HUMANITY DESTROYING ITSELF: TRIBULATION PORTRAYS GOD'S LAWS OF TEMPORAL & ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES

let's open our Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and as you're turning there I just want you to think maybe in a different way than you've usually thought about a study of the book of Revelation usually when people think of Revelation what they think about is you know charts and trying to figure out what's going on in Europe and whether or not you know is whatever and that is really not the purpose that the book of Revelation was written it was written in fact the opening words say that it's an unveiling of Jesus Christ and when we unveiled Jesus Christ we learn truths or teachings or you might know it better by doctrines about God the Father Son and Holy Spirit and the book of Revelation is probably the premier book that explains to us and more than explains illustrates for us the doctrines of God this morning we're looking at as you can see here the wrath of God and the wrath of God is first introduced here in this sixth chapter and it's huge it is underlying it's one of the attributes of God it's one of the the the displays of his justice and that truth is more beautifully illustrated in this book than anywhere else and so to understand it we have to we have to start unpacking exactly what the wrath of God is last time when we got together we looked at the the the cataclysmic wrath we were looking at remember I told you in fact people listen so well my whole family was out to lunch and someone came to our table and stood there and they said while I'm talking to you I hope I don't thumb ass on you and I said you were listening in church last week that was a greek word do you got a forgot it since last sunday but we were looking at that smoldering explosive cataclysmic wrath of God that just bursts out into judgment now the difference between Cataclysm and consequences consequential wrath is like this it's a little bit at a time and a lot of times people don't realize the consequences of what they're doing because it's so incremental it's so small and so this morning God illustrates the ultimate consequence that sin brings and the the wrath of God revealed consequently so that's what we're gonna look at this morning but one of God's great attributes is his wrath and his consequential wrath is built into his creation of the universe and I want you to think about that the built-in factors of the universe we live in and in Hebrews chapter 11 we're gonna look at verse 3 our Creator God who is the Almighty maker of heaven and earth spoke so much into existence that science has been searching this universe from the macroscopic are the macroscopic to the microscopic for for thousands of years and are still uncovering more of what God in an instant spoke into existence and now that's what we're gonna see in verse 3 but when he spoke it into existence have you ever thought about the fact that what scientists are discovering and naming our laws that were already there I mean we we you know Boyle's law and and Newton on gravity and and Max Planck in his constant you know and the laws of thermodynamics and the laws of electromagnetism and we enshrined the scientists that discover these things but they just discovered them they were already there because in the backdrop of this incomprehensible universe is a framework and that framework are those unalterable laws that govern everything that we can understand and perceive in this universe and the Bible tells us who invented those things and so the immutable laws of nature that scientists are discovering and we know that there are laws the well used laws of science leads to constant technological advances the more we know the more we understand the more we can harness those laws that's that's why we get ever smaller ever more powerful ever faster devices because more understanding of the conduction of the capacity of the electromagnetic forces we understand and we start using but we don't change those laws they're there and and what's amazing is who put them there for a moment think about where those laws came from of course we as believers know that God did it but when and how did he do it well the laws of electromagnetism that have a let humans understand the spectrum of light and all other known waveforms so much that we can study and measure them in fact if you look at the spectrum and isn't it interesting that the seven major elements on the spectrum of electromagnetism is seven dislike seven colors of light and you know there's just so many sevens out in the universe that that are reflections of God but when we look at that from the super large slow waves called radio waves to the super small fast waves called gamma waves all of them are governed by the same laws that we don't change we just discover and so what we see is someone or something had to institute the laws because they're not random they're very much interconnected to one another so when you think about that all of the observed scientific laws are just that their laws humans have observed not created we build our technology on the reality these laws of nature don't change they remain constant but it's God who framed this universe with those laws in fact in in this verse we see in verse 3 the absolute laws of nature are the signature of God and this is what he says by faith we understand that the worlds were framed now this word for world is not the word for planets there's a specific Greek word planet ace that actually means wanderer because planets move and stars don't and and so this isn't the word for world planets this is a bigger word Ione is the word for ages in fact some of your Bibles might even translated not worlds but universe what it's saying is everything that from our perspective is is so limitless and vast it just seems endless everything look at what God said were framed by the Word of God so there was nothing but God and he spoke into existence and this framework surrounds everything in this universe and he says so that the things which are seen that were were observing and and were trying to perceive and understand and calculate were not made of things which are visible God just put all that together and framed it it's most amazing thing to think about well that brings us to another truth because not only are there physical laws of electromagnetism and and thermodynamics and everything else but God framed the same laws that not only governed the fusion of hydrogen atoms at the core of our Sun that heat and light this world every day by the way two weeks ago the heat and light maker you know our Sun exploded a solar flare that was so big that Bloomberg said the bloomberg report which is a financial news service said that if that had ejected this direction instead of that direction which means it just went away from the earth instead of toward the earth it would have probably stopped our electrical grid like happened in 1859 and the Carrington event if you've ever read about that that would have happened two weeks ago and you know scientists are looking at that but you know what the laws that govern that they are just calculating and understanding and observing but they are not making those laws but the God who made the laws of all those things also made things happen like water freeze from the top down so that life can exist in the water and and on and on we could go through science but that same God made laws about humans and that's what the creature us humans don't realize that there are the same laws and they're called sowing and reaping laws and human life is governed by powerful laws that were set in motion by God he has simplified those laws and written them down you know this is not a scientific book this does not explain to us all of the it's everything that scientific in and is accurate but it is not a textbook on science it's a textbook on the laws that govern humans and that's the most vital part of what we need to exist in God's is one of those laws that God repeatedly illustrates is that there will always be both a temporal and an eternal consequence for every choice we make now to summarize that that's the law of sowing and reaping now you all have heard that now turn to Galatians 6 with me because I want you to underline this in your mind and I want you to realize that as we go into and this is where I'm going I want you to understand that God's wrath doesn't explode in the book of Revelation till verse 12 of chapter 6 but a fourth of all the people on the earth die before verse 12 what is going on it's the consequences of their bad choices and what God illustrate Sforza is that left to ourselves we destroy ourselves if we're allowed unhindered ly to do anything we want to do fallen sinful humanity is self-destructive and God underlines that so for our reading instead of just following along why don't you all stand together with me and let's read this out loud just so it kind of goes even deeper into our minds and and this is Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8 from the New King James Version let's read it together in unison do not be deceived God is not mocked for whatever a man sews that he will also reap for he who sews to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption but he who sews to the spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life let's bow together father in heaven we bow before you who framed the universe and you who in that framework made these laws that amaze and and cause humans to spend their lifetimes trying to mathematically capture the law that's already there but you have equally and even more sobering Lee made laws about our human existence and that is because we are made in your image that every single act that we choose to do has a consequence here and forever and Lord Howe I pray that as believers we think about how you want us to live as those bought at a price and Lord for anyone who doesn't yet know the assurance of forgiveness may they feel the wrath of God that hangs waiting to fall upon every sin and any sinner who will not repent of their sin so open our hearts and our eyes and our minds and may we choose to even more follow you today in Jesus name we pray amen and you may be seated this verse has two parts the top part you see is is is one of God's laws it's an agricultural law we all know it I mean I I love to garden and and if I take a corn seat I have a little corn packet and I make a little row and I put it in they cover it up with dirt make sure it stays moist and warm for long enough a watermelon comes up right every time right from a corn seed right no see we know you plant corn you get corn you plant watermelon you get nothing oh no I mean depending on if it grows or not but you understand what I mean it's it just works regardless of any time period in the history of humanity regardless of who is planting it whether they're rich or poor or wise or smart and strong or weak there's a law that God has built in the universe you sow it and what you sowed comes up but then God takes this to the moral realm and look what he says this physical law is true in the moral and spiritual realm because God says it and and see it we don't often think of that especially lost people rarely think of it until they're caught but he says if you saw the flesh you'll reap corruption corruption literally means decay rottenness and and so he says you spiritually will corrupt and rot and decay but if you sow the spirit you have life everlasting what God is saying is that just as the laws of nature have inescapable consequences to them so the laws in the moral and spiritual realm have inescapable consequences to them that's what the Lord is saying and the law of sowing and reaping is just as valid in the spiritual as in the physical and moral the frustration and hopelessness that humanistic psychologists psychiatrists and counselors have and that's saying that that counseling and psychiatry and psychology they're observational Sciences but you know what frustrates them they're humanistic they do not realize that there is a lawmaker a god of this universe that is instituted just on the thermodynamic electromagnetic level he's also on the human level instituted unchangeable laws and so there's great frustration and the frustration is they refused to consider the immutable spiritual law of sowing and reaping a person's character cannot change until his nature changes so you can therap eyes counsel and do all kinds of things and medicate people and they don't change because it's their nature that has the problem it's not their environment it's their nature and the only one that can change NAIP nature is the rule maker himself so it's very frustrating to just kind of like Vance Abner used to say it's like putting cold cream on cancer you cover it up and it feels better for a moment but it's not gone humanism puts cold cream on the cancer of the evil of the human heart and they can't change it only God can well when Paul sat to write the words of sowing and reaping he was just reaffirming what God said and basically what God said is all the way through his word that there is wrath always going to be poured out on sin no sin no matter how small no matter how well he had no matter how obscure in the past escapes God's notice and he has two kinds of wrath he has the cataclysmic wrath where he bursts in and and explodes in Wrath that had smolder for so long and then he has this long-term lifelong consequential wrath and both are operating whether we accept believe or acknowledge them so let's apply that now to the book of Revelation turn to Revelation chapter 6 with me real quick and I want to apply this by just like remember revelation just is an illustration of the doctrines of God it's vivid illustration in fact there are in these 404 verses there are hundreds of allusions to every other point in the Bible because it's illustrating all of these doctrines so what we see in this in the horsemen of the apocalypse is each of these four seals that are that are listed the four horsemen as the seals are broken in verses one and two and three and four etc each are illustrating something of what the consequences are two choices that humans have made so let me just give you one the first seal is the white horse now think about what humanity has done when the one who alone is the way in truth and life is a bandit this white horse is kind of the the global seduction of humanity by the false Christ and and this human that's empowered by the devil begins to assemble the first Empire that encompasses the whole world now the Romans did you know the British did so much and the Romans did so much and you know Genghis Khan did so much but nobody ever had the whole thing nobody's ever conquered it until the M and this man energized by the devil does and and it's only because the one who alone is the way in truth and life has been abandoned and all that's left are the lies of deception when you abandon the truth there's nothing left but deception and lies and falsehood so if you turn away from the true God the false one will find you see that's the danger the danger of abandoning truth is you find the liar from the beginning he's waiting for the truth a band or don't love the truth and that's what God allows in the first seal basically the first seal is God giving everybody what they always wanted they always wanted to work without God you don't want God he's just too rigid to you know he's got all these rules and they're not good and we want to live life for only God says okay you can live life your own way now remember in your minds about two months ago we were in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and I told you then it was an important piece to remember that it says that God pulls the control rods out of the earth it's the restrainer it is and we talked about it's the Holy Spirit in his church and it's not the Holy Spirit leaves it's the church leaves and the spirits restraint is the rods are pulled back and just like in a reactor if you pull out those those graphite absorbers of neutron rods and you pull them back the reaction picks up and it gets bigger and stronger and pretty soon it melts down and ruins everything you know we have a you know a Three Mile Island or a you know what happened over in Belarus you just have this chair noble event well the whole earth when God pulls his restraint back has a Chernobyl spiritual event secondly look what happens in the the Red Horse in verses 3 and 4 is the the result the consequence of when the one who came is the Prince of Peace the one who came to give abundant life is rejected all you have left is the other one the god of this world he came to kill and steal and destroy and you know what the earth will become like it'll become like video games where it's just constant carnage and death and destruction and horrors only you won't be fit on the screen it's the whole world and that's what this Red Horse is it's what God allows with his second seal basically humans murder and warfare covers the globe and death from fighting is that Red Horse and then the Lord says you you don't want the one who came to be the bread of life and you reject him okay when he comes he says I'll abundantly satisfied I will I will make you so you never hunger so you don't want to be spiritually satisfied I'll show you what it's like without the bread of life without the spirit of life without the the influence of God when I withdraw the restrainer look what happens without God's restraint mankind spirals into non-stop upheaval unrest warfare and that disrupts the the global food supply chain and and it just becomes just a little foretaste of hell and God allows widespread starvation in the last one when the one who came to be the resurrection of life is rejected the only other option is death and that takes the body in the grave or Hades and that takes the soul when Christ is rejected when his spirit is restrained when the father is unwanted all across the world will be warfare famine that's the second and third seals plus pestilence and plague did you know right now in America there are 20 million people who through promiscuity through immorality have contracted sexually transmitted diseases and they're incurable and that's with the control rods in with the church in the word and the gospel and the Spirit of God just deeply convicting the world when God pulls back the restraint you know it says in chapter 9 of Revelation it says even when they're dying of thirst and scorched by the Sun and demons are terrorizing them they will not repent of their thefts their murders their drug usage and their fornication I wouldn't think you would have time to do all that stuff if you're running for your life from a demon monster but they are so consumed so habituated by fin that they just self-destruct well basically the Bible's talking about the horrible consequences of sin what happens on earth that kills one-fourth of humanity in the first 11 verses of chapter 6 the wrath of God hasn't launched yet that's in verse 12 what is it that that causes this this horrific carnage it's the consequences of sin the horrors the mankind heaps upon themselves in those first four seals are just a reminder of the laws that God has built into the universe be not deceived God is not mocked whatever a person souls they'll harvest this is the doctrine of the wrath of God cataclysmic hell future wrath yes consequential today incremental II there's a consequence for every sin well that leads us to the fact that for all of human history God has allowed the laws of the spiritual world to operate in a day-to-day way and those laws about the consequences of sin can't be avoided and so God has said this is what the road away from God looks like and he actually illustrated in fact if you want to turn back from Revelation we're gonna end in the book of Romans this morning I want to show you probably the premiere place that gives us the the pathway that the wrath of God follows this if you walk down this pathway you can be sure the wrath of God is right behind through the whole way and what's amazing I said last week is it's the pathway that's becoming enshrined as public opinion culture in the Western world and and what I mean by that is let's start in verse 18 Romans chapter 1 verse 18 and this is the pathway away from God and it has many steps and the first one is that sinners become excuse 'less suppressers it's not they don't know the truth they suppress it in unrighteousness that's what it says the wrath of God no that's how we got to Roman's 1 the wrath of God is first mentioned in chapter 6 of Revelation but it's in the book of Revelation it's first mentioned chapter 6 but it's here huge displayed and what it says is the wrath of God is revealed from heaven what does God send out his search-and-destroy wrath of God after what is he looking for what is he hunting all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness basically Jesus put it this way men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil that's in that first chapter description as John writes about Christ the light of the world he says we are born lovers of darkness and we suppress the truth the truth is light we don't want it and we suppress it and look at verse 20 because of all these these laws of God the the beautiful signature of God across all the sciences and across all the observable universe you just see his signature in the symmetry in the order I mean I was thinking if I was walking across the Gobi Desert you know and all of a sudden I saw an iphone4 which is old there's a five I know but mine is a four and I saw it sitting there I would immediately think now the sand around it is millions of years old so that probably went through iterations for millions of years because it's so complex no I wouldn't think that I would think somebody in China took Tydeus from Cupertino and built the thing right it has a designer yet we look at everything in the universe we see all these immutable laws we see all the laws by the way the the unchanging laws of the universe say you can't spontaneously add more information you cannot you cannot ascend in any of these processes they don't add new information to get more complex the laws say that but the humans refused the laws and suppress them in unrighteousness here's another one verses 2122 another step on the pathway is humans that are sinners become sane CLIs fools they didn't though they knew God they don't glorify Him as God nor are they thankful that he even is giving them life breath and their futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts are darkened and thinking they're so smart they're foolish actually the word is that's the Greek word which has come into English they're moronic kind of like sophomore you know saw Sofia's wisdom and more is fools so a sophomore is a wise fool by the second year of high school you become a wise fool you know even I mean if we even knew what these words we throw around me and it's just hilarious but saying CLIs fools become evolutionary idolaters verse 23 says they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image God has already shown us his image his image he put and formed in man it shows the character of God in humanity the spiritual qualities we have reflect God and we don't want that so we want we want to have birds and four-footed animals and creeping things to be where our glory is from and that's why humans worship I mean look at the scarab beetle of Egypt it's a dung beetle and they worship a beetle that eats dung the Egyptians they weren't that smart you know they rejected the Creator and that's what evolutionary thought does you don't want this God who put the framework in and finally what happens we become hopelessly enslaved look look at how God repeats himself verse 24 God gave them up to uncleanness verse 26 God they gave them up to vile passions verse 28 God gave them over to a debased mind what's the uncleanness it's always used about sexual things it's kind of the porn if occation by the way do you know what New York Times said it says the number one purveyor of pornography now is mobile device usage and we live in a generation where people don't realize the consequences of filling their minds with violence and evil and uncleanness you know where it leads verse 26 vile passions what are vile passions read verse 27 homosexuality and lesbianism are defined by the framer of the universe as Vaio passions not monogamous being the way I was creating Oh someone said were you born that way and I said yeah they were born that way we were all born sinners see homosexuality is just a sin like any pride like lying like any sin we're born sinners and it's just whatever one you cultivate and vile passions come from giving yourself up to uncleanness and it flows into vile passions and then finally look at verse 28 the mind is debased what that means is the transmitter to communicate with God is shut down our mind is the conduit we pray and our spirit the spiritual realm is in our mind and that gets so debased it's just no communication no contact no no effect of the righteousness of God and those are the unavoidable consequences of sin so if you think about this road away from God what it means is that just as Darwin described the ascent of man was wrong Paul details the descent of humanity in Romans 1 and the decline and fall of mankind from the closeness when mankind came from the creator's hand and Adam and Eve were walking and talking with God look how far we've come away from God and the truth of the matter is that humanity is now increasingly becoming prisoners to the unavoidable consequences of sin and all that lies ahead for sinners are the horrible seals of revelation 6 God says pull back the control rods here and I'll give you what you always wanted I'll give you the devil to run the world and I'll give you your lust to to have as much as you want and humanity self-destructs and then the Almighty God reaches in and directly smites the earth and we haven't even gotten to that that's next week what does it look like when God steps in I mean a fourth of the people are dead from everything pulling out the control rods what happens when you when God comes it's just terrifying that's 12 to 17 but basically when God smite the earth and opens the gates of the pit he floods the earth with demon monsters God tells us that because he wants us to see ahead of time and warn people the wrath of God is is hanging over you and at any moment that cataclysmic wrath is gonna fall and are you wanting to die in possession of your sins God says anybody who dies holding their sins loving their sin nurturing their sins are gonna face his wrath forever pretty gloomy pretty negative but we know that the one who died on the cross died bearing our sins how do you get him we by faith call out to him as our sin bearer and from the earliest sacrifice in the Old Testament people were looking forward to someone that would be the perfect sin bearer and it was Christ and us we look back and we say we believe by one sacrifice on that cross you forever bore the wrath of God for my sin but we still fail and we still struggle and we still sin so what do we do about that well that's what we're celebrating a communion this morning that right now in front of God's throne the God that's gonna pour out his cataclysmic wrath someone stands and he stands before the throne of God and intercedes for us so to prepare us for communion I thought we could just apply this with another great hymn so let's all stand and as we stand the men are going to go and prepare to service communion but I want you to think of these words we're going to read this and then we're gonna sing the second stanza so get your heart warmed up by reading the first stanza together before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea a great High Priest whose name is love whoever lives and pleads for me my name is graven on his hands my name is written on his heart I know that while in heaven he stands no tongue can bid me thence depart now this is the real situation we are so painfully aware of our sin the devil tries to short-circuit our spiritual lives by saying I thought you're a Christian how come you just did that again how come you just thought that again how come he just said that again that's what Satan does he's the accuser and in that instant what we do is what this song says so let's sing this to Lord okay everybody ready you ready get your singing voices ready here we go when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within upward high look and see him there who made an end of all my sin because the sinless save your time my sinful soul is counted free for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me to look on him and pardon me and then as a offering of thanks for communion we're gonna partake of let's sing this truth to him behold him there the risen my perfect spotless righteousness the great unchangeable I am the King of glory hands of grace one in himself I cannot die my soul is purchased by his blood my life is hid with Christ on high with Christ my Savior and my god with Christ my Savior and my god let's pray dear Lord thank you thank you for this bread that portrays you Lord Jesus who became sin for us and how we say what what love it is that you are God should offer your son as a sacrifice for me may we be full of gratitude as we hold this picture of Christ's death in our place in his precious name we pray amen you may be seated as you seated the men are going to come and pass the bread to us and we're going to sing to our Lord about grace that's greater than all of our sins well we hold a piece of bread that is a picture of God's grace because the scriptures say that God made him that's Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for us that's the cross and this is what he does when we accept the work on the cross that we might become the righteousness of God in him this bread portrays that all who by faith not by any act or work that we do but by faith just reach out to Christ and say you're my only hope you are my sin bearer you took my place that those that by faith reach out to him become the righteousness of God so Jesus said this is my body which is given for you do this remembering me thank you Lord Jesus that you loved us so much that by one sacrifice forever you have loosed us from the record the penalty and the eternal horror of your wrath against our sin against you thank you for Lord Jesus absorbing the infinite wrath of an Almighty holy God as you hung those six hours on the cross for us and thank you for ever living to intercede and I thank you that you have given us the privilege of being your sons and daughters and that you plead for us through every day so we can live your life on earth by your grace alone in your precious name we thank you for this cup of blessing that we partake of in the name of Jesus amen and those who are humanistic in seeking their repair are frustrated because no matter how hard they try no matter how many processes and chemicals they go through they're the same at the other end and God says I want to give you a new heart I want to take out the stony heart I want you to accept I died and became sin for you we won't have a perfect life but we have a perfect Savior and he said this cup is the new covenant that's in my blood that I'm gonna do what I promised to do in you drink from it all of you let's partake together Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming sin so that we can live out your righteousness by your grace may we do that for your glory as those that have been bought with a price and may we exalt you by how we live in the precious name of Jesus we pray and all of God's people said amen god bless you as you go

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Keywords: Bible, God, Jesus, Christian, teaching, biblical, teach, sermon, trinity, church, lesson, traditional, truth, true, divine, theology, freedom, guilt, testament, pure, interpret, spirit, holy, John, Barnett, christ, father, heaven, hell, doctrine, doctrinal, sinful, forgive, forgiveness, history, teachings, chapters, verses, discover, the book, ministries, dtbm, Dr. Barnett, controversial, repent, helpful, sin, the, book, dr, john, doctor, barnett, training, videos, series, resources, savior, god, jesus

Id: XNz5MRBi90M

Length: 39min 54sec (2394 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020