The Seventh Trumpet Part 2: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Let’s go to Revelations 12. It talks about a woman with the moon under her feet, clothed with the sun, and delivering a manchild. Okay? She’s going to birth a manchild. And the dragon comes to keep the woman from birthing the manchild. And then the dragon comes to persecute the woman who birthed the manchild and her seed. Okay, let’s watch this. Now, is the woman Israel? You know, she’s got 12 stars in her crown, as we can see there. She’s got a crown up there.

▶ 0:52 There’s 12 tribes. Actually, there’s 13. Is it the church? Is it Mary? We know Mary birthed what? Jesus Christ. We know that. We know that Jesus is the manchild. There’s no question about it. There ain’t no confusion here. But who’s this woman? Who is this woman? Is it Israel? Is it Mary? “The woman fled into the wilderness, prepared by God, that they would feed her 1,260 days,” or three and a half years. Here we are, another three and a half years. “And when the dragon saw he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.”

▶ 1:49 “But the woman was given two wings like a great eagle to fly into the wilderness, where she is nourished for three and a half years. The serpent spit out water out of his mouth like a flood, trying to drown the woman and carry her away by a flood. But the earth opened up and helped the woman and swallowed up the flood.” Now, we know Mary birthed Jesus. We know that she fled into Egypt. We don’t know how many years, but she did go into Egypt. We have no record that she was persecuted by Satan, and obviously no flood. Israel is made up of 12 tribes, and one person out of Israel, Mary, birthed Jesus.

▶ 2:47 And Satan has persecuted Israel since Christ was here, and even before. Okay? Satan’s persecution of Israel did not eliminate that nation. They’re still with us today in spite of the persecution. And many of them, by the way, have accepted Christ. The church. Galatians 4:19. Are you ready for this? “My little children, in whom I travail and birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Oh, oh, Christ be formed in you.

▶ 3:45 Ah, Colossians 1:27: “God would make known what is the riches of His glory of this mystery among the nations,” among the unbelievers, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Ephesians 4:13: “Till we all come into the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of Man, unto a perfect man, unto the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Wow. Not only is He being formed in His church, but it tells us what the goal is: the fullness of the stature of the preacher? No. The TV evangelist? No. The great book writer? No. Of Jesus Christ.

▶ 4:36 God has a goal, a destiny, to birth Himself in you till you are like Him. Wow. We know these things. Are you there? Satan has persecuted the church since Jesus ascended. More than 43 million Christians have been killed for their faith since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. These statistics are from the 2004 Voice of the Martyrs and the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. Six to 12 million Christians were killed the first 250 years after Christ.

▶ 5:32 And we’re looking for some great persecution up the road as the only one, as the big deal, as the big tribulation. That sounds big to me. How about you? That’s big time. The Catholic Church persecuted and killed many Protestant believers in Europe for leaving the Catholic Church. According to many resources, Hitler killed 3 million Christians and persecuted millions more during the Second World War. Leading up to it and during it, the Muslims have killed people in our day. October 2005, three teenagers were beheaded because they were going to a private Christian school in Indonesia.

▶ 6:29 Three 12-year-old Indonesian Christian schoolgirls were beheaded by the Muslims. Again, in October 2010, a 14-year-old boy working in a factory was beheaded because he would not denounce Jesus Christ. Orphanage workers were beheaded in August of 2010, just last year. In 2008, they sliced off the head of a 25-year-old man in Kenya for converting to Christianity. China killed 30,000 Christians in 1900. In 1912, 40 had their eyes put out and they were beheaded because they wouldn’t denounce Christ. Thousands have died when the communists took over in China.

▶ 7:20 An estimated 250,000 Christians died in China from the 1950 takeover, that era, until the present. How many know that’s serious tribulation? In fact, when the Iron Curtain opened back up and we were allowed to go back in, the first thing the believers there told the missionaries that came is, “You told us that we would not go through the tribulation.” That was the first words out of their mouth: “You told us we wouldn’t go through the tribulation. What do you think we’ve been in, man?” Are you there? Is this making sense to you? Or am I confusing you?

▶ 8:14 There’s a lot of persecution been going on, folks, for a long time. 270 Christian martyrs happen every 24 hours for the last 10 years. That’s over a million Christians that have died for Christ since 2001. That’s big-time stuff. There have been more than 26 [unclear] documented cases of martyrdom from 1900 to the year 2000. More than 200 million Christians in over 60 nations face persecution each day. 150,000 are martyred each year, and about one and a half million over a 10-year period. Christians today are the most persecuted group in the world.

▶ 9:07 Persecution is on the rise because of communism and the expansion of Islamic and Hindu extremism. Literally hundreds of thousands of people today are being killed and brutalized, sold as slaves, tortured, imprisoned, threatened, discriminated against, and arrested solely because they are Christians. That’s some serious persecution, folks. That’s some serious tribulation times. Am I right? And you don’t have to be a Christian. You can be persecuted just because of your nationality or your race. Remember the blacks in the United States were persecuted for a long time. When I was a boy, they had to take shoeshine jobs and sweeping the floors, and they were terribly mistreated.

▶ 9:59 I’ve seen it with my own eyes. And over in Africa right now, the whites are being persecuted by the blacks. Their property is taken, they’re killed. The blacks, which rose up and said, “The whites are mistreating us,” once they got in power, they reversed it. And whites in Africa are being tormented, tortured, and killed, and their property taken away. Why? Because they’re white. So this tribulation thing, it isn’t something we’ve got to wait for. It’s in the world right now. Could that be an amen? Yes. Religions have persecuted religions. Atheists have persecuted believers and killed them.

▶ 10:55 Now, you’re going to tell these people that the great tribulation hasn’t come yet? Think about it. Are you with me? It’s something that’s been around for 2,000 years. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “all that live godly in Christ shall suffer” what? Persecution. You know, it’s not about being a believer. They don’t care if you believe in Christ. They just don’t want you living for Him. Now, the male child. You want to find out who the male child is? This is an easy one. Jesus. “She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”

▶ 11:50 “And her child was caught up to God and His throne.” Okay. Revelations 2:26: “He that overcomes and keeps My works until the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. As the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received from My Father.” So who’s the person that rules with a rod of iron? Jesus. And we can what? Do the same. We can overcome to what we rule. See, we don’t have to sin like the nations sin. We don’t have to give in to things like the nations give into. He will cause us to rule. Amen. Because that’s what He is. He’s an overcomer. Acts 1:9.

▶ 12:41 “While they watched, Jesus was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” And the angel said in verse 11, “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” So who’s the one that’s the manchild that’s born and ascended back to the Father? Jesus Christ. That part’s a no-brainer. That’s an easy one. Psalms tells us that Jesus would rule the nations with a rod of iron. Psalms 2:9. Okay. Now, who’s this dragon? This persecutor. He hates our guts. Well, this same chapter tells us it’s Satan. “Another sign appeared in heaven: a fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head.

▶ 13:34 “His tail threw a third of the stars from heaven to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born.” And Satan was thrown out of heaven. “And Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and his angels, and they were cast down. That old serpent called the Devil and Satan,” verse 9, “who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” So wait, what’s Satan’s job? To deceive the whole world. Okay? And where is he at? On earth. He’s here, folks. He’s the one that tested Jesus in the garden. Remember, I mean, in the wilderness, remember?

▶ 14:26 He’s here. He’s already been thrown down. He’s been here for a long time. Ain’t that right? Don’t we know that? We know that. “Then I heard a voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.’” So he’s called the serpent, Satan, the Devil, and the what? Accuser. And yes, he’ll come and accuse you. You make a mistake, he’s going to be right there talking in your mind, your subconscious, saying, “See, you’re no good. You’re a failure. Just quit pretending.” What’s he doing? He’s accusing you. That’s his job. That’s what he does. He lies. He accuses. He tries to deceive you. But see, Christ has a goal for you. Christ isn’t finished with your life yet.

▶ 15:19 And he don’t want Christ finishing with your life yet. He don’t want you becoming an overcomer. He don’t want you overcoming sin and living rightly in this world and being a blessing to yourself and to your family. And so he is out to deceive you. Hallelujah. Now, in Luke 10:1, 17, it says the 70 returned after being sent out with Christ, and they said, “Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Your name.” And Jesus said, “I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Okay. These 70 went out, preached the gospel, people got saved, demons were cast out, and Jesus likened it to what?

▶ 16:11 Satan falling. Hallelujah. So these things have been done and can be done. “If God spared not the angels that sinned, and cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.” Have the angels that sinned already been cast down? Where are they reserved? In darkness till the judgment. See, this is a past tense thing. Jude 6: “The angels which kept not their first estate.” There’s only one chapter in Jude. Jude 1:6. “But left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

▶ 17:02 Amen. So, has Satan and his angels already been cast down? Yeah. Is Satan trying to deceive us? Yeah. It isn’t some special time up the road. He’s working on us now. Job 1:9: Satan presented himself before the Lord after going to and fro upon the earth. So, was Satan going to and fro upon the earth in the Old Testament? Yes. To seek whom he may devour? To see who he could get to deceive and turn from God. And he accused Job before God. See, the accuser of our brethren, what does he do? Well, you know, “If Job wouldn’t serve You if You let some problems come in his life, You’ve got a hedge around him and he doesn’t have any problems. You let some problems come, You take his health, You take his kids, You take his wealth, and he’ll curse you to his face.”

▶ 18:00 And so God said, “Okay, go do your thing, Satan. You don’t know My servant Job.” And I’ll tell you, in these last days, God’s going to raise up a church like Job. We don’t serve God because He blesses us, because He gives us money and finances and health. We serve Him because He deserves to be served. We serve Him because He’s true. He’s righteous. He’s wisdom. He’s knowledge. He’s understanding. He’s everything. Amen. We know Him. We love Him. And so, Satan’s been doing this for quite a while now. Who are the brethren in Revelations 12? And who are the remnant? All right.

▶ 18:51 Now, look at this. This is powerful. Very powerful. The big bad beast hadn’t even come along yet. We’ll deal with him next week. “The accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.” Now, who are the brethren? The next verse, chapter 12, verse 11: “They overcome him,” which is who? Satan. Satan. They overcame. Where are they still? Where’s the saints? If they’re overcoming Satan, where are they? They’re still where? On earth. They haven’t been raptured anywhere. How are you going to get credit for overcoming Satan and up in heaven where Jesus is and God and all the angels?

▶ 19:44 The credit is you overcoming where? Right here on earth. And these brethren, and the Bible throughout the New Testament, Jesus said to His disciples, “They that do the will of My Father are My brethren and My mother.” Are you aware of that? Matthew 12:48: “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples and said, “These are My mother and My brother. For whosoever does the will of My Father, the same as My brother and My mother.” Remember that word I asked you to say earlier, “mother.” Say it again. Mother.

▶ 20:36 A mother produces something. See, in her womb is formed something, and she gives birth to something, and the church is to give birth to Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Are you with me now? Look how powerful you are. How many understand you’re the brethren? Yeah. I mean, the apostles when they wrote “brethren,” didn’t they use that word? We are the saints. We are the brethren. The brethren overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb. And this is why I got upset last week at these two ministers. They put human counseling above the power of the blood. We overcome Satan by the what? Blood of the Lamb. There’s power in that blood to forgive and cleanse sin.

▶ 21:31 “Man, by the word of their testimony.” That’s why you need to speak. You need to praise Him. You need to open your mouth. The word of their testimony. I’m a believer in Jesus. I’m a Jesus boy. See, you’ve got to speak the word. Can I hear an amen? “And they love not their life even unto death.” They put Jesus first. They overcame who? Look at that. Ain’t that cool? Now, the Bible says He will bruise Satan under your feet in [unclear]. Shortly. What are you waiting on? What’s the word? Shortly. This don’t take a lot of time. Why, man? He’s powerful. His blood’s powerful.

▶ 22:25 Get Satan under your feet. Don’t let that accuser open his yap about you. We know we’ve got some problems, but we know He’s the problem solver. We don’t need Satan pointing out our faults. Amen. And we don’t need to be cast down about our faults. We need to keep getting up till we don’t have those faults. Amen. And here the brethren are overcoming Satan. We don’t have to get raptured out to escape this stuff. Jesus is powerful in His church. Ah, now this is good stuff. You young ones need to understand this. Christians aren’t wimps in this world. The remnant.

▶ 23:17 The remnant. Verse 17: “The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed.” And then it explains who the remnant is: “They that have the testimony of Jesus and keep the commandments.” Are you just a believer, or are you a remnant? Yes. Be a remnant. Be the part of the crowd that keeps the testimony of Jesus and keeps His commandments. Amen.

▶ 24:10 We have the testimony. That’s the covenant. We have the new covenant. He shed His blood that we could be free from sin and know Him. And He gave us great promises in this new covenant. Hallelujah. And it says that they war with Satan. He comes and wars with them. See, Satan don’t like you serving Christ. He could care the least if you’re a lukewarm, fuddy-duddy, nothing Christian, just word of mouth. What he doesn’t like, if you want to keep His commandments, man, he’s going to come after you. If you proclaim the new covenant, “I’m under the new covenant.”

▶ 25:05 If you stand on the blood of Christ, he can’t stand that. He’s going to come after you. And all he can do is flap his mouth. “You’re not good enough. You’re not worthy enough. You booed yesterday. You booed today. And you’re going to boo tomorrow. So why don’t you just get out of church and give up?” See, that’s what he does. He’s just over there, he’s a lion with no teeth. All he can do is roar. He can’t roar good. He just flaps his mouth. He just accuses, and he makes war with the remnant and persecutes them. So where is the remnant? Are they up in heaven? No. They’re on earth, church.

▶ 25:55 This is powerful. Are you getting this? You know, these people got us thinking we’ve got to get raptured out of here to get any peace of mind. In fact, one of these ministers last week, I said, “You know what’s the next move of God?” He said, “It’s the second coming.” I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said, “There’s a billion people in China and most of them have not heard the word of the gospel yet, and you want Him to come?” That’s selfish. Are you out there? But that’s how they have us thinking. “Oh, come, Lord Jesus. Get me out of this mess.” No, He wants you to have an effect on this mess.

▶ 26:50 So, we overcome Satan with all of his kingdom of darkness, the sins, his children that follow sin. We are what? Overcomers. We what? Overcome. When? Now. Doesn’t it say in Revelations that “I’ve made you kings and priests,” remember? And you shall reign when? On earth. Say it. On earth. We don’t have to be raptured out. We rule over sin now. We rule over things now. We rule over the kingdom of darkness now. We are rulers now. And Romans, it says what? Through death He destroyed them. And if we believe in His death, we shall what? Rule in this life.

▶ 27:41 Say it. Rule in this life. Don’t you think we just need to square our shoulders back and go, “Man, hey, I’m a ruler”? May not look like much one today, but man, you know, a child born to an old-type king was destined to have the throne. And you know, he might only have been seven years old, but man, he walked around like, “Hey, man, I’m going to be the top dog one. I’m going to be the king one of these days, man.” Yeah. And he goes through all this indoctrination and training and all that. And he gets to be 12, 13, 14. You think he went around all tiny and whiny and everything? No, he was a little cocky. He was a little big-headed. “I’m going to be king one of these days. As soon as Dad moves over and the grave, I’m slipping into the throne, man. I’m going to rule and I’m going to reign.” We need to start taking on that attitude.

▶ 28:36 Amen. Instead of “I’m not worthy” and “I’m this” and “I’m that,” we need to start saying, “Man, I’m getting groomed to be a king, to rule and reign in this earth, because I am a believer. I am a brethren. I am a remnant. I am His church.” Hallelujah. Yes. And I don’t have to get raptured out to get victory. I don’t have, you know, to have everything happen nice to me to serve my God. I’m going to serve my God. I’m going to serve Him with authority and power. Hallelujah. Yes. Hallelujah. And where are the saints? On earth. In Revelations 12, the saints are still where?

▶ 29:28 On earth. Now, if you can figure out the two witnesses, you let me know. What scripture did I miss? And if you’re worried about the Antichrist and the beast, I’m not afraid of the big bad beast. The big bad beast. The big bad beast. I’m not afraid of the big bad beast. He’s afraid of me. How many raise your hand and say, “I accept this. I accept this, Lord. Train me. Train me overtime. Give me double time. I’m headed for rulership.” Hallelujah. People that put Satan under their feet how fast? Shortly.