Thru the Bible

Guest (Male): When sorrow knocks the wind out of you, when your prayers seem to echo into silence, what do you do? Well, suffering has a way of stripping life down to what's real, doesn't it? Every generation of believers has wrestled with it and those yet to come will too.

As we travel through the Bible, we're going to study how believers in the tribulation will face life when it turns upside down. Together we're going to learn some timeless principles to tuck into our hearts for when it's our turn to face suffering.

Steve Schwetz: Welcome aboard the Bible bus with our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I'm Steve Schwetz, and we're returning to Revelation 15 where we hear about the tribulation saints who suffer with a victorious attitude as they sing the song of Moses.

Let's find out what that means. If you can, turn there now. And as you know, many of our letters from listeners share how men and women have found joy and purpose in suffering. And sometimes suffering clears the way for us to see God at work in our lives. Dr. McGee loved to read listeners' letters as well, even as much as I do. And here's one that he read from a listener who saw how suffering led someone she had been praying for to Jesus.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now I want to share with you first today a letter that comes from this country. In fact, it comes from I guess if there is any place that's my hometown, it's Nashville, Tennessee. And it says, "I want to share this with you. I have a friend where I work that has cancer, and she was talking to me one day about the pain, and sometimes she couldn't hardly understand why she had to go through it because she's a Christian woman. So I gave her your book, 'Why God's Children Suffer.'

After she read it, she said she could understand a lot better and it made her feel good. Then several weeks later, she came to me one day and told me she had her brother that had gone back on God. She said he had quit going to church or anything. So she gave him that book. Well, he went to church one Sunday, then he went one day and mowed the grass for the church. Then on Mother's Day, he went to the altar and gave his life to Christ. She asked him if he read the book, and he sure did. I want to thank you for helping all of us understand God's word so much."

Steve Schwetz: The booklet the listener refers to is Dr. McGee's "Why Do God's Children Suffer?" If you'd like to read it or share it with someone in need, why don't you download it for free in our app or at ttb.org?

And if you're going through something devastating, as part of your Thru the Bible family, I'm going to lift you up in prayer right now and ask that your faith will be strengthened by God's word today. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word, which brings us comfort when we suffer. And for those in that season right now listening, please give them a song in the night as they fix their hopes on you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Revelation 15 on Thru the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, we come back today to this very short, very brief chapter 15 of Revelation. Now we want to read verse two. "And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire and them that came off victorious from the wild beast and from his image and from the number of his name standing by or on the shore of the glassy sea, having harps of God."

Now the glassy sea mingled with fire is the frightful persecution of the beast during the great tribulation period. This is the period that as we have seen that no man could buy nor sell lest he had the mark of the beast. It's going to be very difficult to get things to eat in that day. And that's the reason the Lord Jesus, speaking actually of this period in the Olivet Discourse, said that if you give a cup of cold water in His name.

You see, anyone in that day that would give even a cup of cold water to one of the 144,000, his life would be in jeopardy because the beast would put him to death also for harboring, as he would call it, a criminal. Now these are difficult days. And again we ask the question, could anyone make it through? No, not unless they'd been sealed. And multitudes that were not sealed will be the martyrs during this period.

And I think a great many of the 144,000 will lay down their life for Jesus. But they are going to be with Him, as we've already seen, they're with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Now we are told here they came off victorious. Now they not only made it through, but they came off victorious. Now here are the tribulation saints who have come through the fires of persecution on the earth, yet have not lost their song.

They have the harps of God, we're told. And we're going to see in the next couple of verses that they are able to sing and do sing. Now I'm just wondering, Christian today, none of us are in the great tribulation if we're a child of God, we're not going through it. Are you having trouble even in these days of keeping from your heart just a little root of bitterness? Paul had that problem, you remember. "Be careful," he said, "lest a little root of bitterness." And it's so easy for that to happen.

Now maybe this has no application to you whatsoever, but it does have application to me. I know that when I was in my teens, when I was 17 and 18 years old, that's when I made my decision to study for the ministry. And in fact, that's when I came to Christ and I expected the Christians to be for me. But a very wealthy family in Nashville, and I'm not going into details, they actually turned against me.

I was going with their daughter and they didn't want a poor preacher in the family. And I want to tell you, a teenage boy feels those things more keenly, I guess. But even to this good day, I have to fight that little root of bitterness against that class of people that treated me so badly in that day. Now that wasn't tribulation at all. It was a heartbreak, but it wasn't a great tribulation by any means.

What about that little root of bitterness today? Are you having problem with it? I meet many Christians today that they've let that little root of bitterness spoil their lives, and it actually causes them to deteriorate in their Christian life and testimony. I know a Christian family back East, lovely Christian family, and something happened and they became very bitter toward another family and they just wouldn't let go.

And that root of bitterness entered into their lives. And I've seen them sit in church, not a one of them smiling. It can ruin your Christian life, friends. But we need to pray in the face of life's circumstances that a root of bitterness will not spring up. It's interesting to see that these tribulation saints who have lived through the great tribulation, they've kept their song. One of our listeners sent me a poem, and I like to share it with you. It's on prayer.

It says, "Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered. Her feet were firmly planted on the rock. Amid the wildest storm she stands undaunted, nor quails before the loudest thunder shocks. She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer and cries, 'It shall be done sometime, somewhere.' Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say ungranted. Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done.

The work began when your first prayer was uttered and God will finish what He has begun. If you will keep the incense burning there, His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere." And friends, in this life that you and I live in today down here, a little root of bitterness will come in. What do we do? We need to pray. We need to pray about this thing, I think more than anything else.

If these saints can come through the great tribulation and still sing, I want to say that you and I certainly ought to today, maybe not sing with any great ability, but we can have a song in our heart and we should have, even regardless of circumstances. Now will you notice the Psalmist says to us in Psalm 35, "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

And I've learned this over the years, that God never lets anyone cross your pathway, even an enemy, without it's going to teach you a lesson, that He's permitted it for a purpose. It's for the development of your character. We need to be in prayer today that we not fall into the trap of Satan and lose the joy of our salvation. Now verses three and four. "And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 'Great and wonderful are thy works, Lord God, the Almighty.

Righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages or King of the nations. Who shall not fear, Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy and all the nations shall come and worship before thee for thy righteous acts were made manifest.'" Now if you want to learn the song of Moses, you'll find it back in Exodus the 15th chapter, verses 1 through 21. And again in Deuteronomy 32, 1 through 43.

Now both songs speak of God's deliverance, salvation, and faithfulness. Now the song of the Lamb is the ascription of praise to Christ as the Redeemer, we've already seen in this book, Revelation 5:9-12. So I'll not turn back to either of these two songs. But again, may I call your attention to the fact that the book of Revelation is Christocentric. That means it is Christ-centered. Don't let the four horsemen carry you away.

We got a lot of runaway horsemen today. People get interested in that. And they blow into the trumpets. That's a way to get a crowd, start blowing trumpets. And then these seven personages, my, we can get interested in them. And we can also get interested in these seven bowls of wrath. But let's don't get interested in that. Let's keep our eye centered on Christ. He's in charge. He's the Lord here. And in this book, we have its the unveiling of Jesus Christ in His holiness, in His power, and in His glory.

And this is something we need to know about Him. Oh, the man Christ Jesus is wonderful. He is the one that can put His hand in God and put His hand in man. And the reason He can put His hand in God is because He is God. Now He's called here the King of the ages. It could be King of the saints or King of the nations. Now any rendering indicates that Christ will be the object of universal worship and acknowledgment.

There'll be no place where He'll not be worshiped on this earth. And "who shall not fear, Lord, and glorify thy name?" Now in our day, there's very little reverential fear of God, even among believers. We've been so caught up on this lovey-dovey subject and I don't think we should lose sight of it. God is love. But God is light, too, and that means God is holy. And God is moving in on churches and dealing with Christians as He never has done before.

And here's one that can testify to that. If you're God's child, you'd better not do as you please. If you think God wouldn't mind sending you a little trouble, you're wrong. God is to be feared. Our God is a holy God. And nations shall come and worship before thee. Now the day will come when nations will come and worship before Him. It's not true today. A little prayer breakfast in Washington is a pretty sorry substitute for universal worship of God.

And a man gave that to me as the argument that we're living in a Christian nation. What nonsense! We're not living in a Christian nation. There will come a day when every nation will worship Him. This knowledge ought to cause us to take heart as we see our own nation moving in the wrong direction today. There will come a day. In other words, God will remove the rebellious ones and only leave those who will worship.

And He says in Psalm 2:8, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." They're going to be His. And in Isaiah 11:9, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Won't need any Thru the Bible radio in that day or any of these other radio programs because men are going to know, have a knowledge of God.

And Jeremiah 23:5, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." And you know that one of the things that the awful travail that this country has been through, and by the way, we've been so engrossed in our own problems and too much engrossed in them, our hearts have been made weary by all the scandal.

But other nations have had this problem also. And today, it's almost nauseating when you see the immorality. You see the godlessness. You see the injustice that's in this world. If I were not a Christian, I would be one of the most radical persons you've ever met. But I'm a child of God. And today, I see all that in the world and I know I can't remedy it and I can't even lift a little finger because He's the one that's going to reign someday and He's going to execute judgment and justice in the earth.

Thank God for that. I get so tired of politicians telling me that they represent me in Washington and they want to do what I want them to do, and they go there and do everything they can for themselves. And I don't care what party we're talking about. May I say to you, the gross immorality, the gross injustice that there is abroad today? And what can you do? Well, may I say to you, God's people need to pray for our country today.

But there is coming one who is going to execute justice and judgment. Now listen to Paul in Philippians 2:9-11. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him," that is Jesus, "given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Now they're not going to acknowledge Him as Redeemer in hell, but they're going to acknowledge Him that He is the boss, He's running things, that this is His universe, that He's the owner, and they're going to acknowledge the glory of God. They'll have to. Now also, "thy righteous acts." And that comes from the lips of those who've passed through the great tribulation. You see, this testimony coming from witnesses of this period is inexpressibly impressive.

And it should settle in the minds of believers the fact that God is right in all that He does. It may not look right to you, and if you don't think that God is doing right, you're wrong, not God. And we need to adjust our attitude and our thinking. Psalm 7:9 reads, "Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins."

Psalm 11:7, "For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright." And then Psalm 107 verse 1, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Verse 40, "He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way." 42, "The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth." That's when God takes charge.

Now let me read verses five and six here. "And after these things I saw and the sanctuary or the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony or of the witness in heaven was opened: and there came out from the temple seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in linen, pure and white, and girded about the breasts with golden girdles." Now the temple is referred to 15 times in the Revelation. Its prominence cannot be ignored.

In the first part of Revelation, it's the church, no temple. From there on, we have a scene in heaven and their temple is opened in heaven. There's a temple on earth also patterned after the one in heaven. Now there's no temple in the new Jerusalem where the church is going. There's no temple there. Why? Because the church is not identified with. This ought to tell something, friends. He's dealing with people who have had a temple.

And I know of but one people that have been given a God-given temple patterned after the one in heaven. Now in this instance, the reference is specifically to the tabernacle and the holy of holies in which the ark of the testimony was kept. In the ark were the tables of stone. Both the tabernacle and the tables of stone were duplicates of the original in heaven. Now the originals have already been referred to in Revelation 11:19.

The action of God here is based on the violation of His covenant with Israel, the broken law. God is righteous in what He's about to do. He will judge, then He will carry out His covenant with Israel. And so the prominence of angels in this book is again called to our attention by the appearance of angels at this point. Previously, seven angels blew on seven trumpets. Here in a new series, seven who have the seven plagues or the bowls of wrath.

Their departure from the temple demonstrates they've departed from the mercy seat and now God acts in justice and not mercy. They're clothed in linen. In one meaning is a precious stone, apparently a robe that is dotted or decorated with stones. That seems to be the picture. The gold girdles reveal them in the livery of Christ who no longer is exercising a priestly function but is seen here judging the world. Now in verses seven and eight.

"And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who liveth forever and ever. And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power; and no one was able to enter into the sanctuary of the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be finished." Now we have seven golden bowls. And probably here in closing today, I ought to just say this word concerning the number seven.

It has occurred again and again. I sometimes hear somebody say that the number seven is the number of perfection. That's not exactly accurate. It's the number of completeness. And sometimes completeness is perfection. In six days, God created heavens yet He rested on the seventh, not only because it was complete, but it was perfect. But here, these series of sevens denote that it is a series that completes something.

So that my feeling is that you have the complete history of the church in the seven churches that are presented. You have the complete great tribulation period in each one of this series of sevens. In other words, you cover it all. You have first in the seven seals a broad outline. Then as we come on down, why God zeros in and focuses on the last three and a half years. And believe me, we're going to see next time the pouring out of the bowls of wrath, and this is not pretty.

And if you want to say the church is going to go through this, you're making a very strange statement for a people who've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Yes, the time is indeed short. As we heard earlier, these terrifying judgments can motivate us to share God's love and His word with others. One way you can do that is to invite others to listen to Thru the Bible. On April 3rd, the Bible bus will return to Genesis, actually. Dr. J. Vernon McGee begins the five-year journey with a ten-day special focus on how to understand the Bible.

It's really a great introduction for anyone, whether you're just at the beginning and ready to study God's word for the first time or you're a frequent traveler on the Bible bus with us. We also have a booklet of this introductory series called "How to Understand the Bible." You can download it in our app or at ttb.org. It's available for free along with a number of other great booklets by Dr. McGee on a variety of topics to help you understand God and His word.

As we begin another journey through God's word, we'd love to pause and celebrate with you. How many trips through the Bible have you taken with us so far? Each one of us climbs aboard for a reason: hope that lifts us up, truth that challenges us, or joy that reminds us Jesus is at the center of it all. And we'd love to hear your story. What keeps you coming back? Well, leave a note in the feedback section of our app or email us at biblebus@ttb.org.

Or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. You can also call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. And when you're in touch, tell us your favorite way to listen to Thru the Bible. Are you listening on the go with our app? In your car on the radio? Maybe at home on ttb.org? Well, we'd love to know. Our study picks up again in Revelation 15. I'm Steve Schwetz and I'll be here holding the doors of the Bible bus open as you hop aboard next time.

Well, ride the Bible bus for five years and you'll be amazed at what God teaches you from His word about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's a blessing that keeps on going. That's what we believe at Thru the Bible.