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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

There is a Day when Yahweh will fight for His people, in a different way than He has done in the past (Zechariah 14:3).  There is a Day when the earth will be shaken, mountains split in two, valleys for hiding created (Zechariah 14:4-5).  There is a Day, and on that Day Yahweh our God will come and all the holy ones with Him (Zechariah 14:5).  A strange Day.  A Day of no light, cold, or frost.  A unique Day, known to Yahweh; a Day in which the words “night” and “day” no longer have meaning, nor will it mean anything to say “summer” or “winter.”  A Day of Living Water flowing from the holy city; the whole earth covered with the healing flood.  And Yahweh will rule over the whole earth, no longer hidden but glorified as God alone.  “Hear, O Israel: [Yahweh] our God, [Yahweh] is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4, ESV).

This Day will mean life and it will mean death.  Life for those whose names were engraved on the hands of Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, in His Book of Life.  But death for those who have no use for the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15, ESV); a lake, we should be clear, that was not created for humans at all, but for the devil and his angels.  Do you flee at the thought?  Does His coming inspire fearful visions in your mind?  Examine yourself; search your hearts and search your minds.  Am I prepared for the approaching Day?  Is my heart undivided (Psalm 86:11)?  Do I regard Christ the Lord as holy in my heart (1 Peter 3:15)?  O repent before your God!  He is coming quickly and His judgment is swift and unalterable!  The truth is, we have not kept the Lenten fast.  We have feasted as if we were sinless.  We are tied to our rotting things, to our fleeting pleasures, to our comfortless comforts.  We do not want to get rid of them; they must be torn from us and nailed to the cross of Christ.  We will not stay even a single hour and watch and pray with our Lord.

The Day of Yahweh is coming, let there be no doubt.  And if that unique Day were not bound up with another unique Day, the doubtless would be matched by the hopeless.  If Jesus’ feet had not walked up the Mount of Olives to weep and pray, we would be crushed by the splitting Mount on that final Day.  If our Lord, the Son of God, had not come without His holy ones and allowed Himself to be put to death, the coming of Yahweh with His holy ones would mean judgment and death.  If the Day of our Lord’s death had not caused the sun to hide its face in darkness, the coming Day of Yahweh would be nothing but darkness for us.  If the lifeblood had not flowed with living water from the side of our Lord, the Living Water flowing from the holy city would be death for us sinners.  So take refuge in Him, beloved.  There is nowhere else to hide but in the blood-stained robe of Christ.  And thus the end will come for you without fear.  And thus you will find yourself in the New Jerusalem.  You will have your place beside “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, [you will see] the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree [are] for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2, ESV).

Thus says the Lord, “‘Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’  Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they might have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates” (Revelation 22:12-14, ESV).  Thus you have been clothed and thus you have been washed.  You may sow tears and go out weeping, but you will reap and return with shouts of joy (Psalm 126:5-6).  Let there be no doubt: He is coming.  But you, beloved, need have no fear.  You speak the words of the Church from the time her Lord ascended into heaven until He comes on that final Day: “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20, ESV).

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV).  Amen.

–Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 3/21/17