The last time that we were studying, we were in Revelation 16. We read in Revelation 16:8-12:
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. And the fifth angel [messenger] poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel [messenger] poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
I will stop reading there.
We have seen over the last couple of studies that the seven messengers or angels who are pouring out the vials of these plagues are true believers and that this is taking place right now during these five months.
This is all based on God completing His salvation plan and saving all of His elect. This is why the temple in Revelation 15 is filled with smoke from the glory of God and that no man is able to enter into the temple. This is because the temple comprises all of God’s elect. Once God saved the last one of His elect, which He did just prior to May 21, then the temple is no longer a place that a man can enter into.
The Bible tells us later in the book of Revelation that the temple is also Christ. The Lamb is the temple thereof as it tells us of the new Heaven and new earth. He is that temple. Therefore, if no man is able to enter into the temple and Christ is the temple, no man can enter into Christ and no man can become saved.
We see this repeatedly. In place after place, every time we look at anything that relates to this five-month period, we see that judgment is finished. It is over. It is complete. There are no more people to save. There are no more lost sheep. This is the nature of the torment on all of the world. The greatest torment and the most severe judgment came upon those in the churches when we made this move from the great tribulation into the Day of Judgment, which will last for these five months.
We also looked at Revelation 16:8-9 last time. This says:
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…
These two words “scorch” and “scorched” are only found in two other places in the New Testament. In both of these places, it is speaking of the parable of the sower. One is in the Mark account and the other is in Matthew’s account.
The seed is the Word of God. When God sowed seed, He says that “some fell on stony ground.” As Christ explains the parable, at first He gives the earthly story. The seed fell upon stony ground and sprung up very quickly. But when the sun came out, it scorched the young plant because there was no depth of earth; there was no root. It could not take deep root because it fell on a stone. Then Jesus explains this parable.
This is one of the few parables where He actually goes into detail and tells us that this is what this represents and this is what the other thing represents. Basically, He is telling us that this is how we are to understand the Bible. We read the parable and then we have to look for the spiritual meaning.
As He explains this parable, the sun that scorches the seed or the young plants that took root is the affliction and the persecution that comes for the Word’s sake or for Christ’s sake, which is one and the same.
This is why this is in this context. Otherwise, this would just be way out of place, because the five months is a time of spiritual darkness. Here, God is talking about a blazing sun that has great heat and that is scorching. This just does not fit until we realize that the sun is not what it is view here. This is talking about a time of intense spiritual heat and of intense affliction and persecution. Then this fits the five months perfectly. Does it not?
As soon as we moved from May 20 into May 21st, Judgment Day, the burner got turned up. This was like what Nebuchadnezzar said of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “Heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.”
Yes, God’s people have always experienced tribulation. We just went through great tribulation for 23 years, but was any of it like what happened when we entered into May 21st? Can we make any kind of comparison to anything spiritually that we have experienced for the Gospel’s sake?
No. It got hot. This did not just happen for some believers, but it got hot for all people who were bringing the message that May 21 was Judgment Day. God turned up the heat and it became a spiritual scorcher. It was extremely hot.
There is a day coming, which will be the last day of the five months, when God will literally burn up the earth and the universe and all of the works therein, which includes unsaved people. He will burn them up and annihilate them. He will utterly destroy all things by fire. This will be a literal fire.
God is a consuming fire and God in His wrath will accomplish this on the very last day. But we entered into a period of fire or fiery trial on the first day of the 153 days that will continue throughout the five months until that last day when the actual or literal fire that will melt all things with a fervent heat will take over.
For instance, go to 1st Peter 1. This was one of the reasons for why I was thinking of going through 1st Peter earlier when we first began the Bible study. This was because 1st Peter has verses like this in it. I thought that it would be good for me to look at these kinds of verses. If it was good for me, I thought that this would probably be good for others. 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:
So God ties in here a trial by a fire of faith with the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Look at 1 Peter 4:12-14:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
Again, this is talking about a fiery trial that is going to come upon God’s people. When is this? Again, it says in 1 Peter 4:13:
…when his glory shall be revealed…
That is twice that He speaks of a fiery trial in connection with some aspect of Christ’s coming.
In 1st Corinthians 3, we get more information about a fiery trial. What this is trying is our faith and it is trying our faith to see whether or not it is genuine, to see if it is real faith. We read 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: 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.
What is real faith? Well, it is not our profession. All kinds of people in the world say, “Lord, Lord.” Real faith is not that someone accepted Christ and it is not that someone believes in Christ. It is not our works. What is real, genuine, saving faith?
Whenever the Bible talks about saving faith, in 100% of the places where this is discussed, this is speaking of Christ’s faith. If anyone has anything less than Christ’s saving faith, if He has not done the work of saving an individual, it does not matter how outwardly good their profession may appear.
I think that we are learning that people can go a long way in making a profession of faith and in agreeing with things that are in the Bible and that the Bible is teaching and not be truly born again. They can go a long way and still not be truly saved.
This was the problem with the seed that fell on stony ground. We read again in Mark 4:16:
And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
This word “gladness” is the word “joy.” It is the same word where we read, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” This is that same word and it is most often translated as “joy.”
Joy is the right reaction. Joy is the proper response to the hearing of the Gospel. It is good news and people hear this Gospel in varied ways. They respond with joy. In this case, this is immediately their reaction.
Well, God had a program or a methodology of separating the wheat and the tares from the churches because the mechanism that He used was the command to come out of the church. He did this very well and God’s people came out of the churches and congregations.
All of those who had not left by the Day of Judgment were bundled for the fire. The fire came on May 21, Judgment Day, and they were cast into the fire spiritually. There is now no hope for them because that was Judgment Day and there is no salvation. The temple is complete. It is filled up and no man can enter in.
Yet this did not quite completely separate the saved from the unsaved, because there were many people outside of the churches who were, for instance, listening to Family Radio. They heard information about the church age being over. God’s people heard this and, out of obedience to God, they came out of the church.
If God had said that the church age was to continue, they would have stayed in the church regardless. We know that there was a time when we thought that we should find a reasonably faithful church. Even though we knew that things were not being taught faithfully or truthfully, we went to church because we thought that was where God wanted us.
Then we learned that the church age was over. It was then that God activated commands like, “Let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” Out of obedience, God’s people left. We were told not to look back and not to enter back into the church, and we did not.
But there were other individuals who were maybe more independent-minded who maybe had no interest in the church itself. This idea appealed to them because they could be outside of the church. They did not have to go to church. They did not have to get dressed up and put on a stuffy suit. They did not have to have anyone in authority over them anymore, no pastor, no elder, no deacon, nobody watching them, no creeds, no confessions, none of this stuff that would trouble them. They could be very independent and they could identify with Christ and they could identify with the Bible. For them, this was pretty good news.
A lot of people could receive this type of news pretty well and joyfully and immediately grab onto this. Basically, they could turn on a radio station and listen to being told that they should get out of the church. Then they could say, “Okay; I agree with this. I am out of the church.” Yet there were still problems within those individuals because they had never been born again.
We know that this is what the parable of the sower is focused on because Mark 4:16-17 says that they:
…immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves…
We read that “there shall be a root of Jesse,” and Jesus says that He is the root. God is saying very clearly that the problem is that Christ is not within them. He is not deep-down in their hearts. There is no Spirit of Christ in them and, therefore, this leaves them with their natural stony heart of unbelief.
This problem cannot be gone around. This problem cannot be by-passed. There is no substitute for “ye must be born again.” There is no substitute. Baptism was never a substitute. Partaking of the Lord’s Table was never a substitute. Church attendance and the pastor confirming you and saying, “Oh, you are a child of God,” and giving you great confidence that you were a believer was never a substitute for “ye must be born again.” Neither is agreeing with the end of the church age or hearing information about the end of the world, which is very exciting information, and receiving this quickly and joyfully. This was no substitute. It was no substitute to hand out tracts for “ye must be born again.” It was no substitute to wear a hat and a shirt and carry a sign. “Ye must be born again.”
This is very much impossible for man, no matter what actions we take or what works we do. Some people could have given much money. They could have spent much time. They could have gone to many places. They could have really spent their lives, in a sense, to carry this message. Yet if they had no root, if they had not Christ in their heart, the Spirit of Christ was not in them. This left them susceptible to a burning, scorching heat once we moved from the end of the great tribulation to the Day of Judgment, May 21, because this intensified greatly. Now there was persecution, like it says here in Mark 4:17:
…afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
Some people might say, “Well, it was for the Word’s sake. It was because things did not happen like we said they would.”
Oh, no. What happened on May 21st and hereafter has everything to do with the Word of God, because we brought the message of Judgment Day. This was the offense to the world. They could not escape this. They could not go anywhere. They could not go to the beach. They could not drive down the highway. They could not walk around downtown. Wherever they went, they were seeing caravans. This was the great offense.
When this did not happen precisely as we thought with a physical earthquake nor with the rapture or the day of resurrection, then individuals who were involved with this had to face the music from their families, their friends, their neighbors, their co-workers, even perhaps from strangers that they ran across. People were now letting them know just how much they did not like this and how traitorous it was of us to put “Judgment Day!” on the forefront of man’s eyes, because this really indicates that there is a Judge. This was the offense. Therefore, the affliction and the persecution that is normative for the Christian greatly increased.
I think that many of us felt this. Right away, we felt this. That was the heat. That was that scorching sun. But there is a positive side to this. It is true that if someone does not have this root in themselves, then they are going to be offended and go away. I think that we have been seeing this. We have been seeing this from day one. From day one, people have been distancing themselves from the Gospel message. They have been distancing themselves from this information that the Bible gave us, but also even from the source. The source is the Bible itself, but they have been especially distancing themselves from the ministry of Family Radio as they turned it off. They did not want to listen to Family Radio anymore.
This was the sad part and the sorrowful part. But on the other hand, the positive part is for God’s people who are still right with Him. They are still right there. They did not go anywhere. They would be the ones who say, “We have nowhere to go, Lord. Where can we go?” They are staying steadfastly in the truth of God’s Word.
Really, I think that this is stronger and stronger evidence, because here we are into the fifth month. We are into the fifth month and this is stronger and stronger evidence that someone is gold, silver, or precious stones and not wood, hay, or stubble, because the wood, hay, and stubble gets burned up. This gets burned up quickly with this sort of intense fire.
Well, going back to Revelation 16:10, it says:
And the fifth angel [messenger] poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast…
This word for “seat” is most often translated as “throne.” This is found in Matthew 19:28 as “throne,” as well as many other places in the New Testament. Here, this is referring to the throne of the beast, because he was given authority and rule.
Notice that it says next:
…and his kingdom was full of darkness…
It is a king who has a kingdom. It is a king who sits upon a throne.
One of the vials of God’s judgment, which began immediately as we entered into Judgment Day, targeted the seat or the throne of Satan. This is why we have mentioned before that God deposed him and put him down. He has conquered his kingdom. Just as Cyrus conquered Babylon and slew the king of Babylon, Christ conquered Satan’s kingdom, the kingdom of the beast. In one way, God actually does say that he was killed; but he has lost all official rule.
Notice again that it also says:
…and his kingdom was full of darkness;
The kingdom of the beast is the church. This is part of his kingdom.
If we turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, the end of verse 2 is speaking of the “day of Christ.” Then we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4:
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
This is referring to the seat of the beast. To “sit” in the Bible means to “rule.” He is in the temple, in the corporate churches that are everywhere in the world. Satan is not omnipresent but this is how God is viewing the whole church. It is as though it is all under his rule and his kingdom.
But also, God likened the church to Babylon and then He expanded that. Babylon became a representation of the whole world, too. Satan had been ruling in the world over this period of time. We have seen the world getting increasingly more evil. Now, when the vial of God’s wrath is poured out, his kingdom is “full of darkness.” But this is not just referring to the church, because the church has been experiencing darkness since the beginning of the great tribulation back in 1988 and these vials were being poured out on May 21, 2011; and so this is an increase and an expansion of this darkness.
If we look at how God judged the church and the manner in which He judged the church, this helps us to see how He is judging the world. He judged the church. He darkened a third part of the sun, moon, and stars, as it tells us in Revelation 8. It also says that He turned their waters to blood.
Now, this has expanded. Judgment began at the house of God. Then it transitioned into all the world. The darkness that was on a third part of the sun is now over the complete sun. The darkness that is also now over the moon and the stars is a complete darkness. This darkness is over the whole face of the earth. Spiritually, there is no more light of the Gospel, not even the little light of a candle anywhere, not even the smallest of lights that someone might have.
The only light, spiritually, that God is recognizing is within His people. It is the light that is within the children of God, within that great multitude that He saved. This light is shining within individuals, but this is not outward at all. This is not a light that shines into the world.
Then we read in Revelation 16:11:
And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
The word “blaspheme” is a word that is hard to understand. It is used many times in the Bible in reference to people saying that someone was blaspheming, even blaspheming the Holy Spirit. But what really helps us to understand what this word “blaspheme” means is when we see this translated as “speaking evil of.” This is what blasphemy is.
Unfortunately, we do not have time to get into this right now, but next time we will look at individuals who were not only identified with the church but with those who also understood the things that God has been opening up regarding Judgment Day and all of this information that we have been learning. We will look at how they are blaspheming the God of Heaven. Of course, they are not cursing God directly. They would never do that. But as we look at this word, I think that this will become clear.
We will stop here.