Revelation: Part 54

When anyone anywhere, responds to this knowledge by having a desire to know this God, God will move heaven and earth to get the message to them.

I believe that we are about to see -deir-al zor’s already been moved, but we’re going to see some moves to rebuild, at least the, the religious temple part of ancient Babylon. I don’t believe the city will be rebuilt, but I believe there will be a great religious center built there. And that’s why I said that it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in this whole thing with Iraq. Because that place is just a little bit south of baghdad.

It’s gonna be interesting to see what happens as all of this transforms. But, you know, I think it’s interesting that God shows that there are two trends that go through this whole development of the final destruction of the current world system. That is, the woman, Israel, and the woman that is mystery Babylon the great. And the tale of two cities.

God’s city is Jerusalem. It has gone astray, but it’s still the only city on this earth that God put his name. And the other city is the symbol of mystery Babylon, Rome. And all of these merchants are going to wail and howl because they had made great wealth through this economic system that will be joined to it.

Look in your bibles and turn to chapter 19. And after these things, I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. Now, when it says after these things, it means that the chronological development of the book is continuing.

After the destruction of all Gentile cities, the destruction of the source of religious deception, the destruction of the armies that try to -I mean, good grief, we talk about Armageddon, where there’s going to be millions die. Blood stands to the horse’s bridle for 200 miles in the valley of -the Jordan valley. So we’re talking about after the most horrific war in the history of the world, when it’s going to be stopped, it says. And it says, hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous, for he has judged the great harlot who is corrupting the earth.

Now, note, God is still placing the blame of what corrupted the earth. The great harlot. And it says, and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. And a second time they said hallelujah, for the smoke rises up forever and ever.

And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And a voice came from the throne saying, give praise to our God, all you his bondservants, you who fear him, the small and the great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the almighty, reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to the Lamb, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. All right. Now it’s at this point I want to really punch home something. Who’s the Lamb?

Who’s his bride? Right. What’s she done? Made herself ready.

Okay? Now, that takes a little time. Because there’s something -in order for the bride to be made ready, what very important event has to take place?

Well, that. The judgment seat of Christ. Because the bride can’t be ready until her works are judged. Each one of us.

So that big chorus that’s like many waters of people singing praise to God, that’s gonna be you and me. And here’s what took place during all of that -you see, during the Tribulation, we’re gonna be busy. Turn to 1 corinthians, please, chapter 3. According to the grace of God -and it’s verse 10, chapter 3, verse 10.

According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. All right, now, the foundation, is salvation that comes through Jesus Christ.

Okay? So when you believe in him, you’re on the foundation. All right. Now, let’s see, now if any man builds upon the foundation, that is, his salvation, with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s works will become evident for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. Okay. Christ is going to have us all at what he calls the bema, the judgment seat of Christ.

And that is a time when all of our works are going to be judged. Everything that we did with the motive of simply loving Jesus back, and by faith, will be gold, silver, and precious stones. Everything we did in this life that was not out of faith and that was for the purpose of trying to gain brownie points with God, will be burned up. And yet, you may smell like smoke, but you’ll be in heaven.

Isn’t that wonderful? But that’s what’s going on. You see, the Rapture takes place before the Tribulation begins. There’s a short interlude for the Antichrist to take over with the ten rulers of ten nations in Europe and to establish his base of power.

From that base of power, he will sign a covenant with Israel guaranteeing their protection. The moment that covenant is signed, between the Antichrist and Israel, it officially starts the seven-year countdown. Seven allotted years that still are on Israel’s clock that God gave them through the prophecy of Daniel in chapter 9. Chapter 9, verses 25 and 26.

Now, but you see, we’re already in heaven and we’re already going through the judgment seat of Christ. Once that’s finished and we’ve received our rewards, the bride has been made ready. So that shows us what’s been going on, and it shows us that that had to have taken place here at the point that Christ begins to return. Because chapter 19 is recording the coming of Jesus Christ back to the earth to put an end to the catastrophic war that man’s brought upon himself and to set up a new world order over which he’ll reign.

So back in chapter 19 now, and by the way, this is one of the many judgments that there is in the Bible. And verse 7. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

You see, that’s what we get at the judgment seat of Christ. And he said to me, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. A special promise.

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said, do not do that. I’m a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold a testimony of Jesus. Worship God.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And that’s one of the verses that shows that prophecy is very important to God. So when ministers are too lazy to study prophecy and justify it by saying it’s not important, they’re messing with some very sacred territory. It’s the testimony of Jesus.

Verse 11. And I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called faithful and true; and in righteousness he judges and wages war. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems. And he has a name written upon him which no one knows except himself.

And he’s clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and his name is called the Word of God. Jesus. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. You know, people often ask me, this is kind of off the subject, but since I have a dog I love, a couple of dogs, but, you know, people often ask me are there gonna be animals in heaven?

There certainly are gonna be horses. If there are gonna be horses, I’m sure there will be others. And I’m sure we’ll see beloved pets who we had here. And you’ll get to ride a horse.

Only this one is something else. So it says we who have been given -you know, the rewards from the judgment seat of Christ is the beautiful white linen. Apparently there are different marks on them for different rewards. And so it says, and from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may smite the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the almighty.

And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, king of kings, and Lord of lords. You know, when I read that, it just makes my heart pound. Hold your place and turn with me to Isaiah for a moment. Isaiah 63.

This one who is majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength. It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red and your garments like the one who treads in the winepress? And he says, I have trodden the wine trough alone and from the peoples there was no man with me.

I also trod them in anger and trampled them in my wrath, and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments. And I stained all my raiment. For the day of vengeance was in my heart and my year of redemption is come. And I looked and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold.

So my own arm brought salvation to me, and I trod down the peoples in my anger and I made them drunk in my wrath and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth. You know, it says in chapter 19, his garments are sprinkled with blood, this is what it’s talking about. It’s interesting that of all the peoples that could be mentioned here, it says that he comes from Edom and bozrah. Those are the areas of the muslims, the people, muslims.

The first — apparently the first group of people he’s going to judge will be muslims. Because they brought more suffering to his people in the last days than anybody else. Chapter 36 and 37 of Ezekiel says that he’s furious at them for taking his land and for mocking his people about it. And kind of grizzly, but remember, God has grace, he extends it to anyone who accepts it.

But if they don’t accept it, he also has justice. And with that comes wrath. And there’s no fury in God’s heart like his fury toward those that he gave his son’s life to save and they rejected it and stomped on it. And so he’s righteous in what he does.

Back in Revelation 19:17, and I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried out with a loud voice saying, all the birds which fly in midheaven, come assemble for the great supper of God in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all the men, both free men and slaves, and small and great. And then here’s another judgment. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him, Jesus. You can see how far unbelief can drive you crazy.

To think he could wage war with Jesus Christ, who sat upon the horse and against his army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet. The beast is the Antichrist. The false prophet, of course, is his cohort.

It will be a Jew. Who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast. And those who worshiped his image, these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with a sword which came from the mouth of him who sat upon the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

That is the first stage of Christ’s Second Coming right there. He’s going to judge this world and those who sought to destroy his people. Those who brought such devastation on the world he’s gonna judge. The survivors of this will then all be gathered and they will be separated.

It says the sheep from the goats. The sheep are those who were good to his brothers, it says, these are all Gentiles. They were good to his brothers. That’s the Israelites.

And that was a sign that during the Tribulation, to do that, you had to be a believer or you wouldn’t help them. So that’s a sign of a believer. Those who didn’t help them will be immediately judged and cast off the earth. So the surviving Israelites, their judgment is in Ezekiel 20.

The surviving Israelites and the surviving Gentiles will all be believers. We’ll go into more detail, not next week, but the following. These will all be believers. I want to give you a list of the judgments of God, how each one is different.

But this is one of those judgments. And that is once again, one of the reasons why we know the Rapture has to take place before the Tribulation. Because after Christ returns to the earth, it says in Matthew 25, the first thing he’s going to do is gather all the Gentiles together and he’s gonna judge them. The sheep separated from the goats and so forth.

Now, if the Rapture had just taken place, that would be ridiculous. Because what happens in the Rapture? Every believer is instantaneously caught up to meet Christ in the air and changed from mortal to immortal. So they would have already been separated.

There would have been no need to have a judgment that separated believers from unbelievers. And that would mean that also, if only believers are to go into the -to the new earth after Christ comes back, they’re the ones that are going to repopulate the earth prophecy says. But if the Rapture had just taken place, then there would be no mortal believers left because all mortals would be changed into immortals. So you couldn’t have a kingdom after that.

You follow me? You know, I debated dr. Gundry one time, I didn’t want to do that, but I was speaking up at a college there in santa barbara, I forget the name of it, a christian college. But anyway, I spoke there for a week every day at chapel, and the last day, the guys had set it up, ambushed me and had me debate dr.

Gundry about whether the Rapture was after the Tribulation or before. And I faced him with that scenario I just gave to you. And he couldn’t answer it. And I’ve never had anyone answer where do you get the mortal believers to repopulate the earth if they’ve all just been raptured?

Those things are very important for us as christians today, more than any other time in Church history. Because we’re the ones that are gonna find out. And our hope has to be placed in the fact that as this world gets worse and worse, and it’s gonna get worse, I do not see how the United States is gonna survive much longer. When I see what the liberals are doing, I mean, they are giving our enemies encouragement.

Giving them our battle plans and everything else, saying we’ve got to get out at a certain date and all of that. It’s as if the liberals don’t realize we’re at war. It’s like, well, let’s just close up shop and let’s bring all the soldiers home, we won’t go to war. We won’t bother you if you won’t bother us.

They wouldn’t even say that. We won’t bother you. Please don’t bother us. It doesn’t work that way.

Wise men of past history have made statements that are hard for people today. But they’ve been proven true by history. Vegetius, one I’ve quoted at Easter time, the great writer about the Roman legions, his maxim was, he who would live in peace, let him prepare for war. Because unless you’re ready to go to war, you won’t live in peace.

I want you to put your focus on our hope. You can’t build your hope on what these idiots that are collecting our taxes and throwing it all around are doing in Washington. I mean, there are some really good men there, but they don’t listen to them. You can’t put your hope on whether we’re gonna live in peace on what’s in this country anymore.

What you’ve got to place your hope in is the fact that Jesus Christ is coming for you, and for me and for the Church, the real Church. And he’s suddenly gonna snatch every one of us up in the twinkling of an eye and change us from mortal to immortal. And that event, I believe, is very, very close. And that’s what, no matter how bad things get, that’s what you focus on.

You know, you can keep your hope by knowing that Christ will never break his word. He’s going to keep it. As I wrote once before in a book, I think it was the terminal generation, I said, man can live about, something like 40-some-odd days without food, he can live about three or four days without water. He can live about six, seven minutes without air, but he can only live one second without hope.

You’ve got to have hope. And that’s the basis of our hope that God gives us. Father, thank you in Jesus’ name for your word. And we pray that every person here has come to the point where he or she has accepted the gift of pardon that Jesus died to give his life and pay for.

I confess, I’m a sinner. I’ve fallen short of your standards. And I want you to come into my life and make me what you want me to be. I can’t do it, but I ask you to do it.

Thank you for your pardon, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary and he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives. As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean.

Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church, or pick up a Bible, are now very curious. This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been, for the Church and for the nation.