Revelation 16 Cont.

I'm going to be a little bit more quiet so we can fool a lot of people.

This is so much fun. You know, you go to the lake or the pier. It's just two hours up and down from Atlanta, an hour and a half there.

I can do that all night long. It's a bad flight, but an hour is better than a 14 -hour road trip with me.

I can do an hour and a half. I cannot do 14 hours in the car because there's my data.

I think we got some some more coming down the hallway but we'll we'll start without them.

You open us up with a word of prayer. Stephen's gonna open us up. Father, thank you that we're able to come into your presence this morning,

Lord, and just hear from your word and ask that you bless Father Mike as he opens into us in Jesus name,

I pray. Amen. Chapter 16 of Revelation, still, and beginning in verse 1, excuse me, and then

I hear a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.

So the first angel went and he poured out his bowl on the earth and it became loathsome and malignant sores on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image.

And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became blood like that of a dead man and every living thing in the sea died.

Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood.

And I heard the angel of the water saying, righteous are you who are and who were,

O holy one, because you judge these things. For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood to drink.

They deserve it. And I heard the altar saying, yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

And then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.

And men were scorched with fierce heat and they blasphemed the name of God and who was who has the power over these plagues and they did not repent so as to give him glory.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain and they blasphemed the

God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds.

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and it was dried up so that it made way for the kings from the east.

Now I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, excuse me, out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and in the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.

For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the great war of the great day of God the

Almighty. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that they will not walk about naked and the men will not see his shame.

And they gathered them together to the place which is in Hebrew called Harm Megidion.

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl of the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done.

And there were flashes of lightning, sounds and peals of thunder and a great earthquake such there had never been since man became upon the earth.

So great an earthquake and so mighty that the city, the great city was split into three parts and the cities of the great nations fell.

And the city of Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath and every island fled away and mountains were not found and huge hailstorms about one hundred pounds each came down from heaven upon men and men blasphemed

God because of the plague and the hail because its plague was extremely severe.

Okie doke. So last week we got almost through the third bowl.

We stopped at the final little section in the verse six through seven and so we saw that the first one was malignant sores.

We saw that was either whether it was boils, leprosy, whatever. Making them in imagery, making them unclean.

And what was the picture of uncleanness in the Old Testament? Remember? We said it two weeks in a row.

Leprosy, boils, any kind of cankerous, stankin, rancid skin rot.

And in order for them to come back into the assembly what did they have to do? They had to go to the representative of God who was the priest to be inspected.

Then we saw that the sea became blood and the sea becoming blood.

What was it a representative of? Remember this is what John saw literally in the vision but this is not literally taking place.

This is what the vision. Remember what was the whole book of Revelation is a vision given to John signifying the revelation of Jesus Christ in signs and images.

Signs and images. When people try to equate the book of Revelation literally you have some huge problems.

One, you wind up being completely inconsistent all the way through the book. Because then you go, all right,

I'm going to interpret this literally but this is a little absurd so I won't do it literally.

And you say, well, do people really do that? Yes, people really do. Matter of fact, I have heard with my own ears sitting in a

Sunday school class a man say, hey, you interpret the book of Revelation literally until it's too absurd.

And I was like, well, one man's level of absurdity is different than another's. And he didn't want to talk anymore.

Matter of fact, Keith had a guy on his podcast said verbatim the same thing. He sure did.

He was having a conversation with him about premillennialism. And he says, well, I think the best way to interpret the book is, you know, until it gets too absurd.

And I told Keith, I said, Keith, you need one of those things in your ear so I can respond real quick for you.

So, hey, baby, why are you sneaking in? So, the sea turns to blood, killed everything in it, judgment of God, right?

Everything, meaning there was only going to be able to get food out of the sea as an image.

And if the sea turned to blood, we saw back earlier in the book that a third of the ships, when that happened, a third of the ships were wiped out.

Now we got to the third bowl, which the springs and waters were turned to blood.

And it says, righteous are you who are and who were. Y 'all notice there's something missing there all the way through the book.

It's always been the one who was the one who is and who is to come. There's something missing here. It's the one who is to come.

And I would say the reason why is to come is not there is because there he is. There he is.

He is there now pouring out judgment. There's no need to go, is he coming? Yeah, he's there.

And he's intimately involved in the judgment that's being poured out on these people. And how do we know that?

Because when we get to the end of the fifth bowl, what do they say?

It's God. They recognize it's God that's pouring out this on them. And they still do not repent.

And as we get further on through in the end of it, Battle of Armageddon, same thing. They understand that what's being done to them is done by God.

And it's his judgment. And we got to where it said that the holy one, because you judged these things for you have poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets.

Now you've given them blood to drink. So remember, I think we almost finished with this until we got the transmission before the engine last week with Steven.

It was, hey, you want blood? And I'm not going to do it as bad as I want to do it. You want blood?

I did it in the prayer room in the back. If you want blood, you got it. Drink it, sucker.

Remember that? She ain't listening to me. Drink up, sucker. All right.

So that's what that's what he said. Drink it. You want it? And he says this. They deserve it.

Why do they deserve it? A simple question. Good. Yeah.

I want you to go. You don't have to. But I'm going to just flip. You probably just flip over one page.

You got a new American Standard. Just flip over one page. If you have other translations, you might have to go a couple. If you just flip over one page and this is we're we're fastly approaching a subject that takes up two whole chapters.

This is a very important. We get to 17 and 18. It's the only subject that takes up two chapters in all the book of Revelation.

It is the fall and destruction of Babylon and the whore of Babylon. And if you flip over and you go to we'll just pick up at Revelation 17 verse four.

Listen to that. It says then the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones, pearls and having in her hand a golden cup full of the abominations of her uncleanness and her immoralities.

And on her forehead, a name was written. A mystery battle on the great the mother of harlots, the abominations of the earth.

And you look at this. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Now, if I'm going to be consistent when we get to 17 and 18, it's a dead ringer who this is from my perspective.

Now, if and this third bowl, he says,

OK, you have been you have killed the prophets. Who had killed the prophets? Jewish people.

And I know let's make a separation. And I want to do this for a reason. So that we can see how profits, because the way that profits were used in the

Old Testament is a different way than the new. OK, but what do we call the people under the new government?

By and large, do we call them prophets? So I walk around calling Mike a prophet. And he probably wished

I would do it. Now, when we call each other saints, we're the saints.

So when it says that they have killed the prophets and the saints, and what did Jesus say they killed?

Did he say the saints? No. What did he say? He said, you have killed the prophets.

Matter of fact, as he is coming up and matching next week is the triumphal entry as Jesus is coming in in the

Luke chapter 18 verses, I think it's 28 through 44 as he is coming down that descent.

Remember, he had come through. He had come from Jericho. He had went to Zacchaeus' house.

And as he is coming down, actually, he's coming. The descent was 846 feet below sea level from Jericho.

He's coming 846 feet from Jericho up below sea level. He goes up the western side of the

Mount of Olives, which is an ascent of 2640 feet.

So Jesus was a shaker and a mover. Was he not? I mean, come on. We're talking about over a half a mile.

We're not talking about a straight line. We're talking about hiking. OK? Then as he comes across that crest, he's on that donkey that they went in and got.

And as he comes across that crest, he is fixed to make another descent of about 440 feet into the

Kidron Valley and then come back up to the Temple Mount. But as he comes across the top of it, remember what Jesus said? Remember?

Old Jerusalem. He said, yeah, Old Jerusalem. Hey, did we see Jesus cry?

And the word is kaleo. And it is an uncontrollable convulsing crying.

That's what it is. We're not talking about Jesus shedding a tear here. As he comes across that crest of the

Mount of Olives, he sees the beautiful city. And instead of going, oh, wow, look how beautiful that is.

Look how adorned that temple is with gold and marble and all that stuff polished. And it's one of the seven wonders of the world.

What does he do? He begins to weep. And he begins to weep because he says, if you would have only known the time of my visitation, but because you didn't.

Remember, he's not even cleansed the temple yet. He says, but because you didn't, there's coming a day when the armies will surround you.

They will cut you off and you will be slaughtered. And one stone will be left upon another.

Hey, that's long before the Isle of the Discourse. We're talking at least five days. Isle of the

Discourse probably took place on Wednesday. Jesus is coming across the

Mount of Olives on a Sunday. Okay? So he said, you kill the prophets.

But when we get to Revelation, what's being told to John? Hey, we're going to make him drink it because they killed this.

So then it says, hey, not only were you guilty of killing the prophets. We read that in Matthew 24 last week, didn't we?

He says, hey, you're the one that killed the prophets. Remember how many times? Seven woes. Woe, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you brutal vipers.

Well, then once you get into the new covenant, who do they kill? Who was the first martyr?

What's that? Anybody remember why they killed him? Because he called them out. He called them out for being stiff -necked.

And he, man, it's not an exposition, okay? When you think about Stephen's message to the

Sanhedrin, it's not like he opened up the scroll of Isaiah and then began to expound.

No, he gave them a history lesson of how wicked they were. And he backed up and he gave them a progressive revelation of how

God had prepared them a place. They continually rejected. And he says, he sent you prophets. Same thing

Jesus said. He sent you prophet after prophet after prophet, and you killed him. And basically, in summary, he told them, hey, you know what?

This temple ain't no good, and Jesus is going to knock it down. Let's just, that's in summary. And what did they do?

They seized at their teeth and they stoned him to death. He was a saint.

Who did Herod kill? He killed

John. John, well, yes, but he would have been, you're right, he would have been on this side.

But who did Herod kill? He killed James, and then he tried to kill John and Peter. They would have been on this side.

So you see the religious leaders, what did they want to do? They wanted to remove the followers of Yahweh fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the saints, and they would get them off of the face of the planet.

Why? It threatened their power. That's exactly right.

It was not about, hey, they love God more than us. It wasn't about, hey, look, they're holier than us.

It threatened their power, and we know that because even when Jesus, what did they say about Jesus?

I think I said it two weeks ago. What did they say about him? Not the part of, that's terrible, not that we don't, we put our power to Caesar.

What did they say? We will not have this man rule over us.

Can you imagine that? Seeing this man for three and a half years, as John says in the end of the book, says, hey, if we were to record everything that he's done, the world could not contain the books of the good works that he had done.

Meaning all this that he did, and what did they say? No way. I don't know about y 'all, but if we had somebody that could make bread on demand, a man that could walk on water, a man that could make water into wine, yeah, raise the dead, heal, hey, walk into a hospital, heal every baby, every child.

I don't know about y 'all, but that should be a no -brainer. Let's check that box on the ballot box. But what did they say?

Nope, we won't do it. It's expedient for one man to die than the nation perish. And little did they know, by killing

Jesus, damned them and their children.

Because what did they say when Pilate said, what do you want me to do with your king? Can you imagine that?

Imagine that. You know what? We hate this guy so much, you can even punish us and our children if we're wrong.

And they knew they were wrong. Yes, sir. You know, it's funny, in the book of Acts, I think it's when, I'm not sure,

I don't know if it's Peter or Paul talking to the crowds, but then the

Pharisees turn and say, they're trying to bring this blood on us and our children. Y 'all wanted it. Yeah, once again, you want it, you got it.

It's great how inconsistent they are. And they continually killed and persecuted

God's people, even into the diaspora, meaning going into Galatia and Beneathia, all that. If you read through the book of Acts, there is the times that Paul and his companions are being persecuted, and even other men, the

Romans did nothing about it. I mean, there's one time where this dude is getting, I mean, he's getting the brakes beat off of him.

And they just, the Roman authorities just look the other way. That has to do with the

Jews. Let them work it out. So that's why the Romans were not persecuting the people of God at that time.

Okay? They were not. It was not their goal. Now, they tried to get Rome, Herod, and some of the religious leaders, they tried to get

Rome to pull them into it to help them. But they were unable to do that till after Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, exaltation.

I'm talking even probably, if Paul died 64, 65 -ish.

Would you, anybody, somewhere around there? Maybe 67. It didn't, the getting

Rome involved with that didn't take place till much longer after that. But it was primarily, it was the religious leaders, and this is proof positive of who they're talking about.

If this book, if, let me, let me not say, since this was written, 66 to 67.

Not if. Because I believe, I believe this is when it was written. If this is when it was written, who would he be talking about in this passage?

Blood, prophets, and saints. He certainly wouldn't be talking about Rome. He'd be talking about who?

The Jews and Jerusalem. Primarily Jerusalem. Because where did, where would all of the rules and regulations come from?

But it came down from the high powers of Judea in the capital city of Jerusalem.

So here it says, you want blood? You got it. They deserve it. Why do they deserve it?

Because they had shed the blood of the prophets. And Jesus said, you, I will put on you the blood of righteous

Abel to all the way to who? Y 'all remember what he said? To Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.

And you're like, well, that's kind of weird. Didn't some people die, you know, in it? Well, that's not how the old

Hebrew scriptures were set up. The last person to die in Hebrew canon was in, was, was, was

Zechariah, son of Berechiah in, in Chronicles, 2 Chronicles. And it was the, in 2

Chronicles 36, I think it says. Is that right? Correct me. I think we talked about this.

It talks about how many times we have sent the prophets to you. And what did you do to them? You killed them.

Got to remember the Chronicles is up until they go back into the land. Okay. They're back into the land, the temples back up.

And what did he say at that point? The, the Chronicle or whoever that was, we don't know, maybe Ezra.

What was he saying? Y 'all continually had killed the prophets. Well, here it is. He said, all right, here's what's happened on you.

It's because you deserve it. And then I heard the altar saying, and I don't know about y 'all, but you go, man, can the altar speak?

Is anybody else straight? Did anybody say, what is your? Out of the altar. Out of the altar. I lean more towards that direction.

And the reason being is why this one and, and, uh, inanimate objects don't talk, but they can, they can in apocalyptic literature.

Okay. Anything can talk. Remember we had bears and we had ma 'am. Sure. So when we're, when you're trying to make a point, inanimate objects can talk if they want.

And in apocalyptic literature, we've had bears talk. We've had, uh, uh, rams. We've had all these other things, but I lean towards the

King James out of the altar, because what happened back in the fifth seal?

I know way back in the fifth seal. There was what was around the altar. It was the souls of the martyrs crying out.

What, how long before you avenge us? And what did he say?

There's a lot more just like you that have to be, it has to be completed before.

And my understanding is when the last martyr of all of world history is murdered, the last person murdered and the last person saved, here comes

Christ for the consummation of the age. Okay. That's a, that's my understanding. And matter of fact, if you leave and look at the parables, there's no intermediate state for that, even in the parables.

And we'll get to that when we get to the marriage supper of the lamb and all that. Um, and the parables, there's really no intermediate state.

There is no, um, there is no time, uh, between, um, uh, the, the church age and the second coming.

That's the easy way to put it. There's no, the parables don't look at it that way. It's the time of the church.

Boom. It's over. Resurrection of the living and the dead, the judgment. So here it says, and I heard this altar saying, yes, oh

Lord, the almighty true and righteous are your judgments. So, okay. So here's the altar, uh, whether I understand it to be, it's those souls, those disembodied souls that were around in the seventh seal, uh, crying out how long, well, he's saying here, they're fixing to punish some of them.

And what does the, what does that voice conveying? It's conveying that because they deserve it.

What God's fixing to do is what? Just as they were coming through,

I mean, we get to look at the connection as they were coming through the red sea and they got to the other side and they turned around.

I said it a few weeks ago that they turn around and say, God, that wasn't fair. Did they turn around and say,

God, they didn't really deserve that. Did they turn around and say, oh my gosh, that was harsh.

No, they turned around and said, what? Holy and righteous are your ways. The same thing, the same thing.

So now these dis in this, in the vision, these disembodied souls under the altar are, are the, uh, are crying out the same thing.

Hey, you're fixing to punish these people and you're doing it in some very uncomfortable ways because why they deserve it.

You're doing it and it's holy and righteous and good. Holy, righteous and good.

It says true and righteous are your judgment. What's a judgment? It certainly is a verdict, a just verdict.

Yeah. And as you, uh, someone makes a judgment, they're making a discerning. I do believe this is a courtroom type situation, but even we, we make judgments all the time.

We make discerning judgments, whether we're, uh, what we're doing is, um, is right or not.

And I remember a guy telling me that, you know, I was open air preaching and he came up and he said, cause

I was going through, uh, the sermon on the mountain and you know, I don't know if anybody's ever been with me open air preaching, dude,

I'm not a jerk. Okay. One, the message is already offensive. You don't make your mannerisms and your speech any more offensive.

And he came up to me and it was about, if you look at a woman with lust and you, you know, if you've ever had anger in your heart, you're a murderer.

And, and he said, you know, uh, you're judging people. I was like, I'm used to it's funny.

Cause this is the very passage that Keith used in chapter seven of John a few weeks ago. While I'm judging with a righteous standard and that righteous standard is the word of God.

And he says, well, I don't think you should judge. And it's funny. Cause I hadn't turned, uh, normally when something comes up,

I reach down and I click off my mic and I didn't. And some people started gathering around and I asked him,

I said, um, so if you have a babysitter come over and you find out that person's child molester, you're going to let that guy or that girl watch your kids?

He said, no way. I said, you judge her. You just judge that person.

He said, I ain't no way I'm not judging him. I'm just being smart.

I was like, well, I'm doing the same thing. I'm, I'm judging someone with a standard that says,

Hey, I'm being smart. God says, if you've looked at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery.

If you've, if you've ever wanted to put your fist through somebody's eye socket and anger, you've committed murder.

That's being smart because I'm using Christ standard. Same thing here. The judgments that God's going to use are going to be perfectly righteous.

Nothing that God does is unrighteous. Even if we disagree with it, even if we disagree,

God's ways are perfect. We say, well, I don't agree with that. I'm not, God don't care.

Let me just put it that way. God doesn't care if you disagree. Now, in that sense, I think there are things that happen in our life that God is concerned how we respond to him in that.

But God's look, because we disagree with God, doesn't mean God's changing courses. Okay. God, Oh my goodness.

I hurt their feelings. Let me do it another way. That's not what God's going to do. Okay. All right.

Let me back that up. No, he's going to do it because his ways are holy, righteous, and pure.

And everything that he does is going to be that way. Now, any questions before we go on to the next one?

No. All right. Then he says in verse 80, he says, and the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to scorch men with fire.

Now, if you are a dispensational premillennialist, you believe that God's actually going to cause the sun to burn people.

I mean, actually, that's the actual rendering from a dispensationalist.

God's going to then cause the UV rays coming from the sun to burst through the ozone layer and begin to incinerate people.

That's not what this is talking about. Okay. Remember, everything in the old Testament, I mean, in revelations rooted in what?

Science. In the old, well, rooted in the old Testament. Everything. Do you remember? I know it's been a long time ago, but through the introduction,

I told you how many old Testament either quotations, partial quotations, or allusions in the book of Revelation to the old

Testament. How many? Do you remember? Over 800. Over 800.

Now, that has changed. With the Nestle Allen 27, it used to be 600 and something. With the

Nestle Allen 28, they have upped that to over 800. Anybody know what

I'm saying? Nestle Allen. It's the Greek Testament. They have upped that to over 800.

And you go, man, that's wild because there's only 400 and a few verses in the book of Revelation.

But sometimes you'll have multiple allusions or partial quotations to the old

Testament. In this case, this is specifically making allusion back to what God said he was going to do to the people if they did not do what he said.

Okay? We mentioned it one time before already. What did he say if you go into the land in Deuteronomy 28 and you do what

I tell you to do, what did he say the land would be? It'd be plush. The ground would be fertile.

If you obey my Sabbaths, you do what I tell you to do, the ground will be fertile. You'll have plenty of crops.

What will happen to your vines? They will be overflowing with grapes and muscadines.

And what about your fig trees? Fig trees are going to be so ripe, they're going to be drooping with figs.

But what if you don't? What did he say? I will make the ground like bronze.

What does that mean? You going to be able to plant anything? I mean, has anybody ever tried to take a pickaxe and slam it into a piece of concrete?

It don't go in. That's what he's saying is going to happen to your fertile ground. This is the imagery pointing back.

So what does he do? He takes the sun and he scorches the ground and he makes the men as if they're being burned.

Let's let me turn over here real quick. I think it's in Deuteronomy.

I want to do that before I have you turn over there. That way, if I'm wrong, I only look like a fool from here.

I'm glad I didn't make you go over there because I'm wrong. So in a book, I have to find it. It's in the book of Deuteronomy.

He says, look, when you go into the land, I will be shade for you. I will not cause the sun to burn on you.

OK, what he's when he's saying that he's saying, look, it is. Well, I'm back. Is the sun a blessing from the

Lord? Yeah, is it? Can it be a cursing? Right here.

Remember, the same sun that melts the snow is the same sun that does what?

Hardens the clay. That's actually a a a quote from the same sun.

The same sun that melts the snow that gave him water is the same thing that can then take the clay mold and make it a piece of pottery.

It has the same heat. This has two different, two different reasons.

So when we look at God saying, OK, I'm going to make the sun do this to you. What I'm going to make it do is

I'm going to make it scorch these men. Sun was supposed to be a blessing from the

Lord. But that same thing that could be a blessing to the people of God is now going to be a scourge to them.

Hey, has anybody been out working outside and forgot to have their hat? How long does it take you before you start?

Man, I got to get something on my head. I know you because I know me. First time you scratch your head and the skin slides off.

Hey, get in the shower and be like, oh, wow. The whole like a shower can't come off from.

Yeah, I mean, the sun, if you have it beating down on a bare head is man, it's it's.

It's like that. But maybe you put a hat on something to cover you up or walk with an umbrella or get you a little sunflower hat like she's got.

And then, you know, you're you you're better. But this is what this is saying is this going to actually the heat from the sun is going to cause men to be burned.

The idea is not being overly sunburned. It's causing them grief and very uncomfortability.

And it says that because this happened, the men were scorched with fierce heat and they blaspheme the name of God who was had the power over these plagues.

And they did not repent to did not repent so as to give

God the glory. So once again, we've said it already three times. They know who's doing this, don't they?

Don't what is it? What's the text say? They don't repent to God and he is in control of these plagues.

Who is in control of the plagues in Exodus? Yeah. Did Pharaoh know it?

You better believe he did. Matter of fact, he said right off rip, who is this God to tell me what to do?

And he nine times. Okay, he he saw the power of God.

And what did he do? He got harder. He got harder.

He got harder. He got harder until finally, God says, all right, you're gonna take that little lamb.

We're gonna do this thing called the Passover. You're gonna put the blood over the door in the lentil. And I'm gonna go through here and I'm gonna kill every firstborn.

Hey, you remember, we often think it was just the firstborn child. You know that?

It's not. Go back and read it. It was the firstborn of everything. Cattle, all of it.

I mean, imagine dead bodies everywhere. And it was at that point when he knew that God was not playing.

And what did he say? What did Pharaoh say? Get out. Get out.

Matter of fact, we want you out so bad. We want you to take all this stuff with you. So imagine all, you know, a million ragtag slave

Israelites, okay, raggedy clothes walking out with all this bling.

Remember? They were, they got jewelry, seal skin, gold.

I mean, they just, whatever it is, you take you, take your

God and kick rocks. We don't want you. Because they knew that the God that which they served was the one that was in control of that.

Hey, and another thing they knew is that when God was doing this to them, what was not happening in Goshen?

And they were prospering in Goshen. They didn't have, yeah, they weren't having any problems. And that's always tickled me when the hailstones came down.

So remember, when these things happen, who did they summons? The Pharaoh would send someone to Goshen to Aaron and Moses.

Okay, there's hailstones coming down that the scripture says were shattering trees. You know how big a hailstone has to be to shatter a tree?

Imagine being the messenger for Pharaoh and he says, hey, I want you to go tell Moses to cut this out.

Do you see what's going on out there? Yeah, you see what's going on out there? The size of those hailstones was shattering the trees.

You go see Moses and tell him to quit because he knew that was coming from God.

And it says they still did not repent as to give God glory. Should they have repented?

Let's just forget the effectual call for a minute, okay? If you see the destruction that God is pouring out around you and on you, should the judgment of God point you to save you from the very one that's doing this?

It should, it should. Yeah, that's why when we pray for someone for the preaching of the word, we pray that God do one of two things.

God works only two ways, okay? Either terrify them in your wrath or melt their heart with loving kindness.

And because this is in its original context, God had already overflowed the

Jewish nation, the Israelites, with floods of loving kindness, had he not?

Yeah, did he have to let them back through Cyrus?

Yeah, but his purpose is he says, you know what? Because you were disobedient to me, you're going to come back.

They had felt both ways. They had also seen the destruction of Assyrians, and they had that history of showing his righteous judgments as well.

Yeah, I mean, there's songs written about that very thing. And even after God, in his loving kindness, sent them back through Zerubbabel, back to the temple, or to lay the temple foundation with Zachariah, and then he went, hey, do you see how long they were there before they had to be rebuked by Haggai?

It had only been like 10 years. They had stopped building. Look, God sent them back into the land.

He gave them everything from Cyrus. Read Ezra chapter 1. God sent them back through with Zerubbabel, with money from Cyrus to build everything that they needed.

Matter of fact, they gave them the cedar, the money to do it. And what did they build instead of God's house when they got there?

They built their own stuff. So here it is. God, in his loving kindness, sent them back saying,

I'm giving you a Cyrus of Hagin King, whom I spoke specifically to. I'm sending him back, and you're taking all his money.

The Persians were paying for the temple complex. And what did they do? They built their own.

Haggai actually says that. You are doing all of these things. You built your houses before you built mine.

God sent you back to make me a place of worship. But so what did he do? He spurned them.

If you ever read that, you go, I don't know how in the world that incited them to build the temple.

But it did. That's what it said. And then you move on a little further from that.

You get to Malachi. Well, even in Ezra chapter 11, you have, what did those men go?

I think it's Ezra 10 and 11. What did those men start doing once they got back? They got back to the land.

God's loving kindness sent them back. Their institute's temple worship again. They're having temple sacrifice.

What did they do? You may remember in Ezra, them jokers married pagan wives.

It's like, you fool. Hey, not only did they marry pagan wives, some of the quote, the

Levitical priest did. And you have that very disturbing passage. It's very, to me, it's very disturbing.

Only time in scripture you see it where God says through the prophet. What's that? Put him away. Get him out.

Not just them. Tell him to take the kids with him. Like, yikes.

And he says, you do that because my seed will be holy.

I told you not to marry those women. I know those Moabite women are hot, and those Ammonite women are fine as can be, but I didn't want you to have them.

I wanted you to have the Hebrew hotties. And what did they do? They married the wrong ones, and he sent them out. That was not long, and then after that at Malachi, what did they start doing again?

The same thing. Wrong sacrifices, their worship was wrong. It's like, dude,

God has given them everything that they needed, and they took advantage of God's blessings.

And well, what do you mean by taking advantage? They exploited God's kindness. They looked at God's kindness as being weak.

God ain't weak. God says, okay, I'm going to send more prophets to you. And you had the intertestamental time where that happened.

Well, in this case here, God's loving kindness is over, and now

He's pouring out judgment. And what does it do? It doesn't make them turn to Him. It makes them all the more angry and causes them to blaspheme.

The same thing it did with Pharaoh. It did not soften Pharaoh's heart.

What did it do? Harden. What does it do here? Send more. Hardens their heart. And we won't start verse 10 until next time we're together.

So message, application, loving kindness of God's to lead you to repentance.

And the wrath of God should point you to the only person that can save you from God by God.

Look, God, it seems really weird, but it's the only way to say it.

Jesus came into the world to save us from His Father. I mean,

Jesus, who crushed Jesus on the cross? That's it.

It tells us very clearly in Isaiah 53, it pleased God to crush

Him, putting Him to open shame. So if you want to be saved from God, you trust in the only one who can save you from God, and that's the second person of the

Trinity. Mike, will you close us in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that we've had to study your word.

And we pray, Lord, that you would forgive us when we harden our hearts. We pray, Lord, that your loving kindness would, as your word says, it's better than life.

And we pray, Lord, that we would repent when we need to, to turn back to you and not be hardened as was

Pharaoh. We pray that you'd be with us now as we go into the sanctuary and as worship continues in the preaching of your word and giving of our offerings and singing in the

Lord's Supper. And all of this, Lord, we pray that it would be pleasing to you, that it would bring honor to your name, that everything that's said and done would glorify you because you are worthy.