Giving Letter (7/2004)
July 26, 2004
Dear Family of Friends,
A couple of weeks ago I returned from our annual trek through the Andes Mountains of Peru. Each year I lead a team of 30 to 40 people on a five-day trek through some of the most beautiful terrain this side of heaven. Our purpose is not sight seeing, however; dotting the countryside throughout the Andes are small villages that have never heard a gospel presentation. We trek from village to village and distribute Bibles in Spanish and the native Quechua dialect. Our goal is to eventually blanket the region with the Word of God. You can learn more about the Andes Blanket by visiting our web site, www.andesblanket.org.
On the home front, I am rejoicing in what the Lord has accomplished the past six months at Grace, and what we have to look forward to during the next six months. Just to give you a few highlights:
- God has tremendously blessed our teaching emphasis this year. Even though I am privileged to speak to you each Sunday, I must give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has used the messages to change lives and impact families. From our series on prayer to our prophecy series on Sunday Nights, people have communicated to me time and time again how God is using these messages to impact them. Praise the Lord!
- In February, we experienced what was, in my opinion, the best missions conference I have been a part of. Our guest speaker, Jean Marc Desire again did an outstanding job of motivating us and encouraging us to have a “heart for the harvest.” Perhaps the most touching moment for me happened the Monday after missions conference ended. With his home country of Haiti in the midst of a civil war and the president of the country on the run, Jean Marc’s only concern was his church family at home. He was determined—even at the risk of his own life—to return to them and encourage them through this crisis. I saw real faith being lived out by a genuine, humble man of God.
- In March, it was our privilege to host the Baptist Convention of Iowa’s state evangelism conference with guest speaker, Dr. Henry Blackaby. Again, perhaps the person most impacted by Dr. Blackaby was me! What a gentle, kind, humble man of God. Through his powerful and passionate preaching, he highlighted the importance of God’s people living holy lives in a world that is openly rebellious to God. If you missed any of Dr. Blackaby’s messages, I would encourage you to pick up the recordings at the Resource Center.
- In April, we experienced God’s blessings through our Easter services. Our Magnification Ministry presented an outstanding musical, The Eyes of Faith, and we witnessed more than 2,700 people in attendance at Grace Church on Easter Sunday. That is by far the largest single day attendance in our church’s history. Again, I give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ!
- In May, we celebrated Mother’s Day with our annual kids’ choirs musical. This year the kids presented Holy Moses, a spoof off the popular television show, Trading Spaces. The kids did a great job of telling the story of Moses through song, drama, choreography and an incredible set. The month of May ended with one of Grace Church’s adopted sons, Ken Rudolph. Ken works for Lake Ann Camp in Michigan and has become one of our favorite guest speakers. Once again, Ken challenged us with solid biblical teaching sprinkled with his own great sense of humor.
- n June, of course, was VBS month. This year’s theme was SonGames, which played off the Olympics. What a thrill to see the church filled with kids each night, I want to thank Karla Kincaid and the more than 100 adult volunteers who made this possible.
These are only the highlights of the last six months. What I can’t put in here are the stories of lives changed through Celebrate Recovery, couples who have made the decision to stay together rather than divorce, families who are earnestly praying right now about where God may send them on the foreign mission field.
One of the more important processes happening behind the scenes the past six months involved the search for a gifted children’s pastor. We interviewed two men and received several more resumes before reaching the conclusion that the man God was leading us to was already in our church. As I announced in June, the elders have extended a call to Paul Dykstra to become our new children’s pastor, and he started serving in his new position July 6. Already, if you walk through the south doors by the nursery, you will see changes happening! We are looking forward to the many exciting enhancements in the months ahead as Pastor Paul and Karla work with our children.
As I have explained to many, in hiring staff I look for what I call the 4Cs:
- Character–these have to be men of impeccable character, fully qualified to serve as a pastor/elder as outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
- Competence–each of our staff has demonstrated expertise in the area of ministry in which they are serving.
- Chemistry–our staff must function as a team; working together is of critical importance.
- Commitment–we are seeking to build a long-term team. I recognize God may move us from time-to-time, but I also believe that one of the qualities of a solid, well-functioning team is longevity.
With the addition of Pastor Paul, we have completed what I am calling our “dream team.” If you look at our staff you will clearly see that our emphasis is on the Next Generation. We are committed to helping families raise their children to be strong voices for righteousness in a world sliding towards debauchery.
The next six months look to be just as exciting at Grace. On August 5-7, we will host our annual Share What You Wear event, providing clothing to the poor and less fortunate in our community. Each year this becomes bigger and bigger, and you can help by bringing in your old clothes and getting the word out. We are also going to host our first Child Safety Seminar on August 25, just in time for the start of the next school year. Our purpose with this event is to inform kids and parents of the dangers lurking just around the corner and to provide some basic self-defensive skills in case of real danger. We will have as our guests Sgt. Berry Arnold of the Des Moines Police Department and Master Don Wells of Martial Arts America.
During the month of September we will focus on evangelism. Mr. Bill Fay of Share Jesus Without Fear will be with us September 12 to equip us for the task of sharing the gospel with our friends, family, co-workers and neighbors, and on September 26 he will be back with us to share his own amazing testimony during one of the best opportunities of the year to bring unsaved friends and loved ones. On September 13, we will begin the fall term of Grace Evangelical Ministry School (GEMS). Let me encourage you to look into the classes being offered this fall. Our purpose for GEMS is to prepare and equip you for ministry here. If you would like more detailed information on GEMS, please visit www.graceministryschool.com. Also in September, on the 19th, we will give our annual Harvest Offering. This offering is for the ministry of Grace Church in general and goes towards carrying out the mission of Grace Church in Central Iowa and beyond.
In October and November, we will begin our annual Fall Campaign. Our theme this year is True Faith: Stepping Out of the Boat. For nine weeks we will find out how living by faith is not foolishness but the only way to please God, and the best way to make life itself pleasing to us. The key verse will be Matthew 9:29 "According to your faith will it be done to you." I pray God can find you faithful as we focus on building your faith. We will kick it all off October 3 with “The Castaways Big Island Adventure!” You will have to be here October 3 to learn how to step out of the boat without becoming a castaway!
December is one of our favorite months at Grace. Pastor Phillip has already picked this year’s Christmas Musical / Drama, and the Choir and Orchestra will spend the fall months preparing. Our Adult Musical will be the weekend of December 3-5 and our Kids Musical will be the weekend of December 11-12. The Magnification Ministry will hold its first “Magnification Bash” on August 21 for all current members or those who are interested in joining the choir, orchestra or any other group within the Magnification Ministry. Of course, on a personal level, Bonnie and I are looking forward to December and to welcoming a new grandbaby into our family around Christmas time!
Let me remind you why we do what we do at Grace Church. Our goal is to
Bring people in so we can
Build people up so we can
Train people for something so we can
Send people out
All for the magnification of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Yes, there are a lot of activities at Grace Church, but they are for a purpose. As we recently studied during our series on Critical Issues, I believe America is facing a great threat. It’s not terrorism or economic collapse; I fear that unless America turns from its current path, God is going to say, “OK…have it your way,” and turn His back on this country. My friends, I am not a doom and gloom type of preacher, but I must be honest and say that in the last few years it seems our country is sliding deeper and deeper towards the abyss. It’s as if the small, tiny fractures in the dam holding back the tidal wave of immorality and human deprivation are breaking before our very eyes.
Starting in August, you will hear about changes at Grace Church that I believe are both necessary and unavoidable. From the day I became your pastor nearly three years ago, I have worked towards a church that is focused on the things that are important and is “on mission.” In order to accomplish our vision of truly reaching and equipping the next generation and building up the family of friends here at Grace, it’s time we begin shooting with a rifle instead of a shotgun. To learn more about the changes that will take place in January, please consider attending one of our church informational meetings. On August 11, we are going to have some fun and “Pig Out” with a hog roast and corn on the cob before we meet to discuss the changes. You can purchase a ticket for the dinner at the resource center, or if you want to come just for the meeting, show up at 7:15 p.m. in the FLC. We will also talk about the changes on Sunday, August 22. If you have any questions about the dinner or informational meetings, please call the church office at 265-0199. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend one of these meetings.
Enclosed with this letter is your second quarter giving statement through June 30. While our giving has been below our budget need, our staff has worked hard to keep spending below budget. Let me challenge you as we go through the summer months to remain faithful to the Lord and to regularly tithe. Grace Church is a family, and it takes the sacrificial giving of each family member to accomplish the mission we believe God has given us. If you have any questions about your contribution statement, please contact Larry Jatho at 265-0199.
Thank you for allowing me to update you on where we are at mid-year in 2004. I cannot tell you how pleased I am to serve as the pastor of Grace Church. It is the thrill of my lifetime, and next to my salvation and my family, I count it among my greatest blessings.
Preaching, Teaching and Reaching the Lost,
Phil Winfield
Pastor/Missionary/Evangelist
The End of the Road
The End of the Road
By Phil Winfield
Bible Text: Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:11-22
Preached on: Sunday, May 23, 2004
Grace Church of Des Moines, IA
4200 E. 25th StreetDes Moines, IA 50317
Website: http://www.gracehome.com
Online Sermons: http://gracehome.sermonaudio.com
Take your Bibles if you would, please, and turn to the book of Hebrews chapter nine. We are going to read this brief verse of Scripture, Hebrews chapter nine and verse number 27. It says:Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.Key in on that verse 27. “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” The King James Version says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”We are going to talk about that tonight, the end of the road.Now how many of you remember your first days at school when you were a kid, you remember something about it? If I were to come to you, you could tell me some details of your first days at school. Just raise them up there.Boy, I can’t. I didn’t go to school till the first grade. No kindergarten for me. I was too interested in bugs and mosquitoes and frogs and jumping off car bumpers. I just... I don’t think my mother could have gotten me to school when I was five or now I guess they go when they are as young as four or even younger than that sometimes. But I went in the first grade.It was quite an amiable situation. I enjoyed it way back in September of 1963 was my incursion into the world of education. That’s when I got started. My mother took me to school for the first day. That was the last time she took me to school.It was curious that she also showed me that this is the walking path home. And that’s how you get there and here is how you get home. Use those two legs and you will be walking.I used to think it was so far that I walked to school. I thought I would never get home. I thought I would never get there every day.I went back not long ago with my family to show them where I lived and how far I had to walk to school. It as two tenths of a mile. I thought it was around the world when I was a little kid, but anyway I remember going to school. And it was something. I don’t know how my mother knew everything and everyone, but she introduced me to Lurlene Martin who was the... She was the principal of the little West Haven Elementary School where I went to school and then she went right in and introduced me to Mrs. Lane.I knew things were going... I was going to have problems when she knew everybody there. She knew all the teachers, everybody. I knew there was going to be a problem.So, but anyway, when she introduced me to Mrs. Lane I fell in love. That was the first time I ever fell in love outside my own family in my life. This woman was just something. She was so beautiful and so pretty and so nice. She had two feet of hair piled up on top of her head. You remember those hairdos, I mean one of the beehive deals. It was way... I thought that was the greatest thing. And she was so nice.I went to school that day. I had three fat pencils. How many of you remember the fat pencils? Three fat pencils, crayons, jumbo pad and a pair of blunt study scissors, you know, the little blunt nosed scissors? I had those. I was ready.Things were great. Lunch was great. Recess was great. Using all my new school stuff was great and I was ready for a great experience at West Haven Elementary School in Whitehaven, Tennessee.What a dirty trick it was for my teacher, Mrs. Lane, to actually start taking notes on everything that I did. Apparently she was doing that with everybody in the class because one day she gave us a big tan envelope and told us to go home and give it to our mothers. I didn’t know the problems and pain in the posterior that that little envelope was going to cause for me and literally did cause for me.You know when I got back to school after taking that little envelope home I never looked at Mrs. Lane again. In fact, I didn’t even like her big tall hairdo anymore. I couldn’t stand that lady. She was in cahoots with my parents and they were working together on getting me to sit still in class and to actually learn all those little squigglies that she was putting up on the chalkboard.Do you remember chalk boards? I mean we actually used to have those things. And she was keeping a systematic record of all of my doings at West Haven School from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM. That was when we went to school when I was going to school, 7:30 to... Did anybody go to school early like that besides me? I mean 7:30 to 2:30, that’s when you went to school and five days a week and little Philip Winfield (that was me) could rack up lots of offenses in a short time and it was amazing the swift justice that took place at home once my mother would converse... Whenever... Somehow she found out. The phone would ring and somebody would talk and the next thing you know I had been caught misbehaving again and my mom would talk to my dad and the next thing you know I was getting the board of education applied to the seat of learning. No diplomacy, no excuses, no recourse. And, boy, it worked. They got my attention and all of the sudden I understood that those report cards were very important and whatever was on them I really needed to work hard to make whatever was on them make my mother happy so that I wouldn’t get those problems when I got home.Somebody would say, “Well, how cruel.”Well, I want you to know it was a wonderful day in our nation when teachers and parents were honorable and both had the interest of child at heart. That was a wonderful day. And it can be a wonderful day today and I don’t mean to throw light against teachers today because there are many wonderful teachers. We have many in our church here that are doing everything within their power to instill character and good morals into the children that they teach. But we have a system that has become rotten at the roots.And I learned to respect those little report cards. They can be a tremendous source of blessing or cursing, especially on that one little line that was at the bottom of that report card every year, every six weeks. We had six week reporting periods. Every six weeks a little line at the bottom, a word that I didn’t know until I got to first grade. It was that little word “conduct.” That was only thing on there important to me. As long as my conduct... My mother would look there first. She didn’t care about anything else. She said, “You may not be a genius, but you can behave.” And she would look right down at the bottom of that thing and she said, “You can sit still in class. You can do what that teacher says. And if nothing else you can behave.”And, boy, I learned to appreciate that word “conduct, behavior, deportment.” I looked up synonyms. Man, I knew all kinds of words. I got to get this right.Well, I want you to know that many people are living their lives today as if there was no one to answer to, there were no God and that they are just going to go out of existence when they come to the end of their life and they are never going to have to be held accountable. I want you to know, you and I, all of us, everyone, all mankind is on a road to the end of history of human life and human habitation of this world. When we get to that point we will—now you listen to me—we will stand before God. There is a person who is God. He has a Son. His name is Jesus. His Spirit lives in the lives of those people who have given themselves to him. You know it. I know it. The world knows it, but they are willingly ignorant of the facts.One of the greatest motivations for fit free living, unbridled personal freedom in the world is this idea—or at least hope or aspiration—that there is no judgment, no one to answer to, no accountability.And, by the way, I want to just throw this in because I am not going to be able to include it in the sermon that I get to on evolution, but I want to mention this. That is the reason that so many push so hard to affirm a now defunct, unscientific idea called evolution.You say, “Why is that, pastor? Why is it so appealing to so many people?”Because if I am the product of chance then I have no judgment to fear.But I want to tell you that we are not the product of chance. We are the product of a person that said, “Let there be life and there was life,” and light and everything else.Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.”I have been talking to you for several weeks about the road ahead, sharing what the Bible predicts about the future. If you are just checking in on some of these sermons—they are available on CD and on cassette also—I can actually give you print outs of the entire sermon if you would like them to study. You can certainly do that.But I have been talking about this and we have looked at the sign posts along the road to the end. We have talked about the millions that will vanish from the road at the rapture. We have talked about the king of the road or the antichrist or the beast, if you will, that will be around during that seven year period of trouble and trial in this world called the tribulation. We spent time talking about what life will be like on the road living under the rule of the antichrist and later that reincarnated antichrist when his deadly wound to his head kills him. And I believe that he will be in a mock resurrection and have it that a dead man inhabited by Satan himself. And we talked about that.Last week we talked about peace on the road, the millennium and what it is going to be like when Jesus rules in this world.And now we come to the fact of all human history, that all of human history has been pointing to, toward a day of reckoning, a day of judgment of all men.And someone will no doubt is going to say here tonight—and if you are our guest and if someone invited you to come—you maybe say, “Well, you know what, pastor? I don’t like the idea of a God of judgment.”Well, I want you to know, then, that there can be no God of love then. If you do not like the God that judges evil there cannot be a God of love who loves what is good. You can’t love life if you don’t loathe death. You can’t love flowers if you don’t despise the weeds. And you can’t love health if you don’t look at disease as an enemy.There is an up and there is a down. There is an in and there is an out. There is a forward, there is a backward. There is a right and there is a wrong. Opposites prove. Opposites tell us in common sense that God is going to judge and that he is a God of judgment as a God of love, not to mention how many hundreds of times in the Scriptures he has declared that he is going to judge this world and judge all of its inhabitants.“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”The Hindus and many of its spin off eastern cults will say that judgment is continual. Yes, there is judgment, but it is called reincarnation. And we need many lives to get it right. In fact, many are living lives and are suffering so much in the life that they are living because of a previous life and they just couldn’t get it right. Why, these poor children that are on the streets there of Calcutta and other places of the world that the rich and the upper class and the caste system can walk by, are only carrying out their karma. They are only carrying out what they should carry out because of what they did in the past lives. They are being punished. They may have been an animal, an elephant. They may have been a crocodile, a flea. They may have been who knows what? And because of that this judgment is continual.They think we need many lives to get it right. We live a while as a man, then an animal, then a flea, then a woman. Let me just stop and say one other thought. As I studied for these sermons that are coming up in the month of June I am not going to use this either, but I will throw it in here tonight. Reincarnation handles homosexuality in a very unique and interesting way. Lesbianism, homosexuality, you know how reincarnation answers that?Well, that’s easy to understand. In your past life if you are a woman, if you are a woman in your past life you were probably a man and the transition between the two, you are having hauntings from your past life and you can’t really decide what you are and how you should function. If you are a man in some life in the past you were probably a woman and as a woman and a man transitioning between the two, the hauntings and the echo of what your life was before is causing you trouble and you just can’t come to grips with what you are today. It is a punishment, they say, and you are going through it. Interesting.Then we go around again as an eagle and so on. We keep suffering for past mistakes until we finally get it right or at the end we end up being in the upper caste system in India and finally go to go on to what is called nirvana or, really, divine nothingness as they are absorbed into the great it, the great existence, the great source. And you just are absorbed and you cease to be. There is a great goal in life, just to really go toward nothingness. They believe this.It makes a nice fairy tale, has nothing to do with the truth. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, once to die...” There is your answer to reincarnation. What does the Bible say? [?] how many times to die? Once to die and after this the judgment.Mankind is inextricably headed toward two things in that verse, death. It is an appointment that we all keep. Judgment, all will be judged.Now, lest you fear, those of you that known Jesus, there will be a judgment of believers and later a judgment of unbelievers. Believers to be judged about how they will be rewarded or how they will suffer loss for lives wasted, but not according to their position in the family of God or whether they are going to go to heaven. But unbelievers, not to see whether they are going to heaven or hell, but to understand and find out what their punishment will be like.Turn in your Bibles if you would to Revelation chapter 20. I am going to read one of the most awesome and most unbelievable and the most earth shaking passages of Scripture in the entire Bible as it describes the end of the road, Revelation chapter 20 and verse number 11. We read from chapter 20 down through verse number 10 last week and we talked about the thousand years. And this week we are going to talk about something else beginning at verse number 11. We are going to talk about the road ahead.Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades [or hell] were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.If you would like to underline that in your Bible it is very important.The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.Jump to chapter 21, if you would, and verse number 27. “[No] impure [thing] will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”These are some of the most awesome verses in the entire Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come and we have covered this. He is going to come for his children according to the Bible in the rapture. There will be a period of time on earth known as the great tribulation. The Lord Jesus will return once again to this earth with his own. There will be a great battle followed by a time of peace like the world has never seen, 1000 years.At the end of those 1000 years Satan is released for a short time. There is a, once again, the revelation of the evil heart of man as we talked about last week, men who have lived 1000 years under the righteous rule of Christ with hardly any disease, any sickness, no rationing, no lack of food, no lack of water, no lack of righteousness, no need for policemen in the streets, no need. I mean it is 1000 years of the most unbelievable peace that the world could ever imagine. But at the end of that time there will be those who during that time have decided they don’t like this strict ruler down in Jerusalem. They don’t like the way he handles things. Their freedom of expression has been totally curtailed. They can’t say what they think, do what they think. They have to just follow in line, follow after this righteous ruler. He is ruling with a rod of iron, you know. And so we have to do what he says.And at that time there will be one last battle. Because of the evil heart of man a usurper comes back up out of the abyss and says, “Hey, I know you don’t want to be told what to do. Follow me.” And great hordes of people, once again, turn to Satan. And then they gather for a quick and final battle where they are destroyed by the brightness of his coming. The sword goes out of his mouth.Then we find something else here. We find the end of the road. We find a judgment. We find this in Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 to 15.The first thing I want you to see tonight is I want to talk about these people that are going to be there as rejecters. Just write that word down. The rejecters’ reunion. I want you to see the rejecters’ reunion, the get together. Who are these rejecters?In Revelation chapter 20 there I am struck as I look at the verses and I see the repetition of death. Underline the words “dead” and “death” as we read.Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead [underline that], great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death [underline that] and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.No less than seven times: dead, dead, dead, death, dead, death and death. It sounds kind of morbid. It sounds kind of terminal. It is.Who are these rejecters? Who are these? Well, these are the dead. They are all the dead.“Now, be careful, pastor,” I am sure somebody is saying, “You know that you church people, you believers in all of this stuff, you die as well.”Well, yes we do die, but the death march of the believer is totally different than the death march of an unbeliever. We are all marching toward death. We were born on the road to death. Now we experience life. We get stronger. We look like we are going to make a stand, but as time goes by each and every one of us gets old because of sin that started in garden and we begin this death march. We all head toward death.But the death of a believer, the death of one that knows the Lord, the death of one that has Jesus Christ in his own heart as his personal Savior is totally different.Let me give you a few instances of why we know it is different. First of all his death is like sleep. Now you are not going to be able to keep up with me by turning in your Bibles, but you can write the references down. 1 Thessalonians chapter four and verse 13.Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.“Pastor Phil, do you believe in soul sleep?”No. I just believe that death is like sleep to when a believer goes off into the Lord’s presence. It is not some tragic... it is not some horror.I had a Christian not long ago said they just didn’t know what they were going to do and they didn’t know that they were going to handle it that God had been so cruel to them in taking their mother.“How old was your mother?”“Ninety-two.”Well, we are all headed toward death. And I want everybody to get it straight. God is not punishing anyone by allowing all of the natural things of life to happen and death is an appointment that we will keep, some younger, some older, but we will keep that appointment. But for a Christian, for those that truly know the Lord death is like sleep.His death, as well, is precious to God. The Bible says, write this passage, Psalm 116:15. It says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”God looks down on the death of those saints as precious. He thinks of their life. He thinks of their pain. He thinks of what suffering their family might be going through. You remember what Jesus did. Jesus couldn’t even attend a funeral. You couldn’t have a funeral with Jesus present. If Jesus attended a funeral they had to break the thing up because he would just raise the dead person. He didn’t like death and he eliminates.And so death is that way. Death is just like a shuttle bus to go to glory for a believer.You see, Lazarus was taken by the angels to heaven and the shuttle bus drivers were angels. That’s the way it is.A believer never really dies, in fact. Listen to John 11:25. Write the reference down. “Jesus said too her,” speaking to Martha when her brother Lazarus had died. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”Get that. You are going to live even though you die.Now I want to say something to you tonight. Those of you that you feel the aches and pains of life. Things are getting more difficult. You are getting older. You know that you are nearer the gate than you were a few years ago. You have gone over the hump. You know that you have less time before you than you have behind you. I want to say something to you. “He that believes in me,” Jesus said, “will live even if he dies.”You are facing life. You are not facing death. You are facing eternity with him. You are not facing eternity without him. These are the great hopes of the faith. This is what we believe. This is what God’s Word says “And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.” 1 John 2:25. This is our hope is that as we near death, death is but a doorway. It is a shuttle bus to heaven and it is different for the believer and the believer never really dies. “And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”He asked her. “Do you believe this?” You see that was the key. Martha, do you believe? Not: Martha, are you strong? Not: Martha, are you faithful? Not: Martha, do you attend church? Not: Martha, have you been baptized? Not: Martha, have you given to the church? Not: Martha, have you helped old people across the street?No, no, no. He said, “Martha, do you believe?”And I want to tell you tonight that the most important thing, the most important message that I could tell you or you could tell anyone. You should tell them that you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. You must put your faith and trust in him. You must not come with works. You must not come with human efforts. You must not come with your own deeds. You come to the Lord and say, “Just as I am, worthless as I am. I believe that you died for me and that you are going to raise me from the dead because I put my faith in you. I believe.”And whoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. It is so clear. Luke 16:22. When Lazarus died he was carried by angels into Abraham’s side. Jesus said when he was contending with the Sadducees that he was not the God of the dead, but of the living. He is a living God of living people. He talked about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He said, “I am not a God over a grave yard. I am a God over living people.” And Jesus said, “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, those who have gone on centuries before. They are alive.”And I want you to know that that is what death is like for a believer. So belief in Jesus is a key to a life that never runs out. How precious.But the dead, oh, these are the ones standing here in this place. These are the dead. So the death march for the believer can indeed be a blessing, but the horrible experience of a person who dies outside the Lord Jesus, oh it cannot be described with words.I read the story of Voltaire who declared in his lifetime that he would stamp out the use of the Bible in Europe and he was going to start it in France. Today they print Bibles in the house where he lived. Voltaire, the infidel when he came to die, he died with such shrieks and blasphemies that the nurses who attended him ran in horror from his room and he died screeching and screaming. He went out into eternity. That doesn’t sound like falling on sleep. It doesn’t sound like taking the shuttle bus to heaven. This is what happened when Voltaire... And I could go on with so many stories. The dead.These are the dead. They end up here. These are the dead, small and great.You say, “What does that mean, pastor? I see that in the verse.”We know from other verses in the Bible that this will be the unsaved dead. There is going to be a resurrection of unsaved people. All of the unsaved people are going to be resurrected. Naked bodies will be reunited with naked souls. The unsaved small are going to be, the hard hearted, the world pleasers. When it says the small and great I don’t know exactly what that means, but I have many, many things that I could share. The hard hearted people, those whose hearts were hard and they didn’t want to receive the Word of God, the world pleasers, those that were more interested in pleasing the crowd than listening to the Lord. The materialists, those more in love with the things around them than the things that are above, those that were just going on about their business of living on the road of life as if it would go on forever.Who are these small people? 2 Peter talks about them. It says that there is a group that said, “Where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues as it always has.” They said a bird in the hand is much better than two in the bush. They said they thought they had had their pie here on the ground while they are still around and not wait for the pie in the sky for when they die. They just said, “We’ll just take it now.” And these are the people who were living in the world.They may not be mean people. They may not be hateful people. They may not be murderous people or thieves or God haters. They are just unconcerned and they are hooked by this world. They are the small.Then there are the unsaved great. Who are these people? These are those who sinned in horrible, grotesque ways. These are those that made a profession of it and led others to do so like Ahab who led Israel for the first time into Baal worship, like Jeroboam I who caused Israel to sin and he set up calves to represent God and he got their hearts away from the true and living God, like Manasseh who led all of Israel there outside of Jerusalem especially in the valley of Hinnom there as he led them to set up a great god called Molech, the despicable god of Ammon that this great molten God that was a great round figure and sat on hinges and they would heat him up to an unbelievable temperature and bring their little children and throw their children. And the drums would beat and their screams would go up and they would throw their children and pray back that great god Molech and they would fall down into the fire. These are the great sinners like Hitler that killed 50 million people, like Stalin who did away with half of an entire nation, the men of his nation, like 1000 rock stars that sell their souls to the devil to get rich in return for leading a parade of young people to hell, like the world wide affliction of drug producers and dealers and rat slingers that glorify the whole drug culture.You say, “Pastor, you are coming down.”I am telling you that the sinners small and great are going to be there and the books are going to be opened. It is going to happen like that. The great will be there. They will always be there. There will be no blasphemy in that day. There is not going to be any unbelief. They will all know who Jesus is. There will be no doubters. Everyone will be a believer that day. There won’t be any bragging about the fact that there is no God. You won’t hear any of them say that there is not going to be any judgment. You are not going to hear any one of them say that there is no hell. You are not going to hear any of them sing and imagine if there is no heaven, imagine if there is no hell. No, they are not going to be singing that at that time.And all through the millennium the heavenly Father has been holding back his wrath and now he is holding forth his mercy even in the moment that we are living, living in a day of grace where he extends forth his mercy. But the day of wrath and judgment will come and this is that day.“So where is this judgment, pastor?”Well, it is before a great white throne. Verse 11. What a chilling scene. Let me read it to you. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.” What a chilling scene.A great white throne. It is great because it is world wide in scope. It envelopes all sinners. It is called because it represents the awesome purity and holiness of the one that sits there and of the judgment that is going to go forth. And it is a place of judgment.And somebody is going to ask, “Well, pastor, is that God the Father that is sitting on the throne that is meting out judgment?”Absolutely not. It is Jesus Christ.“You mean Jesus the kind, the lowly, the meek, the one who is the friend of sinners, the one who for sinners was slain? You mean he is going to judge? Why I thought Jesus was so full of love.”You know he came meek like a lamb the first time. He is coming powerful like a lion the second time. Make sure that you understand that he is the lion of the tribe of Judah and he is going to come back in power and great splendor. Praise God that Jesus is the one that is going to be judged.You say, “Pastor, how do you know that?”Listen to John five and verse 21. Listen of you would.For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no-one.Listen to God’s Word. “The Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.”You see, the one that took the whippings, the one that took the nailings, the one that took all of the mockery and blasphemy, the one that took all of the hatred of mankind, the one who became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He is the one that is going to judge. He is the one. Jesus will judge the world.One of the great passages of Scripture that you may have never thought of that talks about this Acts 17 and verse 30. It says:In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.And who is this man he has appointed? He who he has appointed is Jesus Christ his own Son and the assurance of justice, the assurance of judgment in this world is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You can’t have a dead judge sitting on the throne. No. He is alive. God raised his Son Jesus from the dead and Jesus himself, the Bible says, will judge this world in righteousness. And those who stand at the great white throne judgment will recognize him immediately.In fact, when Jesus comes back at the end of the tribulation period, before they begin the millennium, when he comes back with the clouds with great splendor, the Bible says every eye is going to see him right then. It says that everyone is going to see him and they are going to know who he is. They are going to recognize him whom they have pierced.Well, it is going to even be more obvious at this great white throne as they stand before him. They will recognize him. They will immediately know that he is the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful sight for believers to see the face of the Lord. How glorious it will be when you and I look at him.How many of you saw the passion? I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to bow before his face and thank him. I can’t wait to kiss those feet that were driven with the nails. I can’t wait to touch his side. I cant’ wait to tell him I love him. I can’t wait to look in those eyes of mercy.But I want you to know that is not the face that you are going to see. What a glorious thing to look in the face of Jesus for a believer. But it is going to be an altogether different thing on this day when the unsaved stand before him. They will be terrified by that face. They will stand there and see the face, the awesome face of Jesus Christ with eyes like flames of fire. His entire being is burning as a fire inapproacble and they are going stand before him.The wicked dead will know Jesus because of the Calvary cuts on his body. I think they will think about all the times they blasphemed his name. Maybe they will think about those times that they laughed and scorned and mocked the name of Jesus by using his name as a byword or to emphasize a thought.Have you ever seen a time when they took Jesus Christ as a byword or a curse word like they do today? They use his name as if it were some sort of curse word.They are going to think about those things. They will no doubt remember every gospel tract that they ignored. They will remember every witness that they scorned and they will think about every Christian that they belittled and they will think about every opportunity to come to Christ that they spurned.Look at that passage of Scripture in verse 11. It says the earth and sky fled from his presence, no place for them to turn, no place for them to hide, nothing to get behind.Take your Bibles and turn back to Revelation chapter six if you would, Revelation chapter six verse 15. We read this last week. This is at his coming. This is when he is coming to judge this world and this world’s system. It says, “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave...”You say, “Wait a minute. How many judgments are there?”Well, this is a judgment on the entire world itself, the cosmos, the way things are, the way things work, the way people are, the way this system of hate and rape. This is the judgment on this world.“And every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.”Man may not have come out of a cave, but he is going back to a cave and everybody is going to become religious. They wouldn’t worship Jesus, but they will worship and pray to the rocks to fall on them.They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"Well, they will be standing in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. Oh, yes. They are going to be suspended there some kind of way between who knows what out in the middle of nowhere where God sets his judgment. There is nowhere to hide. There is no sky. There is no cloud to get behind. There is no bush. There is no cave. There is not anywhere to hide, nothing but to stand before this awesome sight of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords sitting on the throne and sitting in justice, sitting in judgment.There, face to face with the Lord what a day that will be.Who are these rejecters? Who are these people? 2 Thessalonians chapter two and verse 10 says they perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. They just simply reject it, the truth.Now I want you to look at something else in here. I want you to look at the rejecter’s record. What is his record? You remember I started by talking about how they were keeping records on me when I was in the first grade. Well, I want you to know God is keeping records and he has been keeping records all the way through time. There is this idea of books that we see here. The passage says the books were opened. Later it says the dead were judged out of the books. God is keeping books.You say, “Pastor, what kind of books is God keeping?”Well, for everyone he is keeping the book of your life. Psalm 139 verse 15 and 16:My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.Why there is the book of your life. God knows all about you. He has been writing all the time. Proverbs says the hand of the Lord writeth all the time. Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro in the whole earth.” God is everywhere. He sees everything we do.There is the book of your life and then there is the book of remembrance. Oh, Christian. Believer here tonight, I want you to know that those hours of difficulty and hardship and heartache that you have had, when you have gone through long nights at hospitals, where you have stood by graves, God is watching.A book of remembrance, Malachi chapter three and verse 16. “Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard.” Oh, listen. You want to get a smile. You want to get God’s attention? Have a small group in your home and talk with each other about the Lord. He loves that. You want to get God’s attention? Then go to work and when it is break time find yourself a table. Get out a New Testament and read it and talk about God’s Word and share your love for the Lord with one another because God loves it when his people talk about him. He loves that.Look at what it says.Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name. "They will be mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.His precious possession. God loves it and he writes a book of remembrance about you. Psalm 56:8 says, “Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll— are they not in your record?”And all of the tears and all of the heartache and all of the difficulty and all of the problems and everything you have been through have not been gone through alone in the first place and, second, they have not gone through without notice. They have not gone through without God watching. Whatever trial, whatever temptation, whatever struggle, he has written it down in his book.In another translation it says, “Are not all of your tears in a bottle or [?]” which is a flask. It was a flask for perfume. A [?] was a perfume flask. And so all of his tears that fell out, he captured them in a bottle and he thought they were your... He... For him they were perfume.Whenever you were weeping, whenever you were calling out to him your prayers are that way. The Bible says in Revelation that your prayers are like incense when you call out to him in anguish of heart. And the Bible says he is near to that person who is contrite. He is near to that person who is of a broken heart.And so when we weep and when we cry and we go through the gristmill of life he is there. He writes it down. There is a book of remembrance.Then there is something else. And, oh, this is so heavy. There is a book of your works. For the Christian Romans 14:12 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 tell us that every one of us will give an account of himself to God for the deeds done in the body whether good or evil. That is going to happen for the Christian.But then it goes on. We will have to understand that in the passage here in verse 12 it is no longer talking about Christians. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.” Drop down. “The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”Every idle word and every idle thought and every idle deed. And here we are told that that day books are going to be open and everyone is going to be judged according to their works. Salvation is according to faith, but judgment is according to works. You understand that. No one in this auditorium tonight that claims the name of Jesus, that has put their faith and trust in Jesus, none of you are going to be judged according to your works for salvation. But these people are going to be judged according to their works for punishment.Judgment will be according to works. Everything a person has ever done will come up on the day of judgment. Memories will come alive in those days. Long forgotten sins you will remember in that day. Things you did in school will come up in memory in that day. Things you did on the job that were wrong will come up in that day. Things you did at home, things you did that no one knew, all the secret things are going to come up.Ecclesiastes 12 says, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”The Bible says in Romans 2:16 that, “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ,” Paul speaking, “as my gospel declares.”Think about it. Things that went on in the back seat of cars, things that went on at drive ins. They are going to be revealed at that day.You say, “Nobody saw me do that.”Oh, you have got to be kidding. God saw everything. And he recorded it in his books, things you did on a business trip your wife never knew about it. It is going to be revealed on that day. The Bible says all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. It will all come out in those days. God is keeping a record. It is all in the books. And you know how much can be stored on one little three and a half inch floppy disk, the amount of information, how many one liners of your life can be stored there.You say, “Has God got some big computer?”Yes, it is called your brain. And God is going to push the buttons on your brain and on your life and on your memory that you never even knew that you had and all the sudden every single thought, every idle word, every deed is going to play before you as if you were seeing it on a DVD large screen down at some theater.Imagine when God taps your mind for the memories.You say, “Oh, pastor. Is that going to happen to me?”Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Isn’t it a wonderful thing to know that if you put your faith and trust in Jesus he just turn that part of the mechanism off. He is never going to bring that up for accusation for you. He is never going to say to those things that you have confessed and he has forgiven, for those of us that know the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are not even going to be standing here in this judgment, much less be up to have the whole world see all those things that we have done.Oh praise God for his forgiveness.And then there is another book. Well, this book is called the book of life. This is the one. This is the big book, the book of life. It says in verse 15, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”“Pastor, do you believe in a literal hell?”Yes. I do.You say, “Pastor, why do you believe in a literal hell?”Because I believe in a literal heaven and I believe in literal water and literal sand and literal earth and literal food and literal words. And I believe in literal life and literal everlasting life. I believe when God speaks in common sense we ought not to seek any other sense. Anything else is nonsense and God says there is a lake that is made of fire.“Well, that just doesn’t enter into our 21st century thinking.”It doesn’t matter. God was along before the centuries... was here before the centuries began and what he says is true and all of what science says, falsely so called, is going to fall like so much ash on a windy day whenever God sets the record straight.The Bible says they are going to be thrown into the lake of fire.21:27. This book is called the Lamb’s book of life. It is the record of every person who has received the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior. If you have received the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior then your name is in this book. That is why we know that at the great white throne judgment there will be no saved people there because no one who is at the great white throne judgment has their name in the book. It will be all lost people.It says their name is not going to be written in that book until all the evidence is in, every work that they have ever done to determine what degree or how horrible the punishment, but I want to tell you that I wouldn’t make reservations in any portion of hell. I wouldn’t make reservations in any portion of the desert. And I certainly would make no reservations in any portion of hell.The evidence is in.You say, “Pastor, how do you get your name in this Lamb’s book of life? And how can you get rid of all that evidence against you?”The Bible says in 1 John 1:7, very simple that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.You say, “You guys preach about death. You preach about hell or about heaven and love. You preach about a bloody gospel. You preach about blood and about crucifixion and about all the... and about how somebody had to die for my sin. Well, I just don’t like that bloody gospel. We need something that is just a little more palatable for the 21st century mind.”What the 21st century mind needs is a bended knee and a humble heart to fall down before the Lord and recognize that we are sinners and nothing but the blood of Jesus washes away our sins. Jesus can wash our sins away.Then I want you to see, finally, the rejection of these rejecters. Jews and Gentiles made sport of rejecting Christ while he was here on earth and now 20 centuries of rejecters have lived and died. It is sentence time. It is time for a verdict to come in. It is time for the day of judgment to come to its climax.What is the verdict going to be? The dead of the past and the present, they have resurrected.You say, “Pastor, you mean all of those that have already died and gone off into suffering are actually going to be brought...?”Oh, yes. How horrible will that be? They have been in this place of suffering who knows how long. Some for centuries, some for decades, some for moments. But they are drawn right back up out and put in some sort of a body, stood before the Lord there to hear him say, “Your name is not in the book. That was just a taste of what is to come. Depart from me. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”How horrible.The dead of the past, present, the recent dead are present. They appear to hear the sentence. And the Bible says that the Lord Jesus says in that day, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity into fire prepared for devil and his angels.”You know, we are living in a day of grace today. The great word of our day, this word of grace is wrapped up in these little words where Jesus says, “Come to me.”But in that day the three little words are going to be, “Depart from me.”Now he is saying, “Come to me.” But people get so excited about the world we are living in and thinking, “If I come to Jesus I may lose out. I may lose a little popularity in this world. If I come to him I may not be able to climb the corporate ladder as quickly because I will have to be honest and upright in all of my dealings. If I come to him and I am going to be just as Joe religious, I will be down at that church all the time. If I come to him they are going to want some of my money.”And we start thinking about what it is going to cost us, but we are missing the whole point.If we don’t come to him now we are going to hear him say, “Depart from me,” then. “Come to me,” or “Depart from me.” Those are the only two options that there are. Right now he is not saying, “Depart from me,” to anyone. He is saying, “Come.”“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.“All that the Father has given to me will come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I won’t put them away.“Verily, verily, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, will have everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.”And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.He says, “Come.” He wraps up the Bible saying, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” and “And whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely.”You see, this I the day of, “Come.” But when we get to the end of the road it is going to be the day of, “Depart.” Come or depart. It makes you want to wonder whether you have been playing church, doesn’t it? It makes you wonder whether this whole church experience is about a refuge from the storm for you. It is a nice place for you to rear your children. It is a good place to get away from all those evil people out there. But coming to Jesus? I mean giving him total care and control of your life and saying, “Lord, here am I. Save me, Use me, fill me, make me... Oh, I don’t want that kind of salvation.”It makes you wonder, doesn’t it.How about your Christian—quote, unquote—experience? How about it? Are you going to stand before him and here him say, “His name is written or his name is not written”? Are you going to hear him say, “Depart”?Everyone that is at this place is going to depart.Now there is going to be some people absent on that day.“Pastor, will all the murderers be there at the great white throne?”Oh, no. They won’t all be there. The apostle Paul was a murderer. He murdered and he consented to the death of Stephen, this great deacon.You say, “Pastor, why won’t Paul be there since he was a murderer?”He settled his case out of court. Think about it.“Pastor, will all the adulterers be there, the whoremongers and the prostitutes? Will all the pornographers be there? Will all the liars be there? Will all the people who have lived their despicable lives, are they going to be there?”Oh, no. No. They are not all going to be there. Remember the woman that was taken in adultery and Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned thee?”And she said, “No man, Lord.”And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.”She settled her case out of court.You see, that is what we have here in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11 to 15. You have got the final court with the final judge and the final judgment coming now. You have got people standing. Nobody sits. Stand there.Do you think people are going to answer back, make excuses? Oh, no. The Bible says they will be without excuse. It will not open. In fact, they are going to agree with the verdict and say, “Your verdict is right. Your verdict is just.”In their heart they will know that they have received justice and will say, “Amen,” to the verdict.There are going to be people left.You know, I really deserve, personally, to go to the great white throne judgment and to hear him say, “Depart.” But I am not going to be there.”You say, “Why, pastor?”Because I settled my case out of court when I was 12 years old. I came to the Lord Jesus and I said, “Jesus, I am a sinner. Oh, I am a good little sinner. I am a church going sinner. I am a memory verse winning sinner. I am a Bible toting sinner. I am a church member sinner, but I am a proud sinner and I am on my road to hell and I know that I don’t deserve the minimal part of your grace and your mercy. Save me.”I was just 12. And he saved me.Do you know what I did? I settled my case out of court.Who settled it for me? Jesus. That old account was settled long ago on a cross called Calvary. Jesus died for me.You know, the Bible says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment, to them that are in Christ Jesus.” And I want to say to you tonight that I do not want a fair trial. What I want is what I got, a free pardon. If you are here tonight and you don’t want a fair trial before God in heaven because a fair trial is going to send you to that lake of fire, that eternal place of judgment where you will never get out, what you want is a free pardon.You say, “How do I get it?”Come. Jesus says, “Come to me. Come to me and I will never turn you away.”Today he says come. But, my friend, if you wait, he will say, “Depart.”What are you going to say if you stand before God at the great white throne? Nothing. The Bible says every mouth will be stopped and all the world will be guilty before God. You will say, “Amen” to your own condemnation. You will have to say that God is just. God is right and that I deserve everything I am given.I have heard this in my life. Some who boast and think that it is just not all true say, “Heaven is for climbing and hell is for company.” Some might say that, but think about the company that will be there.In chapter 20 and verse 10 the Bible says, “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” There is some of the compadres. There’s some of the fellow sufferers: the devil, the beast, the false prophet.Look at chapter 21 and verse number eight if you would, please, to find out about the company in hell. The Bible says there in chapter 21 and verse eight, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.”But tonight and the message you can carry to anyone that will listen is you can receive 100% free pardon from the Lord Jesus Christ if you come to him, a sinner in humility and say, “I am a sinner. I don’t deserve any of your forgiveness or grace, but I come on the basis of your invitation to come, I come and I receive you as my personal Lord and Savior.”“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”Acts 16:31. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”You say, “Pastor, what are you trying to do tonight? Who are you? What is this all about?”I want to personalize this verse, 2 Corinthians chapter five and verse 20. And I want to say, “I am therefore Christ’s ambassador as though God were making his appeal through me. I implore you on Christ’s behalf. Be reconciled to God. God made him, Jesus, who had no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?I want to make two appeals tonight. There are two appeals that I want to make. I want to appeal to you to search your heart and examine yourself to see if you be in the faith, to examine your own heart and find out whether this is churchianity or whether you know Christ, whether it is a game you have played or whether you have put your faith and trust in him. And honestly said, “I am coming to you Jesus, complete, lock, stock and barrel.”Are you here tonight and if your life were to be snuffed out by a tornado, a car wreck, some ailment, heart failure and you were to go off into eternity to only await this day of judgment, are you positive that your name is in the book of life?If it is not in the book of life you are going to hear three dreadful words. “Depart from me.” And angels will carry you bound and throw you into a lake of fire that burns forever.You say, “Pastor, are you trying to scare me into salvation?”If I thought I could, I would. But I implore you. I beg you. I come up to you now and I plead with you as an ambassador for Christ carrying the message of hope to tell you tonight, “Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because there is judgment at the end of the road.”If you are here and you are like that tonight and you say, “Pastor, I need just what you said, I am going to put pride aside, I am going to put all of that stuff aside. I am going to put pride of face, race, place or grace, I am going to put all that aside and I am going to say right now, I need to have Jesus save me and give me eternal life and forgiveness of sins. Pastor, pray for me that I would have the courage to do that now.” If you are here and like that, just raise your hand up. Are you here and like that? “I need to be saved.”I am not going to embarrass you. I am not going to come back to you. All right. You need to pray this prayer. And here is the prayer you pray.Dear Jesus, I am a sinner. I come to you. You have invited me to come and I have come. I believe I am condemned for my sins. I ask you to forgive me for my sin and come into my heart. Wash my sins away. Make me part of your family. Take me to heaven when I die. I believe you died and that you were buried and that you rose again. Today I give you total care and control of my life. Amen.With your heads bowed and eyes closed if you prayed that prayer I want to encourage you to not dare leave this place until you go by where pastor Dan is going to be standing by a table back there that says, “Getting Started with God.” Pick up a package. Leave your name there so that we can rejoice with you and pray with you.Now there is another group I want to address. You are a Christian. And no matter how interesting and exciting all of this study is about things to come, I want to say to you as a Christian these things... We may not see the rapture in our lifetime. I believe we will. We may not see all of these other things. But I will tell you one thing that is absolutely certain for every person in this room. We are going to give an account of ourselves to God for the deeds done in our body good and evil. We are going to give an account of our time, talent, treasure. We are going to give an account of the way we expended what God put in us in time, talent and treasure. He made us witnesses of his grace because he saved us.My question for you is: Is it important to you that your friends, your coworkers, your neighbors and family, is it important to you that they miss this lake of eternal burning? Is it important to you?You know, we get lulled to sleep, my fellow Christians, we get lulled into cars and houses and lands and golf courses and ball games and ballet recitals and church work. We just get lulled to sleep.But you were made for a mission. Are you listening? You and I were made for a mission. Part of that mission with tears in our eyes and compassion in our heart is to share with those we know.You say, “Well, I am not a missionary. I don’t live in Africa.”No, but he is certainly watching where you do live and the people that you do know. I am going to pray for holy boldness from God in your heart. I am going to pray now that God would give you holy boldness, encouraging boldness so that you would without shame of face would begin even more—many of you do—but even more to share the good news of the gospel to those that are around us.The time is short. John said that when the book was written. Time is short.Are you a Christian? You know in your heart, you know in your heart that you begin to living at ease in Zion, living at ease in this nation of plenty while our friends and neighbors, our loved ones, coworkers and schoolmates are headed on the broad road of destruction. Will you share with them? Will you tell them? We can preach the truth to them. Will you give a witness? Stand and say to them, “Here is what Jesus is to me.”Will you do it?You say, “Pastor, are you church building right now?”No. I’m kingdom building right now. I am talking to you about getting the good news of the gospel out so that your friend, loved one does not have to go to hell.If you are here tonight and you say, “Pastor, oh, you are preaching to me tonight. It hits me home. It hits home with me. You threw the stone and I am yelping because I know that I need to use my opportunities better. Pastor, pray for me. Pray for me tonight.”Would you raise your hand? Just raise it. Pray for me. Pray tonight.Oh Father, help us to be faithful. Help us to be faithful in giving out your Word. Jesus, we look forward so much to seeing your face, to kissing your hands and feet, to hearing you tell of how you purchased salvation for all of men, for all of time, for those that believe. Father, thank you for sending your Son. Thank you for loving us in spite of our unloveliness. Bless us now tonight and let us go forth from this place like an entire army to spread the good news of the gospel. With heads bowed and eyes closed before we go if you said, “Pastor, I prayed that earlier prayer, I asked Jesus into my heart and I am so happy that I did that. I just want you to pray for me that I will begin to know him better, to grow. Pastor, pray for me,” just put your hand up. I won’t embarrass you or come to you. Just put your hand up. Is there one? Is there one?Our Father, thank you for this time together. Bless us as we go out now like an entire army of believers. Oh, what 300 or 400 people can do in the city of Des Moines if we went out with our hearts on fire with the truth of the gospel, full of your love and full of the truth. Help us, now. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.Hebrews 9:27-28Hebrews 9:27Hebrews 9:27 (KJV)See Hebrews 9:27Hebrews 9:27See Hebrews 9:27Revelation 20:11-14Revelation 20:14-15Revelation 21:27Revelation 20:11-141 Thessalonians 4:13-14Psalm 116:15John 11:25Ibid.See John 11:251 John 2:25See John 11:25John 11:26See 2 Peter 3:4Revelation 20:11John 5:21-22John 5:22Acts 17:30-31Revelation 6:15Ibid.Revelation 6:16-17Psalm 139:15-16See Proverbs 15:3Malachi 3:16Malachi 3:16-18Psalm 56:8Revelation 20:12Ibid.Ecclesiastes 12:14Romans 2:16Ibid.Revelation 20:15See 1 John 1:7See Matthew 7:23Matthew 11:28See John 6:37See John 5:241 John 5:11-12Revelation 22:17See Revelation 22:17See John 8:10See John 8:11John 8:11See Romans 8:1Revelation 20:10Revelation 21:8John 6:37Acts 16:31See 2 Corinthians 5:20-21Page PAGE 1 of NUMPAGES 26
Peace on the Road
Peace on the Road
By Phil Winfield
Bible Text: Revelation 3:10, Isaiah 9:6-7
Preached on: Sunday, May 9, 2004
Grace Church of Des Moines, IA
4200 E. 25th StreetDes Moines, IA 50317
Website: http://www.gracehome.com
Online Sermons: http://gracehome.sermonaudio.com
You have your Bibles open to Revelation chapter three and verse 10. Let me just read that verse we kicked off with last week. “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.”We began this lesson last Sunday night and was not able to finish it and we are going to pick up where we left off, but we told you to underline that little phrase where it says, “Those who live on the earth” or the earth dwellers, those people who live in this world.And just this week talking about sign posts on the road, talking about the road ahead it was interesting. I don’t know how many of you either saw it on the internet or read it in the newspaper about those 10 new nations that joined the European Union, all of those 10 real small, Lithuania and all those nations. How many of you read that article in the paper? Did you see that? Did you? That is very interesting.Somebody is going to say, “Well, pastor, if 10 nations joined, how many are in there?”Well, there’s a lot of nations that are in there and those 10 nations that joined were all one block nation at the time of the writing of the book of the Revelation. And when we talk about those 10 horns or those 10 powers that are going to be present during the time of tribulation or during the time of the antichrist, when we talk about those 10 we are talking about the 10 nations that will be the revived Roman Empire, those 10 that were in existence at the time of this writing. There may be 20, 30, 40. It doesn’t make any difference at our time because when we get to that time it is going to refer to the same areas, the same ancient nations that were alive and well at the time of the Roman Empire.And so I thought that was very interesting that they were meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland and that there was a president of the European Union, the nations that make up the European Union that was... He was taking care of and he was the moderator for all that was going on and they called him the president. Well, I really zeroed in on that and read it very carefully.Evidently they already have a president of the European Union or the European Common Market. They already have a president, but he only serves for one year. And so in order to just spread around this dignified position of being president of the European Market they change it every year and so this year it happens to be Belfast and the person is someone from Ireland. Next year it could be from Holland. The next year it could be from who knows, who knows where, France, some other place. And they keep moving it around.But they already have the apparatus in place for there to be a one world government, for there to be a government there in that area of the world and the person will be called, I’m sure, he is going to be elected as president of that European Union and then from that position he will launch is world domination.We talked about the fact that on the road ahead there is living on the road ahead is going to be very, very difficult. There is something other than an earth only option for people. We have already talked about vanishing from the road, being raptured by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ or the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the shout of Jesus, those that know the Lord rising up to meet him in the air. We saw that in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, 2 Thessalonians chapter two. We talked about that and other places that we talked about.Last week we talked about the fact that the world was going to be in tremendous desperation and terrible tribulation and under total condemnation and I want to pick up where we left off. We talked about the tremendous desperation and now, then, I want to talk about the fact that we are going... that the world... that everyone is going to find themselves in terrible tribulation. We talked about the one world ruler, the one world government and its ruler the antichrist that takes all sorts of steps to fill the void of leadership in the world that is going to be created by the absence of so many Christians whenever the rapture and that he is going to be a diplomat. He is going to be charismatic, an autocrat, a despotic and finally psychotically demonic leader that is going to lead the world.The world... the people that are living on the road, they were happy that all of the Christians exited the world. They are going to be excited about it. We have finally thrown off all their rules, all their regulations. We have gotten rid of them and now we are going to do what we want to do.Well, the traded the rule of God and the rule of reason for the rule of a tyrant and they thought they were going to throw off restraint, but now they are under the authority of a satanically controlled maniac.Matthew 24:21. “For then there will be great distress [or tribulation], unequalled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.”The Bible predicts there are going to be a period of time on earth, brief, but intense. It will be a time of tribulation and it is going to be an awful existence for those that have chosen this world. We have already talked about the fact that the antichrist will rule politically. He is going to rule economically. He is going to rule religiously. I emphasized that with these verses in Revelation 13:4. “Men worshipped the dragon.” Revelation 13:9. They worshipped the beast. Revelation 13:11. They worshipped the beast whose fatal wound was healed. Revelation 13:15. They worshipped the image of the beast. If they didn’t they were killed. And it is all about the devil’s insatiable desire to be worshipped as God.And this does not start in the period of the tribulation. This doesn’t just begin. This has been Satan’s desire ever since day one when he wasn’t called Satan. He was called Lucifer. He was the bright one, the shining one. He was the prince of the morning. He was the chief musician of heaven and Lucifer means luminary. He was the light of that place and he became so desirous, he became so enamored with himself that he desired the very position of God and he tried to take it over.He said, “I am going to take God’s place.”And God said, “No, you won’t.”Now in chapter... In verse nine of chapter 14 which is where we left off last week. I want you to jump over there and I want you to see something very, very important, Revelation chapter 14 and verse nine. This is very, very important.A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.Notice that it says in chapter 13 it went on and on about the demand to worship. If you are going to live in this world you are going to have to worship the beast. If you are going to remain on this road you are going to keep following this path, if you put all your eggs in this world, if Jesus comes and takes away his children and if they go off into eternity for a period where there is going to be a period of judgment called the bema seat and also the marriage supper of the lamb and while they are gone if a person chooses to be in this world, then they are going to be forced to take the economic program, the political program and the religious program of the beast. And the beast or the antichrist is going to desire worship. Worship me. Worship me politically, worship me economically and worship me religiously. I am your God.Make no mistake about it. Any religion will be fine as long as you give ultimate authority to the beast, to this one.But the Bible says here in chapter 14 there at verse number nine that that is the fatal mistake, that anyone that receives this mark, if they receive it, then they have just condemned themselves.Since I have started this series, I have had conversations with many of you. And many of you have said, “Well, what if somebody took that thing unwillingly? What if somebody... What if they do come up with this microchip thing that you are talking about or some other away and they just start injecting people with these microchips and they just do it indiscriminately whether you want...how about when they are born? A child is born.No. That is very important that you understand that word “receive” there in verse number nine. You just key in on that word. The word “receive” speaks of an attitude. It means to rush forward and take the mark. It means to be the first to be in line. It means to be desirous of taking the mark.Well, somebody would say, “Well, man, when this thing all starts unfolding and it becomes obvious that you have got a person that wants to be the single ruler of the world, why in the world would they ever line up to take the mark? Why would they want to do that? Why wouldn’t they rebel when they understand that?”Well, it is very simple. It is because of the money. I said this at the end last week, that it is all about the economy just like a former president said, “It is the economy, stupid.” And at that period of time that is exactly the reason that people are going to make this choice. It is about the money. Many of the people, many of those that are alive at that time are going to be into money just like people that are alive right now. The true God, the true worship is toward money itself and the power and the prosperity and the acquiring power that one gets if he is able to wield great amounts of money.The day and age of which we live in there are many, many people that are willing to sacrifice anything in order to acquire, in order to get more, in order to just be able to have more at their disposal. Well, it is going to be exactly the same way during the tribulation.People are going to say, “Well, if that is the economy, if that is the way things work, just show me the ground rules and if that is the ground rules, then just tell me where to sign. Where do I get that mark? Show me where to get it?”And they are going to line up because their real god is money. It is no mistake that Jesus said in the New Testament that you cannot serve God and what? Money, because I want to tell you that the greatest god in the world today, the greatest god—unknowingly they are worshipping Satan—but the greatest god in this world is the god of acquisition. It is the ability to buy. It is reduced to money.And I said this at the end. Maybe you weren’t here last week. Woe be unto the Christian that makes all of his decisions, whether they are political, whether they are locational, whether they are relational, you make your decisions on the basis of money. If you make your decisions on the basis of a raise or able to continue to climb some corporate ladder, you are falling into the exact same thing that is going to motivate people to follow the beast during the time of the tribulation.There are more important things in this world than how much money a person can make and the ability to acquire.You say, “Do you hate money?”No. I don’t hate money, but I tell you one thing. I don’t want to worship money and let money become what motivates me more than anything else.Now I want you to know that in the United States of America today the number one political... the number one political consideration in our country is not the issue of abortion, it is not the issue of same sex marriage, it is not the issue of external influences on America, internal corruption. Those are not the issues that are motivating people to vote in this day and age. Coming up this November when we are going to be voting for president, people... the majority, not all, but the majority of Americans are going to vote themselves, they are going to vote according to their pocketbook. They are going to vote according to what looks like it is going to come out best for them.Why? Because money is everything.“Amen, pastor Phil. You are telling the truth.”Are you listening tonight? I am talking to Christians tonight who make decisions based on increase.You say, “Should I never take a raise? Should I never move from one...”I am never going to say that. But I am going to say if you take... If you do what you do based only and solely on increase, you take your family away from a good place, a good church, good schools, good neighborhoods, good... You take them away. Move... You know, Lot made the same kind of decision.Do you remember Lot? Do you remember Lot? What did Lot do? Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. He moved closer and closer and before you knew it he was living right in Sodom. He wanted influence in Sodom. He wanted power in Sodom. He wanted money in Sodom and he sacrificed his wife and his children. In order to have influence in Sodom, he gave up influence in his own family.Be careful. Be very, very careful as a Christian not to fall into the same mentality, even before the tribulation period and I am afraid that it has infected Christianity just like it has infected the rest of the world. These things we are... As we look at this we are only scratching the surface of all the things that are going to go on during the tribulation period. This is the time of Jacob’s trouble. It is the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy.And, but I want to give you a further glimpse tonight of what it will be like to live on the road and I mentioned it just as we got... Just all I did was just mention the phrase, the fact that there are going to be horses on the road down the road ahead for those that decide to stay in this world and I want us to look at that, so turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter six. I have heard so many sermons on this passage and I have read so many books. There is so much allegory out there and people try to say, “Well, you know, we don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but it does look bad. Maybe it has already happened. Maybe it is in the past. Maybe it is in the future.”I want to tell you that Revelation chapter one says that he was revealing to John the things that had to come shortly. They were in the future, things that had to happen. They have not happened as of that time. And as we look at the world and we look at history we know that not all of these things have happened yet.I want you to look at chapter six of Revelation. Let me read for you verses one and two. It says, “I watched as the Lamb...” talking about Jesus, “...opened the first of the seven seals.”I had better describe and better explain that word seven seals. You see, there was a scroll that was in the hand of one that stood before he that was sitting on the throne. This is back in chapters four and five. There was a scroll that was sealed with seven seals or it was tied up seven times. And these seals were on the scroll and inside the scroll were the final judgments, the judgments of God on this world. And so this angel stood there and cried with a loud voice and said, “Who is worthy to open the book or to loose the seals of this scroll and to loose the judgments that are inside?”And John said, “I wept much because no one was found worthy to open the seals.” He cried. He wept about it. Nobody was there. Nobody was there in heaven. The rapture had happened. There were believers everywhere. They were all around the throne. They had been worshipping, they had been worshipping people from every nation, from every tongue. They are there, but the cry goes out. “Who is worthy to open the seals and to pour out the judgment on the world? Who is worthy to do that?”And John wept much.Why would he weep about that? Well, maybe the emotion of the moment. Maybe it is because he felt that God’s will was being thwarted, that God wanted to judge, but there was nobody that could do it. I think he was weeping for two reasons. I think he was weeping because he knew that he was in the presence of such awesome power that when judgment started no one was going to be able to detain it. And the very fact that God was going to judge the world shocked him to the bottom of his soul.The second thing is, is perhaps he was thinking about his own situation. You know, first century tradition tells us that John had already been boiled in oil by this time and somehow had lived through it. And maybe he was thinking about his persecutors. Maybe hew as thinking about how all of the other apostles had been killed, crucified, maimed, thrown to the lions. Maybe he was thinking about... This is late in the first century now. Maybe he had seen the thousands and thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of martyrs that had been killed. They had been used as torches to light Nero’s garden. He had seen all kinds of things. They had been thrown to the lions. They had been painted with pitch and thrown out on fire in front of the lions. They had been put in sheets. They had taken sheep’s clothing and wrapped it around those little children and pushed them out into the Coliseum so that the lions would rip them to pieces. He is seeing all these things.Maybe the very thought of the fact that no one was found worthy to open the seals of judgment disturbed him the other way. “God, when are you going to judge? When are you going to finally put an end to all of these things that are happening to your children in the world?”Who knows he was crying? But he was crying because no one was found worthy.Well, then one step forward like a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He was King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he took the roll out of his hand. And what you see here in chapter six is the only person in all of the world that has the right to judge this world. Think about that for a moment. Who was found worthy to judge?You know, sometimes I think that we are going to bring a political solution because we think we are going to bring a political solution. We are going to vote in the right political party or the right person and they are going to put things in order and that is going to be the end of it. Or it is going to judge evil and evil is just going to go away or we are just going to... We are going to rise up at the grass roots level in America. We are going to change this nation, change the future. We should get involved in every single way that we can, but do not put your hopes in political change, in revolution in this world changing the essence of what this world is. It is not going to happen.And I want you to know that there is not a human being on planet earth that is worthy to judge this world.How many of you would like to play God for a day?Well, I think sometimes we get in our head, boy, if I were God I would, but do you know what? If we were God we would mess it up because we would start judging immediately and we would judge the wrong people because we cannot see people’s hearts. We do not know the motives. We do not know what is inside of people. We do not know why they do what they do. We do not have a clue as to what their paradigm has been, what their life has been. We don’t know everything.But I will tell you who does know how to judge and who can judge with righteousness, with mercy and compassion all at the same time. Do you know who can judge? God can judge and he has chosen to give that judgment to his pure Son Jesus Christ who came and suffered all that heaven and hell both could throw at him on the cross. He died. He was buried and he rose again triumphant over death, hell and the grave and he is the judge.Do you understand that Jesus is going to judge this world? He is going to take that scroll out of his hand and here is what is going to happen.“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures...” That’s a future study “...say in a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”You say, “Pastor, what is this white horse and who is the rider?”Well, this white horse always speaks of victory. A white horse back in the time of Napoleon every time he showed up on the battle field he would show up with a horse of victory riding it. It speaks of peace. When an army wanted terms of peace in the Roman days they would ride out on a white horse and seek the terms of that peace. It speaks of the conqueror as I mentioned, the custom of the conquerors like Napoleon which would ride through the battle field with their banners flying on either side on a white horse announcing that they were the conqueror.It has a rider. Notice that this rider has a crown on his head. The word is a stefanov (stef’-an-os) and that word is the victor’s crown, the winner, the one who has conquered. He gets to wear that crown.And then I want you to notice something else about it that is a little bit disturbing. Let me read it to you. “I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”So you have this white horse representing victory. You have a conqueror wearing a conqueror’s crown and he is riding out speaking of peace, carrying a bow. He carries a bow, but it is interesting that this is a bow without any arrows. Immediately... the immediate problem after the rapture of the church will be a need for world leadership. A lot of people think that this rider on here, this white horse, why that’s Jesus we think. Why he is riding out...No. If you want to read about the white horse that Jesus is going to be riding and the true victor’s crown and of the thousands and myriads of millions that are going to ride with him, you have got to flip over to chapter 19 and read about that. This is another person. This is the instead of Christ. This is the supplanter. This is the one that is taking his place. He is not the Christ. He is the antichrist. That is who the rider is on this white horse.Notice this. After the rapture, after the rapture of the Church the world is going to be in need for leadership. We talked about this. The rider is not Jesus bringing peace, but the antichrist bringing false peace.“And how will anyone believe in him?” you might ask.Just like they believe in what we call peace in our time before World War II. And in 1938 Adolf Hitler was promising peace the whole time that he was making war. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minster of England assured his people that there was nothing to worry about. “We can trust this man,” talking about Hitler.And when Poland fell it was too late. Even Winston Churchill was shouted down in parliament when he suggested that Hitler was a fraud.You say, “How can people follow the antichrist?”How did they follow Hitler? They followed him.The antichrist will conquer with peace.Daniel chapter nine and verse 27 says he is going to make a... he is going to make a pact of peace. The most marvellous peace, the most marvelous accomplishment of this antichrist will be that in short order he is going to settle the problems in the Middle East. Somehow he is going to convince the Arabs to step back, tear down the mosque of Omar, or better yet that building that is there where the mosque of Omar used to be, take that thing down and they are going to rebuild the temple and all of the sudden the daily sacrifices are going to start again and all of this is going to happen in a short time. The antichrist is going to make a peace pact with Israel. He is going to back away all the other nations and all of the sudden there is going to be peace in the Middle East.And he is on a white horse. He shows military strength. He promises that he has military strength, but he has no arrows. He is promising not to use it. He is a liar.That leads to a second horse. Now listen to me. There are horses on the road ahead. The first horse is a liar. The first horse promises peace, but he is getting ready to make war. The first horse is a false peace, a false ruler, a false Christ and that is who comes, the first one on the scene on the road ahead.Then notice something else. He is followed in verse number there and four by a red horse.Verse three.When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.A red horse. This read horse typifies war and fighting and the color red is the color of fire and blood. Notice that this guy, this rider has a large sword or a macaira (makh’-ahee-rah). It is a stabbing sword. It is a large, but short, strong sword of the Roman army that they were able to get inside of all other defenses and while the Turks and others were swinging the long sword with this short, large, wide blade sword that could cut both ways and get inside and stab them. And he is going to take peace from the earth. Who is? This rider on the red horse. He is coming. He is going to destroy the world.Is it actually that the antichrist turns red? I don’t know. Did the first horse become the second horse? No. I believe that his promises are broken and when he breaks his promise at the three and a half year point all that he had been trying to keep his hands on top of beaks loose and this world becomes chaotic to the degree that it has never seen before. This rider is going to take peace from the earth. Men are going to slay one another. One can only imagine the slaughter that will occur when we think in terms of the machines of war available today.You know, we are very good at inventing things. We are unbelievable at making the machines of war. If we...it is often said and rightly so that if we could put the same effort at saving life as we do at destroying life we might could do something in this world. But, you see, you don’t gain power in the world by saving lives. You gain power in the world by eliminating your enemy. And so we have made all kinds of machines of war, weapons of mass destruction are available to the highest bidder.Somebody said, I was reading not long ago that we are able at this point to destroy the world, destroy this world 50 times over with what we have in store in the weapons of mass destruction even at this place.Chemical warfare is not a question, but it is a probability in today’s world.We had an anthrax scare back in the first Gulf War. It was mentioned again now in this recent war. There are all kinds of chemical agents that people are talking about and biological agents that people are talking about that could cause these problems.Notice that this is originated in the heart of men.Look, if you would, please, verse three again.When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.Men slaying each other.You say, “What is the problem here?”Well, the salt is gone. The light is gone. The restraining hand of the Holy Spirit is gone. A false peace has arrived. Unlimited, unfettered freedom has been announced. Do what you want, when you want, how you want, where you want. It is all up to you. You just do it as long you just follow our economic system and as long as you give final allegiance to the beast. Do what you will.Did you ever think that we were now living in the days, once again, of the judges just like they were in the book of Judges in the Old Testament where every man did that which was right in his own eyes? Do you get the idea that that is pretty much where we are headed right now in the United States where people want to live and just do what is right according to them? A person has got to make his own destiny, got to make his own life. He has got to decide what is right and wrong.Well, if that is happening right now before the Christians of the world are taken out, the Holy Spirit is absent in his restraining power, the salt, the light goes out. If that is happening right now, what is going to happen in the heart of men when it is every man for himself, every woman for herself, when it is everyone against everyone else. Men will slay each other. It is horrible.But there is something else. There is another horse on the road and I want you to look at this one. This is a black horse. So we have seen a white horse, a red horse and now a black horse.Look, if you would, at verse five.When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"So we have got another rider now and he is on a black horse. He has got scales in his hand and he is talking about the rationing of food.What is the natural result of world wide war? What is going to be the natural result of... I mean you have got bombs blowing up. Is there going to be any sowing and reaping?You know, right now here we are in Iowa. This is the... one of the most productive if not the most productive spots on planet earth with all of the... the... the fertile land that we have around. You see the tractors going back and forth. What if bombs were dropping right now around Iowa? What if they were... What if men were slaying each other? What... Do you think there would be a... Would there be time for planting and for harvest and for taking care of the weeds? Is there going to be time for that?No. In those kinds of... In those kinds of times people starve. As many people die from starvation and from disease as they do from anything else. The natural result of world wide war will be the problem of sowing and reaping. There will be so little time for regular labor because so many will be watching out from their lives.A voice went from heaven. It said something very interesting. “A days wags for a man’s meal. One meal, a full day’s wages.” Famine, hunger and devastation begin to run rampant all over the world. Can we not see the horror? Can you not see that everyone will be weeping in starvation during the war?You say, “Well, we are having those kind of things right now in North Korea, Somalia.”Yes, we are. People are dying even as I stand here tonight of hunger around the world, not because there is not food to feed them, but because the political situations that won’t allow it happen. There are people in Hindu countries, in India, for instance, that are starving to death because of the wrong religion. It happens... People are starving today, but it doesn’t have to be that way. But in that day there will be no choice. Famine, hunger, devastation.But it says something interesting. “Don’t damage the oil and the wine.” Oil and wine have always been a reprehensive in the Bible of prosperity, of the blessing of God on people. Don’t damage the oil and the wine. Well, there is going to... The lifestyles of the rich and famous during that time are going to be safeguarded for a time because there is a little bit of refuge in money. And oil and wine were symbols of this blessing and abundance in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament.The strong will guard their own and will insulate themselves as much as they can. We found and I read recently that Hitler would... used to demand chocolates every day and the elite would go to the opera as the bombs were falling in London during some of the most severe times during World War II because the...don’t damage the oil and the wine. And so these... During this period of time there is going to be starvation. There is going to be hunger. There is going to be people that are just dropping in the streets because they can’t make it. But because there is no compassion and there is no mercy and there is no one with a light and there is no salt in the world because the Christians are gone and there is not anybody speaking out with a voice of reason, those who have will say to those who have not, “It is just not your day and you are just not going to be able to get anything. Stay away from me.” And they will hire those people to protect their goods. That is only going to last for a while.I want you to know there is another horse on the road. Look at it. It is a pale horse. Look, if you would, please, there and let’s read the following.In verse number seven:When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.Now just think what your Bible says in front of you right now. We have seen the progression. First is a false peace. Then when that peace is broken all out war all over the world of every sort and of every kind. Men slaying each other break out. No time for planting. No time for harvesting. No time for regular, nominal, normal labor from day to day. No time for that.And so men are at each other’s throat. People are... The food is rationed and people who have... even people who have the food have to put soldiers out around their home to make sure that nobody comes to take what they have. But that is only going to last for a while. And it is going to be followed by the pale horse, an ashen or sickly yellow, green in color signifying the decomposition of the dead. He has a ghastly rider, death. And death sounds so final.The combination of war, famine, sickness and the attack of the beasts of the earth take a horrendous toll. It says that one fourth of the world’s population will die as a result of these four horses.“How many people is that, pastor?”1.4 billion roughly. That’s a lot of people, 1.4 billion. Or how about tonight if one out of every four persons that are in this auditorium died before they left? What if one fourth of everyone that lived in the city of Des Moines died tomorrow? Or what if one fourth of the population of the state, one fourth of America, 280 million, 285 million people, what if a fourth of them just died because of these horrible diseases, famine, war, sword? That’s a lot of people.They died there because of this pale horse.You see, the world will get exactly what it wants. It is going to get a world without rules, one without restraints, but what they envisioned as utopia soon turns to sheer horror.You see, man without God is a vicious murderer. Man without God is a vicious murderer.Jeremiah 16:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”Matthew 15:19. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” And these are horses that are on the road ahead.I hear the talk of peace for the world and Europe they are talking for that... I said before this European president. I read there about those 10... mentioned those 10 new countries that are beginning to... that have joined the European Union. They are clamoring for these things. And I want you to know that these are sign posts on the road, but there are horses on the road ahead.We see the wars and we see that they are ever on the increase. I don’t know about you, but I have been totally disgusted by the photos that have been shown of what good old American soldiers and service men have done over there in that country. And I don’t care who is responsible for it.Well, they are higher up.I don’t care who did it whether higher ups or the lower downs. It doesn’t make any difference. It is absolute... It is an absolute pathetic commentary on the United States of America that they could go over and have something sexual going on with prisoners in a camp like that. Do you know what that tells me about us? It tells me that all of the pornography that is being pumped into our society and all of Hollywood films that are being pumped into our minds, that are continually bombarding us with sexual innuendo and sex this and free sex that, it is penetrated, infiltrated the minds of so many people that after a short period of time they are not content just to watch over these people that are in this jails or in these jails over there. They have to do those things like sodomize them, strip them down, take pictures of them, make fun of them. I don’t care who is responsible. It is a horrible, horrible, commentary on the United States of America.“That’s right, pastor Phil, Amen. You are right. You are telling the truth.”Do you know what? We have allowed... We have allowed freedom to put us in bondage all over our nation, unfettered, unbridled, freedom, the right to do just as one pleases. And they are actually throwing their hands up as if they don’t know who to blame for these kinds of things.I hear horses today, dear Christian. I hear the hoof beats of approaching hunger and famine like the world has never seen. We are being warned now that unless something happens hundreds of thousands in Africa will die of starvation. North Korea is on the brink of starvation right now. India [?] our missionary tells of daily starvation among the soon to be most population nation on planet earth. They are dying now. This is before the tribulation.There are horses on the road. Death is certain. It is unavoidable, not only for those that will be alive, during this horrible time of tribulation, it is unavoidable for us, too. We have to remember that Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.”What does... How does that make you feel? Put that in your pipe and smoke it?“It is appointed unto man once to die and after this what? The judgment.”You see, we love to declaw and detooth the Word of God.Why is it? It is no wonder that the Bible is called powerful and sharper than any two edged sword that can pierce into our souls, dividing asunder, bone and marrow and just cutting us to pieces and laying our whole souls bare.You see, that Bible right there says, “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.”Oh, it is going to be terrible for those on the road ahead, but it is going to be terrible for that person, that’s your neighbor, your friend, your coworker, your family member that dies without Christ and still faces the judgment.Death is certain. It is unavoidable, not only for those who are alive in this tribulation, but for us. Some don’t believe in life after death. As a dog dies, so dies a man they say. Well, that’s what they say. But that is not what God says.I failed to tell you what followed the rider on the pale horse. Look at verse number eight, if you would. “I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.” Did you notice that? Death and Hades.You say, “What is Hades?”It is another word for hell. Hell was right behind. Death was the rider and hell did follow. Death for the body and hell for the soul. Terrible.The third thing I want to say to you tonight—and I want to finish with this—is after we have looked at these horses on the road I want you to know that the people who stay on the road after the rapture find themselves under total condemnation, great tribulation and now total condemnation.I want you to notice something. Is there anything very conspicuous about what we have read for this point? When you read about these seals that are being opened and about the judgments that are falling, are you noticing something, that all of the things that are happening are happening without the direct intervention of God himself?You say, “What?”Well, these first four horses are the simple result of man left to himself without rules, regulations or without a king, without a God.“What?”I am saying that the first four horses, these first four judgments, the first four seals is what is going to happen in this world when man is left to himself, when he gets that total freedom that he wants. First war, after war there is going to be famine and then plagues and then death and that is the natural result.You say, “Wow, that’s terrible. That’s horrible. What a great judgment from God.”God didn’t have to do anything up to this point. He just let things go.Do you know what the greatest... Do you know what the greatest danger in America is? It is that God would just finally just say, “Ok, have it your own way,” and just back his hands off totally.Did you ever have children that you had to let them mess up long enough to figure out that they really did need you to show them how to do something? You just let them go until they really got themselves in so deep they couldn’t straighten out whatever it was they were working on. Then they asked you to come back and help them.Do you know what the worst thing that could happen to this country would be, that happened to this world would be for God to just say, “All right. You want it your way? You got it your way. Go ahead. Figure it out yourself. I am done with you”?Oh, boy. That is exactly what happens in these first four seals in the book of Revelation.Revelation 6:9-10, listen to God’s Word.When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"You see, no judgment by God has taken place yet. This is the natural result of man left to himself. These guys have been killed, they have been martyred. They have been... They are crying out, “Oh, God, when are you going to judge?” In other words, “We recognize you haven’t judged them yet, but when are you going to judge them?”Everything up to this point is what is happening among the earth dwellers because of the earth dwellers themselves and because they wanted to follow the instead of Christ, the antichrist, the supplanter Christ, the one who came and promised the world, but delivered nothing. He was full of hot air and there was no substance to him.And I want to say to you as a Christian, look for substance in your Christianity. Look for it. Look for the truth of God’s Word in your life. Go down these.“Ah, I don’t want to go down deep and come up dry.”That’s a cute cliché, but I have never known anyone getting deep in God’s Word and getting to know him intimately that came up dry. They came up knowing God and loving him more than the person who ignores God’s Word, ignores God’s presence and ignores time in prayer. Those people that do that, they don’t come up dry, they come up loving God and loving him and wanting to serve him with all of their life.We are talking about the judgment of the earth dwellers, those that choose this world. It is not a pretty picture.Now, I am going to read some things here out of God’s Word that are shocking. “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake.” Now, man didn’t do that.The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig-tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.Something happens when this next seal is opened, this sixth seal. The sixth seal is opened up and when it does there is an enormous earthquake, a tremendous earthquake. Let me read 15.Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"Everybody recognizes in the sixth seal. They all understand, “Uh, oh, this isn’t our own doing anymore. It is true. He is coming. He is judging now.”I lived in Peru for 13 years and we experienced several earthquakes. The last of which was one of the most scary moments of my life. I am not a person that is fearful by nature, but I was sitting in a chair and watching a World Series game, I think. I don’t remember what I was doing, but I was sitting in a chair and watching television. It was late one Saturday afternoon and we were sitting there and we were talking and all of the sudden I didn’t hear any boom. I didn’t hear any noise. I didn’t hear anything whatsoever going. I just heard this... And I looked over at the big plate glass window was going back and forth like that and all of the sudden under my chair where I was sitting there was this sensation of rolls like I was on a... like I was in a boat and I was sitting on the ocean out there just off the coast of Peru and it was just that up and down motion like that and I was sitting there and my chair was going back and forth and I think one of the kids said, “Is that an earthquake?”We got up and went outside and the phone lines were going back and forth. And I want to tell you something. When what has been the most stable thing in your life, your entire life, that is what you are standing on and what you build your houses on, when that starts shaking you get scared.Well, I want to tell you when the whole earth shakes and every mountain, every mountain is leveled and every island flees away, you know that something is happening very devastating and very powerful.And it goes on to talk about what is going to go on during that time. The sixth seal opened.There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig-tree when shaken by a strong wind.And look at verse 14. “The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”I am going to go on a trek here in just a couple of weeks or a couple of months and we are going to go—as we do every summer—and walk through the Andes Mountains and I cannot describe to you... I have never been to the Himalayas, but I have been to the Rockies and the Rockies are big. They are magnificent, but I have never seen anything that is so mammoth and so awe strickening and so giant as those mountains and valleys that we walked through there.We will... Our guide will say to us, “Listen. We are just going to walk around that little... We are going to walk down this valley and around... Just around the other side. It won’t take too long. That’s where we are going to camp tonight.” Seven hours later we get there. I mean it is... The immensity of those mountains is something that I cannot describe to you.[?] is the second highest point in the western hemisphere. It is the mount... It is the one that a big piece broke off in 1970 and killed 80,000 people. It is an enormous mountain. And we look at that thing and I read this verse that says every mountain disappeared. Think about that. Every mountain disappeared. Every island fled away.Well, Honolulu is an island. Cuba is an island. Think about that. Just what is going to happen right here is something cataclysmic, something that we cannot even comprehend, but the whole world, the earth dwellers, people on the road, they understand it. Do you know why? Because the sky rolls back. This is not the rapture, ladies and gentlemen. This is the revelation. This is the moment when Jesus comes and said, “Ok, here I am. All you earth dwellers who doubted, who didn’t believe, you didn’t want to see me by faith. You don’t need faith anymore. Here I am.”Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us.What? What? Why? Why fall on us and hide us? “Hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!”“Oh, we see him.”They see into heaven itself and there is the Father sitting on the throne. And here comes the Lamb, Jesus coming to earth.You read God’s word carefully, chapter 19, you find out that he is accompanied by thousands and thousands and ten thousands times ten thousands of his saints robed in white. Are they coming to fight? No. Just coming to watch. They are going to watch as the Lord destroys all of them with the brightness of his coming and with the sword, the double edged sword that goes out of his mouth.We looked at 2 Peter chapter three and we found out that the earth is going to melt with fervent heat and all of those guns and armaments and all of those missiles that they are going to get together to fight against Jerusalem and then turn to fight against God, how are you going to fight against the one who is holding those elements together? As you point those missiles up, they melt. They are going to be shared. There is physical disintegration, an earthquake, alterations in the heavens. Things that were unshakable before simply disappear, islands and mountains.The Bible says there is coming a day when this old world will go into a tail spin. Nuclear explosion? I don’t know. Or is it just the hand of God’s restraint is finally moved. Colossians chapter 1:17.Notice the spiritual desperation. Verse 15. People say that man came from a cave. Well, man may have come from a cave or he may not have come from a cave, but there are going to be cave men in the end because they are going to go seek caves to try to find a way to hide.Somebody said that this world started with a big bang. Well, it may have started with a big bang—at least in their own imaginations—but I will tell you one thing. It is going to end with a big bank. The Lord is coming back and he is going to change enverything.This world that rejected the Rock of Ages will call upon the rocks to fall upon them. It will be the world’s greatest prayer meeting in history. The whole world is going to take up religion at that time whether they were religious or not. But what is sad is instead of believing in and accepting the one that is coming down—which it will be too late for them anyway—they are going to call on the... they are going to pray to the rocks, “Kill us, smash us, eliminate us, but do not let us suffer the wrath, anything except suffering the wrath of the Lamb.”Can you imagine what the wrath of a Lamb would be like?You say, “Well, lambs are meek.”Yeah, that’s right. Jesus came the first time and he was meek. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and before his accusers he just kept his mouth shut. He didn’t say anything.Listen. Imagine all of the sheep that have humbly come before those that were going to slit their neck and literally licked the hands of those that were going to kill them in the slaughter houses of the world, imagine what the wrath of threat lamb would be if that lamb never resisted. Jesus, the Lamb of God never resisted the hand of the Roman soldier, never resisted what those priests did to him, never resisted. Our sin he never resisted.But the time of meekness is going to be over when he comes back at this point. He is not coming back meek and mild and riding on the foal of a donkey. No, he is coming back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and riding on a white horse and he is going to have his entourage with him and he is going to come back. This time he is going to come back in power.Look at Revelation 12 and verse 12, if you would. “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”He has two things here. The earth dwellers and you have another group of people who are rejoicing because they have made a better choice. Look at that verse again. “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury.”You say, “What about these earth dwellers? What is the deal? What is going on? Who are these that have gone to heaven?The heaven dwellers are those that have already gone on before either by death or by way of the rapture. They are in his presence and they are going to come back with him. Those that are on the earth are the ones.You know, on the road ahead the ones that choose to stay here, even if they are of that group that never heard the gospel that do believe during the time of the tribulation, they will suffer during that time. Woe to the earth and to the sea.Everyone has a choice today. Everyone can pick your own world. If you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and become a citizen of another world or you can choose this world. And, sadly, many have chosen the world.The Bible says that he will keep that believe from the hour that is to try the entire earth. 1 Thessalonians 1:8. It says there:The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.That is what we are doing. I am not standing here tonight waiting on the antichrist to come. I am standing here waiting on the sound of a trumpet, the voice of an archangel and the shout of Jesus Christ to take me into heaven because listen to what this says. “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath [to come].”I trust and I am sure that the majority of you that are here tonight have already decided what road you want to be on. You want to be on the heavenly road. You want to be on the road that leads you into an eternity in his presence and to live with him throughout all of eternity. But there are those that just simply ignore it or they put it off or they say, “Well, that’s all interesting. Maybe when I am old and I am ready to die I will make that choice.”Do not take that chance. Isaiah chapter 55, today is when we have to decide. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek the Lord while he is near because there is no promise that he may be found tomorrow and there is no promise that will be near tomorrow. So we have to receive him.“Pastor, what does it all mean? What... What do I need to do about this?”Well, here is what it means. It means we had better make the right choice. It means we had better live for the right world. And it means we had better tell others of what is coming.You see, God didn’t put the book of Revelation in there just to be curious. You know, I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me about different things in the book of Revelation. They have wanted to study it. They get all excited about oh how all this symbolism and all these different things that are happening, horses on the road ahead and great earthquakes that are going to happen and these trumpets that are going to blow. And, by the way, the sixth seal is the... The sixth seal contains all of the other judgments of God. They just flow out of that sixth seal. There is a series of trumpets. There is a series of plagues. There is a series of thunders and voices. There is a series of vials that are poured out. All of these are judgments and final judgments on the earth. And that goes from chapter number seven all the way to the first part of chapter number 19. It goes all the way through there explaining what is happening in this sixth seal.And there is a lot of people, there’s, “Oh, man, that is just so exciting.”But, you know what? Revelation was not put in there to satisfy our curiosity. It is not a book that we read and we say, “Oh, how interesting that all is and oh, boy, how poetic and how interesting and how prophetic and, boy, I just love to find out all this symbolis and understand all of these kinds of things and put it all together and we get these maps and we figure it out and we get charts and I have done that. I have put up big charts as I have taught before about these kinds of things. People get all excited.There is a passage in here, chapter 10, where John was told by an angle to take this book with all of these writings and all of these judgments and everything, just take this, take it and eat it. And so he took that book according to the word of the angel and he ate the book. And it was like honey in his mouth.Oh, who doesn’t like honey? It was exciting to him. He, “Oh, man, this is sweet. I love this. I love... This is unbelievable what I am reading.”But once he swallowed it in his mouth and it got down into his belly the Bible said it was like worm wood. That is, it was so bitter to him that it made him sick for many days. He couldn’t stand what he had... Because what had happened is once he had got past the initial curiosity of what is in the book of Revelation and he had begun to think about the reality of one fourth of the world’s population dying, later one third of the world’s population dying, later another third of the world’s population dying and then later on the entire world being destroyed all at one time in the city of Bozra at the north end of what is the gulf leading to the Red Sea where for 200 miles, 50 miles wide to the horse’s bridle, the blood is going to flow of all men, rich, poor, old, young. When he thought about that it wasn’t so sweet.The book of Revelation is not to satisfy our curiosity. Oh, there is a blessing because when we understand that we have been redeemed and bought by the blood of the Lamb we don’t have to worry. We don’t have to fret. We know that we can be saved from that hour of trial, that hour of wrath that is to come on this world. We can be saved from that. But at the same time we rejoice because it is not our lot in life or in the future. We can also be concerned because many of those that are around us are headed down this road.You say, “Pastor, are you positive that everybody that doesn’t get saved is going to go down this road?”Of course not. Some are going to die before this happens. That won’t lessen... that will not lessen the punishment of hell, but there are those and there is that chance that Jesus could come today, tomorrow. It is imminent. There is nothing to keep him from coming back. And when he does the saints go up. The non saints stay here. They stay on the road. And they head into this period known as the tribulation when the antichrist in charge, where men will slay each other and where, finally, God in the person of Jesus Christ makes his appearance to reveal himself and shows his right arm of strength and the sword goes out of his mouth, Revelation 19, and destroys all of them that are gathered.Let’s bow our heads for a word of prayer.Next week I am going to talk to you about peace down the road.You say, “Wow, we are going to need that after listening to this tonight.”Well, yes we are. There is peace ahead. There is hope. There is salvation for everyone that believes and I want you to know that Romans 1:16 and 17 is still in the Word of God.Some of you are fearful about sharing your testimony or sharing the gospel with other people. You say, “Well, I’ll just mess that whole thing up. I get to talking to somebody. I am going to get it wrong and get it backwards and I am not going to say the right thing and I am going to make it worse. I had just better shut up and hope somebody else tells them.”I want to tell you tonight that just like Bill Faye tells us all the time, God can use any kind of witness, but he cannot use your silence. God cannot use your silence. And I want you to know that Romans chapter one verse 16 and 17 says that the power of God is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It says that we should not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.We get it mixed up in our head that we have to be crafty, we have to have ability with words, we have got to remember and learn some kind of preparation in order to be used by God. But I want you to know that a person with compassion in their heart, a person who loves his neighbor, who loves his friend, who loves his family member and wants them to know the truth and good news of the gospel, I want you to know with right motive God can use any kind of a witness and here is why, because the power of the gospel is not in the messenger. It is in the message. What changes men’s hearts is the gospel and love of God himself. It is not how crafty we are as we present him. You are not going to convince or twist somebody’s arm or get into a mental wrestling match with somebody and debate them into the kingdom of God. But if you share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with people you may not reap what you sow, but God can take what you sow and work in somebody’s heart and someone else may be able to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.“What are you saying?”I am saying that Jesus is coming. I am saying that when he comes and all of this starts there will be no detaining it. I am saying that we won’t be able to back up and move the hourglass backwards, roll time back and say, “Oh, wait a minute. I have got some people to witness to, somebody to share Christ with.” We are not going to be able to do that.I am saying to you that the power of God is in the message, not the messenger. I want to say that we need to go out with the good news of the gospel and share with those people that are around us with a smile on our... perhaps with a tear in your eye, but a smile on your face, with joy in your heart as you tell them, “I love you. I care about you and I want you to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. Let me ask. Is there somebody here tonight and you say, “I am on the road. I am living in the world and I am just carrying on. I don’t know anything about all this stuff, but I know this. If Jesus were to come back tonight as you talk about it, if the trumpet were to blow and he would call us into his presence, I am afraid that I am not saved. I don’t know Jesus. He is not my Lord and Savior. I wouldn’t go with him.”Well, if you are here and you are like that tonight I have got great news for you. Here is the great news. He is as near as your next breath. The word that you need to say is, “Nigh unto thee. It is even in your mouth, the word of faith which does save you.” Because the Bible says, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” And, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.” That is the Word of God.What do you say? You say, “What do I need to do with it?”You just need to believe. You need to say, “Jesus, come into my heart and save me. Put me on the road to heaven. Get me off the road to destruction. I am calling on you now. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”If you are here tonight and you say, “That is me. I want to call on Jesus right now.” Nobody is looking, just raise your hand. I’ll pray for you. I won’t embarrass you. “I want to ask Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I want to know him.”Are you here and you are like that tonight? Just raise your hand up. I’ll pray for you. Anyone?My dear Father, I thank you for your Word. Thank you that you don’t leave us in the world without knowing what is going on, knowing what you are doing. We can’t understand it all, but you certainly have given us a good outline and a good glimpse of what is to come. You certainly let us know that it is worthwhile to go out and shed around your love and to tell the good news of the gospel. Lord, help me as a pastor to always be willing to ask that question even if it is embarrassing, even... even, Lord, if it is uncomfortable. Help me to just love you and care for that person more than I care for how they look at me. Help me to ask them if they know you. I asked so many this morning as they came and told me it was their first time to grace. Lord, help us to care about the lost. Help us to love our families and our children, our neighbors. Help us to want to say something about the fact that Jesus loved them and died for them. Lord, we know you are coming. Awe know you are coming soon. Help us. Help us, Lord, to recognize it and do something with what we know. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Revelation 3:10Ibid.Matthew 24:21Revelation 13:4Revelation 14:9-12Revelation 6:1Ibid.Revelation 6:1Revelation 6:1-2Revelation 6:1Revelation 6:3-4Revelation 6:3-4Revelation 6:5-6Revelation 6:7-8Jeremiah 16:9Matthew 15:19Hebrews 9:27Ibid.Revelation 6:8Revelation 6:9-10Revelation 6:12Revelation 6:12-14Revelation 6:15-17Revelation 6:12-13Revelation 6:14Revelation 6:15-16Revelation 6:16Revelation 12:12Ibid.1 Thessalonians 1:8-101 Thessalonians 1:10Romans 10:9Romans 10:13Revelation 3:20John 5:24Romans 10:13Page PAGE 25 of NUMPAGES 25
The Road Hog
The Road Hog
By Phil Winfield
Bible Text: 2 Thessalonians 2
Preached on: Sunday, April 25, 2004
Grace Church of Des Moines, IA
4200 E. 25th StreetDes Moines, IA 50317
Website: http://www.gracehome.com
Online Sermons: http://gracehome.sermonaudio.com
Now everybody needs to put on your mental running shoes with me tonight. I am running out of weeks to get this study in and so I was going to take... You know this morning how I was so kind to you to only give you half of that sermon. Well, tonight I am not going to be so kind. I am going to give you two weeks in one and I am going to talk to you about this road hog. I could probably talk about it for about three weeks. But I tell you what. We are going to get right into it.Take your Bibles if you would, please, and look to John chapter five. And also take your Bibles and turn to 1 Thessalonians if you would please, 1 Thessalonians. So first of all go to John chapter five and verse number 43 and I want to read you a verse there, John chapter five and verse number 43. And then a little bit later we are going to get over to that 1 Thessalonians passage, several of the passages that you will want to write down.Now we are talking about the road ahead, what is coming, what is it that is on the road ahead for this world, for the history of humanity? What is on the road ahead for the Lord Jesus Christ? What is on the road ahead for this church, for all churches and for the children of God? What is coming? What is it that is the next thing on God’s calendar?Well, we have talked about several things. We have talked about sign posts on the road and then we talked about vanishing from the road. That was two weeks we talked about the rapture. I want to talk to you about a very interesting figure tonight, the road hog.John chapter five and verse 43 Jesus is speaking and says, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” A very curious verse in the Bible. Underline that. It says, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.”Of course, he is speaking to some Jews and Israeli leaders there and some of them were intimidated by his style and his power and his fame and they just didn’t like what was happening there and he says, “I have come in my Father’s name and you don’t receive me. Now if somebody else comes and comes in their own name, you are going to receive them.”I never looked at this as a prophetic verse until I really got to studying this, but you are going to find out what it has to say. We are going to talk about the road hog.Now I have a brother. His name is Don. He has been here several times and he is a riot. This guy can take the normal routine of life and make it hilarious more than anybody. Everything is funny to him and he can turn everything into a joke. He has a way of referring to truck drivers. Now how many truck drivers do we have here tonight? I don’t want to offend you. God bless you truck drivers, wonderful people. And don’t let me offend you, but there are some funny things my brother has to say about road dogs. Not road hogs. He calls them road dogs. And he said that it is his version of road hogs and he is talking about truck drivers and trucks and all those kinds of things.Now you have got to realize my brother is the ultimate southerner, you know, big buckle and all. You know, he is really... He is the real deal. And here is what he said. He said, “You have got to admit that if you get into one of the convoys between two or more trucks you kind of feel like the cheese on a griddled cheese sandwich, you know, just the grease spot in the middle.” And he said, “That’s the way you feel.” And he calls truck drivers and the trucking industry, he has some names. He calls truck drivers these things. He says, “There are big dogs on the road.” That is just a big rig. And then there are short dogs on the road. That’s something smaller than an 18 wheeler. And then there are double dogs on the road. Those are tandem rigs. And then there is the triple dog. That is a triple rig. Flat dogs, that’s a flat bed truck. Bad dogs, those are truckers with an attitude. There are mad dogs, truckers gone crazy and ignoring all of the traffic. Poster dogs, those are truckers advertising something. Dirty dogs, those are truckers hauling beer and liquor. And then chili dogs. Those are refrigerator trucks.He’s got a lot more names. I don’t know what all you call them, but he’s got... What’s that? I thought I heard somebody else with another dog. But anyway, I can’t remember all of them. But he is hilarious. He talks about them and everybody knows what a... Why he just calls them road dogs, but everybody knows what a road hog is. He hogs the road and he hogs the show. On the road ahead there is a road hog in view and I want to talk about him. And we are looking ahead down the road of human history and as we go down that way we are going to find out that there are those who want to hog the road, hog the show, be the number one, want to dominate and rule on life’s road.In the secular realm there have always been these people. How about some notorious ones. The first one, Alexander the Great. There were no more fields to conquer for him at 30 so a bug took him and he died of malaria. Napoleon would have ruled the world, too, but he was stopped at Waterloo. Hitler and the Third Reich, an Arian nation, he said, would rule the world, but it ended in a bunker in Berlin toward the end of the war.From the pages of Scripture there have always been these ones that we can point to: Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. He built a tower, wanted to make a name and a language for himself. God stopped it. Nebuchadnezzar thought that he ruled by his own power. He did rule what world there was known at that time and God made him a beast for seven years and curtailed all of his glory and brought him back down to earth.There was another fellow Antiochus Epiphanes. He is the true forerunner of the road hog we are going to talk about today and he desecrated the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem in 167 BC. On a wing of the temple he offered an actual pig on the altar.Now the world tonight is being ruled by a road hog and that is evident. And the Bible tells us that Satan is, indeed, the prince of the power of the air. He is the prince of this world. He is the ruler of this world. He is in charge of a lot of the culture.Now that doesn’t mean he is the ultimate sovereign. No, God curtails him, cuts him back and does what he wants to with him, but he has been given a measure of rule in the world and certainly the culture that is around us is the realm of rule of the road hog, or I will call him Satan tonight, the ultimate road hog.Now how many of you recognize that Satan really is having his way in the culture of our world? Raise your hand. Be honest with you. Be honest with me. Yes he is. He is having his way. And he is getting things done his way today.Now the Lord referred to him as the prince of this world and the Bible predicts that Satan himself will send to the road of human history one who will be the king of the road. He has many names. If you want to jot these down I will say them slow. He has many names in the Bible. In Daniel he is called the little horn. Now you can... Some people call him the little big horn, little big horn with a big mouth, but he is the little horn and he is also called a prince that will come.In the book of Revelation he is called the rider on a white horse. You find in him chapter six of the book of Revelation and then many places thereafter.The most familiar name given in Scripture would be given to us by the apostle John and he calls him the antichrist. And so if you want to know who I am talking about tonight, the road hog, the one who is going to hog the show, bring all the pictures on him, get CNN and Fox News and everybody else talking about him, it is going to be this one that is called the antichrist. John gave him to us in his epistle, told us who he was and gave him that name and it is the most common name by which he is called in Christianity today.Now where did he come up with that name? Well, he just put a prefix in front of the name Christ. And that word is anti-. And when you do that, especially in the Latin or in the Greek language it doesn’t mean just the opposite of, it means to oppose or to be instead of. Very important meaning.When you read in the New Testament about the antichrist or I’ll call him the road hog tonight, when you read about him, you are reading about one who is going to oppose Christ and even more importantly is going to try to be instead of Christ.Now one of these days the Lord Jesus is going to come back. He came the first time and the majority of the world rejected him. The Bible says that he came unto his own and his own received him not. Well, guess what? That... Those that did not receive the truth when he came did receive a lie. And, you know, it is always that way. It is either truth or error. There is no middle ground.Now I was here last night at the Child Evangelism Fellowship and I heard Senator Chuck Grassley speak last night and he was here at Child Evangelism Fellowship and he spoke marvellously. In fact, I wish that had been taped. I could have played it tonight. It was tremendous what he said. One of the major points that he made was, “No matter what I am doing in Washington or what I do politically, it does not compare to what you might do with children and with the next generation because somebody somewhere along the line needs to tell the next generation that there are absolutes, that there is such a thing as right and there is such a thing as wrong and there is no middle ground.”Now one of your US Senators said that last night and I was very, very grateful to hear that there are people in the politics that believe those kinds of things.Now I want you to know that this text of Scripture tells us—if you will look at John 5:43 again—it says, “I have come,” Jesus speaking, “in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.”If a person doesn’t receive Jesus, the truth, then they are going to receive a lie. But in the future, in the day of the road hog, you are not just going to receive a lie, you are going to receive the personification of a lie. You are going to receive the antichrist. You are going to receive the opposer of Christ. You are going to receive the substitute, the instead of for Christ .And that is what that passage of Scripture is talking about there. And that person, that future king of the road is the antichrist.Let’s talk about him. In the Bible we see that in 2 Thessalonians chapter two I told you, 1 Thessalonians. Flip over to 2 Thessalonians chapter two and verse number three. Let me check and make sure I didn’t write that down wrong. 2 Thessalonians chapter number two. Did they cut that out of my Bible? No. Here it is. 2 Thessalonians chapter two. Yes. 2 Thessalonians chapter two and verse three. Let me read this to you, speaking about this road hog. “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.”Now we are going to talk about the road hog’s résumé for a moment. We will talk about, well, what are his credentials? And there is a prediction of two things here. There is going to be a falling away before he appears. That is the word that we get for the word “apostasy.” There is going to be a great apostasy, a great turning away from the truth, a great wholesale desire to go after that which is not the truth, but is a lie. There is going to be an apostasy and then there is something else in those verses. It says that there is going to be a revealing or an unfolding of this—quote, unquote—man of sin. And I take that to mean—knowing then that that day will not occur. We talked about this the other night. The rapture will not occur until these things happen or at the timing of the rapture there is going to be a great apostasy and then there is going to be the revelation of this heinous figure that is going to come on the world scene.And people have, for years, tried to suggest candidates for this person. They have said, “Well, Julius Caesar in the days of Christ in the first century. Julius Caesar, why he is definitely, he is definitely the one. He is the antichrist.”Others said Nero. Others said Stalin and Hitler. We have heard all kinds of people suggested. I even heard Henry Kissinger mentioned as the possible person who could be the antichrist.Listen to 1 John chapter two and verse 18. You should be writing these references down. I don’t give you... You just bring a blank sheet of paper and you write things down on Sunday night. We don’t give you everything on a silver platter. We have got to work a little.1 John chapter two verse 18 says, “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists [plural] have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”Notice this. There are many antichrists who have come. What does that mean? There are many opposers and there are many substitutes. They have already come into the world. Listen to verse 22 of that same chapter, chapter two of 1 John. “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.”And then in 1 John four and verse two write that reference down., 1 John four and verse two.This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. [Now listen.] This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.Key phrase. If they deny that Jesus is come, the Messiah, the anointed one, if they deny it they are the spirit of antichrist.I have got in my hand something that I found at Bibleplaces.com. Speaking about the Dome of the Rock. I was going to mention this later in this sermon, but let me just mention it to you right now.You know, a lot of people, a lot of good people have it in mind that there are many ways to heave and, why, you can just get there just, you know, it is kind of like going to Rome. There are many ways to Rome. Grab a way and when you get there you will all end up at the same place, many ways to heaven just, you know, believe strongly, have faith in your religion. Everything will be ok.Well, Islam is one of those things that is very much on our mind right now. Let me read you a little something right here. This is written... The founding... The foundational inscription inside what is known as the mosque of Omar which is really wrong, it is the Dome of the Rock. The mosque of Omar was torn down. It is another edifice, but many have mistakenly called the Dome of the Rock, which is a mosque that sits on the temple site that one day will be built by the way. Inside of there this is what it says. If you are wondering about Islam here is what it says. Inside the building it says in Arabic, “Oh, you people of the book, overstep not bounds in your religion and of God speak only the truth.”So, so far so good.“The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary is only an apostle of God and his Word which he conveyed unto Mary and his Spirit proceeding from him. Believe, therefore, in God and his apostles and say not,” listen to this, “say not three. It will be better for you. God is only one. Be it far from his glory that he should ever have a Son.”So what is it that they are denying? Exactly what 1 John chapter two, 1 John chapter four said that the antichrist, the instead of Christ, the opposer to Christ, the substitute Christ, exactly what he said that they would say, that God did not have a son, that the Messiah has not come in the flesh and that is the spirit of antichrist.Listen. That was on the scene immediately in the first century. I mean they were talking about this immediately. There has always been that spirit of antichrist. So the spirit of antichrist is here and working. And the little subjects of the antichrist—I won’t go into it—but the [?] of the world and all of the different mystic religions and even some religions that purport to be Christian are doing everything they can to replace the truth with error and they are the little subjects of the antichrist.But I am here tonight to tell you that the Bible says that there is going to be a future personality, a singular individual called the antichrist who is coming. And he has some cruel credentials. Listen to them. Notice three descriptions given back there in chapter two of 2 Thessalonians. In verse three he is called the man of lawlessness. The King James Version has called him the man of sin.What we have here is that the sin of man is going to result in the man of sin. The sin of man, the continual, habitual breaking of God’s law is going to get us ready for the man of sin and he will be a person, he will be a man that is sin personified. He will be controlled and dominated, characterized by and his whole life is going to be one big ball of sin.Secondly, in verse three he is called the man doomed to destruction. That means that in his own personality are the seeds of his own destruction, his arrogance, his pride, his know it all attitude. It is all the seeds of his destruction are right there, of course, sin being the primary seed. Sin when it is finished brings forth death and the soul that sinneth it shall die. He was doomed to destruction from the beginning.The third characteristic, the third credential is that he is the lawless one. He knows no law. Rebellion is his middle name.Now we can see the rise of lawlessness in our society. We can see that what has been called personal liberty has involved into lawlessness. And I am going to make some statements right now that you may not like. But I am going to share with you what unbridled, unlimited individual freedom can become.Watch this. The personal liberty has evolved into lawlessness.Folks, democracy has its limits. The Judeo Christian ethic that we all enjoy was sown in the seed bed or, excuse me, the Judeo Christian ethic was the seed bed in which democracy was planted in our country. The whole idea of Judeo Christian ethic says something like this. “I hope that you do well and you hope that I do well. I hope that you have a happy and wonderful and fruitful life and you hope that I have a happy and fruitful and wonderful life.” If nothing else, we wish the best for our neighbor.Well, that is the Judeo Christian ethic. But here is what has happened. We are living in a world that wants democracy, but they don’t also... They do not also want Christianity that is the seed bed that can make a democracy or make a rule by people really worthwhile.Now watch this. As Christianity goes by the wayside, personal freedom becomes irresponsible license. We are working our way up to the place that the most lawless person we can find is going to be our champion. He is going to be the person we want. He doesn’t like laws. He doesn’t like rules. He doesn’t like regulations. He doesn’t want anybody, anywhere, any time telling him anything about what he should or shouldn’t do and so he is the lawless one. We are very quickly becoming a society—because of our extreme individual freedom—licensed to do what you will. We are going to want the person that lets us do any and everything that we want to do. Abortion, for instance.You see, we are in a society that people want to be able to do what they want to do with their own body. Only problem is it isn’t their body, but we won’t get into that tonight. It is somebody else’s body.But here is the point. We are in a society that... We want to be told, “Practice your homosexuality. If you want to get married to the same sex, fine. Do whatever you want to do and how dare anyone stand up and say how that you can pass rules and regulations for others.”You see, without personal character, without personal limits and without senses within your heart there will never be senses on the outside. There is no such thing as an organized society without chaos and anarchy, without senses, rules, regulations in the heart of man.The seed bed of democracy was the Judeo Christian ethic in this country. That Judeo Christian ethic is going out as Christianity fades. Are you listening? We are getting to a place where the lawless one is going to be a world champion. They are going to want him because he is just going to say, “Do anything and everything you want. I am the champion of personal freedom.”Interesting, isn’t it?I want to stop and tell you something that our closed mouth Christianity is purchasing for us, anarchy in society. In addition to a generation that is going to go to hell in a hand basket, personal freedom always ends up in unbridled license to sin. It is not checked by the wholly Spirit. The great restrainer in the world today of total anarchy is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.Let me tell you of one good reason to go and share Jesus Christ with other people, to restrain this wicked world if nothing else. Tell people about Jesus.Now we are witnessing in our time anarchy in virtually every area of human society. I am picking on this point because it is so evident before us. The way is just like Elijah prepared the way of the Lord or that John the Baptist who was that Elijah if you will, just like John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord, listen, the way is being prepared for the anarchy. The way is being prepared for the anti, the opposer to Christ. How? It is being prepared by getting people to believe in, accept and vote for total personal freedom.We are witnessing anarchy in our society. There is anarchy in the arts. They can draw anything they want to. They can desecrate anything they want to. And they can do it and charge you tax money to do it with the Endowment for the Arts. We are facing anarchy in music.The greatest antidote to a rebellious child is a godly parent. And to think that in the musical area of this world it is just notes and beat and music and why we had Chubby Checker when we were young or we had Elvis. Listen. What they are doing and singing about today hasn’t got anything to do with what Elvis and some of those others were singing about. Listen. They are singing about drugs and death and killing and hate and murder and they are singing about the devil and Satan. They are singing about everything.Anarchy. Anarchy in our morals. We have already talked about that.Anarchy in education. Elevating as something desirous to learn that would have been despicable.You just voted here in the state, voted in the state of Iowa concerning one that was bound and determined to get on the state board. They wanted to get on the state education board so that he could go out of his way to force children to read and study curriculum promoting the idea of homosexuality, same sex marriage, lesibianism. He was going to do that and that was his express purpose. We voted it down, thank God, but only by two votes, two votes.I don’t mean that we... I know he had to get 60 something or 70 something percent and he wasn’t close, but what I am saying is that in this state, in the heartland of the United States of America, good old Iowa, farm land USA there were only two more votes that voted against it than voted for it. Something is wrong with us.We are preparing the way for anarchy, preparing the way.Education. Literature. I don’t even need to say anything and all the things in the name of freedom of speech that are going on in our country. And then, of course, we are witnessing anarchy in religion, anarchy in the pulpit, anarchy where men stand up and women and its stand up in pulpit and just say, “Do anything you want to do. It is all all right. We are just clay. God doesn’t care. He understands. We are all going to end up in heaven anyway. If it feels good, do it.”Well, you know, that is anarchy. It is chaos and it is not from God. It is preparing the way for the antichrist.What about this guy? Well, he has a calling card. What is it? It is a number: 666. You can call him Mr. 666. We’ll look at that later. In the Bible numbers have meaning. The number seven is the number of completion or perfection. The number six is the number of human failure. So 666 is the trinity of human failure.The antichrist is going to be the final culmination of what man is able to produce.The coming antichrist is going to be an amazing individual. He is going to have a charismatic personality, a scintillating speaking ability like Hitler.Imagine Adolf Hitler and what a speaker he was. You never listened to any of that. Man, you didn’t even have to know the language to see the power the man had when he was speaking and the world groveled at his feet. If Hitler would have had world wide coverage on CNN and Fox News this world may have been conquered without a shot fired, just listening to the man.Guess what? The antichrist is going to have CNN, Fox News, email, internet and satellite coverage, coast to coast, around the world, 24 hours a day and he will with his speaking ability empowered by Satan be able to say what he will.He is going to have the cruel savagery of Nero, the lust for power of Napoleon and the insane wrath of Hitler. He’s got connections. This road hog, he is connected.Who is he connected to? Well, we are told something about his connections, where he gets his power, his connections.Verse nine says, “The coming of the lawless one...” This is 2 Thessalonians chapter two. It says, “9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders.”Satan is the power source for the antichrist. He gives him his authority, his ability. Turn your Bible to Revelation chapter 13 if you would, please. I want to read a rather extensive chapter here in Revelation chapter 13, very, very important. Revelation chapter 13 verse one... Actually, verse two. Verse one said, “And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.” The dragon being Satan himself. “And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.” Or, that is, out of the great hordes of people of the earth.He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.The dragon being Satan.One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"Verse five. “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.” Three and a half years.He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling-place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. He who has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.Now I want you to notice something here in this passage of Scripture. We are going to read it a little, but I read there in verse nine of 2 Thessalonians. It says, that “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan.” And what is the work of Satan? How is it going to be displayed? With all kinds of counterfeit miracles and signs and wonders.That being in mind look down at verse 11 of Revelation chapter 13. “Then I saw another beast.” Write in your Bible the words “false prophet” “...coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.” I wonder where he learned to speak like a dragon. “He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast.” Look at the worship. We see it over and over: worship, worship, worship. We are going to talk about that. “...the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And he performed great and miraculous signs.” Look at that.And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no-one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.I want you to notice back in that 2 Thessalonians two passage there in verse nine we read it. It talked about counterfeit miracle signs and wonders. And now we read in chapter 13 that this... that Satan is going to empower the beast and then also the second beast to do something very interesting. The same words are used and they are counterfeit miracle signs and wonders, that little trinity of words, signs, wonders, miracles. Those three words, excepting the word counterfeit are the very words that are used to refer to the miracles that Jesus Christ performed on this earth. He performed miracles, signs and wonders. Jesus did sign wonders and miracles while he was on earth. The same three words are used to describe the ministry of the apostles.Do you know what they did? They did—as confirmation of who they were, of their apostleship and of the message—they did signs, wonders and miracles. But this verse indicates to us that it is going to be possible for Satan to imitate the miracles of God. And don’t assume, my dear family of friends, do not assume that just because people have the ability to do these kinds of things that automatically they are of God.Are you listening to your pastor tonight? Do not assume. One of the greatest tools that Satan, the beast and the false prophet are going to use in the future—and this world is getting ready... I mean we are crazy over magic. We are absolutely nuts to watch people do these magic shows. Well, wait until it is no longer magic and it is truly miracles, signs and wonders, unexplainable. And we are going to see that miracles are not a verification of God’s hand in the day and age in which we live. Be advised that power encounters, signs, wonders, miracles and the propagators of those are at odds with Jesus Christ.You say, “Now, pastor Phil, I know... Now just hold on a minute. I mean there are some... There are some wonderful evangelists and there are some wonderful people out there.”I am not going to pass judgment over any individual. I am going to read you God’s Word. Here is what God’s Word has to say.Jesus predicted it in Matthew 24. “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible.”Matthew 7:22. “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’”Jesus then turns and says, plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”But they say, “Did we not preach in your name? Did we not do many miracles in your name?”And Jesus will say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”This guy, this antichrist knows the propensity that humans have for the miraculous, the encounters with angels, out of body experiences, those things sound vaguely familiar to you.We are being prepared, the highway is being made ready for the antichrist to come. This world has an appetite for the supernatural, but they don’t want an appetite for a sovereign God who not only is supernatural, but also has requirements of them. Oh, no. We want supernatural without any limitations. Personal freedoms to the nth degree, do what I want to do when I want to do it without any consequences. It is not the way that it works.This powerful, personal miracle now that the antichrist performed, one of the most powerful that you can ever imagine, in fact, the most powerful miracle that can ever be done.Revelation chapter 13 and verse three says, “One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.” That verse seems to indicate that the antichrist is going to be killed and to experience a miraculous resurrection.Now his charisma, his speaking ability, his war making, his political acumen and his treaty with Israel and many other things are going to make him an amazing and fascinating world figure, but this resurrection is going to be the clincher. He will at least fake a resurrection. Remember he is the antichrist. He is the instead of Christ.And let me ask you a question tonight. What is the single most amazing miracle of the person of Jesus Christ upon which hangs all of our hopes? He rose.We just celebrated on Easter that he rose again. You see, he is going to even imitate that to deceive the world, the resurrection of the dead.All right. Put on your thinking hat for a moment. Turn to Revelation chapter 17 if you would please and verse eight. Revelation chapter 17 and verse eight. Now just follow with me now. Just really listen carefully in verse number eight. “The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.”He was, he isn’t and he is again.This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king.The seventh king is the eighth king. Do you understand that? He was. He was. He isn’t and he will be again. He was the seventh king and he was the eighth king.Verse number eight, “The beast, which you saw, once was, now is [again].”Verse 10 talks about five kings having fallen. Five kings are five kingdoms. What are they? Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece. One kingdom is. At the time of the writing that kingdom was Rome. And one will come for a short while, the kingdom of the antichrist. And then there is an eighth king who only reigns a little while.Verse 11. “The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.”Now, folks, many people saw John F. Kennedy die. What if he rose from the dead after two or three days and stood up after everybody saw that and just started talking to everybody? Would that be the wonder of the world? Would that be the most... I mean I am telling you with the TV coverage that we have now if JFK would have risen from the dead and begun to take charge again, it would have wowed the world.I want you to know that is exactly the miracle that the antichrist is going to pull. Satan is giving him his...You say, “Well, how in the world could a man die? Is he going to be a real man?”Oh, yeah. He is going to start off as a real human being empowered by Satan. But he is going to do something else. He is going to come to a place where he is going to be killed or at least it looks like he is killed, but when he comes back he won’t be only a man empowered by Satan. He is going to be a man indwelt by Satan.Read Revelation chapter 12 and find out about what it says that Satan comes with great fury because he knows he has but a short time. He takes up residence in this man at the three and a half year point and he lives out the second half of the tribulation on this earth. Satan, I believe, personally does.And so watch. Here is what happens. Man was created to have dominion over the world, but it didn’t take Satan long to beat him out of it. When the Lord Jesus was being tempted by the devil he, Satan, offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world because he had it to offer him. And what Jesus refused from Satan, the kingdoms of the world, the antichrist will accept. And here is a brief sketch of the three fold rule of the antichrist in this world.First of all he is going to have a political rule like this world has never seen. Revelation 13:1 talks about seven heads and 10 horns. That is a statement that ties it back to the Old Testament in the prophecies of Daniel. One of the greatest things in the Bible to convince a person of the accuracy of Scripture is to studies the prophecies of Daniel.In Daniel chapter two it tells us of a great statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw and it was a representation of Babylon, of Medo-Persia, of Greece and of Rome. Students of history know that that is exactly the way that world history played out, that there was the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon, followed by the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire and it happened exactly like that and Daniel prophesied this before any of it ever came to pass.Now, when you move to the seventh chapter of Daniel you find a similar vision except this time the vision has to do with four different kinds of animals.You say, “Wow. This is fantastic.”Go read it. It is in your Bible. Just read Daniel chapter seven and you will find about four different kinds of animals. And as you study carefully the vision that God gave Daniel, these wild beasts, you will find the same breakdown. Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome are represented by four different animals. And when you get to the fourth beast, the fourth one, we are told that the fourth beast is very, very terrible.Daniel 7:7 it says this beast has 10 horns. Do you remember the 10 horns of Revelation chapter 13 and verse one? The antichrist had 10 horns. These 10 horns represent 10 kingdoms, but there are only seven heads. Why? Because in Daniel seven also Daniel nine it says that three of those kingdoms are destroyed very rapidly in rapid fashion by this little horn that comes up. He destroys them.And so he has the power of 10 kingdoms, but there are only seven other people that are going to share the power with him. Why? Because he destroys three of them in a blink of an eye. “Who can make war [with] him,” the Bible says. He is going to be a political power, a military genius. And so I believe the Bible predicts that the antichrist is going to emerge from a 10 nation kingdom that shall be organized generally in the area of the old Roman Empire. I believe that the kingdom of the antichrist will be the revival of the Roman Empire.You say, “What’s that?”Europe.You know, there is a lot of rattling going on in Europe right now. They are not listening. They don’t... The United States is not scaring them with our power like we used to. They are doing their own thing, making their own decisions. I believe that the Bible predicts that the antichrist is going to rise up there. The European Union at this moment has 12 members but Great Britain and Germany don’t like how things are shaking out for them with the use of the Euro and they are thinking about breaking ties. How many would that leave? Twelve minus two is 10.Did you know that one of the favorite subjects of discussion in Europe right now is the possibility of electing a European president? They want one president. Oh, they have got one money. Why not have one president? They have one economic system. Why not just have one president?I don’t know if Jesus is coming tomorrow or 100 years from now, but I know things are going really well in what was the old Roman Empire to make things... to make the roadway wide open for this road hog to come again. This fellow is going to be an international diplomat. This man is going to be a world wide statesman. He will move the world empire politically. He is going to rule the world.There is something else he is going to do. He is going to economically rule.Revelation chapter 13 and verse 16.He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no-one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.You start taking the food off somebody’s table and you say, “You join my kingdom or you are not going to eat,” it is going to be difficult to say, “No.”He is talking about economic control. Nobody is laughing anymore about global economic control or a global economy. Technology makes it possible now to do business around the world. You and I both know that. Some of you are in business with world wide connections right now.I was talking to Bill Mayor this morning. He is sitting right over here. He is fixing to go take a world tour. He has got business in several places around the world. That’s Bill Mayor. So what else is going on around here?You see, people, this is a world economy. There is going to be a one world, global economy and the antichrist is going to be a brilliant technocrat. He is going to know how that thing operates. He is going to be a financial wizard. He is going to rule the world politically. He is going to rule the world economically.Now the scary part and the part that really grips the world. It is going to be a religious rule. He is going to demand world compliance. Let’s take a minute to complete this ruse if we can. Satan gives the beast his power and the beast gives another beast some authority as well. He is called the false prophet.Look again at Revelation 13. What does he do? He causes the worship of the beast and the dragon. He enforces the economy of the beast. Now listen to me. How is it that this religious man is used? Remember he is the... He causes worship. Worship the beast. Worship the dragon. We are looking for worship here. He is a religious leader.Somebody says, “Boy, I hate ecumenicalism.”Well, I want to tell you something, the greatest ecumenical conference of all time is on the horizon. There is going to be a one world mystery religion. Babylon... And what was the religion of Babylon? Any religion is fine just as long as you pay allegiance to the king of Babylon.Why they had so many... There were so many idols, there were so many... I mean, you know, when the Jews went to Babylon, when they were carried away captivity, they had problems with idolatry before they went to Babylon. But you never read one more problem with idolatry after they came back. They don’t believe in idols. Do you know why? Because Babylon was full of them. They were on every corner, every kingdom they conquered. Every kingdom they conquered, they brought another god and they set them up.What was the God of Babylon? Well, all of the gods were the gods of Babylon. They worshipped them all. But in...I think I am speaking Spanish. [?]. But over all of those gods, listen to this, over all of those gods was the fact that you had to recognize the big honcho over all as the one real religious ruler. It is religious control. He causes the worship of the beast and the dragon.Now you listen to me. The highway for the road hog is being paved today. Any time a false teacher is doing what he does for the sake of money he is being just like the false prophet.Could that be why there are so many money mongers in the pulpits and on the Christian airways today? Are they getting the world ready for the false prophet money religion?When I stand in the pulpit and I talk to you about giving liberally and giving for the furtherance of the gospel there are a group of elders and there is a group of deacons and there is a financial committee and there are all kinds of people that can verify that your pastor and your staff have no access whatsoever to one penny of this church to appropriate personally, not one penny. But do you know, do you know that there is hardly any accountability on the part of the money mongers all over our world today that are doing what they do because they worship at the altar of the almighty dollar. And they are using religion to do it. And these money mongers are getting the world, they are paving the way for this terrible, horrible man that is coming.The unholy trinity can be mentioned at this point. Who is the unholy trinity and why do you call it that? Because Satan is the great imitator and just like there is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is Satan, the beast and his false prophet. And this is where it gets serious when we talk about a world being dominated by religion or being dominated religiously.Verse eight. “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life.” Those who know Jesus won’t. They will die for it, most of them, but they won’t worship.Here is a prediction. There is going to be a one world religion. It is a prediction that the antichrist is going to rule over this world religion. So what does the antichrist want? He wants worship. That’s what Satan has always been after, God’s place of worship. He got kicked out of heaven for this when he said, “I will ascend. I will be like the most high.”God says, “No, you won’t. You said you will go up, but you are going to go down and you are going to go down to the most low place.”And let me track this whole thing for you. Who is this beast, the road hog? He is the antichrist. He is going to be a world leader. He is going to be a scintillating speaker. He is going to be a charismatic personality. He is going to be an international diplomat. He is going to be a military genius. He is going to solve the world’s religious conflicts.Did you hear that?Do you know what is going on right now in the Middle East? Wars of religion. Are you aware of that?Why, we even have news anchors on the major networks of our country saying things like, “If we could just get rid of all the religions of the world we would get rid of all the wars of the world.”That is what is going on over there and he is going to solve world religious... How do you say...“How do you know that, pastor?”Well, I want you to know that President Bush’s road map for peace in the Middle East is not going to work, but the antichrist will. The most burning international issues of our time are religious in nature and one of the real burning problems we are facing in the world today is the future problem, the problem of today, Islam.Somebody will say, “Well, all religions have problems.”Yes, but do all religions have at their core the elimination of all people who will not acquiesce and become part of what they want them to be? World domination.Every time I get on an airplane now and I fly somewhere and I will here in a couple of weeks, I get the heebie jeebies.You say, “What are the heebie jeebies?”I don’t know, but that’s what I get. When I hear the flight attendant say, “Such and such an airline is part of the one world alliance,” how many of you have heard that on an airplane, “Proudly serving as part of the one world alliance.”That is what the antichrist, the beast is going to do. We are just going to in this world he is going to seek worship. Away with everything else. Everything else, after all, he rose again, didn’t he? And the world is going to see it.Now there is this little issue of Israel and God’s eternal purposes for them as a nation. There is the problem of the temple mount and the fact that the Dome of the Rock that I talked to you about a while ago is sitting there. This international diplomat is going to broker a truce and permit the Jews to build a temple on the sacred and holy spot. That Dome of the Rock is coming down.You say, “Oh, that could never happen.”Oh, yes it is. It is coming down and they are going to build a temple right there on that spot, quite a feat.How do I know he is going to do that, that the temple is going to be rebuilt? It said right there in 2 Thessalonians where we started, “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple."Well, if he is going to set himself up in it, then you know what? He has got to rebuild it. And he is going to do it. The temple has to be rebuilt if he is going to sit in it.Daniel 9:27 says how he is going to do it. “He will confirm a covenant...” a pact, a promise. He is going to broker a treaty, “...with many for one ‘seven’.” That is for a week. Bible terminology means that is one week of years or seven years. He is going to broker that peace and then it says in the middle of that week he is going to put an end to sacrifice and offering and on a wing of the temple he is going to set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end is decreed that is poured out upon him.December 16th, 167 BC his forerunner, his prototype, Antiochus Epiphanes in a rage over having lost to the Egyptians at Alexandria offered a pig on the altar to Zeus in the temple. It was horrible for the Jews in those days. But he was but a foretaste of the king of a fierce countenance who is to come.I am trying to show you here that the antichrist is going to rule the world. He is the road hog. He is coming.“What does that have to do with me?”Well, if you are saved, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you are saved, you are secure, you are safe, you are in Jesus. Let the world do what the world wants to do. The road hog is not going to rule over you. But listen to me. If you are here tonight and if you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you are here and you never have said, “Lord, save me,” guess what? The Lord could come back at any moment. When he does, guess who is going to be ushered in and he is going to start taking over this world.Oh, look. I’ve got a newspaper right here. This is just a mock up newspaper, not the real thing. I don’t know who put it out there, but it says right here. “Christ Returns: Millions Missing Around the World.” It is kind of unique. It says all kind of stuff about what it will be like, how airplanes are going to wreck and how trains are going to run off the tracks and thousands attempt suicide and oh, teenage mob demolishes five million dollar church and it goes on and this is really interesting.But do you know what? It is not too far fetched. One day a trumpet is going to sound. The world is going to be in chaos, total chaos, no leadership. And all of the sudden this leader, this world renowned, scintillating speaker with great ability and a charismatic personality is going to step forward and say, “I’ve got some... I’ve got some answers for you. We have got to settle this thing in the Middle East once and for all.” He will start there. That is what he is going to do.The antichrist is going to rule. He is going to be the king of the road. He is going to do it politically, economically and religiously and that is fantastic to think that people will follow him. But I want you to know that people would put into the hands of one human being absolutely total domination if they thought it would work. The problems of mankind are going to become so severe as we approach the end of the age that they will be desperate for a leader.Listen to these statements from modern international diplomats and leaders. Paul Henry Spock a distinguished Belgian says, “We do not want another committee. We have had too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he God or devil we will receive him.”European economist banker Paul Mazure said, “In order to control the diverse bureaucracies required a politburo will need to develop and over this group an organization there will arise to the final and single arbiter, the master of the order, the total dictator.”These people are talking today.Listen to the statement of many years ago Zbignew Brezinsky. How many remember who Zbignew Brezinsky is? He was Jimmy Carter’s administration. He said, “To truly unify Europe, to unify Europe must either fashion a remarkable degree of consensus or be led by one single acknowledged leader.Things are getting ready. TV celebrity power. Does anybody know in this world who Lance Ito was until the OJ trial? Did anybody know who Lance Ito was? Nobody in the world. But you let somebody become a celebrity and the whole world locks on. You let this man stand up with answers in a chaotic world and the world will lock on to him and know who he is.But the road hog is going to come to his ruin.2 Thessalonians 2:4 the Bible says he is going to sit in the temple as God. That is his fatal mistake. The Jews ought to forget about the whole idea of a sacrificial system. They could if they would just believe in Jesus. He said it was finished and that means that there remains no more sacrifice for sin.My favorite hymn in all the world is Jesus Paid it All, All to Him I Owe. You know, there is no more sacrifice for sin. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. If the Jews would but believe that they wouldn’t be worrying about trying to build a temple and restart all of the Old Testament sacrifices. Sin has left a crimson stain, but he washed it as white as snow.In Daniel 9:27 we mentioned that the beast made a seven year treaty, but he breaks it half way through and he sacrifices what is called the abomination to the Jews on an altar and he calls a halt to the regular religious activity of the Jews. And he is going to send a message to say, “All right, you stop all that, all those things and everything over there, signed, the road hog.”And when he does that the Jews will rebel. When he stops and breaks that treaty they are going to rebel and when he rebels, when he rebels, the Jews are going to fight back and the whole world is going to say, once and for all, let’s be rid of this bunch of rebels, let’s kill them. And they are all going to march on Jerusalem.He will gather all of the armies. He will gather with his military and the Bible says he will make his move on the plains of Megiddo.But look what happens. 2 Thessalonians chapter two verse eight says, “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.” That’s short, isn’t it? This guy who gets the whole world, the tiger by the tail, he gets the whole world in his hip pocket. He’s got everything and he is going to handle it all. And the Bible says Jesus is going to come and overthrow him with the breath of his mouth and the splendor of his coming.That is not the rapture, that is the coming. That is the coming with his saints.Do you like to ride horses? How many of you are horse back riders? Get ready. We’re coming back on white horses. We are coming back with Jesus. We are coming back to a great battle that we are not going to fight. No battle to be fought. He is coming back with the Word of his mouth, with a sword that goes out of his mouth he is going to destroy him.But that was too quick. Daniel 7:8 is a great passage, but let me move to Revelation 19:1 for a blow by blow accounting of the end of the beast, Revelation chapter 19 verse one. I read the Hallelujahs to you last week. Now let me read to you what happens after the Hallelujahs.Verse nine says this.Then the angel said to me, "Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’" And he added, "These are the true words of God." At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow-servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."Now here we go. Verse 11. Here is the blow by blow of the end of the antichrist.I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no-one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.I told you you were going to ride a horse. And if you don’t like to... if you don’t like to dress up you are going to dress up that day because we are coming in fine white robes. Those are the robes that have been prepared for us by the blood of Jesus as he washed us white and gave us a robe covering all filthiness and we get on those horses and we ride with him.Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron sceptre." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.I wish the rapture would come today.And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in mid-air, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great." Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.2 Thessalonians chapter two it brings out the point that those who reject the truth of the Lord Jesus will receive the lies of the antichrist. There is a Bible principle that when you reject the truth of the gospel you are especially susceptible to the lies and deceptions of Satan.Verse nine says:The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.Now why do they perish? They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. They reject the truth and they believe a lie. God confirms their rejection.How many times have you heard somebody say, “Oh, well, one day I’ll come to Jesus. I have just got a lot of things I want to do. I don’t want all those limitations of Christianity. I just want to live my life and do everything I want to do. And someday why when I know I am coming to the end of days, I know I will do something. I’ll ask Jesus to come into my heart. I will do it at that time.”?Do not kid yourself. Do not joke with yourself. Do you suppose that God is like a genie in a bottle that you can rub up any time and have him come running to you to just at your beck and command do anything you want to do, would do anything you want him to do?Isaiah 55 says, “Call unto me while I am near. Call unto me while I am listening.” He doesn’t have... He is not duty bound to listen to anyone. He is not duty bound to save anyone. He is not duty bound to do anything we say that he is supposed to do. He is duty bound to honor his Word.And here is what he says. “Call unto me. While I am near call unto me. While I am listening and I will answer you,” Isaiah 55.It is so important and people who reject truth have the propensity to believe a lie and God will confirm their rejection.“For this reason,” verse 11, “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” Why? They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. They refused it and God confirms their rejection.“And so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”If you don’t receive Jesus you will receive the spirit of the antichrist in that day or the real antichrist when he is revealed.John 12 says that Jesus did many miracles and they did not believe in him. It says in the 39th verse that they could not believe.Persistent unbelief has a tendency to disintegrate the capacity for faith.You and I need to receive Jesus while we can, while he is near, while he is calling because he may not always be near. He may not always be calling. And no man comes to the Father unless his Spirit draws him.He is the road hog. The road is being prepared and we are headed toward the end of time.You say, “You are just trying to scare people.”No, I just picked the subject and I have been teaching on right out of God’s Word.I want you to know. First of all, I want you to know that the sign posts are everywhere. The signs of his coming are abundant. I want you to know that the Bible teaches that at any moment a trumpet could sound, an archangel could lift his voice and Jesus could shout. Those that know him will go to heaven and be with him, go the marriage supper of the lamb, be judged according to their works and then get on white horses to get ready to come back a little short while later to watch and witness the greatest military victory in the history of the world.But just before that time the road hog is coming and he is going to spread misery like this world has never seen.Do you know Jesus? Do you know him? Is he your Lord and Savior? If you would but come to him now... Don’t reject him. Don’t favor a wicked life over an opportunity to be the child of God. Don’t hate the truth, thus confirming a lie. Come to Jesus. Believe in him. Trust in him. Give him your life and, thus, be saved by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.Would you bow your heads?If you are here tonight and you say, “Wow. I wasn’t counting on that,” a lot of people aren’t counting on that. But the Bible is not silent. God does not leave us wondering what is coming in the future. Satan and the demons of hell right now are preparing this world for the coming of his favorite child, his antichrist.“Pastor, is he alive today?”I don’t have any idea.“Do you know who he is?”Of course not. I know what he is like. I know what he can do. I know what he is going to convince the world of.“Pastor, is... is there no hope?”Oh, yes. There is great hope. Believe on Jesus and be saved. You see, God is not planning on sending us to wrath. He is talking about saving us from wrath, the wrath that is to come on this world.I want to encourage you to come to this gentle Lamb of God, this gentle, meek, kind one who appeals to you on the words of kindness and words of love. I want to appeal to you to the one who bled...on the basis of the one who bled and died for you to put your faith and trust in him. Say something like this. “Dear Jesus, I am a sinner. Quite frankly, I am scared of what I am hearing, but come into my heart and save me. I want to be your child. I ask for forgiveness. Take my life. Change it. I want to go to heaven when I die. I want to be part of the family of God. I believe you died for me and rose again. I accept you now as my Savior. Please accept me.”If you did that the Bible says that Jesus came into your heart. He saved you from your sins. I ask you to accept now that gentle Savior because the next time he comes he is not coming meek like a lamb. He is coming on a white horse with all of the power of the universe at his disposal to destroy those who will reject him.Father, work in our hearts tonight and as Oliver Green said so often, Lord, save that soul that is nearest hell. Save them. If you are here tonight and you prayed that prayer, you said, “Dear Jesus, save me,” and if you called out to him tonight to be your Lord and Savior I want to pray for you. Just raise your hand up and say, “I did that. I just asked Jesus to come into my heart.” Is anyone like that tonight, anyone at all? Oh, if you did I rejoice with you. If you already know him, if you already know Jesus I said something tonight that really should shock us. If... if we are closed mouth about Jesus and about our Christianity, then we are helping prepare the way for the antichrist because the restraining factor in the world today to keep total anarchy chaos from taking over is the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in the life of believers. It is crucial. It is urgent. It is world shaking for you and me to simply talk about Jesus and to share our faith with others. It is crucial.Won’t you commit in your heart to look for those windows of opportunity in the lives of friends and neighbors, loved ones to tell them about Jesus.Father, motivate us, oh Father, motivate us as believers to want to tell the good news to preserve this civilization for future evangelization and for the glorification of your name. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.John 5:43Ibid.Ibid.2 Thessalonians 2:31 John 2:181 John 2:221 John 4:2-32 Thessalonians 2:9Ibid.Revelation 13:1Ibid.Revelation 13:1-2Revelation 13:3-4Revelation 13:5Revelation 13:6-102 Thessalonians 2:9Revelation 13:11Ibid.Revelation 13:12Revelation 13:12-13Revelation 13:13-18Matthew 24:24Matthew 7:22Matthew 7:23Revelation 13:3Revelation 17:8Revelation 17:9-11Revelation 17:8Revelation 17:11Revelation 13:4Revelation 13:16-17Revelation 13:82 Thessalonians 2:4Daniel 9:27Ibid.2 Thessalonians 2:8Revelation 19:9-10Revelation 19:11-14Revelation 19:15-16Revelation 19:17-212 Thessalonians 2:9-102 Thessalonians 2:112 Thessalonians 2:122 Thessalonians 2:11Page PAGE 1 of NUMPAGES 26
Vanished Without A Trace--Part 2
Vanished Without A Trace (Part 2)
By Phil Winfield
Bible Text: Matthew 24; Titus 2:11-15
Preached on: Sunday, April 18, 2004
Grace Church of Des Moines, IA
4200 E. 25th StreetDes Moines, IA 50317
Website: http://www.gracehome.com
Online Sermons: http://gracehome.sermonaudio.com
We started on the road ahead.I like to play with my computer. Do you ever do that? The road ahead. And I found myself a road and put it on there. That is what we are studying, the road ahead. And I borrowed that from Bill Gates. I wish I could borrow a few more things from Bill Gates, but I got my doubts that he is going to let me get involved with him in that way. But we are talking about the road ahead, what to expect, what is coming, what is down the road for each of us as Christians. What is down the road for this world? What is down the road ahead of us?Take your Bibles, if you would, please, and I just want to very quickly pass over a couple of thoughts I gave you last week as we were finishing Matthew chapter 24. Take your Bible. Open it up to Matthew 24 and we are going to finish up what we were talking about, vanishing without a trace, the rapture. And we talked about that just a little bit and we mentioned some things and what the rapture is supposed to mean to us as a Christian and we get that from many passages of Scripture though you don’t see the word rapture—R-A-P-T-U-R-E—in our New Testament or in the Bible that we use, it is very much there in the fact that it was translated not raphio which is the original word that was used, but the word “caught away.” We find that in 1 Thessalonians chapter four.We are not going to look at that just now, but I want you to look at Matthew chapter 24 and verse 42. Jesus has just talked extensively about what things are going to be like as we came toward the end of the age, those were the questions he was being asked. He said, “When is the destruction of Jerusalem? When is the end of the age? When it is that you are coming?”And in verse 42 he says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Verse 44 says, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”We started off last week saying that someone might ask, “Well, pastor, what in the world does the rapture have to do with me? I am living here doing my duty, doing the best I can. I can’t stop the rapture. I can’t change the rapture so why should I worry about it? I will just wait.”Well, that is partially a good answer because that is exactly what we are supposed to do. We talked about it, 1 Thessalonians chapter one and verse eight gave us a real glimpse of Christianity, a real understanding of what salvation is in 1 Thessalonians chapter eight.The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us...Paul speaking to the Thessalonians, the people of Thessalonica. And he said, “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son Jesus from heaven.” And that is the real project of a Christian, that what we are supposed to do is at first we turn from something and to something. I said this last week. Let me reemphasize. When a person comes to Jesus Christ then they are turning from whatever their confidence was in before to putting their faith, trust, hope all of their confidence, all of the weight of their eternity they put in Jesus Christ. So they turn from—maybe they were confident in their church attendance, maybe they put confidence in their heritage, maybe they were confident in the fact that they were an American, maybe they were confident that they had memorized Romans eight once upon a time, maybe they were confident... No matter what you were confident in, you come to a place where you understand that none of what you do or make an effort at and you turn from that and you turn to God. That is true repentance. You turn to him from anything else. In this case it as idolatry.And so you turn to God from idols and then you turn to do something. You turn to serve the true, the one and only, the living God. That is Christianity. You just don’t say, “Thanks, God, for my salvation. Thank you that you gave me eternal life and now then I will go about my life and just do anything I want to until you come.”No. We are supposed to turn to God from idols to do something, to serve the living God. And I said this last week. I will repeat it. If your coming to Christ has not given you any spiritual ambition, holy ambition in your heart whatsoever, to know him, to know his Word, to know his Son, to know what his Holy Spirit is doing in your life and to want to do something in the kingdom of God, if it hasn’t made you want to do that, then I wonder: Did he ever come into your life in the first place?And so you turn to God from idols to serve. Then here is this key word, “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”You say, “Pastor, I don’t like those verses in the Bible that talks about judgment, wrath, about things that are going to come on this world that are going to be so difficult. Could we just skip those parts?”Well, you would have to take a pen knife and cut out about a third of the Bible because lots of the Bible talks about the fact that God is a God of love, yes, but he is also a just God and he will never overlook sin. He will punish it. And so we have to understand what coming to God is about.Now this passage of Scripture here tells us that we are to wait on his coming. We are to be employed, occupy, serve the Lord, but we are waiting until he comes back. And knowing that the Lord is coming at any time—and we have established that, won’t go into it again tonight—but it should create, first of all in us, it should create a spirit of anticipation, a spirit of anticipation. We should be anticipating that the Lord could come back at any time.I remember as a young boy sometimes my mother and father would leave us three boys at home and they would go away and they would say, “Behave yourself. When we get back we are going to check into it and make sure you don’t throw the footballs or the baseballs or the basketballs or any other kind of ball in the house and if you do it, we are going to know it. So don’t do it.”Well, boy, they would get out the door and they wouldn’t be gone very long... I remember one special occasion that they left and we were not anticipating that they had forgotten something in the house, but on their little trek that they were taking that they were going to be back home shortly. And so we were just having a riotous time within the first 30 seconds of when they went out the door and we were... We had found the football, got it out. And I mean we had moved… We had already pushed the couch back, pushed the chairs back and we were going at it right in the middle of the living room and I mean it was just full force tackle. And just about the time that I hit my older brother Donny, just I mean a full flying tackle. Guys, it was fun. I hit him.Just about that time the door opened and he said, “You didn’t expect me to come back this soon, did you?”Well, we learned to anticipate that he could come back at any moment.And we need to anticipate that the Lord could come back at any moment. And I want you to know that God is telling us that with the facts being that he could come back at any moment, we should be living a certain kind of life. We didn’t get into this last week. Now here is where we are going to pick up what we were talking about and I want to carry it forward.Take your Bibles and turn to Titus chapter two. This is a church that has a wonderful name. What is the name of this church? It is called what? Grace Church. Say that with me. Grace Church. We love grace. How many of you love the idea of a God of grace? Raise your hand right up.I do. Boy, God is a God of grace. He is a God of the second chance. He is a God that is merciful and kind. The old King James says he is longsuffering. It is a fancy way of saying he is so very, very patient. He even suffers with our inconsistencies and our disobediences. He is patient and he is kind and he is gracious and graceful and full of grace. And I want you to notice that there are two things that grace does. And make sure that you get this.This is all about the anticipation of his coming. Titus 2:11.For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.Now in this passage of Scripture that also talks about waiting for the Lord, anticipating his return, recognizing that he could come at any time. He says, “I have shed my grace abroad in your hearts. I have given you my grace.”And the first thing we find out about that it is God’s grace that brings salvation and has appeared to all men.Now to my friends that believe that not anyone can be saved who wants to be saved I just want to read this first part of this verse. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” No one is going to be able to point to God and say, “God, it is your fault that I did not get saved because your grace did not come to me.” This verse says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to whom? To what kind of men, to which men? To what? All men.”I could go on all night long.But here is what I want to say to you. Here is what I want to say. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Now what is it about God’s character and nature that saw to it that you and I were able to get saved, that we were able to have our sins forgiven? It is the grace of God. It is his unmerited favor on your behalf. It is God saying to you, “Though you do not deserve it, I am going to give you eternal life.”It is not just mercy. It is not justice. You certainly don’t want to say, “God, give me justice.” That is the last thing you want to say because if we get justice then we all get what we deserve and that is an eternity in hell. And not just mercy. Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve and then it is grace, that is giving us, in spite of us, what we do not deserve. And it is the grace of God that has brought salvation.I want you to point at your neighbor and I want you to tell him, “Grace saved you.” Point at him. Tell him. “Grace saved you.”If you are not saved grace will save you. I want you to know that tonight. You are saved by grace, not by your works, not by your church membership, not by your baptized. You can get baptized up here in this baptistery seven times forward and 22 times backwards. It won’t make any difference you will just be wetter and soggy when you get done. It is not going to save you.Grace, God’s unmerited gift to you, he sent his Son as a gracious gift to save you.Now what does grace do for us? It saves us and then it teaches us something and this is what we don’t want to talk about. We have got it in our mind that grace is license. Grace is God’s unmerited gift to us and that just means, “Ok, you have been given grace so just go to [?]. God knows that you are just made of clay. Go live any way you want to, do anything you want to. Go anywhere you want to. It doesn’t matter because there is enough of God’s grace.”Well, there is. But grace doesn’t just save us. It teaches us something. Look at God’s Word. It says it teaches us to say what? No.Do you know that that little two letter word—I may be speaking to some young people. I may be speaking to some college age people. I may be speaking to somebody who is contemplating an affair. But I want to tell you right now that the grace of God teaches you a two letter word that will secure and save your life and save your testimony and save your marriage and save everything about you if you will just learn that God’s grace also teaches us something. It teaches us to simply say, “No” to ungodliness, to worldliness, to sinfulness and to selfish desires that we have in our heart.Now, you see, that is not a message about grace that you hear very much. But look at God’s Word. Look at what it says. It says it teaches us to say, “No,” to ungodliness and to worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.I say the word “godly” and somebody thinks of somebody sitting in the corner with a big frown who can’t move, they can’t breathe, they can’t smile they can’t laugh. They can never eat a rare steak. They just can’t do any anything in life that is any fun. That is not Godliness, that is boredom.Godliness is not sadness. Godliness is becoming more and more like what God wants you to be. It is becoming like God in character and in characteristic it is becoming like Christ. It is becoming like Jesus.His grace teaches us because of God’s wonderful gift to us, it teaches us to simply say, “No,” to things that are not like God.”You say what does that have to do with anticipation? Well, it says, it teaches us to live godly lives while we wait.You say, “Pastor, why should I bother with trying to live a life that is exemplary? Why should I bother with trying to do the right thing, trying to serve the Lord with gladness? Why should I worry about my testimony in the world? You know it gets old. It gets...It gets tiring. I wish I could just let loose and just...”Do you know why? Because his appearing, his coming, the rapture, the trumpet sound, the voice of the archangel could come at any moment and anticipation of that event teaches me, “Be ready becomes he could come at any time.”The coming of the Lord for his own is imminent. That doesn’t mean immediate. That doesn’t mean today. It means it could happen at any time. The New Testament believes thought it was going to happen in their life time. And Jesus is going to come at an hour when we do not expect him. They are admonished to look forward to the time of his coming and we are to be busy working for him when he does come.We notice that the verse says there in Titus grace gives us something, salvation, and it teaches us something. It teaches us to say no.Listen to this verse in 2 Timothy chapter four and verse eight. “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but [look what it says] but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”There is a special blessing, a special crown, a special reward for those people that are longing for, we are wishing that he would come, praying that he would come, hoping that he would come, expecting him to come. And it says that there is a special blessing for those people.Sadly, many of us are looking forward to our disappearing more than we are his appearing. We want to disappear from a lot of problems, heartaches and some of the things that we have created ourselves. I told you about wanting to pray for the Lord to come back, for the rapture to occur before a midterm exam one time that I had not studied for in college. I wanted to disappear more than I wanted the Lord to appear.Well, that is not what we are talking about here. We long for his appearing.1 John chapter two verse 28. “And now, dear children...” I say that too quickly. The first one was 2 Timothy 4:8. Write that down. 1 John chapter two and verse 28. “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”Did you get that? Did you hear that? It said, “And now, dear children, continue in him.” It sounds like John chapter 15, doesn’t it? Abide in me. Let my Word abide in you. Remember those verses over there? Abiding in Christ, staying close Christ.Jude says, “Keep yourself in the love of God, abiding in him, staying close to him, holy ambitions, righteous ambitions, caring about God.”You see, he tells us that saying, why? So that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed.Did anybody ever catch you in the middle of what you wish you had not been doing and you were not very confident nor were you very proud of yourself and what you were doing at that moment?Let me just ask you a searching question. Here we go. What you did this week, how you acted this week, the attitude that you exemplified this week and the activities that you were involved in this week, would you have wanted the Lord to come at that moment and find you doing that thing, that thought?You see, we don’t want to be ashamed at his coming. We want to be confident. All of this has to do with anticipation.Let me hasten. The second thought, what this whole idea of his coming should say to us is that not only we should be thinking about his coming with anticipation, but we should also realize that it is going to be an evacuation, an evacuation. We will simply be absent. There are going to be millions missing from the road ahead. Do you understand that? There are going to be millions of people that are just missing from the road ahead.Take your Bibles. Look over toe 1 Thessalonians chapter four. Just flip over there. 1 Thessalonians chapter four.You say, “What are we talking about?”We are talking about that moment in time when a trumpet sounds. There is a voice the voice of an archangel. There is the voice and the should of the Lord himself and those that are believers in Jesus Christ who are yet alive in this world, first will be... First will rise will be those that have already died. But there will be a bodily literal movement of believers from this world in which we live into the presence of our Lord.1 Thessalonians 4:16 says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”Several thoughts I want to give you. First of all in this passage we understand that there is going to be a reentry, a reentry.You say, “What are you saying?”Well, I am saying there is going to be reentry. All of these years the scientists and the star gazers have been looking for life in outer space. They are looking for something right now on Mars, the red planet. I mean they are doing everything they can to try to find life. They think they have found something, some evidence of water. And, you know, that in order to have life you have got to have some water and so they are trying to find evidence of that. They think they have found it. That is interesting because Jesus offers water, that if you will drink of it you will never thirst again. That’s interesting, isn’t it? He is the breath of life and the water of life and anyway the astrologers and the astronomers, the Greek mythologists and science fiction crowd have it right. There is life out there and guess what? You are not going to be able to reel him in with telescopes or horoscopes, but when he gets ready to come back neither will you be able to stop him because Jesus is coming back again. There is going to be reentry.You say, “What does that mean?”He has already entered one time. The first time he came he came born of a virgin. He was placed in a little cradle there in Bethlehem. He was not so well received and loved. In fact, after 33 years of a perfect life he was crucified, but he did enter the first time. There is going to be a reentry and he is going to come back.And so we have to understand that. And the Lord... I want you to see there in that verse, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 it says, “The Lord himself.” Underline that word “himself.” He is not going to do it by proxy. The Lord himself will descend.Two hundred and twenty four promises are yet to fulfill. We talked about that and we just have to understand that just faithfully as he fulfilled the first prophecies he is going to fulfill that one.Acts chapter one in your Bible, take a look over there. Acts chapter one and verse nine. Acts chapter one and verse nine. This is very important. “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” This is on the mount of ascension. There are many people there that are watching. His disciples are there. There are many others. And they are watching. And as they were talking among each other what happened? Jesus just simply begins to ascend.Now, I have got to talk to you about that ascension scene that we had up here last week. You do not know the whole story of that ascension scene. Now my son in law, Aaron is an engineer and the long and the short of it is that I had to try this thing out. I had to get up there. I mean we had basketball one Thursday night. Basketball was over and I saw [?] and he was lifting up my nephew Matthew Haigton. He had him up and down, zip, zip, zip, zip, just like you were doing a yo yo, man, it was nothing.I go, “Oh, that’s cool. I have got to try that. Let Phil ascend.”And so I went up there and got into that thing up there and my daughter, my wife, Philip and Marie and others were down here watching and I got up there and I got to clowning around. Up it went to the top and it broke.Boom. I came down, landed on my feet and they said if you could have seen the look on my face. I had been clowning, acting up and I landed on my feet and just looked up like that and Jerry was rolling down here on [?]. She wasn’t worried about the fact that I could have hurt myself, her only father.But the ascension. I want you to know that this passage of Scripture says that Jesus was taken up.They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."Ladies and gentlemen, he went away visibly. He is coming back visibly. He went away bodily. He is coming back bodily. And when we see him we are going to see the nail scars in his hands, the nail scars in his feet, his riven side. We are going to know who he is. I am going to recognize him because it is going to be the same Jesus that went up.You say, “Why are you emphasizing this so much?”Because there’s a lot of people that don’t even think he rose from the dead literally and bodily. They think it was a spiritual resurrection. They think the ascension was to watch a ghost going to heaven and they think if he ever does come back it is only going to be an apparition. It is only going to be some kind of a ghost coming back.But I want you to know that the Bible says he rose from the dead. The Bible says he came out of the tomb. The Bible says that on the mount of ascension he went up. And just to make sure everybody understood how this thing was going to work he said, “This same Jesus who you just saw go into heaven is coming back.” And I want to tell you he, that Jesus is...I don’t want to see any other Jesus. I don’t want a ghost or an apparition. I want to see the one who died for me, don’t you? And Jesus died and he rose again and he went into heaven and that same Jesus is coming back. And so there is going to be reentry.Then there is something else. There is going to be resurrection. There is going to be resurrection, There is going to be a resurrection. The dead in Christ shall rise first. That is not talking about any certain denominations either. It is just talking about dead people.You didn’t get that. You will get it in a few minutes.But the Bible says it will happen with a shout. Think about this for a moment. The Bible says that the dead in Christ are going to rise first and it is going to happen with a shout. It happens when Jesus shouts. One day Jesus said with a loud voice, “Lazarus come forth.” And he did it. Loud voice, notice that. One day he cried with a loud voice, “It is finished.”Matthew 27:51, listen to it. At that moment when he cried it is finished it says that “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” And that is no small feat. It took 15 to 20 men to move that curtain around and put it in position and it was way too tall for a man to rip. The earth shook. The rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.Watch this. He shouted and Lazarus came forth. He shouted, “It is finished,” and many came forth out of their graves in Jerusalem. They came out of the tombs. And after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. It wasn’t a secret. I wonder how they kept that a secret, all these people that are dead and all these tombs that are open, the rocks come open and the ground opens up and here are these people. You know, I mean, here are these people who were dead.“I buried you.”And there he is, “I know you did, but Jesus died and now then he has come up out of the grave and here I am. I am right here in front of you.”Do you imagine what was going on? Jesus shouted and Lazarus came forth. And Jesus shouted and many tombs were opened. Well, one of the great shouts that is going to be heard all around the ends of the earth is that Jesus is going to shout and the dead in Christ are going to rise first. Now only those that are in Christ.I said that this morning. You are either in Christ or you are outside of Christ. Philippians and all of the New Testament epistles are written to churches at certain cities. But they are written to Christians that are in Christ. Listen to me. The Bible is written to Christians in Christ at cities. It is written to Christians that are in Christ at churches. But I want to tell you the truth. You could be at this church without being in Christ. You could be at Des Moines without being in Christ and that is what this is talking about. Only the dead in Christ, those whose spirits have gone on to heaven yet will come back and rejoin their bodies. They will likewise rise from the dead.The Bible teaches resurrection and so we have to understand that. When we at first see these dead in Christ are going to be raised and it is going to be followed up with something else. When we receive Jesus Christ he receives us and if he is in us, we are in him.In Philippians 3:9 Paul says he counted everything else worthless in this life when it was compared to his being counted worthy of being in Christ and worthy of resurrection.Some of you, today, have lost loved ones recently and you are hurting on the inside because of the loss of companionship and love that you have in this world and you went out to a cemetery, you put your friend, your father, your mother or some other loved one in a hole in the ground and it is a hard thing to do, very difficult. But, my friend, there is coming a shout from heaven and all the graves of the world are going to give up to the voice of their creator. Are you listening? There is going to come a shout and the graves are going to open. So there is reentry and then there is resurrection and then there is this third word that we have been talking about. There is rapture. I like this.What is this rapture? Well, first of all, it is transportation. It is a new mode of transportation. 1 Thessalonians 4:17. “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be [raptured].” The word caught up, snatched, taken away, “together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.” It is transportation. It is something else. It is transformation, a metamorphosis. Something is going to happen to our vile, corrupt human bodies at that moment. I want you to know that corruption cannot inherit incorruption. Paul told us that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Vileness cannot inherit that pure body. And so there is a metamorphosis. There is a transformation that is going to take place at that rapture.Listen to God’s Word, Philippians three verse 20.But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.And I know that there may be some of you that are getting old or some of you that are having more difficulty just at the regular carry on of life. I know I see Jack back here. Jack, when do you go in to have that rod put in back there? Thursday, got to have a rod put in his leg because he kicked too many railroad ties in his life and he has got a foot that is just all messed up. Just to kept hat foot straight he is going to have a rod put in that thing.Well, I want you to know, Jack, when the trumpet sounds you are not going to need the rod. The rod is staying here and your body will be transformed and it will be like his glorious body. And if you are here today and you have got a sickness, a disease, if you have... We talk about healing all the time. Well, I want to tell you. The mass healing service is coming. There is a mass healing service that is coming. It is going to fix everything that is wrong with everybody all at once. Not going to need the glasses, not going to need the hearing aid, not going to need a cane, not going to need a wheel chair. We are not going to need medicine. We are not going to need cumudin, not going to need insulin, not going to need... Not going to need anything. Why? Because our bodies are going to be transformed, metamorphosis. They are going to be made like unto his what kind of body? Glorious body, heavenly body, spiritual body, a body that we are going to inhabit for all of eternity.Listen to 1 Corinthians 15:51. “Listen.” I love how Paul does things. He said, “Look a here. Listen to this. Heads up.” I love this. “I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—“ That ought to be a sign back in the nursery, shouldn’t it? We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. That would work, wouldn’t it? Just put that back there.Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.It is not going to be... I have probably, Tom Cove, probably we will have hair when we get to heaven. I am hoping. I know you won’t recognize. Maybe I shouldn’t have hair. You may not recognize me when I get to heaven if I have hair. But we are going to be changed. We are going to be given a wonderful body like his body.So then we have reentry. We have resurrection. We have rapture. Let me give you one more. We have reunion. Anybody gone on ahead of you that you miss? I am thinking of Linda today, Linda [?]. I am thinking about [?] today. Somebody has gone on ahead that we miss. I love this.1 Thessalonians 4:17, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them...” With who? With those who were dead in Christ. Remember, who is it that raises first? Who is it that comes back first? The dead in Christ. Who comes back first? The dead in Christ.“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them”I am asked this question all the time. “Pastor, am I going to recognize my loved ones in heaven?”Well, did you recognize them when you were on earth? Do you think we are going to be more stupid in heaven than we are on earth? Yeah, we are going to recognize our loved ones. When Abraham died the Bible says he was gathered to his people, right? And when Isaac died he was gathered to his people. And when Jacob and all the others died they were gathered to their people.Yeah, we are going to know who those people are when we get there. There is going to be a reunion. But I want you to know that having a reunion with those that have gone on before that we love will pale in comparison with that first meeting, that literal bodily meeting with the one with the nail scars in his hand and the nail scars in his feet. We are going to have a meeting in the air.Do you see the little pronoun “we?” You are going to be with the ones that went before you. You are going to be with the ones going up with you. You are going to get...you are going to get up there and we are going to be together and we are going to be together forever. You are going to be reunited with those that have gone on before.Heads bowed, eyes closed. Let me ask you a question. We are not done yet, but I like to do this. I am talking to people right now who have loved ones already in that place. And just the mention of what I am talking about touches your heart, tweaks that part of you that hurts. I want you to know that you that know Jesus will be reunited with those that have gone on before because we are going to meet them in the air and we will ever forever be with the Lord.Let me say something to you. Your God who is love personified, loves you and though it was painful, hurtful and left you with a heartache that may not have ever gone away, somehow in his sovereignty, in his knowledge and ability that is beyond our comprehension, he did the most wonderful, good, loving and merciful thing he could do in taking your loved one ahead of you. And you will see that loved one again.Father, bless us with the confidence that you know who you are, what you are doing, what the future holds and that you love us with an unending, never dying love. Thank you that you love us. Lord, we look forward to being reunited with those that have gone on before. I have got a brother up there named Jodie. I have never seen him, but I want to see him. Lord, thank you for these promises in Jesus’ name. Amen.So there is anticipation. There is evacuation. Now then we have another one. What does the coming of the Lord say to me? What does it encourage me to do? Well, anticipate, realize that I am going to be evacuated, then it encourages me to run an examination and an evaluation of my life. Examination.And I am going to be examined then. The Bible says our life will be examined. It will be evaluated. Our words will be tried.Somebody might say, “Well, can’t we just skip that part about that examination, evaluation? Can’t we just go on to something?”Well, you know, I wouldn’t be doing you any favor to not tell you that not only may he come at any time and you had better be doing what God wants you to do and living the way he wants you to now, I don’t only want to tell you that he is going to come with such suddenness that he is just going to snatch you away from this world in the middle of whatever is going on, but he is also going to try and weigh and put through the fire of testing all of the works of our lives. We are going to be examined. The only alternative is to be adjudged at the great white throne.Somebody says, “Well, I just don’t want to be... I don’t want to be examined there at the judgment seat of Christ, the bema seat. I don’t want to be examined there.”Well, the only alternative to not being examined at the great... at the judgment seat of Christ is to be examined and tested at the great white throne judgment. The only problem is those that are tested and examined at the great white throne judgment have already been judged and the only future for them... It is not that their works be weighed, but it is that there lives will be thrown, they, bodily forever into hell.2 Corinthians 5:10. You might need to turn there. This is a sobering verse. Turn that. Turn in your Bibles, 2 Corinthians chapter five verse 10. You need to circle a little pronoun. Pronouns are very important words in the English language. Here is one. 2 Corinthians chapter five verse 10, Paul speaking, “For we...” Who is doing the writing? The apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he says—circle the word: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” The bema, if you want to write that word in there—B-E-M-A. It is like coming before a reviewing stand. He is going to sit there and take a look at our lives. “...that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”You say, “Wait a minute, I thought that was why Jesus died on the cross to take away the penalty of my sin.”Oh, he did. The penalty of your sin was death and hell. But the judgment here is for opportunity lost, life wasted. What God invested in you we prostituted for something else. Oh, what a difficult day.Somebody says, “Well, there is not going to be any tears in heaven.”Well, the Bible doesn’t say that until Revelation chapter 21.What? What are you saying?I am saying to you that I believe there are going to be great tears at the judgment seat of Christ for opportunities missed, for deeds not done, for love not shared, for witnesses not given.You see, the Bible says he is going to wipe away all tears from our eyes, but that doesn’t happen until way after the tribulation, the millennium. It happens right at the end of all things.Now you listen to me. At the judgment seat of Christ every one of us will give an account of himself for the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad and God is going to inspect our lives. Maybe we need to pray again, huh?God is going to inspect our lives.You say, “Well, wait a minute. I thought that once he forgave our sins...”Oh, he did. He forgave all of the sins of our life and he put us in a new position. We are positionally safe forever in the... We are in Jesus on our road to heaven. But it doesn’t mean that from the time we trusted Jesus to be our Lord and Savior that we can kick up our heels and live the life of Reilly in this world and do whatever we want and never answer for it. Oh, yes. The Bible is clear.Let me read you another verse. Romans 14:10 “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” Again, who is writing? Paul.Romans 14:12. “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”Can you imagine that? Can you imagine God almighty, his presence on the throne, dwelling in inapproachable light with our mediator at his right hand saying, “I forgave them. I died for their sins”?Yet the Father says, “All right, that’s fine. Now then let’s have him give an account of his days, give an account of his deeds, give an account of his duties. Just tell us about your life.”Well, are you going to try to... Are we going to be able to cover anything up? Oh, I don’t think we can cover any of it. I think he whose eyes are as a flame of fire is going to be able to look right through us and there is no point in trying to point to others and talk about circumstances and talk about reasons and say, “Well, you know, I had this childhood and so...” We are not going to be able to do any of those things because the Lord is going to judge our works. We will give an account for the time we have, the talent we have and the treasure we have. We will give an account for whether we loved him with all of our heart or not. He knows.There was a lawyer one day thought he loved the Lord. He at least had everyone convinced he did. He came to the Lord and he said, “Lord, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” He was a lawyer. He was not a lawyer like today. He was a student of the law of God. He knew God’s law. “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?”And the Lord said, “Well, you know what is in the law. What does it say?”He said, “Well, it says I am supposed to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with all my strength and love my neighbor as myself.”And he said, “Well, you have got it right. Do that and you will live.”And then he willing to justify himself said, “Who is my neighbor?” He didn’t say, “How do I love God? How do I do it with all my...?” He didn’t say any of those things. He thought he had the world convinced. But do you know what? Do you knew who knew whether he really loved him or not? The one who was talking to him, Jesus knew whether he really loved him or not.You say, “How do I know if I love God with all my heart?”Well, who do you put first? Who is first?One day Jesus was talking to some people. They came to him. He had done some miracles and oh it was awesome. They came and said, “Oh, Lord, I will go with you wherever you go, but let me first go and do this, that, or the other.”Anybody that is saying, “Lord, and me first” in the same sentence, whether we say it verbally or in our minds, is really at odds with the lordship of what God wants us to do in our lives.We will give an account, but let me not stop there. There are going to be these three. Then the fourth thing. There is also going to be a celebration, a celebration. You know, God is going to judge us, but God is also merciful and kind. He is going to deal with all of those things. We are going to see what was valuable and what wasn’t valuable. All of our works are going to be tried like wood, hay and stubble, gold, silver and precious stone. And some things are going to burn up that we thought were important, things that we gave a little bit of effort to, but didn’t think were so important are actually going to be the greatest works of our life.“If you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”It only took you a moment. It only took you a few minutes to be kind, to say a kind word, to help somebody, to give somebody a hand up when they were suffering, to give the Word of gospel to someone. It only took you a few minutes. You did that. You thought it was insignificant. You taught a Sunday school class and you helped somebody in the church. You served as a deacon or you cleaned the toilets. You did all kinds of things.You said, “Well, it’s just insignificant, it is not that important.”And you are going to find out it was gold, silver and precious stone. And what you gave so much of your life to that you thought was so very important, that hobby, that job, that... What you thought was the most important thing in the world is going to burn up like wood, hay, stubble.But once that is dealt with in a way that only God can deal with those things, then we are going to enter into a celebration. Revelation chapter 19 and verse one. Turn in your Bibles if you would, please, and I want you to just see something there in Revelation chapter 19 and verse one.We are going to take a look at the whole book of Revelation coming up, not just yet. This is just to whet your appetite. Revelation chapter 19 verse one. If you have the same version of the Bible I do it says, “Hallelujah,” over the top. How many of you it says, Hallelujah of the top of that passage? Yeah.After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever." The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!"Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."And fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.What a glorious time. It is the three fold Hallelujah. There is going to be a Hallelujah chorus, all right, in heaven one day and that Hallelujah is going to ring out because once and for all we are going to see things as God sees them. We are going to understand as he understands. We are going to know as we are known.When we get to that position and we are in that place and the Bible talks about judgment having past and he has judged all the evil deeds and all that is done away is, now the judgment seat of Christ is gone. We are at the marriage supper of the lamb. It says that the bride has made herself ready. She is dressed in white. She has got the white robes of righteousness that she steps out and they start singing, “Here comes the groom.”You say, “What?”No, not here comes the bride, not in heaven. No, it is going to be here come the groom and the bride standing there in white is only going to be there white because of the blood of Jesus that he shed on the cross to take our sins away.We are only going to be there standing in his presence because of his grace. And this is not going to be where the bride gets all of the focus.Now, today, we like it that way. I would hate for us to be sitting here and yesterday and be talking about Don Rasco walking down this aisle. Oh, look at Don. Wasn’t that...how wonderful that out is he has on.Nobody talks like that. We talk about the bride.But when we get to heaven we are going to talk about, at this point, we are going to talk about the groom and we are going to say he is altogether lovely, that he is wonderful, he is counsel, he is the mighty God, he is the prince of peace, he is the king of kings and lord of lords. There is no one comparable to him and who can be comparable to our Lord and our God. And what do we compare him to? There is nothing to be compared. Compared to him he is above all the heavens. In fact, he made them. He made the heavens and the earth and everything in it. He holds all things together by the will of his power and by him all things consist and by his Word he holds you. He holds our life together.And we are going to look and we are going to talk about the groom. That is where we are going. That is what is on the road ahead. We are headed down a road and on this road there are going to be millions missing. Well, it is going to culminate with a celebration like you can never imagine.A couple of years ago after we finished 40 days of purpose we had a celebration Sunday here. And we have done this on various occasions, but we brought the crosses in and do you remember nailing? How many of you were here? And we nailed those nails in those crosses and talked about the fact that we would never be the same again. And we celebrated decisions made and we celebrated lives made right and we celebrated people who had come to know him as Lord and Savior and we celebrated God’s presence among us and we celebrated understanding that we are in this world for a purpose.But one day when we get to heaven and we stand before him and we have full understanding of all that God was doing and how he used us and how everything in our life was orchestrated by him for our good and for his glory, there is only going to be one thing to say and that is, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Praise be to the lamb that was slain.”Would you bow your heads?I am not going to get as far as I wanted to tonight, but I just want to stop and ask you a question. Are you ready to meet the king? Are you ready to meet the king? The king is coming.When I was a boy there was a song called The King is Coming that stirred my heart just beyond belief, probably one of those songs that motivated me to want to be a preacher more than any other single song. The King is Coming. It talks about the marketplaces being empty, no more traffic in the streets. Do you know why? Because all things that man had planned and done had come to an end. And the King of Kings and Lord of Lords came.I want you to know that Jesus is coming. He is coming. He is coming. He is coming. As sure as my name is Phil, as we are seated in this auditorium tonight, as sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West and as sure as the eternal, unchanging Word of God, I want you to know that Jesus Christ, God almighty come in the flesh is going to make a reentry into this world. And he is not coming in the cradle. He is coming on a horse with a crown. And he is going to come back in power. And those of us who know him are going to come with him to rule and reign with him in this world.But if were to come tonight would you be living in the anticipation of that moment? If he were to come tonight would you be ready? Would you be doing those things that are pleasing in his sight? Would he be able to examine your life and say, “I find no fault in this person? They sinned, but they confessed. They have sinned, but they admitted it. They gave me their time the best they could. They gave me their talent the best they could and they gave me their treasure the best they could. They served their own generation by my will to the best of their abilities.” Did they do that?Is he going to find us doing what we are supposed to be doing?This is not about scaring us. This is about teaching God’s Word. And God’s Word teaches that in a moment—we do not know when—at a moment we cannot prevent, at a moment when we are not really expecting him, there is going to be a shout, a trumpet and the voice of an archangel. And we are going to be gathered together with the Lord.Let me finish with this.You say, “Wow, that’s scary.”No, you know now that verse ends? It says, “So comfort one another with these words.”You see, Paul wrote all of this as a comfort. The Holy Spirit instructed Paul, “Paul, write all these. They are scared. They are upset. They don’t know what happened to their loved ones. They don’t know where they are. They don’t know what is going to happen to them. They are the... The Romans are everywhere. War is all around them. They don’t know what is going... So just write this to them. Let them know that I am coming back. I am going to raise the dead. I am going to change the believers. I am going to gather them all together. They are going to be with me forever and, oh, by the way, Use this as a comfort for their hearts.”You say, “Pastor Phil, I need some comfort tonight.”Let me give you the comfort of all comforts. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, Jesus is coming. He is going to gather you to him to be with him forever and that is the greatest promise that you could ever receive from me or anyone else, but it is a promise that comes from God himself. Jesus is coming. Are you ready?Heads are bowed and eyes are close and somebody said, “Pastor, I have got to admit, I have to confess. Certain aspects of my life, certain aspects of my life would be an embarrassment to me if Jesus came back, my marriage, my relationship to my children, my relationship to other believers, my relationship to my other family members, my relationship to God himself, if he came back tonight I have to be honest I am afraid that I would have to be ashamed and a little bit worried at his coming. Pastor Phil, I want to pray with you tonight that God would help me straighten out those issues.”Would you raise your hand? Just pray. All right. All over the house. God bless all of you. God bless each one of you. I am going to pray for you in a minute.Perhaps you are here tonight and you say, “Pastor Phil, you know, this is Bible teaching that I haven’t heard very much and I just don’t know a whole lot about this. But you said Jesus may come at any moment and if we are not ready we are going to be left behind.”Oh, yes, I did say that. That is what the Bible teaches. That first verse I read you in 1 Thessalonians chapter one says inverse 10 that he was here. He is coming to save us from the wrath to come. There is going to be a period of wrath and judgment on this world that the world has never seen. It is going to come on those left behind.“Pastor Phil, that scares me.”Somebody might say, “Pastor, you ought not scare people into trusting Jesus.”You know what, if I thought scare tactics would work I would do it, but I am not using scare tactics. I am just teaching God’s Word. The Bible says Jesus is coming. If he is not in your heart and you have never trusted him as your Lord and Savior your will be left behind and the ruler of this world, Satan, the antichrist, the false prophet will be those rulers with whom you will deal.Are you here tonight and you say, “I am not sure if I died tonight or if Jesus came, I am not sure that I would go to heaven?”I don’t care what your, what your history has been, how many church services you have been to, if you would say, “I am not sure that Jesus is my Savior, but I want him to come into my heart tonight, pastor, pray for me.” Would you just raise your hand? I won’t embarrass you. I won’t come back to you. I just want you to raise your hand.God bless, ma’am. I see that. I see your hand, ma’am. God bless you. Lord bless you and help you. Anyone else? Is there anyone else? Just raise it up and put it right back down. I’ll pray for you.“Pastor, I really need to be saved.”All right. Just raise your hand up. I’ll pray for you.Now, Father, you have seen these hands that have been raised, first a group of people saying, “I don’t... I just don’t know if I want him to come and find me as I am.” Lord, help us to practice repentance. Help us to come into your presence and say, “Lord, I agree with you. What I have done and am doing is wrong. Forgive me. Make me ready for your appearing.”Then, Lord, these that raised their hand that don’t know you as Lord and Savior, they are not sure if they were to die tonight what would happen or if you were to come what would happen. Lord, help them call out to you to be their Lord and Savior. With your heads bowed and eyes closed I want to ask you that raised your hand to pray a prayer in your heart, not a little prayer, a little nursery rhyme, but sincerely from your heart speak to Jesus, speak to the Father and say this. “Dear Jesus, I am a sinner. And if you were to come back tonight or if the rapture were to happen I don’t know that I would go to heaven. But I want to. Forgive me for my sins. Come into my heart and wash my sins away. I believe you died for me. I believe you were buried and that you rose again, conquering death. And, Lord, I give you my life total care and control. I receive you to myself to be my Savior. Please receive me, dear Lord, into your family. Thank you for dying for me. I pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.”Matthew 24:42Matthew 24:441 Thessalonians 1:8-91 Thessalonians 1:9-10Thessalonians 1:10Titus 2:11-14Titus 2:112 Timothy 4:81 John 2:28Ibid.Ibid.1 Thessalonians 4:16Ibid.Acts 1:9Acts 1:10-11John 11:43John 19:30Matthew 27:51John 19:301 Thessalonians 4:17Ibid.Philippians 3:20-211 Corinthians 15:511 Corinthians 15:51-521 Thessalonians 4:17Ibid.2 Corinthians 5:10Ibid.Romans 14:10Romans 14:12Revelation 19:1-8Page PAGE 1 of NUMPAGES 21