That Day Will Not Come, unless... — Bob Faulkner

The Coming of Christ and the Falling Away

Brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you 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 had come.

Let no one deceive you by any means, that day will not come, unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. Welcome back to the house, to the Hackberry House.

It's a daily podcast that we have, devoted to the word of God and the persecuted church. I'm Bob, a servant of the Lord from northern Illinois. We've been talking about watching for the Lord's coming.

Looking for Jesus While Expecting Prior Events

Today we see there are some other things that come just before He does. The scripture is so clear about this, that one wonders how the new idea was able to take root so deeply. Now the two passages where Paul says we're looking for Jesus, must be called neutral on this whole subject.

In the light of the passages that I quoted before, on other days, they don't change the order of events. But I'm sure that those who believe Jesus comes to rescue us from the tribulation will see in these verses something different.

But as I say, nothing definitive is said here about the subject at hand. Here are his words, Philippians 3 .20,. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait, or look for, a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Titus 2 .13, We are looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Looking for Jesus. Looking for our blessed hope. Does that mean that nothing else will come first?

That we can expect nothing to lead up to that event? We've already seen in Peter that we can indeed expect other things. Let's look closer at the last season of time. From this point on, I am assuming that Paul spoke the truth when he gave that fact in 2 Thessalonians 2, that day will not come unless, as I read at the beginning.

And that Peter also spoke the truth when he told his people to look for Jesus, though many things were coming first. Assuming there is no secret rapture, since that rapture is even a secret to Scripture, we've got to brace ourselves to be looking for other things first.

Watching Through Trials and Perseverance

Imagine for a moment that you are a retiree to be. You haven't retired yet. You're in your final year. What a difficult year that is. I've been there and done that. Every day strains by on leaden feet, and there's all the paperwork you've got to go through for retiring.

There's arrangements to make, costs to count, a certain amount of apprehension, in fact. But all of this is overshadowed and pushed out of the way by the great moment to be. One day, you're going to walk out of that office, that factory, that building, or whatever shape or fashion, and you're going to leave it all behind.

You're going to be free. You see how that works? You're looking for the retirement. That's your hope. But you know just as certainly that other things must come first. You can deal with both truths at the same time.

Maybe you're a runner. You see the goal line. It draws you on, but there's sweat and pain and courage that you must inhabit until you cross that line. Your eyes fixed on the goal. Your body is still in the turmoil of the race.

These aren't the best examples, but they give you a flavor of that scriptural idea of watching and looking. Part of our watching has led us to the scriptures, to dig deeper than before. We've found the passages I've been sharing that indicate things must come first.

Does that take your eyes off of Jesus? Does that lull you to sleep in some way? No, no, no. The race continues. The last year of the job still calls us to report to duty every day, but we know that soon it will be all over.

If the events mentioned in the texts do not happen in our lifetime, we know that at the very least, at the very least, death is going to summon us to the place where we shall behold him. Our eyes are on Jesus the whole time.

The ultimate watching is the watching of his face. Folks, you can walk and chew gum at the same time. You can look at two mountains, one of them higher and one of them lower at the same time. You can count to five on your way to counting to ten.

Revelation's Sequence Before Christ's Return

Jesus will return. But the book of Revelation is clear that a whole host of events come first. Why the entire book of Revelation comes before Jesus does. Chapter one to three in Revelation comes before Jesus does.

That is all of church history. Those seven chapters, by the way, don't represent seven church ages. I don't know where that came from. How do I know? The Bible doesn't tell me so. That's how the Bible simply tells me the condition of seven churches.

But as I look at church history and I look at the condition of the churches today, lo and behold, those seven churches match every imaginable church situation. Worldliness, deadness, false teachers, persecution, overcoming.

Why Revelation 4 Is Not the Rapture

Chapter four is not the rapture, dear sheep of God. I refer to us as sheep now because just like this sheep who is writing and speaking these words to you, I know that you're led astray, just like me, pretty easily.

Someone stands in front of you and tells you that because John is caught up in chapter four, that's why, therefore, the church is caught up in chapter four too. Oh, come on. That's that's not brilliant, really.

That same person will then tell you that the church is not found in the book of Revelation after that. What he should have said in honesty before God is that the word church is not there. But oh, the church is all over that book.

Now I've covered this ground in a book I wrote called Caught Up, But When I hope you'll go check that out. But but here, let me just say how annoying with a capital A it is to see otherwise solid Bible teachers.

And there's a host of them. Good one. Good men. But they pass on this stuff to God's people. I don't get it. Why? They're so lacking in this area. One thing we do see in chapters four and following is a certain time frame which can be translated simply as three and one half years.

The Tribulation Foretold by Daniel

You all know this. I'll bet this is the tribulation period foretold by Daniel and others. Again, I've written much about it on Sermon Audio dot com. World chaos, upheaval, death, famine, wars like never before.

All of this before Jesus. Well, look, look at Matthew 24. When Jesus was asked when he would come, he, too, began listing things that would happen. And then he stopped and said, but but but all these things are merely the beginning of sorrows.

These aren't the signs of his coming, even though some well-meaning scholar wrote that title on the top of Matthew 24 in my Bible. He probably wrote a book by that name, too. No, the signs of his coming are the preaching of the gospel in the whole world.

Has that happened? And the abomination of desolation. Has that happened? The book of Revelation talks of the rise and fall of Babylon before his coming. Has that happened? Talks of a beast rising from the sea.

It talks of a resurrected ruler becoming king over all the earth. It talks of a false prophet at his side. It talks of two Elijah-like prophets who will miraculously come from heaven, be killed, be resurrected and brought back to heaven.

Has any of that happened? And finally, it talks of the heavens being opened and the rider on the white horse and the armies all around him newly raptured and the supper of flesh given to the animals of the earth as a major slaughter takes place.

That is the coming of Jesus, the only one predicted in Scripture, and it's nearly at the end of the book. Folks, let's not be deceived. Now all of these things can happen in a relatively short time, but it does not appear that any of them have happened yet.

Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus

Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't listen to wild interpretations. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the one who most definitely will come, but read the manual. Don't get caught up in end-time deception portrayed in movies and songs.

God's word cannot change. And I say amen. I don't hear any of you saying that, but I hope you're saying it, too. I say amen. Hey, in the future on this podcast, and this is number, what, four or five?

Future Programs and Persecuted Church Studies

Lost count already. Future podcasts are going to feature the works of George Mueller, Henry Drummond, Samuel Rutherford, Jonathan Goforth, Oswald Smith, Charles Spurgeon. I might write a couple things along there, too.

Don't miss it, okay? Every day there's going to be some good stuff. We've got one more section of the one we're doing right now, Who Comes First, Christ or Antichrist. Only one more section of that. Then we'll take a break for The Persecuted Church.

I want to do that on a regular basis. Then we'll come back to another work that I've written called Who is Jesus? A little refresher course for some of you, but something you can pass on to some unsaved friends, too.

Hey, I've got 25 books out there. Go to Sermon Audio. Look up my blog called Books by Bob. Hundreds of articles on ezine .com. I've got YouTube things, YouTube slash The Professor English. Subscribe there on the red button.

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I will interrupt the whole series to answer your question. In between different topics, we can take your topic and your questions. I'd be glad to, love to. Let me hear from you. Write to Bob .J .Faulkner, F-A-U-L-K-N-E-R, .72 at gmail .com.

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But I always, every day I'm on that phone getting your messages. Ask for your free Bible, by the way, when you send me an email. I have English and Spanish in paperback. I have Arabic. I have a bilingual Arabic, Arabic and English, and just Arabic, both of them in hardback.

If you've got a friend who speaks that language, what a blessing that would be for you to give that to that person. My Sermon Audio topics cover a whole wide range of Christian issues. There's a course on the Koran, tons of prophecy studies, a Through the Bible study, a whole lot more.

Just go to sermonaudio .com. I think you're there right now, forward slash aservant70 and browse a while. Thanks for tuning in. Hope to talk with you again real soon. But let me have the Apostle Paul talk to you as I close.

Paul's Warning About the Day of Christ

I want to repeat this one more time because it's so important. Brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled by spirit or by word or by some letter as though it were from us, as though the day of Christ had already come.

Don't let anyone deceive you by any means. That day is not going to come unless the falling away comes first, the apostasy, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, and it goes on to talk about the Antichrist.

Don't you remember, Paul says, that when I was still with you, I told you these things. God bless you today. We're going to talk again soon. Bye-bye.