Strange manner of persons! They are looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.
Day of God! A day is coming that will be all about God, a day for his glory alone. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, “Thou art God, and there is none like thee; thy counsel stands, and thou doest all thy pleasure,” for he authored this day in eternity, and he will call this day forth by his almighty word. This day absolutely will belong to him who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Day of great conflagration! Because this is the day of God, the heavens shall be dissolved by fire, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. God is a consuming fire of jealousy, and this age is nothing but iniquity. The inhabitants of this earth are a crooked and perverse generation, and in God’s sight a vile person is condemned. The whole cosmos must burn in unquenchable fire. There will be wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The mountains shall melt like wax. The entire great expanse of heaven will ignite with a violent roar. The Lord shall dissolve the universe like the smith casts scrap metal into a crucible to melt. The day of the Lord will be great and very terrible, and who will be able to abide it?
But this manner of persons looks for it and eagerly anticipates the sight of such destruction! Indeed, they hasten unto it! They call out to this day and summon its quick appearing. They cheer it on. They run to meet it. They exclaim, “Let it all burn!”
And so they ought to be. They must! They can be of no other manner because the God who brings this day is the God who decreed such persons.
By his decree God distinguished them from a different manner of persons, those whom God hates and appointed to destruction. So they ought to be a manner of persons who looks for and hastens unto the coming of a different day—the day of the man of sin, who as God will sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. God hardens them in ignorance and hatred of him, so that they reconstruct Babel and rebuild a worldwide society. And it is easy to mark this manner of persons: They will not lose their lives. They trample underfoot the blood of Christ to keep peace with their earthly families. They forsake the support of the gospel ministry to build beautiful homes, buy nice cars, and grow retirement accounts. They heap to themselves teachers who will not rebuke them for their errors and lusts. And they will get their day. They will fill the world with their lusts. For the day of God is coming to judge them of all their ungodly deeds that they have ungodly committed, burn all their works to ash, and cast them into the lake of fire.
In contrast is a manner of persons formed by God’s election of grace in love. Though by nature they love this world of iniquity, yet in their hearts rules the God who brings this day. And it is easy to mark them as well: When Christ comes in the preaching to rebuke and instruct, they receive it thankfully. By faith they live out of their justification, take refuge in Christ’s suffering and obedience, and repent in love and thankfulness to God. They shall pass through the fire and not be burned. And they shall see their Lord resurrect from the great conflagration a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells.
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