Prophecy, Part 2

Well, thank you very much, gentlemen. Wasn't that beautiful? And thank you, Mrs. Roybal. That was delightful. A Latin title, and Dr. Hoover said that they were not going to sing it in Gaelic, though. Might be stretching them a little bit. As you know, the Welsh love to sing wherever they go, and a beautiful Welsh melody for all of us. Well, today we're going to continue with our series on prophecy. And as I mentioned during the announcements and entitled, Not One Stone.

And we're going to be focusing on prophecy and focusing on that title of not one stone, which is directly taken from the alla vet prophecy. Some of you that were not here last week, this may be the first time that you've ever heard a message on prophecy or some of the matters that we're going to discuss today. Even the term alla vet prophecy may not be familiar to all of us. The alla vet prophecy is that pronunciation by Jesus Christ that is chronicled in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and in the parallel account of Luke 21. We will in the course of this series be touching on the accounts in Mark and in Luke as we go along. Whether it be in any of these gospels, the one thing that we want to mention and focus on today, friends, is simply this, that these accounts open up the future. They open up the future to all of us to understand what is coming our way as a covenant and as a holy people. And the words are directly from Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet who ever lived and he who does live. And in the course of this message today, we will show how that is combined. For a moment, because some of you were not here last week, what I'd like to do is to use a computer term we're going to reboot for a couple of minutes and consider some of the key points that were offered in the first introductory message. This will be germane as to developing a foundation that we can then build upon. This, the all of that prophecy, which allows you and me to have spiritual clarity in a world of uncertainty.

When we look around today and see the nation around us, the challenges that are visited upon the United States of America, when you see the challenges that are now visited upon the nations of this world, a lot of people are wondering where in the world is the world going and where are we headed? The all of that prophecy deals with that and brings us the answers. So let's consider where we were last week. Let's consider a few thoughts to understand and appreciate. Last week we came to understand that while prophecy concerns the entire world and is ultimately going to affect all people that are alive on this planet, that it is now, prophecy now, is primarily directed to the New Covenant people, just as it was formerly to those of the Old Covenant. After all, the book is before us on our laps. The book is open and we are given understanding and we are given revelation for a very specific purpose. With that book being open, with that revelation being given to us, here's something that I want us to grasp. With such opportunity, based on God's grace and His revelation, we have responsibility. We do have responsibility. And you and I, as members of the body of Christ, under that New Covenant, with this which has unfolded before us, are accountable for the words that we are going to be talking about. Thus, we need to understand something of why this book has been opened up to us, why it has been revealed to us, and that is simply this.

Prophecy is designed to spiritually motivate us, to spiritually motivate us, to allow us to be spiritually vigilant, to wake up from spiritual slumber that can easily be set us in this human condition. How does it be set us in this human condition? By distraction, by denial, and by simply spiritual amnesia. Because we have not opened up the book, we've not allowed God to talk to us, or it's something that we wanted to compartmentalize rather than taking all of the word of God as a whole and incorporating it in our life. So it's to wake us up.

Prophecy is like a trumpet. Cry aloud. Spare not my people, as it says in the book of Old. As well, it is written to encourage us, and we all need encouragement, and we all need comfort. In the book of Amos, it says, that for surely God will do nothing but that He doesn't first reveal it to His servants, the prophets. God is in playing games with us down here below. God has a purpose. That purpose is backed by a plan. That plan is backed by promises, and those promises are undergirded with the provisions of God to bring forth His perfect will. And it's laid out and is granted to the prophets, and granted to the men of God to have understanding, to share that understanding with the people of God, so that we can know that.

It doesn't mean that we're going to have all understanding. One thing that I always like to share with people when we're dealing with prophecy is simply this. Prophecy is like a GPS. All of us, most of us, might have been or have experienced using a GPS. I don't use it that often, other than when I'm in a rented car. But let me bring it to those. Let's get everybody involved and just open up the old map from AAA. And you open up that map, and you see a line on a road going from point to point.

You say, well, boy, that looks pretty straight. Of course, once you get on that road, that road might not be quite as straight as it is on the map. But you kind of know where to go from point A to point B. Well, that's exactly a little bit like prophecy. What God gives us in Scripture is toward salvation. It's towards spiritual salvation. And at the same time, He gives us enough to know. He gives you and me, you might want to jot down this phrase, He gives us enough to consider.

He gives us enough to consider. And it is in faith and trust and confidence as time comes upon us that God, by His Holy Spirit, will give us that which we need to comprehend. He's not going to leave us in the dark. He's a faithful Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ knows exactly what we need, and that will be provided for us. Now, putting this all together, let's understand something else. It is there to guide us, to guide us, and to bring to fore a question in our minds with all that we read, with all that we see going around us, therefore what manner of men ought we to begin be?

Again, prophecy is not designed for you and me to necessarily worry about this person, worry about that person, worry about this nation, worry about this, worry about this, worry about that. Try to figure that out. Try to have some grand prophetic jigsaw puzzle that we have safely kept on our card table in our room because we've all figured it out. No. Now, prophecy is designed to bring to us a very basic question with all of this that is happening, and seemingly that which is out of our human control, and yet recognizing that God has a divine plan, therefore what manner of person ought we to be?

It's not just simply about prophetic charts, timetables. Ultimately, it's about the transformation of our hearts that we recognize that God has called us with a calling to be consecrated, to be a holy people, to be preparing for His kingdom, and to know that He will never leave us nor forsake us. And thus, with all of this book, we move towards the subject of prophecy with faith and knowing that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Let's begin to turn over to Matthew 23. One thing that we talked about last time in Matthew 23 is that Jesus came to the faith community of His day. He was there in the temple complex area, and He was talking to the people of covenant of that day. And He basically indicted them, and He gave them a witness. And He said, you have been basically weighed in the balance. You've been found wanting. They did not recognize or appreciate His coming into their lives.

And He basically, in Matthew 23 at the end, basically said, you will weep, you will mourn, and you will not see Me any longer until that day. Imagine God Himself in the flesh visiting the church of that day and reject it. They were not prepared. They did not accept Him in His life. And basically an indictment was given upon them.

With this preamble, this is where we begin to pick up the rest of the story in Matthew 24.

After that indictment of the religious community of that day, of the church of that day, of the people of the book of that day, Jesus turned His attention to His own disciples.

And then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came to show Him the buildings of the temple. They were excited. These were country boys from Galilee. They were not used to being in the big city. And the temple, after all, was one of the great atifices of the Roman Empire. We discussed that last time. You can listen to the message on tape or on the computer.

And it says, He went out and the disciples came and said, let's go on tour.

Because there's a real wow factor here. We've never seen anything that big.

And Jesus said to them, do you not see all of these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.

He's basically saying, because they rejected Me, understand what you see before you, which is so grand and so awesome and so big and seemingly so wonderful, it's all going to be coming down. He had to get their attention. It was almost like he had to whack them with a two by four and saying, this world that you're in, this world of time and space is not really real. I'm trying to get your attention.

And now, as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and at the end of this age? Now it's very interesting. You might want to jot this down, seeing we're in a class style here. It's very interesting. Most human beings always want to know when. Have you ever noticed that? When or what? They don't really get down to what we call the why factor. The why. What is in it for me? What do I need to do? They simply want it to know when. And so that's where they focused.

The when rather than the what? Rather than the why. And it's interesting when dealing with prophecy, people still at times want to know when. Even when Jesus Christ said that no man knows the day and or the hour. And we're going to cover that later on as we go through the all of that prophecy that's mentioned several times in these passages. And yet there will be people in the faith community that will say, well, it's going to happen now. It's going to happen at this date. It's going to happen at this time. It's going to happen at this time. And people fall for that again and again and again. And again and again and again. And Jesus never set a date.

Jesus, by the wisdom of the Spirit that was in him, never said when. He said it is near.

Hear me? He always said that it is near, but he didn't say when. So here we are. And it talks about this end of the age occurring. Now, one thing I want to share with some of our young people today about this, because sometimes you hear these prophecy sermons. We wonder, well, what is in it for us? And you see this term and the end of the age. One thing I want to share with the young people here is that this is not talking about the end of the world. It's not all coming down in a cataclysm. There's a hope and there's a future beyond. When you say the end of the age, that comes from the Greek word eion, where we get eon, where we get a space, where we get a duration.

But really what it's talking about, it's the end of this culture. It's the end of this society. And we're going to talk about a moment where this society came from. You're going to have a future, young people. And it's a future that is so wonderful and so incredible that the head of our church, Jesus Christ, laid his life down for you and for me so that you and so that I and our family members could be a part of that. He's the door to that future. And Jesus said, I am the door. He said, I am the way. But we have to recognize that we're going to have to go through some hoops together along the way. So notice what it says here. It says that he's at the Mount of Olives.

Very interesting. It's from the Mount of Olives. There were olive trees that were at the base there of the Mount of Olives. And he's speaking. This is fascinating. He's discussing what the future is going to be like at the very spot where Jesus Christ is going to return. I'd like you to join me for just a second in Zechariah. Zechariah at the end of the Old Testament. Now, we do not know when Jesus Christ is going to return. But we do know where he is going to return. It's found right in Zechariah 14.4. And in that day, that's a very important phrase to understand in biblical jargon. In that day does not mean today. In that day means that day in the future. In that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west. This is talking about the return of Messiah.

So we do not know the when, but we do know the where. And Jesus Christ is going to be returning at his second coming. And he is literally, and I take this as a literal phrase, not just allegorical, not just metaphysical, not cosmic, but the Son of God is going to land on a mount in Jerusalem. It's called the Mount of Olives. Very interesting that olives have a number of means of symbolism when you look at the world of antiquity. You often had an olive wreath. It could be a symbol of peace. It could also be a wreath that was around an Olympian victor in a race or in a wrestling match. It was a symbol of victory. It was oftentimes worn by a general or by a Caesar when they were offered a triumph and they were able to come into the city in a triumph that was prepared and planned for. And they'd be on the chariot and they'd be wearing the wreath of a victor. Now, all of this is very interesting when it's on the Mount of Olives because you have this almost contrast of the means of the olive that in one sense is it is a peace but it's also a victory.

And Jesus Christ is going to have to come back and restore order before there is peace. The most important thing that we can look at this is the Mount of Olives. You might want to jot this down out of interest is in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is the bullseye of biblical prophecy. It is the place where heaven's will touches earth now for nearly 3,000 years and will yet once again it is that touch point where God chooses to reach down. It's the bullseye. Now, some of you might have thought it was a zusa. It's not a zusa. It's not Rancho Cucamonga. It's not Hollywood. It's Jerusalem. So we need to keep our eyes there and we'll talk about that more in the course of this message. Now, notice what it says in verse 4 as we go back to Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, this is very important. And Jesus answered and said to them, now what is going to follow in the all of it prophecy are the words of Jesus Christ. It's not a televangelist. It's not me as a pastor. It's not my words. It's not the words of a best-selling author. These are the words of Messiah. These are the words of the Son of God that we are going to be focusing on. Now, why is that important?

Because we recognize that this was one of the roles that God the Father gave Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ did not only come as a babe in a manger, neither did he just simply come as a Savior on a cross, on Golgotha.

Obviously, all of these are important because it shows that he came in humility.

And it shows that he died in humility, that our sins might be forgiven, that we might have access to God. But oftentimes people leave out this element, and that is that he came as a prophet.

He came to describe not just simply tomorrow's weather pattern, and they can do a lot of that today. You know, you see television today and you have the weatherman or the weatherwoman on, and now with computers they can tell you what's basically going to happen 10 days out. And you go, wow, how did they ever do that? Well, they didn't. The computer did it for them. They just get to read on the teleprompter. But Jesus Christ, in all of that prophecy, is not just telling you about what the weather is going to be like in 10 days. He's describing the events that are going to culminate in His second coming. He's going to describe the pattern of human history from the time of His ascension in 31 A.D. until the time of His coming. And it's very important, if you'll come with me for just a second, let's go to Luke 24. Luke 24 and pick this thought up.

Because Luke 24 defines this element of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Luke 24 and verse 19.

A question comes back, and He said to them, what things? So they said to Him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word, before God and all the prophets. So one of the roles of Jesus of Nazareth, that the Father assigned Him while on this earth, was that of being a prophet. Remember, Moses, nearly 1500 years before Jesus lived, said, there will be one like and under me who will be a prophet. Now, why is this important for all of us to understand? See, Mr. Weber, you haven't shared anything new with me yet. Perhaps a lot of this will not be new, but repetition is the best form of education. But it will be new with what I'm about to tell you, because it is to wake us up and help us to understand something. Christ had a lot to say about the future of this world, and He came from God with a specific message that craves our understanding and belief. And here it goes, folks. This will be the franchise of today's message. And that is simply this, that God is not simply a first cause, but is active and is an intervening force in time and space in this world and in the history of humanity. For those of the New Covenant, for those that are people of faith and understanding, we move simply beyond looking at God in some image on a stained glass window in some cathedral of old.

We look beyond, you know, people today, they want to espouse God. They'll talk about God.

But do they recognize that God remains as an interventionist in their life and in human history, and that God has every privilege, He has every right, and He has a love and a compassion and a passion to do so, to save humanity from itself, and to rescue humanity from the decision that was first made at Eden. We'll talk about that as we go along. He is an active and an intervening force. You know, a lot of people, they open up the Bible and we'll go to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And we go through the pastoral setting of Psalm 23. Please understand, it's a beautiful, beautiful Psalm. Or they'll go and simply look at it as being a social gospel.

And yes, it is in part that, that we are to be compassionate. But this is also a map book and a guide to the future and a guide to the reality that Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth.

No, when we think about the situations on this earth, dear friends, we think, you know, what part of this earth does not need Jesus Christ to come back? You know, how many of you want to run for the President of the United States today? Do you think that either party, either party, has any real solution for the United States turning away from God and away from the commandments, away from prayer and school, wanting to yank down the Ten Commandments from this building, or yanking the Ten Commandments from that building, or separating in a manner God from the tapestry of our nation that was never envisioned by the Founding Fathers?

The Founding Fathers never had the vision of freedom from religion. The Founding Fathers had every reason and every cause to have the vision of freedom from government and government intervention. Any objective reading of history will establish that. It was government that was the issue and not religion, but that's been turned around over the last 150 years.

I know some people will get excited, well, Mr. Obama is going to do this, and or Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican candidate, is going to do this.

Can anybody do anything today with 16 trillion dollars of debt that matches our annual output?

What do you do with Syria? What do you do with Iraq? What do you do with Afghanistan?

What do you do with the problems between Sudan and South Sudan? What do you do with the poverty in the middle of Africa? What do you do with the poverty that's in Central America?

What do you do with the terrorists that are out there that want to take your all, your life, for their cause? Where are the solutions going to come from?

For years, the Church of God has said that there is to be a strong arm from somewhere outside of the realm of time and space to intervene. This is the good news. This is the message of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God coming to this earth. The Bible says, don't put trust in any man, and yet we do. It's natural. We're in time and space, and then we become disappointed.

The only solutions that can bring this world to peace is the intervention of God Almighty and Jesus Christ at that second coming. Notice what it says here, then, as we further.

And Jesus said in answer to them, take heed that no one deceives you. Now, what I'd like to do for a moment, I don't know how far we're going to cover today, but there's something I want to share with you because some of you have never gone through a series on prophecy, and it's very important to understand this. The Bible is consistent in describing what the future is going to be like, and we must understand that there are parallels between the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and what He shares here and His heavenly ministry that He shares with us in the book of Revelation.

The message is one and the same, and it remains consistent.

Here's a book that was basically written over a period of 1700 years with allusions to comments that were made even before. It is consistent. It is consistent from the time of Enoch and His mention of an intervention from heaven to the words of Isaiah and Daniel and Ezekiel, to the words of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry, and to the divine words of Jesus Christ in His heavenly ministry as He offers revelation to the Apostle John. For a moment, let's focus on the book of Revelation and Christ's part in it, because all of that prophecy is given expression and expansion in that book of Revelation. I'd like you to go to Revelation 1 for just a second. Revelation 1. Let's pick up a thought here that maybe you've never seen before. That's why we keep on reading the Bible over and over again. Whose revelation is it? In Revelation 1, it says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place, and He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all things that He saw. Blessed is He who reads in those who hear the words of this prophecy and keeps those things which are written in it for the time. Notice is when? The time is near. You will never find a specific date in the Bible, but the Spirit of God will always share with you that it is near. But I want to share with you for a moment, because I remember this when I was first growing up in the church, that sometimes Bibles would say the revelation of St. John. And probably you were with me and said, well, it wasn't it was not John's revelation, because it says here it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. But something that maybe you've never noticed before, let's all look in our Bibles together here, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him. God the Father and Jesus Christ are together in this. They are one. It is God the Father who grants the revelation to be expressed by Christ and is given to John. For what purpose? That there might be a blessing on those, notice, that are called of God. Remember what I said that prophecy is basically designed at this time for the covenant people. Oh, it's going to affect the entire world, absolutely, guaranteed. God says so. But what it says here is, gave Him to show His servants. Today, that would mean the church, the body of Christ, the called out ones, were the ones that are responsible right now for understanding this, receiving it, asking God for direction to what these things mean.

Then, notice what it says here in Revelation 1 and verse 17. And when I saw my fellow to speed as dead, but He lay His right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid. I am the first, and I am the last. I am Him who lives and was dead. And behold, I am alive forever. Amen. And I have the keys of the grave and of death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. God sees things as if they already are. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. Now, let's understand why this is being brought to us. At that time, the message of Christ to the church in the late first century AD is, in a sense, the same message that He offered His disciples.

He said that, in one sense, to the disciples in 31 AD, outside the temple, he says, by the way, it's all coming down. And then He goes through what is going to transpire from His departure until His second coming. Now, there's some tough things that are spoken about there. We're going to be going through that. You have to understand that in the course of this series. But always with the mind in place, and always with the heart in place, that when you read the end of the book, you know that God wins. And if God wins, then we win. And this is the same tone that He's using with the book of Revelation. When Revelation is written about 85 to 90 AD, the church is going through a battering. Frankly, it's scary. Many of those that had initially been with Jesus had seen His life, His death, His resurrection, those that were apostles. They had now been dead for 20 years. There's only one that is left alive, and His name is John.

And Revelation is written during the time of the reign of Domician, of the Flavian house of Rome. And he's a monster. He's a crazy guy. He thinks he's God. So I have to understand all of this when this is going on. And the church is, well, how can I put it? They're scared. They're wondering what's going on. Is this all that it's really worth cracked up to be when it comes to being a Christian? That is why these words come to play here when Jesus says, don't be afraid.

I am the first and I am the last. I am there at the beginning of the journey with you, and I will be there at the end of this journey with you. And I will not abandon you. And the Father has granted me to be able to share the things that are. Now that sharing then happens over in Revelation 5. Join me there for a moment in Revelation 5, because this is very interesting to understand what's happening in Revelation 5. Now we might move over into Revelation for a while. Please understand we're going to get back to Matthew 24 before the end of this message. But they coincide, so we need to move together here. In Revelation 5, notice what it says, and I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back and sealed with seven seals. Now you and I need to understand that before we can go further. The Him that is mentioned in Revelation 5.1 coincides with Revelation 1 and 1. That's God. That's God the Father.

He is the one that is on the throne. And it says here that there's a scroll that's written inside and on the back and it's sealed with seven seals. Now what does that mean when it says sealed with seven seals? And it's in His hand. We need to understand that this is a like thing. Understand again that the book of Revelation is written in what we call apocalyptic sense. It's written in the sense of imagery. And we can understand that imagery by some of the practices, some of the culture of that day. Let's understand this, that when it says seven seals, that a will, a legal document in Rome, had seven seals on it. That when there was a final will, there were seven seals that were put on there. And so not only that, there were seven witnesses to denote the truth and the completion of that will. So we see a sense of finality. We see a sense of witnesses to what is occurring. Not only that, but if we look in a biblical sense, seven is a number of completeness. We think of just the days of creation and that there are seven. So seven in a sense denotes completion. But now what we have here in this very strong statement of this document, this scroll that is sealed with seven seals, you might want to jot this down. What is about to be released, as it were, is God's final will for humanity. And it's going to be laid out here.

Now the question is, in Rome, oftentimes it would happen, the opening of a will, that the opening of a will, somebody had to be there of worth and note to have that will read.

Now I want to share something with you, and maybe you've never seen this before. Verse 2, then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open up the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. There is no one. And what's amazing, maybe you've never seen the reaction here. It's in verse 4. John speaking, so I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and to read the scroll or to look at it. To imagine to have gone this far, to have this vision of God the Father on His throne. Christ encouraging us that He is the first, He is the last, He holds the grave, He holds death in His hand. He's not going to abandon the churches then in Revelation 2 or Revelation 3 and or the Church of God, His Church today. And then there's nobody to open up the rest of the will. It would be like when you and I have watched, and this is a poor analogy, please understand, but it's like when you and I have invested in watching a movie for one hour and the television goes out. You've made that investment. You're excited. You are in tune, and all of a sudden what's going to happen? But this isn't dealing with the Hollywood movie star.

This is dealing with the future of all of humanity, and nobody is about to step up. Nobody knows who can read that will. Then notice what it says. But one of the elders said to me in verse 5, Do not weep, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of the David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to lose its seven seals, all seven of them. Verse 9, And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your own blood, none other than Jesus Christ. At this time in heaven, at that time with the giving of the Olivet prophecy on earth, on Mount of Olives. But what we're going to see as this opens up, is God is consistent? What we're going to see in Revelation 6 is actually given introduction in Matthew 24 in sequence. And to recognize that the one that gave those words on the Mount of Olives is the one that's going to make it happen. Now we begin to move forward.

We begin to look at Revelation 6. Revelation 6 begins the story of what is called the seals.

And that's going to go through Revelation 6, Revelation 7, Revelation 8, Revelation 9, and on and on. Now there's one thing if we look at Revelation 6, just to begin with, it kind of starts out here. It talks about this seal and that seal and about every three verses there's a new seal if your Bible is like mine. I'm looking at Revelation 6.1. My eyes are going down to Revelation 6 verse 9. And you see this seal is opened and this seal is opened and this seal is open. And it looks like one seamless thought and sweep of events. What we need to do now, friends, for a moment is to back up. And I'd like to give you some description. This is going to be important for you. And it could be important for you in this lifetime or the lifetime of future members of yours to understand how prophecy is laid out. These seven seals are actually within three components. You might want to jot that down. Seven seals, but they are in three components. Now there's a reason why I'm sharing this with you because when all of this begins to develop in what we might call the fireworks start, you've got to know where they're coming from. It's like when you go to a ball game, you've got to open up the program and you've got to be able to understand what's going on. And there's three specific components of the seven seals.

The first four seals. Are you ready? The first four seals.

Reveal events in a world apart from God. In a world that confronts God from the time of Jesus Christ ascension until now. Basically put, the first four seals are the history of humanity apart from and confronting God. It is a continuation of a time framed and best understood by the curses that were rendered and eaten upon man and woman and the environment brought about by the rejection of humanity of the authority of God in their lives.

And the values that are represented by the tree of life. Say, well, I don't know if I like this story. Can we stop it right? I don't like to talk about curses, but we recognize that at Eden, God gave man and woman the most marvelous and the most beautiful gift of all.

And yet the most challenging. It's called choice. You and I are free moral agents.

And when we make our choices, God may not agree with, but He'll respect the choice that we make.

Because for every cause there is an effect. And when you take from the tree of life, there is a blessing. When you partake of the tree of good and evil, oh, it can seem good for the moment.

But the hotter the flame, the quicker it burns out. Not everything that is gold glitters. Not everything that glitters is gold. Pardon me.

And so a choice was made there. And even the environment. When you go through Genesis 3, you might want to jot that down. I'm not going to have time to go through that today. But in Genesis 3, God lined them up in order of their rebellion and their rejection.

Started with the serpent. Then He dealt with the man, dealt with the woman. And even the environment, the world got drug along because of the choices of man and woman. This environment that is around us, a world that was made perfect, a world that was in harmony.

It was humanity that was out of harmony with God. Imagine being in Eden.

Imagine that you are created and you look up and you see God before you, the one that, the word, the pre-existent Christ, the one that looked over Eden and created all that was.

And to recognize that you were designed to have this love relationship and this worship relationship with God, to worship Him, to honor Him. And to realize that He wanted to do everything that He could to make your life wonderful and fantastic. And He put the Tree of Life right in the middle of the garden. It wasn't back in a closet here in a rear room that you had to go looking for it.

The Tree of Life was right in the middle of the garden. There were probably show lights going on, probably a marquee, Tree of Life. It's yours. Take it. I love you. I've created you.

I wanted to have a relationship and a companionship with something beyond that is liquid or a monkey or an elephant or an armadillo. I want to have a union and I'm going to make you members of my family. And that was rejected.

Rejected for something that comes quick and essential and makes one seemingly wise, seemingly happy. Oh, it looks so good to eat. And even the world, even the environment, was drug along. It says in the book of Romans that the earth groans until now and waits for that liberation that will come by the second coming of Jesus Christ and the saints that follow Him. Even at that same time, during this time of the first four seals of this time of human history, apart from God, there is a selected chosen people who have accepted the authority and the words of life. You talk about the Tree of Life. John 6 63 says, your words, my words are life. You want to know what the Tree of Life is like? All you have to do is read the words of God and you're barking up the right tree. This is, in a sense, the Tree of Life.

This is having relationship with God Almighty. So let's understand that the first four seals that we're going to go through, probably next time, deal with what we call the time of man.

The second component, we can jot down the second component, is the time of Satan's wrath. The time of Satan's wrath. That's the fifth seal.

That can be best understood by the generic term, the tribulation. The tribulation.

Why do I say that? Next time, when we go back to Matthew 24, we're going to find out that there's a sequence of events that have been happening over and over and over again in just a part of the cycle of man apart from God, and we're going to be discussing each of those next time.

That's the time of man. That's the first four seals. The fifth seal, though, when you go to Matthew, it says, then. We recognize that there is an escalation, and we're going to talk about that next time, where there is a spiritual or wrongful spiritual infusion put into this earth to recognize that the one who's the adversary, Satan, knows that his time is short. And so we call it the time of Satan's wrath. That's when he's going to galvanize the nations of this earth. That's when his spirit is literally going to enter into heads of state and into religious figures in the future that are going to go once again after the people of God. You need to understand that. The third component, let's jot this down, is the time of God's judgment. That is the sixth seal and the seventh seal. We're going to go through all of this more next time I am with you. I'm just kind of breaking this down. My famous whiteboard is not working today. It's working, but the easel isn't working. I'd be up here lining this out for you. Let's understand again the third component is the time of God's judgment. You might want to just jot this down, please. That's called the day of the Lord. How many of us have heard the day of the Lord before? Good. You're in the right church. Okay. We've heard of the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is not the same. How many of you knew? Don't raise your hands, please. Sometimes I would even say people that study prophecy don't understand, or they put this all in it like a bowl of spaghetti all intertwined. The day of the Lord is separate from the tribulation. The day of the Lord is separate from the tribulation.

The tribulation is the time of Satan's wrath. The day of the Lord then comes to rescue humanity from itself and from the adversary and from those wrongful spiritual forces. That's why you have the sixth seal and the seventh seal. In fact, we're going to spend length of time with the sixth seal is like, because the sixth seal are the heavenly signs when the earth shakes. We've read that before, haven't we? Well, that's like God knocking on the door. That's like God pressing the the doorbell button saying, prepare to meet your maker. Help is on the way.

So you think you all have that for today? We have three components. The first four seals, the time of man, man apart from God, the secular history that man can expect. And that's all going to kind of wind in together. We're going to discuss that right on from the start next time. Then the fifth seal. That is what is, we've heard that term before, the tribulation.

And then there's the day of the Lord. Now, why is that important? Because I remember years ago as a young lad growing up in the church that there's going to come a time when people, the armies of this earth, are going to turn their armaments and their military force on this force that's coming from the heavens. And I would suggest at that time some of those people are going to think that they're doing God a favor as they are doing God a favor.

As they battle against the one that God is sending to rescue them. You think that one through for a second. That is why we have to just carefully understand where the energy, where the forces, and where the action is coming from. Because it says in Matthew 24 that unless those days would be shortened, that even the elect, and you know the rest of the story, and it says that Satan also in the book of Revelation is out there to deceive the entire world. Can you imagine in the future people fighting Christ thinking that they're doing God a favor? I have met people like that just in private conversations where it becomes a challenge. And God loves you so much.

And as your pastor, I care for you so much that I want you as God's servant to understand the prophecies of the Bible. And it's not how much you know, but it's what you act upon. And we're not going to become speculative, and we're not going to be setting up dates as we go through this, but we are going to look at the hardcore building blocks so that you can have a firm foundation and recognize that whatever we go through, that God will have a way. I want to just share two verses in conclusion. We will conclude two verses that I would like to frame this second message with. John 16 33. John 16 and verse 33. These things, now this is a principle. He's speaking particular here on the last night of his physical life, but this is a principle that we can extend to everything. These things I have spoken to you. You might say to my people, to those of covenant, those that the Father has called and consecrated, and has given them the opportunity to be holy.

These things I've spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

I remember years ago, 1962, I was just coming into this way of life. I lived in San Diego, California, and that was the one time when we were probably as close as ever to World War Three.

All of you older people, older than me, will remember that. I was but a lad.

But we came probably within days of World War Three, as the Russians had missiles that were in Cuba, and Russian vessels were on the way to Cuba, and President Kennedy, the United States of America, put a blockade around Cuba. The tensions were so high. The store shelves, the food shelves, were empty. People hoarded food. They gathered. They didn't know what was going to happen next. Even in 1962, I had a peace because as a young boy growing up in the church, I recognized that there was still yet more to occur. I'm not saying this like I was the only one. What I'm saying is when you read scripture and you recognize where the energy was coming from, there is recognition that as scary as this was, this was not the moment. This was not the time.

It gave me a tremendous confidence and peace of heart. And it can give all of us, as we move forward from this point in 2012, a confidence and a peace of heart that for surely God will do nothing but that He doesn't first reveal it to His servants, the prophets. Let's conclude with Matthew 2820.

And Mr. Josephik, if you could please come forward, we're going to conclude with him then. Matthew 28 and verse 20.

Jesus' words again at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And notice what it says.

Some of the most beautiful words, one of the most beautiful truths in all of the Bible.

And lo and lo I am with you always, even to the end of this age. That's what we want to frame this series with prophecy. As we go through these events, to recognize as we read them, we read to know that truly we are not alone. Mr. Josephik.