Are You Ready for the Day of the Lord?
My question for you is this: Are you ready? Are you ready to face the Almighty God, the God who knows and sees everything you have every said or done and knows your heart from the inside, in spite of how you present yourself on the outside? So what will the day of the Lord be to you? Have you really thought about it? Are you sure you are ready?
Woe to you that desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if someone fled away from a lion, but a bear attacked him, or got into the house and rested his hand on the wall, but a snake bit him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Will it not be deep darkness, with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I am not pleased by your solemn assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings or your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard the offerings of your fattened animals. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos. 5:18-24).
Do you understand that the Lord is not the least bit impressed by our worship services of songs and musical instruments, nor is He impressed by any of America’s festival church meetings with everyone singing and clapping, nor is He impressed with the solemn assemblies where everybody is ultra-religiously sober—especially when there is no holiness, no forsaking of sins, no separation from the world, no righteousness, no justice of correcting the sins of the people? He is sick of all our so-called worship services, especially when righteousness and justice are missing, and sin and worldliness are present.
“Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the Lord has come, For it is at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:1-2a, NKJV).
Who is blowing the trumpet today in the American church, sounding the alarm, warning all those who claim to be Christians that the day of the Lord is coming and that it is near, and it is a day of darkness and gloom rather than a day of peace and safety for the masses? Rather than a trumpet blowing, isn’t the message today all about salvation without a cross, blessings rather than judgment, prosperity of material things rather than holiness, false grace that covers up sin and healing of the body rather than of the soul? Who is warning about the dangers of sin and worldliness today? When is the last time your pastor or prophet preached a message that brought the fear of the Lord upon you like fire?
“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the commanding officers and the strong and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath has come. Who is able to withstand it?'” (Rev. 6:15-17, MEV).
And when all of the false prophets and false pastors who live like kings, and the false Christians see Jesus for who He really is, they will be terrified and would rather that the mountains and the rocks fall on them than to come face to face with Jesus in judgment, now realizing that hell is waiting for them after thinking all along that they were going to heaven. Could that be you?
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if it begins first with us, what shall the end be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?'” (1 Pet. 4:17-18).
Here is what will become of them: “For if we willfully continue to sin after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:26-27).
Since most so-called Christians in American today are practicing sin or are at least passive and lukewarm, the day of the Lord will be a terrible day for them. This the vast majority of all who claim to belong to Jesus. Since that day is such a terrible day of gloom and darkness for all of them, I would advise you that you make sure you are really ready and not assume you are going to heaven because you prayed a sinner’s prayer, got baptized, have a spiritual gift or belong to a church. If you are not being conformed into the image of Jesus now, He will not allow you to enter heaven then.
So, are you ready, are you really ready? You only have the present time to get right. Don’t miss it if you are not ready!
To hear more teaching on this topic, listen to the entire podcast here.
