Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. We’re traveling through the book of Revelation in our five-year study of the Word of God. And this time, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is going to introduce the final series of judgments during the period of the great tribulation. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host, and I’m glad that you’re on the Bible Bus with us. Now, as you find your spot in Revelation chapter 14, verse 19, Greg Harris is here, and we’ve got some good stories about the impact of God’s Word being heard and believed in Egypt.

Greg Harris: Yes, a place we have traveled together and seen, climbed up into the pyramid together, and we’ve met listeners and TV viewers in Egypt, and it’s an amazing place. We’re so grateful for a couple of partnerships in the Arabic-speaking world. Of course, there’s our partnership with our satellite TV ministry, Endure International. And then we’re working with TWR on some digital distribution of our radio programs. So we’re trying to reach the Arabic-speaking world.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah. Here’s this first letter from a young guy named Assaf in Cairo. “I’m 18 years old, and I come from a broken family. For a long time, I felt like life had no meaning. I tried to end my life more than once, and I turned to addiction, hoping it would numb the pain. But it only pulled me deeper into darkness and loneliness. While I was losing everything through online gambling, something unexpected happened. I contacted someone by mistake. But now I know it wasn’t a coincidence. It was God reaching out to me even in the middle of my despair, leading me toward the light.

“Over the course of 11 days of talking, I could feel my inner struggle growing stronger, and so did my hidden desire to be free. We arranged to meet in person, and we spent the entire day talking. By the end of that day, I finally opened my heart and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, asking him for forgiveness and a new beginning. That day, I was freed from so many chains that had held me for so long, and for the first time, I felt the light of hope shining in my eyes. I know I still have a journey ahead, but I’m grateful for the prayers and support. I pray that God will protect me, surround me with his grace, and help me walk in this new life full of light and true freedom.”

Greg Harris: Now, what I love about this letter, of course, is the incredible transformation in this young man’s life, but also he doesn’t actually mention the Thru the Bible ministry. But he wrote to us, which tells us that he is either watching or listening. I think if he’s in Egypt, he’s probably watching the TV program.

Steve Schwetz: And it also speaks about an unnamed ministry partner that was a part of this all-day conversation and really, ultimately, God used that person to bring this person to the Lord.

Greg Harris: And I love how Dr. McGee will point out that we’re just one of many ministries. God—we’re not the only thing going on in the world. God has a very large body around the world. And I love that.

Steve Schwetz: Now, let’s hear from Ali, who tells us this: “My family is Muslim, and this fact has long kept me from contacting you. I appreciate your patience with my ignorant and sometimes aggressive comments. Jesus Christ is now consuming my thoughts, and I am both excited and afraid. Please pray for me.”

Greg Harris: Wow. If that isn’t an insight. And then it is just such an encouragement when he references his aggressive comments. I’ve seen it in Russia, I’ve seen it in other parts of the world where sometimes the most ardent detractors of the ministry end up coming to Christ and being strong supporters.

Steve Schwetz: Like Saul becoming Paul. I mean, it’s amazing. And you’re right, and we know in the Muslim world, Greg, we hear this all the time from our partners that they have to be gentle and patient when those aggressive comments come. Let’s hear from Elia, who wrote this: “I thank God for this powerful teaching. It helped me understand the details and meanings of many parables. The parables of Jesus convey spiritual meaning, but without explanation and the help of the Holy Spirit, it’s difficult to understand them. However, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to encounter this platform to learn his Word more clearly. Thank you all. God bless you. I’m looking forward to learning more.”

Greg Harris: Again, such an encouragement. Here’s another one. This is from Ramman, who found Thru the Bible on radio. “I wish I could keep every word you say in mind, and I’m really thankful that there is a radio program that has a page online with a conversation option. I also wish your program was on 24/7. God bless you.”

Steve Schwetz: And I think we have time to hear from Sarah, who says, “Your study on Proverbs is important for the current evil times in which we live. Absolutely wonderful. May the Lord continue to bless your ministry for the glory of his name.” So encouraging. Greg, pray for us as we begin our study.

Greg Harris: Father, we rejoice that your Word is going out all over the Arabic-speaking world and literally all over the world to those who speak Arabic. And we thank you for the ministry that is taking place through your Word and your Spirit. And we pray now that your Word will go out with power and impact our lives in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Steve Schwetz: Now, let’s turn to our study of Revelation 14 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, as I indicated at the beginning, I’m dropping back to verses 19 and 20 of chapter 14. And I’m reading in my translation: “And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses as far as 1,600 furlongs.”

Now, we have called attention to the fact that the great tribulation period is going to be a harvest time. Not like we think of harvest time. We think of that as a time of winning people for Christ. But that’s not the way that the Scripture uses the term. When you come to the end of any age, why, that is a harvest time.

And somebody is going to say, “But the Lord Jesus said, ‘Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he’d send forth laborers into the harvest.’” And they said, “Look, he said that.” Yes, but my friend, don’t you realize what he was talking about? He was at the end of an age. In fact, he was going to change it. The age of the law was coming to an end, and he’s wanting the Word to get out so people will be prepared for the new age that was coming, the age of grace that we live in today, that rests upon his death and his resurrection for our sins.

Now, the end of an age is the time of harvest. And that’s the figure that’s used here. And when you get here, you’ve come to the end of the age. The thing that the Lord Jesus mentioned, Paul had mentioned, and it ends with the great tribulation period. And we’ve come now to the end of the great tribulation period.

And this sets before us this most awe-inspiring picture. It describes the scene that we have in Isaiah the 63rd chapter. And we find out that that refers to the second coming of Christ to the earth. Let me read just a few verses there: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?”

Now, let me interject here this statement. This has been considered by many to be a picture of the death of Christ on the cross, and it actually has no reference to that at all. And this will make it clear: “I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.”

Again, let me say, he is seen treading the winepress alone. And it’s positively terrifying. Little wonder that the men of the earth cried to the rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Now, this is the sad end of that civilization, which at the Tower of Babel demonstrated an active rebellion against God, which has been mounting up like a mighty crescendo ever since. And it will break in all of its fury in the great tribulation period. And this is a rebellion against God.

And the Lord Jesus, as we’ll see in the 19th chapter, when he comes, he’s going to put that down in order to establish his kingdom here upon the earth. And as the second psalm says, he will break them like a potter’s vessel with a rod of iron. You see, the gentle Jesus that we’ve heard so much about and the good fellow that he’s presented today is just not the Lord Jesus of the Word of God. He is the Savior of the world, but he’s also the judge of all the world also. And if you do not accept his bloodshed for you, then may I say that your blood will be shed in this period that’s coming upon the earth, that is if it would come in your lifetime and you would enter the great tribulation period.

Now, I don’t think that any careful study of the Word of God would lead any person of reasonable intelligence to believe that the church is going through this awful period. My feeling is that a great many feel like the great tribulation will be like taking a little boy to the barber to get his hair cut. Just an unpleasant thing that he doesn’t relish at all, and he squirms through it the entire operation. Or that it is a trip to the dentist to have a tooth pulled, and we don’t like the trip at all, and we don’t enjoy having the tooth pulled, but something that you’re going through. And they want to push the church into it. My friend, you just haven’t seen what the great tribulation really is.

Now, again, we have a picture given to us in Isaiah 34, and I begin reading here at verse 1: “Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it’s made fat with fatness, with the blood of the lambs and goats,” and so on.

What a picture that you have here. In other words, the precious blood of the Lamb having been rejected, the blood of those who defied God and followed and worshipped the beast bathes the earth. It is frightful. Like a ripe grape is mashed and the juice flies in every direction, so will little man fall into the vat of God’s judgment. This is Armageddon. This is the mount of slaughter.

And “without the city” means Jerusalem. And “unto the bridles of the horses” means about three or four feet deep. And “1,600 furlongs” is about 185 miles. And that’s the distance from Dan to Beersheba. All of Palestine is the scene of this final war that ends in what is called Armageddon. It is a campaign beginning about the middle of the great tribulation and is concluded by the personal return of Christ to the earth.

Psalm 45, verse 3, gives us that: “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

Psalm 45 is a Messianic Psalm. Now, I make no apology for saying all of this. And God hasn’t asked me to apologize for his Word. He’s told me to give it out. We need to face up to the facts. Sin is an awful thing. Sin is in the world. You and I are sinners. And the only remedy is the redemption that Christ offered when he shed his blood for you and me and paid the penalty for our sins. And you and I merit the judgment of God. And our only escape is to accept the work of Christ on Calvary’s cross for us.

And the Bible asks a question that even God can’t answer. And it is: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Escape what? Judgment. The great tribulation is judgment. And the way out is to accept Christ. Call it an escape mechanism if you want to. But, my friend, when the house is on fire, I’ll go out a window. I’ll go out any way that is an escape mechanism.

And this judgment must inevitably come on Christ rejecters. Men have rejected him and treated his sacrifice as an unclean thing. They’ve trodden underfoot the Son of God. And if God is just, and he is, there will be judgment. And this age needs to hear that, but it’s not hearing it today. There’s so much given, little methods of living the Christian life. My friend, there’s nothing that’ll straighten you out like knowing that our God is a holy God and the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous and he’s not going to tolerate sin in your life and my life.

Now, that’s the thing that is needed today. All right, that brings us now to chapter 15. And here we have another sign in heaven, seven angels with the seven last plagues. And we have the pouring out of these seven mixing bowls of wrath in chapters 15 and 16. I imagine many of you thought the worst was over. Not now. The worst is yet to come.

And each one of these sevens, beginning as we saw with the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven personalities, and now we have the seven bowls of wrath, and this is the worst of all, friend. Don’t tell me that the church can be purified in the great tribulation. The purpose of the great tribulation is judgment. It’s to give Satan his final opportunity. And God’s going to remove his church because of the fact of his marvelous infinite grace.

And if you’re willing to have it, then you can escape. And believe me, it’s no blessed hope looking for the seven bowls of wrath. No, we’re looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And if we get in love with him, we’ll get our minds off of these things as being terrifying. That is, we don’t have to say, “Oh, I don’t want to study the book of Revelation; it reveals all those terrible things and I’d like to keep my head in the sand like an ostrich has more sense today to do.” And therefore, I’d rather not hear about it.

My friend, you’re not going through it if you’ve trusted Christ. But you need to know what the others will have to go through. That might make you a zealous witness for Christ today. That’s the reason we’re getting the Word out today. Someone said of Dwight L. Moody that at his time he looked into the faces of more people than any man that ever lived and he reduced the population of hell by two million. Well, may I say that I’d like to be in the business of reducing the population of hell. They’re talking today about reducing the population and to get rid of the population explosion. Well, hell has had a population explosion now for years. I’d like to help reduce that.

And now we come to these seven bowls. Here we have in chapters 15 and 16 that which actually belongs together. Revelation 15, we’re coming to now, is the shortest chapter in Revelation, but it actually is the preface to this final series of judgments which come on the earth during the great tribulation period. And these judgments are the most intense and devastating of any that have preceded them. Before these angels begin to pour out the bowls of wrath, there may be the question still in the minds of some if they are able to stand up against Antichrist. And if that question has not been answered to the satisfaction of the reader, it’s answered here. There will be those that will be made to stand.

And we have first of all now the preparation of the final judgment of the great tribulation and the tribulation saints in heaven worship God because he’s holy. And this is another interlude, by the way. Now, let’s notice this: “And I saw another sign in the heaven, great and wonderful, seven angels having seven plagues which are the last, for in them was finished the wrath of God.” This will bring us to the end of the great tribulation period. And I don’t know about you; I’ll be glad to get to the end of it.

And then we’ll see the coming of Christ to the earth. John again assures us when he says, “And I saw,” that he’s still a spectator to these events. He’s attending the dress rehearsal of the last act of man’s little day upon the earth. And “another sign” connects this chapter with Revelation 12:1. We had the first sign, and that was Israel. Now these seven angels of wrath are connected with the judgments to follow until Christ comes, which is in chapter 19.

Now from chapter 12 to the return of Christ is a series of events which are mutually related. Now this does not mean that there’s a chronological order, but rather a logical order which is a retracing of the same events with added detail. And this method, by the way, is the personal signature of the Holy Spirit. Beginning in Genesis, he put down his signature there. And Genesis 1, we had the creation and the seven days given to us. Then when we came to chapter 2, he lifted out the creation of man and went over that again but added details. That’s known as the law of recapitulation. And it runs all the way through the Scripture.

You have the giving of the law, then Deuteronomy is the interpretation of the law with 40 years’ experience with it in the wilderness, and a great deal of detail has been added. Now, we see that go all the way through the Scripture. When you come to Christ, you have four Gospels. Not one, not two, but four, because it’ll take four to give the many sides of this glorious person who came to the earth 1,900 years ago.

Now Satan, having been cast to the earth, brings down his wrath upon the remnant of Israel. Also, he makes a final thrust for world domination through the two beasts. Then God makes a final display of his wrath and concludes earth’s sordid tragedy of sin. “The Lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’” That is Psalm 110:1. And we’re told here “it was finished.” Now in the Greek, that’s a prophetic aorist, which considers an event in the future as already accomplished. Now we have mentioned here the wrath of God. And that marks the final judgment of the great tribulation. God has been slow to anger, but here ends his long-suffering. Judgment in the final stages of the day of wrath proceeds from God, not from Satan nor the wild beast, but it comes from the throne of God. God will judge.

We are going to see here this preparation for this final picture that’s given to us of the great tribulation period. But we’re going to have to wait until next time to consider it in detail. So until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Our journey through Revelation continues next time. Until then, for more great teaching by Dr. McGee, join me for his Sunday sermon, “The Time of Armageddon.” It’s a good one. You can listen on our app, at TTB.org, or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a local radio station that carries the Sunday sermon. Again, that’s 1-800-65-BIBLE. Well, that’s all for now. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here as the Bible Bus rolls along next time.

Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too? I hope so.