Will the Church Go Through the Great Tribulation? | Tiff Shuttlesworth

tonight i want to speak to you on the subject of will the church go through the great tribulation with all of the apocalyptic events that seemingly are a part of daily headlines not only in our nation but around the world and as drastic as some things are and with crazed dictators around the world think they're going to start a nuclear war or a third world war and famines and pandemics and violence and looting and hatred and it just seems like a lot of people are wondering is it possible that the church is beginning to see the infancy of the great tribulation and so tonight with the help of the lord i'm going to do my best as always we're going to start in the bible we're going to stay in the bible we're going to finish in the bible but i want to begin in second peter chapter 2 beginning to read at verse 5 will the church go through the great tribulation here's what peter the apostle wrote in his second letter he said god did not spare the ancient world except for noah and the seven others in his family noah warned the world of god's righteous judgment so god protected noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood later god condemned the cities of sodom and gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes he made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people highlight that he made them an example a type of what is going to happen to ungodly people but god also rescued lot out of sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him yes lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day so you see the lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment now i am beginning our message in this passage of 2nd peter chapter 2 verses 5 through 9 because i wanted you to see the biblical contrast between how god dealt historically noah lot the bible gives us a little background tells us this is an example that god dealt with the ungodly people differently than he dealt with the righteous people and i lay that passage down just as a foundation of biblical support for you to begin thinking like god thinks and with that said let's take a moment to pray heavenly father we never open the bible without an awareness of our complete and total dependence upon you and so i ask you tonight let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight i thank you for the privilege of being with these precious people and i humble my heart not only before them but before you and pray that you would use us in these moments lead us and guide us into all truth but above all my prayer is that not one person who listens those who are present those who are watching online those who perhaps will listen to this in an archive video or a podcast channel however this message finds its way to human ears and human hearts my prayer is that not one person listening would be lost in eternity's mourning so i pray that even while i'm preaching that you'd give them the faith and the courage to do what they ought to do is in the moments ahead when we give an invitation for people to receive jesus christ as lord and savior let today be their hour of decision we'll be careful to give you the praise and the honor and the glory for we ask it all in jesus mighty name and all god's people said amen it's kind of a unique word tribulation and for many people that are new students of the bible or new believers or maybe not even church people maybe unchurched people when you talk about the great tribulation that would be terminology that would be foreign to the average person in america today very few people know the bible very few people read the bible i grew up in an era of american history where even people who were unchurched had a certain level of respect for the bible because of what it was to american history and our forefathers and the foundation of our country many of you know that all of the laws in our country were written out of the bible up until 1968 in america every law school and all of the laws were written and patterned from the holy scriptures our government was written and patterned from the holy scriptures isaiah was the one who showed us the executive the legislative and the judicial branches of government and our christian forefathers built our nation upon the types and the examples and the standards and the morals of the scripture but america has wandered far from that and now today many people they not only don't respect the bible they not only reject the bible they resent the bible and they resent anyone who would dare teach its truth it's amazing how in our country we can be tolerant of everything except for those who believe the bible we now live in a time in which people say we should respect people from all walks of life from all creeds from all religions from all philosophies except it never applies to those of us who believe in the intensity of god's holy word so i guess that's not really tolerance after all but that doesn't bother me because i know in whom i have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which he has commanded unto that day and that day is not far from where we currently are now if you've been listening i don't always do this but in this meeting i felt it unique enough that i wanted to layer service by service a biblical chronology of last day bible prophecy and so as you've been listening i begin by talking to you about the unstoppable church and the great prophecy of jesus i'll build a church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and you learn that the church age is simply a period of time in human history in which the church is upon the face of the earth the church age began initially in conception form with the arrival of christ there was no church prior to christ but it was officially inaugurated in acts chapter 2 in the upper room and when does it conclude we learn that the church age ends at the rapture of the church and so we're living in the church age and when you repent of sin and receive jesus christ as your lord and your savior you become a part of the true holy church we learned that denominations were created by men they were not created by god we're not being critical of denominations we're just reminding you that god didn't create clicks and clubs he never intended people to be divided by the walls of religiosity and so we thank god for all of the noble deeds the denominations may do but we're also smart enough to know that christians have had some very dark chapters in human history not real christians but in the name of christ atrocities have been committed but when you stand before god in eternity's mourning he's not going to ask you if you were protestant or if you were catholic or if you were baptist or presbyterian or anglican we learned that the only way to have right relationship with god is through the repentance of sin and the receiving of jesus christ and when i'm done tonight as i do every night of my life i'm going to give you an opportunity to repent of sin and to receive jesus christ wouldn't you like to be able to lay your head to the pillow tonight maybe for the first time and have perfect peace that your heart is right with god to know that if you had to stand before the books of eternity and heaven and hell were a fork in the road for your eternal destiny wouldn't you like to have the peace of knowing it's well with my soul wouldn't you like to have the peace of knowing i made peace with god well how does a person make peace with god well i've taught you that this week as well to have a right relationship with god it's as simple as abc a you have to admit your sin all have sinned if you've never sinned and you're perfect please stand up we'd like to identify everybody that's off their medications here tonight all have sinned from this preacher on down the line all means all none of us are perfect we were born with the computer program of a sinful nature hardwired in our operating system but the blood of jesus christ can hit the delete button for you tonight and tonight you can empty the trash and be pure and clean and forgiven with no sin held against you because of jesus christ and the cross i'm not here tonight asking you to be religious i'm not here tonight asking you to become a protestant or a catholic or to join a denomination that's not what this is about i want you to be ready to meet the lord because he's coming very soon and if you're a brand new student of the bible let me help you with something one of the things that separates the bible from all religious books in the world is its content of bible prophecy many people say almost one-third of the bible is bible prophecy now that's a little high 28.7 percent would be a little more accurate but let me tell you something it separates the bible from all of the books because the bible has in excess of 2 000 prophecies some would say as many as 2 500. now the reason why there's a debate in the numbers of prophecies in the bible is just to give you an example some might go into the book of micah which is one of the minor prophets that prophesies the birth of jesus christ and they'll say well there's a prophecy about the birth of christ but the prophecy actually has five specific things that it addresses and so some scholars would say there's five prophecies there so it's not worth arguing or debating all i'm trying to help you to understand is that the bible is different from all other religious books because it has bible prophecy as a thorough part of its pages i had someone on a plane recently i always have a bible with me even on planes in my briefcase when he found out who i was and what i did he said well if you could open up the bible and show me just one thing in there that's ever come to pass maybe i'd believe you but you can't do that can you it's like wrong dude it's a four-hour flight and it's going to seem like 40 for you this is going to be a long flight for you but uh i was gracious to him but i showed him something that just happened this year i said how about i show you something that happened in 2020. uh you can't do that well i took him into the book of revelation and i showed him that there was a prophecy that in the last days the king of the east would boast of an army of 200 million men plus let me help you with something john wrote the book of revelation which by the way is the last book in your bible he wrote that in 96 a d in 96 a.d historians tell us that there were somewhere between 150 and 175 million people on the planet total population of the earth at 96 a.d 150 to 175 million people so imagine a man prophesying that one nation would have one army with over 200 million men the total population of the earth wasn't that that'd be like me saying tonight there's going to be an army of 20 billion people obviously dude there's only about 8 billion people on the planet calm down he prophesied that february of 2020 was some of the abrasive relations with china the leader of china had a military parade for the world to see to flaunt their military prowess and if you'll remember in the news he boasted that china now has an army of 200 million men february 2020. so john who wrote the book of revelation prophesied that in 96 a.d when there weren't 200 million men on the face of the earth there weren't 200 million men women boys and girls but it came to pass this year and the bible said that prophecy would come to pass prior to world war three and world war three is going to take place in the great tribulation and as you learned last night the rapture is going to take place before the great tribulation so if you're still with me tonight so far say a big amen the bible is provable you don't have to come to christ by sheer unfounded faith alone you can come to jesus with your brain you can come to jesus with your intellect you can come to jesus with childlike faith but you don't have to leave your brain at the altar when you give your heart to jesus the bible stands every test of higher criticism the bible's provable through science the bible's provable through biblical archaeology the bible's provable through manuscript evidence the bible is provable through the resurrection of jesus christ and the bible is provable through its content of prophecy it's what separates the bible from all other so-called religious and sacred writings it's the word of god and so the bible says as we learned last night the next major prophetic event is the rapture of the church so we learned what the church age is we learned that it began officially in the upper room in the book of acts it ends at the rapture of the church which is the next major prophetic event we showed you in the scripture what the mark of the beast is imagine john going back to the book of revelation imagine john prophesying that in the last days there would be a financial economic technology where you could receive a mark on your hand and no one could buy or sell without it he prophesied that when they were still trading turtles and pigeons he prophesied a technology of a mark and you and i have lived long enough to see that prophecy fulfilled in a variety of ways there have been multiple technologies available that would fulfill that and just a few weeks ago amazon announced that prime members will soon be able to make all of their transactions and purchases with the wave of the right hand now i'm not saying that's the mark of the beast i don't believe that it is we learn that the mark of the beast will not be fully revealed until the antichrist is here but the church is going to be raptured before he's revealed but after the rapture of the church and last night we preached on the rapture of the church by the way all of this preaching all of this teaching is available through lostlam.org it's available on our video archives it's available on our podcast channel but just make a note of lostlam.org i don't expect you to be able to retain everything that i'm teaching everything that i'm preaching it's taken me 41 years of study and i'm still learning and i'm still reading and i'm still studying but one of the great things we also learned is revelation chapter 1 and verse 3 that says that all who read the words of this prophecy to the church and all who listen to them and obey them have been promised and guaranteed a special blessing from god it's the only book of the 66 books in the bible that was incentivized with a supernatural blessing your pastor is wise enough to know that in any church with a living vision with any church that has a progressive biblical great commission vision you from time to time need to bring people in to speak on bible prophecy because bible prophecy is the rudder that keeps the church on the straight and narrow as to what the mission is really all about if you pull bible prophecy out of the vision of the church age then the church wanders around like a canoe and a wind without a paddle but bible prophecy keeps us exactly on track we know that the lord is coming we know what our mission is we know we have a limited opportunity and not only that bible prophecy lights the fire of holiness in the hearts of people because they realize if the lord is coming soon i need to live better i need to obey the word of god i need to forgive people i need to let go of bitterness and and hatred and resentment and bias and and racism and bigotry these things cannot live in my heart as a follower of christ i must live in such a way that all who follow me will make their way to heaven too and every one of you that are listening to me you're living a life that's either leading people to heaven or leading people to hell take it seriously now if you're here as i say every night if you're here tonight and you feel like the worst center in the state of pennsylvania i'm not here to judge you i'm not here to beat you up i'm not here to thump a bible over your head i'm here to tell you i love you i care about you if this were a job i'd resign in the morning and i'd get a job that would take me home to my wife and my dog in my bed every night i have spent the majority of my life living by myself in hotel rooms alone everybody thinks this is a glamorous life this is only a couple hours a night of my life i have spent the bulk of my life by myself in a hotel room with bibles and books and praying and away from home and around the world and in third world countries and in places if they'd have caught me they'd have killed me or beheaded me or burned me alive not because this is a job but because i know that that book is true and as a little boy growing up in church when i became a teenager it dawned on me if the content of this bible is provable if there really is a heaven if there really is a hell if bible prophecy is true then those who are called to evangelism should have a passion in their belly to help men and women and boys and girls in unreached places of the world and everywhere to get ready and to know that your heart is right with god and that's my passion for you tonight i've been offered plenty of jobs even in ministry that would have paid me large sums more than what i'm making i was offered a mega church in a foreign country recently that offered me a salary four times more than what my board of directors pays me they offered me a quarter of a million dollar signing bonus if i would promise to stay for 10 years they offered me if i'd stayed 10 years they'd put a million dollars in a retirement account i never even prayed about it never even prayed about it was not one moment tempted because i know what god called me to do the age of 17 he called me to evangelism i'm not in it for the money i care about you i forgot to take an offering in the nine o'clock service on sunday i forgot to take an offering in the 11 o'clock service i forgot to take one sunday night and he's reminding me every service i forgot to take one last night did i take one tonight i think i started and forgot to take it again tonight and people sometimes come to me are you financially independent that you don't take time to take offerings for your ministry my daily budget is more than my first annual budget but i'm not worried about that i know who speaks to people's hearts it's not my job i'm not a beggar i'm a preacher i'm concerned about your soul i want you to be ready to meet the lord i made an agreement with god as a young man and i've never violated that agreement i'll stay focused on souls you stay focused on taking care of me and god has always been faithful to do that gave my clothes away before the week was done he had a whole pile of them on the porch waiting for me when i came home that's how my life has gone for 40 years didn't start that way i was homeless for the first four years and i don't know whether that was a test of god to see if i was really committed to this or not not worried about it but i can tell you with a clean heart before god i never one time thought about quitting in those four years i felt bad that i wasn't taking care of my wife like i wanted to i felt bad that i couldn't take her out to eat i felt bad that i couldn't do things that a lot of other couples were doing but in those four years that we were homeless and living wherever god placed us i never one time wavered from the value of your soul of your kids souls of grandchildren they need christ there's something more important than my life and my luxury and my aspiration it's your eternity that counts with god and the great tribulation is around the corner and because i know these things to be true and provable i'm on a mission and come hell or high water you better not get between me and that mission or you're gonna get run over jesus is coming and you need to be ready to meet the lord let me walk through this very carefully i'm going to give you five reasons why the church can't go through the great tribulation number one jesus himself told us by the way in my life notes of 41 years of studying eschatology i have 50 biblical reasons why the church cannot go through the tribulation turn to your neighbor and say thank god he's only doing five people ask me do you think that the rapture is close i think the rapture is so close i refuse to buy green bananas i'm thinking about buying a convertible for my next car when people ask lord i apologize for that and i ask you to forgive me reason number one the church can't go through the great tribulation jesus himself told us where did he tell us he told us that in revelation chapter 2 when he gave us a message to seven churches the message to the seven churches in revelation chapter two all the way through revelation chapter three up to verse 22 were personal letters to seven actual churches and they were all located in a region called asia minor which is modern-day turkey and john is in prison he's actually been put into solitary confinement in an isle called patmos off the coast of modern-day turkey when the vision of the book of revelation was given to him and he wrote it down but john writes seven letters on behalf of christ to seven actual churches that were located in that region of the world the letters to the two final churches where the church of philadelphia which not far from here that city was named after one of the churches in the book of revelation historically and the other church that i refer to laodicea those two churches are actually pictures and patterns of what the church is going to be like in the last days so what i want you to grasp out of the seven churches in revelation 2 and in revelation 3 is their actual letters to actual churches but they're also written in such a way that they outline the evolution of the real church up unto the coming of christ i don't have time to teach on that but i wanted you to know that but i want you to go to revelation chapter 3 and verse 10. and these are written as the words of christ and the bible says in revelation 3 and 10 because you've obeyed my command to persevere i will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world that's jesus speaking about the great tribulation notice what he said i will protect you from and if you have a highlighter highlight that in your bible very important because rendered from the original greek manuscript it's accurate he didn't say i will keep you through the great tribulation he didn't say i will keep you during the great tribulation he said i will keep you from the great tribulation the words of jesus written by john the revelator the author of the book of revelation so number one reason why the church cannot go through the great tribulation is jesus himself told us i will keep you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to the world number two the book of revelation tells us the book of revelation is one of the only books in all of the bible that actually gives its own outline and theme in its pages and that's found in the first chapter and the 19th verse take a look at it revelation chapter 1 verse 9 19 write down what you have seen both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen so if you're taking notes the three outlines found in the entire book of revelation how the prophecy of the entire book of revelation evolves number one the things which you have seen number two the things which are and number three the things that will be and so revelation the only book in the bible that gives us its own outline as to how the chronology of the events in the book are going to unfold why because god wants you to know the timing of how final prophecy is going to unfold why paul said when you know bible prophecy it gives comfort to your heart he said knowing these things let them comfort one another with these words bible prophecy as i say all the time was not given to scare you bible prophecy was given to prepare you and when you understand bible prophecy in a time like we're going through now in this nation i have perfect peace not one bit of concern not one bit of worry only god can make america great again and they're not in charge the white house is not in charge of the last days the senate is not in charge of the last days the house of representatives is not in charge of the last days i respect that i'm not being mean or marginalizing that i'm just telling you i know who is in charge of the last days and it's god the father through the power and the integrity of what he's prophesied will come to pass i mean i mentioned to you that there's over 2 000 prophecies in the bible almost all of which have come to pass with complete and total accuracy not one has ever failed not one god knew in a.d 96 that china in the last days was going to have an army of 200 million men fulfilled in february of 2020 and i could go down a long list every empire the world has ever had was predicted in the book of daniel daniel prophesied the four world empires by name and in order and they in world empires came exactly as daniel prophesied bible prophecy gives the follower of christ and the follower of god's word comfort because it's not just a religious book of all of the religions in the world the lord our god is one god there's only one god the rest of it's marble stone carved wood all the other gods are made by the hands of human men christianity is the only faith in the world that takes its followers to an empty tomb every other world religion can show you the bones of their founders they can take you to the graves of the originators but christianity takes you to an empty tomb and it's one of the greatest evidences even for christ in christianity because if jesus were a fraud all they would have had to have done would have been to produce the body but they never could produce the body one of the other things when i said the resurrection is one of the great proofs of the bible jesus after his death after his burial was resurrected and was witnessed not only by followers of christ he was witnessed and is recorded in history by hundreds of non-believers he was seen after his resurrection by believers as well as hundreds of unbelievers and history not just the bible history records their record and he ascended to the father and the angels that were present as jesus ascended back to the father as was prophesied said ye who stand here gazing why do you look up into heaven with wonder this same jesus in same manner will return again one day over 400 times in the bible the prophecy of jesus returning was given to us in warning and in hope i have good news for you we don't lose we win if you're a part of the church age you're on the winning team and jesus is still building his church and the gates of hell cannot prevail come on and give the lord a mighty shout of praise the outline of the book of revelation the things which you've seen the things which are the things which will be let me just add one more dimension of that for your notes and i'll move on the things which you have seen were all recorded in chapter one the things which are were recorded in chapters two and chapters 3 and the things which will be began at chapter 4 all the way through chapter 22 which is the last chapter in the book of revelation now why did i share that with you because the word church don't miss this solid gold this is solid bible prophecy gold info don't miss it the word church ecclesia in the greek manuscript is found 19 times in the first three chapters of the book of revelation think about it three chapters not long the word church from the original man's script translated to english church 19 times it's found in chapter 1 chapter 2 and chapter 3 19 times but guess what after revelation chapter 3 and verse 22 the word church is never found again in the book of revelation until the closing salutation the church is totally absent from the book of revelation from chapter 4 verse 1 until the closing salutation it's not there never mentioned again now remember the outline chapters 4 through 22 are all of the prophecies which will come to pass that's why i took the time to give you the outline out of verse 19 in the first chapter the things which you've seen the things which are the things that are coming and the things that are coming refer to the final prophecies and they begin at chapter 4 verse 1 and go through the end of the book but the church is suspiciously absent why because it's been raptured the tribulation begins in chapter 6. it goes through verses 18 and 19 as it's winding down the church is never mentioned in all of the prophecies and all of the warnings and in all of the content and in all of the apocalyptic events and in all of the famines all of the judgments all of the bowls all of the trumpets you do realize that over half of the world is going to be eliminated in the great tribulation i don't have time to preach it tonight but the bible does i believe very clearly outline in the book of revelation a nuclear war and i have a teaching on that will there be a nuclear war in bible prophecy well a lot of scholars believe there may be three but i'll go as far as to say i believe absolutely the weight of scholarship in final bible prophecy shows us a nuclear war because we know that half of the planet is going to be destroyed half of humanity is going to be killed during that seven year window of time and the bible describes all the way back in the first century the bible describes the heavens will be on fire well guess where a nuclear bomb goes off it's not it's not an explosion by detonation like the old bombs that hit and by detonation by impact exploded nuclear warfare they're set off by altimeters and they typically set them off somewhere between 300 to 700 meters above the city or the region that they're targeted and so they're launched and when they get to their destination by gps they explode literally in the heavens that word from the greek talks about the exact atmosphere level that nuclear bombs explode and the bible says that the ferverent heat will cause everything in its path to melt away these first century authors without having any idea about modern military prowess without having any idea of what would happen in a nuclear war describe it in scientific detail i mean if there's 8 billion people if we want to round off a number how do you explain four billion people dying in a short amount of time outside of apocalyptic events that the bible prophesied now surely you don't think that the bible would prophesy an army of 200 million men without there being a massive war don't have time to preach on that fascinating subject if you love the lord and his word see amen amen dr richard mayhew a brilliant scholar but let me just read to you exactly what he said quote it is remarkable and totally unexpected that john would shift from detailed instructions for the church to absolute silence about the church if in fact the church continued into the great tribulation for if the church were to experience the great tribulation then surely the most detailed study of tribulation events would include some account of the church's role but it does not because the church is not here end of quote so jesus told us number one that the church can't go through the tribulation the book of revelation told us that the church can't go through the great tribulation but here's the point and people ask me this all the time my nephew asked me this last night at about one in the morning why are there people who teach that the church is going through the tribulation now there are four main schools on that and i'm not going to take the time to teach on all of those but we believe and as i'm proving tonight and laying out a solid biblical foundation that the rapture takes place before the tribulation there are some who believe that we go through part of it not all of it but part of it halfway there are some who believe that we go through three quarters of it there are some who believe that we're not raptured until the end of the seven years we go through all of it and they take certain passages and interpret them in such a way to build their argument and so let me just briefly help you with something when you're interpreting scripture you have to go with the weight of scripture what does the full weight of whatever the debate is what is the weight of scripture on the full weight of scripture rests upon the church cannot go through the great tribulation and we're going to cover a few more points and then i'm going to give the invitation for those of you who tonight want to know that you have peace with god that's the number one reason you're here but almost all of those and this will help you almost all of those who believe the church is going through some of it or part of it or half of it or three quarters of it they all have one passage that they usually come to and it's john chapter 16 and verse 33. and in john 16 and verse 33 the bible says in this world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer for i have overcome the world and for those who believe that we're not going through the tribulation they point at us and say how convenient that the american preachers in the freedom of america in the luxury of america tell the church that they're not going through the tribulation or any part of it but the bible said in this world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer for i have overcome the world and they build their argument of going through whatever part of it they think we're going through based upon all of them eventually come to that verse and if no one has ever properly interpreted that from the greek to help you to understand it it would stump the average person in fact some of you right now are going well how does he get out of this one because the cursory information of yeah how convenient for american preachers living in the freedom of america when and and they add this to it well how do you explain that people have been beheaded burned alive martyred tortured jailed unspeakable things christians throughout history have experienced tribulation but you american preachers say that the church can't go through the tribulation and while you're preaching that in america and such and such a country they're being beheaded as you're preaching it can't you not see that in all of church history there's been tribulation well you'd be very mad at me if i said this is the end of the message let's go home so let me help you with that first of all three things and if you're taking notes write these three things down first of all there's a significant difference between the historic persecution and tribulation of the church and what the church has endured and what christians have endured and the great tribulation prophesied in the book of revelation that's the first thing i want you to consider and i'm going to explain it there's a significant difference between the historic persecution of christians in the world and throughout church history and the great tribulation in the book of revelation the second thing i want you to consider is that the persecution and the tribulation against the church has always been persecution by the hands of men all of the persecution all of the tribulation in church history the persecution the tribulation that's going on right now pakistan iraq nigeria i mean we could just name countless places in the world where christians as i'm speaking indeed now i have great respect i've been in those countries i've gone into those countries illegally i've raised money and hired mercenaries and gone into countries to preach the gospel knowing that if i had been caught that i could not come home there would have been no trial there would have been no fair court knowing if i got caught i probably would have been publicly beheaded burned alive tortured i've been there i've seen it with my own eyes i've preached the gospel and left villages when the stones were flying and if they'd have caught us they would have tried to have stoned us i've left villages with the stones pelting around my feet as i got in the car and breaking the windshield and hitting the cars i've been there i'm not denying this i'm not disrespecting this but here's what i want you to know all of the persecution in church history has always been carried out by the hands of men it has been regional and it has been cultural but the great tribulation in the book of revelation is not tribulation carried out by the hands of men it's tribulation carried out by the wrath of god it is not regional it's worldwide it's global great tribulation and it's not cultural it is all-inclusive that is the answer thirdly the coming great tribulation is going to be global and man will play a role in it but the prophecy of the great tribulation in the book of revelation is not john 16 33. that tribulation was always carried out by the hands of men just like now nigeria that's not the wrath of god that's wicked men in a region culturally persecuting christians and as much as we respect that and there is a reward in heaven for the martyr there is a martyr's crown i settled in my heart a long time ago i don't want to be a martyr last time i went overseas in a muslim country my last trip before covet you know my wife is crying on my shoulder asking am i going to be a widow am i going to be a widow that's not that's not a fun way to go to an airport but i settled in my heart a long time ago that whatever it costs me i'm going to preach the gospel in unreached places i'm going to take the gospel where other people won't go because souls are worth it and i've always believed that if god called you there he didn't call me there for for me to die and if i had to lay my life down that's between the lord and my future but i've counted the cost i'm not a stupid man but i know tribulation and great tribulation are totally different the great tribulation is not carried out by men it's not carried out in a region and it's not carried out culturally it'll be carried out by the hand of god himself it'll be carried out globally and it'll not be cultural to be all-inclusive the wrath of god against the pent-up sins of planet earth let me move on number three every bible example told us i've made a an effort every night to be done at nine o'clock will you give me a handful of moments tonight to finish this up because this is very important number three every bible example tells us the church can't go through the tribulation that's why i read that passage of scripture as our foundational text now quickly if we were on a bible college or if you attended a seminary you would eventually take a course called typology well what is typology is it just some theological course made up by a bunch of spiritual and intellectual brainiacs no it's out of the bible it's from the greek word typos and it's actually in the scripture and if you'd like to see it it's in hebrews chapter 10 one example of it hebrews chapter 10. open your bible there and highlight it so that you'll never forget it verses one and two the bible said the old system under the law of moses was only a shadow a dim preview of the good things to come not the good things themselves the sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again year after year but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship if they could have provided perfect cleansing the sacrifices would have stopped for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time and their feelings of guilt would have been disappeared highlight that there are things that happen in the bible that were only a shadow the greek word is typos a type an example and that is where the systematic theology of typology comes from it walks you through the bible and shows you all of the things in the old testament that were foreshadowing something that would be fulfilled in the new testament so the quick thumbnail definition of what typology is is typology is that the narratives of the old testament were recorded and written in such a way that there was a fulfillment of them that would be mirrored in greater clarity in the new testament so let's give you just a few examples of that before we move on enoch the bible said was transferred to heaven before the flood that's a type of the rapture before judgment came upon the wickedness of the earth enoch a righteous man was transferred to heaven without dying the bible said he knew god and he was not he was taken it's a type it's a shadow it's a preview in the old testament of the rapture do you remember the oldest man those of you that went to sunday school the oldest man in the bible's name was methuselah did you know that methuselah was noah's grandfather methuselah's son lamech was noah's father the name methuselah was given to him by a prophet do you know what the name methuselah means it means when he dies judgment will come a prophet named that little baby and in hebrew his name methuselah given by a prophet the name means when he dies judgment will come guess who died seven days before the flood methuselah and seven days was the jewish law of proper burial but god had prophesied over methuselah by a prophet when he was a baby out of his mother's womb his name is methuselah when he dies judgment will come methuselah lived longer than anyone else 969 years that should tell you something now you know why god let him live far longer than any other human being because it's a type of the mercy of god for a window for the gospel to be preached for an opportunity for people to be a part of the ark the ark is a type of salvation but the ark is also a type of the rapture of the church because as judgment came upon planet earth all in the ark of salvation were taken up out of judgment the noah story is a type of the rapture enoch was a type of the rapture noah's ark was a type of the rapture lot was a type of the rapture he was there in sodom and gomorrah com unity in a culture given over to wickedness and sexual depravity just before the judgment of god came and fire and brimstone came and by the way do you know if you go to the holy land and they take you to that site it's still black ash and destroyed and it's all provable the bible's not fairy tales it's provable that's why i said biblical archaeology is one of the great evidences of the truth of the bible and i had somebody come to me one time and say well of course it's biblical archaeology that you know it's of course people that are studying the bible are going to have their own set of facts biblical art archaeology is a secular science it's not a christian science it's a secular science the leading authors the leading professors the leaning excavators the leading companies most of them are atheists it's only called biblical archaeology because it's archaeology done in the land of the bible but it's a secular liberal science there have been over 26 000 archaeological digs in the land of the bible thousands upon thousands have proven the content of the bible not one dig has ever unearthed anything that's disproven the bible but lot the angel of lord came to rescue him and his family and what do the angels say come with me up the mountain to safety it's a type of the rapture before the fire of judgment came upon the wicked culture the angels of the lord came and took lot and his family up and lot's wife is a type of the backslidden believer prior to the rapture she turned back and couldn't make up her mind whether she wanted to live for the world or the covenant of the almighty it's a type of the rapture no and his family were taken up above the flood waters lot and his family were taken out of sodom and gomorrah and up the mountain genesis 18 25 listen to this genesis 18 25 surely you wouldn't do such a thing destroying the righteous along with the wicked even abraham was pre-trib even abraham was wise enough to know that god doesn't destroy the righteous with the wicked let me read surely you wouldn't do such a thing destroying the righteous along with the wicked why you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same surely you wouldn't do that should not the judge of all the earth do what is right even abraham and typology had his doctrine on the rapture straight not one hair was harmed on the head one single hebrew baby swept throughout all of egypt in their wicked culture every innocent hebrew family was spared ii peter chapter 2 verses 5 through 9 that's why i read that passage god did not spare the ancient world except for noah and then it went on and lot why because the righteous and the wicked are always judged separately number four the love of god tells us for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but face or receive everlasting life that word perish in the original greek means face judgment those who have received jesus christ god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him christians should not perish face the wrath and the judgment of god the great tribulation is the wrath of god pent up for israel's rebellion against the messiah and all wickedness on the earth did you know that god is going to save all of israel in the great tribulation the bible says all of israel shall be saved the 144 000 in the book of revelation that's 12 000 jews from all 12 tribes that god raises up as jewish evangelists in the great tribulation 144 000 jewish evangelists in the great tribulation the two prophets will be sent to preach an angel will be sent to preach the greatest harvest of souls there will be people saved in the great tribulation but they'll have to give their life because all who receive the mark it's the only way to buy or sell and all who reject it will be barbarically beheaded isn't it unique that beheading historically was pretty much done away with and now all of a sudden it's made an incredible resurgence now you can watch on youtube almost every other month horrid pictures of people around the world being beheaded by the ungodly the antichrist is going to publicly behead all the scripture says in revelation who refuse the mark if you're taking notes write this down i'm not going to preach on it but the purpose of the great tribulation is just twofold number one to purify israel and the jewish people and secondly all of the wickedness of this earth has been stored up for a day of judgment that's why the punishment in the wrath and the apocalyptic events are so graphic and so severe and so punitive you wonder why god has let a lot of sin in our society seemingly go unpunished the bible says the wrath of god is saved as the sins of men are being stored up for judgment the great tribulation is the final court day of the justice of almighty god against all who shook their puny fist in the face of his holiness lastly and i close with this the blood of jesus tells us romans chapter 5 verses 9 and 10 much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him highlight that paul knew it he said much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him verse 10 for if we were the enemies we were reconciled to god through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life when god sent jesus and allowed him to be crucified on the cross as the sinless spotless lamb of god upon the cross jesus paid the penalty for all our sins and god called those who came to faith in christ the bride of christ and he said i'm coming for a pure bride a spotless bride a holy bride a pure bride if the church were going through the great tribulation he would be coming for a battered bride a beheaded bride a bloodied bride a brutalized bride do you think god the father is going to allow his bride to be abused with the same judgment and wrath and the apocalyptic events of the wicked as we've learned tonight every typology in the bible tells us differently there's not one example in the entirety of the old testament that has any other pattern except the righteous are removed before judgment methuselah enoch noah lot the hebrew children the death angel the blood on the doorpost preserve them from wrath preserve them from every single old testament pattern has the exact same prophetic chronology that john wrote in the book of revelation and the good news tonight and i could preach on this for weeks but i'll stop the good news is to receive christ and to be in christ when the trumpet sounds he'll come by the angel of the lord and the trumpet of god and the dead in christ will rise first we which are alive and remain shall be caught up in the clouds to be with the lord forever he's coming first of all by rapture for the church the great tribulation seven years at the end of the seven years he's coming back in the second coming with his church where we will rule and reign it is impossible listen it is impossible theologically and logically that god would ever take his precious holy bride that he paid for with the blood of his own son jesus to drag them through the judgment of the great tribulation the bible says and god saves his wrath for his enemies and through the cross we are no longer his enemies we are his sons and his daughters the gospel of john says as many as receive christ even those who call upon his name he gives to them the power to become the sons and the daughters of god as i said last night i'm not looking for the antichrist i'm looking for jesus christ and he's coming very soon if you believe it and receive it give the lord a mighty hand to praise and stand your feet with me please musicians would you come thank you tonight for a handful of extra moments to cover something that i believe is incredibly important in the hour in which we live i genuinely appreciate you and your time i promised you at the beginning of these services that i would never waste a minute of your time and i have kept that promise but uh to try to take people and i hope you understand my heart i have such a passion for people that don't know the bible there's just a special place in my heart for people that are unchurched or unsaved and i just can't preach on something like this without taking time to try to explain it in such a way that somebody that's hearing it for the very first time would at least be able to fundamentally understand and receive it because the message of prophecy is not just to give us spiritual intellectual information prophecy was not given to change your head it was given to change your heart primarily and so i have to ask you let me ask you in bible prophecy one of the great prophecy questions that the apostle peter asked when the apostle peter defined what many scientists believed to be the perfect thumbnail of a nuclear war in ii peter and peter said all of these things are going to melt away in the aftermath and he's going through this first century description of what scientists say is a perfect thumbnail description of the aftermath of the nuclear war but when peter gets done describing that do you know what he said here's the question that i conclude with knowing that all of these things are going to happen what pure and holy lives we should be living peter knows what i've been teaching you all week that the purpose of prophecy is not to scare us but to prepare us so can i very respectfully but lovingly ask you that question tonight and i want you to make it personal to your own heart since the bible has never been wrong since the content of bible prophecy is one thousand percent accurate one in unbelieving group of scientists who are doing a higher criticism analysis of bible prophecy in their concluding thesis wrote bible prophecy is so accurate it seems to be history written before it takes place if you're gambling your soul against the integrity and the accuracy of bible prophecy you have made a losing bet it has never been wrong it never will be wrong and peter said knowing these things are about to happen what pure and holy lives you should be living that's the question and i ask this from a loving heart i promise you this isn't judgment i ask myself this question knowing that the next major prophetic event in the calendar of god is the rapture of the church are you living a pure and a holy life have you repented of sin and received jesus christ as your lord and savior [Music] as i always tell people i know you'll have questions about the bible i know you're going to have if you're an analytical individual and there are a lot of people like that they have to analyze and synthesize everything there's nothing wrong with that i respect that that higher mind is because of the fact you were created in the image of god but the bible will stand all of your questions the bible stands all of the tests of higher criticism the bible passes all of the tests of historicity ask away but while you're asking the questions get right with god first because the smartest thing you can do is to make peace with god first because if you make the mistake of saying i got to figure this all out and then i'm going to come to christ [Music] no you come to christ and he'll help you figure everything out get saved first get right with god first because if you make up your mind you're going to take a year to study it well what would to happen if you made that decision and the lord were to come tonight while you were sleeping that would have been the most foolish decision you had ever made of your life there's nothing to stop you from coming to christ first and beginning your adventure and study and examination and further development there's nothing wrong with that but get saved first because the bible says in such an hour as you think not the son of man cometh real intelligence real faith real spiritual concern says number one i need to make peace with god [Music] and then the bible says study to show yourself approved the bible tells us to study the day you get saved that's not the end of what god's going to do with your life it's just the beginning let me put it to you in a way that even your children can understand when you pray with me in just a moment what many people call a sinner's prayer some of you for the first time in your life are going to be able to go back to your house and when you get ready for bed and you turn out the lights many of you started early you've had a long work day it's been a busy day and you're tired and when you lay your head to the pillow for the first time in your life you're going to have a peace like you've never had because you're going to know it's well with my soul because the bible says all who call upon the name of the lord shall be saved all you have to do is get right with god how do you get right with god i already told you it's as simple as abc a you have to admit your sin there has to be a time in your life when you bow in the presence of a holy god and say god i know i'm a sinner that's not hard matter of fact i have i can't tell you how many people have come to me through the years and said preacher if you knew my past you'd know that i don't have a chance in hell no that's not true the bible says no matter what your past no matter what your sin your sins are not greater than the grace of god hell has forged no chains that heaven cannot break think about it hell has forged no chains in your life that heaven cannot break tonight a admit your sin be believe in jesus christ in childlike faith what do i need to believe believe that he died on a cross for sinners believe that he loves you believe that he rose again believe that he's going to keep his promise and come believe that he loves you just the way you are c you have to make a commitment to him when i got married june 23 1979 i stood at an altar before family god and friends and repeated words that they call a marriage vow and it took my relationship to a totally different level i now was officially married it was my first girlfriend first woman i'd ever kissed i'll never forget waking up the next morning after i was married first time in my life i'd ever been in a bed with a woman and i'll never forget it i woke up and a woman was laying in bed with me and i instantly felt like i was going to hell before i figured out it was safe [Music] i was safe because i had repeated a vow in the presence of god and when you pray the sinner's prayer with me it's the same thing you're going from i don't believe in god or i do believe in god you're going from some form [Music] to saying i am now a son of god or i am a child of god you're becoming a part of the family of god and when jesus returns he's coming for his children and like noah and like lot and like methuselah and like enoch and like all of the patterns in the bible when judgment comes you'll be gone and your path from this day unto the coming of the lord paul said this thanks be unto god who giveth us the victory through the lord jesus christ you're going to go from victory to victory to victory so here's what i'm going to ask you to do now listen we've had i don't know how many people somewhere between maybe 25 30 i don't know the exact count at this point who've already done this for the very first time in their life it took faith and courage and humility for all of those people to pray that prayer so i'm going to tell you up front to pray with me it's going to take faith and courage and humility to meet me at this altar and pray this prayer people always ask me why do you ask people to do it publicly because jesus said in luke chapter 12 if you confess me publicly before men i'll confess you openly before my father which is in heaven but listen he went on to say if you're ashamed of me before men i'll be ashamed of you before the father and the angels in other words what you do with jesus here determines what he does with you there five seconds after you die if you received him publicly here he receives you publicly in the presence of god there nobody marries somebody that they're ashamed of [Music] and jesus said if you're ashamed of me you forced me to be ashamed of you in judgment day but he said if you receive me publicly here then have the confidence when you lay your head of the pillow tonight no matter what happens in this world your sins are forgiven and when it all goes down like hell in the hand basket and the apocalyptic events of the last chapters unfold on this earth know that i'm coming to get you and i'll remove you safely and keep you for a better day you can make that decision tonight now i always ask those that have the courage to be the very first ones to come they're going to sing a song of invitation as soon as they sing that first note those of you that have the courage you be the very first ones to come why because your courage is going to help somebody that may not have the same courage that's just human nature christian i'm going to ask you to do what i've asked you to do every night i want you to be very sensitive to the leading of the spirit and the people that are around you and if you have somebody with you or a mom or a dad or a husband or a wife or a son or a daughter or a friend you've invited or a neighbor a co-worker but if you're not sure if they've ever prayed a sinner's prayer or made peace with god not forcibly but just very graciously as people are gathering i'm going to ask you to turn to them as a friend and they'll not resent you they'll actually respect you your friendship will go to a different level because they'll realize how much you care about them but as people are gathering i want you as a christian to turn to that person and say if you'd like to pray that prayer i'll walk with you and you can come with them if you're elderly and you can't kneel you can stand if you just had a hip surgery and you can't stand they'll make room for you in one of these front seats we're going to pray a simple sinner's prayer together i'm not going to keep you i'm not going to embarrass you [Music] i will treat you with respect and dignity we're going to talk to god in prayer before we're dismissed and whether you're doing this for the first time or you're backslidden away from god and you need to come home i'm going to kneel here as they sing the song of invitation and pray that god will give you the courage to do what you need to do then we're going to pray before we're dismissed as god speaks to your heart you come and then we'll pray [Music] me [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] me we're going to pray together with these that are here some are still coming by the way if god's been speaking to your heart and you feel like you need to come just come on i promise you there's nothing more important in my schedule than you there is nothing on my schedule more important than you i haven't had a tv on since i left home i could care less what's going on in this world because i know what's going to go on in the world none of that worries me none of that concerns me we used to sing it as a little boy in church he's got the whole wide world in his hands i know who's in charge how about you anyone else that wants to be here if god's speaking to your heart you come and we're going to pray the only reason i'm going to ask those of you at this altar to pray with me is because i meet people everywhere i go i'm a guest here somebody said i've never been to this church well i'm a guest too [Music] but i meet people that have never been to church i mean people that have never read the bible i meet people that feel like they've committed so many sins god can't forgive them i mean people that have never prayed and don't know how to pray so that's the only reason i'm going to ask you to pray this prayer with me but know this that scripture i quoted all who call upon the name of the lord shall be saved you're not talking to me you're talking to god and i don't have to ask if you're sincere you never would have come forward if you weren't sincere you've already passed the sincerity in the faith and the humility test so now it's just a matter of making your commitment to god we're going to do that right now just pray this with me out loud say heavenly father tonight as i was listening to the bible you were speaking to me down deep in my heart [Music] i want to be a real christian i want to be ready to meet the lord i admit my sin [Music] you know everything i've ever done there's nothing in my life hidden from your eyes but because of the cross and because of your son jesus who shed his blood for sinners your grace is extended to all who call on your name in childlike faith i repent of all my sin and i trust in your mercy i receive your forgiveness i receive jesus christ i receive salvation as god's gift and tonight i ask you come into my heart and be my lord and savior i vow this night i will serve you all the days of my life in place of my weakness give me your strength help me to be what you want me to be fill me with the holy spirit and i thank you now that according to the bible tonight i'm saved i'm delivered i'm healed and i'll never be the same in jesus name i pray amen and amen give the lord a mighty hand to praise

Channel: Peckville Assembly of God

Views: 544

Rating: 4.7142859 out of 5

Keywords: church, Assembly of God, Pentecostal, Scranton, Pennsylvania, sermon, Terry Drost, Tyler Drost, Lackawanna, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Christian, Christianity

Id: axG9p-DmHY4

Length: 86min 18sec (5178 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020