Travailing Through The Tribulation — Shane Idleman

Christian Preparation for Tribulation and Persecution

Travailing through the tribulation. Travailing through the tribulation. I want to say this up front because I think it's important. There are different views on the tribulation as far as if it's already happened during AD 70.

I talked about preterism, partial preterism, all millennialism, predispensationalism, post-trip, pre-trip. I mean, there's different views there. And we have people that attend that are lined up with all those different views.

And I've shared many times before, and it's important on this topic, that I'm kind of, you know, just I'm trusting that God is going to be there when we need him. I'm hoping we're out of here, but I'm also preparing for people in case we're not.

And I think that's my approach is, hey, are you ready? Are you ready? And regardless if we're out of here before the Great Tribulation or not, it's crystal clear that Christians are going to be persecuted.

And so on this whole topic of tribulation, who knows? Somebody might hear this later, who is not a believer, but they become a believer during this period. I think YouTube might still be around and rumble.

You never know. And of course, it will. But so this message is not maybe just relevant for us. It could be relevant for the future as well. And if we go through that period known as the tribulation, a couple of thoughts.

And here's where over the years I've kind of landed is people say, well, look, we're not appointed to God's wrath. So we'll be out of here when God pours out his wrath. Totally agree with that. Who does?

Who else agrees? Probably everybody, right? We're not going to receive God's wrath. However, that scripture, if you look at it in context, is dealing with the final judgment, when God's wrath is finally poured out and the wheat is divided, the sheep and the goat.

And I do believe if people go through the tribulation, that God can hold on to them. And he can keep them safe and secure. We're going to see 144 ,000 that go through the tribulation. There's tribulation saints, so we know that tribulation saints are there during the tribulation.

And there's a teaching. One of the teachings is that we are raptured before the tribulation comes. And I've kind of touched base on all of those over the last few months. And I try to respect all the different views because I cannot come up here and say, hey, here's exactly how it's going to pan out.

Here's what Daniel means. It ties in with Ezekiel. Let's look at Matthew. Jesus is the final days. And here's how it's all going to pan out perfectly. I can't do that. I don't think anybody can. And so I'm a little skeptical when people are so solid that they think here's exactly how it's going to pan out.

Now, you can have opinions and you can feel strongly about something. I think that's good. But what I want to do, though, is help those who might be here during that period. And even if you're not, how to get through tribulation.

Isn't that important right now? Because we are truly living in a time of great, great deception. Isn't it everywhere? Nobody knows what to believe or when to believe it. Or everything is there's nuances.

And there's deception. And that's why it's so important to know the word of God. And I just see it. I mean, I see it everywhere. Of course, with the media, what they're trying to portray, just even in all types of industries.

And even with the background of health and fitness, I see how it's very deceptive in that area as well. And there's this big push. Many of you have seen all the clips on longevity. Have you seen all those longevity clips?

They're out there, all these guys jump in a cold ice bath for three minutes. And then what it's going to do, it's going to spark the immunes. And I tried that in my pool. And I'm just not that type of person.

I mean, that's not easy. That's not easy. It's like, I don't look forward to that. Just put your shower all the way on cold for three minutes, and you're like, what? And I understand the benefits and things like that.

But the big one right now, Ozempic. Have you guys heard of that? Ozempic. Oprah's talking about it. It's everywhere. It's actually, it's funny. Even that is a deception. What they call that is a GLP -1.

Don't worry, I'm going somewhere. Glucagon-like peptide. And what it does is it tricks your body. Glucagon is the hormone that makes you feel satisfied and full. So it tricks your body. It binds to a receptor.

It tells your body, hey, you're not hungry. It's deceiving your body. And so, I mean, some of these things, I'm not against medication per se. You have to study it, research it. They are coming out with a lot of different side effects from it because of how it works in the pancreas, and the insulin, and what it does to the body.

So you have to be careful with all these things. And that's why you have to take them for life. Because if you stop tricking your body, now you're going to be hungry a lot again. But we see, isn't that interesting how it deceives the body?

It tricks the body. Glucagon, ah, you're not hungry. And so it raises that loved one. And again, all these different areas, there's so much deception out there. And we get focused on the deception. And even, especially this year, we just have to be really careful to say things.

I hope a lot of us learned our lesson from 2020. Not everything is a conspiracy theory. As soon as AT &T went out, 55 ,000 customers, and you see all this stuff, and it's just a test for the real thing, and the power grids.

And yeah, I have some questions. I have some concerns. But we're not supposed to live in that state of fear. And all these predictions, and what's going to happen, sometimes things just happen. There's no conspiracy behind it.

However, we know, I've talked about the Great Reset and things like that, how we do know that there is a lot going to be going on behind the scenes. And so we need to be more, how do you not be deceived by all this?

And what I mentioned last week, the God's word is very clear. If you can give me one area of deception, I can show you the principle from scripture that will help you not be deceived. Well, how do I know?

And this is coming in a lot right now, people asking, how do I know, Shane, if I, you know, the mark of the beast? I mean, I recently got a tattoo. And will it be this? And I gave a digital implant into my dog.

And what about if I put it in my child to find them for GPS? The Bible, you're going to know, you're going to know that you're rejecting God. Well, how do I know if I'm rejecting God? Well, it's pretty clear in scripture.

So all these things are outlined in scripture. So to really, this is a time to really know the word of God. Not only do we know it practically speaking, but I believe that the more you internalize it, the more it actually changes your heart and your mind to think more like God.

So it's not just wisdom. Oh, this is a good principle. Let me apply it. You actually now are led more by the Holy Spirit because you're putting in the things of God. A person is not neutral, right? As a man thinketh, so is he.

Revelation 14 and the Sealed 144,000

On that note, you see all the biohacks, right, neuroscientists, and all this. The mind is so powerful in changing your thinking. And again, it's are we putting biblical things into our mind? So Revelation 14 is a very interesting passage as well.

It says this. Let me begin with verse 1. Then I looked. Again, John writing the book of Revelation. I looked and behold, there is a lamb standing on Mount Zion. And with him 144 ,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a loud thunder. When God speaks, you know it. And I heard the sound of a harpist playing their harps. Well, I guess it's OK to have worship music and instrumentals, right?

I mean, there are churches out there. It's just no instruments. I remember I didn't know this. I learned that lesson the hard way when we first started. People come and they say, why are there instruments?

Don't you know that's not biblical? I'm like, well, it's not biblical. I can show you verses that say it is biblical. But just funny, that's a side note. All the things people divide over. And so they were playing their harps.

And they sang. They actually sang a song. As it were, it's a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144 ,000 who were redeemed from the earth.

So these people represent those who were redeemed from the earth. And I have to, again, tell you, one of the hard parts about Revelation is no matter what commentary you look at, there's a lot of different views.

And so I don't like spending a lot of time speculating, if that makes sense. Well, this person says this. And this person says this. And this person says this. And it could mean this. It's good to get to practical application as well.

But I do want to read from the Blue Letter Bible. Very important on these points. These 144 ,000 were last seen in Revelation 7. You remember I talked about that months ago. And they were identified as a group of Jewish believers who ministered during the Great Tribulation and are given a seal of protection throughout that period.

Isn't that interesting? They're sealed as well. So when the Antichrist or this one world leader, there's a mark, you're sealed, your fate is sealed by the mark you receive, by the Antichrist or God even seals us as well.

The Bible says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. How many of you knew that? Not everyone's being honest. It sounds familiar, right? So the Bible says, as a believer, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

The last time I checked, it's not an actual seal. Oh, it's right here, right? So the Bible will use language like this for those who are gods and those who are the enemies. And since they stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, it shows that they have emerged victorious from the Great Tribulation.

In Revelation 7, the 144 ,000 are seen at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. But in Revelation 14, it shows them triumphant at the end of the Tribulation. Isn't that interesting? So it first showed them going into the Tribulation, they're going to have a difficult season there.

And now it shows them with the Lamb of God, which is Christ. The 144 ,000 are like the young Jewish men who survived the fiery furnace in Daniel 3. They prove God's ability to preserve His people. That's the key we have to remember.

God will preserve His people. Having His Father's name written on their foreheads. And the voice of many waters is like the voice of loud thunder. This is the voice of God. Perhaps God spoke here to proclaim His approval of these 144 ,000.

As in the spirit of Matthew 25, well done, thou good and faithful servant. I like what Spurgeon said, heaven is not the place to learn that song, that new song they learned. It must be learned here on earth.

You must learn here the notes of free grace and dying love. And when you have mastered their melody, you will be able to offer the Lord the tribute of a grateful heart, even in heaven and blend it with the harmonies that are eternal.

So we go now into Revelation 14. Not tons of practical application there because it could mean a few different things. Obviously, the big practical application would be, you want to make sure you're on the right side of this battle, correct?

You want to make sure you're going to be in heaven with God. And it's such an important topic in the church in America. And I'm going to talk about that next week. I don't know if I wrote down the title of the message for next week, but it's actually when God's wrath is being poured out.

Genuine Salvation, Repentance, and Spiritual Fruit

And it's such an important time because so many people think they're Christians. Do you ever run into that? Everyone from Taylor Swift to famous podcasters, they'll say, you know, they're cussing and they're doing this and they're, and they're, and they're, no, it doesn't mean Christian doesn't struggle with cursing.

Amen, right? I didn't think good thoughts when I saw a flat tire this morning. I didn't say anything, but it's like, mm, oh, gotta lighten it up a little bit. But those who keep the course, and that's what I'm talking about more next week.

They keep the course. They don't, their works don't save them, but they keep the course like a ship's captain who navigates the water. It doesn't mean it's not blown off course. And the compass is reading a little bit different, but it gets back on course.

It keeps the course. And did you know that there are actually genuine indicators? It's not real hard to know if a person is truly saved. Is there fruit? Now, somebody's fruit might not be like somebody else's fruit, but there should be.

Is there at least a love for God and his word? And what I love to see in people, not necessarily that they made mistakes, but what do they do with that mistake? That's why I like when you, when our kids or your kids or my kids make a, make a mistake or they do something wrong from lying to stealing to whatever.

I like to see that repentant heart. I can deal with that. Yeah, I'm sorry. I know this is wrong. I was convicted. That's a good thing versus trying to get away with things and making excuses and pride comes in there.

And if you use a John MacArthur study Bible, I believe it has eight fruits of what it looks like to be genuinely saved. One of those is a true love for God, a true love for his word, genuine repentance, humility, love you want.

I mean, it's, it's pretty clear. So if these people are saying, yeah, I'm a Christian, but they're living, they want heaven, but they're living like hell, there's no fruit. They're actually excusing bad behavior.

There's no, there's no hint of humility and genuine love. See, it's, you know, I'm saying, right? If you're saved, you have, you got the Holy Spirit in you, man. There's nothing you can do about it. I sound like Biden just now, right?

Man, come on, man, wake up. So, see, I woke you up, but there's, right? If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you might be quenching and grieving, which the Bible says the Holy Spirit's sad or the fires went out, but there's, there's still that, that conviction that's drawing you saying, I know that's wrong.

I know I've got to get back on track. So when, when believers, supposed believers are out just living, however they want. I mean, I've talked to men caught in adultery and they just see nothing wrong with it or women caught.

They just see nothing wrong with it. There's no conviction that party lifestyle. There's no conviction. They just, they're kind of dead to the things of God, but they call themselves a Christian. The Bible's clear that there is fruit.

And for example, it's hard to be a prodigal like the man, I think it's Luke's 13 caught in, in prodigal living. Remember that he went and he was feeding the pigs, end up eating the pigs food. You know, it's pretty bad when that happens, but it's, it's very hard for a Christian to live in that prodigal state their whole life.

That it's just miserable because you're, you're, you're, you're living like the prodigal, what he was doing. He was what that today, what that would look like is, Hey, mom and dad, give me my money. Now you have a quarter million dollars saved for me.

Give it to me. Now he heads to Las Vegas and you know what happens in Las Vegas doesn't stay in Las Vegas, especially with the internet and it's all gone. And now he's miserable. He's living on the street.

It's going to be hard to live like that as a believer. Unbelievers can do that because they just get mad. They get bitter at God. There's no God. How could he allow them? And they just keep caving into that addiction, caving into that lifestyle.

And they die that way. A believer is broken hearted. They are, they are lost in their sin, but not lost under God's grace. And with the work of the Holy spirit in their life, does that make sense? That's why I use that analogy a lot.

And I don't remember where I heard it, probably 25 years ago. Now there is a mud that is sin. There's a big difference when the pig goes in the mud. And when a lamb goes in the mud, have you ever noticed that?

Pigs wallow in it and enjoy it. Ah, just their backs in it. And they're just oink, oink, oink. My five-year-old would love me to make that noise right now, but I'm not going to do that. Okay. I can embarrass myself.

But we played games, right? And so the pig loves that mud, but the lamb, when it's caught in the mud, it hates its condition. It wants to get out. I need to get out. I need to get clean. But walking by on the street, you would see both of them in the mud.

So be careful, judgmental Jerry's. And one reason me and my wife, we truly believe that God has brought us through so much. Anybody can relate that you're not quick to judge. I've heard it all. Oh, I can't tell pastor.

He's going to think less of me. I probably won't. I'll probably respect you for coming clean because I know all kinds of wickedness and evil dwells within the human heart. Do we act upon it? Do we repent?

Do we try to stand that narrow path? I worry about the self-righteous who come in. And you know that look, don't you? I can't believe it. I can't believe it. You know, that, that, that self-righteousness and I've had it before.

You know, all of us can struggle with it, especially if we love the truth because we, what happens is we read the truth. Hmm. They're not living up to this truth here. I'm reading. I need to point this out to them.

Boy, I'm going to really let them have it. And we quote scripture and we do this and we try to work around it. And it's good. Iron sharpens iron. We need to, you know, confront each other and we need to lovingly say things that are hard to each other.

And that's so important. There is a rush in many of us to jump to conclusions and form opinions. And to circle back what I just began 10 minutes ago was the, it's hard to stay in that prodigal state. It's hard to say there.

And you can see in your own heart. Did you know in your own, in all of our hearts, there is a wickedness there. If we gave it free reign, it's very ugly. And we can't all, you know, experience, we don't all struggle with the same things.

But in some of you, I don't know, but there's a tremendous anger. Give me a nice, sweet little woman sitting back in the balcony quiet. But boy, let your tongue loose. Man, you'll bring down the Titanic with that anger and that slander and that gossip and that discord and that disunity.

That's just as ugly. And so my point was, when you realize just where God has brought you from and then how easily you can fall, you're more apt to help people and encourage people and get that. I often wonder what would people do to the prodigal?

Would they be the father or the older brother? And sometimes the older brother gets a lot of heat, right? But I don't really, I haven't preached against the older brother before because maybe that's a normal feeling.

Father, how could you give me, I'm working hard for you and look what he did. I mean, that's just a normal, how do we know he didn't repent later, love his brother? And so we will use the Bible stories to really get a point across if we like a certain point, but we forget about all the other points that the scripture talks about.

So that was just kind of a side note. I don't know how it's gonna fit in here, but I'll let you worry about that on the genuine fruit of salvation and not being quick to judge. I think that's key, isn't it?

Not being quick to judge. I know other things came out on social media. I took pictures with some people that some people disagree with, I guess. And I'm like, well, I do too. And how do you know I didn't ask them some hard questions?

How do you know what's going on behind the scenes a thousand miles away from a picture? And I just see so much judgmentalism in the church as well and not a lot of grace and humility. Again, nothing wrong with asking questions or having discernment or calling people out in love, but you have to really make sure we follow what Jesus said to remove the, what?

Removing the Plank Before Judging Others

Isn't this, this always is so interesting. I'd love to ask Jesus this question. Why do I have a plank and the only other person has a little speck? Isn't that, I mean, there's something to that. He didn't just kind of say that.

He said, before you go after the person's speck in their eye, make sure you remove the whole plank out of yours. That's deep. That's deep. That could be a whole sermon someday. I'm gonna start taking notes now.

One quick thing on that, as I think personally that we think we have the speck and they have the plank. And so before I go to someone to criticize them, it's very easy for me to remove the speck. I followed scripture.

Now I can go after you. I think it's a process of getting that plank out of your eye. I think it's, it shows the gravity of what and how we need to get our hearts right before the Lord. And so let's get Revelation 14, four now.

Revelation 14:4 and the Purity of the Redeemed

These are the ones who are not defiled with women. So the 144 ,000 are those who are not defiled with women. And you might wonder, okay, these guys are virgins. The word virgin that they use here, I didn't have time to break down the Greek word, but it could be used for a male version of the virgin.

So yes, men can be virgins as well. They are virgins. They are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These were the ones who were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the lamb.

And in their mouth was found no deceit for they are without fault before the throne of God. And I think it's important to point out. I don't think these people were perfect people. There's no believer, nobody.

Did you know there's nobody that's perfect except Jesus? No, there's nobody that's perfect. And I've saw some commentators talking about this. I'm thinking we can't read things into the text that we know aren't true because we know throughout the totality of scripture, if these are common people, they were not perfect.

So how was there found in their mouth? There's no deceit. They were without fault. How were they without deceit and without fault? Well, the scripture is clear. They were redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

And this is interesting. I don't wanna go in a long direction on this because it would take some time to unpack. But do you know you stand before God as a clean person? We don't stand before God. Well, you didn't deal with this.

You didn't take it. Jesus cleaned some of this. It's a very interesting theological truth that we stand before God as righteous as if we're didn't sin. Wait, Shane, wait a minute. The Bible talks about the imputed righteousness of Christ being put onto the believer.

Any theologian that is solid will tell you this. We don't go before God with some sin, a little bit, didn't deal with this. He didn't clean me up with this. We go, that's why we can go boldly into the throne room of grace.

It's beautiful what Jesus has cleansed us of. That's why you don't, the enemy wants you to carry shame and guilt, but it's not biblical. It's not biblical that I should come up here or you should leave here and go, I know Jesus cleansed me, but man, I'm carrying around the shame and the guilt, my past.

Oh, if you knew about my past, if you knew, and we're not supposed to. We learn from it. We don't repeat it, but who the son sets free is free indeed. And who is clean is clean indeed. There's not a partial cleansing.

So when the Bible talks about, there was no one as righteous as this person or there's no deceit in them. It's almost, there's no fault at all. They're without fault. Well, yes, but look at before the throne of God.

So they're also in heaven. Don't worry, that happened Saturday as well. We've got all kinds of gremlins in the system. That just means the service is going to be really good. We've learned our lessons over the years.

Me and Luke, we were talking about that. He's been coming for a long time. And anytime this happens, you just got to go with the flow and trust God because the enemy will try to sidetrack you or distract you any way he can.

So anyway, let's get back to this. These were the redeemed one, these 144 ,000, again, back to the blue letter Bible because it is important. Many take the virginity of the 144 ,000 as simply a symbol of their general purity.

Now, again, there's different views. I would probably, if you're just asked me, reading Revelation 7, reading this, looking at other contexts, looking at the whole scriptural support, to me, it would seem that they are our virgins.

Again, opinion doesn't matter. And that in the sense of, I mean, it matters, of course, but we're not going to fight over who's right and who's wrong. Some say it's a general sense of purity. They're not really pure.

They have been married, maybe possibly. But nevertheless, Paul did recommend celibacy in distressing times. How many of you knew that? Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 said, it's better for you to remain single.

Maybe that's a good word for someone out there because especially the time they were living in, I mean, he'll go on to say, if somebody wants to marry, it's not bad. But have you ever tried, and we can't really picture this, but in ISIS, when they took over in the Middle East, and even when we pulled out of Afghanistan, and you read the horror stories, it's much easier to get through things like that by yourself.

Right, take my life. But if you have to watch what happened to Israel also in October, what happens to your family, I mean, that just adds a whole new dimension to tribulation and what you have to go.

That's actually harder. I think that's actually harder. Somebody could take me out, not as hard as watching them do things to your family. And that's why he said here, Paul even recommended, hey, it's better to remain single.

Also, if you want to avoid a lot of stress in the future, right, most married people would say, yeah, it's challenging. So has God called you to be, because that question comes in, well, how do I know if God's called me to be celibate or single?

Number one, you'll kind of know. I mean, if you have a desire for marriage and family and kids, it's probably not that gift, because when God gives you that gift, you want to walk in that gift. And there's been people here over the years that I've known, usually on the mission field, that have the gift of singleness, and they love it.

They have no desire for that. And so don't beat yourself up. Don't beat yourself up if you don't have a desire to be married. That can be a good thing. And don't beat yourself up if for some reason God hasn't given you the gift of children as well.

Don't beat yourself up. We don't know what God is doing. We don't, it's hard to trust this. And I have met people that they're a couple, and they'll say, we don't feel called to have children. And that's totally up to them between them and God.

And it could be for a reason going. I mean, I've read, again, back to the missionaries reading their books, Adonai Hudson Taylor. Many of these people buried their family on the mission field. Can you imagine a child, three-year-old has malaria, and there you dig a grave in the dirt of Africa?

And so God knows, and often He will give us the desires of our heart that align with His calling. And Jesus spoke about the woes upon those with children and families in that day, Matthew 24. It isn't hard to see that God would call these 144 ,000 to a literal celibacy as well for the kingdom of God's sake during the great tribulation.

If the term virgin is a picture of purity in general, it reinforces the connection of the 144 ,000 with Israel. Why? Because Israel is referred frequently in the Bible as the virgin daughter of Zion. Also as the virgin daughter of Zion in Lamentations, second Kings, Isaiah, and as the virgin of Israel, Jeremiah, Amos, all their different passages.

Now, not to get into this topic either too much, there's lots of topics here, isn't there? But the virgin of Israel, the daughter of Zion, the virgin daughter, obviously the children of Israel weren't virgins.

So what that term means is there's something, if you flesh it out, you look at systematic theology, you can look at different topics in that, that talks about spiritual adultery. Did you know it's possible to commit spiritual adultery?

Because what a person does, and God would say that throughout, mainly, you know, look at Amos, I believe possibly Joel, some of those hard-hitting minor prophets were not minor in their message. They would talk about how they've given their love, their affections that they once held for God, Yahweh, now they've given it to Bel or Astaroth or these other gods.

Now they're worshiping these other gods and they're committing spiritual adultery in the relationship. And that's why they were the virgin, the daughters of Zion, the virgins of Israel. For this reason, they were gods.

Following Christ in Relationships and Singleness

These are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. You want a dating tip that I remember I got before I met Morgan? She probably remembers it too. We were at a Sunday night service at Central Christian Church.

Remember that one? Going way back and the pastor said, for those who are single, follow Christ wholeheartedly and see who keeps up. That stuck. Isn't that true? Because what normally happens, we're following Christ 100 and we meet someone, no longer following him wholeheartedly.

I'm compromising. I'm compromised and we're living a sinful lifestyle. And I've given up my pursuit of Christ. I'm kind of miserable, but I'm in love. No, you're in lust. Let's be honest. And so how many times that normally, I would say, I hate to give numbers, but a huge percentage of dating relationships pull the person away from their pursuit of Christ.

So as you're following him, as you're following Christ, make sure they're keeping up. And if for some reason they never went to church, but now they're going because you are, ding, ding, ding, ding, fire alarm bell.

You can see there's red flags, whatever you want to do, whatever. And they just say the right things, but then they're trying to pull you away from that pursuit. Isn't that happen? A lot. And then we get stuck.

We say, oh, I might as well get married now, or I might as well. And we live in this compromised area. And that's why many marriages are so tough because they have to have the pursuit of Jesus at the forefront, even later into it.

I pray every day. Oh God, please have my wife love you more than me. Because when you do that, then you can love me better and vice versa. I don't think Morgan wants me to love her more than my pursuit of God.

And it's so important for young adults because don't you see this a lot? I mean, it destroys them because they're in a hurry or they like how the person looks or makes them feel. And they begin to compromise on that relationship with Christ and it pulls them down.

I mean, it's a very simple analogy. I give it a lot. It would actually, I could take a smaller person and it'd be easier for them to pull me down than me pull them up, correct? I mean, it's gonna be harder for me to pull them up versus them pull me down.

And that's what many times this will happen. They'll pull you down. So Revelation 14, six, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth.

The Everlasting Gospel and the Mark of the Beast

So during this time, they're gonna preach the everlasting gospel to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

So these angels go out and they fly and they give this message. And that's one of the things I've always had a problem with. And what will in the future, we might look at Thessalonians and how it talks about when that which is restrained is removed.

So a lot of people say the Holy Spirit is removed, but I see the Holy Spirit still working during the tribulation. So that's another kind of hard one for me to get my hands around. And so there's different, we just know that there's gonna be a message that goes out and it looks like people have an opportunity.

Correct? Now, I don't wanna get in trouble here because John MacArthur did many years ago and I'm trying to learn my lesson, but he actually said, and if you listen to the whole thing, that after a person takes the mark, they can still repent.

And just saying that kind of sounds weird, that's why I don't, but if you follow it through, can a person who's marked, they're following the antichrist, can they then repent later when they hear the gospel and they're convicted?

You know, that's something look into it. It's more than you think because the Bible doesn't say, we go back to what I talked about a couple of weeks ago, if you take the mark, there's no help, no redemption, never, ever, ever again, can you repent?

But that's what we assume, right? I'm assuming it looks like, you know, you take this mark, that you've made your decision. And that's why I don't say it. That's why I don't teach that because I don't want to be put in that position of, oh yeah, sure, you can repent later, even if you take the mark.

But if you listen to the whole way, it's explained because people are coming to faith in Christ during this period. There's no doubt about that at all. Did some of these people have the mark and some didn't?