End Times Pre-Trib Church
Key Passage: 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10
Date: June 7, 2024
Would you turn your Bible to 1st Thessalonians chapter one, 1st Thessalonians chapter 1? Brother Josh, just a minute here. We will get that chart up if you would, please. We passed this out two weeks ago. Of course, last Sunday we changed for involvement day, but we have a little chart.
If you have not gotten that chart and would like to get one, our ushers can hand you one. Anyone need that chart? If you need that chart, just hold it up. Can we get our ushers? Can somebody, Brother Allen, somebody hop up there and get those? That would be great. Thank you. Just keep your hand up for a minute, and they will bring it to you. We will not use the chart as much as we did two weeks ago, but we will reference it and go over a bit. I think we will…
I do not think we will come close to getting done this morning on this subject. I think we will go tonight back to this subject. We are really going to be dealing with the tribulation period. This morning, we are going to go over just a bit. Tonight, I believe, the abomination of desolation, if you would like to be a part of that. And we are getting those charts passed out.
Good deal. We are in 1st Thessalonians chapter one of God’s word. I promise you, it is a little bit after Genesis and a little before Revelation. It is in there. And 1st Thessalonians chapter one. We are going to start in verse number 6. First Thessalonians 1 and verse number 6.
I think we are out of them. It looks like. Good. Everybody, good. Anybody else need a chart? We are covered. Good deal. So if you look at that chart, memorize it. You have got it all learned, we will go home. How about that? Because you are sleeping. Because you lost an hour of sleep. You just ate breakfast. But Brother Johan says, all right, let us do it. Let us do it.
First Thessalonians chapter one. Thank you, Brother Anthony. Paul, God had used Paul to start the church at Thessalonica. He went there in his little missionary team. They had preached. People got saved. But persecution was very severe there. So Paul and his missionary team left town. They said, we are going to get killed.
But amazing, that little band of believers—many, I do not know this, but it seemed like many believed they would not make it, you know, such severe persecution—they just got saved, but they started a church from that little band of believers. It was the church of Thessalonica. God bless them. They were very much like the church this morning: very persecuted, but a great church.
Paul, through the inspiration of God, is writing to them. I want you to understand what is going on. We are going to start in verse number six. Would you please stand as we read it together? 1st Thessalonians 1 and verse number 6. The Bible there says, “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.”
“So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and the K.I.” You are just a model church. You are a great testimony to other people. Verse number eight: “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and the K.I., but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything.”
“For they themselves show of what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Look at verse number 10: “And to wait for his Son from heaven.” Time out for just a minute. When is the next time Jesus is going to show up? Can you put that? Go ahead and put the chart up, would you please?
You have it in your hand; maybe we can just see it on the chart here. It will take a minute. He is going to get it up. What is the next thing going to happen? What is the next big thing on the prophetic calendar? The rapture, right? That is what is going to show up, and he is going to take the saved people home with him. We discussed that two weeks ago. Okay, that is what we are talking about waiting for. Verse number 10: “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus.”
Watch this: “Which delivered us from the wrath to come.” Notice that he delivered us from the wrath to come. There is about to be wrath coming. He has delivered us from this wrath.
Oh, it is the wrong chart. That one would work, but it should be on there. It is a chart of Revelation. Tell you what, you have the one in your hand; he will work on that. I did not tell him ahead of time; my fault, folks. But on your chart right there in your hand, the rapture is right there on the left-hand side as it goes up. Many people like to move that. They will put it right in the middle of the tribulation period—what we are going to talk about tonight, the abomination of desolation. Three and a half years, the first half, three and a half years, is right in the middle; they want to put it there. They are called mid-trib people. That means right in the middle of the tribulation period, they believe the rapture is going to happen. Some are post-trib people, and they believe all the way at the end of the tribulation period will be the rapture. But the Bible teaches before the tribulation period. I am talking too slow. I am used to talking fast when I preach. But before it all happens, we are going to be raptured out of here. That is called the pre-tribulation rapture. Our church is a pre-trib church. You say, why do you believe that? Why do you teach and preach that? Well, one reason—there are several reasons—but one of those is because we just read that he has delivered us from the wrath to come.
You see that seven? There it is. Thank you, Brother John. That seven years right there. That seven years in the book of Revelation—he often, in fact, 13 times—he uses the word wrath. God is literally pouring out his wrath during the tribulation period. Would you look over Revelation chapter six? We will just look at a couple of those times. By the way, I want you to notice that Revelation 6 is at the beginning of the tribulation period. We are not talking about mid-trib or post-trib. We are talking about the beginning of the tribulation period, and he is talking here about his wrath being poured out. The wrath of God is not just poured out in the second half of the tribulation period; it is poured out all during the tribulation period. Look in Revelation 6, and would you look at verse number 16 there? Revelation 6 and verse number 16.
The Bible says, “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Friend, I am just saying, the Bible is teaching us that Jesus has delivered us from the wrath to come. We will not be here when his wrath comes. We are up here in a wonderful time. We talked about it two Sundays ago, the marriage supper of the Lamb. But down here, it is the tribulation period: seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials. Praise the Lord, you and I will not be here if you are saved. We are delivered from the wrath to come.
Let me just throw a couple of other things out very briefly. We will not turn to all these. But 2nd Thessalonians chapter number two, verses one through eight—look it up some other time. You might want to reference that. Number one reason why we are delivered from the wrath to come. Number two, because the Bible teaches in 2nd Thessalonians 2 that the Holy Spirit will be taken out of here. Help me out. Where does the Holy Spirit reside right now? Inside of you. So in order for him to be taken out of here, we have got to be taken out of here.
“And then shall that wicked be revealed,” that is the Antichrist. The Holy Spirit is taken out, and then the Antichrist, who is very prevalent during this period, will be revealed. So, friend, I am telling you, we will not be here during the tribulation period. Right before that is the rapture. We are taken out. Not only that, but 1st Thessalonians 4, I believe we read it two weeks ago, the rapture: “When the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Remember that last verse, verse number 18? Let me just quote it for you. It says, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Now, wait a second. I just told Brother Ben here, I said, “Brother Ben, we’ve got to live through seven years of the wrath of God.” I mean, it is awful. We are going to describe it a little bit here in a minute, and we have got to live through that. After that, it is going to be good, but we have seven years of the wrath of God, the tribulation period. Brother Ben, would that be comforting? Not really. Realizing you have got to live through seven years of God’s wrath being poured out. Friend, it does not line up in the Bible. We are to comfort one another with, “Hey, praise the Lord, this old world is getting bad, but we are just about to leave this world. Amen. We are going to be with him forever and ever.” Now that is comforting, friend, right? See, it does not line up in the Bible.
So I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture because we are delivered from the wrath to come. The Holy Spirit cannot be here during this time because that is when the Antichrist is revealed, so we have got to be taken out of here. And we are to comfort one another with these words. Praise the Lord, we do not live in the tribulation period. Amen.
Now, just the last thought, and we will move on. Just four quick things. I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. Number four: Remember, all through the Bible, we are called the bride, right? He is the groom. Remember, he says in Ephesians 5, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.”
Now, let us think about this. If I am about to come into an area and I am going to shoot it full of my wrath—we will just take a house. I am about to come into a house, and maybe I have got a 50 millimeter, and I am just going to shoot that place up. Over half the people in the house are going to be killed by my wrath. You get that? That is what is going to happen in the tribulation period. I am about to come in there and do that in the house, and I know my wife is in there, and I really love her and gave myself for her. Do not you think I would go in there and get my wife out of the house first? You better believe I would. Christ would not leave his bride down on this earth when he is pouring out his wrath? Friend, that does not line up with the Bible. It does not line up with so many things in the Bible. No, he loves his bride and is going to take his bride out of here before he pours his wrath out. Are y’all with me this morning? Yes, we had to hit that because we are trying to unravel the end times. That is the topic we have covered this whole thing. And friends, so many people move that to right there or right there. No, no, no. It is a pre-tribulation rapture.
You say, “I do not know exactly what all that means.” Well, if you believe the Bible, you believe it. It is before the tribulation; the rapture happens. Now, let us just for a bit, just for a bit, let us talk about the tribulation period. You are not going to be here if you are saved. But as we studied a little bit, we can kind of see so many signs. If I know what is going to happen down there, and as I get closer, I can see things kind of forming to that end, then I know I am getting close. You understand? So just briefly, let us go through the tribulation period. You are already in Revelation chapter six. Let us look at the first judgment called the seal. On your chart there, if you see, one of the first things here in the tribulation period is seven seals. These are all the wrath of God being poured out. You are on the earth.
Let us find out what the first one is like. Revelation 6, are you there? Good deal. Look at verse number one: “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a white horse.” Time out for just a moment here. Keep your finger there. Do not let it go. You will look like me, but just keep your finger there. You know, white horse. I hate it when I have to tell you, that was a joke. I am trying. At least give me credit for effort. The white horse would make you think of Jesus Christ, because later on, in the Second Coming, and actually the Battle of Armageddon down here, Jesus is going to come back on a white horse. You are going to be riding a white horse.
I heard a preacher say he does not like riding horses. He said when you get on that horse, that horse will know if you are really in charge or not. He says the horse does know, and he knows that I am not in charge. He is like, “I do not know if I want to ride that white horse.” It will be all right. The curse will be lifted. If you have any problems with it, Skyder over there trains horses; she will help you out with your white horse. Wait a second, over here in this first seal, it says somebody is on a white horse, but friend, that is not Jesus Christ. That is a counterfeit Christ. It is a mockery of Christ. It is what is typically called the Antichrist, right? He is the first seal, the wicked one, sin manifested. On and on, we can talk about the Antichrist.
Let us keep going over here in verse number two: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow.” Time out again. We have a lot of timeouts. In basketball, they only have four; we will see how many timeouts we have. He had a bow. This Antichrist has a bow, but I want you to notice he does not have arrows. He has military machinery; he has power, but it does not have bullets, if you will. This Antichrist does not take over the world with military power. He takes over the world with sly manipulation, lying. He is the slickest guy you ever saw in all your life. Everybody thinks he is wonderful at the beginning, and he makes all kinds of backdoor deals. Later on, the truth is kind of known about him. He even thinks he is God or sets himself up as God; we will talk about that tonight. He is murderous. He is a Judas Iscariot. He is so selfish. He is all about himself. He wants everybody to bow down to him, but boy, he is smooth. Later on, he becomes demon—not just demon-possessed, but devil-possessed. When he gets people demon-possessed, he becomes the devil, Satan-possessed. He has all the deceiving wonders and lying power that, by the way, Satan has used to deceive everybody in this world besides Jesus. We all fell into deceit, and that is how he gets this power.
Verse number two right there: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him.” He did not take the crown; it was given to him. He did not go over to Russia and say, “Hey, give me your leadership.” No, they gave it to him. He did not go to the United States and say, “I’m going to nuke you if you don’t give me any power.” They gave it to him—the whole world. Look at Revelation 13, if you would, very quickly. Revelation 13 is just talking about the Antichrist. He becomes the one-world president, if you will, the one-world leader. Look at Revelation 13. Revelation 13, look in verse number seven. Revelation 13:7. Y’all still out there? Amen. Has that coffee worn out? Is anybody falling asleep yet? If you see your neighbor sleeping, poke him in the eye. Do not tell him I told you to do that, though. Chapter 13, verse number seven: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.” He hates Christians. “And power was given unto him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” And what is the next word? “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
By the way, we are out of here, but there will be people saved in the tribulation. People will get saved at the very end if we have time this morning. I simply want you to notice this Antichrist becomes the world leader. Remember when it was that our president, unfortunately—it has already been talked about—the first president that vocally said it was George Bush back in 1991, and he began to talk about the New World Order. Anybody remember that? It is interesting. I saw the news article, and this was the heading, this was the topic of it: “In 1991, George Bush promised a new world order.” A quarter of a century later, we are finally catching a glimpse of it, like it or not. You realize how the Internet has linked the world together? I am not saying it is sinister. Brother Patrick says, man, he is all in the tech stuff. But it has brought our world together. I mean, it really has. I can watch the streets of Moscow on the Internet here in the United States from just a camera. I am talking about it; it is a small world anymore. It is bringing our world together, and it is going to culminate in a one-world government with one man leading it: the Antichrist.
We are going there so fast. 9/11, 2001, was another step closer to the one-world government and the global war on terrorism. I am not saying that is bad, but it is just global war. You see how everything is going that way? It is all just lining up with the Bible. We know what is going to happen. On Sunday, we talk about the Great Reset. We will talk about economies and the dollar and how they are bringing them together. COVID-19 brought us closer to one world—the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization is always looking for any kind of global crisis so they can bring the globe together. Climate change, you know? Or on a cold day, on a warm day, global warming; on a cold day, climate change, you understand? And all these summits around the world, just talking about how they are pushing that. That is one reason why they did not like President Trump, who said, “Hey, I am about America.” They do not want that; they want globalism. It is just where society, the world, is going. And then, who had ever heard of a vaccine passport?
Just think about that: vaccine passport. I am not saying—you make your decision about all those things—but I am just saying how society and the world are pushing us toward this, every different angle they can, to make us all global. Businesses were saying you cannot do business here. The Miami Heat had certain seats; you could not go into the ballgame and sit in those certain sections without your vaccine passport and others. You say, “Are you saying that that is the mark of the beast?” No, but it is leading, it is closer there. By the way, if you check out the mark of the beast, it does not talk about it being on you; it talks about it being in you. You can check it out in Revelation; three times it talks about it. And Israel had one of their headlines: “Cannot buy yourself without the vaccine.” Wow. Now they really changed the wording of that because a lot of Christians started proclaiming, “Hey, that is too similar to the mark of the beast.” And it is not. We are not living during the tribulation period; I am not saying that. But I am just trying to show you how everything is going that way. We are going to have a one-world government that is going to have one man leading it. At first, everybody is going to think he is the savior of the world. That is what he wants because he is the Antichrist, and he wants you to call him and act like he is the savior of the world.
We have so many people pushing for globalism. Bill Gates: “We should replace nationalism with globalism.” That is very common among these world leaders, very open about it. Let us go on, because we are going to get more seals and even get to some trumpets. I do not even know if we get to do vials. We are going to have to go quick. We have a lot more: seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials. Let us go over to verse number three, Revelation 6, and verse number three. Let us get the second seal in here. At the beginning of the tribulation period, we have an Antichrist stepping on the scene. Now, verse number three: “And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given unto him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.”
Now, wait a second, let me help you with this second seal. When we are raptured out of here, what is taking out—what is living inside of the Christians? You know what kind of keeps the Antichrist, the sin, and the devil on the bay right now? The Holy Spirit. You know who brings a little peace to a messed-up world? The Holy Spirit. He reproves the world of sin, the Bible says, the world—saved and lost. But he will be out of here. With the Antichrist and the second seal, peace is taken from the world. Does that mean wars? Oh, you better believe it, friend. Does that mean personal wars, murders? You better believe it. There will be so many murders. I do not think it will be uncommon at all to see a dead body laying out here. If someone were to live in the tribulation period, I think it would become a little bit commonplace just to see dead bodies. Peace is taken. Husbands and wives, moms and dads, children of parents. Grandparents might even get mad at a grandchild once in a while. I do not know about that time; that is a miracle. Brother Thomas says, I do not know about that right there. But peace is taken from the world. It is awful, hateful fighting and bickering everywhere you go. You think customers and waitresses and whatnot fussing out? Oh, my goodness. The tribulation period is going to be awful, hate-filled.
Let us keep going on. What is the third seal? Verse number five. We did not open the third seal. I heard the third beast say, “Come and see.” And I beheld a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” By the way, that measure, we think that has to be very similar to a quart, right? A measure of wheat for a penny. Typically, a penny in the Bible is a day’s wage. We will just say it is $200. It is higher than that, actually, according to one source, I think it was. We will just say it is $200, average wage. He is saying you get a quart of wheat for a penny. He is talking about famine here. “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” And see, “hurt thou not the oil and the wine.” I think the oil and the wine are talking about the very, very rich elite. They do not get hurt at this point. I think they are just talking about the very small percentage of the rich in America, especially in communism; they go against what they teach. But let me just mention a word about that; we have to hurry along. What is the big fear of the world right now with the Ukraine and Russia fighting? There will be a shortage of what? Wheat, food, barley.
We just have all kinds of war because peace is taken from the world. Everybody is fussing and fighting; wars are going on. It is not just going to be talked about in the tribulation period; it is going to be major famine in this world. It is going to happen. People are going to be killing each other just for food. Let us keep going. Let us find out the next seal. Where are we? We are in verse number seven. “And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” These people are dying; they are going to hell, sad thing. Hell followed with him. “And power was given unto them over a fourth part of the earth.”
Now, help me out for just a moment. Roughly how many people live in this world today? Eight billion. So a fourth of that, how is that? Two billion. Two billion people die. Watch, each of them—500 million. It divides it into four types of death—500 million each. Here we go. “And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword.” Wow, you are talking about wars going on. 500 million people killed either in wars or just murder. Wow. Half a billion people. Wow. And with hunger. Oh, the famine—it is not just, you know, “Well, the shelves were bare at Walmart.” It is more than that. People are dying. Millions and millions and millions, 500 million people dying for no food. Tribulation period. The Lord is pouring his wrath out. He has heard all the prayers of the saints over these years. “Lord, what about justice?” God has kept those prayers in a vial, and he says, “I am smelling that incense, and I am bringing justice to this sin-cursed world.” They will get it. They want this world so bad; they are going to get it for a while.
“A fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death.” I think that death there is just talking about disease, sickness. In America, the death rate is up by 40%. Do you realize that? Insurance companies say, well, if we have a disaster, maybe the death rate will go up by about 10% or so. They have never even calculated what it would be like if it goes up by 40%, and it has. Wow. We are just seeing how we are getting closer to some of these things. You see that? You can kind of speculate about why you think the death rate is coming up. If you want to know my opinion, I will give it to you later on if you ask. Look at the last part of that verse: “And with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” The animal kingdom goes crazy during the tribulation period. We have people who are like animal rights advocates. Animals are going to be killing people left and right. I am not for treating animals wrong; I am not saying that. I love my dogs. But I am saying beasts. There may be a pack of dogs just roaming neighborhoods, killing people. Snakes all over the place. Snakes typically stay out of your way unless you get in their territory or something, but they are just killing people. Even the animal kingdom goes crazy during the tribulation period—beasts. I would not want to be a zookeeper during the tribulation period. Ms. Ander, good thing you chose another profession. She was going into that before. The tribulation period is going to be beasts; they are just crazy, killing people. Think about some of these continents that have beasts all over; America has a pretty good might of them. This is tribulation, friend. This is the wrath of God being poured out. It is going to be a sad time, a sad time during the tribulation period.
Now, we will not get all the seals. Chapter seven is really what they call a parenthetical, or it is a parenthesis. It is kind of like God is saying, “Let us stop the movie, and let me talk to you about this note here.” Chapter seven is really about people; people do get saved during the tribulation period. There are 144,000 Jewish people that become evangelists, and they spread the gospel around the globe. They are awesome, and people get saved all over. Chapter 7 is much about that. It is kind of just stopping several parentheses throughout the book of Revelation. Let us go over to Chapter 8 now, and let us start getting into the seven trumpets. We have the seven seals right there. Let us get the seven trumpets, or a couple of them. We will get what we can in chapter number eight. Chapter number eight, look down at verse number seven, Revelation 8 and verse number seven. The Bible says, “And the first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with”—what is the next word? We miss that often—“blood.” And they were cast upon the earth. Praise the Lord, we will be in heaven, the marriage supper of the Lamb, but on the earth, “and the third part of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” You will see a lot of thirds. A lot of third judgments, if you will, in the book of Revelation.
This one here—hail and fire. Can you imagine? Later on, it talks about hell again, but we were driving, I think, to the airport—me, Brother Anthony, and my wife—a month ago, I do not know. We were driving out on 24, and I was like, “Man, those are big raindrops,” and a little bit into it, it was not big raindrops; it was hail coming down. Can you imagine just massive hail coming down, but not only that, but fire? I think just lightning strikes like we do not know of. It burns and scorches a third of the trees. How many are looking forward to spring and all the green coming? You are looking forward to that? Amen. Brother Frank is looking forward to it because he is going to make big bucks cutting grass. He said millions of bucks, right? No, he said some. I love it. I love the greenery, but all the green grass will be gone. It will just be like out west where you see brown everywhere. It will be like that across the globe; the green is gone. I do not know about the hail and fire, but then he says blood mingled with blood. Something about the sight of blood—if you get blood on you. I never forget one time; we had a senior sister who fell, and she had hit her head, and she was bleeding all over. I went over, and I helped her up, got behind her, helped her up, and man, I had blood all over my shirt. You do not want to go through the day with blood on you. People are like, “Ooh, what is going on with you?” Blood will be coming down from the sky. I am just talking about, friend, this tribulation period is awful. I do not think I can describe how horrible it is. It is literally the wrath of God being poured out. It is awful. That is the first trumpet.
Let us get the second trumpet in there. Verse number eight, chapter eight, verse number eight: “And the second angel sounded, as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea.” Some people said, “Ben, this old earth is getting so bad, I am going to live on the ocean. I am going to buy me a yacht, live on the ocean. I am good.” No, you are not. “And a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.” I am not sure why all the blood; my theory may be they did not want the blood of Jesus Christ to pay for their sins, so they are going to get blood. It is an awful time. Verse number nine: “And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died.” Seventy-one percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water. A third part of all these animals, creatures, died. “And the third part of the ships were destroyed.”
Think of this. This is interesting. A huge asteroid hits the earth. An asteroid a mile wide hitting the earth at 30,000 miles per hour—that would be pretty typical speed—would produce 10 to 50 million times the energy of the atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. Ten to 50 million times the energy. It would flatten everything from 100 to 200 miles from ground zero, 100, 200 miles out. That is what we are talking about falling and taking out a third of the sea animals. This is the tribulation period. This is the wrath of God being poured out. When is God going to bring justice in this political system? It is so messed up. It is coming. It is coming. Do not get too bent out of shape. Marvel not. God knows what is going on. He is a just God.
Let us keep going. What is the third? Look in verse number 10, Revelation 8 and verse number 10. “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. And it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” Let me just say a note or two about that. There is a book out, “The Wormwood Prophecy,” and it talks about an asteroid. It was found in 2004. It is traveling about 28,000 miles per hour. It is 20 million metric tons, equivalent to 65,000 nuclear bombs. They say it could be a toxic asteroid. It came close to us in April, or it will come close to us on April 29 and again in 2068. I am just telling you dates when it is going to come close to the earth. Some say NASA is covering up how dangerous it is; I will leave that up to you to study out. Many think that. By the way, we have had some hit. Russia actually had one hit, an asteroid hit in 2013, and it injured 1,600 people. We are not talking about something that has not happened, not to that scale. They say sometimes they cause toxic acid rain. You see…
Over here, he is talking about what is going to happen when this thing hits the earth. Friend, this is the wrath of God. This is not some horror movie; this is what the Bible talks about. Let us try to get just a little bit more in here. We are going to have to wind it down because we had a good breakfast this morning, did we not? They did a great job. How many had sausage, gravy, and biscuits this morning? Good deal. I had some this morning too. Could you just get us a little air horn, please, Brother Anthony? I appreciate it very much. Look in verse number 12, Revelation 8, verse number 12. “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” This is what they say: if a giant asteroid hit the earth, it would kick up debris that would mess up our atmosphere. I know a missionary in Alaska. You realize in Alaska, for months on end, they do not have any daylight. He says he has to get his wife out, send her to her family or someone for about a month or so in the middle of that, or else she just goes crazy. “I love her, and I need my wife.” He just sends her out somewhere with sunlight for about a month for her to get her wits about her. Can you imagine this whole world when the sunlight is just darkened for a third of every day, and it is just dark and gloomy all the time?
Let us get one more, and we are going to change for just a minute here. Chapter 8, and oh, let us see here. Let us see if we can get another one in here. I am sorry, chapter 9. Let us get this fifth trumpet in here real quick. This is amazing. We do not have time to develop it a whole lot, but these are creatures that basically come out of hell. They really do, from the center of the earth. Verse number three, chapter 9, verse 3: “And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” We talk so much about the mark of the beast, and that is true, but before that, God puts a mark in his people to get saved. The Antichrist always mimics what the Lord does. They have protection; they have the seal of God. By the way, if you are a born-again Christian, you are circumcised; you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You have some protection. Amen.
Verse number five: “And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” People are trying to die now; they say there is a shot that can change your DNA where it will repair itself. That is what they say. People shooting themselves in the head trying to die, and they cannot. Friend, I am just saying, this is the wrath of God getting poured out on earth. This is the tribulation period. We cannot really measure up the reality of what it is going to be like—the tribulation period. It is awful. Such a sad thing.
We have just a couple minutes. Actually, the clock only says 10:56, so we are good, right? But the Lord says, I do not know about all that right there now. Let me just—we cannot go through all the tribulation period. We will try to cover the abomination of desolation tonight, that middle point right there. But there has been a little change in the last, I would say, 25 years in prophetic preaching and teaching about this. Let me just for a minute kind of address that. Many will say now—a lot of the movies and the books that came out in the last 25 years—have promoted that anybody can get saved in the tribulation period. That is what you pretty much see in any movie or read in the books on the end times. Some of them are great books, but they teach that anybody can get saved in the tribulation period. But that has not been believed for centuries. There has been a shift in the last 25 years, and I want you to know that, because I believe the change is not a biblical change. Would you look over in 2nd Thessalonians chapter number two? Give me a couple minutes this morning; give me a couple extra minutes this morning. It is probably not the best morning to do it, time change Sunday, but we are trying to get it all in there. Please forgive me. In 2nd Thessalonians chapter number two, I want you to see this, verse number eight. Second Thessalonians 2 and verse number 8. He is talking about the Antichrist here. You are there? Second Thessalonians 2:8, would you say amen? All right, here we go: “And then shall that wicked 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.” So that is the lost who perish, go to hell, because they received not the love of the truth. So they were offered the truth, and did they not receive the truth? All right, you got that? What truth is it? Well, he tells us that they might be saved. So what truth were they offered? Salvation. But they did not receive the offer of salvation. That is the truth. They did not receive this offer of salvation. You got it?
All right, let us keep reading. Verse number 11: “And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they”—what is the next word?—“all.” Study that out in the Hebrew and Greek, and it means all. “That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Here is the thing: for centuries, it has been taught and preached and believed, and I still do believe it and teach and preach it. If you have heard a clear presentation of the gospel, when Jesus takes us out, you living here on earth will not be saved. There will be people saved in every country, every nationality, every language. But if you have heard it and you have rejected that truth that you might be saved, God says no. That is what the Bible says. In the last 25 years, books and movies have changed the common man’s philosophy and doctrine over that, but the Bible has not changed. You say, why is that important? A couple of reasons why. If I knew someone that needed to get saved, I might think, “Well, I don’t have to witness to them too much, because when the rapture happens, they know what is going to happen, maybe then they will get saved.” So it kind of gives me a way to relax a little bit.
By the way, I have a loved one that I love very much. I pray for them every day to get saved. But if I think they will have a chance to get saved after the rapture—they have heard it many times, by the way—then I will have to pray so hard. Why do I need to pray every day that hard? They have a chance; they have a second chance. It does not line up with the Bible. Remember the 10 virgins? They did not get another chance. Knowing the ark, they did not have another chance if they did not get into the ark. It is done. If they had another chance, it would not be fair to those other lost people to just die after this is a judgment. Once you are dead, you are dead. No, it does not line up according to the Bible. They reject the truth; that is it. Once the rapture happens, they reject the truth of the gospel. They have heard the gospel, a clear presentation of the gospel. Millions, billions have not heard a clear presentation of the gospel. Friend, if I am a lost person, especially living in America, there is a lot of gospel, a lot of Bible. I know the Bible. I know when Jesus is taken out and the Antichrist comes on the scene, he signs a seven-year peace contract; I will know what is going to happen, and then I will get saved. Friend, if you do not get saved now with the gospel being preached to you, the Holy Spirit working, and the church saying “come,” your best time to get saved is right now. But there has been a change, and I want you to know that. That is not what has been traditionally believed by a born-again Christian. I know those who teach otherwise about how the rapture happens. So I am saying, let us do all we can now.
You say, “Preacher, I need to witness. I need to witness to my coworker, my neighbor, a friend. I just, I need to be busy witnessing.” I realize time is short. We do not know. Nobody knows that. But I need to get busy trying to get people saved.
And preacher, I need to be involved. I need to be actively involved in witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ. God spoke to my heart about that. I need to be actively involved in witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ. God spoke to my heart about that. If that is you this morning, slip a hint to the preacher, “I need to be actively involved in that.” Oh, my hands up to it. However, whenever the Lord leads you, it could be a gospel tract, it could be a prayer, it could be the neighbor. Just, it could be Saturdays, and I just need to be involved in it.
Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, I need to be praying for the lost.” Specifically, there is maybe a person that I am burdened about, and I want God to save them. I do not want to die and go to hell, and I need to be consistently praying for that. I need to be on my knees begging God, “God, have mercy on them. Give me another chance.” I am a preacher; I am going to stay active in my prayer closet for a lost person. God spoke to my heart about that right there. If that is you this morning, “Preacher, I am going to be praying for the lost more.” Would you slip up your hand? I am going to do that. I am going to do that. Oh, God bless you. You are probably their best chance to get saved. Your prayers are the key. Battles are won in the kingdom of God because someone is praying. Thank you for raising your hand. Thank you so much.
One last question, and I am done. You say, “Preacher, I need to get saved myself.” I am begging—I mean that. I am using that term advisedly. If you are not saved, would you get saved today? God loves you. He does not want to pour out his wrath on you. He is not willing that any should perish. He shed his Son’s blood for you so you go to heaven. If you are not saved, we would love to be a help in that. Would you get saved today?
Maybe you hear this morning, “Preacher, I am not saved. I do not know that heaven is my home.” If that is you, I am not going to call your name, but if that is you, would you slip up your hand? “Preacher, I need to get saved. I am not saved. I need to get saved.” Anybody like that? Just slip it up. Just slip it up. God loves you. Jesus died for you. He will give you heaven, salvation. It is a gift, no strings attached. He loves you that much; he gives it to you. Hey, let us go spread that. Let us go pray for others to get saved.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - End Times Pre-Trib Church - Sunday AM 3122022