And welcome back this week.
Man, it has gone from being warm and comfortable and almost short
sleeves, and now it's cold again, and we're all in here in long
sleeves and sweatshirts and jackets and everything else.
I don't I don't like it.
But, uh, boy,
we had a good uh, good service last night.
We had our singing service.
We do every 3rd Sunday here at Mountain View,
and man, that was that was nice last night.
We did some old songs that I think we haven't pulled out in a while
and it was a good service.
Do miss seeing a
lot of people come to services like that.
But, um, you know, maybe maybe one day we'll get back up to having
some folks show up for stuff.
How's your week going, brother Dennis?
So far, so good, man.
It was some beautiful snow today, wasn't it?
just beautiful out there.
Like a winter wonderland.
I think I had a couple inches on the deck.
Yeah, yeah, I've seen a lot of people had measured
had about 2 inches.
Yeah, it was a bunch, man, just out of nowhere, but I'm
ready for 70s again, man.
Yeah, I will be here in a couple of days.
If you don't like the weather, just wait a couple of days.
Yeah.
Or a couple hours.
Well, you know, it's funny.
You say, you know, we had a few inches.
It was enough that my daughter was able to get out after school and build her a little tiny
snowman out in the yard.
My dad took a picture of it and sent it to me.
I was like, oh, that's cute.
Just had to do it quick, man, because it melted off fast.
Oh, yeah.
How's your week going, brother Brian?
Good so far.
Yeah, I took off this morning and had
to go to Altoona, Alabama for work and well,
I got there and it just started coming down hard.
And before I left there, the ground was white.
I was like, okay.
got you.
So I wasn't expecting it to get that much.
And last night, we had tornadoes.
So if you're not from Alabama, we're
joking and laughing about this, but last night, uh, it
was warm yesterday, uh, last night we had,
uh, like you got in the 70s one yesterday.
And then and then last night,
tornadoes and rain, chances everywhere,
thunder and lightning.
And by this morning, it was snowing.
And didn't get out of the 30s today.
I think we got a freeze morning tonight.
Yeah, yeah, going to be like 25 or 28, something like that.
And then, and then, and no kidding.
In just a couple of days, it's going to be back in the 70s.
on the high, so.
Welcome to Winter in the South, I tell you.
I think I think these rapid
care places, I think they're they may they may be able
to pray more than we are.
I think that's what they're doing, you know?
Be cold, hot, cold, hot, everybody be sick coming in.
You know, they're grumming up business.
Well, I
tell you, you know, mom sent me a picture of the snow today, and she was
like, hey, it's snowing real hard here, and I was like, I'm looking outside.
you know, I'm in Chattanooga.
I look outside, I'm like, it's snowing a bit, doggone.
That's just not any fun.
And no sooner had I thought that.
Then it looked like a blizzard suddenly blew up in the middle of
downtown Chattanooga and I went, I'm not going to make it home tonight.
There it is
I was a little bit concerned about it for a few minutes, but it finally
slacked off and was a nice drive home.
I was grateful that there had been enough wind blowing
like you had said earlier day, we had talked about it and there was enough wind.
It kind of dried the roads off.
I did think it was funny.
I told mom, so I, you know, of course, I woke up early this morning, turned on the news
because I wanted to see what does it look like in Alabama, of course, and I had to tune in Chattanooga station.
What does it look like in Chattanooga?
And both stations were talking about all the tree,
the limbs down, impossible trees in the road and all this stuff and really stressed.
Man, it could be messy out there and you're going to have to be real careful.
Make sure you leave super early, give yourself plenty of time.
And then right at the end, after they've given all this, you know, oh
man, there's just limbs and parts of trees just everywhere.
Well, unless you're on any of the main roads, and those are completely clear.
It's just the side roads out here.
I went, you mean to tell me, I woke up early to
jump up, start getting ready, and I mean, while I'm
listening to it, I'm throwing my clothes on thinking, man, I got to, I'm going to have to, it's
going to take me an extra 45 minutes to get into work.
Oh, no, it was perfectly clear all the way up.
I was like, y'all had me panicked.
Goodness.
roads are warm.
They are.
It was, but it was.
It was so funny.
Those news anchors were just hamming it up a little bit.
They're like, oh, it's awful.
Well, unless you're on the main roads.
They're completely clear.
I'm like, good night.
Click beat.
All right.
Well, last week, we finished up Revelation 13.
That was, that was a
lot of, a lot of discussion we got to have on that, a lot of, diving
into the talk about the beasts that it talks about there at
the end and the beasts plural because now you've got 3
that we were looking at, or 2 beasts plus
the dragon that we were looking at, and you got to see all of that.
And, uh, then we come to Revelation 14 and
uh, hey, we get to start off on a 14 verse one again.
I like it when we start off on the verse one.
Yeah.
And this is, man, I
got I got to make a confession here.
To me, Revelation 14 might be one
of the most confusing chapters of the whole Bible.
I struggle with 14.
I'm going to need some help with this.
But it's we're still in that mode of
kind of, here's the background stuff, right?
It's chapters, what is it, 12 through 14 that kind of
just kind of break away from the main events of the tribulation and kind
of give some other views.
Yeah.
But 14, I guess, gets us back into back
to 144,000 and it, it's
really, Jesus wins.
It does.
He does.
Right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
over anything else, that's what we need to know, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're going through Daniel in my Sunday school class, and, you know, I just keep reminding them.
that Daniel is about the sovereignty of God.
He is in control, whether it's Daniel in a lion's den or
Shadrack, me shaking a bend to go or prophecies of the end times.
And Revelation's the same way.
It's like you said, he's the 4th man in the fire.
That's right.
Yeah.
Amen.
Hey, man.
Let's hit it, man.
All right.
Ready?
You want to go verse one?
All right.
Then I looked, and behold, the lamb was standing on Mount Zion.
And with him 144,000, having his
name and the name of his father written on their foreheads.
So who's the lamb?
So again?
I said, who's the lamb?
Oh, yeah.
Jesus, isn't it?
Yeah, amen.
Yeah.
And here's this group of people, the 144,000
they're mentioned in chapter 7.
And how many of them will he lose?
Zero.
Zebro.
Right?
None of them.
They have all they've all been sealed at this time.
Yeah, yeah.
Yep, and I won't do my impression again.
No, no, I know.
Good job.
You know, the interesting thing on this verse.
He has the 144,000 who
had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads.
nobody knows that name, man.
Nobody knows those names for sure.
Yeah.
And, uh, there's all kinds of speculation
and all that the people thrown around over the years, but nobody, I mean, because it doesn't tell us.
It doesn't tell us what that means.
But the interesting thing is, and uh, one, uh,
a thing that I've, I've heard some people kind of discuss back and forth,
is it 2 separate names or is one?
Yeah.
Because they're one and the same.
Is it just one name that encompasses both of them?
Or is it actually 2 individual names?
More than just Jesus as his name, right?
It's got a name nobody knows, written.
Is it a sty?
I think.
Yes.
On his thigh.
Yeah.
And he's going to give us a white stone.
That's right.
Yeah.
And that's that's that's interesting too when
you get when we get to that and to talk about that white
stone and what that means and some history on that too.
So, yeah.
That's pretty cool.
Pretty cool.
Here's a... here's my 1st confusion question.
What is he
talking about when he's talking about Mount Zion?
Is he talking about heaven or is he talking
about Mount Zion, Jerusalem?
I think here, um, as
he said he stood on, I looked and he stood on Mount Sine.
I think I think we're talking about Jerusalem there, I believe.
Yeah, I believe.
And I guess if that's the case, then we're looking at the
end of the tribulation, right?
here, right?
Yeah.
I think we're looking forward here.
Yeah, we're looking.
We're getting a glimpse here of a
few things, a little futuristic, a
little, you know, hey, this is what's about to happen.
This is what's going to take place.
Yeah.
Because we start talking about the 144,000
and the song that they're going to be singing here in just a second.
So, yeah.
And the other the other thing to remember with that is the previous chapter
was from the point of view of John had
been in heaven and he is now standing on the
earth seeing these events happen.
because he was seeing the, right?
Because he saw the dragon with its, you know, foot in the sea and foot on the earth
and he saw the beast rising out of the sea and he saw the beast rising out of the air.
He's on the earth witnessing.
And then he looked and hear where he is currently.
It doesn't say he went anywhere else.
So the implication to me, again, these the chapter divisions
are for us that were added later.
So this was one big letter.
So if you take it as a narrative that way, he
looks and, oh, look, right there on Mount Zion, and I think there's a possibility.
The confusion comes in the next couple of verses.
Yeah, okay. as to where amounts I is.
Right, right.
And I heard a voice from heaven and a voice from many waters.
And as the voice of a great thunder,
and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their heart.
Touch on that and just spent too.
And they sung, as it were, a
new song before the throne and before the beast
and the elders, and no man could learn that song, but the
144,000, which were redeemed from the air.
And this is where my confusion comes in.
Right.
Because he's seeing this, this new song that
only they can learn is being sung to the four living
creatures around the throne in heaven.
Right.
And the elders who are around the throne in heaven.
Right.
But it doesn't necessarily say but Mount
Zion's not referred to as anything but earthly in scripture.
Right.
It's never referred to anything in heaven.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
Right, right.
Yeah.
So you're looking at, but they could be singing
to them as...
It doesn't say the 144,000 are seeing it, it says that they learned it.
They learn that song.
And they're hearing this from heaven.
But this is but this is a song.
I believe that we're looking forward here to the millennium.
And I think this the 144,000
sing this song in the millennium.
Maybe they learn it here and singing it in millennia.
Maybe this is looking forward to the millennium, but no one can sing this
song but the redeem, these 144,000 redeem.
No one can truly praise his name, but the redeemed,
all the redeemed.
Of course, can do that, but no one will say he is
good, but they're redeemed, right?
Those who know him.
Psalms 107, one and 2 will give thanks to the
Lord, for he is good for his mercy endureth forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he
hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
So yeah, I think I think we're looking.
I think we're looking forward to the millennium here.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And I started to say too, one of the things that, uh, that
I think a lot of people miss here is they talk
about that song we're going to sing that nobody
else knows that we're going to learn this.
No, 144,000.
Thats not us.
That's not it.
They got their song.
The elders have their song.
They got something special.
Yeah, they have something special.
It's different than the
song of redemption that we are able to sing that is something
that we understand that the angels aren't able to, but then
I think there'll be songs that we sing together.
Yes, absolutely.
we'll have our own zone.
Yeah, just because it's not listed.
That's right
That's right.
Yeah.
All right, verse four?
Verse four.
Yeah, 4 and five.
You don't go both of them?
Yeah.
These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they
have kept themselves chased.
These are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes.
These have been purchased from among men as 1st fruits
to God and to the lamb, and no lie was found in their mouth.
They're blameless.
So this 1st fruits thing here,
uh, is something that just stuck out to me is uh, these
are the 1st fruits of the millennial kingdom.
Right.
These are the 144,000s that God's starting all over.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and I mean, and you got to look here.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
These guys, they didn't have time to be married, right?
I mean, they were about the father's business.
This was like a bunch of polls.
that they that they were out there.
Paul said, look, I didn't
really find it where I had time to be married.
I was doing the Lord's work and I didn't need anything to get in the way of that.
Not that being married can get in away with it, but then it also can, right?
There are times where you get into that, but we won't.
But because of the dark days in Jeremiah's
time, God forbade him to marry.
Jeremiah 16, one through 4.
The word of the Lord came in also unto me
saying, thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt
thou have sons or daughters in this place.
For thus saith the Lord, concerning the sons and
concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their
mothers that bear them, and concerning their
fathers that begat them in this land, they shall die of
grievous death, they shall not be lamented, neither
shall they be buried, but they shall be as dung
upon the face of the earth, and they shall be consumed by the sword,
and by famine, and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls
of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
So the Lord warned even against having children during
this tribulation time, didn't he?
And in Matthew 24, 19.
Woe unto them that are with child and them that give suck in those days.
Yeah.
These guys, I
read a little bit about the status,
you know, that these guys are virgins.
Yeah.
And they're, and I think it's literal.
Yeah, I do too.
Honestly.
I don't, you know, if people talk about, well, it's, they're just keep
themselves pure and this and that.
Well, I think they have, but I think they have physically too.
I think so too, because I think they needed, they needed
this purity to never know what it was like to,
to not, even I, I don't know that while, since he
sealed them that they even have that temptation.
Probably not.
Because it would be a distraction, right?
It would be a total distraction.
And they've got a fire lid on them.
Yeah, for evangelism.
Oh, absolutely.
which flies in the face of a lot of Calvinism.
Sure.
These guys are going all over the world, isn't it?
And, you know, God in 3 different places in the Old Testament
refers to Israel as a virgin daughter.
You know, in Isaiah 37, 22.
He says, this is the word that the Lord has spoken against against Senacherib, king of Assyria.
She has despised you and mocked you, the virgin daughter of Zion.
He says it again in 2nd Kings 21 and lamentations 2.
Yeah.
So this virgin thing is a
dear thing to the Lord when he talks about Israel.
Because he uses that opposite expression for Babylon.
a great harlot.
That's right
Who was the Old Testament prophet
he made Mary a harlot?
Was that, uh, that was, um, um, Oh my goodness.
The home story they made the movie out of.
My mind just went completely blank when you said that.
Yeah.
Good gracious.
But he contrasts the 2 like that.
It's almost harsh language.
You know, it's like, yeah.
Jose.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think for sure.
Probably to look.
Hosea.
Yeah.
Right, yeah, you know.
I'm getting
a little racy here, man.
Couldn't help yourself.
Just couldn't help it.
Those dad jokes just pour it.
Where my drums, man.
Yep, we're getting drums when you need them.
You know, but that, you know, that is
the thing about these guys because there's no time for any of that.
I mean, there's just no time for them to be messing around for them to be going out and trying
to have a family and marrying and all of that.
They are so focused on their job.
They're so so intent on what they're doing.
No, I'm with you.
I don't I don't think there was, I think they're virgins as far as as
their sex life.
I think they're virgins as far as probably not drinking.
They're not being exposed to alcohol or anything like that.
They are.
I mean, they are pure.
None of these things that are temptations the rest of us face today are
things that they are giving into.
Not they're not perfect, but they are pure.
They're not perfect, but they're as close to it as they can get.
Right.
I mean, for that time and that purpose.
And I think...
Because perfection suggests that they would make no mistakes.
That every decision they make is correct, that every, every
movement they make is exactly what they're supposed to do.
I think they're going and doing what God is sending them to do,
but it doesn't mean they're not going to slip up and make them mistake here and there, but
they're not going and jumping into sin left and right.
I think too.
Okay, so if you look at this, and we talked about this before.
So the Holy Spirit's going to work in a different way during this time, right?
It's going to be more of an Old Testament type thing with the Holy Spirit.
We've read the verses that say, talk
about the Antichrist not being able to come on the scene until
he, you know, lets is taken out of the way, which we know to
be the Holy Spirit, which is the church, it lives in the church, and
so the Holy Spirit's gone with the church, but we know that in
the Old Testament that God used the Holy Spirit to even
evil, people who were evil, people who were good,
to do certain things that need to be done, right?
And the Holy Spirit and prompted that or prompted them to do these certain things.
Hard and Pharaoh's heart.
So, but let's look at this right here.
So we got these 244,000. and we know, how are we sealed?
How are we sealed?
We are sealed by the Holy Spirit, right?
That's how we're sealed in our salvation.
So now you got these 144,000.
Now, I think the rest of the earth and the
rest of the people that are coming to Jesus during this time or they're coming to the
believe in him, they're having the Old Testament Thai faith.
They're having to believe through faith in that.
But these 144,000.
The Bible says they are sealed, that they are sealed by God.
So I think the Holy Spirit with them has a
much more prominent position and job with
these 144,000 than he does with everybody else.
And I think I think that they are, they have
devoted themselves to, to letting the Holy
Spirit lead them and guide them and direct them.
Now, here's what I want to say to that.
We also are able to do that.
Right?
I mean, we are also able to do that.
Now we've been defiled in a lot of different ways.
But we have the ability to
walk away from sin to make it the right choice
because of who lives in us.
And I said, that same Holy Spirit, I think, is going to guide them.
But it also says there in verse 5 that they
waste not their breath with gossip or false accusation
or filthy language.
They were on a mission to
spread the gospel to a lost world who needed it
before it was ever too late.
Yeah, I think Paul's a perfect example.
This is 144,000 Pauls running around.
They are, right?
Yeah, ready to get beaten, ready to get thrown in jail.
They don't care.
And Paul even said,
I wish I wish you could be like I am.
Just get rid of that junk.
It would be better, right?
But if you can't, you know, it's better to marry than to burn.
Right, yeah, right, yeah.
You know, also interesting here.
You know, it says they don't lie.
And I love, you know, the modern translation, they are blameless.
The King James, though, I love that translation here,
for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Yeah.
I mean, they are, this is 144,000
Pauls, Stevens, 144,000 of what the high
priests were supposed to be in the original temple,
the ones that were going in and making.
This is what they were supposed to be.
They were supposed to have no fault before the throne of God when
they went to make these sacrifices, and we know that a lot of them had
didn't have that because they had to be drug out by the rope because they went in there and died.
I think yeah.
Yeah, and I think they were a combination of, like you were saying,
several biblical
figures that we look at, Paul, because
he was so bold, because he didn't marry, because,
you know, he was ready to die.
He didn't, you know, he knew what his his job was and what he was called to.
I think Stephen, because Stephen
was willing to die for his faith and he
was full of the Holy Ghost.
Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost, you know, it was something.
when they made him one of the 1st deacons.
Which one of the deacons, yeah.
he was filled with it.
He was just bursting from it.
It's like it's just exploding out.
Right.
Yeah.
and then Joe, right?
And Job was a was a perfect man before the Lord.
Now, does that mean he was perfect in every way?
No, but but as far as his devotion
to Jesus, to refer to God.
Uh, then he was a devoted man of God.
And he was looked at as perfect in that way.
As far as wallowing and sin went.
He shunned it.
He turned away from it.
Well, it's how Noah's described it.
Yeah, it is.
Blameless in his generation.
And by the way, you pointed out that these guys are sealed.
Do you notice where it says they're sealed?
on their foreheads.
Right where the mark of the beast is going for everybody else,
and they're already sealed with the name of God, the name of the lamb, the name of his father.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amen.
Now, here's an interesting question.
And and, uh, people
that have read left behind or read the stuff that Tim LaHaye
and Jenkins wrote on this, I know they had one idea on it.
Do you think that there was ever
any chance for any of these 144,000
once they were sealed to ever get that mark?
to ever get the Mark of the Beast.
I don't think it was physically possible for them to get it.
Well, I think they'd already made their choice.
Yep.
You know, I think their choice was made.
It would be like somebody who saved
choosing not to be saved anymore.
Right.
So yeah.
Yeah, I had a letter that was written by a guy named Pliny
the Younger that was during the Roman persecution of the Jews people.
And this guy was responsible for getting Christians
to turn away to renounce Christ.
Yeah.
And he would do all kinds of stuff to him and torture him.
He didn't believe that a true believer could do it.
Wow.
He was a, he was a torturing kind of guy.
He was a governor, like kind of like Pontius Pilate.
Right.
But he honestly believed that a real Christian
would never denounce it.
Never denounced.
Wow.
Hey, yeah.
That's a pretty good witness, you know?
And and and if I remember correctly,
there were quite a few that died because of him because they refused to renounce.
And he was like, well, clearly they were true Christians.
Yeah, he wouldn't press it much further.
just kill them.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he would push him to the to the point that you couldn't push anymore, really.
I mean, they're they're
I mean, you didn't waste his time.
Yeah, they're either about to die or their minds are about to break.
I mean, that's how far you'd push it and then you'd go, okay, yeah, just end it.
Yeah.
Good Lord.
And that's, you know, that's the empire that's coming back.
It is.
Same kind of attitude.
Sure is.
Absolutely.
Absolutely
Ugh.
Six, seven, maybe?
six, seven.
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of
heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.
saying with a loud voice, fear God, and
give glory to him for the hour of his judgment
is come and worship him that made heaven and
earth, and the sea, and the fountains and the waters.
So for now we see this one
last proclamation of the gospel.
One last plea to accept Christ, one last
chance before the Lord steps foot on this earth,
uh, before this, this only,
the only man has, has, has ever carried the gospel, but, uh,
but, uh, but time is short and
the angels are ready, right?
And God's word has to be proclaimed.
He loves us that much.
He loves, he loves this, this,
the people in this world, not, not the world, but
the people in this world that much that he's going to send angels
to actually preach the gospel.
He's like, okay, I got you some guys to these 144,000
Pauls or hammering down.
But now I'm going to send you some angels down there and let
you know that they're backing up with these 144,000 or something.
Yeah, you got an untold number of just just regular people too.
Yeah, sure.
For refusing the mark.
hiding out and getting martyred and all kinds of stuff.
The witness coming from that's pretty strong too.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah.
So it says that this angel, uh,
proclaim to all those who live on the earth,
every nation tribe, language, and people.
Do you think this angel flying overhead is audible.
Physically that
people are actually hearing this thing shouting out.
Yeah, I think so, because it says it says saying
with a loud voice.
Yeah, fear God and give glory to him for the hour.
Judgment is coming.
So yeah.
Yeah, I think it's a miraculous thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think, you know, I mean,
you think about, it's like a, it's like a
speaker from heaven, you know what I'm saying?
Everybody's hearing this thing. ringing out over the whole earth.
Yeah, yeah.
I kind of wonder if the whole earth isn't turned into a speaker.
Literally reverberating from the ground.
And I mean, this, this,
he's preaching.
And it says he's preaching.
the gospel.
So to everyone that dwells on earth, every nation,
every kindred, every tongue, and every people.
So this is not just for Jewish believers.
This is for everyone who would hear the gospel.
The whole world.
This is not just a local thing, let some people have you believe, where it's
already happened, you know, around Rome, around Jerusalem.
This is global.
That's right
That's right.
All right, verse eight, and another angel,
a 2nd one followed, saying, fallen, fallen
is Babylon the Great, she who has made all the
nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.
Mm.
This is um, this is a glimpse of what's
coming in in uh, 17, but
I think, do you think that this is a two-part thing,
like, like the religious system and the mid-tribulation?
Yeah, I think it's religious and commercial Babylon.
commercial in 17.
Yeah, huge part of it, right?
Yeah, like I said, 17 and 18 talk about the commercial
Babylon, but yeah, I think I think we're dealing with a pronouncement
of the fall of Babylon, religious and commercial.
I mean, Babylon's where idolatry started, right?
And it's Satan's headquarters is where it's going to be.
Yeah, I'm just trying to make sense of the timeline of this.
and I hate to skip forward,
but you got one preaching the
gospel, then you got another one saying falling is Babylon the great.
Then you're going to have another one saying, don't accept the beast, the mark of the beast.
And that order, it kind of makes
me think that verses 6 and 7 are back in like
the beginning of the tribulation.
Yes, yeah.
And then and then this this 2nd one is fallen, fallen,
Babylon, the great would be like in the mid.
Right.
And along with the 3rd angel, which is
saying don't accept the mark, we would say that Mark don't come until the mid to.
to the midpoint of the tribulation.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, and it may be, John may
be looking at like a, he may be like Elvis.
He's got a bunch of TVs up there.
He's looking, you know, I'm saying he's watching about 10 different things
going on at one time.
He's like, okay, this is going on.
This is going on, this is going on.
I think there's also the fact that
John is seeing this from eternity.
He's seeing this from the viewpoint of eternity, right?
Everything is happening at once.
This whole thing, I honestly believe.
And, uh, you know, maybe right, maybe wrong, but I really and
truly believe that when we get to heaven, when we when we're
there, when all this is going on, we're going to look up and we're
going to see John standing there writing in a book, because I think he's
seeing from his perspective, I think he's seeing what he sees when this happens.
future past, all that doesn't have any meaning anymore for him.
And so what he's seeing is this kind of jumble of things.
He knows kind of the order.
And also, I'd be honest, I'm kind of wondering if this
isn't literally happening right as we're leading up to it, that
they're being, that the earth is being shown some things to
try and get people's attention before the next
series of events that are about to be described in a little bit, uh, as
a way of God getting their attention, that, that, they're seeing something
happening on Zion.
They're seeing something happening there.
Maybe the loss don't know what it is, but the 144,000
note, that's the lamb right there, and he's about
to come back and it's about to be bad for y'all, and they're witnessing, and they're
telling, and then you got this angel flying over, and all these things being proclaimed,
and then people are still now.
I think this is where they get the choice.
The truly get the choice of do we accept or reject
that mark that's being that they've just announced is going to be handed out.
I think the announcement of the mark is going to happen, and this angel is
going to come in, and these angels are just going to come in yelling.
And everybody at that point will be given an undeniable
choice because there's no rubbernecking.
When you get after this choice is made, that's it.
You're sealing your fate for eternity.
And I think God is going to make it so crystal clear.
And I mean, that, this may may or may not be correct,
that's always been the way I've looked at these verses is this is stuff that people are seeing.
The bee shows up and says, hey, if everybody will take this mark, this is going to happen and
all of a sudden there's something going on in Zion that's making people go, what is that?
And then they're hearing these voices and they're hearing,
don do it, don't do it, don't do it.
And the people that choose when they get when they get to the
judgment later, it's going to be, you knew.
I mean, you can't deny that you didn't hear it.
Exactly.
I mean, and how else could they be without excuse if they didn't
truly have that choice made very plain at that point.
With the Holy Spirit being gone, you don't have the guidance.
You don't have that prodding.
So it has to be a literal here, here.
It's the choice that people claim they want today.
And it's like, no, because we know that a bunch
of people are still going to reject.
You still, if you want this kind of proof, you're still going to reject.
So you see where I'm coming from.
It's confusing
14 is... yeah.
I think probably 9 through 12 could be read together.
if you want to, you stop where you want to, but I kind
of grouped them together here.
There's a lot, lot going on.
Yeah, I had 9 through 11, but...
Then another angel.
A 3rd one followed them, same with a loud voice.
If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives
a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also
will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which
is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger.
And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the lamb, and in the presence of the lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.
They have no rest day and night.
Those who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep
the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
The undiluted wrath.
That's what Jesus took on the cross.
It is.
Yes, absolutely.
When he said, let this cup pass from me.
I believe that was the cup of the undiluted
wrath of his father God that we deserved.
But he took it upon himself.
Amen.
Yeah, yeah.
So this
will be in the presence of Christ and his holy angels.
So, uh, you know, will the
saints see what's going on on earth?
Well, they...
I mean, if God is seeing what's going on, if the
angels are seeing what's going on, if this is
taking place in front of them, are
people in heaven seeing this too?
What do you think?
don't think so.
Yeah.
I think I think if we're
looking on loved ones suffering for eternity, we're not going to have a whole lot of joy.
No, I believe that too, but then
but then we look at we look at a lot of the
tribulation saints after they die.
They end up in heaven and they, and they're,
they're looking, they, I don't
know that they see what's going on, but they at least know
what's going on because they're, they're asking God like, hey,
when are you going to avenge us?
When, when, when, or when?
Are you going to, are you going to take care of these things?
I don't know.
You know, I don't know.
It's another one of those things.
It's hard to say.
And I agree, heaven, you know,
do I think grandma and grandpa are down here looking at us right now trying
to, you know, I hope not.
I hope they're more distracted, budgie.
How they are too.
But we all, but we also know that that towards the
end of this thing, uh, after,
um, of course, after uh, the the great
white throne of judgment, uh, man, we're we're crying after that.
So I know we're seeing what's going on as far as the punishment then.
And that's when every tear is wiped away.
That's when the old become new
and everything that has been in the past is forgotten.
Yeah.
I think we have a perspective shift.
Just during that point.
Well, I mean, from the point where we get to
heaven onward, I think there's a, that we're, we are,
our perspective, our way of viewing everything, our
way of seeing and understanding things is changing.
And I honestly believe that at least
during the tribulation, because of the descriptions of all
of the conversations that are going on there, I
think everyone in heaven is able to is
aware in some way what's going on.
Now, is it actually physically seeing it?
This is where I fall back on,
look, the difference between our spiritual selves in heaven
and these bodies we're in is so different.
We can't imagine.
We can't understand it.
So it's a complete perspective change from our standpoint.
So yeah, I think we're we're fully aware.
We're going to have the mind of what's going on at that time.
So we can see further, farther than
we can right now.
So if we looked at it from our perspective in this point
in this place, then it would be terrible.
But if we look at it that we know the ultimate
end of this thing and that God is going to clear all this up and
that one day we are, we're going to forget all this and we'll never remember it again.
I think it may be a little bit similar to, you know, the beggar
in Abraham's bosom.
You know, the chasm fixed and that kind of stuff.
We may not see individuals and their suffering, but we'll know that's over there.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
And this is this is proof positive that that
when it comes to eternal torment, it's eternal,
right?
For one thing, you know, and there were there were a red
where there were about 19 references to eternal
torment in the New Testament, and Jesus used them 12 times.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
You talk about foxhole atheists,
you know, there's no such thing, right?
Jesus used fear.
Absolutely.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom like we talked about in the men's meeting.
Sunday morning.
Yeah, yeah.
Like you said, the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man said if
I could just, if I could just go tell my brothers, right?
If I could just go back.
So he, he, he had an awareness of what
was uh, what his eternity was and what their eternity would be.
Yeah, I think there's still a consciousness there.
Oh, absolutely.
We're conscious.
We are we are aware and so are so are they.
But yeah, I think there's a perspective shift for us.
But speaking of that, fear, yeah, go back to the very 1st
gospel, the 14 seven, fear God and
give him glory because the hour of his judgment has arrived and
worship the one who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the spring of water.
I mean, it's undeniable that it
starts out with fear with that reverence with that that justifiable,
holy, honest fear of God
because he is our creator.
There's a there's a respect there that comes from
fear.
And not, oh, don't step on me.
It's, oh, you're the one that made me.
You brought me into the world.
You can take me out.
It's that kind of a respectful fear.
It's just, it's for an unbeliever.
ought to be a terror.
Yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely
God's wrath.
I mean Jesus didn't want it.
I mean, he accepted it and he accepted his
job and knew that he was the only one that could do it.
But did he want it?
I mean, he said Matthew 26, 39.
He went a little further.
He fell on his face and he prayed, saying, oh, my father, if it
be possible, let this cut pass for me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
I think there's 2 things that we have to see there.
One, um, uh, the
cup, the cup of, uh, of wrath that
he was talking about, let this cup pass for me.
Again, I think it was the cup of wrath that was poured
out of him on him on Calvary's Cross and the cup of wrath
that we'll see here poured out without mixture.
But I also, do
I think that Jesus thought that there was another way?
No, I don't think so.
I think I think Matthew 2639 is to
show us that there wasn't another way.
Jesus knew that and he's like, look, guys, if
there was another way, I would do it, if there was another way, we would, God
would have it that way, but there's not another way,
and we have to let God's will be done here.
Well, and it was a message.
It was a message to his disciples.
to his friends.
I mean, goodness.
He referred to them as his friends more than once.
And he's been traveling with them for 3 years.
And he's wanting them to know if there was
any other way than what you, what they're about
to experience and what they're about to see and witness.
And, I mean, he knew, he knew that what happened, he's
going to be suffering the brunt of it and taking all of that
pain and all of that, the pain of sin and all of that on him.
But at the end of the day, he knows it's going to hurt his friends.
He knows that they're going to have to stand there and watch him go through this.
He knows their pain.
He understands it.
He he sees everything in a way
that we just do not.
When it says that, you know, we talk about the scripture
of Jesus wept, he can see and experience and feel and
be aware of our pain.
And he knows what his friends are about to go through and he wanted.
I honestly believe that prayer was more for them than it was really
so much for himself.
He was saying, if there was any other way, guys.
There was any other chance, I would not
go and do what I'm about to do, but there's no choice.
And he's giving them hope.
He's giving them hope.
There is a reason for this happening, boys.
He's taking them back to John 14.
I'm the way the truth in the life.
No one comes to the father but by me.
absolutely.
And that was what he was saying.
This is it.
I'm the only way
I'm the only one that came.
And he said all along, yeah, this is why I came into the world.
You know, that's why he got on to Peter's to get behind me, Satan.
That's it.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
Because Peter's like, surely you won't die.
Yeah, yeah.
This is what I came for.
That's why that's why the ointment that
Mary placed it on his feet.
you know, was so precious because
he was trying
to give everybody an understanding of what was about to happen, right?
He was about to go to the cross.
He was about to die.
Yeah, while they're while they're over here just flipping
out over the cost of it, and he's like, you don't understand what she just did, guys.
Yeah.
She just anointed me for my burial.
And everything else that he did was just, I
mean, it was just extra, right?
The miracles that he worked.
I mean, yes, he was proving who he was.
He was proving he was God in human flesh, of course,
but the words that he preached,
all the things that he done while he was here was just icing on the cake.
Oh, yeah.
All the things he did.
something that blows me away about him, is all the things that he did.
He walked on water.
He raised the dead.
He did all his stuff and the Pharisees and
Sadducees kept going, what?
Show us a sign.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
What?
How'd you miss that?
500,000 of them, I just did.
Exactly.
If you weren't there to see it, then you had
to hear about it because it was the bus.
It was a rock star.
It was the bus.
Like, I mean, you know, and we
see that when he was walking with the 2
men on the road to a mess, we know
that everybody knew of what had happened, right?
The crucifixion, the rest of the way they
knew the body was gone.
But when they Jesus was trying to kind of
pull it out of him, you know, he was walking along with them, he was asking them questions
and they're like, have you not seen?
Have you not heard that, you know, this man, Jesus, he died.
The whole world's heard about this.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and think think think about it.
You talk about the Pharisees and Sadducees getting so,
you know, show us a sign, show us a sign.
and then you have I mean, there's a reason they got so angry with Stephen.
You know, we talk about him being full of the Holy Spirit in Acts
7, uh, chapter 7, verse 51.
He says, you stubborn, stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears.
You were always resisting the Holy Spirit like your ancestors did.
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?
They killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the
righteous one whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
I mean, he's on trial for blasphemy.
He looks at him and says, you're the blasphemous looking around for a rock.
I mean, and goodness, no wonder they got it so bad because what are they supposed to say?
Well, no, we didn't know.
It's like, yeah, you did.
You knew you knew what you were doing and
you didn't want to let go of the little power base you had built for yourself.
Yeah, Jesus said something.
I'm going to tell them too, you know?
Oh, yeah, you did.
Your fathers are the ones that kill the prophets, you know?
That's exactly right.
Oh boy.
Bunch of vipers, right?
And that's exactly what we're seeing that
same kind of attitude here that these people are following and they're
falling behind this guy going, well, you know, none of that was real.
None of that.
Look at the signs I can give, all that that you've heard about.
You never saw it.
You never witnessed it.
And then the whole world starts shaking.
Do not take the mark of the beast.
This is gonna lead to judgment and suffering for you,
and the wrath of God's gonna be poured out, and they go,
Well, you know, Lord, if he, well, if God didn't want to do this, he'd show us sign.
Well, yeah, but I don't have to remember my passwords anymore.
Yeah, I've got
14 different passwords and I have to change them every 6 months.
don't have to do that anymore.
Yeah, the whole earth started shaking with this angel yelling
at you and you go, well.
I can't remember my pen.
No more authentication for me.
I'm just gonna...
Oh, we
laugh, but that's, man, it's gonna make it easier.
It is.
And that's what's coming up.
You know, people that don't take the easy way out.
Yeah, yeah.
They're going to take the hard way out.
But it's going to be worth it, right?
The hard way's going to be worth it.
Oh yeah.
13?
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, right, blessed
are the dead, which die, and the Lord from henceforth, yea,
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors,
and their works do follow them.
This is tribulation saints, right?
And they're more than willing to die.
They're more than willing to die.
the verse before that, the perseverance of the saints.
Keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
Amen.
And these are born again people.
They are.
And they choose to live like Hebrews 11.
They do, right?
Yeah.
Hiding out in caves.
Yes, absolutely.
Hunting rabbits and eating whatever they can find.
Trusting that what these 144,000 have
preached and what these angels have preached, that this is the truth
and that it's worth it to die from my faith.
Yeah.
And what's funny, I think there will be a ton of them.
I think there will be a bunch.
You look at, look, where the, where Christians are persecuted most
is where the church grows the fastest.
Oh, yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, going.
I think it's what, is it 8.13?
We looked, let's see.
Let me go back and see if I can find it here.
Yeah, eight.
And behold,
I heard angel fly through the midst of heaven, same with a loud voice.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, into the habitators of the earth, the voices of the trumpets of the three.
And I was sitting, that's not the one I was looking for.
I'm looking for the one that said the other one that says that
they look in, there's every tribe, every tongue, every
kindred, every nation.
I mean, we know that there's going to be a...
Seven, I think, is where it's at.
Okay, okay.
Verse nine.
After these things, I looked and behold, a great multitude, which no one could
count from every nation in all tribes and peoples and tongues standing
before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes
and palm branches were in their hands.
Yeah, so I think I think, like
I said, is it going to be hard to trust Christ in this?
Of course it is.
And I don't want to give anybody the indication that like, hey, if I don't accept him now,
It's just going to be great.
I'll just do it then, you know.
Number one, you don't know if you're going to live until tribulation, right?
And number two, you don't
understand what it's going to be like, time to make the choice of, hey, I'm going
to let my three-year-old starve to death and the rest of my family or
I'm going to take the mark of the beast and live and then I'll
spend hell spend hell in eternity.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not going to be, it's not going to be easy.
No, be easy.
No, but I do want to say that accepting this mark,
I believe, will be 100% voluntary.
I think there are people that think, oh, what if I get tricked into it?
What if I just, I don't want to get a debit card because that might be the mark of the beast, right?
I don't want to get this.
I don't get the vaccine for COVID.
to get this or that.
They're tricking me.
Well, that's not going to be the case.
No, they'll be without excuse.
I think it's like Tyler was saying before that it's going to be, it's
going to be, they're hearing this over here.
Like, you need to take the mark of the beast, you know, or that's not what they're
going to call it, but you need to take this and this is going to work.
Hey, they might just call it that.
Who knows?
Make it pretty bold.
yeah.
But, you know, if you want to eat, this is what you're going to have to do if you want
to have food, if you want to have shelter.
If you want your kids to live, it's what you're going to have to do.
And then you know, you're going to have these 144,000
going, no, no, you don't want to do this.
So we've already, we've already read about this.
We've already been told what's going to happen here.
This is what's going to happen if you do this.
And so I think, I think they're going to, they're going to have
all the information that they need to make the choice that they need to make.
just like we do today, right?
We know that we can choose heaven or we can choose hell.
He's given us the free gift of salvation, and
we hear the gospel, and we know that what that entails and
what that means, or that we can choose to live the life that
we want to live and spend eternity in hell.
Right, and I think the Holy Spirit will really open those tribulation
saints eyes to the revelation too.
Oh, yeah.
You know, like Daniel has just, it was sealed until the end times.
And I think in the last 100 years, it has really been
opened up, especially in the last 50.
What's been since now been revealed?
Yeah, yeah.
And I think I think the folks living through this stuff will
be able to read the Revelation in a whole different line than we do.
Yeah.
Amen.
They're living it.
Yeah absolutely.
Absolutely.
Absolutely
What we got?
14?
14, we're
going to do through 16?
Sure.
Then I looked and behold, a white cloud and sitting on
the cloud is one like a son of a man, having a golden
crown in his head and a sharp sickle in his hand, and another
angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him who
sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap for the hour to
reap is come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Then he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle
over the earth and the earth was reaped.
You know what?
The 1st thing I thought about when I read that is Jesus walked on water.
He can ride a cloud.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
He can do anything he wants to do.
right.
Yeah.
So this is the Lord Jesus Christ in glory and power.
We need to understand that this
is a glimpse of, it's kind of a glimpse of his 2nd
coming and he's coming in judgment.
This is this is judgment here.
Matthew 2430.
And then shall appear the son of the sign of the
son of man in heaven.
And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,
and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and with great glory.
So there's going to be judgment
against those who will not turn to Christ and who
persecuted, who persecuted the church.
I mean, or persecuted the saints.
And again, Matthew's gospel gives us a picture
of that in chapter 13, verse 40 and 42, is
therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire,
so shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they
shall gather out of his kingdom all the things that offend,
and them which do iniquity and shall cast them
into the furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
So we see we see
some pictures here in Matthew 13, uh, that,
uh, we, we're sowers, not reapers.
The reaping will come and Christ will he
will do that with his angels.
But Matthew 1339,
the enemy that showed them is the devil, the harvest is the end.
The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels.
I was looking at Matthew
13 back in 30 in the original parable, you
know, you read the explanation where he explains it.
But in the original parable when he 1st says it.
He says, uh, uh, talking about the tears and the wheat
that somebody poisoned his wheat with, allow both to grow
together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest, I will say to
the reapers, 1st gather up the tears and bind
them in bundles to burn them up, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Yeah, yeah.
So the tears go 1st and that's where I
get a little confused on this too, because you just
read this just at a distance and it looks like this
looks like the rapture.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah.
But I think, you know, when we look at it, we look at thrust
it in the sickle and we look at, uh, you know,
kind of what that what that means there, uh, joy chapter
3, uh, verse 13 and 14, put you
in the sickle for the harvest is right.
Come, get you down for the press is full.
The fats overflow for their wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley decision for the day of the
Lord is nearing the valley of decision.
So again, you've got this place where they're
thrusting in a sickle and there's
great wickedness going on.
Yeah.
So, but I guess Matthew 13 helps
me to understand the order of this because...
It gets it gets confusing.
It does, you know?
And I can see where, you know, there are people out there who
are post-tribulation rapture people.
And this is probably where they get it from.
Yeah, yeah.
is what I'm thinking, is they read that as the rapture at the end of the tribulation.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely
Kind of goes on here, verse
17 and 18, and another
angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven.
He also having a sharp sickle, and another angel
came out from the altar, which had power over fire and
cried with a loud voice to him that had the
sharp sickle saying, thrust in thy sickle and gather
the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are
fully ripe.
So he came 1st the
1st time to shed his blood and the 2nd time he will
shed the blood of the wicked.
Isaiah 63, one through six.
Who is this that cometh from Eden with dyed
garments from Basra?
This that is glorious in
his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
I that speak in righteousness mighty to save.
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the wine fat.
I have trodden down the wine press alone with the people there,
was none for me.
For I will tread them in my anger, and
trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment,
for the day of vengeance is in my heart.
And the year of my redeemed is come.
And I looked, and there was none to help.
And I wondered that there was none to uphold.
Therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto
me and my fury, it upheld me, and I
will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk
in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
So the Lord's precious
garments are going to be staying with blood
during this time.
Yeah.
We'll see a great picture of that in a few chapters.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Again, in Isaiah 34.
Uh, uh, come near you
nations to here and hearken you people.
Let the earth hear and all that is there in
and the world and all the things that come forth of it.
For the indignation of the Lord is upon all
nations, and his fury upon all their armies.
He hath utterly destroyed them.
He hath delivered them to the slaughter, their slain also
shall be cast out, their stink shall come
out of all their carcasses, and the mountains shall be
melted with their blood.
The sword of the Lord is filled with blood.
It is made fat with fatness, and with the
blood of lambs of goats, and the fat of kidneys
around, for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Basra,
and a great slaughter in the land of Eden.
So...
Just Jesus is coming
back not as a lamb, but as a warrior.
right.
Well, those last 2 verses there in 14 actually
tie into the stuff that you just read.
Do y'all want to read that real quick?
You want me to hit that real quick?
19 and 20?
Because we kind of skipped over those two.
But so the angels swung his sickle
over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of
the earth and tossed them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
Then the wine press was stomped outside the city,
and blood poured out of the wine press up to the height of
a horse's bridle for a distance of almost 200 miles.
Can you imagine that?
I mean, blood up to the horse's bridle.
For 200 miles.
I mean, without the city means
without Jerusalem.
Right.
Under the bridles of the horses means about 4 feet deep.
And a 1006
furlongs, like you said, 200 miles, 185
miles, whatever you want to say it, but it's close to close to 200 miles.
Psalm 45 is another prediction of this versus
3 through five.
Gird thy sword upon thy thigh.
Oh, most mighty, with thy glory and
with thy majesty, and the majesty ride prosperously,
because of the truth and meekness and righteousness,
and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies,
whereby the people fall under thee.
So, again, this
judgment is coming and no
one will escape it.
Yeah.
No one listen.
And this is Armageddon.
It is.
Yeah.
Valley of Megiddo, right?
Right, yeah, I know.
I get I get a little sideways on that.
We can talk about it later, but that's another one I get a little bit sideways
on is Gog of Magog.
where God's drawing them in for destruction.
This Armageddon thing's going to happen at the end of the tribulation.
There's going to be something really, really similar happens at the end of the millennium.
Yes, yeah.
That's right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Another another fight, another time, yeah, like you said.
And it could be a possibility that this Gog of Magog war,
I think it's from Ezekiel, could happen like at the beginning of the tribulation.
maybe slightly before the beginning of the triple H.
And you look at the Middle East.
I mean, that's Iran, Russia, Turkey.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
If we look at that, I look, let me see if I still got it.
I was looking the other day.
at some statistics here,
if I can find it.
You know, too, I think, while he's
looking those statistics up, I think part of this, the reason
it gets so confusing.
And I honestly believe this.
I think John is because I believe
John is writing this from the view from eternity.
And time doesn't factor into this.
He's seeing all of this happen all at once, but it's 1000s
of years, and some of it's happening in the course of days, and some of it's
happening in the course of a couple of years, and it's all just this, and he's
distilling it in a way to describe.
So I think part of the reason some of it gets a little bit confusing is it
may actually be describing the same event a couple of times in
a row in a couple of these verses right here, a couple of these chapters.
But others, I think, are actually like one
event that looks real similar to another event because, I mean, what does history do?
It doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but it rhymes.
Well, I mean, so you have things happen that are...
Some season Old Testament of Jesus 1st come to are really easy to mingle with a second.
Right.
It's easy to mingle those together.
But I believe I, there is a chronological
effect to, to, to, absolutely.
I don't believe it's jumble.
No, no, no, not jumbled in that sense, but honestly, I believe that chapter
14 is a little bit jumbled.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah.
I think it's a, I think it may be a repetition of,
it's showing that repetition of, okay, you have these things that happen and
then, but they're also happening again.
They're going to be a little different.
They're also happening again and they're going to be a little different.
And it's that repetition in that.
And Revelation does go, I mean, in certain chapters, it goes, oh, flashback.
Right.
Yeah, John, right.
Yeah, he's taking us back here to remember this and to tie in with this.
Yeah.
And I think that's why it's trying to put all of
this so that we can read it and soak
it in and understand it because it's a view that we just can't comprehend right now.
When all this stuff started happening a couple weeks ago,
I started looking at this and we know, but we
know where Israel is on the map or if you look at it.
I wish I could, I wish we could bring this up for people that are watching, but,
uh, but, but anyway...
Yeah, yeah, you've got you've got this, you got this
little strip of land, you know, that's Israel right now.
And, of course, you got the Gazza strip that's one
of the sources of argument.
But Israel comprises just 0.one%
of the landmass of the Middle East.
yet it's asked to give up territory right now.
Yeah, yeah.
And everybody around them wants them to give up territory, but
they only they only comprise of that 0.one%.
Israel surrounded by 22 Arab nations
and or Muslim nations.
22.
Everything around them, everything around them.
Uh, you've got Saudi Arabia and Yemen
and Omen and Iraq and Iran and Turkey and
Sedan and Egypt and Libya and Algeria,
uh, all these, all these different places that,
that are just, they're completely surrounding Israel
and they're saying, no, we want you to give up more land.
You've already given up most of it.
We need you to go up just a little bit more and then we'll be happy except for that more that we're
going to ask after you give up this.
Right.
You know, most of the people that surround them have the Old Testament
mentality that the Gentiles that the Old Testament had.
They did, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Kill them.
Yeah, that's right.
Killer.
Absolutely.
Wrap them off the face of the earth.
But, you know, like I said, you got one way out of this thing.
And it's going to be it's going to be having a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2.3, how shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation, which at the 1st began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed in us by them
that heard him.
Revelation 3.10
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience.
I will I'll also keep thee from the hour of
temptation, which shall come upon all the world to
try them that dwell upon the search.
So I want you to know that, you know, if you if you don't want to say blood up
to the horse's bridle, if you don't want to be here during that or should be a part of
that, then accept Jesus now, right?
believe it and trust in him now.
If the church was going to go
through this, then the church includes the
saints of all ages since the beginning of the church in Acts.
I do not believe that Christ will bring them
back to earth to suffer tribulation, right?
He's not going to, the church that's already gone is not
coming back to, he's already took them.
He's already, he's already protecting them and he's going to protect us.
The church is more than just us here tonight, right?
There's just us believers that we're talking to.
There's one way to escape this time and it's
going to be through the blood of the lamb.
That's it.
Exactly.
Amen.
And if somebody's listening to this, I hope
they're scared if they're not a believer.
But a believer, man, this is our hope.
you know, and we're not going to be hearing this.
but your loved ones might be.
We need to be praying for the lost.
Absolutely.
That's the best thing you can do.
I mean, that's the top thing we ought to be doing for people we know who
aren't saved is praying for them before we say a word to them.
Pray for them.
That's right
Amen.
that we know that's the will of God.
Yeah, that's right.
Amen.
It is his will that none should perish, but all should come to repentance.
right.
That was right.
And all of this, all of this coming up.
All of this that we're studying and all of this that we're seeing.
We have the foundation is all there.
It's all laid out.
It's all right ready to go, and I mean, like you say, you look
at you look at the Middle East today, and I mean, that place has been a powder
keg for 100s of years.
Um, not even going back thousands, just going
back a couple 100 years, and that place has been a powder keg ready to
blow uh, before even World War 2
hit, and then World War 2 and afterward, and, and a bunch of nations
stepped in and gave, you know, gave Israel back to
the, the Jews, gave, took, you know, said, okay, y'all
need a place to live, and we're going to give it to you, and we're going to go back to your traditional
land, and that just made some people mad, and now they want to kill them again.
And I mean, goodness.
And for a people who have
given and given and been as nice as
humanly possible.
And people, and,
you know, I've listened to people that are, you know, Jordanian
or Lebanese and people that are from that part of the world talk about it.
And I mean, you would just think they just, oh, well, they took everything.
They refuse to give any.
It's like, and they gave you like, like several,
you know, 1000 acres at one point.
I mean, you know, 100s of square miles of, of,
the land, they just give up.
Give up.
And they do it.
Well, I'm just talking incrementally.
They would give 200 square miles here.
They give 200 square miles here.
They give 200 and they just kept doing it and kept doing it and kept doing it.
It's like, at some point, you've got to realize
that it's not about getting your land.
And when you've already got more room than you could you can use.
When they stepped into the promised land, they only they only
got like a 3rd of what God
had already told them they could have then.
I mean, you know, they never, they never possessed everything
that, that they, that they uh, had promised to them.
Absolutely.
And it's crazy.
And so that place is a powder keg and it is just these
things that we're seeing here is that ultimately coming
to its ultimate head.
And ultimately, that is, that's where all that's leading.
And, you know, yeah, I don't necessarily think that,
uh, you know, everybody thinks, oh, well, well, we may get some
peace and and, uh, as Brother Greg said Sunday, there are
seasons of peace.
There's times of peace, but it's not gonna be a lasting one until the end.
And furthermore than that, we're
not going to see a full on, you know, everything
just blow up completely over there between now and this.
I mean, this is where it blows up.
We're not going to be here for that.
And it's like we've talked about before, and I think Dennis mentioned it last
week, maybe or the week before, one week that we were in here that.
I mean, this is, we're
talking about wars and rumors of wars and you need to look and know
that the end is not yet.
So just because these things are going on over there doesn't
mean that's all of a sudden it's going to be the end.
Now, I do believe we're closer than we've ever been before.
Oh, yeah.
And, and there's, there's a, um, there's a climax.
It's going to take place, right?
There's a point.
There was somebody said that Jesus 2nd
coming is like Christmas.
Yeah.
And the rapture is like Thanksgiving.
Christmas notes sneak up on you.
There's all kinds of signs for Christmas.
Everywhere you look, lights are out.
Walmart's going crazy, all this stuff.
Thanksgiving.
Oh, Thanksgiving came.
Yeah, yeah, here it is.
Thanksgiving week?
Right.
Yeah.
Nice right.
Yeah, good exploration.
We're there.
We are.
There's signs everywhere.
Amen.
Absolutely
And uh...
Sang it.
There you go.
And so next week we pick
up with Revelation 15, one.
Another great sign in heaven.
That's how that one kicks off.
And, you know, it is.
It's, it's, We're so close.
We're so close.
And, you know, the thing for for us as believers
is I'm just ready to go home.
Yeah, I feel like traveling.
Yep.
That's it.
And, uh, that's that's where we need to be is.
we need to be ready and make sure the people you love.
Make sure you've told them.
You can't make them ready.
But you can tell them.
You can mourn them.
You can give them a heads up.
We can shout it from rooftops, can't we?
And tell the people you love.
Tell them, you know, number one, tell the people you love that you love them.
Start there.
And then tell them, say, hey, if you haven't accepted, there
is something so much better.
And that's the truth.
That's the truth of a gospel, and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
So next week, Revelation 151,
and we will be picking up from there, Brother Dennis.
Why don't you pray us out tonight?
Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time to study your
word, Father, and to share what we know and honestly,
from my case, what I don't know.
And Father, I love my brothers.
bless them, Father, bless brother Tyler and brother
Brian, Father, and give us wisdom to go through
this world and to learn more, to teach, to get
to know you more, Father, and to see the beautiful, beautiful person
that you are, how good you are to us and how kind you are to us.
And Father, I pray for everyone listening, whether they would see the same thing.
Lord bless them.
And open our eyes to who you are.
And Father, stir us, stir us
to know that the storm clouds are here, the
lightning's popping all around us that you're coming soon,
and you're throwing out warnings everywhere, and you've given us
this book of revelation of Daniel, of all these prophecies
as our hope, to know that we're not destined
for wrath, that you're not going to punish your bride.
You're not going to pour your wrath out on your bride because you've already done that on your son.
Father, thank you for your son.
Thank you for salvation.
Thank you for all the mercies that you give us every day.
And Father, I pray for your protection and blessings
until we come here again in Jesus' name.
Amen.