Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The day of the Lord, the wrath of the Lamb, it is a scary situation. That kind of language is very Zephaniah, and it troubles people. But what does the Bible say? You and I, as Christians, we're not appointed to wrath.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador notes amidst the coming judgment, there is comfort for those who have trusted the Lord.

Brett Meador: No, we're the bride of Christ. He takes us up, raptures us into heaven where we get to be in the marriage feast of the Lamb. So it says we are not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation through Jesus.

Guest (Male): The Old Testament book of Zephaniah confronts us with the reality of God's judgment, a sobering reminder that sin has consequences. Yet in facing this truth, Pastor Brett Meador notes how we're also pointed toward hope. Gaining an understanding of the seriousness of God's judgment in today's word is what prepares our hearts to receive His mercy and rejoice in His salvation.

Brett Meador: Zephaniah chapter 1, verse 14 and 15. It says, “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

Wow. This is one of those heavy scriptures, and it's talking about a specific time that's yet to come. It's called here the day of the Lord. The great day of the Lord is near. Now, the day of the Lord is defined when God steps in and intervenes after the day of man. That's where we're living right now. The thing that sort of ends the day of man is the rapture of the church.

That's the day of Christ. And then after the day of Christ, it ushers in the next season called the day of the Lord. That is when God says, “Time's up.” That's when God says, “I am going to intervene in the condition of humanity.” Let's break this down about the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is, number one, grim. We read that in our text. Let's review just for a second.

If you look at this phrase by phrase, it gets more and more depressing as you read it. It says that the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. There's something about seeing a mighty man, a man of battle, hardened readiness, to see that guy cry, you know things are tough. And it says it's a day of wrath. The tribulation period is called the time of wrath, the wrath of the Lamb.

The day of the Lord is grim, and it is coming. As by the way, the book of Zephaniah mentions the day of the Lord by name seven times in this three-chapter book. So really, the theme of the book of Zephaniah is the day of the Lord. So number one, the day of the Lord is grim. Number two, the day of the Lord is real. It's going to happen.

Isn't it strange, it's almost surreal when something seems like it might happen but it's way off in the future and so you kind of don't think of it as being real? You know, things like nuclear weapons. Oh, yeah, nobody's ever going to really use those. After the Cold War, it's like we just in our minds thought nuclear weapons have vanished and we have nothing to fear.

Meanwhile, nuclear weapons are more powerful today than they've ever been. And some crazy people have nuclear weapons. Some of them will be willing to use. Even Putin said he's willing to use nuclear weapons. He said that. So that's something that the world should be concerned about. You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

In the same way, the day of the Lord, it's very real. And it's going to come. And it's going to be that surreal moment when it happens. The rapture of the church takes us up out of here. But if you're an unbelieving person and you've rejected the mercy of Christ, then the Bible says you're going to be in that time called the day of the Lord, and it's going to be no joke and it's very real. I'm not trying to freak you out as much as just tell you this is what the Bible says.

By the way, in Zephaniah's time along with Jeremiah and those contemporaries, they were all prophesying, “The Babylonians are going to come and crush Jerusalem.” “Yeah, whatever.” And then Babylon came and crushed Jerusalem, and they were standing there thinking, “Oh, it happened. It really did happen.” Same thing is going to happen with the day of the Lord. There's people that kind of blow it off, sort of chuckle, laugh at it, but the day of the Lord is real.

Number three, finally and lastly, number three, the day of the Lord is near. Okay, Pastor Brett, this is where I think you're totally wacko. The day of the Lord is near. Well, listen to what Zephaniah said in our text. Back to Zephaniah verse 14, it says, “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly.” The word “hasteth” means it's speeding along with great rapidity. It's coming sooner and sooner is the idea.

And see, I understand what you're saying. You're saying, “This is Zephaniah 2,500 years ago saying the day of the Lord is near and the day of the Lord hasn't happened yet. Hello. He was wrong. Zephaniah was wrong.” Well, he wasn't wrong, and I'll tell you there's two main reasons why. Number one, those of you that know your Bible, especially Bible prophecy, there's something in the Bible that confuses people, but it shouldn't.

As you read the Bible, you start to realize many of the prophecies dealing with the end times has what scholars call the dual fulfillment of prophecy. It's like there's a foreshadow event of coming attractions. And they have a local application of that time and that period and that place, and then oftentimes they have a far-reaching application. Zephaniah, when he's talking about the day of the Lord is near, he's talking about it both locally at his time and also futuristically at the end.

It's that dual fulfillment. Zephaniah is talking and it would be applied as the Babylonians would come and crush all of Judea, and he's referring to that. But then his gaze goes past that. There's some prophecies in Zephaniah that are kind of amazing as far as the end times. For example, Zephaniah predicts that the Hebrew language would become extinct. Did you know the Hebrew language was extinct? There was a time in history where nobody spoke Hebrew on the earth.

It was a scholarly language, sort of like Latin is today. People use Latin to sort of understand origins of words and stuff like that, but it is an academic language. In the same way, Hebrew was like that until Theodore Herzl and the Zionist movement where the Jews started moving back to Israel. And a guy came along named Ben-Yehuda. Who? Ben-Yehuda was the guy, who very early in the history of Israel, he sat at his dinner table with his family and said, “We are no longer going to speak our native language. We're now going to speak Hebrew as we're now living in Jerusalem.”

And he is known mostly as single-handedly bringing the Hebrew language back. If you go to Jerusalem today, everybody's speaking Hebrew. Zephaniah the prophet talked about how that would happen, that the language would be lost and then it would be brought back. That's not a coincidence. That's a “God-incidence.” The Bible knows what it's talking about when it talks about the future, which is understandably scary when you talk about the day of the Lord.

So you're saying, Brett, that there's a near fulfillment of the prophecy of the day of the Lord with Zephaniah? Yes. But there's a far fulfillment. So that's just wrong still then because Zephaniah says, “The day of the Lord is near, it is near.” He says it twice. And he even says, “It hasteth greatly.” In other words, it's coming speedily or exponentially faster is the idea. How does that work out, Brett? 2,500 years to the day of the Lord, it still hasn't happened.

Well, that's where you kind of have to turn to 2nd Peter. Would you flip over to 2nd Peter with me? 2nd Peter chapter 3 is where Peter lines up again with Zephaniah. Even as Revelation chapter 6 lines up with Zephaniah, so too 2nd Peter chapter 3 sort of lines up. But I love what Peter does here because he gives us something that's kind of cool. When people come to you today and say, “You guys believe in the rapture of the church and the day of the Lord and the tribulation period? People have been talking about that for years, and things have gone on the same as always. There's always been trouble in the earth. And you guys are just wacko.”

I always really enjoy that when people say that. Why do you enjoy it, Brett? Because they're fulfilling Bible prophecy as they speak. Check this out. What does Peter say? 2nd Peter chapter 3, verse 3. It says, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep’—or died—‘all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’”

For this, they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world then was being overflowed with water perished. In other words, Peter's saying these people that are scoffing, “Where is the promise? Nothing's happened all these times.” Peter says, “Know this, that's going to happen in the last days more and more. People are going to scoff and mock.”

Which we're seeing that not only in the secularist, but we're seeing that in the churches of America today. Oh, you Christian churches that believe in the rapture and talking Bible prophecy. And they mock and scoff. They really do. It's tragic because they're doing exactly what Peter prophesied. They're going to scoff and mock. But he says it's going to come even as Noah built his ark. He was building his ark for a hundred years and people are like, “What is the deal with this wacko Noah guy?”

But then it started raining. And that's what the illustration Peter gives. But fast forward to verse 8, chapter 3, verse 8. It says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing.” Okay, this is one of those things I talk about often. There's certain things the Bible says you're not supposed to be stupid about. “Be not ignorant of this one thing.” And there's like four or five things that we've covered in previous studies. But this is one of them. Don't be ignorant about this.

And by the way, all the things the Bible says don't be ignorant about, sadly, the church largely seems to be ignorant of these things. It's kind of interesting. So it says, “Be not ignorant,” verse 8, “of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack—or lazy—concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Now pause just for a second. This is interesting. He says a day with the Lord is a thousand years, a thousand years with the Lord is like a day. God exists outside of time. And we could go into a whole talk about that. But as it turns out, a day with the Lord is like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day. So when you say it's been 2,500 years, well, in God's economy, it's just been two and a half days. Like, is that really a big deal for God?

God says, “I'm coming and I'm going to come quickly,” but He wants it to be a variable that we have no idea when He's going to come. If somebody claims to be a Bible prophecy teacher and starts telling you what day the rapture's going to be or when the day of the Lord's going to be, you can just chalk him off as wacko. Because the Bible says no man knows the day or the hour, and that variable is part of this thing about the days. We just don't know when it's going to happen.

Well, Brett, they were saying that hundreds of years ago that Christ was going to come and you guys are going to die just like some of those preachers, Spurgeon and J. Vernon McGee and G. Campbell Morgan, some of those preachers that thought Christ would come in their time but they didn't. You're going to go down with them. Well, count me with them. I like those guys. I want to be one of those Christians, like we're supposed to be. And we're supposed to live our life as if Christ comes tomorrow.

Well, what if He doesn't? Then we're still living our life the way God wants us to live our life, as if He could come tomorrow. The imminence of His return is part of the deal. We just don't know when it's going to happen. But He does tell us there are signs of the times. And Peter tells us the reason it hasn't happened yet is because the Lord is not slack or lazy, but He would that none should perish. Christ is not coming yet because, Peter says, the Lord wants people to be saved. He's patient. And the Lord is patient.

Now let's read on here in 2nd Peter. This is where he gets very much into this. Verse 10. He says, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” See, I believe in global warming. The Bible teaches global warming. It's not going to take hundreds of years though. It's going to take a second.

When is that going to happen? That's going to happen on the day of God. Check this out, verse 11. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved”—that's the earth and the heavens and everything—“what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God.” Remember I was telling you what that was earlier? That's when the Lord gives us a new heaven and a new earth.

That's something we should be looking forward to, believe it or not. Everybody's like, “Yeah, but He's going to destroy the earth and the heavens.” Yeah, but we get to trade that in for something even more glorious that hasn't been polluted by Satan and humanity. The new heavens and the new earth is going to be awesome. We're going to live happily ever after. So looking for, hastening to the coming of the day of God, verse 12, “wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fervent heat.”

“Nevertheless we, according to His promise,” what are we supposed to do? It says, “Look for new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” Man, we're called to be holy during these last days we're living. What does Peter say? Be diligent, be faithful, watching for the Lord, looking forward to the day of the Lord, looking forward to the day of God. Peter kind of fills all that in there in his message.

Now, there's a few things about what Peter talks about that I think I want to remind you of. And for speed, I'm just going to quickly show you these scriptures. 1st Thessalonians 5, I talk about this often. And Peter says the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief. Does that make anybody nervous? A thief in the night is something that's kind of scary. There you are just sleeping and minding your own business and some thief comes into your house. Why is it that the Bible compares the day of the Lord and His second coming and the rapture of the church, why does He compare that to like a thief coming in?

Well, depends on your perspective. If you're not a believer, if you're not a christian, it's going to shock you when it happens. You'll be surprised. That's what Peter says. But check out what Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 5. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.”

We're watching the signs of the times. We're not supposed to be in darkness. And are you a child of the light? If not, you should accept Jesus. Believe in Christ and suddenly you'll be a child of the light and you won't be caught like a thief in the night, the Bible says. Fast forward to verse 9 of 1st Thessalonians. It says, “For God hath not appointed us”—the believers—“to wrath.” Remember the tribulation's called the time of the wrath of the Lamb, the wrath of God?

But we're not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation by Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. And then it says, “Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even also as you do.” If what I'm sharing with you deeply troubles you, the day of the Lord and the wrath of the Lamb and all the hundred-pound hailstones pounding this planet, it is a scary situation. “Thief in the night.” That kind of language is very Zephaniah.

And it troubles people. But what does the Bible say? You and I, as Christians, we're not appointed to wrath. That's why, by the way, one of the many reasons I believe in a pre-trib rapture. Does Jesus take His bride and say, “Okay, you're my bride, but I'm going to let you go through the time of wrath where two-thirds of the planet's going to die. Happy wedding anniversary”? Is that what He's going to say? No, we're the bride of Christ. He takes us up, raptures us into heaven where we get to be for seven years in the marriage feast of the Lamb.

A Jewish wedding lasted seven days. It's like a perfect correlation when you look at the way it all falls out. And we'll be with the Lord. The Lord is not going to have His bride, the church, go through the time of wrath. So it says we are not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation through Jesus, who died for us. And then it says, “Wherefore comfort yourselves one another with these words.” The words of the rapture of the church and that we get to be with Christ and we get to edify and build each other up instead of be depressed about the gloom that's coming.

So it's true, the day of the Lord is grim. The day of the Lord is real. But the day of the Lord, I believe, is near. It is near, it is near, Zephaniah says. And some of you might say, “Well, that's scary.” Don't be afraid. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.” In other words, you don't have to be afraid. Even when Jesus was talking there in Matthew 24 when the disciples said, “Tell us about the end of the world and when it's going to be,” Jesus said, “Well, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars, but don't be troubled by this. These things all must come to pass before the coming of Christ.”

And so we are told by Jesus Himself to be comforted. What's comforting about the end-time scenario? I'll tell you what it is. If you're a Christian, be comforted because we'll be taken up to be with the Lord in heaven, and we get to be with the Lord forever from that day forward. So it's something to actually look forward to. So doom and gloom? Nope. If you're a Christian, it's boom and zoom. Not doom and gloom. Boom and zoom. Boom, you'll be raptured taken up to be with the Lord, and zoom to be up with Him in heaven forever, and it's going to be a glorious, glorious thing.

Are you ready? Do you know where you're going to go? If the rapture of the church happened right now, would you be taken with the church or would you be left behind? Because the Bible talks that that's what's going to happen actually. Some people will be left behind. But who is it that's going to be taken? Those who've been saved. What does it mean to be saved? It means that you accept Jesus Christ and the work of the cross.

You see, the gospel is very simple and it's very clear. It's called good news, gospel. Why? Because the bad news is you and I are sinners and we deserve death and hell. The good news is God so loved the world—that's you—that He gave His only begotten Son. How did He give His Son? God became a man, lived among us, the Son of God as He's called. And Jesus went willingly to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world. That's why John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God.

And then when Jesus died on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” What was finished? The work of salvation for all of humanity, anyone who would accept it. You see, that's the fine line between the saved and the unsaved, is do you accept what God has done? If God is love, He won't send people to hell, people say. Correct. God is love, so He gives you this free option. It's the get-out-of-hell free pass. It's so simple. When Paul says it in Romans 10 verse 9 and 10, he defines what is salvation.

He says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus, that He died on the cross and rose from the grave, he says you will be saved. It's just that powerful and simple. What does it mean to confess with your mouth? It means to confess you're a sinner. The first thing you have to acknowledge is your sin, and that's called repentance. To just say, “I repent of my sin and I acknowledge my sin is wrong before God.”

That's the first thing you've got to get to is understanding you're a sinner. The Bible says if you're a sinner, you deserve death and hell. All of us do. But if you acknowledge that and repent, it doesn't mean you're going to be perfect, by the way. Repentance means acknowledging your sin. Then if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, rose up from the grave, it says you will be saved. That's the good news.

The sad thing is millions of people will harden their hearts and say, “Yeah, I don't really care about that.” It's like you might say that, “I'm not interested in war,” but war is interested in you. You might say that about hell, too. “I'm not interested in hell,” but hell is interested in you. And it comes your way whether you like it or not. Unless, unless you accept Christ. But are you trying to scare us? I'm speaking what the Bible teaches. Call it what you will, but it's what the Bible actually teaches.

May the Lord give you a soft heart just to say, “I accept Christ.” Because, man, the day gets a lot brighter and things look much more cheerful. And you can, like this scripture says in the word, we can comfort one another with these words and edify one another if you accept salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us ears to hear. I wonder if there might be a few who would say today, “Brett, I'm kind of done rejecting the cross. I need to know that I'm saved by God's grace through faith.”

And I wonder if maybe some of you would accept Jesus as your savior right now. It's there for the taking. God has you here for this very moment. And you're wondering, “Am I saved? If the rapture of the church happened today, would I go to heaven?” If that's you, then you can accept Christ right now. There's nothing stopping you other than just a lack of faith. We're saved by grace through faith, the Bible says. So you've got to believe and accept.

If you want to do that, I'd like to pray that prayer with you. I'd like to confess Christ. I'm going to pray this prayer of faith. And if you just pray this from your heart, through your mouth, the Bible promises this is you just accepting this free gift of God. Dear Father in Heaven, I believe in your Son, Jesus Christ. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, that He rose up from the grave and that my sins are forgiven. Help me to walk with you and thank you for saving me in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lord, what an amazing thing that you tell us in your word that it's the confession with our mouth that leads to salvation. Not how good we are or how many amazing things we've done. Lord, it's the amazing thing that you did. The work of the cross that saves us. How thankful we are now for these who've just accepted Jesus. Lord, I pray that you'd just wrap your loving arms around them, that they would know their sins are forgiven, that you'd protect them from just doubt and wonder.

But Lord, may you only reaffirm the confession that they've just made and reveal yourself to them as you have for so many of us. Lord, that you'd give them that peace that passes understanding and joy knowing that we get to go to heaven. Lord, as we live in darker days, I pray that we'd always look to the light, your Son, Jesus Christ, keeping our eyes fixed on Him. This we pray, Lord, thank you for hearing our prayer in Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time today here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study from the book of Zephaniah. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com.

If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. Also, I want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link “Locations.” Well, with our final moments, once more, here's Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: I wonder if there might be a few who would say today, “Brett, I'm kind of done rejecting the cross. I need to know that I'm saved by God's grace through faith.” And I wonder if maybe some of you would accept Jesus as your savior right now. It's there for the taking. God has you here for this very moment. And you're wondering, “Am I saved? If the rapture of the church happened today, would I go to heaven?”

If that's you, then you can accept Christ right now. There's nothing stopping you other than just a lack of faith. We're saved by grace through faith, the Bible says. So you've got to believe and accept. If you want to do that, I'd like to pray that prayer with you. I'd like to confess Christ. I'm going to pray this prayer of faith. And if you just pray this from your heart, through your mouth, the Bible promises this is you just accepting this free gift of God.

Dear Father in Heaven, I believe in your Son, Jesus Christ. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, that He rose up from the grave and that my sins are forgiven. Help me to walk with you and thank you for saving me in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Lord, what an amazing thing that you tell us in your word that it's the confession with our mouth that leads to salvation. Not how good we are or how many amazing things we've done.

Lord, it's the amazing thing that you did. The work of the cross that saves us. How thankful we are now for these who've just accepted Jesus. Lord, I pray that you'd just wrap your loving arms around them, that they would know their sins are forgiven, that you'd protect them from just doubt and wonder. But Lord, may you only reaffirm the confession that they've just made and reveal yourself to them as you have for so many of us. Lord, that you'd give them that peace that passes understanding and joy knowing that we get to go to heaven. Lord, as we live in darker days, I pray that we'd always look to the light, your Son, Jesus Christ, keeping our eyes fixed on Him. This we pray, Lord, thank you for hearing our prayer in Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time today here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study from the book of Zephaniah. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Thanks for listening and God bless.