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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Please sing this praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. Let's sing together. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth upon the corners of Thy name. Jesus, a name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's ears, His life and hell and peace. He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus clean, His blood out there for me. Hear Him ye death, His praise ye God, your loosened tongues employed. Leave thine behold your Saviour come, and leave me blame for joy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you that we can be here in your house. We want to thank you and we want to praise you, Lord, for redeeming us to yourself, for paying that price that only you could pay, Lord God. We are so grateful for that gift of salvation. You alone, Lord God, are worthy of all the glory and the honour and the praise. We just pray that you would help us, Lord, to love you the way that we ought to, Lord. We pray that you would receive our worship tonight. In Jesus' name, Amen. Please turn over a few pages to 163. We'll sing 163, When Morning Gilds the Skies. When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries, May Jesus Christ be praised, Unlike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair, May Jesus Christ be praised, When a sleeper bum denies, my silent spirit sighs, May Jesus Christ be praised, When evil thoughts molest, with this I shield my breast, May Jesus Christ be praised, Does sadness fill my mind, does solace here I find, May Jesus Christ be praised, All fades my earthly bliss, my comfort still is this, May Jesus Christ be praised, In hands eternal bliss, the loveless strain is this, May Jesus Christ be praised, The powers of darkness fear, When this sweet chant they hear, May Jesus Christ be praised, Be this while life is mine, my catacled divine, May Jesus Christ be praised, Be this eternal song, through all the ages on, May Jesus Christ be praised. Amen. Please turn to 121. 121. Like a river glorious, State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Isn't that true? 101. Like a river glorious, Is God's perfect peace, Overall victorious, In its bright increase, Perfect yet it floweth, Fuller every day, Perfect yet it groweth, Deeper all the way, State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest, Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand, Never folk can follow, never traitors stand, Not a surge of worry, Not a shade of care, Not a blast of hurry, Touch the Spirit there, State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. On the third. Every joy or triumph, Fallen from above, Traced upon our title, By the Son of God. We may trust him fully, All for us to do. They who trust him wholly, Find him wholly true. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Let's turn to 377 for our last hymn before the Bible reading. 377, Rescue the Perishing. ... Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave, We bore the erring ones, lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save, Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Though they are slighting him, still he is waiting, Awaiting the penitent child to receive, Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently, He will forgive if they only believe, Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Down in the human heart, crushed by the tender, Feelings like bearing that grace can restore, Touched by a loving heart, waken by kindness, Thoughts that are broken will vibrate once more, Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Rescue the Perishing, duty demands it, Strength for the labor the Lord will provide, Back to the narrow way, patiently win them, Tell the poor wanderer, a savior has died, Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Amen. Good singing church, please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 34. Isaiah 34, the Bible reads, Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken ye people, Let the earth hear, and all that is therein, The world and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, And is fury upon all their armies, He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, And their stinks shall come up out of their carcasses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, And all their hosts shall fall down, As the leaf falleth off from the vine, And as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven, Behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, And upon the people of my curse to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, It is made fat with fatness, And with the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns shall come down with them, And the bullocks with the bulls, And their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, And the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, And the dust thereof into brimstone, And the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day, The smoke thereof shall go up for ever, For generation to generation it shall lie waste, None shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormament and the bitten shall possess it, The owl also and the raven shall dwell in it, And he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, And the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, But none shall be there, And all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, Nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, And there shall be an habitation of dragons, And a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet With the wild beasts of the island, And the satyr shall cry to his fellow, The screech owl shall also rest there, And find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, And lay and hatch and gather under her shadow, There shall the vultures also be gathered, Everyone with her mate. Seek ye out the book of the Lord and read, No one of these shall fail, None shall want her mate, For my mouth it hath commanded, And his spirit it hath gathered them, And he hath cast the lot for them, And his hand hath divided it unto them by line, They shall possess it forever, From generation to generation shall they dwell therein. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you've brought us all here to church safely tonight. I pray for those who wanted to come but aren't able to make it. I pray, Lord, that you please fill Pastor Kevin with your Holy Ghost, That you speak words through him, Lord, And that we would have open ears as a congregation to hear from your word, Lord, and be edified, and to put into practice what we hear. It's in Christ's name we pray these things to you, Father. Amen. Amen. All right, thank you for that. All right, my goal tonight is not to preach too long. I hope some of you have remembered to pray or to fast for a prayer time. I want to have a time of prayer after the sermon. So we're just going to get into maybe groups of three to four, maybe five, and we'll bring some prayer requests. Before we get into the prayer, I'll be asking you guys to bring some prayer requests. I have some to share as well. So if you've remembered too fast, thank you. If not, it doesn't matter. You can still pray. But look, we're there in Isaiah 34. We've been talking about how there's 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah, and there's 66 books of the Bible, and now we're up to Isaiah 34. So what does that mean? We're now just starting the next half of the book of Isaiah. We've gone through 33 chapters. We've done half the book already. I hope it's been interesting for you. But verse number two, it says there, For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations. The title for the sermon tonight is Indignation Upon All Nations. Indignation Upon All Nations. What does indignation mean? It means God's wrath, God's anger. And it's saying that God's anger is upon all nations. Now, this chapter is not that complicated. You know how sometimes when you go through the book of Isaiah, I'm like, oh, this might be with Assyrians, this might be with Babylonians, this might be about Christ's first coming, this might be about, I don't know, the destruction of maybe Jerusalem, you know, in 70 AD, or it could be about the end times. This chapter is clearly about the end times. Like, from start to finish, it's about end times events. It lines up perfectly with the book of Revelation. And so that is really, you know how sometimes it's about, maybe it's about Babylon, and then God might use that as a symbol of something about the end times. Well, this is purely about the end times, okay? Now, let's start there in verse number one. Isaiah 34, verse number one. Come near, ye nations, to hear. All right. So God wants all nations, that would include Australia, to hear the words of this chapter, which is why it needs to be preached. We need to preach. You say, I don't like the title of the sermon, Ignition Upon All Nations. God's anger upon all nations. Well, God's already told us that all nations need to hear, and then it says, And harken, ye people. God is saying, pay attention. Don't just hear, take it in. Pay attention to what is being said. Let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and all things that come forth of it. Now Brevin, is that you? Are you in the world? Are you part of the earth? Do you live on the earth? Are you part of a nation? Then you need to hear and harken these words. Oh, pass, I don't like the negative book of Isaiah. God's anger. God's telling us to hear. It's not up to me. I don't get to decide what to preach. Then it's up to God what's in his word. I mean, I'd like to preach to you rainbows and lollipops and all that. Tonight, that's going to be nice to hear, or maybe not because you're fasting, but sometimes we need to hear about God's wrath, and we know, I already told you about the end times, so we know that when God pours out his wrath, it'll be during that period after the rapture when God begins to pour out his seven vials and the seven trumpets get blown by the angels. That is known as the day of God's wrath, and this is, of course, what we're dealing with in this chapter. Look at verse number two. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations. Does that say some nations? All nations. Does that include Australia? Yep. God's anger is upon Australia. Does that include the holy, chosen people of Israel? Of course it does, okay? All nations are under the wrath, the indignation of the Lord. It says, and his fury upon all their armies. Now, look, I believe, the Bible teaches that armies are used for self-defense, to protect your borders, right? If there's a foreign power coming to attack our nation, I believe in the defense, that's why it's called the defense force, I believe we ought to defend our borders, but I've already covered it many times that the defense force these days are an attack force, okay? And the Bible's telling us that God is even angry, he's furious at the armies, okay? At the decisions that our politicians make to go into some other foreign land to bring democracy to the world, right? And it never works, it always fails, right? It always fails, but then it says here, he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter. You go, hold on, no, no, that hasn't happened yet. Well now, okay, because it's like past tense. He has utterly destroyed them. Has all armies of the nations all been destroyed? Not in 2024. So we start to understand this is about a future prophecy, and many times when God speaks of the past tense, it's because in his view, it's as good as done. It hasn't happened for us, but as far as God is concerned, it's happened. And he speaks in that sense, right? All these armies are going to be destroyed, right? And then it says, he has delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. Whoa, that's a gruesome scene right there, right? Now, notice it says the stink shall come up out of their carcasses. All right, normally when a body dies, the body gets prepared and buried, or cremated, you know, whatever it is, right? And so usually when there's death, we deal with the body, right? And we don't really deal with the stench of the body, right? So when the Bible speaks of the stink shall come up out of the carcasses, that tells us these carcasses are not getting buried, okay? These carcasses of these armies, these powers, they're just going to be laying in the field. And straight away, if you know the book of Revelation, this should point to you to the Battle of Armageddon, right? In Revelation 19, when Christ comes on his white horse, and he comes with his saints, and he slays the armies of the earth, and then God pronounces a great feast to the birds of prey, and they're like, hey, there's going to be a great supper, okay? Because there's going to be all these dead bodies all over the ground. The stink's going to go up, it's going to attract all the predators. It's going to attract all the predatory birds, right? And that's, again, what is playing out here. Now, before I get into the end times, okay, which is the most interesting part of it, what is the 34th book of the Bible? Nahum. Nahum, okay, Nahum, Nahum? I say Nahum, I don't know. Keep your hand, keep your finger there, and come with me to Nahum, Chapter 1, please. Nahum, Chapter 1. Nahum, Chapter 1. Now, let me tell you a little bit about the book of Nahum. We know about Jonah, we know the great prophet Jonah, right? That he was sent to Nineveh. And Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, the Assyrian kingdom, okay? And God pronounced great judgment upon that city of Nineveh. But, hey, they got right with God, they repented, they got things right with God, and God withheld his judgment. But eventually his judgment does come. And the prophet that God uses, because Jonah fixed him up, right? Jonah must have been a powerful preacher, whatever, right? Jonah fixes him, but the prophet that God uses is Nahum, okay? And that's why in Nahum, Chapter 1, Verse 1, it says, The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, Nahum, the El Coshite. Alright, the burden of Nineveh. So this is a judgment upon not just the city of Nineveh, like I said, it's the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, okay? So it's really judgment on the Assyrians, okay? That we read here in Nahum, Chapter 1. Now, drop down to Verse 5. It says, The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt. Well, we saw in Isaiah 34 that the mountains melt with the blood, right? He says the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. That's really interesting. Because God is here speaking of the world burning, okay? But we know it's the burden of Nineveh. This has happened. The Ninevehites were wiped out or taken over at least by the Babylonian Empire, okay? So it's past tense, but then again, in Nahum, God's speaking about the world burning, you know? And again, it's kind of like God is using judgment on the Assyrians in the book of Nahum, and then using that as a picture once again on the end times judgment over the entire earth. It continues there, verse number 6. Who can stand before his indignation? That's the title we're using, right? Indignation upon all nations. There it is, that reference. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. Drop down to chapter number 3, please. Nahum, chapter 3, please. I just want to show you some similar language that is being used by Zion, then being used by Nahum. Alright? Nahum, chapter 3, in verse number 3, please. Nahum, chapter 3, in verse number 3. The horsemen lifted up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude slain and a great number of carcasses, and there is none end of their corpses. They stumble upon their corpses. So once again, Nahum is just pointing the fact that when the Assyrians are taken over, there's going to be dead bodies lying everywhere, and there'll be dead bodies upon dead bodies. And again, we sort of see that same idea of the carcasses being laid out for us in Isaiah 34, that the stink is just going to be brought up. Like, there's not enough time, there's not enough diligence, and people to go and bury all these dead bodies, they're just going to rot there on the top of the ground. Alright? So, anyway, that's all I want to show you from Nahum, because we've got a lot to go through, and I don't want to preach too long tonight. But I want to show you again, do we see the similarities? It's almost like Isaiah's saying and preaching the same things that Nahum has preached. And what again we see with Nahum is that God is using the Assyrians, which was an issue in the time of Isaiah that was a present day issue for him, but then God also uses that to illustrate of end times events. Okay? And we've seen this many times played already in the book of Isaiah as we've been going chapter by chapter. So come back with me to Isaiah 34, please. Come back with me to Isaiah 34. And, brother, actually no, I've got a bottle right here. Got some water. I'm good, I'm good. Alright, look at Isaiah 34, verse number 4, please. And, you know, verse number 4 is the one that is just clearly about end times. Like, you can't avoid it, right? It says in verse number 4, And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their hosts shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. I mean, that, if you know the book of Revelation, and I know you've read the book of Revelation more than any other book in the Bible, you should know where that fits in the book of Revelation, right? Keep your finger there and come with me to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6, please, verse number 12. Revelation chapter 6 and verse number 12. And I feel, you know, our position as a church is we believe in a post-tribulation, pre-wrath rapture. We believe God will take up his saints into the clouds with our new resurrected bodies after the great tribulation, but before Christ begins to pour out his wrath, which are the trumpets and the viols, right? And I thought I had figured out every single way to prove a post-trib pre-wrath rapture. And then when I started to study Isaiah 34, I thought, there's another way to prove it, okay? So we saw in Isaiah 34 about the heavens being rolled together as a scroll. Well, those same words are going to be used by the prophet John in the book of Revelation to explain the sixth seal. So look at Revelation chapter 6, verse number 12. It says, I just want to stop there for a moment. The stars of heaven fell onto the earth. And what did it say in Isaiah 34? It says, Speaking of the hosts of heaven, okay? So there we have the stars. I believe that's speaking about a meteor or shower or, you know, things like that. And then it says this, Will Isaiah 34 mention the fig tree as well? And as a fallen fig from the fig tree, God is in the fig tree as an illustration. When it gets shaken and all the figs fall off, it's kind of like there's this massive, you know, change in the heavens. And all of a sudden, all these things begin to fall onto the earth. And then it says in verse number 14, Revelation 6, 14, You know, I mean, it's literally word for word what Isaiah said, right? The heaven departed as a scroll. And so I'm like, okay, this is so clear. Like anybody, surely anybody without a bias can read Isaiah 34, verse 4, and Revelation 6, verse number 14, and see that they're the one and same event, that they're connected. Anybody can. So I thought, hold on, this is not good for the pre-trib world. So I thought I'd look up a few commentaries from pre-trippers. And they're like, even though, you know, it appears to be the same event, we believe it's more closely related to some other issue, okay? Because they can't, like, you know what is just black and white in the Scriptures? When you're just trying to defend a theology blindly, you know, you're trying to defend dispensations blindly, when you just have too much to lose, right? You just look at that, and even though it's so clear about the same thing, it just can't be, because we believe in a pre-trib rapture. I'm going to show you shortly how this is proving a post-trib pre-raft rapture, okay? First, I just want to show you the connection, right? At the sixth seal is when this takes place, when the heaven is departed as a scroll. And if we compare that to Matthew 24, which we won't do tonight, we know that is when Christ comes on the clouds, okay? And that's when the rapture takes place. That's when He gathers the elect together into the clouds. So we won't cover that right now. It's not so much a rapture that I want to speak about. I just want to show you the timing lines up so perfectly. Now, I want you to, you can move away from Revelation, come with me to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. Because not only does John borrow language from Isaiah about the end times, Peter uses the same language in his epistles, his writings, about the end times, okay? So if we can say, okay, what is Isaiah saying? What is Peter saying? What is John saying? And then later on, what is Paul saying? And you see they're all saying the same thing, because it's not man who wrote the Bible, it's God Himself. Then we can easily see why it's a post-treat priori rapture, okay? Now, before I read 2 Peter chapter 3 verse number 10, I just want to remind you of what it said earlier in Isaiah 34 verse 4. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved. Okay, when we think of the word dissolved, we think of something being burnt away maybe, or being completely removed. Well, look how Peter uses this language. In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse number 10, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Now, that's important. So what's coming as a thief in the night? The day of the Lord. Now, you can do your own study in your own time, and you look up the day of the Lord, you'll learn that it's quickly about the day of God's wrath, which makes sense because the title for the sermon is His indignation upon all nations, God's anger, God's wrath. But I want you to remember that. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seen then that all these things shall be dissolved. So we see how they're dissolved, but we saw that in verse number 10 they're being burnt up, okay? What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? So what Peter's drawing our attention to is that everything's going to burn up. It's all going to dissolve. So in light of that, we should live in light of that truth. Like, we shouldn't live in light of just amassing possessions and just massive wealth and just lusting for the biggest house out there. It's all going to burn up. So why live for those things? It's essentially what Peter wants to teach us here, right? But then he continues. Instead of lusting for earthly possessions, it says in verse number 12, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. So we ought to be looking for that. Coming of the day of the Lord, right? And they're getting repeats. Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwell of righteousness. So if we're like, you know, again, if we see God's wrath and his judgment, everything starts to burn up. Instead of being like, oh no, that's my house burning up, right? That's my city of Sydney burning up. That's the Sunshine Coast burning up. Instead, we ought to be looking for the promise of the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwell of righteousness. Because there's no, righteousness does not dwell in Sydney, right? Besides you guys. And besides every other, you know, God-fearing, you know, believe in church in Sydney. But our, you know, Peter's just telling us our mindset ought to be on the right things, the eternal things, the new heavens and the new earth, and not just a mass in possessions and wealth, you know, going crazy over these things. But I want you to notice the language that Peter used, dissolved. And, you know, the heavens are being dissolved, even the things upon the earth are being, the works they're in are being dissolved. And it gets dissolved by fire, this great burning. And we know, again, I don't have time to go through this, but if you go through the wrath of God, you'll see there's a lot of burning going on. Like literally at one point, all the grass of the earth is being burnt up and things of that nature. And sometimes even the sun is beaten down, you know, with great strength upon the people in the end times. We won't talk about that right now, but I just want to show you the parallels and the language that not just John, but Peter uses coming from the prophet Isaiah. All right, let's go to another reference. Let's see the Apostle Paul. Come with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, please. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, which is the most famous passage on the rapture. It doesn't matter where you stand on the rapture, the timing of the rapture. We all agree this chapter is about the rapture. All right? 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse number 16. Because when you start to look at these things, okay, Isaiah, you preached about the heaven being rolled back, the elements in the heavens being dissolved, okay? Well, John said that's at the sixth seal, and we know with Matthew 24 that's the coming of Christ, the rapture. We also know with Peter, that's known as the day of the Lord. That's what he said. That's called the day of the Lord when this happens. All right, so what's Paul have to say here? In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse number 16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these words. And I say, well, that's definitely about the rapture. We all agree, right? Now, that's chapter 4. We're going to continue reading to chapter 5. Now, I want you to remember when Paul wrote this epistle, there were no chapters. There were no chapter divisions. The chapters were added much later, okay, in church history. I like the chapters, don't get me wrong. I like the chapters. I like the verse separations because it helps us navigate through the Bible, and I think even the Lord, I believe the Lord even allowed those chapters and verses to be separated in that same way, okay? I believe that was the handle of the Lord ultimately. But, again, forgetting like, you know, because sometimes we think, okay, when we read a normal book, you know, the next chapter is like maybe a different scenario, a different event or something like that, right, in the story. Well, this is an epistle that Paul is writing to the Thessalonian church, and the epistle is a letter. It's just a standard letter that has been read to the church, and then chapter 5 begins like this. But, but, that's not how you start a new chapter. It's continuing the same thought, right? The same thought of the rapture. But, of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as the thief in the night. Oh, that's what Peter said. You know, the thief in the night, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. So, hold on, but we don't need to be told the time and the seasons, of what? Of the rapture, because we know that the day of the Lord cometh as the thief in the night, and then you continue going that we're not in the night, we're not going through all that right now. But I want to show you the same language now Paul is using that Peter uses. Peter and Paul use the same language. All right. Now, what's your point, Pastor Kevin? I don't know what's going on here. So, I never thought, starting with Isaiah 34, okay, you know, when the heavens are rolled together as a scroll, and that's when the heavens are going to be dissolved, okay, that's the sixth seal, that's after the great tribulation, if you follow Matthew 24, and then we know afterwards God begins to give the seven trumpets to the seven angels, they blow those trumpets, which are the wrath of God, so we know it's after the tribulation, we know it's before God pours out his wrath, so the sixth seal takes place, and, okay, there's that, and then Peter says that it is the day of the Lord when all these things become dissolved, and then we read the most famous rapture passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 that says the day of the Lord is the rapture itself. So, when you put all this together, if you work backwards, okay, the rapture is when the day of the Lord takes place, the day of the Lord takes place when the heavens are all dissolved and everything starts to begin to burn and melt with fervent heat, that's when the heavens are rolled back together as a scroll, which is when Christ comes in the clouds, and that's what Isaiah said takes place there in Isaiah 34, again, combining the dissolving of the heavens together with the heaven being rolled together as a scroll, and the fig tree casting its figs like we saw in Revelation chapter 6. So, when you work your way backwards even, it's like, well, this is confirming that the rapture takes place after the great tribulation and before God begins, before just, in fact, the very same day that God begins to pour out his wrath. And so, I didn't realize that. I didn't realize, okay, Isaiah 34 is another way to show people, even from the Old Testament, you know, like a powerful way from the Old Testament to show people, no, God's timing is perfect. The rapture takes place after the great tribulation and before God's wrath. I hope I didn't speed that through too quickly, but if you have any questions, if that didn't make sense, please let me know afterwards. Let's go back to Isaiah 34. Isaiah 34, please. Isaiah 34 and verse number 5. So, we know the timing of this chapter, right? It's God's wrath, God's anger. It begins on the day of the Lord, which for us is exciting because that's when Christ comes in the clouds. That's when we're caught up together with him in the air and for those that have gone before us, loved ones, believers that have gone before us, we're going to meet them in the clouds and then God shows us his indignation against all nations. Verse number 5. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven. This is really interesting. So, his sword, God's sword is in heaven, it's bathed in heaven, and then it says, Behold, it shall come down upon Urimiya. I'll talk about that in a moment. And upon the people of my curse to judgment. Okay, so this sword is in heaven, but then he says this. Verse number 6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood. It is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, and with the fat of the kidneys of rams. Not our rams. Rams, yeah. It says here, For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Urimiya. So you see Bozrah, Urimiya being brought up here. These are cities of the Edomites. We know the Edomites, you've probably read about them surely in the Bible. Now this is quite interesting because, well, are you still in Revelation? If you're not in Revelation, that's okay. Let me just quickly speak about the sword first, before I go into Urimiya. In Revelation 19, verse number 15, when Christ comes on his white horse, he's coming from heaven, and he comes to the earth, right? It says in Revelation 19, 15, And out of his mouth, out of Jesus' mouth, goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Alright, so that sword comes out of the mouth of Jesus, the sharp two-edged sword. And if you read that chapter, he slays the armies of the Antichrist. All these corpses that we read about, just laying on the streets for a feast, have all been destroyed by the sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Jesus. Really interesting because that's where Jesus came from heaven, and that's Isaiah saying, yeah, it's bathed in heaven, but then it's also covered in blood, covered in the corpses that it kills. Now, Revelation 19, something else that came to my mind as I was studying this chapter in Isaiah 34. We often refer to that battle as the Battle of Armageddon. That's what it's commonly known as, and I don't have a problem with that because if someone mentions the Battle of Armageddon, we all kind of know what he's talking about. When Christ comes back and the Antichrist has all these armies, and we go to war, one with another. But the battle that we read about there in Revelation 19 doesn't really take in Armageddon. So if you do your own research and study in your own time, Armageddon means the Valley of Megiddo, which is a geographic location. And what happens is that the armies of the Antichrist, they gather themselves in that valley, but the battle itself takes place in Jerusalem. And I never really thought much about it, I just always thought, okay, it's Jerusalem, it's the surrounding areas of Jerusalem, the battle's going to take place. But what we introduced here in Isaiah 34 is that there's also going to be a battle in Udemyia, the land of the Edomites. Now, obviously the Edomites don't exist today as a nation and the people, but their land is what today, modern day, would be southern Israel or southern Jordan. More so southern Jordan, okay? So I want you to think about that. So as I'm thinking about it, I'm like, hmm, that's interesting. I'm often just thinking about Jerusalem, the battle there, the surrounding areas. But it appears from this, I mean, not just appears, it tells me that there's going to be multiple fronts. There's going to be a battle, that's the main battle in Jerusalem, but there might also be armies of the Antichrist in Udemyia. Well, there will be, okay? And they also are going to be wiped out by the same sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Jesus. So this introduces me to a few thoughts here. Okay, there's not just a central battle, but seems like there's a few areas in the surrounding lands and areas that are going to play out in other battles and other ways, which I've always thought about. Jesus Christ is coming in his white horse and there comes his army, which is us, all these saints on a white horse. I've often wondered, are we fighting too? Or is it just Jesus? Like, is it just his mouth? Maybe it is just Jesus. I don't know. Maybe it is. But if there are different fronts, different areas, then maybe, you know, we all kind of get divided as we are brought down to take over the earth, you know, away from the power of the Antichrist. I don't know. Just a thought there, okay? But as I said, Udemyia is known primarily as southern Jordan today. Now, that's important as we continue to read through Isaiah 34, okay? Now, verse number seven, in Isaiah 34, verse number seven, that's for me the most complicated one out of all the verses here, because it mentions the unicorns. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land, that's the land of Udemyia and Bozrah, their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dusts made fat with fatness. So, again, it's like as these armies get annihilated by the sword of God, it's like, I mean, it's, sorry, kids, but, you know, it's like the blood and guts of all the soldiers are just all over these creatures, all over these animals, you know? It's like, I don't know, these people just explode, or whatever it is, you know? I mean, it sounds pretty grotesque. But it says in verse number eight, for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. God says, this is the final, this is it, this is my final revenge, my final vengeance on these wicked people. And this is where the southern Jordan part comes into play, verse number nine. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burned in pitch. It shall not be quenched, night nor day. The smirk thereof shall go up forever. From generation to generation, it shall lie waste. None shall pass through it forever and ever. At this point, I'm wondering, what is going on here? Because we know that after Christ comes, and he wipes out the armies of the Antichrist, we know he begins his millennial reign, which, again, we often think about it as, you know, yes, Christ's ruling with a rod of iron, people serving and worshipping the Lord, anyone that is an enemy are going to be quickly judged, right? It's going to be a time of peace. But then I read about this. Hold on. The streams thereof, I guess they were like rivers before, are turned into pitch. The dust, like brimstone, it's going to be like this burning pitch there. It shall not be quenched day nor night. The smirk goes up forever. So think about this. You know, during the one-year reign of Christ, when, you know, Christ rejuvenates the earth, it's going to flourish. The Bible speaks much about the earth flourishing in a great way. Most people are going to obviously trust Christ as their Saviour in due time. You know, wickedness we dealt with justly and quickly, you know, and righteously according to the laws of God. And yet, in Jordan somewhere, there's this burning, there's this smirk that just keeps going up and up. There's this constant burning. It says generation to generation. So this is going to keep going, right, during the thousand years, right? Certain people may ask because we're going to have new bodies, but those that get saved afterwards, they're going to have kids and those kids are going to have kids. You know, people are going to be able to reproduce and so that burn just continues there in Jordan. And so I had to look, I kind of had to look this up. I was curious, like, what is this about? Well, I found out that Jordan is the fourth, has the fourth largest deposit of oil shale. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of that before. It's basically oil, not in liquid form, but within rocks. And so what you can do with these rocks, and this is going to be a great export for them, you know, in the near future, something that they've really sort of started to dig up for the last sort of eight, nine years sort of thing in Jordan. And what they do is they, if you put this under a lot of pressure and under great heat, it produces oil. And that would be, you know, a great export, a great resource for Jordan. I thought that was really fascinating, because what could possibly continue to burn for generation after generation? You know, I'm thinking about these oil wells, whatever it is, right? You know, these things, you light them on fire and they just don't stop. I remember, I thought, was it the 80s when it was the Gulf War, Desert Storm? I think it was the 80s. Early 90s. Early 90s, yeah. And, you know, on the news, there were just these constant oil rigs and just burning, constantly burning, burning, burning, burning. And it just took forever to try to stop them from burning. And so this is what we're going to be seeing, this constant, let's call it a constant reminder that if you fight against Jesus, your eternal punishment is burning forever and ever. And I wonder if that's going to be like, you know, the way we demonstrate to people that live in the millennium, because they're not going to live, they haven't lived in 2024 and the rest of normal human history, like the rest of us, for them to be able to understand, because they're living in such a perfect environment. I wonder if that is how we're going to be able to demonstrate to people, look, you better receive Christ as your savior. Like, you better fear him and worship him and serve him. Or your end result would be like these burning fields there in Jordan. You know, like that picture, that constant symbolism. You can avoid this, but if you're an enemy to Jesus, this is your end result. So that might very well be the purpose of this burning during the millennial reign of Christ. Alright, let's keep going there, verse 11. So again, this is the land of Edomir. Okay, this is that area of Jordan. It's all going to be just a wasteland, okay? I'll keep going. It says, verse number 13, the thorns shall come up in her palaces. So, there's no one looking after, you know, the land, it's just thorns are growing there. It says, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, and it shall be in habitation of dragons and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satire shall cry to his fellow. The screech owl also shall rest there and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her rest and lay and hatch and gather under her shadow. There shall the vultures also be gathered, everyone with her mate. Alright, so all these verses are emphasising that once Christ destroys the armies that were there in Edomir, or the southern area of Jordan, that it's going to be taken up by all these creatures, all these animals, and all these animals are going to be at peace. They're going to be nesting and reproducing and all this stuff. So why is that important? Well, the reason that gets mentioned, it's just a way to illustrate that human beings are not going to inhabit that area. Because if you leave your house empty for a while, you go away on holidays for a couple of weeks, you know what's going to happen? Spiders and cockroaches. The wildlife starts to find their place to be comfortable in your house. Because that's what happens. When you introduce a human being, creatures run away. One of the good things about Queensland, I was scared of the snakes, and we do see a lot more snakes, but as soon as you start walking, these snakes, these poisonous snakes, they hear the vibration of a human being and they quickly run away. That's just how it is, right? And so the fact that the Bible's emphasising that all these creatures are just being at peace, the rest, they're just saying there's no human to bother them. There's no humans driving them out, okay? So they'll find a very comfortable place there in Jordan. Verse number 16. All right. Now, here's the instructions. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read. Isn't that really good instructions? Because we started that this is for the whole Earth. All nations need to hear this chapter. All nations need to understand the anger and the wrath of God. Because most people are being just simply told about God's love and God's grace, which is wonderful and it's true. But God's telling nations you need to know an angry God. You need to know his vengeance and his anger. You need to know how God's going to destroy the wicked. We need to hear this. That's why seek ye out the book of the Lord. God's telling us read our Bibles. Read our Bibles. Read the Scriptures. Oh, just read the verses that make me feel good. Read the verses that make you feel bad too. Because it's the verses that make you feel bad that opens your eyes to say, hey, there are areas of my life that need to be fixed. I need to change. I need to be more holy. Oh, I'm glad. God showed me something and I feel horrible about that now and I realize now it's upsetting God. I want to please him. It's the only way to make change when you understand that our God is a vengeful God. That he hates wickedness. And one day we're going to see it all play out. We're going to see how God just dissolves everything with burning heat while his wrath is being poured out on this earth and our eyes will be open. Wow, this is our God. How mighty, how terrible, you know? And yet, how wonderful and how loving that he's given us so much time to receive his son as our savior and to give us a home in heaven and the promise of a new heaven and new earth and the new Jerusalem, a place of righteousness and new bodies that we can serve him without sin. We can truly appreciate his love when we truly understand his anger. But it says there, seek ye out the book of the Lord and read. Look at this. No one of these shall fail. God's saying, this is going to happen. We can't pray it away. We can't say, Lord, please don't pour out your wrath on the earth. No, it's going to happen. We're going to take this. None shall want her mate for my mouth it hath commanded and his spirit it hath gathered them and he hath cast a lot for them and his hand hath divided it unto them by line. They shall possess it forever from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. I want to show you just one more parallel with what we saw there where God is saying, seek ye out the book of the Lord and read. And I showed you how this chapter is primarily about end times and lines up perfectly with the book of Revelation. So come with me to the book of Revelation, chapter one, please. Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter one and verse number three. And sometimes, you know, I tease, you know, like guys reading the book of Revelation too much or, you know, those that get saved, they go straight to the book of Revelation. I'm kind of teasing. At least you're reading the Bible. Don't get me wrong. At least you're reading the Bible. Why should we read these passages? Why should we read about God's judgments? Well, Revelation, like that's a pretty serious book. I read it a lot about God's wrath in that book. But it says in Revelation 1, verse three, blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. Say, pastor, I don't like hearing about God's anger, God's wrath. I don't like thinking about him destroying this earth. Well, God's saying that if you read it, you'll be blessed. There's a special blessing from the Lord if you spend time in his word, specifically here the book of Revelation, and it's not always, I mean, the Millennium Kingdom is like a very short half a chapter. We have a bit more about the new heavens and new earth, but most of this book is destruction and mayhem. Right? God's vengeance and great tribulation on the saints. It might not appeal necessarily to you, but I just want to tell you that God promises us a blessing if we read it, if we hear the words of this prophecy, and not just that, if we keep those things which are written therein, meaning we think about those things. We meditate upon this God who is angry and vengeful against the wicked. God says there's a wonderful blessing for you. Come with me to Revelation 22. Revelation 22. So we saw in Revelation 1, the first chapter, a blessing upon you. Now let's look at the last chapter, not just the last chapter of Revelation, but the last chapter of the Bible. Revelation 22, verse 7. Jesus says, Behold, I come quickly. We know when he comes, right? The day of the Lord. He says, Blessed is he that keepeth the saints of the prophecy of this book. I love that. I love how Revelation 1 says, Hey, blessing, if you read it, he ends it. Hey, read it. It's a blessing, right? Now come quickly. And so, brethren, we ought not to read parts of the Bible that we don't necessarily like. I don't know how your Bible reading has been with the book of Isaiah. Maybe as you're going through your chapter-by-chapter plan, maybe you get to a book like Isaiah and you're like, Ah, I don't get it. Ah, I'll skip that one and get to it some other time. I'll wait for Pastor Kevin to preach it. I don't understand better. No, no, no. Look, these are chapters, these are books for us, and there's great blessings to know. I don't know what all those blessings are. But maybe, because we've been going for so long to the, you know, God is only love type churches that we're missing out on a great blessing to understand the true nature of our God. A God of extreme love and yet a God of extreme hatred and anger. Indignation. So much so that if you reject His Son, you're going to be burning in the lake of fire forever and ever. That's the true God that we serve in worship. It ought to give us some fear. Boy, I want to put a smile on God's face. I want to please Him. I mean, God already has to deal with all the wickedness of the earth. Why should I be part of that? How about I try to live a righteous life, a holy life? You know, what if I just read His Word and remind myself of how angry God can be at the wicked and I can say within myself I need to improve. I can do better. I can live a more holy life that pleases Him. Title for the sermon tonight was Indignation upon All Nations. I don't know, sometimes people say to me I want to get out, I won't say anyone, but there's been conversations. Pastor, I'm thinking about getting away from Australia because, you know, it's wicked, big brother, and I'll just move to some other country somewhere else. God's anger is on all nations. There's wickedness everywhere because that's what a sinful human being does. They bring wickedness upon the earth. So praise God for where we live. Be content with what God has given you, right? And understand that yeah, you are a sinner and you make mistakes, but we ought to drive to live a life that obviously pleases God. We don't want His indignation. We don't want His anger upon our lives. Thank God for a Saviour. Thank God that I can be righteous in Jesus Christ because boy, if I had to go to heaven based on my righteousness, God's indignation would be upon me as well. Amen? Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for Isaiah 34 and Lord, the connective tissue through all these offers, Isaiah and Paul and Peter and John and Lord, your Bible is so consistent. If we're just patient and just take our time and read it carefully and just see the language and the words that you use, Lord, and we don't run to the Bible college and the commentaries and all these other materials, Lord, that if we can just spend sweet time with you and read your word patiently, Lord, you can reveal great truths to us and Lord, there's just great truth there in Isaiah 34. I'm not going to lie, Lord, it's challenging to preach through these chapters sometimes with a lot of anger and wrath, but Lord, we need to hear it. We need to know and Lord, there are too many churches here in Australia that are completely avoiding the vengeful God that you are. Lord, I pray that as their preaching continues in this church week after week and year after year that we will do honor of the true nature of who you are. We love you, Lord, because you loved us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, let's take our, hmm, we should do, um, what's the one? It says he rolls back, the clouds rolled back of the scroll. Which one's that one again? It is well. It is well. It is well. That's it. What's the number for it? It is well with my soul. Does someone have a number? One, four, five. One, four, five? Alright, let's turn to hymn number 145. The author of this hymn did know exactly when the rapture takes place. He says it right there. When the clouds are rolled back of the scroll, the sixth seal, when the earth is dissolved, the day of the Lord, he was a closet post-tree pre-ratha, okay? So we'll sing this. One, four, five. Oh, by the way, the first part, it is well, we'll do the ladies and kids, if you can do it as well. Oh, help the ladies as well. And then the next part, it is well, we'll get the men to do that part, okay? Alright. And the rest of it, we can sing together. One, four, five, it is well with my soul. Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Ladies. It is well. It is well. With my soul. With my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and have shed his own blood for my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. With my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. I sin over bliss of this glorious fort. My sin, not in part, but before, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. With my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as I scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well. With my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. With my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. Amen. All right, great singing everybody. All right, so we're going to do prayer requests tonight. I'll start with mine. So we normally do this like every Wednesday at New Life Baptist Church. But we start half an hour earlier. And so when I asked this church a few years ago, if we did a midweek service, what would be a good time? At the time anyway, most people felt 6.30 was a bit too early, returning from work, maybe getting dinner at home and traveling. Obviously, traffic's different in Sydney than it is on the Sunny Coast and things like that. So that's why we have service at 7 p.m. But if you guys are like pastor, we should do this every Wednesday. Fine, but can we meet at 6.30? I don't know. You guys let me know. If you guys say we can make it at 6.30, then let me know. But anyway, no pressure, no pressure. But yeah, this is something we do every week at New Life Baptist Church. We've just done our 60th anniversary here at Blessed Hope Baptist Church. So I think it's good for us to spend some time prayer and fasting. You know, the Lord's not yet found us a full-time pastor for this church. That's an important part of a church. And it's been six years and we're still seeking for this man. I hope this man is found within our church. But if the Lord sends someone from externally, we'll praise God for that. It's up to Him. If we have a man who's qualified, ready to go and accepted by the church, I would have deigned that man tomorrow. Yesterday, I would have deigned that man. But that's something we ought to be praying for. So we'd definitely be praying for that. Can you pray for my wisdom, just as a pastor, you know, the two churches and preaching sermons? Obviously, I want to do God's word of honor. I don't want to preach my opinions necessarily. I want God's word to ring true when the sermons get done. So if you can pray for my wisdom and for God to give me better leadership skills, better organization skills, I'd appreciate that. Pray also for the wisdom of the preachers that we have here. You know, Brother Ash, Brother Tim, Brother Anthony, Brother Rams. Am I missing somebody? Brother Matt, of course, Brother Matt. And if there's any other men who are like pastor, I'd like to try. Let me know. Let us know, okay? Even if you're like pastor, let me just try for 20 minutes. Maybe we'll have like a popcorn preaching night, okay, on a Thursday night and get a few of you guys to come up and do a sermon and see how you go. See if you like it. Give it a chance, okay? And so, yeah, pray for obviously the wisdom and the time of study that the other men do to bring you God's word. They're doing a great job, honestly. You know, I don't get to hear every sermon, and I don't necessarily agree with every single thing. It doesn't matter. That's just part of being a human being again. I appreciate every preacher that we have here that spends time in God's word. And they do it to feed you, so pray for their wisdom and their studies as well. Can you pray also for Crown Baptist Church in Port Macquarie? I had mentioned them to you before. Thank you. Thank you.