Sermons - Cornerstone Christian Fellowship

From Time To Time - Part Seven

Oct 01, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: From Time to Time

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Ex 12:40 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

We will continue to look at God's specific timings.

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Sunday October 1st 2023
From Time to Time – Part 7

1). Ex 12:40 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

We had seen last time that God had set a precise time for the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt. A time that was set before the children of Israel physically existed, while they were still in the loins of their father Abraham – Heb 7:9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

According to God’s timing, it would be four hundred and thirty years from the promise given to Abraham in Genesis Chapter 12 and four hundred years counting from the birth of Isaac, Abraham’s first descendant, until the Exodus - Ge 15:13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

There is no randomness to God’s timing, only precision. And we are now familiar with this same precision with respect to the timing of the Babylonian captivity – Jer 25:11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

And we know that as those seventy years were completed, another precise time was given to God’s people Israel, with the promise that all matters relating to them, and their deliverance will be finished at the conclusion of this time – Da 9:24 “Seventy weeks [lit. seventy sevens = 490 years] are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

And we also know that precisely four hundred and eighty-three of these years have been completed, from the command to restore and build Jerusalem to the crucifixion of Christ. Leaving that precise seven-year period, the time of Jacob’s trouble, still to be fulfilled.
	a). And all of this fits within the precise time of two days, two thousand years that God has given for the dispensation of the Jews, and when those seven-years do come to an end, on that very same day, the Jewish people will be in the Third Day. And on that very same day as the two days, the two thousand years of the Jewish dispensation ends, so the six days, six thousand years, that God set in the foundation for the restoration of fallen Man, Man’s Day, will also come to an end and the Seventh Day will be at hand. There is no ambiguity in any of this.
	b). We might remember reading – 2 Pe 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

That which is the context for these verses is the salvation of the soul, and we see in connection with this that the Lord is longsuffering. But we should note that the Lord’s longsuffering is expressed through His provision of six thousand years to restore that which was ruined, ‘one day is as a thousand years.’ The Lord’s long-suffering though is not endless with respect to the coming Seventh Day. It is encompassed within a specific time, and when that time is complete, so is the Lord’s long-suffering towards those who have had opportunity to inherit the Kingdom.
	c). And although the verses from Peter address the Christian, we can view the nature of the Lord’s long-suffering through what we have seen through His dealings with His wayward son, His harlot wife. And last time we had seen examples of the depth of the spiritual bankruptcy into which the Jewish people have sunk and will yet sink, through the fulfillment of the parable from Matthew Chapter 12, when the unclean spirit returned to his ‘house’ and took seven other spirits more wicked than himself with him. Providing a word picture for a remnant of Jews returning to the land of Israel in 1948, quite apart from God’s time or direction, resulting in their last state being worse than the first. And to compound this further, as God remains long suffering towards them, we know that in the very near future, God’s covenant people will choose to make a covenant with the son of Satan, the Antichrist. A covenant that Isaiah calls, a covenant with death – Ho 5:13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; [a type of the Antichrist] Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound.

‘His sickness’, and ‘his wound’, are used as metaphors for the whole house of Israel’s spiritual condition. The same picture that has been presented in 
Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. 7 Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

And although the Jewish people will turn to the Antichrist and his covenant, pictured through king Jareb, their spiritual condition cannot be dealt with in this way, or by this man’s hands. And we can add to this something we might remember from a few weeks back, as we call to mind the futility of the worship in the temple in Jerusalem that was graphically portrayed through the empty void where God’s glory should have been, revealed through the tearing of the veil from top to bottom at the Lord’s death. And the futility of the temple worship practices, apart from the God of their fathers, and apart from faith, reached its terminal point, so to speak, when the temple was destroyed, along with the city in AD70. And there has been no temple since, and nor could there be, as the Jewish people have been set aside and all has been fulfilled in the Christ whom they have rejected and pierced and on whom they must one day look.
	d). Not only then do we see a remnant of Jews doing what seemed right in their own eyes by returning to the land to fulfill their own purpose apart from their Messiah, days prophetically spoken of in – Jg 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
 
And not only do we see this same remnant continuing to do what seems right in their own eyes yet future by making covenant with the antithesis of the God of their fathers, the one who is the epitome of death – 
Re 6:7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

But they will also, with Antichrist’s compliance, rebuild their temple, a temple that should only be for the presence of the God of their fathers. And they will do this to satisfy their own desire for self-righteous ritual by reengaging with the futile and pointless practices previously taken from them. All apparently connected with the covenant of death. And the depths to which the Jewish people will have sunk in this future time is shockingly portrayed through the actions of Antichrist at the mid-point in the tribulation – Mt 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Mk 13:14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

2 Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Even though the temple in the days of the Antichrist will be rebuilt entirely within the remit of the son of Satan and God’s hand will not be in it at all, that cannot annul that which God has said concerning its location – 
2 Ch 6:5 ‘Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over My people Israel. 6 Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

2 Ch 7:16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

The temple which will be rebuilt in the days of Antichrist of necessity will incorporate what is known today as ‘The Wailing Wall’, the only remaining part of Solomon’s temple where God has placed His name. And at the mid-point in the tribulation, in the Holy place of the rebuilt temple, the Holy place that was empty and void in the previous temple in Jerusalem at the Lord’s first Advent, the Antichrist will sit and declare that he is God. Where the radiance of the glory of the presence of God should be found, one who is the personification of total darkness will reside instead. In this moment the cup of iniquity of the Jewish people will be full to overflowing. And the final three and one half of the full four hundred and ninety years will see the mighty tempest blow upon the sea, three- and one-half years of unprecedented suffering that will conclude on the very same day as the end of the seven years, with God’s predetermined purpose fulfilled –

Jer 13:22 And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” For the greatness of your iniquity Your skirts have been uncovered,
Your heels made bare. 23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil. 24 “Therefore I will scatter them like stubble That passes away by the wind of the wilderness. 25 This is your lot, The portion of your measures from Me,” says the LORD, “Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in falsehood.

Lk 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Mal 4:2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. 3 You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this,” Says the LORD of hosts.

2). We can see this same remnant of the Jewish people seeking to deliver themselves apart from God’s timing and their Messiah, who will make the covenant with death and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, who began returning to the land in 1948, presented typologically at the beginning of the Book of Jonah – Jon 1:3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

From this verse we see that Jonah went down to Joppa and then went down into the ship. Always a downward trajectory, a downward decent that provides a parallel thought to the taking of seven other more wicked spirits than himself with him, from Matthew 12:45, leading to the last state of that man being worse than the first, a last state that anticipates the covenant to be made with Antichrist and the hand of this man in the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. And if we then take note of the imagery in Jonah 1:3 we will see that in the natural Jonah being on the ship, puts him in a place where he is surrounded by the sea. And knowing by the eyes of faith to the saving of the soul that the sea is used in Scripture as a type for the Gentile nations, and the place of death, we can conclude that the only place, which is not the sea, the ship, where Jonah is found, must picture the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The very place where a remnant of the Jewish people still fleeing from the presence of the God of their fathers have been since May 1948.
	a). And there is from a natural standpoint what we would see as a significant time gap between 1948 and what will be the beginning of the tribulation, marked by the rider on the white horse in Revelation Chapter 6, but no such time gap, going all the way back to AD70, and even further back to the commissioning of the nation to be God’s witness, is seen in Jonah, just as there is no time gap between the sixty nineth and seventieth weeks in Daniel Chapter 9, no time gap is seen from the Lord’s crucifixion to the prince who is to come, who will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Both Daniel’s prophecy and the Book of Jonah deal exclusively with the history of the Jewish people and therefore no mention is made of anything to do with the bride for Christ, or God’s present work during this dispensation. And the same is true for the Book of Esther. God’s present work is seen through certain events recorded in the accounts of Joseph and Moses, that we had looked at last time. And it is seen within the panoramic type given through the sequence of chapters in Genesis, in Chapters 21-25. And of course, in Ruth.  But both Jonah and Esther have as their focus events to do with the time of Jacob’s trouble and beyond, events as God begins dealing with His wayward son once more, events that can only transpire after the resurrection/rapture of the church, when God will no longer be dealing with Christians in relation to the Kingdom of the heavens. If we want to find the details of God’s work during this dispensation, then as we have said, we need to look elsewhere in the Scriptures, such as Genesis Chapter 24 and the Book of Ruth, not in Jonah and Esther, or Daniel’s prophecy –  Jon 1:4 But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

In these verses we find that ‘Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship’, downward once again adding another facet to the picture of the bankrupt spiritual condition of the Jews as they sink into the depths of their relationship with the Gentile world through making covenant with the Antichrist, while they occupy Jerusalem, the city of the Great God, where God has placed His name. And as we continue in Jonah, we see that the prophet having gone down into the lowest parts of the ship ‘was fast asleep’, just as the Jews in that future day will be fast asleep to what they have done through making their ungodly covenant with the very antithesis of the God of their fathers. Consequently, they will continue to be fast asleep to their calling to be God’s witnesses, and fast asleep to what is about to happen to them next as the mighty tempest begins to blow.
	b). Being ‘asleep’ is something associated with night, the time of the present darkness of this age, just as we see with the wise and foolish virgins who all slumbered and slept, as they waited for the Bridegroom. And through Jonah being ‘fast asleep’ we are given another facet to the overall picture of the Jewish people’s harlotry with the Gentile nations.
	c). The great wind on the sea that is the precursor to the mighty tempest, is not blowing during this dispensation. Rather, what we see with our natural eyes of the ever-increasing chaos that the world spirals into on a daily basis, we can know through the eyes of faith, to be the setting of the stage for when the great wind will start to blow. But it CANNOT blow yet. But blow in full force it certainly will, within God’s precise timing. And when it does begin to blow, then - Mt 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

3). Throughout our study so far, we have become more and more aware of God’s precise timing, realizing that He always acts in accordance with the specific periods of time that He has set in place. And that which He has established and set in place cannot be changed, God remains faithful to His Word, always. And this remains true for the blowing of the great wind and the coming of the mighty tempest. God cannot act with respect to this other than in the precise time He has established. And because God works in these precise ways with respect to time, and the time He works in can seem very long from a human standpoint, spanning generations, and even millennia, it could become easy to think that God is in effect doing nothing. Afterall, how do we see God’s work among Christians other than with the eyes of faith to the saving of the soul, we cannot see it with the natural eye. And this could lead some, who do not see with the eyes of faith, into the temptation to think that God has never intervened in the affairs of Man and never will – 2 Pe 3:1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

These are familiar verses for us displaying a false doctrine that had arisen out of a corrupt mindset concerning the expiration of God’s set times, a false doctrine apart from the wisdom brought forth from above, apart from seeing with the eyes of faith to the saving of the soul. A false doctrine that can readily be countered by believing that God has, and will always, work within precise times. Precise times established at the beginning of Genesis to provide the context for the OT Scriptures and set out again at the beginning of the gospel of John, to set the context in which the NT Scriptures must be seen – 2 Pe 3:5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

V5-6 don’t deal with Noah’s flood, but with the flood seen at the beginning of Genesis – Ge 1:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Those to whom Peter wrote were told of those who had ‘willfully’ forgotten that God had intervened with respect to Satan’s rebellion, with catastrophic consequences for the domain over which he ruled. ‘But the heavens and earth which are now preserved by the same word’, following the restoration in Genesis Chapter 1, the same earth that reappeared after Noah’s flood, ‘are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’ And this will bring us to the end of the Millennial Kingdom, the destruction of the present heavens and earth, the Great White Throne, and the new heavens and earth beyond – 2 Pe 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. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 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? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

And as we see in v8 Peter admonishes his readers to stop forgetting ‘this one thing’, ‘one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ Or to say this another way, God has established a precise, specific, and irrevocable time frame in which these things will be accomplished, foreshadowed in the seven days of Genesis Chapter 1, and we mustn’t forget that. The Lord’s coming, which begins with the resurrection/rapture of the church, is precisely set. He is not tarrying, and if we are still carrying around that Laodicean leftover, then it is well past the time when we need to change our mind - Heb 10:37 “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Rather, He is continuing in His long-suffering, waiting for the last grains of sand to fall through the hourglass, so to speak. And then we will hear the voice of a trumpet.
	a). And just because we have lived all our lives without seeing God’s intervention is of no consequence whatsoever. We can never ask will God ever intervene, where is the promise of His coming?’ instead we have the certainty of the Scriptures, and faith to the saving of the soul to know when He will, precisely. Are we still in any doubt?
b). Questioning the promise of His coming was not the only false doctrine that had surfaced among those who had received the Word of the Kingdom, through a failure to properly understand, by faith, the precision of God’s timing that we had seen set out for us from the very beginning of our study – Heb 11:3 By faith [to the saving of the soul] we understand that the worlds [ages] were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen [with our natural eyes] were not made of things which are visible [only by having faith to the saving of the soul].

And this false doctrine had been introduced among the church in Thessalonica - 2 Th 2:1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ [Day of the Lord] had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away [the apostasy] comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

We will continue with this next time, if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.

From Time To Time - Part Seven

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From Time To Time - Part Seven

Oct 01, 2023

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: From Time to Time

Category: Sunday Morning

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A Recap from the Sermon