Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #14 of Revelation, chapter 6, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 6:11:

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

I do not think I mentioned it last time, but the white robes that were given to every one of the souls under the altar is referring to the righteousness, holiness and absence of sin that God provides for all that He saves; all their sins are washed away and they are cleansed from all iniquity.  So the Lord pictures it as if they were wearing these beautiful white robes, as God says in Revelation 19:7-8, speaking of the bride of Christ, that “she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.”  That is the purity that God gives to those that He does save. 

So these souls under the altar are children of God.  They are clothed in white and it says of them, “that they should rest yet for a little season,” and the implication is that during that little season, “their fellowservants also and their brethren…should be killed as they were.”  Their fellowservants are the great multitude that God says will come out of Great Tribulation, as the Great Tribulation is also known as a “little season.”  We saw that in Revelation 20:3 that Satan, who was bound for a thousand years, must be loosed for a “little season.”  When we check the Bible and search the Scriptures, there is only one conclusion we can come to and that is that the “little season” is the Great Tribulation – they are synonymous and it is another way that God refers to that period of time in which judgment began at the house of God, the New Testament churches and congregations.

Now in our last study we had gone to the Gospel of John and we saw that the same two Greek words (mikros and khronos) that are translated as “little season” in Revelation 6:11 and Revelation 20:3 are found in John 7 where the Lord was saying, “yet a little while” and the Greek word that was translated as season is translated there as while: “Yet a little while, am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.”  Then the Lord pointed out: “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.”  There is an inability to find Christ and Christ is the essence of salvation.  We saw how this matches perfectly with our understanding of the Great Tribulation; during that time, the Lord sent the latter rain and a great multitude from all the nations were saved; and following that, according to Matthew 24:29, “immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun is darkened,”  and Christ is typified by the sun.   So there is a “little season” that comes right before the end in which Christ can be sought and found, if it is God’s good pleasure to draw individuals to seek and find Him, and it was His good pleasure for those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

At the conclusion of the “little season,” the Great Tribulation, on May 21, 2011, according to John 7, you could begin to seek the Lord, but you would not find him.  And a second time in the Gospel of John the “little season” was mentioned (and we finished our last study by reading these verses) in John 12:34-35:

The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little…

Now, again, those words  a “little while” are the identical Greek words that are translated as “little season,” and we have Biblical justification for translated it that way, too.

…Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

Now Jesus said, “While ye have light,” and how long will they have light?  “Yet a little while,” or a “little season” is the light with you.  The light will be available and Christ, who is the Light of the world, will be available (and salvation will be available) during the “little season” during the Great Tribulation.

And it was available in a mighty and tremendous way, as God saved more people in that short period of time than He had done in the previous history of the world.  And then came the darkness on May 21, 2011 and “those days after,” or the period of time we are currently living in.  We are living on the earth during the Day of Judgment, a spiritually dark period; that is why John 12:35 says: “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.”  This is because at the end of the “little season,” immediately after the tribulation, will “the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.”  The celestial lights in the night sky and the light of the day that God has placed in the heavens are types and figures of the Gospel – the bright, shining light of God’s Word which shines for a period of time.

You know, this reminds us of the Lord’s statement in John, chapter 9, when the disciples had asked the question concerning the blind man, “Who did sin, this man, or his parents?”  It says in John 9:3-5:

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

How long will Christ be in the world?  He will be in the world “while it is day” because He is the Light and as long as He is in the world, it is “day,” and He told us, “Yet a little while is the light with you.”  In John 12, He told us exactly how long the light would shine and then would come the darkness.  Notice, also, in John 9:4:

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day…

Now what are the works of Christ?  What were the works He was sent to perform?  We have that question answered for us back in John 6:28-29:

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

That is indicating that the work of God is salvation and the work that Christ came to do “while it is day” was to bring salvation and to reveal what He done in bringing salvation to His people.  Throughout the “day of salvation,” as the Bible calls it, God sent forth the Gospel into all the world to save His elect that were predestinated to receive that grace – that was the “day” and that is the time when Christ is “working.”  He is the one that does all the work in the matter of salvation; man is not justified by any work that they can do; it must be the work of Christ and the faith of Christ that saves a sinner and He does that work “while it is day.”  He does not work in the “night.” The Bible says, “The night cometh when no man can work,” and the reference to “no man” is a reference to Christ Himself.

He has determined it and laid out His plan of salvation: there is a period of time in which God will “work the works of God,” in granting faith or belief to dead sinners and granting the faith of Christ that will revive their souls, and that period of time is known as the “day.” 

Well, okay, but is this not still the “day of salvation?”  After all, the sun is still shining in the sky.  No, because God is not referring to a “day” because of the twenty four hour period; it is a spiritual period of time; it is a period of time that the Bible assigns to the saving work of Christ and it comes to an end at a certain point.  Then the “night” comes.  The Bible speaks of “night” as well as the “day.” 

How can we know when the “day” will come to a close when the work of Christ in saving sinners will come to an end?  We can know because God has given us a very helpful parable and we find this parable in Matthew, chapter 20.  Really, this helps us a great deal to understand the “day of salvation.”  This parable is a parable of work in a vineyard and the householder is hiring labourers to go to work and he is hiring them throughout the “day.”  Notice, also, this has to do with work in a “vineyard” and working while it is “day.” 

Now there is another important statement (before we read Matthew 20) that is found in John 11, where the Lord raises Lazarus to life and it says in John 11:9-10:

Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

This is in agreement with the other verses we have been reading in John 9.  Remember that Christ works while it is day and the night comes when no man can work and now the Lord is telling us the duration or length of the “day.”  We know, as far as time goes, that the day is twenty four hours long.  Here, the Lord is really describing the “day” in the sense of daylight, the time when the light is available and the time in which men, therefore, can work in a field.  And there are “twelve hours in the day.”  This is the time to work and this is the time that Christ worked to save sinners.  The number twelve in the Bible points to fullness, so this would be the fullness of the day.  And what follows the twelve hours is “night” and you cannot walk at that point in time: “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth.”  That is not a time to “work;” it is not the time for salvation: “The night cometh, when no man can work.”  Christ will not perform His saving work, the work the Father sent Him to do, in the “night.”

If the day is twelve hours, let us go back now to the parable of the householder in Matthew 20 and let us read in Matthew 20:1-8:

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.

That is it.  The day is over now; the “even was come” and now it is time for payment; it is time to receive your reward, in a sense, or to receive your wages.  Notice there were various points in the day: the first was early in the morning; then in the third hour, the householder went out and hired more labourers, and in the sixth hour, the ninth hour and then in the eleventh hour –five periods of time.  

Let me clarify one thing: the twelve hour day, according to our time, would be 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.  Therefore, “very early” would be about 6:00 a.m., the start of the day; the third hour would be 9:00 a.m.; the sixth hour would be 12:00 p.m.; the ninth hour would be 3:00 p.m. and the eleventh hour would be 5:00 p.m.  Then following that, the day came to a close and it was evening and the householder was going to pay his labourers.  So we can see that the work day in this parable is twelve hours.  The last group was hired at the eleventh hour and we know they only worked “one hour,” because it goes on to say in Matthew 20:9:

And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.

Notice that the ones hired at the eleventh hour are paid first.  Remember that principal that God has established that “the last shall be first, and the first last.”  That is telling us that this group that goes into the vineyard is “the last.”  There are no others.  This is the end of the work “day” and there is no additional work to be done in that vineyard; the “day” is over.  Keep in mind those other statements of the Lord: you work while it is day and the night comes when no man can work.  Once that last group is hired at the eleventh hour and perform their work, that is it – the “day” comes to a close.  When we compare that to the other statements, it is pointing to the end of salvation and the end of the work of Christ in saving sinners.  Then it says in Matthew 20:10-12:

But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

Here, it is stated very plainly.  Those that were hired at the eleventh hour worked “one hour.”  That is all they worked and these “first” are complaining; some of them were hired at 6:00 in the morning or 9:00 in the morning or even at 12:00 noon and they had to bear the heat of the day for many hours.  And then the householder hires this last group that were idle all the day long and they work only “one hour” and they are given the same wage. 

Now we are not going to get into fairness of that, as the parable explains it is fair.  Of course, God can do what He will with His own and the payment, really, is pointing to salvation.  If God saves a sinner, those that work in the Gospel all get the same wage or reward; we all receive the same “eternal life” and that is a big point of this parable.

But we are looking at the time element of the parable and they work for “one hour.”  This is it and this is the end of the day.  This parable is only concerned with one “day” of work.  It is not trying to establish a week of work or a month or a year.  God is summarizing His “day of salvation” through this parable’s viewpoint of those that go to work in the vineyard for “one day.”  So we can understand those that were hired “early” as those that labored during the church age; they labored as the churches and congregations sent forth the Gospel for hundreds and hundreds of years.  Then came the end of the church age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation (also known as the “little season”) and during that “little season,” many that were idle were stirred up and put into commission; they were moved by the Spirit of God to get to work in a way that was never before seen, as God stirred in His people all over the world to get the Gospel out in one last, frantic, fervent push to evangelize the entire earth, so that all the inhabitants would hear of the approaching Day of Judgment.

What is another way that God refers to the Great Tribulation period, besides “little season?”  What is another figure of speech or phrase that God uses to describe those twenty three years?  Well, we also find it called “one hour” in Revelation 18:10:

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

 “One hour” is used by the Lord to typify the Great Tribulation – the “last hour.”  That is exactly how we have understood it and many theologians have understood it – that the Great Tribulation is the last stage before the end or before Judgment Day.  Of course, everyone had misunderstood what God would do in the Day of Judgment, but they all realized that it was the Great Tribulation and then “immediately after” the sun is darkened.  Immediately after the Great Tribulation comes darkness; immediately after that last hour from the eleventh to the twelfth, (as Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours in a day?”) comes the even and in the even comes darkness.  Remember Jesus said, “A little season am I with you, and you will have day,” but then the darkness follows.  So we can see that the Lord is indicating that the Great Tribulation will conclude the “day of salvation.”  The end of the Great Tribulation is the end of the “one hour,” the end of the twelfth hour and the end of salvation, and there is possibility for any more work to be performed after this.  Then the even or night comes and “no man” (the Lord Jesus) can work; there is no more saving work of Christ to be performed.  That is why He says in John 7:34, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me.”  It is not possible any longer.

Well, this is, of course, we have seen again, and again, as we have studied the Bible in these days “after that tribulation.”  God has confirmed this truth, repeatedly, in many places we have studied and we are seeing it again with this language of the “little season.”  It is confirmation.  Of course, some think, “Oh, no, no, no – the salvation of God could have ended because believers are still in the world.  We are still here, so there must be ongoing salvation and the light of Christ.” 

First of all, God is not linking the continuation of salvation to the presence of believers; He is linking it to the Great Tribulation.  Remember it said in Revelation 7 that a great multitude came out of “great tribulation.”  That is the last group to be saved – we do not read of any others.  There are the firstfruits that identify with the church age and the great multitude that identify with the Great Tribulation and there is no other group and, therefore, any  (Bible) study ought to be concerning the Great Tribulation and those that say that God is still saving cannot explain why it is that the timeline fits so perfectly for twenty three years or why that date of May 21, 2011 locked in so precisely to the flood and to the entire Great tribulation; it was an exact twenty three years and an exact 8,400 days falling on a day exactly 7,000 years from the flood (which had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of the 17^th day of the second month). 

They just dismiss it and write it off (but God’s people cannot), but they have no explanation for it and they cannot answer the question: “Where are we then in relationship to the Great Tribulation, if it is continuing?  Where are we?  How long will it be?  When will it conclude?”  There are no answers, but only some vague possibilities put forth like: “Oh, maybe it will be 2017.”  Or, they say that maybe it will be this date or that date, but there is no working out of things according to the Biblical calendar of history showing how any possibility would lock in like this date has locked in and, therefore, their speculations have to be dismissed – not until they can show, from the Bible, how this can be.  Sadly, they cannot show it because we have entered into the Day of Judgment and God’s people are still here – we are living on the earth in the Day of Judgment.  Many Scriptures confirm this and prove this.