Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Have we indulged in the stupefying things of this world and thus fallen asleep? Have we been living in the close atmosphere of worldliness instead of breathing the fresh air of prayer that brings to us the winds of heaven? Have we been so lazy that we yawn in the face of God?

Are we so involved with self that we try to force the knowledge of God below our conscious minds? Our text is a call to wake up. God commands us to be alert. We are to live in awareness of what time it is. Do you know who is about to enter the scene of life to bring all things to the climax of the divine purpose?

The Lord Jesus is at the door. For your own sake and for the Lord's sake, take notice of the time. Realize that it is high time to wake up.

Guest (Male): God's Word is for godly gain, to teach, rebuke, correct, and train, equipped by Him we then pursue the work God has for us to do. God's Word is the Christian means to grow in grace and do good deeds.

Over a half-century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's Word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio ministry which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The application of God's Word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, Red Sky at Night.

For years, men at sea would look at the sky and say, "Red in the morning, sailors take warning. Red at night, sailors' delight." It is possible to look at the appearance of the sky and predict what the weather will be in the next day or so.

We may try to look into the heavens and hope for a miraculous sign from God, but we don't know how to properly interpret the signs of the times in the world around us in order to foresee future events and understand spiritual truth.

How can we receive biblical insight regarding the end times and the second coming of Jesus Christ? Let's find out as today Dr. Barnhouse takes us to Romans chapter 13 and verse 11. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, Red Sky at Night.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee our Father and our God. And in the Holy Spirit, whom have we in earth or heaven but Thee? There is none like unto Thee. Thou art our God and we worship Thee. Speak we pray Thee and use Thy word in this hour to bring us deepening of faith and outreach of hope.

Keep us from being bogged down with the affairs of this world. Give us the divine energy to be aroused and awake as we realize how late it is in the night that is far spent. Our hearts long for Thee, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.

And while we wait, give us holiness of life and such a hunger and thirst after righteousness in Thyself that only Thy presence and power shall be able to fill us. We ask this in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today we continue in our study with these great prophetic verses in Romans 13. It is time to awake out of sleep. I can remember as a boy my first lesson about the weather. I learned it from my father. When there was a red sunset, I would often hear him say, "Red in the morning, sailors take warning. Red at night, sailors' delight."

When I reached my student days in France, I heard the farmers around me say, "Rouge le soir, espoir; rouge le matin, chagrin." Red at night, hope. Red in the morning, grief. Now a remarkable scene in the Bible shows us that the people in Palestine some 2,000 years ago had the same proverb.

Jesus Christ quoted it and used it as a prophetic text. The passage is found in the 16th of Matthew. The religious leaders of the day, the intelligent and informed section of the population, sent men to question the Lord Jesus. They asked that He show them a sign from heaven.

Jesus answered them and said, "When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

In other words, He was saying, "You may be intelligent enough to forecast a few hours of weather, but you're not able to look into the future of world events and see the tendencies that abound and where they must inevitably lead." We must study the context of this passage closely because it has much to teach us about the age in which we live.

And our text tells us, knowing the time, it is now high time that we awake. It's not astonishing that enemies of the truth have sought to do away with the teaching about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The exegete of the Interpreter's Bible, for example, simply rules out the passage in Matthew and says that it can't belong here because it does not fit what he thinks Christ's message really is.

On the same page, the expositor of the passage, fortunately, contradicts this and says the demand is that in the affairs of life a man shall not ignore the clear signs. Does pride, individual and national, go before a fall? Does merely formal religion collapse under test? Is goodness an ultimate resource?

The Pharisees and Sadducees, according to the setting given in this gospel, had asked for a sign. There were signs galore, but they could not read them though they were as clear to read as a stormy sky. Frederick William Robertson, writing of people in France on the eve of the Revolution, has this: "They, the Jews of old, were very weather-wise, but they could not read the signs of the times."

Parisian ladies were equally astonished when, having spent such enormous sums on their coiffures and ribbons, they one day found their headdress arranged for them at the national expense, at the guillotine. Are we wiser than they? Whither has trust in military might always led?

What happens to a nation when work morality declines? When wealth falls into the hands of the few? Or when many people buy on credit? Every war takes most people by surprise. Every depression in business is an unbelievable calamity. Is a machine age threat instead of promise unless men learn a new measure of comradeship?

There are questions with an even deeper thrust. What happens when men trust their own wisdom and skill and forget God? The unbelievers who asked a sign from Jesus Christ were told that they would have no sign except that of the prophet Jonah.

Christ had spoken of this earlier and explained what He meant. He would be put to death, and as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale, so He would be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. His death and resurrection are the signs that the world must face.

The fact that men can look at Jesus Christ and go on about their own affairs as if He were not God and as if He had not died to reconcile the world will ultimately bring the fiercest judgment of God upon men. Let us not forget that the Lord God Almighty never had a thought apart from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So much love is there between the Father and the Son that all will be judged in relationship to Christ. The Holy Spirit shouted this truth to the world when Paul spoke on Mars Hill. "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed, and of this He has given assurance to all men by raising Him from the dead."

To the unsaved then, there will be no other sign, no other warning, than that which has been presented in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sign of Jonah may also refer to God's dealings with His ancient people Israel.

For the Gentile nations have swallowed Israel for nigh unto 3,000 years but have never been able to digest their supernatural mouthful. In scores of passages, the Bible prophesies the restoration of Israel and other events in the future.

We are taught by our Lord that we must take all of these things into consideration as we realize what time it is and that it is high time for us to awake out of sleep. I do not need to repeat what I have so strongly stressed. We set no dates.

We do not and cannot know the day or the hour, the times or the seasons. But there is such a clear picture in the Bible of the world as it will be when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again that we can look at the world of today and see that we are much nearer to the end than those who lived before us.

Someone may ask, if no dates are indicated in the Bible, how can we link prophecy with events in the world today? The answer is simple. The Bible tells us that things will not always continue as they are at present. This age is to end.

It tells us that certain events are to take place suddenly, supernaturally. Every individual in the world who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior from sin, that is, every person who has put his trust in the work of redemption accomplished on the cross of Calvary instead of trusting in his own righteousness, all such believers are to be taken out of this world in a single instant.

We do not know when this will happen. It may occur at any moment and is the first phase of the return of the Lord Jesus. It is the supernatural removal from the earth of all who have trusted in Christ as savior. No date can ever be set for it.

The dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them. Immediately following this rapture of the believers, the world continuing on its restless way without Christ will undergo great events that have been prophesied in detail in the Bible.

Some of these events cannot take place without certain preparations. Our purpose today is to present the Bible picture of events which will occur after Christ has removed His own from the world at the beginning of the reign of Antichrist.

We are able to see tendencies, startling tendencies that exist in our day and which have never existed before. May I give a parallel of what I am attempting to do? Suppose a dramatic critic who is a Shakespearean scholar enters a theater one evening not knowing which masterpiece of Shakespeare is to be played.

A few moments before the curtain goes up, he is taken behind the scenes, still not knowing what play is to be performed. He sees the scene-shifters at work, notices that the backdrop represents a castle and that a shelter for the guards is at one side of the grim walls.

Immediately he eliminates the possibility of seeing Macbeth, which opens with the witches' scene in a desert place. He knows too that the scene is not in Venice, which would suggest the Merchant or Othello. There is no ship against which the Tempest would hurl its power.

But in a moment his questionings are at an end, for he sees the actors donning their costumes. There are no Roman togas as there would be for Julius Caesar or Antony and Cleopatra. The scholar recognizes the arms of Denmark on the shields borne by soldiers.

He sees the robes of a king and queen, another actor dressed to represent a ghost stands ready to enter the stage and speak his lines. No one needs to tell him the name of the play about to be acted. The visitor knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he will see Hamlet.

Now today you and I sit in the theater of world events. Many people are wondering what is ahead. Some sit and stare at the future as at a great blank curtain. For them the future is veiled because they have no knowledge of the plan of God.

They have no entrée behind the scenes to see the stage being set and the characters preparing for their parts. They will remain in ignorance until the curtain goes up and the drama is enacted. They see the events of our day, but they have no knowledge of the script of prophecy contained in the Bible.

The Christian is not left in such ignorance. The Bible is a revelation from God. The very meaning of the word apocalypse, which we translate by our English word revelation, is the unveiling. Now God has been pleased to draw the curtain aside.

We know the plot of the drama. We can see with spiritual vision the inner meaning of the shifts upon the world's scene. We see the shadows of great characters just offstage. We know the lines that they are about to speak and the sinister tragedy that they are about to enact.

God has not left us in the dark. In the first year of our publication of the magazine which I edit, I wrote some paragraphs on this subject. What political columnist could have written what I wrote then? I turn back into the first volume of our magazine and read from that early issue: "I propose to outline swiftly the plan of events that are to come to reality as soon as the Lord Jesus Christ takes the believers from the earth. I will then point to certain tendencies in the historical events of our day which are new tendencies on the page of history. There are prophecies that never could have been fulfilled in any previous century for whose accomplishment everything has now been placed in order. We shall then see the conclusions which we are forced to adopt by the sheer logic of the combination of multiple circumstances."

And I am still reading from years ago. "Great portions of the word of God are given over to a description of that brief period which intervenes between the first step in the future work of Christ as He comes to withdraw all believers from the earth and the final step as He returns to the earth in the midst of great judgment scenes to complete the judgment of the nations and the establishment of His kingdom in righteousness.

Great prophecies in the Old Testament are distinctly confirmed by Christ in the gospels, and these are further elaborated in the last book in the Bible. The scene that will be fully set up includes the establishment of Israel in the land of Palestine, still in spiritual alienation from the Messiah for whom they wait, not knowing that they await His second coming and not His first."

Now remember that this was written before the establishment of the modern nation of Israel. Now I continue the quotation from my writings of 1931: "The scripture points out that the Jews will be in all of Palestine by means of a treaty with the power that controls the territory once included in the old Roman Empire.

These nations are to be federated in a sort of United States of Europe under one head, the Antichrist. Other nations are arrayed over against them in a great alliance. At the heart of this great northern confederacy we see Russia and Germany, both named in the Bible in the book of Ezekiel: Rosh, Moscow, and Tobolsk, allied with Gomer and Ashkenaz.

Every Jew who hears this knows that Gomer and Ashkenaz stand for the Germanic peoples. These are the words that Jews use even today when they speak of Germany and the Germanic peoples. Under the leadership of Russia and Germany, there are many peoples.

Five times in one chapter, the spirit of God repeats this phrase: many peoples with thee, many peoples with thee." Now remember that this was written long before China turned red. And then I continue: "The armies of the great northern confederacy will come down on Palestine from the north.

Those of the United States of Europe come from the south. Israel is caught at the battle of Armageddon between these upper and lower millstones. At the height of the great conflict, the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth with the brilliance of lightning flashing from one side of the sky to the other.

At that triumphal moment, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Man's day is ended by the crashing judgments of the day of the Lord, and the calm of righteousness succeeds the storms of wrath. This is the rough outline of the drama that is to be enacted upon the earth."

End of the quotation. Now more than a quarter of a century later, we see how rapidly events have moved. Russia reaches to the middle of Germany and all the way through China and Northern Indochina to the South Pacific. Israel has but a little swatch of the land that shall be all hers someday.

The advance in arms, missiles, satellites, and flight make this a different world already. The only things that have not changed are the heart of man and the love of God. We must know the time, for now it is high time for us to awake out of sleep.

Remember that this passage of scripture is addressed to believers. The non-Christian world is not said to be asleep. It is said to be dead in trespasses and sins. It's a sad commentary on mankind that the lost need spiritual regeneration, resurrection, and the saved need awakening.

What causes people to fall asleep when they should keep awake? Sleep is often induced by overeating or by drinking too much liquor or by staying in a room which has poor ventilation. Because of boredom, the mind often retreats into sleep.

Psychological sleep is often induced by an attempt to escape the problems of life. Now apply these causes spiritually. Have we eaten too copiously of the world's dainties? Have we indulged in the stupefying things of this world and thus fallen asleep?

Have we been living in the close atmosphere of worldliness instead of breathing the fresh air of prayer that brings to us the winds of heaven? Have we been so lazy that we yawn in the face of God? Are we so involved with self that we try to force the knowledge of God below our conscious minds?

Our text is a call to wake up. God commands us to be alert. We are to live in awareness of what time it is. Do you know who is about to enter the scene of life to bring all things to the climax of the divine purpose? The Lord Jesus is at the door.

For your own sake and for the Lord's sake, take notice of the time. Realize that it is high time to wake up. And our God and Father, we pray Thee to speak to the hearts of Thy people. If there are unsaved who listen to this, give them great restlessness.

And if there are Christians who have allowed themselves to be asleep, may they hear Thy great call. And may we know what it is, Lord, to listen to the midnight cry, "The Lord cometh," and awaken that we may be ready for our Lord Jesus when He comes. Speak to each heart. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Guest (Male): Israel's religious leaders asked Christ for a miraculous sign but were blind to the signs all around them pointing to Jesus as Messiah. Do you trust in Him and look forward to His return?

We hope you've benefited from today's message, Red Sky at Night. To listen to more Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is also available by calling us toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled Red Sky at Night, or simply request message number R-13-14.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, The Cost of Discipleship. Although salvation is a free gift of God, it does not come cheaply. It cost Jesus His life to redeem us and will cost us something if we are serious about submitting to His lordship.

This free booklet will show you that as pilgrims in this life, we must count the cost of discipleship, learn to travel light, and realize that following Jesus radically changes our relationships. Discipleship is demanding, but the Lord promises that He is always with you.

Ask for your free copy of The Cost of Discipleship when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance also produces the radio broadcasts, The Bible Study Hour, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word, featuring the teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full list of stations carrying our programs, visit us online, alliancenet.org.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help us keep this ministry on the air.

For more information or to make a contribution to help further our work, contact us by calling toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. You can also write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.

Visit us online at alliancenet.org. Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken.

Thank you for listening today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The Bible has commanding words to do God's saving work on earth. It draws our souls from death to life and rescues us from needless strife. Amazing gift, of worth so high, the life-imparting word of God.