The Rapture Preceding the Seventieth Week

Transcript

GRM 1118
1/19/2014
The Rapture Preceding the 70th Week
Selected Scriptures
Gil Rugh

We're talking about the church in our study together. We are looking at the future of the church, talking particularly about the rapture of the church, that time when Jesus Christ will descend in the clouds, not come to the earth, but in the clouds He'll descend and He will call all believers from the church age to come and meet Him in the clouds. And then He will take us to His Father's home, the glories of heaven where we will be presented by Him before the throne of the Father as holy and blameless and without reproach, as Paul wrote to the Colossians. This is our hope, we need to understand it, and we need to be clear on it. It is called the blessed hope of the believer. And if we lose sight of that hope, we will begin to get mired down in the messiness of this world, the discouragements, and the disappointments. But what keeps us focused is Christ is coming again and perhaps even today.

This is called the rapture of the church, we've talked about it in previous studies. The word rapture, the English word, does not appear in our English Bible. We saw it translated as caught up, the Greek word is harpazo. H a r p a z o is how we would translate it over. It means to be caught up. We get rapture from the Latin. The Greek Bible was translated into Latin and we've carried the Latin word over into English and we have rapture so it is not an issue over the particular word. The time when believers will be caught up to meet Christ in the air.

We looked at some passages that dealt with the fact of the rapture. John 14, Jesus said He went to prepare a place for us and He would come to receive us and take us to Himself. 1 Thessalonians 4, as we heard during the ministry of music that Christ would descend and we would be caught up to meet Him in the clouds. And other passages like that.

The rapture is not the Second Coming. If you have the list on the rapture and the Second Coming you can put it up there. These are just a few examples of the differences between the rapture and the Second Coming. The list could be made extensive, but these are just three matters on the rapture and three matters on the Second Coming that I have noted. At the rapture Christ meets His children in the air, at the Second Coming Christ returns to the earth in glory. Every eye will see Him. Secondly, at the rapture the bodies of all those who are caught up to meet Christ are glorified, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that in a moment, an atom of time, the twinkling of an eye we shall be changed. Our bodies will be brought into conformity with the body of the glorified Christ. At the Second Coming Christ destroys His enemies, He comes to earth to bring destruction on His enemies. There is nothing mentioned about that at the rapture of the church. And thirdly, believers are taken to heaven at the rapture to be with the Lord, whereas Christ takes believers into the kingdom at His Second Coming to earth and of particular interest are those in their physical bodies. We'll be talking about the importance of that as we look at some of the matters relating to the rapture.

So these are just a few examples of the contrast between the rapture, when believers are caught up to meet Christ in the air, and the Second Coming to earth. We often distinguish that the first phase of Christ's Second Coming is the rapture, the second phase is His coming to earth. So we talk about the Second Coming, we could be talking either about the first phase, the rapture, and then the second phase, the Second Coming.

And then if you would put the chart up of the 70 weeks, there will be a little bit of context. We looked in a previous study on the 70 weeks of Daniel from Daniel 9. That is a period of 70 seven-year periods, 490 years that Daniel 9, the opening verses, said were determined for the Jews and Jerusalem. They are not focused for Gentiles. That's a focus in God's plan for the nation Israel. 483 years have been carried out, 69 of those 70 seven-year periods. They ended with the coming of Christ to earth and His crucifixion. It says after the 69th week, in Daniel 9, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. So we noted there is an indication of a gap there. He is not cut off, crucified in the 70th week, He is cut off after the 69th week because not revealed in the Old Testament is that period we call the church age that we have highlighted in brown color to mark it out. There is nothing revealed about that period in the Old Testament. Remember the Old Testament's revelation dealt with the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming, but it did not reveal that there would be a space between the first and Second Coming. It simply told us the Messiah would come and rule and reign, and that same Messiah was coming to suffer and die. And the Old Testament prophets didn't understand how those two events could be worked out.

So the church age is the period of time in which we live. Following Christ's ascension to heaven in Acts 1, He sent the Spirit in Acts 2 and that marked the beginning of the church. The end of the church will be marked by the rapture of the church. We have there highlighted with the arrow coming up to meet Christ in the air and then we are taken with Him to His Father's house in glory. That's followed by the last seven-year period, the 70th week of Daniel, also called the tribulation. So what we're talking about is referred to as the pre-tribulational rapture, it occurs pre-tribulational, pre-70th week, before that last seven-year period in God's program for Israel. There are some who call themselves post-tribulational, and they believe the rapture of the church will not occur until the end of the 70th week when Christ returns to earth. And they would say the church will just be caught up to meet Christ on His way down, then we'll turn around and come back down to earth with Him. But Christ said when He came to meet us in the air, He would take us to His Father's house. So we're talking about separate events.

We've been looking at some of the reasons why we believe the rapture occurs at the end of the church age, before that last seven-year period. So the first reason we gave was the focus of these 70 weeks. Daniel said, 70 weeks, the angel told Daniel, 70 weeks are determined for your people, Daniel, the Jews and your holy city, Jerusalem. The focus is not for the Gentiles or for the church. The church is not Israel. So the first 69 weeks ended just before Christ was crucified. In our bookstore, Sound Words, you can pick up a booklet or a pamphlet that will lay out the unfolding details of those and brings us just really within days of Christ's crucifixion. But after that He was crucified. So the nature of the 70 weeks, and that's what we were talking about with our last study. So you can take that off. But remember the church age is what we are talking about here. And we looked in Romans 11. We're talking about the focus of the 70 weeks of Daniel is the first reason that we've given for the rapture occurring before this last seven-year period.

Romans 11 is where we were as we concluded our previous study. And Paul is talking about Israel and God is obviously, by the time of Paul's ministry in writing the letter to the Romans, the Gentiles have become the dominant focus of God's work of salvation in the world. Paul himself was the apostle to the Gentiles. The churches that have been established, outside of the church in Jerusalem, have primarily been Gentiles in other parts of the world, like the church at Rome that received this letter to the Romans. Romans 9-11, Paul is talking about what does this mean for the nation Israel. Has the nation Israel been cast away by God? Replaced by the church? The answer is no, definitely not.

And when you come to Romans 11 Paul began by saying, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! That's an impossibility. God has not rejected His people, the Jews, Israel He chose for Himself. They have stumbled but they didn't stumble so that they would fall on their face and God would be done with them. Down in verse 11, may it never be. So Paul reminds the Gentiles, you and me, what God's plan for the Jews is. Some Gentiles in the church have missed this, they are still teaching that there is no future for Israel. They need to read again what Paul has said here. Verse 13, “I am speaking to you who are Gentiles.” I'm an apostle to the Gentiles but you need to get your feet back on the ground. Be careful you don't become arrogant, God is not done with Israel.

So come down to verse 25. He has explained how in God's plan, Gentiles were grafted in to the rich root of the olive tree, the Abrahamic Covenant and the promises God gave to Abraham in that covenant which were elaborated on in subsequent covenants given to the nation Israel. But we become participants, not because we become Israel, but because in the Abrahamic Covenant there was a statement, and in you, your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That made provision for you and for me to enter into all the salvation blessings that God promised in that covenant to Abraham.

So Romans 11:25, I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery. We noted that word mystery becomes a key. A mystery in the New Testament is something that had not been revealed before. It's not something mysterious in the sense it is hard to understand or figure out, it's something impossible to know unless God reveals it. So Romans 11:25-26a, “I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved.” That will fulfill Old Testament promises, verses 26-27.

Romans 11:28a, “From the standpoint of the Gospel they are enemies for your sake,” you Gentiles. This is a time when Israel is under the judgment of God. That's for our benefit as Gentiles. Romans 11:28b-29, “But from the standpoint of God's election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” People who say that the church has replaced Israel. That is an attack on the character of God. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. God's promises to Israel as the nation Israel will be fulfilled exactly as they were promised in the Old Testament. But the mystery is, in this time when God has placed Israel under judgment, he is carrying out a program of bringing His salvation to the Gentile nations. It's called, the end of verse 25, the fullness of the Gentiles. It's not until the fullness of the Gentiles is completed that God's program with Israel will be resumed, culminating in the salvation of the nation Israel. That's a mystery not made known in the Old Testament. So this period of time that we are living in, beginning in Acts 2 and down to the rapture of the church, was not revealed in the Old Testament and it wasn't necessary for it to be revealed because that's not part of God's plan for the nation Israel. It's a mystery.

Come over to Ephesians 3. Paul is writing to another Gentile church, the church at Ephesus. And here he is explaining to these Gentiles that they need to understand how they fit in the plan of God. They have not replaced Israel, theology sometimes referred to as replacement theology, those who believe the church has replaced Israel. So in Ephesians 2 he is addressing them. Ephesians 2:11a, “Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh,” the uncircumcision. That’s crucial because circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants and we Gentiles had no part of that. Ephesians 2:12, “remember that you at that time were separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” You understand in the Old Testament there was no evangelism program for the nations? No missions program. I remember my Hebrew professor, Dr. Best, when I was a seminary student, just shaking his head. Anybody who thinks they find missions in the Old Testament, maybe I paraphrase, needs to have their head examined. Their theology is deficient.

What does God say? He put Israel down in Egypt for 400 years in preparation for giving them the land of Canaan. You know He didn't sent missionaries, He didn't tell Israel, you go in and evangelize the Canaanites because their destruction is coming. He just put Israel down in Egypt, then when He brought them out of Egypt and said, now you can go into Canaan, not to evangelize, you destroy every man, woman and child in that land. Some people refer to Jonah, we don't have time to talk about Jonah. He goes to Ninevah, but it wasn't really an evangelism program, it was a program in God's plan that would delay His judgment on the Assyrians so they could become the instrument of God in bringing judgment on the northern ten tribes and carrying them into captivity. The prophet Jonah saw that on the horizon, he was not a happy camper when the Ninevites repented. We find him sulking under a shade gourd. So, no, there was no evangelism program to the nations. God's work of salvation centered in Israel. That doesn't mean there wasn't an occasional Gentile who by God's grace was saved, but God is dealing with the nation Israel.

The church in Ephesians 3, see Paul further explains this under the inspiration of the Spirit. Ephesians 3:1-3, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles_ if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.” I'm the apostle to the Gentiles. Here is new material revealed that had not been made known in the Old Testament, was not made known, really, in the gospels because the church doesn't begin until after the gospels in Acts 2. That by referring to this, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. How do you know this, Paul? God revealed it to me. This is new revelation from Him. The mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men. There is the definition of a mystery, something that had not been made known before. What is it? Ephesians 3:6, to be specific, that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”

What he is doing here. Ephesians 3:8-9, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery” [There, we live in this time of the administration of the mystery. We call it the dispensation of grace.] “which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.” [This is not new in the plan of God, this is new to man in the revelation of God,] “in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” The angels are observers of God's plan of grace, reaching outside now from Israel to the nations. Amazing. It's the mystery of the church.

So people who find the church in the Old Testament have misunderstood what God has said. He is telling us He didn't reveal the church in prior generations. You have to wait until the coming of Paul and the others associated with him who were involved in giving us our New Testament to understand this part of the plan of God.

All right, so the first reason for a pre-tribulational rapture is the focus of God's dealing with Israel in the 70 weeks. The church is not included in that, that church is included what God provided for in the covenant with Abraham, that in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed, but they are not part of that 70th week period. This is a period that began after the end of the 69th week and will conclude before the 70th week. So that God's focus in salvation will turn once again to the nation Israel by the end of that seven-year period as we read in Romans 11, all Israel will be saved.

The second reason why I believe the rapture must occur before the 70th week of Daniel is the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church. Come back to John 14. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church age, that period of time in which we are living that we marked out on the chart from Acts 2 down to the rapture, is a unique ministry. In John 14 we are in that last night that began in John 13 and will run through John 17 where Christ spends with His disciples. They have already had what we call the Last Supper. Now Christ is giving them teaching to prepare them for the most shocking of events. He is going to be crucified, He is going to be leaving. There is not going to be the kingdom, He is explaining the importance of these matters.

Jesus says in John 14:16 “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper,” [It carries the idea of another one of the same kind, another Helper like Me. You have the Greek word in your margin, paraclete. It means one called alongside. Para is alongside, the clete is from the verb to call, to call alongside, to give aid, comfort, help.] “that He may be with you forever;” That Helper will be the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. Important to see a distinction that takes place here. It's not that the Holy Spirit hasn't been present, He is present as Christ addresses them. He says, you know Him because He has been present with you, He abides with you. The change will be He will be in you. That's one change.

Then you come down to John 14:26, “but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” So the Holy Spirit coming, going to give new revelation, additional revelation to enable them to write what Christ taught and what Christ would reveal.

Come over to John 15: 26, “when the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me. And you will testify because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

Come to John 16, and this is very crucial to what we are talking about. John 16:7, “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Now you'll note, the coming of the Holy Spirit is in a unique way for purposes that He has not carried out before. It's not that the Holy Spirit was just in heaven and couldn't come down to earth until Christ ascended and sent Him. He already told them, remember, He abides with you. You know Him. But He will be in you. So the sending of the Holy Spirit is for the accomplishing of ministry that He had not carried out prior, the indwelling of believers.

Note here in the context, John 16:8, And when He comes, He will convict Israel. That's not what it says. He will convict the world, the nations of sin, righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin because they do not believe in Me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me, concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Verse 13, “but when He, the Spirit of truth, comes He will guide you into all the truth.” You'll note the new ministry of the Spirit. He is with you but will be in you, He will come and convict the world, the nations. That is different than the ministry of the Holy Spirit during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ in the gospels.

Come back to Matthew 10. And here this is during Christ's earthly ministry and He is sending out His twelve apostles to tell the message about the Messiah being present. And the twelve are summoned, verse 1, they have authority over diseases and sicknesses because remember this is a ministry to tell them, the end of verse 7, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What will be characteristic of the Messiah and His reign? He will heal diseases and so on. So the twelve are mentioned in verses 2-4. Then note Christ's clear instructions in Matthew 10:5a, “These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, do not go in the way of the Gentiles,” You see that. This is not an evangelism program, reaching out to the Gentiles. You don't go and give this message to Gentiles. You don't even go into any city of the Samaritans. The Samaritans were mixed blood, but not true Jews. You don't even go to them. You go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That is crucial. Now remember when Jesus tells them then at the last night, shortly before His crucifixion, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the nations, the world. But during their earthly ministry they have been told, you don't go to the Gentiles. Remember when you get to the book of Acts, Peter is used to preach the Gospel to the Jews assembled in Jerusalem. And the church begins in Acts 2, the Spirit comes down and indwells them. But by the time you get to Acts 10 Peter still does not understand that the Gentiles are included in God's plan.

In Acts 10, Peter has a vision of a sheet let down from heaven, filled with all kinds of unclean animals. And God instructs him, go ahead, sit down and make something to eat. Eat these unclean animals. Peter says, I can't do it, I've never eaten anything unclean. Do you know what God tells him? Don't you call unclean what I have called holy. That happens three times. Then a knock comes on the door and somebody comes from the house of Cornelius and says, we want you to come to the house of Cornelius. Do you know what Peter tells them when he gets there? If God hadn't given me that special revelation that the Gentiles were no longer to be unclean, I would not have come and told you the Gospel when you asked me. Can you imagine how serious that is? Here is a Jewish man who says, I would not have come and told you the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Gentiles if God had not specially revealed to me that I had to do it. That tells you how great the change is. Peter had been told that the Holy Spirit would convict the Gentiles, the nations, the world, but he still wasn't clear on that, still couldn't imagine that he would go to a Gentile house and tell Gentile people assembled there about the Savior. And then he has the awesome experience of seeing the Holy Spirit come on Gentiles.

So you know what happened with the other apostles in Jerusalem in Acts 11? When they hear that Peter went to the house of Gentiles and preached about Christ, they call him to account. What in the world are you thinking? What are you doing going to Gentiles and telling them the truth of Christ? I mean, you'd think they would be excited. And Peter has to explain to them how God gave him a vision and how he wasn't to call unclean what God had made clean. And the apostles, well, amazing. We're in Acts 11. I guess God is going to bring salvation to Gentiles. For us we understand there is a radical change. For 2000 years God's program focused in one nation, His program of salvation. He used other nations but everything toward salvation focused in Israel. Now all of a sudden we are going to go to dirty, unclean Gentiles. It was hard for Peter, he even stumbled. Remember in Galatians 2 Paul said, Peter did all right but when some Jews from Jerusalem came, he went back and wouldn't eat with Gentiles. And I had to rebuke him. Now we understand, by and large the church is Gentile worldwide and from Acts 13 to the end of the book of Acts the ministry of the Apostle Paul, he preaches to Jews but he is directed toward Gentiles and Gentile parts of the world.

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is special and unique.

Come over to 2 Thessalonians, we'll skip a verse. You remember in Acts 1 Jesus is ministering to His disciples, explaining more information about the kingdom. And they say to him, “will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They still don't have any idea and couldn't know that no, Christ isn't back now and getting ready to establish the kingdom for Israel. He is getting ready to leave and ascend to heaven and you will receive power; after that the Holy Spirit comes upon you, He says in Acts 1:8. And what will they do? You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, the area that they had ministered in. But now something amazing, and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world. The verse has nothing to do with spiritualizing and allegorizing it and saying, we start with our Jerusalem and then we move out. This is radical truth of the change of the focus of God's plan of salvation. We see in the book of Acts, it starts in Jerusalem, in Judea, but it soon moves out to the Samaritans and then by Acts 13 the rest of the focus will be on Gentiles.

In 2 Thessalonians 2, we're just going to pick up a part here and then we'll be back to this for a later point that we won't probably get to today. In 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8a, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed.” We'll talk more about this chapter at a future point. But you'll note here the one who restrains, I take it, is the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who can hold back sin and the plan of Satan. The Holy Spirit. He will restrain until He is taken out of the way, then that lawless one will be revealed. That lawless one is a reference, remember when we were in Daniel 7, the little horn? He is that one who will come to power during that last seven-year period of God's program with Israel. He will sign the covenant with Israel that will mark the beginning of that last seven-year period. We read in Daniel 9, he will sign a covenant with the many, referring to the Jews, for one seven, one seven-year period. In the middle of that seven-year period he will break the covenant and mass persecution of Israel will break out. It says the lawless one will be revealed, he won't be revealed until the restrainer is taken out of the way. What is the Holy Spirit doing according to what Jesus said in John 16? He is convicting the world, the nations, of sin, righteousness and judgment.

When the fullness of the Gentiles, this time of Gentile salvation, the fullness of the Gentiles as we read in Romans 11 is complete, the Holy Spirit is removed. Do you mean the Holy Spirit won't be on the earth? No, but He won't be doing what He did when Christ sent Him from heaven, following the ascension. The fullness of the Gentiles will be complete, as Paul referred to. Then God resumes His program with Israel. The lawless one will be revealed. The lawless one cannot be revealed and sign the covenant with Israel that marks the beginning of the last seven-year period until the Holy Spirit is removed. I take it that's the time when the church is removed because He came to indwell believers to establish the church, Acts 2. That's the beginning of the church. And He will leave in the way He came and the church will be complete. The church is removed, then the lawless one can be revealed. We'll say more about this chapter at a future time.

So the second reason for a pre-tribulation rapture is the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church, it's a ministry to the world. We talked about Gentiles. I mentioned that Marilyn had a Russian Jewish grandmother. That led to many discussions among you about what kind of Jewish blood you have. But now you are part of the church and even full Jews like Paul are now part of the church. During this period of time any Jews who are saved are incorporated into the church, but the fact that any Jews are saved, Paul has used himself as an example, is an indication that God hasn't cast off the Jews totally. And even in this time of Jewish rejection and Jewish judgment, God is graciously saving some Jews as a reminder, He hasn't forgotten His promises to the nation Israel.

A third reason for pre-tribulation rapture is the absence of the church in Revelation 6-18. Turn over to Revelation 4, we're not going to look at the verses in the first three chapters. In the first three chapters of Revelation the word church, ekklesia, referring to local churches on earth, that word church is used 19 times in those three chapters. You are familiar with Revelation 2-3 where individual local churches are mentioned. The church at Ephesus is mentioned, the church at Laodicea at the end, and then the churches in between. They are local churches in different locales, different cities that Christ is addressing. When you come to Revelation 4-5 the scene changes from the churches on earth and Christ's evaluation of them to the heavenly scene, the throne room of heaven. What is interesting here is the church is seen present in the throne room of heaven. Remember where Christ said when He came and got the church He would take them to His Father's house where He had prepared a place for them. The church is seen here in verse 4 under the representation, Revelation 4:4, “And around the throne were 24 thrones; and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white garments, golden crowns on their heads.” And the clothed in white garments and the stephanos crown of the victor indicates this is the church that has been judged. We're not going into the reasons why the 24 elders are representative of the church, we've done that before, particularly when we studied the book of Revelation. But the 24 elders represent the church, having appeared before the Bema seat, the judgment of rewards, and now present before the throne of God. And the 24 elders are mentioned in heaven in Revelation 4-5 and then they are mentioned a number of times through the book of Revelation in heaven. We're not going to turn to these passages—Revelation 7:11, 13; 11:16; 14:13. You see the church in heaven, and then come to Revelation 19 and we're ready for the Second Coming to earth where Christ will destroy His enemies and establish His kingdom.

So we saw the church on earth in the first three chapters, then we've seen the church in heaven in Revelation 4-18. And Revelation 6-19 are dealing with the 70th week of Daniel, that last seven-year period. Then we come to Revelation 19 and all heaven is celebrating, you have this rejoicing in heaven—verse 1, hallelujah; verse 3, hallelujah; the end of verse 4, hallelujah; the end of verse 6, hallelujah for the Lord our God Almighty reigns; verse 7, let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come, His bride has made herself ready. The bride of Christ as we're familiar, is the church, a representation given in the New Testament, Ephesians 5 in particular. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen bright and clean, and the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. The church is here in heaven with Christ already having experienced her judgment. Clothed in fine linen, the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, not just the righteousness that has been credited to us in Christ, but we have been rewarded by God for our faithfulness to Him. So it's the righteous acts, the righteous deeds of the saints.

He said to me, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You have the pattern of the oriental wedding where the groom would come and get his bride-to-be and take her to his father's house. There you have the marriage ceremony, consummation of the marriage, the marriage is established. Then they can return to the bride's home and you have the feast where all the friends are invited. Remember John the Baptist, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets said, I am not the bridegroom, I am a friend of the bridegroom. The church has a unique position. John the Baptist was part of Israel in the Old Testament, he died before the church was established. He identifies himself as a friend of the bridegroom. We are the bride. What an honored position given to the church, what a blessed hope. And here we are in heaven ready to come with Christ back to earth to enjoy the marriage feast, the marriage supper which basically will be the millennium.

Then you come down, verse 11, “I saw heaven open, the white horse and He who sat on it, Faithful and True, righteous, judges war.” And it comes down, the armies of heaven are with Him, verse 14, clothed in fine linen white and clean. Then He has a sharp sword, the word of His mouth destroys His enemies. You have Armageddon.

Then you come down into Revelation 20. “Satan is bound,” the end of verse 2, “for a thousand years.” And we're told six times in these first seven verses that it's a thousand-year period. This is the only time in all the Bible that we are told that the eternal kingdom has a first phase of 1000 years. I can't believe the number of commentators that says, this is the only place it is said to be a thousand years, so we shouldn't be expected to take these numbers literally. I mean, it's the only place it's said but I think he says it six times. Any time my Dad told me something six times, I was in trouble if I didn't get it. I mean, the idea that he only said it here in this one place, but he said it six times, he knows we are thick, he knows our frame. We are but dust. Satan is bound for a thousand years, he could not deceive the nations, verse 3, for a thousand years. Verse 4, the end of the verse, they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, talking about the Old Testament saints and the tribulation saints. “The rest of the dead didn't come to life for the thousand years. They will reign,” the end of verse 6, “for a thousand years.” When the thousand years are completed. So you see the order unfolded clearly in the Book of Revelation, a thousand years. After the thousand years we have the final judgment, then we have the new heavens and the new earth. We have some of this information revealed in the Old Testament but it is not put in order.

Okay, so the church is in heaven. By the time we get to the Second Coming of Christ they are going to come back from heaven with Christ as the bride of Christ. So I think the absence of the church in Revelation 6-19 is crucial.

And let's look at one more point. The church is promised deliverance from God's wrath. We'll just touch on it, then we can pick up here. The church is promised deliverance from God's wrath. The 70th week of Daniel is a time of unprecedented wrath of God poured out on the earth. Now the intention is to bring Israel to its knees and experience His salvation, but this is a seven-year period of horrible wrath. Literally, not any exaggeration, billions of people are going to die on the face of the earth in that seven-year period. There is nothing like it.

Come back to Revelation 6. And this starts, you have seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls as you go through Revelation 6-19, with the Second Coming. Every time a seal, it's like a scroll is rolled up and you roll it so far and then you seal it with wax. Then you roll it further and you seal it with wax. There are seven seals so you break the first seal, you can unroll and the first judgment comes. Then you have seven trumpets, every time a trumpet is blown another judgment comes. They follow the seals. Then following the trumpet judgments you have the bowls, every time a bowl is turned over it pictures a judgment being poured out on the earth.

And we are told what kind of time this is. Revelation 6:15-17, “then the kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong, every slave, and free man hid themselves in caves and rocks in the mountains; and they cry out to the rocks and mountains, fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, [Note this,] and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?” Now this is a time of unprecedented wrath.

Come back to Isaiah 13. There are many passages on this time of God's wrath on Israel and the world in Old Testament prophets. I just selected this one from Isaiah 13:6-8a, “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. All hands will fall limp, every man's heart will melt. And they will be terrified, pain and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor.” That picture will be used by Christ in Matthew 24 and later as well. Isaiah 13:9-10a, “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations” note Isaiah 13:12, “I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold.” I mean, there is nothing like the wrath of God. You know we sing of the love of God and the wonder of God's love, and it is a wonder, measureless love but infinite wrath. And here you see the wrath of God poured out on an unbelieving earth. For those who reject the salvation of God there is nothing but wrath. And this time of wrath will be on a world that has rejected Him.

Come to Matthew 24, Jesus speaking here about this same time. Verse 8, He used that same representation we read in Isaiah 13, these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs, a woman overtaken with labor. Then you come down, the abomination of desolation from Daniel the prophet that will happen in the middle of that seven-year period. Verse 21, “then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be.” Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. I mean, you think catastrophes we have now, and we read about thousands or ten thousands or hundreds of thousands dying—what's the world going to be like when billions of people die? How overwhelmed the world will be. How do you grapple with a catastrophe like that? I mean, with 250 million people in the United States, you wipe out the whole United States and that's just a fraction of the people who will be dying in the world. Billions of people. Percentages are given under the different judgments in the book of Revelation—a third of the earth, a quarter of the earth. And it just piles up. Jesus says here, if He didn't intervene at the end of that seven-year period, if it was allowed to go on, there wouldn't be anybody left. He doesn't do it to spare judgment on the unbeliever, He does it to spare the elect. Primarily this is a blessing for Israel, although there will be Gentiles who are saved during that seven-year period and survive that seven-year tribulation.

The church is promised deliverance from wrath, that terrible, awful time is not something I am looking to have to experience or go through. And people say, we're always in tribulation, we're in tribulation now. Do we read what God said here? This is like nothing ever happened. We talk about tribulations in the world, you have tribulation, Jesus said. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. We're talking about the tribulation of tribulations, we're talking about the time of the wrath of God, the wrath of the Lamb being poured out on the earth on an unprecedented scale.

Now we talk about global warming today, and the arguments pro and con, quite frankly I don't know whether the world is warming or not. I only know what I read. But I know God could be choosing global warming to prepare the world because we know the sun is going to scorch the earth during the tribulation. I don't know, I'm not going to get on a campaign for or against it, unless they make me drive a green car. No. We know we're going to trouble.

We're going to have to stop here. So the fact of the character of the tribulation, we'll pick up with the specific promises that God promises we will not go through this time of wrath. It's a great comfort. I'm looking for the blessed hope and the coming in glory of Christ to gather me in the heavens and take me to His Father's throne. That's the hope of every believer. This is a time of salvation, a time of grace, a time for you to hear the message, for others to hear the message. Not only to hear it, but believe it. How sad you would hear it and not believe it. It needs to be a matter you are sure and settled on today.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the revelation you have given to complete prior revelation. Lord, how blessed we are as believers in the church today to have the fullness of your truth, to see something of the marvelous plan of your grace that has brought salvation to Gentiles, not only Jews. Lord, we look forward to the completion of your program with the calling of us to meet our Savior and be taken to the glory of your presence. May we faithfully serve you until that comes. We pray in Christ's name, amen.