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166.
Lord, thou hast drawn us after thee. Now let us run and never tire.
What in thy love possess me not?
Unchangeable by gracious Love number 166.
Lord thou.
Brandy, who knows nobody else.
My present shine.
Why shall I hope our souls?
Unchanged.
I see you.
There you are in here.
I can learn merchants.
See.
So.
Before we pray, could we perhaps just look at a couple of very short pictures? The first one.
And Solomon, I'm sorry, Sauna, Solomon.
Chapter One.
Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse 4.
Draw me.
We will run after.
The the revelation.
The Revelation chapter 4, the last part of the first verse.
Come up, hit her, and I will show thee things which must be.
Here after.
The last chapter of the Revelation.
Revelation 42.
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12.
Behold.
I come Quickly, verse 20.
He would testify of these things, says surely I come quickly, Amen.
Even so far. Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So we pray. Blessed God, our loving Father, we thank Thee for thy goodness and grace and mercy to us by bringing so many of us together this weekend.
For a time over thy word or fellowship.
We thank thee, your God and Father, for that great gift, the gift of thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we thank the Lord Jesus that thou hast drawn us after thee, nothing to do with ourselves, all on thee.
So as we're together here to start these meetings, we just cry to be our Father, that there would be a leading of the Holy Spirit.
To that which we should have before us, guide us and bless us, we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Wandering.
Your life.
Oh God.
You're right, you're going to get rid of the Warriors. I'm going to have a house or whatever.
They have to pray you're in your eyes.
And everything.
In the world.
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And I'm kind of trembling to suggest it because I really want the Lord's will. So if someone feels it's, it's not the Lord's will, please say so. I'm wondering if we could take up the three comings of the Lord in Matthew 24 and 25 in relationship to Israel, relationship to professing Christianity, and in relationship to the Gentile nations, and the three meetings that we have.
It would be no doubt just an outline.
But just wondering if that would.
Be of the Lord.
I think that would be very valuable.
Perhaps the first meeting we could take up the 24th chapter down.
I think it would be to verse.
44.
Yes, first 44.
And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said unto them.
See ye not all these things. Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another. It shall not be thrown down.
And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, Tell us when these things?
When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming in the end of the world? Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, He shall deceive many.
We shall hear wars and rumors of wars.
See that you know he be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet, for nation shall rise against nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom.
And there shall be famines and pestilence, earthquakes and divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you. Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
And when she'll and then she'll many be offended, and shall betray one another, shall hate one another.
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many, because iniquity shall abound, The love of many shall wax cold.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same, the same shall be saved. This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall begin come.
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When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains, but him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, to this time no, nor ever shall be.
And accept those days should be shortened.
There should no flesh be saved, but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened.
Then if any man shall say unto thee, law, hearest Christ, or there believe it not, for there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before, Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert.
Go not forth, Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it not for us the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even under the West. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the Eagles be gathered together.
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, powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. 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. He shall send his angels with a great sound of trump of a trumpet.
And they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branches get tender and put forth leaves, he know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye when ye shall.
Shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, of my Father only, but as the days.
Of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Whereas in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving, and marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken, the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this. And if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his host to be broken up.
Therefore be he also ready for in such an hour as you think not.
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The Son of Man cometh.
Matthew get the Lord presented as the Kingdom Messiahs, the promised Messiah to Israel.
And the testimony goes out to Israel, but he's rejected and he's persecuted by Israel. And finally by way of the cross and the his sufferings and death, he went back to the glory. And from that glory he's going to come in judgment upon this world and and the verses we read, especially upon that guilty nation that cast him out.
And so that's the pattern we see in Matthew and that's the pattern that this.
Portion follows.
That we've just read the disciples as well would suffer and be cast out and some martyr and will return with the Lord when he comes in judgment and great power and glory. And so previous to this chapter, the Lord is in the temple for the last time.
And he upgrades the Pharisees and the Sadducees and.
The ruling classes among the Jews. And he leaves the temple, never to set foot it in again. While he was here in his first coming. And he's hesitant and he longs over them. And he says, I would have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chicks under wings, but you would not. Your house is left to you desolate.
And he crosses the threshold of the temple, and on his way out he says, you'll not see me henceforth till you say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And he went out of the temple, and he went out of the temple, and he went out of the city. And out of the city he went up to the Mount of Olives. And if you go back to the book of Ezekiel, you see the glory cloud in that day, and the threshold of the temple in the temple. And because of the evil and wickedness of Israel, God could not.
Stay there. His holy presence couldn't be there, but he was hesitant. And the glory of the Lord goes back and forth across the threshold, but finally out of the city and right up on the mountain and disappears to the glory and won't come back again until the day of of millennial glory when the Shekinah glory enters the temple once again. So the Lord follows that same pattern right up to the Mount of Olives and.
He brings before the disciples here His coming and over these two chapters in three different ways. First, His coming in connection with Israel.
That rejected Him and the faithful remnant of Israel that will look for His return. And secondly, we get 3 parables that have to do with the time that we're in of professing Christianity and the Lord's coming in relation to professing Christianity, faithful and unfaithful.
And then finally we get the Lord's coming in relation to the Gentile nations who have had the gospel, especially in the tribulation, the gospel of the Kingdom preached to them and as to their reception of it or not. And he comes in relation to those Gentile nations for judgment on the wicked and for the blessing of the faithful. And so in this portion that we've read, it's his coming and relationship.
To Israel, and that's helpful because so many of these scriptures have been taken up and applied to the church that they don't belong there and consequently misunderstood. So the Lord brings first before the disciples as they show him the stones, these wonderful buildings that he's leaving not to come back to again. They tried to show them, oh, look at these beautiful buildings and he's just walking by them.
And he tells them not one stone is going to be left on another. And of course they want to know what? What does that mean? And immediately their thoughts are led on to their expectation of his coming glory and Kingdom. And so they asked these questions when they get to the Mount of Olives, tell us, when shall these things be? In other words, when are these stones going to all be thrown down? When's this going to happen? What a.
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Tremendous event. You know, they, they have never seen any buildings in their lives like there was there at the temple. They'd never traveled beyond the land of of Canaan of Palestine. And how could that happen? And what shall be the sign of thy coming? Well, he was already there. What did they mean? They were looking on to when he would be present here and manifest to all as King Messiah take his rightful place. What shall be the sign of thy coming?
And of the end of the world, that's not like we would tend to think, the end of the physical globe, but the end of the age, the age that they were presently in and that we're still in, that will yet come to an end. And then what's going to be introduced? The age of the Kingdom, that wonderful millennial Kingdom. So they want, what's the end of it? When's the end of the age? When is this time going to end and the Kingdom going to be introduced. And then the Lord goes to answer them.
In such a way that they would find his instructions useful.
To themselves personally, but also to open up their understanding as to what was coming in relationship to Israel. And so the disciples stand here not only as the Lords disciples who were going to be the nucleus of the church in the coming time, but they really stand here representative of that faithful remnant of Israel that God will raise up in the tribulation. And so if we think of them in that place, then it helps us.
The instructions that we're getting now until Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus and AB 70. These things would be and were helpful to those disciples. But once that outward, any visible outward testimony that the Jews might have had was destroyed in 8070 when Jerusalem was destroyed, the end of the, you might say usefulness in that way of these Scriptures.
Was done for the Christian disciples, but they will come into usefulness again in the Tribulation. I have no doubt that the the faithful remnant and the Tribulation will find much help from these very scriptures.
Could you say a few words about the rapture?
The rapture in this portion that we've read doesn't really come into the picture, But if the Lord leaves us here and we take up in the end of chapter 24 and chapter 25 and we signed the Christian parable, we'll find the rapture as mentioned three times. And that's especially for us in connection with our responsibility and what we look for too. And so you'll find in those Christian parables.
Doors not presented as the Son of Man, which is his title that he'll take, took in rejection and will take when he comes to reign over the nations. He's not presented that way, but as a bridegroom.
And.
It's especially brought out as to various aspects of our responsibility in this time that we're here waiting for his return. And so that's really where we get the truth of the rapture connected with these Scriptures is in those three Christian parables. But the coming in this portion that we've read is his coming in power and glory.
His visible coming. His coming has two phases for his Saints, the Rapture, and with his Saints, his visible appearing in this world.
The counterpart to the passage really is is Daniel Chapter 9. Perhaps we could just look at a few verses in Daniel Chapter 9 because it corresponds very closely to this chapter and really is the fulfillment Daniel 924 this is.
A very important prophetic.
Passage and you really can't understand our chapter.
Fully, unless you compare it with Daniel chapter nine. I think the you have the fulfillment there, wouldn't you say so, Steve, that's the backbone of prophecy. That's very helpful to have.
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An understanding of that 24th verse of Daniel. 970 weeks are determined upon by 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. Know therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the commandment, to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince.
Shall be seven weeks and three score. In two weeks the street shall be built again in the wall, and even in trouble as times and after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.
But not for himself. 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. 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. And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even unto the consummation. And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
So just a brief note on that passage.
Really. The last week of that prophecy, the 70th week, has not yet been fulfilled.
We are waiting for the.
That period, that last week of Daniel's prophecy to be fulfilled, 69 weeks have transpired and the Messiah was cut off and had nothing. He did not get his Kingdom. The Lord did not receive the Kingdom at that time.
And.
The Lord is foretelling that which will precede the establishment of the Kingdom, and it's foretold in the verses in Daniel that we read.
And so here we have those developments that will precede the establishment of the Kingdom.
Which will be when the Lord appears in power and glory is brought before us in our chapter here.
And so really this is a description of the last week.
Of Daniel's prophecy, and it will, for the sake of the young people, perhaps to clarify things. This is not really a Christian period.
At the Rapture, when the Lord returns to take his people out of this world, the Church, then the clock of prophecy will again begin to tick, and the the.
Fulfillment of those.
Those four foreshadowings, there's those prophetic details, and Daniel will come to pass. The last week will take place.
And this is what we have largely described in our chapter here.
So although as believers we can we have an intelligence of these things, this is not a period of the Church.
'S.
Blessing here or the church?
Presence on the earth at this time. I think we should make that clear at the outset.
Some might get the impression that because there is reference to the president period and the coming of the Lord for his Saints mentioned here after the tribulation that's going to take place after the tribulation. But that's not the case and we need to be clear about that, don't we? You know, the Lord Jesus, I believe.
Would spare us from the wrath that this world is going to experience. You know, it tells us about the testimonials that they turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven.
Who has delivered us? Even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. So I think that wrath there would speak of.
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The wrath of God poured out in this world because of its rejection of His Son.
We're going to be spared that rat, aren't we? And it speaks also in Romans chapter 5 how that we've been justified by his blood.
That we might be safe from the wrath to come.
Well.
That perhaps could speak of the raft that will be experienced in hell by those that reject Christ.
But would it not also speak of the wrath that's going to be poured out on this world because of its rejection of Christ? So I I could believe that the Christian is going to be spared from wrath, whether it's in time or in eternity.
But I just think maybe there needs to be clarification about that because.
With respect to the sequence that we have here, we have the tribulation brought before us.
In reference to the Christian period, but.
Chronologically is going to be the coming of Christ for his Saints, isn't it?
And then the rafters got poured out.
So it's important to pick up, as we go through these verses, those things that really indicate and show us that this is Jewish in character, not Christian.
And one of the first things here is the way the Lord answers. Take heed that no man deceive you. Many shall come in my name saying.
I am Christ, and then a little further down.
In verse 23 and 24.
Then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there believe it not, for there shall rise false Christ and false prophets.
The ultimate one being the Antichrist himself.
That's not a deception that Christians are prone to. Why? Because every Christian knows, whether professing or real, that the Lord went to Calvary, was raised from the dead, and he's in heaven.
Every Christian knows the Lord's in heaven. They're not open to the deception, generally speaking, that oh, Christ is here, Christ is there. He's in a desert place, He's in a secret chamber or whatever it might be. What is the Christian open to deception from the apostle John tells us, try the spirits. The Spirit of God is here present, and he's the one who is the power for ministry. He is the Spirit of truth. He's the one who testifies of Christ.
And the danger for the Christian is to be fooled by a false spirit, to be fooled by those false doctrines that the enemy through his.
Legion of Fallen angels seeks to propagate in this world, and the apostles try the spirits. Don't be fooled.
What's the touchstone? The touchstone is the apostles doctrine. He that heareth not us is not of God. That's what the Christian is prone to being fooled by. But for the Jew who's still looking for the Messiah here on earth? Because though they rejected the Lord didn't mean they stopped looking for Messiah.
They're still looking for him, or are they looking for him? They're looking for him here on the earth, and they're liable to be fooled by 1 Coming and saying, oh, here's Christ or I'm Christ.
And they are going to be full the apostate part of that nation by one who says I'm Christ the Antichrist. And so that's one of the indicators that this is not a Christian.
Exhortation.
And this portion, but it's especially a warning for that faithful remnant that will be here in the tribulation.
So the reference to Christ there is the Messiah.
Yes, that's right.
Yeah, Christ and Messiah really are are the one in the same word in that way the anointed, the the the rightful son of David, who God would anoint to be David's greater son, the Christ.
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One coming in his own name they will receive.
John 5.
It's very important that we see at the outset of this study that God has two distinct purposes in view. I mean, we've often heard this, but it's good to reiterate it, that He has the purpose of blessing and earthly people.
Distinct from the Church and the heavenly people which we compose that that company now as the Church of God.
Brother Steve mentioned the deception that is coming in and it is certainly rapid in Christendom today that.
That the church's blessings are earthly and a fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. This whole so-called covenant theology is, is a complete travesty. It's it's erroneous and it's because that.
They do not see the distinctive character of God's dealings at the present time. Dispensationalism.
Is not is not understood in Christendom generally. And so they have things in confusion. God has a distinct purpose to bless the nation of Israel, and that is what our chapter deals with primarily. And he has also a distinct purpose to bless a heavenly people. The church is not part of this world. It's not part of the prophetic picture.
That we have read of this morning. It is a company that belongs to heaven.
And our blessings are not Israel's blessings transposed into the Church. We are a heavenly people with distinctive hopes and aspirations. And we.
We will be with Christ in the glory. We're not going to be an earthly people, but there will be an earthly people and this is what the Lord Jesus is referring to in our chapter, how he is going to bring that nation back into.
Wondrous blessing. The third dispensation, if we can call it Millennium. The Millennium is a dispensation. We are now in the dispensation of the grace of God. And so.
When this is established, as the Lord foretells in our chapter here, it will be a time of marvelous earthly blessing for the nation of Israel and many of the Gentiles being brought into that same sphere of earthly prosperity and and glory, with the Lord reigning as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But it's important to see that this has an earthly character.
And that the Church is not really contemplated in the verses that we read today.
But of course we are to be intelligent about these things and prophecy.
Is is something important? It's very important in the word of God and that we need to understand the principles of of these things and rightly divide the word of truth.
Yeah, the reference clearly in.
Fact that it's happening in Judea and.
We're going to pray it's not happening on the table. It has nothing to do with.
Interesting thing in verse 15 when you therefore you'll see abominations of desolations broken up by then the protest stand in the holy place and then it says do so read it. But I'm understood that's like a he. The Lord says some are going to read that and they're going to understand when they read what the disciples can understand because this wasn't written at that time, but then the disciples of the Lord in the trade should release their reading this and understanding they don't know.
This is what's happening and I just like to put in parallel that 15 verse the 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2.
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Three.
Words will not come, except there comes a falling away 1St and that's the matter to send me your deal with some petition proposing and told himself above all, and it's on God and his worship, so that he has God sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
What we have here what refers to on our 15th 1St imagine it needs to be both you shall be as God taking pole out of many even here's a man God.
And so too in the.
In a tribulation, when he sets in the temple of God and shows himself that he is God, he goes on to.
To set up an image we find in Revelation 14, I believe to the beast and causes all men to worship the beast. So both he claims he is God and he causes men to worship the beast is just another man also and sets up an image and no doubt right in that very place that Daniel speaks of in the holy place.
In the temple and so the 1St 3 1/2 years of the tribulation are divided off from the last 3 1/2 years.
That last week of years of Daniel's prophecy that is to be fulfilled as divided into two portions and the 1St 3 1/2 years take us up to verse 14.
Verse 14 is a transitional verse and what do we find in the first verse is we find wars, rumors of wars, we find famines, pestilence and and death that would follow. With pestilence we find the faithful persecuted and then we finally come to the.
Verse the end of verse 13 but he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved and so you look in the beginning of Revelation and and the.
The apostle sees the seals of a book one after another being opened. And 1St you have wars and then you have famines and death and pestilence, and then you have finally the 5th seal, the faithful persecuted. And finally the 6th seal comes to really the middle of the tribulation, the end of the first 3 1/2 weeks. There's not a lot of prophecy on the 1St 3 1/2 weeks, most of prophecy.
As to the tribulation, time centers on the last 3 1/2 and that's what Daniel calls the great tribulation in chapter 12, such as the world is, has never seen before. And that's really mainly what the Lord takes up here. So the 1St 3 1/2 years brings us to verse 14 in the middle of the tribulation, Satan and is cast out of heaven. There's a war in heaven. He's cast out to the earth and he at that time energizes.
The Antichrist and the Beast, Remember, there's two distinct people there.
And they come to the forefront for the remainder of the tribulation. And that image is set up and men worship the Antichrist and they worship the beast right in the place where Jehovah had been worshipped. And that is what Daniel calls the protection or or covering of abominations. In other words, they're allowing idolatry in the most awful way, right in the place where Jehovah was worshipped. On that note.
The Lord says, when you see that.
Run. Just get out of there. Don't go back from the field to get anything from your house. If you're in the house or it says up on the rooftop, which is the living room there in the Middle East and those warmer climates, just don't even go down the steps and go back in the house to grab something. Go down the steps because the steps are on the outside of the house and just keep going. You have no time.
To lose because in the 1St 3 1/2 years the faithful are going to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. That is that the king is coming and he's going to set up his Kingdom and that's going to really rankle the professing church. What's left of the church after the Christians are gone, They are going to seize control. And that's the picture you get in Revelation of the woman professing Christianity riding the beast, the political power, and they are going to hate the preaching.
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That there's a king coming and everything belongs to him, and they're going to persecute the faithful. But when Satan's cast out in the middle of the tribulation and he takes the reins, the false church is destroyed and he brings his men to the front, the beast and the false prophet, the beast and the Antichrist. And then the persecution breaks out against the faithful in a way that it never had in the 1St 3 1/2 years. And so we get these instructions to run.
To the faithful.
Most 13 and 14 verses especially where 13 you know she used often among fisheries to.
Destroy the confidence and their security and faith of Lord Jesus, his work and they say what you have to do or you have to persevere. Let's persevere and not going to be saved at university. You shall endure until the end. The same children say, but that's not the gospel of the grace of God.
He lost on the team, as he said in 1St 14 and this lost. What's that good news? Good news is the first year theme. The promise of salvation is by enduring to the end. And so if you have the mark of the beast, it's clearly said in revelation that you're do you're not going to be saved. So you're going to have to suffer through the tribulation to to resist that influence. So you can have that promise of people say true that you did.
I think it's important to see that return of God says that this gospel of the King, the next is very clear.
That's what the Lord then calls verse 21, the great tribulation. Great. It's the last 3 1/2 years and as you say brother Michelle, that's when the mark of the beast comes into play and he's going to to try and get hold.
By making sure no one can do anything in his Kingdom unless they have that mark. And so for the faithful, they're going to be cut off from every.
Earthly comfort, so to speak, if they want to remain faithful and accept those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect sake they shall be shortened. And so there's a specific period of time God's going to limit it to those 3 1/2 years and that's it. But you know, for us, Peter says the flesh suffers, and if it doesn't suffer, well, we're in trouble. If the clutch suffers, we've ceased from sin. And so for the Christian, the pathway of suffering.
Is all the way until the Lord comes the entire path. But the expectation for the faithful remnant here is it's going to come to an end here in this earth and relief is going to come. And they look forward to that relief. And the Lord says I've shortened the time. I'm not going to let it go on and on, I've shortened the time.
It's remarkable that Chris and.
As we see it today, much of it is lifeless, but it's going to go on after the rapture. So the Lord came today. All those who are saved, all believers in the world would be.
Raptured into the glory to be with Christ. Then, as we said, the clock of prophecy will begin.
To, to tick and to at least.
Prophecies will be fulfilled but the Christendom as a as a body will go on until the middle of the week and the woman will ride the beast. Persecution in in the 1St 3 1/2 years is from the Falls Church is from the woman riding the beast.
Persecution in the second-half of the week, which is the Great Tribulation, will be from the Antichrist.
Energized by Satan and the and the Roman beast, but there will be the profession of of Christ going on until until the middle of the week.
It'll be a lifeless mass, but there will be that outward acknowledgement of Christ and.
And the the deception will be tremendous if we turn the First Second Thessalonians.
We've already referred to that they all might be damned who received not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. That Second Thessalonians.
01:00:04
Although much of the chapter deals with that subject, but verse 11 for this cause God shall send them strong delusion. Who are them? It's those who have made a profession of Christianity, but are unreal and God and have rejected the gospel of the grace of God. And God is in his governmental ways is going to send them a strong delusion that they should believe alive. What is the lie?
Well, it's that the Antichrist is is God is the one that is going to set everything right. They're going to put their confidence in this man and they're going to fall for this deception. They'll believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. I believe that is primarily referring to.
Defunct Christendom, Those that have made the profession.
And maybe living even at the period, this period of grace and and reject have rejected the gospel and rejected Christ and God allows in his government this deception to come in. Is that right, Steve? Yeah, there's a verse in the First Epistle of John that's helpful to in chapter 2 and verse 22, who is a liar.
That he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
So he is going to be the head of Jewish apostasy. He's not only going to say he's God, but he's going to deny that Jesus is Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
Who's a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son, the fullest revelation of grace and truth to lost and ruined man was the Father revealed in the sun here below. That's Christian truth. He's going to be the head of Christian apostasy as well, but he's a deceiver. And so the Lord's warning in our chapter is that there would be a deception that would go out that could almost deceive the very elect, the end of verse 24. Even those sovereignly elect by God.
So powerful with this deception be that they could almost be deceived.
They won't be, and so the rest though go on. In this deception they receive Antichrist as promised King, worship him, and they're a lifeless.
Mass of of empty profession and falsehood. And so in verse 27. For as the lightning cometh out of the East, and shineth even unto the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be unmistakable when the Son of Man comes.
It won't be somebody saying he's in a secret chamber over here or he's out in the desert here. Everyone that's going to see that, it's going to be unmistakable, just like when the lightning flashes, the lightning sudden and it's fast and it's destructive. And when the Son of Man comes, it's going to be just in that way. And as it goes on to say where, wheresoever the carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together. It's going to strike that lifeless corpse.
That follows the Antichrist and the beast, and those vultures find those dead corpses, don't they? You and I might hunt for hours for one. But the vultures circled right over. He sees right where it is, he finds it. And so the judgment is going to fall upon that lifeless mass of empty profession of apostate Israel, and that judgment is going to find its prey.
2nd Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 2.
Not receiving the love of the truth.
Because the only thing I'm seeing is truth, the love. There's the expression of God and his fullness and the pressure of the Lord Jesus. And so the religious man never finds in the light of the grace of God. He finds the light in his own performance. And we have a verse for us, for our hearts and features, chapter 2.
As you can consider the lighting God gives us in what's going to happen on the earth and Israel. What about us? Why? Why would he would we keep such stroking of this race? And we're going to go to heaven. And you know, as scaling as we are and as lukewarm as we are, we're going to be with the Lord.
01:05:01
Says in verse 7.
And in the ages that come, you might show the exceeding riches of its grace and His kindness toward us.
Here we are the audience of sovereignty God is wielding stuff in the first of the Son and has he had an hang on the tree into having a nurse object of a curse and his wrath fell upon him. Now at least of God and manifest the continued riches of inspiration to anyone here in this world that says before the industry and that's where it's going to be in the glory when you manifest as a trophy of God's grace Lord.
It's good to see, Brother Steve, as you were saying earlier, that when it's the Son of Man, it's always in connection with judgment, isn't it?
I was thinking of the verse in John Fine and verse 27.
I'll read verse 26. Where does the Father has life in himself? So has he given to the Son to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute judgments also because he is the Son of man. So in our chapter, it's clearly referring to the Lord coming out of heaven in judgment. It's it's the same as what we get in Revelation 19 two when he comes out of heaven with 10 thousandths of his Saints.
It's the same time, is it not?
You have to really see there's two apostasies, the apostasy of Christendom, which will culminate in the middle of the week.
And then there's the apostasy of the nation of Israel. The remnant will be separated from that ungodly part of the nation many of the Psalms refer.
To both.
Both parts of the last week but there are many descriptions of the condition of things in the last half of the week when a large part of the nation of Israel will be apostate, they will follow the Antichrist, and the remnant will be bitterly persecuted those that will be looking for the.
The coming of the true Messiah, the Lord Jesus. They'll be bitterly persecuted and we'll have to flee in the last half of the week, flee from the land to save their lives. So it's important to see those two apostasies, the apostasy of Christendom.
And the apostasy of the of the nation of Israel.
Could we have just 86?
286.
We shall be.
Happy, and she needs a sorrow.
42 in the back, 42 in the back of the book.
Is our redemption and salvation full and free? Nothing need our souls to start, but forgetfulness of Thee Not can stay our steady progress. More than conquerors we shall be. If our eyes would air, the danger looks to be none but Thee.
42 in the back.
Early does, my God.
01:10:07
Say survey.