THE SIGNS OF GOD

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Matthew 24:3-30

4-29-84    10:50 a.m.

It’s a joy for us in the First Baptist Church of Dallas to welcome the great multitudes of you who are sharing this hour on radio and on television.  This is the pastor bringing the message.  In the section on the great doctrines of the Bible called The Second Coming of Our Lord, the message today: The Signs of God.  In the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the apocalyptic discourse of our Lord, verse 3 reads like this: “And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” [Matthew 24:3].

The Signs of God: there are three words, two of them in Hebrew and one of them in Greek, that mean “signs.”  Sometimes they’re translated with other words such as “token,” but they mean “signs.” In Hebrew the word oth; and in Hebrew, the word mopheth; in Greek, the word sēmeíon.  Those words refer to the acts and the phenomena by which God confirms and reveals and makes known His purpose, His will, and His power. 

The Bible is a book of signs. It’s a book of words. It is no less a book of God’s signs.  The Bible begins with signs.  In the first chapter of the first book, in the Book of Genesis, it said, “God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens and let them be for signs, seasons, days, and years’” [Genesis 1:14].  Those stars in the sky and the sun and the moon, God put up there for signs.  

Not only does the Bible open with signs, but the Bible closes with signs.  That first word, apokalupsis—that‘s the first word in the last Book of the Bible [Revelation 1:1].  Apokalupsis: the unveiling, the revelation, the uncovering of Jesus Christ “which God gave … to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass” [Revelation 1:1].  “And He sent and”—if you would pronounce that word, what it means, you wouldn’t miss the point—“and He sent and sign-i-fied it; sign-i-fied it,” sēmainō [Revelation 1:1].  Remember what I said a moment ago?  The word for “sign” in the New Testament is sēmeíon, and the verbal form of it is sēmainō.  “And He sent and sēmainō”—“He sent and sign-i-fied it.”  Now we miss the point because we mispronounce the word.  We say “signify.”  Well, “signify” takes it all away.  You could say “signify” forever and nobody [would] ever get “sign-i-fied” out of it.  He said: “And He sign-i-fied it by His angel unto His servant John” [Revelation 1:1]. 

And in that last Book of the Revelation, the Apocalypse, the unveiling of our Lord, He made known to us all of those marvelous denouement visions of the end of the age in signs.   For example, in the fifteenth chapter, in the first verse, John says, “And I saw another sēmeíon”—“I saw another great sign in heaven” [Revelation 15:1].    

Not only is the Bible a book of signs, but God is a God of signs.  One of the most remarkable testimonies you will ever read in human literature is that of Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel.  Nebuchadnezzar is giving his personal testimony.  The whole chapter is the personal testimony of the king of Babylon.  He lost his reason, he became mad, and he ate grass in the field like an ox; and he was humbled, and he cried unto God, and the Lord restored his reason and restored his kingdom and restored his mind—restored his throne [Daniel 4:1-37].   And Nebuchadnezzar is giving his testimony, and he says, “How great are God’s signs!” That’s the way he starts—Daniel 4:3, “How great are God’s signs!” 

In that same prophetic book of Daniel, in chapter 6, Darius the king is overwhelmed by the delivery of the statesman Daniel from the mouth of the lions [Daniel 6:19-23].  And he exclaims, in the twenty-seventh verse of that sixth chapter, “This wonderful God of Daniel worketh signs in heaven and in earth” [Daniel 6:27]. 

Not only do we find all of those signs in the Bible, but especially and particularly is that word sēmeíon, “sign,” used to authenticate the ministry and the deity of Jesus our Lord.  The Book of John, the Fourth Gospel—the Book of John never ever uses the word “miracle.”  In the King James Version of the Bible, you have it—“miracle, miracle”—but not in the way John wrote it. John used the word sēmeíon, “sign.”  John 20:30 reads:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: 

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and believing ye might have life in His name. 

[John 20:30-31]

And John chose seven signs—seven signs—and he presented them in his Gospel. That’s the Gospel of John.  This sign, you have it translated “miracle”; and then this sign, you have it translated “miracle”; and this sign.  John calls them “signs.”  That’s Nicodemus’ word when he came to Jesus by night in the third chapter of the Gospel of John and said, “Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God, for no man could do these sēmeíon—these signs—except God be with him” [John 3:1-2]. 

Now the gospel itself is authenticated by signs.  The third verse of the second chapter of Hebrews, when the author introduces our great salvation, he says those who preached that gospel were confirmed in their witness by signs, by signs [Hebrews 2:3]. 

When the scribes and the Pharisees came to Jesus in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Matthew and sought a sign of the Lord, He said the sign shall be the sign of the prophet Jonah: three days, three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth and then He’ll be raised from the dead [Matthew 12:38-40]. 

In the second chapter of John, when the same disbelieving infidel group came to the Lord and asked for a sign, He said: “Destroy this temple”—talking about his body—“and the third day I’ll raise it again” [John 2:18-19].  In the preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost, Simon Peter said, “Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved by God among you by signs—by signs—which God did by Him” [Acts 2:22].  It is the signs, the sēmeíon, of the Lord Jesus Christ that set Him apart and point Him out as the Son of God. 

God reveals His purposes to His people by words and by signs.  God doesn’t do anything concerning which first He does not tell His people—always.  In the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis, God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” [Genesis 18:17-19].  Then God told Abraham what He purposed for the cities of the plain [Genesis 18:20-33]. 

In Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.”  God always speaks to His people, by words and by signs, concerning what He purposes to do.  That’s true from Genesis to Revelation: the revealing of God’s world plan to us by words and by signs—the meaning of what God does and what He intends to do.

When we look at the signs of God, some of them are covenant signs.  God seals always His promise with some kind of a sign.  Circumcision is a sign from God between Him and the children of Abraham.  In the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Genesis, where circumcision is given as a sign, the sixth verse says to Abraham: “I will make thee exceeding fruitful” [Genesis 17:6].  That’s the first promise.  And the second one: “And I will give thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” [Genesis 17:8].  No matter what any League of Nations may say, or whatever any United Nations may pass in resolution, or what anybody else says, God says the land of Palestine, forever, is an everlasting possession of the Jewish people.  And He gave a sign for it—the sign of God’s covenant that Abraham should be fruitful and that his seed should possess the land.  He says, “Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; it shall be a sign of the covenant betwixt Me and you” [Genesis 17:11].  And the Apostle Paul, preaching about that, wrote in Romans 4:11, “And Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of his faith.”  A sign from God seals the promises of the Lord. 

Look again at the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is a sign between God and Israel not between God and us.  For us to keep a Sabbath day is ridiculous.  It has no meaning.  The Sabbath is a sign between God and the people of Israel.  Exodus 31:13: “Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations.”  And that’s repeated in Ezekiel 20:12.  God says: “I gave them”—Israel—“My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” 

We observe the first day of the week. We observe Sunday.  That’s resurrection day for us; that’s Easter day for us; that’s the day we magnify our living Lord.  That’s why we meet on Sunday.  If I were a Jew, I ought to worship God on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day is the sign God gave between Him and Israel.

Now the Passover is a sign.  Exodus 13:8:

Thou shalt show thy son, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 

And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes … for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.

[Exodus 13:8-9]

The Passover is a sign that God gave to Israel that they might remember His grace and His goodness in leading them out of slavery and into the Canaan’s Promised Land. 

In some such way and sense the Lord’s Supper is a sign for us.  When I hold up that cup—“This cup is the new covenant in My blood, shed for the remission of sins” [Matthew 26:28]—it is a sign of God’s promise in Christ that I may find forgiveness of sin and life in Jesus. 

Not only are there covenant signs, but there are confirming signs.  God’s call will be confirmed by a godly, heavenly sign.  When on the backside of the desert, Moses saw the bush that burned in the third chapter of Exodus. The Lord spoke to him out of that bush, and God said to him, “I will be with thee; and this shall be the sign unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God at this place” [Exodus 3:1-6, 12]. 

 “Where you see this bush burn, there will you serve God.”  And Moses was reluctant listening to the voice of the Lord and believing the sign himself [Exodus 3:11].  So Moses said in the next chapter, “They will not believe me.  They will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee” [Exodus 4:1]. 

Then in that chapter the Lord said to Moses:

“What is that in your hand?” 

“A rod.”            

“Cast it down.”  It became a serpent. 

“Pick it up.”  It became a rod again. 

“Put your hand in your bosom.”  It became leprous. 

“Take it out.”  It was whole again. 

Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe the first sign, they will believe the second sign.  But, if they believe not these two signs, then do one other sign.  Take water out of the Nile River and pour it on the dry land, and it will become blood” [Exodus 4:2-9].  And then the chapter ends: Moses did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed [Exodus 4:30-31].  Confirming signs—the confirmation of Moses that he was sent of God, called of God. 

All of us are familiar with the signs that Gideon asked of God in the sixth chapter of the Book of Judges.  It starts off: “God,” Gideon says to God, “Lord God, show me a sign that You are with me, that You will bless me” [Judges 6:17].  And so the sign was given Gideon: a fleece and a dew on the fleece only and the ground all around dry, and then, the next night, the dew on the ground only and then the fleece dry [Judges 6:36-40].   These were confirming signs that God had called him.

There are confirming signs of God in His promised deliverance to His people.  In the thirty-seventh chapter of the prophet Isaiah, Hezekiah comes before the Lord with a desperate prayer.  He has received a letter from Sennacherib, the captain, the king of the Assyrian hosts that surround Jerusalem on every side and holds the city like a vise in his bitter and hasty and warlike hand.  And Sennacherib is threatening the total destruction of the people and the total destruction of the city.  And Hezekiah, helpless before so vast an army, comes before God in the house of the Lord and opens the letter before the Lord and pleads God for mercy [Isaiah 36:1-37:13].  Now God says to Hezekiah, “I will deliver you.  This shall be a sign unto you.  This year you’re going to reap a gracious harvest.  And the next year you’re going to have a gracious harvest.  And the third year you’re going to have a gracious harvest.”  And that night, one hundred eighty-five thousand of the soldiers of Sennacherib were dead, lifeless corpses [Isaiah 37:14-36].

So the Lord gives us signs, which will be the sermon next Sunday, of His coming and of the end of the world.  They asked Him for signs of His coming.  Jesus did not rebuke them for asking. He did not ignore their question. He did not reprove them for inquiring. He did not say they had no right to know.  He did not say they were in error looking for signs, but Jesus sat down with His disciples and replied in Matthew 24, 25, in Luke 13, and in Luke 21. He replied in kind [Matthew 24:1-51, 25:1-46; Luke 13:22-30; Luke 21:5-36].  He gave them signs to heed, and He spoke of signs they were to ignore.

The apostle Paul does the same thing in the fifth chapter of the First Thessalonian letter.  They were so concerned over the coming of the Lord, and Paul tells them that the Lord has given them signs so that they need not be surprised as a thief coming in the middle of the night.  But being Christian, they have been told of the signs of His coming [1 Thessalonians 5:1-11].

There is a wonderful book by Dr. Norman B. Harrison entitled His Sure Return, and in that book he lists the signs of the coming of the Lord.  There are ten of them in the Pentateuch; there are fourteen in Isaiah and Jeremiah; there are fourteen in Ezekiel and Daniel; there are fifteen in the Minor Prophets.  There are seventeen given by Jesus; there are twenty-nine in the epistles; there are eleven in the Revelation.  You count them up, there are one hundred-ten separate signs in the Bible speaking of the glorious return of our Lord, and seventeen of them are happening today before our very eyes.

Now we can ignore them.  In Matthew 16:1-3 the Sadducees desired Him a sign from heaven.  And the Lord said to [them], “When it’s evening and the cloud and the sky is red you say it’s going to be fair.  In the morning when you look and the sky is red you say it’s being foul weather, it’s red and lowering.”  And then He said to them, “You can discern the face of the sky, but you can’t tell the times, or the signs of the times.”  And that’s true of the whole world.  We need to be aware of the signs of God that we might know His will for us, for our church, for the whole earth.

You have a wonderful example of the ignoring of a sign in the second chapter of Matthew [Matthew 2:1-8]: those wise men came from the east, “We’ve seen His star, the sign of His birth in the sky.”  And the scribes and the Pharisees didn’t even bother to go to look at it.  The only one who applied the sign was Herod.  He made more of the Bible than the scribes and the Pharisees.  We don’t want to be like that.

  I haven’t time to list them here: the coming of Christ the first time, I have sign after sign here, the attestation of God, affirmations from heaven of the coming of our Lord, and yet they didn’t believe—they rejected Him [John 1:11].  Are we going to do that?  Are we going to be like that?  Looking at the signs of our Lord, are we going to hide our faces from Him and there’s no preparation.  There’s no readiness.  There’s no watchfulness.  There’s no praying; there’s no serving?

Jesus is coming again.

Though scoffers doubt it and you may doubt too,

Jesus is coming again.

All He has promised will ever be true,

Jesus is coming again.

Sure as the flowers that bloom in the spring,

Sure as sunrises to the world doth light bring,

Fragrance of lilies and birds on the wing,

Jesus is coming again.

Maybe tomorrow, O glorious day!

Jesus is coming again.

Gone all the sorrow we have known on life’s way,

Jesus is coming again.

Sure as the flowers that bloom in the spring,

Sure as sun rises to the world doth light bring,

Fragrance of lilies and birds on the wing,

Jesus is coming again.

[author unknown]

No wonder Paul calls it the “blessed hope” [Titus 2:13].  That’s our resurrection; that’s our home in heaven; that’s everything this wonderful singer who will be here tonight at 7:00 sang about.  Jesus Himself will lead us.  Jesus will gird Himself and serve us.  O, Lord.

We’re going to sing a song now, and to give your heart to the Lord [Romans 10:8-13], to come into the fellowship of this wonderful church [Hebrews 10:24-25], to give your life in a new way to Jesus, come.  Make it now, while we stand and while we sing.