Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #30 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to be reading Revelation 11:15-17:

The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

I will stop reading there.  We were looking at verse 15 in our last study where the seventh angel sounded; the seventh angel was the last angel to sound and it is the third woe of the three woes for this world.  All three woes describe the Day of Judgment, the pouring out of the wrath of God at the end of the world, upon all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.

We are presently living on the earth at the time this is happening to the people of the world.  It is a spiritual judgment which they cannot see and, therefore, the world goes about as if it were “business as usual,” and nothing different than at any other time.  But the truth is that this is a very different time.  It is a vastly different time than in times past when God was actively saving people.  The wrath of God is upon the inhabitants of the earth; the cup of God’s wrath is being poured out and is being given to each unsaved person.  They do not have to be aware of it.  That is not necessary. 

Just as God judged the churches and congregations for a full twenty three years (an exact 8,400 days) and, for the most part, those in the churches and congregations were ignorant of the judgment upon them; they denied it; they dismissed it; they ignored it.  If you asked them today if God is judging them, they would say, “Of course God is not judging us.  God loves us.  He is in our congregation and He is blessing us.  We have new members and we are building a new church wing.”  They would give what they think is evidence of God’s blessing.  God began judgment at the house of God as He began to give the cup of His wrath to those called by His name (the corporate body which numbers about two billion).  God judged them furiously; He destroyed them spiritually; He loosed Satan as an instrument of destruction to wreak havoc in the congregations of the world.  Even though God did all these things and His hand was heavy upon them, they did not realize it and they still do not realize it.  So, of course, the world, which is even more lacking in understanding the God of the Bible (if that is possible), they are not going to recognize this spiritual judgment which is upon them.  How are they going to have better spiritual perception than those professed Christians in the world?  Remember what God said in 1Peter 4:17:

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

God judged the churches and they were ignorant of it; they knew not the judgment of God.  It is exactly as their spiritual forefathers, the nation of Israel, had God’s wrath upon them and they did not know it.  Remember God says this in Jeremiah 8:7:

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.

Israel did not know even though they were told.  Jeremiah the prophet admonished them and told them that God was displeased with them and that God was going to raise up a nation out of the north, the Babylonians, to come against them.  Yet, they still did not know.  This is the nature of man.  He does not understand spiritual things and He does not understand the judgment of God.  That is what the Lord says in Proverbs 28:5:

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek JEHOVAH understand all things.

If we are looking to the world to realize the judgment of God is upon them in order that it might encourage us that these things are true, we are looking in entirely the wrong place!  The churches knew not the judgment of God and “Evil men understand not judgment.”  This is why God says in Ecclesiastes 8:5:

Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

A fool’s heart (anyone that is unsaved) does not discern time and judgment.  Only a wise man’s heart understands and the Bible’s definition of a wise man is one that possesses Wisdom – not the wisdom of “reason” but the Wisdom that is Christ.  Christ is the embodiment and essence of wisdom.  If someone possesses Christ, they are wise in the sight of God, whether that person be a little baby or a small child or a full grown person.  It does not matter how smart or intellectual they are, but they are wise and “a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.”  It is not for evil and foolish men; they do not discern these things.  This is what God also tells us in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Then He repeated it in Daniel 12:9-10:

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

None of the wicked shall understand.  How many is none?  It is a “zero” percentage.  None of the wicked understands.  What is interesting is that God opened the Scriptures and knowledge increased, which included information about the end of the church age and the Day of Judgment; the very day was revealed by the Bible to be May 21, 2011.  Many people “latched onto” that information, but remember God says, “A wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment,” so in the days leading up to May 21, it appeared there were many that understood both time and judgment, but they actually only understood “time.”  They understood, at least intellectually, for whatever reason and I am not sure what their reasons were.   Their reason may have been they found it interesting or exciting, or whatever.  As Mr. Camping used to say, some people thought he had a “crystal ball” and everyone likes to hear the future foretold.  So whatever the reason was, some “joined up” and clung to the idea.  Maybe they just wanted the safety of being on the right side, in case it did happen.  Maybe they just wanted to make sure they were “right with God” because they were listening; they believed it, you see.  But as God says here in Daniel 10, “none of the wicked shall understand,” so God brought Judgment Day in a spiritual way, and when something occurs spiritually, it can only be ‘seen’ by the eyes of faith.  It can only be seen by the one that has been given spiritual eyes to see.  So God did not bring about any kind of physical destruction – no great earthquake, no shaking of the ground, and no terrible experience taking place in the world – and it was just like any other day.  Yet, spiritually, there was a drastic change and God did do what He said He would do: He shut the door to heaven; He began to pour out His wrath to punish mankind.  Remember, none of the wicked shall understand.  Evil men understand not judgment.  God said of Judah of old and of the churches of our day, “My people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.”  It is because God works in the spiritual realm and they cannot perceive spiritual things; they have natural minds and, therefore, many quickly turned the other way. 

Some of them turned quickly and some others, for whatever reason, hung on a little longer and some a little longer still, but God has so designed Judgment Day and made it an “abominable thing” to the natural-minded man to hold on to this date.  It comes to be a despised thing in their minds – that date: “These people will not let go of that date.”  They begin to think evil of the people of God who refuse to let that date go and they are tired of hearing about it: “It did not happen.  Why do they not just forget it?  Oh, these people that hang onto this date are so proud and arrogant and they refuse to humble themselves like I have.  I humbled myself and I recognized that nothing happened and now it has opened my eyes, so I now begin to doubt a lot of these things I had accepted.  I wonder about that Biblical calendar.  I doubt that calendar.  And I doubt the church age is even over.  And how crazy is that doctrine that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world?  What about annihilation?  How could I have followed any of it?”

They just cannot hold onto that one truth and, as God says, “A wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.”   They saw the time, but not the judgment.  But, then, it was a spiritual judgment and that is foolishness to them because they cannot see it at all and this causes them to step back.  Once they take that initial step back and start going in the wrong direction, other doctrines begin to unravel and their true colors come to light; they were always this way and they never really truly knew these things and Christ did not know them either.  As they did not know the Word, He did not know them.  The spiritual fire of Judgment Day is manifesting their works, as it says in 1Corinthians 3:11-15:

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. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

God has lit that spiritual fire and He has placed the professed believers, as well as true believers, in the Day of Judgment and it begins to “work” on everyone.  It begins to relentlessly – day after day after day – try each individual.  The “day shall declare it” and it will “try every man’s work of what sort it is.”  If an individual is “gold,” he is going to be purified and he is going to come through the fire in better condition than when it began.  But if someone is “wood, hay or stubble,” the fire will burn him.  If someone was stubble, on May 22, 2011, they were burned immediately and they were gone; if someone was wood, it might take a little longer and maybe it is a year later or two years later, but they will not endure the flame.  It is guaranteed by God.  This period of judgment, which very likely will be 1,600 days, is a period of severe testing.  The 1,600 days breaks down to “40 x 40.”  There was a great deliverance of God’s elect on May 21, 2011, but instead of going right into the Promised Land (just as the Jews that came out of Egypt did not go right into the land of Canaan), God brought us by way of the wilderness and He is putting us through this period of testing.  It is just like He took Israel out of Egypt and took them into the wilderness for forty years for a particular purpose – that those that murmured against Him might be destroyed.  It was God’s plan that not one of them (not a single individual) that complained and murmured against Him would ever enter into the Promised Land.  He intentionally brought them forty years through that desert in order that the entire generation would die out, except for just a few men that were “true men” or true believers.

This is how it is now.  God has intentionally prolonged and extended the Day of Judgment in order that the fire during this time period will “burn off the dross” and in order that certain individuals would fall away and not believe the things they had once professed to believe.  When we see this happen, we should not be discouraged, because this is actually accomplishing God’s purpose.  I have seen it happen so many times with people I had thought were sound individuals.  I might have thought that leading up to May 21, 2011, or for some, even after May 21.  I had thought, “This is a sound individual and someone who knows the true Gospel.”  You have that feeling of brotherhood or sisterhood.  You have that feeling that this is someone who is a child of God and he is experiencing like things as you.  Then the next thing you know, they start going in a different direction and they start asking certain things; when you give them sound answers from the Bible, they are not satisfied with the answers.  Slowly, or sometimes more quickly, they are gone and the next thing you know they are with others that point the finger and pronounce you as a heretic and revile you.  Incredibly, it is just like those in the churches reviled God’s people when the information that the church age was over came out of the Bible.  You wonder, “Do they not know where we they are right now?  Do they not know they have left the truth and the faithful Word of God?”  But they do not see it that way at all.

Of course, it is all by God’s grace and all according to His will and not one man or woman will “endure” as a result of his or her own steadfastness or by his or her own power or strength.  It is God that brings us through and He does all the work within us.  He is the one that saved us and He is the one that opens our ears to hear these things and to hear the voice of Christ.  He is the one that keeps us on the path and does not allow us to turn from the path, to the left or to the right.  He will not let us go backward; we have to keep going “until the day dawn,” and God will cause each one of His elect to “endure to the end.”  Is that not an amazing thing that God says in Matthew 24?  I have not read this for awhile, even though I have referred to it, but it says in Matthew 24:13:

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

What an incredibly prophetic statement that is!  Now we look at our situation and we look at the fact that we are living in the Day of Judgment – God’s elect are alive and remain upon the earth.  There are all of these forces working to try the child of God; the spiritual fire has been lit.  The true believer is going through this fire and, of course, it is never a pleasant thing when you are in the fire.  But just like Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego, the fire has no power to hurt us because “one like the Son of man” is with His people and He will protect us and He will cause each elect individual to endure.  However long Judgment Day will be, these will endure to the end and the same shall be saved.  The fact that they endure to the end does not save them, but it is because God has already saved them that they will endure to the end.