The day of the Lord will come. So the question is, what does that mean for us? That's one question anyway. We want to learn. We're looking at a study about this phrase, the day of the Lord, how it's used in the scriptures. We want to understand that. We want to know what it means in the past. We want to know what it means for the future. But ultimately, what does it mean for us? 

I think about what Peter said in 2 Peter 3, which kind of launched this study. He said that we should be looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. So looking up, anticipating, means holy conduct and godliness, according to Peter, and witness. We looked at that in depth. 

So for us, as believers in the church, what does it mean that God's going to come, that there's going to be judgment, that he's going to judge the wicked of this world, that there's going to be salvation? What does that mean for me today? It means that I should be living in holy conduct, anticipating his coming, and being a witness in this world. That's the focus. I want to just say that up front, that we should have what we should be doing in light of all these things. 

Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, Peter says, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. We're going to look at a couple of passages this morning that use this term, the day of the Lord, in the New Testament. 

In 2 Peter 3, Peter writes, the day of the Lord will come. Then he describes the events that will take place in this time. In verse 13, he says, but we, again, as I just quoted, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth. We're not looking for the time of wrath, but the fulfillment of the promise of salvation, of deliverance. 

In 1 Thess 5, as Mark read, Paul also talks about the day of the Lord. In the context of the book of Thessalonians, Paul's intent is to bring comfort to the believers. You'll notice at the end of chapter 4, verse 18, speaking of the rapture of the church, he says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. And again, in chapter 5, to comfort one another. 

They were concerned that those who had died in Christ may somehow miss the great promise, the hope of the rapture of the church, the coming of the Lord, to gather us together to himself. And Paul wants them to know that they will not experience the wrath of God on this earth during the day of the Lord, and that they all, dead and alive in Christ, will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the clouds. 

These are words of comfort, not warning. They're pastoral words addressing concern and worry in that church concerning the coming judgment. And the truth is that the church will not endure that time. We will experience the wrath of man in this world. We are not exempt from that. There's no promise that we will not suffer at the hands of men, as so many brothers and sisters are and have. But these words are comfort. 

It would not be comforting if Paul were saying, you will go into the day of the Lord and experience the tremendous, profound persecution that is coming from the Antichrist. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. It would be a strange thing for Paul to say. 

As we will see this morning, the day of the Lord that is yet to come is a time for God's culmination of his salvation plans concerning Israel and, most importantly, his retaking of his creation and righteous rule over the earth. It begins with the apostasy of Israel, the revealing of the Antichrist. And as we have seen in our study of 2 Peter 3, it extends all the way to the new heavens and the new earth. 

That's a very important statement that Peter makes for our knowledge that in the day of the Lord, in the course of the day of the Lord, all of these events will take place. This is a time where God deals with Israel according to a pattern that we see consistently throughout the Old Testament in relation to the day of the Lord and Israel. It's very important for us to understand. We're going to develop these thoughts in our study this morning from the scriptures. 

But first, let's look at 1 Thessalonians 5 and Paul's words there. 1 Thessalonians 5, 1. Concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. 

But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, that phrase calls us back to 4.13 to 18, where Paul talked about those saints who had died. 

That's what they were worried about. If they died, did they miss the rapture? He says, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing. 

I'll have five points for you this morning on your outline. First, God's creative intent. We'll review that briefly. The centrality of Israel as well. Third, the fulfillment of the pattern and the promise. Fourth, the plan of salvation. And fifth, the purpose is to glorify God. 

We saw in our first study in this series that when God created the heavens and the earth and all things in it, his intention was to establish a theocracy, to have Adam, man, have dominion over all things and rule as God's man on earth. And we saw in Genesis that Adam failed by sinning and bringing death and the curse to this world. 

We saw also in Hebrews 2 that all things today now are not as God intended. This world is controlled by Satan and his system is in place in this time. But he says the oikumene, the inhabited earth to come, will be set as a theocracy. So what is that inhabited earth to come? It's not now. 

Jesus is the promise of this. We see Jesus. He's the fulfillment of God's creative intent in the time when God will bring all things to consummation in Christ and he will rule and reign on David's throne in the thousand-year kingdom. In this time, God's creative intent for Israel will be restored as well. As they will be a witness to him, they will draw the nations, they will bring the nations to Jerusalem, to Christ, as we saw two weeks ago in our study. 

It's a vital point to understand that God will bring about his will on this earth, that his intent and purpose will be accomplished. That's what this is really about. If we do not see Israel, Jerusalem, at the very center of what is yet to come in the future day of the Lord, then as we talked about last week in a contrast between covenant and dispensational theology, we're going to see everything very differently. 

And I believe we have no hope of rightly dividing the word of God concerning these things. Turn to Daniel 9 with me, please. Daniel 9 at verse 24. Daniel 9, 24. This is a vision revelation given to Daniel about what is to come. It says seven, literally 77s. 77s are determined for your people and for your holy city. 

So he tells Daniel that there's 70 periods of seven that have been determined, a timeframe, and that it's for Israel and it's for Jerusalem. Now here's what's going to happen in that time: to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation of iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. 

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks. Well, that seems very specific language, isn't it? From the time that the command goes forth, you start counting until Messiah the Prince. 

Here's what's going to happen. The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times. And after the 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war of desolations are determined. 

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. 

Interesting that Jesus comments when his disciples ask him, what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And he brings up the same thing as if it hadn't happened yet and was going to happen in the future, the abomination of desolation. We'll talk more about that. 

But Daniel was given a prophecy, 70 weeks, literally 77s, are determined for your people in your holy city. Now, as we follow this text in the rest of the scriptures, we see even in the historical fulfillment that this prophecy is fulfilled to the letter in the first 69 periods of seven years. 

This takes us all the way to the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, but there's yet one seven-year period that has not been fulfilled. And if we look at what is to be fulfilled in that time, there's much to come in that seven-year period. We must understand that this time is determined for Israel, for your people, he says to Daniel, and for your holy city, Jerusalem. 

This 70th week is not about the church; it is about the nation of Israel, to chasten them, to bring them to faith in Christ. He says to fulfill all the prophecies that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and most importantly, those promises and God's intent and purpose in forming this nation for his glory. That's what this time is about, and we must not lose sight of the centrality of Israel in the plans of God. 

We're looking this morning at the use of the phrase the day of the Lord in the scriptures, and I just want to take some time to look at the pattern established in the Old Testament concerning Israel and this phrase the day of the Lord. God has established a pattern concerning Israel in the day of the Lord and has fulfilled this pattern again and again, consistently, throughout Israel's history. 

I believe this pattern is a foundation for understanding the future fulfillment of the day of the Lord. God chose out Israel as a nation, a people for his name, to be a witness to him that he is the only true God. And he intended for them to be a witness to all nations, to draw men to God, to justify them by faith. 

But as we look at the nation Israel throughout their history, we see a rebellious people continually going astray. And we see that God would chasten them as a father chastens his child in order to turn them back to himself and set them back in his will. It is in this chastening of Israel that we find the pattern of the day of the Lord. 

It's consistent through time, every time, since the time of bondage in Egypt. God uses a human agent, a king or nation, to chasten Israel. Then we see that God punishes that agent and brings deliverance to his people. Think about what happened in Egypt. God brought Jacob and his sons down to Israel. The people of God were held in bondage there for 400 years. 

Then we see the great deliverance in the Exodus, where God performed miraculous signs and wonders, destroying Pharaoh and his armies and delivering his people. We see this with Assyria, with Babylon, with Medo-Persia, with Greece, and with Rome. God warned through his prophets all through the Old Testament of the coming day of the Lord for Israel if she would not repent and turn back to God. 

He warned concerning Assyria, but the northern tribes of Israel would not hear his prophets. He warned for over 100 years of the coming of Babylon, but Judah would not repent, would not listen to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel, warning after warning, but they would not heed the word of the Lord. What was the warning? The day of the Lord is coming. 

And those near fulfillments for Israel in the day of the Lord prophecies were fulfilled in those times. And so we see this pattern, the day of the Lord fulfilled in the Old Testament in Israel again and again, a time of chastening by God of his people, by the use of a human agent, a king or a nation, then God exacting punishment on that king or nation, and finally, deliverance of his people. 

Turn to Amos chapter five with me, please. Amos five. In verse 18, he says, "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light." 

Then in verse 21, he said, "Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel? You also carried Sikhuth and the king and Cheon, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts." 

In this passage in Amos, we see here a warning to the northern tribes of Israel and the coming captivity by the Assyrians. And yet we see later that God judges Assyria when Babylon rises to power, and God uses Babylon to chasten Judah. In Zephaniah 2, it says, "Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, before the decree is issued, or the day passes like chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you; seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld his justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger." 

Lamentations 2, chapter 2, verse 1, "How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud of his anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth, the beauty of Israel, and did not remember his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied all the dwelling places of Jacob. He's cut off in fierce anger every horn of Israel." He goes on and on. These are scriptures that speak of the time when Nebuchadnezzar came to Judah and destroyed the city and took captive many from Jerusalem, including the prophet Daniel. 

We see this pattern again and again in the Old Testament fulfillments of the day of the Lord. He warned them, the day of the Lord's coming, the day of the Lord's coming, repent, return to me. And when they wouldn't, he chastened them and then he punished his agent of chastening and delivered his people. 

We see it again and again through the Old Testament, but we see it most clearly in the future day of the Lord, where God will turn back to his nation Israel to chasten them in the seven-year time of tribulation and the time of Jacob's trouble. He will raise up a man to rule over this world, to persecute and chasten Israel, the beast of revelation given power by the dragon. 

We will see a time of trouble such as has never been, a time when God will deal fully and finally with Israel; he will bring her to himself and bring salvation. We see this promise throughout the Old Testament and we will see God fulfill his intent with Israel and bring to pass those promises of old. The Antichrist will be God's chastening agent in the future day of the Lord, and God will bring his wrath on this world system, the beast and the false prophet punishing the agent of chastening. 

And then in a grand and glorious way, we will see God deliver Israel fully and finally, when Paul says the deliverer will come out of Zion and all Israel will be saved. And then God will bring his kingdom, promise to his people, with his holy king sitting on David's throne ruling with a rod of iron and Israel will be God's people and they will worship him and draw all nations to him as God always intended. 

This is the pattern fulfilled in the future day of the Lord and this is what we should expect to see. The day of the Lord involves Israel for chastening, for bringing salvation and deliverance and it involves the wrath of God on the evil men and rulers and the system of this world. 

We saw it in temporal fulfillments in the Old Testament; we will see it in its final glorious fullness in the coming of the future day of the Lord. There will be judgment and deliverance in the coming day of the Lord. We don't often think of it that way, but when Peter says that it's going to include the destruction of the heavens and the earth and a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, certainly that's a good part, that's a good thing, isn't it? The eternal state, the new heavens, the new earth, that's part of the day of the Lord. 

The day of the Lord is a time where God takes back what is his. It's a two-fold nature; we can characterize it in a couple of ways: it certainly is going to be darkness, gloominess, judgment as God's wrath is poured out on this earth, and we see that in the book of Revelation and in the second coming, but it's also to include promise and deliverance. 

Remember Peter says all these things will happen in the course of the day of the Lord. Let's turn to that passage, 2 Peter 3 and verse 10 and read that again. Second Peter 3.10, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." 

"Therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, even though all this is going to happen, nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." 

So it's clear from 2 Peter 3 that there's a broad scope to this term, the day of the Lord. It extends all the way through and past the millennial kingdom and into the new heavens and new earth, and I think this makes perfect sense because the day of the Lord is the manifestation of God's sovereign rule on this earth. 

It's where he steps in and demonstrates his power and might and reign and rule, his sovereignty over all things. This is true in the past. You think about all those times when God conquered Babylon, for example, or Syria, showing that I am the Lord. He says there is no other, and as Mark read from Daniel this morning, sometimes those kings recognize that and made those proclamations. 

When we look at the broad scope of the future day of the Lord, we can really understand it this way. It's a process of God manifesting his right to rule and reign over all things. It is God, through Christ, taking back what is rightly his, exercising his right to rule and reign over all his creation, and we see this most vividly in Revelation 5. 

Turn to Revelation 5 at verse 1, please. Revelation 5.1, "And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, do not weep, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." 

"And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne." 

"Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth." 

"Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever." 

The scroll is the title deed to the earth, and Jesus is the only one who is worthy to take the scroll. And what we see when Jesus begins to open the scroll to break the seals is a process whereby God is taking back all that is rightly his and delivering the earth, the kingdom, to Jesus for him to rule and reign in a theocracy as God has always intended. 

So the rest of the book of the Revelation is an unfolding of God taking back rule of the earth and setting his holy king on his throne. Think about those judgments that are going to be poured out in the bowls and vials when those seals are opened. This is God taking back the earth, judging the wicked, culminating in the second coming when Jesus will set up his rule and reign. 

This is the end, I guess, of the…all the way on to the new heavens and new earth of the day of the Lord. It's a little more difficult to nail down a starting time for the day of the Lord in the broad scope, but we do know for sure it begins in the seventieth week of Daniel. We could demonstrate this in many ways. 

But what is the sign of the start of the day of the Lord? I think there are a couple of scriptures that help us understand this. Perhaps the most important is that Daniel 9 passage again. In Daniel 9, Daniel's praying, he's repenting for the sins of his people Israel, seeking to understand when the day of captivity would end for Israel, when the promises will be fulfilled. 

And God sends him this vital information about the future of Israel and the time of tribulation and deliverance, as we read before in 9, 24 to 27, where he said, 70 weeks are determined for your people and your holy city. Whatever these 77s are, they are concerning Israel and Jerusalem, not the church, but Israel, the nation, and for specific purposes as he lays out there. 

He says that in this time, there's going to be a finish to the transgression, there's going to be an end of sins, there's going to be reconciliation for iniquity, there's going to be brought in everlasting righteousness, all prophecy and vision is going to be fulfilled, and the most holy is going to be anointed. Now whatever your view of eschatology is, I think you can agree that that hasn't happened yet. 

We have not seen an end of sins. We have not seen an anointing of Christ to sit and reign. We know as we study the Scriptures in history that 69 of these seven-year periods were fulfilled. That's been well documented and detailed all the way up to the time Messiah is cut off, as it says in Daniel 9. 

And we understand that this church age, when God turns to the Gentiles, and why does he turn to the Gentiles according to Romans 11 and Paul? To make the Jews jealous. It's a humbling thing, isn’t it? I don't want you to be wise in your own opinion, I don't want you to be haughty. God has turned to you in order to make them jealous, he says. 

We understand that this time is a parenthesis, a pause, apparently, between the time Messiah is cut off and the beginning of the church to the time when God will turn back to Israel. There's a week hanging out there, is the idea. There's coming a time when God will turn back to Israel, that's clear in Romans 11. He will graft in the natural branches, he will bring salvation to Israel and a fulfillment of all the promises, as that Daniel 9 passage affirms. 

There's one more important key to understand in Daniel 9, verse 27. In 26 it says, after the 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. This is Rome, the people of the prince to come. The prince to come is the Antichrist, and what we understand is a revived Roman Empire. 

The temple was destroyed by his people, Romans, in 70 AD, after Messiah was cut off. It says the end of it shall be with a flood, till the end of the war, desolations are determined. Now verse 27, it says, then he, Antichrist, shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. 

But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall be the one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. What's this tell us? Well, it tells us that there's going to come a time when a world leader is going to make a covenant, or confirm a covenant, actually, with Israel, and this is the description that Jesus gives in Matthew 24 of the abomination of desolation, where he brings an end to sacrifice and offerings through abomination of desolation, as he calls it. 

We don't have time to go into all the scriptures that speak to this, but note Antichrist will begin the one week. He will begin the final seven years by confirming an existing covenant with Israel. And then we see the abomination of desolation. We know from Revelation 6 that the Antichrist will conquer, will come to power through peace. We see a rider with a bow and no arrows. 

He'll bring peace in order to rise to power. He'll solve the problems of the world. He'll bring peace in the Middle East. And then we get into my conjecture here, to be quite honest with you, to how this is fulfilled. I believe he's going to do it in a very specific way. 2 Corinthians 2 requires the revealing of the Antichrist and the apostasy before the beginning of the day of the Lord. 

What does that mean? It seems reasonable to me based on the scriptures we are considering that Antichrist is going to capture the affections of Israel by establishing again the law covenant of Moses, the sacrificial system because we know that there's going to be a temple in that time. 

How do we know there's going to be a temple? Because it says the Antichrist in that time is going to bring an end to the sacrificial system that is ongoing in the abomination of desolation. So Daniel says he'll confirm a covenant for one week, one seven-year period, not a three-and-a-half-year period, but a seven-year period. 

I believe that this confirming of the covenant with Israel and their apostasy then begins the broad day of the Lord. All that to explain how it begins, if that interests you. So the beginning of that will be with the confirming of the covenant. I believe that the confirming of the covenant with Israel and their apostasy begins this day, and of course before this we would see the rapture of the church, the removing of believers, the fullness of the Gentiles coming in, God turning back to Israel as Paul lays out so clearly. 

The scriptures speak of this broad day of the Lord that lasts over a thousand years, but they also speak of a narrow day, the day of the Lord when Jesus physically comes to earth in judgment, sets his feet on the Mount of Olives. We could look at many passages, but perhaps the most vivid that describes this narrow day of the Lord, the time when Jesus comes and the deliverance of Israel is Joel 3. 

Turn to Joel chapter 3 with me, this is an important passage. Joel 3.1, "For behold, in those days, and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people, my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, they have also divided up my land." 

So when is it that God gathered all the nations in the valley and entered into judgment with them? It does not happen. This is yet to be fulfilled or else we must allegorize this scripture and say it doesn't mean what it says, that's the option. 

"I will gather all nations," he says, "bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people, my heritage Israel." Verse 3 says, "They have cast lots for my people, they have given a boy as a payment for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they may drink. Indeed, what have you to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? Will you retaliate against me? But if you retaliate against me swiftly and speedily, I will return your retaliation upon your own head, because you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your temples my prized possessions. 

Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem you have sold to the Greeks that you may remove them far from their borders. Behold, I will raise them out of the place to which you have sold them; I will return your retaliation upon your own head, I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabians, to a people far off, for the Lord has spoken." 

"Proclaim this among the nations, prepare for war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around, cause your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. 

Let the nations be awakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe, come go down, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great." 

Verse 14, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake, but the Lord will be a shelter for His people and the strength of the children of Israel." 

In this picture we have all the nations gathered against the Lord in the valley of decision. This is the picture of the day when Jesus comes at His second coming and judges the earth. Zechariah 14 makes this clear as well. The great and terrible day of the Lord, the day, a specific day, when He comes means judgment for the world, for the system, for the nations, for all that offends. 

But it means salvation and deliverance for Judah. God will keep His covenants, He will keep His unconditional promises for one reason, because of His name, to bring glory to Himself, so that all shall know that He is the Lord. Verse 17, we quit reading in verse 16, verse 17 says, "So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through here again." 

Any aliens in Jerusalem today? No aliens shall pass through here again. Jerusalem shall be holy, and it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water. A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord, and water the valley of Acacias. 

"Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of violence against the people of Judah, for they have shed innocent blood in their land, but Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation, for I will," listen to this, "I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed whom I had not acquitted, for the Lord dwells in Zion." 

When they killed Jesus, did they stumble that they should fall? Can they not get back up? Has God cast away his people? "I will acquit them from the bloodshed that they have caused." 

Zechariah 14, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming." He goes on and on with these prophecies, and the time he's going to judge the nations. Romans 11, Paul makes this clear, "I do not desire you should be ignorant. This is a partial blindness, this is a temporary blindness. God's going to turn back to Israel. The Deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Why? For this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins." 

God hasn't made a covenant with Gentiles. God has made a covenant with Israel. Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 

We see the broad scope, we see the narrow scope of the use of the day of the Lord in the scriptures, and we see the promise of deliverance of salvation for Israel. The day of the Lord is for Israel, my friends. It's for God pouring out His judgment; it's for God taking back what is rightfully His; it's for God establishing His rule and reign. 

But in that, He's going to bring salvation and fulfill the promises that He's made. We shall know that He is the Lord, and there is no other, and He will rule and reign and be glorified for His namesake. Why will He do this? To accomplish His will, His purpose, in the theocracy He intended in creation and the fulfillment of His intent for the nation of Israel. This is the day of the Lord. 

So the day of the Lord will come. What does that mean to you? Well, it's nice to study all these things; it's a ton of the scriptures; it must be important. It's nice to work this out and work through it and have an understanding as best we can of all these details. It's good, we should do that, but the message we really need to take home for ourselves is that wicked men are going to be judged. God is coming to judge the wicked, to judge the world. 

He's left us here in this time as His ambassadors, as His agents, with a message. He's committed to us the word of reconciliation. Peter says, anticipating His coming, looking up, means living a life worthy of our calling in holy conduct and godliness and being a witness in this world. 

So what do we need to do in light of His coming, in light of the day of the Lord, in light of all these events? We need to be faithful today. We need to be faithful to what God has called us to do, and that is to live out who we are by His grace and power through faith and to tell others about Jesus. That's why we're here. Don't worry about all these things, don't worry about what's going on in the world. God has us here for a specific purpose; He's made that clear. 

Let's be faithful today and bring Him glory. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you. We thank you that you tell us the end from the beginning, that you give us all of this revelation of things that are yet to come. We thank you that you tell us the truth, that we can believe what you say, that your word means what it says, and that you've given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into that truth, to help us to understand it, help us to be humble where we need to be humble, and help us to stand firm in conviction in those things that you have made clear, and help us to trust you and believe you, to live for you so that we might live a holy life in consistency with who we are because of what you've done in us in salvation, because you live in us, and help us to be a witness that we might bring you glory, that the world might know that Jesus is the Christ, that He will rule and reign. 

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.