Alright, well let's take our Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 6.
You're definitely going to want to follow along in your Bible.
Revelation chapter number 6, and I'm just going to start out by reading the whole chapter.
You can just follow along silently as I read in Revelation chapter number 6, last book
of the Bible, chapter number 6, starting in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise
of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
And I saw and behold 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.
And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat there
on to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another.
And there was given unto him a great sword.
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.
And I beheld in lo a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny,
and three measures of barley for a penny, and see, thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come
and see.
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse.
And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
And power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword and
with hunger and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with the loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou
not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
And white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them that they
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren
that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and though there was a great earthquake,
and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars
of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is
shaken of a mighty wind.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and
island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains,
and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens
and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and
hide us from the face of him 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?
Let's open up in a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we especially thank you now for
the book of Revelation that reveals unto us things that will be happening in the last
days.
And Father, I just pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit as I preach and help
every single person who's here to listen carefully and to also be filled with the Spirit, Lord,
that we could learn what you would have for us from your word today, and in Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.
So keep your finger in Revelation 6 and go to Matthew chapter 24, because we're going
to go between these two chapters in Matthew 24 and Revelation chapter 6.
Let me just start out by explaining to you what Matthew 24 is.
This is a time when Jesus spends a whole chapter talking about the end of the world and talking
about his second coming to this earth.
You know, the Bible's really clear that there's going to be a second coming of Jesus Christ,
and that's what this chapter talks about.
And this information in Matthew 24 is so important that it's also found in Mark 13, the whole
chapter, and it's also found in Luke 21, the entire chapter.
So Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three of them spend a whole chapter showing Jesus' teaching
on this important subject.
Now the only gospel that it's not found in is the Gospel of John, but that's because
John taught about it in Revelation.
So all four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, give us this important information.
And this information is more important today than it's ever been, the Bible says, as we
see the day approaching.
This is closer than it was yesterday.
And so we in the last days need to know the teachings of Matthew chapter 24.
Now let's start out in verse number 1 of Matthew 24.
It says, And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him
for to show him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall
not be thrown down.
And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying,
Tell us, when shall these things be?
And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?
So I want to point out those two phrases there, thy coming, talking about the second
coming of Jesus Christ, and the end of the world.
That's what we're going to be talking about in this passage.
Now look at the next verse, Jesus begins to answer.
It says in verse 4, And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive
you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.
So the first thing that I want to point out is that there are going to be people who impersonate
the second coming of Jesus Christ.
People who claim to be the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now this person that comes and pretends to be Jesus Christ is commonly known as the Antichrist.
And that word Antichrist literally means in the place of Christ.
That's what that word means.
Coming as a substitute, pretending to be the second coming of Christ.
But not only that, the Bible says that many people will do that.
That's why the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2, Little children, it is the last time.
And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, talking about singular, Antichrist
shall come.
He said, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time.
Even today there are people who have great followers.
I know there's one in Russia, there's one in South America, all over the world people
are popping up and claiming to be the second coming of Jesus Christ and amassing great
followers unto them.
But not only are there many people that are Antichrists, there's going to be one great
Antichrist that will literally rule over the entire world, the Bible teaches.
That all nations will worship him and will believe that he is the second coming of Jesus
Christ.
Now flip back to Revelation 6 because I want to compare these two passages.
What I want to show you is that Revelation 6 goes through the exact same events as Matthew
24.
So the first thing that Matthew 24 brought up, Jesus said that many shall come in my
name saying, I am Christ.
Let's go to Revelation chapter 6 and see what it teaches.
It says in verse number 1, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard
as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see, watch this,
and I saw, and behold, 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.
So when the first seal is opened in Revelation, the first event that we see of the tribulation
is that a guy goes out on a white horse to conquer.
Now let's go back to Matthew 24, keep your finger in Revelation 6.
The next thing we see in Matthew 24, after verse 5 where it says, For many shall come
in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many, it says, And ye shall hear of
wars and rumors of wars.
See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not
yet.
Okay, flip back to Revelation 6.
And in Revelation 6, when he opens the second seal in verse 3, I heard the second beast
say, Come and see, Revelation 6.4, And there went out another horse that was red, and power
was given to him that sat thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that they should
kill one another, and there was given unto him a great sword.
So what do we see here?
The same thing is in Matthew 24.
We started out in Matthew 24 with false Christs.
Then we have warfare.
Well, when we go to Revelation 6, we see a guy coming on a white horse to conquer.
That's the Antichrist.
He's pretending to be Jesus.
That's why he's coming in on a white horse.
And then secondly, we see the same thing, warfare.
He said, Peace is taken from the earth, and that they should kill one another, a great
world war.
Okay, back in Matthew 24, let's see what's next.
It says in verse number 7, For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,
and there shall be famines.
Okay, so that's the third thing.
So number 1, we have the Antichrist going out to conquer.
Number 2, we have wars.
And then number 3, we have famine.
Now what is a famine?
A famine is when people don't have enough food to eat.
They're starving.
There's not enough food to go around.
And whenever there's not enough of something to go around, what happens to the price of
that item?
It's going to go up, right?
I mean, if there's very little food around, you're going to have to pay a lot of money
to get that food because it's a scarce resource.
Look at Revelation 6, and that's exactly what we're going to see with the third seal.
Look at verse number 5.
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.
And I beheld and lo, a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in
his hand.
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny,
and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
You say, what does that mean, Pastor Anderson, a measure of wheat for a penny and so forth?
We have to understand that the penny of the Bible is different than the penny that we
have today.
You know, we pull out a penny.
You can't buy anything with a penny, it's worthless.
But in the Bible, there's a story about some guys who go out and labor in a vineyard all
day in the book of Matthew, and they work for 12 hours in the heat of the day, and they
get paid a penny for that.
And that was what they had agreed to be paid.
So that tells us that the biblical amount of money known as a penny is a day's wages
for an unskilled laborer out in the field.
So if you think about it, what would an unskilled laborer get paid to go work in a field for
12 hours?
Maybe about 100 bucks, $150, something like that, to put in a 12-hour day of hard labor.
So what the Bible is saying here in Revelation 6 is that a measure of wheat is costing something
like 100 bucks or 150 bucks, a day's wages.
Imagine going out and working in a field all day for 12 hours so that you could buy one
measure of wheat, just to buy some wheat, just to buy some flour.
So this is talking about very expensive food.
That's the point that's being made.
So that is talking about famine.
So with the first seal, we have the Antichrist going out on a white horse.
With the second seal, we have warfare.
With the third seal, we have famine, expensive food.
People don't have enough to eat.
That's exactly what's going on in Matthew 24.
So let's go back to Matthew 24 and see what's next.
Verse number seven, nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
That was the warfare of the second seal.
He says, there shall be famine.
That's your third seal, where the food is expensive.
And then it says, and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places.
Now pestilence is disease.
So these famines, these pestilence, these diseases, these are all leading to people
dying at a massive rate.
These are sorrows.
The Bible says in verse eight, all these are the beginning of sorrows.
So this is going to be a terrible time on the earth.
Go back to Revelation chapter six, and let's look at the fourth seal.
Because we're comparing the two, Revelation six and Matthew 24, and they're teaching the
same thing.
Look at verse number seven, it says, and when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the
voice of the fourth beast say, come and see.
And I looked and behold a pale horse.
And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him.
And power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with
hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth.
So it's exactly what we saw in Matthew 24.
There were going to be a lot of people dying because of warfare, because of famine, and
because of disease, pestilence, earthquakes, other things that are causing death.
Keep reading there in Revelation six, look at verse nine, we're going to see the fifth
seal.
When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain
for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
So that fifth seal is people being killed for the cause of Jesus Christ.
These are people that are being put to death because they believe on Jesus Christ and preach
the name of Jesus Christ.
Let's see if Matthew 24 teaches the same thing.
Back to Matthew 24, right after the war, the famine, the pestilence, look what it says
in verse nine.
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of
all nations for my name's sake.
So we see it's the exact same thing, isn't it, that's being taught in Matthew 24 and
Revelation six, same order.
You got the antichrist, you got warfare, you got famine.
You got a lot of people dying of disease and all different means and then you have
people being martyred or killed for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It all fits in the exact same order.
Let's keep reading there in Matthew 24.
It says in verse 10, and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and
shall hate one another and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many and because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
So the Bible's talking about just a terrible time on this earth and this time is known
as the tribulation.
And this time of tribulation is a time of warfare, starvation, disease, earthquakes,
all these terrible things that are going to be happening upon the earth.
Look at verse 21.
It says for then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time no nor ever shall be.
So in the past there have been great wars, there have been great famines and pestilences,
but the Bible teaches that this will be worse than anything that has ever happened on the
face of this earth.
It's going to be a terrible time.
Now there's a verse in this chapter that's often misunderstood in Matthew 24 because
it says in verse 13, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
A lot of people misunderstand this verse and they think, oh well in order to go to heaven
you have to endure to the end, you know, to be saved.
But this is actually not talking about being saved in the sense of going to heaven when
you die.
Actually if you look down just a few verses to verse 22 it explains what that verse means
because in verse 22 it says except those days, what days are we talking about?
The days of the tribulation.
It says except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved, but for the
elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Now notice it says that the days of the tribulation are going to be shortened and that if they
weren't no flesh would be saved.
But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Now who are the elect?
Well the elect are those that are saved.
God's people are elect.
One of the most famous passages in the Bible about the love of God in Romans 8 says who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifieth.
So the Bible teaches that those who are elect or chosen are the ones who are justified by
the name of the Lord Jesus.
So the Bible is teaching here that for the sake of those who are saved, for the sake
of the elect, the days of the tribulation will be shortened.
And he said if they weren't shortened then no flesh would be saved.
And the reason I want to emphasize that word flesh there is because this isn't talking
about spiritual salvation of your soul being saved.
What this is teaching is that people, their flesh will be saved, meaning their physical
life will be spared.
Because those who are Christians, those who are saved, if you remember just a few verses
earlier, what did he say in verse 9?
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you.
So if Christians are being killed for the cause of Christ and they're being persecuted
and they're being hated in all nations, the Bible says that people will deliver up even
their own brothers and sisters to death during this horrible time.
How could any flesh be saved?
How could any Christian survive?
Because the days will be shortened, the Bible says, meaning that Christ will come back in
the midst of this, okay?
Now the reason that's important is because a lot of people will take verse 13 and they'll
say, well, when it says he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.
They'll try to say that if you don't live a Christian life that endures to the end,
if you don't stay in church and keep living a good life, you know, you're not going to
be saved.
The Bible's real clear that being saved is by faith in Jesus, not by our works.
It's not by our deeds.
The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
You see, we're not saved by enduring to the end or doing good deeds or working hard or
joining a church.
No, the Bible says it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his
mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
It's the blood of Jesus Christ that saves us.
It's not our works.
The Bible says our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
The Bible says as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
See, the word grace means you're getting something that you don't deserve, and that's why the
Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That gift was paid for by Jesus with his death, burial, and resurrection, and all we have
to do is receive that gift by believing in Jesus.
And once we believe in Jesus, the Bible says that we are sealed unto the day of redemption.
The Bible says that we are secure and sealed, and Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
So once you are saved, once you're in Christ, there's nothing that can separate us from
the love of God.
There's nothing that will make him leave us or forsake us.
We are eternally saved and secure.
Now, when the Bible says here that he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall
be saved, you got to get the context because it says their flesh shall be saved.
If the days weren't shortened, then no flesh would be saved.
And what that's saying is that if you survive, if you can endure all the hardships, if you
endure the warfare, if you can endure the famines and the persecution and survive and
make it unto the end, you're going to be rescued out of this because the Bible teaches that
the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come in the clouds, right?
And the Bible says that we which are alive and remain, those of us who have endured and
survived, the Bible says that we'll be caught up together with him in the clouds.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
So let's go ahead and stay with the order of events here.
Let's go back to Revelation 6, because remember, we're going to keep our finger in Matthew
24 and Revelation 6.
Those are the two chapters, Matthew 24 and Revelation 6, because they both teach the
same exact thing, okay?
Number one, we've got the Antichrist is going to come to conquer.
Number two, you're going to have a world war.
The whole world's going to be at war.
The Bible says peace will be taken from the earth and that they should kill one another.
Now, a question that people often ask me is, are we already in the tribulation?
People say, is this the tribulation?
Has it already started?
Are we already in the tribulation?
But the answer is no, because one of the first thing that happens in the great tribulation
is a world war.
We're not in a world war right now, are we?
And the Bible says that when the first seal is opened, the Antichrist goes to conquer.
When the second seal is opened, there's a world war.
Third seal, there's a great famine.
Fourth seal, there's pestilence and people are dying because of earthquakes and other
natural causes.
Then with the fifth seal, the Bible says Christians are going to be delivered up to be killed
and to be martyred for the cause of Christ.
Let's pick up where we left off in verse 10 of Revelation 6.
And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
And white robes were given unto every one of them.
And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow
servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake,
and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became his blood.
So let's come back to that with that sixth seal.
After this great tribulation and persecution, after Christians are being delivered up to
be killed and hated of all nations and persecuted for their faith in Jesus, after that the Bible
said that when the sixth seal was opened, the sun and moon would be darkened, okay?
And they would not give their light.
And then it said that the stars would fall from heaven like a fig tree if you shook the
fig tree and the figs would start falling out of the tree.
He said stars are going to be falling from the sky like figs out of a fig tree.
Now that's got to be a pretty major event, isn't it?
When both sun and moon are darkened and stars are falling from the sky like figs out of
a fig tree, this is a major event that's prophesied all throughout the Bible.
Let's find it in Matthew 24, because that should come next in Matthew 24, since we're
following the same sequence.
Let's go ahead and pick up where we left off in Matthew 24.
It says in verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.
And thank God that the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached in
all nations today.
It has been preached in all nations.
It's been translated into all languages of the world.
And the Bible says, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of
by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand.
Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains, neither let him which is on
the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is
in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child unto
them that give suck in those days.
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day, for then
shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time
no one ever shall be.
Verse 22, and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.
But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Even if any man say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not, for there
shall rise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch
that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.
Now let me point out to you that the Bible says that these false prophets and false Christs
that will perform miracles, they will be so convincing that if it were possible they shall
deceive the very elect.
But you know what that's telling us is that it's not possible because he's saying if it
were possible the elect would be deceived.
But it's not possible because the Bible teaches that those who are truly saved, those who
have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, will not be deceived by the Antichrist.
They won't fall for him.
So when the Antichrist shows up on the scene and declares himself to be the second coming
of Jesus, those who are saved will not be deceived.
He'll be so convincing that it would even deceive the elect, but God's elect will not
be deceived because the Holy Spirit, the Bible teaches, will guide us into all truth.
And when we hear the Antichrist speaking, we're going to know this is not Jesus.
This is not.
You know why?
Because Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.
And he said, a stranger will they not follow.
They will flee from the stranger, for they know not the voice of strangers.
And you know, when we hear a false prophet speaking, and when we hear somebody speaking
and claiming to be Jesus, and they're not, the Holy Spirit manifests himself to us.
And he bears witness and says, hey, this is not the voice of the shepherd.
And I can't tell you how many times when I was a kid.
And when I was a kid, I didn't know the Bible very well because I was just a child.
And I had not read the whole Bible cover to cover.
And so there were so many times when a preacher would say something.
And just something inside me just told me, you know what, that isn't right.
There's something not right about that.
And I didn't really know why.
But it was the voice of the shepherd.
And I could tell, wait a minute, this is the voice of a stranger that I'm listening to.
And that's what the Bible teaches.
So the elect are not going to be deceived.
Now here's what's funny.
A lot of people will try to say that the elect is not Christians.
They'll try to say, well, the elect is Jews.
That's what it's referring to.
It says the word elect, it's referring to the Jews.
But let me ask you this.
Are the Jews deceived today?
Well let me ask you this.
Do the Jews believe in Jesus?
No.
I mean if you talk to the Jews today and they follow the religion of Judaism, they will
tell you that the Messiah is still coming and that Jesus was not the Messiah.
In fact, they say all kinds of horrible, blasphemous things about Jesus.
They actually say that he was born out of wedlock and that he was born of fornication.
They don't believe that he was born of a virgin.
And they don't believe that he died and was buried and rose again from the dead.
They don't believe he's the savior of the world.
So therefore, the rabbis who speak unto them, the Jewish rabbis, are deceivers.
Because if a rabbi gets up and tells people, hey, Jesus is not the Messiah, he's lying.
And the Bible says, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ.
He's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son.
And so if the Jews today do not confess the Father and the Son, they're deceived.
If they don't believe in Jesus, they're deceived.
Because there's none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.
And the Bible says, he that believeth on the Son, the Son is Jesus, he that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life.
And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.
And that doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile.
That doesn't matter whether you're red, yellow, black, white.
If you do not believe on the Son of God, you're not saved.
If you don't believe in the Son of God, you're not elect.
If you don't believe in the Son of God and you get up and call yourself a religious leader
and you don't believe in Jesus, you're a false prophet at that point when you're preaching
salvation other than through the name of Jesus.
Well the Bible says here that the elect shall not be deceived.
Well that proves that we're talking about believers there.
Because the reason they're not going to be deceived is because of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, okay?
Whereas the Jews, they're already deceived because they are following all kinds of rabbis
and false teachers that don't confess Jesus.
Let's keep reading here.
It says, behold I've told you before, verse 25, wherefore if they say unto you, behold
he's in the desert, go not forth.
Behold he's in the secret chambers, believe it not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be.
So what the Bible's telling us is that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, you won't
have to wonder about it.
You won't have to sit there and say, I don't know, is this really him?
Is this really it?
Because the Bible says that the whole sky will light up from one end of the heaven to
the other.
And if anybody tries to convince you, oh this guy is the second coming of Jesus or this
guy is Jesus, don't believe them.
Because he says, you will have no doubt.
If you have to ask yourself, is this Jesus?
Then it's not.
Because when it's him, he's going to come in the sky and the whole thing's going to
light up and you won't have to believe anybody.
There he is.
So what does the Bible say here in verse 28?
For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the moon
shall not give her light.
So isn't that exactly what we saw over in Revelation chapter 6?
Sun and moon darkened and stars falling.
It says the sun and moon shall be darkened and the stars shall not give her light and
the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
So if we look at that verse, the Bible's very clear that the sun and moon are darkened
after the tribulation.
So first we have this period of great tribulation and what did that tribulation incur?
Seal number one was the antichrist going forth to conquer.
Seal number two, warfare, world war.
Seal number three was famine, people are starving.
Seal number four, people are dying of disease and earthquakes and things like that.
Seal number five was a persecution of Christians, a persecution of God's people.
People being killed for the cause of Christ.
That is the tribulation.
That's what the great tribulation consists of.
It consists of famine, it consists of war, and it consists of persecution of God's people.
Let me ask you this though, is that God?
Is that God pouring out his wrath on this earth?
Any of those things?
No.
Because let me ask you this, who's behind persecuting Christians?
God or the devil?
The devil.
So when we look at this event of the antichrist going out to conquer, who's behind that?
God or the devil?
The devil.
Obviously it's the devil that's behind the antichrist.
The Bible says of the antichrist, the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great
authority.
So the devil is behind the antichrist.
That's where the antichrist gets his power.
So if we look at the second seal with warfare, who's behind that?
Do you think that God wants us all to be at war in this world?
Do you think God loves warfare and he wants the whole world to be at war?
No, we've gone through some horrible world wars in the 20th century, right?
World War I, tens of millions of people died.
World War II, 50 to 70 million people died.
Think about all the suffering in World War II.
All the wives who didn't have a husband anymore and all the children whose dad died in World
War II.
And think about all the people who starved to death.
You see all those pictures from World War II of people that are so skinny because they're
starving.
And all the people that have been killed and injured and maimed and it's because of sin.
The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all evil.
And the Bible says, from whence come wars and fightings among you?
From they not hence even from your lusts that war in your members.
You kill and desire to have.
You fight in war, yet you have not because you ask not.
Warfare is a bad thing.
People are dying, people are injured, people, families are ruined, people are, you know,
lose limbs and so forth.
And you know, the devil loves warfare, okay?
And that's why there's so much warfare in the world today and so many people trying
to fight to steal somebody's land or trying to make other people into slaves and take
their natural resources, take their money.
I mean, warfare is not something that God wants us to participate in where we're just
all killing each other and the whole world's fighting and at war.
That's of the devil, okay?
Famine.
What's causing the famine in the third seal?
It's not God causing the famine.
It's the sin of mankind.
It's all the warfare.
Whenever you have a war, you end up rationing food.
Every time there's a warfare, they have to, you know, be lean on supplies back in the
home front.
And then with the fourth seal, disease, earthquakes, wars, famine, he just said people are just
going to die from a multitude of causes, okay?
But here's the thing.
We have earthquakes today.
That's not really a supernatural pouring out of God's wrath.
That's not fire and brimstone from heaven.
That's something that we experience even now.
These are just natural disasters, earthquakes, tidal waves, things of that nature.
But then when we get to the fifth seal, we have Christians being killed for the cause
of Christ.
Who's behind that?
Obviously the devil, right?
So so far when we look at the events of the tribulation, when we read Jesus describe the
tribulation and he said this is the great tribulation, none of it is God supernaturally
pouring out his wrath on this earth.
All of it is pretty much manmade.
It's war, it's famine, it's the antichrist, it's persecution of believers, it's all a
bunch of manmade things.
But then after the tribulation, everybody look down at your Bible there in Matthew 24
verse 29, but then it says after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and
the moon shall not give her light.
Now who's doing that?
This is God now, okay?
So basically God steps in now after the tribulation is over and he darkens the sun and moon and
the stars fall from heaven and look what the Bible says in verse 30, and then shall appear
the sign of the son of man in heaven, the son of man is Jesus, that's what he called
himself while he was on this earth, and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in
heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Now what does it mean to mourn?
Mourning is what you do at a funeral, right?
Mourning is crying, weeping, they're sad.
Now let me ask you this, why are all the tribes of the earth weeping and mourning and sad
when they see Jesus Christ coming in the clouds?
Why?
Because they're not saved.
Now let me just point out to you in Revelation 6, flip over to Revelation 6.
Revelation chapter number 6, because remember, everything in Revelation 6 is lining up perfectly
with Matthew 24.
It tells the same story.
So with that sixth seal, we see the sun and moon being darkened.
Let's see if we can find the mourning from Matthew 24.
It says in verse 12, and I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal and lo, there was
a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as
blood and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree cast at their untimely
figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed as a scroll when it
is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and
the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the
mighty men and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the
rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the
face of him 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.
Let me ask you something.
Are these people happy to see Jesus?
No way.
These people, when they see Jesus coming in the clouds, they are hiding and they wish
that the mountains and rocks would fall on them to hide them from the face of him that
sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.
Who's the lamb?
Jesus.
Behold, the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
So when these people see Jesus Christ coming in the clouds of heaven, they're not happy
to see him.
They're mourning, the Bible said in Matthew 24.
They're crying.
They're scared is what they are and they're saying to the mountains and rocks, fall on
us and hide us from the wrath of the lamb.
Now what does wrath mean?
Wrath is extreme anger, intense anger.
They don't want to be punished by Jesus.
They don't want the wrath and punishment that the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing.
Now back to Matthew 24.
It said in Matthew 24 verse number 30, then shall appear the sign of the son of man in
heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Notice they're not rejoicing.
They're mourning and they're not happy to see him.
They're trying to hide from him.
They're scared of being punished by him.
And then look what it says in verse 31, and he shall send his angels with a great sound
of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end
of heaven to the other.
Now what the Bible is saying here is that the elect, God's people, those who are saved,
are going to be gathered at that time.
The trumpet's going to sound and they're all going to be gathered together.
Now look, the tribes of the earth are mourning.
The rich men and the bond men and the free men and the chief captains and the mighty
men, all the worldly, unsaved people of this world, they are mourning because they know
that they're about to experience the wrath of Jesus Christ.
But God's people are excited.
I mean, it's a glorious day for us.
In fact, flip over to Luke 21.
Keep your finger there in Matthew 24 and look over to Luke 21.
Because when that trumpet sounds, the elect will be gathered from the four winds from
one end of heaven to the other.
Luke 21 is where we're going.
Because remember, Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are the three chapters that teach
all this same thing.
Look at Luke chapter 21 and it's worded just a little bit differently.
It says in verse 25, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars.
Does that sound familiar?
And upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring,
men's hearts failing them for fear.
Now doesn't that sound like those guys who are hiding in the rocks and they're scared?
It says men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are
coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
That's exactly the wording used in Revelation 6.
The powers of heaven shall be shaken, Matthew 24.
It's all used there.
And then it says, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great
power and glory and when these things, watch this, when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.
Now what's interesting is that in Luke 21 it says, your redemption draweth nigh, and
then he talks about the fig tree.
In Matthew 24, he says he'll gather the elect from the four winds and then talks about the
fig tree.
Why?
Because when he says that he's going to gather the elect from the four winds, that's the
same as when he says, look up for your redemption draweth nigh.
Now think about what this is saying.
If this happens in our lifetime, we don't know when this is going to happen.
The Bible doesn't tell, and anybody who tries to predict the date is a false prophet because
the Bible tells us, of that day and hour knoweth no man, know not the angels in heaven
but my Father only.
And people will say, hey, it's going to happen in 2015, or hey, it's going to happen in 2017.
You should never listen to those people because they've always been proven to be false because
the Bible says at such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh.
It's not going to be a day that anybody predicts.
We don't know when this is going to happen.
This could happen in our lifetime.
This could happen 100 years from now.
We don't know when it's going to happen.
Now I personally think that it will probably happen in my lifetime just because we see
a lot of the signs of the times and we see the stage being set.
And the Bible said that in the days of the second coming of Christ, it would be like
it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And we're seeing Sodom and Gomorrah begin to abound around us in the United States.
He also talks about how nobody will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast.
Well, we can see that technology in place where you don't really use cash as much anymore.
You just scan your hand.
It would just brrr, whereas people in the past might not have been able to picture that.
So when we look at this event, if it were to happen in our lifetime, what is it going
to look like?
We don't know if this could start happening in a few years.
We have no idea.
But let's say it started happening in our lifetime.
What would it look like?
The first thing we would see is basically this great world war.
And then we'd see famines and we'd see all the suffering and warfare.
We wouldn't really know for sure that it's it until we see that abomination of desolation,
which is where the Antichrist sits in the temple of God and declares himself to be God
and sets up a great image for people to worship.
But after all the persecution, after all the warfare and the famines and the earthquakes,
the Bible says that the signal that you're looking for, the sign that you look for, is
when the sun and moon are darkened and the stars fall.
Nobody's going to miss that.
I mean, think about it.
You could look at warfare and say, like, I don't know, is this it?
You could see famine and say, I don't know, is this it?
You could see disease and say, I don't know, is this really the end, though?
But when the sun and moon are darkened and the stars are falling from the heaven, that's
when you know this is it.
And then when the Bible says, when you see that, when you see those things begin to come
to pass, the sun and moon darken and the stars fall, he said, look up.
Then look up for your redemption draweth nigh.
Now this is going to be the greatest day of our lives.
Those of us that are alive and remain unto this, this is going to be the most exciting
day.
And think about it.
If we've made it to that point, we'll have already gone through a lot of these hardships
of warfare and famine and suffering, persecution.
And think about how exciting it's going to be when you're in the midst of all this persecution
and trials and trouble that all of a sudden you see, boom, the sun and moon are darkened
and you see the stars falling.
Just imagine how excited you're going to be.
This is it.
We made it.
We endured to the end.
We survived.
And you're going to look up and you're going to be looking for what?
Jesus in the clouds.
And when you look up, he says, lift up your heads.
And you know, lifting up your head in the Bible too has to do with being of good cheer
also.
You know, because when people have a bad spirit, you know, they're depressed, the Bible says,
lift up your head.
Your redemption draweth nigh.
So isn't it interesting that this day when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds, the second
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the world, it's the worst day ever.
They're mourning.
They wish they were dead.
I mean, when you're saying to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us, I mean,
they are wishing for death.
I mean, this is the worst day.
They're mourning.
They're weeping.
And then we as Christians are going to be like, woo, glory.
You know, we're going to be excited.
I mean, our redemption draweth nigh.
This is the greatest day ever.
We're about to be caught up in the clouds with Jesus.
We're about to go to heaven to be with the Lord and to ever be with the Lord.
I mean, this is going to be the greatest day.
What a privilege if we could be alive when this happens.
Wouldn't it be great to be in that generation?
Because the Bible says we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in
twinkling of an eye.
So he's saying that those of us that are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord, we're
going to be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye.
We're going to be caught up together with Jesus.
How exciting.
Now the Bible says a few verses down.
Let's go back to Matthew 24 where we were, Matthew chapter 24.
But in Matthew chapter 24, when we finish up talking about Jesus gathering the elect
with the sound of the trumpet and so forth, look at verse number 36.
It says, but of that day and hour knoweth no man.
Know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
So the Bible says no man knows the day or the hour when this will take place.
Only the Father knows.
But here's what a lot of people will do to misinterpret this verse.
They'll take this verse that says no man knows the day or the hour, and they'll say it could
happen today.
Now here's the thing.
The reason we know that it's not going to happen today is the fact that the Bible says
it's going to happen after the tribulation, and the tribulation hasn't happened yet.
So in order for it to happen today or at any moment, then the tribulation would have had
to have happened, which has not happened.
And if the sun and moon have not been darkened and the stars haven't fallen, it's not going
to happen because the Bible says that the sun and moon will be darkened after the tribulation,
and then will they see Jesus come in the clouds and the trumpet sound and the elect gathered
together.
That's when we look up and our redemption draws nigh, okay?
A lot of people say, oh, it can happen at any moment, even today.
But I'm sorry, it's not going to happen today because these other things have to happen
first.
It's sort of like this.
If I said to you, I'm going to come up and visit you in Winslow, Arizona.
I'm going to come up and visit you sometime after the summer's over.
I'm real busy all summer, but after the summer's over, I'm going to come visit you up here.
But you don't really know when I'm visiting, do you?
Because I'm not giving you a day or an hour.
I'm not giving you a time.
I'm just saying, look, I don't know when I'm going to come to Winslow, but it's going to
be sometime after the summertime.
I'm going to come up there, okay?
Now wouldn't it be silly if I told you that and then you went around saying in April,
he might come today.
He's coming today.
And in May, you're saying, he's coming today.
This could be the day.
It's like, well, wait a minute.
You say he's coming after summer.
Now it would make sense when you get into September to start saying, this could be the
day, you know, in October to say, this could be the day.
But it makes zero sense to say it in April, May, June, July, because I clearly said I'm
coming after summer.
So here's the thing.
Just because you don't know the day or the hour doesn't mean it's happening today because
he clearly said that it happens after the tribulation of those days.
Then Jesus Christ will come in the clouds.
Now let's keep reading here because this is an important part of Matthew 24.
It says in verse 36, but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven,
but my father only.
But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the son of man be.
For as in the days that they were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until
the flood came and took them all away.
So shall also the coming of the son of man be.
Then shall two be in the field.
The one shall be taken and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill.
The one shall be taken and the other left.
Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Flip over to Revelation chapter 6 where we were.
Revelation 6.
So just to get a timeline, we have the tribulation which involves a lot of suffering, famine,
pestilence, warfare, and mainly persecution of Christians.
After that tribulation, the sun and moon are darkened.
Then Jesus comes in the clouds with the sound of a trumpet and the believers, the saved,
are caught up into the clouds with him to meet the Lord in the air.
So the question is what happens next?
You know after the believers are caught up to be with the Lord, what comes next?
Well Matthew 24 compared it to Noah and he said it was like when Noah, the day he entered
into the ark, what happened the day that Noah entered into the ark?
It began to rain and what did that rain do?
It was judgment.
It was wrath from the Lord to actually punish the people living on the earth and he actually
wiped out the entire world with a flood, didn't he?
Okay.
Well here's the thing.
The Bible also says that the second coming of Jesus Christ will be like unto the days
of Lot and the Bible says that the same day Lot left Sodom that God rained fire and brimstone
from heaven, right?
So think about this.
In Noah's day, Noah was saved from the punishment.
So he was taken into the ark for safety and the ark only had one door because Jesus said
I am the door.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
So Noah gets onto the ark in safety and the same day Noah got on the ark, it started raining
and the punishment from God came.
And then with Sodom and Gomorrah, the same day Lot was brought out of Sodom was the same
day that God's punishment came when he rained fire and brimstone.
That's exactly what's going to happen when Jesus Christ comes back, the same thing.
After we are raptured, after we are caught up in the clouds and brought to be with the
Lord, then God's going to pour out his wrath on this earth.
God's going to rain fire and brimstone just like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Let me prove it to you in the Bible in Revelation 6 because in Revelation 6, we see the sun
and moon darkened, we see the weeping and wailing.
So in chapter 7, in chapter 7 we should see the rapture come next because if we just finished
up with the tribulation, sun and moon being darkened, and if the Bible said after that
Jesus would gather the elect, then we should find the rapture in chapter 7 as the next
thing, shouldn't we?
Let's see if we can find the rapture in chapter 7.
It says in verse 1, and after these things, so after the sun and moon darkened, I saw
four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
earth that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and
he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and
the sea, saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God and their forth.
So the thing I want to point out here is that God has not yet hurt the earth or the
trees yet, has he?
Because he says, wait, don't hurt the earth or the trees until we've sealed the servants
of our God and their foreheads.
Now if you would, jump down to verse 9.
Verse number 9 says, after this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could
number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before
the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.
Let me ask you something.
Where is that throne located?
Where is that?
It's in heaven.
So what we see here in Revelation 7 is a great multitude appears in heaven before the throne
of God.
And the Bible says this multitude is so great that no one could number it, and that it was
all nations, all kindreds, all tongues, all types of people, and they're all standing
there.
And they cried with a loud voice, verse 10, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth
upon the throne and unto the lamb.
And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and
fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever
and ever.
Amen.
And one of the elders answered, saying to me, What are these which are arrayed in white
robes?
And whence came they?
Let me just put that into our modern vernacular.
Here's what he said.
Who are all these people?
And where did they come from?
Where do these people come from?
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.
And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great 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.
So doesn't it make sense that at the time of the rapture, a great multitude would appear
in heaven saying, Hey, these people came out of great tribulation.
And now here they are.
They're up in heaven now to be with the Lord and to serve the Lord.
And it says they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
And the Lamb shall lead them and feed them, the Bible says in verse 17, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Now here's an amazing thought when you stop and think about it.
John in the book of Revelation, he sees this great multitude that appears in heaven of
all nations and kindred.
And one of the elders asked him, Who are these people?
Where did they come from?
And he says, You tell me, you know, you know, I don't know.
And he tells him, These are they which came out of great tribation.
Now when John is looking at that great multitude, did you know that you are going to be in that
multitude?
Isn't that amazing?
So actually John has seen you before.
The apostle John has looked at you.
Because back when he was, you know, seeing all this, he was seeing the future, right?
Because in Revelation, he's shown all the things that are going to be here after.
And when he saw that great giant multitude appear, he looked at me, he looked at you,
he looked at every saved Christian.
And that's why it's such a huge number.
Because the Bible numbers some pretty big multitudes.
The Bible numbers multitudes of 100 million, 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands of thousands.
So the Bible numbers great multitudes of millions of people.
This is a huge multitude that nobody could number.
Because it's all the saved, all the saints of all time that have all been caught up together.
And that would include me and you.
And it's people from all nations, all tongues, all families of the earth.
And we're going to be in that number.
You know, it's like the song, you know, when the saints go marching in, I want to be in
that number.
That crowd right there is going to be you, me, and every believer that's ever lived.
So here we are, we're caught up in heaven.
What comes next on the earth?
Because we've only seen six seals so far, right?
We saw all the tribulation and then at the sixth seal, sun and moon were darkened, Jesus
came in the clouds.
What's going to happen with the seventh seal?
What's next?
We're up in heaven at this point.
We're rejoicing and praising God before the throne.
What comes next?
Look at chapter 8 verse 1, let's see what comes next.
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half
an hour.
So the Bible's telling us here that a long time isn't going by here, it's just 30 minutes
that have gone by.
There's silence for a half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God and to them were given seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer.
And there was given to him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all
saints before the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before
God out of the angel's hand.
And the angel took the censer, watch this, and filled it with fire of the altar and cast
it into the earth.
So what happens after the rapture, after we're caught up to be with Christ and we're in heaven
with the Lord?
The next thing that happens just 30 minutes later is that God pours out fire and brimstone
on the earth.
Fire is cast in the earth.
Now isn't that exactly what happened in the days of Lot?
The day that Lot left Sodom, God rained fire and brimstone.
The day that Noah got on the ark, it rained from heaven and the flood took them all away
and killed them all.
So what's going to happen the day after or the day of the rapture when we're caught up
together to be with the clouds, when we're removed from this earth?
The very same day God's going to begin to pour out his wrath on this earth.
That's why they're weeping.
That's why they're hiding.
That's why they're mourning.
It's a terrible day for them.
So isn't it interesting that under the unsaved, it's called the day of the Lord and it's a
great day of wrath and darkness and punishment.
But for us, we think of it as the day of Jesus Christ and we look forward to it.
We are going to have great joy on that day.
So really it just depends on which side of the gospel you're on.
If you're saved, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then it's a great day for you.
But if you do not believe on Jesus Christ, it is the worst day in the history of mankind.
It's going to be horrible.
But that's how God is.
See, a lot of people today, they have an image of God where they think God is just loving
and nice to everyone.
They don't understand the wrath of God.
They don't understand God's punishment.
They think that he's just going to be nice to everybody no matter what.
But the thing about God is that it depends on which side of God you're on.
You know, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're saved, then yeah,
God is going to treat you very well and he's going to comfort you and take care of you
and bless you.
But the Bible teaches that if you don't believe on the Son of God, the wrath of God abideth
on you.
Think about that.
The wrath of God abides on the unsaved.
So God is a God of great love and compassion and long suffering and goodness, but he's
also a God of wrath and punishment to those that reject the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And a lot of people will say, oh, well, that's how God was in the Old Testament.
But wait a minute, is Revelation in the Old Testament or the New Testament?
This is the New Testament and God is pouring out his wrath on the unsaved.
Let's keep reading in chapter 8 there.
Look down at your Bible.
It says in verse 6, and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves
to sound.
The first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood and they
were cast upon the earth and the third part of trees was burned up and all green grass
was burnt up.
Remember how God said that he wasn't going to hurt the earth or the trees until the servants
of God had been sealed?
Well now, he is hurting the earth and the trees, isn't he?
Fire and brimstone are coming from heaven and the Bible says that all the green grass
was burned up.
A third of the trees are burned up.
I mean, think about that.
In order to burn up a third of the trees on this earth and in order for all the grass
on the earth to be burned up, I mean, the whole earth is going to be rained with fire
and brimstone from heaven.
Now let me ask you this.
Do you think people are going to notice that?
When all the grass in the whole world is on fire, when one third of the trees in the world
are burning up and God's raining fire and brimstone, look, this is what the Bible says
is going to happen.
You think people are going to notice?
Now the question is, is this what Hollywood teaches that the rapture is like?
Now let me explain something to you about Hollywood.
Every biblical movie is always going to twist the truth.
Any biblical movie you watch is always going to change things.
You know, for example, there's a really famous Jesus movie.
It's called the Jesus film.
Have you ever heard of that?
And in the Jesus film, when Jesus gets baptized, John the Baptist never baptizes him.
He just sort of gets on his knees and bows down to John.
Instead of John taking him and baptizing him, you know, it's like, why do they change that?
But they always change things.
You know, you watch the old movies of Moses and the Ten Commandments or you watch the
old movie of Samson and Delilah.
You know, the Hollywood movies always change what the Bible actually teaches and what the
Bible says.
And when you actually read the Bible, you say, wait a minute, this is a lot different
than the movie.
So we need to make sure that we get our beliefs from the Bible, not from movies, okay?
Well, there's a really popular movie that was about the rapture and it's called Left
Behind.
Who's ever heard of that movie Left Behind?
Yeah.
Well, this movie Left Behind, well, guess what?
It's a Hollywood movie.
It's not going to be accurate.
And when you look at the Left Behind movie, everybody just disappears and nobody knows
where they went.
And there are little piles of clothes everywhere and you know, oh, where'd they go?
They're gone.
And everybody's perplexed and they don't understand.
Where did everybody go?
Why did everybody disappear?
But you know what they don't show at all?
They don't show any fire and brimstone, raining.
I didn't see all the grass burned up in that film.
Were one third of the trees burned up?
But that stuff, the Bible says is going to happen the same day of the rapture, okay?
So what they're teaching is in that movie, they're teaching that we're just going to
be going through our lives, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, just living our lives.
And then all of a sudden, poof, we're gone.
But is that really what the Bible said?
No.
The Bible said that first you're going to go through all these sorrows and you're going
to go through trials and tribulations and then you're going to go through this great
period of tribulation where there's a lot of persecution and warfare and famine and
you're going to be suffering and struggling.
And he says once you go through all that and then you see the sun and moon darkened and
the stars begin to fall, he says then you look up and your redemption draweth nigh.
And then he said once you're in safety in heaven, he's going to rain fire and brimstone
on the earth.
And then there are going to be a lot of other plagues also.
You know, we don't have time to go through all the plagues.
But he's going to turn water into blood.
He's going to turn waters into wormwood and people are going to be eating very bitter,
drinking bitter water that makes them sick to their stomach and die.
He's going to send locusts that are going to torment them.
He's going to send all kinds of fire-breathing creatures.
And I mean, the book of Revelation paints a very scary picture for those that are upon
this earth during that time when God's pouring out his wrath on the earth.
You know, thank God we'll be removed from this earth before that.
But let me ask you this.
Is that the same thing that the movie shows?
No.
Because the movie doesn't show any fire and brimstone and the people in the movie are
wondering.
Like, where is everybody?
What's going on?
I don't understand why everybody disappeared.
But you know what the people are doing in the Bible story?
They're not wondering, oh, I wonder where everybody went.
They're running for cover because there's fire and brimstone coming out of the sky and
they're trying to hide under rocks and hide under things to not get destroyed by the hail
and fire and blood that's raining out of the sky.
So again, you have to study your Bible to get this teaching.
And this idea of people just disappearing, just disappearing with no warning, no signs,
no sun and moon darkened, no tribulation, where we just one day to the next, just in
the middle of preaching right now.
I mean, before this service is over, we might all just disappear.
I mean, that's not a biblical teaching.
It's not found in the Bible.
Now flip to one last place, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
This is the most famous passage about what we commonly refer to as the rapture.
And the rapture is what we call that event where we're caught up together with Jesus
in the clouds.
It's that event where the trumpet sounds and Jesus gathers up those that are alive on this
earth.
And the Bible says before that that the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Let's look at 1 Thessalonians 4 together.
1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13 says, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep.
Now let me ask you this.
When he says those which are asleep, you think he's talking about people that are just snoozing
in their bed?
No.
When the Bible says those that are asleep, it's talking about those who died and gone
on to be with the Lord is what that's referring to.
Christians who have gone on to be with the Lord are referred to here as being asleep.
And so the Bible says, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them
which are asleep, that you 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.
So what's he saying in these two verses?
He's saying if you have loved ones that are asleep in Jesus, if you have, you know, maybe
your parents, brothers and sisters, friends who've died and gone on to be with the Lord
if they were saved, he says don't sorrow like those who have no hope.
Because if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him.
You see, if an unsaved person loses their wife or loses their husband or loses their
best friend, they don't have any hope of seeing that person again, the Bible says.
But he says that we as believers, we know that we will see that person again if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him.
So with the second coming, he's going to bring them with him.
Let's keep reading.
For this we say unto you, verse 15, by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and
remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
We're not going to go before those that are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel
and 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.
So the Bible teaches here that the dead in Christ shall rise first.
So here's what's going to happen.
Jesus comes in the clouds, the trumpet sounds, and the dead in Christ rise first.
So all the bodies of the saved that are in the graves will literally rise from the graves
and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
And 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.
I heard one person say that the reason that the dead in Christ have to rise first is because
they have to go six more feet of distance because they're buried.
So they have to go a little bit further and then we're going to catch up to them and meet
them in the air.
And the Bible says that we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds.
That is where we get the term rapture because rapture means to be caught up.
And we could call it the catch up, but it just doesn't sound as good as rapture.
Rapture is just a better word.
And a lot of people say, well, rapture is not in the Bible.
Yeah, but it's easier to say rapture than to say the catching up together with him into
the clouds.
It's kind of a long, you know, that's sort of like we were talking about before the service
how in Navajo you kind of explain things what they mean because there's not always a word
for it.
So you have to explain it in a lot of words.
So I guess that's probably how they say rapture in Navajo would be like the catching up together
with the Lord in the clouds.
You know, that's how you explain it, right?
Is that how you say it?
That's literally what you say.
I was just guessing.
So you know, you're caught up together with him to be with the Lord in the clouds.
That's the rapture.
Now look, this is the most famous passage in the whole Bible about the rapture, 1 Thessalonians
4.
If you wanted to just point to a passage on the rapture, this is where people are going
to take you.
This is the most famous one.
And what's interesting about this passage when we look at it is that he talks about
the trumpet sounding, the voice of the archangel, and the believers being caught up together
in the clouds to meet the Lord.
But I want to point out a very important phrase in verse 15 that a lot of people overlook
when they look at this.
It says in verse 15, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which
are alive and remain unto the what?
The coming of the Lord.
So when the Bible talks about the coming of the Lord, or what we would call the second
coming, we're referring to the rapture if we take a biblical definition.
Because he calls this the coming of the Lord.
That's what it is.
It's his coming.
Now a lot of people will say this.
Oh, Pastor Anderson, you're mixing up the rapture and the second coming.
You're mixing up those two things.
Well, wait a minute.
No.
The Bible said those are the same thing.
Because the first coming is when?
When Jesus came as a baby in Bethlehem's manger.
That was the first coming, right?
That was what's known as the first advent or the first coming of Christ.
When Jesus came in human bodily form, he physically was born in the flesh.
He lived a sinless perfect life.
He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
And he went about doing good, the Bible says.
He preached the word of God.
He performed many miracles.
He healed the sick and the deaf and the blind.
He raised the dead back to life.
He performed all these miracles.
He preached the word of God.
Then he offered himself as a ransom for many, the Bible says.
He died for the sins of us all.
He was buried.
And then three days later, he rose again from the dead.
And after Jesus rose again from the dead, do you remember when he assembled with the
disciples on the Mount of Olives?
He said, I want you to meet me at this Mount of Olives.
And they all met him there.
And then he gave them that great commission where he told them to go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost,
and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even at the end of the world.
He said to them, go ye therefore, he said, into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature.
And when he was done saying those words, what did he do?
He ascended up to heaven in a cloud, didn't he?
You remember that day when he was on the Mount of Olives and he gave that great commission
for us to go out and preach the gospel to all the lost?
And when he had spoken these words, while they beheld, while they looked on, he was
taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.
You remember that?
That's known as the ascension of Jesus.
After he died, he was buried and rose again.
After he showed himself alive, showed him the holes in his hands, showed him the hole
in his side, and he'd given them the great commission.
Then the Bible says that he ascended up to the right hand of the Father in heaven.
Now after Jesus ascended up in the clouds, you know what the disciples did?
They just looked up into heaven.
They watched him get further and further away.
He was just sitting up there and they watched him get further and further away.
And then he's gone.
And they just keep looking, just trying to catch a glance.
And then an angel came and told them.
He said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
What are you doing staring up at the sky?
He said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as you've seen him go into heaven.
So how did they see him go into heaven?
In a cloud.
How is he going to come?
In a cloud.
That's why the Bible says, behold, he cometh with clouds.
And every eye shall see him.
And they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Wailing is mourning.
Wail because of him.
Even so, amen.
So the first coming was when Jesus came and did all those things.
Then he ascended up in a cloud.
And they said, he's coming back again.
And he's coming the same way that you saw him go.
He's coming back.
Now let me ask you this.
When Jesus left that day, did he leave on a white horse?
Did he say, preach the gospel to every creature, hop on a horse and ride up to heaven?
No.
He ascended up into heaven in a cloud.
That's how he went up to heaven.
And he said, he's going to come the same way he went.
So at the second coming of Christ, what we call the second coming, the coming of our
Lord, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what 1 Thessalonians 4 is talking about.
And it's talking about when Jesus comes in a cloud.
And then the trumpet sounds were caught up together to be with him in the air.
Now there's another event later, later where Jesus comes in on a white horse and defeats
the Antichrist at the Battle of Armageddon.
But that is not the coming of the Lord.
That is a later event, because that is something that comes in Revelation 19.
But in this first event that we see here, where Christ comes in the clouds and gathers
the elect, that's what's known as the second coming.
But a lot of people, here's what they'll do.
They'll look at Revelation 19, Armageddon, white horse.
They'll say, that's the second coming.
Well, what does the Bible say?
The Bible never calls Revelation 19 the coming of the Lord.
But it sure calls the rapture the coming of the Lord.
So I'm just going to close on that point in 1 Thessalonians 4.
And just to help you understand that, you know what, there are going to be trials and
tribulations in our life.
Even if this doesn't happen in our lifetime, we go through trials and tribulations all
the time, don't we?
The Bible says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
So we all go through persecution, trials, tribulations.
But Jesus said this, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace.
In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.
So the Bible tells us that we shouldn't be depressed or upset about the things that are
coming in the end of the world.
It shouldn't scare us.
The Bible says fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison and you shall have tribulation ten
days.
Be thou faithful unto death and I'll give thee a crown of blood.
The Bible tells it over again.
Fear not.
Don't be afraid.
Don't dread it.
Don't worry about it.
Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
And the Bible says he'll never leave us nor forsake us.
And if we are alive during the great tribulation, you know what, if that's God's will, then
God's going to see us through.
And if we end up going to prison for the cause of Jesus Christ, that's okay as long as we're
in the will of God.
And if we end up suffering or being killed, you know what, God knows what he's doing.
And we just need to trust in the Lord and the Bible says be of good cheer.
Don't be depressed or down or offended about the fact that he's ... Now look, if somebody's
not saved, they have a lot to be afraid of.
They have a lot to be scared of, a lot of horrific things coming.
But for those of us that are saved, the Bible says that the trials and tribulations that
we endure on this earth are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed
in us.
So I don't want this message to come across to you as something that is depressing or
gloomy.
Because you know what, the rapture, the second coming of Christ, is something to be excited
about and look forward to.
And it's not something to dread or fear as far as the things leading up to it.
Because you know what, God knows how to protect and deliver his people.
And so we need to just trust in the Lord and be of good cheer and look forward to that
great day when our redemption is going to come and the second coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
It's going to be the greatest thing that any of us has ever experienced.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for the things that have been taught
so clearly in the Bible.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us to just get into our Bibles and study, not to just listen
to a Hollywood movie or just what people have told us all our lives.
But Lord, I pray that every person who's here would search the scriptures whether these
things be so and to read Matthew 24 and to read Mark 13 and to read Luke 21 and the book
of Revelation, Lord, and help us to learn the truth so that we cannot be asleep like
a lot of the people around us are just asleep and they don't know what's happening.
Lord, help us to be awake and to watch for these things, Lord.
We love you and thank you for your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and it's in his name
we pray.
Amen.