and giving us a glimpse of what's coming in the future, dear God.
And Father, I just pray that you would please just bless all of our ears as we hear what the Spirit sayeth under the churches.
And Father, please just bless our understanding and open our eyes
that we would see the wonderful truths in the Bible that you have for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now, I want to give you tonight just an overview of the entire book of Revelation.
I want to teach to you the book of Revelation.
Now, this is a book that many people are daunted by and they think it's totally not understandable.
Some kind of scholar told them that it's just so complicated and it's so deep and it's not chronological
and it's just so hard to understand.
But I think that just tonight, I can't teach you the whole book of Revelation tonight.
But what I'd like to do tonight is give you the tools and explain to you how it works in the book of Revelation
to where you can go back and really understand this book extremely well.
And I want to warn you up front, I want to say to you this, don't get all emotional about this, okay?
I've seen people literally scream at each other.
I've seen people almost get in fights about what they believe about prophecy.
Now look, obviously some of this stuff is a little bit up to interpretation in the book of Revelation
because it's the future. The rest of the Bible, you're looking back on the past, it's very clear.
Some of the things in the book of Revelation, maybe, people could have different opinions about it and that's fine.
Now, most of the time, you know me, I'm willing to fight, man.
If somebody tries to tell me that salvation is not through the blood of Christ, man, put up your dukes, man.
I'm not talking about physical fist fight, but I'm going to fight for that doctrine.
I'm going to fight for that truth. I'm going to take a stand for what I believe.
I'm not going to compromise at all. Somebody brings in a rock band here,
I'm going to say, you're not going to bring that music into my church.
We're going to have the things of God here.
But something like this, okay, this is not something where I'm going to separate from somebody
because they don't see it exactly the way I see it about the book of Revelation,
about the beats and the false prophet and the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven vials.
And so don't get emotional about things like this.
I'm just going to teach you something that to me is as plain as the nose on my face
about how to understand the book of Revelation.
And if you don't agree with me, that's fine.
But I'm telling you that what I'm showing you is the truth, though,
because I've studied this for years and I studied this out when I was about 16, 17 years old.
And ever since then, I've just seen how true it is.
And so I want to start out by showing you a chronology in the book of Revelation.
Now, most people will tell you this book is not chronological at all.
They'll say it's not chronological order at all.
They'll say, how can it be chronological when Jesus is being born in chapter 12?
In chapter 12 of Revelation, we have a record of Jesus Christ being born in Revelation 12.
And you'll say, well, wait a minute.
You start out with John on Patmos, then you're talking about the end of the world,
then Jesus is being born, then the Antichrist shows up and it's convoluted.
But I'm going to show you something where God just made it very simple to understand
and I'm going to put side by side for you five different passages of scripture
that all say the exact same thing in the exact same order
and you will see a very clear chronology of the book of Revelation.
Now, here's the answer.
Very clearly in the book of Revelation, if you read chapters 1 through 11,
they are in perfect chronological sequence and I'll prove that to you.
Revelation 1 through 11 gives perfect chronological sequence.
You get to chapter 12, it starts over with Jesus being born
and goes in perfect chronological sequence all the way to chapter 22.
Now, that right there, I've never heard anybody say that.
I've never heard anybody say that.
I mean, I just learned it from the Bible.
I learned it from the Holy Spirit.
And I've seen people have all these goofy ideas of this that don't make sense,
but I will prove this to you. I'll show you from the Bible how clearly God lays this out
and how if you put Revelation 1 through 11 and 12 through 22 side by side,
they are documenting the exact same events in the exact same order.
Then we're going to compare three other passages of scripture
and put them next to it side by side with Revelation 1 through 11,
Revelation 12 through 22, Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse,
Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse again, and Luke 21, the Olivet Discourse again.
Now you say, why isn't the Olivet Discourse in the book of John?
Why is it only in Matthew, Mark, and Luke?
This great sermon that Jesus preaches about the end of the world.
Well, it's not there because John wrote it in the book of Revelation.
And so he doesn't write it in his gospel because he wrote a whole book about it.
God used him to write a whole book, so we're still getting four angles of the same thing.
We're getting the Revelation angle, Matthew, Mark, and Luke angle.
So it's basically Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John's angles of Jesus Christ teaching on the Revelation.
Of course, it's all written by God before Matthew, Mark, and John were ever even thought of.
Now, as you'll see when I show you this, there's a series of events,
and I'm going to use this just to show...
Well, I'm not even sure if I'm going to use this because it might end up being more trouble than it's worth.
We'll see how it goes. I thought about using it.
But if you would, turn with me to Revelation 1, and I'm going to show you this.
I think what I'll do is I'll write it down as we go, and then I'll just show you.
You know, I'll put it up on the wall and show you once I'm done filling it out.
But in Revelation chapter 1, we start out here with John on the Isle of Patmos.
Look at verse number 9.
I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation...
Now, there's a word right there, the first time that that word's mentioned in this book, tribulation.
Now, that's a very common word because you'll hear people talk about the tribulation constantly.
So here, God shows us this word, tribulation.
Now, what is the tribulation referring to? It's referring to the persecution that John is undergoing in chapter 1.
He says, I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation,
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos
for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying,
I am Alpha and Omega, and on and on.
So here's what happens. John, when did John live? This is the first century.
We don't know exactly when this is written.
It's written sometime in the first century, the first hundred years after Christ.
Obviously, because he, you know, I don't think he lived to be 300,
so we're talking about in the first hundred years somewhere, probably toward the end of that, about 100 A.D.
Here's a man who is a preacher of the gospel, who's being enormously persecuted,
and he's suffering enormous tribulation to the point where he has been exiled to a desert island,
he's been kicked out of society, he's been kicked out of the world at that time,
and said, you will live on a desert island by yourself in the isle of Patmos.
Then this man, John, Sunday rolls around and says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.
He's having church on Sunday just by himself. Here he is by himself.
And all of a sudden he hears behind him a great voice as of a trumpet, so loud it's like a trumpet,
and here's Jesus Christ himself speaking with him.
So, what's the chronology of chapter one, the first century?
You know, 100 A.D., just for grins, we'll call it that.
Then, Jesus begins to give him a message for seven local churches.
He names these churches the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Smyrna, the Church of Pergamos,
the Church of Thyatira, the Church of Sardis, the Church of Philadelphia, and the Church of Laodicea.
Those are the seven churches that he gives him in that order.
And so, God says, I want you to send a message, I want you to send this book that I'm going to have you write, Revelation.
I want you to send it to the seven churches, and I'm going to give you a special message for each church.
Now, first of all, I want to point out, this is not seven church ages.
Now, the biggest problem with our independent fundamental Baptist movement is that it has the Scofield Reference Bible.
Ninety percent of churches I've been in, people have this church, this Bible, it's called the Scofield Reference Bible.
Who's heard of the Scofield Reference Bible? You've seen it, right?
It has all kinds of notes in it. It has places in it where it says this verse is wrong.
Put in the word not here, and change it to opposite, because the Greek says this, and correcting the King James Bible.
It has the goofiest thing in the world. You open it up to Genesis chapter one,
and it tells you that there was a pre-existing civilization, a race before Adam, and this goofy stuff.
Look it up, Genesis one, verse two, in the Scofield Bible says, like, goofy stuff.
And so, get a Bible that just has the Bible in it, amen?
I mean, I'm talking about a Bible that's just the word of God, and doesn't have all man's commentary.
You don't need, you just need the Holy Spirit to tell you what it means.
And so, that's the biggest problem that we have, and we're going to see that all throughout the lesson,
that people's minds have been corrupted by a man named Scofield who wrote this study Bible people use,
and he was not even a Baptist. Not a Baptist at all.
He did not believe in the local church. He believed in a universal church, and he corrected the Bible and so forth.
He was right on salvation. I mean, he was saved, but he was wrong on a lot of things,
so I don't want him to teach me the Bible.
And so, Scofield says that these are church ages. Well, let me tell you some problems with that.
Number one, he gives attributes of each of these churches.
Look, any church could be any one of these in 2006.
The church at Ephesus was a church that was straight doctrinally,
but they didn't have their first love of, I think it's talking about winning souls,
because you need to get back to the first works.
Like Andrew, first finest of his own brother, bringing them to Jesus.
And so, you know, you get on to the church of Smyrna. It's a church that was very persecuted.
You get on to the church of Pergamos. It was a church that was worldly.
The church of Thyatira was another church that was very worldly and into sin.
The church of Philadelphia was a church that had great opportunity, and it was a fast-growing church.
The church of Laodicea was a lukewarm church that was just, they weren't hot, they weren't cold,
they were just dead, they thought they were great, but they were boring.
And so, any church could be any of those today.
There are boring churches, there are churches that are straight doctrinally,
but they've forgotten the first love and the first works.
There are churches that are undergoing great persecutions. I mean, any one of those could apply.
And some churches could go through different stages. They might be a very persecuted church.
Then they might go to being kind of dead, and then they might get fired up.
And so, here's the problem. Dr. Schofield believed in the universal church,
like everybody who's saved is part of the church,
although the Bible teaches that a church is a congregation of people, an assembly of people.
So, he says he's writing to the church of Ephesus.
Now, the church of Ephesus, is that plural or singular?
Singular.
He's saying, I'm writing this to the church of Ephesus.
So, if this is talking about a time period of all Christians, then basically you're saying universal church.
The church of Laodicea.
That's our church that we're in right now, right? The big universal church? We don't believe in that.
We believe in local churches. He's writing to the church of Laodicea, in a town, in a location.
And so, that's why Dr. Schofield is mixed up, because he didn't believe local church,
he believed universal church.
So, he says, we're in the Laodicean church age, or we're in the Philadelphian church age.
Look, there's no such thing as a church age, because there's not a church, there's church-es.
Right into the seven church-es, which are in Asia.
So, one of the key verses here in Revelation was where at the beginning he said,
write the things which thou hast seen, this is Jesus talking,
and the things which are, and the things which shall be.
So, we're reading about three things in the book of Revelation.
Past, present, and future.
Past, well, we're starting out with past.
I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. He's saying, I was exiled to past. That's the past.
Then we have the present in chapters two and three.
We're still in perfect chronological order, where Jesus is saying,
this is what I have to say to these seven churches right now.
They need to repent of their liberalism, they need to repent of their sins,
and get right with God, these seven churches.
Then we get into chapter four, okay?
Look at chapter four, it says, after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven,
and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me,
which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven,
and one sat upon the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper.
And in chapter number four, we see a description of heaven.
John is caught up to heaven, and he sees a description of what heaven is like.
So we're still in the present. He's seeing this right now.
Then in chapter five, you'll see there's a book that comes on the scene.
He sees in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book,
written within and on the back side, it had seven seals.
They ask, and I'm blowing through this because there's so much material,
and I want to show you the whole overview.
He says, this book is going to be opened, but we can't find anybody to open it.
The only person they can find that can open it is Jesus Christ,
and boy, this is a great chapter, just praising and glorifying Jesus.
If you read this in your own time, you will shout if you read these chapters four and five.
You'll just be praising God when you read this.
So we see that this book is going to be opened.
Now in chapter six is when he begins to open the book.
And if you want to take notes on any of this, it might not be a bad idea,
but chapter one, first century A.D., John on Papus,
chapters two and three, preaching to churches back then,
seven individual churches, he gives the name of the church.
He says, Ephesus Baptist Church needs to get right with God in this area.
Laodicea Baptist Church, you're lukewarm, you need to change.
Then in chapters four and five, he's just shown in heaven,
and he's shown us this book that's going to be opened.
In chapter six, the book begins to be opened.
Now in chapter six, when the book begins to be opened,
this is the start of what's known as the tribulation,
the seven years when the book is opened.
Now you'll see this.
So far we're in perfect chronological order.
We went from John in the first century,
churches in the first century, what they were like,
taught up to heaven, now he's being shown the end of the world.
Everything from now on is future, because have we entered,
is the tribulation going on right now?
No. So this is future, right? This hasn't happened yet.
So in chapter number six it says,
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the fields,
I heard as it were the noise of thunder,
one of the four beasts saying,
Come and see.
And I saw him build a white horse,
and he that sat on him had a bow,
and a crown was given unto him,
and he went forth conquering and to conquer.
First thing we see is that somebody's doing some conquering,
somebody's taken over.
Then the second seal's opened,
and it says that there was a red horse,
and he takes peace from the earth.
There's wars, there's killing, okay, you see that?
Then there's a third horse,
and I'm just going through this to give you the idea.
It talks about basically food being extreme prices,
because there's this war going on.
Somebody took over, there's fighting, there's wars.
The food is very expensive.
Then the fourth beast says,
Come and see, and the fourth seal's opened,
and we see a pale horse,
and he that sat on him was death,
and hell followed with him.
So here we have, you know, the devil.
We have Satan showing up on the scene,
and it says that he's there to kill the fourth part of the earth.
Basically, the fourth part of the earth is going to be murdered,
like 25% of the population is going to be killed.
Then in the fifth seal is opened,
we see these martyrs of Jesus Christ
who are saying how much longer until the end's going to come.
Then in the sixth seal is opened,
it says, let me find this here.
I lost my place.
So when the sixth seal's opened, there's a great earthquake.
It says the sun became a sacral of air,
so the sun's turning to darkness.
The moon became his blood.
The stars of the heaven fell onto earth,
even as a fig tree, cast into untimely figs.
And then it says the heaven has departed,
and the mountains are being moved.
There's a huge earthquake up.
The sun turns to darkness,
and it says that the men of the earth
are hiding themselves in the mountains.
Look at verse 15 at the end of verse 15.
hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains,
and said to the mountains and rocks,
from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,
and from the wrath of the Lamb,
for the great day of his wrath is come,
and who shall be able to stand?
So follow me.
Starts out, somebody takes over.
Starts out, peace is being taken from the earth.
There's a war going on.
Twenty-five percent of the population's killed.
Food prices are just insanity,
and the devil's in charge of all this.
He's behind it all.
He was behind the murdering of all these people.
And then we have God's wrath being poured out.
He says, it's coming.
The sun's black.
The moon's turned into blood.
We know the Bible says,
in the book of Joel and elsewhere,
that that's what's going to happen
before the great and the glorious day of the Lord come
when he's going to judge this earth.
And they said they were so scared
at facing the wrath of God
that they wanted rocks to fall on them
and just kill them and hide them from God.
They could not face God.
Now look.
You're going to see a radical change here.
Look at chapter seven.
And after these things,
I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,
holding the four winds.
Let me skip down a little bit.
It says right here at the end of verse number two,
look at this,
and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels
to whom it was given to hurt the earth.
And the seed sang,
hurt not the earth,
neither the sea,
nor the trees,
till we have sealed the servants of our God,
and therefore,
So at the end of chapter six,
we see God's wrath is coming.
Oh man, the tide.
Let's get out of the way.
God's going to kill us all.
God's going to judge us.
We're scared.
We don't want to face him.
And then in chapter seven,
hold it.
Stop.
Don't hurt the earth.
Don't do anything.
He's saying to these angels
that are going to destroy the world,
don't hurt the earth
until we've sealed the servants of God
and therefore,
then what we have is these
144,000 Jews are listed here.
12,000 from each tribe,
where God puts a special seal on them,
these 12,000 from each tribe,
and says these are the ones
that we're going to seal
that are not going to be hurt.
But look at this.
Then in verse number nine,
it says,
after this I beheld
and lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number.
Now didn't we just finish
counting 144,000 people?
This is a pretty big number.
Okay, this is not 144,000.
We just counted 144,000 people,
which in chapter number 14,
we'll see that these 144,000
are all Jews,
they're all male,
and they're all virgins.
Okay, we'll find that out
about this very specific group
of 144,000 people.
Then we see a great multitude
which no man could number.
Of all nations,
are these just Jews?
No.
Of all nations,
and this is in heaven
where he's saying this,
and kindreds and peoples and tongues
stood before the throne
and before the lamb
clothed with white robes
and palms in their hands.
And they're praising God
and so forth.
And look at John's reaction
in verse number 13 of chapter 7.
And one of the elders answered
unto me,
What are these which are
raised in white robes?
And whence came they?
He's like,
Where did all these people
come from?
And John says,
in verse number 14,
and I said unto him,
Sir, thou knowest,
he's like,
don't ask me,
you're the one that's
showing me all this stuff,
what is it?
And he said,
These are they which came
out of great tribulation.
Second time we see that
word tribulation.
And have washed their robes
and made them white
in the blood of the lamb.
Therefore are they before
the throne of God
and serve him day and night
in his temple.
And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them.
They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst anymore,
neither shall the sun light
on them,
nor any heat for the lamb
which is in the midst
of the throne shall feed them.
Now these are saved,
born again Christians.
All of a sudden,
they're in heaven.
Heaven's just filled with them.
It's like,
what in the world are
all these people?
They're from every nation.
There's so many people,
I can't count them.
And the Bible counts numbers
as high of people
as 10,000 times 10,000.
Pretty big number.
Or how about one million?
He counted the army
of the Ethiopians
in Second Chronicles,
counted an army that
numbered one million men.
Thousand thousand it says.
So this is a pretty big group
of people from every nation
in the world that just
appears in heaven
all of a sudden.
And here they are.
Now look.
Chapter 8.
So we had that interlude
in Chapter 7.
Wait, stop everything.
Let's seal these
144,000.
We have this big crowd
up in heaven.
Chapter number 8 it says,
and when he had opened
the seventh seal,
there was silence in heaven
about the space of a half hour.
So he's just opening
the final seventh seal,
is what's going on here.
And when he opens
the seventh seal,
this sets off a chain
of seven angels
which are going to
blow seven trumpets.
Okay.
These seven trumpets
are God's wrath
being poured out
on the earth.
The first trumpet
is found in verse number 7.
It says,
hail and fire
is mingled with blood.
You know,
it's cast upon the earth.
The third part of trees
was burnt up
and all green grass
was burnt up.
Now who's doing this?
This is God.
God is pouring out
hellfire and damnation,
hail and fire.
Now who was doing the stuff
when the seals were opened?
That was the devil.
That was the antichrist.
You know,
that was somebody
taking over, conquering.
That was somebody
who was the devil
murdering people.
That was,
you know,
man, basically.
It wasn't,
it was the devil
and it was man.
Now God,
when God's wrath
started coming
with the sun
and the moon
and everything,
that's when the people
got really scared.
And that's what we're seeing
here with these seven trumpets
when the seventh seal's opened.
Now look,
the second angel founded
says a great mountain
burning with fire
was cast into the sea
and the third part of the sea
became blood.
Look at verse number nine.
The third part of the creatures
which were in the sea
and had life died.
Okay,
then verse 10,
the third angel's
gonna blow the trumpet.
A great star,
there fell a great star
from heaven,
burning as it were a lamp
and it fell upon the
third part of the rivers
and upon the mountains
and waters.
The fourth angel sounded.
Verse 12,
the third part of the sun
was smitten
and it's basically just saying
that the sun and the moon
and the stars
only shine for a third
part of the day
and the second part of the day
is total darkness.
Eight hours a day
total darkness.
The fifth angel sounds
and the devil opens up hell
it says
and these locusts
are coming out of hell.
These fiery locusts
and smoke
covers the whole atmosphere
to where it's so dark
that the sun can't even shine
and these locusts
that actually have
tails like scorpions
are biting people
and torturing people
except for the 144,000.
Then
the sixth angel sounds the trumpet
and the Bible says
that the four angels
which are bound in the
great river Euphrates
are loosed.
That goes all the way back
to the Garden of Eden
when those four angels
were put there
to guard the Garden of Eden.
Right now they're in the bottom
of the river Euphrates
according to the Bible here.
They're loosed out of that.
Then we go on down the line
and talk some more about that.
Chapter number 10
is kind of an interlude again
just talking about some things
that John saw in heaven.
Not really important
to the chronology.
It's just talking about him.
We saw some things about
the Bible in chapter 10.
But then in verse number 11
we see the seventh seal opened
in verse number 15.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
the seventh angel blowed
its trumpet.
We already went through
the seventh seals.
We're in the trumpets.
And the seventh angel sounded
is verse 15 of chapter 11
and there were great voices
in heaven saying
the kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms
of our Lord
and of his Christ
and he shall reign
forever and ever.
So what's happening?
The seventh trumpet
is blown and they're saying
Jesus Christ is now
the king of this earth.
He's going to reign
forever and ever.
The kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms
of the Lord Jesus Christ
and he's going to reign
forever and ever.
So Jesus Christ is setting up
his millennial kingdom
in verse number 15.
And then they're praising God
and saying how wonderful
he is through verse 18.
And then in the last verse
of chapter number 11
it says in the temple of God
was opened in heaven
and there were seen
in his temple
the ark of his testament
and there were lightnings
and voices and thunderings
and an earthquake
and great hail.
Okay, stop.
Now we're going to make
a big jump.
So we just saw all the events
all the way from John
from these churches
that were around
the time of John.
We jumped forward
to the beginning
of the tribulation.
We went through
all the whole tribulation.
Now we're to the end.
Jesus Christ is setting up
his kingdom.
Glory to God.
He is going to reign
forever and ever.
There's thunderings
and lightnings
and coming out of the temple
and then boom.
Chapter 12.
We're going to jump
all the way back
to the beginning
and see it all over again.
Look at this.
And there appeared
a great wonder in heaven.
A woman clothed with the sun
and the moon under her feet
and upon her head
a crown of twelve stars.
And she being with child Clyde
travailing in birth
in pain to be delivered.
And there appeared
another wonder in heaven
and behold a great red dragon
having seven heads
and ten horns
and seven crowns
upon his head.
This is Satan.
And his tail drew
the third part of the stars
in heaven and did cast them
to the earth.
And the dragon stood before
the woman which was
ready to be delivered
for to devour her child
as soon as it was born.
Now we remember this.
Let's talk about Jesus Christ
being born.
Remember how the devil
wanted to devour Jesus Christ
as soon as he was born?
Remember when he was
born in Bethlehem
and King Herod sent forth
and slew all the children
which were in Bethlehem
and in all the coasts thereof
from two years old and under
according to the time
which he had diligently
inquired of the wise man?
We learned about that
just a couple weeks ago
on Matthew chapter 2.
And so here we have
Jesus being born.
The devil wants him
dead right away.
And he tries to kill him
but of course he's taken
to Egypt by his parents,
by Joseph and by his
stepfather and his mother.
And they take him to Egypt
and he's there for a few years
and then comes back
and he's safe.
Now Jesus is born
in chapter 12.
We're pretty much back
to the first century again
in our chronology, aren't we?
Now let's move forward.
We see in verse number 17
and the dragon was
wrought with the woman.
Talking about the nation of Israel
that gave birth to Jesus Christ.
And went to make war
with the remnant of her seed
and keep the commandments of God
and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ.
So he said, you know what?
I couldn't defeat Jesus Christ
so now I'm going to turn
all my energies
toward God's people.
Toward born again Christians
who have the testimony
of Jesus Christ
but you know what he says?
And I love this.
This is interesting.
He doesn't just say
I'm going to fight everybody
who has the testimony
of Jesus Christ.
He says I'm going to fight them
that keep the commandments
of God and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
He says somebody who's saved,
some Christian who doesn't
keep God's commandments,
some Christian who's
not doing anything,
I don't have time
to mess with them.
You know what I mean?
He says I'm going to fight
the guy who has the testimony
of Jesus Christ
and he's keeping
God's commandments.
That's who I want to fight.
That's who I hate.
Let me tell you something.
You keep God's commandments,
the devil's after you.
You live for God,
the devil, just expect
the devil to be all over you
and just be like this, okay?
Because you've got to be
ready to fight.
And I'm telling you something.
We just learned about this
on Matthew chapter 4
on Wednesday night.
The first thing that happened
after Jesus got baptized
and that great victory occurred,
then was Jesus
led up of the Spirit
into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil.
He gets out,
he obeys the Father.
Jesus Christ obeys the Father
by being baptized.
First thing that happens,
the devil says,
I'm going to fight you now
for 40 days.
I mean, good night.
As soon as you live for God,
the devil is just going to
come at you and fight you
because he says,
I couldn't stop you
from getting saved.
You're already saved.
I blew that.
I couldn't stop you
from getting baptized.
You're already baptized.
But I'm going to do
everything I can to make sure
you don't live for God.
I'm going to do everything
I can to get you out of church.
I'm going to do everything
I can to make sure
you're not a soul winner.
That's what the devil says.
And so he is mad.
He is angry.
He has nothing but hate.
He has nothing but sin
and wickedness.
He says,
I'm going to destroy you.
I want to ruin your life.
I'm going to devour you.
That's what we see
in chapter 12.
Then chapter 13.
So where were we all at, though?
That's still back
in the first century
because he says,
as soon as he fails with Jesus,
then he turns
and starts attacking Christians.
And of course,
you see all the persecutions
where they, man,
they were throwing Christians
at the lion's den back then.
And by the way,
the Bible says,
Ye and all,
all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
You say,
I never suffer any kind
of persecution.
Well, then you don't live godly
in Christ Jesus
because if you live godly
in Christ Jesus,
you're going to suffer persecution, friend.
And you may not be suffering
right now,
but it's coming
if you stand for Jesus Christ.
Now, if you go
to the Joel Osteen's church,
you're not going to suffer
persecution, okay?
Because there's 36,000
other people at that rock concert.
But if you want to live
for God, man,
you want to be a soul winner,
you're going to suffer persecution.
Believe me,
people are going to
hate you and fight you,
but that's all right
because God causes us to rejoice
like we saw this morning.
Now,
chapter 13.
What do we have?
The first thing
is the antichrist
is coming on the scene.
Now, remember
in our chronology before,
what was when the first seal
was opened?
We had a guy coming
to conquer.
We had a guy
who was bringing war.
We had a guy who fought
and took over.
We had all kinds of people
dying in a war.
What do we have here?
Somebody's coming
to take over
because, remember,
it's the same exact chronology.
Look at this.
This is the antichrist.
The beast is what the Bible
calls him here.
It doesn't use the word
antichrist.
It used the word antichrist
in 1 John to talk about anybody
who is teaching
what the devil believes.
Even now, it says
there's many antichrists
even right now.
It says right here,
it talks about the beast.
I'm just going to give you
the overview.
It says that he has
a deadly wound to his head.
This is a man.
This is the man of sin,
the Bible says.
We know he's a man.
Daniel chapter 11
talks a lot about him.
We know that he's a man.
He's a human being.
He's called the man of sin,
the son of perdition.
He receives
a deadly head wound.
He's healed of his
deadly wound.
People are worshiping him,
and they think
that he is Jesus Christ.
They think that he is
Jesus Christ.
They think that he is
Jesus Christ.
They think that he is
Jesus Christ.
The word antichrist
means in the place
of Christ,
a replacement for Christ.
I'm going to show you
from all of that
discourse that this man,
and also in the book
of Daniel I could show you,
that this man says
that he is God.
He says,
I am Christ.
I am God.
Okay, you're going
to see that.
But this man stands up,
the antichrist.
It says that they're
worshiping the beast,
which is the antichrist,
and in verse number 4,
13.4, it says,
antichrist,
the beast,
and in verse number 4,
13.4, it says,
antichrist,
the beast,
and in verse number 4,
13.4, it says,
and they worshipped
the dragon which gave
power unto the beast.
That's Satan.
The dragon is Satan.
They're worshipping
the beast,
and they're worshipping
Satan.
And they're saying,
who's like to the beast?
And it says that
for 42 months,
his kingdom is going
to continue.
It says in verse number 5,
that's three and a half years.
So the first half
of this seven year period,
the antichrist is in power.
It says,
he opens his mouth
and blasphemy against God.
He blasphemes his name.
It says,
he makes war
with the saints.
He's making war
with everybody who's saved.
Saints are people
that are saved.
You know,
saints have been sanctified
by the blood of Jesus Christ.
He is making war
with everybody who is saved.
It says that he's
causing everybody
to worship him,
except the people
whose name is
in the book of life.
People that are saved,
they will not worship him.
And then it says that,
let's see,
verse 16,
let's skip down
to verse 16.
It says,
and he causes all
both small and great,
rich and poor,
free and bond,
in their foreheads,
and that no man
might buy or sell,
save that he had
the mark or the name
of the beast
or the number of his name.
Here is the mind
that has,
here is wisdom.
Let him that has
understanding count
the number of the beast,
for it is the number
of a man,
and his number is
six hundred,
three score,
and six.
So he says,
he causes everybody
small and great
to receive this mark
in their forehead
or in their hand,
and it's either his name
or the number of his name,
which is six, six, six,
three, six hundred,
three score,
and six,
which is six hundred
and sixty-six.
That's this number
that people are
going to be forced
to have this mark
in their forehead
or in their hands.
Okay, now look,
verse number 14.
How many years
into this seven-year
period are we?
We're talking about
the first three-and-a-half
years,
where the antichrist
is in power,
the first three-and-a-half
years.
Boom, chapter 14,
another interlude.
Exact same chronology.
Now we're back
to the 144,000.
Isn't that interesting?
Same order.
I looked,
and lo, a lamb stood
in the Mount Zion
with a hundred
and forty and four thousand.
So he's in physical Israel,
the Mount Zion,
144,000,
having his father's name
written in their foreheads,
and I heard a voice
from heaven,
and it goes on,
and it talks about
how they're men
and they're Jews
and they're virgins
and they're godly men
and they believe in Christ
and so forth.
Then,
down at the bottom
of chapter 14,
you'll see in verse
number 15,
or I'm sorry,
verse number 14,
14, 14.
And I looked
and behold,
a white cloud,
and upon the cloud
one sat like unto
the Son of Man.
Who's this
that we're talking about?
Jesus.
One like unto
the Son of Man.
He's coming in the clouds,
okay?
He sat on a cloud.
Thrust in thy sickle
and reap,
for the time is come
for thee to reap,
for the harvest
of the earth
is ripe.
And he that sat
on the cloud,
thrust in his sickle
on the earth,
and the earth
was reaped.
So here's what
he's doing.
He's,
Jesus Christ comes
and
scoops up
something.
He reaps something,
okay?
And then,
at the end of the
chapter,
it talks about,
it gives a contrast here
where it talks about
another reaping
that's going to occur
later,
where God's gonna
take all the
unsafe people,
gather them together
in a valley,
and they're gonna be
killed,
and the blood is gonna
run up to the horse's
bridles,
et cetera.
But then in
chapter 15,
where we talked about
the 144,000
and another reaping
that takes place.
Then,
chapter 15,
we're back into
the chronology.
We're back in heaven.
We're seeing more
sights of heaven
in chapter 15,
like we saw
earlier on in the book.
Chapter 16,
this is gonna
get you.
You're gonna see this.
It says,
and I heard
a great voice,
this is chapter 16,
verse one,
and I heard
a great voice
out of the temple
saying to the
Lord,
go your ways
and pour out
the vials of the
wrath of God
upon the earth.
Boom,
the wrath of God,
again.
See how consistent
this is?
Antichrist,
144,000,
the wrath of God,
okay,
and then look.
He's gonna list
the seven vials
of the wrath of God
that have poured out.
I looked at this,
and the seven vials
that have poured out
are exactly the same
as the seven trumpets
that are blown.
These are happening
at the same time.
At the same time,
the other angel's
pouring out the vial.
It's just two aspects
of what's happening.
Now, the only one
that's different
is the first one.
Two through seven
are identical.
I'll just blow
through these
because I wrote
these all down.
You can study
this out later,
but the first vial
was poured out
to a grievous sore,
a sore physically
on man and beast,
everybody who
worshiped the beast.
The first trumpet
was hail,
fire,
and blood, okay.
The second vial,
God turns the sea
into blood.
It's the same thing.
We saw it a couple
of seconds ago.
The third vial,
the fountains
and the rivers.
Basically, the fresh
water is turned
into blood.
The third trumpet,
the fountains
and the rivers
are poisoned,
the vial says.
The fourth vial,
the sun is scorching
people and hurting them.
The fourth trumpet
was when the sun
was darkened
for a quarter of the sun
and blacked out.
So there's obviously
things going on
with the sun.
The fifth vial
was poured out,
darkness on the
face of the earth.
It was blown.
Smoke came out
of the bottom of the pit
and the Bible says
that the sky was darkened
so that nobody could see.
The sixth vial,
the Euphrates river
is dried up,
the Bible says.
And the sixth trumpet,
it says that the four
angels were loosed
out of the river,
Euphrates.
It makes sense.
I mean,
the river's dried up
and there we're loosed.
It's just the same
and you can put these
side by side
and you can see
these are happening
at the same time.
So God showed us
in Revelation 1 through 11,
He showed us
the wrath of God
being evidenced
in the seven trumpet judgments
and then in 12 through 22,
He shows the exact
same judgments
from the viewpoint
of these 12 vials
of the wrath of God
that are being poured out.
So,
that's all taking place
in chapter 16,
all of the seven vials.
Then we get into
chapter 17 and 18.
17 and 18
is all about one subject,
the mother whore
being judged,
the Roman Catholic Church.
And I preached a whole
sermon on this,
just proving from the Bible,
from Revelation 17,
that the mother whore
is the Roman Catholic Church.
It talks about how
it's a city that's
on seven hills,
which there are only
two cities in the world
that are on seven hills.
One of them is
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
One of them is Rome, Italy.
And obviously
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
is not what it's talking about.
But even if it were,
that's a Roman Catholic city also.
But it's talking about
a city that rules
the world from seven hills.
It talks about how they
use a scarlet color
as their insignia.
It talks about how
they speak great
names of blasphemy,
like calling the Pope Father,
like Saint Hail Mary,
Mother of God,
those kind of blasphemies.
It talks about how
they persecuted the saints
and shed the blood
of the martyrs,
which of course,
the Roman Catholic Church,
the Spanish Inquisition,
and many other persecutions
that they've done
on God's people.
It talks about how,
just on and on.
And if you're honest,
and you read Revelation 17,
you'll know that it's talking
about the Catholic Church
in prophecy.
Chapter 18 talks about
the physical,
political country of Babylon
being destroyed,
which I believe is talking
about the United States.
And that's a whole other
sermon itself.
Because it talks about
a country that does commerce
with the entire world,
a country that's
surrounded by water,
a country that,
and on and on,
it goes on and on.
It talks about this country
in Revelation 18.
Then in Revelation 19,
we have the second coming
of Jesus Christ.
We're still right in line
with the chronology.
The Antichrist,
the interlude there
with the 144,000,
the wrath of God,
being poured out
in seven different ways.
And then we have,
remember last time
we went through the chronology,
the next thing that happened,
Jesus came and set up
His kingdom on the earth.
Well, in chapter number 19,
we have the second coming
of Jesus Christ.
He comes riding on a horse.
He's got the saints with Him.
He's got saved Christians
coming with Him,
returning and setting up
His kingdom on this earth.
In chapter 20,
He sets up the millennium.
You'll see that in the
first four verses.
He sets up the millennial
kingdom on this earth.
Then, that's where
the other one left off.
Remember?
The other one left off
when He was just setting up
His millennial kingdom, right?
And then it stopped
and jumped to a new chronology.
Well, look, I can show you
the exact point
where it left off
if I have it underlined
like I thought I did.
Let me see here.
Let me see if I can find it.
Man, I thought
I underlined everything.
I made a mistake.
Let's see if I can find it
here real quick.
Oh, I know what it was.
The seventh vial.
The seventh trumpet is blown
and they set up
His kingdom.
And the last few words
of chapter 11,
it says there were voices
and lightnings
and thunderings.
And then, boom,
we're into chapter 12.
Well, if you look at when
the seventh vial is poured out,
you have the same thing,
voices, thunderings,
and lightnings.
And so that's all
I was showing you there.
Then, okay,
chapter 20 verses
one through four,
millennial kingdom of Christ.
Chapter 20 verses
eight through the end,
I was talking about
the final judgment of Satan.
He's released out of
the bottomless pit.
He's been bound
for a thousand years.
He's judged.
He's damned to hell.
All the unsaved people
come out of hell
where they've been
for the last thousands
of years.
God judges them
according to their works
and then banishes them
to the lake of fire
for all eternity.
Chapter 21,
we have a new heaven
and a new earth.
The former things
are passed away,
take place,
and in chapters 21 and 22,
we have the perfect heaven
described.
That's the end of the book.
The end.
Now, we saw
a very clear chronology
of what happened
from the beginning
to the end
in Revelation 1 through 11,
Revelation 12 through 22.
Why do people
not know this?
I have no clue.
It's very simple.
It's just very clear.
You can just lay it out.
And if you look at it
that way, you'll understand
if you compare the two
side by side.
Now, I'm going to show you
where it really
gets interesting.
If you look closely
to Matthew 24,
turn to Matthew 24,
I'm going to show you
the exact same
chain of events.
Now, I've made a list here
of a chain of events
that is exactly the same
listed in Revelation 1 through 11,
Revelation 12 through 22,
Matthew 24, Mark 13,
Luke 21, and also some of it
in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
Okay.
I'm going to show you this.
Look, if you would,
in Matthew 24
at verse number 5.
Oh, wait, actually,
look at verse 3,
chapter 24, verse 3,
because I want you to see
what we're talking about.
And as He sat upon
the Mount of Olives,
the disciples came
and they imprivately saying,
Tell us, when shall
these things be?
And what shall be
the sign of Thy coming
and of the end of the world?
So we're learning about
the coming of Jesus Christ,
the end of the world,
they say, Tell us about
the coming of the world.
Okay.
First thing you see,
verse number 5,
For many shall come
in my name, saying,
I am Christ.
Sounds like the Antichrist.
He's coming and saying,
I am Christ.
In Daniel, it talks about
He's going to set Himself up
as God and come and have
people to worship Him
and say that He is God.
Now, number 1,
we see the Antichrist
in verse number 5.
What do we see in number 6?
War.
Remember, isn't that
what we saw?
Wars, people fighting,
conquering.
And then look at this.
I mean, isn't it fascinating
how the Bible is so consistent?
Look at verse number 7.
Famines.
See that halfway down?
Famine.
Wasn't that what happened
when the third seal was opened?
Famines.
Okay.
Nation shall rise up
against nation.
Earthquakes.
They shall deliver you.
Okay, so that,
verse number 7,
corresponds with the
fourth seal being opened
and so forth.
Then,
it says all these things
at the beginning of sorrows.
Then shall they
deliver you up
to be afflicted
and shall kill you
and you shall be hated
of all men
for my name's sake.
See, now you're seeing
a persecution of who?
Christians.
God's people being
persecuted by the Antichrist.
And in this whole
situation it says
and then shall many
be offended and
shall betray one another
and shall hate one another.
Look at verse number 13.
But he that shall endure
unto the end
the same shall be saved.
Now look,
this is a verse that
people who don't
believe the Bible,
people who do not
have the Holy Ghost
inside them because
they're not saved
because they don't
believe in salvation
by grace through faith,
will say,
see, you've got to
endure to the end
in order to be saved.
And they'll just take
this verse totally out
of context of what
we're talking about
and just say,
yep, yeah,
wait, wait, wait,
in order for you to
be saved you can't
just believe on Jesus,
you also have to like
endure to the end,
whatever that means.
All I'm saying here
is because God's
going to save them
out of the mess
that they're in.
And look,
if they don't get
killed then they're
going to be saved
by the time they get
to the end of it.
Very simple to understand.
Anyway, you go,
Don, and it talks about
from verses 14 through 28,
it's talking about
persecution of the believers.
It's talking about
God's people being persecuted.
Then in verse number 29,
look at this and
just read what it says.
Immediately after
the tribulation of
those days
shall the sun be darkened
and the moon shall
not give her light
and the stars shall
fall from heaven
and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken
and then shall appear
the sign of the
Son of Man in heaven
and then shall all
the tribes of the earth mourn.
Remember that's when
they said fall on us?
That's when they said
hide us from the
face of the land.
Remember they were
all mourning?
And then the Son of Man
came in the clouds
of heaven with power
and great glory
and he shall send
his angels with
a great sound of a trumpet
and they shall gather
from the four winds
from one end of the
heaven to the other.
That's the reaping
when he sends his
angel to reap the earth
and they reap it
from one end of
heaven to the other.
Okay, there's
a perfect chronology.
Now let's look
at the chronology.
Let's compare
Matthew 24 with
Revelation 1-11
with Revelation 12-22.
We all saw the
same common denominators.
I wish I could show you
each verse to prove
this to you,
but I think you saw it.
But you'll see,
number one,
we had the first century.
Number two,
we have persecution
of the believers,
the tribulation
and the antichrist,
where the antichrist
is persecuting
God's people,
he's taking over the world,
people are being killed,
people are being murdered.
Then all five accounts
say that there's
an earthquake.
Next thing that happens,
it mentions an earthquake
in this exact order.
All of them in the
exact order say
the sun and the moon
is darkened.
Next.
All of them say
that then the stars
fall like figs
out of a fig tree.
Then the rapture
every time you read it.
Okay.
All five of them have
either whether it's
a great multitude
appearing in heaven,
or whether you have it
recorded as the earth
being reaped,
or whether you have it
as here,
that the Son of Man
is going to gather
from all four winds,
the elect,
a multitude,
the nomadic in number
from every nation
unto heaven.
Then you have
the wrath of God
being poured out
every time,
either whether it's
by seven vials
or seven trumpets.
Then you have
the second coming,
the millennium,
the white throne,
and the new heaven
and the new earth.
Now look,
I have just slaughtered
the sacred cow
of fundamentalism.
I have just taken
the sacred cow
and I have butchered it
upon the altar
of the King James Bible.
Blood is everywhere.
Because I have now
become a heretic
because I don't believe
in the pre-tribulation rapture.
Okay.
Now I'm not in the
Tim LaHaye crowd anymore.
I can't watch
Left Behind videos anymore.
I can't.
You know,
the list goes on and on.
Now,
this is so ridiculous
because it's not found
anywhere in the Bible.
This pre-tribulational rapture
where all of a sudden
we're just going along
living our lives.
We're driving down the road
in our SUV.
We're living in our
three-story house.
We've got our 401k
and then all of a sudden
boom, we're all gone
and then all hell breaks loose.
No, friend.
The Bible says here
that the tribulation,
whenever the Bible
talks about tribulation
it's God's people suffering.
Now, who is the anti-Christ
persecuting if everybody
got raptured?
That's all I want to know.
Who is he causing to
receive the mark of the beast?
Who is he cutting off
the heads of?
Look,
he's persecuting God's people.
And he says,
if you endure this persecution
you're going to be saved.
I'm going to rapture you
and save you out of it
because the Bible says
God has not appointed us
unto wrath
but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so God's not going to
pull out his wrath
on his own people.
That's why he says stop.
I'm not going to pull out
my wrath until I've
sealed up these
144,000 Jews
and until I've removed
God's people before I
damn this earth to hell
and destroy it.
Now,
if you look at
Mark chapter 13
you're going to see
the exact same thing.
And the interesting thing
is the detail
where he says
persecution and tribulation
via the antichrist
against God's people
who ye shall be hated
of all men
for my name's sake.
An earthquake,
sun and moon darkened,
stars falling like
figs out of a fig tree,
some reference to the rapture,
the wrath of God,
the second coming,
the millennium,
the white throne judgment
in the new heaven
and the new earth.
Simple as,
you say,
you know why it's so
complicated?
Because you've been
listening to Tim LaHaye.
You know why it's so
complicated?
God's agenda is a
pre-tribulation rapture
because they said,
there are no signs
to his coming.
He can come any minute now.
Send us your check now.
Put the check in the
mail right now
because the world's
coming to an end
and he might come right now.
Put your hand on the screen
and put your other hand
in your checkbook
and send me a check.
And that's where
this whole thing came from.
The charismatic movement
in the 1800s
brought about this teaching
that the rapture is the
next thing on God's agenda.
Now let me prove it to you
even further from the Bible.
Mark chapter 13.
This is another account
of all of that discourse.
Now listen, Mr. Schofield.
Take your Bible
and get out of here.
I'm trying to talk to people
who have a King James Bible
and they don't need you.
They have the Holy Spirit, okay?
Chapter number 13.
You'll see the same things.
Almost exactly the same.
I'm not going to belabor you.
Verse 13,
And you shall be hated
of all men
for my name's sake,
but he that shall endure
unto the end shall be saved.
Talked about the
abomination of desolation,
the antichrist,
it goes on and on.
But let me show you
some things that are
a little different, okay?
It says right here,
but in those days,
after that tribulation,
wow, isn't that interesting?
Now after the whole seven years,
no, God never called
the whole seven years
the tribulation
in the entire Bible.
That's mankind has said
that there's a
seven year tribulation.
The Bible says
after that tribulation,
which is only, what,
three and a half years long
approximately
in the antichrist in power?
After that tribulation,
it says the sun shall be darkened,
the moon shall be turned to blood,
same exact things were mentioned,
the stars of heaven shall fall,
the powers that are in heaven
shall be shaken,
and then shall they see
the Son of Man
coming in the clouds
with great power and glory.
And then shall he send
his angels and shall gather
together his elect
from the poor winds
from the uttermost part
of the earth
to the uttermost part of heaven.
Look at verse number 29.
So you and like manner,
when you see these come to pass,
these things come to pass,
know ye that it's nigh,
even at the door.
You can look around,
see the antichrist,
see what's going on
and say, man,
it's any time now,
it's coming, the rapture,
good night,
we want to get out of this place.
I can't wait until Jesus comes back.
Now look, verse 32.
But of that day and that hour
knoweth no man.
Nobody knows exactly
when it's going to happen.
Nobody's going to know
by day or hour.
He says,
not even the angels in heaven,
neither the son,
but the father.
Jesus said,
I don't even know
when it's going to happen.
Because while Jesus
was on this earth,
he didn't know everything
because he was born as a baby.
He didn't come out of the womb
and say, hi mom and dad,
how you doing today?
He became a human being.
And so over the course of his life,
he grew in wisdom and in stature
and in favor with God and man.
And he studied the Bible
and he learned the Bible
and obviously God
revealed it to him
and he knew that he was God.
All along he knew that he was God
and that he was Jesus Christ
and he knew the word of God
because he was the word of God
and so forth.
And can we comprehend all that?
No.
But we know that Jesus is saying,
only the father knows
when this exact day and hour
is coming.
Nobody can predict it.
It's not like, you know,
June 6th, 2006.
666.
It's coming.
Just three weeks away.
Put your check on the offering plate
tonight.
Hey, what are you going to spend it on
after June 6th?
Huh?
Give it to me.
I'll use it for God.
Anyway.
Or I'll have fun.
But anyway, the point is,
it says here,
nobody knows when it's
going to happen exactly.
And then look at the last verse.
37, he says,
and this is for all the
dispensationalists out there.
And I'm not one of these
hyper-dispensationalists.
I'm not any kind of dispensationalist
because I believe every word of God
is profitable for doctrine.
And look at this.
This is what the common pre-trib people
who don't use the Bible
to prove their point,
but they just use their tradition
and what they've been taught
and they intimidate other people
into believing what they believe about this.
But they say,
well, that's talking to the Jews.
The Olivet Discord is only talking to the Jews.
It's not talking to Christians.
Well, okay,
let's see if it's just talking to the Jews
when he says that he's going to come
and rapture you halfway through the tribulation,
or not halfway through,
after the tribulation,
after the three and a half years,
halfway through the seven years.
Let's see if he's just talking to the Jews or not.
Verse 37.
And when I say unto you,
I say unto all,
watch.
He's saying,
I'm telling everybody to watch.
He said,
I'm not just talking to you twelve disciples.
I'm talking to all.
Everybody, watch,
because when you see these things happen,
be ready for it,
because it's coming.
Now, look at the last one,
Luke 21.
Luke, chapter 21.
Last account of the Olivet Discourse.
Again,
verse number eight of Luke 21.
The first thing he mentions is the Antichrist.
See that phrase?
I am Christ.
It's going to be people come and say,
I am Christ.
Okay?
It's going to be Antichrist,
the false prophet.
Those are the people that are saying,
I am Christ.
You're going to hear of wars and commotions.
Nations shall rise up against nations.
Same thing.
Earthquake.
Same thing we saw.
Famine.
Same thing.
See how this is perfectly chronological?
Then it says,
in verse number 12,
but before all these,
they shall lay their hands on you,
before the earthquake,
you know,
because this is at the beginning
of the three and a half years,
they're going to lay their hands on you
and persecute you,
delivering you up to the synagogues
and into prisons,
being bought before kings and rulers
for my name's sake,
and it shall turn to you for a testimony,
and on and on and on.
It goes on about you being persecuted.
Verse 17,
you shall be hated of all men
for my name's sake.
Goes on and on and on.
Then it says,
let's see,
let me go down,
I'm just trying to skip through this.
Okay, verse 25,
here's the familiar chromology again.
The sun and in the moon and in the stars
are the signs,
that's them being turned into blood,
men's hearts failing them for fear,
that's the rocks fall on us,
kill us,
we don't want to face the lamb.
So we got men's hearts failing them for fear.
It says,
in verse 28,
the powers of heaven shall be shaken,
there's your earthquake,
and then shall they see the Son of Man,
that's Jesus Christ,
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Now look at this,
this is this verse,
and when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up,
and lift up your heads
for your redemption draweth nigh.
When you see the sun turn dark,
and when you see the moon turn into blood,
and when you see the stars falling out of the sky,
then look up,
because you're about to see Jesus Christ,
you're about to be in the clouds with Jesus.
That's what it's saying.
But isn't the Bible so consistent?
Now let's,
I know we've already slaughtered the cow,
and now we're like just kicking it,
like kicking it dead horse.
Okay, now,
we're going to just like give her another good kick.
And so we're going to turn to first and second Thessalonians.
And nobody taught me any of this,
I just,
I read this in the Bible.
I read this as a child.
And I sat there listening to these preachers,
my whole life,
and playing me little videos of,
if you're listening to this tape,
I've been raptured,
and you need to get saved.
And I just thought,
this is dumb.
It's not true,
this is not what I read in the Bible.
But anyway,
look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
verse number 13.
And I'm getting close to being done,
I told you it was going to be a little bit lengthy sermon,
but it has to be a little long,
it's a complicated subject.
But I think this is helping you,
if you read the book of Revelation now,
you're going to really understand a lot.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
verse 13,
But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also which sleep in Jesus,
will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain
under the coming of the Lord,
if we live through to the rapture,
he's saying,
shall not prevent them which are asleep.
Prevent means go before,
it's an old word.
Shall not prevent them which are asleep,
for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel,
with the trump of God,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
That's the rapture.
Amen, rock, praise the Lord, man.
The rapture, we're going to be caught up together,
the dead, the saved dead people
are going to be risen first,
and we're going to meet them in the clouds.
I heard somebody say they're going to rise first
because they're six feet lower than the rest of us,
so they got to come up
and we'll all meet at the same time.
And so we're going to be caught up together
with Jesus Christ.
Look at this, verse number one of chapter five.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren,
you have no need that I write unto you,
for yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh
as the season night.
Now what is the day of the Lord?
It just said it was the rapture,
we just finished reading
that it was Jesus coming in the clouds
and this and that.
Now look,
see the day of the Lord is two things.
Schofield, you don't believe this,
but just shut up for a minute
and let me talk.
Okay.
Now, the day of the Lord is two things.
It's number one,
the day when God begins to pour out
His wrath on this earth.
The Bible says,
who are you that wait
and look for the day of the Lord?
He says,
for as a destruction from the Almighty
shall it come.
And so you have to read the book of Joel
to get that.
You have to read the book of Habakkuk
to get that.
You have to read the Minor Prophets.
And a lot of these people just read Revelation
and they think they know it all.
But you have to read the whole Bible
a lot of times to understand these things.
And so it's saying in the Old Testament,
the day of the Lord is a destruction
from the Almighty.
So it's two things.
It's number one,
the day that the rapture occurs.
And it's number two,
the day that He starts pouring out
His wrath on this earth.
Pretty simple to understand.
Now look,
your cells know perfectly
that the day of the Lord
so cometh as a thief in the night.
Now here's where the Charismatic
stops reading.
Here's where the Independent
Fundamental Baptist stops reading
and says,
thief, the day of the Lord's coming
is a thief in the night.
You don't know when it's going to happen.
It could happen anytime.
Be ready.
It's a thief in the night.
Look at this.
For when they shall say
peace and safety,
then sudden destruction
cometh upon them,
as travel upon a woman with child
and they shall not escape.
But ye brethren,
this is where they didn't read,
but ye brethren are not in darkness
that that day should overtake you
as a thief.
You are all the children of light
and the children of day.
We're not of the night
nor of darkness.
They're going to come on us
as a thief in the night.
That's the unsaved.
We know what's going on.
We have the Bible.
Hello, does anybody have the Bible?
Are you reading this?
All right.
Baptists, hello.
Therefore, let us not sleep
as do others,
but let us watch.
See the consistency?
How many times he told us to watch.
Watch what, man?
Thought it was going to happen
in the twinkling of an eye any moment.
No, I'm supposed to watch
for these things to happen
and then I'll know it's at hand
even at the door,
as the Bible says.
Then it goes on and talks about
God has not appointed us to wrath
but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if that's not bad enough,
let's look at 2 Thessalonians
because they didn't,
the Thessalonians didn't get it
the first time.
So he's like, look,
let me write to you again.
Okay, you didn't get it.
Let me write 2 Thessalonians
and explain it to you again.
Okay, look at this.
It says in verse,
chapter number two, verse one.
Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and by our gathering together unto Him.
What are we talking about?
The rapture.
Jesus Christ is coming in the clouds,
we're going to be gathered together to Him.
Pretty obvious, right?
That you be not soon shaken in mind
or be troubled,
neither by spirit nor by word
nor by letter as much
as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means.
He's saying,
don't let anybody tell you
that the day of Christ is at hand.
Don't let anybody tell you
this is about to happen.
Look what he's saying.
I mean, he just said it right there.
He says,
let no man deceive you by any means,
for that day shall not come
except there come a falling away first.
That's everybody falling away
from the things of God,
going liberal,
turning away from Jesus Christ,
worshiping the beast, okay.
That there shall come a falling away first
and that man of sin be revealed
the son of perdition.
That's the antichrist.
So before this coming of the Lord
and our gathering together unto Him,
the antichrist is going to come on the scene
who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God,
or that is worshiped,
so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God
showing himself that he is God.
There's your I am Christ.
I am Christ.
He shows himself that he's God,
saying the same thing.
Hey, remember ye not
that when I was yet with you
I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in this time,
for the mystery of iniquity
doth already work,
only he who now letteth will let
until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall the wicked be revealed,
and the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth.
And so the story with the brightness
of his coming, even him who's coming,
is after the working of Satan,
with all powers and signs
and lying wonders.
Now that's talking about the antichrist.
Of course, you remember he had the wonders
where he got the wound and the seal.
And with all the seamfulness
of unrighteousness and then the parish,
because they received not the love
of the truth that they might be saved.
God loved them.
He wanted them to be saved.
They wouldn't receive it.
They wouldn't receive the love
of the truth to be saved.
It says, and for this cause,
God shall send them strong delusion,
everybody looking at your Bible,
2 Thessalonians 2.11.
And for this cause,
God shall send them strong delusion
that they shall believe a lie,
that they all might be damned.
Man, I love the King James Bible.
That they all might be damned
that don't live a good life.
Is that what it says?
No.
That they all might be damned
who don't go to my church.
Is that what it says?
No.
That they all might be damned
who aren't baptized.
Is that what it says?
No.
That they all might be damned
who believe not the truth.
That's who's damned.
And why didn't they believe the truth?
But had pleasure in unrighteousness.
See, part of the reason why
people don't get saved
is because they enjoy sin.
And so, they don't want to believe
that this book is true
because then they have to believe
that sin is wrong.
Because as soon as they believe
that this book is true,
then they believe sin is wrong.
Look at...
I want to show you so much.
It's so late.
I can't even...
John 14.
Jesus...
Philip said,
why did you manifest yourself to us?
Why don't you show yourself to the world?
And he says, listen.
If somebody...
He says...
And I'm all mixed up.
It's a great point.
Believe me.
But it's something about...
It says that like,
whosoever is...
It says a person who does right,
they want to get saved more.
Because a person who lives right
says they want to get saved
so that the light will make manifest
their good works.
But it says,
people who live a really ungodly life,
they don't want to come to the light
because they don't want their deeds
to be reproved.
You know what I mean?
Like, think about this.
Somebody who's a really ungodly person,
try and bring them to church.
They don't want to come to this kind of church
because their deeds are going to be reproved.
We're going to take out the flashlight
of the King James Bible
and shine it all over their sin
and it's going to make them feel like trash.
What they should respond is say,
oh man,
oh wretched man that I am,
and say,
Jesus Christ, would you save me?
I'm trusting you alone.
I believe on you to save me.
But see, what happens is,
a lot of people,
he says,
they're going to be damned.
They will not believe on Jesus Christ
because they love their sin.
And they just love their sin
and they say,
I'm not ready to go to church
and do all that
and give up this and give up that.
And see, that's why we need to tell these people,
hey, you don't have to give up that.
Get saved and then we'll worry about it.
But then sometimes still it's just no.
No.
No, no.
If I walked into church,
then the whole building would collapse on me.
You know, you've heard people say things like that.
But anyway,
that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth.
That's why they're damned
as we went through like 50 verses this morning.
But had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to thanks God always,
I'm sorry,
but we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord,
because God from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit.
And what?
The leaf of the truth.
Whereunto he calleth you by our gospel,
he called you by our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions
which you have been taught,
whether by word or by epistle.
And on and on and on and on and on.
Bottom line,
we've been confused,
we've been hornswoggled,
we've been bamboozled
by people who did not read this book.
They read Scofield,
they read Darby and other commentators,
and they were intimidated by fundamental Baptists
getting up and saying, you know,
if you don't believe the preacher of rapture,
you're a heretic.
Well, you know what?
Then I'm a heretic
because I don't believe it
because it's not in the Bible.
And so call me whatever you want,
but I believe the Bible.
And I just prove to you from the Bible
beyond a shadow of doubt
a perfect chronology of,
let me just go through it one more time,
just get it in your mind.
Persecution and tribulation via the rapture,
earthquake, sun and moon darkened,
stars fall like figs out of a fig tree,
the rapture occurs,
God pours out his wrath,
the second coming,
the millennial reign of Christ,
the great white throne judgment,
and the new heaven and the earth.
Remember, Revelation 1 through 11,
Revelation 12 through 22,
I mean, he cut it in half,
he couldn't have made it much simpler.
It's pretty obvious.
And then three accounts
in the three other Gospels
besides John,
and then first and second Thessalonians
goes through it in detail.
Study more on your own time
because I couldn't do it justice
in an hour of preaching
or however long it's been.
I can't do it justice in that amount of time.
I'm just trying to give you a framework
of the chronology.
Now you can fill in all the pieces
and learn about it
so that you can watch.
But number one,
don't be one of these people
that studies prophecy all day,
gets all hung up about all this stuff.
Hey, listen, man,
the prophecy that I'm worried about
is the people that are going to be damned
because they believe not the truth.
So I'm going to be a soul winner.
That's what I'm going to do.
I'm not going to spend my time
with my nose in some book all day
except if it's the King James Bible.
I'll bury my nose in this book all day long
and then I'll go out and preach it
to the lost and dying world
and get people saved.
These are the prophecies
you need to worry about.
There's a heaven and there's a hell.
Let's get people to heaven.
Let's get people out of hell
and let's not have this idea,
oh, let America go to hell,
like Brother McCoy was saying yesterday.
We're all going to be raptured
out of here anyway.
Let's let it all go to hell.
No, no, let's fight it, man,
because I want to have an America for my kids.
We don't know when it's going to happen.
It could happen in a couple of years.
It could happen in a hundred years.
It could happen in a thousand years.
But either way,
I want to fight to keep this country
alive and kicking.
And God said if my people,
which are called by my name,
will humble themselves
and pray and see God's face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.
It's God's people's responsibility
to save this nation,
and we can do it.
If we will turn from our wicked days,
humble ourselves and say,
we're going to live for God.
We're going to fight.
We're going to be a sole winner.
We're going to get in the battle.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much
for the word of God.
I'm so glad that I don't have to rely
on some pope or some priest
to tell me what I believe.