This incomparable
Jesus, He keeps His promises.
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He came on time the first time,
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He's coming
back the second time.
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The real crucial question that
must be answered for each of us
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is, who will be ready to stand?
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Our last time, we talked about
the seven unbreakable seals
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that Jesus breaks.
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And of course, He can
break the stuff in our life too
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that needs to be
broken and surrendered to Him.
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But there was an
almost haunting question
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in that picture
of the sixth seal.
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And it said, as the people
ran from the coming of Jesus
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and the glory of the
coming of the Son of Man,
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the cry went up from the earth,
"Who will be able to stand?"
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That's a sobering question.
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It's a question we
don't talk much about.
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We talk many times almost glibly
about the coming of Jesus,
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but we don't
answer that question.
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But Revelation
answers that question.
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Revelation takes
the whole next chapter
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to answer the question,
"Who will be able to stand?"
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And so we're going to
spend some time on that.
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If you have your Bible and
have been following with me
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on the broadcast
here, Revelation 6:15-16
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gives that picture that we
want to set the setting with.
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"And the kings of the earth,
the great men, the rich men,
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the commanders, the mighty men,
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every slave and
every free man..."
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That's pretty comprehensive.
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I really don't want
to be among that group.
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"...they hid themselves
in the caves and in the
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rocks of the mountains, and
said to the mountains and rocks,
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'Fall on us.
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We'd rather die than
face this coming King.'"
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This incredible Jesus.
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Because He comes as King
of kings and Lord of lords.
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He comes with
judgment the second time.
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I know we don't like
to talk about judgment.
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Yes, He comes to
rescue His people,
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and I want to be among
those that are rescued,
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but He also comes to
judge those who are trying
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to destroy His people.
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He comes, as God says in
the book of Hebrews chapter 10,
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"Vengeance is Mine."
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And He comes with
vengeance this time
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because He's here
to rescue His people,
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just like He rescued His people
from Egypt the first time.
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So they ask that question,
"Who will be able to Stand?"
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Who is ready for this Jesus?
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The Bible makes a
case, in fact Jesus Himself
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makes a case about
getting ready for Jesus to come.
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That's something else we don't
talk as much about as we should.
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What do we mean when we say,
"Get ready for Jesus to come"?
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Well first of all I
want to make the case that we
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should get ready
for Jesus to come.
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And I want to go
to the Scripture again
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and let's just
listen to Jesus Himself.
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He's the one that put
so much emphasis on this.
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Emphasis about getting ready.
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In Matthew chapter
24, which is talking about
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His second coming, in
verses 37-39, He says this,
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"But as the days of Noah
were, so shall also the coming
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of the Son of Man be."
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And then He describes
what was happening with Noah.
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Now you've got to remember,
Noah preached for 120 years.
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Maybe people got icy fingers of
delay about that too and said,
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"Oh, well, it's
never going to happen.
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The old man is just
building a big boat."
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And then when they
saw the animals, you know,
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they just so hardened
their heart little by little
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that even the great signs
that this was going to happen
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just didn't make the needed
impression for them to change.
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Now I don't want
you to forget that.
00:04:07.41\00:04:09.14
In fact, Jesus goes on to
describe, He says, you know,
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there will be two
men working in the field.
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One will be
taken, the other left.
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Two women
grinding, doing their work.
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One will be
taken, the other left.
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One will be ready,
one won't be ready.
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Jesus is saying, He's
telling us, He says, "Look,
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this thing is coming.
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And if you don't
get ready for it,
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it'll take you by surprise."
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He's not coming in secret.
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But He is coming as a
great overwhelming surprise
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to many of the
people on planet earth.
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He goes on in Matthew 24:40-44
where He talks about the two
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will be grinding, two
women will be grinding.
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One will be
taken, the other left.
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Then He says this:
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He says, "Watch..."
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Now what does the
word, "watch," mean?
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It means to be on the alert.
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Be on the look-out.
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Nowadays we live in
a modern society where
00:05:02.60\00:05:04.23
everybody has
cameras everywhere,
00:05:04.27\00:05:06.13
everybody is watching.
00:05:06.17\00:05:07.90
In fact, it's hard to
go anywhere anymore without
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getting on a
camera, somebody's camera.
00:05:09.84\00:05:11.81
"Watch," Jesus says.
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It means, to be on the alert.
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"...you do not know what
hour your Lord will come."
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You're not really sure.
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You know the
signs of His coming.
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Jesus said you can know
even when it's at the door.
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But you don't know
right when He's coming.
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So you need to be on the alert.
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And then He gives
another illustration
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in case that weren't enough.
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He gives the illustration
about the master of the house.
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If he had only known what
hour the thief was coming,
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He would have been ready.
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But he didn't know,
and he wasn't on the alert,
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and he wasn't
watching, and he wasn't ready.
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But Jesus adds
again, "Therefore, be ready.
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For the Son of Man is coming
at an hour you don't expect."
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Jesus emphasizing to get ready.
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Now He's not done yet.
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He really zeroes in on
this business of getting ready
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for His coming.
00:06:06.70\00:06:08.03
Now only is the house
owner surprised by the thief,
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but we are also given a
parable of two servant leaders.
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They're in charge of
different households.
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One is faithful,
the other is unfaithful.
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One says, "The
lord delays his coming."
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The other one
has his house ready.
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And one is given a
great commendation,
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and the other is destroyed
because they weren't ready.
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And then we all know the
story of the ten virgins.
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It's a great story, a
great parable of Jesus.
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Ten of them.
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Five were ready
and five were not.
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Five had
prepared, and five had not.
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So there is something
for us to do to get ready
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for Jesus to come.
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Now I may say this
several times just so I'm not
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misunderstood, you
can't earn your salvation.
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Jesus already earned your
salvation on Calvary's cross.
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We're talking about
cooperating with the Lord Jesus
00:07:03.95\00:07:07.19
so He gets us ready for
this huge event of His coming.
00:07:07.22\00:07:12.43
Now again, after the ten virgins
you have the three stewards.
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They were all given
different amounts of talents.
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Two of them got
ready by investing.
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One didn't get ready.
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And he was thrown out where
there was gnashing and weeping.
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And then of course,
we have the fourth angel
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in Revelation chapter 18.
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We'll talk more
about that later.
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But that angel says,
"Come out of her, My people."
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Why does He say that?
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Because He's saying,
"You've got to get ready."
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And then you've
got the bride that
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gets herself
ready in Revelation.
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This is a very
fascinating picture.
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There are three
hallelujah's in Revelation 19.
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And the third hallelujah
is an hallelujah because of
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something that happens on earth.
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And you can just listen to this.
00:08:00.71\00:08:02.71
Revelation 19:6-8,
"And I heard, as it were,
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the voice of a
great multitude..."
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This is happening in heaven.
00:08:09.55\00:08:10.92
"...as the sound of many waters
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and as the sound
of mighty thunderings,
00:08:13.49\00:08:14.89
saying, 'Alleluia! The
Lord God Omnipotent reigns!'
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Let us be glad and rejoice...'"
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Why are they glad?
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Why are they rejoicing?
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Well there's a wonderful
reason why they're rejoicing.
00:08:27.90\00:08:30.81
And they're rejoicing
because the bride of Christ
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has made herself ready.
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He goes on to say, "For
the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
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Let us be glad and
rejoice and give Him glory,
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for the marriage
of the Lamb has come,
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and His wife has
made herself ready."
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Now I'm not as
young as I use to be,
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but I can certainly
remember our wedding day.
00:08:50.19\00:08:52.13
And you know, my wife,
when I proposed to her,
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she took me serious.
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She believed my promise.
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She believed that
I meant what I said.
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That I wanted her to be my wife.
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And you know what she did?
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She started getting ready.
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Started getting
ready for that marriage.
00:09:08.74\00:09:11.28
Jesus uses the same illustration
in the book of Revelation.
00:09:11.38\00:09:14.05
And He tells His
people, "Look, I am coming.
00:09:14.08\00:09:17.02
You can trust Me.
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And this is going
to be an awesome event.
00:09:18.72\00:09:21.12
And you've got to get ready.
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You can't just not
be ready for My coming
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and for the
marriage supper of the Lamb."
00:09:28.26\00:09:30.50
So the bride does
get herself ready.
00:09:30.53\00:09:33.17
And the angels in
heaven and the crowd in heaven,
00:09:33.30\00:09:36.44
they are so excited
when they see the bride
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finally gets herself ready.
00:09:39.41\00:09:41.64
She's getting ready.
00:09:41.74\00:09:43.31
She's going to be ready for
the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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All of heaven rejoices.
00:09:45.78\00:09:47.45
So this getting ready is
a big thing in Scripture.
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It's a big thing with Jesus.
00:09:50.89\00:09:52.25
It's a big thing, of course,
with the book of Revelation.
00:09:52.29\00:09:56.19
So Jesus reveals Himself
as that incomparable Jesus.
00:09:56.22\00:10:00.23
He's coming back
to get His bride.
00:10:00.46\00:10:04.57
He uses that symbol, He's
coming back to get His church.
00:10:04.73\00:10:08.37
He's coming back to get
those who put their faith
00:10:08.40\00:10:10.81
and trust in Him.
00:10:10.84\00:10:12.57
Now we're going to
be faced with something
00:10:13.27\00:10:14.88
that a lot of
people don't understand
00:10:14.91\00:10:16.61
and we don't talk much about it,
00:10:16.71\00:10:18.58
but we should
because it's all here.
00:10:18.61\00:10:22.12
And I'm going to give it a name.
00:10:22.15\00:10:24.19
I'm going to call it,
the close of human probation.
00:10:24.22\00:10:28.16
Now the close of human
probation is going to happen
00:10:28.52\00:10:32.39
in the book of Revelation.
00:10:32.73\00:10:34.06
And we'll talk
more about that later.
00:10:34.10\00:10:36.40
But it's going to happen
because everybody on earth,
00:10:36.67\00:10:40.40
because of the
mark of the beast,
00:10:40.44\00:10:42.40
because of the great
deceptions of the end time,
00:10:42.60\00:10:45.07
because of the rise
of the beast from the sea
00:10:45.27\00:10:47.94
and the rise of the
beast from the earth,
00:10:47.98\00:10:49.98
everybody is
going to come to a place
00:10:50.25\00:10:53.15
that they're going
to make up their mind
00:10:53.18\00:10:55.62
and they won't change.
00:10:55.65\00:10:57.59
The close of probation comes,
not because God has run out
00:10:57.79\00:11:03.16
of the willingness to
forgive, but because nobody else
00:11:03.19\00:11:07.43
wants forgiveness.
00:11:07.53\00:11:09.26
The people who are on His side,
they made up their minds too.
00:11:09.83\00:11:13.60
We're going to talk about that.
00:11:13.64\00:11:15.00
Because that's the focus of
getting ready for Jesus to come.
00:11:15.30\00:11:19.71
Revelation 22:7 says...
00:11:20.48\00:11:23.08
At the end of the
book of Revelation
00:11:23.35\00:11:25.41
God begins to wind it up.
00:11:25.45\00:11:27.35
He says, "Behold,
I am coming quickly.
00:11:27.68\00:11:30.32
Blessed is he who keeps
the prophecies of this book."
00:11:30.35\00:11:33.09
In other words, if you
keep the prophecies of this book
00:11:33.12\00:11:36.02
and the
instructions of this book,
00:11:36.06\00:11:37.89
you'll be ready
for Jesus to come.
00:11:37.99\00:11:40.10
And then in the same
chapter, verses 11-12,
00:11:40.40\00:11:43.26
He gives these
words, sober words,
00:11:43.47\00:11:47.17
"He that is unjust,
let him be unjust still;
00:11:47.20\00:11:50.84
he that is holy,
let him be holy still;"
00:11:51.47\00:11:56.08
In other words, there
comes a time in human probation
00:11:56.18\00:11:59.45
and human life on planet
earth, in the context of the
00:11:59.48\00:12:03.75
mark of the beast,
when probation ceases
00:12:03.79\00:12:07.16
because people
have made up their mind.
00:12:07.19\00:12:11.03
So the crucial question
is, who will be able to stand?
00:12:11.29\00:12:16.30
Who will be able to stand?
00:12:16.77\00:12:18.10
Jesus, when He comes
again, He comes with His reward.
00:12:18.13\00:12:21.47
And that's why there's
an investigative judgment
00:12:21.50\00:12:23.51
that the Bible talks
about in the book of Revelation
00:12:23.54\00:12:25.91
which we haven't had
much time to talk about.
00:12:25.94\00:12:27.74
Because it separates
the sheep from the goat,
00:12:27.84\00:12:30.05
the wheat from the tares.
00:12:30.08\00:12:31.85
Because there's
a lot of impostors.
00:12:31.95\00:12:33.72
There's a lot of people
who claim to be Christian,
00:12:33.75\00:12:35.95
but they're not Christian.
00:12:35.98\00:12:37.79
And they're not going to
be ready for Jesus to come.
00:12:37.99\00:12:40.46
You want to make sure
that you're a real Christian.
00:12:40.49\00:12:43.02
You want to make
sure that you're getting
00:12:43.12\00:12:44.46
ready for Jesus to come.
00:12:44.49\00:12:45.93
And there's no
reason why you can't
00:12:45.96\00:12:47.30
be ready for Jesus to come.
00:12:47.33\00:12:48.86
I want us to be of good courage.
00:12:49.30\00:12:50.83
So let's come back to
that crucial question,
00:12:50.87\00:12:53.10
who will be able to stand?
00:12:53.13\00:12:55.10
Now the book of
Revelation in chapter 7
00:12:55.74\00:12:58.44
answers that question.
00:12:58.47\00:13:00.54
And we hear this
wonderful picture
00:13:00.58\00:13:04.48
from the book of
Revelation 7:1-3.
00:13:04.51\00:13:07.75
At least we'll start that
just before the break here.
00:13:07.85\00:13:10.45
It says, "After these
things I saw four angels
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standing at the four
corners of the earth,
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holding the four winds of
the earth, that they should not
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blow on the earth, or on
the sea, or on any tree."
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Winds of strife, winds of
chaos, winds of difficulty.
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Winds of strife.
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And the angels are
holding those winds back.
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They're holding
them back even now.
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Why are they holding them back?
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They have a
great reason for that.
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They're waiting for people,
God's people, to get ready
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for Jesus to come.
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