730 - Breaking the Strongholds of Our Mind

April 27, 2008

Sermon #730

Breaking the Strongholds of Our Mind

2 Corinthians 10:1 - 6 (NKJV) ¹Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. ²But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. ³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ⁶and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

2 Corinthians 10:3 - 6 (TMSG) ³The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. ⁴The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. ⁵We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. ⁶Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

Introduction: The parents of a young man received a package addressed to their son and delivered to their home. It was very heavy and the mother decided to open it. Inside she found the fuel to make a bomb. The woman and her husband searched the young man’s room and found plans, detailed plans, to blow up his high school and kill many of his class mates. The parents called the police! The young man was intellectually at the top of his class and had a scholarship for a leading university. Why would he do such a thing? Is he demon possessed?

1. Warped Philosophies

1. Whosoever said that having brains made one wholly!

1 Corinthians 1:26 - 31 (NKJV) ²⁶For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. ²⁷But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; ²⁸and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹that no flesh should glory in His presence. ³⁰But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— ³¹that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

2. Secular Humanism (what the young man learned in school)– the philosophy of a massively corrupt culture

• If there is no One to create the universe there is no God

• If there is no God there is no moral law (if God does not exist sin cannot exist)

• If there is no moral law – killing hundreds of students is OK. (This is a brilliant young man who has followed the teaching of his school to its logical conclusion)

Ecclesiastes 8:14 - 15 (NKJV) ¹⁴There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

3. Corrupt Religion (another problem in the news)

Romans 4:1 - 9 (NKJV) ¹What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? ²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” ⁴Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. ⁵But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, ⁶just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: ⁷“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; ⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” ⁹Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

If Jesus is not the savior, He did not die on the cross for our sins then the religion of works is perfectly logical.

• For a Moslem to blow himself, or herself up to kill the enemy and be awarded a place in paradise is reasonable.

1 Corinthians 13:1 - 3 (NKJV) ¹Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ²And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

• For a Fundamental Mormon to rape little girls is perfectly reasonable.

Joseph Smith said that God told him that polygamy was necessary in order to go to the “celestial heaven.” Spirit children are waiting to be born so that they can receive bodies and go on to exaltation to obtain godhood. In order for that to happen it is logical that men should have many wives in order to produce many children. It is also logical that the girls begin having babies as early as possible. What’s wrong with that? – I am being sarcastic but it’s the logical course of false religious teaching!

4. If God’s purpose for me on earth is to make me rich why shouldn’t I manipulate to take from you to make me prosperous?

The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.

ILL: God gives us the tools for prosperity so that we can give and support the gospel- not so we can use it own our own excesses. Can you believe what our “public servants earn?”

2. Casting down imaginations

2 Corinthians 10:4 - 6 (NKJV) ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ⁶and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

ILL: Notice Paul did not say casting down Satan but bringing every thought into captivity –the battle rages between faith and fear right between your ears!

2 Timothy 1:6 - 9 (NKJV) ⁶Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. ⁸Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, ⁹who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began…

ILL: What could fear cause Timothy to do? 1. Be ashamed to his testimony. 2. Be ashamed of Paul – because being connected to Paul could put Timothy into prison.

• What do you fear?

1. Rejection?

2. Failure

3. Lack

4. Success

5. Divorce

6. Sickness – cancer

7. Demons

8. Death

Hebrews 2:14 - 16 (NKJV) ¹⁴Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ¹⁶For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

ILL: If death cannot defeat the Christian – what can?

3. How to cast down those thoughts

1. Think on other things

Philippians 4:8 - 9 (NKJV) ⁸Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. ⁹The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

2. Praise and worship

Acts 16:20 - 26 (NKJV) ²⁰And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ²²Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. ²⁴Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. ²⁵But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.

2 Chronicles 20:20 - 22 (NKJV) ²⁰So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” ²¹And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.” ²²Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.

Conclusion: I can hear you! “But Pastor the problems I have are real!” Yes they are but you cannot break free from the problems out there until you handle the problem between your ears.

2 Corinthians 3:17 - 18 (NKJV) ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Freedom from the problem comes when we take the veil off our minds and we truly see who we are and where we are in Him then the situation is changed – we do not go from mess to glory, but from glory to glory. There is liberty, freedom!

THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST 4

THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST

SESSION 4

APPLYING THE BLOOD OF JESUS

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SANCTIFIES US TO ENJOY GOD’S BEST BLESSINGS!

We have seen thus far that the Blood of Jesus:

• Redeems Us

• Reconciles Us

• Cleanses Us

• Sanctifies Us

• Makes Justification Available to Us

• Makes Available to Us the Peace of God

• Gives Us Access to the Father

• Purges Our Conscience

• Provides Us a Way to Have Communion With the Father

• Makes Us Kings and Priests

• Provides a Way of Perfection for Us

• Has Life in it

• Has Eternal Life in it

• Brings Us Heavenly Joy

• Purchased Us

• Empowers Us

• Heals Us

• Makes Us Overcomers of Satan

• Gives Us Greater Freedom

• Gives Us Greater Power

• Gives Us Greater Deliverance

• Gives Us Divine Protection

• Gives Us the Victory

It has come time for us to discuss how to begin using that weapon in our daily walk with the Lord Jesus.

If you are as I was, then you say “Applying the blood, how do you apply the blood?” Well that is what we will be discussing this evening. Like so many things it is a simple process, and like so many things we just fail to do it. The devil has us convinced that we shouldn’t mess with simple things, I mean after all we are mature Christians, walking the walk and talking the talk. Well, what I see is we are not walking and we definitely aren’t talking. I believe that most just think that when they become born again they are just struggling through this life until they die and then it will be the Promised Land. WELL THERE IS MORE TO IT THAN THAT. If that was all there was to it, why don’t we have “hit squads” to kill all Christians just at the moment they become saved? I mean if that is all Jesus came for, why hang around? I am here to tell you that there is more to it than that. We are left here to enjoy the redeemed life on this earth and to set an example for others so that they might become born again believers. In enjoying that redeemed life there are some things that we need to do and weapons we have been provided to get the job done. One of those weapons is the Blood of Jesus.

Plead is a legal term. When we see courts in action we see people making pleas as to their charges. So when we are charged for something by the devil, we make our plea to counter it. We see pleadings in the Word:

1. The Lord pleads for us:

Psalms 119:154 (NASB95) - ¹⁵⁴ Plead my cause and redeem me; Revive me according to Your word.

Proverbs 22:22-23 (NASB95) - ²² Do not rob the poor because he is poor, Or crush the afflicted at the gate; ²³ For the LORD will plead their case And take the life of those who rob them.

Proverbs 23:10-11 (NASB95) - ¹⁰ Do not move the ancient boundary Or go into the fields of the fatherless, ¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you.

2. We are to plead for others:

Proverbs 31:8-9 (NKJV) - ⁸ Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. ⁹ Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy.

Isaiah 1:17 (NASB95) - ¹⁷ Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.

Jeremiah 12:1 (NASB95) - ¹ Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?

3. We are to plead for ourselves:

Jeremiah 12:1 (NASB95) - ¹ Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?

Micah 6:1 (AMP) - ¹ HEAR NOW what the Lord says: Arise, contend and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

Isaiah 43:26 (NASB95) - ²⁶ "Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together; State your cause, that you may be proved right.

So we see that we have a command to present our cases, to plead our cause. So now that we have the command to do that, what are the weapons we are going to do that with?

When in the Marines if I was issued a weapon the first thing I wanted to know was: What is it for? Then I wanted to know how to use it? Then I wanted to know: how do I take care of it? It is useless to have weapons that we don’t have the slightest idea what they are, weapons we don’t use, and absolutely no idea how to care for them. You might say, “Well spiritual weapons aren’t something that we need to take care of, they are there when I need them.” WRONG. We have take care of our spiritual weapons just as we would our earthly weapons. If I let my rifle get rusty, dirt down the bore, sand in the bullet magazine, no oil on the moving parts and not even sure it had bullets in it, then I would be real dumb to think it would respond the way it should when I needed it in a hurry. Our spiritual weapons are the same way. They get rusty from non-use. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6:

⁶That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands [with those of the elders at your ordination].

He was saying don’t let your weapon get rusty. Use it, stir it up, take it out and handle it, get to know the atmosphere that it operates best in, and so on. USE IT.

Then, we think about:

1 John 1:9 (HCSB) - ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That is the Word telling us to keep the dirt out of the barrel and sand out of the magazine.

Then we come to the oiling part of the operation. We find that in:

Jude 1:20 (NLT) - ²⁰ But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,

Psalms 92:10 (AMP) - ¹⁰ But my horn (emblem of excessive strength and stately grace) You have exalted like that of a wild ox; I am anointed with fresh oil.

Now we come to the bullets that my magazine should contain:

Acts 1:8 (NLT) - ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

And one of those bullets is: The Blood of Jesus

The amazing thing about the Blood of Jesus is it is a weapon and armor. We can use it to attack the devil and his schemes or we can use it to protect ourselves against him and his schemes. The decision is one that takes Godly wisdom to discern, because there are times when we should attack, and others when we should enter into our resting place.

I am reminded of the following verses:

Isa 54:17 (New Century Version) - ¹⁷ So no weapon that is used against you will defeat you. You will show that those who speak against you are wrong. These are the good things my servants receive. Their victory comes from me," says the Lord.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NASB95) - ³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, ⁴ for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

That is a powerful verse if we know and understand our rights and privileges in the Lord. You might ask why I am using this verse and the previous ones to discuss the Blood of Jesus. Because we need to know our weapons and what the results are when we use them. In this case, no weapon will defeat us and we are to show that people speaking against us in condemnation are wrong. We use the weapons of Pleading the Blood of Jesus to do that.

H. A. Maxwell Whyte said, “Since the life of Jesus is in His Blood, if we plead, honor, sprinkle and sing about it, we are actually introducing the life of the Godhead into our worship.”

I believe that the Lord God wants to physically manifest His power, however, the only way it can come into the open is as the Blood is honored, because His life is in The Blood. Therefore if we want the manifestation of the Lord’s power in our life we need to pay more honor to the sacrificial Blood of Jesus. When we honor His Blood, we are honoring His life and when that is done He will honor us by manifesting Himself among us.

What are some of the things that are required of us in applying the Blood to our lives:

First, I believe that we have to have a true revelation of the power of the Blood. We have played “copy-cat” long enough with the Word of God. It is time that we stop trying to rely on other’s revelation and get our own, because that is the only way we can have the Word working in our lives. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the word “revelation” as : “1 a: an act of revealing or communicating divine truth b: something that is revealed by God to humans 2 a: an act of revealing to view or making known b: something that is revealed; especially : an enlightening or astonishing disclosure c: a pleasant often enlightening surprise.”

Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines “revelation” as: — “an uncovering, a bringing to light of that which had been previously wholly hidden or only obscurely seen. …. The Scriptures are not merely the "record" of revelation; they are the revelation itself in a written form, in order to the accurate preservation and propagation of the truth. Revelation and inspiration differ. Revelation is the supernatural communication of truth to the mind; inspiration (q.v.) secures to the teacher or writer infallibility in communicating that truth to others.”

We speak of having a RHEMA word, a now word and when we do we are saying that the word has been revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. The Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon states that the word “RHEMA” is used seventy (70) times in the Authorized Version. Of that seventy it is translated “word” fifty-six (56) times, “saying” nine (9) times and “thing” three (3) times. It gives the definition as “that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word. 1a any sound produced by the voice and having definite meaning.^”

Charles Cowan in his book “Are You Speaking the Word?” writes, “There are two words that describe the Word of God. One is LOGOS, and one is RHEMA. LOGOS is the entire or total volume of the Word of God, and RHEMA is the spoken Word, or bits and parts of the LOGOS that is spoken.”

On its website, Advanced Training Institute records the following, “The second primary Greek word that describes Scripture is RHEMA, which refers to a word that is spoken and means “an utterance.” A rhema is a verse or portion of Scripture that the Holy Spirit brings to our attention with application to a current situation or need for direction.”

Romans 10:8-10 (KJV) - ⁸ But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; ⁹ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

So if we read this according to the Greek words it would be “⁸ But what saith it? The RHEMA is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the RHEMA of faith, which we preach; ⁹ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

So here we have Rhema and we are speaking of the Blood of Jesus. If we have RHEMA we will speak and, just as in salvation, speaking is what manifests the power and operation of God in our lives. That is why we need to be vigilant in what we say. To guard our mouths so that we do not create another stronghold, or enemy, to have to overcome.

Therefore I can take from this that the Word we receive into us by studying and hearing can only become a “RHEMA” Word when we speak it. You see if we believe we speak. And if we speak then the force of faith in our words create the desired outcome. The Lord God believed and spoke and the worlds were created.

So we need to take the “Blood of Jesus” and get a revelation of it. We do this by studying the Word and how it relates to the Blood of Jesus, and to our lives. Taking the specific verses and getting in into us so that the Spirit of God ignites itSpeaking the Word that God has shown us out of His Word.

When we encounter a problem that certainly has fact to it, we must remember that TRUTH overcomes fact. It might be a fact that the devil is trying to put sickness on you BUT the TRUTH is that by the stripes of Jesus we WERE HEALED. Truth overcomes fact. The law of gravity is a fact however there is a higher law. The law of lift overcomes the law of gravity. So if you are in an airplane, you start the engine, adjust the wing flaps and gain speed, at some point the law of lift will overcome the law of gravity. We have to apply the higher law to our lives and that is the law of TRUTH.

Revelation 12:11 (AMP) - ¹¹ And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].

We see here our weapon (our empowered use of the RHEMA Word) in action. They overcame, they did it by their words and they did it by the Blood.

I enjoy playing computerized chess. It came to me that the Lord is the greatest chess player there is because in my chessboard of a life he plays my pieces (if I allow him to). He blocks every attack on my king, takes the enemies pieces and in the end checkmates the enemy. We do it in our lives by:

• Recognizing an attack, or a setup for an attack

• Praying about it, seeking what to do

• Finding a Word that applies to it

• Having faith in Jesus and in His Word

• Recognizing that the Blood of Jesus prevails in the situation

• Taking the Blood of Jesus and speaking the Word of Faith over the situation

• BELIEVING THAT THE BLOOD OF JESUS AND THE WORD OF GOD WILL PREVAIL

As the children of Israel took the blood of their sacrificial lamb and applied it to the doorposts of their homes (lives), shouldn’t we take the Blood of our Sacrificial Lamb and apply it to the doorposts of our lives. Our lives, our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, our homes, our cars, our furniture, our land, our trees, our buildings, our job, our businesses, our fun things and our work things. Our pastor and his wife, our associate pastors and their wives, our church, our church building and the lives that He brings to us to work with.

728 - Coming Events #2

April 20, 2008

Sermon # .

Coming Events #2

Last Sunday I brought a message promoting coming events that affect a Christian in a positive way. I ministered on the “Rapture,” the “Bema” of Christ, the Marriage of the Lamb, and the Coming of the Lord with His saints. Today, I want to look at the negative events that are coming in the future of this earth.

1. The Day of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 5:1 - 10 (NKJV) ¹But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. ²For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. ³For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. ⁴But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. ⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. ⁸But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

ILL: There are those who believe that the “Day of the Lord” occurs before the Rapture – to do so it would not come as a thief, God did not appoint Christians to wrath – it has to come after the Rapture and extend to the Second Coming.

2 Thessalonians 2:1 - 12 (NKJV) ¹Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ²not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of ^Christ had come. ³Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of ^sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits ^as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. ⁵Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only ^He who now restrains will do so until ^He is taken out of the way. ⁸And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. ⁹The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹²that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

ILL: Who is it that is restraining evil - ⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only ^He who now restrains will do so until ^He is taken out of the way. – Is it not the Holy Spirit that is holding back evil in this world? When the Church leaves – He leaves!

John 16:5 - 11 (NKJV) ⁵“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ ⁶But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. ⁸And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

1 John 4:1 - 6 (NKJV) ¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³and every spirit that does not confess ^that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. ⁴You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2. The Tribulation Period in Scripture

1. It’s nature

Isaiah 24:17 - 21 (NKJV) ¹⁷ Fear and the pit and the snare Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. ¹⁸ And it shall be That he who flees from the noise of the fear Shall fall into the pit, And he who comes up from the midst of the pit Shall be caught in the snare; For the windows from on high are open, And the foundations of the earth are shaken. ¹⁹ The earth is violently broken, The earth is split open, The earth is shaken exceedingly. ²⁰ The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, And shall totter like a hut; Its transgression shall be heavy upon it, And it will fall, and not rise again. ²¹ It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth.

Joel 2:1 - 3 (NKJV) ¹ Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand: ² A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations. ³ A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them.

Matthew 24:15 - 21 (NKJV) ¹⁵“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’^ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. ¹⁸And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁹But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Luke 21:25 - 27 (NKJV) ²⁵“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Revelation 6:12-17 (NKJV) ¹²I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and ^£behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the ^£moon became like blood. ¹³And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. ¹⁴Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. ¹⁵And the kings of the earth, the great men, ^£the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

3. The purpose of the tribulation

1. To Prepare restored Israel for her Messiah

Jeremiah 30:1 - 9 (NKJV) ¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ²“Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you. ³For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’” ⁴Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. ⁵“For thus says the Lord: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace. ⁶ Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale? ⁷ Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it. ⁸ ‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck, And will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them. ⁹ But they shall serve the Lord their God, And David their king, Whom I will raise up for them.

Daniel 12:1 - 3 (NKJV) ¹ “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. ² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. ³ Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever.

ILL: To those who want to know more about the salvation of Israel and the Tribulation may I suggest my commentary, “A study in Daniel” which you can purchase from our book store or from cohglory. org.

2. Judgment on the nations.

Jeremiah 25:32 - 33 (NKJV) ³²Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Behold, disaster shall go forth From nation to nation, And a great whirlwind shall be raised up From the farthest parts of the earth. ³³“And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.

Revelation 16:8-21 ⁸Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. ⁹And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.

¹⁰Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. ¹¹They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

¹²Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. ¹³And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings ^£of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

¹⁵“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

¹⁶And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, ^£Armageddon.

¹⁷Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” ¹⁸And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. ¹⁹Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. ²⁰Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. ²¹And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.

Revelation 9:13-16 ¹³Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

• That’s right: John on Patmos said “two hundred million.” Impossible in his day – but today, in China – absolutely!

4. The Millennium

Revelation 20:1-3 ¹Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ²He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; ³and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

ILL: The word “millennium” means a thousand years or a long period of time. The Kingdom is Coming!

The New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:9-14 ⁹Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came ^£to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the ^£bride, the Lamb’s wife.” ¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the ^£holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, ¹¹having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. ¹²Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: ¹³three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

¹⁴Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the ^£names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ¹⁵And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. ¹⁶The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. ¹⁷Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. ¹⁸The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

²²But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine ^£in it, for the ^£glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. ²⁴And the nations ^£of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor ^£into it. ²⁵Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). ²⁶And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into ^£it. ²⁷But there shall by no means enter it anything ^£that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

ILL: A satellite city whose sides equal the distance from New York to Miami – square. From this capital city Christ and His Church re’establish this earth to its intended glory. But this is not the end. There will be a new heaven and a new earth beyond the description of any man.

Conclusion: Some Bible teachers believe that the Church will go through the tribulation in order to get to the millennium. I hope they’re wrong! But, we are paused – everything is now in place so the time cannot be long. – Are you ready?