End of Life, End of Times: God's Wrath Against Ungodliness - Part 1 Various Texts

Good morning. Welcome once again to the gathering of Eureka Baptist Church. The virtual gathering is as we have taken part in and I just want to say thank you for your patience. The last couple weeks my mother-in-law Got kovat 19 and thankfully she's doing so much better.

Her and my father-in-law are back on track and healthy again. And I was in contact with them about a month ago or so. So we wanted to be safe. And so that's why we didn't have the video the last two Sundays but so glad not to have it again today and as a reminder we are in the sermon series end of life end of times and Last week if you listen to the audio we looked at one aspect of the Great Tribulation.

This final seven-year period at the end of history. What we saw is that the Antichrist will rise to power and the false prophet will influence the whole world to worship him. Many believers in the world at this time who do not take the mark of the beast will perish From the persecution led by these two wicked rulers.

During this period the Antichrist is going to be given the ability to rule the world through the power of Satan. Things will be very bleak for a short time and thankfully it is a short time Since it is only seven years and what we saw is that this tyranny of the Antichrist and false Prophet will come to an end at the end of the tribulation when Jesus Christ returns and easily defeats them.

So last week what we saw was one form of the wrath that the world is going to experience During the final seven-year tribulation and this morning. We're going to look at the other wrath that this world is going to experience.

With the Antichrist and the false prophet the wrath was directed towards Towards believers through persecution, but in the future the wrath When God pours it out on the earth during the seven-year tribulation it is going to be directed towards unbelievers.

Three Sundays ago We looked at the pre-tribulation rapture where the Lord is going to remove his church from the world before the seven-year tribulation. This is the great hope that Jesus returned to gather us to him can happen at any time it could happen today.

Once this takes place then God's wrath will not be held back any longer on this world. It is true that there will be many people saved during the seven-year tribulation but many others Will not be saved and when God's people are removed His anger will be shown by what he does to the world.

We saw this with the flood if you can remember back to our sermon series through Genesis once the righteous were Put in a safe boat Noah and his family the rest of the world was deluged with water. He spared righteous Noah and his family, but everyone else was destroyed.

We also saw this with Sodom and Gomorrah. He spared righteous lot and then sent fire and sulfur From heaven to burn those cities and everyone in them in The same way as we saw three weeks ago the church will be spared from this wrath to come first Thessalonians 5.

First Thessalonians 5 verses 9 through 10 tell us God has not destined us for wrath. But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him and How wonderful it is that we will be spared.

But on the other hand how horrible it will be for those who are left on the earth. What the Apostle Peter wrote in 2nd Peter? 2 -6 is that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly?

The Great Tribulation and the Wrath Reserved for the Ungodly

This is the dark future of this world during this period. This final seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation. While the Antichrist and false prophet are wreaking havoc all over the world God will be pouring out his righteous wrath over this wicked world.

So this is what we are going to focus on today and next Sunday. And we will be spending most of our time in Revelation the last book of this part of the Bible this great prophetic book. So if you have a Bible at home, I encourage you to turn with me to Revelation.

We'll be looking at chapter 6. That's where we're gonna start and as I mentioned We'll be making our way through this and by the end of next Sunday. We will have made our way through chapter 16. We're not gonna look at every chapter from 6 to 16, but we will be looking at quite a few of these.

The title of the sermon is the wrath of God Revealed against the ungodly. And I just want to mention right now that this is gonna be as you probably already know from listening to what I've already said.

This is gonna be a very sobering Sermon, we are going to see a lot of destruction. And there are two realities that I alluded to above that. We must keep in mind. The church won't be there. So if every one of you who are a follower of Jesus Christ you will be spared from this time and the other reality is this God is just and His justice calls for wrath Against sin and we see the world we live in and we know we know that this world deserves To face the justice of God because it is unhinged in so many ways.

And here's our big idea. All calamities in history will pale in comparison to the future great calamity from God's righteous judgment all Calamities in history will pale in comparison to the future great calamity from God's righteous judgment.

Now you might be wondering for my sermon title and the big idea I just told you about why I say this would be the world's greatest calamity. The flood was a worldwide destruction that poured out on the earth.

The God poured out on the earth were only eight people survived. So why do I say this will be the world's greatest calamity? Well, this is not my opinion. Jesus said this very thing in Matthew chapter 24 Verses 21 and 22.

He said for then there will be great tribulation. Such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now and never will be and If those days had not been cut short No human being would be saved or would survive.

But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. So what Jesus is referring to is the tribulation this final seven-year period and Specifically The worst of it's going to be in the second half of the tribulation as we will see as we go through revelation here.

And so why might I say that this is the worst tribulation this world has that has ever seen? Why is Jesus saying this and as I was reflected on this it might be for a couple of reasons. One reason as we are about to see is the wide range of destruction that will come.

While the flood was only one type of destruction lots and lots of water that was poured out on the earth God is going to cause havoc from all different angles all different corners that the world is going to experience and It's going to be a lot more suffering as well where the water when the water came out on the earth It was instant that people died.

But during the tribulation people are going to suffer. And the second reason is that if that period were Longer than seven years. No one would survive as Jesus said. He said for the sake of the elect the believers those days will be shortened.

So this will be a drawn-out pain that the world will experience and God will cause some believers to survive to the end as We will see down the road one group of believers who will persevere is a remnant of Jews who will receive the Messiah at his return.

The first time Christ came his own people the Jews rejected him. But at his second coming as Zechariah 12 10 says they will look on him whom they have pierced. These Jews and some Gentile believers are the elect that Jesus is referring to in Matthew 2422 when he says for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.

But if the wrath kept going Everyone would perish. But God will graciously limit his wrath on the earth for a period of only seven years. Jesus is always right in what he says so when he says This will be the worst tribulation this world has ever seen his words are exactly right.

Now at this time as I've already mentioned we are going to camp out in Revelation. What we will see is that there are three judgments of seven seven seals seven trumpets and seven bowls and each of these Judgments what I'm going to do is I'm going to give an overview of them and each of these takes place.

Chronologically what we have seen Several weeks back is that birth pains are when things get worse over time? And we're going to see that in the tribulation as well in each of these judgments of seven things are going to get worse over time as the tribulation moves on.

So let's begin with the seven seals in Revelation 6 in each of these seals the Apostle John is seen a vision Jesus is opening these seals in Revelation 5 Jesus was the only one who was able to open the scroll now.

Maybe you've read that before and And in this scroll There there were seven seals that sealed the scroll and this may remind you of the story of King Arthur Where he was alone When in his ability to remove the sword from the stone in the same way Jesus only was the only one who was able to Take these seals off from this scroll and what would happen is that history would move forward?

Because Jesus was able to open this scroll this future was going to happen because of his ability to do that. In ancient times as each seal was removed the scroll would be rolled open a little bit till the whole thing was opened.

Each seal that is open would reveal a new judgment that was coming upon the earth. The first seal opened in verse 2 is described in this way. I looked and behold a white horse and its rider had a bow and a Crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer.

This is a reference to the Antichrist and the war that he is going to start on the earth. But here the war does not start as the text tells us. There is a bow with no arrows. So there is no war yet, but the Antichrist is planning this war in his head deceptively.

What we see here is that God is sovereignly judging the world by giving them a wicked ruler. Who is going to make their life miserable? So there is some overlap between the wrath of the Antichrist and the wrath of God as We see in this first seal.

Then the second seal is open in verses 3 4 and it's described in this way. I heard the second living creature say come. And out came another horse bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that people should slay one another and he was given a great sword.

So as we see the Antichrist Schemed in the first seal promising peace. But planning war and this war Takes place in the second seal. This war will be worldwide Much like World War 1 and World War 2 in the 20th century.

So the second seal is a massive world war. Then the third seal is opened in verses 5 6 and it's described in this way. When he opened the third seal I heard the living creature the third living creature say come and I looked and behold a black horse and Its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.

And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat For a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius and do not harm the oil and wine. Okay, what in the world does that mean.

What this communicates is a shortage of food. A denarius in ancient times referred to what one would earn in a day's work and That will only earn one enough food that would normally feed one person. Now when this happens in the future they will have to share a small portion with the whole family and The reference to barley also known as oats mentions that most of the food consumed Will not be considered as high of quality as barley is not as valuable as wheat.

So you can see the language here describing. There's going to be a massive food shortage. And the food is not going to be good. During the coronavirus crisis we are facing we have seen the fear of a shortage of food with people stocking up.

But you can multiply that times 10 and during the tribulation Whole families will be on ramen noodles for example. Now things are bad to this point. But things start getting really bad with the fourth seal in verse 8.

I Looked and behold a pale horse and its riders name was death and Hades followed him and they were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

Now when I preached that first sermon when we diverted from Matthew About over a month ago when we did that sermon on the six reflections of the coronavirus what I mentioned is that there will be an end times virus and This was the passage that I referenced in that Sermon and this end times virus is far worse than what we are seeing right now with kovat 19 the pale horse Symbolizes death and this end times virus will kill over a fourth of the earth.

This virus will come on the heels of war and famine 100 years ago. With the Spanish flu that came on the heels of World War one. This is what happened something similar to this. About a hundred million people died during the Spanish flu and even this future virus will be much worse than that.

If you do the math here, we have almost 8 billion people in the world. So we are talking about maybe a couple billion people dying from this end times virus symbolized with this pale horse. Now we get to the fifth seal in verses 9 through 11.

This seal is a picture of those martyrs who have been killed During the first half of the tribulation from the hands of the Antichrist and his armies that this is what they say from heaven. I saw Under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had born.

They cried out with a loud voice Oh Sovereign Lord holy and true how long before you will judge and avenge our our blood on those who dwell on the earth. Then they were each given a white robe and Told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete.

Who were to be killed as they themselves had been? So as we've already seen the Antichrist is going to wage war on the Saints during this period and What this passage is specifically? Mentioning in chapter as chapter 7 indicates is that these are Gentile martyrs from all different ethnic backgrounds.

It says every every tribe and tongue and nation these Saints in heaven are Pleading with the Lord asking how long it will take before our murderers are brought to justice. And what they are told is interesting.

They are to rest a little longer Until the last martyr was killed. What we see here is that the Lord has planned how many martyrs there will be not only throughout history But in the seven-year tribulation and once that last martyr dies.

This is going to mark the end of the tribulation where These people who killed the believers will be brought to justice finally. So we see this cry for justice in heaven this seal is a judgment on those who took the lives of These believers who will face justice for taking their lives and this justice is delayed like like justice so often is.

But it will come you can believe that because the Lord will bring every wrong to justice in the future. Now in the sixth seal in verses 12 through 17, we are going to see something new. At this point the destruction has already been bad.

But it's going to get even worse as I mentioned the birth pains analogy. It's gonna it is going to be more in frequency and there's going to be more in intensity. So we'll see that in verses 12 through 17.

Let's begin by seeing this is six seal here. I looked and behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as The fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale the sky Vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up in every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free Hid themselves in caves and among the rocks of the mountains call into the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and From the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand.

So what we see here is there will be massive earthquakes on planet Earth and when there are earthquakes other Natural events happen we see this in our world. The text says that the Sun will become black.

Why would this be? We don't know for sure, but a good guess is volcanoes. Earthquakes cause volcanoes. What is interesting is that there are 20 known super volcanoes on the earth. The closest one is one.

Maybe you have visited Yellowstone National Park in my prediction is that these will blow during the tribulation causing enormous death. And it's going to change everything. It's going to change the climate.

It's going to change the landscape of the earth. And when these worldwide earthquakes happen Volcanoes will fill the sky with dark ash that blocks the Sun. The text says the Sun will be dark and so it makes sense.

The moon will also be like blood because ash and debris in the air will give it this reddish color on Planet Earth there will be so much darkness That that one won't be able to see much light. So even in the middle of the afternoon, it's still going to be dark.

Which is hard to imagine. In fact, if you go to Alaska During the winter there's about a month where they don't get any light. So imagine the whole world being like that. There will be events in outer space taking place as the text says stars will fall.

These are likely in meteors or asteroids causing damage on the earth. At this point it's going to be hard to find an atheist on the earth. People will realize judgment from God is taking place. But many people because of their hardness of heart because of the great hardness of their heart still won't repent.

But they will ride this out. Hoping that life will go back to normal. But the sad reality for these unrepentant people is that life will never go back to normal. What people are going to do is take refuge in safe places.

What the text says is mountains and caves and notice what the text says about unbelievers on the earth at this time they will say fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb then John writes The great day of their wrath has come and who can stand.

People will have nowhere to run. When these sealed judgments are released, but this is just the beginning. Disasters will increase in intensity and get worse just like the birth pains now chapter 7 Takes a brief break from the judgment to show that 144 ,000 Jews Will be sealed so that they will not die during the Great Tribulation.

The 12 tribes of Israel are mentioned and there's 12 ,000 from each tribe so that there's a hundred and forty-four thousand and they are kept alive by God for the purpose of evangelizing the world and These will be key in evangelizing their own ethnic people the other Jews many of whom Will receive Jesus when he returns to the earth but What I look forward to by the way a couple weeks down the road here is I'm gonna focus on Israel in the important place they hold in the end times and then we're gonna talk about the Millennium.

Which is also very important if we understand Israelite, then we then we understand why the Millennium is important, but that's down the road. But chapter 7 is describing these 144 ,000 Jews who are going to be sealed from this wrath that God is pouring out on the earth and they're going to be Evangelizing.

They're gonna be spreading the gospel to the world and many will come to faith in Christ through their witness. And what is interesting is that the opening of the seventh seal? Opens the door for the next judgments upon the earth.

And we're going to see this Not only with the the seal judgments But also that the trumpet judgments in the seventh trumpet will come to the seven bulls. Which is the third group of judgments, but out of this first one comes the seven Trumpets and this takes place in chapter 8 verse 1 when the Lamb opened the seventh seal.

And it says that there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour so what this is telling us is that people in heaven are Anticipating this new judgment that is going to come upon the earth. They've already seen The horror of this other other judgment and now they're anticipating more judgment is going to come Through the seventh seal which reveals these seven new judgments known as the seven trumpets.

What we will see in chapters 8 and 9 is that each angel? There will be seven angels here who will blow a trumpet in heaven and then each judgment will come upon the earth in consecutive order. So this is the first trumpet in chapter 8 verse 7.

The first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire Mixed with blood and these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees Were burned up and all the grass was burned up.

Let's stop right there. So what we see is that hail will fall from the sky along with fire. This fire will burn up a third of the earth. What is this fire you may be asking it may be a volcanic eruptions earlier.

We saw the bulk tank of the volcanoes that are going to blacken the sky the sky and this seal describes The devastation on the earth the liquid and heat that come from the volcano may form hail that Precipitates on the earth and the fire may be lava falling from the sky.

One third of the world's forests will be burned up by this falling lava. So there's going to be fire Everywhere on planet Earth from this fire falling from the sky. Now let's look at the second trumpet in verses 8 and 9.

The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood. A Third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Now, what is this? This may be from asteroids and meteors that hit the atmosphere full of excessive gases caused from the volcano. When these objects from space enter the atmosphere, they will ignite and when these hit the water They will cause tremendous devastation to the seas.

About three-fourths of our world is is water if you look at the oceans if you look at if you look at a world a world map and These objects that fall from the sky and hit the water and hit the surface or not the surface.

But hit the bottom the ground in the water. These objects will cause red tides. This is dead algae that rises to the surface of the water. It has a reddish color and it will kill sea life. The devastation caused from the asteroids and Their effects will kill one-third of the sea life and one-third of the ships on the sea Will also be greatly impacted by this.

In fact, the text says that they will be destroyed the one-third of these ships. Now, let's look at the third trumpet in verses 10 and 11. And this is similar to the second trumpet the third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven Blazing like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water the name of the star is Wormwood.

A Third of the waters became Wormwood and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter now Wormwood is Not something that we are familiar with. It's an herb from wood that grows in the region of the Middle East so Israelis would understand what we're talking about here.

And what Wormwood has is a very bitter taste to it so Wormwood symbolizes The bitterness and the poison that is going to come from the water on the earth. Just as the water was poisoned from the water that hit the oceans and the seas.

So this is going to happen with fresh water. And this hits close to home for us right because we are fresh water people. We the St. Croix River is fresh water. The lakes and the ponds are fresh water and People are going to die from the poison that is going to have to be in in the water in the fresh water water sources.

People will be contaminated and they will die. So as you can see, this is getting really bad and it's only escalating here. It's happening on the land. It's happening on the water. It's happening in the sky.

It's happening everywhere. Now, let's go to the fourth trumpet in verses 12 and 13 the fourth angel blew his trumpet and a third of the Sun was struck and a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be kept from shining and Likewise a third of the night.

Then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. Whoa, whoa. Whoa to those who dwell on the earth at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.

Okay. So so what we see here is this judgment is described and After this judgment is described this angel is saying There are three more coming that are bad. And so if you think this is bad, there are three more that are coming.

So in this fourth trumpet judgment The Lord is going to reduce the power of the Sun by one third. You might be saying how in the world is he going to do that? Well, he created it. He can do whatever he wants.

He can reduce the Sun by one third. And this is going to bring to bring a great cooling to the earth. If you think our winters are long now imagine a year-round winter many people Here are obviously familiar with farming so you can see how a lack of sunlight would would devastate planting.

There will be a massive food shortage during the Great Tribulation as we already saw in the seal judgments and this will only add to the food shortage and If it has not been bad enough as I as I've already mentioned this angle.

This is Eagle says woe to the earth for the next three judgments that are going to come the next three trumpet judgments. What we have seen with The trumpet judgments thus far is that many many have died and not only with the trumpet judgments, but also with the seal judgments Before that and it's not going to lighten up.

What we have seen with kovat 19 this experience that we have had In our community and all over the world over the last couple of months is that people have the hope that? things will get better and We will get back to our normal lives and and that's and we're all looking forward to that.

And that's true. It looks like the light is at the end of the tunnel with kovat 19 however During the tribulation the only hope for those who are on the earth at that time Will be to find refuge in Christ.

Because life is not going to get better. And if you think about it in the in the long term that is the hope that anybody has even in the present. But in this life people enjoy the comforts of life the joys of life.

Those are going to be gone life is going to be miserable. And the only comfort that anyone will be able to find is in Jesus Christ. And I just want to say if you're listening to this and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ He went to the cross to die for your sins, and I call you right now to believe in him and be saved.

Because God's righteous wrath is directed towards you if you do not know Christ and so believe in him this day. So let's turn at this time to chapter 9 to see the continuation of the trumpet blast. There are three to go the fifth and sixth are Continued bleak judgments on the earth and the seventh is the shout of triumph from heaven that the Lord's reign upon the earth is soon and Each of these are extended readings, and so I will summarize each of them once we are done.

Reading each passage, but but listen to this and listen to the havoc that is coming upon the earth first in chapter 9 verses 1 through 12 with the fifth trumpet and The fifth angel blew his trumpet and I saw a star Fallen from heaven to earth and he was given a the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit and from the shaft arose smoke. Like the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree. But only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads they were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them and Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings Someone and in those days people will seek death and will not find it.

They will long to die. But death will flee from them. In Appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle on their heads. Were what looked like crowns of gold their faces were like human Faces their hair like women's hair and their teeth like lions teeth.

They had breastplates like breastplates of iron and The noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.

They have his king over them the angel of the bottomless pits. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek he is called Apollyon. The first woe has passed behold. Two woes are still to come. So we've already seen Objects fall from heaven and this text says another star comes from heaven but this star that falls is not is not an object from heaven, but it's an aid angel and this is not a holy angel, but a demon.

We know this from verse 11 as the king over them is Satan. In that verse Satan is referred to as Abaddon in Hebrew and in Greek it is translated as Apollyon. The word means Destruction. In that description of course fits Satan very well as he is a destroyer.

All fallen angels are demons and This demon is given the authority to release other demons to do things that God has not allowed them to do since they were cast out of heaven and thrown upon the earth.

Maybe you've heard the story from from someone that One third of the angels rebelled against God along with Satan and that's true. And you might wonder well, where does that come from in the Bible? Well the answer is Revelation chapter 12.

We're not going to go there, but you can you can maybe make that note and read about it but as I mentioned these Demons they're allowed to cause havoc upon the earth. But there has been a tight chain upon them throughout the history of the world.

But a day is coming coming when this chain will be greatly loosened. And they are going to be able to do to people whatever they want. To this point in history that the torment on unbelievers has been relatively mild, but in the future it will be very severe and Every unbeliever will experience this as we see but Thankfully for all the believers during this time These demons will not be able to torment believers who have the seal of God and that seal is the Holy Spirit.

Demons can tell a believer from an unbeliever. Even in the present they can tell that and in the future they will be able to tell that but what is going to take place is that demons are going to torment the unbelievers on the earth and It's gonna be a horrible demonic attack.

These demons who look like locusts and they have a tail like a scorpion that emits a poison. That causes a wound that is painful, but it does not kill. This will be the experience of those who are harassed by these Demons, they will wish death upon themselves, but they will not be able to die.

It's joy. It's just going to inflict pain upon them. And as I mentioned these demons are ruled by Abaddon which in Hebrew means destruction. So think about this at this time in the tribulation. These unbelievers are going to be following the Antichrist who is possessed by Satan and yet the very one that they're following the devil is the very one who's inflicting pain upon The people who are following him so you can see how Wicked the devil is he even hates the ones who follow him.

What the text tells us? Is they're gonna wish to die but not be able to so this is a very very bleak picture for the unbelieving world. There are severe consequences for rejecting God's offer of Salvation in Christ and as I've mentioned so many times before you can't be indifferent towards Jesus.

If you know him Your future could not be brighter. If you don't know him your future could not be worse. Every unbeliever will experience The lake of fire in the future and those alive during the tribulation period will also experience the wrath of God.

That is poured out on the earth. The bleak picture continues. With the angel blowing the sixth trumpet in chapter 9 verses 13 through 21. So at this time, I'm going to read that. Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God saying to the Sixth angel who had the trumpet released the four angels who are bound at the Great River Euphrates.

So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour the day the month in the year Were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number and this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur and the heads of the horses were like Lions heads and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths by these Three plagues a third of mankind was killed By the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.