The Terror and Trouble of the Tribulation, Part 3

Lord Jesus, thank you for tonight We thank you, Lord, that we can look into your word and you explain to us the future, that we might understand how it is your kingdom will come to this earth And our prayer, Lord, is that as we serve you, our king, we would be great representatives of your kingdom to this world that so desperately needs to understand who you are And tonight, Lord, as we study once again this tribulational period and what's gonna happen on the earth, Father, you would motivate us to live in the light of your glorious coming We pray in Jesus' name, amen

Tonight, I want you to turn with me your Bible to Revelation chapter six Our study is not in the book of Revelation, although we have been in the book of Revelation the last three weeks It's really a study about the return of the king That's what it's about And what we're trying to do is take you through the process so you have a working ability to understand eschatology in times, how they all come together That's why we began at the beginning to walk you through this step by step by step From where we go this evening is we go to Israel and what happens to Israel throughout the tribulation

From there, we go to talk about the times of the nations From there, we talk about the ruler of the nations, who is the Antichrist Then we talk to you about the religion of the nations that will take place during the tribulation Then we'll talk to you about the war of the nations, the great war that comes at the end of the tribulation And then we'll talk to you about the eternal kingdom on this earth or the earthly kingdom on this earth, which leads us into the eternal state And then that will lead us into the final question as to what do we do now? That's where we're gonna go

We're hoping to end it before I go on vacation in August That's the plan Whether or not we do that or not, well, only time will tell and the Lord knows And I know that this particular study on the terror and the trouble of the tribulation is not really exciting because it seems to be so dreadful and so horrible Well, it is, but yet it is that motivating factor in our lives that helps us understand that this is where the world's going so that we in turn will warn man of that impending judgment That's so important

Having said that, that leads us into our discussion about the sixth seal in Revelation 6 that encompasses for us the terrible trouble of the tribulation that we might begin to understand all that has taken place We've looked at the first seal that was broken with the rider of the white horse, which is deceptive peace We have moved from there to look at the rider of the second horse, which is the breaking of the second seal, which in turn is destructive war Then we move to talk about the breaking of the third seal and the rider of that horse, which is a black horse, which is devastating famine

And then we move to the fourth seal, which was the ashen green or the pale horse, which was definite death where a quarter of the population of the world dies Then lastly, we talked about the fifth seal, which is the desperate cries of the saints underneath the altar of incense in heaven, crying for God to enact his judgment upon this world, which really instigates the vengeance of God upon the unbelieving world And now we move to this sixth seal In so doing, we come to this infamous question about the return of the king

It's always been a question of people about the kingdom of God, the coming kingdom, the king who rules We saw in Matthew 24 where the disciples asked the question, when will you come again? When will you be unveiled? What will be the consummation of the ages? That was their question At the end of the ministry of Christ, he had talked about the kingdom on many occasions He had come and preached about the kingdom of God, and they wanted to know when that kingdom would be established And Christ began to give them what we were looking at, the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24

After his death and his resurrection, he would spend 40 days with his disciples talking to them about things pertaining to the kingdom, according to Acts 1, verse number three And they then would ask this question at the end of those 40 days, is it at this time you're gonna restore the kingdom to Israel? So again, it was uppermost in their thinking And Jesus said these words, it is not for you to know the times or the epics that the Father has fixed in his own authority In other words, the sequence of events, the features of the end, the events that will take place is not for you to know

But you shall receive power, and you shall be my witnesses, and you will tell people about my coming kingdom, and you will tell people that I am the king, and that will be your mission, that will be your ministry until I arrive again Jesus had taught them, when you pray, pray this way, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come So the disciples had been taught to pray for the coming of the kingdom of God So it was central to everything they were taught from early childhood, emphasized dramatically in the ministry of Christ while they served him

And then of course, they would write about after his death, resurrection, and ascension But it's always a question on the mind of man The previous church I was at before I came here, we had just finished a series in 1 Thessalonians. I'd gone through chapter four and chapter five And one day after church in the morning, there was a visitor who came to the church He came to me and said, Pastor Sparks, I have a book that you need to read Now, I'd never met this man before It was his first Sunday there He had told me that he was a visitor

And I said, really, what book is that? He goes, it's a book about the return of Christ. I said, okay He says, this book will tell you when Jesus is coming back. I said, really? He said, yes. I said, well, when's he coming? I mean, what else am I gonna say, right? Well, the book tells you, he says Well, the book he referred me to is a book that maybe you've heard of before It's called 1994 It was written by a man by the name of Harold Camping, who was the president of Family Radio And he had predicted that the Messiah would come on September 7th, 1994

This man happened to be in my church in the fall of 93 So he came with this book in hand and said, you need to read this book And I said, you know, I wanna let you know. I know for certain that Jesus will not be here on September the 7th, 1994 He says, well, how do you know that? I said, because Jesus told me He said he did? I said, yeah, he did But where did he tell you that? So I said, well, let me read it to you Because I have a book you need to read And I said, this is the book And let me read to you what Jesus said And I will tell you the exact hour that the Messiah will return

He says, you know the exact hour? I said, absolutely Jesus told me So I said, here, let me read it to you For this reason, you be ready For the Son of Man is coming Are you ready? At an hour when you do not think he will That's the exact hour he's gonna return He's gonna come at an hour in which you do not think he will return So if you tell me you have in your hand a book about the return of the king, and it's 1993, and you say he's coming in 1994, that means we're pretty much at the end of the tribulational period

And what the Bible discusses in the book of Revelation is nothing like what's happening right now in 1993 So it would be well for you to read what the Bible says concerning the return of the king It's important to know what the Bible says concerning it, because it says that no man knows the hour He will come when you least expect him to come Now you gotta think about that Because when he says that, he says that in context of the tribulation So while you're in the midst of the tribulation, he will come at an hour when you do not expect him to come

Having said that, the believer, the ones who come to Christ in the tribulation will not know the day, nor will they know the hour Even though they were saved in the tribulation, even though they might have a Bible in their hand, and they can read the book of Revelation, they can read Matthew 24, they can read 1 Thessalonians 5, they can read Mark 13, Luke 21, and they can begin to sort of calculate all that's happened, they still won't know the day, nor will they know the hour of the return of the king Now you might think that's kind of hard to believe, but folks, let me tell you something

If Jesus said it, that's the way it's gonna happen Paul said this to those in Thessalonica He said, 1 Thessalonians 5, now as to the time and the epics, same phrase used by Jesus in Acts chapter one, the times and the epics It's a technical term centered around the events concerning the arrival of the Messiah Concerning the times and the epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night Now that's a very important phrase

That the day of the Lord will come, and we know that the day of the Lord is inaugurated with the rapture of the church into glory Now when that day actually begins, once the church is raptured, is up for debate Does it happen immediately, the next day, the next week, the next month? We don't know We won't be here But it will happen after the rapture of the church It will last for a seven-year period And the Lord, the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night How does a thief come? Unexpectedly, suddenly, no warning

The thief doesn't call you up and say, I'm gonna be at your house on the second Tuesday of next week By the way, there's only one Tuesday next week, just in case you missed that, okay? He doesn't write you a letter and say, this is when I'm going to arrive He doesn't give you a text message and say, I'm coming at this time, so be prepared No, the thief never gives you a warning as to his arrival He doesn't do that He comes unexpectedly, secretly, harmfully, suddenly And in some cases, specifically this case, severely But he's going to come Same phrase is used in Revelation 16

Revelation 16, and I think it's interesting that it's put in here by the Spirit of God Revelation 16 is the unfolding of the sixth bowl And it tells us that there'll be an army from the east that will gather together in a place called Harmageddon And it says in verse number 15, 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

So in the context of the sixth bowl being poured out during the tribulational period, the emphasis, once again, is that even though the armies of the east, from the kings of the east, gather together in the Valley of Megiddo, you still do not know the day nor the hour of the return of the king So you might be with the Bible, you might be reading that in the end of the tribulation and think you know the day or the hour, but no, he says, behold, I come as a thief in the night That's why there is that repetitive phrase over and over again in the Bible to always be ready

In Matthew chapter 24, verse number 42, it says, therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming, and be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into For this reason, you be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will Over in verse number 13 of chapter 25, be on the alert, for you do not know the day nor the hour

Then again, over in Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, Jesus says it this way, be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps alight, and be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them, whether he comes in the second watch or even in the third and finds them so, blessed are those slaves

And be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into You too be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect him Paul would say he's going to come like a thief He says, while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape He's going to come like a thief And yet people will not know the day nor the hour, the unbeliever nor the believer That's important

You need to understand that Because Satan is a master deceiver and he deludes the whole world into thinking that he is the Messiah In the book of Isaiah, the 13th chapter, Isaiah says this about that day of the Lord He says, wail for the day of the Lord is near That's a unique phrase because we'll see in a moment that as you go through the Old Testament, a lot of the prophets did the exact same thing, that the day of the Lord is near They looked at the coming judgment of God as right around the corner It will come as destruction from the Almighty

Therefore, all hands will fall limp and every man's heart will melt and 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, their faces aflame Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger to make the land a desolation and he will exterminate its sinners from it For the stars of heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light The sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light

Thus, I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir Therefore, I shall make the heavens tremble and the earth shall be shaken from its place for the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his burning anger And they will be like a hunted gazelle or like sheep with none to gather them They will each turn to his own people and each one flee to his own land

Anyone who is found will be thrust through and anyone who was captured will fall by the sword Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces Before their eyes, their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished The prophets knew about the coming day of the Lord Over in the book of Ezekiel chapter 30, verse number three, for the day of the Lord is near Even the day of the Lord is near It will be a day of clouds, a day of doom for the nations Book of Obadiah, I'm sorry, book of Joel, Joel 1 Alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is near and it will come as destruction from the Almighty

Chapter two, verse number one, blow a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm on my holy mountain Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming Surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness As a dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people There has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it Then of course, in the book of Obadiah, verse number 15, it says these words For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations As you have done, it will be done to you

Your dealings will return on your own head So over and over again, the prophets of the Old Testament would look at the coming day of the Lord as something that was very near And so when you come to the book of Revelation and you open it up to Revelation chapter one, and you read this in verse number three, it says, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near In other words, the time of this book is next on the agenda It's near, it's coming

And the coming of the Messiah will be just like a thief in the night And when you come to Revelation chapter six, in the sixth seal, it's called the great day of God's wrath And the severity of the seal and the scope of the seal are far reaching and terrifying when you come to understand the events and the sequence of all that takes place during the time of the terrible tribulation But that phrase, he will come like a thief in the night Remember what it says over in the book of Peter, second Peter chapter three, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, same phrase

So the day of the Lord is characterized by a statement that he will come like a thief But notice what Peter says He says, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up What is Peter saying? Peter's talking about the day of the Lord, but he's not talking about the day of the Lord that inaugurates the tribulation He's talking about the day of the Lord that happens in the Revelation chapter 20 But both are characterized by the coming thief

Because the day of the Lord, listen carefully, encompasses the time from the church and when it's translated into glory until the end, listen carefully, of the millennial reign of Christ When there is one final battle at the end in Revelation chapter 20 and there is a new heaven and there is a new earth So when Peter describes for us the day of the Lord, he'll come in like a thief, where the heavens will melt with fervent heat and the earth will be done away with

We know that in Revelation 20, that all of heaven and all of earth flees from the presence of the Lord because it's all consumed in one moment of time And then there's a new heaven and there's a new earth But the day of the Lord, even though it lasts seven particular years, and the great day of God's wrath is the final part of that seven years The day of the Lord truly encompasses not only that time, but takes you through the millennial reign of Christ to the very end when it destroys everything That's why Peter says, as a thousand years with the Lord is one day and one day is a thousand years

See? Because it encompasses the entire time of Messiah's arrival and leadership through his kingship on this earth until the end when there's a new heaven and there's a new earth You with me so far? Good Now, Peter also says this He says, because all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat

But according to his promise, we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells In other words, because all these things are gonna happen, the Messiah will come like a thief He will destroy the ungodly He will burn the present heavens and burn the earth What sort of people ought we to be today? People who live in holiness People who live in godliness Hastening that day, anticipating that day because we're looking for the opportunity to live in a land where there is no sin, where righteousness always dwells

So when we go through the terrible trouble of the tribulation and look at all the negative events, it's in anticipation of the time when the righteous judge acts righteously and judges all the ungodly That's why there is continual rejoicing in heaven as to what God is doing on earth Even as terrible as it is, there's rejoicing in heaven because thy kingdom has come to earth And the longing of every saint is for thy kingdom to come We'll see that on Sunday We look at that petition in Luke 11 Now, go with me to Revelation chapter six Revelation chapter six

And I looked, verse 12, when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind and the sky was split apart like a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains

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 land for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand Now, listen carefully When you come to the sixth seal, you're near the end of the tribulation because once the seventh seal is broken, okay, the seven trumpets blow And when the seventh trumpet blows, the seven bowls, the seven vials are poured

But because this is the great day of God's wrath, that's what it says in Revelation chapter six, the great day of God's wrath has come and man is asking to die Man will finally recognize, listen carefully, will finally recognize who's behind everything Now, the key component of that is that man finally recognizes who's behind everything That's why it's at the end And when the seventh seal is broken and the seven trumpets blow, they happen in rapid succession, much quicker than the breaking of the seals

And then the seven vials, when they are poured, they happen like this really quick and the king arrives That's why, that's why when the seventh trumpet blows in heaven, in heaven, in Revelation 11, they say this And the seventh angel sounded and there arose loud voices in heaven, Revelation 11, 15 The king 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 stood on the thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give thanks, oh Lord God, the almighty, who art and who wast, because thou has taken thy great power and has begun to reign So in heaven, they don't say that the king who art and who wast and who is to come, why? Because he's come So at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, there's a realization of the reign of Christ, that the kingdom of this world now has become the kingdom of our God

What was promised in Psalm 22 by the Lord God himself to his son when he said, I will give you the nations as your inheritance, this now has taken place at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, which enacts the pouring of the seven bowls Although the king has yet to return literally to earth, it is happened in a way that when they see it, it's as if it's already done It speaks of it as a certainty, as a security that this will happen

So it's imperative that when you understand that the seven seals, and we've told you before, those seven seals span the tribulation, but by the time you come to the sixth seal, you're toward the end of that tribulation, okay? And the only thing left to do is the breaking of the seventh seal, which enacts the blowing of the seven trumpets, and as you read, the first four trumpets that are blown, they parallel, listen carefully, the breaking of the sixth seal. A lot of the events that take place in the blowing of the seven trumpets parallel what happens in the sixth seal

So by the time you come to the breaking of the sixth seal, you are toward the end of the tribulation That's why it's called the great day of God's wrath has come, and the people now have finally recognized what's going on Now, that's important to understand Why? Because listen to what the Bible says in the Gospel of Luke Luke chapter 16, 17, verse number 26 And this parallels what Christ says in Matthew 24

After he has already talked about the parallel between what is going to happen through the breaking of the six seals, or seven seals in the book of Revelation, we've paralleled the seven seals in Revelation with the Matthew 24 Olivet Discourse After he goes through the discourse of the tribulation, and the Son of Man appears, he says words similar to what Luke says in Luke chapter 17, verse number 26 And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man

They were eating, and they were drinking, they were marrying, and they were being given a marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all It was the same as happened in the days of Lot They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, and they were planting, they were building But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed That's what makes the tribulation a time of terror and trouble

Not because of all the problems that are around it, but that man, at the end, will be doing what he's always done Buying, selling, marrying, giving away in marriage He'll be doing what he always does That's why when you go and you talk to somebody about Christ and they just are not interested, you ever met those people? You share Christ with them, they don't care

Listen, if they don't care, when everything around them is falling, when there's earthquakes, there's pestilence, there's famine, there's war, there's persecution, and the stars in heaven are falling, and they don't care then, it's no wonder they don't care today, right? They're not gonna care Why don't they care? Remember, in Matthew's account of this same episode, Christ says that lawlessness will increase Man's love will grow cold Sin will abound Remember, the church is gone The permeating influence of the Spirit of God through the church is gone

The world will become such a lawless place, such a wicked place And Jesus says, as it was in the days of Noah, they were warned about impending judgment, right? They didn't believe it was coming, but it did And then he says, as it was in the days of Lot, remember the days of Lot, we preached five sermons on Genesis chapter 19, on the cesspool of sin in Sodom Remember that, those of you who were with us? But it was all-encompassing because it dealt with what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah

And you know the story about those angels who came to Lot's wife and all the men of the city came to Lot's door that one evening because they were homosexual and they wanted to engage in sexual relations with these two angels Remember the story? And they came to the door and they came and they talked to Lot and Lot, he offered up his daughters Haven't quite figured that one out yet, but that's what he did But they didn't want the daughters because they were homosexuals They wanted the two men that were there

And if you recall the story, that they tried to come to the door and they were struck blind, remember that? The men of the city were struck blind Did they go home? No Did they repent? No What did they do? They kept coming after them even though they couldn't see The effects of sin, that they kept coming, even though they were struck blind, they couldn't see, they kept coming and looking, feeling for the door that they might somehow still get in They did not care of the warning that was given to them by God of impending judgment, their blindness They didn't care They didn't care

Because man loves his sin so very, very much, more than anything else And more so in the tribulation because lawlessness increases And so they just, they can't see for the very fact that they love their sin And so with everything happening around the ungodly in the tribulation, with all the pestilence and all the wars and all the earthquakes and all the famines and a quarter of a million people dead here and another third of people dead here, they don't care They just don't care

Because as it was in the days of Sodom or Lot, they are buying, they are selling, they're marrying, they're doing the things they always do, the normal activities of life, because they just don't care about the impending judgment that's about to happen upon them They just don't care That's a tragedy, the tribulation But it's a sixth seal that will finally get their attention And they will know They will know who's behind everything They will know that it's the Lamb of God that's enacting the judgment upon them But in the meantime, they just don't care

They could care less about what's taking place on the earth And so when you come, it says, in fact, over in Luke chapter 21, it says this In fact, let me go back and look with you at Luke 12 again, or 17, I'm sorry It says in verse number 31, on that day, let not the one who was on the housetops and those goods, and whose goods are in the house, go down to take them away And likewise, let not the one who was in the field turn back Remember Lot's wife? Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it

Whoever loses his life shall preserve it. I tell you, on that night, there will be two men in one bed and one will be taken, the other will be left There will be two women grinding at the same place One will be taken and the other will be left Remember, we told you that the one that's taken is taking his judgment, right? The one who is left is the one who will enter into the millennial kingdom because they are the believer They will be left Two men will be in the field One will be taken and the other will be left

In answering, they said to him, where, Lord? They said to them, listen to this phrase Where the body is, there also will the vultures be Be gathered Jesus is talking to us about the end of the world, okay? And he uses a parable, an analogy, and an illustration When there's a dead carcass on the ground and the vultures fly overhead, okay? They are looking for that opportunity to sweep down to consume that carcass, take it away

When the disciples asked the question, Lord, where will this be? Where? He says, when you see the ungodly man, the spiritually dead man, the spiritually dead carcass around, the son of man will be like a vulture and will sweep down in a moment's notice and they'll be gone because he will come like a thief in the night You see, it's so important That's why he used the illustration Two men walking up a hill, one taking the left Two grinding at the mill, one taking one left because they're going on as normal, every day as if it's any other day And then all of a sudden, the son of man comes

One's taking the judgment and one is left into the kingdom Oh, he's coming He's coming in an hour that no man knows That's why it says over in Matthew 24, these words, but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, but the father alone knows The angels in heaven don't even know that day No one's gonna know that day No one's gonna know that hour because he comes as a thief in the night It says over in the gospel of Luke chapter 21, these words, and there will be signs in sun and moon and stars

Verse 24 of Luke 21, and upon the earth, this may among nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear Aposuko, which means to lose your breath They die because of fear And the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken And then they will see the son of man coming in the cloud with power and great glory But when these things begin to take place, straighten up, lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near

When the seal breaks in Revelation six, the sixth seal, let me show you the severity of that seal Then we'll show you the scope of that seal And then we'll show you the summation of that seal Okay, that's our outline for this evening Everything else is introductory up to this point, okay? Here we go It says, these words, notice this, that in the first five seals, human agents were involved Okay, there was a rider on horse one, a rider on horse two, a rider on horse three, and a rider on horse four

In the breaking of the fifth seal, there are the souls of those who had been beheaded or martyred during the tribulation, okay? So with the first five seals and their breaking, there is human agents involved But when the sixth seal breaks, there are no human agents involved It's God himself who does it all That's why you know you're at the end of the tribulational period It says, and I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. A seismos megas Not just an earthquake, like we know earthquakes This was a great earthquake

An earthquake that was so great that the Bible says that every mountain and island is moved out of their place It says that in verse number 14 That's a pretty good earthquake These earthquakes are not like the earthquakes we had today We have an epicenter today, and where that epicenter is, is where you feel the earthquake the strongest, and then the further out you go, the less you feel the repercussions of that earthquake This is a worldwide earthquake Everybody feels this earthquake This is unlike anything we know of, because the mountains are moved

Now we know what mountains are, we see them every day We drive by them here in Southern California But imagine those mountains being moved one day, because of the earthquake Now we've all been in earthquakes Back in 1994, when I had my back surgery, I was in the hospital during the Northridge quake, and I was sitting there, and I just had finished my surgery a day earlier, and I wasn't really all together Of course, some people think I'm not all together now, but I was really not all together then

But when the earth began to shake in Southern California, and the television above my bed began to shake, and I couldn't go anywhere, because I just had back surgery. I couldn't move. I thought the Lord was coming to take me home right there. I thought that TV was gonna fall right on my legs and shatter my legs. I thought everything that I was hooked up to was shaking and moving And I thought the end was coming. I said, oh, come, Jesus, come quickly. I didn't know what was going on And so we know what earthshakes are like Joel says that not only does the earth shake, the heavens shake as well

This is an incredible shaking of the earth This is a seismos This is a literal shaking of the earth It's enormous It's devastating And you know, when there's an earthquake, you feel really helpless, don't you? You know, where do you go? What do you do? You gotta wait till it's done Can you imagine an earthquake that takes care of the entire globe? Where do you run? Where do you go? What do you do? Do you know that whenever God wanted to make his presence known, he shook the earth? Did you know that? Back in Exodus 19, when he gave the law of Moses at Sinai, the earth shook

In first Kings chapter 19, when Elijah called upon him, the earth shook In Matthew 27, when he died on the cross, there was a great earthquake In Acts 16, at the release of Paul and Silas from prison, there was an earthquake When the earth shakes, God is making his presence known to man And although man might not recognize his presence at the time, God is giving those warnings of impending judgment that's about to happen upon the earth We need to realize that You know, people leave Southern California because of the earthquakes

And I ask them, where are you going? Oh, we're going to the Midwest Oh, so you can die by a tornado And they say, well, no, then I'll go to the East Coast Oh, so you can die by a hurricane. I mean, come on, if you're gonna die, a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, what difference does it make, right? It's a point that a man wants to die

Your death's by appointment, whether it's earthquake, tornado, hurricane, tsunami, whatever it is, if it's gonna, if God calls your number, you're gone, no matter what the situation is, right? But we tend to truly fear earthquakes, but nothing like this one has ever happened before In the breaking of the seals, there were earthquakes There were And yet none like this one And there will not be anyone like the one in Revelation 16 with the pouring of the seventh bowl, where it says that every mountain is gone Now, that's a shaking of the earth

If you're gonna shake the earth and every mountain disappears, that's pretty good shaking And that's what's gonna happen with the pouring of the seventh bowl But notice also the sun becomes black as sackcloth It says, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair Sackcloth was a rough cloth worn by mourners And it was usually made out of the hair from black goats And here it says that the sun, the sun became black as sackcloth Now remember, before the Lord returns, it's pitch black, right? This is the beginning of the darkness that's gonna encompass the earth

And remember that darkness is always a symbol of God's judgment in the Old Testament With the 10 plagues in Egypt, darkness is one of the symbols of God's judgment When Christ bore in his body or sin in mine, it was dark for three hours, was it not? Darkness engulfed not only Jerusalem, but the world because he was bearing the sins of the world The judgment of God had come down upon his son for your sin and for mine And so darkness is always a symbol of God's judgment And that's what takes place here It says, and the stars of the sky, I'm sorry, and the whole moon became like blood

The whole moon became like blood Think about it this way If the earth is going to move, it's gonna affect everything on the earth Robert, not Robert Morse, but yeah, Robert Morse, a great scientist, read a book on Genesis and Revelation extensively, talking about how these things scientifically could take place They're gonna happen supernaturally, but they can be explained scientifically as well He says this, the great earthquake described here for the first time in history is worldwide in scope

Seismologists and geophysicists in the recent years have learned a great deal about the structure of the earth and about the cause and nature of earthquakes The earth's solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults with all resting upon a plastic mantle whose structure is still largely unknown Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists So the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known

In all likelihood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep In any case, the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquakes, earthquake belts, excuse me, around the world, suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will ensue This is evidently and naturally accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and steam and gases into the upper atmosphere

It's probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood red From a scientific standpoint, now we know about the great volcanic eruption in Iceland and the effects of that Well, can you imagine every volcano in the earth erupting and the darkness that would encompass as it covers the sun as well as the moon turning blood red? It goes on to say this, the stars of the sky will fall to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind Asterisk, it deals with any kind of celestial body outside the sun or the moon

It's probably not literal stars because one or two things would happen One, we know from Revelation 8, 12 that stars are still around in the trumpet judgments, okay? So it's probably not the stars that fall It's probably something like a meteor or an asteroid falling upon the earth because that can be translated as asterisk and they fall upon the earth like a fig tree when shaken by a great wind and all the figs begin to fall on the ground

So too, what's going to happen on earth is that all these asteroids, all these meteors are gonna fall upon the earth in succession in great number upon the earth The Bible says this, and the sky will split apart like a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places Can you imagine? What John sees is like a huge scroll that encompasses the heavens and it's split in part and it rolls up

You ever had one of those shades where you pull down and it goes up to the top? That's the way it's gonna be when the heavens, when they split apart and it's rolled up like a scroll That's how he sees it, see? With all the heavens, pretty much Isaiah 34 Isaiah says the exact same thing Isaiah 34, it says, and all the hosts of heaven will wear away and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll All their hosts will also wither away as a leaf withers from the vine or as one withers from the fig tree for my sword is satiated in heaven Behold, I shall descend for judgment upon Edom

There, it talks about the return of the Messiah The king is coming And right before the king is coming, the heavens roll up like a scroll That's why when you see the sixth seal being broken, you're at the end of the tribulation with all that's left is breaking the seventh seal with the seven trumpets and seven bowls So important And every island is swept away Who's affected by this? That's the scope How much time do I have left? Check me out, 10 minutes? Okay, okay Here's the scope

And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains This is all encompassing Kings of the earth, those are the leaders of the state Great men, high ranking officials in government Commanders, these are military leaders The rich, those are ones in control of commerce and business The strong, those are the influential The slave and the free man, they are the lower class of people They are the common man In other words, it's inescapable

If you're among the ungodly, it's inescapable You cannot escape the great day of God's wrath The Bible says in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter two, verse number 10, these words Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty The proud look of man will be amazed and the loftiness of man will be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day And men will go into the caves of rocks and the holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord and before the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble

In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the bats, their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble It's God who causes the earth to tremble It's inescapable And for those who are believers, we read it earlier in Luke 21, Christ says, when these things happen, look up for your redemption, draw nigh Let me give you a summation Notice what it says in verse number 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 for the wrath of the land for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand Notice there's no repentance They recognize that this is the great day of God's wrath They recognize that this is the lamb of God who is inflicting the judgment, but there is no repentance, but there is prayer Instead of a national day of prayer, it's a global day of prayer

But they don't pray to God, they pray to mother nature for the rocks to fall upon them, not knowing that what they're doing is hastening their judgment Somehow they'll be able to escape the wrath of God, not realizing that upon death, they face God They missed that, but there's no repentance

In fact, when you come to Revelation chapter nine, at the end, it says at the blowing of the sixth trumpet and the rest of the 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 and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither seen or hear nor walk And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts So at the breaking of the sixth seal, there's not repentance At the blowing of the sixth trumpet, there's no repentance

And then when you come to Revelation chapter 16, it says this in verse number eight, and the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire And men were scorched with fierce heat and they blaspheme the name of God who has the power over these plagues and they did not repent so as to give him glory

And the fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast and the kingdom became dark and they gnawed their tongues because of pain and they blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds They did not repent In spite of the tremendous pain they're in, in spite of the horrendous plagues they face, there's no repentance for the simple reason Second Thessalonians two tells us, they love their wickedness

Can you imagine that? They love their sins so much that no matter what amount of pain, no matter how severe the plague, they will not turn from their sin because they love their sin More than they would ever love the savior of the universe Is there any hope? You know, there is no hope for those who go on sinning willfully Did you know that? There is none The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins

But a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries The writer of Hebrews centuries ago said, look, if you go on sinning willfully, then there's no hope for you There's none The only hope you have is a certain terrifying expectation of the certainty of judgment that will come upon your life Because there remains no, he goes on to say there remains no sacrifice for sin There's only one sacrifice It was Christ's sacrifice If you don't believe in that one, there is nothing else for you There is nothing

He goes on to say that's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God It is It's a terrifying thing They hide in the rocks They hide in the caves And they cry for somehow mother nature to intervene and kill them because it's the great day of God's wrath They finally recognize that it's God that's behind everything It's the land that's behind everything And they're still carrying on as normal They're getting married and being given a marriage and they're buying and selling They're still doing their normal activities and they will not repent They will not because they don't care

They only care about one thing and that's their sin and the satisfaction that their sin brings to them That's it That's it And John sees all this Imagine John, the Isle of Patmos seeing all this He must've been devastated The text ends this way in Revelation chapter six with these words

Who is able to stand in the book of Malachi, chapter three, verse number two, it says, but who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand, who can stand when he appears? In Nahum one, verse number six, it says, who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger? Answer, answer, well, there is an answer That's what Revelation seven's about John must've wondered, is anybody gonna get saved? And there is Revelation seven becomes that great intermission of inspiration for John He needs it He needs to know that there's 144,000 Jews that get saved

He needs to know that there's a great multitude of Gentiles who get saved because there will be people who get saved in the tribulation because they hear the gospel and they do believe and they do recognize that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is King Tonight, I would trust that you know that Jesus is the King He is coming again The King is coming, but before he comes, there will be the great day of his wrath And I trust that you've given your life to him, that you know what it means to walk with the living God Let's pray together Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word, the truth that's there

Our prayer, Lord, is that our lives would be representative of Christ, his great and glorious kingdom We love you and we trust that, Father, we would share the truth of your coming kingdom with those who need to know the truth We pray in Jesus' name Amen.