Psalm chapter two, the part I want to focus on, then we're going to turn to the book of Revelation, but it says in verse number three,
it says, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
Talking about God's authority, Jesus Christ's authority.
And he says, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Now jump down if you would to verse number 10, it says, be wise now, therefore, ye kings.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the sun, lest he be angry. And he perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Let's turn to the book of Revelation, I'm going to preach a sermon I've entitled, The Wrath of the Lamb.
Now, that's an interesting concept because the lamb is not really the animal you would think of when you think of wrath.
When you think of anger, when you think of judgment and indignation and fiery wrath.
But, this is a biblical concept, it's found all throughout the book of Revelation, you'll find that term, the wrath of the lamb.
And that lamb is referring to Jesus Christ.
There's a warning in Psalm 2, he says, look, God one day is going to judge the wicked kings and judges of this earth,
God will one day pour out his breath, it says, even when his wrath is kindled just a little bit, you will be destroyed.
I mean, you don't want to mess with Jesus Christ, if you're smart, he says, you will serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, if you're wise.
And it's a very stern warning about God's wrath that's coming.
Now, just as a way of introduction, where did I return to Revelation?
Revelation chapter 6 is where we'll start tonight.
But, just a little introduction, I want to bring you up to speed here in events, because there's so much confusion about Bible prophecy, and it's not that the Bible is confusing.
It's just that there are a lot of people out there who have the intention to deceive, and they want to teach lies, and they want to confuse you.
Really, the Bible is very simple to understand if you just read it and take what it is.
And so I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I want to bring us up quickly to the point of God's wrath.
Now, if you study Matthew 24, if you study Mark 13, it's clear that there's going to be a time called the Tribulation.
That time could start at any moment, okay?
It's probably going to start, so we don't know.
It could be 20 years from now, it could be 50 years from now, it could be tomorrow, okay?
But the Tribulation is going to begin, basically Satan is going to be, there's going to be war in heaven,
Satan's going to be cast out of heaven upon the earth, and when he realizes that he's been cast out of heaven and upon the earth,
he knows he only has a short time, he's going to go out and persecute God's people.
Flip over quickly to Revelation 12, let's look at this as a foundation.
Revelation chapter 12, it says in verse number 13,
And when the dragon was cast out, I'm sorry, when the dragon saw that he was cast out unto the earth,
he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Now, people try to say that this is Israel, let me prove to you that it's not, jump down to verse 17.
It says, And the dragon was wrought with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.
We're not talking about Israel, folks.
He says, Which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Okay, this is talking about believers in Jesus Christ that are being persecuted by the devil.
I'll prove it to you further, go down just a few verses, chapter 13.
And look at verse number 7, where it talks about the antichrist.
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, okay, and to overcome them.
So the persecution is coming upon the saints.
It's coming upon those that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And so the devil is going to be cast unto the earth, he's going to go to persecute God's people,
and a period known as the tribulation is what's going to be going on.
Of course, all the six seals are open, and we have wars, famines, pestilence, persecution.
The antichrist is going to set up a one-world government.
He's going to issue the mark of the beast, and people's right hand are in their forehead.
None of that is what I'm preaching about tonight.
After that tribulation, it says in Matthew 24, immediately after the tribulation, the sun and moon will be darkened.
And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of glory.
Jesus Christ is going to come in the clouds, the trumpet is going to sound,
and we which are alive and remain, because many will be beheaded.
You know, many will be persecuted and killed for the cause of Christ.
Those of us which are alive and remain will be caught up together with the dead in Christ,
will be caught up together with our loved ones and with Jesus Christ himself in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
And then what ensues is the horror, the terror of God's wrath being poured out upon this earth for years.
And that's what we're going to delve into tonight.
Let's go into that. You know, we don't want to spend too much time talking about the tribulation, the rapture.
That's not the topic of the sermon. I just wanted to get your mind in the right place, though.
The tribulation's over. God's people have been persecuted, they've been killed.
I mean, people have done horrible things, and now it's time for them to reap what they've sown.
Jesus Christ has come, the believers have been caught up, now it's time for God's wrath to begin.
Let's start in Revelation 6. It says in Revelation chapter 6, verse 12,
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake.
And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she had shaken up a mighty wind.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men,
and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains,
and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,
and from the what? The wrath of the Lamb. What is wrath? Extreme anger.
Wrath and anger are used interchangeably in Psalm 2 and other places.
God's wrath is His anger and His justice and His retribution on those who have committed vile and wicked sins,
who have persecuted His people, who have done all manner of disgusting things, who have worshipped false gods.
They will receive their reward during the wrath of the Lamb.
Look at chapter 8. That was the sixth seal. It says in verse 1 of chapter 8,
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense,
that he should offer with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Look down, if you would, at verse number 5,
And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire at the altar, and cast it into the earth.
So this is the first thing that happens.
The sun's been darkened, the Christians are gone, he's going to start pouring out his wrath.
The same day, a half hour later, fire and brimstone begin to rain down upon the people of this earth.
Let's look at the first trumpet. Seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound, it says in verse 6.
So these seven trumpets are going to represent seven judgments of God.
It says in verse 7,
Now what's interesting about this is that as we see ourselves creeping toward the events in Revelation,
have you noticed that the big push for a one world government is all based on the environment?
Have you noticed that?
Because they say, well wait a minute, if America pollutes, that affects other countries, and if China pollutes, that affects us.
So we need a global government, global governance, to handle greenhouse gas and to handle the environment.
And yet God, in one movement, he's going to say, here's what I think about your one world government,
here's what I think about your anti-Christ, your green energy, here's what I think about somebody,
who's going to enslave man and put people on forced sterilizations and oppress and persecute and tax to death.
You know, your precious trees that you love more than you love the creator of this world.
You've worshipped and served the creature more than the creator.
Let me just burn up one third of the trees right now.
That's God's first judgment.
Here's what I think about your environment worship.
Here's what I think about your global government when I ordained separate nations in Genesis chapter 10.
God ordained separate nations, separate kingdom.
Here's what I think about your one world tower of Babel, your modern day tower of Babel government.
I'll just burn up one third of the trees, Ted Turner, and just destroy them and consume them in a moment when my wrath is kindled but a little.
That's the first judgment.
Look at the second judgment that takes place.
It's going to be done by fiery hail.
I'm not sure many people will also be killed just by the pelting of fire and brick stone and hail.
Let's look at the second trumpet.
It says in verse 8, and the second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain.
Now, the phrase as it were is used a lot in the book of Revelation.
Let me just bring that into modern 2010, as if it were.
That's the way we would say it today.
As it were does not mean that it was a mountain.
It's saying as it were a mountain.
He's basically just describing it in a way that we understand.
It is as if a mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood.
Now, we don't know what this is.
It could be some kind of a meteor that he throws out, sends down from the heavens.
Something is cast into the sea.
It seems like a mountain is cast into the sea, but that's not what it is.
That's what it seems like.
Something is cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood.
Again, they're worried about an oil spill.
I'm sure it's a concern, obviously.
Drilling down and tapping into this oil that's just corrupting all the water in that area.
I'm not an expert on it, so I don't really want to speak too much on it, but I'll say this.
It's nothing compared to what's coming.
A little oil spill in the Gulf, and I realize it's a big spill.
I don't know the exact extent of it, but I'll tell you what.
This is the third part of the sea becoming blood.
This is one-third of the oceans of this world.
I don't know how exactly that's going to break down,
but basically one-third of the sea water is going to become in such a way that animals cannot live.
It's going to become bloody to the point where animals will die.
All the living creatures that are in the sea will die, and many ships are going to be destroyed.
Verse number 9, it says,
The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died,
and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
Let's look at the third trumpet. It says,
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp,
and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the founts of water.
This is basically a star, which we don't know exactly what this is going to be,
but again, it could be some kind of a meteor or whatever it is,
some kind of a chunk of something that's glowing with heat,
maybe because of its entry into the atmosphere, I don't know,
but it's going to be burning like a lamp.
Some kind of a fireball-looking thing is going to come down from heaven,
and it's basically going to fall upon the rivers, the fountains of waters.
It's basically going to affect the fresh water, and it says,
The name of the star is called Wormwood.
Wormwood is a type of poison,
and the third part of the waters became Wormwood,
and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.
People are going to be drinking contaminated water.
It's going to be destroyed by this event of the third trumpet.
Let's look at the fourth trumpet, verse 12.
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten,
and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars,
so as the third part of them was darkened,
and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Now, what I think is going on here, you have a 24-hour day.
Basically, you could say there's a 12-hour day and a 12-hour night.
That's one way you could look at it.
And basically, four hours of the day are going to be darkened, okay,
because there's a third part of it.
Four hours of the night are going to be completely darkened.
So I don't know if this is going to be an eight-hour consecutive period
or how it's going to work.
But basically, there's going to be a time,
and maybe it's just because of the time zones of this world.
It could be night in place and day, but basically eight hours out of 24.
I'll just break it down to you that way.
Eight hours out of every 24 are going to be pitch black.
Now, I would take this back to Exodus,
where you look at the plague of the darkness,
because a lot of these plagues that you'll see
are the same as what God did in Exodus.
Remember when He turned the water into blood,
when He brought plagues of lice and locusts and all these different things?
The Bible says in the book of Exodus that it was a darkness that could be felt.
It was so dark.
I mean, you say, well, it's already dark at night.
No, we're talking about a darkness where the stars are not shining,
where the moon is not shining,
and where the sun is not shining in the daytime,
where it just goes totally dark.
Now, let's just do a quick recap of what's happened.
One-third of the trees and grass gone.
I mean, most of the green grass is all burned up.
A third of the trees gone.
A third of the sea turned to blood.
All the little anemones and sharks and whales all the way down to the smallest plants are all dead.
I mean, think about your present environment now.
It's destroyed.
The fresh water is the point where people are dying from drinking the poison of it.
They're suffering from a lack of water because one-third of the water supply is destroyed in the world.
So I don't think that necessarily the light switch in your house is just coming on at this point.
So when it's dark, it might just be dark.
Would you say that things are pretty much destroyed?
I mean, things are bad, right?
But look at verse 13.
And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice.
Now, he's not saying this to the people on earth.
They don't hear this.
They saw Jesus Christ come in the clouds.
They saw the sun and moon dark, and they saw Jesus come in the clouds.
They saw the heavens roll back.
They were scared to death by what they saw.
Fire and brimstone rained from heaven, and then all these things began to take place, all these different judgments.
But you see, this is going on over the course of weeks and months, and we don't know exactly the time frame,
but I would say probably over the course of a couple of years all these things are happening.
But John hears this angel announcing this chilling statement.
Whoa, whoa, whoa to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to shout.
He basically says, look, what has happened so far is nothing compared to what's about to happen.
He says, that was just the first four.
He said, wait until you see what the last three trumpets are.
I mean, God's got some breath.
You know, I think some people have the wrong view of God.
What do you think?
Do you think Fun House Community Church has the right view of God?
Do you think that this sermon is being preached there tonight?
Do you think that down the street at the big happy-go-lucky, charismatic Fun House Church,
do you think they're preaching on God's breath?
And yet this is in the Bible.
Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of the book of this prophecy for the time it is in hand.
It's coming.
They can laugh, they can mock, but one day God will be laughing.
It's coming.
Don't miss it.
It's coming.
I mean, it will come.
He said, though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come.
It will come.
Let's look at these other trumpets.
Now, it says in verse number 1 of chapter 9,
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth,
and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Now you say, wait a minute, to him?
Sometimes the Bible uses the word stars,
sometimes to refer to as angels throughout the Bible.
You remember when the morning stars sang together?
I believe that's talking about the angels, probably.
And he says the sons of God shouted for joy.
That's talking about born-again Christians that were up in heaven rejoicing.
Whatever the stars are, it's some kind of an angel,
because this angel of the bottomless pit is mentioned in verse 11.
Because notice how it says a star fell from heaven unto the earth,
and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Look at verse 11, it says,
Now it came over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit.
So let's go back to verse 1, though.
It says that he opened the bottomless pit,
and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace,
and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
So basically, this angel of the bottomless pit comes down from heaven.
He opens up the bottomless pit.
Basically, he opens up hell.
And all this smoke comes out of the pit and basically just darkens the whole sky.
I mean, you want to talk about smog?
You want to talk about a clean, spare the air day?
I mean, this is just like dark black fire.
I mean, that Iceland volcano was nothing compared to this.
I mean, you know, put that ash head to shut down all the plains of Europe,
this is going to be a lot more of a plume of dark smoke coming straight out of hell.
And look what it says in verse 3.
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth.
Now, who knows what a locust is?
Have you seen locusts in Arizona? Because they do exist in Arizona.
I was driving through Casa Grande.
I stopped at the gas station and these grasshoppers,
but where I grew up, the grasshoppers hopped in the grass.
That's what I thought they do.
But here they fly around.
They look like a grasshopper to me,
but then all of a sudden they just like spread their wings and start flying.
Whereas when I was a kid, they would just hop around and that's it.
So the ones that fly are called locusts.
But these are different locusts because these are locusts straight out of the pit of hell.
These aren't just the common variety that are in your garden.
They're not eating the aphids and helping you garden.
Locusts are something that destroy every crop, every green thing, normally.
Not these locusts.
But my wife was reading to the kids a story from like the pioneer days.
And they were talking about they had a plague of locusts come through and destroyed all their crops.
And they basically just lost everything.
This is something that even exists to this day.
Today they just spray with more pesticides and feed you poison.
But anyway, they just spray more and kill them all.
But locusts are something that just consume all the grass, all the leaves, everything in their way.
But look at these locusts.
It says in verse number 3,
And there came out a small locust upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power.
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth,
neither any green thing, neither any tree,
but only those men which have not the seal of God in their courts.
Just a quick explanation on that, not what the sermon's about.
But of course the rapture's already taken place,
but there are 144,000 that were sealed to be present upon the earth during God's wrath,
and none of these plagues affect them, basically.
That's why these locusts, they will not attack them.
They will basically attack them.
Notice it says that the ones that have not the seal of God in their courts.
You see, the devil's a counterfeit.
There's a seal that's going to be placed upon the 144,000.
That's what the antichrist is going to say when he tells you to get a mark in your forehead.
He's going to say, oh yeah, see, look, you know, you've got to be sealed in your fork.
The devil always counterfeits everything God does.
You know, God has a mark on the forehead.
The devil, the antichrist, can have a mark for the mark of the beast.
If God has his Bible, then there's the devil's Bible.
You know, the NIV, the Living Bible.
God's got his religion.
It's called salvation by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The devil's got his religion.
It's called work your way to heaven.
Build the Tower of Babel that may reach unto heaven.
Confess your way to heaven.
Get baptized unto heaven.
Repent of your sins all the way to heaven.
You know, he's got his own plan for you to get yourself to heaven.
The devil counterfeits everything God does.
He still calls his Savior Jesus, but it's a Jesus that makes you work your way in.
It's a Jesus that can't really save, okay?
And so the devil's a counterfeiter.
That's what that's referring to, the seal of God.
Verse 5, to them it was given that they should not kill them,
but that they should be tormented five months.
Just to give you a picture of how these things are dragged out
over a period of about, you know, three and a half years or so,
three years, we don't know the exact number altogether.
This one judgment is going to take five months.
It says, but that they should be tormented five months,
and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he stragged the man.
Now we know about scorpions in Arizona too.
Now who has been struck by a scorpion?
I never have.
A lot of times.
It's torment.
Now I know I've been bit by a poisonous spider.
You know, I've been stung by a bee, stuff like that.
And you feel a certain venom, okay, go into your body.
You feel a pain and a stinging.
But when there's just this horde of locusts that are just stinging at you for five months,
I mean, you know you're just going to be covered in the welts from these things?
I mean, you're going to have probably all...
And they don't kill you.
It's not fatal whatsoever.
I mean, they just sting you and it gives you a sore and a welt and pain,
and it's just stinging and a burning sensation, but you don't die.
It says in this, and in those days, verse six,
shall men seek death and shall...
I mean, people will wish they were dead because these things are going to be so bad.
And shall desire to die and death shall flee from them.
Then he goes on to describe the locusts, that they were like horses prepared to battle.
He said, on their heads were as it were crowns like gold.
So do they have gold crowns on their heads? No.
As if it were.
So some kind of an exoskeleton, because it talks about how they have breastplates,
as it were breastplates of iron.
A crown, some kind of a crowning on their head, but it's just part of their body.
But it's almost like an armor, so that you couldn't just...
Have you ever had a bug that just won't die?
And you just keep hitting it, you're just cooking it, and it just will not die?
That's how these things are going to be.
Because they're going to have this head armor of an exoskeleton.
Their body's going to be... It's going to be like an iron exoskeleton.
You're just like, die!
I remember when we were kids, we'd catch a bee or something,
and you'd hold it under water for like 30 minutes, and then it would still fly away.
You're like, oh, it won't die.
Because you're afraid it's going to sting you, so you try to kill it.
But you're not going to be able to kill these things.
I mean, it's not going to be just like a flyswatter.
You're going to be stepping on this thing, and it's going to be like stepping on an iron object.
This is a pretty scary thought, right?
These things are bad.
And it says they have tails like other scorpions.
That's where the stinging is coming from.
So it's basically like an iron-plated locust with a stinging scorpion tail.
And these things are just turned loose everywhere.
But don't worry, they're not chewing up the grass, they're just stinging you.
And don't forget, it's dark for eight hours a day.
Think about that.
How are you going to protect yourself from these things?
I mean, it's horrible, isn't it?
He said in verse 11,
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit,
whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon,
but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
One woe is past, and behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
Now, a lot of people think erroneously that Apollyon or Abaddon is Satan.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
And this is what you get from reading unbiblical garbage like Pilgrim's Progress.
And the reason I'll call it garbage is because it clearly teaches that you can lose your salvation.
I've preached it from the pulpit.
I brought in the excerpt from it and read it where it says that you can lose your salvation.
I don't care if it was written by some long-haired Baptist preacher when he was in prison.
He could have got a haircut in prison, probably.
I don't know.
But the point is, I don't care how much tradition and all is so wonderful.
Look, the book teaches you can lose your salvation.
Plain as day.
And not only that, Pilgrim's Progress makes salvation hard.
Because you read the book and he has to go through all this work to get saved.
And then once he gets saved, he has to do all this work to stay saved.
And a guy's even warning him, like, you've got to keep going or you're going to lose your salvation.
And again, I don't have the excerpt in front of me, but I read it before.
But in Pilgrim's Progress, Apollyon is Satan, Abaddon is Satan.
Now, somebody help me out with this, some liberal in the auditorium.
Somebody help me out with this.
Isn't the Left Behind series also teaching that Apollyon is Satan?
Can somebody help me out with this?
Because I walked into the Christian bookstore and they had a picture up and it was something about Apollyon.
It seemed to be indicating that Apollyon was the devil.
Can somebody help me out with that?
And thank God we've merged out all the books.
Are you just kidding or do you want to?
No, seriously.
Is it?
Apollyon is Satan in this?
I went through a first Baptist church a long time ago.
Okay, alright, you don't have to confess you're Satan.
Anyway, the bottom line is this.
Apollyon is not Satan, folks, because this is how people are so warped on this.
This is God pouring out his wrath here.
Not the devil.
The devil already had his kingdom going with the Antichrist before that trumpet sounded.
Before the sun and moon were darkened.
This is God's wrath.
This is one of God's angels.
This is the same angel known as the Destroyer.
You'll see him throughout the Old Testament.
I'm not going to take the time to go there, but you can do some research on this.
Abaddon throughout the Old Testament.
You can see he's the one who went through and killed the firstborn at the Passover.
He's the one that stood and was going to destroy Jerusalem when David had to intercede at the threshing floor of Aaron and the Jebusite.
And again, I can do a whole study on that. I can show you all the places that this is mentioned.
I'm not going to for the sake of time.
I'm going to show you one place just to prove to you.
Turn to Revelation 20, verse 1.
Let me just prove to you that Tim LaHaye is wrong again and Kilbreath Progress is wrong again.
Because Apollyon, or Abaddon, is the angel of the bottomless pit.
Let me tell you something, the devil does not rule hell.
The devil's never even been to hell.
But one day he will be cast to hell to be tormented day and night forever and ever.
He's not going to be ruling and reigning in hell.
I tried to give the gospel to some drunken pervert next to me on an airplane one time.
Who said, oh I'm hoping that when I get to hell I can have an upper management position.
You know, I'm going to be Satan's right hand man.
You're going to be burning in the depths of hell with Satan.
Satan is not down there dancing around looking like Porky Pig.
Mary Melody teaches you the Porky Pig with the horns and the tail.
After Bugs Bunny died and went to hell or whatever.
You know what I'm talking about? Who's seen that?
Everybody's seen it.
Bugs Bunny died, or the Road Runner.
What's the guy that chases the Road Runner?
Yeah, he gets Wile E. Coyote to fall off a cliff and die and he descends into hell in his soul.
Porky Pig is poking him.
No.
Porky Pig, my friend, is going to be the one being tormented in hell.
I mean Satan. You know what I mean.
But anyway, you know.
The devil is not running hell. He's being tormented in hell.
Look at Revelation 20, I'll prove it to you.
Because this is where the devil goes to hell.
Verse 1 of chapter 20,
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit.
Isn't that what Apollyon had?
Isn't that what Abaddon had?
He had the key of the bottomless pit, he opened it, he let out all these hellish creatures.
And he was the king over them, directing them, telling them,
Hey, you know, go here, don't hurt the grass, do this.
Watch what this guy does.
And he laid hold on the dragon, verse 2,
that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years.
So do you see here that Apollyon, or Abaddon, the one who has the key of the bottomless pit,
the angel of the bottomless pit,
he's binding Satan and throwing him down into hell.
And by the way, when Satan's in hell, did you notice he's bound?
He's chained up.
He's not rolling in rain, he's chained up.
He's bound and chained and just roasting in hell for a thousand years.
Then he's going to be loosed for a little season,
and then cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.
So I just want to clear that up, let's go back to Revelation 9.
That's why you've got to quit reading all these other books, just stick with the Bible.
You don't need Pilgrim's Progress, you know, salvation's not a progress.
And that's the way that book makes it.
He goes through all these hoops before he even gets saved.
And then he's told he can lose it.
But anyway, let's read the sixth trumpet, that's the fifth.
That fifth trumpet's pretty bad, right?
Especially in line with all the other four things we've gone through.
Let's look at the sixth trumpet.
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar,
which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet,
Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river you phrase.
Now who remembers where that's from?
The four angels bound in the great river you phrase.
This is going all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
There were four angels that stood there with a flaming sword to guard the Garden of Eden.
Well, after the flood, apparently the location of the Garden of Eden somehow was underneath the river you phrase.
Because we know it was in that part of the world, Mesopotamia, Lambethu, the rivers.
Because in the Garden of Eden description in Genesis 2, it describes the rivers Tigris, Euphrates, and Pison, and so forth.
So basically, in the great river Euphrates, these angels are just waiting.
And it says, the four angels were loose, which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year
for to slay the third part of man.
So basically, these angels are going to lead a great army that's going to destroy one third of the people on this earth.
So before this, people have died.
But not in the kind of mass numbers as they're about to die.
They wanted to die when they're being bit by these scorpions.
Or the locust that is.
Now, one third of the people are going to be killed by this next hellish plague.
It says in verse 16, and the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand.
Now, we would use what word?
Two hundred million.
So we have two hundred million horsemen.
It says, And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and of jace and brimstone.
And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions.
And out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
For their power is in their mouth and in their tails.
For their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads.
And with them they do hurt.
This is amazing. Look at verse 20 and 21.
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, which was how many people from the earth?
Two thirds of the earth that's going to live through this.
Yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold.
And by the way, that's who you're worshipping when you worship idols of gold.
The devil.
Right.
And idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk, neither repented they of their murders.
They didn't repent of their abortion.
They didn't repent of their murder.
They didn't repent of all their whatever kind of warfare, for just aggression warfare, of just invading countries and killing and whatever.
Whatever kind of murder that goes on in the world, they didn't repent of it.
Nor of their sorceries.
Nor of their fornication.
I mean, they're still fornicating.
Nor of their families.
So there's probably all kinds of looting going on, you know, when all hell breaks loose in every sense of the word.
There's going to be all kinds of looting going on.
There's going to be all kinds of fornication going on.
There's going to be all kinds of sorcery, murder.
I mean, it's going to be horrible.
Chapter 10 is kind of a little parenthetical passage.
It just kind of explains some things to John.
Nothing really moves really forward in the story.
Let's jump over to chapter 11, shall we?
Chapter 10 is a great chapter, but it's not really pertinent to the wrath of the Lamb.
While God's wrath is going to be poured out, there are going to be these two witnesses, okay?
And I don't want to spend too much time on this, but basically these two witnesses, it says in verse 3,
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, which is roughly three and a half years, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth, and if any man will hurt them.
And basically this three and a half year period referred to is going to be roughly during the time of these plagues.
They'll probably start prophesying a little bit before this starts, but they're going to be there throughout this whole process.
And it says, these are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
That's a reference back to the book of Zechariah, if you want to study the two candlesticks and the two olive trees in the book of Zechariah.
It says in verse 5, And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy.
Now add that to everything else that's going on.
He said, And that power over water is to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.
So they're preaching, but they're also, you know, basically pouring out, they're helping carry out God's wrath, whoever these two witnesses are.
It says, And when they shall finish their testimony, verse 7, The beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them.
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
It's referring to Jerusalem, that's where all the prophets, you know, Jesus said a prophet has to die in Jerusalem, you know, and he died right outside the gate of Jerusalem.
Spiritually, it's like Sodom and Egypt, you know, it's not a holy place, especially when the Antichrist is going to be ruling there, and right now we can see that coming toward that, we can see things going toward that, but it's going to be a bad place.
The New Jerusalem is going to come down from God out of heaven, that's a holy place.
The existing city is not a holy place, okay, I will not take a trip to the Holy Land with you.
I will go there when it's the New Jerusalem.
But he says, and they of the people and kindreds and tongues shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, remember I referred to this on Sunday night, I think, or Wednesday night when I was preaching.
It says that they that dwell upon the earth, verse 10, shall rejoice over them, and shall make merry and sin, shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
And after three days and a half, the spirit of life, they basically come back to life, they stand up, they ascend up into heaven, and there's a great earthquake in Jerusalem, one-tenth of the city is demolished in the earthquake, 7,000 people die in the earthquake, the rest are affrighted and give glory to God.
Verse 14, the second woe is past, and the third woe cometh quickly.
And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
And look at verse 18, and the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and so forth.
Now in chapter 12, there's a huge change here, because we've gone through all the seven trumpets of God's wrath, and what happened when the seventh trumpet sounded?
He said, hey, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
He said, now the time has come for God's servants to be rewarded, for them to receive or reward the saints small and great, okay?
Basically, we're talking about the judgment seat of Christ, when they're going to be rewarded, when he's going to sit down and say, you know what?
Be thou over ten cities, because you've been faithful with this much, I'll give you five cities to be over. I'll give you ten cities to be over. Remember Matthew 25?
And it's pretty much over. I mean, you feel like the book of Revelation is, like, over. I mean, it's like it's done. We're at the millennium, right?
Truly we are, because if you go back, remember the chapter we skipped? Jump back to chapter 10 quickly.
See, in chapter 10, it says in verse 7, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he had declared to his servants the prophets.
At the end of verse 6, it says there should be time no longer. You say, look, this is the end with this seventh trumpet.
That's why it's interesting, when you start reading chapter 12, all of a sudden you're back all the way at the birth of Christ. Isn't that interesting?
So, so far the chronology has been matching up with everything else we see in the Bible.
You know, in chapter 1, we see John and the all of Patmos. Chapter 2 and 3 are messages to the seven churches.
Chapter 4, John's just up in heaven just describing what he sees.
Chapter 5, the book is open with the seven seals, and things are set into motion.
Chapter 6, we have the tribulation laid out in the six seals. The sun and moon are darkened.
The rapture takes place in chapter 7. The multitude of all nations of people that nobody can number is suddenly present in heaven.
Okay? God begins to pour out his wrath. He sounds the seven trumpets. I mean, it's all logical.
It all follows Matthew 24. It all follows Luke 17. It all follows everything from the Old Testament.
And by the way, if you haven't heard my sermon on Old Testament scriptures on the second coming, that's an important scripture.
All the Old Testament, not all of them, but a lot of Old Testament passages dealing with this.
So in chapter 12, and there are 22 chapters in the book of Revelation, if you just cut it in half right down the middle,
when you get to chapter 12, it starts over and tells the whole story again.
And it follows the exact same chronology that it followed in chapters 1 through 11.
Chapter 12 starts out, Jesus Christ is born.
It talks about how this woman is going to bring forth a child, verse 5, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron,
and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. That's the ascension of Jesus Christ.
Then we have the devil being cast out. We read it earlier in the sermon,
where he goes to make war against those that keep the commandments of Jesus Christ and the testimony of Jesus,
where he makes war against the saints, the Antichrist, so we're back at the tribulation.
Chapter 13 explains a little more of what's going on during the Great Tribulation,
which would correspond to the fifth seal being opened in chapter 6, where all people are being beheaded and so forth.
Chapter 14, we see the rapture take place. Let's look at chapter 14 quickly.
In chapter 14, it says in verse 14, it says,
And I looked and beheld a white cloud, and upon the cloud,
Are you in Revelation 14, 14?
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
So who's in the clouds in chapter 14, verse 14?
Yeah, the son of man. Who's the son of man? Jesus. And he's in the clouds.
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud.
So who's he talking to? Him that sat on the cloud. Who's who?
The son of man, Jesus Christ.
Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Look at all the parables of Matthew. Remember the good wheat is the believers, and the tares are the children of the wicked one.
You know, basically there's a reaping that's going to take place, which is the rapture, where he's in the clouds,
he reaps the earth of those who are believers.
Then it says that he's going to cast the rest of the people into the wrath of God.
Look at verse number 18.
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire,
and prodded a loud voice to him that had a sharp sickle. This is not Jesus, this is the other angel.
Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And that's just basically just referring to the whole overview of God's wrath that's about to be poured out, the wrath of the land.
And he says the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress even under the horse bridles.
You know, this high, right? By the space of 1,600 furlongs.
That's a figure, that's a metaphor. The winepress of God's wrath is referring to basically those seven judgments.
Now, in chapter 15, of course, the great multitude is in heaven of all the believers who have just been raptured.
And they're singing and praising God, and they're of all different nationalities, and they've gotten the victory over the beast,
they didn't take his mark, and they've been believers from all ages.
Same thing we saw in chapter 7, because we're going through the same chronology again.
Well, when we get to chapter 16, we get to the seven vials of God's wrath.
Now, you remember that in chapters 8 and 9, we have the seven trumpets.
In chapter 16, we have the seven vials. Now, some people become confused when I say this.
I did not say that the seven vials and the seven trumpets are the same thing.
They're not the same, because people said, well, no, they're a little bit different.
I know they're different, but what I will preach to you and tell you is that they are happening at the same time.
I'm not saying they're the same judgment.
I'm saying that during the time that the first trumpet is sounded and that judgment takes place,
the first vial is going to be poured out during the same period of time.
And I can prove that to you if we look at them right now, you'll see how they go together hand in glove, is what I'm saying.
Like, you can tell that they're happening on earth around the same time because they're involving the same things.
And so the seven trumpets and the seven vials are not the same, but they're taking place concurrently.
It's basically two aspects of God's wrath.
Let's look at this and we'll see.
And you may want to keep your finger in chapter 8.
We're going to go through this a lot faster than we did the other ones,
but keep your finger in chapter 8 so that you can kind of compare the two if you need to.
The trumpets with the vials.
So again, we're not saying that they're exactly the same.
We're saying they're happening at the same time.
Look at the first vial, chapter 16, verse number 2.
And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth.
And I can still say that the NIV bolds.
I'm glad my Bible doesn't say he's pouring out a bowl of judgment.
I think the vial, you know, whatever, but anyway.
I eat cereal in a bowl.
Vials of judgment, I like it better.
I don't like this bowl, this bowling, whatever it is.
Anyway, and the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth.
And there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast
and upon them which worshipped his image.
So the first vial was poured out upon what?
Upon the earth.
He poured out his vial upon the earth and they got this sore.
The first trumpet was when there was fire cast upon the earth.
Let's look at the second vial, verse 3.
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea.
Remember what the second trumpet was?
The great mountain, as it were, a mountain burning with fire,
cast into the sea and the sea became his blood.
This is a vial being poured upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man.
And every living soul died in the sea.
You say, wait a minute, that says every living soul.
In the portion that was turned to blood.
He's pouring upon the sea, the sea turns to blood.
Not 100% of the sea.
Look at verse number 4.
And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters and they became blood.
Now, do you remember what was going on in the third trumpet?
Wormwood had crashed into many of the fountains and waters, OK,
poisoned them to the point where one third of the waters became wormwood.
But think about it, they're all different continents, they're all different parts of the world.
So not only did that star wormwood poison waters,
other waters are being turned out into blood by the third vial being poured out.
And so it's just a general poisoning of the water going on from two different aspects, from two different angles.
Because this one star or meteor or whatever you want to call it is only going to cause so much water to be poisoned.
Does that make sense?
Look at the next one. But you notice the similarities in the candy, isn't it?
The earth, the sea, the fountains and rivers and waters have been identical.
Let's look at the fourth vial. It says the fourth angel, verse 8, poured out his vial upon the sun.
And power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
You say, man, God is so mean. Why is he doing this to people?
Why is he so mad? Why is he pouring out his wrath?
The answer is found in verse 5 and 6. Let's read it.
And I heard the angel of the waters, does he face any bleeding heart?
Community church people are out there that can't handle this.
He said, I heard the angel of the waters say, thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and must and shall be, because thou hast judged us.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.
He's saying, listen reader, listen 2010 Baptist church goer, when you hear this and you think God's not fair,
God says, hey, it's not fair to punish God's people. It's not fair that people are killed for the cause of Christ.
In fact, they're going to be killed by the anti-Christ, by these wicked people that put them into power and elect these kind of leaders.
That would allow a Mao Zedong and a Joseph Stalin and all these wicked people to take power, those type of people.
And it's the same type of leaders we have today that don't mind just pushing a button or making a phone call and just killing hundreds of thousands of people or millions of people.
You know what? He says it's fair because if they're going to shed blood, I'll give them blood to drink.
For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. But you know, when you sow something, you always reap a lot more.
Have you ever noticed that? You sow a tiny seed. That seed can grow into a great tree that will produce literally hundreds of thousands of seeds.
You plant one strawberry seed. Think about how many seeds each strawberry has. Or think about how many seeds an apple has.
How many seeds do you think an apple has in it? About six, seven, eight.
Tree has two hundred apples. Twelve hundred seeds. You only planted one. You see what I mean?
God's going to take vengeance one day, my friend. And that's why we don't have to take vengeance into our own hands.
You know, we might get frustrated with the way things go. It's coming. We don't have to worry about it. God will judge.
That's why He said vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord. I will repay. Don't worry about it. It's coming.
But let's go through this. The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
You say, is global warming in the Bible? It's right here. Look, Al Gore is right. Global warming is real.
You heard it at Faithful War Baptist Church. Men are going to be scorched. I want to make a bumper sticker.
I believe in global warming. Revelation 16, 8. You know, it's coming.
It says in verse number 9, and men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which had power over these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory.
See how their heart is just hardened? What was going on with the fourth trumpet?
That was when the sun, moon, and stars were smitten, that they only would shine at certain parts of the day.
That's where the vial is poured out on them, and it basically just turns up the heat of the sun.
So you're probably glad when it stops shining, because it's going to scorch you. It's going to make Phoenix seem mild.
Because it's going to be so hot, it's going to be like Death Valley all over the world. Just scorchingly hot.
Let's look at verse 10. It says, and the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast.
The seat is basically the capital city of the beast, is what that means.
The seat is usually like you think of a county seat. It's like a capital city.
Upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, the beast is the antichrist, and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
Now, you remember what's going on during the fifth trumpet?
The bottomless pit is opened, and a thick, dark cloud comes and darkened it.
Here's darkness upon the seat of the beast. One area, probably close to where this hole in the bottomless pit is opened up that brings all this black smoke and creates darkness, especially in that one part of the world.
Where people are just gnawing their tongues for pain. Part of the reason why they're gnawing their tongues for pain, and part of the reason why they have all these sores and so forth, is because around this same time is going to be that five month period where those locusts are going to be unleashed.
I mean, are you getting the picture here? This is like a living hell. It's like hell on earth. I mean, it's just the most horrific thing you can imagine happening on earth, isn't it, when you read this.
Can you think of anything worse? I think God already thought of it all. It's bad. And it's going on for years. Three years. Three and a half years.
So it says this. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates. Again. What was going on during the sixth trumpet? During the sixth trumpet, the four angels were loosed out of the river Euphrates, and remember they had that great army of 200,000 horsemen that would destroy the third part of men?
Well, look what it says. They poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up. See, that's at the same time that these angels are being loosed, because the water's being dried up. Do you see the connection here between these two events?
And it says that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, which is the antichrist, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
It's like the devil's trinity. You know what I mean? He's got his trinity. He's got his prophet, he's got his Christ, his antichrist, and then the dragon, which is the god of this world.
And of course, they come to the battle of Armageddon. There's a great battle that comes, and of course, Jesus Christ is going to come to this battle, and I'm just going to kind of wind it up here, but in chapters 17 and 18, there's a destruction upon Babylon in one hour.
It's destroyed. I did a sermon on Revelation 18 where I showed, I believe, that Babylon in chapter 18 is referring to the United States of America.
If you look at Revelation 18 and Jeremiah 50 and 51, it's clearly discussing America, if this were to happen sometime soon, because of the fact that when it's destroyed, they're going to want to weep and say,
no man buys our merchandise anymore. And who buys all the merchandise? In fact, all the ships that are going to be coming to the modern day Babylon with all their goods, they're going to have to turn them around and bring them back and say, we don't know who to sell this stuff to.
Have you ever been to Long Beach, California? Have you ever been to San Francisco, California? Have you ever seen the shipments from China? I mean, and on the East Coast, there's all kinds of shipments coming in.
I mean, we consume the goods of the world. I'll put it this way. There's no other country, there's no other city. I mean, if they looked at Los Angeles, California, in flames, nuked off the face of the earth, you know, because it says in one hour it's going to be destroyed.
And it sounds like a nuclear attack. It's talking about arrows that none of them will miss the target. It's all just going to be a destroying wind, burning heat, one hour gone. And no one will ever live there again, whatever this place is, Babylon, that it's referring to, this physical city.
Can you imagine the ships going up to Los Angeles, California, you know, Long Beach, Los Angeles, that area, all the ships from China, and just seeing the destruction afar off, seeing the mushroom cloud, and just saying, no, but who's going to buy our merchandise? Who are we going to sell this to? Nobody even needs this stuff anymore.
And it says how they bewitched the whole world, Babylon bewitched the whole world with her sorcery. That's all the Hollywood junk, that's all the TV, that's all the movies that we put out, all the rock and roll that's come out of Hollywood that's basically deceived the whole world, that's turned a bunch of decent women across the world into a bunch of sleazy Lindsay Lohan's and Paris Hilton's, you know, because that's their role model now.
You know, because we bring with our military and with our TVs and with our radio and our culture, we basically teach women to be feminists all over the world, so that their daughter can be a drunken Lindsay Lohan fornicating whore, bewitching the whole world with our sorceries, they come out of Hollywood, it's wicked as hell.
But then in chapter 19, of course I'm not going to go into it, but Jesus Christ comes to Armageddon, he basically defeats the anti-Christ, destroys him, takes out his power, sets up his millennial kingdom, so we're back where we were at the end of chapter 11, you know, the kingdoms of this world have become the kings of our Lord and his Christ.
He sets up a perfect place, he makes all things new, he straightens out the environment, you know, he makes the lion lay down with the lamb, animals will not even be carnivores, I mean he's going to lift the curse, it's going to be back to like a Garden of Eden type earth for a thousand years when Jesus Christ is physically ruling and reigning, the devil will not be around, him and all of his demons are going to be in hell, and it'll be a wonderful place.
And then of course at the end of the thousand years there'll be one final rebellion where the devil's loose and so forth, the great white throne judgment, the new heaven, the new earth, you know, read the book of Revelation.
But the bottom line is this, God's wrath is a consuming fire, okay? God's anger, God's wrath is one day going to be poured out upon this earth.
This isn't a fairy tale, this isn't a game, I mean this isn't some story book, see well that's an interesting story, that's kind of a scary story, but you know what? It's real.
And this world thinks they can spit in the eye of God, they can mock the Bible, they can mock anybody who preaches it, right? Who actually like preaches what it says.
They'll mock the soul winning Christian, they'll mock you for believing the Bible, and you know what? I don't take pleasure in somebody going through this because I would much rather that they get saved.
You know that's why we go out and knock doors, it's not that we don't have compassion. The Bible says the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance.
The Bible says that those that are in heaven, perfected, saved from not only just when we got saved, we're saved from the penalty of sin.
You know throughout our life we're trying to be saved from the power of sin in our life, through the overcoming power of the Holy Spirit. One day when we get to heaven we'll be saved from the presence of sin.
I mean when we're in heaven we will not be sinning because we won't have the flesh anymore. We'll put on the new man for eternity in heaven.
And those saved Christians in heaven, not in the flesh, they will say one day, how long O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
The righteous will rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, but you know what? It's not that we take pleasure in this because you know what? We want people to be saved.
We want them to just receive the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we go out and knock doors, that's why we win souls, that's why we preach, that's why we love people and try again to save them.
To those who continually being often reproved, hardened in their neck, to those who are part of this horrible, wicked system that received the mark of the beast, that worshipped the antichrist, that worshipped the dragon that gave power unto the beast, that are complicit in this wickedness, they will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
It's coming, it's real! And knowing the terror of the Lord, we therefore persuade them. But we don't have to worry and get frustrated and say we're on a losing battle here, it's a losing battle. No, we're on the winning side.
And I just have to say the same thing that that angel said, whoa. I'm talking W-O-E, the strongest, sternest warning in the Bible is just whoa.
I mean we don't really know that word anymore, maybe, it's not in the 2010 vernacular, but whoa, whoa, whoa unto the inhabitants of the earth when these things take place.
You're going to want to be on the Lord's side, you're going to be wanted to be counted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man, as it says in Luke chapter 21.
You're not going to want to be there. And guess what, it's only through the blood of Jesus Christ that you're going to be there in heaven.
That's the only way you're going to make it in. And you know what, those without Christ will suffer through this living hell on this earth and then they'll go to hell itself and be tormented forever.
And so let's know what we believe about this and let's not let, don't let people tell you that it's just a, somebody tried to say, oh the oil spill, that's what the Bible was talking about.
Don't listen to that stuff. That oil spill is nothing compared to this.
Now I agree that the oil, like a lot of the earthquakes that are going on right now, the volcanoes that are erupting and there's just a lot of natural disasters that have been happening back to back.
The oil spill, all these different things. I do think that they're kind of a foreshadowing.
But they're just a tiny, tiny glimpse of what God's wrath is really going to be like. I do believe it's a foreshadowing.
I do believe that we're starting to see things and we're starting to see cataclysm in the earth, we're starting to see earthquakes like the Bible said.
But you know what, it's not even close. Don't let somebody tell you, oh this is all a metaphor.
It's just talking about the spiritual battle we face every day. That's not even somebody to say we're in a relationship.
I don't face any of this. I've never even seen anything like this. I don't think anybody's facing anything like this.
But you know what, it's real, it's coming. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for your love, dear God. We thank you for your unbelievable love, dear God, that you love us as sinful as we are.
That you would be mindful of us and save us and you suffered for our sins. I mean, why? But you love us, dear God.
But not only do we thank you for your love, we also just respect your wrath.
I'm not going to stand before my people, dear God, and tell them that you're just all love, all the time, toward everybody.
God, I've tried to preach your wrath tonight, the wrath of the Lamb, and I just prayed that it would sink down into our ears and we would never forget who it is with whom we have to do.
And Father, please just bless this sermon to our ears. Bless these words. Help us to be blessed since we've read, since we've heard the words of the book of Revelation.
Help us to continue to love people and win souls. Help us to get the sin out of our life and not to live in darkness, dear God.
Help us, as Brother Dave preached a little earlier, to walk in the light.
As you are in the light. And cleanse ourselves from these wicked deeds.
You know, people who love darkness, one day they're going to live in physical darkness and gnaw their tongues for pain.
God, help us not to live the way that they live now. Help us to live a separated Christian life and to walk in the light.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.