Revelation: Part 33

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.

And the judgment seat of Christ is one not of condemnation. You’re not going to be -there, it’s not determined whether you should be there or not. If you’re there, you’re supposed to be there, believe me, because only believers are going to be there. So what’s the purpose of the judgment seat of Christ?

To determine rewards, right. It will determine what rewards you get. And 1 Corinthians 3 talks about this, chapter 3:10-15, I believe. Anyway, it says that every man’s work shall be tried at the judgment seat of Christ, and to determine what it is.

It says, there can be no foundation laid except Jesus Christ himself. In other words, salvation comes by Christ, not by your works. But it says, every man’s works that he builds on this foundation will be judged. Some will build with gold, silver, and precious stones.

Others will build with wood, hay, and stubble. And it says, the judgment will determine as by fire. And it says, if a man’s works which he has done survives, he will be rewarded. If they’re burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.

Now, some people are going to smell like smoke.

But thank God you’re there, huh? And, you know, I hope I’m not too smokey.

Because I sure don’t think I deserve anything. But you see, that is a judgment that’s different than the one that is spoken of here because it talks about it’s time for them to be judged. Now, where does it mention this judgment? Look at Daniel 12.

Now, I want you to see the context. In the verses just before chapter 12, verses 41-45 is actually the battle plan of Armageddon. It tells us the movement of troops and everything else. I don’t have time to go into this now.

We’ll get into that in chapter 16 if we’re still here. And I really mean that. I don’t know whether we’ll still be here or not. And it’s right after this holocaust of war that we read chapter 12, and it says, now at that time michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people.

Daniel was what kind of a person? He was a Jew, so he’s guarding who? Israel. Remember that when we get to chapter 12.

And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. All right.

That’s talking about the resurrection and the judgment of the Old Testament saints, which will take place at the Second Coming of Christ when he comes to the earth. See, here, he doesn’t come to the earth when the Church is taken out. He catches us up to meet him. Here, he comes to the earth.

And Matthew 25 goes through this about the separation of the sheeps and the goats and the bad fish from the good fish and so forth. And those that are saved that are the sheep, he tells them to go into his kingdom. It’s a judgment of the Gentiles, Matthew 25. And whether you were a believer or not is determined by whether you helped out his brothers.

Who are they? That’s right. Because only someone who’s truly a believer will help Jews in that time because you’re putting your neck on the line to help them. And by the way, you’re just about doing that now.

Because the muslims are trying to make everything they can happen to make the United States back away from helping Israel. All right. Now, that is then what it’s talking about here when it says, it’s time for the dead to be judged back in Revelation 11:18, and so on. And it also says, thy bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear thy name, the small and the great.

Those who fear thy name, I believe referring to the Gentiles who will believe during this period too. Now, he says that he is going to destroy those who destroy the earth. You know, I have often said that the tremendous destruction that we see predicted in the prophecies, and especially in the book of Revelation, that virtually everything that is predicted there can be done by man’s own inventions. And that’s why I believe we’re going to see a proliferation of nuclear weapons like we’ve never dreamed would take place.

And in Revelation 9 when it announces that there’s going to be this great army, two hundred million soldiers coming from east of the Euphrates and crossing it, the Euphrates river at the time this book was written, the New Testament, was the dividing line between the near east and the far east. It was called asia. And so when this great army comes from asia and gets to the Euphrates river, right after that, it says that this group of people are going to kill a third of the population of the earth with fire, brimstone, and columns of smoke. Which is very, as we saw when we went through there, a very good description of a nuclear war.

Maybe that’s why we’re not mentioned anywhere in prophecy about the last seven years. Now, I hope that’s not the way it’s going to happen, but it’ll be a quick ride up.

All right. Verse 19. And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened. Literally, the tabernacle of God, which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Isn’t it interesting that as God announces all of these great judgments that are coming and that he’s now going to take possession of the earth, the scene switches to the temple of God in heaven. Why? Because I believe God wants, especially Israelites to know, that it is from this temple in heaven that all decisions come. And where does the focus get placed when we look at it?

What does it say? The ark of the covenant. Now, that really tells me something. That reconfirms something I’ve been telling you all the way through the book of Revelation, that the Church ain’t here in the book of Revelation.

And after chapter 4, the Church is not on earth. Because this would have no relevance to the Church. But the ark of the covenant had great relevance to Israelites. Now, I’m going to read from Hebrews 8:5, and you can just keep your place there.

I’ll just read it to you. It says, who serve a copy and a shadow. This is book of Hebrews. It’s talking about how the tabernacle was a symbol of things in heaven.

So it says, who serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle for, “see,” he says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” And the writer of the Hebrews’ point is, that the tabernacle, which was replaced by a temple, everything about it was made exactly after the pattern of one that exists in heaven. And that all of these things were designed to teach us something. Now, every Israelite knew that the place where God met and stayed with Israel was where?

In the holy of holies. Where else? Exactly. He hovered over a throne on the top of the ark that had two great golden angels.

The highest angels. And they had their wings, he was told exactly how it had to be built, their wings had to be outstretched and touching each other, covering the throne. And he said, their faces were to be looking downward at that throne, which he called a seat, or the mercy seat. Inside of the ark of the covenant.

Now, the ark was made of acacia wood covered with pure gold. You know, as we look at that now, it’s easy to take these symbols and to see what it was portraying. You see, the wood portrays the human nature of Jesus. The gold covering it, his deity.

And so the ark was really a picture of the Messiah. What did he tell them to put inside of that box? Aaron’s rod that budded, the broken tablets of the law, and a pot of what is it.

You remember I told you? Manna? Manna? That’s Hebrew for “what is it”.

And those three things were symbols of man’s sin. First, Aaron’s rod that budded, that came in a situation where there was a revolt in the camp about who was God’s appointed leader. And God had Moses and Aaron stand before this whole mob of a revolt and he said, now, I’ll show you who I have chosen. He said, Moses, give your staff to Aaron and have him hold it out.

And he said to the leader of the revolt, you hold yours out. He says, now, the rod of wood that sprouts living branches, that is the one I’ve chose to be the leader. So Aaron’s rod suddenly sprouted leaves of branches. All right?

That was a picture of man’s revolt against God’s leadership. Individually and corporately. Then he said, put the tablets of the law that Moses had when he brought down from the mount of Sinai. And when he saw the camp in revolt and debauchery, he was so angry he threw those tablets down, and they were broken.

He had them put the broken tablets inside of there because it was a picture of the fact that we had rejected God’s moral standards and broken his law. Pretty graphic, isn’t it? You see, that was a picture of something else. Because he gave the Israelites this food every day except on the sabbath.

And he gave them twice as much on the Eve of the sabbath. During that time, apparently, no one ever got sick. They were in perfect health. But they finally came to the place -first of all, when it was on the ground and the first ones went out and they were wiping their eyes that had just come up out of the tent after sleeping, they looked on the ground and they saw these wafers around, and they said, manna?

What is it? And God said, great, Moses, tell them that’s what its name is. What is it. And they shall call it what is it.

And then after they had eaten it and they never suffered anything, they finally said, we wish we had something else to eat for variety. We don’t like this stuff. So the pot of manna was a picture of man’s rejection of God’s provision. So inside of this ark, that was a reminder of man’s rejection of God’s leadership, God’s law and morals, and God’s provision.

And the two angels, which represented God’s holiness, because they were of the order that always guarded God’s holiness, they looked down, and when they looked down into the ark through the throne, what did they see? They saw the reminder of man’s sin. Once a year, the high priest was allowed to go into the holy of holies. Only him, no one else.

And he would go in with the blood of a spotless Lamb. He would sprinkle blood on top of that throne. And if the high priest came out alive, they knew that God had forgiven them for another year. But how beautifully that illustrates something.

Angel number one represented God’s righteousness. This angel would look down and see that God’s perfect righteousness, which man can never attain, he could see the symbols of man breaking it, but he looked and saw the blood, and we saw blood covering the sin. He said, I’m satisfied. The angel number two, representing God’s justice, would look down and see the blood and say, judgment has been paid.

I’m satisfied. That is what it means. Have you ever heard that complicated word, propitiation? That’s what it means.

God’s justice satisfied by a blood offering. So when the angels would look at that and say, I’m satisfied, it was a picture. Then the throne of judgment became the mercy seat because there’s where God had mercy. And God continued his presence hovering over the mercy seat.

And his presence was depicted by something that must have been awesome to see. I mean, I don’t see how a high priest ever got out of there alive. But it was called the shekinah glory. It was a brilliant multicolored light that was awesome, that depicted his presence there over the mercy seat.

Now, the Israelite looks up and he sees the ark while he’s in the midst of the Tribulation, and God is showing him, your sin has been covered because you had believed. Because there will be many who will have believed. And he reminds them in Old Testament terms how their sin was forgiven. You see, that wouldn’t have been applicable for the Church.

What would God have shown us? Some of you are wearing it. A cross. So it shows that during this time, this is the end of the age of Israel, that green line swerving under and coming back over here, that was the unfinished age, and it is finished here.

And the ark of the covenant is the way he symbolizes the Gospel; a picture of the Gospel. You know, I love to go through things like that. I don’t know about you, but to the typology that God set up in the Old Testament, everything that he gave the Israelites had some symbolic meaning that applied to Jesus Christ. A lot of people read the book of leviticus, and I’m sure you’re like, oh, it was the first time I read it, I was like, what is this, a butcher’s manual?

And yet, everything that it talked about had a symbolic meaning to something Jesus would do to take away sin. Everything. Because without the shedding of blood, there’s what? No remission.

A lot of people say, I sure hate to talk about blood. Well, I don’t. That’s why I’m going to heaven. Because it isn’t because of anything I have done, will do, or ever will do.

It’s because of the blood of Jesus Christ that satisfied God’s righteousness and justice, and made it possible for me to walk into his holiness. Boy, I’ll tell you, that’s awesome to think about, isn’t it? And there’s no one too sinful for God to save. No one.

And there’s no one so good that Christ better save.

Well, I want you to read chapter 12 for the next time we’re together, because it says, and a great sign appeared in heaven; and a woman clothed with sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. If you read, I’ll give you a reading assignment, if you read Genesis 37:1-10, it will explain who the woman is, what the sun, the moon, and the stars are a type of. Typology again, you see? It’ll explain it for you.

So you do that before not next week, but the week after. And also, I give this chapter a name. The mystery of antisemitism. You know, if you look down through history and you see the irrational hatred that has always been toward Israelites -now, you notice I struggle between Jew and Israelite.

I use the word Israelite because that includes all the twelve tribes.

God knows where they are. In fact, he’s got twelve thousand out of every one of them reserved unto himself. It’s going to be 144,000 billy grahams turned loose at once. Anyway, you read through here and see if you can figure out why I call this the mystery of antisemitism.

Because it really explains why mankind has hated the Israelites all these centuries. There has been one massacre after another. And I’ll be ready to read a few to you from history the next time we meet. But as for now, I want you to concentrate on the fact that all these horrible things we’re talking about, because you have received the gift of pardon that Jesus Christ died to give you, you will not be here during these horrible things.

One day soon, and I believe very soon, Jesus is going to come and he’s going to snatch out every living believer on earth in the flash of a second. And some of you will probably not see physical death. Some of you sitting here. Now, you’re not all old gray duffers like me, but I think I might make it too.

God willing.

If you have the guts come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as and he’ll make a revolutionary to be a real revolutionary, your real revolutionary, that will change lives.

Thank you so much for standing with me as a watchman on the wall. I pray daily that he will reward your faithfulness and protect and prosper you in these difficult times. Thank you again for being a vital part of my team.