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: We have been made alive in Christ and have been given eternal life. This is the life of eternity to be lived in time, and this saves us from time, moment by moment. The continuing Christian life is salvation from time in all of its evil aspects. Oh, never forget that when God gives you eternal life, that it is eternal life to be lived in the city, the town, the part of the country where you live.

The life of eternity to be lived in time. So, let us look up. We’re living in the time in which God wanted us to live. We are living where he placed us. We are called to be witnesses to those who surround us. We wait and long for Christ, the Morning Star. We wait for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. We wait and long for that new day when he will intervene in the world’s history. In other words, we wait and long for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Over a half a 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, "Two Days." There is often much confusion and controversy surrounding the use of the word "day" in the Bible, especially with reference to the end times. It is sometimes used as a general term covering all events of prophetic future, while at other times, it is used to describe different periods within that timeframe.

Today, we will examine two different days mentioned in the Scripture that are yet to come: the day of judgment for unbelievers and the day of judgment for Christians. What does the word of God teach us about these two remarkable days? Let’s find out as today we turn to Romans chapter 13 and verse 12. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, "Two Days."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto the Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. In this age of confusion, thou art our stability. In this age of frustration, thou art our fulfillment. In this age of sin, thou art our salvation. We ask that in this hour thou shalt speak to our hearts, and whatever the shape or depth of our need, that thou shalt meet that need. In this hour, touch us. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today we continue in our study of Romans 13 and come in the 12th verse to the sentence, "The day is at hand." In the English language, the word "day" has many different meanings, and in this, English is like the Greek of the New Testament. First, the word is used for the period of light between the rising and the setting of the sun, during which a laborer worked for a denarius a day. It was in this sense that our Lord said, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world." It was in this sense that Peter judged those who are given to dissipation in broad daylight.

Second, the word is used for the regular 24-hour period of darkness and light. Third, it describes special days that will mark certain judgments by God in the future. Here we must look at the Bible with great care, for even such mighty authorities as Arndt and Gingrich in the best of all Greek lexicons in the English language have fallen into confusion. It is unfortunate that correct distinctions have not been observed in a matter of such great importance.

There is a day appointed for the judgment of believers, quite different from the one that is appointed for the judgment of unbelievers. The confusion has arisen through failure to note the difference between the time that is called the Day of Jesus Christ and the time called the Day of the Lord. Note also that these two absolutely different days are sometimes seen together as the Last Day, a general term covering all future events.

Now, in our study, we shall show first that in general, the word "day" is used to cover all the prophetic future, and then show the usages which refer to different periods within that epoch. The Lord Jesus used the word in this general sense, applying it sometimes to his future dealings with believers and sometimes to his future dealings with unbelievers. Only by a close study of the usages in the Epistles can we know that these are two distinct and separate times.

Speaking of unbelievers, the Lord said, "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'" And in another passage, "It shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town." And again, "I tell you on that day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter."

And in still another passage, "For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. Likewise, on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed." And again, "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day."

Now, another series of verses, quite different, has to do with the judgment of the believers, and in no verse are the two judgments seen as one. But of that day when the redeemed shall see the Lord and be like him, we read the following verses: "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. He has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. In that day you will ask me no questions. Now, in the Epistles, the matter is clarified, for there we find a day which is named the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, or simply the Day of Christ, on which he shall come for his own and shall give to all who have received his life in regeneration the fulfillment of all their spiritual desires and the rewards which he has planned for them in grace.

The Corinthian believers heard this. "You are not lacking in any spiritual gift," he told them, "as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." In the third chapter, the Revised Standard Version spells the word with a capital letter. The Apostle presents the world as standing around Christ, but believers as building upon him, the one and only foundation. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if anyone, that is, any believer, builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man’s work, each believer’s work, will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it because it will be revealed with fire, the symbol of judgment, and the fire will test what sort of work each one, each believer, has done. If the work which any man, any believer, has built on the foundation survives, he will receive, in addition to salvation, a reward. If any man’s work, any believer’s work, is burned up, he will suffer loss of the reward, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Now, this is a clear picture of the day of the judgment of the believer. Only believers are present at this judgment scene described in 1 Corinthians 3. And it is simply stated that everyone who is at this judgment is saved. Some receive salvation plus rewards and some salvation without them. This principle is so strongly embedded in the Epistles that it is even stated that when a man commits open and flagrant sin, the believers should pray for his early death, as in the case with Ananias and Sapphira, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus.

In his second epistle, Paul wrote the Corinthians that they could be proud of him and he of them on the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Philippian believers were given a magnificent promise concerning the future Day of Christ. The Greek has a double meaning here and can be fully rendered into English only by an enlarged translation. The Old King James translation and the New Revised Standard Version differ, but both are correct. "Being confident of this very thing," says the King James Version, "that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

"And I am sure that he who began a good work in you," says the revision, "will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Now, the full meaning of the passage is that the Lord, who began a good work in us, will keep on perfecting it throughout our present lives and will bring that work to completion at the day of his return for us. And thus it is that Paul pleads with them to be pure and blameless for the Day of Christ. In the last letter that he wrote, Paul speaks to Timothy three times about the day when the believers shall face Christ.

First, he prays that a man who has been very kind to him might find mercy from the Lord on that day. The other two passages are among the best known in the New Testament and are among the verses most often memorized or used as golden texts for Sunday school. "For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day," or "to keep that which I have been entrusted with against that day." And on the last written page of Paul’s life work, he says, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day."

Now, these verses that we have considered all center in the Day of Jesus Christ, a day of blessing and reward for the Christian, the day when the Christian meets Christ and becomes like him. Now look at the other set of verses. The Day of the Lord is a day of doom. Many passages in the Old Testament speak of this great and terrible day, and it is the day that was announced and confirmed in Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost. We read, "The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord come, the great and manifest day."

Again, we note how carefully the Day of Christ is to be distinguished from the Day of the Lord. For if we wait for the Day of the Lord, we turn our eyes from Christ and look for the sun to be turned to darkness and the moon into blood. In the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians, Paul corrects the error that had been introduced into the church by Hymenaeus and Philetus, who said that the resurrection of the believers was passed, that is, that the Day of Christ was passed, and that the troubles of the Day of the Lord were upon the believer.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2, "Let no one deceive you in any way, either by demon spirit or by word or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has come." Unfortunately, the expression "Day of the Lord" was translated "Day of Christ" in the King James Version. It has been corrected in the newer versions, but this one error did much to cloud the distinction between the Day of Christ and the Day of the Lord.

The Greek plainly indicates that the false teachers were claiming that the persecution which the church was then suffering was the Great Tribulation of the time of the end, namely, the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord cannot come until after the great rebellion of Antichrist. There is no event in prophecy which is to occur before the Day of Jesus Christ, when he shall come forth from heaven to meet his bride. After this, there will be the rise of Antichrist, the signs in heaven, the darkened sun and bloody moon, and then will come the great and manifest Day of the Lord, to be followed by the rule of the Lord in righteousness.

With this background firmly established, we can grasp the meaning of our text in Romans. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." The night of this world’s rejection of Christ is far spent. The day of God’s intervention is at hand. For the believer in Christ, of course, the day means the end of all of our troubles and the beginning of our eternal reign with Christ. The Day of Christ will be followed by the Day of the Lord, and this will be followed by the day that is called the Day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire.

And finally, the Day of God will be followed by what he calls in 2 Peter 3:18, in the Greek and in the Revised Standard Version, the Day of Eternity. Now, all of this teaching in the Epistle to the Romans is presented with one thought of encouraging holiness in the lives of believers. Paul earnestly desires us to look forward to what we shall be in order that we may deepen our spiritual lives and learn to live in the light of the coming glory. If we are dazzled by what we see about us now, we cannot face the sun when it shines.

The day is at hand. God means us to live with this thought uppermost. We are not to live with the thought that the present world is permanent. In this world, we have no continuing city. Like Abraham, we are to look for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We are to say with John, "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, when the Day comes, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We are to obey the exhortation by Jude, who said, "But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing." Let us heed Peter, who wrote, "Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. And since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?"

Perhaps the greatest longing for the coming of the future day is expressed by Paul in a sentence that is obscure in English. In his great chapter to the Corinthians on the subject of the resurrection of Christ, Paul begins by defining the Gospel. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And this is followed with a list of the physical appearances of the Lord, and he concludes, "And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time."

The Greek uses one word, an epithet, "monster, horrible thing," which perhaps had been hurled against Paul. It takes half a dozen words in English to translate this one word, although the revision reduces the number by translating the sentence "he appeared to me as to one untimely born." Our single English word would render it starkly, "he appeared to me as to a miscarriage." To a child born before term. To a six months' child. To an incubator baby.

Now, perhaps we can begin to see the inner meaning. The Christian is born into this world before the time of his final triumph. When the Day comes, we will be able to breathe the unpolluted air of heaven freely and joyously. In the meantime, we are born into the miasma of this world and forced to breathe the polluted air around us, polluted morally and spiritually. We lament against this, even as Habakkuk did in the opening verses of his prophecy. But we can do nothing about it now except to learn to live in the prayer life that gives us the life-giving, life-sustaining breath of God.

We are born for the future, and we must live in the present. But we must not forget that we have been made alive in Christ and have been given eternal life. This is the life of eternity to be lived in time, and this saves us from time, moment by moment. The continuing Christian life is salvation from time in all of its evil aspects. Oh, never forget that when God gives you eternal life, that it is eternal life to be lived in the city, the town, the part of the country where you live. The life of eternity to be lived in time.

Now, if we recognize that we, like Lot, have gotten ourselves deeper into the swamp of time than we should be, that we have taken our residence in the cities of sin, we must confess our sinfulness and be ready to flee. For as the Lord rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked, for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds. We can be absolutely sure that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly, that is, those who have been made righteous in Christ, from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

So, let us look up. We are living in the time in which God wanted us to live. We are living where he placed us. We are called to be witnesses to those who surround us. We wait and long for Christ, the Morning Star. We wait for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. We wait and long for that new day when he will intervene in the world’s history. In other words, we wait and long for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we pray thee, our God and Father, that thou shalt teach us so that we may be strong in the strength that thou dost provide. That we may be loving with the love that is thyself living within us, and that we may be holy with the holiness which is thy nature. We ask it in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, and come quickly.

Guest (Male): There will come a terrible, frightening day of judgment for unbelievers and a day of rejoicing and triumph for believers when we stand before the throne of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope you have benefited from today’s message by Dr. Barnhouse entitled, "Two Days." To listen to more teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today’s teaching is available by calling us toll-free: 1-800-488-1888.

Today’s message again is entitled, "Two Days," or simply request message number R13-17. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, *First Things First*. If we are to experience peace and victory in the Christian life, we must have a firm grasp of the primary foundational concepts about God. This six-chapter booklet focuses on spiritual priorities including the word of God, the lordship of Christ, witnessing, fellowship, and repentance.

You will learn the tremendous benefit of putting first things first in your spiritual life. Ask for your free copy of *First Things First* 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 all believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

We also produce the radio broadcast, *The Bible Study Hour*, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and *Every Last Word*, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full list of radio stations carrying our programs, visit us online at 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. That’s 1-800-488-1888. 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, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for listening today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on *Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible*.