The title of this message, and it is message number 157 from Systematic Theology. The title of this message is simple. I can make it as grace. Grace. G-R-A-C-E. Grace. Everything from eternity to eternity is grace. We'll look at it. Grace tells of the personality of God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For in grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. These mighty scriptures tell us of the future of the world and the past of the world and the time that we live in today, our contemporary time. In the seventh chapter in verse nine of the book of Revelation, we're here in the tribulation period, in the middle of the tribulation period. It's a hard time People are dying by the millions in the world. Five out of every six people are going to die. Two out of every three Jews are gonna die. But still, in all of this, there is the grace of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and that is the axle, the hub, which everything in the world rides on. Let's go, I'm going to read this to you. Seventh verse nine, we'll look at it in the Greek language also. I'm not gonna read so much of it. It's just translated and throw a word at you now and then. Metatate means after these things. I saw and I behold an oklos. That oklos there is between at least 5,000 people to 10,000 people much. too much to number, maybe 100,000, maybe a million. Which a wreath, they may say, which to number, not it is able to, or not the writer was able to, or not John was able to, as they looked upon them. Out of every nation, out of every ethnic background, and tribes, and peoples, and languages, We see here people that have been through a terrible time. People that were saved during the tribulation period. God's gonna save people then. I think the greatest revival will take place the day after the rapture. And having stood before the throne, and now in the presence of the Lamb, and having been clothed, and that word clothed there, peri beblopononos, that means to fling around a robe. Robes white. And palms in the hands of them. They are in a state of worship. They are living in a state of worship to God. praising God as their King and their Savior. And they cry out in a voice great, saying, Hosoteria to Thee, the salvation of the God, belonging to God and from God, to the one sitting upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Now, Remember the bunch that asked the rocks to fall upon them before in the tribulation period? Those that were so guilty, those that fought against God, those that would not believe, and they cried for the rocks to fall upon them so they could be hid from the presence of the Lamb and from the great God of heaven. These people, what a different crowd this is. They call and they praise God's name. In Revelation, the 6th and 16th chapter, 6th chapter and 16th verse, they're calling for the rocks to fall upon them and crush them and hide them from the presence of the Lamb. And these here are praising the presence of the Lamb. In a voice great, and they continue to say, salvation belonging to God, the God of us, The Hebrew word is Eloheinu, the God of us, or our God. Sitting upon the throne unto his Lamb. Verse number 11. And all the one's angels they stood around, Kiklo, that means encircling, encircling the throne, and the elders, and the four living beings. Now, the elders are the 24 elders that talked about, representing the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. The 24 elders redeemed masses, and the four living creatures, the four living beings, they fell down before the throne upon the faces of them, and they continued to worship before God. A worship service. This is a real worship service. A real worship service. Verse number 12. Saying, Amen. The word amen there means absolutely. Absolutely, without doubt. That's a particle of affirmation. That comes from the Persian language, goes into the Hebrew language, comes into the Greek language, and comes into our language, the English language. Saying amen, the blessing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, Actually, the thanking. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. When you think about, when I think about my salvation that God has given to me, all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, because it is by the grace of God. And honor. Wisdom. By the way, Marilyn, this is the most fantastic word for wisdom, Sophia. The glory. The blessing. Eulogia. The blessing there means we say good things to God. We thank Him constantly and continually saying good things to Him. And the glory. The absolute shining brightness and glory. And the wisdom. And the thanking. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And the honor. The word teme there. We'll get the word Timothy from that word. The honor. And the power. and the tremendous might to the God of us and to the ages, the eternal God of us. Our eternal God. The one that planned an eternity past and the one that will be with us an eternity future. We all deserve to go to hell, don't we? Don't we? But we get out of hell free because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Verse 7 and verse 13 now. I said I wasn't going to read Greek and it was just second nature to me. And he answered, he caught up in speech, one out of the elders, one of the elders, one of those 24 elders, and he's saying to me, saying to who? John. These are the ones having been clothed as a king is robed. And the robes of them are white. And who are they? From where do they come? Where do all of these people with white robes come from? Verse number 14. And I have said to him, Lord of me, Lord belonging to me, and I am yours, you are mine, and I am yours. You have known. And he told to me these things. These, they are the ones coming out of the tribulation of the great. Having washed the robes of them, and they were made white in the blood of the Lamb. Made white by the blood of the Lamb. You know, when we're made white by the blood of Jesus Christ, that's kind of an oxymoron type situation. Marilyn and I both get cut very easily now. And a while back, Marilyn fell down in the kitchen, tripped over a throw rug and fell down and bruised her arm and cut a gash in it and she was bleeding all over because she takes blood thinners. And the first thing you told me to do was what? Before anything else, take it and put it in cold water. to get the blood out of it. Blood stains things. It's got all that iron in it. It stains things. But not the blood of the lamb. The blood of the lamb doesn't stain things, it makes things white. If anything, we're stained with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now these are an unusual group of people. Some of these will have greater rewards than the disobedient saved who lived during the church age. There's much question in my mind, and in many theologians' minds, is what kind and to what extent these people will be rewarded. But a person must realize one thing, that these whom must go through the great tribulation period will have gone through something that we don't understand, a period of time. You'd have to go back in the church history when the churches had to live underground. You have to go to China, you have to go to the Islamic world to understand what kind of terror these people lived in daily, fear for their lives. And not only did they fear for their lives, but they had given their lives, because all of these are people that have been killed. They had a tremendous heavy burden to bear during the tribulation period. But before the tribulation period, they made a choice, didn't they? They didn't believe in Jesus before. Maybe some of these are Jehovah's Witnesses, maybe some of them are Mormons, maybe some of them are Islamic. Maybe a lot of them were Catholics that realized the church had failed them. Charles Taze Russell, Joseph Smith had failed them. And now they have to believe in the true Messiah God. Jesus said that as in the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. Almost every living being in the world has heard of the second coming and Armageddon and all of that, haven't they? Even in the Islamic world, they have a twisted idea of the return of Christ. The return of our Christ to them is the return of the Antichrist. Their great messiah is the reincarnated Mahdi. Muhammad in spirit, the beast, and Isa, the Jesus of Islam. Opposites. Today, many people do not heed the pleas to be saved. Maybe they never heard the gospel. Three weeks ago, right where Maryland's sitting, a man sat there that was 88 years old and a Roman Catholic all of his life, and he was a believer in Christ. But he didn't believe in the saving, efficacious blood of Jesus. Only that the church represented Christ in this world, and that gave you a little chance here, a little chance there, to get a little grace, a little grace, a little grace, the seven sacraments and all that. After the message was over, he jumped up and says, I can't believe I've never heard this in my life. He had never heard the gospel. Why did I live through World War II? He's 13 years old in the army. Almost killed many times. Been through all kinds of things in life. Had heart surgery a few years ago. And here he is still, why did I live all this time? Well, God, it's the grace of God is why he lived that long. The grace of God. Many of those people on the outside of the ark, after it started raining and that ark started floating and they were drowning, they believed. The Bible says they believed. In 1 Peter 3, 17-20, they were disobedient, but they believed, but they had to die outside of the ark. Maybe they were long distance swimmers among them, but boy, they didn't swim long enough. they saw the coming wrath of God. The day after the rapture they'll see the beginning of the coming of the wrath of God. Verse number 15, because of this they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in the dwelling place of him in his home and the one sitting upon the throne he shall dwell or pitch his tent among them. They get to live in the house of God. And so in God, they're living in God's house. It says, no not they shall hunger any longer, nor shall they ever be thirsty any longer. Nor may fall upon them the sun nor heat. The sun's rays will not burn them as it did during the Great Tribulation period. They will not die of thirst like they were. During the early part of the churches, during the time of the Islamic and the Catholic persecution. Both of them are bad boys people. The Catholic Church is not good. The Crusades were not good. You understand that? These are both bad people. They were both killing innocent people. They were both killing Christians. They took some of the Christians sometimes and they would take them and they would take a fresh killed lamb or goat and they would tie the wool inside of them, and they would sew it on them, and sew it to where they couldn't get out of it, and then let them go wander in the wilderness until some animal ate them. They could not get a drink. They couldn't get up. They couldn't get down. And wolves, and lions, and coyotes, hyenas all smell blood. They would wipe blood all over them and turn them loose. Maybe this is some of the things that will happen to the people in the tribulation period. While they hungered greatly during the tribulation period, they shall never hunger again. Many of these saints had probably starved to death. The last verse in this message and in this chapter, because the lamb The one up in the middle of the throne, he shall shepherd them, and he shall lead them upon life, upon fountains of life, waters, living waters, and he shall wipe away each and every tear out of the eyes of them. He shall wipe out every tear out of the eyes, every tear, Maryland. One tear will not drop. He will wipe every tear out of the eyes of them with His love and with His grace. Saved and kept in grace and loved by the grace of God. We don't deserve it, do we? But God loves us. God has loved us and God loves us. Let me read this in the Amplified Bible one last time. After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, gathered out of every nation from all the tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the lamb and they were attired in white robes with palm branches in their hands. Remember when Jesus made his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, they threw palm branches down in front of them. They threw their clothes down. This is a a festival. And in a loud voice they cried, saying, our salvation is due to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb and to them we owe our deliverance. And all the angels were standing around the throne, and around the elders of the heavenly Sanhedrin, and the four living creatures, and they fell prostrate before the throne and worshiped God. Amen, amen, most affirmably, so be it, they cried. Blessing and glory and majesty and splendor and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might and be ascribed to our God to the ages forever and ever and ever throughout eternities and eternities and eternities, so be it. Then addressing me, one of the elders of the heavenly Sanhedrin, as the writer says here, said, who are these people clothed in white robes? long white robes. This is like a bride's dress flowing and dragging upon the ground, like a trail behind it. And from where have they come? And I replied, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are they who come out of the great tribulation, persecution, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. And for this reason they are now before the very throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and sanctuary. And he who is sitting upon the throne will protect and spread his tabernacle over them and shelter them with his presence. And they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun smite them, nor any scorching heat. For the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And he will guide them to the springs of the waters of life, and God will wipe every tear away from their eyes. He shall shepherd them. And then you have to go back to the Psalms. Go back to Psalms now. Psalm 23, you know where we're going. Psalm 23. Lord is my shepherd to feed and guide and shield me. I shall not lack. This is the Amplified Bible. He makes me lie down in fresh, tender, green pastures. He leads me beside the still and the restful waters. Revelation 7, 17. He refreshes and restores my life, myself. He leads me in the paths of righteousness and uprightness Right standing with him, not for my earning it, but by grace for his namesake. Yes, so I walk to the deep sunless valley of the shadow of death. I will feel nor dread no evil for you are with me. Your rod to protect me and your staff to guide me. They shall comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup is brimming over full, blowing. Surely only goodness and mercy and unfailing love and grace shall follow me all the days of my life through the length of the days of the house of the Lord and his presence shall be my dwelling place. How so much like that 17th chapter of the book of Revelation. Our Heavenly Father, we send this message out for you to honor and glorify you and praise you. Father, thank you for saving my soul each and every day. I thank you. Father, guide me. Forgive me where I fail you. I pray for all of those out there that you've given and entrusted to me to feed them. In Jesus' precious name I pray, amen.