Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #29 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are in Revelation 14:12:

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

We have been discussing this verse for the last couple of studies because it is a very important verse.  Everything in the Bible is important, but, in this case, this verse is revealing to us a doctrine that was not previously known.  This is information God has opened up to us since the Great Tribulation concluded.  We should not be surprised at that because we read in Romans 2:5:

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

Here, the Lord is speaking to those that are actively involved in sin.  If they have no Saviour, their sins are adding up; they are being “treasured up” unto “wrath against the day of wrath.”  That lets us know that sinners, as we live in this world, abide under the wrath of God all the days of our lives, unless God saved us and, yet, even though we are under His wrath, normally, there is still a special day, an “appointed day” called the “day of wrath.”  The Bible also calls it the “day of the Lord,” or the “day of JEHOVAH.”  Our sins that we commit during our lifetime while under the wrath of God are, in a sense, being “stored up.”  They are being remembered in God’s infinite mind; He does not forget a single transgression.  They are stored up “against the day of wrath” and there is no question that this is a reference to Judgment Day.

But what makes this verse so interesting to us is what it says about that day of wrath.  Let me read, again, the second part of Romans 2:5:

… treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

Here, the word “and” is an important word because it joins two ideas together.  In this case, it joins the “day of wrath” with the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”  This tells us that Judgment Day, the day of wrath, is also a time of God’s revelation of His “righteous judgment.” 

Since the Great Tribulation ended on May 21, 2011 and Judgment Day began, we have been learning much more information about the nature of God’s judgment.  We have learned it is a spiritual judgment, just as it was on the churches.  It will remain a spiritual judgment until the very end of the prolonged period of Judgment Day.  Then, finally, God will literally destroy this world and the sinners on the very last day of this time period.

We have also learned that the people of God go through this fire that was lit in God’s anger.  We are left alive and remaining until that very last day when the Lord comes and it is the time of the resurrection and the rapture, and Revelation 14:12 is a verse that teaches this truth.  Here, in the context of Judgment Day, it says: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”  So God has continued to reveal information to us.  One of the important truths that we have learned since May 21, 2011 is something that was never previously known before by theologians, churches or anyone: the people of God would be on the earth and go through Judgment Day and go through it in a glorious way that gives God the glory at the final conclusion of everything.  God will be greatly glorified in His people that will have demonstrated and manifested that there was no sin upon them.  That is how they are able to endure to the end, as the Bible says.  Is it not interesting how God makes that statement in Matthew, chapter 24?  Let me read it.  It says in Matthew 24:11-12:

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

There is the falling away of the churches, with the reference to the false prophets rising and deceiving many.  There is the terrible increase of wickedness in the world that we see today, as iniquity is abounding, and then it says in Matthew 24:13:

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

This is really a remarkable statement that God is making in the context of Matthew 24, as the Lord is answering the disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of they coming, and of the end of the world?”  Well, it will take endurance.  We must endure to the end.  We previously thought that this meant we had to endure until May 21, 2011.  We had to be faithful up until that point and then that would be it for the believers and we would be taken out of the world. 

But, no, that was not the case; God had another plan.  He had a much greater and more severe test for those that professed to believe His Word and professed to believe the things coming forth from the Bible concerning the end of the church age; concerning Christ’s sacrifice from the foundation of the world; concerning the doctrine of Hell; concerning the teaching of Judgment Day itself.  What if (repeat), what if God just arranged things in such a way to give the appearance that Judgment Day did not happen, even though it would happen exactly on the day that He said it would?  What if God allowed and permitted His people to have truth concerning the Day of Judgment and the fact that the door to heaven would shut and God would begin to punish the world in the day of wrath, a prolonged period of time?  But what if they were incorrect about the physical aspect of this, like a literal “great earthquake” and what if they took the “five months” literally, rather than figuratively?  What if God let them hold onto this wrong conclusion in order to set up a final test, the test of His Word and the test of their faith?  Notice it says in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”  It says that they keep “the faith of Jesus.”

And, yet, it would happen on the date that God had sent forth, as God opened up that information from His Word, but if God had people think that something “visible” and physical” would happen that they could see with their eyes, but then it did happen, what would be the reaction of those that professed to believe these things?  So it was as if God said, “Let us put this into play and this can also accomplish several other purposes at the same time; I can purify my elect as gold, silver, precious stones and bring them through the fire; I can try my newly completed house that is built upon the Rock and bring a storm against it and see what sort of foundation it has.  I can bring the same storm against the others that do not have their house built upon that Rock and their house will fall.  My people can demonstrate, by going through this spiritual fire, that they have had their sins forgiven in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ from the foundation of the world.  It will be a manifestation of them standing before the judgment seat of Christ for the things done in their bodies, whether good or bad.  And since all their sins have already been forgiven through the Lord’s atoning work before the world was created, they will endure.   They will go through the fire safely.”

So, the “day” will reveal what kind of work has been done in them by God.  Are they true men, without guile or are they not true men?  Do they still have their deceitful hearts of unbelief?  In other words, this period of time will show forth in an absolute way those that are saved and those that are not saved – the “day” will declare it.  The believers will come through and there will be that final separation of not only the wheat and the tares, but the goats and the sheep.  This is the elaborate plan of God, including the “snare” for all the inhabitants of the earth that God put into place. 

But God’s people continued to search the Bible, even after things did not go as they had thought.  There was confusion; there was doubt.  People wondered what was going on and God’s people were unsure for a time, but they knew one thing: the Bible is trustworthy.  God’s Word is always faithful and true and God’s sheep hear His voice and they know: “I heard the voice of Christ.  The way the Biblical calendar (which came from the Bible) locked things into place and they fell so perfectly, it could only have been the hand of God.” 

All these Scriptures fit and no man could have developed this timeline, where exactly 7,000 years from the flood falls on the 8,400^th day of the Great Tribulation, the exact 23^rd year and then that date of May 21, 2011 had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of 2/17, which is the selfsame day that God shut the door of Noah’s ark and the flood came.  No man is that brilliant and able to manipulate things to arrange this sort of circumstances.  God’s people knew: “I heard the voice of Christ in the declaration of May 21, 2011.”

Who else could have opened up the opportunities, a door to all the world for the tremendous witness of the declaration of Judgment Day?  All the nations heard that typically do not have even a moment for these kinds of things or any interest in hearing the Bible talk about judgment.  They turn from it; they dismiss it.  They will, literally, “give you the back” if you come with that message and, yet, it was put in the forefront of their eyes for a prolonged period of time.  They could not avoid it.  Who but God could have arranged for buses to travel through big cities “wrapped” with the message of Judgment Day and for jitneys in India and the Philippines to carry the same message, and thousands of bill boards all over the world – in Ireland, in England and even in the Middle East?  And tracts went forth by the millions, and on, and on, and on it went.  The incredible worldwide declaration of May 21, 2011, Judgment Day, was unparalleled and unprecedented.  Who could have done that?  The true believers knew the Word of God locked it in and no one has been able to show it to be in error.  That proclamation had to be from God.  You cannot find a cult or a false gospel that has such a wide open door; it takes God to open the door to China and India and Korea, and so on.  Only God’s people could have had such opportunity, because God was with them.

Then the people of the Lord were confused.  What is going on?  Why did it not happen as we had thought?  But those that were not God’s people (who had guile deep within) “joined up” for however long a period of time, wanting to be on the “right side of things,” more than likely, or for whatever reason.  They went along with it, but when it did not happen (in a physical way), they quickly turned on the brethren and they begin to revile them even more than the people of the world did or the people within the churches did.  With spite and cruelty they reviled.  We are reminded of the Scripture that warns about these, in Luke, chapter 12, where God gives a warning about those that started to beat their fellow servants because the Lord delayed His coming.  It says in Luke 12:42-46:

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

Notice how this lets us know there is an evil servant and that means this servant was never saved.  It was someone that would say, “Yes, I am a Christian,” and they were identified with true believers and the true Gospel, the Bible, but it took a “delay” for the evil servant to say in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming.”  This fits perfectly with what has happened in the case of many people since May 21, 2011, apparently, came and went without incidence and they said in their heart, “My lord delayeth his coming.”  They turned to their fellow servants and they were angry: “I looked like a fool.”  They were embarrassed and their pride was hurt because they took a stand on the coming of the Lord and they blamed the true believers, especially since the true believers continue to talk about a spiritual judgment and they continue to trust the Bible concerning the information which God graciously and kindly opened up to His people at the time of the end.  This just stirs up the evil servants’ anger even more because it is a constant reminder of what they feel was a foolish time and a foolish act in believing such things, so they lash out and they “begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.”

It is interesting that this idea of the Lord delaying His coming reminds us of the account of Israel in the wilderness when Moses went up to the Mount and delayed to come down.  How long was Moses up in the Mount?  It was forty days and forty nights and during that time period, the people of Israel made themselves idols and “rose up to play,” because Moses delayed his return.  But Moses came down, after the forty days and forty nights, and he saw the idolatry and the true condition of the hearts of many in Israel.  This is what God is going to do, in all likelihood, at the end of 1,600 days.  Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 and it likely will continue for 1,600 days until October 7, 2015.  The 1,600 days is “40 x 40,” and the 1,600^th day will be the end of the 40^th “40” and the end of the Lord’s (apparent) delay, even though He did come in judgment on May 21, 2011.  But there was a delay of the actual destruction of the world and a delay of the resurrection and the rapture, as God works out the prolonged spiritual judgment period. 

And what will God find when He comes to conclude all things at the end of this prolonged period of Judgment Day?  He will find, just as Moses found when he came down from the mountain, a people turned away from the truth of the Word of God and a people given over to idols.   He will find people interested in politics, interested in a social gospel, interested in going back to the churches and interested in everything but the things they should be interested in, the truth of the Word of God.  It is a terrible situation that does parallel what happened with Moses in the Mount. 

Let us go back to Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints.”  There is a need of patience.  We read in Luke 21:19: “In your patience possess ye your souls.”  There is a need of patience because of the severity of the testing and the grievousness of the Day of Judgment.  Yet, God’s people continue to wait on the Lord and to trust His Word, the Bible.  They knew what they heard when they heard the voice of Christ; they knew that these things did not just fall into place.  That is what people who believe in evolution think of the creation: “There is no Creator.  There is no God involved in the making of these flowers or butterflies or all the animals.”  They think this way even though these things are complex and are obviously designed.  Likewise, the Biblical calendar of history is complex and fell into place in beautiful harmony and some say, “Oh, it is nothing.  It is nothing at all.”  Well, that is a denial of what is obvious design and an obvious show of the hand of God.

Lord willing, next time we will look a little bit closer at the word “patience.”  It is a very interesting word that I think it will be helpful for us to break down and to see just what is in view with this word.