Would you join me as we pray? Lord, oh, when I think about your goodness, and I think about how much I don't deserve it. Oh, how thankful I am that you are merciful, that you are so graceful to us, Lord. So we thank you for your grace and mercy this morning. As we lift our songs up to You in praise and worship, we thank You, the only name, in the name of Jesus we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning and welcome. You can be seated. So glad you're here. Welcome. Those of you online, we're glad that you're joining with us. I'm going to hand the pulpit over to Pastor Mac for a couple of quick announcements. Well, good morning church. First of all, we'd like to remind you of our prayer meeting coming up this Tuesday here in the sanctuary at 7 p.m. All who are able to join us, please join us for that much needed corporate prayer. The health of the church is often demonstrated by how we pray together. And so prayerfully, those who are available will come out and join us in prayer. And for this Tuesday, we will pray. You know, we will definitely get into some corporate prayer. So I'm looking forward to it. And on behalf of Pastor JD Farag, I want to take a moment to also make everyone aware of the celebration of life service for Nancy Kathleen Davis that will be held on September the 9th, which is next Monday at the Mililani Memorial downtown. Know the difference, right? Downtown. That is located on 20 South Kukui Street, and the visitation will begin at 10 30 a.m., followed by the service at 11 a.m. Nancy passed away on the 22nd of July, and she made Calvary Kaneohe, her church home. And if you remember, she would often make her presence known out there in the foyer, sitting on one of the white couches while learning the Word of God and praising the Lord. She will be laid to rest near her hometown in New York and will continue to be missed by us all. So I ask that you would please pray for the service that it would honor her life and most importantly, honor the true and living God. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Mac. All right, so let's get started. That's why you're here. What took you so long? We have two services. The first is the Prophecy Update, as you know. For those of you that are joining us online by way of YouTube or Facebook, we would really encourage you to go directly to the website. As only the first part of the update is live streamed on those platforms for censorship reasons. So if you go there now, then it will be uninterrupted and we would certainly encourage you to do so. Because we finished chapter five last week with what John saw in heaven, we'll start chapter six this week and see the start of the seven year tribulation on earth. Now, I already warned you about this. The rapture of the church will absolutely happen before the seven year tribulation. However, We're going to learn about the seven year tribulation before the pre-tribulation rapture. I really had hoped that the rapture would happen before we started chapter six. So unless between now and 11 15, which by the way, for those of you online, Hawaii time 11 15 a.m., that'll be second service. We're going to start the tribulation at 11 15 a.m. Hawaii time. I want to clear up something real quick. We'll talk more about it, of course, during the second service, verse by verse, teaching through a revelation when we started chapter six, and our text will be the first eight verses. But there seems to be this misnomer about the great tribulation and the seven year tribulation. And there is a delineation. And I suppose in all fairness, They're not synonymous in terms. This is going to be germane, by the way, to what we're going to see and talk about today. The seven year tribulation is a reference to the 70th week of Daniel, a period of seven, the number of completion. It's also known as the time of Jacob's trouble, Jacob, a.k.a. Israel. That's where we get the seven years from. Now, some want to get technical. Sorry, I'm in a snarky mood today, so you're just going to have to build a bridge and get over it, I think. Some people want to get technical and say, well, actually, it's the last three and a half years that are the great tribulation. And their go to is usually in Matthew 24, when Jesus said it will be a time like has never been seen before, nor will ever be seen again. As we get further into Revelation, we'll see this delineation more clearly. The last 3.5 years are distinct from the first 3.5 years. But I want to leave you with this. before we move on, because it is a seven year tribulation. And some people have bought into this notion that the first three and a half years are going to be wonderful. You are in for a rude awakening. Not you, of course, because you're, you better not be here. Those who will go through the tribulation, if they have any or under any illusion of the first 3.5 years of the seven year tribulation being prosperous and wonderful and glorious and all of the above, it's going to come quite as a shock to them. Because if I'm not mistaken, the word trouble means trouble. I know that's deeply profound. And it's the time of Jacob's trouble. That doesn't sound like something I want to, don't we do everything to avoid trouble? I don't want to go through trouble. So the seven years is the time of trouble, and it's seven years, and it has to be seven, because seven is the number of completion. And Israel still owes God seven years. They owe a debt, a sabbatical debt. because of the land that was to be given a rest every seven years. So there's that last period of human history, and it is a seven year period, and it's the seven year tribulation. I hope I cleared it up. I probably made it worse, but I did my best. Now what we're going to do today, second service, is look at what are known as And here again, when Hollywood gets a hold of something, just forget it. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You've heard that expression? Well, that's what we're going to look at today. So you have to come second service. Now that I told you that it's going to be about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But they're going to get released at 11 15 a.m. again, Hawaii time. And starting with the first one, which is none other than the Antichrist himself riding on a white horse. And I emphasize that because many Christians today are buying the lie that we're already in the tribulation. We are not in the tribulation. We're about to be in the, I mean they're about to be in the tribulation. I'll be very careful how I word this. It's about to start, but it hasn't started yet. And when the first seal is opened and that rider on the white horse, the Antichrist himself is released, that begins the seven year tribulation. One more thing. I should wait till second service. If you come second service, I just, I just, I'm going to have to repeat it. So you'll know it twice today. There's this whole thing about, well, you know, pre wrath rapture, which is talk about new. It's false. No, the rapture is not before the seven year tribulation. It's before the wrath of God is poured out. So it's more like mid-ish, heavy on the ish part of the seven year tribulation, before the wrath of God is poured out. Then that's when the rapture is going to happen. It's known as the pre-wrath rapture theory, I underscore theory. It's not sound doctrine. The pre-tribulation rapture is sound doctrine. The pre-wrath theory, false teaching, again states that, teaches that the rapture will come pre-wrath. Well, you know what's so interesting about that? They're actually pre-tribbers and they didn't even know it. You want to know why? Because right out of the chute in chapter six, the wrath of God is poured out. So you are pre-wrath. which is pre-trip. It's not in the middle of or towards the end of the seven year tribulation. No, right out of the chute, chapter six, wrath of God, wrath of God, wrath of God. You're a pre-wrath tribulation, pre-wrath rapture. I don't even know how to say it so bad. Well, you're right, actually, because starting in chapter six, the wrath of God is poured out. So technically, if you want to get technical, you are a pre-wrath, pre-trib rapture believer. We'll see you on the way up. I'll explain it to you then. Wow, that was just the introduction for second service. We haven't even started the prophecy update. All right, to the question of why it is that I chose the titles I did. I hope you know it's the Holy Spirit. So second service, the title of the verse by verse teaching is the seven year tribulation is about to start. And the title of the prophecy update is if the trial run is done. Now let's put those two together. Watch this. If the trial run is done, then the seven year tribulation is about to start. Now you're looking at me like, well, Pastor, you're really clever. I'm not that clever. This is the Lord. When I seek the Lord about the titles, and I spent some time on the titles, unique to this week, it seems that the Lord deemed it fit to combine the two titles and teachings for that reason, because they almost Tell a story. And so we're going to start with if the trial run is done, and spoiler alert, it is, then that can mean only one thing. The seven year tribulation is about to start. And here's why. With the trial run that had begun in 2020 is now done, then there's every indication that seven year tribulation is about to start with Jesus opening the aforementioned scroll that we've been studying about in chapters four and five. I kind of am going to miss chapters four and five because that was wonderful. We were in heaven in chapters four and five. Well, I mean, we're still there, but we're actually going to start the tribulation again today. So It's no longer the heavenly scene. Holy, holy, holy are You, O Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. We're about to see unspeakable horror when the wrath of God is poured out on a Christ rejecting world. And it starts in chapter six, and it's worthy of mention that the word church is found in Revelation chapters one through 3, 19 times. And then in chapter four verse one, when John is at the sound of the trumpet told to come up here, that's the rapture, the word church is no longer found anywhere. Now chapters six through 19, as we're going to see today, are all about the catastrophic, and that's an understatement, events that are going to take place. A fourth of the population, then what's left of that, another third of the population are going to die during the seven year tribulation. And not one time will you find the word church in chapters six through 19, which are all about the seven year tribulation. And the reason why the word church isn't in chapters six through 19 about the tribulation is because the church is not in the tribulation. Yeah, but what about those guys that are beheaded for Christ? They don't take the mark of the beast. They're not the church. But they're what we affectionately refer to as Tribulation Saints. It's not Ecclesia in the original language of the Greek New Testament. It's a very different word. They're still saved. They're just not the Bride of Christ, the Church of Christ, pre tribulation. So, all right, I should have already started the update by now. So how about let's start the update now. If this trial run is done, and I truly believe with all my heart it is, then there are these profoundly eerily parallels of unspeakable horror with just the first four horsemen of the apocalypse. In other words, This trial run, and by the way, it's already been four plus years. Can you believe it? It was a dress rehearsal, if you prefer. This trial run. Well, what I'm hoping to accomplish today with an update like this is to highlight and emphasize the reality that what's happening in the world and has happened is precisely what's prophesied in the Word. I mean it's eerie, the parallels. So if you'll hang in there with me, I'll go through this and with the help of the Holy Spirit and my fisherman's friends, so I don't cough with my asthma, I'll do my best to connect these prophetic dots which point to, and this is the end game by the way, They all point to just how close we are to the pre-tribulation rapture, and I mean we are so close. However, before we do, I hope you won't mind if I start with an example from well nigh 40 years ago now when I lived in Spokane, Washington. Interesting city. It wasn't close in proximity to another metropolitan city, which kind of made it the test marketing area for new products. Because see, it was uninfluenced by these other metropolitan cities, chief of which was Seattle, but that was like six hours away. Most metropolitan cities have another metropolitan city closer in proximity than that. But Spokane is kind of isolated a little bit, but it's still considered a metropolitan city. So when they would come out with new products, they wanted to do a trial run. So what they would do is they would send us in the mail these trial packets of this new product. And the idea was, man, if they'll buy it in Spokane, they'll buy it anywhere. My wife and I, we'd go out and get our mail and we'd have all these new products. We tried them. Some of them we probably shouldn't have tried. But there's always like almost every day there was a new trial packet in our mailbox. It was a trial run to see if there was a market for this product. And we were isolated enough, not influenced by other bigger cities, kind of isolated there. And so if you can sell that in Spokane, Washington, you can sell it anywhere. And guess what? It worked. Now, so much so that There are several products to this day, when I'm out and about, which isn't very much, because I don't like to get out very much. I used to. I don't like to anymore. But those products that I used to get in the mail in trowel packet size, as a trowel run, they're on the shelves of our stores here in Hawaii to this day. Did you know that? I'm not going to tell you which ones. I don't want to promote them. unless they pay the church advertising fees. But I mean, these trial runs were met with smashing success. I like to have used the word smashing at least once. I doubt very much they still do this, given that everything's changed and this was many years ago and they have new ways now. But the fact of the matter is, is that it proved to be profoundly effective. So you probably already know where I'm going with this. I'll get to the point. Um, let me start with the text from our second service sermon. Is that okay? Revelation chapter six. It's a preview of coming attractions. We're going to get into the tribulation and then we'll get right back out until second service. Then we'll go back in. But I want to start in verse one. I want to read through to verse eight, and I want you to listen very carefully, because you see, those seals could not be opened first until one was found worthy, which is why John was weeping and convulsing so bitterly and sobbing uncontrollably, until one of the elders tapped him on the shoulder and said, Oh, hey, John, we found him. You did? Yeah. What's his name? Jesus, the name above all names, the Lamb that was slain. He is worthy to open the scroll with seven seals on it. Seven again, the number of completion. So we read last week that at the end of chapter five, Jesus comes and He takes the scroll, and now He's going to open it up and release the judgment that is sealed up in this scroll. And we're told John writes, verse one, chapter six, I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, come. I looked and there before me was a white horse. Its rider held a Bo, stop right there. You know what that word Bo is in the original language of the Greek New Testament? It's the Greek word toxon, from where we get our English word toxin. Hang on to that. And he was given a crown. Now this is an interesting word, and I'm going somewhere with this. Just hang in there with me. This is the Greek word Stephanos, not diadem. What's the difference? Well, a Stephanos was like a wreath, temporary. The Antichrist's rule and reign is only going to be temporary, like the Stephanos wreath that he wears. Now there's going to be another white horse. By the way, it's not the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. It was actually five horsemen. And that fifth one, that's in Chapter 19, which if we ever get there, watch the rapture will happen before we get to Chapter 19. No, that's Jesus riding that white horse. And He's not wearing a Stephanos, a wreath. That's temporary. No, He's wearing a diadem. In fact, He's not wearing a crown that lasts forever. He's wearing, we're told, many crowns, diadem in the plural. And that's in Revelation 19 12. So I want you to make the distinction, please, between the white horse with this first seal. This is not Jesus Christ. This is the Antichrist. And he rode out as a conqueror. Stop right there again. I hope this isn't too discombobulating. If it is, I'm sorry. But you know what that word for conquer or conquer to conquer or conquest, it's the word in the Greek Nikeo, where we get our English word for, I won't look at your shoes, Nike. I'm not looking at your shoes. You know the Nike story, the guy that started that whole shoe line, he was a runner. And when he would, he was really good, He was killed tragically in a car accident. But in his day, when he was at the top of his game, he would run so fast past the runners that he would make a swoosh sound. That's why the Nike logo is like a swoosh. I could have probably done that better. I won't try again. That's good enough. And what basically he did was he came up with a name for his company that reflected what he did. He conquered them, Nikeol in the Greek. And that's what the Antichrist is going to do. He's coming to conquer with this toxin bow and temporary wreath on his head. And we're even told that he's bent Can I say hell bent? I just did. On conquest. That's the sole purpose. Verse three, When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come. Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. This is pyro in the Greek, where we get words in English like pyromaniac. Fiery Red, its rider, and this is interesting, was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. Notice he didn't come to bring war. No, just take peace, and war ensues. Just remove peace. That's his sole role as the second horseman. Fiery Red, pardon me by the way, I'm sorry, Would you rather have me cough? That's what I thought. So his purpose was to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other, turn on each other. To him was given a large sword. That'll do it. Verse five, When the lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. I looked and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales. Now this is modern day, something that we're not really knowledgeable of. But back in that day, that's how they bought and sold and traded it. That's how they did business in commerce. You wanted to buy a pound of sugar. So you got a scale and you put a weight that's one pound and you put a bag, you start pouring sugar until the balances are even on the scales. And that's how they would measure out in order to make sure you were not getting ripped off. You weren't getting 9.23 pounds, but you were getting a pound. So they would use the scales. And so now this black horse has got a pair of scales in his hand. What's that about? Well, we're about to find out. When I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, listen to this, we talked about this, two pounds of wheat for a day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages and do not damage the oil and the wine. Some of your translations render it differently. Don't touch the oil and the wine. In other words, it's left untouched because who can afford it? It takes an entire day's pay just to buy wheat to make bread. It's called hyperinflation. And by the way, barley, that was for animals. The prices are so high and the supply chain so low. Hmm. Supply demand, deplete the supply, increase the demand, raise the prices. And nobody can touch the oil or the wine, so they just sit there. untouched on the shelf. The only thing you can afford is two pounds of wheat. And you worked all day. Six pounds of barley, that was for feeding your animals. But when it's that bad, you'll eat anything. Verse seven, when the lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. I looked and There before me was a pale horse. Now, this word, this keeps getting more interesting. In the original language of the Greek is the Greek word chloros, from where we get our English words for things like chlorine. This pale green horse. And its rider was named Death. And apparently he's got company. And Hades was following close behind him. Listen to this. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by, look at the list, sword, famine, starvation, and plague, pestilence. disease. You know what the word dis-ease came from? You know, we use the word ease and comfort. I'm not at ease. I'm dis-eased. I'm at dis-ease. And by the way, there's a parallel here to Matthew 24, when Jesus is asked about the signs of the end, and He grocery lists all of these things, And they line up. First of all, deception, which we're going to talk about, but wars, rumors of wars, peace taken from the earth, famines, pestilence, diseases, plagues, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, killing each other. You could virtually take the template of Matthew 24 and superimpose it over Revelation 6, 1 through 8, and it just lines up. That's only God's Word can. It's this last part of verse eight that I want to draw your attention to, because it says, and by wild beasts of the earth. In other words, you got death and Hades. That's a bad pair to draw to right there. If you see death and Hades following you, run. And they were given power. Notice given. They didn't take it. They were given power. Who gave them the power? God allowed it to do this, because see the devil is God's devil. They're doing God's bidding for His end and His glory in the end. So they're killing people by these different means. And when you get to this last one, wild beasts, I'm sorry to say it's not as It's not translated as well as it should be or could be because I spent some time researching it. I looked it up in the original language of the Greek and didn't get much help there. But, and I stay away from, or I try to stay away from commentators because, man, you want to get messed up and confused, just start reading a bunch of commentators. You read five commentators, you get 10 different views. So I said, I don't need this. I'm getting too old for this. So I rarely go to the commentary just to make sure that I'm not off on some other, you know, planet. Sometimes I am, just make sure that I'm getting this thing right. But you know what I found in my research on wild bees? I looked up the Greek word therion, and it's not, you know, big, four legged beasts, you know, lions and tigers and bears. Oh no. It can also carry with it the idea of small, almost microscopic, deadly diseases. And that's what's going to kill everyone with this fourth horse with the rider named Death and Hades following. Hmm. Do you see that? Do you see the, well, let me, let me help you, because that's just what I do. This trial run, right? It was a trial run. You know that, right? 2020 was a trial run. Let's give it a shot. Let's see if it flies. Let's see if they buy the lie. So it starts off as a temporary trial run, like with the first rider of the first horse. It's not the permanent one. It's just a trial run. Temporarily. Let's just see how this thing goes. And so it was a Stephanos type trial run with this toxin slash bow that was not only bent, bent, hell bent on conquering, but also on destroying. And we haven't even got to the second horse yet. All I'm asking you to do with me along with you is just try to see the parallels here. Okay. The second horse, take peace from the earth so that people turn on each other and even kill each other. Do you know how many people turned on each other during the temporary trial run? Killed each other. Maybe not in a literal sense, but how about the figurative sense? How many churches were killed? How many businesses were killed? How many families were killed? How many marriages were killed? People turning on each other, killing each other. Man, I'll never forget in 2020, we got, we have people coming in you know, video, they were recording their videos on their, of us, violation, reported us. I'm just going to leave it. I'm not going to take any further than that because this is, but God, this is God's church. So He has the final word. You know, I know this might sound silly, but It's really true. This is what I do. I'm learning to do this. You know, when problems, and that was kind of intense. Wouldn't you agree? When problems like that come up, I just say, God, you got a problem. You know what's going on here. Yeah, this is your church. You better figure something out on this deal, because it's your church. So I'll just, I'll be right over here if you need me. But it's going to see how you're going to work this out because we just got reported for the 24th time. So, but it's your church. So, but we're going to obey you, not them. So, you commanded us to. So, and you're going to honor our obedience because you desire obedience, not sacrifice. We talked about this on Thursday night. The one thing you can give God that He doesn't necessarily have is, in fact, it's the only thing, is your obedience. You know how we say, what do you give to the guy that's got everything? I mean, here's God. He knows everything. What do you give God that He doesn't already have? Your obedience. And so God honored it. Okay, that's all you're getting out of me. I'm moving on now. So, but this third one in particular, is seemingly getting worse with each passing day in real time and at breakneck speed. What I'm speaking of is deliberately restricting the supply chain out of stock, out of stock, out of stock, unavailable. Would you like an email when it's available? No. Well, I don't know where that came from, but I had to get that off my chest. They restrict deliberately the supply, which by default increases the demand. It feeds, no pun intended, the old adage of supply-demand. In other words, a depleted supply increases the demand, which in turn drives up the prices to unprecedented levels of hyperinflation. That's the scales. where it takes a whole day's wages just to buy the ingredients, not even a loaf. You can't even just go and get the bread. You know the bread section? You just don't buy the loaf. No, that's just the ingredients. You've got to make it yourself. And it costs you a whole day wages just to get the wheat to do it. That's hyperinflation, the likes of which the world has never seen before. In World War Two Germany, the The German currency was so worthless. If you had a wheelbarrow, in fact, they have a picture of this. You've probably seen it. You've got a wheelbarrow full of all this German money, I mean piled up. The wheelbarrow was worth more than the money that was in it. So that's what they're doing, by the way. And it's getting worse, by the way. Fourth and finally, What ensues is what always ensues in the aftermath of destruction from pestilence slash plague, war, famine. It's death on a level never before seen. I mean, when you read what we just read in Revelation and will again, second service, it's a mind numbing number. I mean, we read past it And we don't give much thought to it, but we just got done reading that a fourth of the population of the world is going to die. Let's do some math. Let's just conservatively estimate. Okay, so maybe the population of the world right now is at eight billion, would it be? Is that fair? That wasn't very convincing at all. You don't want to do this or? Okay, I'll do it myself then. There's 8 billion people on the earth then. Now, I don't know how many people are going to be taken up in the rapture, but we've got to account for that. So we will. I think we're going to be in for a surprise. Many say that, yeah, you're going to gut out the United States of America. I'm not so sure. A lot of those saints of old, they're already home with the Lord. You know that America today is the most difficult place to evangelize for Jesus Christ in anywhere in the world. You go to China, you go to Ukraine, you go to the Middle East, to my birthplace in Beirut, Lebanon, you go to Syria. How about Iran? Don't go there. China, how about China, China, China. Sorry. You know that's a point, and you've got to let me have this. When people talk about countries that way, all I can say is shame on you. The Chinese people, Jesus loves them, died for them. Yeah, but Iran, the Iranians. No, no, no, it's the governments. It's not the people. They're people like you and me. Yeah, but they're all Muslim nations. The Muslim is not the enemy. The Muslim is the mission field. Boy, Satan's really done a number on us, hasn't he? Just the negative connotation. When I said China, you should have seen, maybe you shouldn't have seen the look on their faces. Kind of like China. Do you know how many people are coming to Jesus Christ in China today? They're coming to Christ by the multitudes, and they go underground. In Iran, they go under, they have to. They still wear the Muslim attire. It's cultural. It's hard to separate the race from the culture. So they look like Muslims outwardly, but they got Jesus inwardly. You know what they do? They go into their homes and they shut the curtains and they turn on the AC really high, so it's loud, so it drowns out the worship that they can't contain themselves when they worship. Things we take for granted. They do under the threat of death. So I'm of the belief that it might be nations, we might be surprised, like China and Iran and Russia. I've been to Russia twice. The Russian people, Jesus loves the Russian people. You know how many Russians are coming to Christ? I met an online visitor last week from Ukraine. She was born there when it was still the USSR. Oh man, she was sharing stories with me. Unbelievable. Right now, what's going on? You say the word Ukraine, what comes to mind? Don't let it come into your mind. No, Jesus loves the Ukrainians. He died for the Ukrainians. But they go underground. And I just wonder when the rapture happens, How many of those countries are going to get gutted out? I heard a saying many years ago that if you remove the Holy Spirit from the church today, nobody would even notice. I say that to say this, if you have the rapture and the Christians were removed today, I wonder if people would even notice. I don't think the numbers are as we think they are. And please do not, please, please, please do not think in any way that I'm subscribing to another false teaching known as the partial rapture theory, which wrongly teaches that no, you've got to be like really on fire for the Lord and close to the Lord or you're going to get left behind. It's only the really strong Christians that are going up in the rapture. Oh, wow, sounds like I better get to work. Wait a minute, that's works. I'm saved by grace through faith, not of works. It's the gift of God, lest any man should both. What are you, get out of my face. I don't have the patience I used to. In fact, I don't think I ever had patience. But you are teaching falsely. You're telling me that when the trumpet sounds, you've got to be like, I mean, you only spent an hour in the Word of God yesterday. Well, today's the rapture. You're not going up. That's works, man. Okay, so back to our $8 billion. How many people are going to be taken up in the rapture? We don't know. I don't think it's going to be that many. I think we're in for a surprise. It won't matter once we're there, right? Like nobody's going to be going up to our brother in China, because every tribe, tongue, language, and people, we're not going to I will not, in Christ there's no distinction between Arabs, Chinese, I don't want to point at people, all these, Vietnamese, Taiwanese. There's no distinction in Christ. There's no racism. But I just wonder how many people are going to be gutted out of China? Probably a lot. So we're going to use the 8 billion number just for purpose of illustration, only because I don't want to have to use decimal points. So a fourth of 8 billion is, isn't that 2 billion people? 2 billion people. Try to count to 200. If you're like me, you'll fall asleep at about 100 if you get there. Count the 2,000, 2 billion. And then subsequent to that, the judgments that are yet to come, a third of what's left after a fourth. See, here's the problem. I can't get worked up or else I cough. And that's a problem because I get worked up. So now I'm just going to be monotone the rest of the update. Whatever's left after that, another third, pardon me, of the population are killed. Well, this brings me full circle to the title. concerning whether or not this trial run is actually now done. If I could be so bold as to say that I am convinced beyond any doubt that it absolutely is, which was the impetus for both today's update and sermon. And the reason being is that if this trial run is done, and it is, then it's just a matter of time before the trumpet sounds, the church is raptured and the tribulation starts according to the chronological order in just Revelation alone, not to mention the other prophecies throughout Scripture. Again, we'll go more in depth into this, but I want to take just a little time to expound on the seriousness of this. What do you mean? I want to be careful how I say this, because I don't want to imply that. That's why you're here. You do take this serious. So I suppose in a way I'm speaking broadly, but, pardon me, I'm so sorry. But I want to talk about just how serious this really is, because it's actually already beginning to come to pass now. now. We're already, we're already seeing it now. You know what my concern is? And the Lord knows my heart. When I inquire of the Lord, when I spent time with the Lord, when I seek the Lord, my prayers are very specific, precision prayers. And I always ask God more like plead with the Lord that these updates never become roped. You know what I mean by that? We're just, it's just routine. It's just, you know, it's another Sunday. What's He going to talk about today? It's the prophecy update first service. I might stay for a second, depends. Kind of hungry, thinking about what I'm going to have for lunch. I hope that does ever happen. I'm not saying it is or has or will, but please, would you, would you, between you and the Lord, not allow these updates to just become, because I'm not up here to entertain you or perform for you. I'm up here for the Lord. You just happen to be here, which I'm glad you are, by the way. We welcome you. But I'm not up here trying to come up with new material every week. I actually, I have great material to work with. Actually, it's all right here. But I'm not like up here to get like a rating from you. You know, like you're going to go to Yelp. Is it still Yelp? What a name. Who came up with that name Yelp? You know, you're going to Google five, three stars. He coughed the whole time. I'm only going to give him three stars. Listen, I know I talked about this last week. I'm not going to go into it, but I have an audience of one. And the love of Christ constrains me and compels me, and the Holy Spirit prompts me and empowers me. And like Paul said, woe unto me if I didn't preach the gospel. I mean, seriously, this is not hyperbole. I can't not. I have to be honest. I've confessed this. I've tried. Jeremiah chapter 20. Remember when he tried to quit? He said, that's it, God, I've had it. I quit. God's like, that's so adorable. We said, you know what? I couldn't. Why? Because Your Word was like fire in my bones. I couldn't contain it. So you're stuck with me. God's ruined me for Him. Okay, this is probably as good of a time as any to end the live stream. Bye. First, by way of a summary, the trial run of the COVID-19 toxin was released, which led to people turning on each other and the untold damage and even death, as previously mentioned. Then remember, because we forget, you know, I know I do, we watch in horror as the propaganda Brought to you by Pfizer. Supply chain disruptions. It blanketed the Pfizer bought media, driving up prices to unprecedented levels. You know, we, as some of you know, we sent the emergency supplies to Maui. We had them, the stevedores, the guys here, the brothers here, man, amazing. I mean, We had pallets of food. In fact, we're working on replenishing them. They were actually supposed to be for you. Sorry. Then, you know, Steve Santos calls me after what happened in Maui. We get them out of the container. We get them on a truck. We get them on the water and do an undisclosed location so they wouldn't get confiscated. They were there within 48 hours. And we're not just talking about, you know, a few cans of corn. We had pallets. And we made the decision as a board, and it cost tens of thousands of dollars. And this is in 2020. We had them at the ready. And that same stock that we had, was not $75,000. Now it's like $225,000. And that's if you can get it. Brought to you by Pfizer. Again, only a trial run. But nonetheless, it seems Death and Hades followed right behind. We got the toxin, the temporary wreath, bow. Trial run only. We're not in the tribulation. The Antichrist hasn't been revealed yet. We'll see that in a moment. He can't be until we're out of here. So we watched again in horror, this trial run, this dress rehearsal, if you prefer. which led to the death of multitudes, which to this day, and I want you to hear what I'm about to say, because I don't know if you know, but I know I don't know, because I don't know anybody who does know. But there is still no number on the people who died. You go online, don't go out, don't waste your time. It's all been scrubbed. or it's buried so deep, by the time you finally find it, it's going to be the rapture. So you'll have wasted all that time anyway to be sharing your faith with somebody. But it's kind of like the commentaries I just mentioned. You find five sources, you get 20 different numbers. Nobody knows. Trial run, death, the number of deaths and not from COVID, not from COVID. And we're almost done. Jesus has yet to open the seal judgments in heaven. But when He does, these four horsemen will be released on earth. We've only seen just the preview. I hope I'm not beating a dead horse, pun intended. But may I just humbly ask you if what I've just shared with you makes any sense to you? Are you able to see the parallels here? Are you able to connect these dots here with this trial run? Let's try it out. Let's do a test pilot. And it worked. All right. Well, it worked. Now it's time for the real thing. That's why the tribulation is about to start. For those who ask why I repeat this week in and week out, it's because replete throughout the pages of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, we find prophecy after prophecy about our day today. I mean, we're in the Old Testament on Thursday night. Who goes to church on Thursday night? You do. I love you. Oh, what's the pastor teaching on? Seven steps to a happy marriage? No, seven keys to financially being blessed. No. Well, what's he teaching then? He's teaching out of the Book of Hosea. Who? And you're going on Thursday nights. Yeah. Who's Hosea? He was a prophet. And you go to hear the Old Testament. Isn't the Old Testament old? Nah. In Hosea, we're studying about things that are happening in our day today. This is not distant future. I'm not standing before you, as is my privilege to, and telling you, yeah, you know, sometime in the not too distant future, maybe the next generation. No, now, today, this afternoon, before lunch. And here's why I can say what I just said with such conviction. Big Pharma, bought and paid for. All those news media outlets, you know, they're all owned by the same corporations. And you've probably seen them, but virtually everything you watch on TV will have a quick blurb, brought to you by Pfizer, brought to you by Pfizer, brought to you by Pfizer. Oh, you know what that means, right? Brought to you by Pfizer means that the Fox News empire is paid billions upon billions of dollars from Pfizer to spew their rubbish and evil and propaganda. That's why you don't ever hear anything on these media outlets about anything. They can't. Their silence has been bought and paid for. And if they dare step out of line, they're threatened. Their families are threatened. This is real talk, man. This is not fluffy stuff, fluff and stuff, fluff and stuff. It's going to This is real talk. And please, maybe I haven't mentioned in a while, be a Berean. Don't take my word for it. Don't take anybody else's word for it for that matter. Do your own research and search the Scriptures for yourself to see if what I'm saying is true or not. Let me quickly quote. Just the headlines. That's all we have time for anyway. Nine headlines from just last Tuesday. Why Tuesday? That was the only day I had to put together the headlines last week. I'm going to include one from Thursday. You'll see why. So total of 10 headlines. I'll go through them quickly. Here's why I'm doing this. I want to bring into clear focus just how close we are to the pre-tribulation rapture. And I'm hoping that you will see how everything is connecting together and coming together. First one, from the independent, new virus that causes staggering disease. discovered in U.S. And it can kill pet cats and those in the wild. No, you mean fluffy? Yeah. Listen, if you have cats, we love you. God bless you. I'm allergic to cats. Seriously, like five minutes, my eyes swell up. I, my nose congested. If you want to kill me, you want to send me to Jesus, you have cats, let me come over to your place. 10 minutes stops. I'm with Jesus, for real. This is from Houston Public Media, brought to you by Pfizer. deadly, deadly rare mosquito spread encephalitis virus found in Houston County horses. Oh no. This is from Boston.com. New Hampshire resident dies from Eastern equine encephalitis. I don't even know what equine is. Do you? Good. It's a horse. Oh, like Equestrian or whatever? Did I really? I could have, I should have stopped. I should have stopped. I knew it. U.S. News World and Report, and World Report, UN agencies concerned by, and I'm going to call it what it is, because mpox sounds like an app. No, monkeypox. spread in Congo's refugee camps. The Mirror out of the UK, monkeypox warning as worried experts says virus mutating into new strains faster than expected. Reuters via Yahoo News, new monkeypox strain is changing fast. American scientists are working blind to respond. Associated Press, Africa's monkey, pardon me. I appreciate your grace, by the way. Africa's monkeypox outbreak results from, watch this one, get, how's this one, from neglect and world's inability to stop epidemics. Experts say, translated, it's your fault, especially if you're unvaxxed. I'm going to put a scarlet letter on your arm and your businesses too. Well, this is where it hits close to home. especially for families with young children for whom I feel so sorry for. Here in the U.S., vaccine hesitancy eats into back to school shots. Listen, you'll forgive me. People aren't stupid. For those of you looking at me like I can't believe the pastor just said stupid, Proverbs 12.1, the word stupid is in the Bible. And it just feels good to say it too. If this weren't bad enough, American military news not only echoes this propaganda, but takes it to a whole new level. Pardon me. Is this deja vu all over again? Schools forced to close amid COVID surge. Has school even started? They closed schools before it started amid a COVID surge in the summer. By the way, I've got to get this out of the way. I've never had COVID. I don't have COVID. I have asthma. That needed to be said. So don't be looking at me like that. I won't look at you. Some of you are looking at me out of the corner of your eye. Have you been tested? I will never get tested. Do you know about those tests? Don't get me started on those tests. You know, by the way, I'll say one thing about those tests. The guy who invented them died under mysterious circumstances. Shortly after he did a video explaining that the PCR tests that he invented were never intended to be used for what they're being used for. And then all of a sudden they took him out. You think about that the next time they stick a swab up into your frontal lobe cortex of your brain. Last one. It's the worst for last. This is an op-ed piece from The Hill about, listen, how the summer COVID surges are showing that we may have to return to 2020 pandemic measures. Look, the trial run smashing success. It worked then, it's gonna work now. All we gotta do is just kind of give them a little bit of a heads up. Get ready to lock down, mask up, get shot up. That didn't come out right. Suffice it to say that proverbial handwriting is on the wall of what's coming now that they've already succeeded. on the heels of this successful trial run, or again, if you prefer dress rehearsal, they're now ready to start the show. Can I say it like this? It's show time. And as the saying goes, the show must go on, and it will. It has to. And now all the props are in place, and all the actors are in place too, by the way. They've all memorized their lines. All these actors, these selected government actors, they're all backstage ready. And that curtain is about to be pulled. Now, I won't read the entirety of it, because again, we're going to talk a little bit more about it second service. But second Thessalonians, Do you realize that not just in the Book of Revelation, certainly in the Book of Revelation, but it's a word, a fancy Nancy word. Oh, if you're named Nancy, we love you, Nancy. And if you have cats and your name is Nancy, we love you even more. But it's a word that makes me sound really intelligent, hermeneutics. Makes it sound like I went to, you know, like seminary. or cemetery or one of those places. All hermeneutics means is Scripture interpreting Scripture. So I can go to Revelation and I can interpret Revelation by going to, well, especially the Old Testament, since the Book of Revelation was written with references to the Old Testament. But I could also go to books like Second Thessalonians. And what will I find there? I'll find the same thing I find in the Book of Revelation, a chronological order. What do you mean? Listen, God doesn't leave us to figure it out on our own. That would be horrible. I'd be at the back of the line. No, I'd be in the corner with a cap on as they used to. No, I have to figure this out. No, he doesn't want us to be ignorant. He wants us to know Bible prophecy even more than we ourselves want to know Bible prophecy. He wants us to be ready, prepared, not scared, prepared. So he writes to the church of Thessalonica, and he basically says to them, because they're freaking out thinking they missed the rapture. He says, he didn't miss the rapture. Who told you that? Well, there's this counterfeit letter that someone signed your name to that said that we missed the rapture. Paul's like, it's a fraud. It's a fraudulent forgery. You didn't miss the rapture. How do you know you haven't missed the rapture? Because The rapture can't happen. Let me back up. We're almost there. We're going to make it through this. The Antichrist cannot be revealed until the church is raptured. And that is sound doctrine. It is irrefutable. you can take one verse in Second Thessalonians chapter two, just verse three, stand alone. That day, the day of the Lord, the seven year tribulation can't come until the rapture departure comes first. Then the man of sin is revealed. He's alive. He's backstage. He's ready. He's got his lines memorized. It's almost showtime. But they can't do nothing. I know that's not proper English, until we're out of here. And then the restrainers moved out of the way too, by the way. Could you imagine the evil? You talk about taking peace from the earth. The lawlessness that will ensue once the restrainer is moved out of the way and the church is removed. All hell is going to literally break loose. I want to read just verse three, if you don't mind, out of the Geneva Bible, 1599. Let no man deceive you by any means. Did you catch that? We let people deceive us. The key word is let, let. Don't let them deceive you by any means. For that day, the day of the Lord, not the Lord's day, the day of the Lord, His judgment shall not come except there come a departing first, departure, rapture first, and that that man of sin be disclosed, even the son of perdition. We're not looking for the Antichrist. We're looking for Jesus Christ. Okay, I know this may, I'm doing a little better, aren't I? even with asthma, you would think. I'm going to bring it in for a landing. It's show time. But here's the thing, if you know Jesus Christ and you're born again of the Spirit of God, you don't, you're not going to be here when that curtain is drawn. Well, I don't want to be here when that curtain is drawn. But I'm not so sure about where I'm at with the Lord. Well, I'm going to very quickly explain to you, very simply, the gospel. And I'm going to use the ABC's of salvation, which is just a childlike explanation of salvation. The A is for admit or acknowledge that you've sinned against God. Because if you're not a sinner, why do you need a Savior? Romans 3 10 says there is no one righteous, not even one. You might think you're a good person. You'll never be good enough. And Romans 3 23, I love this verse because it packages the bad news first, which has merit, by the way. When you take people to the perfect law of God's Word, the mirror And they see themselves as God sees them, a sinner who has transgressed, broken God's law, a lawbreaker. Now there's the penalty. What's the penalty? The death penalty. Why? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And now the wages of that sin, since all have sinned, is death. That's the bad news. Now here's the good news. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, once you get past that point, then you're ready for the central focal point of salvation, which is to simply believe. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him Not just, yeah, I believe in God. No, put your trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins. You're trusting Him as your Lord and Savior. You believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord. Romans 10, 9 says, if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. And then lastly, the C, it's for call or confess with your mouth. Why? Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I mean, it's just, it's not something, it's not like insert tab A into slot B to get C. It's not like, okay, step one. Okay, get step one. Check that box. Step two, check that box. Step three, check. No, this is just how it goes down. Once you've realized that you've sinned, I mean, you're at the cross, putting your trust in Him. And then once Jesus is in your heart, what's going to come out of your mouth? Jesus. Romans 10, 9 also says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. And lastly, Romans 10, 13. I mean, it says it all, literally all who call. upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You know, it's so simple. And I'm so glad it's so simple, because over 42 years ago, it's been longer than that now. It doesn't matter. I was five. I needed it to be simple. If it was complicated, oh my goodness, I've got to agree to terms of service. I've got to fill out a form, submit an application. I've got to go through an interview. I've got to There's no hope for me. No, just believe. Well, I could do that, because I am a sinner. And I remember praying, I'll share this, I'll share it real quick, and then we're almost done. You know how I came to Christ? I was so intoxicated. I'm not proud of this. I was so high on the drugs. I was a drug dealer, drug addict, all of the above. I'm laying in my bed with my roommates still partying. I had two roommates. And then after I got saved, they evicted me because I couldn't stop talking about Jesus. But I fell asleep praying. You know what my prayer was? This is, it was so simple. It was just, and I slurred it because I was so drunk and stoned. Jesus, I don't want to go to hell. I want to go to heaven. ACDC says I'm on the highway to hell. I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to go to hell. And I fell asleep. Woke up the next morning. I'm a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things had become new. And I never looked back. And that was over 42 years ago. Now, if somebody like me, who barely graduated high school, can get saved, there's hope for you. If God could save somebody like me, He could save anybody. It's that simple. Here's today's but God testimony, and I chose it for a reason. It struck a chord, as they say. And it was one that I kind of think the Lord knew I needed to hear. especially in light of our recent disaffiliation from Calvary Chapel. It comes from Dustin Roberts, who writes, Greetings Pastor JD. I'm proud to say you're my pastor. And know this, I love you, brother. But if I ever tuned in and heard you saying smooth things, he watched last week's update, I would drop you like a rock. LOL. I don't think I have to worry about that though. He, that's why you are my pastor. And then he says that. So know that there is a man in Connecticut who is thankful for your awareness of the times and also your boldness. Thank you for equipping us with the ABCs. I use them online sometimes. I've been defeated, stewing in anger over many things, caring for things of the world more than for the eternal. But God, Your message finally got through my thick head. I know not what he speaks of. I simply need to be fearless and hopeful in these times. I stay in His Word daily and at night with Pastor Chuck Smith on YouTube. I'm filled with contentment. You and Pastor Chuck Smith are my pastor and teacher. I needed to hear that. And I will pray for you and yours and your church. And lastly, thank you for taking a stand and doing it effectively. May the God of breakthroughs grant us both one, with love, your brother in Christ, Dustin Roberts. Praise the Lord. Capone, come on up. Yeah, praise the Lord. Stand up and we'll close. And once again, thank you for your grace. You're very gracious and very patient too. Father, thank You. I know the coughing can be irritating and frustrating, but You've given these precious people grace, and I thank You for that. Lord, we know what time it is. It seems like it's becoming abundantly clear almost daily now. And so I just want to close in prayer with two requests. First, for anyone who's never put their trust in You, or is even unsure about their salvation, I pray that they'll settle that today, right now, right here. If they're online, wherever they're at, whatever time zone, right here, right now, that they would get right with You, come to You, believe in You, trust in You, call upon You. And secondly, Lord, for those of us who have known You, walked with You, who love You, serve You. We're so over this world, not our home. Long ago overstayed our welcome here. So will you get us out of here? It looks like it's about time. So Lord, please, Maranatha, come quickly, in Jesus' name, Amen.