When This World Comes Apart

The young man was camping in rural Maine, kind of out in the wilderness, and he passed by the mouth of a cave. He didn't have time to explore the cave, but he wanted to at least get a picture of the inside of the cave, and I don't know if this was you or not, have been made, but maybe so. This was back in the days when you had to actually use film and cameras and had to get it developed. So he said, because it was so dark inside, he said he's camera for the maximum exposure and took a picture to see what would show up. When he got the film developed and got the picture back, low and behold, he saw crouched inside the darkness of that cave a mountain lion ready to spring. I think there are millions of people, possibly billions of people, who are living life every day unaware of the fact that at any moment Jesus could return. And they would be catapulted into the worst time of cataclysmic judgment this world has ever seen, a time called the Tribulation. Now, for those of us who grew up on the King James Bible, we're used to hearing that word in a little different way. We're used to hearing the word Tribulation of distress or trouble or trial or difficulty affliction, those kinds of things. And we're used to seeing verses like this one in John chapter 16, verse 33, where Jesus said, these things about spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the world, you shall have tribulation. But the good cheer, I will overcome the world or what Paul said in Romans 5 and verse 3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation work of patience. We're used to seeing the word in that way of trial and trouble. That is not the way I'm using the word today. I'm using the word tribulation of a specific period of time in the future. So we're looking at it from the aspect of prophecy, what will happen in the future, a specific period of time called the Tribulation. The Tribulation, the Bible speaks of a time period called the Tribulation. It's a time period of seven years following the rapture when Jesus will come to take home his bride, his church to be with him in heaven. So let's look at the prophetic chart that we've been using. And I forgot my point of this morning. Somebody have a laser pointer. You were going to use the flesh in my eyes this morning to be willing to give up and let me use. I forgot it. Sorry about that. But let's go ahead and hit the next button and scroll the prophetic information across the screen. You see the cross on the far left hand side of the picture, then the church age. That's where we are now. The first event in the future in prophecy is the rapture symbolized by that blue arrow symbolizing the return of Christ that he does not come all the way to the earth, but we are caught up as the Bible teaches to meet him in the air and will go home to be with him. That green bowed arrow there following the rapture is what we talked about last week, the judgment seat of Christ for those who know Jesus. While that is happening, while we as believers in Christ are in heaven, the tribulation time will be happening on earth. And you see it there called the tribulation. Seven years, seals, bowls, trumps, lightning flashes, thunder, it's indicating a time of judgment upon this earth. It is a cataclysmic time when literally the world comes apart. What will the tribulation time be like? What will events that will transpire during that time? Well, I'm convinced that the beginning of the tribulation will not be unlike like as it is today or whenever it is that Jesus will come back. I think the stage is being set or at any point in history when Jesus would come back at the rapture, the stage will be set for events pretty much to go on as they have, but soon after the tribulation starts, it will change drastically, it will change quickly and it will change for the worse and will go downhill for seven years. What is it like? What are the events of the tribulation? Buckle up because we're going to take a quick ride through the scriptures this morning and I'm going to give you a pile of information. A lot of information about what the tribulation will be like because there are so many scriptures that describe this time period on planet earth. We're going to look at five basic marks of the tribulation. The Bible describes five great characteristics that mark the tribulation period. The first of those is an unrestrained world ruler, an unrestrained world ruler. He is described in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. Would you turn to that passage in your Bible, please? We're going to start there. We'll look at three or four different passages and we'll put some others on the screen to fill in some of the details. We'll begin in 2nd Thessalonians 2 where we find this man described. He's not called the Antichrist here but he is called the Man of Lawlessness or the Man of Rebellion or the Man of Sin and that term is described in other places of the Bible to describe the person known as the Antichrist. 2nd Thess 2 verse 1. Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him. Now what does that sound like? Sounds like the rapture. Okay? He comes and we're gathered to Him. We ask you brothers and sisters, first to not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter, asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Let me stop there and clarify a couple of things in case you're wondering. Paul had done some teaching with the Thessalonians about the future. He talks about it in his first letter to them. He talks about it here again. He evidently had done a good bit of teaching but someone was communicating troubling information to them. Paul wasn't sure how it would come whether it was by some prophecy, some spoken word preached to them or whether it was by just someone sharing something with them or maybe someone who had written the forged letter in Paul's name and the Thessalonians were troubled about the fact that the day of the Lord had already come. The day when Christ would come to set up His kingdom and maybe they were already in that and maybe they had missed the rapture. He dealt with that in first Thessalonians. He deals with it again here. He says, it wants to be troubled about the timing of events. Verse three, don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day, the day of the Lord, when Christ comes to set up His kingdom, that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. So this man of lawlessness, this man whose doom is destruction, he has to be revealed first, a time of rebellion, a cast to come first, before the second coming. He's describing the tribulation time there and the revelation of the Antichrist is the world ruler, verse four. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God. Don't you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time for the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. Now what is this that is holding back this secret power of lawlessness, this rebellion against God? In verse six, it seems to be something. What is holding him back? In verse seven, it seems to be a person who holds it back. He's both really. I believe what's happened here, what's being talked about here, although there are different views on this. I believe what's being spoken of is the presence of the Holy Spirit working through the church to restrain evil. The Holy Spirit in this day and age works through his church to spread the gospel throughout the world and to be a salt and light influence in this world to restrain this all-out full-blown, whole-court rebellion against God. We are restraining influence as the Holy Spirit works through the church. There will be a time when he is taken out of the way. I believe that refers to the fact that the church is caught up to heaven and the Holy Spirit's work through the church doesn't take place anymore. That restraining influence is removed allowing the Antichrist to step onto the world stage and to be revealed. It doesn't mean the Holy Spirit won't be at work in the tribulation time. He will, but not through the church, not with the same restraining of evil influence that he has through the church now. I think that's what's being talked about there. For the verse eight, and then, when this one is removed, then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. Paul is doing his jumping ahead to that time when the Antichrist will be destroyed. He's revealed at a point, but he's ultimately going to be destroyed by the second coming of Christ, by the splendor, power of Christ's second coming. Verse nine, the coming of this lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie. He goes on to describe how the Antichrist will use even miraculous powers to protect and convince people that his program and what he says is true, and people who have denied Christ will believe that lie and will follow the Antichrist. Now, that's just a little bit of a summary of who he is and when he comes on to human history. Now, let me describe four characteristics of his rule during the tribulation time. The first of those that the Bible makes clear is his conquest. Obviously, he's described here as a very evil wicked man who leads a worldwide rebellion against God and will be destroyed at the second coming, but he doesn't start that way. He starts with a peace program that wows the world and elevates him to a place quickly of world leadership. He comes with a peace program that is described as a treaty with Israel. It's described in Daniel chapter 9, verse 27. This one's on the screen. He, in the context speaking of this man, the Antichrist, he will confirm a covenant, a treaty, if you will, with many for one seven in the context, and I'm going to take time to develop this, but in the context, that's seven-year period of time, seven years. He'll make a treaty with the Jews for seven years. In the middle of the seven, in other words, three and a half years into this treaty, he will put an end to the sacrifice and offering. What does that tell you? That tells you that as a part of this treaty, the Jews are able to resume sacrifices in offerings. What does that tell you? That means they're able to rebuild their temple. What does that tell you? You know anything about the Middle East today? You know that this treaty must include a peace treaty between Jews and Arabs because the Jews are able to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem, which is on the spot of what is now a sacred Islamic site, the third most sacred site to the Muslims in the world. Is right there in the temple mount, dome of the rock, and the al-Aksim mosque. So he puts an end to this in the middle of the tribulation. He puts an end to their sacrifices. And at the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation. He will see later exactly what that is until the end that is decreed is poured out on him until the time when he is actually judged by the second coming of Christ. But the Antichrist comes first of all with a peace treaty. And it is a stroke of genius. I mean, today anyone that could solve the Middle East problem, anybody that could make peace between Jews and Arabs would immediately be hailed as a world leader, someone that the whole world should look to, to bring peace to this world. And that's exactly what will happen. He will come with this stroke of genius offering this peace treaty. John describes it in Revelation 6 this way with the very first seal judgment in the tribulation time at the very beginning. He says, I looked and there before me was a white horse. It's writer held a bow. But notice there are no arrows, no other instruments of warfare, no instruments of battle. This holds a bow. And he was given a crown and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. This is most likely describing the initial thrust of the Antichrist in the tribulation time to consolidate his world power as he has proclaimed a great leader, a peacemaker, and he has thrust into world power. So his conquest is a peaceful one. And that's how he begins his kingdom. But I would have you also to notice the second thing about his career in the tribulation is his confederacy or confederacy. He pulls together a group of other rulers that help him consolidate power. This confederation of kings will ultimately give him world dominion. It's described in Revelation 13. Would you please turn there, Revelation 13, and we'll stay in Revelation for a while. Revelation 13 verse 1. This is the dragon. If you go back to chapter 12, you would have seen a description of the dragon who is Satan. He's identified as Satan in chapter 12. So Satan stood on the shore of the sea. All this is symbolic language here that John is seeing, but it symbolizes real events in the tribulation time. The dragon, the Satan stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads with ten crowns on its horns and on each head a blasphemous name. I'm not going to try to identify the seven heads, ten horns. That's just wild speculation on the part of some people who enjoy getting the following for their prophecy teachings. But John does tell us a little bit about them in chapter 17. Chapter 17, look at verse 12. The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received the kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. So this is the antichrist's confederation. A confederation of ten kings evidently who give him their authority and power and allow him to take the political step of assuming world leadership. Now who those ten kings are, there's been a lot of attempts through the years to try to identify or they Western European nations. The real cool theory today is that they're Islamic nations. So whether or not they are, I don't know. Nobody knows for sure. The Bible doesn't tell us for sure. All we know is that they are ten kingdoms that give their authority to the antichrist and allow him a political platform to assume world leadership. So his conquest is a peaceful one to begin with. His confederation makes it possible for him to assume world power, but then in the middle of the tribulation he begins to suffer conflict. So let's look at his conflicts for just a moment. This happens in the middle of the tribulation time. We'll see how all this comes together in just a few moments, but around the middle of the tribulation, and let's go ahead and throw up this next chart to show you. In kind of movement of time, you see the cross and the church age, the big block in the middle is tribulation seven years, but notice the reason for using this chart is it is divided into two sections. And the scriptures make this very clear. We'll see some references to it later. Three and a half year time periods, two, three and a half year time periods, clearly marked out in the tribulation time. Several things happen in the middle. At the three and a half year point, several things happen that change the whole dynamic of what's happening on planet Earth. One of those things is that the Antichrist gets attacked. Daniel chapter 11 describes it. And in Daniel chapter 11, kings of the North, kings of the South, both mount an attack against the Antichrist, and he makes his headquarters in Jerusalem. And that's a very important turning point for what happens at the middle of the tribulations. We'll see more about it later. He makes his headquarters in Jerusalem and he starts facing battles, extended battles and efforts to overthrow the Antichrist that will eventually lead up to the Battle of Armageddon at the end of the tribulation time. I believe that in one of those battles, the Antichrist is killed. But Satan is given the ability and the power to resurrect him. He's a person who would dispute that and disagree with that. But if you're in Romans 13 and we can get your lights back so you can see this, in Romans 13, you'll notice this description in verse 3. Excuse me, I'm sorry, Revelation 13. You're still there with me. Revelation 13, verse 3. One of the heads of the beast, seen to have had a fatal wound. Remember John is seeing this in vision. He's seeing this in symbolic form. So he says, boy, look like to me, one of the beasts had a head that had a fatal wound. But the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. Remember the beast is the Antichrist. People worshipped the dragon Satan because he had given authority to the beast, the Antichrist. They also worshipped the beast and asked, who is like the beast? Who can wage war against him? Now the reason for that question is nobody can kill the guy. You kill him, he comes back the light. Who can wage war against him? Now I know there are some who say, well, it's just one of his kingdoms that seems to have been dealt a fatal blow. But look at the description down in verse 12. There's a second beast called the false prophet who pursues and promotes the agenda of the Antichrist. He also says, hit this false prophet, exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed. What is the fatal wound? It's a wound which kills you. But it had been healed. How do you heal a fatal wound? Now we're going to do that's resurrection. I'm convinced that he has killed in one of the battles and Satan is allowed to resurrect him. I believe that this will be Satan's master stroke of deception and imitation of Christ. Satan is always an imitator of Christ. This will be his master stroke to deceive the world that this really is the man you ought to follow. Look, he was killed in battle, but he's alive. And this will be Satan's master stroke of deception. His conflicts began in the middle of the tribulation. They helped because of this event, helped consolidate his power and his dominion over the whole world. And people actually worship him because he is now presented by Satan as the hope of all humanity, the Christ, the one who died and came back to life. That leads us to the fourth characteristic of the Antichrist, this unrestrained world ruler. And that is his character because when this happens in the middle of the tribulation time, he begins to display his real character who he really is. Look at what happens in verse 5. The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and exercises authority for 42 months, three and a half years. The last three and a half years of the tribulation. Things change with him. Verse 6. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place in those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God's holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. All whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life. The Lamb who was slain before the creation of the world. This beast, this Antichrist will consolidate power and will so change what he does in the middle of the tribulation that is true character as the man of lawlessness, the one who leads this rebellion against God. His true character will be displayed. Remember what 2nd Thessalonians 2.4 said about him? It's on the screen for you. 2nd Thessalonians 2.4 says he will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or his worship so that he sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God. That's what changes at the middle of the tribulation. One of the big things. Remember he signed a peace treaty with Israel? Daniel told us halfway through that he cuts it off, cuts off all their sacrifices and offerings. Paul tells us that he goes in and proclaims himself to be God and demands he be worship and begins this program of Revelation 13 of blaspheming God and causing all people to worship him and seeking to put to death every Jew and every believer who's come to Christ in the tribulation time. So things drastically change and his real character as the man of lawlessness who leads this rebellion against Christ, against God will truly come to the fore at the middle of the tribulation time. And the last three and a half years of the tribulation will be an unbelievable time of persecution, of wickedness of this antichrist trying to overthrow anything, anything that sounds like God and he proclaims himself as God. Now he will come to his end as we've already seen. A couple of weeks we'll take a look at the second coming of Christ and that's when he will come to his end. Jesus will deal with him when he comes back to set up his kingdom. But the tribulation time is marked by an unrestrained world ruler. Secondly, the tribulation time is marked by an unbiblical world religion, an unbiblical world religion. In Revelation 17 this religion is described. Now you're not going to see the word religion here but if you put together the pieces of information it appears that what John's talking about in Revelation 17 is a worldwide, one world unified religion that the antichrist will use to help him consolidate power. The first thing you see about this world religion is that it is described as an ungodly woman in verse 1 of Revelation 17. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who sits by many waters. What is this sitting by many waters thing about? Well, skip down to verse 15. The angel said to me, the waters you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. So this is a system, whatever it is and I believe it's a religious system that is worldwide over all peoples, languages, nations. It is worldwide. Okay, notice further its description verse 2. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries, skip down to verse 4. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet with, was glittering with gold precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand filled with the abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. Obviously, getting a lot of symbolic stuff here, as you see this woman, but the woman is very rich and powerful and that's what is communicated here about this system. Now where I get the idea that it is a religious system is from verse 5, verse 5, the name written on her forehead was a mystery. Here's the name, babble in the great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. Babble in the great. If you trace the history of Babylon, it goes all the way back to Genesis 11, even earlier than that Genesis 10 and Nimrod, and Babylon is seen in the scriptures as the mother of all pagan religions that have opposed God from way, way back, just after the flood. So babble in the great, whatever this is, John ties it back to Babylon. And then he uses the word the mother of prostitutes. In the scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, the idea of prostitution or harlotry is used as spiritual adultery. It is used of any worship that is not the worship of the true God. It was always Israel's idolatry was referred to as parlatory on the part of the nation of Israel. That's why I think this is a religious system. This is a religious system that is opposed to God, spoken of then as a great prostitute or parlite. And it draws its origin from Babylon, the mother of all pagan religions, and it is full of abominations of the earth. It is in league with world rulers. As we've already seen, it is a world religion. And verse 6 says, I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God's holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. This world religion is opposed to all true believers in Jesus Christ. So there is an unbiblical world religion. Again, efforts to identify this world religion are really a waste of time. I know some of you may have been expecting me to say, okay, this is it. Or that's it. I'm not going to do that. That's just, I think, that's going beyond what the scriptures teach. All we know is that this will be a one world religious system that is opposed to the true God and persecutes all true believers. Now two things are interesting that are said about this one world religion. One is her early success. Early in the tribulation time, this world religion is very successful. Look at verse 3. Then the angel carried me away into the spirit, into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had several heads and ten horns. Now that sounds a little bit like the Antichrist, doesn't it? It goes on to describe this beast a little further in chapter 17. He quite clearly is the Antichrist. But the woman is sitting on the Antichrist, indicating riding the Antichrist has control over the Antichrist, has power over the Antichrist. The Antichrist is just using this one world religion. He allows this element of control, the element of freedom for this one world religion to develop. The fact that Antichrist is using it to help him consolidate power. Once that happens, he will deal a swift death blow to this one world religion. And you see her ultimate destruction in verses 16 and 17. The number 16. Her ultimate destruction is described. The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked. They will eat her flesh and burn her with fire against symbolic language to describe the ultimate destruction of this one world religious system at the hands of the Antichrist. Verse 17 says, for God has put it into their hearts to accomplish His purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority until God's words are fulfilled. That's speaking of the religious leaders and the other political leaders. This is all part of God's plan. The Antichrist uses the one world church for the first half of the tribulation, but then he destroys her. When do you think that might happen? Given the description of what the Antichrist has done, it's obvious to me it happens in the middle of the tribulation. That's when the Antichrist walks into the Jewish temple and proclaims himself to be God, Daniel 927. Second, that's Lonean's two pours we've already seen. Demands to be worshiped. He has been healed from a fatal wound. All the world is in awe and wonders at him and he demands now to be worshiped. That's a pretty good time to do away with any other religion. In fact, the Bible says he opposed anything that is called God, anything else that would be worshiped. And so I believe in the middle of the tribulation is when he squashes this one world religion. Having used it to help consolidate power, he now destroys it. But this world will be characterized at least for three and a half years by an unvidlical world religion. I believe that's quite possible. The stage is being set for that already with all kinds of efforts made to deny any doctrinal foundation and bring all religions together to coexist. Have you seen the bumper sticker? Yeah. Packing all religions coexist. Well, one day they will. All of them, all religions, will come together in one world concomeration. Isn't that wonderful? No, no. It is deadly. It's deadly. We must even in this day stand for biblical truth. And when those who call for unbiblical unity at the expense of biblical truth, we have to say no, no, no, no. That's not something we're going to be a part of because that's just kind of the precursor to this one world religion in the tribulation time. An unbiblical world religion, third characteristic of the tribulation time is the unleashed wrath of God. The tribulation will be marked by the wrath of God, God having been patient with mankind for millennia, for thousands of years. Finally has a time where he says it is time. I've had enough. I'm pouring out my wrath on this earth. And that will happen during the tribulation time. It's described in Revelation chapters 6 through 18. We're going to read those 13 chapters. No, no, I'm just, he's not. Now I do want to summarize very quickly the 21 judgments that are described. There are a series of three judgments, three series of judgments in these chapters. First of all, there are the seal judgments, seven of them. And they go as follows. First of all, world government brought peacefully initially by the Antichrist and then a world war, a war that issues in famine, worldwide famine, that's the third seal, and one fourth of the population being killed, that's the fourth seal. God's judgment is being poured out and people on one fourth of the world population dies because of this war and famine that results. Can you imagine that? Right now that would be almost two billion people. Die. Anita Cataclysmic judgments and then great meteor showers pummel the earth, a worldwide earthquake, not like the one we saw this time a year ago in Japan. That was localized worldwide, earthquake, literally the earth convulsing under the judgment of God. The sun is dark and the moon is red. Those are the seal judgments. And then following on them are the trumpet judgments. The trumpet judgments, one third of the earth is burned with fire. One third of the seas turn to blood, killing one third of all marine life on planet earth. A great star falls to the earth, probably a huge meteor that will have untold destruction on this earth. There are other cataclysm in the heavens that will end up affecting the amount of daylight that planet earth experiences from then on. One third less daylight from that point on till the end of the tribulation time. Beasts are unleashed which look like locusts but have a tail like a scorpion. They sting people and cause five months of incredible, almost unendurable pain. Another war erupts which kills one third of the remaining inhabitants of the earth. Do you get the feel that this world is coming apart? It is literally convulsing to its end. That's what happens in the tribulation time. But we haven't gotten to the bold judgments yet. They're the worst yet. The seven bold judgments described in Revelation 16, the trumpets are in chapters 8 and 9. The bulls in chapter 16 smelly and painful sores come on all the followers of the Antichrist. Some people believe they are open cancers on people's bodies. The entire ocean, oceans of this world are turned to blood killing all the marine life on planet earth. Then freshwater sources, rivers, lakes, other waters are also turned to blood. The sun scorches people with heat. There's terrible darkness, almost a painful darkness in the kingdom of the Antichrist. Then there is another worldwide earthquake. This one, so kind of Christmas that the Bible describes the cities of the world flattened, the mountains flattened and the islands covered. You talk about tsunamis of an untold proportion. You talk about the kinds of things that we have never seen the scope of that will happen in the tribulation time. It will all end with 100 pound hailstones falling to planet earth. Can you imagine this world literally convulsing like that? Is it leads to its end? The world as we know it coming to an end because that all will end according to Revelation 16 with the appearance of Jesus Christ. He will come at his second coming and begin to mop up the mess and set things right. But that's for another message. The tribulation time is characterized by the unleashed wrath of God. The last mark of the tribulation time is unparalleled trouble for Israel. Would you please turn over quickly to Matthew 24? In Matthew 24, Jesus himself describes this unparalleled time of trouble for Israel. His disciples have asked, what's it going to be like at the end of the age? What's the end of the world going to be like? Jesus uses them as symbols or representatives of the nation of Israel to describe what it will be like for the nation of Israel when the end happens. Notice verse 9. He says, then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death and you will be hated by all nations because of me. Verse 15. So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel. Remember what that is? Daniel 9 referred to it. Seconds us long in two referred to it. Revelation 13 refers to it. It's when the Antichrist stands in the temple and proclaims himself to be God. It's quite clear from Daniel 9 that happens in the middle of the tribulation. He says, when you see that, when Jews who are living in the middle of the tribulation, see that. Let the reader understand. He says, verse 16. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the house stop. Go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to take their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. Verse 22, if those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, the elect of Israel, those who will be saved at the second coming. For their sake, those days will be shortened. I mean, if this went on and on and on and on, no one would stay alive in Israel because it is at the middle of the tribulation that the Antichrist who now proclaims himself to be God according to Revelation 12 begins to chase Israel and seek to destroy her and there will be an unparalleled time of trouble for Israel. This time of trouble was prophesied in the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophesied it clear it would happen. Quickly three passages to give you a perspective here. Jeremiah 30 verse 7. How awful that day will be. No other will be like it, Jeremiah says. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, named for Israel, but he will be saved out of it. There will be a remnant and we'll see exactly how many in another prophecy. Daniel 12 says this way, at that time, at what time? Well, he's just described the last half of the tribulation in Daniel 11 with the powers of the North and South attacking the Antichrist. He says at that time, Michael, the great prince who protects your people, Daniel, the Jews will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. That's the second half of the tribulation. But at that time, your people, at the end, that time your people, everyone whose name is found written in the book, will be delivered. So for three and a half years, an intense time of trouble and persecution for the Israelites for Jews, but at the end there will be many of them saved. How many of them? That's exactly what I thought. 13 tells us. Verse 8, in the whole land, it clears the Lord. Two thirds will be struck down and perish. Yet one third will be left in it. The third, this third, I will put into the fire. I mean, those suffer persecution and trouble during that last half of the tribulation, too. I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say they are my people and they will say the Lord is our God. He has just described in chapter 12 and verse 10 and chapter 13 and verse 1 that refers to the second coming. Where this one third of Israelites who are left alive will see the Lord Jesus coming. It says, he will see, they will see the one whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourn for an only child and they will call upon him and they will be saved. That's what Paul refers to in Romans 11. All Israel will be saved in one day. That's the day. The day coming of Jesus, when all the Israelites who are left, two thirds of them having been killed by the Antichrist, the one third that is left will see him coming and will turn to him as their Messiah and be saved as he comes at his second coming. So this was prophesied by the Old Testament but it is also prosecuted by the Antichrist. I have already referenced that. It is the Antichrist who from the middle of the tribulation on has one goal in mind, kill every Jew I can find, kill every believer I can find. Revelation 12 makes that clear. Actually, there's something that happens there that I believe sets the Antichrist on this course like he hasn't been before. Revelation 12 describes a war in heaven between Michael and his archangels and Satan and his angels and Satan is cast out of heaven. You see, what I was saying? Not about Satan was cast out of heaven a long time ago. He was, as far as his place as an anointed cherub, but he still has access to the throne of God to accuse believers of sin. He did it to Job. Revelation 12 calls him the accuser of the brethren. Other pastors talk about that. But in this battle in heaven, in the middle of the tribulation, Satan will be cast out never to be allowed to enter again. The Bible says he is so hop and mad that he goes down to planet earth and starts chasing Israel. The woman who bore the Messiah, Revelation 12 says, and he seeks to put the death Israel. Isn't it interesting that it's at the very same time the Antichrist stands up in the temple proclaims himself to be God, puts the death all religion, including the Jews religion and seeks to put them to death? I'm convinced, I can't prove this, but I'm convinced that when Satan is cast out of heaven he indwells the Antichrist and motivates him with a fierceness of opposition to God and his people like has never been seen, unparalleled trouble for Israel. But there's one other thing. You may think that because of all that we've described about the tribulation, nobody's going to get saved in the tribulation, are they? Ah, just the opposite is true. The tribulation will be a time of unusual, gospel opportunity. If you are in Matthew 24 still, look at verse 14, he's described some things that will happen in the tribulation time. In the verse 14 he says, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. There's going to be a time of unusual, gospel opportunity where people by the millions will be saved during the tribulation time. I'm not going to have you turn to this one, but listen as I read part of this in Revelation 7, John tells us exactly how that's going to happen. John says in Revelation 7 that there will be 144,000 Jews handpicked by God and sealed. That means protected, the Antichrist can't touch them. He can't kill them. They will be protected by God and they will become God's flaming evangelists that take the gospel to the whole world. There will be the ones that preach the gospel to the whole world. 144,000 Jewish evangelists in the tribulation time. And here's what results from that. In Revelation 7 verse 9 after he describes this 144,000 evangelists, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes. By the way, that's not any religious group that exists today regardless of what some will try to tell you. Oh, we're part of the 144,000. Oh, really? Really? What Jewish tribe are you from? You're going to be living in the tribulation time and be handpicked by God? I don't think so. But anyway, here's what happens. After this, I look, John says in Revelation 7 verse 9, after this, I look and there was before me a great multitude that no one could count. Listen to this from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding calm branches in their hands and they cried out and allowed voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. He describes some more of this worship scene. In verse 13, one of the elders asked me, these are white robes. Who are they? Where did they come from? I answered, sir, you know. And he said, here's the identification of these people. They are those who came out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them quite into the blood of the Lamb. And he goes on to describe that they are now before the throne of God. These are believers from the tribulation time that so numerous that no one can count them from every tribe, every nation, tribe, language and people. They come out of the great tribulation. There will be millions of people saved during the tribulation time because there are 144,000 people that know they can spread the gospel and they will do it passionately throughout the tribulation, especially through the last three and a half years during this time of persecution. These are not people from the church age. John makes it very clear. These are people that are saved in the tribulation time. They were saved then. They came out of the great tribulation, he says. So there will be many, many, many people saved during the great tribulation. What do the church fails to do in this church age? And it is to our shame and will show up at our judgment if we do not reach this world. But whatever we fail to do, those 144,000 will do in the tribulation. They will reach every nation, every language, every people group. Revelation 7 tells us. In that period of time they will do it. So what does all this have to do with us? I realize there are a lot of people today that teach that the world is going to get better, things are going to get better and the church is going to grow and spread its influence over the world. Where the kingdom of God will come in under our watch. That is not the way the Bible describes things. The Bible describes things that progressively leading toward rebellion against God so that when the tribulation starts, the whole world will be an ecstatic cosmic rebellion against God, convulsing its way toward the second coming, the world literally coming apart at the seams. What should that do to us? Well one thing it should never do is just create curiosity. God doesn't want us to try to figure out who the Antichrist is and who the ten kingdoms are and all of that kind of thing. What does 666 mean? And oh did you hear about the microchip we are supposed to be getting? That is the mark of the beast. That is not what God wants to do with this information. God wants to fire us up to get to reach as many people as possible so they won't have to be in this time. So they won't have to be in the tribulation time. That is what this ought to do to us rather than causing us to sit around in our little study groups trying to figure out who the Antichrist is, what a waste of time. Let's get out and reach people with the gospel. Let's witness to our neighbors, to our friends, to our co-workers. Get them to gospel, spread the gospel throughout the world. To cause remember most of the world's population will die in the tribulation time and most of them will die without Christ. We need to reach them before that time comes so that all the light of fire under us to reach people with the gospel to quit the enlazy and lackadaisable and complacent. Prophecy is never about me getting these little greens of truth and all. I know who is going to come and what is going to happen. That is not the purpose. The purpose is to fire us up to be passionately living for Christ now before all of this starts to happen. Because once it happens, man's day is done and God is displaying his wrath on this earth. May God help us to so passionately live for him and to reach people with the gospel so that we will save some people from this awful time when the world comes apart. God help us to do that. Lord please, please help us. Please help us to take the information you have given us and to realize we don't have much time to do all that we can to reach people with the gospel. Help us to focus on raising up missionaries to go to the ends of the earth to warn people Jesus is coming so that more people will be in God's family before he comes back. Oh God help us. Help us to reach our neighbors. Code workers, our friends, our family members. Light a fire under us, Lord. That cannot be quenched. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.