Welcome to the Emmaus Bible Hour. This is a program for you and your family, a time to open the Bible and see what God has to say to us through His Word. Greetings, my Christian friends. Here we are together for our final lesson in the course What the Bible Teaches. Lesson number twelve concerns the subject of future events. And I trust that you have your manual open to page forty, that you have your Bible there, and we're going to glance at some of these great prophetic sequences in a moment. Now, as I said, we've come to our final lesson in this course. And I'm taking it for granted that you've done your exams regularly and conscientiously up to this point, and that you'll do the final exam after our lesson today. I trust that you've memorized the scriptures, that you've gone over the lessons carefully, and that you've tucked new truths away into your memory and into your heart. And then you'll notice that there's a final page in our manual, page seventy-five, which is in a form of a personal appeal on the part of those of us who put this course together. We would like to hear from you, if you've been saved as a result of this course, by an acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God as your Savior. We will rejoice with you if you'll just write and tell us about it. And send us your questions. You may include them. As you see, it's indicated on the final page of the course. Now today we've come to lesson number twelve, and if you will just glance over the contents, you'll agree with me when I say that it's a very comprehensive lesson. It will not be possible, of course, within the limits of our time, to go into each of these details. But as I've said before, it's necessary that we take good heed to the scriptures that are indicated in the lessons. Now we'll start today by reading a text in Hebrews nine and the last verse. That's Hebrews chapter nine and verse twenty eight. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Notice particularly the last half of this statement, to them that look for him. Don't let that throw you. That simply means that Those are the ones that are expecting Him. This refers to all believers. This refers to all children of God. For even though we are not perhaps fully informed as to the sequence of events, yet the heart of every born-again believer longs to see the man who saved Him. So that there's a spirit-begotten expectation to see the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it says here, He shall appear the second time. If someone were to challenge me and ask me where in the New Testament do we have the teaching of the second coming of Christ, I would immediately refer to this last verse in Hebrews nine. And those words, He shall appear the second time. Nothing could be clear. Now we are thinking today then of the order of events. You see, God is a God of order after all, isn't He? And just as there is a sequence or a timetable in the seasons, that is, spring followed by summer, summer by autumn, and autumn by winter, and just as there is a sequence in our lives from childhood to youth and to adulthood and to old age and so on, so in God's Word there is a sequence of His dealings with this earth, from a prophetic point of view. I believe that the next great event on the prophetic timetable is the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ to receive His Church himself. Now he promised this in the upper room in John chapter fourteen, verses one to three. If I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Now this is different and distinct from his coming to earth. You see the Old Testament abounds with promises that the Savior, who would come the first time to die and to make atonement for our sins, would come again to bring in his earth-wide kingdom. But in the upper room, our Lord, when he was closeted with his own, gave them an advance on that, something further, when he said, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And I don't think they understood what he meant, because this was something that wasn't revealed in the prophets. But it is explained fully, for example, in First Thessalonians four, verses four to eighteen, rather fourteen to eighteen. That's First Thessalonians four, verses fourteen to eighteen. Now it will be necessary for you to read this great passage. This, we believe, refers to what we commonly call the rapture, when the Lord Jesus will come to the earth, or come in the air, rather, to receive from the earth all of his redeemed ones, and to raise the righteous dead at the same time, and the believing dead rising in the image and likeness of the descending Lord Jesus. We'll be joined by all living believers to the Lord in the air, and we'll be ushered into the Father's house. Following this, there will be a terrifying visitation of judgment on earth. Our Lord spoke of this in detail in his great prophetic discourse in Matthew twenty-four. There he revealed that there will come a time of great tribulation, and I'm reading now Matthew twenty-four, twenty-one, Matthew chapter twenty-four, verse twenty-one. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time. No, nor ever shall be. This is a prediction from the lips of the one who was acquainted with all the grim details of past history. There was nothing that was unknown to the Savior. He knew of the pogroms and every bloodbath. And yet he says in Matthew twenty-four, twenty-one, that this period of unparalleled anguish that is going to be visited on the earth after the church is removed will outdistance, will eclipse anything that ever happened in the past, or ever shall be again. Now in order to be acquainted with some of the grim details of this period, it will be necessary for us to read carefully Matthew twenty-four, or its parallel passages in Mark and Luke, and also in the Book of Revelation. To be more precise, Revelation chapter six through nineteen provide us with the details of the breaking of the seals of the wrath of God, the outpouring of the vials of his wrath, and the blowing of the trumpets of his wrath. This is described as the hour of grief and desperate sorrow, to use a phrase from Isaiah. This climactic period of tribulation judgment, which will be visited upon apostate Israel, and Christ rejecting Christendom will be followed by the sudden, devastating intervention of Christ himself. Now the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew furnishes us with some detail. I'm reading verse twenty-nine. That's Matthew twenty-four, twenty-nine. Our Lord said immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Now this statement by our Lord in Matthew twenty-four thirty is corroborated by many passages in both Old and New Testaments. Second Thessalonians one. Second Thessalonians two. Again our Lord's own words, where he spoke of his coming as the flash of lightning that whitens the heavens and strikes terror, or his metaphor of his coming as a thief in the night. All of these indicate that time when Jesus Christ will rise and return, not in the air, to remove his blood-bought people. He will have done that previously, but to return this time to the earth as earth's last and great and rightful king. He will come then as king of kings and lord of lords. He will come then as the judge to sweep the earth clear of every opponent and to establish his authority on a worldwide basis. This brings us to the millennium. Now that word simply means one thousand years. And it's a word that we often use to describe the thousand year reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. over the earth after the devastating judgments which will accompany his return in power and glory. In Revelation twenty the term one thousand years is used no fewer than six times. And so from that expression derives the term millennium. It simply refers to that long glorious period when our Lord shall assert his authority, an authority by the way which was so cruelly denied him on the occasion of his first coming. He will exercise that worldwide supremacy as earth's king. He will reign in righteousness. Israel will be restored. That is, a remnant of Israel will repent and be restored. The spared nations of the tribulation period, those who have never rejected the gospel, by the way, in this age, but who have responded to his grace in that period will go into the millennial kingdom, and all nations will then be blessed under Abraham's seed. even our Lord Himself." This will be followed by the Great White Throne Judgment, which is so vividly described in the last few verses of Revelation twenty. That's Revelation twenty verses eleven through fifteen. Only the unrighteous and the unbelieving dead will there be raised and arraigned and receive their final sentence of doom to the lake of fire forever. And this will be followed by eternity. If you read the first eight verses of Revelation twenty, I think we will find ourselves in the eternal state where there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Then God will be all in all, and then, my friends, will be fulfilled the age-long prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. Until that day may we who know the Savior consecrate our hearts and our lives afresh to him, that we might be always abounding in the work of the Lord. This is your teacher Ken Engle saying, The Lord bless you. Thank you. so so Thank you. Thank you.