Sermon: "Do You See the Day Approaching"
INTRODUCTION: ARE WE THE FINAL GENERATION?
On June 24, 2005, the people of Iran elected Mahmoud (mah-MOOD) Ahmadinejad (ah-mah-DIN-ah-jahd) president of their country.
You may recall that in September of this year, Columbia University in New York City stirred up a great deal of controversy when they invited Ahmadinejad to speak to the students there. Little wonder, for Ahmadinejad is indeed a controversial figure.
Author Joel Rosenberg is a Messianic Jew, a man of Jewish heritage who believes in Jesus Christ. In his 2006 book Epicenter, he writes the following about Ahmadinejad:
Upon taking office, Ahmadinejad undertook a series of moves that sent shock waves through world capitals, rattled global markets, and drove up the international price of oil. He told associates that he believed the end of the world was just two or three years away. He said he believed he had been chosen by Allah to become Iran’s leader at this critical hour to hasten the coming of the Islamic messiah known as the Twelfth Imam or the Mahdi by launching a final holy war against Christians and Jews. He publicly vowed to annihilate the United States. He vowed to wipe Israel “off the map.” He also dramatically accelerated Iran’s efforts to build, buy, or steal the nuclear weapons necessary to bring about the end of days, in accordance with his Shiite Muslim theology. [Rosenberg’s introduction, p. x]
Ahmadinejad’s views are disturbing, coming as they do from the most volatile region of the world, the Middle East. Take a moment and weigh the things he has said in light of Biblical prophecy that Iran will one day be part of a coalition of nations that launches an attack against Israel.
The prophecy in question comes from Ezekiel 38 and 39. The following is the opening passage, Ezekiel 38:1-9. I read this from the New King James Version for a reason that I will explain:
EZEKIEL 38:1-9 – Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh,Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia,and Libyaare with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you.
7 “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. 8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”
Here is why I chose to read this passage from the NKJV. The NIV translates the word “Rosh”, found in verses 2 and 3, as “chief.” But a number of good Bible scholars view the word “Rosh” as a root word that, over the centuries, became the word “Russia.”
The word “Gog” is seen as referring to an individual person and “Magog” as a group of people over which he rules. Hence, we have “Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.”
John F. Walvoord, one of the preeminent Bible prophecy scholars of our time, wrote a book entitled Every Prophecy of the Bible. In that book, he writes the following about the opening verses of Ezekiel 38:
In the opening portion of this great prophecy six nations are mentioned, the most important of which was called Gog (v. 2), identified as a ruler of Magog. He was further described as “the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” (v. 2). The leader described as Gog apparently will lead a force from the land of Magog (v. 2)….In the description of Gog as “the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,” the American Standard Version translates this expression, “the prince of Rosh” which some connect with the root consonants of the modern term “Russia.” They were an ancient people located to the north of Israel (Ezek. 27:13; 32:26)….The prediction pictured God as putting hooks into the jaws of Gog and leading him and his army from the north against Israel (Ezek. 38:4). Persia (v. 5) has been easily identified as relating to modern Iran which could easily supply an army, attacking Israel from the north, even though located to the east….Any nation that attacks Israel is doing so in disregard of God and the Bible, and this fits the political background of Russia whose leadership is largely atheistic. Some also point to the fact that Meshech has some similarity to the modern name of Moscow in its consonant structure, and Tubal is similar to one of the prominent provinces of Russia – Tobolsk.
If the understanding of Ezekiel’s prophecy is correct, Russia will lead this coalition army against Israel and Persia, or Iran, will be part of that coalition.
We have this prophecy. Now consider this. In our day, Russia has invested much in building a nuclear power plant in Iran. During the week of October 15th of this year, Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Iran for the first time and met with Ahmadinejad. In those talks, Putin agreed to bring the power plant into operation on schedule. The United States position, along with that of some other Western nations, is one of grave concern as it views this plant as part of a nuclear drive through which Iran may try to produce weapons. Putin has also invited Ahmadinejad to Moscow for further talks, strengthening relations between Russia and Iran.
So we have the president of Iran who has stated that the world as we know it will soon end. And he believes he has a major role to play in bringing that about. He desires to “wipe Israel off the map.”
And we have a Bible prophecy that indicates there will be a Russian-led coalition of nations including Iran that will one day move to destroy Israel.
And as recently as two weeks ago, the presidents of Russia and Iran met to discuss Iran’s nuclear future and Russia’s involvement in making that happen.
Is Bible prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes? Are we truly living in the last days? Are we the final generation?
The main text for the sermon this morning is not Ezekiel 38. In fact, it’s not really a prophetic passage of Scripture at all. More to the point, it tells us what we as believers should be doing because we know the end is coming.
HEBREWS 10:19-25 – Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
This passage calls on us to deepen our commitment to Christ. It calls us to a deeper commitment in light of the coming Day of the Lord. The main theme of this text demonstrates to me that…
You can deepen your commitment to Jesus by living in expectation of the approaching Day of the Lord.
As our main text says, let’s first commit to…
I. HOLD ON TO HOPE
From our main text, Hebrews 10:23 says…
HEBREWS 10:23 – Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
The hope we profess rests completely in…
A. What Jesus Has Done For Us
As we look into the context of Hebrews 10, we get insight into some of what Jesus has done on our behalf. First, let’s look at verses 19-21.
HEBREWS 10:19-21 – Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God
It’s not a complete sentence, so it sounds a little awkward when read aloud. But there are several clauses here that point us to the work of Christ for us:
We can confidently enter the Most Holy Place because of Jesus’ blood
The imagery here comes from the Temple of God. In the old system of sacrifices under the Law of Moses that we find in the Old Testament, only the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place – the place where God dwelt – to make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel. And he would only do this once a year. He would take the blood of a sacrificed lamb, sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat atop the Ark of the Covenant, and thus make a covering for sin. Sin was not taken away; it was only covered. That’s why this had to be repeated annually.
But notice that the writer in Hebrews says that we may confidently enter the Most Holy Place. A yearly sacrifice with a once-a-year intervention by a priest is no longer needed. We may come directly into the presence of God because of the sacrifice of Jesus and the shedding of His blood! John the Baptist proclaimed this very thing about Jesus…
JOHN 1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Notice that Jesus as God’s Lamb, the Lamb He provided, takes away the sin of the world. “My sins are gone and I’ve been set free!” That is one hope we can cling to!
We have a new and living way opened through the veil – His body
Because of Jesus, the way to God is new. The old way is no more. The new way is better than the old way.
The entry to the Most Holy Place was blocked by a huge and very thick curtain or drape (the word “veil” is misleading). That curtain has been torn away, because Jesus’ body has been torn for us.
Not only is this way new, it’s also living! The old way involved the regular annual death of lambs. But Jesus died once – one time – for our sins and after that He arose to new life! The way to God is both new and living. What great hope we can have in new life in Christ!
We have a High Priest over our house
Not only is Christ our sacrificial Lamb to take away our sins. He is also our High Priest. Jesus Himself has delivered the finished work of the cross to the Father in order to satisfy God’s holiness and to appease His wrath. Verses 11 and 12 of Hebrews 10 tell us of Christ’s priestly duties…
HEBREWS 10:11, 12 – Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
A once-for-all-time sacrifice that took away our sins! In the finished work of Jesus Christ we have a marvelous eternal hope to which we can hold fast.
And, because of what Christ has done, let’s commit to….
B. Draw Near To God
HEBREWS 10:22 – …(L)et us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
This verse tells us we can draw near to God in sincerity. The faith we have in Christ gives us full assurance that we are acceptable to God. We have been cleansed from the guilt of our sin. And we have been completely washed clean, made pure and holy, by the blood of Jesus.
Because we can draw closer to God, we ought to commit ourselves to doing just that in light of the times in which we are living.
We must also commit to…
C. Holding Solidly
…to the hope we have in Christ. Here’s our verse again…
HEBREWS 10:23 – Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
The writer tells us to “hold unswervingly” to the hope we are professing. The Greek word translated “unswervingly” here is aklinos (“a-KLEE-nos”). It’s made up of the negative letter “a”, which means “not” and the word klinos (“KLEE-nos”) meaning “to incline; to bow down.”
We’re to hold on to the hope we professing without bowing or moving away from. Don’t swerve to the left or the right. Hang on!
Because of what Christ has done, living in the light of the approaching Day of the Lord, we need to make some commitments. So far, we’ve talked about committing to hold unswervingly to our hope in Christ. And, since we’ve been made acceptable to God in Christ, we need to be committed to drawing near to God.
We also need to commit each other by…
II. MOTIVATING EACH OTHER
Hebrews 10:24 says…
HEBREWS 10:24 – And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
That word translated as “spur” in the NIV is translated in the KJV as “provoke.” Now there are a lot of people who are really good at provoking one another!!
But the Bible isn’t talking about being provocative in that fashion! It’s talking about motivating each other toward love and toward doing good.
We need to commit ourselves to motivating one another to do good. Any wise parent knows that one word of praise for good behavior is far more powerful than a hundred words of harsh criticism for bad behavior.
But I think this word “spur” is stronger than just speaking kind words to someone. I think we need to be about providing opportunities for other believers to do good works and to practice love. We should commit to working together to make things “happen” here at the church. Just some examples – many could be listed – setting up and taking down chairs, volunteering for nursery duty, teaching and mentoring our children and youth, helping out on work projects, helping to make and serve meals, greeting people as they come to church, making visitors here feel welcome and appreciated, praying for each other by praying together as a group, encourage those who lead worship by singing along and joining in, learning the word of God together in a Sunday school class (do you know how discouraging it is to prepare a good solid Bible lesson – and hardly anyone shows up to listen?), donating food to the Food Pantry, helping out financially, helping to keep the place clean and nice in appearance – my! The list could go on and on!
“Church” at Five Forks Church doesn’t just happen! We need to be people committed to God’s work. “Sitting, soaking, and souring” shouldn’t be the ultimate goal of God’s people, should it?
Let’s commit ourselves “to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
And, for church to truly happen, we obviously need to be committed to…
III. MEETING TOGETHER
Let’s look at verse 25…
HEBREWS 10:25 – Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
This verse is pretty straight-forward. Apparently, there are some who, though they profess to be believers, are in the habit of avoiding church meetings.
Now, undoubtedly, there are some who have valid reasons as to why they can’t come on Sunday morning. Maybe, right now in their lives, they have a job that takes them away from Sunday morning church.
To those folks, let me simply ask a question: Are you coming to church when you can attend? Do you come to Wednesday night meeting? Do you attend prayer hours? Do you come to the occasional Sunday evening events at the church? Do you attend revival meetings? Do you attend the Christmas dinners? Do you come to the Fall Festival?
Do you get my point? Attend what you can!
But, I would venture to say that, even in this day when businesses are up and running on Sundays, most of us are not really affected by work obligations. Some who miss church do so for a host of other reasons.
“Sunday’s the only morning I get to sleep in.” Where is it written that we all deserve to sleep in? If there’s documentation supporting the right to sleep in, I need to have a copy, because I’m missing something.
“Our family needs time together.” Granted, but does it really have to be on Sunday morning? Besides, can’t you come to church together as a family?
“My spouse doesn’t understand why I go so, to avoid an argument, I just don’t go.” Admittedly, a tough one. But I still think you need to weigh your values. Have you expressed to your spouse how important this is to you? In most cases, though not all, some kind of compromise ought to be achievable.
My father never went with us to church. But over the years he saw how valuable it was and he saw how it kept us kids out of trouble. My sister will tell you how he was truly amazed that we kids avoided a lot of bad habits growing up. It was because Mom took us to church. She didn’t just make sure we got there – she took us!
We have so many excuses for not meeting together. But, beloved! We need each other!
And, as I look at things happening today, it firms up my conviction more and more…we should commit to being together whenever and wherever we can. And, all the more so, as we see the Day approaching!
CONCLUSION: THE DAY IS APPROACHING
Are we the final generation? It’s easy to come to that conclusion, isn’t it?
The message of the Bible is timeless; one often doesn’t update a sermon or Bible lesson based on recent news stories. Nonetheless, a day before this sermon was completed [10/22/07], the Associated Press released a story on Jews living in the nation of Iran – certainly a risky situation, given President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s attitude toward Israel.
The story reported that about 25,000 Jews live in Iran. Some evangelical Christians and Jews in Israel are working to persuade these Jews to leave Iran before it’s too late. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is the director of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an organization which is providing money to assist Iranian Jews to move from Iran and to resettle in Israel.
The article says…
Iran's Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, and Iranian Jews have some legal protections. But Israel and Iran are staunch enemies and do not have diplomatic relations. Eckstein argued that calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's elimination, coupled with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, represent danger.
"Is this not similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the late '30s, where they (Jews) also felt they could weather the storm?" he asked. Instead, 6 million were killed in the Holocaust, which Ahmadinejad has called a "myth."
As a church, a local body of believers, we do not commit ourselves to God, to the church, and to each other because of what’s happening in the news. We make this commitment because of what Christ has done for us.
Perhaps, however, we should make the commitment based not only upon what Jesus has done for us, but also upon what He one day will do. Perhaps we need to heed the words of our Lord...
MATTHEW 24:33, 42-44 – Even so, when you see all these things, you know that itis near, right at the door….Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Let’s renew our commitment to the Lord and to His work…
…and all the more as you see the Day approaching