Thru the Bible - Sunday Sermon

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz your host and I'm so glad you're here for the Sunday sermon. Now we certainly don't need our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee to tell us we already know how the subject of prophecy, especially the tribulation, has stirred controversy for decades among good Bible-believing Christians. But you know despite the debate on end times, Dr. McGee assures us that we can look carefully and thoroughly at scripture and be confident of one really important fact: God's love and protection of His people. And that's why he titled this message Why Jesus’ Church Will Not Go Through the Tribulation.

It's a great study so grab your Bible and find your place in Revelation 4. And while you do, I'll read a few letters from our fellow passengers on the Bible bus. The first one comes to us from Lina, a fellow passenger in Indonesia. She writes, "I've been following this Christian discipleship program for some time and each lesson has been a source of deep encouragement and growth in my faith. The way the Word of God is explained has opened my eyes to truths I had never fully understood before. Through this program, I've been reminded that the Bible isn't just a book to be read, but God's living Word that speaks directly into our lives. It's helped me to grow in my understanding of scripture, to apply it in my daily living, and to share it more confidently with others around me."

And then here's a letter, this is from a listener in Burundi. "I recently had the privilege of listening to your teaching. This was my first experience hearing about Jesus. It captured my attention from the very outset. I was intrigued and really set my mind and heart on what you were saying, which has led to a profound desire within me to seek salvation. I kindly ask for your assistance in accepting Jesus Christ as my savior and redeemer."

From South Korea we've got this, "As I listened to the Bible study this evening, I deeply felt the great and magnificent love of Jesus in my heart. I give thanks and praise to the Holy Spirit who dwells in me and grants me grace, peace, and inspiration. Over time, through this teaching, I have experienced the restoration of love and relationship with a family member that was once estranged. I'm grateful that God's living Word is transforming my life."

Then our last note is from Mr. Tun in Assam, India. "This program has helped me build my life upon God's Word. Now I serve in God's ministry and actively share this program with others so they too can be blessed. God's Word is living and I am grateful to know its power in my life." Well, there's no denying it. God is at work through His Word, isn't He? Let's pray for and with one another now.

Father, thank You for Your Word that assures us of Your love. As we listen, Lord, direct Your Spirit to lead us into a deeper understanding of what we study. In Jesus' name, amen. Here's the Sunday sermon on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Our subject tonight is why the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will not go through the great tribulation period. One of the many places in scripture where good men disagree is whether the church will or will not go through the great tribulation period. Some men take the position that the church goes through the entire tribulation period and that viewpoint is labeled a post-tribulation viewpoint. They attempt to articulate the rapture and the revelation as one and the same event. And you will find in all of their writings that they would take 1 Thessalonians 4 and Revelation 19 and make them the same event.

They come back with this kind of an argument. They say you cannot call the second coming of Christ a second coming of Christ if he comes and takes the church out of the world and then he comes to the earth a little later, seven years later, to establish his kingdom. You actually then have a third coming of Christ. Well, these men seem to forget that the first coming of Christ 1,900 years ago was divided very much the same way. The Lord Jesus Christ first came yonder to Bethlehem. That was his birth and there was much ado about that. The angels, the shepherds, the wise men, Herod, all of that in connection with his birth. He was an infant then.

And then the gospels go into total silence. There's obscurity then for 30 years. Nothing more about him. And then not seven years later, but 30 years later, he begins his ministry. And he's not an infant now that appears in Bethlehem, but he's a man 30 years of age beginning a public ministry. Do you have one and two comings of Christ at that time? I've never heard anyone yet propose that. But it's merely a problem of semantics and I think the meaning is quite evident that when he came the first time, you take his total life and you look at it as one coming to this earth, though he's born and then he goes into obscurity and there's silence and 30 years later he appears. We all understand that.

And therefore his second coming to this earth is set before us. Taking the church out of the earth, he does not come to the earth at that time. We're told definitely we meet the Lord in the air. Then many of us believe seven years later he does come to this earth and establish his kingdom here upon the earth. Now there is another view known as the mid-tribulation period. And they take the viewpoint that he comes in the midst of the tribulation. That is, Daniel divided the tribulation in two equal parts, three and a half years each. John in Revelation does the same thing as we shall see.

And these two parts are definitely divided. No question about that. One part evidently Antichrist using it to present the biggest hoax that the world has ever seen. It's the big lie. He intends to bring world peace and he's going to do a job of it for three and a half years. And then, may I use the very common expression, but it's the only way I know how to present it, all hell breaks loose on the earth at the last three and a half years. And my friend, to say that anyone redeemed in the church today goes through that period is certainly to minimize what that period really is that breaks on the earth.

And so these that believe in the mid-tribulation period, they make a great deal of the 11th chapter of Revelation, which tonight we're not even looking at. One of the men who espoused this view was a man I sat in his classes, Dr. Norman Harrison, a very able Bible teacher and a very fine Bible teacher and a man that was a blessing to my own heart. But I certainly did not agree with him in this, nor did I think that he was able to present his cause and his position and make it stick, certainly not to me logically. Then there is another viewpoint that's known today as the partial rapture group.

And I have been with that group, not believing as they did, but when I went to Nashville, Tennessee, I found that they were the ones who gave the strongest support to the Bible conferences that I put on there. I found them lovely people with this exception. And it comes out in the viewpoint you hold. The partial rapture believes, they take Matthew 25, the parable of the 10 virgins. Now if you take the Olivet Discourse and put it where we believe it belongs, it refers only to the nation Israel, only to that period which is yet in the future, has nothing to do with the church. You do not run into any confusion when you get to the 25th chapter.

But they take it that the 10 virgins set forth the church. Five are wise, five are foolish, five are taken out and five are left down here. They believe that only part of the church, that is the super-duper saints—and I never met one of them that didn't think he belonged to the super-duper saints. That viewpoint always ministers to spiritual pride and I found it in that group. They were very much inclined to look down their nose at you. I went as a young preacher to Nashville and they were very patient. They felt with me and my viewpoint. They felt that they would just pray for me and hope I would someday see the light. And I haven't seen it yet and that's been a long time ago.

But the thing is that this is a viewpoint that has actually that only one scripture as a basis. And when you see the Olivet Discourse as having no reference at all to the church but to that period that the Lord himself labeled as the great tribulation period, then there's no confusion there at all. And then to see it as it is, I believe in the literal, you could not come up with that interpretation. I do want to say this concerning these three viewpoints that there's something to commend all of these views because there have been good men that have held all of them. I personally cannot accept any of these for the very simple reason that I'm pre-trib in my viewpoint.

I am a pre-tribulationist. I believe that the Lord will come to take his church out before the world enters the great tribulation period. Christ takes the church out before the great tribulation. In other words, the rapture must take place before the great tribulation. Now any other view, in my judgment, destroys the belief in the imminent coming of Christ for his church. For instance, if you say tonight that those things that are predicted for the great tribulation period must be fulfilled, then tonight I cannot look for him to come, but I must look for these terrible events to take place first.

But we are told, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, and between us and that event tonight, there's not even a tissue that is, as far as scripture is concerned, that must be fulfilled. His coming is, has always been imminent. It's not always been soon, but it's always been imminent. He could come at any moment and that is true today as far as the church is concerned. Now in this area, there was a theology professor several years ago who said no one could produce a single scripture that taught that the rapture would take place before the great tribulation period or that the church would be taken out.

I sent word to that man because I know him, I consider him a friend of mine. I sent word to him that if he would come downtown, I'd buy his lunch and show him 25 scriptures that I was convinced from my viewpoint teach that the church will not go through the great tribulation. And I'm still waiting for him to come for lunch. I believe that today, to make a statement like that, is a very dangerous sort of thing to do. I think that tonight we could give at least 25 scriptures, but we're confined tonight by time and I'm confined to the passage of scripture especially. I do want to suggest some others, however, if we have time tonight.

Now will you come with me to Revelation 4? Because it's this passage of scripture that they insist does not teach that the church is taken out of the earth or out of the world at the beginning of chapter four. Many of us believe that this passage teaches that. You will notice that he says, "After this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, 'Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.'" After this. Now the Greek there is *meta tauta*, after these things.

And actually what it's doing is following the division that John gave at the very beginning, for he outlined this book for us back in the first chapter, verse 19. For he says this, "Write the things," the Lord Jesus told him this, "write the things which thou hast seen," that is the vision he's had of Christ in chapter one. "And the things which are," that's in chapters two and three that concern the seven churches in the province of Asia, which is in Asia Minor. "And the things which shall be hereafter," are the things which shall be *meta tauta*, after these things. Now when you come to chapter four, it says *meta tauta*, after these things.

After what things? After the things that are present, the church things. Now the church in the earth has come to an end. What happened to the church? And that's a good question, by the way. After the church things, the church disappears from the earth. You, in the remainder of the book of Revelation, it's never mentioned again with a series of events that concern the earth. It only occurs one time and that's in the invitation at the end of the book that's for this present hour. Never again. Up to this time, it's been mentioned 16 times in three verses. To the church in Ephesus, to the church in Pergamos, to the church in Laodicea. Write!

And to the church, to the church, he keeps saying it. But now when you get to chapter four, never a mention of the church on the earth again. Something happened to that which was all-important. What happened to it? Well, the thing that had been promised all the way through the scripture. The Lord Jesus said to his own in the upper room, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." He's taken the church out of the world to be with himself. And does chapter four teach that? Yes, I believe that with all my heart that chapter four teaches that.

How does it teach it? Two different ways. After this I looked, *meta tauta*, I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, "Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The dead in Christ, those of us alive, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Just as the Lord Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come and take you out of this earth."

Therefore, you have in John being caught up to heaven here, you have the process and the method of both John 14 and 1 Thessalonians 4. Now the question is, is the church seen in heaven? For sure, it's never seen down here on the earth. Well, the church is in heaven. Well, where is it? Will you notice this? "And round about the throne," verse four, "were four and twenty seats." Now the word for seat here is actually a throne, if you please. It means there were four and twenty thrones. And upon the thrones, I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

Now you have here 24 elders sitting on thrones round about the throne in heaven. I believe that they are the church. Now the 24 elders here, it's *presbuteros* is the Greek word, or Presbyterian. The little girl came home from church and told her mother, she said, "There're not going to be but 24 people in heaven and they're Presbyterians." And there used to be Presbyterians that believed that, by the way. But it means here elders. Now we are going to see that the church is no longer the church as we know it down here. It's seen now in a different figure of speech altogether.

Actually, the word that is so familiar to us, church, church. It is the Greek word *ekklesia*. And it actually is a word that was used in classical Greek. You could use it for calling out a mob. In fact, if you wanted to join some of this marching group, any of them that are marching, they're called out for a purpose. They could be called a church. Anyone called out for any purpose, that's a church. And you will find that Israel in the wilderness is called a church in that connection. It's a very common expression. But it assumed a technical meaning as far as the New Testament is concerned.

It was those that had been called out of this world who had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul put it like this. The preaching of the cross is to the Greek, it's foolishness. To the Jew, it's a stumbling block. But to the Jew and the Greek that can see in that cross the power of God to salvation, then that cross becomes the mean of salvation and they are the called out ones. You want to know who the elect are? Well, the elect just happens to be those that have trusted Jesus Christ. And if you've trusted Him and you don't see in the cross a sign, you're not looking for a sign, I should say, and you're not expecting wisdom.

But you're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Now that's the group of people that have been called out of this world now for 1,900 years. How much longer, I don't know. But He's calling out a people to His name. That's the church. And my friend, the minute that they leave this earth, they are no longer a called out body. They're something else. They're seen here as 24 elders and at the end of the book, we see the church coming down as the bride of Christ. And that is a picture Paul gives of it, that the church is to be presented as a bride to Christ.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. What? That he might wash it by water by the word, that he might cleanse it, he might sanctify it and present it to himself a church without spot and without wrinkle. And that's that church you see coming down from God out of heaven. Under a different figure. Not called a church now, but called a bride. And here we see it in 24 elders. Now the elders are representative. Elders represent. This church, for instance, we are Baptistic I think in our doctrine, but we are not Baptistic in our government.

We have here a Presbyterian form of government, actually. And when I say Presbyterian, I'm not thinking of a denomination. I'm thinking now of a form of government that is representative. This church has elders and actually the elders of the Church of the Open Door are the spiritual leaders of this church. And the church is under their care and that is true of any church that has that kind. They are representative. And you will find in the Word of God that they are representative. We'll have occasion to see that in a moment. Now somebody's going to say, but are the 24 elders the church? Yes.

Well, why do you think so? Well, I think first of all because of their position here. You find them here, they all have crowns on their heads and they're all sitting on thrones. Will you notice the thing that he has said to those that are his own? "To him that overcometh," this is Revelation 3:21, "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne." He has only promised to the church that they would sit with him on thrones. And these are not angels because angels are never told they'll occupy that position.

Only has the church been promised that they're to sit with Christ on thrones. Here they are on thrones. The very position of these. Then they have crowns and they're *stephanos* crowns, victor's crowns. They have overcome, by the way. And I think that is the language that is spoken of here could only refer to those that have been redeemed. And now are given a reward. Will you listen again in the third chapter, verse four, speaking now to the church, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy."

And by the way, these are robed in white also in the righteousness of Christ. "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels." And now these are victors. They have victor's crowns. *Stephanos* is the Greek word. And by the way, isn't it interesting, Stephen means crown, the first martyr of the church. I do not know this tonight and I may have occasion to be embarrassed when we get to heaven. I personally believe that Stephen will receive the highest reward of anyone in the church.

You say more than Paul the Apostle? Yes. Everything Paul did, Stephen will join with him in the reward because it was Stephen, the young man who witnessed a good confession that caused a young Pharisee to look into the heaven and say, "I don't see heaven open and I don't see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, but I sure would like to." And one day on the Damascus Road, the heaven opened and he saw it. It was Stephen who was the human instrumentality that led Saul of Tarsus to a saving knowledge of Christ.

The witness of a young man to another young man was the means of his conversion. And Paul never did anything but what Stephen will not share in that reward. May I say to you friend tonight, you ought to start leading some young folks to a knowledge of Christ. Now I'll tell you why. If you're the human instrument in doing it, you'll share in everything that they do. It's the reason I'm interested in having part in the lives of young ministers and missionaries. And I've been interested for years because after I'm gone, whatever they do, I'll have to share in it because I haven't done much myself. But if I can just have part in their lives.

Get involved and invest in the lives of somebody that's doing something for God today. You can share in that. You can have part in the reward and Stephen I think will be the one. Now angels are not robed in white. Only the redeemed are robed in white as we saw in Sardis. They're going to walk with me in white, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. It's only those that have been redeemed and angels have never experienced that at all. And then the very number of them is highly suggestive. We're told there were 24 of them.

Now I've heard without any proof whatsoever that it meant 12 of the Old Testament saints, 12 of the New Testament saints, and then you have the entire body of the redeemed. Well, to begin with, the Old Testament saints are not raised with the church. They do not go out at the rapture. Daniel 12:1 and 2 make that perfectly clear. The Old Testament saints belong to a different group altogether. They were never promised they'd be taken to a place prepared yonder in the heavens. And without any reason or justification for it, it's merely assumed 12 of them represented the old.

Nowhere is that indicated. But it is made very clear in scripture that 24 was the number of the priest. I want to turn tonight back to 1 Chronicles, the 24th chapter. For here you have the order of the 24 given. Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And then you read on down there, David distributed them. Verse four: "And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar. And thus were they divided." Listen to this. "Among the sons of Eleazar, there were sixteen chief men of the house of their fathers and eight among the sons of Ithamar according to the house of their fathers."

And the way I learned arithmetic, 16 and 8 is 24. And here you're given then the order. These were they divided by lot, one sort with another, for the governors of the sanctuary. And I won't read all that, it'd be rather boring to read it. And then there are some names down there I don't think I could pronounce anyway. Then will you notice verse 18: "the three and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth to Maaziah." 24, if you please. The order of the priests, if you please. Now who are priests in the New Testament? Only the church. The church are told that we are an order of priests.

He says, "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:5. 1 Peter 2:9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Now what you have yonder in heaven are 24 elders, representative of the church, if you please. Just as the elders here represent the Church of the Open Door, the 24 elders there do. And they are—why 24?

Because that's the number of the priesthood and the church is the only priesthood, my beloved, that you have. So what you have is the representatives of the priests, if you please. Now the very testimony of these here indicates that they belong to the church. They could never be angels, that is for sure. Will you listen to them? "They sung a new song saying, 'Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, hast made us unto our God kings and our kingdom of priests, and we shall reign on the earth.'"

That only refers to the church and that's the song of the elders. They are joined by the other created intelligences, but this is the song of redeemed people and it can only here refer to the church, if you please. Now I mentioned a moment ago that elders are representative. Let me just give one scripture and we could give a dozen tonight. Acts 15:2: "When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question."

You see, the apostles were living then. Now they're to go to the apostles. The elders were the ones that represented the church in Jerusalem and they went before the spiritual representatives of the church. And you will find that Paul tells two young preachers, both Timothy and Titus, to appoint elders, tell them the kind of men that are to be chosen for this office to represent the church. Now these men, the 24 elders here, have a very high spiritual IQ. They have a scriptural understanding that only born-again children of God could possibly have.

You find that here, for instance, in chapter five, verse five. "One of the elders saith unto me, 'Weep not, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, to loose the seven seals thereof.'" Now John found himself in an altogether new climate when he got into heaven. The entire environment was new to him. And he had difficulty, as you can see in these two chapters, of adjusting himself to it and getting acclimated. And he saw that there was this little book. This book apparently the title deeds of the earth. And there was nobody that could open it.

And since he'd come from the earth, he wept because he wanted somebody to be able to open it. One of the elders had real spiritual perspicuity. He came, said to him, "Don't weep, John. I want to tell you that we got one here that can open it. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah and he's going to be able to open it." You see, he understood. He has that discernment that you don't even find in angels, if you please. I think it identifies these as the church. And again, let me turn over to the seventh chapter, verse 13. Lift out another verse here.

"And one of the elders answered saying unto me, 'What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they?'" Now the elder's not asking in order to get information. He's trying to alert John to do a little thinking. "And I said unto him, 'Sir, thou knowest.'" And actually, if you want in good common colloquialism of the day, John says, "You got me. I don't know." And the elder says, "That's what I wanted you to say because I wanted to tell you." And this is what he said unto them. "And one of the elders answered saying unto me, 'What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they?'

And I said unto him, 'Sir, thou knowest.' He said to me, 'These are they which came out of the great tribulation, wash their robes, made them white in the blood of the lamb.'" So that the elder there, who represents the church—and he's certainly a pre-tribulationist, isn't he? Because he said here's a group that's coming along later. They wash their robes also and they've come out of the great tribulation period. Has real spiritual understanding, if you please. Now that is the thing that the Lord Jesus, you'll recall, he said to his own when he had them in the upper room.

He says, "Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. But I've called you friends, for all things that I've heard of my father, I've made known unto you." I do not know why that shouldn't thrill us more than it does. The Lord Jesus Christ, he says to you and to me if we're his child, he said, "You know, I'm not going to call you a servant anymore. You're my friend and there are a lot of things that I want to tell you." Now we've got a song that I've always felt it has a lot of sentiment in it. "He walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I'm his own."

Now I don't think walking down the street he's going to tell you that, but he's got a lot to tell you if you'll study the book. He's got a lot to tell you if you'll get in the book. I do not know why God's people are not more interested in studying the Word of God. The Lord Jesus is just anxious. He says, "You're my friends. I've got a lot of things I'd like to tell you." God have mercy today on Christians that have lost their love for the study of the Word of God. I still go back. I was brought up in a home—I feel sorry for you folk brought up in the Church of the Open Door where all these things are commonplace to you and become almost meaningless.

I never saw a Bible in my home, I never heard a prayer. And I went away to college and Dr. Ironside and Dr. Chafer and Dr. Harry Rimmer came to town and I even canceled my Christmas vacation. Imagine a college boy doing it. And I went down there every morning all three of them spoke. Friends, I thought I was in heaven. I honestly did. I thought this is the most wonderful thing and some of you today have heard the greatest Bible teachers in America from this pulpit. From the days of Dr. Torrey down to the present hour and you're not moved. God have mercy on you.

God have mercy on you today. You're my friends. I want to tell you something. And I'm using these men to speak to you and you don't listen to me. My, he wants to talk to us, this wonderful savior. May I say to you his church, these 24 elders had real spiritual acumen. My, they understood things. They're the church, if you please, his friends. Now there are other arguments that we could present tonight besides this passage of scripture and I'm going to mention very briefly them and then I'll be through. May I say the reason the church must leave before the great tribulation period is because that there cannot be worldwide anti-Semitism as long as the church is in the world.

And the Lord Jesus says worldwide anti-Semitism is coming in the great tribulation period. In Matthew 24:9 he says, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted," he's not talking to the church here. He's answering the question of the apostles. "And shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." And that's never been true of the church, never could be. But it is true of the nation Israel and will be. And as long as the church is in the world, you cannot have worldwide anti-Semitism. Do you know why? No true believer can hate a Jew. My Lord was a Jew and they are those people that God for some strange reason has put his hand on, they've suffered as no other people.

And as long as the church is in the world, you will not have worldwide anti-Semitism. Worldwide anti-Semitism will come after the church is removed. The nation Israel—B'nai B'rith only knew that tonight, I think they might change some of their plans and some of their tactics. That is the thing that probably is holding back anti-Semitism as much as anything, are real believers in the world. You'd be surprised when I mention on the radio something about loving the Jew or doing something for the Jew or God's plan for the Jew, I get the bitterest letters I get on any other subject.

I just can imagine how some people in this area must hate them. Well, there's one thing for sure, you show any love to them, you will incur the hatred of these. Then there is another thing that makes me know that the church will not go through the great tribulation. It's the clear statement of the Word of God. We're told in Romans 5:9, "Much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Now the great tribulation is called the great day of his wrath. And Paul says here that when you're justified by faith, you're saved from wrath to come.

Therefore the church could not go through the time of the great tribulation, which is the time of the wrath of God. Then this is the final thing that I'll mention to you tonight and it is this, that we're saved today by the grace of God. And since we're saved by the grace of God today, we could not possibly go through the great tribulation period. This is the passage of scripture. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." And that grace of God teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

That grace of God causes us to look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you know why the church will not go through the great tribulation? It's because we've been saved by the grace of God. And the grace of God is what will deliver us. I have a feeling these people who want to push the church in the great tribulation—I talked to them a great deal, have in the past. I went to a seminary where it was the belief in my denomination that the church would go through the great tribulation.

And talking with those men, they have always come up with this: well, the church should be purified. It needs to go through this period. And I always had a sneaking feeling that they felt like I ought to—I needed it and they ought to push me into it. Now I always like to say this. I was saved from hell by the grace of God and I'm saved from the great tribulation the same way, the grace of God. And that's the way I'm going to be able to stay in heaven is by the grace of God. When we've been there not 10,000, but 10 million years, we'll be there because of the grace of God.

So my friend, you would absolutely demolish the grace of God if you push the church into the great tribulation. And Jude even said this: "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now when he comes, I'm not looking for him to pat me on the back and say, "McGee, I want to take you out. You're such a fine fellow." When he takes me out, it'll be because he extends mercy. I'm looking for the mercy and tonight that is the thing we should be looking for. Now I want to conclude with this and I'm through.

This does not mean that the church will not have trouble on the earth. It's always had trouble. I believe that Paul's accurate. He says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." There's no exception to that and there's no way around that. The Lord Jesus himself put it like this: "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own. But because ye are not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And then he said this: "These things I've spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world, ye shall have tribulation."

Not the great tribulation. I like to put it like this: the church is going to have the little tribulation. And I believe that any person that will live for Jesus Christ today, you'll pay for it. You'll pay for it in your business, you'll pay for it in your social life, you'll pay for it on the campus. You cannot be true to Christ today without paying a price for it. You have to pay. And that's always been true. God's men have always paid a price. And this business today of we got so many whining saints, "Oh, I'm being persecuted." Well, if you're living for God, you will be.

And Peter says, "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that shall try you as if some strange thing happened unto you. Rejoice." It shows you're living for him or else you're a very peculiar individual. A lot of us are persecuted because we're peculiar. But my beloved, if we're living for Jesus Christ today, it'll cost us something. In the world ye shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. Now what a challenge it is in this hour without being unlovely. I said the other day at the funeral of Harry Smith, he sat right up yonder in the balcony years ago when he was a young man 20 years of age, heard Dr. Torrey preach and accepted Christ.

I have known Harry Smith for ever since I've been in California. First Vice President of the Bank of America. He moved in the upper echelons. He was never objectionable, he never made himself obnoxious, but he always maintained a clear-cut testimony for Jesus Christ everywhere he went. Always looked up to him because of that, maintained without making himself obnoxious as sometimes some saints do. But always maintaining in a very lovely way a clear-cut testimony. I asked him one time—he and I were walking down the streets in Dallas, Texas, late one night.

And I said to him, I said, "Harry, you always seem to move with folk without causing any problems or difficulties, and yet you maintain a testimony for Christ. How do you do it?" He says, "Well, believe it or not, it costs you at times." And it'll cost you. I can't believe that anyone could live for Jesus Christ in this hour—you're going to have trouble in this world, may get worse. But thank God tonight, the church and the believers will not go through the great tribulation period. We are looking for a rendezvous with Jesus Christ out yonder. That's our hope.

I'm wondering if you're present today and you're out of tune with God and you're out of touch with Him. You sense that you need Him, but He seems to be way up there and you're way down here. You can come to know Him today and you can come to Him through Christ. That's the reason He came. You might know God and you might come to Him as a sinner, and everyone has to come that way and He'll save you.

Steve Schwetz: Find out more about his gift of salvation when you click on How Can I Know God in our app or online at ttb.org, or give us a call at 1-800-65-BIBLE if you'd like a packet of materials sent to you by mail. And then join us this week on Thru the Bible as we continue our study in the magnificent book of Revelation. As always, we love getting your letters and stories. Send us an email, won't you? Biblebus@ttb.org is the address. Or you can always send us a letter. Mail it to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. As we go, I'm Steve Schwetz, praying Psalm 29:11 over you, asking the Lord to give you strength and to bless you with His peace today and always. Amen.

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