THE WHITENING

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.-Exodus 19:10-11

All we can do now is wait! 

The stage is about set. The actors are all moving into their places. The Divine Director has perfectly choreographed the play and each scene within it to the minutest detail, and so far, the entire performance has unfolded brilliantly. Everything on cue! And now…after a prolonged intermission … the Final dramatic scene is ready to begin. The curtain is soon to go up. All those of us who have been watching are ready for the breathtaking ending to begin and our Lord to come down...or…are we? 

SIGNS

As we watch all the signs unfold, we appear to be set for the Rapture because the Tribulation infrastructure seems ready and about to be set in full motion. But one sign that we may be ignoring could be the most significant of all. 

“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” -Matthew 24:44

Are we ready? Or just educated? Are we living Holy? Or do we still have a foot firmly planted in the ways of the world? In other words … are we washing ourselves and preparing for the Lord? Or just sitting in our comfortable worldly lifestyles and gazing in awe at the signs of the end unfolding and claiming the Lord’s incredible work is readying us without purifying our own life practices? I wonder! I know I have a lot of house cleaning to do, and I’m not so sure that a small section of Daniel 12 isn’t the final sign we all seem to be overlooking. 

“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”-Dan 12:8-10

Now I know this pertains to the Grace age and the salvation which has been taken to the world during the last 2000 years, but it may be a more personal and intimate message to believers as well. A message for the end that we generally don’t consider. Jesus said in Matthew 24:44 to be ready because we wouldn’t know when He would return for His bride. Paul further instructs us on this :

“Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. -" 1 Thess 5:1-10

Paul is encouraging us not just to be saved, but to be ready and living Holy when the Lord returns. And while many of us believe and know Jesus as our Lord, we must examine ourselves and see to it that we are living as Paul describes, so we will not be ashamed of our lack of preparedness when Christ breaks back into time to take us home. 

Could it be that while all the signs are rapidly developing around us and we are seeing the Beast system being brought out of the depths of Hell and set in motion .. that the main thing we need right now is to be pursuing the whitening of our own lives to be ready for the day that is steam rolling toward us at warp speed? 

THE WORLDLINESS 

The biggest problem we believers are facing is that the world we live in has grown so corrupt and vile as we have grown up and lived in it, that it doesn’t seem so awful to us. The things we see daily would be abominable for past generations of Americans. History would blush at the evil that goes on in broad daylight now every day across the planet. And as John MacArthur has noted, the conscience has been turned off for most because we have now been reprogrammed to ignore or accept the way the world now is. Shame is a thing of the past, and humility and holiness are practically unheard of. Even in the Church, there is little call to repentance or turning from sin. In fact, the sin of the world is often celebrated now in a majority of churches across America. 

While most of you reading this are probably of the more conservative pre-trib position and are likely appalled by a lot of what we are seeing in the world today, still we must wonder … how do we compare with the modesty of past generations and their idea of righteous Holy living compared to what we accept today? 

Let me take this thought a step further!

It hit me yesterday how sensual the world is in drawing us into its seductive ways of mind-altering hypnosis. It tries daily to program the minds of everyone to seek its delicacies and desire its offerings, and as we get pulled into its web, we at the same time are being drawn away from Christ-likeness. It may be the desire for money and wealth, or luxury, or sexuality, or beauty, or the desire to be pampered and live more comfortably. The allure may come as an adrenaline high of sports addiction or drug and alcohol addiction, or gambling addiction. It could be the desire for more power or celebrity, or status that calls us. Whatever the worldly pull is to the individual, it normally ends in ruined lives and broken marriages, and damaged human beings. Nonetheless… Its pull and deception are real, and all human beings are somewhat vulnerable because of our sin nature. And this worldly call has changed culture to an incredibly wretched point, just as it did before the flood. Yet we are all almost numb to how bad it is. 

When we get to heaven and are transformed into our glorified state, the longings that we have for things here will pass away and will no longer be part of us. We will see things as Christ does. We will know as we are known. We will desire only the things that please Christ, and all this of the earth will pass away. We will know those that are in heaven with us, but we won’t carry on everlasting love affairs and desire for a perfect, desirable partner…we won’t long for past relationships that have ended in a way we wish we could change. We won’t daydream about what could have been or regret what we didn’t do. Those thoughts will be gone forever. What we will get is the knowing of brothers and sisters in Christ, and see them as they are in their glorified state, and we will be in our glorified state, and the sinful world that brought all the passions and desires for things of the world will be long gone. So why cling to them at this late hour? 

And what about those in hell? They will eternally go on longing for the things of this world, remembering all the things they wanted, constantly replaying missed opportunities… lost loves, failed marriages.  Playing the what-if game eternally in their minds as they burn. Living with all their sinful desire and all their sinful memories, but never being able to correct them or get them back. They will go on forever wishing they had the things that made them temporarily happy here, such as their money, their nice home, their vacations, or their passionate romance, but it will all be gone forever. And the biggest void in them will be that the only one that could’ve fulfilled them both in this world and eternally will have been the God they rejected, and who now is no longer available to them, and they will eternally suffer in their own anguish, having no hope for escape! No hope for fulfillment!  No hope for changing anything! For them, emptiness and regret and sorrow and anguish and tears and anger will be their only future. 

But the lost will still choose to cling to this world until their last breath because they will desire the world’s false promises of fulfillment. We, however, know that all the world’s seductive lies are just deception, so why do we ourselves continue to cling to the corners of it, seeking Jesus to remove the scales from our sinful eyes yet holding on for dear life to the little fragments of our old carnal selves? 

THE WHITENING

I sometimes have wondered why the word “White” has become so offensive to the lost world that wants to blame all the world’s troubles on “whiteness”.  It’s one of the key words of the Social Justice crowd and carries the most negative of connotations. It’s the one thing they say you don’t wanna be. But in a sense, that too is a sign of Jesus' near return. Because desiring to get ourselves ready for our Lord, like the five wise virgins who had their oil in the lamps, requires that we seek to purify ourselves like the Israelites before God descended the mountain. The five foolish virgins didn’t have enough oil, and when the Bridegroom appeared, they were off in the world trying to find a way to get spiritual instead of being clean and ready. Whitening is purifying. And so it’s an abomination to this evil world. 

Our job now is to witness for sure. But it is also to recognize the wicked condition of this world and start separating from it. When the Lord returns, let Him find us eagerly longing for His ways and the end of sin in us, rather than be so caught up in the world that we are more like Lot’s wife looking back and longing for the delicacies of Sodom. We all have our weaknesses. We wouldn’t be fallen humans if we didn’t. But the Lord desires that all prepare themselves as Paul instructed us, and be ready. Jesus knew things would be so bad at the end that it would be hard for even the Church to keep its eyes on Him. 

“And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  - Luke 18:7-8

Conclusion

Love is waxing cold in this world. Many believe they themselves are little gods and part of a giant universal interconnectedness. Many cling to a form of godliness but deny the Savior. The world has never been more about “ME” and more about self and less about pleasing God. And with each passing day, it gets worse. And like the frog in the water, we are slowly boiling with it and not realizing the full magnitude of its evil. But the time of departing this doomed age is fast approaching. 

Are we readying ourselves? Are we watching the signs unfold and washing our lives of the stench of the world as we prepare, or are we just watching the signs like we are in a comfortable movie theater, eating popcorn and patting ourselves on the back for having a ticket to the show? 

Perhaps we ourselves are the last sign. The church will either wash themselves and prepare (desperately trying to retain their saltiness) or they will be part of the completion of the fullness of sin, becoming utterly sinful as they join the world. Part of the visible Church will go into the Tribulation. A much smaller part will escape the coming wrath at the Rapture. Have your hearts ready, brothers and sisters. Wash yourselves. Start separating from the worldliness you still cling to. For God is coming down from His Mountain. And He desires to find you faithful and anxiously awaiting His appearing! 

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

“Therefore, keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”- Mark 13:32-37