Good morning, friends. And welcome again to Sabbath School Study Hour, here at the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church. We'd like to welcome all of those who are joining us online, our online members and the others watching on the various television networks, very warm welcome to all of you. And also to the members and the visitors right here at the Granite Bay church, welcome to Sabbath school. We've been having a wonderful time studying through our lesson quarterly entitled preparations for the end times.
Today we find ourselves on our final lesson. It's a great way to finish this study entitled the return of our Lord Jesus. Talking about the second coming this morning, just a great subject to study. We do have a study guide that goes along with our theme for today, talking about the second coming, an Amazing Facts study guide entitled ultimate deliverance. For those of you who'd like to receive a free copy of this, all you need to do is call 866-788-3966 and ask for offer number 105, and we'll be happy to send that to anybody who calls and asks.
Also if you'd like a digital download of our study guide, what you'll need to do is to text the following code to the number 40544 and text the code "sh090", and you'll get a link as to how you can download the study guide ultimate deliverance, all about the second coming of Jesus. I think anyone who receives this or downloads the study guide will learn a lot of information of what the Bible tells us about the manner of Christ coming, and some of the signs connected with the second coming of Jesus. Now as mentioned, this is the final lesson in our lesson quarterly. Next week, we're going to be starting a brand new series of lessons on the book of acts. So for those of you locally here, if you attend Granite Bay Sabbath school on the regular basis, we do have some of our lesson quarterlies available on the back counter.
So as you leave the service today, be sure to pick up the book, the book of acts which is the theme for our lesson quarterly and prepare for next Sabbath. Maybe we'll start with lesson number one. We are going to invite our song leaders to come forward, and they're going to lead us in lifting our voices in song before we get to our study today. Thank you, Pastor Ross. We are excited to be here and sing your favorites.
We have some new faces up here. Some of these, well, this young lady I just met, and I am thrilled to have some young people up here with us. We're going to sing 223, "crown him with many crowns." If you have a hymnal at home, pull it out. The words will also be there for you, 223, we're going to sing the first, second and fourth stanza. There will be that day in heaven when we will cast our crowns at Jesus' feet because what else can we do and just thank him for saving us.
Join us next week for more singing, but at this time, Pastor Ross is going to have our opening prayer. Dear Father in Heaven, what a privilege to be able to gather in your house again today and open up Your Word and study this great hope that we have, the glorious return of Jesus. Father, as we open these Scriptures, we pray for the Holy Spirit to come and guide our hearts and our minds, Lord. May that hope burn within us that Jesus is coming and he's coming soon. Thank you for your promise to be with us, in Jesus' Name, amen.
Our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by Pastor Doug. We're continuing our study, actually, the last lesson, dealing with preparation for the end times, very relevant study. And I want to mention that if some of our friends who are tuning in via Facebook, if you have questions about the lesson today, they usually pop it up there on the screen and I'll read your question, do the best I can to answer your question, gives us a little more of an interactive feel. Lesson number 13 is talking today about the return of the Lord, the return of the Lord Jesus. And we have a memory verse.
Memory verse is Matthew 24:27, and how many of you know that by hard? You should. "For as the lightning…" you want to say it with me? "For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even unto the west, so shall the coming of The Son of man be." Why is that an important verse for us? Do a lot of Christians think that coming of the Lord is going to be secret? That all of a sudden people will start disappearing? Cars will crash and planes will go down because the driver was raptured away. And life goes here on earth for another seven years and people will say, "what happened?" They will say, "well, Jesus came. It was secret." But does Jesus say he's coming as a secret or does he say it is the most visible, physical, climatic thing in the history? If you name one of your senses, name, what are your five senses? Name one. Hearing.
Hearing. Will we hear him come? Yes. Says it will be like a trumpet, it will be like a shout. Name another sense? Eyes. Eyes.
Every eye will see him when he comes. Name another sense? Taste. Couldn't hear you. Taste. Taste.
You will taste and see that the Lord is good. Or touch. Will the earth be shaking, will you feel it? Yeah. When the Lord comes, you'll probably smell it too 'cause there will be burning cities which could be in your taste. I'm still working on that one.
So the reason I'm telling you is that every one of your senses is going to be letting you know the Lord came. It's not going to be a secret. And so it says the Lord is coming with a shout, the earth's going to shake, it's going to be the brightest thing, it's a climatic event, there will be a resurrection that you'll experience around you. And so, you know, this lesson doesn't focus a lot on that principle that the return of the Lord is not a secret. I personally think that's something you really need to make clear.
When I first became a Christian and I worshipped with a lot of my evangelical, charismatic friends, they all talked about how the Lord was going to come and people were going to disappear. And I said, "you know, I'm just not seeing that in the Bible. I see that when the Lord comes that it's earth shaking, that it's like a roar, it says the cities are broken down by his presence, it's going to be like lightning, shining from the east to the west. Any of you have ever been in a lightning storm? Now we don't have them in California like they have in the plains. But I remember in Texas, there's no mountains to block your visibility there.
There would be lightning from sky to sky, and you could close your eyes and put your pillow over your head and you'd still see the flash. How many of you know what I'm talking about? It was so bright, and it would scare me because you'd hear a pop right outside your window. We used to have them in florida, very loud, and I was in a bunk there at the summer camp, and the lightning was so close that everybody touching the bed got shocked, obviously, it didn't kill me. But you could feel it, it was electricity in the air. Well, this is like lightning from one side of the sky to the other, there's nothing secret about when Jesus comes.
So there are hundreds of prophecies in the Bible that talk about the coming of the Lord, and it's kind of sad, you know, you can go to some churches and some denominations, you can go for 50 years and never hear a sermon on the second coming. And they almost think, it's too sensational, but the Bible talks about it and we ought to talk about it because what if Jesus didn't come? What kind of world would this be? Isn't that the blessed hope? That's the most climatic event. This world is not going to go on forever the way you see it. Now in the Bible, you have a lot of old testament prophecies that talk about the second coming of Jesus. They do not always refer to it as the second coming, that's often called, "the day of the Lord".
And in many ways and times and cases, it's a frightening event, it seems a little ominous. We're going to look at some of those verses. By the way, that phrase, the day of the Lord and there's some different derivatives of that. But just exactly the day of the Lord is found 32 times in the Bible, many of those in the old testament. Let me give you a few examples, Joel 2:31, "then the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the coming of that great and awesome day of the Lord.
" Great, awesome day of the Lord, what's that talking about? Second coming of Jesus, see, end of days. Isaiah 13:6-7, "wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand. It will come as destruction from the almighty. Therefore, all hands will be limp and every man's heart will melt." Now some are thinking, "Pastor Doug, these old testament things about the second coming seem kind of sad." But it's that way in the new testament with some of them too. It says, "then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the sign of The Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.
" Why does it make it sound ominous and frightening and not always positive? Will more people be saved or lost? It's sad but most people, broad is the way that leads to destruction. Most people reject Jesus which is so sad 'cause he paid for everybody's sins. And so it's a warning, God is warning people, you need to repent of your sins, this day is going to be a frightening thing. You know, Amos is prepared to meet the Lord. You can go to the new testament, and you can read in Jude verse 14.
There's only one chapter so it's just verse 14. Now I'm reading the old testament prophecies about the second coming, but this is an old testament prophecy about the second coming found in the new testament. Are you confused? 'Cause he's quoting Enoch who's an old testament character. "Now Enoch, the seventh from adam, prophesied about these saying also, 'behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all the unGodly and convict all the wicked of their unGodly deeds they've committed.'" I'm going on. Zechariah 14:9, "and the Lord will be king over all the earth and on that day, it shall be the Lord as one and his name as one.
" There'll be a day when God is king over all the earth. Right now, that kingdom is contested by the devil. Things are not going to stay this way forever. You know the first question the disciples ask after Jesus rises from the dead, before he ascends to heaven, when you read acts 1, you know what they were asking him? "Lord, will you at this time establish the Kingdom?" So when Jesus began preaching and he said, "the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." And John the baptist began preaching, "repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." What kind of kingdom was he talking about? You know, Jesus said, "the Kingdom of God does not come with observation, for the Kingdom of God is within you." Part of the Kingdom of God begins when you accept Jesus, and he reigns in your heart as your king. That's the internal kingdom of God.
Is that where it stops? A lot of churches stop there. But what good is it if it always stays internal kingdom if at some point he is not a literal king of the world. So the Bible is going to say, "there is a time when God is going to be the King over all the earth." That was zachariah 14. Job 19, oldest book in the Bible is really job. Job 19:25, "for I know that my redeemer lives, and he will stand at last on the earth.
And after my skin is destroyed this I know that in my flesh, resurrected flesh, I will see God who I will see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another, and how my heart yearns within me." You can read Chronicles 16:33, you realize we're not reading them all. Verse 33 that say the day of the Lord. I'm just giving you an overview. Chronicles 16:33, "then the trees of the wood shall rejoice before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth." So when it talks about the day of the Lord, it often talks about a day of judgment, it's a day of rescue, God's people being rescued from oppression, it's a day of restoration. You see, when you read in Genesis, and God made the world, what was the condition of things before sin? Perfect.
God says, "good, good, good, good." And then he finally says, "very good." What happened to God's perfect plan? Got messed up by the snake, the devil. So God said, "okay, you win, I lose. You can have the world." Is that what he did? Or did God said, "no, I'm going to redeem the world. I'm going to cleanse the world. I'm going to make it new, and I am going to do what I set out to do in the beginning.
" The first three chapters of the Bible tell how man lost paradise. Chapter three is where the devil appears. The last three chapters of the Bible talk about the serpent being destroyed and paradise restored, and God will be the King over all the earth. That's the new covenant. It says, "they will all know me from the least and to the greatest.
Before you call, I will answer." So God is going to complete his plan. And, you know, some people think, "well, you know, when you get to heaven, we're going to have our glorified bodies and we'll be ghosts, you know, we'll just float on clouds and we'll play harps." I say, "was that God's original plan for adam and eve? Or did adam and eve, where they horticulturists?" They planted and they were to tend the garden, and Bible says, "we will plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them." Speaking of heaven, "we will build houses and inhabit them." And it said, "it's going to be a real world just like he had always planned for adam and eve." Except, it's going to be an upgrade, it'll be better than the original. Once or twice, I've gone to national to pick up my rental car, and I usually get, you know, the economy or mid-sized car and they say, "oh, you know, there's a rush, all the cars are gone." I say, "oh, no." And they say, "well, don't worry though because it's our fault, things got messed up, we're going to give you an upgrade." And so God is going to give us an upgraded world. How's he upgrading? He's moving the capital of his universe to our planet. God himself will be with us.
Isn't that wonderful? So the second coming of Jesus is talking about the restoration of all things. Now for the wicked, it says, "then the rich men, and the chief men, and the captains, and every wise man, and every nobleman, they go, and they run, and they hide from the presence of the lamb and they call for the rocks in the mountains to fall on them. So for them it's a frightening thing, but how will the righteous respond? It said, "they will look up and they'll say, 'lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us." So there's two responses you're going to see in the Bible to the second coming. The second coming is going to look negative, and ominous, and fearful for the lost, and it should be, and it's going to be the brightest day for the saved, but it will even be awesome for them. And I've often said, you got a couple kinds of bugs that respond differently.
If you ever go and turn over a rock out in the field, there you got these bugs that live in the dark under the rock, and they crawl away as fast as they can from the light. And I lived in New York city, sometimes we'd struggle with cockroaches. And you'd walk in a room and you flip on the light and there they were, but when they saw the light, they went scurrying into the dark places. But if you're in a dark place and you turn on the light out in the woods, every moth within a mile is going to come to the light, isn't that right? So you got some bugs that run from the light, you got some that fly to the light. So the question is what will you be, what kind of bug will you be when Jesus comes? Did that just lift your self-esteem? All right, spin out some positive ones, 1 Chronicles 16:33, "then the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.
" So it talks about rejoicing too in the old testament. Now somebody here is going to read for me Philippians here in just a moment, you'll have that one? Okay. I'm going to first read and I'm going to talk about the book of life. Who will be ready when Jesus comes? Exodus 32:32-33, Moses is interceding… this ties in with our sermon later today. And he said, "yet now.
.." This is after they've done the golden calf, they sinned against the Lord, God is going to take the name out of the book of life, and Moses is pleading for the people and said, "yet now, if you will forgive their sin but if not I pray you, blot me out of your book which you have written." And the Lord said to Moses, "whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book." But one thing very important here, Moses sort of is a type of Christ, he's the great mediator and he's saying, "look, I'm willing to sacrifice my name in the book of life to put their name in the book of life." Isn't that what Jesus did for us? To trade places. But God is saying, "look, Moses, whoever has sinned against me, each man's going to suffer according to his own works." The other thing we learn from this verse is there's a record, there's a book. Now do you think that the Lord, his books in heaven, like our books, you know, that God cuts down trees, and he mills them up, and he makes pulp, and he gets ink, and he has a printing press, and he prints books up there? When we were just in Jerusalem, Karen and I went to look at the dead sea scrolls. And they used to write them on, somewhere on parchment, most were on vellum. It was like this very fine leather material that held up very well in the desert for 2,000 years.
Is it going to be scrolls of leather in heaven? Or when God tells us a book, haven't books, the way their books are compiled, it's changed. What kind of book is it? Is God going to have a thumb drive, a usb? Is it going to be a dvd? You know, for years, I thought it was cassette tape, and before that an 8-track, if anyone remembers that. So the technology, but we don't know exactly what the book looks like but God has a record. I think when we get to heaven and angels open the books and show us. During the millennium, will we be able to look at those books? If God said that the library will be open, every secret thing is going to made manifest.
Now arsons are blotted out but nothing else is. So there's a book, there's a record. Now the most important book is which book? Book of life is also evidently books of records, doesn't the Lord say in Matthew 12, Jesus said, "every idle word that men speak, they will give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by Your Words, you will be justified and by Your Words will be condemned." And that makes me tremble, doesn't it you? If it wasn't for God's mercy and he has a bigger razor, I'd be worried. Every idle word, how many words do you speak in a day? I heard every idle, frivolous thing that we say.
And so he's got a record. You know, it's amazing right now, I just read this week, china, 6 months ago had the world's most powerful computer. Now the United States once again has reclaimed the title for the most powerful computer. It's an ibm computer, and it's mind boggling, the amount of, you know, billions of processes that it can make in a fraction of a second, and all the information it can store. And now Google and amazon, they're all storing all this information in the cloud.
Well, God invented the cloud a long time ago. Isn't that right? He's had it all stored for a long time. So there's the records, but the book of life is a book where we come to the Lord, we say, we believe in the Lord, we believe his sacrifice on our behalf, he puts our name in his book. But the Bible tells us that some names can be removed, now that is troubling. Doesn't it say that if we have faith in Revelation, I think it's chapter 2 or 3, seven churches, he said, "I will not take his name out of my book.
" And here again, you're reading where Moses and the Lord are talking, talks about names being taken out of the book. So we must have our name in the book of life when Jesus comes. All right, you're going to read for us please Philippians 4:3. "And I urge you also, true companions, help these women who labored with me in the Gospel with clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are written in the book of life." All right, so Paul is even saying that right there in the beginning that there are names that are in the book of life, and he doesn't say their names will be. He says their names are written in the book of life.
So that means, can you have your name in the book of life now? Wouldn't that be exciting to think about? You ever heard that song, "is my name written there"? You can read in Daniel 12, "at that time Michael will stand up, prophecy about the end, the great prince who stands watch over The Sons of your people, and there will be a time of trouble such as there never has been since there was a nation even to that time, and at that time, your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book." So who's delivered in the last days? Those whose names are in the book. It talks about a great time of trouble. Now, does Jesus also talk about a time of trouble such as that never has been? "He that endures to the end will be saved." And so you need to know your name is written in the book because those are the ones who are delivered, everyone else is going to be really struggling during that time. Another verse, book of life, Revelation 3:5, "he who overcomes..." This is the one I was thinking about. "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name from the book of life.
" Now what does that say? Can a name be blotted from the book of life? Yeah. Are there some churches that teach, once you're saved you can't be lost? But doesn't the Bible make it pretty clear that some people cannot really say, "I'm saved." They see, they accept Jesus, and they turn away. And so he said, "those who overcome, I will not blot their name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and his angels." And isn't that good to know that... Oh, Jesus said, "whoever is not ashamed of me in this wicked generation, I will confess his name before my father and his angels. But whoever is ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of him before my father and his angels.
" Can you find an example of that in the Bible? In the book of job, do you see job when the devil comes to accuse job, doesn't the Lord confess the name of job before The Sons of God that are gathered? And so God is literally bragging about our names in heaven when we say we want to be faithful. He is looking for people that serve him. And one more, Zephaniah 2:3, "seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth who have upheld his justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you'll be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.
" He's telling us to seek him right now. Is there a day of wrath, the Bible talks about? There's going to be a day of punishment that's all coming. Now, I got a question came in from one of our viewers online live, it says, "what about the verse in Matthew 24:41, "two women are grinding at the mill, one will be taken, one will be left." What does that mean? Now you also find this in Luke 17 or Luke 21. It says two men are working in the field, two men sleeping in the bed, two women grinding at the mill. Luke adds one additional one about two men sleeping in a bed.
What is Jesus saying? Is he saying, "well, this is the secret rapture? You get two people outwardly doing the same thing, and poof! One is taken away to heaven, the other is left behind. Are there books called left behind? They call it the left behind series. What's going to happen to those who are left behind in the secret rapture? Do you know when you read those passages in Matthew and in Luke? When they ask Jesus, he said, "where are they taken?" He said, "wherever the carcass is that's where the vultures are gathered together." And he talks about back in the days of Noah that they were eating and drinking, buying, marrying, building until the flood came and took them away. The flood came and took them away. Who's taken away? The saved or the lost? The lost.
Let me explain this to you in the mind of the jews and it's very vivid in our minds having just come from that country. When the children of Israel were behaving, God let them stay in the promised land. When they misbehaved, then the Babylonians or the Romans came and carried them away or the assyrians came and they were taken away in judgment. And so when he's talking about the ones taken away, it's not necessarily talking about a good thing, it's talking about that, that's a bad thing. The ones who are left behind are they're preserved, the others are taken away.
Talks about... The weed is gathered in the barn, the weeds are gathered and burned in bundles. So what about two women, two men working in the field, two men sleeping in a bed? It's just describing two, three or two categories and uses three examples. What is a woman a symbol of? How many kinds of churches are there in the world today? Two. There's only two roads, saved and lost.
How many women are found in Revelation? Two. Revelation 12, good church, she's saved. Revelation 17, harlot, she's lost. So you get two women, what are they doing? They're grinding. What do you grind? Grain, make bread.
What's a bread? What we've got, two women, two churches, outwardly claiming that they've got the Word of God. One is true, one is false, that's all it's saying. Two men working in the field. What does Jesus say the field is? It's the world. They're out doing harvest.
Jesus said, "the harvest is great, the laborers are few." You get two kinds of harvest that are happening, you got the true and the false. What does sleep represent in the Bible? "Our friend Lazarus is asleep." What did Jesus mean? He's dead. How many kinds of people are dead right now? Two. Saved or lost. How many resurrections? Two.
You've got the dead in Christ. And you've got the resurrection of damnation, Jesus said. And so Christ is just talking about these two categories, he's not talking about people suddenly disappearing from cars and airplanes in the secret rapture. And so... That's people often refer to that.
Another question came in. "When will the feet of Jesus stand on the mount of olives?" Okay, that's a good question. That's in zachariah 14 and it says, "his feet stand on the mount of olives on that day and the mount of olives cleaves and it forms a great valley." And it is a very great valley because the new Jerusalem comes down at the end of the one thousand years and sits in this valley that the Lord is prepared. Why does he do that? What was the last place that Jesus' feet touched when he ascended to heaven? Bible says, mount of olives, one place it says, bethany, but we were just there, bethany's on the mount of olives. Mount of olives is a big, long mountain and bethany's about two miles over on the mount.
And Jesus from bethany ascended to heaven, probably not too far from Martha and Lazarus' house that was there. And where did Jesus foretell his second coming? From the mount of olives. Where did he weep over Jerusalem? From the mount of olives. It was a very special place. So where is he coming back? Where was the best view of the temple? Mount of olives.
It's where you look at it in its glory. Jesus' feet are touching the same place he left. Doesn't the Bible say, when he ascended to heaven, two angels saw the apostles, they said, "men of Galilee, why do you stand here staring into the heavens?" This same Jesus that you saw go into heaven will come in the same way you saw him leave. He not only left, he was reeled. He's coming reel, left in the clouds, coming through the clouds.
He was visible, he'll be visible when he comes. And when he left, it was on mount of olives, he's coming to the mount of olives. And so this is though at the end of the 1,000 years, his feet touch it, forms a great valley. How big is the new Jerusalem? Twelve thousand furlongs, but we don't use furlongs today. That's 375 miles on each side, about 1,500 miles around.
Do you know what that means? All the land that God promised to Abraham from the Euphrates down through the sinai peninsula will all be encompassed in that territory. In other words, God is literally going to wall in the promised land because God said, "Abraham look for a city that had foundations." I thought he was waiting for the promised land, what do you mean the city? There was no Jerusalem back in Abraham's day. Abraham was looking forward to the new Jerusalem that would encompass the land that God had promised to his people. All right, and then we got another question, I'll take in just a minute, but I want to get to something that's important and heavy. Daniel and the second coming, I already read Daniel 12.
Does the book of Daniel talk about the second coming? Let's look at a few verses here, Daniel 2:34-35, says, "you watched while the stone was cut without hands that struck the image on the feet." This is that large idol in Daniel 2. "Of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces, then the iron, and the clay, and the bronze, and the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff of the summer threshing floor. And the wind carried them away so no trace of them was found, and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." Now, what is the stone? It's the Kingdom of Jesus. You know something interesting? When you look at the metals in this image in Daniel 2, what's the top, first metal? Gold, then, it says gold, silver, then bronze, then iron, then iron and clay, and the last thing is stone that destroyed it. So you got all these different minerals.
What's more valuable? Gold or silver? Gold. Which is harder? Silver. Harder than gold. What's more valuable? Silver or bronze? Silver. Right, we all together? But what's harder? Silver or bronze? Bronze is.
What's more valuable? Bronze or iron? Bronze. What's harder? Iron. You noticing something here? Kingdoms have less value, but they're harder. Do you know that each one of those kingdoms we've listed, the one after last longer. They're each kingdom, the roman kingdom lasted longer than the Greek which lasted longer than the persians which lasted longer than the Babylonians.
What's the last kingdom? Stone. And which lasts the longest? All of these metals were used to make idols in the Bible. They had gold idols and silver idols and bronze idols. Do you remember when the King belshazzar made the feast and he's toasting the Gods of iron and gold and so forth? But what were the children of Israel told to make their altar out of? Stone. Stone cut without a man's hands.
They were not to lift up a tool on it because if they did, it would be polluted. He didn't want them carving things and worshipping statues, it's just plain old rock, make your altar, it's to worship the living God. So it's the stone that crushes all these things, all the idols of the world, the false religion. What did David used to bring down Goliath? A stone. What did God do to write the Ten Commandments? And that was the first that God cut without man's hands, it was cut with his hands.
Isn't that interesting? Jesus said, "he that hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man building this house on stone." The words of God. What brings down the idol? The Word of God brings down all the false religions. So ultimately the stone grows into a great mountain and fills the whole earth. This is talking about the Kingdom of God is finally going to fill the whole world. Someone is going to read for me Matthew 24:15.
You will have that? You have the mic working now? Say something. It is working, okay. Before you read that, I'm going to read Daniel 2:44. "And in the days of these Kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and that kingdom will not be left to another." It's not going to ever be replaced. "It'll break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.
" So do you find the principle of God's eternal kingdom in second coming in the old testament prophecies? Still with me? All right, what more do we learn from Daniel? Go ahead, read Matthew 24:15-16. "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads let him understand. Then let those who in judaea flee to the mountains." Here's your country living verse, when you see the abomination of desolation flee. First of all, how do you know Daniel is a prophet? Because Jesus said so. That settles it, doesn't it? Jesus is written by Daniel the prophet.
Here, Jesus is telling us, "if you want to know it, I'm not going to tell you. Read the Bible." Jesus is saying, "you read it for yourself." The problem is Jesus mentions the... Daniel mentions the abomination of desolation several times. And there's a little confusion of what is he talking about. Let me give you some examples, look in Daniel 9:27.
By the way, when Jesus quotes the same verse in Luke 21, he said, "when you see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, let those that be in judaea flee into the mountains. So the first thing about the abomination of desolation is talking about when God's people were literally surrounded in 70 ad, the Romans destroyed the temple, and they were carried away captive, the place of God was desolated. So this is the first part, but there you see Jesus in Matthew 24, he's answering two questions or even three questions. What are the signs of your coming? When will these things be the destruction of the temple? He said, "there won't be one stone left on another." And your return. So the signs, he's talking about destruction of the temple and what will be your return.
Well, the Christians that were in Jerusalem when the Romans came, were given a brief window to escape. They fled into the mountains, they quite literally did that. And Jesus said, "this generation will not pass away till all these things be fulfilled." Jesus made this prediction about this temple's destruction as the first part of the abomination of desolation. He made it in 30 ad. What is the Bible generation? Forty years.
How do you know that? When the children of Israel were unfaithful in the days of Moses, he made that generation wander until they all died off. How long did they wander? Forty years. Moses' life is divided into three generations. He spent one generation in Egypt, one generation in the wilderness, 40 years there, and 40 years leading the people from Egypt to the promised land. David reigned for generation, Saul reigned for generation, Solomon reigned for generation.
They all reigned 40 years. So that prophecy happened perfectly, but it's a dual prophecy not only is he talking about the abomination of desolation that destroyed the temple, he said they'll be another power, this one is not pagan rome, it will be papal rome. It's not just the iron, it's the iron mixed with the clay, you still with me? Down in the feet. Clay is like the religion mixed with the iron, government, and there's a second abomination of desolation that's going to persecute God's people. So let me read a few verses on that.
If you look in Daniel 9:27, "then he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will cause a sacrifice in the offering to cease." Now who is that talking about? They're talking about the Messiah. Do you know that a lot of evangelicals think that it's the antiChrist? Now, I can understand that Christians may disagree on a few verses, but wouldn't you agree it's a serious misunderstanding if one Christian says that's the devil and the other one says that's the Lord. I mean, how wrong can someone be? So we've got to know, who is this talking about? And I remember doing a Bible study with some baptists years ago, and they were reading this and the husband was like a lay pastor and he said, "yeah, the antiChrist is going to make a covenant." And I said, "where in the Bible do you find the antiChrist making a covenant? Well, it says right here. So what is that covenant that the antiChrist makes? I said, "there's nothing in the Bible about that." And then I gave the study that said, "it's the Messiah who makes a covenant with people." And for one week from the beginning of his ministry, he's been anointed in 27, three and half years later, exactly half of a week he is cut off for the sins of the people, he makes the sacrifice, sees the temple curtain is ripped, and then for another three and a half years, he preaches only through the apostles to jews. And even the apostles say, "he testified through those that heard him.
" So in person and through the apostles just to the Jewish nation, then they stoned stephen three and a half years later, and it says a great persecution arose, the Gospel went everywhere. I said, "this is the 490 year prophecy, it fits perfectly." And his wife went, "that's the first time that's ever made sense." And he got very upset with me because he still insisted, "no, this is the antiChrist." Now, why do people get confused on that? I hope you don't mind me taking this a little deeper, go to Daniel 9. This is so important 'cause I know people are watching, most of you, I think, understand this. Go to Daniel 9:24, "seventy weeks are determined for your people and for the holy city." It says several things to happen in those seventy weeks. "To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity through the sacrifice of Christ, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision in the prophecy, after seventy weeks, this particular vision would be sealed and complete and to anoint the most holy, all these things would happen.
Know therefore, and understand from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince, capital p, Messiah the prince, seven weeks, threescore two weeks, the street will be build again and the wall in troublous times." That's Ezra and Nehemiah, you read about it. "And after sixty-two weeks, Messiah will be cut off." I mean 62 weeks after the first 7 weeks of them building those streets and the wall, Jesus was cut off, but not for himself. Now this is where people get mixed up. "And the people of the prince who is to come," small p, did you notice that? It's not the Messiah, "will destroy the city." It's talking about the roman power, roman king that would destroy the city and the sanctuary. This is the abomination of desolation, the first one, when the temple would be destroyed, "and the end of it shall be with a flood.
" Means a flood of people, like it says in Ezekiel, gog and magog, like a flood that covered the earth. "Till the end of the war desolations are determined." So here you've got abomination, desolations are determined. Now it's returning to the main subject is all about the Messiah, he will confirm a covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week, he will cause a sacrifice and oblation to cease. And then it says, "and on the wing of abominations, shall be one who makes desolates.
" It's not talking about the Messiah, it's talking about this other prince who came. "Even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate." So here you've got abomination of desolation. Can you understand why Jesus said, "let him who reads understand." Now if Jesus said, "I hope you understand." Some have wondered if this was a parenthetical note that a scribe put in or if Christ is actually saying it. How many of you have a red letter edition in your Bible? When you read in Matthew 24:15, it says, "whoever reads, let him understand." Is that red or black? It's black in my Bible. Some of you have it red in your Bibles? It's because the scribes don't agree.
Is that Jesus saying, "whoever reads, let him understand," or is that the scribe or Matthew saying, "whoever reads, let him understand"? All I know is they're saying this is a deep subject, and you pray that God will help you understand. Another example, go to Daniel 11:34. "And the forces shall be mustered by him." Now Daniel 11, what is that talking about? What happens in Daniel 12? Michael stands up. Daniel 11, you're talking about some time between the roman power and the end of the world. And it says, "and forces will be mustered by him and they will defile the sanctuary fortress, and they will take away the daily sacrifice and the place.
They're the abomination of desolation." Now you've got that again. I was at Daniel 11:31. And if you look in Daniel 12:11-12, and this is a deep prophecy. There are more time prophecies in Daniel 12 than any other place. You get three time prophecies.
And we as a church typically believe in the historical application of this. We use the historical method. Some have argued that some prophecies have a dual fulfillment as in Matthew 24 and they said, there may be also a dual application. And it says, "here and from the time the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation is set up, they'll be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days", and this is just by the last verses in the book of Daniel.
He's talking about an abomination that makes desolate. So you really got three examples of the abomination of desolation in my understanding. One is, when the roman power surrounded Jerusalem, they hedged them and they besieged the city, they finally destroyed the city, they destroyed the temple, they desolated it. Now it does talk about when Nebuchadnezzar desolated it when he destroyed it back in the old testament, but I'm talking about from the time of Daniel on. Then you have a spiritual power during the dark ages that desolated the truth.
The truth of the Gospel was destroyed in the Spiritual sanctuary, they tried to take away the daily sacrifice that we're saved by grace, that you don't need to work your way to heaven. But then will there be a final time when God's people are surrounded by a roman power with a law where we can't worship according to the Bible and we may need to flee into the wilderness again, literally, before the second coming. God's people are going to be in desolate places. All right, I got to keep going here. Another e-mail question came in, "will there be a seven year tribulation before Jesus comes?" How many of you know that verse that talks about the seven year tribulation? Can you please give it to me? How many of you have heard of a seven year tribulation? You heard of it? You've heard people talk about it? Where is the verse? There's no verse in the Bible that says there's a seven year tribulation.
Now they do say, "well, you know, the seven days that Noah was on the ark that represents the seven years of tribulation. You know, when probation was closed and it's not really taught in the Bible. All right, long term prospects, Titus 2:12-13, "teaching that denying unGodliness and worldly lusts because we believe in the second coming, we should live soberly, righteously, and Godly in the present age." Does Lord just kind of cover our past sins or does he want us to live different now? If you want to be ready for the second coming, how should we live? Soberly, righteously, and Godly in the present age. "Looking for the blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior." Should you as a Christian talk about the second coming? Yes. Why are we called Seventh-day Adventists? First of all, we believe in keeping all Ten Commandments.
Do you know that the Sabbath really talks about the beginning and the end? It talks about the creation and it talks about a millennial Sabbath at the end, if you will. And adventists means, we are a people who are looking forward to the eminent return of the Lord, and we want people to get ready. When you talk to other people about the second coming, have you ever noticed it might make some folks nervous? That's a healthy nervousness because it means we're thinking, "you know, that might shake my world." Yes. And you want to be ready for that day, right? Do you want people coming to you at the second coming and say, "you knew this was going to happen and you didn't tell me? You knew this was going to happen to the world, you didn't want to upset me?" People ought to know that the day of the Lord is coming that this world is not going to last like this forever as it was in the days of sodom, so will it be when The Son of man comes. Is it that way today? As it was in the days of lot, eating, drinking, marrying, that's what's happening in the world today.
People need to know. All right, another one, 2 Peter 3:11, "therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, the world's going to be burned up. What manner of persons ought we be and all holy conduct in Godliness? Looking for and hastening." How do you hasten the second coming? The Bible says, "when the Gospel goes into all the world, then the end will come." Can we participate in the Gospel going into all the world? "Hastening the second coming in which the heavens being dissolved, we'll be on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat." So we need to have that big picture. Paul before he died, and they call it Paul's swan song, 2 Timothy 4:6, "I am already being poured out is a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand, I have fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I've kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on that day.
" What now does he say when I die or on the day of the Lord? "Not to me only but to all those that love his appearing." So when you think of the day of the Lord, does it scare you or do you long for? It's like a preacher said once, "I get sick and tired of being sick and tired." I mean you look around, there's a lot of pain and suffering in the world, a lot of sin, heartache, and when the Lord comes, no more pain, no more sorrow, all tears wiped away. Don't you long for that? If you're ready, now there's some reasons that we don't want him to come too soon. One, if you're not ready. Two, you have loved ones who are not ready. And so sometimes you feel maybe a little mixed up and that's normal.
All right, someone's going to read for me about how the Lord comes. Matthew 25:31, you go and read that, manjeet. "When The Son of man come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne off his glory." All right, the Bible says, "Jesus left in the clouds and he's coming in the clouds." Does that mean the Lord does not travel without h2o vapor? What is the cloud or I should say what are the clouds? We believe, they're angels. Let me just give you a few more verses, psalm 104:3, "he lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds his chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind, who makes his angel spirits his ministers of flame of fire." You notice it says, when The Son of man comes with all the holy angels. How many angels are there? They have to be billions.
I mean, if everyone has a guardian angel and there is eight billion people, these are the ministering spirits of God that help him not just minister on earth but throughout the cosmos, and so there's a lot of angels. You can read in Revelation 1:7, "behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him." Matthew 24:30, "then the sign of The Son of man will appear in heaven and all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see The Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." And I'll read you one more, maybe more than one more. 2 Thessalonians 1:7, "and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey." So we need to know the Lord, we need to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then finally, the living and the dead. So when do the dead rise? As soon as you die? No. I read four times in John 6, it says, "but should raise it up the last day.
" As John 6:39-40, "I will raise him up the last day." John 6:44, "I will raise him up the last day." John 6:54, "I will raise him up the last day." That's why, when Jesus raised Lazarus, Martha said, "I know you will rise him again in the resurrection at the last day." So she wasn't expecting Jesus to do something sooner. This for me is the best verse. I can see I'm running out of time. If you want to read a great verse, it tells when it's going to happen, read 1 Corinthians 15:22, "for as in adam all die." We're all connected to adam so we grow old and die. "But in Christ, we will all be made alive.
" He is the second adam. "But each one in his own order." Here is the order, how this happens. "Christ the first fruits." Jesus is already raised. "Afterward those who are Christ's at his coming." So when do they rise? 1 Thessalonians 4, "the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. The voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
" It's at the coming of the Lord, and how many of you know somebody that thinks as soon as they die, they go to heaven? And they all say, "oh, yes, so and so died, and they're up in heaven now talking to Jesus." And it sounds really colorful but it's not biblical. "The living know they'll die, but the dead know not anything. They're sleeping a dreamless sleep until the resurrection." Well, I want to remind everybody that we're going to be studying a new lesson next week on the book of acts, and we're going to go through all 28 chapters of acts during that quarter. I'm really excited. That should be a great time for the church to kind of get a revival and refocus on their purpose.
And for anyone watching, we have a free offer from Amazing Facts if you like this book called the ultimate deliverance. It's all about the second coming, what we've talked about today and a lot more verses. If you'd like a free offer, read this and then share with the friends, it's offer number 105. Write that down when you call 866-788-3966, 866-study-more. God bless you, friends.
Lord willing, we will study His Word together again next week. On several occasions, scientists have demonstrated that people and even creatures can struggle with depression when exposed to continual darkness. This can be seen every year in the winter months in the arctic regions. The beautiful village of rjukan, norway is situated in the deep valley where mountains block the sun's rays for about six months every year. This of course keeps the 3,400 residents in a state of shade, and sometimes depressing darkness throughout the winter.
Then the town leaders got a bright idea to help illuminate their village during the murky months. In October 2013, rjukan installed an array of three gigantic, 550 square foot mirrors on the nearby mountain at 1,000 feet above the town. The computer control and solar powered mirrors track the sun through the winter months and reflect that giant beam of sunshine down to the town square brightening their lives. If you visit rjukan in the winter months today, you can often see the people gathered or sitting on benches around the town square, bathing in the reflected sunshine. Like those mirrors on the mountain, the Bible says that Christians are to reflect the light of Jesus, who is the light of the world into this dark planet.
Matthew 5:14 says, "you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do we light a lamp and put it under a basket. But on a lamp stand and it illuminates everybody in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." So, friends, use today to brighten the life of someone else by reflecting Jesus.