After That Tribulation (Part C)

Your goal should be, Lord, load me up.

Put as many arrows in my quiver as you can fit, and I'll bring a couple of quivers with me so that you can load me up with what I need to be useful to you. After all, what's your life for? What are you here on earth for?

What is worth living for once you come to Christ? The will of God. But the flesh won't participate, will it?

The flesh resists you every chance it gets. 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 Gospel of Mark.

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. This is part three and the conclusion of Pastor Rick's message called After That Tribulation in Mark chapter 13. Lot, he did not have to get hit with the fire and brimstone to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. And my point is, we are preaching about things that are coming on the whole earth, which we will not be here to feel, but we are here to preach. And you say, well, Noah got out with eight souls, Lot got out with four less one.

He ends up with three, himself, his two daughters who were the product of being raised in the schools of Sodom and Gomorrah. The battlefields will be global at this time in history, this great tribulation period in that day, at the end of it when Christ comes back, this is what he's coming back to, war will be all over the place. Jeremiah talks about it, Jeremiah 25, you see how many prophets we're drawing from, Isaiah, Genesis, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Joel, it's all over the Bible, this is too much information to lay out in one book. It has to be filtered, Jeremiah 25, 33, and at that day, the slain of Yahweh, that's the judgment of the great tribulation period. Isaiah is very vocal about this also. Anyway, back to Jeremiah, it shall be from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, they shall not be lamented or gathered or buried, they shall become refuse on the ground.

The battlefield carnage that will be all over the earth will be too many dead to bury. Revelation talks about the rivers of blood. Jeremiah is very clear, he says from one end of the earth even to the other, but most Jews would miss that in those days because again, they were so Israel-centered in their thinking that everything was about the Jews and about Jerusalem, and you can understand it partly because God poured out so much care on them, but it was to a fault in their understanding of things. Again, even these apostles, when Jesus is talking about things they were going, huh, what?

And they wrote down nonetheless what he said even though they had not all developed a fuller understanding as of yet. Christ will not allow men to incinerate the planet and wipe men off the face of the earth, thus he says those days are shortened. So what begins as a confrontation between the forces of the east and antichrists of the west ends as a confrontation between heaven and earth when Christ comes back to the Mount of Olives and also at the same time wipes out antichrists and his forces. The climax and the conclusion of the great tribulation comes with unmistakable signs that were warned about so that we can warn, and the 144,000 Jewish witnesses will be all over end time prophesy in their preaching and people will be getting saved because of it. God will crush the devil and he will crush the signs and wonders that Satan was permitted.

Whether they're false or true, they're going to be stopped. There will be no mistaking who truly is God. And as humanity enters into that thousand year period in the very early stages, there are going to be many converts, but as they give birth to more people through that thousand year period, they're going to be many more unbelievers yet again.

But we're not yet talking about the millennial age. Verse 25, the stars of heaven will fall and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Now you could allegorize that and say the stars are the leaders and things, the nations, and there would be truth to that, but I think that it is also physical, this climactic end to man rule on the earth and the beginning of Christ rule on the earth.

He stays when he comes back incidentally. When he destroys these armies at Armageddon, he sets up his government and we, his believers from all history past, will be used by him as ministers of his truth and leaders of society. Humanity and human rule will be hemorrhaging when he arrives. They will be bleeding out.

It will be action packed, it will be. Again, the Lord's present audience believed it, though they did not live to see it. 1 Peter chapter 3. Now Peter is talking about what happens after the return of Christ. He says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

And so Peter has lumped it all together himself because that was his understanding. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. The rapture comes without us knowing it.

We know it's coming, we just don't know when it's coming. And so it will be through the tribulation period, there will be other events that will come unexpectedly and if you are not ready, you are doomed. And Christ will get into that at the end of this message, not this morning's message, but his Olivet Discourse at the end of chapter 13.

He will keep saying, watch, watch out. But when he uses the word, he does not confine it to those who will be living through this age, he expands it to those living in every age. You cannot listen to Christ say, watch for this, take heed and think he's talking about somebody else and not you too, on some level. Verse 26, then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Now he's quoting Daniel chapter 7. As I mentioned, he's just scripture, for everything he's saying is scriptural.

He is taking the scripture verses and he is amalgamating them, he's putting them together. But to get, to be able to do that, you have to have an expansive understanding of what the Bible says about end times. Well, here's Daniel, who tells us more about Antichrist than anyone.

But that's not what we're talking about now. We're talking about the return of Christ. So let's read what Jesus has condensed for us from Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. Daniel in his vision says, I was watching in the night visions and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.

That's the passage from which Christ is quoting to his disciples, but he's not quote laying it all out. He's got so much to preach. He's only got so much time before service has to end. He really didn't. He could just preach on and on and on. Paul did and almost killed a kid. That's why we don't have a second story.

I had attended a church years ago that would meet on the fifth or sixth floor of the building depending on what was available and I was very happy there were no windows. Anyway, verse 26, then they will again then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. The climactic end to human rule.

Not the end of the world. That comes at the end of the thousand years that I just quoted from Peter. But listen, one of the great verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 24, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father because he is God the Son. When he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

See those two Greek words authority, excusia in the Greek, that is the authority, the right to do it and then power there in the Greek is dunamis, the ability to enforce that authority. And so when Christ does come, not only will he come and put down what the enemy is doing, he will stay and preserve what he is doing. The preliminary signs are done. There's really nothing on the calendar waiting to happen. We can be raptured at any moment and this great tribulation period begins. I'm going to open up a lot more, not this session, but next week because then we get into the generation that will see it happen. When did the clock start ticking, Lord?

Was it 1948 on May 14th or was it June 7th in 1967? When did the clock start ticking to say to us, this generation will not pass until they see these things? Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.

That comes later. He returns to this broken and decimated planet because of men. Those who refused that he existed, those who insisted that man has somehow evolved itself out of slime or whatever, it's so incredible that very intelligent people can believe stupid things. It is like Einstein insisting that there are fairies.

No, I put my tooth under the pillow, I'm telling you, I got a quarter the next day. I mean, he's doing all sorts of theories and physics and yet he still, but this is how it is. Otherwise intelligent people believe lies from hell because they do not want to accept the truth from heaven.

This is what we face and we need to tell them that's what's going on because they demonstrate that they can't figure it out on their own. This, with all the wars and the famines, the earthquakes, the disasters, the pestilence, the persecutions, millions upon millions of people will die in that seven year period throughout the earth. Unprecedented carnage. Isaiah chapter 13, behold the day of Yahweh comes cruel with both wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate and he will destroy its sinners from it.

It is a purging. It is very serious. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, the apostle Paul said, we do believe in the grace of God but there is also as such thing as the wrath of God. And you would have to have a lot of black ink to edit that out of your old and new testament.

It is that pronounced. Zephaniah chapter 1, 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. I think we get the point. But did his readers get it? Did the audience get what Zephaniah was saying? He said, God has got this much power.

Get right with him. Satan cannot do this. Revelation 11, 10, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them.

Let me set this verse up. The people that Christ is judging are the people I'm going to read from Revelation 11, 10. So we don't lose sight of who these people are. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them. Who?

Who is them? That's the two servants of God whom the world killed, whom the whole world could see dead in the street. Technology, of course, not available in the days it was preached but is now. It says they make merry and send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. So when you say transgender is out of hell and human beings believing it are following a real Satan, they hate your guts for saying that thing. Because just like here in Revelation 11, 10, you torment them with truth. And hell, who is the greater influence in them, doesn't want to hear it and will do anything to shut you and I up. So now we have a generation that is just ripe for the end times and they are saying, what does Judeo-Christian values, what are they? Let's mark each one and let's destroy each one. They love their guns, let's try to take those away.

They love their children, let's try to pervert their children. Because Satan is in back of them pulling, playing them like a fiddle and they don't believe it. And the only response heaven has is to send us in. But you got to be ready. I enjoyed my years working in the world because I had a lot of scripture. God was preparing me for ministry. I'd get to work an hour and a half, two hours before work and sit in my jalopy car with a briefcase full of books and cassettes and I'd study and study because I knew God called me to the ministry. He didn't have a church, nobody liked me enough.

So it took a lot of years and still, and I'm not the only, our other pastors out there have the same kind of testimony, how God called them and they worked and they labored over the word of God long before they could stand in front of a pulpit and teach the word of God. Why would anyone find these things too difficult for God to do unless their brand of God is man-made and itsy bitsy? Because any man-made God is not only itsy bitsy, it's demonic and it's wrong. I don't find any of these things unbelievable for my God. In the beginning, God created. There was nothing till he created.

Why would I have a problem? If he can keep the sun where it is and the moon where it is and then have them dysfunctional later on and still preserve life on earth, why would I have a problem with any of this? The great glory of Christ's return will include the believers. Now when he said this, when he said to them, then the Son of Man will return with great power and glory, those apostles, they did not know that they would be with him at the time when he comes back riding on horses like we're told in Revelation 19.

It's just too much information for Christ to say everything. So he gave these time release predictions through his apostles and through his own lips and we have them to this day and we're not to dismiss them. Again, don't be intimidated by end time prophecy. Now there are a lot of weirdos out there also.

Be very careful, your source material. You have to consider before you start listening to someone preach on end times, what do they believe about Christ and who he is? Are they loving or are they just judgmental? Do they have the Elijah complex where they say, I'm the only one, I'm the only prophet, all the others are gone?

Or do they understand that God always has a remnant that has not bowed the knee to bow? So if you're going to go online, you're going to buy books, be careful. But your goal should not be curiosity. Your goal should be, Lord, load me up.

Put as many arrows in my quiver as you can fit and I'll bring a couple of quivers with me so that you can load me up with what I need to be useful to you. After all, what's your life for? What are you here on earth for?

What is worth living for once you come to Christ? The will of God. But the flesh won't participate, will it?

The flesh resists you every chance it gets. Well, coming back to this, we're almost done. The disciples not realizing that when he says I'm coming back that they're going to be in that number with him.

Just an amazing amount of information to be given. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 8, you have put all things in subjection under his feet. Of course, the pronoun there is Jesus Christ.

That's the feet of Christ. For in that, he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him but now we do not see all things put under him. Why did he put all of these things under Christ? Because Christ is God the Son.

That's why. It's not like he earned it or something like that or he's somehow lesser than the Father. It's just laying it out for us how it works. But he says, but we do not yet see all things put under him. And Christ is telling us here in verse 26, they will be fully under me and you will see them and you will participate in this. And do you believe it? Or do you think that once you get to heaven, that's the end?

There's nothing more here to do. That's why I think Christians should have a sign put up on their property. If raptured, we'll be back in seven years. Leave my stuff. If I catch anybody going through my garage, I'm telling you. Verse 27.

I mean it's true. I don't know about the part about my garage. I mean that stuff's probably going to be burned up or all the death and destruction going on. But we'll be back in seven years and things are going to be a lot different under new ownership for sure. Verse 27.

I sounded very Southern California with that for sure. That's not who I am and an old offense to them. But we've got to know our boundaries anyway. And when he, verse 27, and then he will send his angels and gather together his elect from the four winds from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven. Nobody that belongs to him will be lost sight of and they will not be out of his reach. That is the bottom line of that verse.

We get that much. That he is in control. That he cares for his people. The elect here are essentially the Jews, but also any other converts.

They're not going to be left out. He's not going to come to earth and say, well, you know it was all about Israel anyway, not you Gentiles. Satan comes along and says, you see how much care God has in the Old Testament for Israel? He doesn't care much about the Gentiles. It's Satan talking.

We know better. Surviving Jews will be scattered throughout the globe when he arrives. 144,000 will likely still be in operation. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 12. He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Primarily it is Israel, but not at the neglect of tribulation converts.

They will have their assignments too. It's just not written down for us in scripture because it would create a whole other world of discussion amongst the rabbis that would not be edifying. Look, the Jews were entrusted with bringing light to the Gentiles and they never really did it. We'll cover that in one of the sessions coming up where how until the New Testament came, if you wanted to know about the God of creation, you had to go to a Jew and now it's switched. So we'll come to that later.

Anyway, almost finished here. Revelation 19, 15. This is the judgment coming. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And that is pretty straightforward that he is God the Son. Jews and Gentiles will be the nucleus of the population to launch the millennial age where death will be almost non-existent. So how many people will be born and populate the planet and there will be climate change but it will not be man-made, it will be Christ-made. The man-made climate change will be through the exchange of nuclear weapons and other such things but Christ will change the landscape of the planet.

And I've not yet picked out where I'm going to live because it won't be my choice. Romans 11. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

You see that's the outcome of this outpouring of wrath and judgment. And anyone who says well you know the dominion theology, kingdom theology that the church has become Israel and Israel as God has done with them, how do you account for such a verse? Zion is very geographical, it's very clear.

It is the Jewish people. God never stops loving so long as there is life. If you believe him, incidentally, close with this, when you study prophecy it is emotional. It draws you in. You feel good about it because one thing is pronounced more clear than anything else, God is in total control and our soul wants that so much and he says hang in there.

Right now you don't see me in control. That's what we read from Hebrews, but I am in control. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry visit our website crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.