Our Day of Salvation — Robert B. Thompson

Lord, as we come unto you tonight it is with great praise and thanksgiving. We are so appreciative. So appreciative. We thank you Lord for the good report from Judy Penn Carrick. We are very appreciative of that.

Wonderful work that you do with us. We pray for each family here, Lord, that there will be peace, there will be health. Safety, Lord, to keep us in this day. Day of days, Lord. Now, as we proceed, Lord, you know what needs to be said.

You know what each one of us needs. Help us through your Holy Spirit, Lord, that Jesus, that his word will be what it's supposed to be tonight. And I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, thanks, Lord. I'm greatly honored to have a Major bringing my water.

Redemption and the Nearness of Salvation

It's no light thing. Shall we turn to Romans 13, verses 8 -14. It intrigued me for years, and yet you're all familiar with it. It just gets clearer. It's 13, 8 -14, and it has to do with the theme of redemption.

Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. For he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule, love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Now, the point is this unusual expression. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

What salvation? What does that mean? Now, it doesn't mean dying and going to heaven, because this is something that is coming. Now, we could say that it's the coming of the Lord. How is that salvation to us?

What does it save us from? In other words, what is the issue here? In Revelation 22, 12, the Lord says, I'm coming and my reward is with me to give every man as his work shall be. But I don't think that's what this is talking about, because I think the salvation that is mentioned here has to do with salvation from sin.

And see, the coming of the Lord is a revelation of what has happened prior, because if you stop to think about it, at the coming of Christ, the trumpet sounds, the voice of the archangel, and so on, and the dead are raised, the dead in Christ are raised, and then we who alive and remain are evidently transformed and then caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Now, I submit to you that that is not a salvation from sin, but it is a consequence of something that has happened previously. Because if you stop to think about it, when you're resurrected, in order to deal with sin, the Lord has to bring us before his judgment seat.

The Lord has to bring us before his judgment seat. How can the Lord deal with sin? How does the Lord deal with sin? How is the Lord dealing with sin in our lives today? He calls it to our attention, and then we have a choice to make.

Isn't that so? When it's called to our attention that we are too much in the world, and we're convicted because we're spending our time in the world, and are neglecting the things of God, we have a choice to make.

When we are confronted with a real temptation in the flesh, a real passion in the flesh, and we're tempted to do something wrong, break our marriage vows, hurt somebody, steal or whatever, that is brought up to our attention, and we have a choice to make.

Isn't that so? And in that period of time, either we go the Lord's way or we go our own way. Now, we've come now at this time in history to the real issue, and by far the most significant issue, is our self-will.

Death to Self-Will

Now, when the Lord first called this issue of death to self-will to me, it was before we came to the Poway Church. So that's over 24 years ago. And it was made very real to me about death to self, about this third death, which is death to self.

First death is death to the world, and the second death is death to sin, and the third death is death to self. And I wrote on that subject, on the three deaths and resurrections, before ever we came to the Poway Church.

So this is not new to me. But I realized at that time that there were some deeper life people of God, such as Madame Guion and Jesse Penn Lewis and A .B. Simpson, that had mentioned death to self, but I noticed that no one had ever treated it in a systematic, biblical way.

It had been a kind of a personal experience. It certainly was with Jesse Penn Lewis. It certainly was with Madame Guion. It was a personal experience that they went through. But to see it like in terms of the Feast of the Lord or something of this, no, it was not in existence.

And I realized that no one had written systematically, clearly and scripturally, on the death to self. And yet, as time goes on, we see that this is the issue. I mean, because all sin springs from this.

All sin springs from obedience or disobedience. And we know that God is dealing with this now in the church. In fact, he's dealing with all three areas in the church. Well, these issues cannot be faced when the trumpet sounds and the dead are raised and you're changed.

At least I don't think so. It doesn't make sense to me that the first resurrection would take place and then we would stand before the judgment seat of Christ because the first resurrection is the consequence.

In other words, the first resurrection is the sentence of judgment. That is not the judgment, but the sentence. The sentence is that you have attained eternal life in your flesh and you're caught up to be with Christ forever.

There can't be a judgment after that. How after that could God give you the good that you have done and the bad that you have done? How could you, after that, then make up your mind about death to your self-will?

How could you make up your mind after that to death to the passions of the flesh or death to the world? It can't happen. See, it can't happen. Now, I'm reasoning with you now, but I have solid scriptural basis for what I'm talking about.

We'll go into that. But first I wanted to present to you the issue. It is my conviction from the scripture that this day of salvation of which Paul taught is a day that will come before the coming of the Lord and will cause the Christian church to make the decisions that will either qualify them for the first resurrection or not.

See, that's totally logical. I submit to you further that it's not clearly stated and spelled out that this will happen like this in this order in the scripture. But neither was the first coming of the Lord spelled out clearly in the prophets.

That there would be two comings separated by 2 ,000 years. And the Jews are still looking for Messiah to come because they can't see it in the scripture. And if you will recall, when the Lord was born, there was only two old people that knew it and all the rest of Israel went on blindly.

Now, why? Because they were religious people, they were accurate in terms of the law, but they were not in contact with God. And I submit to you today that God is doing something that has about it a dispensational aspect.

And I do not mean by that the theory of dispensationalism, but I mean an actual step forward in the kingdom and that it will be hidden to everyone except those who are really seeking the Lord. And it will pass by the rest of the church and they won't know what hit them when the time comes.

And I have solid scripture and we'll go into that. But what Paul wrote here about the salvation is obviously not clear to Christian scholars because they've never written on it. They just assume it means we're dying and going to heaven or it assumes that it means the Lord is coming or something.

But on any basis in the Old Testament or the New, it's an assumption. But they haven't thought it through clearly because they're thinking of heaven. And we realize that salvation is not salvation from the earth to heaven, but it's salvation from what to what?

From Satan to God. From sin to salvation in the sense of redemption. And redemption in the Bible is from the hand of the enemy and the enemy is Satan. And we forfeited the right to live without sin by obeying Satan.

And this is what God said in Genesis, that sin crouches at the door waiting to have dominion over you. And so what our forefathers lost by forfeiture was the ability to serve God without sin. And so redemption, we didn't lose heaven, we were never in heaven.

So redemption has nothing to do with heaven, it has to do with what was lost in Eden. What was lost in Eden was the ability to serve God without being compelled to sin or exercise self-will, thereby earning the right to eternal life.

So what I'm submitting to you is when the Redeemer, the redemption that is coming, of which the New Testament speaks, albeit not in systematic terms, is a final redemption from sin. And it will occur before the Lord comes and it will occur to those who are watching.

The Feasts of the Lord and Future Redemption

Watching. Let me give you a couple of scriptures. Let's look at 1 Peter 1 .5. In the NIV, it's especially good. 1 Peter 1 .5. Those of you who know, how many here are pretty well acquainted with the Feasts of the Lord?

I think almost all of us, except probably Brooke hasn't had much teaching on it. But we see the system. We see that Passover comes and then Pentecost comes and then comes the Day of Atonement. So we see that the day of reconciliation to God, which is obviously, we were reconciled by the blood to begin with.

And so legally, so now we have to be reconciled in terms of our actual personality and particularly our willingness to say, not thy will but thine be done. And so this comes after Pentecost. And it comes before tabernacles.

So we are on solid ground as far as the types are concerned. And also we'll be bringing up another one pretty soon, another real good type, which is the Cave of Makeda, which shows it quite clearly. Now, take a look at 1 Peter 1 .5.

Who through faith are shielded by God's power. Now, colleague, that's where it fits in. That's where the whole evangelical picture fits in. That's where Romans 13 fits in. See, in other words, do the best you can to fend it off, see.

But there is a day of salvation coming in which you'll be set free. And this, of course, goes along with Hebrews 9 and 10 that tells us that Christ was offered to make our conscience perfect. The idea being he's not going to be offered for us again.

The assumption is by one offering we're sanctified forever. The idea is we're kept under guard. So that's what it says in the NIV. We're kept under a shielding. We're shielded by faith doing the best we can, putting on Christ, praying and everything until God releases us.

And what I'm pointing out to you is that release does not come by physical death. Because after death comes judgment. Nor does it come when the Lord appears because when the Lord comes, He gives rewards.

That's a time of rewards. That's why I point out Revelation 22. My reward is with me to give every man of his work shall be. So the redemption has to come prior to the coming of the Lord and prior to the Feast of Tabernacles.

That is the entering of the Father and the Son into their church. It has to come before then. So we need to see if the Scripture is pointing toward a day of redemption that is in and of itself that's not our physical death and it's not the coming of the Lord.

How many are tracking me? It's a little academic. Are you the only one? Nobody else is tracking me? You want to go through that again? No, I know you don't want that. Alright, now what I'm saying is this.

When Romans 13 said that the day of salvation is nearer than when we believe and when it says things like lift up your head, your redemption comes near. It's talking not about the second coming of the Lord is included in that but there has to be of necessity a prior coming of the Lord to His church to get it ready for His coming in the clouds of glory and that there is Scripture for this.

And I think that that our shield by God's power were kept under the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed the last time. Now what I'm asking you is what is that salvation? See, the coming of the Lord is a revealing of what is.

And if the coming of the Lord brings the judgment seat of Christ then things are all out of order and it won't work that way. We can't have the Lord come and we're still trying to decide whether we're really going to serve the Lord and then have Him come raise us or transform us if we're alive at the time catch us up to be forever with Him and then at that time we go through the process that we're going through now of confessing our sins and deciding whether we're going to stay in the prison that God puts us in until this soulful is killed.

See, this cannot happen after that. Can you see that? So we have to see if the Scripture implies that there is a salvation that will come to those who are looking for Christ prior to His coming to give rewards.

Okay, let's look now at Hebrews 9, 27 and 28 and here's where the practice I'm talking now kind of theologically but here's where the practical comes in. I'm telling you in the name of the Lord to the best of my knowledge that this is taking place now and you can miss it by being careless.

You can have all perfect evangelical doctrine and miss it. You can miss it by occupying yourself with the American way of life the pursuit of money the pursuit of happiness the pursuit of material things.

You absolutely can miss it. It requires all the attention in the world that you can bring to it. And all I'm asking is to seek God with all your heart and that's got to be right. You can miss it by playing around with the lust of your flesh with office flirtations with a little pornography a little risque thing.

Yeah, it's not really you didn't run off with anybody else's husband or wife but you're kind of playing with the fire. Do you know what I mean? You're kind of playing with the fire. You can miss it that way.

It requires more than that. We're going for the summit and it requires more than a half-baked sanctification. It requires total giving of yourself to Christ. And as you seek the Lord He will give you the energy and the desire to do it but boy, you cannot be distracted by anything.

And then when it comes to the self-will thing that means that God is putting us in prisons today and we have to stay in them. We cannot break out and it causes us to say continually not my will but yours be done and it is not easy.

It's tougher than we realize. I'm going to put some iron in you tonight. I know that's what God is saying to us tonight. I've got to put some iron in you. It's harder than we realize. The reason it is is because we've been used to an 80 consecration and it isn't going to work.

Not if you want to make the resurrection of God's kings and priests. It isn't going to work. Hebrews 9 .27 and 28. Now see if this follows the train. The idea that the Lord is going to come prior to His coming in the clouds of glory.

Not as someone says, go here and go there. I'm not talking. I'm talking about as you pray. As the Scripture says, He shall come unto us as the rain. Hosea 6. And again in Acts 3. And the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.

Seasons. Plural. Times. Seasons of opportunity that come. And like it says in Leviticus 23. These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim in their season. And I'm telling you that now we are passing from the season of Pentecost into the season of the day of atonement.

It's a season. Now look at it. For as appointed unto men once to die, after that what? The judgment. So, Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. What is that in parallel with?

As man is destined to die once. See how the parallel? Just as man is destined to die once. In the same way. So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. Now look at the second part.

And after that to face judgment. And what is the parallel in the next verse? To bring salvation. To whom? We are waiting for Him. And that salvation, I'm telling you, is judgment on the sins that are in us.

We are of firstfruits of God's creation. That's in James. Where is that? It's in the first chapter of James. Yes, Bill. By all means. All of you have to... You know, I'm getting loud, but it's because I want it to drive into your spirit.

That is tougher than people are willing today. We've got all these boys who have come here and come there. Let's have a little of this and a little of that. Let's not get extreme and all that. And I'm telling you, it will pass you by.

It's going to require everything you've got. You've got to hang in there. You can do it. But we're going for the top. You see? We're going for the top. Now, I'm perfectly willing for you to ask questions because I've got enough scriptures here to choke a hog.

Yes? What does it mean by without reference to sin coming a second time to judgment? In other words, He came first to forgive sin. He's coming the second time to do away with it. In other words, He's not coming as the Lamb of God to deal with sin.

He's coming as the King to remove sin from us. That's what it's talking about. Yes? He will appear a second time as an individual person. Yes, it is. It's a movement on God's church as a whole. And, of course, we know from the letters we get on the internet, you don't get to see these, but there's people all over the world that are hearing God's voice and are being turned around.

What was that one lady said today? She was... She said, It's just been totally revolutionized because it's so different. Because it's like a veil goes away from you. So, God has His elect and they're scattered here and there all over the place.

Of course, we're dealing here with a local church. But, on the internet, we're dealing with a very select group. I mean, it's just one out of ten thousand that God is really dealing with. That's the problem.

We're a little too comfortable here. It's a little too much business as usual. Well, we've heard that. And now let's get on with our life. And that's why I yell every once in a while because I can feel that.

And I know you're going to miss it if you don't really mean business. And all these little bodies that are all over that don't have a church to go to and that are living off the tapes and the internet, God is talking to them.

And they're ready to go. Eddie reads those too. He can tell you about them. Alright, any other questions? Yes. Yes, it is. Every one of the feasts of the Lord. See, the feasts of the Lord cover this. Whenever you begin to wonder, you can go back to the feasts and there's your track for you.

Every one of them will be fulfilled historically in a kingdom-wide fulfillment. And every one of them is fulfilled personally. And unless it's fulfilled in you personally, the kingdom-wide fulfillment won't have any meaning.

For example, let's go back to Passover. That was fulfilled in a kingdom-wide sense 2 ,000 years ago. But unless you appropriate it personally, it will have no value for you. The same way with the Day of Pentecost came historically 2 ,000 years ago.

But until you grasp it personally, the historical fulfillment has no meaning. Now, the Feast of Trumpets is described in the 8th chapter of the book of Revelation with the seven trumpets. You see? But unless it's fulfilled in you personally, then the historical fulfillment won't have any significance.

So every one of these will be fulfilled in a historical kingdom-wide fulfillment and then to you personally. And of course you can go ahead of your time. And if you have. But now is God's time to deal with a much larger segment of his church than with Madam Guy on here and Jesse Penn Lewis there and someone else over here.

It's time for the wagon train. Or for our first fruits of the wagon train. And so we're beginning to see it scripturally. You have to... On your question, Bill, you have to look at two or three translations because it's a hard verse to translate evidently so you can get the idea of what he means without references in.

The first time he came, the whole thing was to forgive the sins of the world. Now he's coming to put them away. In other words, he's not coming to be a sin-bearer. But he's coming to be a king and deliverer.

That's the sense. Of course, you could interpret it to mean his coming has nothing to do with sin. But we know that that's not true because we know that when the Lord comes, he's going to destroy sin out of the earth.

Alright. But that certainly could be inferred from that. Alright. Now, if you want to look at... And you're all familiar with these. John 14 starting with verse 19. And I mean, this is very clear. Now remember, we're not saying low here and low there.

We're talking about the coming of the Lord to his church in the Spirit. As his kingdom-wide coming will be as the lightning shines from the east to the west. But you see, that's a time of revelation and of consequence.

The work has to be done prior to that. And it is happening now. You know the best way to check a doctor? Go and ask the Lord. Just say, are you dealing with me about myself, Will? Are you dealing with me?

Just ask him. He'll tell you. All I do is interpret. I'm not telling you to do anything. Just pay attention to the Lord. That's all. I know you enjoy that part. Alright, now, 1419. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.

Because I live, you also will live. So we know we're talking about the life of Christ in us. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Now, that awareness is just now coming to the church.

If you don't believe it, you ought to read some of the early church fathers as they tried to describe the Trinity. I mean, it's... They're trying to figure out whether it was like a chandelier with three light bulbs, it was one chandelier, but yet there were three lights, and it was a three-leaf clover, and they have all these... to explain to us how God is one and God is three.

The Trinity, Obedience, and Christ's Coming to His Church

When you begin to enter the Feast of Tabernacles, you'll know, because you'll experience inside the Father and the Son, and you'll know the difference between them. But you can't describe it with your mind.

You just know it. God is our Father, and Christ is our Savior and our older brother. They're not the same person at all. Are they one? So, of course they're one. But we're being made one in them. Same oneness.

They're one, but not one person. So that... You know, theologians are wrestling with that. Oh, cults have come up around that and everything else. In fact, the Jesus name culture is all broke off about the Trinity.

Is it one and three or three and one? It's all mental. You have to experience that. That day. What day? That day is referring to Isaiah. In the day the Lord alone is exalted in your life, in that day you will know about the Trinity.

You'll know about God. You'll know because Jesus will reveal the Father to you. As it says in Matthew 11, No man knows the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. That's the rest of God.

That's the rest of God. It's the revelation of the Father. And the Father is the Father, and Jesus is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. And yet they're one. And we're being made one in them.

It's largely a semantic problem. Now, here's the trick of it. Whoever has my commandments and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. Now, that is why Satan has pushed so hard in the evangelical church to tell us we don't have to keep God's commandments, or there are no commandments except the law of love, or Jesus did it all, or whatever, because you cannot go anywhere with God until you do what the New Testament commands you to do.

Grace, that's not the meaning of grace. It is not an alternative to God's commands. Yes, Anthony?

Verse 20, is that because it says coming. It doesn't say coming first, but we've been talking about coming. Alright, you see it. We're getting to it. You'll see it.

Good question, though. Now, notice in verse 21, but you have to do what the apostles commanded and what Christ commanded. You cannot say, oh, but I'm saved by grace. It doesn't work. That's not the meaning of grace.

He who loves me will be loved by my Father. Let's see. He is the one who loves me. That's how we know we love Christ, when we do what he says. He who loves me will be loved by my Father. Do you see the difference there?

That's two people you're talking about there. Alright, he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him, and show myself to him. Not to the world, but to him. This is not talking about his first coming.

It's not talking about his second coming. It's talking about something in between. There's the Bible. Okay? Now look at it. Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, but Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?

To those who look for him. Then shall he appear a second time, without sin, unto salvation. Not as a sin bearer, but as the salvation talked about in 1 Peter 1 .5 and Romans 13. The salvation that is near to come.

Okay? Jesus replied, if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. Okay? My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Now that's the fulfillment of what? Feast. But where does it come in relationship to the Day of Atonement?

After. So therefore, the Day of Atonement, the Day of Reconciliation to God, must come before this. So I submit to you that the Lord comes to us to prepare us for tabernacles. It's as simple and reasonable as that.

The Refiner's Fire and the Coming Messenger

Alright, now let's go now to Malachi 3. Now as I say, if you don't understand all this theology, it's alright. Just go home and say, Lord, make it apply to me. And he will. Malachi 3. See, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.

Then suddenly, the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. Now I want to submit to you, this is not the coming of the Lord in the clouds of glory. It's a coming of the Lord to his temple in people.

The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, but who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord as in days gone by, as in former years.

Now we turn to, what Stan? You know, he knows where I'm going. Matthew 3. Matthew 3. The axe is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Isn't that what Jesus said in John 15? For a branch, abide not in me, is cut off and burned? Okay. I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Now what did Malachi say? The Lord will come and he is a refiner's fire. Now look at this. Now just stop and think logically for a minute. Will this happen at the coming of the Lord?

Is it talking about his coming in the clouds of glory? Is it talking about something that will happen after he comes? After we have been raised from the dead? After we have been transformed? After we have received our house from heaven?

After we have been caught up and to be forever with the Lord? Is it going to come then? Well, how about John 14? I will come to you. I will come to you. And for what purpose? To prepare us for the Feast of Tabernacles, which follows the Feast perfectly.

Alright, now look at it. His winnowing fork is in his hand. Well, you know what that is, where you toss grain up in the air and the chaff blows away and the wheat falls back into the pan. Alright? He will clear his threshing floor, now this is who?

Who is doing this?

The Holy Spirit. And who is that?

Jesus. So when it says the Messenger of the Covenant, could Jesus rightly be called the Messenger of the Covenant? Or the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple? The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple?

It is not stretching it. The alternatives are not red hot. It sounds like the Lord is coming to baptize his church with fire. Now let me ask you a logical question now. Consider the Pentecostal church.

Most of you have been in the Pentecostal or Baptist church. What shape are they in? What shape are they in? I get letters from people. They are almost unbelievable. The things that are going on in the Christian churches are almost unbelievable.

Now I tell you, the Bible says, the trumpet will sound, the voice of the archangel, and the dead shall be raised, and then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Now, suppose that's tonight. What about the rank and file of Charismatic and Baptist churches? Consider it. The question is, are they ready to meet Jesus? Well, you've been there.

Are they? Yes? I'm hearing all the way through everything you're saying. This business of self-will is at the center of it because we have that choice to be other-conscious and Lord-conscious, really Lord-conscious so that we're other-conscious.

And I noticed in the first chapter of Romans it talks about salvation too and links it right straight through every scripture you've talked about and links it through with the power of God and righteousness and now the Holy Spirit here and fire and burning up the stuff we don't want just because we say we're committed we're not necessarily committed.