Galen Call's Sermon Library
"Prophetic Overview: What the Future Holds" - September 1, 1985 (PM Service)
Thank you so much. I hope especially those of you who are newer amongst us since the warmth and sincerity of our welcome. I'd like to really thank Wendy Truex for her ministry at the piano today and tonight especially since she was all alone over there helping us with our congregational singing. Thank you Wendy. This has been some day I'll tell you. This morning as I was preaching in the first service talking about the infinite and the impossible there was a spider up here on the pulpit that traversed from this side across here all the way to this side. He went back and forth at least three times down over the side. Did any of you see him who sit down here on this side? I could just see all of your eyes following this spider all over the pulpit. I properly disposed of him the moment I said amen in the benediction after the first service. I gave him a ritualistic burial about a half an hour ago. So what a day. Well this evening we are going to have a prophetic overview of things to come. This is in preparation of the Minnesota prophecy conference which will begin two weeks from today in five churches throughout the Twin Cities area including our own. Next Sunday we'll have some more details as far as the topics are concerned and we'll review again the speakers who will be here. Dr. Lehman Strauss will be with us that first Sunday morning on the 15th. Dr. Strauss is an old friend of mine. I've known him for a number of years now. I suppose the Dr. Strauss must be in his mid-70s. He pastored back in Pennsylvania as well as in the Detroit area for a number of years and since the early 1960s has been traveling full-time as a Bible teacher representing the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Strauss is going to bring along his wife Elsie who had a stroke I think two years ago she is paralyzed on her left side. You'll be able to meet her a wonderful Christian lady and yet she is with her husband as much as possible in his travels. Lehman and Elsie Strauss are a special people. He has written a number of books. How many of you have books by Dr. Strauss? Well there are some of you that do. You'll become better acquainted with him in this conference. He has written a book on prayer called The Sense and Nonsense of Prayer that I think is one of the finest most practical books on prayer that you'll find anywhere. And then Sunday evening two weeks from tonight Dr. John Wahlberg will be speaking for his first message. He'll be here twice with us in the conference. Dr. Wahlberg is the president of Dallas Theological Seminary and he has been the president since about forever. It's been a long time I think perhaps well some of you Dallas grads how long has it been? Do any of you know? It's been at least 25 years I think that he's been the president of Dallas Theological Seminary Articulate Spokesman for the scriptures and for the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have a great week to look forward to and because we're going to be discussing some ideas and terms that may be unfamiliar especially to those of you who are newer amongst us I thought it might be helpful before we get to that week to review the scheme of things as we understand them from what the Bible teaches. I would like to say at the start that there are those who disagree with us and some of the minor points of what I'm going to talk about tonight and that is fine there is room for disagreement on some of these secondary issues and we're happy to discuss those with others who may disagree with us. Obviously we believe and we teach what we believe to be right and if we were to be convinced otherwise we would teach otherwise. What I'm going to share with you tonight is the teaching of Grace Church Roseville and so you'll know where we're coming from at least we may have some in our church who would disagree with us on the fine points of what I'm going to say but I think all of us would agree on the the major things that we'll talk about. You will notice can y'all see that all right I tried to keep the lights low enough this evening that you might be able to see the screen you poor people right down here in front. Do I do a fair job hiding it? Can I do better? As you will notice the title of the chart up there is the pre-millennial scheme of world events. You will notice this word first of all pre-millennial we'll talk about the millennium and define the idea tonight but it's just good for you to know right now that there are other schemes of future events there would be another position called the all-millennial scheme of world events there may still be a few people around who believe in a post-millennial scheme of world events they're pretty much overboard now because world events have completely disproved their particular theory which is that the world will get better and better and better than Jesus will come and the world just isn't getting better and better and better. It was very popular until World War I and then after that it kind of went downhill fast. The position that we're here to is pre-millennialism and you'll see what that means as we work through our chart tonight. It is important to understand the prophetic revelation like all other revelation is progressive and so there is no single passage in the New Testament or Old Testament which delineates the scheme of things that we're going to present to you. What we have to do is take the whole and study it and then draw from that the outline or scheme of things is best we understand them to be so there is no single passage in the New Testament that says this and this and this and this will happen in that order and so on. prophetic revelation is progressive we take the study of the whole and then we pull back from that and look and see what it says. You'll notice the first item on the scheme that we have is the church age. I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Ephesians in the third chapter. Some of you may have editions of the Bible that have notes at the top of the page titles or summary statements of what's on that page that was especially popular years ago and you may have in there something like in the song of Solomon for example God loves the church or in the book of Isaiah you might have the church in the wilderness. The facts are that the church did not exist in the Old Testament. The Old Testament does not mention the church at all it was not revealed then. The church is what is called a mystery mystery. Now what does that mean? Well we'll find definition for it right here in Ephesians 3. Paul says for this reason I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles if indeed you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery so Paul is saying I have received a revelation from God and the content of it can be described in those two words the mystery as I wrote before in brief and then he says and by referring to this when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit so there he defines what a mystery is in this New Testament sense it is some truth that has not been revealed in previous generations but which has now been revealed by God in this age. Now he says to be specific this mystery that he's talking about the mystery of Christ is this that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel and the Old Testament God dealt with whom with the Jews with Israel those were his chosen people that nation was the focus of his dealings on the earth in this age God is no longer dealing with Israel as a nation but God is dealing with all men women everywhere whether Jew or Gentile now whether one is Jewish or one is Gentile by his ancestry he can be related to Jesus Christ through faith and made a partaker of the body now he calls at the church a little bit later on here in the text he says in verse 8 to me the very least of all saints this grace was given to preach that to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places there he's talking about spiritual beings he is saying that God is making manifest to these spiritual beings his wisdom through the church and so the term is used it's used elsewhere of course in Ephesians and so we're introduced here to this very term the church age in this age in which we live now an age which began with Pentecost which will let the cross represent here an age which began when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and dwelt believers and which will conclude on the day of the rapture which we'll talk about in just a moment all believers who have been saved during this age this some two thousand years now have been incorporated into the church the body of Jesus Christ I think you understand that when we use the term church often we're referring to a local fellowship of people but in this sense the term church is not used in a local manner but he's speaking about all of those who've been called out during this age to belong to God and one of the distinguishing marks of believers in this age is the presence of the Holy Spirit in us in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit did not indwell believers all believers he came upon certain believers for periods of time to accomplish certain purposes but he did not automatically indwell all believers and I personally am of the opinion that that same thing may be true in the tribulation period once the church has been taken out however in this age the Holy Spirit of God indwells every person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ now he has to for a reason and that is that he indwells us so that he might unite us to this spiritual body of people the Holy Spirit is putting us together as a body he is building the church the body of Jesus Christ it's still being built today around the world most of the church is in heaven some of us are still on the earth but until that day of the rapture the church is going to be gathered together now let's talk about the term rapture for a moment what does that mean now before you turn your concordance and find out how many times the word rapture is used in the Bible let me for warn you that it's not used at all you say then how can we believe in a doctrine which the word of which is not even used in the Bible well let me ask you this do you believe in the Trinity look it up in the concordance it's not there either you see we have sometimes fashioned words to describe a truth which the Bible teaches the Bible may not use that precise word itself but the teaching is there and we use this word to describe that teaching thus we have the word Trinity or really I think better tri unity of God now the word rapture likewise is not found in the New Testament but it's a word that does describe something the New Testament certainly teaches and the key passage without doubt is first Thessalonians chapter 4 I'll explain in a moment how we get the word rapture but first let's read what the Apostle Paul says beginning with verse 15 for this we say to you by the word of the Lord this is first Thessalonians 4 15 that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and the event that is described in these verses is what we call the rapture you will notice that verb caught up in verse 17 the word rapture comes from the Latin verb that is used here obviously the Greek the New Testament was written in Greek but like many English words this one comes from the Latin it means exactly the same thing as this word caught up in the Greek it means to seize or to snatch that's simply what the rapture is it is the seizing or the snatching away of the church and thus you see the arrow comes down and then curves back up indicating that the Lord Jesus Christ will come into the atmosphere of the world as described here but he will not come to the earth he will not descend to the Mount of Olives he will simply come into the atmosphere of the world and will manifest himself to his people now how all of that will take place we are not told but we are told this that with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God he will give a shout and his people whether dead or alive that is those who have been saved during this age and who are part of the church will be caught up to meet him in the air from other texts we know that that will involve a complete change of our bodies so that the bodies that we have now will be changed made like his body of glory and we will be with the Lord it says here from that point and forever so that is the rapture of the church now this term or this event rather is also called the day of Jesus Christ or the day of Christ Jesus or the day of Christ all of those terms are used in the New Testament synonymously with this event the rapture let's just look at an example or two in turn just back a few pages to Philippians chapter 1 now you need to notice the wording of this because there is a very similar phrase we're going to talk about in a moment the similarity in the phrases confuses some people notice in verse 6 he says Philippians 1 for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus so the Apostle Paul is saying I am confident that God is going to continue working in you until that day of the rapture the day of Christ Jesus and then in verse 10 he says so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ so he's praying for them here that they might approve things excellent in order that on the day of the rapture when they are caught up to be with the Lord they may be found sincere and blameless and then again in chapter two verse 16 he says holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I may have caused to glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain and so the Apostle is looking forward to the day of Christ the rapture when he will appear before the Lord and receive his reward and because of the work that he's done be rewarded and in that day be able to glory and not in himself but in the people that he has led to Christ and founded in the church in Philippi now this term is not used but the event as mentioned once again in Philippians might be good to look at that in chapter three verse 20 he says our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory and so he's talking about the instantaneous process that will take place that change that metamorphosis that will occur at that moment when Jesus calls us out of this world to be with himself that is the rapture of the church and at that point the church will be completed there will still be people saved in the tribulation period but at that point the church of Jesus Christ will be completed no more people will be made a part of this elect body the church only a certain number whom God is chosen according to the New Testament are going to be a part of that body of Jesus Christ and once that body is completed there will be nothing to keep us any longer in the world I believe the only thing that keeps the Lord Jesus Christ from coming now and taking us out is the fact that there are still some who must yet believe when the Lord Jesus Christ be saved added to the church I believe the moment the body is completed when that last individual known only to God trust the Lord Jesus Christ there will be immediate movement in heaven to remove the church from this earthly scene now following that will be an event that the Apostle Paul mentioned in chapter two or suggested in chapter two but which he mentions in other places you'll notice our chart says the saints with Christ in heaven the first thing that is going to occur there will be the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ go back to second Corinthians chapter 5 for a moment we'll just pick out one verse that deals with this subject second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 10 the Apostle Paul is here dealing with our being pleasing to the Lord on that day when we are present with him at home with him and he says in verse 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad and when he says we must all appear he is not talking about all people of the world of all ages he is talking about we believers we who are in the church in this age we who are in Christ is talking about the church and he says that we must appear before our Lord at this judgment it is not a judgment to determine whether we enter heaven or have to go to hell thank God that determination was made back at the cross when Jesus died for us he took our hell for us we who belong to the Lord Jesus we who are in Christ through faith in him never have to worry about hell Jesus took our hell for us you say then what is this judgment for well this judgment is for rewards it is a judgment which will determine the faithfulness of our works for the Lord Jesus Christ during our lifetime upon the earth you say well I would think that God would give us our reward the moment we get to heaven well I would remind you that when we get to heaven there are no more moments in the first place to be in his presence is to be in eternity and those who've been with the Lord now let's say 2,000 years have not been there any longer than those who went to be with the Lord this afternoon that's hard for us to imagine being in our space time dimension where we are but there is no time in heaven the fact is that the saints who are now with the Lord have not yet been judged for their works upon the earth down here where there is progression of events and the impacts of our lives fall out not only in our own generation but hopefully in generations to come God is waiting for all those things to happen so that when we do finally get to be with the Lord that the full measurement of our lives can be determined the full worth or sadly the full worthlessness of our lives may be determined and we will receive reward or suffer loss there according to how we have lived for the Christ now so that is the judgment seat of Christ only the believers of this age the church age will be at the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ say won't that take a long time that's millions of people well I remind you again there is no time in the presence of the Lord and so it's not going to take a long time no see how is it going to happen I don't know but it is an individual judgment that will then lead us to the next event which takes place in heaven and that is the marriage supper of the lamb and I'm not going to go into detail about that but following that time of our examination before the Lord we will enter into our marital relationship with Him we will become in reality the blessed and glorious bride of the Lord Jesus Christ well it looks like we just lost our bulb what did I tell you about his age Sam could I get your help I see you over there is an overhead in room 101 we should have prayed shouldn't we this is one of those impossible situations we should have prayed about it first it must be a little warm here because of this rather confined area I better talk quicker or else blow my warm breath out that way maybe that would help to all right so that is the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ now on the earth there will be some other things taking place following the rapture of the church will come on the earth what is called the tribulation the tribulation in the world right now we have tribulation or affliction but this will be a period of time that's referred to as the tribulation you'll notice it lasts seven years that is mentioned not only in the book of the revelation but it's mentioned as well in Daniel that period of time is divided into two sections each three and a half years or 42 months or 1260 days technically the last half of it is called the great tribulation because the suffering upon the earth will be greatly intensified during the last part of the tribulation period this begins what is called the day of the Lord that is the similar phrase to the day of Christ that I mentioned earlier but you need to distinguish the day of the Lord from the day of Jesus Christ the day of the Lord is a deeply meaningful prophetic term that is used way back in the Old Testament it embraces both a time of judgment when God will deal with the wickedness of the earth along with a time of blessing when God will pour out his blessing upon the earth we'll come back to this in a moment and so the day of the Lord is a very broad term it includes both judgment and blessing the judgment portion of that is called the tribulation thanks Sam if we get too much of this we'll we'll switch our overheads during this time of the tribulation there will be upon the earth one particular leader who will come to the front at least this seems to be true in the Western world he is called in the Bible the anti-Christ or the lawless one would you take your Bible in turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 where we have one of the key passages regarding this figure 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 beginning in verse 3 the apostle says let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first now what will not come he's talking about the day of the Lord he says it will not come unless the apostasy comes first that is the falling away from the truth and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God and so there is this one whom we may call the puppet of Satan who is also called the beast in the first half of Revelation chapter 13 who arises to become the political and eventually the religious leader of the Western world this anti-Christ will be very vicious against all who believe in the Lord his particular wrath will be expressed toward the Jews the nation of Israel during the tribulation period Israel will go through the most difficult time of persecution that he has ever known until this point even worse I am sorry to say than the time of Hitler's reign in Europe and World War II the Jewish nation will be persecuted but on the other hand God will divinely watch over his people anti-Christ will in the first three and a half year period seem to be a figure of peace on the surface and many will allow him to become their ruler because he seems to have all of the answers for world peace that is the person that our world today is hungering for somebody who can bring the fractured world together who can put down the terrorism who can put down the war and who can bring about a peace for mankind well that person will come that person will be Satan's man the lawless one the anti-Christ then during the last three and a half years his true colors will be revealed he will no longer even appear to be a man of peace but a wicked man of war he will oppress the nations and as I say especially the Jewish people if you want to read more about him and more about the tribulation period you can do that by reading chapter 6 through 19 of the book of the Revelation you will find that the word tribulation is used in that text it's used also in Matthew 24 so this is a Bible word the tribulation is the period of judgment that will conclude the age in which we now live as you look back through the history of the world you can delineate ages certain administrations of God in the world it is interesting that every one of those ended with the judgment of God of some sort this age will be no different the judgment of God will fall upon the world and it will be catastrophic it will be something like the day of the flood when the world as it is will cease to be because of the judgment that will come during this period of tribulation over half of the world will die because of the plagues that God will pour out upon the world half over half of the population of the earth will be killed through those plagues antichrist will bring great pressure upon the Jews and it would seem that right toward the end of the seven-year period he will surround the city of Jerusalem and seek to absolutely annihilate the Jews and it will be at that very moment when the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in heaven and the heavens will be rolled back like a scroll the Lord Jesus Christ and his army will burst through the sky and enter into this world and at that point the Lord Jesus Christ will come back to the earth and thus you see the arrow that comes all the way down to this line indicating that he is coming back with his saints to the world to destroy the powers of the antichrist and to bring to an end this time of terrible tribulation that will occur with the battle of Armageddon let's go on to the book of Revelation for a moment we've mentioned the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter one of Revelation Jesus is seen by the Apostle John but in his introduction to that vision these are his words in verse seven behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him even so amen he is coming with clouds every eye will see him that is not describing the rapture it is rather describing his second advent or his return to the earth you'll recall when he ascended back up in the heaven from the Mount of Olives to angels stood by the crowd there and they said this same Jesus which you have seen taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go away what were they talking about not the rapture because that hadn't been revealed yet that that is another aspect of the mystery which the Apostle Paul revealed it's called a mystery by the way in 1 Corinthians 15 now they were talking about his return to the earth when he will come back to the Mount of Olives from where he left and he will establish his reign but in coming to the Mount there will be this great battle of Armageddon that I had mentioned turn on into Revelation to chapter well let's look at chapter 19 I'm not going to take the time to read all of these verses but beginning in verse 11 we have Christ coming out of the open heaven he is coming upon a white horse as faithful and true as King of kings and Lord of lords he is coming with his army and you notice there's a sharp sword that comes out of his mouth he is not coming to save he is coming to judge the world the ungodly the people of the earth and it says in verse 17 and I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in mid-heaven come a symbol for the great supper of God in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all men both free men and slaves small and great and so here is called an event this great supper of God it is not a supper for men it is a supper for the birds of the air to come and to consume the carcasses of those who will fall in the battle that will take place when Jesus returns to the earth there is an earlier word in Revelation regarding this battle in chapter 16 the preparations are being made for this battle the armies of the earth are coming together at a particular point in Palestine and it says in verse 14 that there are demons actually involved in gathering the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty and then in verse 16 and they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called arm again arm again literally that means the Mount of Megiddo if you go to Israel today on a tour they will take you to the Mount of Megiddo it is not at a very imposing mount and yet it is commanding in the sense that it's right at a critical point in a large valley the Valley of Israel and it is a valley that is very far across when the Jews took over Palestine through the agreement in the early part of the century it was a large mosquito swamp that was about it today it is a fertile plain the Jews have drained it they have taken the rocks out of it and it is the bread basket of Israel that large plain of Israel on that plain there have been some of the greatest battles of world history fought Napoleon stood on the Mount of Megiddo over 150 years ago he looked out and he said what a great place for the armies of the world to fight well I believe that he had some knowledge of what he was saying he was not ignorant of the Bible in fact he was right because it is in that large valley where these armies will converge they will come together to come against Jerusalem and then it will be at that moment that the Lord Jesus will come on his white horse to destroy those armies and the great Supper of God will be called and the birds will clean up the mess the Old Testament suggests that the blood will run from the valley so great will be the carnage there as these human armies seek to battle against an angelic army that will be the second advent the return of the Lord Jesus Christ with his saints the battle of Armageddon all of that takes place at this point after the seven years of tribulation and so just review we are now living in the church age the next event on God's calendar is the rapture of the church there are no signs that need to be fulfilled as far as scriptures concerned before this takes place this is an imminent event IMM IN ENT what that means is that it can happen at any moment nothing has to happen first we are eagerly looking for the return or I should say technically the rapture of the church his return for his people we then will be in heaven and will come back with him to the earth at this point along with his angelic army on the earth the tribulation will be poured out a time of terrible suffering but a time as I suggested earlier in which many people will be saved during this time a hundred forty four thousand people a Jews will be sealed to go out throughout the earth preaching the gospel and multitudes millions of people who haven't had the opportunity to hear in this age will hear the truth in this age do you realize today that at least a quarter of the earth's population over a billion people at least that many have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ I believe it is they especially who will be the objects of evangelization by God's evangelist during the tribulation period I do believe that in 2 Thessalonians 2 that those who've heard in this age and who rejected the truth I mean knowing the truth and who rejected it that they will not be able to believe in the tribulation period but will be turned to the lie don't have time to go into that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth will bring about the millennium now you see this word pre-millennial this is where the word comes from we believe in the personal visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ before the millennium so that he then can reign upon the earth for a thousand years you say where in the world is that taught in the Bible we'll be right here at Revelation look in chapter 20 let's begin with verse 1 and I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan so there's no mistaking who this individual is and bound him for a thousand years notice that is Satan bound today for those who take the all millennial position say yes Satan is bound today I have a very hard time with that but that's what they claim we believe that the Bible teaches this is a future event the Satan is free today as the prince of the power of the air to work his evil in the world within boundaries that God has said but that there's a future day coming when he will be bound this angel also says through him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he should not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed after these things he must be released for a short time and so Satan is going to be bound at this point he will be put into the bottomless pit unable to work his evil upon the earth any longer then in verse four it says and I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given to them and I saw the souls of those who've been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand all this refers to material covered in the revelation and they came to life and rained with Christ for a thousand years at this point all of those who have died in Christ in the church age will be resurrected at this point all other righteous people those who've died believing whether in the Old Testament back here or those who've died in this period of time will be resurrected so that they will be able to enjoy the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the earth that is the resurrection that is mentioned here but he says in verse five the rest of the dead that is the wicked dead the ungodly dead did not come to life until a thousand years were completed and we'll see why in a moment he says blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection over these the second death has no power but they will be priests of God and of Christ will reign with him for a thousand years and when the thousand years are completed Satan will be released from his prison now let me just talk briefly about this time of the millennium obviously the word means a thousand years we understand this to be a literal thousand years not symbolic not to be spiritualized or allegorized away we take it to be literal during that thousand year reign of Christ there will be peace upon the earth that will be true because righteousness will dominate not ungodliness the earth will experience a time of prosperity like it has not known since the fall of man and so these are great days that are coming days prophesied in both the Old and New Testaments you know Isaiah 9 as says his name shall be called wonderful and it goes on to say in the government will be upon his shoulders it goes on to say there too that he will reign as David's son as his seed this is the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ the millennium upon the earth and then it says Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth gog and maygog together them together for the war that is the battle that is mentioned here in our chart the number of them is like the sand of the seashore and they came up on the broad plane of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city what do you suppose that is we understand it to be Jerusalem right and fire came down from heaven and devoured them you say what is taking place here well remember that there are some people who are resurrected to enter the millennium but there are some believers now listen closely some believers who will live through this time of tribulation having been saved here at some point they will live on through the tribulation and will enter into the millennium in their natural bodies not resurrection bodies but natural bodies and they will have families in other words in this thousand year period because of the peace because of the prosperity the population of the world will mushroom so that the population of the world will probably become far greater than it is today at four plus billion people go like that these people who will be born during that time will have the opportunity themselves to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who is reigning visibly on the earth or to reject him they will not be able to reject him openly but in their hearts they can they can pretend to follow him why you say is Satan loosed to come out again after this thousand years it is so that he can gather together all of the false people upon the earth those who have not believed truly on the Lord Jesus Christ but who have only pretended to follow him and it says here that there will be a great number of people like that like the sand of the seashore he will gather them in one great final rebellion against God and they will be supernaturally destroyed fire will come down from heaven and devour them and that final rebellion will be put out I need to make an adjustment here we will go on just to finish chapter 20 and the devil says who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone that's what's called on our chart eternal hell the devil is actually the third inhabitant because it goes on to say that the beast that's the antichrist and the false prophet are there also they were put there before the thousand years when Jesus came back those two individuals are the first two to inhabit the lake of fire the eternal hell it would seem that they are there alone for the thousand year period then satan is cast into the lake of fire after this final rebellion and it says they will be tormented day and night forever and ever and then it says and I saw a great white throne judgment and that is what is mentioned here I saw a great white throne rather and him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead now these are the ungodly dead who were not resurrected earlier obviously he says I saw the dead the great and the small standing before the throne and books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged from the things which are written in the books according to their deeds and the sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds and death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire this is the second death the lake of fire and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire the great white throne judgment is a judgment where no believer will be only the ungodly only the lost will be brought before the lord to be judged at this point you say why are they judged here not earlier but for the same reason that we're waiting until the rapture for our judgment god is allowing all of the ungodliness and all the evil influence to accumulate from every man's life so that he will have a full measurement of all the wickedness of every person and then according to what he sees the works of that life to be that person will receive his level of punishment in the eternal hell in the lake of fire a very awful and awesome thought may i interject at this point that in the most recent edition of moody monthly magazine there is the most graphic description of hell i have ever read not a long article a brief article by john thomas a writer from florida but he writes compassionately but forthrightly regarding hell and what it really is he covered some things that i have never heard or thought about before i would encourage you to get a hold of that magazine and to read that article we cannot talk about this awful place lightly and casually it is a place of eternal torment where the wicked and uh the evil angels and satan will be forever and forever and then following the great white throne judgment as it says here will come the new heavens and the new earth that is described in revelation 21 and 22 and so we've covered a lot of ground here tonight in this prophetic overview i hope that it helps some of you who are newer to be able to place some of the terms you're going to hear in the bible conference in a couple of weeks the church age the rapture the tribulation the millennium the second coming of christ the battle of armageddon the new heaven and new earth the great white throne judgment you say what good is it for us to study prophecy well i think there are several advantages in the first place it is a great stimulus to us to serve the lord jesus christ with expectation it gives us a blessed hope to anticipate his return and standing before him at last trial and trouble all past all of that makes everything that we may endure for him now worthwhile it will be worth it all when we see jesus that's one thing secondly i think it's a great motivation for soul winning when we begin to understand the awful future of those without christ surely it must do something to our hearts to provoke us to be faithful witnesses for our lord to seek to win them to christ and third the study of prophecy is a a great purifier of our lives he that has this hope in him purifies himself says john even as he the lord is pure it causes us to desire to live holy and godly lives in light of what is coming upon this world in which we live so as we enter into this time of study in a couple of weeks i hope you'll find great profit in it that you'll be here for every service and you will absorb the truth as it will be proclaimed by these gifted and dedicated men of god who are coming i'd like for us to close now by singing a hymn it's one of the more contemporary popular numbers based upon the truth of christ coming number 250 john peterson wrote it jesus is coming again [ Silence ]