Our purpose is to inform the peoples of the world that we are heading pell-mell to our rendezvous with the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall come as the judge of all the earth when he shall visibly return on the clouds with great power and great glory at the last day, and the only way of escape is through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the sworn duty to warn people that God is no longer saving using the local congregations, and that the only environment in which God is saving today is outside the local congregations. We have the privilege and obligation of telling the world that God is saving outside the local congregations, using only the Bible. There is no longer any intercessor between Christ and his elect. This relates to the “new covenant” that God speaks about in Jeremiah 31:31
31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This passage is extremely relevant to our day. We are no longer living in the church age when we are told how to become saved, which is a salvation plan based on works. Today we are in an age where God is saving directly using only his word, the Bible, and God’s messengers who are faithfully declaring the whole counsel of God. We can’t tell anyone how to become saved, that is not our purpose as ambassadors of the kingdom of God. We can only direct people into the Bible and leave the business of salvation in the hands of God who applies his word to the hearts of those who are his elect without any mediator or pastor or teacher.
We read in Isaiah 30
18 And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. 19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers Teacher be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers Teacher: 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
In verse 20, the KJV translators have twice mistranslated the word Teacher which is a proper pronoun and singular, and is a reference to Christ himself, who shall not be removed into a corner any more, but shall be featured today more than ever. Later in this chapter we read:
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
These verses emphasize there is both judgment and salvation going on at the same time, as the streams of water representing the true gospel are going forth in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. That is, when the institutions that have represented the kingdom of God for hundreds of years fall. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. This is the language of salvation that is happening outside the churches in our day.
Zachariah 14:6-7 declares
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear [rare, precious], nor dark [thick, congealed]: 7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.