You want life without Christ and the Christians? Here it is. The alternative is anti-Christ, who rides in on his white horse. But God said to those who were. against him through the prophet Jeremiah.
He says to this belligerent world, Have you not brought this on yourself? Don't go blaming God for his judgment. It wasn't too much to ask. Don't eat from that tree. But she did it anyway.
This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Revelation, chapter 6, with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
Revelation chapter 6, verses 1 and 2.
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals. And I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a loud voice like thunder, Come and see. And I looked, and behold, a white horse He who sat on it. had a bow, and a crown was given to him And he went out conquering and to conquer. was gonna do the four horsemen.
But the Bible has a lot to say about Antichrist. And he is the first of the four horsemen. Without him, the others really don't matter too much. They're rather routine. But with him, they become extraordinary.
So the outline is to talk about prophecy a little bit with you. Then the rapture and how Israel fits into that. And then we beget to our verses.
So I'm going to spend some time. Just talking about the Antichrist, because again, the Bible gives us that much information, and in preparation, I realized. I think this is what God wants me to concentrate on, because at the end of it all, It comes down to Okay, in the meantime what? That's what it always comes down to in a Bible study. All right, Lord, I got it.
I understand it. But until these things concerning predictive prophecy take place, in the meantime, what? Do you want From me. And that makes this very much relative to our lives, I think. When you consider the accuracy of biblical prophecy, you would think that there would be more converts.
Well, we expect rational people to be rational all the time. That's not how it goes. You would expect that a rational person would conclude that with so many prophecies. Fulfilled, being fulfilled. That Trustworthiness would be the outcome.
coming to Christ.
Well, you know, that's going to be the case in the Great Tribulation. There are going to be great tribulation saints. They're going to die for their faith. But someone's going to point out to them, hey, this, we're living through. What the Christians were telling us all about, they will realize many of them.
Others will double down in their disbelief and rejection of Christ. Of course, the argument. The Bible is written by men. They say it in that tone. It's so routine and wrong, it's it's almost boring.
Okay, I'll give you that. Written by men, designed by God. It's God-breathed. And then we have to educate what that actually means. What's the alternative?
Do you have one? God can't write His word down and back it up with. predictive Prophecy. He has to open the sky daily. And say in a deep voice, listen to me, I am God.
No, he's chosen this way. The interesting verse in the book of Numbers God is not a man that he should lie. nor a son of man, that he should repent He has said And will he not do? Or has he spoken? and will he not make good Well, the man that wrote that understood.
Enough about God. to serve him, to preach about him, and this is still true. God has said it. He doesn't have to say it. You're not lying to anybody.
He doesn't have to lie. There's no motivation for him. He's telling you straight out what's coming. And as he has said, it will happen. He will make good.
We Christians are supposed to spend as much of our time as possible preparing to be able to tell somebody these things in some form, some way. be a good idea to not try to imitate a pastor. Or anybody else, when it comes to sharing your faith, it would be better. to be filled with the Spirit. And let him flow through you.
You get better results that way. That doesn't mean that there are not noble things about others that we appreciate and learn from. part of our development. The Bible's truths Are forever divine. And you can't lose sight of that no matter what we go through.
And there's a lot to go through in life. You know, there are times I come up in the pulpit, Satan's been harassing me.
Sometimes just in a foul mood, the work's still got to get done, and you still got to plow forward. There are no exceptions. There are those that won't believe the Bible with all of its proof, but they will be quick to believe some journalists in the face of proven lies. This is the work of the devil. Satan mainly picks fights against Christians through people who have rejected Christ.
So we're braced for that. You know, those who perished in Noah's flood as we call it. He didn't cause the flood. But As a point of reference, Noah's flood. They had no Bible.
Not that we know of. Those who perished in Sodom and Gomorrah, no Bible. But those who will be judged in the Great Tribulation period have access to Scripture unlike ever before in probably almost every language available to man. But still They will hate the scriptures so much to protection that the Scripture offers. Or which, if they yielded to, would avail them, will not avail them.
1 Thessalonians. In the first chapter, Paul is talking about, or he's talking to the Christians that are suffering persecution, and he's saying, you know, Lord's going to deal with this. Just stand strong. I'll just take this excerpt from verse 10. Even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come, it's coming, just like the writer in Numbers 23, 19 said, He's going to make good on this.
And the tribulation period is the wrath period. And even though there are going to be converts, it is going to be the wrong time to be alive.
So now begins the story of Earth's Depravity being judged, it is maxed out And that's a concept that God has taught in the days of Abraham. God waited. For the iniquity of the dwellers in Canaan to max out. He says it in Genesis 15, verse 16, for the iniquity of the Amorites. is not yet complete.
And he was saying to Abraham, that your descendants will end in this promised land, but not yet. The people that are there, they're not that great, but they ain't that bad yet. But when they do, when they do become that bad, Then I will use The Jewish people as my instrument of judgment, and that happened. Jesus Christ is provoked into judging the entire world yet again. It will be global.
And for the first time since Noah's flood, and as With Noah's flood, it will be unstoppable, and it will be worse. Noah's flood happened over, what, forty days, but the work was probably done long before the forty days. This is going to drag out seven years. In that way, in that sense, It will be like unlike ever before.
Now, the church, of course, will be removed, the true church, true believers. And those who become believers will not be allowed to assemble. in their belief. Ecumenicism will be allowed. You want to call yourself a church, you still bow down to Antichrist.
Fine. But if you only bow down to Jesus Christ, you will be punished severely. Amos the prophet in his day Had some folks that wanted to mouth off about prophecy, and he says, Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord, which starts with the rapture. For what? Good is the day of the Lord to you.
It will be darkness and not light.
Now, he's writing to people, not right with God. And he's saying to them, You will not benefit. As Paul was saying, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come, the world will not avail from that deliverance because they refuse to believe. Zephaniah. The prophet And these, of course.
They're like 2500 years in the past and everything they say is relevant. Zephaniah said, That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.
Well, who called it the great tribulation? Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 is the one that said, there will be great tribulation, such as the world's not known. Isaiah 13, Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from it. These are prophets that were focused on Israel, but Jesus makes it clear this is going to be global. How many people?
Driving past this building Are totally unaware of these facts. It's coming. The storm is coming, thus, the thunder that John hears. What will earth look like without Christianity? Granted, Christians are all over the place.
The wacky the wacky and there's just so much. I never read Christian anything online. You just always walk away bummed out. But That does not mean that they do not have the essentials in place. Who Jesus is, what salvation is about, the belief in the scripture.
The deity, if they have the essentials, everything else can use some adjustment, that's why God sent me. I'm glad you're laughing. But there's elements of truth. That's why God has sent mature Christians to deal with carnality in Christianity. And Revelation six through eighteen will emphasize to mankind.
What the earth will look like when you are finally rid of the Christians you couldn't stand preaching to you this Savior. You want life without Christ? And the Christians, here it is. The alternative is anti-Christ, who rides in on his white horse. What God said to those who Who were against him through the prophet Jeremiah.
he says to this belligerent world, have you not brought this on yourself? Don't go blaming God for his judgment. It wasn't too much to ask. Don't eat from that tree. But she did it anyway.
It was not too much to ask. You not to bow down to imaginary gods that people just make up. Folklore. It wasn't too much to ask you not to murder and to steal and other things. What is the world coming to?
Judgment. That's what it's coming to. And it's not coming to heaven. Matthew 24, again, I've quoted this several times. We're going to quote it, I would suppose, throughout Revelation.
Because it is Jesus in Matthew 24, which fits very wonderfully with Revelation 6, where he's telling the disciples in response to their question: when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming? And the end of the age. And within his response, There will be great tribulation, Matthew 24, 21, such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor ever shall be.
You s you catch that emphasis he puts in there? He didn't have to say that unless he really wanted to drive that point home. There's never been. This much judgment. on mankind no, nor ever shall be.
Things have never been worse. when it comes to this period of human history. And so we know the church won't be here. And I think a lot of Christians feel guilty enough to think, well, no, we need to stay here and suffer through this stuff. Never mind what the scripture clearly points out.
We've got to go through this.
Well, I disagree with them and I'm not going to spend too much time on what they believe. They have their own forums for that. But everything that I share with you is out of my understanding from scripture. The commencement ceremony For this day of the Lord, this great tribulation is the removal of true believers. in Jesus Christ.
known as the Church. You got to be careful with that because some people say, well, if you think of the church, they think of the assembly. That's part of it. Others try to think, well, the church is everywhere and they cop out. They don't want to go to the assembly and they can still be saved.
They're just a little bit more carnal, perhaps, in that area. The true believers and God knows who they are. And we are supposed to have a blessed assurance. We're not tiptoeing around the Bible truths that are clear. John says, I have written these things to you that you may know you have eternal life.
You don't have to guess about this. No, do we have to guess about this? Great escape. that is given to the church as promised in other places. We are in the age of grace.
But it ends with the rapture. We are in the church age, which is the age of grace, ends with the rapture. The fullness of the Gentiles is complete. By that, It means that Gentiles are not which make up the church mostly. People are not getting saved by churches anymore.
Now they're going to be saved through the Great Tribulation period. The one hundred forty four thousand Jews will be part of that process.
So will other converts, but the church is out. Beginning with Revelation chapter 4 and 5. The church age is seen in heaven. And that's the last time we're going to see. the reference to the church until we get to the bride of Christ and Then a direct reference in the 21st chapter.
Snatched out of the way, like someone would snatch you from a moving vehicle if you were crossing sight unseen of that oncoming disaster. As was Enoch. Just snatched away. Not so much a violent snatch, but a radical one. And radical means instant.
We're not going to slowly twirl into heaven. It will be in the twinkling of an eye. Just like that. And so it is very significant that the church so prominent in Revelations 1, 2 and 3, especially 2 and 3, so prominent there, it's not named again. That means something.
He was like, well, wait a minute. It's it's sorta like, you know. Apple, peach. Pencil. That's all I could think of.
Something's not right. There's a consistency that's broken here. Yeah, the church is not seen in the reverend in the great tribulation period because she's not around. Just one of hundreds of proofs about the church escaping. This time of judgment.
Again, she's alluded to in chapter 19. She's commented on in chapter 21.
Nowhere is the church involved or mentioned in chapters. Six through eighteen, the judgment period when all of this. Vitriol of heaven is is coming against Wicked humanity. The conclusion is that the rapture of the church has occurred before the first seal is broken. That's the idea.
Before Antichrist comes into the picture, surfaces, and is identified. The church is gone. He's eating the dust. What about Israel?
Well, that's an important part. What happens to Israel when the church is gone?
Now, I know many of you have your end-time theology in place, and I'm not lighting any candles in the darkness for you, but it's good to have this. be refreshed, but there are others that They don't have an end time view in place, and maybe I can help them with that. The churchless age is known Also to the Jews, not the unconverted Jews, but in the Scripture. As Daniel's seventieth week, Now, Daniel's language in chapter nine is cryptic language. It's mysterious.
you can decode it, but it's going to take a lot of work. and understanding of A lot of the scripture. When he talks about the 70 weeks, Each week represents seven years.
So seven weeks is forty-nine years. And he divides it up that way. He talks about seven years and 62, well, seven weeks and 62 weeks.
Now, I'm just giving you an overview. of how the Scripture has already made this clear. What's going to happen? to Israel. 69 weeks, 483 years.
But Messiah, he's going to come in 490 years, 70 weeks. But before he gets to that last seven years, he's going to be cut off. From the time that Autoxerxes. Ordered Nehemiah to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the streets and the wall. He said, Why the streets?
Because you can't build a wall if you can't get materials in through the streets.
So streets have got to be built. That's a detail that only the Bible is careful enough to put in. four hundred and eighty three years After that order is given, Christ will come. not the virgin birth But The day of Hosanna, what we call Palm Sunday, where he comes as his triumphal entry. as the Lamb of God.
and then he is cut off. But wait. There's supposed to be seven years left, or one week, that's the 70th week. What happens to it?
Well, Daniel chapter 9, Messiah will be cut off. Daniel 9:26, now verse 27. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. Wait a minute, what's happening here? Messiah dies, who's the next?
He will confirm a covenant. That's Antichrist. And then it continues. But in the middle of the week, which the middle of seven is three and a half, three and a half years. He shall bring an end to Sacrifice and offerings, which presupposes the third Jewish temple not yet built will be rebuilt, and Antichrist is probably going to be part of that process.
Continuing on. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate. Even until the consummation, that's the end of the age. of human Right. which is determined is poured out On the desolate.
There's Daniel's 70th week. There is Antichrist. The Messiah gets cut off. 483 years after the order is given, there's this missing seventieth week, which is a seven-year period. It shows up in the Great Tribulation.
Daniel 12, he gets back to it. He says at that time Michael shall stand. The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.
Now, Daniel's Jewish, and he's talking about the Jewish people. Church is not even a concept in the minds of the people, not with the Gentiles. Not yet. Anyway, he continues, 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, everyone who is found written in the book. And so Daniel gets back to, he says, There's a time of trouble coming on your people. as never before. But the righteous will be saved out of this so that Where is Israel?
when the church is raptured. Israel's in the 70th week. And the first three and a half years of that seven-year period will be relatively peaceful for Israel with this world leader, Antichrist. And then in the middle of the week, as we read in Daniel 9:27, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to the sacrifice and offering. Yeah, because he exalts himself as God in the temple of the Jews.
This period of rule by Antichrist includes attempts to annihilate. All the Christians that are being converted during this period. And also to annihilate the Jewish race. and he's going to come close to doing. Just that.
In the second half of that seven-year period, known as Jacob's trouble, Jeremiah 30, verse 7. I love giving you the verses. This way you can't blame me. Verse 7 of Jeremiah 30: Alas, for that day is great.
So that none is like it. You see the language connecting what Jesus said, such as the world has never known, connecting what Daniel has said. They are all in agreement. They are in rhythm.
So that none is like it, and it is the time of Jacob's trouble. But he shall be saved out of it. Zechariah rings in on it. And it shall come to pass in the land, says Yahweh, that two-thirds. The two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it.
particularly Jerusalem. And so when Jesus says, unless those days were short in Matthew 24, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, that's Israel and the Jews in that context, but for the elect's sake, where was I? Oh, there I am. Those days will be shortened.
Christ is saying, if I don't come back and what we know is Armageddon, then the Jews would have been wiped out by Antichrist. But he does come back. And a third of the Jewish people survive. We'll be covering these as we move through the Revelation.
So, right now, this is serving sort of as a preface to what's coming. After Revelation 6, because we'll see the sequence as the horses are released and doing their damage, and the church is persecuted, and Christ is sovereign. Only the return of Christ. Resolves this, not only physically, not only will the Jewish people survive as a race. But spiritually, they will be saved, they will come to Christ.
Again, the prophet Zechariah chapter 12, and I will pour. on the house of David. and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me. Whom they pierced, yes, they will mourn for him as one who mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn.
The language in that Single verse in Zechariah. It's so powerful. with Christian theology, there's no way to miss who it's talking about. It's not talking about Any other character in history but Christ and his relationship with the Jewish people. His relationship with Gentile and Jewish Christians is already established.
No need to bring it back up. John is shown events that are taking place on earth in his vision of heaven immediately following the rapture. This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand.
Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Yeah.
