God's plan for time is presented as a comprehensive narrative from eternity to eternity, centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The sermon emphasizes that while current world events may seem chaotic, God remains in control and has a divine plan. It highlights the cross of Christ as the pivotal point in this plan, offering hope for the past, present, and future. The core lesson is that Christians should focus on their ultimate hope in Christ's return, rather than being distracted by earthly events, as the rapture could occur at any moment.
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after me already. I was getting ready to run. I wondered where the exit was at. I remember seeing it over there now. It was pretty good. By the way, about all you really need to know about me is my name is Glenn Lightfoot, and that's about the best thing about me, other than I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the very best. But as for myself alone, there's nothing really worthy to tell you about. We're lately of Burlington, Colorado, down in the cattle and farming country, so you folks can You're not foreign to us. We understand about corn picking and this kind of a thing, or at least those working folks there in Burlington do. Do you ever see a preacher that works? I'll tell you. I don't know. But anyway, we're happy to be here tonight, and we trust that you will be able to come out every other evening because if you're interested at all, I realize sometimes you just can't make all these meetings, but if you are interested at all, it's certainly well if you can begin with us on the first night and continue through Sunday evening.
That's minus Saturday, of course, because Saturday we're going to let you rest from the agony. And by the way, are you wondering why this brother turned off that light a while ago when it was first shining on the chart? You wonder why he turned that off? You wouldn't want to see what that ten-ton truck did to this face. So I got a pretty chart for you to look at rather than this face, and that's why we're not turning on the light. Of course, not really. We're not turning on the light because it'd shine right in my eyes, and I couldn't see all these beautiful folks. But I'm going to say tonight we're going to be going like a runaway locomotive, but do not get discouraged. Tonight I'm going to try to introduce you to a great deal of material, and we may not even cover all that I introduced to you tonight in the course of the week, but we will just seem to pile it on you tonight and you'll say, hey, well that guy is so confusing, and I wonder if I'll understand anything, maybe I shouldn't come back.
Well, that's why I'm taking the time at the beginning of the meeting tonight to explain to you that is my purpose to just overload you tonight, just introduce you to a tremendous amount of material, and then beginning tomorrow evening, I'll slow down, believe it or not, an ex-Texan can, and I'll slow down and we'll take certain phases of the chart and of the material that I'll introduce you to tonight. and we'll slow down and begin to go over it in some detail. So my purpose is don't get discouraged. If tonight you think we're trying to cover too much too quickly, I think this will be necessary in order that you can better appreciate the chart and we can just get a better grip on what we're going to have to say the rest of the week.
All right, tonight I'd like to have you turn, first of all, to First Thessalonians chapter four. These will be some very familiar scripture, so we won't have to worry too much about where to find them. It won't be any difficult books. I'm not going to try to present to you anything just extra new or extraordinary or anything of that nature. We're going to look at some scripture, and then we'll begin to look at some things on the chart pertaining to these scriptures. So you'll bear with me. We're going to read in about three different places. and then we'll get at it. First Thessalonians chapter four and beginning with a very familiar verse, verse thirteen.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. I'm going to stop right there though. Because you know there's something that used to just bug me no in. I mean, I just couldn't understand it. You know, I've always heard of this thing that the ignorance of the law is no excuse. You know, you see some of these people run the stop sign or they're going ninety five in a twenty five mile an hour zone and they say, oh, but officer, I didn't know that was the law. Honest, I didn't know. And that old officer, you know, while he's quickly writing out that hundred dollar ticket, he's saying, well, ignorance of the law is no excuse. And I used to wonder, well, how could that be? But it's true because why in America today, we have so many books, so many things published.
All of our laws are published. Though you may not know them, it's your problem. It's your fault because they are available, aren't they? In other words, that old officer standing there writing out the ticket is perfectly right. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. In other words, when the Holy Spirit is using the word ignorant here, he doesn't mean that you're dumb. He means that you're unlearned. He means that he wants you to know something, and that's what the Word of God does. It is available to us so that we might know these things. Just as today, ignorance of the law is no excuse because it's available. That's fine. Thank you. Okay.
Because it is available. You can read it. You can find it out for yourself. So if you break the law and you say, well, I didn't know that, that's your problem. It's available. And so it is with Christians. Sometimes as we begin to take up these truths portrayed by the chart, I've seen Christians who have been saved thirty, forty, fifty years say, well, you know, I didn't know that. I think that's marvelous because that's one of the purposes in my coming, at least one of my purposes, is that we might learn together some of these things that is so readily available. You know, there's no excuse why a Christian doesn't know some of these things. We can know, I believe, all that we want to know that's in this blessed book.
And if it's not in this book, you don't need to know it. You know, sometimes we get so concerned about knowing things, oh, I don't know that, and oh, I should, and why do we want to know them? What good would they do us? But everything in this book is good for us, and I believe that if you really want to know it, that the Spirit of God will open up this book to you if you're a Christian. If you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, this book will remain, for most purposes, a sealed book. It'll be a book that you can't understand because it's spiritually discerned. Okay, so tonight I want to step off on the right foot and tell you that we want to learn some things together. There's no reason for us to be ignorant of these things.
All right. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Turn to the last book in your New Testament, the book of Revelation, chapter nineteen. The book of Revelation and chapter nineteen. Jim, let me say, don't get disheartened as we fly along here. It'll all begin to come together in these next evenings. But this is extremely important to me, and I trust it will be to you as we go along. Revelation chapter nineteen, beginning with verse eleven. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that set upon him was called faithful in truth, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen and white and clean, and out of his mouth forth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall room them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh named Written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now we're going to let that suffice there. Go to chapter twenty of this same book. Chapter twenty. Chapter twenty. And let's read only one verse for the sake of time tonight. Revelation chapter twenty. Verse nine, And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. Well, may God bless this reading of his word tonight. I want to introduce some now if you look up here. And by the way, let me say, if you have difficulty seeing, please come up front.
I told you when I was here before I've had my shots. If I bite anyone, you're protected. I got my shots just before I came, let's say. Can I move this chair? Because I get excited and I go around and around sometimes. I'm going to move it just a little bit down here. The chart we have before us tonight is entitled... a chart on the course of time from eternity to eternity. In other words, we're going to be looking at time, not eternity so much, but we're going to be looking at time. And what is represented by the past eternity on this chart is this blue semicircle here on your left and the future eternity by the semicircle down on the right-hand side of the chart.
So if I say past eternity, I'll be referring to back here, future eternity. I'll be referring down to the right-hand side of the chart. But now, I don't know how much time it takes. I'm pretty excited about this, but let me just mention, I'm sure that all of us are interested in what's going to happen next, aren't we? I mean, that's pretty exciting to think about what's going to happen next. Let me tell you something. I believe God wants us to know. What is going to happen next in his plan? He said, plan. Man, the world is running right. What kind of a plan? You know, if we just looked around this today, at Lebanon, you know, Burrito over there, Tripoli, and those places in the East, Grenada, and all of those places, we'd say, hey, it's out of control.
There is no plan. Nobody's in control. Whose hand is on the throttle? Well, let me tell you something. What appears to be mass confusion is like the backside of a beautiful rug. Do you ever look at the backside of some of these beautiful tapestries that you've seen hanging on the wall? If you have, the back looks awfully confused. I mean, there's just thread going everywhere and knots here and knots there. But if you turn it around to the right side and look at it, then you have the beautiful picture, don't you? You have the beautiful picture. Well, God is in control of what seems to you and I to be mass confusion. Now, it's not out of control.
Some people wonder, is this thing under control? Well, I want to tell you tonight, God has a plan. Not only a plan for your life individually, if you're a Christian. Now, if you're a Christian, I'm convinced that nothing happens to you or I by chance. Nothing. Nothing just happens to happen, you know. I don't believe in luck. I'm a Christian who doesn't believe in luck. I believe in the permissive will of God and the direct will of God. I believe it must be one of the two for his children. I really believe that. So nothing just happens by itself. We have on the chart before us tonight God's plan for time.
And that's what you and I live in, don't we? We're creatures of time, so we're interested in time. Now God is the God of eternity or the eternal God. He doesn't have a beginning. He never will have an envy. He ever was, He is, and He ever will be. He is the eternal one. But you and I have a beginning, don't we? And that beginning is the birth, the natural birth. That's when we began, and that's when things are relevant to us. You know, I don't care about what happened really so much before. I got here to you. I mean, if you're honest with yourself, you really don't too much.
Oh, you say, I like history. But you really get down to where the rubber meets the road, and you're concerned about what's going to happen to me next. Well, again, let me say God has a plan. and though it would seem down here on the left end of the chart in the Garden of Eden when sin came into the human race, not the universe. You realize that? Sin didn't come in in the Garden to the universe, it only came in in the Garden to the human race. Sin was in the universe before that. I intended to speak on that tonight, but I'm just excited and I realize that though you don't know it, time is limited for us and so therefore I better start somewhere around the middle of the chart and not down on one end.
So God has a plan for time and He wants us to know what that plan is. Not necessarily can I tell you what is going to happen to you tomorrow, you know, like a fortune teller. You know, some of these fortune tellers say, hey, man, come in and You know that they've got one hand out for the money and the other hand is on your arm pulling you in. And they want the money. That's all they're interested in. They're going to say, hey, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen to you tomorrow. Well, they hit and miss, you know. Their guess is as good as yours because that's what they're doing is guessing. So I can't tell you necessarily what's going to happen in the next fifteen minutes. But I believe in the Word of God we have His plan for time.
and he's willing to tell us what that plan is. He wants us to know. And many are the exact dates God wants us to know. So this chart is a representation from the left to the right of God's plan for time. Now, if you'll notice about the middle of the chart stands across. And let me ask you something of, you know, sometimes I think we make too much of the cross and not enough of the one who hung on it. I think sometimes we get the cross before us too much and forget the one who hung there because it's not the cross in itself, if anything, is it really?
Because there were crosses before this one. I mean, there were thieves and murderers crucified before the Blessed Son of God, the Holy One. And there were ones crucified after him on crosses, as we call it, on trees, right? But the thing that makes this one so important is who was on it. The value of this cross is in the one who hung there. And so, beloved child of God, if you'll notice it stands about the center of the chart, like the grace hub of a wheel. And to me, this is the center of all of God's plans for times. If we were to erase this, the cross of Christ, from this chart, we'd have nothing as far as I'm concerned.
There'd be no hope for those who have lived before us. There'd be no hope for us who live today, and there'd be no hope for the future. We could all just go home. What use would there be in worrying about it? There'd be no hope. But because of this, there's hope for the future, and there's certainly hope for those of the past, isn't there? There's hope, in other words, the hope that comes through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. And so in about the center of this chart stands this cross, and as again I say, it is the hub of God's plan. It is the center of all things, because from him come all things. This blessed one who hung on the cross is the one who spoke the world into being.
He's the one who spoke and the things appeared. And so it's very important. That's why tonight I want to emphasize this because, you know, if I were to just come and tickle your fancy, if I were to just come and preach some good messages, if I were just to come and give you some information that's valuable to you, that would be fine. But I'm learning the longer I preach, the real value of everything as far as I'm concerned is so that the person of the Lord Jesus Christ will be exalted, whether it's in your heart as a Christian or whether he's introduced to you as Savior. It's important to me that all these things should be understood before we really begin the study on this chart.
Because I want you to know the real reason for me being here as far as I am concerned is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Apart from that, we could just all go home, I think. Alright, so... Tonight we read of a very wonderful event that is soon to occur, and the world is quite a Twitter today about what's happening over in the Middle East, am I right? Everyone is excited what's happening in Lebanon. Well, you know, this may disturb you some, but if you'll bear with me, I'll straighten it out in the next few nights. But, you know, I'm getting a little bit... tired of so much emphasis on the Middle East.
And they say, oh boy, that's starting off wrong. Well, that sounds wrong in the beginning. But we're going to get back now to you and I as Christians, and I'm speaking to Christians now only, to those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. What really should be uppermost in our mind? Should the Middle East be uppermost in our mind? Are the signs given to the church Or to whom were the signs really given? To the Jew, to the nation of Israel. But to the church are not given signs. And so though I'm interested as a person, what's happening in the Middle East.
So don't you go away saying that I said you shouldn't read the newspapers or whatnot and be aware of what's going on in the Middle East. I think that is very important. If you keep it in its settings, I think that a Christian today should be aware of those things. So don't go away saying that I didn't say they were important. But I'm saying we're putting so much emphasis on that that we're losing sight of the Christian's real hope. And what is the hope of the church today? Is it Israel getting back into the land? Is it that they're having wars over in Lebanon and rivers of wars and all those things are happening? No, that's not really it. Why? Well, is it necessary that any of those things occur before this event, we call the rapture, could occur?
To me, that's not even really indications that it's about to occur, or it could occur at any instant. Because you know why? If your Bible believes in Christians, long before the war in Lebanon, as far as I see in the Scriptures, or the things that are happening over in the Middle East today, long before that, the Lord Jesus Christ could have come in the air. You know, people today are thinking the temple must be rebuilt before the Lord Jesus Christ can come back into the air. Now, do we all understand what I'm saying here? If you don't, bear with me. We're going to talk about the Advent before I leave. But for tonight, this event we call the rapture, the meeting in the air, when you and I will go home to be with the Lord with our new bodies, that event could occur at any instant, plus or minus nothing.
Now that's why I'm kind of downgrading all the news about the Middle East. Because to the church, that shouldn't be paramount. That shouldn't be the most important thing to the Christian today. I think if our eyes were on the real hope, instead of on the Middle East, if our eyes, as it were, were upward looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air, I think we'd be out evangelizing. I think we would see a lot of the halls filled with people. I think we would see others being warm to Christ if our eyes were more in tune with God's plan. God's plan, the next thing that's to occur of importance to the Church of God, and surely if they only knew it would be of the utmost importance to the world, is not what's happening in the Middle East today, but the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air.
Because to the child of God, that means heaven and home with a new body. For the past saints, That means the resurrection of their body and the reuniting of their spirits and souls with that body and ever more with the Lord also. So do you see, if I slow down a little bit what I'm driving at, sure we need to see those things happening in the Middle East but in their proper perspective, realizing that they have to do with the earthly scene, with the things that are to come after the church is raptured home. to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, it'll be important, but it's important more to the nation of Israel and to earthly things than it should be to the Christian today.
Because you see, we should be living in the expectant, any moment coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He could have come at any instant. And he will come. It's in God's plan. You know, one of the best indications that this meeting in the air will take place is the fulfilled scripture of the Old Testament times, isn't it? We can look back upon some of the promises of God back in the past, in the Old Testament era, and we can see how that God has explicitly, exactly fulfilled those scriptures as He said He would. And so, therefore, as we look back on those, they should be ample proof to the Christian today that these things that, though they have not yet occurred, They will occur exactly as God plans and in God's time.
Now, do you remember the last time I was with you? I told you that verse in Galatians that we often misquote, and I was one of the worst ones to misquote. In the fullness of time, you know, God sent forth His Son. But I would say, yeah, I misquoted it purposely this time, believe it or not. It's in the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son. So God had a plan for his son to come in an exact time and come to this earth. And of course that was at his birth. That's been fulfilled exactly as God prophesied it would occur. And it did occur. But today let me just restate again that for the church, for the Christian today, yes, beloved, look at the papers, understand what's happening in the Middle East.
But don't put that in relation to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air so much. Put it in relation to what's going to be going on in this earth because there is nothing to occur before the Lord Jesus Christ could come in the air. Now, I know you think I'm overstressing this, but listen, I've recently met some Christians who were, oh, awfully mixed up on this, Christians who have been saved for years and years and years But they had it in their mind that all these things that are happening over in the Middle East had to happen before the Lord Jesus Christ could come in the air. But there's nothing in Scripture to support this. He could come at any moment.
And so I encourage us tonight, let's get our eyes on the true hope of the church today. That should be your true hope and my true hope. Because you know, that's God's next step for the Christians. And it could occur at any instant. Like I told you, I can't tell you what's going to happen to you tomorrow. That's silly. I couldn't do that at all. But I can tell you in a broad prospect, the next step in God's plan of time is the rapture. All these things that are occurring over the Middle East are well and good. But the really the next important thing in God's plan is the meeting place in the air. Okay?
Now, let's go, do you remember there in Revelation chapter nineteen where we read next though? We read about the Lord Jesus Christ coming back with his army. Who do you suppose that is? And when do you suppose that will be? Well, as far as the chart is concerned tonight, and remember we're taking big steps tonight, we'll go back tomorrow night and we'll begin to take a little bitty steps and follow through. But if you look on the chart, as I told you before, we're living right here in the lay of the sin period. It's quite evident. Just look around you, not at Lebanon, but at the church. Some people ask me, what makes you even feel so acutely that the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the air is so imminent?
And again, they say, oh, it must be because of all the problems in the Middle East. And I look at them and smile and I say, no, that's not what really makes me so aware of the Lord's coming in the air. I just simply look around first at myself and then at the rest of the Church of God, and I can see, as far as I'm concerned, beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are in the Laodicean period. We are in that period depicted by the letter to the Church at Laodicea, lukewarmness, half-heartedness, all those things that are going on in the Church. So I don't need to look at the world to see that. I simply look at the Church of God And I see that with all conditions there that surely the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air certainly can occur at any moment.
Alright, so tonight let me just briefly say this blue line indicates the rapture, indicates when the church, the bride of Christ, is caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The gold line is representative of where Christ is at during any period of time on this chart, really beginning right here. Beginning back here if you want to know where the Lord Jesus Christ is at any period of time on this chart, watch for the gold line. And as you see, here at this point in time, which could occur at any instant, the blue line joins it.
Do you remember what we read in First Thessalonians chapter four and verse eighteen? said, Wherefore comfort one another with these words. It's a comfort to me that I am going to be forever with the Lord from that point of time on. So the church is raptured away. at this point in time and we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So if you look on this chart from there on, from this point to meeting place in the air onward, you'll see that the blue line and the gold line are never really separated, indicating just what we read in First Thessalonians chapter four.
Once we're raptured out of this world, once we're raptured away, so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now that's speaking of bodily. Because tonight, what happens if a Christian dies tonight? Their body goes in the grave, but their spirit and their soul go to be immediately with the Lord Jesus Christ. So don't go away from your saying that I said we weren't with the Lord when we died. We are, but notice I said bodily. because it's at the rapture moment in time that there is a resurrection of all the bodies of the saints. Now, who are the saints, by the way?
This is going to lead you up to some studies in the further north. I'm convinced from my study of the Scriptures, and some would disagree with this, I was down in Dallas, Texas preaching on this, and they have a certain theological school down there, and one of the young men after the meeting, he'd come charging up the aisle like a young bull. He was about bill size, too, and I started to jump off the platform, but I didn't want to look like an absolute coward. So I stood my ground, and he'd come charging up and practically grab me by the lapels of the coat and says, What do you mean saying the Old Testament saints? And, oh, he commenced to get in on me and to read me the riot acts and everything. But what I'm saying is, as far as I see in the Scriptures, Those Old Testament people who looked to the Lord, we would say, were just as saved as you and I are, and they're just as much as saints.
I believe at this moment in time, you'll notice on the chart it says resurrection of saints. I believe this occurs at the instant the Lord Jesus Christ steps out of heaven into the air. I believe at that very instant, all the bodies of all of those who have gone on to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, including the Old Testament saints, who've gone on to be with him because they're there tonight, do you know paradise is infinite? That's where they were, but they're not there. I'm giving you a lot of juicy things because I want you to come back because I'm going to tell you, explain all these little things. Go back into them in detail. That's why I'm just really throwing it out next in a while to you tonight, you see. No, really, I want to get all this as an overview and get you to come back.
But the Old Testament saints were in paradise up to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But their spirits and souls were taken out of paradise, not their bodies. Not their bodies. And they're in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Just as you and I as Christians, if we were to die, we'd be absent from the body. I love Paul for that. Because he says, absent from the body, he moves. The body goes in the grave. He says, absent from the body, present with words. What can be present? Only the spirit and soul. Because I preached a lot of funerals. Too many in Burlington lately. Too many funerals. It saddens me. But nevertheless, I know where the body goes. It goes in the grave. But the spirit and the soul go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I believe at this instant in time, which could occur right now. Nothing in the way. When this meeting in the air occurs that there is a resurrection of the bodies of all the saints right up to that present moment. They're resurrected, reunited with their spirits and their souls, and you and I, let's take it that he comes tonight, you and I are standing there and our bodies are chained in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, and we're caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Now, do you remember back in First Thessalonians where we read that word, shall not prevent them which are asleep, That's an old English word, prevent.
It simply means we'll not proceed. So what it's saying, that all those who have died in the Lord, their bodies have gone into the grave, at this moment in time will be resurrected. reunited with their spirits and their souls, and then those which are alive at that moment, Christians and remain, their bodies shall be changed like on his glorious body, and together, not one here and one there, but together will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So it's important that you understand me about some of these things, that I believe at this moment in time, that the graves of all the bodies of all the saints, that they are resurrected and changed.
And so we're called up to meet the Lord in the air. All right. So then, though, if you'll notice the blue and the gold line, comes down over here to the little mountain of Olivet, and there the gold line touches. The Lord Jesus Christ comes back again to the little mountain of Olivet. There's been a lot going on down here on the earth. And we're going to be talking about that in the coming night. That period of time that most people call the tribulation. I prefer to call it Daniel's last week. Because really, it's only the last three and a half years that are really the tribulation, the great one. That's the Greek of it.
That's the real meaning of it. But anyway, so we have here a period called Daniel's last week. or a week of years or seven. Seven years. Now here's where we can begin to hone in on some time. God gives us, and I believe this is seven literal earth years. I believe this period of Daniel's last week is seven earth years. Then the Lord comes back to the Mount of Olives. A lot of things happen that we're going to be learning about. So just bear with me. And there are tremendous things. Then you see here the Merinium. Well, what does the millennium mean? What does the millennium mean?
Simply means thousand. That's all the word millennium means. It means thousand. And so here we have represented to us one thousand years upon the earth. Notice where the blue and the gold line are during this thousand years. Where are they? Well, they're hovering over the earth in the New Jerusalem. Yes, I believe in a literal new Jerusalem that descends from God out of heaven and hovers over this earth for a thousand years. And it's at this time that Christ sets up his kingdom upon the earth. This is the time when there will be true peace. Now you talk about peace. You know, I have to say, yes, I pray for peace.
A peaceable time. A time when the gospel may go forth without hindrance. But you know, it's not going to come for at least seven years. They can talk about the peacemakers and the shuttle diplomacy and all that they want to, but it is not going to work for at least seven years. I'll get back to that in a minute. It is not. I don't care who they send over there, it's not going to work. There's not going to be peace upon this earth until the prince of peace whom they crucified reigns again. You know why there's not peace on the earth today? It's not because of Russia. It's not because of anything like that. It's because they crucified the princesses.
There will never be real peace on the earth until he reigns. And he's not going to reign for at least seven years. Think about that a moment. All right, at the end of this thousand years, you see fire coming down out of heaven. We read of that in Revelation chapter twenty. and verse nine in a sense. It's in Peter. We know that God, you know, some people say, hey, hey, I'm all shook up. The world's going to end. Armageddon's coming. Well, my friend, Armageddon's going to be a thousand years before the world ends and we'll see. So don't worry. You know, some people get so excited that, and let me tell you, Christian, you don't need to worry about the end of the world.
And the unbeliever, this is something that's really storming. Do you realize that if there's anybody here tonight without Christ, you don't need to worry about the ends of the world, you're going to be dead. I used to think when I was a little fella, and let me do this quickly, but I used to think, and I really believed this was all in my heart before I received Christ. I believed that this is the way it was. Here's old Gwen I put down in Waco, Texas, did they hop in, skipping along, you know, doing his little thing and living like he wanted to live, and suddenly, boom, a big bang, big crash in the end of the world. And there I am all dressed up in my whites, you know. I'm suddenly standing before God. And boy, it comes my time.
Old Bill is behind me, but it comes my time. And I step up and there's God. And I say, God, you know, after all, I'm not as bad as Bill. And I'm not as, you know, I'm really not that terrible. I didn't shoot nobody. And I understand nobody, God. And after all, I did the best I could. And I joined the local church. I did the best I could, God. Don't you think I ought to go to heaven? I really believed that with all my heart. I thought I'd have a chance to plead my case like that. I thought the end of the world could come at any instant, and I'd just say, well, God, my good works outweigh my bad works, and so don't I get to go to heaven? But if you're here tonight without Christ, forget it. You're going to be dead. You're going to be dead and in hell.
You're going to be dead and in hell at least a thousand years, I think. or something like that, at least a thousand years before the end of the world. Now that I've got you all well enough, I'm going to show you how I can prove this from the Scripture and certainly visually by pointing it out on the chart. All right, if you remember, I'm saying that we're living right down here in the Laodicean period. I don't think anyone would hardly argue with that. We're living right here just prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air. Let's just say for purposes so that you'll understand tonight that we know the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come at age twenty five okay let's just say that we know that all right then I could tell you when the end of the world is coming if I knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was coming in the air tonight I could safely say very little if in the air I could safely say that it'd be a thousand and seven years and a little season before the end of the world.
So, unbelievable why do you need to worry about the end of the world? Are you going to live a thousand years? No way. No way. I say it because, all right, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the air and I believe almost immediately begins Daniel's last week or seven years upon the earth called Daniel's last week. We have that seven years. The Lord comes back here at the Mount of Olives. set up his kingdom reign over the earth for a thousand years. So what do we have? Seven plus a thousand. And then if you look down here, a little season. We read that in Revelation also, don't we? So if you put it together, a thousand and seven years and a little season, then God would send fire down from heaven to destroy the heavens and the earth.
So do you see you don't need to worry about the end of the world? Not as a Christian and certainly as an unbeliever. You need to be concerned about receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your very own Savior. Now some get also excited about Armageddon and about the atomic bomb and all of that. Let me ask you simply, how did the world come into being or how did the world come into being? God spoke and it was so. Now, if I had time to start down here, in Genesis chapter one and verse one it says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. That word created is baka, meaning to make something out of nothing.
In other words, he spoke and the world came into being. Now, down here at this end of the chart, with a fire from heaven, God destroys. the heaven and the earth. It says God sends fire from out of heaven. Personally, I don't believe he needs an atomic bomb to do that. He can just turn loose, as it were, let go of the reins of nature and the fire would ensue, wouldn't it? God is able to just simply send fire from heaven. If you still have your place there at verse nine in Revelation chapter twenty, it says, And fire came down, worked from God out of heaven and devoured them.
That's also, we could read in another place, that the heavens and the earth are dissolved as we know them by the power of God. It's simply by the power of God. All right, I'm going to be closing in a couple of minutes, but I want to get your interest tonight to come back tomorrow night because we'll slow down and we'll start talking about some things that occurred at the Lord's first day of Advent. We'll briefly look at something, some things about the seven churches. Then we're going to give you a little bit more detail about the rapture. Now that's in the coming nights, not tomorrow night only. And then we're going to look at this Daniel's last week. If you're interested in the beast, the two beasts and that kind of thing, we're going to try to give you a little resume about them as much as we can in the time.
We'll talk some about Armageddon, what really occurs. We'll try to tell you something about when the Lord touches on the Mount of Olives, and we'll talk to you in some detail, at least, about the millennial reign of Christ over the earth. And by the way, let me just, in closing, challenge every Christian here. What do you think you're going to be doing while this thousand years of the millennial reign is transpiring? You think you're going to be floating around in a little fluffy white cloud in heaven, eating grapes or taking it easy? sweeping the floor, busy about the kitchen? I don't think so. I believe that it says here, Christ and His bride in the new Jerusalem, and I think depending on how you serve Him in this life, not after you get to heaven, but depending upon how you serve Him in this life, you'll be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ.
I don't know whether we'll have time to touch on that. We should, but nevertheless, it's according as to what you receive at the judgment seat of Christ, For having served him here, I believe it's going to give you responsibility of reigning with him over the earth for that thousand years. So you know something? I'm going to be transversing between the new Jerusalem and the earth, and I'm not going to need a Zeus suit. I'm not going to need one of these helmets and the tubes and the biblical card or whatever they call it that comes out of it or anything like that. And I'll tell you something else. Get that idea about wings on your shoulders out too. I don't believe there's any such thing, but I will be transversing, and it's not going to be any problem at all.
Think about that, Christian, as we close in prayer tonight, and come back and we'll start to slow down, and hopefully, as they say, if you're good boys and girls, Sunday night, I'm going to open myself up to questions, and I'll be mentioning more about those and how you'll be able to ask them, because I don't believe in mass confusion where everybody jumps up and asks questions. but I'll try to get a box or something and and try to catalog some of the questions on the things that we'll be covering understand on the things that we'll be covering and maybe on we'll spend the entire Sunday evening and I will trying to answer some of those questions