Christian's Handbook 4

Handbook 4 highlights God's appointed times and appointed works while emphasizing their importance and urgency for His people throughout their generations.

God and Appointed Times

Handbook 4: Article 3 - Part 1: Time and the Works of God: An Introduction

God speaks of His work and His will in terms of time, His "appointed times."

The Fullness of Times

"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

Galatians 4:4

"After John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand...'"

Mark 1:15

"...He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration of the fullness of times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things upon the heavens and things upon the earth."

Ephesians 1:8-10

The Proper Time

"I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time..."

1 Timothy 6:13-15

The Last Days

"God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world."

Hebrews 1:1, 2

"In the last days,
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established on the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills..."

Isaiah 2:2

The Day of the Lord

"Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near..."

Joel 2:1

"Lift up a standard on the mountain,
Raise your voice to them...
I have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My mighty warriors...
To execute My anger...
The Lord of hosts is mustering the army for battle...
The Lord and His instruments of indignation...
...for the day of the Lord is near!"

Isaiah 13:1-6

Fixed Days

"...God is declaring to men that all everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the inhabited earth in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

Acts 17:30, 32

"Therefore just as the Holy Spirit says,

'Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your heart as when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness...
As I swore in My wrath,
"They shall not enter My rest."'

Therefore, let us fear, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it... He again fixes a day, 'Today,' saying...

'Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.'"

Hebrews 3:7, 8, 11; 4:1, 6, 7

Acceptable Times

"At an acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you; behold now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation..."

2 Corinthians 6:19

Appointed Days and Hours

"Therefore... be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."

Matthew 24:42

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Matthew 24:3

"Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his lord will put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his lord finds so doing when he comes."

Matthew 24:44-46

"For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds (Lit. doing)."

Matthew 16:27

God also speaks of an appointed order of things framed in measures of time: "first," "after that," "then comes the end," "until," and "when."

"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order:

Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and authority and power.

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet...

And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all."

1 Corinthians 15:22-28

Again:

"There is a time for every event under heaven... a time for every matter and every deed."

There are times that are fulfilled.

"After John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand...'"

Mark 1:15

There is work that is "fulfilled" - deeds that are completed in the sight of God. In the days of His flesh, Jesus had work to accomplish, work assigned to Him by His Father. And in His time on earth, He did just that! Then that appointed hour "came"!

"...lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh... I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work, which Thou hast given Me to do.'"

John 17:1-8

"After this, Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I am thirsty'... When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head; and gave up His spirit."

John 19:28-30

"...He, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet."

Hebrews 10:12, 13

"It" is finished.

"He, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God..."

But "it" is not finished!

"...waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet."

Jesus spoke to His disciples of "that time onward" - of works yet to be accomplished.

"Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father."

John 14:12

The above Scripture tells us who has been assigned these greater works.

"...he who believes in Me..."

What "time" is it now in our generation? It is still "from that time onward"!

The "Work" is finished; but the work is not finished.

And just as in Solomon's time, the following is still the state of affairs.

"I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I said in my heart, 'God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,' for a time for every matter and for every deed is there."

Ecclesiastes 3:16, 17

God confirms this in Handbook 2, repeating it in Handbook 3.

"Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the streets, and uprightness cannot enter... Now the Lord saw and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw there was no man, and was astonished that there was none to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him and His righteousness upheld Him. And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds He will repay."

Isaiah 59:14-18


« LastNext »

  1. Revelation and Beyond: A Journey in the Midst of the Years
  2. God and Time
  3. God and Appointed Times
  4. The "Greater Works" and the First Century Church
  5. An Appointment From the Beginning
  6. Working the Works of God
  7. Reviewing the "Order of Things"
  8. God's Workman, a Portrait
  9. The Revelation Revisited

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