Times Preceding the Coming of the Lord

Transcript

GRM 522
4/06/1997
Times Preceding the Coming of the Lord
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

Before we go back to our study of the letter of Paul to the Colossians, I want to take a week here and do one of my collection sermons where I just pull together some matters that I want to remind us of, particularly focus on the coming of the Lord. I was contemplating this particularly in light of our consideration of His first coming this past week in celebration of Easter. His coming to die on the cross to be resurrected in glorious victory because He had paid in full the penalty for our sin. In that context we are constantly reminded that the first coming of Christ was the preparation for the second coming of Christ. And in the observing of the communion service as we did on Good Friday evening and we do regularly through the year. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 26 the apostle Paul reminds, "As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we do proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." So there is that constant proclamation of the death of Christ at His first coming. And in that proclamation there is the reminder this will go on until He returns. And our attention is drawn to the second coming of Jesus Christ to establish a glorious kingdom that will go on for eternity.

Turn to John's gospel chapter 14. John's gospel and the 14th chapter. In chapter 13 of John we have the last supper of Christ with His disciples. That's when He had that final meal and instituted the Communion service. Now He continues unfolding the truth that they will need in light of His coming death and departure. Chapter 14 of John's gospel begins, "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you." Note this, "I go to prepare a place for you." So key in His departure from the earth is God's plan that He prepare a place for those of us who would believe in Him. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that were I am, there you may be also." So in this final night together as Jesus prepares the Disciples for His death and departure, it's in the context of when I leave this earth it will be to go and prepare a place for you. And if I prepare that place for you, I will come again to get you so you can enjoy the place that I have prepared. So you can be with Me where I am.


Acts chapter 1 Jesus will ascend to heaven. Two angels will address the disciples that are gathered together at that time of ascension, where Christ leaves the earth and He will not return again in the fullness of His Person until He comes to establish a kingdom. So these two angelic beings address the disciples as Christ has ascended to heaven in a cloud. And in Acts chapter 1 verse 11 they say, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." That would fit with the promise of Christ that when He comes to earth the second time it will be like the lightning flashing across the sky. It will be in power and great glory. Now my understanding is that there would be a distinction between what Christ takes about in John 14 and what is talked about in Acts chapter 1. In John chapter 14 it says He will come having prepared a place. He goes to prepare a place. He's going to heaven. He's going to prepare a place there. Then He's going to come and get those who believe in Him so they can dwell with Him in the place He's prepared. In Acts chapter 1 the reference is to Christ's coming in clouds of glory. The Scripture tells us “every eye will behold Him.” At that time the earth will be prepared for the kingdom over which He will rule. So what we have is the second coming of Christ has two phases. So just like the coming of Christ to earth was in two phases, not distinguished in the Old Testament. The first coming to die on the cross. The second coming to rule and reign in glory, the second coming has two parts. The first coming in the air for the Church. What we call the Rapture. To take all believers of the church age, beginning in Acts chapter 2 down to that time, to heaven, to the place that He has prepared for them. Seven years later Christ will come, return to earth in the fullness of the display of glory. And then He will judge His enemies and establish a kingdom for His people on the earth.

There have been much in the news. And I want to mention a couple of news articles and then get back to Scripture about events that will come and have taken place. Time magazine had an article, March 24, some of you saw it, does heaven exist? And I have to say I was surprised at the poll they took asking people do you believe in the existence of heaven where people live forever with God after they die. Eightyone percent said yes. You know, we sometimes get the idea with the course of the world that nobody believes in heaven and hell anymore. But 81 percent of people polled believe in the existence of heaven as a place where people will go to be with God forever after they die. Do you believe in hell where people are punished forever after they die? Sixtythree percent of the people said they believe that. Now that's a shrink from 81 percent who believe in heaven. But that still is a significant majority. Sixtyone percent of the people believe in eternal torment in hell.

Just an aside. Sometimes we are reluctant to bring up the subject of heaven and hell with people because we think people think this it is foolish. They won't believe this. But recognize there is a strong belief in people. Now it may not be a correct biblical belief. Understand that if I bring up the subject of heaven with a person chances are he'll be one of the 81 percent who believe there is such a place as heaven. Now that's a starting point for a conversation of what a wonderful place heaven is. Won't it be terrible not to go there when you die. Have you ever considered whether or not you will go to the heaven that you proclaim to believe in? And why you think you'll go there.

Immediately after death which of the following do you think will happen to you? Sixtyone percent think they'll go directly to heaven. Fifteen percent think they'll go to Purgatory. Only 1 percent think they'll go to hell. So there's a strong belief in hell but obviously it's for other people because only 1 percent think they're going there. That means some of the 63 percent who believe there is an eternal hell are evidently mistaken in thinking they're going to the eternal heaven. Everybody thinks that someone else won't make it.


Sixtysix percent of the people think you won't go to heaven with a body. In heaven you only have a soul, no body. So then you really don't believe in the bodily resurrection. Eightyeight percent of those polled believe they will meet friends and family members in heaven when they die. Now that's an awful strong polling. You know, there's something about a poll that let's you be anonymous and so on but it does tell people what they think in their heart. When we get down to it 88 percent of the people say I really believe I'm going to be with my loved ones in heaven. Now we know from Scripture that just isn't so. The way to destruction is broad. The way to heaven is narrow and there are few that go the way Jesus said. Said thing is what that does reflect is the vast majority of the people believe there's a heaven and hell and the overwhelming majority think they and their family and friends are going to heaven. What a tragic terrifying error. Nothing is of this magnitude as just a mistake.

Speaking of mistakes. Of course, the news magazines have been writing about the cult group that committed suicide and you should have known I couldn't let it pass. Newsweek had an article on Christ and comets. Somehow they have a connection in people's minds. But from the cults and the talking that goes on, we understand what these cults do is pick and choose a little bit from everything. They took a little bit from the New Testament, a little bit from the Old Testament, a little bit from the Mormons, a little bit from the Eastern mystics, stir it all together and create their own little identity. This leader of this cult was named Doe. And he got his millennial thinking from the early 70s when every political and social and cultural upheaval was cast in apocalyptic black and white terms. The 70s were the days when Hal Lindsay wrote the book “The Late Great Planet Earth”, was the bestselling book of that decade. And interesting the writer of this article in Newsweek refers to Hal Lindsay's “Late Great Planet Earth” as a pseudo-biblical doomsday book. I don't agree with every detail of Hal Lindsay's book but I would not say it's a pseudo-biblical, a falsely biblical doomsday book. I would say it's a biblical doomsday book. The errors in it didn't change the basic truth that was there regarding biblical truth.

The Doe, the cult that just committed suicide, is what I'll be referring to through this article. What gave his final vision theological ballast were familiar themes and phrases ripped from the larger fabric of the New Testament. Basically what they taught was, really the doctrine didn't come from the New Testament but from Mormon theology, was that, earth is an experiment. Not using the same terminology necessarily as the Mormons would, but you have bodies and you have spirits that need bodies so the spirits come and inhabit the bodies that have been sowed or planted here. From time-to-time representatives, key representatives, from that other dimension come and make soul deposits in these human plants. Two millenniums ago, Jesus Christ came and He was a representative from that other dimension. Now Doe says, "I am in the same position to today's society as the One (capital O, One) who was in Jesus then. My being here now is actually a continuation of that last task as it was promised to those who were Jesus' students 2000 years ago." In other words, I'm a continuation of Jesus Christ and the One who was in Him is in me. And the false messiahs that come to be present.

Doe knew the Bible. His father was a Presbyterian minister. He had been a musician in several churches. So he drew upon that mixture. Interesting his view of Christianity. "The Devil and his legions were really rebellious souls from an earlier age who refuse to obey an ancient representative from the starry kingdom. And they now roam the earth in hybrid bodies," note this, "using Christianity to enslave the wouldbe children of light." So, you see the enemy is Christianity. Only by grafting themselves onto Doe could they escape.


Now we're studying Colossians normally on Sunday morning and many of the teachings that developed into Gnosticism in the second century come up in the book of Colossians. It's interesting that they have observed that many of the central points of this cult, Heaven's Gate, mirror those of early Gnosticism. Early Gnosticism and the Heaven's Gate cult both taught that they had a secret knowledge about God. It was available only to those who were initiated into the system. Now you want to note in these teachings there often tends to be an element of truth. You know the biblical truth is when you're born again the Spirit of God takes up resident within you and He opens the eyes of your understanding so that you do understand and comprehend God's truth. Where here the Devil's version of this is you get initiated into a system. That's not new. The Gnostics taught that back in a full blown form in the second century. The Gnostics stress the radical dualism between body and soul. The body is evil. So some of the Gnostics were Doesetics. They believed that Jesus' physical body was only an apparition because He couldn't have truly had a physical body because that would have been evil. Others taught that the Christ came on Him at His baptism and left Him before His crucifixion. But contained in this all is what? The body is sinful and evil. Matter is the enemy. So these Gnostics, modernday Gnostics, in the Heaven's Gate cult sex was vile and evil. It's associated with his body. I have to get rid of this container as they called it. But you know the body is not evil in the New Testament. This body will be resurrected at a future time. So even when this body is put off, we are not done with it. This body will undergo a transformation so the body is not evil.

Matter and material things are not evil as some of these cults would hold. But another development of Gnostism. The celibacy that goes with it, refusing to believe what the Bible says like Hebrews 13 that in marriage the bed is undefiled. It's adulterers and fornicators that God will judge. But He has ordained sex within the marriage relationship. For them since the physical is evil this physical expression must be evil. And on they went. So interesting that Gnosticism revisited. We have a book in Sound Words on the modernday Gnosticism that you ought to be up on because much of what is going on in feminism and everything else has its seeds in Gnosticism, not the New Testament but the demonic teachings of Gnostism.


They have another article in Newsweek. This is the April 7th issue. It's on the newsstands now on the time of trouble. What they do, this journalist visited several of these apocalyptic cults. Got inside the groups. I believe he claimed to be a Russian journalist, if I remember correctly. Don't hold me to that. So he visited several. There's eight cults mentioned here and what we just ought to be aware of is the rise of these cults, the false messiahs, the teachings that will infiltrate the area. For example, one of the cults out of Eugene, Oregon, they have groups of eight to ten nomadic cells that are traveling around the country. They are currently recruiting kids in college towns across the nation to make a commitment to die for their messiah leader named Jim Roberts. Well, we can be sure if they are not yet in our university city, they will be. A number of you have told me about recent contacts with the Way International which are mentioned in here. In the 70s there was quite a group from the Way we had much interaction with. Then they sorted of resided and faded from the view and now the article remarks that they are now in a resurgence. Many of you have mentioned you've had contact with members of the Way International in recent months. We ought to be aware these aren't just things that go on out there but they do impact us. We ought to be aware it. My concern is unstable and untaught people become ripe for the delusions. You know, you scratch your head and you say, "Do they really believe science fiction material about spaceships following a comet and we've got to kill ourselves to get on the spaceship." But scientology has grabbed hold of many welltodo, wealthy people in our country and some in Hollywood. The founder of scientology is a Science Fiction writer, El Ron Hubbard. He just put a religious twist on his Science Fiction writings and gets followings. A group that's become powerful enough to intimidate even the IRS of our own country. So ought to be aware of what is taking place in those contexts.

You do get the psychologists involved in this. This is an article from Time magazine, April 7. "The Lure of the Cult" and this person has a good observation. "By now psychologists have arrived at a wonderfully, elastic profile of the people who attach themselves to these intellectual chain gangs, just about anybody.” In other words, as psychology often does, it just creates a view that you can just about fit anyone into. In other words, just about anybody is susceptible to these cultic influences. In fact, there's a man in the Newsweek article. He was Jim Jones, the Jones people in that cult. Nine hundred and fourteen of them committed suicide in Ghana in 1978 by taking poison. Remember that? Well, this man was Jim Jones' lawyer and the people's temple's business and political advisors. He said, "I've seen all sorts of experts on TV talking about why people join cults. There are no simple answers. These people aren't necessarily from dysfunctional families. My loving parents gave me everything in the world and I was a successful assistant district attorney." But he joined the cult and became part of what was going on. Interesting, he says, "In May of 1991 I became a Christian. Because of God's forgiveness I am at peace." So, I trust that's a genuine conversion.

With all this going on in the world, you have to think about what the Bible says about the coming of Christ. What is truth? I realize some of this discredits Christianity because these cultic leaders take bits and pieces from the Scripture and throw it around. And we already have our share of people who say that this church is a cult or it's cultic. And I am your Jim Jones or your Doe or your whoever I am. And I can understand. How does the unbeliever sort out truth from error? How do we as God's people sort out truth from error? You can't take my word for it. We have to go to the Scripture and find out what God says. Somebody wants me to take poison to jump on a spaceship and I say well, there's an element of truth here. James 2:26 says the body without the spirit is dead. So there's an element of truth. When this body dies the spirit's leaving. But I want to know the next answer. Where is it going when it leaves? Luke chapter 16 Jesus gives the account of a rich man and beggar. Both died. Upon death the rich man lifted up his eyes being in torment in Hades. He said I am tormented in this flame. There's an element of truth. Yes, you will leave this body at death. No, you won't get on spaceship. For those who are truly believers in Jesus Christ and have been born again, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians chapter 5, Philippians chapter 1). But those who don't know the Lord immediately leave this life and go to eternal damnation.


It's an awesome thought. I've thought of that again and as they repeatedly showed the bodies of these cult members on their bed covered with the purple covering. What a shock to have taken poison, laid on that bed, expecting to open your eyes in a spaceship and to open your eyes in the torments of Hades. What worse delusion could have taken hold of them? But you know that is just a graphic depiction of the delusion that has gripped the vast majority of people in the world. The 88 percent of the people polled who said they think they think they're going to spend eternity in heaven with their loved ones. When Jesus Christ said it's a broad gate and a broad way that leads to destruction and there are many going that way. A narrow gate and a narrow road that leads to life and there are few going that way. You say, it sounds like the cult again. Just a select few going. Yeah, there's an element of truth in it. That's why it grabs on to people.

The Devil is not a great originator. The Devil is a great counterfeiter, taking truth, distorting it, corrupting it, mixing it with error. I mean when he went to Eve in the Garden what did he say, "You won't die. You'll be like God." There's an element of truth in that. She didn't immediately drop dead physically. Well, that wasn't the whole truth. She immediately dropped dead spiritually. Well, it was a partial truth. You'll be like God knowing good from evil. Well, there's an element of truth in that. Their recognition of evil and sin took on a perspective that they did not know before. So we ought to recognize that the Devil is masterful in his distortion.

When we talk about the future, what God intends, and the fact that Jesus Christ is coming again. It has to be put in a biblical context. Jesus Christ is coming again. He's coming again to take those who belong to Him to Himself. What the Bible unfoldsand this almost sounds like Science Fictionbut again we take these things that runoff from biblical truths. There are other worlds. Well, there is another world. It is inhabited by spirit beings. Angels live there. I mean, there are elements of truth in this that all reflect the fact they have distorted the basic truth that is found in God's Word.

The Bible indicates that in God's future plan He's unfolded the beginning all the way through to the end. And Jesus Christ will rule and reign over all creation in glory. The Bible indicates that with the death and resurrection of Christ there was formed an entity or group called the Church. It began in Acts chapter 2. Up until that time beginning in Genesis chapter 12 up until Acts chapter 2 basically. You have a period of time in here after the crucifixion of Christ, fifty days or so, basically God is dealing with Israel as a nation. That's the people He called to Himself. That's the people in whom His salvation focused. You weren't saved because you were a Jew, but you were saved believing what God had revealed and you understood that God's plan focused in the nation Israel. That was the physical nation He was dealing with.

Beginning in Acts chapter 2 God begins to call out from the world a people from all nationalities, all races, all languages. They are called to the salvation that is found through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These people who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior become part of the Body of Christ, a spiritual entity, also called the Bride of Christ. It manifests itself in local churches. Now not every local church is a manifestation of the Body of Christ, the spiritual body. It has to be a church that is formed of believers in Jesus Christ according to the guidelines of the New Testament.


Now the Scripture indicates that at a future time Jesus Christ is going to come in the air to gather this Church to Himself in the air. Now I don't have to take my life. I don't have to do anything radical or drastic to caught up by that event. He will do it. To be ready for that event, I recognize I'm a sinner. I recognize the penalty for my sin is death. I place my faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God as the One who died for me and was raised from the dead. When I believe in Him in that context I am born again. I become a child of God. Now I live my life in obedience to His Word. I don't withdraw from the world. I don't withdraw my family from the world. I am identified now with the people of God in the world, not part of the world but in the world. We are a light set on a hill. We are light in the midst of darkness. So while we may admire some of the asceticism of the cults that withdraw, that close themselves in and so on, that's not what God has called us to do. We sometimes want to do it. We identify with them because we want to do it. I'd like to gather my family around me and go hide someplace and wait for the coming of the Lord. But God has told me to serve Him and represent Him in the midst of a fallen and decadent world, giving forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus Christ comes in the air all those who are believers in Jesus Christ will be caught up to meet Him in the air. Now we're talking particularly about the Church now, those who are members of the Body that began in Acts chapter 2. Those who have died since Acts chapter 2 who were believers in Christ, their bodies will be resurrected from the grave. They have been in spirit in the presence of God. They will move back into those bodies. Those who are alive will be transformed.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15:50, "Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." That's talking to the Church. The Church cannot go into the Kingdom in flesh and blood. There will be people who go into the Kingdom in their physical bodies, but the Church cannot go into the Kingdom in its physical body. "Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet; the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, we shall be changed." Note how it will happen. Verse 52, "in a moment, the twinkling of an eye." “Moment,” we get the English word atom from this Greek word. In an atom of time. Just quicker than you can bat your eyes that transformation will occur we'll be caught up to meet Christ in the air. That will bring to a conclusion death. Death will have been overcome. That's what happens to those who are alive. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul says, "I wouldn't have you grieve brethren over loved ones who have died for we who are at the coming of Christ will not proceed those who have fallen asleep [who have died] for the dead in Christ shall rise first." That's the order. So yes, I have hope of seeing family members and loved ones who have died who were believers in Christ. They'll come a day of reunion in the air when Christ will descend and call us to meet Himself.

Then we'll be taken to the place He has prepared for us. John 14, "I go to prepare a place for you." I take it that's distinct from what He is going to prepare on earth in the Kingdom. He went to heaven to prepare this place. He's going to come and get me and take me to that place. It will be different than when He comes at the end of the seven years, the second phase of the second coming, and establishes a kingdom on the earth that has not yet been prepared and will not be prepared until He comes. Then it will be followed by a sevenyear period, the sevenyear Tribulation we call it because it's a time of great turmoil and trouble on the earth. That will conclude with the return of Christ to earth.


You recently studied Daniel in our adult school of the Bible. Turn back to the prophecy of Daniel. Just let me mention a passage or two here. Daniel chapter 9. Really the backbone of God's plan for Israel as a nation is set forth here. Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 when Daniel is told by the angel, "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people your holy city." You note that 70 sevens literally is what it says. Seventy periods of seven. Other points of Scripture make clear this is 70 seven year periods. Seventy seven year periods, 490 years, "have been decreed for your people," Daniel. “Your people”. Daniel is a Jew. “Your people,” Israel, "and your holy city," Jerusalem. In that 490 years these six things will be accomplished. "Finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, anoint the most holy place." So you know when he breaks it down from the decree to go forth and rebuild Jerusalem. We'll get to this in our Old Testament study when we get to Nehemiah sometime.

You note. After 62 weeks in verse 26. He breaks it down. First there's a seven week period. Then there's a 62 week period. So after . . . In verse 26 when he says after 62 weeks, that was after seven. So after a total of 69 weeks the Messiah will be cut off. You'll note it's specific here. It doesn't say He'll be cut off in the 70th week. He's cut off after the 69th week. But the 70th week hasn't begun yet. Now that's important because that indicates the Church did not begin in Acts chapter 2 until the break between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel. The Church was not part of the first 69 weeks. You can get something like Elva J McClain's book in Sound Words on the 70 weeks of Daniel. He shows how the 70 weeks climax at the time of Palm Sunday and a week later Jesus Christ is crucified in Jerusalem.

Then you note verse 27, "And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week." Well, we've jumped now. This is a period of almost 2000 years between the crucifixion of the Messiah and the signing of the covenant in verse 27. It hasn't been signed yet. So what happens is God breaks off His program with the nation Israel. He doesn't do away with Israel, but He is no longer focusing His attention in salvation on the nation Israel because of their rebellion. His attention is focused on the Church that He is forming. When He has completed His work with the Church He will remove it and resume the program with Israel. There are seven years to go. Beginning of that sevenyear period will begin with “a firm covenant with the many for one week.” In the middle of the week He puts a stop to the sacrifices that have been instituted. So you have a sevenyear period divided into two equal three parts. The seven-year period begins when the man referred to here makes a peace agreement with Israel. You back up to Daniel chapter 7. Daniel unfolds the coming empires of the world beginning with Babylon, the empire that was ruling when Daniel wrote. The last major empire is Rome in verse 8. The iron empire as it was depicted in chapter 2 of Daniel. This fierce beast, at the end of verse 7, this fierce beast has ten horns. So, the final form of the Roman empire will be a ten nation confederacy because these ten horns are said to be in verse 24 ten kings that arise out of the Roman Empire. Some don't like to say the Roman Empire will be revived because they say it never died. And there are elements of the Roman Empire that have continued right down today. One element of it is the Roman Catholic church. So whether you call it the revived Roman Empire, the reblooming of the Roman Empire, what we're talking about is the Roman Empire coming to center stage again and being the focal point dominating the world.


Verse 8 of Daniel 7, "While I was contemplating the horns, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it." Verse 24 gives the interpretation. As for the ten kings, out of this kingdom, the Roman Empire. Ten kings will arise, another will arise after them, he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. Well, some say that happened back in Roman days and they try to put together who these ten emperors were and so on. The problem is that both in Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7 this final form of Roman Empire is destroyed by Jesus Christ. It is very specific. Verse 25 this ruling one who displaces three of the ten kings, so becomes the dominant power in this ten nation confederacy will what? "Have power," at the end of verse 25, "for a time, times and a half time." Or as Revelation tells us 42 months, three and a half years, 260 days also the figure used. So we don't wonder what we're talking about. Then his end will come with the judgment of verse 26 and the sovereignty of Christ. Daniel 2 says he'll smash the earthly empires during the days of these kings and set up his own empire. That hasn't happened. So you don't have to be a brilliant genius to recognize it hasn't taken place yet. Christ isn't ruling. Earthly empires haven't been brought to an end. Everybody doesn't live under the authority of Christ and acknowledge Him as king and on we go.

So we have the rise to power within this ten nation confederacy. That's why the times we are living in are so crucial and I, you know, hope you read the newspaper and watch the news with this alertness that there is going to be a revived or a revitalized Roman Empire in the last days before the return of Christ to earth after the Rapture of the Church in that seven year period before Christ comes. That's why the European community becomes so prominent and so significant. That collection of nations, the realm of the old Roman Empire, that are federated together. Do you ever notice how sometimes that European community makes the news and then it seems like you go for months and you only see these little blurbs on page 4 or page 6 that something happened there? But keep in mind they haven't stopped working on, the currency issues and the political alignments and the military tragedy and all of that. It's just not making the news today here. But all of that going on and preparing the way. Someday when that block of power comes and you say, boy, that just happened overnight. Well, overnight if you want to consider the last several millenniums. But not overnight in that it hasn't been going on for years and years.

Now within that ten-nation confederacy there's going to be a man whose going to make an agreement with Israel, Daniel 9:27, guaranteeing the security and peace of the nation Israel. So for the first three and half years of that seven year Tribulation Israel will be at peace. The temple will be rebuilt. The sacrificial system will be reinstituted and on we go. I’m reading a book that is unfolding all the things that have already been done. The temple garments and the number of temple garments that have been already prepared so that they can be worn. The priests that are being trained. The red heifer that is being developed so that it will meet the requirements of the Old Testament. For the red heifer to be able to be sacrificed to do the initial cleansing to enable all of this to go into operation. All this going on. Again, we don't always read it in the news. Periodically there's a blurb, but what we do see all the time going on and I just clipped this out of yesterday's paper since it was current, and that's in Yahoo. "Clinton plan is like mine. Quick peace is US goal, Israeli says." Now this has been in the news endlessly recently about the turmoil in the Middle East. What is significant to me is as Israel strives for peace you constantly have the Western World involved. Now is Clinton the Antichrist? I don't think so.


You know, that's not the point of the study of biblical prophecy to identify a man. But one thing that the prophecies do indicate we noted was there's going to be a ten-nation confederacy, the old Roman Empire. Well, the United States doesn't fit within that unless you say the United States was formed out of the old Roman Empire by England, Spain and France or something like that. But it would seem that this Ten Nation Confederacy and someone who is not even prominent in this Ten Nation Confederacy, he's a little horn at the beginning. He's the one who signs the agreement. And he doesn't develop power and replace three of the horns, three of the kingdoms, until you get to the middle of the Tribulation. So even at the beginning when he signs the agreement he won't be the dominant primary figure. But in this day Israel needs peace. Palestine has to have peace and the world's convinced we can't get on with world peace until we resolve this. And so you have a nation like the United States. The European community has been involved in the peace process there. Countries like Frances think that they ought to be the key player in the peace process. Whatever. What is interesting to us as believers is there's jockeying going on. Would it surprise us today if the Rapture occurred and this week there was a peace agreement there signed? We've come to a resolution, it's satisfactory and the power of the Western world guarantees it. I mean would that be a surprise to you? Not really. I mean, there is all this talk. You know there's a lot more going on behind the scenes. We find out about secret meetings after things have been resolved. So to say the only thing that's going on is what we read about in the newspaper, I'm not saying they are. I'm saying that you see this taking place in this context.

Israel's position, the European community, the pressure for peace in the Middle East. All that has to be there for the signing of the agreement that will mark the beginning of the Tribulation. Back up to Ezekiel 38 just before Daniel. Again, we've done the details on this many times. This is a highlight for those of you who may be newer and a refresher. Ezekiel 38 speaks about a coming invasion of Israel led by a northern enemy, a northern enemy aligned with Arab powers. I was interested, I took this out of yesterday’s Omaha World Herald, "Russians Arms a Hit with Arabs." How Russia is becoming the dominant arms player in Arab countries and how this is tying them together. They had a major arms fair in the United Arab Emirates. And you're shopping for a new submarine, armored vehicles, how about a truck mounted antitank missile with semiautomatic laser beam guidance system and thermal imagery for night operation. Has Russia caught a deal for you? Of course the Arabs are latching on to this and they are buying the Russian equivalent of our patriot missiles that were so instrumental in the Gulf War. Now they’re being made available. Well, Ezekiel 38 says there's coming a time when an alliance of Russia. Oh, we say, the collapse of the Soviet Union, I guess that did away with it. It didn't do away with Russia. It broke up some of the entities aligned with Russia to comprise a Soviet united empire but Russia is still dominant military power.


They are going to be aligned with Arab countries in Ezekiel 38 and they are going to launch an attack on Israel. When is this going to occur? Well, we don't have time to go through this passage, but you'll note verse 6 says they'll come from the remote parts of the North. And I got out my map again. And you get Jerusalem and just draw a line going start north and see where you come. Now I realize that in the Old Testament the enemy from the North, because it was normal for the enemies of Israel, whether it was Babylon whether it was Assyria whether it was Persia, to come down because the desert is out here. Reverse of where you are, of where I am, and they come around the crescent down into Israel from the North. But they all become a picture of the ultimate enemy of the north and I take it that will be the armies of Russia and their allies.

When will they come? Well, it says “in those days.” Just look at the end of verse 8. After Israel has been gathered from all the nations of the world back into the land of Palestine. Verse 8, "After many days you will be summoned. In the later years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel." And you note what will be happening at the end of verse 8. They will be living securely all of them.

Look at the end of verse 11, "They will say I live securely without walls, having no bars or gates." Look at verse 14 the end of the verse, "When my people Israel are living securely." Then verse 15 says, "They will come out of the remote parts of the north." Well, Israel isn't living securely now. Israel is constantly in defense of its life and very existence. But when that agreement is signed with the Little Horn, the agreement of Daniel 9:27 guaranteeing the security and peace of existence of Israel, then Israel will be able to live at peace and to devote its resources to developing the nation and restoring its glory.

So does what is going on in the world fit together with what the Bible says about the coming Christ? Surely, it does. Many things taking place are awesome and amazing. The breakup of the Soviet Union, boy that set us back in that plan. No, it seemed to me to move us forward. Now you got a country there that is turmoil. It needs nothing more than a war to help solidify it and restore it to the glory that it thinks belongs to it. It has the armament. It's developed the allies and Israel is the focus. Anybody be surprised at that? The only thing that would really make us surprised is where's the United States? Where will Europe be? But whatever is going on perhaps the United States is gone. Some of you have watched on programs on natural catastrophes, volcanoes and everything. You see like the rim of volcanoes in the world. Can you imagine a few of those going off in the United States? So much for that great power. Or other natural catastrophes.


We don't know what's going to happen. But we do know that there will be a ten nation confederacy in the revived Roman Empire. We know Israel is back in the land. We know there will be an agreement signed. Roman Catholic Church of course will lead the Apostate Church. We are amazed and we say what's happening. I find myself saying, what is happening today? Evangelicals signing agreements with Roman Catholics. Organizations developing that are taking now huge amounts of money like Promise Keepers built on bringing Catholics and Protestants and everybody else together. The ecumenical church so amazing. I wonder what will be left for the Fundamental Biblebelieving church when all this is done the way things are coming together. That is awesome. You take every true bornagain Christian out of the evangelical church you have taken out any reason at all for not signing a binding agreement with the Roman Catholic church. The fact is a major move among Protestants and among professing evangelicals as we've talked about on other occasions towards these liturgical churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Because what? You go to the evangelical church today to watch plays. I don't know, what's reverent about that? I can go to the theater and watch a play. People are looking for something with more substance. So you can be sure with the Rapture of the Church the ecumenical church will quickly fall together. Because what keeps them apart? I mean, the holy father can you not like him? And you know, we all want a mother and on we go. You get Mary, you get the holy father and you don't have to give up anything cause you can pretty well do what you want. So, I look at this and say, "Lord, you know, I'm pre-Trib. I hope You are." Things are coming together.

Should I be caught off guard. I mean, would you really be surprised if the Lord would come today. And you say, "Wow." You never thought that when you looked around the world. I look around the world and say could you think He won't come today? If He doesn't, my faith won't be shattered and there are other things going on.

But turn with me to a few passages. Turn to 1 John chapter 4. Just a few passages and then we'll close. We talk about the Apostate church and its influence. And I mention it because the influence of the Apostate church and the apostate system that will culminate in the Apostate church infiltrates and puts its tentacles out everywhere. And it puts it into the Evangelical church. And we in this decadent and depraved world look for things we can agree on rather than on what we disagree on. And so in 1 John chapter 4 we are told, "Beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world." Are we surprised about these cults, these false leaders? We shake our head and say what's going on. We say the very thing we'd expect. In fact, we think it would get worse. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 that when you get to the great tribulation there are going to be false messiahs and false prophets springing up claiming that they are genuine. Don't be deluded he says. You'll know when the real one is here. "By this you know the Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is from God." Here you see, I think, one of the areas that developed into Gnosticism in the second century. The Gnostics denied that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. My flesh is evil. So, John in addressing that, said you have to believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He's deity. He came in the flesh. He didn't begin to exist in the flesh, but He was truly a human being. This is one of the marks of the genuineness of a believer.

"Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. That's the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world." Now you see this little horn, this antichrist, that will rule, the spirit that will culminate in his rule has been present in the world since the days of John. The Devil has been working his counterfeit. It will climax in the Antichrist.

Turn to 2 Thessalonians while we're talking about this man. I have to decide what to leave out. Second Thessalonians chapter 2. Here you have the coming on to the scene of the Antichrist, the little horn, a little more developed about him. You note he is called in verse 3, "Let no one deceive you in any way, it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction." He so epitomizes the rebellion against God he becomes the incarnation of that rebellion. He is the closest we come to the Devil in the flesh even as we had God in the flesh. He is the most fully demonically empowered false messiah the world will ever have seen.


Jump down to verse 7, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work." So, you see there's a man of lawlessness but that mystery of lawlessness is already at work. It will culminate in him. Now let me say something here. It's why, it’s another reason why it's so stupid for Christians to scratch their head and say what is going on in the world today. Look at the lawlessness, the rebellion. All sin really is rebellion against God, isn't it? Sin is lawlessness. First John tells us. It's rebellion against God and God's standard. Well, here we're told it's the mystery of lawlessness. It's no wonder the world doesn't understand it. Put more money in education. Do more social programs. Clean up this. Do this. Give people more freedom. Whatever. You see, they don't understand. Lawlessness is a mystery. A mystery in Scripture is something that needs divine revelation for understanding.

We as believers understand what is going on, why the world is selfdestructing. The mystery of lawlessness is at work and as we get closer and closer to that time when the man of lawlessness will be revealed. I take it the manifestation of that lawlessness will blossom even more. But oh boy, then, it's going to become hopeless. No. Why? Because there is a restrainer. And He restrains, verse 7, until He's taken out of the way. I take it that's the Holy Spirit. With the Rapture of the Church, the Holy Spirit will be removed in His restraining influence. He'll still be present in the world, but He will be removed. Much in the same as He was present before Acts chapter 2. But He came in Acts chapter 2. And Jesus said in His teaching of the Disciples on that last night that the Holy Spirit couldn't come until I send him. But He said the people of His day were guilty against blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. So He was coming in a new and unique way and He is going to be removed in a special way.

With the removal of the Holy Spirit at the Rapture and the unfolding of the seven-year Tribulation, the restraint on lawlessness will be taken away. And things will get as bad as they could get. In fact, in Matthew Jesus said, Matthew 24, at the end of seven years there wouldn't be anybody left alive on the face of the earth. And we can see that. You look at our society in our own city, quiet Midwest. They have shootouts now. Somebody drives by with a load of people in a car and shoots at another car. You'd think we were in stagecoach days. You know, we drive by and shoot at each other. What's happening in our society? Now we’ve got to see whether we should carry guns. I'm not saying whether I'm for or against. I'm just saying the very fact shows you where our society is going, doesn't it? Well, we have a Restrainer. Do I think, boy, it's going to get to the point where you won't be able to live here? No. I'm going with the Holy Spirit, folks and He will restrain the evil. You might say, I don't think He's doing a very good job. Cause as I look around it doesn't seem very restrained. You have some people who want to be the Holy Spirit today and think they're serving the Lord. Well, you understand we are on God's program. We're moving toward the Tribulation. We're not moving toward the worldwide revival that some people say is coming. We're moving toward the Tribulation. That's what the Bible says we're moving toward. You don't have groups getting together praying for Tribulation. You have people getting together praying for revival. They want to pray for what they want. They are not so different than the cultic people who create a dilution in their mind and then give it all they've got. I hope God works in great and wonderful ways. I do. I hope there is revival as a result of the preaching of His Word, but I know where we're going. We're not going toward world revival. We're going to a world catastrophethe seven-year Tribulation.

One other passage and we will quit. One other passage and two parts. Turn over after 2 Thessalonians to 1 Timothy chapter 4. First Timothy chapter 4. I don't know how this sermon got so long. First Timothy chapter 4. "The Spirit," verse 1, "The Spirit explicitly says that in the later time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Note that. They are going to fall away from the faith. That would mean some who have professed the faith weren't genuine. They are going to fall away. They are going to be deluded. That becomes a sifting thing. "There must be divisions among you so that those who are proved can become evident," Paul wrote to the Corinthians. That's going to go on in the last days so it ought not surprise us.

You note what are some of the things they are going to teach. Verse 3, "Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods." It's going to sound great. Aren't you glad to hear somebody in this perverse sexuallysaturated day say they believe in abstinence? And I go so far as I don't even think there ought to be sex in marriage. And you say, well that's just a refreshing breeze anyway. It seems like everybody's having sex on every corner. At least be thankful that there are some clean upstanding, clean shaven castrated people running around. I mean, you know, you get to that point as believers, don't you? You just get so tired of the overwhelming filth. You say I'm glad for the cult members. Just like I'm glad for the Mormons that at least you know, emphasize family life. Come on. Give me a break. But you see God's not glad. I mean, that's just as perverse as the perverseness we see.

OKs, now the final passage for real. Every preacher gets a final passage and a final, final passage. Second Timothy 3. I just have to read this and then we're done. Doesn't this sound like a description that somebody wrote of our country on our day in the last few weeks. "But realize this in the last days difficult times will come." Now note that. What are believers looking for? Revival. Good times. Acceptance. What's God promise? Difficult times. I take it the closer we get to the return of the Lord the more difficult times we can expect because we are going to roll into the Tribulation. "Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money." Don't we have enough trouble with that even with our government. "Boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without selfcontrol, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." That sounds like a pretty accurate description of our day. How did he know? Well, God knows the end from the beginning. "They have a form of godliness, but they've denied its power."

Eightyeight percent still think they'll going to heaven with their friends. A form of godliness. But when you share the Gospel with some of those 88 percent you're going to find out there's quite a bit of hostility toward the truth. Don't shake my world. I want to believe my fantasy.


These are great days of opportunity. I guess we talk about the first coming of Christ and enjoy celebrating it in a special way in the past week, last week. We are really people focused on the first coming and on the second coming. These days of great opportunity. You think we may be the generation that will be alive when Christ calls the Church into His presence and that can happen at any time. Boy, should we want to stand out as lights in the midst of darkness? I'm all caught up with what kind of job I have. We bring our children up more to be worried about where they're going to work, their status and standards than we do about the coming of Christ. I mean, do we really believe this? And we have it in the Scripture, and we see it all coming together around us. I have to say if I was an angel looking on this I'd be scratching my ears or wings or whatever they have and saying what's wrong with those people. I mean, here they are on the brink of the return of the Lord. He told them in black and white and the evidence is everywhere and they're more concerned about their retirement and pension plan. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. I'm just saying the focus of our life has to be single and one.

Would you be surprised if Christ would come back today? I mean, really, as a believer in Jesus Christ would it shock you if 4:15 this afternoon that atom of time comes and we're gone? It shouldn't. It won't shock me if it doesn't. But it shouldn't shock me if it does. I trust you're ready. The only way to be ready is . . . You don't have to go home and drink anything, eat anything. You don't have to give any more money to this church. You don't have to buy this preacher a Cadillac, send him on a vacation . . . No. What do you have to do? You’ve got to recognize God is right. That you are a sinner, Jesus Christ is the Savior, you must turn from your sin and believe in Him. When you do you become His child and you're prepared for the future. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for Your grace. Thank you for what is unfolding in the world around us. And Lord, we are in awe. It meshes so perfectly, so completely, with the truth You've revealed in Your Word. And we are reminded You are the sovereign God. Everything is under control. Everything is on time. And we are privileged to serve this God and represent Him in these days. May we be a people characterized by commitment, by zeal. Lord, may we be faithful until Christ calls us into His presence. We pray in Christ's name, amen.


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