Beauty and the Beast | Sunday Message

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Beauty and the Beast. Let's pray. Father, speak to us now as we open your Word. As we peer into the future and look at what you gave to John on the island of Patmos about what is coming in the days ahead. Help us have understanding as to what this is all about and how it applies to our lives.

For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Beauty and the Beast. No, this is not a message about how I met Kathy, my wife.

She is the beauty. I am the beast, obviously. Nor is it a message about the Disney film by the same name. Nor is it a message about Christians versus Hollywood or Republicans versus Democrats.

No. Beauty and the Beast. This is a message about good versus evil. God versus Satan.

Anti-Christ versus Jesus Christ. First let me start with the beast. The Bible says there is coming a world leader. He will be charismatic. No doubt he will be good looking. He will bring global solutions.

He will bring a pseudo peace for 3 ½ years to this war torn planet. And the fact of the matter is the Bible calls him the beast. He is also referred to as anti-Christ. The prefix anti as I have told you before doesn't just mean against.

It also means instead of. And for those that don't know better many will hail this charismatic world leader as the very Messiah. I shared recently that I was in Israel some years ago and I was talking with a Jewish man and I told him I believe Jesus was the Messiah and he said, well we don't believe that it is Jews. And I said, well who do you think the Messiah will be?

And he said this to me. We believe when our Messiah comes that He will bring peace and rebuild our temple. I said, friend you just described the anti-Christ. And that is exactly who anti-Christ is. He comes in the place of Christ. And this phrase the beast is not a description of His appearance but actually of His character. He will be a wicked man. If Satan never had a son this is him the beast.

Well what about the beauty? Well that is the church. And when I say church I don't mean a brick and mortar building.

I mean God's people gathering together. When you become a follower of Jesus you become a part of the church and you now are the bride of Christ. Now some guys are listening and you are saying, I don't want to be a bride.

Deal with it. You are a bride. You are the bride of Christ. We are the bride of Christ.

We are the beauty in the story. But this battle between the beauty and the beast if you will goes all the way back to the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil and the judgment of God came as a result of them eating of the forbidden fruit. And God said to Satan, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed and he will crush your head and you will bruise his heel." In other words God is saying a battle has now begun and He put Satan on warning the Messiah is coming. And so Satan wanted to stop Messiah from arriving in this conflict, this battle of the ages between the beauty and the beast, between Antichrist and Jesus Christ, between God and Satan began. But here is what we know.

The beast is going to lose and the beauty is going to prevail. That brings us to Revelation chapter 17. Where we are chronologically right now is we are in the second half of the tribulation period.

Quick recap. Fly over of end times events and there is an illustration on the screen to help you understand it. The next event in my opinion on the prophetic calendar will be the rapture of the church. Immediately following that will be the emergence of Antichrist. And that will officially start the great tribulation period that begins peacefully but at the halfway point with a temple rebuilt for the Jewish people in Jerusalem.

The Antichrist desecrates it with the abomination of desolation. And then the final three and a half years of the tribulation we have God's judgment coming upon the world. Everything culminates in the great battles of Armageddon. And then Christ returns in the second coming.

We will get to that in our next message. And then the millennium begins. Millennium means 1,000. It will be the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. And then heaven and earth become one. That is what the Bible teaches. And speaking of the rapture I believe we will be caught up to meet the Lord before the tribulation begins. Let me give you three quick reasons why I believe that.

Number one. The church is not on earth during the tribulation period but it is in heaven. Now as you will recall Revelation begins with the seven messages of Jesus to the seven churches. That is Revelation chapters 2 to 3. But then we get to chapter 4 which says, after these things.

After what things? After the things of the church. So the church is mentioned multiple times in those first chapters of Revelation.

Nineteen times. But then we don't see any mention of the church until Revelation chapter 19. So all that space in between Revelation is dealing with the other events that are going to happen.

Why? Because we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Number two. The rapture happens before the tribulation. The second coming happens at the end of the tribulation. There are two events in a way. Let me restate it. It is one event with two stages.

I think that is a better way to put it. So the rapture is stage one where we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The second coming is stage two when Christ comes back for us. So the second coming will have many signs preceding it. But the rapture it can come at any moment.

Remember He comes as a thief in the night. The rapture is imminent. And by the way the word imminent does not always mean soon.

It just means inevitable. In other words we don't know when the rapture will happen. Jesus says, no man knows the day or the hour. The rapture can happen in 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, 5 minutes today. It can happen at any moment. It is imminent. It is inevitable. It is going to happen.

Number three. God will not judge Christians with non-Christians. So as I pointed out in the second half of the tribulation God is pouring His wrath upon the world. First Thessalonians 1.9 says, "'You turn to God from idols, to serve the living God, to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.'" Now some might say, well that is a reference to hell. No.

It actually isn't. Contextually as you look at it He is talking about how His Son is coming from heaven. So God is not rescuing us from hell in the context of this verse.

Of course He does that. But He is rescuing us from the great tribulation period. Reinforcing that idea.

First Thessalonians 5.9 Paul writes, "'God did not appoint us to wrath,'" that is Christians, "'but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.'" Listen to this. "'Everyone on earth has an appointment.'" You have an appointment. I have an appointment. The Christian's appointment is to be caught up to be with Christ. The appointment of this world is to face the day of the Lord in a future judgment. You cannot keep both of these appointments.

Who is your appointment with? Jesus also said to the last days church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3, "'Because you have kept My command to persevere I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test those that dwell on the earth.'" Then He says, "'Behold I am coming quickly.'" Now that is clearly a reference to the tribulation period because it is a trial that will come upon the whole world. Then the Lord wraps that up with, "'Behold I come quickly.'" So the Lord is going to keep us from the tribulation period.

We are going to sit this one out. So let's pick up where we last left off with the beast in our story. The Bible tells us that a powerful religious deception will sweep the earth in the last days. It is described as Babylon. Babylon is pictured as a prostitute riding a beast and she is dressed in red.

So we will call her the scarlet harlot. And it is also revealed as a mystery. We all love a good mystery right. This is mystery Babylon. Let's read Revelation 17 verse 3, "'So he carried Me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which is full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of fornication. And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman, verse 6 of chapter 17, drunk with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I marveled with great amazement. And the angel said to me, Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has seven heads and ten horns."

We will stop there. So you read a text like this and your reaction is probably, What? What does this all mean? But it is not as complex as you may think. Remember the purpose of revelation is to unveil truth to us. Revelation means unveil. So it is not God's desire to conceal but to reveal. This is a mystery to someone who doesn't understand the Bible. But to us as believers we understand it. Babylon is a picture of man's kingdom without God. Man's kingdom without God. Babylon is sort of a code word.

It represents something else. For instance when we say, well over in Madison Avenue they do thus and so. We don't mean the literal Madison Avenue but we are referring to people who are involved in advertisement and promotion and things of that nature. Or when we say Hollywood. You know over in Hollywood we don't mean the literal city of Hollywood. We mean the entertainment industry. When we say, well over at Wall Street we don't mean the actual Wall Street.

We are talking about commerce and finance. So when we use the word Babylon in the Bible it is a picture of pure evil. When Peter wrote to the believers living in Rome he said, to the church in Babylon. Now in fact they weren't in Babylon, which was a city.

They were in Rome. But because of the wickedness of the city he said to the believers in Babylon. So Babylon is a point of reference for evil. Contextually looking at the book of Revelation Babylon refers to an entire worldwide political, economic, and religious kingdom under the control of Antichrist. But Babylon can be personal as well. It is basically a life that is consumed with pride, sensuality, idolatry.

Effectively anything that takes the place of God. A little history lesson. Babylon began on the plains of Shinar back in the book of Genesis. And we read about the world's first dictator. His name was Nimrod. And by the way his name means we will revolt. So don't name your sons Nimrod. I know it is a Bible name.

But it is not a good one. So Nimrod was a wicked man. In fact he is described in the book of Genesis as a mighty hunter of men's souls in defiance of the Lord. So Nimrod this wicked man directed the people to build a tower. And it was known as the Tower of Babel. And in their estimation this was the tallest building that had ever been erected.

And at the top of it was an astrological observatory. So this is the beginning of mankind looking to the stars for direction. And in fact in God's judgment of the Babylonians He mentions in Isaiah 47, 12, you labored with your sorcery and your astrology from your youth. So clearly God does not approve of this.

So listen to me. Don't be reading your astrology column in the local newspaper. Don't base any decisions in your life on what the stars say. And it really doesn't matter what your sign is because these are things that a Christian should not look to. Yet 70 million Americans read their astrology every single day.

By the way that is around 23 percent of the population. It is just amazing to me that a person would actually make a decision based on what some random person wrote that they probably just made up and actually say this is how I am getting direction for my life. Think of all the magazines and sites you see that have an astrology column. Imagine how it would be if there was a collection of Scriptures to read each and every day.

What a game changer that would be. But this all started with ancient Babylon. And by the way if someone really is searching for truth God will lead them to Himself. We all love the Christmas story and those wise men. But don't forget that the wise men phrase comes from the root word magi which is the word that we get magician from. So the magi were actually astrologer astronomers who looked to the stars for direction.

They were very important powerful individuals that would give advice to the king. And so what does the Lord do? He sends a star that leads them to the child Jesus.

So here is the Tower of Babel. A classic example of man trying to reach God. That is religion in a nutshell. Religion is man's attempt to reach God. Christianity in contrast is God's attempt to reach man.

Religion can be summed up in one word. Do. Do this and you will reach nirvana. Do that and you may get to heaven one day.

Do this other thing and you might find inner peace. A lot of do's. Do this. Do that. Do. Do. Do. Do.

Religion can be a lot of doo doo. But Christianity can be summed up in one word. Not do but done. It's done. When Jesus died on the cross He said, it is finished. Which means it is accomplished.

It is completed. I don't have to do a bunch of stuff to reach God. God has done the heavy lifting to reach me in sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins and rise again from the dead. And we can have Him live in our hearts. And at the end of this message I will give you an opportunity to put your faith in Jesus Christ. But man is a religious creature.

He always has been. But he sort of likes to make it up as he goes. Sort of a do it yourself faith. You know we like the idea of forgiveness. We just don't want to repent. We like the hope of heaven. But we don't like the reality of hell.

We sort of like to pick and choose what appeals to us. That is Babylon. Babylonian thinking if you will.

Babylon was also the beginning of humanism. People came together. God said, I want you to spread out across the earth. And the people said, no let's come together instead. Let's come together in defiance of God. Let's come together and build this tower and look to the stars not to the Lord for direction in our lives. And so they build this tower and they are all excited about it. They are thinking it is really going to be impressive to God. It is almost like they are saying, hey God.

There is a new kid in town. We are here. Check out our awesome tower. And the Bible tells us that the Lord came down to see it. And it is kind of almost humorous because it is so tiny the Lord says, actually I don't have a telescope in heaven strong enough to even see your mighty tower so I am going to come down way down down and get on my hands and knees and see if I can find your awesome little tower. And that is us with all of our accomplishments thinking we don't need God. Of course God sent confusion to them.

No one could understand each other. And they were babbling. And so that is the root word of Babylon. Now of course there was a mighty kingdom of Babylon as well ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. Remember it was a massive mighty world power which was ultimately defeated by the Medo-Persian Empire. And that was when the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar was ruling. His name was Belshazzar.

So it was the end of Babylon's babbling. Let's come back to this woman riding the beast. This scarlet harlot if you will.

Verse 3. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast. Scarlet is just another word for red.

This is sort of like the rodeo from hell. Red symbolizes evil in this context. It is not evil if you are wearing red. But in this context it symbolizes evil because remember Satan is presented to us as a red dragon in Revelation chapter 13. So all of this madness that we are looking at this religious system of Babylon is energized by the devil and it is all coming together.

And you know today people like to sort of make it up as they go. Listen if someone ever says to you all religions essentially teach the same thing you can be assured that person knows nothing about the religions of the world. Nothing can be more untrue than to say all religions teach the same thing. They don't all teach the same thing. It was Gandhi who said quote, I consider myself a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, and Confucian.

Maybe he should have said instead of a Confucian a Confucian. Because you can't just say I am all these things. I read an interview where former Beatle Paul McCartney talked about his views on God. And here is what Paul said and I quote, I believe in the Spirit. That is the best I can put it. I think there is something greater than us and I love it. And I am grateful to it. And just like everyone else on the planet I can't pin it down.

He continues to say I am happy to not pin it down. So Paul says, I pick bits of all the religions. I like some of the things that Buddhists say. I like some of the things that Jesus said.

I like some of the things that Mohammed said. And then Sir Paul McCartney concludes, so be cool and you will be alright. That is rock and roll religion. Paul you have written a lot of awesome songs with the Beatles.

Some in your solo years. But maybe you should just let this be. Ok. Because this is not how it works. You can't just pick and choose whatever you want and call it rock and roll religion. God has dropped one lifeline from heaven for us. And it is Jesus Christ. Jesus made unique claims. He didn't say I am one of many ways to God.

He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Me. But this is the false Babylonian religious system. Yeah we are just pulling bits from every religion. And it is all cool man. It is rock and roll religion. Well what it is is a tangled mess.

And one thing I would point out. We call this ABC religion. It will be anything but Christ. In other words if you want to believe anything that is cool. But the moment you bring Christ up that bothers a lot of people. This is the kind of religious system that will be happening in the last days. Bring me to this simple statement by G. K. Chesterton.

And I want to quote. People think that when they do not believe in God they believe in nothing. But the fact is they will believe in anything end quote. And that is very true.

Here is another point. Babylon looks good on the outside but it is dead on the inside. Babylon looks good on the outside but it is dead on the inside. Look at Revelation 17 4. She has in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. So a golden cup would refer to luxury. Right?

Abominations refer to things that are offensive to God. This reminds me of a story of a cruise ship that was adrift off the coast of Mexico in 2013. You may remember this story. Apparently what happened is a fire broke out in the engine room and they lost power. So they were in total darkness and the toilets were overflowing and there was no food in the galleys. And there was excrement in the hallways.

One passenger said the hallways were toxic. Full of urine. So I am sure that cruise started out great. The love boat. And it turned into the dung boat. Actually it was described as. I hate to use this phrase. The poop cruise. That is what they called it.

But the reason I bring this up is this luxurious thing of being on a cruise ship turned into a living hell for people. And that is what is being offered here. It looks good on the outside. But it is evil on the inside. So in the same way when the Antichrist comes on the scene with this Babylonian type religion it is going to look good at first. He will be saying, hey peace and love.

It is all good. Let's work together. He will say things like, I am a uniter not a divider. And everyone will put their arms around each other. And they will sing, we are the world.

I don't know what they will sing. But I am just saying this. It is going to be a ruse. A deception.

And then he will show his true colors. So this scarlet harlot if you will riding this beast has a golden cup full of abominations. Babylon looks good on the outside but it is evil on the inside. Verse 4 says, she is dressed in scarlet and purple and covered in jewels. That speaks of luxury again. Purple was a color usually worn by royalty back in that day. As was scarlet and covered in jewels. That speaks for itself.

If you see someone covered in jewels head to toe obviously that is an affluent person. And this is how sin is. It looks good on the outside. But then you take a bite of it and it is like poison in your system. The Bible tells us that when Adam and Eve saw that forbidden fruit hanging on the garden or hanging on the tree in the midst of the garden that it was pleasant to the eyes. It looked good.

Things looked good on the outside. Why is it that stolen food is always more appealing than your own food? You know when I go to a restaurant with people and we are all looking at the menus. I will ask everyone, what are you ordering? What are you ordering?

I will wait until everyone orders. And I will change my mind three or four times and then the orders will arrive and I will look at their burger or someone else's lasagna or their piece of fish or whatever it is and I will look at whatever it is I ordered and their meal looks better than my meal. And then there is the sharing thing. You know girls love to share. They will say, I will tell you what.

You order this and I will order that and we will share. Guys don't really like to share at all. Just ladies you need to know something about men. We don't like to share our food. I think I speak for most men here. Now some of you are watching and saying, well Greg you are wrong. My husband shares his food with me all the time.

That may be true. I didn't say he won't share his food with you. I said he doesn't like to.

Ok. That's the point. He doesn't like to. We are sort of like the dog with the food dish. This is our meal.

You come near it. We are going to growl at you. And my wife will say, can I have a bite of what you are having.

Ok. So I have to stop and now here comes her fork and she takes a bite of something and dips it in this sauce and dips it in that sauce and I am waiting. I can't get to my meal.

There is interference in this invading fork and it seems to take forever. And then she goes back ok I can finish my meal. It is good. And then I have one last bite.

I am looking forward to that. One last bite. And just as I am about to take it Kathy will say, can I have that last bite.

Go ahead. The Bible says love your wife as Christ loves the church and she will take that last bite. I don't like any of that. Guys don't like to share their food.

Well there is exceptions to that. So I was with a couple of guys at a restaurant a while ago. And one was eating a sandwich. And the guy sitting on the other side of the table next to me said, can I have a bite of your sandwich.

I was like whoa. Ok. That's not a normal guy thing. Someone asked for a bite of my sandwich. I am going to get out a fork and knife. Cut them off a little piece. Put it on a plate.

Here you go. This guy actually said can I have a bite of your sandwich. And this guy holds up the sandwich and this other guy who asked for the bite takes a bite where the other guy had already taken a bite. This traumatized me. I didn't know how to react to this. It was shocking.

I am still traumatized right now. This is not normal for men. We don't like to share. But there is something about stolen food. You know my wife is preparing a meal. She will have the little carrots. I don't know what a carrot is. But a carrot.

And then little tomatoes chopped up and oh here is the little peppers over here. And I will go ahead and start taking these. Don't take those.

Those are the exact portions. I know but stolen food is good. Right. Well here is the thing is these things look good on the outside with Babylon but they are really bad. Poisonous on the inside. So we don't want to eat of those things.

Listen to this. Babylon will not only be a mentality. It will not only be a religious system. It will be an actual entity.

In effect it will be a super city that is going to be judged. Go over to Revelation 18 verse 1, "'After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great has fallen.

It has fallen. It has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hated bird.'" In general I like birds. But there are some birds I hate. And I am going to call them out right now.

Number one. Seagulls. I hate all of you. If you are watching I am sorry. I am not told in the Bible I have to love you. I hate you. And I will tell you why I hate you seagulls.

It is because you steal things all the time. You know if you have your food on the beach and you go into the water you come back. The seagulls flying off with their sandwich.

And then of course they are doing their thing on your car. And in fact I have a story for that. Years ago, many years ago we took our son Christopher who was just a little guy then to SeaWorld. And so when you go into the park there is an opportunity to feed the dolphins. You can buy fish. I think, wait didn't I just pay admission now I have to pay for fish to feed your creatures.

Yes that is the way it works. So we buy these fish and I give them to Christopher and there is this place where the dolphins are and he is feeding the dolphins. And out of nowhere a seagull comes and grabs the fish right out of his hand. Christopher is like, dad I hate seagulls. I know.

They are the worst aren't they. And then we go to lunch in this restaurant. And he ordered a big thing of chicken. So he is eating this chicken and out of nowhere a seagull comes and flies off with his chicken. Literally grabbed it off his plate.

I thought, wait a second. Isn't that cannibalism. Is that even right in the bird kingdom. I mean I know seagulls are messed up but even they crossed the line there. Flying off with a chicken.

Christopher is shaking his fist. I hate the seagulls. Then we are walking out of the park.

I am not making this up. And all of a sudden a seagull got a direct hit on my son. Boom. A big seagull poop. Right.

And that pretty much finished it off. So that is a heated bird right. But understand contextually in the Bible. Birds sometimes are symbols of evil. Jesus told a parable about a bush that turned into a tree that was filled with birds.

This was not a positive thing. Bushes don't turn into trees. So this was something that was supposed to be smaller that became bigger and it was filled with birds. But then in the parable of the sower Jesus talked about the seed that was sown on the roadside remember. And the birds come quickly probably seagulls and eat it. And He says, these are they that hear the Word of God and Satan comes immediately and snatches it away. So in the parables birds are symbols of evil.

So putting this all together we have an evil situation of these unclean birds. You know in the church we have real believers and we have pretend believers. Let me put it this way. If you want to be a Harley rider you need a Harley. You need a motorcycle. And you can wear a motorcycle jacket. And you can have your wallet with a chain on it. Right.

Connected to a belt loop so you look like a biker in big old black boots and be dressed head to toe in black. And that is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. But you may look like you are a biker but if you don't have a bike you are not a biker.

Right. Or you can be like a surfer. You have surf racks on the top of your car and surf stickers all over your car. And you talk about surfing and you wear surf apparel and you use surf terminology. But if you don't have a surf board then you are not a surfer.

You are actually a poser. Right. And to be a Christian you need to follow Christ.

No. Not just have a Bible. You can even go to church and not necessarily be a Christian.

To be a Christian you must follow Christ. So Babylon is going to go down one day. And it happens quickly.

Listen to this. Satan sails a sinking ship. Sin cannot win and faith cannot fail. It is interesting in Revelation 18 it says Babylon is destroyed in one hour. So this super city, actual entity of Babylon will be built. I am not sure where. And it will be destroyed in one hour.

Amazing. You know in a way everyone will have their Babylon fall at some time in their life. People build their hopes on a Babylon of sorts. I read the story this week of a Wall Street investor. His company was worth $20 billion. And then overnight it dropped in value to $863 million.

That is still a lot of money. The guy was worth $20 billion and then he is worth $863 million but he was so despondent he jumped off the balcony of his building and ended his own life. How tragic. But Babylon's fall. Fortunes are made and lost.

Possessions come and go or they break or go out of style. Long lives eventually come to an end. The only answer is put your hope in God. Don't put your hope in Babylon. Don't put your hope in possessions. Don't put your hope in experiences. Don't put your hope even in relationships.

Put your hope in God. Because there is coming a day when the Lord is going to say the party is over. Coming back to Babylon the great kingdom. Being ruled by the boy king Belshazzar. Speaking of golden cups he brought out all the cups and other objects used by the Jews in their worship of God in filled them with wine and began to toast the false gods of Babylon going out of his way really to mock God.

The Bible said God judged him. That was the end of Babylon. And that was the end of Belshazzar. And things come to an end. So we have talked a lot about the beast. Let's come back to the beauty.

What is the beauty doing while the beast and the scarlet harlot where the rodeo from hell are wrecking havoc on planet earth. Oh we are in heaven singing the Hallelujah chorus. Revelation 19 after these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying Hallelujah, salvation, glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.

For true and righteous are His judgments because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with their fornication and has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. You remember the first Star Wars films. There was a massive space station called the Death Star that terrorized the galaxy.

So Luke Skywalker and his X-wing fighter came in and they blew up the space station and it was destroyed. That is what is going to happen to Babylon. But while all of this is happening we are celebrating in heaven. As you know I have written a book called Billy Graham, The Man I Knew.

One of the stories I tell in the book involves the Hallelujah chorus. So I was with Billy and Ruth Graham. Ruth was very sick at this point.

She was not long for this world. And my friend Dennis was there. And he had his guitar. And so Billy asked Dennis to play something for him.

So Dennis played the Hallelujah chorus on his guitar from Handel's Messiah. It was beautiful. Now as he was playing I was watching Dennis a little bit and looking over at Billy and Ruth and they were looking at each other. There was so much love between them. They were obviously having a very tender moment.

I wasn't quite sure what it was all about. But I could see this song had special significance to them. And after Dennis was done with this song Billy turned to Ruth and said, that is a song they played on our first date.

Because in fact Billy took out Ruth Bell, that was her name then, on their first date while they were both attending Wheaton College to a performance of Handel's Messiah. Well we will be singing the Hallelujah chorus in heaven. We are celebrating. Why are we celebrating in heaven? Number one we are celebrating because the power of God has finally vanquished evil. Revelation 19 1 and 2. So when we talk about the end of the world we are speaking of the end of this wicked system that is in rebellion against God.

Number two. We are rejoicing because the Lord is reigning. God is establishing His kingdom.

It is all coming now. And we are celebrating the marriage supper of the Lamb. Look at Revelation 19 verse 7.

Let's be glad and rejoice and give God glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. And the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he said to me, these are the two words of God. I love the word supper don't you? That's more of a southern word. In California we usually say dinner. But I was raised by my grandparents for many years of my life.

And they are from Arkansas. So we always called it supper. And my grandmother was an amazing cook. She made everything from scratch. All those great southern dishes starting with fried chicken and black eyed peas and collard greens. And her crowning achievement was her biscuit. I have never had a better biscuit than my grandmother who we called Mama Stella would make. It was just buttermilk and what are the other ingredients that they use in a biscuit.

I am blanking out. Baking powder and some kind of oil. I would watch her make it. And it was so simple.

It seemed like anyone could do it. I remember I had my wife Kathy watch her. I said, Kathy watch Mama Stella make the biscuit.

You have to figure out how to make the biscuit. And Kathy would watch her. And then she tried using the same ingredients. But no one could make it quite like my grandmother. And she has been in heaven for many years now. And it seems to me if we are going to have a supper in heaven we have to employ the biscuits of my grandmother Mama Stella somewhere along the line.

But even if we don't I am sure what we will have in their place will be far better. But in this great marriage feast Matthew 8 11 says, Jesus speaking, many will come from the east and the west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Can you imagine having a meal with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You will meet the great people of the Bible. You can ask David what it is like or what it was like to fight Goliath. You can ask Noah what it was like to live in that ark. Ask Moses what it was like to part the Red Sea. Ask Mary what it was like to carry the Son of God in her womb.

And best of all ask Jesus anything you like. And you will be reunited with loved ones who have preceded you to heaven. This is the hope of the child of God.

This is not the hope of the child of Babylon. You have two cities you can choose from in life. The city of God or the city of man. Babylon or the New Jerusalem.

Antichrist or Jesus Christ. This world we are living in is not our permanent home as Christians. We are passing through. Second Chronicles.

Excuse me. First Chronicles 29 says this, Our lives on earth are but for a moment. We are visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow gone so soon without a trace.

Wow. To have this hope of heaven you need your name written in a book. I passed over this verse quickly but let me come back to it. Revelation 17 eight. Those that dwell in the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. When you are a Christian your name is written in a book. It is the book of life. When your name is written I don't know.

Here it says from the foundation of the world. Since God is for knowledge maybe He put your name in the book ahead of time because He knows you will believe. But regardless of when your name gets in there this is what I know. As a Christian my name is in the book. And I ask you in closing is your name in the book of life? You say, well why does that matter?

Because as we will see in our future message if your name is not found written in the book of life you are cast into the lake of fire as you stand before the great white throne judgment of God. Listen. One day everyone will stand before God. Small and great. Rich and poor. Famous and unknown. Everyone will stand there. Every man.

Every woman. Every person will stand there. And all that matters is having your name in this book. I mentioned earlier that we all have an appointment. And if you are a Christian you have an appointment to meet the Lord one day. Let me close with the story of a lady who had an appointment with Jesus. I don't think she had it on her calendar.

But it was there in the councils of eternity. We sometimes just call her the woman at the well. She went to the well to draw water. She always did.

12 in the afternoon. It was hot. And who is waiting there by the well but Jesus Christ the Son of God who has gone way out of His way into Samaria, which is outside of Israel, to a place that is pretty much hostile to Jewish people. And He is sitting by the well waiting for her.

Why? Because she had an appointment with Jesus. They engaged in a conversation.

And the end was she ended up believing in Him. Some of you watching me right now unbeknownst to you but known to God have an appointment with God right now. This is the moment that the Lord has orchestrated for you to hear the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ and have your sin forgiven and have your name written in the book of life. You say, what are you even talking about? None of this even makes sense to me.

Here is what I am saying. God loves you. God has a plan for your life. God wants to forgive you of all of your sin. And Jesus wants to come and live inside of you as your Savior and your Lord and your friend. You do not have to be alone in life. Am I talking to somebody right now that has thought of taking their own life?

Maybe you have even attempted it. Am I talking to somebody right now that has given up all hope? Am I talking to somebody right now that just the other day said, God if you are out there make yourself known to me?

Guess what? He is doing it right now. He loves you. And He wants to forgive you.

And you can start a relationship with Him. He is only a prayer away. Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross for your sin. And then He rose again from the dead. And now He stands at the door of your life and He knocks.

And He says if you will hear His voice and open the door He will come in. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like Him to forgive you of your sin? Would you like to know with certainty that you will go to heaven when you die? Would you like to be ready for the Lord's return? If so I am going to pray a prayer. And I am going to ask you to pray this prayer after me. So if you want Jesus to come into your life and you want Him to forgive you of your sin pray this prayer after me. Ok. Let's pray. Pray these words after me if you would.

Just pray this. Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner. But I know that You are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus come into my life now. I choose to follow You from this moment forward. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.