It is that time when we turn to the Word of
God to hear the Word of the Lord. The text before us today is found in Luke
chapter 21...Luke chapter 21. And as you know, if you've been studying the
Word of God with us, the twenty-first chapter of Luke's gospel is about the return of Jesus
Christ. In fact, it is our Lord's own words regarding
His return. He had much to say about the Second Coming. He gave this message on the Mount of Olives
in the evening on Wednesday of Passion Week. After teaching all day in the temple and being
confronted by the leaders, He left, sat on the side of the Mount of Olives and spoke
to the disciples concerning His Second Coming. Thursday, the next day, they celebrated the
Passover. Friday He was crucified. Sunday He rose from the dead. Forty days later He ascended to heaven where
He has been until He returns. The world is very familiar, at least the western
world, with the elements of Christmas, the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, the story
of His first coming. Most people are familiar with Bethlehem and
a manger and Joseph and Mary and no room in the inn and the star and angels and shepherds
and wise men and perhaps even Herod and the slaughter of the innocents. Those are precious elements to the familiar
story of our Lord's first coming. All of those elements are part of a grand
scheme of things which God has revealed in Scripture. There are at least 300 plus Old Testament
prophecies fulfilled in the first coming of Jesus Christ. The details of His first coming then were
laid out in the Old Testament. So were the details of His Second Coming. In fact, the Old Testament in many places
and in many ways describes details not fulfilled in His first coming to be fulfilled in His
Second Coming. The precision with which the details of His
first coming were fulfilled validates the Old Testament and establishes the credibility
of those details prophesied with regard to His Second Coming. In fact, the Bible has so much to say about
His Second Coming that essentially this morning we are going to hear from God Himself. I don't hesitate to read the Word of God to
you, it is the Word of God. It is alive and powerful, sharper than any
two edged sword, it is piercing, it divides asunder soul and spirit the thoughts and intents
of the heart being revealed. It is like a fire, it is like a hammer. It burns, it shatters, but it also heals and
saves. And so much of what we do this morning is
going to be listening to the very Word of God concerning the return of Jesus Christ. But let's begin in Luke 21 with verse 25 and
listen to what Jesus said about His Second Coming. "And there will be signs in sun and moon and
stars. And upon the earth dismay among nations, in
perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves. Men fainting from fear and the expectation
of the things which are coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming
in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place,
straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near." The Son of Man coming in a cloud with power
and great glory. Very different than the first time He came
in a manger in humility, condescension and lowliness, not the next time. And maybe in God's perfect timing this is
a great time to fill in the details about His return. What are those details? Well we just read some of them. Verse 25, "There will be signs in sun and
moon and stars, roaring of the sea and waves and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Here you have a summary of the elements that
will precede the return of Jesus Christ and this is our Lord's own summary. These are His words. Now this is really the climactic moment, this
is the culmination of a long discourse that began all the way back in verse 8. And it began in response to questions that
the disciples were asking. The questions were framed up mainly by the
leading apostles who are familiar to us, but they probably echoed through the whole group
as they formed and framed their own version of the question. Jesus had said He was going to die. He was going to rise. He was going to leave. And He was going to return and establish His
Kingdom and glory. They wanted to know when. And so, in verse 7 they questioned Him saying,
"Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things
are about to take place?" Parallel to Luke's account of this discourse
by Jesus is Matthew's account which takes up two chapters, Matthew 24 and 25, and Mark's
account which is in Mark 13. So we have a lot of what Jesus said on this
occasion, more extensive response than to any other question He was asked that's recorded
in the New Testament. But what prompted it was the query of the
disciples about when He was going to come and establish His Kingdom. Matthew 24 records in verse 3 that some of
the disciples asked, "What will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?" So they were framing up the question in different
ways and Jesus was giving them broad answers, repeating and clarifying Himself as He explained
things, the composite of all that He said is included in the three gospel accounts. Now as we look at verses 25 to 28 and we look
at the very event of His return, it's going to be helpful for us to break it down into
some manageable bites. And I want to do that by using just a key
word. The first word is "sequence...sequence." That word helps us to begin to understand. Verse 25, "And there will be..." Now stop there for a moment. The end strikes me, it is a connective, it
indicates to us that this is in some sequence. That's why our first word is indeed sequence. "And" takes us back, what came before this? Well, if you've been here, you know what came
before. When the question was asked...what is going
to be the sign of Your coming and what is going to indicate that these things are coming?...Jesus
gave them sweeping answers. First He said, "Between now and My Second
Coming there will be some general realities that you need to know about. The first is deception." We saw that, didn't we, in verse 8. "There will come people in His name pretending
to be Christ or to represent Christ, or to represent Christianity who will mislead people. Do not go after them." Don't follow false Messiahs and false forms
of Christianity, they will proliferate. Jesus has said this in other ways on other
occasions, here He says it again. Expect during this period, between the two
comings, a proliferation of false Christianity. And indeed we have seen that to the degree
that there is more false Christianity in the world than true Christianity, there are more
false representatives of Christ than true ones, there are more false Christians than
true Christians. This indeed has come to pass. It is escalating. It is growing. The false forms of Christianity are growing
and growing. They will continue to flourish, reaching their
apex just before the Lord returns in final forms of apostate Christianity that are described
in the book of Revelation, as well as in some of the epistles of the New Testament. The second thing our Lord said to expect was
disasters. Not just deceptions, but disasters. There will be great earthquakes, plagues,
famines, terrors...that has to do with everything that's not specifically already listed, in
terms of weather, earthly catastrophes, natural disasters, etc., great signs from heaven. This is an indication of the calamities and
the wars that will characterize human history and will continue to engulf the world and
escalate and become worse at the very end. The third thing He said to expect in this
sweeping time between the two comings is an escalation of persecution. They will lay their hands on you, persecute
you, deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and in the case of the Jews, synagogues were
the courts where they tried Christians and then incarcerated them in prisons. They will bring you before kings and governors,
that speaks of Gentile persecution. Verse 17 says you will be hated by all on
account of My name. This is what to expect. Expect false forms of Christianity misrepresenting
Me and the truth. Expect disasters globally, continually, getting
worse at the very end. And expect to be persecuted through all history
until I come. These things have happened. They continue to be visible to us today and
they escalate and become worse and worse as time goes on and you get near the return of
Christ. Also in thinking of sequence, we move from
verses 8 to 19, general characteristics of the period between the two comings, to a specific
event in verse 20. Verses 20 to 24, Jesus says, "When you see
Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand." That will indicate to you, verse 22, that
the days of vengeance, an Old Testament term speaking of the day of the Lord and the vengeance
of God, have begun. "This is the time," verse 22 says, "that all
things which are written may be fulfilled." That's the consummation of everything. You'll know you're near the very end when
for the final time Jerusalem is surrounded by armies and her desolation is near. Matthew and Mark add to this by telling us
that what triggers that is called the abomination of desolation, mentioned by Daniel the prophet
three times, which is a desecration of the holy place in a rebuilt temple which the Jews
are using to worship God in which the Antichrist will set up an idol of himself and demand
that the whole world worship him and being then to turn on the Jews and to slaughter
them. Genocide will be his goal, and then to slaughter
Christians who have come to faith during that period by the preaching of the gospel around
the world in an attempt to obliterate both the people of God, Israel, and the people
of God, believers, from the earth. Sequence. You have a long period of time described in
verses 18 and 19. Then in verses 29 ti 24 you have that period
at the end called the time of Tribulation. In the middle of that time of Tribulation,
which is a seven-year period, according to Daniel 9, in the middle of that period the
Great Tribulation is launched. That's when the abomination of desolation
takes place. And then for the final three and a half years,
before the Lord comes, all hell breaks loose in this world. God judges and He uses Satan and He uses demons,
and He uses cataclysmic events of all kinds to effect this final three and a half years
of terror on the world. At the same time the gospel will be preached,
people will believe. So that's the sequence. Now it's implied in verse 25 in the word "and." It is implied that we're in the flow. But we don't have to depend on the implication
because in the parallel text of Matthew 24:29 and of Mark 13:24, they both record that Jesus
actually said, "After the Tribulation...after the Tribulation." So as that Tribulation comes to its culmination,
as it comes to its end, these signs in the sun, moon and stars will occur. They come in a flurry at the end of the time
of Tribulation just before Christ returns. Mark tells us that our Lord called this future
a time of Tribulation. Matthew tells us He calls it a time of Great
Tribulation. And both of them say it is something the world
has never seen or imagined in its horror. So that's the sequence. There is a period of history described by
deception, disaster, and the distress of persecution. Then at the end there's a time of Tribulation,
Great Tribulation in which Antichrist with his massive national coalition comes to Jerusalem,
establishes the worship of himself as the only religion tolerable in the world and then
sets out to massacre the Jews, obliterating them from the earth. God uses him to judge the ungodly Jews, two
thirds of whom are slaughtered. God protects one third who believe in Christ
who are saved to go into the Kingdom. He also attempts to slaughter wall believing
Gentiles all over the world. And, of course, God protects many of His own
who also go into the Kingdom. That launches the Great Tribulation. Once the Great Tribulation begins, that last
three and a half years, God's judgments begin to escalate until finally at the end the signs
indicated in verse 25 to 28 take place. That's the sequence. When evil demons and evil people have finished
the course of their sin in rebellion, when all the worst of vice and iniquity has exhausted
itself, the holocaust of final judgment from God will come. That's the sequence. A second word, and an important one, staging...staging. This is the biggest event in the history of
the world, that is because the whole world will see it. Only a few people ever saw Jesus at His first
coming...His mother, His father, a few shepherds, perhaps a few people connected to the town
of Bethlehem, only a few. The second time He comes, everyone on the
face of the earth will know it. This is the greatest, most widespread event
in the history of the world and God will set the stage, He will present the backdrop. The staging is indicated in verses 25 and
26. There will be clear indications in the world
that this is coming. Now I want you to think with me about the
actual coming of Jesus, for a moment, so look at Acts 1:9. And then I want to back up from that to set
the stage. In Acts 1:9, Luke who also wrote Acts, said
this, "After Jesus had said these things, He was lifted up and while they were looking
on and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the
sky while He was departing, behold two men, two angels in white clothing stood beside
them." Here they are on the Mount of Olives, all
of a sudden Jesus ascends, physically, literally, bodily He goes up and into a cloud and He's
gone. And they're gazing intently stunned, two angels
appear and say this, verse 11, "Men of Galilee," that's where the disciples were from, "why
do you stand looking into the sky?" Which may seem like a silly question, where
would you be looking if somebody just took off? But it's the verb "for looking" that gives
you the insight. It has to do with a fixed gaze which implies
far more than just seeing something, they were losing the one most precious and their
look was a serious intent look. "This Jesus who has been taken up from you
into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." You watched Him go, the world will watch Him
come. He went up, He will come down. He went up in a cloud, He will come down in
a cloud. He went up from the Mount of Olives, He will
come down to the Mount of Olives. Second Thessalonians chapter 1 and verses
5 to10, the subject here, according to verse 5, is God's righteous judgment. According to verse 6, God is going to repay
those who have afflicted His children and give them relief. Then come down to verse 7 and it says, "The
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire dealing
out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints
on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed." Here we find that when He comes, He comes
in a cloud but He also comes in flaming fire. He comes accompanied by His mighty angels
and the cloud is certainly a glory cloud. He comes to deal out judgment and retribution
to those who do not know God and don't obey the gospel, to give them the penalty for their
unbelief, eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His
power. But He also comes for a positive purpose to
be glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled out by all who believe. He will be seen by non-believers who will
be consumed by the fire of His judgement. He will be seen by believers who will be gathered
into His Kingdom and glorified with Him. For believers, according to Titus 2:13, we
are looking for the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. According to Philippians 3:30, our citizenship
is in heaven from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. First Thessalonians 1:10, "We are waiting
for the Savior who will deliver us from the wrath to come." He will come. He will come physically, literally, bodily
down from heaven as He ascended up into heaven. But this has to be staged. And the bottom line is that before He comes,
the universe goes black and out of that blackness comes Christ in blazing glory, the cloud of
His own glory, flaming fire in judgment to set up His Kingdom, staging. Let's look at the staging, verse 25. He says to these men, "There will be signs
in sun and moon and stars." He says, "There will be roaring of the sea
and the waves." And in verse 26, "The powers of the heavens
will be shaken and then, after that stage is set, you will see the Son of Man." Vast cosmic catastrophes with unimaginable
consequences. This is an environmental hell being described
here. And it may be hard for us to grasp, but let
me see if I can simplify it a little bit. A faint idea of what it might be like can
be gathered by a description that I found by a scientist who was trying to warn the
world of the possibility of being bombarded by celestial bodies. What could happen, for example, if a rogue
star came too near the earth? What could happen is a rogue planet came too
near the earth? What could happen if a rogue moon came too
near the planet or any other flotsam and jetsam careening out of space came near the earth? Not necessarily hitting the earth, but coming
so near the earth as to create the kind of waves that would affect the delicate balance
of the earth, a scientist named Belakovsky(?) said that if something came very close to
the earth, it could readily cause it to tilt a few degrees on its axis. It is so perfectly aligned on that axis that
even the smallest tilt would produce this. Here is his description. "At that moment, an earthquake would make
the earth shudder. Air and water would continue to move through
inertia. Hurricanes would sweep the earth. The seas would rush over continents carrying
gravel and sand and marine animals and casting them on the land. Heat would be developed. Rocks would melt. Volcanos would erupt. Lava would flow from fissures in the ruptured
ground, covering vast land areas. Mountains would spring up from the plains
and would travel and climb on the shoulders of other mountains, causing faults and rifts. Lakes would be tilted and emptied. Rivers would change their beds. Large land areas with all their inhabitants
would slip under the sea. Forests would burn and the hurricane and wild
seas would rest them from the ground from which they grew and pile them branch and root
in huge heaps. Seas would turn into deserts, their waters
flowing wildly away." Just a slight tilt. The point is that God can with no effort send
this universe into an environmental hell. And He will. But what are the signs in sun and moon and
stars? He doesn't explain them. And what about the roaring of the sea and
the waves, He doesn't explain that? And what about the powers of the heavens being
shaken? He doesn't explain that. And the fact that He doesn't explain that
and it's so dramatic and so horrific and the further fact that no disciple said to him,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are You talking about?" indicates to me that He was saying things
with which they were familiar. They were familiar. Well it's unimaginable that all heavenly bodies
would careen out of control in some kind of wild frenzy as the universe descends into
cataclysmic chaos...it's unimaginable. But it wouldn't be new to the disciples because,
you see, they were Old Testament Jews, they understood exactly what the Old Testament
said about these things and understood it well. Why? Because these parts of the Old Testament were
surely the most dramatic. Let's get a little education in what they
already knew. Turn to Isaiah 13. Let's find out what would have been familiar
to them when they heard sun, moon, stars, seas, waves, powers of the heavens shaken. Surely they would have remembered well the
familiar prophecy of Isaiah which was regularly...regularly read in their synagogues along with all the
rest of the Old Testament. And it didn't require a lot of explanation
and so I say to you this morning, what I read to you isn't going to require a lot of explanation
either. This is the Word of the Lord. Verse 6 of Isaiah 13. "Wail, for the day of the Lord is near." The Day of the Lord always refers to judgment. Any period of judgment, divine judgment, was
a day in which the Lord acted. But there is a final day of the Lord, the
eschatological day of the Lord that the prophets ultimately looked toward. Here it's defined. "Wail, for the Day of the Lord is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty." There's the best biblical definition of the
Day of the Lord. It is divine destruction. "Therefore all hands will fall limp and every
man's heart will melt." Isn't that what Jesus said in Luke 21? That men will faint for fear and perplexity? "They will be terrified, says verse 8, pains
and anguish will take hold of them, they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another in astonishment. Their faces aflame. Behold, the Day of the Lord is coming, cruel
with fury and burning anger to make the land a desolation and He will exterminate its sinners
from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations
will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises. And the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will also put an end to the arrogance
of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold
and mankind than the gold of Ophir, the most rare gold of all. I will make the heavens tremble and the earth
will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning
anger." It's a furious God that you see here, judgment
to come in the end. Isaiah, of course, spoke of judgment on Babylon,
but that was only a small preview of what was to come on the whole earth and the whole
world. Turn to chapter 24 of Isaiah, another chapter
that would have been read regularly through all their lives in their synagogues and taught
by their teachers. Isaiah 24 verse 1, "Behold, the Lord lays
the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priests, the
servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender
like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor." What does that mean? Everybody will be the same. This judgment has no regard for the normal
variables in society. "The earth will be completely laid waste and
completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this Word. The earth mourns and withers, the world fades
and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants
for they transgress laws, violated statutes, broke the ever-lasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and those
who live in it are held guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
burned and few men are left." Sometimes I want to shout these verses back
when I hear somebody say that God loves everybody and just wants the best for you. This is judgment pronounced on a sinful world. If you go over to verse 19 in that same chapter,
well...verse 18, "And it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into
the pit. He who climbs out of the pit will be caught
in the snare. There's no escaping. For the windows above are open and the foundations
of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder. The earth is split through. The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard
and totters like a shack, for its transgressions are heavy on it and it will fall never to
rise again. So it will happen in that day. The Lord will punish the host of heaven, that
is wicked demons, fallen angels. The kings of the earth, the angels on high
punished, the kings on the earth punished. They will be gathered together like the prisoners
in the dungeon, confined in prison after many days will be punished. The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed
for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and His glory will be
before His elders." This is the triumph of Christ over all the
ungodly in the world. The extermination of sinners worldwide, the
final day of the vengeance of God. The phenomena is exactly what our Lord spoke
of. Turn to Joel chapter 2...Joel chapter 2. That second chapter of Joel begins with a
call to judgment, "Blow a trumpet in Zion," Joel 2:1, "Blow a trumpet in Zion and sound
an alarm on My holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the Day of the Lord is coming. Surely it is near. A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds
and thick darkness as the dawn is spread over the mountains. So there is a great and mighty people. There has never been anything like it, nor
will there be after it, to the years of many generations." It's a horrible time, the most horrible time. Go down to verse 10. "Before them the earth quakes, the heavens
tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark, the stars lose their brightness." The picture is vivid. Down to verse 30 of chapter 2, "I will display
wonders in the sky and on the earth blood, fire, columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, the
moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will
be those who will escape as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls." There will be people saved and rescued and
taken in to His glorious Kingdom. Chapter 3 identifies this more specifically
even with the end time. "Behold, in those days and at that time, it's
the time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, looking at the end when He
fulfills all His promises to them, I will gather all the nations." Again this has to be the worldwide gathering
of final judgment. "I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat
and I'll enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance
is real." Then in verse 15, "In that judgment there
will be multitudes, multitudes, verse 14, in the Valley of Decision, for the Day of
the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose
their brightness and the Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem and the
heavens and the earth tremble. But the Lord is a refuge for His people and
the stronghold to the sons of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord your
God." And after this holocaust comes the Kingdom
and verse 18 says, "In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, the hills will
flow with milk. The brooks of Judah will flow with water. Spring will go out from the house of the Lord
to water the Valley of Shittim," etc. The aftermath, when God renews the earth,
regenerates it in His Kingdom. They knew all these passages. They would also have been familiar with Ezekiel
38, you need to look at that. I just want to read a few more. Give me another few minutes? Is that clock correct? That is impossible. Just a minute. Yes, Ezekiel 38, this is so important...Ezekiel
38, verse 19, looking at this future judgment, "In My zeal and in My blazing wrath, I declare
that on that day there shall surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel and the fish
of the sea and the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field and the creeping things
that creep on the earth, all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My
presence." The earthquake starts in Jerusalem as He shakes
Antichrist and his powers and the nations gather and it spreads to the earth. The mountains also will be thrown down, that's
going to cause the roaring of the sea and waves. The steep pathways will collapse and every
wall will fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him on
all My mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother
and with pestilence and with blood I shall enter into judgment with hin and I shall rain
on him and his troops and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain with hailstones,
fire and brimstone. And I shall magnify Myself, sanctify Myself,
and make Myself known in the sight of many nations and they will know that I am the Lord." Haggai, a little two chapters of the prophet
Haggai, chapter 2, familiar verses, verses 6 and 7, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, once
more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and
the dry land, and I will shake all the nations and they will come with the wealth of all
nations and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts." He's going to take the spoil from the world
after He shakes it and destroys the ungodly and He has a right to all of it. "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,
declares the Lord of hosts." Zephaniah, one little prophecy back, chapter
1, same thing, 14, chapter 1 verse 14, "Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming
very suddenly. Listen, the day of the Lord, you can almost
hear it coming, listen, the day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a
day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick
darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and the high
corner towers and I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind
because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood will be poured out like dust
and their flesh like dung, nor neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver
them on the Day of the Lord's wrath and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of
His jealousy for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one of all the inhabitants
of the earth." That's it. That's the end. Now, the simple disciples knew all those prophecies. And when Jesus said what He said, they knew
of what He spoke...final judgment just before His return. Turn to the book of Revelation, and I close
with this. In the book of Revelation, John, one of those
Apostles, was given either further revelation of these very same signs that strike the heavens,
the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the waves. John is given visions of the final judgments
at the end of the time of the Tribulation. Revelation 6 verse 12. In the seven-year Tribulation, judgments come
out of seven seals, those seven seals stretch across the seven years. When you get toward the end and you come to
the sixth and seventh seal, the judgments intensify. Here is the sixth seal, verse 12, "There was
a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair," black goats' hair,
pitch black. The sun goes out. The whole moon becomes like blood which hardens
into blackness. The stars of the sky fell to the earth as
a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll
when it is rolled up. You unscroll a scroll like this and you let
go of it and burrrrrrr, it rolls up. The sky rolls up like a scroll. Every mountain and island were moved out of
their places. This has to be near the end because this is
not really a survivable planet. The kings of the earth, the great men, the
commanders, the rich, the strong, every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and
among the rocks of the mountains and they said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall
on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath
of the Lamb for the great day of the wrath has come and who is able to stand?" This is the future of our planet. Chapter 8 describes the seventh seal. "And out of the seventh seal which is the
last seal, comes seven trumpets. The seven trumpets make up the seventh seal." And we'll look at just some of them. Go down to verse 5...or verse 6, "The seven
angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. The first sounded, there came hail and fire,
mixed with blood, the kinds of things that would happen in a chaotic altered universe. They were thrown to the earth. A third of the earth was burned up. A third of the trees were burned up. All the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded, something like a
great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, a third of the sea became blood. A third of the creatures in the sea that had
life died. A third of the ships were destroyed. A third angel sounded, a great star fell from
heaven, burning like a torch, fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters
and the name of the star is called Wormwood and a third of the waters became wormwood
and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter. A fourth angel sounded and a third of the
sun and a third of the moon, a third of the stars were smitten so that a third of them
might be darkened and the day might not shine for a third of it and the night in the same
way." This is horrific, the gradual extinguishing
of sun, moon, stars. When it first takes place, day and night become
skewed, things don't grow anymore, the tides are altered. Tsunamis occur everywhere. If you think that's bad, "Woe, woe, woe to
those who dwell on the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three
angels who are about to sound." In chapter 16, out of the seventh trumpet
comes seven bowls. These are the absolute final elements of judgment,
the bowl judgments. Look at verse 8, "The fourth angel of chapter
16, the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men
with fire. And before it goes out, somehow God turns
up its heat. Men were scorched with fierce heat. They blasphemed the name of God who has the
power over these plagues, they did not repent so as to give Him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the
throne of the beast, his kingdom because darkened and they gnawed their tongues because of pain." Intense heat and then it goes out. "hey blasphemed again the God of heaven because
of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds." Go over to verse 17. "The seventh angel...this is the final bowl
of the final trumpet of the final seal...poured his bowl in the air, a loud voice came out
of the temple from the throne saying, 'It's over. It's one.' There were flashes of lightning, sounds and
peals of thunder, a great earthquake such as there had not been since man came to be
upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it and so mighty. And the great city was split into three parts
and the cities of the nations collapsed, and Babylon the great was remembered before God
to give her the cup of the wine of her fierce wrath and every island fled away and the mountains
were not found and huge hailstones about a hundred pounds each came down from heaven
upon men and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague
was extremely severe." So, the visions of John, the words of Jesus
match perfectly with the Old Testament prophecy. This is the staging. The whole thing in chaos and pitch blackness. And into that comes Christ. And we'll see that next time. Bow your head with me for a moment. The sad part of this is that there are people
who have lived through the Tribulation in the future, heard the gospel, preached all
over the world at that time, seen Israel repent, seen Gentiles from every tongue and tribe
and people and nation repent, come to salvation, they then have been warned again and again
and again and again that Jesus is coming in judgment. They have seen the seals. They have seen the trumpets. They have experienced the bowl judgments. And even when it comes down to the end. They are still blaspheming the God of heaven. If you think that somehow you can just kind
of wait around until all that starts and come to Christ, you may end up with the blasphemers. This is the day of salvation. This is the day of repentance. This is the time to embrace Christ. Father, thank You again for telling us these
things. You give us these warnings. You lay this out unmistakably so that we can
know what's coming. There's no mystery about the future of this
planet. There's no mystery about how it's all coming
to an end. It's all clear repeatedly. May we live in the light of this. And as we heard in the music, may we know
that this is the time of grace, this is the hour of salvation, this is the time for us
to take this wondrous reality of Christ coming into the world to die for our sins, to rise
for our justification and proclaiming that message far and wide, give us a passion for
the gospel. May we take it to the ends of the earth. May we beg men to be reconciled to God while
there is time. May many come to faith in Christ before they
die or before they face this horrible judgment. And for those of us who belong to You already,
we look for that secret moment when You take us out of this world and deliver us from the
time of Tribulation to come and You reward us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Thank You, Lord, for saving us. Save sinners today for Your glory, we pray
in Christ's name. Amen.
