Revelation 8 // The Trumpet Judgements

all right let's do it we're in Revelation chapter 8 Revelation chapter 8 um and let's pray before we get there actually why don't you turn to Isaiah 59 because before we get to well know we'll read chapter 8 first and then to Isaiah 59 let's let's pray before we get into it Jesus again we love your word thank you for the the blessing that you give us specifically with the book of Revelation you talked about the fact that he who reads these things and he who applies these things to his life is somebody who's going to be blessed it's the only book that you specifically pronounced a blessing on the reader and the person who holds to these things and so Lord did we want that blessing we want you to again have your hand in our lives as we're going through this chapter Lord's pretty gnarly and Lord we just pray that you give us your wisdom your eyes Lord that we see this world the way that you see it and God that we look like the angels would rejoice not only in your goodness but in your judgment and we ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen okay Revelation chapter 8 it starts off and obviously we got done with with chapter 7 it's kind of a parenthesis in between the sixth seal and the seventh seal and you remember that those seals when you talk about the seal judgments what Jesus is doing is opening up a scroll and every time he peels a seal back one of these judgments takes place and first seal was the Antichrist second seal was war third seal was famine and disease fourth seal was the destruction of a quarter of the earth and so on and then you get to the sixth seal which looks like it's a second coming the seventh seal is talking about what's happening are people getting saved during that period of time and it's good things that are going on and when we get to chapter 8 we have the eighth seal or excuse me the seventh seal that takes place in chapter eight and so in verse one it says when he opened the Seventh Seal There was silence in heaven for about half an hour and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets then another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the Saints ascended before God from the Angels hand then the angel took the censer filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth and there were noises thunderings lightnings and an earthquake so the seven angels who had seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound the first angel sounded and hail and fire followed mingled with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up and the second angel sounded and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed then the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water the name of the stars wormwood a third of the waters became wormwood and many men died from the water because it was made bitter then the fourth angel sounded and a third the Sun was struck third of the moon a third of the stars so that a third of them were darkened a third of the day did not shine and likewise the night and I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice woe woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound that's pretty radical chapter right you're talking about huge judgments if you if you take the the passage seriously and one of the one of the things that you run into when we're in the book of Revelation is this whole issue of judgment it's like one judgment after another and it's a lot of these these judgments that come down we already talked about a quarter of the earth being killed in the next chapter in chapter 9 it's another third of the earth of the of the people on the earth are killed and so huge judgments that are taking place and one of the things that I have run into over the years I didn't I didn't really have this problem when I became a Christian but it seems to me like people who grow up in church have this problem with God and the problem has to do with God's judgment because when you know it's kind of like when you grow up in church I used to teach Sunday School what we're teaching the kids in Sunday school is mostly the nice stuff when you know we're talking about Jesus and he's The Good Shepherd and he takes care of us and he watches out for you and he's always kind to you and he's loving to you and he's gracious and all those things are true but the guy's got an edge to him you know that you see throughout scripture and so when I got saved I didn't know any of that stuff I did you know I I didn't grow up in Sunday School and so I'm not listening to all the Sunday school stories and I'm not being trained up that way and so basically I become a Christian I pick up my Bible and start reading it and it's rowdy from the get-go there there's there's rowdy stuff going on from the get-go and God does cool things creates everything it puts a man and a woman in the garden and then first thing happens serpent shows up and makes these people fall and gods like get out and he's got good reasons for saying get out he doesn't want them to stay in their sin but he's like get out and you're not coming back and they go out next thing you see is one brother murdering another brother and then you see some dude deciding that he can have multiple wives and that he can kill anybody that he wants and he starts bragging about the whole thing and then you then you get into the to the lineage of Adam and and all the people that came from him next thing that you see is knowing the flood and God gets done with these people because though the thoughts and intents of their heart are always evil continually and so he just wiped some off the face of the planet we're in chapter 6 of the Bible and this is what I'm reading right 7 7 8 and 9 9 9 starts getting better because you get a rainbow yeah at the end of the whole thing and then you get 2 then you get to chapter 10 11 and God tells him you need to spread out and they go yeah no and they you do the whole Babylon thing and God judges them at Babylon it spreads them out and and then you get into hit hit chapter 12 and it's a it's another genealogy and interesting things are going on there but you finally get to Abraham and Abraham looks pretty good and and but then when you start looking at Abraham the guy's a mess God tells him get up pack out you know pack up get out and go to the place that I tell you leave everybody behind don't take your family members and he's talking about his extended family his wife obviously it was gonna go with him but don't take your family members and what do you what does he do takes his dad takes his dad and he ends up stalling in a place called Haran for years until his dad dies and then when he finally goes to the place that God tells him he takes a lot with him and lot becomes a problem later on and then when he gets to the place that God tells him he doesn't trust God and decides when it you know when when it gets a little you know and when there's a drought going on he I need to pack up and go down to Egypt gets down to Egypt lies through his teeth you know there's all this stuff that's going on and and it's it's rowdy all through all through the book of Genesis you get to the end of the book of Genesis then you get to Exodus and they're slaves and they're slaves for 400 years and God's done with a pharaoh and so started God God gives Pharaoh you know a chance after six chances you know Pharaoh hardened his heart Pharaoh hardened his heart Pharaoh hardened his heart God gives him six chances six judgments and every time Pharaoh hardened his heart God gives him another judgment and finally Pharaoh hardened his heart and God hardens his heart one more time or excuse me thank God the hardens Pharaoh's heart then Pharaoh hardened his heart one more time and then God's done and you off we go with Pharaoh and the whole army of Egypt and the people go through the Red Sea and that kind of stuff so they're delivered they get on the other side they start griping and when they gripe bad enough gods like I'm done with that too and he gets on these guys and and you go that you go through the Bible and you got this you got this mixture of grace it's totally gracious for God to take a group of people who've been in slavery for over 400 years and deliver them and bring them into a place where they're going to be the people of God and here they're gonna be top nation on that's what God told them you're gonna be top nation on this planet because I'm going to be your God and he begins doing things that are really cool but then on the other hand you don't have just the grace of God you have the you have the judgment of God the discipline of God on the people of Israel and so it's a mixture of grace and discipline all the way through the Bible get to the New Testament and again I didn't go to Sunday school so I'm reading about Jesus in the New Testament and I read about him and he's a really nice guy and you know he's he's calling out Andrew and he's calling out Peter and you know making them disciples and stuff like that and then they start fighting with each other and Jesus goes what are you talking about and they didn't know that he heard him and he probably didn't hear him he just knew their hearts but he didn't they didn't know that he heard him and they didn't want to answer and he basically goes you were talking about which one of you is the greatest and then he starts he starts getting on him about being you know thinking that you're the hot and you know the awesome one and you know if you don't repent and become like a little child you know it's like you're not having any kind of part with me and you know you have Jesus doing some pretty rowdy things with these guys at one point Jesus calls Peter Satan it just cracks me it's Matthew sixteen one of the high points of Peters life you know who do you say that I am Peter you're the Messiah you're the Christ you're the Son of the Living God and then five minutes later Jesus Jesus is going I'm gonna go to the cross and Peter's going no you're not and he corrects God and tells him what's up and Jesus goes get behind me Satan and you know I don't know you know I I kind of I kind of put Jesus and in in you know kind of a normal position as far as how people act and if I was you know saying to Mitch get behind me Satan in that kind of context I wouldn't be going get behind me Satan I just I'd be going get behind me Satan that's what I would be saying and so I kind of think that that's what Jesus was doing isn't that rowdy how'd you like Jesus to call you Satan see what I mean and so you go through the Bible and you and you look at how Jesus is and on the one hand open kind loving gracious willing you know it's like bending over backwards giving people grace woman caught in adultery is great it's a great picture of repentance and it's a great picture of the grace of God the repentance goes like this she's cotton adulty adultery in the very act she knows she's caught she's dragged before Jesus there has to be a guy involved the guy's not there and she doesn't say a word doesn't say a word and probably because this has been her lifestyle and she knows she deserves it and she's just waiting for stones to fall and she just shuts her mouth says nothing and Jesus does the whole thing with the writing on the ground and you know whichever you is without sin cast the first stone and they all slink off you know all the guys who are accusing her slink off and in the end he turns to her and he goes woman were your accusers and she goes I don't have any and he goes I don't accuse you either and he's letting her know you know I mean you know what he's letting her know there is one guy still standing here everybody else is gone but there is one guy still standing here and I can accuse you and he goes I don't accuse you either go and stop sinning great picture of the grace of God and a great picture of repentance repentance is shut up you did it you own it and whatever the punishment is you deserve it and when when when people act like that before God nothing but grace nothing but grace when they act like the Pharisees nothing but judgment Matthew 23 is Jesus and just railing on the Pharisees saying all kinds of things about these guys to just putting them in their place and so again that's the Jesus that I always saw when I went through my Bible that's the God that I always see when I go through my Bible and so when I get to the book of Revelation I'm not seeing anything different so in the book of Revelation there's a lot of judgment going on but there's a lot of judgment going on in the Old Testament there's a lot of judgment that goes on in the New Testament and so God's not one-sided as far as his character goes he is he is good and he is kind and when we look at him that's that's usually what we're dealing with but he is also a guy who like I said has an edge to him and that's where the fear of God comes in I need to be somebody who absolutely understands that the guy I'm dealing with does not have this the situation with where he's just gonna give me a pass on everything I'm dealing with somebody who actually wants my life to be different and he's got an agenda with me and I need to understand that he's got an agenda with world too and so when you get when you start getting into chapter 8 on you know we've already had some pretty radical judgments but when you get into chapter 8 on it gets it gets gnarly it gets gnarly turn over to Isaiah 59 real quick Isaiah chapter 59 I've been reading through Isaiah for oh gosh probably I like to take my time sometimes when I'm going through a book and so probably for about the last month or so I've been reading through Isaiah in Isaiah 59 is a great passage on on God's attitude towards sin and the fact that God is holy and he hates in Isaiah chapter 6 remember that it says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord High and lifted up in that and the Train of his glory filled the temple and the Seraphim were standing before him and saying holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty and then Isaiah said that basically he said to the Lord I'm an unclean thing I come from an unclean people I have an unclean mouth and God says to one of the Angels take a call from the altar and touch his lips and Isaiah was cleansed the the point being that God's holy and he's somebody who hates sin in Isaiah 59 he says behold the Lance the Lord's hand is not shortened Land's is what I said that's kind of a combination between hand and Lord that's what was going on the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear heavier death that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear I use this verse all the time when I'm talking about what sin done doesn't a believers life but let's go on and look at what God ain't it specifically has to say to these people does your hands are defiled with blood your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lies your tongue is muttered perversity no one calls for justice murders any plead for truth they trust in empty words and speak lies they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity they hatch Vipers eggs and weed the spiders whip he eats of their eggs dies and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out their webs will not become garments nor will they cover themselves with their works and what he's talking about is you're nothing you're full of nothing but lies and the lies that are coming out of your mouth are like spiders webs you are never gonna cover yourself with those things can't cover yourself with a lie I think it was Mark Twain who said one of the problems with being a liar is that you have to have a really good memory because some people lie so much that they can't remember what lie they told the who it's always easier to tell the truth and that's a great you know when you look when you look at that passage that is a great passage dealing with our culture we have people who just lie through their teeth and they they publicly state things that are just total falsifications and I've been noticing it ever since the 80s I never got you know interested in politics until the 80s and what got me interested was this one time I decided to watch a speech by President Reagan so I watched the speech and it's on a news channel there were only you know like three channels NBC ABC and CBS at the time so you didn't have a whole bunch of news channel CNN was in there but nobody really watched CNN at that point and so I watched Reagan's speech and watch the whole thing and at the end of the speech I watched the commentary by the newscasters they took snippets out of his speech took it completely out of context literally made the guy say exactly the opposite of what he said during the speech and I was sitting there going are we watching the same speech are we watching the same guy and that's when that's when I got introduced to the news media and what what what I found out was that there were people who have agendas and they don't really care about the truth they have an agenda and so somebody speaks a part of a phrase that they can take and twist and make it seem to be something else they will take it and twist it and make it seem to be something else they tell lies they spin webs of Lies and it's not just the media you know you see this with with people just in general you have arguments between people and a lot of times you'll have an argument with with you'll you'll see two people in an argument and one person might be going after the truth and the other person's going after winning it's even worse when both people are going after winning because anything that's said they take in the glom onto something they twist it they make it something different and they begin spreading lies basically they flip things around and it's a it's it's part of nature I don't you know when when I look at the news I always check things out I always check things out as much as I can and I don't care where it's coming from I try to find out at the if the things that are being stated or actually things that are true because I don't trust these people I don't trust him they tell lies all the time and when I you know what I mean when I'm in I do you know some scholarly stuff I'm I'm looking up information on all kinds of different things and I don't care where the information comes from a lot of you know now I'm to the point where I don't even want to use second sources I want to go to the original source and anything to find out if the guys actually said the things that these guys said they said because lies are so so much all over them all over the place and I'm getting to the point you know when I became a Christian I was pretty cynical and Here I am back in the same boat being cynical again because I don't believe anybody and so this is a situation that the culture in Israel was in this is a situation that submit to you that our culture is in also people spin wise lies all they are is webs of deceit they think they're gonna cover themselves with it and they're not gonna happen he goes on and he says verse 7 their feet run to evil they make haste to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction err in their paths the way of peace they have not known there's no justice in their ways they've made themselves crooked paths whoever takes that way she'll not know peace therefore justice as far from us nor does righteousness overtake us we look for light but there's darkness for brightness but we walk in blackness we grope for the wall like the blind and we grow up as if we had no eyes we stumble at noonday as at Twilight we're as dead and man in desolate places we all growl like bearers and moans sadly like death like does some of the stuff that comes over the news medium makes me growl like a bear other other stuff that comes over the news media makes me moan like a dove and you got people again with their agendas we've just had a couple of actually three shootings in the last two weeks where you know numbers of people have been killed and so you have the Walmart shooting down in in Texas and you have the the thing that went up on over in Ohio and we had another shooting not too long before that and people are always coming up with all their reasons for these shootings and all the stuff and it's always a political agenda it's always a political agenda and so the problem is the guns problem is not the guns the problems never been the guns in the 1950s kids in high school had guns in their trucks taking them to school so what's different between the 50s and now here's the problem you take a whole nation and you ditch God and you're gonna ditch everything that has to do with God's a kid the kids who grew up in the 50s and the four 30s and the 40s and the 50s that period of time they had the Ten Commandments tacked on the wall and there are in their school rooms they were reading things like thou shalt not kill every single day you shall not bear false witness every single day your to honor your father and your mother every single day they're looking up at the front of room and they're seeing those commands and they understand that these are commands that come from God and so we got rid of those we got rid of God we got rid of prayer we take God out of the whole situation and what we start doing is we start telling everybody that there is no need for a God because we've got evolution by the way evolution means that you went from muck to you over a period of hundreds of millions of years and all you are is an animal and you you you tell somebody that there are in that there are an animal if that's the truth there is no morality if that is a truth there is no morality and people are not stupid so you train them to think that they came from muck and that they're nothing but an animal guess what they're going to start doing you know I I I don't you know one of the things that's interesting about talking to people in the world is when somebody in the world who does not believe in God does not follow after the Lord starts talking to me about morality I chew them up and spit them out because they've got no standing they've got they've got it they've got nowhere to go as far as morality goes you're just gonna decide that certain things are right just because you said so you know what's your evidence what's your what's your reason for it why you know when you're when you're talking about again evolution why when you're talking about that do I have to be nice to people why do I have to love people why do I have to I do I have to put anybody above me why and you know they'll come up with well there's a social thing to do and you know it was evolutionarily put in so that the survival of the species you know just tell you something for sure my dog does not care about the species of dogs my cat does not care about all the other cats I have three cats because of my daughter every day my daughter brings cats home you know even even when she wouldn't she's gone down in California she comes back up and she brings a cat and so we have cats and those cats they don't care about each other they're not you know they're not all lovey towards each other what they care about is feed me and if I can eat your food too then I'm gonna do that and that's what that's what you've got with the with the world in general and nobody is going to be able to come up with a reason for morality outside of the fact that there's a god who's a Creator who put us in place and within our very nature made us to know what what is right and what is wrong I've got a basis for morality people in the world do not and when you raise up a generation without the idea of morality or you take morality you start twisting it to mean that good is anything that you feel like doing at the moment you get people who don't care about other people and you get people who will walk into a grocery store or you know whatever Walmart is I don't even know what it is as groceries it has the other stuff it's a store you walk into a store and you just start shooting on there you know shooting people because you have you have no moral grounding and so everybody's talking about all this stuff well you know we need to get back to conservatives a conservatism or we need to get rid of guns no but what's happened is you've gotten rid of God and so here's the consequences decide this is our life goes without God I grew up in a household like that everybody's on their own everybody for themselves nobody cares about anybody else and that's the problem and you know people just don't get it justice is far from us nor does righteousness overtake us we look for light but there's darkness for brightness but we walk in blackness verse 11 again we all growl like bears and moan sadly like doves we look for justice but there is none for salvation but it's far from us for our transgressions are multiplied before you and our sins testify against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them it's transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood that's something I've seen on the increase conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood Jesus said how the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks used to be when I would talk to somebody and they were they were speaking of falsehood to me I could get them to stop going for it I'd go seriously you really believe that or are you just trying to win the argument usually yeah I'm just kind of trying to win the argument and then we could go on from there but then there then there are people who just take their lies glom onto and refuse to let them go no matter how often they're shown to be lies justice has turned back and righteousness stands afar off for truth has fallen in the street and equity cannot enter so truth fails and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey vice-president pence you see what the media says about that guy he decides he's not gonna have dinner with a woman who's not his wife doesn't get into a car with a woman who's not his wife and the whole world ridicules him because what he wants to do is be faithful to his wife you know I could I could give you a couple of other examples one of them that just happened this last week and a half or so is the things that were said about the guy are vile because he talked about praying and you know you have that truth fails you departs from evil makes himself a prey this happens with you too you depart from evil you do it in front of people who don't appreciate it or or you do it in front of people that it makes look bad and you become somebody who is under attack look over at the end of verse 15 and the Lord slot and it displeased him that there was no justice he saw there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor therefore therefore his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness it sustained him for he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head and that's the first coming of Christ righteousness as a breastplate a helmet of salvation upon his head giving us righteousness giving us salvation look at the next part he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad clad with zeal as a cloak zeal is basically the idea of being boiling it comes from the word for boiling it's the idea of being hot the idea in this case is judgment according to their deeds verse 18 accordingly he will reap a fury to his adversaries recompense to his enemies the coastlands he will fully repay that's Gentile areas so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the Sun when the enemy comes in like a flood the spear of the Lord will lift up a standard against him the Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression and Jacob says the Lord as for me says the Lord this is my covenant with them my spirit who is upon you and my words which I put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants descendants as the Lord from this time and forevermore promised specifically to Isaiah but you see the attitude their God gets fed up with stuff and God gets fed up with stuff when he sees injustice when he sees lies when he sees all all this evil that goes on bloodshed that kind of thing when he sees his stuff he finally gets done with it and so judgment comes judgment comes and that's what we have in the book of Revelation Isaiah or excuse me Psalm 11 is another interesting passage and it says the Lord is in his holy temple this is verse 4 of Psalm 11 the Lord is in his holy temple the Lord's throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids test the sons of men the Lord tests the righteous but the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates upon the wicked he will rain coals fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their Cup for the Lord is righteous he loves righteousness and his countenance up B holds the upright the idea of God looks upon those who are upright and so again you have this whole this whole thing with God is holy he hates sin God is righteous and when he when he deals with people he's just in his dealings God is omnipotent God is all-powerful that's what I'm nipa natte means God is good and all that he is defines good so when God pours out grace on people this is good when God pours out mercy on people that's good when God disciplines people again it's good God doesn't discipline for himself he disciplines for for the people that he's disciplining when God judges that is good all of it is good and so again everything that the Lord is whether you're talking about the Lord Jesus whether you're talking about the father everything that he is is the definition of good and if you say I don't agree guess what you are you're bad you're evil you're wicked and so again you have that one of the things that happens with God though is that God is a God who puts judgment off as long as possible right so when we back over in chapter 8 that was all the introduction when we get to chapter 8 you see the Seventh Seal open and it's really interesting in verse 1 it says when he opened the Seventh Seal There was silence in heaven for about half an hour excuse me I'm on the slide I put one hour I messed that up so there's silence in heaven for about half an hour and so why is there silence in heaven and one commentator that I read said this the steps of God from mercy to judgment are always slow measured and reluctant and the Bible talks about and I already mentioned it the fact that judgment is God's strange work that's what God says about himself judgment is my strange work and so again when you're when you're talking about the the goodness of God what God wants to do is show His goodness when judgment comes it's way overdue and that's one of the things that you'll see going through the Old Testament and in the New Testament - so we always talk about Jesus coming and the first time that Jesus comes he comes with righteousness like some are Isaiah 59 says and with salvation like Isaiah 59 says but when he comes the second time he's coming with vengeance and that's what we have with the book of Revelation first time he comes like a lamb the second time he comes like a lion and that's the the nature of God maybe the the silence there is just calm before the storm there are times when I get really mad about something and I just immediately blow up because because it just ticks me off and I immediately blow up when I'm really really mad I get quiet and I just stop because it's not gonna it's not gonna just be talking it's not going to just be yelling it's gonna be it's gonna be wrath it's gonna it's gonna be bad things are gonna be happening what I'm really really mad and so I stop I get quiet I don't say anything and I just wait for a while try to calm down a little bit that kind of stuff calm before the storm calm before the storm and I kind of wonder if that's what's going on there with the Lord in any case when when you look at what's been happening with the earth and you know some of those things that we read about in Isaiah 59 what you have is a world that has broken his commandments they violated his judgments they've shed innocent blood they spin lies and they deserve retribution and so retribution is coming and so there's silence in heaven again for half of half an hour when you look at the the Seventh Seal scroll and again you get this picture in your mind Jesus is opening up this scroll the rest of the book is Jesus opening up again the scroll he's unsealed the scroll and so the rest of the book is contained in the seven seals basically and so we're gonna have the trumpet judgments or what we're going to be talking about tonight and then after that there are the thunder judgments and nobody knows what those are and then after that there are the bowl judgments so there are judgments that that God specifically doesn't let you know what they're going to be that are gonna take place during the Tribulation Period it's got a little surprise for people basically it's what you what you've got there so we have the trumpet judgments so the seven angels who verse two again stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets and so this is this is that again the trumpet judgments and then it talks about another angel having a golden censer so the trumpets are interesting and one of the one of the things that I like to dink around with one I'm going through the book of Revelation is the timing of all this stuff you know I get like I told you before it looks to me like when you look at the end of each one of the the judgment so the sixth seal judgment corresponds like dead-on with passages that Jesus spoke and passages out of the Old Testament that speak about the second coming of Christ and when you look at the end of the trumpet judgments same thing yeah you have a lot of exactly the same judgments that are taking place that are happening in the six seals and when you get to the end of the bull judgments again the same thing you have great a great earthquake earthquake you have hail falling from heaven the stars falling from heaven that kind of stuff is going on and so it looks like the bold judgments and at the second coming also and so so it's like one set of judgments after another all ending with the coming of Christ one of the things that I'm not going to put it together for you tonight but when you go through the the Old Testament and you look at the rise of the Antichrist there's got to be a period of time where this guy is able to consolidate a kingdom on the earth it can't just be one judgment after another otherwise you just have nothing but chaos and that's what you're going to get in the rest of the book nothing but chaos so it can't be one judgment after another so it looks to me like when you're talking about the the trumpet judgments it looks to me like these things happen after the abomination of desolation in other words halfway through the 70th week of Daniel and so you have these things taking place with within a three and a half year period so you have the rise of the Antichrist there's a warfare that takes place catapults this guy into a position of power he consolidates his power and when he when he gets to the the peak of what he thinks is his power he defiles the temple he proclaims himself to be God he demands to be worship he Institute's a cashless society to make sure that it's done and then you have judgments that are specifically cosmic coming from God cosmic and spiritual coming from God after that point that's what it looks like to me as you're going through revelation so trumpets and there are interesting things about trumpets turn back to numbers chapter 10 numbers chapter 10 numbers comes right before the book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy is a fifth book check check this out we're just going to read a few verses numbers chapter 10 this is about the the silver trumpets one of the things that you have and we talked about this before in Revelation is you have a real correlation between the Old Testament and the book of Revelation when when you look at things that are found in heaven you find them in the tabernacle so the seven-branched candlestick and the seven spirits of God do you have the glassy sea and you have the bronze Laver and King James it's called the bronze see you you have the altar of incense and we're going to talk about that in a minute - that's that's in the tabernacle you have all these things that correspond with the tabernacle and with a tabernacle you also have the trumpets look at verse 10 verse 1 of the chapter 10 it says the Lord spoke to Moses saying make two silver trumpets for yourself you shall make them have hammered work you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps when they blow both of them all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting but if they blow only one then the leaders the heads of the divisions of Israel shall gather to you when you sound the advance the camps that lie on the east she'll then begin their journey when you sound the advance the second time then the camp's that lie on the South shall begin their journey they shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys and when the assembly is to be gathered together you shall blow but not not sound the advance the sons of Aaron the priest shall blow the trumpets and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations when you go to war in your land against the enemy who opposes you then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets and you will be remembered before the Lord your God and you will be saved from your enemies also in the days of your gladness and your appointed feasts and at the beginning of your months you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings and they shall be a memorial for you before your God I am the Lord your God and so when you look at this chapter the trumpets are used for number one the calling of princes the the leaders of the people the congregation to break camps to call them to journey for alarm and for public notice and you can see that in verses one through six the second thing that you see is in chapter 10 verse 10 it is four days of celebration so those are the set feasts like a pea the feast of Passover they would blow the trumpets obviously in the Feast of Trumpets they're blowing the trumpets that kind of thing and then over sacrifices and at the new moons at the beginning of a month which was also a Sabbath day so you would have that and then finally there's the trumpets used as a call to war specifically verse 9 it says when you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets and you will be remembered before the Lord your God and you will be saved for your enemies and so the armies of Yahweh are called against their enemies at that time so same with the Angels you have these trumpets blowing and it's a picture of the the fact that the armies of God are being marshaled against the enemies that are on the earth you'll remember that when Jericho was flattened what was used trumpets sound of the trumpet it's those trumpets that are being spoken about and then the shout of the people of God and so trumpets are interesting in the Bible and God uses trumpets in this instance and Jews reading the book of Revelation would recognize that what we've got is a start of warfare and so this is God starting up warfare with the people of the earth then verse three back in Chapter eight then another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar now this is the altar of incense again that you see in the tabernacle but the tabernacle is modeled after heaven and so the he comes to the altar here having a golden censer he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne and that's what incense represents this is where we get the idea that incense represents prayer because when you see worship and prayer together with the with the incense it's a picture of you put incense on a coal of fire they would sprinkle this stuff on there it wasn't like the long sticks that we have but they would sprinkle this stuff on there and the smoke would come up and would just fill the whole room and that's the picture of your prayer going before God and that interesting I think that's cool you know in senses in there isn't necessarily a good thing with me because I grew up in a druggie household and so when I think of incense all you're doing is covering you know pot smell that's all that that's all that incense was and in my home but that's a that's a twisted situation because incense was designed to be fragrant my wife has these sense sensing things they're called sense ease yeah she's got these little they're like little lamps and you put this little thing in there and you know the smell comes out and sometimes it smells like something I want to eat it smells like vanilla or something like that other times it smells and that's the picture of incense I like that picture I you know my my kids got into incense and it always kind of tweaked me because I hated that stuff growing up and but the sensi thing you know it doesn't have a bad connotation with me it's it smells good and it fields that fills the house and your prayers as far as God is concerned smell good and it fill they fill his house and he loves that and so it's a good thing to think of sometimes when I'm praying I don't know if my prayers are getting past my upper lip sometimes when I'm praying I don't know you know you know how you are when you're when you're first a Christian and you don't know if you're praying right like there's a right way to pray and so you're all the older Christians and they're saying Oh God God of the universe the Lord of all that is and there's so you know they're so fluent they're you know it's and their prayers sounds so good and then you just come in to God you're like oh god I think you're cool you're so awesome and you're really nice to me and will you please help me you know and we we feel stupid at least I did open prayer public prayer with me was a big fat deal I was I was always scared of that and so my I had buddies who forced me into it and it was always hot halting and always not eloquent always something where I felt stupid and then I started reading my Bible and seeing how God saw and what God sees is he sees the heart behind it and it smells good to him and he sees the heart behind your prayer and it smells good to him builds the temple and so this angel goes to the altar altar is given much incense it says verse four in the smoke of the incense again with the prayers of the Saints ascended before God from the Angels hand and so that's a nice peaceful wonderful picture there and then the angel took the censer filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth kept his wonderful thing going up and going on in heaven he's putting the incense on the sensor it's filling the place and then he takes his puppy and I've told you before what the sensors looked like they were like a bull and they were usually made out of brass and they they would put coals of fire in there and they'd put the incense on top they were on chains and they would have a handle and so you can imagine this angel just going over and I don't know he's looking down on earth he's on the edge of heaven you know throwing it down and it's filled with the prayers of the saints so what prayers are we talking about and we talked about this before every time you pray the Lord's Prayer our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name first prayer first part of that prayer there's worship at the very beginning hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven it's the first prayer that you give and usually when I'm when I'm praying that I'm thinking of your kingdom come in my life I want you to be king of my life I want you to be in control of me but I want you to be in control of the earth too but ultimately when you're praying for God's kingdom to come what you're praying for is the book of Revelation what you're praying for is the coming of Christ which are praying for is everything that leads up to this and the prayers of the Saints have been going up for 2,000 years since Jesus first uttered that prayer they've been going up for 2,000 years and they've been stored up and those prayers are going to be taken and they're going to be cast to the earth and you're gonna see the judgment of God start on the planet your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven how quickly is God's will done in heaven if God says to the Angels do this you think that they pause you think that they have a committee meeting you think they question him for a while to figure out what he really wants you know or do they just get it done yeah and and that's what's supposed to be happening on the earth and the gut and God is going to make that come to pass the martyrs in chapter 6 in verse 10 we talked about this last week in the context of the people who had died in Revelation chapter 7 the martyrs say in verse 10 they cry with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth this is one of the reasons I think that the the trumpet judgments take place after the abomination of desolation because it looks like the martyrs when the martyrs start happening it's because they've defied the Antichrist and they're killed for their faith in Jesus and their refusal to follow after him and so when when you're talking about the judgment that comes from God on the earth this is the beginning of that judgment and so you have that so you have the prayers of everybody for the last 2,000 years praying the Lord's Prayer and he heard you he heard you and then you have the prayers of the martyrs and so now it's coming kingdoms coming on the earth Jesus is about to go in and take it over and so you have the first trumpet it goes on verse 5 then the angel took the censer filled it with fire threw it to the earth there were noises thunderings lightnings and an earthquake and so the seven verse six angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound the first angel sounded and hail and fire followed mingled with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up now this is this is the the part or actually one of the parts of the book of Revelation where people start waxing allegorical when you pick up old commentaries and they start talking about what hail mingled with fire might be and they start talking about the the with the what all the trees being burned up might be and what all the green grass being burned up might might be there are passages in the Bible where it talks about nations being like trees and so you have some of those passages in the Book of Jeremiah for example and you have the passages where it talks about Israel and compares Israel to being a fig tree and so you have these in different places Ezekiel Jeremiah that kind of thing and so guys not taking this in the way that it's written well we'll say well maybe the trees being burned up are these different nations that are being judged by God and all the green grass we don't really know what the green grass is but maybe that's something else hey maybe it's this maybe it's actually trees and a third of them get burned up and maybe it's actually if you're burning up a third of the trees you know that any in any kind of forest fire the grass is going up first and so maybe it's all the green grass and maybe a third of the trees you know what that does to the environment trees and grass make oxygen you're gonna have you're gonna have issues with the atmosphere when that takes place and so you have that going on it says firemen fire followed mingled with blood and and people go well you know it couldn't actually be real blood it couldn't actually be you know something like that and and maybe it's not maybe it's just something that's red but you know that this is exactly the same judgment that was put on the people of Egypt by God under the hand of Moses check this out this is back in the book of Exodus and in Exodus chapter 9 and we get there real quick exodus chapter 9 starting in verse 13 it says the lord said to moses rise early in the morning stand before Pharaoh and say to him thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews let my people go that they may serve me but at this time I will send all my plagues you're very hard and on your servants and on your people that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth now if I had stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence then you would have been cut off from the face of the from the from the earth but indeed for this purpose I've raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth as use as yet you exalt yourself against my people and that you will not let them go behold tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to reign down such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and it's not brought home for they shall die he who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses but he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt on man on beasts and on every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt and Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire darted to the ground and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt so there was hail and fire mingled with hail so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation and the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt all that was in the field both man and beast and the hail struck every herb of the field and every broke every tree of the field only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were there was no hail and so you have the hail and fire coming down out of heaven in the book of Exodus and that was real and so maybe we have the same thing coming down in the book of Revelation and maybe that's real - so I kind of take it that way and so I think that the in the first trumpet what you have is this stuff coming down and destroying a third of the trees the trees and all the green grass the word for trees there is den drawn in Greek and in many contexts it means fruit trees and so all the trees that produce fruit and so it may be talking about that but it depends on the context it can just be talking about trees here's the work for hail in Greek it's cholatse or excuse me kalasa and it comes from a couple of greek roots Kozma and Kaleo and the the the Greek wording literally means to let down to strike from a gaping opening that's the idea of the heavens opening and the stuff coming down here's another here's another thing about this you know usually when we think of hail we think of ice balls right but the word that's used for hail is is something that can mean frozen rain lool not nida it's a greek dictionary defines it this way it says in a number of languages hail is described as frozen rain but it may be referred to by more idiomatic expressions such as cloud stones cloud stones and so stones coming down out of heaven remember in the battle of AI when God fought for Israel the Bible says that the Sun Stood Still in the heavens and that hail came down and killed the people of AI and it looks like that hail because if the sky was clear so it looks like that hail was not hail made from ice it looks like it was meteorites that came down and killed these people you know what a meteorite is right meteorite is a stone floating out in heaven and when it hits the earth when it comes down to the earth it's called a meteor when it hits the earth it's called a meteorite right and so that's what meteorites are stones from heaven stones from heaven and so what God did to the unbelievers who worshipped idols is he stoned them in the Old Testament and it looks like some of the same things are going on second trumpet it says a burning mountain is thrown into the sea thence the second angel sounded in something like a great mountain burning was with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood this is another place where people wax allegorical because later on in the book of Revelation gets to a passage that's radically symbolic and it lets you know that that the Bible is speaking in symbols in that passage we'll see it when we get there starting in Chapter 12 and it talks about a beast rising up out of the sea and it says in the passage the sea in this in this instance the Beast is the the final world ruler and his kingdom it's both of those things the king and the kingdom rising up out of the sea and the sea is the multitude peoples nations tongues and Kindred's right and so they take that picture and they bring it back here and they go well this great mountain burning with fire is thrown into the sea and so maybe the great mountain because in the Old Testament there are places where mountains are government's and so for example the government of the Messiah is called a mountain that fills the whole earth and so maybe a mountain is a government and become this government falls to the earth and it's and it's burning as it's falling maybe that's the Roman Empire and the Roman Empire Falls to the earth and it's burning and stuff and a third of the sea the nations and the and the Kindred's and the tongues and all those people become blood and so the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the bloody tumult that that came from that you know why they would say things like that and that kind of interpretation continued on all the way through the 1800s and the reason they said things like that is because nobody believed that something could fall out of the heavens and hit the earth they thought that the heavens were clean they thought that the heavens being designed designed by God would have nothing that would had anything to do with corruption the fall or anything like that and so the heavens were they didn't believe what I'm telling you is they didn't believe in asteroids they didn't believe in meteorites they didn't believe in these things and so something like a mountain falling to the earth burning was something that was completely foreign to science at the time and the whole philosophy at the time is that foreign to us absolutely not we're talking you know we're talking about asteroids coming in hitting the earth all the time just a couple of weeks ago they talked about an asteroid that missed us by like you know 55 55 million miles or something close flyby way out beyond the moon but a close flyby of an asteroid and they're constantly looking for asteroids because if an asteroid ever hits the earth bad things are gonna happen what's the size of a mountain what's the size of a mountain so when you're talking about a mountain you know when I first came up here rattlesnake mountain is out over there out over this way and a buddy of mine that I was working with told me that's the highest mountain in the United States without a tree on it and so that's what the tri-cities are known for look at the highest mountain in the United States without a tree on it it's a rattlesnake mountain I haven't gone out and done the measurements on that on that thing but you know it's kind of a mountain it's sitting there buying it by itself you're talking about something that's along the order of that size and so you could be talking about I don't I don't know how big that is I'll go google it you know go Google Earth it measure it and see we keep we can go from there but if you're talking about half a mile if you're talking about it's probably more than half a mile it's probably you know more like 3 or 4 miles across that thing and then you're talking about the depth you're talking about something that's it's round you have something that large coming into the atmosphere bad things are going to happen and the bad things that are going to happen we'll talk about next week because I just looked at the clock and they all correspond to everything that takes place in chapter 8 it's really wild in any case something the size of a mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea the third of the sea became blood so I kind of think that what's happening there is something that's about the size of a mountain comes out of the out of the cosmos hits the atmosphere begins burning because it's going in speeds better than you know 17 to 25,000 miles per hour and causes causes it to flame up and when it hits the sea it goes on and says verse nine and a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed when you again see the allegorical interpretations of that they always talk about the mountain they always talk about the sea they always talk about the blood they always talk about a third of living creatures in the sea dying and they put it in the context of governments they never talk about the ships they never talk about the ships really interesting if you threw something the size of a mountain into the ocean at the speeds that it would be coming you know cosmic speeds 17,000 miles per per hour that kind of thing you through it's something that fast into the ocean the kinetic energy is going to cause just a huge explosion and what again we'll talk about this next week there's gonna be a tsunami that's that's the the Dwarfs anything that you've seen in the movies anything that you've seen in the movies except for maybe deep impact or something but in any case what it would do is destroy every seat every ship on the sea that it falls into and when you're talking about the the oceans of the world better than 70% up to 75% of the world is covered with oceans if you want to pick one see out of that 75% that covers about a third of the of the earth it's the Atlantic covers about a third of the earth you have something out sized hit in the Atlantic again bad things are gonna happen you're gonna have a tsunami anything that it's import is gonna be wiped out anything that's close to the explosion is gonna be wiped out and most likely anything in the Atlantic is going to be wiped out and so the third of the shipping is wiped out I kind of think that God means what he says there and again we're living in times where we understand that these things can happen and so let's stop right there and we'll pick it up next week I've got more stuff for you I'll show you pictures let's pray God again we thank you Lord for the revelation and this this book is specifically called the the revelation it's a revelation of Jesus Christ is what you call it and Lord I like it that as we go through it we see you as you really are and so like we were talking about at the very beginning you're you're a God who loves us and you're kind and you want to bless and you want to honor us in fact you say you glorify us you speak well of us you want to you want to take our lives and turn them around but you're still a God to be dealt with you're still a God who like I was saying before you have an edge and you are absolutely holy you are absolutely righteous and there come times when you get fed up and you're not going to allow things anymore whether it's in our lives or in the lives of unbelievers well we thank you that when you deal with us you deal as a father deals with his sons with its daughters you're not out to wipe us out but you are out to make us something different than what we are and Lord we we need to be people who understand your discipline in our lives and who bowed to it because it's good and we want to we want to the good that comes from that the good that you have for us Lord for the world we know that you're not going to put up with this nonsense forever we thank you Lord that your God who not only doles out mercy but you do a lot of judgment too and and finally there's going to be payment for the things that the world has done when they refused to turn to you when they refuse to turn from their sin and you're going to deal with it it all gets taken care of I like it that it all comes out in the wash and so Lord we we just pray that you would help us to see you as you really are on the one hand we love you intensely and we know that you love us intensely better on the other hand there's a fear there's a reverence there's a respect that we're to have for you and that's what we want to we never want to be people who are petrol but people who are who are brats for Jesus we want to be people who are good sons good daughters have a right heart and we'll honor you I pray that you'd make these people like that thank you for people who honor you will honor your word and who love it Lord and just pray that you bless them and work in them this week we ask that you do this all in Jesus name

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

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Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: IA4oJ3th198

Length: 64min 19sec (3859 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 22 2019