Revelation 6 // Nature Of The Tribulation

okay we're in revelation 6 it's about to get good I like to book a revelation you know and obviously because it's about last day's stuff and and I get off on that but you know there's there there's just a cool thing about going through the Word of God going through the especially the book of Revelation name that's something that we're used to around here but one of the things that I've noticed with with a lot of Christians a lot of churches is that they stay away from two books and ones the book of Genesis and the other ones the book of Revelation they stay away from the beginning in the end and part of the reason for that is because there's controversy connected with those things when you're talking about the book of Revelation a lot of times the reason that pastors stay away from it is because they think it's hard to interpret and it is if you start making up a bunch of stuff but if you just take it as you know what the what the Word of God says and you compare scripture to Scripture it's not all that difficult and one of the things that we have with a God of the Bible is that he's a God who wants to communicate he's not trying to hide things and so when we go through and we look at what he has to say in passages including the book of Revelation we can know that pretty much he's just saying what he's saying and we again we need to be paying attention to these things so Revelation chapter 6 starts what we generally speak of as the the description of the Great Tribulation Period and so let's go through and we're gonna read it let's pray before we do Father we we again come before you knowing that there's there's nothing that we're gonna do here that's gonna be worth anything unless your Holy Spirit's in the middle of it and Lord you give gifts to teachers and that's valid that's that's cool but the ultimate teacher is you Lord and it's your Holy Spirit and one of the things that I that I really love about going through the word is whether or not my words are making any kind of impact your word always does and we can we can just read the passages and your Holy Spirit will take those things that apply to our lives and just point them out and speak to our hearts and Lord that's what we want we want you to be our teacher here this evening so bless the time that we're in the word and speak to us and we ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen okay Revelation chapter 6 let's start verse 1 it says now I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder come and see and I looked and behold a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer and when he opened the second seal I heard the second living creature saying come and see another horse fiery red went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another and there was given to him a great sword when he opened the third seal I heard the third living creature say come and see so I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a Denarius and three quarts of barley for a Denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine when he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying come and see so I looked and behold a pale horse and the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth then a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed I looked when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave in every free man had hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand ok this is this is a description of the Tribulation Period and one of the things that I like to let people know is that what you have here is an overview it's an overview of the whole tribulation period the reason that I say that is because when you take Revelation chapter 6 and you read it alongside Matthew chapter 24 it coincides exactly coincides exactly and at the end of Matthew chapter 24 right before Jesus comes back do you know what the sign is that Jesus says is going to take place the sun's gonna be like sackcloth of hair and the moon is gonna become like blood and all of all the stars of the heavens are going to fall to the earth and then they'll see the sign of the Son of man in heaven and so you have you have exactly the same thing in Matthew chapter 24 and as we're going to go through and look at this I'm gonna point that out to you and so basically what I'm telling you is that John Jesus actually Jesus gave it to John Jesus is not telling stories like we would tell a story and so there is what's called the Middle Eastern or the Jewish style of storytelling and in the Jewish style of storytelling what happens is they give you an overview first and then they come in and they start talking about specifics and that's what you have with the book of Revelation so for example when you get to the trumpet judgments when you get to the seventh trumpet it looks like it corresponds to things that are happening in the sixth seal and when you get to the bowl judgments when you get to the seventh Bowl it looks like it's corresponding to things that are happening in this ceil and in the seventh trumpet judgment in fact some of those things can't happen twice so for example all the islands on the planet disappear well that can only happen once all the high mountains fall down well that can only happen once and so you have that number of different times and again the whole idea of the stars falling from heaven and that kind of thing and so it looks like what you have is the story being told over and over by the way if you've gone to college and they've told you that the book of Genesis has two different creation stories the reason that they think that is because they don't know anything about the Jewish style of storytelling so in Genesis chapter one what what God does is he gives an overview of the creation and it's a creation that takes place in six days on the seventh day God rests and then in Chapter two it's not a new story about the creation it's the story about specifically the creation of mankind and the creation of Eve specifically Adam also but Eve specifically coming out of Adam's side and then you get to chapter three and it's about the fall and so that is just the way the Jews tells stories and so I you know when I was in college one of the things that one of my college professors did was she tried to pick apart the Bible and they in Genesis 1 and 2 and try to show the distinctions and when you when you were looking at it in the Hebrew there are no distinctions God's just telling two different stories one stories general and the other stories specific and you have again the same thing in the book of Revelation the way that we tell stories I'm reading a book right now and so I'm reading a novel and what you do in a you know in a novel in the western style of storytelling is you have a protagonist and you have a hero and you have events that are taking place and you might have a number of people in the story and what you do and if the people are separated from each other what you do is you bring the story along as time goes on and so you'll you'll talk about the hero of the story first and then maybe you'll talk about a sub carrier in the next chapter bring them up to the same date and in the third chapter you'll do some other character bring him up to the same date and then you'll start over again that's the western style of storytelling and that that's not the way that stories are told in the Bible and so you have that here's another thing when you're when you're talking about the tribulation period and that's what we're going to be talking about where I get that term tribulation period is from Jesus Jesus talked about the fact that this was a period of time that was going to be called the Great Tribulation now well I need to do a proviso here when Jesus is talking about the Great Tribulation he's talking about the last half of a 7-year period so there's a seven-year period we're going to talk about this in a minute that the Bible talks about when God starts doing radical things on the earth and halfway through that seven-year period is an event that's called the abomination of desolation and at that point Jesus says then there will be Great Tribulation such as the world has never seen and so the term the Great Tribulation is actually something that's referring to the last three-and-a-half years of the 7-year period that I was just talking about that seven-year period is called Daniels 70th week in the Bible and so I'm gonna I'm gonna reference all this stuff okay first off let's talk about the nature of the tribulation when your time of the Tribulation Period there are a number of passages and I'm not going to be exhaustive on this but I'm gonna give you a fair picture of what the Bible teaches about this this is called the time of Jacob's trouble the time of Jacob's trouble who's who's Jacob okay I know you guys know who Jacob is yeah Jacob is Israel and so when you see the term Jacob later on in the prophets and that's where we're gonna be turning to you it's probably already up on the screen Jeremiah 30 verses 7 through 10 is a description of this period of time and it's called the time of Jacob's trouble and it's talking about Israel's trouble so specifically what the Bible says is Israel is going to have trouble during this period of time that the Bible talks about it about so let's turn over to Jeremiah chapter 32 check this out Isaiah Jeremiah you can find Isaiah you can find Jeremiah chapter 30 verses 7 through 10 that was in verse 31 and it says it starts talking about singing I was like that's not the tribulation verse 7 it says alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is the time of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it for shall come to pass in that day says the Lord of Hosts that I will break his yoke from your neck and will burst your bonds foreigner shall no more enslave them but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their King whom I will raise up for them therefore do not fear o my servant Jacob says the Lord nor be dismayed excuse me o Israel for behold I will save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity Jacob shall return have rest and be quiet and no one shall make him afraid goes on and says verse 11 for I'm with you says the Lord to save you though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you yet I will make not make a complete end of you but I will correct you in justice and will not let you go altogether unpunished and so it's a period of time when God is dealing with the people of Israel there are a number of things that are that are mentioned in the passage there's gonna be a breaking of the Gentile you kabandha CH the Jews are gonna be saved out of this period of time and the Gentile yoke of bondage is gonna be broken so during when we're going through the book of Revelation you're gonna have this guy the Antichrist who comes up he's the last world dictator and he specifically goes after the Jews he even invades the nation of Israel he even drives Israelis out of the nation of Israel the Bible talks about the the fact that the Israelis are going to be going for for protection - what we will what we would call Jordan and so they're still gonna be Jews in the in the Land of Israel but there's gonna be warfare in the Middle East and the Bible talks about the Antichrist driving these people out of there and that you know there there are pockets of Jewish resistance in different places there's still battles that are taking on it and you know going on in Israel but it's a bad time for the people of Israel the Jews are under persecution once yeah and so one of the things that I look at when I'm looking at newspapers is what do people think about the Jews what is the world thinking about the Jews and you know we just celebrated 70 years after d-day and so there were some celebrations that went on with that and so World War two was basically all about Hitler trying to take over Europe trying to take over the world literally and one of the major things that he wanted to do was eradicate the world of Jews and so we have the whole Holocaust so after the Holocaust that's why it's one of the reasons that Israel got their nation and so for quite a period of time after the Holocaust it was not a good thing to come after Jews and try to persecute them and all of a sudden were in times where it is a good thing and we have even people in political parties we have the people in Congress right now who are just using Jewish slurs and going after the Jewish nation saying that we shouldn't be allies with them and those kinds of things actually I think that though that one of the reasons that God has been putting up with the United States is because we're the best ally Israel has and once that goes out the door I think that God's going to be dealing with the United States on all kinds of levels in any case it's a time of Jacob's trouble he's going to be saved out of it it says he's going to break the yoke of bondage then when you look in verse 9 it says but they shall serve the Lord their God and this is something that a lot of people don't know about the Jewish nation mostly atheist most of the Jews in Israel right now or atheists they don't believe in God and a lot of it has to do with world war two in the Holocaust and so they've got grandmothers and grandfathers that came out of the Holocaust and they're you know they're wondering why God would ever allow that kind of thing and if there is a God why would he allow people to do the kinds of things that the the the Nazis did with Israel and so they have a real problem with following the God of the Bible and yet there's a there is revived that's taken place over in Israel and you see people turning back to the Word of God you see people turning back to the worship of Jehovah you see actually a major revival that's going on with people believing that Jesus is Messiah and when I say major revival I'm not talking like you know something that you know would happen in the United States where you have a Christian or a nominally Christian population that turns back to the Lord but you've got thousands of Jews that are becoming Christians right now and going and going to Jewish synagogues you have thousands of Jews who are kind of undercover Christians you know super secret agent man Christians you know that that kind of thing they believe that Jesus is Messiah but they're not gonna say a whole lot about that and really interesting stuff in fact the the guy that is my guide when I go over to Israel he's not a believer he's not that he's not somebody that that follows Jesus but he is somebody who's intrigued by him and so we have talks about the Lord all the time his wife really has talks with me me and my wife about the Lord every time that we get together and one of the things that he did for me there's a there's a passage in the Gospel of John and it's just kind of a kind of a weird passage and we were having a conversation this one time and I don't know how it came up I was I was probably teaching in you know at the Sea of Galilee and talking about Jesus restoring Peter in John chapter 21 well there is this passage in that section where Jesus tells the guys he calls from the shore and he says boys do you have any food and he's making fun of them because they've been fishing all night and caught nothing they would fish at night and so he calls out two boys do you have any food and they say no and he goes throw the net on the other side well you know it's a replay of what Jesus did when he first called Peter into a relationship with him and so they throw the net on the other side and what happens is they come up with fish and there's a and fifty three of them is what the Bible says there's a hundred and fifty three fish in the net so they counted him got one hundred and fifty three and when I was teaching on that I just went you know I don't know what the hundred and fifty three is for he grabs me afterwards and he comes up and he goes Steve this is what the hundred and fifty three is in the Hebrew there there are the Hebrew Greek Babylonian Latin they all use letters for numbers we're used to with your we're used to Roman numerals and so the Roman numeral for four is like I and V okay so that's a Roman numeral for four and Hebrew does the same thing and he goes the Hebrew the numbers if you if you write one hundred and fifty three out in Hebrew it comes out to say an e Elohim and what that means in English is I am the Lord and so this dude who doesn't believe in Jesus doesn't even necessarily believe the Bible's true you know he's kind of one of those guys who you know he's Jewish me and and he he observes Judaism but but it's more of like a family thing with him it's not that he doesn't like it or he's an atheist or anything he believes in God but it's kind of you know one of those ghosts e-bill even the big man upstairs he would never say that because he's Jewish but that kind of thing he comes up with this whole thing for me he even wrote my Bible here it is he wrote it in Hebrew for me you know and so it's one of those things that's pretty wild when you when you talk to people over there there's more of an openness to the things of God there is more of an openness to the things of Jesus then I've ever seen in the whole time that I've been a Christian and so God's God's at work among the Jewish people and that work is finally going to be done during the tribulation period it's one of the things that God is going after during the tribulation period is the Jewish people so the rule of Yahweh the rule of the Lord they're going they're going to be recognizing Yahweh's king it talks about also that David's gonna be their king they shall verse 9 serve the Lord their God and David their King whom I will raise up for them and did you know that when Jesus comes back one of the things that the Bible says is going to happen there's gonna be a resurrection of believers and so we always think of that right and so the people that we love have died they've gone to heaven but when Jesus comes back for the rest of the church the Bible says that he brings with him those who are asleep in Jesus and he raises them from the dead so there's gonna be a resurrection at the same time that there's a rapture of us and when Jesus comes back the second time it sets up the kingdom we rule and reign with him but not only do we rule and reign with him David rules and reigns with him and so you have David ruling over the Kingdom of Israel you specifically this is this is we know how the government of Israel goes Jesus told the Twelve Apostles each one of you is going to rule over one of the tribes of Israel in the kingdom period and so one of them is gonna rule over Judah another one's gonna rule over Reuben and another one's gonna rule over GAD and so on one of each one of the Twelve Apostles during the during the kingdom period is gonna rule over those guys and the Bible says that David's gonna rule over the whole nation King David out of the Old Testament and so this is another one of those places that teaches this so David their King and whom I will raise up for them and the third thing that you see in this passage is that the salvation that comes with these you know to these guys is the salvation of God I'm going to verse 10 save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity Jacob shall return talking about Israel shall return have rest and be quiet no one shall make him afraid and it's the eye it's the the the picture that you have in the Old Testament prophets and in the New Testament is that when Jesus is dealing with the people of Israel one of the final things that he's going to do with them is gather them from all the nations all over the planet did you know that there's more Jews living in New York than there are in the Israel yeah so he's gonna gather all the Jews from all the nations on the planet and he's going to bring them back to the Land of Israel where he's going to fulfill all the promises that he made to them in the old they're going to get the kingdom that he promised to Abraham they're gonna get the kingdom that he promised to David they're going to get the kingdom just as the Bible says in the Old Testament and so he's he's going to do that in verse 11 here he says I'm with you says the Lord to save you though I make a full end of all the nations where I've scattered you and that's one of the things that you see that we're gonna see as we're going through the book of Revelation also is that he deals with some of the Gentile nations and so one of them is Babylon and he deals with Babylon he deals with the kingdom of the Beast he deals with these guys anybody that comes up and and attacks Israel he deals with them you know when I was a when I was a kid in the 1970s the biggest protagonist that there was against Israel was Egypt and so when you're when you're talking about the 67 war and you're talking about the 73 war Egypt was the major player in that whole thing and one of the by one of the things that the Bible says it's going to take places that Egypt was gonna have peace with Israel finally it's going to have major peace with Israel in the sense that there's going to be like literally a tabernacle in the land of Egypt where God the God of Israel is worshiped and honored and the Bible teaches us that's going to be taken place during the kingdom period obviously that's that's when those things are going to be happening but it was pretty wild when the late 70s all of a sudden Egypt started you know starts making approaches a peace with Israel and basically Egypt has has had peace with Israel ever since that point well it's gonna get more radical than that and so there are a number of things that you have in the Bible that are really interesting and when we talk about this Bible teaches that it's going to be an incomparable time of trouble turn over to Daniel if you're in Jeremiah turn right go past Ezekiel and go to the Book of Daniel Daniel chapter 12 and I'm taking you to the passages on purpose because I want you to be able to see these things and know where some of this stuff is at Daniel chapter 12 verses 1 & 2 and it's talking about the the time of trouble that's going to take place for the people of Israel he says verse 1 at that time Michael shall stand up he's talking about Michael the Archangel that Great Prince the Great Prince who stands watch over the sons of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was as as never was since there was a nation even to that time and at that time your people shall be delivered every one who's found written in the book and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt and so as you're going through that passage Israel is going to be delivered through this time of trouble by the way Michael it talks about is somebody that watches over the people of Israel so we you know we talk about Michael the Archangel and you know he's he's the he's one of the major players when Jesus comes back for the chat for the church the Bible says that Jesus comes back with a trumpet of God and the voice of the Archangel there's only one our Cain Gillette's mentioned in the Bible that's Michael and so he's connected with the with the coming of Christ to take the church out of here in the resurrection of Christian believers specifically but in the Bible he is the major protector of the people of Israel God takes the Archangel Archangel it's a it's a term that means the highest angel basically he takes the highest angel and he puts him over the the people of Israel and makes him their protector and so again he talks about a time of trouble in verse one such as never was since there was a nation even to that time this is a description that Jesus gives of the Tribulation Period also he said unless he came back unless he cut the period of time short no flesh would be saved and and this is in Matthew chapter 24 and what he's talking about is the fact that if Jesus didn't come back in time the the life on earth would end is what Jesus is talking about he says that it's worse than any time that the world has ever seen and we're gonna we're gonna run into that verse later on and he said you know when you're talking about it's the worst time that the world's ever Sene well the world seen some pretty rough times right and so when you're talking about the flood okay and it does matter if you're talking about somebody who believes in a global flood that's what I believe I believe that there was a global flood where's the water Steve in the ocean basins if you made the earth if you basically smooth that smoothed out the earth you to have better than two miles of water over all of the land on this planet there is plenty of water to cover the earth and so the water happens to be in the ocean basins but there's people who believe that you know it was a smaller flood it was a local flood and you know maybe what happened was the ocean slopped over it flopped up over the mesopotamian valley picture that okay so the oceans are coming from somewhere and so they're either coming from the Mediterranean you guys got your G you know do your geography in your head they're either coming from the Mediterranean and they're going over the top of Turkey over the top of Syria over the top the top of Lebanon getting up into Iraq going down through Iran and dumping into the reds or into the Persian Gulf that's one option that's pretty intense that's that's that's pretty intense you know we have never seen anything like that but the Bible talks about the fact that there was a flood and it's greater than the flood the Bible says in the flood everybody on the planet died all the animals died except for what was on Noah's boat right and so this is worse than that time there's a reason I'm telling you this and the reason that I'm telling you this is because you will run into Bible commentators who will say things like you're in the tribulation period right now well you know what even even though you know i think i think that everybody thinks that their times are the worst right now in the sense that you know you always I remember when I was a kid my grandma going these young people you know they got no respect and they're you know they're you know they're doing this and they're doing that and admittedly it was the 60s oh it's a lot of truth to that and and so you have that kind of stuff and and so you have people who are looking at the younger generation and going they're just a mess and and that kind of thing we have that still today I think that things are obviously getting worse I've never you know I lived through the 60s I was a little kid but I remember it all my dad went to Vietnam they spit on him when he came back I remember the whole thing and and so you know I remember that period of time and I'm looking at the period of time that we're in right now I've never seen the kind of stuff that you have going on with politicians and and just with people Facebook is just a wonderful gift to mankind you know as far as as far as people just trashing each other and that kind of thing I saw that I saw an article today the Pope came out against Facebook it actually said social media you know and and he was talking about the incivility that that we have you know I never seen our country our country specifically in a situation where the where this kind of incivility was going on I've never seen this you know and the some of the things that I see people do it on Facebook man you did that when I was a kid you get popped they'd find you and and they'd punch you in the nose you know I think I think we need to bring back dueling I think it would make everybody much more polite and in any case the Bible talks about this this period of time being incomparable as far as a time of trouble and so even though we have bad things going on it's not like the flood it's not like Sodom and Gomorrah it's not even like the the stuff that happened with Egypt the ten plagues on Egypt not even close to what happened with Egypt and you could go through through a number of the different different judgments that you have in the Old Testament and we don't have anything going on that's like that anything and so when somebody comes up to me and says oh yeah you're in the tribulation period right now I just go Jesus said Jesus said it's going to be the worst time the world has ever seen and so again you you you have this flavor pictured throughout the Bible Matthew chapter 24 Matthew chapter 24 turn over there real quick and this was the passage where Jesus calls it the Great Tribulation actually it's everything that I was just talking to you about I should have just turned there in verse 21 he says for then there will be Great Tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be and unless those days were shortened no flesh would be saved but for the elects sake those days will be shortened and and so you know again a picture of a period of time that's just overarching in its apocalyptic nature sorry to use huge words but the idea that that this is a period of time that's just awful and scary and that's how the Bible pictures this whole thing it's also called the day of the Lord the day of the Lord I'm gonna read to you from a couple of passages and again you can turn turn to them in if you go back to Daniel if you found Daniel you'll be able to find Amos goes Joel Amos Obadiah and so anywhere in there and in the Book of Amos in chapter 5 verse 18 through 20 it says this about the period of time it says woe to you who desire the day of the Lord for what good is the day of the Lord to you it will be darkness and not light it will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or as though he went into the house leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light is it not very dark with no brightness in it you know I was watching TV the other day and there was a movie on the revenant you guys ever watch that movie and so it was on TV and so it was you know it was edited and stuff and so I watched it and I knew that there was a bear attack in this thing and I don't like that stuff and so I'm sitting there I'm sitting there watching it up until the time when he gets attacked by the bear the bear comes after him he shoots at him you know what's his name yeah DiCaprio he she he shoots at the bear and stuff and then he goes down under this bear and I just started clicking the fast-forward button you know getting past the whole thing and a bear goes off and gets its cubs and then turns around and comes right back at him and click click click click click and get out of that whole thing and then I love this picture here it's like somebody who's running from a lion so you're like oh why did you ran away try to get away from and then there's a bear in front of you not good that's a bad day that's a bad day and what God says about this period of time is it's not a period of time that you should be looking forward to it's a period of time that's scary now when you talk about the day of the Lord this is another theological thing when you talk about the day of the Lord there are a number of things that are included in the day of the Lord it's not just one day for example and so the day of the Lord includes the whole tribulation period for that for that seven year period the day of the Lord begins immediately after the rapture of the church and we're gonna see that in a couple of minutes the day of the Lord also includes the thousand-year reign of Christ and the day of the Lord as far as I can tell ends with the destruction of the old heavens and the Old Earth that's out of 2nd Peter in chapter 3 and it talks about the fact that in the day of the Lord the heavens and the earth that you see will will melt and it'll all melt with a fervent Heat and it'll all be destroyed and so when you're looking biblically at the period of time that includes what's called the day of the Lord it's at least a thousand in seven years a seven-year tribulation plus the thousand-year reign of Christ and that ends with the destruction of the heavens and the earth and the the term day of the Lord is just the idea the idea behind this is the time when God is intervening when God is is is coming in and doing stuff that's the day of the Lord when you're going through the Old Testament you will be reading passages where the prophets leap ahead to things that didn't take place in their prophecies and usually the term day of the Lord is included in that so you'll be going through and you'll see prophecies about the destruction of Babylon or prophecies about the destruction of tyre or prophecies about what's going to be happening to Syria or prophecies about what's going going to be happening specifically to the city of Damascus and one of the things that will happen is it'll talk about general issues that are taking place at the time of the prophecy see this a lot in knives in Jeremiah Ezekiel also but they'll be talking about general things that are going on in that prophecy in that context during that historical period and then it will say then it will give you a marker and it'll start talking about in that day or in that great day or in the day of the Lord it'll give you that marker and all of a sudden things are happening that didn't take place back then and so for example when you look at the prophecies about the destruction of Babylon and the fact that Babylon was going to be taken over by the Medes and the Persians well the Bible is really clear about how this whole thing happens you can read about and about it in Isaiah chapter 45 for example talks about Cyrus the Persian coming in and taking over the kingdom of Babylon without a battle basically God opens the gates for him and you know that that kind of thing it's just flat-out stated in the Bible but then there are passages where it talks about the day of the Lord and talks about Babylon being completely destroyed and nobody ever living in it again well that's never taken place that's not something that's happened yet and so there are people who believe that Babylon is going to be actually I'm one of them I think that the Antichrist is going to move his move his capital to Babylon you have this thing in the Bible between Jerusalem and Babylon this is kind of back and forth between those two those two cities and one of the things that was happening when Saddam Hussein was in control of Iraq was he was rebuilding like literally rebuilding the old city of Babylon in fact he used he rebuilt one of the palaces and that was his seat of government in Babylon and obviously he's out of the picture right now and Iraq is on on a downturn there's all kinds of messy stuff going on over there but the Bible talks about the fact that the Antichrist who we're going to be talking about a little bit is a guy who starts off in the old Roman Empire but it looks like he ends up in Babylon and finally down in Jerusalem where he's destroyed and so just just kind of interesting stuff in any case the day of the Lord is one of those things that you're gonna see all the time is you go through the through the Bible and it's not something that people are supposed to be looking forward to in the sense of the very first part of the day of the Lord turn over to first Thessalonians chapter 5 first Thessalonians chapter 5 this is another passage that speaks about the day of the Lord and it's right after the rapture and just to give you a little context verse 15 it says this we say to you for for this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep talking about those who have died for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the lord therefore comfort one another with these words and usually we stop right there and because it's a next chapter and there are no chapter divisions in the original letter it just goes on and this is how it goes on but concerning the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night for when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape but you brethren are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief your sons of light sons of the day we're not of the night nor of darkness therefore let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night those who get drunk or drunk at night but let those us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love as a helmet the hope of salvation for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with them therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you all also are doing and so in that section what Paul does is he talks about two events and the first event that he talks about is the event where Jesus comes back to get the church that's called the rapture of the church there is coming a day you guys when G when there's going to be a trumpet there's gonna be the voice of an archangel and the Bible says you're gonna be out of here the God's going to snatch you away well the the word that that's that's used in verse 17 to be caught up needs to be means to be snatched away by force it's the idea of grabbing you and taking you out it's that that kind of picture and the Bible teaches that that is going to take place and we're gonna be meeting the Lord in the air that's where you get the whole idea of the wrap of the rapture the the passage hear the Greek word that's used there is harpazo when it was translated in the Latin it was translated into the word wrap here and that later on became the word rapture that's where you get the term rapture and so when people say the word rapture isn't in the Bible well neither is the word Trinity but the teaching is there and so you this is the place where that takes place this is the next thing on the prophetic scenario there is nothing that needs to happen before Jesus comes back to get you nothing there's not there's not events that needed to take place in the Middle East there's not have met in any events that need to take place with the United States there's not any events that needed to take place with the church there's nothing that needs to take place before Jesus comes to take you out of here it's one of the points that he made very clear before he left I'm coming in a moment that you do not expect an hour that you don't know you need to be ready for me all the time there's not going to be intervening events that are going to take place before Jesus comes to take you out of here and so it's important that we understand that every single day is a day to Christ could come for us every single day could be the day that you hear the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and all of a sudden you're out of here and we're standing before the Lord and so that's the first thing that he talks about and he says therefore comfort one another with these words and then he what he talks about is what happens to those who remain so we're taken out and there are people who remain and those who remain he says we'll be saying peace and safety and then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape when Jesus was talking about this in his teaching he did this in two separate in two separate passages in one of them it was Matthew 24 so we're used to that passage that passage talks about the fact that the the coming of the Son of Man is going to be like the days of Noah and as they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that the flood came and took them all the way so it will be in the time of this coming of the coming of the Son of Man too will be in the field one will be taken the other will be left two will be winded two women will be grinding in a mill one will be taken the other will be left and you know then then the whole thing goes on and so when you look at that scenario what he does is he compares it to Noah's Flood and so in Noah's Flood you go back and you read the story what was happening is God said I'm gonna destroy the earth because of their sin and so I'm gonna wipe these guys out and what I want you to do Noah is I want you to build a boat you're gonna build an ark and he gives them the dimensions of the Ark which are pretty cool actually there's some pretty you know there's cool stuff in there so he gives them that gives him the dimensions of the Ark gives him basically a hundred and twenty years there's a there's a phrasing in there that talks about a hundred and twenty years that's not the age of people after the flood because it was never confined to that you have you had Noah's sons living 600 years and then the lifespan went down and so you have Abraham living I think it was a hundred and seventy five years Moses lived 120 years but he was a special case people died at the time of Moses at 70 years which is about what we've got now okay so the hundred and twenty years was probably talking about how long it took to build the Ark so God gives him a hundred twenty years you're gonna have this period of time to build the Ark your built in the Ark and then the floods gonna come nobody expected the flood except for Noah the Bible says Noah was a preacher of righteousness and so Noah was probably preaching about the flood saying it's coming things are gonna be happening well awful awful stuff is gonna be taking place in the world's gonna be flooded by water and you know what they would have said at that time no possible way Noah don't you know that the hydrologic cycle doesn't work that way you're talking about rain and we could get into a study in in Genesis but there's a good chance it wasn't raining at the time there was no rain except except for over the oceans and so there's a there's a good what the Bible says is that there was a mist that came up from the ground and watered the earth literally waters came up out of the ground and water the earth we're finding those we're finding places where those waters came from you know as time goes on geology is pretty interesting when you start comparing it to the Bible really cool stuff and I'm not gonna get into all that but in any case before the flood comes along you could probably have guys who would say scientifically there's no possible way Noah that this could take place you're just a silly man with a silly story building a silly boat and they went on with their life eating and drinking eating and drinking is not evil just eating and drinking they're having parties or having barbecues or they're doing that kind of stuff marrying and giving in marriage marrying and giving in marriage is not evil it's just you know you're having a wedding I just had a wedding for my daughter a couple of weeks ago and so it's a it's an event and it's a feast and you know there's all these things going on it's supposed to be fun and and that kind of thing you're not gonna be doing that when the world's falling apart and so it's business as usual and then he says and then the flood came and took them all away destroyed them then he goes there will be two in the field one will be taken the other left and what Jesus does in that passage is he changes the verb so the ones taken away in the flood there's a Greek verb that's used that means to be killed to be destroyed but then Jesus changes the verb and he says the one taken away in this event ones taken the others left is called alongside he's called a it's literally turned that use that means to be called an alongside as for instruction called alongside to be with someone that kind of thing it's not a term that means destruction and so it's the person who's taken is called alongside and that's obviously called alongside to be with Jesus and Jesus talks about being ready for that event that's in Matthew 24 so he compares it to Noah's Flood Luke chapter 17 he adds another scenario in there and it's not in the same context in that context he was talking about what were read what we're gonna what we've read about in Revelation chapter 6 and so Matthew 24 is all about those events the end times in Luke chapter 17 he's talking about the end times also but he doesn't go through a whole scenario of what the Tribulation Period is gonna be like what he does is he talks about what's gonna be taking place before the kingdom comes and he goes through and he gives the same scenario just like Noah's Flood eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage that whole thing and then he adds another guy and it slot so just as a lot Sodom and Gomorrah and you know they they were taken out of the city and then sudden destruction came upon those who were left so sort of so in in the story of Sodom Gomorrah lot and his family are taken out and then after they leave sudden destruction rains down from heaven on those who are left and they're destroyed and then Jesus adds another thing in there remember Lot's wife which is really interesting because one of the things that Jesus did was he took every controversial passage that I can think of just about every single one I could probably think about one or maybe two that he didn't but just about every single controversial passage Jesus refers to his history and so remember Lot's wife she comes out she lags behind she turns around she gets caught up in the conflagration and in the destruction and she turns to a pillar of salt I don't know everything that that means but she's destroyed in it and Jesus refers to it remember Lot's wife don't look back and so same kind of thing believers are taken out unbelievers are left and there's a sudden destruction that comes down on them and in both those cases the sudden destruction comes from the skies so one instance it comes from rain water that's coming down in another instance it comes from fire and brimstone that's coming down okay and so again you see that sudden unexpected destruction takes place at the beginning of the day of the Lord turn over to the second Thessalonians 2 next next book 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and again it's talking about the day of the Lord starting in verse 1 it says now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when our gathering together to him and that's that event that we just talked about that's the rapture of the church we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled neither by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us as though the day of Christ had come now the the term it's used here is the day of Christ in another passage in Corinthians it talks about the day of the Lord being the day of the Lord Christ or the Lord Jesus Christ and so again what he's talking about is the the day of the Lord and events that are gonna take place at the time he says let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed the son of perdition and this is the point that Paul's making he had told them about the rapture that's an that's in Jeff in in the first book of first Thessalonians and they had been receiving information that was different than what Paul had told them because what Paul told them in first Thessalonians is rapture is coming then sudden destruction comes upon the sky and it happens that sudden destruction takes place in the day of the Lord and in this passage he says I don't want you to be shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit that's the idea of somebody prophesying by the Spirit of God or by word that's teaching or by letter as if from us a fake letter that people are saying came from me because I didn't write it is the point that he's making as though the day of Christ had come they were being taught that they were in the day of the Lord and they were having problems with this and that's the that's the point of Paul saying this the reason that they were having problems with that is because they'd read Amos where it's not a good time it's a bad time it's as if you're running away from a lion you meet a bear it's not it's not good stuff to be in the day of the Lord and so what Paul says is that they're going to be signs that indicate that you're in the day of the Lord and he begins going through the list of signs and so one of them is the man of sin coming let no one deceive you by any means for literally this is this is what the the Greek says let no one deceive you by any means for it will not come or actually it just says for unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed the son of perdition it's the idea of you're not in the day of the Lord until the man of sin is revealed who's the son of perdition so one of the things that's going to happen at the beginning of the day of the Lord is the man of sin is revealed it's the Antichrist it's the it's the guy writing on the white horse in Revelation chapter 6 and verse to it it's that guy and so he's not revealed until the day of the Lord begins he says who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that He is God and for you Bible scholars that is a definition of the abomination of desolation right there so when you read about the abomination of desolation and we're gonna get to this so don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about but when you read about that that's the definition this dude comes up to a rebuilt Jewish temple walks into the temple sits down you don't sit in the temple the priests always stood to minister there's no seat in the temple and so the only seat that was in the temple was on top of the Ark of the Covenant and it was called the mercy seat and it represented the throne of God there is no priest who's gonna go sit on the Ark of the Covenant and pretend that he's God okay so there's no seats in the temple so going in and sitting in the temple this might be an indication that they find the Ark of the Covenant or that they rebuild it at the very least because he's sitting somewhere and you know admittedly he could just grab a chair and walk in and plop it down in the Holy of Holies and sit down but if he sits on the Ark of the Covenant that's an interesting thing right in any case that's the abomination of desolation he goes on in verse 5 and he goes do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things and now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way he says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work there are passages in the Bible to talk about the the fact that the Antichrist is coming there's this big dude the Antichrist the last guy Satan's man the Antichrist but for example in John's letter and first John he talks about we know that the Antichrist is coming and even now there are many antichrists and so you have the big dude and any other with all these smaller dudes that are precursors of the Antichrist it's the mystery of lawlessness it's at work I really really think this you guys that down through the ages Satan has always had his man Satan's always had his guy that he could plug in and fulfill everything that the Bible talks about with the Antichrist and so it starts with Nimrod in the Old Testament he was a guy who hunted Souls according to the Jews he was a mighty hunter before God is what the Bible says but the Jews said that he was a hunter of souls and he was the first one that turned the people of God away from the knowledge of God and started bringing in paganism that's Nimrod he built the city of Babel which became Babylon among other cities and so he was the first real rebel against God and as you go down through the Bible you run into these guys that are acting like an antichrist Nebuchadnezzar is one of them you know that that whole story with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and and you know there's this this Idol that this guy builds and it's like a hundred feet tall I'm using you know our our measurements but it's like a hundred feet tall and he tells these guys that they're to bow down and worship it and it's all made out of gold and and that whole thing and they won't do it so they throw him in the fire what he is responding to is a dream that God gave to him and in the dream he saw an image of a statue gods using terms that this guy would know he saw in the image of a statue and the image had a head of gold and arms and shoulders of silver and a belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet of iron and clay mixed and he didn't know what the dream meant but the statues standing there and then the Bible says that a stone that was cut out the saw out out of the side of a mountain comes rolling down and hits the statue destroys it grows up in and becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth and he doesn't know what it means Daniel comes along and says you Nebuchadnezzar they had a gold your kingdoms pretty awesome but there's another Kingdom coming after you that's not as great as yours but it is gonna overtake yours another Kingdom coming after that that our kingdom comin after that and then he talks about in the last days there's gonna be a kingdom with ten nations and there's going to be a stone cut without hands you know what Jesus is called he's the stone that the builders rejected there's gonna be a stone that's cut without hands and it's going to destroy all these nations and scatter them to the winds and what Nebuchadnezzar does next is he builds a statue that's all of gold and what he's stating is there's not gonna be any Kingdom coming after me you know mine is the Kingdom mine is gonna be the greatest and what he does is Antichrist stuff when the Jews won't bow down and worship Him he says bow down and worship the idol but it's a it's a picture of Nebuchadnezzar supremacy over the world and when they won't get bow down and worship what he does is he throws these kids into the flaming fiery furnace heated up seven times hotter than than normal and it's a picture of the Jewish persecution of the persecution of the Jews by the Antichrist Nebuchadnezzar was an antichrist type it's a type of the Antichrist later on he gets saved because God humbles the dude and so that's a good thing but as you go through the Bible there are guys there are guys that are pictured like this king of Babylon the king of tyre get into into more modern times in the Bible I really think that Caesar Nero was a good run at the Anti Christ there's some other guys too mission Diocletian that were good runs for the Antichrist you have some guys in in in Western history Napoleon for example even even possibly Charlemagne you know you you have all these countries that had bids at world domination down through the ages and they always had a guy who was out front who was coming along and he was going to be the ruler of the world and when you get into more modern times I really believe that Hitler was a was a dry run for the Antichrist I think I think that probably Satan was thinking this is this is gonna be my guy this is gonna be the be the man and you know my grandma lived during those times and she told me yes Steve we thought Hitler was the Antichrist we thought we thought it was happening right in front of our eyes because a lot of the stuff that Hitler was doing his stuff that you see the Antichrist doing in the Bible and so the Antichrist is gonna be Hitler in in the sense that he's gonna be like that guy so a mystery of lawlessness is at work and then it says only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way what can restrain a man who is empowered by Satan the the the Bible teaches specifically that the Antichrist power comes specifically from Satan he is Satan's man so what can restrain the power of Satan in a man yeah it's the Holy Spirit it's a heat until he is taken out of the way so Holy Spirit has to be taken out of the way before the Antichrist comes well how does that work because though you know holy spirits God he's everywhere how's he taken out of the way and the answer to that is how was he in the way and the Holy Spirit came in the way in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit was the church all of a sudden he had had a different ministry on earth than you have in the Old Testament and now what you have is the Holy Spirit and habitable eavers we're the temple of the Holy Spirit the Bible teaches the Holy Spirit empowering believers and when you go through the book of Acts the book of Acts still glorifies Christ because that's the Ministry of the Holy Spirit but in the book of Acts you see the Holy Spirit said the Holy Spirit said the Holy Spirit did the Holy Spirit did and you see the Holy Spirit mentioned a whole bunch of times because the church age is the age of the Holy Spirit and so the church started with the coming of the Holy Spirit and it's not that he wasn't there it's just that he's coming in a different way than then he was he was ever pictured before that point and he's still God but he comes and he's more out front he's the guy who's out front right now the Holy Spirit is and so he came the church starts and when he leaves the Antichrist is going to start when he leaves when he's taken out of the way so when he leaves is he gonna leave us so they're coming a day when the Holy Spirit takes off the Antichrist appears and we're sitting here with no power no indwelling of the Holy Spirit none of that we're just left here is that going to be happening yeah so when the Holy Spirit's taken out guess who else is gone and off we go and then it be and then it basically goes back to Old Testament times let me wrap this up and I'll get you out of here it says and then after the Holy after the Spirit is taken out of the way and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming and so the Antichrist is destroyed at the second coming of Jesus that's the end of his career the coming of the lawless one is according to uh to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders so this guy can do miracles and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved the idea there being that people who refuse to follow Jesus have a future and that future is to be deceived by the Antichrist that's a point that Paul's making in that passage and then he goes on and he says and for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness you know what I think Elias Bible doesn't specifically say what the lie is in this passage but you know what I think the lion's it's a lie - Keith keeps getting thrown around ever since Genesis chapter 3 you eat from that fruit you'll become like God's knowing good and evil that was a lie that got Eve to eat from the fruit it was a lie that caused the fall of all mankind it's the lie that Nebuchadnezzar believed him about himself I'm a God it's the bligh that the that the Pharaohs believed about themselves I'm a god it's a lie that that Nero Caesar Nero believed about himself I'm a god the the Diocletian believed about himself I'm a god it's a it's a it's a lie that gets that keeps getting foisted around all through the ages and I think that what's going to be happening is Antichrist is gonna come along and he's going to be the picture of the next step in human evolution he's an x-man he's an x-man the next step in human evolution and he's going to be sin you can step into this - we're all moving on we're gonna have godlike powers the things that I can do you'll be able to do - and he's going to be the archetype people are gonna look at him they're gonna be blown away and believe the lie and the truth is that there's only one God and you're not him that's the truth right and so anyway again just just talking about that period of time all kinds of wild things are going on and that's the flavor of the tribulation period that's the flavor so scary stuff and we didn't even get into the text yet but scary stuff that's what the that's kind of kind of what the Bible says about it and again I'm not being exhaustive there's all kinds of really cool passages that deal with this stuff whether you're in the Old Testament of the new test so let's stop right there let's pray let's ask Jesus to get us out of here and more than just leaving the church her father thanks again for your word thank you Lord that you made statements about what the end times were gonna be like you made these things very clear and many times we can muddle them up with our different ideas of theology and that kind of thing but you just make statements that are statements and I think that we need to take these things seriously and so Lord we pray that you would help us to do that you made a promise that you were coming for us you said I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I'm gonna come again and receive you to myself that where I am you may be also and Lord that's what we want we're looking forward to your coming for us to take us home to be with you and Lord we just pray that you'd help us to keep that Blessed hope in front of our eyes as we as we go through our week bless these people watch over them as they go their way and just be with them Jesus we ask this in your name amen alright god bless you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 28,957

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Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: dR8gniCNVnQ

Length: 65min 42sec (3942 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2019