Get Ready For Some Hard Times
GNLCC 11/27/2005 Daniel 12:1-4 Matthew 24:3-25 Revelations 13:1-18
People like to know the future. They are fascinated with the prophecies of Nostradomous. But there is a prophet who predicted accurately the rise of the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire. Daniel was so exact in his prediction, that people want to say that his book was written much later than it was. God showed Daniel what was going to happen at the end of the world, even before Jesus came on the scene. If Daniel was right about his other prophecies, chances are, He’s going to be right about his final prophecy.
There are people who believe what the bible teaches, but they are waiting to do certain things before they get serious about following God. They intend on coming in at a later time. Their plan may or man not work depending on when the rapture takes place.
The rapture is that instant moment in which all of a sudden, Jesus takes away those who are living for him before the rise of the anti-Christ. The Bible teaches that after the rapture, everyone who is left should get ready for some really hard times. Today we are going to look at some of those hard times.
Suppose the rapture took place on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm. Some of us would be in the middle of choir rehearsal. What would you think when all of a sudden, some of the choir members just vanished. Some of us would be on the highway, when all of a sudden we’d see cars coming at us out of control with no drivers. Some of us would be shopping, and as we handed money to the cashier, she would disappear. Some of us would be at a game, when all of a sudden, some of the players, the refs, and the other fans, would just be gone
Some of us will be listening to the radio and others watching tv, then we hear, we interrupt this program with a special bulletin. Several airplanes all over the country have crashed. It is believed the planes were hijacked and deliberately crashed by terrorists. You then call for your husband or your parent or your child, to come listen to this broadcast but there is no response. You go to the room where you thought the person was, but nobody is there. You then here a siren coming down the street saying, stay in your house. We are under attack by unknown terrorist.
You look at the TV again and some official is encouraging the nation to be calm. “ Something strange has happened but the government is on top of it. Although millions of people are being reported missing around the world, the situation is under control. Please do not use your automobile because there are abandoned cars all along the highway.”
At this point you realize, that the rapture has taken place and you have been left behind. Your plan to get right one day, has failed. You cry God, “Oh Jesus, I’m sorry for my sins. Please take me. Please take me too.” You realize that it is too late, but you remember hearing my sermon and you decide, well since the Bible was right about the rapture, it must be right about everything else too. So you decide to give your live for Christ and to try to win as many others as possible before the tribulation period.
At first the whole world is thrown into confusion over what has happened. Some say aliens have abducted people. Some say it was the work of terrorists working with a foreign governments. Some are bold enough to say the rapture came. Some will say the idea of God taking some people without taking all is ridiculous. After all, look at how many good people who went to church including bishops, pastors, elders, deacons, ushers, choir members, and bible teachers are still here.
The world will be hungry for new leadership. The word of God teaches that an eloquent leader will arise with great political skills. At first he will bring hope and peace to the world. People from all over the world will adore him. They will be won over buy his charm and his wit. It will only be later that his true colors will begin to shore. This awesome leader will come from Satan himself. He is identified as the Anti-Christ.
His crowning moment will come from an assassination. Someone is going to give him a fatal wound. But the anti-Christ will rise from the dead. He will have a partner that will serve him. This partner will be like a religious leader who will be able to do all kinds of miracles even calling fire to come down upon the earth. Many people will believe that the Anti-Christ must be God. After all, he was raised from the dead.
The Anti-Christ’s partner will have the people build a statue in honor of the Anti-Christ. Once the statute is builder, the religious leader will give life to the statute. The statute will come alive and declare, “Everyone small and great, rich and poor, free and slave must receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead as a sign of allegiance. Anyone who does not receive the mark will not be able to buy or sell anything.”
At first the mark is voluntary. Get if you want to, but don’t if you don’t. Now there is a problem in RevelationsRev. 14:9-12
A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." 12This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.
Now you may think, well all I have to do is just make sure I do not get the mark. The only problem is that the mark becomes mandatory. This is when you must get ready for some hard times. Anyone who refuses the mark will have his or her head cut off. The choice is this, will I choose to face the anger of the Anti-Christ or will I choose to face the wrath of God. Now if you had been ready when Jesus raptured the church, this would not be an issue facing you. Now if you’re planning on living, eventually you have got to buy something or sell something. If you do, you’re going to have to have the mark.
We use to think of course, you’ll always be able to buy something from somebody. But the bible accurately predicts a day is coming when others can control what is bought or sold. We are quickly moving from a cash society to a cash less society. Debit cards are the wave of the future. How many of you now carry debit cards instead of cash. Without a card, you won’t be able to buy anything.
How on earth could anyone keep us from being able to buy or sell anything. It’s going to be possible by choosing to use computers. They have changed our lives more than we think. They already make us pay more. I think we are on our way to computer chip insertion into our bodies. It is possible to write a lot of information on you including name, credit history, medical history, and banking all on the size of a chip no bigger than a grain of rice.
When I did this teaching four years ago I told you about a chip going into animals. There is already a pet retrieval system in which animals are being injected with a chip to be able to return them to their owners. The chip is inserted with a needle. Within 24 hours it attaches itself to connective tissue and becomes a part of the animal. It never needs a battery. When the animal is scanned from 2 to 12 feet anyway, the chip provides a number and the number tells the scanner who the dog belongs to. The cost for this chip is only $30. Now this is great if your pet keeps getting lost. With a Global Position System, it can even tell exactly where you are.
But it’s not so great when someone comes up with the idea that everybody should have one of these implants. Just think of the benefits. It would be easy to identify people who are killed and there’s no identification on their bodies. It could help identify people who are unconscious and may need medical help. It could help you find missing children. You could find people by satellite who are lost in the woods or the mountains. You could stop people from pretending they were somebody else whose identification they had stolen. You could tell when people were applying for benefits who already had them. You wouldn’t have to show your id if you needed to cash a check.
Well since I did the teaching, the FDA has now approved the insertion of the chip into human beings. Verachip is the company making the chip, and they are encouraging an expanded use of the chip. Listen to their advertisement. VeriChip is able to offer rapid, secure patient identification helping at-risk patients get the right treatment when needed most. VeriChip also offers a range of active RFID solutions that can help identify, locate, and protect a range of patients (e.g. pediatrics, flight-risk) and medical equipment ensuring the best possible care and protection for all while in the care of a healthcare facility.
Unlike traditional forms of identification, the VeriChip can’t be lost, stolen, misplaced, or counterfeited. Because it’s inserted under the skin, it’s always there when you need it regardless of where other kinds of identification might be. Do you want someone knowing where you are every minute of the day.
Well when the Anti-Christ comes along, he will make sure everyone gets one of these super powered chips. Already today, people know what you buy, how often you buy it, and the size you buy it in. Each time you use your power card or Tops card, or whatever they call it, your grocery list is analyzed and sold to the highest bidder. They’re not giving you a discount for free. They are making money off of you.
Do you realize insurance companies know what medicine you buy and how often you buy it, and then they will share it with other companies so they can justify not accepting you for a life insurance policy because of some pre-existing condition. You don’t have to agree to have the hospital or doctor share all the information they have about you to everyone. When you go into the Dr.’s Office.
Did you know that a record is kept of each phone call you make? Every time you use your cellular phone, a computer writes down who you called, who called you, and how long you talked. Each time you go on the Internet a record is made of all the sights you visit. Even though you may think no one knows what you’re watching on the Internet, you are leaving a trail behind.
Under Homeland Security, we have given the FBI the right to gather information on us from businesses and they don’t even have to tell the businesses why they want it.
Now the writers of the Bible had no way of knowing this kind of technology would one day be available. But the apostle John accurately predicted in the book of Revelations that it would be possible for one person to control whether or not everybody in the whole world could buy or sell something. All that would be required would be a mark. I believe when people get the mark, they will also get a chip
If you’re not ready when the raptures comes, will you be ready to receive the mark of the Anti-Christ or will you try to hold out and wait for Jesus to come. For those who think, I missed the rapture, what’s the big deal if I can still be saved. What’s it going to be like to watch your family starve, because the scanner won’t allow you to buy food?
What will it be like to be thrown out of your apartment, because you could not pay the rent even though you had the money? How will you get to work, when you can’t buy gas because you said no to the mark? What’s going to happen when you’re child needs to go the hospital, but you can’t use hospitals because you have to buy their services?
You become an enemy of the state. Now don’t expect family members and friends to come and help you out, because Jesus said, "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Mark 13:12-13 It will be a “state honor” to turn in traitors, especially traitors in your family.
Now You know the moment you accept the mark of the beast, you become his for all of eternity. There’s no repentance available afterwards. There’s no second chance. There’s no saying I made a mistake. The Anti-Christ will seek to hunt down and cut off the heads of all who refuse to worship him or to receive his mark. But when God pours out his wrath on the Anti-Christ, it comes to all who have the mark.
An angel will pour out a bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores will break out on the people who have the mark of the beast. The second angel will pour out a bowl on the sea and the sea will turn to blood, so everything in the sea will die. Do you know how much food we get from the oceans? Famine will become a major problem in the world.
The third angel will pour out a bowl on the rivers and fresh water and they too will turn to blood. The famine will get even worse. God will do this because so many people’s blood will have been spilled by the people under the Anti-christ that God gives them blood to drink.
The fourth angle will pour a bowl on the sun, so that it will become extremely hot. Can you imagine it being so hot in Cleveland, that when you go outside your skin feels as though someone is sticking a hot iron on you, and though there is no iron actually on you, your skin is burned as though it were.
Even though people will be in intense pain, the Bible says instead of asking for mercy, they will curse God and refuse to repent. Today the Holy Spirit is in the world, and he’s keeping a check on what Satan can and cannot do. During the Tribulation, the Holy Spirit will be gone and there will be nothing pushing us toward God.
The fifth angel will pour out his bowl on the throne of the Anti-Christ and his kingdom will be thrown into darkness. Could this be the result of a nuclear winter in which nuclear bombs are launched. The Bible says people will be in great agony and pain in the midst of this darkness, yet they still will refuse to repent. The sixth angel will pour out his bowl and evil spirits will go forward to unite people in a frenzy to declare a War on God in the battle of Armegeddon.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and the greatest earthquake the world has ever known will hit the earth, causing islands to disappear and mountains to simply collapse. Huge balls of hail , weighing up to 100 lb., will come falling from the sky, destroying whatever they hit. Yet again people will not repent, but instead will curse God because of how terrible the plague of hail will be.
This is happening on a world wide scale. No food to eat, no water to drink, and no homes not damaged by the storm. Yet the armies of the world will be provided with what it needs to declare war on God. It is at the end of the Tribulation period that God says enough is enough and Jesus comes back with a host of angels and with the saints and they launch an all out assault on the Anti-Christ, the beast, the devil, and all the humans who have joined this satanically inspired army.
It’s not going to ever be any doubt who is going to win this battle. Before it starts, and angel tells the vultures, come and prepare to eat the flesh of generals all the way down to privates. When Jesus hits the scene, the beast, the anti-Christ, and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire. That huge gigantic army with them are all killed by the single sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus. An angel comes down with a huge chain and he grabs the devil and locks him up for a 1,000 years.
Christ will rule the saints for a 1,000 year period here on the earth. Those who have been raptured or died in Christ will know all of the blessings God originally intended for Adam and Eve to have. No one who received the mark will have a part in the kingdom here on earth. There will still be people on earth who are outside of the kingdom for whom life will go on in a dismal state because they were not at the battle of Armegeddon.
After a 1,000 years Satan will be set free, and he will go and organize these people from the ends of the earth to make one final attack against the saints. This huge army will completely surround the kingdom or camp of God’s people. Before they can do anything however, fire from heaven falls down and devours them all. Satan is then thrown into the lake of fire where he will be tormented forever and ever.
Then everyone who died not knowing Christ will be judged and everyone whose name is not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. God will then create a new heaven and a new earth. A new city of Jerusalem will come out of heaven and settle on the new earth. God will be with his people from now on, and their will be no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain. We won’t spending eternity in heaven, but rather on a new earth which has yet to be created.
But my friends, we’ve got to be prepared to make it to that new heaven. It all begins with knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus said, he was the only way to God. He either is, or He’s a liar. If he’s a liar, then none of what he said can be trusted. If He is who He claims, then we better get ready to meet him.
For we are going to meet Christ in one of four ways. The first is to be caught up in the rapture by having died in Christ or by living as we should when the rapture comes. The second we will meet Christ through having been killed through the tribulation period. The third is we shall meet Christ with the mark of the beast on our heads or hand and are ready to attack him when he comes. The fourth is we shall meet Christ just before we are cast into the lake of fire.
God loves us enough to give us all the freedom of choice as to how we will meet Him. Which method are you currently prepared to meet the Lord. The rapture is coming, the tribulation is coming, Jesus is coming, and the judgment is coming. We can either live for today, or we can get ourselves situated in God to give us a lot more control over a long term future. We might be gone next week, but the real issue will be, were we ready when we went.
death. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
K. The New Heavens & New Earth
Rev. 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
1. We Choose Where We Go
2. Jesus Is Either Who He Said He Was Or Is Not
3. We Will All See Jesus By 1 Of 4 Ways
4. God Gives Us A Freedom Of Choice
Why Not Give Jesus Control Of You Life Today?
