In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. He emphasizes the importance of testifying the gospel and finishing the course with joy. The sermon also touches on the concept of reunion, where loved ones will be reunited in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The preacher then shifts the focus to the book of Revelation, explaining that after the rapture, there will be significant events that will take place on earth, as described in the fourth chapter through the 22nd chapter of Revelation.

Should we turn to Genesis chapter 1? Genesis chapter 1, and verse 20. Genesis 1 and verse 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales and every living thing, every living creature, that move it, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good, and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Luke chapter 21, Luke 21, and verse 22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give second those days! For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the storm, and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. And upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws nigh. Matthew 24, and verse 3, And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age, as it really is? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed, that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms. And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrow. Then shall they deliver you up to be oblicted, and shall kill you. And ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake. And there shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word. Now, you notice that in the portion that we have read in Genesis, we have come to the fifth day. We have been following the various days, and we saw how that on the fourth day, God turned away from the earth, and he was occupied with garnishing the heavens, picturing for us this present age in which you and I live, in which the Lord is taking out from amongst the Jews and the Gentiles a people for his name, as we find recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Acts. And when this present purpose of God is fulfilled, when his church is complete, as we were seeing last night, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. The first thing that will happen will be the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as the bridegroom, as the bright and the morning star. And the next thing that will happen is that dead in Christ, from Abel who died who was the first marker to the very last who have fallen asleep in Jesus, every one of them will be raised. The dead in Christ shall rise first. And so, the second thing is we have the resurrection. First of all, the return of the Lord Jesus, then the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and then the third thing we have is the rapture of those who are alive in Christ. The taking away out of this world of those who are the children of God, who are members of the body of Christ, and it says we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. And someone has said that the fourth R, that is the reunion. The reunion of loved ones who have gone before. We shall be reunited, and we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And as I mentioned the other night, that is not the end of the world. As you notice on this chart, after the Lord has taken his people to be with himself, there is still much to follow upon the earth. In fact, we might say that from the fourth chapter of Revelation to the very end of the Revelation, all that is future. So that you can understand the book of Revelation, you start reading the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter. They're occupied with the saints in heaven. And then the sixth chapter begins with the seven seals, and then the seven trumpets, and then the seven vials of the wrath of God. All that is to take place on the earth after the Lord comes. So our point tonight is we want to speak entirely on this fifth age. And, of course, you know if it takes from the fourth chapter through the 22nd chapter of Revelation to tell us what that future age is going to be like, why, of course, you and I can't take 18 chapters in one night. And so we're just going to look very briefly at some of the events that are going to take place on the earth after the Lord Jesus takes his own to be with himself. You notice that in this fifth day, it tells us that the Lord God spoke. God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Now, at the end of the second day, in the beginning of the third day, we have the nations, as it were, divided. And we have the nations, as it were, set aside while God is dealing with the nation of Israel. The nations you might say picturing for us, pictured for us in the waters. We saw that from Revelation 17 and verse 14 where John is told that the waters are peoples and multitudes of people and tongues and so on. Well, here we have God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Now, I think it is very significant that Moses, who we believe is the writer of the first chapter of Genesis, is quite in accord with the latest modern science of the day. Now, we don't, of course, believe in the theory of evolution that man has evolved, but nevertheless there are many scientists who believe that life originated in the waters and that it was from the waters that the first one-celled creatures or kinds of life came forth and eventually developed and through the waters from fish and so on developed into reptiles and from reptiles into fish and from fish into men. Now, of course, we don't believe, according to the Bible, that all of these are one and the same thing. You know, we don't want to be like the Roman Catholic priest who ordered steak and the wife reminded him, but father, you know it's right. He says, all right, he says, and he simply spoke a few words over it and in his estimation it became fish. Now, you know, if we order steak and the waiter brings us fish, or if we order chicken and the waiter brings us something else like fish or something, why, you and I would make our minds very clear because we know that there is distinctly a difference between these different kinds of flesh. And when we turn to the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, I think that in this verse here, in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, we have a very clear distinction as to the different kinds of flesh that there is in the world. Notice in the 38th verse of the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, it says, But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. So, there you see that Paul distinguished very distinctly between the different kinds of flesh that there is in the world. He never says that one of these flesh develop into the other flesh. Each one of them is distinct, but nevertheless, science, or so-called science, we believe is true when it says that life originated in the waters, and that's exactly what Moses tells us. Not that we believe that life evolved from the waters, but the first forms of animal life, or any kind of life apart from plant life which we saw on the third day, that life with a soul in it. And that is what distinguishes animals and humans from trees and plants. You know, really and truly, there are three different kinds of life. First of all, there is inanimate life. That is, like in a tree, or in a flower, or in the grass. All of these things have life. But then comes animal. Animals also have life, but the Bible speaks to us and tells us that animals have souls as well. That is to say that these souls are not, of course, eternal souls, but they are to be distinguished from the physical part of that creature. In other words, that the life within it is a soulical life. But man has more than a soul, man has a spirit, and so man is the one who can know God. And so here we have brought before us that these creatures in the seas, God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Here we find that the first forms of life are from the waters. And then it tells us, And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. Isn't it remarkable how accurate Moses is? He says the waters bring forth abundantly. They tell us that one pair of mackerel, if they were allowed to live for a year, and could reproduce, and all their progeny could reproduce, that in the course of a year they would fill every ocean in the world so full of fish, of mackerel, that you could walk from continent to continent over the oceans of the world because they breed and multiply so abundantly. And this is not only true of mackerel, it is true of many different kinds of water creatures. Now, here we have the waters which are dead. They are beginning, or God is in them, producing these various forms of life. And it tells us also that he makes the winged fowls, and God blessed them saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and that fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Now, after the fourth day, after the Lord has taken his people to be with himself, the waters begin to bring forth. And the reference for this fifth period, a period of time from the coming of the Lord Jesus for his church to the coming of the Lord Jesus with his people, a period which is known as the Last of Seventy Weeks. It is known as Daniel's Last Week. It is known as the time of Jacob's Trouble. It is known as the Tribulation Period. A period which the word of God brings before us will be perhaps the briefest and the smallest of the dispensations, but nevertheless a period of time in which God is going to do remarkable and tremendous things in the world. The waters brought forth life. Will there be anyone saved during this Tribulation Period? Well, just as these waters brought forth, and just as there were fowls of the heavens, it brings before us that there will be those who will receive life, who will be saved, and who will be blessed during the Tribulation Period. If you notice, as I read from Matthew chapter 24, we have a little expression in that portion. Notice Matthew 24. Now, the reason I read Matthew 24, there are so many portions to read regarding this Tribulation Period, is because in Matthew chapter 24 we have, as it were, a brief orderly arrangement of events in the Tribulation Period, or the time of Jacob's Trouble. Notice in Matthew chapter 24 and the 13th verse, it says, "...but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Now, I think it's very important that you and I should understand this verse. I remember one time being in Waco, Texas, and I was in meetings there, and a sister was being visited by a Jehovah's Witness woman, and she didn't know how to meet this woman, and she didn't like to have her coming to her home to teach her, and so she asked me if I would be there when this woman came to see her so that I might be able to talk with her and show her from the Word of God what the Word of God teaches regarding salvation and so on. Well, this woman heard about it, and so she brought a preacher with her, which of course I enjoyed very much, and so we got into conversation, and I asked him a question. I asked him, well, are you saved? He says, well, he says, is it possible for anyone to know that he's saved? Because the Scripture says, he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. So, how can you say that you're saved unless you have endured to the end? And so I asked him another question. I said, well, let me ask you a question then. What is the end? Well, what do you mean? What is the end? Now, you quoted the verse. Well, yes, but you asked, so we went back and forth. And finally I said to him, well, what is the end? He that shall endure unto the end, is that the end of my life, or what is that the end of? He says, well, what is it the end of? I said, well, let's just find out what the Bible says. We'll find out in the portion that we have read what the end is. What is the end that a person has to endure to in order to be saved? I said, let's look at the verse. And so we looked at the verse and we went backward in the portion. And then I said, well, notice it tells us, as we go back a little bit, it tells us there in the sixth verse, Ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Now, there is the end. What is the end? We haven't got the answer yet. Let us go back to the third verse, and we'll find that the disciples asked the Lord three questions. Tell us, when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming? And of the end of, not the world, but the end of the age. Now, he that shall endure unto the end, what is the end? The end is the end of the age. And you notice, we have a little farther down where the apostle, where the Lord Jesus tells us, in Matthew 24 here, notice in the 14th verse, it says, This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. What is the Lord speaking about? He is speaking about the end of the tribulation period. And the one who is going to be saved in the tribulation period is the person that is going to have to endure unto the end. Why endure unto the end of the tribulation period? Because in the middle of that tribulation period, when Satan is cast out of heaven, and he takes possession of the beast and the antichrist, and the image of the beast is set up in Palestine in the temple, those who fall down and worship the antichrist, they will lose their soul. But those who refuse and plead for their lives, persecuted, nevertheless will be preserved, and they shall endure unto the end or until the time that the Lord Jesus Christ comes. So, we find that there are going to be those who are going to be saved during the tribulation period. But who are they? None of those who have heard the gospel in this present period of time. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Let us turn for a moment to 2 Thessalonians and chapter 2. Notice what it tells us here. The apostle Paul is speaking about this very same time. Notice he tells us in the tenth verse of the coming of the antichrist. And he says, With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, there are those who believe not the truth are going to believe the lie. Now, you notice that on this chart we have several lines brought before us. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes and takes out of this world those who are really and truly born again, we want you to notice that the false church is left behind. We find that the so-called church, the professing church, that is left behind, those who have never been born again, those who are not in wealth of the Spirit of God, are going to be left behind. And the Bible tells us that they are going to form that great religious unity for which Christendom is so zealously working today. Why, within the last five years they've had these councils in Rome. And not only that, but Protestants have been coming to these councils. And if you've read any of the articles as to what Protestant leaders are saying, they say that we went there as observers just to see what was taking place. And when we saw how rampant and zealous Rome is for unity, many of us have been converted to their way of thinking, and our purpose and our plan is to hasten and speed as far as possible and as fast as possible this great union of Christendom. Well, the Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 17 and 18 that when the Lord does take his true people to be with himself, the true faith is gone, and we find that Christendom will form into that great religious unity. That it will make its boast that at last they have accomplished something that has not been possible since the days of the apostles. Oh, it's true that when the Lord comes and takes his own true people to be with himself, Christendom will undoubtedly be stunned. No doubt church people will flock to their churches to ask of their preachers why, what it is that happened? What is it? Has the Lord really come? What does it mean to them? I don't doubt for a moment that Satan will be ready to step in with his deceptions and his lies. I don't doubt for a moment but what religious leaders will be deluded into thinking that after all there is some hope, there is some prospect of salvation, and bringing about this church unity, this oneness of a great unity, they will bring about this unity that they will boast in, and perhaps they will have a great name for. But God will call it Babylon the Great. And you notice, it will go on through almost the whole tribulation period, but not to the very end because at the same time that this great church unity is brought about, there is also going to be a great political unity in the Western world. And we find this political unity in the 13th chapter of Revelation. In the 17th chapter of Revelation, John sees it under the form of a seven-headed beast, and upon this head it has ten horns. And he tells us that this is the last form of the Western world's empire. Within the last 15 years, in Europe, which for centuries has been a conglomeration of nationalistic nations which have not been able to live in unity and harmony for any length of time, these nations today are working together. And what is it that has brought them together? It is the common market which has brought a measure of prosperity to Western Europe that it has not seen for centuries. And this has brought these nations together, and they're working together, bringing down walls of tariffs and barriers that have been erected for centuries so that today these nations are selling between one another as never before. Well, this is preparing the way for that ten-kingdom empire which the Word of God brings before us is going to be formed in the Western world. We don't know whether the United States will be in it or not in its final state. The United States is so inextricably bound up with the Western world it seems difficult not to believe that it's not going to be in it. It's easier to believe that it's going to be in it. But we cannot say with absolute certainty just exactly what those ten nations will be. But they will be in absolute harmony and unity with the religious system. They will be in fellowship with and working together with the religious system. And they will go on together for the first half of the tribulation period until Satan is cast out of heaven and takes possession of that leader. If we turn to Revelation 6 we'll notice the seal. And we'll notice that the sixth seal brings before us an earthquake. When islands are moved out of place the stars fall from heaven when mountains are shaking. I think, my friends, that in the middle of the tribulation period there is going to be an overthrow of our civilization as we know it. It is with all the debts that are being piled up by the United States with all the terrible debts that are being piled up by other nations. Eventually, a payday is coming. And I believe that the sixth seal which is above the middle of the tribulation period is a picture or a description of the overthrow of our modern civilization which has been influenced by and formed by Christendom by Christian teaching and the influence of Christian teaching. And out of the chaos and terror that is going to be so awful in the middle of that tribulation period so that men will cry to the rocks and to the mountains to fall on them, out of that chaotic state is going to arise this great political leader who is going to bring harmony and unity and oneness into the chaotic state energized by Satan. He is going to take control of it, and he is going to demand that men acknowledge him and recognize him. At the same time that this is taking place in the Western world, in the land of Palestine, the Jews are back in their land. They have been back since 1948. Today the Jew in the land of Palestine is like a grain of wheat between two millstones. Above him to the north is the nation of Syria which threatens to exterminate and destroy them. To the south is the nation of Egypt which hates them. And both of these nations say there will never be peace in the world as long as there is a Jew or as long as there is a Jewish nation. The only way there can be any peace in the world is the Jew has to be exterminated. These nations, Syria and Egypt, are gradually getting stronger. Gradually they are aligning themselves with Russia. Gradually they are leaning more and more toward the communistic principle. And these people, we find, are going to make things so tough and so rough for the people of Israel that the people of Israel are going to seek a covenant with this political head in the first part of the tribulation period. And everything will go all right until the middle of that tribulation period when, out of the chaos, this political head asserts himself as dictator and ruler and demands that all worship and acknowledge him away with all gods. We saw a picture of that in the last world war when Adolf Hitler recognized that he must be supreme. That all religion must be exterminated. That all knowledge of God must be done away with. The state must be first and foremost and he above all. A little picture to us of what will take place in the tribulation period. And so, in order to do that, he must destroy the religious system. How does Babylon meet its end? Not by God's hands. It meets its end at the hands of the political power. At the hands of the ten kings according to Revelation 17 who are going to destroy it. And we find that for the last three and a half years the tremendous pressure of the tribulation period is especially against the Jewish people. And that's why in Matthew chapter 24 you and I do not have the church in Matthew chapter 24. We can read the church into Matthew chapter 24. In Matthew chapter 24 it is especially the people of Israel. Notice in the 15th verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye then your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day, for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Now, who are the elect? Who are the elect who are going to be saved through that tribulation period? Who are the elect who are going to be preserved so that the days are actually shortened for their salvation? Well, when we turn to Revelation chapter 7, we have brought before us a description of who the elect are who are going to be saved during the tribulation period. Revelation chapter 7. Notice verse 1, And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed an hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Now, here are the elect who are spoken of in Matthew chapter 24. The elect are the hundred and forty-four thousand who are preserved through that tribulation period to become the nucleus of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are sealed. In other words, they are preserved. They are marked by the Lord from the very beginning of the tribulation period. These are the ones of whom we read in Matthew chapter 24, and notice what it tells us in the fourteenth verse, This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Now, notice, there will be preaching during the tribulation period, but it will not be the preaching that is going on in this present period of time. If we just turn to the twentieth chapter of Acts for a moment, notice what you and I preach today, Acts chapter 20. And notice, in this verse here, and verse 20, Paul is speaking, and he says, Have I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shown you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ? And then notice the twenty-fourth verse, But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. What do we preach today? We preach the gospel of the grace of God. That is, we tell the story of God's grace, that God's grace is greater than man's sin, that God wants to forgive man's sin, that God gave His Son to die on Calvary's cross for man's sin, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, that we're saved by grace through faith, that not of ourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should close. Now, in the tribulation period, they're not going to be preaching a crucified Christ. They're not going to preach that a Savior died on the cross for their sins, because though they are sealed, they still do not know that this Jesus, whom they have rejected as a nation, is really and truly their Messiah. What they are preaching is a Messiah is coming. God's Deliverer is coming. He will deliver us, and they will refuse to worship the beast and his image. They will maintain God's command. They will be looking for their Messiah, and when He does come, and they see the nail prints in His hands, they will experience what Saul of Tarsus experienced on the road to Damascus, when it was brought to him that the Lord who is speaking to me from heaven is Jesus, the very one that I have been hating, and He was converted. Paul spoke of himself as one born before the time. So the Jews, who are preaching the 144,000, are preaching a coming Messiah, a coming Christ. Prepare for Him, repent of your sins, and be prepared to receive the one whom God is sending. They are the 144,000. They are the elect who are preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Who are they preaching it to? Notice the 14th verse of Matthew 24. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Will their witness be accepted? Will their witness be received? When we turn to Revelation chapter 7, we find another plan beside the 144,000, and this is a multitude who are without number. And notice what it tells us here in Revelation 7. It says in the 9th verse, After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces in worship, saying," the 13th verse, one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Now, this is after. We are picturing, we see them in white robes after they have come out of the great tribulation, because when the Lord comes and sits upon his throne, as they are before him in judgment, they are the sheep who are put on the right hand, and the reception of the messengers, and the message that was brought to them, leads to a complete enlightenment and knowledge of the Lord Jesus when he comes, so that they are washed from their sins in the blood of Christ, because having received the messengers, they have received the message, and the Lord recognizes it when he comes back again. And so we find it's a vast multitude without number who will also go into the kingdom and will share the blessedness of the kingdom, because they have been spared and preserved and delivered through the tribulation period. But you know, what happens to those who receive the answer to Christ? What happens to those who bow down to him? How does that age end? That age will end as we have it brought before us in Matthew chapter 24. Notice what it tells us here in Matthew 24, in verse 27. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now, I might mention that whenever you read of the coming of the Son of Man, it's always, without exception, the coming of the Lord Jesus to the earth. Now, there is only one place in Matthew chapter 25 in the parable of the virgins. If you'll notice that, I just want to bring this before you. Matthew 25, in verse 13, it says, Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. The ten virgins is always spoken of as this present age. Now, this puzzled me for a while until I looked it up in other translations, and I find that the more accurate translations and later translations, every one of them, without exception, the revised version, Mr. Darby's, and all the accurate translations, all stop at the word, hour. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour. In other words, that last phrase was inserted by scribes who, reading of the coming of the Son of Man, just added this phrase to that verse, and it doesn't belong there because the parable of the virgins speaks of this age, and so the coming of this age is going to end by the coming of the bridegroom, the bright and morning star, but the coming of the Son of Man always refers the Lord Jesus in his relationship to the earth, the rightful heir of the earth, the rightful heir of the kingdom, and that is why every time you read of the coming of the Son of Man in the scripture, it always refers to his coming to the earth, and so it says, For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together, the carcass, of course, speaking of apostate Judaism, and the eagles gathered together at the battle of Armageddon. The Lord sums it all up in one verse. He says, Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be dark, and the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Now, the powers of the heavens are distinguished from the stars of heaven. The powers of the heavens speak of Satan and his hosts. They are cast out of heaven. The powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now, you notice that this coming is seen by the entire world. My friend, they won't need television to see it either. Now, some people seem to think it's going to take television to show the world the coming of the Lord. Well, it's not going to require that. Notice what it tells us in the 27th verse. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west. Now, you know you can see lightning when it flips across the heavens. And so, his coming is going to be visible. He is going to be seen by all men as he comes from heaven, and he comes to the Mount of Olives. We know exactly where he is coming. We know how he is coming. When I say exactly where, I mean the Mount. He is coming to the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14 tells us his feet shall stand upon Mount Olives. And so, we know he is coming to the very same place from whence he left. And when he does come, accompanied with all his saints, to bring to the end that great tribulation period, a time of trouble for the Jews, a time of trouble for Christendom, a time of trouble for the nations of the world. If we were to go into the book of Revelation, and look at chapter after chapter, we would see the various personages, the various places, the nations, and bodies of peoples that will be affected in that tribulation period. And the only way it will end, and save men from destroying themselves. I was talking with a very able brother not so long ago. We were talking about the coming of the Lord. And these words of the Lord Jesus, when he said, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. He said to me, well, after all, it's the Lord who keeps things in control. And he won't let them go any farther than what he will permit. That is true in this present period of time. But, he said that if men were left to themselves with what they had, with their weapons, their destructiveness, unenergized by the devil, because my friends, this is going to be the time of the Lamb's wrath. It's going to be the time of God's wrath, and it's going to be the time of the devil's wrath. Three different phases of wrath all piled up in the earth. We have a picture of it in Noah's time. In Noah's time, the flood came from above. The bowels of the earth were opened, and it came forth from the earth, so that from heaven and from earth, this terrible catastrophe came upon the world. In this time, it will be from heaven. It will be from Satan, and all the hideous hatefulness of men, unrestrained any longer by any rule or any religion. You know, all you have to do is go into some big city like Chicago. I was born and raised in Chicago. I go back to that city now, get on a bus, and my, oh my, they seem to have no consideration in everyone for himself. There seems to be very little courtesy or consideration. Men today are becoming everyone for self. My friends, this is what's in the institution, the man left to himself, under the power of Satan, all the evil, the hideousness, the hatred, the miserableness of a man's disposition, then to pour it in that awful period of tribulation. Man would destroy himself. The Lord is going to restrain it and stop it, but how is he going to do it? He's going to do it, and the only way that he could do it, he must first come to his senses, and he must take control of his situation, execute his judgment, deliver his people, and set up his kingdom of righteousness. The waters will bring forth life. Out of those awful tribulation times, there will be a people who will be saved for that millennial age, but none of those will be any who have heard or had a chance to receive the Lord Jesus through their dedication and effort. Scripture says very plainly, they shall all be dead who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. And so we find that that age is going to end in judgment, gross judgment, upon a world that has reaped the full fruit of its sins, a world which has turned its back upon the Savior, and therefore received the Antichrist, and become subject to the awful judgment and the wrath of God. So friends, if you want to read more about that day, read it from Revelation 6 through 19, read about Matthew 24, read 2 Thessalonians 2, read Zechariah 14, read Daniel 11, and Job chapter 2, and a number of other portions that we find in the Old as well as the New Testament. And no wonder the Lord Jesus said, Men's hearts, failing them for fear, for those things which are coming to pass upon the earth. How thankful we can be that we who are saved are going to be with our Lord Jesus far above the clouds. In fact, He will never begin this act of judgment until His own heart is safely with Himself. Are you one of them? Are you sure that you're going to be with Christ? Are you sure that you're washed from your sin in the blood of the Lord Jesus? If He should come tonight, would you be taken to be with Him and lifted above all these terrible calamities? Or will you be left behind to go through that awful period of tribulation, a time of trouble that our Lord said, and there never will be after it again. Friend, it's a good thing to know where you belong. Shall we pray?