1. Lost in the Woods

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:” [2 Corinthians 4:3].

This is a maxim. It is sad, but true!

Now, open your Bible to the book of Luke, chapter four, verse seventeen: “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.” [Luke 4:17-20]

When the “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” [Titus 2:13] read in their hearing that day from “the book of the prophet Esaias” these words: “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”; he stopped abruptly with the reading of the word of God and closed the book! Why??? Why didn’t he read the whole passage from the book of the prophet Esaias. Why did he stop abruptly where he did?

Now, mind you, the Bible is a closed book to a man without the work and the operation of the Holy Ghost working in that man. Why is this so?

It is for this reason: the BOOK [and the “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” WHO wrote the BOOK] requires the BOOK to be spiritually discerned: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” [1 Corinthians 2:14]

Listen to me, and check it out for yourself in the Bible:

• A natural man who reads and studies the Bible without the Spirit of God helping him will be lost in the woods! [The Bible is a closed book to him.]

• A spiritual man who reads and studies the Bible has the Spirit of Truth inside him to keep him out of the woods. [The Bible is an open book to him.]

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” [John 16:13]

Now, what does “the book of the prophet Esaias” read? [That is where the “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” was reading from!]

For this, we must turn back to the book of Isaiah, chapter sixty-one, verse one: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;” [Isaiah 61:1-2]

Now notice here with me the words of the “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” ... through the prophet ... are continued with a comma, and with the conjunction: “and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn”, which connects the event of “the opening of the prison to them that are bound” with the event of “the day of vengeance” as if they would occur serially and immediately in time.

However, we have in the New Testament this revelation [in Luke 4:17-20] that there is two thousand-year period of time intervening between these following two events:

When the “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” came the first time to this earth, he came to save that which was lost. [“For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.” Matthew 18:11]

This is known as the First Advent of Jesus Christ.

When the “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” comes the second time to this earth, he will come to execute the wrath of God on the inhabitants of this earth, and to set up a millennial kingdom on this earth. [See the “kingdom of heaven” in the book of Matthew chapter eight, in verse eleven.]

This is known as the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, this advent of Jesus Christ is called “the day of the LORD”.
Let me expand on this. The references to the “day of the LORD” are always associated with the wrath of God, and with darkness, with destruction, with vengeance, with battle, and with judgment. We must see this thing for ourselves in the BOOK. Are you ready for an eye opener?

Here we go:

Isaiah 2:12: “For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:”

Isaiah 13:9: “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.”
Isaiah 34:8: “For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.”

Jeremiah 46:10: “For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.”

Lamentations 2:22: “Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.”

Ezekiel 13:5: “Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.”

Ezekiel 30:3: “For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.”

Joel 1:15: “Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”

Joel 2:1: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;”

Joel 2:11: “And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?”

Joel 2:31: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.”

Joel 3:14: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”

Amos 5:18: “Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.”

Amos 5:20: “Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?”

Obadiah 1:15: “For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”

Zephaniah 1:7: “Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.”

Zephaniah 1:8: “And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.”

Zephaniah 1:14: “The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.”

Zephaniah 1:18: “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.”

Zephaniah 2:2-3: “Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.”

Zechariah 14:1: “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.”

Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:”

Acts 2:20: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:”

1 Thessalonians 5:2: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”

The “day of the Lord” is is a day filled with:

Wrath,

Darkness,

Destruction,

Vengeance,

Battle,

Judgment.

Are you persuaded yet? Has the Bible, which is God’s very words, convinced you that “the day of the Lord” is a future period of time when the wrath of God will be revealed in the judgment of the inhabitants of this earth?

Now, here is another question for you. When does this “day of the Lord” occur?

• It occurs after the Translation of the Church.

• It occurs before the Kingdom of Heaven.

The key to the answer of this question is located in the Old Testament book of Daniel, in chapter nine. Let’s start with verse twenty-four: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” [Daniel 9:24]

There are seventy weeks determined to Israel [thy people]. These are seventy weeks of years [verse twenty-four].

The seventy weeks are a time determined by God to allow several things to transpire. First sin is to run its course, then the reconciliation for sin is to be performed by the Lamb of God at the Cross of Calvary, and finally, the view of the anointing of the Son of God is to be closed [or locked down] to the world [verse twenty-four].

In the next verse [twenty-five], we see the number seven is used in prophecy to count the weeks of years left to the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven … the millennial reign of “Messiah the Prince”.

The time period is divided into blocks of time. Seven weeks + sixty-two weeks = 483 years, not counting the intervening Church Age. “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” [Daniel 9:25]

There will be sixty-nine weeks from the date of the commandment by Cyrus [2 Chronicles 36:23] to restore and build Jerusalem [7 weeks or 49 years] to the coming of Messiah as the Prince [62 weeks or 434 years].

[49 years + 434 years = 483 years]

In verse twenty-six, we find at the end of the sixty-second week [of the sixty-nine weeks] the Messiah is cut off. “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” [Daniel 9:26]

There will be sixty-nine weeks of years till the destruction of Jerusalem, [“the city and the sanctuary”].

In our last verse [verse twenty-seven] is located the last week of the seventy weeks of years. Thus we have sixty-nine weeks of years [483 years] added to the one week of years [or seven years] = 70 weeks [or 490 years].

This last week is identified as the time when the wrath of God will be revealed to the inhabitants of the earth: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” [Daniel 9:27]

There will be a week of years [or seven years] wherein the wrath of God is revealed in “the day of the LORD.”

“Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.” [Isaiah 13:6]

To avoid being lost in the woods we need to believe that God has given us the Bible, which is the words of God.

Furthermore, we need to believe that God has given this Bible in the English language word perfect in spite of Satan working in collusion with the sinful scholars who sit in their high places of academia who have turned out over two hundred corrupt English translations over the last one hundred thirty-five years [since A.D. 1881].

As further note, it will behoove us to understand the differences between the natures of two different things: the nation of Israel, and the body of Christ, which is the church. God has a different program for each. God has destined the Jewish nation to a physical, earthly, Davidic Kingdom of Heaven with her Messiah ruling the nations of the earth for one thousand years. This makes Israel a covenant nation. See for this: [Genesis 15:18, Exodus 6:4, Isaiah 61:8, Hebrews 8:7].

Whereas, the Kingdom of God is primarily a spiritual house [1 Peter 2:5], populated by those who are born of the Spirit [John 3:8], and placed [baptized] into the body of Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 12:13]. God has destined the Church, the body of Christ, to be his bride, and to inhabit a city called New Jerusalem. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” [Revelation 21:2]

Next  2. The Sound of the Trumpet