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November 7                                     Today’s Reading: John 20-Acts 1

“It is not for you to know.”

Acts 1:7

 

Language could not be more emphatically clear. The Lord Jesus tells us, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.”

 

Foolish Questions

All men are curious about the future. One aspect of man’s universal fascination with the future is the fact that it allows him to momentarily escape the realities and responsibilities of the present. Another reason for this curiosity about future things is that all men want to avoid any present sense of guilt, condemnation, and judgment. Certainly, this curiosity also arises from the fact that all human beings have both a God consciousness and a sense of immortality, from which they cannot escape. But the fact remains — God does not intend for us to know the times and seasons. He has given no man the ability to map out the future. He has given no man the key to discover the timetable of predestination. And He never will (Deuteronomy 29:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2).

God the Holy Ghost plainly warns us in Holy Scripture not to give “heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1:4). We are expressly told to “avoid foolish questions” because “they are unprofitable and vain” (Titus 3:9). The attempts of men to pry into secrets things belonging only to God reveal horrible pride and utter contempt for the revelation of God in Holy Scripture.

 

Revealed Things

There are some great events of the future clearly revealed in Holy Scripture; and those things that are revealed belong to God’s elect. These are the things we are to look into, meditate upon, study, preach, and adore. The more clearly they are understood and appreciated by us, the better. It is by being instructed in these things that are revealed that God’s saints are edified.

  • All God’s elect shall be saved (John 10:16; Romans 11:26).
  • Christ is coming in power and great glory (Revelation 1:7).
  • There will be a resurrection of the dead (John 5:28-29).
  • All will stand before God in judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10).
  • The Lord Jesus Christ will create a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:11-13).
  • All the righteous will live in an eternal state of bliss and glory with Christ in heaven; and all unbelievers will exist forever in a state of undying death, misery, and woe, under the wrath of God in hell (Revelation 22:11).
  • And the Lord our God, in the trinity of His sacred Persons, will be exalted, praised, glorified, and forever honored by all things that are, have been, and shall be (Revelation 19:5-7).

 

Looking for Christ

God has told us plainly that these things will happen. But he has given us absolutely no information as to when these things shall take place. God does not tell us when the end of the world is coming. He does not even give us a single shred of evidence indicating the general course of events leading up to the time of the end. Those passages of Scripture that refer to “signs of the times” are referring to signs of events that have already taken place, by which these last days, which began two thousand years ago, were announced.

            We are never told to be looking for signs of our Savior’s second coming. Look not for signs, my brother. Look not, my sister, for indications of the end of time. Ours is to live in the immediate hope and expectation of Christ’s glorious appearing. Let us busy ourselves every day, serving Him on the tiptoe of faith, in anticipation of His coming, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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