TREASURY OF SERMONS
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Orientated to His Coming in our Lifetime
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30am Service, 7 Oct 2001)
Text: Matt 24:37-64
The Second Coming of our Lord will catch two
types of people unawares: First, they are the Gentiles, like those
in the day of Noah before the Flood. They were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark.
When the Flood came they perished, all of them.
The second type, foretold by Peter in II Peter
3, are the scoffers who say, "Where is the promise of his coming?
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation." With the terrorist attack on
the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre and on the Pentagon in
Washington D.C. at which 7,000 lives were lost on Sep 11, I preached
a sermon, "This is the Beginning of the End." A fellow minister
commented I was scaring the people.
Let us not fall into the above two categories of
unbelievers. Let us be those who are awake, who know what time the
thief is coming, and thwart him from breaking into the house. This
vividly compares with those who are ready for Christ’s Second
Coming. How do we know His coming is at the door? From the end-time
prophecies which are now being fulfilled and very soon will be
fulfilled. Therefore we should be orientated to His Coming, in our
lifetime. To say our Lord may come tomorrow or 100 years hence is to
miss the prophecies being fulfilled before our eyes.
I would like to refer to three prophecies that
point to Christ’s coming most probably in our lifetime.
First is the mounting battles between the
Palestinians and Israel over Jerusalem. The Intifada (Uprising) by
the Palestinians is just one year old after Ariel Sharon, the
Israeli Prime Minister, purposely intruded into the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem now occupied by the Mosque of Omar. This is absolutely
taboo to the Palestinians. Hence the war that broke out has raged
for one year whereby several hundred Palestinians have been killed.
Despite America’s exertion upon the two warring parties to come to a
truce in the face of a war against the terrorists, shooting against
one another has broken out. With lesser firepower the Palestinians
are bound to lose, but it is the higher hand of God that protects
Jerusalem from annihilation. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of
trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the
siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will
I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden
themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of
the earth be gathered together against it. . . And it shall come to
pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that
come against Jerusalem." (Zech 12:2, 3, 9). The attacks on Jerusalem
will climax with all the nations that join in at the end, but God
will destroy them all. Armageddon!
The second prophecy most probably to be
fulfilled in our lifetime is the last global war (Walvoord,
president emeritus of Dallas Seminary, USA identifies it to be WWIII)
to break forth from the Euphrates Valley, which is Iraq. "And the
sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the
golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which
had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great
river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were
prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to
slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the
horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number
of them" (Rev 9:13-16).
In the present War against Osama bin Laden and
Terrorism, Israel has offered evidence of Iraq’s involvement (Saddam
Hussein). The Hawks in Bush’s Administration would retaliate against
Iraq, but political considerations have shelved it. With the Gulf
War breaking out in August 1990 (which was a precursor) history will
repeat itself. War is a prairie fire which can easily spread from
Afghanistan to Iraq in a short time.
The third prophecy touching on the last lap of
WWIII’s spreading is revealed in Rev 16:12-16. "And the sixth angel
poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water
thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of
the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils,
working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of
the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of
God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth,
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his
shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the
Hebrew tongue Armageddon."
Here we see the drying up of the Euphrates and
the kings of the East crossing it to a place called Armageddon.
Armageddon is the Greek spelling of Har Megiddo in Hebrew, which is
Hill of Slaughter. It is an ancient battlefield which modern armies
must pass south of Haifa to reach Jerusalem in the final battle.
Christ will descend on the Mt of Olives to save His chosen people
and bring peace to this war torn earth for 1,000 years.
All these events can happen within our lifetime,
considering there were only 21 years of phony peace between WWI and
WWII. From WWII to now, we have never had it so good – 56 years.
Another world war is overdue. The world can only become more and
more wicked, so WWIII is nearer than we think.
Being orientated to His Coming in our lifetime,
let us heed the Word of God for our salvation. Let us hear the word
of Jeremiah to Baruch his secretary on the very eve of the war that
would destroy Jerusalem by the Babylonians. "And seekest thou great
things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee
for a prey in all places whither thou goest" (Jer 45:5).
When the Pacific War broke out and soon the
Japanese took Singapore, all the great and mighty schemes of the
rich, the high professions of the educated, were shattered. The
British subjects who were privileged to be evacuated were overtaken
by Japanese bombers and many were lost at sea. For Christians, our
salvation is to turn to the Lord and serve him more faithfully, like
Jeremiah.
Our Lord told his disciples all the signs
leading to His Second Coming. He concluded that when the last days
get worse and worse then He would see the acceleration of the
preaching of the Gospel, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then
shall the end come" (Matt 24:14). How about you, young men and young
women, giving your life to serve the Lord full-time? A young lady
and graduand of FEBC told me she would give her life to serve the
Lord in the light of the disaster over New York and the Pentagon.
This is in tune with the accelerated missions our Lord has
commanded. How about retirees with all your experience and knowledge
to join the ranks too? With adequate training God can use you
mightily!
Let every member of Life Church be orientated to
His Coming in our lifetime. For this world will soon perish, but we
have the blessed hope in the rapture of the saints and we will be
saved forever.
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