Terror Intensifies as the World Shakes

Transcript

GR 2009
07/02/2017
Terror Intensifies as the World Shakes
Revelation 6:12-17
Gil Rugh

The Book of Revelation. I’ve shared with you on occasion when I read a book I like to read the last chapter first then I know how it will end. Then I go back and read it if I like the ending. The Book of Revelation tells us, how it will all end. It pulls together, all that God has revealed about His future plans, lays them out for us, so that we can understand them with greater clarity and He fills in some of the gaps for us, so it is a rich important book, to complete the word of God.

You know we live in a world that has hopes, anticipations, looking for things to improve, get better. We put great confidence in our leaders, the political leaders, those making decisions. Sometimes we who are dispensationalist take the bible literally. We believe God has revealed the future. We’re viewed as pessimists because we say the world is not going to get better, ultimately it will get worse. You know I like to tell people the best days are ahead of you, but God tells the world the worse days are ahead of you. We are moving toward disaster. Sometimes we are accused of being too pessimistic, but I’m not pessimistic, because I’ve read the last chapters of the last book, and it ends well for God’s people; beautifully, but the world as the world, this earth, this world system is moving toward disaster. We can pretend that’s not so but God is true, He cannot lie.

So we’re in Revelation chapter six and we’ve moved into a period of time—if you want to put that chart up on the “Seventy Weeks” that reminds you, we are in this period of time in the shaded area, the Church Age, which began in Acts chapter two, following the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ back to heaven. Where we are in this period of time I don’t know. We’ve come along 2000 years. The Book of Revelation chapter six is talking about this seven-year period.

Before that seven-year period at the end of the Church Age, the Church will be removed. Believers in Jesus Christ will be removed bodily from the earth and those believers in Christ who have died, their bodies will be raised and they will be joined back with them as we’ve talked about. We’re looking into what will take place here. Sometimes we talk about that we must be near the end of the Church Age because of what the bible says will take place during this period of time, but we don’t know for sure.

There are certain things that will take place in this period of time, as we see in Revelation chapters six to 19. For example, Israel will be back in their land, and they are. Israel will have a rebuilt temple that will be in operation during this first three and a half year period. That has not happened. We don’t know whether that will happen toward the end of this Church Age or at the very beginning of this seven-year period. I tend to think more likely at the beginning of this seven-year period. I’ve shared with you on other occasions an article in one of the news magazines many years ago. It had an article on a place in Israel that exists for the sole purpose, of making the items necessary for a rebuilt temple, and getting ready for the reinstitution of the temple. That was in a secular news magazine with pictures and so on. We’ve talked about that so we look at some of these things and we think well maybe we’re here.

We are to be living as God’s people as though we were right here all the time. The Lord may come at any time, so we should not be caught off guard if the Rapture of the Church would occur sometime today because we’re to be living, expecting and looking for the return of the Lord to take us to be with Himself so in that sense, not expected. It’s like you have someone coming to visit and he tells you; well I’ll be there sometime in the next two days. Well when they show up you don’t say, “oh, I wasn’t expecting you.” You say, “I was expecting you but I didn’t know for sure when you would be here.” Christ promises He’s coming, so we’re talking about events in this period of time.

This is the worst period of time and it gets worse. You start here but through this period it gets worse. It will be this seven-year period, the worst period of suffering, destruction and death that the world has ever seen. Since we believe that is true and it is true if you take the bible literally, at face value, so we see as we move through Revelation there’s no doubt about it. That’s why some people say, “well you’re pessimistic.” We’ll we are because this has to happen before Christ returns at the end of that seven-year period to establish His kingdom. That’s why I say I’m not ultimately pessimistic, because the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, chapters 20, 21, 22, these three chapters are about this period. Then it goes on forever so I’m optimistic, but as far as the future of this world as it is, the worst is yet to come, and for the people of this world and their rebellion against God so that’s where we are in our study of the Book of Revelation.

In our last study, we looked at verses 9 to 11 and I just want to walk through quickly a summary with you. There we saw people who were martyred during the first part of this seven-year period. That first three and a half years and it indicates at the Rapture all believers will be removed but following the Rapture there will be large numbers of people saved. We’ll see more of that as we move along in the Book of Revelation but many of them will die during this seven-year period because this will be the time of the greatest opposition, the greatest persecution that the nation Israel has ever experienced, that any believers have experienced in the world. We saw martyrs, those who give their lives, and that persecution for the Church will start early, not the Church but believers after the Church because we see martyrs crying out for the Lord to avenge their death.

So if you’ll put up that chart on Revelation six to nine, if you would and we’ll walk through just the points we’ve already looked at but I want to remind you. Number one, we saw death ushers believers into the presence of God. In chapter six verse nine, you see those “who have been slain” in verse nine because of the word of God because of the testimony they maintained. They declared their faith in Christ and they would not deny Him. These are martyrs during this seven-year period. They’re in the presence of God, at His very throne. We looked at other verses that remind us, that’s what happens to all believers. When you die, your spirit leaves your body, and as a believer; it goes immediately into the presence of the Lord. That’s what’s happened. The martyr’s bodies perhaps had burned to ashes or buried or whatever, but they have in their spirits been transported to heaven.

The second thing to note, the world hates believers. We looked at this. Jesus said don’t be surprised if the world hates you; it hated Me before it hated you. It may not always be open and clear, but the basic division in the world is between the children of God and the children of the devil. There are no people in any kind of other condition. You either belong to the devil or you belong to the living God, and the children of the devil hate the children of God. The children of God are comprised of those who have come to recognize their sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ. They have been martyred, because it will become more acceptable, not only to oppose believers, but to have them executed.

Number 3, God will avenge the wrongs done to His servants. Verse 10 we noted that as the cry goes up, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” We noted those who dwell on the earth becomes almost a technical expression in the Book of Revelation for unbelievers.

Number 4, the prayers of believers are effective because God responds to them. We’ve noted that prayer has been offered down through history. Jesus referred to it. You can be sure God will avenge in response to the prayers of His people so the prayers of believers are effective. God hears them in verse 11. He tells them He will answer, an encouragement to all of us in our prayer life.

Believers who have died, number five, are at rest in God’s presence. What does God tell them? He tells them they should “rest,” in verse 11, “for a little while longer.” That doesn’t mean they’re just sitting there, lying back doing nothing. We’ll see later they have activity but the point is they have been freed from all problems, all pain, all suffering and all difficulties. They are at rest in the presence of God and that’s true for all believers. We see this happens to these martyrs but when believers die, they are ushered into the presence of God. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” That’s why we weep at the separation that death brings when a loved one who is a believer dies but we don’t grieve as the world does. We know we’ll see them again and we know God brought them into the rest and peace of His presence.

Number 6. God uses man’s sin to accomplish His purposes. Fix this in your mind. Sin is rebellion against God. Man’s sin cannot frustrate God’s purposes and God’s plans. God uses man’s sin to accomplish His purposes. Note this, He told them in verse 11 they should “rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants,” their brethren who were to be killed, as they had been, “would be completed also.” It’s God’s intention that some will give their lives in testimony for Him, as many in the past have, as Paul did, as Peter did, as down through history many of God’s servants have. God’s purpose is that some will give their lives.

Today there are believers suffering in parts of the world greatly because of their testimony of Christ. They need to keep in mind, be assured, that the sinful rebellion against God that is manifested in the persecution of His people is part of God’s plan, to bring honor to Himself. In minor ways we may suffer opposition, difficulty at your job, at your work people try to undermine your reputation, lie about you, do things—you say well all I can do is be the person God has said I must be. You know I must be careful that I don’t become bitter, angry or upset with God. He may use the sin of others to accomplish His purposes in your life and in the lives of others.

Finally, Number 7, our sufferings are included in God’s plan. Scripture says in Romans 8, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.” Here at the end of verse 11 they were to “rest until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed would be completed.” God had ordained and appointed those and their number that would give their lives as a testimony for Him. It’s already settled in heaven.

Encouraging, knowing it’s all in God’s hands, His plans, the sufferings, the trials, the unfair things that come into our lives do not frustrate God’s plan for us. Rather, He has appointed certain things for us, some of that are trials, and why do I have trials that someone else does not have? I’ve tried to serve the Lord. Well perhaps because the Lord wants you to bring honor and glory to Him in that special way but we can have the confidence, I don’t have to understand and be able to explain everything, but I can have the confidence God’s in charge. This is His appointment for me and I rest secure in that.

Well, that was the fifth seal; what is going on in the world that will bring about suffering to God’s people? We’re ready for the sixth seal. Remember this is a seven-sealed scroll. Every time a seal is broken, some kind of judgment takes place. Now we are ready for the sixth seal and this is moving us along in that seven-year period to prepare us for the next series of judgments and then the next series so the sixth seal.

Verse 12, “I looked and when He broke the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, made of hair, the whole moon became like blood; and 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.” Awesome events! Keep in mind; we’ve just begun the judgments, so to speak. We’re into the sixth seal and then we’ll have the seventh seal. We have seven trumpet judgments to go, and then we’ll have seven bowl judgments to go so we haven’t reached the midpoint of the Tribulation yet that seven-year period but the judgments are severe and devastating.

When He breaks, the sixth seal there was a great earthquake. We get the word, “mega” from this and denotes something great, large, such the Greek word. This is a mega earthquake but it’s not the final earthquake. What this is a preparation for, there are greater disasters to come and in the bible, earthquakes often are used in that way. This is not the last earthquake of the Book of Revelation. It’s a great earthquake and when God calls an earthquake great, you can be sure it is going to have vast, devastating consequences, but it’s not the last one.

Turn over to chapter eight. Look at verse five and this is in connection with the seventh seal and then the trumpet judgments. Verse five of chapter eight, “the angel took the censer, filled it with the fire of the altar, threw it to the earth; there followed peals of thunder, sounds, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” It doesn’t call it a great earthquake but it’s another earthquake.

Come over to chapter 11 verse 13. “And in that hour, there was a great earthquake, another mega earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell.” We’ll talk about the details to this but you just note that series of earthquakes, some called great, which I take it indicates they were of a much more vast magnitude than others were, but there’s a series of earthquakes here. If you are still in chapter 11 look at verse 19. “The temple of God which is in heaven was opened; the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, there were flashes of lightning, sounds, peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm” so another earthquake and the other things taking place.

Come to chapter 16 verse 18. This is at the final bowl judgment. “There were flashes of lightning, sounds, peals”--see the similar things going on with each of these. It doesn’t mean they’re just repeating the same thing, but all these things are accompaniments of the disasters God is pouring out. Flashes of lightning, sounds, peals of thunder; there was a great earthquake and this is the greatest of earthquakes. This great earthquake, “such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth,” so great an earthquake was it, so mighty.

Now you see we’ve seen a series of earthquakes, some called mega earthquakes but now, this is the “megas” of them all. This is the earthquake that outdoes every other earthquake. There’s never been anything like it because we are getting near at this point toward the end of that seven-year period so you see how things are happening, how things are building. We see in our news pictures, now we can see earthquakes in parts of the world and how devastating and you see now you have earthquakes on greater scale and a number of them repeated the devastation that takes place.

Come back to Revelation 6. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 24, in the Sermon on the Mount, the Mount of Olives when He talked about this period of time we are getting in greater detail in Revelation 6 to 19 that speaks of an earthquake happening there. Note other things that happen in connection with this in verse 12 of chapter 6. “There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the whole moon became like blood; the stars of the sky fell to the earth” so there are all kinds of things now taking place. The moon becoming like blood, the sun becoming blackened, signs in the heavens.

Come back to the Old Testament. We don’t have time to look at all the references but come back to Isaiah and you might leave a marker in Isaiah. We’ll probably come back here again. Just remember the Book of Revelation is filled with references to the Old Testament and those things that were promised.

Some people don’t take prophecy literally. Well, this is just symbolic of the troubles and trials that go on. No, this is real. Look in Isaiah 13 and the context is verse six, the day of the LORD is near! That seven-year period that we’re talking about is the day of the LORD. It will come as destruction from the Almighty and while we’re here, we’ll read this because it’s coming up in chapter six of Revelation in a similar way.

“Therefore, all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor, they will look at one another in astonishment. Behold the day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury, burning anger to make the land a desolation; He will exterminate its sinners from it.” Verse 12, “I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold.” Verse 10 “the stars of heaven, their constellations will not flash their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, the moon won’t shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their iniquity.” People don’t want to see, the world is going through this because they don’t see themselves so wicked. We get God’s evaluation that His patience, if you will, has come to an end and now He’s punishing. “I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their iniquity. You see the signs in the heavens” in verse 10, “the stars of heaven, their constellations, the sun, the moon all of that impacted” by what’s going on. That’s what Revelation is talking about, Ezekiel chapter 32 verses seven and eight. Same thing.

Come over to the Book of Joel. The whole Book of Joel is about the day of the LORD. You may want to sit down, you can read it at one sitting and it’ll be good to read it several times, as we move through because the Book of Joel, talking to a large extent about what we’re talking about in Revelation six to 19. Come to chapter two of Joel where he’s talking about the day of the LORD. You pick up chapter one verse 15. “Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

You come to chapter two the end of verse one. “For the day of the LORD is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, clouds, thick darkness. There is a great and mighty people such as has never been, fire consumes” and you come on down, verse 10. “Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark, the stars lose their brightness.” You see the signs in the heavens. Come down to verse 30. “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, columns of smoke.” “The sun will be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” “It will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved.” I should just pause to mention here, you see in verse 28 that it says, “It will come about after this I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind and in verse 32; “It will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be saved . . .”

Peter quoted this section from Joel, in his sermon at the beginning of the Church Age in Acts chapter two, and you see in the Old Testament prophecy things put together here that will be further explained and clarified with later revelation in the New Testament. Verse 28, that “the Spirit will be poured out on all mankind” happened, in Acts chapter two at the beginning of the Church. And it’s true verse 32, “whoever will call on the name of the LORD will be saved” and then people did in Acts chapter 2, but some of this looks forward to the time leading up to the second coming of Christ.

Remember the Old Testament didn’t separate the first and second coming of Christ, so it tells something that will happen as the result of the first coming of Christ with the giving of the Spirit in verse 28. Then he comes in verses 30 and 31 and talks about things that are going to be that haven’t happened yet after 2000 years. Then you can go back to the beginning of the Church Age, and something that has been happening throughout the Church Age, that God’s salvation is available to all and “whoever calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved.” That will be true right down to the return of Christ so that’s why when we come to Revelation we come back and we find things here but it helps us understand and it’s not surprising that Peter quoted this whole section and it causes some people concern.

Well maybe that’s not the Spirits giving there. You have to understand, Peter is just quoting the section here from Joel. He doesn’t understand all of this but the Spirit is directing him but portions of this are being fulfilled in connection with the first coming of Christ. The rest will be fulfilled in connection with the second coming of Christ and the fact that Joel has it in, not what we would say is in order, doesn’t really matter. Everything will be fulfilled exactly as he says so verse 28 was fulfilled exactly as Joel prophesized it, the Spirit was poured out. That Spirit coming will not be just for the Jews but also for all mankind, and now we’re seeing fulfilled exactly as God gave it in Revelation 6. Something is happening so the prophesies there. There are others but we don’t have time to look at those but this prophecy of coming wrath, the signs in the heavens, they all portend the wrath of God.

Like we do. You have a thunderstorm, the clouds roll in, you’ll say something like boy that’s awesome, and then the thunder rumbles and you can feel it. Things vibrate and sometimes with a real rumble you know things can shake and you know that was really thunder and lightning. Some of you don’t like that, you’re even afraid. My mother was always afraid. She could hardly keep from jumping and grabbing on to the nearest person as though that would help. We were taking a trip in the mountains with my mother and dad. We’re going down the side of this mountain. My mother is holding on for dear life to Marilyn. Now you stop and think . . . what good will that do if we go over the side of the mountain? Say mom, it won’t help to hold onto Marilyn if we go over but there’s something, you know, you do that. Here’s where the world is going to be in these times. These awesome things are happening and people are being scared out of their minds.


That’s where we’re going back in Revelation chapter 6, “the sun becoming black as sackcloth, the moon is blood,” we’ve seen some of this where you have volcanos or large events and the result is the sun is darkened out, the color of the moon is affected. All these disasters going on and the impact on the heavenly bodies and then you come to verse 13. “The stars of the sky fell to the earth.” Probably referring to things like meteors and meteorites coming, crashing into earth. We realize that some of, you know, the stars themselves, maybe if they crash to the earth, destroy the whole earth--the whole earth is not destroyed here.

We have the bulk of this seven-year period ahead of us but it’s speaking to show even out of the heavens things are crashing down and if you had large meteorites, they could do great damage. We have watched programs where scientists have talked about a meteor going around and what they could do if it was on course to hit the earth and the devastation it would cause. Well there’s going to be these kinds of things crashing down onto the earth. It’s like it says, “a fig tree casting its unripe figs” in verse 13 “when shaken by a great wind” so like the figs. There you see a piece of fruit and the strong wind and it blows it all down and these things are going to be raining from the sky on the earth.

It’s just an awesome time and then you have verse 14. “The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” This is like a scroll. It gets rolled and we see this with the clouds and our thunderstorms and you know they can roll in and then they can part. That’s the picture in this awesome picture and it’s a reminder, these judgments are coming from heaven and the heavens reveal it and you know you stand there, even with the little bit we have and experience in the storms we might get, you think, this is awesome. You just have a sense of something, especially as a believer of the greatness of God and then here this is going to impact the whole world. All this is shaking the world, natural disasters, the islands, the mountains moved out of their places, with volcanos, earthquakes, and devastation is going on. It’s to have an impact on the world and it is going to have an impact, but keep in mind—you can’t explain because you just read this and you say well there won’t be anything left.

Now you realize we’ve, in effect, just started. We haven’t even gotten to the mid-point. The last three and a half years are when it really gets bad so you see how things are relative. These things will be worse than the world has ever experienced on a scale like this, but it’s going to get worse is the picture so the heavens and the earth all impacted by it. Islands in the sea, you know, I saw something here this week on Hawaii and how it keeps growing because the lava keeps going. It could disappear quickly, other islands, what happened? Well this island with all the people just vanished overnight. Volcanos occurred, earthquakes occur. You know how the earth’s surface is altered even in the ways we’ve experienced and seen in our day.

Note the impact of this on people. God is getting the attention of the world. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and there’s an emphasis here on the upper level people. You know the people that get somewhat insulated from disasters that happen but the kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong as well as every slave and every free man and that encompasses everybody because you start at the top and go down to all kinds of slaves. They “hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come, who is able to stand?’” Finally, it has happened so all people from all walks of life reduced to terror, trying to find a place to hide.

We say, “well, they recognize it is God; they’ll probably turn and believe in Him.” Well some will. We will see this as we move further in Revelation. We saw martyrs under the previous seal and this will give opportunity for those who do come to know Christ to share it as you do with people who are going through a terrible experience, it becomes an opportunity to talk to them about the Lord. Well here, yes, this is God’s wrath and He brings judgment on the world for their sin and rejection of Him and His salvation. There’s still hope for you for if you call upon the name of the Lord you can be saved and some will but the bulk of them will continue to reject. We know that because you think, “well boy they’re saying this is the wrath of God” but when we get to the worst of the times, you know what they’re going to be doing? Cursing God for making them suffer so much so we know this doesn’t result in the salvation of everyone. All these people here that want to hide from the wrath of God they--just makes them angrier, the more they realize this is God bringing disaster on them. We don’t want to underestimate the stubbornness of the sinful heart. We think we can soften them up. Only God in His grace can soften a stubborn sinful heart. Even this time, they are looking to hide. It doesn’t say they are crying out for His mercy. It doesn’t say they are calling upon Him for His salvation but they are hiding. They recognize it. It is God’s wrath.

People don’t like the wrath of God. They don’t like to talk about it but it is a fact. That’s why the Book of Revelation, I think, has been so confusing to people. The devil has brought confusion even to many of God’s people by their refusal to take the Book of Revelation at face value. It talks about God’s wrath, God’s anger, two words used. The word here “oreg”, wrath. There’s another word, “thumos” anger but they’re very closely related. Like any words that are closely related or synonyms, they have overlap in meaning but they bring out maybe a little bit of different flavor as well but these two words, the word, “oreg” is used five times in the Book of Revelation. The word anger or “thumos” is used ten times so fifteen times these words that refer to God’s anger or God’s wrath are there. No wonder the devil’s tried to paper it over. You can’t!

Well let’s talk about the love of God. You cannot understand the love of God if you do not understand the wrath of God because God’s love is manifested in that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” but you haven’t confronted the reality of your sin and the necessity of Christ to turn away God’s wrath from you, what did you do to get saved? Well I don’t know. They said I’d have a better life that I could be sure not to go to hell so I went forward and prayed a prayer to trust Christ. I never thought about my sin. What did you get saved from--well I didn’t want to go to hell; so we’ve come up with--even Christians; we confuse people. We talk to them about God, we talk about the problems but what we have to talk about is, we are sinners! This is a serious matter! God says it is so serious with Him that if we don’t turn from our sin and accept from Him by faith the forgiveness that only He can give by believing in His Son, we will spend eternity in hell! The reason people don’t believe in hell is they don’t believe in the seriousness of sin.

Here’s how God sees the world. We look around as believers and see this open display and arrogance of man against God and we say, “Why does God hold back?” Well God is patient. He’s longsuffering. He doesn’t desire that “any should perish but that all should come to salvation” but they won’t so here He is, pouring out His wrath, bringing destruction and at the same time He’ll be saying, “whoever calls upon Me, places their faith in My provision of My Son will be saved” and people will be shaking their fists cursing God. Awesome! So they’re hiding from the presence of God from His wrath. They will say to the mountains and to the rocks, verse 16, “Fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from . . . and note this . . . the wrath of the Lamb . . .”

Now back in chapter five verse 12 for example “those in heaven were singing the song, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power . . .’” and so on. We think of the Lamb as the animal of sacrifice, here we see the Lamb with wrath, we see the other side. You know we don’t want a complete picture of God. We just want to think of God as that loving, merciful, you know like grandparents. They overlook everything. I like being a grandparent. My dad liked being a grandparent. I reminded my dad, dad you never let me do that. He’d just smile and say, “I know” because what? You’re the father, you’ve got take care of it. That’s the idea. One theologian he had a book and he pictured God as a great Cheshire cat in the heavens. You know something cuddly. People don’t like to think that of God so they create their own God in their mind. He is a God of mercy, kindness, love, forgiveness. He is a God of anger, wrath, the One who will destroy, so now what?

People persist in rejecting the free gift. He doesn’t even say I’ll have to charge you and for those of you who can afford it, here’s eternal life for free. He says I paid it all for you. Here it is for free and people say, “I won’t have any of it.” You know we have the song, “I did it my way” but my way is the way to hell. There’s a broad way that leads to destruction so that’s what’s going on here and you have the wrath of the One on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb. A clear statement of the deity of Christ. Would you put any other here but God? To say the wrath of God on the throne and the wrath of . . . who else could you put in there whose wrath could be on the same level as God the Father, God the Son? He’s the Lamb who provided salvation that has been rejected and now you get the consequences of the rejection, the wrath.

Many verses; this is the great day of their wrath. Wrath, wrath! John 3:16 said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Then you keep going reading down to verse 36 of John 3. It says, “he that has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son shall not see life but the wrath,” the “oreg,” the wrath of God abides on him, lives on him.” I mean there is that picture, there is where it resides and living under the wrath of God, the only escape from that is the work that Christ has done so verse 17 says, “. . . the great day of their wrath has come, who is able to stand?” Who is able to stand? It’s a rhetorical question. No one! Who can stand against God?

Come back to the Old Testament. We have to pick up a few verses. I told you to keep a marker in Isaiah so come to Isaiah 2. Again Isaiah doesn’t put things in order for us like the Book of Revelation because Isaiah starts out talking about when Christ will reign on the earth, in the opening down through verse four of Isaiah 2. That’s when you won’t need weapons of war and so on, and then he goes on to talk about the judgment that takes place. Look at verse 10. “Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty.” That’s what we just read is going to happen when God pours out His wrath. The proud look of man will be abased, the loftiness of man will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

The LORD’S going to pound men down. They’re going to learn who is God, and who is not and so even the kings are going to be hiding in the rocks. You’re not too great you’re not too rich. He’ll be there fighting the slaves to get the hiding place in that day. Verse 12, “the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty to abase them.” Verse 17, “the pride of man will be humbled the lofty man will be abased. The LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” Look down in verse 20. “In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver, their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, in order to go into the caverns of the rocks, the clefts of the cliffs, before the terror of the LORD the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble.” They think they’re so proud, so confident they’ll stand when the LORD pours forth His wrath the greatest of men are reduced to putty.

So what does that mean for us? Well a good verse; how does this affect me? I won’t be there! Look, stop regarding man whose breath of life is in His nostrils; why should he be esteemed? That doesn’t mean we don’t give proper respect to rulers and so on but as believers, we shouldn’t have fear of others. What keeps us from telling them about Christ? Unless you call upon the name of the Lord, you’ll perish. You are under the—why should I fear man who’s just a breath. I serve the living God. I’ve been redeemed by His grace. I come to tell you, you can be redeemed by His grace and if you don’t respond and receive the free gift He offers you, you will spend eternity in hell.

Somehow, oh boy, we’ll go out and share that with the city. Talk about it and think about it, how many people did we tell that this week, this month. We finished a month. How many people? We ought to sit down and say well this person and this person and this person, this person. Well I didn’t have many opportunities. Oh, you live in a world of believers? Well no, but there just weren’t good opportunities. Part of it is our fear of men, right? Probably didn’t have any problem or opportunity talking about what’s going on in politics. Sometimes we can get pretty passionate about that. I even heard a quote “evangelical pastor” introducing the President last night. I was embarrassed. This is God turning this country back to Himself.

Something changed in the bible so you see the Old Testament prophesized it. Isaiah did and now John was given revelation to put it all together but he didn’t change anything. Verse 21, “they go into the caverns of the rocks the clefts of the cliffs before the terror of the LORD the splendor of His majesty when He arises to make the earth tremble.” John says the same thing. No matter how many times God says it, some people just decide that we don’t take that literally. No, if you take it any other way, you miss it!

Let me take you to Isaiah, chapter 13. We’ll leave everything out; we’ll just stay with Isaiah. Note verse six. “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor” . . . verse 9. “The day of the LORD is coming” you see as we looked at this earlier. Come over to chapter 34 and verse two. “The LORD’S indignation is against all the nations, and the judgment He’s going to bring.” Verse 4, “the host of heaven will wear away; the sky will be rolled up like a scroll.” That’s what John said. It’s going to be, you see just like a scroll with the work in the heavens. “Their hosts will also wither away--one withers from the fig tree.” Remember the fig tree casting its leaves in the wind, a similar kind. “For My sword is satiated in heaven, it will descend for judgment upon Edom upon the people I have devoted to destruction.” Earlier destructions on different nations like Edom are just a forerunner of what God will do in that ultimate day of the LORD when His judgment comes.

Verse eight. “For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion,” and God is bringing judgment on an unbelieving nation, Israel, to turn them as a nation to Himself so ultimately the salvation of Israel, is one of the main purposes of the seven years as we saw in Daniel 9. Six things will be accomplished in this seven-year period but it is also a day to bring judgment on the nations that have persecuted His people, bring vengeance and it’s a day of vengeance. Remember the martyrs under the throne in heaven asking, “’How long O Lord’ will you avenge our death?” Well He has a day of vengeance as He goes on.

Repeated, Ezekiel talks about it as we talk about it in verse 32. “Who is able to stand?” If you want to go to one other passage, if not I’ll read it to you. Naham chapter 1. Nahum is a little harder to find. Daniel, Hosea, Joel--Jonah, Micah, Nahum. Nahum after Micah that helps a lot, which is after Jonah. That helps a little more. All right, Naham chapter 1, it is in the Minor Prophets there. Let me just read you a couple of things; verse two. “A jealous and avenging God is the LORD.” That’s a verse we ought to remember when we talk to people. God is a God of love but you know what else the bible says. “A jealous and avenging God is the LORD.” The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His enemies, adversaries, reserves wrath for His enemies. “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” So he goes on to talk about when “the mountains will,” verse five, “quake because of Him, the earth is upheaved by His presence. Who can stand”--verse six –“before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are broken up by Him.

Now note the contrast. “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, He knows those who take refuge in Him, but an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, and will pursue His enemies into darkness.” You go back and forth but you have this here. “The LORD is good a stronghold in the day of trouble, He knows those who take refuge in Him. Who can stand before His indignation?” You know, there is no negotiating here. The choices are stark. You must either recognize your sin and guilt and that it is as serious as God says and turn to the only hope the provision He made in Jesus Christ and He says whoever will call upon Me, I will save. My Son is the Savior. He came to pay your penalty. Place your faith in Him, I’ll mark your account paid in full.

The alternative, I will pour out all My wrath on you so you will not be consumed to nothing but you will suffer forever to a degree that cannot be measured. I mean is there a choice? And yet you realize how ugly and awful our sin is that blinds us to the gracious patience of God. We as believers don’t want to be discouraged and we don’t want to be intimidated. We do have the message that the lost must hear. I’m glad that somebody told me and now I need to tell someone, we need to tell others. Let’s pray together.

Thank You Lord for the revelation You have given. Lord it’s in mercy and grace You have told us about the future. You could have told us our responsibility but not told us the consequences but You have revealed Yourself, You have revealed Your purposes for the future. Lord we want to live in light of what You have revealed. Thank you for Your saving grace. Thank You for mercy. Lord may we not forget that we are redeemed sinners that we were once like the lost. May You use Your gospel through us to bring others to Christ in whose name we pray, Amen.