Text: 2 Pet. 3:10-12
This year’s Convention is unique, one which will part the way for a greater light. The day of the Lord is so peculiar in that it’s a day where the heavens will be burnt up and the earth would melt with fervent heat (2 Pet. 2:9-12). The tidings of God’s day represent elements, substances and materials of the day of God. God is bringing us to fellowship with enduring elements and properties that would cause us to remain even when heaven and earth passes away.
The present heavens and earth have a beginning (Gen. 1:1) and therefore would certainly have an end (Heb. 1:10-12). Everything created will witness an end at the day of God. But God’s desire is that His people will remain, even when all things created have passed away. Revelation 10:11 brings an end to what began in the beginning (Gen. 1:1). In between these two times (Genesis and Revelation), God would have achieved His plan for creation. The present heavens and earth fled in the presence of God because of the kind of properties with which they are made.
The first set of people to experience the day of God are His people. God visits His people to judge elements of the present that reside in them, with the aim of framing them beyond the present. In getting prepared for God's day, the teachings and emphasis of the church must go beyond focusing on the present, which is passing away, but on enduring and eternal substances. Therefore, God is bringing to us in this convention, tidings of His day to adequately prepare us - His people, for His coming. The prophets prophesied about the coming of the day of God (Psa. 102:25).
The Lord Jesus Christ was the first man to experience God’s day. Christ is the man who has been exalted above the present (Heb. 7:26). Upon His resurrection, His make-up consisted of eternal materials, thus making Him the inheritor of God’s day. Therefore, He has been authorized as our High Priest to administer the substances of God’s day to the people of God. God is also at this time, raising ministers who will work with Him to raise God’s people with enduring substances. Death, sin, and the dragon are of the present, and will expire with the present.
After the things of the present are rolled away, two principal components will remain - righteousness and salvation (Isa. 51:1-8). ‘Men’ referred to in Isa. 51:7 are not physical men. One who would abide after the present is rolled away must possess elements of righteousness and salvation. The teaching of righteousness, which is the teaching of Christ, has been open to the Church for some years now.
The gospel is the gospel of God and the end of the gospel must be to reveal God (Rom. 1:1). No one can see God outside the gospel. The gospel is light. The gospel of God is so high that man cannot receive it in his natural state. Man has to first receive the gospel of Christ to be adequately prepared to receive the gospel of God. Only those who have been faithful in the use of the Menorah of the Holy Place (the Seven Spirits of God) will be given authority to administer the Urim and the Thummim (Light and Perfection); which are in the most Holy place.
The first installation God gives to anyone learning Christ is righteousness. This righteousness is packaged in the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16). The present system of this world is noisy and seductive and repulsive to the gospel of Christ. Today, the gospel of Christ is not popular and is often associated with shame.
The Gospel of Christ is not salvation in itself, but the power of God ‘unto’ Salvation (Rom. 1:16). Thus, the new birth experience is not Salvation, but the power capable of bringing one to salvation. Milk is first administered to raise the soul to be able to receive the teaching of Christ. The righteousness of God is a mystery (Ps. 71:19), Salvation also is a mystery. The unraveling of the mystery of God comes through the teaching of Christ. The preaching of Christ is the teaching of faith capable of working righteousness in the soul (2 Tim. 3:15-16).
Instruction in righteousness precedes instruction in Salvation; a man cannot receive the latter without first receiving the former. The teaching of righteousness is for dealing with sin in man. Righteousness is the only cure for sin; Christ is the only cure for sin. At the time of receiving the Gospel of God, sin would have been dealt with in the soul. The word of Righteousness works the soul of the believer into a state where it is holy and without blame (Eph. 1:4). The Righteousness of God reveals the incorruptibility of God. God can never sin, it is not in His nature to sin and He wants man to also share in His estate of sinlessness.
Peace is the bridge that takes a believer into salvation (Isa. 52:6-7). Peace is an estate where the nature of the believer no longer conflicts with the nature of God; has become one with that of God. Christ came to a place of peace with God even when he was on earth; He came to a place of oneness with God (John 10:30). The tidings of God must meet a believer at the state of peace, before he can enter into God’s estate. The aim of righteousness is to land a believer in a state of peace with God. Anyone who will come into a sinless estate must take the learning of Christ seriously, because Christ also came into that estate (Heb. 4:16).
Whosoever will come into the day of the Lord must give diligence to come to the state of peace (2 Pet. 3:14). The teaching of Christ such as love, joy, peace, longsuffering etc. is geared towards bringing the saint to the place of peace. The spirit is created after God in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). Righteousness is life, Holiness is peace. The soul must come into both estates to be prepared for the day of God.
The priests in the days of old were given the covenant of life and peace, but the High Priest is given the covenant of mercy. The demand of heaven for the saints today is to be found diligent in the matters of righteousness and to be at peace with God. Diligence is important at this time because the Lord will not give eternal things to anyone who is careless. Salvation entails eternal substances, and these substances only rest on a soul that has come to peace. We must fight to continue in and keep the attributes of righteousness till they are fully crystallized in our souls for only then can we come to the nature of peace.
Fellowship with the High Priest must be strengthened in this season, as He is the one who teaches the saint to keep the substances of Righteousness that has been administered to him. We are in the last times, and the tidings of these times are properties of salvation for those who have been diligent to come to peace. Salvation is the cure for death. When a man receives righteousness and salvation, he has become partaker of the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6). Second death has power on any soul that has not come to the state of righteousness and salvation.
Righteousness and Salvation are the clothing of priests (Ps. 132:16). In this season, we must guard with jealousy the things God has wrought in us and allow them to crystalize, in order to be able to receive God at His coming.