Left Behind
In giving consideration to the nature of these ten Psalms, having looked at how they present themselves and also understanding the Bible teaching so plainly that the Bride of Christ, the Church that he died for, is not appointed unto wrath and will be caught up to ever be with the Lord, I thought that it be fitting to address these last couple of sermons to those left behind.
This is somewhat of a challenge, but even more so as I bring much of this message together in the style of a short story, a story that might be seen through the eyes of someone who comes to discover that she is indeed left behind.
The challenge levelled to those left behind is heightened by my commitment to teach all those in the faith, both babes as well as those desiring the meat of the word of God.
The narrative is a fictional account of what may very well be someone’s future reality, a reality that finds them left behind to endure the most horrific events of history, the seven-year period we call The Tribulation.
I pray the sermon encourages those of you who a looking for the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that it challenges you for the urgency of the Gospel and the undertaking of the work, but also that it both convicts and brings a state of urgency to those of you who are at the very real risk of being left behind.
PSALM 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea ishis, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Part 1: Invitation with reason (v 1-6)
Part 2: Invitation with warning (7-11)
Subject is the Jews
It was an early morning for her but not intended to be early, she craved more than anything to just sleep, her mind was still reeling over the events of the last few months.
During the middle of the night however she was startled by a loud sound, it didn’t come from inside her home, it was not a noise of anything being disturbed, on the contrary, the sound was a beautiful harmony; the sound of a range of wind instruments, bugle, trombone, trumpet or even flute. It wasn’t anything she had heard before, but it was loud and clear and yet lovely.
Unsure if it was just a dream, she tried to turn back to the sleep she was finally enjoying till that moment, but after several hours wrestling she got out of bed.
Being up so early, she was not surprised that she could finally flick the kettle on and boil water the old fashion way, rather heat water over a flame. During normal times when most people are up, her low citizen score would not permit her to use the kettle which would spike energy consumption that she was not privileged to receive, peak time power was reserved for those with a score above 600.
Never did she think that the smart meter installed years ago by her power company could individually select items to turn on or off based on her behaviour and so the called “green energy’s” ability to supply.
Today this just happened to remind her of things her brother had been saying about the Bible and End Times. Friends from work mentioned it too, and these are friends that aren’t even religious. Her brother told her Jesus was coming to judge the world, but before that happens a number of things will occur.
“Control of outcome” was one of those things, and she hated it.
Her name is Sue, she is single and lives alone a few suburbs away from different members of her family. Her brother told her a lot about God since he became a believer almost twenty years earlier, but she wasn’t ready to accept God. Yes, she came to understand that everything on the earth was made and didn’t come from nothing, but she didn’t like the idea that she would be judged for her sin. She did not ever like being told what she could and could not believe.
Verse 4 to 6 in Psalm 95 says
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The seais his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
It concludes a invitation to the lost and does so with reason. It speaks of why we sing praise to God, it speaks of his power as the creator, it speaks of him as OUR Maker, and it will require OUR humility, let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
Sue, and many like her, find this the most challenging of all. Yet we are to be as little children, humble and contrite.
Sue picked up her phone ignoring the now permanent “Breaking News” banner on the home screen. She hates that she can’t turn it off, she’d get a dumb phone just for that it there were any companies still selling them.
She checks her social media page and discovers that the Commonwealth Bank, the last bank in Australia, has been taken over by the government. ‘It doesn’t make any difference’, she thinks, ‘there are no branches left since the collapse and when everything went completely digital’.
Funny, her brother told her that we were headed to a cashless society, but Sue never thought a virus could make it happen so quickly. Within two years almost every company stopped taking cash, the broken ATM’s never got repaired, and the branches began closing in the suburbs one after another.
The collapse happened two years ago now, and Sue is really struggling to cope with the limitations of how much money she is allowed to use each week, its only barely enough to live on. It’s not fair that her own deposits were given to the bank simply because the Bank took too many risks. Yet again her brother warned her about something called Bail In way back in 2018, and the risk that a coming Great Mortgage default would put all our money at risk. This wouldn’t have been a problem if you had cash we could withdraw.
Now almost every country in the world has only one bank, the central bank. With no cash transactions, there was no need for branches, just a better computer system.
Nobody really has savings either anymore; People who had money in the bank now had to pay interest instead of getting interest, and they couldn’t do anything about it since they banned cash. With negative interest rates It wasn’t long before people realised that it was better to borrow money and pay back less that you owe, than it was to deposit money and get back less than you’re owed.
So now everyone just lives day to day.
Such a weird upside-down world she thought.
Her brother that tried to tell her that things are going to get really strange, even upside down where good is bad and bad is good, she didn’t believe that was possible, but now she is starting to see it. It was what will happen in the “the last days” he said, but it all sounded too negative, she just turned off mentally and tried not to listen.
“Maybe I need to look at this more closely” she tells herself, “if even half of what he said is true, I need to see what I can do.”
Its 7am, she knows her brother would be on his way to work, she placed the call, but the phone just rings out…..
For the last two thousand years Christians who know their Bibles have been anticipating one event known as the Rapture of the Church prior to what the Bible refers to as the Great Tribulation, a coming seven-year period of literal hell on earth.
Jesus coming for his church is seen again and again in the Bible as an immanent event. It can occur at any time; nothing needs to happen before it. It’s for this reason it must be before the evident sign of the beginning of the Tribulation Period. No one can rightly teach the rapture can happen only after or during the tribulation if the event is immanent.
Paul wrote of it in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, turn there with me that you might see it for yourself.
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall weever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Paul speaks of himself in the first-person plural “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up”, it’s impossible to miss the immanency of the expectation in that text alone.
Yes, it’s a strange event, and in the natural sense we would never believe it, and many people don’t, nevertheless we cannot deny the teaching of this incredible event in the Bible.
But it also occurred when Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him”, Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), Lot and his family were taken as a type out of Sodom before fire and brimstone destroyed her and the cities about her.
God simply will not destroy the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous are as the wicked (Gen 18:23-25).
Phillip was “Caught away” in the book of Acts respecting the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:39), Paul was “Caught up” to the seventh heaven, John the apostle spoke of a similar event occurring to him in the book of Revelation. So, it is not new.
Though the rapture of the Church is specifically noted in the New Testament, the same event is also alluded to quite clearly in the Old Testament, turn to Isaiah 26:20-21
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
Here, a people, Gods people, are to come and to hide into the place prepared for them, not for ever, but “as it were for a little moment”, for how long? “until the indignation be overpast”.
Throughout the Bible is taught of a coming judgment upon the world and it gives the description of the world at that time. Jesus said “37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt 24:37-39).
There will be those taken up, all those who have believed the Gospel, all those who have humbled themselves now and trusted Christ are to be taken up, “Caught up” and ever be with the Lord, but there will be those who are Left Behind, are you one of them?
- Depending on when you are seeing or hearing this Sermon, you don’t need to be left behind. This sermon is for you.
- If it is too late and the rapture of the Church has occurred when you watch or hear this, then this sermon is also for you.
The first part of Psalm 95 gives an invitation to the people, an invitation with reason;
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The seais his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
It is a Psalm that commands both evident reason for coming to the Lord, but also humility;
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
Its pride that prevents the vast majority of people from coming to the Lord.
It was pride that prevented the Jews from accepting Christ when he came the first time.
and
Its pride that prevented our character in the story above from believing the Gospel earlier.
She was made aware that God is, and has come to accept the truth of it, but She refused to humble herself claiming only that she is not ready. But time has escaped her, something has occurred that has moved beyond the most opportune of times.
Psalm 95:7-11
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Sue had never really gotten sick before, she is over forty years of age, healthy, looks after herself well, and can’t understand why she has been getting progressively unwell over the last few years. Colds last longer; the muscle aches from general exercise take longer to recover, and she has been getting headaches in varying severity, from dull to very strong, for some time. Today is one of those days.
She tried calling her brother again, but again no answer. She links into her doctors clinic online to request a confirmation code for Paracetamol to ‘Click and Collect’, places a few other orders with the stores online and confirms a time to be home to receive it all.
Sue remembers when “going shopping” was a treat and time to get out, now she can’t even get Panadol without a prescription code and needs to wait at home to be identified for drone deliveries of prescribed drugs.
Thinking it so strange that her brother was not answering her calls that morning, she tries one last time before calling her sister-in-law to see if everything is ok….but no answer there also. Strange!
She calls her niece, but the same result, her nephew and just gets a “please leave a message”.
Before she puts her phone down another breaking news item appears, she chooses to ignore it, far too much news continues to give her anxiety…and more headaches.
Something triggered a memory of her niece telling her about her faith and what she believed. She loved her niece, but these conversations always got her on edge, she had heard them so often during the years and the more she heard them the more she turned off.
To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart,
This is one of the greatest risks for those unwilling to hear the Gospel, their hearts get hardened making the truth of the Gospel even more difficult to receive. This is anticipated in Psalm 95.
Nevertheless, her niece talked about how much she is looking forward to Jesus coming for her. Sue thought this strange at the time, because she thought her niece was talking about dying and going to heaven, not anything else.
But her niece clarified that it wasn’t dying that comforted her, it was the chance that Jesus would come to literally take her to heaven, but not only her, her whole family and all her Christian friends. She called it “The Rapture”.
Suddenly Sue remembered another conversation with her brother a few years earlier, and he spoke about this, and that the world has already come up with ways of hiding it if it happens, he said “they might even say something like Aliens took us”. Sue remembers thinking he was out of his mind.
Just as the thought came into her mind however, she tried calling him again, but again, no answer.
She decided to head over to his house.
Fortunately, her numberplates had an even number and, being Tuesday, she was allowed to travel by car. Only people with electric cars can travel every day, her hybrid car however had limits. Gasoline cars stopped being produced five years ago and were finally banned last year due to Climate Change.
She got to the suburban checkpoint, scanned the embedded Vac Pass to the authorized personnel, drove into the street and was surprised to see her brother’s car home. Coming to the door she noted the drone-delivered essentials on the porch.
This is a standard delivery each day of 500ml of Milk, a small loaf of bread with a few other selectable additions. Sue still laments the food rationing, it was supposed to be temporary after the Virus disrupted the food chain, but it’s been three years already.
She rings the bell, no answer, rings again, again no answer. She takes out her own key to the home and goes inside calling out, but there is no response. All she can hear is several phone wake up alarms.
Sue heads into the main bedroom, notes that the beds looked slept in, the curtains still closed but is astounded to find both her brother and sister-in-laws phones on the bedside tables, ringing their respective alarms.
She turns off the alarms on both phones, notes again breaking news banners on her sister in laws phone but ignores it. Her bother has one of the last Dumb phones, so no irritating breaking news banner is seen on his phone.
She heads out into the yard, on the way hears another phone alarm coming from her niece’s bedroom. Going inside her room Sue again sees the curtains closed. She turns off the phone alarm, opens the curtains and picks up the Bible laying open on her nieces’ bed.
She wonders what her niece was reading and found this highlighted text;
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. (Heb 4:5-7)
That last part had a double underline.
That Hebrews passage Sue just read is a commentary on Psalm 95:7-11
It had not really dawned on Sue yet that she had just missed the rapture of the Church. She recognised Gods work in the world, she had been told about the Lord by her family, but instead of turning to what she knew was true, she hardened her heart.
Paul in the Hebrews passage above identifies a limitation of time saying To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart.
In the context of Psalm 95, as the portion of the Apocalyptic Psalms from 91 to 100, the Church is clearly gone, and it is to the Jews that this portion is addressed.
Nevertheless, there is an application for all people to consider before that day passes by them.
Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Israel had seen the works of God, they identified it, they recognized it and knew it was the Lord. It was not God hiding himself, it was the hardness of the heart that prevented their turning toward him.
Friends, we are not to wait for a feeling like Sue in this fictional account, it’s not about liking the idea or not liking it, it is about what you already know is true, and not to harden your heart against it.
All people know God exists, it is simply “understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20)
All people KNOW they would not be seen as perfect in the eyes of God who also knows the hearts of all people.
All people are therefore commanded to believe the Gospel, that Jesus died for their sin and if they will believe in their hearts that Jesus died and rose again.
In this Jesus demonstrated that he took the wages of their sin and died, yet he rose from the dead signifying to all the newness of life and forgiveness of their sin, then they shall be saved!!!
If this message comes to you before the Church is gone, there is time To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Incredibly, if however, the Church is gone, though the terrible period to endure is still ahead, the torment of it can be temporary if and only if To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
The Gospel can still save you, but time is still short.
PSALM 96
10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. 11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice 13 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
Sue fell down onto the side of the bed, her legs simply seemed to have given way as she read those words, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
“I heard his voice”, she said to herself, have I missed the day? Did I harden my heart?
Could this really be happening? Could this really be true?
Sue desperately hoped this was not true, she hoped that maybe they have all just gone out for a walk, but all day? There needs to be another explanation, she tried calling her nephew again, but nothing has changed, his phone diverted to message bank.
She got her phone out and this time did not ignore the Breaking News Item. It seems the Pope has died over serious injuries he sustained in a car crash where his Chauffer driven limousine collided with an oncoming vehicle at 10:45 am in Rome. The driver seems to have survived the accident but could not be found at the scene.
For some reason Sue was expecting something different. Her brother spoke about this Rapture and that the world would try to hide it or excuse it. Sue hoped that it was not the Rapture of the Church but searched frantically to find some news about people disappearing, but found nothing on Google.
She remembers hearing about this as being an event so great that the world could not possibly hide it, planes falling from the sky, trains crashing etc. But today most planes are flying and landing on auto pilot, trains are almost all self-driving, and so too are many cars. How can she find out what has happened to her family?
A thought came to her mind and she quickly pulled back the covers to her nieces bed, to her complete horror she sees her nieces nightgown lain flat under her bed quilt.
Sue runs to her brothers’ room and does the same thing, and found the same result. But more than this, she also sees her brothers wedding ring to the side of his pillow. She recalls her brother telling her he never removes his wedding band, not even at night, yet there it is on his bed, not on the bedside table.
Sue sees her brothers Bible on the bedside table, she notes the ribbon deep into it close to the end and takes hold of the book, opening it where the ribbon marks the page.
There are no markings in this Bible, but she reads at the top of the open page quietly to herself, and then reads it again and falls to the floor in tears and great grief.
It was as if the curtains were opened, and the beaming light of the sun just sprang in through which all the dust floating in the room could be seen with clarity. Sue now recalls to her mind so much of what had been told her, but her willful blindness would not permit her to accept it.
She picked up the Bible that fell to the floor with her and read the verse again;
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Friends it will be said among the heathen that the Lord reigns. Psalm 96 makes clear that this time of Judgment is to reveal God to the world and all will know it.
The Bible says that all of creation groans and travails until he comes, so it should not be surprising that the text that speaks of his coming says let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice 13 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
Today, as we go through what we are going through, it is not clear if God is judging the world for its sin or if this now is simply the natural result of mans sin. Lies and deception never have a good end.
It’s the same with all the wild fires, 87% of them are man-made, some due to negligence the rest deliberately lit.
But there is a time coming when all people will know God is the one judging, and many will shake their fist at him.
Let that not be you.
Psalm 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
If you are left behind and, depending on when you see or hear this sermon, there are many things to watch out for that will occur and I will endeavor to show you where to find it in the Bible.
But there is ONE thing you must do and do so right this moment, and that is to believe the Gospel.
If the rapture is done and the Church is gone, you are left behind to endure what the Bible refers to as the Time of Jacobs Trouble, that day of wrath, yet you can still be wonderfully rescued if you believe;
“that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3b-4)
Please, if there is still life in you it is not too late, God has limited a certain day, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
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