The Nature of the Tribulation

Transcript

GR 430
1/17/1982
The Nature of the Tribulation
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

Good to have you here today. Many of you were froze-up last week and it's good to be back to a little more of a normal condition. It's amazing how warm nine of ten degrees can seem after some really cold, cold weather. We're moving along in our consideration of God's prophetic plan. In our last study together we looked at what God said about the apostate church. That religious organization that will be functioning during the first three and a half years of the tribulation. That ecumenical church described in Revelation chapter 17 as Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations. Saw that this will be the final form of religion in the western world in particular.in the first three and a half years of the tribulation. When that system is destroyed, the only worship allowed in the world will be the worship of the antichrist for three and a half years leading up to the return of Jesus Christ to earth.

As we talk about the seven years tribulation, that seven-year period following the rapture of the church where—in which time, God is pouring out many judgments on the earth. I want to spend our time today just looking at something of the character or nature of that seven-year period. What will it be like? What will be the characteristics of that time? What will be some of the things transpiring during that seven-year period? We are going to center our attention primarily in the Book of Revelation. And primarily in chapter 6 because of the time that we have. You've got to understand that from chapter 6 to chapter 19 of Revelation is a detailed description of the seven-years tribulation. So if we wanted to do a detailed study of that seven-year period, it would entail doing a detailed study of Revelation chapter 6 through 19. But we are simply going to pull out some of the highlights and the characteristics of the period. We're going to talk about what will the seven-year period, this seven-year tribulation period be like. One word which would characterize it would be the word "wrath". It is a time of wrath.
Two-fold wrath. It is a time of God's wrath. It is also a time of Satan's wrath.
So the entire seven-year period is characterized as a time of wrath. First and primarily of God's wrath. Look in the Book of Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6 and verse 16. "And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." This is the cry of those who are going through this seven-year tribulation. Verse 17, "For the great day of their wrath has come;" Their wrath is the wrath of the one who sits on the throne in verse 16 and the wrath of the Lamb, "Hide us from the wrath of God the Father and God the Son for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand?" The seven- year tribulation period is the time when God pours forth His wrath upon the earth in judgment for their rejection of Him; their unwillingness to have Him as their God and His Son as their Savior, So we'll see in our limited exposure this morning a time, of unparalleled catastrophe because it's the time of God's wrath poured out against the sinfulness of mankind, Against sinful human beings.

Now also this seven-year period is a time of Satanic wrath. Now God's wrath is directed towards the world as a whole—towards the inhabitants of the earths— primarily unbelievers since believers will have been raptured at the beginning of the tribulation, However, during the seven-years tribulation, great multitudes of people will experience salvation, I do not believe that the Bible teaches that if a person has heard the gospel and has not believed it, after the rapture, they will have no chance. Death settles a person's decision, A person who dies in unbelief, will spend eternity in hell. But until physical death occurs, a person has opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ. After the rapture of the church, multitudes of people will be saved. A number so great that they can't be counted, John refers to them in the Revelation. Now, how will they be saved? Variety of possibilities, I think perhaps many of those converts will be the result of the testimony of believers before the rapture. I the rapture would occur today, there are many people that you've witnessed to, many people that you've shared the gospel with, many people
that have been exposed to the truth of the Word of God. Perhaps the rapture and the events surrounding it will be used of the Spirit to draw many of these to salvation in Himself. But it will be after the rapture of the church. The Spirit will be dealing with many people leading right up to the rapture of the church. There will be people who have heard the gospel, who are contemplating whether they should believe in Jesus Christ, and the rapture will occur and they have not believed, A person who believes two minutes after the rapture is left to go through the tribulation. So perhaps many of those who are saved are saved as a result of the testimonies given by believers before the rapture and the Spirit works and they are saved following the rapture.

There will be some specific testimonies given during the tribulation. Revelation chapter 11 indicates that God will raise up two witnesses who will have a mighty prophetic ministry during half of the tribulation—forty-two months. In Revelation chapter 11 verse 3, "I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days," That period of time was noted as forty-two months at the end of verse 2, A prophetic year in Scripture is 360 days—^rounded off to 360, Forty-two months, three and a half years, And something of their description, verse 5, "If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. They have power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony" the antichrist will have them executed. I think that perhaps these two witnesses will carry on their ministry during the first three and a half years of the tribulation and through the power of their supernatural prophetic ministry, perhaps multitudes come to salvation, whatever means God uses, we know for sure that great numbers from all nations are saved in the tribulation.

Now, these individuals, along with the nation Israel as a nation, become the direct objects of Satanic wrath during the seven-year tribulation. Look in Revelation chapter 12 and the Satanic wrath is particularly manifested against Israel in the last three and a half years. But throughout the earth during the entire seven years, Satan's wrath is directed towards believers and perhaps even the apostate church -will be a vehicle in the persecution and execution of many true believers during the first three and a half years of the tribulation.

Revelation chapter 12. And what happens in chapter 12, Satan is cast out of heaven. Now, we recognize that Satan has lost his privileged position in God's presence. He no longer occupies that exalted position of being the anointed cherub that covers the throne of God. But Satan still has his access into the presence of God, You see this most clearly in the Book of Job in the Old Testament where Satan comes and presents himself in heaven in the presence of God and God enters into conversation with him. Now Satan still has that access into the presence of God today, He will lose his access in the middle of the tribulation. This is one of the cataclysmic events that bring a marked change in what is going to happen on the earth and there is war in heaven in verse 7 of Revelation chapter 12, Satan is cast out of the presence of God.

Then down to verse 12, "For this reason, rejoice, 0 heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and sea, because the devil has come down to you having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child." Analogy here that's been developed in this chapter. The woman is Israel, because it's out of the nation Israel that Christ was born. Israel bore the Messiah and the nation. So that's the picture here, the woman represents Israel. He begins an intense period of persecution of the nation Israel. He vents his wrath upon the people of God, the chosen nation. So for the last three and a half years of the tribulation, Israel is the particular object of the wrath of Satan. So the tribulation—a time of God's wrath poured out on the earth and its entirety, directed particularly to the unbeliever. But naturally the believer on earth will be caught up in these catastrophic events. You have earthquakes, you have famines, encompassing the earth and naturally the believers here will suffer in that as well. But God's wrath is particularly directed toward the unbelieving world. Satan's wrath is directed towards those who come to trust Christ in the tribulation and the Jews as a whole. Israel as a whole will be the object of satanic persecution. It doesn't matter whether they have come to believe in Christ or not. They are the object of Satan's hatred because God has selected them as a special nation.

Come back to Revelation chapter 6 The Book of Revelation is structured around three sets of judgments. Three series of seven judgments each. You start out with the seal, then you have the trumpets, and then you have the bowls. You have seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. The picture with the seals is of a scroll rolled up and you'd write on the scroll and then you'd roll it so far and seal it with wax. You'd write some more, roll it so far and seal it. And then when you would unroll it, you'd break a seal and you could read the first judgment, then break the next seal, you could unroll it further and read judgment number two, number three, on down, With the trumpets—every time a trumpet is blown, a judgment takes place on the earth from God, Then the final series of judgments are the bowls. Every time a bowl is turned over, judgment is spilled out on the earth and there is a progressive severity in these judgments. The seals are first and they are the mildest. Now you have to say "mildest" in the context of these three series of judgments. Because they are more sever that anything the world has ever seen. But then the trumpets follow, and they are worse than the seals. And you get to the bowls, the earth is in danger of annihilation under the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan. In Revelation chapter 6 what we have are the seal judgments poured out. Just mention to you—in Revelation chapter 6 you have the seals, the seal judgments. Revelation chapter 8 and 9 have the trumpet judgments. And then Revelation chapter 16 has the bowl judgments. So if you want to read about these judgments, take some time this afternoon and read Revelation chapter 6, Revelation chapters 8 and 9 and Revelation chapter 16 and you'll get something of the picture of these series of judgments moving along. I take it they are sequential. They are broken up in Revelation by explanatory chapters but the trumpets follow on the seals and out of the seven seals come the trumpet judgments. Out of the seventh trumpet, come the bowl judgments and they move the tribulation along.

All right, in Revelation chapter 6, the seals begin to be broken. Revelation the first three chapters had to do with the church. The church is removed after chapter 3 of Revelation, The rapture has occurred. Revelation chapters 4 and 5 give you a throne-room scene in heaven. The church in glory in the presence of God in heaven. Then with Revelation chapter 6 we come to the earth and God’s wrath being poured out upon the earth. In chapter 6 through 19 give the seventieth week of Daniel. This seven-year period of trial and tribulation.

The first four judgment of the seals are presented as horsemen and horses that come out, a seal is broken and a horse comes to the fore. So this is often called the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And you hear many messages on the four horsemen of the apocalypse because it's a sort of a catchy title, It comes from these first four judgments in the first eight verses of Revelation chapter 6, "I saw when the Lamb broke on of the seven seals" The Lamb, Jesus Christ you see, is the one pouring out His wrath. And here He is the one who breaks the seal, "I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come", John is invited now to come and behold in a vision this judgment, "I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering, and to conquer." Now this does not refer to Jesus Christ. When we get over the chapter 19, Jesus will come on a white horse.
But that's seven years later in time. The whole order is different. I take it the reference here is to that false messiah that we've already talked about—the anti christ. Here is Satan's counterfeit as he is presented to the world. He comes as a conqueror. Wearing a Stephanos, a crown. The crown of a victor. Remember in Daniel chapter 7, the antichrist comes to power by conquering three of the ten kingdoms in the western world confederacy. Then he proceeds to solidify his power over the western world and ultimately over the world. So he is a conqueror. He's Satan's imitation messiah. And when Christ comes in Revelation chapter 19, He comes wearing a diadem, the crown of the proper sovereign, the one who rules by right.

Now the antichrist will be revealed then after the rapture. That fits the pattern that we have. Revelation chapter 6, we are in the tribulation. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when we studied that, made clear that the antichrist will not be revealed until after the rapture. And here we have at the beginning of the judgments, the antichrist comes out conquering and the conqueror. And we've looked at him in some detail, so we won't spend any more time with him.

The next seal that is broken. Verse three. "He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, 'Come', And another, a red horse went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him." A red horse here. Seeming to depict battle and bloodshed. The great sword given. The waring that will be going on and you'll note, if we have time we'll go back and just observe this, in Matthew 24, we have a parallel through the opening part of that chapter with Revelation chapter 6. And Jesus there said that there would be wars and rumors of wars, And when you get down into the opening part of the great tribulation, the seven-year period, there are wars going on at an accelerated pace. And people are being killed in these wars. There's great bloodshed. So a characteristic is war; and you note it's part of God's judgment to have the peoples of the world killing themselves in these battles. So it is futile—futility—to devote energy thinking that we can bring peace to the world. Now that doesn't mean that we ought not to desire peace, but I believe believers ought to be realists. There is no hope of any kind, in any way that peace will ever be realized in any real sense on the earth until Jesus Christ comes. Now there may be periods of slack where there are less wars and less destruction and more wars and more destruction. But the general pattern is deteriorating and in the tribulation one of the judgments of God is accelerated warfare, and accelerated destruction associated with warfare. That's the red horse, the second seal judgment.

Verse 5: The third seal, the third horseman depicts famine here. So we have conquering, particularly under the antichrist in the first horse, -we have war under the second horse, now we come to famine. You can see how these would often be related and associated with one another, "He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, ’Come', And I looked, and behold, a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand," He has a pair of balances to weigh things. To weigh the food. And it symbolizes a careful rationing of food in the world. That this horseman comes with the balances because, the food is going to be so scarce that it must be carefully weighed and rationed on that level. He is a black horse, and a black horse is used in Scripture to depict and point to suffering.

Look back to the Book of Lamentations. Back in your Old Testament, sandwiched between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Those two large books, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, You get something of the character of the Book of Lamentations since its title gives it away. This is the lamentations of Jeremiah. His wailings. And in Lamentations chapter 4 Jeremiah is describing the famine and so on that is a result of the City of Jerusalem being under siege when the armies would surround it and cut off the food supply. And as
the weeks and months wore on, famine would overtake those in the city and the picture verse 8: "Their appearance is blacker than soot," Note, the blackness picturing the suffering and death associated with the famine, "Their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin is shriveled on their bones, it is withered, it has become like wood. Better are those slain with the sword than those slain with hunger; for they pine away, being stricken for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of compassionate women boiled their own children; they became food for them because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord has accomplished His wrath, He has poured out His fierce anger; and He has kindled a fire in Zion which has consumed its foundations," So you see the famine a result in Lamentations of the wrath of God, You come to the tribulation, the wrath of God being poured out again with more fierceness and famine is the result. Come back to Revelation chapter 6, the black horse. For the Jews the picture is clear. Their minds could run to the Book of Lamentations clearly—the famine. Verse 6; "I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; do not harm the oil and the wine,” A denarius was a working-man’s wage for a day. It would normally buy eight quarts of wheat or twenty-four quarts of barley. So what you have is one eighth of the normal food supply. One eighth, of the normal food supply, You don’t have to be a great mathematician or a great student of agriculture and the food supply to have some concept of what would happen in the world if 7/8's of the food supply was cut off, There'd be famine and starvation on a level that we cannot conceive of. Note it says a "measure of wheat", a quart of wheat. That’s what a laboring man would eat in one meal, They have this man's entire wage going to provide one meal for one person. Obviously, you have a hopeless situation. The food is so scarce and the cost is out of line—out of reach. Oil and wine—luxury items and it's almost, you see something of the wrath of God--I want to say tantalizing by the cruelness. It's almost like the wheat, the barley are gone but there's caviar. But if you can't afford to buy the wheat and the barley, what are you going to do with the caviar? It just compounds the hopelessness of the entire situation, that a few of these luxury items are there but they are of no value, they are out of reach. It's a hopeless state. I jotted down a statistic a number of years ago and I haven't bothered to-update it. That ten thousand people a day starve to death in the world. It may have gone up since I jotted that down. I want to note that here because, I think important to see, after you read through these judgments, you wonder how any kind of normal activity goes on in the world. But in the Book of Matthew, Jesus said that people will be marrying and giving in marriage right up until the time that Jesus Christ intervenes in judgment. You say how this can go on. But the fact that ten thousand people a day starve to death in the world—ten thousand people will starve to death in the world today—won't affect basically how you and I go about our activity. We'll still go home and eat more than we should and snack all day and still look around for more. And I'm not saying that's right or wrong, because if you eat less today it still won't change the fact that ten thousand people will starve in the world. But you can see how a great catastrophe can be going on in one area, and another part of the world relatively ineffective—unaffected.

In the last week or so one of the news magazines had an article on children as the victims of war. And some of you probably read that. You see these children, it always moves you when the children are caught up in these disasters. You see them suffering in such a way in so many parts of the world. But that really leaves us relatively unaffected. We still go about with our kids and do basically what we do —buy them a new bike or take them out for pizza or go about. The fact that there are so many children going through tremendous suffering in various parts of the world, we are relatively unaffected. Now I'm not saying that because we ought to do things differently or not, I'm saying that so we appreciate what's going on in the tribulation. There may be in the midst of all this, parts of the world that seem relatively unaffected at times, So that there can be a degree of normalcy in some areas while there's such great and tremendous suffering in other areas. That's just a possibility since there is some degree of normal life going on as Jesus says right up to the time of His second coming. People will be marrying, giving in marriage, going on in the normal routine.

There'll be tremendous famines. All right, the fourth seal. I mention this and you ought to fix it in your mind because as you read the news in the newspapers, the news magazines, watch it on television, it fixes in your mind. You see some of the preparation and the groundwork being laid. I thought that was interesting, we were talking about this the other night at a Bible study I was attending when we had the warning of another winter storm coming and some were saying that they went to the store that day and it was mobbed. The store was out of milk, it was out of bread. It doesn't take very long for panic to set in, You see it more do clearly then in a country like Poland with the short food, supplies. Now i/want to say something here, I don't have any problem if you stock food and I stock it, but probably not the way I should, I don't think you can prepare for the tribulation, So I think that’s almost a hopeless case, I don't think there’s any future in saying, "Well I'd better get my food supplies built up a little longer," Now you may want to do that out of wisdom or the general flow of things, but you can't prepare for the tribulation. It's going to encompass people to a depth and a degree that would be hopeless to try to prepare for. And besides its seven years, so try to stock up seven years of food. By then your neighbors are going to know so they'll probably shoot you to get into your house to steal your food, So then you've got to arm yourself to the teeth and a, you know it becomes a hopeless state,

All right. The fourth seal. The fourth horseman, Verse 7: "He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, 'Come', I looked, and behold, an ashen horse (a pale horse, an ashen horse, a yellowish green.
That sick lock—a look of death. Greenish-yellow pale color. The color of this horse) He who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him." So here is death in the broad sense. We’ve seen it particularly with the conquering, with the war, with the famine. But here now is death in the broad sense. That will encompass the people of the tribulation in a variety of ways. You have death. Now that means people dying. Hades is following along after death. Because at death, people don’t cease to exist. Their bodies die and they as persons, being unbelievers, go to Hades. So it's like Hades is following along to collect the souls of those who are dying. Gathering them into torment to await final sentencing into hell. A rather gruesome and awesome picture, you see how fierce the wrath of God can be. There’s no mercy associated here. But the picture is one of fierce wrath. Note the end of verse 8:"And authority was given to them (to death and hades) over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine, with pestilence and the wild beasts, of the earth." One-fourth of the earth’s population is dying in these judgments. Now, again you don't have to be a great mathematician. If the population of the earth is four billion, that will be one billion people dying in these judgments. And these aren’t the bad ones yet, keep in mind, we started out with those that are less sever. Obviously there is tremendous severity here so that’s why I say when I say that the seals are less severe than the trumpets, you have to compare them with each other because they are more severe than anything else we could compare them with, What would happen if 750 million to a billion people were to die in the world? Unparalleled catastrophe.

Look over in chapter 9, just for comparison, Chapter 9 you have the sixth trumpet sounded. So when you get to chapter 9, you've already done the seals and now you're into the trumpets. What you have is a building here. I take it the seal judgments will go on through the tribulation and then the trumpet judgments are added to the seal judgments. So the famines aren't over, but now to the famines and the wars and so on, you've added these judgments. Now in Revelation chapter 9 with the sixth trumpet. And we'll be talking about this a little bit later because here you have an army of 200 million coming from the east. But note verse 15 of Revelation 9: "And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they might kill a third of mankind." Awesome. Here you have another third of mankind being killed. So you had one quarter killed. Now you have another third killed. So you see you come to the point where half the earth's population have been killed in these particular judgments, this is just one trumpet, the sixth trumpet sounds. And connected with that judgment, one third of the earth's population is to die. Then you had the seal—the fourth seal—one quarter. You add this to all the other judgments and you can appreciate the fact that in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus said, if He did not intervene and cut those days short, there would not be a person left alive on the face of the earth. That's how rapidly people are dying. By the time you get to the end of the seven-years tribulation with the building effect of all these judgments pressing in upon one another, people are being killed and dying so fast in the -world that Jesus said, If I didn't intervene there wouldn't be a person left alive on the face of the earth. Awesome. We cannot grasp or conceive of such a situation. But that's what we're moving towards in the world. Catastrophes on the level we've never seen. Come back to Revelation chapter 6 you note the judgments here in the end of verse 8—sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts. And I think that last one is interesting, the wild beasts. The others are pretty clear, but wild beasts? In I was interested in reading an article some time ago that in India ten thousand a year people die of snake bites. Little different situation there, I never had a desire to go to India; and when I read that, it solidified the fact that I didn't have any desire to go, I can get bitten at home as well as there. Evidently during the tribulation some of the fear of animals that they have for humanity will be removed and with the food situation, there will be then an increased problem that even the animals will be turning on people. And in their weakened condition they're more vulnerable and so on.

Now back in Revelation chapter 6. You have a fifth seal broken and here you see martyrs. And we ought to just note this, you see something of those who are believers and their death. Verse 9: "And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained." The picture here now—John's vision is carried to heaven to see the souls of the martyred now in the presence of God. They are under the altar because the picture here is they have been sacrificed. In the Old Testament—Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 4:7— the blood of the sacrifice is poured out under the altar. So they are pictured under the altar because they are pictured as having been sacrificed. Been offered as a sacrifice to God. "I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained". You note here. They had given their lives for their testimony for Jesus Christ. So you see what has happened. That following the rapture, multitudes are saved but evidently a large number, perhaps the majority of these who are saved in the tribulation, are going to give their lives as martyrs. The apostate church will have no sympathy toward true believers. That has happened earlier in church history as well. So even though organized religion will be flourishing during the first three and a half years tribulation, it still will not be a conducive atmosphere for those who are true believers because organized religion the apostate system—has always hated with passion true believers. And we ought not to lose sight of that today. There is no love lost in that realm no matter what the terminology and language that is used, "They cried out with a loud voice saying" Verse 10, "How long 0 Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" They are looking for the time when God will intervene and deal in justice and righteousness with the wickedness of mankind. Now you note here, they cry out for revenge but evidently that's not wrong. They’re doing this in heaven in the presence of God. Because it is right and just for a holy God to punish sinful human beings. So they are simply crying out for God to display the holiness of His character in avenging Himself on sinful men.

Amazing, A person who does not believe in the wrath of God. Does not believe in the reality of hell. Does not believe in the reality of punishment for sin, does that because of his own willful ignorance and rejection of the word of God, You don't have to read very much of the Word of God to find out that God hates sin and will punish sin and the sinner alike. You note He is to avenge and judge those who dwell on the earth. People are the objects of this judgment. "There was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer." Interesting. "Until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed," You note how completely God is in control? He has determined that certain ones should be martyred for their faith. And until His purposes and plans in that realm are accomplished, He will not intervene to preserve and deliver them, I take it that deliverance will come when Christ personally comes. For the sake of the elect, He intervenes. To spare some of them alive that they might go into the Millennium in their physical body. But God is in total control. I take it this will be something of a comfort to those who come to believe in the tribulation as they read this that it will be a reminder to them that most of them will be martyred. That’s one of the consequences for not having believed in Jesus Christ before the rapture. I believe that people who heard and rejected, believe after the rapture. But they’ll come into a period of time of intense suffering, persecution, and will in all probability be martyred for their faith. That’s why the hundred and forty-four thousand from Israel will have to be sealed in Revelation chapter 7. To guarantee a remnant from every tribe of Israel to survive this awful period that they might go into the Millennium and populate the earth. That Israel might be the nation that is center in the earth in those days. So you have the martyrs then under the fifth seal and the judgment that will be poured out even on the saints. And even though Satan’s wrath is directed toward them, it's under God’s control. He is determining that now is the time that His people may be martyred on the earth.

The sixth seal. "And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; the sun became as black as sackcloth... the whole moon became like blood." Now you note there is a picture here. The sun became black as sackcloth—the moon became like blood. It doesn't say the moon became blood, but it became like blood. "The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." Now here at a series of six catastrophic events going to occur. Come down through this section. A great earthquake. He opens the sixth seal, a great earthquake. Matthew chapter 24, verse 7 refers to this. You can just jot it down, we won’t have time to go to Matthew 24 this morning. Read Matthew 24 sometime this afternoon and you’ll see the parallel there obviously with Revelation chapter 6. This tremendous earthquake. And incidentally, we see something of earthquakes and their power today. Where does a person go to hide from an earthquake? You know, it’s a hopeless thing. You see the people running out of the buildings to stand in the street because the best you can hope for is to get to an open spot. But that doesn't guarantee you much security. There will be tremendous earthquakes in the tribulation. And here is a single great earthquake.

The sun is darkened. Became black as sackcloth. Now this goes back to Joel's prophecy in Joel chapter 2. The events here are the fulfillment of what Joel said. Remember Peter quoted from this in Acts chapter 2? When he talks about the sons and daughters prophesying, then he goes on to quote the rest of Joel's prophecy. With the sun becoming black and the moon becoming as blood and the first part of Joel's prophecy was fulfilled in connection with the first coming of Christ, in events surrounding the first coining when prophesying vent on. The speaking in tongues, the miracle gifts. Nov down immediately preceding the second coming of Christ, the rest of that prophecy will have fulfillment. These great signs in the heavens. I feel strongly that those who say that those signs of the sons and daughters prophesying and the miracles have to be going on all this time because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, are not honest in their dealing with the Word of God. Have you looked at the sun lately? Is it black? The moon blood? Are these other things happening? Well, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever that just doesn’t mean though that He does everything the same every day, Amazing the nonsense that some Christians go around babbling, All right, I won’t get off the subject. But that's on the subject, Remember Revelation chapter 6 the next time someone takes you to Acts chapter 2 to try to show you that you ought to speak in tongues or that these miracles ought to be going on, I’ll believe it if the sun was black all the time and the moon was blood all the time and all these other signs in the heavens were going on.

They’ll go on in a very limited period of time, associated with the second coming of Christ and those other miraculous things went on during a limited sphere of time around the first coming of Christ, The pattern is obvious and clear and no confusion. The stars of the sky fell to the earth. The moon being reddened, that’s out of Joel 2 as well. It became like blood. I take it the stars falling probably refers to things like meteor showers where the earth is bombarded by the perhaps great chunks—meteor chunks—they crash into the earth causing great devastation. The sky was split apart. So you have the great earthquake, the sun darkened, the moon is blood, the meteor shower—objects from space crashing into the earth—now you have heaven opened. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The tremendous shaking going on on the earth is what is depicted here. "Then the kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders, the rich and the strong, every slave every free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains." Note there’s no distinction here among the classes. It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, whether you're powerful or weak. Everybody's doing the same thing, they're trying to hide because evidently as the skies are rent open for a brief time, there is given a glimpse to the earth of the throne room in heaven and it causes great fear among the inhabitants of the earth. And the peoples of the earth are caused to fear. "They said to the rocks—the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb," Now you note here what all this judgment does. All this awesome power does, is provoke in them fear and terror, But it does not move them to faith in Jesus Christ, Easy as you read these judgments and say, "Oh, these poor people" but it demonstrates how wretchedly sinful we really are. Because even under the full brunt of the wrath of God, we'll find people cursing God through the Book of Revelation for His judgments. Cowering in fear and terror but unwilling, none the less, to believe in Him, So through the tribulation you(see the wrath of God but sinful men are unwilling to bend the knee and believe in Christ even in the face of the wrath of God, Through the Millennium we'll see the grace and mercy of God on the Millennial earth, and find under those perfect righteous conditions, sinful men still unwilling to bend the knee and believe in Jesus Christ, That the problem is the sinfulness of the human heart. That set, stubborn rebellion against God that even though He vents His fury against me, still I won't believe, so they're in terror, they're in fear, they're crying out to be hidden. But they're not crying out for salvation, "Whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." That's in Joel, The context that we're talking about here. Quoted by Peter in Acts chapter 2, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," They won't call because they're unwilling to believe, the same as people today. You present the truth of the Word of God to them, you share with them the great love of God in providing His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for them. And they're set in their stubbornness. I will not believe reveals how sinful and deprived we really are.

"The great day" verse 17, "Of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?" God's wrath being manifest in its fullness, in its awfulness. Who can stand before the wrath of God? It's amazing the sinfulness of man. Amazing the stubbornness of man. But you have to remember, these people are here in this seven-year tribulation by their choice. Because these are those who would not have Jesus Christ to be their Savior, And so were left at the rapture to endure the tribulation.

Now, as I've already mentioned, some will be saved. God's grace is seen even in the wrath, but the sinfulness of man is clearly displayed and manifest in his rebellion and response. Just to see a little bit of this, look over in Revelation chapter 9 (Pause) At the end of chapter 9, verse 20, "The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver brass, stone, wood which can neither hear nor walk, nor they, they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their immorality nor their thefts." Their character is unchanged in the face of the wrath of God, A£ they survive one judgment to go into the next, they still won't change their mind about Jesus Christ. They have set themselves against God and to stand in the face of His wrath until they're consumed by His wrath, but I still won't repent. I still won't change my mind. You're not going to make a believer out of me no matter what you do, is their attitude and it's repeated as you read through the Book of Revelation, You’ll see it repeated again and again. You'll see that they curse God because of the judgments and the suffering, the scorching from the heat and so on. One passage in closing, First Thessalonians, chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. For you and I who have come to believe in Jesus Christ, tremendous hope, tremendous promise. I'm studying the tribulation because it is important for me to know all that God has revealed. I see something more clearly of the character of God and His righteousness and His holiness—something of my own sinfulness as I study the characteristics of this period of time. But praise God because of His grace, I don’t have to anticipate going through it.

First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 9: "For God has not destined us for wrath, for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him, Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing," God hasn’t destined us for wrath. What a relief. You know I like to study the tribulation, then I like to come back and read 1 Thessalonians 5. I appreciate again more fully the grace of God, I'm not destined for wrath, I don’t have to fear being the object of the wrath of God. Going through that period of time characterized as I’ve the time of His wrath. Why? Because / come to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, I've experienced the salvation and forgiveness He’s provided in Him, And He’s promised deliverance which will come at the rapture when 'He removes all true believers from the earth that He might vent His wrath on those who have rejected Him,

Question. What is your relationship to Jesus Christ? How do you stand before Him today? We live in a time of grace where God deals with you in mercy, Have you been willing to consider that His Son, Jesus Christ, died for you and Have you ever come to believe in Him as your Savior? Or are you set stubbornly against Him, but it does not matter what He has done, I will not have Him to be my God, to be my Savior. What a tragedy. That God should have provided salvation for you and you should choose to reject it and to be the object of His wrath.

Let’s pray together,,,