Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #7 of Genesis, chapter 7 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 7:4-6:
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that JEHOVAH commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
We were discussing verse 4 and God’s statement, “For yet seven days,” and we saw how it relates to 7,000 years from the flood to the year 2011AD.
We also saw that it is not accidental that the judgment of the flood began with rain for “forty days and forty nights.” The judgment continued beyond that because we know it was about one year before Noah and his family and the animals could depart out of the ark onto dry land again, but God very pointedly emphasized that the rain fell for “forty days and forty nights” beginning on “the seventeenth day of the second month,” a date that identifies with May 21, 2011, the end of the Great Tribulation and the beginning of the Day of Judgment against all the inhabitants of the earth. He is emphasizing that it is not only a time of judgment, but it is also a time of testing.
When we look at this, historically, in Noah’s 600th year, once the rain began and continued to rain for forty days and forty nights, were the unsaved people outside the ark being tested? No. Many of them would have died anywhere from the first day on and, perhaps, the vast majority of people on the earth would have been dead by the end of the forty days and forty nights of rain.
And, yet, there were eight people that were alive on the earth inside the ark, along with certain of the animals, so the forty days and forty nights really impacted the inhabitants of the ark and that is what we find when we look at all the Bible has to say about the “testing” that accompanies the Day of Judgment. The testing is not for the unsaved people in the churches and it is not for the unsaved people outside the churches in the world, but it has to do with God’s trying and testing of the elect and with those that identify with the elect. We see this, for instance, in Zechariah 13:8:
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
The “two parts” identifies with the number “.666” and it is another way of writing the “two thirds.” It is the number of man and it has to do with unsaved mankind. The “third part” is a number that God uses to typify those He has saved, so the “third shall be left therein.” That language is important when we read 1Thessalonians, chapter 4 where it speaks of those that are “alive and remain,” which is another way of saying that the elect of God are left on the earth in the Day of Judgment. They are alive in the sense that they are born again and they also remain physically alive on the earth due to the fact that God has left them here. They were not left for no purpose, but they were left for the specific purpose of trying them. As God says here, “two parts therein shall be cut off and die,” and that is what happened, spiritually, on May 21, 2011. The wicked of the earth were “cut off” from heaven once the door was shut. Then it says, “But the third shall be left therein.” In Isaiah 24 we have a chapter that describes the final judgment of the earth and it says in Isaiah 24:4-6:
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Those that are desolate are the two thirds that are cut off – they are “burned” because they are under the wrath of God. And, yet, notice what it says in Isaiah 24:6: “therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” The “few” are the elect, as the Bible says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” When God began Judgment Day it brought about a desolate condition upon the earth and the inhabitants of the earth were burned, spiritually. At the same time, there are “few men left,” and this is exactly what Zechariah 13, verse 8 told us when it said, “two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.” It is really an identical idea.
Then it goes on to say in Zechariah 13:9:
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried:
Being “refined” and being “tried” identify with “testing.” That is what is in view as God puts the “fire” to the wicked and they burn up, spiritually, but He also puts the fire to His people (silver and gold), but it does not burn them up. The inhabitants of the earth are burned and “few men left.” Those left remain because the fire has no power to burn them up and to consume them because the wrath of God is ineffective, as it were, against them because it was designed to burn up the sinner. God’s elect bear no sins because the Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of His people from the point of the world’s foundation and since He died for them, those sins have all been paid for and they are righteous in God’s eyes. They are innocent of transgression against the Law of God and, therefore, in the time when the Law of God is taking vengeance and the wrath of God is being poured out upon the Law breakers to destroy them, it has nothing to say against God’s elect. This means that God’s people are able to go through the fire and endure to the end. And at the end of this period of the prolonged Day of Judgment the elect or the “third part” will be brought through the fire.
It says in Malachi 3:2:
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire…
Remember, God said in Zechariah 13 that He would “refine them as silver is refined.” Then it goes on to say in Malachi 3:3:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi…
The “sons of Levi” in this verse are a reference to those that are truly saved. Then it goes on to say in Malachi 3:3:
… and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto JEHOVAH an offering in righteousness.
The implication is that just the “sons of Levi” will be able to abide the day of His coming and they, alone, will be able to stand when He appears. It says in Revelation 6:17:
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
That is the question. We know that none of the wicked will be able to stand in the day of His coming and in the day of His wrath, but the answer is found in Malachi, chapter 3. Those “who shall stand when he appeareth” are the “sons of Levi.” The will be refined as silver and purified as gold in the day of His coming, but they will be able to stand. The will endure throughout to the end. God even tells us how it is that they “stand” in Ephesians 6:10-11:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
That is one thing God’s people will stand against, but notice what else it says in Ephesians 6:13-15:
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
This is the spiritual armor that accompanies salvation and it enables the child of God to “withstand in the evil day.” In the Lord’s Prayer, it says, “Deliver us from evil,” or from Judgment Day. The evil day is Judgment Day and God’s elect are the only ones that have the spiritual armor described in Ephesians, chapter 6 and they will be able to go through the evil day and to “stand.” None of the wicked shall stand, but God’s elect will stand due to the fact that God has equipped them with the necessary spiritual armor, the armor of Christ – His faith and His righteousness.
While we are discussing this, remember Luke 21:34-36:
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Notice that it does not say that you will be raptured away from these things in Judgment Day, but you will “stand” before the Son of man in Judgment Day, so what Christ is telling people to watch and pray for is not to be raptured out of the world, but to “stand” and endure. The “sons of Levi” could stand when He appears, but none of the wicked can stand, as we are told in Psalm 1:4-5:
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment…
The Bible says the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. They will be burned up. They will be “cut off” and die. They cannot be left therein and remain because they have no spiritual life and it is only God’s people that can stand the evil day because they are equipped with the armor of God and they will endure to the end. As a result of salvation, they are able to stand before the Son of man.
We have talked about 2Corinthians 5, verse 10 where it is speaking only to the elect; it is not speaking to the unsaved. And it says in 2Corinthians 5:10:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ…
There is a very similar statement, but there is one word that is different in Romans 14:9-10:
For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Again, this is referring to the elect of God who “appear” or are “made manifest” before the judgment throne because it is really a tableau that we are going through since May 21, 2011 in order to demonstrate that we are in Christ and that Christ died for our sins from the foundation of the world and we were “baptized” in Christ at that point. But now we “stand” and make our appearance before the judgment seat of Christ. We stand and are able to “withstand the evil day” and we will continue to stand before that judgment seat until the entire period of Judgment Day has elapsed and God’s justice has been satisfied concerning the punishment of the wicked and concerning the trying of the elect.
Now these verses are in the Bible and in some cases they have been in the Bible for more than 2,500 years and even these verses in 2Corinthians have been in the Bible for almost 2,000 years, but they have not really been understood until now. Due to our vantage point of living “in those days after that tribulation,” we can see the fulfillment of these Scriptures for the first time. It says in 1Corinthians 3:11-13:
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest…
Notice that word “manifest” again. This is a related word, Strong’s #5318, and the word used in 2Corinthians 5, verse 10, where it says we must all “appear” before the judgment seat of Christ, it is Strong’s #5319, but they are very closely related and they mean the same thing. Everyman’s work shall be made manifest. It will come to light. What happens to you or to me or to any of the true elect or those that just identify with the elect is that their works will be “made manifest” by the time this period is completed. This is what will make it manifest, as it says in 1Corinthians 3:13:
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
The Day of Judgment shall declare it because the fire shall “try” every man’s work. Remember what it said in Zechariah 13, verses 8 and 9 regarding the “third part.” It said in Zechariah 13:9:
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried:
In 1Corinthians we find the same idea. Again, it said in 1Corinthians 3:11-14:
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
What would it mean if a man’s work abides? It would mean that you endured the “fire” and you came through like the “third part,” like the silver that was refined and the gold that was purified and you are a “true man,” a man without guile. It has been proven that you are a son of God. You are someone that God has saved. When you abide and endure to the end, you will receive a reward.
Now let us skip over to the Book of James, where it says in James 1:3-4:
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
But then it says in James 1:12:
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Do you see how that fits in with 1Corinthians, chapter 3? There will come the “day” that will declare and make manifest and reveal by fire what sort of work it is and whether you are gold, silver, precious stones or wood, hay, stubble. And what happens when you put the fire to wood, hay or stubble? It burns, like the wicked of the earth – the “two parts therein that are cut off and die.”
Again, it said in 1Corinthians 3:14: “If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” That reward is the “crown of life.” This is the last stage of this world. This is the last period of time in “these days after that tribulation,” the time of severe testing as we are going through the fire of Judgment Day. I think that is obvious to all of us. It is really very clear that there has been a major change in program as far as the Bible is concerned since May 21, 2011 and that change in program is to light the “fire” of the wrath of God upon the inhabitants of the earth. The fire is put to all and those that endure will be the gold, silver, precious stones and they will abide and then receive the reward of eternal life.