We were looking at the idea of one new moon to another and one Sabbath to another that we find in Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66:22-23 says:
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith JEHOVAH, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another [new moon], and from one sabbath to another [sabbath], shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith JEHOVAH.
This is referring to the new heaven and new earth. This is referring to eternity.
Does this mean in eternity that things are going to be like this life where we have one out of seven days to worship? In eternity, are we going to worship God like we do here on Sundays?
This is not the way that God describes the new heavens and the new earth. He speaks of dwelling with His people in their presence forevermore.
Remember what we read in Revelation 21. This is a beautiful chapter that describes the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Bride of Christ or the elect of God. Revelation 21:22-26 says:
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
Here in this temple, the gate would shut at nighttime, but there is no night. This means that the gate is perpetually open.
This is the explanation of what we read in Ezekiel 46. This speaks of “the prince” and this is a figure of speech for Christ. We read in Ezekiel 46:2:
And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.
But there is no night, so evening never comes.
This is a similar statement to what we read in Isaiah 65 where God says that “the child shall die an hundred years old.” This does not make sense, except for the fact that God is indicating that a hundred-year-old infant just cannot be because He is emphasizing that there is no end to life.
So, too, if it were possible for night to come, then God would shut the gate. But once He opens that gate to let His people in, which He is going to do on October 21, then the gate of Heaven, that glorious holy city, the New Jerusalem with the Lord Jesus as the temple, will always be open. It will always be day. This is when day and night cease because “day and night” is a time reference that ends with this world.
Then it goes on to say in Ezekiel 46:3:
Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before JEHOVAH in the sabbaths and in the new moons.
So here again we see that we are going to worship the Lord “in the sabbaths and in the new moons.” Isaiah said “from one sabbath to another” and “from one new moon to another.”
The Sabbath ended on May 21, that Sabbath that covered the great tribulation period. The new moon ended because the moon went dark. The Bible tells us, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.” The moon went dark. The next time that the moon will come again, the new moon, will be October 21.
I think that maybe a verse in Colossians 2 will help us to understand this. We read in Colossians 2:16-17:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Everything in this world is a shadow, all of the laws, all of the sacrifices. The ceremonial laws and the feasts, all of those things typified Christ who is the substance of all of those things.
So when the one new moon ends, which it did when the moon went dark on May 21, then when Christ comes, He is the substance of the new moon and this will be an eternal new moon. This will be an eternal fulfillment of what the new moon represented.
It is the same thing with the Sabbath. The Sabbath pointed to rest in Christ, as it says in Hebrews 4:3:
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Christ is the essence of the Sabbath. We enter into His rest. He did the work to save His people. When He comes, this will be the substance that the Sabbath has always pointed to. It will be the eternal Sabbath rest because we will go into Heaven itself.
This is why Isaiah is making this statement and this is why Ezekiel 46:1 says:
Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
The substance of these things will be fulfilled at Christ’s coming. The shadows pointed to this. When He comes, the gate opens. The seven messengers, who are fulfilling one last duty, pour out the vials of the seven last plagues. Then that is it.
Once this is complete, the implication in Revelation 15 is that they enter back into the temple, or that man can then enter into the temple. Since all of the unsaved will be gone at that point and it will be over for them, then it can only be the true believers who will enter back in.
Let us go back to Revelation 15. We read in the last verse of Revelation 15, Revelation 15:8:
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels [messengers] were fulfilled.
Then we read in the next chapter, Revelation 16:1-2:
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels [messengers], Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
The word “noisome” is a word that is normally translated as “evil” or “bad,” and so this is an “evil” thing. The word “grievous” is also translated as “evil” or “wicked.” And so there is a strong emphasis here that this is not good. This is about as bad as it gets. This is an evil, wicked, sore judgment that is being poured out.
If we think about this, if we really think about this, it is far worse to remove the possibility of salvation than anything that could happen physically. This is worse than anything physical that could be done to people. To take away the hope of salvation, to remove that Day of Salvation and for God to say that this is over and that there will be no more salvation is a horrible thing. This is an evil thing.
When God causes a hurricane or an earthquake, He says that He creates evil. So, too, this is an evil thing. This is a very grievous sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast.
This word “sore” is found twice in Revelation 16 and this is also found in Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus. I do not think that this is found anywhere else. It says in Luke 16:19-21:
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
Here is that word. It continues:
And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
This is a parable and Lazarus is representing a child of God. He is picturing true believers, but he has sores and desires to be fed with the crumbs from the rich man’s table. In other words, he is being afflicted and his desire for just the crumbs of these riches is not being met.
Then it goes on to say in Luke 16:22-25:
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
By the way, this word “bosom” is plural here. The first “bosom” is singular. This second “bosom” should have been translated “bosoms.”
It continues:
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
God is looking first at Lazarus who had a difficult life. He had a hard time. He had sores during his days on the earth; but now the rich man who had an apparently easy and comfortable life is being tormented and he is now the one desiring something. He just wants a drop of water.
What does water represent in the Bible? It represents the Gospel.
So the big point of this parable is, “If only I could have a little bit of hope of salvation, because I am in torment.”
This is not a coincidence. It is intentional that God is laying this out, because we are in five months of torment according to Revelation 9 where we read of there being no hope of the Gospel for someone to become saved.
The rich man wants just a little drop of water. Is it possible? The answer is that no, it is not. There is “a great gulf fixed,” and so this is an impossibility. This is the judgment of God. There is no mercy because there is no more salvation.
God uses the sores of Lazarus and then contrasts it with the rich man who then winds up in torment, and I think that we can relate this a little bit to what is going on in Revelation 16. Those upon the earth are now experiencing an evil and a sore judgment that has come upon them. This is basically the same thing that came upon the rich man. He was given no water and no hope of God bestowing His grace anymore if he was not already saved.
It says again in Revelation 16:2:
…there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
If we go back to Revelation 13, we read about the image to the beast in verse 14 and following. It says in Revelation 13:14-15:
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
This would be the churches who have the ability to speak. They can communicate.
The problem today for people is that these churches, even though they claim to be the church of Christ, were under the authority of Satan during the great tribulation and they are filled with emissaries of Satan. They come looking like Christ, like they have the Gospel, and yet they do not.
This is that image that Satan wanted people to worship. This is because if people believed that God was there and if they bowed down to that, if he was able to deceive them like he had been able to deceive Adam and Eve, he would receive the worship. This was what was going on for the 23-year great tribulation.
Then it says in Revelation 13:16-17:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The mark in the hand is just language indicating that someone’s will is owned by Satan, because the hand represents the will. This is why Jesus said, “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off.” Stop the way you are going.
Here, the mark is “in their right hand, or in their foreheads.” Their forehead is where their mind is, and so this is indicating an individual’s mind or their spirit or soul is owned by Satan.
Who would this be referring to? This would be every unsaved person, every unsaved individual in the world. If someone is unsaved at this point, there are no more elect to save.
These individuals have received a “mark,” but there is no literal mark. I know that some people get mixed up by this and try to find answers to the Bible by looking at literal solutions to verses, but they always end up being wrong. This is a spiritual mark that cannot be seen and it just indicates that a person is owned by Satan. This mark is mentioned in Revelation 16. This is the “grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast,” which is every unsaved person.
So God is going to make a distinction. First of all, there are five months of torment on all of the world, on every unsaved individual. Secondly, this is also “upon them which worshipped his image,” which goes back to the image of the beast in the churches. In particular, this is the judgment that comes upon the churches and congregations. They receive more stripes as they were immediately slain as soon as we moved into the five-month period, and there is absolutely no hope for them.
It goes on to say in Revelation 16:3-7:
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
So the water is being turned to blood and blood has to do with judgment, just like the moon turns to blood that we read about in a couple of places during this time. This is a spiritual reference.
If we go to the ocean or to the river, we do not see any blood literally. But the way that God is looking at this, this is referring to all of the waters of the earth, not just a third part of the waters.
The third part of the waters were turned to blood in Revelation 8. We read in Revelation 8:8-9:
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
This third part is typifying the church. God judged them.
What was this judgment that turned their waters to blood? It was the removal of His blessing, the removal of His Spirit, the removal of salvation from the churches, even though they did not know this. They probably heard that Family Radio was teaching this. They more than likely heard this and were very annoyed about the fact that Family Radio was teaching the end of the church age and that God’s people should come out.
And why was Family Radio teaching this? They were teaching this for the people’s own benefit, because the waters were turned to blood and they could not drink them. All of the Gospel waters in every church and in every denomination across the face of the earth turned to blood. This is what happened to the third part during the great tribulation. But outside of those churches, the waters had not been turned to blood because God was sending forth the latter rain.
We know that Family Radio went into all the world in a great way. God’s people carried the Gospel outside of the church and there was a tremendous blessing on this witness of the Word of God. But at the same time, the waters of the church were turned to blood.
Revelation 16:3 says again:
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.
The difference here is that this does not say that this occurred only on the third part of the sea. It is just says “the sea.” This is because this judgment has expanded.
We knew this. We knew that judgment began at the house of God and that this judgment was for 23 years. Then we knew that judgment would transition.
You can read Jeremiah 25 where God tells us that He will begin this at Jerusalem and then He will judge all of the other nations. We actually have a very clear example of God’s judgment on the church here.
We thought that this would be spiritual. But then when He turned to the world, we mistakenly thought that that would be much more physical. But, no; this judgment is actually the same thing.
This is why He uses the same language. The church’s waters turned to blood, because God left them to themselves. Whether they knew this or not, they just went through great tribulation. They had no salvation. No one who remained in the church received any blessing for those 23 years.
Now, for five months, whether people know this or not and whether people are aware of this in the world is not the point. God’s judgment is much more gentle than we would ever think. He judged the church and, to Him, this was a horrible thing.
Look at the language of Jeremiah and look at much of the language of the Bible. Look at His weeping over the fact that He pronounced that awful judgment upon the congregation, which just boiled down to His Holy Spirit leaving and Satan entering in. And now, He has left the world in the sense that there is no more salvation for the world; there is no more blessing.
This is as it says in Revelation 18, and I want to read this so that we understand exactly what I mean by saying that He left the world. This verse is referring to Babylon, which typifies the world. It says in Revelation 18:23:
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee…
We read this in the past and thought that this meant that Christ left, because He is the Bridegroom, and that He took the believers, the Bride. We thought that this meant that we would physically leave the world. But, no; this is very similar to what we read in Amos 8 where it says that there is a famine of hearing in the land, and this applied to the church.
Here, this is saying “the voice,” which is the Word of God, of Christ the Bridegroom and of the Bride, as we would carry that Word, “shall be heard no more at all.” This is because it takes God to open up the ears. The Bible tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
But here we are. We did not go anywhere. God is still everywhere present. He is still omnipresent. He has not left in that sense, but He has removed the ability for man ever again to hear the Word. If He did not hear by May 21, he is never going to hear ever again. The voice will never be heard, which is what He is referring to here as “the light of the candle.”
God can use the small example of putting out the light of the Gospel like a candle or He can use a very big example and refer to the sun itself and say that the sun will be darkened. He is saying the exact same thing. He will put out the light of the Gospel.
Going back to Revelation 16, we read in Revelation 16:8-9:
And the fourth angel [messenger] poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
This is unusual. This is out of place almost because we keep reading about darkness: the darkening of the sun, the darkening of the moon, the falling of the stars. Actually, even in Revelation 16:10, it says:
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Spiritually, the world is dark. But now, God introduces the sun; and not only the sun, but a scorching sun that is able to produce great heat. As a result of this heat, men blaspheme the name of God and do not repent.
We were just talking about this a little bit at lunch. On May 21 and for the few days thereafter in May and for a couple of weeks into June, things got pretty hot, did they not? Things got pretty hot and we were not imagining that. We were not imaging that. Spiritually, this is a scorcher. This is the way that God speaks of this time and He does this in many places.
Let us look at 1 Peter 1:6-7. By the way, I am waiting for someone to ask when we are ever going to get back to 1 Peter, because we started in 1 Peter in this Bible study and have never made it back. Now, we are back to 1 Peter. We read in 1 Peter 1:6-7:
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
This speaks of a trial of faith by fire. This is not an uncommon idea in the Bible. This is the same idea that we see in 1 Corinthians 3. I will read several verses so that we can see how this fits. Actually, this fits with what we were talking about before with the temple actually being living people. It says in 1 Corinthians 3:9-13:
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest…
Just to define this work, look at 1 Corinthians 9:1. God is moving Paul to write this. It says:
Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
He is speaking to the Corinthians and saying, “Ye people, are ye not my work in the Lord?”
Now return to 1 Corinthians 3. We read in 1 Corinthians 3:13:
Every man's work shall be made manifest…
This word “manifest” means that something is revealed to be exactly what it is. This is because what was the problem all through history? It was the difference between the wheat and the tares. You could not tell a wheat from a tare. You could not tell a true child of God from someone who was just really covering it up because they were their same old self with no change in their heart at all.
Yet it says again in 1 Corinthians 3:13:
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it…
This is speaking of the Day of Judgment. We are in Judgment Day. This is Judgment Day. This began on May 21 and this continues for five months or 153 days. Since this day is declaring this, we should be seeing evidence of who the true people of God are and who are not.
Many of us can be fooled so easily. Just because somebody puts on a hat and a shirt, we think that they are our brother and our sister. But that is not a brother or sister. If someone carries a sign, that is not a brother or sister. It was the same sign that we carried, yes; but a real brother or sister is what God has to make. He is the only One who can make this.
This actually began right on May 21, did this not? This was almost instantaneous with some people. They began to immediately distance themselves from Family Radio and from Mr. Camping, from anything to do with this. It was within a week that I think I heard from people who had all been onboard prior to May 21 that we were liars, that we were false prophets, that everyone should turn off Family Radio and never turn it on again. Within one week, this was going around in many places.
But thank God that He has His people and that they were carrying signs and they were wearing hats and they were wearing shirts and handing out tracts. But not everyone that did these things were His people.
This particular vial that we are reading about in Revelation 16 is not targeted so much at the church; actually, not at all. This is targeting those who had identification with the true Gospel outside of the church.
Let us finish reading 1 Corinthians 3:13 and then we will go back to Revelation 16. 1 Corinthians 3:13 says again:
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
There are so many verses that we could go to. Remember that when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven, He comes taking vengeance. We read in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8:
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels [messengers],
Again, this is God’s people judging the world with Him. It continues:
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
This began when Judgment Day began. This is the time of fire and brimstone, of “flaming fire,” of scorching heat.
It goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 3:14:
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
This would be referring to a true child of God who is going to come through like gold. He will be purified. This is what Daniel said. He said, “Of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end.”
Then it says in 1 Corinthians 3:15:
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
The one who will be saved is the true believer who brought the message. This individual was His Work. This work is a person, but this work is burned up if the person is unsaved because they turn out to be wood, hay, and stubble and not gold, silver, and precious stones, not someone who was truly one of God’s elect.
Going back to Revelation 16, we read again in Revelation 16:8-9:
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat…
This word “scorched” is found twice here in Revelation 16 and only two other times in the New Testament. They are in parallel parables. It is found once in Matthew 13 with the parable of the sower. We read in Matthew 13:5-6:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
This is one place. The other place is in Mark 4:5-6:
And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
These are the only other two places where we find this word “scorched.”
The word “heat” in Revelation 16 is related to this word, but the word “scorched” itself is found twice in Revelation 16 and once in Matthew and once in Mark. In both cases, it has to do with the parable of the sower throwing the seed, which is the Word of God. This is what Christ goes on to explain about this parable. And this seed lands upon the hearts of men.
This is what God’s people did all through history. They threw the seed out there. It landed where it may. Then God gives the illustration in this parable of the different types of ground that this seed landed on. In this case where it landed on ground that wound up being scorched, this is because it fell on “stony ground.” There was no depth and no deepness for it to take root.
We understand that when you sow seed in your garden, you cannot sow this on a rock. This is because when the sun gets hot, there are no roots. The roots were not able to get deep enough in order to strengthen the plant to survive.
Isaiah 11 defines the root for us. We read in Isaiah 11:10:
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse…
Christ is the root. If there is no root because there is no deepness of earth, this is the problem. This is completely the problem. Jesus is not indwelling that person. And it did not matter how they responded to the Gospel. It did not matter how joyfully and how happy they were. Any of that type of response did not matter. The problem was that it could not penetrate beyond a heart of stone, a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked. That seed landed on that type of heart, but Christ was not in that heart and so there was no growth.
Turn to Mark 4. Jesus explains this parable. He would do this occasionally to help us in understanding how He wrote the Bible. We read in Mark 4:16-17:
And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves…
People heard about May 21 maybe two years ago. Maybe they heard about this one year ago. Maybe they only heard about this two weeks before May 21. We have to remember that this was all over the place. This was on the television. People saw this as they drove down the road on billboards. There were seemingly people everywhere pestering people with tracts.
It was everywhere, and there would be an individual who somehow had identification with the Gospel. They would be looking at this, and no one could deny that this was certainly along the lines of what Christ would want His people to do. We were told, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” and here were these people doing this boldly. This had a certain attraction. Plus, they were talking about an end of the world very definitely and very certainly, and this had an awful lot of attraction.
Why is it that so many people go to those ladies with their crystal balls or who read their horoscopes or who call into those psychic hotlines, all of those types of things? People want to know the future. They want to know their future.
So here were people who were predicting the future, and what we had really was a lot of people who joined up. A lot of people joined up. Some joined up further back. Some joined up a little closer as it got nearer and nearer. A lot of people joined up and it was not hard for people to join up. We were shoveling out the shirts. They were on the back table. All we had to do was ask people if they wanted a shirt. We did not have any questionnaire for people to fill out. We were not trying to find out where people stood spiritually.
God forbids that at this time. We have no one in authority checking people as to whether they are truly a child of God or not. This was a matter for the authority in the church. Nobody does this now, and so it was very easy for people to join up.
We would say that we were going downtown with a caravan, etc. We would speak of going overseas. With those who were interested in going overseas, we did try to make sure that that was an individual who was believing like we were. But if they wanted to go downtown with us to hand out tracts, who was to stop them?
So a lot of people got shirts. A lot of people got hats. A lot of people got signs. They were right with us outwardly, but not where it counted. This is because inwardly they did not have that root. They did not have that root at all.
I think that this parable had application all through history, but we can make this connection now because God is the One who is using this word “scorched” that is found twice in Revelation 16 and that is only found elsewhere in this parable of the sower. And so He is putting His finger on something that relates to the Day of Judgment, to the day of fiery trial, like it said in 1 Peter.
In Mark 4, we also read about the sun. It goes on to say in Mark 4:17:
And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
We experienced affliction leading up to May 21, but it was minor. People called us names or they ripped up a tract, which was very minor stuff. Yet in addition to this, there was the comfort of having so many people with us. There was all of this interest that the world was showing in the Gospel for it seemed like the first time in history. All kinds of things were making it very exciting to continue on in doing that.
But then it did not happen like we thought. There was no great earthquake. There was no resurrection physically of the dead. There was no rapture of the living on May 21. Immediately, mocking was taking place.
I had been talking about the ten days of May, from May 21 to May 31, and the first couple weeks of June, because they were not pleasant. It was a very uncomfortable time and I really had the feeling that people were looking at me. It was as if they knew. In my neighborhood, they definitely knew. Little kids would even come up to me and ask, “Why did that not happen?” Little tiny children would ask me this.
The heat was turned up. The heat was turned up like never before. And any kind of previous affliction or tribulation that we have experienced for the Word’s sake was nothing in comparison to this beginning of the five months. It really kind of made me and others, too, wonder what these five months was going to hold before we began studying this and realized that we could relax.
We could relax. We could settle back. We needed to remember that we were sheep and that we have a Good Shepherd watching over us and protecting us; and this is how this has turned out. It has quieted down. Nobody hardly says anything. We do not hear a peep from the church.
Where is the problem coming from? The problem is coming from those who were wearing hats and shirts and signs. Why? This is because they were offended. They were offended.
They are angry, they are very upset, they are embarrassed, and this is not good. Jesus said, “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory.” But they will say, “Oh, I am not ashamed of the Word of God. I am ashamed that we proclaimed something that was not true.”
This is not the reason why the heat has been turned up. It was God’s plan all along to accomplish two things. He intended to lay a snare for all of the world and for Satan. At the same time, He intended to try His people. God wanted us to misunderstand this. I know how this sounds, but God is not responsible for our errors. All He has to do is to leave us to ourselves. Believe me; we can misunderstand all by ourselves. He wanted us to misunderstand in order that He could bring about this time of a scorching sun, this time of raising affliction and tribulation for all those who brought the Gospel.
His people will make it through. They are not going to be burned up. They are not going to be destroyed. But unfortunately for others, the problem is that there is no root. The problem is that Christ is not within their hearts.
Lord willing, we will maybe try to finish up with Revelation 16 and look at the great river Euphrates being dried up. God is leading us into this chapter and it could be that He is preparing us for the coming day when He will take His people from this world into the next. This has been typified and pictured by the crossing of the Red Sea and by the crossing of the Jordan. He also mentions later in Revelation 16:12 about the river drying up.
We will stop here.