Hebrews 1:1 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 Has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”
Has in these last days. I have been studying a little about these last days. I never really intended it to be something that I would speak on, but this is where I am at. These last days, I think that what got me started on this was that I heard that down in Nashville, Tennessee, there is a group that has declared that I think they say that sometime in May Jesus will return to the earth. I don’t know if He is coming to Nashville or not, I didn’t hear that part, and then October will be the end of the world. Their idea is to make us all aware that we are in the very last days of the earth.
Well, I don’t know anyone else who feels that way but I do know that in times past there have been many people, different groups of people and individuals, who have felt that we are in the last days or the last days are nearly over.
This verse, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” That is Hebrews 1:1, 2.
So the writer to the Hebrews felt that he was in the last days. He was not specific about the last days of what, the earth, or something.
Some scriptures have a little footnote for days. Some places say age. This letter to the Hebrews was written about 1900 years ago or a little more. So, we are still in the last days, or we must be. Pretty long days or a lot of them maybe I should say. But that is okay by me anyway.
We were visiting in the car not long ago about what could have been a good time in the history of the world to live. I like history and continue to study history from time to time, the history of the different ages of the world. We were saying or asking what age in the world we would like to have lived. I knew exactly by nature what part of history I would have liked to have lived in. But the unfortunate part of it was that there was very little if anything going on in the will of God in the world. It was kind of a dark period spiritually in the world. I know that I would not have wanted, for my soul’s sake, to have lived then. Maybe for my flesh, it would have been a great time, but for my soul, I would not have wanted to live in those dark times.
The more I have looked into this, the more thankful I am that I am living in the last days. I know that there is no way of making comparisons, but as far as I can tell, we live in the most privileged spiritual days that have ever been known. Now we can look back to times in the Scripture when Israel and God were lifted up and reverenced. Those must have been good days. But I don’t think that there has ever been a time in history when the word of God has been so well known throughout the world; when the word of God has had so much free course to reach so many people as it does in these last days.
The last days were planned by God. And God, as I have noticed, saves the best for last. We read about that miracle in John 2 where Jesus turned the water to wine and the governor of the feast said you have saved the best till last. You know, that is the way that God has done things often, the best has come at the last.
I don’t doubt that the very best that this world is going to know will be in these last days. I don’t know if the Scripture refers to it or states it as the age of Jesus Christ, or the day of Jesus Christ. But that is the day that we live in and it is referred to as the last days in the letter to the Hebrews and in some other places. So I really count it a privilege to be living in these last days because there is so much of the word of God known, perhaps more than at any other time.
Up until this time the word of God came through prophets and other holy men of God that wrote the Scriptures. But to think that He has spoken to us by His Son. There has never been a higher authority to represent God on the face of the earth than there is today.
We have the written word by the authority of Jesus, the Word of God in our hands. Just about everyone in this meeting is sitting there with it on your lap or in your Bible bag near at hand, the authority of the voice of God.
Sometimes I have had perplexing problems, at least they were to me, and I have had this wish that God would just speak to me, that God would just say something that would really be definite so that I would know. Well, little did I know that it was really definite and that He was speaking plainly and clearly in the word of God. It couldn’t get any more definite.
In these last days, He has spoken to us by His son, sent us messages by His very own son who lived in heaven with Him in the beginning of the time of this earth, the beginning of days. Is there anyone who would be a greater authority to come and tell us what God thinks and how God feels, what God wants? There has never been a time on the earth when it has been made so well known as in these last days. So once again I am saying I have never been so thankful as to be living in the last days.
I believe it is in Matthew 24 where Jesus spoke quite a bit about the last days to His apostles and disciples. I won’t read all of that; most of you have read it, but there are quite a few things that He goes through there. I don’t pretend to decipher all of that as to exactly when and how of all of that, but there was something that really just touched me. Verse 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.” So shall also the coming of the son of man be. So Jesus was saying that when He would return again to this earth it would be just like before the flood in Noah’s day.
For now, we don’t know much — I went back and read a little bit in Genesis about Noah’s day. It says that the thoughts of men’s hearts were only evil continually and the wickedness of man had come up before God. The thoughts of his heart were just evil continually, self-centered, just thinking of himself. When people quit thinking about God, it grieves the heart of God. Here is a room full of people, a gymnasium not quite full, but a group of people, a pretty good crowd, and it is all because you have been thinking about God. If you never had a thought about God you wouldn’t have bothered to be here today. These meetings have been about God and His expectations for man and all He could do for man. So our thoughts about God make us different from those in the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, there was a man who thought about God; that was Noah.
So however the world was, I don’t know if it was particularly violent, I think in one place it does say that it was violent, and we live in a pretty violent world around us. The one thing that I do know about the days of Noah is that as bad as the world may have been there was an Ark of Salvation sitting there, in progress, for everyone that wanted to enter in. That’s what it was in the days of Noah, an Ark of Salvation waiting for any heart that would turn towards God. It tells us that the door was left open until it began to rain.
It tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. In what way did he preach righteousness? I don’t know. Maybe it was just simply by his life, by the way he dedicated himself to working on that ark every day. However it was, I know this, that ark was a very well-known thing in the world. We talk about the then-known world, the Chaldees, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Civilization as history knows it was not very big. I don’t know how many people there would have been at that time. There are historical guesses as to how many people were on the earth at that time. You know, it is hard to know those kinds of things.
Nevertheless, Noah was building an Ark that had never before been seen on the earth. I don’t know how long it took him to build it. I have read or heard estimates from 3 1/2 years to 100 years. Well, it doesn’t really matter, whatever time it took him to build it, there had to have been a lot of people saying what in the world are you doing? And Noah would have had to explain. Have you ever had to explain anything about your salvation? Maybe yesterday when somebody said, where are you going? I’m going to special meeting. What is special meeting? Then you have to try to explain something about your salvation. It might have been vague and you may have felt that it didn’t even make good sense to yourself. Noah must have felt that way and he must have been asked.
I’m sure there were traders and caravans, people moving through the land to other parts of the world. One trader meets another and might say, were you up in such and such a country last year in your travels? Did you see that big pile of wood that Noah has and he says he is building this ark? The ark had to be just about the biggest thing going on in its day. I am sure that there was room for everyone on it. God never underestimates His power to save. He never has, not once. I don’t doubt that probably most of the world knew about the ark and knew about Noah and still they never got on it.
So getting back to “the last days”, it’s going to be like the days of Noah. So I have to believe that if it is going to be like the days of Noah, the salvation of God is going to be standing great in the world right up until the last day. No matter what kind of violence may be taking place in the world, and no matter what kind of thoughts are in the hearts of men, and the majority may not even have a thought of God or even believe that there is a God, I have no question in my mind that the salvation of God will be standing firm until the very last day and that the door will be open.
I love that about our Lord that He would be so merciful that He would not shut it off and just let this world go on its silly way. He built it and He had it completed. He saw it to the very finish and He kept the door open and this salvation of God that we have entered into in our day, the door is still open. Maybe there are some here who haven’t entered in yet and maybe there are some who are thinking that the door is still open, I can run outside and fool around a little bit, plant a garden or do something else and then come back in. The patience of God and the love of God with that ark of salvation standing firm when people want to enter into it and He himself will close the door.
We have the word of Jesus that He himself is the door of this great salvation. No one is going to close it before the time. We know that it is open today and it will be open until the last day. I am so thankful that I can tell people when I preach the gospel that as long as the earth stands, God’s salvation will be open to you and me because that is our God.
Acts 2:16-20 “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come.”
I don’t really understand all of what he is speaking about, the sun and the moon part of that, but the rest of it is just as clear as can be. “In the last days, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh.” Some of you have traveled. I don’t by any means think that that means that the nearly seven billion people that are in the world are all going to receive the Spirit of God. I am sure from my experience and what I have seen that God has not excluded anyone who desires it.
This was the day of Pentecost when the apostles were speaking and everybody heard them in their own language. It was a notable miracle and many of them did not know what to think about it. Some said that they must be drunk and Peter said, no, it’s too early in the day to be drunk. He said this is Scripture being fulfilled about what Joel spoke. You can look that up in the Old Testament where the word of God says that in the last days, this is what I am going to do, your young men are going to see visions and your old men are going to dream dreams and I am going to pour out of my Spirit on anybody that wants it.
We have seen it in our day because we live in the last days and we rejoice that we live in the greatest days on earth, the last days. Because God is still pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. I don’t know how many countries I have been through in the world but I have seen the evidence of God pouring out His Spirit on every kind of flesh, every color and every language that the flesh speaks at some place or another. He has not discriminated against anyone. He has poured out His Spirit on all.
On top of that he said, your young people will see visions and your old people will dream dreams. I don’t think that he is speaking about visions and dreams when you are asleep. Dreaming dreams about the future is kind of the connotation that we use it for today and I think it has been thought about that way for centuries. Dreamers thinking about what they are going to do in the future and what it is going to be like, big plans for the future.
We think young people make dreams, not old people. Old people are just satisfied to hang on and try to ride it out till the end. Young people are just dreaming about all of the wonderful things they are going to do. Often, as far as this world is concerned, it doesn’t happen, you wear out before you get it all done. The dreams are half of what you thought they were going to be. He said that it’s not going to be that way in the last days for God’s people.
Why is it that old people dream dreams in this kingdom of God? It is because their life doesn’t end with Social Security and their life doesn’t end at the grave. Spiritually, we can dream dreams for eternity. We are dreaming about a time when we will live forever, where we will be able to serve God free from a body of frailty, a body with human nature that resists the will of God. We are free to dream dreams like no one has ever been able to because we live in the last days and God is pouring out His Spirit upon His people.
It says that the young people shall have visions. What kind of visions is he talking about? There is only one kind of vision that he could be talking about. There is only one kind of vision that God would be talking about: visions of truth, visions of the kingdom of God, visions of the way of God and of the will of God. A clear vision of what God has planned for those that love Him. That is the vision that our young people have, the same vision that their parents received and that their grandparents received.
We often don’t expect young people to see things like we see them but it can be in this truth of God. The young people can see it exactly as the old people see it. God loves to give a clear vision to the youngest among us that they might invest their lives in their day and dream about it in their old age. They can know that it’s not just a dream but every inch of it is reality.
Going back to Matthew 24:27 & 28 “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” I like to speak about this, or at least to think about it. I don’t know that I’ve ever spoken about it, maybe some time or other.
I have watched this firsthand. You can find anything from a roadkill deer to a dead skunk somewhere and an eagle will find it. When the word eagle is used in the Scripture I have noticed a notation that it probably refers to a vulture. It really doesn’t matter because they are pretty much the same kind of bird. They are drawn to it and they find it so quickly.
We can ask ourselves, how would I know or how would I see something that is so obscure? I have heard people say, you people are so few as far as the world is concerned, if someone was looking for God and you were the representative, they would never find it. Oh, don’t believe that for a minute. God is in it. It says that the Eagles will always find the carcass.
There are two things about an eagle that separate it from every other bird or animal. Number one, it has the keenest vision or greatest vision of anything, at least that I have ever heard of or read of. The eagle has this tremendous vision. I wouldn’t know how to prove it but I have read that an eagle from a mile up in the air could look down and spot the period at the end of the sentence in my Bible. That seems a little preposterous to me, nevertheless, it tells us about the keenness of the vision of the eagle.
You know, that eagle if he is sitting on the ground cannot see as far as you and I. He is only about 18 inches off the ground, maybe 2 feet at the most. So he can’t see very far at all when sitting on the ground but he can rise above the earth, far, far above. I don’t know if other birds can rise as high as the eagle but they don’t have the vision. So the two important things are that he has the vision and he gets himself separated from the world, from the earth. He rises above it.
That is why those who have the Spirit of God will never miss where the carcass is. That is why no one who has been brought into the family of God, born of the Spirit, is going to miss this event. It is not possible. Because the eagle has such a vision that God has given it and it has the power that God has given it to rise above the earth where its vision will do its good. If the eagle didn’t rise above the things of the earth, it could not see very far at all. It would miss all kinds of things.
It rises to an elevation where it sees the things that it needs to see. That’s what God is doing for His young people today and what He has done for us that are getting old; we were young once too. He has given you a vision that if you will separate yourself from the world, and I know that that is not easy, but God gives you the power to do it. The same as He gave the eagle the power to get above the earth, He has given to you and me. To rise above and live on a plane where our vision will do us some good, where we can see the things of God for what they really are and we can see the earth for what it really is.
The eagle dives out of the sky to the carcass and God’s people seek out the Lamb. That is the only thing that we are interested in and that we care about. We can find the Lamb of God wherever He is in this world. You today have found the Lamb of God right here because God gave you a vision that if you live above this world, you can see that if you go to special meetings, you will be fed on the Lamb of God. Not everybody sees that but it is available to everybody.
John 6:54 “Whoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” I will raise him up at the last day. That is not the last days, it is the last day.
Very few people on the earth know where their last day is going to be. I tried to think of who might know when their last day would be. Well, it would only be someone who took it into their own hands or someone on death row. Very few people would know when their last day would be and those that I could tell that would know it would not be happy with it. It would not be a satisfying thought.
But, for God’s people, there isn’t a more satisfying thought that could ever be given to us than to know that the last day is going to be the best day. If you asked Jesus, what was your best day concerning this little time that you had to spend on this earth and what you had to put up with in a body like ours, all the things you had to put up with and all of the wonderful things that you did at the hand of God, your Father, what would you say was your best day?
I am pretty sure that He would say the resurrection. That Sunday morning when I rose from the dead was the best day. The best day was when He triumphed over the devil and all of his angels, over the flesh, over this world and put everything down. That was the best day when I arose from the grave. I am sure that He would tell us that His best day was the day of the resurrection.
And I know that our best day is if we are counted worthy of this resurrection, the same resurrection that Jesus received, we are going to say that that is the best day. God always saves the best until the last. The last days that we are living in are the best days but the very last day is no doubt going to be our very best day.
Truth Archive 