(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was no supply to me. There my burden so found liberty at Calvary. Now I've given to Jesus every gain, now I gladly own him as my king. Now my rapture soul can only sin at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was no supply to me. There my burden so found liberty at Calvary. I just want to just point that really fast on the fourth verse. I said now I've given to Jesus everything. You know what to God when we all die we could just say that we've given Jesus everything. It's a close word of prayer. Lord God we just thank you Lord for the day you have given us Lord. Thank you for the salvation we've seen today Lord. Thank you for giving us a church to come to so we can worship your son Jesus Christ and you Lord. We love you, we thank you, we ask that you bless to preach this night, bless brother Ben. We love you, we thank you, in Jesus name we pray, amen. All right if you would turn your hymnals to page 140. We have an anchor. That's page 140. We have an anchor. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life? And the cable string. Will your anchor drift for a firm rebuild? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll. Fastened to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. It is safely born till the storm with them. For to swell secure by the Savior's hand. Will the tempest rage and the wild wind blow. Not an angry wave shall our bar go afloat. We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll. Fastened to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. And our right behold through the gathering night. The city of gold our harbor might. We shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore. Will the storms all pass forevermore? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll. Fastened to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. Great singing everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you did not receive a bulletin you can go ahead and raise your hand and our ushers will be happy to grab you one. You have there on the front cover our Bible memory passage of the week. John chapter 1 verse 43. So we're heading in towards the latter part of this chapter. Still have plenty of time to work on it though. So make sure you keep up the good work on your memorization. On the left there we have our service times. This morning our service was at 10 30. Spanish service 4 30. And of course you're here for 5 30 p.m. evening service. And then every Wednesday evening we go through a Bible study at 7 o'clock p.m. And right now we're going through the book of 2nd Samuel. It's been a great series. You don't want to miss out for that. We have our churchwide soul winning also listed there. All of the churchwide soul winning times meet here at the church. And then of course we have our regional soul winning times that meet in different locations. If you're interested in any of those times you can go ahead and talk to either myself, Pastor Shelley or any of these leaders and we'll be able to get you some more information on that. Also if there's ever a time where you if you can't make any of those other times and you really want to go soul winning you could talk to us about that as well. We could try to get something working out for you. As always please return all your soul winning maps to the bin when completed. I'm going to go ahead and get a count for soul winning. Does anyone have any numbers to report since Wednesday that have not been reported to your captain? Just one and who are you going with? When was what day was this? Wednesday? Awesome. Marcel? Your family and how many salvations? One. Okay so now it's today right? Okay anyone else? Okay perfect one for you guys. Do we get a count for the van? I don't know one for the van. Okay and that wasn't included in any of the ones that were already given to me. Okay perfect one for the van. Okay great. Anything else? All right keep up the good work on soul winning and on the top right of our bulletin make sure you continue to pray for our expecting ladies there as well as for our regular prayer list throughout the week. There's lots and lots of requests this week definitely a lot to pray for so let's make sure that we're being there for each other as a church family and praying for each other and our upcoming events. Shareefport Louisiana soul winning marathon September 24th. I think there's already about 40 to 45 people signed up for this so it should be a really big event and we love to keep that number going so if you're interested make sure you sign up or if you watch online go ahead and email us if you are interested in coming I can go ahead and sign you up for that. September 25th the day after if you want to go soul winning again after the marathon then we'll give you some sundaes give you some ice cream so good incentive to go two days in a row October 6th through 8th is our heritage of the lord conference and this is a youth focused conference gonna be a lot of fun. Pastor Menes is coming, Pastor Mejia is coming and again like I said this morning we have these heritage of the lord flyers up on the front desk there so feel free to pass as many of those out as possible you could use them for soul winning or for just people in your personal life family friends just get rid of all those um let's see October 31st is our Texas chili cook-off 5 30 to 9 pm it's great also that it's on the 31st so that families have a alternative to the craziness of Hollywood or Hollywood yeah it's probably Hollywood inspired I don't know Halloween I thought about preaching about Halloween this morning I'll just preach it right now okay no I'm just kidding we have a long sermon coming I'm sure from brother van here I'm just kidding um November 5th we have our music recital two to four November 10th through the 12th our Matamoros soul-winning trip November 23rd Thanksgiving dessert fellowship and December 2nd is our ladies Christmas party so if you're a lady and you're interested in that go ahead and talk to miss mrs uh Shelley about that I've had a couple people ask me today where pastor Shelley is so I might as well just announce it so everyone knows um he's just preaching at the church plant in Oklahoma City today so this evening we have brother ben stepping up for us and filling the pulpit so make sure to pay attention and uh just uh take in what he's prepared for us this evening and what God's laid on his heart and last best announcement is congratulations to the Ili family on the birth of Sylvia Brooke Ili I always want to say that name wrong but it's Sylvia Sylvia Brooke Ili she was born on Sunday 9 4 22 at 6 14 and weighed seven pounds nine ounces and was 20 inches long so congratulations to them on that and I know on Facebook there was a meal train so if you need more information on that you can talk to mrs Milstead about that that should be it for our announcements if we'll turn to your third song 161 our great savior all right if you would turn to 161 our great savior page 161 us lover of my soul friends may fail me foes assail me he my savior makes me home he is with me to the end Jesus, what a strength and weakness, let me hide myself in Him. Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, He my strength, my victory win. Hallelujah, what a Savior, Hallelujah, what a Friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a help in sorrow, while the billows o'er me row. Even when my heart is breaking, He my comfort helps myself. Hallelujah, what a Savior, Hallelujah, what a Friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a guiding keeper, while the tempest still is high. Storms above me, night o'er takes me, He my Pilot hears my cry. Hallelujah, what a Savior, Hallelujah, what a Friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, I do now receive Him more than all in Him I find. He has granted me forgiveness, I am His and He is mine. Hallelujah, what a Savior, Hallelujah, what a Friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. As the offering plates go around, please turn your Bibles to Revelation 8. That's Revelation 8. It's in the back of your Bibles. Revelation 8. The Bible reads, And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was a silence in heaven about the space of a 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 it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it into the earth, and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood. And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and the third part of the ships were destroyed. 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 fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood, and the third part of the waters became Wormwood, and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter. 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. And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the mist of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by the reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. Let us pray. Father, I thank you this evening for this great church, and we just pray that you fill Brother Ben with your Holy Spirit. Please help him to articulate what he's prepared for us, and I pray that you'll just give him a double portion of the Spirit tonight, and then the power of the Holy Spirit will be upon him. And I pray that we will be doers of the Word, not hearers only. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I want to open by thanking Pastor Shelley for the opportunity to fill in this evening, and for the other things that he has allowed me to do to serve, but specifically in this capacity, I do appreciate it. We started in Revelation 8, and look at verse 13, where the Bible read there, and I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. This is the wrath of God, and where are we? Well, we're in the book of Revelation. Obviously, we're dealing with end times Bible prophecy here, and as you heard Brother Nick, he read for you some of the other trumpets that sounded, and just to give you a quick recap of what he read, the first trump, it describes hail and fire, and the first vial. The vials are in Revelation 60, and I'll explain all this in a second. You've got grievous sores, trump two, mountain cast into the sea, vial two, we see the sea turn into blood, trump three, a burning star falls on the rivers, vial three, the rivers turn into blood, trump four, we've got the sun, the moon, the stars smitten, vial four, the sun scorches people with heat. And then we get to verse 13, and we see this proclamation in the verse that says, woe, woe, woe. This is how I would describe it, sort of like a triple main event right here. This is the triple finale of the wrath of God that up to this point had already been in the process of being poured out on the world, this triple main event of God's wrath, it's the climax of God's wrath, which is why I wanted to focus on it, the three woes of Revelation. That's the title of my sermon this evening, the three woes of Revelation. Now, you might be wondering, why preach on this topic? Well, if you looked at the bulletin, if you looked at a calendar, if you looked at your phone, you might have noticed today is September 11th, and it was in 2001 that the 9-11 attacks occurred. And let me go ahead and just rip the Band-Aid off for you quickly here. Some of you might find this to be a jarring statement, but you need to hear the truth. You need somebody sometimes to just jam the red pill in front of you and down your throat. 9-11 was an inside job. And what I mean by that is criminal elements of our government, the globalist establishment, new world order power brokers, the ruling class elites, some people just simply call them Jews. They orchestrated this event on purpose as a pretext to get us into multiple wars in the Middle East and engage in regime change. We saw with the Iraq war that the agenda was to assault a sovereign nation and overthrow its leadership in Saddam Hussein. I'm not claiming this guy was a saint, but we had no business invading Iraq when, according to the official version of 9-11, they had nothing to do with the attack in the first place. But the agenda was clear to start multiple wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the express purpose of feeding the military industrial complex and nation building and regime change, but also domestically. We saw following 9-11, the agenda was clear, which was this, to dissolve your civil liberties. And we saw this through the establishment of the Patriot Act. We saw this through the dragnet surveillance programs that were established following 9-11. We saw this through the TSA, which is basically an organization filled with glorified Walmart cops who molest people at the airport. And by the way, they don't stop any weapons from coming through anyway. You look at study after study after study of what the TSA actually accomplishes and they fail 90 plus percent of the time. It's security theater. But nonetheless, it was established post 9-11. And these measures, to anybody who even has a cursory understanding of the Constitution, were a clear circumvention or a clear subversion of the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and our civil liberties as a whole were really attacked big league after 9-11. But 9-11, if you really zoom out, because all those libertarian talking points I gave you that I still remember from when I was really big into politics, those are great. Right. And I agree with it. And, you know, I appreciate libertarians for having a zeal for civil liberties and things of that nature. I get it. I understand where they're coming from. But as Bible-believing Christians, we have the true narrative here in your laps this evening. You can see what happens at the end. And you can see what's really going on. You understand what the devil is trying to accomplish. And really, when it comes to 9-11, it ought to evoke us to think about end times Bible prophecy. And the reason why is because when you really zoom out, when you look at 9-11 as a whole, it brought this entire planet just one step closer to the geopolitical landscape that will be necessary for the Antichrist to eventually rise to power and set up his new world order over this planet, in which he is going to be able to accomplish. The Bible talks about this, and it was referenced in the morning through Brother Dylan's sermon. He talked a little bit, touched a little bit on this, the great tribulation, the tribulation period as a whole. And so we should think about end times prophecy, because I think 9-11, it kind of brought us closer to the events that are prophesied in Scripture. With regard to end times, brought us closer to those things coming to pass. You could argue COVID accomplished the same thing as well. When it comes to end times, it's really the study of a seven-year period that is called Daniel's 70th week. We would get that term. Daniel's 70th week from Daniel chapter 9, which describes a time period starting from the Cyrus declaration to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity, to Calvary. That accounts for 69 weeks. And when it comes to Bible prophecy, we're really talking about a one-year period. That accounts for 69 weeks. And when it comes to Bible prophecy, we're really talking about a week of years, and that would be seven years. So when I use the term week, I'm describing seven years. And so with regard to Daniel chapter 9, it takes you up to the 69th week, which encompasses the Cyrus declaration to Calvary, but then you have one week remaining. And then you have one seven-year period remaining. And it's this seven-year period that will directly precede the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus will one day literally rule and reign on this planet, and I can't wait for that. The laws of God will be enacted once again and will have righteousness. There'll be a righteous ruling government for once, which I'm excited about. There are a lot of great things we still have to look forward to in the Christian life. Some people think, man, you know, it feels like we missed out on a lot. You read all these great Old Testament stories, and you think it would have been cool to have experienced that yourself. Well, first of all, you can read about it, but second of all, we still have a lot left for us to experience from the rapture, the tribulation, God's wrath. We'll see it from heaven, but we'll get to come down at the battle of Armageddon. But my point is that this seven-year period directly precedes the millennial reign when Jesus will literally rule for a thousand years. Afterward, Satan is loosed from hell. He was bound there for that time period. He comes out of hell for a little while in an effort to overthrow Christ's kingdom. He fails miserably, and that's when we move into eternity, the new heaven and the new earth. Daniel's 70th week consists of the first and the second half, each being three and a half years. The first half would be the beginning of sorrows, the tribulation period. Then you've got a midpoint, and it's at that midpoint when the Antichrist, which means instead of Christ, when the Antichrist sets up an image in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, the abomination of desolation, and he makes it mandatory for this entire world to worship this image to receive a mark, and this mark enables people to buy or sell. Those who don't do this will be executed during this time. This brings us to 75 days of what the Bible calls great tribulation, and then you've got the rapture. We're a post-tribulation, pre-wrath, rapture-believing church. We don't buy into the lie that says Jesus can come back at any moment. The Bible tells us that certain events, certain end times milestones have to take place before the second coming of Christ. But then after Jesus comes back and raptures us out of here, on that same day, the wrath of God begins to be poured out on this world. And the wrath of God is poured out through seven trumpet and vial judgments. These trumpets and these vials, they occur at the same time. They're concurrent one with another. And specifically in Revelation 8 13, where we started the sermon, where it says, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, these are the three woes of revelation, which coincide with trumpet five, trumpet six, and trumpet seven. As I said, you could look at this as the climax of the wrath of God, which is poured out on this entire planet. It's the apex, if you will, of God's wrath, and it accentuates certain attributes of God. We can learn more about God's character. Now, you might be wondering, well, hold on a minute. We're not here during this time, so what's the relevance to us? Well, the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, and there are lessons we could actually take from the three woes of revelation, from the wrath of God. And if you stick with me, if some of this goes over your head, then, you know, that's fine, because if you stay tuned to the very end, there'll be an application for you to take home that should be easy enough for everyone, man, woman, boy, girl, to take home and really apply to their Christian lives. I want to give you a warning. This sermon is going to feature attributes of God that lots of churches don't want to talk about, because the narrative from most churches is that God is love only, and amen, God is love. The Bible literally says that. I believe that. We just got finished preaching about the love of God at the soul-winning time at 2 p.m., but that doesn't mean he doesn't have other characteristics. He has other characteristics like anger, like wrath, like hatred, and those are some of the characteristics that are going to be highlighted here through the three woes of revelation. And let me just put it to you this way, nice and simple. America is doomed. America is doomed. There is no hope for this country. That doesn't mean there, look, there might be perhaps a short period of revival that occurs before the end. Maybe. I don't know. We saw that with the nation of Judah through Josiah, but I just don't see it. I mean, who's going to be the one who leads that revival? It's certainly not going to be these neo-cons in the Republican Party who are some of the most watered-down, quote-unquote, conservatives I've ever heard of. But let's get started. Look at Revelation chapter 9 and verse number 1 where the Bible read, And the fifth angel sounded. So we're talking about the three woes of revelation which coincide with the fifth Trump, the sixth Trump, and the seventh Trump, the trumpets that are blown by these angels. And it says in verse 1, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven under the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit, and 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 to start things off here, this is the first woe. And we see a pit open. Smoke rises out of the pit, and there's so much of it, it darkens the air. The sun, the air are darkened here. And what we're going to go over over the course of the sermon are fantastical events. These are supernatural events that the Bible describes for us in the book of Revelation that are very hard for us to conceptualize because we haven't seen anything like this. And so it might be hard for you to picture what's going on, but bear with me and try. Use your imagination. Look at verse 3, And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. These locusts upon the earth, they're likened to scorpions. I don't know who's, has anybody, raise your hand if you've ever been bit by a scorpion before. There's one, there's another one, thankfully it's the minority in the room. I remember finding one in my bathroom sink in Florida, and it freaked me the hell out. And I took a slipper and reluctantly smashed it. But you know, scorpion, from what I've heard, I've never been bitten by one, but from what I've heard, they hurt, and it's not a pleasant experience. And so we see that this is sort of likened unto that. These locusts appear out of the pit, and that brings me to my first point. What I want to do is just highlight areas, characteristics rather, of God's character, the attributes of God that we can learn, that we can derive from these three woes. And the first one is the three woes of revelation, they underscore God's hatred. The three woes of revelation, they underscore God's hatred, and God's hatred I think is really emphasized through this first woe right here. Through the fifth trumpet, the first woe, when locusts come out of this pit, and verse four it says, 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 foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months, and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strike at the man. Scorpion bites, whatever they're called, that's not a pleasant experience. They hurt, nobody wants to go through that, it's scary. And this is telling us that these locusts, they torment men for five months, they're commanded to attack not the plants, not the trees, not the grass, but rather mankind. And this is an expression of God's hatred for sin. His hatred is demonstrated here through this first woe. Men are tormented, mankind tormented for five straight months through the locusts that come out of this pit. And the Bible talks about how their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strike at a man. Not a pleasant experience, not something any of us I'm sure would want to go through, but a hundred and fifty days of this torment, that's what occurs through the first woe, the fifth trumpet, God pouring out his wrath on this entire world. Look at verse six. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. The locusts are tormenting mankind with pain, and this is going to get a little gnarly tonight. But look, this is the Bible, my friend. I'm not reading, look, this is plain King James Bible on the pulpit. I'm not reading you the words of God. If you don't like it, then you don't like the words of God. And the Bible talks about how their pain will not be abated by death. Nothing can stop it for this time period here, these hundred and fifty days, the five months that it's describing. They'll chase after death and not find it. There won't be a way for the pain to be alleviated from these locusts striking men as a scorpion would. This is hell on earth, literally. What we're seeing is a microcosm of hell. I'll read this verse for you in Second Thessalonians. You don't have to turn there, you can stay in Revelation. We're going to be in Revelation for the vast majority of the sermon, but I wanted to read this because I thought it was relevant to the point I just made. This is a microcosm of hell, scorpions tormenting men for five months. And it says in Second Thessalonians, I'm just going to quote this for you. You don't have to turn there. In Second Thessalonians chapter one, in verse eight, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. So just as sure as mankind will attempt to escape the pain associated with these locusts in Revelation chapter nine, in the same way, the destruction of hell, the pains associated with hell, they're inescapable either. Once you go down there, it's done. That's it. There's no escape. And those who die in the state of being unsaved, they have no hope. And the pain is continuous. It's infinite. And there's no way out for them. This underscores the importance of getting people the gospel before it's too late so they don't have to experience that for themselves. But this is a microcosm of hell in Revelation chapter nine. It's terrifying. It's excruciating. But it's warranted. And I'll make that point a little bit later on. But here's the lesson for us. God hates sin. When you read these plagues, yeah, we're not going to be here. Praise God. If you're saved this evening, there's zero percent chance you'll experience this. If you're saved, if you have eternal life, we're going to be raptured out before this happens. We're a pre-wrath, not a pre-trib. There's a distinction between the tribulation and God's wrath. The tribulation period is the wrath of the devil, according to Revelation 12, 12. The wrath of God obviously would be the wrath of the Lord, God Almighty. We're not going to experience the wrath of God. Like I said, there's still lessons we could take from this. And one of the lessons is this. God hates sin. When you read about the wrath of God, that's something you need to remind yourself is how much God hates sin. The hatred of God is on display here in Revelation chapter nine. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 5. Psalm chapter 5. Meanwhile, I'll read for you from Zechariah 8 as you turn to Psalm 5. Zechariah 8, it says, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these are things that I hate, sayeth the Lord. There's certain behavior God hates. God hates sin. That shouldn't be a controversial statement, especially in an independent fundamental Baptist church. But it is in the vast majority of churches out there who want to pretend that hatred is not one of the attributes of God. It is. What you have to do is a cursory study of the scriptures to figure that out for yourself. In Zechariah 8, I heard you turn to Psalm 5, but the verse I quoted for you talks about imagining evil in your hearts against his neighbor. There's plenty of people doing that in 2022 America. Imagining evil, thinking up ways to hurt other people. Violent crime is on the rise. And you have the ruling class elites who are figuring out new ways to rip people off and to start new wars, and they're bloodthirsty. They want to kill people. There are very evil people in control. The God of this world is the devil himself and his minions imagine evil constantly. Well, the Bible says God hates it. God hates evil. He hates iniquity. He hates sin. And so this should motivate you to get the sin out of your life. What if you had a spouse, what if you had a friend who said, hey, whenever you do that, I really hate it. If you had respect under that person and you love that person, you probably would abstain from that behavior. Well, you know what? God hates sin. He hates lying. He hates covetousness. He hates iniquity. He hates adultery. He hates fornication. He hates when you break his commandments. And so whenever you feel tempted to go right back to that habitual sin that you've been stuck with for years, how would you think about how much God hates it as motivation to say I'm not doing that anymore? Psalm five is where I had you turn. Yes, God hates sin. But let me hit you with something. Perhaps more, quote, unquote, controversial in today's world, even though it shouldn't be. There are also people he hates as well. Psalm five, look, it says in verse four, Psalm Chapter five in verse four, for thou art not a God that had pleasure and wickedness. Neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Pay close attention to these words. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. God doesn't just hate sin, but there are certain people who cross a line to where God hates the person. And that might conflict with your favorite Gandhi quote that might conflict with your Buddha Jesus that you believe in. But, you know, the Bible says God hates the workers of iniquity. God hates those who hate him. God hates those whose lives revolve around hurting other people who hate other people. There are certain sins that people can commit to where God hates them. You read about this in Proverbs Chapter six, these six things, doth the Lord hate, and it lists them. Thou hatest the workers of iniquity, and we see his hatred is exemplified through the first woe of revelation, the torment of the locusts. Five straight months of this and there's no escape, a microcosm of hell, which is another expression of God's hatred. You cannot convince me that God doesn't hate anyone because that would mean he loves no one. These are two sides of the same coin. And furthermore, have you heard of hell? That's the ultimate expression of his hatred for sin and for iniquity. Go back to Revelation Chapter nine, Revelation Chapter nine. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. And I think we're seeing an expression of his hatred through the first woe, these locusts tormenting people. And there's no escape from it. The pain cannot be abated. They can't even die. Death flees from them. Just assures when people are in hell, it's an everlasting destruction. They're in a state of being dead, but it's a spiritual death that lasts for an eternity. And they feel that torment forever. Look at verse seven in Revelation Chapter nine and verse seven. It says, And the shape of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold. And their faces were as the faces of men. This is something out of a horror movie. It's worse. It's way worse in the sense that it's terrifying that these locusts, they have the faces as the face of a man, heads, as it were, like crowns of gold. These creatures that come out of hell. And these are the creatures we know about. Think of the ones we might not know about. We'll never get to experience it. Praise God. Verse number eight. Praise God for the gospel. Praise God for salvation, being by faith alone on the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God that it's easy to be saved and avoid all of this. Look at verse eight. And they had hair as the hair of women, meaning it was long because women have long hair. Men are supposed to have short hair. And their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were, breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like on the scorpions. And they were stings in their tails. And their power was to hurt men five months. So we already went over that. But visualize this. Locusts as horses, the Bible talks about. Heads as crowns of gold. Faces of men. Try and picture this as we go over it. These terrifying creatures that have hair as the hair of women, that have teeth as the teeth of lions. Breastplates of iron and their wings, they sound like entire chariots of horses. That sound must have been intimidating or it will be intimidating for those who are left behind after the rapture. The real version of left behind, by the way. Not this garbage pre-trib nonsense. But those who are left behind to experience the wrath of God. This is an intimidating sound. It's nightmarish. And, you know, these God-hating atheists out there who love to mock Christianity. They love to mock the Bible. They scoff at the word of God. You know, there's one I'm thinking of right now. He literally has an entire series where he goes through the Bible. He's going through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation expository style to mock it. To make fun of it. Going through verse by verse and laughing at the word of God. Well, you know what? He's not going to be laughing if he lives to see this day. He's not going to be laughing as these locusts from hell torment him for five months before he gets cast into hellfire. He's not going to be laughing as he experiences the wrath of God. And neither are all these other mockers and scoffers out there. They have to realize that every single time they try and afflict God's people and make fun of God's people and try and stymie the work of the Lord. Every time they stand outside there with one of their blasphemous signs, what they have to realize is this. Hell is getting that much hotter for them. The torment is getting that much more painful for them. And they're going to, you know, they won't be laughing when they're tossed after spending a lifetime persecuting God's people. A lifetime hating God. They won't be laughing when they're tossed into the lowest, deepest, darkest, most torturous part of hell, wishing that they took a different direction. But it'll be too late for them. A different direction in their life. And we'll see that same thing here with these locusts in the sense that they're tormenting men. And it won't be funny for those who think that Christianity is funny or that it's something to be mocked. That Christians, you know, are evil and that they want to stop the work of the Lord from going forward. They won't be laughing when God pours out his wrath on this world. Look at verse 11. It says, And they had a king over them. There's a king over these locusts, 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. Kind of as a side note, I find it interesting that Hebrew and Greek are the languages mentioned in verse 11 here, because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament, mostly in Hebrew, and the New Testament, of course, written in Greek. Verse 12, it says, One woe is past, and behold, there come two more hereafter. So these locusts, they have a king over them, and his name is Abaddon or Apollyon in the Greek. So I just went back to the Greek for you. These angels, here's what I'm trying to say. This angel right here, Abaddon or Apollyon, there's a lot of false doctrine on him, but specifically, Pilgrim's Progress, that's what I was trying to remember, by John Bunyan, totally screws up who Abaddon is and basically surmises that he's the devil or that he is Satan. And a lot of people, they have this false view of the devil that he's sort of like ruling over hell and that he's in charge there, but he's not there at all right now. He will eventually be cast into hell where he'll be tormented, not ruling over it, but actually afflicted by the fires of hell. Abaddon is not Satan. And I want to prove this to you. Look at Revelation 20, Revelation chapter 20. The angel ruling over these locusts is not the devil himself. It's not Satan. It's someone different. And Revelation chapter 20 says in verse 1, Revelation chapter 20 says in verse 1, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan and bowed him a thousand years. This is the same angel that we read about in Revelation chapter 9, grabbing the devil and binding him for a thousand years, which shows that these are two different people, right? Abaddon or Apollyon is not Satan. People are getting a lot of very wacky ideas about this angel from extra biblical sources, one of them being Pilgrim's Progress, which is not scripture, by the way. Just wanted to point that out. Look at Revelation chapter 16, Revelation chapter 16. And we can take a look at another smaller component of the first woe there in Revelation chapter 16 and verse 10. Revelation chapter 16 and verse 10. Satan doesn't rule over hell. In fact, he's cast into the lake of fire for all of eternity. He's going to be tormented there. And hell is not a place for you to go party. This is another way that the atheists mock scripture. Well, I'd rather go down to hell. They're not rednecks, but my point is, I'd rather go. They'll say something like, I'd rather go to hell and party with the devil than be up there with Christians, whatever. It's like, fine, if you want to go down there, have at it, Hoss. But you're going to be tormented. You're going to be tortured for all of eternity. Revelation 16 says in verse 10, you say, this is a dark sermon. Well, I'll try and make it positive later. Verse 10, look what it says. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast and his kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed at their tongues for pain. So it's very similar to what we read in Revelation nine, verse two. It says the sun was darkened there by the smoke. Here in Revelation 16, it says that the kingdom was full of darkness. This is further proof. Look at verse 11 and blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds. I'll explain that in a second. But this is further proof. Revelation 16, verse 10 is further proof that the vials don't come after the trumpets. The vile judgments of God do not come after the trumpet judgments of God. Most people, especially the pre-trip crowd, would subscribe to that, but it's false. And here's why. If you looked at verse 10 one more time, it says the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast, meaning that the Antichrist is actually still in power during this time. And we know that when the seventh trumpet sounds, he loses his authority, his power. And so the vile judgments can't happen afterward because he's still in authority. According to this verse, the vile judgments actually occur at the same time as the trumpet judgments. And they can give us a different perspective of what's going on because there are some things with regard to the vile judgments that are kind of distinct from the trumpet judgments. And so you can look at Revelation chapter 16 to get a different perspective on what's happening on the earth at this time. But verse 11, it said that they repented not of their deeds. In spite of these plagues, in spite of God's anger being manifested, his hatred being manifested, these people don't repent. They don't change. They don't turn. That's what repent means. In the context of salvation, it's turning from unbelief to belief. Here they're not turning from their deeds, the wickedness that they were doing. And why? Abstinence. They're stubborn. They're stiff-necked. And we'll talk more about that later on. But turn back to Revelation chapter 9, if you would, Revelation chapter 9. My second point is the three woes of Revelation demonstrate God's anger, demonstrate God's anger. And we see that emphasized through the second woe. What happens? The sixth trumpet, the sixth vial, the second woe here is when one third of mankind is wiped out. Let me repeat that so you can really get the gravity of this. One third of the entire population of the planet is wiped out. Verse 12, Revelation 9, verse 12, it says, one woe is past and behold, there come two woes more hereafter. So this indicates that the fifth trumpet slash the fifth vial, that was the first woe. Now we're moving into the second woe, which is the sixth trumpet slash the sixth vial. Look at verse 13. 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 to the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay the third part of men. The third part of men die through this woe, the second woe, courtesy of the second woe. And it says in verse 16, and the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand. And I heard the number of them. I forgot to define the word woe for you. I meant to do that at the beginning. But the word woe, if you really think about what it's defined as, it's a state of intense hardship or distress, disaster or horror. And think of the horror of this incredible army, a two hundred million man army that slays a third of the population. That's what the Bible is describing for us here in Revelation Chapter nine. You don't have to turn there. I'll quote this for you in Revelation 16. It says in the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. So these angels, there's four angels the Bible talks about that were bound in the great river Euphrates. In Revelation 16, it talks about how the way of the kings of the east would be prepared. So it uses that directional indicator for us, east. Well, we know that a garden was planted eastward in Eden. We know that the Bible describes for us, and I won't go there for sake of time, but in Genesis Chapter two, four rivers. And so you could surmise that perhaps each river had an angel guarding it or looking after it or that was placed there for whatever reason. One of those four rivers in Genesis Chapter two is the river Euphrates. And then in Genesis Chapter three, of course, following the fall of man, the Bible describes angels that guard the entrance of the Garden of Eden. And the theory, I'm not dogmatic on this, but you could theorize that perhaps these four angels that were loosed from the river Euphrates here in Revelation Chapter nine, that sort of bring in the 200 million man army, slaying one third of men, that these are the same angels that we read about all the way in Genesis Chapter three. It's a theory. I thought I would throw that out there. Look at verse 17. It says, And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and then that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued a 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. This is another preview of hell, because what's coming out of the mouths of this army? Fire, smoke, brimstone, all three attributes of hell. And it's by the fire and it's by the smoke and it's by the brimstone that a third of this planet's population is slain and wiped out. These horsemen also, they have breastplates of fire. The Bible talks about jacinth, brimstone. They have heads as lions in order to look as intimidating as possible. So what can we take from this? And this is a thought that I have when I read about God's wrath. Sin has consequences. Yeah, we're not going to be here for this time period, but understand God's not going to sit on his hands and do nothing as this world turns on him and descends deeper and deeper into iniquity and further and further away from the Bible. Sin has consequences. God is angry at the world for spitting in his face. God is angry at this world for loving iniquity and hating righteousness. And here, I mean, we see a manifestation of his anger where a third of the planet is wiped out through this 200 million man army. But sin has consequences. He wipes out a third of an already beleaguered population that had been afflicted by the tribulation period, the first half of Daniel's 70th week. Turn to Jeremiah Chapter seven, if you would, Jeremiah Chapter seven. The second woe teaches us about the anger of God. It emphasizes, rather, the anger of God. Yes, that would apply to all of the trumpets and vials, but I think we really see that highlighted or emphasized with the second woe. As you turn to Jeremiah seven, I'll quote for you Psalm seven, which says God judge at the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. God is angry with the wicked every day. We get angry at the wicked ourselves. Well, you know what? I think God gets infinitely more angry than we do. Angrier, I should say, than we do. Contrary to what your favorite preachers on the television set might be teaching you, the lies that they're feeding the masses. Contrary to what that it the clown looking false prophet Joyce Meyer is saying at her fake church or printing in a book. The reality is God is angry with the wicked every single day, and that anger is expressed in many different ways, one of them being the second woe. And it reaches really a boiling point and is finally dispensed in the end times. Jeremiah seven, where I had you turn, look at verse 20. It says, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast and upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground. And it shall burn and shall not be quenched. Notice the verbiage. God's anger poured out. Now, this is in reference to the southern kingdom of Judah. What were they guilty of? All kinds of sin, all kinds of wickedness. But specifically, what's in view here is them worshiping the queen of heaven, the supposed queen of heaven, a false god. We see that today. It's called the Catholic Church. We see that today where they deify, if that's even a word, Mary. And they view Mary as some sort of God that we're supposed to pray to. No, my friend, Mary was a sinner just like the rest of us. She wasn't some sort of God. It's not somebody you pray to. And the Catholic Church has taken her and pedestalized her to the point of blasphemy. And it's one of the biggest religions, if not the biggest one on the planet. So this is relevant for us. Judah worshiped the queen of heaven but also sacrificed their own children to devils. How's that happening today? It's called Planned Parenthood. How's that happening today? It's called abortion. How's that happening today? It's called a woman who couldn't stop being a whore going to the local abortion factory, going to the local Planned Parenthood started by the eugenicist Margaret Sanger to go kill her own child, to go butcher her own unborn baby. And in spite of Roe versus Wade being overturned, many states in this country still not just allow abortion, but they're enabling it. And we saw after the overturning of Roe versus Wade, hundreds of bloodthirsty feminist dykes take to the street and scream and yell, foaming at the mouth about how badly they want to murder their own children. It's disgusting. It's filthy. It's abominable. And the Bible tells us here that God is angry with that type of sin. He's angry at false religion. He's angry at murder. He's angry at the innocent being slain. In Jeremiah chapter 7, it specifically says, my anger and my fury will be poured out upon this place, and it'll be poured out in the same way at the end of this world when God begins his wrath. The seven trumpet and bile judgments, specifically the second woe, we see his anger is on display. His anger is expressed how one third of this world is done. It's slain. It is wiped out. Go back to Revelation chapter 9. The southern kingdom of Judah refused to get right. If you read your Old Testament, you'll notice this pattern, just as sure as what we see happening in the end times, despite the plagues, despite the punishment, despite the judgment, there's no repentance from those who were left behind on this earth after the rapture. But it gets to a point with Judah, it gets to the point with God's chosen nation in the Old Testament that there's no remedy. There's no remedy. And I'll read this for you. You turn back to Revelation chapter 9. I wanted to read this. I thought it was relevant. It's in Second Chronicles. That's why I'm getting this term, no remedy, because this is how God described the situation for the nation of Judah. And I'll quote to you. You're turning back to Revelation 9. I'm going to quote. This is a new Bible. You've got to give me a second to get to where I'm supposed to go. Revelation chapter 9 is where I had you turn. I'm going to read from Second Chronicles 36. But it says there, moreover, all the chief of the priests and of the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up at times and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. You know, there were prophets in the land. You had Jeremiah. You had people preaching the word of God. There was a righteous remnant in that nation during that time, and yet they were mocked. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? And yet they were afflicted, and yet they were persecuted by these people who have turned their back on the Lord. And it got to the point where there was no remedy. The same thing is going to happen to the United States. See, right now there's a righteous remnant in America getting up behind their pulpit at their church and they're ripping face. They're preaching hard out of Leviticus. They're preaching hard out of Deuteronomy. They're preaching the whole counsel of God without apologizing for it. They've got a backbone, and they're preaching against sin. They're preaching against the wickedness of this world, and they're going out soul-winning. There's churches that are practically like a soul-winning machine. I think of Faithful Word Baptist Church. I think of First Works Baptist Church. I think of other churches in our movement that are, and even churches we don't necessarily affiliate with. We might not even know who they are, but there are other churches in America going out and getting people saved and acting like the prophets that are referenced in 2 Chronicles 36 to warn people about the necessity of salvation, the necessity of the gospel to avoid hellfire, to avoid the wrath of God. But there's going to come a day where the iniquity of this world, the iniquity of America reaches a fever pitch. It is filled, and at that point there's no more remedy. Other than destruction. And that's what we're reading about. Revelation chapter 9, look what it says in verse 19. It says, For their powers in their mouth and in their tails, for their tails were like unto serpents, and at heads, and with them, they do hurt. So we have creatures here that have tails like serpents with heads that hurt people. Those remaining on the earth, I would imagine, will be petrified. I would imagine will be petrified by this. How could you not be? In a way it's kind of sad, if you really think about it, because it didn't have to be this way. It really did not have to be this way, but it was the creation that turned its back on the creator. And so this is the consequence. One of the big lessons we can take out of the sermon tonight, sin has consequences. And we're reading about those consequences right now. Verse 20, And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils 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, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. No repentance, in spite of the worst plagues this planet has ever experienced. In spite of the anger, the hatred of God on display, there's no repentance by those who were left behind. And it reminds me of Pharaoh. In spite of the plagues, you've got the water being turned into blood, you've got the frogs, the lice, the flies, you've got the cattle, the livestock being slain, the boils. The Bible talks about thunder, hail, and fire. The Bible talks about locusts, darkness, and the firstborn being slain in Pharaoh's kingdom. And yet in spite of those plagues, he still chases after the nation of Israel. He still chases after them and is eventually drowned through a wonderful miracle. But my point is that the wicked are obstinate. The wicked, they don't repent. Many of them don't. Obviously you have some people who can. But the Bible refers to, in Romans chapter 1, reprobates who are implacable. It doesn't matter what you show them. It doesn't matter how you explain things to them. They will never change their mind. And watered down Christianity has to understand this. If there's ever going to be a hope for Christianity in this country, it's understanding this concept that for some people, obviously not for all people, but for some people it's too late. For some people, they will not repent. There's no repentance. There's nothing I could ever say to Kamala Harris to convince her that she's a loud-mouthed whore. Nothing. There's nothing I could ever say to any of these super far-left, hardcore, weirdo, freak liberals that'll ever convince them. There's nothing I could say to the faggot that'll ever convince him or her to repent. It's just not going to happen, folks. And yet we've got these bleeding-heart Christians who think, well, if I just set up a meeting with the flaming fag, if I set up a meeting with him and we sit down across a coffee table together and we talk about the Word of God, I bet you I can get that guy saved. They think that, oh, well, if I just debated this fag who said at a city council meeting, that fag queen story time is a perfectly safe event for children. If I just have a good-natured debate with that person, then they'll change their mind and they'll come to God's team. That's naive. And it's false. And it's not what the Bible teaches. There are plenty of people out there who would change their mind. There are plenty of people out there who are ready and willing to accept the gospel and get saved. Why don't you focus on them instead of focusing on the minority who will never, ever change their mind and that minority, I believe, becomes a majority here in the wrath of God. It becomes a majority. There are certain people who will not repent. They will not change. Look at Revelation 11. We'll get into the last woe. Some people are beyond hope. That's just how it is. And so the doctrine that we should adhere to is if you recognize, if you identify somebody as being beyond hope, just give up and move on to the next person. Run away as fast as you possibly can to somebody who is willing to accept the word of God and is willing to hear you out and wants to learn more about the scriptures. Just run away as fast as you can to someone like that so you're not wasting your time. I used to do this. I was the chief I'm-going-to-argue-with-liberals-on-social-media guy. And it was a mistake. I can't tell you how many hours I wasted crafting these amazing arguments that anyone with a brain would accept. And, you know, I'll show my wife and say, hey, look, isn't this a great little argument right here that I just made? And she's like, I don't care. And then I'll beat them in a debate because a toddler could. I'm not trying to brag. One of our children here could destroy some freak leftist in a debate on any subject. And it's like it never did anything. It was totally useless. It wasn't profitable. Why? I didn't yet understand the doctor that says there are certain people for whom there is no hope. They'll never change. They're obstinate. The Bible talks about how there are certain people who they glory in their shame. They have no shame. They're not embarrassed by their behavior. And so we just need to move on and try and reach people who can accept the word of God. Reprobates cannot. You say, this isn't nice. You know, I'm offended. Well, I want you to listen to these headlines. We've talked a lot about wrath and anger and things like that. And so you might wonder and look, it's okay. Sometimes you read the Bible and you're kind of like, whoa, that's that seems pretty harsh, right? And if you have that thought right now, just listen to these headlines I put together for you. I want to give you a synopsis of the current state of the world quickly. It's going to be quick. Listen to these headlines and you tell me how God is supposed to react to this. In the last year, 26 million Americans stopped reading the Bible regularly, according to the American Bible Society report. And you can dispute this if you want. I understand all studies can be somewhat flawed, but this is what I found and I think it's probably accurate. Poll, American's belief in God is dropping. In U.S., decline of Christianity continues at rapid pace. Record few Americans believe Bible is literal word of God. U.S. church membership falls below majority for first time. Between 1965 and 1974, only 10 percent of women lived with their partner before their first marriage in the modern era. That number, excuse me, is now 70 percent. That's what I found. Monthly retail sales of beer, wine and liquor stores is higher than ever. Six major cities are on pace to pass the historic 2021 violent crime totals halfway through 2022. Thousands marched to the White House for abortion rights. Biden taps the first black woman, which being, I love black people. I didn't mean that negatively. I think black, white, green doesn't matter. Here's the issue. The first black woman, LGBT faggot, White House press secretary, John Pierre, whatever. Massive 4chan hack of Hunter Biden's explicit texts, images and videos rocks the Internet. Shows aimed at children see 222 percent, 222 percent increase in LGBT faggot characters and stories in just two years. In just two years, my friend. Six states have now passed LGBT faggot inclusive curriculum legislation. Let me translate that for you. They wanted to file the innocent. Here's another one. Pride Month 2022 sees a rise in fag queen drag queen events for kids. I'm changing these headlines a little bit, giving you what the Bible how God views it. This one right here. Rise in human trafficking takes on horrific dimensions. Almost a third of victims are children. That's what's happening in our world. How do you expect God to respond to that? If you think he's just going to sit on his hands and let all this inequity happen unfettered, you have lost your mind. And you don't understand the God of the Bible as it relates to the plagues that are associated with the first woe, the second woe, the third woe, all the other trumpets and vials that come before that. Let me let you in on a little secret. It's 110 percent justified. One hundred and ten percent justified. And the at the end of the day, sin has consequences and we're not done yet. The final woe. And I'll get through this one quickly. The three woes of revelation, I believe, highlight God's vengeance. God's vengeance is emphasized through the third woe. Look at Revelation 11, verse 14. It says the second woe was passed and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. All those headlines are designed for you to allow the state of this country to really sink in and see what happens at the end and realize it's justified. It's justified. Here's the third woe. It's the most devastating of them all. You ask why? Because it's the time in which the Antichrist is overthrown. Verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. I think this is an iconic verse in terms of eschatology. That's the famous theological term for Bible prophecy. The study of end times Bible prophecy because Christ's victory over the Antichrist, it starts right here. And you see Old Testament examples of this. How about when Solomon took the throne and who did he displace? Someone who had exalted himself to the throne, Adonijah. And then after Solomon reigns, you have Adonijah tried to marry his way to the throne through Abishag and then he's taken out. Just as sure as when the seventh trumpet sounds, the Lord Jesus Christ displaces the devil as the ruler of this world. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God, the Bible says. At that point, Jesus is ruling and reigning on this world and it will be after the millennium where Satan meets his final end when he tries to overthrow the Lord Jesus Christ. How about Jericho? It says about Jericho, when the priest blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. So you have trumpet sounding and then the proclamation that God has given the children of Israel, the city of Jericho. And in the same way, you have the seventh trumpet and this world is given to the Lord Jesus Christ and all of us. Joel chapter 3, it describes all nations being gathered to the valley of Jehoshaphat. That's for the battle of Armageddon. I won't have time to get into that for the sermon this evening, but look at verse number 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. So we've got lightnings, we've got voices, thunders, but there's also great hail. We also see here in Revelation chapter 11, verse 19, the temple of God, the temple of God in view in Revelation 11, verse 19. The Bible talks about in Hebrews chapter 9 about the Old Testament tabernacle. It says it was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertain to the conscience. That Old Testament temple, the tabernacle and later the temple, it's a picture of that which exists in heaven that we're getting a view of in Revelation 11, verse 19. Think about it this way, the abomination of desolation at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week. It's an alarm and an alarm indicating that the devil, his wrath on this world is about to reach a pinnacle or a climax. Well, the seventh trumpet, the third woe, it's really, you can think about it as an alarm for the unsaved to recognize that God's wrath is about to reach its pinnacle, about to reach its ultimate climax when the Lord Jesus Christ takes back that which is rightfully his being ownership, setting up his kingdom on this world. The New World Order itself, the one world government that the antichrist will eventually set up is really nothing more than a counterfeit of what Jesus Christ himself will set up one day for the millennium as he rules the planet. Turn over to Revelation 16, if you would, Revelation chapter 16. We'll get another perspective on this as we begin to wind down. It says in verse 18, Revelation 16, 18, it says, And there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. A great earthquake occurs, worse than any earthquake this world has ever experienced. And I looked up a real massive earthquake that caused damage that has happened in the past, and I found the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I want to read a little bit about that here. The Fukushima nuclear disaster was a 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the nuclear disaster was the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami natural disaster that occurred on 11 March 2011 and was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan. The earthquake triggered a powerful tsunami with 13 to 14 meter high waves causing damage to the nuclear power plant, the result of the most severe nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, classified as level 7 on the international nuclear event scale after initially being classified as level 5, joining Chernobyl as the only other accident to receive such classification. So this Fukushima disaster happened subsequently as a result of a massive earthquake which triggered this disaster, triggered a tsunami and then the disaster I just read about. Now think about an earthquake even larger than this. Think of the tsunamis that we might see as a result. Think of the fires, think of the destruction to infrastructure that will happen at the seventh trumpet. But it mentions Babylon. It says also the cities of the nations fell by the way. And let me just mention this. It's going to make 9-11 look like a walk in the park. You'll have during this time multiple 9-11s happening all at the same time when the cities of the nations fall and you have these skyscrapers crumbling to the ground because of God's wrath. But Revelation 16, look what it says in verse 20. It says, And every island fled away and the mountains were not found and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven. So you have great hail coming down out of heaven and for sake of time I'll just skip over that. But it says that Babylon comes into remembrance before God. Now what is that? What's it talking about when it talks about Babylon? Babylon is a nation described in the Book of Revelation that is the source of evil. And the Bible attributes Mystery Babylon with the blood of all men. And one of the last, I think might be the last verse in Revelation 18, it talks about that. And it's the source of sorcery, idolatry, all kinds of sin, false religion. Mystery Babylon is, in my opinion, the United States of America. And that's what our church believes, that it is the United States of America. Some people believe it's Jerusalem. That can't be the case. First of all, it's destroyed in one hour. So how's that? We know Jerusalem is not destroyed in one hour. Second of all, the Antichrist is ruling from Jerusalem. The Antichrist later destroys Babylon. Why would he destroy his ruling place? Third, the Bible talks about how Babylon will never be inhabited again. Well, where is Jesus Christ going to be reigned? I mean, Jesus Christ is going to be reigning from, we're going to inhabit Jerusalem again during the millennium. If Jerusalem is Babylon and it's never to be inhabited again, now you're messing with the millennium. There are a lot of different reasons why, but Revelation chapter 16 there, it said, Great Babylon came in remembrance before God. Now before that, it said that the great city was divided into three parts. That great city is Jerusalem. So if Jerusalem is Babylon, why would he divide it into three parts and then a second later say that it came in remembrance to give unto it the wrath that it deserves? That doesn't make very much sense either. And so it's a half-baked doctrine. It's false. It's a tertiary issue. I understand that. But I just wanted to put that out there. So what is Babylon? Look at Revelation 17. Revelation chapter 17. We'll wind it down. Revelation chapter 17. I'll just go over this quickly. I don't have a lot of time to go into great detail. I can't develop this fully. But I will say Babylon is a global empire and that's what it really is pointing to, a global empire. That's why it says in Revelation 17 verse 1, And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. These many waters are nations and basically it's sitting upon these many waters because it's ruling the world. It's a global superpower. Verse 2 it says, With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So the woman sitting upon many waters indicates to us that mystery Babylon described in the book of Revelation is a global superpower ruling over the world and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. This I think further proves that we're talking about the United States. American influence exists all over the world. You can't escape it. You can go all the way to the Middle East and you're going to see McDonald's. You'll see Burger King. You'll see the same fast food places there. But you'll also hear American music. You'll also view, you can go to the movie theater and you can go watch American movies. American filth exists globally. It's ubiquitous across this entire planet, the influence of America, because the kings of the earth have committed fornication with Babylon, which is the United States. Mystery Babylon afflicts God's spiritual nation, which is us. And it's the physical Babylonian empire that afflicts God's physical nation in the Old Testament. So that's the parallel, just to help you understand. But eventually Babylon is wiped out. And this is part of the seventh trumpet. When Babylon is totally wiped out, the Antichrist, he does this through the ten kings. His ten king coalition, they burn the whore with fire, the Bible says. And we can surmise that might be some sort of nuclear blast, a nuclear warhead that's shot toward the United States, wiping it out, destroying it in one hour. And so as a result, the merchants of the earth, the Bible says in Revelation 18, they weep and lament the destruction of Babylon because that's how they enriched themselves through Babylon. And so they're weeping. It's destruction. But the Bible talks about the merchandise of Babylon. It actually brings up slaves and the souls of men. And that's in reference, I think, to the human trafficking going on in this country behind closed doors. The depravity is so bad, it's worse than even you and I think. And so Babylon gets what it deserves there in Revelation Chapter 18. But turn, if you would, to First Samuel, too, and that'll be the last place I have you turn. First Samuel, Chapter two. And I'll wrap it up here. So this third woe emphasizes the vengeance of God. Why? Because it's when the Lord Jesus Christ officially takes over, displaces the Antichrist. And in Revelation 18, I had you turn to First Samuel, too, but in Revelation 18, it says about Babylon, Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. See, this great whore, this mystery Babylon, it was drunken with the blood of the saints, the blood of Christian martyrs, and it's God who avenges those martyrs. It's God who avenges those who were persecuted by Babylon. It's God who avenges those who were slain by the great whore of Revelation, the mystery Babylon that's described there. But I want to end with this application for you. You're saying, OK, what can I take from this sermon? Here's what you can take from the sermon. God will avenge, not us. That's not our job. We see him avenging us through the destruction of Babylon. But really, he's avenging himself and his people through the wrath of the Lord. Psalm 94 tells us, O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth. O God, to whom vengeance belongeth. Folks, vengeance belongs to God. It does not belong to us. Vengeance belongs to God. Our battle is not physical. It's spiritual, which is why the Bible tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Here's the weapon of our warfare right here. It's a spiritual weapon. It's a spiritual sword that we use to go out and slay false doctrine and win many multitudes to Christ. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, the Bible tells us. It's a spiritual battle that we're involved in. We're part of a spiritual army going out and waging warfare for the Lord Jesus Christ, not a physical army. And so if someone walks up to you and says, hey, let's go and overthrow the government together. January 6th, let's go ahead and do that one more time. The only question I have is, are you a Fed? Let's go. Come on, let's go make this thing physical. Who's with me? You FBI or something? We don't believe in that here. This is a spiritual war that we're involved in. We're not going to go out and overthrow any governments. We're not going to go out and do January 6th all over again. We're not going to go out and try and take over the White House or take over the Senate or anything like that. We're not going to get super hardcore involved in all these political battles that don't matter anyway, because the left wing and the right wing, they play ball for the exact same team. We're not going to get involved in this distraction. You know, that's what baby Christians do. That's what people do before they get saved. And it's sad that covid has led some Christians to go right back into that battle that doesn't really actually profit anything. You know, we ought to mature a little bit and realize we're involved in spiritual warfare. We're involved in a spiritual battle. We're not going to avenge ourselves or go out there and avenge ourselves. We don't go out there and try and wage carnal warfare. We don't do it. And that's what they love to brand us as. Oh, you guys are violent. You incite violence. Am I inciting violence right now? You know what I'm saying? Peace. You know what I'm preaching? Peace. You know what I'm preaching? Live peaceably with all men. You know what I'm preaching? It's not our job to take the law into our own hands. God's got it covered. And that's what we learned, I think, through the three woes of Revelation, that God has got it covered. He doesn't need our help. Guess what? He'll afflict this world. He'll make sure that the wicked get what they deserve supernaturally. He doesn't need our help. That's not why we're here to go wage physical warfare. That's the lesson you could take. Vengeance belongs to God. We're here to go preach the gospel. We're here to go make disciples, drag them into church, teach them the word of God. You know, we're here to get people baptized, to fulfill the Great Commission. We're here to fight the good fight of faith. That's why God has left us on this planet. That's why He's left us here in Watauga. That's why this church exists. Not for physical warfare, for spiritual warfare. And as for the enemy, well, we know. We know what's going to happen to the enemy. God's got a plan for them. 1 Samuel chapter 2, look what it says in verse 10. This is the last verse we're going to read. It says, the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall He thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and He shall give strength unto His King and exalt the horn of His anointed. I think a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, the part I wanted to focus on is this, the adversaries of the Lord will be broken. This is a really awesome prayer by Hannah right here. Out of heaven, the Bible says, shall He thunder upon them. What can we learn from the three woes of revelation? Vengeance belongs to God. He can do a lot worse than anything we can anyway. He's ultimate, the ultimate authority, the ultimate in power. He's infinitely more powerful than we are. And He will take care of those who deserve it. He will take care of His enemies. You know, judgment is coming. Jack Hiles once said, Sunday's coming. Well, what did we find out tonight? Judgment is coming, my friend. Judgment is coming on this world. Judgment is coming on the United States of America that spits in the face of God. The Bible says that God's wrath is coming. The three woes of revelation proves that. Vengeance belongs to God. He will repay. He will recompense evil. Vengeance belongs to Him. The Bible talks about how the adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces. They'll be broken in pieces. And there's nothing that could ever stop that. It's already written in the Word of God. It's already going to happen. This world that hates the Lord Jesus Christ, this world that mocks Him, that mocks His word, that mocks His people, it's going to get what it deserves. When these people, even if they don't live to see the end times, they'll end up in hell. They'll get what they deserve there. But if they live to see Daniel's 70th week, make no mistake about it, God will avenge us. And He will do it because He can and He doesn't need our help. How's He going to do it? The trumpets, the vials. And it all culminates in the three woes of revelation. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your vengeance. We thank you so much for your wrath and for the fact that you are going to pour it out on a world that deserves it. And I just pray that in the meantime you help us to get as many people saved as possible to preach your love, your forgiveness, and to help us to realize that, Lord, you're going to take care of those who afflict us. You're going to take care of our enemies. That's your role. That's not our role. And so I just pray, Lord, that between now and then that you just help us to make the biggest impact we can as possible for Christ and reach many with the gospel so they don't have to experience the plagues that I talked about. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, if you would, please grab your hymnal for our final song, page 149, trusting Jesus. That's page 149, trusting Jesus. Hey, look, if you trust Jesus, you don't have to face the wrath of God because I don't want to face that. 149, trusting Jesus. Simply trusting every day, trusting through a stormy way, even when my faith is small, trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moments fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting Him, whatever befall, trusting Jesus. That is all. Brightly does His Spirit shine into this poor heart of mine. While He leads, I cannot fall, trusting Jesus. That is all. Trusting as the moments fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting Him, whatever befall, trusting Jesus. That is all. Singing if my way is clear, praying if the path be drear, if in danger for Him come. Trusting Jesus. That is all. Trusting as the moments fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting Him, whatever befall, trusting Jesus. That is all. Trusting Him while life shall last, trusting Him to earth be path to within the jasper wall, trusting Jesus. That is all. Trusting as the moments fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting Him, whatever befall, trusting Jesus. That is all. Good job, you guys. Dismiss.