Skip to content Alpha/Omega - Revelation: The Day of the Lord Mar 28 · 56 min ...more
Alpha/Omega - Revelation: The Day of the Lord
March 28, 2021 · 56 min
As Revelation chapter 8 opens we hear about silence in heaven for about a half an hour because God's wrath is finally going to be unleashed on planet earth. This sobering text shows us the severity of our sin and the truth that God's holiness that cannot tolerate it. In the book of Genesis, we saw God destroy the world with a flood and in the book of Revelation we see a how God will ultimately purify the world from sin so that He may establish His reign. As you read Revelation 8, listen to the message and ponder the questions, may our God show you the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church March 28, 2021 · 56 min · BRAVE Church
As Revelation chapter 8 opens we hear about silence in heaven for about a half an hour because God's wrath is finally going to be unleashed on planet earth. This sobering text shows us the severity of our sin and the truth that God's holiness that cannot tolerate it. In the book of Genesis, we saw God destroy the world with a flood and in the book of Revelation we see a how God will ultimately purify the world from sin so that He may establish His reign. As you read Revelation 8, listen to the message and ponder the questions, may our God show you the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less As Revelation chapter 8 opens we hear about silence in heaven for about a half an hour because God's wrath is finally going to be unleashed on planet earth. This sobering text shows us the severity of our sin and the truth that God's holiness that cannot tolerate it. In the book of Genesis, we saw God destroy the world with a flood and in the book of Revelation we see a how God will ultimately purify the world from sin so that He may establish His reign. As you read Revelation 8, listen to the message and ponder the questions, may our God show you the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. It's all yours. You're the only 1 who's worthy to receive it and you're the only 1 who can handle it. And Lord, our desire today is to do that very thing. Lord,0:11 as we sing praises to you, as we pray to you, and Lord, as we're about ready to hear your living and active word, have your way with us. Lord, we believe that you have a word for each and every 1 of us every time we open0:22 your book, and we pray today as we open your word that you will speak directly to us. Lord, be helpful to me, be helpful to our church as we desire to give you all the0:34 glory. And now for all people gathered who wanna hear the word of the Lord, believe what he says, and by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me this morning by very loudly saying the word,0:45 amen. Amen. Have you ever heard people say the words, oh, that'll be the day? Usually, it comes to something in the future, we sometimes hear those words.0:57 Oh, that'll be the day. Oftentimes, it involves somebody's ambition in sports or ambition in politics or desire to get married or desire to have a family or desire to have children. And we look1:09 at that person and we say to them, oh, yeah. That'll be the day. Or we have an expectation for something better to come and we say, oh, that'll be the day. We have a tendency to say that because we as human1:21 beings have a very difficult time with the future. We don't know what the future holds. Yet oftentimes we think that we do. And so when somebody has a picture of the future that looks different than what God has put on1:31 our heart, we say, oh, that'll be the day. When it comes to the word of God, I find that many people oftentimes talk about God like that. When we hear about the Lord returning for his
1:43 saints, when we hear about God 1 day, pouring out his wrath on all mankind because of the rebellion and wickedness, we say these words, oh, that'll be the day as if when's that going to happen?
1:55 Well, God wants us to know in his word that there is a time frame where he is coming back. As we talked about last week, where he is going to resurrect and rapture his saints, and then he is gonna begin pouring out
2:06 judgment on planet earth. And there is a timeframe and a time period of when that's going to happen. And that's what we're gonna begin to look at today. It's called the day of the Lord. Now the day of the Lord is a
2:17 period of time that's been prophesied by many old testament prophets, but it's prophesied by Jesus Christ himself. And it's going to happen. Just in the same way that God destroyed the world with a flood once upon a
2:29 time, he is going to purify the world with fire before he creates a new heaven and a new earth. That day is coming and yet many who don't believe will say, that'll be the day. 1 day
2:41 they'll know that that is the day, and we're gonna take a look at Revelation chapter 8 as we begin that. I wanna let you know, as we get into Revelation chapter 8 and chapter 9, there are some of the most sobering
2:51 passages of the entire book of Revelation and some of the most sobering passages in the entire Bible itself. If you're visiting with us, wanna tell you before you get started, hey, you are loved. God
3:03 loves you. He he loves you so much. He sent his son Jesus to die for you, who rose from the dead, who offers life to you. We'll visit that again, But you need to know that because as we get into these passages, they're
3:14 gonna be so sobering and so difficult to read and so difficult to hear that you'll ask this question, how could a loving God treat the earth like this? A better question
3:26 to ask is why has a holy God waited so long to do it? So as you open your Bible up to Revelation chapter 8, let's read through this chapter, and then we'll take a look at 5 truths that Revelation 8
3:38 points out about the day of the Lord. It says this, when the lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. And I saw the 7 angels who stand before God and 7 trumpets were given to
3:50 them. Another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the
4:01 throne. And the smoke of incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censor and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth and there
4:12 followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and earthquake. And the 7 angels who had the 7 trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. The first sounded and there came
4:24 hail and fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the earth and the third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded and
4:36 something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures which were in the sea that had life died and a third of the ships were
4:47 destroyed. The third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of the water. The name of the star is called wormwood and a third of the
4:58 waters became wormwood and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter. The fourth angel sounded in a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck so that
5:10 a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it and the night in the same way. Then I looked and I heard an eagle flying in mid heaven saying with a loud voice,
5:22 woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth because of the remaining blast of the trumpet of the 3 angels who are about to sound. Now as you hear this sobering passage from the
5:34 Lord, what you're gonna begin to see is how the day of the Lord is going to begin to be poured out on planet earth. We're gonna take a look at 5 truths that you need to know about the day of the Lord. And before we get
5:45 started, let's just bring everybody up to speed of what we've been talking about. This book of revelation, revelation means apocalypse or unveiling. It's a book about Jesus Christ and the unveiling of who he is
5:56 in the very last days. In chapter 1, we get a picture of the mighty king Jesus who he is. In chapters 2 and 3, we see that he walks among his churches and he loves his
6:08 church and he protects his church and he provides for his church and he cares for his church. Then in chapters 4 and 5, we saw what heavenly worship looked like as we were invited to see the throne and all that was
6:19 taking place there with the father sitting on the throne and the son taking a scroll from the father and the holy spirit in front of the throne. And then in chapter 6, we began to see what happened when the
6:31 son who was the only 1 worthy to open the seals on the scroll began to open them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and then we saw a pause. And in
6:43 chapter 7 before the seventh seal was opened, what we saw was the angels were being asked to hold back any damage done to the earth until 2 things happen.
6:55 1 was the ceiling of 144000 Jews. They were sealed, they were protected by God. They showed ownership and protection of God that they were gonna remain on the earth. And then what we saw in
7:07 Revelation 7 verse 9 was a great multitude coming up into heaven that no 1 could count. And we said that was the resurrection of all the church and the rapture of the church in
7:19 the presence of Jesus that all of us who know the Lord at this point in time have gone to heaven before the day of the Lord. And what we saw in the scriptures were that there
7:31 were several things that were going to happen before the day of the Lord would happen. Before this great and terrible day of the Lord, we saw that there were gonna be signs that there was gonna be a apostasy or falling
7:43 away of false professors in the church. We saw that the antichrist would be revealed. We saw there would be cosmic disturbances. All of these things would be signs that would happen before the
7:55 Lord would return. Jesus and his Olivet discourse said the same thing, after the tribulation of these days, then you would see the son of man appear in the sky. So there's all these things that must
8:07 happen. So we concluded last week talking about the fact that Matthew 24 and 25 highlights what is going to happen in the end. And there will be a generation of the church that will enter
8:19 the great tribulation. Could that be our generation? Possibly. If not ours, could it be the next? Possibly. If not the next, could it be the 1 after? Possibly. We don't know, but what Jesus is
8:31 preparing this church for is that while you don't know the day or the hour, there will be signs that will accompany his coming, And when you see them, you may not know the exact day and hour that Jesus is coming back,
8:41 but you know he's coming back really soon. Which means this, when you hear people predict what day Jesus is coming back, if you're not seeing all the signs that are prophesied, here's what you can
8:53 be sure of. 100 percent of the time, they're 100 percent wrong. Anybody can make a prediction about when Jesus is coming back. Jesus is like, I'm not caring about predictions because even the son does not know the day or
9:05 the hour, only the father in heaven. But I'm telling you what's going to accompany my coming so that you always live ready for my eager expectation of my return and it shouldn't make a difference
9:17 whether I come back in your lifetime or not. What should make a difference is that you're living for me completely. So what we have at the end of chapter 7 is the raptured and resurrected church
9:29 in the presence of God waving palm branches, singing praise to his name, glorifying him people from every tribe, tongue and nation. Can you picture what that's gonna be like? I don't know what that's gonna be like.
9:41 Everybody praising God in every tongue. I mean, I don't know what it's gonna be like. I know what it was at the tower of Babel where everybody spoke the same language and God said enough of this because you're doing it
9:50 for evil. So he scattered them all. But when he brings everybody back together, will it be that every language is there and while people are praising God in German and then Swahili and in English, we'll all be able to
10:01 understand what people are saying to God. I mean, it's the most incredible, beautiful picture of worship that we've ever seen or experienced. And we get the picture of this lamb, this shepherd who's wiping tears
10:13 away, who says there's no more pain. There's no more challenges for you. I'm your good shepherd and I'll be with you forever and ever. Amen. Isn't that awesome? And at this point in time,
10:25 heaven's loud. I mean, is a loud place. It's been loud the whole time. It's been loud with the 4 living creatures. It's been loud with the 24 elders. It's been loud in worship. It's been loud with angels. It's been
10:36 loud with worship. I mean, the book of revelation is loud. If you don't like it loud, just get ready. It's gonna be loud, right? Now see what happens here. Right
10:48 after the church is raptured, right after the church is resurrected, we get into chapter 8 and notice what it says. When the lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for
11:00 about a half an hour. Now remember, what we're gonna see is there were 7 seals, 6 were opened. When the seventh seal is open, now the scroll is completely able to unfold,
11:12 and everything that was inside the scroll is able to happen. And what you're gonna see are 7 trumpets. You're gonna see the wrath of God being poured out with these blasting trumpets that are gonna happen on planet
11:24 Earth. When the seventh trumpet is blown, then you're gonna see the the bold judgments come. They're consecutive, they're in order, they're not repetitive, they're different.
11:35 And what you're gonna see in these judgments with these 7 trumpets are unlike anything you've ever seen. So when it begins, when we talk about the day of the Lord, the first thing you need to understand is it
11:47 begins with the opening of the seventh seventh seal, when the lamb broke the seal. This is when the day of the Lord comes. Now, just to talk a little bit about the day of the Lord, there's so many passages that I could
11:58 reference from the Old Testament. I just picked a few so that we would have a launching pad for what we wanna talk about. And the first is this, you can write these verses down and look them up later. Obadiah, smallest
12:09 book in the entire Bible. Obadiah 1 15 says this, for the day of the Lord draws near on all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your
12:21 own head. In the book of Isaiah chapter 2, book of Isaiah chapter 2, verses 10 and 11 says this, enter the rock
12:32 and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty. Remember what we read about when the sixth seal was open, how everybody was hiding among the rocks saying come fall on us. Isaiah was
12:43 predicting that back in Isaiah chapter 2. Says the proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. Isaiah chapter
12:55 13 starting in verse 6, wail for the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands will fall limp and every man's heart will melt. They will be
13:06 terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them. They will ride like a woman in labor. They will look at 1 another in astonishment, their faces aflame. Behold, the Lord is coming cruel with fury and burning
13:18 anger to make the land a desolation and he will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not
13:29 shed its light. Thus, I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will also put an end to the arrogance and the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man
13:40 scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore, I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place and the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his
13:52 burning anger. I mean, we hear these verses, they're they're not like, oh, that's so beautiful. Very very poetic. They terrify us. They're challenging verses. In Joel
14:04 chapter 2 verses 1 to 11, I'll just read verse 11. It says this, the Lord utters his voice before his army. Surely his camp is very great for strong is he who carries out his word. The day of the Lord
14:16 is indeed great and very awesome. There is a day coming when God will pour out his wrath on all mankind for people who did not repent and turn to him.
14:28 Why? Because God's holiness cannot tolerate the sin of man. God's holiness cannot tolerate the sin of man. The question people ask, how could a loving God send anybody to hell? How could
14:40 a loving God punish us? We didn't do anything wrong. Here's the question. How in the world could a holy God wait as long as he's been waiting to punish sinners who are in rebellion towards
14:52 him? Make no mistake about it. When you sin, you're not just sending against other people, you're not just sending against yourself, you're sending against the Lord God Almighty against you and you alone have I sinned
15:02 and done what is evil in your sight. We have to realize that God is perfect. There's no other being in the universe like him, and that when we sin, there's an eternal consequence because we've sinned against an eternal
15:14 God who created us in his image to be image bearers of him. Sin has a consequence and God will meet out judgment on planet earth.
15:26 The New Testament writer said the exact same thing. In the book of second Peter, Peter writes this way, second Peter chapter 3 and verse 3, know this first of all, then in the last days mockers will come with
15:38 their mocking following their own lust and saying, where's the promise of his coming forever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. In other
15:49 words, there will be people and there are people right now who would say, yeah, you Christians have been talking about the Lord coming back for a long time. He's not coming back. All of you say that, you're all
16:01 crazy. There is no God. He's not coming. We'll never see him. Oh, but the Bible says, oh yes, you will and every knee will bow and every tongue confess in heaven and on the earth and under the earth that Jesus Christ is
16:13 Lord to the glory of God the father. He's coming back and at the end of revelation he says, yes, I am coming soon. Well, how soon is that? Well, we don't know exactly because we
16:25 haven't seen the signs that are portraying his coming. So it's not today, but we know it's soon. But here's what we do know and this is why we started in the book of Genesis. If the word of God is accurate and
16:36 inerrant, which I believe it is, then there were 2000 years from the creation of the universe to Abraham. There were another 2000 years to Jesus Christ, so that was 4000 years and there's been 2000 years
16:48 from Jesus till now. When Jesus says, I'm coming soon. When Jesus says, I'll be back. When Jesus says that the end times began when he died and rose
17:00 and ascended to heaven, friends, we're in the end times and it's soon. Trust me, it's soon. Don't know the day, don't know the hour, don't know the year, don't need to, but we need to prepare
17:12 because he is coming back. And just like in the days of Noah, they were all like, you gotta be kidding me building a boat, building an ark, what's rain? We don't even know. When Jesus returns, there won't be time
17:24 to repent. Today is the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord is that period of time where God's wrath is going to be poured out in full measure. Now make no mistake about it, his passive wrath has already begun.
17:36 We live in a day and age where you see his wrath in the world. You say, well, where do I see it? If you turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 starting in verse 18, we see God's passive wrath
17:48 being revealed on our world right now. Notice what it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
17:59 unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine
18:11 nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. God has 2 witnesses in the world, creation and conscience. You look at the world, you see
18:23 everything in the world, you recognize in your own soul, this couldn't have just happened. There has to be an intelligent designer behind this. I mean, there has to be someone who created all this. It doesn't
18:35 just happenstance kind of be here. Creation is a testimony that heavens declare the glory of God. What's the second witness? Your conscience. Why do you think about right and wrong?
18:47 Like, why is it wrong to just walk up to and put a gun in somebody's face and just shoot them at point blank range and murder them? Why would everybody in the world say that's wrong? Like, where do you get your morals?
18:57 Where do they come from? Because there's a God in the heavens that has created a moral law and has written them on our hearts so that deep down, even if we've never been told about Jesus, we understand there's a
19:09 moral compass somewhere, right? And God says everybody has that, so they're all without excuse. Verse 21, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their
19:20 speculations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools and here's why they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man
19:31 and a birds and a 4 footed animals and crawling creatures. Here's what they did. And here's what we do in our culture. We exchange the image of the glory of our God to worship what we
19:43 want in our own image. When a group of people begin to worship someone other than the God of the universe, here's what he does in verse 24. Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their
19:55 hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this
20:06 reason, God gave them over to degrading passions for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in
20:16 their desire towards 1 another. Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over
20:28 to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, are gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
20:39 arrogant, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy
20:51 of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. That's our culture. That's where we live right now. You exchange
21:03 the glory of God for what you wanna worship and what happens? There's the sexual revolution. We'll please ourselves immorally any way we want. Then God gives us over to another step, it's the homosexual
21:14 revolution. We'll exchange natural relationship to please him any way we want. And then there's a third stage where God gives people over to a depraved mind. When you get to the third stage of a depraved mind, that's
21:26 when you start calling good evil and evil good. Are we there yet? I mean, we're there. Isaiah 5 20 says, woe to them who call good evil and evil good. We're living in that culture. I mean, just
21:38 think about this, I could spend the next hour on this, but I won't. People who now call evil good and good evil. It's not considered evil, you're part of the evil guys if you wanna try to protect the lives of those of
21:50 the unborn. But you're a good guy if you try to kill babies in utero in the name of woman's health. You're evil and you're an evil guy to say that God only created 2 genders for his glory. But you're a good
22:02 guy if you say there are innumerable genders and you can claim to be whatever you want. You're an evil guy if you claim that the church is essential and it's lawful and necessary to meet without restrictions and that the
22:12 word of God commands it. But you're a good guy if you claim that the center for disease control and the World Health Organization and health officials and government representatives will be the standard for what's right
22:22 and wrong in the church. And we can stand up here and talk about doctor Seuss and we could talk about the music awards
22:34 and we could talk about any other thing that you wanna talk about. We live in a corrupt culture with corrupt people that have corrupt minds who have exchanged the truth of the glory of God to live and worship themselves
22:45 and their own world. That's the passive wrath of God. You're witnessing it among us in all of our culture. But what we're gonna read about in Revelation chapter 8, it's not the passive wrath of God. This is the active
22:55 wrath of God. And when Jesus Christ opens that seventh seal, that's when the day of the Lord will begin. That's when the wrath of God will happen. And notice what else we learned from Revelation
23:07 chapter 8 in verse 1. This loud, loud crowd, all these loud angels, all these loud living beings, everybody from every tribe, tongue and nation were all together celebrating Jesus. Can you imagine the
23:19 reunion and the reception of what it's going to be? And all of a sudden when the lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. It wasn't
23:31 just like it was a little bit noisy and got quiet. I mean, we're talking like full on decibels. I mean, can't even hear each other speak and all of a sudden dead silent. Like what happened?
23:43 See the sobering reality that God's about ready to pour out his judgment on planet earth and on all the people there is so sobering that it just gets really quiet in heaven. Because this is about to happen now. Nobody's
23:54 talking. And now it says about 30 minutes. Now we understand in heaven, God stands outside of time and space. There's no time. John is on earth. He's watching this vision. He says about 30 minutes. It's
24:06 about a half an hour. You ever sat in silence for a half an hour? It's a long time. If I stood up here and just stood here today and was like this.
24:24 That's like 7 seconds y'all. I mean, in 30 minutes. 3 years ago, I had vocal cord surgery. I couldn't talk, cough, whisper or do anything for 21 days.
24:37 Worst punishment I think I've ever had in my whole life. Right? 30 minutes of silence because there's this sobering reality that God is really serious about sin, and he's about to
24:48 do what he says that he was going to do. And so there's this silence in heaven. There's several scriptures that will highlight this, but I wanna turn have you turn to 1. It's in Zephaniah chapter 1,
25:00 4 books from the end of your old testament. Go Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, but Zephaniah 1 7, you see this prophesied. It says this, be silent before the Lord.
25:13 Be silent before the Lord. Why? For the day of the Lord is near. That means the day of the Lord is at hand. That means the day of the Lord is about ready to begin. Be silent because God's about ready to begin his wrath.
25:23 For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests. Passage is dripping with sarcasm. It says if God's saying, I'm gathering all of those who have rebelled against me, they're my guests
25:35 for my wrath that I'm about ready to pour out on them because they did not believe in the provision of my son that I gave to them. Now here's what you need to be aware of before we get into this. Okay, remember, the
25:47 wrath of God is not poured out upon believers in Jesus Christ. We know this because at this point in time, we're already in heaven and we also know this from the scriptures that it's promised that the wrath of God will
25:58 not be poured out on us. In first Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 10, he tells us why this wrath is not intended for us. First Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 10 says that
26:10 we are to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come. In first Thessalonians 5 9, for God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation
26:22 through our Lord Jesus Christ. Why would God not pour out wrath on Christians? Here's why. Because for those of us who believe, we recognize that God the father poured out all of his wrath on his
26:33 son on a cross on Good Friday. And that every thing that was intended to punish you for your sin was placed on his son and all of
26:45 your sin was completely paid for. And when you trust Jesus Christ, the wrath is removed from you. It was placed on his son. It's completely satisfactory and God has no desire
26:57 to pour out his wrath on you. Ain't that good news? So you say, well, who's his wrath intended for? John 3 16 says, for God so loved the world so much that he gave his
27:09 only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but should have eternal life. Verse 17 says, for that God did not send his son into the world in order to judge the world, but that the world might be
27:19 saved through him. We love that. Next week abandonment, I'm preaching the gospel. I'm preaching to lost sinners who need a deliverer and a savior. We're gonna see hundreds come to Christ next week, I
27:31 promise. By faith, I'm promising. Right? But why do we need to do that? Because verse 18 tells us, he who believes in him, that's those of us who are Christians is not judged. He who does not believe
27:42 has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son. Verse 36, he who believes in the son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the son will not see life but
27:54 the wrath of God abides on him. Non believers already have God's wrath over them. The reason they need to hear the gospel is so they can take the wrath that's over them and
28:06 place it on the son and exchange their sin for Christ's righteousness. We're not Christians because we're good people, we're Christians because God awakened our hearts by faith and showed us that
28:18 through Christ and Christ alone, God's wrath could be removed from us and placed on his son and Jesus Christ willingly took all the wrath of the father and drank the cup of suffering to the full, so you'd never have to
28:29 experience an ounce of God's wrath. Isn't that good news? So the wrath of God is not for you, but it begins with the seventh seal and there's silence in heaven because of the sobering action
28:41 that is about to take place. And notice what happens. Verse 2, and I saw the 7 angels who stand before God and the 7 trumpets were given to
28:52 them. Apparently, there's a group of angels that stand before God to do his bidding. Apparently, there's a heavenly council of angels, and they were handed 7 trumpets. Now why are trumpets such a big deal? Trumpets
29:04 are used in the old and new testament to do many different things. They're sometimes used in religious feast, they're sometimes used in worship. If you wanna study more about trumpets this week, I encourage you to go to
29:15 Numbers chapter 10. Numbers chapter 10 verses 1 through 10, you'll see some of the ways that God uses trumpets for the nation of Israel. They were used to gather or assemble the entire nation or
29:27 if 1 trumpet instead of 2 was blown, it was to gather the leaders. You use it when they're assembling for war. They use it because it's a reminder that God is your God.
29:39 That's why the trumpets were blown. All sorts of different reasons. That's why it's no surprise that a trumpet is blown when God raptures his saints. It's showing an assembly of his people, a gathering of his people, a
29:50 come up here, let's be together. That's what trumpets were used for. It's not surprising that in the book of Joshua, when they were gonna take out Jericho, that in Joshua
30:02 chapter 6 in verse 4, 1 of their strategies was this, also 7 priests shall carry 7 trumpets of ram's horn before the ark, and then on the seventh day you shall march around the city 7 times and the
30:14 priest shall blow the trumpets. So 7 priests blowing 7 trumpets brought complete destruction to that city. What do we see in the book of Revelation starting in chapter 8? There are gonna be 7 trumpets that are blown by 7
30:26 angels and when the trumpet judgments are done, the kingdom of this world and of his Christ will be Jesus and he will reign forever and ever. Amen. It's complete judgment on the world.
30:37 That's what we see with these trumpets. So back to Revelation chapter 8, they're given these trumpets and notice this verses 4 and 5. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of
30:48 the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar and threw it to the earth and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake and the 7 angels
31:00 who had the 7 trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. So before the angels get ready to sound their trumpet, I want you to pay attention to 1 thing. God is still hearing the prayers of the saints. As incense is
31:11 rising, as the prayers of God's people are going up, you need to understand a few things about prayer. Number 1 is this, our prayers are pleasing to God. When we pray, there's an aroma that goes to God where
31:23 he loves it when we pray to him. It's pleasing to the Lord. Number 2, our prayers are heard by God. Does God really hear me when I pray? Yes. 100
31:35 percent of the time. God loves his children and loves when his children pray. And this is what we're gonna see too, prayer is answered by God. Prayer is answered by God. And when the disciples asked
31:47 Jesus how to pray and Jesus taught his disciples to pray, part of the prayer that he taught them to pray was our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then what what do we pray? What did the saints prayed
31:57 for generations and generations? Let your kingdom come, Let your will be done where on the earth as it is in heaven. God is getting ready to answer that
32:09 prayer to the full. I mean, was we pray that prayer, what we're praying is God, let us live in such a way that my life reflects the values of heaven while I'm on this earth. But what we're really praying is, Lord 1 day
32:20 come and bring justice to the earth and let your heavenly reign be on this planet. Do what only you can do. And God's about ready to answer that prayer. Jesus is about ready to take over
32:32 as the king of kings, as the lord of lords, as the rightful 1. Now these are not vindictive prayers that the saints are praying. It's not as if the saints arrive in heaven or you and I get in heaven and we're saying, God
32:42 go kill them. We can't stand those people down there. Not vindictive prayers. Their prayers about his victory and his authority and his worthiness to rule on the planet. It's prayers
32:54 for his holiness and how wonderful he is. It's prayer saying, God establish your holy rule on the planet and do whatever it takes to make sure that you are seen as the king of
33:06 kings and the Lord of lords. That's what we're praying. That's what the saints wanna see. We wanna see that God must punish sin. We wanna see that God shows the world that the
33:18 substitutionary atonement of Christ was foundational and that his wrath was completely satisfied at the cross. What we're praying for God to do what he wants to do and as these prayers are going up, he takes this sensor
33:30 or this more like this frying pan type of pot or something. And as it's filled with the prayers and incense of the people, he
33:41 fills it up and he fills it up and notice what he fills it up with. He filled it with the fire of the altar and he threw it to the earth. And so before these trumpets are even played, there's thunder and there's sounds
33:53 and there's flashes of lightning and an earthquake. I mean, you see that God is serious about the judgment that's about ready to happen. Now you think about this for a while. When you know judgment
34:05 is imminent, when you know judgment is coming, sometimes what's worse than the actual punishment that's coming is the waiting for it to happen.
34:17 Some of you may have your own stories. Wait till your father gets home. Something along those lines, right? I mean, the earth has just seen Jesus who can stand. They're crying out
34:28 rocks come following us, then the sun goes dark, the moon turns to blood and in the appearance of the sky is Jesus and all the dead in Christ are resurrected and then we who are alive give our resurrected bodies and
34:39 we're all caught up with him and the whole world is mourning and they're not crying because, oh, I should have repented. They're mourning because they know judgment is imminent And then there's 30 minutes while they're
34:50 sitting there on the earth waiting for God's heavy hand of judgment to come. That's the picture that we get here. And during that time, God's just receiving the prayers and praises of his saints that are gathered
35:02 around his throne saying, God show yourself worthy, God show yourself holy, God vindicate yourself, you are so worthy of all of this. Begins with the opening of the seventh seal, it's show silence in
35:13 heaven for about 30 minutes and then the day of the Lord answers the prayers of his people. It answers the prayers of his people. God is gonna answer the prayers of his people. When we pray in accordance with the word
35:25 of God, he answers our prayers. 1 of the prayers he's gonna answer is letting his kingdom come, letting his will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. God's gonna answer that prayer.
35:38 Then we get into the trumpet judgments, and these trumpet judgments are really hard to read. Many people, even good biblical scholars want to spiritualize these because they are so harsh that we wanna
35:49 say, how could I mean, I can't even fathom it's so beyond my understanding and how do we even figure out how this is all gonna work? I don't know every answer to what I'm about ready to read. I just know it's
36:01 severe. I like taking the Bible literally if I can, and right here I see no reason to take these things figuratively. Because I see God's holiness on display in such a way that he's saying, I was always
36:13 worthy of your praise. I was always worthy of your honor. I was always worthy of your glory. There's 144000 Jews that have been sealed that won't be touched by any of this, but I want you to know that
36:25 for those who didn't trust me, judgment is now eminent. And here's what we see on the day of the Lord that God punishes without mercy. He punishes without mercy. We live in a day and age where God's mercy is at
36:37 the forefront. It's his mercy that leads us to Christ. If you've come to brave church today and say, I've never trusted Jesus and this is scaring me to death. Hey, good news for you. God loves you so much. He died for
36:48 you. He rose for you. He's willing to embrace you and take you in and no matter how much you've sinned or no matter how many bad things you think you've done or no matter what you think people would think if they found
36:58 you out. Jesus would tell you this, I know him already. I know everything about you and I loved you so much. I came and laid down my life on a cross for you and rose from the dead. Come to me, exchange your sin
37:10 for my righteous life. I'll take your deadness. I'll give you eternal life. Come to me. If you hear the Lord's voice, do not harden your heart, come to him. But this is a time period
37:21 past that now. Where God's saying, okay, I've been patient. I bore with great patience and the reason I haven't come yet is I desired all people to know me, but now he's gonna punish without mercy. Notice these trumpets.
37:33 Verse 7, the first sounded, that's the first trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up
37:45 and all the green grass was burned up. How about that? It's devastating. I mean, 1 of the plagues in Egypt was hail and fire, right? Think it was about the seventh plague or somewhere
37:57 around there. This is hail and fire mixed with blood. Now, how does that work? Like I don't even know what that means. Blood can be used to describe literal blood. It can be used to describe the picture of a
38:09 blood red scene. I don't know what it means. I know I don't wanna be here and be part of it. I don't know if it's because the hail is coming down and it's burning all the vegetation and some of the hail so big that it's
38:19 crushing people and bloods going everywhere. I don't know. It's just not this pleasant picture that I wanna be a part of. It's God's wrath. He's pouring it out. He's saying this is just trumpet number 1 and what you'll
38:31 notice about God, especially in these trumpet judgments, you'll see a third, a third, a third. Now I'm not a mathematician, so you can check my math on all the stuff I'm about ready to tell you in these sections, right?Show more
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