In the sermon, the speaker discusses a film from the New York Bible Society that depicts the gospel being disregarded and thrown on the ground. The speaker emphasizes that those who have accepted the gospel will be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ and will be caught up to be with Him. The sermon also mentions that this signifies the sealing of the end and the coming of the Lord. The speaker urges the audience to witness effectively for Christ, using tracks and gospels wisely, and to have a burden for the unsaved. The sermon concludes with the promise that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He will reign forever.

In the light of what our scripture brings us tonight, we realize that the triumph seen in this wonderful 11th chapter of Revelation makes clear and real the testimony of the Apostle to die is gain. Revelation chapter 11 and verse 14 to the end of the chapter. Do you recall the seventh seal that was opened and in that seventh seal there was the unfolding of the victory? So here in the seventh trumpet you have the unfolding of victory. The second woe is past and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying, we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and was and art to come because thou has taken to thee thy great power and has reigned and the nations are angry and thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward under thy servants the prophets and to the saints and them that fear thy name small and great and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. We've been pointing out week by week as we've considered the previous six trumpets that these trumpets actually have reference to, at least in my opinion, to the satanically inspired delusions that have come upon the world as light has come and men have chosen darkness rather than light. We saw that when men reject the truth God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. You might if you wish to trace the chronology of these trumpets by saying that the first occurred in the third up to the third century and the second thereafter and the darkness that came under Rome and the third subsequently finding in it Mohammedanism and a liberalism and all of these things if you wish to do that and you found any comfort by assigning a date to the trumpets I'm sure that you'd find reason for for doing it. Personally I'm simply going to state that these trumpets have been parallel to the whole history of the church and probably in some sense all six of them have been. They've been continuing. There have been in nations as well as in portions of nations delusions that have come because men have rejected the truth of the gospel and the consequence is a gradually extending outreach of this delusion until in the sixth you find that a third part of the earth is involved and then it goes on even further. I suppose it wouldn't be too hard for us to see that somewhere among these trumpets is communism, this religion, this inversion of Christianity, this twisting of the gospel, this church in darkness, this counterfeit that Satan has devised which is almost the direct opposite of the church. I suppose we could find it and certainly we would agree that more have been involved in it than in all more been destroyed eternally by it than by all the wars of history or at least a good portion of that number would have been represented by those that have been engulfed by atheistic communism. A religious delusion satanically inspired. You would expect wouldn't you when you came to the seventh trumpet that you would find the great climax when somehow God's judgment came down fiercely upon the earth until there was that awful rending. Well what do you find? The seventh trumpet when it is sounded takes you away from earth and right into the heavens bypassing all the events that have transpired. They're all there the scripture tells you about them and we'll be referring to them but rather than carrying us here into the actual agony and travail and suffering that produced this when John who had been overwhelmed by the revelation of these previous six trumpets was prepared now for the seventh in a sense he was astounded because it carried him right into the heavenlies right there in the presence of God where he saw the glorious consummation of all things and the victory that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. So I want you to look at it for just a moment we're going to see three things in it first the vision that John beheld and said the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. This is the promise that was given to the Lord Jesus Christ that if he would come into the world that every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he is Lord. When he left heaven's glory it was now no fishing expedition there wasn't any thought that possibly it might not turn out properly. The one thing we have seen running through this entire book of Revelation is that God holds in his hands the sealed book and that book in the right hand of God is the events that are going to transpire and everything that happens in human history happens according to the book. Now if you haven't gotten that thus far in the study of Revelation you missed the heart of it. The heart of it is this that all things are happening according to the counsel of his will and the God of the Bible is the sovereign God that has a book in which are the events that are to transpire known beforehand to him and thus when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world he had a people they were known to him in the foreknowledge of God everyone that ever was to believe was seen as though he had already believed. There was no happenstance there was no perhaps in God what was to be as though it had already transpired. Now the trouble with most of us we have problems and the reason we have problems is we don't have a big enough God. We just can't both hang on to problems and God at the same time. You either hold and cling to your problem or you hold and cling to God. You can't cling to both at the same time and too many people have far too small a God. They haven't the one that's here in the Bible they've one that they've made out of their own imaginations. You know it's easy to take a little poetic sentiment and a little hymn hymns a few hymns and some misquoted scripture verses and sort of knead them together into a dough of your own mixing and then to sort of shape it mold it and and get God out of this mixture and he just about fits under the right arm and he's just about big enough so that he can help you with part of the time but circumstances can crowd him out of the picture. No that's not this God. The God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is a sovereign God and he does all things after the counsel of his own will and most people don't like that God. He's not very popular. The God who goes through the forest in the fall and paints the maple trees red and yellow they like him and the God who makes the hoarfrost on the windows create little images of fantasy they like him and the God that the politicians talk about everyone they're running for office most folks folks don't mind him but the God of the Bible the God that sits down on the throne and said I will do thus and not thus he's not very popular and if there's been throughout the centuries an effort to dethrone God this was Satan's great crime he didn't want anyone to rule over him he didn't want God on the throne and so he said I'll be like the Most High I'll ascend onto the throne of the Most High and he infected the human race with this same virus and down across the centuries men have been trying to do the same thing and consequently the only way that anyone can ever understand the Bible and ever ever get equated with the God of the Bible is to realize that he sits on the throne and that he holds in his hand the book and it's a sealed book and in that sealed book is all that God is ever going to do known before the foundation of the world are the works of the Lord and he knew everyone that was going to believe and this people that he could reach by the means of his grace and those would respond and those that in love thus because of the are the the divine selection of the means of grace were the heirs of salvation he calls the elect and this is the people that we're finding now we don't know who they are and the way by that God sovereignly ordained that they should come to him was by the preaching of the word and when you go into a tenement and you leave tracks in the door and you talk with people and you visit with people you're not going in vain you don't know who it is but somewhere somewhere is the one to whom this message of grace is going to be effectual we don't know who they are but God knows who they are we were watching this evening in the young people's society this excellent film from the New York Bible Society that we sometime in the near future secure for all of you but in it depicted a gospel that was thrown on the ground and left there a derision this one that had received it with the warm and treaty counted it is something to be trodden underfoot and threw it on the ground but it was picked up by another so the account is and we know it's true because the same thing has happened over and over again and we have the testimony of it and so this young lad was depicted as picking up the gospel and taking it home and reading it studying it well you see this to us is happenstance but not to God he's reigning and he's ruling now you've got to see that dear heart if you think that this thing is just sort of a game of pick-up sticks and you don't know what's going to happen next you can't understand the Bible this Bible sets forth God as sitting upon the throne and reigning and ruling I hope you love that God I hope you do I told you some years ago first I came about an experience of acquaintance of mine down south he'd been preaching for some weeks on the sovereignty of God and it wasn't very popular there that God saved and worked and moved after the council of his own will and purpose and he'd gone to this farmers home a typical southern meal you know three or four kinds of meat fish and chicken and ham and beef and six or eight vegetables and four five kinds of bread well my friend was a specialist in cornbread and buttermilk it was his in fried chicken that was what he was interested in he didn't you have to specialize in situations like that or else it's fatal and he was specializing at one end of the table opposite the host and he was getting the cornbread and buttermilk just keeping it coming slowly but steadily and doing all that he could injustice to the meal the man down at the end wasn't very happy he'd take a bite and he'd have to at three minutes before he could swallow and he just was just was having a difficult time and after a while he just choked on his food he couldn't get it down and he took an unfinished chicken leg in his right hand and he started to wave he said preacher and the God I worship doesn't do what you say he does waving the chicken leg and my friend looked at him said well all right would you pass the cornbread and he had just went off and he said didn't you hear me and still waving I said the God that I worship doesn't do what you say he does said well all right it's all right I'm no argument with that would you pass the buttermilk and after a little while he said now preach I invited you here and I don't begrudge you the food but you answer that question before you take another bite and my friend said all right I have no argument with you you said that the God you worship doesn't do what I say he does and I have no argument because I don't know anything about the God you worship but I know that the God of the Bible does what I say he does because I'm telling the word if you worship the God of the Bible and the God you worship does what I say he does you see dear friends it's a question do you worship the God of the Bible and this God the God of the Bible reigns and rules and controls and holds the hearts of kings in his hands and works all things after the counsel of his own will and he hasn't abdicated the throne he's still on the throne oh let your heart rest in this that God is on the throne and so through the centuries when the light has come men rejected light so God God has permitted sense strong delusion satanic delusions of arisen God permitted it you think Islam could have accomplished what it did succeeded as it has if God hadn't let it of course it couldn't we say today that nine people are being converted to Islam for one that's being brought to Christ I have no argument with that I simply say it wouldn't have happened if God hadn't let it you think that an extreme liberalism could have progressed as it did 30 years ago until it captured whole denominations and seminaries and school systems you think it could have happened if God hadn't let it know God let it he let it do you think that communism that began with one man with a pen Karl Marx penning his thoughts and a few men in a sealed boxcar smuggled over Poland and into Russia do you think for a moment that this thing could have done what it has done if God hadn't let it and these these trumpets have been permitted but do you think for a moment that all of these things are hindering the outworking of his eternal purpose no no no do you say we should fight them we should fight them with truth that's the only weapon God's ever given us the only way that the church can ever fight is to be something and if we aren't something then everything else when you see all the political action committees and all the efforts that are being put forth at all of the attempts they all fall short now I believe that Christian men are to participate in government you've heard me speak to this but the function of the church is to be salt and when it loses its savor it's good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot and it'll be captured and be subjected to delusions this happened and it's going to keep happening and when I have told you as I have for four years that nothing is going to stop this ecumenical thing and the ecumenical effort is going to go forward it's going to succeed and it's going to continue and there's nothing going to stop it I'm not a prophet or a son of a prophet how can you be so sure because people want it that way that's why they want it that way mr. Woods who was here last October in meeting told dr. Dozer and I in personal conversation that he had been in a meeting of men pastors evangelist Christian workers in Europe during the summer and the whole tone and the whole emphasis that convention was we must join the World Council or we're going to be crowded off it's going to have come say well why because they want it that way they want it that way do you think that this is going to stop what God's doing no used to be time when I was greatly disturbed and distressed and had a lot of unrest but I don't anymore because I can see that God still sits on the throne and the seventh angel sounded and the seventh angel spoke as a great voice in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever it's not going to come to the United Nations it's not going to come through any political effort and it's not going to come through any political party it's going to come because God in his sovereign power will come to the place where he'll say thus far no further and he's going to stop the whole thing gonna stop it we saw did we not last week that just as soon as the mystery of God was finished time was no more the mystery of God was well the mystery of God is the church and now that's the thing that he's doing at this time and we'll reach back and gather the redeemed of past ages but the mystery of God is the church and the Lord Jesus tonight is working through these agents of the redeemed by the Holy Spirit and gathering here and there from every kindred and tribe and tongue and nation and people these that are the heirs of salvation the day will come when the last one is in wouldn't it be wonderful if it were tomorrow why wouldn't it be glorious if it were tomorrow wouldn't you like that well I'll tell you one thing if he doesn't come tomorrow it's because there's still some being brought to Christ and every day he tarries there are others being gathered in they're coming in in grot here there big flu fruit not often great companies as we see in New Guinea where they're just coming by the hundreds and whole villages seemingly are turning turning to Christ it's not happening generally today but here is one there's another and still another and one day not far hence the last one will be the mystery of God will be finished in other words the church will be complete gathered the last then and then it's over time should be no more then what's going to happen well far be it for me to try to establish a chronology I've gone this far in Revelation without doing it and I don't propose to do it now but I think would be wonderful for us to look at two scripture verses tonight if we'd look at the first Timothy excuse me first that's a real turn first at first Thessalonians first Thessalonians chapter 1 Paul seeing this time this conclusion and it's here it's in between it isn't in the seventh trumpet it's part of it but we're just taking a glimpse now to see what's happening let me read from verse 4 so you get the context so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which also you suffer seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them the trouble you and to you who are trouble rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired at all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day he's going to come and he's going to take vengeance and flaming fire on all them that know not God and the glorify not our Lord Jesus Christ in Titus the second chapter again and remember that he said here of his own the great God looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works that's the blessed hope of the believer for the believer it's the blessed hope of seeing the Lord he's going to come he's going to return we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump or the dead in Christ shall rise first and we which are alive shall be caught up to meet the Lord of the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord it's a wonderful hope that we have it's a glorious confidence that we have that even though we should go by way of martyrdom or natural cause into the grave to be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord and should we be alive and remain till that time he's going to come and gather us to himself well now if this is the blessed hope of the believer that he's going to see the Lord face to face and this is the hour of judgment of those who spurned the gospel then you can see that here two things have taken place from the time the mystery of God is completed two things have happened first the Lord Jesus Christ has come back again and gathered to himself his own drawer drawn them to himself and the dead have arisen those which were alive and remain have been caught up to be him be with him and in seeing him have been transformed into his image and likeness but at the same time this this means also the sealing of the of the end this is the end this is the conclusion and we find us that here is given to us this statement that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever I do not believe that it's necessary for us to work out schedules I used to I used to tell you I could have told you who the horns were and all about it let me just put into a simple statement what I what I personally feel is in the off that soon the sands in the glass are going to run out I'm going to run out the last one is going to be in and then the Lord's gonna say it's all over finished and he's going to come he's going to gather his own to himself the redeemed are going to meet him they're going to be transformed changed into his image in his likeness and at that time they're going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the deeds they've done in the body whether they be bad or good now Christian friend I wonder if this is sufficiently clear in your mind you are going to stand before him and give an account of everything you've done since the day you came to know and love Christ so am I and I won't judge you you won't judge me but have you stopped to realize that every word you've said is going to be played back to you then and the thoughts of your heart are going to be revealed then and the deeds are going to be revealed then and the sins you've committed are going to be revealed then have you stopped to consider that that since the day you came to know Christ everything is going to be unveiled between you and the Lord immediately someone's going to say well what about the sins aren't they forgiven everything that you committed everything you did before you were saved will be remembered against you no more forever but from the day you were saved from the day you were put into Christ from the day you were put in the rock you were building with a choice of materials gold silver precious stones wood a stubble I believe this with all my heart that we're going to give an account you say well what if there were sins weren't they forgiven yes and we will not be judged before them as sins won't be that they'll be judged as sins that's dealt with the way in which they will be brought up is this that that portion of our life that was lived under that sin was wasted and squandered as far as the glory of God was concerned it will be like the pattern being woven and you were weaving and the complete pattern would be to his praise but here's a period or a piece of your pattern where it's just the war and no nothing just bare and empty and then there's there's a repentance and a return in the building but over here something else comes in and the grieves God I believe that when our lives are unraveled before him that we're going to see the blank spaces in the empty spaces the wasted time and effort in years the squandering of our life essence it's going to be as wood and hay and stubble which when God's judgment pierces it it gets consumed and leaves nothing but ashes and all it will remain is that which was to the glory of God now I wonder if you see that I wonder if you behold I wonder if you recognize that what you say and do what I say and do all that flows out of my life it's like a tape recorder perhaps we should say a videotape it's amazing you know where they put both the sound and and the picture on electronic impulse it's recorded I think in that day when you stand before him he's going to just play your life back and you're going to see it and here it'll come these will be the words the thoughts and the activities they'll be unrolled played back you're going to give an account of the deed you've done in the body whether they be good or bad that's the first thing that's the first thing that's going to happen to the Christian then after that the marriage supper of the lamb now I want to put that in here because the seventh trumpet takes us in to view it from the heavens point of view from the angels point of view but I'd like to see it from my point of view and from yours what's going to happen to me well we're going to be walking along and working and if we're here when he comes he's going to come every I will see him we'll be caught up to meet the Lord and seeing him will be changed into his image and likeness and then we'll appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of what we've done since first we came to know him this pertains to you now let's look at our text as we quickly passed on the seventh angel sounded and there were voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and forever many of the great scholars of the ages have seen this the millennial reign of the Lord upon the earth in celestial glory and splendor well I trust it so I I personally believe it so that he is going to reign here but I do not want to dogmatize on it from this text because it doesn't say that much it says the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ in other words he's finally broken the whole of Satan you remember what he said when Satan came the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me and the God of this world and he has allowed Satan to continue to reign and to rule and to work and finally the seventh trumpet sounds and and we find that that he's chained and he's bound and he's finished and he has no more power and no more hold and no more influence time is no more and so this we do know that this sovereign God has predicted and prophesied and ordained that the kingdoms the world shall one day become the kingdoms of Christ now notice the four the 20 elders which sat before God on their seats rose apparently and fell upon their faces and worship God when we studied Revelation chapter 4 and the saw these four and twenty elders we saw them as representing the Word of God as it was preached in the Old Testament and in the new the proclamation of the word the elders are those that are responsible in the church for the word and we we would see these four and twenty elders as a living embodiment of the word the living Word of God God's Word and in this sense the Word of God has been sounded through all these ages predicting that Christ would come and declaring what would happen to him when he came and recording what he did when he came and then giving the message and instruction for the church and the invitation to sinners and all across the ages since the Lord Jesus spoke in the Garden of Eden until the last scene God's Word is at work and now when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and our Lord and of his Christ we see the living embodiment of the word bowing before the throne for everything that the word has declared has come to pass it is all fulfilled this we see again that this God our God who sits upon the throne is going to fulfill every promise that he's made to his son every provision every one of the redeemed that the son saw are going to be given to him the judgment that he's prophesied for the wicked is going to come to them everything that the word has had to say across the ages is going to be fulfilled and the four and twenty elders representing the word bow before him and worship him because all that the word proclaimed has been gloriously triumphantly fulfilled then what do we see it changes the scene begins with the worship or the testimony that comes from the four and twenty elders saying we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and washed and art to come because thou has taken to thee thy great power and has prayed and I believe that this is the echo of every redeemed heart in glory do you remember what they said when our Lord Jesus was brought out and set before him and Pilate said behold by a king the people said what we will not have this man to reign over us it's exactly what Satan said by Lucifer said I will be like the most I won't have God to reign over me it's what Eve said when she revolted in Cain in the down across the centuries every sinner has echoed the same thing we will not have him to reign over us this is the very essence of sin what has been the testimony of the word hasn't it been this confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord it's the glad acquiescence of the human spirit to the rightful sovereign it's the gateway into salvation it's the means to eternal life and this the word is proclaimed that if you will acknowledge that your sin was in essence treason against God and revolt against his government and you will take Jesus Christ to reign over you if you will receive him as Lord and Savior you'll have eternal life this is the message we preach today when you go to a person and speak to them what is it to accept Christ yes but how are they to receive Christ they are to receive him as he's presented you heard me say now for these years four and a half and more that the only way Christ can be received as as the father presents him both Lord and Christ he's been reexalted by the right hand of the father to be a prince and the Savior he's been made both Lord and Christ behold I stand at the door at knock said he any man will open the door I will come in and sup with him this is true of Saints but it's equally true sinners and he stands at the sinner's door and the sinner opens the door and bids Christ come in what does he say to him now Jesus I want you just to cut yourself in true vertically I'd like to take you today as Savior I'm not prepared to take you as Lord but I don't want to go to hell and I do want to be saved from the penalty of my sins but I'm not quite ready to give up my sinning so dear Jesus will you just come in half now and I'll just take half of you and the other half can stand out and continue to knock and maybe six years later when I get to Bible conference somewhere and I'm deeply moved I'll open the door and invite you to come in as Lord Oh unthinkable he must come in what he is unto as many as received him and how is he received he's received as a sovereign he's received as Prince and Savior you do not receive him as Prince you can't have him the Savior this is sin this is sin turning to our own way we won't have this man to rule over us this is repentance I will have him to rule over me I want you to come Lord Jesus and be to me all I need I welcome you as the father has presented you and so what do we find that the four and twenty elders the word which you kept this testimony down across the centuries now declare thou Lord God Almighty which art and was an art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and has rained but I don't believe it's only the four and twenty elders I believe every one of the redeemed say today the same thing are you here tonight a child of God then you look into the face of Jesus Christ and can say thou art great and worthy to be praised because thou has taken to thyself thy great power and thou has prayed you don't resent the reign of the Lord you don't resent his being sovereign in your life do you you wanted someone good enough and big enough and wise enough and just enough and loving enough so you could commit your life to him and perfectly obey him and so what the four and twenty elders say is they worship God you're going to say it's going to be the echo of your heart because you delight in the reign of Christ in your life you've been born of him and if you're here tonight unsaved then this is the point of entrance this is the point of issue who's going to rule who's going to be boss who's going to govern if you're prepared to come to Christ and say now Lord I'm asking you to come in I'm receiving you as the father has exalted you and made you a prince and a savior I want you to come in I want you to come in that's what happened they fell before him they worshipped him and they said thou has taken to thee thy great power and this reign this separates this divides this is the issue and the ones that are his are those that have submitted at this point now what happened and the nations were angry and thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be judged that thou should give reward unto thy servants the prophets the nations were angry because Jesus Christ had been given the glory which was his due and because he'd been exalted and because he began to render to the redeemed the reward that was their portion and began to honor these that the world despised and so they were angry angry were they at the beginning angry did they continue and angry will they be someone once said if if one in hell were to repent would he be saved I have no scripture for this but simply on what I understand of the character of God I made bold and haste to say that if a sinner in hell were ever to repent and believe the gospel God would save him and snatch him from the lake of fire but when I say that I have no expectation that anyone will ever do it never I believe if anyone would God but just as you see it here and the nations were angry when they saw Christ honored and the Saints honored and the Saints rewarded and all they've experienced and all that's gone on has not changed them at all someone as well said that as the tree falls so it lies and as a man fixes his heart finally irrevocably you'll never change you ever thought of that verse which says if any man sins willfully after that he's tasted there will be no place found for repentance in him you ever considered it we're going to consider it later you know when we go back to Hebrews do you know what that verse means it doesn't say that if they repent they won't be forgiven it says that there is no place found for repentance there isn't any room for repentance in their hearts didn't say that if they repented they wouldn't be forgiven it simply said that there was something that came into the human mind and the human spirit that caused it so that it wouldn't repent that's what you see here the nations are still angry still wrath-filled against Christ and against his own but all of this is an answer answered by God's wrath the nations are angry and die a wrath is come the time of the dead that they should be judged it's appointed and a man to dine after death the judgment you see God gives option the only option that sinners have is this when they will bow to Jesus Christ God has said said to his son that if he would leave heaven and come into the world provide redemption that every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God but the only option that he leaves is when if the sinner hears and be bends and believes he'll be forgiven if he bows of his own choice if he voluntarily submits if he comes and receives Christ as Lord and Savior you live but if he doesn't do it it doesn't mean that he isn't going to do it he's just postponed the time because God has sovereignly ordained that every knee shall bow and these that go on in impenitence and unbelief and rejection are given strong delusion that they should believe a lie they die in their impenitence in their sin and they are raised again with bodies we know not and they come to stand before the Lamb seated upon the great white throne to give an account of themselves the books are open and it is found their names are not written in the book of life they bow their knee they honor him as Christ and then go off on the left hand into eternal separation in the lake of fire now God has said that every knee is going to bow and he's he's ordained this and the only option that he leaves to man is when now I want you to see one other thing and the temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament and there were lightnings and thunders and an earthquake in great hail do you remember when Christ died what happened in Jerusalem the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom what to what veil was that that was the veil that separated from the court into the holy place where the table of showbred the altar of incense and the candlestick was the place of fellowship and when that was rent from the top to the bottom it was then established that because Christ has died the way into fellowship has been made open through the death of Christ but there was another veil and that was the veil between the holy place and the holiest of all and that wasn't open but now it is now it is because the mystery of God is complete the church is gathered brought to himself made his presented in the marriage supper of the Lamb presented to him as without spot or blemish or anything and now the nations are judged and sinners have stood have been stood before him and have been put off in the right hand and so now the temple is open right into the very presence of God where God is going to be unveiled and revealed in all the glory that he is and there's no excluding now nothing held back because they're going to dwell with him and be with him in all the revelation that he gives they'll have bodies like under his own body you see we've got to put on new bodies so that we can go into that third heaven we can go into the presence of God and so we find here that the temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in the temple the ark of his testament first veil was rent when he died and the second veil is rent that opens right into the very place where he is now at the seventh trumpet because there's the consummation of all things you know beloved this is something of what's coming to pass and I have dwelt at length in this roundabout way trying to bring you in that you could relate yourself to what's happening because I want God to do two things with you first for the unsaved I want you to realize that there's no escape from this meeting with Christ it's inevitable the inescapable Christ he will be met and if you're here tonight I am treat you and beg you to meet him on his terms now but for you dear Christian that are living in a world where you listen to blasphemy and filth and see Christ hated and communism seeming to sweep the earth and all things disintegrating men's hearts failing them for fear of things coming upon the earth I want you to rejoice and look up for your redemption draweth nigh God is on the throne he's working all things after the counsel of his own will he's going to gather the redeemed to him they'll all be there the complete number he is still going to fulfill his word which was that he would make the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and somehow when these truths seem to seep down underneath your heart they begin to sustain you and strengthen you and you can walk out to face the day and face the events that are transpiring with this confidence that you don't know everything that's going to happen but you know the one who does and you don't know all the events that are going to transpire but you know the one who does and you do not know what's going to happen to you because the number of martyrs may still not be filled and you maybe have the privilege of being one of them but whether you go that way or you wait for him to come makes little or no difference because he has said all redeemed are going to be there they're going to be presented to the Sun the Sun is going to receive the reward of his suffering and when the all is finished the temple is going to be open and the redeemed are going to go in and out there in the presence of Christ now if this doesn't encourage you strengthen you and comfort you and assure your heart it must not be that it must be then that you don't know him because if you know him you know what's happening you know what's taking place oh how wonderful to rest back you say he's on the throne he reigns but let me ask you what if he were to come tonight what if he were to come tonight are you sure that you've been born again do you have the witness of the spirit what if he were to come tonight dear child of God may he that had this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure is there any unfinished business what if you were to come tonight anything you need to make right set right fix up and change I've said everyone given account of every need yes but oh think of it if he doesn't come tonight and you have unconfessed sin tomorrow's going to be another wasted day or as if you met him now and let him cleanse tomorrow could be a day to his praise and his glory let's pray Oh God our God our hearts go out to thee tonight John heard the angel sound the trumpet and saw that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ he saw the four and twenty elders bow before him for everything in the word been fulfilled perfectly completed Oh God we're so happy tonight the Taoist included us and those doing this revelation of thy graces come we submitted to the sovereignty of thy son opened our hearts to embrace receiving say that we glorify thee because thou has taken this power to thyself and thou has reigned in our lives our hearts go out to thee tonight praying for those around us and about us that thou would reach through us we do pray Lord we may be faithful that every life that thou would touch through our witness might be reached we come to thee asking for the unsaved among us that have heard these hearts grow harder every day will never be as near to receiving Christ as they are tonight today is the day of salvation now is the accepted time might they open their hearts door and invite him in now we pray for ourselves as Christians Lord we do expect the Lord Jesus to come we do believe that there's nothing that needs to be fulfilled save the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth before he could come and that could have been completed without our knowing it tonight as far as thou would have it completed and we do look for him to come again this is the blessed hope we yearn long for him to break the skies and come back when he does Lord what's written is written and so tonight we pray that thou would speak to the unsaved that they will open their hearts and invite Christ in that thou would speak to us as Christians and that in the light of the fact that the first thing that's going to happen when he returns is the judgment seat of Christ might we have a preview of it right now Lord we're going to face it one day every hard attitude word indeed and anything that grieves thee Lord help us to know the worst about ourselves while there's still time enough to do something about it and so we just open our hearts to thee ask that thou will show us everything that would embarrass us if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight and we'd be at the judgment seat in the morning give us insight Lord and then give us a passionate desire to be clean to be pure to be usable give us a burden for the lost around us it's still called day the night shall come no man can work and we can still work Lord the number must not be completely hasn't come tonight there's someone else waiting someone else that we might touch maybe it's the one who lives near us who walks to work with us who rides the subway or sits in the next desk maybe the little boy in the community it's possibly the one that we that serves us in the store somewhere Lord is that last member of the body of Christ and when he's in the mystery of God is finished in time should be no more and so this week give to us that desire to witness effectively for Christ to use tracks and use them wisely use Gospels and use them wisely follow them with prayer give us courage to speak to the unseen Lord give us a burden for them a burden to be clean so that thou can use us to speak to them give us ever Lord the right understanding that we're doing this not for our reward but for his reward not for our praise for his glory and father we do believe that the Lord Jesus wants to come back longs to come back and so could it be that somehow our lives obediently fashioned according to thy will can hasten the day of the King's return seal my word to our hearts and may we be as a people who love is appearing and long to see him with John we cry out tonight even so come quickly Lord Jesus may this hope of his coming become the the purifying hope the sustaining hope to everyone here in Jesus name with our heads still bowed if you're here unsaved don't go home slip into Wilson Chapel a little room to the right if you're here a child of God backslidden unconfessed sin something that needs to be set right don't go home stay and meet the Lord we're going to have the benediction in part but if you have a need you make your way to a place where nothing will interfere and you can quietly settle matters with God this is our invitation shall we stand out the benediction now under him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy for the only wise God our Savior be glory and honor dominion and majesty now and forever