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00:34 Good morning, friends.
00:35 And welcome again to Sabbath School Study Hour, 00:37 here at the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church. 00:40 We'd like to welcome all of those 00:41 who are joining us online our online members 00:44 and the others watching 00:45 on the various television networks, 00:47 very warm welcome to all of you. 00:49 And also to the members and the visitors right here 00:51 at the Granite Bay Church, welcome to Sabbath School. 00:54 We've been having a wonderful time 00:55 studying through our lesson quarterly 00:57 entitled Preparations for the End Times. 01:00 Today we find ourselves on our final lesson. 01:03 It's a great way to finish this study 01:05 entitled The Return of Our Lord Jesus. 01:08 Talking about the Second Coming this morning, 01:10 just a great subject to study. 01:13 We do have a study guide 01:14 that goes along with our theme for today, 01:16 talking about the Second Coming, 01:17 an Amazing Facts study guide entitled Ultimate Deliverance. 01:21 For those of you who'd like to receive a free copy of this, 01:25 all you need to do is call 866-788-3966 01:30 and ask for offer number 105, 01:34 and we'll be happy to send that to anybody who calls and asks. 01:37 Also if you'd like a digital download of our study guide, 01:42 what you'll need to do 01:43 is to text the following code to the number 40544 01:48 and text the code "SH090", 01:52 and you'll get a link as to how you can download 01:55 the study guide Ultimate Deliverance, 01:57 all about the Second Coming of Jesus. 01:59 I think anyone who receives this 02:02 or downloads the study guide 02:03 will learn a lot of information of what the Bible tells us 02:06 about the manner of Christ coming, 02:08 and some of the signs connected 02:10 with the Second Coming of Jesus. 02:12 Now as mentioned, this is the final lesson 02:14 in our lesson quarterly. 02:16 Next week, we're going to be 02:17 starting a brand new series of lessons on the Book of Acts. 02:21 So for those of you locally here, 02:22 if you attend Granite Bay Sabbath School 02:25 on the regular basis, 02:26 we do have some of our lesson quarterlies 02:28 available on the back counter. 02:30 So as you leave the service today, 02:32 be sure to pick up the book, 02:34 the Book of Acts 02:35 which is the theme for our lesson quarterly 02:37 and prepare for next Sabbath. 02:40 Maybe we'll start with lesson number one. 02:42 We are going to invite our song leaders 02:43 to come forward, 02:45 and they're going to lead us in lifting our voices in song 02:46 before we get to our study today. 02:51 Thank you, Pastor Ross. 02:52 We are excited to be here and sing your favorites. 02:55 We have some new faces up here. 02:57 Some of these, well, this young lady I just met, 03:00 and I am thrilled to have some young people up here with us. 03:05 We're going to sing 223, 03:09 "Crown Him with many crowns." 03:10 If you have a hymnal at home, pull it out. 03:13 The words will also be there for you, 03:15 223, we're going to sing the first, 03:17 second and fourth stanza. 05:34 There will be that day in heaven 05:36 when we will cast our crowns at Jesus' feet 05:40 because what else can we do 05:42 and just thank Him for saving us. 05:46 Join us next week for more singing, 05:47 but at this time, 05:48 Pastor Ross is going to have our opening prayer. 05:55 Dear Father in heaven, 05:56 what a privilege to be able to gather 05:58 in Your house again today and open up Your Word 06:00 and study this great hope that we have, 06:03 the glorious return of Jesus. 06:05 Father, as we open these scriptures, 06:07 we pray for the Holy Spirit to come 06:08 and guide our hearts and our minds, Lord. 06:10 May that hope burn within us that Jesus is coming 06:13 and He's coming soon. 06:15 Thank You for Your promise to be with us, 06:16 in Jesus' name, amen. 06:19 Our lesson this morning is going to be 06:21 brought to us by Pastor Doug. 06:24 We're continuing our study, actually, the last lesson, 06:28 dealing with Preparation for the End Times, 06:30 very relevant study. 06:32 And I want to mention that if some of our friends 06:34 who are tuning in via Facebook, 06:36 if you have questions about the lesson today, 06:39 they usually pop it up there on the screen 06:40 and I'll read your question, 06:42 do the best I can to answer your question, 06:45 gives us a little more of an interactive feel. 06:48 Lesson number 13 is talking today 06:50 about the Return of the Lord, the Return of the Lord Jesus. 06:55 And we have a memory verse. 06:56 Memory verse is Matthew 24:27, 06:59 and how many of you know that by hard? 07:01 You should. 07:03 "For as the lightning..." 07:05 You want to say it with me? 07:07 "For as the lightning comes out of the east 07:09 and shines even unto the west, 07:11 so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." 07:14 Why is that an important verse for us? 07:18 Do a lot of Christians think that coming of the Lord 07:20 is going to be secret? 07:23 That all of a sudden people will start disappearing? 07:25 Cars will crash and planes will go down 07:27 because the driver was raptured away. 07:30 And life goes here on earth for another seven years 07:34 and people will say, "What happened?" 07:35 They will say, "Well, Jesus came. 07:36 It was secret." 07:38 But does Jesus say He's coming as a secret 07:41 or does He say it is the most visible, physical, 07:43 climatic thing in the history? 07:46 If you name one of your senses, 07:48 name, what are your five senses? 07:52 Name one. Hearing. Hearing. 07:53 Will we hear Him come? Yes. 07:55 Says it will be like a trumpet, it will be like a shout. 07:57 Name another sense? Eyes. 07:58 Eyes. 07:59 Every eye will see Him when He comes. 08:03 Name another sense? Taste. 08:06 Couldn't hear you. Taste. 08:07 Taste. 08:10 You will taste and see that the Lord is good. 08:18 Or touch. 08:19 Will the earth be shaking, will you feel it? 08:21 Yeah. 08:22 When the Lord comes, you'll probably smell it too 08:23 'cause there will be burning cities 08:26 which could be in your taste. 08:27 I'm still working on that one. 08:30 So the reason I'm telling you 08:32 is that every one of your senses 08:34 is going to be letting you know the Lord came. 08:36 It's not going to be a secret. 08:39 And so it says the Lord is coming with a shout, 08:41 the earth's going to shake, 08:42 it's going to be the brightest thing, 08:44 it's a climatic event, 08:46 there will be a resurrection 08:48 that you'll experience around you. 08:50 And so, you know, this lesson doesn't focus 08:52 a lot on that principle 08:54 that the return of the Lord is not a secret. 08:56 I personally think that's something 08:58 you really need to make clear. 09:00 When I first became a Christian and I worshipped 09:02 with a lot of my evangelical, charismatic friends, 09:06 they all talked about how the Lord was going to come 09:08 and people were going to disappear. 09:10 And I said, "You know, I'm just not seeing that in the Bible. 09:14 I see that when the Lord comes that it's earth shaking, 09:18 that it's like a roar, 09:19 it says the cities are broken down 09:21 by His presence, it's going to be like lightning, 09:23 shining from the east to the west. 09:26 Any of you have ever been in a lightning storm? 09:31 Now we don't have them in California 09:33 like they have in the plains. 09:35 But I remember in Texas, 09:36 there's no mountains to block your visibility there. 09:39 There would be lightning from sky to sky, 09:42 and you could close your eyes 09:45 and put your pillow over your head 09:48 and you'd still see the flash. 09:51 How many of you know what I'm talking about? 09:53 It was so bright, and it would scare me 09:54 because you'd hear a pop right outside your window. 09:57 We used to have them in Florida, very loud, 10:00 and I was in a bunk there at the summer camp, 10:03 and the lightning was so close 10:04 that everybody touching the bed got shocked, 10:08 obviously, it didn't kill me. 10:10 But you could feel it, it was electricity in the air. 10:13 Well, this is like lightning 10:14 from one side of the sky to the other, 10:17 there's nothing secret about when Jesus comes. 10:20 So there are hundreds of prophecies in the Bible 10:26 that talk about the coming of the Lord, 10:28 and it's kind of sad, you know, 10:29 you can go to some churches and some denominations, 10:31 you can go for 50 years 10:32 and never hear a sermon on the Second Coming. 10:36 And they almost think, it's too sensational, 10:39 but the Bible talks about it and we ought to talk about it 10:41 because what if Jesus didn't come? 10:44 What kind of world would this be? 10:46 Isn't that the blessed hope? 10:48 That's the most climatic event. 10:50 This world is not going to go on forever the way you see it. 10:54 Now in the Bible, you have 10:55 a lot of Old Testament prophecies 10:57 that talk about the Second Coming of Jesus. 10:59 They do not always refer to it as the Second Coming, 11:03 that's often called, "The Day of the Lord". 11:07 And in many ways and times and cases, 11:09 it's a frightening event, it seems a little ominous. 11:12 We're going to look at some of those verses. 11:14 By the way, that phrase, 11:15 The Day of the Lord 11:17 and there's some different derivatives of that. 11:19 But just exactly The Day of the Lord 11:20 is found 32 times in the Bible, 11:23 many of those in the Old Testament. 11:25 Let me give you a few examples, Joel 2:31, 11:29 "Then the sun will be turned into darkness, 11:31 and the moon into blood 11:32 before the coming of that great and awesome day of the Lord." 11:35 Great, awesome day of the Lord, what's that talking about? 11:39 Second Coming of Jesus, see, end of days. 11:43 Isaiah 13:6-7, 11:46 "Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand. 11:48 It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 11:51 Therefore, all hands will be limp 11:53 and every man's heart will melt." 11:55 Now some are thinking, 11:56 "Pastor Doug, these Old Testament things 11:57 about the Second Coming seem kind of sad." 12:00 But it's that way in the New Testament 12:03 with some of them too. 12:04 It says, "Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, 12:07 and they will see the sign of the Son of Man 12:09 coming in the clouds of heaven." 12:11 Why does it make it sound ominous and frightening 12:14 and not always positive? 12:18 Will more people be saved or lost? 12:21 It's sad but most people, 12:23 broad is the way that leads to destruction. 12:25 Most people reject Jesus which is so sad 12:28 'cause He paid for everybody's sins. 12:31 And so it's a warning, God is warning people, 12:34 you need to repent of your sins, 12:35 this day is going to be a frightening thing. 12:37 You know, Amos is prepared to meet the Lord. 12:39 You can go to the New Testament, 12:41 and you can read in Jude verse 14. 12:43 There's only one chapter so it's just verse 14. 12:46 Now I'm reading the Old Testament prophecies 12:50 about the Second Coming, 12:51 but this is an Old Testament prophecy 12:53 about the Second Coming found in the New Testament. 12:55 Are you confused? 12:56 'Cause he's quoting Enoch 12:58 who's an Old Testament character. 13:00 "Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, 13:02 prophesied about these saying also, 13:04 'Behold, the Lord comes 13:06 with ten thousands of His saints 13:08 to execute judgment on all the ungodly 13:10 and convict all the wicked of their ungodly deeds 13:12 they've committed.'" 13:13 I'm going on. 13:15 Zechariah 14:9, "And the Lord will be King over all the earth 13:19 and on that day, it shall be the Lord as one 13:22 and His name as one." 13:23 There'll be a day when God is King over all the earth. 13:26 Right now, that kingdom is contested by the devil. 13:29 Things are not going to stay this way forever. 13:31 You know the first question 13:32 the disciples ask after Jesus rises 13:35 from the dead, before He ascends to heaven, 13:37 when you read Acts 1, 13:39 you know what they were asking Him? 13:41 "Lord, will you at this time establish the kingdom?" 13:46 So when Jesus began preaching and He said, 13:49 "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." 13:51 And John the Baptist began preaching, 13:53 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 13:54 What kind of kingdom was he talking about? 13:58 You know, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God 13:59 does not come with observation, 14:01 for the kingdom of God is within you." 14:03 Part of the kingdom of God begins when you accept Jesus, 14:06 and He reigns in your heart as your King. 14:08 That's the internal kingdom of God. 14:10 Is that where it stops? 14:12 A lot of churches stop there. 14:13 But what good is it 14:14 if it always stays internal kingdom 14:17 if at some point He is not a literal King of the world. 14:21 So the Bible is going to say, 14:23 "There is a time when God is going to be 14:25 the King over all the earth." 14:27 That was Zachariah 14. 14:29 Job 19, oldest book in the Bible is really Job. 14:33 Job 19:25, "For I know that my redeemer lives, 14:38 and He will stand at last on the earth. 14:40 And after my skin is destroyed this 14:42 I know that in my flesh, resurrected flesh, 14:45 I will see God who I will see for myself 14:48 and mine eyes shall behold and not another, 14:50 and how my heart yearns within me." 14:53 You can read Chronicles 16:33, 14:55 you realize we're not reading them all. 14:57 Verse 33 that say The Day of the Lord. 14:59 I'm just giving you an overview. 15:02 Chronicles 16:33, 15:04 "Then the trees of the wood shall rejoice before the Lord, 15:07 for He is coming to judge the earth." 15:09 So when it talks about The Day of the Lord, 15:11 it often talks about a day of judgment, 15:14 it's a day of rescue, 15:16 God's people being rescued from oppression, 15:18 it's a day of restoration. 15:21 You see, when you read in Genesis, 15:25 and God made the world, 15:26 what was the condition of things before sin? 15:30 Perfect. 15:31 God says, "Good, good, good, good." 15:34 And then He finally says, "Very good." 15:37 What happened to God's perfect plan? 15:40 Got messed up by the snake, the devil. 15:44 So God said, "Okay, you win, I lose. 15:47 You can have the world." 15:48 Is that what He did? 15:50 Or did God said, "No, I'm going to redeem the world. 15:53 I'm going to cleanse the world. 15:54 I'm going to make it new, and I am going to do 15:56 what I set out to do in the beginning." 15:59 The first three chapters of the Bible 16:01 tell how man lost paradise. 16:04 Chapter three is where the devil appears. 16:06 The last three chapters of the Bible 16:08 talk about the serpent being destroyed 16:10 and paradise restored, 16:13 and God will be the King over all the earth. 16:16 That's the new covenant. 16:18 It says, "They will all know Me from the least 16:20 and to the greatest. 16:21 Before you call, I will answer." 16:24 So God is going to complete His plan. 16:28 And, you know, some people think, 16:29 "Well, you know, when you get to heaven, 16:30 we're going to have our glorified bodies 16:31 and we'll be ghosts, you know, 16:32 we'll just float on clouds and we'll play harps." 16:35 I say, "Was that God's original plan for Adam and Eve? 16:39 Or did Adam and Eve, where they horticulturists?" 16:43 They planted and they were to tend the garden, 16:45 and Bible says, "We will plant vineyards 16:47 and eat the fruit of them." 16:48 Speaking of heaven, "We will build houses and inhabit them." 16:52 And it said, "It's going to be a real world 16:53 just like He had always planned for Adam and Eve." 16:56 Except, it's going to be an upgrade, 16:58 it'll be better than the original. 17:01 Once or twice, I've gone to National 17:03 to pick up my rental car, 17:05 and I usually get, you know, the economy or mid-sized car 17:08 and they say, "Oh, you know, there's a rush, 17:09 all the cars are gone." 17:11 I say, "Oh, no." 17:12 And they say, "Well, don't worry though 17:14 because it's our fault, things got messed up, 17:15 we're going to give you an upgrade." 17:18 And so God is going to give us an upgraded world. 17:21 How's He upgrading? 17:23 He's moving the capital of His universe 17:25 to our planet. 17:26 God Himself will be with us. Isn't that wonderful? 17:30 So the Second Coming of Jesus 17:32 is talking about the restoration of all things. 17:34 Now for the wicked, it says, "Then the rich men, 17:39 and the chief men, and the captains, 17:40 and every wise man, and every nobleman, 17:42 they go, and they run, 17:43 and they hide from the presence of the Lamb 17:46 and they call for the rocks 17:47 in the mountains to fall on them. 17:50 So for them it's a frightening thing, 17:51 but how will the righteous respond? 17:54 It said, "They will look up 17:55 and they'll say, 'Lo, this is our God, 17:57 we have waited for Him, and He will save us." 18:00 So there's two responses 18:02 you're going to see in the Bible 18:03 to the Second Coming. 18:04 The Second Coming is going to look negative, 18:06 and ominous, and fearful for the lost, 18:09 and it should be, 18:10 and it's going to be the brightest day 18:11 for the saved, 18:12 but it will even be awesome for them. 18:15 And I've often said, 18:18 you got a couple kinds of bugs 18:22 that respond differently. 18:24 If you ever go and turn over a rock out in the field, 18:29 there you got these bugs 18:30 that live in the dark under the rock, 18:31 and they crawl away as fast as they can from the light. 18:34 And I lived in New York City, 18:35 sometimes we'd struggle with cockroaches. 18:38 And you'd walk in a room and you flip on the light 18:41 and there they were, but when they saw the light, 18:42 they went scurrying into the dark places. 18:46 But if you're in a dark place 18:48 and you turn on the light out in the woods, 18:51 every moth within a mile 18:52 is going to come to the light, isn't that right? 18:56 So you got some bugs that run from the light, 18:58 you got some that fly to the light. 19:01 So the question is what will you be, 19:02 what kind of bug will you be when Jesus comes? 19:07 Did that just lift your self-esteem? 19:10 All right, spin out some positive ones, 19:13 1 Chronicles 16:33, 19:15 "Then the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord, 19:19 for He is coming to judge the earth." 19:21 So it talks about rejoicing too in the Old Testament. 19:24 Now somebody here is going to read for me Philippians here 19:29 in just a moment, you'll have that one? 19:30 Okay. 19:31 I'm going to first read 19:33 and I'm going to talk about the Book of Life. 19:34 Who will be ready when Jesus comes? 19:37 Exodus 32:32-33, Moses is interceding... 19:43 This ties in with our sermon later today. 19:46 And he said, "Yet now..." 19:47 This is after they've done the golden calf, 19:48 they sinned against the Lord, 19:50 God is going to take the name out of the Book of Life, 19:53 and Moses is pleading for the people 19:54 and said, "Yet now, if you will forgive their sin 19:57 but if not I pray You, blot me out of Your book 20:01 which You have written." 20:03 And the Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, 20:05 I will blot him out of My book." 20:07 But one thing very important here, 20:10 Moses sort of is a type of Christ, 20:12 he's the great mediator and he's saying, 20:14 "Look, I'm willing to sacrifice my name in the Book of Life 20:17 to put their name in the Book of Life." 20:19 Isn't that what Jesus did for us? 20:21 To trade places. 20:23 But God is saying, "Look, Moses, 20:25 whoever has sinned against Me, 20:27 each man's going to suffer according to his own works." 20:31 The other thing we learn from this verse 20:32 is there's a record, 20:34 there's a book. 20:35 Now do you think that the Lord, 20:37 His books in heaven, like our books, 20:40 you know, that God cuts down trees, 20:42 and He mills them up, and He makes pulp, 20:43 and He gets ink, and He has a printing press, 20:45 and He prints books up there? 20:47 When we were just in Jerusalem, 20:49 Karen and I went to look at the Dead Sea scrolls. 20:52 And they used to write them on, somewhere on parchment, 20:58 most were on vellum. 21:00 It was like this very fine leather material 21:02 that held up very well in the desert for 2,000 years. 21:06 Is it going to be scrolls of leather in heaven? 21:10 Or when God tells us a book, haven't books, 21:14 the way their books are compiled, 21:16 it's changed. 21:18 What kind of book is it? 21:20 Is God going to have a thumb drive, a USB? 21:24 Is it going to be a DVD? 21:26 You know, for years, I thought it was cassette tape, 21:29 and before that an 8-track, if anyone remembers that. 21:33 So the technology, but we don't know exactly 21:36 what the book looks like but God has a record. 21:39 I think when we get to heaven 21:40 and angels open the books and show us. 21:43 During the millennium, 21:44 will we be able to look at those books? 21:47 If God said that the library will be open, 21:49 every secret thing is going to made manifest. 21:52 Now arsons are blotted out but nothing else is. 21:55 So there's a book, there's a record. 21:59 Now the most important book is which book? 22:02 Book of Life is also evidently books of records, 22:05 doesn't the Lord say in Matthew 12, 22:08 Jesus said, "Every idle word that men speak, 22:12 they will give an account thereof in the day of judgment. 22:15 For by your words, you will be justified 22:17 and by your words will be condemned." 22:18 And that makes me tremble, doesn't it you? 22:22 If it wasn't for God's mercy and He has a bigger razor, 22:24 I'd be worried. 22:26 Every idle word, how many words do you speak in a day? 22:31 I heard every idle, frivolous thing that we say. 22:35 And so He's got a record. 22:38 You know, it's amazing right now, 22:40 I just read this week, 22:42 China, 6 months ago 22:44 had the world's most powerful computer. 22:47 Now the United States once again has reclaimed 22:50 the title for the most powerful computer. 22:53 It's an IBM computer, and it's mind boggling, 22:57 the amount of, you know, billions of processes 23:02 that it can make in a fraction of a second, 23:05 and all the information it can store. 23:08 And now Google and Amazon, 23:09 they're all storing all this information in the cloud. 23:12 Well, God invented the cloud a long time ago. 23:16 Isn't that right? 23:17 He's had it all stored for a long time. 23:19 So there's the records, but the Book of Life 23:22 is a book where we come to the Lord, 23:24 we say, we believe in the Lord, 23:26 we believe His sacrifice on our behalf, 23:28 He puts our name in His book. 23:30 But the Bible tells us 23:32 that some names can be removed, 23:33 now that is troubling. 23:36 Doesn't it say that if we have faith in Revelation, 23:39 I think it's chapter 2 or 3, seven churches, 23:41 He said, "I will not take his name out of My book." 23:44 And here again, you're reading where Moses 23:45 and the Lord are talking, 23:46 talks about names being taken out of the book. 23:49 So we must have our name in the Book of Life 23:51 when Jesus comes. 23:53 All right, you're going to read for us please Philippians 4:3. 23:57 "And I urge you also, true companions, 24:01 help these women who labored with me 24:03 in the gospel with Clement also, 24:07 and the rest of my fellow workers 24:10 whose names are written in the Book of Life." 24:13 All right, so Paul is even saying 24:15 that right there in the beginning 24:16 that there are names that are in the Book of Life, 24:19 and he doesn't say their names will be. 24:22 He says their names are written in the Book of Life. 24:25 So that means, can you have your name 24:26 in the Book of Life now? 24:29 Wouldn't that be exciting to think about? 24:32 You ever heard that song, "Is my name written there"? 24:36 You can read in Daniel 12, 24:38 "At that time Michael will stand up, 24:40 prophecy about the end, 24:41 the great prince who stands 24:44 watch over the sons of your people, 24:46 and there will be a time of trouble 24:48 such as there never has been since there was a nation 24:51 even to that time, and at that time, 24:53 your people will be delivered, 24:55 everyone who is found written in the book." 24:58 So who's delivered in the last days? 25:01 Those whose names are in the book. 25:02 It talks about a great time of trouble. 25:04 Now, does Jesus also talk about a time of trouble 25:07 such as that never has been? 25:09 "He that endures to the end will be saved." 25:12 And so you need to know your name is written in the book 25:15 because those are the ones who are delivered, 25:17 everyone else is going to be 25:19 really struggling during that time. 25:22 Another verse, Book of Life, Revelation 3:5, 25:25 "He who overcomes..." 25:26 This is the one I was thinking about. 25:27 "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, 25:30 and I will not blot his name from the Book of Life." 25:33 Now what does that say? 25:34 Can a name be blotted from the Book of Life? 25:37 Yeah. 25:38 Are there some churches that teach, 25:40 once you're saved you can't be lost? 25:42 But doesn't the Bible make it pretty clear 25:44 that some people cannot really say, "I'm saved." 25:46 They see, they accept Jesus, and they turn away. 25:49 And so He said, "Those who overcome, 25:53 I will not blot their name from the Book of Life, 25:56 but I will confess his name 25:57 before My Father and His angels." 26:00 And isn't that good to know that... 26:04 Oh, Jesus said, "Whoever is not ashamed of Me 26:06 in this wicked generation, 26:09 I will confess his name 26:10 before My Father and His angels. 26:11 But whoever is ashamed of Me, 26:12 I will be ashamed of him 26:13 before My Father and His angels." 26:15 Can you find an example of that in the Bible? 26:19 In the Book of Job, 26:21 do you see Job when the devil comes to accuse Job, 26:25 doesn't the Lord confess the name of Job 26:28 before the sons of God that are gathered? 26:31 And so God is literally 26:34 bragging about our names in heaven 26:36 when we say we want to be faithful. 26:39 He is looking for people that serve Him. 26:41 And one more, Zephaniah 2:3, 26:44 "Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth 26:47 who have upheld His justice. 26:49 Seek righteousness, seek humility. 26:52 It may be that you'll be hidden 26:53 in the day of the Lord's anger." 26:56 He's telling us to seek Him right now. 26:58 Is there a day of wrath, the Bible talks about? 27:01 There's going to be a day of punishment 27:03 that's all coming. 27:05 Now, I got a question 27:07 came in from one of our viewers online live, 27:10 it says, "What about the verse in Matthew 24:41, 27:14 "Two women are grinding at the mill, 27:15 one will be taken, one will be left." 27:17 What does that mean? 27:18 Now you also find this in Luke 17 or Luke 21. 27:25 It says two men are working in the field, 27:27 two men sleeping in the bed, two women grinding at the mill. 27:31 Luke adds one additional one 27:33 about two men sleeping in a bed. 27:35 What is Jesus saying? 27:36 Is He saying, "Well, this is the secret rapture? 27:38 You get two people outwardly doing the same thing, and poof! 27:41 One is taken away to heaven, the other is left behind. 27:44 Are there books called Left Behind? 27:46 They call it the Left Behind series. 27:48 What's going to happen to those 27:49 who are left behind in the secret rapture? 27:51 Do you know when you read those passages 27:53 in Matthew and in Luke? 27:57 When they ask Jesus, 27:59 he said, "Where are they taken?" 28:03 He said, "Wherever the carcass 28:05 is that's where the vultures are gathered together." 28:08 And He talks about back in the days of Noah 28:12 that they were eating and drinking, buying, marrying, 28:14 building until the flood came and took them away. 28:17 The flood came and took them away. 28:18 Who's taken away? The saved or the lost? 28:21 The lost. 28:22 Let me explain this to you in the mind of the Jews 28:24 and it's very vivid in our minds 28:25 having just come from that country. 28:29 When the children of Israel were behaving, 28:32 God let them stay in the Promised Land. 28:35 When they misbehaved, 28:38 then the Babylonians or the Romans came 28:41 and carried them away or the Assyrians came 28:44 and they were taken away in judgment. 28:48 And so when He's talking about the ones taken away, 28:50 it's not necessarily talking about a good thing, 28:53 it's talking about that, that's a bad thing. 28:56 The ones who are left behind are they're preserved, 28:59 the others are taken away. 29:02 Talks about... 29:03 The Weed is gathered in the barn, 29:06 the weeds are gathered and burned in bundles. 29:11 So what about two women, two men working in the field, 29:15 two men sleeping in a bed? 29:16 It's just describing two, three or two categories 29:21 and uses three examples. 29:22 What is a woman a symbol of? 29:25 How many kinds of churches are there in the world today? 29:28 Two. 29:29 There's only two roads, saved and lost. 29:32 How many women are found in Revelation? Two. 29:35 Revelation 12, good church, she's saved. 29:38 Revelation 17, harlot, she's lost. 29:41 So you get two women, what are they doing? 29:43 They're grinding. What do you grind? 29:45 Grain, make bread. 29:46 What's a bread? 29:48 What we've got, two women, two churches, 29:50 outwardly claiming that they've got the Word of God. 29:53 One is true, one is false, that's all it's saying. 29:57 Two men working in the field. 29:58 What does Jesus say the field is? 30:01 It's the world. They're out doing harvest. 30:04 Jesus said, "The harvest is great, 30:05 the laborers are few." 30:06 You get two kinds of harvest that are happening, 30:08 you got the true and the false. 30:10 What does sleep represent in the Bible? 30:13 "Our friend Lazarus is asleep." 30:15 What did Jesus mean? 30:17 He's dead. 30:18 How many kinds of people are dead right now? 30:21 Two. 30:23 Saved or lost. 30:24 How many resurrections? Two. 30:26 You've got the dead in Christ. 30:28 And you've got the resurrection of damnation, Jesus said. 30:31 And so Christ is just talking about these two categories, 30:33 He's not talking about people suddenly disappearing 30:35 from cars and airplanes in the secret rapture. 30:40 That's people often refer to that. 30:41 Another question came in. 30:43 "When will the feet of Jesus stand on the Mount of Olives?" 30:46 Okay, that's a good question. 30:47 That's in Zachariah 14 and it says, 30:50 "His feet stand on the Mount of Olives on that day 30:52 and the Mount of Olives cleaves and it forms a great valley." 30:56 And it is a very great valley 30:58 because the New Jerusalem comes down 31:00 at the end of the one thousand years 31:02 and sits in this valley that the Lord is prepared. 31:05 Why does He do that? 31:07 What was the last place that Jesus' feet touched 31:10 when He ascended to heaven? 31:12 Bible says, Mount of Olives, one place it says, Bethany, 31:15 but we were just there, 31:16 Bethany's on the Mount of Olives. 31:18 Mount of Olives is a big, long mountain 31:20 and Bethany's about two miles over on the Mount. 31:24 And Jesus from Bethany ascended to heaven, 31:26 probably not too far from Martha and Lazarus' house 31:31 that was there. 31:33 And where did Jesus foretell His Second Coming? 31:38 From the Mount of Olives. 31:39 Where did He weep over Jerusalem? 31:42 From the Mount of Olives. It was a very special place. 31:44 So where is He coming back? 31:47 Where was the best view of the Temple? 31:49 Mount of Olives. 31:50 It's where you look at it in its glory. 31:52 Jesus' feet are touching the same place He left. 31:54 Doesn't the Bible say, when He ascended to heaven, 31:57 two angels saw the apostles, they said, "Men of Galilee, 32:00 why do you stand here staring into the heavens?" 32:02 This same Jesus that you saw go into heaven 32:05 will come in the same way you saw Him leave. 32:08 He not only left, He was reeled. 32:10 He's coming reel, left in the clouds, 32:12 coming through the clouds. 32:13 He was visible, He'll be visible when He comes. 32:18 And when He left, it was on Mount of Olives, 32:20 He's coming to the Mount of Olives. 32:22 And so this is though at the end of the 1,000 years, 32:25 His feet touch it, forms a great valley. 32:27 How big is the New Jerusalem? 32:31 Twelve thousand furlongs, 32:32 but we don't use furlongs today. 32:34 That's 375 miles on each side, about 1,500 miles around. 32:40 Do you know what that means? 32:41 All the land that God promised to Abraham 32:44 from the Euphrates down through the Sinai Peninsula will all be 32:48 encompassed in that territory. 32:51 In other words, God is literally going to wall in 32:55 the Promised Land because God said, 32:57 "Abraham look for a city that had foundations." 33:00 I thought he was waiting for the Promised Land, 33:01 what do you mean the city? 33:03 There was no Jerusalem back in Abraham's day. 33:06 Abraham was looking forward to the New Jerusalem 33:08 that would encompass the land 33:10 that God had promised to His people. 33:12 All right, and then we got another question, 33:14 I'll take in just a minute, but I want to get to something 33:16 that's important and heavy. 33:17 Daniel and the Second Coming, I already read Daniel 12. 33:22 Does the Book of Daniel talk about the Second Coming? 33:25 Let's look at a few verses here, 33:27 Daniel 2:34-35, says, 33:30 "You watched while the stone was cut without hands 33:33 that struck the image on the feet." 33:34 This is that large idol in Daniel 2. 33:38 "Of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces, 33:41 then the iron, and the clay, 33:42 and the bronze, and the silver, 33:43 and the gold were crushed together 33:44 and became like chaff of the summer threshing floor. 33:47 And the wind carried them away so no trace of them was found, 33:51 and the stone that struck the image 33:52 became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." 33:56 Now, what is the stone? 33:59 It's the kingdom of Jesus. 34:00 You know something interesting? 34:03 When you look at the metals in this image in Daniel 2, 34:05 what's the top, first metal? 34:07 Gold, then, it says gold, silver, then bronze, then iron, 34:13 then iron and clay, 34:15 and the last thing is stone that destroyed it. 34:18 So you got all these different minerals. 34:20 What's more valuable? 34:21 Gold or silver? Gold. 34:24 Which is harder? Silver. 34:27 Harder than gold. 34:28 What's more valuable? 34:30 Silver or bronze? 34:33 Silver. 34:34 Right, we all together? 34:36 But what's harder? Silver or bronze? 34:38 Bronze is. 34:39 What's more valuable? Bronze or iron? 34:42 Bronze. 34:43 What's harder? 34:45 Iron. 34:47 You noticing something here? 34:49 Kingdoms have less value, but they're harder. 34:52 Do you know that each one of those kingdoms we've listed, 34:54 the one after last longer. 34:58 They're each kingdom, 34:59 the Roman Kingdom lasted longer than the Greek 35:01 which lasted longer than the Persians 35:02 which lasted longer than the Babylonians. 35:06 What's the last kingdom? 35:07 Stone. 35:09 And which lasts the longest? 35:12 All of these metals were used to make idols in the Bible. 35:16 They had gold idols 35:18 and silver idols and bronze idols. 35:19 Do you remember when the King Belshazzar made the feast 35:21 and he's toasting the gods of iron and gold and so forth? 35:26 But what were the children of Israel 35:27 told to make their altar out of? 35:30 Stone. 35:31 Stone cut without a man's hands. 35:33 They were not to lift up a tool on it 35:36 because if they did, it would be polluted. 35:38 He didn't want them carving things 35:40 and worshipping statues, 35:41 it's just plain old rock, make your altar, 35:44 it's to worship the living God. 35:46 So it's the stone that crushes all these things, 35:48 all the idols of the world, the false religion. 35:52 What did David used to bring down Goliath? 35:55 A stone. 35:56 What did God do to write the Ten Commandments? 35:59 And that was the first that God cut without man's hands, 36:04 it was cut with His hands. 36:06 Isn't that interesting? 36:07 Jesus said, "He that hears these words of mine 36:09 and does them is like a wise man 36:11 building this house on stone." 36:14 The words of God. What brings down the idol? 36:16 The Word of God brings down all the false religions. 36:20 So ultimately the stone grows 36:21 into a great mountain and fills the whole earth. 36:23 This is talking about the kingdom of God 36:24 is finally going to fill the whole world. 36:29 Someone is going to read for me Matthew 24:15. 36:32 You will have that? You have the mic working now? 36:35 Say something. It is working, okay. 36:37 Before you read that, I'm going to read Daniel 2:44. 36:41 "And in the days of these kings, 36:42 the God of heaven will set up a kingdom 36:44 which shall never be destroyed 36:46 and that kingdom will not be left to another." 36:49 It's not going to ever be replaced. 36:51 "It'll break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, 36:53 and it will stand forever." 36:55 So do you find the principle of God's eternal kingdom 36:57 in Second Coming 36:58 in the Old Testament prophecies? 37:02 Still with me? 37:03 All right, what more do we learn from Daniel? 37:05 Go ahead, read Matthew 24:15-16. 37:09 "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation 37:12 spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 37:14 standing in the holy place, 37:16 whoever reads let him understand. 37:19 Then let those who in Judaea flee to the mountains." 37:22 Here's your country living verse, 37:26 when you see the abomination of desolation flee. 37:30 First of all, how do you know Daniel is a prophet? 37:34 Because Jesus said so. 37:36 That settles it, doesn't it? 37:37 Jesus is written by Daniel the prophet. 37:40 Here, Jesus is telling us, "If you want to know it, 37:43 I'm not going to tell you. 37:44 Read the Bible." 37:45 Jesus is saying, "You read it for yourself." 37:47 The problem is Jesus mentions the... 37:51 Daniel mentions the abomination of desolation several times. 37:54 And there's a little confusion of what is he talking about. 37:58 Let me give you some examples, look in Daniel 9:27. 38:01 By the way, when Jesus quotes the same verse in Luke 21, 38:07 He said, "When you see Jerusalem 38:08 encompassed with armies, 38:10 let those that be in Judaea flee into the mountains. 38:14 So the first thing about the abomination of desolation 38:17 is talking about when God's people 38:19 were literally surrounded in 70 AD, 38:22 the Romans destroyed the temple, 38:25 and they were carried away captive, 38:27 the place of God was desolated. 38:30 So this is the first part, 38:31 but there you see Jesus in Matthew 24, 38:34 He's answering two questions or even three questions. 38:37 What are the signs of Your coming? 38:38 When will these things be the destruction of the temple? 38:41 He said, "There won't be one stone left on another." 38:43 And Your return. 38:45 So the signs, He's talking about destruction of the temple 38:48 and what will be Your return. 38:50 Well, the Christians that were in Jerusalem 38:53 when the Romans came, 38:54 were given a brief window to escape. 38:57 They fled into the mountains, they quite literally did that. 39:00 And Jesus said, "This generation 39:02 will not pass away till all these things be fulfilled." 39:05 Jesus made this prediction about this temple's destruction 39:09 as the first part 39:10 of the abomination of desolation. 39:11 He made it in 30 AD. 39:13 What is the Bible generation? 39:16 Forty years. 39:18 How do you know that? 39:19 When the children of Israel 39:20 were unfaithful in the days of Moses, 39:23 He made that generation wander until they all died off. 39:26 How long did they wander? 39:28 Forty years. 39:29 Moses' life is divided into three generations. 39:32 He spent one generation in Egypt, 39:34 one generation in the wilderness, 39:36 40 years there, 39:37 and 40 years leading the people 39:39 from Egypt to the Promised Land. 39:42 David reigned for generation, Saul reigned for generation, 39:45 Solomon reigned for generation. 39:47 They all reigned 40 years. 39:49 So that prophecy happened perfectly, 39:52 but it's a dual prophecy not only is He talking about 39:56 the abomination of desolation that destroyed the temple, 39:58 He said they'll be another power, 40:01 this one is not pagan Rome, it will be papal Rome. 40:06 It's not just the iron, 40:08 it's the iron mixed with the clay, 40:10 you still with me? 40:12 Down in the feet. 40:13 Clay is like the religion mixed with the iron, government, 40:18 and there's a second abomination of desolation 40:22 that's going to persecute God's people. 40:24 So let me read a few verses on that. 40:27 If you look in Daniel 9:27, 40:31 "Then He will confirm a covenant 40:32 with many for one week, 40:35 but in the middle of the week 40:36 He will cause a sacrifice in the offering to cease." 40:41 Now who is that talking about? 40:44 They're talking about the Messiah. 40:45 Do you know that a lot of evangelicals 40:47 think that it's the antichrist? 40:50 Now, I can understand 40:51 that Christians may disagree on a few verses, 40:55 but wouldn't you agree it's a serious misunderstanding 40:58 if one Christian says that's the devil 41:00 and the other one says that's the Lord. 41:02 I mean, how wrong can someone be? 41:05 So we've got to know, who is this talking about? 41:08 And I remember doing a Bible study 41:10 with some Baptists years ago, 41:12 and they were reading this 41:14 and the husband was like a lay pastor 41:16 and he said, "Yeah, the antichrist 41:17 is going to make covenant." 41:19 And I said, "Where in the Bible 41:20 do you find the antichrist making a covenant? 41:23 Well, it says right here. 41:24 So what is that covenant that the antichrist makes? 41:28 I said, "There's nothing in the Bible about that." 41:31 And then I gave the study that said, 41:33 "It's the Messiah who makes a covenant with people." 41:36 And for one week 41:38 from the beginning of His ministry, 41:40 He's been anointed in 27, three and half years later, 41:43 exactly half of a week 41:45 He is cut off for the sins of the people, 41:48 He makes the sacrifice, 41:49 sees the temple curtain is ripped, 41:51 and then for another three and a half years, 41:52 He preaches only through the apostles to Jews. 41:55 And even the apostles say, 41:57 "He testified through those that heard Him." 42:00 So in person and through the apostles 42:01 just to the Jewish nation, 42:03 then they stoned Stephen three and a half years later, 42:05 and it says a great persecution arose, 42:07 the gospel went everywhere. 42:09 I said, "This is the 490 year prophecy, it fits perfectly." 42:12 And his wife went, "That's the first time 42:14 that's ever made sense." 42:15 And he got very upset with me because he still insisted, 42:18 "No, this is the antichrist." 42:20 Now, why do people get confused on that? 42:22 I hope you don't mind me taking this a little deeper, 42:24 go to Daniel 9. 42:26 This is so important 'cause I know people are watching, 42:28 most of you, I think, understand this. 42:30 Go to Daniel 9:24, 42:34 "Seventy weeks are determined for your people 42:37 and for the holy city." 42:38 It says several things to happen 42:39 in those seventy weeks. 42:41 "To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, 42:43 to make reconciliation for iniquity 42:45 through the sacrifice of Christ, 42:47 to bring in everlasting righteousness, 42:50 to seal up the vision in the prophecy, 42:52 after seventy weeks, 42:53 this particular vision would be sealed 42:54 and complete and to anoint the Most Holy, 42:57 all these things would happen. 42:58 Know therefore, and understand from the going forth 43:01 of the command to restore 43:02 and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, 43:05 capital P, Messiah the Prince, seven weeks, 43:07 threescore two weeks, the street will be build again 43:10 and the wall in troublous times." 43:12 That's Ezra and Nehemiah, you read about it. 43:15 "And after sixty-two weeks, Messiah will be cut off." 43:18 I mean 62 weeks after the first 7 weeks of them 43:21 building those streets and the wall, 43:23 Jesus was cut off, but not for Himself. 43:26 Now this is where people get mixed up. 43:28 "And the people of the prince who is to come," 43:30 small P, did you notice that? 43:33 It's not the Messiah, "Will destroy the city." 43:35 It's talking about the Roman power, 43:37 Roman King that would destroy the city and the sanctuary. 43:40 This is the abomination of desolation, 43:43 the first one, when the temple would be destroyed, 43:45 "And the end of it shall be with a flood." 43:47 Means a flood of people, like it says in Ezekiel, 43:50 Gog and Magog, like a flood that covered the earth. 43:53 "Till the end of the war desolations are determined." 43:55 So here you've got abomination, desolations are determined. 44:00 Now it's returning to the main subject 44:02 is all about the Messiah, 44:03 He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. 44:06 In the middle of the week, 44:07 He will cause a sacrifice and oblation to cease. 44:09 And then it says, 44:10 "And on the wing of abominations, 44:13 shall be one who makes desolates." 44:15 It's not talking about the Messiah, 44:16 it's talking about this other prince who came. 44:18 "Even until the consummation 44:19 which is determined is poured out on the desolate." 44:22 So here you've got abomination of desolation. 44:25 Can you understand why Jesus said, 44:27 "Let him who reads understand." 44:29 Now if Jesus said, "I hope you understand." 44:32 Some have wondered 44:33 if this was a parenthetical note that a scribe put in 44:36 or if Christ is actually saying it. 44:37 How many of you have a red letter edition in your Bible? 44:41 When you read in Matthew 24:15, 44:46 it says, "Whoever reads, let him understand." 44:47 Is that red or black? 44:50 It's black in my Bible. 44:52 Some of you have it red in your Bibles? 44:54 It's because the scribes don't agree. 44:56 Is that Jesus saying, "Whoever reads, let him understand," 45:00 or is that the scribe or Matthew saying, 45:03 "Whoever reads, let him understand"? 45:05 All I know is they're saying this is a deep subject, 45:08 and you pray that God will help you understand. 45:11 Another example, go to Daniel 11:31. 45:15 "And the forces shall be mustered by Him." 45:17 Now Daniel 11, what is that talking about? 45:21 What happens in Daniel 12? Michael stands up. 45:24 Daniel 11, you're talking about 45:26 some time between the Roman power 45:28 and the end of the world. 45:30 And it says, "And forces will be mustered by Him 45:33 and they will defile the sanctuary fortress, 45:36 and they will take away 45:37 the daily sacrifice and the place. 45:40 They're the abomination of desolation." 45:42 Now you've got that again. 45:44 I was at Daniel 11:31. 45:46 And if you look in Daniel 12:11-12, 45:50 and this is a deep prophecy. 45:52 There are more time prophecies in Daniel 12 45:54 than any other place. 45:55 You get three time prophecies. 45:57 And we as a church typically 46:00 believe in the historical application of this. 46:03 We use the historical method. 46:04 Some have argued that some prophecies 46:06 have a dual fulfillment as in Matthew 24 46:09 and they said, there may be also a dual application. 46:12 And it says, "Here and from the time the daily sacrifice 46:15 is taken away 46:16 and the abomination of desolation is set up, 46:18 they'll be 1,290 days. 46:21 Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days", 46:26 and this is just by the last verses 46:28 in the Book of Daniel. 46:29 He's talking about 46:30 an abomination that makes desolate. 46:33 So you really got three examples 46:35 of the abomination of desolation 46:37 in my understanding. 46:39 One is, when the Roman power surrounded Jerusalem, 46:46 they hedged them and they besieged the city, 46:48 they finally destroyed the city, 46:51 they destroyed the temple, they desolated it. 46:53 Now it does talk about 46:54 when Nebuchadnezzar desolated it 46:56 when he destroyed it back in the Old Testament, 46:58 but I'm talking about from the time of Daniel on. 47:03 Then you have a spiritual power during the Dark Ages 47:07 that desolated the truth. 47:10 The truth of the gospel 47:11 was destroyed in the spiritual sanctuary, 47:13 they tried to take away the daily sacrifice 47:15 that we're saved by grace, 47:16 that you don't need to work your way to heaven. 47:18 But then will there be a final time 47:20 when God's people are surrounded 47:22 by a Roman power with a law 47:25 where we can't worship according to the Bible 47:27 and we may need to flee into the wilderness 47:30 again, literally, before the Second Coming. 47:33 God's people are going to be in desolate places. 47:35 All right, I got to keep going here. 47:38 Another e-mail question came in, 47:40 "Will there be a seven year tribulation 47:43 before Jesus comes?" 47:44 How many of you know that verse 47:45 that talks about the seven year tribulation? 47:48 Can you please give it to me? 47:50 How many of you have heard of a seven year tribulation? 47:53 You heard of it? 47:54 You've heard people talk about it? 47:56 Where is the verse? 47:58 There's no verse in the Bible 48:00 that says there's a seven year tribulation. 48:01 Now they do say, "Well, you know, 48:04 the seven days that Noah was on the ark 48:07 that represents the seven years of tribulation. 48:12 You know, when probation was closed 48:13 and it's not really taught in the Bible. 48:16 All right, long term prospects, Titus 2:12-13, 48:21 "Teaching that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts 48:24 because we believe in the Second Coming, 48:26 we should live soberly, righteously, 48:29 and godly in the present age." 48:31 Does Lord just kind of cover our past sins 48:33 or does He want us to live different now? 48:35 If you want to be ready for the Second Coming, 48:37 how should we live? 48:38 Soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. 48:42 "Looking for the blessed hope 48:44 in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior." 48:47 Should you as a Christian talk about the Second Coming? 48:49 Yes. 48:51 Why are we called Seventh-day Adventists? 48:56 First of all, we believe 48:57 in keeping all Ten Commandments. 48:59 Do you know that the Sabbath 49:04 really talks about the beginning and the end? 49:07 It talks about the creation 49:09 and it talks about a millennial Sabbath at the end, 49:12 if you will. 49:13 And Adventists means, 49:15 we are a people who are looking forward 49:17 to the eminent return of the Lord, 49:19 and we want people to get ready. 49:21 When you talk to other people about the Second Coming, 49:23 have you ever noticed it might make some folks nervous? 49:26 That's a healthy nervousness 49:29 because it means we're thinking, 49:31 "You know, that might shake my world." 49:32 Yes. 49:34 And you want to be ready for that day, right? 49:37 Do you want people coming to you at the Second Coming 49:40 and say, "You knew this was going to happen 49:42 and you didn't tell me? 49:44 You knew this was going to happen to the world, 49:46 you didn't want to upset me?" 49:49 People ought to know that the day of the Lord is coming 49:51 that this world is not going to last like this forever 49:54 as it was in the days of Sodom, 49:57 so will it be when the Son of Man comes. 49:59 Is it that way today? 50:01 As it was in the days of Lot, eating, drinking, marrying, 50:05 that's what's happening in the world today. 50:07 People need to know. 50:09 All right, another one, 2 Peter 3:11, 50:11 "Therefore, since all these things 50:13 will be dissolved, 50:14 the world's going to be burned up. 50:15 What manner of persons ought we be 50:17 and all holy conduct in godliness? 50:20 Looking for and hastening." 50:22 How do you hasten the Second Coming? 50:24 The Bible says, "When the gospel goes 50:26 into all the world, 50:27 then the end will come." 50:28 Can we participate in the gospel 50:29 going into all the world? 50:31 "Hastening the Second Coming 50:33 in which the heavens being dissolved, 50:35 we'll be on fire 50:36 and the elements will melt with fervent heat." 50:38 So we need to have that big picture. 50:41 Paul before he died, 50:42 and they call it Paul's swan song, 50:45 2 Timothy 4:6, "I am already being poured out 50:50 is a drink offering 50:51 and the time of my departure is at hand, 50:54 I have fought the good fight, I've finished the race, 50:57 I've kept the faith. 50:58 Finally, there is laid up for me 51:00 a crown of righteousness which the Lord, 51:02 the righteous judge will give me on that day." 51:05 What now does he say when I die 51:07 or on the day of the Lord? 51:09 "Not to me only 51:11 but to all those that love His appearing." 51:13 So when you think of the Day of the Lord, 51:14 does it scare you or do you long for? 51:19 It's like a preacher said once, 51:20 "I get sick and tired of being sick and tired." 51:23 I mean you look around, 51:24 there's a lot of pain and suffering in the world, 51:25 a lot of sin, heartache, 51:27 and when the Lord comes, no more pain, no more sorrow, 51:30 all tears wiped away. 51:31 Don't you long for that? 51:33 If you're ready, now there's some reasons 51:35 that we don't want Him to come too soon. 51:37 One, if you're not ready. 51:38 Two, you have loved ones who are not ready. 51:41 And so sometimes you feel maybe a little mixed up 51:44 and that's normal. 51:45 All right, someone's going to read for me 51:46 about how the Lord comes. 51:48 Matthew 25:31, you go and read that, Manjeet. 51:53 "When the Son of Man come in His glory 51:56 and all the holy angels with Him, 51:59 then He will sit on the throne off His glory." 52:03 All right, the Bible says, "Jesus left in the clouds 52:06 and He's coming in the clouds." 52:07 Does that mean the Lord does not travel without H2O vapor? 52:11 What is the cloud or I should say what are the clouds? 52:16 We believe, they're angels. 52:18 Let me just give you a few more verses, 52:19 Psalm 104:3, 52:22 "He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, 52:25 who makes the clouds His chariot, 52:28 who walks on the wings of the wind, 52:30 who makes His angel spirits 52:32 His ministers of flame of fire." 52:35 You notice it says, when the Son of Man comes 52:37 with all the holy angels. 52:39 How many angels are there? 52:41 They have to be billions. 52:42 I mean, if everyone has a guardian angel 52:44 and there is eight billion people, 52:47 these are the ministering spirits of God 52:49 that help Him not just minister on earth 52:51 but throughout the cosmos, 52:53 and so there's a lot of angels. 52:56 You can read in Revelation 1:7, 52:57 "Behold, He is coming with the clouds 52:59 and every eye will see Him." 53:02 Matthew 24:30, 53:03 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven 53:05 and all the tribes of the earth will mourn 53:07 and they will see the Son of Man 53:08 coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 53:12 And I'll read you one more, maybe more than one more. 53:16 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 53:19 "And to give you who are troubled rest with us 53:22 when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven 53:24 with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 53:27 taking vengeance on those who do not know God 53:30 and on those who do not obey." 53:32 So we need to know the Lord, 53:33 we need to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 53:36 and then finally, the living and the dead. 53:39 So when do the dead rise? 53:41 As soon as you die? 53:43 No. 53:45 I read four times in John 6, 53:47 it says, "But should raise it up the last day." 53:51 As John 6:39-40, 53:53 "I will raise him up the last day." 53:56 John 6:44, "I will raise him up the last day." 54:00 John 6:54, "I will raise him up the last day." 54:04 That's why, when Jesus raised Lazarus, Martha said, 54:09 "I know You will rise him again 54:11 in the resurrection at the last day." 54:14 So she wasn't expecting Jesus to do something sooner. 54:18 This for me is the best verse. 54:19 I can see I'm running out of time. 54:21 If you want to read a great verse, 54:22 it tells when it's going to happen, 54:24 read 1 Corinthians 15:22, 54:28 "For as in Adam all die." 54:31 We're all connected to Adam so we grow old and die. 54:34 "But in Christ, we will all be made alive." 54:36 He is the second Adam. 54:38 "But each one in his own order." 54:40 Here is the order, how this happens. 54:42 "Christ the first fruits." 54:43 Jesus is already raised. 54:45 "Afterward those who are Christ's at His coming." 54:50 So when do they rise? 54:52 1 Thessalonians 4, "The Lord Himself will descend 54:54 from heaven with a shout. 54:56 The voice of the archangel, the trump of God, 54:58 and the dead in Christ will rise first." 55:01 It's at the coming of the Lord, 55:03 and how many of you know somebody 55:05 that thinks as soon as they die, 55:07 they go to heaven? 55:08 And they all say, "Oh, yes, so and so died, 55:10 and they're up in heaven now talking to Jesus." 55:12 And it sounds really colorful but it's not biblical. 55:17 "The living know they'll die, but the dead know not anything. 55:19 They're sleeping a dreamless sleep until the resurrection." 55:23 Well, I want to remind everybody 55:25 that we're going to be studying a new lesson next week 55:28 on the Book of Acts, 55:29 and we're going to go through all 55:31 28 chapters of Acts during that quarter. 55:33 I'm really excited. 55:34 That should be a great time for the church to kind of 55:36 get a revival and refocus on their purpose. 55:38 And for anyone watching, 55:39 we have a free offer from Amazing Facts 55:42 if you like this book called the Ultimate Deliverance. 55:44 It's all about the Second Coming, 55:46 what we've talked about today and a lot more verses. 55:48 If you'd like a free offer, 55:50 read this and then share with the friends, 55:52 it's offer number 105. 55:54 Write that down when you call 866-788-3966, 55:59 866-Study-More. 56:01 God bless you, friends. 56:02 Lord willing, we will study His Word together again next week. 56:17 On several occasions, scientists have demonstrated 56:20 that people and even creatures can struggle with depression 56:24 when exposed to continual darkness. 56:26 This can be seen every year in the winter months 56:29 in the Arctic regions. 56:31 The beautiful village of Rjukan, Norway 56:33 is situated in the deep valley 56:35 where mountains block the sun's rays 56:37 for about six months every year. 56:39 This of course keeps the 3,400 residents 56:42 in a state of shade, 56:43 and sometimes depressing darkness throughout the winter. 56:47 Then the town leaders got a bright idea 56:49 to help illuminate their village 56:51 during the murky months. 56:53 In October 2013, 56:55 Rjukan installed an array of three gigantic, 56:58 550 square foot mirrors on the nearby mountain 57:02 at 1,000 feet above the town. 57:05 The computer control 57:06 and solar powered mirrors track the sun 57:09 through the winter months 57:10 and reflect that giant beam of sunshine 57:13 down to the town square brightening their lives. 57:17 If you visit Rjukan in the winter months today, 57:19 you can often see the people gathered 57:21 or sitting on benches around the town square, 57:24 bathing in the reflected sunshine. 57:27 Like those mirrors on the mountain, 57:29 the Bible says that Christians 57:30 are to reflect the light of Jesus, 57:32 who is the light of the world into this dark planet. 57:35 Matthew 5:14 says, 57:37 "You are the light of the world. 57:38 A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, 57:41 nor do we light a lamp and put it under a basket. 57:44 But on a lamp stand 57:45 and it illuminates everybody in the house. 57:48 Let your light so shine before men 57:50 that they may see your good works 57:52 and glorify your Father in heaven." 57:55 So, friends, use today to brighten the life 57:58 of someone else by reflecting Jesus. |
Revised 2018-06-27