I am thankful that our youth are having a marvelous weekend together following the baptism. I really believe the Lord is using this time to strengthen what He is doing in them, and we need to continue to pray for them.
Let us begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we are those who come before Thee this morning. Lord, we are sinners saved by Your marvelous grace. O Lord Jesus, when I look into Your Word, I see such amazing things that You have in Your heart for man, and we have messed it all up.
Lord, we have turned from the course that You have designed for us. But I am so grateful, Lord, that You did not give up; that You were faithful to Your own heart and Word to redeem man, to restore us to the place where You could fulfill Your purpose for mankind in creating us.
Lord, we bow before our Creator this morning. Lord, I do ask that You open this Word, that we might see Jesus this morning, that we might touch Your heart concerning Your purpose for these days in which we live, in the end of this age. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Could we begin by looking at Revelation 7? The last time I spoke, I actually spoke from the last half of this chapter, speaking on the overcomers. So today I want to return to the first part: Revelation 7:1-4.
And after these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree.
And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel.
This book of Revelation is the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the unveiling of His purpose and intentions for the end of this age, the coming kingdom, and beyond. It is the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, today man is in great confusion, and the problem is that man is self-centered. That is our great problem. We are self-centered, and so man looks around and says, “I am my own god. I make and determine my own life. I do not need a God in my life. There is no God. Therefore, I am not accountable. Therefore, there are no absolutes other than the ones that I determine are absolute. Everything is relative.”
Brothers and sisters, what a generation we live in today, where there are no absolutes and everything is relative because we have left God out, the center of life.
So man’s religion becomes a system of tradition and political correctness, based on what he believes matters and what is right and what is wrong. But since each man has a different idea of what is right and wrong, there is no absolute, no center in his life.
Now, we know that there are some who believe there is a God. You can ask them, “Do you believe in God?” and they will say yes. But they believe in God after their own imagination, their own minds, and their own concept of what God is.
Some men actually take a piece of stone and begin to say, “This is going to be my god.” They think God is all-seeing, so they put a bunch of little eyes on the stone. God is all-wise, so they make him look enormous. They say, “God is very stern,” so they put a scowl on his face. This is man’s idea of God. He makes up his own god and worships the idol that he has made.
Or, brothers and sisters, if we are more sophisticated, we do not actually take a stone. We say, “Yes, I believe there is a God, and I think He is like this. Oh, He is love. And being love, He could never allow His own Son to be crucified. He is all love. He just accepts everything and everybody, no matter what you may say or do.”
In other words, he is making God in his own image, in his own heart. He never sees who God really is.
But brothers and sisters, I am sure I do not have to convince the ones here that there is a God. We do not have to make God after our own image, or wonder what God is like, or wonder what His heart is, because He tells us. He reveals Himself to us.
Jesus Christ came to this earth that we might know who God is, that we might understand what His purpose is and what His heart is. He came to redeem man, to put him back on center, to get man God-centered instead of man-centered.
But we know man said, “Oh, no, I am not going to have any of this. Away with Him. Crucify Him.” Self-centeredness crucified our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord begins to open our eyes to see our self-centeredness, may we humble ourselves before Him and say, “Lord, let me get down at Your feet. Lord, I humble myself before Thee.”
Self-centeredness. Well, the Lord Jesus came. He has revealed who God is. He says, “If you know Me, you know the Father.” He is the full expression of who God is, according to Colossians.
And not only that, but when our Lord Jesus died, He gave us the Holy Spirit within, that anointing within, to be able to know the life of God that has been given to us inwardly and to experience that life.
He has given us His Word, the Bible, the inspired Word of God. And I will say before all the world this morning: I absolutely believe and know that this is inspired of God.
He has given us His Word. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us interpret that Word, that we might know Him and understand Him. And, you know, He works out everything in the Christian’s life for good, that we might understand and know who our God is.
God does want to reveal Himself to man. He loves man, and He has always desired to have man in fellowship with Him.
The point is, as we look at the book of Revelation, sometimes we get into the events and see all the happenings in the book. Frankly, many are very terrifying. I mean, not long from now, we will look at it: all of a sudden, a third of the trees are gone, a third of the rivers are gone, and a third of the ocean is gone. Tremendous things and turmoil are about to come upon this earth.
But brothers and sisters, the purpose of that book is not to frighten anyone. The purpose of this book is to reveal who Jesus Christ is, what His purpose is, and that He will faithfully carry out that purpose.
In the beginning, as we looked at the book of Revelation in chapter 1, it begins with the Lord’s own testimony of Himself. He says, “I am.” He is, brothers and sisters. He is self-existent. We are created ones. He is the self-existent One, and out of Him all things were created and made, even you and I.
He is the beginning and the end. He is trying to tell you, “You are searching for the meaning of life. I am the beginning and the end. I am the meaning of life. Do not let your self-centeredness deter you from what I have created you for.”
Then, in chapter 1, we see Christ revealing Himself as the risen King, the One who came and died but is now alive, risen from the dead, and seated as King.
We saw Him with a garment down to His feet, a white robe full of righteousness. That is what the garment means: morally correct. Do you want to know where we should get our morals from in this life? It is from the One who is morally correct, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is from His life within us that should dictate the morals and standards of life.
He has that golden girdle about Him: love—love that cares, love that sacrifices, love that disciplines, love that will not let you go.
His white hair is full of wisdom. Our God is full of wisdom, and He has told us, “If you need wisdom or lack wisdom, you need to ask of Me, and ask in faith, and you will have it.”
Wisdom. Do you know what wisdom really is? Do you think it comes out of Washington, D.C., or from the great thinkers? Wisdom is of God, and it is available to you and me.
Discernment: the eyes of flaming fire. All-discerning, brothers and sisters, He knows our hearts. He knows the depths of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Therefore, He can discipline us. Therefore, He can train us in the way that He would have us go. He is all-discerning of the hearts of men.
Feet like fine brass: brothers and sisters, we found out that He is the Judge. He will judge all things. Man is accountable. In Romans 1, He says man is without excuse. Man may think he has an excuse, but he does not. He is accountable, and all will be accountable. Even us Christians will go before the judgment seat of Christ.
He holds the seven stars, the messengers, in His hands. Brothers and sisters, He is the message that the messengers are talking about. Out of His mouth was a two-edged sword: living words with authority.
His words are the ones that get to the depths of man’s soul, that are able to purify and redeem man’s soul from himself.
It says His countenance was as the sun shining in its strength. Brothers and sisters, if we can just behold Him, we will see the brilliance of His holiness and righteousness. It is glorious.
When our Lord Jesus came, it was all there. We beheld His glory, but He had humanity. He was shrouded; His body was like a lampshade. Therefore, we could see the light. Otherwise, the light would have consumed us.
In Revelation 2 and 3, we have seen, brothers and sisters, something that has been on His heart from eternity past: His future helpmate, His bride, His church. It comes right into the forefront.
He is in the midst. He is not standing off, pointing His finger. He is walking in the midst of His churches. He loves His church, and He wants His helpmate to be ready and prepared.
In chapters 4 and 5, John is taken up to the throne. The Lord is saying, “John, you need a new perspective on things. The throne is in control. The Creator, the Almighty One, is in control of the universe.”
Then we see in chapter 5 the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But what do we see, brothers? We see the Lamb, newly slain. It is the Lamb who has conquered and overthrown all that resists God, all the self-centeredness in man. The Lamb has dealt with it, and He is on the throne. Praise the Lord.
And God says to the Lamb, “Take the book.” It has the seals that will unveil the ages to come, the seals that, as they are opened, will consummate this age and bring in the kingdom age.
The Lamb was the only One worthy, brothers and sisters, to take charge. Often, we want to take charge of life in our own lives, and we should be responsible people. But ultimately, we have to allow Him to be in charge of our lives. And this One in charge is the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We see the first four seals opened. I am having to do a little review, obviously. The first four seals were opened, and we begin to see the tremendous resistance of Satan and his forces against God consummating this age.
He knows that the end is that he will be thrown into the lake of fire. He is smart; he is not like we are. The more these seals are opened, the more he knows that his end is near.
So we see the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: the white horse, false prophets; the red horse, war; the black horse, famine; and the pale horse, pestilence. Brothers and sisters, all of these things are the resistance of the enemy to our Lord Jesus Christ and His coming to reign as King on this earth.
We got to the fifth seal, and we saw the martyrs under the altar. It is said that the church is built on the blood of the martyrs, brothers and sisters. These are ones who held the testimony of Christ against all the forces of hell, and their lives were taken because of their testimony of Jesus.
The enemy thought he had won a great victory when he torched those Christians, when he had them killed and slaughtered. But what he created was an army of prayer warriors. They are under the altar, and they are praying for God’s will to be done, that God would bring the end of this age and avenge their blood on Satan.
The sixth seal is where we are now. Previously, we talked about the overcomers in this seal and how God looks to the overcomers. They are the ones who have been faithful down through the ages to the testimony of Jesus, and they are always with Him.
In every major event or turn of events that you look at in the book of Revelation, there will be this little spotlight put on the overcomers who are with our Lord Jesus Christ to bring about the consummation of this age.
So now, as we come to this seventh chapter and the sealing of 144,000 Jews out of Israel, the Lord is beginning to prepare to come back.
We have experienced great resistance from the enemy down through the ages, but it will greatly intensify in the coming years, and very quickly. We see that the Lord is preparing the nation of Israel.
He is preparing the nation of Israel, and here He seals 144,000 with the seal of God to enable them to make it through the Great Tribulation and prepare for the restoration of Israel—not just as a nation, which we have already witnessed, but as a people whose hearts have turned to God, and for the salvation of the Jews.
The Lord Jesus, as you look at the book of Revelation, sees mankind in three groups: the Christians, the Jews, and the Gentiles; or the church, Israel, and the nations.
In Genesis 12:1-3, we see the Lord’s purpose for the nation of Israel. He raised them up to be a testimony on this earth to His name.
Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:
and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing:
and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Now let us go to Genesis 13:14-15.
And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward:
for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
I give it to thy seed forever. Genesis 17:7-8 says:
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Brothers and sisters, here we see God making a covenant with Israel.
Today, among Christianity, there is a theology called replacement theology. People hate Israel so much, and hate the testimony that God designed to show through the nation of Israel, that they say, “Look, Israel failed in their testimony,” and they did. Then they say, “God has replaced them with the church, and the church now gets all the blessings that Israel was supposed to get.”
The Word does not say that, brothers and sisters. I have even heard this theology carried to the next level, where it says, “The church has failed in its testimony,” and it has; “therefore Islam is replacing Christianity.”
So, brothers and sisters, there is a great lie based on partial truths here that I want us to be careful about. The partial truth is that Israel failed in their testimony and the church has failed in its testimony. That is true.
What is not true is that God has undone His covenant with the nation of Israel, or that God will not carry out His covenant with His church.
Brothers and sisters, I think it is pretty clear from the Word. He said, “I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant.” That is God’s Word. It does not change. “I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse those that curse thee.” Unconditional. There are no conditions here.
To the church in Matthew 16, the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Unconditional.
Now, in the Mosaic law, under Moses, there were covenants made with God and His people that were conditional. In Deuteronomy 30:1-3, we read:
And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,
and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;
that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the peoples, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
In other words, brothers and sisters, this is a brief synopsis of the history of Israel: Israel would fail, they would be scattered among the nations, but the Lord in the end would gather them and restore them—not only nationally, but spiritually.
God has not left His promise, brothers and sisters. In the book of Malachi, we see that their hearts turned from the Lord. The Lord ended up allowing them to go into captivity. For four hundred years, the Lord did not speak to them after Malachi. There is quite a history in those four hundred years, but we are not going to go into it today.
But finally, God sent His only Son to that nation and into this world. They rejected Him.
When He found that He was rejected and their hearts were hardened toward Him, remember when He was walking out of Jerusalem? He saw the fig tree. It did not have fruit on it, and He cursed the fig tree. The fig tree is the symbol in the Word of God for the nation of Israel. If you read, you will see that is very evident.
We know that the nation of Israel failed to receive their Messiah. It says in Romans 11 that because of this, they have been set aside temporarily as a testimony. Now, they still have a testimony because they are still here.
They were scattered among the nations, but brothers and sisters, they did not just disappear like so many other nations and tribes down through the ages. They did not assimilate with those nations. They remained Jewish.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is faithful to His Word. Let us look at Isaiah 66:8.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
The Lord had promised that He would restore them and bring them back. Brothers and sisters, this happened on May 14, 1948. The Jews had been scattered among the nations.
But in 1939, Hitler arose to power and World War II began. He was going to create the Aryan race, the perfect race, according to his mind. There is no doubt about it: Hitler manifested the spirit of Antichrist.
He determined that he needed to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. They were, in his view, the scourge of the earth. Actually, he took all of their possessions. That is how he funded his war.
Then he sought to destroy them all, and he did extinguish six million Jews during World War II. I may have said World War I, but it was World War II.
In 1948, really through the encouragement of Britain and the United States, a United Nations resolution came forth, giving that land and restoring the nation of Israel as a country. The political restoration came on May 14, 1948.
Immediately upon the declaration that Israel was now a nation, the surrounding Arab nations raised an army. They immediately came into Jerusalem to destroy Israel.
But against enormous odds—and they were enormous—Israel prevailed. What does that mean? That means God is faithful to His Word. He restored them as a nation.
But the spirit of Antichrist among the Arab nations immediately tried to destroy this testimony. Even though it was just political, it shows you how much the enemy hates the testimony of Jesus on this earth.
God is faithful, brothers and sisters. I want us to see that today.
In Isaiah 27:6 and Isaiah 35:1-6, written about 700 B.C., Isaiah said Israel would blossom and there would be streams in the desert. Brothers and sisters, at the time of Israel’s restoration in 1948, that is exactly what Israel was: a desert and a swamp, a desolate land.
But the Lord had said it would blossom, and there would be streams in the desert. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion developed irrigation systems for the nation of Israel. They highly developed the drip system that is now utilized for irrigation, particularly in the more arid states of America and in California. My son has a little drip system for his tiny garden.
But more than that, through satellite imagery, I think it was in the seventies, they discovered there was a great reservoir of water under the desert. They began to explore and found that water.
It was salty, brackish water. It could not be used for drinking, but they refined it and used it to water the fields and deserts. The desert bloomed, and there were streams in the desert, brothers and sisters.
Today, Israel ships out about seventy percent of the fruit that comes from those gardens and farms in Israel. God is faithful to His Word.
In Luke 21:24, the Lord says, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” In Psalm 102:16, it says Zion will be built up by the Lord, and then the Lord shall appear in glory.
When Israel was made a nation in 1948, Jerusalem itself was still divided into three sectors. They did not have full control of Jerusalem.
In 1967, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria determined to invade Israel. Israel knew they were planning something, so they decided to make a preemptive strike, and they did.
In 1967, in what is called the Six-Day War, they greatly expanded the territory of Israel back to almost its normal borders, taking in the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
The important thing to remember is that in 1967, for the first time in two thousand years, Jerusalem came under full control of the nation of Israel—full control of the Jewish nation.
In Jeremiah 30:3, we read:
For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will turn again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
There are other Scriptures like this. From 1948 until 1967, and continuing since then, millions of Jews have returned to their land.
Many returned, except those behind the Iron Curtain. I still remember those days, the Cold War, they called it. No Jews were allowed to leave Russia. Was God’s Word going to be fulfilled?
The amazing part of history to me is that God raised up Mikhail Gorbachev. In the 1980s, he and Ronald Reagan were able to talk about it. Amazingly, Russia broke up and they started trying to have what was called a democratic type of nation there. Of course, we know that did not fully come about.
But what was amazing was that Gorbachev approved visas to allow the Jews to leave the country. Brothers and sisters, once again, God’s Word is fulfilled. Jews from all nations have returned to the homeland.
In Zechariah 12:1-3, it says:
The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel, saith the Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him:
behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about, and when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples; all that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded, though all the nations of the earth be gathered together against it.
He said that Jerusalem would be a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone to the nations. Has that not been true? It will become even more so in the coming years.
Since 1948, there have been five major wars to try to push Israel into the sea. They have all failed because God is faithful. That does not include the recent wars and encounters they have had with Hamas.
Security for that nation is their main concern; it is their preeminent concern. They are such a tiny nation, surrounded by nations that desire to destroy them. So security is their main concern.
They have the Iron Dome, and it has taken out many of those Scud missiles, brothers and sisters. But a few days ago, it was reported that Hamas now has under its control GPS-guided mortars. The Iron Dome is not going to be able to handle GPS-guided mortars in the same way. They can pick out missiles, but mortars are a little different, and these will be accurate.
So it is going to get more and more intense. There is going to be more and more demand for the security of the nation of Israel.
Let us look at Daniel 9:27. This is speaking of the Antichrist.
And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.
That little Scripture is basically saying this: the Antichrist and his coalition of nations will be so mighty, and the nation of Israel will be looking for security. The whole world is going to be looking for something to avert this great war.
The Antichrist himself will say, “Okay, we will have a peace treaty.” He wants to get Israel off guard. So he signs a peace treaty with Israel which is fine for three and a half years.
But Daniel is saying that in the midst of those seven years, around three and a half years, the Antichrist will show his true colors and begin to surround Jerusalem and actually break into it.
This is Jacob’s trouble. Brothers and sisters, when the Antichrist appears and that peace treaty is broken, it is a period called the Great Tribulation. You can look in Jeremiah 30:7 for that.
But as we have read today, just prior to that happening is where we have come to in the book of Revelation. It says the Lord will seal 144,000 Jews.
Some say it is an exact number; some say it is representative. But the main point is that God, out of the nation of Israel—though it is mainly a political nation—has godly Jews. I am not talking about Messianic Jews. Messianic Jews are Christians; they are part of the church.
But here He has pious, godly Jews: ones that really love God, ones that are really looking to God and counting on God, ones that really believe in the living God.
God is going to seal them to protect them through the Tribulation. There is something you might want to notice: it is the seal of the living God that they are sealed with.
It is not the seal of the Lamb. We know they are not Christians. Christians have the seal of the Lamb, but these ones have the seal of God. They are the godly Jews whom God is protecting.
They will be greatly persecuted. All the Jews will be greatly persecuted, and we know that the Christians who remain during that period will also be greatly persecuted.
During that period, God will send two witnesses to this earth to strengthen the Jews. Of course, it will help those Christians who remain at that point.
Most likely, these two witnesses are Moses and Elijah, though there are different views on this, because they had not yet finished their testimony.
When you look in Revelation 11, which gives us more detail, it says that when they have finished their testimony, the Antichrist will overcome them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street for three and a half days. The nations will greatly rejoice because they will say, “These two witnesses are the ones creating all the problems.”
There will be great rejoicing, but then God will suddenly raise them up. Then there will be great woe among the nations.
At that point, the Antichrist will gather all the nations around Jerusalem, and the Battle of Armageddon will begin.
Zechariah 14:2-4 says:
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.
And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
The Battle of Armageddon will begin. They will break into the city, and then the Lord will come from the clouds down to earth.
He will touch His feet on the Mount of Olives, and there will be a great earthquake. It will split open, but it will provide a way for a third of the Jews to escape.
In Zechariah 12:10, we read:
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.
Then Zechariah 13:1 says:
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord stands on the Mount of Olives and they begin their escape, they will realize that Christ Jesus was their Messiah. They will mourn for Him, and they will go into repentance.
The Lord will open a fountain of salvation to them for their sins, and they shall, according to Romans 11:26, be saved.
God is faithful to His Word. Israel is a national testimony, if you want to say that, for God on this earth, though they are not godly at this point.
God has not left them. He has not forsaken them. He has brought them back to the land, established them as a nation, and given them the water they needed for the land to flow with milk and honey.
He has protected them through five major wars and all the conflicts in between.
The Antichrist will finally say, “Enough is enough,” and he will take that ten-nation coalition—which I happen to believe will come out of the Middle Eastern Muslim nations that surround Israel—and try to crush the testimony finally.
But Christ will come, stand on the Mount of Olives, and wipe out those nations.
Israel will recognize that this was their Messiah, whom they had killed, but who in mercy has returned to save them. Their hearts will be turned, and Israel will be saved. Praise the Lord.
After Armageddon, brothers and sisters, they will enter into the millennial kingdom. They will be the leading nation on earth. It says in the books that they will be priests going out among the nations, sharing the gospel with the nations.
They will be the priests that God raised them up to be in the beginning. Jerusalem will be the capital city of all the world.
Finally, after the millennium, in the New Jerusalem, we know that the twelve gates of pearl have the names of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.
In the final testimony, in this great helpmate that the Lord is making, you will see the church and you will see Israel: one people in Christ, because they will have been saved. Thank the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, as we try to see our great Christ in this book of Revelation, I want all of us to come away today able to say, “God is faithful.”
Sometimes in our lives, we may doubt that. We may misunderstand Him. Things may not go the way we feel they should. Sometimes we may be under discipline. Sometimes there may be difficulties in our lives where the Lord is trying to refine our gold, and we misunderstand.
But I want you to know: God is faithful to everyone who has committed his life to Christ. Christ is committed to you. He said He is going to conform us into His image, and He is going to do that.
What an amazing restoration. What God is going through to accomplish His purpose and desires. He wants us to be part of that. Even as Christians, we can be on the outskirts, so to speak, of all of this. It can be a distant thing from us, and we can really miss so much of the Lord in all of this.
Secondly, I think we should become greatly aware of how soon the Lord must be returning. Are we ready? Have we really given our lives back to Him? He is faithful to us, but are we faithful to Him?
May He find faithfulness in us, brothers and sisters, in these last days, and may we overcome.
Actually, if you want to know what the next event is, it will probably be largely unnoticed. But there will be some Christians—and I do not know how many—but Christians, the overcomers, will be raptured to the throne. That is the next event.
Brothers and sisters, this has been on our heart, and we have been sharing for a number of years about not being elitist, but just being faithful to the Lord, to overcome in the Lord.
We might be part of that welcoming party that will welcome the Lord back, that will be raptured to the throne, that will kick off His return, so to speak—the parousia, the return of the Lord.
If we are here when He puts His foot on the Mount of Olives, how much we will have missed. But He will still be faithful.
In Mark 13:28-31, let us look at this. I will end with this.
Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh;
even so ye also, when ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, until all these things be accomplished.
Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.
I find that very interesting. There are different interpretations of what “this generation” is. But I want to let you know that I was born in 1943. I was a generation that, in 1948, was five years old when Israel was restored as a nation.
In 1967, I was twenty-four years old. I saw the Six-Day War on television, of course, and I remember those days. Jerusalem was unified.
Am I the generation that He is speaking of? Is Stephen the generation He is speaking of? Are you the generation? When you see all these things, know that I am at the door.
Brothers and sisters, I hope our hearts are encouraged. Get our lives right with the Lord. Get prepared for His return.
Lord, we come to You today. Lord, I can confess to You that You are faithful. Lord, even when I have been unfaithful, You are still faithful. You cannot help but be faithful. Lord, You are going to bring all of this about in Your faithfulness.
Lord, we really want to be part of Your heart, Your desire, and Your concern, and be willing and able to say with the real Spirit of the Holy Spirit:
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Lord, we just come to You today. I pray You will touch our hearts to keep the freshness of Your return in our hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.