Book of Esther - Part 5

Idolatry, the End of the Age, and the Purpose of Tribulation

We are in Esther chapter 3, discussing why Mordecai would not bow down to Haman, and that brought forth some thoughts about idolatry, and the thing that is new to me, that I'd never put together before really, is that specifically, I mean we know that the end of time, the end of the age, is going to be full of sin, it's going to be full of anarchy, we know all of these things, but I had never noticed the strong tie between idolatry and the end of the age, and how that ties in with not only the pagan world, but the church and Israel, all three groups, it ties in with all three groups and brings everything to a culmination, and the tribulation period actually serves a purpose in this, it is by design, we know everything God does is, but it has a multiple design to it, and we're going to see some of that today as we go through this part on idolatry and sort of tie it right in, right up to the end of the age and the role that it plays.

Before I go much further into that, let me read a passage, if you wouldn't mind turning to Daniel chapter 12. Now, while you're turning there, Daniel chapter 12, I'm just going to review a couple of Old Testament passages we talked about last time.

One was in Isaiah chapter 2, verse 1 and following there, where it talks about the end of the age, even into the point where Jesus sets up his throne there in Jerusalem at the beginning of the millennial kingdom, and it says, As many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. There won't be peace on this earth until that happens. There'll be war right up until that happens.

And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore when Jesus is king on the earth. And it goes on in that passage, it comes down to this interesting part here in verse 8, Their land also is full of idols.

Now this is talking about at the end of the age. This is not going back in history, back when people worshiped rocks, trees, golden calves, and things like that. This is moving forward in our future. Their land also is full of idols.

They worship the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made. The mean man, in other words, the person who is poor and uneducated, he bows down, and the great man, the kings, the leaders of the world at that time, they will also bow down.

And then it says, Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man will be humbled. All of this is going to take place during the tribulation period.

And the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty. And it goes all the way down where it talks about that these idols will be utterly abolished. So you begin to see that the purpose of the tribulation period is to abolish the idolatry.

Isn't that interesting? Then it says in verse 19 of Isaiah 2, and the reason I'm reviewing this is we're going to see this in the book of Revelation here in a moment. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake terribly the earth.

That's tribulation period. These idolaters are going to be throwing their idols into holes so that the moles and the bats will have them, trying to hide them from the face of Jesus Christ. Is that amazing?

In that day, a man shall cast his idols of silver and gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake terribly the earth.

That's the second time it used that phrase. Isn't that an amazing phrase? To shake terribly the earth. And then we saw a passage in Ezekiel 39. And then again, it talks about a reference to what we're going to see in the book of Revelation here in a few moments.

Ezekiel 39, 18,. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, of goats, bullocks, all the fatlings of Bashan, and you shall eat fat till you be full.

It's talking to the fowls of the birds of the air. It's a prophecy that the birds are going to be eating the flesh of people who have died in this battle. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and mighty men and with all men of war, saith the Lord God.

I will set my glory among the heathen and all the heathen shall see my judgment. So there is one purpose of the tribulation is that the heathen will glorify God. In my hand that I have laid upon them.

So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord. There's a second purpose. They're God from that day forward. So second purpose of the tribulation is so that the Israelites who don't know God right now, they're not born again Christians, they're Jews and they still believe in the Jewish faith, which is a false religion at this time.

It will be for them to see the truth. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity and why? It says because of their iniquity. God hid his face from them according to the uncleanness and according to their transgressions, it says.

He says, I am a jealous God and I will be jealous for my holy name. Then he says, I'll bring again the captivity of Jacob. He's going to bring the Jews from all the nations of the world back to Israel in the end times.

Isn't that interesting? After that, they, after they've borne their shame and all their trespasses, where they trespass against me when they dwelt safely in their land, et cetera. When I have brought them again from the people and gather them out of their enemy's lands and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, then shall they know that I am the Lord, their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen.

But I have gathered them unto their own land and have left none of them anymore there. Meaning, he has not left them among their enemies anymore. Neither will I hide my face anymore from them. That means he is hiding his face from them now.

Isn't that interesting? That's why you don't see a whole lot of Jewish people saved. You'll see a few. But as a nation, you won't see that yet. For I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

Daniel, the Sealed Prophecy, and the 1,290 and 1,335 Days

Now, let's look at that passage in Daniel. That was just a little bit of review stuff we covered because I want to tie it in with this. It was all supposed to be part of one sermon and it just can't get to it all.

It ties in with what we're going to talk about in Revelation here in a minute. But let's look at this one in Daniel 12, 8. And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

And if you read the context of that passage, Daniel is asking, tell me about the end times. Tell me about the end of the ages. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

So there are things about prophecies, about the end times that will not be understood until the end times begin to unfold. I am convinced that those of you sitting in this room can interpret these passages better than perhaps a great Bible scholar could have 50 years ago.

Back when books like the great book by Pentecost called Things to Come was written. I think you can see more of it has unfolded to you now than was unfolded to him that many years ago. I think this is clear from Daniel.

But now looking forward, verse 10 says this. I want you to focus on this. Many shall be purified and made white and tried. Now who is that talking about? Is that the heathen? I don't think so. Is that the nation of Israel?

I don't think you could say so because they are not saved until the very thing is over. When Jesus comes back and they see him in the air, they bow down to him and they receive him. They are not purified and made white by the trials that are happening.

Now the trials are having an effect on them just like your salvation. You had many things that the Lord brought into your path. People saying things to you, things you heard at church, things in your life that from the human viewpoint all added up to that moment when you received him from the human viewpoint.

So yes, the tribulation period will have an effect on the Jews in that sense. But they are not in the process of being made white and tried during the tribulation. That could only relate to the church.

Now the common modern view, and I say modern because this view was not held in the 1800s and all the way back for 2 ,000 years prior to that. This view that the rapture happens before the full seven years is a modern view, easily proven.

But this view would cause one to think if you read all these scriptures through the sieve of already accepting that view, then there are many things you won't see. But if you could just pretend you never heard that and just eliminate it and say let's just read the Bible plainly as it is, you'll see things you never saw before.

After all, that is just a theory. It is not the truth. It is a man-made theory that's written in theology books. I heard one of Dr. MacArthur's, in fact, as a matter of fact, the man who runs his Bible college taught a class on this subject when I was out there with you guys.

And someone raised their hand at the end of his class where he presented this typical view that the rapture happens then the seven years and then the second coming. The man raised his hand and said, well, where in the Bible does it show that?

And that scholar smiled. He had a nice countenance. He wasn't going to debate it. But he smiled and he said, well, there really isn't a verse that teaches that anywhere. He said, but as I read the Bible as a whole, I lean that direction.

That was his answer to that question. Brother Bill, you were in there. You may remember that. I thought that was almost no ammunition. For one of the biggest doctrines that's taught right up there with sanctification, justification, glorification, and the truths that we know are there that the church has testified to for 2 ,000 years, it's taught with them as if it's that true and there's no proof of it.

That's fascinating to me. Now, I had a man challenge me once on that. And he looked at me, knowing that I had studied the Bible quite a bit at that time in my life, and he said, I just want to ask, I know what your view is, David.

Where did you get your view? And I said, I said, well, be honest with you. It's not my favorite topic. So he repeated his question. He said, well, then where did you come up with this concept? And I said, well, I was taught this by my predecessors.

He said, okay. He said, well, I just want to ask you one question. How many last trumps can there be? And I said, one. And he said, then please read the book of Revelation. It lists the trumpets. And Paul said clearly that the rapture occurs at the last trump.

Just restudy it. And I said, I will. And the other thing he said, and I would ask you to do this as well. In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus Christ himself gives the chronology of the end times. He said, why not start there and put everything through that sieve rather than starting with your theology books that you've read about how men for about 100 years have thought the end times happened.

And I said, that's fair enough. I will do that. And I did that over the next year and it totally changed my view. Totally changed my view. Just doing those two things. And I respected that gentleman because he did not try to cram his belief down my throat.

He just asked me to be intellectually honest. That's all he asked me to do. And he knew I would over time. And that's all I ask of you guys because I know we don't all agree on this. And I don't really just simply ask that same thing that was asked of me.

Now, many, look Daniel looking forward some 2 ,600 years into the future by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, in that day many shall be purified and made white and tried. But the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand.

And look at this fascinating verse. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1 ,290 days. If you do the math, that's three and a half years.

So from the time you've got three and a half years of tribulation go by first and then the Antichrist offers a pig on the altar in the Jewish temple and that's this abomination that makes desolate. From the point that that happens there's gonna be 1 ,290 days, the Bible says.

That's three and a half years. And then verse 12 says, blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1 ,305 and 30 days. Now, if you add that up, that's 45 days later. So follow me now. The tribulation period begins.

Three and a half years go by and the Antichrist offers a pig on the altar of the Jewish temple. From that point, this time clock begins and exactly 1 ,290 days will go by. Then from the end of that point, you count 45 more days and then something else is gonna happen and here's all it says about that.

Blessed is he that waiteth and comes to that day. And then he just simply tells Daniel, go thou thy way till the end be. For thou shalt rest, that's talking about his physical death, and then stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

He is gonna be resurrected and stand in that same body 45 days after the three and a half years, the second three and a half years. Is that fascinating or what? I mean, you never saw that before, did you?

You've studied this on and off your whole lives. You've read Pentecost book. You never saw that right there. I'm telling you, it's becoming more clear. Now, let's go into the book of Revelation and remember now what we're talking about is this passage here.

I was focusing on this concept. Many shall be purified and made white and tried. Please hold on to that prophecy. Many shall be purified, made white. Now, there's only one reference to that, by the way, and that is the bride.

It is never said that Israel will be made white. It is said that the bride, the church, will be made white. Now, Revelation 21, let's go there. All we need is a good three-hour service to cover this.

It would be so fun from up here, so difficult from down there, especially with the ladies already got the food going back there. Ready? Revelation 21, 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea.

And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man.

Now, do you know who that is? Tabernacle is a reference to the body of Jesus Christ, God dwelling in him. He is all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So this is a reference to the fact that Jesus is going to dwell with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

How will he be with them? In Christ, in the tabernacle, which is Christ. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his God and he shall be my son. But the fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters, there we find that is really what we're studying.

And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

And the city had no need for sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof. Now you're talking about even beyond the millennial kingdom at this point.

But it is on this planet and it's age unto age. This is the next age we're looking at here. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Now that is the end of the whole thing. It's beyond even the millennial kingdom. Now go to Revelation chapter 3 with me. But notice that the bride presented there as the new Jerusalem. I will have to tell you that that includes both the Jew and Gentile and all of God's people coming down as the new Jerusalem at the end of the millennial kingdom.

And it says she shall be adorned. And that is the white wedding dress. It's a picture of purity and righteousness and so forth. Let's see. Revelation 3 .14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans.

Now many scholars believe that that particular church is a picture of the end times church, which would be right now. Now as you read this, I think you will see why they think that. The church of the Laodiceans is right.

These things say the amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot, but you're not. You're lukewarm.

So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. That's a nice way of talking about vomit. Because thou sayest... Now here is the church, the modern church's view of itself.

Because I say I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not... And now here's God's view. Here's Jesus' view of the church right now. You don't know that you're really wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Total opposite of how the church views herself in the end times. I counsel you to buy of me gold tried with fire, that thou mayest be rich. That is simply a picture of his divine nature. And that you partake of Jesus is what he's saying.

Rather than all of these programs and stuff going on by the modern church, he's saying just take hold of Jesus. And take on white raiment. You see now that is the white that was referred to in Daniel.

That thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear. Now let me explain to you how the church is moving right up to the tribulation. The church is naked and blind and poor and miserable and idolatrous, which is the same as spiritual adultery.

So if you picture the sin of adultery, that is how this is to God. Unfaithful to him. Going after everything else other than him. And Jesus says I counsel you as the end times come upon you to buy gold, which means grab hold of my deity, grab hold of me, and to have the white raiment, which means to purify yourself, that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear.

So you see just because we're saved doesn't mean we walk right, does it? We know that. We know that very well in this little bitty church right here. In our own lives we know that. So if you look at the church as a whole in the last days when there is this mindset of whoredom, the spirit of antichrist is upon the whole world, and everything we see, the movies, the music, everywhere, even the little shows.

Charlotte and I just found a show we're going to have to quit watching and certainly cannot allow the boys to watch it. I'm not going to mention what it is, but it was awesome when it started and it just became vulgar.

And if you don't watch that, you won't even notice it. You'll just keep watching it. We're not supposed to do that. We're not supposed to be that way. We've got to work on those things, but that's what he's saying to us, the end times church.

He is saying do these things so your nakedness, which is your just raw sin showing to everyone, even the rest of the world sees it, it needs to be covered by righteousness. Now the Bible teaches two kinds of righteousness.

It teaches positional righteousness, which we have because of the blood of Jesus and we cannot change it, but it also teaches experiential righteousness, which is something we are commanded to do and to have.

We don't talk about that a lot, but it's just everywhere in the Bible it's there also. And it's interesting as we read, well, I don't want to get ahead of myself. Let's keep going here. As many as I love, I rebuke.

Now, I forgot part of this, though. Let me go back up to 18. Put on the white raiment so you can be clothed and so forth and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. You want to be able to interpret the scriptures correctly.

You want to be able to see what God is saying to us in the end time. More important than at any other time perhaps in history. So we need that eye salve as well. Now he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.

Now look at that word chasten. This whole doctrine that has been contrived about the rapture happening first, one of the biggest points they have, which is not really a biblical point, but it's a point as they say, well, God will not pour out his wrath on his own children, on the church.

To the contrary, the Bible teaches again and again that he does pour out his wrath on his people when they become idolatrous. So you just judge for yourselves if you think the modern church fits that category and will fit it more and more as time goes on.

But I think she does fit that category and I think Jesus says, if I love you, I'm going to spank the devil out of you. I mean, we as mere human parents do that if we love our children, don't we? We don't spare the rod because we love them.

Jesus will not spare his rod from his church. Then he says this, verse 20. This is used as a salvation witnessing verse and that's not what this is. This is a fellowship verse to an idolatrous wife. Think about that.

She's been cast out of the house because of her whoredoms. Or maybe the husband left, picture it that way. The husband left the house because of the way she was. He comes back to the house, knocks on the door and he says, if you will just hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we'll have fellowship with you and you with me.

What an amazing verse. That is to the church. That's specifically, ladies and gentlemen, to the end times church. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me. Overcome what? What is there to overcome?

It's talking about overcoming tribulation, but because almost everything in this world that you love will be taken away from you in that time period, your whole economy, the stuff we have. Listen, most of the connection in the New Testament to idolatry is covetousness, which means we just like things.

We like to surround ourselves with so many things to take care of that we don't have that much time for God. It will all be taken away. All of it. You won't even be able to buy and sell in that economy because you'll have to take the mark of the antichrist to do it, and you will not do that.

You will be raising your own food. You'll be farming again. You'll have some rabbits because they're good to eat, and there's a bunch of them, and chickens and eggs and things like that. And you know what?

When you get to that point where you're that low, just picture yourself as a Jew that's a slave in Babylon, and they've taken everything away you had. That's going to be the church in the tribulation period.

Now I'm not saying how much of it. I'm just saying some of it you're going to go through. Now, to him that overcomes, I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am sat down with my father in his throne.

He that has an ear to hear it, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. Who did he say it to? The churches, not to Israel. So there is a church component in the tribulation period as well.

The Fifth Seal, White Robes, and the Cleansing of the Church

Now turn to Revelation chapter 6, verse 9. Revelation 6, 9. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they heard.

Now these are people who are out witnessing and telling people what the word of God says, and they are killed because of it. And they cried and with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

That's the worldly people that were killing their brothers and sisters that were still on the earth. And white robes were given unto every one of them. Do you see the connection with the white robe in the book of Daniel?

There is a cleansing that takes place on the church. If you go study the entire word of God, the only way God ever cleansed Israel was through tribulation and usually other enemies coming in with an army killing them and destroying their children, their wives, and themselves, and just slaughter, and then famine, and then pestilence, and then earthquakes, and all the other things that are going to be added in the tribulation period.

That is how God has always cleansed his people. And the church above all people needs it today. There is no Old Testament saint that ever had the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have that, and yet we still disobey.

There is no Old Testament saint that saw Jesus on the cross with hindsight like we see it and connect all the great doctrines of the New Testament and see all the little colors of how it's taught through symbolism in the old.

They did not have that, and yet we fail God every day. We of all people are held responsible for the idolatry that we're in. And to think that we are not going to be cleansed like they were is, I think, like an ostrich with the head in the hole in the ground.

It is overlooking so many clear scriptures, but I understand I did it for many years myself. I put all these verses through that sieve of the pre-tribulation rapture theory. I put everything through that so it all came out to fit that.

But when you remove that as man-made and it's not there, there are scriptures there you never saw before that are talking to the church saying things that it shouldn't be saying if you're not here. Does that make sense?

So, white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren. Now, who's that? Many believe the servants are the Jewish people and that the brethren are part of the church.

Makes sense to me. So it's talking about Jew and Gentile in the tribulation period being killed because of their faith. And let me just say this. There aren't two different waves of salvation. That theory also proposes that, that if the church is removed at the first tribulation, how do people get saved during the tribulation?

It says hundreds of thousands of them get saved. How? Oh, well, it goes back to the Old Testament account. No, it doesn't. God will never revert to before the cross. Never. There's no way in the world it goes back to that system of salvation.

They had to bring that in to make their theory work. But it falls on that very point because there is no salvation other than the born-again experience and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which makes you part of the church.

So however you look at it, the church is still here because there are people being saved. There are people being born again by the gospel right here. We're looking at them. And the people in heaven that already died are saying, Lord, when are you going to stop this?

They're killing our brothers. They're also killing your servants. Maybe that's Israel. I don't think there's any distinction though because to me the Bible says there's neither Jew nor Gentile after the cross, after Pentecost.

So I don't even see that in here. I just think the servants and the Christians and the church, it's the same thing. There's only one salvation for Jew and Gentile, correct? So it's just looking down and saying, look, they're killing our brothers and sisters.

And white robes were given unto every one of them that was killed and came up to be with the others. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season till their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.

That is the chastisement and the cleansing of the church. And let's go further. Look at Revelation chapter 7 verse 9. There is a verse in here that absolutely demands examination. And we'll get to it in a minute.

I'll show you. After this I beheld in low a great multitude which no man could number of all nations, kindreds, and people. That's talking about Jew and Gentile. And tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.

And cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our Lord which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God saying, Amen, blessed, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever.