Gospel Dynamite with J. Allen Mashburn

What the Future Holds for the Saint of God | Revelation 14:12-13 | J. Allen Mashburn

As we studied verses 6-11, we listened as angels announced the fact that God had pronounced a sentence of damnation on this world system and all those who refuse to believe the Gospel message. Those verses tell us about a horrible place called Hell where the lost will suffer in the flames of God’s wrath for all eternity. That is a sad, horrible picture of the future that awaits every person who lives and dies outside of a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not saved today, I challenge you to examine your life and where you are headed. Do you really want to go to Hell? Do you really want to spend eternity separated from God and from everything of beauty, purity and spirituality? You do not have to go to Hell! You can be saved if you will come to Jesus and call on Him by faith, Rom. 10:9, Acts 16:31.
What a contrast there is when we comes to verse 12! We leave the wrath and judgment of verses 6-11 and we are exposed to the sweet fragrance of God’s grace. Having declared His judgment against the wicked, God now demonstrates His grace toward the righteous. Having shown us the wicked, God now casts the spotlight on His faithful remnant. He says, “You have seen the wicked ones, now take a look at my children!”
These verses show us what will happen to the saints of God when they leave this world. We have seen the hellish side of death; now let’s examine the heavenly side of death. What waits on the sinner is ghoulish; what waits on the saint is glorious.

What the End Holds for the Sinner | Revelation 14:6-11 | J. Allen Mashburn

Revelation chapter 14 is an interesting chapter. In its verses, God takes care of some Tribulation housekeeping. In verses 1-5 the Lord shows us the fate of the 144,000. If you will remember, the 144,000 are saved Jewish preachers who travel the world preaching the Gospel of grace. These men are divinely sealed and protected as they carry out their ministry. When their time is completed, the Antichrist is allowed to take their lives and verses 1-5 picture them home, in Heaven, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verses 14-20 speak about the horrific battle of Armageddon that will occur at the end of the Tribulation. We will consider that text in our next study. Today, we are going to focus our attention on verses 6-13. This passage speaks about the future that awaits two distinct classes of people. Verses 6-11 deal with the future of the lost sinner, while verses 12-13 speak to the future of the faithful saint.
While these verses speak about future events, they are still relevant to us today. Every person in this room will reach the end of your earthly journey someday. There will an end of the road for each of us! We do not like to think about it, but we need to know what is coming so that we can be properly prepared for that hour. When the end comes, you and I need to be ready! When the end comes, there will be no more time to prepare. When the end comes, how we leave this world will be how we enter eternity. In Eccl. 11:3, Solomon said, “…if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” The same is true about your life and mine. However the end finds us, whether saved or lost, is how eternity will preserve us. We must be ready!
Today, let’s consider these verses which clearly declare what the end holds for both the Tribulation sinner and the Tribulation saint.

After the Storms Have Past | Revelation 14:1-5 | J. Allen Mashburn

If you have been studying along with us as we have moved through this amazing book, you know that the last two chapters have been dark, depressing and discouraging. We have been talking about the devil, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. We have witnessed the depths of depravity as man abandons his Creator to worship the devil through his false Christ.
Now, the scene changes! Chapter 14 is like a glorious rainbow after and fierce storm. God takes the brush of His grace and repaints the landscape of the Revelation. He gives us a breath of heavenly air in these verses. Only God can do that! 
Only God can take that which is horrible beyond words and turn it into a thing of glory. That is just what He does in these verses.
In this passage we are allowed to get a little glimpse of heavenly glory. We are allowed to see the Lamb of God. He is the theme of the book and He is center stage in these verses. It would be a blessing if we could figure out how to keep Jesus at the center of everything we do in our lives as individuals and in the life of the church.
In these verses we meet again the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who were selected and sealed in chapter 7. These men have preached the Gospel of the Kingdom during the darkest days of the Tribulation. They were persecuted by the Antichrist, but they were preserved by God. 

When God Abandons a Nation | Judges 16:18-20; Judges 10:13-14; Proverbs 1:24-31 | J. Allen Mashburn

One of the most tragic scenes in the Bible (and yet one of the most familiar to us) is the scene of the strongest man who ever lived, a man by the name of Samson, finding out he had no strength.Judges chapter 16 records this. “When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up once more, for he’s told me all that is in his heart.’ Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. And she made him sleep on her knees, called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. 
“Then she began to afflict him and his strength left him. And she said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson,’ and he woke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’” And here’s the telling line written by God the Holy Spirit. 
“But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him, so the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison.” Sad. He didn’t know that the Lord had departed from him. I can’t imagine anything worse than being abandoned by God. 
To the sons of Israel, earlier in the book of Judges in chapter 10, God said this, “You have forsaken me, you have served other gods; therefore, I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” This was God saying to Israel, “I’m done with you” - abandoned by God. 
Proverbs chapter 1 records a similar sentiment. “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hands and no one paid attention. You neglected all my counsel, you did not want my reproof. I will even laugh at your calamity. 
I will mock when your dread comes, when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind. 
When distress and anguish come on you, then they will call on me but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently. They will not find me because they hated knowledge, did not choose the fear of the Lord. 
“They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof, so they will eat of the fruit of their own way and be satisfied with their own devices.” Again, being abandoned by God, turned over to the inevitable consequences of sinful choices. 

The Mark of the Beast | Revelation 13:16-18 | J. Allen Mashburn

We have arrived at a passage of Scripture that has caused more speculation that possibly any other. For centuries people have been trying to decipher the Mark of the Beast. People actually fear the number 666.
Several years ago, I was in a store making a purchase, and the total of my purchases came to $6.66. This has happened on more than one occasion. Nearly every time, the clerk has tried to get me to buy something else so she won’t have to ring up $6.66. I always pay the $6.66 and sometimes use the opportunity to witness to the clerk, and to give a brief explanation of the Mark of the Beast. It can be a wonderful witnessing opportunity.
There is a lot of speculation concerning what the Mark of the Beast is all about. There is much misinformation concerning this subject as well. These verses give us some of the information we need to understand just what the Mark of the Beast is. We won’t learn everything we would like to know, but we will learn enough to know that no Christian in this room needs to be afraid of the Mark of the Beast.
So, let’s look at these three verses today. Let’s see if we can dispel some of the mystery surrounding the Mark of the Beast. 

The Beast from the Earth | Revelation 13:11-15 | J. Allen Mashburn

For the past few weeks we have been treading unholy ground. We have spent a lot of time talking about the devil and his activities during the Tribulation. I would just remind you today that Satan is an imitator. He hasn't had an original thought in over six thousand years.
As we all know, there is a Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is comprised of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is these three individuals Who are one God. Satan has a trinity too. His trinity, however, is anything but holy.
The unholy trinity is composed of Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. 
Each member of the Holy Trinity has a specific purpose. God the Father receives the worship of His people through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the facilitator of this holy worship. He stirs up the heart of the believer and causes him or her to worship God.
Remember, Satan is an imitator. His trinity functions exactly the same way. In Satan's unholy trinity, Satan receives the worship through the person of the Antichrist and the False Prophet facilitates this worship.
We have already considered the first two members of the unholy trinity. We have looked extensively at Satan and at the Antichrist. In this message we will look at these verses and get a glimpse of the False Prophet. 
He is the person who will guide the world's religion during the Tribulation Period. Let's look into these verses together and notice the insights the Bible gives us concerning The Beast From The Earth.

The Beast Out of the Sea | Revelation 13:1-10 | J. Allen Mashburn

In our last study we met the Antichrist. We tried to consider what the Bible says about this coming world ruler who is called the "Man of Sin"; the "Son of Perdition". The Antichrist gives us an opportunity to see how Satan operates. The devil is an imitator. He takes what God does and he tries to duplicate it.
You see, Jesus, the real Christ, is a revelation of God the Father. In John 1, there are three verses that are worthy of note, John 1:1, 14, 18. These verses teach us the truth that Jesus is a living, breathing revelation of God the Father. The verse 18, the word "declared' translates the Greek word that gives us our English word "exegesis". The word means "to narrate, to explain, to lead out, to draw out'. It speaks of "an explanation, or a narration".
In preaching, we use exegesis to "lead out and explain" the truths contained in the text. When Jesus came, He came to "explain, to lead out, to narrate" God. In other words, Jesus Christ was and is God in the flesh. He was able to say, "I and my Father are one," John 10:30. He was also able to say, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father," John 14:9. Jesus is God incarnate; He is God in the flesh!
In the Antichrist, Satan attempts to duplicate this relationship between Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Antichrist will be a living, breathing revelation of the devil. He will be the devil incarnate; he will be the devil in the flesh.
We know that our God is a triune Being. He is one God Who manifests Himself in the Persons. He is Father, Son and Holy Ghost. All three are One God, yet each is an individual Person. They come together to make up the Holy Trinity.
In Revelation 12-13, we are introduced to the Satanic Trinity. Satan imitates God the Father. The Antichrist imitates God the Son. The False Prophet, who we will meet in our next study, imitates God the Holy Spirit.
Let's give our attention once again to this man who will be known as the Antichrist. These verses give us some important details concerning his mission, his methods and his miracles.

The Great Dragon is Cast Out | Revelation 12:7-17 | J. Allen Mashburn

The chapter we are studying here in Revelation is a chapter wrapped in conflict. In our last study we witnessed war between the nation of Israel, symbolized by pregnant woman, and Satan, symbolized by a great red dragon. As we read our text today, you may have noticed that these verses continue the image of conflict. In fact, verse 7 is quite a shock to the system.
When we read of war in Heaven it kind of takes us back. We do not think of Heaven as being a place where wars are fought. If the Bible announced a war on earth, we would not be shocked. Our world has a long history of bloody warfare.
According to one statistician, in the 5,560 years of recorded human history there have been some 14,531 wars. Many of history's wars were conflicts between two nations, or two factions within a nation. But, in World War II war was taken to new and devastating heights. By the time the war reached its zenith only twelve nations were not involved in the conflict on at least some level. In the year 2,000 there were at least forty armed conflicts being fought on the soil of thirty-six different nations.' Our world is a world of warfare!
Yet, when we read of warfare in Heaven, we are taken aback. This war will settle a conflict that has been raging since before there was a world. As we discovered in our last study, Lucifer, who seems to have been the chief among God's angels sinned against God. He led one-third of the angels of Heaven away from God in this rebellion and he and they were removed from God's presence. Lucifer became Satan and he has done everything in his power to disrupt the eternal plan of God to redeem His elect people and His ruined creation. Since that time, as we will discover, Satan has had limited access to Heaven. This chapter tells us about the final battle in this ages old war. In this battle, Satan, the great dragon, is forever cast out of Heaven.
While there are details here that are confusing, these verses are a blessing to the children of God. They tell us of a day when Satan will finally and eternally be cast out of Heaven. Let's look at these verses and examine a few more of the participants of the Tribulation Period.