Welcome to the Hedgemaker broadcast. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to the nation of Israel many long years ago. He hath not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge, for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. He also said that the Lord sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Hedgemaker Baptist Ministries, located in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is attempting to stand in the gap and make up the hedge in these days of spiritual compromise and theological apostasy. Our biblical and historical Christian heritage challenges us to fill in the gaps left by those who have moved away from their biblical foundations. Listen now as we build up the wall and make up the hedge through sound preaching from God's Holy Word. Alright, now today we are talking about prophetic insights for the 21st century, and I'm just going to touch on a few things that we can cover. I want to think about the imminency of the second coming of Christ. Now normally, normally we speak of the rapture as imminent. Imminent means that it could happen at any moment. I believe the Bible also presents the second coming of Christ in an eminent way. I'm kind of going to zero on the second coming of Christ. There are many things we could talk about when we talk about prophecy. We could talk about the ministry of the Old Testament prophets. There are five major prophets and twelve minor prophets. The difference between the major and the minor prophets is just the size of the books, that's all. They're all major prophets, in other words. And so a large portion of the Old Testament is prophecy. And you find some prophetic passages in the Book of the Psalms as well. They're what we call Messianic Psalms. They talk about the Messiah. The Old Testament Jew was looking for their Messiah. You really find the second coming of Christ, well, let's call it the coming of Christ first. Because there's really the first coming and the second coming. The first coming, of course, was when he came as a babe in a manger and came as a savior to save the world. And the second coming is yet future. All of that is presented in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. There are various theories of the coming of Christ. But the coming of the Messiah is a central theme of the Bible. It's from the very first mention of the Gospel. Go with me to Genesis chapter number 3 and verse number 15. Right after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised a Messiah, a Deliverer. He talked about the seed of the woman, that's a reference to the Messiah. In Genesis chapter 3 and verse number 15, God is speaking to the man and the woman and to the serpent, who of course was Satan, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It, meaning the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel." That's a promise of the coming Deliverer, the coming Messiah. So all the way from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the Bible is talking about the coming Messiah. So it's a central theme throughout all of the Scriptures, the coming of the Lord. Now the principal divisions of the Bible expand the doctrine of the coming of the Messiah. In the Old Testament, He is coming. In the Gospels, He has come. And in the Epistles and the Book of Revelation, He is coming again. See that pattern that's developed in the Bible? And the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is also progressively unfolded. Now, we don't believe in progressive theology, that we are progressing in our theology, and our theology is changing and becoming better, no, theology is set, but God's revelation was progressive. In other words, God did not dump all of the Bible on Adam right from the very beginning. It was progressively given. God spoke with Adam, and then later on, God used Moses to write the first five books of the Old Testament. Job was given some revelation, and presumably he wrote the book of Job. And then David was given some later on, and so forth through the Old Testament. All the prophets were given more of the revelation of the Lord until you come to the New Testament. And the Church isn't revealed until you really get to the New Testament. So, in the Old Testament, there is a promise of a coming shown in various aspects. A foundation for His coming was seen in the Law. The prediction of His coming is, of course, proclaimed by the prophets, and then the expectation of His coming anticipated in the Old Testament writings. When you come to the Gospels, we have both His birth, His first coming, and His second coming. that are presented in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In the epistles, the second coming is then unfolded in the rapture, we talked about that Wednesday night, that'll take place at any moment when the Lord comes in the clouds. And we who are alive and remain will be caught up together to meet them, that is Christ and the ones who have already died in Christ, they shall rise first, that's the rapture, that takes place at any moment. Then there's a period of seven years of tribulation, and then the revelation, the second coming of the Lord. So the New Testament, the epistles, present the second coming of Christ in two phases, the rapture and the revelation. And then the book of Revelation tells us about the actual second coming of Christ. If you read the book of Revelation, it's called the Revelation of Christ. Jesus Christ. And I mentioned on Wednesday night that even in the study of the Tribulation, it is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we already mentioned the Second Coming presented in the Old Testament in Genesis chapter 3 and verse number 15. Turn over to Genesis chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3. Genesis chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3. It's what we call the Abrahamic covenant, or the covenant that God, the promise that God makes with Abraham. Now, the Lord God had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, which was Ur of the Chaldees, in chapter 11, and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." That tremendous promise given to us that the Lord Jesus Christ would come from the nation of Israel, and the blessing there has not yet come to Israel. That's still coming. I'm going to kind of focus on that in today's messages. Tonight we'll look at some of the current events, Not all of them, but just some of the current events in the nation of Israel that help us to know that the Second Coming is there. And then, of course, there are many prophecies regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, which we'll not go into, but the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament is presented as a great Messiah. And Israel was looking for that Messiah. In fact, when the disciples where with the Lord Jesus they asked him, what shall be the sign of my coming? And then they asked him, is now the time when you will deliver us? So they were looking for a deliverer. The disciples today, they were under Roman bondage. So the Old Testament presents the Lord as a great Messiah, but it also presents the Lord as a lowly Messiah, or a suffering Messiah. Now, we understand that the Old Testament students didn't quite understand that. The Jewish people today, I think, are confused with the compilation of a great Messiah and a lowly Messiah in one. In fact, some of the Jews interpret the various passages of Scripture to mean, well, there's two different Messiahs. A great Messiah and a lowly Messiah. Some say, well, the suffering part is talking about the prophets. or the prophets, like Isaiah, prophesying about the suffering of Christ in Isaiah 53. He said that's about the prophets, and the glorious things are about the Messiah and the nation of Israel. So there are various interpretations and confusions about what those things are all about in the Jewish mind even today. Let me talk for a moment about the general nature of the Second Coming. When we talk about the Second Coming of Christ, We mean that Christ will come in person. Go with me to Acts chapter 1. The disciples were waiting in the city of Jerusalem. This is post-resurrection, the end of the Gospels. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead, and so the Lord gave them some instructions to wait for the promise of his coming, and he gave them that, what we call the Great Commission there in Acts 1.8. part of a great commission anyway to receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. He met with his disciples there after the resurrection. Acts chapter 1 verse number 8 says, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses. That's what's going to happen in the book of Acts. They would be witnesses for the Lord. Verse 9 says, and when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly, and I'm sure they were disappointed, remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they were a little disappointed that the Lord was crucified, and they didn't know they were talking to the resurrected Savior. It's Luke chapter 24. Then when he revealed himself, he vanished out of their sight. Now he's meeting together with the disciples. They're evidently in the upper room. We're told them to wait, and he comes to them, and he tells them, you're going to receive the Spirit of God, and you're going to be witnesses to me, and you're going to fulfill that great commission that I gave to you. And when he had spoken these things, he was taken up, and cloud received him out of their sight. I would assume that when the disciples were there with the Lord Jesus, they're in that, oh, he has come back, and now he's going to restore his kingdom. And he gave them that instruction there in verse number 8, and then he's gone. Oh, what happened to our hope? It's gone. And so verse 10 says, "...while they looked steadfastly toward heaven..." I guess they're up on the mountain top at this point. "...while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus..." Who is it? "...this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." There's the second coming of the Lord. There's the hope of the second coming. And so the disciples, from that point on, could relieve in the hope of the Second Coming. Christ will come in person, He will come visibly, and literally, this same Jesus, so they're going to see His literal bodily appearance when He comes again. When the Lord comes again, He will come in that glory. Okay, when He came the first time as a lowly babe in a manger, it was not with the pomp and circumstance. but he will come again with that pomp and circumstance and the various signs of his coming that will be manifest at that time. He will come with great power. He will come with his angels. A host of angels will come that time. Of course, we who will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air will come again with him. He will come quickly And he will come unexpectedly, when the world does not expect him. Now let's think about that for a moment. Let me take you to that timeline. You should have a copy of this timeline in your bulletin. And let's go through that for just a moment so you know exactly what we're talking about. It's a simplified little chart here. The title is the Pre-Tribulational Rapture, and so Pre-Tribulational Rapture Chart. You can see the first section is the Old Testament times. And then the cross. Everybody see the cross? That's when Christ died on the cross, and of course, three days after his cross work, he rose from the dead. And so then we have the beginning of the church, 50 days later on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was poured out there in Acts chapter number 2, and the church begins. So you have before the cross is Old Testament, after the cross is New Testament. We don't know how long the church age will go. Some people when they make their charts put a question mark there because we don't know how many years that is. Many people have tried to project how long that is, but since the rapture is imminent, and we don't know when the Lord is coming again, we cannot set a date. Many have said, well, OK, we're going to go by 1,000 years here and there. We've got 7,000 years. So if the Lord came at 4,000 BC, which is more likely than the, well, it's not more likely than the millions and billions of years, Some people may go back to 10,000 years ago, but about 4,000 years ago, the world was created, and we're living now in the 2,000, that's 6,000 years, and so 1,000 years for the millennium, so who knows? We can't conjecture these things. The Bible does not tell us when the Lord is coming again and how long the Lord will carry. The Bible does say, that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise of the Second Coming. He will come again. He's not slack. And many people over the years have said, well, you guys have been preaching this, and the Lord predicted that He would come again, but look, He's not coming again. And we look at history, and we look at times in our history and say, oh well, things are getting bad and worse, and we know that the Bible says, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son. coming of the Son of Man, and so he says, oh, well, it's really bad, and so the Lord's going to come to rescue us from this. We don't know. We don't know how long the church age will last. We looked at that passage of Scripture. If you want to write it down, it's 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4, verses 13 through 19. We looked at that passage on Wednesday night where Paul was encouraging the Thessalonican believers about the second coming of Christ. And he says that the dead in Christ shall rise first. The Lord's going to come, but we don't know when it is. That could be at any moment. Could be before we finish this service this morning. It might be another many years. We don't know. The Bible says we need to be ready for that rapture. I believe the rapture does take place in Revelation 4.1 where John is on earth and the angel says, John, come up hither. And from that point we find John in heaven. And then the Bible presents, we'll go through this on Wednesday night, the tribulation is a seven year period of time broken in half by three and a half years in the first half of the tribulation and three and a half years in the second half of the tribulation. In the very middle of the Tribulation, I believe, is when the Antichrist is catapulted to his fame. He's there in the first half of the Tribulation, but I believe in the second half, in the middle of the Tribulation, he breaks his covenant with the nation of Israel, Daniel 9, verse 27. And then the last half of the Tribulation is more terrible than the first half of the Tribulation. Then, after the Tribulation, we have the Second Coming of the Lord. Those of us who know the Lord, see the rapture has an arrow going up? Those of us who know the Lord will be caught up together to meet the Lord in error. During the Tribulation, we are in heaven as Christians. We are not on earth. And we come back to earth with the Lord after the Tribulation. So now the arrow points down, the Lord coming back to earth, this time not coming in the clouds, but touching his foot on Mount Olivet, coming all the way to the earth, and then ruling and reigning on the earth for a period of a thousand years. Hence, we get the term millennium. Millennium is a Latin term. It's not in the Bible, but the word thousand or the phrase thousand years is found several times in the book of Revelation referring to this time. Typically, the Old Testament people would call it The Millennial reign, Jesus and the disciples refer to it as the Kingdom of God, the Millennial reign. So that's the timeline of future events. So the next thing, since we're in the Church Age, the next thing on God's prophetic timetable is the Rapture. Those of us who know the Lord will be caught away, and it will come unexpectedly. Now I think we as believers can kind of have a hint at that. When we're talking about these things, the rapture and the second coming are separated by a period of at least seven years, tribulation in there. The two phases of the second coming of the Lord. The Lord comes back to catch away. Rapture, by the way, is another Latin term, or comes from the Latin, it's not found in the Bible either, that particular word. but catching away. Well, anyway, we're talking about the second coming of the Lord, coming unexpectedly and coming in an imminent way. I want you to go with me to the Gospel of Mark. Now, Jesus is not necessarily teaching about the rapture, okay? Because in the Gospel era, he's talking to Jewish people. He's not talking to church people. The church hasn't even begun yet. The church won't begin until Acts chapter 2. But let's look at this. Mark chapter 13. The principles are somewhat the same. Mark chapter 13, and we want to begin reading at verse number 28. Now, learn a parable of the fixtures. Lots of the parables have to do with a coming kingdom. Now you can see on the chart, the kingdom of the millennium And the second coming of the Lord comes right before the Millennium. Now, since Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, even though they're New Testament books, they are in an era of Old Testament economy because they're before the cross. You got that figured out? They're New Testament books, but they're in an Old Testament era. And so the Lord had not yet died on the cross. So he's still talking about the kingdom. He's not necessarily talking, and the second coming, he's not necessarily talking about the rapture. But I think we can apply these. Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When her branch is yet tender and put it forth leaves, you know that summer is near. Okay, so the farmer watches the fig trees or whatever. plants he's watching. So, in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the door. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done." Now, if this is going to take place in the Tribulation, okay, that's the reference. It wouldn't be the generation to whom Jesus is speaking at the time. They have passed away. But the generation that would be alive during the tribulation, you shall see these things, know that it is not even at the door that this generation during the tribulation shall not pass till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. What he's saying there is you can trust what I have to say. It is the word of God. But of that day and that hour knoweth No man, except for... No, it doesn't say that, does it? Nobody knows the day or the hour. Nobody. So anytime you hear somebody predicting that the Lord is going to come back on such and such a day or in such and such a... like the fall of 2017 or whatever, you know that they are a false prophet. No man knoweth the day nor the hour, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the sun, but the Father. Take heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is." Now that's an application to all of us. Israel's going to be given this message during the Tribulation. The Lord's coming back again. Be ready for His coming. The message is for us today, in this present day, as well. We must be ready for the Second Coming of the Lord, because He's coming in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. 1 Corinthians 15, that's right. I can't remember that passage. 1 Corinthians 15, I forget which verse, that the Lord's coming in a moment in a twinkling of an eye. Okay? And the twinkling again is the twinkle, not the blink. The twinkle of the eye and he's going to come quickly, okay? 4, verse 34, the son of man is as a man taking a far journey, another parable. So the Lord went away when he told his disciples in John chapter 14, I'm going away, I'm going to prepare a place for you, but I will come again. Who left his house, this man left his house, gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto you all, watch." Well, the inference is to us as well. The Lord left us behind, and he said, wait, for the promise of His coming. The Lord is coming again, and the angel says there, in Acts chapter 1, this same Jesus, whom you've seen go into the clouds, into the heavens, shall so come in like manner. And so He's coming again. What are we supposed to be doing? We're supposed to be watching and praying and working until Jesus comes again. We're not supposed to be twiddling our thumbs and say, okay, Jesus is coming. When is He coming? When is He coming? We're supposed to be busy, okay? Now again, the parables are given in the context of a Jewish flavor. Jesus gave that other parable of the two people working in the field. One should be taken and one left. The proper interpretation is the Second Coming of Christ. But I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with applying the principle to the rapture. If you know the Lord as Savior, you'll be caught up in the rapture. It's not a matter of how well you serve the Lord in the rapture. It's a matter of whether you know Jesus. Do you know Jesus? Have you been born again? And we mentioned on Wednesday night, don't hope in the, well, when I see this take place, then I will trust the Lord. No, because Thessalonians tells us that there will be sent a strong delusion so that you believe a lie. I used to wonder about that. And the older I get, and the more I study history, and I study the present, and how people today are believing lies. I mean just believing lies rapidly. And I think, how can we be so blind? But that's what the devil does. The God of this world will blind the minds of them that will believe, and so people will believe the Antichrist when he comes and says, I am indeed the Messiah. Thieves don't typically give you a telephone call or send you a notice and say, hey, I'm going to come and break into your house at three o'clock in the morning. They don't do that. You don't know when they're coming. The Lord is coming as a thief in the night, meaning at any moment, when you least expect Him. If you're expecting Him, you're going to be sitting up waiting for Him with a baseball bat or whatever it is. Be therefore ready also. supposed to be ready. For the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward? We're stewards. We've been entrusted with this job of going into all the world and preaching the gospel. Are we faithful and wise stewards of that responsibility? Do you know the Lord's coming and you don't prepare your hearts? And so the Lord's promising His coming and He's basically telling His servants, it's coming at any moment. You should be ready. You don't know when it's coming like a thief in the night. Is it going to come tonight? Is it going to come tomorrow night? Is it going to come at 3 in the morning? Is it going to come at 2? Will He wait until 6 just before I get up? What time will He come? We don't know. Be ye ready. for in such an hour do you think not, the Son of Man cometh." That's about all the time we have this morning. We're going to have to finish picking up some of this stuff this evening. Lord willing, we'll look at some of the things in the Bible and in history about the preservation of the nation of Israel, and then some occurring events, mostly having to do with Israel, leading up to the coming of Christ. And then if we have time, And we'll talk about some biblical principles of recognizing false prophets. This is Dr. Lee Hennise, and we want to thank you for listening to the Hedgemaker broadcast today. Most of our broadcasts are portions of a sermon that I have preached the church. Hedgemaker Baptist Ministries is the preaching, teaching, and writing ministry for myself. You can visit us on the web at HedgeMaker.org. And let's be encouraged to stand in the gap and make up the hedge until Jesus comes again.