Are You Ready for the Time of the End? Part 1

Quality of life has reached a high point in history. The information that we have today, the assurance of our needs being met, even the assistance and the income and the profits and the property and the possessions that the average individual has is at a high point in all of human history. Added to that are modern marvels, the technological developments in electronics, communications, as well as transportation, labor-saving devices of all types, various machineries, and personal conveniences, the luxuries, and the human relations that exist around the globe between peoples in various social media and social contexts that come about because of travel and relationships that countries have between themselves today. This worldly peace is unparalleled throughout time. Are you appreciating these things? Are you enjoying these things? If we look at society in that view and then step inside the church, those very things are mirrored within the United Church of God. We also have a plethora of information, of relationships. We have income in the church and property. We utilize electronics and communications and transportation. We have labor-saving machinery, good human relations. We have peace. All these things are quite good. Again, within the church, are you appreciating those things? How much do you rely on them?

In the Western culture that we have become and that which we have grown up in, and those things that we essentially take for granted or assume to be our needs, how much do we rely on these things, even within the church? How much do you need them in order to survive spiritually? And what will happen when they go away? We don't tend to think in terms of that, do we? We tend to want to continue and perpetuate that which we have and we can't imagine a time or a situation when these things might be taken away. But if you strip away all that information that the church provides, what do you really know? All by yourself, what do you know? If you strip away your income, how survivable are you? If you strip away your contact with other members and the opportunity to be around and be influenced by and be stimulated by ministry and members and other individuals, then what do you personally believe? If you remove the luxuries, you remove some of the conveniences and possessions and the income that we are used to, who will support you? If you take away all the peace and the kindness that exists within the church and you replace it with the opposite, what kind of person will you be? These questions are not only challenging, they are your future reality if we are to live into the times that Jesus Christ and others have prophesied that are coming. The title of the sermon is, shockingly, Are You Ready for the Great Tribulation?

Now, that's not a title of a message you probably hear very often. You might not have even thought about that. You might be pushing that one way back to the back of the closets of your mind, locking the door on that one and thinking, oh, I hope that one never comes.

But that would be short-sighted if, indeed, we are living in the time of the end.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and the first four verses, the apostle Paul speaks to this very thing. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 1, But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you, or that I should speak to you. You see what's going on on television. You know that there's a king of the south, which essentially will be the Arab world uniting, and you see the old rock-hard governments falling and opportunities for new development. You see the king of the north, which will center around certain elements in Europe, and you see them even against their own desires being thrust into the limelight of power. We see these things that are beginning to take shape, moving as pieces of a puzzle gradually get put together, perhaps nothing immediate, nothing overnight, but it's heading in that direction. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. But we like to think in the church, we've got it all figured out, we've got a good idea, we'll know when these things are happening. And yet, Paul tells us it's coming like a thief in the night at a time when we least expect it. For when they say peace and safety, and we look in our world today as an example, and we say good relations, you know, democracy, better working conditions for everyone, everybody's going green, everybody's coming together, it's a better world, less, you know, things done against people, more human rights initiatives, and yet when they say these things, then sudden, sudden destruction comes upon them. As labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, you never know when that's going to happen. You think, yeah, my due date, I know when that's going to happen, and then bam! Uh-oh, what was that?

And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day, capital D, the day of the Lord, should overtake you as a thief. It shouldn't. Well, we find out it probably will in one sense as far as the timing of it, because you recall even in the parable of the ten virgins, all of them were sleeping, all of them were unaware, and Christ comes at midnight when everybody's asleep at a time when nobody expects it. So forewarned is forearmed, and the Bible warns us over and over again. My goal for everyone who wants it is for you to be in the kingdom of God. Some people don't want it. Some people say they want it, but they don't really want it. They don't want to be godly. They don't want to live godly. They don't want to develop godliness. They don't want to repent of sin. They want to promote the self. They say, Lord, open to me, you see? But the heart isn't really there. This is part of a three-part series. Are you ready for the Great Tribulation Part 1? End-time prophecy. Today we're going to look at some end-time prophecies so we can have them in our mind in advance at a time when we're not faking it, when the end hasn't dumped upon us, and we're not saying, oh, now I think I'll put on righteousness so I can get myself saved. Things are still pretty good. Now is the time for us to awaken out of sleep. The Bible includes a history lesson from the beginning to an end, and it's a recurring history lesson. If you think about what is going on, many times that lesson is just below the surface, just out of sight, and not everyone picks up on this lesson, but it's a very solid, recurring theme from the very beginning of the Bible. You remember, righteous Adam and Eve were with God, and they were righteous, and yet they would succumb to Satan's temptation. And what they would do is, like his mindset, and that would win over, and they would sin, and it led to their ruin.

Right after that, you have righteous Abel, and righteous Cain, both of them sacrificing and doing their best. And yet, Satan came along again, and tempted, and Cain really liked that idea, that mindset, and the result was murder and a life that was ruined. You don't hear about Satan, but he was right there, just below the surface, just out of sight. In the following years, the world succumbs to sin that's so evil, and soaks up Satan's mindset that God comes along and brings the flood. Righteous Noah and his family eventually succumb to Satan's mindset and ruin. Satan's not mentioned, but as time goes on after Noah, his descendants become evil, righteous Abraham comes. And he is an individual who remains righteous. He has promises that are given to him, including the land of what we call Palestine today, or the land of Canaan, as a perpetual inheritance to the descendants of Jacob. But humanity slumped again into Sodom and Gomorrah. They followed that mindset. They liked the mindset of Satan. They soaked that up. Depravity was all around lot. You can read the story there of how terrible it was. And God cleansed that sin with fire. Instead of washing it with blood, he burned it with fire and got rid of, at least in Sodom and Gomorrah, in that area, the sin that was there. But Abraham's children would succumb to Satan's mindset as well. Gradually, over time, they found themselves totally devoid of God and godliness, locked away in Egypt, fully sinning, unaware even of who God was. And they were ruined. Satan wasn't mentioned, but he was there. He was the instigator of it.

There was tribulation, great tribulation, in Egypt, compounded by 10 plagues that God brought on the Egyptians. Satan hardened Pharaoh's heart. It's as God did, but God allowed Satan to do that.

Time of trial came for the Israelites. We call it the Exodus resulted in them leaving for a place of safety, a safe place away from Pharaoh and away from his armies and heading towards a promised land for those who were repentant and those who were righteous, those who would follow God. And yet, righteous Israel, for a very short time righteous, succumbed to the temptation of Satan the devil again and continued to do so, complaining against God, bitter against God, rebelled against God, left God, and down through centuries and millennia that ruined state has continued. The great tribulation is coming in large part as punishment for ancient Israel's rebellion to the government, I'm sorry, rebellion to the covenant that they made with God on Sinai. Many times it's referred to as the old covenant. That's not a term the Bible uses. It was the covenant that God made with the house of Israel. They were offered no other covenant. They have not been offered any other covenant to today. Today, even in Christ's time, in the disciples' time, eyes were blinded so that they could not see. And yet, they still are responsible for keeping a covenant that was made on Sinai. Let's go to Jeremiah 11 and verse 13 and see the roots of this coming great tribulation. Jeremiah 11 and verse 3. We need to know what it is, why it's coming, what it's about, who it's for, who it's going to involve, who it's not going to involve, who it's not for, unless we, like them, end up breaking the covenant that we have made with our God.

Jeremiah 11 and 3. And say to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do according to all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be their God. Verse 10. There's a problem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, the same old thing, the same thing as repeated here, who refused to hear my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers. Therefore says the Lord, Behold, I will surely bring calamity upon them. Because they broke that covenant and continue to break the covenant, I'm going to bring calamity on them, which they will not be able to escape. And though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. Now this is Jeremiah writing.

Israel had long gone into captivity. He's not talking about the captivity of Assyria. Judah had already gone into captivity. At this time, the Jews were already in Babylon, and Ezekiel was writing there. The only ones that weren't taken yet was Jerusalem, which was surrounded in a siege by Nebuchadnezzar.

The Great Tribulation is about punishment for the house of Jacob. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble. It's going to use the wrath of Satan at the end time when he sees that he has a short time and he's cast down to the earth and he really gets involved with humanity and whipping them up just like he has in all of these other phases. Only this time, it's going to be no holds barred. The worst of the worst of times.

In chapter 30 of Jeremiah, verses 6 through 11, we read a little bit more. Jeremiah chapter 30, beginning in verse 6, Ask now and see whether a man is ever in labor with a child. It's not something that we men are associated with. So he says, So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labor, and all faces turn pale? Alas, for that day is great, and none is like it. Remember Jesus said, There will be no time like this. It's ever happened before or ever will happen again, this coming Great Tribulation. And here he is saying, That day is great, and none is like it. And it is the time of Jacob's trouble. We like to see this as a worldwide cataclysm, and it is. And we like to see this as involving all nations, and it does. And yet, who was called to a covenant of all the people on the earth? Only God's people. The ancient physical lineage of Israel, and the modern, as it were, church of God, the spiritual house of Israel. Those are the ones who have the covenants. And God is going to allow this time of Jacob's trouble to punish those who are breaking those covenants. Verse 11, For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you, though I make a full end of all nations. This time is going to shake the whole world. It's going to bring all nations to its knees. And he says, Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice. This is a just thing that God is going to do. And I will not let you go altogether unpunished. Why would God punish ancient Israel if the Old Covenant is dead? Paul says, if there's no law, there's no sin. They haven't been invited to a New Covenant. Why would God allow members of the New Covenant, the saints, who are breaking that covenant to go unpunished? There are two types of individuals that the Bible talks about being punished in this time of the end. I guess the bottom line question is, are you going to let yourself be one of those?

These covenants that are made with God are eternal covenants. They are laws. They are binding contracts that have eternal consequences. Or in the case of the physical covenant, at least in the end, the old covenant is only old to a few Israelites that were offered a New Covenant. If you keep your finger here and go back to Hebrews 8 and 13, as soon as you enter the book of Hebrews, you're entering a book that Paul wrote to Jews.

Notice it's not to Galatia Gentiles, it's not to Corinth Gentiles, it's not to Roman Gentiles, or any of the other Gentiles that Paul was assigned to the apostle to. He's writing to Hebrews, who are baptized members of the church we find in chapter 6. These are church members. And he says here in chapter 8 and verse 13, in that he says, "...a New Covenant he has made the first obsolete." Now, what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

In other words, if you happen to have been a Jew or an Israelite under the old covenant, and you have been called to the New Covenant as these Hebrews had, then that first covenant is being made obsolete and is growing old for you. Because your covenant is a spiritual covenant with better promises, and on the blood of Christ, and with salvation. And these Jews wanted to sometimes go back to circumcision, and they wanted to go back to Judaism and make it something tied to the types that were fulfilled in the New Covenant. And so it's important to realize here that the rest of Israel is not involved. And that covenant, I find nowhere, has been abolished.

Jesus says in the Old Testament, He says, you are still my bride. And He wants them to repent. He calls us His spiritual bride. He wants us to repent. And so for whoever it is that's involved in a covenant with God, we need to be faithful to that covenant, or we're going to be punished in this time of great tribulation, if we live into that.

Those who are modern-day Israelites have not wanted to keep their covenant with God, and they use Paul's words. You know, Peter says there in 2 Peter 3, 16, they twist Paul's words to their own destruction. What do they say? The law is done away. We didn't want to keep it all those years, but now at least we have the words of Paul that says it's done away. It's not done away. God's covenants and God's laws are there, and they're permanent, and they're binding, and they're binding on generations with the first covenant all the way down till the end of such time as God brings a person and offers them the new covenant.

Now, let's look in Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 7. The Great Tribulation is also about the redemption of God's people. The correction isn't just God being angry and throwing them away, casting them away. It's also a time of redemption as well if people will repent, if people will hear, if they will take the correction and do something about it.

You know, even we in the church are told to receive the correction of God because God corrects every child that he loves. And if we won't receive it now, then we'll have to be turned over for a different type of correction in the future.

Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 7 says, But he, Jacob, or Israel, will be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of Hosts, that I will break his yoke from his neck, those who have taken him into captivity, and will burst your bonds. Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God, and King David, whom I will raise up for them.

Out of the great tribulation will come a time of a second exodus, a second exodus for Israel, very much like the first in some ways. Just as God prophesied, ancient Israel was taken captive, just like it found itself in Egypt. It walked off with Assyria into foreign pagan territories with foreign gods and pagan gods, just like it was forecast, and they've been enslaved ever since. But just as in the first exodus, the second exodus is going to bring them back to the land that was given to Abraham, given to them, promised to Abraham.

We read in Jeremiah 30, verse 3, says, For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity my people, Israel and Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. So we see here what's happening and why, where it's going to go, and ultimately the end.

This time of great trial and great tribulation is going to be terrible. It's going to be awful. But it's focused on certain individuals, and the types of individuals are those who are not faithful to their covenants. You know, the church during the great tribulation will also be affected by these global events. Jesus Christ warned about that on the Sermon on the Mount in Luke and also over in Matthew, the 24th chapter. And he gave specific things that will happen and how it will impact the church. I'd like to give some highlights of some other prophecies. Let's go to Daniel. Daniel is an incredible prophetic book wherein God gave specific prophecies, including people, and the deeds of men and women and countries that would happen all the way down to the time of Christ and all the way through our time until the return of Christ.

Not just generalize, well, this kind of will happen over here or that will happen over there, but amazing things. Let's go to Daniel, the 7th chapter. This is just an incredible book full of prophecies. Daniel has shown a timeline of events from his day till Christ's return. This is kind of an overview of what will happen in the countries. We're going to skip down to the Roman Empire part in verse 23 through 27.

We'll come to the fourth beast. The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the other kingdoms. Rather than being real cultural, Rome was just brute force, and it amalgamated cultures. It borrowed from other cultures. It borrowed the religion. It borrowed the art. It borrowed the science. The science. The intelligence. And it ruled over the known world at that time. It shall devour the whole earth, trample it, and break it into pieces. Verse 24, Then ten horns, or ten kings, who shall arise from this kingdom. We know there are revivals of this Roman Empire down through time. And another shall rise after them. He'll be different from the first ones. He'll subdue three kings, and he'll speak pompous words against the Most High, and shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. It says, Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. A time is one year, times is two years, and a half a time, well, that's three and a half years. So, during the Tribulation, it says here, the saints will be given into the hand of this great false religious leader, this power that has the ability to kill.

Verse 26, But eventually the court will be seated, or as the Hebrew would render this, judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his abomination, or his domination, to consume and destroy it forever. You know, the return of Jesus Christ takes the beast and the false prophet, and he throws them into the lake of fire. Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. The first resurrection that Paul talks about, and where we read that we're going to be resurrected at the seventh trumpet and reigning with Christ. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. A couple chapters over. Chapter 11 has very, very specific prophecies. This is where one of the most detailed prophecies in the Bible resides.

You can read this sometime, and if you, I believe, go to the Bible reading program, you can actually see the names going down through this whole deal. You can start in verse 1, you find Darius the Mede, and in verse 2, three more kings will arise. Every one of these individuals mentioned here, men and women, coming down to before the time of Christ, you just see person after person, and country after country, specifically named here. Not their name, but history shows that every one of these individuals in every little detail took place, and there are names that go with every one of them.

God knows in advance what's going to happen so clearly. Even how one person's attitude, or somebody does something by deceit, or somebody will use a little trickery, and then that person comes along, is born, grows up, and does that very thing that's prophesied, just as Judas would later do exactly what was prophesied. And so these prophecies are sure. Now if we continue down, looking at verse 33, we're going to see the period after Jesus Christ leading up until our day.

It says in verse 33 of chapter 11, And those of the people who understand shall instruct many. Yet for many days they shall fall by the sword and flame and captivity and plundering. Now when they fall they shall be aided with a little help, but many shall join with them by intrigue. Sort of a deceit. They'll come on board. The margin says slipperiness or flattery. This church is always going to have false individuals, tears, come into it, and false teachers come into it. It's always going to be there. And some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, to purify them, to make them white until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time. You know, these are things that you and I need to be very, very aware of. Verse 36, Then the king shall do according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself. You can see this, the great false prophet speaking lies and performing miracles. He'll exalt himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished. For what has been determined shall be done.

In verse 40, at the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack the king of the north, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind. You know, it was once a stable world, and what everybody assumed was going to go forward and somehow get along. You have these cultures, you have these powers. The king of the north comes with chariots, horsemen, and many ships, and he will enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He's going to really tackle the Arab world. He shall also enter the glorious land, Palestine, and make many countries overthrown. But these will escape from his hand. Edom and Moab, it's the area of Jordan today, and the prominent people of Ammon. Edom can refer to Turkey. Some have assumed that it's Turkey, some assume it's other things, but anciently we see Edom in that area, Moab and Ammon, both in the area of Jordan, modern Jordan today. He'll stretch out his hand against the countries and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver. You know, this is a, we read in Revelation, of this great battle on the great, merchandising with luxuriousness, while a third of people get killed off here and a third of people get killed off there. And there's a battle for world domination and a picking over, as it were, of what's left for mankind to survive. And Jesus said, if he didn't intervene, there would be no flesh saved alive.

In chapter 12, verse 1, at that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there will be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even to that time. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to on the Olivet prophecy. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who was found written in the book of life. See, we see all this cataclysm, we see all this stuff, and if it's at all possible we could get deceived and pulled away. If it's all possible we could get distracted, we could get dismayed, we could quit, we could give up, we could do something. But you see, in the end of it, those whose names are still found written in the book, the people of God will be delivered.

Who are the people whose names are written in the book? It says in Revelation, these are the one who keep his commandments, these are the ones who obey him. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life at the seventh trumpet, but some to shame and everlasting contempt. There it is, choice and consequence. Now the days ahead are not always just going to be floating along like they are now, cheap gas, lots of luxuries, everything's nice, good communication, we're all at ease. But people will be successful and be in God's kingdom. Will you be one of those? Will I be one of those? These are personal decisions that we must make. In verse 8, although I heard, I did not understand, and then I said, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified. Do you want to be purified? You can do it now. You can do it every day. Many shall be made white. White is the fine linen that the bride wears. In Revelation 19, verse 7, the right, the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. That's love. It's fulfilling God's law. And they will be refined. But the wicked shall do wickedly. There's the deal. One is good. One is evil. One is light. One is darkness. Which will you be? Right now, it's easy to be associated with light and good. But when it comes down to just you, when all of this cataclysm falls and you may find yourself without a lot of structured religion in your life, who are you and what are you about? Many will be purified, made clean and white, sinless and refined, but the wicked will do wickedly. You see, there's an opportunity coming for you to survive in all of this mess that's ahead. And one way of doing it is by getting real self-focused and all armed and all prepared and all ready to save yourself. The wicked will do wickedly.

And it's very evident that Jesus said, the love of many in the church will wax cold. It'll grow cold. And people will do terrible things to stay alive, including being traitors and turning each other in, just as Judas turned in Jesus Christ, to save their own lives when the great false prophet will kill you if you don't do what he says, if you don't have that mark of the beast. You see, you start down this survival of the self-road and it gets ugly. So there's the choice. Many will be righteous, but the wicked will do wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. You know, when the chaos is going on and all the stuff is going on, you don't tend to get it if you're self-focused. You don't understand why. You just are in survival mode. But the wise will understand. The wise will know what's going on. The wise will know what the issues are. And the wise will know that their choices have eternal consequences all the way through. And some will be purified and made white by giving their lives. So you see, the title of the sermon, Are You Ready for the Great Tribulation, isn't so far out after all, is it? It's really something we need to look at, be prepared for, should it come in our day.

And no matter what comes, that we would be successful, whether it's the Great Tribulation or just personal tribulation and trials. Those trials that rise up, that dismay us from time to time. We need to survive and be successful through all of it. It says in Daniel 12, verse 6, One of them said to the man there, How long shall be the fulfillment of these wonders? And then he goes on to say that it's this time, times, and half a times, three and a half years.

Three and a half years is also symbolic of something else. Not only the Great Tribulation, but also the place of safety, where the church or part of the church is taken for three and a half years. See, it doesn't have to be that everybody goes through the tribulation. It doesn't have to be that people have to give their lives. It doesn't have to be an awful time. There's a lot of options that are ahead. And Jesus himself said, pray that you may be counted worthy. And he actually said, pray and watch to your spiritual state. Be a prayerful person and observe it awake. The word watch actually means be awake. Fully alert. Assessing. Seeing if you are really in the faith so that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that come upon those who dwell on the earth to test and try them. Let's go to Revelation 7, verse 13. Because we want to be among those righteous who understand what's going on. It said, we just read there, that some will be made white and refined and purified. Made white. Let's take that one. What does it mean to be made white? Revelation 7, verses 13 and 14. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, who are these arrayed in white robes? And where did they come from? Verse 14. I said to him, sir, you know. So he said to me, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Daniel is talking about some individuals who don't have what you and I have now or are not utilizing what you and I have available to us now, but they have to go through the great tribulation and they are made white through that process.

The wonderful thing is they are successful, even though it's very difficult for them. What does Daniel mean when he said some will be refined? He's talking about repentance and forgiveness of sin. If we go to Malachi chapter 3, verses 2 and 3, here we see a discussion or some statements about this coming day of the Lord, this coming time. Malachi 3 and verse 2, who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire. Daniel talked about some will be refined. He comes like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi. It says in Revelation chapter 5 and verse 10, he has made us a kingdom of priests. The Levites were the priests. We are to be priests in the coming reign of Jesus Christ for a thousand years. And he's going to purify us and going on, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord in offering in righteousness. Now, do we want to wait till the tribulation and risk going through all of that to be refined and purified and scrubbed through scourging? The Bible talks about having trials, if need be, the Bible says. If need be. Do we need that?

How are you and I doing with our covenant that we made with God? That covenant we made at baptism. That was our covenant. That we made when we were baptized and we promised and we vowed with God.

That we would submit to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, our high priest in heaven, our soon coming King. That we would all the rest of our life repent and find sin and put it out. And that we would put on his character and grow up in God. How are we doing with that?

I hope that we are showing God a process of growth as individuals that he can say, yes, I'm going to consider you worthy to miss this time of great tribulation.

But again, that is up to each and every one of us individually. And don't think that everybody else has it easy, but somehow you're laden with human nature, which none of the rest of us have. That's how I think we all look out of our eyes at everybody else and say, well, everybody else is good, but what's wrong with me? We are in this together. I am not talking down to you. I'm talking with you. And more than anything, I am hopeful that you will awake out of sleep and that you will use this time now to grow in godliness, so you don't have to go through these events in the future. But if you don't, or if you're called later, that nevertheless you'll understand what's going on and you will be successful. And you will use that three and a half year period to grow and to be firm and solid in your covenant and that you will be resurrected, even though the times will be tough. Either way, what's important is that you receive eternal life.

During a period where the wicked do the most imaginable, awful things, there will be testing and trying even of the saints. In Revelation 13, verses 4 through 15, Revelation 13 and verse 4, sorry, yeah, Revelation 13 and verse 4.

It says, "...so they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast." See, Satan is there. Just a little d-dragon where it's almost easy to go over it, but people are drawn. Even church members are drawn to this. You and I are drawn to this mentality. It's our human nature. It's not really our human nature. This dragon is always there, and he's trying to drag us in. "...they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And he was given a mouth to blaspheme, just like we read in Daniel. He opened his mouth and blasphemed God, just like we read in Daniel, verse 6. Verse 7, it was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them, just like we read in Daniel. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him except those whose names are written in the book of life, those who are resisting that, those who are staying firm to their covenant with God. All who dwell on the earth shall worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any has ears to hear, let him hear." In other words, did you notice what was just said? A lot of people won't get that. A lot of people won't get what was just said. If you have ears to hear, you just picked up on the fact that those who are written in the book of life and stay true to their covenant, that individual won't worship the beast, won't go anywhere near it, won't have anything to do with it. Now it continues in verse 10. If you have ears to hear, if anyone has ears to hear, listen. Verse 10, he who leads into captivity, the Greek word for leads is draws together, joins with, joins with, or comes together in captivity. See, Satan's captive world. If you draw together with that world, you will go into captivity. Spiritual captivity? Yes. Physical captivity? Absolutely. If you've got an ears to hear, if you join together with that, you will go down with that. He who kills with the sword. This is a time to kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest. If you want to get into, you know, one third of the world dies over here, another third of the world dies over there. You've got armies and all this fighting going on, and not many are surviving, you see, and there's probably guns laying all over the place. If you pick one up and you join in, he who kills with the sword, he must be killed by a sword. Remember Jesus Christ is coming with a sword? The wise will understand. Those who have ears to hear will understand. And thus is the statement, here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints. They will persevere in godliness right through all of this until whatever end comes to them, but they won't quit on the covenant they made with God. And that's the strength. And God will not put us in any position that we cannot succeed in. In verse 15, there was given to it the spirit to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might both speak and might cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. That is just one of the things that goes with being in the great tribulation and not in a place of safety. And yet they can be successful.

Revelation 14 verse 12. Those with godly wisdom will understand the situation they are in. They will understand it. They will get it. Again.

Revelation 14, 12. Here is the perseverance of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus in very tough times. And then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. They are noted, their works follow them. God seals them. He will raise them. The rest won't understand the truth of what's happening. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 3 and 4. We can find here this underlying component that flies just under the radar of what's going on through all of this time.

It says in 2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 3, But also if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those being lost, those who are currently being lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ones. That's what's flying under the radar. When all this cataclysm is going down and all these survival things and all the wars and all the famines and the earth going through various things that itself causes people to die, Satan won't be seen. But the wise will understand.

The God of this world has blinded them so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine down on them. There are going to be events that take place that should wake them up. They should be able to see. Pharaoh should have been able to see with the first plague, even the first warning of the first plague. I'm going to send this on Egypt. Oh, no, don't. Please don't. Don't. I repent. Here. Go worship your God. Be gone. That should have never had a plague on Israel. I'm sorry, on Egypt. Should have never experienced one. But you see, there's that mindset. There's that deception. There's that sway from the evil one.

If we go to Revelation 9, it's not a pretty chapter, but the plagues come. All through chapter 8, the seventh seal, the first trumpet, second trumpet, third trumpet, vegetation, sea struck, water struck, heaven struck, come to chapter 9. It really gets awful. He opens his bottomless pit, and terrible things happen. Verse 3, Out of the smoke, locusts came on the earth, and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. I don't know if you've ever been bit by a scorpion, but it's a really devastating, painful experience. And they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree. It's kind of like almost a warfare that won't hurt that which can support human life, that fragile little bit of life that's left to support a few people, but it can hurt the people. But only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Kind of like Egypt, isn't it? You know, the plague struck the Egyptians, but they didn't hurt the Israelites. And so we see something similar. And they were not given authority to kill men, but to torment them for five months. Going on down the sixth trumpet in verse 13, this one is so bad. Verse 15, the four angels who had been prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year were released to kill a third of mankind. This is not a time, brethren, that you want to be in. If you find yourself in, be true. Be zealous. Be persevering in growing. But you don't have to go there evidently. That's the message. And we want to think about that now, and not at a time when God says, hey, I'm not deceived and I'm not mocked. I know true nature versus somebody who's in a pickle and now will promise me anything. How many people are out there dying at this very moment and they're promising God the moon and the stars if he'll just save them? But when he does, it's like, oh, well, they forget about that real fast.

God doesn't want sort of this deathbed repentance. He wants the real thing, and we can give that now.

And so, here in dropping down to verse 18, by these three plagues a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in the mouth and in their tails. Their tails are like serpents having heads with them. They do no harm. Verse 20, but the rest of mankind who are not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons. See what it's all about is about Satan and following Satan and demons. And even though these plagues come, people aren't repenting, just like the Egyptians didn't repent and Pharaoh didn't repent.

You and I have the opportunity to repent. In verse 21, they did not repent of their murderers or their sorceries, involvement with Satan in his mindset or their sexual immorality or their thefts. They said, we're not going to keep the law. The law is dead. The covenant is dead. We don't have to do what we agreed to do before God. The great tribulation, that three and a half year period, also includes a violent transfer of authority and power from Satan and his legions to Christ and the bride and the saints. And there's a struggle that goes on there, as it were. But in Joel chapter 2 and verse 1, as we conclude, we find that there is positive among the negative. There is purpose within all the confusion.

Joel chapter 2 and verse 1 says, blow the trumpet in Zion. We'll talk more in the future about what this is referring to. And sound an alarm in my holy mountain.

This is war, as it were. This is an invasion. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand. In conclusion, we live in a world right now that is soft. And in this world, there are events and trends that are continuing in the direction that God said they would towards an ultimate end that God prophesied. And world events continue their march. The great tribulation is going to erase most human life off the earth, and it is brewing. We don't know when it will erupt. We have no idea. We do know it will come at a time when we least expect. The purpose of this series of sermons is not to scare you, but rather to prepare you. While there is time, while it is day, while we have the opportunity to have God near, and we can call upon Him, and we can do those things that are pleasing in His sight. The bride, it says, will make herself ready. And you and I have been called now and given this precious opportunity of being washed and clean and prepared as that bride. In the next part, part two of the great tribulation in the Church of God, we're going to hear about end games versus a prepared bride.