you're out here tonight, and we thank God for you. All right, I want you to open your Bible, please, to 1 Thessalonians chapter four. 1 Thessalonians chapter four. Now, this is a very familiar text. I probably preached it a few times the last few messages, yesterday and so on, morning and evening, because when you're dealing with Bible prophecy, this is a very, very important passage. It is the clearest passage dealing with the rapture. There are others, but this to me is the clearest. And so we're gonna start off with this passage, 1 Thessalonians 4, and beginning at verse number 13. First, oops. 1 Thessalonians 4, beginning at verse number 13, and I'll read down to the end of the chapter, verse 18. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. for this we say unto you by the word of the lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the lord shall not prevent or as i said yesterday shall not precede we're not going to go ahead of them which are asleep or them who've died and verse 16 for the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout so this is the rapture the lord's going to come back we're going to meet him in the air he's going to descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Why don't we stop for a moment here and pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray That you'd bless this service tonight. We are so thrilled that the prophecy conference Is up and running and we're off to a good start and i'm glad to see folks out tonight I pray the spirit of god will speak to hearts tonight You'll fill me with the spirit of god and give me the right words to say I want to be the help and encouragement a blessing and I want this these messages to be practical and helpful And we do pray lord that you'll speak to hearts. If anybody would walk in this room tonight Let's not say we pray to get saved For Christians, we pray to come out of here better Christians as a result of being in God's house tonight Now we ask these things in Jesus name Amen I've entitled tonight's message the Lord intervenes in history now This is something I'm sure most of you are familiar with because all throughout history all throughout the Bible we see examples Of how the Lord intervenes In history, I'll just give a few examples the flood the lord certainly intervened there When he told noah to build the ark and he sent that flood the whole world was covered with water Only noah and his family escaped the flood. That was a divine intervention right there And then of course the destruction of sodom and gomorrah that was divine intervention and of course god again warned He told Abraham what he was going to do, and then he warned Lot to get out of there. And so the Lord intervened when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And I heard a preacher say a long time ago, if God doesn't destroy America, he needs to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, first of all, God doesn't need to apologize to anybody, but he had a point. America is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, that's just a fact. I hate to say it. I love my country, but it's becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. All over the television, homosexuality. You can't even look at your phone without seeing pictures of homosexuals on the telephone. You know, ads usually, two guys around each other, you know. And it's just sickening, it really is. And what's really, really disheartening is they're teaching this to little kids. And that's really bad, ruining little children by corrupting their minds with this perversion. So, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We see how the Lord intervened in Egypt, miraculously saving Moses, And then, of course, even before that, with Joseph, how the Lord intervened in the life of Joseph. Then later on, of course, with Moses and Pharaoh. And then later on, Babylon with Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar. We get many, many examples. If you know your Bible, you can think of some right now, how the Lord miraculously intervened. God is in control of history. It's been rightly said, history is his story. And it has often been said that God, His history is His story. God is in control of history. Acts 15, verse number 8, Acts 15, 8, it says, Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. All His works from the beginning of the world. Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10, Isaiah 46, 9 and 10 says, For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. And there are quite a few scriptures like that, reminding us that God is in control of history, God is in control of the affairs of men, and God does certainly intervene in history. God declares that things that are not yet as though they already exist. And Bible prophecy, and I think we should grasp this as we continue with this conference, Bible prophecy is history written ahead of time. As far as God's concerned, it's already happened. Of course, there's still a future for us, but not for God. And that is what makes it so amazing. When we consider this statement, the Lord intervenes in history, we certainly think about how the Lord intervened at the first coming of Christ. For example, he sent an angel to Joseph in a dream. And then the angel told Joseph that Mary, his wife, would be with child and conceived by the Holy Ghost and so on. And then God directed the wise men from the east to Jerusalem. And God sent an angel to the shepherds who were keeping watch over their flock by night. I mean, there's so many wonderful stories regarding the first coming of Christ. Marvelous examples of how God intervened 2,000 years ago. Galatians 4.4 says, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Now the fullness of time, that expression in Galatians 4.4, that means God has a time appointed. The fullness of time refers to the time appointed by God, the Father, to send forth his only begotten Son. So in other words, God has a perfect timetable, and everything is right on schedule. We often say things like, well, if the Lord tarries, we might do this or that. Well, we know what people mean when they say that. I've probably said it myself a number of times, but strictly speaking, the Lord's not tarrying. It might seem that way to us, but the Lord's right on schedule. He is right on schedule. He has a perfect schedule, a perfect timetable, and everything is on track. Everything is on course. God's clock is never off. Mark Hitchcock has written some good books on Bible prophecy. Yesterday, Brother Josh was asking me about some books I can recommend on prophecy, and I forgot to mention Mark Hitchcock, one of the younger, probably not too young, but young compared to Walvoord and Ryrie and the other ones. But Mark Hitchcock has written many interesting books on Bible prophecy, and I've read quite a few of them. And he says the Bible contains about 1,000 prophecy and about 500 of them have been fulfilled down to the minutest detail. So he says the Bible has a thousand prophecies and about half of them have already been fulfilled down to the minutest detail. So just as God interviewed in history at the first coming of Christ, we can be sure he will intervene in history at the second coming of Christ. And that is the basis of my message tonight. And since 500 prophecies have already been fulfilled down to the minutest detail, how they're accurately fulfilled, we can be sure, we can confidently believe that the remaining 500 prophecies will also be accurately fulfilled. Now, of course, the first major event on God's prophetic timetable is the rapture. The rapture. God will intervene in a spectacular way at the rapture, as we just read in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. Our Lord referred to the rapture in John chapter 14, in verse three, when Jesus said, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. Notice, he's not gonna come again. I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So our Lord referred to the rapture in John 14. But as I said earlier, I believe the most detailed prophecy regarding the rapture is the text we just read a few minutes ago, 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13 to 18. Now the rapture's imminent. As I tried to point out yesterday, that means it could take place at any moment, any time. There are no events that have to take place before the rapture. There are no signs before the rapture. No prophecies have to be fulfilled before the rapture. And people say, what about the Battle of Armageddon? Well, that's going to be later on after the rapture. That's going to be during the tribulation period. People say, what about the Antichrist? He will emerge and he'll become prominent after the rapture. All these fantastic prophecies that we're familiar with from the book of Revelation, it will take place after the rapture. There's nothing that's gonna happen between now and the rapture. Well, things will happen, but I mean major prophecies and so on. Now, the word imminent means likely to occur at any moment. It means impending, the rapture is imminent. Many scoffers, of course, have ridiculed this doctrine. The Apostle Peter refers to these scoffers in 2 Peter chapter three, in verse eight, he says, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is one day. So we look back and say the Lord's gone 2,000 years, that's like two days. from God's reckoning, God looks at time. So it hasn't been that long at all. So just hang on, he's coming back. Now I said this yesterday, I think I'm gonna probably repeat it a few times before we wrap this thing up Wednesday night, but I believe I know of no greater motivation for godly living than the imminency of the return of Christ. I believe that with all my heart. If you really believe the Lord can come back tonight, you're gonna make sure your house is in order, amen? If you believe the Lord's gonna come back right away, you're not gonna be living a sloppy, Mickey Mouse Christian life, which unfortunately is very prevalent these days. But you're gonna really make sure you're really prepared and ready for the Lord's return. I'll give you some scripture. 1 John 3, 1 John 3, and verse number two. 1 John 3, 1 John chapter three, verse number two. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear while we shall be, but we know that, watch this, when he shall appear. In other words, when the Lord returns, when he comes back, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now watch this, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. So there you have it. The Lord's return should motivate us. John says, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself. So it's a purifying hope, the blessed hope. Now furthermore, when you think of God's time schedule, God's calendar, whatever you want to call it, after the rapture will be the judgment seat of Christ. I believe the judgment seat will immediately follow the rapture, and the judgment seat is certainly something to make us get in line, if you will, and make sure our house is in order. Look at Romans 14, 10. If you consider the Lord's coming back any time now, and when he comes back, we're gonna be ushered into the judgment seat of Christ, Look at Romans 14, 10. Romans 14, 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Why dost thou set at nought thy brother? Now watch this. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We're all gonna be there. Now he says, we all, he means Christians. He said, what about unsaved people? Will they be there? No. There's a judgment for them. And Revelation 20 calls it the great white throne judgment. where they're gonna be cast into the lake of fire. But we're not gonna be cast into the lake of fire because we've been forgiven, we've been pardoned, we've been saved, we've been redeemed, we've been born again. So God is not gonna judge us for our sins, but he is gonna judge us at the judgment seat of Christ. which is a different kind of judgment. Look at 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest. Again, he's talking to Christians here. Every Christian man's work shall be made manifest. It's all gonna come out. For the day shall declare it. That's the day when the Lord returns. That's the judgment seat of Christ. Because it shall be revealed by fire. and the fire shall try every man's work. And what sort of this? If a man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. There's going to be rewards given at the judgment seat of Christ. I think it was in Sunday school yesterday, if I'm not mistaken. I was trying to bring out some contrast between the rapture and when the Lord returns at the end of the tribulation period. And I said that the rapture, the emphasis is deliverance will be delivered from the tribulation and rewards. Whereas at the end of the tribulation, the emphasis is judgment. The Lord's coming back in judgment. He's gonna return at the Battle of Armageddon. He's gonna judge the wicked and so on. But if you notice here, in verse number 14, he shall receive a reward. Rewards are gonna be given out at the judgment seat of Christ. And then verse number 15, if any man's work shall be burned, He shall suffer loss some people are gonna lose out of the judgment seat is he for various reasons They're gonna lose out they're gonna suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved There was no danger of them losing their salvation, but there is a danger of them losing their reward I'll be everybody understands that and sees that I Don't believe the Bible teaches you could lose your salvation. I believe wouldn't just save you have everlasting life. I Jesus said, no man can pluck him out of my hand. We're safe, secure. We're sealed by the Holy Spirit. We have everlasting life. We're not going to go to hell. But whereas we cannot lose our salvation, we could lose our reward. And I think that's serious business. The Bible says, If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. Now, go with me please to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 10, for we, again, we believers, we Christians, must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Notice Paul's including himself, of course. We're all going to be there. In fact, Paul, give me a place here in 2 Corinthians. Paul speaks specifically the judgment seat of Christ, his last recorded words. Dealt with the judgment seat 2nd Timothy. These are the last Recorded words of the great Apostle Paul 2nd Timothy chapter 4. He said I'm now ready to be offered in other words. He's gonna be martyred gonna be Executed I'm ready to be offered the time my departure is at hand. I fought a good fight. I finished my course I've kept the faith now watch this henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness That's one of the rewards a crown of righteousness. I Now, unless you think, well, sure, Paul's gonna get that, but I can't imagine anybody else getting that. Well, let's keep reading. There's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me that they, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. So if you love his appearing, if you're looking forward to the Lord's return, you will receive this crown of righteousness. And there'll be other crowns given out of the judgment seat, too. I wish I had more time to get into all of that, but I wanna get back to the, message on the Lord intervening in history. So going back to 2 Corinthians and chapter 5 and verse 10, we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat, we're all gonna appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 10 says that everyone, again, every Christian, may receive the things done in his body, whether it be good, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now, I believe these scriptures are an incentive for godly living. And I think I said yesterday, I don't think Bible prophecy should lead to speculation. Oftentimes it does. wondering when's the Lord coming back. Remember Harold Camping was setting dates. I think that was very unfortunate. In fact, before he died, he apologized for that. Admittedly, he was wrong. But the damage was done. I heard of people selling their houses and quitting their jobs and stuff. But date setting is wrong. Trying to figure out who the Antichrist is, that's wrong. Prophecy should not lead to speculation But motivation should motivate us to be better christians to pray more to read our bibles more to be in church More to help out the pastor more go soul winning more Let our light shine in this dark and wicked world and this world is getting darker and darker and more wicked every day I'm sure you know that if you just pay attention to the news so it's an incentive for godly living Daniel Webster, the great 19th century American statesman and orator, he said, the greatest thought that has ever entered my mind is that I will have to stand before a holy God and give an account of my life. That's a great statement. Think about that. Unfortunately, some Christians, again, I hate to be, you know, sound negative, Preachers got a priest a positive and a negative. Amen But some Christians are slackers and some Christians tend to back be backslidden and they're gonna be ashamed when the Lord returns They're gonna lose out on the judgment seat of Christ. Now look with me at first John 2 and verse 28 first John chapter 2 and verse 28 1 John 2.28 says, and now, little children, little children's a term John often uses for Christians, and now, little children, abide in him, that means abide in Christ, that when he shall appear, when he returns, when the Lord comes back, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, now watch this, and not be ashamed before him that is coming. Some people are gonna be ashamed when the Lord comes back. They're going to be doing things they shouldn't be doing. They're going to be in places they shouldn't be. They're not going to be living for God. Again, they're not going to lose their salvation if they're saved. They're genuinely born again. They won't lose their salvation, but they're certainly going to lose their reward, and they're going to be ashamed when the Lord comes back. Beloved, I don't want to be ashamed when the Lord comes back. Do you? No, I don't think so. I hope not. Now, here's another one that's kind of similar. Just go to the next book, 2 John. Verse 8 2nd John verse 8 look to yourselves, you know, be careful here Watch out that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward. I Want to get a full reward. I Don't want the Lord to say well, I had a full reward, but you messed up. You only get a partial reward You know, you slacked off too much. Went down to Florida, started goofing off. I don't want the Lord to say, you're not gonna get a full reward, amen. By the way, I assure you, I like Florida, but I'm not goofing off, amen. I'm still preaching, still keeping busy, going out soulward and serving the Lord down there. Now, W. Graham Scroggie, great preacher from England, He was pastoring Spurgeon's church during World War II. He was preaching Spurgeon's church. He was the pastor there when the bombs were dropping on London. His church got bombed, the building got bombed. But Scroggie wrote some great books, was a great preacher. He said he would rather go through the entire seven-year tribulation than to be a carnal Christian standing at the judgment seat. That's quite a statement. had to go through the entire seven-year tribulation and suffer and endure all of that to have to stand before the Lord as a carnal Christian at the judgment seat of Christ. That's quite a statement. Now, the judgment seat will be for us Christians up in heaven. Meanwhile, here on earth, the seven-year tribulation period will begin. And that brings me to my next point. How will the Lord intervene in history? First, coming up soon, it's imminent, the rapture. Second, the Lord is going to send a tribulation on this earth, and the Lord is gonna send a strong delusion. Somebody, I forgot who it was, you know after the service I go around talking to people, seeing old friends and catching up on things. But somebody said, don't you think the strong delusion has already started? And yes, I think it has to a certain extent. But it's going to get much worse during the tribulation. Much worse. Today, no doubt about it, people are being deceived. No doubt about it. It's amazing what people believe now. Some people believe a man can get pregnant. Men can have periods. I'm not kidding. They're not even calling pregnant women now. It's pregnant people or something. They won't say, well, pregnant women. Got to fence the bisexuals and the transsexuals and the other kooks. Huh? Huh? So people are deceived now. They really are deceived. And even some people who claim to be Christian accept abortion. And some of them are upset because Texas passed a law which the heartbeat bill. If you detect a heartbeat, you can't kill a baby. I mean, thank God, some people are trying to stop the slaughter of little babies. But some people accept it. I don't know what the official statistics are, but roughly half the country's opposed, half the country thinks it's okay. That means half the country's pretty wicked, I think, if they accept abortion. Here's another thing. Some people say, well, I'm opposed to abortion. Then they go into the voting booth and vote for a candidate who supports abortion. That's not smart. I'm telling you right now. That's not a good idea. That's not what that's not wise and Well, I like him on some other issues Yeah, but that's a very important issue killing babies and I found if they're wrong on that they usually wrong on a lot of other things anyway So they support abortion they support homosexuality even thinking homosexuals can get married adopt children and that men can become women, women can become men, and all sorts of wicked, crazy things. They believe in evolution. Look, look, look. We did not evolve from monkeys. God created Adam and Eve. And we're descended from Adam and Eve. We're not descended from monkeys. And it's ridiculous that people actually believe in evolution. And they actually ridicule those of us who don't believe in evolution. You believe in that creationism. Yeah, I believe the Bible, amen? Yeah, I believe the Bible. I'll take the Bible any time over nonsense of evolution. They believe in global warming, and we're all gonna, what'd they say, I mean, 20 years ago, I hear the world's gonna end in 10 years. Here we are. That AOC said, 12 years, it's all over. I don't think so. Now, it might be over if the Lord comes back, over for people like her, but global warming is a way to scare the daylights out of people, just like trying to scare everybody with COVID, scare everybody with global warming. It's a shame they're doing it to little kids. They're actually teaching little kids in some schools, you're not going to live long enough to get to high school. The world's going to get burned up with global warming. What a terrible thing to tell little kids. So people accept all sorts of foolishness today. The masses are being deceived even now, but it's gonna get worse during the tribulation. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2 11. 2 Thessalonians 2 11. And for this cause, God shall send them, watch this, strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Now why would God do that? Well, you look at the previous verses, you see the Antichrist is gonna come, people are going to accept that, they're gonna follow him, they're gonna believe in him, they'll take the mark of the beast, that means the mark on their right hand or the forehead, and then it says he's coming after the working of Satan. Look at verse 10, and with all deceivableness, see, they're deceived, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and them that perish, them that perish means them that are going to hell, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We're not gonna perish, we're not gonna go to hell, because we've trusted Christ, but those who don't trust Christ are gonna perish. That means they're lost, they're gonna go to hell. In that perish, why are they gonna perish? Why are they lost? Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. They could be saved, But they don't want to be saved. They could receive the truth, but they reject the truth. And because of that, for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should all believe a lie. Now look at verse 12. that they all might be damned. This is all saying the same thing. Perish, lost, damned. That's what it all, it's all talking about people going to hell. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth. Here we have it again. They received not the truth, they believed not the truth, but they had pleasure in unrighteousness. That sounds like most people today. They love their sin. They have pleasure in unrighteousness. They love it. They love their pornography, their filth. all the dirty garbage on TV and the movies, all that sensual garbage music to listen to, and a lot of the music even. I'm just going by the ads. I would never watch the video. Even the ads look pornographic to me. And be careful, parents. Some of you kids listen to this junk. You really gotta be careful. So we see that God's gonna send a strong delusion. How is the Lord gonna intervene? There's something right there He's gonna send a strong delusion. He's gonna intervene. Yeah, it's a shame how people are being deceived. As Bible knowledge decreases, satanic deception increases. That, you can mark it down. As people know less and less about the Bible, and that's, let's face it, we're living in a day where there's a lot of biblical illiteracy. And as biblical knowledge decreases, satanic deception increases. A few years ago, Merrill Unger, here's another one, Brother Josh, look at my good books, anything by Merrill Unger. I've read a whole bunch of his books. He was a tremendous Bible teacher. But a few years ago, Merrill Unger wrote, he wrote this. The danger of delusion increases in these last days as demonic activity accelerates and serious study of God's word wanes. Now, Unger wrote that in 1973. The situation's a lot worse now, a lot worse today. First Timothy 4.1 warns about seducing spirits. They seduce, they deceive, they eventually destroy. They destroy people. You read some of these horrible stories in the news, and how can that happen? How can people do things like that? I mean, you know, horrible crimes. Rape and murder and cannibalism and all these kind of things. Things that drug cartels do to people. Child trafficking. It's demons. Demons are behind a lot of that. God wants us to know the Bible so we can have some discernment. God wants us to be filled with the Spirit and not be filled with unclean spirits, which a lot of people, unfortunately, are. God wants us to know the Bible so we will not be deceived. 1 John 3, verse 7 says, little children, let no man deceive you. Now, what is John saying? Even Christians can be deceived. And I've seen it, by the way, I've seen it over the years. I mean, the deception of Christians is nowhere near as bad as the deception of unsaved people, but nevertheless, some Christians are deceived. Why? They don't read their Bibles, they're not praying, they're skipping church, they start hanging around the wrong people, wrong influences, and they're being deceived. Deceived. Unfortunately, it happens. Second John, verse seven says, for many deceivers are rented into the world. I think I mentioned yesterday, the Olivet Discourse, when the disciples said, Lord, what's going to be the sign of thy coming? The first thing Jesus said in response to that question is, take heed that no man deceive you. Deception, before wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and diverse places and famine, let no man deceive you. Deception is increasing as you get closer to the Lord's return. And after the rapture, the Lord is gonna send strong delusion. 2 Timothy 3.13 says, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse. worse. Deceiving and being deceived. That verse has always impressed me. They're deceiving other people, meanwhile they themselves are being deceived. Isn't that pretty amazing? Isn't that kind of frightening? They're deceiving people, they themselves are being deceived. That's what we're seeing all about us. Those who really know the Bible and And I recommend read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation at least once a year. I recommend having devotions every day, read your Bible. Get serious about Bible study. Those who know the Bible, those who stay close to the Lord are not deceived. On the other hand, those who are not right with God are easily deceived. Look at Ephesians 5.6, please. Ephesians 5.6. Ephesians 5.6. Let no man deceive you with vain words. See, there we go again. I'm only giving a few verses dealing with this subject. If we were to look at it in great depth, there's many, many, many more warnings about deception. It's a big problem. Always has been, always will be, and I think it's gonna get worse as we get close to the Lord's return. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children disobedience now after the rapture during the tribulation the Antichrist will be identified he will emerge he'll be recognized and he will deceive the whole world we see that clearly in the Bible Revelation chapter 13 one of the most important chapters in Bible prophecy. There's a chapter that talks about the Mark of the Beast and so on. And again, I said it yesterday morning, I said it last night, I'll say it again, the COVID vaccine passport is not the Mark of the Beast, but it certainly seems to be paving the way for it. That's my opinion on that. But Revelation 13a says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. All that dwell upon the earth are gonna worship the Antichrist. Think about that. Whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So if you're saved, your name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. But those whose names are not recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, that means those who are not saved are gonna worship the Antichrist. Pretty scary, but that's where we're heading. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 describes the Antichrist in great detail and how people are going to be so deceived they're going to literally worship him. And as I said, this deception is going to get worse and worse. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4 says the devil hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. So why do people do what they do? Why do they say what they say? How can they act the way they do? The devil has blinded their minds. Isn't that a kind of frightening thought? The devil's able to do that to people, to blind their minds? to deceive them to the point where their minds are literally blinded. That's what we see happening all about us. Sinners are spiritually blind. And the greatest deception of all, in my opinion, the greatest deception is the idea that people can go to heaven without faith in Christ. And there are literally millions and millions of people here in America who believe that. I meet them all the time, I try to give them a track, I'm okay, man, I'm good, I'm good. And you know, I hate to be argumentative, I usually say, I don't think you're so good. They don't like that, but you know, you don't wanna offend them, but you gotta let them know you're being deceived. Jesus said you must be born again. But they think they're good, because you know, they haven't robbed a bank, you know, they work hard, pay their taxes, I mean, they're good guys. And the Bible doesn't say good guys go to heaven. It says those who trust Jesus Christ as their Savior go to heaven. He that believeth in him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already. It's pretty clear who's saved and who's not saved, but people think they're okay, you see? And the greatest deception. I believe is the deception that you're gonna get to heaven without Christ. And there's variations of that. You know, if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. I've heard that so many times. I had one fellow tell me, I'm saved because I keep the Ten Commandments. You know what I told the guy? Can you recite them to me right now? He only got two or three of them he was able to say. I said, you're gonna go to heaven because you obey the Ten Commandments and you don't even know what they are. So many people are so deceived. Why are they going to hell? Why are they going to be so, why are they going to receive a strong delusion? Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2 10. So God will intervene during the tribulation period and he is going to send the strong delusion and their fate is the just and deserved punishment for their willful and deliberate rejection of God's grace and mercy. John chapter 3, verse 19 says, men loved darkness rather than light. That's pretty clear, I believe. And so God sends them further into darkness, and further into darkness, and despair, and confusion, and spiritual blindness. Let me say this, too, before we move on. Just as the mystery of iniquity doth already work, that's recorded in 2 Thessalonians 2.7. passage we just read about the strong delusion, important chapter in Bible prophecy, 2 Thessalonians chapter two. Every Christian ought to be familiar with that if he wants to know about Bible prophecy, 2 Thessalonians chapter two. But just as the mystery of iniquity doth already work, in like manner the delusion is already working. It's already in operation. But it's gonna be much worse after the rapture. Now let me say this. God is going to intervene in many, many ways during the tribulation. Many ways. In fact, so many ways you wouldn't have time to read them all tonight. You don't want to get home. You don't want to just listen to me go on all night about how God's going to intervene. But I'll say a few examples of how God will intervene during the tribulation. Go with me to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5 and verse number 1. Revelation chapter five, verse number one. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Notice that, it's sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much. That's John. John is saying he wept much. He was weeping, John. Because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. Now look at verse five. And one of the elders, that's one of the four and 20 elders, saith unto me, weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book. and to loose the seven seals thereof." Now, of course, we know the Lion of the tribe of Judah is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, to save time, go to chapter 6. And here we have the seals being opened. The Lord is now opening the seals. This is the beginning of the tribulation period. The Lord is intervening in an amazing way, incredible way, in the beginning of the tribulation when the Lord Jesus opens up these seven seals. Look at verse one, I saw when the lamb, see, in the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus is often called the lamb. Signifying his vicarious death. He's a lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world And when I saw the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard as it was a noise of thunder One of the four beasts or four living creatures saying come and see and I saw and behold a white horse And he just sat on him at a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer now Some people think oh, that's the Lord Jesus. No, it isn't That's the Antichrist He's an imposter. He's not the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus will be seen riding a horse in Revelation 19, when he comes back to fight at the Battle of Armageddon. This is the Antichrist. And look, look, look what follows the first horse. Verse three, and when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and see. And there went out another horse that was red. What do you think red signifies? Blood, bloodshed, people dying. Bleeding. And power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth. That's the Antichrist. He'll make believe he's coming to bring peace, but he's gonna shed blood, and he's gonna take peace from the earth. That they should kill one another. And it was given unto him a great sword. Now look at verse five. Here we have the third seal. What happens after this warfare? Famine. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, come and see, and behold, lo a black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. In other words, a person can work all day, labor all day, and maybe if he's lucky, get enough money to buy a loaf of bread. But meanwhile, the rich people say, well, we got plenty of oil and wine. Now look at verse, this is what's happening, by the way, in a lot of these communist countries. And it's heading this way. Keep your eyes open, it's heading this way. And in verse seven, and when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. So notice the Antichrist on the first horse. Then there's a red horse, right? And the red horse signifies blood, and that's followed by the third horse, the black horse representing famine, and then the fourth horse. The fourth seal's open, there's a fourth horse, and verse eight, he was a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell. Death and Hell followed with him, and power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. Quarter of the world's population is going to die When the fourth seal is open So you could say the Lord is definitely going to intervene During the tribulation period beginning of the right in the beginning you see these seven seals opening later on And I dealt with this extensively last night, so I'm not gonna spend much time with it now, but the Lord intervenes at the Battle of Armageddon. We saw that last night, Revelation 16. He says, he gathered them together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. He gathered, the Lord gathered them together. So if the Lord gathered them, he's certainly intervening in history. He's the one who's gathering them together in a place called Armageddon. Revelation 17 describes an apostate one-world religion. which will be supported by the Antichrist. This apostate church is described as a whore. The true church of Christ is called the Bride of Christ. The apostate church is a whore. And this whore commits fornication. It's obviously not literal. It's spiritual fornication with the kings of the earth, according to Revelation chapter 17. Now, again, we see divine intervention. 17 and verse 17 describes another divine intervention. Let's look at it. Go to Revelation 17, 17. I don't have time to read the whole chapter. It describes the religious church, the apostate church, and pictured as a whore, and sitting on seven mountains in verse nine. Of course, Rome is the city on seven hills. And verse 18 says, the woman wished thou stars of that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. In John's day, the greatest city in the earth, the greatest city was Rome. But if you look at verse 17, 17, 17, for God hath put in their hearts, notice that God did that, God put it in their hearts to fulfill His will and to agree and to give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. and we see how God intervenes during the tribulation period. By the way, it's a startling contrast between the beginning of Revelation 17 and the end of Revelation 17. In the beginning, the woman is pictured in all her worldly pomp, riding the beast, the Antichrist, and at the end, the Antichrist turns against her, and the Lord is in that. If you look at verse 16, I read verse 17, I should've went back to verse 16 to give the context. Verse 16, and the 10 horns, which thou sawest, those are 10 nations. They're on the beast, thee shall hate the whore. So they love the whore in the beginning because the whore could help them and they could benefit from that. but now they hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire because God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will. Now, what's gonna happen is once the Antichrist and the Ten Horns or the rulers of the revived Roman Empire, once they realize that they don't need the whore anymore, they're going to abandon her and turn against her and so on, once they are successful, Taken over the world. They'll realize they no longer need her help and They don't need they're not gonna need the Pope anymore, you know and so that's the end of that now the Antichrist will help destroy the apostate church and by the way I think one of the reasons why the Antichrist will turn against the One World Church and the Apostate Church, the Antichrist is gonna want to demand to be worshipped by himself. He doesn't want anybody else to be worshipped, just him. Because 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4 says, he'll exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. The Antichrist will literally demand worship and declare himself to be God. So that is what's gonna happen in the tribulation. I don't know about you, but I'm glad I'm not gonna be here, I'll tell you right now. Now Daniel chapter 11, verse 37 prophesies that the Antichrist, he's called the willful king, will disregard all other deities and shall magnify himself." Now, according to Revelation 13, 8, all men will be forced to worship the Antichrist, or as it says in Revelation 13, the beast. They're going to worship him, be forced to worship him. Now, you can see how that could happen. Today, people are being forced to take the vaccine, right? By the way, I heard a lot of teachers were demonstrating in New York City today, Manhattan. And so some people are starting to push back a little bit and say enough's enough, you know. But I don't know if they're gonna be able to push back against the Antichrist. They'll get their heads cut off. So make sure you're safe, you're not gonna worry about that. But according to Revelation 13, Those who refuse to bow down to the beast, worship the beast, take his mark, are going to be executed. Look at Revelation 20, verse 4. Revelation 20, verse 4. And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. Notice that. They will be headed for the witness of Jesus. Pretty scary. Gonna have their heads cut off because they won't submit to the Antichrist. Now I know many people are upset during this pandemic. You know, forced lockdowns, people lost their jobs, people lost their businesses. Kids couldn't go to school. And now we have these vaccines. The mask mandate, you gotta wear it. And now they have the vaccine mandate, you gotta take it. de Blasio said, we were trying to be patient with you, we tried to bribe you, give you money, we tried to persuade you. Now we're gonna demand you do it. Well, you know, that's pretty upsetting and it's horrible, but it's going to be like a day at the beach compared to the tribulation period. I'll tell you right now. It's going to be like a Sunday school picnic compared to what's going to happen in the tribulation. So as bad as it is, and I'm not trying to minimize it, it is bad. I was telling Pastor Littleman, we're not going to bubble down to Florida. We have none of that going on down there. No lockdowns, no mandates, no vaccine mandates, no mask mandates. I mean, everything's open. It's like a different country down there. But I pay attention to the news. I stay in touch with friends like Pastor Littleman. I know what's going on up here. And it is scary. And not just here, but look what's going on in Australia. I saw a video, a guy in Australia, and I don't recommend smoking, I'm against smoking, but this guy just went outside, a few steps outside his front door to smoke a cigarette, the cops jumped on him and started beating him up. Not allowed to leave your house. You can't even step outside your own house. And the cops jumped on them, started beating on them. And so it's not just New York and California and some of these so-called blue states. It's happening in other countries as well. Some parts of Europe are really bad too. So as bad as it is, and again, I realize that it is bad, it's nothing compared to what's gonna happen in the tribulation period. So make sure you're right with God. Make sure you're saved. We don't want to have to see any of our loved ones have to go through that. A TV commentator recently said, the spirit of the age is, well, I don't really want to step outside the herd. That's true. People like sheep, and they don't want to step outside the herd. And then he said, it's such a Soviet society now. Now, when he said that, it really kind of got my attention. If somebody on TV would have said 20 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, we'd become a Soviet society, that would be like, what? But now, yeah, I can see it. We're becoming like the Soviets right now. And this TV commentator referred to a recent Gallup poll that said U.S. church membership has declined below 50%. He said it's never been like that in America. In America, there's always been a majority of people who went to church. Now, it might not have been Baptist church. It might have been Roman Catholic or Episcopalian, but at least they went to church. Now that people aren't going to church. There's a whole generation growing up now who know nothing about God or church. They don't know anything about the Bible or the hymn book. They don't know anything. And that is not a good sign. It's frightening when you talk to somebody and you realize they don't know anything, nothing about God, about the Bible, about salvation, about heaven or hell. Jesus said in Luke 18 verse 8, when the Son of Man cometh, I like that, when he cometh, he's coming, no doubt about it. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Now you know what the obvious answer is, not much. He's not gonna find much faith on the earth. Isn't that sad? But the Lord is coming, he's coming. I like to focus on the first part of that verse, when the Son of Man cometh, rather than the second part, will he find faith on the earth? The Son of Man is coming, he's coming back. Soon the Lord is gonna intervene once again in human history, and we're gonna meet Him in the air. And like I said yesterday, I've been to some great meetings. I've had many great meetings here, special revival meetings, missions conferences, you know, great meetings, but nothing can compare to that meeting in the air. We're all gonna be there. Won't it be fun? We're all gonna, I might be in Florida when the Lord returns, but I'll meet you in the air. As I'm going, oh, there's my friend from Elmont, and I'm gonna go over there, yeah. Amen. I'll kind of move up. Going up. What a meeting that'll be. Amen. Amen. There's a song, you know, there's going to be a meeting in the air. I like that. Yeah. Ma'am? I can't hear. Oh, we shall rise. Okay, I wasn't sure what you were saying. Well, we're going to rise, that's for sure. I remember years ago, there was a hardware store down the block, and I used to go in there once in a while and buy things. That was back when we were doing a lot of work around here, remodeling this place. And he says, isn't that something? You're right next door to a nightclub. I said, yeah, it's interesting. And he says, you guys are going up, and they're going down. I like that. I said, hey man, you're right about that. He's a worldly old guy in a hardware store, but he knew more theology than some Baptists I know. We're gonna meet the Lord in the air, amen? Are you ready? Are you ready? Heavenly Father, we're thankful. We're thankful for the Word of God. We're thankful that the Lord does intervene in history. We're thankful that, you know, we don't have to worry about what's going to happen, because the Bible tells us what's going to happen. And so there's no need to fret, no need to worry. We just need to keep doing what we're doing, keep praying, keep reading our Bibles, keep going to church, keep trying to win souls. Tell others the good news that Jesus saves. And so this Lord help us to keep doing what we're doing while we're waiting, looking for that blessed hope. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Pastor Lubin. Let's keep our heads bowed and our eyes closed.