Address—R. Thonney
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Night is far spent.
Day is at hand.
No signs to be looked for. The stars sky Rejoice then he Saints, is your Lords own command.
Rejoice the coming of Jesus.
Rose 9 but a day that will be when the Savior appears. How welcome to those shared in this cross.
A crown incorruptible then will be theirs a rich compensation for suffering.
#168.
The mighty is far spent.
In the blood for the start of the sky.
Rejoice and keep faith in your heart won't come back.
Pray, enjoy your.
Jesus, come on.
What a day will that be when?
A singer appears.
Our welcome to.
I'm sharing his ground.
I'm proud of him and all that world wears.
Always gone. And of course.
Our freedom was.
In this world.
And comparative that day.
To the boring aspect.
Run and be revealed.
More kids nowhere desire my God, which was.
So bad before I go.
The first of my love and it's hard will heart.
Like to turn first of all to Romans chapter 13, just a couple of verses introductory to the subject I'd like to speak of this evening. But evidently these verses were what must have been before the writer of the hymn we just got through singing.
And they speak to me, and I think when we deal with the question of the Lord's coming, that you might like to.
Speak up this evening.
It necessarily has its moral implications in our lives. There's no way we can get away from this threat.
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And I suppose one of the greatest dangers in treating of any subject in Scripture is to treat of it in a fully correct fashion, all orthodoxly in place, but without having the heart affected you're reading. These are things that need to be practical. These are things that are real. The Lord is coming again.
And I really, truly believe that we are on the very edge of the time of awful judgment of this world. We are getting close to the moment when we're going to be taken out of this world and God's judgments are going to fall, you know, sometimes.
Speaking about it, the Lord's coming and everything, I have to kind of stop and pinch myself. Is it really real? Do I really believe this?
It's easy to say a yes or a no with the mouth.
But the real answer is in my life. Do I really believe it? You're going to see it in my life.
That's going to be the real answer. You cannot get away from the moral implications of the fact.
The Lord is coming and He's coming soon. Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers, and he taught them to wait for the sun from heaven.
The Lord come in their time.
The Lord, Come on, the apostle starts. No.
Was that a mistake to teach them that to wait for the sun from heaven?
That was you would seem that way from argumenting human reason, human standpoint. But no, it wasn't a mistake. It is always the proper hope of the Christian to wait for the sun from heaven, and even though they passed on, they're not going to be disappointed.
And so let's read these verses here in the end of the 13th chapter of Romans.
Paul says in verse 11 That knowing the time.
That now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation near than when we believe the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as.
In the day, not in writing and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, that put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Here we have it, a real exhortation from the apostle Paul, touching our manner of life in view of the fact.
That it is time to wake out a snake.
Now, is our salvation nearer than when we believe? The Apostle Bob could write that way. We have a lot more reason to be able to say what he said. Now is our salvation near than when we believe? Dear brethren, I'm sure we're all aware of what's going on in the world and the Persian Gulf War, What's happened over there. It's been thrilling to me.
To think that things are taking their course. They're shaping up for the final showdown. Although a lot can happen in the world that we live in. You think if we were raptured out this evening to the glory, dear brother, why it would be perhaps 7 brief years and the Lord Jesus would be introduced into power and glory in this world. Tremendous to think of it.
But seven years is 1/2 a long time in today's world, the way things move.
And we are seeing things happen and I don't know exactly how to fit the pieces together over there, how they're working now, Iraq and Saddam Hussein. It is interesting that it is part of the old Assyrian Empire and that.
Main enemy, the king of the north is going to be not serious, but the Assyrian which comprehends parts of Iraq.
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Syria and Turkey.
It is the Assyrian Confederacy and.
So it's going to be interesting to see just what happens. There are several strong men over there right now. King Assad of Assyria of Syria is an enemy of Saddam Hussein. So one of those guys got to drop out of power so that there will be one figurehead. Who it will be, we don't really know, but that will happen right at the end of the tribulation period. But it's interesting to see things moving in that general direction.
But my desire this evening is to perhaps give a brief picture of prophecy so that, dear brother, we might like it says here, wake up, it's time to wake up. And I really and truly believe that God is allowing not only these things in modern, the modern world of politics, but he's allowing problems among God's people.
The pressures on every side are becoming so strong.
That I don't know anywhere that they don't have some pretty serious problems. Why is God allowing them? Jesse wants.
High time to wake out of sleep.
And so we need to be a waste, dear brother, as never before. We all know it's physical. Sleep is the person who's asleep is not alert. You can talk to him. He doesn't respond.
Never been sighed.
Talk about our business operations, Why we're all alert and talking. We talk about our family, we're all alert and talking. Talk about our cars, we're all alert and talking.
Conversation turns to the Lord Jesus.
Notice sometimes that there's not quite so much conversation.
Does that mean that we are sleep spiritual?
Things that we need to think about here, man.
We need to wake up. It's high time to wake as they much honestly, I'm not saying this to you rather than I'm not around here to know you all that well, but I'm saying it to my own heart. I really and truly believe that a vast majority of believers are asleep spiritually.
God is speaking to us.
Wake up the supreme woman of believing this world forever behind and going to encounter the man of Calvary Satan.
Need to be awake.
I would rather than may the Lord give us.
That moment to be awake. So he says the night is far spent. The night. This is the night for the believer. The day was at hand. We're going to see the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings, but we will not see it from down here. We're going to see it from there before the night is over.
The Morning Star is going to rise and we're going to be gone.
Gone to meet the Savior.
But tonight is far spent the days at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. The believer in the Lord Jesus occupies a position in the light.
Whether he likes it or not.
He's in the light, the believer in the Lord Jesus. That's the position you occupy. Someone asked one time, What if the believer turns us back on the light? Well, the light shines on his back was the answer that was given. And it's true. Everything you and I do, the light shows. And you cannot tie things in life. How important to live openly, dear brother, not hiding things.
Especially in view of the fact that the Lord is coming again.
I often think of that force American woman in the fourth of John, when she got into the presence of the Lord Jesus, she found out that she was annoying.
He had said to her, go call thy husband after she had asked for that water, that living water. She had said, go, call thy husband, come here. She says I don't have anything. She.
Kind of telling the half truth and the Lord Jesus said that's well said. I have no husband because thou hast had five husbands and heathen thou now hast is not thy husband. That's it's not true.
Immediately she realized that here was somebody that knew every detail of her life, and she went into the city and said to those men, Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not just the Christ the liberty of conscience, dear brethren, when we have everything out of the life.
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There's something in your conscience that is valid. I plead with you to get it out into the light. The Lord is coming soon, and it's just going to be for greater shame if we don't get it out into the light. That's the position that I try to hide something in the light. I only make myself that much more conspicuous.
I hold my hands behind my back up here this evening and you can hear I have there's a there's a bag here and I didn't want anybody to see it. And I notice you start looking at me. It make me more nervous. I would only make myself that much more conspicuous by trying to hide something in the light.
Only going to provide himself to do such a thing. And so we are to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of the light. And honestly it says here as in the day, not in writing and drunkenness.
Not in chambering in wantonness, not in strife and envying drunkenness is spoken of here.
And I don't. I suppose it's not merely.
A physical drunkenness that is spoken of, but there is such a thing as spiritual drunkenness as well. A person who is drunk is under the influence of something he has taken in.
You know, there's influences in this world, not merely strong drink, but there are influences in this world that affect a person so greatly that he cannot walk rightly as a believer in the Lord Jesus. Not to walk, that is in the spiritual sense of we need to be careful. We need to not become under the influence of our outside circumstances to the point where we do not walk like a believer on the law.
The Lord keep us, dear brother, The Lord is coming again. I'd like to turn back now to Matthew 24. It's a chapter that the brethren in South America go over quite frequently in their conferences down there, and I must say, going over it with them a number of times, it is been very interesting. This is a chapter that is confused a lot in person at large today because they do not distinguish between Israel and the church.
They mix it all together and they see the church in Matthew 24.
But the church does not figure Matthew 24, nor does the rapture of the church we're going to see later on in the chapter. The rapture of the church was a mystery that was revealed to the apostle Paul, and he speaks that in First Thessalonians four. It was not revealed at this time when the Lord Jesus spoke these words, He knew about it, of course, but He did not. He had not revealed.
The truth of the rapture of the church. What we have in this chapter is Israel, and I'd like to take it up in a brief overall way this evening to give a brief outline of those seven years of the tribulation period. Some people ask why we get 7, but if you would go back and we're going to notice that the Lord Jesus refers to in this 24th chapter, Daniel the prophet.
In the 9th chapter Daniel, Daniel is given the prophecy.
That there were 70 weeks appointed to his people Israel, and those seventy weeks were divided into three parts, 7 weeks, 62 weeks and one final week.
Now, those were not weeks of days. There were weeks of years. There are other parts in the Old Testament where it is used in that way. They're weeks of years. So the seven weeks would be 49 years, the 62 weeks would be 434 years, and then there's one final week, which would be the seven years, and that's the final week that we're talking about, that tribulation period. That's where we get 7.
Now I want to say something here that I think is important.
To remember, it is not the rapture of the Church that signals the beginning of that last seven years.
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It is not the rapture of the Church. We believe that the rapture of the Church takes place before that final seven years, but it is not the rapture of the Church that signals that. What is it?
If you look carefully in Daniel, and I don't really have time to look at it this evening, but it is a pact that will be made between the Roman Prince and the people of Israel that will be signed for protection. When that pact is signed, the prophetic clock begins to tick and from that moment there will be seven years exactly till the Lord Jesus feet touch them.
On the Mount of Olives, outside of Jerusalem, to the east of Jerusalem.
That's what begins the the last seven years, That's what signals that path that will be signed between Western Europe, the beast and.
Israel. When that fact is signed, it will be 7 years. Now those seven years are divided in two parts.
And it is spoken of in Scripture sometimes as a time times, and half a times we take one 2 1/2, that's 3 1/2 years. Sometimes it's spoken of as 42 months, which is also 3 1/2 years. Sometimes it's spoken of 12160 days, which according to the Jewish way of calculation with 360 days to the year.
Is also 3 1/2 years, but every time it mentions that time frame it is in reference to the last 3 1/2 years, not the first. The last 3 1/2 years.
It is the time of Jacob's trouble. It is the time.
That we'll notice in verse 21 That is called great tribulation. Great tribulation really refers to the last half of the tribulation period. The first half I would like to say is perhaps we could put a name on it here in the.
Verse 8, the beginning of sorrows, the first half of the tribulation period, the first half of those last seven years is the beginning of stars. The last tap is great tribulation. And so I'd like to read this chapter now and then briefly go over it.
Let's begin at verse three of Matthew 24.
And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him, privately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and at the end of the world?
When Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. See that he be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Four Nations shall rise against nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel Abraham, stand in the holy place. Who Sorina, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither left him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe to them that are with child, and to them which gives stuck in those days.
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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 except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, appears Christ, or there believe in not, for there shall arise false Christ, and the 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 for.
Wherefore if they shall send to you, behold, he is in the desert.
Go not forth, the only is in the secret chamber. Believe it not. Whereas the lightning cometh out of the east, and shine it even into the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will be 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, and the powers of heaven 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 this great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect.
In the four winds from one End of Heaven to the Other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree.
When its branch is yet tender, and put it forth leaves. Ye know that summer is 9. So likewise ye when you see, shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I send to you. This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour not no man.
No, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. And as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the sun man be. For as the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and do not until the flood came and took them all the way, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and 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 does come, but know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch that he would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken out. But therefore be also ready for in such an hour as she think not the Son of Man coming. I'm just going to read that far for right now. Here we have them, and I'd just like to briefly point it out.
From the third verse to the 14th verse.
Basically is let's treats of the first half of the tribulation period from the 15th verse on is the last half of the tribulation period. If you keep that in mind it it helps a bit and we read down to verse 44 from verse 45 of this chapter through chapter 25 and verse 30 is a parenthesis in which the Lord gives practical teaching which applies in principle.
But verse 44 of the 24th chapter connects directly with the 31St verse of the 25th chapter. Just like to either notice it in the 44th verse of the 24th chapter says.
Yeah, the Son of Man, therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. And the 31St verse of the 25th chapter says when the Son of Man shall come in his glory. It is really a parentheses between those two verses and they connect that. And we're going to see perhaps if we have time, that that is the judgment of the nation's, the judgment of the living, when the Lord Jesus comes back to set up his earthly Kingdom.
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Here in this world, some people say why should we study prophecy if it doesn't have to do with the church?
Dear brother, you know why? Because we are the bride of Christ and prophecy has to do with the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. When I read these parts, it thrills my soul.
To this thing of that moment, perhaps within one decade. 1 decade isn't that long, brother.
Within one decade, you and I believers in the Lord Jesus. Within one decade, you and I, believers in the Lord Jesus, are going to personally witness the introduction of the Lord Jesus as He comes back from heaven with power and great glory, and He's going to smite through.
The powerful armies. We've just seen how the armament of this world is so tremendously advanced in technology, It's going to smite through army after army. In that coming day, we're going to see him reign.
You and I are destined to great things.
You see why we need to wake up. We really need to. We're living right on the edge of all these things that we're talking about.
Well, the disciples came to the Lord Jesus asking him about.
Sign of thy coming, it says in verse three. And at the end of the world, I think Mr. Garbage translation says at the end of the age, it's not the end of the world because the world will go on for another thousand years in the millennial day. It's going to be a purification, but it will be the same world that will go on throughout the millennial day, another thousand years. And it will be at the end of that millennial day that this present world will disappear, will melt.
Good for the peace will be gone.
Like it says in another place, the 1St heaven and the first earth are passed away and so it's the end of the age that he's speaking up here. Then the Lord Jesus gives them signs.
Many shall come in my name and say I am Christ. It's amazing how many people there are that are taking that position today. Somebody told me a while back in Los Angeles County alone how many there were. I was astounded.
That are actually saying they are Christ.
We are in Bolivia, still living in Bolivia. There is a man in Santa Cruz, Bolivia who took that position.
Incredible how people follow this. Totally correct. I just couldn't believe it. There's a man who was from Chile, evidently had lived in Argentina for a number of years and came as a missionary to Bolivia, and evidently was preaching fairly decent gospel at that time. But when he got into Bolivia, he started changing his tune and he finally declared himself to be Christ.
You know what he does? His name starts with J Julio Julius, and he translated into English. He takes the name of Jesus out of worship him and puts his own name in there, and he stands up in front of his congregation and they worship him.
Just awful to think of the awful blasphemy of men like that that take that position. But it's the Spirit that is working in the world today. It is at work in a far greater measure. And I think we realize there are people who say they are Christ.
When that man was operating, I think he still is in Bolivia, we used to have a evangelical bookstore there, so Bibles in the main class of Montero, where we used to live. And one day one of this man's followers came into the bookstore to talk, basically talk. I think that's all they wanted to do. And I said to him, look, fella, you need to be really careful because the Scripture says.
That there's going to be a lot of false Christs that are going to arise.
And the scripture says that when the Lord Jesus comes back to the earth, every eye shall see him. And I haven't seen this guy. You're back tonight.
And he listened to me and tried to reason with.
While and he shook his head.
And he said, just like the first time.
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You won't have.
But the more you speak against.
The more I adore.
Can you say it's a definite spirit of error that's working since?
When people do not read the scriptures, they are going to be carried away. Oh, they are brotherly important.
Keeping this book open in our daily lives. Is it something that we read each day? We need to keep it. The spirit of iniquity is already at work.
Two is to say that we're not going to be effective. A true believer can then be lost. But we can be affected. And I keep the light of this precious book open in our homes for our dear children.
For families. And so that was one of the.
Signs Lord gave wars, rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, Kingdom against Kingdom, Famines, pestilences, earthquakes and diverse places. These are all becoming.
Commonplace things in this world.
Now in the United States, we've really been prospered as perhaps no other nation in the history of the world really been prosperous, tremendously trusted.
And it really is amazing when you get out into other areas of the world to see the tremendous poverty.
Dear brother, we need to not fall under the influence of present things. Materialism doesn't have to affect us.
But I think we all admit that it does affect us.
We need to have our vision sharpened, not by material things, by putting them out of this off to one side. We need to have our vision sharpened by the precious light of Scripture, spiritual things, things that are real, things that are eternal, things that will never pass away.
Well, he goes on to say that there were going to be afflicted and killed and hated, and there would be many false prophets, and because iniquity abounded, the love of many shall wax bold. The principle of that is true today, brother.
And then it says in verse 13 something interesting, He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Now, I think it's important to remember when we read this chapter that he's speaking to these Jewish disciples.
And to remember their way of Jewish thinking. What does this mean? To endure into the end? And I think it simply means that those who would endure this tribulation period right to the end would be saved in the Jewish way of thinking. It would be to go into the millennial.
Day on the earth, That's what it meant to be saved. The same shall be saved.
It almost seems, and some people sometimes quote that for believers today, it really doesn't apply directly to believers today. It is really applicable to those who will be present, those that will believe in the tribulation period. If they go through that awful time of tribulation and reach the end without submitting to the beast and to his authority, why they're going to be saved to go into the millennial Kingdom.
Of the Lord Jesus on earth, and then he goes on to say in verse 14, this gospel is the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.
So during the Tribulation period, during those seven years, there's going to be a gospel preached. Is not the gospel that we preach now. The gospel that we preach now is to say, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And we tell folks when they get saved, you have a home in heaven. We have a heavenly hope.
But the Gospel of the Kingdom was a gospel somewhat light and I really believe it was what the apostles, excuse me, what was what John the Baptist preached? He basically said repent, the King is coming straight, not your ways. King is coming. The simple message and the brethren of the King, as it is told us in chapter 25, are the beginning of going to be the ones.
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Those Jewish brethren are going to be the ones that carry the message out through the world. They're going to repeat that brave message as they go through the world. And those that accept those that show they believe the message by showing kindness to those messengers of the Kingdom are going to be those who enter the millennial age in this earth.
And so that's the gospel of the Kingdom. Now we come to verse 25. And as I mentioned, this is the beginning of the is from the middle of the tribulation period till the end.
And he speaks of the abomination of desolations that is broken up by Daniel leprosy. You don't know. There's some divergent of a feeling as to just exactly what this is, rather than my own understanding is.
And I am subject to correction if anyone wants to say something, I'm open to listen your brother afterwards. But my understanding of this is that at the middle of that tribulation period, after 3 1/2 years have run their course, it says then he's going to break that covenant. He's going to break it in that he's not going to allow any longer the Jewish people to do their rituals in the temple to offer their animal sacrifices.
He's going to take away the sacrifice and he's going to put the abomination that makes desolate in the holy place. And what I understand, according to Second Thessalonians chapter 2, it is the Antichrist that will have his seat in Jerusalem who will himself see himself in the temple of God as God. That is what the Lord Jesus called the apostasy. Apostasy is turning away from God.
The apostasy is when men in this world turn away from even the outward form of a God in heaven. They abandoned him and they worship a man. This world. They're getting ready to do that now, but they're going to worship a man.
And that is what is called the apostasy. And when that happens, that is the signal. And from that moment on will be the most awful, awful judgments this world has ever known. For 3 1/2 years. God is going to pour out His fury.
An increased measure on this world for 3 1/2 years because of the apostasy. God is not going to hold back anymore.
Even says that there will be no time like it verse 21 it says such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no nor ever shall be. People can think they saw bad times in the Second World War and they were bad times.
They have seen nothing in respect to what is coming and that we are close to right now.
Awful time of bloodshed that is coming on this way and is just ahead.
The Lord says here in verse 22, Except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elects sake those days shall be short.
So God is going to shorten those days. God's strange work is judgment. And so when he begins to judge, he makes short work of it. He doesn't like that work. His delight is to say His delight is to show mercy. But when man refuses that mercy, there will be nothing left for him but judgment. Well, we've got to go on here. And he goes on to speak of the.
False Christ that will arise, and the false prophets and any says in verse 27 something that refers to His coming. As the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even into the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man. It will be something that will be rapid when he comes.
Then in verse 28 he says wheresoever the carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered again? He's just got through telling me, those Jewish believers, when you see the abomination of desolations in the holy place, then escape. Get out of Jerusalem as fast as you can. Don't go into your house even to take anything out. Those in the tribulation period who will read Matthew 24.
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Will be obedient to this instruction, and they will leave Jerusalem, and Jerusalem will be inhabited only by unbelievers.
And that is the carcass that is spoken of in verse 28. Wheresoever the carcasses, a lifeless body of Jewish people will be, all that remains in Jerusalem where that carcass is, the Eagles will be added together. The nations will begin to gather against Israel. And as what is spoken of in Zechariah, I will gather all nations to battle against Jews.
No wonder. No one.
That place is called the field of blood test.
That's what it is. It is. It's the very strangers. Strangers are going to come from all over the globe.
In that field plus.
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 heaven shall be shaken. This is speaking up.
Speaking of firstly, authority.
People look to a supreme authority in the nation.
To for direction, for health, for light.
Been pretty evident in this last conflict in the Middle East, how they've looked to President Bush and there's been life. People have been encouraged by what happened.
The president has given the light.
So the sun is a figure of a supreme authority. The moon had arrived, authority, stars, lesser authorities. All this system of government that has existed since Noah's time until now is going to fall to the earth. It's going to be replaced by the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in the 7th trumpet in Revelation. The kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdom of our Lord in his Christ and shall reign forever.
Whatever, that's what it's speaking up here. There's going to be a change in the government of this world.
And then he says he shall send in verse 31.
Verse 30 It says, Then he shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn. They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Verse 31 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.
Just wanted to stop here a minute to say that this is the verse that many people who do not distinguish Israel in the church mix up and they say that the.
Raptures at the end of the great tribulation. They used this verse to show that, and we need to distinguish your brother. This is not the rapture of the Church when he stands forth his angels with the sound of a great trumpet, It is the recalling.
Of the tribes of Israel who are not in the land, we know that the great tribulation period is basically for two tribes who were present and who were guilty when the Son of God came the first time. They were guilty of His rejection and crucifixion, and so those seven years of tribulation are to reduce them to the recognition of their guilt in the death of the Lord Jesus.
But at the end of those times, the sound of the great trumpet, the agents are going to be sent to gather in those lost tribes of Israel. Those other 10 tribes are going to be gathered in. And that's what is referred to here, says from the four winds, 4 is always a big number connected with this world, with creation. And so from the four winds, wherever they are scattered, says in Isaiah, he shall come from the land of Sinnam.
Which has been set as China.
But who knows exactly where they are? Where Larry Smith used to think that some of the Indians of South America were some of the last drives too. They have some customs that really make you think that that that could be true. But it's all conjecture. We don't know where they are. God knows where they are. And they're going to be called back again at that time as well.
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And then he says in verse 32 learn a parable of the fake tree when his branches yet tenders put forth leaves. Ye know that summer is not your brethren with big tree has bloodied.
14 days 1948 Israel became a nation, something that was not true since.
Time of when Jerusalem was destroyed, approximately 40 years after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
Israel exists as a nation now, 43 years almost.
It's hard to believe we're still here.
And then he says, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled.
What generation does he have in mind?
I don't think he's speaking necessarily of a time period as some people apply it. It is a moral characteristic that he's Speaking of. He speaks in other areas of unbelieving, adulterous generation. That unbelieving generation that was present when the Lord came will be the same characteristic of the generation when the Lord comes again. That's what characterizes the majority of Jewish people in the land of Israel today.
Unbelieving adulterous generation.
Then he goes on to speak of Noah.
And that it was just like it was in the days of Noah. So it will happen in the days when the Son of Man comes again. Verse 40. Then shall two be in the field? The one shall be taken in the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill. The one shall be taken in the other left. This has been applied as well to the rapture of the Church. But it really is not that that is referred to. We need to.
Remember the Jewish way of thinking that we're going to understand which is the one that is taken, which is the one that is left. Like to refer you back to Proverbs for a verse. There's a number of verses in the Old Testament that show what the Jewish way of thinking was. But just to show one place, Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 21, the last two verses.
Of Proverbs 2.
The upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it, but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
That was the Jewish way of thinking. Those who obey God, those who have faith in the upright, would dwell in the land and remain there, and the wicked would be those who would be rooted out of the earth. Now we go back to Matthew 24 and we get the picture according to the Jewish way of thinking.
One shall be taken, the other left. The one that is taken is taken out in judgment, is cut off from the earth. This is when the Lord Jesus is establishing His Kingdom down here in this world in power and glory. And so the one that is taken is cut off from the earth. The one that is left is left to go into the millennial earth under the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he goes on to say in verse.
42 Watch. Therefore we've already spoken about the need of watching, being alert in view of the Lorde coming breath. For ye know not what our your Lord that come. But know this, that 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 house to be broken up. Therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man coming.
He speaks of the.
Dear brethren, the Lord isn't coming for us as a thief.
No, he's coming out for us as a heavenly right. There's two things I haven't mentioned to the Latin believers that you can say about a thief. Number one, you don't want him to come to your house.
Number two, you don't expect them to come.
Do we want the Lord to come? Friends, I know every true believer once and again.
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Do you expect him to come? Dear brother, your sister, I know you expect him to come, and he's not coming for you and me as a thief. It says in First Thessalonians chapter 5, Ye brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. He's not coming for us as a thief. He's coming for this world as a thief. They don't want him to come. They are not expecting him to come, and for them he will come.
So then verse 45 begins that parenthesis, real instruction in those verses that lie in that parenthesis. But I'd like to flip over to the next chapter then before we close and just briefly mention what we have here because we have the introduction into the millennial Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. After the Lord Jesus has put down his enemies, He's going to set the throne of His glory in this world.
31 of Chapter 25 When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them from one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the ghost. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand.
Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was in 100 and gave me meat, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. And he goes on down, numerating the different things that they did for him. And then they say, When did that we do that for the Lord? And he said, In as much as he has done it unto the one of these, the least of these, my brethren.
And so does this Jewish brethren, as they have gone out in the Tribulation period and given the God the message of the gospel of the Kingdom. Perhaps it was not much more than giving a glass of water to one of those poor persecuted people.
That's all it was done. But in that they manifest faith in the message and those are going to be set on the King's right hand. There are those that are the ghosts on the left hand that didn't respond to that message.
And they're going to go away, according to 46, into everlasting punishment. And in the end of verse 46, it says that the righteous into life eternally. And we got to take it in the Jewish sense of the word light. Eternal for those Jewish people was light forever in this world. It's not the Christian sense that we know it now, life and abundance that we know it. It is the Jewish sense of the word light.
Here in this world in earthly material prosperity. That was their way of thinking. So they will go into that millennial day under the reign of Christ to prosper in the earth. That's the sense it one of their detail I'd like to mention here that shows the exactness of Scripture. Your brethren in verse 34 says come ye blessed of my father.
Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Ephesians, one word speaks of the Church and those of us who have been saved and now form the body of Christ in this world. We were chosen before the foundation of the world. Why? Because really we have no connection with this world. The fact that we are here is a brief parentheses of time in the councils and purposes of God, and we're only here as pilgrims and strangers.
And then we're going to be at home forever or But these people who are going to go in their earthly blessing, it says, if their Kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world, because their blessing is connected with this world.
So just a beautiful point to see how exact Scripture is. And so I just wanted to go over those scriptures, dear brethren, in a brief way. I hope I didn't confuse people. Some people when you get on the prophecy tend to kind of flip off the switch and and don't understand it too well. But it isn't that hard to understand, brother. And isn't it important if we're going to be intimately associated, if we are already intimately associated?
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With the Lord Jesus, isn't it important that we understand the direction we're heading? We can, everybody.
It may be a gift of God to give out the scriptures, but it is not a gift to understand the scriptures. That's something that's open for every believer in the Lord Jesus. And if you and I truly desire to understand, I've been encouraged going around the country event and speaking a little bit about prophecy to see how many sisters are really alert. None of all about getting into prophecy and understanding what's going on too.
Dear brothers, let's not get enough feeling, let's understand it too. Let's be awakened. Dear brother, it is now high time to wake out of sleep. For now is our salvation here than anybody. That's great.