Moses mentioned the fact that God was going to raise up a prophet like himself. He said:   

Deuteronomy 18:15    "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee,  of thy brethren,  like unto me;  unto Him  ye shall hearken."

Deuteronomy 18:18   "I   will raise them up a Prophet  from among their brethren, like unto thee,  and  will put my words in His mouth;  and  He shall speak unto them  all  that I shall command Him."

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THIS PROPHECY.

HE IS THE PROPHET AND MATTHEW 24 and 25 IS HIS PROPHECY.

He had censured them in a fashion that absolutely blanches your soul when you read the account. But this One who had spoken like that  is the King,   and  He had exposed them with a broken heart.

Matthew 23:37-39   "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Matthew 24:1   "And Jesus went out,  and departed from the temple:  and  His disciples  came to Him  for to show Him the buildings of the temple."

What is eschatology?

The Greek word  eschatos  means  "last," and logy means "doctrine." 

It is the doctrine of  last  things,  it means  the things that are yet in the future. 

The common colloquialism is  "prophetic study"  or  "future things." 

It means  "prophecy." 

Prophecy has often been brought into disrepute because there has been so much  unreliable teaching. 

There have always been sensation-mongers who used prophecy for promotion rather than for imparting the Word of God  that we might come to know Him better. 

I  do believe that these people are just as much apostates as the liberals are and  I  think  Jude was speaking of them  when he wrote:

Jude 16   "These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage." 

Although Jude is speaking of  apostates, not all apostates  are liberals. They can pose  and pass  as Bible-believing Christians  and yet  be attempting  to use prophecy  for some personal advantage  -  not always money,  but some  can be bought  with a doctor’s degree  or by giving them  some other honor  or  preferment. 

Anyone,  can become an apostate in that direction.

Also,  there can be an overemphasis on prophecy. 

Because of this  and  the sensational character of prophecy,  a great many people have turned away from it.  And yet prophecy is one of the great subjects of the Word of God. 

About  or  at least one-fifth  (some say one-fourth)  of the Scripture,  when  it was written,  was prophetic;  

It announced things that would take place in the future?

Prophecy can be divided in many different ways. 

The more obvious division is between that which is fulfilled and that  which is unfulfilled. 

The Book of Revelation, which is the great prophetic book of the New Testament, was written about 2,000 years go. If you go back even further, you’ll find that the earliest prophecy was written over 3,500 years ago. In the interval between the time they were written and where we stand,  many things have come to pass, and we are told  that  about one-third of predicted prophecy has already been fulfilled. 

Any intelligent person can take up these passages and see that when they were given,  the projection was way out in the future,  and in the meantime they have come to pass  -  so that  what was given as prophecy is now a record of history. 

This is one of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the Word of God.

Why was prophecy given?

IT WAS GOD'S DESIRE.

One of the most interesting things is  that  God seems to  delight  in revealing the future to His own. 

God likes to talk to us  who belong to Him.

Remember, He came down in the cool of the day to talk with Adam in the Garden of Eden. 

And you also find God coming down to spend time with Enoch. 

Genesis 5:24   "And Enoch walked with God;  and he was not,  for God took him."

God  enjoyed  Enoch’s fellowship  so much that one day He just took him home, out of this earthly scene. 

Then there was Noah,  the only man in his day  who was found walking righteously with God. 

God likes people to walk with Him and talk with Him, and He likes to have fellowship.

Oh, how many believers  are robbing themselves of one of the most wonderful experiences they can have! 

We like to sing the song, "He walks with me, and He talks with me." 

But are we really walking and talking with God each day? 

God will not walk and talk with us if we are away from His Word.

God only speaks to us in His Word.

There are quite a few saints who are very far from the Word today.

God likes to reveal Himself,  and He likes to reveal the future to those  who are His children.  

God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,  which was God’s business,  although many people have made it their own business and say,  "Why did God do this?"  You may think that He is wrong,  but  God is right in what He did.

We can never criticize God for doing anything.

God always does what is right.

We can however  ask  God to show us why He does something and then trust Him to  help us see it  His way.

HIS WAY IS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY.

God is not accountable to any one of us.

When God was preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He came down to visit with Abraham.  And just as God was about ready to leave,  He did something  that gives us one of the most amazing passages in the Word of God:  

Genesis 18:17   "And the Lord said,  "Shall I  hide from Abraham what  I  am doing."

Just think of that! God says in effect,  "Should  I  not tell Abraham what I’m going to do?" 

And God decided He would tell Abraham.

This is what  happened:

Genesis 18:18-19   "… since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him." 

In other words, God said,  "I’m going to tell him. I want Abraham to understand it because he is going to tell his children and I’m going to make him a blessing to the world, and I don’t want Abraham saying that God is unjust. If I don’t tell him, Abraham might not understand."

And it is a good thing that God told Abraham what He was going to do  because Abraham  is like us  -  Abraham  misunderstood.

Abraham  thought  God was doing wrong. 

Genesis 18:20-22   "And the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know." Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord."

Abraham was amazed. 

These messengers from God gave the Word,  and Abraham just stood there  before the Lord  and worshiped,  but he didn’t understand. 

I  wonder if he was thinking,  God called me out of idolatry and all which was not right.  I  knew  I  was following a high and holy God, and I  thought He was just  and  right in all He did,  but now  He tells me He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah! 

What did Abraham say?

Genesis 18:23   "And Abraham came near  and said,   "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?"

IT  IS A GOOD THING THAT GOD TOLD ABRAHAM  WHY HE WAS GOING TO DESTROY THE CITIES.

You see,  Abraham did misunderstand.  Abraham would have always thought  that God  was unjust  to destroy the righteous  with the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah. So Abraham said,  "If there were fifty righteous there, would You save the city?" 

And God said:  

Genesis 18:26   "If  I  find in Sodom fifty righteous  within the city,  then I will spare all the place  for their sakes."

Then Abraham brought God’s promise down from fifty to forty,  to thirty,  to twenty,  and  even down to ten. 

And God said: 

Genesis 18:32   "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten."

Why didn’t Abraham go below ten? 

I  think that he must have gotten cold feet.  He came to the conclusion there was no one righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah.  I  think when he reached that conclusion,  his dark thoughts  were that Lot,  his nephew,  had become an apostate,  that he had  turned his back on God. 

BUT LOT HAD NOT TURNED HIS BACK UPON GOD.

2 Peter 2:8   " For that righteous man  dwelling among them,  in seeing  and hearing,   vexed his righteous soul  from day to day  with their unlawful deeds."

You can be sure of one thing,  Lot had  not  turned his back on God,  and God got him out of the city before He destroyed it. 

Mrs. Lot was not one of the righteous. She got outside the city physically,  but  her heart was in Sodom, and when she looked back,  she turned into a pillar of salt.

THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT ABRAHAM UNDERSTOOD SOMETHING ABOUT GOD.

GOD DID NOT HIDE FROM ABRAHAM WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO AND IN OUR DAY GOD WANTS US TO KNOW WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO IN THE FUTURE.

There are things that are veiled even to this day.

No one has all the answers.

GOD HAS NOT TOLD US ALL THINGS AND THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

John 16:12   "I  still have many things to say to you,  but you cannot bear them now."

God  desires to tell us many things  today, 

BUT,   we are  not ready to  hear them. 

Many of us  including myself,  are  not  prepared  or  ready  for  God to speak to us  and  give  us  new truth. 

We need to  stay in a position to receive new truths from God!

Our Lord continues speaking:

John 16:13   "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth."   

Only  the  Spirit of God   can guide you  into  truth  today. 

The reason that the Lord Jesus  sent the Holy Spirit into the world was for Him to be the One to teach us.

Whatever  we  learn  about the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit has been the teacher. 

He alone  can  open  up the  great truths of the Word of God to us. 

The Holy Spirit is the only teacher in the world today who can teach us the Word of God. 

We are absolutely dependent upon Him.

As the Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for His leaving them, He said:  

John 16:7, 12-13   "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away;  for if I do not go away,  the Helper will not come to you;  but if I depart,  I will send Him to you…. I still have many things to say to you,  but you cannot bear them now.  

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority,  but whatever He hears  He will speak; and  He will tell you things to come." 

"And He will tell you things to come."  

THAT IS WHY WE ARE TO STUDY PROPHECY.

IT IS GOD'S DESIRE THAT WE DO.

GOD DESIRES TO TELL US WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO IN THE FUTURE.

Although our Lord, when He was preparing to go back to heaven, told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth and  He would show them things to come,  they still weren’t prepared to receive some things.

THEY  DID NOT BELIEVE  THAT THE LORD JESUS WAS GOING TO DIE.

The Lord Jesus didn’t reveal that to the disciples until six months before  He went to Jerusalem  to be crucified.

He had told Nicodemus though:

John 3:14   "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

But it must have been more than two years later that He first revealed His impending crucifixion to His disciples.

And they did not understand even then.

Simon Peter said,  "Far be that from You, Lord,"  and  our Lord just had to tell him  that it was Satanic to say a thing like that.

How far Simon Peter was from the truth!

He didn’t have any notion what was really going to happen.

The Lord Jesus,  as  He traveled with His disciples all the way from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem, reiterated to them again and again that He was going to Jerusalem to die.

AND HE DID DIE ON THE CRUEL CROSS OF CALVARY.

THEN HE WAS BURIED IN A NEW TOMB.

AND   ON THE THIRD DAY  HE ROSE BODILY FROM THE DEAD AND   HE WAS WITH THE DISCIPLES  FOR 40 DAYS BEFORE HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN.

He promised the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all truth.

Listen to Simon Peter  -  he doesn’t even sound like the same fellow.

He and John were at the temple;  a crowd had gathered around them, amazed  and  wondering  at the healing of the lame man,  so Peter stood up and preached Jesus to them:

Acts 3:18   "But those things  which God foretold  by the mouth of all His prophets, that  the Christ  would suffer, He has thus fulfilled."

Simon Peter did not see that before.

He had said,  "Far be that from You, Lord,"

BUT now that  the Spirit of God had come and led him into all truth,

Simon Peter says, "The prophets told all about this!"

The  only way  that we can ever understand prophecy is by the Spirit of God.

HE MUST TAKE THE THINGS OF CHRIST AND SHOW THEM UNTO US.

The Lord Jesus said,

John 16:13   "He will tell you things to come."

Why does the Holy Spirit do this?

Does He reveal these things to us so that we can satisfy our curiosity,  or entertain ourselves?

No.

Prophecy is to affect our hearts and lives.

That’s what the apostle John wrote,

1 John 3:3 "Everyone  who has this hope in Him  purifies himself,  just  as He is pure."  

And  if prophecy does not make you live a better life,  if it does not lead you to the place of separation to God,  it is  not fulfilling its purpose.

 "Separation,"   -  not man made separation  -  is presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.

THAT IS REAL SEPARATION.

THAT IS WHAT THE STUDY OF PROPHECY SHOULD PRODUCE.

PROPHECY  MUST HELP US IN OUR DAILY LIVING.

What difference does it make to know how many bowls of wrath are going to be poured out in judgment during the Great Tribulation unless  it has  some effect on your life here and now?

THE BOOK OF DANIEL IS A GREAT BOOK ON SEPARATION AND ALSO PRAYER.

The purpose of prophecy is   that  "everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself."

Simon Peter is an example,  as we have seen.

Before the Cross  and before the Day of Pentecost,  he was rebuking Christ for saying  He was going to Jerusalem to die,  but  a short time later he was telling these religious rulers,

"The prophets spoke about this."

Where did he find that out?

OUR LORD HAD TOLD HIM,

"The Holy Spirit will show you things to come,"

PRAYERFULLY MEDITATE ON:

Before the Day of Pentecost,   the  apostles had asked the Lord Jesus  about the coming Kingdom. 

Acts 1: 6 -7  "When they therefore  were come together,   they asked of Him,  saying, "Lord, will Thou  at this time  restore the kingdom to Israel?" 

And He said unto them,  "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power."

The Lord Jesus did  not  tell them that they had made a mistake for asking Him.  They had asked Him a very sensible question.

The Lord Jesus gave them a very sensible answer.

He simply told them  that it was not for them to know the times  or  the seasons  when it would be, which means that it would not be established  in their lifetime  so it did not concern them.

AND THE SAME GOES FOR US.

After two thousand years,  we still don’t know when  the Kingdom will be established.

We only know  that it has  not been established yet.

There are many churches today who claim that they are "building the Kingdom."

THE REASON WE DO NOT KNOW WHEN THE LORD WILL ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM IS  BECAUSE OUR LORD JESUS SAID,

"It is not for you to know the times or the seasons,"

THE LORD JESUS SAID THAT HE WILL BUILD HIS OWN KINGDOM AND WHEN HE BUILDS IT,   HE WILL DO A VERY GOOD JOB.

In fact, it’s going to be a wonderful job.

And He has not given the contract to any church. 

He still has the contract.

The Lord Jesus is the author of it,  and He is going to be the finisher of it.  He is the One  who drew the plan,  and He is the One who is going to put the last shingle  on the top.  He is not going to  ask anybody down here  to  do it for Him.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOING TO ESTABLISH HIS OWN KINGDOM.

WE ON THE OTHER HAND HAVE BEEN TOLD BY THE LORD JESUS THAT WE ARE TO  PREACH THE GOSPEL TO ALL PEOPLE.

In the first chapter of Acts the apostles did not know much about the Kingdom. But a little later,  they got an entirely different conception of it.

Simon Peter spoke to the amazed crowd who had seen the lame man healed: 

Acts 3:20   "And He shall  send Jesus Christ,   which before  was preached unto you." 

This man Simon Peter realized  that Jesus Christ  had to come again in order  to establish the Kingdom  even though,   at one time,   he had believed,  that the Lord Jesus would establish the Kingdom while He was here on earth.

Thank You Most Gracious God for the Lord  Jesus Christ  who is the King of kings  and the Lord of lords.  Thank You for the truth in Your Word  that the Lord Jesus is coming again  to receive  unto Himself  all those whom He has chosen  and  prepared to be His bride and we shall meet Him in the air.. Thank You for this day of  grace Father  and help me  to,  through Christ Jesus working in my life,   reach the lost  whom the Lord Jesus  is yet seeking.  Gracious  Father,  cleanse me of all my pride  and from every spot  and stain  that I may present my body as a living sacrifice unto Thee O God  fit  for my Master's use.  I ask in Jesus precious name

Words and music by: Esther Kerr Rusthoi.

Oft times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear,
We're tempted to complain, to murmur and despair;
But Christ will soon appear to catch His Bride away,
All tears forever over in God's eternal day.

Chorus:

It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ;
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.

Sometimes the sky looks dark with not a ray of light,
We're tossed and driven on , no human help in sight;
But there is one in heav'n who knows our deepest care,
Let Jesus solve your problem - just go to Him in pray'r.

Life's day will soon be o'er, all storms forever past,
We'll cross the great divide, to glory, safe at last;
We'll share the joys of heav'n - a harp, a home, a crown,
The tempter will be banished, we'll lay our burden down.

AMEN..

Home.