Fullness of times. Who wins that? Only He knows. Turn over to Acts 1 real quick. Keep your finger there in Ephesians, by the way. Don't lose your place. I want to remind you, we opened our study in Acts chapter 1, of course. And in verse 6, he's getting ready to ascend to heaven. And in verse 6, it says, When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Not to the church. See that? To Israel. That's why we stand with Israel. We know God's got a plan for Israel. But then, if that weren't true, Jesus would have said, You dopes, when are you going to get it? He's done with Israel. I'm setting up a church. He didn't say that. All He does is says what we read in verse 7. Read that with me. And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. When is the fullness of times? The Father knows, and you and I don't. That's the easy answer. So, I always remind you, don't ever go out and buy a book telling you when the rapture is going to happen. That guy, that gal, whoever wrote that book, don't know. Only the Father knows. So, back to Ephesians 1. We continue in verse 11, it says, "...in whom also we have obtained an inheritance..." That's talking about you, it's me, us. "...the inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." It says He doesn't predestinate who will be saved, He predestinates that those who are saved have the inheritance. Get that straight. There's a huge difference. Verse 12, "...that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. And then verse 13, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth. That's us. He's talking about all believers, really, after those who were with Jesus and walked with Him on earth. In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were what? Sealed. Sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. That's why we tell you you're eternally secure. You can cut your life short and lose reward and that sort of thing, but you're saved, you're saved. You are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And that Holy Spirit, look at verse 14, read that. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Now that is your body, your physical body will be the final purchased possession that will be redeemed. When you die in your soul, your spirit, you go to be with the Lord. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. So you're going to go out of here and be with the Lord immediately, but your body will still not be redeemed. Your body goes into a grave. And at the day of resurrection, doesn't matter how long it's been there, doesn't matter if you were dumped in an ocean and became fish food, doesn't matter. Whatever your body was and wherever it is right now, God is going to, you know, your body, every bit of DNA in your body has a marker. And they can go places and find that, even when terrible things happen, people burn and everything, they'll find it. What do you think God can do? Yes? Pastor, I just have one question for this. What if your body was eaten or shredded up in war, anything like that? Does it come back together? Well, here's the thing, the DNA that is your body will still be there. And so, it could be scattered to the wind. But he's God, and I've shown this as kind of an example. It's a smaller scale, of course, but you can take a big bucket, fill it with sand, and then put some metal shreds in it, just little tiny pieces of metal, and mix it up in the sand. Now, on your own, go try to find those pieces without dumping it out and everything, just try to, you can't do it. What do you get? A big strong magnet, and you put that magnet down in there and it'll pick all that metal back up. Well, that's the difference between us and God. On our own, we couldn't get that metal out of there, but you take God, put Him into the mix, He gets it all up. And that we just trust Him at His Word. He's never been wrong yet. He's never lied yet. So we believe Him when He says He's going to find that body and glorify it, and that'll be redeemed, the purchased possession. Yes? I know it's not correct, but even for those people who get cremated? Yeah. It's interesting though to think about and think through because it gives you kind of a sense of the omniscience of God, how amazing he is. and omnipotence, his power, but his omniscience, his knowledge, the Bible says by wisdom he created everything. And that's beyond anything we can even imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a resurrection there. So the Holy Spirit's ministry In this dispensation, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And in this dispensation, He's working in and through the church. Now, He can and does work in a spiritual realm apart from the church. But what do you think Jesus said to us? Go and preach the gospel to every creature. Why didn't He say, okay, you're saved. Go on permanent vacation. I'll take care of the rest. I'm just going to go to everybody during their dreams. One of you go out and get drunk, I'll come and give you a real bad dream. Well, he can do that, but that's kind of the exception. The rule is that if the unsaved are going to hear the gospel, it's got to come from you and me. That's our charge. And that's what the Holy Spirit has been doing that for 2,000 years, using the church. And what? The preaching of the Word. Amen. Preach the Word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Over and over we're told to do just that. You don't have to go around yelling at people or anything, but you realize when you just talk to somebody and you present the truth of Scripture, you're preaching the Word. As long as it's biblical, what you're saying. And that's how, in this dispensation, go back before Pentecost, go back in the Old Testament era, go back any time before the Holy Spirit began to indwell people in the church. It was totally different. And after the rapture, it goes back to that. How many of you studied with us the 70 weeks of Daniel? 69 weeks ended when Messiah was cut off. There's still one week left. The 69 weeks were under Mosaic Law. Amen? The 70th week will also be under Mosaic Law. It'll be back to what it was like before Jesus resurrected. for one week of years, meaning seven years. Then, during the millennium, it's still totally different than the church. It's different from the Isaac law as well, because the king is right there. We're no longer walking by faith and not by sight. During the millennium, we're walking by sight. He's right there with us. It's a lot different than Mosaic Law. It's a lot different from the church, but yet it's not the same. So people try to make it the same. That's one of the major errors. So there in verse 7 it says, "...for the mystery of iniquity doth already work." Have you thought about that? That means for nearly 2,000 years, the mystery of iniquity has been working. and they keep trying to set up this Antichrist world government. What do you think the Caesars and Nero and all those were trying to do? What do you think the Popes were trying to do with all the Inquisitions and everything? They were trying to conquer the world and set up a world government. What do you think Napoleon was all about? What do you think Hitler was all about? As a matter of fact, you can trace it from... Was Nero the zero? Zero, zero, zero. You can find that association with numbers with all these different people. And it goes zero, zero, zero, one, one, one. You come up to Hitler, his number, his Nazi card number is five, five, five. And the next one will be? Six, six, six. Yeah. It's an amazing study there. That's the mystery of iniquity. But it will not succeed until God allows it to succeed. And that success will be temporary. John 4, 3, and this is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have you heard that it should come? And even now already is it in the world. That was 2,000 years ago. And it's been in the world ever since. And there have been many Antichrists, and finally there'll be one, the Antichrist. So verse 7 continues, only he who now letteth will let. The words letteth and let, they cause a lot more angst than they should. You may not use that word, let, to mean hinder. But that's what the word in the text means. And listen, look at how simple this is. Some of you are going to have your minds blown right now. Okay, first of all, Noah Webster, he had five different definitions for the word let. Have you ever noticed the English language? Words have different meanings and sometimes they're totally opposite one another, it's according to the context. To retard, to hinder, to impede, to interpose obstructions. But numerous words in English fall into this same sort of category, sometimes referred to as contronyms. Say that with me, contronyms. Words that have reverse or contradictory meanings depending on the context. That's what I mentioned a moment ago. That's a contronym. Some of you know what a synonym is. Some of you never got past M&M's, but contronyms is another good one to learn. Here's some examples of contronyms. Strike, okay. If I walk up to you and in the jaw, What'd I do? That's a strike. I could be charged with that strike. You're striking him. Or I'm playing baseball and I totally miss. Strike! Well, that don't make sense. I hit you in the face and it's a strike, but when I miss the ball, it's a strike. That's a continent. Seeding. Jim's out there seeding his lawn. That means he's putting seed on the lawn. But John up there in his garden seeding the watermelon means they're taking the seeds out. See that? Trim. Little Noah, our grandson, got his hair trimmed. There's less hair. They took hair away. But when you trim the tree, what do you do? You put stuff on. Total opposite. You can trim a tree. Or you can trim a tree. Yes. Now you know why they're sitting in the front row. Keep them in line. To fast, you can hold fast, which means you're doing what? Standing still and just, or you can run fast. Total opposite. If you fasten something down, you what? Sitting still, it's held down. But then you run fast, or he's fast. That doesn't mean he's like this. See, total opposite. One more, bolt. You bolt the door or bolt out the door. Totally different. Conternims. So, BBF Bible study is better than English class. English and grammar. So, let of and let. We see that they're defined for us in the Bible itself. We talk this over and over. How many of you know your Bible has a built-in dictionary? The King James Bible. I always have to say that. The other ones don't. The other ones ruin it a lot of times. But in verse 6, Letteth and leth is what? Back in our text. Back in 2 Thessalonians 2.6. And now you know what what? Withholdeth. That's the definition of the word let. It's right there in the text. So anytime you come across the word and you don't understand what it means, you read the whole context and you'll see either right before or right after. Nine out of ten times it's within a verse or two, the definition of that word right there. Now, ignore the hypocritical accusations made about the King James Bible. They'll say, oh, the King James has archaic words. We've got lists. Every new version has their own archaic words. I'm just going to let you in on a secret. They don't update those new translations. They're not updated. What they do is they have to make a certain number of changes so that they can get a copyright. It's all about making changes, not updates. Not making it more readable. Read about the, what they call it, the Kincaid grading system for reading. Flesh Kincaid. And the new versions are even harder than the King James most of the time. Of course, Brother Frank reminded me of this. KingJamesOnlyDating.com, putting these with thous since 1611. Isn't that hilarious? So verse 7 continues, it says, "...only he who now letteth will let until..." what? This is the big debate. Who's he? Who's he talking about here? And it doesn't say that he is totally removed from the planet. So I'm saying, because I believe it's the Holy Spirit. People say, that can't be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn't going to be totally removed from planet Earth. Like, well, that's not what it says. It doesn't say that. So that's not even an issue. We don't even need to discuss it. But they'll put that in there. You have to watch that when you're debating people or talking to people about the Bible. A lot of times they'll make it say things that it doesn't actually say. And then you find yourself arguing against something that the Bible doesn't even say. Don't defend things that don't need defended. So when people try to refute this position, they're saying something that the Bible itself doesn't say. It doesn't say the Holy Spirit is totally removed from the planet. It just says, until he be taken out of the way. Okay, so, if I stood in the aisle, And I looked back and told Nathan there, I said, now you come down the aisle and see if you can get past me. And he takes a big old run at me and I'd get down on my knees and I'd go like this, boom! That's what I used to do at football, middle guard. It works on the big guys. But what if he says, well, why do I have to do that? Why can't you just get out of the way? Okay, since you asked nice. And I step out of the way and he comes and walks through. I'm still right there. I'm just out of his way. The context is the Holy Spirit getting out of the way of the Antichrist appearing. It doesn't say he's removed from the planet. Some of you may not even be understanding my argument here, but you will hear that when people try to refute the idea that this is the Holy Spirit being talked about. They say that there won't be any Holy Spirit in the whole world. Yeah. You're like, no, that's not what it says. So I don't have to defend against that because it's a false argument. There's a thing called straw man. That's when people put your argument up for you, but they don't give a good one so it's easier to destroy. They blow it down. Look, I just destroyed Brian's argument. And Brian's like, that's not my argument. That's a straw man. You put up a false argument in my name and pretended to destroy my argument, but you really didn't do that. But they usually do that when Brian's not in the room, so he can't defend his point. Yeah. So once the church is removed in the rapture, the Holy Spirit's dispensational role of withholding ceases. He, in all of us, is removed. The church is removed. And his role of withholding the coming of the Antichrist ends. He'll still be here. But he's been taken out of the way of the Antichrist coming. So I believe those rejecting this interpretation go wrong by misconstruing what it means, taken out of the way. Yes? Is that just like he's here, he's over, but is that just like he's taking his hand away? You can kind of see it that way, but it's just specifically about the mystery of iniquity in the Antichrist. So at that point, he's going to let that agenda, satanic agenda, loose. Yeah, so I guess you could picture it that way. Just him removing his hand. And so that brings us to verse 8. And then shall that wicked be revealed. How many of you have a capital W on wicked in your Bible? You should, because it's talking about the person of Antichrist. And then it's another proof of the pre-tribulation rapture. First, this has to happen where the church is removed, the Holy Spirit no longer withholds. That happens at the rapture. Then that wicked shall be revealed. So that's another proof for the pre-tribulation. The church is raptured, the Holy Spirit ceases to withhold, and then that wicked is revealed. That's the process that happens. That's the order of things. Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth. Of course, that doesn't happen until the end of the tribulation. But this is a summary. And it's exactly what we see in Revelation 19. Turn over there. This is where we're going to end it. Well, we'll read one last thing after this in our text, but this is our last reading. Revelation 19, beginning of verse 11. Now, keep that in mind, what it says, that the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth Now looking at chapter 19, verse 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Now look what it says in verse 12, "...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." Verse 13, read that, "...and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God." Who is that? Jesus Christ. Based on what? John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So this is Jesus. And here you're in verse 14. Alright, this is your future. Verse 14, And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And verse 15 is the answer to the question in our text, when it says, "...the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth," read verse 15 with me, "...and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." He's going to speak, and they will be destroyed. I love that. It's how it's said there. Consume them with the Spirit of His mouth. Jump down to verse 19. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies. gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. That's us. And verse 20, and the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast. That's going to be in our next study. And them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Read 21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse. What sword? Which sword proceeded out of his mouth? And all the fowls were filled with their flesh. So twice right there, we just read, he says, shall consume with the spirit of his mouth. Isn't that wonderful? And so then, verse 9, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, what we read also in chapter 19. And we'll do a deep dive into that verse next time. Lord willing, and the church don't rise. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for what we learned tonight. Thank you for such a wonderful book about such a wonderful Savior. and the wonderful Holy Spirit that is in each one of us as believers, and all to the glory of God. Thank you so much for saving us. Thank you for giving us these truths, helping us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen. ♪ Seek ye first the kingdom of God ♪ ♪ And his righteousness ♪ ♪ And all these things shall be added unto you ♪ ♪ Allelu, alleluia ♪ Let's sing that one more time. in his time In His time, in His time He makes all things beautiful in His time Lord, please show me every day that you're teaching me your way that you do just what you say in your time in His time he makes all things beautiful in his show me every day