The Day Of The Lord

I THESSALONIANS 5:2 "FOR YOURSELVES KNOW PERFECTLY THAT THE DAY OF THE LORD SO COMETH AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT."

INTRODUCTION: When perilous times occur many ask why is it that God seemingly allows bad men to prosper and go unpunished. Many see God as a Super Pacifist, too loving, too gentle, too kind, too good, too meek and too mild to judge and punish the world and its inhabitants for their callous disregard for His standards, his righteousness, and His way. But God will not always appear to remain remote and will deal with the unrighteousness of all men when He reconciles accounts on the Day of the Lord.

I. THE DAY OF THE LORD - DEFINED

A. The Term the Day of the Lord occurs 25 times in 23 verses, including the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Acts, I & II Thessalonians, and II Peter.

B. The Day of the Lord is not a term which applies to a twenty-four hour period. It refers to a whole schedule of events that begin immediately following the rapture of he church.

C. John Walvoord wrote, "The Day of the Lord is a period of time in which God will deal with wicked men directly and dramatically in fearful judgment. Today a man may be a blasphemer of God, an atheist, can denounce God and teach bad doctrine. Seemingly, God does nothing about it. But the day designated in Scripture as the ’day of the Lord’ is coming when God will punish human sin, and will deal in wrath and in judgment with a Christ-rejecting world. One thing we are sure of God in His own way will bring every soul into judgment." - (The Thessalonian Epistles, p 76)

D. The Day of the Lord begins with the seven-year period known as the tribulation and extends to the creation of the new heavens and new earth in Revelation 21-22.

E. Isaiah 13:9-13 "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger."

II. THE DAY OF THE LORD - DARKNESS

A. Zephaniah 1:14-18 "The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land."

B. Joel 2:1-2 "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations."

C. Amos 5:18-20 "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! To what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?"