Prophecy, Part 3

Well, Paul, thank you very, very much. Many, many years ago, Sui Shiya and Christine, who used to work for me, that was their procession, their wedding march down the lower gardens. Maybe some of you were there at that time, and I've always appreciated that ever since.

I'm taking a look at the clock, so I'll know how long I have, but then I want to remind you that we're going through prophecy, and we are not to set dates. No man knows the time or hour when this message is going to conclude.

And as we always say, keep them laughing. That way you can get a little bit more into them. Well, we want to thank you for coming. What we are doing right now is we're going through a series, and for those of you that have not been here, allow me to give you the name of that series. It is Not One Stone. And that is a phrase that comes out of the Olivet Prophecy from Matthew 24. And it's a discussion that Jesus Christ is having with His disciples right after He has chided the faith community of His day, the people of covenant, and has basically witnessed to them and rebuked them and told them what is coming. And then after this very powerful message that He has, He is in the environment of the temple, and the country boys, that is, the fishermen from Galilee, are overwhelmed with this fantastic wonderment called the temple, the one that Herod built, which in a sense was one of the wonders of the world. Not one of the seven wonders of the world, but certainly one of the great wonders of the world of old. It was spectacular. It was majestic. And Jesus Christ came back and said, wait a minute, we're not going to Disneyland, folks. I want you to understand something while your mouth is dropped open in awe that what you see, there will be not one stone standing that remains. That must have shocked them. It would have shocked me. And that allows us then to go into the introduction again of Matthew 24. And then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And He said, you do not see all of these things? Assuredly I say to you, one stone shall not be left upon another, and shall not be thrown down. 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 the end of the age. Now, the end of the age does not mean the end of time, but the word age there deals more with cosmos, the end of the world, cosmos, culture, society, the moral, social environment. When is this going to come to an end? Now, it's always very interesting again that the questions that come out are, when? When? And so often people get hung up on that element of prophecy, trying to figure out exactly with their own prophetic stopwatch when Jesus Christ is going to come back to this earth, even when Jesus Himself said, no man knows the day or the hour. Well, people say, what about the month? Everybody wants to get close, just like horseshoes. The difficulty here is, again, you see their approach and their attitude at this point. They want to know when.

Now, Jesus is going to supply the what? And for a purpose, not only then, but for we today. But what's more important about all of this discussion and all of that prophecy is not the when or the what, but the why. Why is it that man cannot find the way of peace to himself? And why is it that Jesus Christ Himself has to come back to this earth? And thus, Jesus Christ is going to do some explaining here. He's going to basically tell what's happening from the time that He departs Jerusalem and that ascension that will come in a few days, henceforth, to the time when He returns in all glory. He's basically going to span it out. He's not going to give every inch of detail, but He's going to give some markers along the way so that the covenant people can have encouragement and know that no matter what you and I are going through in this age and in this world and in our lives, that the best is yet to come because that best is, after all, dear friends, God's perfection in Jesus Christ coming back.

And second coming. Now, just for those of you that were not here last time, as we begin to move, and I'm not sure how far I'm going to go today, we're going to be going through the seals again today. We're going to rapidly move through them today, but there's three things I want you to remember. You might want to jot this down. We're going to go through three elements. There is the time of man. The time of man. Number one. And those are the first four seals.

And next, so you get two curves. Next, after that, is the time of Satan's wrath. Satan's wrath. Satan's wrath. And that is what we commonly call the fifth seal and or the great, I'll just give you the T word, the great tribulation. The last thing that we're going to deal with, and I don't think we'll get to that till next time, and that is the sixth and the seventh seal. And that's called the day of the Lord. Day of the Lord. Now, that's going to be very important for you and I to understand. There are seven seals. Seven seals, just like a Roman document of old. We covered last time that who is worthy? Who is worthy to unloosen those seals? And we went through the book of Revelation, and there is none worthy other than Jesus Christ. But now we're going to begin unfolding today. Now, there's something I want to share with you, and some of you are just becoming acquainted with the subject of prophecy. We want to go just deep enough to what your interest. We're not going to be doing speculation today. You can go hear that somewhere else. But we will talk about the very, very loud things that are in Scripture that you and I can understand.

This time of man, basically right here, this time of man, the time of man is basically that time that is man's history apart from God. Because of the rejection of God, the rejection of what was offered at the Garden of Eden. Later on, the rejection of Jesus Christ coming as Messiah to Jerusalem. Decisions that were made, and thus for every cause there is an effect. And so basically, the first four seals are human history apart from obedience and faith in God. Now, we're going to come later on, my touch on that towards the end of this message, on the fifth seal, and or the Great Tribulation. And that's the time of Satan's wrath.

And then the sixth seal, which are the heavenly signs, and the seventh seal, which is again the trumpets, that is what we call the Day of the Lord. This is man's history apart from God. The fifth seal then is the time of Satan's wrath, the response of the serpent. And then the sixth and the seventh seal are the Day of the Lord. Now, you say, okay, why is that important? That's a good question.

Why that is important? The Bible tells us that a lot is going to be happening, perhaps in our lives and or in the lives of our children. And it's already happening in our lives because of the unfolding of the first four seals. But what we need to understand is you have to understand what corner it is coming from, or you can get confused.

Because Scripture itself says that in the future that the armies of this earth are going to have their gun sights on He who comes from the heavens. There's going to be confusion out there, and we don't want God's people to be confused. We have to understand who and where and what and how and why is coming from what corner. Wouldn't you like to know that? Normally what you do, and if you go to a ballgame, you take out a program because you want to know who's wearing what uniform, who's on what position, and who's up to bat.

The reason why we're going through this, then just think of it this way, please. We're going to find out prophetically who is coming up to bat. And you need to know because, may I be frank, our spiritual existence and our spiritual lives may determine that knowledge. They say, I don't have that knowledge. Well, that's all right because that knowledge does come from God Almighty.

For those of you that are just visiting today, you might just jot down two words. They're very simple. God always promises that He will do nothing, but He doesn't first reveal it to His servants, the prophets. Amos 3 verse 7, He will give us, here's the key word, He will give us enough to consider. He's not going to push us out into the dark once He calls us. He will give us enough to consider. And so what we're going through today are the considerations.

And when that time comes, and when it does seem so dark, in faith, we can know that God will, by His grace, allow us to comprehend those things that we need towards spiritual salvation. I didn't say necessarily physical deliverance, but spiritual salvation. Because at the end of the day, the book, this entire revelation that is given to the covenant community today, the Body of Christ, is a book about salvation.

Does that mean that some will be delivered along the way, and offered physical deliverance on that way to spiritual salvation? Absolutely. But does that mean that everybody will be physically delivered? No. The Bible itself says that. It talks about martyrdom. It talks about those that loved Jesus Christ more than their own life. And we'll be discussing that either today or later on. Let's then, therefore, then go to, right into the story here, Matthew 24 and verse 1. Matthew 24, no, not 24, verse 1.

Pardon me. Let's come down a little bit. Notice verse 4, and I was reading this this morning, and it kind of hit me again. And Jesus answered and said to them, who's them? Those who he has called, those whom he loves, those whom he had a purpose for then of being the twelve. And all of these can, in a sense, apply to us other than being of the twelve, but being of the Body of Christ.

And then he said to them, take heed that no one deceives you. I kind of looked at that for a moment. I thought about that. And I says to myself, I speaks to myself, and I'm saying that Christ loves me so very much that he says, wake up and be very, very circumspect and very careful with the calling that my Father has given you, because there is deception out there. Now, you don't need to, you don't necessarily going to be deceived, but be aware that it is out there, that no one deceives you.

And then he begins to unfold what is going on here. And that's what it says, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. Now, it's very interesting when we look at this, that he says there are going to be many that are going to say, I am the Christ. Christian teachers with false, unbiblical teachings and ways, and oftentimes ways that are going to point to themselves and not to God up above. This is parallel, as we mentioned last time, join me if you would in Revelation 6. Keep your finger in Matthew 24, but in Revelation 6, which is the unfolding of the seals, and let's notice what it says here.

And beginning in verse 1, Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and it's the first seal, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, with a loud voice like thunder, Come and see. You're going to be able to understand what is going to happen between the departure of Christ from this earth and His second coming. And I looked, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering to conquer.

Now let's understand something. This matches what is being spoken in Matthew 24. Let's understand Matthew 24 and Revelation, the book thereof, comes from the same author, the same speaker, Jesus Christ. What we need to understand in all of this is that this seal of Revelation, Revelation 6, speaks of a white horse, but it is not the same white horse as described in Revelation 19. Join me there for a moment over in Revelation 19.

And let's pick up the thought in verse 11.

Now I saw opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. And his eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no one knew except himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses, and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword. Now, the one that is on this white horse, please notice Revelation 19, is clearly defined as none other than he who is the Word of God, who is faithful and true, and speaks of his own blood. Now, let's understand something. Remember, Jesus' first admonition to people of covenant is as you move through history, and in the future, be aware that there are going to be those that are going to try to deceive you. Again, the book of Revelation, if you'll join me in Revelation 13 and verse 11, is very clear on this point, in Revelation 13 and verse 11. And this is speaking of a second beast out of Revelation 13. There is the beast that forms that empire in the future, that system in the future, that counters God, that seems to be led by a secular leader, but then a second beast is also mentioned here, who is going to join him. Verse 11, then I saw another beast, that means there's two out there, coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb. Oh, he's like a lamb! He's got two horns. He's like a lamb. But then notice, but he speaks like a dragon, and he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. So this is speaking of a church and state union, a secular system that is conjoined with a religious system, to where beast number one and beast number two are working against God's purposes. Now, it's all in the Bible. We need to be aware of that. Looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon. And what God is doing here is giving you and me enough to consider, and he will grant us the spiritual discernment and the warning signs to understand that. Let's appreciate something. All of us at one time or another have heard this phrase, if it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, it's a what? It must be a duck. Thank you. It must be a duck. But what the Bible is telling us is that in the future, if it looks like a lamb, and if it walks like a lamb, and it baaas like a lamb, it's not necessarily going to be a lamb. You've got to get underneath the wool and look at the motivation, and look at the heart of that which is to come. Now, if my voice is going up a little bit, that's fine, because we need to understand these things. Some of you have heard this kind of message for many, many years. It is not further away. It's closer to end-time fulfillment. And we need to understand that. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 14. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14. Again, Paul adds a little bit to this when it comes to ministry. That is false. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 14. And no wonder, breaking into thought, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

Now, again, when you contemplate the expansion of revelation from the Olivet prophecy, let's consider some things. And that is simply to recognize that we need to be aware. No, when you think about this, allow me to be frank.

From the third to the fifth century A.D., professing Christians took on the governing mantle of what the prophet Daniel describes as a bestial empire. A bestial empire. And we're not going to have time to go through all the prophecies on that right now. We'll do that another time.

But when that vision came to Nebuchadnezzar, who was in a sense the first beast, in Daniel 4 and in verse 16. See, God calls things for what they are because He can look underneath the wool. He can look underneath the feathers of the duck. He can look into our hearts. And calls it as He says, Nebuchadnezzar, you've got the heart of a beast. It's your heart. And your heart is apart from Me because it's magnified in its own power and its own beauty. It's the heart of a beast. And we know what God would do with Nebuchadnezzar and cast him out of the walls for seven years. But that's where it began and took on the governing mantle of this bestial system, this bestial empire. And in the third to the fifth century, those individuals took on the mantle of the Roman Empire and made it the kingdom of God, the church on earth. If you read Augustine's writings, maybe you're not familiar with them. Maybe some of you have read Augustine of Hippo.

But Augustine, as he saw the Germanic tribes pummel Rome of old, as he looked across the Mediterranean, he foresaw that as the quote-unquote the pagan Rome of old was going down, that a new Rome, likened to Jerusalem, would be rising from its ashes and that the city of God would be here on earth.

Until that time, until the early 400s AD, the church always looked ahead and looked up. This is fundamental to understanding church. That until that fourth century, the church always looked up and was anxious for the return of the kingdom of God to this earth with Jesus Christ coming down. With Augustine's thought in the early 400s AD, to him, the church, or excuse me, now the city of God was on earth. The kingdom of God was on earth and the bishop of Rome would be its vicar.

Major transition in thought of Christianity. This same system, the framework of that system, does come down to us to this very day. The framework of the framework is up and remains intact to be used again beyond itself, beyond even its current desires and or intentions. For what we discuss in the book of Matthew and the book of Revelation is to remember that we not only deal with this physical world, but there is a spiritual world that is in play. And will be used perhaps even beyond itself, beyond its own intentions, beyond its own imagination. For purposes outlined in Scripture that we're going to discuss further. Jesus warned that there would be a danger of false leaders. Allow me to share what a false leader is. Whether it be some great spiritual worldly system or one that is in a podium in some church somewhere. A false leader is simply this. A false leader is a man who propagates his own version of the truth, rather than the truth that is in Christ. Rather than in the truth of the simplicity of Jesus Christ, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and soon coming return.

Secondly, a false teacher, a deceiver, is a man who tries to attach other men to himself and points to himself rather than Jesus Christ. This religious deception was prophesied to war against those who looked to Jesus Christ alone as the head of their life and looked to the Word of God. If you look at any semblance of the body of Christ down through the ages, and you can kind of get a glimmer here and there as you look, as best as we can through 2,000 years of historical fog.

You might want to jot this down. We're a class today. There are two very specific things that would identify the body of Christ. Number one, Jesus Christ was the head of their life and the head of their faith community. Whether that was the Paulistians in Asia Minor, whether that was the Bogomils in Bosnia, whether that were elements of the Waldencien community in the Alps, and wherever it was, there were always two features, that no man came between them and God and Jesus Christ. No man. Essential. Number two, that the Word of God alone had authority in their life and over their life, and they were sovereign to the Word of God because they had utmost confidence that it was the Word of God. Now, we're here in the Church of God community. Say, well, I already knew that, Mr. Weber. Well, then you need to read about all the Crusades that occurred. Not against the empires of Islam in the 11th, 12th, and 13th century, but at times Crusades that were called by the Pope in Rome against people that did two things that cost them their life and wiped out villages throughout Europe. And that was simply this, that they would have no man between them and God. Things that maybe we take, do I dare say, for granted. And have we in any way allowed a man to come between us and God and Jesus Christ? Take stock. Take note. Think about it. At the same time, then, it was the authority of God's Word. It was not just church tradition or an ecclesiastic, what they call an ecclesiastic bull from Rome. It was the Word of God. Revelation 14 and verse 12. Let's take a look at this for a moment. A hallmark of the people of God down through the ages, and by God's grace we can be a part of this. Revelation 14 and 12. Here's the patience of the saints, and here are those who keep the commandments of God. They abide in the Word of God and take God at His Word and have the faith, the faith of Jesus Christ. So we're given notice as people of covenant, just like those disciples, people of covenant in the making back then. Here's what's coming. I'm going to anchor you down. I love you, people, is what Jesus is saying. And I want you to know what's coming. Let's go back to Matthew 24. Matthew 24, and let's pick up the thought. Verse 7. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and pestilence and earthquake in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows. Again, let's go to Revelation 6, which parallels this and gives it more defilement. In Revelation 6, again, as we open up the second and the third and the fourth seals, which this account parallels. Let's take a look at Revelation 6. Verse 3. And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come and see. And another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another. And there was given to him a great sword.

We look at this, and we are reminded that the history of humanity, apart from God, apart from God, is basically the history of war with timeouts for peace.

There's a common figure that is out there, that somebody, I don't have his name, but basically figured out that in basically 6,000 years of recorded human history, there have only been 350 years of recorded peace without major conflicts.

And our time is no exception. Right now, as I speak to you, we recognize that there are conflicts around the world. We know that Mr. Opichka mentioned about the devastation that is occurring in Syria right now with multiple thousands of people trying to get out of there with their families, just like you would.

And unfortunately, that downward spiral, which is Syria, is only beginning. It's only going to get worse because of the different ethnic and religious conflicts that are just simply in that manufactured European state that was made for them about 100 years ago.

People that were put together with boundaries that you wouldn't want to have put together, but they are. We think of the situations in Iraq. We think of the situations in Afghanistan.

We think of the potential, perhaps, even in this year, of major, major conflict that is going to be happening, perhaps, between Israel and Iran, which will draw the United States in one way or the other.

Second seal. War. Killing. Devastation. Destruction. The uprooting of entire generations of families. All going back again, going back to Eden. Going back to recognizing that our great-great-grandparents Adam and Eve were given the kingdom of God on earth. They were placed into God's perfection. They looked at it. God wanted to give them everything. All He said is, I want you to worship Me. I want you to love Me, and I love you, and I've given you Eden. I've given you paradise. I've given you the kingdom. I've given you the tree of life. It's right in the middle. I've held nothing back from you. And humanity did not fall from grace. They never got up on the rock to fall. They rejected God's grace from the very beginning and partook of that world that they could touch and feel and see and said, let us be. And God will always respect our choices. Did you know that? Because He's given us free moral agency. Please notice, I didn't say He will agree with our choices.

I didn't say He will appreciate our choices. But because of free moral agency, He will respect the choices that we made, and He respected the choice that Adam and Eve made, which was rejection of Him.

And thus the curses came upon the serpent, and upon the woman, and upon the man. But even as Adam and Eve were being exited out of Eden by the angels and they were set guard, God gave that first prophecy of encouragement and hope in Genesis 3.15, saying that, listen, I've got some news for you, that the seed of the serpent is indeed going to bite on the heel of your child. But, but the seed of your child will ultimately crush the head of the serpent.

The first promise, Genesis 3.15, the first, this is a good trivia question, kids, Genesis 3.15, write it down. Genesis 3.15, as man was exiting in a hopeless state, God gave hope and said that there is going to indeed be a way of return. Here we see the second seal. We see that these wars are here. We recognize, let me share something again with you just historically, if I might. I think many of you know I love history. That there came a time in the 18th century, 19th century, you had German rationalism, then you had the thoughts of Darwin. You began to have what we call social evolution, that there was a progression, that it was the survival of the fittest, that things were getting better and better and stronger and stronger, and that we were going to work our way out of these things. Because we were evolving into something more than cavemen and cavewomen. We can do this on our own. We can move away from what God said.

And then came World War I. 20 million people dead. Then came World War II. 55 million people dead. And then all of the wars that have happened since. Man as man began to come up to this element of thinking, we've got it, and we can take care of ourselves, and we can do it. More people died in the 20th century than any other century in human history.

Isaiah 59 and verse 8, let's jot it down. I'll just mention it to you. The way of peace they know not. All they have are crooked roads. Proverbs 14 and verse 12 says, There is a way which seems right unto a man. But the end thereof is death. And then we notice what is mentioned here in verse 6.

Revelation 6. And when he, I, actually, pardon me, verse 5. And when I opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come and see. And say, I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it, and had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil or the wine. And then when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature, saying, Come and see. And so I looked, and behold, there was a pale horse. And his name on it was Death. And the grave followed him. And the power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, through kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beast of the earth. What we have here, basically, is you have religious deception, the first seal, and then you have the wars that would engulf the world over these years. And then you would have, whenever, wherever you have war, then there is famine that occurs. And then after famine, normally pestilence breaks out. You see this cycle that is occurring in human history, apart from God. This is not God's doing. This is not God's doing. Now, can we talk as friends? This is hard. This is hard for people. Because you know, and I know, and we have friends, and we know people that say, Well, where is God? Where was God? When this happened, or that happened? When we think of Europe today, Europe, after two major world wars, on their soil. On their soil, not our soil.

We haven't had any other than 9-11. Nobody's been on our soil since the War of 1812. That is, foreign troops.

But Europe came to a thought. After World War II, where is God? And they've departed God, by and large.

Many, many of those cathedrals are now empty. Many of them are mosques. Many of them become museums. Many of them are used apart from what people first built them for five, six, seven, eight, nine hundred years ago.

War can do that, unless you know the source of war. Unless you know the reasons why these are occurring.

Unless you go back to Genesis 2, and you recognize that God wanted humanity to have this perfect world, and mankind rejected it.

And then when Jesus came, even the covenant people of that day, Jerusalem, the bull's eye of biblical prophecy, reject it! Reject it! The Messiah.

And thus he said, there will be not one stone standing. Be prepared, and know that your Maker is going to be returning.

Let's go back to Matthew 24. Matthew 24, we're going to go back and forth here. A couple of thoughts I want to share with you is simply this.

I actually want to go back to Matthew 24 and verse 6 for a moment. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. You're just going to hear it. You're going to read about it.

But the most important thing that I want to share with you today is not all of the historical data that I've given you about wars and numbers.

Here's what I'd like to center on. See that you are not troubled. Don't be troubled. For all of these things must come to pass.

What you're going to notice as you go through the Olivet Prophecy and also the Book of Revelation, oftentimes this will be kind of a time out.

And God will say, there's a purpose being worked out here below. Don't be troubled. Don't exit the building right now. Don't leave the movie that's beginning to reel out here because the best news is coming. It's going to be very human to say, I've had enough. I'm out of here.

Not just in the sermon, but in your own life. And you want to parachute.

I want to share with you as people of God today something that's very important because many of you are having your own challenges right now. Many of you are having your own challenges, and now we're seeing the escalation of challenges that I'm talking about. But again, remember what the encouragement is in the Book of Jeremiah. If you can't run with the footmen, what's going to happen when they let out the horses? So we have to prepare ourselves. We have to know where God is leading us. We have to know that there's a purpose and that He wants us to succeed.

And then you notice here in verse 8, all of these are the beginning of sorrows. Then notice verse 9, Then they will deliver you up to tribulation. And it says that they will kill you. Now understand, let's be empathetic and move right into the skin of those that this is being discussed with in 31 A.D. Initially, the disciples, those that would be reading this account, and of course, this is cogent for all times, that they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. And then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, it says that the love of many will grow cold. Many, it says, the love of many will grow cold. This word of lawlessness is mentioned, which is very interesting. But first of all, let me go back here a second, where it says in, I'm trying to fit my thought here, in verse 9, then they will deliver you up to tribulation. This is what I would suggest in verse 9, parallels in Revelation 6. Join me if you would for a moment in Revelation 6, where we come to the fifth seal.

And when he opened up the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth.

I think there's an overlap here that we need to understand and to think about for a moment, that things are going to begin to occur here. And things from the first, the second, the third, the fourth seal, which is that time of man apart from God. But then we come to this fifth seal, which opens up what I would call the time of Satan's wrath, and the fifth seal, where Satan is unleashed.

And we need to understand that. Join me if you would in Revelation 12. In Revelation 12 and verse 9.

Because I think it's important for us to grasp that there is a spiritual world around us. Now, when we talk about that, I speak of that as understanding that. Not to scare you, but to have respect and understand that there are spiritual forces that are out there. Now, the one thing I always like to share with people is that when we think of Satan and his demons, those are spiritually created forces. Spiritually created. That rejected God. One thing I want to share with you, you might want to jot this word down if we want to be students of the Scriptures, and understanding God is uncreated. God is eternal. This is not a matter of who is going to win and who is going to lose. When we deal with God and his army of angels under Michael, and when we consider Satan and his demonic realm, we understand that he is given time at this time, but down the line, he is going to lose. This is not a matter of who is going to come up. We know who is going to come up. We know who is going to win in the end. But notice what it says for the time being here. Now, verse 13, chapter 12. Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. That is God's church. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly in the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent. So, there is going to be a time, not only down through history, but it's going to become even more aggravated, because Satan is going to be down on this earth. He is going to persecute the church. But let's go back up to verse 10 and notice something. Words of encouragement. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come, For the accuser of our brother, who accused him before our God day and night, has been cast down.

Satan, who tried to take over the throne of heaven, has been cast down. Then it speaks to God's people, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, And they did not love their life to death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. Now, what do we grasp from this? Three things I'd like to share with you. May I? There's good news, there's bad news, and there's great news. Number one, who needs some good news? I need good news. Good news is Satan tries to seize heaven. He's cast down. That's great news. Bad news. He is down here on earth at this time, and his spirit is going to begin to overwhelm individuals at a given time. A beast power, as spoken in the book of Revelation. His spirit, his spirit of confrontation against God Almighty, is going to dominate those individuals, whether it be the secular beast or whether it be the religious beast, as they come together in a bestial empire of church and state. That is neither holy, Roman, or an empire, just like the old holy Roman empire metaphor by Voltaire. But this force is going to come together for a while. But the good news that I'd like to share with you is simply that the great news is his time is short.

The time is short. But when you're going through that short time, we're going to have to know what we're a part of. Let me share something with you. I want you to look at verse 11. With whatever is going to be coming our way, dear friends here in Los Angeles, I want to show you a prophetic tool.

You say, well, I don't have my history books. You don't need history books for this prophetic tool. You don't have to have charts.

You don't have to worry how much you know. This is what you need to know. Whatever comes our way, whether it was to one of our brethren amongst the Boga Meals in the 11th century in the Bosnian Alps, or whether it be to the Paulistians in Asia Minor during the 6th century, or whether it be to elements of the Waldensian or Anabaptist community back in the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th century, whenever, this is what counts. You want to know what counts? We're coming to it. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. What is the word of their testimony? It was because they overcame him. Whatever and how he, he, being the adversary, came against us. It was by the blood of the Lamb. You may not be aware of this. So often, even in the Church of God community, we think of a Lamb. What's the first thing that we think of when we think of a Lamb? We think of what festival?

Pardon? You sure? Which festival? Passover. Okay. Did you realize that you might want to jot this down and begin to have your own Bible study on it? In the book of Revelation, the term Lamb and or Lamb of God is mentioned 27 times. Did you know that? Did you realize that? That Jesus Christ is forever, forever that precious Lamb of God. And that when we, as Christians, abide in God's gift of Christ, when we abide in understanding what that meant, when we understand that when we abide in that sacrifice and within that blood sacrifice, that no matter what the condition is on the ground, that our position before God the Father and His throne is assured, and that as we come in His name, Jesus Christ, that God the Father is there, we are in His perfection, we are in His realm. Whether it is again in sixth century Asia Minor, whether it is in 11th century in the Bosnian Alps, whether it's in the Alps of France or in Switzerland during the time of the Waldensians, where there seems to have been elements of what we might call the Church of God community. And or in your life today, whatever you are going through, you say, you know, Mr. Weber, now that you mentioned the Great Tribulation, I'm already going through it in my life with what's happening to me right now, what's happening in my marriage, what's happening in my finances, what's happening in my community, what's happening in my neighborhood, what's happening between me and my loved ones. I don't have to wait for the fifth seal. I'm already there. Sealed, signed and delivered. It's here. Notice the power of this statement again. Join me as we all look upon it as a church community, as we come to verse 11. And they overcame him, overcame... Remember when we went through Ephesians 6, the fiery darts of the adversary? What as ever in our life today, it says that we can overcome it by the blood of the Lamb and thus by the word of their testimony. Our hearts will always betray us. Our actions will always betray us, positively or negatively, dependent upon that blood and what we correspond with it. Join me if you would. Let's finish up today in Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, just a few thoughts. Because this time, this time of when Satan is going... we are going to move from the time of man and the first four seals to the time of Satan's wrath, which is a great tribulation. And we'll be discussing that in two weeks. We'll be discussing the abomination that makes desolate. We'll be discussing other items that are after that. But in this realm, we need to consider a few things here for a moment. When we go back here to understand that all of a sudden, there's going to be a climax. And one thing that we always want to remember about the Bible, this is called making the Bible simple, but it's all going to kind of come together during the great tribulation. During this time when Satan knows that he is cornered, when he knows that his time is short, and there's nothing more dangerous than a bear or a cougar that is wounded and backed into a corner, wants to kind of come out and do something. This is dramatic in that, in a sense, this is the culmination of what I call the thread of two. You might want to jot that down. The thread of two. It goes all the way through the Bible, all the way through the Bible, the thread of two. And I say, thank God that it's not three or four. It might get complicated. But just two. There are two forces from the very beginning of creation. There is the God of heaven versus the God of this age.

There are two gods. And when all of this begins to occur and begins to ramp up and accelerate, you and I are going to have to be affirmed of knowing which God you and I serve. Those two forces then have two ways of life, depicted from the beginning by two trees. Two ways of life, the way of give and versus the way of get.

And there are two ages. There is this present evil age and there is a birth of a world without end. There are two cities. When you want to make prophecy simple, you follow the story of two cities. Babylon and Jerusalem. And Jerusalem above. Two cities. Babylon the Great and the heavenly Jerusalem. And there are two churches. There is a great, worldly church that comes under the domination of this spiritual leader. And then there is a church that is known as a small flock. And all of this comes to two outcomes. Two outcomes. Eternal life or eternal death. Now why is this very important? Because I want to challenge you as we conclude here. The story of the Bible is about a thread of two that begins at Eden and winds down to our day. The bottom line is simply this, dear friends. There are no third options. There are no third options when it comes to God and what He is doing. There is going to either be in your life today or in the life later on or in the entire world where the world is going to have to come down. That you are either for God or you are deceived. And you fall prey to this religious deception. And that you come under this bestial system and you take the mark of that beast. There is no third option. Do you know, and I know people today that are messing around with the third option and they're Christians. They call themselves Christians.

They're kind of over here. They put a foot over here because you know that feels pretty good over there. That's pretty firm. That's the world over here. And then they kind of put their foot over here and they want to be in the body of Christ because, well, you know, that's my grandma's church. That's my papa's church. That's kind of how I grew up in Sabbath school. And so, you know what they're doing? What are they doing?

They're about to rip their pants. That's what they're about to do. I don't want to scare the children. No, what they're doing is they're straddling two worlds and there's only going to be one world that's going to survive out of this. And you and I are invited into that kingdom. And thus, you and I are going to have to understand that after a while, it's all going to come down and there's not going to be any wiggle room. That's what the Bible is telling you. There is going to be no wiggle room as His bestial system arises and Satan in His fury lashes out and this fifth seal is unsealed. And the dragon literally dominates and possesses the leaders, certain leaders of this world. And the saints are going to be killed. Will you and will I overcome that by the blood of Jesus Christ? Will you and I accept only one choice without any hesitation, without any reservation that God the Father has called us and Jesus Christ is Lord and we are to keep His word? That's what it's going to come down to. Matthew 24, let's conclude here. But He who endures to the end shall be saved. Good news, salvation, entrance into eternity into the realm of the kingdom of God and be a part of that solution as it comes to this earth during the millennium. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations. Now, what does this mean? Sometimes in the Church of God community we have used this as what we might call a stand-alone commission and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached into all the world.

The entire Scripture is God's commission to the body of Christ to preach. We can also look at Matthew 28, go you therefore out into all the world and preach the gospel, etc., etc. When you look at it objectively and you look right here in the flow, join me if you would from Matthew 24. Let's take a look at it. We've gone through the first seal, the second seal, the third seal, the fourth seal, and let's remember that this is spoken first and foremost to the disciples. So let's be empathetic and understand how it's sounding to those that are first receiving it. And it doesn't sound good because it sounds, well, God, Jesus, why did you call us off the Sea of Galilee? It sounds like some of us are going to die. Some of us are going to be killed. Some of us are going to be murdered in your name.

And what Jesus is now saying, no matter what happens to you in this lifetime, you are my servant. You are my soldier. You are in my army.

And even if you die, even if you are maimed for this cause, the mission continues. The Gospel will be preached. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God will be preached. It cannot be stopped. It will not be silenced. Your life has purpose. Your life has purpose, Peter. Your life has purpose, Bartholomew.

Even as perhaps you are crucified upside down, your life will have purpose. Even if your head is cut off, your life will have purpose. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing will stop the Gospel of this Kingdom being preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations. There is no way of silencing God's Word. And it is only then that the end will come. This is prophetic in nature. It's giving us, number one, encouragement and showing us a sweep of events, reminding us of what Jesus said, that not even the gates of hell will prevail. God's Church, God's Word, Jesus Christ Himself, is always on the march, is always the positive force, is always on the offense, not the defense. It's Satan and his minions and his realm and the beast and the false prophet that will be cast out, that will be defeated. I'll share something with you. So often people read the prophecies and they get transfixed on, and maybe you have at times. Are you with me? The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. How many of you have heard of that? The Four Horsemen? Is this a church crowd? Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Okay. And I'm not talking about the guys Notre Dame back in the 1920s. It's just like human nature to focus on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, rather than the great super-parachinality of the Book of Revelation. That fifth Horseman that I described.

Did you know there's five horses mentioned in the Book of Revelation? Yes, there's the first horse, the second horse, the third horse, the fourth horse, yes, of the plagues, of the seals. But it is the fifth Horseman, the one that is on the White Horse, the one that is faithful and true. When you and I center our prophetic scopes on the fifth Horseman of the Book of Revelation, the one on the White Horse, the one whose name is faithful and true, the one who comes with the armies of heaven. That doesn't mean that all these other things aren't going to go away, but you've laid a... you've put your banner in the ground, and the banner is Jesus Christ. And he says, I am coming back, and lo, I am with you always to the end. And to understand, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And thus, we approach prophecy not out of fear, but out of respect for God's great love for us, that he is going to intervene, that humanity is going to be saved alive. Today, there are many people on this earth that do not know what you know and I know today. There are people today that are scared to death, just as much as I was scared to death growing up during the midst of the Cold War, of wondering, is humanity going to survive? I have a question for this audience. Many of you have been in the church for anywhere between 30 and 50 years. I have a question. Is humanity going to survive? Hands up. Humanity is going to survive. We're going to go into next time where it says that Jesus Christ is going to cut those days short.

That is a great hope that so many people do not know about. That is why we as a people have this message of hope and encouragement. It is not a message of doom and gloom. Oh yeah, sure, there's some tough bumps along the way. But it is a message of encouragement.

All of us love those stories in those movies of old where the guy on the white horse comes over the hill and saves the wagon trains. Well, this is more than a guy. This is Jesus Christ. And this is more than wagon trains. Jesus Christ is going to come down from the heavens. The trumpet is going to sound. The clouds are going to roll back. And Jesus Christ is going to come back down to this earth.

And if you are a part of his family, as you go up at that resurrection, guess what? What goes up must come down. And you are going to come back down with Jesus Christ as a part of God's solution to be kings and priests to help humanity understand God.

What an incredible hope you and I have. You probably just, some of you came to church today, maybe just to pass time. Maybe you think, well, I'll go through and I'll hear what the preacher has to say. I'm telling you today the best news, the gospel news, the good news of the kingdom of God. That Jesus Christ is no longer dead and buried, but he is risen. He's at the right hand of God.

And God has a plan, and he has a purpose, and he has promises, and he has provisions, and he's going to make them happen. And you know that, and I know that because he gave his son for us, that when we say, well, how do we know that God loves us because of this whole book of Revelation stuff and all of that prophecy can kind of seem a little tough? Yes, it does. So how do I know that God loves me?

There's only one way that we know that God loves us, and he tells us again and again, because I gave you my son. That's enough. Well, then how do we know that Jesus Christ loves us? Because he gave himself.

What do you mean he gave himself? He didn't give the blood of lambs and bullocks and turtledoves. He gave himself. And thus you and I now leave this facility. We go out tonight, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and our testimony then is not just to believe in Jesus Christ, but to live like him and to give himself to others. And sometimes what will come up this week is you'll say, that's the person that you want me to give myself to? They seem pretty ungivable. Well, didn't we all? And yet God gave us his gift. Maybe with what I have spoken today about prophecy, maybe what I personally have gone through over the last couple of weeks with the loss of a dear friend like Mary Duckworth and the loss of my own mother. It teaches us to number our days. It teaches us to measure our hearts as whether or not we have a heart worthy of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father. It makes us look at life a little bit differently. And it'd be so very, very thankful for the good news of the kingdom of God. Let us rejoice. Let us remember what I mentioned two classes ago as we began. Prophecy is not about historical charts, but the charts that are in our hearts. Because you and I are studying these matters in all seriousness and with love, we are asked with a question, the question that Peter asked, Therefore, what manner of men ought we to be? Look forward to seeing you over in the fellowship, Paul.