He Will Swallow Time With His Glory

Like the last sands spiraling down into the bottom of an hour glass, time is beginning to race through the world with incredible speed that goes unnoticed by earth’s inhabitants. The end time events scroll across the television screens like some kind of sports scores. Murder and rape, stealing and adultery, war and oppression, starvation and disease, perversion and violence, lust and self righteousness, hatred and strife, and all kinds of rebellion against God are committed with great fervor and intensity. Thousands of nuclear warheads sit ready to be unleashed upon this world.

There is no escape and no turning back now, for the wheels of God’s coming are spinning with great power. Billions remain ignorant to what lies in store for their souls. False teachers provide false comfort for those who stand in the path of God's unredemptive justice. The atmosphere crackles with the spiritual sounds of His coming. The end rushes upon us while we slumber to the minstrels of this present world.

“All is well and all is right“, they say. “Pay no attention to the prophets of doom because God is good and His vocation is to provide for your every desire. Forget about holiness and sacrificial living, those are for the unsophisticated and unlearned. In many ways you are God.” These are the words of blind guides who teach and preach a false God and a false solace to those who refuse to seek the Risen Christ for themselves. But time races on.

The door is almost closed, and those who wish redemption must come quickly. God’s grace is still abundant and available, but the offering will soon be removed. With what will you approach a Holy God? With what will you use to cover your sins when the Almighty demands holiness before Him? What excuse will you offer when all your sins and all your sinful thoughts are revealed before the holy angels and in the presence of the Triune God Himself? The games are over, and all your fleshly pursuits have come to speak against you. What in God’s Dear Name will you do then?

Count the days if you can, and laugh at these date setters as if there is not one authentic date coming. Perhaps God will look the other way when you suggest that you were misled. But standing in the power of His Holiness, will you even attempt to justify yourself? Will it not be worthless to even try? All has been lost, and the eternal weight of that reality runs through you with a profound terror that cannot be fathomed. You are in eternity and you will never escape.

Do you hear my words as so much Dante, and like a literary arrangement meant to scare and frighten? But hearts today are immune to such things. We know better, and the attractions and distractions of this Industrial Revolution generation call to us and drown out the medieval notions of days gone by. But the hour glass continues to empty, and the Spirit is calling out a final warning. Are your ears open to what the Spirit is saying? Am I being way to melodramatic?

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Perhaps that is too much hyperbole? Maybe your opinion carries more authority than does God’s Holy Word? But in reality Jesus has been so maligned, so misrepresented, and so caricatured that the True and Living Christ is virtually unknown, even by those who stand in His grace. But when the glory of the Son splits the unseen curtain and is revealed with unspeakable horror and descends upon this sin drenched world, He will take vengeance upon the creation. Imaginations fail to approach such a scene. Take all the horror movies ever made and increase them by one billion and it will not even match one momentary glimpse of the coming Judge.

And yet the world plays with the carelessness of blind mice. The pulpits play word games and entertain the careless with stories, jokes, and carnal suggestions on how to improve your earthly situation. The spirit of deception revels in such gatherings and runs to and fro with very little opposition. The spirit of holiness has long since left. Let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die! But if one can listen intently you might hear the faint but startling voice of the Spirit calling out, “Behold the Bridegroom comes!”

This is no Greek mythology or some Shakespearian tragedy, no, this is a breathtaking reality that if believed for even a second must bring forth fruits that change that life. It has become such a religious story that it no longer impacts us. It is preached rarely, and when it is mentioned in the pulpit it comes forth with such a dry and matter-of-fact spirit that it is almost impossible to believe the mouth that speaks really believes it. And when that same mouth is only minutes away from faring sumptuously and speaking about politics and sports, it becomes painfully evident that the coming of Jesus is imprisoned in a systematized doctrine rather than overflowing from a passionate heart.

Charles Finney once said how absurd it was to hear a minister preach about the Second Coming of Christ and the danger of eternal damnation, and then politely shake hands after the service with a smile and head nodding that completely dismisses his message as more of a performance rather than a clarion call to sinners. Ravenhill says its not "were you moved, but were you changed"? But regardless of the ignorance of the masses the coming story remains unchanged.

Time no longer walks step by step. Time no longer walks with a brisk pace. In fact, time no longer walks at all. Time rushes toward the culmination of time itself. The sky will be ripped apart and the power of His glory and the power of His Words and the power of His visible manifestation will consume this world. To us who know Him it is still quite beyond us. But the urgency of this present time cannot be overstated. And if you have loved ones still outside the Ark, the days are evil and their time grows disproportionately short.

The games are over. Religion is over. Playing church is over. If we are ever going to walk in His power we must do it quickly. Pray as if you cannot move without Him. Worship without restraint. Witness with a divine love that cannot be embarrassed.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.