coming, and we can be thankful that he has provided a refuge for us.
After we’re saved, as we live for Christ, we’ll see things that will bring him dishonour, and the Lord can help keep us from them. Just as God warned the wise men that visited Jesus not to go back to Herod, so He can give us warnings in His word. II Timothy 2:22. When we realize something is a tempation, we are to run from it. We are to avoid foolish babblings, and stay away from evil. Instead, we should follow things that honour the Lord. How are we to do this? Verse 15 says to study the Bible. If we know the truth and let the Holy Spirit direct our conscience, we can forsee the evil. If we go on in evil, we will be punished. The Lord wants us to be faithful to Him instead. We can learn the hard way, but God wants us to forsee the wrong, and avoid punishment. He has given us warnings in His word so that we will honour Him.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-17
Paul spent just three weeks at Thessalonica. He says here that he already taught them all this. This is not the Gospel. In such a short space of time he had taught them a lot. He was giving instructions for present behavior. The Apostle Paul was telling them these things to keep them on track. Some might say, “Well, we’re not going to be here when it happens”. But that doesn’t matter. We should know them to keep us on the right path. The rapture will trigger certain events. In the prophecies there is a lot about what happens when we’re gone, but there’s not much about our present era. It is important to understand what will take place.
Darby has verse six beginning like, “And now ye know that which restrains”. “What” in verse six is the church, and “He” , in verse seven, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives liberty and works in our heart, but His presence still gives restraint. When the church is raptured the Holy Spirit will leave too. There are plenty of lawless people around today. What will earth be like when the Holy Spirit leaves?
In verse eight Darby has “That Wicked” as “The lawless one”. That is the antichrist. After we’re gone there will be a reestablishment of the Roman Empire. It will be made up of ten kingdoms. There will be a political union. It will be headed by a man in Rome whom we call “the beast”. Some would call him the antichrist. He will be antichrist, but we usually refer to him as “the beast”. “The lawless” here is what we call the antichrist; who has half a dozen other names in scripture. The antichrist will be Jewish. He will rule in a temple as God, and expect to be worshiped as if he is God. Satan is also involved in all of this. It forms a trinity against God.
Verse seven says that “the mystery of iniquity doth already work”. Concern of God and His things is getting less every day.
Back in World War II people thought Mussolini was the beast in Rome. That’s almost eighty years ago. God says no one knows the day or hour this will all happen. The Lord has it all planned.
Revelation 19:20
The False Prophet, who is the antichrist, will have special power from Satan to do miracles. God will deal with them in His time. After the rapture Satan will be cast out of heaven. This means his place of activity will be the earth. He will come with power, signs, and wonders. It’s as if he is trying to imitate what is divine, but his is all lying.
We are now living in a post-truth era because, rather then basing things by truth, we base them by perception or feelings. Seems like we’re getting a repeat of what the Thessalonians were dealing with.
We know there will be a man and a movement. Usually a movement starts and then someone steps in to carry it on. The movement might have already started. “Mystery of iniquity doth already work.” The man can’t show up until we’re gone.
Hymn 197 - The Saviour is coming
Prayer