50 Final Events of World History - Robert J. Morgan

Good morning to all of you. It's a joy for me to be here. Thank you, Randy Wilson, for that wonderful introduction. Randy and Danelle are two of my dearest friends. We go back so many, many years, and he's been such an encouragement to me sometimes in difficult times. And there's nowhere I'd rather be than here today. I told him that on the way to the church this morning. This is August 28th on the calendar. It is 8-28, as in Romans 8-28. So whatever happens today is going to come together for good for those who love the Lord and to those who are called according to his purpose. And today would have been, if my wife Katrina hadn't gone to heaven, it would have been our 46th wedding anniversary and our 45th anniversary of ministering at the Donaldson Fellowship and the previous church that I had. And so this is a special day for me, and that scripture is very special. And I turned on my Spotify playlist today, and the song that came on is, the longer I serve him, the sweeter he grows. And that truly is my testimony. I'm just going to keep that song with me all day and maybe all week and maybe all year. There is nothing like serving the Lord. And one of the ways in which I now do that is with 59-second Bible studies every day on social media, and I would love for you to follow that, as well as my weekly podcast. And my new book is, as Randy said, on the subject of the book of Revelation. We are beginning to live in the very days described in the book of Revelation. There has never before been a time in which the world was so threatened by so many global catastrophes as right now. Some of the things in Revelation we couldn't have really visualized until our own day, but now we can see them. And people say to me, isn't Revelation a difficult book? And is it not dark? And are there not many creatures in there that give us nightmares? And I say, no. The book of Revelation is full of glory. It is full of hymns. It is full of choirs. It is full of angels. It is full of hope, and it is full of Jesus. And this is the way that God chose to end his book. All of the other 65 books of the Bible lead to Revelation. If it weren't for Revelation, the Bible would end with the book of Jude. Now, Jude is a wonderful book. It's about defending the faith and the integrity of our doctrine. But it isn't a book that brings the Bible to its fitting conclusion, but the book of Revelation is. And if there was ever a generation on this planet that ought to understand the final book of the Bible, it is us. So today, I want to take you through the entire book of Revelation very briefly. I've got a graphic that will help. This graphic comes from my book, and there are other charts in there. But I'd like for you to turn to the book of Revelation and we'll begin. I want to show you, first of all, that chapters one, two, and three are introductory to the book. So turn with me to Revelation chapter one. Notice how it begins. The revelation. Now, the word here means the unveiling. It's as though we had a painting here on an easel, and we were all curious about it. And the artist came and he talked about it. And then at the right moment, the veiling was taken away. So God is ready to unveil for us the final phases of world history. And it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He showed it. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John. So this is John the Apostle. He was the last surviving member of the apostolic band. All of the other 11 had either been killed or martyred in some way. He alone is left. And at verse nine, it says, I, John, your brother and the companion in the sufferings and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. John the Apostle was ministering in the great city of Ephesus and around that area where the other churches, many of them had been begun by the ministry of Paul the Apostle. So now 75 or so years into, or maybe 80 or 90 years into the first era, John has been a bishop in that area. And we believe this was written in about maybe AD 95. And he was the last and most famous of the apostolic band and the only one who posed a real threat to the emperor. And so he had been banished to the island of Patmos. They didn't want to kill him and make a martyr out of him. They just wanted to reduce his influence. And the devil often tries to banish us in some way or to hurt us in some way, but the Lord uses it for good. And this was God's way of getting John on a remote island where he could receive the contents of the final book of the Bible. And in the last half of the chapter, we have the initial vision in the book in which John sees Jesus glorified now, sitting in heaven on his throne. And this is the first chapter of the book of Revelation. It is the introduction to the whole book. Now in chapters two and three, John has a message now to send from Jesus to the seven primary churches who are going to be the original recipients of this book. So after John has written down the book of Revelation, he's going to send it to his church in Ephesus and to six other churches in that region. They are going to be the first ones to read what God has in store for the end of history. And so the Lord Jesus wants these churches to be as healthy as possible. Now, I believe this is a very healthy church. I can even tell it having been here today by the spirit and by the music, but this isn't a perfect church. And I'm not a perfect Christian. And so we all need some diagnostic help in realizing where we need to improve. And the Lord Jesus wanted these seven churches to be as healthy as they possibly could be. And so he does an analysis of each one of the seven, and he tells them, here is how you can be stronger. You can be better. Here is what's going wrong in your congregation. Here's what's going right. And so he coaches them so that they will be stronger than ever before in order to receive and preserve and pass along the information in this book. So that's chapters two and three, and that really represents the age of the church. And that's the introduction to Revelation, the prologue in chapter one with its initial vision, and then the message to the seven churches in chapters two and three. Now, beginning with chapter four, we come to the future, the prophetic portion of the book. From this point on, everything is about what is going to take place in the future. And it begins with a great celebration in heaven in chapters four and five. The way the tribulation, we call this seven-year period, we call it the tribulation. That's what the Bible calls it. But we call it the tribulation because now a lot of problems are going to come upon the earth, such as the world has never experienced before and will never experience again. And all of it is designed for two reasons, to drive people to the Lord Jesus Christ and to judge evil and sin in such a way as to prepare for the return of Christ. So it begins with a great celebration in heaven. It's an amazing thing that on earth there's going to be a lot of tribulation, but in heaven they're celebrating. And chapters four and five are the greatest description of worship, genuine, pure, wonderful, heavenly worship that we have anywhere in the Bible. These two chapters are worth memorizing because it's all about praise and worship. So look at chapter number four. After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. Now many people, and I'm one of those, believe that this is the point in the book in which the rapture takes place. Earlier Joshua read to us what Paul said about the church being caught up, resurrected, and raptured. John doesn't use that exact language. So we have to say, where in the book of Revelation does the rapture of the church occur? And some people think it occurs here at the beginning. Some people think it occurs at the middle. And some people think that it's simultaneous with the return of Christ. We have those three basic views. My inclination is that when it says there is a shout, when it says there is a trumpet, when it says come up here, those are the things we read about in 1 Thessalonians 4. So I think at this point, the church is raptured. I'm not real dogmatic. I've got good friends who take to the other views as well. But in any case, John is caught up to heaven. And it says, at once I was in the spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it. And they are praising and singing and worshiping God the Father. And he is described here resplendently. And the sevenfold Holy Spirit is there. And he's a part of the worship. But where is Jesus? Well, he shows up in chapter 5. Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. So God the Father has a scroll, a document. It appears to be the battle plan for the end of human history. And no one is worthy to open it. None of the angels are worthy to open it. And everybody is overwhelmed with sorrow because no one is worthy to open the scroll and trigger the final events in world history leading to the return of Christ. But it says in verse number 5, then one of the elders said to me, notice this, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll with its seven seals. And then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain. Jesus here is described as the lion. But when John sees him, he is reminded of the Lamb of God. And those two images portray to us the two comings of Christ. He came the first time as a lamb to be sacrificed. He will come the second time as a lion to triumph. And so the lion and the lamb, Jesus, the third person of the Trinity, takes that scroll and all of heaven erupts in praise. And that's chapters 4 and 5. A great convocation, a worship service that is designed to begin the tribulation period. And so in chapter 6, Jesus begins opening the first of seven seals. And this is the first half of the tribulation. So the scroll is sealed with seven seals, just like you would see on a letter, a wax seal that you might get. And every time he opens one, a different disaster occurs in the world. And these seven seals are described for us in chapter 6 and 7. Let's look at them briefly. I watched as the lamb opened the first of seven seals. And then I heard one of the four living creatures say, and a voice like thunder, come. And I looked, and there before me was a white horse. Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown. And he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. So there's going to be some calamity that occurs, some worldwide catastrophe, worse than anything we've ever seen before. It could be a nuclear war. It could be some pandemic that is far worse in its mortality rate than coronavirus. It could be the complete collapse of the world's economic system, which is, I think, closer than we think it is. It could be the breakdown of the world's electronic grid. It could be anything. It could be the rapture of the church and the disappearance of two billion people. But whatever it is, there's going to be a great worldwide cataclysm. It could come at any moment. And that's going to cause a powerful dictator to arise. And he's going to come and seek to take control of the world so that there will be a global response to this problem. You know, even during the COVID crisis, there were calls for a world government to come and to seek to navigate this and to impose standards on other nations. And that's going to come. And so this rider on the white horse is going to seek to take control of the armies and the governments of the world. And that leads to these other seals, war, famine, death, and then martyrdom, because many people are going to begin coming to the Lord during this time. After the rapture of the church, at the beginning of the tribulation, people in desperation are going to find the Bibles that were left behind and the broadcast and all of the Christian books and the literature. They're going to remember the witnesses and the sermons that they heard. And it will be the greatest in gathering of souls that the world has ever seen, as millions of people come to the Lord, and they will be hunted down and martyred. And in chapter 7, God is going to anoint 144,000 Jewish evangelists, like the Apostle Paul, with a special anointing. And they're going to go out, and that's chapter 7, and evangelize the world. And a great multitude will come to the Lord and be martyred. And we see them in the last part of chapter 7. And then in chapter 8, we have the second series of disasters. So we have the breaking of the seven seals. Those are the beginning cataclysms that make up the tribulation. But after that, seven trumpets blow their horns. And you can read about it, but every single trumpet means another disaster, including the unleashing of demons on the world. Demons that right now are held in the abyss, in a supermax prison, in cosmic space somewhere. They'll be unleashed upon the earth, and it will be a time of tremendous pandemonium, as God is judging evil. Now, evil has got to be judged. I mean, how can you explain how Putin can send a missile or a bomb into a train filled with children, who are laughing and playing and doing their work, and shrapnel shreds them, and all of the evil we see everywhere, should that not be judged? And so these various trumpets are designed to judge that evil, and in the process, to drive people to the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is the first three and a half years of tribulation. Daniel 9.27 says the tribulation will last three and one-half years, and then something will happen, and it will last another three and one-half years. So the first half of the tribulation is made up sequentially, as you go through the book of Revelation, with the breaking of the seven trumpets, and with the breaking of the seven seals, and the sounding of the seven trumpets. And then you get to chapters 12 and 13. This is the middle of the tribulation, and here's something dramatic begins to happen. In the first half of chapter 12, the devil shows up. He is here. He is described as a great dragon. Now when you read Revelation, remember that there are symbols here, but they are almost always explained to us. So in chapter 12, you'll notice that there is a dragon, and he is described as very fierce, but it's a symbol. What does the symbol represent? Look at 12 verse 9, Revelation 12 verse 9. The great dragon was hurled down. The ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled down to the earth, and his angels with him. So this dragon represents the anti-father, the one who wants to be like God himself. It is the devil. And then look at verse number 13. When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. We've been told before that that is the nation of Israel. So now, beginning here in the middle of the tribulation, this satanic trinity is going to emerge and seek to destroy the nation of Israel. This is what Jesus and Daniel and all of the prophets talked about, because the devil will do everything to stop our Lord establishing his kingdom and our Lord coming again. And the Lord's establishing of his kingdom and his coming again is based on the state of Israel. The predictions and the prophecies are all bound up with the state of Israel. That's why so many of us love to go there, as Randy Wilson said a few minutes ago. It didn't even exist until 1948, and suddenly in our lifetime it came back into existence, and now we can see the prophecies unfolding. So there is this devil who's going to go against the nation of Israel. And look at chapter 13. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had 10 horns and 7 heads with 10 crowns on his horn, and each had a blasphemous name. And this is the Antichrist. This is when he makes his appearance in the book of Revelation. As I explained in the 50 final events in world history, this is the fellow who showed up here at the very beginning wanting to seek the world governments. He is the one who came running out on a charger to take control of the world, leading to war and famine and death. And now he is going to be possessed with satanic power and become the Antichrist who will seek to destroy Israel. And he's got a helper. Look at verse number 11. Then I saw another beast. Chapter 13, verse 11. Then I saw another beast coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. And this is the anti-Holy Spirit. So you have here a trio of evil supernatural personages, like something off the screen when you see these superheroes that become so malevolent. There is a satanic trinity that emerges, the devil, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. They are the anti-father, the anti-son, and the anti-Holy Spirit. And I'll not take time to read it, but they go into the rebuilt Jewish temple, and they seek to set up an image there, the image of the Antichrist, and demand that the Jewish people bow down and worship it. And Daniel predicted this, and Jesus predicted it. Jesus said, as he gave his message in Matthew 24, when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not stand in the temple, then you who are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains. Whatever you do, get out of town, because there is coming upon this city, upon this nation, and onto this world a tribulation, a distress so great the world has never seen the likes of it, and will never see it again. So when this image, the abomination of desolation, is set up in the temple, that is the triggering for the last half of the tribulation, which we call the Great Tribulation. Now, seven disasters will unfold during the Great Tribulation. So look at verse number 16, chapter 15, rather, and verse number 1. I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign, seven angels with seven last plagues. These are also described as bowls of wrath, and they are very similar to the plagues that struck Egypt during the days of Moses. So if you want to know what the Great Tribulation is going to be like, we've had a preview. And all of these plagues, these bowls of wrath, are taken from the book of Exodus. So if you will look at the plagues of Egypt that Moses and God called down upon the Egyptians, and magnified them, and intensified them, and globalized them, then you have an idea of the last half of the tribulation. And look at chapter 16, chapter 16 and verse 16. Then they, that is this evil trio, gathered the kings together to a place that in the Hebrew is called Armageddon. So near the end of all of this, the armies of the world coming down from Russia through Ukraine and Turkey, and coming over from China through the Middle East and ancient Babylon and Persia, coming up from Africa. You can read about it in the book of Ezekiel 36 and 37 and 38. You can read about it in Zechariah 12, 13, and 14. But the armies of the world, led by the supernatural power of the deceptive Antichrist, will come against the nation of Israel at a place called Armageddon. That will be the beachhead, and they will come down from there to surround the city of Jerusalem. And just when it appears they have won, Jesus will come again. And that's chapter 19. So look at Revelation chapter 19. After this, I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting, hallelujah. So just as the tribulation begins, with hallelujahs in heaven, so the tribulation will end with hallelujahs in heaven. And it says, beginning in verse 11, And I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, another white horse, this one a good one, and he who sat on it, whose name was called Faithful and True, with justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. His dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven are following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen. And a sword, a word, will come out of his mouth, and suddenly the war of Armageddon will end, Israel will be saved, and Jesus will be back. So that's the unfolding of what's going to happen. Now in chapter 20, we have his kingdom and the great white throne judgment. And then in 21 and 22, we'll all get to heaven. And these last two chapters of the Bible have been an infinite source of comfort to me, especially since my wife went to heaven. Let's look at them. Revelation 21 and 22. Then I saw a new heaven, that is a new universe and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Peter tells us that the current universe, all of the stars and all of the planets and all of this world, is going to be burned with intense fire and the elements will melt. And God is going to recreate this universe, a new universe bigger and brighter. He's going to recreate this planet earth. They'll be much bigger and brighter. And then out of heaven will come the holy city of God, New Jerusalem, descending from heaven like a bride adorned for its husband. And it will set down on this earth. And a voice from heaven will say, now the throne of God is with his people and the spiritual and the physical realms will be merged together, the way we read about in Ephesians chapter one. And it will be one unified, great place for all of the supernatural angelic beings and for all of us who know the Lord. And the city is described in great detail with its vast streets and its buildings made out of some kind of translucent diamond. It's a vast diamond city, the great walls and the river running through it. My favorite part is in chapter 21 verse one. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life. And I have made a date with my wife before she passed away, that we will meet together and walk hand in hand along that crystal river. Now, I think we can take this literally. A city is a city. A world is a world. Heavens and the universe, that's all literal. We'll be there in our resurrection bodies. Christ will be there with his resurrection body. And it says in verse four, they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. And it says, we will serve him and we will reign with him forever and ever. So this is eternity. So here you have revelation. What I want to do is to show you that the basic outline of the book, you know, it says after this, after this, after this, after this, the basic outline of the book is really a very simple thing. You have the introductory chapters one, two, three, chapters four through 18 describe the tribulation. It begins in verses, chapters four and five with this wonderful celebration in heaven. We have the seven seals and we have the seven trumpets that occupy the first three and a half years in the middle of the whole thing. Here shows up the anti-father, the anti-Christ and the anti-spirit. They launch the last half of the tribulation. It ends with the return of Christ in chapter 19. He sets up his kingdom. He judges all of the unsaved and suddenly we're in eternity. Now that information is information we should know. We should understand and look at the way the book ends in chapter 22, verse 17. The spirit and the bride say come and let him who hears come and whoever is thirsty, let him come and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. It ends with an invitation. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ then you're not ready to face the future. It doesn't matter whether we are one year or 10 years or 20 years from the tribulation. You just are not ready for tomorrow without Jesus Christ. He died on the cross and shed his blood and rose again and he has a plan for this world. He has a plan for history and he has a plan for you for every day of your life and your life is absolutely lost until you find that plan by finding Jesus Christ as your savior. So with all of this as backdrop my invitation to you is the spirit and the bride say come and let him who is thirsty come and whoever will let him come and partake of the water of life freely and then having known Jesus as your savior and having received him as the Lord of your life let him invade your personality. The Christian life is the life that Jesus lived then lived now in you on this planet by his Holy Spirit and have a sense of anticipation. I have never been more excited about the future than I am right now. We are living on the precipice of prophecy. We should know the contents of the book of Revelation and we should be saying even so come Lord Jesus. So even as we ask him to come he asks you to come and if you don't know him if you're watching online if you're here in this room there is no time to waste in letting him be your Lord and Savior. Will you bow your heads with me for our prayer and if there is someone here and you need Jesus as your savior or you're watching wherever you are and the Lord has spoken to you and you say I need to be ready in my heart then just pause now with sincerity say Lord I am ready to come to you forgive my sins commend to my heart for I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back and Lord may we make that decision everyone who needs to and give us a great sense of encouragement and optimism about days to come is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen.