“And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was
upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand
unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for
a time, times, and an half; and when he shall
have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things
shall be finished.” (Da 12:7 AV)
“I must work the works of him that sent me, while
it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” (Joh 9:4
AV)
It
is interesting the condition upon which the LORD ends a dispensation or period
of time. In Daniel, the end of the tribulation
period, although predetermined to be a set number of days, also happens to
coincide with the ability of the Antichrist to scatter the power of the people
of God. The power of the people of God
means their hand, or, their ability to accomplish anything for the LORD apart
from personal holiness. In effect, they will
become ineffective. There will be believers
who survive the seven-year tribulation period.
These saints will be the saints that begin with Christ as He reigns for
one thousand years. What we want to consider
is the inevitability of ineffectiveness and the encouragement Christ gives in
our other verse.
God
changes things. For various reasons, He
decides a new direction or environment is needed. I have noticed this pattern in my own personal
life. Especially when it comes to ministry. Working in various secular settings,
invariably, evangelistic opportunities would eventually wane. At first, they would start out with many
different souls who had never heard the gospel.
After months or years, when all my co-workers had heard enough, the LORD
simply moved me on to a different field of evangelism. This can happen with churches as well. Different generations require different ways
at looking at things. The basics are
never abandoned. Truth should never be
compromised. But methods of
communication can. There might be a time
when what worked in the past will not work in the future. In other words, opportunity is limited by
time, means, and methods. Eventually, an
opportunity will cease. The once
effective Christian or ministry must change or move on. What
strikes me here this morning is how this applies to the end times. There will come a time when the church can no
longer be effective in its mission to spread the gospel. Not for lack of trying. It is simply the world is not interested
anymore and they have heard enough.
Perhaps that is when the LORD will call us home.
The problem is, we are not the standard by which effectiveness is
measured. Only God knows that. He alone knows when the church can no longer function
for the purpose of which it was created.
Until then, we are to work.
Effectiveness is a subjective term.
God is the one who know what He desires to accomplish. So, He alone is the only one who can say
whether we are being effective or not. Jesus
put it so plainly. While there is
opportunity, we need to seize it. While
there are open doors, we need to walk through them. While there is one soul who might come to Christ,
we need to find it. There will come a time
when being here on this earth serves no purpose. He will not call us home simply to remove the
church from a hostile world. If that
were the case, He would have removed us in the first century. He will remove us only and when there is no
reason to be here anymore. Until then,
let us follow the example of Christ as set above. The night is coming when no one can
work. So, while it is still day, no
matter how late in the day it might be, let us work
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