The Counterfeit, a Crisis, a Conquest (Matt. 24; 2 Thes. 2; Rev. 13:1-18) (Part 1)

Our Father, we join together now at the outset of this meeting. We do so in a spirit of dependence as we look to Thee again. We thank Thee for the work of Thy Son, all that we are speaking of of future events, all predicated upon that great work of Calvary.

We do thank Thee for the vastness of it and the efficacy of it, that all eternity shall not only look back to Calvary, but shall forever worship the Lamb that was slain. We have sung together of our souls being like watered gardens. We think of how the nation of Israel was promised one day to be as a watered garden, fruitful for God ultimately and eternally.

But we as well even now would like our souls to be fruitful for Thee. And so we just commit ourselves to Thee. We were reminded last evening of the practical effects of reading such as this upon our souls.

We thank Thee that we can look upon Thy Son, gaze upon Him, and as the readings progress, we thank Thee that we shall progressively see more and more of His glories. Occupy us with Him, we pray. Help our brother as he handles Thy word and grant that we will have that which is profitable for all who are here.

We commend ourselves in our Savior's name to Thee. Amen. Amen.

Now, since we covered, our brother Colson covered Daniel chapter nine in such a good way, we're gonna just pick up though at the very end of that. Let's go back to Daniel chapter nine for a moment and a few, just a one or two remaining verses in that section. Daniel chapter nine.

Excuse me. And verse 27. And he, that is the prince, not Messiah the prince, but he, or otherwise known as the antichrist, and we're going to look at that a little later too.

He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. So we've already established that that is a week of years, seven years. And in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.

Now, just to stop there, in the midst of the week. So obviously, we can all divide seven in half. That would be three and a half years, so seven, we can all divide it, I guess we can.

Seven and a half, and that's three and a half years. We have this period referred to in other sections of the book of Daniel as time, that's one, and then times two, and then half a time. So one plus two and a half, three and a half.

It is also referred to in other parts in the book of Revelation, for example, by months, 42 months, and or 1260 days. It is a very exact time. He shall confirm the covenant with many for seven years, one week, and in the middle of the week at three and a half year mark, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.

And for the overspreading of abominations or the wing of abominations, that is an interesting word. It carried the thought even of the pinnacle, and this could be a very, it will be a very public thing. You remember that the Antichrist seeks to be a counterfeit, seeks to duplicate, and you remember that Satan himself took the Lord Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and said, cast yourself down, display yourself.

The Lord Jesus, of course, refused to do that. This man will do that. He will display himself.

He will be very public. He will create an image, and he will break this covenant in the middle of this week, and he will become the absolute power. There's a lot of other issues revolving around that, but let's just look as we continue.

He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. So he's moving, he's acting, but it's all under, of course, the control of God, sovereignty of God. Now let's go over to Matthew chapter 24.

We're going to, I did appreciate what our brother Colson did this morning in terms of dividing some of the readings. That was a help, so we'll do that too, but we will look at a few things now. Matthew chapter 24, this is very interesting here.

As we, this is a very comprehensive portion of scripture having to do with the tribulation, the tribulation period. When we discuss in a Bible reading like this end times or future events, it's a vast subject, vast. Even just my reading is only a seven year period, and yet the amount of material that is devoted to it is tremendous.

The book of Revelation from chapter six to 19 literally embraced this period of seven years, the tribulation. There's a massive amount of material. The word of God, right back from even earlier, but even in Genesis 49, a very comprehensive prophetic utterance of Jacob to his sons about the future of the nation of Israel.

Moving on to Leviticus 23, going on to the major prophets, and then the minor prophets, large portions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and then you go into Zephaniah and Zechariah and the visions that these men had, a tremendous amount. You move into the New Testament, and you go to the epistles, and there is material devoted there in the Thessalonian epistles, and then you move to the book of Revelation, and it embraces the future. It's tremendous.

Brother Shudd asked the question earlier, what is the benefit of looking at these things if they're all in the future? Well, there's several aspects. Number one, we know that God writes the future. Our God writes the future, and there are no surprises with God.

Therefore, there are no surprises for us. It also gives us the benefit of moving in and knowing he's gonna win, and we're on the winning side, and all that we see in this world that is so mismanaged and so darkened with all the powers of wickedness and evil and Satan, he's doomed. And in the end, the tables will be turned, and God will be vindicated, and our Savior that is rejected will have his rightful place.

All of that is seen in these events and these passages. And so what is interesting in the backdrop of Matthew 24 is just that. It's ironic that the Lord Jesus gives this discourse at this time, because the end of chapter 23, as we said earlier in the previous reading, is that he turns.

Your house is left unto you desolate. He departs from the temple, and it is at this juncture that the rulers of the nation have actually said, you are not the Messiah, you are not God, you are not the Chosen One. And then the Lord Jesus turns, and he gets his own disciples unto himself, and he does something that only God can do.

He tells the future. He tells it with an exactness and a specificity that shows that he is in absolute control. And so as he begins, it is in response to a question.

Verse three, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age? Now that is actually one event that is brought together by two expressions, the sign of your coming and the end of the age. And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. So these things are given to us so that we are not deceived.

They are also given to us so that we can understand. There is an expression that's repeated numerous times, let him that understandeth. God wants us to understand.

He wants us to know. And as Peter says, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be? And so as the Lord is unfolding this, he says that you be not deceived, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet, for nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of throes or sorrows.

They are the birth pangs of the deliverance of the nation of Israel in God bringing them back to himself in a fulfillment of the day of atonement, and then bringing them into place of repentance, where they shall mourn for him, and they will see him as the one who is ultimately going to deliver them from all of this. And it says, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you. You shall be hated of all nations for my namesake, and then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

So now there are two things going on concurrently. There is the persecution during the tribulation of the nation of Israel, but there is also the persecution and even the martyrdom of those who are a faithful remnant, and those who will not bear the mark, those who will not bow down to the image, those who will not go along with satanic beasts. They will be persecuted.

They will be martyred, and it is for his namesake. And then it says, verse 12, and because iniquity, verse 11, many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. That is talking about a physical salvation.

It is endurance to the end of this time period. And unless those days were shortened, as the Lord says, no flesh should be saved. It's going to be so terrific, so horrific in its degree.

It will be, in other words, as what the Lord says himself, unlike any time that has ever preceded it, nor will come after it. It is a unique, specific time of tribulation, persecution, and opposition. And he says, verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the world for a witness unto all nations.

So this gospel of the kingdom, which is slightly different, it is still the object is the Lord Jesus, but a different focus, a different thrust, a coming kingdom, deliverance from the present kingdom, kingdom of darkness, that will be preached. An angel will fly through the atmosphere preaching this. There will be those that will go forth preserved.

We'll look at those two, these 144,000. And then there will be two witnesses during this time of tribulation. We have a lot of ground to cover in this Bible reading.

And he says, verse 15, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation. Now that word abomination is often connected in our Bibles with idolatry. And that is exactly what is going to happen.

There will be an idol that will be set up in the temple. And we'll look at that when we get to our next subject in this section. It says, the abomination spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place.

Now I mentioned something here that's importantly critical. He refers to Daniel the prophet. The spirit of God wants us to know that these passages are not simply one-offs.

They are not random information that Matthew is writing, but that this is a cohesive whole of revelation that is in agreement with one another. So that Daniel wrote, Matthew now writes, the Lord Jesus speaks in Matthew, and revelation is actually an expansion or an extension of the book of Daniel. That is important to grasp so you can have confidence in your Bible.

Now we, let's continue reading. First, let him understand, the end of verse 15, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything of his house.

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days, but pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. Now let me just emphasize two things here.

These are definite statements which will give us comfort for the fact that we are not going to go through this time, even in this passage here. We're going to look in 2 Thessalonians 2, and that will nail down this truth as well. But you will notice the distinctively Jewish flavor and emphasis of what is in these passages.

Talk about the holy place, referring to Daniel the prophet, going back again, connecting it with thy city, thy people. Then pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath. Who is the Sabbath in relation to? Us? No, in relation to the nation.

And so all of these things emphasize the fact that this is not for us. This is now God taking again a dealing with the nation and nations. Verse 21, for then shall be great tribulation.

Now we're in the second half. First half of the tribulation is a time of, I use the term loosely, relative peace. But the second half, the second half of the tribulation, if you were to look in the book of Revelation, our brother Joe referred to the trumpet this morning.

And if you look in those chapters of the book of Revelation, you will see that there are seven seals. Our brother used the word telescopic. So it's like those, you ever see those little Russian dolls that you put one on top of another and you take one out and there's another one inside? That's kind of what it's like.

So that these seven seals, the last seal, then ushers in seven trumpets. And then the seven trumpets usher in the seven bowls or vials of wrath. And each one that precedes out of the other is more horrific, is more rapid.

And so we have this increasing amount of wrath. And there is wrath from Satan, from the beast. He is going to persecute the nation of Israel.

But ultimately, what the tribulation is, is the wrath of God upon the earth, upon the nations. It is God having the final say. And so as we continue here, verse 21, for then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. And then if we keep going down, we don't want to cover the whole chapter, but verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened. The moon shall not give her light.

The stars shall fall from heaven. The powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then in verse 30, and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven.

This is the terminus. 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 great glory. Now let's go over to 2 Thessalonians chapter two.

2 Thessalonians chapter two. He has already referred in 1 Thessalonians that that day will not overtake you. So that's also a reference to the fact that we are preserved from it.

That day will not overtake you. It will come as a thief in the night. Those who are unexpected, a thief comes to take what is not his.

We are his. He is coming to take us. But in 2 Thessalonians two, there was concern.

People were thinking that they were off on prophetic events and that they had missed certain things, just as in 1 Thessalonians. And so he assures them in the writing of this epistle as well as the first one. And he says this, verse one.

Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him. That is again, same construction as the question and the answer of the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 24. This is one event.

It's not two separate events. So his coming, his personal presence and our gathering together unto him. That is the rapture.

That you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us that the day of Christ and that I believe we would all be in agreement that the critical reading of this should be the day of the Lord. That the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means.

For that day shall not come except there come the falling away first, the apostasy. And there are multiple views on what this apostasy is. But the two most common views and perhaps the two most believable views would be, but there are other views.

I believe our brother Colson has another view on that too. But that would be the falling away of professing Christendom that which professes to be testimony for God and the apostasy of that. There's another view that this apostasy here, the word apostasia, apo going from can be the rapture as well.

And there are reasons in this passage to support that as well. Because he talks about the restrainer and being taken away, taken out of the midst. And so we can discuss that.

But it says that that day shall not come except there come the falling away first and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. How is this man of sin revealed? Well, our brother has already brought that before us this morning in the signing of the covenant. That is what reveals him.

So he says, we will not be here. That day will not come except the day of, not only don't be shaken because we will not be here, but the day of the Lord will come and it will be ushered in by this, the man of sin, the son of perdition. He opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

A reference again to the abomination of desolation. That idle image set up. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things and now you know what withholdeth, what holds back, that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity is already working. Only he who now withholds, let us, will let until he be taken out of the midst or the way. And when that happens, then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion. Now exactly when that happens can be a point of discussion.

Does it happen at the beginning? Does it happen in the middle of the tribulation? And what exactly is this strong delusion? Because it says that they should believe the lie. What is the lie that they will believe? That they all might be judged or damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now one final reading in this section, Revelation chapter three.

Revelation chapter three and verse 10. Revelation. Because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world.

Why? To try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. This verse is very important because someone could say, well, he can preserve us through it.

But that's not exactly what it says. It says that we're actually not only gonna be kept out of it, that's the Greek word ek, out of, but we're gonna be kept from the hour of it. So in other words, the very element of time itself, we will be preserved from this time.

This event, this time, we will not be here as many other passages concur. How do we look at prophecy? I think it's important for us to understand that when the Lord Jesus spoke to his own in Matthew 24, when there are even parables that we read, that the church is not the subject of those parables. The church is not the subject of prophetic events in the sense of what we read in the Old Testament.

It was a mystery. It was hidden in God. Not just hidden in the scripture, hidden in God.

If we view prophecy like a rope, and we have the Old Testament scriptures, we have God dealing with Israel as a nation, we have the kingdom, and then now moving along, all of a sudden now we have the Lord Jesus goes back to heaven. Let us cut the rope. Let's open up a section.

And during this present dispensation, we are living in a time that is unprecedented, where the mystery of the one body is being formed, and it is not the subject of God dealing with either the nation of Israel nor the nations on earth. He is calling out a people, a heavenly people. When we go home, when the rapture takes place, that rope will then be joined again.

And prophetic events in God dealing with this world in terms of the nations and their boundaries, and the nation of Israel will take place again. Right now, the middle wall of partition is broken down. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free.

And so God is putting together, making of twain one new man in one body. When the rapture occurs, if I can say it this way, the distinctiveness between Israel and the nations and God dealing with each as an entity will be back again. 144,000 in Revelation 7, 12,000 from 12 tribes will be called out.

God will be dealing with them. And so we have a number of other things, but for the sake of time, I just want to go into the outline here that we have. But I want to make it very, very clear that this period of tribulation and great tribulation, a seven-year period, the 70th week of Daniel, I will reiterate and emphasize once again, as our brother did this morning, it concerns thy holy city.

It concerns thy people. It does not concern us. We are not here.

And the man of sin is going to be revealed by the signing of that covenant, and we will not be here at that time. Now, maybe we could discuss the tribulation and its timing. We also notice that dates are not given for the church.

The Lord Jesus makes that clear. He says, as for you, it is not for you to know the times nor the seasons, but it is for Israel. And so he designates these specific times.

God is dealing in a very, very real specific way. There's another reason why we are given these specific dates and times. Our brother mentioned this morning that Daniel 9 is the backbone of prophecy, the spine, if you will.

It gives us a framework, an important framework for all interpretation of prophecy. It does not allow us to spiritualize and then to literalize. If these are a literal people, if this is a literal place, if Messiah being cut off was a literal event, then the times are literal too as well.

We don't spiritualize them. It gives us the principles for interpretation, and that's important, that we take prophecy and the word of God as literally as we can in those times. Now, the tribulation and timing here.

Now, we'll start with the referred period, the tribulation and the great tribulation, and maybe we'll make some comments because this now is referred to as the inception or the beginning of the day of the Lord. And that in itself, we address the Lord Jesus as Lord, and rightly so. He says, you call me Lord and Master, Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am.

But when we read of the expression the day of the Lord, it's a little different. We're not looking at the term Lord in his sovereignty in a sense. We're looking at Jehovah in his covenant-keeping aspect, in his relationship to the nation of Israel.

So the very fact that it is addressed and called 75 times at least, the day of Jehovah shows it stands in particular relationship to the nation of Israel, his covenant people. So with that, we can maybe have some contributions of our brethren about what exactly is this day of the Lord as an overview in general. Frank, why don't you first of all just differentiate man's day, day of the Lord, day of Christ, day of God.

All right. Why don't you do that? No, go ahead. All right, there are four days in scripture that are given to us.

And incidentally, when we read of a day, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a 24-hour period. A day in the Bible can often be characterized by specific events or a tenor, a particular characteristic. So we have man's day that we're in right now.

1 Corinthians 4 is a reference to that. It is a day where God is allowing man to do what he will to an extent. We see the mismanagement of this world and so on.

It is man's day. The day of Christ is the next day on the calendar. And we were discussed that this morning.

It begins with the rapture, takes us to the judgment seat of Christ, and is presenting a heavenly scene where we are in with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Now it unfolds a number of things in those seven years. And the effects of it go beyond that, as we mentioned, reward, position.

The next day is the day of the Lord. Now while the day of Christ begins with the rapture and ushers us into heaven who are saved, God will then begin dealings with the world, with the nations, the day of the Lord. I believe that the scriptures teach that the day of the Lord will last approximately 1,007 years beginning with the tribulation, seven years, the 1,000-year millennium.

Now that's open to tweaking a little bit, but I'm just saying that's the approximate timeframe. And it is God dealing with the world, with the nations. When the day of the Lord reaches its terminus, its completion point, the day of God, which is the eternal state, will come.

And we read of a new heavens and a new earth. That is a generalization of those basic four days. So 2 Thessalonians 2, where you read, you mentioned you have the rapture, thought in verse one, are gathering together unto him.

Seemingly, the Thessalonians had received wrong teaching, that because of the persecution they were going through, that the day of tribulation, the tribulation was already started, the day of the Lord, they were already in it. And so he's writing to correct that wrong assumption or wrong teaching. So my question is this, the day of the Lord, why is it the day of the Lord? Like you distinguish between the day of Christ or the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why is it called the day of the Lord? What's the thought? Well, again, it will be when Jehovah, that's the Lord there in that designate, in that title, he will then now be taking up a dealing, again, with the nation of Israel. The name Lord has a covenant relationship, right? To the people of Israel. The nations will have to bow and they will also have to acknowledge eventually coming through that, that Israel is the head and not the tail.

Right, so he's taking up his lordship, he's intervening in the affairs of earth. In a specific way. Yes, and he's establishing his lordship over it all.

And that will result in the judgments that come, it will result in his manifestation, it will result in his kingdom being established here. He's exercising his lordship. So he is moving to fulfill his covenants, right? Maybe we should mention, just for the sake of young believers, the covenants that need to be fulfilled.

Well, one of the reasons I believe, we're gonna get into this, we're getting a little bit ahead, but of this beast, the Antichrist signing a covenant, we'll remember that he is a counterfeit. And he is going to try, as God, as Jehovah, established the Abrahamic covenant with his people in relation to the land and so on, he will establish a covenant. He will pass himself off as their Messiah, as God, as the one to be worshiped.

And in doing that, he will bring about a covenant with them. But as God will be, and always will be, faithful to his promises, this man is unfaithful. He will renege, he will break his covenant with them.

So the Abrahamic covenant would be one. The Davidic covenant would be another, where God has promised that there will not lack a man to sit on the throne, and that throne will be established. Now, that's another issue for another time.

But, and then we, that's why I said this, this has a lot of tentacles in it, right? There is the new covenant, of course, the everlasting covenant, and the blessings of that. There's even a smidgen of the Palestinian covenant, too. Some of it, that just moves, but it's basically those three, Abrahamic, Davidic, and the new covenant.

There are two types of covenants, too. And maybe we should just comment on that, for the sake of younger ones. There are covenants, we've referred to them often as conditional and unconditional.

Perhaps maybe a better word than unconditional would be unilateral. It's a unilateral covenant, meaning that God takes everything upon himself. And so, God will be the one who will be the faithful fulfiller of the promises.

You remember that when God made the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis with Abraham, he put him to sleep. He put him to sleep. God is saying, this is all on me.

I'm gonna be faithful to this. But then there are conditional covenants. If you keep your end, I'll keep my end.

If you don't, I'm under no obligation. So there are different types of covenants. So the covenants that you're mentioning can span dispensations.

That's another word that has come up. So there is a structure of dispensations in Earth's history, different modes of administrating, from God's point of view, planet Earth. But also these covenants that you're mentioning, they can span or bridge over several dispensations.

Okay, now we wanna be a help to everyone. So that's a great point. Can you just encapsulate dispensations, what they are and why? Our brother did there last night.

Administration, like a house management system. And God has managed this Earth at different times in different ways. I don't know how much you want to put into that.

No, that's good, and the purpose of it is for what? Well, we were pointing out that God has one purpose. It's progressively unfolding it, and we suggested from Ephesians 1 and 10, that's with a view that in a dispensation still to come, that he's gonna head up all things in Christ. That will be the dispensation of the fullness of times.

So in the meantime, God has a program running for the Gentile, a program running for the Jew, a program running for the church. He's gonna bring them all together in the dispensation of the fullness of times. The one might overlap the other, but it doesn't intrude on the other, as God is bringing all his strands of purpose into light.

Right, and I think it's important to emphasize, too, that a dispensation is a time of testing. The human race is being tested under these various scenarios, under these different ways of administering Earth. The millennium also is a time of testing.

We'll see that later. So these dispensations ultimately reveal God's faithfulness and progressive purpose that is unhindered, unstoppable, but as well, it reveals our failure. So, okay, I think that's important.

So, question. As we look at now that we've covered the period, let's go to this restraining power, because there are differences of views on this. The restrainer that is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2, it is obviously the Holy Spirit, but in what way would my brethren, I'd like to hear your contributions on this, I'll just tell you what I think this passage supports, the fact that it is the Spirit of God working uniquely in this day through the church.

And when we are removed, you'll remember that the church is literally the residents being baptized in the medium of the Holy Spirit. He forms that whole, that union, or unity, rather, with everyone. And that happened on the day of Pentecost.

At the rapture, that church will be complete, and we will go home so that no longer will the Holy Spirit, who will continue to work during the tribulation, be able to work in that specific way. So all work that is ever done is done by the power of the Spirit of God. It is just simply whether he is indwelling the church or now working in a different way.

So you agree, Brother Frank, that in verse six of 2 Thessalonians 2, verse six, we know what withholdeth is the newt agenda, so it's some thing that is withholding, and then in verse seven, it's someone, it's a person. So some thing, the church on earth, we're the salt of the earth. Salt, in this sense, has a preservative effect.

So all the time we're here, these things can't progress. But also, then, we're told why that is, and it's because of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. So this is a unique dispensation, marked by the fact that there's a man in heaven and the Holy Spirit dwelling on earth amongst God's people, well, in God's people.

And those conditions will cease at the rapture, right? That's right, yeah. So you're saying that even though some of us who would look around and see how dark it is with what's being taught in schools and the agendas being pushed, you're saying that's in the presence of a restraining power today. So it's gonna get a whole lot darker.

Right. Yes, so when we are gone, that restraint will be removed, and it's like the Dutch boy holding his finger in the dark, and all of a sudden, it'll just be removed, and a deluge will come. So on a practical- Can I make another little suggestion? I'm in agreement that there is that preservative of the church on earth still, salt of the earth and so on.

That's fine. But the outcome of this removal, whatever's removed, what withhold is, that he might be revealed in his time. Whatever is taken away initiates this man being revealed.

When this man is revealed, he's one of 10 leaders. There's gonna be a different world order, structure in place, and that's how he's identified when that is revealed. Could it be that the present structure of human government is removed, that this might come to the fore? You're talking about more of a globalization.

Is that what you're looking at, more of a one-world? Yes, whatever the 10 parts of that coming kingdom involved. Could you explain maybe how you got to one of the 10? For everybody. How do you know there's gonna be 10? Can you wait? Oh, okay.

Sure. There's the 10 toes in Daniel 2, if someone's wondering, and there's the 10 horns on that beast. I just think it's a lot.

We'll get to that. Take it a lot. So maybe just on a practical level, because we're all, all of us who are saved are in this church that is being used by the Holy Spirit.

How are we being used to restrain this from happening? There's several ways, but what are some ways we are being used? I would suggest one way is simply by our presence here. That's number one. That's right, that's the main one.

That's the main one. But are there any other ways? Well, we're preaching the gospel. We are living out the things, it should be anyway, living out the things we believe.

That doesn't, though, I think, have a particularly restraining effect. It makes those around us the more guilty, perhaps. But if we step back again and look at the bigger picture, we're seeing that the devil is preparing his man to come onto the world stage.

And God is preparing a man. We are the body. The head is in heaven.

Ephesians 4, the body is growing up to maturity. God's preparing his man. Satan is preparing his man.

And God effectively is saying to Satan, you'll not get to reveal your man until my man's complete. My order first. And so God will take his man home to glory, the church united with the head.

Then the way is clear for the devil to reveal his man. So the chief reason why this cannot happen and the tribulation to begin is because we are here and because we are here, God cannot pour out his wrath because we have not been appointed to wrath. All right, a little picture of that is, for example, Lot in the Old Testament, where the angels came, remember, and wanted to remove him and his family, him and his wife and so on.

He says, I can't do anything until you come out. I can't rain out wrath until you're removed. Also, you can bring in 2 Corinthians 5. Paul says there of himself and his fellow apostles, we are ambassadors for Christ.

Now, by extension, that can apply to us as well, beseeching men that in Christ's dead that they be reconciled to God. Now, an ambassador is the representative of a monarch. He's the representative in a foreign land looking after the interests of that particular monarch.

When, for example, in 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War was triggered, a bomb never fell and a shot was never fired until the ambassadors, the last link with the country that was hostile, until the ambassador was withdrawn. And so we have that thought in 2 Corinthians 5 that before ever God moves in wrath against this world, he's going to withdraw his ambassadors and the church will be taken home. Just in support of that, 1 Thessalonians 1. The Thessalonians were saved to wait for a son from heaven, even Jesus, whom he raised from the dead, our deliverer away from the coming wrath.

That's the part for the church. Right across the page in my Bible relative to the Jews in chapter two and verse 16, for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. There's the contrast.

So Jewish people will be going through the tribulation, but the church has gone away from it. Without becoming too technical, do you wanna mention the different prepositions in that verse? Go ahead. Son out of heaven, whom he raised out of the dead.

So in the midst of, taken out. But when it comes to our deliverer from the wrath to come, the preposition changes. It's from the very face of something.

You never get in it. You're taken from the very presence of it. So very important, just minor things, but prepositions for young men or young women studying your Bible, prepositions are the smallest part of our English language, but are of the greatest importance.

Is there a difference between the judgments seen in Romans chapter one and the wrath is to come and do the judgments of Romans chapter one occur while we are here or is that something that's coming? Well, the judgment of Romans one has already occurred. God has already given them up. So that's in the past.

Yeah, yeah. This is something in the future that is unique in its severity. It has never happened before, never happened again.

And it is unique in its chronology because even these 70 weeks or this one week of time is different than any other time. So it really only begins in other scriptures is Revelation chapter six, when those seals that are on that book start to be opened. Right? Yeah, I think if I understand our brother's question are right.

Romans chapter one says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. That is current. God's wrath does not necessarily mean fire and brimstone.

God giving them up is really a sign of God's wrath. It's God's judgment on them. So it is a current judgment that is occurring in our world.

Oh, thank you. So one thing we should point out too by this event, and when I have on the outline here, a removed people, this removal is instantaneous. It's not a process.

Pentecost, I said it's a reversal of Pentecost in the sense that the spirit of God came down in a day, came down instantly. It happened in an instant. We are going to go in an instant so that there's no such thing as a partial rapture, as certain believers going and then some being left behind.

There are some that teach that. The New Testament knows nothing of that. Okay, so moving on now, the required purpose of this, and we've been already discussing that.

If anybody has any comments on that, but we've already looked at the purpose of it to bring the nation of Israel, to bring them to repentance, retribution and reckoning upon the world, fulfilling prophecy, to show God's sovereignty. So we've looked at the covenant already as well, and the importance of that. Let's look at some of the remaining participants, F on the outline.

The church is not here, so who is? And there's Old Testament imagery. We have one thing that's very important, Jeremiah 30, verse seven, the time of Jacob's trouble. That identifies it again.

Then these 144,000, perhaps we can look at that. Let's turn over to Revelation chapter seven, just for a moment. Revelation seven, and verse four, and I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

And then the tribes are named, and we'll not go into why some are missing and why some are not. Some are here, but these are 12,000. They are specifically, again, numbered.

They are a distinctive number, and again, numbering. Now these individuals, these will be supermen, if you can say it that way. They will be untouchable.

During the full seven years, they will preach the gospel of the kingdom. They will be unable to be, and it will certainly, I'm sure it will just grate on the Antichrist that he will not be able to do anything about these. Now they stand in contrast to two witnesses.

The two witnesses who we refer to later on, and for the sake of time, again, these two witnesses will have power. There is a difference and a distinction between these 144,000 and the two witnesses. The two witnesses, for example, have power.

Fire comes out of their mouth. They're more offensive, if I can say it that way. The 144,000 are defensive.

You can't do anything against them. The 144,000 will be sealed, and they will last to go into the kingdom, the millennial kingdom, whereas the two witnesses will be killed. It will likely be publicly televised, witnessed, however.

Satellite, who knows? But they will be seen before the world, and that death of those two witnesses, and incidentally, they will be resurrected. They will come back, but it will be Antichrist showing his power, and they will say, who is able to make war with the beast? He has put down everything. He remains unrivaled, unchallenged, and so we have these participants.

They're reminders of Moses and Elijah. We have angelic ministry going on. This is a time of tremendous upheaval, nature-wise, spiritually-wise.

Demons will be active, coming out of the abyss, out of the pit, and we have all of these participants. Anyone make any comments on that? Quick question for you, Frank. So at the rapture, there's no believer left, right? All the believers are gone, right? How are these 144,000 saved? How shall they hear without a preacher? These kind of verses.

How are these? Do you have any ideas on that, Joe? I had wondered if, like, when the Apostle Paul says that he was a pattern towards them who would believe hereafter, I wonder if that's who he was referring to, and obviously they would have the Bible still. Yeah, yeah. So they will be saved, not that we're all saved miraculously, but they will be saved uniquely in this way.

It will be immediate. It's not done in successive stages. These 144,000 will be saved at once.

He will pour out his spirit upon them, and they will be reached and saved. Now, what is the timeframe of this? Do you feel that there will be some interval? Myself, I feel that God is never left without a witness, and once the church is gone, there can be some small period, but it will be relatively quick. Chapter 7, chapter 6 ushers in the beginning.

Chapter 7, it seems that it's a small amount of time, if any, but... Chapter 7, verse 1. After these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Contrast immediately with the beginning of Daniel 7. And also, where you have these beasts that come up out of the sea. And also, you have the striving of the four winds of heaven, that's what I'm after, on the sea, that brings these beasts, causes them to emerge, okay? So here, there's a withholding back of forces, which otherwise are going to cause things to emerge.

And it isn't, what I'm saying here is, is God just holding back, restraining things until these 144,000 are sealed? And then you have that wind striving upon the great sea, Daniel 7. That could be, but what type of time element? That's what I'm... Well, just until they're sealed, whatever time that takes. Okay. That's a very definitive answer, but... It's as close as I can come to it.

I think perhaps we're reading a bit too much into things. There's no record that they're saved. There's no record that they preach.

I know you've stated both things, brother, so I'm saying it gently. But there's nothing in my Bible that says that anyway. I think actually, you hit the nail on the head when you said that one of the greatest things about their testimony is the fact that they're invulnerable.

That God, you see, the preachers are gonna be the faithful remnant of the nation. They're the ones who are gonna go out with the gospel of the kingdom. They're the ones who see God destroy the enemies of Israel on the mountains of Israel.

Ezekiel makes it clear that that spurs a spiritual element of the nation. That's the faithful remnant that go forth and preach. God sovereignly seals 144,000 people, no record of them preaching, no record of them saying anything.

But they're there in chapter seven at the beginning of the tribulation, and they're still there intact in chapter 14 at the end of the tribulation. They are invulnerable. It doesn't matter what the false prophet, what the beast does, all the engines of coercion that we see in operation in some totalitarian states, they'll all be brought to bear, and these people cannot be harmed.

That'll scare the living daylights out of a lot of men. But they're sealed and they're preserved. And that is all that my Bible tells me about them.

Yes, but the verse that our brother quoted, how shall they hear without a preacher? There's gonna be a multitude that no man can number that will not only come out of the great tribulation, faithful to God, they're martyred in the second part of chapter seven. So somehow they heard the gospel of the kingdom preached. I suppose, but it doesn't say that.

We suppose, therefore, that these 144,000 are sealed to be a witness for God. God does not leave himself without witness, a principle throughout scripture. Well, he's got a witness.

He's got the believing remnant of the nation who are preaching. I think we should just rest with what the Bible tells us. Well, let's do that.

No, I'm gonna read something here. Not just to let you off the hook, but no, let's just, we're not told everything. And with respect, there's certain things that we don't know and we don't understand.

And we're not told that these people are saved. We're not told if they are or when they are, we're not told how. We're simply told that God sovereignly sealed 144,000 people to be a mute witness through their invulnerability.

They're there at the beginning, chapter seven. They're there at the end of chapter 14. And I don't think we know anything more about them.

Yeah, chapter seven. You had something to say? They're referred to in verse two as here. That's what I was gonna say.

Verse four. They're redeemed. The servants of our God.

That's what I was gonna say. And also being redeemed from the earth. Yeah.

So they're redeemed. So they're redeemed. What I'm saying is we don't know when and how or what.

Okay, but we know they were redeemed. They're saved. Yeah, if we can use that word, yeah.

We're just told who they are and, you know, the juxtaposing of these two groups together is awfully suggestive. Not definitive, but suggestive. You've got 144,000.

Suddenly you get another great multitude who have been saved. I mean, you have to admit, for simple people like us, it gets very suggestive. Bear a very little brain, you know.

I like honey, too. That's my... We love you, Phil. We love you.

I can't help it, bro. I'm a simple guy. I just read my Bible.

The other thing is that they're going to go in to populate the millennial kingdom. So at that point, multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision, when that reaches that point, the separation of the sheep and the goats, are they gonna be with the goats? No, they're gonna be with the sheep. They're gonna go in to populate that kingdom.

So obviously they must be saved. It would serve no purpose for them not to be saved and then have them go off to the Lake of Fire, right? So there are these that come out of great tribulation and they've washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the Lamb. These people evidently have been martyred during the tribulation period, right? And yet there's gonna be multitudes that will go into the millennium who were never martyred.

So there are saved on earth during the millennium. There's the remnant of Israel, which I had thought was this 144,000 to start with, and then it expands from there, right? And then from the nations, there's a multitude that no man can number that will be martyred. And also there'll be survivors of the tribulation, saved during the tribulation, that will go on into the kingdom on earth.

Yeah, all agree? Yes, all agree. And like our brothers, Kevin said it too, they're servants of God and they have the seal of the living God. But again, let's go to what we can agree on, that they're invulnerable, okay? All right, we've got that much.