THE DAY OF THE SPIRIT, OF THE LORD, OF CHRIST AND OF GOD
John 14:15-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8; Philippians 1:6,9-11; 2 Peter 3:9-14
I would like to speak about the day of the Spirit, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, and the day of God. John’s gospel speaks of the day of the Spirit; 1 Thessalonians speaks of the day of the Lord; Philippians speaks of the day of Christ; and 2 Peter speaks of the day of God. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that ye should be written to”; in other words, the brethren in Thessalonica did not need to be written to by the apostle because they already knew times and seasons. Believers in the Lord Jesus understand, or should understand, how God is going to dispose of times, how He is going to accomplish everything in time, until the day of God when time will be finished.
Men in the world have their own times, their days and weeks and festivals and seasons and political events; but God Himself works to His own timing, His own calendar. We often say that God works by way of dispensations, periods which are characterised by the knowledge of God which is peculiar to each dispensation. For example, in a previous dispensation, Israel knew God as Jehovah; but we live in a far greater dispensation when God has been made known in the Person of Jesus Christ. The present period is the most privileged of all the times on this earth. I understand that the present dispensation is even greater than the time when the Lord Jesus was here on the earth, which is spoken of in scripture as “the days of his flesh”, Heb.5:7. How precious those days were, when God Himself was here in manhood; surely every believer in the Lord Jesus would love to have been here and to have actually seen Him here in flesh, to have spoken to Him.
But in John 14, the Lord Jesus is speaking to His own, the disciples, and telling them of what will happen when He ascends to heaven: He is giving them instructions for His absence. He says that when He goes, “I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth”. He says here, “but ye know him” – that is, they knew the Holy Spirit because He was there in Christ. Then He adds, “for he abides with you, and shall be in you”: that is, the Holy Spirit will be in believers, for ever. Now, the Lord Jesus was with His disciples for around three and a half years; so the Lord is saying to His disciples, as it were, ‘the Spirit will not just be with you for a short period, but will be with you for all eternity, for ever. Not just for three and a half years, but He will never leave you and He will be with you for ever’. He was comforting His disciples in view of His departure. Then He says, “In that day”: that is the present day; it is now, the present period of time. “In that day”, the present period, is characterised by the Holy Spirit being here in persons and the Lord Jesus being glorified. These are most important things, and show why we are in the greatest dispensation there has been, because we have two Persons of the Godhead who have made themselves available to us for service.
What the Lord says of this day is that “ye shall know that I am in my Father”. The believer knows, because he has the Holy Spirit, that Christ is in a place of supreme blessing and love in the Father’s presence; and how the believer knows that is because he has the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit helps the believer to understand that the Lord Jesus is in glory with the Father. And then, “and ye in me”; that is, that we are in His affections in the Father’s presence. Then the Lord adds, “and I in you” – the Lord Jesus is in us, in our affections. So that the characteristics of the present day are that there is a Man in heaven enjoying the Father’s love, enjoying divine affections, and we are held there by Him, we are in His affections where He is, and we have a place in the Father’s affections too. We have in our hearts the love and affections that are there in the Father’s presence. We love the Lord Jesus, and we love believers. How different, therefore, is this dispensation from the dispensation previously, when Israel was given the law. This dispensation is characterised by the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus for His own. There has never been a dispensation so great, when there is a Man glorified in heaven in an area of love, and the Holy Spirit in believers down here, who are affected by the love of the Lord Jesus.
There are many matters that relate to our responsible life, but our enjoyment of Christianity flows from our knowledge of the love of that Man. We are not under law, but we are governed, or ordered, by the love of the Lord Jesus. The only way we can be preserved in these things is by the Holy Spirit in us. And that is why the Lord Jesus tells us of the place the Spirit has taken, and says, “In that day”, referring to the Spirit being here. This day is peculiarly the day when the Spirit indwells men. Believers are not characterised by trying to keep the law; but we are characterised by enjoying the love of the Lord Jesus. It is important that we understand the times and seasons, and that the day we are in is so peculiarly blessed, and that we are to know and enjoy the love of the Lord Jesus.
Now, this dispensation will finish and a new dispensation, a new time, will begin. Where we read in Thessalonians speaks of the next period of time, which will begin after the saints are raptured. The Thessalonians were young in the faith; they had only been converted a short time before, and were exercised about what would happen to believers who had died, when the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His own. When the Lord Jesus comes to rapture His own, what would happen with those who had died; would they miss out? At the end of chapter 4, the apostle explains that the Lord Jesus Himself is going to return to claim His own, and the dead in Christ – those of every dispensation who have died in faith from Adam up to the rapture – would be raised and caught up to be with Christ; and those who have faith in God through Christ at the time of the rapture – “the living who remain” (v.17) – will be changed and taken to be with Him also.
What will follow on the earth is what Scripture refers to as “great tribulation”, Matt.24:21, Rev.7:14. In that period, in heaven, the marriage of the Lamb will take place (Rev.19:6-9), while on earth the world's evil will be allowed to reach its height until “the day of the Lord”, when the Lord will assert His rights to the earth and on the earth: He “judges and makes war in righteousness”, Rev.19:11. There will be no judgment on believers – they will all be with Christ. The apostle says that “the day of the Lord so comes as a thief by night”. That is not the rapture, nor is it the day of display (which is the day of Jesus Christ). At the rapture, the Lord will come victorious, and claim His own and take them from earth to heaven: He will come for them. But when the day of the Lord comes, those on the earth say “Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them”. The believer understands that everything in this world that is not according to God will be judged by the Lord; He will come in His might to judge the world. We leave that judgement to Him; we do not judge the world now (although we are to have a moral judgment of it); we are not of the world, the saints are heavenly and spiritual. Believers are of heaven and of the Spirit; we leave the world to be judged by Christ; but all His saints will be with Him as “the armies which are in the heaven” (Rev.19:14) when He returns to execute judgement on the earth at His appearing (see e.g. 2 Thess.2:8). That is “the day of the Lord”.
Then, after the day of the Lord, we get the day of Christ, spoken of in Philippians. The apostle here is thinking about the day of display when the Lord Jesus will come out in glory; He will come out with His saints – they will be suitable for that time. In the day of the Lord, the saints will be with Him as the armies of heaven, but in the day of Christ the saints will be with Christ as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Rev.21:9), and be seen by the earth, and the people on the earth will know them to be glorious and righteous persons. The apostle says, “that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day, being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness”. Paul’s exercise was that when the saints are brought out in display, Christ should be glorified in these persons, and he desired that they should keep themselves pure in view of that day. He will be seen in this glorious company, the assembly, and they will be recognised as righteous persons. The saints are to be righteous now, but then they will be shown to the world to be righteous. The world does not know now what believers are, but in the day of display, in Christ’s day, the world will see righteousness, holiness, love, all these things will be seen in the saints. They will be seen to be “pure and without offence … being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness”. It is important that the saints are righteous and pure and live in love. The world does not recognise it, but they will see it in the day of Christ, they will recognise that the saints were righteous persons. It will be a day of the most wonderful blessing for men, and that blessing will be disseminated throughout the world in the saints of the assembly; they will be with Christ in His headship and will show the world righteousness.
Our last scripture speaks of “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God”. The day of God is when time ceases to be, and God will be all in all (1 Cor.15:28). We understand that the present period will end very soon when the saints will be raptured, and then the day of the Lord will subdue all lawlessness, and then in the day of Christ the Lord Jesus Christ will reign in glorious majesty for a thousand years. At the end of that period of a thousand years, there will be a final rebellion, when Satan is loosed and will gather men against God. The Lord will meet this summarily (see Rev.20:9; 1 Cor.15:24,25). This also is called the “day of the Lord” where we read in 2 Peter 3, when at the end of that period of a thousand years, “the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements, burning with heat, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it shall be burnt up”. The present heavens and earth will be done away with; the planets, the earth, and all the present system, the solar system, all of that will pass away and then will begin the day of God. We will be in eternal conditions, time will cease to be, there will be always a continual present state of things: everything will be in a state of being present. Time will cease to exist; everything will have been accomplished in Christ and by Him, and everything will have been accomplished to God’s absolute delight and pleasure. We then will be in eternal joy and bliss with Christ, and will live in the enjoyment of all of the great blessings that we have been blessed with in Christ. We see that our blessings are heavenly and spiritual, and we see that everything that happens here is to form us for the eternal day.
As knowing the times and seasons, we look forward: it says, “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God”. That is, we anticipate and we look forward to that blessed day, and it is to affect our lives here. As we do so, we will not value things here as many in the world do, nor seek after wealth; we are looking for the day of God, we are looking for that blessed day when we will be for ever with Christ. We are living now in the most blessed period that there has ever been – the Spirit’s day. And we also have knowledge – knowledge that people in the world do not have – of what will take place in the coming times. The saints know the day of the Spirit, this present day; the day of the Lord, the Lord coming in judgment; the day of Christ, when He will reign in blessed glory and greatness; and the day of God, being the eternal day. We love these things; our own blessings and privileges are given to us in Christ. If I can just say personally, I love this truth. It sets me free from things on the earth and it gives me to understand the most wonderful matters that God had in mind before time was. God has given believers the secret of all that He will do until that blessed eternal day. And who on this earth knows what God is going to do? I would judge, not many: but God has given that privilege, that immense blessing – the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the understanding of the greatest things that God has always had in His mind. He has made known the knowledge of these things, and it is for us to enjoy and appreciate them. May we do so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Bumthang, Bhutan
3 July 2025
Neil McKay
Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin
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