Preface: I was on the road today and as usual just Googled a preacher's name....'sermon'....and 'YouTube"....and then picked a sermon at random. Today it was Steven Lawson....a teaching fellow at Ligonier Ministries....(I've listened to quite of few of his sermons and lectures and have always been blessed)....and the sermon title was....The Coming Final Persecution. I was shocked. Does he not know that Presbyterians do not talk this way.....as if Jesus might actually be coming soon.....Webster's definition of soon? And He's Reformed in his theology....we generally get nervous using any estimates that are not in centuries! Anyway I recommend it to you....for we all need to hear this.
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar." (2 Peter
3:10)
"Behold, I am coming like a thief! (Rev 16:15)
"But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he
would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into." (Matt 24:43)
"For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." (1 Thess
5:2)
"But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief." 1 Thess 5:2...all ESV)
Darkness is best friends with the thief.....and anyone really that breaks laws and rules and mores of society. Darkness is at night....and we sleep at night. The technology of today might be able to make the night as safe as the day but the message here revolves around our need to be vigilant always....and also implies that there are times when we should know when thieves are coming.....when wars are near....when deception tempts us....and when false prophets are all around....indeed when the Lord Himself is at the very doorstep.
Benjamin Netanyahu over the years always had a calming effect on evangelicals as he spoke intelligently and strongly concerning the defense of Israel....but even he began making odd statements of late....seemingly placing himself above the concerns for which he was always known. He could have stepped aside in his party....for the good of Israel....and indeed he was encouraged to do so by friends....and finally did offer at the very last minute....but it was too late.
There is a chilling passage in the third chapter of Isaiah that certainly would not go over well today....but John MacArthur did take it on in a sermon only a few years ago. The passage is....this from the NIV...."Youths oppress my people, women rule over them." MacArthur's words were strikingly strong...."Empowering women makes weak men, weak men make everybody vulnerable to danger." He did take pains to point out that women rulers were but one result of God's judgment....not the cause.
Deborah was God's chosen heroine for the Israelites....and Margaret Thatcher was as strong as Reagan....for it is the darkness and not the gender where the danger lies....but we have put ourselves in a position where Joe Biden is our president....and Kamala Harris is next in order of succession....with the only alternative having been the malignant narcissism and pathological lying of Donald Trump....because we followed the trends and bribed our youth for their vote....and paid the ransom whenever gender diversity demanded it....or we enlisted others as patriots....really just flattering them for their votes....the overall result being that we are in bondage to our entertainments or political correctness or demagogues....thus we are ruled by that which we once merely used for our own benefit....and as MacArthur predicted....everyone today is vulnerable to danger.
Our judgments have come upon us like a thief....in the night of our comeuppance. We should be praying....throughout the day....literally....every time we have a free moment....for God's hand of mercy on this the well-deserved judgment that we are under.
