Turning Point - David Jeremiah

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The world.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Decay we see around us in our culture won't stop
during the seven years of the Tribulation. In fact, the
Bible assures us it will only get worse. Today. On
Turning Point, doctor David Jeremiah examines several specific ways society
will deteriorate as God continues to pour out his judgment

(00:26):
during that time. With the conclusion of Hell on Earth
Part two, here's David.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It may sound like we're trying to be a bit
dramatic when we call this period Hell on Earth, but
there's no drama. It's the actual way he would have
to describe such an awful time on this earth. It
is the period we know as the Great Tribulation. It
is spiraling toward the Battle of Armageddon, and all of
the hosts of the world are being levied against the demons,

(00:54):
and the angels are involved, and it's quite a movie. Friends.
You need to read it carefully. And what should you
do when you read it. If you're a Christian, thank God,
you won't be here. And if you're not a Christian,
do everything you can to make sure you're not here
by giving yourself to Christ, let him know that you
want to be his child, and you want him to
be your savior, and he will rescue you not only

(01:16):
from the wrath to come, but from the wrath of
the tribulation. You won't have that in your life because
you will be taking to heaven ahead of time. That's
what the Bible teaches, That's what I believe, and I
want to make sure I tell you that so you
don't have to experience what we're reading about in the
Book of Revelation. Friends, this is my last day to
tell you about a resource for the month of May.

(01:37):
It's a book called Sixty Days of Prophecies The Truth
behind End Time Warnings. It's one hundred and forty four
page paperback and each day you will learn about a
specific prophecy and how that prophecy relates to the world.
You have key takeaway scriptures that will help you apply
what you've learned. And it's yours for a gift of
any size to Turning Point when you ask for it.

(02:00):
That's right, send your gift, and please ask for this
resource and we'll send it to you right away. Now
the last message from the month of May. Here is
Friday's edition of Turning Point, and it begins right now.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
What was taking place in a very normal and consecutive fashion.
When you get to the seventh Seal, it is all
jammed into a much smaller period of time, and things
begin to happen so fast you can hardly separate them.
And some expositors believe that while the vile judgments are
consecutive after the trumpet judgments, that it's very difficult to

(02:39):
separate them a great deal because all of these events
are happening so very rapidly. They're simply telling us the
things that are going to happen at the end of
the tribulation period. Now, what is going to happen? The
Bible says that when the sixth Angel does his thing
in Chapter sixteen of Revelation, that the Euphrates River is
going to dry up. What is the purpose of that?

(03:02):
The Euphrates River is the river that separates the Orient
from the scene of battle. One of the great questions
that has been asked of prophetic teachers is, suppose you
could have an army of two hundred million. Where would
it be possible to have such an army? If you
had an army of two hundred million men, how would

(03:23):
you ever get them to battle? You would have to
march them across the land, and how would you get
them across the land? There is a natural barrier between
where they are and where the battle is supposed to
take place. The Bible says that in the sixteenth chapter
that the Angel is going to come down. It's going

(03:43):
to dry up the Euphrates River, and there won't be
a barrier anymore. They'll march right across that river and
right into the field of battle where all of the
war is to take place. Let us remember that this
army of two hundred million men is going to be responsible,
under the judgment of God, to kill a third of
the inhabitants of the earth that are still left, and

(04:06):
it will take a lot of folks for that to happen.
Now the stage is set. The remaining armies of the
North and South that have survived the divine judgment of
hail and fire will still be present in the arena.
The armies of the Anti Christ and the European Confederated
Nations are located in Palestine, protecting their interests in Israel

(04:27):
and in the oil, and the great horde of people
from the East have crossed over the Euphrates River and
are ready to march upon God's holy people, and all
of that is a part of this judgment. You say,
aren't we jumping ahead? I don't believe we are. It
is possible that though there will be a disarmament in

(04:49):
the near future, and though at the beginning of the
tribulation there might be disarmament, and between the rapture in
the second coming there might be disarmament, by the time
of this period of the Tribulation, toward the close of
the Tribulation, the modern means of war probably will be
in use again. And that makes the description of the

(05:12):
warfare that is perpetrated by this army of two hundred
million people most interesting. They are declared in the text
read carefully. In the ninth chapter, they are declared to
have breastplates of fire and jacinth and brimstone. Notice the
heads of the horses are compared to heads of lions,

(05:33):
out of whose mouths fire, smoke, and brimstone issue. It
would be very easy to describe modern mechanical warfare in
those terms. The nineteenth verse of our chapter says that
the power is in their mouths and in their tails.
Their tails are said to be like serpents, and even

(05:54):
the tails have heads with which they can hurt men.
Note the terms lions, horses, serpents. They all speak of
the deadly force of destruction, and verse eighteen in our
chapter speaks of fire and smoke and brimstone which issues
out of their mouths. This could be nothing more than

(06:15):
a full scale military war with nuclear weapons and destruction.
You say, Pastor Jeremiah, why wouldn't it say that? Well,
do you think John on the Isle of Patmos had
any idea about the kind of warfare we're capable of today?
How would he describe that? He would have to describe
prophetically what might happen in the future in terms that

(06:37):
he would understand, but which would also convey the possibility
of interpretation that we know now. Can you think of
anything that would fit this description the gigantic implements of
war with fire in the mouth and fire in the tail.
Some have said it's nuclear powered helicopters with guns in

(07:00):
the front and guns in the back, and swarming all
over that area. And they tell us that in that
particular arena of battle, those might be the best suited
implements of warfare. Some have said that the reference in
this text to the heads of the serpents that also
have heads on them is simply a reference to nuclear warheads,

(07:21):
which have many nuclear warheads contained together. I don't know
what it means. I simply know that within the context
of this destruction, there is the possibility of everything you
and I know today of nuclear war in a rather
controlled sense, in an arena between nations that could bring
destruction to as many as one third of the world's population.

(07:45):
That's not hard to imagine at all, is it. It's
not hard to imagine right now how some irresponsible act
in the world arena could destroy half of the world's population.
If you've read anything about New clear war, you know
that it is well within the possible means of today's

(08:06):
human warfare. All of that is God's judgment upon this earth. Now,
let's just back up for a moment. Can you get
a picture of what's going on. We have just discovered
in the first part of the ninth chapter that all
Hell has been turned loose, and all the demons of
Hell that have been chained up for years have been
set loose to run to and fro on the earth
and to wreak havoc among the people. And now the

(08:27):
war is beginning, and two hundred million people are involved
in destruction through whatever implements are available to them, to
bring death to one third of the remaining people on
the earth. And let's notice thirdly, the description of those
who are to be judged? Who is this judgment? Upon
notice verse eighteen of the ninth chapter, by these were

(08:50):
the third part of men killed by the fire, by
the smoke, by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
For their powers in their mouth and in their tails,
For their tails were like in the serpents, and had heads,
and with them they do hurt. Now watch this, Let's
look at the description of these who are judged. What
kind of men are going to be the recipients of
this judgment of God? Let me stop for a moment

(09:12):
and ask you, now, where's the church they're in heaven?
Are there any Christians down here? Some who have come
to Christ during the tribulation who hadn't heard the gospel before?
What's happening to them? Many of them are being martyred.
Some of them, as we learned, are underground. They're fleeing
for their lives. They're trying somehow to stay alive, if

(09:33):
at all possible. But most of them are going to
be martyred for their faith. If they don't take the
mark of the beast, they won't be able to buy food,
they won't be able to do business, they won't be
able to work. They can't last long upon the earth
unless they are willing to capitulate to the Antichrist. So basically,
who's left down here A few believers, but mostly those

(09:53):
who have rejected God. You say, pastor Jeremiah, there won't
be any churches. Don't kid yourself. There will be worship
going on every day. You say, where do you get that, Well,
it's right here in the text. Let me show you
the people that are going to be judged in two categories.
Number one, they're worship and number two their works. Notice
the worship of those who are to be judged, they

(10:14):
are worshiping, according to verse twenty. And the rest of
the men, which were not killed by these plagues yet
repented not of the works of their hands, that they
should not here it is worship devils and idols of
gold and silver and brass and stone, and of wood,
which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. What's going
on down here is that every Sunday, the people who

(10:34):
are left get together and go to their church and
they worship. And who are they worshiping. They are worshiping demons,
for you see, demons go hand in hand with idolatry.
Satan will be at work during that time getting all
the people who are left on this earth to worship him,
for he has always wanted to be worshiped. Isn't that true?
What is it that Satan tempted Jesus to do in

(10:56):
the wilderness? He said, fall down and worship me, And
of course the Lord quoted scripture to him and wouldn't
do it. But Satan will never quit until he gets
the people left on this earth to worship him, and
they will worship in him. A lot of religion will
be practiced at this time, but it will be false religion.
People will worship the works of their own hands, which

(11:18):
could well include the buildings they construct, and the machines
that they make, and the cities that they build. And
it's going to be full blown in that period of time.
They will worship. Notice the scripture says they are going
to worship the demons and the devil and the works
of their hands. Now what are their works well. Verse

(11:42):
twenty one tells us that there will be four sins
that will be especially rampant during this phase of the tribulation.
By the way, if you'll go back up and look
at verse twenty, you will notice the descending value of
the things these people worship. When you start out worshiping gold,
and then you go to silver, and then you go
to brass. And what does it say down at the bottom.

(12:03):
It says, which neither could see, nor hear, nor walk.
What kind of God is that? Folks? I needed to
stop here long enough and tell you that there are
a lot of Christians today who are going to go
up in the rapture, who look to me like they're
trying to worship in the tribulation way. Right now. They're
worshiping the things which their hands can make. They're worshiping
gold and silver and the stone. And some of them

(12:26):
have an edifice complex to build, the biggest building and
the most ornate and all the rest of it. Because
they're into the worship of materialism. And all of us
need to be careful because we can get sucked into
it so quickly. But now, notice these people and their works.
Their worship dictates their works. Let me just say that
to you quickly. Their worship dictates their works. What you

(12:49):
believe will determine what you do. Did you know that
what they worship determines what they do? Verse twenty one
tells us of the four sins of the tribulation period
at the end. Here are the four things that are
going to be running rampant during this period of time
toward the ending of the tribulation. First of all, notice
neither repented day of their murders. Someone has said that

(13:13):
whenever the Gospel is unknown, human life is cheap, and
violent murders will be a common practice. During the tribulation period,
people will being killed all the time. Nobody will care.
They will just take one another's life with nothing at
all being thought of it. It's interesting, is I've studied
the Book of Revelation. You get a perspective on history

(13:34):
if you read some of the old scholars. Let me
just tell you something I found in my study. Over
one century ago, before America groaned under the pressure of
the present crime wave, a man by the name of
Joseph Seiss wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelation,
and he predicted on the basis of this verse nine,

(13:57):
verse twenty one, that capital punished. Listen carefully. He said.
Capital punishment would have been largely abolished by the time
of the tribulation. He saw the day when murderers would
be spared punishment because society, rather than the individual, would
be held responsible for their crime. Many law enforcement officers
believe that the failure to use capital punishment is one

(14:21):
of the reasons for the increased number of murders. We
have capital punishment now every once in a while, but
it's a major issue, and we have murderers by galore
who have walked out of prison, have never paid for
their crime, and we have allowed murder, even in our
own culture, to increase and abound because we have lost

(14:44):
the importance of the dignity of human life. And in
our culture today it seems like the criminal is the
one who has all the rights, and the person who
is the victim never has any rights at all. And
after the church is gone and the righteous restraint of
the whole Holy Spirit is removed, there won't be such
a thing as capital punishment, because murder will be rampant

(15:05):
and people will be killing each other without any want whatsoever.
It'll be a part of the time. Big sin number
one during the end of the tribulation is murdered. Notice
the second sin. This is very interesting, and they repented
not of their murderers nor of their sorceries. Translate that
by the word witchcrafts in Galatians five twenty The second

(15:30):
prominent sin of the tribulation will be drug related occultic activities.
Listen carefully. The word sorceries in Revelation nine twenty one
comes from the Greek word pharmachia, which means pharmacy and
refers to the practice of the occult with the use

(15:52):
of drugs. In Biblical times, drug use led to astrology,
which demon possession, and the Bible says that in the tribulation,
along with the rampant murders, there will be untold addiction
to drugs, mind changing drugs, demon producing drugs. Are we

(16:16):
on the path? In our day, drug addiction has swelled
into a flood across the nation, and with it has
come an unprecedented tide of witchcraft and demonism. They always
go together. Demons are no strangers to drugs. When you
get on drugs and you start messing with your mind,
you open yourself up to the occult, to witchcraft, to demonology,

(16:39):
and where the vacuum of your mind is left because
of mind burning drugs, the demons will come in and
take possession. The devil and drugs go together. Kids, If
you're messing with that stuff, don't do it. You are
not only playing with your mind. You're not only playing
with your own body, which is the temple of the
Holy Spirit, but you're opening yourself elf up to demonic

(17:01):
activity over which you may not ever be able to
have control. Drugs are going to be a part of
the tribulation, the pharmacia, notice the third great sin in
this period of time. Not only will there be murder
and drugs, but the scripture says there's also going to

(17:21):
be a lot of fornication. The third prominent sin of
the tribulation will be rampant immorality. And the word fornication
is the Greek word poornea. It is used to refer
to all kinds of sexual activity outside of the boundaries
of God's word. The marriage vow will be virtually unknown
at this time, and there will be a complete breakdown

(17:43):
in family relationships. Back in another decade before this one,
writing in a futurist magazine, devoting the whole issue to
men women relationships. Doctor Herbert Otto, a psychologist, said this.
A psychologist foresees a society in which men and women

(18:04):
will explore new depths of intimacy, and the pursuit of
joy will become an art form. More people will indulge
in group sex, and the ideal life will not be marriage,
children in a house in the suburbs, but rather the
experiencing of a series of deep and fulfilling relationships in
a variety of environments. And in this particular time of

(18:26):
the tribulation, it's going to be rampant. There won't be
such thing as commitment. There won't be such thing as marriage,
there won't be such thing as family unit. Everybody will
be with anybody they want to be, And the sin
and sickness and drugs and murder and sex and all
of that's going to be a part of that culture.
And somehow, when you look out at our world today,
you can't help but wonder how far could we be

(18:47):
from that? How far could we be? Murders, drugs, fornication,
and finally, dishonesty. Notice the last one is theft. Neither
their fornication nor of their thefts. The fourth characteristic of
the tribulation will be thievery of all kinds, including burglaries, robberies.

(19:13):
Can you imagine how that will be when food is
scarce and when nobody cares about human life, when there
aren't any rules and there's no structure to society and
there's no commitment to the family. When a society's family
unit breaks down, the whole society falls apart. History has
taught us that many of our world's people are without
moral conviction and natural affection because they have been set

(19:35):
adrift on the sea of life with no compass. They
have no rudder, they have no destination, they have no Bible.
The Bible is the core of morality for today. If
you take God and his people out of this world,
all of this that I'm talking about would naturally happen
even without the judgment of God, because this is the
restraining influence upon us by the Holy Spirit's input into

(19:58):
our life. Once again, in the Futurist magazine, I read
divorcing parents traditionally have battled to gain custody over their children,
but in a growing number of broken families today, neither
parent wants custody imagine what devastation that is to a kid.
In a society with a growing number of unwanted children
who are not given love, understanding, discipline, and a respect

(20:20):
for authority, the predictable outcome is lawlessness and spawning crime.
This is the statement of the abounding dishonesty and obliteration
of moral distinctions, and the disregard for each other's rights.
It will be almost like a vigilante day in the tribulation.
Now watch carefully the conclusion. Here is all Hell turned loose,

(20:42):
the abyss opened up, and all of the angels of
Hell set loose, hordes of them all over the world,
bringing their stinging poison into culture. Here is the army
of two hundred million marching against the world to destroy
a third of those who are left. Here are these
people who are under the awful judgment of God, who

(21:04):
are feeling the pain of all of this, who can't
get food, who are breaking out in sores all over
their body, who have sickness and can't die, who are
under the judgment of God, and the pain won't go away.
And you would think that in that moment of time
they would cry out to the Lord in repentance, But
Notice what the scripture says verse twenty And the rest

(21:25):
of the men which were not killed by these plagues
repented not of the works of their hands. Notice verse
twenty one, neither repented they of their murders. You say,
Pastor Jeremiah, how can that be? How could somebody feel
the awful judgment of God you have described as hell
on earth parts one and two. How could they feel

(21:46):
all of that and not cry out to God? Let
me tell you something. One of the strange things about
human nature is that a man is not changed because
of punishment. We do not change a man through incarceration
or imprisonment. He may desist from evil because he's afraid,
but his heart is evil. He would do that evil

(22:09):
if he could get by with it. A man is
changed only by the Gospel of the grace of the
Son of God. He is a new man only in
a new birth and the creation of a new commitment.
That is the reason why we preach and the reason
why we herald forth the Gospel and teach the scripture,
because if we get involved in all of the social

(22:29):
things that are going on today, we have just stayed
the inevitable. But when we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have the most powerful tool for reformation from the
inside out that has ever been known to this old world.
And the reason why nobody will change in the tribulation
period is because there won't be any gospel. Sin makes

(22:51):
it impossible for a person to respond to the grace
of God. You say, pastor, why are you telling me
all of this very simply? Today is the day of salvation.
Today is the moment of opportunity. I don't care if
you believe all of this or half of it, or
seventy five percent of it. It's in the book. It's
what God has said. And if you don't believe it,
you are going to die and go to the same

(23:13):
hell as the people who do believe it, because you
cannot keep it from happening by choosing not to believe it.
And I want to tell you the good news is
God loves you, and He sent his son into this
world to take the judgment you deserve. He paid your tribulation,
he took it all and his body on the tree,
and he wants to give you the free gift of

(23:35):
eternal life. And all you have to do is come
and get it and say I will receive what you offer.
Will you do it? Will you, while your heart is
open to the grace of God, say I will receive
the Lord Jesus.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
I hope that you will let us know if you do,
so that we can help you with information that will
give you a head start in your walk with the Lord.
Now we're going to turn over a month before we
have our daily broadcast again, but we're going to be
right here in the Book of Revelation, continuing our study
throughout the month of June. As we move through this book,
and we were going through some of the intense parts

(24:15):
of it, there's some real excitement ahead in this wonderful
prophecy book. I hope you'll stay with us and join
us again on Monday. In the meantime, be sure to
go to church this weekend. I try to tell you
that every week because it's so important. And as you know,
we have a television program that airs across the nation
on the weekend. You can probably find it at a
time when you would not normally be in church. But

(24:36):
if not, just record it, watch it later, and then
be sure to be with us here on Monday as
we continue our discussion on the final book of the Bible,
the Great Prophecy book called Revelation. I'm David Jeremiah. Thanks
for being with us this week. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
The message you've just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church.
David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Turning Point is also on
radio and TV this weekend. To learn where to find it,
visit our website David Jeremiah dot org, Slash Radio. That's
David Jeremiah dotorg, Slash Radio, or call eight hundred ninety
four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your copy of

(25:18):
David's new book, Sixty Days of Prophecy, The Truth behind
Endtime Warnings. It's yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the
English Standard, New International, and New King James versions available
in your choice of attractive cover options. Your words of
encouragement are so appreciated. Please write to us at Turning

(25:40):
Point PO Box thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California,
nine two one sixty three. This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us Monday as we continue the series Escape the
Coming Night on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah,