[0:00] Good morning. I, too, welcome you to the service this morning. Thank you, Brother Julius, for reading the scriptures for us.
[0:18] What are we thankful for this morning? For life. For life?
[0:30] For life. God's presence. Absolutely. Physical life or spiritual life?
[0:40] Both. What are we thankful for? Are we thankful? Truth?
[0:54] Truth? Nice weather. Nice weather. The love of Jesus Christ to us?
[1:13] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Beauty of God's creation. Okay.
[1:31] Freedom to gather together. Thankful for Jesus dying for us?
[1:45] Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why we are gathered, right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Yeah. Right? And on the heels of that, I'm thankful for the resurrection. Right?
[1:56] Yeah. Amen. For the church. a secured place in heaven.
[2:14] Yes. Amen. We have a future. Okay, thank you.
[2:31] All of us would have had an answer, or a few, or we should have, but we need to live in a mode of thankfulness.
[2:43] As Christians, that characterizes my life every day. I'm thankful. I'm seeing the blessings, the privileges in Christ, and I'm dwelling on who I am in Him rather than what's around me.
[3:05] And so that brings about thankfulness. And so I think it's positive for us to hear it from each other and to be encouraged. So thank you for sharing.
[3:16] The message this morning, as was read to us out of Revelations 19, I've entitled it The Return of Christ, and we're going to start into the return of Christ teaching.
[3:36] We'll probably finish it next Sunday. But as we look at Jesus returning, so we're working our way through the tribulation period.
[3:50] We're at the end, and in a few moments we're going to look at the timeline. But as we look at the return of Christ, what needs to happen before Jesus can return?
[4:12] Nothing. Okay. Before the rapture, nothing. But the physical second return of Christ to rule. What needs to happen? And it was in our text as it was read by Julius.
[4:32] Anybody catch it? There is going to be a wedding. And so Jesus is going to marry who?
[4:46] The church. The bride. There's going to be a wedding. Now, you never thought you would get married a second time, did you? And here God has planned, and it's going to be a different nature of marriage, but we are going to be married to Christ and to be in His presence for all eternity.
[5:16] So, looking back to your earthly wedding, we looked forward, at least I did, to being with my wife always.
[5:30] instead of just the weekend dates and that two hours a week that I could see her. And so looking forward to being together.
[5:43] And here, we have a relationship with Christ. He has died for us, as we've heard. He's risen for us.
[5:55] He lives in us. And yet He is not physically present. But He wants to be. And He has provided a way for us to be in His presence forever, to be together.
[6:14] And so that is one of the requirements that are events that will happen before He returns. And so we're going to be looking at that.
[6:30] So as we transition from the tribulation period events into chapter 19, guess what?
[6:41] We have the church reintroduced into the Scriptures. chapters 3, or sorry, 2 and 3, letters to the churches, and then from 4 through 18, there's no mention of the church.
[7:00] And we have seven years of tribulation events determined upon the Jewish people and upon the Gentiles of the world. The church is absent.
[7:12] And now we're introduced back to the church being married to Christ and then ultimately coming down as the wife of Jesus to reign here on earth for the thousand years.
[7:32] And so that's the events that are taking place. So the church is reintroduced and so we are looking forward to that.
[7:45] So this morning we're going to look at an overview of the tribulation period and then we'll look at introducing the return of Christ.
[7:56] That's going to be the scope of our morning. Before we go into that, the last time I spoke, two weeks ago, and we went through the bull judgments and one of the bull judgments said that the sea turned into the blood as of a dead man.
[8:18] And I remember I asked Brother Bill, what does the blood of a dead man look like or why is that different? And I put him on the spot which was good.
[8:32] But after the service he had an answer and I wanted to share it. So what's in the blood of a living man? Oxygen.
[8:47] And what do the animals in the sea need to live? Oxygen. And the blood of a dead man whose heart isn't beating anymore, the oxygen is not replenished or refreshed and the blood is without oxygen.
[9:09] And I don't know if there will be a color change or not. It'll get a lot darker. Yeah. And so just an explanation. So the sea creatures will all die.
[9:19] There will be no air in the water. The oceans will turn into blood like as of a dead man without oxygen. So it's a good explanation.
[9:31] I think that makes sense as to what that would be. And so thank you for sharing that. So at this point George would you bring up our overhead?
[9:48] And in your bulletins I hope all of you got one. There's a sheet like this. so you can open that up because on the board here it's going to be a bit small to read.
[10:01] But very briefly let's just do a review of the tribulation period. And I turned it the wrong way so we could read most of the writing.
[10:15] And so the line in the middle is the timeline and year zero up there and year seven down here and and then the events that that happen.
[10:31] and so first of all the bar graphs here the light green is the seal judgments and they go from they cover year zero right through year seven.
[10:48] So remember the seal judgments are an overarching view of the judgments of God. And so we've gone through all those judgments they will run through the seven years they they are a picture of the overall.
[11:04] And then and then the trumpet judgments have started after the second half after the the Antichrist gets on the throne he's kicked out of heaven and so on and then the trumpet judgments start and they run to the end and at the very end the bowl judgments the last quarter we could say.
[11:29] And so hold those things somewhat loosely I just tried to chart it to give us an overall picture. We don't know where the bowl judgments start.
[11:41] They might be just the very end here. I put it in a bigger piece so we could see it better. But just it gives us perspective how these are related one to another.
[11:53] And so all three judgments end up with similar descriptions of earthquakes and great hail and mountains being moved and thunder and lightning and so on.
[12:08] And so all of them have that same ending. And so that's the end of God's judgments. So then as we look at the top here so before year zero the church is raptured to heaven.
[12:25] So we have the physical removal of the bride of Christ. That's going to kick off or allow year zero to come.
[12:39] So it's going to be before that whether it's days or weeks or I don't know how long but it's going to be just before. And that is going to usher in the revealing of the Antichrist and so on.
[12:54] And as the Antichrist comes on the scene likely not known as the Antichrist or as a monster as a beast but rather as someone who's going to pull the world together and as someone that's going to be the savior to the world.
[13:15] And if we imagine the mess left behind with the rapture chaos the Antichrist is going to come on and he is going to have a peace treaty signed with Israel as the chief player in that.
[13:35] And today more than ever Israel is the object of conflict and the whole world every nation seems to be at conflict with Israel today.
[13:52] And so a miracle of miracles will happen a peace treaty will be signed and that will kick off the seven years of tribulation time. And then we'll have the seal judgment start.
[14:06] We're also told in chapter 7 144,000 Jews are going to be sealed with the mark of God and they will be protected as they will likely be witnesses here on earth as the gospel will be preached to every creature under the sun.
[14:31] And so we have 144,000 sealed and then we also have two witnesses that come down from heaven in chapter 11 and I have placed them as well in the first half of the tribulation period.
[14:46] The two witnesses and remember they are going to be very bold and they will be able to protect themselves from their enemies. Fire will come out of their mouth to destroy if necessary and for three and a half years they are going to preach.
[15:04] And much speculation that they could be Moses and Elijah because of the signs that they will do. But regardless so that's going to be in the first half.
[15:18] Now I didn't put it in there but many scholars believe that the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and quite some time ago I touched into that.
[15:31] It's a war of the northern coalition of Russia and Iran and Turkey and a few other countries Ethiopia they are going to gather against Israel and to fight and God is going to destroy these armies as Israel will be at their wits end.
[15:57] And so even today we are noticing Israel as they are on the offensive against the attacks of the Iranian proxies and so on at times they seem to have their plate very full.
[16:16] And it's like if anything more is added against them how can they stand? And it's going to come about that they won't stand and God will intervene and fight for them.
[16:29] So we don't know if that's going to be in here or before. We're not told specifically but it's going to be somewhere in the end. Okay and then the mid, a bunch of events in the mid trib.
[16:45] So remember in chapter 12 Satan is denied access to heaven and there was a war between him and Michael, the archangel and Satan was kicked out of heaven.
[16:57] No more access to God. The accuser of the brethren he is called and no more accusations by the antichrist or by Satan.
[17:09] So he is going to be kicked out and his domain will be the earth now. The earthly kingdom. And so and then God allows the two witnesses to be killed and the earth will make merry and will rejoice and they will lie on the streets of Jerusalem for three days not be buried and then they will rise in the sight of the whole world and then God will invite them call them up to heaven and they will rise up in the clouds in the sight of the whole world the two witnesses okay and then the the antichrist makes an image of himself and puts it and we believe maybe in the temple and and and this image will come to life will speak and and so and and we're told that when Israel when the
[18:13] Jews see the abomination of desolation that they are to flee into the wilderness this is all at the mid trib and so Israel will flee into the wilderness where God will help her escape and God will also nourish protect the Jews for the last three and a half years and so that's in the mid to the end and then the mark of the beast will be introduced and enforced the number 666 is symbolic of that mark of the beast and without that no one will be able to buy sell or trade so no more bartering without the mark of the beast the second half of the tribulation period and and so many people that haven't come to faith will now have a dilemma am I going to worship the antichrist or am I going to worship
[19:19] God and so that's going to happen the mark of the beast believers are going to be persecuted and much martyrdom they will be killed for their faith many and also Jerusalem will be surrounded by Gentiles and then overtrodden overrun by the nations of the world and the Jews have fled to the wilderness where they're protected so that's in the middle and then at the end we just covered that Babylon the great harlot is going to be judged okay the marriage of the lamb will take place and then Christ will return with his wife the church will be called the wife of Christ for the first time instead of the bride and then when we return with
[20:25] Christ there will be the battle of Armageddon as in the bowl judgments the Euphrates river dried up and there was 200 million horsemen that crossed and they gathered in Israel so the battle of Armageddon God will destroy the nations and then looking ahead the beast and the false prophet will be captured and thrown into the lake of fire and we haven't covered that yet and that will be followed by the sheep and goat judgment where all the living on earth will be gathered before Christ and divided into sheep and goats and the goats into hell fire and the sheep will enter the kingdom a thousand years and so these are a summary of the events so the last ones here we're going to be covering in the next few Sundays but that's kind of an overview of that if by chance you didn't get a page contact me after the service if you want one and just trying to put things in perspective so that we understand any questions before we move on
[21:44] I must have either done a really good job or you're all in the dark so back in Ezekiel right and and Isaiah we learned that way back when when Satan lifted himself up against God he was he lost his position in heaven and his domain and and he took a bunch of the angels with him convinced them and and yet we read that he still had access to God and and and we're we're told like even in Job's case where he he brought Job before God and and in Revelations 12 the accuser of the brethren accusing us day and night before
[22:45] God that will come to an end the access will come to an end and so he can't live up there with God but he has access to God I don't understand that Cliff why God has permitted Satan that privilege to accuse us and yet we know it's true from scripture so that will come to an end and he will come back to earth madder than a hornet that's disturbed and he will dwell or focus then on God's people to kill to persecute heavily that's going to be his mandate any other questions yes I've been reading this about writing.
[23:40] It says that there will be a new chapter in the earth. In my mind, I would think that God, it says that a third of the earth will be burned, a third of the earth will be not broken.
[24:04] And then you said that there will be a new chapter in the earth. Right. In my mind, I think you would destroy all of this.
[24:15] Okay. Thank you for that question. It's a very good one. And it's looking ahead to what's coming. But just to give you a brief overview of that.
[24:28] And so you're right. The plagues, the judgments on earth will destroy much of the earth as we know it today. It says the mountains will flee and so on.
[24:41] The islands and like you said, the trees will be burned up. The waters will be blood. And yet we're told that Jesus will come down on the Mount of Olives and that he will rule for a thousand years while Satan is bound.
[25:01] And after, in Revelations 20 will teach us that, after a thousand years are an end, Satan will be released for a short season. And he will go through the entire world and convince men and women to go against Jerusalem, against Jesus' throne here on earth.
[25:24] And there God will send fire down from heaven and destroy all the enemies and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire where the Antichrist and the false prophet already are.
[25:42] And then the earth will burn up. And then it talks about, in Revelations 21, a new heavens, a new earth, and a new city.
[25:58] And that will be the eternal state, not the thousand years, but forever and ever after that. So that leads us to the conclusion that when Jesus returns here at the end of the tribulation period, he will refurbish this earth, the one that we live on today.
[26:23] And he's going to turn it into a paradise-like place. We're told it will be prosperous. Men will live a long age again.
[26:36] Like they did before the flood. And it will be a prosperous place. And so the curse will be lifted. And so on.
[26:46] So Jesus, we're not given that description in Scripture. But when Jesus returns, he will, probably by the word of his mouth, turn this earth into a beautiful place.
[27:01] A paradise-like place. And so we'll talk more about that in the next few Sundays as we get there. But thank you for that. Anyone else before we move on?
[27:19] All right. So with that, let's go to chapter 19. And the first six verses.
[27:34] After these things, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.
[27:46] For true and righteous are his judgments, because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.
[27:57] And he has avenged on her the blood of his servants and shed by her. Again they said, Alleluia, her smoke rises up forever and ever.
[28:09] And so a great multitude in heaven, in verse 1, praising the Lord in heaven around the throne of God, saying, Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.
[28:27] Why? Because he has avenged us for the blood that was shed. Who does this remind you of?
[28:43] The fifth seal. Do you remember the fifth seal? We had the first seal.
[28:53] We had the white horse. And then we had the black horse. And then we had the red horse. And then the pale horse. The first four. And then the fifth seal.
[29:05] What picture did we see? Putting you to the test. We see a scene of all the souls martyred under the altar of God.
[29:21] And they cry out, How long, O Lord? How long before you will avenge us? How long before you will pay back?
[29:35] That's their cry. And what did God answer them? A little bit longer. Be patient. There are more souls that will join you. There are more that are going to be killed.
[29:50] The time is not quite yet. And here, here, in verse 1 and 2, the Babylon has been judged.
[30:01] All the judgments have happened. Christ is about to return. It's at the very brink of it. And the worship scene in heaven. These same people, multitudes, are praising the Lord.
[30:15] Why? Because God paid back. God avenged. And remember the last lesson we had?
[30:30] God gave them blood to drink. God gave them blood to drink. For they shed blood. And God gave them blood to drink. And here, here we see they're not only rejoicing, they're praising the God of heaven who is in control.
[30:47] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And for us today to see this, to read about it, and to realize that even in our day, evil seems to triumph, to have victory.
[31:08] even in the world around us, evil seems to be rising. They have their day. But it's short.
[31:22] It's short. It's short. And they may be glorying in their evil, but when this day happens, all eternity, they will suffer.
[31:41] And God is repaying for their evil. And the saints who are suffering today at the hands of evil will be rejoicing for all eternity.
[31:58] Perspective. It's hard. All eternity. My hands stop here, right?
[32:08] But eternity keeps going forever and ever. And my life here on earth is that short. That short.
[32:23] And to be married to the king forever and ever rejoicing. And that's the perspective that John is seeing and he wants us to understand.
[32:36] And so there is a scene in heaven as they worship the Lord for he has judged the whore, the harlot, the mystery harlot in chapter 17, the anti-God religion of the world who has shed so much blood.
[32:57] Verse 4, the 24 elders and the four living creatures, the same as we had earlier in Revelations, they all bowed down and worshipped God as well who sat on the throne saying, Amen, Alleluia.
[33:12] And then a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you his servants, and those who fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God, omnipotent reigns.
[33:37] God all-powerful reigns. And so we have this worship scene. And so John caught up into heaven and he's seeing ahead what's coming.
[33:52] And absolutely, for us to see that helps us to focus on eternity. Verse 7, we're going to shift now to the marriage of the Lamb.
[34:07] The same group of people, the same worship scene in heaven, John is still seeing it, and now he hears, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come.
[34:26] And the Greek text there, the tense of the verb, means it has already happened.
[34:38] It's done. And what John is seeing is in heaven the worship scene as he's repaid back Babylon and so on, and they're rejoicing, and then they see that Christ has been married up in heaven.
[34:58] And he's about to return to earth with his wife. So let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.
[35:12] Now what did Jesus promise us in John 14? What did he promise us?
[35:31] He says, let not your heart be troubled. I go to prepare a place for you. And my Father's house are many mansions.
[35:48] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you that you may be where I am also. And that is a reference first and foremost to the rapture to take us into his presence.
[36:08] And so it very much depicts the Jewish wedding and being scripture that the betrothal stage, the arrangements for the wedding are made where the young man asks the young lady for a hand in marriage.
[36:34] Only in Jewish culture, often the parents did that for them. And it was often arranged as well that parents would choose, my son is going to marry your daughter.
[36:49] And so that was real life for them. But regardless, from the betrothal stage, a time would elapse where the groom would go and prepare a place to receive the bride, his wife.
[37:10] Jesus, dying on the cross and rising out of the grave, became that groom who betrothed himself to his bride, the church who would be born from that day onward to the rapture.
[37:39] The church, singular, but plural in the aspect of many people. And everyone accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, as surrendering our life to him, is part of the church.
[37:59] And so Jesus went back, he went away, he made his announcement, and then he went away to prepare a place for the bride.
[38:10] And he is coming again again to receive. And so just like in the Jewish wedding, when the place is ready and the groom goes to the bride's house to receive her, and what follows in the Jewish tradition is one-week ceremony time.
[38:33] consummation, they call it, where the wedding is ratified. And that's one week, one week of years, the tribulation period, the bride is received to the groom, he takes her up, and during that seven years, the marriage is going to be ratified, consummated.
[39:05] And we will become the wife of Jesus Christ. Also, future, we're going to talk about the judgment seat of Christ, which I believe will be in that time as well, where we will receive our rewards for glory.
[39:21] But anyway, that's the procedure. And then, after the ceremony, the last part of the wedding is the wedding feast. And as we read further in chapter 8, I'm sorry, in chapter 19, verse 8, And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
[39:46] And then he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God.
[39:59] So we have Christ, we have the bride, married to Christ, in the wedding, and now we have the feasts. Who are the guests? Who are going to be the guests?
[40:19] The saints? Okay, which saints? Old Testament saints? Who will be resurrected? Okay.
[40:30] Old Testament saints? Likely tribulation period saints? But also, maybe more so than, all those, the sheep, and the Jews, and the Bible says one-third of the Jews will come to faith.
[40:48] one-third will survive the tribulation period. They will enter into the thousand-year reign and populate. And along with the Gentile nations that are sheep versus goats.
[41:02] And so these will be wedding guests as well as they witness us living with Christ. So that's the wedding, the thing that's going to happen before Christ returns to earth.
[41:22] Just in closing, let's turn briefly to Ephesians 5. Read a few verses there. Ephesians 5.
[41:35] Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5.
[41:46] Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Okay, and we'll read verses 25 through 27.
[41:57] Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
[42:28] It's a picture of Jesus working in the bride today, preparing us for the wedding.
[42:42] It's also a picture for earthly marriage of husbands and wives and their relationships. But here, in this description, we have a few points I want to just point out as we bring this together.
[42:58] it says, Christ loved the church that he gave himself for her. So he bought the church, the bride, the bridal price with his life.
[43:15] And by the way, in a Jewish wedding, the groom had to present a bridal price to the bride's parents. He didn't get her for free.
[43:28] It's going to, there was a cost involved. And so, Jesus paid with his life. There was that price.
[43:39] Why? That he might sanctify or make her holy and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.
[43:51] So why did Jesus die for his bride? That he might sanctify or set her apart to become holy and to clean her up.
[44:03] To clean her up. That he might present her a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish.
[44:18] Without yeah, any blemishes or anything wrong in appearance. and so we practice weddings today where the bride is adorned and usually in white and beautiful and without blemish.
[44:38] At least outwardly. And it's a picture of this. And so Jesus is in the process of cleaning us up.
[44:49] if you belong to Christ that process is at work. Is there a responsibility on us today?
[45:11] Is there a responsibility? Is there a responsibility? There is. God has given us His Spirit to lead us to teach us we are to surrender to the Spirit of God His leading in my life.
[45:40] that's our responsibility. And in that all of us know that we have daily choice.
[45:54] We have daily choices whether I'm going to fulfill the flesh or honor God by walking in the Spirit. Every one of us knows that in the depth of our heart because we've been there.
[46:12] And so as the Lord cleans us up in that process we are to yield to His leadership. The wording here is that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.
[46:31] Our responsibility is to be in the Word of God. If you are not in the Word of God how can Christ clean you up? He uses the Word of God the Spirit of God uses His Word to cleanse us to conform us to the image of Christ.
[46:55] God does His God does the actual cleaning. And yet God does the actual cleaning.
[47:07] He uses those tools. But we are to submit to that. And when we don't, the Bible has many descriptions of chastising, of God bringing about things to draw us back, to have His way in our life.
[47:27] And so that is the bride being prepared by the groom. And so as we think about this, we only look in the mirror.
[47:43] am I being prepared? Am I surrendered to God's process? Am I bringing glory to Him?
[47:58] That when we stand in the judgment seat of Christ, and we stand before Him, will we stand with boldness?
[48:08] that is what all of us want, to not hang our head, but to say, Lord, I'm here as your servant.
[48:25] And so let's look forward to getting married again. We need to be focused on this.
[48:37] And it's going to be, yeah, it's not going to be a human marriage, it's going to be different, but it's going to be in His presence, and that's the theme there. And so that needs to captivate our hearts to look forward to that wedding.
[48:53] Let's close. Lord, again, we've seen this morning that You have a wonderful plan, and all of it is falling into place.
[49:08] so much has been fulfilled, and yet a lot has yet to come, and it's even being fulfilled in our day. And so Lord, as You're preparing us for that time, Lord, that we would surrender to that process, to acknowledge You each day, Lord, desire to walk with You.
[49:37] I thank You for the vision that You gave John to pass on to us, and that we have a glimpse of what's coming, because it gives us hope, a future, and confidence to go forward.
[49:51] We praise You for that. In the name of Your Son, Jesus, Amen.