The Doctrine of The Future

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. And I trust, sensing in our spirits, that we are together in unity and in devotion to our living God, the name that is above all names. There was an invasion in Jerusalem. [00:00:32] The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had come. He besieged the city, the Bible says. And then he took the city and he carried away captives. When we read in the book of Daniel, we find some of these captives named and we find some of their experiences. I'd like to think a bit about some of the things that Daniel experienced. In his visions and in the interpretation of other people's visions, Daniel saw, while he was in captivity, at least four existing and future empires. [00:01:10] I think probably we would be more correct if we would say five. The one above all other empires. In chapter 2, when he saw that stone hewn out of the mountain and it came down over the sea, over the seascape or the landscape and destroyed all the rest of things that were there, which was a picture of the coming of Christ, the King of kings and the kingdom over all kingdoms. [00:01:44] Then we come to chapter 12. Some things were a bit spelled out. But in chapter 12, we'd like to read the entire chapter as kind of a summary to this and an introduction to the message of this morning. At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time [00:02:14] and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament They that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, seal the book, even to the time of the end [00:02:47] Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, there stood other two The one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river and one said to the man clothed in linen which was upon the waters of the river how long shall it be to the end of these wonders and I heard the man clothed in linen which was upon the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swear by him that liveth forever [00:03:18] that it shall be for a time, times and a half and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end. Many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. [00:03:53] and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days but go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days now we needed an interpreter God, I don't know what all this means, especially when it comes to setting days and so on. [00:04:31] In the beginning of this chapter, we find something that seems different than all the other prophecies about the kingdoms that were coming. Daniel had seen the Babylonian Empire. He was living during that time. He saw the Medes and the Persians come in and take over Babylonia. Then later there was the Grecian Empire and then the Romans. And it seems like some of these things that are said here could be explained by history that took place about the time of the Romans. [00:05:03] Especially then as they made war against the Jews. and as this abomination of desolation was set up in the temple back there somewhere close to the time of Christ. That's about all the interpreting I'm thinking of doing this morning because that's about as far as I can go. Some of these things seem very parallel to the book of Revelation and what we read there. But what we want to notice especially is when it speaks here about there's coming a time, he says, when everybody that's found written in the book shall be delivered, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. [00:05:56] There was a curiosity on the part of the people. One angel said to the other, one being on one side of the river said to the one on the other side, When shall this time be? The disciples said to Jesus when he said that the temple was going to be destroyed and the end of the world was coming, What is the sign of thy coming? They wanted to know when. And we find different times in scripture in the Old Testament [00:06:27] That there is this curiosity of mankind to know the future We are at the dawn of another year And I don't know the future of this year None of us do We may have a lot of curiosity concerning it We may make projections about it People do, news reporters or commentators are known to make projections and it's interesting to read their projections three months later and see their reprojections because the truth is we simply do not know the future, do we? [00:07:00] We just do not know the future. But that brings us then to Daniel's question when he said in verse 8 What shall be the end of these things? Maybe he was saying primarily what's going to be the outcome of all this? But we would raise that question this morning in perspective in light of the fact of one of the Bible fundamentals that are so essential. One of these, in German I think the word Fundament is the word for foundation. [00:07:37] Fundamental is foundational. And as you may recall, we've been talking about some of the fundamentals over the last number of months. And we'd like to consider another one of the Bible fundamentals being one of those foundational things that help us build the rest of the building, the rest of our life. What we really build as a foundation determines how we're going to go from there. And as we think about the question, what shall be the end of these things? [00:08:09] The question this morning, the fundamental is the end. The doctrine of the end times or the doctrine of the future we have stated our position in our statement of faith something like this if I can find it quickly we believe and confess that heaven and hell are real places and that in the interval between death and resurrection [00:08:39] the righteous will be with Christ in a state of conscious bliss and comfort but the wicked in a place of torment in a state of conscious suffering and despair. We believe further that after the general resurrection there will be a final judgment where each will be assigned to his eternal reward and the righteous to heaven which is a place of eternal glory and blessing there to dwell in the fullness of joy in the presence of God and the wicked to the place of torment called hell prepared for the devil and his angels [00:09:11] where they will suffer the vengeance of eternal fire forever and ever. That's just a brief summary of the statement or the doctrine of the future. There are things that lie ahead. When people are suffering, when somebody is in the hospital, it seems like days and nights run together and you just don't have a very good perception of time. You kind of lose time. And one of the hardest things about being in the hospital is not the care that you get there. [00:09:43] There is the restriction that you experience. But isn't it true that one of the most difficult things about not knowing the future is just the not knowing? The question, the indecision, just not knowing. If you know that you have four more days in the hospital, you can gear yourself for that. But if you don't know if it's one day or if it's ten, it's just a little harder because there is something about our being that we desire to know what lies ahead. [00:10:18] And if we don't know, we find ourselves often, I don't know if the word is frustrated, but we find ourselves, things just go on and on and on and we find ourselves unsettled. There is something about not knowing that is unsettling. So there exists in our universe general curiosity, a desire to know the future. Thankfully, the scripture tells us some things about the future. [00:10:51] I may not be able to tell you this morning the things that you'd really like to know about the future. Some people would like to know how many days, some have projected how long, what year. And we look back on them and say how far off they were. The real question today is not so much the question when, but what. that makes the difference in how we live life. So we want to look at some of these things. Jesus, in fact, told us, the scriptures tell us, that really the question is not when. [00:11:26] It's a futile question because when James wrote, he said it like this, Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, let alone a thousand years from now. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for little time, then vanishes away. Jesus said when the disciples asked the question about when, Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. And Jesus said further, Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. [00:12:00] So let's look then at Daniel's question when he said, What shall be the end? What lies out there? Now, one of the things that about we already said is the vagueness, the uncertainty, the unknown lying ahead that creates questions and sometimes unsettledness. The reality is that we have heard many times about the future, have we not? 2 Peter the third chapter the Bible says that in the last days there shall be scoffers [00:12:34] saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning we have heard over and over again that this world has a termination point we have heard that Jesus is coming again but the reality is Because I think I'd be correct if I would say this morning that all of us believe that, but not yet. It's just not very real. [00:13:07] If the doctrine of the future is real to us, it transforms people's lives, is what we're saying this morning. It makes a difference in how we live, depending as to what we believe about the doctrine of the future. So when Daniel asked that question, he was only expressing the heart of many people. What does it mean when it says that the world is coming to an end? [00:13:38] Or that there is a change lagged? I'd like to say it like this this morning. The fact that Jesus hasn't come, and the fact that we don't really know how it's going to be, does not mean that Jesus is not going to come. and that's the first thing we want to look at about the doctrine of the future and understandably you will know that we can only hit the highest points this morning and maybe the rest of the service will be mostly reading scripture in Acts the first chapter [00:14:11] when Jesus was with his disciples he was standing there with them and all at once this Jesus that walked with them that had then died and resurrected and was now again with them began to go. Something was changing. The fact that Jesus had said, I will go to the Father, and where I go, you cannot come, had some kind of significance to his hearers. But at that moment, it took on new meaning. [00:14:42] All at once, this was not just theory. It was not just doctrine. It was reality. And one of these days, The fact that Jesus is going to come is going to be a reality. There were some men that stood by them, men in white apparel, that said, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus that you have seen go up into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. In other words, this Jesus that was with you a moment ago [00:15:16] and has gone up is going to go away for a while, But one of these days, we're going to be living, some people are going to be living, some people are going to be in the grave, and all at once, there he is. He's going to be here. He's coming back, the scripture says. And if the more real that is, that this could happen instantaneously, momentarily, at any given time, doesn't that produce a carefulness in us, like it says in 1 John, the third chapter. [00:15:50] How this makes us prepare. That's why Jesus said, watch and pray that you not be overtaken like a thief in the night. Jesus is coming again. That is one of the things that lies in our future. Life is not always going to go on like it is. I wonder if we shouldn't thank God greatly for the changes that we are experiencing in our nation and across the world today. In the economic sense, in this sense, that it makes us alert to the fact that what we have considered normal, routine life is not necessarily the real life. [00:16:32] Jesus said, the scripture says, that the things which are seen are not real, and the things which are not seen, they are real. The reality is that something lies in our future that is more real than what we are knowing today. One of them is the coming of our Lord. He is not here one moment, but the next he will be here. And the scripture says that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. I really have a hard time understanding a secret rapture in light of the scripture. [00:17:07] The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God. and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air not only is he coming back but there is going to be a resurrection of the dead graves are going to open just like Daniel is sitting here that many were asleep and the dust of the earth came forth [00:17:38] so there is going to be a general resurrection when those people that we have buried Those people that we don't know, all the dead, are going to be like Lazarus when Jesus appeared at his tomb. Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, who had died, they said, by now his body smells. But that didn't matter. Jesus spoke into that tomb and he said, Lazarus, come forth. [00:18:10] And Lazarus came. And the scriptures tell us that the dead are going to hear the voice of God. And one of these days we're going to see back here in this cemetery, in all the cemeteries, in the seas of the earth, in long hidden graves, forgotten places, the dead are going to come out. And I cannot tell you exactly why that those bodies have to, the graves have to open up because those bodies have long since disintegrated in many cases. [00:18:44] But the scripture nevertheless says the grave shall be opened and the sea is going to give up the dead in it. Not all people are going to be living when Jesus comes. But we have this witness around us time and time again. How many funerals are there in our community that some way connect to us that are a reminder to us that life is but a vapor like we read in the scripture and then we are no more but yet the spirit of man goes to God who gave it and somehow there is a connection [00:19:16] there seems to be this connection that those people that have died will sometime again reunite with a body but it's a new body and when the question was asked of Paul in Corinthians was it 2nd Corinthians, the 15th chapter 1 Corinthians, perhaps the 15th chapter. Some people were scoffing and saying, well, how is a dead body, disintegrated body like that going to come? [00:19:48] What kind of a body are they going to come? Paul said. Actually, he was pretty frank. He said, When you sow something, you don't expect to get back what you sowed. But that which grows out of that which died is far superior to that which was committed to the grave or the ground. And so, as we look into the doctrine of the future, there is going to be a time when we shall have new bodies. I don't know if the old body is like a seed, [00:20:20] and in that body there is a seed, out of which comes a new body or how that is. But the graves are going to open, the scripture says. Those people that have been dropped off into the sea, He, either as corpses or drowned there, shall come out. That big bridge that they built when they were pouring concrete day in and day out, 24 hours a day, and had a worker tumble inside and he was buried in there. Or that grave where the man had made arrangements that his tomb be sealed with impenetrable concrete. [00:20:55] They're going to be as nothing and open up before God. The graves are going to open up. Every man is going to again someday appear before God. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice. How does a dead person hear his voice? That's not our problem, that's God's business. How he does this and how the dead can hear his voice. But he that spoke life into existence certainly can speak in a voice that the dead can hear. [00:21:31] So can you imagine this morning that that day when the dead are going to come out, any man that has ever thought he's going to hide from God through death and making his tomb sure, was thinking foolish thoughts. because the voice of God speaks the dead back to life. He says further, and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, [00:22:03] they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Revelation 20 he says, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell, or the grave, or seal, delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man, according to his works. That brings us to a third thing that lies in our future. Not only is Jesus coming back, and with his coming, if we understand correctly, simultaneously, this world is going to pass away. Heaven and earth are going to pass away, like he says in 2 Peter 3. [00:22:37] With a loud sound, this earth is going to implode as it exploded. By the voice of God. And the dead are coming forth, and they're coming forth for the purpose of their presenting themselves and giving an account for the life we lived here on the earth. Revelation 20 verse 11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it. [00:23:09] Can you visualize this morning? The disintegration, the disappearance of the earth. and in its place, the appearance of Jesus Christ on a great white throne. Is it a literal throne? I don't know. There are things that go beyond literal interpretations. When it comes to all people appearing before the throne, how do you get all this many people around one throne? That's irrelevant. It's beside the point. [00:23:41] God is going to come in the person of Christ not as a babe in a manger but as the Lord of Lords He's going to be there on His great white throne and Him that sat on it from whose face the heaven and earth fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God there you will find men of position and the outcasts of the world all men on common ground before God [00:24:11] as far as their position goes and the books were open you find a record has been kept is being kept the books were open you go to the courthouse in the department of registrations and you can get people to bring out the books and how many volumes do they have and then how many courthouses are there places where the births of people are registered and the records of people when I was over in Germany this summer, last summer [00:24:45] Brother Lewis Overholt took us around to see some of the remnants of the Cold War back in Berlin he took us into this museum and then he said one day after the wall came down he went to the authorities He asked if he could see the record of his own life during the time he lived in Berlin when the wall divided the city. And you know what? They had all kinds of records about Louis Overholt. And he got to read where he was challenging authorities at the wall, [00:25:21] where he asked them questions, and where he made them respond to his questions. Who would have thought that an insignificant encounter like that would be recorded? Who knows what all is going to come out of the woodwork? But our scriptures say that when God comes and there is a judgment, He is going to judge the secrets of men. There is not a thought, but God knows it. [00:25:53] There is not a word, but God hears it. There is not a deed but God sees it and it's going to come out in the books because it says further here I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works Not their intentions, not their philosophies, their life [00:26:29] What justifies a person is not what he intends to do What justifies a person is not his creed, but his life Or unjustifies him as it were and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. All that a man has to do to be lost is nothing. [00:27:01] Nothing. Every person that that judgment day that is not found written in the book of life, though he may have had a good moral life, he may have done it just right, And he may have helped many poor, he may have prayed many prayers, but if his name is not in the book of life, be it known this morning, my friends, that if our name is not in the book of life, we cannot be with God in eternity. God looks in the books, and he looks in the book, and if the name is in the book, then that's going to be of all days the most blessing. [00:27:45] But if our name is not in the book, it says, those people could not enter in. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. There is going to be a great reward for those that live for God whose names are in the book and out of that relationship with God we live our lives for His glory and His purpose and for the good of our fellow man. [00:28:30] That will not go unnoticed. God knows. God will reward those things. But the first thing is to get the name in the book. And that's the question this morning. We live in life in a very routine way. We look at our neighbors, we look at each other, and we think in terms of what is palpable, what is touchable, what we can see and feel and hear. [00:29:02] But there are many things going on behind the scenes that are more real than the things that are seen. And that is the preparation of a person to meet his maker And to get that name in the book Friends, if your name is not in the book today, you're on icy ground In the Old Testament, the prophet looked at the people And as God spoke to him, he said, surely thou did set their feet on slippery places [00:29:36] Like it was the other morning makes me think of that situation. I could barely walk, stay on my feet to go from the house to the shed. I walked very carefully because you know how it is. Some of you know very well how it is. That one minute you're standing, the next you're not. Because your feet are on slippery places. And that's the way it has been. I think when I read a scripture like this of the young man that one day roared past our office in his car [00:30:13] he was mistakenly thinking that an officer was following him because he was speeding and the officer coming from the front, the officer, braked and he expected him to turn around and follow him so he quickly turned off, went down that little angling road, roared past our office and then the lights went out and we found that he had rushed right into eternity. He hit a tree trying to run from the officer. [00:30:46] How was it for that young man? His feet were on slippery places. It was my responsibility to go find his mother in Shipshawana to tell her about her son's accident. To walk without our name in the Lamb's book of life is a slippery road. He speaks then about two destinations that lie up ahead. We've never been in heaven. We've never been in hell. [00:31:19] People talk about being in hell on this earth. That's because we don't know what hell is. There are two destinations that follow the judgment. The first one is hell. I don't know how hell is. As I read the descriptions in the scripture, I find words like outer darkness, the bottomless pit. I find words that talk about weeping and wailing and torment and fire and all those things. [00:31:57] I don't know how much of this is in the terms that we think of literally in our mind and how much is figurative of something but one thing I'm sure of is that it is given to us in these terms to help us to understand the tragedy of hell and it seems like one of the worst things must be even as the rich man experienced and as Jesus said also to his disciples something that's going to happen in the future is [00:32:28] you're going to see the prophets in heaven and yourself cast out and when the rich man was in hell he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom don't you think that intensified that made the thing of suffering very real to him to see what might have been but was forever out of reach. He was then in the place where he was [00:32:59] not only now temporarily but forever separated from the presence of God. Hell is the place where man is separated forever from all that is good. There will never be a drop of holiness in hell. There will never be any love in hell. There will never be any fellowship in hell. It is all hatred, anger, bitterness, emptiness, despair. [00:33:35] I wonder if the greatest suffering in hell, and I don't know, but I wonder if the greatest suffering is not the absence of being with all that is good in God. Certainly, the scriptures speak about physical pain. The rich man said, I am tormented in this flame. Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and put it on my tongue. I don't know why he said the tongue. But what we have is a picture of torment. [00:34:12] And along with that, a picture of despair. How can a person live without hope? Now in this life, once hope is gone, what do people do? Often commit suicide. When they're at the end of hope, when there is no more hope, no more expectation, no more any possibility in their mind that things can change, often people commit suicide. [00:34:43] But in hell a man cannot commit suicide. It speaks about a place of torment that's eternal. It is the despair of hopelessness and forever being separated from God and good. But on the other side, we find the home of the redeemed, where the scripture says, Now I should read just the words of Jesus in Matthew the 25th chapter when he says, [00:35:15] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, cursed. Can you think how it would feel to hear those words of rejection? Somebody knocks, you knock at somebody's door, they open the door and they say, Go away. Rejection of a child not feeling wanted by his parents. What hurts more deeply than that? [00:35:46] Now we're not saying that God wouldn't want people, but people have spurned their opportunity. All the grace that God has made available, they have turned their backs on. Of how much sore punishment, says the scripture, shall he be thought worthy who hath taken underfoot the blood of the Son of God, of the Lamb. But he says, depart from me. Can you imagine how that experience would be for a person that hears for the last time the eternal turning away. [00:36:24] And not only depart from me, but he says, into everlasting fire. And then we come to Revelation, the seventh chapter, verses 9 and 13 and following. but we're not going to read that we'll just read in verse 21 God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away [00:36:57] heaven is a place not only of gold I don't know if the gold in heaven is literal I've never seen gold that I could see through The Bible speaks about gold that is transparent, but I wonder if it's not the best that we can do so God talk to us in terms that kind of reach out as far as we can go in our understanding. to speak about the glory of heaven. He speaks about jewels, gems. [00:37:27] He speaks about streets of gold. He speaks about the river of life, a tree that bears twelve kinds of fruits in its season. Many pictures that speak of prosperity. But what is it that a person really craves in this life? It's not the craving of the human heart to find his way back to his maker who made him in his own image. Until a person comes back to his God, he will be a restless soul. [00:38:03] Like a vagabond, as he said to Esau back there in the book of Genesis. Seeking rest, finding none. But when a person gets home to glory, he'll be at home. The best part of a trip, we often say, is coming home. A place where you are wanted, where you are accepted, where you are understood. And friends, when we get home, the glory will be understood and we shall see like we never saw before. [00:38:34] And the greatest glory of all, it seems to me, will be when we can get to the throne, Not now of the judgment, but the throne of eternal glory Where God the Father, God the Son, the four and twenty elders And all the rest, the multitudes, thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions As the scripture describes in Revelation Of the people of God And there will be, not only not literal tears [00:39:05] There will not be that emptiness there will not be that boredom there will not be that sense of not being wanted of inferiority there will be fullness of joy and acceptance and we shall know that we are at home heaven is a place that we all call home but we've never seen it yet but it's in the future it's the doctrine of the future Jesus is coming [00:39:36] When the world's passing away or ending, there is going to be a resurrection, there is going to be a judgment, and there is going to be an eternal reward forever and ever and ever. Or eternal payment depends on whether we're getting wages or gifts. The wages of sin, the Bible says, is death. The gift of God is eternal life. No man can inherit it. let's not live our life on the ice [00:40:07] let's live it on the solid rock and as we keep this information this knowledge of the future before us you know if every person that names the name of Christ would make every decision and do every deed based on the conviction of these truths of this book what an impact there could be in this world and a demonstration of the greatness of God.