Let Us Put the Blame of Evil Things Happening in The World Where It Belongs!

 

Did you know that the Book of Revelation references all the books of the Bible over any other book in the Bible? You will never understand the Book of Revelation without having knowledge of the Old Testament. When Christians tell you that they don't understand the Book of Revelation, they are announcing to you that they have never read the Old Testament or have an understanding of what they have read in regards to studying the Old Testament. What is concealed in the Old is revealed in the New!

Revelation 11:18 ~ "The nations were angry and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great - and for destroying those who destroy the earth."

This is a portion of Psalm 2 which is fulfilled by the time we get to Revelation 11:18 and was written over 3000 years ago.

Psalm 2:1-3 ~ "Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters." 

This part of the prophecy has already been fulfilled when they crucified and mocked Jesus, and continues even to this day against Christians and those that speak the truth found in God's Word.

Psalm 2:4-9 ~ "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath saying, "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."  

This portion of prophecy is coming and will be fulfilled during the Tribulation period when the wrath of God is unleashed upon a Christ-rejecting world and when Jesus returns to earth in the Second Coming to establish His kingdom once and for all.

We have just finished studying from Revelation 10:1 to Revelation 11:14 what is known as a parenthetical pause in the chronological events in the story to provide some much need information to the reader of the book and from Revelation 11:15-19 we continue in the events of the Tribulation Period with John again.

Revelation 11:15-19 ~ "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great - and for destroying those who destroy the earth." Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of the covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm"

This portion of scripture introduces us to the coming kingdom of Christ. We are living in the time of the church age believers right now.

Acts 1:9-11 ~ "After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seem him go into heaven."

They watched Jesus ascend into the glory of heaven and we told to go forth and preach the Word of the gospel into the whole world. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and the church was born. Jesus said that He would be coming back and coming again. We wait for Jesus to return just as the Bible predicts because if He doesn't, He wasn't the Messiah and the faith we have in Him is nothing. But we know that Jesus has fulfilled all the Bible prophecy's up to this point regarding His birth, His death and His resurrection. Sandwiched between His first coming, that is His birth as a baby in Bethlehem to His Second Coming in Revelation 19 as King and Redeemer coming with the saints and the church with Him to earth. In between this time is the Church Age, that is what you and I are a part of and at some point in that time frame, that age will end, and from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture, the church will conclude.

There will be no church in the Tribulation period. There will be the Tribulation saints or the believers who are born again during that Tribulation period. If you are a Christian right now, you will not experience the events we have been studying about that will happen in the Tribulation period. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior even while reading this post, God has promised to deliver you from the wrath that has yet to come. The words "wrath to come" does not mean hell. The "wrath to come" is the Tribulation period, when God pours out His judgment and vengeance upon the earth. Today you want to make sure you are a Christian and that you know God personally! Make sure your relationship with God is not a religious position where you think just because you attend church on Sunday and that is it for the rest of the week. You might be able to say that you know God, but can you say with boldness that God knows You?

We are going to look at three major points of why we need to know Jesus today. When Christ comes, the Lord will reign on earth. God will reign on earth.

Revelation 11:15 ~ "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever."

Man's attempt to reign as president, as ruler, as king, is coming to an end. Yes, God has established earthly governments in fact in Romans 13, it states the governments in power have been established by God. That is true, whether you believe in that government or not. As Christians, we get a citizenship change or a passport change, as Paul taught in Philippians that our citizenship is now in heaven.

When we tell the world that the end is near, they will not believe that. Because it implies the end of man and the beginning of Christ in the world. The Bible makes it clear. We are running low on angels now. We are down to the seventh angel and he is the last one. There were seven of them, and this is the last one to blow his trumpet. From Revelation 12 to 19, we will cover a brief period of time, in those long section of Scriptures. The attempt of man to reign is nearly over.

Genesis 6:3 ~ "Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

That word was given to Noah and his generation and when Noah proclaimed those words it was exactly 120 years until the flood came. You might not believe the flood happened, but God and history says it has happened. Archaeology says it happened. A great flood happened and turned our world upside down. The word strive or contend in Hebrew means to sail a straight course. God will not always sail a straight course into man's heart. He will not always be speaking to you directly and trying to convince you to come to know Him.

Right now Jesus is enthroned in heaven and He supervises all that is going on in the earth. However there are things going on in the earth that He does not approve of. The time for judgment has not yet come. All of the evil that we see and experience and look at, think of all the horrible events taking place in the world today, we need to put blame where blame is due. That blame is due primarily on man's neck.

James 4:1 ~ "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight."

It all begins in the heart. How is it that someone would pepetrate evil against someone else? It comes from the heart. The Bible also tells us that Satan is the god of this age. Little "g". He is not God. He is the upsurper of authority of this age. You want to know why Satan has so much destructive power in the world? It's because man keeps leaving the door open. There are people wondering why their marriages are falling apart and when they back up and realize that they were flirting with someone else who wasn't their husband or wife all this time and now they can see why their marriage is falling apart. There are those who are wondering why their kids are rebelling within their family and they look back and say, "Well we didn't want to ram God down their throats, we wanted them to make their own choices." So they grew up not knowing God and haven't learned anything from the Bible on how to act. When a man leaves his home or family unattended, it goes to mischief. This earth has gone to mischief.

If there is an earthquake today or someone gets murdered today, we can't blame God, this is a world where the evil thereof needs to be directed toward Satan. Jesus says I have come to give you life, and that more abundantly. But the thief, (not a thief but "THE" thief) has come to rob, kill and destroy. Which refers to Satan. Satan loves when you are having a bad day. We know man's reign is about to end and the Lord's reign is about to come upon the earth.

Notice that the camera angle has changed and we are seeing through John's eyes what is happening in heaven. This is what He hears.

Revelation 11:15 ~ "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever."

Some versions of the Bible have dropped the "s" on the word 'kingdoms' and it simply says kingdom. That is an unfortunate translation. If you go back to the Old King James Version, it is as how I have written this portion of Scripture of the Bible. There are a lot of kingdoms in this world. Notice how they will all become the kingdom, dropping the "s". When Jesus comes in His Second Coming, He is going to establish His rule. But some things have to happen first before He returns.

The first was laughable when people read it until it came to pass on May 14, 1948 when Israel became a nation in one day. Now people have zipped their lips. The Bible said before Jesus came back, Israel would have to become a nation again. That happened on May 14, 1948. Not only that the Bible said that God would call all His people back home that had been scattered across the world and bring them back to Israel in unbelief. Not believing in God. When you look at the nation of Israel is is predominately secular and an unbelief in God.

If you keep on going, there will be an unification of Europe. That the European Empire would be resurrected and that is happening today. It is called the E.U. or the U.S.E. the United States of Europe. All these things are coming together. If that is not enough and there are more than 300 scriptures that have already been fulfilled in the most amazing detail that need to take place before the Second Coming of Christ, and in Revelation 13, there will come a time in technology that man will issue a decree to those belonging to the One World Government, of a One World Religion, of a One World Church (which is not really a church at all), will have to pledge alliegance to a European ruler and to a global church and receive a number on their right hand or forehead.

If anyone has ever been to Buckingham Palace in England, there are massive pillars that are out in front of the palace, one for example will be labeled New Zealand, one will be labeled Australia, or India and all of these pillar will label a kingdom, where the crown of England presided over, so one crown sat over the kingdoms where it had authority, so on a very human small scale, think of that and you will be able to better understand that portion of Scripture. Under the crown of Christ, remember He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords, His kingdom will swallow up all the other kingdoms. A singular kingdom will consume plural kingdoms. Human kingdoms even though they have been presided over by God, the human kingdoms will be swallowed up by Christ. 

Have You Heard of Sack Cloth Ministry?

 

If someone shows up in sackcloth, they probably don't have good news. We live in a culture today that almost automatically shuns bad news. I don't believe that we have the ability to decide anymore what is bad news. Our culture equates bad news with things that make you unhappy. Yet how many times did God send an unhappy message with Jonah, or Ezekiel the Prophet or even John the Baptist to the hearers of their words? John the Baptist said that the Lord is laying the ax at the root of the trees. There are times in our lives, as Christians, that we need to take the mantle on ministry that Jesus would have us take and have us to have. He was the most loving individual the world has ever known and he is the most hated individual the world has ever known as well. This is possible because He loved but He also exposed darkness. People love darkness more than the love light. As Christians, in some audiences, we should be the most loved people, and in other audiences we will be the most hated. Not because we hate people, they will hate us, as Jesus said, "Don't be surprised if the world hates you, because they hated Me first." He said if you were of the world, they would love you. But I am not of this world and hopefully you are not either, and so the world will hate us as they hated Him.

They hate you because you represent the light of the Lord. If we were to say, God condemns adultery, God condemns homosexuality, God condemns robbery of banks, God condemns pride. People are going to say, how can I fix this in my life and want to know what they can do to get right in their life. While others are going to call us every name in the book, they will walk away from you, want nothing to do with what you just said and will hate you. This is the Christian ministry. It was John the Baptist's ministry. It was Jesus' ministry. In the Book of Revelation, it is the sackcloth ministry of those that speak for God.

Revelation 11:7-14 ~ "Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake an a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people will be killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed, the third woe is coming soon."

Revelation 11 introduces us to a very key period of time with regard to the great Tribulation period. We have already studied who the two witnessed are. We only really know who one of them is for sure and that is Elijah based on scripture references from both the Old and New Testament. We don't know for sure who the other one is. Some say Moses or it could be Enoch. The views are divided on just who it is, because things in the Bible point to both of them. It could very well be either or. Elijah and Enoch never died. They were both taken by God. It is appointed once for every man to die and then judgment, Elijah and Enoch never died a physical death.  The Bible says that Elijah must come back, we just don't know how he will appear.

They will be in Jerusalem preaching for 3 1/2 years not sure where exactly but as we come to this portion of scripture, these 3 1/2 years have commenced. They will have been preaching to the people for the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation period possibly at the signing of the 7-year peace treaty. This is not some made up story. This is real and it will take place at some point in the future. The Bible up to this point has never been wrong in any of the prophetic events it predicted would take place, have taken place in the most precise and minute details. These things will also happen exactly as predicted.

God's witness is not accepted by everyone. Have you realized that not everyone you talk to wants to hear about God and what He has done for you? You mention God, or Jesus or even open your Bible, people have a tendency to close up. You will make people very uncomfortable. The name that is most used either cursed or worshiped in the world is Jesus Christ! You either curse Him or worship Him! You can't say that about Mohammad, Buddha, Joseph Smith or Billy Graham or even the Pope. You either love Jesus and you say so, or you care a less about Him and it shows. The moment you tell people that Jesus died for us it makes people upset. They may not say it but they want to know why did He have to die. Just the thought is interesting to them but not in a good way. He died for our sins, and that is the problem they have. The cross implies that something is wrong in people's lives and that is the very reason, they want to have crosses and even the Ten Commandments removed. All of us are sinners and Jesus died for all of us. He loves us so much that He went to the cross for us. We need Him.

The message of God is unacceptable to the world now and to the world that is coming.

Revelation 11:7-8 ~ "Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified."

Can you imagine for 3 1/2 years the testimony of these two witnesses will be broadcast on Fox News, CNN and every other news organization every day all day. All the conviction, truth and uncomfortableness of what these witnesses are talking about will be broadcast 24/7. That Jesus Christ is the Messiah. We need to believe in Him and all the things mentioned in the Bible. Can you imagine how anointed their messages will be? If you think you've heard of a great sermon in your life, it will be nothing compared to one of their messages. They will be sent from heaven, anointed by the Holy Spirit and have had a long time to prepare their messages.

The reason this message is unacceptable to the world is because the message of God is personal. When they finish their "testimony," the word testimony is a legal term. It means when they bore witness of the truth. When they have finished their testimony or delivered their goods, then we read how the Antichrist and the political world will kill these two. They will not die until they have finished their testimony. When they die, their testimony is complete. God will not allow these two to suffer death, until the job is done.

For those of you under the age of 18, honor your mom and dad. The Bible says if you do this, you will live a long life. For those of you over the age of 18, serve the Lord will gladness. You will live a long life. I know the wisdom of God. The Bible says that He has numbered our days. We will not die a day sooner or a day later. We need to serve the Lord with gladness however many days He has appointed for us to live on this earth, because we want our life to count. I don't want to simply breathe air until it's time to go home. I want to make a difference, I want to live my life is such a way that when God says it's time to come home, I want to be able to say I am ready to go. I don't want to be on my death bed, begging God for more time because we now are facing regrets for what we didn't do with our time. We want to live for Him.

These two lived for the Lord with all their heart. When their time of testimony is done, it will look like to the whole world, that the Antichrist took the power and that he destroyed them. But as have read through the end of this chapter, everything turns around.

We know that these two witnesses will speak to the world in sackcloth as we remember from Revelation 11:3 ~"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth." People automatically equate wealth with those they see on Christian TV. They won't be expecting these two witnesses of God to be wearing sackcloth. They are part of a sack cloth ministry because whenever someone showed up wearing sackcloth in the Bible, it was to announce judgment. These guys and their message is not all that encouraging. Not doubt they give the gospel message however which is encouraging. It will challenge them to come to faith in Christ. Jonah was the first sackcloth prophet who had a similar ministry. The first submarine captain. Jonah went to Ninevah and what did he say? He's God man who walks on the scene and tells them that in 40 days, Ninevah will perish. We know Jonah hated the Ninevites. He preaches his message and goes to sit down under a tree overlooking the city to watch it all happen. He was excited that he was going to see an entire nation go up in flames.

But God told Jonah that they were repenting of their sins and that they were sorry. He can't destroy them. They were doing what He had hoped they would do. Jonah was all bent out of shape because he didn't like what God was doing because He was willing to accept their apology and forgive them. This was the greatest revival in all human history. The very minister who delivered the message was furious at his results. God is gracious and merciful but He is also Judge and He is holy! God will bring judgment during the Tribulation Period. We are called at times to have a sackcloth ministry.

Galatians 6:1 ~ "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted."

When we see a fellow Christian, we are to gently restore and rescue them back to the faith. This is sackcloth ministry. Don't confuse condemnation with the sackcloth ministry. God is not into condemnation. Yes, God is bound by His holiness to exercise judgment, but God is not willing that any man should perish or that any man should be condemned. Are men condemned? Yes! Do they perish without Christ? Yes. Who's choice is that? Not God. It's not His choice. It is their choice.

That is why God sent His Son, so that man could escape that destiny. But sometimes people don't respond to that kind of message.

Jude 1:22 ~ "Be merciful to those who doubt."

Some of us respond to a message of grace or some have to respond to a message of fire. "It's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance." Some respond to the message of what God has done in His great love for us and we are moved to make the decision to follow Jesus in faith. That is good. That is the way it was intended. But some of us are not wired that way. Some people respond to the fire and brimstone methods of teaching. They need the message to be straightforward and blunt to the core of what they are doing and what the end result will be if they don't respond.

Lord, 

I ask You right now that there are those who are like the woman caught in the act of adultery, thrown down to the ground, and brought Lord to Your feet. Your grace transformed her life. And then there are others like myself who inadvertently stumble into a church not knowing, heard about the judgment and condemnation of a sinner and knew that I was heading for fire. And You got me. So Lord, those who need grace to lead them to Your feet, those who need to hear and smell the crackling of eternal fires of hell itself, that they would come to Your feet. Lord, thank You that Your salvation is all encompassing, to all those who turn their hearts to You, in Jesus Name ~ AMEN!!!

The Greatest Party of Hell on Earth is Coming! Will You Be There?

Imagine turning to BBC or CNN or even Fox News and seeing a group of people dancing around the bodies of two men lying dead in the street. These people are more than overjoyed that these two men are dead. They are throwing things at them and having a great time. Sound far fetched that we could ever see something like this today? I might imagine that it wouldn't surprise us to see this on the news tonight. We see things like this happening all the time all over the world. The reason the people are so happy that these two men are dead is they believe they have silenced their message from God in heaven. I believe that if evil thinks that they can shut Christians up and killing us, they too would start dancing.

We see this spirit of zero tolerance happening during the Tribulation period coming to these two men. I believe we are moving toward that level of volatility where men will go nuts because they hate the things that God loves. They will rise up against them. It exposes man's hatred against the truth.

Revelation 11:9-11 ~ "For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them."

This is quite literally Christmas in hell. There is a great hatred that the world will have for God and God's witnesses. That is true even today. There is a hatred toward the Lord, a hatred towards His message. What surprises me is that this is a future event and the world is still talking about tolerance today. Everybody is told to tolerate every group of people except for one and that is Christians. You can outlaw them, get rid of them, anything to get them out of here because they drive the world crazy. Nothing is going to change in the future, in fact it will only intensify. It's a world of tolerance until it comes to these two men who are teaching the Word of God.

In light of the advances in technology, how does the whole world rejoice over the death of two men in Jerusalem? Satellite TV, CNN, and every one is going to see it and rejoice. They will be sending one another gifts all over the world to celebrate what has happened. Do you think this is too far for us to consider something like this happening in the world today? Have you taken a look at the news lately in the Middle East when something happens they rejoice over? Have you seen dead bodies dragged behind the back of a Jeep? Do they not stomp and burn bodies and rejoice over it while it is being televised? Are you not watching that? Or have you not seen that?

We need to wake up as a church. Here we are today reading a book that is 2000 years old and it seems as if we are turning on the news today and seeing how relevant this is in our culture today. We we see a body of a man being dragged in the streets in the Middle East behind a truck, burned on fire, beaten and hung over a bridge. That would never happen right, while the people who did it are rejoicing and claiming victory over the event? It is happening and it will happen all the more the closer we get to this future event. You don't have to use much of an imagination to see that happening in the world today. The earth dwellers will rejoice over this event!

This will be the biggest party in all of the world on earth and remember that even though it appears that Satan has the victory or the enemies of God, their victory once again is short lived. They will only be rejoicing for 3 1/2 days. The world hates God, even though they will be gathering together all the religions of the world except those that have to do with God. The world views the messengers and their message as evil. They refuse to tolerate others. What do you think these two prophets were prophesying about the return of Elvis? No it was the truth of God's Word. People today are so weak and fragile that they whine and whimper and have a breakdown of the slightest things.

They will allow these men's bodies simply sit in the streets right where they were killed for 3 1/2 days. The burial practices of the Middle East - that day! Our technology today is where this prophecy of the Bible foretells is today. This is a real time, worldwide event that will be seen by everyone, in every language of the world. Isn't it amazing how wonderful and true the Bible is even though this was written about 2000 years ago? The exposing of man's hatred against the truth, is a hatred that cannot be curbed.  Remember back in the year 2000 when people thought the world was going to end and they all celebrated and partied. We are not too far from these types of events being celebrated and heralded. It's a hatred that they can't not see.

While most of the time the Lord isn't seen as a person to put an end to a party, He does after 3 1/2 days. When the breath of God enters these two men and they come back to life, imagine the horror and terror that will come over those that believed they were dead. Millions of people will see this happen.

Revelation 11:11 ~ "But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them."

This great fear that will come upon those that witness and see this event will be the kind that cause mass hysteria, causes panic and immobilize those that see it.

God's final witness to the world will be a powerful testimony of grace and judgment. These two are exclusive. You can not reconcile these two, they are both true and false at the same time. God who is holy and righteous, has to be just. But God is also a God of grace and mercy. The more we learn about God the more we can come to terms with just how we chose to live our lives and how responsible we are. You and I are the only ones responsible for the decisions we make. We can often look back in our life often before we were Christians and realize how stupid some of those decisions are. However, when we became Christians we made less stupid decisions.

As we grow older, often times when faced with making a decision, the one in our minds is often times the one God doesn't want us to take. Since He is such a God in whom knows how it will all play out in the end, who knows the decision we need to make, and how often we get into trouble when we act in our own minds instead of waiting on Him, we should pray for patience to be willing to wait for the time in which God will give us the answer to what we need to do and to be willing not to jump ahead until He does. Now that is wisdom. Sometimes God wants us to find the answer ourselves so we can learn how to do this in our own lives personal through seeking Him. Don't take someone's else opinion on what you should do, even if it is a pastors. If he is worth his weight in salt, he will instruct you to prayer and to seek God's truth in the Bible.

Revelation 11:12-14 ~ "Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was 
 a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed, the third woe is coming soon."

When it says that the two men ascended or went up to heaven, this was not a quick disappearance. This was a slow process and the same one used when Jesus ascended from the apostles for the last time. So much they as the apostles were watching, their mouths hung open so long, two angels appeared to them to ask what they were doing looking up so long.  In grace, the Lord will not leave anyone behind.  Regarding the justice of God, He will never leave justice undone. This is something we need so much in our world today.

Revelation 11:13-14 ~ "At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed, the third woe is coming soon."

This means that a tenth of the city of Jerusalem fell down. What is truly interesting is that in the King James Version is says that 7000 men were killed, it doesn't say how many total number of people at that point were killed only the number of men killed in the earthquake. No one knows the exact number. None of us rejoice in judgment and neither does God. However when something horrific happens, do you not want to see justice done? We all want it so long as it doesn't affect us.

When we make a huge mistake you know what we want most from the judge? Mercy! The problem is that we live in a system now where the whole system is corrupt. If you have money, you will get off. There are older people who should be retiring or not working, that have to return back to work. They worked hard all their lives and invested money and because of white collar crime, their retirements have been stolen from them. There will come a day when God will exercise perfect judgment. The Bible says in Genesis by Abraham, "Shall not the Lord of all the earth, do right?" He knows every motive to every crime.

The final portion of today's study offers a bit of confusion and begs us to answer the question, who are the people who gave glory to God, while the rest were afraid? One scholar might argue it doesn't matter they simply were so afraid, they didn't know what they were doing and gave credit to anyone. But it was short lived. They didn't really know what they were saying. Others will say, if you look at the chronology of the events and this being a parenthetical pause, this event brought about the sealing of the 144,000 saints. No one knows for sure.

Do you have Jesus Christ in your life? No, more matter what you have in your life today, it is nothing compared to what He offers! No money, no possessions, no position or job. Only Jesus can offer you what the world can't. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. We need to make sure our faith in Jesus is real.

Why is Jerusalem the Most Sought After Piece of Real Estate on Earth?

The city of Jerusalem belongs to God. It does not belong to the Palestinians, the U.N., the E.U or the United States and technically it doesn't even belong to Israel! God says that it is His city, He has set His name upon that city. When you listen to Rabbi's speak about how God spoke creation into existence, not only did the land form beneath His feet but also the Temple Mount. He takes the city of Jerusalem seriously and here in Revelation, we hear God comparing them to Sodom and Egypt. When God has issues with you, He brings them to your attention. Doesn't mean He doesn't love you any less, but He does have to address what is displeasing to Him that you are doing. Remember that God has already done this in the letters to the seven churches earlier in our studies. It is a way of bringing these things to focus and help us to get right with God again.

If you have ever visited the city of Jerusalem, as you are walking around the city, you can get a sense that this is not how God intended it to be. It's like that in almost any city you walk around in, yet the one big difference in Jerusalem compared to anywhere else is that God is not done with Jerusalem yet. He has eternal plans for Jerusalem! Like those amazing renovations shows, Jesus when He returns will be doing the ultimate restoration on this city and what a city it will be!

Revelation 11:8 ~ "Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified."

The great city is referring to Jerusalem because it was the city in which our Lord was crucified. But why is God calling it Sodom and Egypt? How does God use these two cities to compare His own city and people with those who have deep spiritual issues? We know that the city of Jerusalem belongs to God and it makes you wonder why so many people fight over this small little pieces of land and why it is so widely contested. The most sacred piece of real estate in the world today and most sought after is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is what all the wars have been about going back as far historically as we can. It's a spiritual battle and a spiritual situation.

God refers to any city when it is not walking with Him, being obedient to Him, worshiping Him as it should be, God calls it as it is. So what does God do to a city that isn't doing what it should be doing? He brings judgment to the city. That is how God disciplines even though we don't want to hear about it. Even to the own Christian, when we walk in disobedience, God brings about chastisement. This does not mean your salvation is being called into question. Your salvation is fine, just like you don't disown one of your children when they make a mistake, the same is true for God. Discipline is necessary to get you back where you need to be. The Bible says, "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens!" The Bible also says that if you are not a child of God, He will not discipline you. As a parent, you don't discipline someone else's child when they are misbehaving, each parent takes care of their own child because they have a vested interest in their child's well being. So does God. Just because you think you're getting away with stuff doesn't mean God doesn't care. You might just want to be sure you are truly a child of God's.

From the beginning of time, God has chosen the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem and the Jews to be His people. Nothing that the world does will change that. As Christians, God has placed His seal upon us as His chosen children as well. Just because discipline comes doesn't mean God has rejected you. So when we look at the first of the two cities that God compares Jerusalem to in looking at Sodom, we need to remember what they were known for. God judged the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their rebelliousness to God, and that they went after strange flesh. God has sanctioned special perimeters in regards to sexual activity. Only a male and a female in marriage! God only blesses the sexual activity between a married husband and wife ONLY! All other bets are not sanctioned or approved by God. In the Book of Hebrews, God says the marriage bed is undefiled. God is against fornication and adultery. Did you know from a scientific perspective that when a husband and wife come together as one in marriage that the exchange of bodily fluids help build each other's immunities up instead of tearing them down? God brings the biology of a husband and a wife together to strengthen them. 

If you step outside those perimeters and do things you aren't supposed to do, is it any wonder that you feel run down, get sick or fall victim to certain diseases? The Bible says if we sow to the flesh of the flesh and we will reap corruption. Have you seen how the pornographic industry is reeling from the impacts of aids and other sexually transmitted diseases? It's slowly killing them all off and then they wonder what is happening to them and why? God is saying that He is calling Jerusalem, spiritual Sodom, God is looking at spiritual diversity, paganism, or as God calls it harlotry. God calls it adultery in the spirit.

Jerusalem during this great time of Tribulation will be it a city of internationalism embracing all religions and all faiths, and most of the Jews you meet today in the city are atheistic Jews who do not believe in God while they walk in the Holy land. They refuse to believe in Scriptures, our God and simply chalk it up to being in our culture. The Bible says that God would bring Israel back into their own land in unbelief. If you go to Israel today, you will meet people who don't believe in God. We know that the Pope has even given credence that Jerusalem in the spiritual center of the world, that the top three leading religions or beliefs come together there. It will shift from Rome and Mecca and all combine in a homogenization of the religions in the city of Jerusalem, or a one world religion. Just type in one world religion and see what you come up with today. There is a great movement in the world today for us all to worship one God. They say that Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe in God and that they are all the same God. Yet let me ask these questions? If we worship the same God, then why aren't you Christians trying to build a temple to sacrifice animals for the removal of your sins? If we worship the same God, why aren't we going out and beheading our enemies? It's not that it isn't politically correct, it's that we do NOT worship the same God.

Jesus says, "You can't come to the Father, except through Him." The other thing is that the Bible says we know God's name. Adonai, is what God calls Himself. He introduces Himself as being our Father who art in Heaven. Yahweh or YHWH,  the LORD God, and He is approachable. We can pray to Him. The Bible says that there is one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ. We can pray directly to the Father through Jesus Christ. You don't need to go through anyone to get prayer to God. We can pray for you, but so can you. You can pray to God yourself. We can't talk to God for you, God expects you to talk to Him yourself. That's gotta set you free no matter where you are in the world. How liberating is that!

You don't have to get a little lamb and sacrifice it to God while talking to Him while the blood runs out. You don't have to go out and perpetrate all kinds of evil against humanity to earn God's favor, and to enter some sort of paradise. The Bible says, you bow your knee or open your heart to pray to the Lord in Jesus Name. Anyone and everyone can do that. God says however that Jerusalem is a spiritual Sodom. It will become a place of paganism and spiritual adultery and fornication. God also says that Jerusalem is compared to a spiritual Egypt. We have to consider what is Egypt famous for regarding the children of Israel? Bondage, slavery. Did you know that when Israel was in the bondage and slavery of Egypt, they were completely ignorant? That is why the way Pharaoh dealt with Moses is so unique. He was saved by Pharaoh's daughter and raised up in his house, being schooled in their ways and would have been given the best the world had to offer.

In the Book of Hebrews, it says that when Moses saw his people, he put away everything he had access to at his fingertips for a moment, so he could be associated with the inflections of God's people. Moses left Egypt. Then the people of Israel through Moses also left Egypt. God led them out and they became a great nation. Egypt in Scripture, is also a reference to the world. When the Bible refers to Egypt you can also use it as a reference to the world and its system. Worldliness, flesh and the like.

Matthew 23:37-38 ~ "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets ad stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate."

It was left desolate, referring to the house which represents the Temple, because of paganism and not recognizing Him.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ~ "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

God does want to be number one on a list of ten. He wants to be number one on a list of one. Idolaters are those that put anything before God. ANYTHING. Things can be idols and the things we most identify with. What we spend our money and time on. As you read this list, repent of them as you read them. Remember we don't have to do the actual act, but simply looking at another man or woman is guilty of adultery. Simply tell God you have sinned against Him and ask for His forgiveness. The Bible says if we confess our sins, God will forgive us from all unrighteousness. God doesn't make people idolaters, adulterers, fornicators, thieves or homosexuals. These are all sins of choice. The rest of the list continues with sins of choice as well. We are wanting things others want and we are willing to do whatever it takes to get there. Even paying taxes. While we may not like how our government spends our money, the Bible says we have to do what He has commanded. They will have to give an account to how they spent that money. We need to keep on doing it until God changed it now matter how much we might not like doing it.

Even though God knows all of this, He is not surprised. He is hurt and it pains Him to see how much His own creation rejects Him, those are human emotions and He wants us to know He understands it all. God announces in all the Book of the Prophets, Amos, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Isaiah and promises that He will gather together His people from all the corners of the world because they have been scattered, and He will bring them back to their own land in unbelief. They are very made at God because they want to know where He was through the Holocaust. How can you be angry at someone you don't believe exists? The Jews won't believe in God again until Ezekiel 38, where God rescues them from an impending war that is being lead by Israel's enemies from the furthest points north!

Will God will judge people that He loves?

There are a lot of people who are making grave mistakes when looking at Bible prophecy, and that is replacement theology, which is taking Israel and replacing it with the church. That is so wrong on many levels and does a great disservice to the Bible. People think that the church is going to be destroyed during the Tribulation period. Yet Jesus said, "that the gates of hell will not prevail against My church." The church is not present during the Tribulation period. What is happening is that we have the 7 year Tribulation period in which God is focusing on Israel.

Daniel 7:21 ~ "As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them,"

God gives power to the Antichrist to destroy or devastate God's people, predominantly the Jews and secondary those to come to faith by virtue of the ministry of the born again Jews during the Tribulation period. We always want to read the Bible for what it says, don't read stuff into the Bible, let the Bible read its stuff into you. Don't let people convince you that the Bible isn't really saying what it is saying. It means exactly what it says. Let the Bible be the commentary on the Bible.

Yesterday we began to study sack cloth ministry and today we continue to with in regards to it meaning judgment and grace. Even Jesus had a sack cloth ministry. Jesus was ministering and a bunch of Pharisees, professional sin sniffers and fault finders and legalists, and they brought a woman to Jesus' feet and threw her down in front of Him, who they caught in the very act of adultery. They turned to Jesus and said, "Moses said she should be stoned for committing adultery, what do you say? For we have caught her in the very act?"

The Bible doesn't say what I am about to say, but I wish it did. I wish Jesus would have said, "What were you doing watching?" "We caught her in the very act, I mean, we were walking by..." Jesus said, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone." No one stepped forward. Then He began to write in the sand remember? It says that they were convicted from the oldest on down to the youngest. Why? What does an older person have over a younger person? They lived longer. The longer you live the more you have opportunities to sin. The oldest left first,  because they lived longer and had racked up more sin, and even though the Bible doesn't say what He wrote the Old Testament says, "I have written their sins in the dust." I believe that Jesus was writing with the finger of God, who was the Son of God, writing in the dust, looking up to see who he was looking at and writing down all the sins that person committed before moving on to the next one. I believe He wrote their sins in the dirt and they saw what He had written, were convicted and walked away, the oldest to the youngest. Now that is judgment! Sack cloth!

Jesus turns to the woman and asks, "Woman, where are your accusers?" She was smart, remember what she said, "Lord, I have none." Did she not have accusers? Yes, but they were not present. They left! Can people accuse you of things? Can people accuse you of things that are true? Yes all of us! Where are they? You might say, "They are breathing down my neck right now!" Where are they before the presence of God? What is one of Satan's natures? He is before the throne of God accusing us day and night. God doesn't hear it when we are washed in Christ. I'm hidden in Christ!

Now that the woman's accusers were gone, He didn't say she didn't have any, Jesus said, "I do not accuse you." When God says that, you are free! Are you free? Is your conscience clear? Do you know that if you are a Christian right now, God says I do not accuse you between you and I is an interesting filter and that filter is My Son, Jesus Christ! You are washed in the blood as long as you continue to put your faith in Him. That is good news! The world does not like this because of what it implies. God's final witness to the world is a witness that is not acceptable to everyone because the message of God to man is divisive.

You know that to be true because the minute you give your life to God and rush home to tell others about it, they don't receive it well. There are some that when they give their lives to Jesus, found that their parents threw them out of the house. Jesus has said, "Don't think that I have come to bring peace, I've come to bring a sword. That a man in his own home will be divided against his wife, or a child against a parent." Jesus isn't into home wrecking. Jesus knows that within the same house if you have someone who believes and someone who doesn't, there will be division. That is true in many of our homes.

Revelation 11:7 ~ "Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them."

Remember how we have learned that you will never understand the Book of Revelation without reading the Old Testament? Where is this answered in the Old Testament? Daniel 7, specifically verse 21.

Daniel 7:21 ~ "As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them,"

God will allow the beast, (the Antichrist) to kill the two witnesses, or believers in God during the Tribulation period. Those of you that are born again Christians, when the rapture happens, you will be taken directly to heaven. You will not be here when this happens. Those who come to Christ during the Tribulation period are called Tribulation saints. You and I right now are called to live for Christ, and it is not easy. The Tribulation believers will not live for Christ, they will die for Christ. I suggest making the decision now! Daniel 7 is the key to understanding Revelation 11. Daniel 7 is one of the most remarkable passages of Scripture and a must for understanding Bible prophecy. Why? Who is the beast? He ascends out of the bottomless pit or the Abyss and that has a connection with Satan. It is connected with demons, and it is where an eternity in hell is deposited.

Whoever it is that ascends out of the bottomless pit we have an apparent problem. If we keep studying, our problem will go away. Why? This guy is a human being. He is human. So how does he ascend out of the bottomless pit where demons come from? The question we want to ask is what does the Bible say about his life? That will answer this apparent dilemma. First of all the Bible in Daniel 7, Daniel 2, and Daniel 11, teaches us about four world governing empires, that God mentions. It is all historic until the very end.

So God says in the Book of Daniel, world governing empire number 1, under the governing powers of Nebuchadnezzar was the Babylonian empire. God says so and calls it by name.

Number 2, the Medo-Persian Empire, under Darius and Sirus.

The third empire was under the rule of Alexander the Great, the Grecian Empire.

The fourth empire is a very interesting empire. The Bible says the fourth empire is the Roman empire, but unlike the first three, the Babylonian, Medo-Perisan and Grecian empires were all defeated by invading armies. The Roman empire was never defeated by an invading army. The Roman empire grew so massive that it began to break up. No one ever conquered it. Technically according to the historian rule book, it has never gone away. Its like in a coma or hibernating. The Bible says that in the last days out of the Roman Empire, when it broke up formed two sections, the eastern and western sections, and as the Bible describes its legs going down, and that in the it will be reassembled as toes in the end. This is key, because the Bible tells us that out of the toes, out of the kingdoms, that came out of the Ancient Roman empire, a ruler will emerge. Daniel and Revelation calls him the beast. You know him even if you are not a Christian as Mr. 666.

Don't confuse yourself when looking at this and see this guy coming out of various areas. in Revelation 13:1, that John saw him come up out of the sea and the sea were the nations of the world. Yet in Revelation 11 it says that he came up out of the bottomless pit. How does that happen if he is just a man? This is where it gets technical. We know he is empowered by demons, and he is possessed by Satan. Did you see John freaking out about the introduction of the beast? When John is confused, he asks a question in the Book of Revelation. He will ask, "What is the meaning of this or what are these things?" He doesn't say anything here. When the beast is introduced like it is to you and I in this study right now, there is no debate from John. The answer is so simple.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem in Matthew 23 beginning in verse 37, and into chapter 24 of Matthew,

Matthew 23:37-39 ~ "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

Matthew 24:15 ~ "So when you see standing in the holy place 'abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel - let the reader understand - then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

When you see the Antichrist, standing in the Temple, where he ought not to be, run for your lives. Jesus knew Daniel 9 and so did the Jews, as well as John. He knew Daniel 7, Daniel 2 and Daniel 11. All the Jews know Daniel. It is the key to understanding Bible prophecy. Do you see how wonderfully technical this is? John didn't question the introduction of the beast, because he already knew who the beast was. The beast would come bringing in the last world governing empire that would subdue God's people, based upon the Book of Daniel. Specifically Daniel 7:21.

Daniel 7:21 ~ "As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them,"

God will grant the Antichrist power to destroy and subdue the saints, until the Ancient of Days is seated and there shall be judgment in favor of the saints. This is the introduction to the Second Coming of Christ. So we must know Daniel. John did. This is why the beast is totally normal thinking for him. Guess what Christians have always referred the emperor of Rome as? The beast!

Daniel 9:26 ~ "the prince who is to come." 

We know that the beast will make war with them, overpower them and kill them. So this man has been granted authority to do such things. The reason this witness is not acceptable to everyone is that this message is convicting.

Revelation 11:8 ~ "Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called the city of Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified."

Where was our Lord crucified? Jerusalem. How then can it be called Sodom and Egypt? Throughout all of history whenever people have rejected God, judgment always follows. God is so patient right now but it will not always be the case. When Israel went astray, how did God judge Israel? He sent an unbelieving pagan nation against them. There is a pagan cult that is beginning to wreck havoc on our nation, the cult of Islam. God knew about 9/11. Why didn't He stop it? As tragic as the death of those people were, as a nation as a whole, shouldn't worse things happen to us for what we have done? Did you know that we are the number 1 pornographic producing nation in the world? In the nation where it is the biggest producing nation, California is where it takes place! In California, it's in LA County. It's in the cities of Northridge, Hollywood and Burbank. God says I won't stand for it. God's not asking for your opinion or mine. He won't stand for it. He says I am holy and I have to do this. I am wondering what is holding back God from moving the Mojave Desert 25 feet to the north right now? So while people in California are sitting back enjoying the pornography and loving it, a great earthquake comes and now all of a sudden they want someone to pray. What is God's response? 

Isaiah 59:2 ~ "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; you sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." 

That is this nation is it not? It will happen. It's coming. I just hope as Christians, He comes for us first. And if he doesn't, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." If we live, we live for Christ, either way it's a win-win thing for us. Will God will judge people that He loves? God has promised that if you are His child, He will chastise you. He will punish us for our wrongs. If God loves America, despite being founded on Christian principles, He will discipline us for our wrongs. It's called national judgment. He does this to nations. He promises to do this to nations. He will do it to America. He does it to His children.

The Bible says if He doesn't do it to His children, if He doesn't punish you for your wrong, I'm not talking about your sins, Jesus paid the price for our sins at the cross. Now that you're a Christian and you belong to God. If you go do something dumb against God and your backsliding away from Him,

Galatians 6:7 ~"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

God will discipline us because we do the wrong things. Jerusalem, Israel had done the wrong thing. The 7 year Tribulation period is God focusing on the nation of Israel, and He is dealing with them on national judgment, and that judgment will bring them to a place of repentance. This is how God works. It's fundamental, it's historical, it's biblical, it is what we are observing here.

Are You Interested in Sack Cloth Ministry?

If someone shows up in sackcloth, they probably don't have good news. We live in a culture today that almost automatically shuns bad news. I don't believe that we have the ability to decide anymore what is bad news. Our culture equates bad news with things that make you unhappy. Yet how many times did God send an unhappy message with Jonah, or Ezekiel the Prophet or even John the Baptist to the hearers of their words? John the Baptist said that the Lord is laying the ax at the root of the trees. There are times in our lives, as Christians, that we need to take the mantle on ministry that Jesus would have us take and have us to have. He was the most loving individual the world has ever known and he is the most hated individual the world has ever known as well. This is possible because He loved but He also exposed darkness. People love darkness more than the love light. As Christians, in some audiences, we should be the most loved people, and in other audiences we will be the most hated. Not because we hate people, they will hate us, as Jesus said, "Don't be surprised if the world hates you, because they hated Me first." He said if you were of the world, they would love you. But I am not of this world and hopefully you are not either, and so the world will hate us as they hated Him.

They hate you because you represent the light of the Lord. If we were to say, God condemns adultery, God condemns homosexuality, God condemns robbery of banks, God condemns pride. People are going to say, how can I fix this in my life and want to know what they can do to get right in their life. While others are going to call us every name in the book, they will walk away from you, want nothing to do with what you just said and will hate you. This is the Christian ministry. It was John the Baptist's ministry. It was Jesus' ministry. In the Book of Revelation, it is the sackcloth ministry of those that speak for God.

Revelation 11:7-14 ~ "Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake an a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people will be killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed, the third woe is coming soon."

Revelation 11 introduces us to a very key period of time with regard to the great Tribulation period. We have already studied who the two witnessed are. We only really know who one of them is for sure and that is Elijah based on scripture references from both the Old and New Testament. We don't know for sure who the other one is. Some say Moses or it could be Enoch. The views are divided on just who it is, because things in the Bible point to both of them. It could very well be either or. Elijah and Enoch never died. They were both taken by God. It is appointed once for every man to die and then judgment, Elijah and Enoch never died a physical death.  The Bible says that Elijah must come back, we just don't know how he will appear.

They will be in Jerusalem preaching for 3 1/2 years not sure where exactly but as we come to this portion of scripture, these 3 1/2 years have commenced. They will have been preaching to the people for the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation period possibly at the signing of the 7-year peace treaty. This is not some made up story. This is real and it will take place at some point in the future. The Bible up to this point has never been wrong in any of the prophetic events it predicted would take place, have taken place in the most precise and minute details. These things will also happen exactly as predicted.

God's witness is not accepted by everyone. Have you realized that not everyone you talk to wants to hear about God and what He has done for you? You mention God, or Jesus or even open your Bible, people have a tendency to close up. You will make people very uncomfortable. The name that is most used either cursed or worshiped in the world is Jesus Christ! You either curse Him or worship Him! You can't say that about Mohammad, Buddha, Joseph Smith or Billy Graham or even the Pope. You either love Jesus and you say so, or you care a less about Him and it shows. The moment you tell people that Jesus died for us it makes people upset. They may not say it but they want to know why did He have to die. Just the thought is interesting to them but not in a good way. He died for our sins, and that is the problem they have. The cross implies that something is wrong in people's lives and that is the very reason, they want to have crosses and even the Ten Commandments removed. All of us are sinners and Jesus died for all of us. He loves us so much that He went to the cross for us. We need Him.

The message of God is unacceptable to the world now and to the world that is coming.

Revelation 11:7-8 ~ "Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified."

Can you imagine for 3 1/2 years the testimony of these two witnesses will be broadcast on Fox News, CNN and every other news organization every day all day. All the conviction, truth and uncomfortableness of what these witnesses are talking about will be broadcast 24/7. That Jesus Christ is the Messiah. We need to believe in Him and all the things mentioned in the Bible. Can you imagine how anointed their messages will be? If you think you've heard of a great sermon in your life, it will be nothing compared to one of their messages. They will be sent from heaven, anointed by the Holy Spirit and have had a long time to prepare their messages.

The reason this message is unacceptable to the world is because the message of God is personal. When they finish their "testimony," the word testimony is a legal term. It means when they bore witness of the truth. When they have finished their testimony or delivered their goods, then we read how the Antichrist and the political world will kill these two. They will not die until they have finished their testimony. When they die, their testimony is complete. God will not allow these two to suffer death, until the job is done.

For those of you under the age of 18, honor your mom and dad. The Bible says if you do this, you will live a long life. For those of you over the age of 18, serve the Lord will gladness. You will live a long life. I know the wisdom of God. The Bible says that He has numbered our days. We will not die a day sooner or a day later. We need to serve the Lord with gladness however many days He has appointed for us to live on this earth, because we want our life to count. I don't want to simply breathe air until it's time to go home. I want to make a difference, I want to live my life is such a way that when God says it's time to come home, I want to be able to say I am ready to go. I don't want to be on my death bed, begging God for more time because we now are facing regrets for what we didn't do with our time. We want to live for Him.

These two lived for the Lord with all their heart. When their time of testimony is done, it will look like to the whole world, that the Antichrist took the power and that he destroyed them. But as have read through the end of this chapter, everything turns around.

We know that these two witnesses will speak to the world in sackcloth as we remember from Revelation 11:3 ~"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth." People automatically equate wealth with those they see on Christian TV. They won't be expecting these two witnesses of God to be wearing sackcloth. They are part of a sack cloth ministry because whenever someone showed up wearing sackcloth in the Bible, it was to announce judgment. These guys and their message is not all that encouraging. Not doubt they give the gospel message however which is encouraging. It will challenge them to come to faith in Christ. Jonah was the first sackcloth prophet who had a similar ministry. The first submarine captain. Jonah went to Ninevah and what did he say? He's God man who walks on the scene and tells them that in 40 days, Ninevah will perish. We know Jonah hated the Ninevites. He preaches his message and goes to sit down under a tree overlooking the city to watch it all happen. He was excited that he was going to see an entire nation go up in flames.

But God told Jonah that they were repenting of their sins and that they were sorry. He can't destroy them. They were doing what He had hoped they would do. Jonah was all bent out of shape because he didn't like what God was doing because He was willing to accept their apology and forgive them. This was the greatest revival in all human history. The very minister who delivered the message was furious at his results. God is gracious and merciful but He is also Judge and He is holy! God will bring judgment during the Tribulation Period. We are called at times to have a sackcloth ministry.

Galatians 6:1 ~ "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted."

When we see a fellow Christian, we are to gently restore and rescue them back to the faith. This is sackcloth ministry. Don't confuse condemnation with the sackcloth ministry. God is not into condemnation. Yes, God is bound by His holiness to exercise judgment, but God is not willing that any man should perish or that any man should be condemned. Are men condemned? Yes! Do they perish without Christ? Yes. Who's choice is that? Not God. It's not His choice. It is their choice.

That is why God sent His Son, so that man could escape that destiny. But sometimes people don't respond to that kind of message.

Jude 1:22 ~ "Be merciful to those who doubt."

Some of us respond to a message of grace or some have to respond to a message of fire. "It's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance." Some respond to the message of what God has done in His great love for us and we are moved to make the decision to follow Jesus in faith. That is good. That is the way it was intended. But some of us are not wired that way. Some people respond to the fire and brimstone methods of teaching. They need the message to be straightforward and blunt to the core of what they are doing and what the end result will be if they don't respond.

Lord, 

I ask You right now that there are those who are like the woman caught in the act of adultery, thrown down to the ground, and brought Lord to Your feet. Your grace transformed her life. And then there are others like myself who inadvertently stumble into a church not knowing, heard about the judgment and condemnation of a sinner and knew that I was heading for fire. And You got me. So Lord, those who need grace to lead them to Your feet, those who need to hear and smell the crackling of eternal fires of hell itself, that they would come to Your feet. Lord, thank You that Your salvation is all encompassing, to all those who turn their hearts to You, in Jesus Name ~ AMEN!!!