Between a Father and HIS daughter

At the Mouth of 2 or 3 Witnesses Let Every Matter Be Firmly Established

What is “the matter” that we will be considering here?

That when it is time, we, the servants of God, will know ahead of time.

Father says at Amos 3:7 that he will do nothing without first letting his servants the prophets know.  Here are your witnesses:

Confirmation:

Witness #1: NOAH

The Lord then said to Noah,

“Go into the ark,

you and your whole family,

because I have found you righteous in this generation.

Take with you seven pairs

of every kind of clean animal,

a male and its mate,

and one pair

of every kind of unclean animal,

a male and its mate,

and also seven pairs

of every kind of bird,

male and female,

to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

Seven days from now

I will send rain on the earth

for forty days and forty nights,

and I will wipe

from the face of the earth

every living creature I have made.

”And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. – Genesis 7:1-5

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis7:1-5&version=NIV

Witness #2: Jonah

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:

“Go to the great city of Nineveh

and preach against it,

because its wickedness has come up before me.”

But Jonah ran away from the Lord…  – Jonah 1:1-3a

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah1:1-3&version=NIV

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:

“Go to the great city of Nineveh

and proclaim to it

the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.

Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.

Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming,

“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

The Ninevites believed God.

A fast was proclaimed,

and all of them,

from the greatest to the least,

put on sackcloth.

When Jonah’s warning reached

the king of Nineveh,

he rose from his throne,

took off his royal robes,

covered himself with sackcloth

and sat down in the dust.

This is the proclamation he issued

in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king

and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals,

herds or flocks,

taste anything;

do not let them eat or drink.

But let people and animals

be covered with sackcloth.

Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways

and their violence.

Who knows?

God may yet relent

and with compassion turn from his fierce anger

so that we will not perish.”

When God saw what they did

and how they turned

from their evil ways,

he relented

and did not bring on them

the destruction he had threatened. – Jonah 3:1-10

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah3:1-10&version=NIV

Witness #3: JESUS

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.

2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;

10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’?

We don’t understand what he is saying.”

Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them,

“Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?

20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.

32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:1-33

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John16:1-33&version=NIV

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them,

“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief. – Matthew 17:22-23

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew17:22-23&version=NIV

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them,

“Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

“Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed,

“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them,

“Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” – Matthew 26:36-46

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew26:36-46&version=NIV

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.

“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.

Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead.

This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”

So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. – Matthew 27:62-66

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew27:62-66&version=NIV

One more…

When it is time, the first one who will find out, from the FATHER, is King Jesus; and this is what King Jesus says about that…

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.

6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.

7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!

20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.

21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

25 See, I have told you ahead of time.

26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29 “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky,

and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

30 “Then will appear

the sign of the Son of Man

in heaven.

And then

all the peoples of the earth

will mourn

when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

31 And he will send his angels

with a loud trumpet call,

and they will gather his elect

from the four winds,

from one end of the heavens

to the other.

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree:

As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.

33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.

34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?

46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.

47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’

49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.

50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.

51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. – Matthew 24:4-51

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew24:4-51&version=NIV

Now let’s discuss this one …

My desire is for my story to end with verse #31 which says…

30 “Then will appear

the sign of the Son of Man

in heaven.

And then

all the peoples of the earth

will mourn

when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

31 And he will send his angels

with a loud trumpet call,

and they will gather his elect

from the four winds,

from one end of the heavens

to the other.

Matthew 24:30,31

This is the Rapture.

Go back over everything leading up to verse #31. Notice that everything that has been mentioned is happening. And so what is our instruction…

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree:

As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.

33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Matthew 24:32-33, 42-44

Now after showing us the rapture in verse 31, Jesus tells us in verse #33 that this time is right at the door. But notice this also…

As we come to the verse that everyone likes to quote, “no one knows the day or hour” (Matthew 24:36), we are next told…

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;

39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:36-39

Again, King Jesus tells us what many don’t want to acknowledge as they focus on not knowing the day or hour.

King Jesus said “as in the day of Noah”.

Go back and look at the day of Noah.

Take note in Genesis chapter 7 that GOD Almighty told NOAH when. HE told him what day. So who was it that did not know the day?

I’m going to let you answer that. But I will tell you who did know the day…

Noah, his wife, his 3 sons (Japheth, Shem, and Ham), and their wives.

So for those who were not paying attention, and who were not taken up at verse 31, for those who were left behind…

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;

39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?

46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.

47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’

49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.

50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.

51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:36-51

For those who are not paying attention and thus will be left behind, three (3) times King Jesus let them know that they will be caught off guard. Three times King Jesus said that they dont know the day or hour.

What we need to understand is that the reason why it will not be known when it is time is because if we are not training our ears to hear the voice of the Lord now, and obey the Lord now, then one definitely will not hear later.

But for those paying attention

I almost forgot another example of where the warning went forth first. I can’t close this out without telling it.

Witness #4 and #5: Abraham and Lot

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great

and their sin so grievous

that I will go down and see

if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

Then Abraham approached him and said:

“Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?

Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing —to kill the righteous with the wicked,

treating the righteous

and the wicked alike.

Far be it from you!

Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home. – Genesis 18:1-5,16-17,20-33

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis18:1-5,16-17,20-33&version=NIV

Not only did GOD tell Abraham what he intended to do in another location, but HE also allowed Abraham to intercede on behalf of those in the city.  This is what is desired for today also – intercessors.

“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. ” – Ezekiel 22:30-31

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel22:30-31&version=NIV

In other words, there is a reason why we are told in advance what will happen. Remember Jonah and the warning that he was given regarding Nineveh, the purpose of the warning was for him to give it to the people of Nineveh. Jonah got in trouble for trying to not warn the Ninevites. Do you remember what happened to him? (Refer back to the book of Jonah.)

Let’s look at that last witness now which is Lot, the nephew of Abraham…

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city.

When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

“My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house.

He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom —both young and old—surrounded the house.

They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.

Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man.

Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.”

They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The two men said to Lot,

“Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you?

Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place.

The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters.

He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city! ”

But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying,

“Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished. ”

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.

As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.”

(That is why the town was called Zoar. )

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.

Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah —from the Lord out of the heavens.

Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. – Genesis 19:1-29

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis19:1-29&version=NIV

Lot received his warning the evening before. In that time Lot tried to warn but his warnings went ignored.

Note: One doesn’t always get second third fourth and fifth … Chances.

Anyway…

I only needed to give 3 witnesses that when it’s time we will know, but I gave more than 3. I gave 5.

God’s word says at the mouth of two or three witnesses let every matter be firmly established. (2 Corinthians 13:1)

So with that being said, I can now end this.

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