God is doing so many beautiful things today. God is keeping His word. His plans are unfolding. Something very special is taking place today. And it's something that is no surprise to God at all. He's following a beautiful plan. Nothing can stop Him. All of those things that have been recorded that God has decreed are going to happen. When He speaks an irreversible force is set in motion that nothing can stop. People have the right to choose to link arms with Him and be blessed. Those who are tied in with His plans have been foreordained to fit in with it. But they still have the choice. If they choose not they will be selling themselves short of what could be a great blessing. But as they say hey God I'm walking with you. They have the right to be a part of the unfolding plan of God.
Some of the things that I may mention today may stagger your mind because we have such a difficult time trying to fit the unlimited God into our limited understanding. I believe this is one reason the Word tells us that His ways are passed finding out. I mentioned to my class this morning that if we could fully understand God He wouldn't be the kind of a God that we really need. But our God is so big and so vast and He's doing so many, many things.
The words that I've chosen to title this message fall so short of giving you the heart of this message. It is Day Appointed. Every day is the fullness of time for some of God's appointments to be fulfilled in different lives, everyday the appointments come due on His great calendar in some area. It's happening. When we can somehow grasp the truth that God is so much bigger and those little guidelines that we think we follow that we find in His Word for us were regulated by what is written here. Because it's been written for man. But do you know that God is not regulated by what's been written here? Oh no. He will honor what He has said here but God is so much bigger that this whole room full of books couldn't contain all of the possible options that God has at His disposal. He's not limited. When we think, "well God we've tried everything that you've given us and we're just sunk because every door is closed," God says, "I have a thousand doors you don't know anything about." Praise God.
We're going to be talking about that day that has been appointed, or the completeness of God's plan in many, many appointments. I realize that there's room for controversy. I would like us to consider the details of the plan, even of God's creation, how complete it is. Stop and think about the millions of stars that are out there. I was reading a book not too long ago of some ancient people who had identified certain heavenly bodies and those heavenly bodies are still right where those people thousands of years ago saw them. They haven't changed. God has everything so complete and so exact that they follow their courses. And our clocks are set by God's heavenly bodies that He has put there. God is so exact in His planning and He has appointed these stars, He has set them in their appointed places. They're so complete that the astronomers can tell you where they're going to be one hundred years from now. They can tell you what positions they had thousands of years ago. The same God is not going to suddenly get sloppy in His planning for people. All of His beautiful planning and the things that God has done are because He loves people so much. It's for us. Praise God.
His details are so beautiful, His plans are so complete, and His timing is so accurate. We would ask what in the world does God have in mind in what He is doing. In everything that He is doing, His righteousness, His love, His mercy, His faithfulness, everything is seen. I'd like to think way back to show you how exact God is in His planning. When He told Noah about the flood He said, "Noah it's going to rain so many days and so many nights. And you're going to be in that ark so long and I'm going to turn the faucet off." And the Bible tells us that when Noah was in the ark God had remembered His promise that He made to Noah. He said, "Time is up," Gabriel was there and he said, "God it's time to close the faucet," and it was done. God's people were taken into the land of Egypt. God told Abraham. He said, "Abraham would you like to take a little look over my shoulder and see what some of your grandkids are going to be doing?" And so God let Abraham look over His shoulder and Abraham said, "Wow, I didn't know that I was going to have that many grandkids." God said, "they're going to be carried into the land of Egypt, a land that was not their own. They're going to serve them for 400 years and after that I'm going to bring them out with a strong hand. And I'm going to judge that nation, and they're going to have great spoil. They're going to go out with a lot of property that they picked up while they were in that land that they borrowed from." But the Bible tells us that when the 400 years were up God remembered Israel. It doesn't say He didn't remember them before but the clock had ticked off the time. God's timing is so accurate and He started stirring the hearts of those people. And they began crying out and they begin getting so restless and God had it all ready. God heard that and He put things together.
Remember the story when Israel left the land of Egypt. God asked Daniel, "Hey Daniel would you like to look over my shoulder to see what's going to happen to the Jewish people?" And Daniel said, "Yea I would like to see that." He said, "Now you're not going to understand it because a lot of these things are for another time down the line a ways but it might be of interest for you to see some of these things." So he opened up the book and Daniel took a look. God said, "Now look here Daniel, I've reserved here 490 years for the Jewish people and it's going to be divided among sections. In 483 years from a given starting point here, the Messiah is going to come and He's going to give His life for the sins of the people. After your long dead there's going to be a king that will rise by the name of Cyrus. And he's going to free these people from a bondage that you don't know anything about. When he gives the decree, by the way, your city is going to be torn down too Daniel. The day that the decree goes forth that the city is going to be rebuilt, whoever reads this, your followers and those who come along later will know that from the day the decree is given to rebuild Jerusalem, start counting, there's 483 years till the day that Jesus gives His life. Oh it was exact on God's calendar. And historians have taken the Jewish calendar and they've started counting back. They've counted the exact days of those 360 day years of the divisions that were given there and it came out to the day. God with all you've got to do how in the world can you keep such accurate books? When you got billions of stars out there and you got all of that to take care of and still you're this definite in your planning. He said, "I've saved 7 years still to deal with Daniel's people but that will be at another time when the times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled."
Jesus, when He came into Jerusalem just before He was to be offered up, He looked at Jerusalem and He began to weep and He wept, and cried out, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem if only you would have known that in your day the time of your visitation that you have been visited from heaven, if you only knew where this is on God's big calendar you wouldn't just be lying around sleeping, you'd be doing something about it. But you don't know. It's been hidden from your eyes, you haven't seen it." And that was the day that He was talking about, the 483 years being completed for the people of Israel. They still had 7 years left which is still ahead. Whenever the day approached things took place. For example when Israel was going to leave Egypt, the children of Egypt there began to groan and cry and the taskmasters made it rougher on them and they began crying out to the Lord and their cry went to heaven. When Jesus was going to come into Jerusalem that day it was getting real close and it was predicted that Jesus would come into the city on a colt that had never been ridden on yet. God takes care of all of the details and Jesus knew all about it because He had taken a look at those books before He came down. And so He told the disciples, "I'm going to be going into Jerusalem," and He said, "I want you to prepare a Passover and in these preparations I want you to go into the city and I want you to borrow the little colt there." So what He told them was, you will know which one it is by a few markers here. He said, "You will see a man carrying a pitcher of water on his head." Those disciples said, "Hey Jesus come again, men don't carry water. That's a job for the ladies." Jesus said so that you'll know God has arranged this so particularly that there's a man that's been practicing for a year down there so he could balance that pitcher on his head just because God's getting everything all ready here. And so He said, "When you see a man with a pitcher of water on his head it will be evidence to you that I'm telling you something that couldn't just happen because men don't just do that. Then he said, "You'll see this colt tied when you see this man. So I want you to untie the colt and bring him to me. Now someone's going to ask you why are you stealing the colt for? And all you'll need to say to them is the Master has need of him and he's going to say ok. I'm going to even prepare his heart so he won't turn you into the police." God had every little old detail prepared. And it was so complete in God's book, just as complete as if it already happened and so he mounted that little old colt. And it had never been ridden before. And horse colts would probably give you a rough time unless their broken. Jesus got on this colt and started into Jerusalem. And in God's big book 100's of years before He let the prophets see it and the prophet wrote down that there would be great shouts of hosanna as Jesus marched into Jerusalem. And so it was already recorded in heaven, God let Him take a look at it. And so when Jesus started in, all the people saw Him coming and there was something that was stirred up in their heart, the Lord had already made preparation. And here they were all over the place. And they cut down palm branches; they took their coats and laid it out in front of Him. And here He was a great King coming in for coronation. And the people were shouting hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. There were these people, there were a lot of religious leaders around, there were a few Pentecostal preachers who can not get to used to the supernatural, there were a few Baptist, Methodist, some people who just can't stand emotionalism stood around there and said, "I think we better form a committee here and send them over and tell Jesus that this is going to set religion back 50 years or even more." So they came to Jesus and they said, "Jesus tell these people to be quiet, they're being irreverent. Did you ever kind of fell that way in a church where people got a little bit too excited? I know some of you may have cringed when you had some real fine dignified businessmen here in the community come out here and the pastor gets a little excited, and you think, Oh I wish he would have picked another day to do that, I have my friend here today. That's the way some of these people felt. But do you know what Jesus told these people? He said, "It's too late to stop it. It's already written down in God's big book up there. It was recorded before we ever made this whole earth. It's already recorded that today shouts went up that the King was coming." When God speaks, that irreversible force goes forth that nothing can stop. Jesus said that it's already written and if these people hold their peace, well the only thing left around here is all these rocks. He said these rocks will cry out, but it will have to happen. It has to happen. Hallelujah.
God keeps His appointments. He marks them down and keeps them. In every case where He has recorded the appointment in the Word, things, the preparation for the day to happen and the event to happen, there were a lot of things moving around falling into place. There's another great appointment that has been made. It's called our day. The great day of the revelation of Jesus Christ to His people, the day when He's going to say hey come up higher I've got something planned for you. And in preparation for that day, He has the angels of heaven out working overtime. He's stirring people's hearts, they're feeling things going on that they never felt before. There are cries going out, there are people turning to the Lord that nobodies talked to about the Lord. Things are happening today, things are moving. There's a shaking and a moving. There's a cry in people's hearts, Jesus come quickly. That day is almost here. Jesus is coming. There's a day that's appointed.
Paul said, "I'm not afraid, I know the One who's going to be present on that day. And He will keep all of the things that I've committed to Him. I don't have to be afraid." There are a lot of people that haven't committed anything to Him yet, they're going to be trembling because He tells us that there's coming a time when every knee is going to bow, every tongue confess to God. These days are coming and they're really not very far off. I like what Paul tells us over in 2 Corinthians 3 where he tells us that this is a day, there's a special day for the believer, a day when God has chosen to gather us together and say, "hey thanks for all you've done to help me." That day is coming.
Every living person and every person who is dead has an appointment made for them. Do you know that there's even an appointment that God has made with you for death. The day when you'll go into His presence? Hebrew 9:27, he tells us that it is appointed; we know that man is going to die, but it's appointed for him to die. In God's great calendar it's there. And when you link arms with God, Satan may growl and roar around you but there isn't much that he can do because God has already planned it. I've taken a little time to tell you about these great big appointments that are going to take place.
I'm going to focus attention on an individual life. Those things that happen in your life each day as you walk with God don't just happen. Everything that takes place in your life, this is staggering, there's so many questions that you can ask me that I don't know how to answer. But in knowing God as I know Him, I know that those details of your life are all planned by God. Acts 15:13. And after they had held their peace, James answered saying, "brethren listen to me, Simon has declared how God at the first visit to the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the Prophets as it is written. After this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, I will build again the ruins thereof, I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all of the Gentiles upon whom My name is called says the Lord who does all these things."
God has a plan in operation and He's keeping track of it and He is fulfilling it. He's talking about fulfilling His plans, the tabernacle, the Temple of Jerusalem, the time to be rebuilt, the time of the Gentiles when they will call upon God. Those who will call the name Jesus and line up with Him, He's bringing to Himself. Verse 18. Known unto God are all of His works from the beginning of the world. He knows you. He knows what's going on.
Two years ago God took me into the throne room of heaven. That experience was so breathtaking, so awesome. In this experience one of the greatest things that God allowed me to see were the record books of heaven. And it was so vast, every individual had a book. God talked to me about this, I could not see God face to face, I was aware of a great light there but I never once even had the urge to look to see Him because I was so engrossed in other things and this type of a desire was gone. But God spoke with me and I know He knew my heart. And I said, "God I feel that the great events that you mentioned in the Bible, you have them planned in detail. Like the great plan you have of salvation. Plans for Israel, plans for your church you have in detail. And people who are part of these plans, you have in detail." This was something that I had kind of put together so I could live with it. But when God said because I made reference in the Bible like to Cyrus in Isaiah, I made reference to Cyrus there and to some of these others doesn't mean that they're the only ones. I just happened to pull theirs out as a little reminder to the things that were going to happen for a little confirmation. But that does not mean that these are the only ones whose lives I have planned. God let me know then that His plan book included a plan for every life. And He has a set of records, complete records of every life. As I looked at the vast records, can you imagine plan books for billions and billions of people? My head was staggered. It was too much for me.
He let me see the Apostle Paul's book. He said just see how accurately it's planned. God laying out his plan before him even as a small child, before he was born He created him with a great big brain capacity so that he would learn real fast because God said, "I had planned for the Apostle Paul to speak to kings and rulers and men in authority and then I want him to write a good clear picture of My plan. That's what I had planned for him." So it all happened just the way God said it would happen. I saw these and I was staggered. Then God spoke to me and said, "This is too much for you, it's too vast but I have a complete plan for every life and I'm going to pull a book that you'll be able to relate to a little more." And I saw Him pull out the blue print for R.H. Buck. And I wanted to look and see what all was in that. It was a thick book, a lot of things there. He said, "You couldn't take it if you saw all that was in there. But I'll write down 120 of the things that are there that will happen in just a short span. Then when they happen it will be a confirmation to you just what I'm talking to you about. It doesn't mean that everything I write down is all that's going to happen. There will probably be ten thousand details for each one that you know about but I am going to put this down." There were names, dates, events, and people. About 20 of these things had dates on them. Some of them had paragraphs describing in detail what was going to happen. And as I looked at it, it was burned onto my mind. When God spoke to me about that, I asked Him, "God what about other people that don't know about these things, that you haven't written something out? Is your planning just as complete for them?" And God so lovingly spoke to me and said, "Theirs is just as complete though they may not know about it, it's just as complete, for I care for everyone." Praise God.
I'm not going into a lot of detail except that those things began happening in sequence the way they were on that paper. I know it's staggering when we see how God is able and has the equipment that's necessary to put together every detail even though those details are so difficult, they seem impossible. Think of all of them; multiply it by all these billions. But every day is a fullness of time and with your arm linked in God's it's an appointed day between you and God. Your sitting right out here today because God brought you here, it was written down before God ever made this earth. This afternoon God has some things He's going to bring into your life. Tomorrow there's going to be people brought across your pathway. God has foreordained you for a very special time. What's it all coming to? That big appointment that's coming is that time is running out for this whole world. God has other plans, and He's starting to stir people moving them together. You're a part of what God's doing. I want you to thank God that He has included you in His great big plans.
END