Is there anything more amazing than the grace of God and the love of God? Last week we were blessed with having a missionary here who labors in the Mideast and had much to share with us concerning the end times and answered a number of questions and also provoked a number of new questions. And I've had some folks from the church ask, what certain terms mean and why we believe what we believe. I thought this would be a good opportunity to review what we believe about the end times as stated in our constitution. And so let's stand one more time please. We'll read the first scripture from Psalm 47 and then we will pray. Psalm 47 verses two and three. For the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. Our Father, we believe that for a work to have lasting impact and honor God, it must originate with God, be empowered by God, and brought to fruition all by God. It is all the Lord. We are but vessels in need of cleansing and of grace and of love. We pray, Lord, that this would be a day where the Spirit does a great work amidst us. Wherever all we are who are here, whether lost or saved, whether inspired or discouraged, whether there are troubles in the home, or if it's a time of great victory, Lord, Thou knowest. We pray that Thy grace would do a great work in every heart here today. Even as we pray for our country, that there would be more and more people more and more aware of what saith the Lord, more and more concerned about the standards of God and the judgment to come. We pray, Lord, that there would rise up more and more people who love the word of God and love the will of God and love the gospel of God. Equip us, give us grace this day. May we all say it's been good to be in the house of the Lord. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. I think to appreciate this doctrine of last things, of eschatology, it would be good to start with a sketch of the history of Jesus. And of course, this is a brief sketch, much not able to be said. But here we are. Our understanding is that Jesus existed in what we call eternity past. before there was space, before there was time, before there was anything, there was but God Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. To say that He existed for millions of years, billions of years before creation, would not quite express it accurately, because I don't know that there was time, and I don't know how things would be measured. But this we believe, that He existed before there was time and space. The Lord has always been. He has no beginning, He has no end. He is the cause of all things, Himself being uncaused. So, we look at His history, we say in some manner, He has always existed, an eternity past. Then came that moment when He created all things. The Bible tells us that the Word was with God, the Word was God, the same was with God in the beginning. All things were made by Him, John chapter 1. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And so all three members of the Trinity were involved, but that includes the Son. So Jesus existed eternally before there was time, and then now everything that exists that is visible or invisible, all things were made by Him out of nothing. The expression is ex nihilo, out of nothing. He just spoke and everything exists as we see it. So He created all things. He made man to be the greatest representation, most in form and image of him, of God himself. And he gave him a free will and God, man chose to abuse that free will and found himself striving against God. We read in Genesis chapter 6 that every thought or imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. And so the Lord said he would not always strive with man, but would limit the length of time that he would exist. So there's a time of striving, but God declared that he would send a Redeemer to restore sinful man to God. Meanwhile, before the fullness of time, there were what we call pre-incarnate visits. That is, there were times when the Lord Jesus appears to have appeared in the Old Testament before he was given a body. Pre-incarnate means before flesh. But clearly it's more than just an angel when we read about this or that event, because he takes on the prerogatives of deity. this pre-incarnate Christ. He'd be called Lord and declare what is the will of God and he's worshipped. For example, it was a pre-incarnate Christ, we believe, who stopped Abraham from thrusting that knife into his son Isaac. It was a pre-incarnate Christ who spoke to Moses through the burning bush. It was a pre-incarnate Christ who appeared to Manoah's wife and declared that a son, Samson, would be born. It was a pre-incarnate Christ who slew 185,000 Assyrians outside the city of Jerusalem. And it was the pre-incarnate Christ who rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. So we have many appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ, but then in the fullness of time he was incarnated. That is, he was put in flesh. It's the most remarkable truth. that God the Father is the Father of Jesus Christ. So there is no earthly father, but there is an earthly mother in Mary. So that now we have the Son of God and the Son of Man. But as the Son of Man, He is fully human and He can be the one who dies in the place of us sinful humans, and that's because he has no sin nature because God is this Father. So a spiritual father and an earthly mother. And so there's incarnation in the fullness of time. And he lived some little over 30 years. And he did signs and wonders and mighty deeds, which the father allowed to show his confirmation that this was indeed his son. He approved of the ministry. And so he made the deaf to hear, and the blind to see, and the lame to walk, and the dead to live again. These were all confirmations that Jesus Christ was whom he said he was. And it was also a revelation of what is the character of the Father, so that Jesus could say, he who has seen me has seen the Father. So we go from the eternity past to the creation of time and space to man sinning Jesus coming in pre-incarnate visits, then incarnation, miraculous life, and then a vicarious death. By that we mean a substitutionary death. The wages of sin is death. If we have sinned, we must die. Jesus never sinned, so he did not need to die, and he could take upon himself the penalty of sin of the rest of us, and so he died for us. This is how God has commended his love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the gospel message. Substitutionary death. But he did not stay dead. He rose again from the dead. We read in Psalm 16.10, Thou will not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. This is a confirmation that God would raise up the one who died for the sins of the world, provided the means by which man could be reconciled and restored to God. After the resurrection we believe Jesus Christ ascended into glory and that is where he is now seated at the right hand of the Father. In time he will return and there will be what we call the second coming. This is prophesied all through the scripture, and that's going to be our focus today, part one of that second return. We believe that Jesus Christ will come in the clouds and will call forth the saints and meet them in the air, and then we'll return up to glory, where there will be time for the judgment seat of Christ and also for the marriage supper of the Lamb. And then there'll be the second part of the coming of Christ back to earth. And that will be to deal with all the rebellion and war on earth and ultimately to defeat Satan and all his people at Armageddon. Following the Armageddon battle, there will be the ushering in of a millennium, which we call a thousand-year reign of Christ, where Christ will be on the throne of David, visibly ruling earth from that throne there in Israel, and the creation will be restored to what we call its prelapsarian conditions, that is, before there was the fall. The lions and snakes and little babies and all sorts of other animals can lie together. All will be restored as Jesus reigns. At the end of the millennial period, there will then be the great white throne judgment, where Jesus judges the sins of the lost in the world, who will then be cast into the devil's lake of fire. And then there will be eternity future with new heaven and new earth. So is that a good start for the day? Isn't it amazing what we believe and how wonderful it is? To make sense of this, we should also go on and take a sketch of the history of all human beings. There's a moment in which we were born, and then we live our lives. And for some, this is where we break into two lineages. Those who do not come to Christ, they will find themselves lost. The day will come when they will die, and the Bible tells us that then they will find themselves in agony, in flames, in hell. Then, at the appropriate time, the body will be raised back up, joined with the soul, appear before the great white throne, where they will be judged according to what they have done, recorded in the books, and in the book, And they'll find themselves cast into the lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and his demons. And then they will have an eternal hopelessness, never be able to be delivered out of that situation. This is what the scriptures say. And then there's the other possible train of events, born, then we live, and then we get saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and thou shalt be saved, saved from the penalty of sin, saved from the wrath of God, saved from an eternity of hopelessness. And then once a person is saved, the day will come when he will die and go home, or if the Lord returns before he dies, the person will be raptured. And I'll be sharing the verses that support these truths in just a minute. Just giving you a brief sketch now. So he's died or raptured. The soul immediately goes to glory. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And for those who are saved, when they do go to glory, we will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That's explained in 2 Corinthians 10.5. It's also mentioned in Romans 14.10. This is a judgment not to determine if people are going to go to heaven or hell. It is for those already all sins washed away by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is their works which are judged to determine rewards, and ultimately for us to cast all our crowns before the Lord Jesus, who is the reason for any good things to be accomplished. But there will be the judgment seat of Christ, and then there will be the marriage supper of the Lamb, which we are assured will occur for the believers, the church, to have with the Lord Jesus. We believe during that seven-year period of tribulation. And then we will come back to earth At the battle of Armageddon, the end of the seven-year tribulation, the Bible tells us in the book of Jude, Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints. And we believe that is a reference to that coming battle where we will, in some sense, have an involvement. And then, as we said, we'll be ushered into a thousand-year reign. And the amount of Rewards that we receive for that which was good as determined in the judgment seat of Christ, I believe may be distributed to us to be carried out during the millennial period. We will reign, even as the initial psalm we read at the beginning of this message said, there will be people under us. There will be authorities given to be carried out during the millennial period. And then after that thousand year period, there'll be eternity future, which will be blissful. Now, I'm going to go through a number of these scriptures, and one thing I think is important is to explain why it is useful for you and me to understand this information, what practical benefit there is. So please bear with me. I can't give all the explanations because there's so much to it, but I'm trying to give the bones, the sketch, the outline. So here's where our focus starts today. A person is born, he lives, either he is saved or lost. But if he is saved, then for those here who are saved, there are two things that might happen next. One is that you die. And Paul says, far better to die and be with the Lord than to be here. We don't fear death if we are redeemed, because we know, again, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But there are those who will not die but will be raptured. Rapturi is the Latin verb. Raptus is the participle form from which we get the English word rapture. And rapture means ultimately to be snatched away. There are those who will not die, but rather the Lord appears in the clouds, calls us up. First those who are dead in Christ will rise up out of the grave, their bodies will be restored to the soul. And then yet we who are alive will be snatched up and meet the Lord in the clouds, in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. I hope this is exciting to you. It is the most remarkable thing, I tell you. It is the most glorious thing, these truths. Here we go from what the Constitution says. We believe the rapture is the first event in a series of events labeled Second Coming. The rapture will be a sudden meeting in the air of all church-age believers with Jesus Christ to attend the marriage supper of the Lamb. One place you can follow in your scriptures, if you would like, in your Bibles, we'll start at 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So any of us here, even if we're saved, we can't just go in the body, in the condition we are, into the presence of God. No, corruption does not inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Again, this is a metaphor for death, I believe. But we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Twinkling of an eye is the amount of time it takes for light that strikes the outside of the eyeball to go then into the center of the eyeball. That's not very long, but like that. It's going to be that fast. at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible, we have corruptible bodies, we're aging, we have aches, we have pains, it's going to be put on incorruption, so that it'll never corrupt again, never age, no pain, no sorrow, we'll have a transformed body, not a different body, but a transformed body. Corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal, that is what can die, will put on immortality. We're gonna have an incorruptible, immortal body. It can't corrupt, and it cannot die. But I would not have you, going on to 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, as Christians who have died, 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 who are asleep 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 until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. Prevent means come before. So if we have loved ones in our fellowship here who have died and they are born again, then they would have gone directly into the presence of God in spirit, the bodies in the grave. And so when Jesus comes in the beginning of the second coming, he'll come in the clouds, trumpet will sound, be the shout of the archangel, and the body of the ones who have died would come up and be joined with with spirit or soul and be transformed into that incorruptible immortal condition and then we which are alive will then have a similar experience. We will be transformed. We continue to read in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16, for the Lord himself shall 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, that's where we get the rapture word, with them in the cloud to meet the Lord in the air. No, not on earth, but this is in the air, in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. First Thessalonians 5.9, part of the comfort is this, that we will escape the great wrath to come in the seven year tribulation period, where there will be a suffering as the world has never seen. Now those who are not pre-trib, or mid-trib, or post-trib, sometimes would assert that God's people suffer through wrath, and are not at peace. historically free from experiencing that wrath, so maybe that'd be the same case here. But I don't think that's the best explanation, and I'll explain why in a while. But the wrath that was determined for you and for me for all of our sin was taken from us and poured on Christ. And that doesn't mean that we won't suffer troubles during the approaching tribulation period. But God has not appointed us to wrath, so I do not believe that all the tribulation will be experienced by all the church. No, again, as we said, what happens for the church is when we are raptured, we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.10. Again, it's also mentioned in Romans, I believe it's, what did it say, chapter 14, verse 10. Anyway, that's a time when everyone will receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. This is not to determine to go into heaven, that's already taken care of. This is to determine rewards, which will manifest itself during, I believe, the millennial period. We go to Revelation chapter 19, starting with verse 7. We say there is a judgment seat of Christ and there is the marriage supper of the Lamb during this seven-year period where tribulation is going on on earth. So we read in chapter 19, verse 7, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." This is a description of us, folks, if we go up into glory. All of our sins are washed away, and the white linen represents the sinlessness which has been appropriated to us as we're given the righteousness of Christ. And he said unto me, write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God. We have one whale of a marriage supper to anticipate, friends. Number two, again I'm quoting from the Constitution again. church constitution. We believe that the tribulation, including the great tribulation, is that period of seven years recognized as the 70th week of Daniel and the time of Jacob's trouble. That expression, Jacob's trouble, that time is found, well, one place would be Jeremiah chapter 30 in verse 7. and the 70th week of Daniel, Daniel was given very articulate prophecy that pointed out the various stages of God s dealing with Israel. Judah rejected and broke the covenant with the Father, were cleared out of the land for a length of time. Daniel was given prophecy that Judah would come back to the land and the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding area would be rebuilt. And then in the fullness of time, the Messiah would come and they would reject him and put him to death. And then there would be a period of time where Israel would be set aside, but then the Lord would come again in the last seven years, 70th week, as described in the book of Daniel. So it will be characterized by the wrath and judgment of God this 70th week, this last seven years, the tribulation period. By the wrath and judgment of God upon both unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, upon satanic worship and oppressive Gentile dominion. And that it is primarily Jewish and is to be climaxed by the return of Israel's Messiah to rule and reign over the whole earth. We'll read these about three or four verses out of the book of Daniel. So much information here. Daniel 9 verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. That's a lot of stuff that's going to happen. It's basically clearing out all the wrong that's been done from Adam and on through the years, and particularly with Israel. It's all going to be cleared out. It's all going to be dealt with. There's going to be a cleansing. We go on to the next verse. Know therefore and understand that from the coming forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild, and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore, and two weeks. The streets shall be built again, and the wall even in troubleous times. Gonna be rebuilt. Jerusalem's gonna be rebuilt, he tells them. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. He's going to die for us. This is a prophecy of the death of Jesus Christ for our sins. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Verse 27, And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This is the Antichrist. And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. going on with what the Constitution says. Number three, we believe the battle of Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation marks the end of Satan's rule and the beginning of Christ's millennial reign. We read in Matthew 24, starting with verse 29. Immediately after the Tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. We read in Revelation 1-7, Behold, he cometh. He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him. And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. Let's turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter 19. a little longer text but it's such important stuff and we're not in a hurry to complete this. We want to learn what we can. And so we see in Revelation 19 starting in verse 11 a further description of what happens during the end of the tribulation period and the ushering in of Armageddon. And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God. and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. I believe that's the church. I believe that may be you and me. We come riding on horses out of glory, coming down and participating in the defeat of the enemies of God in the Battle of Armageddon. And out of his mouth, the Lord Jesus' mouth, goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free in bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him how long? a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years, again this is the millennial period, millennia means a thousand, should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season. There will be a rebellion at the end of the millennial period that the Lord will quickly cause to cease. And I saw thrones. And they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of men that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Number four. We believe the millennium is the future 1,000-year period when Christ reigns over the whole world from Jerusalem. We read in Micah chapter 4, starting with verse 1, But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come. We're talking about the mountain in Israel, and we're talking about nations from around the world coming and paying homage to Christ who will reign there in the throne of David in Israel. Many nations shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Neither shall nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. By the way, that's the verse, is it not, that you find on the exterior of the wall of the United Nations in New York City? I believe that's where I've read it, where they beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. This is not some fantasy. This is coming and it's coming soon. It is reality. So we read in Revelation 20 in verse 6, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. First resurrection is the one where the Lord calls them forth to the clouds. Second resurrection is for those who remain in the graves until the end of the millennial period, period before the great white throne judgment. Let's turn also to Zechariah chapter 14, and we're near the end here, I hope you can bear with me and still benefit from this remarkable scripture, this remarkable truth. I tell you, if I could interrupt just for a second with a little story. Having Parkinson's disease, there's a strange thing that happens when you lie in bed. You find yourself less and less capable to crawl out of bed after you've been there a while. It's almost as if a mattress were flypaper, and you find yourself just sort of locked there and try to work yourself out. And last night, I had that phenomenon happen. But also last night, I talked to a person who was in extreme pain. A toe, could be as gout. Whatever she took, it did not mitigate the pain. And I was just thinking about an element of being in hell, not just the suffering and the pain, but being alone. to being hopelessly alone, but also to be locked, not to be able to walk around, but to be... Have you ever been in a position where you could not move and you're in pain? I just thought about the horrors and the reality of hell, and then I contemplated what is coming up and how soon it might be and how real it will be when these things occur, friends. It could be in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, and it could be at any moment we believe. So we read in Zechariah chapter 14, starting in verse 4, This is the Lord Jesus coming. We read that He shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. His foot shall touch there, 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 we move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, where the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, we shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the hinder sea, in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, In that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. And all the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimon, south of Jerusalem. And it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananiel unto the king's winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. Number five, and I think I did six points, so I'm nearly done. We believe the little season, the great white throne judgment are the transitional events that complete the millennium and usher in the new heaven and new earth. The little season is the time Satan is loosed and draws away some of those born during the millennium. The Great White Throne Judgment is the time when the lost receive the resurrected body and punishment is handed out. The new heaven and new earth replace the existing heaven and earth and become the permanent residence of the saved only. We read in 2 Peter 3.10, which by the way is the verse which led me into the ministry. That's why I knew I was called. With the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. And the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be destroyed, brethren, what manner of person ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking toward and hasting unto the coming of the day of God? Yes, we read in Revelation 20 in verse 3. And cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season. Yes, the devil will be released for a short season. There'll be those who will follow his rebellion, and then the Lord will cause that to cease, and then he will usher in new heaven and new earth. You can also look that up in Revelation chapter 20, starting in verse 7. But for now, we're going to go on to Revelation 21, so I can conclude. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. Finally, we believe that the spirit of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation does at death immediately pass into God's presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at his coming, which is the rapture, when spirit and body reunited shall be associated with him forever in glory. But that the spirits of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium. When spirit and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Yes, this is a reality. It's hard to understand, hard to enter into fully, but it is what the scriptures say, so we believe it. We read of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.23. In hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Luke 23.43, the other side, Jesus said unto the thief who believed on the Lord Jesus, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Or there's hell or there's paradise. We read 2 Corinthians 5.8, we are confident, I say, and willing, whether to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. Philippians 1.23, I'm in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. 1 Thessalonians 4.17, 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. And then 2 Thessalonians 1, starting with verse 7. And to you who are troubled, rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. It's time to conclude, and there are some more things we'll discuss, the Lord willing, another week. But we conclude today by briefly summarizing answers to two questions. Why pre-trib? And by the way, this is not a matter that will cause somebody to be saved or lost. People can disagree on their eschatology, depending on what the point of disagreement is. But this is a very common belief of fundamental Bible-believing Christians. I believe it, that we are pre-trib. And I can't explain all of it in detail here, but here are some answers. Pre-tribulation, in other words, we believe that the church is snatched away, raptured out of the earth before the seven-year tribulation occurs. It's a matter, first of all, of mention. This is worth noting. There's no mention of the church in the book of Revelation from chapter 4 through chapter 18. The first three chapters you have the Lord's letters to the churches, but then the church is out, and it's Israel with whom the Lord deals as far as the primary ones being dealt with. There's no mention of the church in chapter 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, none of it in the book of Revelation. So that's a consideration. No mention of the church during the Tribulation. Secondly, it's a matter of distinction. We must understand there's a distinction between the Church and Israel. The Church is the Church and Israel is Israel. As we have explained to us in the book of Romans, that the Lord worked first with Israel and prepared them to have a Messiah born from them to be a blessing to the world. The church then slew that Messiah, the Lord put the, excuse me, Israel did, the Lord put Israel aside, and then he brought the church center stage. This is the church age. The Lord is building his church. The day will come when the church is completed, the Lord will snatch it away, and then here comes back Israel in the book of Romans and in Revelation 4 through 18, the Lord's dealing primarily with Israel. So distinguish between the church and Israel. Number three, why pre-trib? That's a matter of prepositions. The Lord comes for his saints and then later he comes with his saints. And so the preposition for he comes and takes them home. And when the day comes, when he comes, we go with him. And also, the Bible says that the Lord comes in the air for his saints. And then later it says he comes to earth. And I think these are arguments not completely compelling in their own, but they add to the argument of a pre-trib. But then there is this also, a matter of expectation. So a matter of mention, distinction, preposition, and expectation. By that we mean it's a common Bible doctrine, the doctrine of imminency. We believe, we have an expectation that the Lord could appear at any time. This is what Paul taught, this is what John taught, this is what Peter taught, this is what Jude teaches, and others. They expect the Lord could come, there need not be any intervening activities or things that happen, but rather the Lord could come at any moment. We believe in the imminency of his return, coming soon. Maybe morning, maybe noon, maybe evening, maybe soon. And so we believe in the imminency, and that would require pre-trib. If it was mid-trib, you could just measure off and know pretty close when he's coming. If it's post-trib, go through seven years, then he'd come. So imminency would argue for pre-tribulation. And then finally, benefits of this study. I'd like to give just three to answer, and then we'll close. Why study this? What's the difference? What happens, happens. It's too academic. It's too complicated. It's too this or that, some might say. But the Bible says, study these things. And I'll give you three reasons why. The first one is, it's a matter of concentration. We read in Colossians 3 and verse 2, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. So, set your affection, your hearts, think on these things. We can be preoccupied by the coming college football season. We can be preoccupied by the government elections coming up. We can be preoccupied with any kind of affair, everything that's going on here on Earth, and hardly think at all about what's brewing up here. Any moment, the Lord's coming, I tell you, any moment. Heaven, hell, judgment, war, Armageddon, it's all coming, and it could be before I finish the next sentence. And so we should be concentrating on those things as a matter of priority. Set your affection, your hearts, your contemplations on things above, not on things... It's a matter of concentration. Secondly, it's a matter of valuation. We read in Matthew 13, 46, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. There are certain truths and preoccupations once we discover them. We have done with lesser things. And here is a great thing. We're talking about eternality. We're talking about the glory of God. We're talking about, friend, where you will spend eternity. We're talking about witnessing. We're talking about fulfilling our our assignment, our mission. Let's put proper value on this, not to speak of other things as nothing, but comparatively, this is a much more important thing. You and I should think on these things and be, and here's the last word, purified as a consequence. We read in 1 John 3.3, every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. You cannot anticipate what we're talking about here and remain the same. Are you increasing in godliness? Is your spouse, are your children, are your parents, are we as a church? Every person who has this hope of the coming, the return of Christ, the second coming, the rapture and all the rest, every man that has this hope in him purifies himself. Are we being purified? Are we increasing in our godliness? Important question. So three benefits of the study, concentration, valuation, purification. Finally, let's go back to this chart. All of us have a moment when we were born. Now we are eternal. We have eternal souls. God made us ever-living souls. We will spend eternity somewhere. We were born. We live our brief time here. Life is brief and uncertain, and it's over. Then comes this, friends. Either we're saved or we're lost. There's one way to describe, are you saved or are you lost? Saved or lost? If you are trusting in your works, you are not saved. If you are trusting in a good life, you are not saved. There is only one way to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Otherwise, you are lost. You'll be lost forever if you don't change. You must call on Christ. You must believe that we have sinned. The wages of sin is death. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Neither is there any name under heaven by which we must be saved. It is only Jesus Christ, only in trusting in him that we can be saved. Are you saved or are you lost? Let us pray. Our Father, so much information you have provided us. Only by thy Spirit can we make sense of it and know how we should then live. O God, we pray for every soul within the sound of my voice. May he, may she do what is necessary to confirm salvation First be saved, then concentrate, then be purified, then move ahead. But first, are you saved? O Lord, if there is somebody who is not, may that be changed today. Just look to the Lord and ask him to save you. Receive the gift of forgiveness offered by grace through Jesus Christ. Believe on Christ and be saved. Lord, if there is anybody who needs to be saved and has not, may this be the day. Perhaps even as we sing this last hymn, you would have them come forward and profess Christ. Perhaps later, during the meal, perhaps this afternoon, but if today the Lord is calling, if he's knocking, respond, friend. And for all here who are saved, let us live all the more vehemently, wondrously, exhaustively for him. In Christ's name we pray it. Amen.