The Seventh Trumpet, Part 1

And so tonight, as we continue on in our study of the book of Revel, you will see Jesus Christ once again. And you will see him in all of his glory. You will see him in a way that will open to you the rest of the book of Revelation, chapters 12 through chapters 22. You need to spend some time in verses 15 and 19. Because as they open up to us the rest of the book, if we miss these few verses, Then we'll have a hard time understanding what happens throughout the remainder or the second half of the book of Revelation.

And it all centers around Jesus Christ. It all centers around who he is. And because of who he is, this is what he's going to do. Revelation chapter 11, verse number 15. And the seventh angel sounded, and there arose loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones. Before God, they fell on their faces and worship God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God the Almighty, who art and who was, because thou hast taken thy great power.

And hast begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and thy wrath came. And the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward. to thy bonds, the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth. And the temple of God, which is in heaven, was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and sounds, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great Hail storm.

We want to cover tonight for you the significance of the seventh trumpet and the substance of the seventh trumpet. The significance by looking at three things. Don't get upset, there's only two in your notes. But the great prerogative of the preacher is to always add at the last minute. We want to look at the significance of the trumpet by looking at three things.

Number one, its finality. Number two, its longevity. And number three, its sever. But before we get there, you need to understand something. Verse number 14 says: The second woe is passed.

Behold, the third woe is coming quick. The third woe is the seventh trumpet. The third woe is the seventh trumpet.

Very important to understand. And it's going to come very qu. But before it comes. You're going to have to go through chapter 12, chapter 13, and chapter 14. Because the sounding of that trumpet does not really happen until chapter 15. And we'll explain that in a moment. But we have come to an end of the second interlude in Revelation.

We told you that between the sixth and seventh seal Between the sixth and seventh trumpet, and between the sixth and seventh bowl, there is an interlude. It is an interlude of inspiration given specifically to comfort the saints of God. Now imagine if you're in the midst of the tribulation. You won't be there because you know Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, and we believe the church will be translated or raptured out of here before the tribulation happens. But let's say you are in the midst of this tribulation and you're converted and you're reading through the book of Revelation, as I'm sure many people will do.

And as you're reading through the book of Revelation, everything is coming to light. You are beginning to see all that's happening around about you. It's happening just. As the Spirit of God said in the book of Revelation, and you come to saving faith, and you could be all discouraged, you could be worried, you could be depressed. But God adds inspirations. He gives them to John because John would need them. But He gives them to John so He might write them down so that we today will have them. We need them.

But there's a certain group of people who are going to need him more than we do, or John did. And that is those people in the midst of the tribulation. To see the greatness of God. And if you've been with us in our study, you understand that between the sixth and seventh seal, the interlude came in the seventh chapter. The cons for John, the encouragement for John was based on two things in Revelation chapter 7. One was a ceiling of the 1,000 Jews. Second was the salvation of a multitude of people standing before the throne, praising God, who have had their garments washed in the blood of the Lamb.

That would bring great joy to John's heart because he had written the seven letters to the seven churches, and the state of the church did not look so good in 95 A. But now, when he sees the vision in heaven and sees a great multitude standing before the throne, praising God, a multitude so great it cannot be counted. Because the greatest revival happens in the midst of the tribulation, more so than in any other period of history in the world. John's encouraged. John's encouraged over the 144,000 Jewish missionaries who will be sealed, who will be protected against the assault of the Antichrist and his armies.

They will not die. For when you get to Revelation chapter 14, you see the 144,000 on Mount Zion with the king who has returned. God has kept his word. There were 144,000 sealed who were branded on their forehead. Antich brands. His people was 6. God brands his people with his name and they cannot be harmed. They cannot be touched by the Antichrist because God will protect them. And that's his encouragement. That's his consolation. That was the interlude between the sixth and the seventh seal. And then we went into The trumpets and saw the devastation of the trumpets upon the earth.

You went from a quarter of the people being killed in the seals to a third of them being killed. In the trumpets that were blown. Yet, in between the sixth and seventh trumpet comes another interlude, and that's recorded in Revelation chapter 10 and Revelation chapter 11. And in those two chapters, what you have is the solving of the mystery, the ultimate mystery. That is the mystery of God. It says in Revelation chapter 10, verse number 7, the mystery of God is. Finished when that seventh angel sounds.

And so John is able to understand that the end has happen just as the prophets had predicted. And so you had the solving of the mystery of the end of the world, and you had the solving of the mystery of how all Israel will be saved, according to Romans 11:2. And we saw how it would happen. We saw where God told John to take a measuring rod and to measure a certain part of the temple. And because he did, there would be a remnant of Jewish people marked out for preservation and for protection. And the question comes: how will they be saved?

And the Spirit of God tells John that there are two angels, excuse me, two witnesses. Two witnesses like Moses and Elijah. Two witnesses that the Bible says are two olive trees and two lampstand who are able to do supernatural kinds of acts.

And they do them for a period of three and a half years, or 42 months. And at the end of that time, the Antichrist kills them. They are raised from the dead. The whole world sees them killed. The whole world sees them rise from the dead. And at that time, according to verse number 13. Of Revelation chapter 11. In that hour of their resurrection, there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake. And the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

And I believe that represents the salvation of Is. They give God glory. And as you go through the book of Revelation, the phrase to give God glory is in reference to salvation. In fact, it says over in Revelation chapter 14, I believe it is. In verse number 7, with the angel who flies around in the mid-heaven, he said with a loud voice, Fear God and give him gl. Because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters. That's the eternal gospel given by the angel that flies around in mid-heaven.

To be saved is to give God glory, is to honor Him, to revere Him, to fear Him. And that's what the nation of Israel does. They are saved. It's at that time they look on him and whom they have pierced, and they mourn for him as an only son. And all that, of course, is in that tape in Revelation chapter 11. So that was the second interlude.

There will be another one, but it will be a brief one. That's in Revelation 16, verse number. 15. When it says this, Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame. There's only one verse. In the bowl judgments between the sixth and seventh bowl, that give us an interlude of inspiration. But it's a quick verse. Because the bowls happen in rapid fire succession, one after another, in a matter of hours or in a matter of days at the end of the tribulational period.

And so they're designed to bring comfort. They did to John. They do to us as we understand their meaning. And so, on the heels of that, the second woe is past.

Behold, now the third woe is coming quickly. The third woe is the seventh trumpet. All that leads us to point number one, the significance of the seventh trumpet.

Three things I want you to see. Number one, its fin. It's finality. It says, and the seventh angel sounded, and there arose loud voices in heaven. Now, this is very important. Because if you go back to chapter 10, verse number 7, we've already read this, but I'll read it to you again. It says. At the end of verse number 6, there shall be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel. It says, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he preached to his servants the prophets.

The mystery of God is finished. It's over. When the seventh angel sounds, which is the third woe, we'll talk about them in a second.

We'll talk about woe number one and woe number two, which is the third wall. When the seventh angel sounds, the mystery is finished. Now go with me to Revelation 15. Revelation 15 is the actual sounding of that trumpet. And it says, And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous. Seven angels who had seven plagues, which are what? The last. Because in them the wrath of God is what? It's finished. So, listen very carefully. What you have is the third woe.

The third woe is the seventh trumpet. The seventh trumpet is the finality of God's wrath. This is the end because from the seventh trumpet come the seven plagues or the seven bull Or the seven vials upon the world. When the seven vials are then poured out, the king comes, sets up his kingdom, and that is the end. You follow? So we understand that the seventh trumpet, the significance of the seventh trumpet, is that this is the final act. This is the final scene. This is the end of the mystery. It is finally fin.

Both the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl finish God's wrath, and therefore we understand that the bowls must be a part of the seventh trumpet. The second thing I want you to see is its longevity.

It's longevity because the seventh trumpet has a long tenure, longer than any of the other trumpets. It has the longest tenure of any of the trumpets. We saw where the fifth trumpet was a little longer in chapter nine. The sixth trumpet was a little longer than that, and now comes the seventh trumpet. But the seventh trumpet encompasses five pairs of visions, both on earth and on heaven. And it leads to the end when Christ establishes his kingdom. You'll note that it says, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign.

Forever and ever. So the seventh trumpet sounds, and upon the sounding of the seventh trumpet, we see the reign of Christ forever and forever. And so the trumpet finishes God's mighty work of reclaiming creation from Satan the usurper. During the span of this trumpet, we're going to study the final fury of the day of the Lord's judgments in verses 1 to 21 of chapter 16. We're going to see the final harvest of judgment on the earth. The Lamb's defeat of the kings of the earth. That's in chapter 17, verses 12 to 18.

The final battle of Armageddon, chapter 19, verses 11 to 21. The return of Christ in glory in the establishment of the millennial kingdom. So we need to understand that the blowing of the seventh trumpet takes you from chapter 11, verse number 15. all the way to chapter 20, verse number 5. That's why this trumpet is so significant. That's why you must come to grips with what it means. Because it gives to us not only the finality of the wrath of God and his fury, but it gives to us the longevity. Of what takes place within that span that takes us to the end when Jesus Christ sets up his kingdom on the earth.

The third thing I want you to see is its severity. We've looked at its finality, its longevity. Now I want you to see its severity. And when you think Woe I Woe Two are bad, you ain't seen nothing bad yet because Woe Three is the seven trumpet and in the seventh trumpet are the seven bowls and the seven bowls are so horrendous and so bad. That people's lives are absolutely devastated by what God does. Because you see, the bulls have global effect. So no longer is it one-fourth, no longer is it one-third, but now you have the entire globe being affected by God's wrath upon man.

It's an amazing scenario. So the third woe is the seventh trumpet. That's why you must understand its severity. Now let me help you understand this.

This actually is not going to happen to Revelation 15. Seven angels have seven plagues, they're getting ready to sound. Chapter 16, verse number 1: the bowls are poured. Upon man. But in between chapter 11 and chapter 15, you got chapter 12, chapter 13, and chapter 14. So, why does it do this? Because something very significant happens. We have already gone through the entire tribulation by looking at the seven seals. Remember, we told you that the seven seals span the entire tribulation. And out of the seventh seal come the seven trumpets.

And out of the seventh trumpet come the seven bowls. So we have already spanned the entire tribulation period. Revelation 11 takes you all the way to the end. Final. It is finished. When this angel sounds, the mystery of God is finished. It's done. All right. So now what happens? Well now we go back and we fill in some of the details. That is, during that seven-year tribulational period, what happens? In chapter 12, we're going to take you through the history of the world in just three short messages.

As we go through Revelation chapter 12, it begins with the beginning and ends with the end. That's pretty significant, isn't it? But in between there you have what happens Which caused a lot of questions and commotion last week when Satan is finally geographically cast out of heaven to earth Which is a very significant point because you're going to have to answer many questions about the power of the Antichrist and how does he deceive the entire world.

He does it through satanic decept. That's very important. And when we come to Revelation 12, verses 7 and following, we will explain to you the casting of Satan out of heaven, the one who stands to accuse the brethren day and night. Before the throne of God, and why he is cast out of heaven at that time, and how that adds to the power of the Antichrist. And the false prophets. Okay? We are going to see, as we go through the seventh trumpet, judgment upon the earth. Jubilation in heaven, rage on the earth, rejoicing in heaven, cursing on the earth.

Crown in heaven, woe on the earth, worship in heaven, threats on the earth, thanks. In heaven. It's an amazing study. That's the significance of the seventh trumpet. Let's look now at the substance of the trumpet. We will not finish this this evening. We'll be lucky to get through number A or letter A. But there are several things I want you to see about the substance of this trumpet. Number one, the rejoicing.

Number two, the rebellion. Number three, the retribution. Number four, the reward. Number five, the reminder. And number six, our response to the seventh trumpet. First of all, the rejoicing.

It says. And the seventh angel sounded, and there arose loud voices in the heavens saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worship God, saying, We give thanks, O God, the Almighty. who art and who was, because thou hast taken thy great power and hast begun to reign. Why is there rejoicing? Why is there thanksgiving? Why is there praise? Why are there loud voices in heaven exuberant over what is happening on earth?

The answer? Because God is taking over. God is taking back what is rightfully His from the usurper Satan. History Church history, biblical history, has always long for this time, has always looked to this day. The prophets of old would speak of this time. It says in verse number 18, and the nations were enraged, and thy wr came. Here is heaven rejoicing, and here is earth full of rage. They're full of rage on earth because they are being destroyed. But heaven rejoices because God is finally doing what the prophets of old had always looked to and had always prophesied.

That we would reign with him. That's what causes these people to rejoice in heaven. That's what causes all heaven to break out with thanksgiving, with unrestrained joy. The Supreme King of glory is going to defeat Satan, the usurper, and take back what is rightfully his. Recall back Luke chapter 4 on the temptation in the wilderness of Christ when Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world. And Christ refused it. Why? Because he knew that his father was going to give him as an inheritance the kingdom of the world.

He knew that. The triumph of God over Satan as evil is purged from the world and Christ becomes the holy ruler. Note also, it says this: the kingdom of the world has bec very significant. The kingdom of the world has become. It describes a future event that is so certain that it can be spoken of as if it has already taken place. The Greek grammar can do this. Grammarians call this a proleptic er. That means that something in the future is so certain, so sure, that you speak of it in the present as if it has already taken place.

We can't do that in the English language, but in the Greek language you can do this. And so the rejoicing is over what? That although the king is not really ruling, it doesn't happen until the Battle of Armageddon. And he destroys the kingdom of the world and sets up his own kingdom. It can be spoken of as if it has already taken place because it is a certain event. It is a sure event. You can go to the bank and draw interest on this because it will happen exactly as Jesus Christ said it would happen.

They rejoice over three aspects of God's character. Let me give them to you quickly. Number one, He's Almighty.

Number two, He is the God who art and who was. And number three, hast begun to reign. He is the Almighty One. It says, We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty Pent. Ten times in the New Testament, it's used, nine times in the book of Revelation. And if we had time, I would go through each of its usages because it speaks of absolute p. The reason he takes back or he's able to take back what is his is because he's almighty and nobody else is. Satan can't do what God can do because Satan is not almighty.

He does not have absolute sovereignty. Christ has absolute sovereignty. And so, all heaven rejoices over the fact that God can do anything He wants, whenever He wants. That's good news for us. We ought to be able to leave here tonight and say, Man, my God is almighty, He can do whatever He wants, whatever He wants. To whomever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, etc. etc. etc. Because he's Almighty, He's able to do whatever He wants to do. And that's why Heaven rejoices. Let's pray.