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DAY
AND NIGHT
It was God who separated light from darkness..
"And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light,
that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called
the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." (Gen 1:3-5) Notice first
of all that when He created Light, though the light was good, it was mixed with
the darkness and only God could tell the difference and divide the one from the
other. Then he divided the two, and the light became brighter as it separated
from darkness, while the darkness returned to total blackness. And God clearly
identified each of them for what they are. As in the natural creation, so in the
spiritual...God's new creation. . Let us look now to... "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some
is: but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see THE DAY APPROACHING;"
(Heb 10:24-25). What day? What day is he writing about here, 30 years after the
death, burial, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ? It was certain
and sure, they could see it approaching, and it must have been terribly important
in their lives since they were told to assemble themselves together and exhort
one another because of this day. Since that day is still approaching, and is even
now at hand, I want us to take a good Bible look at that day. . the Great Day
of the Lord, known as... In Ephesians
chapter 6, the apostle is warning us about the wiles of the devil, of wrestling
with principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world. "Wherefore",
he says in verse 13, "take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may
be able to withstand IN THE EVIL DAY, and having done all, to stand." This
great exhortation on standing in that evil day takes us to the 13th chapter of
Ezekiel where the prophet of God was telling the people how they would have to
STAND IN THE BATTLE IN THE DAY OF THE LORD! Verse 1: "And the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying" . . . Oh Glory to God! When you are
walking with God as Ezekiel was, and your heart is pure and hungry for the Truth..the
Word of the Lord WILL COME TO YOU! It is seeking a lodging place in the hearts
and minds of men who are not afraid to know the Truth! They may be in the minority,
as Ezekiel was, and they may be scorned and mocked as false..but when the Word
of the Lord comes to them, they can never be the same again! Look at verse 2:
"Say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word
of the Lord." Yes, there are those who preach that which sounds good, which
they would like to see come to pass, "out of their own hearts", but
when the Word of the Lord comes, it will not be liked by the natural man. Verse
3 says that these foolish prophets follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!
What is this that these men have been telling God's people, what is it they have
not seen? Ezekiel goes on to say that these false prophets who were so accepted
by Israel had been seducing the people, preaching "Peace", when there
was no peace. For God had determined JUDGMENT upon the land, but these men had
not seen the true Word of the Lord, and they kept telling the people that God
would not let judgment come to His own chosen people, the apple of His eye...now
would He? How much this sounds like the preachers of our day who have seduced
the vast majority of God's people into believing that before Judgment, or the
Great Tribulation, or The Day of the Lord comes...that God would let them all
fly away to some other place in the physical universe and escape those days that
are coming upon the earth! But Ezekiel faithfully warns them, as Paul did, that
they would have to... "Oh
Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. 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." Hebrews says that we "see the Day approaching."
Paul told the Ephesians they would have to stand "in the Evil Day."
And Ezekiel has the Word of Lord that God's people are going to STAND...''in the
Day of the Lord". The prophet goes on in that 13th chapter to tell what God
will do to those prophets who fail to warn God's people that they will be here
in the Day of the Lord, and to prepare to stand. gut let's turn to the New Testament
again to see what it Says about this day... I Thessalonians chapter 4 tells of the glorious hope of the Church,
how that Jesus will descend from heaven into this earth realm, how that first
the dead in Christ shall rise, and then later we are "caught up" to
meet the Lord (not "caught away" to some distant planet). This same
wonderful topic is continued in chapter 5 as Paul speaks of the times and seasons
when this will take place. "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of
the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." Praise God! Here is that "Day"
that is approaching or coming..And as the false prophets in Ezekiel 13, some are
saying "peace and safety"...but sudden destruction comes upon them "as
travail upon A WOMAN WITH CHILD!" yes, there is a woman who at this time
is in travail, and out of this travail is born a manchild who is to rule all nations
with a rod of iron. The "catching up" of the saints (or Rapture, as
it is called), the birth of the Manchild and the Day of the Lord (or Tribulation)
are all linked together here. But notice, dear ones, in verse 4: "But ye,
brethren, are not in the darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of
the night, nor of darkness..For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that
be drunken are drunken in the night..For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but
to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two kinds of people spoken of here...Children of the day
and light..and children of the night and darkness. The children of darkness do
not know that this "Day of the Lord" is coming upon them in all its
fury and destruction. They continue to blithely play their religious games while
the tornadic winds of God's judgments are sweeping in upon us. This Day of the
Lord will be a terrible time of tribulation to them, a time of darkness and terror
as the world has never known! But what about the children of Light, the children
of the Day? Are they to be here to suffer the wrath of God in the Great Tribulation?
Or will they be swept up into the wild blue yonder, away from the earth and its
terror? NEITHER! Someone asks, "Will the Elect of God, the Overcomer, be
here for the Great Tribulation?" The answer is NO! They will not be here
for the Tribulation! They will be here on earth during this time, all right, but
they will be here for the Day of God's Glory, the day of His Power manifested
in human flesh..the Manifestation of the Sons of God! For right here on this same
ball of clay, while some are entering into the darkness of the Night of Tribulation,
those who know Him in Truth will be entering into the great and glorious promises
of the Bible in the brightness of God's New Day! This physical natural world is made up so that right
now while the sun is setting upon millions of people, bringing on the blackness
of the midnight hour..upon millions more it is just rising with the promise of
a new day! As in the natural, so in the spiritual. God is separating the light
from darkness, and He is clearly identifying each. The Light is getting brighter,
new truths are being seen by the light of God's divine revelation, new realms
in God are being seen and attained to. While at the same time those who at one
time seemed to have a measure of truth are denying the Light and going into ever
increasing darkness of the Night. Children of the Night! Micah 3:5-6.."Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets
that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, PEACE: and he that
putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Therefore night
shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto
you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, AND
THE DAY SHALL BE DARK OVER THEM!" When the great Day of the Lord
appears, the day that will usher in the greatest display of God's glory that the
world has ever seen, it will only be a time of darkness and terror to these false
prophets who have caused God's people to err, crying Peace, when God was calling
for us to put on the whole armour of God that we might stand in the battle in
that Day. Preachers are still fervently preaching, and people are still desperately
and hopelessly clinging to the theory of a "Rapture" that will carry
us all off this earth that we might escape The Day of the Lord. People, hear me
today...God's plan is far better! Who wants to escape the glorious Day of release
from every bondage? Who would run away from the greatest outpouring of the Spirit
ever known, until God's elect is filled with the Spirit "without measure"?
Yes, let me make this clear...we shall be here DURING the Tribulation, but we
shall not be here FOR the Tribulation, but while those who are unprepared to stand
are being swept away as in the days of Noah by the floods of Judgment, we shall
be entering into the Day of God's Glory, the unveiling of His power and majesty
in the human flesh of His Body, the Church. Hear ye the Word of the Lord .... Malachi 4:1,2,5 "For behold,
the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven." "But unto you that fear
my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the GREAT and DREADFUL
day of the Lord." Glory to God! This is a GREAT day. . . a day
of His power, when all our enemies are put under our feet.."ashes under the
soles of your feet". But at the same time it is a DREADFUL day to someone..not
to the children of the Day, but to the children of the Night who had not put on
the whole armour of God because they were expecting to "fly away" and
did not think they would have to "stand" in that day. Oh, preacher friend,
it is time that we Joel 2:1-11:
"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain:"
(You see, friends, it is God's people who need to be alerted in this hour, they
who are sleeping need to be awakened).."Let all the inhabitants of the land
tremble: for the DAY OF THE LORD COMETH, for it is nigh at hand..A day of DARKNESS
AND GLOOMINESS, a day of CLOUDS and of THICK DARKNESS, AS THE MORNING SPREAD UPON
THE MOUNTAINS: A GREAT PEOPLE AND A STRONG!" At the very same
time that darkness and gloominess spreads over the land during this Day of the
Lord, to those who are children of the Day there is a great and glorious SUNRISE.
Isa 28:2 says "The Lord hath a MIGHTY AND A STRONG ONE" . . and we find
this to be His body in the earth. Daniel said that "they that do know their
God shall be STRONG and do exploits." And here Joel sees them coming forth
at the dawn of the Day of the Lord, a day of darkness and terror for the godless
and unbelieving people of this world. Joel 2:11 says "the Day of the Lord
is GREAT and VERY TERRIBLE: and who can abide it?" Great for the children
of the Day, and very terrible for the children of the Night. Verse 31 says that
the sun "shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the
GREAT and the TERRIBLE Day of the Lord come." Preachers, let us stop telling
God's people that they can just sit down in their rocking chairs and wait for
a "Rapture" to carry them off to a far-away land of fantasy where they
will eat their "pie-in-the-sky" while the two billions of people on
earth suffer under the heel of the devil and anti-christ. Let's tell them the
truth that they have been saved and called for the purpose of putting all the
forces of anti-christ and all the hordes of hell under their feet and delivering
the masses of earth from the power of Satan and the fear of death! This is our
inheritance, and this is our destiny! Isaiah 60:1-2: "Arise, shine; for THY LIGHT IS COME, and the glory
of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the DARKNESS SHALL COVER THE EARTH,
and GROSS DARKNESS the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and HIS GLORY
shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to
the brightness of thy rising." Paul teaches the Church how to walk, in order
"That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in
the world; holding forth the Word of Life; that I may rejoice in THE DAY OF CHRIST,
that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. (Phil 2:15-16)
Amos 5:18,20: "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. . Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark,
and no brightness in it?"
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