The Rapture and the Second Coming

Transcript

GRM 1262
1/23/2022
The Rapture and the Second Coming
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


We want to continue with what we were involved in studying last Sunday and that is the rapture of the church, the second coming of Christ for His people, the church, which is a coming in the air, not to the earth. So let me just review a little bit with you. We interpret the Scripture consistently, literally; historically, grammatically. That means the past, the present and the future. The basic disagreement that exists among believers is do we interpret the future literally like we do the past. We would say that all prophecy that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled literally, and that establishes the pattern that the future prophecy will also be interpreted literally. And that means the present time in which we are living also is interpreted literally. That means the church and Israel are distinct, they are not blended. Believing Jews now become part of the church but God's program with Israel has been put on hold. We'll look at the chart in a moment. It will resume again in the future. Now God is dealing with the nations and that includes all nations, it includes some Jews. But the focal point of God's work in the world was the Jewish nation until Acts 2 in our New Testament. It will be on the nations, plural, not the nation Israel, from Acts 2 down until the rapture of the church. With the rapture of the church and the removal of all believers, then God will bring to completion the final seven years in that program with Israel.

Maybe we could just start with the first chart, The Resurrections. Just run through these, we're not going to turn to the Scriptures on each of these but we'll look at them and you can look at the Scriptures on your own. These are the resurrections of Scripture. We looked at 1 Corinthians 15, you see the pattern there. You had Christ the first fruit of the resurrection and now we are in the church age from the cross. Really fifty days after the cross at the day of Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit we have the beginning of the church. And that first stage is what we are talking about, the rapture of the church. You'll note, Christ does not come to the earth at that first stage, He comes in the air and calls all believers to meet Him in the air. So we call that the first stage of the Second Coming. Then seven years after that first stage He will return to the earth and establish His kingdom and we will have the thousand years which are the first phase of the eternal kingdom. We want to be careful here. Again, we take Scripture literally and we find Revelation 21 and 22 unfold, continuing the kingdom with some changes, but the kingdom nonetheless continues. There will be similarities, there will be great differences, but Christ will rule and reign. So His reign begins at the beginning of the thousand years and continues endlessly, but there is a first thousand-year phase, then God deals with the unbelievers. There is the judgment of unbelievers, recorded in Revelation 20, and then we move into the eternal phase of the kingdom.

Go to the 70 Weeks chart next. This just breaks down a little bit finer, if you will, God's program with Israel, and this comes from Daniel 9. It begins in 444 B.C. Seventy sevens are determined upon your people and your nation, your capital city Jerusalem, Daniel 9 tells us. So we had 69 weeks and they are seven-year periods, not seven-day periods; they are just called seventy sevens. We know from the context and the rest of Scripture it is 483 years until Christ comes and is crucified. He is crucified about a week after the end of the 69th week. But we have the 70th week, that last seven-year period put on hold. And so we have the beginning of the church with the ascension of Christ in Acts 1 and the beginning of the church in Acts 2. In Acts 1 Jesus told them they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from there, and it is about 50 days, roughly, after the initial crucifixion and resurrection of Christ until the day of Pentecost, that Jewish feast day. And we have the beginning of the church age following the ascension of Christ to heaven from earth. In Acts 1 He ascends and He told them they'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days away. Shortly thereafter Acts 2 occurs. We have the church age and then we have the first phase of the Second Coming as we had it in the previous chart where we are caught up to meet Christ in the air. And then seven years later we will return to earth with Christ and you have the beginning of the millennium, just a word that means a thousand-year period. That's in Revelation 20. At the end of the thousand years all unbelievers are dealt with, they are judged, they are sentenced to an eternal hell and we move into the eternal phase of the kingdom. Now the kingdom doesn't end at the end of a thousand years. We're taking the Scripture literally, so we get to Revelation 21 and 22 we find, for example, the tree of life and you can eat freely of it. That was all the way back in the Garden of Eden, but it was closed off to Adam and Eve and all their descendants because of sin. Now sin is taken care of so at the end as we move into the eternal phase in Revelation 21 and the first part of 22 we have the eternal phase of the kingdom.

Let me just break down for you the distinction. First we'll look at the rapture of the church and the characteristics of the rapture. Christ meets believers in the air, that's the first thing. Then the bodies of believers are glorified. So we have two things going on, we have those who have died who are with Christ come with Him and the bodies of all believers, those who have died during the church age and those who are alive. Those who are alive will be transformed. If the rapture of the church in the next ten minutes, say, every believer in this auditorium would just disappear bodily because their bodies are going to be transformed. And just prior to that the bodies of all those who have been part of the church will be raised from the dead, transformed, and they will move back into those bodies. So the dead in Christ rise first, 1 Thessalonians 4 tells us, and then we who are alive and remain are caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So the bodies of believers are glorified and then all believers are taken to heaven. That's the rapture of the church, that's the first phase of the Second Coming, that's the end of the church age and roughly the beginning of that last seven-years period where the Antichrist signs an agreement with the nation Israel. That formally begins that period but roughly shortly after the rapture.

The Second Coming of Christ to earth happens seven years, remember, after the church is raptured. We have that one week, one seven-year period left from the book of Daniel. Christ returns to earth in great glory. At the rapture He returned in the air, at the Second Coming to earth He returns to the earth. He destroys His enemies and they are all brought before Him for judgment. Then you have the beginning of the kingdom, and believers are taken into the kingdom. That will be believers in physical bodies that were saved during that seven-year period. Because remember that seven-year period after the rapture of the church that takes place on the earth, there are no believers on the earth because every believer has been raptured and received a glorified body, been transformed, translated. This body is no longer just a physical body. So at the beginning of that seven-year period there are no believers on the earth. But God now is resuming His program, focusing on the nation Israel. For the first 3½ years the Antichrist will sign an agreement with the nation Israel and it will seem there is peace and so on. In the middle of that seven-year period, 3½ years in, he turns against Israel and there is the persecution for 3½ years. During that seven-year period there are people from all nations of the earth that are saved but God is focusing particularly on the nation Israel. So by the time the seven-year period is over, you have the nation as a nation basically turning to Jesus as their Messiah, their Savior, and crying for Him to come. So you'll have those in glorified bodies going into the kingdom but you also have physical bodies going in the kingdom as well. So you have physical bodies, you have glorified bodies, because we'll have glorified bodies, the church. David will have a glorified body, Solomon will have a glorified body, the prophets. But those who were saved during the seven years will have physical bodies, those who were saved during that seven years and survive because there will be great persecution. Great numbers will be martyred during that seven years, they'll get glorified bodies at the end of the seven-year period.

That's just an overview of some of what we have talked about. Let's look at the rapture of the church. Remember that's the next event in God's unfolding plan, and we don't know when. It can happen at any time. Paul wrote to the Romans, he is still living so we are in the first century, and he says now your salvation is nearer than when you first began. So this seventy weeks of Daniel becomes key in identifying the 70th week of Daniel. I noted I have seven points we are going to look at. I recommended to you, I'll recommend again John Walvoord's book on the rapture that was done back in the middle 1950s, so before most of you were born. But it is still good. And at the end in the appendix of that he has 50 reasons why the church will be raptured before that seven-year period occurs. We are only taking seven because seven is the number of perfection, so I can't do any better than that. But there are more than these, I've just selected these so that we can at least get an idea.

The focus of the 70 weeks, and we looked at this point last week, so let me just scan over and see if I want to say anything. This comes from Daniel 9:24ff, the 70 weeks of Daniel. And it says, seventy weeks are determined for your people and your holy city. So that's for your people the Jews, Daniel, and your holy city Jerusalem. That's what we have looked at a little bit in the charts. The church is called the mystery because it wasn't revealed in the Old Testament. There are some indications it would fit in there, for example when you talk about the 70 weeks of Daniel you'll say after the 69th week the Messiah will be cut off. And we noted on the chart that happens about a week after that 69th week. But it doesn't say in the 70th week. So there are indications there but there is no real explanation or unfolding of the truth of the existing of the church. It is a mystery. A mystery is something you cannot know, you could never fathom, you couldn't figure out. If you just had the Old Testament you would say it's after the 69th week, I guess it's in the 70th because he doesn't say anything. Well, when you get to the New Testament, after the rejection of Christ, then we have a fuller unfolding of the 70th week of Daniel. It is called a mystery and we looked at passages—Romans 11, Colossians 1, Ephesians 3. They refer to the church as a mystery, not before revealed, but now revealed. It's not something new, oh, God had to change His plan. But God did not reveal His plan until later. So Acts 2, and there it is still not clear because for the opening chapters of Acts, after chapters 2-7, basically there are Jews being saved. And we say God is just saving Jews. But it is with the saving of Paul in Acts 9 that now God is going to focus His saving work on Gentiles. And we're a testimony to that. And maybe a few Jews in between, mixed in here, but primarily we're Gentile. And that's true of the church worldwide—it is primarily Gentile. There will be Gentiles saved after the rapture of the church but primarily God's saving work will be focusing again on the nation Israel. So that's the first point, the focus of the 70 weeks of Daniel indicate a pre-tribulation rapture because as Daniel indicated in Daniel 9, without giving any further information, after the 69th week Messiah will be cut off. It doesn't say in the 70th. So we go back and read that now and it's clearer to us. So there is the provision for it even though there is no explanation.

Second, the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church points to a pre-tribulation rapture. Each of these seven reasons we are going to look at emphasize that the rapture, the church being caught up, because all believers have to admit there is a rapture of the church. The word rapture as we noted in our previous study doesn't appear in the Bible, but the word ‘harpazo’ appears in the Bible. H-a-r-p-a-z-o is how we transliterate it over into English. It means a catching away. So the word rapture comes from the Latin word that was used in translating the Bible into Latin, particularly the New Testament, and we transliterated that word into English and we have rapture. So the rapture of the church, the focus of the seventy weeks. Second the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would do a unique ministry.

Come to John 14, Jesus is spending this last night with His disciples. He will be crucified in less than 24 hours so He is preparing them for that event. In chapter 14 that last night with them after the Last Supper, in John 14:16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper,” another Comforter, you have in the margin of your Bible the paraclete, the one called alongside of to give help and to give aid, “that He may be with you forever.” And verse 17 identifies Him as the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit who is characterized by truth. Now the Holy Spirit has always been in existence because we worship the triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is going to come in a unique and special way. He has been in existence since the creation because back in Genesis 1 the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep when God began the work of creation. So the Holy Spirit has been present. But He is coming in a unique and special way. He has been present in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was written under the direction of the Spirit of God, Peter writes about that. So the Spirit has been present but He is coming in a unique way—I will give you another Helper. So when Christ returns to heaven He is going to send the Spirit in a special and unique ministry to indwell believers. “That He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him nor know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” And that's the change. He is with you but now I am going to send Him, I'm going to have Him take up a unique ministry of dwelling within each of you believers. Christ says, I will come to you, He will be present with them. And so in a way we have the triune God even though the focal point of what God is doing in our lives is the ministry of the Spirit.

Come over to John 15:26, “When the Helper comes,” that paraclete, that One who comes along to help in a special way, “whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” So it's going to begin with those disciples, but it will continue on then and down through until today. Each one of you who has placed his faith in Christ has the Spirit of God dwelling within you, not because you attend this church but because you have a relationship with the living God through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross and faith in Him alone.

Come over to John 16, continuing John 14, 15, now John 16:7. “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper,” there is our word, the paraclete, translated Helper, the One who will give us aid in that unique and special way be dwelling within us, “the Helper will not come to you’ but if I go away I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” And He explains each of those—concerning sin because . . ., concerning righteousness because . . ., verse 11, concerning judgment because . . . “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” And the end of verse 13, “He will disclose to you what is to come.” So we have now a promise of additional revelation coming from God through the Spirit through those who have been particularly selected by God through God the Son. And now He is preparing them for His imminent departure. And it is going to throw them into confusion for a time here. What do we do? They crucified the Messiah of Israel, there is no kingdom, and yet He is raised from the dead. And we get to Acts 1, what are they going to ask Him? Will You now restore the kingdom to Israel? We can understand, You had to die; we understand, You've explained to us. The end of Luke tells us He explained to them from the Old Testament Scriptures how He had to suffer and die and be raised. Okay, now we can have the kingdom, right? And as Acts 1 develops and we go into Acts 2, you don't need to know the times. You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And in Acts 1 Christ ascends to the Father, in Acts 2 the Spirit comes in that special way. So the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church is promised and prophesied in a number of ways.

Why don't you come over to Acts 1, for many of you this is review, perhaps for most of you. Acts 1:5, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” And they came together again and they asked the question, verse 6, “Lord, is it this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” All right, because you see you don't have the New Testament that gave you the information regarding the church, so it's a natural question. You had to suffer and die, You explained the Scriptures to us on that, we understand. Isaiah 53, we understand that with a clarity we didn't have before. You had to suffer and die. Now are you restoring the kingdom to Israel? “He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses.’ ” And you'll note here, now it is going beyond Israel. Remember back in the Gospels when Jesus sent His disciples out during His earthly ministry He said, don't go to the Samaritans, don't go to the Gentiles. You only go to the lost of the house of Israel. Now “you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,” the end of verse 8, “and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Wait a minute, my question was, back to verse 6, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” There is an answer there. Now in Acts 3 Peter will preach believe and we will have the kingdom because he doesn't understand yet. In fact it will not be until Acts 10 where the Lord gives him special insight and revelation that he understands the Gospel is going to Gentiles.

So what happens next? Jesus is taken to heaven. Why did He have to go to heaven for the Spirit to come? Because that's part of the plan of God that when Christ ascends to heaven He'll send the Spirit. The Spirit is present because God is omnipresent, He is present everywhere all the time, and that includes the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but the unique ministry He'll carry, He is coming now being sent from the Father to take up a special ministry in the life of each and every believer. So verse 11, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” That's the second coming to earth, at the rapture of the church, the end of the church age before that seven-year period, Christ comes in the air but He doesn't come to the earth. Now He is going to come in the same way as you have watched Him go to heaven, so that's an indication the kingdom is delayed, humanly speaking. Not in the plan of God. You read people who are writing, even believers, who don't believe in the pre-tribulation rapture that we are talking about, they say God had to change His plan is what you are saying. No, God didn't change His plan but God now makes clear to man what His plan is, which He had not made clear before. He had not made it known, it's a mystery. And now God is revealing it. That's why when you get to Acts 10 Peter, when he finally goes to the house of Cornelius says, I wouldn't have come to your house if the Lord hadn't given me special revelation and instruction to do so. Why? Because the kingdom is for Israel, we're all about the kingdom. The church is something new. When Paul is going to come into the picture, he's saved in Acts 9 and then in Acts 11 and following he'll begin his ministry and carry on, and it's to carry it to the Gentiles.

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church, and His ministry in Acts 1 we looked at. Look at Acts 2:33, “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” You have seen, Acts 2, the church began. Now Peter doesn't understand all that yet because it is a mystery, it hasn't been fully revealed, the church hasn't been revealed before. But he understands because Christ told them the Holy Spirit had to come, you've seen this, and Christ has ascended to the Father. Wait a minute, He is supposed to rule on the earth. But no, first He is going to ascend to the Father and He is going to send the Spirit to carry on the ministry on the earth. So we are not going to have the kingdom at this time. Now be careful because many of those who profess to be believers, and many of them are I am sure, believe from now on we are going to have a spiritual kingdom that exists in the hearts. No, Christ didn't say that, He said you don't need to know the time, the epochs, you don't need to know exactly when God is going to establish the kingdom on the earth. For right now the Spirit is going to do a special ministry in and through the hearts and lives of believers.
In 1 Corinthians 12:13 he said that you are baptized with the Holy Spirit. That happened in Acts 2. In Acts 11:16, verse 14, “He will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household… The Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning.” Peter is explaining at Jerusalem what happened to the Gentiles. And this is something new. There were individual Gentiles saved in the Old Testament but now being saved in numbers, that's something new. So “the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” And when they heard this the leadership at Jerusalem settles down. And the end of verse 18, “Well, then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” That is something new. Now again, there have been individual Gentiles saved through the Old Testament, but God's work of salvation primarily focused in the physical nation Israel. Now they see God has granted to the Gentiles repentance. That paves the way for Paul who was saved in previous chapter 9, but his ministry really won't begin until he undertakes his first missionary journey in Acts 13. The last part of the book of Acts is all about Paul carrying the Gospel. He still preaches to Jews but primarily he is going to Gentiles, and Gentiles to Gentiles. And here we are 2000 years later, the church of Jesus Christ primarily Gentiles. But God still has seven years left for the nation Israel before the kingdom that has been so promised in the Old Testament. So the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church indicates a pre-tribulation rapture.

Let's look on. Third, the absence of the church in Revelation 6-18. The first three chapters of the book of Revelation talk all about the church. Nineteen times in the first three chapters, that's averaging a little better than six times a chapter. Three sixes would be eighteen, you add one more, nineteen times in the first three chapters of Revelation the word ‘church’ is used. And we have the seven churches addressed in Revelation 2-3. Then the church is no longer on earth, I take it that it is included in the 24 elders in chapters 4-5 and then chapters 7, 11, 14, 19 with the 24 elders but they are in heaven with Christ. So the church is mentioned and then chapters 4-5 have to do with the heavenly scene and the church is there because it is raptured at the end of chapter 3. You have chapters 6-19, that includes the 70th week of Daniel. So now we are going to get information on that 70th week in more detail than has been given before. It has been mentioned before but it hasn't been given the detail that we have now. So the absence of the church, it is not mentioned at all in Revelation 6-18 unless it is the 24 elders, but they are in heaven. So Revelation 1-3 talk to the church, there are letters addressed to seven churches in those first three chapters, and then the church is gone from the earth. And chapters 6-19 talk about the coming 70th week of Daniel. So now we can take Daniel and Revelation and Daniel talked about 70 weeks, 70 sevens or weeks of years are determined upon your people and your holy city. Well, the church squeezed in there but they are not part of that 70 sevens, 490 years. After 69 weeks we just assume the 70th week must have happened. No, we don't because again, we had an indication without any explanation. After the 69th week the Messiah will be cut off, didn't say in the 70th week in Daniel 9. And that's yet to be understood, that's why the church is a mystery. And we looked at the use of that word ‘mystery’ in our previous study.

Just come to Revelation 19, we won't look at the references that the 24 elders, which I think refer to the church and that's in heaven in Revelation. But look at Revelation 19:7, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” Who is that? That's the church, and the church has been judged, been rewarded. “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” They have been judged and rewarded, Paul talked about this in his first letter to the Corinthians, the coming judgment of believers. So this life, as much as we get absorbed in it, we want to be absorbed in this life with a view to the future because I'm going to be judged, not on the basis of what I have, what I enjoy, how much I get to relax, but how faithful I have been in obeying the Lord. “Then He said to me, ‘Write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” Now the marriage supper of the Lamb is a yet future event because “blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” We the bride of Christ, the church, have been caught up to meet Christ in the air, we've been taken to heaven, we've been judged, we've been rewarded, we're clothed in righteousness. Now we are going to have the marriage supper, we are now in the oriental wedding picture, we do return to the home of the bride and we celebrate together. So “ these are the true words of God.” Then I fell at the feet of the angel to worship the angel for giving me this information.” Don't do that, you only worship God. So verse 11, “I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.” And we have Armageddon. But you see the bride come with Christ. This is the distinction between the pre-rapture of the church and the post-rapture event.

This is now after Revelation 6ff, we're at the end of chapter 19. Then we have the war, Satan is bound. Chapter 20 opens up and the first six verses tell us repeatedly it will be a thousand years. Now again those who don't take future prophecy literally, all the prophecies were fulfilled literally that have been fulfilled, but now they say a thousand years, it's sort of like we do, just a thousand years, that's just endless. No, it's a thousand years. Christ rules and reigns, we rule and reign with Him. Everybody going into the millennium, and we have a change here. Everybody going into the 70th week of Daniel after the rapture of the church is an unbeliever; everybody going into the kingdom starting at the thousand years is a believer. So we have the reverse. We have all believers raptured from the earth, caught up to meet Christ in the air and then taken to heaven, spend seven years in heaven with Him and we're judged and rewarded and so on; now at the end of the 70th week, that last seven-year period, Christ returns to earth. We return with Him and there is a judgment. And all unbelievers are consigned to Hades. Then we have the thousand years and there are people born and they are born in this perfect kingdom with a perfect king and everything is wonderful. But that doesn't change the heart because everyone who is born into this kingdom is a descendant of Adam. We will not be having children in our glorified bodies, we neither marry nor are given in marriage, we are like the angels, Jesus said. So we won't marry in heaven, we won't marry in our glorified body. But there will be people who went into the tribulation and they were saved during that seven-year period. Then at the end of seven years you have the judgment and we're going to have the kingdom, but only believers are going into the kingdom. There are 12,000 men from each of the tribes of Israel that are preserved, a guarantee that Israel will be faithfully represented and all twelve tribes will be represented. We were told that back in Revelation 7 for example. So you see everything God has put together.

But now after a thousand years of perfect rule under a perfect king when given a choice, a number that can't be numbered there are so many would rather have Satan as their king than Christ. So there will be judgments meted out during the millennium. If you die at only 100 years of age you will be thought accursed because there was something that God intervened and took your life. But other than that you'll live the whole thousand years. But you are seething, you are stewing on the inside. So Revelation 20:7 says, “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners… and gather them together for the war; the number,” the end of verse 8, “of them is like the sand of the seashore,” you can't number them. You live for a thousand years under a perfect rule of a perfect king in a perfect environment, and when you are given a choice you would rather have the devil be your king. That shows it's not your environment, it's the heart. And there is judgment. Then you have the final judgment of Scripture, the Great White Throne where unbelievers are gathered before Him, sentenced to an eternal hell.

And then Revelation 21. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down.” It's connected but it is not, it is new and it's connected to the old but it is new. I have a lot of questions about this. A hundred trillion years from now, how many people will there be? Well, the Lord knows, I don't know. Yes, but won't we run out of room? I don't think so. Well, there are some things God hasn't revealed, but He has revealed Revelation 21, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” He didn't say I just saw a new place to exist, I just saw heaven come down and we all just . . . No. “The tabernacle of God is among men,” and that includes men dwelling on the earth but all sinners, verse 8, will be excluded. And down in Revelation 22, “He showed me a river of the water of life,” verse 2, “…in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit,” every fruit in its month. When we are going into eternity we still have months, so there is the connection but there is the newness. And we are in eternity. The devil and all of that is gone and we dwell forever with the Lord.

So fourth, the church is promised deliverance from the coming wrath. That is crucial. The church is promised deliverance from God's coming wrath. The 70th week of Daniel, that last seven-year period, is a time of wrath. Come back to Revelation 6:15, “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come.” This is a seven-year period of wrath and judgment. Now for the first 3½ years Israel coasts through. That doesn't mean that Gentiles who become believers, who are not of Israel, that you are out on your own. This first 3½ years Israel has rebuilt the temple and all of that, we get to that in Revelation 12-13. That's fine. They are not saved but the Antichrist is functioning for them. That doesn't mean functioning for Christians. Now we don't know but there is a recognition the great day of His wrath has come. And that's Revelation 6-19.

Come back to just one passage in Isaiah, Isaiah 13:6, “Wait, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man's heart will melt. They will be terrified, pain and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor.” Verse 9, “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,” note that emphasis on the day of the Lord, that's that 70th week. “Cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it.” Down to verse 12, “I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold.” People are going to be dying, dying under the judgments of God, of all kinds of what we call natural and supernatural disasters that are unfolded in Revelation 6-19. You have the attempt to annihilate any believers by the devil. It's a fierce period. Verse 13, “I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place, at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning anger.” That's just a preliminary. So you see we jump to that 70th week, then the kingdom, but the church age is not there, the period of time in which we are now living. The church is promised deliverance from this wrath.

Come to 1 Thessalonians on our way back to the book of Revelation. 1 Thessalonians 1:9, look at the end of the verse. “You turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus,” now note this, “who rescues us from the wrath to come.” And I take it he is talking about, come over to 1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ… Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” He “died for us,” verse 10, “so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” That's the rapture. So the distinction. The rapture was given in detail in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 where Christ comes. Everybody who is a believer is caught up to meet Christ in the air and receive a new body, a glorified body. Wait a minute, we saw after a thousand years there is going to be a number of people rebel against Christ. That's why if you don't take future prophecy literally you begin to spiritualize and say we're really living in that thousand years because future prophecy is not to be taken literally. So the thousand years just refers to the time in which we are living and then Christ is going to come and , . . Wait a minute, what do you do if you took Old Testament prophecies about the coming of Christ that way? Then He wouldn't have been born at Bethlehem, He wouldn't have suffered and died. So we have to take prophecy literally. The order in 1 Thessalonians 4 in verses 13-18, that's the rapture of the church. “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven,” verse 16, “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” That's when we said Christ is going to call up the living, and those dead bodies back to life so the people who have been spiritually with Christ in their spirit will now be indwelling that glorified, physical body. “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” So then immediately following the rapture and translation of that dead, physical body that has turned to dust and been dead for 2000 years or less now is caught up and glorified. And then we immediately are caught up to meet Him.

Well, who is going to do that rebellion at the end of the thousand years? Even if you believe in a rapture, a post-tribulational, pre-millennial rapture as some professing believers do, who is going to rebel against Him at the end of the thousand years? Well, we're going to have a little bit of time or some people are going to get in that aren't . . . He promised, this is an encouragement to all believers in the church age. First Thessalonians 5, “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you… The day of the Lord,” now we're talking about the period of time following, that's Isaiah 13, the day of the Lord, this is that period following the rapture. Now we're back, we're into the 70th week of Daniel, 70 weeks are determined upon your people. “The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child.” Jesus used that same expression, the labor pains of a woman in Matthew 24:8 where He was referring to this same event, the tribulation period. “You, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; you are all sons of light and sons of day,” verse 5. “We are not of the darkness” so let's start living like we are sons of light. We look at the world around us and we decide, at least they are conservative, at least they . . . Blah, blah, blah. It has nothing to do with anything.

Be careful we don't get caught up into their mold, even the conservative mold. That doesn't mean when I vote I'm going to vote with those who are more consistent with the Word of God than those who aren't, perhaps that, but I don't have any hope. This world is not salvageable as it is, it's going to take the 70th week of Daniel following the rapture, it's going to take the millennium. It's not salvageable. We get so caught up, we are immersed in it, and you turn on the television and . . . But our hope is, verse 8, “Since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation.” So whether we live or die we have a hope, back to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. So he gives us an unfolding. We have the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and then we have the day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. It's painful, it is going to be unpleasant, it's going to be unpleasant for the nation Israel. God had to seal 12,000 men from each of the tribes to guarantee that Israel would be represented when you get to the end of that seven years and go into the millennium, the kingdom. Now you put how many people are going to die, we read Isaiah, God says I'm going to make humans more scarce than pure gold on the face of the earth by the time that seven years is over.

People think seven years will happen, I'll believe and then I'll . . . No, you won't. I think the rapture seals the fate of those alive. There are those who are going to believe, there are going to be believers, but by and large it's not going to be a pleasant time. The Lord has not destined us for wrath. So then you have to say the seven-year period is not all wrath. Well, it is, we read Revelation 6 at the beginning. It is a time of wrath, it is a time of judgment. God has not destined us as the church for that. Now Israel, they have the worst yet ahead. Some will become believers, some Gentiles will become believers, because there will be those in the millennium, so they had to become believers during the seven-year tribulation. However, will they be people that heard? I don't know, I just know here we are.

We have points 5, 6 and 7 but I have next week and so do you, unless the Lord comes this week. And then you have to be ready for His coming. Not, I attended this church, I've been here since I was born, I grew up here, I was baptized here. But have you really placed your faith in Christ? Has it been evidenced by your life was made new? I look around, I see a lot of empty seats, I wonder where are those people. Some of them are in other Bible-believing churches hearing the Word and that's great. Some of them are just out there. I wonder were they truly saved or did they just caught up in emotion and find a reason and excuse. I realize some are home, some have Covid, some have one affliction or another. We count you part of this body even though you are not here. But I also realize there are many, they are just gone. I could give the right answers. Is your life changed? Is it made new? That's the difference. If not, I need to stop and consider, Lord, I may fool others, I can fool myself, but I can't fool God, I can't fool the One who will be my judge. So I wonder where I am. Now each of you here could ask that, where am I. But each of you listening on the internet, watching it on television, where am I. I may not be able to be there, it may not be possible for me now, it may not be a good idea for me. But other than that, some people have just taken the Covid as an excuse, I don't have to go. I need to examine myself, each one individually and we know because if you are a believer there is coming a day of wrath but we are going to elude that. That doesn't mean there won't be difficulties for us in this life, but the ultimate period of wrath is one we are promised deliverance from.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word, it is a full word, it is a deep word, it is a complete word. Everything we need to know, everything You need us to know is contained here. There is much more but we are limited now and we thank You for Your word, the riches of Your word, the truth that we can hear and believe and know and understand and then live in light of. We pray that that might be true even as we need to maybe make adjustments in our lives as believers, be sure that our life does conform to the Word that we believe. Bless this day. I pray for the evening that is before us and our getting together, those who are baptized, the ministry of Your truth. Lord in all these things we count it a privilege to belong to You and to serve You, to testify of Your saving grace. We pray in Jesus name, amen.